HORNET’S NEST Proctor Academy | November 1, 2019| Vol. 5 | Issue 2
Proctor’s Wolves of Main Street
By Carlos Meyer Have you ever thought of earning and enjoying more money in life? Do you want to learn how to invest in the stock market? Well, look no further than Proctor’s Investment Club. It is organized to be like a game and there are prizes, but the real fun of the Investment Club is the competition of earning the greatest profits. There are somewhere around 12.5 to 13.5 million accredited investors in the United States. That is roughly about 8% (10 million households) of the population in America. Stock exchanges all over the world are necessary for industrial development. Without investment funds, many of the revolutionary ideas and fundamental improvements to products and industries wouldn’t exist. The founder of the Proctor’s Investment Club is Cole Schwabacher ‘20, who is currently the leader along with Sean Feingold ‘20 and Ross Young, Chair of the World Language Department. Ross claims that he is not the overseer, (but in reality, he is) and he offers his advice and experience as a veteran investor. Some members already have prior knowledge of investing and want to refine these tools, yet there are a bunch of students who don’t have any prior knowledge and show up just to learn investment basics. One surprising fact about the club is that there are over twenty-five current members, possibly more members than any club at Proctor. Cole explained that the club works by every person picking investments, and their limit is their budget. If a big event happens that affects
the stock market, the club investigates news reports and information to determine why there was a change in profits for certain companies. Cole added, “At Investment Club we use a website called, Market Watch. It mimics the stock market by giving each member a simulated $100,000 in their accounts and it keeps track of everyone who is invested in any company of their choosing. Then as the group meets once a week, we play around, learn about investment, and see if we could earn money. For example, recently Ben Blanchard earned the most amount of money because he invested in Bed, Bath and Beyond, and the company hired a new CEO so it’s worth doubled over the course of a day.” Cole advises other students, “I encourage everyone to get started on Market Watch to learn a little bit, follow the news and read a lot. However, no one is an expert, no one knows all that’s going on, so don’t spend too much money and just have fun doing it.” Why consider joining? Cole claims, “Because it is the most popular club on campus! It is extremely useful knowledge for later in life, and the sooner you get involved with investing, the better you will be financially in the future. There is no better place to start than Investment Club.” If you are ever interested, Proctor Investment Club meets every Tuesday from 5:30 to 6:30 PM, gathering at the large table in the upstairs Dining Commons Proctor Room.
Hesitating Hornets: How Wasting Time Affects Proctor Teachers By Jasper Redican Wasting time is something that most of us students are guilty of, but how about our teachers? An anonymous survey sent out to Proctor faculty asked procrastination and they responded with advice on how we can all improve our time management. A few faculty also shared exclusive professional insights on their procrastination skills. According to Smart but Scattered Teens by Richard Guare, PhD, director of the Center for Learning and Attention Disorders at Seacoast Mental Health Center in Portsmouth, NH, “Task initiation is the ability to begin projects or activities without procrastinating, in an efficient or timely manner.” I struggle with keeping my phone off when I have an assignment that I know will be tedious and boring, and I know that many of my peers do as well. Instagram is just too tempting, but how can we better use our time? An anonymous survey I sent out to Proctor teachers asked for some information on how they see procrastination among both students and faculty. Six of nine responses noted that breaking up large tasks is a great way to help get things done. Three faculty recommended that students should set themselves deadlines. One teacher shared, “I focus on executive function, making a list and chunking material so that big problems get covered piece by piece, ‘bird by bird.’” (reference to a book by Anne Lamotte). However, what about procrastination impacting our teachers? Well, eight of the
nine said that yes, they do procrastinate, and of those, five reported it was a problem for them. The other three consisted of two who said they thrive under time pressure and one said that they don’t have a problem. “... I just roll up my sleeves and get on with it!” Three of eight respondents stated they were chronic procrastinators. According to a study by the American Psychological Association, twenty percent of US adults are chronic procrastinators. According to my unscientific study, 37.5 percent of Proctor teachers are chronic procrastinators, with the majority stating that grading was the thing they procrastinate the most on, and the main distraction being the internet, of course. Our teachers suffer, as most of us do, with distractions in their work. Even as adults, they put stuff off. So, when they return your paper a couple days late, be sympathetic, you might do the same.
Proctor Pups By Nadia Nevells If you spend one day on the Proctor campus you will likely see at least three dogs during your journey. The more you know about the dogs you see around here, the more you can learn from them.
