6 Time Spaceman: Interview with a St. Mark’s Alumnus

Picture Source: Wikipedia

By Serena Lin ’28

As of this year, St. Mark’s has a long and impressive history of 161 years. 161 years of history, 161 cohorts of students, and 161 graduating classes of alumni. In high school, not a lot of students have an idea of what career they want to pursue and where they will end up. The alumni community of St. Mark’s School encompasses a lot of different fields, including finance, mathematics, engineering, and more. This time, Dr. Story Musgrave agreed to share his valuable insights from his experience at St. Mark’s School.

Dr. Musgrave graduated from St. Mark’s in 1953 before diving into his impressive academic journey: 2 bachelor's degrees, 3 master's degrees, 1 doctoral degree, and more than 20 honorary doctorates. Throughout his impressive career as an astronaut, Dr. Musgrave has completed 6 space shuttle missions and has accumulated a total spaceflight time of over 1200 hours. His most celebrated flight, STS-61 in 1993, carried out the historic repair of the Hubble Space Telescope. Beyond his public achievements, Dr. Musgrave also revealed some fun facts about himself.

The first catchy thing about Dr. Musgrave is his unique first name. Dr. Musgrave bears a name that feels almost prophetic: his life unfolds as a story of remarkable accomplishments. Dr. Musgrave expressed his affection for the name and stated that it's a family lineage name. His daughter is named Story (little Story, as he calls her), and there is a running lineage of “Stories” throughout the history of the United States. Dr. Musgrave also thinks that Wikipedia did a good job of picturing him after reading through the website.

When asked about his career, Dr. Musgrave stated: “You're not just chosen because you're an expert in something. You're chosen to get that job done.” In his expert work as a space doctor, Dr. Musgrave talked about the difficulties of living in space. “70% of astronauts are sick in space, and 50% of them are vomiting.” With a crew of seven astronauts, some of them are able to do their work while they are sick, and some are not able to. “You’ve got to hang them on the wall and wait till they can function”.

“The toughest thing about space,” he added, “is the space motion sickness. We humans are designed to be a 1G environment creature; long-term 0G conditions in space can harm the health of an astronaut.” But instead of fearing the 0G condition, Dr. Musgrave loved the 0G condition. He was the only one who didn’t strap himself up when going to sleep, and he always found it interesting where he floated to when he woke up.

Talking about the start of his career as an astronaut, Dr. Musgrave agreed that his life as a farm kid surged his enthusiasm in the field. The crescent and the eclipses that he could not see in cities gave him a large advantage.

Dr. Musgrave also gave advice to the St. Mark’s Student community.

“If a student at St. Mark’s wants to become an explorer, someone who pushes the boundaries, what should they do?”

“Pursue the exploration; explore different avenues. Put yourself in different conditions. Always hold courage in what you are doing: I don't know much about what I'm doing, but here I am. “

In Dr. Musgrave’s high school days, he didn’t know where he was going to go either. He followed his heart, his passion. “That’s all that makes the difference,” he said, “It's essential that you are excited to pursue the path that you have chosen.” Even if we are still unclear about our interests, our passion, or the route that we want to devote our life to, it is important to follow what our heart tells us.

To conclude the interview, Dr. Musgrave reminds the students to be more mindful of what's around them. “Because when you look at the night sky, the crescent moon, the eclipses, what's gonna turn the heart on also turns the memory on.”

True to his name, Dr. Story Musgrave’s narrative remains far from finished. Before the conversation ended, Dr. Musgrave extended his greetings to Dr. Hills. The insights shared in this conversation form only one chapter of a lifelong story built on relentless exploration, both in the cosmos and within the realm of knowledge.

Walk to Listen: Andrew Forsthoefel’s Journey across America

Andrew Forsthoedo’s at St Mark’s

By Zihan (Chelsea) Cao ’28

“What would the world look like if everyone deeply knew each other?”

This was the question that persisted with Andrew Forsthoefel at the start of his adulthood. As the first Gray Colloquium speaker of the 2026-2027 year, Forsthoefel shared a story about how he traveled 4000 miles across America and how his view of listening changed throughout the journey. On that journey, he explored how fear became trust, how strangers became mentors, and how listening can transform how we understand each other.

