Category Archives: Academics

The Next Big Thing for Clubs at Williston

Editor’s note: The following guest post was written by Christian Knapp ’14, president and co-founder of the The Williston Political Awareness Club, one of the most successful student-run clubs on campus this year. The club regularly had more than 30 students in attendance and hosted debates on such topics as welfare reform, fracking, and inequality in public education. On Monday, May 19, Mr. Knapp presented his senior project, “​The Next Big Thing for Clubs at Williston: The Unveiling of a New Resource that will Help Clubs for Decades to Come.”

By Christian Knapp ’14

According to political scientist Robert D. Putnam, the participation of American adults in civic organizations has been declining for decades. I believe civil society in high schools has faced a similar decline over the past few decades. We have no shortage of capable leaders and capable participants for student organizations. However, we do have a shortage of information to help students form and operate clubs. I have been unable to find a single book in the eight million volume Five College library system that provides thorough guidance for students who wish to run a student organization. To help fill this information gap, I completed a senior project over this past trimester that included a series of workshops on running student organizations at Williston. Additionally, I wrote a handbook titled How to Run a Successful Club.

For my workshops and my handbook, I drew upon my experience as the freshman class president, political club president, and founder and editor-in-chief of the school newspaper at my previous high school. As many Williston students will recognize when they read the handbook, I included many of the methods I used to make The Williston Political Awareness Club successful. I made countless mistakes in each of these organizations. It is my hope that this document will help student leaders avoid making the same mistakes that I made. In addition to my leadership experience, I conducted 17 interviews of students, faculty, and administration about their involvement with student organizations. Finally, I completed research in 22 books and scholarly articles, on topics ranging from leadership to marketing.

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How Did You Get Here? An Audio Exploration of the Williston Community

Editor’s note: The following was presented during the Senior Project Showcase on Wednesday, May 21 from 5-6:30 p.m. in the Dodge Room and the Grubbs Gallery.

Guest post by Maggie Fitzgerald ’14

My senior project, based on Middlebury College’s “How Did You Get Here?” is a collection of interviews with a Williston teacher, student, parent, and alumna. My goal for this project was to create a forum which students and teachers of the community could listen to the stories of their peers.  I’d like to express my gratitude and my belief that every person in the Williston community has been essential to the experience I’ve had during my three years at Williston. Hopefully, by viewing my project, students will gain a sense of appreciation and pride for their school. Although the sample size of the community seen in this project is small, the enthusiasm that gleams from the interviews gives an insight to the greater unity of the Williston Northampton School Community.

Listen to the full interview below.

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A Lesson on Vessels and the Art of Celebration

Robbie Heidinger Visit 1If there are trophies for athletics, why not have one for art as well?

That was the premise of a recent hands-on workshop by ceramic artist Robbie Heidinger P ’14 in the Grubbs Gallery. During her May 7 visit, she worked with two dozen students from Williston Northampton School’s Arts Intensive Program to craft just such a vessel.

In her own work, which was on display in Grubbs through mid-May, Ms. Heidiger said she has been inspired by the shape, colors, and textures of plants. She began her recent visit to Williston by passing around a vase of spring flowers and urging students to examine the shapes.

“There are really no rules,” Ms. Heidinger told them. “I just want you to start thinking about structure.”

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Shabana Basij-Rasikh and the Crime of Educating Girls

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Photography by Chattman Photography

In celebration of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, Williston Northampton welcomed Shabana Basij-Rasikh, an Afghan education activist and co-founder and president of the School of Leadership Afghanistan (SOLA) to campus on Monday, January 20.

Ms. Basij-Rasikh spoke to the student body about growing up in Afghanistan under Taliban rule, when girls were forbidden to attend school. “I have extremely amazing parents,” she said. “They could not stand the idea of us, especially the four sisters in my family, growing up uneducated.”

Rather than flee, her family decided to stay in Afghanistan and educate their four daughters secretly, illegally. For the next five years, Ms. Basij-Rasikh dressed in boy’s clothing and took her older sister to a secret school in the home of one of their neighbors. More than 100 young girls attended classes in this tiny makeshift school. Ms. Basij-Rasikh remembers constantly fearing that the Taliban would discover the school and kill everyone inside.

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Williston Cum Laude Society to Induct 13 New Members

Farnham-BlogTim Farnham ’84, Mount Holyoke College Associate Professor and Director of the Miller Worley Center for the Environment, will be the keynote speaker at this year’s Cum Laude induction ceremony on Friday, January 17.

Mr. Farnham, who has taught at Mount Holyoke College since 2009, is a nationally-recognized environmental studies scholar. He received his B.A. from Williams College and an M.S. in Natural Resources with a concentration in Forest Policy and Management from the University of Michigan. Mr. Farnham received his Ph.D. from the Yale University School of Forestry and Environmental Studies.

He has published articles in scientific journals on topics including biological diversity and timber management and presented at the 2005 and 2007 International Symposiums on Technology and Society and at both the Yale University Art Gallery and School of Forestry and Environmental Studies Doctoral Research Conference.

Mr. Farnham was inducted into the Williston Cum Laude society in his senior year and was the valedictorian of the Class of 1984.

Queen GodIs ’97, who was originally scheduled to speak at the 2014 ceremony, said recently that she was no longer able to attend.

The following students were inducted into Williston Northampton’s Cum Laude Society:
Elizabeth Calderone of Whately, MA
Matthew Carney of Wilton, CT
Matthew Cavanaugh of South Hadley, MA
Zhi Jie (Percy) Chen of Shanghai, China
Nan Ding of Shanghai, China
Olivia Foster of Longmeadow, MA
Brendan Hellweg of Holyoke, MA
Tory Kolbjornsen of Haydenville, MA
Shiyuan (Matt) Mei of Beijing, China
Giovanna Parker of Amherst, MA
Abigail Rogers-Berner of New York, NY
Madeleine Stern of Northampton, MA
Persis Ticknor-Swanson of Easthampton, MA

Inducted students and their parents will be invited to attend a reception immediately following the 8:30 a.m. assembly at the home of Head of School Bob and Kathryn Hill.

The Cum Laude Society, founded in 1906 and modeled after Phi Beta Kappa, honors scholastic achievement in secondary scholars. The society has over 350 chapters, the majority of which are in independent schools. In 1921, Williston Academy became a member of the society, followed by Northampton School for Girls in 1951. In 1971, a new charter was created for the Williston Northampton School.