18 minute read
Dynamic Learning
BY HEATHER ODELL
The newly designed Honors Independent Study Program recognizes and celebrates the unique perspectives and approaches to learning that shape our student body by providing students an opportunity to work dynamically with an expert in their field and develop relevant solutions to contemporary issues. Partnerships between students, parents, alumni, and members of the greater Adirondack region facilitate the exploration of these students’ particular topics of interest. Sixteen students were involved in a study this academic year. It seems fitting that as our school celebrates 50 years of women at Northwood, twelve of these participants were female. These young women have set the bar for their peers by taking ownership over their learning and demonstrating a tremendous work ethic. A few have even had the good fortune of partnering with Northwood alumnae.
Iva-Amanda Nelson ’23 is exploring the world of neuroscience thanks to her mentor and Northwood alumna Madison McCarthy ’19. “Working on my interest in neuroscience independently has allowed me to grow immensely. Having not only a Northwood alum who shares similar experiences as a former student, but also a woman to further empower me in my studies has made my independent study a class of pure enjoyment. Madison McCarthy, Northwood Class of ’19 is a strong-minded intellectual and I do look up to her in regards to the path her career is taking and her work ethic. The networking Northwood has promoted with my study has allowed me to fully engage not only in my immediate community, but with a broader community that despite being a part of, I never knew.” It’s clear the respect for one another is mutual. When asked about her work with Iva-Amanda, Madison shared, “When I first heard about Amanda’s passion for science and medicine, I thought back to my time as a Northwood student, when I first became excited about medicine but did not know where to begin. In working with Amanda, I have helped shape her independent study to be focused particularly on research skills that will sustain her over her entire career in medicine, and that I wish someone had taught me when I was a Northwood student. Particularly, I think developing a research question — and being able to execute that research question — through the use of tools like EndNote and PubMed, and concepts such as the creation of a PRISMA flow diagram, filtering a corpus, and doing a literature search have been particularly important in her project and to her development. To be able to work with Amanda on such skills within the
Caroline Harrison ’22 has developed an independent study project on Canadian landscape artists known as The Group of Seven under the guideance of talented faculty member Ingrid Van Slyke.
Having not only a Northwood alum . . . but also a woman to further empower me in my studies has made my independent study a class of pure enjoyment.”
—IVA-AMANDA NELSON ’23
context of her text mining project is one of the ways that I have always hoped to give back to Northwood as an alumna.”
In addition to Madison’s involvement in the program, alumna Alex Harden ’04 has been guiding Marie-Jeanne Prince ’22 in her study of the impact of climate change on snow sports while Hannah Feinberg O’Neal ’13 is assisting current senior Ella Fesette ’22 in the research of nutrition for athletic performance. Ella has also collaborated with former Olympian Andrea Henkel-Burke. Of her study, Ella says, “I’ve loved learning more about nutrition and how important it is for athletes. Being an athlete myself, I’ve learned a lot about what foods you need to fuel your body. Working with Andrea and Hannah has been really helpful. Working with people that specialize in what I want to major in helped me gain a real sense of what nutrition and fitness is all about.”
Other impressive studies led by Northwood’s young women include Kate Broderick’s (Class of 2022) internship with attorney and Trustee Allison McGahay. McGahay, who is running for New York State’s Supreme Court, has welcomed Kate into her office on a weekly basis. Caroline Harrison ’22 has been working with talented faculty member Ingrid Van Slyke to learn more about mid-century modern Canadian landscape artists, The Group of Seven. Caroline will host an opening at The Hub to showcase the paintings she has created throughout the year.
The intellect and drive of the women involved in the Honors Independent Study Program, whether students or mentors, have undoubtedly fostered this program’s early success. These studies reflect the diverse interests of Northwood students, and the work that has been accomplished in one year alone is quite remarkable. The legacy of the next 50 years of women at Northwood is sure to be a tour de force, empowering generations to come.
2022 HONORED LEGACY FAMILY
The Allyn Family
Northwood school’s rich history and traditions date back to its founding in 1905 and the early years of the Lake Placid Club. The family-centric Club founded the School for sons of club members and as the School grew and developed, siblings, children, and grandchildren were welcomed into the Northwood family. We celebrate this tradition as we recognize Northwood School’s Honored Legacy Families.
