NCS GRADUATION 2020

THIS YEAR, 15 OF OUR beloved students were celebrated in a virtual graduation ceremony before saying goodbye to our school and moving forward as brilliant young adults. This year’s graduation was done at a distance and therefore it was different than any other at NCS. Even though we would have preferred to be in the same space celebrating together, we know our graduates heard the messages of love and support that came pouring in from their families, friends, and teachers. The ceremony included “Dear Level One Me” videos from each graduate; poignant and often humorous lessons and memories from each student’s time with us. There were also send-offs and touching memories shared from the students’ teachers, and attendees were given space to leave comments and words of wisdom of their own, which were recorded on our Graduation 2020 page. We are proud of each and every one of our graduates, and even though their time at North Country School was short, they have made a big impact on us, and we believe they will make an even bigger impact as they venture out into the world.

North Country School Class Of 2020

Congratulations to the NCS class of 2020 as they move on to their next adventures:

Bladen: Gould Academy

Darren: ‘Iolani School

Fangzhou (David): Westtown School

Emily: The Lawrenceville School

Shangchun (Evan): Blair Academy

Francis (Hart): Champlain Valley Union High School

Xiaohe (Jessica): Holderness School

Jonah: Undecided

Julia: Northwood School

Xiaotian (Rebecca): Holderness School

Jialing (Sally): Saint Andrew’s School

Shengxia (Sam): The Putney School

Chuyu (Silvia): Tabor Academy

Haotian (Sky): Dublin School

Tianyu: The Williston Northampton School of the school year. We feel fortunate that we were able to offer our international students refuge from the spreading virus, and since many of our faculty also live on campus, it was easy to quarantine together, keeping everyone safe and our program moving forward.

What was not so easy was figuring out the best way to give our students the education we had promised them. So much of what we do here is centered around community and using our place in nature as a teaching guide, meaning our teachers and students had to quickly adjust to a world in which things like science labs and theater productions take place online, in a virtual world that is far removed from our mountain campus.

Faculty quickly got to work re-thinking their lesson plans, and some collaborated with staff on Connecting With Our Community, a series of educational videos, recipes, and fun activities for students and their families to watch and participate in. Every day, Monday through Saturday, a new installment of the series was posted on the NCS Facebook page, and the series was highlighted in a weekly email and in our #ThisWeekAtNCS blog.

We believe that our community extends beyond the boundaries of our campus, so we encouraged our students and families to stay in touch, and the outpouring of photos we received are now part of the NCS at Home photo gallery.

Despite the unexpected circumstances, things on campus retained a semblance of normalcy, as the students living there kept things running while their peers were away. The animals in the barn were tended to, seeds were planted in the greenhouses, and some students even helped teacher Larry build an impressive sap-bucket golem out of reclaimed materials and 50 sap buckets. “Emet” now watches over the sugar shack from a nearby hill.

In the performing arts, students and theater teacher Courtney decided the show must go on, and they put together a fantastic virtual performance of Alice Through the Looking Glass: A Miniseries in Four Parts by Lindsay Price. To create the play, each performer made a video of his or her parts, and they were later edited together to form the complete play. Scenes were filmed both on-campus in WallyPAC (Walter Breeman Performing Arts Center) and in students’ homes around the world. Music for the production was done in a similar fashion, with students recording their individual parts separately so they could be mixed together by music teacher Joey to form the final ensemble. Leading up to graduation week, the play was release in four parts, and links to each video were posted to our Graduation 2020 page along with a virtual recital and an end-of-year slideshow.