Watch Spring 2013

watch

porter-gaud SPRING 2013

VOLUME 3

ISSUE 3

Rachel Kupferman

Elen Edelson

Brett Dodenhoff

Jonathan Ellison

Sam Blakeney

Lillian Saul

Andrew Thompson

Elliott Crosland

Savanna Barrineau

Benton Franklin

Ms. Karleigh Hambrick

Darby Davenport

Dr. Aaron Lehman

Mr. Childs Smith

The watch would like give special thanks to those who helped out with this issue: Bill Gibson, George Geils, Lexi Winoski, Garland Blanchard, Annie Hay, Wassim Dhaouahira, Nina Maddux, Trey Low, Carly Walter, Chelsea McKelvey, Brett Cranny, Elizabeth McGehee, Brandon Barber, Brink Norton, Nick LaCasse, Randy Clark, Brad Gilman, Ken Hyde, DuBose Egleston, Anna Smith, Tom Horton, Judy Lycke, Aaron Lipka, Maureen Daily, Bill Slayton, Laura Orvin, Brian McGreevy, Larry Salley, Ashley Stock, Vaughan Mazursky, Beverly Oswald, Karen Kimberly, Eleanor Hurtes, Al Trivette

Table Of Contents 3

Seeds of Wisdom

7

An Afternoon With the Czarina

Lillian Saul

Andrew Thompson

13 Penn Just Got Mightier Sam Blakeney

15 The Final Friday Night Lights Elen Edelson

18 A Personal Statement Guest Contributor Annie Hay

19 The Follicle Fallacy Jonathan Ellison

21 The Walking Dead Darby Davenport

23 Campus Round Table 29 Thrown Off Course Brett Dodenhoff

31 Porter-Gaud's Matron of Honor Rachel Kupferman

33 Bucket List

Guest Contributor Brandon Barber

34 College List

Seeds of Wisdom

People of the Community Share Advice on Life’s Passions, Tragedies, and Everything in Between Various sights, smells, and emotions amble through our vision as we grow older. And as we grow older, we learn from these experiences, which come to flutter into a pile of accessible wisdom. Some experiences may seem awful at the time, maybe even tragic— and they could be. But we learn from them, and as time moves on and as the tides cycle the old sentiments out to sea and bring in the new, a clearer image reveals itself, like an artifact cleaned by an archeologist. And, after time has lent a new perspective, those artifacts speak to us, as they are known to do. Much is told to us about our past—and about the nature of our present.

So I offer you bits of wisdom from people who have seen sights, smelled smells and experienced a range of emotions with which we as young people are perhaps unfamiliar. These people of the community share their wisdom so we may have ideas of how to live more fulfilling lives and know better how to meet difficulties with faith in the situation and trust that it will be all right. Thanks for being the much-needed and appreciated gurus that you and many other elders are. It is vital, as a community and a society, not to lose touch with those who have lived longer than we have, and continuously to attempt to create a stronger network of humans, more prepared for the trials and tribulations that we, in this temporary existence, will most certainly encounter.

The following words are transcribed from conversations with esteemed members of the campus.

Mrs. Maureen Daily, English Teacher

3

So wisdom, like advice that I have…

I’ve been thinking that there are two things. The first thing, I think, is that people try to tell you what it means to be successful, and they try to tell you what it means to be happy, and if you live your life trying to do what other people say is successful, I think you wake up one morning and realize that’s not authentic to you, and that life can be disappointing. I think the most important thing that you can do when you’re young is to find out what makes you happy, and [to find] when you go to bed at the end of the day, what makes you feel like it’s been a successful day. So I think that’s probably the biggest thing for me.

When you try to live other people’s definitions, and you’re not authentic, that’s a disappointing life.

And the path to find it—what you think is happiness or what you think is success—doesn’t always have to be conventional. Often, there’s a prescribed path that we tell people they have to follow if they want to find success, but when you take those side roads or those diversions, sometimes that’s where you thrive most. And a lot of times, when you have something negative happening in your life, people can look at it as a setback. I can think of things negative in my life, where I probably could have rolled over and been disappointed. And there are trivial things, like hurting my knee my senior year of high school, and then realizing that I couldn’t play volleyball in college. That was an incredible blow to me, but the path that I took as a result of that was valuable and put me where I am now. And that seems small… it’s just a knee, a knee cap, a ligament, but it had a pretty big impact on my life.

And then even things, like unconventional paths, like when I graduated from college, I wanted to be a chef, and I wanted to go to culinary school. My mom gave me really good advice—she said to work in a restaurant full-time for a year, and if you like it, we will help you go to culinary school. That was probably hard for her because here they had laid out all this money for me to go to this fancy private college, and now I was working at this small little restaurant in Texas. I did it for a year and I realized, that’s not what I want to do. So allowing yourself to explore these different side paths… Even something like September 11th had a big impact on my life. It made me leave the corporate world and be a teacher—something negative and horrible, but something that put life in perspective. So that would be something that I would say…allow yourself to take a setback as a chance to do something different rather than what was prescribed. And it’s hard when you’re in the middle of it because in the middle, everyone always says that clichéd statement, “Everything happens for a reason.” I’m not old, but I’m older, and I can see now that everything does happen for a reason. You can find something out of everything that happens in your life.

4

Mr. Al Trivette, Director of Facilities

During my military career, I traveled around quite a bit and visited many locations. One thing I’ve found in my travels, is that even if you end up in a location at which you really didn’t want to be, or you didn’t have a choice in going, there’s something interesting about everywhere you go if you’re willing to get out and explore the area. People I’ve found that were unhappy at the locations were the people who didn’t get out and do things. Everybody that took an opportunity to see new things and meet new people always ended up enjoying the area, or at least having an interesting time and some good experiences while they were there.

You have to get out, meet people, and see the area; you have to be willing to put forth that effort. This thought applies to everyone, even if it’s a student off at college. If they just stay in the dorm room and don’t get active, they won’t be happy there. The more you do and the more people you meet, the more likely you are to meet someone with whom you’re going to become good friends and create good experiences.

Another thing about which I would encourage everyone, is learn to be happy with yourself. A lot of people feel like they have to be with other people to be happy, and that’s not true at all. You can always find something you enjoy doing, even if by yourself. There are just too many things out there to do. If you feel like you always have to be with someone else to enjoy yourself, then there are going to be times when you’re making yourself unhappy. When it comes down to it, we all are responsible for our own happiness. Nobody else is responsible for making us happy. No one else is responsible for making us have a good day. It’s not easy at all; it’s actually a hard thing at times, but it’s true.

Mr. Aaron Lipka, Latin Teacher

5

So I thought of two things…

The first one, the personal one, is when I was in college and I lost my bassoon, which I was going to school for, and was a major instrument for me. In short, I got off the train at one station, and it left without me, and although I got on the next train, from DC to Baltimore, they never recovered the instrument, so somebody swiped it, during that time.

Sunday night, not a lot of people around, so could’ve very easily happened.

That happened right before Christmas exams, which was a challenge.

Also [I lost] my books and clothes, cd’s and everything. Although that was a crushing blow to what I thought I wanted to be, it also was a real advantage, or rather it became a real advantage because I know for a fact now that I am happier doing what I am doing than I would have been if I had stayed on that course.

So I thought, to put the wisdom in a word or sentence or paraphrase would be: sometimes, your worst nightmare can make your best dreams come true.

It’s kind of amazing. That’s my personal experience. That was the one that I think redefined my life. When I look back now and people are like, what would you have done differently, it’s tempting to say I would change that moment that I got off the train… but also, it [that moment] lead me here, and got me doing what I’m doing now, so I’m really happy. That’s my personal experience.

So sometimes, even when you’re at the lowest of lows, it might just be what it takes to lift you up. Never give up.

And the other one… It’s not my wisdom; it’s somebody else’s wisdom, but I think it’s really, really important. And I think that, at Porter-Gaud, and in America, and for teenagers, it’s important to hear. The Greek inscription above the Temple of Apollo at Delphi has two phrases.

“Know thy self ” and “Nothing too much.” Nothing in excess. The first one I think was knowing thy self. I was actually taught something about myself that day that [my stuff ] was wrenched from my hands. But the “nothing too much”…

We live in a world where extremes are the norm. We have extreme politics, we have extreme sports, we want things to the greatest degree possible. We want the fastest computer, the best car—and all those things are well and good. But… all things really must be done in moderation.

And how you pursue life itself can be thought of that way. It’s the extreme people who are the terrorists, and it’s the extreme people who frighten others, and the extreme people who make life around us challenging.

But [there are] people who have a well-balanced sense of self, and also balance their own lives. Work hard, play hard. And that’s just stuff they said thousands of years ago in Delphi. I think it applies as much back then as it does today.

Mrs. Eleanor Hurtes, Director of Admissions

I was thinking a little bit this weekend [about] what it is that matters most in my life, and I came up with three things: Faith, Family & Friends, and Fire…

In the end, you’ve got faith, you’ve got your family and friends, and finding something that just sets you afire. And I call that passion. Believe it or not, when I grew up, and in the small town I grew up—maybe it was the small town and it was the mid-sixties when I was finishing high school—there were three things that we could do, and [we] never thought of anything else.

All of my friends: we could be a secretary, we could be a nurse, or we could be a teacher. You didn’t think beyond that for females. But I so knew very early on in high school that I adored children. And I knew that my passion was to be a teacher. And I have never swayed from that. I taught thirty-five years. The last twenty-seven I was lucky enough to be here at Porter-Gaud.

My daughter entered first grade in 1975 and I came into Porter teaching in the third grade in 1980. So I literally spent thirty-five years teaching from first through seventh. But it is still what turns me on. I love little people because it is such another world that they live in and they are so brutally honest.

That is my passion. I have loved being at Porter Gaud for thirty-three years, twenty-seven of them teaching and now six years in Admissions. So it truly is my home. I cannot imagine going to work every day to a job that I don’t love—and I do love this job every single day of it.

Lillian Saul

6

AN AFTERNOON WITH THE

Czarina

An Effort to Honor A Porter-Gaud LegenD Sitting down in the foyer, I was struck by the essence of the room. I was not in the room of a history teacher but in the room of the Vaughan Mazursky, thirty-eight year veteran of the P-G History Department. From the framed portrait of Tolstoi in the corner to the cascades of books on two imposing bookshelves with titles of “Gulags,” “Russians,” and “Czars,” I was veritably in the throne room of the Czarina herself, lacking only the snow of a Moscow winter outside.