Each year, Northwood School will recognize a family or families who have made a Northwood education a family tradition and continue to remain active in the life of the School. The honored families may have generations of Northwood alumni or alumni siblings. The first Honored Legacy Family may also be the first with three generations of Northwood alumni represented by Bill Allyn ’28, Lew Allyn ’57 and Tanya Allyn Dillon ’86.
William “Bill” Allyn ’28, P’57, GP’86, Trustee Lew Allyn ’57, P’86, Trustee Tanya Allyn Dillon ’86, Trustee
For nearly a century, the Allyn family has been involved with Northwood School. Let that sink in for a moment. When William G. Allyn ’28 stepped onto campus as a teenager in the fall of 1926, the School was barely beyond teenager-status itself and had only recently ceased spending its winter term in coastal Florida. Calvin Coolidge was President. Locally, the Palace Theatre had just opened on Main Street (talking pictures had not yet been created), the bustling Lake Placid Club was making Lake Placid a world-class destination, and it would still be six years until our village would host its first Winter Olympics. In the 1932 Epitome there is a photo of Bill Allyn, beaming and proud, along with several other young alumni who returned to campus for a visit during the Olympic period, proof positive that he wished to stay connected to his beloved alma mater from the very beginning. Bill quickly established a pattern for remaining involved with his school, one that would last his lifetime and beyond. Little did he know at the time, but his loyalty to Northwood School would be passed down for two more generations. Eventually Bill would go on to serve on the Board of Trustees for two decades, and his son Lew ’57 and his granddaughter Tanya ’86 would follow in his footsteps. (And the cedar-shaked building in the background of that 1932 image we mentioned earlier? We now call it the Allyn Building.) This spring we sat down (virtually) with Lew ’57 and Tanya ’86 shortly after they learned the Allyns are to be Northwood’s first Honored Legacy Family. It was a warm conversation about family, the love of Northwood, and the bonds shared between the generations. It was more of an oral history really, one rich with stories as we discussed the School, the impact it had on them, their roles as trustees, and how each of the Allyns chose to be at Northwood in the first place. But before we reveal how the younger Allyn generations came to be at Northwood, we have to talk about how they actually came to BE. And that, dear reader, has everything to do with the far-reaching impact of Northwood connections. Specifically, it has everything to do with Bill Allyn’s close friendship with his classmate and roommate Tom Leavenworth ’28. Tanya, who refers to her grandfather as “Bompa” or “Bomps” explains, “Bomps and Tom were friends for a lifetime. From Northwood on they were best buddies, they were really close. Tom
THE ALLYNS: THREE GENERATIONS OF TRUSTEES
“My father thoroughly enjoyed his time on the board. He was always committed to developing successful ventures, and he would be thrilled today to see the plans that are underway for the campus. The Hub would have particularly pleased him. It is a creative addition to our academic offerings — providing important skills for students interested in pursuing careers in technology,” said Lew. “Northwood is a very special place in so many ways, and it plays such an important role in developing young people. It has been successful, and its future under Head of School Mike Maher is very promising.” Lew hopes that this message comes across to other alumni. “It is a new generation of the School and hopefully alums will be supportive and get involved with the School — visit and be part of its growth, because the next several years are going to be exciting,” he says. On joining the board, Tanya says, “I think that as I start, I will try to do a lot of listening in order to come up to speed.” One of her priorities is to highlight our location and the surrounding community, “The community of Lake Placid is such a great asset, it makes you feel like you aren’t just holed up somewhere.”
Lew is extremely happy that Tanya is joining the board: “She loves the School and is committed to its success.” He thinks the School is at a pivotal time and that, “She’ll find her niche and enthusiastically meet the challenges and opportunities. She’s a creative thinker who will participate and enjoy the experience.” As Lew prepares to retire from the board after more than 25 years, Tanya pays this tribute, “As busy as my mom and dad are, the passion that my dad has for Northwood really shows. When you have spent that much time on the board, have that much interest, that much love of it, that says a lot to me.” She continues, “Both my dad and my grandfather have always stood by Northwood. The School needs to stay, it needs to be there, it needs to flourish, and I feel like they helped to make that happen in a lot of ways.”
