Six Seniors

Six Seniors

One hundred ninety-eight individuals full of energy, talent, intelligence, determination, sincerity, sense of humor, and hope make up the Class of 2018. Allow us to introduce you to six of these seniors, who spoke with us about their Loomis Chaffee experiences, the paths that led them to the Island, and the adventures that await them.

Interviews by Becky Purdy | Photographs by Jessica Hutchinson

Chelsea Offiaeli

When Chelsea Offiaeli speaks, people listen — and they’re glad they did. A leader, a community-builder, a thinker, an athlete, and a burgeoning scholar of social justice, Chelsea is a young woman of few but meaningful words, a president of the student multicultural organization PRISM, a two-year captain of the track and volleyball teams, a founder of the instantly successful Sister Circle affinity group, a repeat New England prep school champion in the shot put, and a keen, insightful student. In her four years at Loomis, she has evolved from a quiet little sister — Maxine ’14 and Kendra ’16 preceded her at Loomis — who thought deeply but wasn’t sure how to express herself, to a skilled and respected proponent of dialogue who speaks with wisdom and listens with curiosity. She received the Jennie Loomis Prize at Commencement and the Matthew Whitehead Prize in recognition of her role in creating and supporting an inclusive community at Loomis. She is headed to Harvard in the fall.

Q: Would you describe yourself as vocal?

A: I’m kind of on the quieter side, but when I feel like it’s necessary, I make sure that my voice is heard. Whether it’s in the classroom or in this community in general, I may not be the person that you see most often in front of a crowd of people, but if I feel like I need to say something or do something, I will.

Q: How has being a member and president of PRISM shaped your Loomis experience?

A: I was a member since freshman year, [and] I was silent my first two years. I rarely said anything, but I would listen. And I would leave the room and then go have conversations with my friends, basically continuing what I had just been listening to. PRISM is the group that changed my experience the most, probably. It was where you went as a freshman not knowing anyone, but you saw a bunch of faces that looked like yours and you thought, ‘Ok, I’m going to trust in these people.’ And then you have these very vulnerable conversations about things that you probably weren’t talking about before. Through that you let yourself be vulnerable with these people, so you build a strong foundation for a relationship, a strong connection. … I ran [for PRISM president] thinking I would not get it, but I did. I was very surprised, especially because I wasn’t that vocal in that group, but I guess people could see that I cared about it, how it really did change me and change my experience here.

Q: You and your classmate Amaiya Parker have led Sister Circle for the group’s first two years. How did the group form?

A: I had done an interview with Ms. Neal [former faculty member Madison Neal] and Ms. Parada [Director of Multicultural Affairs Elizabeth Parada] talking about my experience as a black female on this campus for MLK Day, and Ms. Neal had heard similar things from the other black girls here. … She said, ‘Let’s just reach out to all the black girls on this campus. Let’s send them an email saying we want to start this group to help build our community, to help create relationships with each other because we know we’re all going through something similar, we all want to help each other out.’ We had a meeting the next week, and it was the most freeing [experience]. It was supposed to be an hour long; we were there for three hours, venting, letting every good, bad, funny experience we’d ever had here just all out in one night in the dance studio. That was the start of it all. Since then it’s grown. We don’t even have serious conversations every time we meet. Sometimes we just go to the Fitness/Wellness classroom [in the Athletic Center] and blast music and have a dance party. But it’s helped foster relationships, especially between seniors and freshmen because seniors and freshmen don’t always talk because there’s that four-year age difference. But they have become my children.

[In May] we had our elections for next year’s presidents. They’re all outstanding women, and I trust them to keep this going and to keep it amazing.

Q: How have you grown as a team leader in varsity volleyball and track?

