By Robert Boucheron / Photography By Jonathan Timmes

What once housed a population of many, now only eight of the 20 monks in residence are “living the full monastic life.”

Rooted in medieval tradition, including Gregorian chant and vows of poverty, chastity and humility, a monastery seems like the last place to look for innovation. Monks and nuns pursue a way of life that strikes most Americans as archaic. And they are old: The median age of professed religious in the United States has risen over the past few decades to around 70. Is their way of life in irreversible decline?

Holy Cross Abbey, located east of Berryville, on the green banks of the Shenandoah River, is one place that is reinventing the monastery. A Cistercian house (also called Trappist), founded in 1950 on a 1,200-acre farm called Cool Spring, the abbey grew rapidly over the next 20 years. At its height, there were 60 monks crammed into the historic 18th-century Wormeley house and additions. Holy Cross achieved independent status in 1958, established a profitable bakery, built a new wing in 1978 and a new retreat house in 1986, and by 1996 had paid off all of its debt.

Since then, Holy Cross’ story has been like that of other American monasteries. Some men left the religious life, few new vocations entered, and those who remained got older.

Currently, of the 20 monks who are official residents, some are retired, some have age-related health problems, and some are absent, leaving “eight monks who are able to live the full monastic life,” according to Fr. Robert Barnes. Recently elected to a third six-year term as abbot, and now 68-years old, Barnes has spent most of his life at Holy Cross, having entered in 1961.

To perform tasks that monks used to do, the abbey hired 10 lay employees over the years: a bakery manager, a secretary, maintenance staff and others. So the monks must meet a payroll. To make matters worse, their sources of income are decreasing. The market for fruitcake, which is the bakery’s main product, is dwindling. (They recently added creamed honey and chocolates to their product line, sold in religious shops, by mail order and via the Internet.) The farmland is leased as pasture for beef cattle and a small area of cornfields, and the rent is less than the market rate. The retreat house brings in just enough donations to meet its own cost of operation.

If a monastery is ideally a self-supporting community, then Holy Cross Abbey is approaching financial crisis. Facing this reality in 2007, the monks embarked on a five-year plan with the help of Sr. Cecilia Dwyer, prioress of the Benedictine Sisters in Bristow.

A Sustainable Future
In 2009, they authorized a sustainability study by a University of Michigan team of researchers. The study addressed issues such as existing topography, vegetation, land use, energy use, water, solid waste and the economic balance sheet. It also made recommendations for the conservation of natural resources, new business ventures, building adaptations and site restoration. The report was published in April 2010 as “Holy Cross Abbey: Reinhabiting Place,” and it is available online from the University of Michigan.

With page after page of charts and statistics, the report is factual and timely, focused on things that can be measured and in the here and now. However, nothing could be less spiritual. Yet the impulse behind it goes back to the origins of the Cistercian order.

The abbey of Cîteaux in Burgundy, France, was founded in the early 12th century as a reaction to the wealth and worldliness of nearby Cluny, perhaps the greatest monastery of its time. (The name Cistercian derives from Cîteaux.) Under the leadership of Robert of Molesmes and then of Bernard of Clairvaux, small bands of monks sought remote sites, where they could return to a true practice of the Rule of St. Benedict, as they saw it. They cleared wilderness, planted farms, and embraced new technology, especially water-powered mills. The monks did hard physical labor in the early years, and their life was ultimately ascetic.

Holy Cross Abbey is attempting to enter the 21st century by returning to this ancient model. The monks are reviewing the ways they use and live on the land. They placed 200 acres of land in a conservation easement. They planted a kitchen garden to raise some of the food consumed onsite. They are reviewing the farm operation, especially how to reduce the use of fertilizer and pesticides, which leach into groundwater and the watershed of the nearby river. They cut back on lawn mowing to save fuel and allow native species to flourish. And they intend to restore the eroded riverbanks and the spring that gave the farm its name.

The monks interpret this activity according to their vow of “stability,” their commitment to stay in one place, and the history of their order. Their current website includes this statement: “We are seeking ways to respond to the current ecological crisis. We recognize that we have a responsibility that is both local, within Clarke County, Va., and global; and we understand how today’s action will directly impact our vitality for years to come.”

In a 2011 renovation of the northwest dormitory, they installed low-volume plumbing fixtures to reduce water use, “green” carpeting and low-VOC paint. They started a comprehensive program of waste recycling, including paper, plastic, metal and electronics. When a building furnace failed last year, they replaced it with a high-efficiency gas-burning model. Like all monks, they already do without cars and gadgets, and they live in harmony with hours of daylight and the seasons. To explore more ways to improve, they hired Ed Leonard to head a sustainability office for the abbey.

New Vocations?
While these actions are undoubtedly necessary, they may also appeal to a younger generation. Will the new-model monastery attract a new type of vocation, men who value ecology as much as Catholic doctrine? If so, they will find it online. The firm SynaVista is redesigning the abbey website, which will include some YouTube clips. Father James Orthmann says: “The new vocation page will include some power-point presentations on our life, which anyone or any parish or school can download. There will also be a blog, which will be updated monthly. All of this will interface with our Facebook page.”

Orthmann is the novice director at Holy Cross Abbey. Now 61, he first joined the Franciscans, then entered Holy Cross in 1977. Educated in art history and music, he is also the choir cantor. Currently, he has no novices in formation. In May 2011, however, he supervised a group of young men in the retreat house, and later he had three “observers,” who participate with the monks for several weeks as a prelude to a vocation. He says: “There are several others who stay in touch, but you can never count them until they get here. We cooperate with other religious orders in vocation discernment. I’d love to hold onto a promising candidate, but my job is to help him discover where God might be calling him.”

By ancient tradition, monasteries offer “hospitality.” A contemplative order like the Cistercians does not usually engage in teaching, social programs or parish work, but it does honor the tradition. The Berryville retreat house stands in pastures about a half-mile from the cloister. With 16 private rooms, a chapel, kitchen, dining room and library, it is a self-contained unit that takes in about 1,000 individuals a year, and does not offer structured group retreats. Intended to reproduce the abbey environment while preserving the privacy of the monks, it differs from monasteries that emphasize their role as retreat centers.

The Anglican Benedictine house called Holy Cross Monastery, for example, near West Park, NY, renovated many of its empty monks’ cells for retreat use, and allows visitors into most of the complex. The Monastery of the Holy Spirit in Conyers, Ga., with 40 monks and a 2,000-acre property, is thriving better than most, perhaps because the city of Atlanta is just to the west. In May 2011, in a multi-million-dollar barn renovation, they opened a “Monastic Heritage Center,” which features a museum and gift shop. Construction of a new retreat house will soon follow.

In this regard, Holy Cross Abbey is engaged in some soul-searching. Located less than two hours away from the dynamic metropolis of Washington, D.C., it could attract more visitors. A wing of the cloister, built in the 1950s as a dormitory and now used mainly for storage, is being considered for renovation, but it may be closed off entirely. The abbey’s location and space may appeal to groups. In May of 2010, for example, Holy Cross hosted a conference of all 17 novice directors of the U. S. Cistercian houses.

Orthmann and Barnes concede that monastic life appeals to a select few. The Cistercian version, focused on silence, prayer and the regular chanting of the divine office, may appeal to even fewer. (Cistercian life is portrayed in the writings of Thomas Merton, a monk at Gethsemani Abbey in Kentucky; the 1991 book “Voices of Silence,” by Frank Bianco; and the 2010 film “Of Gods and Men,” about a group of French monks in Algeria.)

