Originally constructed in 1926 as a staff residence, Congdon House has served for decades as a home for Tafties. Now, after 88 years, the dorm has undergone its first renovation. The building was taken down to its exterior walls this past summer and then rebuilt. The result: a lighter, brighter building with all new mechanicals and completely rehabbed dorm rooms, faculty apartments, bathrooms, common areas, entryways, and terraces.

“It's so important that we steward our campus wisely and prudently for the future, especially our dorms, which are so vital to the life of the school. That's what we have done here,” says Headmaster Willy MacMullen ’78. “We now have a lovely residential space renovated at a reasonable cost.”

The renovation came after a year of analysis, the result of which was a clear strategy that would allow the school to substantially renovate Congdon for a fraction of the price of new construction.

“The dorm is now filled with small details that the girls love,” says Jim Shepard, Taft’s Director of Facilities. The door to each room is adorned with chalkboards and corkboards for message writing. The bathrooms are outfitted with individual cubbies. And teak furniture and benches make the new (radiant-heated) bluestone terraces on the east and west sides of the dorm natural gathering places.

A new (fully-appointed) kitchen and common room also serve as community-building spaces for the dorm, and the addition of an elevator makes the building ADA compliant. An open, central stairwell now connects the first floor to the five new basement-level dorm rooms. And, as Shepard points out, “Congdon had never had a front door. Now it has one.”

Congdon’s bathrooms have also been completely renovated with materials that ensure longevity and a clean, modern finish.

The architects and builders worked hard to maintain Congdon’s historical feel; to that end, some of the building’s old, beautiful details have been uncovered and restored. The original slate staircases (which had been covered by layers of linoleum and carpet over the years) have been refurbished, as have been the original brick walls on the north and south staircases.

The maze of copper pipes and tubing in the dorm’s mechanical room is also a thing of beauty. The building’s mechanicals are all new – from plumbing to heating to electrical to sprinklers to energy-efficient LED lighting.

Architect David Thompson who designed and spearheaded the MacIntosh House renovations (completed in 2012) was, along with Shepard, at the helm of the Congdon renovations. Many of the final appointments in Congdon are in keeping with the Mac House renovation.

“We were asked to bring the same quality standard to Congdon as we did to Mac House, while tailoring the design to assure it maintained a personality of its own,” says Thompson. “Most of that took care of itself, as the two buildings are so inherently different. Congdon had long been characterized by narrow corridors, no clear front door, and no particular relationship to its site, sandwiched between Centennial Quad and Potter's Pond. Our task was to improve upon all those things, or find a way to make them assets. So the strategic changes we introduced — the intimately detailed hallways, multiple entries, spacious entrance stair, fully-renovated common room, and especially the east terrace overlooking the pond — all capitalize on the best of Congdon's intrinsic qualities.”

In all, Congdon can now house 69 students and includes four faculty apartments.

In the coming year, the Martin Health Center, located on the north side of Congdon, will also undergo a complete renovation.

In 2013 Taft joined eight of the nation’s top boarding schools and the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education in pioneering an innovative, two-year teacher fellowship training program. Established in 2012, the Penn Residency Master’s in Teaching (PRMT) is both unique and progressive: It allows fellows to live, teach, learn, and thrive in the boarding school environment, while earning a master’s degree in education. At Taft, the program builds on a highly successful teaching fellowship program that has been in place for more than 40 years; it was shepherded for the last 20 by Steve Schieffelin.

“We are standing on the shoulders of a giant,” said Eileen Bouffard ’98, who replaced Schieffelin as director of teaching fellowships upon his retirement this year. “Steve established such a wonderfully successful fellowship program at Taft.”

The addition of teaching certification is a key component of the PRMT partnership.

"Taft's program always provided strong mentoring and training in the many aspects of boarding school teaching," notes dean of faculty Linda Saarnijoki. "The addition of the master's in teaching through Penn rounds out the program, and adds more formal training in education as a discipline--education theory, history, and philosophy."

The movement from an independent program to a collaborative cohort seemed a logical next step for Taft. In partnering with Deerfield Academy, The Hotchkiss School, Lawrenceville School, Loomis Chaffee School, Milton Academy, Miss Porter’s School, Northfield Mount Hermon, and St. Paul’s School, Taft and Penn offer teaching fellows a one-of-a-kind educational experience, with a curriculum built around knowledge and skills specific to boarding school education.  The program is built from the ground up, and on the tenet that effective teacher training is anchored in both theory and practice.

“Joining the Penn Residency program speaks to Taft’s commitment to professional development and to educating our faculty,” Bouffard explained.  “Being part of a wider academic commitment across boarding schools not only benefits our fellows, but their Taft mentors, as well. It gives all of us a broader picture of contemporary education theory and how it can be thoughtfully utilized in the classroom.”

Admission to the program is highly competitive, and requires candidates to be accepted both by Taft as a fellow and the University of Pennsylvania as a student. The process begins with a week of intensive study at Penn’s Philadelphia campus in June and continues with ongoing online work throughout the academic year, as well as cohort/faculty gatherings during three long weekends (fall, winter, and spring), each at a different host boarding school. The weekend sessions feature workshops and classes focused on teaching, learning, and professional development. Fellows also engage in weekly small-group, online sessions with fellows from similar disciplines at other schools, and in discussions facilitated by online mentors and faculty members. There is mentoring on the Taft campus, as well, by faculty within academic disciplines, by coaches on the field, and by program director Bouffard.

“My role is to bring theoretical learning into closer alignment with daily life at Taft,” Bouffard said. “In that role I work closely with associate dean of faculty Edie Traina, who manages professional development for the first and second year mentors. Together, we help our fellows translate their formal preparation into Taft’s expectations.”

And Taft’s expectations are high:  “Penn Fellows” balance classroom teaching, coaching, and dorm assignments—the boarding school “triple threat.”

