brilliant! Advanced debaters junior Gaurang Goel, junior Yuri Kovshov, senior Alexandre Zilkha, and senior Laurie Zielinski had a fine showing (4-2) at the Phillips Exeter Invitational Debate Tournament on November 8. They defeated teams from St. Paul’s, Exeter, Roxbury Latin, and Belmont Hill and finished the day in sixth place out of 22 teams. Gaurang also placed sixth out of 88 speakers in the advanced division. Senior Joseph Lee was chosen this fall as a regional semifinalist in the Siemens Foundation Competition in Math, Science & Technology for his math research paper titled “On the Smallest Quadrilateral Containing a Convex Disc.” Senior Chang Vivatsethachai took first place in the individual competition of Worcester Polytechnic Institute’s 28th Annual Invitational Math Meet in October. The Loomis team, including Chang, senior Joseph Lee, junior Gaurang Goel, and sophomore Louisa Gao, placed fourth among the 85 competing schools. Freshman Julia Deitelbaum, who has played the harp for eight years and this fall joined the Loomis Chamber Music program, performed with the West Hartford Symphony Orchestra in October and December. Junior Ilya Yudkovsky, who plays violin in the Loomis Chaffee Orchestra and Chamber Music program, was accepted this fall to the Boston Philharmonic Youth Orchestra. An allscholarship, professional-level group of musicians aged 21 or younger, the orchestra performs in Boston’s Symphony Hall and Sanders Theater. The youth orchestra also will tour in Brazil next summer. Learn more about these brilliant accomplishments at www.loomischaffee.org/magazine
When a Hero Falls from Grace
M
ASON HALL’S namesake, Captain John Mason, was a local hero in the 17th century, when Loomis family patriarch Joseph Loomis settled in Windsor on land that now is the Loomis Chaffee campus. Mason was acclaimed as a military leader, a town founder, and a prominent figure in Connecticut. One of the school’s Founders, John Mason Loomis, was named after him. But Captain Mason’s heroic reputation has not endured the test of time. Historians now consider John Mason to have been a war criminal for his role in the Pequot War. Under his command, the Pequot fort near the Mystic River was burned to the ground, killing 500 Pequot men, women, and children in what is known as the Mystic massacre. Survivors were sold into slavery. Each year Loomis freshmen learn about John Mason in World History class, and they often wonder why the school keeps his name on one of its oldest dormitories. A Dialogue in the Common Good took up this thorny question one evening this fall. Sixteen students, many of them underclassmen, and five faculty members gathered in the Nee Room to discuss Captain Mason’s legacy and the question of whether Mason Hall should continue to bear his name. The discussion, sponsored by the Norton Family Center for the Common Good, explored issues of historical legacy, changes in moral standards across the centuries, and the merits of preserving historical memories of both laudable and detestable actions. The group weighed the importance of a building’s name as a reflection of community values versus the need to keep historical memories alive, even if only to educate people about what happened to the Pequots. Would changing the name of the dorm be seen as “glossing over” an ugly past to make ourselves look better, one student asked. But, countered another, shouldn’t our building names reflect the school’s mission of inclusion and acceptance of people from all backgrounds? Several students expressed interest in changing the name of the dormitory to honor some other important person in the school’s history. There are many other prominent figures and school benefactors, they said, whose legacies are more commendable. Dialogues in the Common Good, organized by the Norton Center, promote discussion of a variety of topics throughout the school year, often taking cues from current events or issues brought forward by students. All Loomis students and faculty are invited to participate.
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