14 minute read
5 THINGS
5 Things We’re Talking About!
2.
MEM EAST FOR THE WIN! Competition has been fierce and fun during this fall’s Willympics (see page 7 to learn more about this tradition), but in the end, Mem East was victorious, thanks to their spectacular lip sync performance featuring dance moves and flips.
1.
RES QUAD COMPLETED Remember the tennis courts and parking lot behind the chapel? Today, that area is a Residential Quad, home to more than half of Williston’s boarders. We celebrated its completion in October (page 8).
3.
STYLING ICONS Fashion stylist Taylor Angino ’09 continues to rock the style world, including recent work on Vogue covers featuring Rihanna, Jill Biden, and Adele. See more at taylorangino.com.
5.
IN-PERSON ASSEMBLIES ARE BACK
We missed you, Phillips Stevens Chapel! After 18 months of Zoom assemblies, it’s amazing to once again gather in the pews for assemblies and concerts.
4.
CELEBRATING THE CLASS OF 2020 This class rallied through a virtual senior spring, but we’re excited to (at last!) welcome them back for an in-person celebration with friends and faculty on June 4, 2022.
SOCIAL STUDIES
When a Wildcat earns Olympic hardware, you gotta shout it from the rooftops! Gabby Thomas ’15 scored bronze and silver medals in Tokyo (see page 26). This photo of new baby Anderson Glory Syfu got lots of love on social from the many fans of Christa Talbot Syfu ’98 and Andrew Syfu.
Bermuda’s Royal Gazette profiled dancer Soleil Richardson ’24 this June. Soleil led the Mem East dancers to Willympics-lip-sync glory (see page 7). Mooncake Club members Shirley Shi ’23 and Cici Yu ’23 (who snapped this photo) celebrated MidAutumn Festival by eating mooncakes with friends.
Ring the bell! Girls varsity soccer players pause for a selfie after a hard-fought 2-0 win over Deerfield on the turf at Galbraith.
FACEBOOK.COM/WILLISTONNORTHAMPTON TWITTER.COM/WILLISTONNS INSTAGRAM.COM/WILLISTONNS FLICKR.COM/WILLISTONNORTHAMPTON YOUTUBE.COM/WILLISTONNORTHAMPTON
AROUND THE QUAD
PHOTOGRAPH BY MELANIE ZACEK
3, 2, 1…SENIOR SEASON!
The class of 2022 is no stranger to weathering a few stormy seas (thanks, pandemic), so fittingly, they chose cardboard boat racing for their orientation activity. Small teams fashioned boats of tape and cardboard, chose captains and crew, and paddled, swam, raced, and laughed their way across Babcock Pool.
Exodus from Afghanistan
As the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan unfolded this summer, many Americans were upset and outraged by the plight of Afghan citizens, especially women, who remained in the country as the Taliban took over. For Natania Hume, Chair of the Visual and Performing Arts Department, there was an added connection: Hume has tutored an Afghan student from afar for more than five years. Below is a note Hume shared with the Williston community about the experience— and the fate of other students at the School of Leadership, Afghanistan (SOLA). A student at the School of Leadership, Afghanistan
I started tutoring a girl at SOLA in English when she was in eighth grade. She is now a junior/senior, roughly the same age as my daughter. The hardest part about teaching her is getting her to slow down. She is so excited about learning English, and about life in general, that she forges ahead at a million miles an hour without a care for accuracy, but with an abundance of heart. She is a joy to teach. We were about to start reading A Wrinkle in Time when the Taliban invaded Kabul.
The founder of SOLA is Shabana Basij-Rasikh, a graduate of Middlebury College. She gave a talk at Williston some years ago. Shabana burned the girls’ records to protect their identities from the Taliban. I didn’t hear anything about their fate beyond that for several weeks, but thankfully have recently received word that she was able to get 250 students, faculty, staff, and family members safely out of Afghanistan; first to Qatar and then to Rwanda where they will spend a ‘semester abroad.’ I am so saddened by what has befallen these girls and their school (and their country) and by the fact that they must now flee their homeland to go to school. The situation in Afghanistan is tragic in so many ways but this personal connection has brought it home for me in a way few overseas conflicts have.”
NIGHT FLYING
When faculty members continue learning, they bring their enthusiasm directly into the classroom. So it was with science teacher Jane Lucia, who received professional development support to take three classes this summer through the Massachusetts Audubon Society. Lucia took a special interest in learning about nighthawks, a species of nocturnal birds whose migration corridor leads them through the Connecticut River Valley during autumn. “Nighthawks eat a wide variety of insects, but only in flight,” Lucia said. “They have specialized feeding bristles, a very wide beak for capturing their prey in flight, and their darting behavior makes them easy to recognize in the hours just before sunset.” Lucia is excited to share this newfound expertise—and perhaps spot a few nighthawks— with her Outdoor Ecology class this year. “I love place-based instruction because it helps students see their environment differently,” she adds.
