Williston Northampton Bulletin Winter 2015

BEST OF REUNION PHOTOS AND STORIES FROM 2014 +2015 PREVIEW

WINTER 2015

CREE DANIELS ’15

Drawing in pen and ink for Arts Intensive.

CONTENTS | VOLUME 101, NUMBER 1

FEATURES 16 | GIANT ON CAMPUS Karin O’Neil smoothed the transition from two schools to one and helped radically shift Williston Northampton’s approach to teaching.

20 | CTI: A YEAR IN REVIEW A look at the first year of the Curricular Technology Initiative and the way it has transformed the school’s classrooms and studios.

24 | GROWING UP ON CAMPUS Children of faculty past and present talk about what it means to grow up on a boarding school campus.

CAMPUS NEWS

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Karin O’Neil talks about her impact on the campus.

4 | IN SHORT New classes, the Writers’ Workshop, and a look back at the spring musical, Urinetown. Commencement ended one year and Convocation began the next.

A look at how we spent the fall.

8 | CAMPUS SPACES It was a busy summer in the Physical Plant Department. See some of the recent renovations on campus, from dorm common rooms to the Schoolhouse.

13 | BREAKING 200 Coach Tuleja celebrates his 200th girls cross country victory.

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PH OTO G R A PH S: J OA N N A CH ATTM A N

We take a closer look at what technology in the classroom has meant at Williston Northampton.

15 | #IWILLISTON Check out what iWilliston—our student social media team—has been up to this year.

PEOPLE/PLACES 31 | CLASS NOTES News from and profiles of classmates and former faculty.

55 | FIVE QUESTIONS FOR… Bill Czelusniak ’70 helps the world’s organs—including the one in Phillips Stevens Chapel—make beautiful music.

68 | FROM THE ARCHIVES So what did Karin O’Neil find on that excavation in 1973? Take a look at some surprising discoveries.

61 | FIRST PERSON Alex Teece ’04 reflects on friendships that span years, oceans, and everything that comes with growing up.

70 | OBITUARIES Remembering those we have lost.

HEAD OF SCHOOL Robert W. Hill III P ’15, ’19 Chief Advancement Officer Eric Yates P ’17 Director of Alumni Relations Jeff Pilgrim ’81 Director of Communications Traci Wolfe P ’16, ’19

Director of Online Communications Rachael Hanley Project Manager Dennis Crommett

Please send letters to the editor, class notes, obituaries, and changes of address to: The Williston Northampton School Alumni Office 19 Payson Avenue Easthampton, MA 01027 T: (413) 529-3300 F: (413) 529-3427 Established in 1915, the Bulletin is published by the Advancement Office for the benefit of alumni, parents, faculty, staff, and friends.

cover photo by Joanna Chattman

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WHILE VISITING WITH ALUMNI ACROSS THE COUNTRY AND IN ASIA THIS YEAR, it has been terrific catching

up with graduates and families, and watching them catch up with each other. The connections we have to each other and to the Williston Northampton School, Williston Academy, or Northampton School for Girls remain strong, and I am grateful for the conversations I’ve had at the over 20 events we have hosted on and off campus this year, including, of course, Reunion.

Now that I’m back in the office, I am excited to share the news of our new Williston Northampton alumni mobile app called EverTrue. This powerful tool is designed to take the place of our alumni directory and is associated with LinkedIn so it will allow users to see what other Williston Northampton alumni live in a particular area, their contact information, and profession. Alumni can update their information within a few minutes and even provide the Alumni Office with information about friends and classmates.

If 1,500 alumni download the EverTrue app and test it out by the end of January, Mr. Hill will provide our students with a Head’s Day—a day when classes are spontaneously cancelled.

The app is free and our gift to you. So find out where that lost classmate lives, who else works in your field, and more, and help our students get a much-deserved day off as well!

Finally, thank you to everyone who contributed to this winter’s Bulletin. As you can see, this is a big issue, in part because of the Class Notes, which has a lot of news, not to mention alumni profiles and personal essays. I hope you enjoy it, and please do stay in touch, whether through EverTrue, a regional event, social media, or the Bulletin. I hope to see you on campus for Reunion June 5-7, 2015!

Sincerely,

Jeff Pilgrim ’81 Director of Alumni Relations

PH OTO G R A PH : J OA N NA C H ATT M A N

Design Director Aruna Goldstein

campus news

I just wanted to thank you and congratulate you on an exceptionally job well done on the Reunion.

Everything from the food to the set up seemed to go without a hitch. I know everyone from the Class of ’79 had a great time!!!

Again, a big thanks and I look forward to seeing you again.

— John Rockett ’79

REUNION 2014

Reunion weekend was fantastic.

It was an honor and privilege to be one of the weekend speakers.

I am so glad that I came back to Williston for the events and activities. I had a chance to reconnect with old friends and to meet some new friends. I will definitely stay engaged with my alma mater going forward.— Julius Pryor ’73 Congrats, Jeff, on providing a wonderful Reunion weekend. From the change of weather from cold and drizzly to beautiful clear skies and warm temperatures, it just could not have been better. Although I was only able to get 10 of my classmates to come for the weekend, I think that all had a wonderful time catching up with each other and telling tall tales of our time at school. I want to thank you for stopping by my presentation.

It was fun to share my passion for trying to capture the beauty, which is all around us if only we take the time to look. — Andy Solomon ’59

Once again, a terrific Reunion!

Classes, Hall of Fame, and Caterwaulers went great. — Roger Maroni ’77 Fun weekend, good time, thanks to all of you.— Jack Heflin ’64 Just got back to Korea with lots of fun memories and stories to share with my family. Impressed with the overall organization of the weekend, not to mention lovely weather and great view of Mt. Tom I captured on my way. — Alex Park ’81

90TH

ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION

fact that our 60th Reunion is less than a year away. I hope that a lot more of us will be there for that. Thank you for everything.

— Joanna Ewing Jones ’55 Thank you for all the effort you and Brittany put into organizing the 90th anniversary celebration.

I hope you both felt it was worthwhile and that the fun all the attendees had was obvious. It really was a memorable weekend and I look forward to my class’s Reunion in the spring. I hope we can get more classmates and former teachers to attend.

— Linda Salmon D’Addario ’70 Congratulations on making the effort to keep the heritage of NSFG alive and well. Miss Bement and Miss Whitaker would have loved it. Their venture into starting a girls’ school paid off in the number of successful women who have made an impact on many lives in many ways, each with unique talents which had been carefully cultivated by the school. Congrats!

