NMH Magazine - Selected articles by Northfield Mount Hermon

NMH Magazine

Selected Articles

Northfield Mount Hermon

Are you ready for an adventure? According to the dictionary, “adventure” is defined as “an unusual and exciting, typically hazardous, experience or activity.” Don’t worry, NMH isn’t “hazardous.” But there will be some risks waiting for you here. Good risks. The kind of risks in which you try new classes and activities, embark on projects you never dreamed of before, connect with new people, talk about new ideas, even try new foods. Office of Admission One Lamplighter Way Mount Hermon Massachusetts 01354

These stories, pulled from recent issues of the award-winning NMH Magazine, include a few of the adventures our students have taken here at NMH. What will yours be?

413-498-3227 admission@nmhschool.org www.nmhschool.org

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Claude Anderson Dean of Enrollment

Cover art by Kevin Ouyang ’15, featured in the Spring 2013 issue of NMH Magazine.

LEADING LINES

How to Be a Champion First, believe in a student. by PETER B. FAYROIAN, Head of School

Just as my colleagues and I were gearing up for the arrival of students for the 2014–15 school year, The New York Times published an op-ed piece about the importance of relationships in education. The essay, by Professor David Kirp of the University of California, Berkeley, took issue with online learning and the corporatization of public schools, among other trends, but when Kirp wrote about “bringing together talented teachers, engaged students, and a challenging curriculum,” I found myself nodding my head in agreement. That’s us. That’s NMH. “All youngsters need to believe that they have a stake in the future, a goal worth striving for,” Kirp wrote. “They need a champion, someone who believes in them, and that’s where teachers enter the picture. The most effective approaches foster bonds of caring between teachers and their students.” We at Northfield Mount Hermon are incredibly fortunate that the scenario Kirp describes is our reality. Our faculty members not only challenge students intellectually; they’ve also got our students’ backs, and they delight in students’ successes, big or small. This goes for veterans and young teachers alike. Case in point: math teacher Kate Hoff, who is one of five faculty members we honored with a fellowship at Opening Convocation in September. Kate came to NMH in 2012 after earning a bachelor’s degree from MIT and a master’s from the University of California, San Diego, and working as a software developer at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. When we asked Kate what she likes about working at NMH, she mentioned the math department’s nightly tutoring sessions—“watching students solve problems together, hearing laughter fill the room, seeing the joy students take in sharing answers with one another. It’s uplifting!” she said. If Kate finds math tutoring that inspirational, imagine how the students must feel. Then there’s Craig Sandford, another faculty fellowship honoree. A musician and composer, Craig came to NMH in 2010, armed with a certificate in biblical studies from the Fairwood Bible Institute and a bachelor’s degree of music from the Hartt School at the University of Hartford. He has worked

PHOTO: KATHLEEN DOOHER

mostly as performing arts teacher, assistant choral director, and school accompanist, and among his favorite NMH characteristics is “the building of genuine, sincere relationships between adults and students inside and outside the classroom.” When Professor Kirp wrote about young people needing “champions” who believe in them, it made me think of one of the stories you’ll find in this issue of the magazine—a story in which champions don’t have to be teachers; they can be anyone. More than a decade ago, Candice Narvaez Torian ’04 was a bright, proud NMH student struggling with her past and trying to conceive the future she knew she deserved. She found a champion, albeit reluctantly at first, in Don Russell ’51, and he found inspiration in her as well. Theirs was an unlikely relationship, but it endured, and it embodies NMH’s mission “to empower students”—in this case, former students—“to act with humanity and purpose.” That wonderful mission is at the core of the strategic planning process that the campus community and the NMH Board of Trustees are currently engaged in. It has a rock-solid reason for being, but how we fulfill it should change over time. I hope we’re not still teaching math and science the same way those subjects were taught to me in high school, but to what end is something I hope will never change. From the moment D.L. Moody welcomed those first few dozen girls in Northfield, education at NMH has been about bettering oneself in order to better the world. [NMH]

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IN THE CLASSROOM

Every semester, history teacher Jim Shea reads and discusses the Declaration of Independence with students in his Government and Civil Liberties class. Then he asks them to rewrite it. “It’s a brilliant piece of writing,” Shea tells each class. “I want you to think about what Thomas Jefferson was trying to say, and translate those ideas into a dialect or a situation of your own.” The students have two options: re-create the conflict between the Colonists and the British using new words or invent an entirely new declaration of independence between new entities. “There are lots of different ways you can go,” Shea says. “This is your chance to think outside the box.”

VICTOR UDOJI ’14 To remain excited through the long bus rides to basketball games, I listen to a lot of rap music. I also like doing my homework while listening to music because it takes my mind off the length and/or the difficulty of the assignment. But this was crazy. How was I supposed to rewrite the Declaration of Independence? I reclined my bus seat and turned up the music and then it hit me: I’ll write as if the Founding Fathers lived in an urban black community.

Top to bottom: Victor Udoji, Eddie Yankow, Ashley Miles, and Erin Moore.

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See, like when dudes aren’t down with the crew no more, they have to peace out. With their God-given rights, they can live their own life without having to report to the OGs. We all Equal, but we ain’t thinking the same. If you ain’t tryna show love, then we gotta peace out. And everybody has to know what’s up. Feel me? By the laws of Christ, we all equal. That’s my right; shoot, I came into the world with my rights. Even if we got beef, you gotta respect my Life, Liberty, and Pursuit of Happiness; we all gotta eat, bruh. We gon make a government that respects these laws, and if they don’t do that, then they gotta bounce. Whoever running things gotta make sure we all safe and happy, or they gotta bounce. We all human, and we don’t mess with that dictator, king, queen, ruler crap, nope.

With all due respect, we can’t mess wit y’all redcoats no more; you can’t control free people, that ain’t happening. Y’all been disrespecting our rights for too long. Y’all been forcing it with these pricey taxes on tea. You taking our cotton, tobacco, and we ain’t get nothing in return. We don’t even have a say in the government y’all running. For a long time, we been asking for y’all to respect our natural rights, and to no avail. Your time is up. It’s more than evident y’all tryna compromise, so we, the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, gon start a revolution to restore the power of the government to the people. We coming to get our personal rights back that y’all have been violating for too long. So we declare, as the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, our independence from y’all crazy redcoats.

PHOTOS: GLENN MINSHALL

EDDIE YANKOW ’13

ERIN MOORE ’14

I’ve played two Shakespearean roles in theater productions, and I’ve read Shakespeare in class, too. I used my knowledge of Shakespearean theater—how men played female roles, and how the atmosphere of the Globe Theatre was boisterous—to create an actor’s declaration of independence from Shakespeare himself. I think I got the iambic pentameter nearly perfect! (Excerpt)

Converting the ideals of the Declaration into the modern language of a Twitter feed was challenging for the first few posts, but it became easier as I went on. I tried to summarize the most important concepts of equality and violations of rights. I read each one out loud as I wrote it, being as “valley girl” as possible.

