Author: matt.kelemen

Let’s start off as we must: We are deeply fortunate that our jobs do not require significant exposure to COVID-19, and that the schools and organizations where the kids spend their time have taken this virus, in all its permutations, quite seriously. We have done what we can to keep ourselves and others safe — masking, distancing, vaxxing, boosting, the works. As a result, we are grateful to ring in a new year healthy and well and ever grateful to the many people whose work puts them in harm’s way to make all of our lives possible.

As has become our tradition, here are our updates:

Mojito 

This year I had to do some adjusting. First off, my people LEFT me for an extended period of time during the foggy days. After that, Dylan left completely. Weird. Then Adela was gone nearly all day most days of the week. Sheesh. What could be more important than petting me? I will say the backyard improvements were pretty cool. I got to hide under the new ferns and other plants that Matt organized and everyone planted. And there were still a lot of outdoor BBQ events, just not with enough shrimp or crab in my opinion. 

Adela

I don’t think any of us expected a year like this. When the pandemic started in 2020, I was ready for a few weeks off of school. Heck, maybe we’d even get a month. I was expecting to get out of quarantine and have life return back to normal. I was sorely disappointed. Instead, I spent a year adjusting to a completely new lifestyle. Some people said they were going to make the best of the pandemic: start working out, and go on a diet. I, on the other hand, decided to do nothing. I don’t mean slouch around all day, which frankly, I did plenty of. I meant I wasn’t going to force myself to do things I didn’t want to do. Do yoga in the morning? Sure! Don’t do yoga in the morning because I wasn’t feeling up to it? Just as fine! When I needed to take a break from Zoom school, I would just step away from my computer. If I wanted to go on a walk to look at the sunset, I would. Try and pick up a new hobby? Let’s do it. It made me reevaluate my time and my priorities. Every once in a while, you have to step back and ask, “Are the things that I’m doing really the things I want to do? Or just the things I think I’m supposed to do?” 

Some of the new things that happened to me were not by choice. This year I had my first ever live virtual performance with my chorus. That was wild. I mean, who would even think those three words would ever be in the same sentence? I started volunteering to mentor young singers over Zoom. I started biking more to avoid public transportation. I spent almost all my time in my own house or outside. Before long, the things that I would have considered normal and expected had become the unexpected. Going to school in person. Traveling on a plane.  Performing a concert live, in person, and with no masks. Eating in a restaurant. I realize how much we had taken for granted. And how many things we grew to think of as mundane in years past are now actually exceptional. 

Dylan

From Jack Johnson to Vladimir Nabokov, I read a lot this year. Granted, living out in the Berkshires means that there isn’t much else to do with my time. However, when I did put the books down, I spent most of my time down at Cole Field or shooting pool with my new friends. College has forced me to really change my approach to learning. Between setting my own deadlines and having fewer hours of class per week, I had to change the way I structured my work. Classes went from lectures to discussions, optional readings were not optional, and study groups were a necessity. While I enjoy sharing stories about the new friends I made, and the soccer season we had, the hours spent at my desk reading page after page into the nights will not be forgotten. 

Coming off of a year and a half of lockdown in San Francisco, Williamstown felt like a different world. Nestled in the heart of the Berkshires, I got the chance to really experience New England in all of its grandeur. When I arrived, the blazing 90 degree temperatures had me sweating at all hours of the day. But as the weather cooled off and the leaves started to change, I could sort of understand why some make the argument that the east coast tops the west. 

When the first snow arrived, the jokes began. “Guys, this is crazy, I’ve never seen snow before!” I exclaimed to my peers born and raised 20-40 minutes outside of Boston. Of course most of you know that I have in fact seen snow before, and even partake in winter sports most years. The responses from my friends varied, some worried for my life in negative temperatures, others perplexed at the concept of growing up in a place with no real seasons. Alas, there were some skeptics as well… “Isn’t there snow in Tahoe?” they asked, or a straight up, “No way. That’s not true.” All in all, when the snow eventually came, and temperatures fell below zero, I can proudly say that I was prepared. Granted, it is COLD. Maybe the coldest I’ve ever been, but something about living in a real winter excites me. So as January moves along, I keep doing my little snow dance, jealous of the 10 feet in Tahoe, hoping to wake up to a blizzard…at least I think that’s what I want. 

