26 minute read
Campus News
Prize Day in a Pandemic
The Class of 2020 will go down in St. George's history as the first group of graduates to participate in a live, online Prize Day service.
The Old School terrace is set up for Head of School Alixe Callen’s live Prize Day address from a nearly empty campus. / Below: Bagpipers rehearse in the chapel before being recorded for Virtual Prize Day 2020. / Mary Leys '21, winner of the 2020 St. George's Medal.
This page, clockwise from top left: Head of School Alixe Callen delivers her Prize Day 2020 address to a camera broadcasting live —and an empty Front Circle. / Senior Prefect Tate Michelson ’20 delivers his Baccalaureate address in a chapel devoid of his classmates, but packed with recording equipment and a media production crew. / The seniors log on to Zoom to watch Prize Day together live online. When prize winners were announced by Head of School Alixe Callen, recipients’ reactions were broadcast live.
Math teacher Douglas Lewis had to adapt this year with roughly half of his students attending classes in person and the other half attending remotely from home.
Longtime Teachers, Newfound Skills
The Senior Teacher Cadre is made up of St. George's most experienced teachers, but even they faced new challenges when learning how to teach during a pandemic.
The Senior Teacher Cadre is led by Head of School Alixe Callen and includes: Elizabeth Bickford, English teacher; Kim Bullock, science teacher; Julie Butler, math teacher and coach; Wendy Drysdale, athletic trainer and Assistant Director of Music; Douglas Lewis, math teacher; Melanie Lewis, math teacher; Mike Hansel, art teacher; John Mackay, history teacher; Kelly Richards, English teacher; Jeff Simpson, English teacher; Holly Williams, science teacher; Roy Williams, math teacher; and Warren Williams, science teacher.
What were some of your early thoughts when the transition to remote learning happened over Spring Break?
Roy Williams: “Modifying the schedule was a huge factor in the success of the spring. There were schools that didn’t modify their schedules — and all the feedback I heard from parents who had kids at those schools was that it didn’t work.” Wendy Drysdale: “When we broke in March, the chapel services were changed drastically because we went all remote. [School Chaplain] Jackie Kirby really had to follow the state regulations about how many people can be in a space. She had to follow what the Diocese was allowing for streamed worship services. Not only did we have to change how we do chapel, we had to decide what the content of chapel Warren Williams: “I appreciated that there was an understanding that things weren’t going to be perfect — and that I shouldn’t expect it to be hit out of the park every time. I just appreciated that understanding and the message to just do the best you can. That took some of the pressure off of feeling like I had to have it all figured out perfectly.”
Kim Bullock: “I was very, very worried about if I would be able to grasp, in such a short time span, all that I would need to be at a level that would be effective. But if I could say anything about the onboarding that we got in three days, it was such a phenomenal way of bringing us along and helping us progress. We were learning a little bit every day about online teaching and ways to practice it.” service was. Her guidance was: ‘We’re just trying to get some messages of hope and calm into the spring chapel services.’” Holly Williams: “It is definitely challenging because everything you do is on the computer. You grade papers on the computer, you write your lessons on the computer, you do Zoom. I am getting many more kids asking for extra help by Zoom than I ever have this early in the year, which I find fascinating, but I’m doing a lot and it’s great.” Julie Butler: “We knew our kids so well in the spring. My concern was about being able to jump right into a Zoom and know the personalities of our students in the fall. Now that Melanie Lewis: “It feels like school again! And what’s been really great is that I’m so happy to see them. I think they’re genuinely happy to see their teachers as well, and they’re extremeDouglas Lewis: “I was really pleased with the school’s decision to try to do less in the spring rather than to try and keep the same schedule or put more things in. That made it a little less harried. Although we didn’t cover as much material, that really helped make it a more successful transition.”
