Recognition

Carlos Buhler ES'71 has been selected as this year's recipient of the Distinguished Alumni Award. Carlos, a world-renowned high-altitude mountaineer, has not only reached extraordinary heights in his field but has also made significant contributions to the global community, embodying the core values of School Year Abroad (SYA). Carlos attended SYA as a junior from The Putney School in Vermont.

Sarinda Parsons Wilson FR’83 FR’13P, a dedicated French Instructor and SYA Coordinator at The Hotchkiss School, has been named the recipient of the 2024 Stephen M. Foster ES'65 Exemplary Service Award. This prestigious award is presented to individuals who have demonstrated extraordinary commitment and exemplary service to SYA.  She attended SYA as a senior from Bishop Stang High School in Massachusetts.

Vanessa Ramirez ES’01 as a recipient of the inaugural Emerging Leader Award. Vanessa’s remarkable leadership and passion for disrupting the cradle-to-prison pipeline exemplify SYA's core values of academic excellence, cultural awareness, and global understanding. She attended SYA as a junior from Episcopal High School in Texas.

Lauren Burke CN’01 as a recipient of the inaugural Emerging Leader Award. This prestigious honor recognizes Lauren’s visionary leadership, passion for education, and dedication to fostering cultural awareness and global understanding — core values of SYA. Lauren attended SYA as a junior from Amherst Regional High School in Massachusetts.

Rick attended SYA France as a junior from Penn High School (Mishawaka, Ind.), the fifth of 14 children. When Rick was a sophomore, his French teacher, Leah Silver, presented him with a unique opportunity: a “new program” then called School Boys Abroad. He took tests to qualify, received a full scholarship and found the turning point of his life: a year at SYA France. On the advice of his SYA math teacher, Walter Burgin, Rick attended Oberlin College where he majored in French and theater. He studied abroad again, in Paris and Florence, on his self-created study of art, culture, literature and language.  

Kelly Thomson FR’96 is a film producer whose work primarily examines inequity and social transformation through the lens of science, religion and lived experience. Kelly attended SYA France as a junior from Medfield High School (Mass.). She truly flourished in her year in Rennes, and it excited her sense of adventure and travel. After a year at UC Santa Cruz, she decided to take some time off during which she spent three months living with a family in a small town in Senegal; then she worked on a feature film with her older sister (a producer) in England. A religious studies major, Kelly continued her education at NYU and spent the second semester of her junior year at the University of Dakar in Senegal.

The 2022 recipient of the service award is Margaret Conklin FR’74. From her earliest days as a student in Rennes to her many years as a leadership volunteer, Margaret has generously shared her time, treasure and enthusiasm for the betterment of the SYA experience. Nominated by several classmates in recognition of Margaret's efforts on behalf of SYA, the Awards Committee unanimously supported the nomination. The Awards Committee noted that Margaret has been a tireless supporter of SYA through fundraising, hosting events, co-chairing committees of milestone celebrations including SYA’s and SYA France’s 50th celebrations, and being on the committee of The Campaign for SYA, our first-ever comprehensive capital campaign.

The 2022 recipient of the SYA Distinguished Alumni award is Cheo Hodari Coker ES’89. Described as a “provocative, revolutionary storyteller,” Coker’s impressive career includes his work as a showrunner, journalist, author, screenwriter, producer and, more recently, college lecturer.

Fellow SYA classmate and nominator Wanda Mann writes, “I know I'm not alone in feeling a sense of joy and pride whenever I see Cheo's name in the credits of a film or television show. My SYA memories include being in the classroom with Cheo. His talent as a writer, love and knowledge of music and the arts, and inquisitive nature made a lasting impression. The creativity and determination of teenage Cheo are visible today in his body of professional work."

The Stephen M. Foster ES’65 Exemplary Service Award for 2021 has been awarded to Alexandra Alger FR'79 CN'12P, Carlos Alvarez FR'00P and Jamie Broderick FR'71.This year’s recipients have distinguished themselves beyond description.

Each has a passion for and commitment to SYA beyond compare and each has provided thoughtful guidance through decades as volunteers and board members through challenging as well as celebratory times.

The 2021 Distinguished Alumni Award is given to the 13 alumnae of the Class of SYA Spain 1971. SYA was on the cutting edge of coeducation and these women led the way for the 5,187 women who followed in their footsteps. Their commitment to elements of SYA’s mission set an extraordinary foundation for SYA’s growth and development. Today, alumnae represent 62% of SYA’s total alumni body. Board Chair Holland Goss Lynch FR’86 said, “As the first alumna chair of the Board of Trustees, I would also like to extend my personal thanks to you all. When asked to remark upon this milestone, I made a point to note that there could never be a first alumna Board Chair without the brave women of Spain 1971.”

Doug Renfield-Miller FR’71 CN’01P IT’05P ES’10P has been awarded the 2019 The Stephen M. Foster ES'65 Expemplary Service Award.

Service to SYA can take many forms and we appreciate contributions made by loyal volunteers and dedicated employees alike. SYA is more relevant and better because of the contributions made by many in our community. This year’s award recipient highlights extraordinary commitment, including an enduring family legacy as his three children followed in his SYA footsteps. With him, each represents one of SYA’s primary campuses: France, China, Italy and Spain. 

JB Perrette ES'89 has been named a recipient of the 2018 Distinguished Alumni Award. Over the span of more than 25 years, JB Perrette's career journey has not progressed along a linear path, but it does have a common theme. Starting out as an international financial analyst and rising to his current role as President and CEO of Discovery Networks International, JB's life has been shaped by a key lesson learned as a student with School Year Abroad (SYA) in Spain. During his time in Barcelona, JB learned to "be comfortable with the uncomfortable" as he struggled to adopt a new language, new food and new life with a foreign family. JB views that formative experience as crucial to his success today.

Robin Hauser FR'82 has been named the 2018 Distinguished Alumni Award recipient. Robin, an award-winning director and producer of cause-based documentary films at Finish Line Features, Inc. and Unleashed Productions, Inc., has provided platforms to raise awareness in areas of diversity and inclusion, gender equality and ethical artificial intelligence. As a business woman, longtime professional photographer and social entrepreneur, she brings her leadership skills, creative eye and passion to her documentary film projects. Her artistic vision and experience in the business world afford her a unique perspective on what it takes to motivate an audience.
 

From CEO to Ambassador to Assistant Secretary of State and now returning to CEO of the Motion Picture Association of America, Charles H. Rivkin FR'79 FRS'11P's dynamic and visionary leadership has been paramount to his success in each of these endeavors.

Following a 20-year career in the entertainment industry, including roles at Jim Henson Co. and WildBrain, Rivkin was appointed in 2009 as the youngest U.S. Ambassador to France and Monaco and served until 2013. The pace, protocol and public relations of diplomacy wasn't an unfamiliar concept to Rivkin. In addition to the demands the entertainment industry, Rivkin spent his early childhood in francophone countries — Luxembourg, Senegal and Gambia — where his father, William R. Rivkin, served as ambassador under Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson.

In honor of School Year Abroad’s 50th Anniversary, the Alumni Office has selected the 11 members from the inaugural Class of SYA Spain 1965 to receive the first SYA Distinguished Alumni Award.

These 11 “Schoolboys” were pioneers at the time – departing on the M.S. Aurelia in high school to study abroad in Barcelona. It is because of their giant leap of faith that SYA came to be at all. These students have led more than 7,500 alumni after them who embody the SYA mission – mastering a second language, displaying an aptitude in academic challenges, cultivating a cultural awareness and becoming global citizens.