Copy
Winter 2023 Issue
Issue 25 | Winter 2023
 
Grauer Alumni Panel - January 2023
Photo courtesy of Peggy Gardner
ALUMNI SPOTLIGHT:
Keanan Gottlieb '13

Keanan Gottlieb came to Grauer in his 7th grade year. He chose Grauer because of the small classes and educational philosophy, and thought it would be a better fit than public middle school. He also wanted to be able to remain at the same school all the way through his senior year. The Grauer expeditions also enticed him. Keanan remained at Grauer for high school because he liked being in an environment where the students were allowed some flexibility and to have fun. He appreciated the fact that all of his teachers knew him well. He enjoyed Kung Fu class for his P.E. requirement and focused a lot of his elective time on music. He played guitar, sang a bit and was involved in The Grauer School Record Label.

Keanan appreciated the fact that there was no “typical day” at Grauer. He wondered, “Were we going to perform John Cage’s 4’33”? Or perhaps play Gaelic football (a sport I had the opportunity to try again a couple months ago with the Nashville Gaelic Athletic Club), or were we going to attempt to build a crane, or maybe write a speech about the benefits of cannibalism?" For those of you who don’t know, John Cage’s 4’33”, pronounced four minutes and thirty-three seconds, is a three-movement composition composed for any instrument or combination of instruments and the score instructs the performers not to play their instruments during the entire duration of the piece throughout the three movements. It is commonly perceived as four minutes thirty-three seconds of silence.

Keanan’s favorite expedition was traveling to New Orleans in 2009. This was a high school trip, but he petitioned Patricia Young and wrote a proposal to allow him to attend as a middle schooler. “He relentlessly dropped into almost every music shop we passed and we almost lost him a couple times,” recalls Dr. Stuart Grauer, one of the expedition's chaperones. Keanan loved experiencing the cuisine, music and people of the area, as well as going on his first college tour.
Featured Alumni

Keanan Gottlieb
Class of 2013

Education:
Pitzer College '17
Degree: Public Health: Gender & Disparities

Favorite Expedition:
New Orleans in 2009

Current Occupation: 
Grad Student
Vanderbilt School of Nursing
Master's of Nursing 2024

Previous Occupations:
EMT (2017-2018)
Vanderbilt Program for LGBTQ Health - Research Analyst (2018-2022)
Keanan has left his legacy at Grauer as the co-founder of the Rainbow Coalition and was active in ASB during his junior and senior years. “Wow, was he ever perseverant,” says Dr. Grauer. “That proposal took at least eight drafts before it passed. I have rarely if ever learned so much from a student. He was really committed and cause driven!” Adds Isaac Langen, Keanan's music teacher and faculty member of the Rainbow Coalition, now called the GSA (Gay Straight Alliance) Club, "The GSA Club hasn't stopped since Keanan started it with me. Right now it's very active, with weekly meetings in the music room. The club is a safe space for LGBTQ+ students and their friends and allies to meet and discuss current events, to promote education acceptance on campus and in the community, and to support one another. It's now open to high school and middle school students, and we are a great presence on campus with booths at school events such as Café Night and Grauerpalooza".

Keanan also played on the boys’ soccer team. Outside of school, Keanan was very involved with the non-profit Genders & Sexualities Alliance Network, an organization that focuses on supporting LBGTQ youth in school and advocating for legislation that benefited LGBTQ youth in the California legislature. 

States Keanan, “Stuart and I challenged each other over the years, which I think was good for both of us. I think our conversations changed his understanding of gender. (His book Real Teachers explained, ‘Keanan opened my eyes to refined ways of understanding gender.’) And I am mature enough to acknowledge that yes, having to write a proposal, often multiple drafts, does serve an important purpose. In college, I had to write proposals for both academic and extracurricular purposes, and as a research analyst, I worked on or submitted multiple grants (which are really just longer proposals that request a lot more money). While I do still have a lot of anxiety performing music for an audience, the opportunities to play assemblies, Café Nights, and open mics and to give speeches, etc. helped me to have minimal nerves while public speaking, which I frequently do in various capacities.”

Stuart adds, “Whatever anxiety he may have had, you’d never know it because his priority was always being willing to collaborate, always willing to help, one of our best definitions of leadership.”

