Sixteen students returned last week from Taft’s eighth service trip to Guatemala. Accompanied by faculty members David Dethlefs, Kerry Bracco, and Matt Mullane, this year’s group built four houses in addition to other service projects (and challenge soccer matches!) in association with The God’s Child Project.

Students and chaperones stayed with host families in Antigua, the former colonial capital of Central America. The trip provided an extraordinary opportunity to experience the culture and history of a remarkable country and land. Once the houses were finished, the group traveled to Lake Atitlán and the indigenous market at Chichicastenango. Along the way they visited the Mayan ruins at Iximche.

View photos of this year's service trip.

On the occasion of Taft's 125th anniversary, we extend our sincere thanks to our generous supporters, whose gifts to the Annual Fund totaled $4,071,867 this year. Of that total, $1,821,183 was given by Taft alumni; 42% of alumni showed their support for our school, up from 41% last year. The Parents’ Fund also had a terrific year, raising $1,643,820 from 94% of the current parents. Sincere thanks to all of our volunteers: Class Agents; Parents’ Committee members; Dylan Simonds ’89, Annual Fund Chair; Sawnie and Jim McGee P’14, ’16, Parents’ Fund Chairs; Jean and Stuart Serenbetz P’03, ’06, ’09, Chairs of the Former Parents’ Fund; and Joanie and Bob Dayton ’60, Chairs of the Grandparents’ Fund.

There were many milestones along the way:

- Our young alumni reached their highest Annual Fund participation during a very successful, week-long challenge against Hotchkiss. Our thanks to the hundreds of Tafties who played a part in this great win. Congratulations, Rhinos!
Final Score: Taft 21.7%    Hotchkiss 21.3%.

- On May 5th, Taft had an amazing Day of Giving, celebrating the school’s 125th Anniversary! We are grateful to the 266 donors from the Taft community who contributed $148,805 to the Annual Fund, more than doubling our original goal of 125 donors on that day. Congratulations to the Class of ’84—led by Head Class Agents Ed Fowler and Jeanne Pocras—for having the highest number of donors on the May 5th Day of Giving.

- The Class of ’65 had a remarkable 50th Reunion, led by Gift Committee Chairs Jeff Levy and Larry Morris and Head Class Agent Kemp Bohlen, and a very hardworking Gift Committee. Their class won the Snyder Award and the Chairman of the Board Award in recognition for their hard work.

- The Class of ’95—led by Head Class Agents Dan Oneglia and Tony Pasquariello—broke the 20th Reunion participation record (48% held by the Class of ’86) closing with 49%! The Class of ’00—led by Head Class Agents Andrew Goodwin and John McCardell—broke the 15th Reunion participation record (47% held by the Class of ’91) closing with 48% and the dollar record ($49,717 held by the Class of ’90) closing with $76,796!

- The Parents' Fund had a remarkable year. An impressive 94% of current parents joined in raising $1,628,151! Taft’s Parents’ Committee again reached 100% participation. This is the 23rd consecutive year that current parents garnered a participation rate of 90% or higher. Special thanks goes to the parents of the Class of ’16 for having the highest participation in the May 5th Day of Giving. Their children enjoyed a celebratory taco truck feed after the friendly competition.

Congratulations to winners of the Class Agent Awards:

Chairman of the Board Award

Highest percent participation from a class 50 years out or less

Class of 1965: 68%

Gift Committee Chairs:  Larry Morris and Jeff Levy

Head Class Agent: Kemp Bohlen

Young Alumni Dollars Award

Largest Annual Fund amount contributed from a class 10 years out or less

Class of 2009:  $6,851

Head Class Agent: Ben Brauer

McCabe Award

Largest Annual Fund amount contributed by a non-reunion class

Class of 1962:  $114,039

Head Class Agent: Fred Nagle

Romano Award

Greatest increase in participation from a non-reunion class less than 50 years out

Class of 2006:  38% from 28%

Head Class Agent: Su Yeone Jeon

Class of 1920 Award

Greatest increase in Annual Fund dollars from a non-reunion class

Class of 1951:  increase of $24,530

Class Agents: Bob Govin, Dan Davis, and Charlie Wolf

Spencer Award

Largest number of gifts from classmates who have not given in the last five years

Class of 2000: 12 new donors

Head Class Agents: Andrew Goodwin and John McCardell

Young Alumni Participation Award

Highest participation from a class 10 years out or less

Class of 2014:   62%

Head Class Agents: John MacMullen and Rosey Oppenheim

Snyder Award

Largest amount contributed by a reunion class

Class of 1965: $151,328 (includes Annual Fund and Capital Fund)

Gift Committee Chairs:  Larry Morris and Jeff Levy

Head Class Agent: Kemp Bohlen

THANKS AND CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL! GO BIG RED!

     The halls are alive with the sounds of summer. And for the fifth year in a row, that means the enthusiastic voices of rising sixth- through ninth-graders from the greater Waterbury area, on campus for the Taft School-Police Activity League (PAL) Summer Enrichment Academy.

     Conceived by faculty members and husband and wife team Laura Monti ’89 and Jeremy Clifford, the Academy is a four-week mentoring program built around academic enrichment, SSAT preparation and hands-on learning.

     “There are very few free or low cost summer opportunities in the area,” Monti said. “What I love about this program—and what parents tell us all the time—is that it helps students recognize that they have the academic ability to strive for things they might not otherwise have thought possible.”