A: Volleyball, freshman year I didn’t really play, didn’t really talk to many people. I hung out with the juniors because those were [my sister] Kendra’s friends. Then sophomore year I was aware that the seniors would be leaving, so I needed to get close with the people I was going to have after they’d gone. So I spent more time with them. When I was elected captain for my junior year, [I realized] I had to step up and help this team, rather than just take from the team. Looking at the underclassmen, I thought, ‘OK, I was in your position. I was the scared freshman who didn’t know anyone, who didn’t play.’ Kelly White ’17 was the other captain last year. It was a good dynamic. She was the fun, goofy one, and I was the more serious one. Playing ability rose a lot. Those girls are amazing. They’re amazing at volleyball, so being around them made me better and vice versa. And track was the one place where I was actually in Kendra’s shadow 24/7 because she was the first one and I’d be second. I never really felt any competition or anything. That’s my sister, I’m going to root for her 24/7. I remember the one time I got first place because she had a basketball tournament that day and couldn’t come, I thought, ‘This is what it’s going to be like when you’re gone, hopefully.’ When she graduated, I definitely pushed myself more, I held myself to a higher standard as an athlete. And again being captain, especially with the throwing group, I had to keep everything going but also make sure that everyone was having fun and that I had everyone’s back.

Q: You suffered a serious knee injury at the end of your junior year. How did that affect your senior year athletically?

A: I knew I was out for volleyball. But I wanted to be back for the next track season, but back to throwing how I throw. It was a worry at the beginning of the season. I was hesitant to give it my all, but I sat down and had a conversation with Hutch [girls track head coach Lilian Hutchinson] at one of the first track meets. And she said, ‘I can see that you’re hesitant. It might not even be your body, but something in your head is stopping you from giving it your all.’ So I had to let my guard down and just do it. And the next two track meets were my best throws of the year. So, thanks, Hutch.

Q: What academic courses have most interested you at Loomis?

A: Because I’m very involved in social justice, I like history and English because they give me an opportunity to read and educate myself more on what I’m really passionate about. I love Harkness discussions, which sounds so corny. I love the conversations. I love hearing the different perspectives because we do have a lot of different perspectives here. Hearing sides that I might not consider or might not believe in necessarily, but hearing those two opposite opinions in conversation with one another, is always really interesting to take part in.

Q: What have you learned about engaging in discourse over the last four years?

A: [Freshmen year] was when I learned how to talk about these things, in spaces like PRISM and history classes, but I didn’t really start using my voice until end of sophomore year or my junior year. I’ve definitely grown into it. I’m more comfortable speaking up. And in conversations where there are two very contrasting opinions and I’m clearly on one side, I’ve learned to not just attack or just get mad at whatever the other side is, but to really try to understand what people believe and why they believe it. I think that’s the more important part because everyone has experiences that have led them to think a certain way, be a certain way. I have to understand that to get to what [a person] actually believes.

Justin Pacheco

Justin Pacheco was in the seventh grade when he first visited the Island for a baseball showcase through the Boys Club of New York. “I just immediately fell in love with Loomis,” he says. He wasn’t yet ready to leave his home in Queens, New York, but by the time he was in the 10th grade, he yearned to combine his three interests — school, baseball, and music — all in one place, and Loomis was the answer he sought. Friendly and easy-going, Justin quickly settled into the school community life as a new sophomore, playing guitar in the Jazz Improv ensemble, playing varsity football and baseball, and starting an academic trajectory that would lead to a Global & Environmental Studies Certificate along with his Loomis diploma. He also served as a resident assistant in Warham Hall this year. Although he stopped playing football after one year, Justin shone on the baseball diamond, especially on the mound. He became a starting pitcher for the varsity team as well as a very good hitter and infield player. Over his three years on the Island, Justin’s passion for baseball continued to grow, but he maintained a balance with other areas of his life, a balance he knows he will need as he pursues Division I college baseball success and, he hopes, a career as a pro pitcher.

Q: When did you start playing baseball?

A: I started playing when I was 5 years old. My dad loves sports. His main thing was football, but I just sort of gravitated toward baseball. He didn’t make me play baseball or anything; it was my choice. I did play basketball and football and played soccer for a little bit. I swam at my old school. So I did a bunch of sports. Each kind of helped build me as an athlete, but definitely my talent was baseball.

Q: Did you have any idea you’d be good at pitching?

A: Not really. There was just one day, when I was like 10 years old, when my team was short [of players]. And they just put me on the mound, and I was pretty good. That was the first time I ever pitched. Then every time I stepped to the mound, I did something good. I’m a pretty good hitter. I’m a pretty good fielder. But I know I’m going to do my thing every time I go to the mound.

