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NEWS FROM CAMPUS
Hilltop NEWS FROM CAMPUS
BRICKS AND MORTAR Moving History
Tucked between Rowe Hall and the Miller Bicentennial Hall parking lot sits a red, timber-frame barn. Today, many students pass the barn unaware of the stories and history it holds under its towering wooden beams. The oldest building in Meriden, the Kimball Barn once housed sheep belonging to KUA founder Daniel Kimball. Scores of alumni will fondly remember time spent with friends when it was the Snack Bar. This winter, the Kimball Barn will be dismantled and take a trip down Main Street, where it will be reassembled near the lower athletic field complex on Route 120 at the site of the former Penniman House. Once completed, the barn will house a heritage center and function space, along with services for athletic visitors and teams. Do you have memories of the Snack Bar from your time on The Hilltop? Share them at tmckeon@kua.org. K
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Dogs live on campus with faculty members
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Students took the AMC Math test in November
STUDENT SPOTLIGHT Keenan Thygesen ’22
In September, as most Kimball Union students were heading east to Meriden, Keenan Thygesen ’22 was driving west from his family’s home in Tunbridge, Vermont, to Madison, Wisconsin, accompanied by a family, friends, and seven cows. Breaks for food and gas during the 20-hour journey were balanced with two rest stops for milking. The happy caravan was headed to World Dairy Expo, where Thygesen was showing his cows in the annual “Super Bowl” of cow shows.
Growing up on his family’s dairy farm, Thygesen developed a passion for working with dairy cows early in life and has been an active member of 4H since age 8. His parents have since sold their milking herd, but they maintain a small group of show animals that includes Holsteins, Jerseys, Brown Swiss, Guernseys, and Ayrshires. “There are personality and color differences between the breeds,” he says. “Right now, we have 16 total dairy animals and a couple beef cows.”
Thygesen participates in local county fairs and statewide 4H shows throughout the summer, then gears up for the national shows in the fall. To prepare, he spends considerable time on what he calls “cow comfort.” He exercises the animals, feeds them a specific diet, and teaches them how to lead by walking them up and down the road on halters. At shows, he wakes between 3:30 and 5 a.m. to complete chores and get his cows ready by “fitting” them. “Fitting is basically giving cows fancy haircuts to make them look great,” he explains.
Out in Wisconsin, his hard work paid off: Thygesen finished fourth in the senior male division of the national fitting contest, satisfying his long-term goal to get into the top five. Later that week, his Ayrshire summer yearling was 15th in her class and fifth in the junior show, while his milking yearling Holstein was fifth in the international junior show. He also led a spring calf named Trinket, which he bought this year, who won her class and went on to earn reserve junior champion honors in the international Guernsey junior show.
Thygesen hopes to major in agricultural business management at either the University of Minnesota, Ohio State University, or Penn State—schools that will expose him to other agricultural practices. “I like my small-town feel, but there’s so much more out there and so many other aspects to agriculture,” he says. “I want to see cornfields until you can’t see the end.” K
“I like my small-town feel, but there’s so much more out there and so many other aspects to agriculture. I want to see cornfields until you can’t see the end.”—KEENAN THYGESEN ’22
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NEWS FROM CAMPUS
COMMUNITY
Assessment gathers perceptions of life at the Academy in effort to enhance community.
Kimball Union Academy launched a new mission statement this fall, making a commitment to “create a deep sense of belonging for every member of our community.” As one step toward this goal, the Academy entered a partnership with Keith Hinderlie, a licensed psychologist and educator, to work with KUA community members as they continue their work to support diversity, inclusion, equity, justice, and belonging at KUA.
Hinderlie’s background includes a unique combination of knowledge about psychology, personal development, education, leadership, and cultural diversity. He began working with KUA in the summer conducting a workshop with members of the KUA board and administrative team. This January, Hinderlie conducted a “climate assessment” of KUA through four days of interviews and conversations with students, employees, families, and trustees about perceptions of life at the Academy, perceptions of how KUA supports diversity and equity, and experiences with
SUPPORT SYSTEM
Psychologist Keith Hinderlie conducted four days of interviews to better understand perceptions among the KUA community.
“This assessment will serve as a roadmap, helping us to make priorities for our work of living our mission long into the future.” —HEAD OF SCHOOL TYLER LEWIS
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Sheep arrived on The Hilltop this fall for the farm program
OBJECT LESSON
A Vintage Champion
Vintage clothing and Kimball Union hockey fans take note: An item from the KUA archives recently appeared in the book Tags & Threads Guide to Vintage Champion, cementing its place as the oldest-known Champion Sportswear hockey jersey.
