Revisiting Teachers & January Term Joy: 2026 Young Alumni J-Term Shadow Day

Just a few days after the kick-off of the 2026 January Term, a number of the fun elective courses featured special guests: recent GFS grads. Thursday, January 8, marked the second annual Young Alumni J-Term Shadow Day, when the classes of 2005-2025 were invited back to campus for a day of immersive learning and the chance to see favorite teachers and old friends. 

The attendees included some of our recent graduates from the Class of 2025, as well as many from the classes of 2018-2024. Most were home on winter break from college or graduate school, and jumped at the opportunity to sit in on J-Term courses like Bookmaking, African American Excellence, Making an Album, Engineering Design Challenges, and Parageography: The Craft of World Building.

Scheduling for the day was flexible for the young alumni; they could create a full, day-long schedule, attend one or two classes, or just drop in for lunch or a campus tour. 

“J-Term Young Alumni Shadow Day is one of the ways we welcome our alumni back to campus to reconnect with the community and experience first-hand the joy of J-Term,” said Director of Alumni Relations Heeseung Lee ’91. “Most importantly, it creates opportunities to engage with their beloved mentors who continue to inspire them.”

Seeing former teachers was one of the factors in Andy Regli’s ’19 decision to attend the Shadow Day this year. They were particularly keen to chat with Upper School math teacher Devra Ramsey, whose Mindfulness of Zentangle J-Term class they planned to join.

"Devra always made sure everyone had a strong grasp on math fundamentals," Regli noted. "One of my undergraduate degrees was in Electrical Engineering, focusing on signals and systems, which required working with a lot of advanced math techniques that I would not have been able to understand as easily without the foundation Devra created in my high school math classes."  

Regli was also excited to see history teacher and Director of Directed Independent Study Aaron Preetam, who taught them U.S. History in both eighth and twelfth grades, and was also their GFS Crew coach (Regli was a City Champ in 2018).

"When Aaron was my crew coach, he showed me how to improve my technique by connecting the sport to physics and pushed me to better myself every year," Regli said. "Both through teaching and coaching, Aaron was an incredible mentor—he is kind and supportive and helped me through so much in high school."

Regli, who went to graduate school in Ireland for their masters in music technology, now lives and works in Boston as an acoustical consultant. They brought their partner, Chuba Ozor, along with them to get an up-close look at the school that was such a big part of their life. 

“I talk about GFS so much because it's so unique in terms of a high school experience, and I wanted my partner to be able to see that,” they said.

Another highlight for Regli was attending Upper School Meeting for Worship.

“I miss going to Meeting for Worship because it forces you to stop and slow down,” they explained. “In high school, I was so busy all the time, and having a chance each week to just take a deep breath and think about life was really nice.” 

Avina Widyono '19 was eager to see Matt Zipin, a math and computer science teacher in the Upper School. Widyono, who credits Zipin with teaching her the fundamentals of the computer coding languages Python and C#, was excited to play a few hands of bridge in Zipin’s Bridge: The Greatest Card Game in the History of the World J-Term course. This was a popular choice among visiting alumni: Giza Molenaar ’18, Noah Eisenstein ’21, and Carolina Viswanath ’21 also joined in the fun. 

Zipin, who has taught at GFS for 38 years, is fondly regarded by generations of alumni and warmly remembers them, as well. 

“It’s always great to see former students and reconnect—some of them I worked closely with, and it's a thrill to see what they're doing and where their lives have taken them,” he said. “When we were all in Meeting and I watched the alumni stand up and introduce themselves, that was a fun turn-back-the-clock moment.”

The non-graded, explorative, and interdisciplinary nature of January Term still resonates with many young alumni, and for some, remains an important part of their lifelong learning journey.

Widyono noted that when navigating a career shift, memories of J-Term helped brighten the path forward.

“I always wanted to be a biology researcher—even before high school—but once I got there, I really didn’t like being alone in a lab all day,” she remembered. “So when I started to transition my career out of that, thinking back to J-Term helped me figure out what else I was interested in and passionate about.”

Many of the young alumni visitors stayed on campus through the end of the school day, then returned to campus for an evening film screening in Yarnall Auditorium. The screening featured short films, clips, and trailers spanning documentary, narrative, and television work by 15 alumni who have contributed to projects with The New York Times, Disney+, HBO, Comedy Central, Warner Brothers, Hulu, and other major outlets.

This collaboration between the Philadelphia Youth Film Festival, the GFS Film Department, and the Alumni Relations Office offered another way for students, families, faculty, and alumni to reconnect and celebrate the creativity within the GFS alumni community.