John Mackay: "For me it was fear of the unknown, fear of not being technologically savvy. I certainly learned a lot in the last several months, but it was just that fear of change – huge change. “One of the best things that I’ve ever done is to teach the summer session because it took all that I learned from the spring and condensed my course. I continued to grow and learn things that I’m using in my classroom now, which really benefit my teaching. It was probably one of the best things
What adjustments had to be made to your curriculum for the remote format?
I’ve done in a long time." I am in the classroom, I just have to be a little more creative about how to incorporate the kids who are online with the kids who are sitting in the classroom. You can’t put them in a group, so you have to be creative.”
Elizabeth Bickford: “I did a lot of work trying to figure out how to have a productive discussion in humanities. First and foremost, because we can’t be in seminar style, we had to play around with it. I always want to find time for everybody’s voice and the collective voice; that’s really important. I’ve had to spend more time than I thought on that, and it’s actually been fun to be
What was it like to see students again for the first time?
creative after many years.” ly happy to see each other. The kids have friends here, so it’s just nice to have that feeling again that the kids are in a place that they really like — and I’m just so happy to be here.” n
Learning Summer Learning
COVID-19 shut down much of the country, but gave St. George’s the opportunity to create a dynamic, online summer program that drew more than 70 students, including some entering St. George’s for the first time. Students were able to stay engaged academically over the summer and to move ahead in their coursework by taking fully graded, for-credit classes in subjects including Marine Science, Modern European History and Fine-Art Photography.
Following is a conversation with Program Coordinators Caitie Cotton and Daniel Leidl, who built the Summer Learning Program from the ground up.
What are the benefits of Summer Learning for students? For teachers?
Ms. Cotton: By taking summer classes, students were often able to fulfill graduation requirements or pre-requisite courses, which will free them up to take other courses of interest or higher-level courses during the academic year. Additionally, given the particulars of COVID and summer 2020, it created an opportunity for our students to stay busy while maintaining their academic skills and staying connected to the SG community.
For teachers, they got to keep teaching! And teachers at SG love to teach. Given the uncertainties of the academic landscape surrounding COVID, it also provided a professional-development opportunity to continue to develop their online teaching skills and to think about what academic programs and summer programs might look like in the future.
Each faculty member also selected a specific area of focus for their teaching this summer, which developed their skills as individual faculty members and will allow them to share their experience with the full faculty — so everyone can learn from the summer learning experiences.
Did remote learning during the spring due to COVID-19 help you and teachers prepare for the roll out of the Summer Learning Program?
Ms. Cotton: Yes and no. We had a general landscape of the online teaching world from our remote teaching in the spring, but during Summer Learning, we distinguished between emergency remote teaching (what we did in the spring) and online learning (what we did this summer). In the spring, we had to take classes built for in-person instruction and our normal academic calendar and transfer it to the online world. We did a great job adapting to that, but this summer we were truly building courses for the online world for the first time, and I think that was reflected in the quality of the courses.
What were some of the challenges building the Summer Learning Program?
Ms. Cotton: Some things are hard to replicate online like chemistry labs or really intense conversations in the classroom. That will always be tough, but we tried not to think about what we lost in the online space and instead focused on what we gained – flexibility with schedule and location, more consistent communication between teachers and students, easier access to guest speakers, etc.
What was a creative solution to a problem you came across in the Summer Learning Program planning process?
Ms. Cotton: Our World Religions class is very popular during the year and we found the same with the summer program, but with 11 sign-ups on the first day, we knew we would need another section. We were then able to create two sections of World Religions and one class was all new-to-SG students, providing a unique opportunity for these new students to all take their first class together.
Mr. Leidl: The entire program was incredibly creative. We neither had a Summer School, nor online courses, and beginning with Alixe Callen's notion that this was something we could try to do, it was well outside any precedent or preexisting comfortability. In many ways, this was a bold decision that paid off because of the buy-in and contributions made by everyone involved. Caitie and the faculty team have done an amazing job of navigating a completely foreign space, and obviously, the students and families got behind the effort and fully engaged.
