On a Mission
War and natural disaster don’t stop this alumna in her quest to solve the AIDS epidemic
welcome!
Photo: Kristin V. Rehder
to Emma Willard’s Admissions Magazine. We hope you learn more about the people who make up our community, and that you decide to come see for yourself what makes this school so special. Contact us to get more information or set up an appointment for a visit to campus.
Featured Student Artist Painting by senior Seungmin Hwang. Acrylic on canvas, 36" by 24".
features
14 Flying High at the Circus
Circus school in Italy pushes physical and artistic boundaries for alumna Marina Mezzogiorno-Brown.
18 Dangerous Medicine
CDC scientist and Emma alumna Yen Duong travels to perilous places to help stop the AIDS epidemic.
departments 04 Greetings
23 Back in the Day
The president of the senior class explains why you should come to Emma Willard.
Wonder Woman—Emma style.
06 Emma Everywhere On the cover Yen Duong, a researcher at the Centers for Disease Control, travels the world to stop the spread of AIDS. Photographed by Billy Howard. Printed on 100% recycled paper that is manufactured entirely with nonpolluting, wind-generated energy.
Emma girls make the news far and wide.
10 Action Scholar-athlete award recognizes student’s drive, heart, and love of learning.
28 Admissions How to apply, visiting the campus, financial information, and more.
32 Women’s Work For Emma’s annual Revels, a costumer turns seniors into Lords and Ladies, Dragons and Gargoyles.
12 Off Campus NASA internship sets course for this alumna’s life’s work.
To learn more about the school, call the Admissions Office at 518.833.1320 or visit emmawillard.org.
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greetings By Ches Gundrum, senior class president
Why Emma My name is Francesca (Ches) Gundrum and I am the president of this year’s senior class. I am writing to you because you have to make the decision about whether or not to come to Emma. I completely understand how difficult a process this is and I want you to know of a few opportunities I have taken advantage of during my three years here. One of the most amazing programs Emma has to offer is Practicum. Practicum allows students to pursue their passions and to explore virtually any activity they might be interested in. I have friends who use this program to horseback ride, learn calligraphy, fence, receive music lessons, as well as participate in many other activities. My freshman year, I created the lacrosse practicum that would take new and advanced lacrosse players to a local sports dome in order to The teachers are all improve our skills. I, along with people who many other players, still do the practicum today. in have Emma has tons of clubs, sports so many ways. teams, and leadership positions to pursue as well. We have clubs and activities all over campus. We are involved in everything from cooking, to keeping the campus green, to volunteering at local after-school programs for kids. Emma also offers 12 different varsitylevel sports. I personally play field hockey and lacrosse at Emma and have loved every minute of it. Emma has leadership positions that you can pursue as well. Each class has certain positions such as president, secretary, historian, and many more. The opportunities and skills we learn in our positions shape us as students, classmates, and people. This past winter, I represented Emma at the 2012 Student Leadership Conference in
incredible changed me
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Sydney, Australia and learned so much about my position as class president, as an Emma student, and as a human being. The opportunities Emma Willard offers you are beyond imagination. This school will aid you on your quest to find your passion. I would not be the leader and person I am today without the help of the Emma community. Finally, I think one of the most incredible pieces of an Emma Willard education is the dedication of the teachers. The teachers here do not just teach you material, they teach you how to empower yourself and strive to be the best student and citizen you can be. They are all incredible people who have changed me in so many ways. My teachers meet with me out of school and on the weekends whenever I feel I need some guidance on certain material, and no matter what they are always there for you. Not one day have I been here and regretted choosing Emma. I step onto this campus everyday and think of how grateful I am to be a part of such an incredible institution with such incredible women. I am, and forever will, be an Emma Girl. I hope you choose to be one, too.
We All Pull Together Emma offers 12 different varsity-level sports. This year, the crew team captured gold, silver, and bronze at crew sectionals, and went on to the state and national competitions.
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emma everywhere
Fighting for Fair Trade Thanks in large part to the dedication of Emma students, Emma Willard became and remains the first high school in the nation to be awarded Fair Trade status. Students ensured that Emma Willard School now buys food with a Fair Trade designation when at all possible, especially ethically grown and harvested coffee.
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Fair Trade standards ensure growers and producers receive fair compensation for their goods as well as community development funds for projects providing access to education, health care, clean water and more. Fair trade remains an important mission for many Emma students and one student in particular took her fair trade research and vision to the global arena. Last fall Caroline Kesselem attended the Global Youth Institute hosted by the World Food Prize Foundation to discuss her research on the effects of fair versus free trade on farmers in Nicaragua. It marked the second year in a row an Emma student attended the program. Caroline was one of only three delegates from New York selected to attend. At the institute, Caroline interacted with global public policy leaders and toured leading-edge research centers devoted to food and water security and nutrition.Â
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On The Fast Track
Study Trip to Mongolia This summer 17 students took their education way outside the classroom, traveling to China and Mongolia for a service trip focused on the relationship between environmental concerns, economic development, and public policy in Mongolia, an emerging democracy. Students stopped in Beijing and visited the Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square, the Summer Palace, a historic hutong district, and the Great Wall of China. They then traveled to Ulaanbaatar, the capital of Mongolia, to visit national landmarks before traveling to Ardyn Elch, a youth camp in Northern Mongolia, where the girls spent a large portion of their trip considering environmental issues and public policy. The students also helped Mongolian students practice their English and participated in discussions and workshops on balancing economic development and environmental protection in a democratic system. The trip is part of Emma’s ongoing commitment to fostering learning far beyond the confines of the traditional classroom, as evidenced in recent trips to Ethiopia, Thailand, and Vietnam.
