Ralph B. Rogers Alumni Award Finalists

Mike Warnecke �87, Chair of the Rogers Award Committee, made the following comments at the Spring 2003 Alumni Dinner as he announced the finalists:

Without further delay I will introduce this year�s three finalists for the Rogers Award.  Each will receive a cash stipend.  The ultimate winner of the Rogers Award will be announced at the school�s Final Assembly and will receive an additional cash award.

As I mentioned, one of the criterion for the Rogers Award is going above and beyond the bounds of one�s job description.  Our first finalist was described by the nominators as someone who spends almost her entire day working above and beyond her job description.  She has been described as the face of the Lower School.  She is the first face the boys and their parents see in the morning and she greets each one by name.  She knows the boys so well that she can tell by sight if there is something bothering a boy.  She will investigate to discover if it is an illness or a bad test result and report to the parents.  She also has committed to memory each of the boy�s schedules.  In fact she seems to know the boys� schedules better than their own parents.  When parents forget to send notes explaining their son�s schedule for that day, she knows which boys will be picked up at carpool, which ones will go to Cub Scouts, and which ones will have after school sports. Her bond is so close to the boys that many parents feel that she is part of their family.  In fact, she knows the boys so well that she even suggests ideas for Christmas gifts to parents.

Her caring also does not stop at the Lower School�s gate or at the end of the school day.  She organizes lower school community service programs and also runs the after school program for the lower school.  She is so popular, in fact, that Middle Schoolers are known to swallow their budding pride and come back to the Lower School to be with her. 

Who is this wonderful person?  She is Reagin Hults, the Lower School Administrative Assistant and Director of Extended Day.

Ms. Hults, please come to the podium so we may thank you for the tremendous care and comfort you provide to each of the lower school boys and their parents.

Our second finalist is someone who has been an institution at St. Mark�s for decades.  He has touched the lives of hundreds if not thousands of students.  Despite his tenure, he still brings the same level of energy and enthusiasm as he did at the outset of his career.  Through his decades of commitment to his field, he has brought national - even international - recognition to the skills of the St. Mark�s students.

How has he done this?  By constant training and coaching of his students both during class and after school, both collectively and individually, and, above-all, by single-handedly creating the venues through which his boys may showcase their skills.  I am speaking of course of Jim Livengood, the St. Mark�s Choirmaster. 

While Jim�s job description may only require him to put on two performances a year, Jim puts his choir through its paces a multitude of times.  He created the Evensong program in order to provide his choir with a monthly venue to display and improve their skill.  There are also the spring and Christmas concerts, and the numerous weddings and funerals Jim is asked to do.

Of course, the choir�s masterpiece performance is the biannual three-week trip to England Jim initiated.  In England, the boys perform Anglican boys choir music in the Cathedrals for which it was written.  Jim spends months of his summers planning, rehearsing, and orchestrating these trips.  Little did you know but there are actually St. Mark�s Choir groupies in England who follow the boys along their concert schedule as they travel in England.   For any aspiring choir groupies in the audience tonight, please ask Jim for one of the CDs his choir has produced.  During the last trip the boys were even applauded by the Queen herself.  So thorough is Jim�s training of his choir that even the English have commented on the good manners of these American middle schoolers.

Not only does Jim bring his choir as a whole to world-class heights, he also brings individual boys to the highest possible level of performance.  This past year, for the first time in St. Mark�s history, members of Jim�s choir achieved the St. Nicholas Medal � the highest award a chorister can attain.  It wasn�t just one boy, but rather, 4 boys won the medal.  To achieve this feat, Jim trained the boys one-on-one after school for weeks and took them to New York to perform before the Choirmaster of St. Thomas Church.  There, the boys had to sing from a repertoire of some 20 songs as well as sing from sheet music cold.  This year is the first year that Americans have been allowed to judge for the St. Nicholas Metal.  Jim, of course, was named as one of only 25 people in the United States qualified to judge for the Medal.

Mr. Livengood, please come to the podium so we may thank you for bringing world-class recognition to the middle school choristers.

Our third finalist has also helped his students achieve top honors this past year.  His commitment to his students is unparalleled.  I doubt St. Mark�s job descriptions require faculty to spend almost every weekend with their students as well as instruct and coach them throughout the night � often until 5:00 a.m. - but that is exactly what our next finalist does.  Not only do his students achieve national honors, but he himself is nationally known and sought out for his expertise during summer programs. 