The story starts with Andrew Forsthoefel attending St. Andrew’s School as a student. At that moment, his parents had just divorced. He could not bear the pain, so he escaped to boarding school. On his first night at St. Andrew’s School, this was the first time he experienced trust built on listening. The genuine environment invited Forsthoefel to tell his roommate about his parents’ divorce. Then, one of the boys, Tally, simply replied, “Me too.” This conversation was brief, but it meant a lot to Andrew Forsthoefel. The private pain suddenly became something that he and his roommate shared. This moment led Andrew Forsthoefel to a question: What percentage of ourselves do we actually reveal on the surface? People could spend years sitting with their classmates, teachers, or friends, but still know only a little about their peers.

The significance of listening deepened in Forsthoefel’s mind when he went to college. Following the traditional process of going to a good college and graduating, it seemed like he had achieved a significant milestone in his life. But he was still confused about the world around him. He did not know what adulthood meant. His education gave him knowledge, but he still felt like something was missing from his adulthood—listening (as he reflected after the journey).

Soon, this confusion turned into a walk across America.

The journey was painful at first, both physically and mentally. With training beforehand, Andrew Forsthoefel packed all he needed into a backpack and started walking. His mother took the photo on the day he left. She told him, “Lift your arm up.” Paradoxically, this pose of triumph made him “burst with tears”. Beneath this excitement, he finally realized that he was going to leave, and he did not know what would happen in his future. “What if [he] dies on the journey?” he asked.

Soon after, fear was the first emotion that accompanied his journey. When he met Bob, his mother’s landlord, Bob gave Forsthoefel a knife. This knife represents his instinctive fear of the unknown. At this point, he assumed that any strangers on his track might first be a danger.

However, this assumption about strangers changed as he walked. On the track, he met three young men. Forsthoefel thought these strangers might treat him as a weird person because he wore a cowboy hat, carried a huge backpack, and had two flags — an American and a world flag—on it. But these three strangers didn’t. After they all introduced themselves, these three strangers gave him apple juice and cookies because they thought Forsthoefel might need this. When the rain began pouring, they even invited Forsthoefel into their home.

Starting from this experience, Forsthoefel’s view started to change. One encounter with the indigenous tribe Laguna Pueblo in New Mexico truly changed his perspective. At that moment, Forsthoefel was frightened because of the violent history between the Indigenous people and white Americans. He said to his friend Tally, “Maybe I should just keep on the highway.” He didn’t know what would happen with these indigenous people. This fear accompanied him when a truck passed by and two Laguna men came down. Surprisingly, they did not react with any anger about the history; they offered Forsthoefel food from the ceremony. After that, these two men also invited Forsthoefel to their home. This encounter contradicted the story Forsthoefel imagined would happen. Instead of hostility, he experienced “generosity.” He suddenly realized how easily people could fill in the impression of one another, even though the other person did not have an opportunity to speak for himself yet. Listening was “vulnerable”, as Forsthoefel said, because it required us to delete all of the story that we already filled out for other people. But this deletion is the key to deep connection.

Forsthoefel’s final destination was the Pacific Ocean. After thousands of miles, conversations, and experiences, he walked into the water. But “this wasn’t the ending.” His life still continued, accompanied by all the lessons he learned from this journey. “Each moment,” as Forsthoefel suggested, was another “invitation.” Maybe that is why he felt so connected to the school community. He recalled another classroom moment of a girl whose story he believed he knew. But once the girl stood up and shared her story, Forsthoefel realized that he never truly knew this girl; he never truly saw this girl’s inner heart. She was “glow[ing],” as Forsthoefel described.

Schools, our neighbors, and our lives — all of these are filled with people that we are familiar with. We know their names, their classes, their teams, and their personalities. But Forsthoefel doubted, “Do we actually know their [true] stories?” He teaches us that listening is never a passive thing; it is a process of vulnerability under uncertainty. It requires deliberately deleting the story we constructed in our minds. The distance between two people may be far more than 4000 miles at first, but Forsthoefel offers a simple way to walk towards each other. We can start our own journey of listening, just like Forsthoefel’s trip across America, by simply asking a genuine compass question and listening to others' thoughts.