Where to begin? It is a hard question for any biographer when chronicling a career of this nature, one steeped in legend and lore. One of the very first things Ms. Mazursky told me, though, with crystalline clarity that April afternoon was that I had to give her a fair portrait, not some “victory lap” speech playing up every great thing she’s done in a forty7

three year career. She wanted an honest piece, and I hope to have done it justice.

Ms. Mazursky was a teacher, but only very narrowly did she fall into the profession. When asked, “What made you want to be a teacher?” she answered characteristically, “I didn’t.” You see, her mother was a decorated teacher, and Ms. Mazursky didn’t want to follow the same path; in fact, she graduated from Tulane with plans to go to graduate school when she felt the need to return to Charleston to be close to her hospitalized father. Seeking a job in town, Ms. Mazursky found herself teaching at C.E. Williams.

Being a lover of history herself in school, she began as a history teacher, a profession that she would ultimately

remain in for well over a quarter of a century. Thus when the Czarina traversed the then-dirt road to her first classroom at the newly erected school, she was the embodiment of irony. Standing in a “classroom” with no desks (they were on-order) and with noises from neighboring classes drifting over the partitions, the Czarina was in the one profession she had desperately sought not to fall into.

Her first test she gave, though, was the stuff of legend. The test assessed students’ ability to process what they learned from The New York Times section entitled “The Week in Review,” and the current flying pig population outnumbers the students who passed it. The next day Ms. Mazursky, agitated, stormed into the room and asked, “Have I been speaking Greek?” Her students were not in for an easy A, but for the fight of their lives.

The students of C.E. Williams soon learned, as the students at Middleton (now part of West Ashley High School) would learn when the Czarina descended upon their school next, that the Sunday morning paper is your saving grace. An emphasis on current events is in many ways what sets the Czarina’s class apart from the rest. To the serfs in her class, the nightly news became a necessity and news reporters took on the role of grade-saving heroes. As a teacher, Ms. Mazursky gave her students a new perspective of the world through the news itself. She broadened their global view, but arguably her greatest strength was in teaching kids how to think, not just what to think. Her class utilized memorization to allow her students to be able to conceptualize their world, but what makes it truly great were her “Thinking” questions.

These were questions in which the ever-elusive answer was something no memorization could fake. They were questions that pierced to the heart of the matter, and their integration into her curriculum allowed more than encyclopedias to emerge from her class. Thinking questions forged students into individuals with a passion for the world they live in.

Thus the unlikely teacher began to turn students into deep thinkers. As fate would have it, the Czarina’s career took another unexpected turn, this one onto Albemarle Road. A fan of public education, Ms. Mazursky couldn’t picture herself teaching at a private school, fearing that such an environment might condone pedantry unseating true knowledge. This fear was abated, however, when she visited our campus at the behest of a friend. Sitting in on one of Ralph Nordland’s classes, she beheld a teacher who was a legend in his own right and sought to emulate him. The Porter-Gaud faculty showed her an institution that sought learning for the sake of learning.

Thus the unlikely teacher became an even more unlikely private school teacher.

Once at Porter-Gaud she would stay for an impressive thirty-eight years. In the early days, she was seen as a unique

teacher in a school where women were being admitted for the very first time. This momentous time period called for every bit of her steely Polish blood as she forged a new chapter in Porter-Gaud history. Again characteristically and paradoxically, she fit in in the Porter-Gaud history department by the way of standing out. Much in the vein of the conspicuous George McGovern poster that adorned her room, she demonstrated a “here I am—take it or leave it” attitude. Striding the hallways garbed in a trench coat and shades, Ms. Mazursky established a reputation for accepting nothing less than the best effort from her students.

Her reign of constructive terror will forever be epitomized by her flippant-turned-prophetic comment to seniors in her Russian History class back in 1975. When struggling students asked how they could get an A, the wary Czarina deadpanned: get me a date with Peter Jennings (the national nightly news anchor for ABC). Resourceful P-G students, with the aid of faculty, then headmaster Berkeley Grimball, and an elaborate network of various others in the school community, were able to fly Ms. Mazursky to Washington DC, for a date with her hero, thus entering the story into the archives of Porter-Gaud lore.

What was gained from the career of Ms. Vaughan Mazursky? Just ask any of the over three thousand students to pass through her classroom or her many colleagues. You can recognize a Czarina student in any crowd. They are the ones who not only know that Ouagadougou is the capitol of Burkina Fasa, but they can spell it. More importantly, they know how to think. They can hear something on the news and truly know what it means. They won’t be swayed by misinformation. They are infused with a flame of candid Polish fire.

At face value the Czarina seems to rule by fear in her classroom. However, as the year progresses, all her students know that this facade fades away to reveal a deeply caring teacher, one who truly loves her students; a die-hard Virginia fan offering extra-credit when her favorite team wins; a dedicated Quiz Bowl advisor, who had to leave the room during competitions because they made her too nervous. Underneath is the teacher who goes the extra mile for her students.

Ms. Mazursky, you told me that you thought you gained more from your students than they ever did from you. I respect that, but the more stories I hear and the more people I ask, a different picture begins to emerge. We were the lucky ones, Ms. Mazursky. You have touched so many lives in so many different ways. You asked me to stick to the facts, and the fact of the matter is you have touched thousands of lives.

You are a light and an inspiration, and you are well loved. Спасибо,* Czarina. *thank you in Russian—pronounced “spa-see-bah”

8

Political Map of the World, April 2007 AUSTRALIA

Independent state

Bermuda

Dependency or area of special sovereignty

Sicily / AZORES

Island / island group

150

Capital

90

120

60

Ellesmere Island

QUEEN ELIZABETH

Scale 1:35,000,000 Robinson Projection standard parallels 38°N and 38°S

0

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30

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Greenland

Baffin Bay

Pond Inlet

(DENMARK)

Baffin Island

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Norwegi Sea

(NORWAY)

Arctic Circle (66°33')

U. S.

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Anchorage

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Great Slave Lake

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Gulf of Alaska

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Great Bear Lake

Fairbanks

Edmonton Calgary

Lake Michigan

Toronto

Milwaukee

NORTH

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Chicago Salt Lake City Denver

PACIFIC

Sacramento

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Las Vegas Los Angeles San Diego

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San Antonio

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Boston Providence New York Philadelphia Baltimore

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(Fr. S. and Ant. Lands)

Canberra

KERMADEC ISLANDS (N.Z.)

30

(AUSTL.)

Auckland Melbourne

(Fr. S. and Ant. Lands)

NEW ZEALAND

Tasman Sea

Tasmania

Wellington

Hobart

(FRANCE)

Christchurch

CHATHAM ISLANDS (N.Z.)

ÎLES CROZET (Fr. S. and Ant. Lands)

PRINCE EDWARD ISLANDS (SOUTH AFRICA)

OCEAN

Lord Howe Island

Newcastle Sydney Wollongong

Île Saint-Paul

French Southern and Antarctic Lands

(U.S.)

Suva

Noumea

Tropic of Capricorn (23°27')

Port Elizabeth

American Samoa

FIJI

New Caledonia (FRANCE)

MAURITIUS

Mbabane

Tokelau (N.Z.)

(FRANCE)

VANUATU

Coral Sea Islands

Port Louis

(FRANCE)

Funafuti

TUVALU

Coral Sea Re ef

Maputo

0

K I R I B A T I

Wallis and Futuna

LESOTHO SWAZILAND

SOUTH AFRICA

SOLOMON ISLANDS Honiara

Port Moresby

Cairns

(FRANCE)

Johannesburg

PAPUA NEW GUINEA

Darwin

Gaborone

Pretoria

A

Arafura Sea

CoDeName: Czarina

Windhoek

(FRANCE)

I

(U.S.)

Baker Island (U.S.) NAURU

Jayapura

Banda Sea

Howland Island

Tarawa Yaren District

OCEAN

Antananarivo

Mozambique Channel

Beira

Bulawayo

(FRANCE)

Majuro

Palikir

PALAU

Banjarmasin

Cocos (Keeling) Islands

INDIAN

Tromelin Island

Melekeok

Davao

Barrier

Harare

ZIMBABWE NAMIBIA

(administered by FRANCE, claimed by COMOROS)

MALAWI Blantyre

Lusaka

MARSHALL ISLANDS

Equator

(AUSTL.)

Mayotte

Hagåtña

Celebes Sea

Christmas Island

(FRANCE)

COMOROS

Ndola

Namibe

Glorioso Islands

Moroni

(U.S.)

FEDERATED STATES OF MICRONESIA

Great

ANGOLA

Diego Garcia

Guam

PHILIPPINES

TanjungkarangJava Sea Makassar Telukbetung Jakarta Bandung Semarang Surabaya Malang Denpasar

(U.K.)

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Bandar Seri Begawan BRUNEI

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(U.S.)

(U.S.)

Pontianak Samarinda

I

British Indian Ocean Territory

Dar es Salaam

TANZANIA

Wake Island

Manila

S

Tropic of Cancer (23°27')

Northern Mariana Islands

Cebu

Y

(U.S.)

