Alumni Events

February 23, 2023 Virtual event

We are excited to invite alumni to our annual virtual wine and cheese tasting on February 23 from 6:30-7:30pm! Join Lucien Walsh ’88, Regional Fine Wine Sales Director of KYSELA PERE ET FILS, as he leads us through the ideal cheese for your favorite whites and reds to prevent any pour pairing decisions. Learn about and discuss the history of each wine, the intention of its make up, and what other foods will pair well with our selections. The following wine and cheese combos need to be purchased at your local providers will be discussed:

• Lambrusco amabile — sharp cheddar
• Riesling — blue cheese
• Pinot Noir — gruyère

Registration for this event is now closed.

MLK Jr Day is a national day of service to encourage all Americans to volunteer to improve their communities in honor of Dr. King’s memory. On Monday, January 17, 2022, hundreds of Friends School of Baltimore students, faculty, staff, and alumni will participate in volunteer activities in support of MLK Day Jr Day of Service. The Community Action Team sub-committee of the Alumni Board is promoting three activities for alumni.

Moveable Feast - An in-person activity
8:00 - 11:30 am
Join fellow Friends School Alumni to prepare and package meals and help to clean up and stock the pantry at Moveable Feast, an organization that provides nutritious foods and other services in order to preserve quality of life for people with HIV/AIDS and other life-threatening health conditions. Online registration thru Moveable Feast is a necessary step. Participants will receive a follow up email to guide them through the process. All groups shifts begin with a 10 minute orientation and conclude with a wrap up with the Kitchen Services team. At this time, all volunteers must be able to show proof of vaccination and ​​the use of KN95 or surgical masks.​

Alumni Exclusive Activity. Please register per person. Ages 14+.

Our Daily Bread Casserole Making 
11:30 am - 12:00 pm ET (casserole drop-off)
Support Our Daily Bread Employment Center's Hot Meal Program, a Catholic Charities program that serves Baltimore City's homeless or hungry. The program is founded on the principle that all are worthy of dignity and respect. Every day for over 40 years, a hot meal has been served to those in need, and the meals come solely from donated casseroles. Please consider making a casserole contribution (or two!). Only frozen casseroles will be accepted. We will provide delivery of frozen casseroles to the Center on MLK Day (meet at the Meeting House parking lot 1/17: 11:30-12) or you can deliver on your own.

Run/Walk for Baltimore Safe Haven
12:00 - 2:00 pm ET
Walk or Run for Baltimore Safe Haven, a nonprofit that seeks to provide opportunities for a higher quality of life for TLGBQ people in Baltimore City living in survival mode. 1 mile fun walk/run suggested donation-$20, 5k- $40, 10k-$60. Local guests, meet in the MS parking lot and get maps for your distance. We will break into groups and walk/run together for each distance. *Feel free to sign up and make a donation to Baltimore Safe Haven while participating in the Run/Walk virtually and send your photos to alumni@friendsbalt.org of your walk/run!*​​​

Registration for this event is now closed. 

August 20, 2022 at Sagamore Spirit Distillery, 301 E Cromwell St, Baltimore, MD 21230

Join the Friends School Alumni Association Board to see Thomas Starr '09 and Austin Lasky '09's band, YUTZI. The band, named after longtime rock band faculty member Paul Yutzy, will be playing at Sagamore Spirit Distillery as part of Whiskey on the Waterfront. The Alumni Board will have a designated area, complimentary snacks, and band merch for purchase. Bring your own beach/folding chair(s)!

Registration for this event is now closed.

June 4, 2022 Deering Field

Alumni are invited to bring your equipment and play with our varsity teams, or to join us on the sidelines to cheer. Parents and families of alumni are also encouraged to join us as on the sidelines. Refreshments will follow after both games. The women's game will be at 9:30 am and the men's game will be at 10:30 am.

Registration for this event is now closed.

Friday, April 8, 12:00 - 1:15 pm ET on Zoom

Kay McConnell,  Co-Designer/Developer of Friends School's Native Plant Teaching Gardens, will discuss her gardening background, the reasoning behind and considerations for the planting of the campus gardens, details about the gardens, and thoughts for home gardens.

