Last week, I participated in not just one but two celebrations and both reminded me of the special nature of our community. On Thursday, my wife Kathryn and I joined faculty member Stan Samuelson as he hosted a Passover Seder attended by current faculty, parents, and students, as well as alumni. Stan’s Seder (and this will certainly ring true for all who know him) blended traditional readings with his inimitable narratives. Stan has taught at Williston since 1982 and is consistently praised by students and alumni as an excellent teacher. We celebrated together as one under his guidance.

The next evening, Kathryn and I hosted the Asian Culture Club as they prepared and served a wonderful variety of foods for the 18 winners of the “Asia at the Hills” raffle. The event was a fundraising effort for relief in Japan and a case in point of “doing good well.” I have been here less than a year but I’ve already lost count of how many times our community has come together—in good times and not-so-good times—to support one another. Students and faculty alike enjoyed being feted by the enthusiastic club members.

What was not lost on me was that these back-to-back events, though dissimilar in origin, revealed an essential truth about Williston: when we collaborate with one another in diverse settings each individual is strengthened.

Origami cranes and a visiting professor’s musical prowess on the Koto greeted us at our all-school community life assembly on Tuesday as Williston students and faculty showed their support of our Japanese students and their families, as well as the larger human community in Japan that has been affected by the recent tsunami and its aftermath. Following the example of a quartet of “little Willies”—the young children of two faculty members—the entire school made an additional 832 paper cranes.

To begin our meeting, our guest Dr. Ann Prescott, director of East Asian Studies for the Five Colleges, gave a beautiful performance on the Koto, a traditional Japanese stringed musical instrument. Then the crane-making began. I joined one advisory group in making a crane and then observed our students and faculty spread throughout the gym as they completed theirs—it was an inspiring sight.

With our long history of welcoming students from Japan as well as many other nations around the world, Williston provides a global diversity that enriches the experience of each student, and on this day we certainly shared in a common spirit.

Here I am with my crane!

One of the keynote speakers at the recent NAIS (National Association of Independent Schools) conference, Dan Heath, used the metaphor of the rider and the elephant to symbolize the challenges we face in changing from old ways that are no longer useful. If the elephant graphically represents the disproportionate influence of emotion over reason, then we have to stack the deck differently in order to overcome this natural imbalance. Heath suggests, as have others, the power of “intrinsic motivation” as the key to success.

I believe our teachers and students create intrinsic motivation at Williston by virtue of the close working relationships they develop and the collaborations that result. One such transformative moment came to life in the children’s theater production, our annual offering to area elementary school children during their February vacation week. This year, the show “Story Theatre: Journeys of Transformation from around the World and Beyond” was student-directed by senior Emi Caliguiri, who cast both Middle and Upper School students and created precisely the kinds of crossover experiences that make Williston so unique. Congratulations to Emi for an outstanding directorial job.

A scene from Story Theatre: Coincidentally, there was an elephant in the play.

Imagine my reaction when I dropped by my colleague Kevin Kudla’s English classroom the other day while he was conducting a writing workshop with his students on a topic from The Great Gatsby. When I asked him about the origins of the assignment, he said that the idea originated at my dinner table.

While we hosted author Debra Munroe as part of the Writers’ Workshop Series, Mr. Kudla ate dinner with Ms. Munroe and the discussion touched on the importance of setting in works of fiction. After their first meeting, Mr. Kudla began an email correspondence with Ms. Munroe, and their conversation found its way into his classroom as a creative assignment for his eager students. He shared this story with his class, giving voice to the very kinds of collaborations that we urge our students to consider as they pursue their Williston educations. It is our aim to help our students cultivate such integrative skills and use them throughout their lives.

If we think of learning opportunities at every nexus point in our community, at every scheduled or chance meeting, then the possibilities of building a truly collaborative learning environment are limitless.

The all-school community life program held on Tuesday featured a clear and distinct message: take care of others in the community and also take time out for oneself. No doubt the middle of February at a boarding school in New England is the right time for such a message—the once white snow banks have been replaced by a palette of browns and grays, and single digit temperatures in the morning test even the halest among us. So it was inspiring to see students and faculty participating in workshops (called play shops for this occasion) aimed at having some fun: from yoga, to hip hop, to coffee tasting, our students joined with faculty for a morning break in class day routine. As I consider the rhythms of the calendar year, these last few weeks prior to spring recess call on our inner reserves, but the magic of Williston’s community is that we are here for one another.