22 minute read
Leadership By Example
by Leadership Example
One of the greatest honors at Westminster is to be elected head prefect.
The head prefect serves as the president of the student body, helps foster school culture, leads student government meetings and assemblies, and gives an address at commencement, among other duties.
Fifth Formers who are interested in serving on the Prefect Board or being named head prefect or junior prefect as Sixth Formers write essays for students and the faculty to consider before voting on the candidates. Members of the Prefect Board, the junior prefect and the head prefect are announced at the Lawn Ceremony the night before commencement. It is always a suspenseful moment for those in attendance.
While the daily responsibilities of the head prefect have evolved over the years, those who have held the position often credit the leadership skills they acquired in the role as a significant influence on their life. Four holders of this esteemed position share their thoughts about the rewards and challenges of occupying such a highly visible position in the Westminster community.
Head Prefect Megan Rittenhouse ’20 gives announcements during family-style lunch.
Peter Greene ’64
Peter Greene served as head prefect during a milestone year at Westminster. The school celebrated its 75th anniversary in May 1964 with a convocation that included a groundbreaking ceremony for Baxter Academic Center, panel discussions and an address by the president of Williams College. It was a time of major progress for the school that included the opening in 1962 of Andrews Memorial Chapel.
Peter arrived at Westminster as a Fourth Former with the goal of attending hotel management school at Cornell University. He grew up in White Hall, Ill., an agricultural town of about 3,000 people, and decided to look at independent schools because his local high school did not offer adequate language study for admission to college.
As a Westminster student, Peter participated in Dramat, the John Hay Vestry, the Choral Club and the Athletic Committee. He was also a member of the first football, swimming and tennis teams, and served as president of his class as a Fifth Former and head prefect as a Sixth Former.
“It wasn’t an office that I particularly ran for since we didn’t write essays back then,” said Peter about being named head prefect. “I think from knowing classmates, being on the corridor and talking about issues, it just evolved. It was voted on by the faculty, the Fifth Form and on a lowerweighted basis by the Third Form and Fourth Form.” He found out the news, when he was brought onto the Sixth Form Lawn during the Lawn Ceremony by the previous head prefect, Steve Squibb ’63.
As head prefect, Peter scheduled and oversaw Sixth Form meetings and Student Council meetings, met weekly with the headmaster, attended faculty meetings when he was invited, represented the student body in Athletic Committee meetings, gave the morning prayer at breakfast, presided over the daily assembly before lunch and led the procession at nightly chapel.
Some of the restrictions of student life on the Hill stand out in his memory. “Unless you were in the Sixth Form, you couldn’t even have a radio, and we couldn’t go off the Hill except during limited times,” he said, recalling a path to town that went alongside the hairpin driveway and the geographic boundaries for how far students could venture.
During his tenure as head prefect,
Peter Greene ’64
the Prefect Board undertook some new initiatives. “We encouraged all Sixth Formers to be responsible in their positions as corridor prefects and to assist the corridor masters in maintaining orderly conduct in the dorms,” he said. “The Prefect Board along with the Student Council also got the faculty to approve a change in the radio policy, so all students were allowed radios.”
He characterizes student life at the time as relaxed, although major national and international events were unfolding. “The Vietnam War was in its early stages, and we were all affected by
the assassination of President Kennedy in 1963,” said Peter. “Headmaster Pete Keyes spoke at chapel the night of the president’s death about how the country was grieving and that we had a system that would still allow everything to go forward.”
Serving as head prefect put Peter in frequent contact with the headmaster. “By being in close proximity on a regular basis with Headmaster Keyes, I realized the complexity in running a school, as it was much more than just classrooms and sports,” said Peter. “Headmaster Keyes was a great influence in guiding me when issues arose that I needed to deal with as head prefect. Disciplinary issues sometimes put me at odds with underclassmen and faculty.”
Peter’s regular interactions with the faculty were also helpful. “I spent time with the faculty on a different level at faculty meetings and Athletic Committee meetings, but certainly not as their coequal,” he said. “I also learned speaking skills and to be interactive with adults as well as classmates.” He was surprised, however, when some faculty members expected him to report back to them about student behavior, rather than
allowing him as head prefect to try to resolve issues.
Peter credits his experience serving as head prefect as assisting his admission to Cornell, where he earned a B.S. in hotel administration. “The head prefect role helped round me out as an individual,” he said. “I was able to adjust to college life on a more mature level than many other freshmen.” At Cornell, he served in leadership roles in a fraternity, was active in organizations within the Hotel School, rowed crew and participated in intramural sports.
