Sustainability - ��Ƶ

Environmental Science Class Connects with Concord Watershed Protectors

vanessa_dezorzi@concordacademy.org — Fri, 05 Dec 2025 14:17:07 +0000

On November 13, two staff members from , a local nonprofit watershed organization, visited both sections of science teacher and environmental sustainability lead Chris Labosier’s Water Resources course at ��Ƶ. In this upper-level environmental science elective, students have been exploring waterways through ecological, historical, social, political, and economic lenses. They’ve learned about the physical processes that shape streamflow and landscape formation, the chemical and biological factors that influence water quality, and the influence of climate change on the hydrologic cycle and ecosystems. Getting to talk with professionals who steward the Sudbury, Assabet, and Concord rivers and their tributaries helped Labosier’s classes understand the interconnectedness of human development and watershed health in practical terms—right here in ��Ƶ’s backyard.

“Not every watershed has an organization,” said Heather Conkerton, OARS’s ecological restoration manager. “We’re lucky to have one here.” OARS started, she explained, as a clean-up effort in 1986 for the Assabet River, which was then so highly polluted it was known as “the cesspool of Massachusetts.” In 2011, OARS expanded its mission to protect all the rivers within the local watershed, adding the Subury and Concord rivers, for the benefit of both people and wildlife. According to the organization’s “Rivers Report Card,” which it produces every five years, all three rivers have made tremendous progress across multiple water quality parameters. Nearly 30 miles of river within the watershed have federal designation of “wild and scenic”—able to be explored and enjoyed today for much of the same unspoiled beauty Henry David Thoreau and Nathaniel Hawthorne once celebrated.

Conkerton’s work focuses on ecosystem restoration and climate resilience. She monitors invasive aquatic species, runs plant identification workshops, and conducts other educational outreach. She also assesses the human-made structures that allow and prohibit water flow and supervises their replacement or removal.

Culverts, the channels that run beneath roadways, raise flood risks when they’re undersized and can cause sinkholes when they’re in disrepair; they can also impede the passage of fish. But their repair is expensive, costing communities on average more than $1 million per culvert. Many don’t have the funds to maintain them.

Dams can also pose a catastrophic risk to humans when they fail, which is why OARS maintains a guide prioritizing dam maintenance based on hazard assessment. Conkerton said only 3% of the 162 dams mapped in the Concord watershed have a function; most simply impede the flow of tributaries. The class had been examining case studies from around the United States, including dam removal in the Pacific Northwest, and wrestling with the interdisciplinary challenges of understanding their impact. In contrast to those large public works, many dams in eastern Massachusetts are small and on private property. She stumbles across uncharted ones often.

Conkerton helped the students visualize the way animals navigate the watershed as well. “We don’t just work on the rivers, we also work on these smaller streams, because they actually provide an incredible amount of habitat for rearing and spawning,” she said. “We need these smaller streams. So in my line of work, that’s why we want the dams to come down; that’s why we want to make sure these culverts are the right size so they can get through.”

Water conditions matter too, as Conkerton’s colleague Abby McCarthy, OARS’s water quality program manager, emphasized in her presentation, drawing on the organization’s three decades of monitoring and reporting. “We want the water clean, cold, and connected,” she said. In shallow rivers such as these, water height can fluctuate greatly, and of particular concern have been levels of phosphorus and dissolved oxygen, which put sensitive fish such as cold brook trout at risk of being extirpated, or dying out within their native environment.

McCarthy oversees a team of 32 volunteers who collect data monthly during the summer season at more than 30 sites across the three rivers. Their measurements of factors including water flow, temperature, conductivity, chemical composition, and eutrophication (excessive plant growth) help McCarthy monitor pollution and the impact of human activities and facilities, such as wastewater treatment plants. Some have been volunteering regularly since OARS’s founding. “They’re so enthusiastic,” McCarthy said. “They remind me of why I do this.”

OARS also organizes events such as water chestnut pulls and river cleanups to remove trash. For a small nonprofit with only six employees and two interns, its effect on the Concord watershed has been outsized, largely thanks to sustained community investment. While OARS requires volunteers to be 18 or older, McCarthy suggested that underage teens might consider supporting the organization’s educational mission by mentoring elementary school students through its Water Wise workshops, which empower kids to understand their role in protecting local rivers. “You can’t care about something if you don’t know about it,” she said.

Labossier says the visit was a great opportunity for students, who have explored dams and water quality issues in other geographic locales, to see and hear these topics made local from professionals working in the field: “I think this helps bring the course home, and now they see the watersheds in their home communities in a different way.”

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Space and Support for Creative Collaboration

heidi_koelz@concordacademy.org — Fri, 25 Jul 2025 19:53:00 +0000

This community’s investments in our campus and endowment will benefit every ��Ƶ student

When Fay Lampert Shutzer ’65 returned to ��Ƶ in May to celebrate the completion of the Centennial Arts Center (C.A.C.), she was surprised by what moved her. A co-chair of the Centennial Campaign and former president of the Board of Trustees, she had helped plan the project since its inception. The view before her matched what she had seen in the architects’ sketches, seamlessly complementing the existing campus architecture. But she hadn’t anticipated its effect on her.

“The C.A.C. was positioned so beautifully it seemed that it had always been there,” Shutzer says. “It also made the Chapel seem larger and more important, because it wasn’t hidden—you don’t have to get up close to see it.”

Culminating decades of master planning, the construction of the C.A.C.—the largest capital investment in the school’s history— reshaped 40% of ��Ƶ’s campus. The adjacent Academy Village faculty housing area, new open space, and a reconfigured Academy Garden were all created in coordination with it. And now the Elizabeth B. Hall Chapel stands at the heart of campus.

