Laurent, a guard, “competes like you hope every player would play, like every play is his last,” says coach John Carroll ’89. Those moves, combined with his classroom skills, are drawing interest from Notre Dame, Harvard, and Penn, Carroll adds.

In other basketball news, Tony Gaffney ’04 will play for the champion Los Angeles Lakers’ summer league July 10 to 17. And Andrew McCarthy was featured in a Boston Globe story about two Brown recruits.

Speaking before a crowd of 500 international leaders in business, higher education, the arts, and government, Rhodes told those assembled that international and cross-border relationships are “now more important than they have ever been.”

Members of the class of 2004 through the class of 1934 mingled in perfect late spring weather, sang together at a Hymn Sing, broke bread with classmates, and after sunset, sat ’round a blazing campfire or stargazed at the observatory. There were opportunities to learn something new in one of several Alumni College sessions, from exploring alternative healing to a look at the Middle East today. S. Prestley Blake ’34 and his wife Helen let the school know they are giving his alma mater $1 million toward student scholarships. And master brewer Sam Calagione ’88 and Maria Draper Calagione ’89 offered a taste of their Dogfish Head beer.

Outdoors, alumni cycled, played tennis, swung a club at the golf course, rowed on the Connecticut River, and ran a race in honor of late faculty member Mary Ellen Peller. Several receptions offered gathering time for artists; authors; alumni of color; and gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered alumni. And at a convocation, alumni and members of the NMH community were given awards for their service to the school—and to the wider world.

Our roving photographer captured lots of pictures. Seriously, lots.

Science teacher Hughes Pack ordered the SUNN car kit from a Maine company. “I often have elaborate day dreams about a fleet of electric cars for use by NMH faculty and staff,” he says. The car was put together in the garage of science teachers Craig and Mary Hefner by Ivan Auer ’09, Xander Cesari ’09, Jason Chow ’09, Emma Nam ’10, Eli Pack ’07, Justin Pau ’12, Peter Talmage ’66, and Richard Yue ’12.

Hughes Pack also is planning on setting up a 1-kilowatt solar array where photovoltaic panels are propped on the ground in a field collecting the sun’s energy. Electricity would be stored in batteries for the car's use, or flow to the campus’ grid to light up the school's buildings.

“In the science department we often talk about incorporating the science and use of solar vehicles and photovoltaics into our curriculum,” Pack says. Teachers hope to monitor electrical production by the panels and make real-time data accessible through the NMH web site. “We are planning for this system to be part of an alternative energy ‘park’ somewhere near our current science center,” he adds. “The park would also have a small windmill capable of charging batteries, a solar hot water system, and perhaps even a solar oven.” For any photovoltaic installations at NMH, the state’s solar program rebates $3.30 per watt. Pack also hopes students will eventually compete in solar car races such as the Electrathon.

Blake began Friendly with his brother, Curtis, in 1935. The company’s start-up in Springfield, Mass., was financed with a $547 loan from Blake’s father and the purchase of a single ice cream freezer. Blake carved the first Friendly sign in wood. His franchise grew to more than 800 restaurants.

“We are deeply grateful to Pres and his wife Helen,” said Head of School Thomas K. Sturtevant. “The entrepreneurial spirit that led to the extraordinary success of Pres is clearly evident in his philanthropy.

“Pres invests in places and people that are determined to make a difference and offer their best to the world. We’re gratified that he recognizes that spirit and purpose in our mission.”

This new gift from Blake places him among the top lifetime donors in the school’s history. The Blake Student Center at NMH is named for Blake and recognizes his generosity to the school.

Blake said that he gave the new gift in honor of his 75th reunion and because he is invested in the experience of his many family members who have attended, are attending, or plan to attend Northfield Mount Hermon. A grandson graduated as a member of the class of 2009.

During a reunion talk to alumni on June 6, Blake recalled his arrival at NMH in 1931 and his campus work jobs: he was “house boy” in the dormitory Overtoun and later a waiter in the school’s kitchen.

Blake and his brother sold the company in 1979. In 2007, Blake, again a shareholder, became dissatisfied with the company’s management and purchased additional stock, eventually investing $11 million to regain a strong voice in company management. His work to improve board oversight and ethics became the subject of a 2008 Harvard Business case study on shareholder activism.

Blake learned from other entrepreneurs throughout the years. Among his close friends were Tom Watson, IBM founder, J.C. Penney, founder of the JCPenney department stores, and NMH alumnus and Reader’s Digest cofounder DeWitt Wallace, class of 1907.

“One of the things I’ve learned is that you can be both prosperous and ethical,” Blake said.

“My father always said that the greatest satisfaction for a parent is when his offspring are a credit to themselves, their families, and their community.”

Students still have work job, as we call it, and now assignments include leading prospective students and their families around campus when they visit, sugaring over spring break, helping staff members with office duties, and writing for the parent newsletter. Here’s an ode to the NMH Work Program.

“It’s a hard, tough world you are entering, and you are entering it at a most difficult moment,” Batty told members of the class of 2009. “So I feel obligated to give you an aphorism to live by. Mahatma Gandhi said: ‘Whatever you do will be insignificant, but it is very important that you do it.’

“Cryptic words ... but Gandhi’s words really speak to me. ‘Whatever you do will be insignificant, but it is very important that you do it.’”

Click here for the full story. Click here for the flickr gallery wiith photos by Glenn Minshall.

Kia and the girls varsity softball team have tallied an 11-1 record so far this season and will face defending A-division league champion Choate Rosemary Hall this weekend in what coach Ted DesMaisons calls “a battle of league powers.” His fingers are crossed the results will allow post-season play. See full season results here, and go Hoggers!

NMH is honored to host Sacred Concert. The school asks that any potential guests or participants who have flu-like symptoms or have been exposed to Influenza A (H1N1) protect the health of our community and refrain from attending the concert.

The games will be televised from the Citizens Business Bank Arena, which has a capacity of 10,700. East faces West at 6 pm and North squares off against South at 8 pm (PDT).

Robert Icart, the founder and chair of the event says his goal was to put on “an All-American game that the country would embrace and value, one that could change the culture of basketball and its participants.”