EngineerGirl! At Emma, girls rule at everything, including engineering. But, it was Kayla Foyt who took first prize this spring. Kayla was awarded first place in a national essay competition held by the National Academy of Engineering. The competition is of part of the academy’s EngineerGirl! program that supports opportunities for girls in engineering careers. This year saw a record-breaking number of submissions. More than 1,000 girls submitted essays. Kayla wrote an extremely detailed essay on how exactly applesauce is manufactured from the orchard to those adorable little tinfoil-covered dishes packed into kids’ lunches. She was tireless in her search for information on this technological process. True to the Emma way, she pushed for information from various companies on the process despite being turned away repeatedly by company leadership.
Emma remains home and stomping ground to outstanding athletes. This spring was no exception as four talented Emma athletes soared through the air and burned up the track at this year’s New York State Public High School Athletic Association (NYSPHSAA) Girl’s state championship. Molly Shapiro captured her second outdoor state championship in the triple jump and her third state championship overall. Molly also earned the NYSPHSAA Sportsmanship Award for the division for her sportsmanlike behavior on and off the field. Fellow track and fielder KK Armstrong finished eighth in the state in the 200-meter dash and seventh in the state in the high jump. The Emma 4x100 relay team also finished fourth in the state. Off the track and onto the water, Jesters crew captured gold, silver, and bronze at sectionals. In a tough five-boat final, the Jesters never looked back for their gold medal victory, winning by an impressive 19 seconds. Two members of the Emma crew team, Celeste Pomputius and Annie Speranza, went on to earn an eleventh place finish in the girls pair race at the US Rowing Youth Nationals in Tennessee. In lacrosse, three athletes, Lindsay Pattison, Samantha Kreda, and Natalie Kiley-Bergen, were named US Lacrosse Academic All-Americans. The title is given to athletes that exhibit exemplary lacrosse skills, good sportsmanship on the field, and high standards of academic achievement in the classroom.
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Samantha Slate always adored comics. Her mother, a comic book writer and graphic novelist, was constantly bringing home boxes upon boxes of shiny new comics and Samantha would stay up late into the night reading each and every one of them. “I learned to read from comic books,” Samantha said. But, unlike most comic book lovers, Samantha was not simply contented to read them; she wanted to write them. Samantha went on to become the youngest-ever writer for Archie Comics. “When my mom was writing, she used to ask me about phrases she could add or stories she could write,” Samantha remembered. “Gradually I helped more and more.” Samantha’s comic was for the Betty and Veronica series and got rave reviews from comic book followers when it was released. But like so many Emma girls, Samantha is about more than just comics. This young writer is also an artist. Over the summer she served as counselor at the Omi International Arts Program teaching kids about field study, painting, sculpture, dance, and more. Truly a Renaissance girl, Samantha also loves math and sports (she plays three, “but lacrosse is my true passion,” she said). When asked why this young author, athlete, and scholar chose to come to Emma: “It was the greatest school. Out of all the schools we looked at, it stood out. I almost fainted when I saw the campus.” Among her
© 2012 Archie Comic Publications, Inc. Used with permission. Sasha Sicurella, Omi International Arts Center.
Youngest Comic Book Writer
favorite things so far at Emma are the weaving studio and the committed coaches. Her advice for young writers and artists: “Draw constantly. Nonstop. Practice, practice, practice.”
Music to Our Ears In June, two Emma musicians joined the Empire State Youth Orchestra (ESYO) on stage at the summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra—the famed Ozawa Hall at Tanglewood. Rachel Eismann played violin and Annette Ho the cello.
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Rachel then hefted her violin clear across the globe, joining the ESYO on its 2012 tour of Asia. After touring the major sites of Beijing, Rachel and the orchestra played for hundreds of people at their first concert in Beijing. That concert was followed
by concerts in Shanghai, as well as several in Korea. The orchestra also played in two special concerts in Korea, one to US troops stationed in the US Army Garrison Yongsan and another at a leper colony on Sorok Island in Korea. Truly beautiful music!
The Chris White Studio
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The instrumental music program includes orchestra and advanced string ensemble, which focus on classical music.
Ozawa Hall, Tanglewood, Lenox, MA, where two Emma musicians played this summer with the Empire State Youth Orchestra.
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We Make Beautiful Music Together
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action By R achel morton
Giving It Everything She’s Got Natural leader gets top scholar-athlete award Lindsay Pattison grew up on 100 acres of fields and forest. She spent hours walking along a tributary of the Bozenkill River, hiking with her brother to the waterfall, to the bog, learning about the animals who shared the bountiful wilderness—the
Lindsay Pattison Emma Willard ’12 Hamilton College
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I love the game, the competition, but I’m a student first.”
This pastoral environment gave her a set of enduring passions: love of the outdoors and physical activity, love of science and the natural world. Those aspects of Lindsay’s character came together this spring when she was named the top basketball scholar-athlete in the Central Hudson Valley League. She was selected from top scholar-athletes representing nine Section II schools. In her acceptance speech, Lindsay thanked her coach, Tony Holston. “There have been many lessons that Coach Tony has taught me through the game of basketball,” she said to a crowd of friends, coaches, and family members gathered at the Albany Marriot to celebrate the student nominees and winners. “But one of the most important ones has been to play with heart. To want the ball, to put everything you have into every second of every practice and every game.” During her last sectionals game, she was guarding a player who was a very good three-point shooter. “I was diving to intercept balls that were being passed to her or from her and usually landing on my side on the floor, working hard to avoid picks on me so that my player could get open to take the outside shot, and trying to keep up with my player,” she says. Though they were down by many points and it was clear they wouldn’t win the game, Lindsay never let up. Lindsay Pattison was named the top basketball scholar-athlete in the Central Hudson Valley League.