The C.A.C.’s completion concluded the successful Centennial Campaign. In addition to raising funds for the capital project, the community boosted ��Ƶ’s endowment to over $100 million. This substantial investment has bolstered ��Ƶ’s long-term financial stability, allowing the school to better support the faculty and students who contribute to the depth and diversity of a ��Ƶ education.

Shutzer is a staunch advocate for ��Ƶ’s endowment; financial aid has always been closest to her heart. In addition, she supported the C.A.C., naming the music recital hall in memory of her mother. A school can’t attract and retain students and faculty without appropriate spaces for growth and learning, Shutzer says: “We have something wonderful at ��Ƶ, and we need to take care of it. Whether it’s a building or an endowment for financial aid, the goals aren’t so different. They really are toward the same end.”

Campaign co-chair Andy Ory P’16 ’21 and his wife, Linda Hammett Ory P’16 ’21, also supported both the C.A.C. and the endowment. “When our kids first set foot on campus, they benefited from almost 100 years of hard work, support, and stewardship,” he says. “We felt strongly that we wanted to be a link in this chain, to pay it forward.”

The new Hammett Ory Theater, which offers staging flexibility and technical theater learning opportunities, reflects their family’s love of the performing arts. It’s a space where students can explore the full potential of theater, dance, music, and design—and build community.

“The magic happens between the stage and the audience,” Ory says. “Especially as the world becomes digitally hyperconnected and can feel so lonely, showing up—being emotionally and intellectually present—is more important than ever.”

He says he’s thrilled when he looks back on what this community accomplished: “This campaign required so much from so many, for so long. What we’ve done together will have profound impacts.”

The C.A.C.’s soaring double-story hallway, filled with natural light, offers new ways for the ��Ƶ community to connect.

Left to right: Fay Lampert Shutzer ’65, Andy Ory P’16 ’21, and Carol Moriarty P’02 ’05 ’07, campaign co-chairs, in the new Centennial Arts Center’s Kingman Support Shop.

On June 5, ��Ƶ hosted a celebration in the C.A.C. for community members who had contributed to both the Centennial Campaign and the Annual Fund in 2024–25. Jennifer Pline P’13 ’15, co-president of the Board of Trustees, said that while the C.A.C. provides an inspiring new physical space for the community to thrive, “quietly, powerfully, the endowment supports our people and sustains this community.”

Her co-president, Jen Burleigh ’85, reflected that though the campus changes over time, what endures is ��Ƶ’s “culture, its community, and its truly special approach to giving young people the tools they need to pursue their passions, which is what this building is all about.”

“��Ƶ is a place where students learn who they are—and who they might become,” said Head of School Henry Fairfax. Together, he added, the new building and strengthened endowment create the “foundation and the fuel for us to plan boldly for the future.”

A few weeks earlier, Carol and John Moriarty P’02 ’05 ’07 surprised Don Kingman, ��Ƶ’s director of campus planning, design, and construction, when they revealed that they had named the theater support shop for him in honor of his retirement. The Moriartys have helped spearhead the development of ��Ƶ’s campus since 1998. Over the same period, “��Ƶ had the good fortune of having Don Kingman be a wonderful steward of facilities and operations,” Carol says. “He also cared about every member of the ��Ƶ community.”

Kingman says seeing the plaque—and a quote from his 2024 convocation address on the wall of the support shop—was a jolt, of the best kind. “When have you seen a beautiful space like this named for someone in a role like mine?” he asks. “To me, it says a lot—that the community I’ve cared so much about for so long also cares about each person’s contributions to the school.”

The Moriartys also honored Amy Spencer and Richard Colton P’13, former co-directors of the dance program, who instilled a love of movement, discipline, and creative expression in generations of ��Ƶ students. The Spencer and Colton P3 (Process, Presentation, Production) Lab, dedicated to fostering interdisciplinary creativity at ��Ƶ, is the Moriartys’ fitting tribute to Spencer and Colton’s legacy.

“We were aware early on that the arts were a huge part of the ��Ƶ magic,” Carol says. “The existing P.A.C. was not adequate for the outstanding work that Amy and Richard were producing. We only wish it hadn’t taken this long for the C.A.C. to become a reality. We felt Amy, Richard, and Don should be recognized and thanked for their incredible contributions to ��Ƶ, and we appreciate everything the advancement team did to make these recognitions happen.”

Colton says he and Spencer “had not imagined such a beautiful thing” as their names gracing the P3 Lab. He remembers when they began teaching at ��Ƶ in 1989 in a low-ceilinged room that limited dancers’ leaps, and how the addition of the dance studio 10 years later opened possibilities and raised the program’s profile. He and Spencer worked with students to produce operas and other multimedia works alongside painters, singers, and instrumentalists, but finding appropriate spaces for such projects was always challenging.

“The P3—the whole building—represents a merging of the arts,” Colton says. “It couldn’t be more exciting to have film, theater design, and visual artists able to work in these spaces with dancers, actors, and writers.”

Interdisciplinary work isn’t easy, Colton adds, but that’s precisely why it’s valuable. It offers a productive template for a society that has become atomized through specialization.

Spencer says the arts are unique in cultivating multiple intelligences at once—linguistic, spatial, musical, bodily-kinesthetic, interpersonal, intrapersonal, and more. She highlights the holistic focus of the Moriartys’ long-term leadership in reshaping ��Ƶ’s campus for the future. “From the beginning, they have understood why balance is so important—they know that’s a critical aspect of what makes ��Ƶ different from other schools,” she says. “They have been tireless in their commitment to help ��Ƶ realize its mission and its full potential— they put in the time, and they don’t give up.”

