VA Life Spring 2019

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Vermont Academy

Life

Looking to the Future Sustainability at VA

Featuring student, alumni, & faculty voices for the planet: Anja Stolper ’19, Jonas Goldman ’14, Erik Levy ’86, & more

Vermont Academy BOARD OF TRUSTEES

Michael A. Choukas ’73, P ’94, Chair Ret. Col. Richard I. Stark Jr. ’74, Vice Chair Carrie Dunn ’91, Secretary Casey Cota ’89, P ’14, ’18, Treasurer Thomas Capasse P ’16 Patty Eppinger P ’20 Matthew Galanes David Holton ’68 Michael Horowitz P ’98 Amy Howard ’91 Reverend Peter Howe P ’07, ’10 Steven E. Karol ’72, Former Chair Cathy Corrigan McDermott P ’18 Lori Paprin P ’20 Linda Saarnijoki Mark W. Smith ’87 S. Tylor Tregellas Reverend George H. Welles Jr. ’53 TRUSTEES EMERITI

Robert M. Campbell ’37, P ’65, ’68, ’70 (2), ’80, ’82* W. Eugene Hays Jr. ’55 Hugh W. Pearson ’54 HE ADMASTER EMERITUS | Michael Choukas Jr. ’46, P ’73,

GP ’94 ALUMNI R EPR ESENTATIV ES | Tom Oxholm ’82,

Andrew Ward ’93 PAR ENT R EPR ESENTATIV E | Francis Willett ’86, P ’21 HE AD OF SCHOOL | Dr. Jennifer L. Zaccara ASSISTANT HE AD OF SCHOOL & DIR ECTOR OF EXTERNAL AFFAIRS | Melanie Hoffmann ASSISTANT HE AD OF SCHOOL & CFO | Jeff Seaton EDITOR & W RITER | Madeline Bergstrom CONTRIBUTING W RITERS | Christine Armiger, Yuchen

“Aaron” Gong ’19, Savannah Mouyos ’20, Peter Ross, Symir Torrence ’19, Kevin Urquhart ’20, Jennifer L. Zaccara CL ASS NOTES EDITOR | Liz Olmsted P ’15 DESIGNERS | Teresa Dillon, Jennifer Fleischmann PHOTOGR APHY | Christine Armiger, Madeline Bergstrom, Robert Falcetti, Evie Lovett, Liz Olmsted P ’15, Savanna Poole, Jeff Woodward *In memoriam

Vermont Academy Life is published twice a year by Vermont Academy, Saxtons River, VT. The magazine reserves the right to edit all material that it accepts for publication.

802-869-6200 | V ER MONTACADEMY.ORG

OUR MISSION

By providing a supportive community and close, personal attention to its students, Vermont Academy develops confident, active learners and respectful citizens.

ation for Life —One Student at a Time

The Long Trail Hike in August marked the beginning of Vermont Academy’s year-long focus on sustainability.

The Long Trail itself was conceived of in 1909 by Vermont Academy Assistant Headmaster James P. Taylor.

11 The Garden, the Forest, and the River

8 VA in Belize and Spain

Contents 2

Head of School’s Letter

4 From the Vermont Woods to Parliament: Jonas Goldman ’14 8 VA in Belize and Spain

10 Food for Thought: Mary Anderson ’15 11 The Garden, the Forest, and the River 20 Student Voices for Sustainability

20 Student Voices for Sustainability

23 Save That Stuff: Erik Levy ’86

24 Athletics Highlights: Fall and Winter 2018-19 28 Be True to Yourself: Clara Converse 1879

32 Liceo Europeo Partnership to Launch This Fall 34 Another World: Yuchen “Aaron” Gong ’19 36 Wildcats: We Want to Know

38 Wildcat Profile: Anja Stolper ’19 42 110th Winter Carnival 44 “Everybody, Everybody”: Diversity Conference 2019 45 Diane Wilder ’79: VA’s New Annual Giving Chair 46 Introducing Our New Trustees

28 Be True to Yourself: Clara Converse 1879

47 Vermont Academy on Main Street 48 45 Years of Service: Roger Westine 50 Class Notes

59 In Memoriam 60 Remembering Bob Campbell ’37 We want to hear from you! Email feedback to valife@vermontacademy.org.

34 Another World: Yuchen “Aaron” Gong ’19

38 Wildcat Profile: Anja Stolper ’19

42 110th Winter Carnival

H E A D O F S C H O O L’ S L E T T E R

Dear Vermont Academy Family, In Wendell Berry’s great poem “The Sycamore,” he plants a seedling of his philosophy of interdependence: Like the sycamore, we can “gather all accidents” into our purpose, and we can practice an “indwelling,” which he seems to define in the final line of the poem: “I see that it stands in its place, and feeds upon it, / and is fed upon, and is native, and maker.”

The connections between nature and community are alive for us each day.

Essentially, Berry teaches us about discovery and about the ways in which we are tied to the earth and it to us. This interconnectedness lies at the center of Vermont Academy’s exciting plan to expand our sustainability programming and to let it take its place at the heart of our mission to educate students for life and to enable students to be faithful to the VA motto, “Be True to Your Best Self.”

One piece of the magic of Vermont Academy lies in what the Romantic poets would call a symbiotic relationship between perceiving and doing. We are lodged in a gorgeous expanse of 450 acres of woods that almost hug us in an enclosing circle of red pine, fir trees, craggy trails, and quiet starry nights. Poised above the river valley, we gaze on misty mountains and foggy hills and dales that give us a picturesque and timeless view of southern Vermont. The great philosopher Husserl believed that the real world is the world of our immediately lived experiences, coupled with the light and nuance of individual perception. At Vermont Academy, this belief lies at the heart of our mission.

We believe that learning by doing, learning in nature, and learning in a family environment of support and friendship are timeless equations. In the clean mountain air, peace of mind enables self-discovery, and our students map their own way, receiving a handcrafted education tailored to their personal goals and journeys. The Vermont Academy way includes the thrill of discovery, developing a personal learning blueprint, experiential benchmarks, core skill training, cultural competency, and citizenship. All of these trademarks of a Vermont Academy education add up to being a good citizen for self and others. The connections between nature and community are alive for us each day.

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Our sustainability theme this year includes a look at three subsets of natural space and imagery: the garden, the forest, and the river. In each of our trimesters, we are concentrating on one of these natural features. The spring will bring us to a celebration of the river, and several classes are integrating curricula to look a the multi-faceted life of the Saxtons and Connecticut Rivers, river history, river natural life, and the river as muse. We will have a special art show of poetry, paintings, and photography by professional and student artists this spring at the Horowitz Performing Arts Building and around our campus and village community. Photography teacher and artist Evie Lovett and poet Diane Whitney will lead us through an exploration and celebration of the river through the arts. Our faculty had a brainstorming session about the multiple ways in which the river can be explored in math, science, art, English, music, and other disciplines, and curricular activities emerged for this year. The scope of this vision reveals the ways in which we hope to define our sustainable programming for the future.

Our hope is to have our Global, Outdoor, and Diversity & Inclusion Programs, along with our community engagement and cultural competency work, all radiating from the central hub of sustainability for the future.

At Vermont Academy, we place student experience and citizenship at the center of all that we do.

Our hope is to have our Global, Outdoor, and Diversity & Inclusion Programs, along with our community engagement and cultural competency work, all radiating from the central hub of sustainability for the future. Here in Vermont, we are immersed in the tinkering and engineering that emerge from the farming cultures; in the performing and visual arts that have inspired poets, actors, and artists in summer residence and summer stock; and in the celebration of expeditions and journeys through the landscape. Our early assistant headmaster James P. Taylor was the originator of the Long Trail, and our Outdoor Programs and daily learning experiences adhere to a core value of learning by doing.

I hope that you enjoy this issue of Vermont Academy Life, which takes a look at how sustainability has inspired our alumni and students. This is a new generation where students care deeply about the land and want to make a difference in preserving it. We hope to provide them the structure and guidance to create their personal pathways to reach their goals.

Springtime greetings from Vermont, where the sap is running and the snow is melting,

DR . J E N N I F E R L . Z AC C A R A ,

Head of School V E R M O N T AC A DE M Y | 3

From the Vermont Woods to Parliament AN INTERVIEW WITH JONAS GOLDMAN ’14 As a student in my AP Environmental Science class, Jonas Goldman always kept me on my toes.

One of my favorite memories of Jonas was the time he brought me a yellow spotted salamander in a cereal box to serve as a class pet. The salamander escaped from my makeshift terrarium less than 24 hours later, and Jonas never let me live it down.

Then there was the time our class was studying river dynamics on a winter field trip, and Jonas created a new sport called “culvert luge.” But probably the best memory I have of Jonas is how he nagged me nearly every day after our field trip to Walpole Valley Farms to host a barbecue for the class using beef from the grass-fed cattle.

Well, Jonas finally got that barbecue (much to the satisfaction of the entire class). He deserved it, too, between the A+ he earned in the class, the 5 he earned on the AP Exam, and the dedication he has shown to the field of sustainability ever since. Here is what Jonas had to report in a recent interview.

—Christine Armiger

The barbecue 4 | S PR I N G 2 019

Jonas and his friend Ashley in Brussels while studying abroad

“ I saw how a simple fix in how we build our communities—building flat bottom culverts as opposed to rounded pipe ones—could bring so many ecological benefits: preserved river ecosystems, flood mitigation, erosion control, etc. This demonstrated to me the power that political decision-makers have to bring our way of living in line with the natural world.” — JONAS GOLDMAN ’14

Ms. Armiger: How did your time at VA influence your decision to pursue higher education and professional work related to sustainability and social justice?

Jonas: It’s not so much that VA influenced my decision to pursue higher education, it’s more that without VA there would have been no higher education for me. I was an apathetic student going into VA, pulling high Cs at best, and I remember the holy hell that was the fight with my parents when they sprung on me that I was being “shipped off to boarding school.”

However, parents generally know what is best for their child, and I am grateful to this day that they didn’t get cold feet about the decision. I really thrived under the structure provided by VA, and I definitely would not have been able to pull up my marks to what was necessary to get into university without it.

Concerning what promoted my career in sustainability, well, Ms. A, you get to take full credit for that. I had always liked nature in the hands-off sort of way that a privileged suburban white kid can, enjoying watching “The Crocodile Hunter” on TV and making trips to my grandparents’ cottage in the summer.

However, your field trips really instilled in me not just how cool our shared environment is, but the interconnected relationship between environmental processes and society, and how crucial our reliance on the former is.

While I am not romanticizing the smell of the sewage treatment plant, what really hit home from that trip was the realization that all our waste goes somewhere, and how crucial it is that “someone” do something about it. Throughout AP Environmental Science, I came to realize that honestly, that someone might have to be me. However, what really sealed my fate were the lessons on and the corresponding field trips to the Saxtons River’s riparian infrastructure. I saw how a simple fix in how we build our communities—building flat bottom culverts as opposed to rounded pipe ones—could bring so many ecological benefits: preserved river ecosystems, flood mitigation, erosion control, etc.

This demonstrated to me the power that political decision-makers have to bring our way of living in line with the natural world.

and if built to size better reflect the river’s natural flow, they can significantly mitigate the harms of developing over a river. I still talk about the difference between flat-bottom and rounded culverts at parties and political functions, so it’s safe to say I am totally as cool now as I was in high school.

Not many kids get to have the Vermont woods as their classroom but Ms. A, you made it so.

Jonas with Theresa Kavanaugh, the council woman of the Bay Ward in Ottawa. Jonas worked on her election campaign.