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Photo: Mark Van Wormer
deer and bear, the birds and coyotes.
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“ There’s an intensity and In the last two minutes of the game, the coach began pulling out the seniors and Lindsay was the last one off. Coach Holston and Assistant Coach Quinn shook her hand and congratulated her, and as she walked down the line of players on the bench, they all stood and hugged her. “The team knew I had given it my all and that was their way of thanking me—not just for playing with heart and encouraging them to play with heart in this one game, but for the whole season. “There’s an intensity and power and drive when you play like that. You are not thinking about anything else. That’s all there is at that moment. That desire.” Though she is passionate about sports and has competed on teams since she was five years old, Lindsay thinks of herself as a student-athlete, with emphasis on the word student. “I love sports,” Lindsay asserts. “I love the game, the competition, but I’m a student first. I’ve always been into academics, and then sports.” How does a three-sport athlete with such commitment to her teams manage to put that same spirit of “giving it her all” into her academics as well? Her biology teacher, Linda Maier, lauds Lindsay’s zeal for any challenge, her diligence, and her natural leadership as a boon to any classroom. “Lindsay is absolutely fantastic,” writes Maier, “her attitude, drive, motivation, sensitivity… She is bright, curious—a teacher’s dream! Whether in the classroom, on the athletic field, or mentoring her classmates, Lindsay gives 100 percent.” Lindsay’s AP Biology course with Maier was the first biology course she had taken, so the demands of the written material and of the lab were new to her and she needed some guidance in how to handle it all. “It was a difficult course at first,” admits Lindsay, “but Miss Maier helped me find ways to handle the course load better.” Maier says that Lindsay not only rose to the challenges of the class, but she was also a natural class leader. “Her demanding athletic schedule coupled with her rigorous reading-intensive course selections could have been a recipe for disaster,” wrote Maier in a letter of recommendation, “however Lindsay took charge of her learning.” In order to attend classes, participate in sports practice, compete in games, complete homework, and still
power and drive when you play like that. That’s all there is at that moment.”
have time to eat meals and have a little down time with friends and family, Lindsay has learned to follow a precise schedule. “I don’t watch TV,” she says. “I use all my free time when I’m not in class to do my homework. I’m organized; I’m on top of things.” Lindsay will continue with her science studies next year at Hamilton College, and though she’ll play sports, she expects it will be club sports, rather than intercollegiate competition.“There are other things I want to explore,” she says, “like Outing Club.” Hiking is an important part of Lindsay’s life and it has been since she was an 11-year-old camper attending Camp Chingachgook on Lake George. She recently completed a leadership training program, where she hiked the High Peaks of the Adirondacks. “We hiked about seven High Peaks in like four days,” she says with some satisfaction. “I just like being outside,” she says. “I like nature. I like carrying the heavy pack and being a little dirty. I think I like uphills for some reason!” There are a lot of uphill moments in sports and Lindsay has experienced them in not only hiking and basketball, but in her other two sports—soccer and lacrosse. In the last game of the soccer season, the game went into overtime. It was snowing and she remembers sliding around the field. They’d already been playing for 90 minutes but in spite of fatigue, “we were pumped.” In the end, there was just one final penalty shot and Lindsay took it. “It was my last game. That’s the last thing you can ever put into that game. I put all my focus into the shot.” Though Lindsay’s shot went in, the team didn’t end up winning the game. But that part of it doesn’t faze Lindsay. “It was sad, but knowing I put so much into it made it a better ending.”
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off campus By R achel morton
Hannah Bower Emma Willard ’10 George Washington University Ann Crotty (her mother) Emma Willard ’83
Sky’s the Limit with NASA Internship Hannah Bower is looking for life on other planets. She’s not a dreamer or a science fiction fan, she’s a scientist and she’s in a position to discover them while working at NASA. Right now, deep in space, the rover craft, Curiosity, is on Mars relaying data back to NASA, using some of the techniques Hannah has been testing. A sophomore at George Washington University, Hannah landed a very competitive internship last summer to join a research group in the Planetary Environments Lab at NASA. The scientists there were trying to refine techniques that would enable them to find and quantify “organics” that were obtained during expeditions to Mars. “An organic compound is anything that contains carbon,” explains Hannah. “And carbon is essential for life. So what we are looking for are any signatures of life on Mars.” That is the “science for English majors” explanation. Here’s Hannah’s excited, full-speed, breathless explanation of what they are really doing: “We put known concentrations of water with polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons through a system where we collect organics and run them through a gas chromatograph mass spectrometer. Then we compare it to a standard.” Hannah was back at NASA one day a week during the school year, and worked there full time over the summer. Her new project was closely related to this search for organics on Mars, but she’s trying to find organics in deep cores of ice from the Arctic. Scientists believe that this glacial ice is similar to ice found on Mars and will provide a standard to which data from the Mars rover will be compared. Having a hand in such active, planetary research is something most college students don’t have access to.
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Hannah is utterly jazzed by the science, the people she works with (“I’m so happy I have the mentors I have. They are absolutely awesome!”), and the opportunity to do science that has such an impact. “I used to think I’d go to medical school,” she said. “But now I really want to go to grad school and continue this kind of work. I love planetary sciences!” This happy marriage of student and science began at Emma, says Hannah’s mother, Ann Crotty, who knows firsthand how that can happen. It happened for her as well when she was a student at Emma. Though she, too, liked science and math, she initially took a different path and became an elementary teacher. “I stumbled into science as a first-year, fifth-grade teacher in an urban magnet school for math, science, and technology,” she says. “I ended up pursuing a graduate degree focused on science and education.” Her doctoral dissertation was on women and girls in science education and it was fascinating seeing her own daughter traveling this route. “I watched Hannah’s interest and excitement about science gradually take shape in high school at Emma. As a parent and educator, I saw her interest peaking during her sophomore year when she took her first chemistry course. It may not have been her ‘ah ha’ moment, but I recollect it was my ‘ah ha’ moment for her.”
