SHS Distinguished Alumni Awards

The 2013 Scarsdale High School Distinguished Alumni Awards ceremony on Saturday November 16 began with a warm introduction by Alejandro Garcia-Amaya and Julian Stein, board members of the Scarsdale Alumni Association. Kenneth Bonamo, Principal of Scarsdale High School (SHS) followed with a brief welcoming of the distinguished alumni, telling them that the message they send to students is, "Greatness is within your reach." Several alumni spent time on Friday, November 15th speaking with students in their classrooms. Nine alumni in all were honored; here are their inspirational stories:

The first person to be honored was Judy Cheng-Hopkins ('70), a past honoree who was unable to make it to the previous ceremony. Cheng-Hopkins came to the U.S. as a Malaysian exchange student with the American Field Service in 1969. Her host family was socially and politically progressive, which helped shape her experience in America. After high school, she enrolled in college in the U.S. and then earned her Master's Degree in in Economic Development from Columbia University. After graduating, Cheng-Hopkins secured a position at the United Nations Development Program and worked in Sub-Saharan Africa for many years. In 1997, she became a Director at the World Food Program. In 2006, she was appointed as the Assistant High Commissioner for Operations, one of the highest positions within the UN. In this impressive role, she is in charge of helping high-conflict, war-torn countries and regions determine a plan for sustaining peace once a commitment to peace has been established. She believes that her experience at SHS made her what she is today, and her education taught her how to write and read well. "And 40 years later, I remember almost all of my teacher's names," she concluded.

Howard Gertler ('92) is an Oscar-nominated producer. His documentary feature film "How to Survive a Plague" was nominated for an Oscar and won the Gotham Award for Best Documentary, the New York Film Critics' Circle Award for Best First Feature, the International Documentary Association's Emerging Filmmaker Award, and the GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding Documentary. He has numerous other film titles to his name as well. He is very active in the NYC film community including the Tribeca Film Institute and the IFP. Gertler attributes his success in part to his teachers at SHS and the values they instilled. Flipping through his yearbook, one of his teachers wrote, "If you settle in and do the work, your own creations will give you pleasure." This sentiment has remained with him and has helped him throughout his career.

Kimberly Harris ('88) was recently named as an Executive Vice President and General Counsel for NBCUniversal. Prior to accepting this position, she served in the White House as Deputy Counsel and Deputy Assistant to President Obama from 2010-12. In this role, she worked on two State of the Union addresses. Although she did not write the speeches, she vetted the text of the speeches for potential legal issues. This year, she is proud to have been honored by the NYC chapter of the National Organization for Women for outstanding commitment to women and the law. She believes that SHS gave her the confidence to believe that she could be anything she wanted to be. In fact, two of her teachers visited her when she worked in the White House, impressing upon her how much her high school days had influenced her. She felt her teachers' visible and audible confidence in her abilities. One of those teachers was Werner Feig. She credits him with making history, politics, and social studies come alive and inspiring her to pursue a degree and a career in law.

Janet Karim ('72) is a diplomat for the Permanent Mission of Malawi to the UN. She has tremendous responsibility in this position; her work encompasses social, cultural and human rights issues. She acts as the Mission's representative to UNICEF and other UN executive boards. For twenty years, Karim was a journalist in Malawi and was the first female editor with her own publication in Africa. She was influential in getting UNESCO to fund the first woman-run radio station in Africa. Karim moved to Scarsdale from another part of Westchester after her father, a diplomat as well, determined that Scarsdale was "the best school district around." The Karims were only the fifth family of color living in Scarsdale, during the era of civil rights demonstrations and apartheid, which she called, "a very difficult time to be living in America." Her first SHS report card was terrible and her teachers complained that she never questioned them. Her mother met with the guidance counselor and from then on she understood that Scarsdale teachers expected to be challenged by their students. Karim said, "I have been in so many situations where I was the only woman or only person of color, and I have always overcome those challenges. I believe," she continued, "Scarsdale High School has helped me learn how to challenge life's circumstances and move beyond them." Karim credits SHS with helping to make her the successful woman she is today.

