March 2 rev

News and Opinions from the Students of Berkshire School

March 2, 2015

Berkshire School Remembers Mr. Smith One week after we gathered as a community to hear the news of Mr. “Wil” Smith’s passing, Berkshire School continues to reflect on the incredible legacy left behind. We all remember Mr. Smith as the iconic symbol of strength, kindness, and perseverance seen walking the halls or greeting us in the dining hall.

On Sunday, March 1, 2015 we gathered once again, this time to remember and celebrate what Mr. Smith meant to each of us.

Passion was the word most easily linked to legacy of Mr. Smith. His profound ability to help students, better our school, or simply brighten one person’s day was fundamentally linked to his nature. As a coach and as a leader of our community, Mr. Smith

A Letter to Olivia

By Peter Dunn represented all that we strive for; his determination, care, light hearted nature, and faith were highlighted in the stories shared by those who spoke at the memorial service in Allen Theater.

Following the singing of the Berkshire Hymn and Mr. Mulder’s invocation, students, faculty, parents, alumni, and friends were given the opportunity to share their personal experiences of the dearly departed, Mr. Smith.

Everyone who spoke emphasized that it was the little acts of Mr. Smith that combined to form the great man that we was.

Mohamed Omar’s ’18 touching poem set the tone for the remarks of the morning. Stories of Mr. Smith’s time at Berkshire presented

Excerpted from Bowdoin Magazine, 2000 “Dear Olivia, I am writing this letter to you on November 27, 1999, your father’s 31st birthday.

I want to tell you the story about your father, Wil Smith, and about your years together at Bowdoin College. One day you will probably ask him about these years when he was a single dad, with a young daughter, struggling to stay in school, to compete in a top division III basketball program, and to provide you a home for both of you. Everyone who knows your father says how modest he is, so I suspect he will leave out a lot of the details.

You are a bouncy, pretty little four-year-old girl with brailed pigtails and happy brown eyes.

During the games you roam through the stands as the free-spirited, and totally trusting child that you are. Wil says that he plays with he head on a swivel, always looking for you during breaks in the action.

You always have come first, but he is also co-captain of the men’s basketball team, a fouryear starter on a nationally ranked team at an age when other men are playing weekly pickup games at the YMCA. You will have only a vague memory of seeing your dad play, and even then

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by students, combined with tales of his kindness and caring personality from previous co-workers and parents allowed the community a period of remembrance.

In his letter to the community, Mr. Mulder describes Mr. Smith’s unique aura and personality: “Wil balanced a gentle, stoic manner with a fierce competitive fire and an unshakable commitment to the highest standards of citizenship for all members of our community.” Mr. Smith and his incredible legacy is survived not only by his daughter Olivia ‘14, his fiancée Maha Jaber, her son Nim Farhood ‘14, and the entire Smith family, but the entire Berkshire community, and everyone who’s life was influenced by Mr. Smith’s grace.

THE GREEN AND GRAY

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March 2, 2015

Pro Vita Excitement

Berkshire kicks off Pro Vita week, one of the most anticipated times of the year, allowing students to take classes that are outside of their regular course curriculum.

With just three classes a day, Pro Vita week puts many students at ease after a long marking period. There is already speculation about what classes they will be placed in. A course that seems to be popular is “Delivery! Extras!.” Mrs. Bowler will take kids to Deano’s Pizza in Lakeville where they will learn how to make dough, garlic knots, stromboli’s, and pizza.

Sophomore Andie McGraw agrees that the class is a great addition to the Pro Vita catalogue, “As a garlic knot lover myself, I think it is a great class and wish I could take

By Molly Crabtree it if I weren’t going to the Island School.”

This year’s Pro Vita is different in many ways. First, Mrs. Bullock has taken over as the head of Pro Vita, and has been working vigorously, offering various new courses and trips for kids to go on. There are a number of kids going to the Island School in the Bahamas, Guatemala, the Rocky Mountains, Florida, and Nantucket.

Last year during Pro Vita, there was a trip offered to students interested in going to Germany. Berkshire students stayed with host German students and families.

In turn, Berkshire has offered to host German students during the week of Pro Vita.

These students will be living with Berkshire students, a majority of which are juniors

and seniors. The German students will have the opportunity to hangout with Berkshire students inside and outside of the classroom to see what an average day at an American boarding school is like.