Coming to Williams, I had a lot of different expectations as to how my first semester would go. The one headline that surprised me was how quickly I became a night owl. Between readings, problem sets, and afternoon classes, I promptly adopted a stereotypical collegiate student sleep schedule. Going home for break may have slightly fixed this unruly routine, but as next semester quickly approaches, I’ll no doubt be back at my desk reading long into the night.

Matt

My work at New Leaders continues to be a source of inspiration and challenge. Through colleagues, clients, and the school leaders we serve, I have been witness to extraordinary feats of courage and perseverance. We are working hard every day to strengthen the quality of principal preparation, so that school leaders are armed not only to take on the nearly impossible challenges of leading through a pandemic, but also to create inclusive and racially just school communities. It has been simply infuriating to watch our schools become a crucible for political opportunism, especially from the most reactionary elements of our body politic, when teachers and principals are just trying to make it from one day to the next. I recently joined the school governance team for Adela’s high school in order to help a little bit more.

Looking back on 2021, I realize that I have mostly created a virtual social web. The Dead Poets Society — our 30-member family call — has been going strong week-in and week-out. On a monthly basis, I’ve been convening a happy hour of my closest college friends — James, James, and Dave. And I kept up facilitation of our amazing bookclub, now called Saplings, where we read on the theme of displacement and exile before moving on to transformation.

Perhaps because I spent so much of my time online this year, the things I recall most fondly from 2021 all happened outdoors. Leveling up my game as a gardener (I’m still very much in the novice category). Hiking “the Notch” with my dad during a December family gathering in Vermont. And, best of all, trekking the Lost Coast of California for three off-the-grid days with Dylan and Adela.

Jeannette

2021 brought me many reasons to be hopeful, maybe because I was determined to reclaim a better balance after the turmoil and stress of 2020. Amidst the enduring issues of racial injustice, climate change, attacks on democracy, and COVID-19, I appreciated several sources of inspiration – most of them from wise and bold women. Here’s a snippet of what’s been keeping me going . . . 

“I have learned you are never too small to make a difference.” — Greta Thunberg, COP24 Speech (2018)

“When America is at its best, we acknowledge the complexity of our societies and the complicating reality of how we experience this country—and its obstacles. Yet we never lose sight of the fact that we all want the same thing. We want education. We want economic security. We want health care. Identity politics pushes leaders to understand that because of race, class, gender, sexual orientation/gender identity, and national origin, people confront obstacles that stem from these identities.” — Stacey Abrams, Our Time is Now (2020)

“Hope is an embrace of the unknown and knowable, an alternative to the certainty of both optimists and pessimists. Optimists think it will all be fine without our involvement; pessimists take the opposite position; both excuse themselves from acting. It’s the belief that what we do matters even though how and when it may matter, who and what it may impact, are not things we can know beforehand.” — Rebecca Solnit, Hope in the Dark (2004)

“To build community requires vigilant awareness of the work we must continually do to undermine all the socialization that leads us to behave in ways that perpetuate domination.” – bell hooks, Teaching Community: A Pedagogy of Hope (2003)

“Action on behalf of life transforms. Because the relationship between self and the world is reciprocal, it is not a question of first getting enlightened or saved and then acting. As we work to heal the earth, the earth heals us.” — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass (2013)

“Be Love. Find Joy. Do Good.” — Bernadette Chi, words to live by (2021)

In my day to day, I engage in redesign efforts in education. My work in the U.S. is focuses on rethinking and redesigning schools and districts so they are more equitable, relevant, student-centered, civic-minded, and engaging. With colleagues in Chile, I train educators to design and implement high quality project-based learning. Beyond my professional world, I remain active in “Get Out the Vote” campaigns, my church community, connecting with family and friends, and trying to stay on top of my bookclub reading. My other “Get Out” campaign in 2021 was an effort to stay physically active. While that was often limited to working out in our garage mini-gym, on better days it included long walks, bike rides, or ski ventures. After we were vaccinated and felt safe enough, we ventured out socially, traveling east to see family during the summer. Later I dropped off Dylan to Williams College with my folks. In December, I embarked on my first work trip in nearly two years, and we closed out the year with a lovely holiday visit in Vermont. 

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2021 is also the year that the reactionary Right wing of our country tried to foment a coup, and they almost pulled it off. Since January 6th, what’s become eminently clear is an attempt to whitewash that failed plot, to normalize the rioting and obfuscate the planning, all in an effort to consolidate and regain power. There are lots of things to fight for as we move deeper into 2022, but perhaps none is more critical than holding the lot of them accountable. And since only a few Republicans are willing to stand up and do the right thing, it’s up to the rest of us to keep up the work of democracy, which we can only do by winning more elections.