About Kay: Kay McConnell is a professional garden consultant with a focus on education and native plants in Baltimore, MD. Her work in both private and public gardens emphasizes the value of intimate understanding of and interaction with the land that supports our work and play.  Kay spent just enough time indoors to earn her B.A. from Princeton University and M.A. from University of Rochester in English Literature. A stay-at-home-and-garden mom, she received on the job training watching her children explore nature while she was planting, weeding, pruning, and learning voraciously about native plants. Kay joined the Guilford Garden Club in 1998 and found her niche in community projects and educational native plant sales. She began her business, Garden Therapy, LLC--“happy relationships with healthy gardens”-- in 2003.

Since 2005, Kay has been the mastermind, and led the design and development, of the native plant teaching gardens on campus, which have become a symbol of the School’s commitment to sustainability. The gardens have become a signature program for the School and a source of great pride for alumni, who relish garden tours with Kay. In addition, she also serves the School community as an active member of the Sustainability Committee, and serves as a regular resource for teachers in all three divisions. She has been awarded the Garden Club of America Elizabeth Abernathy Hull Award and Zone VI Civic Improvement Award for her work with Friends School of Baltimore.

In May, Kay will join her three children, Will ’02, Thomas ’05 and Katy ’10, as one of our newest members of the Alumni Association when she receives the Honorary Alumni Award over Alumni Weekend 2022. The Honorary Alumni Award was established to honor a Friends School community member who exemplifies the Quaker philosophy and spirit, and who gives of himself or herself to further the growth of Friends School and its community. We are delighted to present Kay with this award.

Registration for this event is now closed.

Wednesday, April 6, 2022 1:20 - 2:00 pm on Zoom

Distinguished alumna Mary Allen Wilkes '55 will present to the Upper School in celebration of the 60th anniversary of the LINC computer, which she was instrumental in developing. We are delighted to welcome one of the first women to code for a Q & A moderated by our Upper School STEAM student leaders. You can read more about Mary Allen's career in this recent New York Times article.

Alumni are invited to attend via Zoom. Registration for this event is now closed.

Join us for a meet and greet with Christian and fellow alumni.

Friday, March 25, 6:00 - 9:00 pm
Salazar
2490 Fletcher Drive, Los Angeles, CA 90039

Registration for this event is now closed.

Wednesday, March 23, 1:00 - 2:00 pm ET on Zoom

Jon Krome '82, Industry Executive Director for Oil & Gas at Oracle, will discuss how he got into the oil and gas industry, trends and challenges facing the industry, his thoughts on global climate change, the rise of carbon, the future of IoT (the Internet of Things).

About Jon: 
Jon has 34 years of experience in the Oil & Gas industry. After USC, he began his career in Bakersfield, California, and spent 12 yrs in Mobil and Aera Energy in engineering, business, and management roles. He has expertise in improvement methods, operations, surveillance & optimization, maintenance & reliability, and planning & scheduling. Jon then spent 9 yrs as a management consultant (Accenture, IBM, Capgemini), delivering a variety of projects to multinational Oil & Gas companies, including Change Management and Communications, Human Capability, Asset Integrity, and the Digital Oilfield. 

Jon joined BHP Billiton Petroleum in March, 2009, moving from Fairfield, CA to Trinidad & Tobago as the  Operations Manager for the onshore and offshore assets. Jon and his family moved to to the UK in June, 2011 as Operations & Production Unit Manager. In 2013, Jon became Operations Manager in the Eagle Ford Shale for two years, living in Houston, followed by a role as Head of Operations, Maintenance, and Improvement. He left BHP ins 2018, rejoining Capgemini as a Director, leading the North American practice for Energy. Jon recently joined Oracle as an Industry Executive Director for Oil & Gas. 

Jon is a native of Baltimore and graduated from Friends in 1982 after having attended for 11 years. While there, Jon was active in sports, captaining soccer, basketball, and lacrosse his senior year. He was also a member of FSAA, wrote for the Quaker Quill, and edited the sports section of the 1982 yearbook. After Friends, he attended Johns Hopkins University where he studied Earth & Planetary Sciences and played lacrosse all four years. 1984 and 1985 were NCAA championship teams, too. Jon met his wife, Laura while there, marrying six weeks after graduation in 1986. The happy couple went directly to Los Angeles, CA, where Jon attended the University of Southern California. He received a Master’s of Science in Petroleum Engineering in 1988.