Q: When did your interest in music first develop?

A: I’ve been playing guitar for six years now, piano for two years. I took guitar lessons through the Boys Club. That’s how I first picked up the guitar. I enrolled in piano lessons here. This was my first year with lessons. This all led to my taking Digital Music here this year. You get to produce music, and that’s one of my top passions besides baseball because it allows for creativity.

Q: What have been some of your digital music projects?

A: I came out with an album, a dorm album. It’s called The Warham Album. It took a lot of effort, but we have some Spanish on there and some rap and some EDM [electronic dance music]. It was actually a big hit in the school, and it was a good bonding moment for the dorm. I was mostly the producer, so I made the music on it, and I rap on a couple of tracks. About 13 people in the dorm have songs on it.

Q: What have you learned from being an RA in the dorm?

A: I’m a goofy kid. I’m always joking around with the guys, but when it’s time to get serious, I know I have to flip on a switch, present myself in an orderly fashion. It has taught me how to be a leader and work with people and have a dialogue with people.

Q: You’re going to play baseball at Marist College next year. How did the recruiting process unfold?

A: Another kid on my summer team was getting looked at by Marist. They came to see him play [last summer], just out of the blue, and I was pitching that day. I think I had nine strikeouts that day. I was doing very well. And it was kind of luck that Marist was there. They talked to my head coach. … It took about three more months [to finalize Justin’s acceptance and financial aid], but it’s where I wanted to go.

Q: How have you been challenged at Loomis?

A: Physics was a big challenge sophomore year. It just took the extra time. I had to network a lot, ask for help, go around to peers who had physics too. There were kids that immediately gravitated toward the subject. I knew talking to those kids would eventually help me. There’s nothing wrong with not knowing something. You just ask questions. … I remember coming back from a baseball game in spring, and I had to go back in to do a physics lab. That’s just what you have to do, and that’s becoming a student athlete. At Marist I’m going to have to come back from a five-hour bus ride and get my homework done. Loomis prepares you for being responsible in college.

Q: There have been challenges on the baseball field too, like the close loss to Choate this spring. How do you respond to disappointments like that?

A: You’ve just got to roll with it, and that’s something that the competitiveness at Loomis has taught me. It’s easy when [a batter gets a hit off of your pitch] to think, “I just want to get out of this game.” Or you can fight through it. Just throw the next pitch. That’s something that the coaches preach a lot. I think that’s what separates the good pitchers from some of the great pitchers. You have to have some kind of talent, obviously, but your mental game has to be very strong.

Q: What else about your Loomis experience stands out in your memories?

A: My trip to DR my sophomore year. I’m in the Global Studies program. [On the service learning trip to the Dominican Republic through the Loomis International Education Program, a group of students and faculty built a home for a local family.] I’m Puerto Rican. My mom and my dad are fluent in Spanish, but they’ve never taught me. It was a way for me to practice with the local people. And it was exciting to see how excited the families were when we built that house. It was a long process, a lot of hard work. Obviously we’re not in it 100 percent of the time, but [it was amazing to see] some of these 11-yearold DR kids carrying around wheelbarrows like “We’ve got to get this done.” Very determined. The greatest time was going out in the pueblo and experiencing the food and the culture and just how much fun they have. Baseball obviously is a big part of the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico, and you can see where the rhythm comes from with the [pro] players, why they have a chip on their shoulder. They built their own house, you know what I mean? When your workout is to carry bricks, you’re going to think, “No, you’re not better than me.”