These men, us actors, hereby separate hence. In unity, life is of such high sorrow That proceeding wouldst blacken our hearts, Vanquish our souls, and furthermore, murder Our joy, and slay our reasons to live on. Thus we doth present forth our griefs in sooth. For in the company of truthful men, The sun doth burn brightest and behold: joy! Though fie upon such paradise. Tis dreamt. Aye, we but dream so. Pray harken our call. Lord, we doth speak the selfsame truths of them: Of Shylock, of Juliet and Romeo And akin to Othello, Ophelia plus Lady Macbeth, Hamlet and Caliban. Doth not your care for these masks include actors? Good Lord Shakespeare harken anon for we speak! Aye we speak our words saying nay to yours!

ASHLEY MILES ’14 I love poetry, and I had done a presentation on Walt Whitman in another class. It seemed like the flow and length of “O Captain, My Captain!” could relate to what I wanted to accomplish with the actual Declaration of Independence, so I replaced words and counted syllables, making sure I didn’t lose the essence of the poem. (Verse one of three) O Britain! Great Britain! do you fear our people have won? For we have weathered through every attack and now there’s a new song to be sung. The day is clear and the time’s drawing near, the people close to bursting, For you have driven us through the course of events, the time has come and gone for carousing; So now we speak! We owe it! To you! O world of control and despair! Where on the land we were born, We follow you? Au contraire.

USA Free of the UK @ColoniesNoMore E’rbody has the right to Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness! #willsmith #jadensmith USA Free of the UK @ColoniesNoMore All guys are defs equal, and if you’re treated any other way u tots have the right to take a stand! SPECIALLY if it’s the government. USA Free of the UK @ColoniesNoMore U really are incompetent #bigword, more soldiers, more taxes, cutting off our trade, btw ur supposed to protect r rights not limit them. USA Free of the UK @ColoniesNoMore It’s not like we wanna fight. Take it from #Miley, nobody’s perfect, but we need a gov who doesn’t violate r rights e’ry 2 seconds. USA Free of the UK @ColoniesNoMore We tried to negotiate wit u, we told u how it’s goin’ down. #brotherfromanothermother USA Free of the UK @ColoniesNoMore OMG jk we’re brothers from the same mother! USA Free of the UK @ColoniesNoMore It’s obvi u can’t play nice! USA Free of the UK @ColoniesNoMore It’s obvi u can’t be trusted to uphold the needs of the colonies, considering ur approximately 3236 miles away. #smartypants USA Free of the UK @ColoniesNoMore But most of all, it’s obvi we need to take the reins of the pony to get our natural, God-given rights back. #REVOLUTION USA Free of the UK @ColoniesNoMore As of now, consider r Independence declared!

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IN THE CLASSROOM

The Spirit of Investigation How does temperature affect salamander eggs? What watering method helps seeds germinate better? At NMH’s annual Science Symposium, students share their research. by JENNIFER SUTTON

Salamander eggs caught the interest of AP Biology student Tiffany Yu ’14 (above right), who documented their growth. The top two photos show the eggs in early stages of development (accompanied by a pair of fairy shrimp); in the bottom photo, the salamanders are close to hatching.

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By the time November comes around in New England, it’s difficult to imagine the gentle air of spring, but that’s when Tiffany Yu ’14 fell in love with collecting scientific data. Her assignment, for an AP Biology class, was to conduct an experiment she could present at NMH’s annual Science Symposium, an event that fills Cutler Science Center at the end of every school year with poster presentations, hands-on demonstrations, and a lively chemistry show. “There is palpable excitement in the air on the night of the Science Symposium,” says David Reeder, chair of the science department. “Students are eager to share their work with their friends and teachers. I love seeing a freshman physics student explaining her experiment to her humanities teacher one moment, and to her roommate and dorm head the next.” Yu’s project began in mid-April, when her teacher, Mary Hefner, took her into the woods on a rainy night to look for salamanders. Yu collected several batches of salamander eggs, some of which went into a tank in her dorm room; others stayed in a cage in a pond at the edge of campus. She photographed each batch daily, hypothesizing that the eggs would hatch faster in her room, where the temperature was higher and more stable than in the pond. Yu’s experiment won first prize in the Science Symposium’s research competition, but equally satisfying, she says, were her daily walks to the pond to check

P H O T O S : T I F FA N Y Y U ’ 1 4 A N D G L E N N M I N S H A L L

on her eggs and to collect water for the eggs in her room. “I grew up in a city, so the woods on campus were a place of mystery for me,” Yu says. Her project was “a really good chance to explore and understand them more.” Yu’s big-picture conclusion: Because salamander eggs are highly sensitive to temperature, they could become endangered due to climate change, and “by learning more about the first part of a salamander’s life cycle,” she says, “we may be able to find ways to protect this species from environmental changes in the world.” That’s an example of the Science Symposium’s overall goal: to help students connect the concepts and theories they learn in the classroom with the world beyond it. Younger students team up and start with basic experiments like the ones Jay Ward ’68 teaches in his introductory physics classes. They examine the properties of different brands of batteries with electric circuit boards; use desk lamps and a motion sensor to determine the efficiency of a model solar car; and

test Newton’s second law of motion by dropping balls of different weights and diameters into a tray of sand and measuring the resulting craters. “A lot of it is about collaboration,” Ward says. “It’s also figuring out logistical and engineering issues.” And that can take time, no matter what area of science the students work in. Gabi Groszyk ’14 researched different methods of germinating tobacco seeds for her Science Symposium project in AP Biology, and found herself caring for some of her plants three times a day, seven days a week, for five weeks. Why tobacco? Groszyk’s parents own a tobacco farm in Connecticut and had been looking for a more cost-efficient method to produce the highest-possible germination rates. “My dad had a few ideas himself,” Groszyk says, “but since the plants are our livelihood, he didn’t want to experiment too much in our greenhouses.” On NMH’s farm, Groszyk compared her father’s methods of growing seeds—top-watering a plastic tray of

“ Creativity is just as necessary in science as it is in the arts. If you don’t think outside the box, discoveries are almost impossible to find.” seedlings and floating a Styrofoam tray in water—with a method she devised herself: submerging a plastic tray in about a centimeter of water. Her method ended up producing the highest germination rates, and also was more efficient; it used less water, required less time and attention, and produced less waste, since plastic trays last years longer than Styrofoam. At the end of the school year, Groszyk took her seedlings home and transplanted them in her family’s fields. “The spirit of science investigation really comes alive when we start asking questions to which we don’t know the full answer,” Reeder says. “For teachers, the symposium is an opportunity to develop longer, more open-ended projects that we and our students are curious about.” And for students, the symposium often offers lessons beyond how to collect data and support a hypothesis. Groszyk says, “I learned that creativity is just as necessary in science as it is in the arts, because if you’re not willing to think outside of the box, discoveries are almost impossible to find.”

Gabi Groszyk ’14 researched different methods of germinating tobacco seeds.