2025-2026 Cum Laude List

by Lily Oh ‘27

Lucas Jiang

Sherry Mi

Joanna Ng

Ivy Song

Abby Stone

Alice Wang

Catherine Zhang

Elijah Abraham

Flora Zhu 

Ian Cho 

Class of 2026 Matriculation List - as of May 11, 2026

by Feifei Cao ‘27

Babson College

Bates College (2)

Bentley University

Boston College (10)

Boston University (3)

Bowdoin College

Brandeis University (2)

Brown University

Bryant University

Bucknell University

California State Polytechnic University (Pomona)

Case Western Reserve University

Colby College (2)

Colgate University (3)

College of the Holy Cross (2)

Columbia University

Cornell University (5)

Duke University (3)

Emerson College (2)

Fairfield University (3)

Georgetown University

George Washington University (2)

Georgia Institute of Technology (2)

Haverford College 

Hobart and William Smith Colleges 

Ithaca College

Loyola University New Orleans

Manhattan University (2)

Middlebury College (3)

New York University (4)

Northeastern University

Northwestern University

Oxford College of Emory University

Providence College (2)

Purdue University (2)

Rhodes College

Rice University (3)

Saint Anselm College (2)

Smith College 

Stonehill College

Swarthmore College

Trinity College (3)

Tufts University

University of California, Los Angeles

University of Chicago (2)

University of Miami 

University of Michigan (3)

University of North Carolina (Chapel Hill)

University of Rochester

University of Southern California

University of St Andrews

University of Wisconsin

Villanova University (3)

Wake Forest University

Washington University in St. Louis

Wesleyan University (2)

Yale University (2)

Reunion Day

by Joanna Cheng ‘29

From May 1st to 2nd, St. Mark’s prepared to welcome back generations of Lions for Reunion Weekend. From the Class of 1976 to our most recent alumni, the campus was filled with stories, laughter, and the kind of connections that only years and shared hallways can build.

On Friday, the weekend kicked off with the arrival of our 50th Reunion class. As all reunion classes began arriving, student tour guides led campus walks, bridging the gap between past and present with every story shared.

Saturday brought a celebration. The day opened with the St. Mark’s History Session, kicking the session off with how our school has evolved from the past to the present. Later that day, Master Classes met the Athletic Hall of Fame, honoring Lions who went above and beyond on the fields and courts.

This weekend was far more than just a meet-up. It was a homecoming. For our alumni, this weekend was a rare chance to step back into a place that shaped them: to walk the same hallways, sit in familiar classrooms, and remember how they united before the world pulled them in different directions. For current students, it was a living lesson, a reminder that the desks we sit in today once held future doctors, artists, engineers, and leaders. The 50th reunion alumni will tell you what this place meant to them and still means. Reunion day grounds us. They show us that St. Mark’s isn’t just a stop, it’s a lifelong story. 

At St. Mark’s, you never really leave. You just wait for the next reunion.

Preparing for Next Year

by Serena Lin ‘28

As the cherry blossoms rain themselves through the last stages of bloom, the footsteps of the next school year tread near. Students at St. Mark’s School are busy preparing for the start of the next school year. Despite the pending finals and AP pressure, students still have to prepare for a smooth transition into summer as well as the beginning of another year. This year, many changes were made compared to last year. 

Housing Selection

Rising IV, V, and VI formers are required to participate in a housing selection process to assign themselves the dorm they want to live in. Before Spring Break, the application for dorm prefects (rising V and VI-formers) was closed. Applicants were able to choose for themselves whether they were willing to live in the freshmen dorms or get randomly assigned to other dorms. There were 4 selected for each girls dorm and 3 selected for each boys dorm through interviewing, dorm parent recommendations, and advisor comments. 