— Elizabeth Ockenden Loweth ’46

NORTHAMPTON SCHOOL FOR GIRLS OCTOBER 18–19, 2014 • EASTHAMPTON

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 18, 2014 Registration and reception

Whitaker-Bement

10:00 AM

Welcome address by Ellie Rothman

Whitaker-Bement

10:15 – 12:00 PM

Roundtable discussions (20 minutes each) • Science (Penny Molyneux ’74) • Art (Kristina Madsen ’73) • Philanthropy (Heather Gubner Schultz ’72) • Public Speaking (Betsy Wills ’69)

9:00 – 10:00 AM

12:00 – 1:30 PM

Lunch, with performances by the Widdigers, Cameron Hill ’15, and Tina Zhang ’15

Dodge Room

1:30 – 2:00 PM

NSFG display

Library

2:00 – 2:45 PM

Talk by Rick Teller ’70, school archivist Dodge Room

2:45 – 4:30 PM

Afternoon options

4:45 – 5:00 PM

Photos (group and candids)

5:00 – 5:30 PM

Cocktails with former faculty

Whitaker-Bement

5:30 – 7:00 PM

Dinner

Whitaker-Bement

7:00 PM

Phoenix Bonfire (weather permitting)

Behind Whitaker-Bement

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 19, 2014 8:30 – 10:00 AM Brunch 10:00 – 10:30 AM

Service of Remembrance

Whitaker-Bement

Head of School’s home Angelus Terrace

NSFG 90TH ANNIVERSARY

Just wanted to tell you how much I enjoyed Saturday. It was wonderful to see people after, dare I say it, 60 years. It is also nice that you remember Northampton in the manner you did.

— Carole Pendergast Fickert ’54

| letters

MATH AND SCIENCE

THE PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE

DOC GOW A Giant on Campus

#FREEMOORE SPRING 2014

Kevin Moore ’07 takes the ice.

STATE OF THE ART

Wow, STATE OF THE ART IN 1958.

I enjoyed Rick Teller’s article on page 62 of the summer Bulletin.

I remember vividly when the science building was new and exciting.

My father [Bissell Alderman ’30] was thrilled to be the architect of modern buildings at Williston. How delighted he was with the hockey rink, too. He loved designing and building the rink and he was quite a hockey, tennis, and football fan.

I pulled out the Strategic Plan.

Another wonderful surprise to see the footbridge above the words INNOVATION AND PURPOSE ... STRATEGIC PLAN. That’s what he was all about. He designed the graceful footbridge all in one piece from shore to shore. What a concept.

He had seen the ancient bridges of France. “Never do anything without a plan” was one of his directives.

Another: BE ORIGINAL. Many thanks to you for the inspiring words STATE OF THE ART and photos. Brilliant concepts for Williston originality in the future.

—Holly Alderman ’67

You all did a great job on the 90th anniversary celebration.

Thank you. It exceeded expectations.

It’s too bad that more of us did not attend. I think for our class it was the

WINTER 2015 BULLETIN 3

CAMPUS NEWS IN

Some things just cry out for collaboration. Take art classes, for example. With only so much time in the day, it can be hard for budding artists to pick only one area of concentration: Photography or ceramics? Drawing or sculpture? Painting or film?

Now, thanks to an innovative class taught by three Fine and Performing Arts teachers, 12 students are using one class to explore a wide range of mediums. Over two trimesters, they will draw, paint, sculpt, take photographs, make films, and create ceramics. They will visit off-campus museums and studios and also learn from visiting guest artists and speakers.

This new Advanced Studio Arts class is made possible by a department collaboration; the class is being team taught by Ed Hing (photography and film), Natania Hume (ceramics, design, and drawing), and Susanna White (painting and sculpture).

“We each bring different areas of expertise and a variety of feedback for each student,” Ms. Hume said. “This way students benefit from multiple suggestions, demonstrations, and sources of guidance.”

In alternating weeks, students design their own independent projects around themes they choose and explore different techniques. Students also chart their progress and reflect on their work in a daily class journal.

“We have group critiques in which we all communicate with each other about the strengths and challenges in each person’s work and process,” Ms. Hume said. “This cultivates the class community and provides a vibrant artistic learning environment.”

The new format has been so successful that Ms. Hume has decided to explore collaborations with other departments. In the spring, she’ll work with History and Global Studies teacher Tom Johnson on a unit called “Ethics and Objects.”

“There is a movement in the design world toward ‘design for social impact’ which looks at how designers can help with social and environmental problems,” she explained. “Our students will collaborate on designing projects that address social or environmental ills and which are—hopefully—successful both ethically and in terms of design.”​ View a gallery of select student work from the Advanced Studio Arts class online: www.willistonblogs.com/bulletin

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PH OTO G R A PH : M AT T H E W C AVA NAU G H AN D J OA N N A C H AT TMAN

MIXING IT UP IN THE ARTS

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N SHORT SPRING THEATER

T

aking place every other year, the spring musical is a much-beloved tradition and a huge undertaking.

This last spring was no exception, although it was a bit exceptional.

Urinetown: The Musical is a Tony Award-winning satire of everything from traditional musicals to corporate malfeasance and social irresponsibility. Bobby Strong and Hope Cladwell—characters on New York Theatre Monthly's list of "The 100 Greatest Roles in Musical Theatre”—were played

by Oliver Demers ’14 (New York University ’18) and Maddy Stern ’14 (Harvard University ’18).

With outstanding performances and incredible singing, the spring musical was a hit.

W

hether it comes from an author with two books under her belt or one with a dozen, few things are as valuable to an aspiring writer as advice from someone who has turned a passion into a career.

During the four-part Writers’ Workshop Series this fall, acclaimed authors Joan Wickersham, George Colt, Jennifer duBois ’02, and Anne Fadiman offered students insights into their work.

“If you’re a writer, that’s what you want to know: How did a book get written?” Ms. Wickersham, author of The Suicide Index and The News from Spain, among others, told students during her visit on September 23.

“When you finally find the right way to write a book, it’s exhilarating,” she said. “I just love that moment when a project comes alive; I feel like I’m sitting on a live animal, a large, live animal.”

As has been true throughout the 16-year history of the Writers’ Workshop Series, which was founded by authors Madeleine Blais P ’00, ’04 and Elinor Lipman P ’00, the four guests all had different perspectives on the writing process.

During her lecture on October 17, Ms. duBois noted that “reading fiction and writing fiction can really be an exercise in empathy and imagination.”

“I think that sense of empathetic imagination is something we should really demand of the fiction that we read,” Ms. duBois said, “and also something that it should demand of us.”

Oliver Demers ’14 as Bobby Strong

WINTER 2015 BULLETIN 5

EVENTS 1. COMMENCEMENT

In May, 146 seniors graduated from Williston Northampton.

White dresses, red roses, and blue blazers marked the day, along with inspiring addresses from former faculty member Barry Moser and senior class speaker Oliver Demers.

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2. CONVOCATION

Socrates, success, and summing up were the subjects of senior class president Emmett O’Malley’s speech at September’s Convocation on the Quad.

Julius Pryor III ’73 also had an inspiring address for students (see page 31).

