Academy Magazine Winter 2015 by Norfolk Academy

ACADE M Y

NORFOLK ACADEMY MAGAZINE

inside Chapel THE WORLD NEEDS YOU FOMO From the Classroom WHAT’S UP WITH TEEN FICTION? DON’T WORRY: A GUIDE FOR PARENTS Paw Prints DIGITAL CITIZENSHIP YEAR OF JOY

WINTER 2015

ACADEMY NOR FOL K ACADEMY M A G A Z IN E

table of [ C O N T E N T S ]

WINTER 2015 HEADMASTER

CHAPEL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

Dennis G. Manning

— The World Needs You — Why You Should Fear FOMO

DIRECTOR OF COMMUNICATIONS

Betsy Wardell Guzik ’89

FROM THE CENTER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

— Perspectives from the Fellows ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR OF COMMUNICATIONS

Kathy Finney

FROM THE CLASSROOM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

EDITORIAL BOARD

— Good Reads — What’s Up With Teen Fiction? — Don’t Worry: A Guide for Parents

Ruth Payne Acra ’86 Karen Del Vecchio ’05 Ron Newman David Rezelman Toy Savage Aubrey Shinofield Gigi Cooke Tysinger ’87 Sean Wetmore ’86

IN THE GAME . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

— Two Student Athletes Tell Their Stories — Coach Spotlight STUDIO & STAGE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

— Arts Collaboration Fuels Creative Expression

STUDENT EDITORS

GLOBAL PERSPECTIVES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

Ben Klebanoff ’15 Banning Stiffler ’15 Deni Budman ’16 Cross Birdsong ’18 Patrick McElroy ’19 Sarah Yue ’19 Nosa Lawani ’20 Audrey Neumann ’20

— An “Ivory” Problem Settles in an Ivory Hall — Vegemite, Baguettes, and Choosing a College LIVES OF CONSEQUENCE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

— Jonathan Sturm ’79 THE SAVAGE CHRONICLES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

— For the Love of the Game — Our Top 10 Questions for Mr. Sigrist

PHOTOGRAPHY

Stephanie Oberlander Woody Poole Alumni and Staff submissions

PAW PRINTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

DESIGN

ALUMNI HIGHLIGHTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

Andrea Hopkins, Cheney & Company

— Homecoming 2014 — Bulldog Bash and Alumni Gatherings — Class Reunions

Visit norfolkacademy.org for the latest school news, sports scores, and galleries of recent photos. You will also find direct links to all of our social networking communities.

CLASS NOTES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55

— What is Digital Citizenship? — YOJ: Year of Joy

— Class Notes — In Memoriam On the cover: The Academy Bulldog pauses for a moment of quiet reflection during Homecoming festivities. Photo by Stephanie Oberlander. Photo on back cover by Caroline Monninger. Photo on page 1 by Don Monteaux.

Norfolk Academy does not discriminate on the basis of race, sex, religion, color, or national or ethnic origin in the administration of its educational policies, admissions policies, employment policies, scholarship and loan programs, athletics, or other school-administered programs.

from the [ H E A D M A S T E R ]

As I compose these thoughts to you, our students and faculty find themselves just days away from Winter break. What an opportune moment for reflection! SPIRITS ARE HIGH in many of our primary-grade

classrooms, as the semester’s learning activities culminate in joyous celebration. Our Lower School faculty are masters in orchestrating the daily symphony of jubilation and concentration! Our Middle and Upper Schools have taken on a decidedly different tone this close to the year’s and semester’s end, as exams loom and students test their mettle. I continue to take pride in our faculty for believing and knowing, as headmasterly and clichéd as it may sound, that examinations provide a focus and intellectual industry no other academic exercise does. Walk with me a moment. Our students stream across the center of campus from morning Chapel to their classrooms. They are chatting, connecting, happy, but more subdued than usual—our faculty, too, cheery, but expectant. Here is the stuff of life, this daily procession. And at this moment in the school year, this not-quite-halfway point, it is a wonderful time to be a Headmaster. I see that the bleary-eyed B-student has learned as much about himself in that final, buckled-down study session as he has learned about Pre-Calculus, or Modern European History, or German. I see that our teachers are hopeful, even excited to learn from their students’ performance on the exam—and in that performance, will judge and amend their own.

In these true moments of scholarship, our outstanding, beloved, gifted, frenzied, angstridden, and occasionally jaded pre-teens and teenagers dedicate themselves to the betterment of themselves. This “winding down” of the year gifts time for quiet moments of reflection and revelation about our potential: our passions, our challenges, our opportunities. Even as they test knowledge and understanding, exams are a test of character—they build habits of mind that bolster us throughout our lives. Perhaps you don’t agree with my point of view. Surely, there are many young Bulldogs who do not—not yet. That is the beauty of the human experience. We all have within us a view of the world that is unique and meaningful—developed over years, and honed by curiosity, exertion, and introspection. In this issue of the Academy magazine, we have chosen to focus on perspective. Each story, article, and highlight originates in the author’s experience with and dedication to a calling, cause, or craft. I am incredibly proud of and humbled by the people who bring you the inspiration within these pages.

Dennis G. Manning

Sincerely, Dennis G. Manning Headmaster

NORFOLK ACADEMY MAGAZINE

WINTER 2015

[ CHAPEL ]

The World Needs You

What you can learn from superheroes, and what to do if you find yourself, one day, in a position to defend humanity. (You will.)

WE’RE IN A GOLDEN AGE OF THE SUPERHERO MOVIE.

Yes, I admit that they’re high-speed, colorful fantasies that entertain us in the summer while we eat Milk Duds and popcorn, and, yes, they cater to some of our more puerile and even vulgar tendencies, and, yes, they often play out some hackneyed storylines with some unfortunately dated attitudes about race and gender, and, yes, they can bring out the geek in people, but I would contend, despite all of these things, that they still have a lot to teach us. I read comic books when I was young. The Encyclopedia of Comic Book Superheroes, Volume 01: Batman by Michael L. Fleisher was one such book, a reference book that covered every aspect of Batman through the decades up to that point. I spent hours reading about the Penguin, Two-Face, Catwoman, and the unbelievable arsenal of Bat-supplies that the caped crusader was capable of producing under duress. The B section in the Batman encyclopedia was, as you might imagine, enormous.

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I was told by several adults that reading comic books would never lead to anything good in my life, but that it was okay for me to read them as long as I understood that reading them was just an entertaining diversion. Let me hasten to add that I find literature to be the most amazing reading and that I love the classics from Homer to Morrison, but I might never have found my way to those great books without first loving comics. In fact, I trace all my interest in academics to comic books. The truth is that that Batman encyclopedia was the first reference book I ever cared about. The truth is that superhero narratives are the mythology of our age, and they teach us all we need to know about heroism and leadership. Superheroes I believe offer us examples of how to bring out the best in ourselves, to work for noble ideals like justice and freedom, and, most important, to help the people who need us. I think that the word “leadership” can be misleading; to some it can mean hierarchy, can include some forms of

tyrannical control, and can turn others into lemming-like followers. The heroes I want to talk about today are really ultimately more like public servants, and they turn out to be citizens who care deeply about their communities. I could choose any number of heroes from the modern pantheon, but the heroes I want to examine are Tony Stark and Katniss Everdeen. I suggest that you watch the trailers for the first Iron Man movie (2008) and for the first movie for The Hunger Games (2012) as a way to see or recall the important scenes and narrative moments in these films. If we think about how superhero narratives have recurring themes and plots, then we might conclude that reveals the genre’s limits; we could also conclude that those recurring elements point to ancient patterns and narrative arguments about the nature of heroism as far back as Gilgamesh and Beowulf. Joseph Campbell’s 1949 book The Hero With a Thousand Faces announces its theme clearly with its title: through comparative mythology, Campbell argued for a recurring, archetypal hero who went on an emblematic journey. Campbell saw a pattern that followed the patterns of initiation to return, with such landmarks on the journey as crossing the threshold, mentor, abyss, rebirth, transformation, atonement, and several others. Tony Stark begins Iron Man as a playboy billionaire weapons manufacturer and scientist in charge of Stark Enterprises, but, after being attacked, he finds himself held prisoner in a terrorist’s cave. With the help of a mentor, Tony Stark builds his first iron man suit (instead of the missile the terrorist demands) and emerges from the cave in a furious display of pyrotechnics and revenge. Stark’s rise from the abyss transforms him into a man with a purpose, a hero who goes around the globe saving people and even discovering and eradicating the villainy in his own company, the vicious Obadiah Stane (who has secretly been the financier of the terror cells). Stark’s atonement for his flippant, bad-boy insouciance at the movie’s start culminates in his apotheosis at the movie’s close, and it also leads him to a romantic relationship with his long-suffering director, Virginia “Pepper” Potts. Campbell’s narrative arc corresponds exactly to Tony Stark’s transformation into Iron Man, complete with a symbolic death and rebirth with a sense of purpose. The hero with a thousand faces can also include one that wears an iron mask and fires repulsor rays from his armored gauntlets. One might conclude that Campbell’s narrative only works for male heroes (his 1949 book certainly does bear the gender assumptions of his age), but that is not the case. Katniss Everdeen is the heroine of The Hunger Games franchise, based on books by Suzanne Collins. The first film

adaptation of this narrative tells the story of Katniss’ heroic journey, and it unites her stories with many other ancient heroes. The resident of a dystopian future where an effete and decadent capitol demands fealty and obedience from its outlying districts, Katniss volunteers to be one of the youths representing her district (the provincial and poor District 13) in an annual contest of combat to the death. Katniss follows the ancient path of the hero’s journey, encountering mentors and guardians, having a symbolic death and rebirth, facing challenges and temptations, and triumph and return. Some advice for your Proof that the hero’s heroic journey: journey knows no gender boundaries, • You have powers. Discover and Katniss is a heroine develop them. whose toughness • There is evil in the world. Learn and intelligence to recognize its many forms, and do help her overcome something about it. tremendous odds and • There are heroes around you. save several others. She Identify them and work with them. even inspires some • You have mentors. Learn from them. revolutionary sentiments • The only way you will fully develop in the populace of the your powers will be through disenfranchised outer selfless devotion to others. districts, becoming a • • A final paradox to consider: Your political icon for their greatest power and your greatest resistance. fear will be connected. To control We follow stories of your powers, you will have to confront heroes like Tony Stark your greatest fear. and Katniss Everdeen of course to be entertained. Their exploits in extra ordinary places are far beyond what normal human beings will ever see, and we vicariously experience fantastic things by reading and watching them. I contend that we also can learn something very important from their stories—that encoded in these heroic narratives are a set of principles we can use to frame our own journeys toward equally incredible but even more realistic adventures and triumphs. This article is an I think of students at Norfolk Academy, how they are adaptation of a surrounded by mentors and challenges, how they are poised chapel delivered by to discover what inside them is incredible and heroic, how Dr. David Kidd. they can learn to create amazing things that can dazzle and Dr. Kidd is the Upper even save other people. (By the way, as a teacher I always School English identify with the mentors in these superhero narratives, and Department Chair I hate to see how they always seem to get killed. Can you and Co-Director of please save your mentors if you get the chance? Sure, save the Literacy Fellows the world! Please save us, too, if there’s time. Thanks!) ◆ Program.

