On Wednesday, May 12, the 2010 recipients of the Choate Rosemary Hall Alumni Award, Caterina Fake ’86 and Dave Phillips ’61, addressed the student body in the Paul Mellon Arts Center during an extended school meeting.

Prior to this year, the school had presented two outstanding alumni with awards in the Seymour St. John Chapel during alumni Reunion weekend. This year marked the first year that the student body had the opportunity to see the acceptance speeches. Additionally, prior to this year, the female and male recipients received different awards. A female graduate recieved the Rosemary Hall Alumnae Award, and a male graduate received the Choate Alumni Seal Prize. The first recipient of the Seal Prize was John F. Kennedy ’35 in 1958. Other recipients include benefactor Paul Mellon ’25, and Mr. Thomas Yankus ’52, a current English teacher and longtime baseball coach at Choate.

The Nominating Prize Committee of the Alumni Association, lead by Woody Laikind ’53, former President of the Alumni Association, chooses the recipients of this combined award annually. Recipients this year even had the chance to attend Choate classes after giving their speeches. Ms. Fake attended one of Mr. Charlie Long’s Spanish classes, and Mr. Phillips went to Mr. Zachary Goodyear’s Public Speaking class. After classes, the alumni attended a lunch in the Sally Hart Lodge with their families, members of the development office, Mr. Shanahan, Mr. Long, and Mr. Timlin.

Caterina Fake ‘86

Caterina Fake ’86 cofounded both Flickr, the popular online image application now owned by Yahoo!, and Hunch.com, a website designed to help  individuals make decisions, such as whether or not to buy an iphone. The site asks users a series of questions, such as, “can you afford it [an iphone]?” to help them choose something based on personal preferences. The site includes various individuals’ opinions about items and ideas for decision makers to read.

Ms. Fake’s speech outlined a number of experiences in her life, starting with her decision to attend Choate, which brought her to her position today. Her speech focused on pursuing dreams, highlighting an analogy between taking risks in life to when she and her Choate classmate ran around campus during 1985’s Hurricane Gloria. During this day, she and her friend refused to stay inside the dormitories as instructed. They skipped around, even carving their initials, FATE, into the side of the Paul Mellon Arts Center.  She encouraged students to, as she did, go out into the storm and take risks. To further emphasize this point, she mentioned several less than wonderful grades she received at Choate as well as the instances in which she and her entrepreneur digital partners found themselves bankrupt in California, resorting to selling pieces of furniture they owned.

Many students seemed to enjoy the message Ms. Fake presented.  Anie Inoyo ’11 commented that she “loved the ending.” She appreciated how the storm served as a metaphor for life. Luisa Andonie ’12 added that the speech proved, “original and refreshing. It had a powerful message.” 

Dave Philips ‘61

Stanley Davis (Dave) Phillips has held many important positions, from senior state official in North Carolina to member of The Smithsonian’s Institute Board of Directors to CEO of Phillips Industries Inc. In his remarks to the school during the meeting, he focused on his experiences as US Ambassador to the Republic of Estonia from 2007-2009, attributing his success as an envoy to Choate’s student exchange program in the Soviet Union. In the 1960s, he and a handful of Choate classmates attended Moscow State University for a trimester. When he arrived in Estonia to take up his travel as an ambassador in the nation that was formerly part of the Soviet Union, Estonians appeared highly pleased to learn that he knew such a great amount about the Soviet Union already. Phillips explained that he felt that people respected him because of his knowledge. They listened more to him because they appreciated his understanding of their culture and opinions, which thus made communication between the U.S. and Estonia effective.

Mr. Phillips’ experience in Estonia intrigued many students. Max van der Weerd ’11 said, “Mr. Phillip’s experience in Estonia especially was fascinating to me, since we don’t necessarily hear a lot from those parts of the world these days. It must have been very interesting to go into the Soviet Union during the height of the Cold War.”

Hannarae Nam ’11 commented, “Mr. Phillips emphasized how important Choate was to him even though his experience afterwards was irrelevant to what he learned at Choate. Who knows - one day, when I’m doing something completely different from what I learned here, it will strike me  how meaningful Choate is to me!”
Phillips then related his experiences to the Choate students. He instructed students to take advantages of opportunities such as term abroad during high school, asserting that these experiences will help students more than they can imagine they will.

Mrs. Susan Farrell, the Alumni Association liaison, who helped the nominating committee obtain information about various alumni as well as helped with the logistics of bringing the alumnus to campus on the right day, says she enjoyed the speeches. “I liked the fact that [the alumni] each had a message to share with the students. The messages were different but complimentary.” She hopes that the alumni association can “replicate [the all school event] in future years.”