Leadership & Student Life

New Leaders in the Upper School

During the winter, Reina Stimpson and Gill Roberts stepped into interim roles of Acting Head of Upper School and Acting Dean of Students, respectively, to help the school during a period of transition. On March 30, Head of School Mary Carter announced that Reina Stimpson and Gill Roberts had been permanently appointed to their roles.

Associate Head of School Lindley Shutz commented on the talent and experience Stimpson and Roberts bring to the role. “Reina and Gill have worked together for many years in realizing the new leadership model at Derryfield, creating diverse opportunities for students to define leadership in their own way. They are role models for our students in understanding how to be purposeful members of the community.”

Gill Roberts ’99, Dean of Students

“I am so grateful for the opportunity to serve as my alma mater’s Dean of Students! I am looking forward to continuing my work with the students, making sure that they always feel heard and supported. Derryfield has been my home for a long time and I want every student to know that they belong here. ”

Reina Stimpson, Head of Upper School

“I look forward to continuing to support student programming in the Upper School as the Director of Student Leadership. The best part of the day is being able to observe student learning and their interactions with each other and all of our tremendous faculty and staff.”

Leadership Summit

In April, 50 student leaders, led by Head of Upper School Reina Stimpson, explored the topic of “Ethical Leadership & Decision Making,” during a two-hour luncheon meeting. Representatives from the class, student, and discipline councils, along with student, club, and athletic leaders from both the Upper School and the Middle School counted among the attendees.

The meeting opened with a group brainstorming discussion of the five most important qualities of a leader. The participants offered: the ability to communicate; kindness; responsibility, sociability, inclusiveness, trustworthiness, and self-awareness. To this list, Dean Stimpson added: wisdom, self-confidence, integrity, and determination. The students then discussed how they could integrate some of these qualities into their own leadership styles.

Each student group reported on the progress they had made during the 2021–2022 academic year, and outlined plans for 2022–2023. The Equity Club aspires to have bi-monthly speakers give presentations that will be of interest to the entire student body. The Spirit Club hopes to fundraise, increase attendance at sporting events, and plan more fall activities to introduce the DS spirit to new students. The Disciplinary Council plans to conduct weekly policy meetings and increase communication with the Dean of Students. The Art Club proposed repainting the student bathrooms, having an art sale as a fundraiser, and making seasonal cards for charities. The Middle School Student Council is looking for more student leadership opportunities, more organized MS clubs, and designated club meeting times.

The participants in the Leadership Summit left the meeting with a high level of energy and a renewed sense of purpose.

Mental Health Awareness

In March, the LEAD team coordinated a community meeting addressing mental health and suicide prevention. In a letter sent ahead of time to the community, the Derryfield Health & Wellness team noted: “As a community, we recognize the importance of the health and well-being of our students and have made this a priority in our school.”

Derryfield junior Anya Merriman courageously shared the story of losing her older brother, Everett, to suicide. After describing their close-knit relationship and experiences at home and at school following his death, Merriman concluded:

“Coping with his death is something that I’m still working on even after almost four years, and figuring out how to talk about it with other people is as challenging now as it was when it first happened. My piece of advice to you is this–if you have a friend who has lost someone to suicide, I want you to know that it’s okay to ask them what they’re comfortable with. Let them know that you can be a support system for them, or you can simply be someone that they go to when they need a distraction.”

Merriman was joined by two of Everett’s former Derryfield classmates, Rylan Morgan ’21 and Frankie Brandt ’21, who added their own words of advice.

Q&A:

Jen Pei ’23 Campus Advisory Board

What inspired you to take on the role of re-energizing student clubs?

During my freshman year, I couldn’t help but be impressed by the amount of club offerings there were at Derryfield and how active the clubs were. Unfortunately, that culture soon died down as COVID hit, and clubs couldn’t meet. Clubs fell into the background at Derryfield.

What did you do to amend this situation?

I wanted to bring the energy and excitement back to the annual (Derryfield) club fair, make communication towards club leaders easier, and overall, create a more consistent and organized club environment.

What was your plan of action?

With the help of Ms. Stimpson, we were able to create more structure with Derryfield clubs through the Campus Activity Board (CAB). I created a new application process for students who want to start a club, which includes writing a mission statement. I called CAB meetings in which all club leaders came together, and so I could make club related announcements.

What was the club fair like last fall?

The club fair last year was a hit! The entire Derryfield community came together in the gym to sign up. We had around 24 clubs present at the fair.

Do you feel like you achieved your goals?

Overall, all the goals were achieved through the willingness and participation of DS students. It was the students who took initiative to start and lead their own clubs, which in turn helped expand CAB.

Service & Equity Initiatives

The Equity Club strives to provide Derryfield students with a safe and supportive place to explore and discuss various social issues. The goal of the club is to educate the members, and their peers, on inequities in the community, in order to make Derryfield—and the world—a more tolerant and inclusive place.

In March, the club hosted Erin Kelly, Waypoint’s Director of Homeless Youth and Young Adult Services, at a brownbag lunch time meeting in the Lyceum. Waypoint is a Manchester-based, private, nonprofit agency whose mission is to empower people of all ages through an array of human services and advocacy. The organization seeks to lessen the burden of homelessness on youth by establishing drop-in centers and street outreach programs.

During the question and answer session, audience members asked Kelly how she became involved in working with the homeless, how COVID affected the homeless situation in New Hampshire and what Derryfield students could do to help those in need. Kelly replied that Waypoint “needs advocates who understand the issue (of homelessness),” and asked the students to carry forth what they had learned out into the community.

One of the major goals of Waypoint is to raise awareness about the youth homelessness situation in New Hampshire. Each year, Waypoint holds a “SleepOut,” in which community supporters are invited to spend a night out in the cold in solidarity with youth enduring homelessness in New Hampshire. Three members of the Equity Club, Madison Viger ’23, Cea Armstrong ’23 and Maya Neuman ’22, participated in SleepOut 2022.