What will summer learning look like in the future?
Mr. Leidl: I think the online space will continue to be an exciting environment to experiment with new learning techniques, invite unique partners and guest speakers, and engage with students wherever they are.
Additionally, the flexibility of offering students learning opportunities outside of the traditional schedule not only supports and supplements the efforts taking place throughout the school year, but it affords additional scheduling options to students planning their personal paths. n
ROBYN CAVANAGH, DIRECTOR OF TECHNOLOGY
SG Tech Team for the Win technology takes the spotlight in transition to remote learning
One of the first New England boarding schools to reopen this fall, St. George’s can boast it had a leg up on hybrid learning since last winter, thanks to our technology team. Long before the COVID-19 pandemic forced students out of classrooms and employees out of school offices in March, the team was working to ensure our business and academic data was secure. Our laptop program and online learning-management system, Canvas, had long been in place. And this past year’s restoration of Memorial Schoolhouse offered numerous opportunities to install the latest technology in classrooms as we readied for 2020-21.
Results of all of those efforts “positioned us well to quickly address remote-learning and work-fromhome initiatives,” said Director of Technology Robyn Cavanagh. The team began preparing for those scenarios, in January. They were even ready to go with emergency “go bags” that tech staffers could use off-site to support students with tech issues, faculty, and employees who normally rely on desktop computers. And to service student laptops, the team established a partnership with a local provider “even when they were closed to the general public,” Mrs. Cavanagh said.
Working with Director of Teaching and Learning Justin Cerenzia in February, Mrs. Cavanagh planned how to ensure all faculty members were capable and outfitted with equipment to teach completely remotely in the spring and in-person this fall with a portion of their class away from campus. The two crafted a "COVID course" for faculty to showcase online teaching resources and, by March, were hosting daily virtual-training sessions on new applications like Zoom and Canvas Studio. They also purchased 34 “Meeting Owls,” 360-degree, 1080-pixel cameras with “smart microphones” that pick up teachers’ and students’ voices within 18 feet.
While some teachers were concerned about their ability to deliver virtually the same high-quality instruction they do in-person, they were up and running in no time with the tech team’s assistance — and continuing to keep the community connected. “The teachers wholeheartedly missed their students,” Ms. Cavanagh said, “and wanted them to feel engaged and connected.”
The entire community needed the tech team this year — and they rose to the occasion. Mrs. Cavanagh, however, says everyone at St. George’s had a part in making 2020 a teaching-and-learning success.
“We are all in it together, all on the same team, all trying to make the magic happen for our kids,” she said. “What St. George's has collectively accomplished over the past 10 months is a testament to the quality and care of our entire faculty and staff.” n
Clockwise from top left: Technical Support Specialist Mike Borden, Director of Technology Robyn Cavanagh, Academic Technology Specialist Brian Geer, Infrastructure & Systems Manager Carleton Hennion '94, Senior Technical Support Specialist Bill Costa, and Technology Support Services Coordinator Hollie Towey.
College Counseling Rises to the Challenge
When the pandemic shut down campuses across the country, the college selection process drastically changed – especially for the Classes of 2020 and 2021.
Students were faced with new challenges in the spring as they tried best to determine the course of their continued education, but without being able to visit colleges into the summer as they normally would.
“Our philosophy hasn’t changed. It’s all about finding the best fit for students,” said Director of College Counseling Kelly Richards. “We try to combine all aspects that fit for the families” like academics, social atmosphere, and finances.
To adapt to the physically distanced environment, the College Counseling Department took the lead, organizing the SG Virtual College Fair last spring, which had over 90 schools sign up and over 100 college visitors that met virtually with students this fall. The department even made the virtual college fair open to other local kids who were in a similar bind.