(JAPAN)

SINGAPORE

Padang

Mombasa

Dodoma

Lake Tanganyika

Marcus Island

SPRATLY ISLANDS

Kuala Lumpur M A L A Singapore

30

Midway Islands

Sea

South China Sea

Palembang

BURUNDI

Mbuji-Mayi

Cabinda)

Pekanbaru

Lake Victoria Bujumbura

REPUBLIC

K

Zamboanga

Medan

Yokohama

Philippine

Ho Chi Minh City

NICOBAR ISLANDS (INDIA)

Nairobi

RWANDA Kigali

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VIETNAM

Phnom Penh Gulf of Thailand

Y

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PARACEL ISLANDS

CAMBODIA

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KENYA

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PACIFIC OCEAN

Tokyo

Nagoya

Taiwan Kao-hsiung

Hainan Dao Da Nang

Bangkok

Andaman Sea

Colombo SRI LANKA

Gulf of Tonkin

THAILAND

Madurai

Male

Kampala

Kisangani

REP. OF THE CONGO

GABON

Cochin

LAOS

ANDAMAN ISLANDS (INDIA)

Taipei

Shantou Guangzhou Nanning Hong Kong Zhanjiang Macau S.A.R. S.A.R. Haiphong

Chiang Vientiane Mai

Rangoon

Coimbatore

MALDIVES

Yaounde Libreville

Bengal

Chennai

Bangalore Calicut

SOMALIA

Juba

Bangui

Douala

Gulf of Aden

ETHIOPIA

CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC

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Bay of

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YEMEN

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Okinawa

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Mandalay

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Sea Fuzhou

Kunming

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Fukuoka Nanjing Nantong Hefei Shanghai Hangzhou Ningbo East China Nanchang

Guiyang

Patna

Jamshedpur Khulna Kolkata Chittagong

Indore Su¯rat

Changsha

Thimpu

Ka¯npur Lucknow

Ahmada¯ba¯d Bhopa¯l

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Wuhan

Chongqing

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O

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Seoul SOUTH KOREA

OT

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Chengdu

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Zhengzhou Xi'an

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New Delhi

SAUDI

EGYPT

Lanzhou

Indian claim Line of Actual Control

Zibo Jinan Qingdao

H - S P O PAN) A

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Occupied by the SOVIET UNION in 1945, administered by RUSSIA, claimed by JAPAN

Sapporo

Sea of Japan

M

LIBYA

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Vladivostok

NORTH KOREA Pyongyang

NA

KUWAIT Kuwait

Al Jizah ¯

Jilin

Beijing

Tianjin Shijiazhuang Taiyuan

1972 Line of Control

Pesha¯war

AFGHANISTAN Islamabad

IRAN

Bangha¯zi¯

Datong

Kashi

Kabul

Hera¯t

S ND ISLA

KURIL ISLANDS

Shenyang Baotou

Dushanbe TAJIKISTAN

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KYRGYZSTAN

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Tabriz ¯

Kermanshah Damascus Es¸faha¯n Baghdad Tel Aviv-Yafo ISRAEL Ahva¯z Alexandria Jerusalem Amman Al Bas¸rah JORDAN Cairo

Tripoli

MONGOLIA

Bishkek

Tashkent

Baku

Yerevan

Gaziantep

CYPRUS Beirut LEBANON

(GR.)

Caspian Sea

Khabarovsk

Ürümqi

Almaty Shymkent

AZERBAIJAN

ARMENIA

Nicosia Crete

Mediterranean Sea

Lake Balkhash

Aqtaü (Aktau)

Tbilisi

URKEY

U.S.

PetropavlovskKamchatskiy

Sakhalin

Ulaanbaatar

Aral Sea

Adana

unis MALTA Valetta UNISIA

Atyraü

Astrakhan'

Ankara

Chita

KAZAKHSTAN

GEORGIA

Istanbul

Bursa .

T Izmir Konya

Athens

Sicily

Volgograd

Sea of Azov

Sea of Okhotsk

Irkutsk

Astana Qaraghandy (Karaganda)

Rostov

Black Sea

MACEDONIA

GREECE

(IT.)

Palermo

Kharkiv Donets'k

MOLDOVA Chisinau Odesa

HUNGARY

Barnaul Orenburg

-

AUSTRIA

n

Kraków

Lake Baikal

-

LIECH.

Ufa

Saratov

Kyiv

SLOVAKIA

Bratislava Budapest

Voronezh

Krasnoyarsk

Novosibirsk

Omsk

IS L A N D S )

Prague

CZECH REP.

Vienna

Tomsk

Yekaterinburg Chelyabinsk

Samara

Homyel

POLAND

60

Bering Sea

Tyumen'

Izhevsk Kazan'

Ul'yanovsk

Minsk

Lódz

rankfurt

Perm' Nizhniy Novgorod

BELARUS

Warsaw .

ourg

unich

Moscow

AN

RUSSIA

Berlin

Yaroslavl'

LAT.

Hamburg

ne

RMANY

Magadan

EST.

LITH. Vilnius

Provideniya

Yakutsk

AP

Baltic Sea Riga

R U S S I A

Lake Onega

U

Tallinn

Stockholm

NMARK nhagen

Lake Ladoga

Helsinki

(J

FINLAND

Gulf of Bothnia

slo

Anadyr' Arkhangel'sk

Y

SWEDEN

AUCKLAND ISLANDS (N.Z.)

ÎLES KERGUELEN (Fr. S. and Ant. Lands)

Heard Island and McDonald Islands (AUSTL.)

Macquarie Island

SNARES ISLANDS (N.Z.)

BOUNTY ISLANDS (N.Z.) ANTIPODES ISLANDS (N.Z.)

Campbell Island (N.Z.)

(AUSTL.)

60

SOUTHERN OCEAN

THERN OCEAN

Antarctic Circle (66°33')

Amery Ice Shelf

Ross Sea

Antarctica

f 28 Antarctic consultative nations have made no arctic territory (although Russia and the United States the right to do so) and they do not recognize the other nations.

30

Ross Ice Shelf 60

90

120

150

180

April 2007 Boundary representation is not necessarily authoritative.

803308AI (G00010) 4-07

10

An Afternoon With the Czarina From Mr. Larry Salley, Eighth Grade History Teacher First of all, my memories of Ms. Mazursky as my teacher from 8th grade in 1982-83 are all jumbled together and colored by my experiences as an adult, both as her friend and colleague, but also as I got older and realized, in some cases much later, how valuable the lessons I learned from her were. I remember as a kid being just terrified of her. She gave me my first detention, and back in those days, her students were serfs, not boyars. It was only later that I realized how much of that was a game. The “Czarina” nickname was perfect, because she was loved and feared and idolized all at the same time. As I grew older, I thought she was some sort of psychic, because it seemed like every obscure person or issue from my news notes would pop up with renewed importance. Even in a room full of history grad students, I always felt like I was the bestprepared of anyone to digest and analyze the news.

Later, as a teacher in public school, I got to teach world geography. I thought I would just teach like she did in GAWA. Then I realized how hard it was—it’s like watching Michael Jordan play basketball. It only looks easy because he’s the one doing it. Then, when I came back to PorterGaud and she was still here, I was very self-conscious at first. When I got hired and she told me I could call her by her first name, I wasn’t able to do it for over a year!

Getting to know her, work with her, and call her a friend as an adult has been a huge blessing. She has such a great sense of humor. It’s especially fun to realize that sometimes she will be deep into the “Czarina” role, being wild and crazy and provocative, and then to see a twinkle in her eye and realize she is doing it on purpose, pushing my buttons, and still teaching me. She also is incredibly humble. In my time here, I have had more students tell me that she is one of the most important teachers they have ever had than any other three teachers put together (including my own children). Yet she always deflects any credit….

Ms. Mazursky epitomizes for me the old adage about the best teachers who teach students how to think, and not what to think. We almost always disagree on every political issue. But it’s impossible to think that the “other side” must be full of people who are dumb or evil when you have a dear friend who is one of the best, smartest, and wisest folks you know on that side.

I could go on and on. I guess I already have gone on and on. But of all the folks who taught me who have retired or left since I came to Porter-Gaud, she is the one who I miss the most, every day.

11

From Ms. Beverly Oswald, Former German Teacher and Current Registrar I taught with Ms. Mazursky for almost thirty-eight years. She came to PG from a local high school in the fall of 1975, the same year I started here in my first year of teaching. It was the first year that girls were added in grades seven through twelve. There were probably fewer than four girls in any grade level. My first impressions of Ms. Mazursky? Coming into what was almost a totally male environment and confronting hostility from the male students who resented the invasion of females, I was quite in awe of her confidence, and she quickly established herself as the Czarina. No one dared to cross Ms. Mazursky.

She was passionate about the news, and many students will tell you that they credit Ms. Mazursky with their interest in world affairs. In those days there was no way to record the news to watch it later, and no internet or iPhones to get the news immediately. I have this vision of 8th graders in GAWA (Government and World Affairs) and seniors in Senior History rushing home each night to sit in front of the 6:30 evening news to take notes. Yes, News-Notes.

They were required each day. If you were unable to watch the news, you had to get to school early and find a student to lend you his news notes so that you would be ready for the daily news quiz. I know that a couple of students did not have TV’s in their house (not because they couldn’t, but because their parents had chosen not to have them) and they would have to go a classmate or neighbor’s house to watch…. Students learned to keep up with world events. If I wanted to know what was going on in the world, I would look for the nearest eighth grader.

What of that famous lunch date?

If you wanted to get the correct answers to those quiz and test questions, you needed to watch Peter Jennings on ABC news. He was her favorite newscaster.

Ms. Mazursky’s senior history course was known on campus as one of the most challenging in the curriculum, and her tests were difficult. I learned that year, though, that students at P-G are very resourceful. They asked her one day what they had to do to get an A in her course. Her answer was short and simple: “Get me a date with Peter Jennings.”

Months later, Ms. Mazursky found a telephone message to return a call and the area code was Washington, DC and the message was from the “office” of Peter Jennings. She didn’t say anything to anyone at first because she thought it was a prank. When she finally decided to call the number, Mr. Jennings administrative assistant answered, and the next thing she knew, she was talking to Peter Jennings on the phone. He told

An Afternoon With the Czarina her of a very convincing letter from her senior history students who were struggling in her senior history class. They had written him of her response to their question and were begging him to go on a date with Ms. Mazursky. He was so impressed with the enthusiasm and initiative of the students that he told her if she could get to Washington the next day he would take her to lunch. She told him she wouldn’t be able to come. To make a long story short, when the students heard about the call, they raised the money, bought her an airline ticket and off she went.

Did they get A’s? You will have to ask a member of that senior class.

Ms. Mazursky inspired me to become a better teacher. She was passionate about teaching and passionate about history.

When I walk through Tyler Hall, I don’t just see current students and teachers. I see the legacy of those who spent their professional lives teaching students at Porter-Gaud.

