On February 25, at School Meeting, Deerfield will be celebrating the 25th anniversary of coeducation with a panel of alumni moderated by two members of the senior class.
All visiting alumni were students during the first year of coeducation. English teacher Michael Cary, one of the event’s organizers, said the panel would recount “their memories of that time and the effect of their Deerfield experience on their adult lives.”
The visiting alumni represent a broad array of possible career choices, ranging from film careers to humanitarian work. The speakers will be Katy Textor, a Deerfield Trustee and a producer of 60 Minutes and Vietnam: The Soldiers’ Story; Judith Hegedus, an executive director at the College Board for international management, as well as a former consultant at the UN; Jane Merkel, director of biology at the Yale Center for Molecular Discovery; Lisa Pinsley, director of sub-Saharan projects for American Capital Energy & Infrastructure, also a former advisor to the Afghan finance minister; Bill Creelman, founder of Spindrift; Michael Sucsy, Golden Globe- and Emmy Award-winning filmmaker; and Jose Carbonell, senior vice-president of marketing and communications at UNICEF.
Furthermore, the visiting speakers will be attending classes on Wednesday and will meet and talk with students at lunch. Thus students will have the chance to learn more about how values taught at Deerfield transition to the outside world.
Mr. Cary further elaborated on the importance of meeting and learning from the visitors: “These are all accomplished and interesting alumni representing a wide variety of careers, from regional to international.”
It is the hope of the event organizers that, in addition to discussing the first years of co-education, all students will be able to meet alumni and talk further about possible professions and what kind of career paths are open.