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3. 9TH GRADE PROGRAM ORIENTATION TRIP

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The Class of 2018 spent two nights at Camp Bonnie Brae getting to know each other and their advisors and participating in activities like high ropes.

6. SPECIAL ASSEMBLIES

Andrew Watson, president of Translate the Brain, returned to campus for a second year to talk about neurological studies and how those translate into studying more effectively. “Learning literally means building neural networks,” he said. “There is no limit to learning.”

4. HOMECOMING

It was the perfect fall weekend for Homecoming this year, as alumni and families gathered to cheer on the Wildcats. Food trucks parked on campus for the afternoon, and alumni participated in a wine and beer tour of the Pioneer Valley.

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5. FAMILY WEEKEND

Always a highlight of the fall, Family Weekend brought parents and siblings from across the globe back to campus.

Families attended classes, met with teachers, and enjoyed a school assembly featuring performances in the arts.

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EXHIBITIONS & PERFORMANCES 1. ALL MY SONS

The fall production of Arthur Miller’s classic took the stage during Fall Family Weekend.

Playing to sold-out crowds, including an evening that saw the entire junior class in attendance, All My Sons was a huge success.

2 1 5. INSTRUMENTAL CONCERT

2. ARTS WALK

The final concert of the fall was held in the Dodge Room in the Reed Campus Center. Led by faculty member Ben Demerath, the band and orchestra performed pieces in a beautiful end to the fall trimester.

The halls of the Reed Campus Center became an exhibition space in November as the Fine and Performing Arts Department celebrated student work from the fall trimester.

3. DANCE CONCERT

The Fall Dance Concert, Radiance, was held in November and featured 10 new dances, including the work of student choreographers, with performances meant to “communicate and transmit a current of emotion to the audience,” according to Dance Director Laurel Raffetto Boyd.

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4. CHORAL CONCERT

Words with Wings: The Music of Poetry offered a program of music set to well-known poetic works. The Middle School Concert Chorus, the Widdigers Female Concert Choir, the Caterwaulers Male Choir, and the Teller Chorus performed in November under the inspired direction of Choral Director Joshua Harper.

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building

refresh

PH OTO G R A PH S: J OA N N A CH ATTM A N

This summer Physical Plant did a tremendous amount of work updating a myriad of campus buildings, including the Phillips Stevens Chapel (thanks to the generosity of the parents of the Class of 2014!), the Robert A. Ward Schoolhouse, and dorm common rooms. As a result, the spaces are bright and modern.

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WINTER 2015 BULLETIN 9

DOING GOOD WELL

R

achel Chambers knows from personal experience how those who battle cancer are very much like superheroes. So when it came time to design a T-shirt for this year’s fundraiser for breast cancer awareness, she knew who it would feature: Wonder Woman.

The bright pink shirt, sold by the girls volleyball team, was a hit. This is the second year that the team, which Ms. Chambers coaches, has combined shirt sales with a bake sale, to raise $2,500 in donations.

“A team like varsity volleyball—a team that communicates so well with each other—has the spirit and drive to keep raising the bar for our cause,” Ms. Chambers said. “It feels so great to see 10 WILLISTON NORTHAMPTON SCHOOL

people wearing the shirts.”

For Ms. Chambers, the annual fundraisers are deeply personal. Her high school friend Amanda passed away from cancer; her father is a cancer survivor.

As a Fine and Performing Arts teacher at Williston Northampton, Ms. Chambers donates her skills by designing the fundraiser T-shirts. Last year’s version featured the similarly iconic Rosie the Riveter.

“When I begin the campaign process each August, I say that this is for Amanda,” ​Ms. Chambers noted. “It’s an incredible amount of work, but it’s not about creating attention for us, it’s about making a contribution to eliminating cancer.”

Please contact Rachel Chambers at rchambers@ williston.com for more information.

Emily Grussing ’15 was in AP Calculus when she learned the news: a scientific paper she researched and co-authored had just been accepted for publication.

“It was the greatest thing. I didn’t expect to get published,” Ms. Grussing said. “It wasn’t something I even believed was possible.”

Ms. Grussing had spent the summer interning at Dartmouth College’s Geisel School of Medicine where she was charged with researching links between chemicals and cancers. To do so, Ms. Grussing learned coding basics, dove into online research, and analyzed and constructed scientific networks.

“I loved being in the environment of the lab,” Ms. Grussing said, adding, “I never had to do such self-learning in my life before.”

The resulting paper, which Ms. Grussing helped write, was accepted by the Pacific Symposium on Biocomputing, where it was presented on January 8. The paper will also be published on PubMed Central, an archive of scientific publications.

Although few high school students can claim authorship on a scientific paper, Ms. Grussing took the announcement in stride.

“I was really excited. I told some of my friends in math class,” she said.

“And then I went to my room and did my math homework.”

PH OTO G R A PH : KAT H LE E N D OO H E R ( LE F T) , J OA N N A C H ATT M AN ( RI GH T )

GETTING RESULTS

trustees NEW

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2

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1. R. SCOTT

2. WILLIAM V.

3. RICHARD T.

4. WILLIAM P.

5. MIJANOU MALISE

COWAN, P ’10

FOGG P ’15

MONOPOLI ’89

MORRISON ’69,

SPURDLE ’86

Scott Cowan is an orthopedic surgeon with New England Orthopedic Surgeons, specializing in spinal surgery, and a Clinical Instructor in Orthopedic Surgery at the Boston University School of Medicine, where he received his medical degree. Mr. Cowan is married to Janine Idelson and they have two sons, Benjamin ’10 and Andrew.

Will Fogg is a partner at Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP and co-heads the firm’s corporate department.

He received a J.D. from Columbia Law School in 1991, where he was a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar and a Managing Editor of the Journal of Law and Social Problems. He is married to Julie North and has one son, Charlie ’15.

Rich Monopoli is vice president of development at Boston Properties. He earned a master’s degree in Structural Engineering from University of California Irvine, and an MBA from Northwestern University, Kellogg School of Management. He is married to Molly and has two children, Vivian and Harmon.

P ’89, ’99, ’01

Bill Morrison is president of Affinity Advisors LLC, and is a senior advisor to the CEO of Apira Science, a medical device company. He has three sons who attended Williston: Bill ’89, Gregory ’99, and Chris ’01. Daughter Kelley graduated from Stoneleigh Burnham School in 1994. Mr. Morrison currently lives in Corona del Mar, CA, with his wife, Sherri.

Mijanou Spurdle is a Certified Financial Planner™, a Certified Portfolio Manager™, and first vice president at Morgan Stanley. Ms. Spurdle has completed 10 marathons—many for Team in Training—raising money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. She is married to Craig Spurdle ’86 and they have a son, Brooks.

