Student Life at Woodberry Forest School • December 2014
Math at Every Level basic skills to limitless possibilities
Even though he has a doctorate from the University of Alabama at Birmingham and has taught college mathematics, Woodberry’s math department chair David McRae chooses to teach the entrylevel course, Algebra I. “Most of our teachers have taught at all levels,” he says. “They know where their students came from and where they are going.”
Winter Activities afternoon activities for all interests
When days are short and cold winds blow, there is plenty for boys to do beyond the classroom at Woodberry. Some play on an athletic team or try another physical activity. Others pursue interests in art, music, or drama. Still others choose community service or start their own activity, such as our new film and photography club. Regardless of their choice, boys find ways to have fun throughout the winter. Basketball Woodberry offers teams for boys of all skill levels — varsity, junior varsity, and Bengal. Indoor climbing Our climbing team competes in indoor climbing gyms throughout the region. Indoor track Our varsity and junior varsity teams compete all winter long in the Barbee Center. Physical fitness Boys meet daily in Glover Fitness Center to complete a vigorous exercise regimen. Squash Varsity and junior varsity players learn the game or improve their skills in our squash pavilion. Swimming and diving Woodberry offers varsity and junior varsity swimming teams and a diving program.
Wrestling Our grapplers demonstrate character, courage, discipline, and toughness on the mat. Art Art is open to boys who demonstrate true passion for creative expression. Community service Boys volunteer at the Boys & Girls Club and help others who live in the local community. Debate Our debate team competes in Virginia Catholic Forensics League tournaments. Drama Boys act in shows on the main stage and the black box theater or assist on the tech crew. Music Woodberry musicians participate in an ensemble, take private lessons, or make their own music.
Teachers take pride in making sure students understand each concept before going forward, even when that means tutoring them outside of class. “One benefit of boarding school is that we can spend as much time helping boys in consultation as we do teaching class.” And while Woodberry boys get a firm foundation in their early math classes, they can also go further at the Forest than at almost any other secondary school. “Some students go two years beyond calculus,” Dr. McRae explains. “In our Seminar in Advanced Mathematics, boys delve into topics like number theory, symbolic logic, game theory, and Euclidean geometry.” Beginning next fall, those studies will take place in a beautiful new math facility currently under construction. The building will feature maththemed elements like artwork based on the golden ratio and floor tiles arranged in a Cartesian grid. More importantly, there will be white boards everywhere to make collaboration easy. No matter whether a boy is conquering the basics or challenging his limits, Woodberry’s math teachers are ready to lead him on an adventure through the world of numbers.
From the Headmaster “What we have here is the kind of culture that makes us better and challenges us to reach for high standards while embracing a place that is so much bigger and more enduring than we will ever be. It is the kind of place where a boy has the opportunity to act and lead in ways he never would have at home.” Byron Hulsey ’86, writing on his blog, What Matters Most Read more: www.woodberry.org/headmastersblog Woodberry Forest School
Dr. David McRae, mathematics department chair Tiger Tales • December 2014 • 1
South Africa Program living and learning in a new culture
While visiting South Africa in 2006, Woodberry faculty member Ben Hale was approached by a staff member at Michaelhouse, one of that country’s most prestigious boys’ boarding schools. She asked Ben if her son could study at Woodberry Forest. Ben got excited about hosting Michaelhouse boys at Woodberry — and offering Woodberry boys a once-in-a-lifetime educational experience in South Africa. Soon, two other top South African boarding schools — Hilton College and St. John’s College — jumped on board, and one of Woodberry’s most popular international study programs was born. Since 2008, select fifth-form (junior) Woodberry boys have spent the winter trimester — the beginning of the South African school year — at one of the three schools. There they take classes; play sports, including rugby, water polo, and cricket; and make new friends.
Faculty feature
Tammy Firman After nineteen years of administering flu shots, peering into sore throats, and caring for Woodberry boys’ medical needs, Tammy Firman, RN, can’t imagine working anywhere else. She came to Woodberry after serving as an ER nurse and health educator. Now, as the school’s director of health services, she lives in the Upper Memorial Infirmary Apartment with her husband, Clyde, director of food services. What makes being a nurse at Woodberry Forest different from working in another setting? It's all about relationships. I get to know boys as people, not just as patients, so I can provide better care. And since the boys and I all live here, I have the luxury of time – I can really listen to what they are telling me. What else are you involved in at Woodberry? I work with the chapel program as a sort of one-woman altar guild. I help the choir members and acolytes into their vestments, arrange flowers, and care for the linens and brass used in St. Andrew’s Chapel. At Christmas time, I lead the boys in greening the chapel. Students and community members get together to prepare for our candlelight service by crafting wreaths, swags, and other decorations from greenery gathered on our campus. It’s an activity I truly cherish. What draws you to work so closely with Woodberry’s chapel program? Since coming to Woodberry, I’ve loved Sunday evenings when we are all in chapel together. I marvel at the peacefulness that occurs when 392 boys bow their heads, and it's so quiet that I can hear my own heart beat. What do you like to do in your free time? I like to travel, read, cook, garden, and spend time with my husband at our home in Maine.
2 • December 2014 • Tiger Tales
Woodberry boys interested in the South Africa program submit an essay and are interviewed by a committee that includes faculty members and former program participants. “This was one of the most enjoyable periods of my life, and I gained a new level of independence learning to make my own decisions and facing the consequences,” said Eduardo Corona ’15, who spent a trimester at St. John’s College in Johannesburg last year. “Studying in South Africa opens boys’ eyes to people and politics around the globe,” said Ben Hale, “and they become more self-determined as a result.”
back row (from south africa): Jonty McIvor, Guy Waterhouse, Armin Prinsloo; front row: Graham Goldstein, Taylor Brower, Robert Singleton
Did You Know?
