Category Archives: Faculty Speaker

2013 Academic Award Ceremony Welcome

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Editor’s note: The following Award Ceremony Welcome was presented by Robert W. Hill III on May 25, 2013.

Good Morning Williston!

I want to welcome everyone to the 2013 Academic Awards Ceremony, especially parents and out of town guests. Yesterday, Mr. Conroy conducted the spring Athletic Awards Assembly and I am still in awe of some of the numbers that I heard. I am not sure how many pre-college athletes can claim to have the kind of run that Karly Simpson had over six years with a record of 72-3 over six years—I’ve never heard anything like that before. And in case you missed Jilly Lim’s documentary of the girls lacrosse season, her performance making that film was gold. One more thing while I have the podium—Gabby Thomas, I don’t think that I could run the length of the first floor of the school house in 12.06 seconds but I want to challenge you to a race there anyway.

The achievements we honor today are not measured in hundredths of seconds or in won loss records, but they do have in common with their athletic counterparts, Purpose and Passion and Integrity. It takes really hard work to be good at something—doing good well is not easy no matter what the venue.

I have been around a lot of classrooms this year and I am in awe of the work that I see from Williston students. It is a mark of this school that talent abounds and is so widespread. From the art and dance studios to the science and math classrooms, you students produce astonishing results. This morning we celebrate those accomplishments and so without further ado, I call upon our first presenter.

Posted in: Faculty Speaker

Senior Dinner Speech 2013 by Sarah Sawyer

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Editor’s note: These remarks were delivered at the Williston Northampton School’s Senior Dinner on May 10, 2013, by English teacher and Writing Center director Sarah Sawyer.

Hi there! It’s so great to be standing up here speaking to you tonight. You all know that the only thing I love more than talking is giving advice, so I’m pretty excited to have the next hour or two to tell you how to live your life. It’s a dream come true! (Kidding, of course.) It is true, however, that my mother is here—really! She is! Right over there!—so you do have to be nice to me. Also, just as a side note, she’s a pretty wise lady, so those of you who have pressing questions should probably ask her: she’s like the Buddha. So Laura McCullagh, if you haven’t figured out where to go to college yet, now’s your chance.

I thought quite a bit about what to say to you tonight. I would like to say something that you’ll remember, maybe something that will make you laugh, or at least something that won’t make a giant hook appear to my left and drag me off the stage. I thought about reading you a profound and beautiful poem, fitting for this big occasion, but then I remembered that Mairead hates poetry, and I definitely don’t want to make her grumpy.

You’re all at such a weird moment in your lives—you’re neither here nor there—and I know (because I remember the feeling well) that most of the time you just want to throw in the towel and go tanning out on the turf, or maybe think a little bit more about the length of your prom dress. (You know who you are.) I know that your friends are a lot more important to you at this moment than finishing your AP English 12 assignment, and probably that’s as it should be. And while there are lots of lessons and words of wisdom that I can think of—most of which are entirely plagiarized from the aforementioned mother in the back—I really only want to say two things to you tonight. So here’s the first one:

BE KINDER THAN IS NECESSARY.

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Posted in: Faculty Speaker

Senior Dinner Speech by Peter Gunn

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Editor’s note: These remarks were delivered at the Williston Northampton School’s Senior Dinner on May 10, 2013, by history and global studies teacher Peter Gunn.

I am grateful to be part of a community defined by the devotion of Robert Ward, the kindness of Dan and Jane Carpenter and by the goodness of the Class of 2013. While I never knew Bob Ward personally, his conviction that people can do good well compels me as much as Abraham Lincoln’s faith in government by the people and Elizabeth Cady Stanton’s belief that all women and men are created equal. We don’t need to know someone to share their vision—great ideas can bridge and bind generations.

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The Laramie Project Interviews

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The Williston Theatre’s spring production this year is The Laramie Project, a play by Moisés Kaufman and members of the Tectonic Theater Project that was based on a small town’s reaction to the 1998 murder of Matthew Shephard, a University of Wyoming student.  During a recent break between rehearsals, Emily Ditkovski, the director of the Williston production, and Persis Ticknor-Swanson ’14, a cast member, sat down to talk about preparing for the play, audience empowerment, and bullying.

The Williston Theater’s production of The Laramie Project opens on April 25 at 7:00 p.m.   Performances continue on April 27 and May 2-4 at 7:00 p.m. and April 26 at 7:30 p.m.  Click here to purchase tickets online.

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Posted in: Faculty Speaker, Student Speaker

Trickle Up: International Holocaust Remembrance Day 2013

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Editor’s Note: English teacher Ryan Tyree presented the following during the All-School Assembly on Wednesday, February 6.

Never again.

For Holocaust educators, this is the rallying cry, the promise we remember each day, to stay alert and guard against the threat – that history will repeat itself. On Jan. 27, 1945 Allied troops liberated the largest Nazi Labor and Death Camp, Auschwitz-Birkenau. For the last several years, that date has been set aside to reflect upon and remember the events known to us as the holocaust.

The holocaust was an event of global proportions, involving perpetrators, victims, bystanders, and rescuers. The most-commonly accepted time frame spans from 1933 to 1945.

You’ve heard of the trickle-down concept? The Holocaust was carried out from the highest levels of authority down. It was the organized, state-sponsored, bureaucratic, legal persecution and murder of approximately six million Jews and other targeted groups by the Nazi regime and its collaborators. What was wrong with these targeted groups? Why mistrust them, why shun them, why hate them? At the most basic level, they were outsiders. Supposedly different. Other.

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Posted in: 2012-13 Assembies, Faculty Speaker, Wednesday Assembly