WINTER 2015 BULLETIN 11

SPRING

Baseball (7-8) Boys Golf (5-13) Girls Golf (9-4) Boys Lacrosse (7-8) Girls Lacrosse (14-1) Softball (8-6)

Boys Tennis (2-9) Girls Tennis (5-4) Boys Track & Field (3-5) Girls Track & Field (7-1) Ultimate Frisbee (10-13) Girls Water Polo (6-7)

FALL

Boys Cross Country (10-4) Girls Cross Country (10-3) Field Hockey (10-6) Football (7-2) Boys Soccer (2-10-4) Girls Soccer (5-7-4)

Volleyball (1-14) Boys Water Polo (2-13)

PH OTO G R A PH : PAU L SC H NA I TTAC H E R

SPRING AND FALL 2014

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BREAKING 200 “I was eager and ignorant,” laughs Academic Dean and girls cross country coach Greg Tuleja, as he remembers his first year at Williston Northampton.

Mr. Tuleja had never been on a prep school campus before he arrived at the school in 1983, fresh from graduate school at Rutgers University. A recreational runner, he had never coached before—but cross country seemed as good a fit as any that first year. It turned out to be much more than that for the new teacher.

“I could tell from the beginning that the girls who ran cross country were determined and disciplined,” he said.

There were only eight or so girls that first year. The second year only four girls ran. That meant that no matter how well those four runners did, the team had to forfeit every meet—a team needed five runners to qualify.

And yet under Mr. Tuleja’s guidance, the team grew. By 1986, Williston Northampton had won its first New England Championship—the first of two under his leadership.

The team had 25 consecutive winning seasons, broken only by the fall of 2011, and has started a second streak with three straight since then.

This fall, the team had 35 members, and Mr. Tuleja said other coaches regularly ask him how a school the size of Williston Northampton fields a team that large. He says he doesn’t have an answer.

His runners do, though.

“As a cross country coach, Mr. T. was a father to us. He led our team with a beautiful mixture of devotion to the sport and to his runners, and true selflessness,” wrote Adrienne Stolarz Mantegna ’94 in an email about her former coach. “He inspired us to be better every day.

We wanted to do well, to be better, to win not just for us but always for him.”

Ms. Mantegna, who now teaches English at Williston Northampton, said Coach Tuleja never expressed disappointment in his runners. Instead, he “would encourage, encourage, encourage.” Through Coach Tuleja, Ms. Mantegna said she learned how to run as a team, in a pack, working hard to keep pace with the stronger runners.

“Because of his compassionate leadership, it didn’t matter your level of skill, you were one of the family,” Ms. Mantegna said. “I had never run before I joined and still, 20+ years later, running is a part of my near-daily life because of how he taught me to do it, both physically and mentally.”

This year, Mr. Tuleja celebrated his 200th victory as a coach, and the thrill of coaching hasn’t lessened. “There’s something special about going down to the fields,” he said recently. “The girls may be dead tired and collapse after a race, and part of the reason they’re doing that is for me. They know what it means to me.”

Sophomore Emily Yeager added, “Mr. Tuleja makes running fun. From his jokes in practice, to a ‘Pitch Perfect’ team night, to the advice and encouragement given on race day; Mr. Tuleja makes the cross-country experience unique. I have run for him for two years now, and I can honestly say that I feel honored to have him as a coach.”

What did Coach Tuleja mean to you? Share your memories and experiences online at www. willistonblogs.com/bulletin

WINTER 2015 BULLETIN 13

This year’s football squad was the second-highest scoring team in school history, averaging over 42 points per game and finishing with a 7-1 record. In its first postseason appearance in 13 years, the team came within a point of the NEPSAC Championship Bowl title, but fell to Lawrence Academy.

In recognition of an excellent season, John Kay ’15 was named the Colonial League Player of the Year as a lineman, as well as the NEPSAC Class B Defensive Player of the Year. Mr. Kay also earned All New England prep honors and made First Team All Colonial League.

Teammate and junior running back Nick Garofano became the first Wildcat to break the 1000-yard mark in a season. Mr. Garofano finished the regular season with a total of 1,038 rushing yards, averaging a remarkable 9.7 yards a carry. Mr. Garofano scored 18 touchdowns and, with 124 points, broke the school scoring record (previously held by Ledell Robinson ’14).

Read more online at

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www.willistonblogs.com/athletics

PH OTO G R A PH S: PAU L R U TH E R FOR D

FOOTBALL 2014 HIGHLIGHTS

campus news

INSTAGRAM

| #iwilliston

OF THE BEST THINGS ABOUT WILLISTON

iWilliston asked 30 people from across campus their #1 favorite thing about Williston Northampton. Here are their responses: elie small: the music practice rooms lindsay whipple: the people joey sansone: living in Ford

#SOCIALMEDIA LESSONS FOR THE IWILLISTON TEAM This year, the iWilliston team will be meeting with a series of special guests who have unique perspectives on the world of social media.

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n Monday, October 6, the 10 team members had a conversation with their first guest of the year, Lauren Katz ’09. Ms. Katz has worked as a production assistant and intern at National Public Radio, where she wrote for the organization’s Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and Pinterest accounts.

She is currently a social media specialist at Adecco at Google, where she works on the social media team for Google Glass. Top tips from Ms. Katz included: keep your posts human, pursue new platforms, and be smart about what you put online.

“When you’re doing social media, it’s way easier to think of those people that you know and that you would talk to regularly, rather than thinking about the mass of people that could potentially be seeing your stuff,” she told the iWilliston team via Google Hangouts. “I don’t know how to write for that mass of people, but I do know how to write for my little brother.”

Read more about the iWilliston team on their blog: www.willistonblogs.com/iwilliston

ellie scott: cross country bryan bates: the welcoming community teddy wolfe: the academic schedule jared karas: working out with Blayner abbie foster: the student-teacher relationship sam atkins: the Arête room for studying andy liu: JVarsity puck ashley fitch: Ms. Lawson loren po: funny teachers anthony aquadro: night games evan cavanough: the sense of community alana serafino: the people mr. choo: spending time with students lena gandevia: girls cross country team ben cuca: it’s pretty natalia baum: the quad ted carellas: small classes david fitch: the people quinn griffin: StuBop sima gandevia: friendliness in the community janyce carey: the dorms rebecca sundel: the weekend activities ameesia marold: the sports sabrina sampson: the campus tito ovhori: the friendly people elyssa katz: the teachers justin frometa: diversity

WINTER 2015 BULLETIN 15

HAN 16 WILLISTON NORTHAMPTON SCHOOL

N DS DIRTY Karin O’Neil spent her 33-year tenure at Williston Northampton teaching innovative and literally groundbreaking courses in history, all while contributing a significant chapter to the story of the school itself. — by megan tady

WINTER 2015 BULLETIN 17

ON THE LAWN NEXT TO HATHAWAY HOUSE IN 1973, SHOVEL-WIELDING EIGHTH GRADERS DUG INTO THE DIRT. THE HOLE GREW BIGGER, AND IMPRESSIVELY DEEP. FROM IT, THEY PULLED BURIED CHINA DOLL HEADS, TWISTED PIECES OF METAL, AND HAIRBRUSHES. They were exhuming a 20th century household dump. History teacher Karin O’Neil and colleague Thomas Smith were leading a bona fide archeological dig. What better way to teach history than to let kids unearth it?

