“I really love the way that she thinks” was the way that Fine and Performing Arts teacher Ed Hing introduced photographer Claire Rosen on March 28 for the latest in the Photographers’ Lecture Series.
As Ms. Rosen flipped through slides of her work—moving from self-portraits based on fairy tales, to antique dolls and taxidermy, to dioramas of objects around her home—what became clear was that her particular way of thinking was unlike any other.
Prep schools often are known for their competitive athletic programs. At the Williston Northampton School, students have the opportunity to go beyond their own play in a course taught by History and Global Studies teacher Diane Williams. Sports Studies, one of this year’s Williston Scholars courses, encourages students to evaluate how gender, race, economics, and politics interact with the world of sports.
“Teaching this class has been a really amazing opportunity to expose student-athletes to a variety of topics related to sport, sport culture, and dominant ideologies in society,” said Diane.
Williston Scholars
With Amherst, Hampshire, Mount Holyoke, and Smith Colleges and the University of Massachusetts, Amherst in such close proximity, Williston works to take advantage of the diversity and opportunities to be found on those campuses. Over two trimesters, with the help of five college and university professors and staff, Williston Scholars classes introduce students to research and writing more commonly found in higher education.
Capturing lipstick as it drips, the gleam of broken eggs, or cockroaches swarming a sneaker-strewn table—and making them look beautiful—requires particular photography skills.
On February 19, as part of the ongoing Photographers’ Lecture Series, commercial and fine art photographer Bill Diodato named some of those skills: patience, preparation, and the ability to stay true to yourself.
Two postgraduate roommates—whose ongoing joke is that they are the biggest guys on campus, living in the smallest room—signed National Letters of Intent to play Division II football during a joint ceremony at the Williston Northampton School on February 19.
Dylan Arthurs said a weight had lifted off his shoulders as he signed the official letter to attend Stonehill College in Easton, Mass. as part of the Class of 2017. He was followed by William Consavage, who penned an agreement to attend Bentley University in Waltham, Mass. By signing the letters, and agreeing to the respective scholarship agreements, Mr. Consavage and Mr. Arthurs notified other schools that they may no longer be recruited.
As Mayor, 24-year-old Alex B. Morse calls himself the Chief Marketing Officer for the city of Holyoke. Kicking off the eleventh annual Diversity Conference last Thursday evening, he explained, “We needed people with a fresh perspective for the city and someone who was going to mix things up, and that is essentially why I ran for the position.”
The youngest, and first openly gay, mayor of Holyoke, Massachusetts, Morse announced he was running for office as a senior at Brown University. Rather than move to DC, Boston, or New York, Morse said he wanted to, “come home to the city that had given [him] so many opportunities.”
Holyoke Roots
“My family was pretty poor,” said Morse a Holyoke native. Both of his parents grew up in Holyoke and met at Whiting Farms, one of the city’s low-income housing projects. Morse’s mother married his father, at 17, when she became pregnant with the first of Morse’s two older brothers.
A proud product of the Holyoke public school system, Morse recalls high school as being a, “really great time,” but in his sophomore year his confidence started to wane. “There was something about me that I didn’t feel was correct,” he said. In February of that year, when Morse was 16, he came out to his best friend Alexandra. “Once I did that I wanted to stop telling my friends because I didn’t want my parents to find out from a friend or a parent of a friend,” he said. Continue reading