Louisa Gao

The liberal arts is not a concept for Louisa Gao. It’s a lifestyle. Coming to Loomis from her home city of Beijing, China, she sought an in-depth cultural and academic experience in the United States, and she seized every opportunity. An outstanding student, she advanced through the entire math curriculum, engaging in a yearlong independent study in mathematics as a senior. Among her college-level courses in her junior and senior years were Physics II, Computer Science, French IV, Statistics Accelerated, Satire, Contemporary Literature, and Creative Writing. Meanwhile, she served as a prefect in Carter Hall, a resident assistant in Palmer Hall, a four-year member of the math team, an Admissions tour guide, and editor-in-chief of the literary magazine The Loom, which she expanded to include a second, online edition in the fall. She ran cross country and track as a freshman. And she discovered a love of photography. Combining her interest in photography with her already active engagement in community service, Louisa completed a Norton Fellowship project creating photographic memory books for senior citizens back home and in Windsor. Genuine and quick to laugh, her well-rounded approach to her education earned her a Founders Prize as a junior and a Sellers Faculty Prize on Class Night.

Q: How was the transition from going to school at home in Beijing to living at and attending Loomis?

A: It was scary because I was with the same group of people since elementary school. Then because my class was a special math-focused class, pretty much everyone except for me ended up in the same high school and the same class. It was kind of sad for me because I was the only one not there. So the social aspect was definitely one of the hardest parts [of the transition] — and of course being away from my family. My family stayed for the Centennial celebration two weeks into the school year, and that was really nice for me because it could have been the toughest time. It was still pretty hard after they left, but it forced me to deal with the cultural differences and to make friends completely by myself.

Q: With an advanced background in math and science, what were the challenges in these subjects at Loomis?

A: At first the most challenging part for me was language because I had learned everything in Chinese as far as math and science, so it would always take me a while to realize what [terms] actually meant. Back home for all the science courses we would do biology, chemistry, and physics all in one year, but we wouldn’t focus as much, so we would spread something like Advanced Placement Chemistry over several years. Here [the curriculum] keeps me focused on one subject. And it also doesn’t focus as much on the calculation aspect [of science]. Like in physics, I get to learn cool stuff like relativity that I wouldn’t normally learn as a high school student [in China]. It’s really interesting.

Q: What about in the humanities?

A: My improvement in English is one of the things I’m most proud of. I really struggled in freshman English. I was fine with grammar, but [I didn’t know] a lot of native expressions and how you organize a sentence. I never knew you shouldn’t use passive [voice] and “to be” verbs. The first two years I improved a little bit, but Sem [the college-level junior seminar in English language] got me to improve a lot as a writer, partly because the material itself was challenging but also very interesting, but also because I was surrounded by really amazing writers. It’s always good to listen to their work and know how you could write better. Then senior fall I was in Creative Writing, and that definitely helped me a lot as a writer. I love English more and more as I go forward at Loomis.

Q: How did you like being a prefect?

A: Prefect was the position that had the most influence on me as a person. I’m the only child in my family, and being a prefect gave me 30 younger siblings to take care of. I’m still really close to a lot of them. It’s just super nice to bond with kids that you would normally not be in the same class with or play the same sport with or have any interaction with if I weren’t their prefect.”

Q: You have been on the math team all four years. Has that been an important outlet for you?

A: I have a lot of friends from the math team. The first year that I was here was the first year of math team, so it was really small at first and not anything systematic. It was just a bunch of people chilling after school and doing math problems, but honestly most of the time was chilling.

Q: How did you become interested in photography?

A: My dad and my grandpa were both really interested in photography. They were doing it pretty seriously when they were young, so that was an influence. Sophomore year I took Photography I, and I realized that I actually really liked it, regardless of my family influence. I just started to do it for fun, like walking around Beijing and taking photos, or when Loomis was really pretty at sunset or sunrise hours, I would go around the Loop and take photos. I also really like portraits. I feel like it’s a really nice way to capture personalities with a two-dimensional piece of paper.

Q: How did you come up with idea of photographic memory books for the elderly?

A: At first I was just taking photos, and I thought it would be nice to give something back to them. At one point I got to 90 to 100 photos, and I thought maybe it was time to change the style of doing things and it would also be nice for people to see others’ photos. They all know each other living in the same building or on the same floor, and it would be nice to see your friends and neighbors all exhibited on the wall. So I did the exhibition in the spring [of junior year] at the Caring Connection in Windsor, and then in the summer when I went back to Beijing, I recruited volunteers at a nursing home [to be photographed] for the Norton Fellow project. I thought it would be nice for all the volunteers to have something that they could always remember. I felt like maybe an exhibition wasn’t the best way to have a physical copy of this project, so that’s how I thought of the photo book.