Hannah Bower and her mother Ann Crotty both developed a love of science while at Emma Willard.
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how scientists work together, and to see
“ She got to see True, Ann had primed the pump. When her daughters were young (another daughter, Sarah, is heading for Hobart William Smith College this year to study life sciences), she’d point out metamorphic rock during walks on trails, take them to see an Imax movie on Jane Goodall, and plant seedlings with them in the back yard. She made sure her daughters knew women who were active practitioners in science-related fields— doctors, mathematicians, engineers. “I always found a teaching moment,” says Ann, “whether they embraced it or not. Oftentimes not!” Hannah remembers those teaching moments. “My whole life I’ve been surrounded by science. We’d have little critters around; my mother would do experiments with us. She wanted me to go to Emma because they have a good science program.” By the time Hannah graduated from Emma Willard, she had taken six years of science, including Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Animal Behavior, Ethics in Science, and Neuroscience, as well as four years of mathematics. Her most formative science experience came during her junior year when she had an eight-week internship at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in their biotechnology center. Hannah says this was certainly the item on her résumé that got her noticed by NASA when she was one of many applicants for the internship there. “To me it was like a rehearsal for her future,” said Ann about her daughter’s internship while at Emma. “She got to see how scientists work together and do science, and to see herself in science, too.” It was particularly satisfying to Ann to watch Hannah’s love of science grow and build into a career path because Ann’s experience as an educator had shown her that women and minorities are underrepresented in many science fields. “The STEM pipeline is referred to as ‘leaky,’” she says, using the acronym often used for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics. The attrition rates of women and minorities are especially high. But for girls inclined toward science at Emma Willard, Ann feels the environment is conducive.
herself in science, too.”
“I think there is a much more concerted effort at Emma over the last decade or so to provide valuable and varied opportunities for students to gain access to science and mathematics courses that not only build their foundational knowledge, but lead to more advanced courses as they move from grades 9 to 12.” She cites the physics course for ninth-grade students at Emma, noting that most schools offer physics to upper- class students only and often with prerequisites that bar many students who are not already confident science students. “This is a statement about the importance of science. How do you know you don’t like physics if you have never been exposed to it?” asks Ann. “Think of all the untapped potential in students who have never taken a physics or a chemistry course in high school—they could be, or could have been, our future engineers, physicists, chemists, bioengineers, biochemists.” No such questions linger for Hannah Bower, future planetary scientist. Next year she is transferring to the University of Maryland because, she says, “their chemistry program is one of the top-ranked in the country and they have close ties with NASA.” And NASA is where Hannah hopes to work, once she completes a graduate degree. “It was awesome to see my own daughter navigating her way…gaining ground toward making such an important commitment and decision about her future,” says Ann. “I describe her NASA experience as ‘life altering’ because it did change her life. It has opened so many pathways, inspired her to take greater leaps. She can see a career with a future.”
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Flying High at
Marina Mezzogiorno-Brown Emma Willard ’06 Evergreen State College, BA
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The challenge is to find how you can use your body to show your soul, your ideas.”
f Marina MezzogiornoBrown
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After alumna Marina Mezzogiorno-Brown earned a bachelor’s degree in ethnography from The Evergreen State College in 2010, she almost immediately went back to school— this time, circus school. She studied for several months at The Circus Warehouse in New York and in October 2011, she moved to Italy for full-time study at the FLIC Scuola di Circo in Turin where the rigorous interdisciplinary training includes everything from modern dance to gymnastics, acting to swinging trapeze.
How it all started I began taking silks classes around two and half years ago because my mother, of all people, told me she thought I’d enjoy flying. After about a year of on-and-off classes and lots of fun with the Brooklyn/New York circus community, I felt the pull to go deeper. I started the professional program part time at the Circus Warehouse in Queens doing silks and flying trapeze (the best thing ever), ballet, and stretching classes. The school is absolutely great but too expensive to do full time and not as complete of an education as I realized I desired. Full-time, rigorous circus schools exist primarily in Europe with a few in South and North America and Russia. My sister had twin boys in August of 2011 in Italy so that helped me decide to head toward Europe, as did the fact that I speak French and Italian. I did some research, packed up my life and flew to Milan. A fantastic teacher of mine from the Circus Warehouse had mentioned she had seen some cool stuff come out of FLIC in Turin, so I headed there and there I stayed.
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e the r a s e n i scipl s. “My di e a nd the silk op ks aer ia l r a n ta king sil f I beg other, o m y m because e, told me she l a ll peop njoy f lying.” t I’ d e h g u o h t
My class schedule For one hour in the morning we have physical preparation, which consists of either strength building or flexibility training. We’re talking an hour of pull-ups, pushups, ab closures, jumping, etc., in every possible configuration the devil can come up with—hands close together, hands far apart, elbows wide, elbows at 90 degrees, squatting, legs at 30 degrees, legs straight jumping with only your ankles, and that doesn’t even begin to explain the depth of variation. Flexibility focuses on legs, joints (hips/shoulders), and back. This means minutes in all three, splits, bridges, straddles and so on. Physical prep is followed by acrobatics—I can now do a round-off back handspring and am working on my round-off back flip! We then have modern dance class. It’s super exciting to mix disciplines; that is, throw a handstand or a cartwheel into a dance choreography. This interdisciplinary fluidity is the objective of FLIC’s training. We also have physical acting classes, mask and clown workshops, as well as intense stretching lessons. The final piece is, of course, circus class. Aerial rope and the silks. Swinging trapeze, aerial hoop, tight wire, hand to hand, roux cyr, German wheel, Chinese pole, acrobatic ball, ladder, hand standing, and if you are interested you can work on juggling and contortion as well.
