Saturday’s athletic contests were a good chance for me to observe Williston fan loyalty when I took to the road and followed the varsity field hockey team to their match against longtime rival Westminster School. Both teams hold top records in the league and so the game promised to be a close one. Though the Wildcats outshot the home team Martlets, the game ended in an overtime loss in the sudden death format recently adopted by field hockey. With at least as many Williston parents at this away game as their home team rivals, our girls enjoyed great support.

The 45-minute ride back to Easthampton on the scenic college highway gave me a chance to reflect upon this strength of our school. From involvement in the Parents’ Association and Parents’ Fund, to the post-game snacks they bring for their children’s teams, to their attendance at the entire range of student performances at Williston, parents here are committed to the collaborative enterprise of helping teenagers realize their full potential.

Later in that same evening, with the girls soccer team playing at home under the lights to a draw against Westminster, I saw another throng of our parents cheering on their children, only this time their voices were drowned out by the cheers of our own students in the stands. We have a spirited school to be sure, and I look forward to supporting another team this week—our thespians—in their production of The Importance of Being Earnest.

Raising her African American daughter as a single mother in an all white town in Texas was the topic of Debra Monroe’s captivating talk as the second author in this year’s Writers’ Workshop Series. Monroe, who came to Williston at the invitation of professor Maddie Blaise of the University of Massachusetts and author Elinor Lipman, immediately set the tone for the talk that followed by telling the audience that she expected them to laugh at her stories. Without need of that encouragement, the audience responded to both her readings from On the Outskirts of Normal and her spontaneous asides. But beneath the humor lay a deeply moving and provocative story as Ms. Monroe was at the vanguard of inter-racial single parent adoption in this country. 

Once again, Williston students spent dedicated time following the public portion of the evening in the Writer’s Workshop, and by all accounts, Ms. Monroe demonstrated her prowess in that setting as a professor accustomed to working with young people on the craft of writing.  Particularly exciting, and a testimony to the level of interest our trustees have in the school, a number of members of the board were in attendance at Ms. Monroe’s reading as well as the dinner that preceded it.

What happens when a group of faculty members attends dinner with the board of trustees? Well, in the case of our recent board of trustees’ weekend here at Williston, a convivial dinner on Friday evening ended with a presentation by faculty member Ben Demerath about the two weeks he spent in Ghana last summer through the auspices of the Williston+ Program. For those who know Mr. Demerath as our music director and the driving force of our students’ singing at Fenway Park, you might not know of his academic interest in ethnomusicology and how music can provide an ideal means for globalizing our students’ educations.

Always an inspirational teacher, Mr. Demerath tested his prowess by asking members of the board to participate in a performance on the instruments with which he returned this summer. While one intrepid volunteer played the axatse (a-HAT-say), a shaker made from a gourd covered with beads, another accompanied on the gatingo, a two-toned iron bell. Fittingly, Mr. Demerath played the lead drum, the boba, remarkable not just for its sound but also for its intricate carvings and craftsmanship. Finally, I was on the kagan, which is the highest-pitched of the drums we now have in our collection. In all, Williston owns three of each type of drum, including the kagan, the kidi (a mid-sized drum), and the sogo (the lower pitched drum). We also have five of the bells and eight of the gourd shakers.

It should be fascinating to hear what Mr. Demerath accomplishes this year with his students—it will no doubt top the efforts of the impromptu adult group!

Our home resembled less of a head of school’s house on Saturday evening and more of a teen center as the Hill family hosted our first open house of the year. It was a true pleasure welcoming students from 7:30 until 10:00 p.m. Whether they were stopping by for lemonade and cookies before heading to another venue, or sticking around to play one of the myriad board games, students seemed to enjoy this inaugural event.

At one point, a competitive game of “Sorry!” was taking place, with the 9-year-old boy who happens to live here having a particularly fun time of it with the big brothers and sisters who invited him to play. Williston students were their typical selves: outgoing, grateful, and inclusive. The following picture gives a fuller sense of the fun as some of the more musical in our midst joined talents at the piano. When the temperatures get even colder we will serve hot chocolate and enjoy fires in the twin fireplaces that distinguish the front room of this wonderful house.

Williston’s first visiting author of this year’s Writer’s Workshop Series was also the first dinner guest at our home when we hosted a meal in her honor with members of the English department. After dinner, Ms. Suzanne Strempek Shea regaled the capacity crowd in the Dodge Room with stories of how she came to be such a prolific and far-ranging author. For the budding writers in her midst, Ms. Shea had something for everyone, and her message was inspiring: out of the merest chance encounter or observation comes the kernel for a story.

Stories, as Daniel Pink notes in his often cited book, A Whole New Mind, allow us to “emotionalize and contextualize” the world of ready facts in which we live. Right-brained creativity, according to Pink, will differentiate our students in the 21st century marketplace, and Ms. Strempek Shea brought that idea to life by telling of her work as a newspaper reporter before turning to fiction.

Williston’s emphasis on writing, manifest not just in the work that our students undertake across the curriculum but also in our highly regarded Writing Center, goes a long way towards setting our students up for future success. We look forward to the second speaker in the series, Debra Monroe, on October 7th.