Servons Beyond the Mesa: 2026 Mark Metherell Projects

By Serena Zhang' 28

In honor of Mark Metherell ‘87 and his dedication to Servons, the Mark Metherell ‘87 Memorial Service Challenge provides Cate students with funding and the opportunity to pursue service projects of their own design. Each year, recipients identify a need, develop a plan to address it, and put in their effort over the summer to turn those plans into action. This year’s projects brought Ati Zwieback ‘27, Alex Ke ‘27, Ryder Wei ‘27, and Sophie Cruz ‘27 to India, Santa Maria, and the Los Angeles area, where they worked to preserve Tibetan cultural traditions, expand access to footwear for elementary school students, and organize a two-week sports camp.

Ati traveled to the Bir Tibetan Colony in Himachal Pradesh, India, where he partnered with the Dzongsar Kanishka School to create a system to record and digitally preserve Tibetan cultural traditions. At Kanishka, a residential school for nearly 300 students from Tibet, Ati taught students how to record, edit, mix, and archive audio. Before arriving, he worked with a professional audio engineer to prepare the necessary equipment and created instructional guides for students to continue using afterward. When asked his reason behind choosing this topic, Ati explains that “after the invasion of Tibet, there have been a lot of struggles for the Tibetan Buddhist culture to sustain itself.” He shares his own experience with his religion, explaining that “growing up Buddhist, I was impacted by the teachings and the culture in many ways, and I wanted to do my part. As a member of the Buddhist community, I wanted to do my part in preserving the culture I’d grown up around…with the skills I had developed at Cate, such as music production.” Ati also shares that his highlight of the project was spending time with the monks: “I remember them being super eager to talk and share stories and try to listen to my stories, even though I didn't speak Tibetan or Hindi, and they didn't speak English.” One piece of advice from Ati to future recipients of the grant is to “keep an open mind and be super flexible and willing to adjust.” Ati explains that there were days when rain and power outages disrupted his plans, so he had to come up with new solutions to his project.

Alex and Ryder took on a different challenge, much closer to home. After volunteering at the Early Learning Center for two years and gaining extensive public service experience, they saw how “children were impacted by a lack of resources.” They connected with Fairlawn Elementary School in Santa Maria, where the principal reached out to say the students lacked everyday footwear. Alex explains, “We cleaned, repainted, and reorganized their division closet. With the grant’s budget, we restocked 100+ pairs of shoes. In terms of the long-term aspect, we established a long-term shoe drive.” By collaborating with Aliso Elementary School and Canalino Elementary School, two local schools in Carpinteria, Alex and Ryder also established a shoe drive that happens twice a year, in which students from these schools donate shoes and other unused items that are then transported to Fairlawn Elementary by NSBC United Way, a social services non-profit in Santa Maria. When asked about their most memorable parts of the project, Alex shares that he enjoyed playing soccer with the kids. “It kind of made me realize that even though the kids didn’t have proper footwear, they were still enjoying their lives and were very passionate about sports,” he states. On the other hand, Ryder’s highlight was showing the children the finished cabinet. He describes, “it was like a ribbon-cutting ceremony where the kids gathered around, and we opened the closet door. The kids were so excited when they ran up to the cabinet and checked out their new shoes.”

Finally, Sophie planned to organize a two-week sports camp for underserved middle school students in the Los Angeles area. However, when asked about her project, she explains that “due to many communication issues, the project was, unfortunately, not completed.” Sophie expresses her disappointment as she was “excited for the opportunity to give back to the community.” Despite this setback, she met with the Mark Metherell committee to workshop ways her project could still happen, and the sports camp will now be facilitated during winter break. Sophie speaks about her experience throughout this process as educational, regardless of the challenges: “This process taught me to be flexible, and that things do not always go according to plan. It showed me that there are always conditions in the real world that won’t meet your Plan A.” Indeed, rather than viewing the delay as the end of her project, she took it as a chance to reconsider her approach and follow through on her core goal of serving her community.

While each project came with its own challenges, the experiences of Ati, Alex, Ryder, and Sophie reveal the different ways Cate students approach service. Their stories show that service is not simply about successfully completing a project, but about being willing to listen, adjust, and remain dedicated to the ultimate goal of demonstrating Servons. Nonetheless, the legacy Mark Metherell ‘87 left behind is not simply present in the summer; as the rest of the community hears about these adventures, we, too, are reminded of how we can carry this spirit into our everyday lives.