PHOTO: GLENN MINSHALL

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IN THE CLASSROOM

“ The goal of this project was to make people take a second look. At first glance, the selfportrait appears normal, but something off about it catches the viewer’s eye, and they go in for a more detailed look.” —PA IG E FE NN ’ 15

PAI G E FEN N ’15

Anatomy of a Face Forget “selfies.” These abstract self-portraits are the real thing. by JENNIFER SUTTON

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There are no rules. That’s how Lila Livingston ’14 sees the AP Drawing course she took last fall—and visual art in general. “I learned over and over in that class that the most challenging thing about art is that it is all up to the individual,” she says. Livingston and her classmates found that especially true about halfway through the semester, when teacher Bill Roberts assigned an abstract self-portrait project. Until then, the students had been drawing from still lifes or models. Now “they

F R AN S CI S B ALK EN ’15

LILA LIVING S TO N ’ 14

had to exercise their cognitive skills and their ability to conceptualize,” Roberts explains. “That’s not an easy thing to do, particularly when it’s their own likeness.” As he does each time he teaches the class, Roberts first introduces the students to the work of portrait artist Chuck Close. Then he takes head-andshoulders photographs of each student. They choose an image, photocopy it multiple times, cut up the copies, and move the pieces around to create a kind of puzzle of their own face—one that’s

different from the original photograph. “I want them to really manipulate, but it’s a balance, because if you go too far, the face blows apart and it’s not recognizable,” Roberts says. The students draw from the manipulated image, using crow quill pens and India ink to “translate values with definitive linear or cross-hatched or stippled marks on the white page,” Roberts says. “That’s a lot harder than shading with a pencil. It’s old school.” The assignment pushes the students into new terrain, and not just because

pen and ink is the “easiest medium to mess up,” according to Paige Fenn ’15. The abstract element forces them to make design choices that aren’t part of drawing an accurate still life, and the personal subject matter can make some uncomfortable. “Anytime I consider doing a self-portrait, I worry about how other people will perceive my face,” Fenn says. “But that is something I shouldn’t be concerned with. A self-portrait is a chance for artists to show the rest of the world how they see themselves.” [NMH]

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NMH I N TH E WO R L D â&#x20AC;&#x153;At school, you can get so busy with your schedule that you kind of store yourself away; you reserve a part of yourself. Traveling really breaks that shell open.â&#x20AC;?

10 I NMH Magazine Model U.N. Students on the dunes near Doha, Qatar

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ITALY

CHINA

BRAZI L PHOTO: ELEANOR CONOVER

INDIA

These travelers found people, landscapes, and histories that changed the way they see the world—and the way they see themselves in the world. Byrom has led NMH trips to a dozen countries, and each one challenged cultural stereotypes that were embedded in her mind. “I became a better teacher of world history and a better diplomat in my work,” she says. Byrom sees the same changes in students, too. “They return with a desire to share insights that could, in the long run, help bring about a more peaceful world.”

QATAR

In these pages, we’ve highlighted six of NMH’s numerous study-travel experiences, with snapshots and reflections from both teachers and students. There are sophomore humanities classes in Brazil and South Africa, a language immersion program in China, a Model United Nations delegation in Qatar, student singers performing at the Vatican in Rome, and NMH students-turned-volunteerteachers at an orphanage in India.

SOUTH AFR ICA

HERE’S NO BETTER TIME than high school to start traveling and learning about the world. That’s according to Lorrie Byrom, director of NMH’s Center for International Education. “High school students have fewer preconceived ideas about the world than college students, so they’re more open to possibilities,” Byrom says.

Drema, age 7

JOYBELLS SCHOOL AND ORPHANAGE I N DI A

DEHRADUN, INDIA J ULI ET KIM ’ 16 During a service trip to the Joybells orphanage last March, Drema and the other kids welcomed us with bright smiles and dazzling eyes. I fell in love with them at first sight. Our job was to tutor them, so we taught various subjects in the morning, and during the afternoon, the little boys and girls brought out colorful cups of delicious chai tea for us to drink. I still find myself craving that tea. I miss the taste. But what I miss more is the warmth and generosity that were poured into those little cups, and the shy smile of the little girl who carried the tea, and the little hands that held the cups. It was those little things that taught me the most in India; they filled my heart.

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I’ll be returning to Joybells this summer. I cannot wait to smell that sweet chai tea, or to see the unconditional smiles of those same little boys and girls when we meet again. AT TA KU RZ M A N N Director of Service Learning Thirteen of us arrived at the orphanage after many hours of travel by airplane, bumpy train, and crowded bus. We knew the children who lived there came from harsh circumstances of loss, deprivation, and starvation, and we were prepared to find them challenging— detached, perhaps, or shy or unwelcoming. But we would be their teachers for the next two weeks and we would have to make it work. With our anxiety and excitement building, we turned off the dusty roads

of the village and drove into the orphanage compound, past shacks, gardens, and fruit trees. In the distance, we spied a group of children in bright T-shirts, cheering and smiling, holding flowers they had picked for us. The cheering grew louder as we got off the van. They circled around us and took our hands, two or three little children on each of our arms. They walked with us to their school, where we dove into two weeks of hard work, fun, laughter, and affection. Each day, we were touched by their eagerness to learn, the way they cared for one another, their gratitude and sweetness, their pride in sharing with us what they had. It didn’t take us long to realize that even though we had come from afar with the goal of teaching these children, they were the ones teaching us.

PHOTO: JULIET KIM ’16

QUILOMBO SCHOOL

SUSAN KENNEDY Religious Studies and Philosophy Teacher When we arrived at the Quilombo school on the island of Itaparica, in northeastern Brazil, the students and faculty were waiting for us. They were playing drums, singing, and clapping, and soon everyone started dancing. The Quilombo are descendants of African slaves, and the school is for people who want to go on to higher education. It costs a ton of money to take the test that’s required for college in Brazil, and most of the Quilombo people 1) don’t have the money for the test, let alone higher education, and 2) don’t have the knowledge to do well on the test. So the school operates in the afternoon and on weekends. Some of the students are going to regular high school, too; some have already graduated. They’re basically giving up their free time in order to better themselves. We shared presentations about our countries, schools, and cultures, and we learned a lot about each others’ backgrounds. Most impressive, however, was how quickly and easily the Brazilian and American kids became friends. That set the stage for the ease with which NMH students interacted with Brazilians throughout the trip. T YM IR SI M PS ON ’ 16 This was my first time traveling outside the U.S., and I did not know what to expect. I thought maybe the Quilombo students would see us as outsiders—like “those Americans.” In fact, it was the opposite. As soon as we got there, they wanted to talk to us. We all had so many questions for each other. I don’t speak Portuguese, so most of the time I could not understand what they were saying. We learned to communicate without a lot of words. In another part of the trip, we did activities with some young children in

PHOTOS: JAVIER ESCUDERO

their neighborhood. We served them dinner afterward, and lots of the children took the plates of food we handed them back to their homes and then returned for their own meal. When we first began serving, most of our group was hungry, and I was thinking, “I can’t wait to eat.” But these kids were worried about their families first, even before themselves. When I saw that, I wasn’t hungry anymore. I offered my plate to many of the children, but not one would take it. I really want to travel more now. I want to see more places and cultures around the world. I hope to go back to Brazil in the future and maybe lead travel groups—lead people to more awareness. At school, you can get so busy with your schedule that you kind of store yourself away; you reserve a part of yourself. Brazil really broke that shell open. It was an experience so new that I wanted to be in it as much as I could.

