PROCTOR PULSE Proctor Academy | May 22, 2017 | Issue 4
Congratulations Class of 2017!
A Glimpses of Graduation By Rowan Moynihan
Most have waited four years for this day to come, in fact some have even waited five. Graduation is the day where we end one journey and move on toward adulthood. Before writing this article, I had no idea about the graduation ceremony, so here are some of the highlights for the big and final Proctor event. The first part of our ceremony will be Senior Dinner with family members in the dining commons on Friday. After we move to the tent post dinner, we will applaud classmates for academic awards and watch the senior slideshow. We’ll see lots of smiling faces; it’s a moment for the seniors to look back on their years at Proctor. Graduation starts with the academic processional behind our junior marshals, Cole Joslin and Shannon Roycroft. When seated under the big tent on the softball field, we will have a welcome from the Head of School, Mike Henriques. Then we’ll hear an invocation by Rev. William Peabody, music by Dave Pilla and Keith Barrett, then remarks from Thomas Healey Jr., and Karin Clough.
Three student speeches start with the salutatorian, Bridget Fagan, then our student speaker Grey Bechok. Grey can’t give away too much information, but he promises his speech will be filled with gratitude, humor, and some seriousness. Last will be our Valedictorian, Sam Marshall. Then Mike introduces our main speaker, Woody Flowers. Flowers is a professor at MIT who is a robotics fanatic. When Flowers was younger he got into a head on car crash with four of his friends. Two of them died along with the driver of the other car who was going 100 miles an hour. After that, he decided he would go into robotics to prevent machines from having such collisions. He spoke at the robotics championship that the Proctor robotics team attended in St. Louis recently and he is known for his signature thumbs up. Hopefully he’ll be brief because after this we’ll have lots of student awards and finally we will be presented with our diplomas before celebrating with family and friends at lunch. You’ll see me in the camo suit when I’m not in my green robe.
Seniors’ Reflect: The Perfect Ending
also giving them the opportunity to prepare for the freedoms they will soon have as college students. This program gets high grades.
By Dennis J. McCarthy
Senior project is a highly anticipated time for many seniors to pursue an area of passion. These projects allow seniors to be independent, to learn time management, project planning, and self-advocacy skills as they plan and execute their final experience. However, is senior project truly beneficial? Here’s my report on three projects. Raizel Rosenberg is doing an art based project in her final weeks at Proctor. When I asked Raizel if she was enjoying senior project she replied, “Yes, definitely. Senior project allows me to explore subjects that I am passionate about without the worry of prepping for standardized tests, or stressing about other classes. It really lets you focus in on something. Also, my project is almost like a prep class for college. It’s combining the two subjects that I will be majoring in so it’s perfect. A little beginning of my own.”
The first senior I spoke with was Tyler Gamble. Tyler has always loved woodworking, and is making bean bag game sets for family, friends, and the Proctor community during his project. Tyler is a fan of Proctor’s senior schedule. “Senior project allows students to custom tailor a curriculum that they want to learn about. This makes them more inclined to be dedicated and productive during a time of the year where motivation is already low.” Bryce Swan is teaching physical education across the street at Andover Elementary School. Bryce believes that his project will give him more “real world” experience. Bryce couldn’t be happier with his gig at Andover Elementary as it has allowed him to combine two career interests, sports and education. Bryce and his partner Griffin Del Prete are avid athletes and gym rats. It is obvious both are stoked to be able to stay in a gym environment while also learning under a veteran teacher.
Raizel also had some advice for underclassmen who will participate in future senior projects. “Don’t slack. This is a great opportunity where you can dive into any subject or field or task that you want to without stressing about a grade. You get to try and apply yourself while being compared to no one but yourself which somehow eases the stress and increases it. Have fun, work hard and don’t slack off - you’ve got time to do that in the summer.” Proctor wisely allows seniors to make the most of their last days in high school, while
always loved the ocean. Not only did he go on ocean classroom this past fall, his job in the summer is on a fishing boat. For his senior project he has been on the New Hampshire coast surfing as well as cleaning up beaches. Alex is doing his senior project with Crowley Gentile and Gray MacDonald. They are also making a video documenting all aspects of their project. “The goal is to learn more about how we can keep our oceans clean and to make a difference and educate other people as well.”