Homer and Stanley Grotnes live in Carriage House with their owner Jill. I asked Jill what Stanley and Homer’s favorite places around campus are. “They love running around the grass football field and up the woods trails behind Johnson House.” She also said that if Homer were to take Proctor classes, he would take Terry’s Meditation and Mindfulness, while Stan would be out on Mountain Classroom having adventures galore! Jill also said that the benefit of having them on campus with her is, “Being nearby to walk them throughout the day and all of the love they receive in the dorm and around campus. They have a ton of doggie friends!” Speaking of doggie friends, Ruby McIn-
Welcome Jen Baker By Frazer Hilliard
tyre is another adorable pup who lives in Peabody House. She is part of the McIntyre family and Alan notes, “Ruby is into frogs. She loves them. She loves to prowl the pond for them. That is her favorite place. The forest is a close second. She is into hunting squirrels and chipmunks. However, with the squirrel population being so low this year, she has found acorns fun to play with.” If she were a student at Proctor, Alan says that Conservation Ecology would be right up her alley because, “She is a solid gold hunter and she is into conserving and managing rodent populations.” Another Proctor dog that we all love to see is Maddy Walsh who lives in Rulon-Miller with her family. Maddy’s favorite hang out spots are, “The common room trash can or the apple orchard,” reports her mom Becky. Becky shared that a hard part about having Maddy on campus is, “You can’t just let her out in the backyard, it’s always a walk when it’s time to go out.” And if you’ve ever been here for a New Hampshire winter, you can probably imagine those icy walks. Students like to pat her and say it reminds them of their dog that they miss at home, so Maddy is popular. For this laid back dog, Becky suggests Mindfulness and Meditation would also be her type of class. I guess naps with Terry is a dog’s paradise. These are just a few out of many Proctor dogs considering their education. Sawyer and Ledger Patriacca would take Forestry if they were Proctor students. Two very popular pups, Willow and Oakley both love adventures. Their owner Maggie Kennedy says they would love environmental classes because they could go into the woods and run all day long. A fellow friend of Oakley’s is Kyle Connolly’s dog who goes by the title Duke of Ellington. Kyle comments, “This pup would be enrolled in Freshman Seminar to become more ‘respectable and solid’.” Proctor dogs love the students, the fields, and the campus. They can teach us a lot and I hope you have learned a little more about these wonderful dogs and their adventure-filled lives.
Jennifer Baker is one of the newest additions to the Proctor family. She comes from Brookline, Massachusetts, where she spent ten years teaching at the Winsor School, an all-girls private school. She is with us looking for adventure and a place for her family to grow. Jennifer was born in Lincoln, Nebraska. She attended Cornell University which is located in Ithaca, NY and afterwards attended graduate school in New York City. After that she moved to Brookline to teach at Winsor where she spent the last ten years teaching history, working in admissions, and serving as the Dean of the freshman class. But what drew her away from a bustling city like Boston into quieter New Hampshire? Jen notes, “The fact that it’s a big city, everything started to feel more unknown. And that uncertainty was not great. I have two daughters and we are all into the outdoors. My oldest enjoys skiing a lot. And not only that, but I really wanted to get back into coeducation, and I have always been fascinated by boarding schools. I never attended one so from a professional standpoint, I really wanted to experience that.” To me, it seems like Jen lives to learn. When talking about coming to Proctor, Jen was really interested in how many students here have different learning styles. She was also intrigued with how many kids had other interests in their lives other than just getting into all the Ivy League schools. “After working at Winsor School, I started to feel like all of these girls were so academically driven, and so focussed on college, it ran their lives, and I wanted to be work at a school that saw more to high school than that.” Jen and I both agreed it is not a bad thing to have a school like that, but she said she was intrigued by “a place where the students...do a lot of different things, and excel in different areas and want to be outside. Teaching at a place like that just was super attractive for me.” Jen is excited to learn how we work here and how she will adjust as an educator to succeed at a prep school like Proctor. I have full confidence that she will do just that.
answer I would say, as a teacher of mathematics, it’s a subject that needs a lot of concentration, focus, and thought. And teenagers have so many other demands on their attention, focus and thought. So for me it’s always that question: how do I teach so that if a student loses that focus, attention, or thought, they could still come back in and be successful?