NORFOLK ACADEMY MAGAZINE

WINTER 2015

[ CHAPEL ]

AV O I D I N G T H E T Y R A N N Y O F P O S S I B I L I T I E S

Why you should fear BY CHARLOTTE HUDGINS ZITO ’99

ONE OF THE SENSATIONS I REMEMBER most about my time in high school was an undefined, tingly, sometimes painful sense that something somewhere was going on that I was not a part of. Back in the 1990s, no one had a cell phone, and the Internet was only used as a fairly new way to do research for school. Even in my first year of college, my friends and I called each other on our dorm room phones in order to make plans. Weekend plans depended on communicating over landlines, if you can imagine that, and often my friends had to talk with my dad or mom or my sisters before they reached me. I frequently worried that I would miss THE call, the one that would open the door to whatever great thing was happening that weekend. That maybe my sister would get the message and choose not to tell me about it. Or even worse, maybe my mom or dad would intercept that call and I would never get the message. Or maybe I wouldn’t be invited because they were afraid of my Uncle Tommy or my dad, Dr. Hudgins. Even though the technology and times have changed, I think many of you can relate to how I felt as a high school student at Norfolk Academy. In his essay “Dwelling in Possibilities,” Dr. Mark Edmundson describes his current students at the University of Virginia as “possibility junkies.” He writes, “Ask an American college student what he’s doing on a Friday night. Ask him at five-thirty Friday afternoon. ‘I don’t know,’ will likely be the first response. But then will come a list of possibilities to make the average Chinese menu look sullenly costive: the concert, the play, the movie,

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the party, the stay-at-home, the chilling or chillaxing, the monitoring of SportsCenter, the reading (fast, fast) of an assignment or two. University students now are the virtual Hamlets of the virtual world, pondering possibility, faces pressed up against the sweetshop window of their all-purpose desiring machines… And once you do get somewhere, wherever it might be, you’ll find that, as Gertrude Stein has it, there’s ‘no there there.’ “At a student party,” Edmundson continues, “about a fourth of the kids have their cell phones locked to their ears. What are they doing? Talking to their friends. About? About another party they might conceivably go to. And naturally the other party is better than the one that they’re now at (and not at), though of course there will be people at that party on their cell phones, talking about other simulacrum gatherings, spiraling on into M.C. Escher infinity.” As Edmundson suggests, Hamlet, Shakespeare’s tragic, sullen teenager, feared that life itself could only ever be that hunger, that restless desire to be somewhere else. Unable to enjoy the moment, Hamlet proclaims, “How weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable, Seem to me all the uses of this world!” It seems that restlessness has always been a teenage trait. If I could jump in a time machine and talk to my 17-year-old self, I would most certainly tell her to relax! Stop worrying so much about where you will be tomorrow and enjoy the company you keep today. Tomorrow will take care of itself. Last year, my good friend Mrs. Elizabeth Johnson

FOMO: Fear of missing out

FOMO taught me the term FOMO, or fear of missing out. I can say with certainty that in high school, and to some extent even today, I fear missing out. I am a self-proclaimed glutton for company; I love to be with other people. Being a mom is perfect for me. I have created a state where I am never alone! But I am here today to caution you against the dangers of FOMO and to warn you that if you indulge your desire to get to the next party, be with other people, be another person yourself, you are fated to fail and live an unsatisfied life. One of my favorite novels is The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton. In it, the heroine Lily Bart experiences a precipitous decline because of her insatiable FOMO. She leaves friends, rejects lovers, and even loses the man she should love, all because she believes that a better party, a brighter future, is just around the corner, out of reach from her current vantage point. Edith Wharton describes Lily’s emotions as she moves from one conversation to another at a glittering house party: “She felt a stealing sense of fatigue as she walked; the sparkle had died out of her, and the taste of life was stale on her lips. She hardly knew what she had been seeking, or why the failure to find it had so blotted the light from her sky: she was only aware of a vague sense of failure, of an inner isolation deeper than the loneliness about her.” Life tastes stale, interactions become meaningless, when you imagine that someone else’s life is sweeter or a better conversation is happening and you are not part of it. Now, I am not suggesting that you will waste away and die a

poor milliner as Lily Bart did, but if you accept her example as a metaphor, you might learn that a life lived without contentment is a kind of living death. As Ralph Waldo Emerson observes in his essay “Self-Reliance,” “Envy is ignorance… imitation is suicide.” My personal FOMO reached its zenith in my midtwenties. I had been teaching for a few years, and I loved it, but I felt certain that my friends were doing more and that I could be too. I could be working more, climbing a ladder to success, earning more graduate degrees, something, something more! But my personal epiphany, the force that pushed me off the speeding train of FOMO, happened to be yoga. Yoga is a form of exercise and meditation made up of asanas, or series of poses, that the yogi repeats in order to achieve mastery. The only person the yogi is supposed to compete with is herself. My favorite yoga teacher, Lisa Rapp, emphasized that it is the practice, the mindful repetition of the same poses, that leads to yo-ga, or the unity of mind and body. Repetition. Not moving on to the next, more difficult pose, but repeating the same one. Her words resonated for me and helped me to free myself from “the tyranny of possibilities.” Contentment is a choice, just as fear is a choice. Make the choice to be content with who you are, where you are, and who you are with; it is the happiest path to choose. ◆

ABOVE Charlotte

Hudgins Zito ’99 (right) enjoys the moment with fellow faculty member Elizabeth Staub.

Charlotte Hudgins Zito ‘99 teaches English in the Middle and Upper Schools, and directs the 9th Grade Speech Program.

NORFOLK ACADEMY MAGAZINE

WINTER 2015

from the [ C E N T E R ]

The Center for Civic and Global Leadership

has reached a tipping

point. Norfolk Academy’s program, unique to our school and serving as a national model for high school leadership programs, has swelled from six very strong and motivated Chesapeake Bay Fellows named in 2010, to 61 Fellows, eight directors and assistant directors, and four Fellows tracks in 2014. Last spring we launched the Literacy Fellows Program, adding four Fellows from the Class of 2018 and two program co-directors, Dr. David Kidd and Ms. Elizabeth Johnson. As the interest in and dedication to Norfolk Academy’s leadership program continues to gain traction with our students, and within the local, regional, and global community, we have expanded the pedagogical and programmatic support for our Fellows and their work: Growing our partner network, creating more immediate opportunities for our Fellows to make a real and lasting impact, and strengthening the infrastructure of the program to provide guidance and support for each Fellow’s effort. We are fortunate to harness the talents of Ms. Erika Newland (Sixth Grade Math; assistant director to CBF), Mr. Carl Boland (Middle and Upper School History; assistant director to GHF), and Mr. Bernie McMahon (Upper School Spanish, assistant director to IRF). We continue to strive to make the program accessible to all students with a demonstrated interest, and we thank our faculty for providing a studied point of view and creating real and tangible growth opportunities for our next generation of leaders.

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International Relations Fellows

Empathy as a Weapon Against Middle Eastern Violence

Thomas Ferguson ’16 and Pablo Vazquez ’16

WHEN CONRAD HALL ADDRESSED THE FELLOWS in the

Center for Civic and Global Leadership last spring, he spoke about one of our core values: “civic engagement.” Mr. Hall emphasized “a sense of responsibility for one’s man, a sense of duty to one’s community, and a measure of personal sacrifice.” It can be difficult, however, for high school students to find a way to personally apply responsibility, duty, and sacrifice to an international problem. We can study, for example, violence in the Middle East, but what can teenagers in Hampton Roads do to stop it? The International Relations Fellows Mission Statement argues that “an understanding of the world beyond one’s own borders is fundamental” to what Norfolk Academy’s Philosophy and Objectives calls the “preparation of useful and responsible citizens of a democracy.” Education, and the empathy that results, is the answer. Campaigning for peace and justice first requires understanding and empathy. Empathetic students can become leaders who can effect change, both directly and by spreading understanding and empathy to others. Take the problem currently posed by the so-called Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, or “ISIL” (also known as “ISIS” or the “Islamic State”). ISIL is neither truly Islamic nor truly a state. It is a terrorist organization. When ISIL seized control of Iraq’s second largest city, Mosul, in June 2014, it issued a stark ultimatum to the city’s Christians (one of the oldest Christian communities in the world): they were to convert to ISIL’s radical brand of Islam, pay the jizya (a tax imposed on non-Muslims), leave, or die. Christian households were tagged with the letter N, which stood for Nassarah, meaning “Christian.” According to the current Chaldean Catholic Patriarch of Babylon, Louis Raphaël I Sako, virtually all of Mosul’s 35,000 Christians have fled. The result has been the destruction of centuries of tradition and a humanitarian refugee crisis. There are reports that women and girls, both from the Christian and the Yazidi minority populations, have been sold into slavery. Christians and Yazidis are but two of the many religious and ethnic minorities in the Levant. ISIL consciously introduced fear

among them with the intention that it spread like a virus. ISIL’s goal is to unite the divided region through a war on “unbelievers.” Most members of the dominant religious and ethnic group in the region, Sunni Arabs, have either never supported ISIL, or turned against ISIL once its brutality became clear. Numerous groups who have major disagreements with each other have all turned their guns on ISIL, including Kurds, Iranians, Americans, and even fellow Sunni Arabs in Syria and Iraq. These diverse groups have formed an unlikely, and uneasy, de facto alliance against ISIL because they all recognize that what ISIL is doing is wrong, whether it is directed against Christians, Yazidis, Kurds, Persians, Shiites, or Sunnis. This should be a lesson for the world in empathy. ISIL is wrong to spread fear and hatred by lumping together all “unbelievers.” Anyone in the West who spreads fear and hatred by lumping together all Muslims, or all Arabs, or all of any other group, is similarly wrong. There are those in the United States today who appeal to dangerous stereotypes and old prejudices against what is in reality a remarkably rich multitude of religions and cultures in the Middle East. Most Americans are probably not even aware, for example, that the majority of ISIL’s victims have been Sunni Arabs, and that the vast majority of Sunnis around the world condemn ISIL. We must all work toward an understanding of the world beyond our own borders and try to stop the jihadists with compassion. Perhaps doing one’s bit to spread understanding and empathy is not sufficient to stop an organization as powerful and evil as ISIL. It is, however, a good place to start. ISIL attempts to recruit followers through propaganda, offering lies to those who know no better. Western prejudice similarly takes root in ignorance. It’s time to start breaking down this cultural schism through education, and education begins at home—in our case, one Foreign Affairs or one Economist article at a time. ◆

NORFOLK ACADEMY MAGAZINE

WINTER 2015

Thomas Ferguson ’16 (above), Pablo Vazquez ’16 (below)

from the [ C E N T E R ]

Global Health Fellows

How to Win the Fight Against Ebola— Learning From Nigeria Elizabeth Lilly ’16

ON MONDAY, OCTOBER 20, the World

Health Organization declared Nigeria free of Ebola after 42 days passed without a reported case. The public health world hailed Nigeria’s accomplishment as a great success and patted each other on the back in celebration. And while what was achieved in Nigeria is certainly something of which the country can be quite proud, it is, as a WHO spokesman himself acknowledged, only “a battle. The war will only end when West Africa is also declared free of Ebola.” However, if this is indeed a war, the WHO has done little to fight it. It has released inflammatory statements about the future of the epidemic but busied itself with a conference and travel schedule that suggests nothing out of the ordinary in the public health sphere. In fact, thousands are dying in the streets of a disease whose cure and vaccine lie within the reaches of modern science. There is much to be learned from the Nigerian example, and both the WHO and the CDC (and by extension, the general public) stand to benefit. Nigeria rid itself of Ebola by an extensive on-the-ground network of health workers and contact tracers, and by empowering citizens with knowledge

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and the power to protect themselves and those around them. The American public, by contrast, convinced that the CDC is spewing lies to them, are swept up in mass hysteria across social media and the Internet. A portion of this panicked cynicism can be attributed to the ever-present conspiracy theorists, but the fact remains that Americans are scared, when in fact there is little to be scared of. Better leadership and greater transparency from the central health authority in the United States could have prevented, or at least greatly reduced the extent of, this fear. The WHO and the CDC both appear to have failed their greatest tests of the new century, but all is not lost. From the ashes of the cumbersome governmental organizations have risen heroes from non-governmental ones, such as Medecins Sans Frontières and Partners in Health. Their rise, I believe, is indicative of the future of public health. NGOs allow for greater specification and agility in-country; in turn, this means faster response times and more lives saved. Without the tireless work of NGOs, West Africa would be in a state of utter catastrophe. Nevertheless, the nature of the Ebola crisis, and the WHO and CDC’s handling thereof, is revealing for the Global Health Fellows. We are reminded constantly that a great education is nothing unless accompanied by sound leadership skills. I feel lucky to be a part of a program that beats out my human tendency toward complacency. The Fellows Program is an academic community, teeming with bright minds and ideas, that manages not to become too proud of itself. It cultivates leaders in the beating heart of our world, in the thick of the action, where the problems exist, and where the solutions will be found. ◆