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The rush of performing The adrenaline you get from having a public is unlike anything else. Performance is also the ultimate gratification for months of work, and the place where you get to test your artistry. It is where, if you’re good, you get to force people to think outside the box and feel things they don’t normally feel. That is the whole point of art when it is done well.
“ I spend my days trying to reach the limit of what physics (and common sense) permit.”
Not just clowning around Contemporary circus is nowhere near the “TA DA!!” of traditional circus; traditional being the sort with parading animals and trapeze artists in glittering tutus. Today’s circus is closer to a mixture of modern dance, acting, and mad skills. It is about pushing the audience, and performer, into a world where the laws of physics and common sense are less applicable. They say laws are made to be broken and I spend my days trying to reach the limit of what physics (and common sense) permits. It is not easy and often it is not fun in the sense that the word “circus” brings to mind.
Developing a tough skin It takes months to habituate your skin to the tear of the rope and your hands to the hold you need to stay in the air. Most ropists (including me) wear jeans to practice and perform, as tights just don’t cut it. It requires a huge amount of strength as well—the majority of movements start with a pull up, at the very least. Constant concentration is imperative when you’re talking about acrobatic movements at 20 feet in the air—one misstep and you break a vertebra. Not an uncommon injury, unfortunately, at FLIC. At the end of the day I have just enough energy left to get home, cook dinner and pass out. In fact, I’d like to take a moment to apologize to all of my lovely Emma girls for my absolute lack of contact. I love and think about you all! I just can’t move most of the time!
Reconnecting with my Italian side I am half Italian and half American. The Italian half is all here in Italy, including my sister who was born and raised here. I was born and raised in the US but have dual citizenship. When I was young I came here once every two or three years to see my family, and when I was 16 I decided to spend my junior year of Emma in Italy to learn the language.
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Surrounded by colorful characters There are students from all over the world—Brazil, Costa Rica, USA (I’m not the only American), France, Spain, Austria, Poland, all over Italy, Sweden, Latvia, Ireland, and so on. I guess the biggest difference between the people in this school and the other schools I’ve been to is that here we all work with our bodies in an extreme way, for which a certain madness is a base requirement. One particular character is a giant man who teaches acting. When I say giant I mean shoulders the width of a doorframe and so tall that my head arrives at his elbow. (That being said, I’m 5’2”). He is of farmers in the mountains of Eastern Italy, has degrees from La Sorbonne and Filipe Radice, a great acting school here in Turin, and was on the way to becoming a Catholic monk before leaving to be a circus director.
My ‘gritty’ new community am
ng azi
I love to fly My disciplines are the aerial rope and the silks. I began taking silks because my mother, of all people, told me she thought I’d enjoy flying. The rope is pretty self explanatory—a rope hung from the ceiling (our school has ceilings around 25 feet tall), on which I climb and wrap and unwrap myself in various ways, often including drops of 10 or more feet. The silks are similar except there are two pieces of fabric hung from the ceiling rather that one single piece.
Forget sick days Consistency is also a huge, huge element for physical fitness. In most schools if you are sick they tell you to stay home. At FLIC, unless you can’t move you better show up. A cold is not an excuse; neither is a pulled muscle or a twisted ankle. The first show at the school I performed with a fractured nose from doing a certain type of two-person front flip.
This is still a fringe community, even if the number of people in circus is exploding, and the people you run into are some of the most cooperative and gritty you will find anywhere. The ideal is to have your own Chapiteau (tent) and travel as an autonomous group. That means you are always with the people in the company (a bit like Emma), and you share everything. You share the work of mounting and dismounting the tent (no small feat), you share food, you share ideas, you share creation time and you share down time. This is the politic of circus. It is, on one hand, super individualistic because everyone works for themselves with their own number. On the other hand it is ultra-communal. It is an intense combination and a great balance for me.
More than a dress rehearsal
If I had a crystal ball
Monthly or bimonthly the whole school puts together a show under the direction of various artists. These shows are nothing like a cabaret, they are full on productions with a theme and often carry a vague story line. We don’t sleep from Thursday until Sunday at 3 am when the show is over and the gym-turned-theatre is dismantled and returned to normal. I was totally taken aback when I saw the number of people that showed up to the first Circo In Pillole—the school’s shows have become something of a sensation in Turin and a few hundred spectators come.
In five years I hope to be working with a company of brilliant artists traveling the world with our show. It’s definitely a pipe dream but you might as well shoot high. In ten years I hope to have babies and be working with a company of brilliant artists traveling the world with our show. I know my answer sounds vague but this is not the sort of life that has a straight trajectory.
What circus means to me It is about using the body as your artistic instrument—learning to control your movement and your discipline (mine is the rope) in such a way that you can express something deeper than the sum of your tricks. In this world there will always be the gymnasts and dancers that began at age six who best you technically—the challenge is to find what makes your performance moving, to find how you can use your body to show your soul, your ideas, and to use that to move people.
www.emmawillard.org
Photo: Billy Howard
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Yen Duong Emma Willard ’97 McGill, BS; UC Davis, Ph.D.
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When I go abroad I’m there to represent the US government and I’m pretty serious about that.”