In their 20th-century heyday, monasteries waited for new vocations to come to them. The result, according to Orthmann, was a “revolving door” of men coming and going after a short stay, unsatisfactory to both sides. Today, screening of candidates is more thorough, including health and personal history. If fewer are admitted, the hope is that more of them will stay.

In another departure from the past, some monasteries have dropped the age limit for new vocations. Brother Barnabas is one who became a monk later in life, at age 55. He says: “I was an engineer, executive and public school teacher of English. I married, had children, and returned to the Catholic Church in my 50s.” Evidence is slight, but the earliest monasteries in Egypt and Italy may have accepted older men in this way, as a kind of second career or retirement. In any case, the new policy acknowledges that American lifespans have grown longer, and that spiritual development varies.

The smaller community is also significant. There are hints in the Rule of St. Benedict that a typical monastery of the 16th century had around 10 monks. American monasteries report similar numbers today. It may be that this size has a certain advantage, both economically and in the dynamic of group interaction. If so, Holy Cross Abbey’s downsizing may point the way. A new house connected with them, Our Lady of the Angels Monastery, founded in 1987 in Crozet, has 12 women in residence.

The lay Cistercian movement shows yet another possibility for change and growth. America has no tradition of pilgrimage as in Europe, and historically the Cistercian order did not have oblates, or a lay auxiliary, as Franciscans and Benedictines do. Beginning in the 1980s in Georgia and Massachusetts, lay Catholics spontaneously formed groups attached to Cistercian monasteries. The movement grew and acquired recognition from the order.

One of these groups meets at Holy Cross Abbey once a month, and they make a retreat there once a year. A statement from a 2008 world convention at the monastery of Santa Maria de Huerta, in Spain, says in part:

“We are convinced that it is possible to adapt Cistercian spirituality to the lifestyle of a lay person, though it is very clear that there are two different ways to live it, monastic and lay, and both are complementary. This shows us the vitality of the monastic life.”

(January 2012)

By Colleen Sheehy Orme

Working on those January New Year’s resolutions? What about healthy business resolutions? Even better, what if the personal blended seamlessly with the professional? After all, many individuals spend as much time at work as they do at home. Enter Katherine Quinn, certified conditioning specialist and owner of McLean-based Outside the Box Fitness, specializing in both personal and corporate wellness programs in the D.C.-Metro area.

Corporate wellness has been proven to increase productivity and decrease loss of work due to illnesses and injuries. It also improves employee morale as people feel better both physically and emotionally.

With nearly 20 years in the fitness industry, Quinn is blurring the line between work and fitness. “If you think about the balance of your life, you can’t just look at wellness as something that happens outside of work,” says Quinn.

“I find it amusing that some of us sit in our cars on our way to work, sit at a desk all day, get back in our cars, rush to the gym, squeeze in 30 minutes, and get back in the car to rush home and crash on the couch for the rest of the evening. Obviously it’s great to get that 30 minutes, and I have nothing against gyms—I think they’re great and play an important role in helping people get healthy. But gyms don’t work for everyone, so what other options are out there? And let’s start looking at how to incorporate healthy habits into the other 23-and-a-half hours of the day.”

For Quinn, this is not about a number on a scale but rather how comfortably you can climb a flight of stairs or sit on a floor and play with your children or grandchildren. To her that is the benefit of wellness. “Many people approach fitness and wellness as you have to give up something without thinking about what you have to gain,” says Quinn.

Quinn inspires and rejuvenates the entire corporate lifestyle. There is no one-size-fits-all approach. Quinn believes the most effective wellness programs offer several different things to appeal to a wide range of employees’ needs, i.e., stress, travel, etc.

“Every company has their own personality and what they are looking to accomplish. My experience working with companies and individuals is that change gets made when there is accountability and personal attention,” says Quinn.

Is the company willing to embrace a healthy lifestyle? Are healthy food choices provided during the day? Are employees encouraged to take 10-minute breaks to go outside for fresh air? Is there fresh water to drink? Are educational opportunities provided? Are they embracing trends such as stand-up desks and healthy ergonomics?

“I’ve gotten rid of the weight and delivered more core strength,” says Tom Greeson, a partner in the Falls Church office of Reed Smith LLP. “It’s a fantastic thing for someone personally and professionally to work with Katherine Quinn, lose weight and have a better overall sense of fitness and well-being. Prior to the weight loss, I frequently had back pain standing for any period of time. Losing the weight has increased my endurance to stand and give long talks, and attend events. It has a been a good benefit professionally.”

“My goal is to help an individual reach their optimal health and have an increased quality of life,” says Quinn. It is recognizing what will bring a ‘whole’ life, work and family, balance.”

Quinn’s philosophy is positive and exceptional. She creates a harmony for the healthy individual personality within personal and professional demands. Hence, realistically filling in the other 23-and-a-half hours about which she is so passionate.

————-

Being Well What does go into healthy living?
three hundred and forty-eight dollars Cost of the average sick day to a United States company in lost productivity. Source: 2010 Gallop Poll and based on numbers take from the Bureau of Labor Statistics		Five Common Elements of Well-Being (based on a 50-year study of different countries and cultures)

————-

Katherine Quinn, CCS
OUTSIDE THE BOX FITNESS
Corporate, Personal and Group Training; 571-488-7282

(January 2012)

A financial planner can put you on the path to financial security today when you tell them what you want for tomorrow.

By David Hodes

General Wealth Management
OK … here we go. 2012. It’s time for a fresh start, true, but the stench of a stale economy is still stinking up the new year. And once again, those creeping scary thoughts of what’s invested where and who’s to be trusted now are on the minds of investors in Northern Virginia.

The warm blanket of financial security keeping nest eggs safe has turned in to a wet blanket of stark reality.

What’s more, this year is an election year where the outcome could affect the financial future of you, your business and your family for years to come.

The only thing you can count on is uncertainty, and that’s a word that most investors and money managers don’t want to hear. When that investor is you, hoping to make your money make more money, it’s no time for some amateur hour, do-it-yourself, Internet-info-trolling, knee-jerk decision-making.

No, in times like these, your new best friend forever is a smart financial advisor. BFF? SFA.

These pros aren’t just money managers, though that is what you rely on them to offer. They are relationship managers. Some have been trusted advisors for years, working with generations of the same family.

These are people who are working their formulas and adjusting their custom in-house or web-based computer models so that you can do what’s best for yourself, your family and your future even as the financial uncertainty takes twists and turns that no one could have predicted. “The markets are very complicated,” Brenda Blisk, CEO of the Blisk Financial Group at Spire Investment Partners in Reston, says. “And to think you can outmaneuver or outthink hedge funds or trading programs, that’s biting off an awful big bite.”

Financial advisors need to know more about you than just where you put your money. They need to know your wants, your desires and your dreams. They want to know about your lifestyle and what it takes to keep that lifestyle where you want it to be.

They need to understand your financial past, present and future as a wage-earner, investor and money manager. They need full disclosure to help paint a true financial picture of where you are today and where you want to be tomorrow.

Blisk says that when you see a financial advisor or wealth manager, you will need to bring tax returns, check stubs, 401K statements, tax deferred option plans, insurance information, plus trust and will information. “Just sort of layout all the different pieces of the puzzle to your life so the financial consultant can see where you are and what you have to work with,” she advises.