Ms. O’Neil, Mr. Smith, and their students had organized an efficient setup. Some kids dug while others used sifters to gently shake away the soil from the artifacts. The dig itself lasted for several weeks, revealing other treasures—a salt-blazed stoneware crock, soles of shoes, pieces of Imari ceramic pottery that they glued back together—all clues to a different way of life, of people who lived on the same land before them.

Researching the artifacts took longer, but ultimately the students proudly presented their findings to the Easthampton Historical Society.

“We were always looking for innovative ways to help students understand the way ‘history’ is made,” Ms. O’Neil says.

Paul Sigris ’78, was among those eighth grade excavators. He says his memories of the dig are “vivid.”

“It was a hands-on approach to teaching American history,” he says.

“We weren’t watching an archeological dig, we were doing an archeological dig. There was a huge difference.

It also meant that we got dirty.”

During her 33-year tenure at Williston Northampton, as both a teacher and an administrator, Ms. O’Neil had a talent for uncovering something miraculous just below the surface—from an old hairbrush, to a teacher’s innate ability to inspire a classroom of students. She took everything to the next level: first elevating how she taught history and

18 WILLISTON NORTHAMPTON SCHOOL

then elevating how the school, collectively, approached the curriculum.

As the director of the Middle School, the academic dean, the dean of faculty, the assistant head, and finally, as associate head of school from 1990 to 2001, Ms. O’Neil was an historian who was also quietly, and rather cheerily, making history.

“To this day, I have an interest in archeology,” says Mr. Sigrist, an actor, who for 10 years directed an oral history project at the Ellis Island Immigration Museum. “Doing that dig was kind of a dream come true.

Going down into that dirt seven feet down and pulling stuff out of the dirt, it was heaven. Certainly Ms. O’Neil fostered and cultivated that life-long interest in history, and I eventually pursued it as a career.”

GROOVING ON CHALLENGES

When Ms. O’Neil signed on to teach at the Northampton School for Girls (NSFG) in 1967, she only expected to stay for one year. She had just earned her master’s degree in history, and she “bumbled” her way into teaching, believing the year would give her time to figure our her career path. Then she had what she calls the “light bulb experience.” It changed everything.

“There’s that moment of inner feeling when a students grasps something, and you can see that you had something to do with that,” she says.

“Once that happened, I was hooked.”

That, and NSFG was on the brink of merging with Williston Academy. Ms. O’Neil wanted to support her students through the monumental change. “[Williston Academy] had a strong male culture,” she says. “I felt really strongly that the girls would need some female advocates.”

Assistant Head of School Ann Pickrell says Ms. O’Neil was instrumental in successfully melding the two schools.

“She brought many of the NSFG traditions to Williston,” Ms. Pickrell says. “She was very mindful of that from a perspective of an historian; she was not willing to let that aspect of [NSFG] disappear.”

During the first year or two of the merger, Ms. O’Neil did find herself advocating for the female students along with some of her NSFG and Williston colleagues.

“There was a dark cloud of feeling that the women brought lower academic standards than the men,” Ms. O’Neil says. “Some of those women went on to just do phenomenal things. So vindication is sweet, because they were real leaders in their fields.”

It was an exciting time for Ms. O’Neil, who describes herself as a “raw rookie” who “grooved on challenges.” It was the early 70s, and her dog nipped at her students’ bellbottomed jeans as they strolled across campus.

“It was a time of chaos,” she says.

“And it was a time of huge change in American culture. People were trying to get a clear footing on what education should be, how traditional the school should be, discipline, what kind of innovation should there be.

Everybody was groping for the way that would make things work better.”

On occasion, Ms. O’Neil herself was on the frontlines of disciplining her students. When a male student perpetually skipped her class, she decided to track him down in his dorm—at a time when women and men didn’t typically set foot in each other’s living quarters.

“The boys [in my class] looked at me and said, ‘You wouldn’t.’ I said,

‘Just watch me.’”

Leaving her class with a student teacher, Ms. O’Neil marched over to the missing student’s dorm room and rapped on the door.

“There he was, standing in his boxers,” she says. “And I said, ‘You will get dressed. You will be in my class before it is over. And you are not to be late again. And he wasn’t late—for about two months.”

At the newly minted Williston Northampton, Ms. O’Neil found a school that encouraged her to think creatively.

“I’m a doer,” she says. “If I saw something that was needed, I would speak up. I learned how to speak up pretty quickly in that first year of the merger, otherwise I would have been blown out of the water.”

Instead, she swam with the current, and eventually started carving her own tributaries.

“Somebody says, “Ok, you have an idea, go do it.’ That’s really how I got into administration,” she says.

PHOTOGR A PHS: J OAN N A CHAT TM A N

PROVIDING THE GLUE

Before the late 1970s, Williston Northampton, like most independent schools, didn’t have a formal and well-articulated system to evaluate teachers. Rather, the culture of independent schools supported teachers’ independence in a classroom and in developing curriculum.

“At independent schools, historically, teachers could go into their classrooms that were like little egg cartons and nobody could check on them,” Ms. O’Neil says. “[Teachers] could do whatever they wanted. It was their own private fiefdom.”

She continued, “The general tone, and this isn’t critical of Williston, was: ‘All I have to do is stand outside the door for 15 minutes and I tell if someone is a good teacher or

not.’ And I said, ‘I don’t think it’s that easy.’”

In her role as academic dean from 1977-1985, Ms. O’Neil says she gained a broader perspective on new research that delved into the science and theory of teaching and learning.

“There was a huge explosion of knowledge about how people learn and how brains work,” she says. “I wanted to find out what really works in teaching.”

She attended conferences and trainings, and slowly began to shift how Williston Northampton ap-

“ Ms. O’Neil was one of the first people to talk about curriculum mapping and to get us to do it.”

proached teaching. With key help from some of her colleagues, she introduced classroom observations, a teacher evaluation structure, and a new teacher orientation program.

She also pushed for summer study opportunities for faculty.

“She was one of the first people to talk about curriculum mapping and to get us to do it,” Ms. Pickrell says.

“She wanted people who were good teachers to be better teachers.”

Dean of Faculty Peter Valine says Ms. O’Neil was pivotal to establishing Williston Northampton’s culture of professionalism.

“She was able to bring a level of respect and admiration that served the interest of the school community so well,” he says. “She was upholding professional institutional values, and doing it in a way that you felt like you had her complete support.”

The task wasn’t easy. It was like righting a large ship, asking it to go in another direction.