South Africa, also called the "Rainbow Nation," has eleven official languages and three capitals: Cape Town, Pretoria, and Bloemfontein.
Art Appreciation museum visits supplement classroom lessons
It’s easy to appreciate the artistic offerings of Washington, DC, and Charlottesville with a pencil in hand. That’s what groups of English and art students found out this fall when their teachers arranged field trips to museums in the nation’s capital and at the University of Virginia. Third formers in three English classes boarded a bus bound for UVa’s Fralin Museum of Art where they chose works of art to inspire their own written pieces of prose or poetry to enter in the Writer’s Eye literary competition. Well-known writers in the community judge entries, and winning writers get published in the museum's annual anthology. Woodberry has participated in the contest for the past five years and has had five winners. As he does once a trimester, art teacher Kelly Lonergan accompanied his students in introductory art, studio art, and art history to the major museums of Washington, DC. This trimester, students fanned across the National Gallery, seeing and sketching the only Leonardo da Vinci painting in the United States and completing packets to help them appreciate other works in that museum, the Hirshhorn Museum, and the National Portrait Gallery. Woodberry Forest School
Coming Through the Rye film crew turns Woodberry
Woodberry faculty, staff, and students as extras
into Crampton Prep
“Before spending time on set,” said Cole Lenfest ’15, “I thought movies were just about the actors. Now I know how an entire crew comes together to make something special.” Cole was talking about his experience acting in Coming Through the Rye, a movie shot on the Woodberry Forest School campus this fall. He got the chance to be in the movie because its director and screenwriter, Emmy-award winning filmmaker James Sadwith, fell in love with the school’s beautiful grounds. “It’s the perfect place for our movie,” he wrote to fine arts chair Brent Cirves. Crews arrived to transform the campus into the fictional Crampton Prep and move it back in time to 1969. The screenplay, based on Sadwith's real-life experiences, chronicles the coming-of-age of Jamie Schwartz as he runs away from boarding school to find J.D. Salinger and show him a play he wrote based on Catcher in the Rye. A large portion of the student body served as actors, stand-ins, and extras, often working alongside stars Alex Wolff and Stefania Owen. Academy Awardwinner Chris Cooper plays the reclusive author. Among the student actors chosen for speaking roles was Jared Thalwitz ’16, who played Benvolio in Woodberry's recent production of Romeo and Juliet; he reprised the role on camera for Crampton Prep's version of the play. “Acting is something I'm very Antique cars in front interested in,“ said Jared. of Walker Building Headmaster Byron Hulsey ’86 called the experience of having a movie crew use the Woodberry campus “a significant opportunity for connection to the cinematic arts.“ Speaking for many of his fellow students, Christian Magnani ’15, said simply, “I’ve just always wanted to be in a movie.“
student snapshot
HT Minor ’15 HT Minor is a senior who came to Woodberry Forest from Washington, DC, in search of academic and athletic challenges. An honor roll student, he is also an outstanding athlete who was a star running back and defensive back on the Tiger varsity football squad this fall. What is your favorite part of the day at Woodberry? I like my morning workouts, English class, and athletics. Getting a morning lift in is a perfect way to begin the day here. Athletic practices allow me to decompress and relieve a lot of stress. And English has simply always been my favorite subject. The varsity football team finished the season 7–1 this year and took the Virginia Prep League championship. What was best about playing on the team? The most special thing about the season was the bond all of us shared and our overall commitment to our core values of unselfishness, discipline, and leadership. What other activities do you enjoy? I run indoor and outdoor track. Earlier this month, I went to the Student Diversity Leadership Conference in Chicago, where I met open-minded young leaders from other parts of the nation. I may try out for the play in the spring. What are your future plans? I’ve narrowed my college choices to Columbia University, Amherst College, and possibly the University of Pennsylvania, if I get accepted there. I may try my hand at entrepreneurship or economics. I’ve contemplated working in the fashion industry or helping to fight injustices and inequality through law or politics. So I have more than a few prospective careers I’m pondering.
An activities fair
eld Hall
scene outside Armfi
Woodberry Forest School
A scene from Romeo & Juliet, reenacted for Coming Through the Rye
Tiger Tales • December 2014 • 3
Presorted First Class U.S. Postage PAID Orange, VA Permit No. 97
Woodberry Forest School Office of Admissions 898 Woodberry Forest Road Woodberry Forest, VA 22989-9989
December 2014 Tiger Tales
FIRST ROUND APPLICATIONS DUE JANUARY 15 www.woodberry.org/Page/Admissions/Applying-to-Woodberry *Applications received after January 15 will be considered for rolling admission.
What step are you on? Tour campus and interview Spend the night (optional) Take the SSATs (and TOEFL if international) Submit the application (with recommendations and transcripts) before Jan 15
LAST WEEKENDS FOR OVERNIGHT VISITS AND INTERVIEWS Wishing you a Happy New Year!
January 8-12, January 16-19 Give us a call to schedule your tour!
from all of us at Woodberry Forest
WWW.WOODBERRY.ORG | wfs.admissions@ woodberry.org | 888-798-9371 www.facebook.com/woodberryforestschool | www.instagram.com/woodberryforestschool | www.twitter.com/WoodberryForest
Woodberry Forest admits students of any race, color, sexual orientation, disability, and national or ethnic origin to all of the rights, privileges, programs, and activities generally accorded or made available to students at the school. It does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, sexual orientation, disability, or national or ethnic origin in the administration of its educational policies, admissions policies, scholarship and loan programs, and athletic or other school-administered programs. This school is authorized under federal law to enroll nonimmigrant students.