Community Preparatory School | Annual Report 2012

ALUM N I PROF I LE Sofia Fuentes ’05
Committees
ALUM N I PROF I LE Andra and Alexus Lee, ’02 and ’08
Sofia Cifuentes ’05 is now a senior at Mt. Holyoke
College, but her journey there was anything but easy.
As a 10-year-old, Sofia and her mother, a doctor, fled
Colombia because of kidnapping threats. Sofia landed
in an underfunded public school, where her teachers
couldn’t see past her poor English to her intelligence.
She lived in a neighborhood rife with crack houses
and had to fend for herself while her mother cleaned
hotel rooms to feed them.
Then, her mother found Community Prep. Sofia found
a place of hope, where her teachers and fellow students
wanted for her what she wanted for herself: to learn for
the love of learning, to attend college, to have a successful
career and help others like herself. “My teachers kept
saying, ‘just go for it.’ They had confidence in me when
no one else did.”
Though she had only learned English three years before,
Sofia was the valedictorian of her class. And, like so
many of CP’s nearly 600 graduates, she earned a full
scholarship to a prestigious independent school. Sofia
was thriving at Rocky Hill School, but when her mother
was in a serious car accident, Sofia’s dream fell apart
and she had to withdraw.
Undaunted, Sofia worked hard at Classical High School
and was accepted to a number of highly competitive
colleges. Then, another setback. Sofia had been waiting
for years for her green card. No green card, no financial
aid for college. Devastated but determined, Sofia scraped
together just enough to attend community college.
Finally, her green card came, and Sofia transferred to
Mt. Holyoke with plans to become a human rights
attorney. She was recently one of a handful of students
selected to participate in Hilary Clinton’s women’s leader
ship development program. She went to Washington
to meet the Secretary of State in December 2011.
Admissions
Kwasi Asante
Dan Corley, staff
Azikiwe Husband, staff liaison
Cathy Jacques, staff
Heath Jones
Patricia LaSalle
Patricia Luca, staff
Ellen Miller
Thomas Pitts
Judy Ryan, staff
Trinh Truong ’99
Buildings AND
Grounds
Alden Anderson
Kathleen Bartels
Peter Burke
John Carter
Letitia Carter
Eszter Chase
Jeffrey Cianciolo
Dan Corley, staff liaison
Julian Dash ’92
Dana DiMarco, staff
Merle Goldstein
Myrna Hall
H. David Hibbitt
Richardson Ogidan
Judy Ryan, staff
Development
Patrick Bolger
Bruce Cadden
Allen Chatterton
Dan Corley, staff
Richard Corley
Lisa Dantas, staff
Dana DiMarco, staff liaison
Diane Ellis, staff
Karen Greene
Myrna Hall
Keith Jacobson
Paul Jamrog
A. Max Kohlenberg
Louise Mauran
Joanne Rich, staff
Chithy Saing ’89
Chris Santilli
Ted Turnbull
John Wall
John White
Will Wilson
Education
Mark Carty ’97
Allyn Copp
Dan Corley, staff
Sarah Denby
Sharon Hanover
Susan Lena
Ellen O’Hara, staff
Kathy-Jo Payette
Martha Roberts
Judy Ryan, staff liaison
Jared Schott
Jim Stahl
Chanda Womack ’95
Ellicott Wright
Executive
Peter Burke
Letitia Carter
Dan Corley, staff liaison
Piers Curry
Sarah Denby
Andrew Douglass
Merle Goldstein
H. David Hibbitt
Barry Hittner
A. Max Kohlenberg
Richardson Ogidan
Thomas Pitts
Martha Roberts
Chithy Saing ’89
Martin Trueb
Ralph Wales
Ellicott Wright
Finance
Amy Tellier, staff liaison
Peter Burke
Letitia Carter
Dan Corley, staff
Piers Curry
Polly Daly
Peter Freeman
Harold Hitchen
Tom Hoagland
Jim Lynch
Brook Moles
Thomas Pitts
Steve Russell
Martin Trueb
golf tournament
Samuel Chase
Dan Corley, staff
Richard Corley
Lisa Dantas, staff
Sarah Denby
Dana DiMarco, staff
Diane Ellis, staff liaison
Keith Jacobson
Paul Jamrog
Gordon Perry
Joanne Rich, staff
Adam Seed
Eric Walsh
Ned Walsh
Tim Walsh
Marie Weiss
Investment
Amy Tellier, staff liaison
Peter Burke
Letitia Carter
Dan Corley, staff
Piers Curry
Polly Daly
Peter Freeman
Harold Hitchen
Fla Lewis
Frederick Mattis
Sherwood Small
Ted Turnbull
Long-Range
Planning
