NMH Summer Family Update, Friday, July 5, 2024
Greetings from NMH Summer!
As we wrap up a successful first week of our 5- and 3-week programs, we want to thank all families for sharing your students with us. NMH Summer ’24 has launched well, the weather on campus this past week has cooperated and provided all of us with remarkable sunrises and spectacular sunsets. Classes for our talented faculty and their students began on Monday and are hitting their stride with projects, homework and even some assessments. Students appear engaged and collaborative as they shift their gears into summer study and enrichment mode. Alumni Hall, NMH Summer’s dining room, is one of the happiest rooms on campus! Students appear to appreciate our No-Tech lunch and dinner routines and clearly have immersed themselves in community-building conversations with each other.
We have gathered for two all-campus meetings so far (including being welcomed by our local bagpiper!), we have launched afternoon activities and athletics, and we even have
practiced two safety drills this first week (a scheduled fire drill and two shelter-in-place drills during several passing afternoon thunderstorms).
Check out the list of this past Wednesday’s activities and off-campus trips as well as this weekend’s activities and the host of trips. You, too, will want to attend NMH Summer! Students have enjoyed the NMH Summer Pop-Up Cafe for hot pretzel night; Fenway Franks Friday occurs later tonight! Students in grades 9-12 will be attending an old-fashioned semi-pro baseball game tonight for dormitory bonding, and everyone will join in tomorrow night’s annual NMH SummerFest where, rumors have it that I have been “invited” to take a turn in the dunk tank. (Hoping for warm water...). This Sunday also includes a trip to Six Flags New England. Please urge your children to take advantage of all the opportunities NMH Summer has to offer.
Yesterday, NMH Summer adults and students attended the annual 4th of July parade in nearby Brattleboro, VT, and returned to campus for an afternoon full of zany NMH Summer Olympic team-building games and a traditional Independence Day picnic.
In the ever popular Students vs. Faculty weekly soccer game, we witnessed split decisions last night:
Faculty 2 - Middle School Students 0
Faculty 2 - High School Students 4 Stay tuned for next week’s results.
Tomorrow, Saturday, July 6, our 9-12 graders will participate in our “College Prep” morning program and our 7-8 graders will participate in our Y.O.U. personal skill-building program. Never fear, our famous NMH Summer weekend doughnuts will be enjoyed by all at our mid-morning break.
Should you ever have questions, concerns, and even great reports on your student’s NMH Summer experience so far, please be sure to reach out first to your student’s advisor.
Here’s to another great NMH Summer week ahead!
Charlie Tierney, Director (for the NMH Summer Faculty and Leadership Team - Loubna Boumghait, Rebecca Ramos, Louisa Edwards)
Social Media and Photos-of-the-Week
● Please see below for a sample of this week’s NMH Summer photos.
● Check out additional photos of the week’s activities as we add them at: https://www.flickr.com/photos/nmhsummer/albums
John Batty
John currently teaches English, coaches basketball and lives with his family at NMH in South Crossley Hall. He grew up at NMH as his father was an English teacher and his mother was the librarian and archivist. He graduated from NMH in 1988 and then became part of the first co-educational class at Wheaton College. He holds advanced degrees from University of Arizona and Arizona State. This is John’s first year teaching English at NMH Summer
Jonathan ‘JC’ Carnes
JC comes from Dartmouth, MA , and recently graduated from UMass Amherst with a degree in Operations and Information Management. He continues at UMass this fall to pursue his masters in Public Affairs. This summer ,JC is thrilled to teach Academic Writing, Algebra 1 Review, Racket Sports, and Robotics. At UMass, JC has worked closely with prospective high school students in the past and is very excited to be an energetic contributor to the NMH Summer community.
Kaiyah Corona
Kaiya is a “triple threat” teacher at NMH, teaching Spanish and coaching girls basketball while living in a campus dormitory. She comes from Los Angeles, CA, and studied at Dartmouth College. Kaiyah is currently pursuing her masters from University Pennsylvania. Kaiyah loves teaching ELI this summer and serving as a house director in Crossley Hall.
Kaitlin Grant
NMH Summer veteran lead teacher Kaitlin Grant is now in her 7th summer on campus. She holds degrees from Mount Holyoke College and UMass Amherst. Kaitlin is teaching Biology this summer. She began as a teaching fellow the same year as did Assistant Director Becca Ramos and ELI teacher Tom Hogenkamp (to be wed this October!) Kaitlin has been here every summer since. During the school year, Kaitlin teaches both science and dance at Dublin School in NH, and also teaches dance at a local studio in western MA. Kaitlin is a fan of summers here in the beautiful Pioneer Valley.
Katelyn Weeks
This is Katelyn’s second summer at NMH and she is so excited to be back! She comes from Rochester, NY, and just graduated from Hobart and William Smith Colleges where she will continue for another year to complete a Masters in Teaching. This summer, Katelyn is excited to teach creative writing as she aspires to complete an MFA in poetry sometime in the future. Katelyn also enjoys contributing her speed and keen right foot to the weekly NMH Summer Student vs. Faculty soccer games every Thursday evening.
NMH Summer Activity Programming and Excursions
For your information, below is a “taste” of NMH Summer’s on-campus and off-campus excursions and activities from this past week AND for the week ahead. Additional on-campus activities also include open gym, swimming, pickleball, sand volleyball, outdoor basketball, among others things. This coming week’s list is shared with your students on Sunday. Please encourage them to sign up for this coming week’s programming by the Monday afternoon, 1:00 pm deadline. Some excursions and activities require parental waivers and additional fees.
Wednesday, July 3
On-Campus: Tie Dye & Ice Cream
Mountain Coaster & Creamie
FunZ Trampoline Park
Bowling
Mini-Golf
Inside Out 2 at Greenfield Garden Cinemas
Friday, July 5
Swamp Bats Baseball Game (all grades 9-12)
Saturday, July 8 Ingleside Mall
Paintball
Hiking
Greenfield, MA
On-Campus: Movie & Popcorn
On-Campus: NMH Annual Summerfest
Sunday, July 9
Six Flags New England
On-Campus: Morning Cartoons
Greenfield Hibachi
Northampton Hibachi
Northampton, MA
On-Campus: Dodgeball @ 6:00 PM
NMH Summer Activities Planned for July 10 - July 14
Wednesday, July 10
On-Campus: Cookie Decorating & Spikeball
Escape Room
Yankee Candle
Montague Bookmill
Despicable Me 4 at Greenfield Garden Cinemas
Thursday, July 11 ELI Excursion to Salem, MA
Saturday, July 13 Ingleside Mall
Amherst, MA
Basketball Hall of Fame
Bowling
On-Campus: Movie & Popcorn
On-Campus Activity Midsummer Dance
Sunday, July 14
On-Campus: Morning Cartoons
Grades 9-12 Excursion: New York City
Laurel Lake
Creamie / Cornerstore Run
Check