Proctor Welcomes Bill O’Brien By Michael Gilerman Our community is excited to welcome a teacher who not long ago taught in Bali, Indonesia. Bill O’Brien is a math teacher with a massive list of credentials, and he has brought a unique style of teaching to Proctor. What classes do you teach, and what other jobs do you hold at Proctor? I teach Algebra 1, Pre-Calculus, and this fall I have two sections of AP Calculus. I’m the Math Department Head, and I am the dorm parent at Summerfield with my wife Lindsay. What made you want to work at Proctor? My son Julian graduated this past year, so he went here for four years and really enjoyed it. And my daughter Phoenix was quite interested when she heard there might be a chance. I’d have to say the stars aligned, and the universe brought me here. It did not make a lot of logical sense, but I’m here. I was really impressed with Mountain Classroom program, and Proctor seemed to recognize how to be a great high school experience, and how to be well rounded.
Why math? Why do you like it? I’ve always felt that if I was teaching another subject, I’d probably have had to take another job. Because doing something for 25 years is a long time. With math you’ve got this idea, and there’s so many different ways to do it. So maybe five years ago I was teaching it one way, I’m teaching a very different way now. So I am always thinking about what I’d learned from different students. And so I’m always thinking while I’m teaching. Which makes it really interesting, and challenging, and difficult. And I think that’s why I like math. What’s the biggest challenge you’re facing heading into the year? Probably the greatest challenge is that for a number of years I settled into a routine of going to bed around eight at night and waking up at four in the morning. It gives me eight hours of sleep, and several hours in the morning. At Proctor I have to reevaluate how I do things, because I have to stay up late when I’m in the dorm. And I also have to be doing math because I’m getting ready for my classes for the next day. So I have to be careful not to let my mind get too excited about the math, because I need to go to sleep, so I could get up the next morning. So sleep has been the biggest challenge.”
What are you looking forward to most at Proctor? I’m looking forward to the different things that will happen through the course of the year that I am not even aware of now. Like I have a feeling that how I feel right now while the leaves are changing will be very different than how I feel heading into Christmas vacation. Or in February, or as we come to our close in spring. Because I haven’t experienced a Proctor year yet, everything is new and exciting. What is your greatest fear? Probably my greatest fear is that if I misunderstood something, someone might not tell me for a while. I’d love to know if something isn’t going right for a student, or colleague, or someone else, that they’d speak to me and let me know. It’s just always fear starting somewhere new because you don’t have your own little posse looking out for you. Although, I have to say I’ve felt a lot of support here already at Proctor. Our school has acquired an all star teacher, who’s ready to take his students to new heights. Bill incorporates a new style of teaching that encourages his students to not only learn math, but to enjoy the process as well. Any student that will have Bill as a teacher will be lucky.
What do you think is the biggest challenge with teaching high school students?
Get Fit, Don’t Quit
I think the biggest challenge is high school students change so much from when they enter, barely out of middle school, to when they graduate and are practically adults. Each student goes through that shift at their own pace, and so you can’t always tell where a student is. The other
By Sean Slick Most of us eat all three meals here in the dining hall, we constantly have to make decisions. Should I grab the pasta? Should I eat meat? Should I skip dessert? Should I have eggs or cereal for breakfast? We then
ponder the possibility of going to the gym, but what do we do? Where do we start? In the quest to help you improve your fitness, I spoke with two campus experts. One of the most fundamental parts to fueling our bodies is the importance of nutrition. Amy Machechnie, Proctor Anatomy and Physiology teacher and nutritionist, told me, “Our body is the greatest gift we have, we only get one, and I view food as the fuel to help us do all the amazing things that we want to do.” Amy continued, “When I think of the plate I think that you always need to have carbohydrates, fat and protein at every meal… Carbohydrates have gotten a bad rap, usually we think of carbs such as bread, pasta, cereal but fruits and vegetables are carbohydrates.” Ross Young, a faculty member, avid weightlifter, and everybodys ‘go to strength consultant’ advised getting enough fuel. “Most athletes… are not eating enough, and if you’re a three sport varsity athlete you need to eat three to five meals a day.” Nutrition is the first component to gain strength and begin the workout journey, Ross can help plan a baseline strength program. He went on to say, “You need to have big compound joint movements… if you’re really just beginning, than bodyweight and cardio is a good start.” Compound joint movements are essential and include bench press, squat, deadlift, and loaded carries. They work multiple parts of your body to build muscle. These movements will work the areas that you develop when you do bodyweight exercises which is why they are very good and eliminate the goofy assistance machines.