Q: You are going to Dartmouth in the fall. How did you make that choice?

A: At first I thought I really wanted to go to a city school because I was born and raised in a city, but when I visited Dartmouth, it was actually a really nice, very natural environment. As much as I love city schools, some of my friends who were in New York or Boston told me sometimes it gets to be too much. And also I really enjoyed Loomis’ size, so going to a really good school but also a relatively small college is what I wanted since the beginning of the college process.

Max Mossberg

Max Mossberg combines music and robotics like a chef melds sweet and sour; what seem like opposite tastes complement and balance each other in unexpected ways that seem only natural to their purveyor. An accomplished pianist, Max has won piano competitions outside of school, contributed to the Loomis Chamber Music Ensemble throughout his four years on the Island, and performed an impressive senior recital in May. He also played the clarinet in the Wind Ensemble. A leader of Team Hax, the Loomis robotics team, Max helped the squad win both the Connecticut and the Vermont state robotics championships this year. For a senior project, the aspiring engineer designed, built, and programmed a robotic hand that can play Rock, Paper, Scissors against humans, and win. He’d like some day to work in the engineering of self-driving cars.

Q: How long have you been playing the piano?

A: I started when I was 6 years old in first grade, and I played it all the way up until now. I began with the Suzuki method, and I had the same teacher all the way up until I came here. That’s when we switched to Ms. [Tamila] Azadaliyeva [a piano instructor at Loomis], and I took lessons with her for the past four years.

Q: Was it your idea to play an instrument from a young age?

A: I listened to a lot of music growing up. My mom always had these classical CDs going, and my brother and sister [Kirsten ’16] both started out with classical piano although my brother branched off to electric guitar. My sister did violin for a bit. It was a very musical household.

Q: What do you enjoy most about playing music?

A: I consider myself a very technical person. I do a lot of engineering and programming and a lot of STEM stuff, but music is a pretty big break from that. It lets me get my creativity out there. When I do get to play music, it’s a nice breather from school work. You can kind of just go with the flow, so it brings balance.

Q: Why engineering?

A: My parents are both engineers, so I’m sure that’s been a big influence. My dad is an automotive engineer, and I was always working on our car with him, so I’ve always had a bit of a feel for mechanical things. And my brother was also a big influencer in the programming aspects. He works in cybersecurity now, and he introduced me to it in middle school. My family has definitely been a big influencer in all of my interests.

Q: Tell us about the robotic hand you built.

A: My senior project is to build a robotic hand that plays Rock, Paper, Scissors with people. I always thought that was an awesome idea. I’d seen some videos. The New York Times, I think, had a video of this robot that looked very quickly at what you’re throwing and always threw the winning move. It had a very quick camera. And I wondered if I could build something similar to that. It also combined with my interest in 3D printing because I found a bunch of open-source models on the internet for the hand, and we have a 3D printer at school, so I could just build it right there. This project combines all the mechanical aspects of building it, the programming aspects, and even the computer vision part because the idea is to have a camera that looks at your hand and then reads if it’s doing scissors, paper, or rock. And that relates to my interest in later on hopefully working with robotic systems like self-driving cars, which take this technology, this image recognition and all sorts of other sensors, and integrate it with the mechanical driving and make it work.

Q: What academic classes have been most enjoyable for you at Loomis?

A: Either AP Physics [College-Level Physics II] this year or Multi [Multivariable Calculus]. I love Multi in particular because I can see all these connections between Multi and physics and computer science — vectors and arrays and things — and all of a sudden things are starting to click. I also took Topics in Logic in the fall. I wasn’t so sure at first, but there were a lot of connections to computer science. I wish I could have taken the Theory of Knowledge class as well, but I couldn’t fit it in my schedule.

Q: How did you get involved in the robotics team?

A: I’ve been doing robotics since seventh grade in a team setting. I started on the Windsor High team and then came here and joined the Loomis team. Because I already had experience, I was a little bit ahead of some of the other kids who joined [Team Hax] just for the interest, so I was able to be somewhat of a leader. Mr. Ross [Ewen Ross, the robotics team advisor] said he appreciated having me in there because I had a drive to get things done. He called it “the Mossberg effect.”