Senior Kenzie Lancaster is excited to host a German student, “I think it’s going to be really fun but I have to keep my room clean.”

Evening speakers for the week include Wes Moore, author of The Other Wes Moore, Dyllan McGee, and Peter Scott ‘85 Last year, the Last Bear Standing competition carried over into Pro Vita week. With the last bear standing competition just starting last week, this school event makes its way into Pro Vita again.

Travel Grant

By Lexi Merison

Monday February 16, the Berkshire community assembled in Allen Theater where the James Kellog Travel Grant was awarded to Mr. Oscar Ogaz and Mrs. Kelley Bogardus for their hard work and dedication to this community.

The two members of the Berkshire community happily accepted this grant, which has been awarded annually for the past few years. Given to two Berkshire staff who clearly work passionately, not because they are required to, the grant recognizes dedication to Berkshire.

Apart from being the mother of two children, Mrs. Bogardus has taken on a number of responsibilities. As well as being an English teacher, she serves as a form dean to the sophomore class, as the girls’ varsity field hockey coach, and as an advisor to many Berkshire students.

Mrs. Bogardus was pondering who the winner could be when Mr. Mulder announced her name. She was not only overwhelmed with joy, but also shocked. As many faculty members have done, Mrs. Bogardus played the “what if” game, and now it is time for these award winners sit down

Photos from Pro Vita 2014

and decide on where to go.

Afterwards, Mrs. Bogardus said, “It is an honor to be nominated and selected by my peers. To think that so many of them selected my name and considered me worthy of this is truly an honor.”

Now having the opportunity to take the honeymoon they never had, the Bogardus family ponders their destination. With some time, the two believe they will head off to Italy next Summer with their two children.

As for Mr. Ogaz, for now he is busy at work and is not sure where his family will go. Noemi Ogaz ‘16 watched as her father was recogized and remarked that she hopes he will take a well-deserved vacation.

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THE GREEN AND GRAY

March 2, 2015

A Letter to Olivia continued from page 1

he was what we call past his prime. As Wil puts it, “I’ve lost a few steps.” None of his teammates or coaches or opponents has seen him at his prime. When he was younger he was a shooter and a scorer; now he takes pride in stopping the other team’s scorers.

Last year he led Bowdoin in assists and steals, and he made the conference All-Defensive team. I watched him practice. If a teammate is not playing hard enough he’ll hear about it from Wil. Coach Gilbride says, “Next year without Wil, we’ll have to coach again.”

One half of the Bowdoin students arrive from lives of privilege and private schools.

Your father came from the Navy, a decade after graduating from a public urban high school in Florida. “I remember going to school when a successful day for a teacher was just getting home,” he says. “When parents were just concerned with getting food on the table.” His first year in college, Wil had to work twice as hard just to keep up with the others. He feels angry about the disparity between his high school preparation and that of his Bowdoin classmates. “All the friends I grew up with, he says, “never had the opportunities that Bowdoin students have had.”

College administrators say Wil is the first single father to attend Bowdoin. He is a black

student and athlete at a college and in a state with few people of color, and he has made it his business to make life better for others who will come after him. “I try and educate people about the people I come from,” he says. “The story has to be told about the people I come from.”

Betty Trout-Kelly is the Assistant to the President of Bowdoin College for MultiCultural Affairs and Affirmative Action. She says, “Wil Smith will be a nationally known figure.”

In May 1989, three years after graduating from high school, Wil enlisted in the Navy.

He was trained to be an aviation electronics technician, specializing in land-based antisubmarine aircraft. He has seen a lot of this world: Sicily, Bosnia, Saudi Arabia, Iceland, Greenland, Panama and Puerto Rico, Argentina. He served in the Gulf War. In June 1991, while stationed in Italy his orders sent him to the Naval Air Station in Brunswick. “I was happy,” he says.

Each day at the base when Wil finished work he’d head to the gym for pickup basketball, but he wanted to do more with his time. “I’m best as a human being when I have others besides myself to focus on,” he says. He saw an ad in the local newspaper for a volunteer football coach at Brunswick

Middle School. Wil was the only applicant, and he got the job.