“It is great and it is challenging,” notes first-year fellow Rosy Cohane-Mann. “The biggest challenge is finding balance—balance and patience with the process. We’re given tremendous responsibility from the start and want to run with that.”

Cohane-Mann came to Taft with some teaching experience under her belt, though none of it in a traditional academic setting. She taught backpacking, skiing, and rock climbing while a student at Cornell, followed by stints teaching college students in Costa Rica and students in grades K-9 at an educational farm in Massachusetts. At Taft, she teaches two sections of chemistry.

“It is a fundamental science related to everything,” Cohane-Mann notes, “So deeply connected to the agri- and environmental science I taught in the past.”

In the second year of the program, Taft’s Penn fellows not only begin to transition toward full-faculty with an increased teaching load, they also research and write their master’s thesis. Baptiste Bataille teaches three sections of French language courses, while developing, recording, and interpreting data around his thesis study of the use of technology to enhance student learning in full-immersion, foreign-language classrooms.

“The second year of the program is marked by a shift in comfort level that makes the additional teaching responsibilities and the focus on a thesis feel like a very natural progression,” said Bataille. “Knowing the school culture, seeing expectations more clearly, and just an overall, greater familiarity with Taft and its environment have allowed me to relax in a way that lets me simply concentrate on teaching, and teaching at a higher level. It is a win-win for me and for my students.”

For both Bataille and Cohane-Mann, the advantages of a cohort program are clear.

“The exposure and collaboration between fellows, the discovery through discussion that takes place across schools—these are the strengths of the program. They are things you cannot measure,” said Bataille, “but things that define the Penn program.”

“I definitely see us as a true fellowship,” Cohane-Mann” added, “in every sense of the word.”

To learn more about the Penn Residency Master’s in Teaching Program, visit http://www.gse.upenn.edu/boarding/

Taft’s fall play, The Drowsy Chaperone, opens this Friday, October 17, at 7:30 pm in Bingham Auditorium. The full schedule of performances is listed below.

The Drowsy Chaperone is a musical with book by Bob Martin and Don McKellar and music and lyrics by Lisa Lambert and Greg Morrison. It is a parody of American musical comedy of the 1920s. The show was won five Tony Awards and seven Drama Desk Awards.

Director Helena Fifer notes that the show was originally “nothing more than a skit written by some entertainment industry insiders. Their intention was both to celebrate and to parody the history of American musical theatre.”

The main character, “the man in the chair,” is played by Tennant Maxey ’16. The man is somewhat asocial, but obsessed with musical theater. As he plays the record of his favorite musical, the (fictional) 1928 hit The Drowsy Chaperone, the show comes to life in his apartment, transforming the dingy, lonely space into an impressive Broadway set. This “play within a play” format allows the man in the chair to guide us through the play by adding commentary on the actors, clichéd themes and overly simplistic plot of The Drowsy Chaperone. Adds Fifer, “In spite of the serious flaws in evidence here, in the end the man continues to find value in such silly, escapist entertainment.”

Catch one of these performances of The Drowsy Chaperone in Bingham Auditorium:

Friday              October 17      7:30 pm

Saturday           October 18      7:30 pm

Wednesday       October 22      2:00 pm

Friday              October 24      7:30 pm

Cast

(in order of appearance)

The Man in the Chair               Tennant Maxey -16

Mrs. Tottendale                        Kayla Kim-16

Underling                                 Winston Salk -18

Robert Martin                           Jacob Goldstein -15

George, the Best Man               Tattnall Holt -18

Janet Van de Graaf                   Natasha Batten -15

Feldzieg, the Producer              Tong Cheunchitra -15

Kitty                                         Andria Benvenuto -15

Gangster#1                              Peter Dzubay-18

Gangster#2                              Julian White -16

Aldolpho                                  Gaines Semler -15

The Drowsy Chaperone           Maggie Luddy -16

Trix the Aviatrix                       Srinidhi Bharadwaj -15

     (also Chorus Captain)  

The Super                                Zach Ailes -18

Ensemble:

Dance Captain                            Jenna Longo-15

Emily Axelberg-16                   Corrine Bai-18

Nathalie Bonilla-18                  Kaedi Dalley-18

Grace Dreher-18                      Anna Farrell-15

Lidia Gutu-16                          Mai Hoang-18

Allison Hsu-16                         Rachel Irizarry-15

Maggie Keeler-18                     Kelly Park-15

Sophie Pulver-16                      Sanah RoyChowdhury-18

Tatum Shane-18                       Marley Thompson-18

Lily Turner-18                          Kimberly Wipfler-17

Taylor Zhu-17

Special Appearances by:

Jack Almasian

Lily Thompson

Directed by Helena Fifer

Musical direction by TJ Thompson

Choreography by Sarah Surber

with settings by David Kievit, Costumes by Susan Becker Aziz, Lights by Tiffany Bushka '15, Sounds by Charles Thompson and Stage Management by Gabby Vachon '15

Orchestra

Conductor: T.J. Thompson

Trumpet 1: Leo Lavallee Trumpet 2: Joel Spitzer

Trumpet 3: Caley Bogolawski‐16 or Makari Chung‐16

Trombone: Marshall Brown

Reed 1 (Soprano, Alto, Clarinet, and Flute): Ken Nigro

Reed 2 (Soprano, Alto, Clarinet, and Flute): Shannon Copeland

Reed 3 (Clarinet): Abby Wang‐16

Reed 4 (Bari and Tenor Sax): Ryan White‐15

Keyboard 1: Alicia Wang‐15 Keyboard 2: Hanley Frantz‐16

Drums: Bob Nolte or Ciara Connolly‐17

Percussion: Ciara Connolly‐17 or Bob Nolte

Production Staff & Crew

Technical Director                    David Kievit

Assistant Technical Directors     Dorothy Harrop, Pam Church ‘81

Tap Choreographer                   Melissa Chasse

Assistant Stage Managers           Ryan Rothfuss‐16, Carter Sednaoui‐17

Sound Operator                        Dylan Bowman‐18

Light Operator                          Tiffany Bushka‐15

Stage Crew                                Raveeno Douglas‐18, Emma Du‐17, Hannah Kallin‐18, Portia

