News from Moses Brown Today

NEWS FROM MOSES BROWN TODAY Hope & Lloyd

Go Quakers! This fall, the girls’ varsity soccer team upset undefeated Pilgrim in the semis and then went to the Division II State Championship game, bringing home the first RIIL championship for girls’ soccer in over 20 years.

FALL / WINTER 2019-20 Carving a Path Nick Gilson ’07 will be the 2020 Commencement speaker on June 11. An MB “lifer,” Nick attended Johns Hopkins after MB, then taught middle school science in Nashville with Teach For America. A need to reach a wide range of education levels in his classroom led Nick to favor hands-on learning and to revisit a design he came up with when he was an eighth grader at MB, to share with students as an example of invention. Asking students to embark on a project of their own, Nick retrieved his own junior high design for a catamaran-inspired snowboard to model experimentation. It was only when he dusted off his own youthful idea to demonstrate scientific experimentation that he was led to start onto a path to business ownership. Today Nick is the founder and CEO of Gilson Boards, the fastest-growing snowboard company in the world, turning out thousands of innovative, catamaran-inspired snowboards and skis a year; you can also see his TED Talk on “Failing to Learn.”

Photo: Chuck Nadeau

MB is pleased to welcome Carlos Andrés Gómez ’00 as this year’s annual visiting poet. Carlos will present at MB on April 1.

Several new trustees joined the MB board of trustees this year: •Cheryl Cohen ’81 •Joanne P. A. Debrah ’97 P’20 •Lisa Donahue P’21 •Dolph Johnson P’20’23 •Rebecca Leuchak P’04’09 •Yiguang Qiu P’20 •Ahvi Spindell ’72 •Ariana Steele P’26’29

3 As part of this year’s cohort work by veteran faculty, Kristin Street will be hosting and running a papermaking residency in the Y-Lab, Tony Pirruccello-McClellan (left) is developing a destination for outdoor field trips for lower schoolers, and David Flaxman is creating music and exploring digital recording.

MB Welcomes New Administrative Team Members This summer, Moses Brown welcomed new members to the school’s administrative team, among them Grant Henderson, Director of Technology; Jennifer McFadden, Director of Friends Education; and Destenie Vital, Director of Marketing and Communications.

Equal Voice is one of the active student clubs in MB’s upper school of today. This student-run club focuses on issues of intersectional feminism and equality. The group gathers weekly to talk and discuss readings, movies and current events.

Kudos

Tristan Connell’s photograph, The Green Light, was selected for the annual Drexel University High School Photography Contest Exhibition and displayed this winter in Philadelphia. Two of MB’s Vex Robotics Teams qualified for regionals this year and also took home awards for Teamwork, Robot Skills and Excellence. Senior Will Hassett was named Academic AllState and All-New England for soccer. Three coaches received Coach of the Year awards: Gara Field (girls’ soccer), Eric Aaronian (boys’ soccer) and Brian Williams (girls’ lacrosse).

Seven students had work accepted into the Rhode Island Scholastic Art and Writing Exhibit.

Sophomore Lourdes Nicolella was named a finalist for Rhode Island Youth Poetry Ambassador.

Jeff Maidment received the Rhode Island Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association Award of Merit for 2020 (his second time), chosen by his peers in the RIIL.

4 Sophomore Avarose Hauswirth, a violinist and member of MB’s string orchestra, placed first in the state at All-State Auditions. 1 2

4 3 Abi Bayog ’22

Thank You, Denise! Denise Monk retired in December after 38 years of dedicated and caring service to MB. Denise was hired by David Burnham as a receptionist, and later came to work in the kitchen and with the boarding department. Most recently, Denise worked as MB’s lead cashier and also served as a summer camp counselor; “Cooking with Denise” is the perennial first choice of RISE campers every summer. While Denise’s job responsibilities were considerable, her chief concern always was children. Asking “where’s your protein?” was just one of the many ways that she looked after students as they moved through her realm of care. In December, the school gathered in the fieldhouse to celebrate Denise. Denise will also be celebrated at Reunion and will continue to work at RISE Camp.

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Sophomore John Lanza placed first in the Jr. Bronze Squash Tournament. Junior Savanna Rust won Beautiful Day’s “Journeys of Hope” essay contest; she cited her freshman-year immersion experience and Middle Eastern Studies class as key influences on how she thinks the world’s refugee crisis could be addressed. This year’s lower school musical was Frozen, Kids! This fall, MBinRep staged Shakespeare in Love and A Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. MB had seven National Merit Finalists this year, more than any other independent school in Rhode Island. As of February, MB seniors had been accepted at 120 different colleges across 29 states, Washington, D.C. and the United Kingdom.

The Athletic Trainers Association has awarded MB the Safe Sports School Award, a national recognition. Kudos to athletic trainer Joyce Freeman for her leadership and expertise in the sports medicine field at MB and in Rhode Island.

Preprimary student Remy Gold nicely summarized the history of Moses Brown School this year.

5 Senior Will Malloy received an Equality Award from the Human Rights Campaign at the HRC New England Gala in November in Boston, honored for his work as a public speaker and advocate for transgender students.