     The program has more than hit its stride, welcoming 57 participants this year, the largest group to date. Many of those students have attended the Academy before; some who have “aged out” have returned as teaching mentors. Now a rising sophomore at Chase Collegiate School, Brendan Wilmot was a student at the Academy for two years before retuning this summer to teach math.

     “As a student here, my focus was so singular: this is what I know, and this is what I need to know,” Brendan said. “As a teacher, I realize that while this is the mindset of everyone sitting in the classroom, what each student knows and needs to know is really different. They all come from different schools, different backgrounds, and with different preparation. I need to understand where each student is individually and make sure they get what they need while they’re here.”

     Students attend three classes each day: math, English, and an elective of their choosing. Electives this year include astronomy, public speaking, and the enormously popular “Game of Life.” Co-taught by Taft Director of Multicultural Recruitment Tamara Sinclair '05 and new Taft grad Christian Thompson ’15, “Game of Life” is a crash course in real-world living. Sinclair randomly assigns each student a job and a corresponding salary; students get paid—and visit their banker—each day. They build budgets and, just like in the real world, pay bills, which might include mortgage or rent, insurance, utilities, and car payments. They also need to budget for gas, savings, charitable donations, entertainment and, of course, a cell phone bill.

     “Just starting this kind of conversation is so important,” says Sinclair. “Students often have very little idea of what things cost. When I ask them what it will take to raise a child for the first 18 years of their life they often guess $10,000, $30,000…it is actually estimated at $240,000. That is a concept they find difficult to imagine, but come to understand as we learn about bills and budgets.”

     The nuts and bolts of the Academy is built around SSAT preparation; many participants will apply to schools like Taft, Chase Collegiate, Holy Cross, Sacred Heart, and the SOAR program at Kennedy High School. Co-teachers lead students through the exercises in the standard SSAT prep book, and enhance learning through games and group activities. The English curriculum also includes vocabulary work and written responses to reading assignments.

     “Last summer we read Wonder,” said rising 9^th grader and Waterbury Arts Magnet School student Gillian Petrarca. “This year we are reading The Book Thief.  It is very suspenseful with some really exciting foreshadowing. I keep guessing at what will happen next, which makes

me want to just keep reading and reading to see if my guesses are right.”

     And it is that eagerness and excitement that makes the program so rewarding for students and mentors alike.

     “I’m always amazed by how smart these kids are,” says Thompson. “They do their homework on time, they come ready to learn…they are all really top notch.”

                                                                                                                    Sinclair with PAL students.

The Taft School-PAL Summer Enrichment Academy is funded in part by grants from the Edward E. Ford Foundation, and the Ion Bank Foundation. You can read more about the program in the fall issue of the Taft Bulletin.

The Waterbury Police Activity League (PAL) is a not for profit organization which promotes partnerships between youth, law enforcement, and the community through educational, athletic and recreational programs designed to encourage team building and foster positive relationships. For more information, visit www.waterburypal.org 

Eight budding squash players from around the country traveled to Watertown in July as part of an expanded partnership between Taft’s Summer School program and the National Urban Squash and Education Association (NUSEA).

      Based in New York City, NUSEA provides structure, guidance, and organizational know-how to 22 member programs across the globe. Those programs engage more than 2,000 students at every grade level through intensive after-school, weekend, and summer programming, which includes academic support and enrichment, squash instruction and competition, community service programming, college guidance, and mentoring.

      Seeds for the Taft/NUSEA partnership were first sown in 2009, when Taft Summer School hosted Andrew Cadienhead. A rising lower mid, Andrew was also a member of CitySquash, NUSEA’s Bronx, New York program.

      “The concept is to provide students with a window into the world of private liberal education at a top tier boarding school,” explained Taft Summer School Director Tom Antonucci. “It is a wonderful opportunity for students to see what academic life would be like at a school like Taft.”

     In 2013, Taft Summer School hosted a student from Squash Haven, NUSEA’s New Haven, CT affiliate; another Squash Haven student arrived in 2014. Last fall, Taft Trustee Drummond Bell ’63, a member of NUSEA’s board of directors, met with Antonucci and Taft Admissions Director Peter Frew to talk about not only growing the number of NUSEA students attending Taft’s five-week summer session, but about expanding the geographic reach of the partnership, as well. Together, the team developed and executed a plan that brought eight squash scholars to Taft this summer. 

      “Summer School agreed to provide half-scholarships to each of the students,” notes Antonucci. “Drum and the Bell Foundation generously donated a large portion of the remaining cost. It shows the kind of person he is—always working to do more for Taft and for the community.”

      Christopher Olsen ’98 also helped sponsor the eight student athletes, who came to Watertown from NUSEA programs in New Haven, Detroit, San Diego, Chicago, New York City, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and the Bronx.

      “Thanks to Tom, Peter, Christopher and Willy, this summer’s program for these youngsters certainly reflects our school’s motto, non ut sibi ministretur sed ut minister—not to be served, but to serve,” said Bell. “When we met with all eight of the participants, they talked about the community atmosphere and how thankful they were for the opportunity Taft now extends throughout the NUSEA organization.”

     The students also talked about the solid academic preparation the program provides.

