Circiter | Featured on Campus
Graduate Blair Amorello stands with her family after the Prize Day ceremonies.
Chris Labosky has served as a teaching intern in history and a coach of cross-country, squash, and track. The quality of Chris’s teaching belied his limited experience, and his spring elective on the ethics of happiness proved to be both fascinating and uplifting. Chris is off to Yale Law School next year, and he goes with our admiration and affection. Despite our best efforts to get him to stay, Jon Page has chosen to follow his calling as a minister in the United Church of Christ. He has been a superb and challenging teacher, an exciting thinker who role-models intellectual curiosity and engagement, and an expert coach who brings out the very best in his rowers. Godspeed, Jon, as you serve your new parish in Ames, Iowa. Matt Westman came to us two years ago as a one-year intern, and in a short time has made an outsized impact here as a teacher of French and Arabic, a coach of soccer, basketball, and tennis, and, when the School needed him
Sixth Former Kirsten Craddock assists formmate Fabrizio Filho prior to Prize Day ceremonies.
22 | Quarterly Fall 2011
this spring, a dorm head. Matt, you have shown us how a kid from Massachusetts can become a true citizen of the world, and, while we will miss you here, we applaud the next step on your journey, teaching at King’s Academy in Jordan. Though she has been with us for only two years as assistant head, Carol Santos has made a lasting mark on Groton as an inspiring mentor to countless students and a wise and compelling leader of the faculty. Carol’s style is direct and confident, yet she is also self-effacing, attentive to others, and able to keep things in perspective for all of us with her wonderful readiness to laugh. I have relied on Carol’s judgment and instincts in small matters and big crises, and she deserves tremendous credit for behind-the-scenes work to bring us through our tragedy in the fall. Next year Carol will be the associate head of Miss Porter’s School, where she will continue to make a profound difference in the lives of all who are fortunate enough to fall within her sphere. Thank you, Carol; you and your family will be greatly missed. A graduate in Groton’s Form of 1993, Will Webb has served on the faculty of his alma mater for six years, first as director of alumni affairs, and then as associate director of admission. Along the way he has run Webb’s Dorm in the upper and lower schools, coached lacrosse and tennis, supervised Dory’s and Scudder’s, conducted Blue Bottles on the School’s birthday, and in countless other ways provided leadership and enthusiasm for Groton’s most important traditions and values. Will heads to Heritage Hall in Oklahoma City next year, where he will be the assistant head of school for external affairs and will coach football and tennis. You have given a great deal to Groton, Will, and we wish you and Sarah every success and happiness and hope you will return often to the Circle. Adrienne Miller came to Groton seven years ago and has been a creative and inspiring teacher of Sacred Texts, World and the West, and fascinating electives such as the History of South Africa, Modern Latin America, and The Global Village. She has also been the deeply caring head of Miller’s Dorm, the creator and leader of Groton’s Buddhist-Hindu Sangha, and Groton’s first director of global education. Adrienne has been appointed founding head of the Karuna School in nearby Lincoln, Massachusetts, where the core values are interdependence, sustainability, and compassion. Adrienne, we are grateful for how you have instilled these values into our community at Groton, and we look forward to forging a close relationship with the Karuna School in the years to come. And now I have the honor of paying tribute to two faculty members who are retiring after decades of distinguished service to Groton, much of it working closely together.