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Circiter | Featured on Campus
Unveiling Afghan Stories
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BC World Service journalist Zarghuna Kargar met with Second Form girls and other interested community members in May, explaining her recent film project in Afghanistan and the young women she met there. Amy Atkinson ’79, P’16 and Kargar traveled together in Afghanistan last fall to work on a film for 10x10, an organization devoted to raising awareness about the importance of education for girls in the developing world. Its executive director is Holly Gordon ’89. The film focuses on the lives of 10 girls in 10 different countries; Kargar is writing the screenplay for the Afghanistan segment. During the spring, the Second Form girls read portions of Kargar’s book, Dear Zari: Hidden Stories of Women from Afghanistan, and discussed it with teachers Rachelle Sam and Nancy Hughes. These discussions led the girls to think about how the Afghan girls’ lives vary from their own—and what, if any, responsibility they may have in the face of such differences. After presenting brief details about the history, geography, and customs of Afghanistan, Kargar described how she navigated a culture that systematically oppresses girls and women. She concluded her visit by emphasizing how important it is for students to become more aware of the impediments to education that so many girls and women face. This awareness, Kargar suggested, can help our students value more deeply their own freedoms and opportunities, which, in turn, can lead them to become more responsible citizens of the world.—Nancy Hughes and Christina Strater ’12
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ChrISTOPhEr TEmErSON
Scientific method: Andrea Fisher ’13 and Jeong Jun “JJ” Kim ’14 earned outstanding scores on the Avery Ashdown High School Chemistry Examination Contest, sponsored by the Northeast Section of the American Chemical Society. JJ tied for third place, competing against 124 students from Greater Boston. Andrea was among about 400 students to qualify for the high school National Chemistry Olympiad, which is only open to U.S. residents.
A Home for STEM
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Autumn in springtime: henry Bloomfield ’07 and his band, Enter Autumn, usually play gigs in clubs around Boston and Cambridge, but in march they headlined groton’s annual jazz festival with a concert in the Schoolhouse hall.
6 | Quarterly Fall 2012
fter a competitive bidding process, ShepleyBulfinch—the design firm hired to create a comprehensive master plan for Groton—has been awarded the contract to design a STEM facility for the School. The Boston-based firm will consider various approaches to integrating a Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math addition into the Schoolhouse, in ways that both honor the beloved historical building and make it an effective home for the School’s 21stcentury curricular goals.