PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY K.MA & C.ZHOU
Pablo Durana ’02, Ruth E. Harlow ’79, and John Marks ’61 received the 2025 Alumni Award of Distinction at All-School Meeting (ASM) last Friday. The annual award aims to recognize three Andover alumni who have achieved distinction in various fields with their contributions. Nominees delivered speeches sharing their experiences at Andover, career paths, and advice for Andover students.
An award-winning cinematographer and director, Durana built a career capturing human stories and resilience across seven continents. His journey in filmmaking began after a 2,700-mile bike expedition through Western China, where he documented minority cultures, winning an Emmy and an Oscar for his work. He spoke on how he found his passion for visual media in an interview with The Phillipian.
“I always loved photography, taking photos. Vinyl was this distant thing that I had in mind but never took as something I [could] dedicate my life to, because I didn’t think it was really possible. I just thought it was not something that a lot of people do, but Andover helped plant the seed of this passion. I took a photography black and white class and a photo development class here. It was really great because I was working with film, and it initiated my interest in framing and photography,” said Durana.
From the 1980s through the 2000s, Harlow worked as a pioneering LGBTQIA+ rights lawyer and later worked in reproductive rights. She served as the lead counsel for Lawrence v. Texas, a landmark court case in 2003 that secured constitutional liberty for all consenting adults and dismantled state laws criminalizing same sex intimacy. Harlow discussed how Andover inspired her to contribute to history long before she chose her career.
“When my parents said goodbye to me on Chapel Avenue, I thought, ‘What have I gotten myself into?’ I still remember being sick to my stomach and seeing all the kids around me, who seemed so much more sophisticated, and I had lots of fears about fitting in. On the other hand, walking around Andover and soaking up this place made it very real to me that individual ordinary human beings made history. If Paul Revere sat down to design the Andover seal and George Washington walked through the mail room or on the same land as the mail room since now, maybe I could play a role in history too,” said Harlow during her ASM speech.
After serving as a foreign diplomat for the U.S. Department of State, Marks founded Search for Common Ground (Search), the world’s largest non-governmental organization (NGO) involved in peacebuilding, with 600 offices in 36 countries. In 2018, Search was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for its work in conflict resolution. Marks spoke about how Andover’s Non Sibi values inspired him to pursue a career of social impact.
“People who stood up here [at ASM] used to talk about this idea of Non Sibi. It was the thing that when I left Andover, I came away with it. In other words, I got a notion that I wanted to do something with my life that was different than what my father wanted. My father wanted me to go to his insurance business, and he offered me a huge bribe to do it, and I just wasn’t at all interested. I wanted to try to do things that made a difference in the world,” said Marks in an interview with The Phillipian.
Athreya Yegneswaran ’29 shared his main takeaway from the ASM, noting how Andover provided a launching point for each speaker’s career. He expressed how hearing from alumni who discovered their passions inspired him.
“The alumni speakers did inspire me, in a way. Each person was unique in their own journey and in their own way of approaching their goal…and everyone started off at Andover. I’m really grateful for coming to a place that allows me to explore all these [areas]. I get a lot of new experiences, and it’s a real honor for me to see all of these huge people come to the same school, and we are all connected in this way,” said Yegneswaran.
The three nominees also joined several classes for the day. Students taking the “Proof and Persuasion” course (Philosophy and Religious Studies-360) had the opportunity to have a conversation with Marks. Jane Hlavaty ’28, who asked Marks a question about how society has changed since the start of his career, explained how his response broadened her worldview.
“He elaborated on how people in this generation are almost growing up quicker or are just more knowledgeable [about] things. Now, we have more factors to consider. When he was younger, he said that when they were driving, it was okay to just chuck a cup out of the window, but now, we have to think about environmental concerns. That stuck with me because I realized that the information we have on the world is always changing. There are always new factors and a few years from now we’re probably going to look at the same thing in a totally different angle,” said Hlavaty.
