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In the fall of 2026, Harvard-Westlake will open River Park (www.hwriverpark.com), a new campus dedicated to athletics, wellness, community partnership, and environmental sustainability. What you may not know, however, is that River Park was designed by a graduate, Steve Chung ’89, the Global Practice Area Leader for Sports at Gensler. In this episode, Steve describes growing up in Van Nuys as a Bay Area transplant and finding community through following LA sports, a passion he leveraged into a long and meaningful career designing large-scale sports venues. These include BMO Stadium in LA, Snapdragon Stadium in San Diego, and the new LA Rams Village at Warner Center. Lastly, Steve discusses River Park, for which he feels unique pride as a graduate of Harvard School, which Steve calls the most formative educational experience of his life. Steve references Harvard School teachers Lee Carlson ’50 and Carl Wilson as profound influences on his life and career in architecture.

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Bear Ride ’71 is the only sister of astronaut and American hero, Sally Ride ’68, who in 1983 became the first American woman in space. In this episode, Bear tells Sally’s story—but also her own, which includes “breaking ground” in her own right as a female and openly gay Presbyterian minister. The Ride sisters were born and raised in Los Angeles and attended Westlake School, where Bear and Sally each encountered life-changing teachers—leading Bear to pursue the ministry and Sally a PhD in astrophysics. It was at Stanford where Sally came across a NASA ad soliciting interest in a new kind of astronaut. She applied, and the rest is history. Bear also speaks to the release of a new documentary, Sally, produced by National Geographic and premiering on Disney+ and Hulu on June 17. The film not only charts Sally Ride’s public journey into space, but also her private 27-year partnership with a woman—Tam O’Shaughnessy. It wasn’t until Sally’s death in 2012 that her obituary revealed Tam as her partner—and thus the truth she’d kept private for so long. Bear references Westlake teachers David Coombs and Elizabeth Mommaerts as profound influences on her and Sally’s lives and careers.