Champion Sportswear, originally known by the moniker Knickerbocker Knitting Co., was founded in 1919, after Kimball Union celebrated its centennial. Champion got its start in the knitwear and collegiate sweater market, systematically expanding its offerings sport by sport on its path to becoming the iconic sportwear and fashion apparel provider it is today, celebrating its own centennial in 2019. First appearing in the 1960 Concordia yearbook, this KUA jersey was worn by Bill Hagar ’61, a member of the 1959-60 junior varsity hockey team. Hagar later donated it to the KUA archives, where it sits safely to this day. Surprisingly, however, Champion didn’t break into the world of hockey until the 1970s, making this 1959 example the oldestknown Champion hockey jersey. Officially classified as a “custom order,” it marked KUA’s place in Champion’s history books. K
discrimination or harassment at KUA.
“We hope to use this information to understand how well our campus climate supports diversity and equity,” says Head of School Tyler Lewis. “The administration, board, and faculty are all deeply committed to hearing all the voices in our community and looking into the mirror with clear eyes about how we are living out our mission to create a deep sense of belonging for every member of our community. This assessment, and Dr. Hinderlie’s guidance, will serve as a roadmap, helping us to make priorities for our work of living our mission long into the future.” K
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Students serving in the new leadership role of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Justice (DEIJ) Proctor
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People attended 2021 Family Weekend
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Students—Jintao Yue ’22 and Ben Conway ’22—named Commended Students in the 2022 National Merit Scholarship Program
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NEWS FROM CAMPUS
Finding KUA
Despite COVID-19, Kimball Union saw record enrollment for the 2021-22 year. More than 1,500 families sought information about the program, with a record 343 students enrolling for the academic year. Here’s a look at the admission cycle. .
692
Students interviewed
for a space at Kimball Union
343
Students enrolled
• 256 Boarding • 87 Day
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Number of students enrolled who had a parent attend KUA
256 Boarding Students
343 TOTAL STUDENTS
87
Day Students
27%
INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS
From 25 countries
FINANCIAL AID
RECIPIENTS
Need-Based Financial Aid Awarded
$4,800,000 48%
Explore KUA Today
The Office of Admission invites you to learn more about Kimball Union Academy today. Campus is open for on-campus tours, or admission officers can arrange for a virtual visit. We also invite you to attend our Spring Open House. To get started, contact us at (603) 469-2100 or admission@ kua.org.
Spring Open House
May 14, 2022 9 a.m.
FIELDWORK
Students evaluate changes in land across one, two, and three years.
CLASSROOM Seeing the Forest Through the Trees
Students use tree plots to understand ecological succession.
In his first year of teaching at KUA in 2010, Blaine Kopp staked out a 10-by-10meter plot perched high on the Potato Patch. Each year since, he has climbed this campus hill adjacent to the lower playing fields to section off another plot of ground. In various plots, white pine, aspen, and birch trees of various sizes and ages shoot from the ground. The Louis Munro Chair of Environmental Science is repeatedly asked the same question about his plots: Who planted the trees? And therein lies the point of his work. No one planted the trees.
Students in Kopp’s AP environmental science classes use these spaces to study ecological succession—the idea that when new resources, habitats, and space become available, early colonizers come in and occupy the landscape. The plots demonstrate secondary succession, which occurs as nature reclaims land that was once altered by humans. In one visit to the succession plots, students are able to evaluate the types of changes in land across one, two, or more years. The first few years show subtle differences, but changes in canopy height are easy to spot between the oldest and youngest plots.
“We go out and learn the basic five types of vegetation, then we’ll go back and start to generate some hypotheses about the types of change that they think they’re seeing,” says Kopp. “Students design a sampling strategy that will allow them to test a hypothesis, so they need to measure data, then write with confidence and statistical significance whether what they predicted was supported by that data.”
In addition to applying science, students develop a new relationship with The Hilltop, recognizing more scientific details about the landscape in which they live and speaking with a broadened understanding of ecological succession as a result. K
Hilltop
NEWS FROM CAMPUS
CAMPUS LIFE Good Neighbors
Students find meaning and purpose in helping others.
1. Students take shifts sorting through donated goods at the Listen Center Thrift Store. 2. The 11th-grade class spent a morning doing various campus service projects, including stacking wood, painting, and constructing an outdoor rink. 3. Music and storytelling drew a crowd to Coffee House open mic night, raising nearly $700 for the Sacred Heart Parish Church in Lebanon to provide Thanksgiving dinners to the community. 4. In early October, students and faculty participated in the Walk to End Alzheimer, raising more than $1,900 for the organization. 5. Throughout the fall, students volunteered to clear growth on the historic Townsend Ski Hill. The entire ninth-grade class devoted a morning to the endeavor. 6 The annual KUAid benefit concert raised more than $1,000 for the Upper Valley Humane Society. 7. The varsity field hockey team hosted its annual Play for a Cure game, raising more than $500 through the sale of T-shirts and baked goods to benefit the Norris Cotton Cancer Center at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center.
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“I am proud of the work that this community does collectively to selflessly partner with those in need.” —JORDYN SILVERA '22
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