Chesapeake Bay Fellows

Inspired by Learning, Learning to Inspire Alana Davitt ’15

“To pursue a four-year, multidisciplinary, and experiential course of study grounded in developing actionable solutions to real-world issues.” THE IDEA EXPRESSED in our Fellows’ Mission Statement of multifaceted, hands-on learning is one of the teaching techniques that support Norfolk Academy’s production of so many innovative and community-minded leaders. However, terms like experiential learning and cross-disciplinary teaching have become all too foreign in other private institutions, not to mention public schools, at a detrimental cost to the increasingly typical uninterested, unmotivated student. Looking at this problem strictly from the eyes of a Chesapeake Bay Fellow in my final year of the program, I believe this is one real-world issue we have helped improve. Fellows are incredibly blessed with the opportunity to participate in so many hands-on activities related to our fields of study, and to become inspired by these experiences to go out and teach others. In my cohort, the Class of 2015, our community outreach first began after participating in an online simulation called “The Bay Game” while at the University of Virginia. We took our knowledge of the different occupations that affect the bay (from farmer to developer) and helped lead an adapted, but similar discussion with the 4th grade class at Norfolk Academy. Fellows began reaching out to our broader community, from implementing a composting program to working with NA families to grow oysters off their docks. I was especially inspired by the work I performed with younger students, and

believed if I could teach kids to be stewards of the bay, the environment could look forward to a much more sustainable future. I have tried to do this through developing a Chesapeake Bay Unit for elementary school students, and writing an interactive ebook, No More Mermaids, with Fellow Ellie Randolph ’15, that will be published this spring. Teachers have been eager to use the materials we’ve developed because they are ready-made ways to get children engaged in subjects that matter. In recent months there has been a state-wide, renewed dedication to experiential learning via Governor McAuliffe’s addition of environmental education to his Chesapeake Bay Restoration Plan. It is my hope, though, that as the Center for Civic and Global Leadership continues to grow, so too will the number of fellows inspired by the experiences afforded to them—and with this growth, the number of people inside and outside of Norfolk Academy who are positively affected by our students’ work will increase exponentially. ◆

NORFOLK ACADEMY MAGAZINE

WINTER 2015

from the [ C E N T E R ]

Literacy Fellows

Literacy Fellows: Starting Our First Year

Tori Walker ’18

EVERY WEDNESDAY

during the 2014–2015 school year, the first class of Literacy Fellows spend their afternoons working at Tidewater Park Elementary School in Norfolk. The Literacy Fellows have been researching, lesson planning, and working with the wonderful children and faculty at Tidewater Park, experiencing literacy in action. Literacy Leadership professors from Old Dominion University Graduate School of Education held extensive training for the Literacy Fellows this past summer, teaching them reading and writing strategies for the different levels of literacy they would encounter, and continue to hold training sessions for our Fellows. Along with training, the ODU professors helped the Literacy Fellows develop strategies to motivate and encourage learning. Each week, the Fellows also observe the literacy specialists at Tidewater Park. Using their background knowledge and training, the Literacy Fellows have also created writing prompts with Mrs.

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Gellman’s 2nd grade class at Norfolk Academy, and published their first book, A City Called Awesomeness, which collects these 2nd graders’ tales from the future. Catapult Press is the Literacy Fellows’ in-house publication center from which they plan to publish much more student work. The work with Norfolk Academy second graders also helped the Literacy Fellows make connections with the reading and writing abilities of their classes at Tidewater Park Elementary. Lastly, the Literacy Fellows have been inspired by their visit last summer to 826DC, one stop on their weeklong trip to Washington, D.C. The Literacy Fellows were excited to host Neekta Khorsand, the program director at 826DC, as the Center for Civic and Global Leadership’s first quarterly speaker of the year. In her presentation, Ms. Khorsand introduced her work and the work of 826DC to all of the current Fellows at Norfolk Academy. In the upcoming spring semester, the Literacy Fellows plan on continuing their work with Tidewater Park. They will also continue with their Symposium projects, in order to present their research and work they have accomplished throughout the school year to their fellow classmates and faculty at Norfolk Academy. At the end of the school year, the ’18 Fellows are planning to travel to New York City, where they will explore and meet with various literacy organizations as well as representatives in publishing. ◆

from the [ C L A S S R O O M ]

Good Reads: New Thrills and Retro-Reco’s Recommendations from the Batten Library

Recommendations from the Cooper Library

FOR A LAUGH…

PICTURE BOOKS FOR GRADES 1 & 2

One More Thing by B.J. Novak This collection of off-beat, edgy, snicker-inducing short, short stories comes to us from B.J. Novak, writer and actor from NBC sitcom The Office.

Don’t abandon picture books once your child begins to read! Vocabulary in picture books can be much more challenging, and the concepts extremely sophisticated. Reading picture books to children can augment comprehension and expressive language skills.

FOR YOUR BOOK CLUB… All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr Marie Louise is young, French, and blind. Her father builds tiny models of Paris’s streets and buildings so she can feel her way through the layout of the city. When the Nazi occupation forces Marie Louise from Paris proper into the countryside, she’s unmoored. Werner is young, German, and orphaned. He builds and fixes radios. When his talent is discovered, he’s pulled into the elite and brutal academy for Hitler Youth. Eventually, their paths cross.

FOR AN ADRENALINE RUSH… The Martian by Andy Weir Mark Watney’s crew is gone. His ship is gone. He is part of the first team ever to reach Mars, and he is the only one left. After a catastrophic dust storm nearly killed the lot of them, the crew pulled out, leaving Watney for dead. Now he’s trapped on the surface of Mars, equipped with damaged equipment, and facing the unrelenting brutality of the Martian environment.

FOR SOME INSPIRATION… A Path Appears by Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn How do we make the world better? That’s the question that drives A Path Appears. This is no puff piece, though. Thoroughly researched and beautifully presented case studies of people and institutions that have successfully effected social progress all over the world demonstrate that one person absolutely can make a difference.

FOR FUN… Monument 14: Savage Drift by Emmy Laybourne Pure, page-turning brain candy. The final installment in the Savage Drift trilogy ties up the stories of fourteen teens who were trapped in a superstore during a chemically induced apocalypse. Start with Monument 14 and Monument 14 Sky on Fire before reading this one.

Twitter-sized book reviews from NA faculty Reviews in 140 characters or less The Dog Stars by Peter Heller A haunting, post-apocalyptic world. Hig and his dog fish, fly, and try to survive. Lovely and unsettling. Recommended by Lynn Paul, Batten Library Director

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë Orphaned, abused by evil aunt and cruel headmaster, finds true love in a tragic twist of fate—will make you cheer and tear. Recommended

A new picture book biography published this summer, The Pilot and the Little Prince: The Life of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry by Peter Sis, tells the moving story of aviator, pioneer, war hero, and author of the much loved children’s book The Little Prince—an exciting and fascinating picture book for ages 7–11.

by Heidi Pollio, Middle School Latin teacher

Flash Boys by Michael Lewis Is the stock market rigged? How much does a millisecond cost? Recommended by Eric Acra,

Three Bears in a Boat by David Soman is a humorous, intelligent read-aloud about three bears that set out in a sailboat looking for a replacement of a shell they had broken. Striking seascapes and luminous illustrations suggest a journey that parents and children will want to return to again and again, with a subtle message of taking responsibility for your actions.

Assistant Director of Upper School

Catch-22 by Joseph Heller Both funniest book ever Rezel-read & third most depressing book ever Rezel-read! Recommended by David Rezelman, Upper School history teacher

The Caves of Steel by Isaac Asimov Far into the future, a man from the Outer Worlds is murdered on Earth. Much more is at stake than “who done it.” Recommended by Elizabeth Bain,

CHAPTER BOOK RECOMMENDATIONS FOR YOUNG READERS

Batten Librarian

BOOK FOR GRADES 3 & 4 For students who like humorous, action mysteries… Brixton Brothers: The Case of the Case of Mistaken Identity by Mac Barnett Steve Brixton checks out a book for a report and soon finds himself being pursued by an elite secret force of librarians who are trying to protect America’s secrets.

Many thanks to Lynn Paul, Director of Batten Library, Barbara Burns, Director of Cooper Library, Lisa Ottinger, Assistant Librarian of Cooper Library, and our faculty contributors for their recommendations.

BOOK FOR GRADES 5 & 6 For those missing Harry Potter… Jinx by Sage Blackwood After his stepfather attempts to abandon him in the forest, the Urwald, Jinx is taken in by a wizard, Simon, and soon learns of his own powers.

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dys·to·pi·a noun an imagined place or state in which everything is unpleasant or bad, typically a totalitarian or environmentally degraded one.

What’s up with teen fiction… and should we care?

I’M A LIBRARIAN, and I need to begin by mentioning

that it’s hard to sell kids on space books these days. I still recommend them to students, but I often get a certain kind of look when I do. It’s a quick beat of concern, or maybe pity, like I’m enthused about something embarrassingly quaint. Like the promise and peril of a limitless universe is so twenty years ago. Our kids aren’t thrilled by the long reach of outer space. What there’s a hunger for instead is books in which society has crumbled, the government is unsalvageably corrupt, and children are making their own way. We’re in the age of the dystopian novel. Of the ten books most frequently checked out from Batten Library in the past year, seven fall into that genre. None so much as allude to space travel. While the mention of “outer space” in books has declined over 40% since peaking in 1971, use of the word dystopian has climbed more than 400% in the same time.1 Nothing good is on our horizon. On its face, this is an unsettling turn. Space was so hopeful. It was going to save us. Thirty years ago, newspaper columnists were imagining that we’d be developing the moon by the year 2000, that we’d be well on our way to settling Mars by now. Senator Harrison Schmitt imagined that the Millenial Generation would be “the parents of the first Martians.”2 There was a restless anticipation of a new age of exploration. Who knew what we’d find out there. Who knew what discoveries life on the moon might bring. Our technology was going to open a new frontier.

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Space was so hopeful. It was going to save us. Thirty years ago newspaper columnists were imagining that we’d be developing the moon by the year 2000, that we’d be well on our way to settling Mars by now.

And now? Well, we’re not on the moon. Technology has evolved, and information has proliferated faster than we ever imagined, but it seems to bring with it a measure of anxiety at least equal to the promise we see in it.

Technophobes A Pew Research study conducted last April found that nearly a third of Americans believe that technological advances in coming years will worsen their quality of life.3 This is not a belief that technological advancements will slow or that we’ve reached a point where future technologies won’t offer substantial improvements. This is a belief, held by 30% of Americans, that from here on out, technology will make things worse. As a society, we are incredibly ambivalent about the science fiction–like future that is on our horizon. Brain implants, which the LA Times reports that DARPA is currently sinking tens of millions of dollars into developing,4 raise concerns from 53% of Americans.5 The genetic selection of fetuses, a process which genetic testing company 23andMe has already patented,6 worries 66% of Americans.7 Insurmountable odds These near-term technologies hit awfully close to home with dystopian novels of the past two decades. They threaten to bring to life the brain implants that eliminated the need for independent thought and rendered society imbecilic in M.T. Anderson’s Feed and to populate our society with people who are the product of failed eugenics experiments, the premise of both Eoin Colfer’s The Supernaturalist and Veronica Roth’s Allegiant. Is it any wonder, then, that the setting of a broken earth feels more relevant to our children than the shiny deck of a spacecraft? And yet I don’t think our students look to dystopian novels to imagine the smorgasbord of terrible futures they might face. These novels do offer an incredible variety of technological horrors, featuring everything from the surgical dismantling of juvenile delinquents in Neal Shusterman’s Unwind to a stunningly high tech arena

where children fight to the death in Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games. Ultimately, though, the message that ties these books together is not a fable of technological disaster, but an insistence that profound injustice is not to be tolerated. What must be overcome in these novels is not technology but societies that lack regard for people’s fundamental rights, and what students see in these books is not a hopeless future but a relentless refusal to give up hope in the face of seemingly intractable problems. The governments in these novels are always demanding obedience and conformity. We find governments surgically altering teens to make everyone equally beautiful and equally placid. We find society officials prescribing all of their citizens’ life decisions via advanced optimization algorithms, or carefully regulating how people are born and when they die, eliminating unhealthy and disruptive individuals who might upset the balance of society. We find the government mandating a drug that will offer relief from pain, danger, and sorrow—a cure for love. (We see these versions of reality in Scott Westerfeld’s Uglies, Ally Condie’s Matched, Lois Lowry’s The Giver, and Lauren Oliver’s Delirium respectively.) It is the teenagers in these novels who blithely refuse to accept the societies they’re given. They are never obedient. They never conform. They flee. They lead rebellions. They put their lives at risk. They refuse the easy life in favor of the honest one. In dystopian novels, there is a dream of saving society. There is certainly hope for redemption. Once their eyes are opened to the injustice that surrounds them, no matter how outnumbered they are, how under-resourced, how outgunned, how overmatched in every way, they fight to make things better. In fact, while young adult novels are sometimes criticized for being too dark, too bleak, they are just as often criticized for being too naive, for allowing their young protagonists to overcome completely insurmountable odds. And yet, we live in a world of insurmountable odds. Where will we be if we’re not brave enough to be hopeful? (continued)