Wang‐18

Sets, Lighting, some Costumes, & Props are constructed, painted,

and created by the students listed above as well as:  Ryan White‐15, Alicia Wang‐15, & the Stagecraft Class: Tong Cheunchitra‐15, Andrew Farrier‐17, Ahmed Kiwan‐16, Tennant Maxey‐16, Sam Nestor‐16, Eric Sodero‐17, Peter Straub‐15, Noah Talhami‐16, and Henry Tilghman‐16

Production Assistance           Rob Richnavsky, Deirdre Shea, Cindy Latham, Dana Austin

Stackwell‐15, Carie Thompson

Special Thanks

The Warner Theatre

Ashley Tyler, Jen Sanford, Jerry Reveron, & Ginger O’Shea

Support for this production of The Drowsy Chaperone is provided by the James G. Franciscus Theater Fund and James Hollyday Webb Theater Fund. These funds were established in memory of James Franciscus of the Class of 1953 and Jamie Webb of the Class of 1992 by their families and friends. These special memorials pay lasting tribute to two Taft alumni who found great joy in their love for the theater and acting.

Everything Malone Hedges ’15 does, he does with passion. When he was younger, he threw himself into the world of magic; a short time later, he became a self-taught filmmaker.  Malone’s latest endeavor is one that has benefitted the entire Taft community.

“I always had an interest in technology, but was mostly self-taught,” Malone said. “I understood the gist of writing code and used it to create a few websites."

Malone joined the Tech Club as a lower mid, and took AP Computer Science last year.  Both served to refine and advance his already strong understanding of design strategies and methodologies, imperative problem solving, and system design using Java language. Eager to flip theory into practice, Malone turned to Charles Thompson, Taft’s Director of Information Technology.

“Malone sent me an email about a Wi-Fi problem in his dorm room,” Thompson said. “He came by, and we talked quite a bit. It was clear he had a good deal of knowledge about systems, and an interest in putting that knowledge to work. I wanted to find a project that would allow him to combine his programming skills and his interest in design.”

Under Thompson’s guidance, Malone created a computerized system for managing the distribution of sports equipment to replace the issue window’s system of manual logs.  The process follows items from issue to check-in, and provides a record of missing equipment for the business office.

The success of the project created even greater opportunity for Malone when, in the spring of this year, he was looking for a design challenge that could take the place of a spring sports commitment.

“I met with Mr. Thompson and he presented me with a number of options,” Malone explained. “I chose to work on developing a fully electronic system for managing packages that come into the mailroom at Taft.”

In building the system, Malone’s intent was to simplify the operation, while preserving and improving on every component of the existing, manual system. He thoroughly researched the existing methodology, and evaluated each step in the process, assessing its function and utility.

“I made a list of different pages that would be needed in the project in order to account for newly arriving packages, packages moving from one location to another, and packages being checked out to a recipient.  Once I decided what pages I needed, I figured out the most efficient way to store all that information,” Malone explained.

Malone met regularly with Thompson and with the system’s end-users throughout the spring term and into the summer. He tested, reviewed and adjusted prototypes, fine-tuning the system that is in use on campus today. That system allows the mail team to digitally log every package that comes into the school, send email notifications to package recipients, and track packages that have not been collected. When packages are moved throughout campus, that movement is recorded with a timestamp, and with the identity of the person moving the package.

“Tracking packages was very difficult before,” Thompson said. “Malone’s system has made the process much easier."

Malone plans to study computer science in college, but hopes to tackle another project on campus first.

“My projects show that you really can pursue anything you are interested in at Taft,” Malone said, “and that your interests will be enthusiastically supported.”

Horace Dutton Taft wrote, "A great advantage of boarding school is that it gives opportunities for students to get out of themselves. They must work for others."

And work for others they have and do, in so many different ways throughout the year. For the past twenty years, the school community has gathered on a Monday in October for a day of collective service. This year, that day is October 20. Students and faculty will donate their time and talents to local nonprofit organizations, schools, civic outreach organizations and more. Close to 700 people are expected to spread across campus, across town, and across the region to make a meaningful difference at nearly forty different sites.

While many of the projects take students off campus and into the field, others bring the community to us. Tafties will travel to places like the Girls Incorporated and the Brass City Charter School in Waterbury, and to a local YMCA camp. They will visit churches and nature preserves throughout the greater Watertown area, and spend time at area senior centers. Others will participate in science programs, dance instruction, and story time on the Taft campus. We will also host Spanish heritage speakers, a variety of sports clinics, and creative writing classes. And for the first time this year, Taft welcomes a new partner, the Carrington School in Waterbury. Community Service Day activities with Carrington students will take place on both their campus and ours.

Established in 1995, Community Service Day is an opportunity for students to live Taft’s motto, non ut sibi ministretur sed ut ministret, not to be served but to serve.  For a look at the complete list of local organizations Taft partners with, both on Community Service Day and throughout the year, visit www.taftschool.org/non/whoweworkwith

For more information about Community Service Day, or to suggest a partner for 2015, contact Jeremy Clifford, jclifford@taftschool.org.

Photographer Mary Frey joins the Taft School community in the coming weeks as a Rockwell Visiting Artist. Frey will be the featured speaker during Morning Meeting Tuesday, November 11; her current exhibition, Imagining Fauna, opens in the Mark W. Potter ’48 Gallery Friday, October 24. A reception celebrating the opening of her show will be held in the Gallery this Friday from 5-7 pm. The event is free and open to the public.

Imagining Fauna features photographs of an all but forgotten taxidermy collection. They are printed on black glass using an ambrotype process, where a glass plate is coated with collodion, sensitized in a silver nitrate bath and, while still wet, exposed in camera. The image is then developed and fixed on the glass.