“That was probably the biggest shift we made and it was highly successful,” said Richards, who attributed the effort to her staff. “I wish the students could visit, but colleges have pivoted really nicely and are presenting lots of
Director of College Counseling Kelly Richards and her staff have met the challenges of helping students with the college selection process during a pandemic.
different online options for students to do that. Students can also rely on alumni at those schools, which is a good thing, too.”
Typically, college counselors, like students, travel during the summer months to get a sense of a wide variety of campus cultures. But with college campus visits restricted for everyone, students and staff were enabled to work together throughout the summer to share some of their firsthand knowledge.
“Luckily, I’m so thankful to have a well-travelled staff … who’s been to so many schools,” Richards said. “Students can really rely on us. We’ve been there.”
Some students were able to get in early visits before the pandemic shut everything down in February 2020, but most have since had to explore alternative methods, she added.
Universities have also created online video tours to help showcase themselves or organized student panels to speak on behalf of the college so prospective students can get a sense of the community.
“I think we present them with great options as to how to do that and they’ve also been good about reaching out directly to the colleges to figure that out, too,” said Richards. “I give a huge hand to my staff and I also give a lot of credit to the kids themselves because necessity is the mother of invention. You do what you have to do to get through.”
The college selection process should be educational, according to Richards, and not just for learning about colleges, but self-discovery, as well.
“This year’s class is building a resilience that will serve them well in adulthood and they’re not panicking,” Richards said. “Our St. George’s students have dug right in to learning about colleges in a way that maybe they didn’t have to before. At very best, the college process is a chance for them to learn about themselves. They are rising to the occasion.” n
The Campus Reopens
With guidance from local and national health authorities, we welcomed students back to the Hilltop in late August
In-person dining was delayed at the opening of school so students could quarantine, but golf carts darted across the Hilltop delivering individual meals prepared by SAGE Dining Services to Dragons. With the Main Drive closed for the year to limit traffic on campus, the Grounds Crew installed a guard house on the Lower Road near the pool parking lot so Campus Safety staff could check in every person arriving on campus.
During the pandemic, the quad has become an expansive outdoor common room, where students living in nearby dorms gather with their lawn chairs.
At Home on the Hilltop
Charlotte Dejoux ’21 goes with a sunny, summer theme — and pink-tinted lighting — in her dorm room.
Turns out there are a lot of stories behind those dorm room decorations...
Chiron Rose ’21
The basketball on my desk is my 1,000th-point basketball. I got it toward the end of my junior year, last season. It was a driving lay-up at Thayer. We lost the game, but I scored 25 points. I’ve played basketball my entire life and will continue to in college. It is really ingrained in my personality — which may further explain the WNBA poster that I made in front of my desk. I also really love art and that is by far one of my favorite drawings. There is a canvas painting on the wall next to it that was a gift from someone who means a lot to me. It’s a reminder that I’m loved.
My tapestry, personally, is my favorite part of my room. It describes more of my personality and interests: curly hair and lashes. It also makes me feel more connected to my race.
J. Cole is a part of my room because he is my favorite artist. He is inspiring and his music really captures my attention.
I like to surround myself with things that remind me to be positive and never let me forget who I am. Sometimes you can forget parts of yourself because of how busy life can be. These are just some friendly reminders. n
Henry DiRico ’21
So in a way, I've always loved hats and as a kid, I always wore them — from baseball caps to winter hats. I guess you could say it started in kindergarten when my old school required all students to wear their Dexter hat to and from school every day. As all my classmates complained about their hats, I embraced the stress of wearing these hats. Unfortunately, I do not have one of those original lids.
This is probably just half of my hat collection because SG told us to only bring the bare necessities this year due to COVID guidelines. Some of these hats have come from endless internet browsing, but the majority have come from travel. This collection means a lot to me because, not only does it provide a stylish addition to my outfit, these hats show some of the places I've been and that also defines my character.
