Category Archives: Upper School

Williston Cum Laude Society to Induct 13 New Members

Leave a comment

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.

Posted in: Academics, Events, Upper School, Williston Northampton News

A Boy, a Textbook, and his Drought-Stricken Country

Leave a comment
Photo by Paul Schnaittacher
Photo by Paul Schnaittacher

Currently a senior at Dartmouth College in Hanover, NH, William Kamkwamba, the co-author of The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind: Creating Currents of Electricity and Hope, took time between his final exams to speak at Williston Northampton as the fourth annual speaker in the Sara Wattles Perry ’77 lecture series.

Mr. Kamkwamba is a native of Malawi, a small African country bordered by Mozambique, Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe, where electricity and running water are a luxury enjoyed by only two percent of the population. Mr. Kamkwamba’s family members make their living as farmers in a rural part of the country. As chronicled in The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind, in 2001, a record drought led Mr. Kamkwamba to drop out of school and, using textbooks as his guide, build an electricity-generating windmill out of scrap metal.

Watch Mr. Kamkwamba’s TEDTalk about building the windmill.

Continue reading →

Posted in: Events, Middle School, Special Programs, Upper School, Visiting Speakers, Williston Northampton News

Dr. Judge to Offer Advice on Navigating Social Media

Leave a comment
amj-photo-02
Photo courtesy of www.abigailjudge.com

An expert in psychology will talk to Williston Northampton students and parents about social media use during special sessions on December 12 and 13.

Abigail Judge is an instructor of psychology at Harvard Medical School and practices clinical and child forensic psychology in Cambridge. Her work at Harvard examines adolescent sexual behavior and how it relates to social media, digital technologies, and the law. She has published articles on topics such as “sexting” and is the editor of a forthcoming book on the issue, Adolescent Sexual Behavior in the Digital Age: Considerations for Clinicians, Legal Professionals and Educators.

Dr. Judge said her approach was developed in response to “scared straight” stories she heard on the news. The reports were alarmist, she explained in a statement about her work, and caused anxiety among families rather than helping parents and teenagers talk about the issues.

Continue reading →

Posted in: Events, Special Programs, Visiting Speakers

Cruz, Krol, and Ostberg Sign National Letters of Intent

Leave a comment
Cruz,-Sawyer,-Krol,-Ostberg
Mr. Cruz, Coach Sawyer, Mr. Krol, and Mr. Ostberg. Photo by Paul Rutherford.

On Thursday, November 14 and Monday, November 18, three members of the Williston Northampton varsity baseball team signed National Letters of Intent to play college baseball.

Erik Ostberg ’14 signed with the University of Hartford on Thursday. On Monday Anthony Cruz ’14 signed with Quinnipiac University and Adam Krol ’14 signed with St. Anslem College. By signing the letters, and agreeing to the respective scholarship agreements, the three students notified other schools that they may no longer be recruited.

Continue reading →

Posted in: Athletics, Events, Upper School, Williston Northampton News

Sleep is Homework And Other Tips About the Brain

1 Comment

The special assembly with Andrew Watson, of Translate the Brain, began with a game. The Upper School students had 30 seconds to examine a chart and, using three simple conversion rules, figure out solutions to several strings of numbers.

But there was a trick to this game. After calling time, Mr. Watson asked if any of the students had picked up on it. The key, he said, was in the numbers: the first half of the answers mirrored the last. Those who recognized that could complete the task in half the time.

Why was this relevant to students on an early November morning? Mr. Watson promised his talk, entitled “How to Study Less and Learn More”—and bizarrely subtitled Import Anthill Wontons!—could give students half a dozen strategies for achieving higher grades while doing less work.

Continue reading →

Posted in: Special Programs, Upper School, Visiting Speakers, Williston Northampton News