Eliza Orne is a four year senior who has always had a passion for the outdoors. She has been an avid participant in Dave Pilla’s classes as well as woods team, and her senior project is a continuation of her passion, “For senior project I am planting an American Chestnut plantation. The idea arose from a forestry convention I went to with Dave last spring. We began to discuss hypothetically about Proctor having chestnuts and eventually it grew into a reality. The overall goal of my senior project, and the work of the American Chestnut Foundation, is to reestablish the American Chestnut in it’s native lands, because it was
Senior Project Spotlight By Drew MacInnis
At Proctor, most seniors design their own final experience. Drew Childs is converting his experiences on three off-campus programs onto canvas. Alex Wyckoff, Crowley Gentile, and Gray MacDonald are cleaning up beaches, surfing, and making a video documenting their project. Eliza Orne is trying to re-introduce the American Chestnut tree in the Proctor woodlands. These projects are drastically different, yet each ending is the perfect way for these students to finish their time at Proctor. During his time at Proctor, Drew went on Spain, Costa Rica, and Mountain Classroom, and his senior project has everything to do with the experiences around the world. “My goal is to illustrate my experience through art, and the media, and having people relate to my experience by looking at the colors and what kind of artistic elements I use.” Drew used abstract techniques bursting with color. Drew couldn’t be happier about the way he is finishing his time at Proctor, “I do think it’s a good way to end it [my time at Proctor] because I’m in a place where it’s a high traffic [Slocumb Hall] area, so there’s a lot of people walking in that I like to talk to, and it’s also hard work.” Alex Wyckoff is a two year senior who has
Alex and Crowley have each been surfing for most of their lives and Alex is happy, “This is a great way to end my two years at Proctor, because I get to learn about something I really care about in my own style.” It was clear to me they are having a great time doing something they all love. Alex only had one issue. “My one regret is having a hole in my left bootie because when we are surfing my left foot gets really cold.” This group confirmed that senior project is the right way to leave this community. Hopefully Alex can stay warm.
The Summer Life of Teachers By Hayden Manning
Ever wonder what faculty do in the summer? Due to a newly revised sabbatical program, six faculty are recharging all over the globe. At Proctor, a small group of teachers are creating unique summer experiences while you might be swimming, lounging, or working a job while at home on vacation. The idea of Proctor’s summer enrichment program is to help faculty avoid burnout by giving them $10,000 dollars along with their freedom during the summer. This program has taken the place of the old sabbatical program. The sabbatical program used to provide a full year off with a full salary for faculty, but now six faculty a year can create their personalized summer adventure. When Megan Hardie was asked about how she felt with this new change she stated, “... [the new program] gives more faculty members an opportunity more quickly and it is probably more sustainable than the old sabbatical model.” This lets us keep all the faculty we love in place during the school year while still giving them this time to reboot. The idea of this new program is to give teachers a chance to recharge and go on some new experiences to make them better teachers, advisors, and coaches. For example, Megan Hardie “[Will] go to France. And I am so excited. It has been a bucket list thing for me and now I finally get to do it. My family will come along, which makes it even better.” Other teachers are going in many directions. Greg Allen will spend 4-6 weeks traveling with his wife in Europe starting in Croatia then going into Slovenia, Austria, and Italy. Art teacher and Euro Program Director Jen fleming plans to
a significant source of food for wildlife and a high quality lumber.” Eliza has has worked alongside Dave Pilla during this project, someone she has grown very close to over the course of her time at Proctor. “I love being outside and forestry, so being able to end my Proctor career and begin the next stage of my life with this project is amazing.” Painting, surfing, planting: the Proctor path.