From Mr. Randy Clark, Middle School Principal

I have a recurring fond moment of Ms. Mazursky every time I enter one of the bedrooms of my sons. At the ages of 34 and 26 both sons are moved out and on their own. My wife would love to redecorate one of those bedrooms for a guest room. In both rooms hung in a prominent place are their Coat of Arms posters that they did for Ms. Mazoo in the eighth grade. They both refuse to let her take them off of the walls. The one in my oldest son’s room has been there for over twenty years.

I had a classic Mazursky first impression. In 1976 I came on campus to interview for the seventh grade U.S. History position with the whole History Department. I had never met Ms. Mazursky before, but she was right there waiting for me. I answered several questions about my history background, my teaching background, and why I wanted to teach at PG. When it was her turn to ask a question, she wanted to know if I was married. When I replied “yes,” then she wanted to know if I had any children.

I said at that time we had none. Then she went one step further and asked, when I do have children did I plan to stay home with them when they were sick?

Immediately the protests came from the other History faculty members telling her it was really inappropriate to ask that question. She then responded that when she interviewed a couple years previously that they had asked her that same question because she was a woman and she felt that it was her right to ask a male candidate the same thing. From that point on, I knew

Ms. Mazursky was a force to be reckoned with and that she would keep me on my toes.

Vaughan Mazursky has many notable defining characteristics, but first and foremost she is a great teacher. She has a love of History and in particular, Russian History—many times at the end of the day, she would walk by my door and greet me with Dasvidaniya! on her way home.

She sets a high standard for herself as well as for her students. (She has the greatest sense of humor, too, and, given her liberal leanings, nothing is as amusing as when she teases Mr. Salley about his politics.) Her care, concern, and love of her students over the last 38 years are what make the first thing every alum asks when he or she drops by the Middle School “How is Ms. Mazoo doing”?

From Bill Slayton, English Teacher Vaughan Mazursky storms through life like a cyclone. She cultivates an out-there persona, brimming with eccentricities, yet underneath she’s simply all-out, all-in. To know her is to be infected by a ferocious bug imported from Poland by way of Barnwell. Current events keep bubbling through your bloodstream, and you feel a fever for politics even when politicians leave you cold. Should you somehow prove immune to those Mazursky microorganisms, you’ll still be driven to the daily A-section and breaking-news websites by the question, “Are you smarter than an eighth-grader?”

Though she’s crowned herself the Czarina, Vaughan is a benevolent despot. Invariably, the farewell essays my seniors write are studded with fond five-years-back memories of their serfdom days under the glorious “Miss Mazoo.” My own two children became serfs at birth; long before they entered P-G, they were showered with gifts and attention by the lady they thought was their aunt. Once they enrolled, they found comfort in knowing they had a second, far cooler, family member on the faculty in “Miss Vaughan.” And Vaughan’s support has no shelf date. Early in his NFL career, when I interviewed him for a Gaudeamus article, Ovie Mughelli, Class of '98, reverted to his middleschool self in recalling his eternal advocate. “That lady,” he gushed, “she’s just there for you in everything you do. If I decided to be an ice-cream man, she’d support me there too.” Turn any Charleston corner and you’ll likely hear, if not Ovie, then some student from fifteen to fifty ringing a bell in praise of his or her lifelong teacher-supporter, that force of nature named Vaughan Mazursky.

Andrew Thompson

12

Penn Just Got

MIGHTIER The final blow of the whistle. Senior athletes slowly and introspectively walk off the field with full heads held high, triumphant in the finale of their high school sports careers. Win or lose, however, it’s bittersweet.

For many, the senior year of high school is the last chance that students are able to participate in organized, competitive sports. Emotions run high. Tears are commonly shed. And rightfully so, for, at that moment, they are faced with saying goodbye to activities that have not only demanded countless hours of their lives, but have also required blood, sweat and tears at every turn.

For a select few, however, it is not the end. These rare athletes are the ones that have made it to the top of their respective sports, champions that dominated in the high school arena and await the next step in their sports careers in college.

Porter-Gaud is lucky enough to produce a few of these top caliber athletes each year, and in the Class of 2013, two such champions take center court: soccer star Tahirih Nesmith and tennis prodigy Thomas Spratt.

13

Tahirih is a champion in the world’s most popular sport.

She devotes unimaginable amounts of time to soccer practice, refusing to rest solely on her incredible natural talent. Like Thomas, Tahirih has been playing soccer since she was five years old and currently plays on the Carolina Elite Soccer Academy team, the best of the best in South Carolina. Her top-notch team practices once a week in Greenville. That she drives three hours back and forth weekly across the state in order to improve her skills shows only a fraction of her commitment, though, for Tahirih has travelled across the globe; she has ventured to Germany, France and, most recently, London, for competitive play in soccer. As a result of her hard work, Tahirih climbed to the rank of 20th in the South Atlantic region and was approached by over twelve schools, including Yale, Northwestern, Boston University, Virginia Tech, and University of Miami. Also like Thomas, however, Tahirih will be attending the University of Pennsylvania this Fall as their top recruit (much to the joy of UPenn Women’s Head Coach Darren Ambrose who frequently flew down to watch her games).

Exposed, then, to such high levels of soccer so far, Tahirih isn’t intimidated much by the college level of play and knows all sides of the field. On her CESA team, she plays the defensive position of center back, while she plays center midfield—a more offensive role—on the Porter-Gaud varsity team. Having experience in both attacking and defending positions allows Tahirih to read the ball better and play in a smarter way. Tahirih’s best athletic quality, though, is probably her work rate, a regimen that pushes her to improve her game and makes her a consistent, powerful player on any team.

Although Tahirih has made such incredible memories traveling the country with her team, she still finds that her biggest achievement has been being accepted to an Ivy League school. Tahirih is incredibly excited about going to college at UPenn next year. She says that she will miss her family as well as the overall southern quality of Charleston, but she knows that being far away will help her mature and become more prepared for the real world.

Thomas Spratt has been playing tennis for as long as he can remember. He began his career when he was five years old and participated in his first tournament at the age of ten. Since then, he has become a national force in the sport of high school tennis—and with good reason: he is an offensive powerhouse with a fantastic serve and an incredible wingspan that allows him to dominate the net game. His height (6’6”) is certainly an advantage in the game of tennis, allowing him to get down on the ball faster than most and smash in aces with ease. His size also enables him to bound across the court to retrieve those seemingly impossible shots.

Not surprising, then, that he was the recipient of the Most Improved Boy in South Carolina Award in 2010, has overpowered numerous opponents since then, and has helped lead the Cyclones to their backto-back wins in the SCISA State Championship for 2012 and 2013. In his recruiting class of fellow seniors across the nation, he was named the 60th best player in the country, earning him the moniker of Five Star Player by the Tennis Recruiting Network and catching the attention of over twenty colleges, including Northwestern, Wake Forest, Ohio State, Georgia Tech and Dartmouth.

Thomas decided, though, on the Ivy League, heading to the University of Pennsylvania not only due to the school’s academic reputation, but also for its tennis program through which he will be reunited with his good friend and old doubles partner Marshall Sharp, a resident of Memphis, who will be matriculating there as well in the Fall.

The University of Pennsylvania is going to be a big change for Thomas, but he is incredibly excited and cannot wait for the opportunity to begin the fall as a UPenn Quaker.

Sam Blakeney 14

the final Friday Night Lights WHAT WILL YOU REMEMBER IN THOSE FINAL SECONDS, BEFORE THE LAST BUZZER SOUNDS?

I cannot say, as high school athletes, we have been through war or hell, but we have fought side by side with our brothers and sisters. We have learned to play as one, and have won, lost, laughed, cried, and though we have never broken down in spirit, the toll on the body is another matter. Since the year’s beginning, there have been 30 concussions, 8 wounds requiring stitches, 5 broken bones, 2 broken noses, and 2 torn ACLs, each attributed to the sports that we have so devoutly and confidently chosen as our calling. Many of these as well as countless other episodes of bleeding and bruising have happened to seniors. It goes without saying that those who step onto the field, proudly wearing garnet and gray, give it their all and nothing less.

This year, all senior athletes will bid farewell to their beloved school, forever retiring their PG towels, lockers, props, helmets, cleats, shoes, and jerseys. These items will rest in the back of closets until times of nostalgia bring them to the forefront with a tear in the eye and a hidden smile. With our departure, a new class will succeed to the now-empty role, stepping up as seniors, ready to accept the responsibility entrusted to them.

Despite how far away it may feel, we all will one day have our “lasts” of high school, moments that seniors understand best. Acting in your last musical then bowing on stage after the final performance; attending your last dance before placing aside the old prom dresses and suits; hearing your teammates cheer for you underwater before drying off after your last race; unlacing cleats for the last time then leaving the clunky shoes to fill a lonesome spot in the closet; the final fleeting moments before you step off the court for the last time. Although a select few will continue on with their athletic careers, for most, it brings overwhelming emotions and feelings that do not quite seem real until a few free-afternoons later when the reality of a new emptiness sinks in.

After those gruesomely hard practices, tough days, long rehearsals, and late nights (all to arrive home to start homework and studying), we begin to question the point of all the time and effort we have devoted to our sport. We ask ourselves: “Why play?” “So I can eat everything” is an answer. And so is “to stay in shape.” But, neither of these, both too simple and shallow, could truly describe why high school athletes put themselves through the trials of their sport. After a lot of thought, I believe I play because, no, I am not cheered on by hundreds of fans I do not know; no, I will never sign autographs, and the only time I will ever be aired on TV is while reviewing game-film. I play because of the thrill of 15

the game, the intensity of desperation and perseverance, driven by an internal motivation and passion until the last second holds me to it.

Dyane Noonan, a senior on the soccer team at Villanova, frames this feeling perfectly in a quotation from her speech to students addressing the question “Why do we play?”:

It's not about getting a scholarship, getting drafted, or making Sports Center. It's a deep need in us that comes from the heart. We need to practice, play, to lift, to hustle, to sweat, to compete. We do it all for our teammates. We don't lift weights with a future Olympic wrestler; we lift with a future doctor.

We don't run with a future Wimbledon champion; we run with a future CEO. It's a bigger part of us than our friends and family can understand.

Sometimes we play for 200,000 fans, sometimes for 25. But we still play hard. You cheer for us because you know us. You know more than just our names. Like all of you, we are still students first. We don't sign autographs for money.

But we do sign college applications, SAT exams, and student body petitions. When we miss a kick, or strike out, we don't let down an entire state.