Dangerous
Medicine
Scientist tackles AIDS epidemic in some of the world’s most dangerous places By Kim Asch
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Yen Duong does AIDS research at the Centers for Disease Control headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia.
The flak jacket-clad Ph.D. is like a female Indiana Jones, except instead of wielding a whip in self-defense while searching for archeological treasures, she is armed only with a fierce sense of mission as she navigates war zones, natural disasters, and Third World conditions to advance a new technology that could help conquer AIDS around the globe.
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Photo: Billy Howard
When she’s at home in Atlanta, alumna Yen Duong conducts her groundbreaking HIV research in a sterile, high-tech environment at Centers for Disease Control headquarters. But the fearless microbiologist is equally at home when she’s working on the other side of the world in perilous places like South Sudan, Mozambique, and Afghanistan.
21 Duong has spent the past three years in the field leading a comprehensive effort to assess the accuracy of a new CDC-developed lab test that can distinguish between long-term and recent HIV infections. The test provides vital information that can help direct international efforts focused on HIV prevention, care, and treatment. It helps to measure the rate of occurrence, the transmission dynamics, and allow tracking of epidemiological trends. It provides crucial data during vaccine trials. “The test is fantastic. It’s spot-on accurate,” says Duong, whose name is listed first among eight authors of the journal article published in March 2012 announcing the successful results. Once the test kit is commercialized, Duong predicts its use will be widespread and to great benefit. She won’t see any profits from the sales, but she says she wouldn’t have gone into the field of public health if she measured her rewards in dollars and cents. “This has been a labor of love,” she says, adding with a laugh, “my program really attracts morons like me who feel they can come in and save the world.” Debra Wadford, who collaborated with Duong investigating HIV inhibitors while pursuing their Ph.D.s at UC Davis and is now a microbiologist for the state of California, concurs that “none of us is in public health to get rich—we do it for the public good.” Wadford is proud of her friend’s important work and a little awed by her daring. “When I try to text or call her, nine times out of ten she’s out of the country in some exotic, dangerous place. I wouldn’t want to go to any of those places, so kudos to her,” says Wadford. “She goes for the sake of the science and the work. She goes regardless of the danger. But I think she also gets a little rush from the adventure of it.”
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native of Vietnam who emigrated with her family when she was very young, Yen Duong (pronounced “Ing Dwon”) exudes an irrepressible exuberance about everything from great coffee (cappuccino: only froth, no milk) to viruses (“I love viruses, they’re so clever.”). She adores nature and food—and makes an effort to enjoy both wherever she is. “She always says her happiest place is on the side of a mountain,” Wadford muses. “And she is a fantastic cook—she can whip up the best simple, rustic pies in no time.” Duong attributes her wanderlust to what she calls her “geographical confusion” as a child. She spent her first years as an immigrant in bustling Long Island, N.Y., before moving to small-town Saskatchewan in Canada, where her parents put in long hours at the bakery they continue to own and operate. It was a cold, boring place, she says, “I only ever wanted to leave.” Boarding school offered an escape and Duong convinced her parents to let her go if she got in. “I went to the library and got a big directory and wrote letters to dozens of schools,” she recalls. “My dad picked Emma because it was the only girls’ school in the mix.” At Emma, Duong was in her element. “I could be dorky and smart and still be accepted, instead of pregnant like many of the teenagers in my hometown.” She painted, practiced photography, and sang in the choir. Having inherited her parents’ cooking talents, she impressed her teachers by making them homemade Vietnamese spring rolls in their kitchens. But she really loved and excelled in Chemistry and AP Chemistry classes: “From there I knew I was hooked on science.”
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She goes for the sake of the science + the work. She goes regardless of the danger. But I think she also gets a little rush from the adventure of it.
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Duong majored in chemistry at McGill University in Montreal where her mentors groomed her for graduate school. “Most of the people in the program were destined for the lab doing basic research,” she explains. “But I wanted to work on something to be used in the field. Why do it if it’s not going to directly affect people’s lives?” Upon completion of UC Davis’s six-year doctoral program in pharmacology and toxicology, she had two patents to her name. Both resulted from her work with potential entry inhibitors to block HIV in the cell and stop its migration to other cells. It’s unclear whether these compounds will ever become viable treatments, she says, because “it can’t go from my lab to people’s mouths without industry coming in and putting tens of millions of dollars into the development of the drug.”
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22 After completing her post-doc work at the CDC, Duong decided to stay on, even though she’d always imagined working for a nongovernmental organization. “I realized that it’s all about having an impact, and the CDC has the weight of the United States government behind it,” she says. And unlike a career in the pharmaceutical and biotech industries, Duong would be able to focus on the public health mission, free from concerns about profits and losses. “My parents cringe when they hear me say I don’t care about money. It causes them grief,” she says, without a hint of confusion. “I get it. They’re immigrants and they emigrated to achieve financial security. I’m secure, I just don’t want to be independently wealthy.” Instead, Duong prides herself on being a model government employee. “When I go abroad I’m there to represent the US government and I’m pretty serious about that. You have to represent properly.” Despite her independent and strong sense of identity, she dons a head scarf while working in places where they are the custom for women. “When I work with my Afghan colleagues, they offer tea which is a gesture of kindness. It is rude to say no to the tea so even if I think I’m going to get sick from it, I drink it anyway. That’s how you build trust and a working relationship in that part of the world,” she says. Another aspect of her job with the CDC involves helping developing countries create clinical lab systems to secure accurate results. The work is akin to the proverb that it’s better to teach someone how to fish than to give him a meal. The only place Duong refuses to go is Nigeria because, she says, the restrictive safety precautions would prevent her from getting anything done. “I joke that in my branch I’m like the civil unrest lab liaison,” she says, adding that she chooses the uncomfortable and risky assignments because, “these are the places that need help the most. The need and the ability to have an impact is what attracts me to them.”