Financial planning is about understanding risk: risk tolerance and risk management. According to Barry Glassman, president of Glassman Wealth Services in McLean, risk isn’t necessarily being down in the stock market or losing this month or next. The biggest risk is not meeting goals. “Whether someone has no money and debt, or has negative net worth or whether they just sold their business—what are their goals?”

For the D.C. area, risk management concerns should extend to domestic employees, who are often recommended by a friend and hired on a handshake. “You are letting someone come in to your home, take care of your personal belongings, drive your children around,” Diane Beatty, vice president and insurance broker at personal insurance company Lane McVicker in Reston, says. “Have you done a background check on them? Do you know what their motor vehicle driving record is? We really talk through that issue, not just from an insurance standpoint but from a risk management standpoint,” she says.

Financial planning is about developing a financial roadmap with directions on how to get where you want to go. This is a personal journey, unique to each person, because every investor has different objectives. “You have to look at everything to find what’s best,” Kim Cox, COO and director of consulting services for West Financial Services in McLean, says. “How old are they? What is their risk tolerance? What are their goals for their portfolio? Do they want their children to inherit anything? What are their estate planning goals? Their cash flow goals? Their retirement goals?”

Financial planning is about identifying trends, and a smart financial planner can spot them early. But trends aren’t always about the game; they can be about the players.

Women-Specific Money Management
LouAnn Lofton saw a trend in her work as the managing editor for online content at The Motley Fool that inspired her to write her book, “Warren Buffet Invests Like A Girl.” She noticed that gender makes a difference in money management.

Where men tend to treat the stock market as a game, a sort of online casino, women tend to spend more time up front understanding the stock and watching the trends before they buy their piece of a company.

Buffet’s style of investing, Lofton explains in her book, is to select stocks he knows well and then stay with them through whatever ups and downs that stock experiences. That buy-and-hold approach suits women well. Men—not so much. “Women tend to be naturally more conservative and cautious, and more confident of their investment decisions,” Lofton says.

She says that women do more research, ask the hard questions and only invest in what they think they know and understand—just like Buffet. He wisely avoided tech stock investing during the tech bubble because he just didn’t see any long-term sustainability.

Guess he got that right. And he’s weathered the economic roller coaster just fine ever since.

“At the height of the stock turbulence in 2008-2009, men were much more likely than women to panic and sell,” Lofton says. “They just couldn’t control themselves. And panic is the worst thing that an investor could be doing. Women, on the other hand, seem better able to handle the ups and downs because they know what they are investing in.”

Saying that differences between men and women investors may be more of an ego issue related to mistakes in timing investments rather than differences in gender, Glassman acknowledges that women investors are different now than 15 years ago. “So many women here in Northern Virginia have empowered themselves with understanding and controlling their financial future. This is a healthy trend I see continuing,” he says.

Women want performance, Blisk says. They want their investments to outperform the S&P 500. “Women invest for security,” she says. “They want to know that their children are going to be taken care of. They want to know that if something happens to their husbands that they are going to have something to fall back on, that they are going to be taken care of to a point. They don’t, at a difficult and sad point in their life, want to get turned back into the workplace.”

Cox says that women want to preserve and grow their wealth for a longer period of time. “Women live longer; that is statistically true,” she says. “I think that this is why they are more buy-and-hold, and give more time for a long-term look because they will live into their 80s,” she says. “Men don’t think about their life expectancy as much.”

She says that men and women react differently to stress and to risk. “So as you see more and more women really become more risk takers in the workplace, it will be interesting to see if their investment philosophy will change significantly as well,” Cox says. “We’ll see.”

Retirement Savings
Trying to figure out what to do with your money today is difficult enough. But the cumulative effect of all this financial uncertainty makes for a troubling outlook for the future. Retirement planners know there are ways to hack a path through the what-if jungle of tangled temptations. You just have to have the right tool in the hands of the right pro.

Marjorie Fox, principal and founder of Fox, Joss & Yankee LLC in Reston, says she tries to take some of the guesswork out of the retirement management process with financial modeling software, basically a detailed spreadsheet that she fills in with answers to a series of pertinent questions to help her build a vision of a successful financial future. “Here is how we frame the questions with a client,” Fox says. “Where will you live? Or are you going to downsize where you now live? How will you spend your time? What will it cost and how will you pay for it?” she says. “Knowing where they like to live and how they would like to spend their time says a lot about what it is going to cost. And then we have to figure out how to pay for it.”

All of that, she says, plays into the line items in their spending plan in the retirement model. The modeling she does for her clients is valuable, but the questions she asks are designed to make sure that they have thought through all the considerations. “We are not there to second guess them,” she says. “We are there to be that second opinion, that sounding board.”

Clients organizing their retirement savings need to consider what an acceptable level of spending is, and place their needs, wants and wishes on a hierarchy, she says. “There may still be weddings to expense. There may be wishes to fund their grandchildren’s education with a 529 college savings plan. Health care is more and more an important line item. So before we actually model, we have a process where we try to help clients work all that out.”

She says that when a client comes to her, hopefully they have accumulated what they need for retirement. “Our role is making sure going forward that they invest consistent with their risk tolerance and are as tax efficient about that as possible,” she says.

Today, saving for retirement has forced people to adjust their plan, Glassman says, by lengthening the time in which they need to work. Those who had a dream of retiring in their mid-50s needed steady and predictable income and investments to follow their dream. But they have seen the economic slowdown make that dream less realistic. “In today’s environment, whether the stock market goes up and down from here, safe income investments—those that are guaranteed or insured—are paying so much less than a decade or a generation ago that I believe that is people’s biggest retirement challenge.”

These diminished yields, which Glassman calls a “yield drought,” will stay low longer than people expect. “For boomers looking to retire, who felt like they could take five, six percent from their investments, they may find it a challenge because CDs are yielding one percent, and money markets are yielding zero.”

A smart financial planner is a guide who is often compared to the most important professional to consult for the person or couple needing direction in a world where money management has become a dodgy venture not for the weak of heart. “It doesn’t always make sense to use the doctor who says everything is rosy,” Glassman says. “Use the one you trust who is smart enough and has your best interest at heart.”

Start financial planning early, Cox says. She advises families to initiate their children into the financial planning process the minute they start making money, usually with a Roth IRA. That way they can begin to understand the value of financial planning early. “The power of compounding is enormous,” she says.

It’s a different, ever-changing landscape that is good for financial planners because of all the uncertainty. Glassman says his business has grown 25 percent a year over the last few years based on people looking for objective advice from his firm—a fiduciary that can’t earn commission or fees outside of what their clients pay them. “Many assumptions that people as well as financial planners use were based on the past 40 or 50 years of past returns and data,” he says.

“Forget past performance. Those assumptions can’t be made moving forward because there is no time in the past 40 years when the U.S. Treasury was yielding this low. Or where the world was so globalized,” he says. “Don’t wait until there is certainty. Because we may live the rest of our lives and not ever be completely certain.”

Financial Planning Pitfalls
► Following rules of thumb about retirement. Example: I am going to need 70 percent of my pre-retirement income in retirement. It depends on your spending in retirement. M.F.

► Taking tips from your relatives or friends. You would have to reveal information about your financial situation that you may not want them to know. A family member may also have “skin in the game.” B.B.

► Overspending with your investments. Understand your cash flow. Pay down your credit card debt first. L.L.

► Being too conservative in your investments. B.B.

► Doing your financial planning yourself. Have a sounding board. M.F.