lived in Amsterdam, N.Y. and so did a young woman named Sonya Finch. Well, when my grandfather would drive back to Skaneateles, he would stop in and stay overnight at Tom’s house, and Tom introduced Bomps to Sonya. They went out dancing one night, and Bomps stepped all over her feet and she wanted nothing to do with him. Fast forward to his years at Dartmouth when he finally got her to go on more dates with him, and that is how that worked out. Sonya was my grandmother, Mimi.” Worked out indeed: Bill and Sonya Allyn would celebrate 62 years of marriage before Sonya’s passing in 1996. Hailed as the “Scintillating Skater from Skaneateles,” the 1928 Epitome opines, “Let it be said that Bill is one of the finest boys we have here.” We asked Lew how his father came to be at Northwood, “My grandfather (William N. Allyn — founder of Welch Allyn, manufacturer of medical devices) would visit the Lake Placid Club from time to time and my father, who loved the outdoors and sports, came to love Lake Placid too. With his goal of going to Dartmouth, Northwood was the natural next step.” As an only child at a time when people were terrified of polio, Lew explains, “You didn’t congregate. He wanted to play baseball, but his parents were worried about him.” Instead they sent him off to their camp at the end of the lake in the summers where he could be isolated. He read a lot and loved to fish, but it was a lonely life and he missed his buddies, “So going to Northwood was very special for him — to suddenly have a whole group of family to be around. I think he thrived, absolutely thrived at Northwood,” says Tanya and Lew agrees, “Yes, having a Northwood family was really important.” On the topic of Northwood friendship and that sense of family, Tanya muses, “I’ve always thought that my time at Northwood — and I know my grandfather was that way — the friends you had at the time there were part of your life experience and your growing experience. You may not keep in touch with your prep school friends as much as you might with your friends from college or beyond, but the experience that you had together was probably the most important thing that you took away from school. The friendships were great, but they were a little bit bigger than just a friendship — because you were maturing together, you were learning how to live together. I find it was the best thing that I did — besides marrying my husband Blake and having my kids Hanna, Nolan, Nathan and Lucy — the best thing I did was go to Northwood. Far above and beyond going to college.”
As to why Lew enrolled at Northwood, he says that he was struggling with dyslexia in school. His dad was on the local school board at the time, and the principal, who was a good friend, told him, “Get Lew out of here…get him where he can be in a smaller environment, where he could have the extra attention,” Lew shares, “I was very fortunate, Northwood gave me the interest and confidence in learning.”
“When I first got there (as a freshman in the fall of 1953) my parents dropped me off and drove out the driveway. As I was looking out the main window in the living room, I saw someone walking across campus with a big beautiful German shepherd, and it was the legendary Jim Fullerton.” Lew loves German shepherds, so he thought, “That’s a guy I want to get connected with.” For Lew, Jim Fullerton was “probably one of the most memorable individuals that I had contact with while at Northwood — he was an outstanding teacher, mentor and coach. He was always fair, always helpful — he was the real thing. The entire Fullerton family, dog included, were a very important part of the Northwood family.”
“Do you remember the name of the dog?” we ask. “Jaunty,” Lew says without missing a beat. Tanya laughs, “Ha, you would remember that.”
For Tanya, attending Northwood was the natural choice and she didn’t look anywhere else. Their family had been hiking in the ADKs in the fall forever as they loved being in the mountains. “I was very fortunate to have had two people that I think so highly of ahead of me at Northwood. It made me feel like I was coming home.”
When asked about some spots on campus that make them particularly nostalgic, Lew remarks, “Every day you walked by that picture window (in the living room) and you would be able to look at the mountains, and they were always different. For me that was something very special.”
But as the conversation continues, we discover there’s another location on campus that’s very dear to Lew, one that played a key role in the next generation of Allyn romance. When Lew was in college, he took a special someone back to Lake Placid to ski at Whiteface. He says, his voice a little giddy, “Dawn and I went up to go skiing one weekend. She stayed over in the Howards’ (Headmaster at the time) apartment, and outside that apartment was the first time I gave her a kiss. That started our whole relationship. Sort of sacred ground.” They have been married for 59 years now.
