A Day in the Life of Two Graduating Seniors

Vinny Grimaldi is from Belchertown, Mass. Boarding school was his idea, rather than his parents’. He felt Belchertown was too rural, and he wanted the opportunity to experience more cultural diversity. “No one at my school even knew how boarding school worked,” he says. “I wanted to expand my cultural horizons.” Vinny toured four or five schools, but in the end, he applied only to Cushing. “I couldn’t imagine anywhere other than Cushing,” he says. “It was the right size and the right community.”

Freshman year wasn’t all fun for the young Vinny though. He suffered from homesickness and went home often. Early on in his first year, he remembers heading to the shower with his keys in hand. He put them on top of the wall separating the stalls, which would have been a fine place for them except for the gap in the cinderblocks. You guessed it: his keys fell in the hole. There he was, in the shower, and no way to get back into his room. He was ultimately rescued, and replaced his keys and his ID. It was a lesson learned, however, and he never again took his keys to the bathroom. At the end of the year, he retrieved the long-lost keys using a string with a magnet on the end.

Despite this inauspicious beginning, Vinny has taken full advantage of the opportunities at the Academy. He’s served on Student Faculty Senate. He’s been a proctor and a tour guide—this year, he’s the head tour guide. He’s been on the Honor Council, served as his freshman class secretary and this year is senior class president. He’s a member of the Student Development Advisory

Board and is on the staff of The Breeze. Athletics have played an important role in his experience, too. He played JV football for two years and varsity football for two. He’s also been on the skiing and lacrosse teams. “Being on those teams has helped me connect with a different group of friends and peers than I otherwise would have,” he says.

He’s also taken classes in metalsmithing and fused glass as well as media production. “Media production was a beneficial experience that taught me how to use video editing software that still benefits me now when it comes to making video projects for different classes,” he says. He also appreciates the opportunity to learn different art disciplines. “I’m actually starting to see a little bit of an artistic side of me I didn’t really know I had,” he laughs.

As he’d hoped in the beginning, Vinny’s time at Cushing has indeed broadened his horizons. “I love meeting different people,” he says. “In just one day, you hear so many different languages and interact with so many different cultures. You can build friendships you keep beyond Cushing.” And although his schedule is very busy, he still finds time to spend with his friends on the weekends, during free periods, while watching

A Typical Day For Vinny

6:50 am out of bed after a 10-minute snooze

7:10 dressed and on the way to the dining hall

7:35 at the library for 15 minutes before heading to class

8:00 classes until 2:30 with a break for lunch

2:30 pm extra help with teachers

3:00 in the locker room, getting ready for practice

3:30 on the bus, heading to the mountain

4:00 arrive at the mountain for 90 minutes of practice

6:00 back to campus to clean up and have dinner, meetings until 7:30pm

8:00–

10:00 study hall in the library

10:00 back to dorm to do homework until finished

12:00 pm in bed games, and, of course, in the dining hall.

The faculty, too, have left an impression on Vinny, particularly Raja Bala, who teaches in the Academy’s English Department and serves as the Associate Dean of Academics. “The way he thinks is amazing. He makes me think differently about how people are. He connects the class materials to our lives. It’s more than an English class. It’s kind of a therapy class,” Vinny laughs.

Asked what he’s most proud of from his time at the Academy, he says, “Taking advantage of all of the clubs Cushing has. That’s doing Cushing the right way. You have to use the opportunities you have here that you don’t have at a regular high school.”

Vinny will head to Syracuse University in the fall, where he’ll join several other Cushing alumni and intends to major in journalism. And although he looks forward to that next stage of his life, he’ll miss Cushing too—the crazy community at basketball games and the way you really know the players, getting candy from the drawer in Mrs. Fay’s office, and giving tours to prospective students and their families.

