Category Archives: Congratulations

Girls Soccer Featured in Daily Hampshire Gazette

An article in the Daily Hampshire Gazette on Wednesday, January 30 recognized Williston’s girls soccer team for their support of the Autry family. The article, entitled “When a family from Oklahoma lost their mom, Williston Northampton students took action,” notes that students and faculty raised $1,407 through bracelet sales, a bake sale, a raffle and “Pink on the Pitch” in memory of Vicki Autry. The money was donated to the VNA & Hospice of Cooley Dickinson in Autry’s memory.

Eddie Autry, Vicki Autry’s husband, told the newspaper that “the effort seemed typical for a school community that enveloped his children in their struggles. ‘I was excited, but it didn’t surprise me, because that is just the way they are at Williston, so generous,’ he said.”

The article also notes that Priscilla Ross, director of development at the VNA & Hospice of Cooley Dickinson, “described how great it was to receive the phone call about the donation. She said she admires the team members for working so hard to support an organization that gives end-of-life services because it is such a difficult topic for people to approach.”

Click here to go to the full article. A Gazettenet subscription and login is required.

[Video] Mr. Berghoff’s Science Philosophy

The purpose of this video is to capture Mr. Berghoff’s philosophy behind successful teaching methods and interactions, and how he implements them on a daily basis.  Whether it be class experiments, teaching fundamental learning skills, or instructing the class on how to use the various tools available to them, Mr. Berghoff finds a way to make the material relatable.  Hope you enjoy this brief breakdown of an average day with Mr. Berghoff!

Charles Frank ’13

Athletes Love to Read Program Participants

Matt Sawyer and Williston student/athletes went to Maple Street Elementary School on Tuesday, January 29 for the second annual “Athletes Love to Read” program.  There were student/athletes there from Easthampton High, Smith, Mt. Holyoke, Amherst, and UMASS as well.  The athletes introduced themselves and then spent an hour reading children’s books to kids and signing autographs.

Here is who represented Williston:

Karly Simpson
Gia Parker
Devon Greenwood
Hannah Lewis
Maranie Harris-Kuiper
Erik Ostberg
Sebastian Rivera
Jean-Gabriel Lacombe
Marquis Francois

See photos.

Athletes of the Week: Jan. 21

Each week the Athletic Department honors “Athletes of the Week”. Players are nominated by coaches for their efforts and performance the previous week. Please extend your congratulations to these athletes of the week!!

AJ Unker ’13 – Boys Varsity Ice Hockey
Sarah Marion ‘17 – Girls Varsity Basketball
Andrew Thomas ‘15 – Boys 4th Basketball

 To read more about these athletes, click here.

Parents’ Point of View: Three Questions for Matt Spearing, Director of Student Activities (and Renaissance Man)

Matt Spearing has a movie-theater popcorn machine in his office, and to us, that signals a man who is serious about making sure students have a much-needed outlet for their inner child.

As Director of Student Activities, Matt organizes several student activities every weekend, as well as bigger productions that include WillyGras. He finds the DJ for Prom, and helps to coordinate the lock-in afterward. He also teaches AP Environmental Science, is a dorm parent, and coaches JV football in the fall. He’s the class adviser for the Class of 2015, along with Christa Talbot.

Some judicious Google-ing revealed that he is a world traveler as well, having taught in Cairo and Abu Dhabi. That’s more than either of us have done, ever, and we are both old enough to be his…ahem…older sisters. We asked him Three Questions, but we found out way more than we asked.

1. What the heck is it that you do?

Matt plans all weekend activities for all the boarding students—and day students are welcome to do any of those activities as well. That might include a trip to the mall (very popular), a movie night in the StuBop, Open Gym activities in the Athletic Center, or trips to New York or Boston. There will be a Super Bowl viewing party on the big screen, and dances. By the way, parents can find the weekly activity schedule on WillyNet, on the “On The Quad” link.

Continue reading →

Success at Classics Day!

We are excited to tell you that Classics Day was a resounding success!  We are grateful to our chaperones, Andrew Syfu and Bob Blanchette, who tirelessly accompanied students to events and watched over all 65 of our Latin students.

Our students outdid themselves this year!  Eighteen students won a total of 12 awards in all categories (Art, Latin Recitation, Costume, and Certamen–the Latin trivia contests).

Level 1 Certamen, 2nd place: Sima Gandevia, Chip Young, Molly Zawacki, Hunter Adams.

Mosaics, 1st place: David Fitch; 3rd place: Karly Simpson
Posters, 1st place: Nick Pattison; 2nd place: Marina Dombrowski; 3rd place: Josh Simpson and Chase Tanguay
Military, 1st place: Gabe Moon

Costumes, 2nd place: Colin Brown (Apollo), Charlie Fogg (Cupid), Maggie Fitzgerald (Daphne)

Advanced Poetry Recitation, 1st place: Dylan Kenseth; 2nd place: Brendan Hellweg

Advanced Drama Recitation, 1st place: Jilly Lim and Kat Kaisla.

 

Boiling, Blending, and Blogging

Laura Bowmanby Mairead Poulin ’13

Like most students beginning to think about their college plans, senior Laura Bowman didn’t realize that culinary school was an option.

“If you had asked me a year ago where I would hope to be attending in the fall, I would have said a university near New York City, probably for business or something like that,” she shares. But in the middle of her college search, at the suggestion of her mother, Laura made a spur of the moment trip to tour a school’s culinary program. And just like that, she discovered her calling.

Continue reading →

Alumni on Reality Shows

Billy Leroy ’79 is a cast member on Baggage Battles on Travel Channel.  The second season began on December 5. Check out a clip of the show here. According to the Travel Channel, “the half-hour series follows 3 teams of savvy “auction specialists” who travel to some of the most important and unknown auctions where their bids are based on sight unseen instincts. The season premiere will kick off at Miami International Airport, one of the busiest airports in the world, and then the auction pros will jump across “The Pond” to London.”

Arwin Gbolie ‘02 will be on one of the cast members in the new VH1 reality dating series, “Making Mr. Right.” According to the VH1 press release, in the series “three women will pose as matchmakers and offer their services to fourteen men. While the women pretend to find the men suitable dates, they’re actually sizing them up to see which one they’re actually most compatible with, under the guidance of real matchmaking expert April Beyer.” The series premieres January 6th at 9 p.m. ET/PT on VH1. Watch the trailer.

Jennifer Levison ’83 (a.k.a “Souper Jenny”) was on “The Today Show” recently to share her one-pot recipes for winter. In this clip, she shares three of her favorite chili recipes, such as a pumpkin and black lentil chili.

 

Easthampton Toy Program Donation

A simple Thank You to all who attended the party Sat. night, to the Head of School for hosting a convivial dessert gathering afterwards, and to others who hosted sundry gatherings around the campus.

I will deliver a check for the Easthampton Toy Program for $297 dollars, so with the $75 in prize money and the number of donations, it was a generous and worthwhile endeavor.

Enjoy the holidays.

Swanee