Q: What do you enjoy about the robotics team?

A: I love working with the kits and problem-solving and critical thinking. And I like the competitions. Most people think that robotics isn’t something that’s [physically] demanding, I guess, and there is some merit to that. You’re not running or anything. They don’t realize how much politics goes on between the teams — the alliances and scouting and [diplomacy]. It’s a stressful day, but very rewarding when you get your robot actually moving around and doing what you want it to do, which of course doesn’t always happen.

Q: Have you had time for any other extracurricular activities?

A: I was on the track team sophomore and junior years. The only varsity letter I got at Loomis was in pole vaulting. I got the letter junior year by clearing nine-and-a-half feet, and I’m pretty proud of that varsity letter even though I’m not necessarily an athletic person.

Q: What are you looking forward to about college?

A: University of Michigan is getting this big new engineering building. It’s going to be finished in 2020, I think, so I’m looking forward to the resources. I know they’re going to have some really nice 3D printers there. And I’m looking forward to the freedom and independence as well. I’m looking forward to getting to know new groups of people, playing ultimate [frisbee] games with people, and working on projects with other like-minded people, like making robotic hands. (He laughs.)

Suzy Ryckman

A resident assistant in Palmer Hall, a captain of the swimming and diving team and the varsity lacrosse team, a school record-holder in the 50-meter freestyle and 100-meter backstroke, a dancer, a diligent student who graduated with a certificate in Global & Environmental Studies, and a friend to many who is known for her gentle nature, Suzanna Ryckman received the Florence E. Sellers Prize at Commencement. The award honors a young woman in the graduating class “with the characteristics of Mrs. Sellers: a quest for excellence, self-discipline, and a concern for others.” The prize criteria could very well describe the arc of Suzy’s four years at Loomis. Striving for her personal best has motivated her academic success, her athletic achievements, her social interactions, and her leadership style. Though determined and goal-driven, she thrives on sharing experiences and building relationships, joining efforts. Suzy’s own narrative of her last four years is all about people: family, teammates, friends, coaches, teachers, dorm heads, mentors — and herself as the person she has become.

Q: What appealed to you about going to a boarding school?

A: I took a tour, and I fell in love with the idea — everything in one place, having all of these mentors as teachers and students. I loved the idea of prefect, for some reason. Ever since that point I was really motivated to go to boarding school, try something new.

Q: You and your family are close. Was it hard to be away from home?

A: It was very difficult, but I think it brought my family a lot closer because whenever I go home, they are my priority. We get to spend a lot of quality time together. [When I’m at school], every other day I have a really nice phone call with my family. It’s special that I am able to be a student here and have my life here but then be able to share that with my family.

Q: Do you have certain academic disciplines that you like more than others?

A: Yes and no. I’ve been able to find something that I love about every class, which is incredible, but I think it has a lot to do with the teachers. I have trouble with English just because it takes me forever to collect my thoughts and put them into words, but even in English I love what we’re reading, I love discussing the different perspectives of how to look at books and interpret the way that authors convey their message. Even though it’s probably my toughest subject, I still love it. But I’d say that my strongest discipline would be either math or science. I’ve always been motivated by getting better, so I love that you can learn from your mistakes very clearly in math and science.

Q: What role has the swim team played in your Loomis experience?

A: When I was looking at boarding school, [the swim team] was a consideration, but it wasn’t the priority because I knew it was only going to be a four-month season. And because I had a background in other sports, I thought it might be refreshing to do different sports, try different things. Mr. DeConinck [head coach of girls swimming Robert DeConinck] had a meeting with me, and I really liked him as a person, but also as a coach. I went to one of the meets and met the team, and I decided, “I need to be part of this team.” As a freshman I became close with one of the senior swimmers, Krystal Sung ’15. She was like my second mother. She really took care of us. She was a huge motivator, and ever since, I wanted to be like her. Having her as a mentor was important for me as to how to be a teammate, how to be a leader, how to be the best swimmer that I could be. And that ended up translating to everything else in my life. That’s part of the reason I’m swimming in college [at Bates College] because that network motivated me in every aspect of my life.