In September, we had the chance to see Mon Laferte in concert. She is, simply put, a powerhouse. A Chilean singer who lives and works in Mexico and who channels the revolutionary and feminist spirit of women across Latin America. In one of her 2021 releases, she asks, “Qué alguien me explique lo que pasó con la democracia… ¿Pa’ dónde fue? ¿Quién se la robó?” (“Can somebody explain to me what happened to democracy? Where did it go? Who stole it?”)

This year, we hope you will join us in the work to be sure that we don’t need to keep asking ourselves that question. And we hope that the new year will bring many more of you to our backyard — we’d like to see you in person.

2021 by the numbers

0 – work trips for Matt

1 – moose spotted on Cole Field where the Williams men’s soccer team plays home games

2 – hours Dylan physically attended high school during his senior year (kid you not)

4 – people in our household who legally drove in the state of California

5 — hours Adela spent at Dylan’s school (taking – and acing – the AP Spanish exam)

6 — number of cuisines our Chilean friend Sol fell in love with while visiting us in San Francisco 

10 — concerts Adela sang in: 4 virtually, 5 in-person, and 1 recorded live and later streamed 

12 – doses of COVID vaccine injected into our arms

17 – date in August when Dylan cast his first ballot (in the recall election for Governor Newsom)

25 – miles of California Lost Coast trekked by Adela, Dylan and Matt

27 – our favorite soccer player wears this number (you can probably guess who)

50 — percent of women serving as constitutional assembly members (as defined by law) to rewrite Chile’s constitution and rid it once and for all of the trappings of the dictatorship

70 – percent of the day that our cat, Mojito, spends sleeping

80 – milestone birthdays for Pop-Pop Kelemen and Uncle Pete 

3000+ — number of stained-glass windows Adela enthusiastically called out while walking, cycling, or driving

There are years that come and go. Years that hold no special significance in our collective memory. And then there are years that are forever seared in our minds because of profound historical events or personal milestones. 2020 — a year so often imagined in strategic plans and science fiction novels — will forever be a year remembered, simply because we have never had another year like it in our life times. And at the end of such a year, maybe it’s just enough to say, we’re still here.

Mojito

2020 was amazing! All my humans were home almost all of the time. They gave me lots of attention — lots of petting and playtime. They wore strange face coverings before they went outside, so that was weird. And they were on their devices a lot. I think I am the only one in the family who wants 2021 to be just like last year.

Adela

This year music was a huge part of my life, even more than it had been before. That might be surprising, because I was already spending half of each school day, two late afternoons a week and the occasional all-day Saturday rehearsal, singing. But this year I haven’t had much else to do, so I’ve really been able to focus on it. 

One thing that’s been great about studying music in and out of school is being able to meet incredible artists. I had the opportunity to listen to Dr. Ysaÿe M. Barnwell, from Sweet Honey in the Rock, who gave a guest talk in one of my classes. She spoke about the power music has and ways we can use it to improve our communities. I also got to partner with local Bay Area artists like The Living Earth Show through the San Francisco Girls Chorus. I even had the opportunity to collaborate on a project with The King’s Singers, a well-known English acapella group. I have been able to learn from and collaborate with these artists because sheltering in place has given artists a new space online to connect. Being across the country, or even on a different continent, is no longer the barrier it used to be. 

In school we did an interesting project about different protest songs throughout history. Our group studied the LGBTQ+ liberation movement and the many artists that have contributed to it. Songs like Lady Gaga’s “Born this Way” and Elton John’s “I’m Still Standing” have become anthems for the movement, and a way for people in the community to feel empowered. I also got introduced to music from other movements like the Chicano Farm Workers in California and Anti-Apartheid protests in South Africa. I find it really interesting that music is used all around the world to make change. Music can be very powerful because it brings people together. It also helps communicate a message and lets people be heard. 

I’ve also been able to grow musically in other ways besides singing. I’ve dedicated a lot of my time to improving my piano skills. And I taught myself a few chords on the guitar. I even brought out my old flute from elementary school, but I still only know how to play a B and a C. Learning a new instrument is a fun way to pass the time, even if I’m not the best at it. There are all kinds of ways to express yourself with music, and I plan on learning more ways in 2021. 