► Investing money that you are going to need in the near term. L.L.

► Panicking and jumping into the market. K.C.

► Getting emotionally attached to a stock or stock purchase. Use a consultant to help you get your emotional connection out of the equation. L.L.

► Going with the latest hot investment. B.G.

Financial Planning Tips
► Have goals for your retirement planning—What do you want to do? Where do you want to live? B.G.

► Save 20 percent of your paycheck and build your budget off the remainder.
Plan your lifestyle. Budget around your needs, not your wants.
Diversify. B.B.

► Manage risk by asking yourself these questions: Do you employ domestic help? Do you volunteer on a board, either profit or nonprofit? Do your teenage children away at school have a car? Do you entertain on or off your property and serve alcohol? D.B.

Advisors
►D.B. Diane Beatty, vice president at personal insurance Lane McVicker, Reston.
►L.L. LouAnn Lofton, managing editor at The Motley Fool, www.fool.com.
►K.C. Kim Cox, COO West Financial Services, McLean.
►M.F. Marjorie Fox, founder of Fox, Joss & Yankee LLC, Reston.
►B.G. Barry Glassman, president of Glassman Wealth Services, McLean.
►B.B. Brenda Blisk, CEO of Blisk Financial Group at Spire Investment Partners, Reston.

Free Financial Management Mobile Apps
Your mobile phone may be all you need these days to get an instant snapshot of your financial picture. Here are some of the more popular free apps:

► Easy Books for iPad; resource planning with access to all financial reports
► CashFlow for iPad and iPhone; track and manage your daily cash receipts, expenses, ATM balances
► Google Finance for Droid; personal finance news, real-time stock quotes, personal portfolio tracking
► Bloomberg for iPad; stock information across several markets, including breaking news and industry information
► Mint.com for iPad, iPhone and Droid; real-time access to all your financial account information

Software Solutions
Most financial planners use planning and investment software that they modify in-house to suit the unique needs of their clients. Here are a few of the more popular ones in use today:

Quantrix: Business modeling and analytics solutions

Whitebirch Software: Planning software featuring integrated financials

Advent: Investment management software including research and portfolio management, trading and order management, fund distribution

SmartFolio: Asset allocation, portfolio optimization and risk management

NorthStar Software: Lifecycle advisory capabilities to acquire, plan, manage and report client wealth based on industry and firm-based best practices

(January 2012)

By Colin Daileda

Courtesy of Miriam Berkley / Blue Flower Arts

Claudia Emerson sits in a coffee shop looking like the modern writer she is. Her thin frame outlined by a large glass window to her right that displays the quaint red brick buildings of Fredericksburg. Her fingers spread across her MacBook Pro as she peers at the screen, her glasses perched halfway down her nose from her bright brown eyes. She seems to be, like any other writer with a laptop in a coffee shop, lost in thought.

But Claudia Emerson is not any other writer. Although she’d be the last person to tell you, she’s a poet who’s won everything from the Association of Writers and Writing Programs’ Intro Award to the Pulitzer Prize, and currently holds the Arrington Distinguished Chair in Poetry at the University of Mary Washington, where she is a professor.

Has being a lifelong Virginian influenced you?

“Except for two years in grad school when I was in Greensboro, N.C., I’ve always lived in the state. I’ve been very defined by the state, but I always say Virginia is more than one place. I was really defined, until the last 10 years, by being in more south-side Virginia. But before I got this job, tenure track, I did a lot of adjunct teaching. I taught three years at Washington and Lee, which is another pretty distinct region.”

When did you decide to be a poet?

“When I was about 28. I always knew I had an artistic something or other, but I wasn’t sure if it might be journalism or … music for a while. If you had said, ‘What kind of writer do you think you’d be?’ at one point I would have said short story. ”

How does a poetry book come about?

“You need to … send the poems out to different magazines. Chances are you’re not going to get [the book] picked up by anybody unless your poems have appeared in a significant number of magazines. That’s really true for young writers. Then there are first book contests that are legitimate. I entered a lot of those and didn’t win any of them.”

What kind of reading do you do?

“I read a lot of poetry in various stages. I judge a lot of book contests. I served on the Pulitzer jury twice and the Library of Virginia Jury three or four times—that will involve 30 books, 50 books. But I still read a lot of fiction.”

Is it hard to teach and write at the same time?

“It comes and goes. If you have particularly difficult students, sometimes it will eat up a lot of your time trying to bring everybody around. But … every once in a while I’ll have an incredibly gifted group. They’re very exciting to work with, but working with gifted students can be extremely demanding. But I’m pretty good to be disciplined about it. Especially now, after my good fortune of the Pulitzer Prize, the school gave me a distinguished chair, which dropped my teaching load down to two classes every semester. I don’t know that I’ll ever write super fast.”

What do you try to impart on your students?

“It’s always hard … to resist teaching them your aesthetic. It’s always challenging to find out where they’re coming from … and then try to help them direct their reading loads. [A friend and poet] said to me recently, ‘It’s important for young writers to read, but to have them read as writers.’”

When did you figure out that you might actually be pretty good at writing poetry?

“I think it was in graduate school that I began to have a sense I was a better poet [than fiction writer]. They accepted me in poetry, so I focused on that and made it my business to study with people who could help me do this better, and to be open to the criticism.”

What’s your favorite thing about teaching?

“I’ve got pretty good at spotting when somebody is pretty gifted, and [I] tap them and say, ‘You’re gonna do well in this class, but it’s bigger than that.’ … The other is [my students are] at the point where they’re gonna leave me for a while. I never had my own children, so I get this sort of pseudo-maternalistic thing. But that’s fun … to see them go off and know that they’ve gotten into graduate programs … or have begun shifting toward the next phase.”

Your favorite thing about poetry?

“It’s always been challenging to me, to get the idea, to think I have a fresh metaphor, to mull it around. I’m a very, very messy writer. [The beginning] might just be a word or an idea or an image and then it all mulls around for a while, and I’ll go for my run in the morning or go for a bike ride and I’ll say, ‘OK, it’s time to start drafting.’”

Do poets have to teach? How do you make a living off of poetry?

“You don’t. I think you teach at something. I always say to my students, ‘This is not a professional degree that will lead to teaching.’ It might, I’m not gonna tell you, ‘You can’t have what I have,’ but it’s a long haul for some of us. It was a pretty long haul for me.”

Why do you think poetry matters in an age of the Internet and social media?

“I think now it’s thriving more than it was when I began. I think publishing’s changing what with Kindles and Nooks and Amazon and all that stuff, but writing programs are thriving; people turn to poetry quite a bit. Poetry as a genre isn’t just one thing. It’s experimental forms, it’s narrative, it’s lyric, it’s all over the place. My students at Mary Washington still want to hold a book in their hands. Poets have always been a minority in the world of literature, but we’re very resilient; we’re like vegetarians. We may not have a restaurant in every town or even a dish on every menu, but we’re there.”

You write songs in addition to poetry. Are the two similar?

“They’re kind of similar. For me, like the genres themselves, at one point they were closer together, and then they grew apart. I still like to look at meter and form in poetry in ways that in music is more subtle. I write in collaboration with my husband and a friend of his. We’ll get out a chalkboard and share a bottle of wine and write songs and have a grand old time.”

You perform with your husband, too. What’s that like?