Q: You also played lacrosse.

A: I was raised with the mentality that you should be an all-around athlete, and you should find a balance — an individual sport in swimming and a team sport with lacrosse. … When I came to Loomis, I didn’t try out for varsity lacrosse. I played JV freshman year, and I had so much fun. I’m so glad I did it. And then my sophomore and junior year I was on the varsity team, and they were really, really good. I had a lot to learn from the girls that were going to Yale and UNC for lacrosse, and I loved it.

Q: What was it like to captain the lacrosse team this spring?

A: We kind of had a slow start, and only midseason did we become disciplined enough to work hard as a team and think one step ahead. So being a captain of that team was tough because we were trying to set a tone of intensity and make sure that they understood that we have a legacy to uphold. And after a couple of tough games that made us realize that we can’t just rely on the midfield or rely on just a few girls to get it done, we started to get it together, which has been awesome to see.

Q: You had been planning to attend the High Mountain Institute (HMI) in Colorado for the first half of your junior year, but a knee injury at the end of your sophomore year prevented this. And you hadn’t applied for leadership positions at Loomis because you had expected to be away for the first half of the year. How did these disappointments affect you?

A: When I came back to school for junior year and I couldn’t be a prefect and I didn’t have any other leadership positions, I thought, “OK, how am I going to rebound from this? This is a critical moment for me. How am I going to make staying at Loomis count?” I think that was really good. Rather than worrying so much about myself, I decided to invest in everybody else, so I made a lot of friends in my dorm, I took physical therapy pretty seriously, I took a more rigorous academic load. I was trying to get myself involved in Loomis as much as I could, and it was one of the most rewarding things I could have done because I earned the respect of my teammates and my friends and faculty. They saw how hard I was trying to work in order to compensate for what I had lost. Then for senior year, that helped me with being an RA and with being captain of swimming and lacrosse. So even though I don’t know what I missed out on at HMI, I try to dismiss that by thinking, “Look at what I have gained by staying at Loomis.”

Q: You had a great swim season this year. You and your teammate, senior Ashleigh Scott, each swam an identical school record in the 50 free at the Senior Day meet. At that same meet you set a school record in the 100 backstroke, and she broke the school, pool, and New England prep school record in the 100 free. Plus one of the boys, senior Otto Laakso, set a school record in the 100 free. What a day that must have been.

A: It was an awesome meet because it was a perfect way to show how close the team was and how much of an impact your team can make on how you race and your mentality going into something that seems pretty impossible. I was doing this for my team, and it wasn’t just me breaking the record. It showed how hard everyone had been working and made me work.

Q: What do you think of having your name and Ashleigh’s on the record board for the same event?

A: It couldn’t have ended up any better. We had been through this whole swim season together, and the fact that we were able to go on the record board together at the same meet, is just crazy. And I’m so happy. I wouldn’t have wanted to be up there alone. I’d much rather have her up there with me because it perfectly embodied the swim season, perfectly closed everything that we had worked for.

Ryan Durkin

Ryan Durkin had never pole vaulted before he joined the Loomis track team his freshman year, but his potential was evident even in those early days. Today, he is the school record-holder and the reigning (and repeat) New England champion in the event. He set the school record as a junior, jumping 14 feet-6 inches, a foot higher than the previous record, and but for the rainy, cold spring this year, he would have bettered that record as a senior. But track, which he captained, is just one of Ryan’s varsity sports. He also wrestled, qualifying for and competing in the high school nationals the last two winters and serving as a captain in his junior and senior seasons. And he played varsity water polo as a formidable defensive player and a scoring threat when he was on the offensive end of the pool. Ryan is by no means an athlete only. A prefect in Flagg as a junior, a resident assistant in Taylor and an agricultural proctor as a senior, his course load this year included college-level courses in calculus, physics, economics, genetics, and English. And in perhaps his most surprising claim to fame on the Island, Ryan and his best friend, senior Gunnar Simons, established the wildly popular Pancake Society, which at its peak had 140 members and attracted dozens of students to the Taylor common room every Thursday morning for pancakes and a vibe of devotion to this simple breakfast confection.