While head of ��Ƶ’s Performing Arts Department, Spencer spearheaded a collaborative design process for the C.A.C. with performing and visual arts faculty and the architects. After retiring in 2021, she served as the Centennial Campaign arts liaison, supporting campaign co-chairs in their efforts. She recalls the benefits to the entire school when the Moriarty Athletic Campus opened in 2012 and ��Ƶ Labs replaced an aging science wing in 2016. Now she envisions the C.A.C. attracting faculty, visiting artists, and students who are eager to experiment within and across disciplines.

“If you don’t have the tools at hand for exploration, the barriers for innovation are set,” she says. “The C.A.C. will give all ��Ƶ students the means to realize their creative potential in many different forms.”

The C.A.C.’s music recital hall provides a beautiful setting for concerts, with acoustics that allow musicians to sound their best.

The Spencer and Colton P3 Lab supports cross-disciplinary creative collaboration, and it doubles as gallery space for visual artwork

A Historic Collective Achievement

��Ƶ’s new Centennial Arts Center is the most visible outcome of the Centennial Campaign, but the growing endowment also demonstrates a commitment to sustain the school, expand access to a ��Ƶ education, and support its people and program. Both show that this community’s purposeful collaboration, creative engagement, and love of learning run deep.

More than 730 individuals and families collectively contributed over $53.3 million, surpassing ��Ƶ’s goal and bringing the most ambitious campaign in the school’s history to a successful conclusion.

The community invested $26.8 million to redevelop West Campus and build the Centennial Arts Center, a creative hub that will enhance the education of every ��Ƶ student.

With $17.6 million raised through this campaign, ��Ƶ’s endowment has surpassed $100 million, allowing the school to continue to attract and retain exceptional faculty, provide financial aid, and maintain its commitment to educational excellence for generations to come.

And $8.9 million in unrestricted gifts demonstrated profound trust in ��Ƶ to use the community’s resources where they are most needed.

Campaign Leadership

The success of this campaign reflects the contributions of a community deeply invested in the future of ��Ƶ. It would not have been possible without the dedication of these visionary leaders.

Centennial Campaign Co-Chairs

Jane Du P’15 ’16 ’23
Andy Ory P’16 ’21
Carol Moriarty P’02 ’05 ’07
Fay Lampert Shutzer ’65

Centennial Campaign Steering Committee

Kate Agarwal P’23 ’28
Annie Bartlett P’24
Sam Bartlett P’24
Amy Cammann Cholnoky ’73
Jamie Wade Comstock ’82, P’17
Mike Firestone ’01
Alexis Goltra ’87, P’26 ’27
Kerry Hoffman P’14 ’20
Bradley Lewis P’24
Kristen Lewis P’24
Claudio Lilienfeld ’80
Kevin Parke P’12 ’15
Ashley Shih P’21 ’25
Linda Shih P’21 ’25
Jorge Solares-Parkhurst ’94
Carolyn Stafford Stein P’11 ’14 ’17
Ly Tran P’22 ’23
Nina Urban ’80, P’11 ’17
Peg Walker ’63

Catwalks above the Hammett Ory Theater give ��Ƶ students full access to a technical theater education.

Dan Kramarsky ’79 at the June 5 campaign celebration.

Investing in Transformative Education

One of many ��Ƶ community members who contributed to the Centennial Campaign, Dan Kramarsky ’79 shares why he supported the endowment. A career educator with 20 years of experience in independent schools as a teacher and administrator, his philanthropic goal is to support faculty development and financial aid.

Kramarsky says he was too immature for boarding school when he arrived at ��Ƶ—a smart kid who “weaponized” his intelligence. “I thought I knew it all when I was 9, certainly when I was 14,” he says. “I did not know it all when, at 18, I left Concord.”

What made the difference? He says it was partly ��Ƶ’s environment of common trust and “tremendously daring and wonderful” fellow students. At ��Ƶ, Kramarsky learned to use humor effectively; he found space for expression as a theater kid, a joke-teller, and a singer. He also found teachers who modeled love of learning.

Among those transformative educators were Stephen Teichgraeber, Ronald Richardson, Janet Eisendrath, and Sylvia Mendenhall, all skilled at collapsing the intellectual hierarchy in a classroom. “These were teachers who were learning as they taught, who were forever students,” Kramarsky says. “The great ones consistently taught us that what they were teaching was the basics, and that we had a long way to go—and that they’d take that journey with us.”

The Centennial Arts Center’s eastern entrance to Academy Garden.

A view of the Centennial Arts Center’s rooftop solar array, with the site of the new meadow beyond the building.

Sustainably Built

It’s not just the electric vehicle charging stations out front that reflect ��Ƶ’s commitment to sustainability. The materials and systems used in Centennial Arts Center have helped reduce the school’s environmental footprint even as its built environment has expanded.

Constructed to LEED Silver standards, the C.A.C. is insulated with 15-inch-thick walls and fully waterproof membranes. The all-electric building is 100% free of fossil fuels and draws from a 46-kilowatt rooftop solar array.

The building is also self-monitoring: Light, heat, and air conditioning levels automatically adjust to conserve energy when it’s not occupied. Night-sky friendly, it darkens from dusk to dawn. And a 3D-modeling program with powerful educational potential allows real-time insight into its operational systems.