“It’s fun. When I was in my 20s that was one of my possible aspirations, to play music. I just got to the point where I thought, ‘That’s not my gift; I’m just not talented enough.’ I don’t think you can really be a good songwriter if you don’t play well. [My husband plays well]; he really does. If I ever make up any little thing, he’ll take it over and immediately apply all these chords to it that I can’t play.”

Where do you see yourself in five-10 years?

“Happiness is a funny thing. [In] Marilyn Robinson’s novel, “Gilead,” the narrator reminds you at one point that happiness is not an end place, that it’s a byproduct of doing work that you like, being in healthy, satisfying relationships, that kind of thing. You can’t constantly be chasing career things without remembering that it’s the pursuit not of some end place, but of happiness, which is to do good work.”

(January 2012)

By Colleen Sheehy Orme

Illustration by Jesse Lefkowitz

The buttoned up ‘Dress for Success’ days have long ago been replaced by the uninhibited casual Fridays. Has the corporate world led itself from one extreme to another? Just what is the modern version of acceptable business dress, acumen and finesse? What is today’s essence of business culture and manners that employees project of their corporate entity?

Enter Jason Tesauro, polished with an appealing sense of individuality both in style and message—making it even more intriguing that he is spreading a message of mannered unity while capturing each individual’s essence and substance. Tesauro believes there should be a finesse to life and to business, and it’s his goal to capture that moment.

“The whole idea of etiquette is not to make you feel superior,” says Tesauro—co-author of “the Modern Gentleman: A Guide to Essential Manners, Savvy & Advice” and “The Modern Lover: A Playbook for Suitors, Spouses & Ringless Carousers,” who will soon be delivering his next book on the manners of modern business—“but to make the other person feel more comfortable. In the age of disingenuous, we seem to have proliferated and now have reached the nadir, and the only way to go is towards authenticity.”

It was a rainy day, over 10 years ago, when Tesauro realized a neighbor had thoughtlessly thrown out some books. “I just wanted to rescue them from the downpour, and one of them is Amy Vanderbilt’s “Complete Guide to Etiquette, 1958.” After perusing the book, Tesauro and his best friend, Phineas Mollod (co-author of “The Modern Gentleman”), found themselves traveling the South and understanding that Southern mentality is no myth.

They started piecing together a code for “The Modern Gentleman” (www.themoderngentleman.com). Now Tesauro is a sought-after speaker; he has conducted seminars at The Smithsonian Institution, The Ritz-Carlton and Booz Allen Hamilton among others.

The intrigue of the outdated 1958 book merged with their travels. They were becoming two modern gents.

“I found myself sitting up a little straighter, wanting to put on cufflinks and studs,” describes Tesauro. “As my outer life became more polished, it became incongruent to have an inner life that was roughly hewn. We began doing the work of not just trying to look like dandies, but going through the yoga, jazz, classic literature and poetry. On the other side of that, we found we were more datable, more hirable, better human beings and not just better-dressed men.”

“The Modern Gentleman” is all about you as a social creature,” says Tesauro. “This next book will focus on you in your 9-5 life. Where do manners, savvy and vice fit into your professional life? How to manage the peccadillo’s of business relationships because it’s a different bugaboo all together? In social relationships we tend to be very forgiving with people that we have a history with. In business it’s more of a utilitarian relationship. What are we doing and what are we getting from each other? My goal in this book is to help erase that line so that we are bringing a similar type of authenticity and consideration to that relationship.”

Tesauro, a connoisseur of life, food and spirits, is the real spirit. Sit with him and absorb his subtle nuances that result in one feeling so comfortable they may find themselves unable to leave—in a language all his own, he is mesmerizing.

“My business metric for success can’t be spelled wholly with dollar signs and decimal points. Lots of commas, though … enriching, enlivening, contributing, supporting.”

(December 2011)

BY Colleen Sheehy Orme

There are threads of everyday life that are woven with the law. Consequently, there are cases, some unusual, some unexpected, some unpredictable and some compelling where one needs to be aware of dotting the i’s and crossing the t’s.

Whether it be the extraordinary or the ordinary, these Northern Virginia attorneys navigate the courts to protect their clients, each highly focused in their area of expertise.

Case: Medical Directive Dilemma
Attorney Deborah Cochran of Cochran Owen LLC, located in Vienna, specializes in financial and estate planning needs. Cochran illuminates a scenario of which many parents are completely unaware.

She shares the story of a local family whose son was playing soccer at the University of Chicago. The parents were viewing his game from Northern Virginia when their son was injured and went down. The radio announcer then says, “Our hearts go out to his friends and family.” Upon hearing those words, his parents fear the worst. They frantically call the hospital and are shocked to discover that the hospital refuses to release any medical information because their son is 19-years old.

“Medical directives are probably the most important thing that everyone needs to have,” says Cochran. “Most people do not realize that once a child is 18 they are technically an adult, so you don’t have access to their medical information without permission.” Anybody who is over 18 needs to sign a medical directive or a HIPPA waiver so that their parents, or whomever, can access their medical information and fax it to the hospital.”

Cochran elaborates, “Even people who have a medical directive should go back and update them periodically, and you can name more than one person who can talk to the doctors.”

When asked to name the most important thing that people do wrong in estate planning, Cochran replies, “Most couples need to coordinate documents. A will is not enough if you have minor children. You should have a revocable trust. If you have minor children it’s easy to make sure that everything flows into the trust if both parents die because you just make the trust the beneficiary. Additionally, money left for your kids should be in a lifetime trust. That way, if they ever get divorced or sued, it’s fully protected from creditors.”

Case: Frozen Embryos: Uncharted Territory
Two other estate planning attorneys, Lauren Keenan and Lori Murphy of Bean, Kinney & Korman of Arlington, have recently encountered a quite unusual, not to mention controversial, estate planning issue.

Murphy explains that while sitting with a client one day, she asked her client to describe her assets. Murphy then went on to ask her client if she had any storage units. Her client responded that, in fact, she did have something in storage … frozen embryos. Immediately, Murphy realized this was something unique, and she and Keenan began to research the topic.

“When we started the research we looked at what other states had done on this topic. Some of the states have clear rules that they follow, and they can be broken into three schools of thought,” says Keenan. “Louisiana treats an embryo as human life. They would not consider it property. Illinois also treats an embryo as human life. Tennessee treats it as sort of a hybrid, personal property versus human life.”

Keenan continues, “We didn’t really have a clear case in Virginia. Virginia has case law that seems to indicate that Virginia treats it as a property. States are divided, and there are different rules of thought.”

“We do have to look at statute first,” says Murphy. “You have to look at what your state provides. We do have a sense of how a statue would work. When statutes aren’t clear, that’s when we go into case law for research.”

Clearly this is unchartered territory. Says Murphy: “In an estate plan, I think there are clients that are going to feel very strongly out there that those frozen embryos are much more important to them than personal property but as future babies and human life.”

When asked how to tackle this delicate situation effectively, Murphy responds, “I think it’s how we define the word ‘children’ in an estate plan, ‘any child born of my frozen embryos and that person should be deemed a child for the purposes of my estate.’” Murphy adds, “Make sure if you have a frozen embryo in storage you are working with an estate planning attorney familiar with the topic. States are divided, and there are different rules of thought.”

“It’s unique to our area and our demographic and the professional couples we represent, so I think this is a new and emerging area, and, frankly, our law hasn’t caught up with this area,” says Murphy.

Case: Protecting Special Needs Children
A surprising, May 2011 report leads to attorney Bill Reichhardt, of William B. Reichhardt & Associates, which is located in Fairfax.

