Category Archives: Academics

Williston’s We the People Heads to Nationals

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To say that the final scores in the We the People state competition on Saturday were close is putting things mildly. With final scores in the 900-point range, there was a just a 12-point difference between the top two teams.

“It’s like being one point behind in a 90-point basketball game,” said Peter Gunn, faculty advisor for the school’s We the People team. “That’s how close it was.”

On Saturday, January 26, The Williston Northampton School team placed second out of nine schools—just a dozen points behind the winning Academy of Notre Dame. The second place finish was good enough for the team to earn a wild card ticket to the national championships in Washington, DC in April.

“Our young people made wonderful presentations,” Gunn wrote in an email. “They eloquently defended and extended their ideas in the following discussions.”

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Posted in: Academics, Upper School, Williston Northampton News

Bringing Outside Voices to Sports Studies

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“Are sports connected to what’s happening in the classroom?” It was their search for the answer to that question that lead Smith College professors Don Siegel and Sam Intrator to found an innovative, Springfield-based program called Project Coach.

In early December, the two professors, plus two others from their program, brought that question to students at The Williston Northampton School.

“There’s a notion that what’s going on in the playing fields connects to what’s going on in other parts of kids’ lives,” Siegel told the students. “The way to the boardroom leads through the locker room.”

The same question could be applied to the class—a new Williston Scholars program called Sports Studies. Created by Diane Williams, a history and global studies teacher, the course features a large slate of visiting speakers and is designed to give students local examples of “sports being used in a meaningful way to impact people’s lives.”

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Posted in: Academics, Athletics, Special Programs, Visiting Speakers, Williston Northampton News

“This is How Change is Made”: Allison Arbib ’03 at Cum Laude

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Before she covered the eclectic topics she had planned for her speech—calculus, the end of modern day slavery, and grizzly bears, among them—Allison Arbib ’03 had to give a disclaimer.

“You may assume that I’m here because I was Cum Laude myself,” she told the assembled community during the Cum Laude Society Induction Ceremony on January 11. “I was not.”

Unlike the 10 seniors being honored during the all-school assembly, Arbib said she had always felt there was “some measure of excellence I came close to but never quite reached.” She had even received a C+ grade in calculus, she said.

“What I’ve learned— what I’m still learning— is that excellence is about working really hard every day to try and make things better, whether anyone is watching or not,” she said. “That there’s beauty in that struggle.”

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Posted in: Academics, Special Programs, Visiting Speakers, Williston Northampton News

Teaching Democracy

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What is the best way to study American constitutional history?  How do we make our students passionate about documents that are almost 250 years old?

Peter Gunn, a member of the Williston faculty since 1986, teaches the spectrum of American history and economics classes.  An inspiring and enthusiastic teacher, Peter’s lectures teach students to question something that is much too often taken for granted: the democracy that is our nation’s foundation.  In his classes, students question, debate, and strengthen their opinions about the American constitution.

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Posted in: Academics, Events, Reed Campus Center, Special Programs, Upper School, Williston Northampton News

Williston Inducts Ten to Cum Laude

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The Williston Northampton School chapter of the Cum Laude Society inducted 10 members from the Class of 2013 on Friday, January 11 at 8:30 a.m.

The Cum Laude Society, founded in 1906 and modeled after Phi Beta Kappa, honors scholastic achievement in secondary schools.  The society has over 350 chapters, with the majority 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.

The following students were inducted in the Phillips Stevens Chapel on the Williston Northampton campus.

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Posted in: Academics, Special Programs, Upper School, Williston Northampton News