Read about the event.

Tenenbaum and Lee are among the leading art collectors in the world. Tenenbaum is a member of NMH’s Board of Trustees and the school’s Arts Advisory Board.

Linney recalled that she first found the prospect of playing Abigail Adams daunting, especially after John Adams author David McCullough told her he considered Abigail to be “the greatest American ever.”  To prepare for the role, Linney said she drew on her experiences in New England–including her very first field trip to Old Sturbridge Village at age six.

“Those memories came flooding back–I remember the animals, I remember the butter churns, the gravel under my feet. Who knew that decades later that my memories as a six-year-old would help me portray this really wonderful woman?”

Asked if any of Abigail Adams’ qualities remain with her, Linney said that today, she often asks herself, “WWAAD – What would Abigail Adams do?  And in these tough economic times, I think she would get right to work.”

Burns, whose documentaries include the PBS series “The Civil War,” “Jazz,” “Baseball,” and “The War,” made his very first film about Old Sturbridge Village as a college student in 1975, during which he used the now-famous “Ken Burns effect” – a panning technique – for the first time.

Linney’s performance as Abigail Adams earned her an Emmy, a Golden Globe and a Screen Actor’s Guild award. The Ken Burns Lifetime Achievement Award is given by Old Sturbridge Village to an individual who has made a significant impact on the arts through projects related to history.

In presenting the award to Linney, Burns said, “There is a special place in heaven for people like Laura Linney, who have given us so many memorable roles invested with artistry and grace and great insight.” He added that Linney’s work as an actor conveys “a special something…the fragility of character revealed in the flicker of an eye, anger revealed in a single gesture…an animated spark.”

Major General William Usher ’50 will be on campus April 26 in the Rhodes Room of Beveridge Hall at 6:30 pm. Major General Usher, retired from the US Air Force, is actively involved in international affairs and will deliver remarks on how a changing world affects US national security interests. He plans to touch upon the causes of political, environmental, and economic shifts, and on what they mean to America. He will propose options for meeting challenges and will make observations about the Middle East—especially Iran—China, and Russia.

On April 29 at 6:30 in the Rhodes Room, Dr. Ingrid Kisliuk, a Jewish survivor of the Holocaust and World War II, will be speaking about her experiences. In 1938, as a young child, Kisliuk fled with her family to Brussels, Belgium, from Vienna, Austria, to escape the Nazis. She was saved from deportation during the German occupation by her skill with languages, her determination, good luck, the sagacity of her mother, and the decency of ordinary Belgians. At age 11, she became the lifeline for her parents after her older sister was deported to Auschwitz. She has written two books, Unveiled Shadows: The Witness of a Child and From Trauma to Trepidation: Memories Transmitted by Hidden Children to the Second Generation. 

Kisliuk is a scholar of French literature, specializing in the symbolism of the garden in the writings of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Bernardin de Saint-Pierre, and Francois-Rene de Chateaubriand. After teaching for 25 years at Tufts University, she retired and now writes, teaches, and translates. She was invited to campus by Anna Stevens ’09 as part of her independent study of the Holocaust.

During his tenure at NMH, he’s coached boys and girls track and boys basketball, and his teams have won 12 New England Championships. His coaching has earned him the Housen Coaching Award. In 2007, Batty recorded his 300th win as NMH boys varsity basketball coach.

“The nice thing about coaching, and about being an athlete yourself,” he says, “is seeing a different dimension of yourself and the kids you work with. You learn things you wouldn’t otherwise. It would be the same with playing a musical instrument or being in theater. You explore other parts of yourself.”

Batty became an English teacher, he says, because he loved reading and talking about books. “Plus, I love working with kids, sharing that passion with them,” he says. Among his favorite authors are Philip Roth, Joyce Carol Oates, George Eliot, and Charles Dickens. He also introduced film classes to NMH, and has been the faculty advisor to the student newspaper, The Bridge.

Head of School Thomas K. Sturtevant praised Batty’s commitment to education. “Mr. Batty knows what it means to live with purpose and to make a positive difference in the world. He engages his students in ways that clarify and deepen their understanding and makes their coursework personally meaningful.”

At Batty’s commencement from Mount Hermon 50 years ago, the speaker was Louis Lyons, then the curator for the Neiman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University. Batty says he vividly recalls the speech, which touched upon the news of the day and how one looks at the world, and he hopes to stir graduating seniors and postgraduates in the same way.

“Shortly after I give this speech I’ll be attending my 50th reunion, so I suspect I’ll be doing a lot of reflecting on teaching,” he says. As a student at Mount Hermon, Batty was a standout athlete in football (where he was captain in his senior year), basketball, baseball, and track, earning letters in all four sports. He participated in many activities, including the chess club, writing for the student newspaper The Hermonite, and serving as class vice president in his freshman, junior, and senior years.

Batty’s father attended Mount Hermon, as did his two brothers. His wife Linda also worked as a librarian, head cataloger, and archivist at NMH for 30 years and retired in 2004. His three children are NMH graduates, as well. Batty holds a bachelor’s degree in American literature from Brown University, a master’s degree from Rhode Island College, and a doctoral degree in American film from the University of Oregon.

The NMH Jazz Combo is, on horns, Ji Lee ’09, Kai Matsuda ’11, and Nolen Royalty ’09; in the rhythm section, Marty Jaffe, SoJin Kim ’11, Jared Rubens ’10, and Ryan Dillon ’09; and vocalist Mackenzie Daigle ’11.

The competition was sponsored by the Massachusetts Association of Jazz Educators.

Bullard has testified and served as an expert witness in dozens of civil rights cases over the past decade. He is the author of 14 books that address environmental justice, environmental racism, urban land use, facility permitting, community reinvestment, housing, transportation, suburban sprawl, and smart growth.

Bullard is the Ware Distinguished Professor of Sociology and Director of the Environmental Justice Resource Center at Clark Atlanta University. Prior to joining the faculty at CAU in 1994, he served as a professor of sociology at the University of California, Riverside, as well as visiting professor in Center for Afro-American Studies at UCLA.