Keanan graduated from Grauer with a distinction in leadership. Keanan says, “I just re-read my senior year portfolio essay and was reminded of all the other projects and events I was involved in from 7th-12th grade. In my essay, I wrote ‘Even though this is my last year at Grauer, this does not mean that my leadership will stop.’ And my leadership did not stop after graduating. I continued to be a board member for the GSA Network, was the treasurer and production manager for the Pitzer College Kohoutek Music and Arts Festival (est. 1974) during my junior and senior years, and I co-founded one club my first year of college and one resource room my junior or senior year”.

Keanan chose to apply to progressive liberal arts schools, a total of 18 in all. He ultimately chose to attend Pitzer College as it has a similar philosophy to The Grauer School. Most of the professors went by their first name so he was very accustomed to that. He graduated with a self-designed major in Public Health with a focus on gender and health disparities. He received his EMT (Emergency Medical Technician) license in 2014. During the summer of 2015, he was an intern for the Vanderbilt Trans Buddy program through the Reproductive Rights Activist Service Corps—a highly competitive internship through Civil Liberties and Public Policy (now called the Collective Rising Internship Through Collective Power). The Trans Buddy program is a free program at Vanderbilt University Medical Center where transgender patients can have a trained volunteer accompany them to any type of healthcare visit at Vanderbilt. He met patients at the ER and visited patients in the main hospital and psychiatric hospital. During the summer of 2016, he returned to Nashville to be an intern for the Vanderbilt Program for LGBTQ Health.

After graduating from Pitzer in 2017, Keanan worked as an EMT. In 2018, a research analyst position opened with the team he did his internships with, so he moved to Nashville. Besides research, Keanan presented at multiple conferences and was an author on three peer-reviewed publications and in one anthology. He also worked in education, clinical consulting, patient navigation, and quality improvement projects focusing on gender-affirming care.

Keanan left his research analyst job this past December in order to attend Vanderbilt University School of Nursing’s Master of Nursing program. Graduates earn their master’s in nursing and become registered nurses (RNs). Keanan says, “My program emphasizes health equity, which is a natural fit based on my undergrad work and work at VUMC. My goal is to eventually become a nurse practitioner specializing in trans health and gender-affirming care. I’d like to be able to be involved in both the medical and surgical aspects of care.”

Keanan stays really, really busy and doesn’t have much free time, but when he does get a break, he still enjoys going to a concert, listening to music, and just hanging out with his partner. Keanan says, “I would also like to continue the very long journeys of learning to play the bagpipes and learning to skateboard (separately).”

The Grauer School wishes Keanan continued success in the future, and we have no doubt he will continue making an impact on the world.
Grauer Alumni Panel Speaks About College Life

On January 10, the Grauer Alumni Office hosted a panel of Grauer alumni students (shown in the photo above), including Jenna Cardno ‘22 (Laguna College of Art & Design), Lourdes Figueroa ‘22 (Johns Hopkins University), Mo Hetzer ‘22 (California Lutheran University), Dominic Smith ‘22 (California Lutheran University), Lucy Stockton ‘22 (University of San Francisco), Mia Bachrack ‘21 (Cornell University), Citrine Weir ‘21 (Sarah Lawrence College), Jason Wexler ‘21 (Boston University), and Nick Gardner ‘18 (Rochester Institute of Technology).

The alumni students were a very impressive, confident, and well-spoken group. They talked with Grauer Juniors and Seniors about their college experiences on topics including how Grauer prepared them for college, which of Grauer's Core Values they have used most in college, advocating for themselves, roommate and campus dining experiences, and much more. Some of their advice about college life included: be open to new experiences; you will make mistakes but you will learn from them; it's important to be organized to get everything done; take care of yourself with eating right and getting enough sleep; find your friend group in clubs or in other groups with students that share your passions; and have fun!"