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[ CLASSROOM ]

Spreading justice According to the UN’s 2014 Millenium Development Goals Report, roughly 20% of people in the developing world live in extreme poverty, surviving on less than $1.25 per day. Almost one in every 200 children dies before reaching the age of five. Hunger is widespread. 14% of people in developing regions are undernourished. Among children, 25% do not receive adequate nutrition to support normal growth and development. In 2012, 207 million people contracted malaria, and roughly 620,000 died from the disease. No one could call this world just. Nevertheless, it is not foolish to hope. Since 1990, the rate of extreme poverty in the developing world has been cut in half. Child mortality has declined almost 50%. Rates of malnourishment have dropped from 24% to 14% among the population at large and from 40% to 25% among children. Between 2000 and 2012 malaria mortality dropped by 42%.8 So it does not worry me that my students devour dystopian novels. I see the same goodness in them that I see in the protagonists of those books, the same commitment to spreading justice. We have fifteen-year-olds going to Haiti, their suitcases packed with water-filtering jerry cans and diabetes test strips, taking a little bit of good into a country where far too many people don’t have clean water, and there are never enough medical supplies. We have high school kids getting up early on cold Saturday mornings to help build a house for a Hampton Roads family that needs a safe place to live. Last year our students raised $5,700 to provide surgeries and medical care for children born with facial

Digital Learning. 1 http://ow.ly/DTVje 2 http://www.csmonitor.com/1985/0423/dbob23.html 3 http://www.pewinternet.org/2014/04/17/us-views-of-technology-and-the-future/ 4 http://www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-pentagon-neural-prosthetic-memory-20140709-story.html 5 http://www.pewinternet.org/2014/04/17/us-views-of-technology-and-the-future/ 6 http://online.wsj.com/articles/SB100014240527023034925045 79113293429460678 7 http://www.pewinternet.org/2014/04/17/us-views-of-technology-and-the-future/ 8 http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/2014%20MDG%20report/MDG%202014%20English%20web.pdf

Great grown-up dystopias

Allegiant by Veronica Roth

The Road by Cormac McCarthy

The Other Wes Moore by Wes Moore

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

Insurgent by Veronica Roth

The Passage by Justin Cronin

Monument 14: Sky on Fire by Emmy Laybourne

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

The Maze Runner by James Dashner

The Lincoln Myth by Steve Berry

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green Monument 14 by Emmy Laybourne Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury The Lincoln Myth by Steve Berry

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Lynn Paul is the Director of Batten Library and

Ten most-checked-out books from Batten in the past year

Divergent by Veronica Roth

deformities, and some traveled halfway around the world to be with those kids on the day of their lifechanging operations. Our kids are incredible. They are not stymied by hard problems. If we focus on them, not on brain implants or genetically engineered fetuses, we will not be afraid for our future. Technology will not be the ultimate arbiter of our condemnation or our salvation. They will. And, from what I’ve seen, the changes they’ll bring are something to celebrate. Forget the space books. We need not escape our messy Earth and settle another world. We will reinvent ourselves here at home. ◆

The Dog Stars by Peter Heller

Don’t Worry A parent’s guide to talking about worries even when you are worried yourself

“What if even my mom doesn’t know what to do?” a child asked me in our Guidance class a few weeks ago. She was worried, because like many of us she had listened to the radio in the car that morning. She’d also spent time talking with her classmates in the hallways, on the playground, and at lunch. It has been a particularly active season for Worries and What-Ifs. AS THE DIRECTOR OF GUIDANCE for grades one, two,

and three, I conduct classes with our youngest students every day. Peer-to-peer conflict resolution and making sense of your own feelings are the usual, age-appropriate discussion topics. In Guidance we encourage our children ask questions that concern them, and we construct and continually review a framework for working through our troubles. Helping children with the challenges they face growing into young adulthood is what gets me out of bed every morning. Ebola, ISIS, U.S. politics, and a host of other worrisome current events fall outside of textbook guidance topics. We are hearing a bit of everything here at school, and we work though topics when they arise. But while our kids are picking up on these adult worries, they also have more concrete, day-to-day worries that require attention. Not to dismiss the big-picture what-ifs we can all conjure: In the end, the way to handle these fears— from a parent’s point of view and from a professional’s point of view—are the same ways we would handle most childhood worries.

What are they so worried about? Kids don’t have the same responsibilities as parents, but they still have their share of daily stresses and worries to manage. Being a parent requires a skill set to help children navigate and understand their concerns so they can appropriately cope and master problems successfully. Most parents handle issues well, but for some parents, and even seasoned parents who feel prepared, all the advice and self-help parenting books devoured late at night with dog-eared pages don’t seem to be readily available when our children’s questions, comments, or situations call for espousing wisdom. In true fashion, most of us become all fingers and toes and forget what we’re supposed to say, which creates concern and sleepless nights for us. However, a child’s inquiry or comment is usually quite innocent, only needing a simple response. We all know there are times that their questions baffle us—especially if the topic is unusual, frightening, or uncomfortable. Ahhh… the joys of parenting.

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So, what really worries children the most? According to KidsHealth, what children worry about is usually based on their age and developmental phase. Grades, tests, developing bodies, friendships, acceptance or rejection by peers, and trying out and being selected for a specific team will all worry our children at some point. Peers, bullying, and teasing are also huge concerns and stressors. Although we couldn’t reprint it here, I recommend Shel Silverstein’s poem, “Whatif,” from his book A Light in the Attic. The poem, though humorous, strikes me as a realistic take on how children perceive their world.

When the what-ifs are big and scary The way parents address issues is crucial in modeling a resilient and growth mindset for a child to emulate, especially in today’s contentious global community. Children are exposed to a barrage of overhyped media stories on a daily basis. With a plethora of social media and personal electronic devices that present the latest news events like they are right outside your front door, sometimes it is nearly impossible to discern what has brought about your child’s latest inquiry. Media influences provide enough coverage for parents and children to view, hear, and worry about disturbing and frightening illnesses, environmental disasters, and geopolitical troubles. This alone is cause for monitoring our children’s news exposure. Unfortunately, there is often no place to hide, and informational overload creates stress and fear for some children (and many adults as well). Still, children need parents to respond Our ultimate goal should be to confidently. teach children how to manage Reassurance is what children need, not rhetoric life’s trials and tribulations with on the state of the war, but confidence and optimism. proactive ideas on what could be done to make the world a better place. These situations provide opportunities for parents to reassure their children about what adults will do to keep them safe and secure. Yes, parents are concerned, too, and the world’s discourse is in our living rooms, but a positive mindset and manner with these situations make a world of difference to our children. Surely, parents and teenagers will have much different conversations about the world’s events than parents and their elementary-age children—but a positive,

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optimistic, conversation about the future is warranted in both instances. Hug, be together, and show how much you care. Offer that no matter what happens, your love and support will never waver.

When even small worries are perplexing A calm, angry, dismissive, or anxious reaction when your child expresses concern can either help alleviate or actually create distress. Helpful advice, isn’t it? Helping children manage their unique personalities and tendencies for stress and worry requires that we adults be mindful of our own reactions to specific topics. Worrisome situations and topics always seem to blindside us. Still, our ultimate goal should be to teach children how to manage life’s trials and tribulations with confidence and optimism. There are steps parents can take to prepare for some of those truly confounding subjects. According to Dr. Michele Borba, first and foremost, parents should be aware of and understand the developmental milestones for children in preschool, school age, tweens, and teens. Stress, worries, and angst pester every age group, but manifest different symptoms and behaviors. So, it is important to be discerning about where your child is developmentally, and address concerns accordingly. My best advice, as someone who listens to children for a living, is to listen, listen, and listen some more. There are times when children just want to reason things out for themselves, and times when your child will need you to become more actively involved. Getting to the root of the inquiry can be helpful—and it will allow you to tailor your response appropriately. On occasion, you can even recruit the entire family to brainstorm how to help or support a specific cause— which could prove to be a very rewarding experience for everyone. Sometimes there will be issues over which you and your child have little control. It is normal to feel helpless in these situations. But these moments are growth moments! Recognize them and use them to teach your child that there are many situations they cannot change or control, but that there are still lessons to be learned. More often than not, there are ways to talk about issues in our children’s lives that we parents cannot influence. If John, after running a hard-driven campaign, wasn’t chosen for the coveted class leader position, he will be disappointed—and understandably

Being a confident parent and positive example in your child’s life is essential. No one ever said parenting would be easy, but how you manage situations and uncomfortable topics in your own life models for your child the ability to be calm and confident in coping with fears, stress, and worries.

so. But even with an upsetting outcome, we can take the time to talk about the whole experience: he tried, stuck his neck out, worked strategically, and we are proud of him for trying to make a difference at his school. There will be other opportunities; maybe this wasn’t the time, but he’ll be all right—he’ll, in fact, grow stronger as a result of his efforts. If he has the opportunity to run for office next time, what will he do differently? Facilitating an opportunity to reflect about possible solutions creates a roadmap for him to tackle future challenges more confidently.

What if they don’t want to talk? There are plenty of kids who are quiet and don’t want to talk. We ask, “What happened at school today?” and the response is “Nothing…” Here’s my advice: When children won’t open up, playing games or reading books are great resources to help our children express themselves, while identifying and relating to characters experiencing similar situations. If your child is older, it’s equally important to let him or her know you are available when he or she is ready to talk, not just when you want to talk. We parents need to create a space where it is safe to listen without judgment—a difficult task, indeed, but those true parenting moments can and do occur. Most often, they have to be on our children’s terms. Sometimes late at night—in the comfort of our child’s own room—is an easier time to share. Other times, those moments when you are driving in the car, for example, and it’s just you and your child, are golden conversational opportunities. Just make sure you set the scene for listening and sharing. Turn off the radio, unplug the electronics, and listen attentively—these are the best times for sharing meaningful and supportive occasions with your son or daughter. Let’s face it: You live with your child and you know your child better than anyone else. That’s a hard truth. It’s your job to pay close attention to their comments, behavior, and moods, because you will know better than anyone if something is right or wrong. Of course,

if your child is experiencing extreme stress or anxiety and it does not appear to be manageable, and if you are observing noticeable changes in behavior, mood, and function with peers, family, and school, it might warrant a talk with a trained professional like your pediatrician, teacher, school guidance counselor, or psychologist. Being a confident parent and positive example in your child’s life is essential. No one ever said parenting would be easy, but how you manage situations and uncomfortable topics in your own life models the ability to be calm and confident in coping with fears, stress, and worries. It is through this modeling that children learn to solve their own problems. Your reactions to current situations and discussions about your own childhood worries offer opportunities to discuss what you, yourself, learned in stressful and worrisome times. There will always be worries and what-ifs, but most of these will be fleeting. Still, they create stress and anxiety in parents and children alike. It’s important for adults to provide the perspective that these worries can be managed with an eye toward growth, hope, resilience, and skill—no matter what happens. Positively supporting and guiding children to be confident problem solvers in whatever comes their way is our goal. They are more resilient than we think they are. We’re doing the best we can, because we care, and we try. Tomorrow is a new day, and yes, the children will be just fine. ◆ Dr. Sandy Harrison, Lower School Assistant Director and Guidance Counselor Resources: Borba, M. (2009) The Big Book of Parenting Solutions: 101 Answers to your Everyday Challenges and Wildest Worries (1st ed.) San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass (n.d.) Retrieved October 21, 2013, from http://Kidshealth.org/ parent/positive/talk/worrying.html Silverstein, S. (1981) Whatif. A Light in the Attic (1st ed., p.90). New York, NY: Harper Collins

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A Day in the Life—Walker Brown ’15 Typical Game Day—Fall Season (Soccer) 5:00 Only up if I have a test I couldn’t study for the night before or I am going for a run.

11:00 Spanish starts. I love Spanish IV. We can only talk in Spanish. Brinkley is awesome.

6:00 Wake up, take a shower, get dressed.

Noon Political Science with Wetmore. Usually have a debate on a certain topic. My favorite class.

7:00 Leave for team breakfast. I’m usually just by myself but sometimes Robert Tata and/ or Tommy Inglima if we are going to a team breakfast. We talk about the game we have today, practice yesterday, or what we did this weekend. When it’s just me I’m still trying to wake myself up and getting myself mentally prepared for school.

Arrive at Hardee’s for team breakfast. Get a chicken biscuit and hang out with teammates.

