Janet Lowenthal ’58

Alumni Voices

Janet Lowenthal ’58

Beaver Reflections:
I graduated from Beaver in 1958 and my experience was wonderful. Beaver was the perfect school for me. My classmates and I were very lucky to have had a cohort of teachers who were very experienced, personable, and cared about the topic they were teaching. I can not begin to even name all the teachers who had a positive impact on me because I was at Beaver for so many years, and I have such fond memories of all of them. While at Beaver, I was also on the tennis, field hockey, basketball, and softball teams. I really enjoyed the team atmosphere that came from all those sports. Also, I was senior editor of the Beaver Log, which was a literary magazine that was composed of essays, short stories, and poems.

What is #happeningnow in your life:
After graduating from Beaver, I went to Harvard University where I studied American history. After that, I lived overseas with my then-husband for two years in the Dominican Republic and then three years in Lima, Peru. This gave me a wonderful opening for a career that looked at international economic development issues. Personally, I would not say I had a single career, but, rather, a combination of fascinating and individual jobs. The majority of them involved being a hired pen, where I would do a lot of writing in the service of small, non-profit or public interest organizations that would focus on the environment, human rights, etc. My business partner and I completed around 10 years of international development assignments that took us to various locations such as Latin America, Africa, India, and Pakistan. For the past 5 years, I have been working pro bono for an organization called Tzedek DC. Our focus is giving legal help to people in debt, specifically in the DC area, while advocating for systemic change and reform. I work part time, but when I am there I am the Senior Advisor, complete lots of writing, and am the designated Spanish speaker.

“I never went to any other school before Beaver! I went to Beaver from the time I was 3 all the way up until I graduated. This was such a terrific experience for me because I had the chance to grow as a person and learner at the same school for all those years!”
– Janet Lowenthal ’58

Advice to Beaver students:
Do not assume that you can plan your life out step by step and have some grand vision for how the years will unfold. As much as we want it to, it does not usually work that way. Life changes, sometimes for the good and sometimes for the bad. Always be ready to seize new opportunities while getting to know different people.

Beaver Country Day School admits qualified students of any race, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, religion, creed, handicap status, national origin or ethnicity to all the rights, privileges, programs and activities generally accorded or made available to students at the school. It does not discriminate on the basis of race, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, religion, creed, handicap status, national origin or ethinicity in the administration of its educational, admission, financial aid, athletic or other school-administered programs or policies.