Stories and updates from around campus

Photographers’ Lecture Series Presents Scott Barrow

Tanglewood Nation.  A view of the lawn at Tanglewood just before a concert. Scott Barrow
Tanglewood Nation. A view of the lawn at Tanglewood just before a concert. Scott Barrow

The first visitor in Williston Northampton School’s annual Photographer Lecture Series can trace his love of photography all the way back through his family tree—some 150 years.

Scott Barrow notes that his family began taking fun photos in the 1860s, when such a playful attitude toward the medium was still relatively rare. In his biography, Mr. Barrow adds that he spent childhood nights in the basement darkroom with his father and that those sessions sparked his own love of photography.

Scott Barrow
Scott Barrow

A decision to spend his last $150 on a Canon SLR and five rolls of Kodachrome in 1972 seems to have paid off handsomely: Mr. Barrow’s hundreds of assignments have been for clients across the range of advertising, travel, editorial, and corporate spheres. These include American Express, Charles Schwab, Citibank, Procter & Gamble, Tylenol, The Wall Street Journal, British Airways, Northwestern University, Williams College, Disney, National Geographic, NY Times Travel Publications, Scientific American, and U.S. News and World Report.

Mr. Barrow has been awarded the Communication Arts Photography Award of Excellence, Graphis Photography Annual Award, New York Art Director’s Club Award of Excellence, and PX3 Prix De La Photographie Paris, among other accolades.

Scott Barrow
Scott Barrow

“I take beautiful photographs for a living and I enjoy it,” Mr. Barrow notes in his bio. “The bigger challenge for me as an artist is to go beyond beauty and find my connection to the scene, to become part of it in the moment that I release the shutter. It is only then that I can truly share what I saw and felt with you, the viewer.”

Mr. Barrow will present the first in the 2015-16 Photographer Lecture Series on November 5 at 6:30 p.m. in the Dodge Room, Reed Campus Center. All lectures in the series are free and open to the public.

Writers’ Workshop Presents Debra Monroe

Debra Monroe
Debra Monroe

During her last visit to the Williston Northampton School in 2010, Debra Monroe talked about her moving memoir, On the Outskirts of Normal, the unsentimental story about a white woman who adopts a black baby in small town Texas.

Ms. Monroe’s latest memoir finds her reaching even farther back into her history for a tale that’s both arresting and full of wit and poise. On November 3, she returns to Williston for the 2015 Writers Workshop Series, where she will discuss My Unsentimental Education, the story of her journey from the working class in Spooner, Wisconsin to the professional class in Austin, Texas.

As with all lectures in the series, Ms. Monroe’s talk is free and open to the public and will begin at 7:00 p.m. in the Dodge Room, Reed Campus Center.

Ms. Monroe, who teaches at Texas State University, has written The Source of Trouble, which won the prestigious Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction; A Wild, Cold State, a book of stories; and the novels Newfangled and Shambles. In 2010, she published her first memoir, which focused on her experiences with her daughter in a small Texas town.

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A Master Class in Unusual Song Styles

Caterwaulers and Widdigers Learn Two Traditional Forms from Grammy-winning Roomful of Teeth

Mastering Inuit throat signing is a tricky business, and has a tendency to produce a lot of laughter. Thankfully, messing it up is part of the point.

As Brad Wells, artistic director and founder of Roomful of Teeth, explained to the Caterwaulers and Widdigers during a recent master class, the technique is deceptively simple, and yet wonderfully complex.

To do it right, the breathy, guttural, and rhythmic style—traditionally part of a one-upmanship game played between two Inuit women—needs to be staggered by a half second between a pair of singers.

“Normally, this game is meant to break down,” Mr. Wells explained. “So the leader is trying to trick the follower by changing the pattern. The follower is trying to keep up and eventually one of them laughs and one of them loses their breath or gets out of the pattern.”

Laugh the students did, as two by two they attempted to keep up the rhythms—and discovered just how difficult the style really was. When Gabby Record ’17 and Sam Madden ‘17 maintained the pattern for a long, impressive minute, other students burst into applause, and Mr. Wells declared them both winners.

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Genetic Update Conference Returns to Williston

The topics this year are common genetic conditions and stem cell therapies

A speaker who takes the latest breakthroughs from the field of genetics and translates them into relatable presentations will return to the Williston Northampton School for a public presentation. Sam Rhine’s Genetic Update Conference (GUC) will take place in the Williston Theatre on Thursday, October 29 from 9:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. and is open to the public.

Mr. Rhine has brought his engaging presentation to the Williston campus for the past three years and has been offering similar half-day conferences to high school students across the globe for the past 30 years. His presentations cover genetic advances, the latest research, and career opportunities.

According to his website, conference this year will include updates on such topics as Genome-Wide Association Studies and induced Pluripotent Stem Cells (iPSCs).

“Sam will explain the strides made in understanding, treating, and possibly curing conditions, such as diabetes, Parkinsons, Huntingtons, autism, Lou Gehrig’s, multiple sclerosis and many others,” the website notes. “It is an exciting time to be studying human genetics!”

Mr. Rhine received a B.A. and an M.A. from Indiana University, was a doctoral candidate at Indiana University School of Medicine, and was a Lalor Foundation Fellow at Harvard Medical School. He received the Distinguished Hoosier Scholar Award, given to a native Hoosier for outstanding commitment to science education, by the Hoosier Association of Science Teachers (HASTI) in 2007.

Tickets for the conference are available at www.samrhine.com.

Academically Outstanding Students Honored

Three dozen academically outstanding students were honored at the Williston Northampton Upper School assembly on October 7. Academic Dean Greg Tuleja presented kudos and certificates to the students, who achieved distinction on either advanced placement or National Merit Scholarship qualifying tests.

AP exams, which test students’ ability to take the equivalent of an introductory-level college course, take place in May and are graded on a scale of 1 (no recommendation) to 5 (extremely well qualified). The AP scholars were recognized for their performance on all such tests they’ve taken previously at Williston. Senior Tanmay Khale achieved the highest award, National AP Scholar, for scoring 4 and higher on more than eight exams.

The following students were recognized during the assembly:

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Stories and updates from around campus