I am speaking of St. Mark�s debate coach Tim Mahoney.  Beyond the sheer volume of hours Tim pours into teaching debate, Tim�s other hallmark is his ability to inspire his students to work as a cohesive team.  Unlike most debate programs across the country, which generally consist of a loose collection of independent pairs of debaters, Tim runs his program as a team.  Older boys train the younger boys.  All the debaters share research and arguments in order to advance all the St. Mark�s debate pairs as far as possible in tournaments. 

Tim is not afraid to pitch in as a member of the team as well.  For example, in the weeks leading up to a national championship last year, Tim pored over 1500 pages of research and often stayed up until 5 a.m. encouraging and advising his students.  As a result, two of Tim�s students won a National Championship title.

Tim not only stays up all night with his best, most committed students, Tim also finds the time to spend with his students who are not the nation�s top debaters.  He frequently chats with all of his students in the evenings over Instant Messenger.  He makes sure his instructions are tailored to reach all of his students regardless of whether the student has the time or interest in participating in the tournament circuit.

Mr. Mahoney, please come to the podium so we may thank you for inspiring the Upper School boys to dedicate as much time an enthusiasm to debate as you do yourself.

Reagin, Jim, and Tim your please know that your selfless commitment to St. Mark�s, its students, and its community has not gone unsung and is very much appreciated by both current students and alumni alike.  Thank you.

 

~~~~~~~~~  From 2002  ~~~~~~~~~


Arnold Spencer �84, Chair of the Rogers Award Committee, made the following comments at the Spring 2002 Alumni Dinner as he announced the finalists:
�Our first Finalist is a name probably not familiar to many of you. Joe Milliet joined St. Mark�s last year in the Middle School and Upper School Math Department, teaching BC Calculus; Algebra; Trig; Geometry. Mr. Milliet in many ways exemplifies the ideals of Ralph Rogers. He received more than one nomination, and several themes were repeated. In the nomination form, he was described as �a true teacher, caring that each boy reach his potential.� He was recognized not only for supporting each and every student in his classes, but for supporting them with apparently endless amounts of time and energy. Tutoring sessions before school, during lunch, after school. Weekdays, Saturdays. Sundays. Calling students at home to remind them of assignments, tests, events. Again, the nominators words better capture Mr. Milliet�s genius: �He has captured the small gestures that go along way.� Mr. Millet, for your energy, your genuine concern, and your personal dedication to each every one of your students, we thank you. Please join me in applauding Mr. Joe Milliet.�

�Our second Finalist is a teacher who exemplifies the truism �It is in giving that we receive.� Back in 1993, Curtis Smith founded what was then known as the Mesquite Program, now known as the Muse Family Enrichment Program. Mr. Smith started the program from scratch, his own entrepreneurial idea. Every June, Mr. Smith brings about thirty rising seventh and eighth grade students from local public schools and puts them through an academic boot camp here on the St. Mark�s campus. They learn math, science, English, history and fine arts, but all couched in an atmosphere of fun - making root beer, miniature rockets launched from Bailey Field, canoe trips down the Trinity. He drew on seniors and recent graduates to act as teachers. The program was originally designed to identify at risk students and get them excited about learning. It was not designed to be a recruiting tool for St. Mark�s. It was not designed to launch careers in education and teaching. But it has done just that. Some statistics: 7 years. 200 students. 7 alumni/teachers who have gone into the teaching profession. Currently we have three students introduced to St. Mark�s through the Muse Program. One will graduate this year with a 3.6 GPA, and for those of you who might have had a 3.6, you know the doors that will open to a young man like this. Doors that may never have been open but for Mr. Smith and the Muse Program. For your initiative, for your entrepreneurial spirit, and for your constant reminder that we are at our best when we help others achieve their best, we recognize you as a Finalist for this year�s Rogers Award.�

�The third Finalist is Mr. Doug Rummel. Mr. Rummel teaches Middle and Upper School Science. Above and beyond his classroom duties, he has worked with SMU to develop an entirely new course involving technology and science in the classroom. The class is titled Multimedia Engineering, and it has been described as �taking student-created engineering projects to a new and higher level at the school.� He also sponsors the Middle School and Upper School robotics teams. Teams that are given a standard set of unrelated mechanical parts and have to design a working robot that will perform certain tasks. He has spent countless hours at design sessions, at competition weekends, and then back at the drawing board. Along with teachers Mr. Seay and Mr. Sylvester, Mr. Rummel seeks the Three-Peat on behalf of the Science Department. Mr. Rummel, for your efforts to include cutting edge technology in the St. Mark�s classrooms, for your commitment to creative engineering outside of the classroom, and for your persistence - with the sometimes predictable robots as well as the rarely predictable intellectual curiosity of the St. Mark�s student, we applaud you.