Kelly Anderson

CBS’s Face the Nation host John Dickerson ‘87 still remembers his time in Sidwell English teacher Neal Tonken’s class. Dickerson -- who later earned a degree in English with distinction from the University of Virginia and wrote for Time magazine and Slate, the online news site -- loved Tonken’s class and worked hard to do well, but he got a C+.

Sidwell Friends prepared Philippe Sanchez ‘16 for the academic and physical challenges of West Point, but not for some of the other things that come with military service. “Coming from Sidwell, I had spent the last 12 years of my life learning how to express my identity as an individual," Sanchez wrote by e-mail. "But within the first few hours of being in-processed, I soon found myself to be just another shaved head amongst a sea of black shirts standing in formation.” Sanchez is currently a freshman, or “plebe,” at West Point, and one of only two Sidwell graduates currently attending a service academy. The academies are often ranked by publications like Forbes and US News and World Report as among the most selective colleges and universities in the country, and they have a reputation for academic excellence, as well as demanding requirements for physical fitness and military skills. Despite their prestige, the academies do not attract the same level of interest fr...

Rebecca Cunningham has been a chef at some of the nation’s best restaurants and hotels, but she is happier to be working in the kitchen at Sidwell. Cunningham, Sidwell’s executive chef, has cooked at the Willard Hotel, the Kennedy Center, and her own restaurant, which was named one of the fifty best in America by Conde Nast Traveler. When her daughter was admitted to Sidwell as a student in 2004, Cunningham decided to take a job with the school’s food service operation, and her culinary skills quickly made a mark. “It’s very gratifying to be leading a program and making a contribution to so many people every day,” Cunningham said in an early morning interview as she supervised the preparation of meals for 1,100 upper and middle school students and employees. “It keeps me from looking for something else where you may be making fancier things, because I think about the sheer number of people we’re impacting everyday. That’s what keeps me here.” By now, students and staff wh...

After more than 20 years of providing Sidwell students with a forum to show off their talents, the school’s monthly Arts Guild open-mic night has broadened its appeal by attracting different kinds of performers and performances, according to organizers. “Recently students have made it more inclusive and a safer place to perform as opposed to having to be super proficient at [their act],” says David Merlin-Jones, the current faculty adviser for the event, which is considered a student-led club. “We have people who are refining their act and just want to perform in front of other people something they wrote, and there are also people up there who have never sung in front of an audience before and they’re just getting over their fear of speaking in public.” Started in the 1980’s by a small group of students, the event originally only featured folk acts, and was largely reserved for upperclassmen to perform, says Merlin-Jones. More recently, however, it has grown more diverse in th...

Kenny Coleman '16 spent long hours knocking on doors, sorting through loads of paperwork, and talking to voters who were not always receptive to hearing about why they should support Hillary Clinton – but the 2016 Sidwell graduate says it was worth it. “I learned that grassroots organizing for political campaigns is very tough,” Coleman said. “I remember being yelled at and doors being slammed in my face. But I also learned the power of one -- the idea that getting one more volunteer involved, one more person registered, or one more person committed to vote can go a long way. So although the campaign trail can be tough, I was always inspired to continue working because of how high the stakes are in this election.” Coleman was one of a handful of recent Sidwell graduates who spent the summer working on political campaigns. Like Coleman, Lee Doyle ’16 volunteered with the Clinton campaign in Virginia, helping to register voters, make calls for phone banks, and canvassing neigh...