“I have created these images utilizing this wet plate process [popular in the 19^th century] in conjunction with 21st century technologies,” Frey notes.  “I mixed my chemistry as the early practitioners did, employing all their application techniques and procedures. However, I shot the original photographs with a digital camera. I then converted these digital files to 4×5, black and white transparencies and exposed them in an enlarger onto black glass.”

This methodology seemed to effectively capture some of the inherent qualities of both taxidermy, and aging taxidermy collections, which have begun to deteriorate over time.

“Photography invites us to pay attention. It describes with economy, precision, and detail.  It enables us to stare, scrutinize, and become voyeurs,” says Frey. “Taxidermy allows us to do the same. Its complete replication of an animal’s stance, gesture, and look provides us a way to study and comprehend its existence. Yet I find that these animals, often portrayed in suspended animation, seem simultaneously strange, ghostly, and beautiful. Their gaze is both familiar and unknown. I intend this work to move beyond what is merely seen to the territory of the imagination, where what is remembered and known is transformed into something new.”

Frey received her MFA from Yale University in 1979 and is currently a professor of photography at the Hartford Art School. She is the recipient of many awards for her work, including a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1984 and two photography fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts in 1980 and 1992. She was awarded a Te Foundation Fellowship in 2004. During the 1994-95 academic year Mary Frey was the Harnish Visiting Artist at Smith College, Northampton, Massachusetts and in the spring of 2001 she completed an artist’s residency at the Burren College of Art, County Clare, Ireland.

Her work has been exhibited extensively and is part of many public and private collections, including New York's Museum of Modern Art; the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; the Chicago Art Institute; and the International Polaroid Collection.

Frey’s show continues at Taft through November 21. The gallery is open Monday through Saturday, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. For more information, visit the Mark. W. Potter Gallery website. To see more of Frey’s work, visit http://maryfrey.com.

The Rockwell Visiting Artists Fund, established in 1997 by Sherburne B. Rockwell Jr., Class of 1941, and H. P. Davis Rockwell, Class of 1944, supports a program of visiting artists to speak with students and faculty, work with art classes, and exhibit their work in the Taft Art Gallery. Professional artists involved in painting, drawing, photography, pottery, sculpture, fabric design, printmaking, and other visual arts are included in the program.

Taft’s annual Cum Laude Society induction “is a way we celebrate the leading scholars on campus,” noted Headmaster Willy MacMullen ’78 in opening this year’s ceremony. It is a celebration of scholars who embrace Horace Dutton Taft’s vision for a “broad, liberal education” based on a “reverence for, and mastery of past knowledge, and  that is a deep respect for all the great ideas and important information of the past...a broad education that is intellectual, that is moral, that is physical, that is spiritual, and that is artistic or aesthetic; a broad education and cultivation of the whole self.”

The Cum Laude Society is a national organization honoring scholarship and scholastic achievement at the secondary school level, comparable to Phi Beta Kappa and Sigma Xi in colleges and scientific schools. Founded in 1906, the Society now has 382 chapters, most of which are in private or independent schools located in the United States. A maximum of 20 percent of the senior class may be elected into membership in the Cum Laude Society. The 14 students inducted at Taft this week represent the top eight percent of their class. Their membership was based on academic performance, as measured during their middle and upper middle years, during which the weighted averages for these students ranged from 95.3 to 101.7. Taft’s new Cum Laude Society members are:

Srinidhi Sriram Bharadwaj

Bohan Gao

Madison Faye Haskins

Sarah Caroline Laico

Sae Eun (Eugene) Lee

Ezra Wojtyla Levy

YiRan Bob Meng

Pensiri Naviroj

Sun Ho [Kelly] Park

Rory Joseph Ronan

Jacqueline Harriet Tyson

Alicia Shirley Wang

Sung Jun Kevin Won

Nifei (Jennifer) Zeng

Seniors may also be inducted into the Cum Laude Society during graduation exercises in June, based on their upper middle and senior year records.

Several Taft students were also recognized for their outstanding performance on last year’s PSAT. Receiving commendation from the National Achievement Scholarship Program for finishing among the highest-scoring participants were seniors Natasha Batten and Rio Dennis. In addition, seniors Bohan Gao, Nicole Jarck, Brandon Jia, Sae Eun Lee, Ezra Levy, Jenna Longo, Anjali Thakor, and Alicia Wang  received commendation from the National Merit Scholarship Program for finishing in the top 3.3% of all those taking the PSAT last year.

Finally, Academic Dean Jon Willson ’82 recognized the ranking scholars for the 2013-14 academic year. The students with the highest unweighted averages in their class are:

Class of 2017: 97 Sonny An

Class of 2016: 95.58 Kayla Kim

Class of 2015: Of all upper mids, with a 97.6 unweighted GPA Jack Mi

Of returning upper mids, with a 97.2 unweighted GPA Eugene Lee

Watch the full induction ceremony here.

Taylor Hawes, the Colorado River Program Director for The Nature Conservancy, will serve as keynote speaker for the Green Schools Alliance New England Schools Sustainability Conference, which will take place at Taft on Sunday, November 2, 2014.

Approximately 100 students, faculty, and staff from 14 member schools are expected to participate in the one-day conference, which will include workshops hosted by a number of participating schools and a showing of the film Disruption, which aims to motivate viewers to take action on climate change.

“We are excited to continue the tradition of annual Green Schools Alliance conferences, bringing students together from different campuses but with similar missions and challenges of developing environmentally conscious campus communities,” said Carly Borken, Taft’s Director of Environmental Stewardship. “We are especially excited to host Taylor Hawes as our keynote speaker,” Borken added, noting that Hawes is the sister of faculty member and alumnus, Greg Hawes.

Uniquely created by schools for schools, the Green Schools Alliance is a global Peer-to-Peer Network of preK to grade 12 schools represented by sustainability coordinators, faculty, staff, and students working together to solve climate and conservation challenges. Since 2007, the Alliance has grown to include more than 4,000 schools in 43 U.S. states and 40 countries.

