CONVOCATION SPECIAL 2014 Bl a irBULLETIN BLAIR’S 167TH YEAR FACULTY & STUDENTS STUDY COMMENCES EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION AT CONVOCATION WITH HARVARD PROFESSOR P. 0 3 P. 0 6 On Exhibit The Color of Music; Looking at Bach Artwork by Paul Deery February 2014 in The Romano Gallery IN THIS ISSUE: CONVOCATION SPECIAL 2014 10 ACADEMICS 03 Students Investigate Pharmaceuticals in New Course Blair Debate Team Engages Audience in Skeptics Forum 14 THE ARTS Graphic Arts Elective Encourages Design Thinking 17 AROUND THE ARCH Orientation & Service Work Unite Community Download Blair’s App for School News on the Go Clinton Hall Renovations Give Building a New Look New Activities Expand Students’ Blair’s 167th Year Commences at Convocation Extracurricular Options As tradition has it, students processed through the Arch and down the front hill of Head of School Hosts Mealtime campus, led by the School’s seniors, to kick off the 2014-2015 academic year. Discussion 21 ATHLETICS 06 Fall Athletics Update Follow Blair Athletics on Twitter Watch Blair Athletics Online in Realtime Faculty & Students Study Effective Communication with Harvard Professor Blair’s scholar-in-residence, Dr. Timothy Patrick McCarthy, PhD, of Harvard University, returned to campus this fall to help launch the Blair LEADS initiative. STUDENT SPOTLIGHT LUISA LOBO ’15 Staff Volume LXXIII, No. 4 EDITOR: ATTENTION: CONVOCATION SPECIAL 2014 Suzy Logan ’99 Send address changes to Blair Academy Bulletin, P.O. Box 600, Blairstown, NJ 07825 PUBLISHED: HEAD OF SCHOOL: January, April, Chris Fortunato NOTICE OF NONDISCRIMINATORY POLICY: June & October Blair Academy does not discriminate on the basis CONTRIBUTING of sex, age, creed, race, color or national and ethnic PUBLICATION NUMBER: PHOTOGRAPHERS: origin in the administration of its education policies, USPS 057-760 Douglas Benedict admissions, scholarships, loans or other school-ad- Melissa Collins ’09 ministered programs. Each Blair student is afforded PUBLISHER: Cassi Gerdsen the rights, privileges and social, academic and Blair Academy Suzy Logan ’99 athletic opportunities that are generally accorded or Blairstown, New Jersey 07825 made available to students of the School. CONTRIBUTING WRITERS: Melissa Collins ’09 DESIGN BY: Suzy Logan ’99 Rachel Fleckman Joanne Miceli BLAIR’S 167TH YEAR COMMENCES AT CONVOCATION lair’s 167th year began on September 8 as students processed through the Arch and down the front hill of campus, traditionally led by the School’s seniors. The Bstudents made their way to Armstrong-Hipkins Center for the Arts, where they joined faculty members for the annual Convocation ceremony. The Rev. Cindy Crowner began Convocation with a prayer before Senior Class Council members Natalie Pearson ’15 and Ethan Simon ’15 welcomed their peers and teachers and expressed their excitement about the upcoming year. Following a performance by the Blair Singers, Head of School Chris Fortunato addressed the community, encouraging students to befriend their peers and commit to the success of others in order to collectively achieve during the 2014-2015 school year. “I believe in this School, the values that we stand for, our culture, our traditions, our senses of humor, our empathy, our mission and our commitment to knowing one another,” he told the audience. In the days leading up to Convocation, Mr. Fortunato reached out to alumni, asking them to share the most important lessons that Blair taught them about teamwork and problem-solving. Having received a number of poignant replies from graduates across the globe, he retold these stories in DuBois Theatre as a way of exemplifying the many ways in which members of Blair’s tight-knit community embrace and support each other, and how that can have a lasting effect on their lives beyond Blair. “In our best moments, we know what makes a great school—what makes Blair great,” Mr. Fortunato concluded. “It is a friendship, it is a fellowship, among students and faculty. All other great things about our School are derived from that.” BLAIR BULLETIN 03 BLAIR’S 167TH YEAR “I believe in this School, the values that we stand for, our culture, our traditions, our senses of humor, our empathy, our mission and our commitment to knowing one another.” 04 CONVOCATION SPECIAL 2014 COMMENCES AT CONVOCATION BLAIR BULLETIN 05 FACULTY STUDENTS Study Effective& Communication with Harvard Professor Scholar-in-Residence Dr. Timothy Patrick McCarthy Visits Campus to Launch Blair LEADS Program lair’s scholar-in-residence, careers, the inspiration that keeps them Dr. Timothy Patrick McCarthy, engaged and why they teach at Blair. When PhD, of Harvard University, time for discussion was up, three faculty returned to campus this fall members volunteered to deliver, unrehearsed, Bto meet with the faculty team poised to their “Why I Teach” story and receive feed- launch the Blair LEADS initiative, as well as back from their peers and Dr. McCarthy. conduct interactive public speaking sessions Faculty members were extremely sup- with faculty and