Gold is starting to be a tradition in the Foster family.
In 2013, Olivia Foster ’14 received a gold medal for completing the national Congressional Award program, a four-year process that involved extensively documenting her work in public service, personal development, physical fitness, and exploration. As a result of her commitment, she was awarded the program’s highest honor at a ceremony in Washington D.C.
The benefits of going through such a long and rigorous process—that it created someone well rounded, instilled self-confidence, and was extremely rewarding—did not go unnoticed by Ms. Foster’s younger sister, Abbie.
Three years ago, as the younger Foster was starting her own Congressional Award process, she asked her sister Olivia for advice.
“She said, ‘Even if some days you don’t feel like doing it, or don’t know the reason you’re doing it, don’t give up and then it will be worth it,” Abbie Foster ’16 recalled. “And it definitely was.”
On January 20, the text alerts started pouring into Marcus Ware’s cell phone.
There was a shooter at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. He had entered the Carl J. and Ruth Shapiro Cardiovascular Center on the second floor. Shots had been fired at a doctor there. The gunman had turned the gun on himself. Police were at the hospital and had secured the scene.
The news was devastating, and incredibly personal for Dr. Ware, he explained to Williston Northampton School students and faculty during an assembly on February 18.
“You see, I paused for a bit because I am a patient at Brigham and Women’s and have been so for the past 10 years,” he said. “Given that I’ve had high familiarity with the hospital due to the number of visits and procedures that I have had done over the years, these text alerts made me stop in my tracks and pray that all was okay.”
Dr. Ware, a former Williston faculty member, had returned to campus to speak about his own experiences for Heart Health Month. The event was organized by Jordan Sansone ’17, her advisor Ann Pickrell, and Assistant Director of Athletics and Head Athletic Trainer Melissa Brousseau. Later that afternoon, Ms. Sansone also offered a screenings and a confidential six-point questionnaire for students in the Athletic Center during a girls basketball game.
When Jacy Good announced she was going to put her hair in a ponytail, the audience in the Phillips Stevens Chapel fell completely silent.
Ms. Good reached up with her right arm, the only one she can use now, swept her hair up with one hand and secured it. It was a simple task—one most people could do without thinking.
Yet for Ms. Good, who was left critically injured after a 2008 car crash, the act of putting her hair in a ponytail is a reminder not only of the accident, and the distracted driver who caused it, but of a hospital stay and the months of rehabilitation that followed.
The Williston Northampton School campus has been slowly filling up with water this spring—of the fresh and purified kind. Over the past few months, the Physical Plant staff has been outfitting buildings and dorms with new hydration stations, which can provide both a quick drink and an easy way to fill up a water bottle.
The Elkay EZH2O stations, some 29 in all, were part of a $25,000 anonymous donation designed to provide a resource that could help improve campus health while making an environmental impact.
Students will be encouraged to fill up reusable water bottles at the stations, keeping themselves hydrated and taking the plastic bottles they might otherwise buy and discard out of the equation.
Director of Parent Relations Rachel Goldberg described the hydration stations as “an awesome thing to add to this campus.”
“We’re going to have them in basically every building,” she said. “It feels like an accomplishment for the school and feels like we’re improving the school.”
All the stations are equipped with counters that track how much water has been used—and how many plastic bottles have been avoided as a result. Maintenance Manager Paul Bricker said that the station in Reed Campus Center, which was installed last December, has saved some 1,200 liter bottles so far.
“I know the students are making good use of it,” Mr. Bricker said. “The ones in the gym are very heavily used.”
In addition to Reed, some 11 stations now in use can be found at the Athletic Center, Ward Schoolhouse, Lossone Rink, Sawyer House, Whitaker-Bement, Conant House, Memorial East, Memorial West, and Scott Hall.
Jeff Tannatt, director of the physical plant, said the plan is to install two additional stations each in the Schoolhouse and Scott Hall over the March break, and then continue installing the rest in campus dormitories over the course of the spring.
In January, when the hydration station across from her office reached a milestone, reading “helped eliminate waste from [1000] disposable plastic bottles,” Meg Valine, director of international student programs, tweeted a picture with the note “Willys care! New water stations across campus are being heavily used.”
“’Up from the meadows rich with corn, clear in the cool September morn, the clustered spires of Frederick stand, green walled by the hills of Maryland.’ My grandfather muttered this as the race horn sounded.”
So begins ninth grader Sophia Schaefer’s tale of wind and weather, of relationships that run as deep as an ocean current, and of charting your own course—even if no one (or everyone) is following you.
Originally created as an assignment for her Williston Northampton humanities class last spring, Ms. Schaefer’s short story, “Great Day for a Race,” was recently recognized by the Boston Globe Scholastic Art and Writing Awards, where it received an honorable mention. The Boston contest is the regional division of a national program that recognizes creative middle and high school students.
Ms. Schaefer’s fictional story, which was based on an interview with her grandmother, was among 20,000 submissions, including 1,750 written pieces, from more than 8,000 students, according to the Boston Globe.
English teacher Doug Niedzwecki said Ms. Schaefer’s story had stood out for its balance of detail and authentic voice.
“I do recall clearly how well Sophia integrated the emotional feeling of how memorable and meaningful the past can be as seen through another’s eyes,” he wrote in an email. “’Great Day For a Race’ is an exceptional short story, and I am especially happy that Sophia enjoyed the writing process so much.”
