The Wilbraham & Monson Academy 2009-2010 Annual
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Preserve our Heritage… WilbrAhAM & MonSon AcAdeMy PROFILES IN PLANNED GIVING Invest It’s never too early to create a legacy and in our Future. join the WMA Heritage Society. Robert Edmunds ’01 put WMA in his will, and you can too! ob Edmunds is a smart guy. After he purchased his first home and had acquired some assets, he knew that it was time to create an estate plan to ensure that in the event of his Rpassing, those things that he had worked hard to achieve would end up in the right hands. Rob also wanted Wilbraham & Monson Academy to be the recipient of part of that estate. “The time I spent at the Academy was a wonderful period of my life. It truly shaped who I am today. I want to make sure that other young people get the same benefits I did during my time at the Academy. What better way to do this than through my estate?” said Rob. We hope that Rob lives a long, happy life and that many years go by before his assets are transferred to WMA. We are honored that he has chosen to remember the Academy in this way. You can join Rob and the many Alumni, parents, and friends who have added WMA to their wills or as a beneficiary of their retirement plans. heriTAge SocieTy MeMberS enjoy benefiTS ThAT include: n The knowledge that you have left behind a legacy that will help WMA stay strong for many years to come n Enrollment listing with fellow members in all publications and information distributed about the Society n A special certificate personalized with your name and year of membership and Heritage Society pin n Highly attractive annuity rates n An annual Society event hosted by the Head of School Please note that WMA does not n Invitation to special events at WMA provide tax or legal advice. Gift calculations may be provided for illustrative purposes only, and More information on how to include WMA in your estate plans can be found at www.WMA.us/HeritageSociety the actual values may vary based or by contacting Christina Cronin, Director of Major Gifts & Campaign Coordinator, at [email protected] or on the timing and nature of your gift. Advice from legal and tax 413.596.9189. counsel should be sought when considering a charitable gift plan of any kind. WMA 32 · S pring 2010 · The AcAdeMy World on pages 21-23 world ahead Blake Middle School on pages 8-15 Feature Blake Middle School: A Great Place to Learn 8 Curriculum Spring 2010 10 Faculty & Student Profiles Remembering Florence Shaw Departments on page 25 Reflections 2 News on the Hill 5 Titans Victorious HMUN in News on the Hill on page 3 21 Capital Improvements 24 Trustee Spotlight 25 Passages 26 Class Notes, Where are they now?, and Necrology Photo Essay 18 Development Travel and Receptions Young Alumni reception on page 20 Paul Bloomfield shot this photo of Stephanie Robbins ’10 on the trip to development travel India. This is no Photoshop job; it’s the real thing. on pages 18-20 The AcAdeMy World MAgAzine · Spring 2010 · WMA 1 News from the hill Vineeta Vijayaraghavan form for many years. In addition, students 2009-2010: A yeAr of were treated to Bollywood movies and leArning About indiA offered dance lessons, carrying the theme The 2009-2010 WMA focus on India into weekend activities. began with the all-school read over the summer, Vineeta Vijayaraghavan’s Over spring vacation in March, eleven Motherland. During opening-of-school students and chaperones Wally Swanson meetings, faculty members were treated and Paul Bloomfield traveled to India to a lecture on Indian culture and history by to deliver the funds raised in the art sale described below Mount Holyoke College Professor Indira Peterson, which helped to Salaam Baalak Trust (SBT). $1,000 is equivalent to in the discussion of the book with their advisees. In October, about 47,000 Indian rupees and will go a long way toward Ms. Vijayaraghavan visited school. She had lunch with the supporting the programs of SBT, an organization in New Dehli Bicentennial Scholars and spoke to the community at School that strives to improve the well-being of the children of India Meeting. and provides its services to over 3,500 children a year. CEGS Director Wally Swanson says, “There was a hefty focus on In November, the entire school attended Mira Kamdar’s lecture citizen organizations and NGOs. In addition to SBT, we visited at the Springfield Public Forum, a social enterprise installing wireless internet into mountain sponsored by the Academy. She met and rural communities called AirJaldi, as well as several for over an hour with Bicentennial community-based NGOs working in Dharamsala on issues of Scholars before the lecture and health and well-being.” Read more about this and other CEGS answered their questions about her international travel at