A Typical Monday For Kayla

7:10 am after 3 alarms, out of bed

7:55 leave room for study time in library during A period

8:45 to class

10:15 assembly in Cowell Chapel

10:45 back to class for the rest of day, with a break for lunch

2:35–

3:00 pm extra help time, often for math

3:15–4:45 at Heslin Gym for practice

5:30 dinner

6:00 library to do homework, plus often meetings for Student Faculty Senate, Yearbook, etc.

8:00 proctor dorm duty, and studying 10:00 back to dorm, chat with dorm parent or friends in the dorm

11:16 Internet off; if homework is done, go to bed; if not, stay up until complete

Kayla Sargent is a native of Holbrook, Mass. She came to Cushing as a freshman, in part because of advice she received from an uncle with experience in the independent school world. But advice from adults is rarely the only reason a teenager makes a decision, so she visited the Academy and, as many of our students do, she liked the sense of community and the feel of campus. “I felt like I fit in,” she says.

Even so, the first year was a tough one for the 14-year-old Kayla. Homesickness is a problem for many students in the first year, and it was for Kayla, but she notes that the support she received from the faculty at Cushing was amazing. “I went home almost every weekend that first year,” she says. “But each year I went less and less.”

Beyond a sense of belonging, Kayla knew she’d get opportunities at Cushing that she wouldn’t get at home, and she’s taken full advantage of that. As a member of the volleyball team, she attended preseason each year, helping her to feel more a part of the community and learning the importance of teamwork. She also played softball and has been team captain of both squads this year. But Cushing is also about learning new things, so she tried JV ice hockey even though she was a poor skater, an experience that taught her to try things outside her comfort zone, a lesson that will no doubt serve her well for years to come.

In addition to athletics, she’s been a proctor and a tour guide; served on the Honor Council and the Student Faculty Senate; and worked on the yearbook for three years, including the last two when she served as editor. She’s taken a class in stained glass, which taught her to love art, though she had dreaded it at her old school. She’s been a Cushing Scholar for four years, and this spring, she went to New Jersey with Cushing’s Habitat for Humanity group to help build houses destroyed during super storm Sandy [read more on page 36]. This summer, she’ll join a Cushing trip to Tanzania where the group will help build a schoolhouse.

She hopes to study medicine in college, and she’s had the chance to learn more about that at Cushing. She shadowed Dr. Ciottone (P’16, P’17), a doctor who, among other things, works in the emergency room at Beth Israel Hospital. In January, she also went to a Global Health Symposium at Harvard, which taught her, she says, “There are so many things you can do as a doctor. Even when bad things are happening, we can help make the world a better place.”

That trip to Harvard left an impression on Kayla, but it’s not the only thing she says she’ll remember about the Academy. “It’s a great community. Everyone feels comfortable, and there are no limitations on who can succeed here,” she says. And when she needs support after a bad day or a hard test, there are people here to do just that. Her advisors have changed each year— an uncommon occurrence at Cushing, but unavoidable in Kayla’s case. Even so, she says that Beth Stone, her advisor this year, is the first person to congratulate her on a good test grade and is always there when Kayla is stressed out by her busy schedule or when it feels like things are going badly. Her roommate, Paranya Bow Jareonvongrayab ’15, who is from Thailand, also positively influenced Kayla’s time at the Academy. “I’m a shy person,” Kayla says, “and Bow was the first person I connected with.”

Kayla is proud of the time she’s spent at Cushing. She’s come out of her shell and become a true leader on campus. She remembers looking up to a few of the senior girls when she was still just a freshman. “I’m proud that I’ve become someone freshman girls can look up to now,” she says. “I’m also proud that I’ve worked hard to stay on high honor roll.”

It’s time to move on from her high school years now. She’ll miss the teachers, who, she says, “genuinely want us to succeed.” She’ll also miss what she calls the “purple Adirondack chair season,” when the weather is finally warm enough after a long winter to bask in the sun outside.

We wish Vinny and Kayla the best of luck in the future and look forward to welcoming them back as alumni!