The C.A.C.’s rear deck overlooks the boathouse and new meadow, dedicated by Amy Cammann Cholnoky ’73 and John Cholnoky in honor of Nancy Cammann P’73 and Dorothy Cholnoky, and pollinator meadow, dedicated by the class of 1969 in memory of Lucy Eddy Fox ’69 and in honor of their enduring bonds and shared love of the land. This haven for biodiversity will encourage scientific exploration and provide a serene spot for contemplation.

Space for Possibility

The Centennial Arts Center introduces high-tech, discipline-specific tools to ��Ƶ’s curriculum, and many parts of the building have been designed for maximum flexibility. With recording capabilities throughout, rooms for collaboration, rehearsal, performance, and exhibition, and nooks for gathering, this building presents no foregone conclusions, just possibilities. Like a ��Ƶ education, it inspires curiosity and exploration.

Carol and John Moriarty P’02 ’05 ’07 were honored to name the support shop and the P3 Lab, leaving a legacy for ��Ƶ faculty and staff who, as they say, “shaped this place that means the world to us.”

The Kingman Support Shop, which connects with the P3 Lab, provides a loading dock, enclosed paint booth, and space for storing tools, lumber, and sets under construction. It stands ready to use to make anything, from architectural studies to art installations.

With a robust digital production lab for creating music, films, and podcasts adjoining a flexible space suitable for any set, the Spencer and Colton P3 (Process, Presentation, and Production) Lab will serve students at the intersections of performance, film, and the visual arts. Doubling as an exhibition space, it will provide critical interdisciplinary support for ��Ƶ’s academic program.

In the Hammett Ory Theater, retractable seating allows for limitless staging configurations for mainstage productions, dance performances, and more. The Donohue Theater Control Room gives students learning technical theater the access they need. The theater’s flexibility also makes it a fine space for school dances, class meetings, and other community gatherings.

In the music recital hall, ��Ƶ finally has a beautiful concert space, which Fay Lampert Shutzer ’65 and Bill Shutzer named in memory of Irma Lampert P’65 ’69. This acoustically optimized music hall overlooks the meadow, creating an ideal environment for performances and master classes. In the hallway outside, a monitor shows a livestream of concerts.

With acoustic panels and large windows overlooking student houses and Academy Garden, this room is designed for large ensemble rehearsals doubles as a classroom and event space.

Cozy nooks on the first and second floors welcome everyone in the campus community to gather with friends or curl up with a book.

The new Jasmine Music Practice Room, dedicated by a group of ��Ƶ families, and practice rooms for percussion, jazz, and chamber music isolate sound and create ideal environments for rehearsal.

The C.A.C.’s lower level has dressing rooms, make-up stations, a shower, and plenty of space for creating and storing costumes and props.

Photos by Cole and Kiera Photography, Leah LaRiccia Photography, and Nicholas Pfosi

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With Green Seed Funding, Students Set ��Ƶ Up for Aerial Environmental Monitoring

vanessa_dezorzi@concordacademy.org — Fri, 16 May 2025 13:50:30 +0000

Technology became a pathway to ecology for Quinn Williams ’25 and Carey Cai ’25 in their final semesters at ��Ƶ. Last year, interested in electrical engineering, they had been looking into building a fixed-wing 3D-printed drone and were considering practical applications for the project. When they learned about the critical role wetlands play in maintaining healthy ecosystems, they wondered if they could use such a vehicle to map local waterways and track algae blooms from the air. After some research, they realized an ideal tool for this purpose already existed, but it wasn’t within their reach. That’s when the Class of 1972 Green Seed Fund came into the picture.

This alum-sponsored fund awards grants to students pursuing environmentally impactful projects at ��Ƶ. This year, the fund supported Quinn and Carey’s proposal to purchase a DJI Mavic 3M aerial surveying drone for the school. Designed for agricultural monitoring, this remote-controlled quadcopter is equipped with a standard camera and multispectral imaging, enabling photography in near-infrared and red-edge wavelengths of light that aren’t visible to the human eye. The drone also has remote sensing features that can produce data to measure plant health using the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), a metric typically employed to monitor vegetation changes, drought, and other indicators of ecological health.

In the fall semester, Quinn and Carey met with Concord’s director of natural resources to discuss how their data could help with the town’s conservation efforts. While it became clear that such a partnership would take some time to start, they turned their attention to mapping the school grounds and setting up a system for tracking seasonal vegetation changes on campus. (It’s a project well-aligned with existing interests. Since 2007, faculty member Jodi Pickle has been photographing the landscape behind ��Ƶ’s Chapel and measuring variables to analyze local environmental health, among them the date of a maple tree’s first leaf.)

The drone arrived in December, and the students started doing flight tests around campus. Quinn, whose interest runs toward software, says he appreciated how easy the Mavic was to fly: “Just map out an area you want to collect data from, click ‘fly,’ and it’ll collect all the images.” The data analysis, he adds, is considerably more complicated.

He has been working on a process called unsupervised segmentation: comparing different indices calculated from the spectral data with data points for certain species along that spectrum. It’s a way of using algorithms to classify different areas of the image as particular species. “What that allows us to do, from one year to another, is to notice, ‘Oh, there’s a lot of this one,’” he says. “So if you have an invasive species and you notice an uptick, then you can take action to mitigate that.” He’s been using open-source data from Concord’s bioregion to refine their model.

A rainy, windy spring limited their ability to conduct regular campus scans, but they had plenty of opportunities to conduct test flights and start mapping out a consistent data collection and preparation process. The data-rich images the drone produces will allow for the creation of detailed environmental maps and will make it possible for students and faculty to track and analyze changes in foliage, land, water quality, and other natural features over the long term.