Bullard served on President Clinton’s Transition Team in the Natural Resources and Environment Cluster (Department of Energy, Interior, Agriculture and Environmental Protection Agency).  He served on the EPA National Environment Justice Advisory Council where he chaired the Health and Research Subcommittee.

His book, Dumping in Dixie: Race, Class and Environmental Quality (Westview Press, 2000), is a standard text in the environmental justice field.  His most recent books include Just Sustainabilities: Development in an Unequal World (MIT Press, 2003), Highway Robbery: Transportation Racism and New Routes to Equity (South End Press, 2004), The Quest for Environmental Justice: Human Rights and the Politics of Pollution (Sierra Club Books, 2005), Growing Smarter: Achieving Livable Communities, Environmental Justice, and Regional Equity (MIT Press, 2007), and The Black Metropolis in the Twenty-First Century: Race, Power, and the Politics of Place (Rowman & Littlefield, 2007).  Professor Bullard is the co-author of Toxic Wastes and Race at Twenty, 1987-2007 (United Church of Christ, 2007). 

Cam Margeson ’09 and Nicole Dancel ’09 decided last year that they wanted to stage the play at NMH, but weren’t able to make it happen until this year. Both students were pleasantly surprised by the support they got. “No one was telling us there’s no time for this,” says Dancel. “There was literally only one night free at the RAC and we got it.”

While the play as originally written has a cast of eight playing 60 characters, Margeson and Dancel invited 21 actors (ten students, ten teachers, and one alumnus) to take on the roles to portray brief moments as characters reckon with the crime. The play will be part of the fifth Diversity Summit of the year, focusing on sexual orientation and GLBTQ issues. Speakers Robin McHaelen, executive director of True Colors, a division of the sexual minority youth and family services of Connecticut, will speak, as will Michael Crosby, an educator and activist.

Thomas Howard, program director for the Matthew Shepard Foundation, came to campus April 6 to talk about tolerance and to pave the way for the production. “We have a responsibility to make one another feel loved and affirmed,” he told the NMH community. Margeson agrees. He says that directing The Laramie Project gave him strength. “I’m not afraid. When you’re reading the play, it’s pretty brutal. It’s easy to get scared. But I’ve learned never to be afraid of who you are.”

The curtain will rise on The Laramie Project April 25 at 8 pm in the End Stage Theater of the Rhodes Arts Center.

Rhodes is chairman emeritus of the NMH Board of Trustees. Read the full story.

Thomas Howard, program director for the Denver-based foundation, will speak at an all-school meeting, attend several classes, meet with faculty, and dine with the student affinity group Gay-Straight Alliance. He will also lead a workshop for faculty called Working with GLBTQ Youth: Making our Schools Safe.

The Laramie Project by Moisés Kaufman and members of the Tectonic Theater Project explores the killing of University of Wyoming student Matthew Shepard in Laramie, Wyoming. Drawing on hundreds of interviews by theatre company members with residents of Laramie, company members' own journal entries, and published news reports, it is divided into three acts, and eight actors portray more than 60 characters in a series of short scenes. NMH will perform the play April 25.

The Matthew Shepard Foundation was founded by Dennis and Judy Shepard in memory of their 21-year old son.

The gallery is open Monday to Friday from 10 am to 6 pm and Saturday and Sunday from 1 to 6 pm.

Chorn-Pond was adopted by a minister and taken to the United States at age 12. He was shaken by guilt because he survived, and by depression. At school in New Hampshire, classmates teased him because he spoke broken English and was smaller than most children. He had terrible nightmares and was suicidal. But when he came to NMH, things changed, he said. Here, people listened to him. Here, he learned to share his story. And here, he found the love of teachers, mentors, and fellow students.

While back at NMH, Chorn-Pond remembered fondly other small things: the salad bar in the dining hall, his first kiss. “I’m one of you. Don’t forget that!” he said, laughing. And he recalled how much he had to learn about life in a stable country in an environment of plenty (“Heaven on Earth,” he called it). But what he urged students to do was to find friends with which to share their pain. “I thought no one wanted to hear my story. I thought no one cared. I was wrong,” he said. “If you want to be human, learn how to cry. Find a friend or teacher and learn how to cry. You all have a story to tell. Share it.”

Chorn-Pond now lives in Lowell, MA, and Cambodia and travels around the world building peace and advocating for better conditions for street children, child prostitutes, and child soldiers. He still plays the flute, and works with old master musicians in Cambodia to preserve the traditional music that was nearly wiped out by the Khmer Rouge. Chorn-Pond is the recipient of the Reebok Human Rights Award, the Anne Frank Memorial Award and the Kohl Foundation International Peace Prize. In 2007 he received an honorary doctorate from Providence College, his alma mater, for his worldwide humanitarian work.

“I’ve affected millions of children, maybe tens of millions of children because of you,” he said, gesturing toward the front row—to the teachers who changed his life.

She said she hopes the group will prevent violence against women and girls, remove barriers to giving women equal pay for equal work, help train women for better jobs and support their owning more small businesses, and make daycare more affordable, “so that woman can make that work-life balance where the burden really falls on them.”

Jarrett also praised the first law signed by Obama, the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, passed in January, that amended the Civil Rights Act to effectively end the statute of limitations on equal-pay discrimination lawsuits, but added she intended to push still further. She said she feels Congress will be receptive to the work of the council, and that she hopes its work reflects the priorities of the American public.

Student and professional musicians will also play pieces by Henry Lawrence '12, Director of String Program and Orchestra Steven Bathory-Peeler, and Performing Arts Department Chair Sheila Heffernon.

Lawrence’s piece is called Hearts Like Waves. Henry has been composing (and having his works publicly performed by the Manchester Music Festival and the Vermont Symphony Orchestra) since he was in middle school. He has also entered the Vermont MIDI Opus 18 competition, and will hear results this spring.