      “I’ve had a lot of fun, but also learned a lot while I’ve been here,” said San Diego native Angela Guzman. “I’m studying biology, which I know is really going to help me get ahead when I get back to school. I’ve also learned how to organize my time and plan my studying. It is very fast paced.”

       According to Antonucci, the academic impact of the program is powerful: One hundred percent of graduating urban squash seniors go on to four year colleges and universities. But for the students attending summer school, the academics are just one piece of the pie.

      “For me, this has been all about taking a chance,” explained Duane Rodgers, who took up squash a year ago through Philadelphia’s SquashSmarts program. “I am putting myself out there to meet new people, see new places, and learn new things. And I’m grateful to have accomplished that.”

To learn more about NUSEA and its member programs, click here or visit www.NationalUrbanSquash.org  For more on Taft Summer School, click here.

The Mark W. Potter ’48 Gallery opens the exhibition year Friday, September 11 with the photography of Taft alumna Jessica Wynne ’90. Wynne, a photography professor at New York’s Fashion Institute of Technology and Taft Rockwell Visiting Artist, will also speak at Morning Meeting Thursday, September 17. All are invited to an opening reception Friday, September 18 from 5 to 7 pm in the Gallery.

After earning a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the San Francisco Art Institute, Wynne continued her studies at Yale University School of Art, where she earned a Master’s in Fine Arts in 1999. Her work, which has been exhibited around the world, is housed in a number of collections, including the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.  

Wynne’s editorial and advertising clients include a wide array of magazines and corporations, including The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, Wired, W, Blackbook, Details, Fortune, Newsweek and Kodak. Wynne currently resides in NYC.

Wynne’s show runs through October 16. To see more of her work, visit www.jessicawynnephoto.com. The Potter Gallery is open Monday through Saturday, 8 am to 5 pm.

Recognize that hard work matters, have grit and perseverance, and get off to a good start, Headmaster William R. MacMullen ’78 advised new students during his welcome address to students and families on Wednesday, September 9.

     Nearly 200 new students joined the Taft community this year, selected from a pool of more than 1,700 applicants. In all, 594 students hailing from 33 states and 44 countries bring their talent, diversity, passions, and enthusiasm to a campus that celebrates, MacMullen explained, their effort and their successes in equal measure.

      “The people who succeed are those who are comfortable stretching and trying new things and indeed, perhaps, falling short,” MacMullen said. “I hope that you will take that advice deeply. Try out for a sport, join a club you’ve never joined before, push harder than you ever have on a math assignment…We hope that students will stretch to higher rungs of experience and achievement than ever. And you should know that we celebrate the act of stretching as much as we do the act of grasping.”

      The start of the 2015-16 academic year marks the start MacMullen’s 15th year as Taft’s Headmaster.

      “As global a school as we were then, we are emphatically more so now,” MacMullen noted, reflecting on the school’s evolution during his tenure as Headmaster. “I think it is not just that the reputation of the school stretches around the globe…it is much more profound than that. That is, I think that we have adopted a view that we’ve always had, but that we’ve culled with much more fervency and urgency now, and that is a deep belief that it’s a complicated, interconnected, volatile, dynamic world, and our job as teachers and our task as a school is to prepare the kind of adults and citizens and leaders who are going to thrive and lead in that world. And if you believe that, if you truly believe that, everything springs from that place.”

      Indeed, everything at Taft does spring from that place, beginning with the admissions process. Taft welcomed 109 day students this year, and 485 boarders. One-third of the community is comprised of students of color, 36 percent of all students receive financial aid, and nearly one-quarter of the school’s population is made up of international students, who come to Taft from 44 different countries this year, up from 32 countries during the 2014-15 academic year. They have left their homes in places like Croatia, Egypt, Germany, Hungary, Lithuania, Malawi, Moldavia, Nigeria, Sweden, Thailand, and Zimbabwe to embrace Taft’s commitment to educating the whole student.

      “You are the why of our work,” MacMullen assured students.

      The Headmaster also had assurances for parents and families: “The lessons your children will learn do not conform to an academic schedule…We believe that if you educate the whole student, this must take place—and as teachers we have to seize those chances--on every hour and on every corner of the campus. That’s our mission, it's fixed, and it is never going to change.” 

View a gallery of opening week photos here. 

View a video of Tuesday's convocation speech here.

Super Sunday” is an annual Taft orientation event that builds school spirit and new friendships. Tafties are assigned to color teams and compete in events such as the Crisco slide run, egg toss, three-legged race, human pyramid, and tug of war. Add a lot of paint, some uncooked eggs, and a few dozen pies and Super Sunday is one fun and messy field day. See a full gallery of photos from the day here, and watch a video of the festivities here.

The summer months are a time to refresh and renew, not only for Taft faculty but for the campus, as well. The Martin Health Center, HDT dormitory, and Bingham Auditorium were among the Taft spaces getting fresh looks and functional improvements over the past few months.

     Housed on the first floor of the recently renovated Congdon House, the Martin Health Center was completely gutted, redesigned, and rebuilt.

     “The new infirmary is configured to optimize the way the facility is used,” explained architect David Thompson, who worked on both the Congdon and Mac House renovations.  “Ninety percent of the services provided here are outpatient; that naturally shaped the design of the facility.”

     There are two exam rooms, a waiting area, offices, and a dispensary around the main foyer, with patient rooms down a hallway and away from the hub, for privacy and comfort. Each room has beds, a sink, and soft lighting for healing and relaxation. The effect is a warm but professional environment, reminiscent of a neighborhood physician’s office.

