Fall-Winter 2020

Peg Board THE DARROW SCHOOL MAGAZINE FALL/WINTER 2020 THE DARROW SCHOOL 1 MISSION At The Darrow School, we are dedicated to serving students with diverse backgrounds and abilities, building on each student’s individual talents and interests to inspire enduring confidence for success in college and life. 2 PEG BOARD FALL/WINTER 2020 FALL/WINTER 2020 Peg Board Founded in 1932 on the site of the first Shaker community in America 12 Meet Bill and Mary Makepeace 110 Darrow Road Musician Bill Makepeace ’71 and his wife are New Lebanon, New York 12125 supporting Darrow’s first-ever Endowed Chair P: (518) 704-2760 F: (518) 794-7065 16 First Steps www.darrowschool.org The new Centers for Excellence curriculum focuses on skills students EDITOR can carry with them for a lifetime Amy Krzanik 28 Data Driven GRAPHIC DESIGNER Weihua Li ’13, a data journalist at Jesse Tobin McCauley The Marshall Project, is changing the world using the strengths she honed at Darrow CONTRIBUTORS Kristina Alvarado, 29 Voice in the Arts Jennifer Cholnoky P'13, P‘18, P’20, Clarence Waldron '75, a former Jet magazine senior Megan Cooper '15, David Dashiell, writer and editor, recently received a Jane Feldman '74, Sarah Hafey '11, Lifetime Achievement Award from the Chicago Headline Club Lawrence Klein, Amy Krzanik, Doug Leslie '55, Melinda Leyden, Andy Vadnais, John Villinski, Clarence Waldron '75, Nancy Wolf HEAD OF SCHOOL Andy Vadnais DEPARTMENTS 3 Unique Autumn 20 New Board Member BOARD OF TRUSTEES 4 In The Classroom 22 On Campus Jennifer Cholnoky P'13, P'18, P'20, Co-chair 5 Safety First 24 Sports Update Alexa Seip '74, Co-chair Van Selden '60, Treasurer 6 Scene Around 26 Legacy Society Christian Masters '82, Secretary 10 Student Profiles 27 From The Board Jim Briggs P'23 30 In Memoriam John Carton P'10 Robert Greifeld ’05 Thomas Hallowell ’82 On the cover: Students gather to enjoy a sunset view and warm fall night Denton S. Hopper '62 on the girls soccer field. From left: Maddie Lodowski ’22, Trudy Poux ’22, Yonesy Nuñez ’96 Willow Covendecker ’21, Alex Rossen ’21, and Faith Jackson ’21. Jennifer Rodriguez ’02 Opposite: Joel Priest P’21, P’24 and John Villinski's Big History class Peter Rosemond ’70, P'15 studies primate adaptations like stereoscopic vision and opposable Laurence Van Meter thumbs by climbing one of the campus maple trees. Nancy Wolf THE DARROW SCHOOL 3 4 PEG BOARD FALL/WINTER 2020 UNIQUE AUTUMN Autumn is my favorite season of the year. It always has been. The colors, the slant of the Autumn sun, the crispness in the air — I love it all. Autumn on the Darrow campus — with the beautiful morning vistas, the breathtaking sunsets behind the Tannery, cross country and soccer competitions, the fall theater production, and the promise of a well- deserved Thanksgiving holiday just around the corner — makes the season even better. This Autumn is not following that pattern. Like every other facet of our lives, this Autumn is different. Thankfully, the weather has been beautiful and the trees gorgeous. However, there have been no cross country or soccer games — and there will be no in-person theater production. Even the promise of Thanksgiving this year feels different. One of my favorite sayings is, “You can’t always get what you want, but you can learn to want what you get.” For the most part, this is how Darrow’s faculty, staff, and students approached this most unusual academic year. Like the Shakers before us, faced with unprecedented challenges, we all just rolled up our sleeves, dug in, and made the best of the situation. Together, we learned how to live communally while social distancing. We learned how to learn differently. We learned how to watch out for one another in new ways. We learned how to perform PCR and antigen tests on ourselves. Those among us handy with wood and hand tools set about building an outdoor stage, which the kids promptly named "The Nest." Others with musical talents performed in said Nest as everyone enjoyed the music and sunsets sprawled about in Adirondack chairs — a gift from a Board member. On several occasions, local musicians popped in to add their considerable talents to our community. Truth be told, none of us probably learned to want what this unusual Autumn brought, but we did our best. In the end, we can all look back on this collective experience and know we went through something substantial together — and lived to tell of it ages and ages hence. HEAD OF SCHOOL THE DARROW SCHOOL 5 IN THE CLASSROOM A Fine Blend Darrow Mixes Virtual and Classroom Learning s pandemic Spring rolled into COVID A Summer, Darrow faculty, staff, board One major benefit is that students can see, sharing, demonstrating, and