Special thanks to Sheila Wirick, Grauer’s Alumni Relations Officer, for organizing this event for our Grauer community, to Peggy Gardner for taking photographs and documenting this event, and to Shelley Joslin and Alicia Tembi for being the moderators of the event!
Sara Zitterman Brauer '97 recently received her doctorate degree in Chiropractic Medicine from Parker University in Dallas, TX. Sara resides in Arlington, Texas with her husband, Philip, who she married in October.
Forrest Gitlin '13 was married to Brianna Ciniglio this past October. Forrest resides in New York City.
Cameron Payne '16 has been accepted to New York University for her Master's in Social Work.
Nolan Tifft '17 passed 1,000 hours of flight time in November. He began a job with SkyWest Airlines this past December. Skywest is an American regional airline headquartered in St. George, Utah.
Amanda (Saint Martin) Caidang '05 and her husband welcomed their third child, Christopher, on September 29.
ANNOUNCEMENTS AND MILESTONES
 
Sara Zelazny '03 was recently promoted to Director of Tax Controversy at Abbot Laboratories. Congratulations, Sara!

Bryce Carr '08 is now the Senior Director of Event Development at Sixthman. Sixthman sets the stage for guests to experience moments that make life rock by tearing down the walls between artists and fans and creating community-inspired vacation experiences at resorts and at sea.

Audrey Grauer '11 is now a Learning Experience Designer at Amazon. She designs and develops online learning experiences that align with learning outcomes, applies research-based learning principles, and informs learner progress and success in online learning environments.

Madison Swoy '11 just completed her JD degree, and is now a Data Privacy and Cyber Security Law Clerk at DLA Piper here in San Diego.

Charlotte Burton '13 is joining the Cambridge Investment Research team this summer as a legal intern. Charlie is currently a J.D. candidate at the University of Iowa College of Law.

Stewart Wirick '13 relocated from Walla Walla, WA to Seattle to continue his work as a Support and Network Operations Engineer with Ingeniux. Ingeniux is the leading provider of web and social content management software. 

Max Taylor '14 is a Student Teacher for the Bainbridge Island School District in Washington State.

Brandon DiNoto '15 is a doctoral candidate in Choral Conducting at UC Santa Barbara, and will be serving as the teaching assistant conducting the Singing Gauchos TTBB Choral Ensemble.

Sophia Drewelow '16 is now a second grade teacher assistant at Yuba River Charter School, located in Grass Valley, California. Yuba River Charter School is the first public charter school guided by the principles of Public Waldorf Education in the United States. 

Parker Johnson '16 received his Master's in Data Science from Northwestern University in August and is now working as a Data Analyst at MedWatchers in San Diego. Medwatchers seeks to enhance patient care by improving collaboration between pharmacists, physicians, other health care providers and their patients.

Lillie Meyer '16 has accepted the position of Account Director at The Hill. The Hill is a top US political website, read by the White House and more lawmakers than any other site - vital for policy, politics and election campaigns. Lillie resides in Washington, DC.

Jonah Gertz '17 recently relocated from Santa Cruz to Seattle. Jonah is the Manager of Caffe Vita's Customer Service Department. Caffe Vita is a long-standing staple within Seattle's robust coffee scene, providing many local and nonlocal cafes with authentic Pacific-Northwestern Coffee.

Max Greiner '17, who graduated from SDSU in May 2022 with a degree in Mechanical Engineering and a minor in Computer Science, felt cheated by the pandemic when all of the study abroad problems were frozen. So, last September, Max joined his brother in Berlin and now works for 3DCeram, a French company that develops 3D printing technology for ceramic suppliers. The company specializes in Industry (Defense and Automotive), Aerospace and Aeronautics (foundry cores, mirrors) and Biomedical (eye implants, cranial implants etc.). The company wants to expand in Northern Europe and set up a satellite office in Berlin, Germany where Max is working.

Phillip Hall '17 is pursuing his BS in Nursing at San Diego State University. 

Genevieve Meyer '17 graduated from Arizona State University with a BS In Psychology.

Justice Schiappa '17 had his sci-fi medical pilot script "Medstar" chosen as a semi-finalist for the Los Angeles International Screenplay Awards in the television category. Justice attends UCLA, seeking his Master's in Legal Studies.

Ariana Stevens '17 is now a preschool teacher to three-year-olds at the Magdalena Ecke YMCA Preschool in Encinitas.