Following graduation from Cornell
and two years of service in the U.S. Army, Peter entered the hotel management field. “Rather than going to more of a line position or lower supervisory position, I was quickly in a management position and responsible for hotel development and management at a very early age,” he said.
Peter now has more than 50 years of hotel experience as an owner, financier, developer operator and broker of hotels. He has specialized in repositioning, conversions and development of boutique and urban hotels, and currently serves as first vice president for CBRE Hotels, where he performs advisory work on hotel transactions and development as a commercial broker. He is also active in Chicago-area civic organizations such as Lawrence Hall, a community-based youth services organization, as well as some business organizations and the Cornell Hotel Society. Recently widowed, he lives in Evanston, Ill., and has two children and two grandchildren.
Peter has stayed involved with Westminster over the years, returning to campus frequently. He has attended multiple reunions, served on the Executive Committee of the Alumni Association, and attended special events on and off campus. He has also supported and promoted the Stephen T. Perry Memorial Scholarship Fund, a scholarship program his class created in memory of their classmate Stephen Perry ’64, who was killed in Vietnam. Their goal is to endow the fund. “If we don’t get it done now, it will not get done, and we want to make sure there is something in perpetuity to honor Steve,” said Peter.
Although the physical appearance of the Westminster campus and its programmatic offerings have changed since Peter was a student, he believes there remains a continuity in the interactions between faculty and students that is a critical aspect to a Westminster education. “Faculty are involved with students in the dorms, in the classrooms, in sports and in the new dining hall,” he observed. “There is almost a camaraderie, although not of peers. It is a great thing about the school. I think students learn more that way, not just about academics but about everything.”
Tom McCargo ’82, P’21
Growing up in Sewickley, Pa., Tom McCargo knew he would follow the family tradition of attending boarding school. He went from a private middle school near home where he was not challenged to Westminster where he had to learn how to work hard on academics by digging in and engaging with his teachers.
“I enjoyed being at Westminster right away,” said Tom. “There was not any homesickness. There were people around all of the time, whether it was friends or teachers. I also liked being in a classroom where teachers were interested in you and always engaging. My prior school was the exact opposite.”
During his four-years as a Martlet, Tom served as class president for three years and was elected head prefect. He played on the first teams for soccer, squash and lacrosse, and was a member of the John Hay Society.
“It was a period of optimism, as the country had pretty much turned the corner economically,” he recalled. “Some big events included the change from the Carter administration to the Reagan administration, and the Iranian Revolution. Students kept somewhat in tune with what was going on.”
Tom’s role in student government evolved, and he did not campaign for the office of head prefect. “I had no idea I had this leadership ability, and I wasn’t looking for it,” he reflected. But he did take it very seriously.
Student leadership at the time was focused on student life and not on changing such things as school rules or the class schedule. “It was about serving in a day-to-day leadership role by setting an example for the school and engaging students in all forms and making sure you reached and helped younger students, such as when they might be sitting at the lunch table by themselves,” he said. “It
was leadership by example and how to behave and how to treat others, which is part of the ethos of the school. It was about making sure that people were staying in school and, if people were getting out of line, helping them or finding them help.”
Tom is proud that his classmates seemed generally happy. “We had a really strong class with a cohesive group of people who got along well and had strong leadership,” he said. “It was not just me. I was fortunate to be the person who was a leader of this leadership group.”
He did find it uncomfortable as head prefect, however, when classmates’ conversations quieted when he entered a room. “From a leadership standpoint that was tough,” he recalled. “You can’t always be everybody’s friend all of the time, even though you like them, and they are good people. They were not mean to me, but sometimes they looked at me like I was checking on them and that was a hard place to be as a 17-year-old.”
Tom learned more about how the school operated by working closely with Headmaster Don Werner. “It was an incredible experience to see how he thought about and gave consideration to issues by looking at all the angles,” said Tom. “It was a life-changing experience for me.”
When student discipline matters came up, Tom often participated in discussions with faculty members. “They cared about what I thought,” he said. “I was actively engaged in the conversation, as they were, on the merits of a student about whom we were deliberating.”
Tom’s student leadership roles at Westminster were foundational to his early involvement in governance at the University of Vermont, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in history. As a freshman, he was appointed a twoyear student member of the Board of Trustees with full voting privileges. “It was fascinating because the board was highly political and dealt with the state Legislature,” he said. “It was the start of my public service on boards of directors. I’ve been on a lot of boards since then, but I knew early on how the public side of things worked.”
Students on campus in 1982.
