“It's never too late, or too early, to be whoever you want to be. There's no time limit. Start whenever you want.
You can change, or stay the same. There are no rules to this thing."
~ The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
She’s been nominated twice for an Oscar for her work in sound editing. She's earned several Golden Globe nominations, won numerous other industry awards, made a movie with Brad Pitt, and walked the Hollywood red carpet. Her office is located at Skywalker Sound, and she calls the half-hour commute to work one of the most beautiful drives in the world. This June, the globe-trotting supervising sound editor and audio engineer, a 1979 Sem graduate, will return to her native Buffalo to give the Commencement address in honor of Buffalo Seminary's Class of 2013.
In early February, the seniors at Sem invited Gwen Yates Whittle '79 to be the speaker for their graduation ceremony. When asked how it felt to be invited, Gwen responded: "I feel surprised, humbled, honored, and a touch nervous. But being nervous is good; it means it matters a lot to me."
In an April 2010 interview, she explained that her career path has been anything but linear. "I moved around a lot as a kid," she told Kelly Love of Buffalo Rising. "I was shy and dorky, but all that also made me observant, which helped give me courage to take chances when I needed to."
After graduating from Sem in 1979, Gwen spent a year in a small German town as an American Field Service (AFS) exchange student. Upon her return to the United States, she began an unorthodox adventure that led her to study at four different universities in four years. She ultimately earned her BFA from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, reaffirming a love for film first nurtured through an elective course at Sem. Indeed, the award-winning sound technician and editor credits the late Robert "Mack" Mahoney, who taught Media Studies at Sem, for planting the seeds for her creative career. Last year she received an honorary doctorate from the Academy of Art University in San Francisco.
In 2010 the Sem alumna was interviewed by the seniors in Reel Narrative, another elective class at Sem taught by yet another beloved English teacher. Ben Joplin, Ph.D. and his students conducted the interview via their class Facebook group a few weeks before the Oscars. Gwen, who had just been nominated for her work in Avatar, was candid about the circuitous route to her chosen profession and even quoted her favorite lines from The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. To read the full interview as a .pdf, click here.
Gwendolyn Yates Whittle, 2013 Commencement Keynote Speaker
We are thrilled to welcome Gwen back to Western New York this June, and we look forward to her Commencement address to the Class of 2013!
Buffalo Seminary's 162nd Commencement will be held on Tuesday, June 11, 4 p.m., at Westminster Church, 724 Delaware Avenue, Buffalo. Although Sem is nonreligious, holding graduation at Westminster, a Presbyterian church founded in 1854 and located in downtown Buffalo, has been a longstanding tradition. In past years, Sem’s graduation has also been held at Temple Beth Zion and Trinity Lutheran Church.
Buffalo Seminary, or Sem, is located at 205 Bidwell Parkway in the historic Elmwood Village neighborhood of Buffalo, N.Y. Founded in 1851, Sem is Western New York’s only independent high school for girls, and the only all-girls school in the area with a residential program. We offer an independent, nonsectarian, college-preparatory curriculum and are a member of The New York State Association of Independent Schools (NYSAIS), The National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS), The National Coalition of Girls’ Schools (NCGS) and The Association of Boarding Schools (TABS). Sem is also a charter affiliate member of The Online School for Girls (OSG). To learn more, visit www.BuffaloSeminary.org.