Around campus

on a mission

Students launched a decommissioned REMUS 100 autonomous underwater vehicle, or AUV, from the U.S. Navy, in nearby Songo Pond this fall, primarily to test the AUV’s capabilities — and their own.

The REMUS 100 (or Remote Environmental Monitoring UnitS) is a robot that travels underwater without requiring input from an operator. It weighs 80 to 100 pounds and is rated to a depth of 100 meters. It is fully programmable for many tasks and costs upward of $250,000. This one was donated to the school.

With the help of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and Ryan Marine, the team has made the vehicle operational. Now, the group of 13 students is hoping to add other capabilities, including side scan sonar and sample taking. They see REMUS as a valuable tool in science research.

“It’s really a blank canvas for students to apply their knowledge,” said senior Josh Galluzzo. “It’s the ultimate applied learning tool.”

For the students, it was especially gratifying to see the sub moving about on its own.

“It didn’t always go smoothly,” said sophomore Auburn Putz- Burton, “but we were able to collect a lot of data that will help us in the future. We plan to carry out several missions similar to this one, and get used to running it in the field and

testing more of its capabilities before exploring several ideas we have for bigger, more exciting ventures.”

The group also made a trip to Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute last spring to learn from their engineers, learn safety protocols for the REMUS, and are still in frequent contact with them.

“As far as we know, the few other schools who received a REMUS haven’t gotten them out on the water,” said junior Aidan Ryan. “This is a unique opportunity for us.”

on stage

Fall drama students put on a double feature in November:

“Black Comedy” is a one-act farce by Peter Shaffer about a young sculptor and his debutante fiancée. “Rapunzel Uncut” by Mariah Everman is the well-known fairy tale retold by dueling narrators.

Caroline Newell ’20 in “Black Comedy”

“The entire cast was so supportive,” says Caroline Newell ’19. “We were all on the ride together, laughing and stressing about how hard the blocking is and how strange some of the lines were. We all had so much fun along the way.”

Steffi Ordway ’20 in “Rapunzel Uncut”

Photos by Laurin Parker '94

dogs, determination, and identity

Writer Blair Braverman visited Gould Academy on September 25 to give a reading from her first book, “Welcome to the Goddamn Ice Cube.”

Braverman moved to arctic Norway to learn to drive sled dogs, and found work as a tour guide on a glacier in Alaska. Determined to carve out a life as a “tough girl” — a young woman who confronts danger without apology — she slowly developed the strength and resilience the landscape demanded. She is training for the Iditarod, a 1,000-mile dog sled race across Alaska.

“As both a storyteller and a stylist, Braverman is remarkably skilled, with a keen sense of visceral detail that borders on sublime,” says The New York Times. “But her ability to draw readers into heartpounding action sequences is what makes the book so courageous and original.”

​An Iowa Arts Fellow, MacDowell Fellow, and Blue Mountain Center Fellow, she came to campus as part of the Richard Blanco Visiting Writers Program and Retreat — a collaboration between Richard Blanco and Gould Academy.

ecuador

When a group of Gould students arrived at Sinchi Warmi in Ecuador over Thanksgiving break last November, local kids gathered around, asking about the Gould students who had visited and lived with host families over the past two years.

“These relationships are so valuable,” says Tracey Wilkerson, who led the trip with Savannah Sessions. “When we travel with Gould students, whether for a school break or Ninth Grade Four Point, students make meaningful and lasting connections. Gould trips are never solely about being tourists and seeing things. They're always about engaging meaningfully with people and places. When our students travel, they gain an appreciation for and understanding of their surroundings, and they make friends.”

For the November trip, a highlight was a canyoning adventure near the town of Baños de Agua Santa.

“We rappelled, zip lined, jumped, climbed, and swam our way down a gorgeous canyon in the rainforest,” says Sessions. “It was an excellent team-building experience — outside of the comfort zone but really safe, with expert guides and high-quality equipment. Our group truly solidified while canyoning and the students left more prepared to embrace the next ‘risk’ — the homestay experience.”

Gould does a good job of nurturing and maintaining relationships in other countries, says Wilkerson. “Through our partnership with Amazon Learning in Ecuador, the Tumaini Junior School in Tanzania, Juan de Lanuza School in Spain, and our connections with several schools in China — it’s the relationships that make transformative experiences possible for our students.”

“Gould students have the opportunity to not only travel,” adds Wilkerson, “but also to make genuine connections with other people and cultures, ultimately leading to greater connection with an understanding of ourselves.”

a studio of one’s own

Designed to be a private, individual space where art students can engage in ongoing projects without having to tear down and set work back up after each class, the new Art Cottage studios provide an opportunity they might not experience again until art school.

“The studios are enormous by comparison,” says art teacher Kipp Greene. “One Gould graduate told me these are at least twice the size of the space he had his final year at Tufts.”

Together, there are seven individual studios, three darkrooms, and a dedicated oil painting studio on the top floor of the Art Cottage.

Use of a studio brings responsibility as well, says Greene. Students must apply for the space, and if they are selected, they are expected to take on a leadership role by monitoring their fellow students in the Art Cottage one night per week, giving help as needed, getting supplies ready, and making sure the space is used appropriately.

“It’s a way of nurturing a working artistic community here,” says Greene. “But we’re really spoiling them, too.”

in the gallery

Owen Gallery played host to several inspirational shows recently.

• Metalsmith Karen Eisenberg '78 works with precious and semiprecious materials combining silver, gold, gemstones, and beach stones.

• Portland artist Meg Hahn’s work stems from a curiosity about how to depict speed, weight, and gravity in abstract forms.

• January brought the work of Yuka Abe, whose work deals with how humans relate to nature and the role of women in our world.

• “Roadside Picnic,” a traveling show by a group of young Chinese artists living in New York City and curated by Hiroshi Sunairi, a professor at NYU, opened in February.

Both Hahn and Abe came as visiting artists and spent a full week working with students. A student show will follow in early May.

active bystander training at Gould

For MLK Day, the student-run Civil Rights Team had a new plan this year.

Ninth and 10th graders continued to participate in community service projects with nonprofit groups like the Good Shepherd Food Bank and Partners for World Health, while 11th and 12th graders engaged in active bystander training with the help of Prevention. Action. Change., a group based in Portland, Maine, with the intention of creating a safer, more welcoming environment for all students.

“Our work here today is teaching active bystander skills,” says Clara Porter, MSW, program director at Prevention. Action. Change., “which raises awareness around what different students are targeted for identity-based harassment … and then practically, what students can actively do to step in and create change.”

Active bystander training isn’t about asking students to put themselves in harm’s way. It’s about giving them the language and tactics that can help identify and diffuse dangerous situations before they escalate and get out of control.

Civil Rights Team member Anna Clare Miller ’19 stressed the importance of the workshops and remarked on the new skillset she was introduced to. “I took away a lot of ways to confront situations that make me uncomfortable in a way that’s still productive, in a way that focuses on helping the person that’s being targeted.”

Read more and watch a video from the day at: gouldacademy.org/blog/active-bystander-training-at-gould/

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