BRAZIL

ITAPARICA, BRAZIL

Dancing with Quilombo students and teachers (top); eating dinner with children in Lençois.

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ST. PETER’S BASILICA ITALY

VATICAN CITY, ROME M OLLY RIEHS ’ 14 After walking through the Vatican museums, I thought there could not be a more beautiful collection of artwork and a deeper connection to thousands of years of history. When I walked into St. Peter’s Basilica, I knew I had been wrong. The intense feelings of amazement and excitement were overwhelming. We were the featured guests, preparing to sing for a Mass that would be broadcast around the world. Looking out at the crowd, I saw nuns, strangers in suits, and tourists. I felt goose bumps rise on my arms and along my spine. When our guide pointed at us to start singing, we opened our hearts with “Adoramus Te,” and I knew we were

meant to be there in that glorious space, uniting people through song. The Mass was in Latin and Italian, so although I did not understand it, the words sounded fluid and beautiful. Just when I thought the service couldn’t get more emotional, the cardinal looked right at us and repeated his sermon in English—a language rarely spoken in St. Peter’s. He translated for us so we could feel a part of the spirit we helped create. At that moment, I felt so proud of my school and so connected with my choir and friends: my singing family. SH E IL A HE FFER N O N Director of Choral Programs Ever since I first visited the Vatican 23 years ago, I’ve had the dream of taking NMH choirs to sing during Mass in the superb acoustics and physical beauty of St. Peter’s Basilica. But when that dream

became a reality, I began to worry that I had idealized the experience too much. Would the students be intimidated by the history and size of the Basilica? Would they connect with this extraordinary edifice and testament to centuries of people’s faith? The moment they began to sing, I could see they knew this was a cathartic moment. They filled the historic space with the beautiful music, full tones, and ringing chords of Palestrina and Lotti, sharing what they love and do so well with the pilgrims who had made their way to Mass. After the final cutoff, their voices echoed through the Basilica for several seconds. Those seconds seemed to last forever, giving me time to look at the singers. Each of their faces wore an expression of sheer joy. The professional choir members who were there to sing the responses for the Mass erupted in applause, but even before that, I knew my worry had been unnecessary. The students not only understood what they had done, but they were transformed by it and by one another. The reality was far more glorious than my dream had been.

NMH student singers, including Molly Riehs ’14 (top), perform during Mass at the Altar of the Chair in St. Peter’s Basilica.

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PHOTOS: STEVE BISGROVE

At the Kaifeng Night Market, vendors cook dinner on the spot for throngs of people.

Kaifeng night market

PAUL POLK ’ 1 4 Kaifeng is a big city, but not like Beijing or Shanghai. We got to the night market early, when the vendors were just setting up. It was a normal Saturday, and people were coming for something to eat before they went out to do something else. You could get all sorts of food—meat, vegetables, dumplings. I got noodles and they were excellent. A lot of our time in China was pretty scripted, with a set itinerary and schedule, but I really wanted to feel what it was like to be a regular person instead of a tourist. When we went to the market, it was different. There was nothing scripted about it. There was no touristy stuff. It was just everyday life.

PHOTO: PAUL POLK ’14

We weren’t looking for anything in particular; there was no statue we had to visit or anything like that. We just wandered from one end of the market to the other, seeing what looked cool. The vendors were cooking food right out in the open, families were eating dinner, and it felt really authentic. J IN G L IU Chinese Teacher The Kaifeng Night Market is very famous because Kaifeng was the capital city of the Northern Song Dynasty more than 1,000 years ago—and also because the food is wonderful. It’s local food, not restaurant food. One of my favorites is xiao long bao; it’s a steamed

CH I N A

HENAN PROVINCE, CHINA bun, and inside, there is meat but also soup. Sometimes you have to drink the soup with a straw. At NMH, students learn Chinese in the classroom from a textbook, and they don’t get the chance to understand average Chinese people’s lives. In some cases, we bring the culture into the classroom—talking about the ancient cities of China, for example. But on this trip, the students get to see the real ancient cities of China. Seeing the real China is exciting for them. They go to the night market and speak Chinese, they go shopping, they try to negotiate in Chinese. That is the most exciting part for me: seeing the students use their language skills, after all our hard work.

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MODEL UNITED NATIONS QATAR

DOHA, QATAR “ The debate of a Model U.N. conference is incredibly exciting, but it doesn’t compare to becoming friends with people from the other side of the world.” A LEC S H EA ’ 14 When I traveled thousands of miles from New York to the Model U.N. conference in Qatar, I dragged along a copy of the International Herald Tribune. It served as a pillow, notepaper, and reading material: On the long plane ride, I read the front-page stories about places like Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Syria, Pakistan, and Egypt. At the conference, it became clear that the NMH students were the only Americans in attendance. The delegates around us were Pakistanis, Indians, Iranians, and Tunisians. I debated a relatively basic international nuclear

question, acting as North Korea in the International Atomic Energy Agency, but it was between debates that the conference got really interesting. All the delegates would talk to whoever was nearby, about everything from movies to ideal systems of government. It’s one thing to read a country’s name on the front page of a newspaper. It’s another to talk to someone from that country, especially when their homeland often is reduced to an enemy. The debate of a Model U.N. conference is incredibly exciting, but it doesn’t compare to becoming friends with people from the other side of the world. I

remember Qatar most when I read a news story about some far-flung corner of the world, and think of a friend who calls that place home. GRA N T GO N ZA L EZ Arabic and HistoryTeacher The authenticity of a place is often the Holy Grail of a traveler. “I want to experience the real [fill in the country],” is a common tourist’s refrain. In Qatar, though, authenticity is tough to define; 90 percent of its nearly 2 million inhabitants are foreign workers. Our NMH students tried to learn from everyone they met in Qatar, including Qatari citizens; our guides, who came from disparate countries; and, most important, their peers from around the world at the Model U.N. conference. While tourists might be shielded— or might shield themselves—from the complex realities of a place, the NMH students asked good questions about the sustainability of the fast-growing city of Doha, and its visible inequality and dismal record of protecting workers’ human rights. A taxi driver from Nepal told us: “Ten years ago, I could count on one hand the number of skyscrapers in Doha.” Today, the city resembles New York in the desert. I’ve traveled extensively in the Middle East, but these students pushed me to see Qatar through their eyes and as part of their future. “Is Doha a portent of our globalized future?” one student asked. “Or will it be viewed as a relic of modernization?”

Model U.N. delegates, including NMH’s Ismini Ethridge ’14 (center), get to know one another during breaks in the debate.

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PHOTO: ELEANOR CONOVER

GA RY PA RTENH E IME R Religious Studies and Philosophy Teacher We traveled to South Africa to feel what it was like, however briefly, to be the minority—to reconcile our “book learning” with experience. In Soweto, there were children everywhere. They seemed to materialize on cue from every corner of the township, from the narrow alleys of the shantytowns—the “informal settlements”—to the open squares, where they joined our pickup soccer games. So much energy, so much joy! It was tempting to conclude that they needed nothing from us or the rest of the world, that they were somehow content with what they had, despite the injustices imposed by history and circumstance. But where, I wondered, would these kids be in 10 years, or 20? At the end of that day in the townships, we sang a South African folk song as a farewell, and our hosts clapped and danced along with us. It occurred to me then that the kids whose voices and bodies harmonized with ours could teach us something about resilience. In the face of overwhelming odds, they pointed toward a future in which sharing is the answer to the ageless cry for social justice.