Jeannette

Early in the year Matt and I participated with Adela in San Francisco’s annual MLK March and were proud to hear her speak to all the people gathered at Yerba Buena Gardens with other youth, city officials and faith leaders. Adela emphasized the need for us to address environmental injustice and the disproportionate negative impact it has on communities of color. Later in the year we marched on multiple occasions, expressing despair for the murders of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor and countless others, offering our support for the Black Lives Matter movement. But marches and speeches were only part of the call this year. We were called through work/school, in our neighborhood, through our communities of faith, among our friends and family members, and with voter registration drives to expand our efforts for racial justice. 

Before the pandemic cut off travel, I managed two trips – one to New York City and another to San Diego – both which afforded me terrific learning opportunities with talented colleagues and evening meet-ups with friends and family. It broke my heart to cancel my spring trip to Chile, but I was able to convert some of in-person engagements to virtual events. I paid a lot of attention to how students and educators were meeting the challenges of teaching and learning without physically going to school, and supported my projects while working from home. 

Apart from work, I volunteered gobs of hours campaigning for candidates and getting out the vote. Some weeks I wrote postcards and/or did text banking, and other weeks I was calling voters or taking shifts on a voter hotline for Spanish speakers. Adela was a huge help, and we cured ballots together in Nevada after election day – a trip we’ll both remember for a long time since we were getting ready to drive to Reno when we learned the election results had been called. I’m especially grateful for Black women in our country. Despite the fact that they were denied the right to vote when the 19^th Amendment was passed in 1920, Black women have been consistent guardians of citizenship. Ninety-three percent of Black women supported the Biden-Harris ticket, and a record number of Black women both ran for and won seats in Congress. Thanks to the efforts of Stacey Abrams, Michelle Obama, Aimee Allison, LaTosha Brown, Andrea Miller and scores of other dedicated folks across the country, we saw impressive voter registration drives and the highest percent of eligible voters casting their ballot in over a century. 

Being physically active was part of being civically active this year. Matt and I trained and fundraised for the AIDS LifeCycle together, and we completed 545 miles of a “do-it-yourself” version of the ride during the summer. Thanks to so many of you, we reached our fundraising goal of $10,000 for the San Francisco AIDS Foundation and the Los Angeles LGBT Center. In the U.S., there were nearly 38,000 new HIV diagnoses reported in 2018, and 42% of those were among Black adults and adolescents. There are 1.2 million people in the U.S. living with HIV. For 2021, I committed to ride 1,000 miles and raise $2,500 by June 30^th for the AIDS LifeCycle, which this year is called TogetheRIDE. If you’d like to support my effort, you can access my fundraising page here. To date I have raised roughly 15% of my pledge. Any amount helps! 

Other connections and activities sustained me in this challenging year – Zoom calls with family and friends, weekly yoga classes, reading, virtual services, long walks, lots of cooking, ongoing Spanish lessons and music. I imagine I will continue to depend on them for much of 2021. 

Dylan

I could have been original this year, especially because it will be my last year contributing to this letter as a kid. But I can officially report that senioritis has set in. So, in lieu of a COVID essay, I will try to entertain my avid readers with a piece that really sums up my life up until this point. Without further adieu…[insert drum roll]…I present you with the Personal Statement that I used to apply to college:

I am who I am because of my friends. It is through the effort I take to befriend people and really know them that I make sense of the world and my place in it. Take Pablo (one of my classmates) and Jorge (one of my teammates). When my friends talk about Pablo, they talk about his sense of humor. He is quite funny, but I also know him as trusting and compassionate, a good listener, and extremely hardworking. My teammates know Jorge as a workhorse on the soccer field. But I have seen him quietly working on advanced math or chatting long-distance with his little sister.

Jorge, Pablo, and other friends know how much I care about them. As a result, they respect me and even see me as a leader.

It started on the elementary school playground, the center of my world. I can name just about every boy on that blacktop, along with their strengths and interests. It usually fell to me to pick teams and referee disputes, all while trying hard to win at everything.

It evolved when I moved to Chile as a twelve year old. While I vividly remember sobbing into my pillow at 3 a.m. on our first night in Santiago, missing my friends in San Francisco, I worked quickly to forge new relationships. I deciphered the slang, adapted to a new style of play on the pitch, and leaned into friendships. Slowly, my environment began to feel less foreign and I began to feel more Chilean.