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here is a lot of discomfort involved in her travels, which keep her away from her life in Atlanta about 40 percent of the year. Much of it is unavoidable, but even where modern accommodations are available, Duong usually chooses to “rough it” by staying in places that aren’t too far removed from the way the locals live. “I figure as long as I have a bed, a shower, a sink, and clean water, I’ve got everything I need,” she says. Duong is rewarded by the way the sights, smells, sounds and tastes of each unique location so thoroughly work their way into her senses. “One strong sensory memory I have is of the dirt in southern Africa. It’s red and it has a smell to it and when I see and feel it, I know exactly where I am in the world. There is no other place like it. “When I’m in South Africa, Mozambique, Swaziland, and Namibia, I try to go on safari as often as possible. I never get tired of seeing the game there. In Swaziland, which has become my adopted homeland, they have a sanctuary for black rhinos that are officially extinct. I also love the elephants, lions, crocs and anything else I can see.” She says the people of Afghanistan have captured her heart. “After decades of war the spirit of the Afghans is amazing. They really still believe they can rebuild their country.” In poetic terms, she describes the country’s effect on her: the way the dust and smoke rush into her
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I joke that I’m like the civil unrest lab liaison.
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nose and eyes and suck the moisture from her skin, the delicious kabobs and flat bread she eats with every meal when she’s there. On one of her visits, she and her colleagues were able to go out to a local restaurant, and when they got there they were greeted by an armed guard. “I like to start off all my meals with an AK-47,” she cracks. Maintaining a social life outside of work is a bit of a challenge, but Duong manages to keep up with her friendships and even to date. She met a Marine while in Kabul who returned to New York and she sees him when she can. For Thanksgiving, she and a friend toured Greece and Turkey, and at Christmas she was home in Saskatchewan to visit her family. Her work assignments in Vietnam have allowed her to practice her Vietnamese and reconnect with her roots there. On a recent trip to Vietnam, she bought a painting of a child sitting on a water buffalo playing a flute. “It’s an iconic Vietnamese story and every time I see this painting, it reminds me where I came from. I could be that kid on a farm working today, but luckily I am not.”
back in the day By Gabrielle demarco
Wonder Woman of History Comic books—their colorful covers and tissue paper-thin pages filled with battling superheroes in shining capes—are an iconic part of American childhood, particularly for young boys who purchased them at corner comic shops starting in the 1930s and continuing today. Superman stopped trains and Batman and Robin saved Gotham city in every issue. The men of the comic book universe saved the damsels in distress and flew off to victory. As America entered the 1940s with World War II raging in Europe, psychologist and inventor William Moulton Marston envisioned a totally new kind of superhero—a superheroine. Marston wanted to create a female superhero who would serve as a model of female power for the young girls of the time. And so in 1941 DC Comics released Wonder Woman in all her starspangling, red go-go booted glory. With her Lasso of Truth and sleek mane of black hair, Wonder Woman completely upset the place of women in the comic book world from crying victim to international intelligence agent and gave girls their own and firstever superhero. Shortly after Wonder Woman first came out, the artists and writEmma Willard is the star of a Wonder ers sought to offer girls real-world examples of “Wonder Women Woman comic from the 1940s. of History.” And in 1946, our very own Emma Hart Willard and her important work for education and for girls was given a comic book treatment. Her life story was featured in Wonder Woman issue number 17 as a model for what a dedicated woman could achieve. We were lucky enough to get access to this Emma comic, originals of which are valued in the hundreds and even thousands of dollars today. She stood as a true wonder woman then and continues to do so today more than 200 years later. Read about our very own caped crusader in all her penciled and zam-bop-pow comic greatness.
“ Wonder Woman completely upset the place of women in the comic book world from crying
victim to international intelligence agent.”
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emma everywhere
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With its Tudor Gothic buildings and expansive 137-acre campus, Emma Willard has been featured in several films, including Scent of a Woman and The Emperor’s Club.
Visiting Emma The best way to discover what Emma Willard is all about is to visit campus and meet our students and faculty. You and your parents will tour our campus (which is on the National Register of Historic Places) with a student tour guide, attend an academic class, and interview with a member of the Admissions staff. You can expect your visit to last approximately two-and-a-half to three hours. Appointments for campus visits are available as follows: Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday: 8:00 a.m., 9:30 a.m., 10:30 a.m., 12:15 p.m., and 1:30 p.m. Wednesdays: 8:00 a.m., 9:45 a.m., and 12:15 p.m. Students are also encouraged to register for one of our Open Houses: Oct 8, 2012 or Nov 9, 2012.
Please contact the Admissions Office at 518.833.1320 or admissions@emmawillard.org to plan your visit to Emma Willard School. We look forward to meeting and learning more about you soon! Learn more and apply online at www.emmawillard.org/admissions
Photo: Mark Van Wormer
Class of 2012 Average SAT Math
Average SAT Critical Reading
Average SAT Writing
Average SAT Score
624 626 648 1904
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Admissions Timetable Before 8th, 9th, 10th, or 11th grade Fill out our online information request or contact the school to indicate interest. October 2012–January 2013 * Take standardized testing. * Schedule a visit to Emma or make a reservation to attend an Open House (October 8 or November 9). February 1, 2013
* Deadline for applying to Emma Willard School. * Financial aid application due to Emma and SSS.
Total Enrollment
332 127 205 day students
boarding
March 8, 2013 Candidates are notified of their admissions decision. April 10, 2013 Enrollment contract and deposit due for accepted candidates. Following March 10, 2013, decisions are made on a rolling admission basis. Late applicants are encouraged to call the Admissions Office directly to check on the availability of spaces for entrance in the fall of 2013.