SOWETO

JOHANNESBURG, South africa B E A DOW DY ’ 1 5 When we got to South Africa, our tour guide, Joe, greeted us by saying, “Welcome home.” He explained how our ancestors had come from Africa, and so we were truly home. That felt rare to me, to be welcomed home to a place I had never been before. Joe described to us how he had been tortured during apartheid, but he had forgiven his persecutors because he knew there was no point in dwelling in the past. His courage and willingness to forgive floored me. And it wasn’t just Joe. People waved to us, welcomed us with hugs—they seemed determined to move on and be united.

PHOTOS: BEA DOWDY ’15, ISABELLE LOTOCKI DE VELIGOST ’15

South Africa changed the way I thought about what I can do. Everywhere we went, we saw people building up their communities and helping others. We worked with an organization called Soil for Life that teaches people how to grow their own food; we visited the House of Homework, which helps children after school; we played pickup games at Grassroots Soccer, which provides constructive activities for children. Individuals were taking it upon themselves to be the change. I’ve heard my whole life that one person can make a difference, but for the first time I was witnessing it in real life. [NMH]

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S O U T H A F R I CA

NMH students meet neighborhood children in Soweto.

DREAM

BIG

NMH TRAINS BASKETBALL PLAYERS TO DO MORE THAN SHOOT HOOPS, AND THE IVY LEAGUE IS PAYING ATTENTION. On a Friday night in early February, the Northfield Mount Hermon boys’ varsity basketball team hosted Proctor Academy in Forslund Gym. It was a Winter Family Days weekend, so the stands were packed for what turned into a raucous blowout. A few minutes before the final buzzer, Collin McManus ’15 stole the ball and charged upcourt for a slam-dunk. The crowd and the team—even coach John Carroll ’89—jumped to their feet as McManus swung from the hoop. The referee called a technical foul. Carroll, arms outstretched in disbelief, challenged the call. The ref felt McManus hung on for too long. While Carroll argued in support of his player, he had a slight grin on his face, and he didn’t push the issue. He and his team were having fun. The final score: NMH 100, Proctor 52.

BY DAVID PETRIE

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PHOTO: RISLEY SPORTS PHOTOGRAPHY

Forward Josh Sharma â&#x20AC;&#x2122;15 (No. 42) rattles the rim in Forslund Gym.

ost of NMH’s opponents pose more of a challenge on the court, which is part of the reason McManus and his teammates have come to play in Forslund in the first place. That, and the fact that NMH has been ranked among the top-five prep-school teams in the country for the past five years—and held the No. 1 spot at the beginning of the 2013–14 season. In 2013, the team brought home its first National Prep Championship, and in 2012, it won its first NEPSAC (New England Preparatory School Athletic Council) Championship and AAA regular-season title. Then there is NMH’s reputation for sending players on to prominent basketball teams at esteemed colleges and universities. That became crystal clear during the 2013 NCAA championship game, when Spike Albrecht ’12, a rookie freshman point guard at the University of Michigan, wowed the entire country by scoring 17 points in the first half. Besides Albrecht, NMH had 25 alumni playing this year on Division I teams at the University of Illinois, the University of Vermont, Boston College, George Washington University, Bucknell, the University of Maine, Siena, and Tulane. Eleven NMH graduates were playing in the Ivy League, three times more than

Coach John Carroll ’89 offers his advice during a game in 2012.

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any other high school in the nation. Four of those were at Harvard, including Zena Edosomwan ’13, the first top-100 high-school recruit to ever commit to an Ivy League school. The sports website Deadspin has called NMH “the official pipeline to Harvard for highly recruited basketball players,” and a Bloomberg News story published in March stated that Harvard “owes much of its newfound basketball success, highlighted by four straight league titles and a first-round victory in last year’s NCAA tournament, to Northfield Mount Hermon.” But NMH is more than just a pipeline. It’s got what Cox Sports calls “the top combination of academics and basketball in the United States.” Carroll calls that combination “balance,” and says it’s not easy to find. “At other schools, kids need to sacrifice one area to succeed in another,” Carroll says. “Here, there’s no sacrificing academics to be in athletics or the arts. There’s no bleeding of academics to have a social life. Everything a student does here feels significant and valued.” As senior assistant director of admission at NMH, Carroll spends a lot of time thinking about why students choose to go to prep school. In some cases, it’s because they’re looking for deeper connections—say, if there are 30 kids in biology class and the teacher doesn’t know everyone’s name. Or they want to go to a school with a history of placing kids in better colleges. Or maybe they want a new peer group, new opportunities—a special “flavor,” Carroll says. “Our basketball kids think we’re a basketball school, and they’re right,” he explains. “Our dance kids think we’re a performing-arts school, and they’re right, too.” Mostly, though, students come to NMH because they are looking for

PHOTOS: RISLEY SPORTS PHOTOGRAPHY

a new challenge. “They’re straight-A students who aren’t being challenged academically at their current schools,” Carroll says. “Or with athletics, we have a saying that if you’re the best kid on the playground, then you need to find a new playground.” That’s the case with many of Carroll’s current and former players. Anthony Dallier ’13, who was selected as the MVP of the 2013 National Prep Championship, left his hometown high school in western Pennsylvania to attend NMH and join a higherstakes high-school league. When the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette wrote about Dallier’s move, he explained how he had been the focal point of every opposing team’s defense at his old school. But at NMH, “I was probably the third or fourth scoring option for our team,” he says. Aaron Falzon ’15, a current forward on the team, who transferred from St. Mark’s School outside of Boston, says, “I was comfortable at my last school. But being comfortable may be the worst thing for people. It won’t help you succeed.” Hoop Dreams Magazine has called Falzon “one of the best shooters in the country,” but he went through a rough stretch earlier this year. “I had a couple of bad games,” he says. “John told me to stay confident. ‘Know you’re going to make the next play,’ he told me. ‘Know you’re going to make the next shot.’ John had more confidence in me than I did.” Like most of his teammates, Falzon calls Carroll “John” or “JC” instead of “Coach.” “Calling him John speaks to his relationship with his players, his personal connection with us,” Dallier says. “But every year, some kids would be uncomfortable. Spike Albrecht ’12 always called him ‘Coach Carroll.’ So John would call him ‘Player Spike’ in response.”

NMH wins the 2013 National Prep Championship at Albertus Magnus College in New Haven, Conn.