What came next is what I am most proud of — stepping into the leadership that comes from being an authentic friend. At my soccer club, known as the top training ground for players in Chile, I staked my claim as a starter and forged bonds of brotherhood that will last a lifetime. I was demanding, urging my teammates to work harder and get better. My coaches noticed, naming me captain of my age group in my second year, despite being the only foreigner.

My friendships also illuminated the deep class chasm that exists in Chilean society, separating boys like Jorge and Pablo (not their real names). While these two friends of mine are similar — both incredibly hardworking and compassionate — they could not come from more different backgrounds. 

Jorge lives in the dorms of Club Deportivo Universidad Católica and his dad travels 10 hours every week to see him play. Soccer is his ticket to social and economic advancement. Needless to say, he has a lot on his shoulders. 

Pablo is wealthy and attends an elite high school. His grandfather was rector of Universidad Católica under the dictatorship, rubbing elbows with Pinochet and the Chicago Boys who ran Chile’s economy. Whatever his personal goals, Pablo is set for life.

With friends on each edge of this chasm, I tried to be a bridge. I led a class project with Habitat for Humanity, organizing my classmates to build shelters for families in dire health conditions. I was thrilled to learn that they continued this work after I left Chile.

I returned to the States better armed with the knowledge of how people affect my life and how I can affect theirs. Some things felt like just the right next steps. Joining a competitive soccer team, where we reached the National Championship in my first year; volunteering at the San Francisco/Marin food bank to provide meals to my community; and most importantly, making new friends. 

Other things were strange and new. I came home to a San Francisco confronting racial justice and the climate crisis and found myself with questions about how I will contribute to positive change. I do not have the answers today, but I do know that I will not find those answers alone. I will find them through the relationships that I build and sustain.

This year really has been a rollercoaster…or at least a merry-go-round… that was sanitized… and limits the number of riders… you get the point. I do appreciate all the time of reflection, looking towards the future, whatever that may bring.

Matt

I continue to take great joy and pride in my work at New Leaders, an organization focused on promoting racial justice by developing leaders of color and their equity-focused allies to transform learning outcomes for students of color and students facing poverty. Through my work partnering with universities, we were able to broker a partnership with Morehouse College to create and implement a new approach to principal preparation, one that we believe will be transformative in our field. It’s been a gift to me to deepen my understanding of what institutions like Morehouse — which was born out of Reconstruction and which counts Dr. King among its alumni — mean for the past, present and future of our country.

By necessity, this was a year of turning inward. By dint of having nowhere else to go, I gave my attention to our backyard. Since we returned from Chile, we have aspired to create a “quincho,” a grill area intended for entertaining friends and family. Dylan and I partnered on it and leveled up on our construction skills as we transformed almost every inch of our space into a patio, a grill, and a refurbished garden. Little did I know it would also serve well as a writing nook.

I also started a weekly family video conference, which I dubbed the Dead Poets Society. Every Sunday, without fail, the Kelemen/Cone clan — thirty of us if I’m counting correctly — pop onto the screen to give updates, complain about the news, answer trivia, and read poetry. Way out here in California, I am grateful for the chance to be closer to my family so often.

I turned 50 this year. I intended to celebrate that milestone visiting my best friend in Montreal and then completing the AIDS LifeCycle from SF to LA. We didn’t get to do those things, but Jeannette and I honored those who donated to the cause by completing our own 545 miles of cycling. The rides gave me three things. One, a deeper appreciation for the natural glory of California. Two, a new way to spend time with Jeannette. And three, a reminder of my mom’s many years of working to end the scourge of AIDS. 

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This year we hunkered down physically to protect ourselves and our community from the perilous spread of COVID-19. And we doubled down on our commitment to lift up the voices, needs and experiences of others as we fought to protect and expand our democracy. For the coming year, among our many wishes and hopes, the one that rises to the top is to see you in person. Whenever you feel like coming by, we’ll prep the grill.

2020 by the numbers

0 – number of sourdough loaves baked in our home – but Adela & Jeannette made macarons!

1 – estimated number of bears who stole our food hanging from a tree at our campsite during the middle of the night

3 – number of campers welcomed into the Kelemen extended family. Jenny & Gregg visited us in their camper (“Ramona Corona”) in August. Kathy & Dana named their “Cone-a-bago” (aka “The Banana Bus”); and one brilliant baby girl named Camper was born in June.

7 – inches Adela’s hair has grown since March

15 — number of college application essays Dylan wrote in 2020 — hard to believe he’s a senior!