A graduate of the Entrepreneurial Management Program at Carnegie Mellon University, Tom lives in his hometown of Sewickley with his wife, Sara, and their children, Grant ’21, Fife, Lucille, Meriwether and Augustine. He is co-founder and president of Urban Villages Inc., a real estate investment and developer that develops and manages primarily urban sites, combining historic and modern structures, and builds assets that are generational. He is also president of Graham Companies, a diverse real estate business headquartered in Pittsburgh that is involved in investment, development, property management, leasing and ownership of various types of real property.
Tom is in his second stint as a Westminster trustee. He first served on the board from 1996 to 2008, during which time he chaired the Strategic Planning
Committee. He was reappointed in 2017 and says his tenure as head prefect has informed his role as a trustee. “Being a trustee is about trying to help and do what is right for the school,” he said. “And what is right for the school is fostering great character in students. Instilling character is more important than it has ever been and the biggest challenge.”
During his first term on the board, Tom was most interested in the financial side of running the school, whereas now that he is a Westminster parent, he is more concerned with pedagogy and student life.
Tom is active in civic life in Pittsburgh. He is on the board of directors of the Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Community Capital Corporation, which focuses on preserving and dealing with older buildings, and the Sewickley Heights Borough Council, where he is in charge of planning and zoning architecture reviews. He has helped reorganize boards and pushed for tough decisions. “What I have learned in my life is that I don’t really sit on the sideline,” he said. “I am not an activist, but if something is not correct I am willing to stand up and try to fix it.”
For Tom, leadership continues to be about leading by example and watching out for others. “It is not about the win; it is about helping the person who is having trouble,” he said. “Anybody can be an allstar but how do you help everybody get there? It is about how you treat others.”
Suzanne Daglio Armstrong ’94
Two decades after the first girls were admitted to Westminster, Suzanne Daglio Armstrong was elected the first female head prefect.
“I was excited, but it felt like a lot of responsibility,” she said. “As a high school student, with as much maturity as you can have at that age, I initially tried to downplay the female part because I was nervous about being able to perform the role. Part of it might have been that Westminster was steeped in tradition and had started as a male school. But I learned over that year and subsequently a paradigm shift for what leadership can look like. I embraced my qualities and decided they didn’t have to look like everyone else’s before me.”
A day student from Granby, except for her last trimester when she lived in Squibb House, Suzanne learned about Westminster from visiting campus when her brother, Michael Daglio ’89, was a student. “I would not have had any idea what the school had to offer if I hadn’t attended his games and events,” she said. “I was impressed.”
Her involvement in student government activities started in middle school. “I thought it would be fun to help mobilize a group of people, bring people together and connect others,” she said “I don’t know if I necessarily meant to seek it out, but it just happened.”
She continued in student leadership roles at Westminster, being awarded the Butler Bowl for character and leadership
Earlier in her tenure with Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program, Suzanne Daglio Armstrong ’94 was part of a multidisciplinary team that delivered primary care to the homeless on the streets.
as a Third Former and serving as president of her class for three years before being elected head prefect. She also played first team soccer, hockey and lacrosse, serving as captain of her soccer and hockey teams. In 1993, she was named an All-State soccer player. She also was a member of Black and Gold and the John Hay Vestry, and was an officer of Serving Our Neighbors.
Suzanne found a way to balance her leadership roles, busy sports schedule and rigorous academic course load. “My dad took a photo of me in high school holding a candle burning at both ends because that is how I operated,” she recalled. “It was good to learn how to manage many things.”
Suzanne felt honored to be elected head prefect because it was the result of a vote by the whole school. “It felt good to know that people had confidence in me,” she said. “Leading up to it, I had been in leadership positions, and it seemed like a natural progression. There were other very good candidates, so I wasn’t
sure it would be me. The ability to set an example and a tone for the school seemed like a good challenge.”
She appreciated the backing from her friends. “My female friends were supportive about the fact that I was the first female, and our class was pretty unified overall,” she said. “It was a good experience all-around. I don’t think anyone treated me differently.”
Running assemblies was unsettling at first. “It seemed like a big deal at the time speaking in front of everyone,” she said. “Standing up in front of the whole school with a microphone and calling on classmates taught me a lot about public speaking, composure and facilitating things.”
A major initiative on which she worked with the Prefect Board was trying to do away with study hall for Sixth Formers. “I remember sitting in front of the faculty trying to argue for it with our
Sixth Form officer group,” she said. “The faculty were hard on us because it was a major change.”
A milestone campus event during her Westminster tenure was the appointment in 1993 of Graham Cole as Westminster’s seventh head of school. “I remember how helpful he was to me,” she said. “I had almost an open door policy with him, and he was really supportive. Observing more closely what he was like as a leader was very beneficial.”