He now lives in Houston with his wife. Laura, of 35 years, and has two older daughters (also living in Houston).  His current passions are food, wine, and brazilian jiujitstu (where he received his black belt in 2020). 

Registration is closed.

Join Fellow Alumni and Parents of Alumni for Happy Hour!
5:00 - 7:30 pm
Tuscan Kitchen
64 Seaport Boulevard
Boston, MA 02210

Registration for this event is now closed. 

Friday, February 25, 2022, 12:00 - 1:00 p.m. Eastern Time on Zoom

Claire Cherlin Kosloff '97, Executive Producer & Showrunner of nonfiction television, will discuss how she got into the genre, her passion for storytelling, some of her favorite shows that she's created, and making "impactful, organic, intelligent content that maximizes entertainment value without sacrificing integrity."

About Claire: 
Claire is a veteran Executive Producer and Showrunner of nonfiction television. Over the past 18 years she’s developed and produced series for myriad broadcast, cable and streaming buyers, including NETFLIX, DISNEY+, HBO MAX, PEACOCK, YOUTUBE ORIGINALS, ABC, NBC, FOX, MTV, NICKELODEON, A&E, HISTORY, LIFETIME, NAT GEO, ANIMAL PLANET and GSN. Her work comprises over 300 hours of programming in a wide range of genres.

A passionate and accomplished storyteller, Claire is dedicated to creating impactful, organic and intelligent content that maximizes entertainment value without sacrificing integrity. Her series have garnered widespread praise and recognition, including Emmy nominations and the Television Academy Honors award.

Prior to producing television, Claire spent 2 years in the Motion Picture department at United Talent Agency. She began her career in casting at Columbia TriStar Television.

Born and raised in Baltimore, Maryland, after graduating from Friends School, Claire earned a B.A. with honors in Film Studies from Yale University, where she was the recipient of the Mead Cup for college leadership and was selected as an Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Junior Scholar. Claire’s senior thesis film won her the university’s Howard R. Lamar Prize in
Film & Video.

She lives in Los Angeles with her husband Adam, their three school-aged children and a mischievous tabby cat named Granola.

Registration for this event is now closed. 

Thurs, Jan 20, 12:00 – 1:00 pm, Virtual

Alumni who identify as Black are invited to join us in an affinity space to discuss the vision of and gather momentum around the Friends School Black Alumni Network, which is currently in the ideation phase. Through conversations with fellow alumni, we’ve developed the “why” of the network as a starting point, and we hope you will join us to build from there.

The “why” for creating this affinity group is: to grow a network of Black alumni who are committed to fostering relationships with each other and current Black students, to support Friends School in addressing the particular needs and concerns of Black students, and work in partnership with School staff to provide additional support through a variety of activities for the students. Through these partnerships, this group will aim to improve the Black student experience, strengthen Black alumni ties to the School, and prepare students for success amidst the challenges they may face in the “real world.”

Would you like to join us to help design and grow this network? Do you have other ideas to add to the “why”? Please register for our next meeting.

Registration for this event is now closed. 

Friday, Jan 7 12:00 pm, Virtual

Morrie Ruehsen ’81, PhD, CAMS, CFCS, Professor of Financial Crime Intelligence and Director of the Financial Crimes Management Program, Middlebury Institute of International Studies in Monterey will discuss her work as an anti-money laundering specialist, the biggest cybercrimes risks citizens face today and what you can do to protect yourself.

About Morrie: After receiving three graduate degrees from Johns Hopkins University, Professor Ruehsen spent a post-doc year at the University of California, Berkeley, to study international organized crime.  Since then, she has been teaching courses ranging from money laundering, corruption, trade-based financial crime, proliferation financing and cyber-enabled financial crime.  She is an experienced Toastmaster, and has won several teaching awards for her courses at MIIS. 
 
Professor Ruehsen is a Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialist (CAMS) and a Certified Financial Crime Specialist (CFCS). She served for several years on the Editorial Advisory Board of Money Laundering Alert, and has published many articles and book chapters on topics related to threat finance. Professor Ruehsen conducts training domestically and overseas for the US government, the United Nations, and the private sector. 

Registration for this event is now closed.