20 – years of marriage Jeannette & Matt celebrated with a lovely dinner in our backyard

50 – years celebrated on Matt’s milestone birthday with a lovely dinner in the dining room

78 — percent of Chileans who voted for a new constitution in October, one year after massive protests began throughout the country. This April they will elect 155 representatives who will comprise the convention to rewrite their constitution. 

93 — percent of Black women who voted for the Biden/Harris ticket

350 – estimated number of peaches and nectarines we picked from The Masumoto Family Farm this year

3,655 – number of hours collectively spent on Zoom in our household in 2020

7,100 – highest elevation (in feet) Matt & Jeannette reached on their “Do It Yourself” AIDS LifeCycle – the day they rode 73 miles around Lake Tahoe — spectacular ride!

10,000+ — number of voters Jeannette & Adela reached via postcards, letter, texts, calls and in person door knocks

There’s a tendency to focus on the momentous things in end-of-year reflections — new schools, homecomings, job changes, travels. And 2019 has had those things for us. But in some ways, 2019 for us is best reflected in the quotidian. Simply living together under one roof back in our home in San Francisco (something we last did in June of 2015). Having breakfast before school and work on a weekday morning. Or staying out late with friends on a Saturday night. Or coming home to find Mojito waiting for attention. Yes, perhaps this year can be best summed up as the year of the cat, the year when an adorable creature that Adela brought into our lives a few months before we ticked over to 2019 brought us all joy and anchored us even more to home.

Adela: I love watching my friends’ faces when I try to explain how classical music can be beautiful, with its fluctuating harmonies and mournful melodies. But, I bet they laugh at mine when they talk about the time it takes to memorize choreography. Going to art school is everything I could have asked for, getting to be with people who have such fascinatingly different interests, but all done with passion and love for our individual art forms.

The end of the decade has already brought some changes to my life. I ended middle school, thoroughly excited to join the Ruth Asawa School of the Arts, where I had been accepted in May after a nerve-racking audition in February. I was so thrilled my hard work had paid off, but so much more was yet to come.

Over the summer, I had the amazing opportunity to spend time in Greece with my grandma, aunt, cousin and mom. From dust-covered ruins to sand-covered beaches, we explored Athens, the Peloponnese peninsula, and two spectacular Greek islands. The interesting history and relaxing beauty of such an incredible place was a great way to spend time with family and learn more about worlds before us. Then, my mom and I traveled to meet up with the other side of my family in the rolling hills of Ireland. A whole new history, especially a more personal one, was one of the numerous spectacular things we got to do. I got to meet several distant cousins living there that I never knew I had, and we hit it off immediately. It was so fun to make new connections with people I never knew I had any connection to. It was so amazing.

August, the start of my first year as a high schooler at Ruth Asawa SOTA, was the start of a world I didn’t know existed ’til now. I got to meet so many great people so passionate about art, dance, architecture, creative writing, and so much more. It has been so entertaining. I’ve met artistic and interesting people, and I couldn’t have asked for better friends.

For two-plus years, I had been preparing for my Bat Mitzvah and, in October of 2019, I finally celebrated  it. It was not only a new pathway towards self-discovery, but also a way to connect with family and friends in a place that’s special to me. 

The decade might be ending, but my life is nowhere near that. I’m thrilled to continue growing and starting an adventure to last a lifetime.. with my cat.

Dylan: I am The Mover. This name was given to me for a variety of reasons, and it embodies every aspect of my life this year. This year began with my move back to the Bay, marking the conclusion of our time in Chile. This process turned my life on its head just as it had three-and-a-half years before as we packed up our house and headed off towards the unknown. Some will argue that the move back can’t be considered the “unknown,” but looking back at my life this year, I realize that it was nothing like my life before Chile.   

As most who read this letter know, I have been immersed in the world of soccer for many years. And this year was no different. Upon my return to the States, I completed my move to the club De Anza Force. I have been with them for the duration of this past year and have made various moves towards my future, whether that be pursuing a professional career in Europe or pushing towards a college education while continuing to develop as an athlete. The move has opened up many doors and opportunities for me to advance within this passion of mine and I look forward to what the future holds. 

