125 Years of Educating Boys
Student Life at Woodberry Forest School • june 2014
Going Grill-to-Grill at Spring Barbecue team mexico takes home first prize in judged competition
Smoke filled the lawn when the tenth annual spring barbecue competition brought together eight student barbecue teams representing regional grilling styles from around the country and the world. While cooking meat over flames sounds simple, the process started long before the big Saturday. Under the supervision of a faculty sponsor and with the help of the kitchen staff and the grounds crew, each student team worked hard planning their entry, cooking it, presenting the finished product to a panel of judges, and serving it to a hungry crowd. They rounded up recipes — often containing closely guarded secrets — ordered ingredients, and prepped their food in the school’s kitchen. Some teams set up shifts in the early morning hours to watch over slowcooked meats from the comfort of hammocks they’d strung up in the surrounding trees. Team Mexico’s Cochinita Pibil, a barbecued pork shoulder soft taco with pickled onions and pineapple salsa, proved to be the judges’ favorite. Other teams represented the barbecue traditions of China; Korea; Lexington, North Carolina; Eastern North Carolina; Texas; Canada; and Alabama. “We had a varied and energetic representation of many regions with great meat-grilling traditions,” said Jason Slade ’90, associate director for enrollment and international admissions, who heads up the event. “These teams of students and faculty are to be commended for their hard work and dedication — and for the regional pride they shared with the whole community.”
“Genius Grant” Winner Returns to the Forest MacArthur fellow works with student writers
Woodberry Forest was honored this spring with a week-long visit from one of its alums, MacArthur Fellow Donald Antrim ’77. He came to talk to English classes and to lead a group of eleven students in a writing workshop. Each young writer shared a short story or memoir and received feedback from their peers and Donald during the three-night session. “The workshop was a great way to learn both how to be a better writer and a better editor,” said one of the participants. A Brown University graduate and the writer of three novels and a memoir, Donald frequently publishes fiction and nonfiction in The New Yorker and teaches writing at Columbia University. Ted Blain, Woodberry’s English department chair, and John Reimers, Donald’s Woodberry adviser, invited him to visit Woodberry. Donald was selected by the MacArthur Foundation to receive its “genius grant,” a $625,000 Image courtesy of the John D. & Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. prize, in 2013. News of the award “came out of the blue,” via a telephone call he received while riding over the Manhattan Bridge in a taxicab. He compares the mission of the MacArthur Foundation to aspects of Woodberry’s purpose: “Both take care of people so they can rise to a challenge and make a better world.”
Tiger Tales • JUNE 2014 • 1