Suzanne’s leadership style focused on keeping things lighthearted, so it was challenging when peers were unhappy with school decisions. “People would look to you to fix it or tell you why it needed fixing,” she said. “I tried not to get upset or blow things out of proportion. Listening was very important. Mostly, it was about setting an example and trying to represent the mission and values of Westminster.”
Following graduation, Suzanne earned a bachelor’s degree in sociology with a minor in education at Bowdoin College. She worked for four years at a startup software company and then decided on a career change to the health care field. She completed a three-year program at the MGH Institute of Health Professions in Boston, where she earned
An image from the 1994 Spectator of students gathered in the shape of ’94.
an R.N. and M.S.N. and became a family nurse practitioner.
For the past 13 years, Suzanne has worked for the Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program. The first eight years there, she was part of a multidisciplinary team that delivered primary care to the homeless on the streets. Three years ago, she became the director of nursing for the program’s two respite medical facilities, one a 104-bed facility and the other a 20-bed step-down unit. “A large part of the role is to help connect the multidisciplinary team to give really good patient care to a vulnerable population,” she said. “Most of the patients have a severe history of trauma.”
Suzanne applies leadership skills she learned at Westminster to her current work. “I have to listen to people and hear what they are saying,” she said. “I also have to be honest, even if it is going to be hard to hear, but, ultimately, that is what people want anyway.”
Suzanne lives in Milton, Mass., with her husband, Brian, and their children Henry and Olivia. She brought her entire family to her 20th Westminster reunion last year. “It was fun and great to see the faculty,” she said. “I was struck by how different the campus looks, but seeing familiar faces makes you feel nostalgic and at home. The school has done a nice job of preserving the feel of a smaller closeknit community. I think that is the school at its best.”
Megan Rittenhouse ’20
What first brought Megan Rittenhouse to Westminster was hockey, but it turned out to be much more than that. She was a standout hockey player from Florida who had recently relocated with her family to Shelton, Conn. After some unfulfilling time at her local high school, she sought a school where she could be more involved and invested.
“As I toured Westminster, I noticed how much the school had to offer, whether it was academics, athletics or the arts,” she said. “I also noticed how close everyone was and the sense of community came through instantly. I felt welcome as soon as I stepped onto campus and was grateful for that.”
Megan welcomes students back to campus last September during the first assembly of the year.
While at Westminster, Megan has played on the first teams for field hockey, ice hockey and lacrosse, serving as a captain of all three teams. She is also a member of Black and Gold and has been involved in student government for the past two years. “Students from past years really influenced my decision to get involved in Student Council,” she said. “I hadn’t been a part of student government previously, so I decided to try something different and have been more involved at Westminster because I love the school.”
She decided to seek the office of head prefect in part because the head prefects from previous years had been close friends who motivated and inspired her. “I wanted to do that as well because it is a great feeling when many people look up to you and see you as someone who has influenced their time at Westminster,” she said.
In an essay about why she wanted to be head prefect, Megan focused on the importance of finding happiness when it is needed most. “Have a positive mindset about your challenges no matter how insignificant they might seem; looking for the benefits will make them that much more bearable,” she wrote.
Like some of her predecessors, she was concerned about the amount of public speaking involved as head prefect. “I hadn’t really done any public speaking beforehand, so that was a worry for me,” she said. “But once I did more of it, I became more comfortable.”
She has stretched in other directions as well. “This office has helped me grow by enabling me to build new relationships and putting me out of my comfort zone,” she said. “I am not a person who likes attention that much, but when you are head prefect, you cannot hide. Doing things I am not used to has showed me things I like that I never thought I would. Westminster is a unique place, and I find something new about it each and every day.”
There are many behind-the-scenes duties as head prefect, including hearing feedback from classmates about what is working and where she and Student Council could do better. Megan meets with the Prefect Board weekly and Student Council twice a month. “These are times to make sure things are going well, whether it is in the classroom or in the dorm or elsewhere,” she said. “We discuss any concerns or things that seem to be a hit on campus.”
Megan has looked to faculty members for guidance, especially Jessica Keough and Tim Joncas ’00. “They are very good resources,” she said. “Balancing athletics, looking for college, completing school work and performing head prefect duties has been challenging. As head prefect, you feel the need to be everywhere at once, but that is not possible. It isn’t about pleasing everyone because that will never happen. Showing support is the best thing I can do.”
Megan finds many rewards in her leadership role. “The position is already a great honor, but the greatest benefit is seeing people genuinely happy to be at Westminster,” she said. “Making people feel comfortable brings this community together.”
Next year, Megan will be attending Colby College, where she is considering studying psychology or economics, and will play ice hockey and field hockey. As for seeking a role in student government, she is hesitant at this point. “I’d be interested but might spend some time getting used to where I am and then decide whether or not to do it,” she said.