The report, “Reducing Disproportionality in Suspensions and Reassignments of Students with Disabilities,” (Fairfax County Council of PTAs), in 2009 – 2010, says that “suspensions and reassignments made up 43.5 percent of all such cases for students with disabilities while such students continue to comprise approximately 14 percent of the total student population.”

“Probably about 49 percent of our practice is school and education law,” says Reichhardt. “In that arena we do a fair amount of work representing parents of special needs children. We also represent parents of kids who are facing disciplinary action from schools. Not many practice in this area, or not many people do enough of the practice that crosses the area of understanding school law, special education law, criminal defense and school disciplinary action.”

Reichhardt is an expert on special education. It may be a dispute making sure a child is eligible by state and federal law for special services within the school system. It could be a child who is eligible but may not be receiving appropriate services and placements. Lastly, it could be a child with disabilities facing other circumstances related to the disability, for example, discipline. “We represent parents of children with or without disabilities in disciplinary action and in criminal defense, either school related or not,” says Reichhardt.

A niche specialty that is critical. “To keep the point simple, we know statistically, and we know from our own practice and observation, that children with special needs, especially in the area of emotional disability, are at higher risk for involvement in the juvenile justice system and school disciplinary system.”

This is just the tip of the iceberg for Reichhardt who is an ardent child advocate and a champion for change in how schools are handling children, discipline, school and parental communication. He is working toward educating visionary changes to support children, families and schools rather than frustrate them.

Case: Making the Case for Custody
Katharine Maddox, a partner in the Maddox Law Firm, located in Tysons Corner, is dedicated to family law. “I am passionate about all of it, but my true passion is
custody. Custody is the real reason I am a family law attorney. My parents separated when I was 3-years old, and it has certainly shaped me as a person, and it impacts my own advice,” Maddox shares.

Maddox discusses one of the most difficult custody cases she ever had. Her client, a high-level senior executive feared for his children’s safety. He was in a marriage where he worked long hours, and his wife was a stay-at-home mom. At the time, his children were ages 3 and 9.

His wife had massive rage issues and rapidly changing moods. She would call him at work and tell him he better come home or she was going to kill the baby. He would rush home and find her laughing and playing with the kids.

“The abuse to the children, it wasn’t in your face; it was for the most part along the lines of neglect. From the hours of 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. the mom might forget to feed them. She would take long naps and let the toddler run around the house unsupervised, once letting her toddler play within 30 feet of a highway—overall, a basic failure to supervise.”

This mom was also a hoarder, and it wasn’t just things; it was animals. At any given time she would have 12 or more animals in the house, and she wouldn’t feed them or let them outside to go to the bathroom. Maddox explains, “Because of the mom’s actions, the rage, the neglect, we got permission from the court to have her undergo a psychological evaluation.”

Marcia Maddox was the lead attorney for the first trial, and a protective order was entered, and at the conclusion of the custody trial the father was awarded sole custody with the mom having only supervised visitation. There were several other custody trials, but the dad still retained sole custody of the children.

“It was Katharine’s combination of empathy, caring and absolute mastery of family law,” says her client. “That is how I knew she was the right one to help protect my children.”

When asked if he would pass along any other advice, her client advises, “Keep meticulous notes even as you’re in the midst of the situation. Keep a handwritten journal. It carries great weight with the court when you have taken the time to systematically, meticulously and passionately take notes and capture over time as things happen. I intended to be very active in the pursuit to protect my children.”

“What is important is not that we are trying to de-parent anybody, but that this was a seriously mentally ill woman who was incapable of caring adequately for these children,” says Maddox. “All of the experts have agreed that the dad’s No.1 priority has been on protecting the children.”

Case: Mediation Versus Litigation
There are instances of family law and other circumstances where mediation can be an effective tool. Enter attorney Charles Dunn, whose office is located in Fairfax.

“I tell all my clients that unless the other person is extremely unreasonable or has a substance abuse problem, or is assaultive or combative, that mediation is the best way to resolve a dispute as opposed to litigation,” says Dunn. He adds, “Litigation is extremely stressful, expensive and takes a lot of time.”

“There is a cottage industry of retired judges that do mediation. These retired judges usually like people to sign a binding agreement at the end of mediation,” says Dunn, who speaks highly of the retired judges. “The retired judge will be able to tell if, at the end of mediation, the people can’t get to a yes (within 5 percent) of what’s going to happen in court in respect to money, property, visitation, custody.”

Dunn is a huge proponent of mediation, though he will be the first to advise that one must use caution when signing agreements.

“There are times when counsel will suggest an outline and say, ‘This is the deal,’ but we will do a more formal, complete property settlement later. That is fraught with danger,” says Dunn. “If it has enough language in it that is final, it will be OK, but there is danger because if there is wording in there that we will do a final agreement later, there could be problems. Fill in the blanks on the final deal before you leave.”

Dunn reinforces this further. “If an agreement says it’s subject to a final agreement, that agreement is not valid. It is not able to be enforced. You get a final, formal agreement. Do not sign a memo agreement even if it says it’s final.”

The only exception Dunn makes to leaving without finalizing the agreement is if he feels the process has drawn on into the evening hours and that the parties may be better refreshed and come back another day to tackle the final agreement so that there is no buyer’s remorse the next day.

Case: Pets as Precious Property
Legal practices that pertain to issues with families need not only apply to humans, and in this day and age where people think of and refer to their pets as being “one of the family,” it is only fitting that there be laws regulating what will happen to a pet in an instance of separation, death, or even potential run-ins with other humans or animals.

So how can one benefit from understanding the legalities in regards to our pets? It’s just one more way of being a responsible pet owner. For example, if your dog were to bite someone, do you realize it could be listed on the dangerous dog registry online with the Commonwealth of Virginia? You would need either $100,000 worth of insurance or a $100,000 bond. Also, if you receive a dangerous dog summons, it functions like a criminal case even though it’s a civil one because it’s the Commonwealth against you. As a pet owner do you realize that under the law in Virginia, it is pretty clear that your dog or cat is your personal property? “That said, they still do have some unique status,” says Heidi Meinzer, an attorney with Bean, Kinney & Korman who specializes in companion animal law. “If your dog or cat is stolen from you, it is considered grand larceny no matter what. There is some acknowledgement that value goes beyond what you have paid for this animal—something not quite the level of a dependent, but something more than a chair or a table.”

Or that in Virginia companion animals are considered personal property. What does that mean? It means that in a child custody case, the judge says “I’m going to do what is in the best interest of the child.” However, with personal property I am just going to split the property up.

How does one adequately prepare for their pet in their absence? “If you have [a] person who is the most reliable person in the world who will take your dog if you end up sick or in a coma or pass away, you may not need estate documents,” says Meinzer. However, it may benefit you to draw up some documentation.

(December 2011)

By Colleen Sheehy Orme

Chris Leachman/Shutterstock

Most businesses launch then think of philanthropy later. Not so for Nefertiti, aka The CupCake Ladi. Her Reston store, The CupCake Ladi, is located in Lake Anne Plaza and boasts 97-percent organic ingredients. Her cupcakes are delicious, but the real story here is Nefertiti and how she earned her nickname.

As a child, Nefertiti would stuff candy into the hem of her uniform so that she could share it with the kids at school. As an adult, she found herself walking around giving out delicious popcorn or cupcakes. It became a part of her daily routine. If she was at the groomer, in a store, passing through a toll booth, she would hand out cupcakes.