For the uninitiated, a culvert is what is built when it is impractical to bridge a river. A culvert is laid along the flow of a river and then filled over with earth to allow for crossing while maintaining river flow. Since flat-bottom culverts (though more expensive) allow for a portion of the natural river bed to stay intact,

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Working for Clean Foundation in Halifax

Jonas and classmates learning about solar panels on a VA field trip

Ms. Armiger: Can you tell us about some of the things you’ve been up to since graduating from VA? Jonas: I drafted a policy proposal for an environmental work relief program for Syrian refugees in the EU, which I got to present at the Central European University (CEU) in Budapest. My paper was called “A New Deal for Refugees: How Land Restoration and Infrastructure Modernization Can Help Solve the Refugee Crisis.” Its focus was on how Syrian refugees could help alleviate the problems posed both by the graying agricultural population of Europe and the one-third of European farmland that is expected to fall out of use. Syrian refugees frequently come from an agricultural background and could thus be integrated into the EU in a more seamless way by paying landowners to convert abandoned land back into agricultural use, or to other purposes, such as carbon-sinking agroforestry or re-wilded wilderness reserves. America instituted something similar during the Great Depression called the Civilian Conservation Corps, which I modeled the proposal after, with some tweaks for our current era.

Anyway, Columbia liked the idea enough to publish the paper. [Editor’s note: Jonas’s article can be found in

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Issue 18 (2017) of Consilience: The Journal of Sustainable Development, published by Columbia University.]

After that, I worked a series of jobs related to the sustainability sector. I worked on media outreach for Clean Foundation, the local environmental NGO in my adopted home of Halifax, Nova Scotia. During my time at Clean Foundation, I was involved in the Home Warming Program, which provides energy poverty relief. The program utilizes government funds to retrofit homes for low-income homeowners, installing insulation or replacing fuel oil with an electric heat pump. It’s a triple win for the province: low-income individuals get to save money in order to pull themselves out of poverty; Nova Scotia’s already overburdened medical system sees some of the seasonal strain lessened, due to a decrease in coldinduced illnesses such as pneumonia; and the energy saved in heating costs keeps emissions in the ground, helping Canada reach its greenhouse gas targets.

However, the thing that stuck with me the most was a retired grandmother who broke down crying in my arms, because the program meant she wouldn’t have to choose between heating her home and putting food on the dinner table that winter.

Reading “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” at the butterfly lab

I also spent a period of time as a researcher in a butterfly lab at Georgetown University. My job was to assist with experiments on how heat stress from climate change will affect the fitness of pollinators like Skipper butterflies. I was also the policy specialist in the lab, focusing on research into how the Endangered Species Act can be reformed to better protect species threatened by indirect non-source pollution, such as climate change, oceanic plastic buildup, and pesticide runoff. I’m working on expanding this research with my supervisor from the summer, and ideally, this will become my next publication sometime this year.

My most recent position was as a parliamentary assistant, focusing on environmental policy, in the office of Canadian Member of Parliament Randall Garrison. My task was to design a retrofit proposal for the homes in the member’s riding, or district, in order to reduce the riding’s emissions and provide alternative local employment to oil and gas jobs for workers in the riding who currently commute to the oil sands. (If you complain about wearing a suit to Formal Dinner, try wearing one every day to work.)

“ No matter what anybody tells you, if you truly believe in something and you push, and lobby, and make the case for it again, and again—if your cause is truly just and valid— you will see it implemented.”

— JONAS GOLDMAN ’14

Ms. Armiger: What are you hoping to do in the future?

Jonas: What don’t I want to do!

There are so many projects I want to work on by the time I’m 32. I would definitely like to stay involved in politics. Depending on how my master’s applications work out, I might go back to Halifax this summer to volunteer on an NDP campaign to unseat the current liberal MP. More long-term, I’m unsure. Maybe I’ll stay in Ottawa and get another job with a different parliamentarian. Alternatively, I might be pursuing higher education in the field of sustainable development or environmental policy.

I have also gotten really interested in how resource management can be used as a tool to defuse conflict. I would love to get involved with efforts currently ongoing in the Middle East to use sustainable water management as a tool to foster peace between Israelis and Palestinians. There’s a lot of interesting academic writing out there on how water conservation and desalination measures can offset current supplies pumped from below-ground aquifers in the region. If done right, this can provide greater water availability to both peoples and allow greater autonomy for all over their water resources, increasing the standard of living and easing tensions.

However, Nova Scotia has captured my heart in a way. The province and its people have given me so much that I feel I have an obligation to contribute to sustainable development in the region.

There’s a lot of dynamic potential for renewables growth there, especially in tidal power. Getting involved in community engagement and provincial environmental policy in Nova Scotia would be immensely rewarding.

Ms. Armiger: Are there any stories you could share about your time in AP Environmental Science class?

Jonas: No matter what anybody tells you, if you truly believe in something and you push, and lobby, and make the case for it again, and again—if your cause is truly just and valid—you will see it implemented. That’s how I was able to get Ms. A to host a barbecue for the entire class, after asking her if we could have one every day for an entire year.

I joke, but in honesty, I do believe that.

Having gotten a taste of government, I’m not going to lie to you, there are some things that are seriously wrong with the status quo. That is the nice way of putting it. However, I’ve also seen that enough motivated, intelligent people in the right places can create a critical mass of kindness and change the world for the better. This is not meant to be hokey. I want to stress how hard it is to make change happen. It takes a continued focus, not just by you but others like you.

I hate to use the “Class of 2014 word,” but it takes grit. You will need grit.

You will basically be throwing yourself against the wall, again, and again. It’s not a mindless determination—that would be too easy. It’s a mindful one.

You’ll need to always be on, to be at the top your game intellectually, and continuously mindful of what the right move to make is. It’s exhausting, but it is rewarding, too, because you throw yourself against the wall not with the intention of splattering across, but breaking through. Because believe me, when you do see momentum that you contributed to, on a cause you’re dedicated to, it is the greatest rush.

Almost as good as free barbecue.

Anything worth doing in life is hard, and I will tell you, change is damn well worth doing.

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SPRING BREAK IN BELIZE

Students embark on an ecological adventure

In March, a small group of Vermont Academy students traveled to Belize with Christine Armiger, Vermont Academy science teacher and Sustainability Program Coordinator. Christine had led multiple trips to Belize for VA in the past, and this year marked the return of the program, revamped for a new era by Christine and Director of Global Programs Liz Jackson.

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“

Students met with local residents, including small-scale farming experts, and learned about village life from home stays with families in San Miguel and San Felipe. They tried their hand at making chocolate from raw cacao and took part in a service learning project, building a public composting latrine for a community in need of better sanitation.

“This is an incredible program, and I am so happy to bring it back to a new cohort of students,” Christine said. “The students on this trip have the opportunity to learn from people who share an essential connection with the land on which they depend for food, water and other natural resources. They also get to experience the wonderful satisfaction that comes from giving their time and energy to those who have less than we do.”

Spring Trimester in

A key part of my work this year at Vermont Academy has been to strengthen the many connections between Sustainability and Global Programs. Through world travel and cross-cultural engagement, students develop a more unified perspective. We can work together as citizens of the earth to share methods of managing our vital resources.

— LIZ JACKSON, Director of Global Programs

“

The students explored the rainforests surrounding Punta Gorda and went snorkeling above the Belize barrier reef. They also visited Mayan archaeological sites and met conservation biologists working near the town of San Ignacio in the Maya Mountains.

Spain

Vermont Academy’s 2019 Spain trimester will feature some exciting new elements this spring. Students began the program in Andalusia in Southern Spain in March and will travel to La Alhambra, Sevilla, Bolonia, Morocco, and Madrid, learning about Spanish history, art, and architecture. They will end their trimester with a two-week stay in Annecy, France, known as “the Pearl of the French Alps.”

Séverine Dépéry, mother of Mathilde Dépéry ’20, has helped with local arrangements and will host several of the students.

Lisa Eckhardt McNealus ’79, P ’14, Vermont Academy’s Art department chair, and Laura Montoya are leading the Spain portion of the program, and Laura Frey P ’89, ’92, ’94, ’08, chair of the World Languages department, will join and teach with Ms. McNealus in France.

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Food for Thought Mary Anderson ’15 During her four years at Vermont Academy, Mary took two of my classes: Sustainability and the Food System and AP Environmental Science. She was an active member of the Environmental Club, a student representative on the Sustainability Committee, and the 2015 Hayes Environmental Award winner.

I spoke with her this winter about what she’s been up to since graduating from VA. —Christine Armiger

The class that meant the most to me at Vermont Academy was Sustainability and the Food System. We visited farms and read about how food and agriculture affect sustainability and social justice issues. I grew to appreciate food as a conduit for working on all other social justice issues. Food brings people together. This spans from sharing a cup of coffee with a friend to understanding the cultural values of undocumented peoples working in the dairy farms in Vermont. Food and ingredients tell stories, create a space for us to see one another in our humanity, and help break down barriers.

I fondly remember participating in a VA club called Food for Thought with my lovely classmate Liv Diorio ’14 and my role models and mentors, Ms. Boomgaarden and Ms. Armiger (pictured with me, left to right, at lower right). We spent time at Chivers learning to cook with sustainable and locally sourced ingredients, played music, and talked about relevant social justice topics. I loved spending time at the local elementary school, helping the kids plant and learn about gardening.

VA provided the scaffolding I needed to explore and then hone my skills regarding sustainability. I learned about the Tragedy of the Commons in an environmental class and wanted to better understand how the environment and resources were commercialized, creating a dichotomy of haves vs. have nots. This passion evolved into my study of social justice issues pertaining to global health care and education at the University of Vermont.

Food brings people together. This spans from sharing a cup of coffee with a friend to understanding the cultural values of undocumented peoples working in the dairy farms in Vermont. Food and ingredients tell stories, create a space for us to see one another in our humanity, and help break down barriers.

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The GARDEN, the FOREST, and the RIVER Vermont Academy’s school-wide theme for the 2018-19 school year is sustainability.

Each trimester has featured a cross-curricular theme related to the natural world: the garden in the fall, the forest in the winter, and the river in the spring.

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The GARDEN The story of the 2018-19 school year began with the garden.

In summer 2018, all students and faculty read one or both of the following for the annual all-school read: “Seedfolks” by Paul Fleischman and “The Hate U Give” by Angie Thomas.

“Seedfolks” launched the year-long Sustainability theme. Each chapter is in the voice of a new character, all linked by a community garden that springs from a vacant lot. Vermont Academy’s own Community Garden had a vigorous season in 2018, despite alternating drought and deluge.

Bowls of cherry tomatoes and cucumbers showed up on the table in the faculty room throughout September, and chocolate zucchini muffins made an appearance in the dining hall.

“The Hate U Give” was chosen to complement another focus for the year, Diversity, which was marked by the appointment of Carly Fox and Cynthia Murphy as Diversity and Inclusion Coordinators and their hosting of the second annual Vermont Academy Diversity Conference (see page 44), among other diversity programs and events.

Left to right: Addie Doherty ’19, Head of Dining Services Peter Ross, and Maya Johnson ’19 preparing to turn Vermont Academy-grown zucchinis into chocolate zucchini muffins 12 | S PR I N G 2 019

Jake Tuckner ’19, Lucy Saunders ’19, Makenzie Goldman ’19, Jake Curtis ’19, Leianna Isaacs ’21, and Sustainability Coordinator and science teacher Christine Armiger gleaning lettuce to support the Vermont Foodbank’s fresh food program

Before the start of classes, students took part in a sustainability-focused community service event. In their advisory groups, students and faculty worked on the VA trails and at the campus compost heap, cleaned up trash by the Saxtons River, helped out at the Christ’s Church Community Kitchen, made grocery bags out of recycled t-shirts, tried their hand at farm-to-table cooking, went blueberry picking, removed invasive species, pulled weeds at Buchanan and Proctor, and worked in both the Vermont Academy Community Garden and the Saxtons River Community Garden.

“Community gardens are places where people rediscover not only generosity, but the pleasure of coming together. I salute all those who give their time and talents to rebuilding that sense of belonging.”

– PAUL FLEISCHMAN, “SEEDFOLKS”

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The FOREST By the end of November, the last of the kale was gone, and the chocolate zucchini muffins made from the Community Garden’s bounty were just a distant memory. As the first snow fell, VA students and teachers began their study of the forest.