We only let down our teammates, coaches, and fans. But the hurt in our hearts is the same. We train hard.

Lift, throw, run, kick, shoot, dribble, swim, and lift some more, and in the morning we go to class.

Still the next day in class we are nothing more than students. It's about pride; in ourselves, in our school. It's about our love and passion for the game.

And when it's all over; when we walk off that court or field for the last time, our hearts crumble.

Those tears are real. But deep down inside, we are very proud of ourselves. We will forever be what few can call ourselves: high school athletes.

16

There are so many people who would love the opportunity to play just one more time. The label of being a "Porter-Gaud athlete" connotes an amount of admiration, respect, loyalty, and responsibility that forms the character of its players. Although I do not want to accept it, my time on the field is slowly coming to an end, and the rising seniors will assume these emotions and responsibilities. Repeating out loud that this is my last year at Porter, my last soccer and track season, and then inevitably, my last game and meet, I wonder how I can pass on to the juniors the importance of valuing every second of practice, film, bus-rides and games, because when it all ends, they will want their teammates to remember and miss them, just as my fellow senior athletes and I want to be missed and appreciated. The character we develop and the passion we exhibit set the foundation for our becoming hard workers and dependable co-workers for the rest of our lives.

Remember that if nothing else.

Yes, there always is the possibility and opportunity of playing in college, but it is those high school games, the Friday-Night Lights, the rush to get home even after a big loss to study for a test or do homework, that you will remember forever. All a coach or player can ask for is the opportunity to have, what one coach of mine called, a “T-shirt season”: a season that will be remembered forever. It will be that season, with that team—a season that produced more memories and challenges than many are equipped to handle, but when it finishes, it will be the end of something incredible.

To the rising senior class: it is very important you understand that being proud of yourself is more important than simply winning. Never just “go through the motions.” Remember those who have supported you along the way: your teammates, coaches, and parents.

Try to enjoy those hard practices and Coach Wilson’s workouts, because we all know that one moment after you push yourself to the max to finish that last suicide on the court or rep in the weight room, there’s an exasperation accompanied by triumph. As you have heard before, time does fly, and you will soon be in my position, reflecting to the next rising class. All I can hope for is that you do not let one moment slip by because the experiences as a team, wearing the PG jersey, will remain with you forever.

So best wishes with the rest of the year for all students, and to my fellow seniors, best of luck with the rest of our lives.

Elen Edelson 17

x

h

The following personal reflection was submitted as part of a recent college application.

I am miserably disorganized.

On each first day of school I vow to myself that I will keep all my binders and notebooks clean and orderly. However, On August 21st, while sitting in a meeting about the importance of keeping my shirt tail tucked in, I begin doodling my name in every font on my new Modern European History syllabus. As the meeting progresses, I move on to sketching owls, flowers, and the names of my prospective children. Before the first week of school is out, my notebooks are filled with crumpled sticky notes and Egyptian Art notes interrupted by song lyrics.

If an object could represent or mirror my life, it would be my bedroom. No matter how many New Year’s resolutions I dedicate to this matter, I will never be able to keep an organized room for more than three days. I blame half of my disorderly ways on my “Pack Rat” lifestyle; I cannot part with anything. How could someone dare throw away the boarding pass that let her fly from Charleston to Chicago on June 7, 2008 for her aunt’s wedding? (I know—I can’t either.) I still proudly display all my trophies, even the participation ones from 1999. I have a collection of old Architectural Digests hibernating under my bed, waiting to be revisited when I design my future home. In my closet, I have a box containing every birthday card, letter and postcard I have ever received. How can you keep a clean room when you have to fit your lifetime in it? (Please don’t share this essay with my college roommate.)

Although my disorganization has its drawbacks, I believe it has also shaped many aspects of my life. I find passion in art because it has no “organized” methodology. In art there are no laws, reasons, or theorems; one can directly express her opinions without interruption. The way an artist disorganizes a photo or idea into a painting is what I believe makes art, art. If all artists followed rules, the world would be filled with meaningless “hotel art” paintings.

You are probably thinking I walk around with mismatched shoes and uncombed hair, and on occasion that does occur. However, my life as an organizational nightmare has crafted much of my personality. It's not just me being defined by this characteristic; I think many of the world’s most interesting people possess qualities of disorganization. My most inspiring teachers, for instance, did not have an organized day-to-day teaching routine. The thrill of learning is not caused by prosaic notes on a powerpoint slide in blue Times New Roman font on a beige background and weekly binder checks. If my life was orderly and perfectly organized, I would not have created my own image in a school that outsiders have stereotyped for having “cookie cutter” students. With disorganization comes spontaneity and the free will that shapes our lives into the people we are to become.

n

Guest Contributor and Artist Annie Hay

18

The Follicle Fallacy This year I grew the famous “Wintertime Basketball Beard.” While its duration was abbreviated due to family concerns and a Charleston warm snap, my wintertime basketball beard gained most of its accolades while I was a single man. On the first day of basketball practice, I would begin the growth process. Trimming periodically, the beard would take shape over the course of the next 4 months. Typically, the month of January was my strongest month. February a close second, but knowing the end was in sight, sadness crept in and the wearing of the beard lost some of its luster. Following our final basketball game that occasionally included hoisting a state championship trophy, I would head to the barber shop for the traditional full trimming. The remnants of a once strong community of wiry, red and brown remained. The next stop was to the store to buy a new razor blade that would complete the final step. The next morning, I would be a clean shaven man, longing for the next great basketball season.

-Mr. Hyde 19

No one told them to shave. In surveying the rich heritage of mankind that is history, one discovers a plethora of bearded figures: Moses, Abraham Lincoln, Mark Twain, Jesus, Martin Van Buren (a.k.a. “The Little Magician”), Santa Claus, Robert E. Lee, just about every other Civil War general, and many, many more. These great men have truly shaped the world as delicately as they had their beards. Throughout our history, beards have served as magnificent displays of testosterone, majestic symbols of power, and an embodiment of impeccable fashion sense.

But, at Porter-Gaud this is not the case. Walking down its halls, I have personally been told, “That beard has got to go.” “Necesitas afeitarte.”

While no one told the immortalized great men of the past to shave, I have been told to do so in various languages and manners here at Porter-Gaud, where facial hair is neither magnificent nor majestic, but unacceptable.

In the postmodern era, mankind has at its fingertips many pathways to expression. One may express emotions and passions through many channels and methods: the written word, the spoken word, artistic creation, work, sports, fashion, facial expressions, and even facial hair.

But, while humanity seeks to push the horizons of expressionism broader and further, it ironically narrows them as well, through its own expectations of and the reverence for “standards.” The war against facial hair rages onwards, expanding to new theaters, the uniform cubicles of the workplace, and even the “hallowed” hallways of schools. Many fail to remember that the scraggly beard, fu Manchu mustache, or even the occasional soul patch, like a great marble sculpture, is a form of art that recounts a story of priceless value, allowing the sculptor an opportunity to create a vessel in which to store emotion and thought. If the existence of a school serves as a training ground for these sculptors in every theater of expression, the policy that “outlaws” facial hair forbids much Artwork by Lexi Winoski

THE LEGACY OF FACIAL HAIR AT PORTER-GAUD The Follicle Fallacy

more than light-hearted fun in a hairsplitting attempt to prop up the cookie-cutter of the “standard,” or what society deems normal. Are such uniformities so repressive, or can they themselves promote an atmosphere that inspires true growth?

Of course, there is a reason for this “clean-shaven” mandate, for with a clean-shaven face comes an organized, professional state of mind that fosters a pristine atmosphere of intellectual and social development. With conformity comes unity binding students and connecting our school. In other words, when teachers ask us to abide by the shaving policy, they do so for a reason. According to Mrs. Laura Orvin, a clean-shaven activist, “Porter-Gaud School’s dress code provides students a standard uniform of dress for their job to learn, like a lab coat for a doctor, a suit for a business person etc… you dress for your job.” Additionally, “Learning to conform to the standards of a profession is critical for success and to instill these standards early is to the student’s advantage.” One must also note that in the eyes of some visitors and prospective students, a few scraggly cheek hairs or the occasional “neard” sends forth a sloppy image of Porter-Gaud. To many, the beard simply demonstrates laziness on the part of the bearded. Furthermore, beards are often seen as a disguise as if they hide an elemental piece of character from plain view just as they hide a patch of skin on one’s face. For this same reason, politicians never sport beards in our current day and age. From an administrative perspective, beards are not uniform. At Porter-Gaud, students regimentally wear the same style polo shirts day after repetitive day with the slight break of a Friday spirit t-shirt thrown into the mix. This “uniform” appearance is a manifestation of the inner uniformity of our school, a school that upholds the community at the cost of our individualism. But, school, like government and many other institutions of this world, involves a “Lockian” social contract. While in government the people consent to curtail their freedom for the protection of their inalienable rights, the school student must sacrifice some individualism to maintain and partake in a constructive and educational community, one that if strong enough, will allow for such individual growth intellectually and socially.

As always, the issue at hand is finding a balance, in this case between the individual and community.

At what point do we then reach a “right to revolution,” following the political theory of John Locke? When can we withdraw from such a contract? According to Locke, we may do so when the institution fails to keep up its side of the bargain, when the government fails to protect its citizens and when a school ceases to maintain a constructive atmosphere. However, we have not yet reached such a point, and I do not believe we ever will. But, in the spirit of contract and compromise, I believe while the “clean-shaven” requirement is both legitimate and reasonable, students should be given the opportunity to express themselves in exceptions to the rule, whether in the form of “No Shave November,” sanctioned by Mr. Brad Gilman and Mr. Ken Hyde, or the “Fleet Street Contest” of a few years ago, allowing the student to grow individually, only augmenting Porter-Gaud’s educational environment and community by strengthening the individuals within it.

