![JV boys soccer goalie sophomore Bear Brummett does a goal kick. Normally, Brummett plays defense, but when starting goalie sophomore Kurt Schratweiser missed a match due to illness, Brummett was thrust into the role. “[Brummett] did a great job, especially considering he hadn’t played the position in so long,” Head Coach Casey McDonough said.](https://spschronicle.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/image2-1200x800.jpg)
Upper School Science Teacher Bernadette Kozlowski found herself holding back tears in class as a notification pinged her phone. Jane Goodall — her lifelong idol — had died.
“That’s when it really hit how much she had impacted my generation,” Kozlowski said.
After telling her students the news, their first reaction was, ‘Who even is that?’
Jane Valerie Morris Goodall was 26 years old when she decided to travel to Africa to study chimpanzees in their natural habitat, a dream she had since childhood. A woman studying science during the 1960s was already unusual, but Goodall’s study methods seemed even more strange. 
“A lot of people disagreed because she named the chimpanzees she was studying instead of giving them numbers,” Kozlowski said. “She really went in-depth in her research in a way that made it very approachable and real and brought it to life.”
Goodall developed a friendship with each chimpanzee rather than simply using them as subjects, an approach unheard of at the time.
“She showed us that any human can make a bond with another animal that isn’t necessarily the same brain level,” freshman Alexis Kamm said. “Like chimpanzee and human, you wouldn’t necessarily see them getting along, but the fact that she created that relationship with that species is just very inspiring.”
Goodall also changed the way people understand primates and their similarities to humans. She discovered that primates have complex emotions, such as affection and grief. However, her findings aren’t the sole contribution she has made to science.
“Her influence on me has been less about the actual science, but the fact that she was doing it, and that she was facing adversity and powering through,” US Science Teacher Dr. Carlie Saval said.
Goodall was 91 years old when she died of natural causes in October. After a life full of discoveries, her legacy will forever continue to influence not only minorities in science, but anyone who wants to pursue their passions despite adversity.