     “We wanted to create a space that not only met state regulations, but that also elevated the space aesthetically,” noted Thompson. “It was important that it not feel like a normal hospital environment.”

      HDT also underwent substantial renovation, though less obviously so: Much of the work done in the living space was groundwork for the massive facelift the dorm will get next summer.

      “The amount of work coordinated here was huge,” said Headmaster Willy MacMullen ’78 during a recent tour of the updated dormitory. “Much of the work done here was infrastructure improvement for the next phase of this two-phase project.”

      Those infrastructure improvements include the installation of a flush-head sprinkler system, upgraded insulation in the exterior walls, new electrical components—including lighting and power—and an upgraded data system. Most significantly, the heating system was converted from steam to hot water.

      “The upgraded heating system was very badly needed,” noted Jim Shepard, Taft’s Director of Facilities. “It provides for more heating zones throughout the building, giving us better control of heat distribution.”

      It also eliminated the old, bulky radiators from each dorm room. The units have been replaced by sleeker components with a European flair that pair aesthetically with the complete Phase II room renovations planned for next summer.

      “The Phase II work will be comparable in quality to what we have done in Congdon and Mac House, but will keep the original character of HDT,” said Shepard.

      The Summer ’15 project with perhaps the broadest impact was the refurbishment of Bingham Auditorium. The light fixtures were removed and sent out for cleaning, the luster of the wood walls was revived and restored, the beauty of the ceilings rejuvenated and preserved, and windows enhanced with remotely controlled window treatments that include blackout shades. The most dramatic change, however, was the installation of new, custom seating. Every chair in the auditorium was replaced. An adapted installation configuration allowed for a much-needed net gain of 22 theater seats; Bingham now has a seating capacity of 592.

      “Bingham has always been one of the more beautiful spots,” said Shepard. “But preserving the wood and ceilings was a challenge. The work that was done here this summer really brought the original beauty back to the space.”

      The former Alumni and Development Office, with Wade House attached, was also completed renovated this summer, and converted to two faculty residences. 

The newest rankings published by the Environmental Protection Agency place Taft at number four on the list of the top 30 K-12 schools participating in the Green Power Partnership.  The Partnership, which currently has more than 1,400 members, is a voluntary program that helps organizations secure electricity generated from renewable sources; it also provides support for groups working to expand and promote their green power leadership.

     The top 30 list represents the largest green power users among the Partnership’s K-12 member schools; rankings are updated quarterly. The combined green power used by this group totals more than 103 million kilowatt-hours of green power each year, which translates to roughly the same amount of electricity used by 10,000 average American homes.

     Since 2010, Taft has been purchasing 100 percent of its electricity as green power. According to the EPA, Taft’s annual green power usage of more than 4.5 million kilowatt-hours is equivalent to avoiding the carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions of nearly 700 passenger vehicles per year, or the CO2 emissions from the electricity use of nearly 500 average American homes annually.

     Taft’s newest green initiative began in earnest earlier this year and involves replacing all lighting on campus with LED components. LEDs, or light–emitting diodes, can be more efficient, durable, versatile and longer lasting than traditional lighting.

      “The installation of the LED lighting will save us $40,000 each year in electrical costs,” said Gil Thornfeldt, Taft’s CFO and Business Manager. “We were able to get a zero percent interest loan from Wells Fargo to initiate the project.  The savings we will realize through renewable energy credits make this a self-funding project; it will pay for itself in the next four years.”

      Thornfeldt also notes that Taft is the first prep school to move completely to LED components. Both Hotchkiss and Canterbury have made smaller-scale movement LED conversions.

A school’s success and its achievement—the happiness of students and faculty and staff—it cannot be separated from culture… It is created by each one of us in the room in a thousand acts, through a hundred practices, in scores of traditions.

With those words, Headmaster William R. MacMullen ’78 opened the 2015-16 school year for 594 Taft students. In a convocation address that was at once instructive and inspiring, students, faculty and staff were encouraged and empowered to embrace, build, and advance Taft culture—in word and in deed—throughout the new year. And culture, MacMullen notes, is not something that happens by chance.

“You should recognize the root here, the Latin word “cultura,” meaning to cultivate; meaning to till the land,” explained MacMullen. “I like that image. It reminds us that culture is something that is created seasonally, and it takes hard work by everybody.”

Culture is created collectively through practices and traditions, MacMullen noted, and carried forth not only through those actions, but also through storytelling.

“We tell stories because they carry meaning, because they transmit the culture, and they carry on the values we share.”

And through a series of powerful stories, MacMullen brought Taft’s culture into clear focus for all in the Taft community. The story of Taft faculty members, who, under no directive other than their understanding of a culture “of almost unfathomable care” and compassion, wandered the halls, watching over students as they spent their first night at Taft amid the confusion, fear, and sadness of 9/11/2001. Students embracing a culture of respect, empathy, and leadership, letting peers know in no uncertain terms that unkind, thoughtless, or derogatory remarks or actions are simply things that will not be tolerated. Stories of new students surprised by the warmth and genuine caring of faculty, of a culture where it is “cool” to be successful both academically and athletically, where “resilience and grit are prized,” and of a culture where, MacMullen said,  “honor means everything.”