www.WMA.us/travel2010. book, Planet India, which they had read and discussed. The Holiday Program in In April, The Robert W. McCallum ’47 December featured a traditional Indian Visiting Lectureship Fund sponsored a dance choreographed by Priyanka performance by the Aparna Sindhoor George ’11, who has studied the dance Dance Theatre, a nationally recognized company that performs contemporary Left, Indian traditional dance performed and classical Indian dance. The final at the Holiday Program. Right, event for The Year of India is an exhibit Mira Kamdar speaks to Bicentennial in Binney from May 21 to June 13 Scholars before Springfield Public Forum. featuring personal accounts in photos Below right, Adrianne Hanson ’10 in her and words by those who went to India. art sale boutique. WMA Artists offer Hope for indiA’s created and underprivileged CHildren sold printed by jeAnneTTe VienS ’11, STAff WriTer designs to Students in Mr. Bloomfield’s AP Portfolio and Mr. Swanson’s help raise Grade 9 Global Studies classes created a showcase gallery of money for the student work in December that not only children of raised awareness of issues confronting the India. children of India, but also raised a total of $1,000 in funds. Grade 9 Global Studies The students made informative posters and signs presention of about child labor in India and the impact of the art was globalization on India’s children, which has compelling. been an area of study in the CEGS classes. Each artist stood before their work and explained it to the art The AP Portfolio students created individual show guests. “The art show was brilliant,” says Sommer Mahoney boutiques based on their own designs. ’11, one of eleven students who went on a trip to India in March, Emma Camilleri ’10, Adrianne Hanson ’10, “Not only was the art itself impressive, but the messages and and Sunghyuk Seo ’10 created t-shirts, bags, symbols were inspiring. The show made me even more excited and hangings. Art students Moon Hwang to go to India because we may be able to alleviate some of the ’10, Vicky Liu ’12, and Donna Lee ’11 also issues, especially child labor, that the art show exhibited.” WMA 2 · S pring 2010 · The AcAdeMy World tHe globAl eColeArn projeCt® updAte Please note that The Global EcoLearn Project received a registered trademark on April 6. What could possibly get students out of bed on Sunday mornings to walk the wilds of the WMA campus? The Global EcoLearn Project® has expanded to include the Land Stewardship Club. The data that students and biology teacher Paul Ekness have been gathering from the forests on region. He also had lunch with the Bicentennial Scholars, the WMA campus this winter will be used to apply for Green where he went into more depth on the subject. Later in the Certification of future forest products that come from trees spring, he spoke on the same topic at the Washington, D.C. harvested on Academy property. In the spring, the students will reception. focus their activities on gathering information about the vernal ponds on campus. They will begin data collection with water students in tHe neWs temperature, pH, vegetation types in and around the pools, and Class of 2010 Counts Down usage of the pools by various species of amphibian life. On Thursday, February 18, the Class of 2010 enjoyed the fifth annual 100 To support this effort, Paul has Days Celebration, initiating their arranged for the purchase of Arc official countdown to Commencement. Info, a geographic information Each year, the Alumni & Development system (GIS) computer software Office treats the graduating class to program that, as he says, “… has lunch off campus and an ice cream endless possibilities, from the social in the Spa. During this event, analysis of data we already have the seniors learn about becoming to analyzing and mapping data Alumni. They also elect their class we know we will be collecting agents: Emma Cammilleri, Megan Cole, in the future.” This software will Stephen Marcus, Stephanie Robbins, enable students to analyze and and Hannah Tanguay. map data in nearly every subject area of the curriculum. Paul says, “Virtually anything that has the arts spatial reference points can be mapped and used.” Congratulations to Sea Yoon Park ’11, whose oboe audition Another aspect of The Global EcoLearn Project® in January earned her a spot in the All-State Festival Band, involves the planting of the 350 fir trees on the which performed at Boston Symphony Hall on March 20. WMA campus scheduled for April 17 (weather Four upper school musicians performed at the Senior District permitting), coinciding with Earth Day. The project Festival at the UMASS Fine Arts Center on January 16: was initiated by students in the Global Studies A & vocalist Jon Lee ’12, Henry Liao ’10 on violin, Brooke Mele B second trimester classes.