gut and fix a vintage trailer with her husband Dave and make it into a mobile art studio to travel around her home in Las Vegas. Science teacher Sue Houston will travel to the Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota with other Proctor faculty before more exploring with her husband Doug. Sue’s excited to focus on mindfulness and spirituality. Learning Specialist Annie Mackenzie and her family plan to drive in the Western US exploring its beautiful
national parks and camping and adventuring. Her two girls have done lots of the planning. Lastly, Dean of Students Drew Donaldson plans to spend two weeks working with a master bike builder (& Proctor parent) to custom build a bike perfectly sized for him, including all the components. Then he plans to take the bike and his family to Cape Cod where he will enjoy his sweet new ride. We wish them safe travels and hope to hear stories in the fall!
Fieldhouse Future By Eva Wagner
Proctor has plans to make the gymnasium bigger, create more classroom spaces, expand the fitness room, and launch a center for innovation and entreprenuership. This long term proposal has three main phases that would take a couple years to finish. Yet work will begin this summer - so what will the field house look like next fall? The first phase will start immediately, which is why an announcement about the gym closing was made recently in assembly. Part of this will include ripping out the entire gymnasium floor this summer and the larger space will allow for building two full practice courts with our game court reconfigured in the middle of the gym. The workout/fitness room will temporarily move to the dining hall, and the athletic training room will go to the old kitchen. Eventually, the workout/fitness room will run along the east side of the field house so you can get your workout and look down to the action on the turf field. Stay tuned for big changes!
Core Values: Thrown Out with the Trash? By Nikki Asch & Eliza Pokorny
At Proctor we interact with many incredible faculty and staff members every day, but many, especially the housekeepers, usually work behind the scenes. The girls in West End are lucky enough to know one of the housekeepers, our amazing dorm surrogate, Dawn Cook-Hoy. Dawn taught us that the Proctor community needs to be more respectful of its surroundings. The few students who know Dawn consider themselves lucky. “She is the most amazing and understanding dorm surrogate I’ve ever had.” said senior Emma Kavanagh. All of the girls in West End are similarly charmed by Dawn’s laid back personality and sense of humor. Before she worked at Proctor she was an officer for the Danbury police, although she quit because, “I really didn’t like police work, it was very political.” After taking off her badge, Dawn began to work for a private security company that lead her to Proctor. Dawn’s grandparents live here in Andover, New Hampshire, and she grew up in this area. Both her mother and grandmother worked at Proctor. Surprisingly, her prom date attended Proctor as well. When Dawn was younger and her mother worked in housekeeping for Proctor, she would come help in the summers. As a housekeeper, Dawn works mainly at night after hours cleaning Maxwell Savage, the community house, and more. She sleeps all day and works all night. Although alone working all night, she is entertained with her own versions of karaoke to pass the time. At times work can be rough for Dawn. “It’s great to have four core values, but [the school] might want to look at how they can better apply them to this campus. If you spent one day in housekeeping then you’d see that they seem to be lacking.” She and all of housekeeping spend time needlessly picking up trash that could easily be put into a trash can. Surprisingly, Dawn noted that on certain days she feels more disrespected here than any other place she has worked because of the amount of trash that is left about. Students are not the only people on campus who act with disregard towards campus cleanliness. Dawn revealed that she once saw an adult make a mess and not clean it up. If she had the opportunity to tell the community of Proctor one thing, it would be that she tries to do the best she can while at work, but some days she can’t get to everything. Our community can improve the respect and responsibility we show our staff and our campus. Dawn Cook-Hoy has been involved in the Proctor community much of her life. She has contributed a lot to our campus and yet her efforts and all of housekeeping’s work to maintain the cleanliness of the school often goes unnoticed and unappreciated. Dawn is an important asset and friend to Proctor and the girls in our dorm. Dawn is an important asset and friend to Proctor and the girls in our dorm. We, like the whole community, thank all of Housekeeping for their tireless work and the great attitude they bring to our community!