Carey, who has experience making his own remote-controlled planes, says the visual data a drone can gather, flying 8 meters from the ground, is of much higher resolution than what satellites can capture. He demonstrates, interpreting a set of their test images. “The drone captures images in the red edge—a spectrum of light that humans can’t see but yet encodes valuable information about the photosynthesis process in plants,” he explains. “So you can get information about which plants are photosynthesizing more than others, or essentially how healthy they are.” Plants with a lot of chlorophyll show red in the multispectral imaging. In winter, leafless deciduous trees don’t absorb red light and appear white.

Science teacher and Environmental Sustainability Lead Chris Labosier says he’s looking forward to seeing how this technology could contribute to his ecology class, among other uses. “It’s a great data collection tool with a ton of potential,” he says. “This is a perfect example of what the Green Seed Fund was established to support—not just a finite project, but a learning opportunity that could continue to transform what’s possible for us.”

Quinn also reflected on the project this semester for the final assignment in his English course, Eco-Literature: Locating the “I” in Environment. “My passion is engineering, and I think this is a great way of connecting to my surroundings in Concord—the wetlands and the places I pass every single day—and giving them more attention,” he says. In the final weeks of school, he is preparing the data to transfer to upcoming student leaders and creating a repository of the data processing techniques he and Carey used.

“I give them a lot of credit,” Labossier says. “They have been thinking all along about how to leave this in a good space for someone else to come into. I’m excited for what this could become in the future.”’

Compiled from multiple pictures taken on March 12 using the drone, these orthomosaic images depict the same view of ��Ƶ’s main campus. Left: the light spectrum visible to the human eye. Right: an NDVI image, in which plants producing chlorophyll appear red.

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The C.A.C. Was Built with Sustainability in Mind

vanessa_dezorzi@concordacademy.org — Thu, 24 Apr 2025 18:15:09 +0000

From its scene shop to its P3 studio for filmmaking, podcasting, and more, the Centennial Arts Center was built to offer maximum flexibility and support for interdisciplinary learning. But that’s not all that’s remarkable about this new campus hub for the arts and creativity. A beautiful and harmonious addition to ��Ƶ’s campus, this high-tech building is also 100% electric and is contributing in other significant ways toward reducing ��Ƶ’s environmental footprint.

On April 16, 2025, Director of Operations Michael McSorley P’27 offered an informal tour of the C.A.C.’s sustainability features for students, faculty, and staff, along with science teacher and environmental sustainability and justice coordinator Chris Labosier. Demonstrating the 3D modeling program that allows insight into the real-time status of the plumbing, HVAC, and other operational systems (a tool with powerful educational potential), McSorley explained that the building is self-monitoring. Lights, heat, and air conditioning are programmed but also responsive to occupancy, automatically adjusting to conserve energy as people enter and leave each space.

Constructed to LEED Silver standards, the building is robustly insulated, its walls 15 inches thick with fully waterproof membranes, part of an integrated water management system. Much like in a museum, none of the oversized windows are operational—air quality is continuously monitored and fresh air, circulated. The building’s automated features also ensure that it is night-sky-friendly, darkening overnight.

McSorley said he expects the 46-kilowatt solar array on the roof to offset some campus energy demand—already substantially reduced by a recent conversion to all-LED lights in the SHAC. New EV car charging stations have also been installed nearby.

From the theater’s second-floor windows, the tour group looked out toward ��Ƶ’s boathouse on the Sudbury River. In fall 2024, the grassy area before them had been sown with seeds that, over the next few years, will grow into a meadow to support native pollinators. There, workers were polishing new copper sheeting on the roof of a gazebo that had been moved from Munro House, a campus property across Main Street. Henry David Thoreau’s family once lived in that house and, rumor has it, the transcendentalist author once used the gazebo as a favorite space to read as a child. Soon it will offer the ��Ƶ community a place for contemplation and observation of the local environment this new building is so very much a part of.

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Lauren Ong ’26 Leads the Way for Wildlife Conservation

vanessa_dezorzi@concordacademy.org — Tue, 01 Apr 2025 14:34:36 +0000

��Ƶ junior Lauren Ong ’26 is an emerging voice in environmental conservation. Driven by a passion for wildlife protection, her engagement spans from local advocacy to global research on endangered species.

Growing up in San Diego, Lauren developed a strong connection to nature by gardening with her parents and grandparents. Her fascination with plants and animals only deepened as she traveled the world, immersing herself in different ecosystems.

In middle school, a life-changing trip to Kenya introduced her to the pangolin, an endangered species she had never heard of before. This encounter ignited her drive for conservation, prompting her to get involved with .

Pangolins face imminent extinction due to threats from electric fencing, habitat destruction, and poaching. Through outreach to electronics companies for donations and extensive fundraising, Lauren secured trail cameras for the Nyekweri Forest in Kenya, the last stronghold of the Giant Ground Pangolin.

Initially, the exact number of pangolins remaining in this region was unknown. However, scientists analyzed the camera footage and identified around 30 individuals. The conservation effort continues, with The Pangolin Project team volunteering to educate communities in Kenya about the species.

During her time at ��Ƶ, Lauren’s work has also taken her to the , a cloud forest region in Ecuador, where she contributes to the organization’s study on puma populations. The project highlights how human activities, such as agriculture and urbanization, fragment natural habitats and pose a threat to the apex predators.