Another big step I took this year was shared with my dad, as we sought Hungarian citizenship. We spent half of the year learning this unbelievably difficult language only to fake our way through a citizenship interview in Budapest. Thankfully (and miraculously), we passed said interview, submitted our documents and have been playing the waiting game for the approval of our application. This was an important milestone towards our goal to obtain a European passport and helps me move forward towards potentially living in Europe with a professional contract or attending a European university. This moves us closer to a new world of possibilities that I am intrigued to explore throughout next year. 

I have moved through three educational systems in the last year, all fundamentally different. While leaving Chile, I was also leaving a private education, something I have been exposed to exclusively in South America. Then, upon moving back to San Francisco in January, I took the first half of the year to devote my time to things that felt important to me. Obviously, soccer was involved as I continued to develop my athletic ability; but these months provided me with a freedom that I had never experienced before. Among the things that I devoted my time to, I like to highlight my decision to volunteer substantially with the SF/Marin Food Bank. I volunteered multiple times per week and over the seven months totaled more than 200 hours packing food for those in the Bay Area in need of help. This experience opened my eyes to the reality that I had returned to and moved me, both intellectually and emotionally, to understand that I have the ability and responsibility to provide what I can for those in need. However, this is not where the year ends. After the seven months of “free time” I decided that I was ready to return to the traditional institution of school (ugh). Come late August, I re-enrolled in the SFUSD public school system at Lowell High School, reconnecting with many old friends that I had left four years prior. This moved me as a person and demonstrated to me what kind of a person I really am. I as a social, interactive mover, who can’t sit still (literally) and someone who needs to be engaged with others at all times to grow as a person. All of these changes enlightened part of me that I had only caught glimpses of over the years and I am humbled to have had this special opportunity to move through these many environments at such a young age.  

Finally, and most importantly, this year was the first time I got to spend any substantial quality with our amazing 5th family member. Mojito has revolutionized our lives in ways that we couldn’t have imagined (and some that we could) and in the spirit of reflection he has given me this title. To him, I am The Mover. I pick him up, imposing my affection on him — maybe too much (especially when he doesn’t want it)… and so I have officially earned this label. I am The Mover, and this is reflected in how I present myself to the world and it encompasses my life as a whole. 

Matt: I spent half of 2019 learning Hungarian. Or at least enough of that very tricky language to complete a quest that started in the 1880s, when my great-grandfather Albert Kelemen was born in Debrecen, Hungary, allowing me a century and a half later to apply for Hungarian and European Union citizenship. Dylan joined me on this quest, unraveling the mysteries of Hungarian with the amazing assistance of our teacher-by-Skype Lídia Körmöndi (Köszönöm szépen, Lídia!) and traveling to Budapest to sit for an interview and submit proof of ancestry. We have a few months yet to wait to learn our fate, but the hard part is over and we expect to have EU passports before 2020 comes to a close.

The other half of the year was consumed with a new job. I have, with great excitement, re-joined New Leaders, a non-profit committed to transforming educational opportunity for students of color and students facing poverty by developing effective school leaders. I am leading a new line of work for New Leaders, one that is focused on partnering with colleges and universities to transform principal preparation. While it is difficult to set aside the good work Jeannette and I have been doing together with our clients, I know that Kelefors Consulting, LLC is in good hands.

In between these two half-years, we enjoyed a truly memorable family gathering in Ireland. Twenty-two of us — my mom, her sister, and their families — crossed the Atlantic, met up with our Broderick cousins, saw the homesteads of our Irish ancestors, skulled pints, crooned ballads, and spun yarns. It was the homecoming of all homecomings. And it was made all the more special when all of those family members, plus more family and many friends, traveled out to California just a few months later to celebrate Adela as she became bat mitzvah.

A few other notable memories: traveling to Montreal to see Jason and to meet Emily and Maurice; accompanying Dylan to Southern California as his team advanced all the way to the national semifinals; and, for the first time ever, having a pet.

In five months time, I’ll be 50 and will have shared 20 years of marriage with Jeannette, milestones we are celebrating with a 545-mile bike ride from SF to LA. Many of you have graciously donated to our ride and we are so grateful for that.

Jeannette: Despite having a new constant in Mojito to our daily lives in San Francisco, I started 2019 not sure how many months I’d be spending in Chile in 2019. Dylan made the decision in mid-January to return to the U.S. for school and soccer, kicking off a month of flurried activity to terminate our lease and pass on a household worth of stuff. I was hopeful that I could maintain some work on exciting and interesting projects, visit with friends, and keep up my Spanish, but I just wasn’t sure how it would all work out. 