prefects. portive of their colleagues as they compli- Dr. McCarthy opened the faculty work- mented and critiqued the speakers’ efforts shop noting that the afternoon’s exercises and offered suggestions for improvement. were grounded in two assumptions: first, Dr. McCarthy shared some pertinent that leadership and communication are in- pointers which would benefit every public tegrally related; and second, that values and speaker: take a big, deep breath before you stories are related, too. “To not be able to ar- begin, and don’t begin until you are ready; ticulate what drives you or why you do what eye contact with your audience is always you do in the world is a tragedy,” he said as effective; use self-effacing humor strategical- he assigned teachers a challenging task: take ly; and a speech’s structure and emotional 15 minutes to discuss with a neighbor their content are two factors that make it “stick” motivation for choosing a career in educa- with your audience. tion, and devise a three-minute speech on As the session concluded, Dr. McCar- that topic that several participants would be thy noted that the entire Blair community called upon to share with the group. would continue to work on communica- Cowan Auditorium filled with earnest tions capabilities throughout the year, and conversation as teachers shared stories he encouraged teachers to help each other with one another about the genesis of their and their students become better speakers “To not be able to articulate what drives you or why you do what you do in the world is a tragedy.” 06 CONVOCATION SPECIAL 2014 by “building a personal network of people journal Race & Reason at the Institute for who will give honest feedback” and video- Research in African-American Studies. taping speeches to see how their delivery The winner of a number of teaching comes across. He imparted much of the awards at Harvard, Dr. McCarthy is well same advice to prefects, some of whom will known in his field as a communications ex- soon record their Blair leadership story, in pert and has published four books over the an evening public speaking workshop. course of his career with a fifth in the works. Dr. McCarthy is a lecturer on history, An advocate for public service and social literature and public policy at Harvard justice, Dr. McCarthy has been a frequent University and serves as the director of the media commentator on a number of well- Sexuality, Gender and Human Rights pro- known television programs, blogs, radio sta- gram at the Carr Center for Human Rights tions and websites. He is also well-known in Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School. the LGBTQ community, having served on An alumnus of Harvard College, he is vice President Barack Obama’s National LGBTQ president of college alumni affairs for the Leadership Council. In 2012, he broke new Harvard Alumni Association. After com- ground as a member of the first-ever United pleting his undergraduate work in 1993, States LGBTQ delegation to Israel and he went on to earn his MA, MPhil and Palestine. He lives in Cambridge, Massachu- PhD in history from Columbia Univer- setts, with his husband, C.J. Crowder, who sity, where he served as a research fellow also works in the field of education. n and founding managing editor of the “To not be able to articulate what drives you or why you do what you do in the world is a tragedy.” BLAIR BULLETIN 07 ACADEMICS Students Investigate Drugs & Medications in Pharmaceutical Science “I love teaching this class,” said science teacher Kelly Hadden of the pharmaceutical science junior/senior elective. A former research scientist with 10 years’ experience in the pharmaceutical industry, she brings a wealth of analytical research and forensic knowledge to the course—and, for the second year, Blair students are eager to learn what she terms “the good, the bad and the ugly” about drugs. A full-year elective open to students who have completed biology and chemistry, pharmaceutical science integrates chemistry and biochemistry, cell and molecular biology, and physiology in the study of relationships between biological processes and therapeutic agents. Through lecture, group work and labs, students investigate the mechanisms and effects of drug action and chemical agents in living systems, the difference between over-the-counter and prescription medications, and various drug therapies. They also study the challenges and processes of bring- ing a new pharmaceutical agent from concept cability of the material covered in the course. to market. “Medications are taken by so many people in the “The course is both informative and scien- first world, and charities are trying to bring the tific, a mixture of biochemical, industry and ‘street’ material,” Mrs. same products to the third world. I’m especially interested in how Hadden said. “We take medications every day, and kids want to drugs affect my body and how they may affect the bodies of others know ‘what happens when I take this?’ and ‘how does it work and differently, due to things like allergies and dosages.