A very important component to gaining strength is consuming proper protein, determining this depends on your body measurements. Ross noted roughly 20 grams of protein is an ideal amount to consume daily and that’ll be covered by eating three balanced meals. You can obtain protein through meat, like chicken or beef, or beans, eggs, nuts and milk. So ultimately if you have goals of running a marathon, losing weight, winning the next Mr. Olympian contest, or you just want to transform your body, there’s no better time to start than NOW! The balance between nutrition and fitness is very important, it takes discipline and commitment but the results can be extraordinary. Don’t hesitate to reach out to Ross or Amy to get started.
James Stevenson: Flags
International Students Reflect on Proctor By Carlos Meyer Fifteen new international students have joined the Proctor community this fall. Who are these new classmates? Where do they come from? And how they have become accustomed to Proctor so far ? Elijah Sochaczevski ‘22, is a first year sophomore student at Proctor, and he comes from Montreal, Canada. His brother Noah ‘19 recently graduated from Proctor and he gave a lot of advice to Elijah. When visiting with Elijah in our dorm, he expressed that his biggest surprise so far is that, “Mostly the workload and managing my time to do the work.” Soon after, he added that his challenges include, “The fact that I miss my home a lot at the mo-
ment, but knowing that I will miss Proctor after I graduate.” Elijah said his school in Canada was very different and not as demanding. Trang “Grace” Do ‘22, is a first year sophomore. She comes from Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Like most international students, Grace’s big challenge is missing her family. She noted, “I just really miss my family and it’s hard to be so far away from home.” She also said, “I did not know what to expect, because I didn’t visit Proctor before coming here, so I do not know the picture of the school. So far it’s a lot different from any of the schools back at Vietnam.” Grace is used to a very traditional type of school, such as wearing a uniform to class and not being very well connected with the teachers. Grace seems to be happy and excited by her choice of Proctor. Ferdinando Benetton ‘20, is a first year senior who comes from Treviso, Italy. Ferdinando is attending Proctor for only one year in order to earn his diploma in an American high school and to prepare him for college. While talking with him in his dorm in Peabody, he mentioned that he felt welcome when he came to Proctor and began to play football, a sport he had never played before, and met coach Ben Rulli. Ferdinando said, “One of the things he (Rulli) said to me was that I have found a new home, and I deeply believe that this school might be my new home.” He added that a challenge is, “the change and adapting to a different culture, but that is a decision that I chose.” After traveling around campus and interviewing a couple of the new international students here at Proctor, I asked a returning international students to give some advice to fellow foreign born students.
Micheal Sun,‘20, is a four year senior and originally from Shanghai, China. “I think it’s very important for first year international students to… have conversations with people you don’t know, and engage in a society that is probably not familiar to you.” When Michael was asked to give some examples, he explained, “Try new sports, activites, join different clubs, try going on [an] off-campus program, and try to be friends with some of the American students.” I talked to only three of the new international students; there are still twelve other new students that I have yet to meet. Knowing this, I hope the community at Proctor embraces the responsibility to reach out and welcome these new international students to their second home.
What Makes Us Happy? By Cooper Rice Proctor offers many fun activities to keep you busy. Despite being in the middle of nowhere, most Proctor students are happy in the small town of Andover. Proctor might not be for everyone, but what is it that keeps so many kids coming back? I’m not saying every day is filled with rainbows and unicorns, but the people at Proctor Academy are happy. Proctor faculty and coaches Erica Wheeler and Megan Hardie try to find creative and fun activities for students to enjoy to help improve attitudes of kids across campus. Students need to do their part in return for all of the hard work from those two and try to find that happiness without taking the harsh route of blaming and bashing Proctor for “being in the woods” or “there’s nothing to do.” Sophomore Bryson Martin commented, “I’m happy at Proctor when sports activities are going on. I love hanging with the boys whether it be soccer, hockey, or baseball. That is the most fun and happy time during my daily routine at Proctor.” Bryson also enjoys weekend activities such as the Tucker’s and Chipotle trips, and he loves going to the Wise at night for a good laugh and a game of ping pong.