The possible housing locations are the following:

VI & V Boys' Houses: Coe, Sawyer, Thieriot South, Patterson Maple

VI & V Girls' Houses: Gaccon, Thayer, Thieriot North, Sculley Elm

IV Boys' Houses: Coe, Sawyer, Thieriot South, Patterson Marr, Patterson Maple

IV Girls' Houses: Gaccon, Thayer, Thieriot North, Patterson Pine, Sculley Elm

In the housing selection process, each student was assigned a lottery number. The smaller the number is, the earlier the choice they get on housing. Though dorm prefects participate in the lottery, they are not included in the housing selection. There are also limited single rooms assigned to each grade level. If a student wished to live in a single room, they had to participate in the Single Room allocation on April 28th, 8 pm in the Lion’s Den. The same rule applies: the lower the number, the likelier they are to get a single. There were only a very limited number of single rooms, so not everyone who wanted a single room got one. 

People who did not get a single room allocation entered a double room allocation, with VI form housing selection on May 14th and lower form housing selection on May 18th. Before the room allocation, students will have to fill in a roommate agreement form signed by both roommates and their advisors. If there is no preference for a specific roommate next year, the student would be assigned one with similar living habits.

Though not everyone gets to live in the dorm they wish: either a single, a loft, or the new dorm, St. Mark’s School promises a bed for every single one of our students.

Advisory Selection

Advisors play a large role in boarding school life. Rather than a teacher, an advisor takes a more parental role in student life. They are the adult on campus who knows the students well and hold responsibility over them. At the end of the year, students indicate their preferred advisories for the next school year.

This year, changes in Advisory happen a little differently from what was done last year. In the 25-26 school year, a form was sent out to all students, asking them to indicate whether or not they are willing to change their advisory, and ranking the top 5 preferences of them. But this year, in order to dive deeper into the preferences of students and to help them better, every student who wishes to change their advisory has to schedule a 10-minute meeting with Dr. Fish. During the 10-minute meeting with Dr. Fish, topics such as how the student does not suit the current advisor, as well as what would be a good fit for students next year, are brought up. 

Though not all students get assigned to the specific advisory that they wish to join, there will always be a faculty member who is responsible for the student on campus. The advisors, working together with the school, try their hardest to ensure the academic and personal success of students.

Course Selection

The Course Selection also works differently this year. Last year, one-to-one advisory sessions were scheduled for each student, and the courses were decided within 30 minutes in front of a computer screen. This year, the course selection process was expanded over the span of two weeks, allowing students more time to reflect on their interests and make thoughtful decisions.

In the first week, students talk with their advisors about their course preferences, discussing not only academic requirements but also personal goals, workload balance, and plans. These conversations are more exploratory in nature, encouraging students to ask questions and consider options they may not have previously thought about. Additionally, to give a better idea of what each course is about, a course fair was held on April 27 and 28, where a basic introduction to each course was provided.

During the fair, teachers and student representatives shared insights into course content, expectations, and assessment styles. Students were able to move freely between booths, gather materials, and engage in informal conversations. This more flexible and interactive approach helps students feel better informed and more confident when finalizing their course selections in the following week.

By giving students guidance and opportunities to explore, the course selection process makes students more confident and well-prepared for the year ahead.

Overall, these changes show how the school is really trying to support students in a more thoughtful and personal way. Even if things do not always go exactly as planned, there is a clear effort to listen, guide, and make the process less stressful. With everyone—teachers, advisors, and students—working together, the school becomes a more welcoming and understanding place, helping students feel more comfortable, prepared, and ready for the year ahead.

Lions Roam 2026

by Zoey Lee ‘27

This year’s Lions Roam was named “Surfacing the Past: Museum Design Through Artifacts” and they travelled to Sweden this March for two weeks. The course was offered in the fall, and they learned about Scandinavian history, museum design, analyzed art, and designed their own museums. According to the Guiness World Records, Sweden has the most museums per capita as of 2021, so it makes sense that they went to Sweden, for its abundant and diverse museums. Specifically, Mr. Spalletta and Ms. Griffin thought that the Vasa Museum offered an interdisciplinary experience that would attract people with many different interests. They went to 18 different museums in the span of two weeks, that included ones that focused on history, focused on photos, that used to be a person’s house, the first ever open air museum, and more. They were in Stockholm for most of their time, with Petroula, their guide, but also spent 3 days in Kiruna, up north, to learn about Sámi, the indigenous population in Sweden and to go to the ice hotel.