“I hope that you will be a teller and also a listener. I hope that every teacher and student becomes part of the story that we tell years from now that holds some deep truth about our culture… Remember, we cultivate culture. We till the soil of the school in hopes that something rare and beautiful might spring.”

View video of MacMullen’s full convocation address here. 

Grammy-nominated pianist Judy Carmichael returns to Taft Friday, October 2 to open the 2015-16 Music for a While performance series.  The concert begins at 7:30 pm in Walker Hall. The event is free and open to the public; no tickets are required.

     One of the world’s leading interpreters of stride piano and swing, Carmichael was nicknamed “Stride” by Count Basie himself, a tip of the hat to her exceptional skill with this technically and physically demanding jazz piano style. Another early fan, Sarah Vaughan, encouraged her to record her first ensemble album, which she did with members of the Basie band.

      Judy’s new release I Love Being Here With You is her first all-vocal CD boasting an all-star line-up headed by multiple Emmy and Grammy winner pianist Mike Renzi, who was music director for Peggy Lee, Mel Tormé and more; celebrated tenor saxophonist Harry Allen, who has recorded with performers like Tony Bennett; and bassist Jay Leonhart, whose collaborations range from Judy Garland to Sting.

      A native of California, Judy Carmichael moved to New York in the early '80s and has maintained a busy concert schedule throughout the world ever since. She has toured for the U.S. Information Agency throughout India, Portugal, Brazil, and Singapore. In 1992, Carmichael was the first jazz musician sponsored by the U.S. Government to tour China. Carmichael has played in a variety of venues, from Carnegie Hall to the Peggy Guggenheim Museum in Venice, and in programs with Joel Grey, Michael Feinstein, Steve Ross, and the Smothers Brothers. Carmichael has also done comic skits and performed her music on radio and TV, and performed private recitals for everyone from Rod Stewart and Robert Redford to President Clinton and Gianni Agnelli.

      Carmichael has appeared frequently on Garrison Keillor's A Prairie Home Companion, and has been featured on National Public Radio's (NPR) Morning Edition, Entertainment Tonight and CBS'Sunday Morning with both Charles Kuralt and Charles Osgood. She hosts and produces her own public radio show, Judy Carmichael’s Jazz Inspired, broadcast on over 170 stations throughout North America and abroad, and on NPR’s Sirius Satellite channel.

      For a full listing of events in this year's concert series, please visit www.taftschool.org/arts/concertseries. For more information on Judy Carmichael, visit judycarmichael.com

Taft School welcomed more than 350 middle school runners to campus Wednesday for the 5^th annual Rhino Run. The 1.9-mile race is planned, executed, and fully managed by the Taft boys’ and girls’ cross country teams.

     Established in 2011 by Sara Iannone ’13 and coach Steve Palmer, the inaugural event featured 115 runners from four schools; this year, the 350 competitors represented nine area middle schools, including Renbrook, Rochambeau, Kingswood-Oxford and St. Mary Magdalen. A cross country team captain at Taft and USATF Junior Olympics competitor, Iannone wanted to build an event that allowed middle-schoolers with a passion for running to meet and compete with like-minded peers. Iannone is currently a student at Notre Dame.

     This year’s winners set new course records, Madison Villa of Rochambeau (11:58) and Matt Farrell of Renbrook-West Hartford (10:52).   Top local finishers were Katie Prtozman of St. John’s (18^th place in 13:56) and Sam Henderlite of St. John’s (19^th in 12:17).  Participating schools were Thomaston, Memorial, Rochambeau, Blessed Sacrament, St. Mary Magdalen, St. John’s, Rumsey Hall, Renbrook, The Country School, and Kingswood-Oxford.  The top ten finishers for boys and girls races:

Boys

1.  Matt Farrell Renbrook    10:52

2.  Joey Nihill Rochambeau   11:21

3.  Trey Generali  Memorial   11:22

4.  Grant Kneisel  Rumsey Hall  11:25

5.  Ethan Ash  Rumsey Hall  11:32

6.  Patrick Weltekamp  Memorial  11:36

7.  Camden Colette  Memorial  11:41

8.  Timothy Monohan  Rochambeau  11:44

9.  Aiden Weitekamp Memorial 11:49

10. Max Terrill Rochambeau 11:53

Girls

1.  Madison Villa Rochambeau   11:58

2.  Eloise Campbell  The Country School 12:15

3.  Kate Wiser  Rochambeau  12:22

4. Molly Flanagan  Rochambeau  12:35

5. Bethany Marp Rochambeau 12:38

6. Faith Kulis Rochabmeau  12:38

7.  Maggie Karp  Kingswood-Oxford 12:52

8. Catherine Lebel Rochambeau 13:16

9. Charlotte Brehmer  Rochambeau 13:19

10. Ellen Oemake Rochambeau 13:21

When DeRay Mckesson arrived on Bowdoin’s Maine campus, he was welcomed with the same “Offer of the College” that all new students receive—an offer that invites students “to make hosts of friends...who are to be leaders in all walks of life; to lose yourself in generous enthusiasms and cooperate with others for common ends…”

     Now, nearly a dozen years later, Mckesson has become that leader, fully and enthusiastically engaged in creating common spaces and common ground. A leading voice for social justice and system-wide change, Mckesson this week challenged Taft students to explore ideas, effect change, and create spaces where uncomfortable but important conversations can help advance understanding.