HARVARD OWES MUCH OF ITS NEWFOUND BASKETBALL SUCCESS TO NORTHFIELD MOUNT HERMON.” Carroll believes that being on a first-name basis with students and players is an important part of success at NMH, on and off the court. “I want to get beyond the coach/player relationship. Elite success for athletes comes from collaboration. When people call me ‘coach,’ I call them ‘player’ so they hear how fake it sounds. It’s the same thing with many of the teachers at NMH. It’s not ‘Mr.’ or ‘Mrs.’ It’s a first-name basis because, academically, the teachers and students are involved in a deeper relationship. If it were ‘Mr.’

or ‘Mrs.,’ you’d have a ceiling set up that could block the collaboration. Instead, the student’s goals and your goals for them blend into something bigger. Remove the ceilings—that’s when you see dreams happen.” For Dallier and others, the dream typically starts at middle- and highschool showcase events, where coaches from prep schools and colleges and universities scope out potential players for their teams. Ian Sistare ’16 met Carroll at the Elite 75, an invitationonly New England showcase. “After

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the day was done, I saw John walking toward me,” Sistare says. “You see that ‘NMH’ on the jacket and it is so exciting.” The thrill quickly evolved into something more. “When John pulled me aside, the first thing I noticed was how genuine a person he was,” Sistare says. “He cared about me as an individual.” As Falzon explains, Carroll “asks so many questions about why I want to do things. The ‘why’ is a tough thing to be asked. When I first met him, he really wanted to know why I wanted to be at NMH.” Carroll asks tough questions of his players because that’s what happened to him when he arrived at NMH as a postgraduate student in 1988. “At my old school—a good place, with good people—I was an athlete. I was OK with that,” he says. “Then I came to NMH and everyone said, ‘Great, you’re an athlete. What else are you going to be?’ And I didn’t know.” At NMH, coached by English teacher Bill Batty ’59, Carroll averaged 27 points per game and was named most valuable player of NMH’s 1988–89 team. Carroll went on to play at Assumption College, where he finished his career as one of the most prolific three-point scorers in NCAA history. He became Assumption’s No. 6 all-time scorer, with 1,551 points, and still holds many of their threepoint records. Carroll started coaching at NMH alongside Batty in 2001, after working at Morgan Stanley in Boston for more than five years. He became head coach in 2007. Just as Batty had pushed Carroll hard on the court nearly 20 years earlier, Carroll now

does the same for Falzon, Sistare, and their teammates. They play more games each season than a college team—and in 50 fewer days. But Carroll emphasizes that academics always come first. His players take on challenging work, such as AP-level literature, calculus, and chemistry classes. Dallier’s favorite was a senior English seminar with Dennis Kennedy called “The Future.” “We studied utopias and dystopias,” Dallier says. “I really improved as a writer. I used to ramble on about things, but Dennis Kennedy taught me to say what I wanted to say in the fewest words possible.” Falzon’s favorite class is statistics. Sistare liked Algebra II, but says his ninth-grade performing-arts class last year was a perfect example of how NMH’s academic culture pushes students to try new things. “I hadn’t had much drama,” Sistare says. “That theater class let me get away from all the standard academics. I realized that sometimes it’s OK to look like the fool.” Looking like a fool in a performingarts class, improving as a writer—it’s all part of the balance, the challenge, and the flavor that Carroll wants his players to internalize as they play their way through game after challenging game. It’s what will prepare them for life after NMH, he says. When Edosomwan, who’s from Los Angeles, chose a postgraduate year at NMH and Harvard over top basketball teams such as UCLA and Texas, he told Sports Illustrated that he was looking for “opportunities to be successful on and off the court” and that he wanted people to see that he “had a higher purpose than just basketball.”

NMH forward Aaron Falzon ’15

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PHOTO: RISLEY SPORTS PHOTOGRAPHY

This year, NMH made it to the semifinals in both the NEPSAC Championship and the National Prep Championship with the youngest team in NEPSAC history. Of the nearly 50 players competing in the National Prep Final Four, 16 were underclassmen. Eleven of those 16 played for NMH. And several of them are already weighing college offers, including Sistare, who still has two years of high school ahead of him. The pinnacle—so far—of NMH’s influential role in the high school and college basketball world was perhaps last year’s college championship game between Michigan and Louisville. That night, Carroll’s phone wouldn’t stop ringing. Reporters from NBC Sports, ESPN, the New York Times, and other national media outlets wanted to find out about Michigan’s mystery player. Was his name really “Spike” Albrecht? More important, how could this nonstarter sink so many three-point shots? While the NMH team gathered in Tron, Albrecht’s old dormitory, to watch the game, Carroll wanted to watch it alone. “We were the only high school in the country to be represented by a player on each team,” Carroll says—Albrecht with Michigan and Mike Marra ’09 with Louisville. “It was Mike’s dream to play for Pitino, and he was playing for Pitino.” And Albrecht, no matter what the venue, “plays like it’s his backyard. It’s all the same to him.” The night was special for Carroll. “I’m not a guy who talks to his television, but that night I was screaming. I was so proud of the moment Spike was having on the stage he was on.” He paused. “Every moment I get to watch someone living his dream is something special.” [NMH]

Ivy athletes: Zena Edosomwan and Anthony Dallier led the NMH basketball team last year and now play for Harvard and Yale, respectively.

WHERE THEY PLAYED AFTER NMH 2 01 3

2012

2011

2010

Anthony Dallier Yale University

Spike Albrecht University of Michigan

Jvonte Brooks Dartmouth College

Matt Brown Harvard University

Aaron Cosby University of Illinois

Josh Elbaum University of Vermont

Sam Donahue Boston College Zena Edosomwan Harvard University Michael Fleming Dartmouth College Josh Hearlihy Tulane University Pete Miller Princeton University Luke Poulsen Macalaster College Skyler White George Washington University

PHOTOS: HARVARD ATHLETICS/GIL TALBOT, YALE SPORTS PUBLICITY/SAM RUBIN

Tommy Carpenter Dartmouth College Evan Cummins Harvard University Seitu Morel Wheaton College Ethan O’Day University of Vermont Ryan Oliver Sienna College Lucas Van Nes Southern Connecticut State University

Armani Cotton Yale University John Golden Dartmouth College Ethan Mackey University of Maine Joe Sharkey Brown University Vince Van Nes Fairfield University

Chris Fitzgerald Columbia University Hector Harold University of Vermont Majok Majok Ball State University Greg Payton Williams College Laurent Rivard Harvard University Clancy Rugg University of Vermont

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Her Mission:

Change Fatima Saidi ’13 wants a good education—for herself and for all girls in Afghanistan. BY M EGAN TADY