My favorite hats would have to consist of my Block Island Fishing hat and my University of Alabama hat. These are two that are important because I spend a lot of time on Block Island, and I love being there with my family. It also has a really nice fit and lay on my head. The Alabama hat comes into play as they are my favorite college football team and my father's alma mater.
A funny story from all these hats would probably have to be either my Denison University hat, which took so long for me to pick out in the school store that my dad and I almost missed an appointment at another school. Or the Alabama hat, which I lost for a good chunk of the summer at a friend’s house. We looked for it everywhere, and after about two months we found it — on his brother’s head. n
TIME TO TRAIN
With interscholastic competition on hold, athletes and coaches focus on skills
Director of Athletics Bob Pipe entered his new job on the Hilltop this fall with an abundance of expertise. A 21-year veteran of the Rivers School’s Athletic Department, Bob had served as director since 2016 and associate director from 2003-2016. A head coach of the varsity girls’ basketball and boys’ varsity soccer, he knew well the value of interscholastic competition to his athletes’ drive and motivation.
But like every other athletics director of an Independent School League member school, he was forced to craft a different kind of sports program when, due to the pandemic, the heads of ISL schools in July cancelled interscholastic competition for the fall.
“Besides wins and losses, our goals should always be to get better, both mentally and physically, along with having fun with our teammates,” Pipe said. “Our coaches did a fantastic job pushing our kids to improve on the field while trying to make it a great experience for them — without the normal incentive of games.”
With more time for training in the weight room, as well as with their winter- and spring-season coaches, he added, “these kids were able to focus on improvement and not just game results.”
In November, the ISL heads also decided to cancel league games this winter — and as in the fall, not confer league championships or awards.
Disappointing, yes, Pipe said, but coaches and players now know they can make the best of it. Some even appreciated a break from the long away-game bus rides.
“We can’t wait to compete again against our fellow ISL schools,” Pipe said. “But I think we can look back and take a lot of positives from the fall. I think the season was a success.” n
Opposite page, top to bottom: Director of Athletics Bob Pipe; Makai Murray ’21. This page: Eliza Winsor ’21.
A funny thing happened on the Hilltop amid this globalhealth crisis. We found a way to continue to build community, to be creative — and to reap the benefits of the great outdoors Silver Linings
Head of School Alixe Callen first noticed it. Students’ faces weren’t as affixed to screens; injuries were down; kids were playing games — and not the computer sort. Outside.
If there’s one thing COVID has taught us it’s that amid fear and uncertainly, there can also be happiness and appreciation. Traditions can be twisted, and yet still tweak our heartstrings. What’s old can be made new again.
That certainly was the case here on the Hilltop this fall, where even Mother Nature seemed to know some gorgeous weather would surely lift our spirits. Newly popular Spikeball had a moment, while old-school cornhole saw a resurgence.
From sitting with friends around firepits to Friday Night Lights, we made the best of it — with solid assists from the Student Life Office and student Entertainment Committee.
And, yes, we can report confidently: A walk on Second Beach is all the more precious after quarantine. n
Pippa Shaw ’21 competes in an Assembly club game on Crocker Field.
Andrew Selian '23
BUILDING DEDICATION DELAYED BY PANDEMIC - Due to the pandemic, which closed our campus to visitors this fall, plans for a formal dedication of the newly restored Memorial Schoolhouse have been delayed. Still, the building (shown here at twilight on Oct. 8) did reopen to students in September following a meticulous, 14-month-long restoration by Shawmut Design and Construction.
From a story about the dedication of Memorial Schoolhouse in The Dragon, then the campus newspaper, in January 1923.
SG takes the lead on test-optional admission
This year, St. George's became the first among its peer New England boarding schools to announce a new test-optional admission policy that will no longer require applicants to submit standardized test scores. The move followed a comprehensive, two-year review of student performance showing that “a single test score does not correlate to success in our community,” Head of School Alixe Callen said. “This important policy change will allow St. George’s to attract even more highly-qualified, diverse, and talented students to the Hilltop. The decision will strengthen an already strong school.”