Lauren volunteered her expertise in and with trail cameras, serving in a hands-on role reviewing footage. Through close observation and analysis, she has been able to identify different individuals and track their movement patterns.

She also assisted in tagging two pumas, providing data for understanding their health and genetics. In collaboration with the reserve’s research team, including a biologist and genomics expert, Lauren helped analyze the pumas’ DNA and discovered potential early signs of inbreeding within the population—which may be a result of land fragmentation.

This was the first test of its kind for pumas in South America. The team plans to continue testing additional pumas to expand its sample size. Supporting the health of these top predators plays a crucial role in maintaining the balance of the region’s entire ecosystem.

Lauren recently showcased her puma research in a poster display at in San Diego. At just 17, she was the youngest presenter. She described the experience as an incredible opportunity to share her work with the scientific community and help build awareness.

Back in Concord, she is currently developing an environmental app to share her passion for ecology with the ��Ƶ community. The app will feature fundraising campaigns to support her efforts in conserving the puma and pangolin populations.

A member of O.A.C. (Organic Action for Communities), she is also collaborating with that student club and ��Ƶ’s student environmental representatives to feature local sustainability opportunities on the app. Asher Seidman ’26 and Computer Science Department Head Ben Stumpf ’88 lent their coding expertise to the project

In addition to science, Lauren is also committed to athletics and is an accomplished fencer. She recently earned national recognition by winning a medal at the U.S.A. Summer Nationals, and the July Challenge. For Lauren, fencing has taught her invaluable life lessons, such as the importance of persistence and focus. She applies these same principles to her conservation work, seeing them as interconnected.

Looking back on her experiences, Lauren has learned that conservation success is about more than just data—it’s about building relationships. For ��Ƶ students interested in environmentalism, she offers this advice: “Make as many connections as possible. Reaching out to people, sharing your ideas, and asking for help is key to making real change.”

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��Ƶ Student Drives Smart Outlet Sustainability Initiative

vanessa_dezorzi@concordacademy.org — Mon, 04 Nov 2024 16:50:03 +0000

Xander Grossman ’26 is helping ��Ƶ realize its mission of promoting a more just and sustainable future by adding smart outlets across the school’s campus. His idea resulted from a call for proposals from the Green Revolving Fund, which provides start-up investment in student-driven projects and experimental initiatives that project meaningful real-world impact.

“I am excited to be able to help shape the future of sustainability at ��Ƶ,” Xander says.

Smart outlets, he explains, function much like conventional wall outlets but with the added capability of remote control via Wi-Fi or Bluetooth, which enables them to be turned off when not in use. Xander collaborated closely with Mick McSorley P’27, director of operations, and Josh Dechane, general maintenance technician, to gather data to support his project proposal.

Xander and the operations team tested numerous window air conditioning units to gauge their energy usage—a major source of energy consumption at ��Ƶ during hot months. He combined this data with the cost of electricity at ��Ƶ, data McSorley provided to lay the foundation for the project.

Additionally, science teacher and Environmental Sustainability and Justice Coordinator Chris Labosier and Xander’s peer Environmental Representatives Laila Mooraj ’24, William Kim ’24, and Zack Miller ’24 provided valuable support for this Green Revolving Fund application.

Thrilled by his success in securing an initial investment through the Green Revolving Fund, Xander selected Leviton outlets for a pilot program, because they offer centralized data collection and timed control. ��Ƶ will conduct the pilot program in the early spring in the Main School building, the Math and Arts Center, Aloian House, and Belknap House. The installation of this new technology will enable accurate cost analysis for potential project expansion, with an intention of reinvesting cost savings back into the fund.

Xander says ��Ƶ’s philosophy of common trust was pivotal to the proposal’s success: “The level of personal responsibility we as students are entrusted with has propelled the project forward.” Conserving energy is just one facet of Xander’s interest in sustainability; he is eager to explore this field at the nexus of several industries, from business to technology. He plans to further his knowledge of green project development by immersing himself in the work of Renew Energy Partners in Boston, Mass. this summer.

By implementing a pragmatic solution to reduce energy consumption on campus, the smart outlet sustainability project embodies ��Ƶ’s commitment to environmental stewardship. The generosity of ��Ƶ alums, which has empowered current students to propose such projects, also represents a multigenerational investment in ��Ƶ’s commitment to responsible environmental stewardship.

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Student Sustainability Spotlight: Avi Cariens ’25

vanessa_dezorzi@concordacademy.org — Thu, 31 Oct 2024 20:12:47 +0000

Avi Cariens ’25 has a deep-rooted commitment to sustainability shaped by his family history and community. Inspired by his grandfather, an environmental chemist, Avi is determined to carry on that legacy.

As a longtime resident of Concord, Mass., he is dedicated to creating meaningful change in his beloved hometown. “My passion for sustainability stems from a desire to care for our land,” he says. “I want to understand our origins, the places we inhabit, and where we want to go.”

He is an environmental representative and is on the Food and Waste Management subcommittee of the school’s Sustainability Committee. He is also a co-founder of OAC (Organic Action for Communities), a student-led council focused on establishing a network of gardens across campus. OAC champions sustainability by creating infrastructure and hosting educational programs.

OAC has cultivated seven garden beds on campus, including four pollinator gardens designed to attract bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds. The three vegetable gardens provide nourishing meals for students and contribute fresh produce to the local community, thanks to a partnership with Dining Hall Manager Shawna Penders.

Through OAC, Avi has built essential partnerships with faculty and staff members across the school, such as Director of Operations Mick McSorley P’27, to construct the garden beds, and Director of Residential Life Annie Bailey P’25 ’27, to coordinate student programming.