“My grandmother always said if you can help people, you should help,” says Nefertiti. “Something that is paramount to me is giving.” That is all that propelled her, just the hope of spreading well-intentioned, philanthropic goodwill.

It wasn’t long before people started asking her why she didn’t make and sell her own cupcakes. So, in March of 2009 she launched www.TheCupCakeLadi.com.

Nefertiti decided she was going to choose some charitable organizations that meant a lot to her, animals, children, the homeless and the LGBT community. In her words, “I was going to do it big, meaning I was going to donate to these causes.” True to her word, she donates about a third of what her business generates to these causes.

All of her cupcakes are named after charities or people in her life. There is ‘Courage’ named after a German Shepherd rescue dog. There is the ‘Oh My Gosh Ganache’ a cupcake whose proceeds go to the Make-A-Wish Foundation.

“I just wanted to make other people happy,” says Nefertiti. It seems the CupCake Ladi is filling our tummies and our hearts.

Visit 11412 Washington Plaza W. Reston; 703-787-6775; www.thecupcakeladi.com 

(November 2011)

By Colleen Sheehy Orme

Illustration by Jesse Lefkowitz

The next time you have a martini, it could be in the name of improving team morale. Corporate team building improves communication and breaks down barriers within organizations.

Leesburg’s Lansdowne Resort, a 20-year-old resort located on the Potomac offering 45,000 square feet of conference space, conducts three successful team-building events giving companies a way to hone their team’s camaraderie and goal setting. One is as much fun as the next, and all create an environment where employees relax, forget corporate titles and build relationships.

“The resort does a very good job listening to their clients and working with them,” says Denise Benoit, director of public relations. “They want the client that is coming to the resort to have a successful meeting.” This philosophy led Lansdowne to develop three team builders.

The Martini Team Builder begins with the bartender providing a history on martinis while guests find a cozy place at the bar. Questions erupt, laughter and engaging conversation ensue, as guests then start to experiment with making their own shaken, not stirred, cocktails.

The Mystery Basket Team Builder divides guests into small groups. Each group is given a basket with several ingredients—one for the appetizer, salad, entree and dessert. The resort’s culinary team then helps them create something yummy.

In Cake Decorating, each group gets an undecorated cake and a theme. Then they are left to banter and build relationships on a personal level as they decorate.

“When you are cooking and sitting together, the title of who you are doesn’t matter anymore,” says Benoit. It becomes a bonding experience.

Team building events are for companies hosting 10 to 200 people. Contact Bree Benson, director of conference services, at 703-729-8400 or by email at bbenson@benchmarkmanagement.com. 

(November 2011)

By Colin Daileda

The debate of which is better—private or public education—will be one discussion that may never deem a winner, as the scenario is completely subjective. What one cannot argue is that private schools tend to have smaller student populations and more leeway in how their systems are run. So how, you ask, does this affect a student’s outcome?  

As your car rolls through the property, Fairfax Christian School unfolds like a scene from summer camp. The kindergarten building sits just off Hunter Mill Road, oversized number blocks framed in the windows. Off to the right of the entrance, a thin black road snakes through lush grass and towering trees on its way to the middle and high school, a large, two-story brick house with four white columns adorning the entrance. The centerpiece building stands nearly at the exact center of the property. In front of it, a field of thick trees rises up, their leaves entangling to form a thick canopy. Their immensity  gives the impression of tradition, of a landmark that’s stood the test of time. Through the trunks, you can just make out the elementary school, a small building that sits opposite the kindergarten.

Out the back door, a casual observer might see only a forest. More trees cover the brown earth. Wild turkeys and deer, a student says, are just part of the experience. Trails through the forest lead to a full-size soccer field and two outdoor basketball courts. Inside, the building-turned-school gives off an old-school aura. A small hallway leads students, administrators and teachers through the entrance and down a thin hallway, passing shallow classrooms that seat a maximum of around 20 students, although the average number of kids per class is about half that. Windows line the back of classrooms, state and U.S. flags stand to the right of the door on carpet a shade of green flatter than the grass outside. Rich mahogany wood adorns the principal’s office, its gold picture frames giving the impression that a proper principal with a monocle will walk in any minute.

But the man sitting in the principal’s chair at the moment is Jin Lee Sang, or James as everyone calls him. He’s not the principal, but a former student and current director of the Fairfax Christian School’s international program.

Courtesy of Sang Jin Lee

Lee graduated from the University of Virginia with a degree in commerce, and he dresses the part of a businessman. Black pants and shoes cover his bottom half, and he sports a white pinstripe shirt with a skinny, immaculate golden tie. His hair, cut in a sort of relative military high and tight, is trimmed neatly on the sides before exploding into a character-filled, yet controlled, jet-black fohawk.

He is Korean, about 5’9”, and speaks English with only a hint of an accent. Lee talks naturally, never struggling for the right word, and moves through the school naturally as well, in and out of classrooms as though they were rooms he grew up in. And in a way, he did grow up here.

Lee came to the United States as a sixth grader, living with his younger brother and aunt while his parents stayed in his native country. He knew so little English that his report card for his first year, as a sixth grader, at Fairfax Christian School had only one grade—an ‘A’ in math. Everything else was listed as ‘not applicable’ because he wasn’t able to understand assignments. But that wouldn’t be the case for long. If Fairfax Christian School is known for one thing, it is their English as a Second Language program.

Foreign students who come to the U.S. looking to attend college seek out the school, even if they come as 11th graders, because they know it’ll get them through ESL and into college prep classes the quickest. That’s what Lee was looking for.

“It took me about a good year,” says Lee. “When I dreamt in English, I knew that [I was] getting closer.”

The school churns out students from its ESL program and into mainstream classes quickly in part because of the small class sizes. There are only 250 students at the entire school, and a mere 80 in the high school. Lee credits the small-class environment with much of his success.

“I was kind of thankful that this school was a small school because I didn’t have to adopt too many things all at once,” says Lee. “If I were to be thrown into a public school when I spoke no English, then I would be busy learning English and making friends at the same time. But here I was able to concentrate on learning my English first before reaching out to school and non-school friends.”

The tiny class size helped James develop personal relationships with his teachers as well.

“My teachers really helped me in a big way,” says Lee. “They were able to spend more time with me because it was a smaller class.”

Lee’s favorite teacher at Fairfax Christian was Mr. Lambert, with whom he is not a colleague. Lambert was Lee’s ESL and Bible studies teacher as well as his bus driver. Lee wasn’t a Christian when he enrolled in Fairfax Christian, and practiced English with Lambert after hours by arguing the principles of the faith on bus rides. That’s not something students would be able to do with too many public school instructors.

Lee discovered that firsthand while taking geometry over the summer at Robinson Secondary School. The class was large, and the teacher wasn’t invested in the students beyond the grades they earned.

“I passed everything, but I was sleeping in the class,” says Lee. “The teacher didn’t care, so long as I did my work. I mean, it’s my fault that I took a nap, but at the same time [at Fairfax Christian] I can’t do that because there are only four other students beside myself. It’s pretty obvious if you’re snoozing.”

The tight-knit relationships with teachers helped Lee in another way, too. He got truly personal recommendation letters that he believes  gave him an edge when applying to schools. After talking to an admissions official at UVA, he discovered yet another reason the small environment eased his way into college.