     “How do you put yourself in spaces or expose yourself to experiences that are not your own?” Mckesson asked Taft students.  “How can you put yourself in places where you read different things and watch different movies? How can you put yourself in spaces where you are exposed to ideas…where you can critically examine how race functions? You are uniquely situated in a place like Taft to explore these questions in as deep a way as possible.”

     Mckesson was teaching sixth-grade math in a school that serves one of the nation’s largest housing projects when Michael Brown was shot by police officers in Ferguson, Missouri, on August 9, 2013. Sitting on his couch at home in Minnesota, Mckesson read about the shooting on Twitter.

     “‘Something looks wrong,’ I thought. ‘I’ve got to go,’” Mckesson said.

     Mckesson traveled nine hours to Ferguson, he said, to “bear witness.” Early in the evening of his second night there, a protestor threw a water bottle at a police officer. The police responded, Mckesson says, with tear gas, pepper spray, sound cannons, and smoke bombs.

     “In that moment I became a protestor,” Mckesson told Taft students. “I will never forget what it was like to be tear-gassed on an American street because we were saying that the police shouldn’t kill people… This just doesn’t have to be the world that we live in. So much of this for us is exposing that and saying, ‘There is another way we can do this work around safety,’ and also challenging people to think about safety differently…this place is safe not because the police are everywhere—the police are not all over Taft and it’s a safe space. What makes this space safe is that it is resourced differently, that people have come together around their values of what it means to be in a safe space like this. We can actually do this in communities around the country.”

     Mckesson continues to take that message public, largely through social media, predominantly through Twitter. In a little over a year, Mckesson has, as Taft history teacher and fellow Bowdoin alumnus Michael Corbell noted when introducing Mckesson at Morning Meeting, “grown from a blogger who recorded events to an agent of change—a man who made events happen, through empathy and dignity.”

     And the world has taken notice. Forbes Magazine recently named Mckesson one of the 50 greatest leaders in the world for his work with the “Black Lives Matter” movement. The Los Angeles Times named him “one of the new civil rights leaders for the 21^st century.” And along with fellow activist Johnetta Elzie and the group WeTheProtestors.org, Mckesson was awarded the Howard Zinn Freedom to Write Award.

     McKesson is currently teaching a one-credit course in transformational leadership at the Yale Divinity School, taking him back to his teaching roots, and reigniting his “generous enthusiasm” for the education.

     “The classroom is one of the last places where you get to fight about ideas—where the idea still matters. Where the way you think about the world becomes the way you live in the world; classrooms make that magic happen. Make this place show up for you,” Mckesson told Taft students. “Make this place be a place that exposes you to a range of different conversations and options.” 

View DeRay Mckesson's full presentation to the Taft community here. 

     In 2013, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) introduced their Housing Innovation Awards program as a way of recognizing the very best in building and design innovation on the path to zero energy ready homes. The awards recognize forward-thinking builders who are producing the “home of the future,” today.

    Housing Innovation Awards are given in four distinct home categories—custom, production, multifamily and affordable—with one Grand Award winner named in each. This year, BPC Green Builders earned top honors in the custom category for their work on Taft’s Hillman House at 59 North Street. They accepted their award at the EEBA Excellence in Building Conference & Expo last week.

     Now the home of Bob ’76 and Suzanne Campbell, the 3,891 square foot home was designed and built to meet the performance criteria established by the DOE through their Zero Energy Ready Home program. The 13.1kW of solar panels and the solar thermal water-heating system helped Hillman House earn a Home Energy Rating System (HERS) score of -14. In its first year, the solar electric system produced four times the amount of power the home used.

     Taft’s first “green” certified passive home, Hillman House was also the third place winner in the 2015 CT Zero Energy Challenge, a competition to construct residences that best utilize innovative building techniques and new technology intended to lower energy use to near or net zero. The building also serves as a teaching tool at Taft: monitoring systems wired into Hillman House transmit data back to a classroom in the Wu Science Building, where students in environmental science classes can monitor the data and learn about the impact of passive homes.

     To learn more or to take a virtual tour of Hillman House, visit http://energy.gov/eere/buildings/housing-innovation-awards

Last week Taft hosted iDebate Rwanda, a non-governmental organization focused on teaching and promoting debate in Rwanda. The group was started in 2012 to help overcome the tragedy of the Rwandan genocide, which saw the murder of 1 million Rwandans in 100 days in 1994.

Four members of the NGO spent three days at Taft, visiting classes, meeting with students and faculty over meals, giving an all-school presentation, and participating in a mock debate against the Taft debate team.

The iDebate Rwanda guests—two of whom are teenagers themselves—visited classes and spoke about the history of Rwanda, the roots of the genocide, and their struggles as young people in Rwanda today to find their identities and have conversations with older generations about the genocide.

“Perpetrators could do the things they did because no one would speak up,” iDebate Rwanda team member Jean Michel Habineza said while meeting with faculty member Eileen Bouffard’s “Literature of the Developing World” class. Part of the hope behind building a strong debate program in Rwanda, Jean Michel said, is to give voice to young people, to make them comfortable with speaking up.

“Through debate you learn how to put yourself in others’ shoes. You learn how to question. You learn how to speak up. When people don’t speak up, atrocities happen,” he said.

During Thursday’s Morning Meeting each member of the debate team reflected on what the genocide and being a Rwandan today means to them.