Avi collaborates with science teacher Chris Labosier, also ��Ƶ’s environmental sustainability and justice coordinator, to develop an overall strategy for achieving his goals. “��Ƶ has so many people that are passionate about the environment, and Chris is helping to bring it all together, unite everybody, and get us all on the same page with a clear direction,” Avi says.

He believes education plays a crucial role in sustainability. In the spring of 2023, he spearheaded an in collaboration with ��Ƶ history teachers, exploring land stewardship from both Indigenous and colonial perspectives. Over the summer, Avi also taught gardening to campers aged 3 to 14 at ��Ƶ Summer Camp, to help them understand the importance of agriculture.

“What I enjoyed most about the experience of teaching was observing the curiosity and care that each camper expressed for nature and the environment,” Avi says. The campers actively participated in mulching, maintaining, and harvesting the gardens while learning how to prevent the spread of invasive species.

His next project aims to revitalize a garden behind Monroe House, transforming it into a sustainable space for students and faculty alike. Additionally, he is developing a rainwater collection system to harness natural rainfall for garden irrigation.

In addition to these projects, Avi is eager to utilize the school’s new Sustainability Tracking and Roadmap Tool (START) software to track food waste metrics. He emphasizes that reducing food waste will minimize ��Ƶ’s methane emissions, conserve natural resources, and lower the school’s carbon footprint.

Ultimately, Avi envisions a culture of sustainability at ��Ƶ that empowers collective action among the faculty, staff, students, and alums. “I want everyone to be able to say, ‘I’ve been a steward of this place called ��Ƶ. This is my home. I care about it, and I’ve made it a better place.’”

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Tom McMillan ’03 Is Putting AI to Use to Model Climate Economics

vanessa_dezorzi@concordacademy.org — Fri, 18 Oct 2024 14:19:04 +0000

For technology executive Tom McMillan ’03, metacognition and artistic expression have been lifelong orientations. His startup uses AI to measure and forecast the economic impact of climate change. As founder and CEO, his approach to the rapidly evolving technology is an extension of these habits of mind.

McMillan started Climate Index AI because he believed climate change was affecting the economy in ways we had yet to measure and understand, and that AI and machine learning gave us the opportunity to see its impact more clearly. But without a traditional tech or data science background, McMillan has a different orientation than most founders. What he brings—in addition to personal concern about the climate crisis—is a perspective about AI informed by the arts and humanities.

“One of the tricky things about AI is that we have to teach computers how to think about thinking,” he says. “In a funny way, I spent a lot of time at Concord thinking about how I think and was introduced to some frameworks for that and some philosophies, texts, books, authors, and ideas.”

Poets are “some of the best prompt engineers” for AI, McMillan says, laughing: “When I’m trying to convince a computer to do something, I sometimes have to break out Wallace Stevens.” To clarify his ideas and needs through words, he explains, he looks to writers with clear voices and tries to parse how they communicate so well. “What they think, and who they are and what tools of language and thinking make them most effective.”

From a family of professional writers, McMillan majored in English at Tufts University. In addition to being a technology executive, he has worked as a commercial real estate consultant, construction manager, and film and TV production designer. Over an eclectic 17-year career, he has worked on a dozen films and a million square feet of commercial real estate and led two AI startups.

McMillan was born in the coastal Lowcountry of South Carolina, where he witnessed the devastation of Hurricane Hugo in 1989, 45 miles from his home. That formative experience, he says, now gives him a sense of “how climate change is changing the not-so-distant future of where and how we can live.”

In 2022–23, while enrolled in an executive education program in real estate development at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, he started looking into the effects of climate change on commercial real estate. It was there that he came to believe that climate change is “an economic phenomenon, not just a weather event.” He started researching, reading, and engaging thinkers in the field. At the time, he was running, Maslo, an AI startup he took over from its founder, which was later acquired in 2024, and he began talking with that team about an opportunity.

“I want to use the technology to create a record of the actual impact of climate change on financial markets,” McMillan says. “I believe that information will allow people in different industries to create tools, technologies, instruments, regulations, policies, and strategies that will improve the world.”

AI helps him observe, find correlations, and build prediction models, which he is now sharing and refining with his customers, commercial real estate investors.

Today, McMillan says, “I just look at hurricane data.” But his interest in AI is wide-ranging, and he uses it in many areas of his life. “The technology is almost like a material that’s being introduced, and we’re not sure what we can paint with it, we’re not sure what we can build with it, and we’re not even totally sure we understand all of its properties,” he says. In that sense, he adds, it’s not different from other new technologies.

When he returned to ��Ƶ on October 11, 2024, to connect with students about AI, McMillan welcomed critiques and evaluative questions about this new “material.” He encouraged them to play and experiment with it—to interrogate their interactions with AI and form their own perspectives on how it can and should be used.

During his campus visit, McMillan connected with students over lunch. During an all-school assembly in the Elizabeth B. Hall Chapel, he conducted an open-ended conversation about climate economics and generative AI. As he asked and fielded questions, McMillan typed into ChatGPT, conducting a live session—a frequent way he engages with customers.

The room was animated. Aware that ��Ƶ has a statement outlining practices around AI, but not a fixed policy—the technology is evolving too rapidly—McMillan offered a variety of scenarios to challenge students to refine their perspectives on AI. Most had used ChatGPT that week. Hardly any had built a custom GPT. How many had dragged and dropped a PDF into GPT? How many had used it to solve a personal problem? (Laughter rippled through the benches as many hands were sheepishly raised.) Then the scenarios got more complicated: What if teachers used an AI tool to grade student work? What if the students helped establish the rules and parameters?