Richard Kostelanetz ('58) is a writer, visual artist, critic, poet, composer, filmmaker, media artist, and lecturer. He is a Woodrow Wilson, Fulbright, Pulitzer, and Guggenheim fellow. To this day, he attributes his success to his ninth grade English teacher who taught him grammar. Kostelanetz finished his brief award acceptance speech by saying, "After being profoundly radical, deviant and unacceptable in so many ways, elite recognitions and acknowledgements are all a pleasant surprise. "

Michael Madden ('90) works for the U.S. Treasury Department as Deputy Assistant Secretary in the Office of Intelligence and Analysis. He served in the U.S. Army and remains an Active Reserve, and he served in the Peace Corps in Kyrgyzstan. He spent Friday speaking with SHS students and exclaimed, "It was a humbling experience to be back home in Scarsdale. I'm really impressed with the students." Madden was the second president of the debate team back when there were only two other debaters and it almost folded due to lack of interest. Madden found a faculty sponsor, fought to maintain the team and today it includes 120 students who often fly around the country for debates. Madden also attributes his professional success to SHS teacher Werner Feig. "Mr. Feig taught me to question and challenge authority because they often get it wrong," he said. Now that he's on the other side, he agrees with that statement. Madden is impressed with the importance placed on service in Scarsdale, and he encouraged students to be of service in some way whether through community volunteering, the Peace Corps, or government. He encourages SHS students to strive for positions of authority and responsibility, in which they can use their education to truly make a difference.

Suzanne Nossel ('87) is the Executive Director of the PEN American Center. She also served as Executive Director of Amnesty International USA, worked at the U.S. Department of State, and acted as COO for Human Rights Watch. Suzanne is a published author, a blogger, and has served at the Century Foundation, the Center for American Progress and the Council on Foreign Relations. Suzanne is a regular contributor and commentator on human rights issues for major news outlets including CNN, MSNBC, and NPR. Nossel was at SHS during the 1980s when Jews were prohibited from practicing their religion in the Soviet Union, and it had such a profound impact on her that she joined the SHS Soviet Jewry Club with 30 other students. An activist was born, and she marched with the club down Fifth Avenue to the UN with a SHS banner to protest the treatment of Soviet Jews. It lit a fire in her and that intensity eventually carried over into her professional life. She is grateful to SHS and her teachers for teaching her how important it is to find professional fulfillment.

Cynthia Rosenzweig ('66) is a Senior Research Scientist at the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, a Professor at Barnard, and a Guggenheim recipient. She recently co-chaired the NYC Panel on Climate Change. How did she get to NASA from Scarsdale? She credits the school for inspiring a love of learning and tolerance for differences, "like quirky is okay." She feels that the most special part of SHS are the parents and the community coming together for their children's educational benefit. Prior to accepting her award, she reminded the audience, "Climate change is the planetary issue of our time."

Daniel Schacter ('70) is a Professor of Psychology at Harvard University and a former Chair of the Psychology Department. He is one of the world's leading experts on memory and has over 350 publications credited to his name. He is the author of two books, both of which were recognized as New York Times Notable Books of the Year. Schacter is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and received the Award for Scientific Reviewing from the National Academy of Sciences. His work includes a focus on conscious and unconscious memory, distortion of memory, and the effect of aging on memory. While a student at SHS, his interest in psychology was sparked in Mr. Stemmer's health class. The class had a large psychology component and he became hooked on the subject for life. Schacter thinks SHS's main strength remains its student body, saying, "It's just as impressive as the Harvard student body."

Please see the Scarsdale Alumni Association website for more information. New members are welcome. Visit: http://www.scarsdalealumni.org to learn more. The awards ceremony is held annually and is open to the public. There are even donuts.