Students’ first foray into the forest in 2018-19 was before the start of the school year, on the annual Long Trail hike in August.

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Students investigated forest ecosystems and wildlife species.

Taylor Hennum ’20, Maggie Adams ’20, Anja Stolper ’19, and Lauren Eppinger ’20 dressed as trees at the TRY conference as they take part in training to teach young children about the forest

In December, Christine Armiger took four members of the Environmental Club to the Teens Reaching Youth (TRY) conference, an environmental leadership training program offered by Vermont 4-H in partnership with UVM Extension at the University of Vermont. Anja Stolper ’19, Maggie Adams ’20, Taylor Hennum ’20, and Lauren Eppinger ’20 have spent the winter and spring using the knowledge they gained at the conference to teach local 4th graders about forests and trees.

When the sap started to run, local sugarmaker Mike Ghia returned to campus for another season of sugaring. Students in Nate Williams’ and Christine’s classes worked with Mike to learn how to manage the sugarbush and make syrup. All students had the opportunity to earn community service hours by helping with the tapping and collecting of sap. Each year, when the fresh syrup is ready, the dining hall hosts a maple syrupthemed Community Lunch.

Christine Armiger and the TRY students practicing their forest curriculum before sharing it with local elementary schoolers

In Christine’s Geology and Ecology classes, students investigated forest ecosystems and the wildlife species that utilize Vermont Academy’s forested lands. Alex Barrett, who leads the forest management division of Long View Forest, visited the Ecology class to teach students about sustainable forestry practices. The Ecology students then presented what they had learned about forest resources at Community Meeting.

One longer-term sustainability goal is to create a comprehensive forest management plan for our 450-acre campus.

“Until I went to the TRY conference, I didn’t realize that I could be given such responsibility as to teach kids about the environment.

Before, I wasn’t as invested as I am now.”

— ANJA STOLPER ’19

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The RIVER “ All sustainability measures arise from recognition of the worth of something—and of its vulnerability.” —EVIE LOVETT

At the start of the year, Vermont Academy students Edward Ahn ’20, Jake Curtis ’19, Lucy Saunders ’19, Makenzie Goldman ’19, and Evan Zorman ’20 joined Christine Armiger and VA photography teacher Evie Lovett and thousands of other volunteers across Connecticut, Massachusetts, Vermont, and New Hampshire in the Connecticut River Conservancy’s 22nd Annual Source to Sea Cleanup.

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“ Our environment is changing at an alarming rate, and everyone needs to take action and do their part to help clean up. Even the little things we do make a difference.” — LUCY SAUNDERS ’19 (pictured, right, with Makenzie Goldman ’19)

“ The Connecticut River is one of our most beautiful natural features. The trash polluting its banks does the historical waterway grave injustice.” — JAKE CURTIS ’19 (pictured)

“ The beautiful view at the end of the trail made the heavy trash bags in our hands worth it.” — MAKENZIE GOLDMAN ’19 (pictured, left, with Saunders and Curtis)

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Vermont Academy photography teacher Evie Lovett and poet Diana Whitney presented their work in the Nita Choukas Theater at the opening reception for “Thaw,” an exhibit of Lovett’s encaustic paintings and Whitney’s poems.

In late March, as the ice began to break up at the Saxtons River Falls, Vermont Academy’s faculty and students turned their focus from the forest to the river. At the first Community Meeting after spring break, artist and Vermont Academy photography teacher Evie Lovett and poet Diana Whitney presented selections from “Thaw,” an exhibit of Lovett’s encaustic paintings and Whitney’s poems.

Lovett and Whitney have each drawn inspiration from the Connecticut River in their work. In “Thaw,” they share their points of intersection on the muse of the river, as friends and fellow artists.

Lovett photographed the Connecticut River for her 2016 “From the River, To the River” public art project in Brattleboro. In the artist’s statement that accompanies “Thaw,” Lovett writes, “In my encaustic work I found myself incorporating patterns that I saw and photographed, as well as a sense of both ease and peril that I felt when I was on the river. I sensed the patterns of freeze and thaw of the river in myself, in my relationship to my work and to the world around me.”

Lovett’s paintings were also inspired by glass plate negatives of ice skaters on the Connecticut River during her research at the Brattleboro Historical Society, as well as by an unfinished poem by Whitney, which Lovett kept pinned to the wall of her studio. This poem sparked the inspiration for their collaboration on this project.

The river has also long been a source of inspiration for Whitney. “I’ve written poems about the Connecticut since college, when I lived in a legendary off-campus house built into its banks, my bedroom overhanging the water,” she wrote 18 | S PR I N G 2 019

in her artist’s statement. “Witnessing the river’s changing moods and seasons has been a source of imagery, consolation, and insight for me.”

Most of Lovett’s work is in documentary portraiture, encaustic, and mixed media. In addition to teaching photography at Vermont Academy, she is a teaching artist with the Vermont Arts Council and a digital media instructor with the Vermont Folklife Center.

Whitney’s first book, “Wanting It,” became an indie bestseller in 2014 and won the Rubery Book Award in poetry. She’s the poetry critic for the San Francisco Chronicle and her work has appeared in Glamour, The Kenyon Review, and The Washington Post, among others.

TEAR IT DOWN

by Diana Whitney

Safe in this one-horse ten-truck town—

studded snowtires & road salt, wind-chimes tinkling at the Dream Café I walk Main St. at 10 pm to mail a letter

behind two guys in plaid flannel talking about cement. Warm weather blows in

“ I sensed the patterns of freeze and thaw of the river in myself, in my relationship to my work and to the world around me.”— EVIE LOVET T

“Thaw” will be on view in the Horowitz Performing Arts Hall through June 1, 2019. A percentage of proceeds from the sale of Lovett’s paintings will benefit Vermont Academy.

Throughout the spring, Vermont Academy faculty will incorporate river-themed studies into their classes. Christine Armiger’s classes will watch a film called “After the Flood,” which tells the story of Tropical Storm Irene’s impact on Vermont’s rivers and surrounding development; they will learn about the importance of respecting flood plains and take a field trip throughout the Saxtons River watershed.

Whitney visited classrooms in March to conduct poetry workshops, thanks to the Bob ’37 and Beth Campbell Art Fund. Kathy Urffer, River Steward with the Connecticut River Conservancy, will be the Earth Day keynote speaker, and Margo Ghia of the Windham County Natural Resources Conservation District will use a stream table to demonstrate river geomorphology.

During Spring Arts weekend, students will share the outcome of their own explorations of the Connecticut River, which may take the form of artwork, poetry readings, performances, or displays of scientific data.

like a quilt thrown off the bed. Strange winds

from the South, the river unleashed, ice-out— I can’t keep my hands off myself. Trek the trail to Journey’s End

deep channel carved through a hemlock grove banks of corn snow collapsing, floes roiling in snowmelt, the rimey waterfall

sculpted with beard-ice sickled ledges & layers, wet mosses bared.

The dark-green meltpool is waiting

for a body. Winter drowned in there.

I strip off my sweater, unabashed the way I watch the workmen

hammer the siding, build the new annex up on their scaffold. Tear it down like the river tears her banks, carries bergs & chunks

down from the mountains.

Tear down the boards, insulation & glass gut the houses to studs & cross-beams

then tear them down too let whitewater take them, torrents sluicing under the bridges, the whole town razed

to its very foundations, this false spring hexing a spell on the valley roil, roil, toil & trouble, rivers rage & longing double

the lines of propriety we walk daily riven by the current, aswirl in rapids, a sheen of pressure endlessly churning. Listen, can you hear it—

blood thrumming beneath skin a feral season about to begin.

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STUDENT VOICES for SUSTAINABILITY

These three articles were originally published in fall 2018 in VA Voice (vavoice.org), the student news site of Vermont Academy. English teacher and VA Voice faculty sponsor Cynthia Murphy and her team of student writers are focusing on sustainability issues this year.

FINDING A CONNECTION WITH SUSTAINABILITY An Interview with Evan Zorman ’20 by Kevin Urquhart ’20 Vermont sees itself as a green state, and Ms. Armiger and the Sustainability Team want to see Vermont Academy reach those goals. An important part of this push for a more green future is getting the kids of this society to understand the importance of sustainability so that they can help to fight these problems, and the Sustainability Team does that perfectly.

I caught up with Evan Zorman ’20 and got to know a little bit about the Sustainability Team. I asked Evan what takes place during Sustainability Team on regular basis. He said, “We start off practice with checking on the chickens, and then we do some garden work. On warm days we go kayaking to explore nature here in Vermont.” I asked him why he decided to join the Sustainability Team, and he said,

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“I talked to Ms. Armiger two years ago on the Long Trail, and she seemed like a lively person. The team was a perfect size for me and seemed like a fun team to be a part of.”

Sustainability is continuing to grow here at Vermont Academy and really transforming into a big part of the culture that we have here. If we fail to think about sustainability when we make choices that could affect the environment, then we are just taking for granted the wonderful things nature gives us.

Kevin Urquhart ‘20 is a thoughtful student with a sense of humor and a strong commitment to giving back to others.

He is a forward on the Boys’ Varsity Hockey team.

SUSTAINABILITY AT SCHOOL AND AT HOME An Interview with Mr. Nate Williams by Savannah Mouyos ’20 Our theme this year at Vermont Academy is sustainability, which is the ability to maintain rates of renewable resources, pollution creation, and non-renewable resource depletion that can be continued indefinitely. The whole purpose of this is to manage our community and improve the future of the world. Sustainability also brings the community together and allows us to do volunteer work to improve our environment. The three scientific principles of sustainability are dependence on solar energy, biodiversity, and chemical cycling.

Mr. Nate Williams works at Vermont Academy as a science teacher and an outdoor educator. Mr. Williams (pictured, second from right, co-leading a Long Trail hike in August 2018) takes a role in the theme of sustainability by teaching science, coaching in the outdoors, and hiking. Sustainability to Mr. Williams is “living in a way that is renewable—and we can only use so many resources before they run out, so living sustainably is getting humans to think like that and then to take action.” He supports sustainability by “getting students to connect with their natural world.” He said, “If humans connect with their natural world, they will find deeper meaning in it and protect it.”

His main mission is “to get his students outside and loving nature, sitting in the woods by interacting with it, seeing it, feeling it, lying outside at night looking at the stars, and loving this place and wanting it to stay the same.” Mr. Williams is also connected with sustainability in his home.

“ If humans connect with their natural world, they will find deeper meaning in it and protect it.” — NATE WILLIAMS He said of his life at home, “I try to make my ecological footprint as small as possible. That’s hard as an American.

The way I do it is by very little things that can add up. So we compost, recycle, reuse items, the clothes I wear are hand-me-downs or from the thrift shop, we buy used cars instead of buying new manufacturing cars, and at home, the biggest thing is how we shop for food. We purchase items that were produced locally, and we also have a garden.”

Mr. Williams feels that Vermont Academy’s Sustainability program “has a strong contingent in great leaders that provide opportunities. It can be hard to get our student body and community to engage because we are so busy, but putting our attention on sustainability as our school theme helps to make it a priority.”

Savannah Mouyos ‘20 is enjoying her first year at Vermont Academy. She delights in developing her athletic skills, especially on the Girls’ Varsity Basketball team.

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SUSTAINABILITY IS HER LIFE CHOICE An Interview with Ms. Christine Armiger

by Symir Torrence ’19 Sustainability is important for many reasons, and one of those is environmental quality. In order to have healthy communities, we need clean air and water, natural resources, and sustainable growth. Ms. Armiger, pictured here with one of the chickens she raises on our campus, is the director of Vermont Academy’s Sustainability program. Talking with her made me want to learn more about the environment.

I asked her what makes her like the environment. She replied, “I like being outside more than being inside. My dad was in the environmental science field, and I had wonderful experiences camping when I was growing up.”