Two compositions by Bathory-Peeler will be played: 2312, Solo for Flute, played by Jordan Kreyling '11; and the premier of Chamber Symphony (Constellations), a work in four movements. Bathory-Peeler earned his doctorate in composition from the University of Hartford’s Hartt School of Music last spring and this piece was his doctoral dissertation. Heffernon has set to music poems by Percy Shelley, William Blake, and Alfred Tennyson. Boston-based Lindgren, who also runs Arf! Arf! Records, brings two pieces: 100 Years of Excellence and Baroque-a-go-go.

The concert is free and open to the public. The composers will be available for a question and answer period from 2:15 to 2:45 pm before the concert.

Hanley’s blog has been nominated for top blog on the Lonely Planet website in the ex-patriot category. Check it out and vote!

Enter a flock of student actors: mill workers finished from a day’s work head to an amusement park. Julie meets Billy, and a controversial relationship begins. During the performance, a cast of three dozen sing and dance while in the orchestra pit sit live student instrumentalists accompanying the action.

NMH’s lavish production of Carousel, the bittersweet musical by Rogers and Hammerstein is the first production in NMH’s history to unite visual arts with acting, dancing, singing, and instrumental music. The play describes some tragic events, with a moment of absolution at the end for protagonist Billy Bigelow. Composer Richard Rogers called it his favorite musical and it was named the best musical of the 20th century by TIME.

For tickets, those on campus can SWIS carouseltickets. All others, e-mail carouseltickets@nmhschool.org, or call 413-498-3281. The show, which opens February 26 and runs through March 1, plays at the Rhodes Arts Center's End Stage Theater at 7:30 pm Thursday, at 8 pm on Friday and Saturday, and at 1:30 pm on Sunday.

Vocalist Mackenzie Daigle ’11 sang a version of “Stormy Weather” that earned her a full scholarship to the University of Massachusetts Jazz in July workshop. Kai Matsuda ’11 on the alto saxophone, Jamison Williams ’11 on drums, and Martin Jaffe ’12 received Outstanding Musicianship Awards. Kai also earned a half scholarship to Jazz in July and Martin received the Most Valuable Soloist Award. “Marty stole the show with a rippin’ bass bebop solo on the Dizzy Gillespie tune ‘Salt Peanuts,’” according to NMH Jazz and Band Director Ron Smith. This is the second year the Jazz Combo has competed in this event and won top awards as well as the most valuable soloist award.

“We started Saturday with six wrestlers in the all-American round, a great accomplishment in itself,” says wrestling coach Rob Buyea. The round is so-named because it’s the match one has to win in order to place in the tournament and gain all-American status. “It is also the round of heartbreak because if you lose you do not place, but you came so close, ranking among the top-12 in your weight class,” Buyea adds. NMH crowned three all-Americans, the most of any New England team. Ryan Ponte ’11 earned his second all-American title, and first time winners were Juan Stimpson ’09 and Max Wright ’10.

He will speak on campus February 22 at 6:45 pm in the Rhodes Room in Beveridge Hall. The talk is free and open to the public.

The NMH State of the World speaker series was founded in the wake of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks to foster dialogue between the school and local communities about world events.

The father of an NMH alum, Yeomans founded and is the director of the Concord Institute. He’s a psychotherapist whose work involves training therapists to see the spiritual side of the human psyche and he spoke of how the patient benefits when therapists relate to the whole human who is their client. “When the soul is seen, received, and honored, the person blooms,” he said. Helping people reach a point where they are honest with themselves also is important he noted, saying it is a “deep source of power to live an authentic life.”

Yeomans also reflected on his son’s time at NMH, calling it a “unique and outstanding private school.” His son had been a bit lost in his former school when he came here, according to his father. But the three years his son spent at NMH “made a difference,” he said. “The school received him, challenged him, and saw who he was as a unique individual and he blossomed accordingly. His soul had been seen and stirred….”

Read Yeomans’ full speech by clicking here.

Kim won for two pencil drawings on paper, the first, an abstract self-portrait and the second, an image of a snail with a man crouched in the shell called “Introspection,” which describes, “the repetitive daily cycle of men,” according to Kim. The latter she made for her AP Drawing class.

At NMH, art is only one part of Kim’s passions. She plays violin with the symphony and chamber orchestras; is a member of the debate society; is an editor of The Bridge, the student newspaper; participates in several outreach activities such as Habitat for Humanity and Big Brothers Big Sisters; is a member of the Korean Student Association and the International Student Association; is a leader of FrOMAGE (Francophone Organization for More Awareness of Global Equity); and plays soccer and rows crew.

She’s looking a several colleges, including Columbia, the UPenn, UC Berkeley, Cornell, and Brown and is considering majors such as interior design, business, and international relations.

Rende has traveled to Seattle and Vancouver to attend climate-change conferences as part of her internship, and plans to go to Australia this May. She hopes to work at the State Department when she graduates college. According to her father, Emil Rende, who manages the NMH Bookstore, in addition to global warming, his daughter “is fascinated with the culture, politics, and diplomacy of the Middle East.”

Marie Rende took AP Environmental Studies at NMH, which helped her secure the internship at the Department of State. She also was a dancer and choreographer as a student and retains an interest in art history.

As part of the track team’s winter training, a group attended the Sugarloaf Mountain Track Club’s All Comers meet at Smith College in Northampton earlier this month. Gooden had won the 200-meter dash in her last two meets against college runners by more than a three-second lead. “In order to give her some competition,” says Lotze, “I made her run with the men this time. She was a bit nervous about that.” Gooden ran in the fastest men’s heat and held her own by coming in second place behind a college male athlete. Her time was an impressive 25.9 seconds, which set the all-time record for the 22 year old meet. The winner of the race also got the men’s record, making it the fastest run in the history of this race. Gooden heads to the USA Track And Field New England Indoor Championships at Harvard University on February 22. "I am determined to do well at the New England Championships," she says. " Not only that but I'm determined to break the NMH record for the 200-meter." Look out!

