An advocate for school safety and security will share her story of an intensely personal tragedy during Williston Northampton School’s faculty orientation on September 3.
Michele Gay lost her daughter, Josephine Grace, during the Newtown, CT shooting in 2012. She later became one of the founders of “Safe and Sound: A Sandy Hook Initiative,” a nonpartisan group that works with communities and schools across the country to improve safety through discussion, collaboration, and shared resources.
“We all felt safe in our peaceful town and in our high ranking schools,” the group notes on its website. “We learned, too painfully, that we were not […] The measures, plans, and procedures we relied upon failed us, tragically.”
Exploring light and dark—how to capture it, how to play with it, and how to mold it with equipment both new and old—is at the core of this year’s Photographers’ Lecture Series.
Eduardo Angel, Abelardo Morell, and David Wells work with vastly different mediums—from the high paced digital world to the camera obscura, one of the oldest-known imaging devices—but bring a common interest in illumination and its sources.
The three are also dedicated educators, using a range of blogs, podcasts, and online courses to explore photography and filmography in all its forms: equipment, lighting, composition, framing, and other creative and technical skills.
“I was looking for a range of image makers,” wrote Fine and Performing Arts Teacher Ed Hing, who organizes the series. “Abelardo is well known for his work with the camera obscura, Eduardo is a technical wizard, and David is a working photojournalist. All will bring something different / unique to the students.”
“I’ll start with a question for you all,” said M. Bowen Posner to the audience of Williston Northampton School juniors and their parents who had gathered in the Williston Theatre. “When you think about starting the college process, what emotion does it generate for you?”
Students shouted out a couple of answers. “Anxious,” said one. “Stressed,” said another.
Mr. Posner, the Associate Director of Undergraduate Admissions at Yale University, paused for a moment.
“Does anyone feel happy about it?” he asked. He then added that the process should really be “a liberating experience, one of reflection, a point of growth as a teenager.”
“If you’re true to yourself in the college search experience, we’ll really understand what drives you,” he said.
Mr. Posner was one of three directors of admission—including Mary French of Boston College and Kevin Kelly of the University of Massachusetts Amherst—who had come to Williston on a snowy Thursday afternoon as part of a kick-off to the college application process.
Dick Gregory and students (top), Joshua Harper and students (bottom)
One of the country’s top a cappella groups will serenade Williston Northampton School students and faculty as part of a special all-school assembly on Monday, February 2.
The Yale Whiffenpoofs, a group with ties to Williston that date back to the 1950s, will perform a variety of old standards and pop songs.
Choral Director Joshua Harper, who helped arrange the visit, said that hosting the “Whiffs,” as they’re commonly known, will be a learning experience for students.
“I am really hoping that the entire student body hears how much fun it is to sing with a group, especially an a cappella group in college,” he wrote an an email. “I also want our current singers to see and hear what a lot of hard work and dedication can sound like.”
A nationally acclaimed author, known for his gripping non-fiction, will speak at the Williston Northampton School as part of both a long-running lecture series—and a new winter challenge by the head of school.
Mr. Kidder is the fifth speaker in the annual Sara Wattles Perry ’77 Memorial Book Talk series, which has previously featured lectures by William Kamkwamba, co-author of The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind, Greg Mortenson, John Bul Dau, and Luma Mufleh.
Mr. Kidder, a graduate of Harvard University, is the author of My Detachment, Mountains Beyond Mountains, Home Town, Old Friends, Among Schoolchildren, House, and The Soul of a New Machine.
One of his most recent works, Strength in What Remains, about a man who escapes civil war in Burundi and finds refuge in New York City, was selected by Williston’s Head of School, Robert W. Hill III, as the first in the new Head of School’s Winter Reading Challenge series.
In his message to students about the challenge, Mr. Hill noted that Strength in What Remains, was a compelling story that perfectly exemplified the Williston theme of “doing good well.”
He urged students to curl up with the book over the winter break, and use it to keep as a doorway to becoming lifelong learners. He also noted that the challenge fit perfectly into the spirit of the Sara Wattles Perry ’77 series, where the aim is to engage community members in reading, active listening, and engaging conversation with an author.
“Tracy Kidder is a renowned author and we are so fortunate to have him here on February 13,” noted Mr. Hill. “His book, Strength in What Remains, is a profoundly compelling story.”