“It was a long, hard road,” Ms. O’Neil says. “But a lot of people came through. I couldn’t have done it without the whole faculty. I think I provided the glue. The people were working together in a way they hadn’t in the past.”

For years, on her office door, she hung a quote from the Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu: “A leader is most effective when people barely know he exists. When his work is done, his aim fulfilled, his troops will feel they did it themselves.”

She lived and led by this motto.

A LIFE REFLECTED

On a sunny, surprisingly warm day this fall, Ms. O’Neil sat on a bench outside the Homestead, giving jolly hellos to the many people who recognized her. Back for a visit from her home in Ohio, she surveyed the

campus. Had it changed? Oh yes.

Ms. O’Neil left Williston Northampton in 2001, moving to Ohio to become the executive director of the Ohio Association of Independent Schools. She retired in 2011, but is still on the board for the League of Women Voters and is writing a family history for her two grandchildren.

After studying the art, science, and theory of teaching for years, Ms. O’Neil has a few thoughts about what makes a good teacher. She lists them with enthusiasm: a passion for subject matter, the ability to take feedback, a knack for living with ambiguity, a sense of humor, and above all, the to inclination to “groove on the light bulb effect.”

Mr. Valine, who is in a role that Ms. O’Neil once held as dean of faculty, was deeply influenced by her approach. He says she had a personal touch, taking interest in his two small girls and hanging their Christmas pictures on her door.

“Those are the types of little things that can make a difference, the things I think about when I’m in this position,” he says. “To get to know the faculty as people with families, and not so much an employees punching the clock—that’s not something that every administrator does so cheerily.”

And long before she was troubleshooting with faculty or studying how brains take in knowledge, she was in the dirt, leading an archeological dig, showing a shining passion for her subject matter, grooving on that light bulb effect.

“Some teachers have a certain foreboding distance about them,” Mr. Sigrist says. “She was never like that.

It wasn’t that she wanted to be your friend. But you just liked her, and she just liked you.”

WINTER 2015 BULLETIN 19

Changing Classrooms A look at the CTI as it enters its second year.

BY KEVIN MARKEY PHOTOGRAPHS BY MATTHEW CAVANAUGH

20 WILLISTON NORTHAMPTON SCHOOL

O

n a crisp morning in early November, Susanna White’s Upper School art students gather at the Reed Campus Center’s Grubbs Gallery. A recently mounted exhibit of landscape paintings by New England artist David Marshall — tumbling brooks, snowy hemlocks, summer hillsides — hangs on the soaring white walls, while the gallery’s large windows frame a view of the school’s pond, the maples outside bright with fall colors. It’s hard to imagine a more inspiring setting for a painting session.

Then the kids get down to work and, in place of the traditional pigments, brushes, and sketchpads, they open their backpacks and pull out Surface Pro tablets. For this morning’s assignment — explore Mr. Marshall’s plein air technique by sketching one of his oils — they’ll be working in Fresh Paint, a software app that mimics paint and brushes.

Welcome to the innovative world of Williston Northampton’s Curricular Technology Initiative (CTI), where every day students and teachers are finding new ways to apply digital tools.

Rolled out in stages over the course of the last year and a half, CTI is Williston Northampton’s name for its one-to-one technology program, through which the school issues a tablet computer to every student and faculty member. In addition to the actual tablets, the program includes the organizational and work-sharing software run by the devices, such as the notebook-sharing program OneNote, and the campus-wide wireless network that makes everything hum.

“Laptops have been in classrooms for twenty years,” says Head of School Robert W. Hill III. “When people gasp, ‘Oh, my gosh, the students have tablets,’ I remind them that it’s been quite a long time. . .It has taken all these intervening years for us to really understand how technology can work with pedagogy.”

Not long after arriving on campus in 2011, Mr. Hill appointed a committee to look at how the school was using technology. At the time, there was a growing interest among teachers about how they could use computers to enhance the classroom experience. Meanwhile, students were increasingly showing up with their own personal devices.

WINTER 2015 BULLETIN 21

“We were a laptop school,” says Chief Information Officer Andrew Shelffo, who served on the technology committee with Associate Academic Dean Kim Evelti and Technology Director Joseph Lorenzatti. “We had laptop carts, and we had about 250 laptops to be shared by students.”

The cart system provided a welcome level of consistency — the computers were all maintained by the school and each was loaded with the same complement of software.

But it was not perfect.

“The carts were kind of clunky, they weren’t always in the same place at the same time,” explains Mr. Shelffo. “The devices themselves were getting hard for us to keep up.”

Perhaps most frustrating, the system required faculty to perform a complicated logistical ballet whenever they needed to use the computers. Say a math teacher wanted her students to learn a program that let them do simulations of angles.

Before she could run her geometry lab, she would have to get in line behind anyone else who’d put in a

request for a laptop cart during the same period.

“It was starting to become a little bit of an issue,” says Ms. Evelti.

T

here are a couple different models a school can adopt when it decides to go digital.

The first, and by far the easiest to implement, is called B.Y.O.D. — bring your own device. Kids simply tote their own computers to class.

The second is a one-to-one program, more costly and institutionally demanding, but with much greater potential upside.

“When kids bring their own machines to school, it’s hard to ensure that the devices will have the things we want,” says Ms. Evelti. “A teacher is sort of at the mercy of whatever the parents bought, whatever the kid downloaded the night before, whatever version of a software program they are using. You’ve got a Mac, you’ve got a PC, yours is on fire over there in the corner. Teachers are having to try to figure out how to manage all that technology. It puts them in a really difficult position.

22 WILLISTON NORTHAMPTON SCHOOL

They might be forgiven for saying, ‘No way, I’m not even going there, I’ll just skip technology in the classroom.’”

Once Williston Northampton decided to go with a one-to-one program, it set out to find a device that would do everything the school asked of it. And it planned to ask a lot.

“We wanted it to be a tablet,” says Mr. Shelffo. “We also wanted it to be a fully functional laptop with a keyboard. We wanted it to have touch input. We wanted it to have stylus input. Stylus input is important for writing. It’s important for science.

It’s important for math.”

Those features were nonnegotiable — “Ever try writing a calculus equation with a keyboard?” asks Ms. Evelti, who was a math teacher before she became associate academic dean.

As it road-tested different devices, the committee initially found very few that met its requirements.

Popular tablets like the iPad didn’t have the full functionality of laptops.

Laptops lacked touchscreens and stylus input.

Technology caught up to the school’s thinking in the spring of 2012, when Microsoft released the Surface Pro. Part PC, part tablet, it ticked all the boxes.

“There was this serendipitous moment for the school,” says Mr. Hill.

“We were looking at the technology we had. We were looking at the technology that was out there. We were assessing where we wanted to go with technology, and we found this brilliant solution.”

From the outset, the administration was confident the CTI would help students become better managers of their work. With a tablet, calendars are always right there; assignments and schedules are a click away. When homework is automatically backed up to a server, it can’t be misplaced or forgotten.