• American Ballet Theater’s youth troupe, ABTII, will be performing at the Rhodes Arts Center. They dance “with the kind of pleased expectancy and unmasked delight in moving that you don’t often see in the polished pro,” according to the Washington Post.
• Several speakers and Odaiko New England, a Japanese Taiko drumming group, will be on campus for NMH’s fourth Diversity Summit.
• Baseball will be the topic for the sixth annual Hot Stove League. Panelists will be Buster Olney ’82, a writer for ESPN; Galen Carr ’93, a Red Sox scout; Jabe Bergeron ’00, a minor league first baseman; Oliver Drake ’06, who was signed as a pitcher for the Baltimore Orioles earlier this year; and master of obscure baseball statistics, the Maniacal One, Chuck Waseleski.
• International Carnival will offer students and visitors a taste of food from all over the world.
• Watch NMH play the Lawrenceville School, Choate Rosemary Hall, and Phillips Andover Academy in ice hockey, basketball, wrestling, and swimming.

Click here if you’d like to attend or learn more about NMH.

Castillo will graduate from Colgate University this spring with a joint major in economics and political science. Click here to read the full story.

Riley’s compositions range from botanical illustrations to still lives and landscapes and reflect her affection for the natural world, according to her website. A parent of a graduate of NMH, Riley is also a master of the Baroque flute and graduated from the New England Conservatory of Music.

Linney’s interview on Bravo’s “Inside the Actors Studio,” premiered January 12. See excerpts here.

1. The American Ballet Theater II, whose young performers dance “with the kind of pleased expectancy and unmasked delight in moving that you don’t often see in the polished pro,” according to the Washington Post, will dance here January 24.
2. The Da Camera Singers, a Pioneer Valley chorus celebrating their 35th year, present the world premier of a poem set to music by a Pulitzer-Prize-winning composer here January 30. The group is led by NMH's performing arts chair and director of choral music, Sheila Heffernon.
3. “From the Top,” the National Public Radio show that features talented young musicians, was recorded here in October, and the program will air on WFCR on January 18 at 2 pm (check this listing to find out if “From the Top” airs on your NPR affiliate or listen in here after Sunday). NMH’s Select Women’s Ensemble members are among the high school student musicians on the show.
4. The NMH faculty art show is on exhibit in the Gallery at the Rhodes Arts Center from December 5, 2008, to January 23, 2009, and features work by Visual Arts Department Chair Philip Calabria, and art teachers Lucien Koonce, Janet Mayhew, Karena Ness, Justin Porter, and William Roberts. The gallery is open daily from 10 am to 6 pm. The show is free and open to the public.
   
5. On January 9, NMH’s World Music Ensemble and Percussion Ensemble will play a concert here with music from Africa, India, South America, and Turkey, as well as American popular music. Senior Indigo Dow will perform two original percussion pieces and vocalists Mackenzie Daigle ’11 and Joy-Marie Fernandes ’10 will sing with the World Music Combo. Special guest Ayla Clark, a native of Istanbul, Turkey, will perform traditional Turkish music on the Kanun.
6. The curtain will rise here on the annual One-Act Festival, a series of single-act plays put on by students, January 15-17. February 26-28, the musical Carousel will play at the RAC. In early April, the theater department puts on Dr. Jeckyl and Mr. Hyde, Robert Louis Stevenson’s meditation on the duality of humankind.
7. Yvonne-Marie Sain ’02, who recently graduated from Cornell University and is dancing with the group Broadway Underground, will teach a master class in hip-hop to NMH dance troupes here next week, and will choreograph a piece that will premier at a dance performance here February 19-21.

Linney’s work also includes roles in such acclaimed films as Mystic River, Kinsey, The Squid and the Whale, and The Savages. The Academy-Award nominated actress earned one of her three Emmy Awards for playing Abigail Adams in the HBO miniseries John Adams and has starred in Broadway productions of The Crucible and Les Liaisons Dangereuses. The show will air on the cable channel Bravo at on January 12 at 7 pm EST. If you miss the original broadcast, find the episode archived here.

Hinderaker is the latest speaker to touch on NMH’s 2008-09 theme Footprints. Spring semester talks by humanitarian Arn Chorn Pond ’86 and environmentalist Robert Bullard invite students to think about their footprint on the Earth, as well as whose footprints they follow, and who will follow their lead.

If you live in the Pioneer Valley, be sure to listen in next Sunday, January 18, at 2 pm on WFCR-FM. Or click here to find out when “From the Top” will air on your NPR member station. (Please note: this is a revised air date and time). If you miss the original broadcast, you can find the archived concert by clicking here.

NMH’s performing arts program is flourishing in its new home, the Rhodes Arts Center. Click here to see what’s happening this spring!

Howard's military education includes One Station Unit Training, Airborne School, Primary Leader Development Course, Masic Noncommissioned Officer Course, Individual Terrorism Awareness Course, Survival Evasion Resistance and Escape Course, Special Forces Weapons Sergeant Course, and Special Forces Sniper Course.

Fast forward five years and Bohrer is at the helm of the film Twilight, serving as creative executive for Summit Entertainment of the blockbuster love story between a young woman and a vampire based on the best-selling novels by Stephanie Meyer. Bohrer told the Greenfield Recorder, “'My job was to oversee the production of the film from within the studio.” That job included helping hire the director and screenwriter and helping cast the film, according to the article. She also worked closely with Meyer to make sure the movie stayed true to the book, the story notes. “It was definitely important to keep her a part of the process. She has a very close connection to her fans,” Bohrer told the newspaper. Click here to see the full story. Click here to see a story on Bohrer in the Fitchburg Sentinel and Enterprise.

Meanwhile, alumni of the basketball program at NMH are playing for elite college teams around the country. One recent evening, sports fans could tune into four televised games featuring former Hoggers: Tyrone Nash ’07 and the No.-8 ranked Notre Dame Fighting Irish squared off with the No.-7 ranked Texas Longhorns in the second round of the Maui Invitational Tournament. In Garden City, NY, two former Hoggers dueled it out as Sky Khaleel ’05 led Adelphi University against Roahn Sheppard ’07 and Bloomfield College. Joe Wolfinger ’05 and the Washington Huskies battled against the No.-18 ranked Florida Gators in the second round of the O’Reilly Auto Parts CBE Classic. Capping off the night, Matt Smith ’05 and the Northeastern Huskies faced cross-town rival Boston University in a game for city bragging rights. Go Hoggers!