“I had 60 white kids on my team. Most of these kids have never been in contact with a black man. I had no problem with the kids, but it wasn’t an easy adjustment for the parents, seeing a young black man coaching their kids. They asked for a meeting with me. They said I was too intense, they didn’t think their kids were ready for it. I told them that every day after practice I’d ask kids, ‘Anybody hurt? Anybody not having fun?’

The kids always said they were fine. I told the parents, ‘I’d like your to be on my side, but as long as your kids are with me, they’re mine for three hours a day.’” By the end of the season, some of those same parents would phone Wil and tell him their kids were slipping in their work, would he come and talk with them. Soon Wil became a community fixture, coachin basketball as well as football.

His teams played hard, and they won. During the summer of 1995, while coaching at a basketball camp, Wil’s ability caught the eye of Tim Gilbride, Bowdoin’s men’s basketball coach. Coach Gilbride asked Wil if he had considered college. Would he like to apply to Bowdoin?

See full article at http://www.bowdoindailysun.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/

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Sage Dining: Article One

By Kara Falck

Sage. A word that floats across this campus; sometimes with a negative connotation and sometimes with a positive one.

There is an old black and white photograph on the wall in the dining hall of boys wearing ray-ban glasses walking through the Berkshire’s old lunch line that is clearly visible from the senior line. While waiting to get dinner, I often wonder how these boys felt about the food when they were at Berkshire. Was it any worse or any better, and what has changed since then?

Throughout the rest of the year, I will be publishing a series of articles that will look into our dining hall program. Each of these articles will cover a different topic with unbiased information about Sage and about other dining hall programs at other

Bears get ready to row

boarding schools like ours.

I will look into the multiple facets of this topic; I will interview employees at Sage at all different levels, research the history and the budget, and lastly take a closer look at the food and changes to come in the future.

I want to write these articles because there are many misconceptions and negative feelings about Sage just because there isn’t enough information. One of my goals for these articles is to create a better, more understanding relationship between students and the dining hall service.

With that said, I do not want any of the information in my articles to be perceived as negative. My main goal is just to present my readers with information so they can form their own views on this topic.

By Olivia Good As the days grow longer, and the winter teams reach the endpoint of their seasons, students are beginning to anticipate the arrival of spring sports.

With the temperature at a chilling negative nine degrees in the early mornings, warm Tampa sunlight and beach weather seems to crowd the minds of Berkshire rowers, Arwen Neski ‘15 and Renee Dreher ‘15.

Preseason for the Berkshire crew team will be held in the traditional location of Tampa Florida this March break.

Dreher shared, “I look forward to getting out on the water again down in Tampa, after an unreal fall season in the double with Neski.

It’s awesome to get out on the water but more importantly to get the chance to bond with the team so early in the season.”

Neski followed by saying, “I can’t wait for the morning sunrises on the water. It’s breathtaking. But to be honest, I really can’t choose what I am most excited for because the whole trip is a major highlight of the season.”

The crew preseason trip is a great way for new rowers to gain experience before returning to Berkshire, to a frozen lake located at Camp Sloan. Generally, it takes about three weeks before the crew team is able to get back out on the water after the return from Tampa, so team members will take advantage of every minute they receive rowing on the warm Tampa waters.

March 2, 2015

Green and Gray Carpet

By Chelsea Leeds and Jimmy Coyle

With high anticipation for an exciting and eventful evening at the Green and Gray Ball, students and faculty walked through the doors of Benson Commons bearing smiles.

A major aspect of every dance at Berkshire is the attire, whether it be neon, tropical, or international. This dance was far different, with the addition of a semi-formal requirement. Many students and faculty used this night to show off their personal style, adorning suits and dresses.

The girls loved having the chance to dress up in formal attire, which ranged from Free People to Nightcap. Dresses long enough in order to be deemed appropriate but short enough to allow easy and enjoyable dancing.

According to Mr. Quinn the guys “dressed to impress.” Some showed their flair with suspenders and bow ties. The guys gave it their all, since it was one of the few times they get to show off their sophisticated style without being in the required blazer, button down, and tie.

Junior, Chris Maratea shares, “The best part of the night is getting ready because I get to go through my sick wardrobe, trying on everything in front of my boys, reminiscing about previous nights in the different clothes and jawing with the guys making jokes about what we are wearing. At the end of the day, I always wear the classics, strictly gap and old navy clothes.”

Ana Flaherty in a Dalia dress and Logan Bell in BCBG at the Green and Gray Ball.