Alumni returned to campus April 17 to celebrate the 2018 boys tennis team and Distinguished Alumni Award recipient Dorina Yessios ’92, and to reconnect with the community that shaped them.
On April 17, Croft Commons filled quickly as alumni returned for the Alumni Celebration of Awards, an evening that brought together two stories that capture what Wellington produces. The 2018 boys tennis team was inducted into the Athletic Hall of Fame, and Dorina Yessios ’92 received the 2026 Distinguished Alumni Award. Alumni connected with former classmates and teachers, including retired faculty Maria Baker P ’00 ’08, Sam Stewart P ’99 ’05, and Becky Fuller ’08 ’11 ’16, whose return added another layer to the evening. Throughout the night, the Blue Notes Jazz Ensemble performed under the direction of James Becker P ’27 ’34, joined by alumni musicians Ian Gleissner ’20 and Grant Wheeler ’20, while student art curated by Jaime Bennati lined the walls.
The Welly Boiz
When the 2018 boys tennis team won Wellington's first team state championship in tennis, they nearly swept the rest of the weekend along with it. At Saturday's individual state tournament, Trevor Ball ’20 finished as Division II singles runner-up, and brothers Connor ’18 and Griffin ’21 Biernat captured the doubles title together, a feat that still stands as Wellington's only individual and team state championship combination in the sport. Less than 24 hours later, the team was back on the courts for the team final against Cincinnati Indian Hill, where Griffin played the deciding doubles match alongside Milan Gonela ’20, who was running a fever, and the two of them fought back to win in three sets. Trevor and Adam Sorrels ’19 delivered in second and third singles to clinch the championship.
Lindsey Smith P ’33, former director of athletics and now chief operating officer, presented the team and spent most of her remarks on something the scorecard couldn't capture. The team called themselves the Welly Boiz, B-O-I-Z, and the name was their brand. They played with flair and emotion, brought intensity and encouragement to everything they did, and looked the part doing it, with Connor reportedly weighing in on uniform decisions before any orders were finalized.
Head Coach Tommy Haddow agreed that the heart of the team was its attitude. At the first break in spring weather, they were in Smith’s office asking when the nets would go up. The players competed hard against each other in challenge matches, held one another accountable, and kept their focus on the team. They were a family on the court, willing to battle in practice and then close ranks the moment an opponent stepped up.
Setting Your Mind Free
Dorina Yessios ’92 opened her acceptance speech with the lyrics to Prince's "Starfish and Coffee," a song about kids who are positively intrigued by each other's differences and who set their minds free to see one another. She listed it as her favorite song on her college application in 1992, and standing at the podium more than three decades later, she came back to it for a reason.
Dorina and her twin sister, Katerina ’92, enrolled at Wellington in 1982, the year Wellington opened its doors, after their parents, first-generation Greek Americans, went looking for a school that wouldn't ask them to stop speaking Greek at home. What they found was a school giving itself room to grow, and Dorina was a freshman the year Wellington graduated its first seniors. Her class started the school newspaper, and the class above hers started the girls lacrosse team with little more than a few books and sticks the first year, before adding a coach the next.
She carried that comfort with the unestablished into her career. Today, she is a partner at A&O Shearman, ranked in Chambers and named to the Latinvex Top 100 Lawyers in Latin America. She recently closed a $3 billion financing for a data center campus in New Albany, Ohio, and a few years ago, she helped lead the $9 billion redevelopment of New Terminal One at John F. Kennedy International Airport.
She spoke about losing the student council presidency her junior year to Brian Abbott ’92, who, she said, ran a better campaign and beat her fair and square. She talked about not making partner on her first attempt, about struggling to win business in her early years as a partner, and about being a young mother on a team of male partners at a time when nobody acknowledged unconscious bias. "Failing is humbling," she told the room, but what Wellington gave her was the conviction to keep going through it, the belief that she belonged, that she was good enough, and that she didn't need to conform to succeed. "I learned that I could always be me and be true to myself."
She also gave Wellington credit for something else: the lifelong habit of giving everyone a chance. As a student, she said, she didn't fully understand its impact, but she does now.
What Stayed
Dorina was presented by Debra Parkes ’92, who has been her forever friend since they met in grade 3 in Mrs. Sloane's "Mice Are Nice" classroom in 1982. Debra returned to Wellington as an aftercare teacher during college and has been on the faculty since 2000, teaching across every division. Her mother, Marj Garek P ’92, served as Wellington's admissions, marketing, and development director in the school's earliest years.
Before the celebration moved to Head of School Eliza McLaren's house for a reception, the connection between the two honorees was reinforced. The Welly Boiz built a culture by holding each other accountable and showing up for one another, and Dorina built a career by trusting that she belonged and making space for others to belong, too. Wellington produces people who stay connected to the work and to each other, and who come back to celebrate their community.