Tanya’s favorite spot at Northwood is the entrance. “I love the entrance. I love the driveway. I remember Mom and Dad dropping me off. For some reason they parked at the end of the drive and I remember watching them with their arms around each other walking back down the driveway.” Visibly emotional, Tanya struggles to get the words out, “That’s a great memory for me, bittersweet, but a great memory.” She tears up and Lew adds, “On that day, we
PHOTO: HANA SNAJDROVA
Trustee Lew Allyn ’57 and daughter Trustee Tanya Allyn Dillon ’86
were the ones with tears in our eyes …”
According to Tanya, Mr. Friedlander, who was the headmaster at the time, did a great job welcoming her to the Northwood family. “He had made a deal with me that I could stay at my local high school until after the soccer season. Even though I came in a little late, I never felt uncomfortable. I loved it every day after, I just loved it. I didn’t want to go off to college. I just wanted to stay at Northwood.” On Friedlander, Lew says, “He was a character. I can remember coming up for the interview with Tanya. And I asked John how many students do you have here now and he replied, “We have two students, and 80 kids attending the School — something like that — it cracked me up but that was typical John. He had a great sense of humor in addition to being a great educator.”
Together, the Allyn family’s Northwood experience has literally spanned the entire arc of our Head of School lineage. From Ira Flinner, Moreau Hunt, John Howard and Ted Welles to John Friedlander, interim head David Burnham, Ed Good and Mike Maher, every single Northwood School Headmaster has interacted with an Allyn family member in some capacity as either a student, alumnus, a parent, or trustee. “Over the years we’ve witnessed outstanding leadership that has kept the School relevant and successful,” says Lew. “There were some challenging years, but dedicated leadership saw the School through.”
In summary, Lew says, “We are very proud to have had three generations at Northwood. It has provided a special bond between us, not only to have a special family bond together, but to share the interests of the School. That was something my dad and I had, and something I’m sure Tanya and I will share as she joins the Board. Northwood is very important to us.”
Tanya’s reflection, “Northwood is a great legacy for our family” perhaps captures the spirit of the Allyn family, doesn’t it — at a moment when their family is being honored by Northwood, to turn it around and make it about the School they love so dearly instead, speaks volumes.
As Lew Allyn ’57 prepares to retire after more than 25 years on the Board of Trustees, two of his colleagues and our Head of School share the following sentiments:
“I would be hard-pressed to name a more generous supporter or anyone who appreciates the special essence of Northwood and its story more than Lew Allyn ’57. He stands as a giant among our alums — a Distinguished Alumnus Medal recipient, a trusted advisor to me as Head, and a quiet and respected leader among his fellow board members.”
Michael Maher, Head of School
“The first time I met Lew, I knew that he was someone special. Though it has been about ten years now, I feel like we have known each other for a lifetime. Lew is fun, caring, devoted, and adventurous. He is as gracious and humble as anyone I know and so passionate about making Northwood the best school possible. When I joined the board in 2011, I quickly realized that he was going to be a trusted friend and mentor. While he is often quiet and reserved during the board meetings, he takes in every morsel of conversation, distills it, and comes up with thoughtful solutions. He has such a talent for effective communication and problem solving that it has been an immeasurable resource for all of us. Now, I simply cannot write about Lew without mentioning his incredible wife Dawn. Together they are a force to be reckoned with. The devotion that both Lew and Dawn have for our school is amazing!”
Trustee Karen Miller, Vice Chair
“Anyone who has crossed paths with Lew Allyn is better for it, and those who can call Lew a friend are fortunate beyond measure. He is a man of few words, a dry, sneaky wit and immense talent and varied interests. We are all blessed this interest includes carrying on the Allyn legacy at Northwood. Even in his ninth decade on the planet, he is actively engaged in pursuing his unique and far-ranging curiosity, intellectual and otherwise, about people and the world around him. He is a traveler and a seeker, who remains engaged with a lifelong pursuit of learning. In so many unselfish and anonymous ways, Lew supports the causes that are important to him. He is a doer. It is difficult to find a more modest, faithful and committed steward, with extraordinary common sense, judgment and an egoless approach. He is easy to be with and around. His focus is outward. He finds time for everyone, is universally liked and respected and is the consummate family man in all its roles. If pressed the only thing one might say that could be construed as critical is that his wedge and putter sometimes betray him. This leads to a frank discussion with each on the range or practice putting green and a Welsh resolve that he will have another go at it soon and the results will be better.”
