Hilltop

COMMUNITY SERVICE Trees and Seeds

Philanthropic work takes root in the Amazon.

There’s no shortage of stories from Kimball Union students when they return from summer vacation. But a two-week service trip to Peru cultivated a broader perspective and left a lasting impact on four friends.

Classmates Isabel Brozen ’24, Pip Keen ’24, Annabelle Blue ’24, and Henry Trimpi ’24 stayed in a remote lodge on the Amazon River just outside Iquitos as part of a group traveling with the Vermont-based nonprofit Trees and Seeds, which aims to make a difference in communities around the globe through mission-based trips.

“One of my goals for the summer was to spend some time on my own and get used to being away from my usual environment,” explains Brozen, a day student from Plainfield, N.H. “I did a lot better than I thought I would in a foreign country among so many new people.”

A typical day began with breakfast and a heavy application of sunscreen before the group ventured out to the day’s tasks in the village. Working with a team of agronomists, they cleared ground and plant crops until it was time to return to camp for a siesta.

“One of the agronomists on the trip was really enthusiastic and great at explaining how to plant seeds properly and how the crops would help the community,” says Keen. “When we were planting the gardens and trees, we didn’t use traditionally Western methods. We used methods the villagers were accustomed to so that it was easier for them to maintain—methods that are also better for the climate.”

Brozen recalls that one of her most memorable hands-on experiences was supporting a pediatrician who ran a clinic for the villages. The Trees and Seeds group was tasked with entertaining the children as they waited to see the doctor. They kept the little ones busy with crafts, bracelet-making, and origami.

Brozen and Keen leaned on their years of studying Spanish during the trip, and when they didn’t know certain words, they improvised. The village children enjoyed a rousing game of “Duck, Duck, Wolf” when the Spanish word for “goose” escaped them.

“If there’s any advice I could offer, it’s to be ready to discover that your language skills are better than you expected, but still not as good as you would like them to be,” says Brozen. “As long as others can piece together your meaning, you’ll be okay.”

For Keen, the experience created space to consider future career paths.

“I realized that I want a job that lets me travel internationally and impact communities, preferably in engineering because there are so many areas of opportunity,” says Keen. “Some countries offer incentives for engineers to come work there, so that’s on my mind a lot when I think about what’s next.” K

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OBJECT LESSON How to Feel Grand

Kimball Union was an early adopter of senior-class jewelry. Although class rings first appear in popular culture at West Point in 1835, here on The Hilltop class pins came into fashion in 1857. The earliest pin in the archives depicts the senior class motto: “Labor here; Rest above.” The 1897 class pin is etched with a wreath of leaves surrounding an oar and inscribed with the motto, “Rowing not drifting.” By the 1920s, excitement around class rings was well documented in the Concordia Yearbook, with the Class of 1929 exclaiming, “Class rings come—don’t we feel grand!” Rings of the next decade, such as one donated to the archives by Irene Palmer Norell ’33, bear the Academy seal and more closely resemble the class rings alumni and seniors wear today. K

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