More information and online registration are available on the Green Schools Alliance website.

Actor/director Peter Berg ’80 yet again brought down the house in Bingham Auditorium today as students watched a video of Berg and fellow actor Jonah Hill announcing a Headmaster Holiday for Taft students and faculty.

Over the years, Berg has enlisted several of his Hollywood friends and colleagues —  including Mark Wahlberg, Rob Pattinson, and Will Smith— to announce Headmaster Holidays. 

“The tradition of the Headmaster Holiday at Taft stretches back decades,” said Headmaster Willy MacMullen ’78. “It’s always a fun day, and over the years there have been really creative ways of giving a hardworking school a day off,” MacMullen added. “Peter Berg, who is a great graduate and friend, has found yet another awesome way, teaming up with Jonah Hill to give Taft students a day off!”

To kick off the holiday, 21 Jump Street, starring Hill, will be shown tonight. Then students will have a day off from classes on Friday.

Senator Richard Blumenthal spoke about the meaning of public service and hot-button issues such as gun control, immigration, and partisan politics when he visited Taft on Thursday, November 6.

“I’m very proud to be here today at a school that values service,” Senator Blumenthal said, before referencing the Taft School motto of Non ut sibi ministretur sed ut minister (Not to be served but to serve). “You are at an enormously exciting point in our nation’s history. Things are changing so fast politically and socially. I hope that you feel that service is not just an abstract or conceptual notion, but something that you feel in your heart,” Blumenthal said.

Senator Blumenthal was invited to Taft by student Becky Frank ’15 and her father, Monte Frank. The Frank family, residents of Sandy Hook, Conn., have worked with Blumenthal on efforts to reduce gun violence since the mass shooting there in 2012.

Blumenthal spoke at Taft about stopping gun violence and the need for national legislation on gun control. “If there are enough states, if there are enough localities that do the right thing, it will create a wave that will move Washington eventually,” he said.

Blumenthal also spoke about additional issues he sees as particularly pressing in U.S. politics today, including immigration reform, the economy, college tuition debt burden, and equal pay. Following formal remarks at the school's Morning Meeting in Bingham Auditorium, Blumenthal met with students more informally and answered additional questions.

"Hearing Senator Blumenthal speak to the school about legislation, governance, and public service was powerful, and evidence of something I believe deeply: that bringing important voices to campus can inspire and inform students in profound ways," said Headmaster Willy MacMullen ’78.

View the video of Senator Blumenthal’s Morning Meeting remarks.

View a photo gallery from Senator Blumenthal’s visit to Taft.

Taft will celebrate the restoration of its historic pipe organ with a dedicatory concert at 4 pm Sunday, November 16 in Woodward Chapel.

Installed in Woodward Chapel in 1968, Taft’s pipe organ is one of the premier instruments designed and built by the Gress-Miles Organ Company of Princeton, New Jersey.   The recently completed restoration work included an update of the organ console, refurbishment of the console’s ivory keys and surrounding woodwork, and the addition of some digital stops. The introduction of fiber optics also makes the console mobile, allowing for greater versatility in performances.

“The work has expanded the tonal spectrum of the instrument,” notes organist Daniel Scifo. “We have added sonority on the pedal division, and the most updated, state-of-the-art components that, when combined with new manual systems, give us more options and combinations than ever before.”

Scifo will perform several festive pieces composed for the organ during the November 16 concert. He will also accompany Taft’s choral group, Collegium Musicum, as well as a local adult choir, “Cantus Excelsus.” Both are conducted by Taft Arts Department Chair and choral instructor Bruce Fifer.

“The program will include Charles Hubert Hasting Parry’s “I Was Glad,” a real blockbuster piece,” says Fifer. “It has been performed at every coronation since the mid 1800’s. It is a very grand, big piece.”

Other selections include: Bach’s “Sheep May Safely Graze” and “Gigue Fugue”; “Let Nothing Ever Grieve Thee,” Brahms; “Evening Hymn” by Balfour Gardiner; as well as a St. Cecilia Motet, a nod St. Cecilia, the patron saint music.

Woodward Chapel is located at 25 The Green, Watertown. Parking is available in the lot behind the Chapel. The concert is free and open to the public; no tickets are required. For more information please call 860-945-7898 or visit taftschool.org/concerts.

A flock of sheep. A clowder of cats. But what do you call a large group of rhinos? Officially, a crash. This weekend? Spirited fun and unbridled school pride!

Following the traditional Red Rally and bonfire on Saturday evening, Taft Rhinos crashed the campus in droves on a beautiful Sunday afternoon to support our teams on Hotchkiss Day. Students, alumni, parents and friends got their rally on in celebration of this longstanding Taft tradition.

View photos of Taft's Red Rally.

View photos of Taft-Hotchkiss Day.

Read about the individual games and view scores.

Engineer and former NASA Astronaut Michael Massimino spoke to Taft students at a Morning Meeting on Nov. 18 about his experiences in space. Massimino, now a professor of professional practice in the mechanical engineering department at Columbia University, participated in two space shuttle missions to service the Hubble Space Telescope. He was the first person to tweet from space and has logged a total of 571 hours, 47 minutes in space and more than 30 hours of spacewalking.

Massimino spoke at Taft about his path to becoming an astronaut and his experiences in space before answering students’ questions both in Bingham Auditorium and in a smaller group setting in Taft’s faculty room.

Taft students recently had a chance to chat about molecular biology and careers in science with Taft alumnus Kyle Dolan ’02, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Chicago. Taft science teachers Laura Monti ’89 and Amanda Benedict hosted a Skype session between Dolan and the students before study hall one evening last week. After speaking about his research and career path, Dolan asked the students about their scientific endeavors and offered encouragement and advice.