Calagione was expelled from NMH, but has since returned to the fold. He's married to his high school sweetheart, Mariah Draper ’88, and was on campus this summer for his 20th reunion after the publication of his book He Said Beer, She Said Wine, one of three he's penned. The New Yorker article uses the tale of his dismissal from NMH to illustrate his iconoclastic ways: “His offenses were of the usual Animal House variety: flipping a truck on campus; breaking into the skating rink and playing naked hockey; ‘surfing’ on the roof of a Winnebago, going sixty miles per hour down I-91.” (Students are reminded not to follow his example.) The story continues: “As a junior, Calagione sometimes waited outside a local liquor store and got customers to buy him a case of beer. Back at school, he hid the bottles in his hockey bag and sold them to other students at a profit. ‘I remember when I got busted,’ he told me. ‘The dean said, “You think you can make a living doing this?” I didn’t have the foresight to say, “Yeah, maybe someday.”’”

Thirty minutes and 37 seconds and 4.3 miles later, Kendhall Davis ’09 was the first to cross the finish line. He was followed by Kevin Bravo ’10 and Joshua Jackson ’11. Hannah Ryan ’09 was the first place female runner, Sydney Letendre, a current parent, finished second for the women, and Delia Flanagan’09 was the third-place female. (Complete results here; photos here)

About 110 runners won warm apple pies for their efforts. For students and younger alumni, the time to beat to win a pie was for males 33 minutes, and for females, 38 minutes. For those 43 and older, the pie-winning-time was 38 minutes for males and 43 minutes for females. Children younger than 12 could participate in the shorter Tart Race. About 45 did so, according to Dining Services Director Rich Messer, who oversaw the baking of the treats.

Lore has it that the pie race is the oldest continuously run footrace in America, which NMH Archivist Peter Weis ’78 notes is hard to prove: “At Northfield Mount Hermon School, we proudly date the Pie Race from 1891. Were this date accurate, it would make the event the oldest continually run footrace in this country. Alas, this is not demonstrably the case. Henry Bemis of the class of 1891 remembered running races with pies as prizes during his time at the school, and as it was he who donated the medals (and later his name) to the race, we use his class year to date our Pie Race. … Oldest race or not? Either way, the truth will not diminish the tradition.”

“In tapping Jarrett ...,” the story notes, “Obama keeps in the West Wing a close personal friend who played a key role in his presidential campaign and his quick political rise from the Illinois Senate to the presidency in just four years. Currently one of three Obama transition co-chairs, Jarrett will join Rep. Rahm Emanuel, Obama’s incoming chief of staff, and David Axelrod, Obama’s chief strategist expected to become part of the administration, in making 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. a 'Chicago White House.'”

Leonard, who has spent the past ten years traveling the globe fighting environmental threats, narrates the film, delivering a rapid-fire, often humorous and always engaging story about “all our stuff—where it comes from and where it goes when we throw it away.” Leonard examines the real costs of extraction, production, distribution, consumption and disposal, and she isolates the moment in history where she says the trend of consumption mania began. “The Story of Stuff” examines how economic policies of the post-World War II era ushered in notions of “planned obsolescence” and “perceived obsolescence”—and how these notions are still driving much of the U.S. and global economies today. 

Leonard’s inspiration for the film began as a personal musing over the question, “Where does all the stuff we buy come from, and where does it go when we throw it out?”  She traveled the world in pursuit of the answer to this seemingly innocent question, and what she found along the way were some very guilty participants and their unfortunate victims. Written by Leonard, the film was produced by Free Range Studios, the makers of other highly popular web-based films such as “The Meatrix” and “Grocery Store Wars.” 

An expert in international sustainability and environmental health issues with more than 20 years’ experience investigating factories and dumps around the world, Leonard is coordinator of the Funders Workgroup for Sustainable Production and Consumption, a collaborative working for a sustainable and just world. She speaks out worldwide about the impact of consumerism and materialism on global economies and international health. She was also named one of Time's Environmental Heroes of 2008.

Leonard’s efforts over the past two decades to raise awareness about international sustainability and environmental health issues have included work with Global Anti-Incinerator Alliance, Health Care without Harm, Essential Information and Greenpeace International. She currently serves on the boards of GAIA, the International Forum for Globalization and the Environmental Health Fund. Previously she has served on the boards of the Grassroots Recycling Network, the Environmental Health Fund, Global Greengrants India, and Greenpeace India.

During the 1990s, Leonard visited countries throughout Asia to track exported waste from the U.S. and Europe. She documented her findings in many articles and testified before the U.S. Congress in 1992 on the issue of international waste trafficking, in an effort to ban US waste exports to the Third World.

Leonard has traveled to more than 30 countries, including Haiti, Bangladesh, India, the Philippines, Pakistan, and South Africa, in her work investigating and promoting antipollution issues internationally.

Mayor is the 2004 winner of the New England Booksellers Association award for best fiction—the first time a writer of crime literature has been so honored. He is the author of the highly acclaimed, Vermont-based series featuring detective Joe Gunther, which the Chicago Tribune describes as “the best police procedurals being written in America.” In addition, Mayor is a death investigator for Vermont’s Chief Medical Examiner, and deputy for the Windham County Sheriff's Department.

Jarrett, profiled in the New York Times November 6, was a close advisor to Obama’s campaign, smoothing over internal disputes and solving problems as they arose. The article calls her a member of the Chicago community’s “black royalty:” “Her great-grandfather was the first African-American to graduate from M.I.T., her grandfather was the first black man to head the Chicago Housing Authority and her father was the first black resident at St. Luke's Hospital,” the story notes.

With voter turnout at 145 schools reaching 74 percent, high school students have made their voices known. Will registered voters around the country follow suit on Tuesday, November 4? VOTES (Voting Opportunities for Teenagers in Every State) students have correctly predicted the outcome of the presidential election in four of the last five contests. Will they do it again?