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When 18-year-old Fatima Saidi first encountered the Atlantic Ocean last summer, she was shocked to see so much water in one place. “I did not think the ocean was this big,” she says. She was fresh off a plane from her hometown of Kabul, Afghanistan. She had come to the United States to study English at Salve Regina University in Newport, Rhode Island, before settling down as a one-year postgraduate student at Northfield Mount Hermon. While Zahra, a classmate from Afghanistan who now attends St. George’s School, ran ahead into the waves, Saidi hung back at the water’s edge. She wrapped her arms around herself and looked out at the horizon. “I am quite jealous because in some parts of my country, because of global warming, there is no water for people,” she says. “Is it fair, this big ocean that no one is using, only swimming in? But on the other side of the world, people are dying for a drop of water?” If Saidi doesn’t dash playfully into the ocean, perhaps it’s because she knows that on the other side of the world, a country is watching her—and waiting for her. Girls and women in Afghanistan have been denied human rights for years, including access to education, and even in today’s post-Taliban regime, going to school remains out of reach and dangerous for many. By 2007, just 6 percent of Afghan women over the age of 25 had received formal education. According to the United Nations, there were 185 documented attacks on schools and hospitals in 2011 by armed groups who oppose girls’ education. Last fall, a 14-year-old Pakistani girl named Malala Yousafzai was shot by the Taliban after she spoke out in support of women’s education. “There are a thousand Malalas that no one knows about,” Saidi says. Saidi is one of the lucky ones. Most girls her age in Afghanistan are already married with children. Her own mother was married at 13. Yet her parents made the uncommon decision to keep her in school when she was a young girl instead of pulling her out to prepare for an early marriage. Now she is among a small fraction of young women from her country who are traveling to the U.S. to continue their education. The opportunity is precious, the pressure enormous. “I’m the first girl in my family to go to school,” Saidi says. But she arrived on the NMH campus last fall with more than a desire to make her family

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proud. Her goal is to go to college, and then to help blaze a trail toward educational equality for women in Afghanistan. “My mission is ‘change,’” Saidi says. “It is a big word, and I know that I cannot change everything, but at least I can open the way.”

Saidi is the oldest of seven children. In 1997, when she was 2 years old, her family fled their home village of Jaghory in the Ghazni province of Afghanistan to live in Pakistan and avoid the Taliban. In 2005, they returned to live in Kabul. The American war in Afghanistan was well under way, and Saidi spent her teen years watching her country navigate a U.S. occupation, insurgent fighting, and reconstruction efforts. Fortunately, she was in school— despite the fact that her first suitor had visited the family’s home when she was in first grade. “My father could have easily said, ‘You don’t need to go to school,’” Saidi says. But he had grown up during Afghanistan’s civil war and had lived as a refugee; somehow, that made him choose a different path for his daughter. “I’m thankful for that decision,” Saidi says. “Slowly, I figured out that girls can be in first position. Girls can do this. Girls can talk. School turned me into a very strong feminist.” In 2008, when the Ministry of Education organized a student debate, to take place in front of Parliament on the topic of democracy and Islam, Saidi was the only girl among 10 boys invited to participate. She won first place. Her performance caught the attention of a nonprofit group called School of Leadership, Afghanistan (SOLA), which operates a small private school for girls in Kabul, offering them a safe space to study, extra classes in addition to those available in public school, and help in finding

educational opportunities abroad. In 2010, Saidi joined SOLA, first as a day student and then as a boarding student. SOLA connected her with an American mentor who happened to be familiar with NMH. Saidi captivated the NMH admission committee, according to Dean of Enrollment Claude Anderson, who also is one of her advisors on campus. With a goal of returning to Afghanistan and starting her own business, Saidi viewed a year at NMH as a chance to learn not only about new academic ideas, but also new ways of understanding and interacting with people of different cultures. “One person [on the committee] said she could be president of Afghanistan someday,” Anderson says. “She was influencing people before she even got here.”

When Saidi arrived on campus, she was in awe. “I never saw so much green in my life. I fell in love,” she says. She is no shy wallflower; as she sinks into a chair in the admission office to conduct an interview for this story, she offers tea as if she owns the place. Her megawatt smile is infectious, and she is quick to exchange hugs with the admission staff. Before she dives into talking about her life on campus, Saidi wants to discuss Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, which she read in her English class. “I don’t like this story,” she says. “How can someone kill themselves for someone else? It is not acceptable. You are killing yourself for a man? Why would you do that? You are worth more than that.” That is how Saidi operates: examining each new idea as if she is trying to solve a Rubik’s Cube. At NMH, she catapulted herself into classes and activities. “I need to see everything,” she says. “I need to know everything.” She learned how to use a calculator in math class. She ate turkey on

P H O T O : K AT H L E E N D O O H E R

“

I’m the first girl in my family to go to school. I know that I cannot change everything, but at least I can open the way.

”

spring 2013 I 27

Thanksgiving, hurled a bowling ball down a lane, hiked a mountain, and petted a dog—all of which she had never done before. She joined NMH’s Concert Choir, even though, she says, “When I first came here, I didn’t like to shout because I grew up in a country where girls are not even allowed to talk loud. But now when I go into choir, I shout as much as I can. And I don’t feel bad.” Coming from an educational background that favors rote memorization, Saidi struggled with concepts such as critical thinking, and with the various technology tools available to students at NMH. “It is like I am in a running match and the other people are so far ahead of me, but I have to run with them,” she says. Yet her mastery of languages is impressive; besides English, she speaks Hazaragi—her native dialect—as well as Dari, Pashto, and Urdu. At NMH, she began studying Chinese. Anderson marvels at her open-mindedness. “She says things like, ‘If you’re going to work with people, you’ve got to understand them,’” he says. “That’s coming from a teenager,” he says. “Sometimes I want to ask her, ‘Who are you?’” Saidi sometimes wonders that herself. The NMH community was quick to embrace her—“She draws people to her,” Anderson says—and that helped her acclimate. Back in the fall, she made instant friends with her American roommate, who hung an Afghan flag on their door to welcome Saidi when she moved in. Yet fitting in with her peers is often a challenge. “I’m experiencing two different things that you can’t compare,” Saidi says. “While I’m talking about Afghanistan, I have to think like an Afghan girl. I should not forget those things. How girls should behave. How a girl should not smile. I have to train myself. On the other hand, I have to be a happy American girl to be accepted in this society, too. I have to push these two worlds to the middle.” There are some things she just can’t get used to at NMH. “When people eat in the dining hall, they pick up a lot of food, but they never finish it,” she says. “In the other part of the world, poor people don’t have a piece of that bread to be alive. Some of these things make me think and even cry.” Sometimes Saidi struggles to convey her perspective to NMH classmates, and it makes her feel lonely and far from home. She gestures to the towering trees on campus. “These trees and I, we have become quite close,” she says. “I tell them things that people cannot understand.”

One person who does understand much of what Saidi is experiencing is Shabana Basij-Rasikh, the managing director of SOLA, who dressed as a boy to attend school in Afghanistan during the Taliban regime. After the fall of the Taliban, she attended high school for a year in the U.S. through the State Department’s Youth Exchange and Study (YES) program and then went on to Middlebury College. In 2008, while still an undergraduate, Basij-Rasikh founded SOLA with Ted Achilles, an American who had been one of her teachers in Afghanistan. She is NMH’s 2013 Commencement speaker. This year, SOLA enrolled 25 female students at its facility in Kabul. BasijRasikh believes that an educated workforce is the country’s best hope for overcoming the Taliban and that women can be instrumental in rebuilding the country. Afghanistan is the 16th least-developed nation in the world, according to the United Nations Human Development Index. Funded by private donors and grants from foundations, SOLA helps its students apply to top high schools, colleges, and universities around the world.