“Building AI involves writing sets of instructions, like a style guide, for how to understand the world,” he told them. What needs to be part of those instructions, he said, are your own values: “It doesn’t understand what’s important to you.”

Becoming fluent in creating those instructions would become central to white-collar jobs in the future, McMillan predicted. Learning to do so, he said, can help us use the technology to “solve important problems at a scale we couldn’t before.”

Reflecting on his visit to ��Ƶ, McMillan says he had expected AI to be “an animating topic,” but he was surprised by the strength of the differing opinions he encountered from students. To him, it simply indicated the need for more “real discusion” about AI.

Framing how we talk to AI as a “style” was intentional, for McMillan. He took this concept from the final chapter by E. B. White in The Elements of Style. “It’s a good way of thinking about what we have to do before we start using an AI tool,” he says. “You have to make a guidebook, a set of arguments about style, rooted in your values, how a business works, and how you see the world.” Defining a style, he says, will help “avoid the flattening of culture some people feel AI is introducing.”

As for Climate Index AI, the venture-backed, pre-seed tech company will bring its first batch of models to market in January 2025. McMillan hopes to see the establishment of a climate price index that all businesses can reference in making decisions—that innovators “can use as a material to build interesting things.”

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Sustainability Spotlight: Organic Action for Communities

vanessa_dezorzi@concordacademy.org — Wed, 14 Feb 2024 16:07:21 +0000

Established in 2022 by Avi Cariens ’25 and Jeffrey Bailey ’25, Organic Action for Communities (OAC) is a student-led council dedicated to constructing and sustaining a network of gardens throughout ��Ƶ’s campus. OAC strives to promote sustainability by developing infrastructure and facilitating educational programs.

“One of my favorite parts of the project is working with a team of people with similar interests and making changes around campus,” Jeffrey says. “It’s fun to be a part of the building process, from buying the wood to building the beds, getting the dirt, remediating weeds, planting, and beyond.”

OAC has successfully cultivated six garden beds across campus. Three are pollinator gardens, featuring native plants from Concord and New England selected to attract bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds. Complementing these are three vegetable gardens, whose produce serves a dual purpose—contributing to wholesome meals for students and providing donations to the local community.

In addition to having a tangible impact on the community through its gardens, OAC places a strong emphasis on education. This past fall, the group organized a workshop on pickling, skillfully led by Izzy Wood ’25, using cucumbers and herbs harvested from the campus gardens. Over the summer, Avi taught gardening to students ages 3 through 14 at ��Ƶ Summer Camp. “What I enjoyed most about the experience of teaching was observing the curiosity and care each camper expressed for nature and the environment,” Avi says. The campers actively participated in mulching, maintaining, and harvesting the gardens while learning about the prevention of invasive species.

OAC plans to restore the faculty garden by Munroe House—an endeavor that will expand ��Ƶ’s garden space and will align with the summer camp’s botanical studies.

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��Ƶ Dining Hall Promotes Sustainable Eating

vanessa_dezorzi@concordacademy.org — Fri, 15 Sep 2023 15:32:50 +0000

On September 13, ��Ƶ students assembled in the Performing Arts Center to meet the people responsible for the abundance of healthy, delicious food its dining hall serves. Staff members each shared helpful tips and information regarding their food stations and reviewed the bright and clear labeling for the organic, vegan, vegetarian, and gluten-free options available each day.

��Ƶ hopes to bring familiar foods from all cultures and cuisines to campus. To that end, families are invited to send favorite recipes with Shawna Penders—they may make it onto an upcoming menu!

��Ƶ contracts with Sodexo, whose dining services leadership collaborates with the school’s Environmental Sustainability Task Force and Student Food Committees to set environmentally responsible goals for ��Ƶ’s dining options and support the school’s progress toward sustainability targets.

Additionally, the dining hall provides healthy options for the ��Ƶ community, including individuals with special dietary needs. This year, here’s what that looks like in the Stu-Fac:

Plant-forward options: offer a variety of vegan and vegetarian options at lunch and dinner, which are easily identified by icons. Healthier choices are also indicated by a “mindful” icon; these options are limited in calories, with less than 30% of calories from fat, including less than 10% from saturated fat, and are restricted in sodium and cholesterol.
My Zone: The dining hall includes MyZone, a special gluten-free, peanut- and tree-nut-free area reserved for individuals with a gluten allergy or intolerance, allergies, and other special dietary needs. It includes a mini-fridge filled with condiments, packaged deserts, cooked pasta, and a variety of other gluten-free options; a mini-pantry stocked with dry cereal and breads, and a designated microwave.
Local food: ��Ƶ’s dining hall supports local food systems by sourcing milk from Garelick Farms, which is free from artificial growth hormones and tested for antibiotics; delicious fresh bread from Nashoba Brook Bakery in West Concord; and fresh vegetables from Costa Produce, which buys from individual farms and local co-ops throughout New England.
Responsible meat: The chicken served at ��Ƶ is halal certified. And, when available, pasture-raised pork served at the dining hall comes from Clark Farms in Carlisle, Mass.
Composting: ��Ƶ collects all leftover food scraps in the dining hall for composting through Black Earth Compost. The dining hall generates around a ton of compostable waste per month, which is diverted from a landfill and brought to a local farm to break down into rich, reusable compost.

Meet the Team

Shawna Penders
General Manager

Maria Kazanjian
Operations Manager

Bala Arumugam
Executive Chef

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