“Rwanda stands as a mirror to every man’s soul,” said iDebate Rwanda member Jean Michel Habineza during the school meeting. “Rwanda is also a testament not only to how much evil each one of us can do, but also a to how much good each one of us can do. I hope that if Rwandans …are able to try to live next to the people who massacred their families; if Rwandans are able to work together every day to make sure that what happened in Rwanda doesn’t happen again — then there is no excuse. There is no excuse for anyone around the world to say that it is too hard. There is no excuse for each one of you to say that you can’t make the world a little bit better.”

The Mark W. Potter ’48 Gallery celebrates the work of Zeuxis, an association of still life painters, with an exhibition entitled Beyond the Window, opening Friday, October 23. Please join us for a reception on opening day from 5 to 7 pm in the Gallery; the event is free and open to the public.

Phyllis Floyd founded Zeuxis in 1994 with a few friends and colleagues. Floyd notes:

 "In the 1990s sometime I began to assess the condition of still life painting in the climate of the post modernist art world. Prospects looked bleak. It was time to rally my forces, and I drew in still life painters one by one with the object of mounting group exhibitions.”

Since then, Zeuxis exhibitions have appeared in over 50 commercial galleries, museums, and college exhibition spaces across the country. These shows have been reviewed in The New York Times, The New York Observer, The New York Sun, and numerous other publications. To increase the interest and variety of the exhibitions, Zeuxis usually specifies themes for upcoming shows. Beyond the Window explores the ways paintings use interior scenes to frame outdoor vistas.

Potter Gallery is open Monday through Saturday from 8 am to 5 pm. Beyond the Window runs through December 1. For more information, visit www.TaftSchool.org/PotterGallery

Members of Taft’s adjunct music faculty will bring their art to life in a Musical Soiree Friday, October 23 at 7:30 pm in Walker Hall. The concert--part of our Music for a While performance series--is free and open to the public; no tickets are required.

The program will feature cellist George Kroqi, guitarist Fred Krug, violinist Lisa Laquidara, and pianist Ray Pierpont. Pianist Joe Jacovino, frequent accompanist for Taft’s Collegium Musicum, will join Pierpont on stage for a four-hand selection.

George Kroqi graduated in 1990 from the Academy of Fine Arts in Tirana, Albania. He was the principal cellist of the Academy’s orchestra of the academy for three years, and principal cellist of the String Chamber Orchestra in Shkodra. In 1998 he finished his M.M. in cello performance at the Hoch Schule fuer Music und Dadrstellende Kunst in Gratz, Austria. Kroqi performs around the world, and locally with the Waterbury Symphony Orchestra, the New Britain Symphony, and the Wallingford Symphony. He will perform César Franck’s “Sonata in A Major for Cello and Piano,” (originally for violin and piano), Movements III, IV with pianist Ray Pierpont.

Fred Krug is an alumnus of the Eastman School of Music. As a founding member of the Eastman Guitar quartet, he has premiered works by Tellef Johnson and Matthew Fuerst, and, with that group, was featured in the Eastman School of Music pop symposium. Krug has worked extensively as a producer, developing and recording bands and solo artists. He has also worked alongside legendary producer Paul Leka (Steam, Harry Chapin, REO Speedwagon), and is currently producing country artist Emily Colt. He has developed an innovative curriculum to teach guitar, classical theory, and voice to students age 5 to 75.

A graduate of the Hartt School of Music, Lisa Laquidara has performed in master classes for members of the Emerson Quartet and Manhattan Quartet and has played in numerous orchestras across Connecticut including the Waterbury, Hartford, New Britain, and Eastern Connecticut Symphonies. She will perform two selections during the Musical Soiree: “Sonatensatz” by Johannes Brahms, and Schubert’s “Sonata #2.”

Pianist Ray Pierpont studied at the Hartt School of Music, and at Boston University. His teachers have included Anne Koscielny, Raymond Hanson, and Anthony de Bonaventura. He has served as piano faculty at several area schools, including Naugatuck Valley Community College, and is also Minister of Music at the Dewitt Reformed Church in New York City. In addition to performing with a Franck piece with George Kroqi, Pierpont with play Schubert’s “Fantaisie in F minor Op 103 for Piano Four Hands” with Joe Jacovino.

For a full listing of events in this year's performance series, please visit www.taftschool.org/arts/concertseries. 

“One of the most eloquent definitions that I ever heard of literature was from an agent named Lisa Bancroft who described it as ‘writing that pierces the soul,’” author Hillary Jordan told Taft students during Morning Meeting this week.  “And that, of course, is why we do it.”

Jordan is the author of Mudbound, Taft’s 2015 summer reading selection. The award-winning novel is set on a Mississippi farm near the end of World War II, and is told through the voice and view of several narrators. Among them: Ronsel, a black serviceman just back from war, whose sharecropper family lives and works on that Mississippi farm.

Mudbound began as a three-page writing assignment in grad school. Jordan wrote about her family’s farm, known to all as Mudbound, sharing the stories her grandmother had told throughout her childhood.

“I loved these stories. They were a peephole into a strange and marvelous world. A world full of contradictions—of terrible beauty,” said Jordan.

Written in her grandmother’s voice, the assignment quickly grew beyond three-pages, and beyond her grandmother’s point of view. And the stories moved from those recalled and rooted in fact, to a kind of personal fiction, rooted in moral imperative.

