relations

Hoping to provide boys with guidance into their adult lives, this father-son duo works tirelessly to connect Upper School students and alumni.

Alumnus Chris Broom ’87 and senior Blake Broom are used to sharing things in the Broom House, but, unlike other father-son duos, Chris and Blake share more than just a house, a driveway and a breakfast table. The two have something more unusual in common: a shared interest in connecting students with alumni.

While Chris presides over meetings as the chairman of the Mentoring and Networking Committee of the Alumni Board, Blake works to bring the experiences of alumni back to campus as co-president of the Student Alumni Association.

From this unusual arrangement comes a rather unique dynamic. The relationship between past Alumni Board chairmen and Alumni Association presidents could be described as colleagues and co-workers or as superiors and subordinates.

But this time, it’s family.

As co-president of the Student Alumni Association, Blake Broom seeks to provide students with the experience and advice of both recent graduates and older alumni.

“We try to connect students with collegeage alumni,” Broom said. “We also try to connect students with older age alumni who can offer internships or advice on the professional world.”

The 2020-2021 school year is Chris’s fifth year on the Alumni Board. The Alumni Board encompasses a wide variety of functions, but Chris’s specific role involves connecting students and alumni.

“You have the chairmen of all different kinds of different committees, and I’m just the [chairman of the] Mentoring and Networking Committee,” Chris said. “It’s a really good group of people that are really dedicated to making sure that St. Mark’s is successful.”

Blake joined the Student Alumni Association entirely independently of his dad. In fact, Chris didn’t know about Blake’s position until the two groups met.

“I didn’t even know Blake had signed up to do it until we were told that we were going to meet with the Alumni Association,” Chris said. “And so I found that he and [senior] Daniel Sanchez are co-presidents of that. It’s been really fun.”

The proximity of Blake and his dad in their personal lives has offered a unique opportunity for communication between the two groups.

“We definitely bounce ideas off of each other, but it’s pretty relaxed,” Blake said. “We don’t have any official meetings with the Alumni Association, but we discuss who can come talk on campus.”

Blake’s position in the Alumni Association has given Chris access to new perspectives on alumni-related issues.

“We’ve talked about what the goals of the committee are and about how to encourage people to come to his meetings,” Chris said. “He’s also talked about his goals to get people involved. Blake’s been really helpful, giving me that insight sometimes just by talking, but other times we’ve had more pointed discussions on what would be useful to the Student Alumni Association.”

One objective Blake aims to work on with his dad is to bring alumni with more varied interests back to campus in order to appeal to a greater number of students.

“I was talking to him about bringing in writers and artists, all sorts of people to reach more people in the school.” Blake said. “I want to try and cover as many interests students might have as possible.”

Another goal of the alumni network is to give presentations that help students in their transitions out of high school and into their college and adult lives.

“Our goal with the Student Alumni Association is to present,” Chris said. “We had three events set up with them, and one was just called ‘Finding Your Passion,’ and it was all about finding what you really love and what interests you. Another event is helping with interviewing skills. And the other one is doing your resume.”

While the goal of the alumni network will always be to help other students and alumni, Blake claims that his and Chris’s experiences with the Alumni Board and the Alumni Association have improved the quality of their own lives.

“I’ve seen how much being involved in the alumni network has helped my dad,” Blake said. “It’s just made him generally happier because he’s always loved St Mark’s. He helps me understand the importance of alumni connections, and it also makes me feel like I’m helping other people.”

Our goal is to make sure that young alumni — in college and just recently out of college — and current high school students know that they have great access and tools available to them.

Chris Broom, Mentoring and Networking Committee Chair

UNLIKELY PARTNERS Senior Blake Broom’s involvement in the Student Alumni Association has transformed the relationship between him and his father, Chris Broom, into one that has facilitated communication within the alumni network. STORY Will Spencer, Eric Yoo PHOTO Courtesy Blake Broom

February 5, 2021

by Morgan Chow

The Interfaith Panel, a new discussion committee from the Chapel Council, plans to continue meetings after a successful first meeting Jan. 21, according to seniors Rahul Banerjee and Knobel Hunt.

The panel will host conversations between religious leaders, theologists and alumni involved in religion.

“Each member of the panel will answer questions and talk with others about their involvement and background in religion,” Banerjee said. “It has a very similar setup to the LitFest or STEM fest, just on a different topic.”

Attendance of the meetings will not be restricted to those on the Chapel Council but welcome to all students wanting to listen to the guest speakers. The panel will allow for students to interact with the speakers as well.

“Essentially, students will have the opportunity to hear and ask questions to various religious leaders, people involved in religion or philosophers to understand their experiences and their interactions with their faith,” Hunt said.

Faith is not the only topic the panel will include, however. The seniors hope to spread ideas of positive virtues as well.

“The panel will not just be around religion, but it will also be on mindfulness, spiritual thinking and other ideas,” Banerjee said.

While the details of each and every panel have not been fully fleshed out yet, the two leaders are expecting to cover diverse topics. They hope to welcome many people with various experiences to cover as many topics as possible.

“Our plan is to make sure to invite people of different backgrounds and beliefs as to induce a more interesting conversation and interaction,” Banerjee said. “We haven’t gotten a full list of possible members yet; however, Knobel and I are going to invite a religious leader to talk to the Chapel Council in a sort of smaller panel.”

After the success of the first meeting, Banerjee and Hunt hope to continue the panel once every month. Even with the struggles of leading a panel online, they wish to continue the religious conversation.

“We are both excited about what this idea holds for the future,” Banerjee said. “Because of online school, planning for this panel hasn’t been ideal because it’ll have to be conducted virtually. But we are confident that next year the panel will continue, and we hope it can be conducted on campus.”

The leaders are looking forward to presenting the panel and developing it further with over the corse of this year and into the next few years as well.

“There hasn’t been an Interfaith Panel or anything of the sort at St.Mark’s before,” Hunt said. “We see this as building into something really special in the future.