= fu Manchu

= soul patch

Jonathan Ellison

= neard

20

the walking dead Zombified? You may not be catching the Zzzzs you need

A young brunette junior trudges clumsily down the hall to her Saturday morning SAT class. Her backpack, slung over her left shoulder and bulging under the weight of seemingly countless crammed binders, looks as if it weighs more than she does. Her hair slung back into a careless ponytail and her eyes red and puffy, she sits down in her class just as the teacher begins her lecture on addressing multiple choice questions. As her ears ring and she struggles to pay attention, she chugs her Venti Starbucks latté, trying not to think about the measly twelve hours of sleep she’s managed to snag throughout the entire week. She props her elbow up onto her desk and, as a result, her head immediately slumps onto her hand. Her vision blurs as she tries to copy down what the instructor is saying—only her hand seems like it has forgotten how to write. With a heavy sigh, she lays down her pen, planning on just trying to follow along. Her eyes water and droop; she decides that she will rest her vision for just a minute…

From a high schooler’s point of view, sleep seems to pose a major problem: it feels as if most of us are struggling with what sleep experts like to call “sleep debt.” Physicians recommend the following amount of sleep: newborn to 2 months, 12-18 hours; 3 months to 1 year, 14-15 hours; 1 year to 3 years, 12-14 hours; 3 years to 5 years, 11-13 hours; 5 years to 12 years, 10-11 hours; 12 years to 18 years, 8.5-10 hours; adults, 7.5-9 hours. According to modern science, we know of two kinds of sleep debt: partial sleep deprivation and total sleep deprivation. Partial sleep deprivation occurs when a person sleeps too little for too many consecutive days or weeks; total sleep deprivation means being kept awake for complete days or weeks. Sleep needs are individual, and while some adults need as few as five hours a night, others require a full ten; on average, most require between seven and a half to eight and a half hours per night. If you’re at all sleepy during the day—even just a little bit—it’s likely you’re not getting enough 21

sleep. (In fact, one serious sign of sleep debt is if you routinely fall asleep within five minutes of lying down to rest.)

In fact, falling asleep this quickly may be a sign of severe sleep deprivation—possibly a sleep disorder. To combat this fatigue, of course, most come to a solution quicker than the speed of light—coffee. But while coffee can provide small spurts of energy, caffeine and other stimulants cannot fully overcome the effects of sleep debt. The “answer” to sleep problems is much more complex than merely guzzling 20 oz. of mocha-flavored rocket fuel.

And the problem of sleep debt is very, very real. For example, though it might not seem serious, driving while fatigued can be extremely dangerous. According to studies, driving while drowsy is akin to driving with a bloodalcohol content of 0.08, the level that constitutes DUI in many states. And while alcohol slows your reflexes, driving drowsy may cause you to fall asleep at the wheel and also inhibits reflex reactions. A catnap of 10 to 20 minutes, however, may boost performance and alertness without making you groggy or interfering with nighttime sleep. Translation: if you are struggling through your homework, taking a small catnap may improve your alertness more than sleeping for a few hours. On the downside, if you fail to force yourself to get up and continue to work after your catnap (that is, if you snooze for 30 minutes or longer), you may experience “sleep inertia”—that feeling of grogginess and disorientation when you wake from a deeper sleep.

Moreover, for most people, a good naptime is early afternoon, when your energy dips after lunch. If you have trouble sleeping, experts advise banning electronics—cell phones, TVs, computers—from bed in order to associate your bed with sleeping. If you can’t sleep or you wake up and can’t go back to sleep, go into another room and do something relaxing, like reading or listening to music until you are sleepy. Go back to bed only when you are tired. While it’s easy for any of us to lie down in bed and watch TV, read a book, or check Facebook, such behaviors actually do more harm than good. Those activities might seem harmless, but your brain, in fact, may subconsciously become accustomed to only lying in bed when you are doing something with electronics or are stimulated by reading.

While sleep continues to be a persistent problem for many, scientists and physicians are devoting more time to exploring the causes and effects of sleep deficiency and the possibilities for righting sleep wrongs. In a recent article from The New York Times, for example, Dr. Vatsal G. Thakkar, a clinical assistant professor of psychiatry at the N.Y.U. School of Medicine, describes the ways in which many people who may have appeared previously to have certain attention- or focus-related problems may in reality have severe sleep disorders. Thakkar explains the evils of present day iDevices and the unnatural, nonstop 14-hour schedules we submit ourselves to daily; perhaps our sleep issues, it seems, are merely related to the way we live our lives.

So what are our choices to deal with the zombie-like population of overworked teenagers? One hotly-debated possible solution entails abolishing homework for students. The main thesis seems to be that homework, which takes away precious family time and puts kids under unneeded pressure, is actually an ineffective way to help children become better learners and thinkers—and, more simply, that homework keeps kids up at night. Many European countries have actually tried the approach. Schools in Finland, for example, require no homework, and, while multiple factors contribute to such a statistic, it’s interesting to note that their high-school graduation rate is 93%—compared to 78% in Canada and 75% in the US. France is also considering the no-homework approach, and a German high school recently banned homework in an effort to help students unwind. As the idea gains global traction, some schools in the US have also adopted it: at Gaithersburg Elementary School in Maryland, for example, teachers ask students to spend 30 minutes a night reading instead of doing other homework.

With the knowledge of these reforms, will we be the last generation to endure the sleep-deprived horrors of homework or of the over-programmed, under-rested day? How do we keep our overachieving, insomniac selves from drooling on our desks? How do we keep our poor junior girl from sleeping through her SAT class? Regardless of the approach, these questions should weigh heavily on the minds—and eyelids—of those charged with education policy-making. Let’s hope that they consider these problems seriously.

Perhaps they should sleep on it.

Darby Davenport 22

, Junior Carly Walter

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What should be PG's top academic priority?

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23What is the biggest obstacle standing in the way of that priority?

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ROUND Table Dr. Tom Horton, History Department Porter is a place for the privileged. That’s right.

The definition of “privileged” is having special rights, advantages, or immunities; having the rare opportunity to do something that brings particular pleasure. Who among us is not privileged to be at Porter? ...

Nina M Senio addux, r

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Trey Low, Junior As a college preparatory school, Porter-Gaud is held to a higher standard than that of the public education system.

This translates to higher SAT scores, a higher percentage of students in AP courses, as well as overall higher GPAs. While this may be stereotypical, it is fair to hold this to fact....

Mrs. Karen Kim b

Mrs. Anna Smith, English Department erly, Director o fC

ollege Counseli ng

Reading our m ission statemen t, one is struck comprehensive by the nature of its go al s and objectives it attempts to en as compass every aspect of a chil academic, spir d ’s itual and perso nal growth and development. C ertainly these ar eas are not mu exclusive, but th tually ey do present u s with an overl priorities as we ap in seek to include all of these face our programm ts in ing....

Contributions continue on the following pages.

“Soulful contemplation.”

These two words were my response to juniors who anxiously anticipated their approach to the task of writing a prolonged research paper on a single poem....

24

Campus Round Table Continued from DuBose Egleston, Jr., Head of School We expect students and faculty to engage in a partnership in this intellectual journey and to strive beyond what most are capable of.

Curriculum choices should be broad enough to endow students with content supporting the best of human wisdom along with the guidance of faculty such that students digest and transform knowledge. Working through content, students can construct theory, dissect arguments, predict patterns and make connections—in essence, practicing how to think, question, and seek truth. Advanced Placement courses have been considered one model of challenging content, but there are other sources. We are blessed to have the expertise of faculty and independence of ideas to find our own pathways.

The greatest challenge is lack of time. This process depends on the partnership of tutor and pupil to explore subject matter and relate knowledge. It requires reflection and a struggle with the subject at hand. It is often interrupted by the encircling diversions of student life. In some fashion, the school creates a shield to protect that sacred space and must filter what will cross the threshold.

Continued from Wassim Dhaouahira, Senior So, when considering what Porter’s chief academic mission should be, I wonder: wouldn’t it be fitting for a school such as Porter to have a course in which tools such as rhetoric, debate, and speech are highlighted? I believe that a rhetoric course as an alternative to senior-year English could be the most useful course any student could take. It would allow students to make the most of their vast intelligence; after all, an education is worthless if it cannot be applied and used in the real world. And the most common use of education and knowledge is to use it with argument designed to sway another person. With such a course, we would be able to use our PorterGaud education to the fullest; we would be able to use our education in political debates, courtrooms, and boardrooms. The more people you can sway to your side of a conflict, the more power you have. And that should be our goal in life: to be a force to be reckoned with, a person of importance—not someone who has no opinions, or, even worse, someone who has an opinion but never communicates it. Such a course would mitigate this problem; it would undoubtedly be the most applicable of all the courses at Porter-Gaud and would therefore be a necessity to add to the Porter-Gaud curriculum.

Continued from Carly Walter, Junior However, in some subjects, such as US history or English Lit, only an AP or regular course is offered, without an honors option in between. For some students, the AP is too difficult—but the regular course doesn’t challenge them at all. Left with no choice but to settle for the easier class, they aren’t able to reach their full academic potential in that particular subject. Of course, while creating three different levels for each subject at PG sounds like a great idea in theory, the scheduling and the matter of which teachers would teach which levels may pose a challenge to the school. However, one solution may be to spread the classes out evenly among the teachers of a particular subject. After talking to a teacher here at PG, I realized that each level has a different feel and dynamic that makes that particular class unique. By allowing each teacher to teach multiple levels of their subject, these teachers are given the opportunity to experience a way of teaching and a class atmosphere that they wouldn’t have been able to otherwise. If Porter-Gaud succeeds in implementing a system similar to this, not only would the students benefit from the opportunity to be academically challenged in new ways, but teachers, too, would be exposed to new class dynamics, new ways of teaching, and new methods for exploring their subjects.

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Campus Round Table Continued from Mrs. Judy Lycke, Science Department What we decided was the PG graduate should look much like what I’ve come to find out is a “21st-century learner.” Our graduates should possess critical thinking skills, maintain their curiosity, and want to be life-long learners. They must think outside the box and be able to work collaboratively. We also hope our graduates will possess integrity, become environmentally and globally conscious, respect others, and take responsibility for their own successes and failures.

This should sound good to anyone involved in education today. There are various ways, some unpopular, to guide our students towards this ideal. We now face a bigger question… is this the ideal Porter-Gaud graduate in the minds of our Board of Trustees, our administration, our alumni, our parents, and our students?

Continued from Brad Gilman, Upper School Principal This approach allows students to discover themselves, their strengths and weaknesses, and to benefit from real world instruction.