8:00 Arrive at school, go to chapel. Math starts at 8:30. Maybe a pop quiz in Calc AB. 9:00 Have a study hall during C bell. Go to the library or go see teachers for help. 10:00 Break. Eat a snack. Go see Mr. Acra, the sponsor of Monogram Club, to talk about our meeting today.

Sports: Soccer Lacrosse Member of: Honor Council, President Monogram Club, President Spanish Club

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1:00 Lunch. I usually have whatever the Refectory is serving plus a salad or some raisins.

Have an Honor Council meeting to discuss any issues that have come up, and how we can do a better job.

2:00 Science class (Adv. Bio). Either do a lab or take notes or quiz. [Next is] H bell, the Activities bell. I am president of the Monogram Club—run the meeting. 3:00 Finish up with Peccie’s Shakespeare class. Usually read aloud and discuss a play. Then head over to the locker room for my game. 4:00 The other goalies and I head out early for our warm-up. Kick-off at 4:30. 5:00 Halftime. Coaches Wetmore, Doc, and Denson give us pointers on how to improve.

6:00 Game ends. Head home. Get home at 6:30. Talk with parents. Take a shower and then start homework. 7:00 Have dinner with my family. Hopefully my mom made pasta or steak. 8:00 Talk with my parents more. Go back up to do some homework or work on college essays. 9:00 I usually have time to relax for an hour or so. Usually go downstairs and relax on the couch. (sometimes a bowl of ice cream), watch a film or football with my Dad, or play with my dog Buddy. 10:00 Get myself organized and ready for the next day. 11:00 Hopefully headed to bed. Brush teeth and get my soccer stuff organized. 12:00 Only up if I have a project I procrastinated on.

How are you balancing your school work and your dedication to athletics? Balancing your day with athletics/school work is a skill you learn. I’ve learned to use my study halls at school very wisely. Do you see your coach during the day? What do you talk about? Do you have him/her for class? I have coach for class. We talk about the game today or anything on my mind. Do you see teammates during the day? All the time. I have a lot of them in classes with me. Highlight to the day? Definitely going out to practice every day. What are you working on right now in practice? How do you feel about it? How are your teammates doing? Right now we are working on getting a formation that fits our team the best. My teammates are great. Everybody is working hard. What is the season looking like for you guys? How do you feel about it? We start tournament play this week so everyone’s nerves are a little high. Feeling great about the season. We are really starting to mesh. How do you feel about going to a school like Norfolk Academy, and being involved in athletics? What has that done for you as a student, as an athlete, as a person? I feel very fortunate to go to NA and be involved in athletics. Athletics creates a sense of order in my life which I love. What would you say to a 7th grader who is just starting to learn what it’s like to be a student-athlete? I would say get to know your teammates very well. They are going to be your brothers/sisters.

Coach Spotlight

Patricia Hopkins “This is a hockey stick!” These words, delivered full throated at Middle School lunch while holding her stick over her head, began the first announcement of a teacher/coach two days into her new career. The passion embodied in her words made it easy to see that this new faculty member was someone very special. Long recognized as an invaluable academic and administrative leader, Trish Hopkins was chosen by our faculty coaches to receive the Excellence in Coaching Award for 2014. A college field hockey and lacrosse player herself, Coach Hopkins has always been known for her competitive spirit and sense of sportsmanship. This intensity and never-quit spirit, coupled with her sense of fair play and understanding of the powerful leadership and character traits developed and honed by athletic competition, make her the quintessential teacher/coach. Always ready to give of herself and help in any capacity, Trish has coached JV field hockey, Varsity volleyball, and Varsity lacrosse. The standards she sets and the profound effect she has had on all the student-athletes with whom she has dealt make her a model for all and perfect recipient of this award. ◆ Gary Laws, former Middle School Director, teacher, and coach

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A Day in the Life—Jessica Williams ’16

Sports: Sailing Basketball Soccer Member of: Honor Council Girl Up Club IR Fellow IR Club

Typical Game Day—Fall Season (Sailing) 6:30 My dog wakes me up. Breakfast (Basic4 cereal). Pack bags. 7:20 Leave house and drive to school with my younger brother Nathan. Listen to NPR Morning Edition. Not much talking—mostly thinking. 7:45 Arrive at NA—usually hang out in locker area with friends or go to library to read history article. 8:10 Go to chapel with friends. 8:30 Latin American History

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9:15 Physics B 10:00 Break (I usually have a granola bar if I didn’t get breakfast). Rewrite notes from history articles. 10:15 English with Dr. Kidd 11:00 G Bell study hall. Meet with Dr. Kidd about revisions to my paper for English. 11:45 H Bell—International Relations Fellows meeting— the highlight of my day, discussing International Relations with the IRF.

12:30 Lunch. Typically have a chicken salad sandwich with raisins and water. 1:00 Spanish 1:45 U.S. History [favorite class] 2:30 Precalc BC Test—didn’t do so well. 3:15 Team Racing Sailing Regatta 6:30 Arrive home (on most days). 7:00 Usually have time to relax a little bit and watch news with Dad. Then family dinner in dining room. Talk about each other’s day or current events.

7:30 Shower 8:00 Homework. I try to use every study hall and H bell [activity bell] for homework, but sometimes there are late nights. 12:00 Bed. Try to take my mind off the busy day by reading a few pages from a book. Currently reading Blowing My Cover: My Life as a CIA Spy by Lindsay Moran.

What are you thinking about for college and thereafter, in terms of athletics, academics, career? Sailing in college, career in International Relations. What does a typical week look like? Monday: Weight room and scenic [a run around the edge of campus grounds]; Tuesday: boat speed/race drills; Wednesday: Team race drills; Thursday: Team race regatta; Friday: Race drills; Saturday: Fleet race regatta at NYCC [Norfolk Yacht and Country Club] or Christ Church. What are you working on right now in practice? Getting and maintaining a clear lane of wind in a crowded situation. How do you feel about it? Difficult because mostly based on feel. What is the season looking like for you guys? How do you feel about it? Not doing as well as we [had] hoped. We were overconfident after winning VISA last year. We are focusing on taking practice and regattas more seriously and working as a team instead of competing as individuals.

Have you learned something interesting about your sport, or about being an athlete that has stuck with you? There are so many factors and details that go into any sport. Focus on improving one at a time. How do you feel about going to a school like Norfolk Academy, and being involved in athletics? What has that done for you as a student, as an athlete, as a person? It’s extremely busy, but rewarding. You feel even more connected to the NA community. [It] teaches you time management, leadership, diligence, and social skills. What would you say to a 7th grader who is just starting to learn what it’s like to be a student-athlete? Communicate with your teachers and coaches at all times. Keep everyone in the loop and don’t be afraid to ask for help—academic or athletic. It shows that you care.

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STUDIO

stage

Arts Collaboration Fuels Creative Exploration The Music of Poetry: The Poetry of Music Like poetry, art music needs to be examined closely through repeated “servings” in order to be truly appreciated at different levels. English students of Dennis Manning and Patricia Hopkins listened to art songs written on texts read and studied in their respective classes. The pieces were Benjamin Britten’s “Sonnet” composed on John Keats’ “To Sleep,” and Britten’s “Holy Sonnet no. 10: Death Be Not Proud.” With Jeff Danielson, students examined the use of sound painting, harmony, and rhythm in these pieces, and how or if they supported the themes and forms of the original texts. Students gained appreciation for a well-trained human voice as well! Jeff Danielson (Orchestra, Strings, Music; Lower, Middle, and Upper School) Dennis Manning (Headmaster, Upper School English) Patricia Hopkins (Assistant Director of the Middle School, Middle School English)

Latin American Studies and Music Richard Oberdorfer and Dean Englert collaborate for a unit on Dance, Music, and Culture in Mr. O’s Latin American Studies class. Students investigate the connections between unique musical styles and dance as they come to life in individual countries. Each musical and dance style utilizes different rhythms and instrumentations. Students explore: 1. Merengue in the Dominican Republic 2. Bossa Nova and Samba in Brazil 3. Tango in Argentina 4. Salsa in the Caribbean Islands 5. Mambo and Cha-cha in Cuba Dean Englert (Music, Middle and Upper School) Richard Oberdorfer (History and Social Sciences Department Chair, Upper School)

La Belle et la Bête Each year, Ms. Troutman’s French I students engage in an immersive cinematic experience with Jean Cocteau’s first feature film, La Belle et la Bête (1946). A masterpiece of inventive, surreal imagery, this film captivates the viewer as few other films have. Haunting, lyrical, and enchanting, this film retells the story of an age-old fairy tale classic, Beauty and the Beast by Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont. The film is sheer poetry in motion. After reading the de Beaumont tale, students are introduced to the multiple aspects of the filmmaking process in order to make connections as supporting evidence for their views regarding narrative structures, character development, and critical thinking. Students make connections between the historical significance of the film, influences of artists Doré and Vermeer on Cocteau’s artistic style, and the various hardships connected with the creating the film. The collaborative “lab” process of reading, speaking, and listening to this classic film in its original French language brings the students to greater understanding of translating the text onto film, and vice versa. Follow-up activity with Ms. Troutman includes en francais, students write a response and reaction to the film. Ron Newman (Director of Fine Arts; Film Studies, Upper School) Claudia Troutman (French I and II, Middle School)

Gesture Drawings This year, Studio Art II/III students will have the opportunity to make gesture drawings of models in Elbert Watson’s adult dance class. Gesture drawings are made for the purpose of quickly capturing the pose and movement of a model. They are typically completed in a short amount of time, ranging from thirty seconds to a few minutes. This is an exceptional chance for students to work from live models, which will enhance their understanding of human anatomy and move ment while honing both their observational and drawing skills. Erin Valentine (Art, Upper School) Elbert Watson (Dance Master; Lower, Middle, and Upper Schools)

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Dancing with the Rhythm Series This six-class session taught 1st through 5th grade dance students the basic choreography elements of level (high, medium, low), space (stationary or traveling), and speed (fast, medium, slow) and how they are used to create original movement. Journaling their process along the way, the students moved through the Perrel Gallery with their imaginations set ablaze. They discussed the colors, curves, and lines in the artwork and tried to create motions that moved with the paintings. After choosing their favorite piece and writing down their thoughts about what they saw and imagined when they looked at the paintings, they created their own choreography in response to the art. They presented their journals and pieces of choreography for family, friends, and the Grandparent Council. Paintings by Angelo Mesisco Aimee Long (Dance Instructor)

Much Ado About Nothing Caroline Bisi, Blair Monaco, and Liz Staub teamed up to create and present a 30-minute one-act production of Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing. The 92-strong company was comprised of Ms. Staub’s and Ms. Monaco’s 8th grade English classes. Each English class read and studied the original script, then chose a specific scene within the play for further study. Some students shared responsibilities of the character’s lines, while others used their talents to play musical instruments, create set, poster, and playbill graphics, or ran the lights and set changes. Caroline Bisi (Director of Drama) Blair Monaco (English, Middle School) Elizabeth Staub (English, Middle School)

TOP Maddy Ruth ’23 performs the dance she choreographed. BOTTOM Kara Kaufman ’19 and Peyton McNider ’19 in Much Ado About Nothing

NORFOLK ACADEMY MAGAZINE

WINTER 2015

[ G L O B A L ] perspectives

An “Ivory” Problem Settles in an Ivory Hall BY TAY LO R BEATTI E

This fall, the International Relations Fellows and Global Health Fellows participated in a strategy exercise designed to expose students to the U.S. government’s elements of national power: Diplomacy/Development, Information/Intelligence, Military, and Economics (D.I.M.E.). THE CASE IT WAS A TYPICAL “STATE” COCKTAIL PARTY in the Foggy Bottom section of Washington, D.C., when the “ivory problem” surfaced and began a bureaucratic roll downhill. The First Lady (FLOTUS) was thoroughly bored by the trappings of circumstance mixed with the pretense of familiarity in these “D.C.” gatherings. To feed her eye for period antiques, she scanned the hall taking in the fine collection. The Walter Thurston Gentlemen’s Lounge on the second floor of the Harry S. Truman Building, home to the U.S. Department of State, was well-appointed, perfect for intimate gatherings. This pleasant line of thought snapped when she spotted a small ivory tusk sitting on a Georgian end table. The intricately carved tusk had a motif that she could not quite make out from her vantage point. But that did not matter. That the tusk of an endangered elephant was on display within the halls of the State Department was hypocritical and unacceptable. She pinched the President’s (POTUS) inner arm with more pressure than was needed, and inclined her head toward the tusk. “Elephants are being slaughtered by the thousands for ivory, and WE have a tusk on display here!?” To divert the blame, POTUS whispered, “I don’t know why it’s here. Let’s ask a guy who works here.” POTUS fired a communicative look at his Secretary of