Her favorite teachers in high school were environmental science teachers. She was also inspired by the lyrics to “Payback” on the Woody Guthrie tribute album “’Til We Outnumber ‘Em”: “The amount that we owe is all that we have, and the only way that I can pay back all of you good walkers and talkers is to work, and to let my work help you to do your work, the kind of work you like best and can best perform. I’ve got to know in a solid way that my work is helping you.”

What really stood out to Ms. Armiger is that she liked people who cared about others rather than themselves all the time. She also said it’s more than just about us.

What really stood out to Ms. Armiger is that she liked people who cared about others rather than themselves all the time. She also said it’s more than just about us. Karma was something she thought was effective in sustainability because what you put out there is what you’re going to get back. She likes projects that involve working with different kinds of people and learning about herself by traveling to other places. In college she studied conservation biology at the University of Montana Western, a small, experiential school. After working as a naturalist and wilderness guide in Alaska, she knew she wanted to become a science teacher.

Her Antioch University New England graduate work with Mayan farmers in Belize had the greatest impact on her, and she still takes her students to visit these communities so they can learn about sustainable farming.

This year Ms. Armiger is heading up the all-school focus on sustainability, and the theme for the fall is the garden, so we can think about where we get our food. For the winter, the theme is the forest and how we consider nature in the natural world. Spring is focused on the river so we can explore where we get energy, how water serves us, and what we need to do in order to make sure that we invest in that resource.

Symir Torrence ‘19 is outgoing and focuses on helping others over himself. He is a captain of the Boys’ Varsity Basketball team and a Marquette University commit for fall 2019.

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SAVE THAT STUFF!

Erik Levy ’86 rescues trash from the landfill Erik Levy ’86 is the founder and president of Save That Stuff, an innovative

Massachusetts-based recycling company. He spoke with Vermont Academy Life about the founding and goals of the company.

I started Save That Stuff in 1990 after attending Denison University, where I had a job picking up cardboard around the campus. I earned spending money, but more importantly, I began to be aware of the value of “used corrugated cardboard” once it had been baled and sold back to the paper mills for recycling.

I also grew up working in my father’s wholesale and retail stores in Harvard Square, Faneuil Hall, and Newbury Street, Boston. My years of shipping and receiving really opened my eyes to cardboard waste. I envisioned a business that considered the environmental benefit of recycling. “To provide costeffective and environmentally aware alternatives to disposal” was the phrase I used in the early days.

I launched Save That Stuff in a classic 1971 Volkswagen Double Cab. It is a half VW bus, half pickup truck that I bought in Ohio just after college. Fully restored now, it is the company’s parade vehicle, used for marketing, events, and family trips and vacations. Save That Stuff has now grown to 30 trucks, a recycling plant, and 70 employees from seven countries.

The quantity of “stuff” we collect and process is more than I ever thought I would handle. Early on, I learned about the commodity value of cardboard, paper, metals, and plastics; these days, Save That Stuff processes 200,000 pounds per day of recyclables and some trash. I am now discovering the growing commodity value of organics and food waste, and we now collect 140,000

pounds per day of food waste, which is eventually converted into energy and dirt.

Zero Waste doesn’t mean no trash. I look forward to future work with recycling to make sure it is done right and kept clean—and makes good financial sense, too. We need to continue to expand organics and food waste recycling and help businesses with a pathway toward less trash and a larger commitment to saving that stuff!

Vermont Academy Memories I have fond memories of recreational skiing and of soccer and lacrosse during foliage season on the upper playing fields. Cows being moved slowly behind the football field toward milking meant dinner for us.

A blown hydraulic line on my trucks today reminds me of the “squirting” chicken served during VA formal dinners. (It was a good dinner— I just didn’t want to stain my tie!)

The beautiful VA campus, Vermont life, diverse faculty and students all were great parts of my times at VA. Bob Long, the late Mr. Truslow, Parkman, Chivers, Lucy, and my grandparents, Don and Jane Brodine, were great influences on my life then, and today, too. Fellow classmates Hixson, Gotts, Wall, Dunbar, and Leventhal—call me!

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ATHLETIC Highlights

This fall and winter, Wildcats demonstrated their trademark spirit and teamwork at championships games, at a renowned regatta, and on fields, trails, slopes, and rinks around the region.

Girls’ Varsity Soccer made it to the NEPSAC Class D championship game for the fourth year in a row!

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ountain Biking hosted the Lakes M Region Championship this year.

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oys’ JV Soccer finished the season B with a winning record (6-5-1).

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n October 21, the Crew team O had the opportunity to race in the prestigious Head of the Charles.

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he Girls’ Snowboarding team had a T great season, with a second-place win at Crotched Mountain in February.

Lucy Saunders ’19 landed on the podium in third in one slalom race and one freestyle competition and came in fourth in another race.

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irls’ Varsity Basketball had another G stellar season and finished 18-6 overall while finishing as Finalist in NEPSAC Class D. Ani Kapral ’19 (St. Michael’s commit), Saige Roberts ’19, and Ella Bushee ’20 were all named All-NEPSAC Class D.

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he Boys’ Varsity Basketball team T went 21-11 overall and advanced to the NEPSAC AA Semifinals. Symir Torrence ‘19 (Marquette commit) and Tommy O’Neil ‘19 (Harvard commit) were both named AllNEPSAC Class AA. Head Coach Alex Popp (year five) earned his 100th career win at the Academy.

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oys’ JV Hockey defeated B long-standing rival Proctor Academy in their first game of the season.

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or the second year in a row, Nordic F team member Trevor Palmiotto ‘21 qualified for the statewide Vermont boys’ team at the 2019 U16 National Invitational New England Nordic Ski Association (NENSA) Championships. Palmiotto competed with Team Vermont in Bethel, Maine, in March, helping the team to beat out Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, New York, and the Midwest for the title.

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n January 23, Kristyna “Kalty” O Kaltounkova ’20 surpassed 100 points for the Girls’ Varsity Hockey team in a matchup with Hoosac School. The team made it to the NEPSAC Division II Quarterfinals this year and fell just short against number 1-seeded Brooks.

Boys’ Varsity Hockey Assistant Coach Katie Stames was featured in an article in Hockey Night in Boston’s “HNIB News” about female coaches of boys’ teams. She told HNIB, “VA fosters having a tight-knit community where you get to know your students really well. Whether it be in the classroom, in the rink, or in the dorm I enjoy getting to see these students daily.

I think that it is great that the boys’ team can have a female as an assistant coach.” Read the article at http://bit.ly/stames.

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“BE TRUE TO YOURSELF” Clara Converse 1879 and the politics of human connection

BY DR. JENNIFER L. ZACCARA

“It was twelve when the quake came. We stayed in the Park until break of day the next morning. Flames were blazing all about us. It was a wonderful sight.

At times the heat and smoke could be endured only by pressing faces close to the earth.”

So records Clara Adra Converse in the 1890 edition of Vermont Academy Life, from her post as principal of the Soshin School for Girls in Yokohama, Japan, in 1923. From her start at Vermont Academy, Clara was bound for a great future, restless and dissatisfied even as she was an intellectual striver in her studies.

Clara grew up in Grafton, Vermont, where her father was a farmer with 800 acres. She and her sister Sara pursued their studies and a career at Vermont Academy. Clara graduated from Vermont Academy in 1879 as part of the first class and then completed her degree at Smith College, later to return to Vermont Academy as a teacher. She instructed Florence Sabin, inspiring Sabin to become one of the first women physicians in the United States, a professor at Johns Hopkins, and ultimately the founder of the Colorado healthcare system. (Clara later received the Florence Sabin Distinguished Alumni Award, which was awarded to her posthumously.)

Clara was bound for a great future, restless and dissatisfied even as she was an intellectual striver in her studies.

Feeling a deep dedication to awakening an inner fire in her students, Clara created the Vermont Academy motto: Be True to Your Best Self. She would carry this credo to the Soshin School for Girls when she decided to become a missionary and a school principal after her father passed away. She concluded her teaching at Vermont Academy in 1889 and then took 2 8 | S PR I N G 2 019

off for her new position in Japan the following year. At the farewell service for “Miss Converse,” Clara spoke of “her deep love” for Vermont Academy, “for here it was that she had received a large part of her early training, here had her character been moulded and shaped, and here she received those impressions that turned her thoughts toward what at length was to be her life work.” These words are recorded in the Fall issue of Vermont Academy Life in 1890. As she concluded, she said “with great earnestness and depth of feeling: ‘I thank God that I ever came to Vermont Academy.’”

All replied in unison and volume, “God bless Clara Converse.” And off she went!

Recorded in an early date book on April 18 after her arrival, Clara wrote her full name and “Trust in God: Be True to Your Best Self” in the official book at the Soshin School.

She inserted “best” in the statement, and clearly that term resonated with her more than the simple phrase “Be true to yourself.” This motto made its way across the seas and connects Vermont Academy and Soshin School in multiple ways, both as an ideal to which one might aspire and as a key to a philosophy of teaching. If, as Clara suggests in these two school environments, one formative and one representing the hallmark of her career, a teacher’s job is to help a student to discover that best self and remain true to it, then she has inscribed in these words a teaching philosophy that still exists at both of her treasured schools.

Clara wrote a letter home to Vermont Academy on March 17, 1890, and started out with energy: “‘Two guns!’ ‘The American Mail is in!’ Wait until the Pacific lies between you and home and see if it is not a joyous sound! The Gaelic came last evening three days ahead of time, thus

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“The needy will appear more and more as time goes on.

Pray that we may see all opportunities to help and use them fearlessly. With Love, C.A. Converse.”

saving the feverish watching caused by the preceding steamer which was as many days late.” She laughed at the letter from the editor of Vermont Academy Life and told the student that he seemed to be under a “slight conception” of the distance that separated them since she just got his letter, and he requested a reply for the following day!

In Yokohama, Clara set about becoming fluent in Japanese by studying three hours a day with a teacher.

She wrote, “There are no relatives, certain participial constructions take their place, and as there is no agreement of participle with noun, ablative absolutes are nothing in comparison.” Clara would have been so disappointed to see the decline of grammar instruction as a subject separate from English literature in the United States! She reflected back to her Saxtons River community in a letter included in Vermont Academy Life in 1890, “Would that you could enjoy with me the daphnes, the camellias, and the magnolias which are in full blossom in our yard.”

After the earthquake of 1923, she made her way back to her school from her attempt to purchase a newspaper—an act that saved her life, since she was on her way to meet Miss Colgate, an old friend arriving on the Empress of Canada, with whom she hoped to travel around Japan. If she had gone directly to the ship, she would have been part of the “soot and rubble” she described on the streets of the town.

She never did travel with her friend and sent a colleague to inform Miss Colgate to depart with the Empress of Canada.

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As Clara made her way to her school, she realized that fortune had smiled on it, and that it was still standing.

“The Principal is coming,” shouted someone who saw Clara walking toward the school, and soon two girls brought a cup of milk and a pitcher of water. Clara worked with her neighbor, Admiral Iwamoto, to shelter Japanese families who lost their homes, and he, in turn, set up guards to protect the school from the looters who were destroying homes and businesses. She wrote in a letter to her former students and colleagues at Vermont Academy that was included in Vermont Academy Life, “Admiral Iwamoto brought the head of the militia to speak to me yesterday and two officers came today. I want the Mission Society and the Americans to know how wonderfully kind the authorities are to us.

We on our side are trying our best to serve them.”

Befriending the local Japanese legislators who protected her and her school after the earthquake in 1923, Clara was able, through her steadfast devotion to students, colleagues and neighbors, to build a new Soshin School of Girls with the blessing of Emperor Hirohito. The modern buildings that stand today are that second iteration of the school. So devoted were the Japanese to her and her generous spirit that they allowed Clara to be buried in 1935 in a Japanese cemetery facing her school, an honor rarely if ever given to a foreigner.

She concludes an article in Missions in 1923, telling her fellow people of faith, “The needy will appear more and more as time goes on. Pray that we may see all opportunities to help and use them fearlessly. With Love, C.A. Converse.” In 1929, Emperor Showa, Hirohito, conferred the Blue Ribbon on Clara in honor of her years of service in education.

