Congratulations to Dr. Isabelle Notter! The 2002 Caedmon graduate recently earned her Ph.D. from the Department of Sociology at Brown University.
Izzy's dissertation was entitled Intergenerational Transfers Between Adult Children and Their Aging Parents, a study on how families with older members pool together resources and provide financial assistance or care to one another in times of need. Izzy is an expert in demography, residential patterns, aging, segregation, and spatial statistics. She currently works as a Survey Statistician in the Small Area Estimates Branch at the U.S. Census Bureau where Izzy models estimates of poverty and health insurance coverage for small geographic areas.
When she's not researching and computing, Izzy attends to her houseplants, practices playing the banjo and ukulele, and likes to explore her current home city of Washington, D.C. Izzy made time for us recently to reflect on her impressive academic pursuits, her fondest memories of Caedmon, and the origins of her nickname.
You were the last Sixth grade class at Caedmon when you graduated in 2002. Tell us what it was like at Caedmon for you to have been in a mixed age, Fifth and Sixth grade class?
When I met kids from other schools, they always found it odd that we had mixed-grade classes, but I always liked it. I think the mixed-age classes made learning easier and more fun because, as students, we learned a lot from each other. It is always more fun to learn alongside and from your friends. It was a very special learning environment.
I remember my very last Caedmon Holiday Show. At the end of each show, we all got together on stage for the All School Sing to sing carols and songs together. The Beginners class and the Early Program classes were in the front playing in the paper “snow.” Before we performed for our families in the audience, the teachers prepared us tirelessly for this day. There was this feeling that we contributed to making this moment an amazing experience for the little ones. I felt very much a part of a community on that stage in St. Monica’s.
From your Caedmon years right through your doctorate, you’ve always been an official student. How have you maintained an appetite for learning through numerous postgraduate programs?
I have always been eager to learn, so whenever an opportunity arose to continue my education, I took it. Now that I am done pursuing formal education, I am looking forward to traveling to new places and trying new hobbies. In my current job, I am constantly learning and researching new statistical models, programming languages, and research topics—and I love it!
Can you link back your interest in sociology and demography to what you recall during your Caedmon years? What else inspired you to choose a concentration in those fields?
Even as a kid, I always liked math and talking to people. Teachers at Caedmon regularly provided me extra opportunities to work on more advanced math skills (thanks, Ms. Debye!).
And thinking back to my time at Caedmon, the people—the students, faculty, and staff are always central to my best memories.
Sociology and demography let me use statistics to learn more about people, their everyday lives, the most pressing social and political issues.
What are two or three special Caedmon memories that continue to resonate for you?
I loved math and language arts, but the specials were the best. Library with Ms. Vrazel taught me invaluable research skills and a love for reading. I always felt so fancy sitting at those tall reading chairs. To this day, I love reading all sorts of books and am a regular visitor at my local public library. I continue to surprise my friends and colleagues with my knowledge of the card catalog and Dewey Decimal System.
Art class with Ms. Moross was a great avenue for me to express myself creatively and learn about so many mediums! I later learned that my talents lie elsewhere than the arts, but Ms. Moross was always so encouraging and opened our eyes to so much. We painted landscapes with oils and watercolors. We sculpted Greek and Roman gods and goddesses out of clay. I was assigned Diana/Artemis and she will always be my favorite. We even made our own jigsaw puzzles one time.
P.E. was my favorite at Caedmon. I might not be remembering it correctly, but it felt like the Presidential Fitness Challenge was always after Friday’s pizza lunch. I was always so excited, it didn’t matter. Somehow, in that tiny gym, Mr. Donnelly and Mr. Jollon managed to get us all to play dodgeball, basketball, tennis, every sport imaginable—completely defying the laws of physics.
The absolute best memories at Caedmon were the Holiday and Spring Shows. Mr. Minahan and Mr. Davidson led the charge and got the entire school involved twice a year to put on some of the most creative shows. It would take me another year or so to learn that my role of the Ghost of Chanukah is not in the original Christmas Carol. I did learn an appreciation for music from an early age and that there is a Beatles song for almost any occasion.
I could go on and on about my memories of Caedmon. I learned yoga at age ten from Ms. Kindred and it was the best way to center myself before my Friday spelling test. After school programs let me nerd out about Harry Potter, learn to cook, and play even more sports.
Caedmon was truly an extraordinary and formative place for me.
In Early Program, Ms. Bonet gave me the nickname Izzy and I still go by that name today!
What advice would you give the current Caedmon community about preparing today’s young students for a rapidly changing world?
It is very cliché, but the only thing we can count on is change. Teach young students how to learn and to adapt and to be flexible when things don’t go according to plan. We make mistakes and people around us make mistakes and the universe makes mistakes. And yet, things tend to work out. I don’t spend a lot of time with children, but as a young student for most of my life, I can say that we want to learn. Eventually, we have to narrow our focus or specialize in a certain field or skillset. Until then, encourage our interests and let us explore.