On October 28, 65,000 students across the nation cast ballots for president and sent them to Northfield Mount Hermon School. Tonight, the results trickled in to a mock election studio at NMH as students counted votes and performed the election night ritual of coloring the 50 states on US map red or blue as results skewed Democratic or Republican. Democrat Obama won 40 states and 426 electoral votes, far more than the 270 needed to win. McCain, the Republican candidate, won 11 states, taking 112 electoral votes. Twenty-three schools that George W. Bush won in the VOTES 2004 election went to Obama, and 11 states won by Bush in the VOTES 2004 contest went blue, as well.

“This is a remarkable evening,” said Fayette Phillips ’09, one of two anchors who covered the event, of Obama’s taking toss-up states such as Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Florida. Traditionally red states such as Idaho, Wyoming, and Utah went to Obama, perhaps because the high schools that voted in those states were concentrated in urban areas, according to History Teacher Jim Shea, a VOTES cofounder.

Students acted as news anchors, interviewers, and political analysts as the evening unfolded, taped and broadcast over WNMH, the campus radio station. The results of an issues poll taken by 15,000 students indicated that the economy was the most significant problem facing the next president, that troops in Iraq should be withdrawn as quickly as possible, and that the best solution to our nation’s energy crisis is continuing the development of renewable sources such as wind and solar power.

This is the 20th anniversary of the founding of VOTES by Shea and Lorrie Byrom. Teen voters have correctly predicted the results of the national presidential election in every race since 1988, with the exception of the 2004 contest. Turnout in participating schools is twice the average turnout in national elections. The project teaches students about the democratic process and prepares them to perform one of our nation’s most important duties, to vote. For more information about the program, and for more detailed results, visit www.votes2008.org.

NMH Head of School Thomas K. Sturtevant announced the gift at the school’s annual donor recognition dinner on October 25. “A gift this generous, especially during this period of economic uncertainty, shows how deeply graduates love Northfield Mount Hermon," said Sturtevant. “Along with her husband, Robert Keane, Heather was motivated to make a difference in many NMH students’ lives through a leadership gift that will be used to support our financial aid program. This gift also demonstrates how profoundly our students are inspired by their teachers and the spirit of community at NMH that allows such important relationships to develop.”

The Keanes’ gift will be used to establish an endowment fund in honor of Audrey Sheats, a longtime English teacher at Northfield Mount Hermon. Sheats taught at the school from 1975 until she retired from teaching in 2004. She was known by her students as a devoted and exacting teacher who had a particular fondness for teaching Shakespeare, Dickens, and Twain.

I spent four wonderful years at NMH,” said Keane. “Audrey Sheats made a lasting impression on me, both as a teacher and as a person. She helped me to believe in myself, and she is the perfect example of the wonderful teachers students can expect to find at NMH. I’m pleased that the school is strengthening its mission to educate the head, heart, and hand, and I hope my gift will spur future gifts from alumni in honor of a teacher who influenced them. In difficult times I think it is important to remember that NMH’s biggest asset is its teachers and staff and their incredible commitment to education.”

The exhibition of Torcoletti’s photos, called "Where I Live Now," runs from October 30 to November 28 at the Gallery at the Rhodes Arts Center. An artist’s reception will take place November 23 from 4 to 6 pm. 

Wierzbowski’s boat won the Women’s Collegiate Eight event at the Head of the Charles in Boston last fall. Her team’s record last year was 15-0 and her boat went on to win gold at the New England Rowing Championship, silver at the Eastern College Athletic Conference, and first place in California for the Women’s Division III Varsity Eight National Championship.

After the Nationals, her varsity squad continued to train in Hartford, CT, on the Connecticut River in preparation for their trip to Henley Women’s Regatta on the Thames River in England. At the Henley in June, Wierzbowski sat bow in the Varsity Eight race and won the Senior 8+ Jefferies Cup Championship title. Her boat defeated international crews, including the Cambridge (England) Boat Club, University College in Dublin, Ireland, and Durham University on the North Sea of England.

Trinity went on to try to qualify for the Henley Royal Regatta, which no women’s Division III team has ever attempted. In the qualifying race one rower’s oar broke and the team raced the course with seven rowers. They did not qualify. “It was a tragic way to end to such a successful season of winning regional, national, and international titles,” Wierzbowski says.

Wierzbowski keeps in touch with Vicky Jenkins and says she attributes much of her success “to the amazing platform of coaching and support that she and my NMH family have provided to me.”

In August, she left for a semester abroad in Ghana through a New York University program. She is majoring in political science with a focus on international relations. Wierzbowski says she is excited to be following both the Ghanaian and United States presidential race in this historic election year for both countries.

And NMH’s athletic feats were state of the art. On one of the new turf fields, the varsity football team won a squeaker (22-21) over visiting Phillips Exeter Academy. The girls varsity soccer team also prevailed, winning 2-1 over Exeter.

Coming up October 16 is the Hard Hat Concert, a tribute to the hundreds of workers who built the Rhodes Arts Center. The concert, which features every performing arts group at NMH, will also be performed during Family Days, October 17 and 18 to give parents a sample of the caliber of performers here. And speaking of a vibrant place for the arts, campus visitors should check out the fine arts exhibit at the gallery at the Rhodes Arts Center. (See NMH's arts calendar for more upcoming events or bookmark this quick list.)

Is it any wonder NMH is beaming with Hogger pride?

Keynote speaker Aya DeLeón, a black/Puerto Rican Oakland-based spoken word poet and director of the Mothertongue Institute for Creative Development drew a large crowd, as did Daneea Badio, a social worker from Georgia whose nonprofit helps single parents. Badio won a motivational speaking contest on the show, “The Messengers,” was a 2005 United Way Heart in Hand nominee, and won Atlanta’s 2003 Social Entrepreneur Award. The two writers who publish Minority Reporter, a website that deconstructs mainstream movies, analyzing messages about race and social function, also spoke. Several NMH faculty members also led workshops.

Diversity summits will be held throughout the year at NMH and are scheduled for the following dates: October 25-26, November 15-16, January 24-25, February 21-22, and April 4-5. For more information, or if you are a student or teacher who wants to register for the conference, contact Director of Multicultural Education James Greenwood at 413-498-3439 or e-mail jgreenwood@nmhschool.org.