At public schools, sports teams have tryouts. If you’re not good enough, you get cut. But at Fairfax Christian, if you want to be on the team, you make varsity. Lee played both basketball and soccer, something he readily admits he wouldn’t have had a chance to do in a public school. He also volunteered with the Republican Party, and got the opportunity to volunteer in other ways, building up the diversity in his portfolio to a point where it became difficult to ignore. In six years, Lee went from a boy new to the country who spoke no English to a fluent student very much prepared for the academic rigor of UVA, largely due to the private school experience.

The private school experience, as Fairfax Christian School Director Jo Thoburn puts it, is “a whole different ballgame” from public school.

Thoburn, who calls running a school “the perfect mom job,” went to all Fairfax County public schools growing up, eventually graduating from Fairfax High School after being transferred from Robinson Secondary School, and she says the difference in the environments is vast.

“You don’t have the distractions [in private school],” she opines. “You don’t have the stabbings in the hallway[as in some public schools]. You don’t have the crime. And, you don’t have the higher influence of pop culture.”

The surroundings are different, and Thoburn says the students are cut from a different stone, too.

“What is popular is different here,” says Thoburn. “I mean, the kids are kids no matter what to some degree, but the focus is different.”

Fairfax Christian School is not only a private school, but, like many other private schools as well, it is a college-prep school—100 percent of students are admitted into a college or university. Of the 15 students who made up the Fairfax Christian graduating class of 2011, two were admitted to Ivy League schools, an impressive 13 percent.

“The academics are much better [in private schools],” says Thoburn. “Period. No question about it.”

Fairfax Christian has always been an honors school in name, but they’ve only recently delved into Advanced Placement courses, shooting up from one to 19 of them in around five years.

But despite the success rate of the school, getting more students to attend is proving more than difficult.

Fairfax Christian’s campus is 28 acres and just around 250 students, simply because the county won’t allow them to admit more.

“We would really love to expand, and we’re turning people away,” says Thoburn. “Where do we go?”

China, apparently.

Because of the difficulties Fairfax Christian has with expanding in the county, they’re expanding internationally. Plans are in the works to open schools in five different cities in China, each housing approximately 100 students, with campuses set to open in the Fall of 2012.

But no matter what part of the world Fairfax Christian students are learning in, the motive for all of them remains the same.

“You go here because you want an education,” says Thoburn.

Students go to any college-prep school because they want an education. That school could be Fairfax Christian, or it could be Paul VI.

When Sheila Clarke, who’s been out of law school for a year now, went to Paul VI, it was because her parents thought that was what was best for their daughter, and she didn’t mind because all her friends were doing the same thing.

Clarke is a tall woman—she played volleyball in high school—with auburn hair and eyes that almost seem to match, embedded in a thin, attractive freckled face. She attributes much of her success at Vanderbilt University to the college-prep environment at Paul VI—if students knew they wanted to take calculus in college, they took pre-calculus in high school.

After graduating from Vanderbilt, Clarke attended law school at American University, giving her a great opportunity to work for Washington, D.C.- area firms. She wound up clerking for Cyron & Miller LLP in Old Town Alexandria, the same firm she currently works for as a litigation lawyer, and it was a lot more than luck that got her there.

Clarke says the environment of Paul VI engineered her success at Vanderbilt, which in turn set her up for success at AU, which gave her the opportunity to do well in the field. Yet Paul VI not only provided Clarke with a great education but with a vast alumni network. A Paul VI alumnus worked at Cyron & Miller LLP and saw that Clarke had also graduated from there. It didn’t hurt her application.

A few years later and Clarke is taking on 15 clients, a hefty load, and is in the process of getting appointed a child’s lawyer for kids in need, such as abuse victims, foster care children or children whose parents are getting divorced and can’t agree on what is best for their child. So far in her early professional career, she seems to be more than on track.

That wasn’t the case for Fairfax Christian School’s James Lee. After graduating from UVA, he quickly found a job as a salesman for a firm in Fairfax City. The problem was he was practically the only salesman.

“I love doing sales and marketing, but, at the same time, if the entire company is counting on me to make all the sales, it brings you a lot of pressure,” says Lee.

So after two months, he wanted out. Lucky for him, Thoburn called him and invited him to dinner. Soon after, she offered him a job as the director of Fairfax Christian’s international program. He had other offers from companies such as Audi, which wasn’t easy to turn down because of his love of cars, but he picked returning to Fairfax Christian.

“I ultimately chose Fairfax Christian because I love helping people, and I love when somebody says ‘Thank you for your help,’” says Lee. “I can impact a lot of people in a good way.”

The school served him, and he wants to return the favor.

Lee says, “I’ll be so happy when somebody could come back to me and say ‘Mr. Lee, I got into Harvard, and it’s because of your help.’”

By Colleen Sheehy Orme

Courtesy of Jesse Lefkowitz

What business or salesperson wouldn’t jump at the opportunity to increase sales? Vorsight (www.vorsight.com), based in Arlington, is doing just that, thanks to the vision of co-founder and CEO David Stillman and co-founder and chief content officer Steve Richard. Their clear corporate mission has allowed Vorsight the same type of substantial growth they are providing their clients.

The company launched in 2005, initially as an outsourced meeting scheduling firm for business-to-business sales meetings and business-to-government meetings. Their clients were so impressed with the results that they asked Vorsight if they could train them as well as set their appointments.

“We started as an outsourcer, but people came back to us and said, ‘Wow, you are outperforming our sales team,’” says Richard. “Customers began to ask, ‘What are you doing over there? Can you teach us what you are doing?’ When we started training people on prospecting, people kept telling us, ‘This is the best sales training I’ve ever been to.’”

Six years and 33 employees later, Vorsight offers five services: meeting scheduling, sales prospecting training, sales coaching, inside sales consulting and speaking engagements. Their customers span a wide array of industries including: legal, consulting, software, biotech, telecom and professional services.

What exactly can Vorsight do for you? They will set your sales appointments. Their clients boast a 25- to 100-percent increase in first sales meetings. They will also train your sales force so that they can harness the same results. They have helped hundreds of companies and trained thousands of sales representatives. They will even hire and train a sales team for you.

With 40 percent of their business coming from referrals of satisfied customers it is easy to see why in 2010 Steve Richard was named one of the “Top 25 Most Influential People in Inside Sales” by the American Association of Inside Sales Professionals (AA-ISP). It also reinforces that Stillman and Richard are correct in their belief that the initial part of the sales cycle must be mastered in order for the outside sales to translate. This is the most captivating aspect from a business perspective. Vorsight has focused intently on the beginning of the sales cycle and, in doing so, they have not only perfected it but they have shed significant light on the sales process.

Many companies traditionally combine marketing, inside sales and outside sales, but does this combined effort translate effectively into sustainable, qualified sales leads that generate into viable sales? By taking a step back and focusing on what Vorsight considers the most critical aspect of the sales cycle—the beginning—they may be changing the way businesses conduct their sales organizations.

Vorsight also utilizes an exceptional approach to that beginning process. They hire young Gen Y’ers to connect the dots between traditional sales and social media-impacted sales. Richard explains: “One thing that is really different is they grew up in a world of transparency and sharing, and that comes back to the interconnectivity of this generation.” In essence, Vorsight is harnessing the skills of the younger generation and their strong ability to connect with others. Uncovering the strengths of a more modern sales climate rather than fighting it, they’re increasing outside sales appointments.

“Most people approach social media from a marketing standpoint,” says Richard. “We approach social media from a selling perspective. There are salespeople who are getting this, and those salespeople are getting rich.”

(October 2011)