Alden Anderson
Kathleen Bartels
Sharon Conard-Wells
Dan Corley, staff liaison
Piers Curry
Polly Daly
Julia Eells
David Fox
Warren Galkin
J. Malcolm Grear
Nancy Lerner
John Moran
Richardson Ogidan
Stephanie Preston ’93
Paul Pyne
Judy Ryan, staff
Jonathan Stone
Kenneth Wong
Nominations and
Governance
Eszter Chase
Dan Corley, staff
Dana DiMarco, staff liaison
Andrew Ian Douglass
Barry Hittner
A. Max Kohlenberg
Nancy Lerner
Frederick Mattis
Richardson Ogidan
Thomas Pitts
Special Events
Nick Cardi
Ruth Clegg
Dan Corley, staff
Lisa Dantas, staff
Sarah Denby
Dana DiMarco, staff liaison
Christen D’Oliveira
Diane Ellis, staff
Karen Greene
Shane Halajko
Sean Harrington
Jennifer Jansen
Joyce Leven
Ellen Miller
Michele Neiley
Marianne Pursley
Joanne Rich, staff
Marie Weiss
John White
Rachel Wills-Russell
Janine Lee
Sisters Making Music
Community Prep grads release their first album!
Sisters Andra and Alexus Lee, ’02 and ’06, concentrating on Vocal Performance and the
have been creating music since they were business side of the industry. “At Berklee,
little. Their first joint effort, when Andra was I learn a lot in my classes, but I am learning
15 and Alexus was 11, was a jingle for
even more from the experiences I have
Frosted Flakes composed on a keyboard that working with people from so many different
their mom, Community Prep creative arts artistic backgrounds.” Alexus has big
teacher, Janine Lee, brought home from
dreams and hopes to be touring and getting
school. They were dreaming of having their her music recognized nationally and
song in a commercial. Fast forward to 2012: internationally in the future. Both Andra and
these Community Prep alums have released Alexus credit Community Prep with laying
a collection of songs called “Quiet.” It’s a
the foundation for their creativity and their
digital album and represents a whole new ability to turn ideas into results. “CP pushed
way of creating music from what is familiar the idea of collaboration — we were always
to most of us.
working in teams, and that is such a big
part of the way we make music,” explains
Andra produces the music, creating the “beat”
Andra. “Even if we are just emailing tracks
— essentially everything except the vocals:
back and forth, it is all a team effort.” Alexus
the rhythms, bass track, instrumentation, etc.
adds, “The knowledge you gain at Community
Alexus gets the files and, listening to them,
Prep is so broad; we were exposed to so
improvises lyrics and melody over the beat
many things. And, they really taught us to
to create the song. It is a highly collaborative
multitask, which is so crucial. It feels like we
process and can involve people all over the
each did twenty different jobs to bring out
country connecting by email and Skype. And,
this album.”
it’s all digital — everything is done on or via
their computers.
The artistic collaboration is not just between
the sisters. Their mother — Community
Andra is a self-taught musician. When she’s
Prep’s Creative Arts teacher, Janine Lee, has
not producing, she is studying Fashion
been behind the scenes, lending support —
Merchandising at Johnson & Wales. Her
moral, creative and logistic, to help her girls
heart, however, is in music and art direction.
bring the album to fruition — everything
In addition to the music, she created the web
from making costumes to renting lights for
design and graphics, right down to programming
the HTML. She hopes to work as a
the video. She’s clearly proud of her
daughters, but she is even happier that they
full-time art director in the future, but always
are both doing what they love. The digital
keeping her hand in music.
album is available online.
Alexus is a senior at the Berklee College of
Music, majoring in Professional Music,
“CP showed me there was a light at the end of the tunnel.
It gave me the skills and confidence that put me at the
top of my class, even though I was an inner-city kid.”