We are the global village Clara Converse had shown us it was possible to achieve.

Many of the records at the Soshin School were destroyed in the fires from U.S. bombings of the island during World War II, and who is to know how Clara would have fared or what she would have thought if she lived to see the war and to know the agonizing conflict of being devoted to both the United States and Japan.

VA Alumnus Bailey King ’14 traveled to the Soshin School for Girls in early February 2019, meeting the head of school, Akiko Nakajima San, who is busy writing a biography of Clara Converse and had thought about reaching out to Vermont Academy. I sent Bailey, our graduate and emissary, to see if Nakajima San would be willing to set up a partnership between our schools, allowing their orchestra to travel to Vermont Academy and perform, and our orchestra and small chorus to reciprocate. I also offered to establish exchanges for trimesters or to invite Soshin girls to attend our Global Leadership Summer Symposium. Bailey shared that all ideas were happily accepted, and we will soon be working on establishing a bond between our two schools in honor of Clara Abra Converse, who passed away in 1935. Surely she would be smiling on us now if she knew that both heads of school in Vermont and Soshin were simultaneously thinking of the special spirit of this woman who inspired both of our schools, so many students, and the great hope of simple friendship outside of politics, war, and division.

One of the remarkable facts about Vermont Academy is the early root of its commitment to global outreach, cultural understanding, and genuine neighborliness. So many years ago, Clara led the way, and we have followed ever since. She would be so proud of our global trimesters in Spain and France, our science trip to Belize, and past trimesters in Chile and China.

In addition, Liceo Europeo, our partner school in Madrid, will soon have a Vermont Academy degree program on its campus.

We are the global village Clara Converse had shown us it was possible to achieve in 1889 when she left her New England home in Grafton, Vermont, and her teaching position at Vermont Academy for the unknown shores of her new home in Yokohama, Japan. Her great heart instilled a special sweetness and authenticity in our school that is part of the quality of our campus and global relationships every day. The stars that shined above the clear night sky in Saxtons River at Vermont Academy were the same stars that Clara saw above her on quiet nights in Yokohama. She wrote to Larry Leavitt, head of school at Vermont Academy, during his first year at his post in 1934, asking him to maintain the values and citizenship that she learned at Vermont Academy and that helped her to continue with strength through all of her challenges during her life’s work in Japan. She carried Vermont Academy with her, and it gave her the courage and strength to endure.

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VA to Launch European Partnership in Fall 2019 Partner school Liceo Europeo will offer a Vermont Academy degree in Spain This fall, Vermont Academy will launch an intensive two-year Baccalaureate degree program at Liceo Europeo, a top day school in Madrid, Spain (see liceo-europeo.es/vermontacademy/en/). Liceo Europeo students will work with VA teachers, follow our curriculum, and earn a Vermont Academy diploma.

In November 2018, Vermont Academy welcomed four ninth graders and an English teacher from Liceo Europeo to campus for a week and a half. They took home photos, videos, and stories to share with their Liceo Europeo classmates. Left to right: Francisco Palencia “Paco” Gutierrez-Colomer, Liceo Europeo teacher Marco Rois Bana, Paula Sanz Cuesta, Carlota Montes Gago, and Mauro García Santamaría

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“Vermont Academy and Liceo Europeo are very excited to combine the strengths of our individual reputations in this new school with an American curriculum, experiential learning, and learning support. Nestled in the lovely Alconbendas, a suburb of Madrid, Liceo Europeo shares much in common with Vermont Academy in terms of the lively, engaging students who attend our schools, and the students’ desire to cultivate their voices and knowledge of global and cultural affairs. This model of a degree program is revolutionary since we are sending our own teachers to Liceo Europeo and having joint oversight of the program’s quality and customer service with our partner school.

Our goal is to offer an exceptional education and a path to a strong American college or university upon graduation.”

— Dr. Jennifer L. Zaccara Vermont Academy’s Head of School

“The collaboration between our schools will create a dynamic opportunity for students and faculty in both schools to connect the Vermont Academy curriculum to an authentic international experience. Building these types of bridges is what one of our Core Beliefs is all about: a Vermont Academy student ‘considers the impact of their actions on both the immediate and world community, for the benefit of future generations.’”

— Cynthia Murphy Vermont Academy’s International Program Coordinator

Gonzalo Inclán (left), head of Liceo Europeo, visited VA last spring and met with Dr. Zaccara and Michael A. Choukas ‘73, P ‘94, chair of the VA Board of Trustees.

Dr. Zaccara also visited Liceo Europeo last year.

She stopped by the new Atlético de Madrid soccer stadium with Liceo Europeo’s Inclán and Kitty Chirivi of Atlético de Madrid. Vermont Academy will host an Atlético de Madrid soccer program this summer.

(See vermontacademy.org/soccercamp.)

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ANOTHER

WORLD

By Yuchen “Aaron” Gong ’19

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I believe in music. I believe in the power of music. I believe that mental growth is more important than a test score. I did not believe these things before I started to play jazz. I did not even dare to think about these. In short, jazz made me a person who dares to dream. Jazz made me a person who has something to believe in.

More importantly, jazz gave me a key to unlock the door to another world.

Before I came to VA, I didn’t feel I had anything special to offer. I had a normal haircut. I had average grades. I obeyed my parents’ orders. Indeed, similar to most teenagers in China, I believed in wealth and “success.” I believed that once I became a person who was considered “successful” by society, I would become unique, and my existence could mean something. Everything changed when I first stepped on VA’s campus and entered Mr. Cady’s classroom.

me, and I trapped myself in my new world. The world where I did not have to obtain happiness by hanging out with friends.

The world where I did not have to stand out from the crowd by wearing LV and Gucci. The world where I did not have to be talkative. The world where I did not have to be a “friend”

Four years ago, the first time I heard music play out of the speaker in Mr. Cady’s classroom, it touched something inside of me. I stood in front of the classroom like a fool. Duke Ellington, Oscar Peterson, Herbie Hancock… All those jazz masters’ names became more and more familiar to me. I could feel the magic in their music every time I listened, as if it could bring me to the most comfortable and relaxing place in the world. Jazz overwhelmed me, jazz eased my stress, but at the same time, jazz became part of me.

As it grew larger and larger inside me, I started to experience more with it: the time when I played my first solo on stage.

The moment when my hands were shaking after the concert.

The moment when I saw [Qilong] Miks [Lai ’18] hugging Mr. Cady, crying, after his last concert at VA. I started to believe in jazz; I started to believe in music. As time passed by, all those shining experiences came together and melted into a key. It was the key for me to open the door of which I questioned the existence before. It was the key that unlocked my mental world.

It was the key that led me into a new phase of life.

At first, I was as afraid of the new world as a newborn. I was nervous when I took a step forward. I was nervous about getting lost in the new world and not being able to find the way back to the old one. Yet, as I experienced more and more happiness in the new world, I finally locked the door behind

to strangers. The world where I did not have to pretend to be another person. The world where I could dream. The world where I could enjoy the pure happiness that generated from the deepest part of my soul…

It’s been two years since I first twisted the key and opened the door, two years since I said goodbye to my old world. Now, music has become my religion. Happiness is my new god.

Music is my utopia. I am its resident. My body can travel anywhere, but my soul will always stay inside the music.

Watch a video of the performance pictured above, with Aaron on piano and Mr. Cady on bass, at http://bit.ly/aarongong.

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Wildcats: We Want to Know!

WHAT DOES SUSTAINABILITY AT VERMONT ACADEMY MEAN TO YOU?

JAKE TUCKNER ’19

Hometown: Pound Ridge, New York When I first came to VA, my Earth Day activity was to walk the trails with Mr. Sotskov and Ms. Vinidiktova.

We cleared the trail, removing large trees and branches that had fallen. Getting lost up in the VA trails, making new connections in nature, was a pretty amazing experience to have.

Being on the Sustainability Team this fall taught me the values of being a sustainable human. When

I am sustainable in relationship to my environment, it brings out the light of how beautiful this world is and why we must maintain it. VA’s sustainability approach has

made me more daring about trying new things and more compassionate about environmental issues. In college, I will be looking to join the sustainability club.

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MAGGIE ADAMS ’20

Hometown: Saxtons River, Vermont Going to VA has given me lots of opportunities to learn about sustainability. I’m in the Environmental Club, where I get the chance to talk about and make changes to help the school be more sustainable and environmentally conscious.

One of my favorite sustainability activities at VA is the Long Trail trip. We learned about

how to carry everything we need and how to make sure we are respecting the earth. I appreciate the chance to spend time in nature and learn in a new way.

JOSH BASCOE ’21

Hometown: Milton, Ontario, Canada Sustainability at VA to me means keeping our campus clean and creating a good, healthy living space for our students and faculty.

Being in Vermont is beyond different. It was challenging to me at first because I missed having access to city life. However, Vermont’s beauty

is growing on me, especially with all the different perspectives and relationships I have been exposed to.

JENNA POWERS ’22 Hometown: Putney, Vermont

Born and raised in Vermont, I am very familiar with Green Up Day, composting, and recycling. I think it’s really important to take care of the environment, and being part of the Vermont Academy community makes me proud that we are environmentally conscious.

We encourage things like the Sustainability Team, composting, water conservation, and maple sugaring, just to name a few.

I got to go on a VA trip to Belize where we explored their tropical ecosystem and learned about the importance of their environment and how to protect it. This is something I would not have gotten to experience here in Vermont, but because of VA I have this opportunity.

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WILDCAT PROFILE:

Anja

Stolper ’19 ANJA AT A GLANCE: Hometown: Walpole, New Hampshire Years at VA: 4 Favorite VA memory: Playing JV Hockey “Olympics” at the rink after all our games are done for the season Favorite VA tradition: Winter Carnival, especially broomball Favorite meal while studying abroad in Spain: Tortilla española, made by my host mom Favorite Long Trail traditions: Going swimming any time we saw a body of water, because we couldn’t shower. The weird meals we had to make, because we could only take food that traveled well. One of my trail mates spilled all of his rice onto the ground, so there were a lot of leaves and sticks in it, but he still had to make his burrito with it, because LNT (“leave no trace”). He made everyone try a bite.

Activities: JV Ice Hockey for all four years, Long Trail Hike all four years, Environmental Club, TRY for the Environment conference, Youth Climate Summit, Crew, proctor

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“Fierce in the best way.” “ A leader full of quiet strength.” “ One of the most thoughtful and insightful students I have taught.”

After four years at Vermont Academy, Anja Stolper ’19 has shown herself to be all of these and more. She has also discovered a powerful calling to protect and defend the environment.

In her words, she has become...

“Shamelessly sustainable” “When I first got to VA, I learned that sustainability is an important tool,” Anja said. “I understood the issues, but I wasn’t really doing anything to contribute.” As she moved through her time at Vermont Academy, Anja gained confidence as well as knowledge. “Now, as a senior, I feel like finally, I’m shamelessly for the environment—shamelessly sustainable,” she said.

Anja’s brother, Julian Stolper ’15, graduated from Vermont Academy the spring before Anja began as a freshman.

“My brother had such an amazing experience and definitely thrived,” Anja said. “He rows competitively at Bates now, and VA is the reason why. Before he went to VA, he never would have considered himself the type of athlete or student he was when he graduated.”

“VA seemed so big and amazing,” Anja said, “and there were all these athletes and students doing incredible things here that I just wanted to be a part of.”

Becoming a leader Just before the start of her freshman year, Anja went on the Long Trail Hike with Christine Armiger and Nate Williams.

“I’d never done a trip like that,” she said. “It’s not just about appreciating nature and being without technology—we also focus on leadership. Mr. Williams and Ms. Armiger helped me understand that I wouldn’t become a leader because I already had those leadership skills, but that I can develop those skills.”

This trip marked the beginning of Anja’s involvement with sustainability at Vermont Academy. She has since joined the Environmental Club, taken AP Environmental Science, and hiked the Long Trail three more times. “Mr. Williams and Ms. Armiger are able to make students feel like they’re having the best time in their lives while they’re in the woods,” she said.