What no one could predict was how the CTI would be harnessed in the classroom. By design, this critical part of the equation was left to individual teachers.

“When institutions have adopted technology unsuccessfully,” says Mr. Shelffo, “they’ve taken the devices

“ Laptops have been in classrooms for twenty years. When people gasp, ‘Oh, my gosh, the students have tablets,’ I remind them that it’s been quite a long time. I think what happened in the beginning, however, is that schools got ahead of the technology.”

and forced them upon teachers.

We took a deliberate approach and went the other way. The success of our program isn’t because we said, ‘You have to have these things.’ It is because teachers have found ways to use them.”

A year and a half into the CTI, teachers are getting creative with those uses.

M

ath teacher and department head Josh Seamon, for example, uses his tablet to record all his lectures, which are automatically shared with his students. As a result, students spend less time scribbling notes and more time engaging with the material.

“I now get a vastly larger percentage of students’ energies pointed to the analysis and synthesis of what we’re talking about,” says Mr.

Seamon. “They’re presenting really deep notation rather than acting as court stenographers.”

In language classes, students use the devices to record and play back their own voices. By the time they get to the oral assessments at the end of the term, they have logged hours of speaking practice.

Middle School civics teacher Allison Evans takes her students on virtual tours of the Library of Congress and the National Archives in Washington, D.C. “All major primary sources are digitized now,” she says. “It really provides another dimension for sharing information. There’s more opportunity for students to get their feet wet, to see things. I would have loved to have had technology like this when I was in school.”

Art teacher Susanna White

agrees completely.

“One of my most painful memories from college,” she explains, “is of an anatomical drawing class. I had spent hours on a drawing of a kneecap and finally gotten it just the way I wanted. My professor was very old school. He walked up, took out his marker, and slashed a big red X over my drawing.

It was devastating.”

Working on their tablets in Grubbs Gallery, her students will never know such misery. When they get their digital sketches just the way they want them, they will share copies with Ms. White. She can then mark up the copies on her tablet, showing the students ways to improve perspective, line, and color.

And they can take those lessons into the studio and apply them, confidently, in paint on canvas.

“The uses of technology in the art world are unlimited,” Ms. White says. “How amazing it is that we’ve come up with a machine like this that allows us to do anything with our imagination.”

This fall, Microsoft announced that Williston Northampton was selected as one of 150 Microsoft in Education Showcase Schools, a designation that recognizes innovators in leading and learning. Faculty members Josh Seamon, Mattie Byrd McHold, and Kim Evelti were named members of the Microsoft Innovative Educator Expert Program for 2015.

See videos about the CTI at www.williston.com/cti

WINTER 2015 BULLETIN 23

“It’s the proverbial Cheers bar where everybody knows your name.”

A postcommencement celebration by 1981 fac-brats.

24 WILLISTON NORTHAMPTON SCHOOL

Growing Up On

CAMPUS Faculty children reflect on what it was like having the campus as their backyard and the challenges and fun of spending their childhood at a boarding school.

BY VICTORIA BRETT

Faculty and staff children are a fixture at most campus events, including the Welcome Days picnic this fall.

WINTER 2015窶ィULLETIN 25

Sarah and Phillips Stevens raised their children in the Homestead, when it served as the Headmaster’s residence.

When she was in third grade, Kristina Conroy’s life changed dramatically. Suddenly, instead of quiet family dinners, Ms. Conroy was grabbing a plate at a dining commons and queuing up with a line of rowdy teenagers. Instead of a small backyard, an entire quad was her playground. Instead of one brother, Ms. Conroy had some 400 surrogate siblings to play with.

“I just remember getting there and feeling like I was surrounded by surrogate parents and surrogate siblings all the time,” said Ms. Conroy ’10, of her experience moving to a boarding school campus.

Such is the life of faculty and staff children, also lovingly called fac-brats, who grow up on campus, then often attend, and occasionally even return to live and work at a school like the one where they spent their childhood.

Ms. Conroy, whose family moved from California in 2000 so her father could be the athletic director and her mother a math teacher at Williston Northampton, her second boarding school home, was not like the older boarding students; she had no study hall, no check-in, and didn’t need to sign out of the dorm where she lived. Instead, she could roam the campus—under the supervision of some 200 adults, of course.

“It shaped me,” she said. “Everyone always says, ‘Why are you so good and comfortable talking to adults and strangers?’ I’ve grown up not just with my parents, but with other teachers and students.”

This year, 18 students at the Middle and Upper Schools at Williston Northampton live with their families in dorms or houses on campus. Another 34 faculty and staff children attend as day students. And some 33 kids also live on campus, but are too young to enroll.

Growing up on a boarding school campus—with a 270-seat dining room, 450 Upper School students, and 76 teachers—leaves a strong imprint. It’s an experience that brings some faculty kids back to campus, as parents and teachers themselves. Nurturing that vibrant residential community, where the school feels like a family, is one of Williston Northampton’s top priorities. In the school’s 2014 Strategic Plan, “balanced boarding school culture” took the number two slot, just after “academic excellence.”

Former fac-brats—such as Archivist Rick Teller ’70, math teacher Kurt Whipple, science teacher Paul Rutherford, and girls hockey coach and tutor Molly Couch Ward ’82—say growing up on a campus was one reason they returned as faculty members. And former and current fac-brats alike all describe living at a school in glowing terms: family, community, home.

“The kids are so much a part of the culture here,” said Mr. Teller, who lived on campus with his family in the 1950s. “Teenagers are playing with little kids and interacting with them all the time. It’s a very healthy and fun aspect of the campus.”

26 WILLISTON NORTHAMPTON SCHOOL

1949

The first year that women and children were allowed to live on the Williston Academy campus.

2000 the year the Williston Children’s Center opened.

Eleven babies were also born within that year.

3

babies born to faculty families in the last year (with another one on the way!)

“The campus was our playground.”

WINTER 2015 BULLETIN 27

The kids are surrounded by surrogate parents and surrogate siblings.

Some things don’t change. The lion is still a tempting climbing spot.

28 WILLISTON NORTHAMPTON SCHOOL

Physics teacher Paul Rutherford spent his whole life at Mercersburg Academy in Pennsylvania, where he played with other fac-brat children and ate dining hall food. After graduating from Kenyon College in 2010, he had jobs at two minor league baseball teams in Idaho and California, and then thought he was ready for a change. He taught physics, calculus, and algebra at the private St. Thomas More School in North Carolina, which had all the features of an elite school, minus the boarding life.

But the urge to return to a close-knit, residential community eventually led Mr. Rutherford to Williston Northampton, where he took on such after-school duties as advising and supervising 14 boys as a Logan House dorm parent. As well as his hands-on physics experiments, Mr. Rutherford is now known around campus for his spectacular blazers and bowties, which become that much more extravagant during his Crazy Blazer Thursdays.

