Harvard-Radcliffe Class of 1986

Jeffrey Rosen '86 — Constitution Daily, March 15, 2016:
Audio: Jeffrey Rosen speaks at the Supreme Court on John Marshall, March 15, 2016

On March 9, Jeffrey Rosen spoke at the Supreme Court in a special event honoring “the Great Chief Justice,” John Marshall.

The Supreme Court Historical Society and the John Marshall Foundation hosted Rosen’s lecture in connection with the 215th anniversary of Marshall’s appointment to the Bench by President John Adams... Rosen explains how Marshall and Jefferson were personal and ideological opponents, who privately derided each other in colorful terms. Nevertheless, Marshall became the most successful Chief Justice in history because of his ability to win over Jeffersonian justices who were his ideological opponents through compromise and leadership.

The talk explores the Great Chief Justice’s constitutional clashes with Thomas Jefferson and his influence on Justices ranging from the Jeffersonian Louis Brandeis to the Marshallian William Howard Taft.

Rosen explains how Marshall and Jefferson were personal and ideological opponents, who privately derided each other in colorful terms. Nevertheless, Marshall became the most successful Chief Justice in history because of his ability to win over Jeffersonian justices who were his ideological opponents through compromise and leadership... READ MORE »  

Jill Vialet '86 — The Orange County Register, March 5, 2016:
Santa Ana students learning playground lessons on respect and confidence
 

The Playworks’ strategy – with research to back it up – imposes increased structure and organization on playground activity that, supporters say, yields social, behavioral and health benefits in the classroom.
 

Founder Jill Vialet, whose work earned a 2013 James Irvine Foundation Leadership Award, developed the Oakland-based program using “safe, meaningful play” that emphasizes inclusion, teamwork, respect and responsibility.
 

Children are taught the rules (sometimes modified) and etiquette of traditional playground games – surprisingly something they often don’t know. And new games are introduced to engage everyone, regardless of skill level or gender... READ MORE »

Betsy Podlach '86 — The New York Times, December 25, 2015:
In Betsy Podlach’s Sensual Portraits, an Undercurrent of Love
 

In his poem “As I Walked Out One Evening,” W. H. Auden wrote: “And down by the brimming river/ I heard a lover sing/ Under an arch of the railway:/ ‘Love has no ending …’”
 

Maybe no beginning, either — at least not in the paintings of Betsy Podlach, who lives in the Hamptons, grew up in Bedford, graduated cum laude from Harvard and later studied at the New York Studio School of Drawing, Painting and Sculpture.
 

“I don’t know what happened before, and I don’t know what happens after,” Ms. Podlach said of her portraits and the quietly dramatic, sensual moments she freezes in time: a nude sleeping on sheets patterned with delicate flowers; a golden-haired angel lost in thought and accompanied by a small menagerie; lovers embracing.
 

“I’m trying to find a woman who didn’t exist before. She’ll start telling me the story,” Ms. Podlach said of her artistic process... READ MORE »

Geoff Luck '86 — TEDxCharlottesville and C-VILLE Weekly, November 10, 2015:
The big picture: Filmmaker Geoff Luck on what we can learn from elephants
 

In the parable of the blind men and the elephant, each man takes his hands and feels a part of the elephant—a tusk, a haunch, the trunk, perhaps even the tail. Each then reports back to the others with a conflicting impression of the animal, based on the small square footage he covered. The lesson is about how we lose by focusing on a single part of the whole, rather than opening ourselves up to the big picture.
 

As a National Geographic filmmaker, Geoff Luck has experienced a wide swath of the microcosms that make up our world, covering diverse continents and cultures—but he also knows a hell of a lot about elephants. As part of TEDxCharlottesville’s November 13 event, Luck will give a talk on lessons he learned during his recent experience documenting a baby elephant in Botswana.
 

Though Luck has worked on more than 100 programs for National Geographic, he says this project was different. “This is really the first time where I literally called back from the field to tell my wife, ‘I’m changed from this,’” says Luck.
 

Using Amsterdam as a home base and relocating his family there for a year, Luck headed to Botswana for weeks at a time to work in the Okavango Delta... READ MORE »