“Once the black characters started speaking, the nature of the story changed dramatically. What had started out as a family drama—a romantic triangle—became a novel of social justice,” Jordan explained. “…the entrenched bigotry of otherwise good people was one of the key questions I set out to explore in the book. I decided to move the black characters to the foreground to answer the ugliness of Jim Crow in their own voices…I decided that letting my African American characters speak was the only way to give them a small measure of justice.”

For some, Jordan’s decision to, as a white female author, assume the voice of a young black sharecropper during the Jim Crow era, seemed arrogant at best, a “theft”—a form of cultural appropriation—at worst.

“It is my job as a fiction writer to plunge headlong into the lives of people who are totally unlike myself,” noted Jordan. “And as long as I do it well, meaning respectfully and authentically, I believe I have the right to tell stories about whoever and whatever I want… [I am not] a mother, or a soldier, a racist, or an illterate sharecropper, a preacher, or an alcoholic. Yet in Mudbound, I inhabited and gave voice to the inner lives to all those people… In my opinion, nothing is better at breaking down those barriers and illuminating our common humanity than literature, because no other art form can put you directly into the mind of another human being.”

Literature, Jordan notes, isn’t supposed to be easy either to write or to read. It is supposed to “tackle the big, uncomfortable, controversial stuff: racism, war, faith, sexuality.” And by doing that, it sets out to change you—to, in fact, pierce the soul in ways that brings new perspective, respect, and a more common understanding.

View Jordan’s full Morning Meeting talk here. 

Tafties woke up to bitterly cold temperatures in Watertown Monday, October 19, but the weather did not put a damper on the warmth and spirit that are in evidence this and every year on Community Service Day. 

“The excitement our students feel about this day is genuine and authentic, they often tell us it is their favorite day of the year,” said Jamella Lee, Taft’s Dean of Global and Diversity Education and coordinator of Community Service Day. “Our service partners feel the same way, and count on our assistance each year.”

Students, faculty, and staff fanned out across the region to help with fall cleanup projects, teach children new skills, and support area nonprofits by assisting with their day-to-day operations. 

For the past four years, Tafties have traveled in droves to help clear brush, invasive weeds, and garbage at the site of Watertown’s new greenway, and this year is no exception. More than 50 students worked on the local project. Similar outdoor work took place at a number of area churches, Flanders Nature Center in Woodbury, Southbury's Bent of the River Audubon Society site, Waterbury's Brass City Harvest, and Waldingfield Farm, our service partner in Washington, to name a few.

Many groups traveled to area schools, including Watertown's Polk and Judson, and to our longtime partner, Waterbury's Childrens' Community School (CCS), where each class worked on a massive quilt project. Those quilts will be on display in the Mark W. Potter '48 Gallery on December 11, and in the CCS classrooms for the remainder of the school year. And many area students visited the Taft campus to learn to play squash, have fun with science, indulge their interest in reading and engage in creative writing. 

See more photos on Taft's social media sites--Facebook, ,Twitter, and Instagram.

Photo:Horace Dutton Taft once 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 with Horace looking on, Tafties assembled this morning in preparation for our 21st annual Community Service Day.

Taft’s annual Community Service Day is an opportunity, notes organizer and Global and Diversity Education Dean Jamella Lee, for Taft to both build new partnerships in the community and strengthen relationships with our existing service partners. In the case of Children’s Community School (CCS) in Waterbury, this year’s Service Day project not only reflects the depth of the ongoing relationship between Taft and CCS, but created a lasting and shared tribute to that partnership.

The “Let it Be a Quilt” project was created by Taft art teacher Loueta Chickadaunce. Once the project was approved by CCS Director of Development Lynn Curliss, Chickdaunce, Taft English teacher Kerry Bracco, and eight Taft volunteers guided CCS students in grades K-5 through the process of creating their own, personalized paper quilt squares.

“I am thrilled that I got to spend my day teaching the importance of arts to a community,” says Marley Thompson ’18. “The kids were so excited to see us, and they had a fun, positive energy the whole time. They were so creative and free with their opinions, it was incredible to see.”

In introducing the concept of quilts to CCS students, Chickadaunce talked a bit about their history and cultural significance. She also explained that throughout history, once quilt “tops”—the collection of uniquely decorated squares—were complete, community members would join together as one to stitch the all of the pieces—top, filler, and bottom—together. “In that way, everyone in the community helped make something that would keep one child warm and safe.”

Taft students will spend time over the next few weeks assembling the individual squares to create finished paper quilts for each CCS classroom. On December 11, those quilts will be on display in Taft’s Mark W. Potter ’48 Gallery. CCS students, board members, parents, and other community partners will be invited to a reception celebrating the partnership and project. The quilts will be returned to CCS after the show, to be hung in each classroom at the school.

“The CCS kids were really excited by the fact that their work was going to be on display at a ‘big kids’ school, and that they were going to be able to visit Taft,” notes Gaby Gura ’17. “I don't think they have had the opportunity to express their artistic side to such an extent as they will at the art show in December—I think they were fascinated by the idea.”

And the excitement  and energy extend beyond the CCS students.

“I am most excited about this project because it gave us an opportunity to bridge art and service at Taft and in the community,” says Lee. “And what quilts represent—diversity or a coming together of unique, individual parts to form a wonderfully blended and special whole—speaks so beautifully to our partnership with Children’s Community School.”