State (SECSTATE) who made his way to the first couple. “Mr. Secretary, the First Lady is wondering why we have an elephant tusk on display when elephants are being hunted to extinction for their tusks?” FLOTUS, animated now, was not going to let POTUS off the hook that easily. “What are we (the U.S. Government) doing to curtail the illegal ivory trade in Africa?” Both men were silent. “Well, perhaps it’s time we had a policy!?” That night SECSTATE called his chief of staff from the official quarters on a secure line. “I need to shape a policy to counter the illicit ivory trade in Africa for POTUS. Not later then 4 p.m. Saturday, September 13, 2014. The priority? This is driven by FLOTUS, so it goes to the top of the stack of priorities. Get the ball rolling tonight!” SECSTATE’s chief of staff hung up the phone and glanced at his watch. Weekend problems with associated taskings roll downhill. It was Friday night, and this little gem would need a shove. He stabbed a finger at the auto dial on his Blackberry and spoke to the night watch officer at the DOS Bureau of African Affairs. The bureau focused on the development and management of U.S. policy toward Africa. Following the Chief’s guidance, the watch officer composed a cable, noted the duty log, and hit the “send” button. Satisfied that this action passed was indeed an action completed, he hit “play” on the paused episode of Scandal. The “Ivory” problem, packaged in a DOS cable, made its way downhill to the U.S. Embassy Tanzania (AMEMB Tanzania.)

me United States Depart

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UNTERING A STRATEGY FOR CO AND RECOMMEND P LO VE DE TO E AR ANIA. SUMMARY: YOU RICA MALAWI/TANZ REGION OF WEST AF UR YO IN E AD TR Y THE ILLICIT IVOR E LL INCORPOR ATE TH IS STRATEGY YOU WI TH G PIN LO VE DE IN CA: INSTRUCTIONS: LICY TOWARD AFRI UNDATION OF U.S. PO FO E TH AS E RV SE CAN ECONOMIC 4 PILLARS THAT 2) SUPPORTING AFRI NS TIO ITU ST IN IC DEMOCR AT OTING 1) STRENGTHENING D SECURITY 4) PROM VANCING PEACE AN AD 3) T EN PM LO VE GROWTH AND DE DEVELOPMENT. OPPORTUNIT Y AND HRONIZE ORDINATE AND SYNC DATION SHOULD CO EN MM CO RE UR YO FORMATION/ ADDITIONALLY, Y/DEVELOPMENT, IN AC OM PL DI R: WE NATIONAL PO BE USED TO THE ELEMENTS OF IS STRATEGY WILL OMIC (D.I.M.E.). TH ON EC Y, AR LIT MI , INTELLIGENCE S. VELOPED FOR POTU INFORM POLICY DE GY IS DUE BACK REQUESTED STRATE TH WI SE ON SP RE UR

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****

Meanwhile back in the Walter Thurston Gentle men’s Lounge, the gloved hands of a Smithsonian archivist lifted the tusk from the end table and placed it in a padded Pelican® case for transport to a storage facility located just outside the beltway. Had she had a better vantage point earlier that evening, FLOTUS might have noticed that the “tusk” was not that of an

elephant. Rather, it was a tusk from a walrus legally harvested and engraved with a hunting motif of the Greenland Inuit. Rear Admiral Robert Peary had presented the tusk to William Jennings Bryan, Secretary of State in 1913, to commemorate his 1908–1909 polar expedition. (continued)

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DCM Thomas Ferguson’s (IRF ’16) country team (left) and DCM Brian Peccie’s (GHF ’16) country team (right) formulate their responses to “State Main.”

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The Players When the bureaucratic ball settled at the bottom of the hill, it was at the feet of Ms. Bridget Dickinson (Global Health Fellow, Class of 2016), Deputy Chief of Mission (DCM) of AMEMB Tanzania. It was an engaging Saturday afternoon, just following an informative lunch with some visiting dignitaries when she received the tasking with a mix of excitement and foreboding. The newly assigned Foreign Service Officer (FSO) had no experience as a DCM. She assembled the AMEMB Tanzania Country Team: the Political Officer (POL), the Public Affairs Officer (PAO), the Regional Security Officer (RSO), the Defense Attaché (DATT), the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) representative, the Department of Treasury Representative, and a representative of the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC). Concealed within plain view, a “covered” case officer from the Central Intelligence Agency worked within the team, known only to the DCM. As this was a unique problem set, representatives of local non-governmental organizations (NGOs) were invited for their insight and advice. These included representatives from the World Health Organization, the Convention on International Trade of Endangered Species, and the African Fund. The country team had to get up to speed quickly, reviewing a portion of a recent Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) intelligence summary concerning the regional ivory trade. “… Illegal killing of elephants and trading in ivory tusks in the Selous Game Reserve of Tanzania increasing. Para-military tactics demonstrate probable linkage to an organized movement. Simultaneously, an environmental disaster (flood/drought) critically impacts the livelihood of millions of villagers living and subsisting on Malawi Lake. This environmental shift portends

an economic and humanitarian disaster. The Muslim terrorist group Uamsho shifts focus and objectives from operating in Zanzibar to attacking the Tanzanian mainland government with the aim of Zanzibar independence. Uamsho seeks sponsorship and assistance from Somalia’s Boko Haram. Al-Qaeda, working through Boko Haram, provides assistance to support further advancement of secular Islam throughout Eastern Africa. In order to expand upon financial resources, Uamsho and Boko Haram enter the illegal ivory trade employing para-military tactics to harvest tusks. The global market for ivory is approximately $700 per kg, making the enterprise quite profitable. Uamsho seeks to influence and gain local support by offering to purchase tusks harvested by locals. This establishes a robust black market in Malawi and Tanzania. Locals can feed and support their families by illegally harvesting elephants. Uamsho provides cyanide poison to locals facilitating the killing of elephants. The cyanide runs off into Lake Malawi initiating a serious long-term environmental crisis. Uamsho provides illegal ivory directly to the Chinese through Muslim middlemen in Malaysia and the Philippines. The global demand for ivory is increasing with the worldwide ban.” The pressure was on. Ms. Dickinson was cautiously optimistic. But 30 minutes into the session, the team had transitioned from polite, enthusiastic cohorts to a frustrated gaggle of individual motivations and host agency agendas. Now Ms. Dickinson suppressed a sick feeling building in the pit of her stomach. The “augmented” country team had assembled at 2:00 p.m. on a Saturday afternoon with two hours to develop and deliver a regional ivory strategy to a panel of subject matter experts who would “vet” the same for use. Her stress level increased with the passing of each nonproductive minute. The country team was against a hard break: at 5:00 p.m. their parents would be arriving at the front of the school to pick them up.

The Seminar While the vignette that placed the student country team into crisis-action mode was contrived, it was, nonetheless, a realistic beltway crisis. Likewise, the three country teams of 10 students were contrived, but they did have knowledge of the problem acquired through read-ahead articles and during a morning session with a panel of experts. The ivory strategy exercise followed a morning discussion panel that exposed the students to the U.S. government’s elements of national power: Diplomacy/Development, Information/Intelligence, Military, and Economics (D.I.M.E.). The Purpose of the D.I.M.E. seminar was threefold:

1. To introduce CCGL Fellows to the U.S. elements of national power (D.I.M.E.) 2. To expose the CCGL Fellows to seasoned D.I.M.E. practitioners 3. To apply D.I.M.E. in an exercise to develop strategy “Success,” for the purposes of the seminar, was that the CCGL Fellows participate in some discovery learning, exploring team building, problem solving, and leadership in high-stress, ambiguous conditions. Norfolk Academy’s Center for Civic and Global Leadership partnered with Taylor Beattie’s Tri-Arach consulting firm specializing in training and education for U.S. governmental agencies, in order to conduct the seminar. This firm has contacts within the U.S. government, and recruited an all-star panel of Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) keen on working with young, motivated scholars. The daylong seminar included a D.I.M.E. panel session, lunch with panel members, and a scenario-driven exercise applying and synthesizing new concepts received from the morning panel session.

The D.I.M.E. Panelists • DIPLOMACY: Ms. Susan Zelle, retired Foreign Service Officer (FSO), former Chargé d’affaires (Gambia), and Deputy Chief of Mission (Burundi). • DEVELOPMENT: Secretary J. Edward Fox, Former Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs, the Department of Homeland Security; and former Assistant Administrator for Legislative and Public Affairs, USAID. • INTELLIGENCE: Ms. Lindsey Moran, a former clandestine officer for the Central Intelligence Agency and author of Blowing My Cover: My Life as a CIA Spy. • MILITARY: COL, SOF, USA (Ret.) David Maxwell, Associate Director, Center for Security Studies

•

& Security Studies Program, Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University. ECONOMICS: Mr. Brian Kurtz, an expert in “Expeditionary Economic Development,” who established the $300 million dollar USAID Bosnia Banking & Business Development Program and has served as consultant with USAID in Afghanistan. ABOVE LEFT Ed Fox introduces students to the basic “elements of national power” as the rest of the D.I.M.E. Panel looks on. ABOVE Hallie Griffiths (IRF ’17)

Student handlers were assigned to each panel member/VIP. In this capacity, the Fellows met the VIPs on arrival at the Academy, provided a campus tour, introduced their VIPs during the panel session, and ensured that the VIPs were in the right place at the right time through the course of the day. Following the panel presentations, student Fellows posed a variety of questions to the SME panel concerning, among other things, the legality of weaponized drone employment in counter-terrorism operations, the current strategy for contending with ISIS in Iraq, advanced interrogation techniques and torture, and the effect of WikiLeaks. The questions elicited insightful answers and lively debate among the panel members. With the completion of the panel session, the Fellows broke into groups of six for a working lunch/ discussion, with a panelist at each table. After lunch the students assembled into three country teams and were presented the “Ivory problem” with a two-hour deadline to present a strategy to the panelists. At 4:00 p.m. the Fellows presented their strategies to the other country teams and panelists, who offered questions and provided comment. In the end, the Fellows were reminded, as is the case any “real world” challenge, that there are no correct answers or school solutions—just strategies that work and those that do not. The CCGL fellows came away with more questions than answers, and their collective intellectual curiosity was kindled with a heightened passion to develop actionable solutions to real world challenges. ◆ LTC Taylor Beattie, USA (Ret.), is a former Special Forces officer and the founder of Tri-Arach Consulting.

NORFOLK ACADEMY MAGAZINE

WINTER 2015

[ G L O B A L ] perspectives

Vegemite, Baguettes, and Choosing a College What studying abroad taught me about being a Bulldog

BY SARAH KLENA ’14

There is a certain difficulty in explaining what a school mascot is to a French exchange student, as I discovered in October 2012. We are Bulldogs. It’s a symbol. My French exchange student, Isabelle, remained puzzled. I WAS STAYING WITH ISABELLE and her family, the

Wohrers, in Paris for two months. This was part of an extended version of the Norfolk Academy—Lycée Saint Dominique exchange. In turn, Isabelle would come to Norfolk Academy that spring. We had a pact: only French in France, and only English in the United States. Isabelle and I were, and remain, extremely close. We baked brownies and macarons; we watched American movies with French dubbing; we climbed the Arc de Triomphe in the freezing wind; we rode the 43 bus to school every morning. Her family was

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welcoming, showing me around Paris and their quieter suburb of Neuilly-sur-Seine. I attended classes, taking notes and nervously participating in class activities. The Wohrers were also hosting an Australian exchange grad student. She and I talked about college over vegemite and baguettes, and that was the first time I heard about L’institut d’etudes politiques de Paris, or “Sciences Po.” The school’s focus lies in the social sciences. At the time, I often thought about becoming an exchange student during college, but actually attending college in France hadn’t even crossed my mind.