“It was hard to find the same community as at a boarding school,” Mr. Rutherford said. “Everyone is in the same place for the same reason. Once I got out into the real world, it felt like something was missing.”

“The opposite of loneliness,” is how Amy Schuller ’98 describes growing up in a boarding school community. Ms. Schuller, a lawyer who lives with her husband in San Francisco, moved to Williston Northampton with her sisters at age 10, when her father, Mike Schuller, became the school’s business manager.

“There are always a pack of kids to play with; theater, sport and art events existed for our entertainment. And all those older kids to follow around,” Ms. Schuller said. “Living there was one of the best ways possible to grow up, like entering a community built in around you.”

Sam Grant ’08, the son of Associate Director of Athletics Jay Grant and Spanish teacher Betsy Grant, ate dinner with hundreds of kids and faculty families from the time he was a toddler.

“That part is hard to explain to others who didn’t have that upbringing. Most kids have dinner with their parents at home and I would go to the dining hall,” said Mr. Grant. “It’s pretty unusual.”

Growing up on a campus is like joining a very welcoming extended family agrees Kurt Whipple, who was raised at Lawrence Academy in Groton, MA. “I had 300 brothers and sisters, a lot of babysitters, and my own baseball field where I could shag balls with the coaches,” he said. “My backyard was three soccer fields, tennis courts, and access to the gym and hockey rink. Not many kids could say that.”

When it came to raising his own family, Mr. Whipple decided to follow in the steps of his father, a math teacher.

Mr. Whipple joined the Williston Northampton community in 1996 and his daughters, Lindsay ’17 and Emily ’19, were babies in the dorm.

A TIGHT-KNIT COMMUNITY

As comforting as it can often be, former fac-brats also note that the watchful eye of a close community, where every adult knows you, can occasionally feel stifling.

“It’s really hard to fly under the radar,” said Molly Couch Ward ’82, who lived on campus with her family for her entire childhood. “I never did anything crazy, but I was a teenager.”

For someone with as much connection to the school as she does— her father, Bob Couch ’50, attended the all-boys Williston Academy and returned after college to teach math and run the photo club—life at Williston Northampton could feel a bit like destiny. All four of her siblings attended the school: Laura ’81, Sarah ’83, Robert ’86, and Gordon ’89.

Ms. Ward notes that her mother, Janet Couch, had grown up at Hamilton College as the daughter of a physics professor, so living on campus felt natural for the whole family.

She remembers riding bikes with kids from the St. George, Francis, Shaler, Gow, Moser, Brown, Baker, Dunnington, Lucier, and Archibald families; her Sundays and summers were spent in the pool in Reed.

Ms. Ward, who is now a tutor at the school, coaches girls ice hockey in the same rink where she learned to skate.

Her son, Cam ’17, attends Williston Northampton and her daughter hopes to start at the Middle School next year.

“The Williston friends and connections that I have span 50 years: as a faculty kid, as a student, as an employee, and now I’m a parent,” she said. “I’ve really experienced every role here.”

While the people at the school and even the campus itself might change, the essential experience of a faculty child has not differed much from generation to generation. The grass field may become turf, the swimming pool may move to a

Faculty Children Timeline pre-1948:

Children, and wives, discouraged on campus at Williston Academy.

1949: Headmaster Phillips Stevens arrives with four children, two more born while at Williston. Changes family culture on campus, encourages kids.

1951: Williston Academy moves to new campus with accommodations in Memorial Hall for families. First three children born to on-campus Williston faculty couples.

(James H. Shepardson in admissions, Spanish teacher David Thomas, and history and music teacher Henry Teller.)

1970: Eleven faculty kids attend Williston Academy, including three girls. (434 total enrollment) 1971: Northampton School for Girls and Williston Academy merge.

2000: Williston Children’s Center opens.

2014: 51 faculty children live on campus, including 18 current students.

“There are trees that have been passed down by generations of faculty kids.”

WINTER 2015 BULLETIN 29

MAKE A GIFT

PREPARE A MIND Each year our students come to campus with open minds and hearts, prepared to be inspired.

We work to prepare them on their way to what comes next.

BUT THEIR SUCCESS DEPENDS ON YOU. www.williston.com/give

19 Payson Avenue, Easthampton, MA 01027 (800) 469-4559

new building, but former and current fac-brats all say that childhood feeling of security and support remains constant.

Cameron Hill ’15 has spent the majority of her life at a boarding school; she was born at the Westminster School in Simsbury, CT, and grew up at St. Paul’s School in Concord, NH. During a brief three-year stint, her parents took jobs at a day school in North Carolina and the family moved away from a school campus. Ms. Hill remembers the experience as unsettling.

“We had to drive places and go to the grocery store. I was so unused to living off-campus that it was shock to me,” said Ms. Hill, adding that she was relieved when her parents, Robert W. Hill III and Kathryn Hill, returned to New England to become Williston Northampton’s head of school and math teacher, respectively. Ms. Hill and her brother Robby ’19 have lived in the head of school’s house ever since.

Now in her senior year, Ms. Hill is looking forward to college life, but describes the Williston Northampton campus the way other people might talk about their hometown.

“It’s the people who are always here. The history teacher who lives next door and I babysit her kids, and my English teacher, who is also my advisor.

I give her daughter piano lessons,” she said. “That’s home to me.”

Like most faculty children, Calvin Ticknor-Swanson ’16 spends each Reunion listening to alumni telling him how big he’s grown or how they changed his diapers.

As a tiny towhead, Mr. Ticknor-Swanson ran through the hallways in the Reed Campus Center, riding up and down the elevator with other faculty children, hiding from, and spying on, the students. When advisees came to dinner at the Williston Birthplace, where he’s lived all his life, he and his sister, Persis ’14 (Barnard ’18), would show off for them.

Even as an elementary school student, Mr. Ticknor-Swanson would attend class with his father, history and global studies teacher Glenn “Swanee” Swanson ’64. And although being a faculty child has its perks, it also comes with additional pressures.

“You don’t want to let anyone down,” said Mr. Ticknor-Swanson. “As the son of a faculty member on campus, I have to be a role model.”

Mr. Ticknor-Swanson has taken such a responsibility seriously, and like other fac-brats on campus, has grown into his role. He was the lead in the fall play, All My Sons, is a stand-out member of the dance ensemble, and regularly makes the honor roll.

Still, during meals at Birch Dining Commons, the junior will spot the young faculty kids climbing a gnarled tree near the dining hall and have a moment of nostalgia.

“It’s very reminiscent of when I was their age,” he said. “That tree has been passed down by generations of faculty kids.”

Williston Northampton is home, but he, like other students who have grown up on campus, looks forward to the next adventure—going on to an unfamiliar college where he’s not immediately recognized as Swanee’s son.

“It will be weird,” said Mr. Ticknor-Swanson, “to be in a place where I don’t know the lay of the land or everybody there.”