The one-size-fits-all learning setting of the past no longer works. In the past the teacher was the “sage on the stage,” the expert who delivers the content and hopes that it sticks with students. The new dynamic has the teacher as the mentor or “guide on the side.” This 21st-century teacher follows a student-centered philosophy that attempts to interact with the real-world concerns and experiences of students. Classrooms become more democratic in governance or student-centered and learning is more participatory. This knowledgeable facilitator defines the subject matter and presents it in manageable lessons through the creation of active learning environments. In this transformed classroom, information comes from a variety of sources in response to problem situations; students create, manipulate, and use information to solve reallife problems; students access global resources through on-line services and other technology; students use information to solve novel problems or complete authentic work tasks; students solve problems that come from real situations; the knowledge needed to solve problems shapes the curriculum; evaluation is based on the quality of solutions, portfolios documenting student performance, and self and student assessment.

This model forces learning to become an active process in which students construct new ideas or concepts based upon their present or past knowledge or experience. Students select and critically analyze information, construct hypotheses, and make decisions. The student learns to extend beyond the given information.

Continued from Chelsea McKelvey, Sophomore Porter-Gaud is certainly challenging; I believe the challenge is composed of an array of elements: involvement, drive, and execution. As a whole these three elements dare you to take part in things other than school work, to be responsible for your own involvement, while still upholding academic excellence.

Porter-Gaud’s investment in AP classes is stellar; however, the gap of the levels of difficulty ranging between the AP-Honors classes and the regular classes can seem rather wide. I believe that the AP selection process should be more inclusive, and in theory this should drive students to strive for greater academic heights. Opening up the Honors and AP courses to more people would create a more competitive field for academics because individuals in these classes would feel the need to compete with those individuals who may be “gifted” in those areas. Moreover, I believe that it would also instill greater study skills and habits in students since that the academic environment in these Honors and AP classes can be more intense—and demands more self-reliance and work outside of the classroom.

26

Campus Round Table Continued from Trey Low, Junior Due to Porter’s high standards in the academic realm, faculty and students themselves should focus their sights on the potential scholastic achievements offered by our school, and then pursue those feats to the best of their ability.

To that end, I believe that AP classes should be pushed more fervently on students—making the classes more inclusive. In other “prep schools,” certain AP courses are compulsory. AP classes should not be forced upon those students who cannot handle the workload, or even on those who don’t embrace the subject; however, through challenging courses, our potential can shine bright, which further advances the knowledge of the student. Porter-Gaud, which offers a multitude of AP courses, could/should accept more students into those AP classes. The qualification process for PG’s advanced placement courses provides a narrow selection pool. By broadening the spectrum and looking through a bigger lens, students benefit tremendously. The respective students would be able to enroll in the courses they choose, creating a greater interest in their class, and a higher-level course benefits students later in their academic resumé. PorterGaud’s focus should be on allowing the student’s academic potential to be fully expressed, and this can be executed by allowing more qualified students to enroll in more advanced-level courses.

Continued from Brett Cranny, Sophomore In my opinion, a high school’s job is to prepare us for what we will face once we’ve finished school and are out in the world, and we cannot fully comprehend the amount of work given to us in the not-so-distant future without first getting a little taste of it in school. While high school presents us with barriers and challenges to prevent us from doing our work, such as sports or parties (not to say these are bad things—simply distractions), Porter-Gaud does a good job at giving us a path to stay on, with guidance counselors and extra-help opportunities. Porter-Gaud’s priority, in my opinion, is to prepare us for what we’ll face after high school, and I believe with the resources provided, they truly make it an easy transition.

Continued from Mrs. Karen Kimberly, Director of College Counseling From the college perspective, I cannot help but focus on the academic rigor of the Porter-Gaud curriculum. Looking through the lens of my rose-colored glasses, I would want our primary academic goal to instill in our students an intellectual curiosity and interest, and that this spark would light a fire in each student to excel and explore beyond the prescribed assignments. In my ideal world, this curiosity would result in students seeking the most advanced courses offered and their grades would reflect their mastery of the subject. But it is more than just a grade issue for me—or whether a student should take an AP class or not. Colleges are looking for academically, engaged students or more aptly described as “interesting” people—not just the students who have done everything they are “supposed to do,” but the ones who truly love to learn and understand that this yearning is for their own edification and not for college admissions purposes. We must shape the classroom dynamic to reflect that goal—making the academic experience one that draws students in and keeps them engaged. It must be a comprehensive effort that puts attendance and academics at the center and encourages ALL students to reach their intellectual potential. In my heart of hearts, I believe that we can meet our mission statement goals of enriching the entire student if we give them the tools to think and reason as informed citizens and individuals.

27

Campus Round Table Continued from Dr. Tom Horton, History Department For faculty the privilege lies in our being selected from dozens of highly-qualified applicants. For students the privilege rests upon the generosity of a parent, grandparent, or donor who pays the $19,000 tuition for the nine-month experience. Each grateful child will improve his or her competency in plane geometry and gain an appreciation for Milton’s Paradise Lost. He will learn about honor and community service and perform a solo with the renowned chamber singers ensemble. It’s likely that he’ll serve on junior vestry and pick up the rudiments of lacrosse before heading home around sunset—the day having been a blur of fascinating challenges and accomplishments.

Yet some concerned faculty and parents believe that Porter may have allowed the core values of honor and academics to become diminished by the profusion of child development opportunities. Quite often, and understandably so, the student is overly ambitious and bites off more than he can chew, so to speak. Like the child at the cafeteria, many things are tasted, but few things are devoured. How best can Porter reacquire the academic rigor for which it was known in the days of its inception?

Continued from Nina Maddux, Senior Since 9th grade, I have taken AP and regular classes, and I have noticed some differences between the two.

The atmosphere of AP classes is immediately focused around scoring high on the exam; it is clear that everyone is aiming to succeed at tremendous levels. It is a good learning environment for those who are competitive and wish to do well. Taking APs, although stressful, helped to mold my study skills and give me a competitive drive, and I think that APs are extremely important because they push people to succeed at high levels. I think one of Porter-Gaud’s top academic priorities should be enhancing all classes and helping students strive to reach the AP level of excellence. Sometimes I think that school focuses a little too much on outside things, such as speakers or all sorts of different assemblies and events. Although these assemblies are interesting, sometimes I feel like this time could be better spent as extra help time. It is difficult for me to find time for extra help because I have choir or yearbook after school every day, and my free periods don’t always line up with my teacher’s. It would be nice to have these times open for extra help. In my opinion, the AP classes are the best learning experiences that Porter offers, so more time and energy should be spent helping students strive to take APs and do well in them.

Continued from Mrs. Anna Smith, English Department The nourishment of the soul that is accomplished by thoughtful, deliberate examination has been my mission as an English teacher, especially in the last few years, as increasingly I have assumed the role of a “warrior” against media saturation.

It is—and has always been—my goal as a teacher to pique students’ interest in words: in their nuances of connotation and ultimately in their use in the construction of literary texts. Reading helps students to understand the ambiguity that exists in our complicated world and ultimately gives them the capacity to empathize with the universal human struggle: coming of age, poverty, prejudice, social injustice, religious conflict, the tenderness and vulnerability of love. I consider myself a missionary for literacy, as my calling is to foster a love of words and of ideas and to promote critical thinking skills. We teachers need a serious intellectual environment in order to convey this lofty platform; our administrative stability and continued parental support allow us to communicate high expectations to our students.

And, frequently, to my delight, the students meet these standards: I return to the poetry research paper assignment as an example. Students who began that project with the wide-eyed question—how will I do this?—successfully delved into the complexity of their chosen poems, annotated the texts to form their arguments, and then investigated critical sources. The end result of their efforts confirmed for me the worth of my vocation—I saw the pride in their eyes as many of them presented me with words that constituted the meditations of their souls.

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Thrown

off

Course

Without Seniors, Who’s Gonna Steer?

What will Porter-Gaud be like when the Class of 2013 leaves for college? That is perhaps akin to asking, “What would happen to the Empire State Building if all the structural beams were removed?” Or “What would happen to Usain Bolt’s career if his legs were hacked off?” See, Porter-Gaud is like a bicycle: every person and faculty member makes up a part of the bike. The high school is the front tire; the middle school is the chain; the lower school is the seat, and so on. However, the seniors are the rider—and without the rider, the bike may wobble on for a little while, but eventually it will lose balance and power and end up rusting away in a ditch off the New Jersey Turnpike.

The same goes for this school without its beloved Class of 2013. Can you imagine how ugly the school will be without its beloved seniors? Will girls even try to look reputable now that their dream of marrying the always perfect Brett Dodenhoff will seem out of reach? What follows, then, is a vision of Porter-Gaud without its most vital members. And while some may call my predictions fantastical and unrealistic, others will see them for what they are: that is, a nightmarish, yet spot-on, portrayal of Porter-Gaud in 2014 and beyond.

Imagine a barren wasteland: no smiles, no laughs, broken swing sets, sad children. Am I describing America after two terms of Obama? No. I actually refer to first day of the 2013-2014 Porter-Gaud academic year.

Let’s go on a virtual tour of the future school on August 20, 2013. Step into the S&T building, and you will find yourself in what seems to be a warzone. Try not to trip over the haggard, bearded students sprawled out in the rotundas, those who have stayed all summer hoping to get one last glimpse of the angelic images of the departing seniors. Try not to disturb their natural habitat. Try to ignore the now-graffitied portraits of alumni covering the walls. And don’t even try to understand why there is foliage growing in the lobby.

Enter the front office and brush away the vines from the wall to uncover the sign that reads “Dean’s Office.”

Inside you will find the remnants of a once prosperous and powerful man, but one who now sadly steeps in his own boredom. After the departure of the Class of 2013, what is there for this poor man to do, exactly? He seems helpless; he has nothing left to correct. Be careful, for so much as a stranded red cup sends him cackling into an evil, excited laugh. Step out onto “The Green”—or “The Brown” as it’s now called—to see the depressing landscape that shows remnants of having been ransacked by every possible natural disaster.