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“They are the future leaders of Afghanistan, who need up-to-date, 21st-century education to be prepared,” Basij-Rasikh says. There are currently 18 SOLA graduates studying in the U.S., Bangladesh, Jordan, and the United Kingdom. The organization strongly encourages its students to return to Afghanistan after completing their studies abroad. “For [Saidi] to have this amazing opportunity right now and ahead of her is rare and huge,” Basij-Rasikh says. “It’s my hope that she is going to use these skills, knowledge, and education to benefit her country.” Ask Saidi if she will return to Afghanistan after college, and she beams. “One hundred percent is weak. I want to go back more than 100 percent,” she says. In her dorm room in Lower South Crossley, Saidi opens her laptop and clicks through photographs of home. She points to a photo of her youngest sister, whom she affectionately calls “the little devil.” She says her sister is allowed to wear clothing that Saidi could never wear growing up because it wasn’t deemed appropriate for a girl. Toward the end of her first semester at NMH, Saidi cut her long, dark hair to her chin. “Now I am giving [myself ] a chance of being who I want to be,” she says. “Cutting hair is a small thing, so I told myself, ‘You can do that.’” She uses Skype to talk with her family and misses arguing with her brothers. “I even miss the war,” she says. “That feels like home. That’s what I grew up with. Sometimes I think I am becoming spoiled to not hear the sound of bullets. I’m afraid to get engaged with this much freedom and ‘good life’ that I will forget.” Basij-Rasikh thinks Saidi will not forget. “I know that because of her interest and love for her village, deep down inside, she will do

“

When I first came here, I didn’t like to shout because I grew up in a country where girls are not even allowed to talk loud. But now when I go into choir practice, I shout as much as I can. And I don’t feel bad.

whatever she can to help her people,” Basij-Rasikh says. That already has happened within Saidi’s family. “My father is always saying, ‘You changed me,’” Saidi says. “I don’t know how I did that, but I changed him to be a strong supporter of me. I respect my sister as much as my brother and I’m making sure that now my mother and father are doing that, too.” Saidi also has contributed to change at NMH, according to Lorrie Byrom, director of the Center for International Education. “She is an articulate Muslim woman who has been helpful in eradicating stereotypes about her faith and her situation as a woman in that culture,” Byrom says. Still, there are moments when Saidi feels overwhelmed by her mission, or enticed by her friends—like any teenager—to put off studying. “When I am feeling tired about not doing my homework, and thinking that I will do it later and go with my friends instead,” she says, “I tell myself, ‘Fatima, if someone else were here, she could get more advantage of this opportunity, so feel the responsibility.’ That keeps me working.” Perhaps the thought of her father keeps her working, too. At home in Afghanistan, people ask him, Why did you send her? Why should a girl go to America for an education? “Most of the time he is just quiet,” Saidi says. Perhaps, also, the thought of her younger sisters keeps Saidi working—and the thought of other girls in Afghanistan who might follow in her footsteps and pursue their own educations. “I don’t want to be the start and the end,” Saidi says. “I want other Afghans to come.” [NMH]

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THE MAKING OF A

PLAY P H O T O S B Y R A C H A E L W A R I N G T E X T B Y J E N N I F E R S U T T O N

L A S T Y E A R in the Rhodes Arts Center, Northfield Mount Hermon students and faculty staged five theater productions, including a littleknown contemporary drama titled Nasty, which focuses on teenagers and the imaginary personas they assume online. Theater program director Elizabeth Patterson, who replaced longtime director David Rowland after he retired in 2013, chose the play because she “wanted to do something that was timely and relevant—something that would have currency for our student body, and spark and feed a dialogue.” Written by Ramon Esquivel and first produced in 2009 for New York University’s New Plays for Young Audiences program, the play chronicles how the relationships of three girls and a boy intertwine, both online and in reality. Four NMH student-actors portrayed the real teens and four others played their digital counterparts —“actuals” and “virtuals,” Patterson called them. Rehearsals began right before Christmas.

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Nasty contained provocative themes, but cast members found that they were more affected by working with one another than by the script itself. One of them said: “I got more out of collaborating with everyone connected to the show, sharing the experience, than being onstage and having three nights of glory.”

Claire Phillips ’15 (foreground) and Suki White ’14 participated in a warmup exercise before a rehearsal got underway. The exercises may feel silly, Patterson acknowledged, but they help actors become aware of one another onstage and “develop the energy of an ensemble.”

The cast read through the script, which covered substantial ground: friendship, jealousy, body image, sexual orientation, romance, cruelty among teenagers—all of it filtered through the lens of technology. The play took on topics such as cyber bullying—“things you’re not going to hear when you ask your teenager, ‘How was your day, dear?’” Patterson said.

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Technical director Dan Mellitz (center) in the sound and lighting booth with stage manager Rafael Zhang ’15 (left) and crew member Isabella DeHerdt ’17. Mellitz, like Patterson, started teaching at NMH in 2013, and worked with a student crew to design a computer program of images and words to be projected on a screen behind the actors. It correlated to almost every line of spoken dialogue, with more than 150 projection cues.

Costume designer Kate Mellitz helped Zeph Carroll ’15 with his make-up. He played one of the “virtual” characters—an online avatar named the Mynyster of Sound.

When the cast reported for costume fittings, Erin Moore ’14, as a dragonslaying “virtual” named Qyn-Chacha, got wrapped in a kimono and a long black wig. “When you’re in costume, the play feels more real,” Moore said. “Doing theater is like sports—once you put your uniform on, you’re ready.”

Previous page: The cast of Nasty after the play’s closing performance

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The “real” teenagers occupied the front of the stage, closest to the audience. Their “virtual” counterparts stood behind them, set apart by a transparent scrim. In both realms, the characters complained about school, obsessed over crushes, and alternately annoyed and amused one another. But their banter turned ugly when one girl accused another of taking over her friendship with a boy who is gay. Online, she called the girl a whore and the boy a faggot. Those lines belonged to Erin Moore ’14. “I never yelled the word ‘faggot’ before,” she said. “I never want to again.”

Suki White ’14 acted in theater productions throughout her four years at NMH, but working on Nasty, playing an avater named Eartha X, made her more nervous than reciting Shakespeare. “It felt really weird to not be embodying another human being,” White said.

In one scene, the avatar Qyn-Chacha encountered a werewolf in a digital forest. Armed with a sword, which was reimagined for NMH’s production as a Star Wars light saber, she emerged victorious.

After the final show, Patterson facilitated a “talk-back” with the audience, and the conversation went right to the harsh interactions between the characters. Claire Phillips ’15 said, “People say stuff online because it’s like you’re behind a wall—you don’t see the person’s reaction, so you feel safe. It’s different and weird to say things out loud, to say them for real.” [NMH]

9/10

Rehearsals and performances took place in the Lois C. Chiles Theater in the Rhodes Arts Center. Patterson told the actors: “At a certain point, the show stops being ‘ours’ and it starts being ‘yours.’ I’m not the one up onstage. I’m enjoying the show along with the rest of the audience.”

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SEE MORE P H OTO S

View more photos at http:// rachaelwaring. pass.us/ nmh-magazine

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NMH

Magazine

One Lamplighter Way Mount Hermon, MA 01354

Tiffany Kudo ’16 and other students help out during the 2013 “Source to Sea” Connecticut River cleanup. PHOTO: GLENN MINSHALL