RECOGNIZING FACULTY EXCELLENCE
Williston awarded two chairs and two instructorships at the start of the school year. Congratulations to the recipients!
English Department Chair and advisor to The Willistonian Matthew Liebowitz earned the Henry M. Zachs ’52 and Judith Zachs Faculty Chair. Liebowitz is also a former journalist, an avid runner, and a frequent contributing writer to The Bulletin.
Science teacher Kenneth Choo was awarded the David H. ’35 and Edward Goodman ’37 Science Chair. A biologist by training, Choo has taught electives in animal behavior, as well as stellar and planetary astronomy; this year he has taken on the role of advisor to the Asian Student Alliance.
The Northampton School for Girls Instructorship went to history and global studies teacher Allison Malinowski. In her role as Director of Academic Technology, she supports teachers and students in the use of technology in the classroom. She helped create Williston’s first online summer seminars program.
The Sandra Bashore ’55 and Joseph C. Mesics Instructorship was given to English teacher Gianna Muscari. Her lessons reflect “a deep appreciation for collaboration, critical thinking, and joy,” according to Dean of Faculty Corinne Fogg ’99.
THE SPIRIT OF WILLYMPICS
A 36-minute wall-sit, a flawlessly executed lip sync performance—what will it take to win Williston’s new tradition?
If you graduated more than five years ago, you may not have heard about Williston’s much-beloved dorm vs. dorm vs. day student competition, Willympics. Started in 2016 by Assistant Dean of Students Erin Davey after she received many student requests for some kind of Olympics-style games, the contest includes multiple events held over a period of weeks in the fall—all for the chance to win bragging rights and to hold onto a glorious trophy (at left) until the following year.
The Willympiad includes the wall-sit (teams work those quads to try and beat the 35-minute record), rock-paper-scissors (a classic), the banner competition (where teams vie for the best hand-painted queen-size bedsheet emblazoned with their logo), and the lip sync competition. This last one is no joke; teams have put on elaborate spectacles with detailed and precise choreography, plus creative lighting, along with their synchronized emoting.
Benning Johnson ’22, a member of the WildestCats Club, which helps organize Willympics, has been participating since he was a first year, living in John Hazen White House, which, he noted sadly, has never captured the trophy. He lives in Ford Hall now, which clinched the first two wins, in 2016 and 2017. Residents of 194 Main
Street (now Wold House, see page 8) won in 2018. John Wright
House prevailed in 2019. In 2020, the pandemic interrupted the games, and this year, Mem East took the honors, with their acrobatic lip sync performance bringing them over the top. However, there is more to Willympics than winning. “The energy is unmatched, and it is so much fun to be in the middle of it all,” Johnson said.
What’s the secret to success? “A winning team shows up wholeheartedly,” says Sarah Markey ’22, a member of the day student team and a WildestCat. “They are unashamed to be goofy and embrace
Williston pride with enthusiastic spirit. It’s not about athletic ability, or lip syncing talent, it’s about the excitement, exuberance, and collaboration a team brings to the competition.”
Davey agrees that collaboration is the name of the game. “Willympics has a wonderful ability to bring our community together in such a spirited and special way. My hope is that Willympics becomes a true Williston tradition, one current students look forward to and alums remember fondly for years and years.”—Kate Lawless
A Campus Transformed
Two residence halls honor the generosity of those who came before—and encircle the now-complete second heart of campus, the Residential Quad—BY JONATHAN ADOLPH
It was a celebration delayed, but it would not be a celebration denied. On October 8, the Williston Northampton School community, joined by members of the Board of Trustees, gathered to dedicate Emily McFadon Vincent House and Wold House, thus completing the $20 million Residential Quadrangle project. “We’ve been waiting a year for this moment, a truly momentous one in Williston Northampton School’s long history since 1841,” said Robert W. Hill III, Head of
School. “The Residential Quad, where we are standing today, has transformed our campus, bringing us literally and symbolically closer together.”
The Quad—a verdant 80,000-square-foot landscaped commons surrounded by three state-of-theart, sustainably designed dormitories—has been a centerpiece of the school’s strategic plan since its approval by the trustees in 2017. The area’s first dormitory, built in 2008, was initially known only by its address, 194 Main Street. That changed moments after Hill’s introduction, when former school Trustee
Peter Wold ’67 and his wife, Marla, released a banner revealing the building’s new name: Wold House. The dedication recognized the Wold family’s deep connection to and generous support for Williston. Also taking part were their son, Joe Wold ’06, and Joe’s wife, Chelsey Cutting Wold ’07, who met at Williston and were married at the chapel.
In his remarks, Peter Wold recalled arriving on campus in the fall of 1964, having driven for three days with his parents from their home in Casper,
Wyoming, where he lives today. “They dropped me off in front of the chapel and said, ‘This school will provide you with many opportunities. Work hard.