McColloch-Lovell’s political career began in Vermont. As executive director of the Vermont Arts Council (1975 to 1983), she was co-creator of the Governor's Institutes, a program that gives high school students the opportunity to work with artists, scientists and international experts in summer institutes. After that, she served as chief of staff to US Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) from 1983 to 1994.

As a member of the Clinton administration from 1994 to 2001, McColloch-Lovell served as executive director of the President's Committee on the Arts and Humanities, deputy chief of staff to the first lady, and deputy assistant to the president and advisor to the first lady on the Millennium Project. In her role on the Millennium Project, she spearheaded national campaigns in historic preservation and in educational, cultural and environmental programs. The Save America’s Treasures program (SAT), now administered by the National Park Service, the President’s Committee and the National Trust for Historic Preservation, has won more than $30 million each year since 1998 from Congress and attracted more than $100 million in private contributions. Among the hundreds of national icons that SAT helped conserve are the Star-Spangled Banner, the Washington Monument, and the cave dwellings of Mesa Verde. Other White House initiatives included a televised Blue Room speaker series called Millennium Evenings at the White House; a national trail-building and designation program with the Department of Transportation, states, and communities; a tree planting program with the Department of Agriculture; an international cultural diplomacy initiative with the Department of State; and a program with the Department of Education to improve science and arts skills in schools.

A believer in civic engagement, McCulloch-Lovell serves on a number of organizations. She is a member of the National Science Foundation’s BIO Advisory Council, a regent of the American Architectural Foundation, an advisory council member for the Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage at the Smithsonian Institution, a member of the Vermont Council on Rural Development’s Council on the Future of Vermont, and sits on the boards of Building a Better Brattleboro and the University of Vermont’s Fleming Museum.

Here’s how Obama describes Jarrett in a quote in the article: “I trust her completely. She participates in every conversation we have in the campaign. She is involved in broad strategic decisions about our message and how we approach the campaign, and she's involved in the details of managing the organization. She's really a great utility player. She's always very insistent on me trusting my instincts. One of the dangers in running for higher office is you get so much chatter in your ear that you stop listening to yourself.”

NMH running back Matt Harris ’09 scored two touchdowns and a 2-point conversion, while quarterback Blake Stanley ’09 completed eight out of ten passes for 182 yards and two touchdowns. NMH receiver Tim Rich ’09 made five catches for 66 yards. Lineman Max Wright ’10 sacked the Worcester quarterback three times.

Go Hoggers!

The Ex-Im Bank is the official export credit agency of the United States and aims to help finance the export of US goods and services to international markets. Farrell in 2004 and 2006 made bids to unseat Connecticut US Representative Chris Shays in Democratic primaries, and lost by slim margins each time. Hillary Clinton campaigned on her behalf.

Farrell will speak about the effect of the economy on the presidential election and kicks off the 2008 VOTES program at NMH (Voting Opportunities for Teenagers in Every State). Her talk is free and open to the public.

(Once you arrive at the link, click the yellow MP3 square to listen.)

Now Donald is fighting for another Republican, Sen. John McCain. Taking time off from college at Catholic University of America, he is raising money for the Arizona senator and nominee for president, working on his advance team, handling the logistics, events, and production of events for the campaign. "We are responsible for all the magic that happens on the road."

Donald has nothing but praise for the former Navy captain. "I believe more than any single issue, the reason I have been drawn to John McCain has been his willingness to put country before politics always—during his service in the Navy, in the House of Representatives, or in the Senate. While defending the successful surge strategy in Iraq he said that he'd rather lose a campaign than lose a war. That reinforced why I believe in him so much."

VOTES is gathering steam at NMH, starting with a political film series every Friday until Election Day (features include Thank You for Smoking and Wag the Dog). Alumni speakers from the McCain and Obama camp will share their perspective with students at a school meeting and will attend classes to encourage further dialogue. Members of other parties will also speak on campus.

On October 28, a mock election is held at NMH and at schools around the country (two from each state), and approximately 70,000 students will pick a president, as well as weigh in on a slate of issues questions. Then, on November 2, NMH students gather at James Gym and await results, filling in a map of all 50 states as a candidate is chosen there. News anchors, commentators, and pollsters offer coverage as the event unfolds. The event has garnered national media attention, including coverage by NPR, USA Today, Education Week, the Christian Science Monitor and the Boston Globe.

From a fleet of 31 boats, they qualified in their heat and semifinals and went on to place second in the finals. Rebecca was bow seat and Elizabeth stroked. The Doubles event is a 2000-meter sculling race in which each rower has two oars. They rowed under the Boston Rowing Club name.

In the latter part of July, the Donald sisters, who are twins, also competed in the US Rowing Club Nationals held in Camden, NJ. There they took second place in the Intermediate Women’s Doubles (sculling: four oars) and third in the Intermediate Women’s Pair (sweep: two oars).

Elizabeth and Rebecca have been sculling this summer on the Charles River with the Boston Development Camp. They were two of 16 rowers selected to train under Aaron Benson, MIT women’s novice rowing coach; Cory Bosworth, Harvard/Radcliffe novice women’s rowing coach; and Joe Wilhelm, Northeastern women’s head rowing coach. They have been commuting to Boston six days a week for 6 am practices.

Elizabeth and Rebecca are entering their sophomore year at the University of Pennsylvania where they are on the varsity rowing team. As freshman they rowed in the first varsity eight. This summer, when not rowing, Elizabeth has been working as a pool attendant and Rebecca has been working odd jobs.

While at NMH, the Tibetan visitors will conduct meditation workshops and Buddhist lectures as time and space permit, as well as visit classes and conduct sand art workshops. They will participate in an all-school meeting and eat with the students, faculty, and staff.

The campus will be open to visitors on Tuesday and Wednesday, September 23 and 24, from 1 to 5 pm and on Thursday and Friday, September 25 and 26, from 10 to noon and 1 to 5 pm. The dissolution ceremony Friday, September 26, at 6:30 pm and the Concert for Peace at 7:30 are also open to the public.