“Half the time, it’s pouring rain and you’re hiking eight miles a day—and they still make it fun and meaningful.”

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Anja has also worked to raise awareness on campus about recycling, composting, and the environmental benefits of reducing meat consumption. “I feel like it’s my obligation to do what I can to make other people aware and to try to get people to be more sustainable,” she said. “Even if it’s little, I want to do what I can do to spread awareness and take action.”

Anja credits Christine Armiger with inspiring her. “She’s opened my eyes to the fact that the responsibility of doing overpowers the amount of work you have to do,” Anja said. “There’s a phrase, ‘Knowledge is power,’ and I feel like because I took AP Environmental Science with Ms. Armiger, I now have all this knowledge that can further fuel what that I’m passionate about.”

“Now, I realize that this should be my responsibility” In her senior year, Anja is branching out into areas of sustainability and leadership she had once thought were beyond her. In December 2018, Anja and three other students attended the Teens Reaching Youth (TRY) Conference at the University of Vermont to learn how to teach children about forests and trees. This spring, the VA students have been putting their training into action in local elementary school classrooms.

“A whole new world” Ms. Armiger is not the only VA teacher who has helped Anja to grow over the past four years. Her advisor, Amanda GilbertHodgson P ’21, is “like a second mom.” Anja said, “Even though I’m a day student and I have my parents around, I feel like I can talk very openly to Ms. Hodgson, and she always understands where I’m coming from.”

“I knew I could do things like compost and make presentations at VA,” Anja said, “but I didn’t realize that I could be given such responsibility as to teach kids about the basics of the environment. Before, I wasn’t as invested as I am now. Now, I realize that this should be my responsibility at this time—and that it’s all of our responsibilities.”

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From her Spanish teacher, Laura Frey P ’89, ’92, ’94, ’08, Anja gained language skills and cultural insights that she plans to use far beyond the classroom. “I was very quiet and shy at first and was not confident about my ability as a Spanish speaker,” Anja said. “Ms. Frey has helped build up my confidence. By learning a language that so many people in the world speak, I feel like I’ve opened up another perspective into a whole new world.”

Few students have brought more personal investment into their AP Environmental Science presentations than Anja Stolper. When she stands in front of the class (or the whole school at Community Meeting), we understand the implications of deforestation in the Amazon, dead zones in the Gulf of Mexico, and the extinction of a rare sea lion fighting for existence in the subantarctic. When Anja speaks to us about these issues, we listen with our hearts, because we know that’s the place she is speaking from. Anja works from a place of sensitivity and compassion for the more than human world around us.

— C HRISTINE ARMIGER, Sustainability Program

Coordinator and science teacher

Her Spanish studies also helped prepare her for the trimester she spent in Spain. “I’m so grateful that my school gives students the opportunity to live in a foreign country and study there,” she said.

Anja also expressed appreciation for her honors physics teacher, Joe Echanis ’79, P ’08, ‘11, ‘18. “He was very forgiving and very patient, and he was always there, even when I needed to go to him for help with problem sets three times a week,” she said. “Instead of feeling like I was slow and not as good as other students, I felt like my knowledge was worth the same as anyone else’s—it’s just different.”

“I could 100% be myself” After her graduation from Vermont Academy this spring, Anja plans to continue to pursue environmental science and Spanish.

She is also interested in psychology. “I feel really excited for what I’m going to do next,” she said, “but it’s also really scary. VA has been my way of life for the past four years. I’ve made some of my best friends here, and my friends have really helped me grow.”

One thing that will not change for Anja is her relentless drive to promote sustainability wherever she goes, even when the enormity of the need for environmental action seems daunting.

“It’s easy with issues like this to feel negative and angry, but it’s much more effective to feel positive and optimistic,” she said.

There is another effect that Vermont Academy has had on Anja to which she returns over and over, and which she knows has changed her for the better. “One of the ways I’ve definitely grown here is my confidence,” she said. “A lot of people as a freshman or sophomore do not have a lot of confidence, and that was something I definitely struggled with. But once I figured out what I was passionate about and what kind of person I wanted to be, I developed an immense amount of confidence, and I felt like I could 100% be myself at VA.”

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kllklk West Hill Dorm was this year’s Winter Carnival winner.

k1l l l k 10 Vermont Academy’s th

Winter Carnival

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Broomball is always a highlight of the weekend.

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Zoee Blossom ’19 created a poster in honor of this year’s event. This poster is available in the Vermont Academy Bookstore for $10 plus shipping.

Please contact Karen Langson at bookstore@vermontacademy.org to order yours. VA will produce a commemorative poster to mark each year’s Winter Carnival from now on.

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“EVERYBODY, EVERYBODY” VA HOSTS 2ND ANNUAL DIVERSITY CONFERENCE

On January 19, Vermont Academy hosted its second annual Vermont Academy Diversity Conference, titled “‘Everybody, Everybody’: Reimagining Gender and Sexuality in Our Schools.” The conference was organized and presented by VA’s diversity conference committee, chaired by our new Diversity and Inclusion Coordinators, Carly Fox and Cynthia Murphy.

The keynote speaker was Dr. Sarah Miller, a sociologist whose work has investigated the school experiences of LGBTQ youth and their allies, how inequality and social media shape teens’ experiences with bullying, and how adolescent girls navigate sexism and homophobia. Dr. Miller teaches at Boston University and provides trainings for youth and educators on fostering equity and promoting inclusive school climates.

In addition to Vermont Academy, five schools from around northern New England attended the conference: Kindle Farm School, Kurn Hattin Homes for Children, Stoneleigh-Burnham School, The Winchendon School, and Williston Northampton School. Participants attended a session with members of their cohort from other schools (students, teachers, administrators, board members, alumni, and parents), then met with their own school group to plan a project to advance gender and sexuality inclusion on their campuses over the next year.

One of the most powerful sessions of the day was the student panel. The students spoke about their school experiences and gave the adults feedback about what is working well and what could be improved for the future. They provided powerful insights into issues of gender and sexuality in our schools and offered authentic approaches for growth.

“Not only was the day inspirational and a great chance to network with other schools, but it was also a foundation for our work next year,” Cynthia noted. “Taking time to focus on issues of diversity and inclusion empowers us to grow and improve.”

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Announcing Our New Annual Giving Chair

Diane Wilder ‘79 Diane Wilder graduated in 1979 in one of the first coed classes at Vermont Academy. She enjoyed the theater program and sciences, and she learned the valuable lessons of participating in athletics. After graduating from Swarthmore College, she became a higher education administrator and in various fundraising roles has helped to raise close to half a billion dollars.

She is honored and happy to thank the many alumni who have supported Vermont Academy, saying, “Dr. Zaccara’s leadership will inspire new ways of approaching annual giving, and I’m excited by this opportunity to make a difference for current and future students.”

In her new volunteer role as annual giving chair, Diane brings decades of expertise in fundraising, prospect management and research, donor relations, and alumni relations. She is currently the assistant vice president of institutional advancement at Haverford College. A former competitive synchronized ice skater and ice dancer, she continues her love of ice skating and serves as a judge in the Mid-Atlantic region for the United States Figure Skating Association.

She encourages alumni who wish to join the annual giving alumni leadership program to contact her at 610-420-4881 or d.lowell.wilder@gmail.com.

“ I will always remember acting alongside Diane in the school rendition of The Fantastiks. She helped make things move along with her smarts and dedication to doing a job better than just well. Excellence has always defined her, and I am delighted that she has accepted the role of Annual Giving Chair. I am sure she will bring down the house once again.”

— LISA ECKHARDT MCNEALUS ’79

Chair of the Art Department

“ From the moment I met Diane last summer in Pennsylvania, I knew I was very fortunate that she was an alumna of the school. Her knowledge of and experience with fundraising is vast and deep, and the fact that she’s willing to share her talents with VA in this role is priceless. We have raised the bar for VA’s Annual Giving program not only in dollars, but with our volunteers—and especially with Diane leading the way as Annual Giving Chair.”

— MEL ANIE HOFFMANN

Assistant Head of School and Director of External Affairs

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Introducing Our New Trustees The Vermont Academy Board of Trustees is pleased to welcome three new members of the Board of Trustees, as well as a new Vermont Academy Alumni Association (VAAA) co-president and a new Vermont Academy Parents’ Association (VAPA) president.

CATHY CORRIGAN MCDERMOTT P ’18 I New Trustee Cathy Corrigan McDermott P ’18 is a vice president, portfolio manager, and senior analyst at Eaton Vance Management in Boston.

Previously, Ms. McDermott was a principal at Cypress Tree Investment Management and a vice president of corporate underwriting and research at Financial Security Assurance, Inc. She began her career in the investment management industry in 1988.

Ms. McDermott holds a B.S., summa cum laude, from Boston College. She was a founding member and board member of the North End Music and Performing Arts Center and has been a partner with Social Venture Partners Boston for eight years.

Cathy’s daughter, Caitlyn, is a 2018 VA graduate, currently attending Oxford University. Caitlyn was featured on the cover of the Summer/Fall issue of Vermont Academy Life.

LINDA SAARNIJOKI I New Trustee Linda Saarnijoki grew up in Western New York with parents who had strong New England roots. She graduated from Middlebury College with a degree in English and from Teachers College at Columbia University with a Master’s in Teaching of English. Hired by The Taft School in Watertown, Connecticut, in 1976, Linda began a 40- year career there, during which she served as a class dean, director of the Teaching Fellowship Program, director of professional growth, dean of faculty, director of the library, English department head, and head of many standing and ad hoc committees, addressing such issues as professional development, leadership, benefits, work equity, student discipline, the Honor Code, and the ten-year NEASC school evaluation.

Throughout her career she taught at least one section of English.

She and her husband Rusty Davis retired to Weston, Vermont, in 2016.

REVEREND GEORGE H. WELLES JR. ’53 I New Trustee Reverend George H. Welles ’53 is an Episcopal minister and a humanitarian who attended the 1963 March on Washington and marched in Selma with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in 1965. A graduate of Williams College and Virginia Seminary, Mr. Welles has devoted his life to civil rights and justice. He and his wife Annie are the parents of eight children.

He has a longstanding and close relationship with Vermont Academy, beginning with his arrival on campus in 1951. At his commencement, he was inducted into the Cum Laude Society, awarded the Barrett Medal, and given a total of six varsity letters in football, hockey, and baseball. He received the Florence R. Sabin Distinguished Alumni Award in 2001.

TOM OXHOLM ’82 I New VAAA Co-President Tom Oxholm ’82 has spent over 30 years building relationships and garnering resources for independent schools and at the Keewaydin Foundation. He is currently the director of institutional advancement at Kurn Hattin Homes for Children.

Mr. Oxholm got his first taste of development work while a student at VA. He later went on to lead Vermont Academy’s development efforts.

A graduate of Colby College, Tom serves on the Board of the High 5 Adventure Learning Center in Brattleboro, Vermont.

He lives in Brattleboro with his wife Victoria, a clinician with the Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Vermont, and two daughters, Hannah, a junior at Union College, and Chloe, a junior at Brattleboro Union High School.

FRANCIS WILLETT ’86, P ’21 I New VAPA President Francis Willett ’86 has 25 years of experience in professional services and emergency management, including nine years with Everbridge. He is FEMA Certified in Emergency Management and Incident Command System (ICS) and serves as Lieutenant/Interior Firefighter with the Durham Volunteer Fire Company.

Mr. Willett lives in Durham, Connecticut. He and his wife, Alicia Fonash-Willett, are the parents of Logan Willett ’21 and 11-year-old Aidan Willett.

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Vermont Academy on Main Street New maker space connects VA to the community

“Thanks to a Saxtons River neighbor’s donation, we now have a maker space at 26B Main Street in Saxtons River.

It is good to have a sign and flag on Main Street and an operational after-school program in robotics for public and private school students taught by our teachers and students. This space brings together the community and our areas of expertise in such a wonderful way.