Just weeks after returning home, however, I received an envelope from Columbia University advertising their new joint Bachelor of Arts program with Sciences Po. This program takes place at several campuses across France, each campus with its own regional focus. Students spend two years at Sciences Po and then two years at Columbia. When Isabelle came in April, we made a trip to Columbia and toured the program together. At crew practice, during the car rides home, during study hall, and while baking apple pies, I asked her advice about going to college in France. I decided to apply to the program. Deciding which regional focus to choose had a lot to do with my experiences at Norfolk Academy. Since World Cultures class in 9th grade, I’ve been intrigued by international relations. Through the International Relations Club in the Upper School, and elective classes like International Relations, I studied global events while at NA. Thanks to the recommendation of Dr. Rezelman, the summer of my junior year I participated in the St. Albans School of Public Service. Living in D.C. for a month encouraged my interests in a career in civil service or with an international governmental organization. Later, during my senior year, I participated in the Model NATO Challenge. The simulation of 28 students representing 28 nations’ interests prepared me for my current campus, where I am now one of 200 international freshmen enrolled from 36 different countries. I am grateful for the transatlantic knowledge that I gained from the challenge (and for the scholarship money that came with the award I won in the competition). Even more rewarding was the chance to work directly with a French NATO staff mentor for months, researching French and European military and economic events. Due to these experiences, as well as my time in France, I felt that the Euro-American campus of Reims was the right choice for me. Some weekends, I take the train from Reims to Paris to see the Wohrers and spend a night catching up with Isabelle. These familial dinners, or a quick email to a teacher back at Norfolk Academy, or Skyping friends back in the States, remain the most cherished things when I’m homesick. During the toughest times, I know I have the support of the invaluable community that led me here in the first place. That’s the best way to explain what it means to be a Bulldog. ◆

Deciding which regional focus to choose had a lot to do with my experiences at Norfolk Academy. Since World Cultures class in 9th grade, I’ve been intrigued by international relations.

FACING PAGE Sarah Klena ’14 currently studies at Sciences Po in France

(background) as part of a joint Bachelor of Arts Program with Columbia University and L’Institute d’etudes politiques de Paris (Sciences Po). TOP Sarah on a recent visit with Isabelle Wohrer and her parents in Paris, France. BOTTOM A family photo from Sarah’s two-month exchange with the Wohrers in 2012.

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lives of [ C O N S E Q U E N C E ]

Enough, More, and More than Enough BY J ONATHAN STU RM â&#x20AC;&#x2122; 79

In this country, wanting, even expecting more almost goes without saying. But be advised: If you want greater awareness, greater knowledge, or greater understanding, it will almost surely evict you from the womb of Eden.

FACING PAGE During his Homecoming visit, Dr. Sturm treated accomplished Norfolk Academy strings players to a two-hour Master Class, working with each student individually as the others observed. He is pictured here with Gabi Diskin â&#x20AC;&#x2122;18.

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Homecoming Chapel Speech 2014

Look around you: Arenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t we all fortunate in this room? We are in a beautiful space, with balanced heating, accompanied by teachers who want us to learn and succeed, supported by parents who are willing to pay considerably to give us the best possible advantage in our lives, all of which means we are sitting today in one of the best schools, not only in Virginia, but in America. We are all indeed fortunate in this room. Thirty-five to forty years ago I sat where you now sit, although it was in what is now called Price auditorium, since this space had yet to be built. And David Leavitt, to whom the harp statue in the forum is dedicated, was my friendâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;we made music together on that stage. I have always felt that a quantum shift happened in the impressionable years I spent on this campus. I worked harder than I ever had before, as I am sure you do, and in so doing I lay a foundation of habits and skills in studying and time management that made college easier. Continuing the hard work in college made graduate school easier, and so on into the future until now I find it possible (not easy, but possible) to perform and record internationally on both violin and viola, teach at a university, hold an administrative position, give speeches and master classes, do my fair share of keeping my house in order, build a retirement plan, and so on. It is a lot for a 24-hour day, but it is working, and the seeds for this kind of full, rich life were planted here at Norfolk Academy in the 1970s. So, yes, we are all fortunate in this room, BUT, we must never forget in all our good fortune that the world owes us nothing. Zip, nada, nil, bupkus. We can leave here, or leave college, or leave our first job, or our marriage, and suddenly fall on our facesâ&#x20AC;Ś hard. The stock market may crash at any time and erase 25 years of our saving for retirement, or we may die prior to retiring, making the whole saving process futile!

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Things will happen to each of us in life, and when all is said and done, we will end up calling these things LIFE. John Lennon stated it most aptly in the 1980 song “Beautiful Boy.” He said, “Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans,” which resonates, at least to me, more deeply than any lyric Justin Bieber has ever vocalized! Perhaps I should end my uplifting talk on that happy note… but in fact I want to take a moment today and talk to you about two words and two words only: Enough and More. You know these two words, and in fact you are probably I sometimes wonder, already formulating in your agile “What if Eve had been young minds what you think I am satisfied without eating going to say about them. Right? Well, in the next five minutes, as I take you the apple?” Would we through a thought process on these all still live in an Eden? two words, I hope also to give you a glimpse of heaven and hell, of Eden Or would we all just and of the real world. Let’s go back to Eden for a know less? moment and spy on Adam wandering among the animals God had created. He had enough. He was provided for; he seemed basically happy, except… okay, he wasn’t happy. He wanted more. So he asked, and God gave Adam more. He got a woman. I won’t risk misogynistic jokes on that topic here. Suffice it to say, the “more” that Adam wanted actually seemed a reasonable request to God, so He granted the wish, either literally or allegorically, depending upon how you view the story and the Bible. Now, if Adam wanted more and got it, it only seems gender neutral to allow Eve a similar moment. Unfortunately, the “more” that SHE wanted was too much. Adam just wanted someone to talk to; Eve wanted the forbidden apple from the tree of knowledge, and eating it ended both her and Adam’s intimacy with their creator. And so we learn, early on in this book, about how “more” can sometimes be “too much.”

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I sometimes wonder, “What if Eve had been satisfied without eating the apple?” Would we all still live in an Eden? Or would we all just know less? Let’s strip the gender out of this for a moment, and the question really becomes “How much ‘more’ is too much?” Or put differently, “When is ‘enough’ enough?” Coming back to the present, do you all want more? Of course you do—you are young and talented and intelligent and, American. In this country, wanting, even expecting more almost goes without saying. But be advised: If you want greater awareness, greater knowledge, or greater understanding, it will almost surely evict you from the womb of Eden. As you continue to grow and mature, this question of “more versus enough” will confront you more often than almost any other. How much more stuff do you need to accumulate before you have enough? How much more money do you need to make before you have enough? How much more love does someone have to give you before it is enough? How much power or fame do you need, or are you always wanting more? We live in a time and culture where we can have almost anything we want, so the condition is easy to acquire that says we are not happy yet, but we will be when such and so happens—if ONLY I had a better phone, a better job, a newer car, a thinner body, a more understanding partner in life… and so on. We continually yearn. Let’s look at another allegorical figure: Faust. In his pact with the devil, the deal was that Faust could live forever so long as he was dissatisfied and continued to seek more. For him, the dissatisfaction (like Eve) was with knowledge and experience—he wanted more of it—not with the amount of stuff he had. The moment he said “Enough… I have experienced enough and I am satisfied,” the deal was up and the devil claimed his soul. Fortunately for Faust, when he DID say “enough,” just as the devil came to collect, a woman (this time named Gretchen) intervened and saved Faust’s soul.

WE ALL NEED TO LEARN HOW TO CONTROL THE “MORE” IN OUR LIVES AND TO DELIGHT IN THE “ENOUGH.” SURELY WE DO NEED “MORE” AT TIMES, BUT RAMPANT “MORE” IS A DISEASE AND A HELL IN ITSELF. AND RAMPANT “ENOUGH” CARRIES WITHIN IT ATTRIBUTES OF HEAVEN. Maybe she was just balancing the score from Eve’s error… but seriously, as long as Faust desired more, his pact with hell was intact. As soon as he had enough the pact dissolved and, with help, he entered heaven. In short, we all need to learn how to control the “more” in our lives and to delight in the “enough.” That is the thesis statement here, so let me repeat it: We all need to learn how to control the “more” in our lives and to delight in the “enough.” Surely we do need “more” at times, but rampant “more” is a disease and a hell in itself. And rampant “enough” carries within it attributes of heaven. So, in the context of a room full of bright, talented, eager, and fortunate people, attending a school that makes its goal to prepare you for more success in college, career, and life, in a country that encourages you to succeed ever more, and to view yourself in ever more positive terms, yet in a world that doesn’t care whether you succeed or not, and may even prevent you from doing so, what does some older musician taking up your chapel time want you to remember, possibly forever? I could say so many things, and they would all be of value. But what I will say is: “Learn to step outside your box. Look in on your life as if you were someone else watching it. When you are thus looking in, ask yourself, ‘Do I have enough? Can I be happy with what I have right now and leave the striving and stress to someone else? Can I get off the more treadmill and live in the joy of satisfaction that, no matter where I am on the ladder of life and career, it is enough?’” If you can acknowledge you have enough you will gain more joy at that time. If you are joyful, you have found one of the most important successes in life! If you are joyful about what you have and where you are in life, you free yourself to be joyful for other people in what they have and who they are. I’ll return only briefly to the morbid: Considering that we all die, and upon so dying fade from memory,

then while you are alive and making memories, control how much you desire, and try to live joyfully with what you have been blessed already to receive—such as this education, this day, this life. You may well find, as I am finding much later than I should have, that “enough” is really more than enough! So, as you look in from outside your boxes someday, while you ask yourself the essential questions of life, which are too numerous to list here, ask yourself first if you are living joyfully within your means and within your life? And if you honestly cannot answer that question affirmatively, work on that issue first. Because all of the other stuff won’t mean a darn if you don’t. ◆ Jonathan Sturm ’79 is one of a rare few musicians who brings excellence to the complete spectrum of music: He has performed internationally as a violin soloist and chamber musician; he is in his 24th season as concertmaster of the Des Moines Symphony (the longest serving concertmaster in the orchestra’s history); he has performed internationally as a violist with the acclaimed Ames Piano Quartet (recently renamed the Amara Piano Quartet); he is professor of Music History, and was also recently appointed Special Advisor to the Interim Dean of the Library at Iowa State University. With the Ames Piano Quartet he has recorded eight internationally released compact discs on the Dorian/Sono Luminus and Albany labels, has been heard on the St. Paul Sunday and Performance Today radio programs, and performs annually on national concert series. At Iowa State University, Dr. Sturm was awarded the 2009 Excellence in Teaching Award in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. As a private violin teacher, his students consistently win competitions, providing them opportunities to perform with regional orchestras in Iowa, Minnesota, and Nebraska. When not performing, Dr. Sturm has been in demand as a presenter at national conferences, and he has published numerous articles and book reviews for encyclopedias and journals. He is increasingly satisfied with and humbled by his life.

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WINTER 2015

THE

savage

CHRONICLES

A Bulldog Welcome to Matt Sigrist

For the love of the game MATT SIGRIST FORMALLY BEGAN HIS TENURE as director of the Royster Middle School on July 1, 2014. He had been with us several times before, first as candidate for the job, and then, after his hiring, for several important occasions, including Field Day. So most Middle School teachers have had the opportunity to get to know him a little. Now, dear reader, it’s your turn. I will spare you the details of Matt’s journey to Norfolk—born here, married there, etc. You can learn all that stuff from various school publications. To know the man you need only hear one story. It seems that many years ago Matt worked for the New York Yankees in their office of business development. Matt had been a star athlete at Williams College, and he saw his future somewhere in the field of athletics. One day he was squiring a young lad—middle school age, perhaps—through the clubhouse and dugout prior to a home game at Yankee Stadium. The young man had won some lottery or contest to earn this privilege. In any event, Matt was enjoying letting the youngster rub shoulders with Yankee greats, in part, Matt will admit, because he enjoyed being around those famous ballplayers. As game time neared and the players, now fully in uniform, began to filter into the dugout where Matt and the young man were lingering, Matt tried to ease the boy out of the dugout and out of the way. He knew that most big-leaguers are very possessive of their space once in the dugout. But before the two visitors could extricate themselves, one player looked at Matt with disdain and told them both to “get the heck out of here!” (You might imagine that the gentleman in question used slightly more colorful language than I can repeat here.) Matt says that he realized at that point that he enjoyed the kid’s company way more than the players’. As much fun as he might have been having, Matt preferred the honesty and “authenticity,” a word he uses often, coming from the young man. His subsequent life

of teaching and coaching at all educational levels has confirmed that decision. A half-hour before game time, on one of sport’s biggest stages, Matt Sigrist had found his calling elsewhere. He has followed it with dedication and singleness of purpose ever since. The game he truly loves takes place in the classroom and on the playing field, not in the Bronx. Just the other day Matt compared learning about the values and mores of Norfolk Academy to prying the 3-D images out of those “Magic Eye” pictures that were so popular a decade ago. That is an incredibly apt metaphor. What’s on the surface in the Middle School is a jumbled blur that makes little sense. It takes a little patience and a little concentration to see the reality behind the chaos. Matt understands the process and is well on his way to seeing the real picture. We are very lucky to have a new director who knows that it takes some staring to see what matters. My sense is that our picture is fast coming into focus for him. On those rare occasions when I participate in interviewing candidates for teaching jobs here, I try to ascertain just one thing. Does the candidate actually love working with kids? There are many reasons to love what we do here, and different teachers will have different ways of demonstrating that passion for the job. With Matt Sigrist, the answer to my unspoken question is a quick and obvious “yes.” If you pay attention to him in action around here, you see an ease and an “authenticity” (there’s that word again) in his interactions with students that can only come from that place called “love.” Students are already warming to him, and, truth be told, one or two may even have felt his disapproval by now. But it’s the students who are most accurate in gauging whether Mr. Sigrist has their best interests at heart, and with each passing day he convinces them more and more completely that he cares for them and for this school. And that, dear friends, is what really matters. ◆ Mr. Sigrist, facing page at right, slowly learning the complexities of Pitball