“Dr. Dolan generously agreed to continue chatting with the students via email after the session,” Monti said. “He was incredibly giving of his time and is a great resource for our students.”

Dolan received a BA in Molecular Biology from Colgate University in 2006 and a PhD in Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics from the University of Chicago in 2012. His research interests include mechanisms of genetic regulation, protein-nucleic acid interactions, and the relationship between metabolism and genetic processes. He is currently a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Medicine at the University of Chicago, where he studies epigenetic changes in colon cancer and inflammatory bowel disease, and the roles that diet and gut bacteria play in these events.

“It was fascinating to listen to Dr. Dolan and to hear about his work in the lab,” said Pen Naviroj ’15, who is currently taking both AP Biology and Organic Chemistry in addition to working on an independent study on the controlled-release of an anti-cancer drug. “It was also interesting and reassuring to hear about the options as far as different career paths in science,” she added.

“It's a great time to be studying science at Taft,” Dolan said. “The breadth of the students' research ‑ from fly behavior to bioengineering and beyond ‑ really impressed me. They're enthusiastically pursuing the answers to some big problems with the support of their teachers, and in the process they're picking up skills that will benefit them far beyond Taft.”

Photographic works by Taft School senior Allie Davidge will be on display in the Mark W. Potter ’48 Gallery Friday, December 5 through Tuesday, December 16, 2014. A reception celebrating the opening of her show, Above and Under, will be held Friday, December 5 from 5 to 7 pm. The event is free and open to the public.

 Above & Under features photos designed to connect the viewer more deeply with the environment, and to increase consciousness of the impact we all have on the world around us.

“The air we breathe every day has millions of uses that reflect the way we live and what we do,” notes Davidge. “It is our responsibility to take care of the air, just like any other natural resource, and use it responsibly.”

Davidge’s photographs explore the broad range of ways in which air is used or harnessed, and focuses on “situations where people have gone above the normal level of responsibility,” such as using air to generate green energy.

“Looking at these situations reminds us of circumstances where we are under-performing in our share of responsibility to protect the environment,” says Davidge. 

The images in Above and Under were captured over the course of one year using three different formats: 35mm black and white film; 35mm color film; and digital capture. They were shot on location in California, New York, New Hampshire, Connecticut, the British Virgin Islands, and Spain.

“In the British Virgin Islands I was able to go under the surface and capture pictures of places without air,” Davidge explained, “thus making us more conscious of its link to us.”

Above and Under continues at Taft through December 16. The gallery is open Monday through Saturday, from 8 am to 5 pm; admission to the gallery is free. For more information visit TaftSchool.org.

Non ut sibi ministretur sed ut ministret, is, in its essence, the imperative that drives Taft students to leave their mark on the world that lies beyond the school’s walls. For Cole Johnson ’16, that mark crossed continents, connected cultures, and tested his 16-year old mettle.

Johnson spent the first 10 years of his life in Providenciales, one of the islands that makes up Turks and Caicos. Though his life eventually shifted to the US, his heart remained on the island.

”Turks & Caicos is my home,” Johnson says, “And it always will be.”

He returned to Providenciales often over the years, sometimes to tutor children at the Provo Children’s Home (PCH), a residential facility providing emotional, physical, and spiritual support for orphans and children at risk across the islands. Johnson began volunteering at PCH as a child; over the years, his commitment to the facility grew. Last summer it reached new heights, quite literally, when Johnson journeyed to the top of Africa’s tallest peak to benefit PCH children and programs.

The climb was grueling: Johnson experienced searing pain in his lungs in the thin air of the extreme high altitude, and, at one point, lost all feeling in his hands and feet. According to the Tanzanian government, fewer than half of the climbers who follow Johnson's path to the summit ever reach their goal.

Kilimanjaro's Uhuru Peak sits 19,341 feet above sea level. Johnson asked friends and neighbors to support his quest to raise $1 for each of those feet he hoped to climb. He was successful on both fronts, topping both the mountain and his fund-raising goal: In his six days of climbing, Johnson reached Kilimanjaro's peak and raised $20,348 for the Provo Children's Home.

"This was definitely the hardest thing I have done in my life," Johnson notes, "but also the most rewarding."

To learn more about the Provo Children’s Home, visit www.pch.tc

Students, faculty, neighbors, and friends will gather in celebration Tuesday, December 16, 2014, for the 79^th annual Service of Lessons and Carols. Two services will be held in Woodward Chapel this year: the first service begins at 6 pm, the second at 8 pm. A reception will follow the 8 pm service, and feature music with Taft's Jazz Band in the newly restored undercroft of the Chapel..

Lessons and Carols services are celebrated throughout the world in anticipation of the holiday season. The best-known service features the renowned Choir of King's College, and is broadcast each year on Christmas Eve from King's College, Cambridge, England. The traditional format originated on Christmas Eve, 1880 in Cornwall England. According to the BBC, Edward Benson, then the Bishop of Truro (later the Archbishop of Canterbury), crafted the worship service as a means of keeping “men out of pubs on Christmas Eve.”

Luminarias will light a festive path from the main campus to Woodward Chapel, where the service will include Nativity readings by faculty, staff and students, with seasonal music by Collegium Musicum, the Taft Chamber Ensemble, and the Woodward Chapel Brass Ensemble.  

All are welcome to share in this joyful celebration of the season.

Students hoping to bring sailing back to Taft trained and competed this fall with the Litchfield Area High School Sailing Team. The team sails out of the Bantam Lake Yacht Club and races within the Interscholastic Sailing Association. Kim Amelsberg ’16, Matt Burnham ’16, Jack Ewing ’18, Taro Sochi ’18, and Hannah White ’16 all sail for Taft. In November, they competed against 10 other schools from across the nation for the Mendleblatt Trophy at the ISSA High School National Keelboat Invitational in St. Petersburg, Florida.  