Q: You were a day student as a freshman, commuting from Longmeadow, Massachusetts. Why did you switch to boarding your sophomore year?

A: Throughout freshman year I thought more and more of it because it was a lot of travel. I was in a car pool, and it was just a mess. Sometimes I’d get left at school, which was kind of rough. Just overall freshman year was a strong transitioning phase, so becoming a boarder really helped me.

Q: What was difficult about the transition to Loomis?

A: I think I came into it too fast. Coming from a school with a class of 11, there were are a lot more people here, so that kind of took me aback. But also I jumped into advanced chemistry and advanced A2A [Algebra 2 Advanced], and it was a little too much, so I dialed it back, became a boarder, and then worked my way from there. The tough transition was really just freshman fall; everything kept getting better from there.

Q: What was your wrestling background before you came to Loomis?

A: I wrestled for two years before. I had six years in jiu jitsu-type grappling, not strictly wrestling. I knew I couldn’t keep doing [jiu jitsu] in high school, so I transitioned to wrestling because I knew most schools have a wrestling team.

Q: How did you progress as a wrestler through high school?

A: Freshman year I didn’t lose a single JV match. But [in varsity matches] I went 2-5. I didn’t wrestle a lot of varsity, and I didn’t wrestle it very well. My third varsity match I ended up breaking my ankle, so that kind of threw a monkey wrench into it. Sophomore year I did a lot better. I actually got my own spot, my own weight class. My record was something like 28-10. That’s been pretty consistent since then.

Q: How did you start pole vaulting?

A: Honestly, it kind of started out as a joke. I was talking to my parents during winter term about picking a spring sport. I thought I was going to try out for tennis because I had played tennis the summer before that. I probably wouldn’t have made the team, but I thought I would try out. But then I was looking at track events, and I said to my parents, “I’m going to do pole vaulting,” just kind of as a joke. And they said, “That’s kind of weird. Just throw javelin or something like that.” And I said, “Nope, I’m gonna pole vault.” And then I got into the season, actually tried pole vaulting, wasn’t half bad, and then I just kept doing it. I still threw javelin, but I was definitely not as good at javelin.

Q: Was it frustrating this spring not to have good jumping weather for the big meets, when you might have broken your school record?

A: My jumps have been better. They just haven’t been higher. So I’m not too upset, but I’m still a little salty.

Q: How much of pole vaulting is muscle memory and how much is mental?

A: It’s all muscle memory. When you’re practicing, you think about one thing, and you try and do it every single time. During meets, I could probably close my eyes and almost do it just as well. After I jump, I don’t remember any of it, hardly. I can remember the top, which is the slower part where you hit the bar or not, but when I actually jump and swing upside down, it’s so fast, I don’t know what’s going on.

Q: You also played water polo. Are you a good swimmer?

A: No, I’m not. Mr. Pond [head coach of water polo Edward Pond] was telling me that I’m the slowest varsity starter we’ve ever had. I don’t know how I became a starter. I grab onto people, really. I play defense. … I would defend the [opponent] in the middle [of the play formation], and then I would swim most of the way down and just worked on getting the ball to the other side of the pool for offense. If the play went a little bit longer, I’d get myself in there and start being a scoring threat.

Q: How did you and Gunnar start the Pancake Society?

A: We found the pancake griddles in Taylor, and we said, “We should use these at some point.” So we decided, pancakes, nice easy thing to make, just throw them on there, flip them, they’re good, right? So we did that once, and this was around the time [clubs are formed for the year], and we thought, “Hey, we could do this weekly and just get Mr. Donegan [Dean of Students Michael Donegan, who also runs student activities] to pay for it. No one has to sign up, just ourselves.” And Mr. Donegan, being Mr. Donegan, loved it, so he accepted it. And then we put up a table at Harvest Fest [a clubs sign-up event], just to see if people would join. We got something like 90 signups on the first day. We were like, “Oh, this is 88 more people than we expected. I guess we’ll roll with it.”