Vermont Academy has been uniquely joined with the Saxtons River community for 143 years, and we are happy to make that relationship explicit by having this rented space, and even, with some ingenuity, developing a WeWork environment of area artisans in some of the open spaces in village buildings. Our rented space is a first step in a larger vision of enterprise, apprenticeships, and community networking.”

— DR. JENNIFER L . ZACCAR A

Head of School

“We offer unique STEM and Design programs such as Architecture and Engineering, Circuit Bending, Inventing, and Robotics and will be adding more design, innovation, and entrepreneurial programming as we expand our campus. The new rented space in Saxtons River has provided the Robotics Team a space to mentor younger students from area middle schools in STEM-based afterschool innovation and design-based programs. This allows our students to expand their horizons through sharing what they have learned in a community serviceoriented environment. As we expand our programming, these opportunities will expand as well. Our students benefit from promoting Vermont Academy values out in the community while the community is benefiting from their service.”

— JOE ECHANIS ’79, P ’08, ‘11, ‘18

Chair of the Science Department

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Honoring Roger Westine’s 45 Years of Service

by Peter Ross, Director of Dining Services

A typical conversation between the two of us might go: “Roger, how much beef should I buy for dinner?”

Roger, thank you.

You made my job immeasurably easier.

When I got ready to leave every afternoon, I would check in with Roger and ask him if he were all set for the night. The answer has always been, “Should be fine.” Or, “As long as the creek don’t rise.”

Or, “What could possibly go wrong?” Well, in the six years I have been here, the creek has never risen. And nothing has gone wrong on Roger’s watch.

Roger started work at VA in 1973 during Michael Choukas’s time as headmaster. Over 45 years and seven administrations, Roger has witnessed change, growth, cutbacks, and renewal. Back then, Falko Schilling was the only vegetarian on campus. Gluten-free did not exist. Formal Meal started with a glass of pre-poured juice at every table setting and ended with coffee for the faculty and headmaster in Aldrich Lounge. Now, “Headmaster” has become “head of school.”

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“Well, Wednesday is Sports Day, boys’ basketball and girls’ hockey are both away, but the kids really love that meal, so I would get [x] lbs.”

And he was always right.

We will miss “Thar she blows!” whenever the steamer door is opened and “Everyone into the pool!” whenever a 50 lb. bag of red potatoes is dumped into one our big stock kettles. I did the math, and that works out to 324,000 pounds of potatoes over the past 45 years.

Roger, we’ll miss you. Enjoy the next, hopefully long, act of retirement.

Thank you, my friend.

“When I hired Roger in 1973, I never imagined he would stay for 45 years! I am so glad he did. He has been a part of the fabric of VA for decades, and left a wonderful impression on all of his colleagues who saw him daily. I congratulate Roger on his retirement!”

—MICHAEL CHOUKAS JR. ’46, P ’73, GP ’94 Headmaster Emeritus

“I had the distinct pleasure of enjoying Roger’s cooking as a faculty brat, student, coworker and alum! From lunches after kindergarten to eating three meals a day during my six years on the faculty, I saw a lot of Roger and always loved chatting with him. He’s the friendliest guy!”

— CONOR MCARDLE ’06 Former faculty member

“ Almost nightly, Roger would make a small bowl of broccoli or another healthy side for Finley when she was a toddler.

It meant the world to Megan and me and it was a small gesture that showed how much Roger cared about every member of the community, no matter their role. He is an example of why VA is a special place. Thank you, Roger!”

—K YLE ’03 AND THE NELLIGAN FAMILY Former faculty member

“Roger is the best! No words will suffice in explaining all that he meant to the VA community. Truly a special guy. He will be deeply missed by all Wildcats.”

— MATT ’95 AND LINDSAY EDDY Former faculty members

“Roger is an institution at Vermont Academy, every bit as important to the experience as Long Walk or Winter Carnival. Walking across Alumni Field from the ski bus and seeing the glow of Shep was always a source of wintertime comfort for me, knowing the warmth that awaited… Good food and conversation, but also a smile, warm welcome, and kind word from Roger.”

— GLENN AND JULIA DELANEY Former faculty members

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CL ASS NOTES

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SAVE THE DATE FOR REUNION WEEKEND 2019:

September 27-29, 2019 CLASS OF 1944

CLASS OF 1984

CLASS OF 1949

CLASS OF 1989

CLASS OF 1954

CLASS OF 1994

CLASS OF 1959

CLASS OF 1999

75th Reunion

70th Reunion 65th Reunion

60th Reunion

35th Reunion

30th Reunion 25th Reunion

20th Reunion

Frank Riedel ’54: I am happy to feel still young enough to participate in life, in my profession, in politics, in cultural events, etc.

I am still pursuing my waste-toenergy technology worldwide and quite successfully, and I am happy to see that the conscience for our environment is definitely on the upside path, even in countries which are generally termed “developing.” So my enthusiasm in traveling and in discovery of foreign cultures is still unspoilt, and even a 10-hour flight does not mean any barriers to pursue this goal.

The only bitter drop is the feeling that the world is gradually closing up again. We in our generation have grown up in full optimism that the bitter experience of World War II has taught the people a lesson and that we will never regress into isolation, seclusion, and egoism again. But it seems that every generation has to learn their lessons over and over again.

CLASS OF 1964

CLASS OF 2004

But lamenting of course does not help. So I am extremely happy to see the internationality of VA battling this tendency, from which I have so much profited during my time in Saxtons River.

CLASS OF 1969

CLASS OF 2009

Class of 1955:

CLASS OF 1974

CLASS OF 2014

55th Reunion

50th Reunion 45th Reunion

15th Reunion

10th Reunion 5th Reunion

CLASS OF 1979 40th Reunion

Class of 1951: Peter Weir ‘51 has been residing at the Arbors in Shelburne for several years now. If anyone is in the area, feel free to pay him a visit!

Class of 1953: Larry Hale ’53: Still hangin’ in there.

George Welles ’53: VA ‘53 wants to be among the first alumni to congratulate VA ‘19 as your commencement day approaches. We welcome you into the Vermont Academy Alumni Association and extend our very best wishes as the future beckons you all to what lies ahead.

Class of 1954: Dick Burton ’54: Nancy & I are still enjoying life in Wilmington, NC… around our doctors’ appointments. Just had my fourth shoulder surgery, but will be back playing golf in March. We moved a year ago to a condo from our house of 20 years… Tired of all the upkeep and work. Good move!! Happy New Year to all.

Bill Rousseau ‘55: Thank you for the update on the passing of Arnie Castagner [in the Summer/Fall 2018 issue of Vermont Academy Life]. It brought back memories of my teaching/coaching years (1962-1968) at VA. Arnie was varsity basketball coach, and I coached the junior varsity. Many long and cold winter nights spent in the infamous “Orange Crate” as we traveled to New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and Connecticut for games. A true gentleman, outstanding teacher, skilled coach, and caring mentor, he epitomized the spirit of VA. I left VA for three years at Northwood School and rounded out my 48-year career in education at Pine Crest School in Fort Lauderdale as a teacher, coach, administrator, and athletic director of a program featuring 63 separate teams for males/females in grades 8-12. Vermont Academy, with mentors like John Lucy, Warren Chivers, Mike Choukas, Gus Black, Don Brodine, and a host of others, created a foundation for a long and fruitful career in education. It was with great pride that I was honored with admission to the Vermont Academy Athletic Hall Of Fame during the late 1990s. We now live in San Francisco, where we are able to play a role in the lives of our grandchildren and to enjoy all that this diverse and lively city offers. In closing, I want to give praise for an outstanding Vermont Academy Life and to those who have kept alive the spirit and philosophies upon which the school was founded.

Don Scholl ’55: Peg and I have recently relocated to a house that we remodeled on our daughter and son-in-law’s property two miles west of our former abode. This makes it five houses in Chester County, PA, since graduation from Haverford in 1959. Without planning, we have always moved west from our former home. For the last 20+ years, we have spent the month of February in Aruba, which is preferable to the Philadelphia area weather at that time. We have been blessed with four kids and eight grandkids. Other than a few more aches and pains, life is good! Hope to be at our 65th Reunion in 2020!

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Westport, CT, Reception: VA family and friends gathered at the home of Tom and Jeanne Capasse P ’16 in Westport, Connecticut.

Class of 1959: Roger Seagrave ‘59: Enjoying life in GA. My wife Dianne is now in remission—she “lived” much of 2015 in the Emory Hospital.

We now live about 3 miles from our daughter and family (son, 16; daughter, 14). Our son and family (four boys ages 6-12) live in FL (just north of Ft. Lauderdale). Bottom line—all is well!

Class of 1960: Penn Lardner ‘60: We are in need of updated email addresses, telephone numbers, and physical addresses for all of you in the Class of 1960. Please contact me at richardlardner@sbcglobal.net so that I can get the updated information to the school and so we can plan for the 60th reunion! Or please contact the school, and let them know of any changes. At our age and with our limited incomes, it is hard to think about a 2020 reunion or even gift giving!

There are about 30+ of us left, and each reunion seems to have been a lot of fun with good/bad memories exchanged among us.

I am working five days a week at a champagne company in Napa Valley, California. I walk about four and half miles a day delivering sparkling wine/champagne to customers. The customers are from California, all of the 50 states, Western and Eastern Europe, certain African nations, certain Middle East nations, and Far East nations like Singapore, China, Taiwan, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand.

Our common ground is that everyone loves bubbles! We can do the same in that our common ground is Vermont Academy: good and not-so-good memories! In today’s world, it is a source of light and hope for what lies ahead for all of us! Social Security gives all of us some income! Perhaps it will allow for you to take a day trip in September 2020 to visit the campus! My contacts so far are with Dick Aulisi, Dan Brown, Bob Seeley, Ronnie Stewart, Denis Noonan, 52 | S PR I N G 2 019

Jon Clarner, Bob Morse, Peter Allen, Paul Butler, Tony Carbine, Jay Eberle, Charlie Emig, Woody Hickcox, Jack Quebman, John Antosca, Paul Singer, David Taylor, George Yeomans, and Don Zinn.

There are about 10 more with whom I have not had contact. Please let me or other classmates or the school know what you are doing.

Class of 1961: Greg Chase ’61: Our class rep., John Anderson, and I are working on the creation of an Annual Fund committee for our class with four classmates. We want to increase the amount donated and the class participation.

Class of 1962: Peter Johnson ‘62: Peter’s annual holiday letter included that grandchildren and dogs keep him and his wife busy, but they still had time to travel way south.

On a small ship they made a landing at Cape Horn, explored the Beagle Passage and Magellan Strait with daily landings to explore the glaciers, and then went on to Easter Island.

Class of 1966:

Class of 1971:

Bob Mortenson ’66: We are retired from the Army (2006) and the VA (2015) now and travel. Our children are spread over the country and in China. God is good.

Bill Keating ’71: Looking forward to retirement after 40 years of teaching and coaching, including 11 years at Vermont Academy.

We will be splitting time between our house in the Saxtons River area on Hartley Hill and Vero Beach, FL.

Class of 1969: Dennis Gaydos ‘69: Well, here goes! It will be 50 years, gentlemen, since graduation. I am planning on making the journey to Vermont for our reunion. Who else will be there? It would be nice if we could connect with Joe Perry. Let’s try to see each other!

Class of 1970: Robert Sollmann ’70: In 2012 I retired from a long career at MetLife. Couldn’t “put the pen down” and in 2013 joined Accenture’s Life Insurance Industry management consulting practice. Kathryn and I have two daughters. Our oldest works in advertising for McCann and lives in Brooklyn. Our youngest is a freshman at Johns Hopkins. Kathryn is a recognized leader in helping women navigate the many stages of work and life.

She recently published her first book, “Ambition Redefined: Why the Corner Office Doesn’t Work for Every Woman & What to Do Instead.” Life is good!