How To Apply All Emma Willard candidates are required to submit the following items to complete their admission application:
Tuition
Application Form (including essay, parent statement, and fee). You may fill out our online application or download it at (www. emmawillard.org/admissions), or fill out the common application.
Boarding Students Tuition, room, and board ������������������������������������������������������ $48,480 SmartCard deposit (latter for seniors) ������������������ $600/$650
Transcripts should be completed by a school official and contain a minimum two years of credits, as well as the first semester or trimester of the current academic year.
Day Students Tuition including meals..........................................................$29,690 SmartCard deposit (latter for seniors) ������������������ $400/$450
Recommendations to be completed by the applicant’s current English Teacher, Math Teacher, and teacher-of-choice.
Financial Aid
Testing (SSAT, ISEE, PSAT, ACT, SAT, or TOEFL) If applying for ninth-grade or tenth-grade: SSAT, ISEE. Emma Willard’s SSAT code is 2998. If applying for Grade 11 or Postgraduate: PSAT, SAT, ACT International Students: SSAT or TOEFL. Emma Willard’s TOEFL code is 8629.
[ 2012–2013 ]
We are committed to making Emma Willard School affordable and to creating socioeconomic diversity on our campus. For 2011–2012, we awarded over 4.2 million dollars in grants to our students and their families. While we are committed to high-need families, we are also helping all income ranges receive quality education.
Interview Please contact the Admissions Office at 518.833.1320 or admissions@emmawillard.org to schedule an interview. If you are unable to come to campus, you may schedule a phone or Skype interview. Financial Assistance To determine eligibility, each family must submit a Parent Financial Statement (PFS) to School and Student Service for Financial Aid (SSS) by February 1. For more information about the PFS and additional financial aid requirements, please visit www.emmawillard. org/admissions/financial-aid.
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[average]
Class Size
12 Art Offerings Intro to Drawing Color and Design Ceramics I & II Intro to Weaving Contemporary Dance (3 levels) Ballet (3 levels) Jazz Dancing Acting Technical Theatre Oral Interpretation and Speech Choir (3 levels) Music Appreciation I & II Fundamentals of Music Voice Seminar 3-D Concepts Woven Structure Orchestra Photography (3 levels) Digital Imaging Film and Video Studio Art (3 levels) Dance Company AP Portfolio
Class of 2012 Amherst College Babson College * Boston College * Brown University Carnegie Mellon University * Columbia College Cornell University * Dartmouth College George Washington University * Georgetown University * Hamilton College * Hampshire College * Ithaca College * John Hopkins University * Mount Holyoke College * Northeastern University * New York University * Parsons School of Design * Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute * Skidmore College * Smith College * St. Lawrence University * Stanford University Syracuse University* Trinity College (CT) * Vassar College * Wellesley College * Williams College * *Multiple acceptances
Varsity Sports Soccer Volleyball Field Hockey Swimming/Diving Cross-Country Tennis Basketball Indoor Track Crew Lacrosse Softball Track & Field
What I did for my Practicum*‌ Took tango lessons Interned in hotel management Volunteered at Samaritan Hospital Competed in fencing Competed in archery Took Korean lessons Took horseback riding lessons Participated in gymnastics Took Korean sword training lessons Played golf Helped design the new school jester logo Did musical theater Played with Empire State Youth Orchestra Swam on Uncle Sam swim team Interned at an architecture firm Participated in Albany Math Circle Played rugby Took Tae Kwon Do *Practicum: an independent study
For more ADMISSIONS information go to emmawillard.org/ admissions
admissions
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women’s work
Dressing for the Show Chris Carroll Costumer for Revels, retired Ekiza Kellas Instructor in English
Revels is a nearly 100-year tradition at Emma, where seniors perform a Christmas-time pageant about a Medieval manor family. I’ve done the costumes for Revels for at least 36 years.
stone-like appearance, I used an old hairpiece, beard and moustache, and then we worked with makeup and sprayed the whole thing with this stone spray so she looked like a stone figure that could, in fact, move. I’ve always loved that creative aspect of the work.
When I came as a brand-new teacher in 1975, Miss Hogben, who had been the seamstress for the school, was 80 years old. She was such an artist with Revels costumes. Because I had a theater background, I worked with her for a year. When she passed away, it turned to me. Even though the basic script of the show is always the same, the characters will change based on student ideas or characters they might be interested in trying to create or craft. The show through the generations has changed dramatically. At first it was very processional, but now the girls are quite physical and they come up with different concepts of their own. Last year they wanted to include a gargoyle, so I came up with a concept and a costume. I took the original St. George costume from years past and adapted it. Because I wanted her to have a
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The oldest piece in the costume collection is close to 96 years old. I will never cut into old fabric. Because of the age of the costumes, we secure them in special ways—we sew a lot of students into their costumes and then cut them out. One year we were inspired by the costumes from the Lion King that extend beyond the body. We made one dragon that was huge, and it really rose up above the audience when it came in. It was pretty spectacular to see. The costumes are like people to me. I really treasure them because they are so beautiful, even given their age. I realize that every time Miss Hogben went to create a character, there was a little detail in that costume that made it different from any other. It makes the student who wears it feel special. I value that.
Traditions Bring Us Together
Photo: Mark Van Wormer
Our annual Christmas pageant, Revels, is one of the high points of the year.
emma willard school 285 Pawling Avenue, Troy, NY 12180
Come to an Open House October 8, 2012 November 9, 2012 email admissions@emmawillard.org phone 518.833.1320 website emmawillard.org/admissions