Divya Bhatia '18 is working on her thesis as a Social and Behavioral Change Program Analyst at Pact, conducting mental health and HIV research. Pact is an international nonprofit that works in nearly 40 countries, building solutions for human development that are evidence-based, data-driven and owned by the communities they serve. Divya will receive her Master's Degree in Global Health this December.

Louis Eisenberg '18 is now a Sales Photographer at Pomvom. Pomvom is a digital platform that seamlessly connects guests to media of themselves captured by park or venue cameras. Louis also works at Coast Roots Farm in Encinitas as a Visitor Experience Assistant.

Sierra Pia '18 has moved to New York City where she works as an Account Coordinator for Definition 6. Definition 6 are analytics experts who help brands make decisions based on data and leveraging those insights to create results-driven customer experiences.

Estelle Smith '18 is working as a Research Quality Analyst for the SmithGeiger Group in Los Angeles. Estelle supports research and consulting services for clients with an emphasis on quality control and proofreading research deliverables.

Talia Wexler '18 released her first song on Spotify titled "Nights Like This". Click here to listen to it.

Tea Carpenter '19 released a new single "You Like to Play with Fire". You can listen to it on Spotify by clicking here. 
Gary Stone, Grauer Alumni dad and school landscape architect, died of complications from pneumonia this past November. Gary was legendary in the life and development of the school. When we lost our lease in 1998-99, were a homeless school, and working round the clock to prepare our permanent campus, Gary, who was a world renowned landscape architect and just as good a dad, prepared all our landscape architectural plans for approval. At our very first gala in the conference room at Rancho Valencia in 1998, Gary brought an inspiring rendering of our new property with design layouts—the first in existence for our school. Much of Gary’s plant palette is still in place all over the campus, and we still regularly call upon Gary’s incredibly talented business partner, the landscape architect Brian Grove (currently working with us on our recycled water vision). Our love goes out to wife, Diane, and son, Cameron, class of 2002. The Grauer School honors and will never forget school alumni dad, Gary Stone.— Stuart Grauer
January 2023
A Message from Dr. Grauer

Hi, Alumni!

As you read this, I could be in New Orleans or atop a mountain somewhere. I’m on sabbatical! This is all following a process of my doing my best to cultivate the next generation of Grauer leaders, as they cultivate one another for the continuation of our mission long into the future. I will be much more part-time next year, and I could not be more thrilled about the rising leaders we have developed.

On sabbatical and after, as Emeritus Head of School, I plan to work on school branding and some long-range capital issues like housing and endowment. And, of course, I love being on hand to connect with teachers and students, and even to go on the expeditions. In April, I’ll be accompanying a student group to Chamonix, France, home of the longest ski run in the world. 

I hope you will write to us and tell us what life has been like for you since graduating. We absolutely love hearing from you. So very much of what our school has been saying for decades now has moved closer into the mainstream: that education is about connection and empathic listening. We want to know how you feel about that, and how our methods have impacted you and perhaps even made you feel a little more free in this world.

As I look through this newsletter, I swell with pride on your behalf. You’re going to love the stories you find in here. By all means, visit the campus. If you let me know you’re coming, I’ll schedule myself to be there and give you a tour of what’s new and amazing on campus. Believe me, you’ll love seeing it. Thanks for reading!!!

Stuart
THE CLASS OF 2013 - CELEBRATING 10 YEARS
 
It's been ten years since the Class of 2013 graced our campus. Don't hesitate to contact Sheila at the Alumni Office if you'd like help in setting up a reunion event.
THE CLASS OF 2003 - CELEBRATING 20 YEARS
 
It's been twenty years since the Class of 2003 graced our campus. Don't hesitate to contact Sheila at the Alumni Office if you'd like help in setting up a reunion event.
Do We Have Your Correct Contact Information?
 
If you received this newsletter via email, then we have you in the loop. If you've only accessed it via Facebook, then we most likely don't have your updated contact information. Please email sheilawirick@grauerschool.com with any updates including your mailing address. We don't want to lose sight of our very valued alumni students and parents.
Facebook
Website
Copyright © 2023 The Grauer School, All rights reserved.


unsubscribe from this list    update subscription preferences 

Email Marketing Powered by Mailchimp