“There were 10 high school sailing teams, one from each region of the United States,” explained White. “Most teams had to go through many rounds of qualifiers to get in, and were all incredibly skilled. The competition was incredibly hard and the wind conditions were very high compared to what we were used to sailing on Bantam Lake, but we did surprisingly well.”

Taft students sailed on Flying Juniors—commonly known as FJ’s—at Bantam Yacht Club throughout the fall. Considered a dinghy, the boat’s size makes it an ideal class for young sailors to learn the skills of boat handling and racing; it is generally sailed double-handed-- manned by one skipper and one crew member. At the National Keelboat Invitational, however, Taft sailors competed in Sonars, sailed by a skipper and three crew.

“It was an absolutely amazing experience considering that it was the first kind of regatta of that boat ever,” White said. “We were very honored to have the opportunity to participate in it.”

From ballet to samba, the Fall Dance Showcase (held December 5 in Bingham Auditorium) featured all of Taft’s dance classes. Ten pieces were presented as a culmination of the students’ hard work in the dance studio throughout the fall semester. The students themselves, with weekly guidance and feedback from faculty and peers, generated much of the choreography. 

“Each and every student has worked very hard and made tremendous progress throughout this semester,” said dance teacher Sarah Surber. “The advanced students have experienced such growth in their choreography, technique and performance quality.  The intermediate students have shown such promise and choreographed a very clever composition with Choreographers’ Guide to the Orchestra.  And the Dance for Everyone class has come such a long way since their first day in the dance studio in September. I am proud of their accomplishments.”

View and download photos from the Fall 2014 Dance Showcase.

The Dance Showcase included the following performances:

Independent Tutorial in Theatre

Disjointed

Music: So Broken by Björk

Choreographed and danced by:  Natasha Batten

Choreographer’s Note:  After watching a performance with the music this past summer, I wanted to create my own broken piece that pushed my boundaries on choreography, specifically with a solo piece.

Advanced Dance

Waltz of the Flowers

Music:  from The Nutcracker by Tchaikovsky

Dancers:  Libby Dawe, Anna Farrell, Gabby Gonzalez Carpio, Allison Hsu, Kayla Kim, Sophie Pulver, Ellie Smith, Kimberly Wipfler

Intermediate Dance

Choreographers’ Guide to the Orchestra

Choreography:  Intermediate Dance students as directed by Sarah Surber

Music:  The Heroic Weather-Conditions of the Universe, Part 7 by Alexandre Desplat

Dancers:  Emily Axelberg, Parinaz Dastoor, Grace Dreher, Reece Olmstead, SeArah Smith, Sarah Taylor, Pearl Young

Advanced Dance

Enclosed

Music:  Circles by Break of Reality  

Choreographed and danced by: Kayla Kim & Sophie Pulver

Choreographers’ Note:  We first created our piece in silence, generating movement together and seeing where that movement logically led. Then, we listened to our song and adapted our choreography to the music both by matching the rhythm and by changing our movement quality to match the tone of the piece. Whenever we danced in unison, we played with different facings, and to add to our counterpoint, we experimented with contact partnering and retrograde.  Our greatest risk was choosing to begin with structured improvisation; with every performance comes a new opportunity to test unfamiliar choreography.

Advanced Dance

Reativo

Music:  Samba Trio Remix by Instituto

Choreographed and danced by: Libby Dawe & Anna Farrell

Choreographers’ Note:  Our goal in creating this piece was to use experimental structures, like retrogrades, in our movement to help bring about moments of successful counterpoint. We tried to keep an open mind in creating the piece, and it was not too structured in terms of any sort of narrative, but was kept rather open to allow incorporation of any type of innovative movement we felt was appropriate to add to the piece. The spontaneous nature of our creative process was appropriate and important as we were just becoming familiar with each other’s movement styles. Our final product is an upbeat duet incorporating unison, counterpoint, retrograde, and audible sounds that pairs well with the exciting, beat-driven Brazilian music.

Independent Tutorial in Theatre in

Fervent Interior

Choreography:  Sarah Surber

Music:  The Promise by Michael Nyman

Costume:  Lesley Neilson Bowman 

Dancer:  Natasha Batten

Advanced Dance

Ambiversion

Music:  You and Me (Flume Remix) by Disclosure

Choreographed and danced by:

Gabby Gonzalez Carpio & Allison Hsu

Choreographers’ Note:  Our choreographic mission was to create movement that matches and compliments the intensity of the music and experiment with different forms of partnering and counterpoint. We chose popular electronic music that was not necessarily conventional for a modern dance, and a lot of our movements are in reference to the rhythm, tempo and mood of the music. The phrases of our dance vary from being in unison and in opposition, and as we both have unique qualities of movement, it creates interesting visuals.  Although some movements lack meaning, every movement contributes to the dance’s overall aesthetic.

Intermediate Dance in

Ballet Étude

Choreography:  Meghan Buchanan, Dance Program Director at The Westover School

Music:  Slow Waltz by Steven Mitchell 

Dancers:  Emily Axelberg, Parinaz Dastoor, Grace Dreher,

Reece Olmstead, SeArah Smith, Sarah Taylor, Pearl Young

Advanced Dance

Reflétant

Music:  Mirror Maru by Cashmere Cat

Choreographed and danced by: Ellie Smith & Kimberly Wipfler

Choreographers’ Note:  There are two types of people:  Those who like looking in the mirror, and those who do not. We explore the motives and reactions that a mirror provides for both types of people. Does self-assurance reside more in those who avoid the mirror or those who confront it?  Do you like the person you are when you are not seeing your reflection?

Dance For Everyone

Shake ‘n Bake

Choreography:  Shaneekqua Woodham & Sarah Surber in collaboration with the students

Music:  Chris Brown & Taylor Swift

Dancers:  India Burns, Josh Corbo, Zach Cyrus, Meghan Foos, Nina Garfinkel, Tattnall Holt, Nicolai Mlodinow, Marcus Mollica, Michael Mulroy, Jillian Pappas, Nadir Pearson, Katherine Queally, Victor Rodriguez, Nicholas Schlein, Tatum Shane, Bridget Slocum

Special thanks to our production team

Director of Dance:  Sarah Surber

Technical Director & Lighting:  David Kievit

Costume Consultant:  Lesley Nielson Bowman

Master of Funk: Ryan Rothfuss

Assistant of Funk: Matty B

Captain of Team Funk: R.J.