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Our Top 10 Questions for Mr. Sigrist What was your early life like? What is your background? I was born in St. Louis, MO, but I moved to Rochester, NY, when I was two years old. I have two brothers, Peter (39) and Adam (34). My parents are both former teachers, who have since worked in other fields as well. My mother has spent the majority of her career as a hospice nurse, while my father went back to school after 25 years as an elementary school teacher to become an RN and drug and alcohol counselor. At a young age, my parents modeled ideals of service to the poor. My father was the president of the Catholic Worker House, a soup kitchen in Rochester, and my family and I spent loads of time there. These experiences were formative in my life. I was raised in an urban environment in which I was often one of the only white kids in class or on sports teams. As a minority, I learned what it felt like to feel different. While this could be difficult at times, the formative lessons that I learned were those of inclusivity, an appreciation for diversity, and empathy for the feelings of others. A final important piece of my background is my involvement in athletics. Through these experiences I learned that the best things in life are accomplished with others, not in isolation.

were the common denominator in all of life’s

What did you do in high school and college athletics?

most rewarding experiences. I also learned

In high school I played football, basketball, and

the magic that could ensue when a group can

baseball. I played football and baseball in college.

The relationships with coaches and teammates

become “greater than the sum of their parts” through humility, self-sacrifice, and a shared

What is your birthday?

goal orientation. I have applied the lessons of

December 28

team and commitment to all of my life’s most important challenges, from family to teaching to school leadership.

Can you do a backflip? I can still do backflips on the swing and off a

What is your favorite bookstore snack? String cheese

What kinds of books do you like? I’m a nonfiction guy and I enjoy books that help

diving board but my other acrobatics are in my

me look at the world differently. Guns, Germs,

past.

and Steel by Jared Diamond was awesome, and Moneyball by Michael Lewis is also one of my

What is the hardest thing about the Middle School for you?

favorites. Malcolm Gladwell has a great way

Life’s most lasting and important lessons

novel ways, but lately I’ve been most excited

are often best learned through experiences

about books incorporating new brain research

and, at times, failure. It would be easy and

like Mindset ; Thinking, Fast and Slow ; and The

less heartbreaking to create rules and micro-

Social Animal.

of weaving stories and looking at the world in

manage outcomes in a way that protects our kids from life’s inevitable disappointments, from failed tests to Honor violations. It is hard to decide on appropriate consequences and convince students that I love that what feels

What made you want to start teaching, and what is your favorite subject to teach? I was coaching college football and found

uncomfortable in the short run will actually

that I loved practice. I was less enthusiastic

serve them better in the long run. Character,

about recruiting, analyzing film, or even

they say, is not created in comfort.

playing games. The interactions with players, celebrating measured improvements, and

What are your favorite donuts?

finding joy in the process pointed me toward

Since I moved to Virginia I have been blown

teaching as a career.

away by Duck Donuts, but I am just as happy

I most enjoyed teaching Economics.

with a warm Krispy Kreme original.

Why did you decide to come to Norfolk Academy in particular? Norfolk Academy is a dynamic community that is committed to values that I share. Our focus on character, our pursuit of academic excellence, and our commitment to civic engagement in the Hampton Roads community drew me to the school. As I learned more, the warmth of the faculty, students, and families affirmed my sense that this was a wonderful community. Toy Savage ’71 This piece first appeared on Toy Savage’s blog, The Savage Chronicles. To see the latest posts, visit thesavagechronicles.org Thank you to Mr. Mike Horstman for polling Middle School faculty and students for questions about Mr. Sigrist!

NORFOLK ACADEMY MAGAZINE

WINTER 2015

paw PRI N T S

YOJ Year of Joy

As we student editors thought through our contribution to this issue of Academy magazine, we felt it fitting to pair our student Instagram album with a more thoughtful look at the role that Instagram and other social media have played in shaping our definition of honor at Norfolk Academy. Here are a few perspectives from students and our teachers.

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What is

Digital Citizenship?

Sarah Yue ’19: We act as we would in person. Being on the Internet doesn’t change what you say or how you say it. Also, we don’t use the Internet to gain unfair advantage in tests or quizzes. The Internet is a way to further our academic career, but it can be detrimental if used in the wrong way. Mr. Savage: Digital citizenship means two things. The first is to avoid using modern technologies as a way to cheat or gain unfair academic advantage. The second, and every bit as important, I believe, is to behave generally the way a good “citizen” would behave. That is, being a good digital citizen means only using technology for the good of others. Particularly at the middle school age, digital communication can be destructive to others around us. At this age, sometimes that is what we intend, but often it is just thoughtless. But the harm that can be done by inappropriate or cruel communications is substantial, and often much worse than the sender intended. The cases you hear nationwide about depression, violence, and even suicide created by electronic chatter are not made up. This stuff is real, and we must continue to keep our digital conversations respectful and, above all, kind. Mrs. Bisi: Mrs. Bisi believes that the use of phones and technology is needed and also inevitable in our society. There are many positive aspects as long as we don’t abuse the power as students and forget the importance of kinetic or hands-on learning, and the beauty of doing things how they were done long ago. She says she is amazed by what some people have been able to use technology to make, and how much it has been able to improve the school.

Patrick McElroy ’19: My personal opinion is that digital citizenship is how we react to the many different opportunities that arise with the use of technology. Our strength in character in the real world can factor in, letting us be strong when faced with the choices that we have every day in accordance with our reliance on technology. Mr. Fowler: Digital citizenship is who you are online when no one is watching. Cross Birdsong ’18: Digital citizenship is something that helps students, parents, etc. understand what can and can’t be done online. Ben Klebanoff ’15: Since the 6th grade, when I came to Norfolk Academy, technology has played a large role in my academic life. However, as the use of technology in education has progressed, it has been more largely used around our campus. Not only is technology beneficial in many of our classes, but it prepares us for life after Norfolk Academy. Although it has potential to be misused, technology, like every other part of Norfolk Academy, is expected to be used properly. Through learning the rights and wrongs of digital citizenship here at Norfolk Academy, we are better prepared for later in life. Similar to our honor code, students at Norfolk Academy are expected to follow a high standard with regards to using technology in class. Spider-Man’s uncle once said, “with great power comes great responsibility,” and I can attest both hold true here on campus!

NORFOLK ACADEMY MAGAZINE

WINTER 2015

paw PRI N TS A Page from Virginia’s General Assembly BY CALLUM KRISHNA ’18

My name is Callum Krishna, and this winter I was a Virginia Senate page. A page, as defined by Merriam-Webster Dictionary, is one employed to deliver messages, assist patrons, serve as a guide, or attend similar duties. I would like to take the time today to tell you about my life changing experiences as a Virginia Senate page. The General Assembly of Virginia contains two main legislative bodies: the Senate and the House of Delegates. Each year both bodies select a group of young pages to help them. Thirty-four pages are chosen to serve the Senate. This year 34 out of 102 applicants were selected. We served for nine weeks. All of the pages live together in a hotel in downtown Richmond, about a 10-minute walk from the Capitol. I was worried about oversleeping, so I set the alarm on our hotel room clock for 6 a.m., along with my phone and my roommate’s phone. We were ready to leave around 7:15, having checked with Mr. and Mrs. Snow, our hotel chaperones. We checked in to the page room for the Virginian Senate at 8:15. The page room is in the basement of the General Assembly building (GAB) in Richmond. Once we arrived, we would turn our phones in and write down our schedule, which was posted in the room. Unlike other pages, my schedule was the same every day, since I was Lieutenant Governor Ralph Northam’s page. I reported to the Lieutenant Governor’s (LG) office every morning at nine. I would leave at 8:45 in order to stop at the post office in the GAB to collect any mail for the LG, then I would go to the Capitol and pick up “the Journal”—the list of bills of the day for the LG. It had pink notes reminding him of special events and who to call on. Once I arrived in his office, another page and I helped the LG’s office any

ACADEMY

way we could. We made lists, shredded paper, and even reorganized part of his office. We had to do a lot of organizing, because he was a newly elected Lieutenant Governor. Because my job required me to assist the LG, I was on the floor of the Senate every day! This meant I had to eat lunch at 10:45 every morning because we never knew how long a floor session might last. If we waited, we might never eat. One session lasted five hours! At 11:30, we’d head to the floor of the Senate. I sat on a bench next to the LG, so if he needed me during a session I was there to help. When all the senators arrived on the floor (usually around noon), the LG gaveled in the session. Every day he welcomed visitors into the gallery. A green sheet was printed for each visitor, listing his or her name, occupation, and organization (pages type these sheets). The sheet also listed the senator who represented them. Early on, the LG came to me and said it was hard to find the Senator’s name on the sheet and asked me to write the name of the Senator for each sheet in the upper right corner to make it easier to see. I got into a system of writing down the names and delivering them to the bench, and we were pleased with how it worked. One day, the Deputy Clerk of the Senate asked what I was doing and I explained our system to him. When we returned from the floor, I introduced the LG to the Deputy Clerk, who turned to me and said, “Look what we did!” They were now organizing their sheets with names in the upper right corner! I was happy to see they had adopted our system. I felt like I had made my mark on the Senate of Virginia. When our day ended at five, we got our phones back and headed to the hotel. We would immediately go to dinner because we only had two hours before we had to report to study hall. Any time we went off the floor of our hotel we had to go in groups of four. When we went to dinner we traveled within the allowed radius (close to the hotel and the GAB). At 7 p.m. we worked with tutors in our study hall for two hours. After that, we were

free to hang around the hotel until curfew at 10:30. On Tuesdays and Thursdays we went to the hotel swimming pool; House pages went on Mondays and Wednesdays. Over the nine weeks that I was working I experienced many amazing events. Pages toured the Virginia Supreme Court and witnessed an historical reenactment of Patrick Henry’s “Give me liberty or give me death” speech. We also went to the Federal Reserve and the Federal Courthouse, where we saw a U.S. naturalization ceremony. We watched a basketball game where the Senators played the House of Delegates. For the first time in 18 years, the Senate won (with the help of Deangelo Hall, Josh Morgan, and David Amerson of the Redskins). I also got to meet Michael Robinson of the Super Bowl Champion Seattle Seahawks! The coolest thing we did was the Page Mock Session—pages acted as elected officials and the “real” elected officials were the pages. In our session I was elected by my peers to be lieutenant governor and preside over the Senate. The page program was great for me. I came away not just with governmental knowledge, but I learned some things about living on my own—like saving and spending money, since we earned a paycheck for our work. If any rising 8th grader is interested in the program please feel free to ask me about it. I strongly recommend it. You can make a difference and make Norfolk Academy proud. This account is reprinted from Callum Krishna’s chapel in spring 2014, delivered to the Middle School and in the audience of Lieutenant Governor Ralph Northam, and Norfolk’s Commissioner of the Revenue, Evans Poston. ABOVE Callum Krishna ’18 acts as Lieutenant

Governor in mock session.

Connecting @ the Academy The 2015 Alumni Career Connection Internship Program

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Interested in offering a summer internship through our Career Connections Internship program or posting a job opening on our alumni job board? Contact Ruth Acra at racra@norfolkacademy.org or 757.452.6761

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WINTER 2015

[ A L U M N I ] highlights

homecoming 2014

[ A L U M N I ] highlights

Bulldog Bash Save the date! Homecoming/ Reunion Weekend October 9 & 10, 2015

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