Class of 1974: Dan Lyons ‘74: In his role as senior manager of entertainment for the Boston Red Sox, Dan was on hand the night of fellow VA alum Bruce Brown ‘16’s ceremonial first pitch.

MAGGIE MAE FENNEY ’13 MEMORIAL CHAIR DEDICATION | During Reunion Weekend this past fall, family and friends of Maggie Mae Fenney ’13 gathered on the South Lawn to dedicate a pair of Adirondack chairs in her memory. May all who visit find this place to pause with a friend and deepen their connections to each other.

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Class of 1976: Rossi Turner ’76 shared this remembrance: Choate Academy arrived with three buses of football players in September of 1975.

Thus, they had more players on the buses than we had students at Vermont Academy. VA beat Choate with the greatest quarterback ever, my brother, Tim Fontaine ‘76. He led a great group of players who worked together. Miss you, Tim, you are for always my brother.

Class of 1984: Sean Scott ‘84: Made my first attempt to summit Denali, the highest peak in North America, in 2017, a lifetime climbing goal.

Turned back at 17,200 feet due to low supplies and bad weather. It was the coldest May in 40 years on Denali and I witnessed a flash freeze for the first time. Climb on!

Class of 1986: Erik Levy ’86 and his business, Save that Stuff, were featured in a 2018 PBS NewsHour special segment titled “Why your recyclables might have no place to go.” Watch at http://bit.ly/eriklevy and see article on pg. 23 for more.

ANDREW WARD ’93 ON THE ROAD | While traveling around the U.S. on business, Vermont Academy Alumni Association Co-President Andrew Ward ’93 had the pleasure of connecting with other alumni.

Andrew and David Mann ’92 (Washington)

Andrew and Ezio Berrettini ’92 (Illinois)

Andrew and Scott Lewis ’84 (Arizona)

SHARE YOUR ENTREPRENEURSHIP STORY

Calling all Vermont Academy entrepreneurs, inventors, business startup founders, and creators of art, music, new technologies, and other innovations: we want to hear your stories!

Share your entrepreneurship experiences at www.vermontacademy.org/innovate. We may end up featuring you in a future publication.

Andrew and Will Hawthorne ’92 (California)

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Save the Date Vermont Academy’s annual Bob Harrington Scholarship Golf Classic

July 26, 2019 Highfields Golf & Country Club Grafton, MA For more information, visit vermontacademy.org/alumni/events or call (802) 869-6260.

All proceeds support The Bob Harrington Scholarship Fund.

Class of 1990:

Class of 1997: Jimmy Ramsey ’90: Brian Jones ’90 and I got to reconnect for a weekend in Las Vegas in March. Always fun catching up with old friends. Both looking forward to our 30-year reunion next year.

Class of 1991: Katherine Marshuetz Double ’91: I am living in Chapel Hill, NC, with my 2 children (16 and 13) and too many pets. I recently started a private psychotherapy practice focusing on couple counseling and sex therapy—it has been a much smoother transition than expected and the business is doing very well. I can’t believe how long it has been since I graduated, and I would love to catch up with other alumni!

Class of 1992: Will Hawthorne ‘92: During his recent travels (see inset), Andrew Ward ’93 learned that Will is an assistant principal in LaJolla, CA, married, and the proud dad of a 10-year-old daughter.

Jake Barrett ’97: My wife Alex, my daughters Dorothy (4) & Matilda (2), my dog Bruce, and I are all happy, healthy, and living in Dedham, MA. I’m working as a high school special education teacher in Brookline, and Alex is the lead veterinarian at a practice in Westwood. After a few years of transient living, with stints in St. Kitts & Nevis in the Caribbean as well as Stillwater, OK, we’re now back in Massachusetts and getting to know Dedham.

Class of 1998: Don Dardarananda ‘98 and Fred Goertz ‘98 connected over dinner in Thailand.

Class of 2005: Lesley Tkaczyk Miller ‘05: Lesley and her husband Kevin Miller welcomed their first child, Asher, on February 22, 2018. The Millers recently moved to Tampa, FL, where Lesley works as an editorial manager for an international product marketing company.

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Class of 2006:

Class of 2016:

Scott Raines ‘06: Scott’s family writes that Scott is the owner of Westside Bagel in Lahaina, HI.

Bruce Brown ’16: Newly drafted by the Detroit Pistons, Bruce had the honor of throwing out the ceremonial first pitch at a Boston Red Sox game last summer as the Red Sox took on the Tampa Bay Rays on August 18.

Class of 2008: Michelle Fairbank ‘08: I’m currently completing my last year of graduate school, studying to be a psychotherapist in Toronto, ON. I’m seeing clients as an intern psychotherapist in my own practice.

Castine Echanis ’08 was married to GyuTae Kim this past November in South Korea. In attendance at the wedding in Suwon were VA alumni Hannah Blatt ’08, Cassie Howe ’07, Jacob LaRocca ‘08, and Ally Talbot ‘10, as well as Castine’s siblings, Amaia Echanis ’11 and Dariel Echanis ’18, and her father, VA faculty member Joe Echanis ’79, P ’08, ‘11, ‘18.

Class of 2015: Matt Gendron ’15: I’m still at Norwich as a Mechanical Engineering major. I’ll soon be commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the United States Army Reserves in the Corps of Engineers.

Jamie Lumley ‘15: I’m completing my senior year at Middlebury as an international politics & economics major with a focus on Russia. Looking to move to DC after graduating, to pursue work in the think tank world on U.S.-Russia relations.

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Chris Iamonaco ’16: Chris is still passionate about mountain biking, as he is now a junior at UVM and on the Men’s Varsity MTB team. Last summer, he did the Leadville 100 MTB Race in Colorado (with dad in tow as his pit crew) and finished in a respectable 9 hours.

Class of 2017: Sueann Barsh ’17 (Miami University of Ohio) and Cara Linder ’17 (Elon University) are spending the spring semester as part of the Semester at Sea program. They will be visiting 11 countries and 15 cities on this unique study abroad voyage. Their first stop was Kobe, Japan.

Burlington, VT, Reception: Braving the cold this past January, we were thrilled to have the company of these alums at the Hotel Vermont.

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Class of 2018: Dariel Echanis ’18: I’ve spent the last 6 months with Americorps National Civilian Community Corp (NCCC). I am stationed in the Pacific region. I was one of only seven members accepted onto a specialty team within NCCC that works specifically with the Bureau of Land Management in California. Our work throughout the ten months is focused on the environmental restoration and conservation of California’s public lands. We have been building new trails, planting saplings in areas that have been run down by wildfires, and working on fuels reduction to prevent future fires from spreading so rapidly. We will get chain saw and “Leave No Trace” certified and then teach it to kids at local schools.

CL A SS R E PR E SE NTATI V E S Class Representatives are now online! Find a list of names and contact information for our Class Representatives at vermontacademy.org/classrep. Drop them a line to share your news and stay up-to-date on what your class is up to.

Class Representatives Needed: We are still in need of volunteers for the following classes. It’s a great way to stay in touch with your classmates and give back to Vermont Academy. If you can help, please contact Liz Olmsted, Director of Alumni Engagement, at alumni@vermontacademy.org or 802-869-6260.

C L A SS R E PR E S E N TAT I V E S N E E D E D :

40 | 41 | 42 | 43 | 44 | 46 | 52 | 57 | 72 | 75 | 86 | 89

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In Memoriam Vermont Academy extends its condolences to the families and friends of our alumni and friends who have passed away. This list includes updates reported by family members, newspapers, and other sources. To share news of deceased alumni and friends of Vermont Academy, please contact our Alumni Office at alumni@vermontacademy.org or PO Box 500, Saxtons River, Vermont 05154.

ALUMNI Dr. J. Whitney Brown M.D. ’40, 10/31/2018

Mr. Richard G. Lunetta ’53, 2/1/2019

Mr. Robert M. Campbell ’37, P ’65, ’68, ’70 (2), ’80, ’82, 12/23/2018

Mr. Charles C. Maxson ’52, 1/31/2019

Maj. Gen. (Ret.) Donald E. Edwards ’55, 8/16/2018

Mr. Todd W. Nugent ’76, 2/21/2019

Mr. E. Bulkeley Griswold ’57, 2/14/2019

Mr. William G. Randall ’44, 10/21/2018

Mr. Waldo L. Hart ’55, 12/15/2018

Mr. John Sargent ’55, 9/26/2018

Mr. Bancroft W. Henderson III ’62, 7/31/2018

Mr. Hamilton Shippee ’51, 10/28/2018

Mr. John I. Hinckley ’62, 1/31/2019

Mr. Russell Y. Smith Jr. ’51, 9/19/2018

Mr. Rodney M. Johnson ’50, 1/10/2019

Mr. Gordon F. Merrill ’45, 10/17/2018

Mr. Richard B. von Maur Jr. ’51, 10/13/2018

Mrs. Ami Lynne Schlirf Lai ’83 3/10/2019 FRIENDS OF VERMONT AC ADEMY Mrs. Anita W. Peck, 1/26/2019, mother of Theodore G. Peck ’85 Ms. Pam Lucy Quinn, 1/28/2019, daughter of John H. Lucy and sister of John C. Lucy ’68 Ms. Terry Sprague, 3/12/2019, former faculty member

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Remembering Bob Campbell Robert M. Campbell ’37, P ’65, ’68, ’70 (2), ’80, ’82 passed away on December 23, 2018, at the age of 99. A pillar of the Vermont Academy community, Mr. Campbell was VA’s first director of development, a trustee, and a trustee emeritus. He was also the father of eleven children, six of whom attended Vermont Academy.

Mr. Campbell started the first commercial film company in Vermont in 1956; resurrected the Saxtons River Inn in 1974; was a former trustee of The Grammar School in Putney; was a summer resident of Wellfleet, Massachusetts and a talented sailboat racer; and was a generous supporter of Main Street Arts in Saxtons River. His daughter Averill now owns and runs the Saxtons River Village Market, and his daughter Sarah ’80 owns and runs the Saxtons River Inn. His son Sean ’70 served for more than a decade as VA’s business manager and chief financial officer.

“I am deeply grateful to have had the opportunity to spend time with Bob in the last years of his life,” said Dr. Jennifer L. Zaccara, Vermont Academy’s head of school. “We met regularly to talk about art, photography, his family, the village of Saxtons River, and our shared love of Vermont Academy. I learned so much from listening to him; I always took notes or made audio recordings. He was a friend and mentor, and I miss him.”

Campbell is survived by his eleven children, twelve grandchildren, and six great-grandchildren.

He was predeceased in 2016 by his beloved wife of 71 years, Beth.

Their legacy lives on at Vermont Academy in a multitude of ways, including through the Bob ’37 and Beth Campbell Art Fund, which continues to bring artists and speakers to campus.

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VERMONT ACADEMY’S TRUSTEES CHALLENGE

YOU TO MAKE A GIFT THIS YEAR!

A group of Trustees will donate $100,000 to the Annual Fund this year if VA receives $200,000 in new and additional Annual Fund gifts between March 1 and May 31, 2019. To qualify, your gift must be a new gift OR an additional gift this fiscal year.* This challenge will also be a part of the One Day for VA giving day on May 7.

Help VA by making a gift TODAY!

Give online at vermontacademy.org/give or via check, securities, or wire transfer. For more information, please call (802) 869-6260.

Thank you! *Fiscal year runs July 1 - June 30

The Vermont Academy Annual Fund Please make your gift by using the envelope provided or online at vermontacademy.org/give

NON PROFIT ORG US POSTAGE

PAID

PO Box 500, Saxtons R iver, V T 05154

WHT RIV JCT VT PERMIT 86

Reunion 2019 SEPTEMBER 27-29

Join in! What could be better than a fall day in Vermont, celebrating with your classmates, cheering on our Wildcats, and ending the day with a farm-to-table banquet? Stay for the Sunday Brunch featuring our own maple syrup and burn it off at our Alumni Soccer game.

For more information, visit vermontacademy.org/reunion