The move, unanimously approved by the SG Board of Trustees, drew attention from the National Association of Independent Schools, which highlighted St. George’s in its fall magazine (at right). Since St. George's announced its new standardized-test-optional admission policy, several other schools – including several of our peers – have publicly declared similar initiatives.
Following is an op-ed written by Ms. Callen and Director of Admission Ryan Mulhern ’91:
Imagine if you will … an honor-roll student with a challenging course load. A star soccer player. The school president. A 2020 graduate of St. George’s School. A future Williams College scholar-athlete. Meet Tate Michelson. A Newport, Rhode Island, native, Tate applied for admission to St. George’s in 2016. His transcript, application, and interview showcased his potential to shine as a four-year student-athlete and community leader. Here was a student who took advantage of every academic opportunity, was curious and insightful in class, and was kind and considerate to his peers. In short, he exhibited many attributes independent schools say they desire in their students. His standardized test scores, however, failed to appropriately represent his academic potential. He always knew he would apply to St. George’s, but Tate and his parents feared that his test scores could hurt his chances for admission.
For decades, St. George’s, like most independent schools in the country, has used results from the Secondary School Admission Test (SSAT) – in conjunction with students’ grades, teacher recommendations, extra-curricular achievements, and character – to determine which students will be offered admission. In such an environment, students like Tate, talented and hard-working kids whose test scores don’t match their other attributes, can be overlooked. Seeing the success of students like Tate, we became concerned by this over-reliance on a single high-stakes test score. Could a three-hour test truly predict a student’s high school performance? We decided to research whether success on this metric, which measures reading, verbal, and mathematical abilities under strict time constraints, correlated with success in our school community.
Over the past two years we conducted a study examining how students with SSAT scores outside of our usual range fared at St. George’s. Despite a record number of applicants, we combed our applicant pool to identify a group of skilled and accomplished students who would otherwise be denied acceptance based on their test results. We admitted those students and tracked their performance over a two-year period. The results were beyond conclusive. Ninety-eight percent of the students in the study experienced success at St. George’s, earning solid grades and effort marks in the classroom, while also contributing to the life of the school. These encouraging outcomes, paired with the school’s emphasis on inclusivity, led our Board of Trustees earlier this year to vote to end the standardized test requirement for admission.
In their conversations ahead of this vote, our Board of Trustees concluded that evaluating students based on a single number undermines the school’s mission. St. George’s values inclusivity, diversity, and access to education for high-achieving, hard-working students globally. Standardized testing has presented barriers to secondary school and college admission since its establishment. Indeed, there is a strong link between a student’s performance on the SSAT and various measures of socioeconomic status, including parents’ level of education, quality of available schooling, and access to enrichment activities. Consideration of the entire student, their capabilities, and their potential to impact our community is paramount to achieve diversity in intellectual thought, talent, and experience on our small campus.
We believe students should have the power to present themselves in a way that accurately represents their ability and potential. As of late 2019, over one thousand colleges and universities, including half of the nation’s most selective liberal arts colleges, have dropped their standardized test requirement. In recent weeks, as the global pandemic has introduced further concerns about the validity of standardized testing, even more institutions have made the decision to move to a test optional approach.
St. George’s will continue to accept SSAT test scores from those applicants that choose to share them, but they will not be required for admission. We respect that other independent schools may not follow in our footsteps. Still, we remain confident that this change will strengthen our school community by giving even more bright, motivated and talented students like Tate the chance to benefit from the challenges and opportunities that a St. George’s education provides.
Over the course of the past few months, Tate, as student body president, has worked closely with the administration to sustain our sense of spirit and community throughout the coronavirus crisis. His strong leadership skills, combined with his dynamic personality have reverberated throughout our community, helping to hold us together while the virus keeps us physically apart.
Thank goodness we looked beyond that test score. n