Light Board Operator: Andy Farrier

Sound Board Operator:  Sam Nestor

Projectionist: Tennant Maxey

Stage Crew: Tong Cheunchitra, Eric Sodero, Noah Talhami and Peter Straub

Video:  Scott Serafine, Jack Elrad & Chandler Houldin

Photography:  Bob Falcetti

In the wake of recent grand jury decisions involving the cases of Michael Brown and Eric Garner, students at Taft organized a demonstration to create awareness and encourage discussion on issues of race, law enforcement, and the judicial process.

“It won't surprise anyone that on a campus of really smart, engaged and principled students and faculty we have had a robust and informed dialogue about the recent grand jury decisions — or that there has been great diversity of perspectives,” says Headmaster Willy MacMullen ’78. 

*** 

It was the end of Assembly block. Bingham Auditorium was packed as always, the room humming with pre-exam energy, anxiety, and fatigue as students stood to make announcements.

Then something happened to quiet the audience.

Five students, all dressed in black, approached the stage, their hands up as if in surrender. The students — Zach Cyrus ’15, Rio Dennis ’15, Aaron Dillard ’16, Talley Hodges ’15, and Peter Straub ’15 — stood while a short film clip titled “The Last Words of 11 People Killed by Police” appeared on the screen.

Zach Cyrus ’15

And then Zach — a usually shy student — approached the microphone.

“I am Zach Cyrus from Brooklyn, New York,” he began. Zach stood tall and looked into the audience. “According to USA Today,” he said,  “white officers kill black individuals twice a week in the United States, or an average of 96 times a year. And in the past month alone, five unarmed African-American males have been killed by police.”

Talley Hodges ’15

Next up to the microphone was Talley Hodges ’15 who told the audience what was about to begin — a three-hour die-in/sit-in to create awareness about race and law enforcement in the United States.

When the students finished explaining the ground rules for the demonstration (no blocking entrances, be respectful, be silent, hand in assignments and do not miss assessments) they invited the entire campus to participate, either by joining the die-in or by walking with hands up in between classes to show solidarity with the movement. The demonstration, the leaders explained, would be a chance for fellow students to silently and respectfully bear witness, or to join with them.

And then Zach, Rio, Aaron, Talley, and Peter silently exited Bingham, hands still up as if in surrender, followed by 40 fellow students also dressed in black. The students silently took their places in the hallways and on the floors of Lincoln Lobby, Main Hall, and in front of the Dining Hall. Some wore signs around their necks with the last words of young, unarmed black men killed by police in the United States.

Aaron Dillard ’16

“It was a really powerful moment,” Aaron says about the Assembly and the silent march to the hallway. “People were crying. People joined us.”

***

The idea for the demonstration began in English teacher Johanna Valdez’s Literature of Civil Disobedience class — a course that aims to teach students how to empathize with others, see injustice, and think creatively and critically about ways to cause change. “The most rewarding part of the class is seeing students find an issue they care about, plan an event, and take action,” Valdez says. “In a world full of violence and war, I want kids to realize that peaceful resistance is still a powerful tool for change.”

Rio Dennis ’15

The leaders of the die-in had been quietly preparing for the demonstration and practicing for the Assembly for a couple of days. Though the idea for the demonstration was born in Valdez’s class, it quickly grew beyond that group of students.

Soon Jamella Lee, Dean of Global and Diversity Education, and Charles Thompson, Director of IT, became additional advisors to the organizers, encouraging them to think through their strategy and practice their presentation. The organizers rallied support by going from dorm to dorm, speaking with fellow students in the hall, asking their classmates if they would like to be involved.

Peter Straub ’15

The dialogue about the grand jury decisions was supported by additional conversations, both formal and informal, on campus. MacMullen gave a Morning Meeting discussion the day before the die-in was announced, introducing ideas for how students and faculty could talk about cultural issues as complex and charged as the grand jury decisions. His advice to students: become informed, recognize your bias, ask questions of those who you disagree with and want to learn more from.

Ultimately, the week became one of vigorous, but respectful, discussion. Smart, opinionated students from across the political spectrum engaged with difficult questions in a thoughtful dialogue.

“What I was so proud of was the way students came forward, with good questions, with steps they wanted to take, with goals that were reasonable and aspirational — all to increase awareness and understanding of a cluster of very complex issues,” MacMullen says. “You could see students growing before your eyes, as they led in powerful ways. And you could see the community conversing in a way that was rigorous and respectful. To me, this is what a sound education looks like: informed discussion, healthy debate, elevated understanding.”

Throughout the week, faculty members shared articles, lesson plans, and other resources with one another in order to help foster discussions in the classrooms, dorms, and advisee meetings. Several teachers found that the discussion of the grand jury decisions overlapped with themes they were already exploring with their classes — including lessons on historic race relations, constitutional law, equity and justice, and economic disparity.

Much of the faculty role was to support students as they engaged in emotionally and politically charged discussions; to help ensure that the conversations were thoughtful and respectful. On the evening of the die-in, students assembled in the Choral Room for just such a discussion led by history teacher Rachael Ryan and school chaplain Bob Ganung.

“It was really productive,” die-in organizer Aaron says of the discussion. “Students were able to really speak freely about issues that are important to them.”

Although not all students agree about the grand jury findings in the Furguson and New York cases, Zach adds, students have been respectful of one another.

“Some students who had never before been seen as leaders really stood up in front of their peers and led the way,” says Thompson. “It was amazing to see this growth in students, to see them step out of their comfort zone for an issue that they felt passionately about.”