Take advantage of them,’” he said. “Over the years my appreciation for experience and the education I received here at Williston has grown.”
Added his son Joe, accompanied by Chelsey and their two young children, “Williston truly holds a
Peter Wold ’67, P’06; Marla Wold P’06; Chelsey Cutting Wold ’07; and Joseph Wold ’06 in front of Wold House’s dedication plaque “May this new dormitory be filled with inquisitive minds, laughter, and camaraderie for many years to
come.”—Joe Wold ’06
Board of Trustees Chair John Hazen White ’76 and Head of School Robert W. Hill III
special place in our hearts. From the first time I stepped foot on the Williston campus, the faculty and staff made me feel right at home.”
Just across the grassy commons from Wold House sits the Emily McFadon Vincent House, or EMV, as it has become known, which welcomed its first 40 female students in the fall of 2020. (Between the two is John Hazen White House, the boys’ dormitory, named for the current Board Chair, which opened in 2018.) The pandemic had prevented an in-person celebration of the opening of EMV, so Hill reminded the assembled students and guests about its namesake, the first alumna to have a building named in her honor.
A 1949 graduate of Northampton School for Girls, McFadon Vincent traveled alone by train from her home in Tacoma, Washington, to come to Massachusetts for her senior year of high school. Her appreciation of travel only grew, and as an adult, she ended up visiting Australia, Scotland, Africa, and the Middle East, “a wanderlust that inspired her to launch a business in the travel industry,” Hill said. In the years since, McFadon Vincent, who now lives in Scottsdale, Arizona, has provided the school with funds for professional development, instructorships, and scholarships.
Her generosity, like that of the Wolds, offered a lesson, he noted. “Schools are built by those who come before you, and you should never forget that debt of gratitude we owe them.”
Worth Repeating
—Class President Sarah Markey ’22 during her Convocation address “Twenty-five years ago, I was given my first tour of campus. I could even tell you what I was wearing: headto-toe yellow with chartreuse sandals. I know this because on the drive out here I’d had a debate with my father about whether open-toed sandals were allowed, and because my advisor would later affectionately nickname me ‘Bananas.’”
—New Dean of Faculty Corinne Fogg ’99 in her speech during Williston’s 181st Convocation
“I have had many situations where some of my baseball players have also been involved in the spring musical or who sing in one of Williston’s a cappella groups. Those studentathletes and artists are celebrated here. The ability for them to stretch themselves in various ways is one of the big reasons why I have remained here my whole career.”
—English teacher and baseball coach Matt Sawyer, as quoted in New England Baseball Journal this fall “Schools are built by those who come before you, and you should never forget that debt of gratitude we owe them.”
—Head of School Robert W. Hill III during the dedications of Wold House and Emily McFadon Vincent House
“Burnout is not a badge of honor.”
—Assembly speaker and counselor Tianna Soto on why it’s important for students to take care of their mental health
—Meryl Sesselberg ’22 on this year’s COVID requirements, as quoted in a Willistonian article by Ella Mattocks ’22
—William Gaca ’22 on what it takes achieve Willympic success (see more about the games on page 7)
—Michael Wills ’72 during an interview about his reflections on the 50th anniversary of coeducation (see page 54)
3 1
7 6
2
4
FROM THE DESK OF SARAH KLUMPP
Whether in her classroom or on her many travels, longtime history teacher Klumpp’s passion comes
alive—BY KATE LAWLESS
5 8
9
1. A FEMINIST READ
One of Klumpp’s passions is gender studies. She wrote her graduate thesis on women who served in the Civil War as doctors, nurses, and soldiers.
2. WAR GAMES
Homemade board games help Klumpp’s students understand the dynamics of World War I trench warfare. “One toothpick represents 10,000 lives. It shows them neither side had decisive victories. Soldiers just died by the thousands.”
3. HAMILTON COLLEGE
Klumpp went to Hamilton, where she majored in U.S. history— a subject she has yet to teach.
4. TO REMEMBER
Klumpp believes students would benefit from visiting Holocaust memorial museums; she has been to Dachau and Auschwitz concentration camps. Maybe in 2023?
5. CUE CARDS
As students begin to flesh out their Williston Scholars history projects, these cards spur conversation and creative thinking.
6. GRATITUDE
On a tough day, Klumpp might pull out her big box of thank you cards she has received from students over a 21-year career at Williston.
7. MONARCH MADNESS
Among Klumpp’s possessions are a straight-edge showing important dates in British royal history and a postcard of a painting of Queen Elizabeth I.
8. FIELD OF DREAMS
A JV field hockey coach, she enjoys the sport, and says with a smile, “We may not win every game, but we win in attitude!”
9. MEMENTOS
Klumpp loves to travel. She “geeks out” when she visits the places she’s studied, like when she rounded a corner in a museum in Vienna and saw the painting “Napolean Crossing the Alps” or stood in front of a notorious window that was part of the Defenestration of Prague.