The first museum they went to was Skansen, which is the first ever open air museum that opened in 1891, which basically means that its exhibitions are outdoors. The museum has a zoo, gravestones spread out outside, and lots of old buildings with artifacts inside them. The students got to see what a typical Scandinavian home used to look like and got to try a classic Swedish plate, fresh cod with mushrooms and potatoes with lingonberry juice. Lingonberries are tiny red berries that taste sweet and sour.

They also got to experience a Swedish cooking class in Stockholm, where they made their own lunch. They made mashed potatoes, lingonberry sauce, and a lettuce roll filled with ground meat. They also made dessert, which was a mixed bowl of chocolate, fruits, whipped cream that they whipped themselves, and ice cream. They discovered that the cooking place had a stand mixer only after they had whipped all the whipped cream by hand, which I thought was a clever joke.

Lions Roam students participating in a Swedish cooking class.

During their second week, they went to Kiruna to learn about Sámi culture. They had a Sámi tour guide in Kiruna, and visited another open air museum called Nutti Sámi Siida. They had a Sami meal, which included reindeer pizza and bear meat, in a lavvu shaped house, which is a traditional Sami house. I was told that the reindeer meat tastes like a combination of lamb and cow, but that the bear was not very palatable. While they ate, they also heard all about Sami culture from the Sami people that work at Nutti Sami Siida. Sami people rely heavily on reindeers as their source of food and warmth. Reindeers usually get food from under the snow, but with global warming the snow is melting and turning into ice, making it hard for reindeers to hunt. The Sami language is also getting lost because Sami kids are getting taught English and Swedish in school, and in some cases, they can’t even communicate with their parents. After having the meal, they went outside to meet reindeers and look at Sami art.

Petroula, their guide, interacting with a shy reindeer that’s only a few months old.

They also got to go to the Ice Hotel while they were in Kiruna. Although they didn’t get to sleep overnight there, they got to play on ice slides and explore the ice sculptures.

One of the many ice sculptures at the ice hotel.

They spent the most time in Vasa Museum, which was the second to last museum that they visited. They spent an entire day there, getting to learn all about the story of the Vasa warship; the people that were on board, why it was built, how it sank, and more. The Vasa warship was built for a war between Poland and Sweden to showcase how powerful the king of Sweden is, so it had lots of statues on it. However, it sank because of the numerous statues and how tall the ship was and it stayed at the bottom of the ocean for 333 years while people looked for a way to resurface the ship without damaging it. In those 333 years in the ocean, the Vasa lost a lot of its color, but scientists were able to run chemical diagnostics to find out what pigments were on the wood. So at the museum, there were also projections of what scientists think the Vasa looked like brand new.

A staff member at the Vasa fixing a support that was harming the ship.

At the end of the day, they had an assignment to find something that the museum was missing and to come up with their own exhibition that would fill that missing part. They then presented each of their exhibition ideas to the Vasa Museum curator, and she thought that everyone had great ideas. This was also Mr. Spalletta’s favorite part of the trip, because he felt very proud of everyone for their presentations and how far they’ve come.

Revisit Day

by Olivia Sun ‘29

The hallways feel a little different on revisit days. There is more energy, more smiles, and a noticeable effort from both students and teachers. For incoming students, it’s meant to be a glimpse of high school life. In many ways, it does just that perfectly. But it doesn’t always tell the full story. 

Revisit day is set up to be a positive experience. It gives prospective students a chance to explore the buildings, meet teachers, and envision themselves as active parts of the community. For the students who feel the expected nervousness, it’s an opportunity to learn what type of community they are going into, making good first impressions crucial. This past revisit day for the St. Marks community was a chance to show off our best and to embody what our school stands for. From small details like welcoming smiles, warm greetings, and even being in dress code, we showed the potential members of our community the potential life they can have on campus. In that sense, revisit day does exactly what it’s supposed to do: it makes people feel comfortable and included. 

Students play a huge role in this. Whether they are officially hosting incoming students or just sitting in class next to a visitor, many make an effort to be friendly and inclusive. They answer questions, share their own experiences, and try to make themselves comfortable on what is a rather overwhelming day. For someone coming from a smaller or completely different school, these interactions are their first connections to the community, a warm and inviting environment allows them to feel at home in a new location. 