In March the Chilean government notified me that my request for permanent residency (a saga which began in Sept 2015) had been approved, but would require me to complete the process in person, so I planned a trip to Santiago in April to claim it, further some work projects, and reconnect with friends. Of course the bureaucratic process caused me some white knuckles moments to the very end, but alas I have an official “home away from home” for as long as I can keep up an annual trip to Chile. In August I returned for an intense work-focused trip, grateful for opportunities to advance several projects related to teacher and school leader training in project-based learning. The tumultuous events of mid-October threw everything up in the air (more about that below), but I have planned my first 2020 trip to Chile toward the end of March.

Back at home, I was delighted to continue compelling work with my U.S. clients, and engage a new project with the Learning Policy Institute founded by my thesis advisor and mentor Prof. Linda Darling-Hammond supporting the California Performance Assessment Collaborative (CPAC). 

Celebrating life was a big part of this year. I turned 50 in May, with a surprise visit from my brother, and an amazing dinner party planned and prepared by Matt, Dylan and Adela. The celebration continued with a once-in-a-lifetime trip to Greece with Adela, my mom (also celebrating a milestone year in 2019), niece Claire, and sister-in-law Laura, and an unforgettable family heritage trip to Ireland where I met Rooneys & Brodericks (Matt’s clan in Lough Rea and Ashbourne) and Sleaters (my Nana’s clan from Sligo). Additional get togethers with friends celebrating 50 enriched the year with much love and reflection. And Adela’s bat mitzvah was a true blessing for me and our entire family.

But this year I also mourn the loss of two dear souls. Prof. Ed Bridges, one of my dissertation committee members whom I could always count on to encourage and support my academic and personal growth. And Daniel McLaughlin, co-founder of Envision Schools who championed a world-class education for all students, but especially for first generation college-bound youth. It is an honor to remember them and their gifts as inspiration for not only my work, but also for ways of being.

I’m grateful our nuclear family was together magnitudes more than we had been in 2018 (7x, for the curious). For Dylan’s soccer games, Adela’s musical performances, training rides and date nights with Matt, our family dinners, play sessions with Momo, quiet evenings reading inspired authors, and live engagements with notable thinkers and doers among us, for good health and new year ahead. Violetta Parra’s world-renowned song, “Gracias a La Vida,” rings truer than it ever has for me. Gracias a La Vida.

*****

The start of 2019 was the culmination of three-and-a-half years in Chile for our family, in one form or another. It was an experience that brought all four of us immense joy and growth. So, it is with deep sadness that we have watched events unfold in Chile this year, as decades of structural inequality and a failure to reckon with the legacy of the dictatorship exploded in angry protests followed by a brutal and senseless response from the government and military. Tanks rolling down the avenues, hundreds with maimed bodies and lost eyesight from supposedly non-lethal weapons fired by police, failed and hollow leadership from the president and his allies. It is a wrenching feeling, equal parts gratitude to be out of the fray, guilt to be unable to stand in close solidarity with our friends and with the Chilean people, and hope that a promised new constitution will bring real change in Chile.

Meanwhile, we have so much to do here in the U.S. in 2020. Now that we’ve really settled back in, we begin the year knowing that the whole of this year will be a fight to reclaim our democracy. We’ll be doing our part and we hope that all of you will be united in that fight. 

The year in numbers

1 – number of new drivers added to our car insurance this year (uff!)

2 – high school PTAs of which we’re members

3 – bridges crossed in one of Jeannette & Matt’s best training rides to date

3.6 – magnitude of the earthquake we felt the morning of Adela’s bat mitzvah

7 – months of active instruction at Kelefors Academy of Learning and Empowerment (KALE) during the year

13 (approx) – vocal and musical theater performances by Adela

22 – members of the extended Rooney clan who traveled from the US to Ireland for a get-together in July

58 – number of teeth Adela brushes each night . . .  30 of them are her cat’s so he won’t have to go to the cat dentist

60 – number of days after she left Chile that Jeannette received permanent residency status in Chile (gotta love the bureaucracy)

98 – percent decline in Hungarian language retention since Matt and Dylan’s citizenship interview in Budapest

225 – Greek islands left for Jeannette & Adela to visit (2 down!)

600 – percent increase in the number of date nights for Jeannette & Matt in 2019 compared with 2018

7,345 (approx) – The number of articles of impeachment left on the cutting room floor

9,000+ – number of miles Dylan traveled for away games with De Anza Force