Rulon Miller Dorm resident and two year junior Grant Porter states, “I enjoy going to the gym and getting a lift in. I also enjoy skating at the Ted and working on my craft. I love to go to other people’s sports games to support the Proctor community.” Grant loves hanging out with other students on the turf and Grant discovered just the other day that he also enjoys going to Zumba classes with the hockey team. Megan Hardie, Director of Wellness at Proctor and also a forensic teacher, has a big role in the Proctor community, making sure kids are healthy and safe. Megan says, “I think things like sports, art, hanging with friends, good food and music makes students happy. I also think being challenged in classes and engaged as community members helps kids to be happy, even though in the moment it might feel stressful. Stress actually helps us be happy!” At first, it may be tough finding a person’s own idea of happiness in the woods of New Hampshire. There are definitely some times that can be hard at Proctor, or any boarding school, whether it be a tough test, lots of class work, or the weather in the middle of winter and you feel trapped in your room. As time goes on and you continue to make new friends, it gets easier to be happy. Learn to use your resources and find activities you enjoy. Happiness is yours to find here at Proctor. From weekend trips all the way to exercising in the gym, just find it.
History of the Proctor Fire Department By Jake Bicknell As many students may know, fire and Proctor have a complicated relationship. Until the early 2000’s Proctor had its own student operated fire department, and used the immense power of fire to educate students.
In 1949 Proctor got its first fire engine, a 1919 Concord, AKA Albert Downing. This opened up new opportunities for students to help fight fires with their own equipment. The first notable fire that the Proctor crew was involved in was in November of 1951. A massive house fire was blazing right across the street from the school. The fire crew assembled at three AM ready to help, and he boys managed to save furniture and valuable items from the house and even save part of the structure.
According to an article Scott Alenby wrote for the 2018 Proctor Magazine, the history of fire at Proctor is actually quite rich, dating all the way back to 1939 when the student council organized the department. Each dorm elected a fire chief and the whole school voted on a fire commissioner. The Proctor Academy Fire Department didn’t just respond to fires happening at Proctor, but also fires happening in Andover and surrounding towns. The department did more than teach how to fight fires. There are certain things you just cannot learn and bonds you cannot build in a classroom. The fire department instilled responsibility as it takes a certain level of maturity to get out of bed at three in the morning to respond to a call to fight a fire. Developing maturity in a role like this is something kids these days are missing.
Scott’s research in past yearbooks identified another notable fire in May of 1956 when a forest fire broke out in the nearby town of Wilmot. Nearly seventy-five Proctor boys were called out to assist town fire departments. In combination with other crews, the Proctor boys managed to contain the fire to only ten acres and eventually put it out. This is just the sort of teamwork real world learning experiences can instill. Although having an active fire department on campus today would be tricky, Proctor should work towards ways for students to have more real world job experiences. In 2003, policy changes sadly ended the department after over sixty years of service. Being a member of the fire department pushed students to trust each other in real, demanding ways. This would be an impossible program in today’s world due to the new regulations and laws. Can you imagine asking current Proctor students to fight fires?
WEEKEND Love
FRIDAY | NOVEMBER 1
6:00pm: Dawnland followed by Q&A - Meeting House 6:00pm: Football vs. New Hampton 6:30pm: Haunted House at Carriage House - $1 per person
SATURDAY | NOVEMBER 2 1:30pm: JV Field Hockey vs New Hampton 3:00pm: JV1 Boys Soccer vs St. Paul’s 3:00pm: Varsity Boys Soccer vs St. Paul’s 6:00pm: UNH vs Dartmouth Men’s Hockey game at UNH 6:30pm: Smitty’s Movie Trip 7:00pm: 4v4 Basketball Tournament 9:00pm: McDonald’s Late Night Run
SUNDAY | NOVEMBER 3 10:30pm: Burlington, VT day trip 1:00 - 3:00pm: Open Gym 1:30pm: New London lunch trip: Brother’s Burgers, Flying Goose, Peter Christans 12:30pm: Connect 2 Change Conference at Brewster Academy 2:00pm: Smoothies in the Wise 2:30pm: Spirit Week Shopping Trip to Concord *Sign ups are sent via email for trips. Priority will be given to those who sign up in advance. After that, seats will be first come first serve basis. All trips will depart from outside of the dining hall.
Questions? Suggestions? Get Involved with Student Activities!
Contact Erica Wheeler, Student Activities Director at wheelerer@proctoracademy.org.