Clubs, Sports teams, and student groups also contribute to the day by showcasing what life outside the classroom looks like. Tables, posters, and quick conversations give incoming parents and students a chance to see the opportunities available to them. This is valuable because high school isn’t just about academics, it’s about expanding your interests and building connections. Seeing the variety of cavities helps students feel excited about joining a new community. 

Teachers also adjust their classes in ways that benefit visitors. They often choose lessons that are engaging and interactive, which helps students feel involved in the conversation instead of just observing. These refined lessons reflect the effort teachers put into creating a positive learning environment. This is a first look into what high school classes can feel like. For students it allows them to transition from a lecture based middle school format of class to a student lead discussion. For parents, it’s a chance to ease their anxiety of whether the quality of their kid’s education, seeing them integrate into the class settles their worries about whether they might integrate into a new school and a welcoming classroom can leave a lasting impression. 

Revisit day highlights something important; a school is more than just a building or schedule, it's a community. The collective effort from students, teachers and staff show how much we care about building a warm and inviting environment. This day captures what is truly important in our community, the willingness to be welcoming to upcoming students. 

Gone Fishin' 3566

by Chelsea Cao ‘28

Many people may have heard that our FRC robotics team, 3566 Gone Fishin, has qualified to go to the district championships. This is the first time in ten years that our team has reached the finals. While that achievement shines brightly on the surface, it is the visible result of months of dedication and hours of work, from long hours of CAD design, building, and programming to testing, teamwork, and problem-solving. 

Dating back to January, after the FIRST challenges were announced, our team immediately divided into small groups to discuss the design, strategies, and building plan. Then, the building team quickly built the field elements out of logs in one week. However, this is only the beginning; the hardest part is still waiting ahead of us.

In the following couple of weeks, you might have seen field elements set up in the lower center or our drivers driving the robots near these field elements in the evening. You may have wondered who is working so hard in the evening. The answer is, it is our robotic team. Every member of the team was locked into designing, building, and coding the robot so that we could have a full robot in the first competition. With all of our members' efforts, before the competition, our robot was capable of shooting and scoring consistently into the hub. 

With this in mind, we possessed hope and excitement for the first competition. Walking into the site, there were loud cheerings, laughter, and the sounds of swerve drives spinning. Our team felt a mix of excitement and nervousness. The practices, late nights, and careful planning all led to this moment. For the entire two days, our drivers, coders, and builders worked together in the fast-paced environment, constantly repairing and strengthening. Our robot went on and on the fields without too much of break between. And in the end, all of our work paid off. We were the first pick of Alliance 5, and we ranked 10th in the qualification round. Finally, the days ended with a huge team dinner, thanks to all of the teachers picking a great restaurant. 

While we did a pretty good job in the first competition, we were determined to do even better in the second competition. In only one week, with only 14 of our team members here, we incredibly efficiently built a simpler and more rigid intake, improved the coding for autonomous movement, finalized the indexing*,  and expanded the hopper** capacity.   

*indexing: the process of feeding the ball to the shooter mechanism

**hopper: a storage mechanism on a robot designed to hold fuels (balls)

In the second competition, with the ambition to do even better than last time, we gave 120% of our efforts. Coincidentally, we got Alliance 5, but this time we were the captain! You may have heard this in the Athletic Winter Awards: through good teamwork and excellent robot design, we went into the semifinals. In the semifinals, our strong performances in the previous round put our opponents under pressure, leading them to take some alternative methods, including intentionally breaking our robot's shooters, so that they can win. But true competition is never only about success; it is also about how teams respond when facing challenges. In moments like these, what shines bright is not just how well the robot performed; it is about the resilience, determination, and collaboration of the people behind it.  Even if we were eliminated in the semifinals, they remind us that some of the greatest victories are the ones that require perseverance. 

Currently, the entire team is upgrading the robots to do even better than in the second competition. With our upcoming District Championship on April 15th, I wish our teams to achieve fantastic results, overcome every challenge, and make the competition a memorable experience for everyone.