The lunchroom will be silent without its true seniors, the laughs few and far between. The underclassmen, aware of their terrible situation, will revolt in order to bring back what has been lost, though they will fail to see that the only real change is the absence of the Class 2013. After the underclassmen succumb to their subordinate, leaderless position, many will look to the illegal trade of pencils and paper (two resources that were once abundant but are now scarce due to an electronic takeover). Those who cannot make their way into the pencil ‘n paper gang will dwindle.

First they will suffer from lack of nutrition, but it is really mental starvation that gets them. After all, it was just a short year ago all their needs were met by an all-to-generous Class of 2013. Teachers will become mentally weary after the sudden loss of such a massive group of intellectuals. The underclassmen will not be able to feed the beast of knowledge that the teachers need. And so the beast of knowledge will go dormant: never to be awoken again.

Then again, most of my predictions are short-term. Porter-Gaud in the long run will be a foreign place to all its alumni. The feeling of a returning alum will be similar to a Martian coming back home to Mars only to find that Obama has blown it up. And, speaking of Obama, if the economy continues to be tainted by his policies and hyperinflation kicks in, education itself will be an afterthought: so few students will exist that the graduating class of 2017 will graduate in a classroom on the breezeway. The guest speaker will be the Head of School, who also functions 29

simultaneously as teacher of all subjects, caretaker, lunch attendant, chairman of the board, dean, principal, chaplain, and, of course, the coach for every athletic program the school has to offer.

Indeed, dark days lay ahead for Porter-Gaud’s future classes. Will it ever be what it once was? Without its backbone and structure, I, for one, think not. I imagine the days of the Class of 2013 will be regarded as the golden days when “people were honest” and “children respected their elders.” The golden days that we take for granted now will be reminisced through song and tale. The small and unsure class of 2014 and beyond will gather around a fire and wish upon the days when Gods and Goddesses roamed the hallways, showering the underclassmen with wisdom just by their mere presence.

Brett Dodenhoff Artwork by Elizabeth McGehee

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Porter-Gaud’s

Matron of Honor A Senior Tribute to

Mrs. Karen Kimberly In the reflective month of May, as we shift our attention from the comfortable atmosphere we have grown to love to the unknown journeys ahead, we may define this time of recollection and curiosity as (clichéd as it may be) bittersweet. Eager yet anxious, thrilled yet worried, excited yet nostalgic, we are affected in the weeks leading into summertime bliss by the future journeys that confront us. Despite our mixed emotions, the early signs of summer ignite our desire to conclude the school year on a high note and to thank those who have helped us achieve the goals we defined as unimaginable at the beginning of the year.

Though it’s not true to say that the hectic lifestyle ends when seniors graduate, I can personally attest to the absolute relief that finally comes with the end of the college application process, a journey that in itself has lasted nearly four years. Beginning as intimidated freshmen confronted with the daunting idea of college, we anxiously attended freshman college night to initiate the soon-to-be adventuresome interaction with Mrs. Karen Kimberly, our beloved college counselor. Each year, the college process became more involved, and with her help (and that from Ms. Karmon Karlsberg, Administrative Assistant to College Counseling), the concept of college transitioned from a distant future to the very next step in our lives.

And now, as the seniors commit to their new homes for the next four years, we wrap up the college process and work with Mrs. Kimberly, once again, to submit deposits and send in final thank-you notes to those deserving admissions officers and others who have assisted us in the college experience. As I watched Mrs. Kimberly casually hand a senior some stationary the other day for a thank-you letter, I became concerned. Was it possible that we seniors have forgotten to write such a note to the most significant set of helping hands of all? The person who, without doubt, was the most influential individual in this frightening, feared, and certainly fateful experience we simple call the college process? Yet, then again, how could a single note ever possibly come close to expressing the gratitude we feel as a class for this amazing counselor?

When seniors were asked to describe her in a single word, students struggled to choose just one: Sincere. Compassionate. Effervescent. Approachable.

Reassuring. Genuine. Selfless. Every answer was crafted perfectly to reflect each person’s buoyant experience with her, every word as heartfelt, honest, and complimentary as the last. Her efforts were earnest, her care about our success

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passionate, and her attitude consistently enthusiastic. The uninitiated underclassman could question the extent of our high praise, but all who have sat down in her office—even if just once—emphatically proclaim its truth. Consider the advice from one such senior, who can speak for countless others: “I literally couldn’t survive without her.”

Mrs. Kimberly connects with each student in an individualized manner; just as a close friend, she learns to discover students’ lifelong passions and unwavering dreams and consistently encourages them to embrace the challenges. As one student remembers, the day she received her acceptance letter, she “called Mrs. Kimberly and left a message telling her….

When she called me back I answered the phone, and all I could hear was her screaming… because of how excited she was for me. She genuinely cares about everyone, and it was so nice to have her be so happy for me.” Another student tells the story of how she “rushed to tell Mrs. Kimberly right when we got back from break. She was so overwhelmed with everyone’s news from the break, but she took the time to be so excited for me.” Her approachable nature and consistently friendly attitude allows one always to feel comfortable in reaching out to her for help. Needless to say, she will seek you out, too. Don’t even think about not talking to her after a college visit or interview; she will find you on campus and demand details, just another way she shoes how sincerely she cares. “If you come to school freaking out about anything college related,” one student remarks, “after talking to Mrs. Kimberly, you will feel at peace.” Commenting on this devotion, one student recalls her time as an early applicant who worked to submit her application prior to the start of school. Due to these special circumstances, the student shares that, “Mrs. Kimberly came to school to work on my application with me numerous times over the course of the summer. Her commitment level is just off the charts.”

For those who have gone through it and even those who have seen it second-hand, there is no denying that the college application process is a grueling experience.

Mrs. Kimberly, though, is there each year for some eighty individuals, witnessing both the joys and disappointments before sending them off to a new four-year home. And then she’s there again, eagerly ready to embrace and guide a new senior class. Many may wonder how she could possibly find the pleasure of a job that others might imagine to be tormenting—with its stress, paperwork and high emotion—but she pursues it with a passionate and enthusiastic desire. “The college process can beat students up pretty badly, doing a number on their self-esteem and self-confidence,” she says, but she wants so much for it to be “a joyful process—one that celebrates students and their accomplishments.” Thus, she is constantly striving to take the most devastating disappointment and shift the moment into one of challenge and hope. Characteristically, she shares, “the personal contact I experience with the students is truly amazing. You all make me laugh all the time!” The most rewarding aspect of her job? Impossible, she says, to choose a single moment but expresses her “love [for] reading a great essay that captures a student’s true essence.” Indeed, many seniors recall her expressive regard for that finally perfected draft. One student refers the satisfaction she would feel when Mrs. Kimberly “would read my essays, nod really fast, and with wide eyes say, ‘This is good. This is really good,’” (a classic phrase of hers that all seniors associate with her ultimate approval). It is this spirit, then, that captures her true essence: “Seeing a student overjoyed by his/her first acceptance is the best feeling that I can imagine.” And we believe her. No surprise, then, to hear her on graduation day when she claims to “rejoice and swell with pride… because I am so proud of each and every student who crosses the stage.”

She is inspiring beyond belief, a true role model, and a member of the Porter-Gaud community whom we have all grown to love and respect. In fact, if I can impact just a single individual in the same way that she has impacted each and every student that graduates from Porter-Gaud, I will feel truly accomplished. As one senior so perfectly advised, “For you youngsters, don’t be fooled: the college process is a tough one, but you can look forward to it because it’s the time that you really get to be friends with Mrs. Kimberly. And that, in itself, is enough.”

Rachel Kupferman

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Where Is The Class of 2013 Going?

Jake Arnold Worcester Polytech Victoria Hills Clemson Brennan Aust Hampden-Sydney Max Howard University of Miami (FL) Grayce Bailey College of Charleston Payne Hoy Sewanee Camilla Baker University of Georgia Cameron Kane Wake Forest Alexis Ball University of Georgia Rachel Kupferman Bowdoin Brandon Barber Vanderbilt Logan Livingston College of Charleston A.J. Beane Davidson Scott Lynch American University Christian Belcher Georgetown Nina Maddux University of Georgia Pilar Bennett Princeton Anna McAbee Georgia Tech Will Bennett Clemson Julia McAvoy Wake Forest Sam Blakeney Washington & Lee MacGregor McGehee St. Andrew’s University in Scotland Wil Blanton Virginia Tech Mary Hollis McGreevy Emory Kate Bryan University of South Carolina Franne McKenzie Clemson Tory Butler College of Charleston Mac McKenzie Eckerd Michael Byrd Erskine Rebecca McNeill Wake Forest Boyce Campsen The Citadel Lexie Meyer Clemson Charles Carroll North Carolina State Collins Moe The Citadel McLean Coen Texas Christian University Tahirih Nesmith University of Pennsylvania Leah Crawford University of Virginia James Newton Colorado University at Boulder Bailey Crump College of Charleston Luke Nyland Wake Forest Alex Dahlstrom Clemson Will Paroli Clemson Wassim Dhaouahira Colgate Trey Pierce Wake Forest Brett Dodenhoff Boston College Kevin Qualey Georgetown Cierra Duncan Clemson Brock Richardson University of South Carolina Elen Edelson University of Miami (FL) Thomas Rogers Clemson Chandler Elliott-Fehle Washington University at St. Louis Dominic Romano University of Mississippi Carter Ellis Clemson Thomas Scarborough University of South Carolina Jonathan Ellison Yale Will Sherer University of Mississippi Patrick Ennis University of California at Berkeley Benjamin Simons Clemson Bobby Faith University of Virginia Angle Skelly University of Miami (FL) Robert Ferira University of South Carolina Thomas Spratt University of Pennsylvania Hannah Geils Boston College Charles Sullivan University of Cincinnati William Ginn George Washington University Corie Tiencken Depaul University Connor Grady The Citadel Kedar Trivedi University of Michigan George Grice Sewanee William Tutterow Clemson Brandon Hall The Citadel Colin Wallace Washington & Lee Katherine Ham University of North Carolina Ali Waters College of Charleston Hutson Harrigan The Citadel Nick Windham College of Charleston Annie Hay University of South Carolina Nick Zimmerman Elon David Hendrix University of Advancing Technologies (AZ) Will Herring Clemson

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watch Porter-Gaud School 300 Albemarle Rd. Charleston, SC 29407 Cover Art by Lexi Winoski