Kona Shen '06
Kona recently launched GOALS Haiti, an international aid organization that combines soccer, environmentalism and community development. A combination that may first seem odd, Kona explains, “In Haiti, kids are obsessed with soccer but often apathetic about the country’s environmental crisis. GOALS works in the aftermath of the January 12 earthquake, using soccer to engage youth on the issues, and enabling young leaders to address problems in innovative ways.”
Aaron Loux '05
Aaron is a dance major at the Julliard School. He choreographs dances for student workshops and performs regularly in New York City's elementary, middle and high schools.
"The Northwest School taught me to express myself clearly, to approach new information with a critical eye and to examine multiple sides of every situation. At Northwest, what made us different from each other was celebrated and enriched the community."
Tani Ikeda and Laney Rupp '05
Tani Ikeda and Lani Rupp are Co-founders of imMEDIAte Justice, a program that trains high school girls in media literacy and sexuality education in South Central Los Angeles. Young women participating in imMEDIAte Justice work with film mentors to write & direct films that offer a fresh take on sexual health education.
imMEDIAte Justice was recently awarded a $25,000 grant from Pepsi, and has been featured in Make/Shift Magazine, run two successful summer programs, received the Clinton Global Initiative’s Outstanding Commitment Grant and a grant from the National Center for the Preservation of Democracy, and premiered multiple films.
In addition to her work with imMEDIAte Justice, Tani Ikeda is currently a directors fellow at Film Independent. Her Beijing documentary “Turn of the Harvest” premiered at the Asian American International film festival last summer and she is currently in post production directing her first feature film.
Erik Stegman '00
Erik is earning degrees in law and American Indian Studies in a joint J.D./M.A. program at UCLA. He clerks for the Hopi Appellate Court in Arizona and for the Native American Rights Fund in Washington D.C.
Maia Brown '06
This past spring Maia was one of 40 graduates nationwide awarded a Watson Foundation Fellowship, for a graduate “of unusual promise.” Maia is using the grant to study the ways in which the nations of Ireland and South Africa have curbed political conflict and will attempt to apply such strategies to peace initiatives in the Middle East. Her project, "Sumud with Tzedek: Can Ireland and South Africa Inform Palestine-Israel?", centers on recording oral histories and studying with activists in Ireland and South Africa who have devoted their lives to social justice work. Maia, a recent graduate of Oberlin College who helped bring the Peace and Conflict Studies concentration to Oberlin’s curriculum last year, hopes that such studies will show how “grassroots reconciliation” can contribute to conflict resolution.
Daniel Lathrop '95
Daniel won the Edgar A. Poe Award from the White House Correspondents Association. The award was for “Terrorism Trade-Off,” a series of stories he co-wrote with Seattle P-I colleagues Paul Shukovsky and Tracy Johnson that showed how the Bush Administration gutted the FBI’s criminal division following 9/11.
Jill Hutchings '90
Jill graduated from Brandeis University and earned her M.A. from the University of Washington's Jackson School of International Relations. She is the Special Assistant to the U.S. Ambassador in Iraq and has been the Coordinator for Counter Terrorism at the U.S. State Department.
"My interest in Central Asia began at The Northwest School when I traveled with the peace delegations to Tashkent in 1987 and 1989. I use the lessons I learned at the school about our global interconnections every day."
Rebecca Terry '97
Rebecca holds a BA from Macalester College, a PhD from the University of Chicago, and recently completed a post-doctoral appointment at Stanford University. This fall Rebecca presented her NOAA-funded work on small mammals of the Great Basin, demonstrating the impacts of climate change on the structure and dynamics of natural communities and biodiversity. Rebecca’s research was recently featured in Science Magazine.
Stone Gossard '84
Stone co-founded the band Pearl Jam, which has provided full scholarships for 11 Northwest School students since 1994. In 2004, Stone and the band received the Northwest Impact Award for Philanthropy in Education and Social Justice.
"I feel very fortunate to have experienced a school that placed the Arts on equal footing with Science, Math and History. NWS promotes critical thinking and inspires creativity. Twenty-two years later, I am still learning from the time I spent at The Northwest School."