learning with members, and others were focusing on Fall. virtually, the weekly goals and assignments. each other. It’s a rare and precious thing to A triumphant student return would entail Another benefit? This schedule more easily be able to get together when many people intricate planning and extreme flexibility facilitates moving to fully online learning at around the world cannot, he said, and that on everyone’s part. Ultimately, a blended any time. “We knew we’d have to be ready for time shouldn’t be spent taking a test. classroom model was chosen, said Jenna the possibility of that, so we wanted to make Glovsky, Dean of Students, so that Darrow’s that transition easier if it needed to happen,” Mary Jo Daly P’18, P’21, the School’s active curriculum, courses, and learning Saarela said. If a pivot to fully online classes librarian and Dean of Faculty, has focused experiences could be redesigned without were to be necessary, he said, a best practice on the teachers’ transition to virtual learning, compromising any of the School’s principles. is for students to not be taking five or six and a recent conversation made her aware classes or accessing a complicated system. of how some students are handling this new “This model allowed for limited class sizes “When a student is taking three instead of six environment. “Just yesterday, a junior said that adhere to social distancing guidelines,” classes, it’s much easier to stay on top of and he’d decided to take himself seriously this she explained. “It also provides for the manage the work.” semester and now he’s on fire!” she said. uninterrupted education of students who “He loves the blended classroom and it were unable to return to campus.” A handful “We know our students and they benefit is contributing to his success. He likes the of students began the year virtually and from having an easy-to-navigate schedule, high degree of independence — he needs some, including a few who were unable as any student would,” Saarela said. It’s been to decide when to log on and do his work to travel, remained virtual for the entire a learning process for both students and — and that will really benefit him when he semester. teachers, he said, but there’s been a lot of transitions to college.” Daly thinks a lot of positive feedback. “Students like having other Darrow students are feeling the In Darrow’s blended model, face-to-face fewer classes to navigate; it creates clarity same way. class meetings alternate with days where and an understanding of what the goals are students attend virtual classes or do other for each week.” She said students are making good use work to prepare for the in-person sessions. of their down time. Study halls are still The weekly schedule was modified so He admitted it’s been a difficult year for held in the library, albeit with only one that each class runs either Mondays and both students and teachers, and operating person per table, and some students have Thursdays or Tuesdays and Fridays. The in an environment that remains unsettled been taking advantage of virtual academic reason for this, said Mika Saarela, Director can be uncomfortable at best. “Having strict support. What’s important, said Daly, is of Studies, boils down to health and safety. guidelines in place at all times can have a every student knows how to access and “This is to facilitate smaller class sizes, which negative effect on the way people interact with navigate their online classes. This will be sometimes means splitting bigger classes each other,” Saarela said, “which is why we even more important during Darrow’s Winter into two sections so that half the class emphasized with our teachers the importance “staymester,” which will be held completely will meet in person while the other half is of maintaining connections and making the online. Daly is convinced things will run virtual.” most of every possible minute we’re able to smoothly and said “they’ll be ready.” meet with students.” He said this involves not The academic schedule was also just introducing new content but connecting, restructured to limit the number of classes each student takes at one time. In the old model, core courses — such as English, math, and history — took a year (two semesters) to complete. Each class met twice a week and on rotating Saturdays. Electives met twice a week for only one semester. Under the new system, all core classes and electives take one semester to complete, with no more than three core classes taken at one time. It’s a way to retain the electives and have a more defined learning experience. Students still earn the same number of credits.

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