30 minute read
Main Line Tennis Academy; tennis for a cause
neighborhood
Jay Crowther’s Main Line Tennis Academy: tennis for a cause
Advertisement
Ethan Chan ’23
Fourth Former Jay Crowther has had quite the year with tennis. In his sophomore year, he earned himself MVP of the eleven-time consecutive Inter-Ac winning team, First Team all InterAc honors, and played at the team’s top spot. As a high school player, Crowther has seemingly reached the pinnacle of tennis success.
But he seeks more than victories on the court: he seeks community service. Over the summer, Crowther will lead the newly formed tennis initiative Main Line Tennis Academy (MLTA).
“MLTA is a group of high school tennis players working as a not-for-profit group to raise money for children with special needs—like down syndrome or autism— and share their love of the game with these kids as a way to support the community, as well as provide tennis to those who want to show their support for the special-needs community,” Crowther said.
MLTA is unique because of its specific goal of not only teaching high-quality tennis, but helping others.
JAY CROWTHER ’23
“MLTA has a specific mission, and we are creating something unique from scratch,” Crowther said. “We are not aware of anyone else doing anything like this, a mission-driven program for kids, targeted at those with special needs.” Founded by Crowther and fellow tennis teammate and Fourth Former Joaquin Arias, MLTA sessions run on Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays, and Sundays throughout the summer at Grasslyn Park in Havertown.
“Paid clinics are offered to children and adults of all ages who want to support our mission,” Crowther said.
For a reasonable price, players of all skill sets can seek help. Whether it be the casual club or tournament player, specific drills and plans are mapped out for the player’s success.
“The activities for special needs will be tailored specifically for them—what they can do, their attention span, the amount of structure they need is very different from a traditional tennis clinic,” Crowther said.
With such an in-depth proposal, one is not surprised to find out that Crowther has a familial connection to combating autism.
“I had been thinking about how I could use my love of tennis for the community for a while, especially with kids not able to be as active because of coronavirus and it being a good sport for that,” Crowther said. “Then, I was talking to my father about a company he works with, Cognoa, that has some really cool technology to help diagnose and aid earlier intervention with autistic children and it got me interested in the topic.”
Once he started researching, Crowther found that the special needs community is also a part of the Haverford, Inter-Ac community.
“I found several other tennis players at Haverford and in the Inter-Ac either had relatives with special needs or had experience working at events like the Special Olympics, so I found support from them. The same with the teachers at Haverford, who have been incredibly supportive so far,” Crowther said.
Encouraged by collective support, the co-founders look to donate all proceeds to a
Jay Crowther ’23 with a Main Line Tennis Academy student
COURTESY OF JAY CROWTHER
worthy cause.
“Profits will be donated to The Timothy School to help students with special needs receive a better education and support their mission,” Crowther said. “Depending on our level of success, we may be able to expand that to other special needs programs.”
The future looks bright for Crowther to cement his initiative.
“I intend to continue to work on this project through my senior season to support the Timothy School, but it would be great to pass the torch to another student on the Haverford tennis team to keep the program going and have a more lasting impact in the community,” Crowther said.
The Haverford tennis team could also make an impact on MLTA.
“The Haverford tennis team has a really special spirit,” Crowther said. “I think this would be a cool part of that spirit and maybe something that can be a lasting part of the team’s identity even after I graduate from Haverford.”
For now, interested players and customers can find more information on MLTA’s Instagram page (@mlta_tennis) and Facebook page (Mainline Tennis Academy).
Camp Tecumseh’s disconnection from modern distraction
Thomas Pendergast ’23
On the evergreen banks of Lake Winnipesaukee in Moultonborough, New Hampshire rests Camp Tecumseh, an all-boys sports camp founded over a century ago. 300 acres of unspoiled nature set the scene for lifelong friendships, and memorable experiences that allow for a break from the stress of the modern world.
Once at camp, all technology is taken from the campers, many of whom rarely go a day without electronics, let alone multiple weeks. Since technology-deprived boredom cannot be resolved by mindless finger tapping, camp forces people to bond with the 200 other people that surround them.
Unlike the school experience, a brotherhood is created among people of all ages throughout the camp.
Jeff Pendergast ’19, a lifelong camper/ counselor, said, “There is no better feeling than jumping in the cool lake after a long day of competition with your friends, watching the sunset over the White Mountains. It’s truly a special place to have grown as a person.”
When kids are first dropped off at camp at a young age, they are forced to use their social skills to adapt to the new environment. This skill speeds up maturity as learning this flexibility early on allows individuals to act and live with confidence.
Hunter Gillin is a Haverford secondgrade teacher and Tecumseh counselor. From Tecumseh, he has learned the importance of community
Mr. Gillin said, “Tecumseh’s community has given me a sense of belonging, and has supported my growth into becoming an educator and coach.”
The Tecumseh values help all who attend grow up and live using sharpened social skills and the community in times of need.
Seven-year camper Wells Flinn said, “Watching the older campers and counselors interact and handle situations, they became role models for me and my cabinmates.”
Camp is structured to teach the campers to persevere through hardship while staying calm and confident.
Tripp Ronon ’24
As one of the more densely populated local areas, Ardmore is an important part of the broader Main Line. It offers retail, restaurants, public transportation, and attractive, walkable neighborhoods.
Over the past decade, stakeholders in Ardmore and Lower Merion Township have applied significant energy, thought, and resources into planning Ardmore’s future. Visible outcomes of the recent zoning and planning include the continued transformation of Suburban Square, a new train station complex underway, and the development of an eight-story luxury apartment complex, One Ardmore Place.
Suburban Square is the centerpiece of Ardmore’s walkable retail and dining offerings. As a popular evening spot for countless high school students on the Main Line, it can expect a lively summer with plenty of foot traffic. Led by Kimco Realty, the site has gone through a tremendous transformation since its time as a department-store-anchored strip center. More and more tenants fill up the newly constructed retail buildings, from Shake Shack to a Boyds Pop-Up Shop. Suburban Square is an appealing spot for shopping, dining, work, and entertainment activities. The Lower Merion Zoning Board and popular opinion would agree that it is a success.
Adjacent to Suburban Square, a $35 million redevelopment, the Ardmore Train Station, is underway. This is an important project, enhancing public transportation and Ardmore’s connectivity to the Main Line, Center City, and even New York City. Passengers can board a train at Ardmore, and arrive at New York City’s Moynihan Train Hall. By investing more in public transportation, Ardmore can reduce carbon emissions and decrease reliance on cars.
Across the train tracks to the south is Ardmore’s historic district. This area includes small businesses, single-family homes, and the two-year-old One Ardmore Place. What catches the eye first in this area is the tall structure tucked tightly among the narrow streets of Ardmore. An uncreative and bland facade towers above all other buildings and creates an unaesthetic skyline. The combination of its height, mass, and proximity to adjacent structures blocks the sun and casts a wide, and inescapable shadow.
As a seventeen-year Ardmore resident, Director of Information Services, Ms. Lisa Snyder was curious about early announcements of One Ardmore Place.
“I was intrigued about how they would fit it in,” she said, referring to the surrounding dense neighborhood and narrow streets.
The building is set atop the former Cricket Lot, a public parking lot used for the small businesses on Lancaster Avenue. This parking lot offered a buffer between businesses and single-family homes. The mass of the new structure removes the buffer and blocks daylight. Put simply, the building seems misplaced on the streetscape and disrupts the context of the community.
TRIPP RONON ’24
One Ardmore Place looms over central Ardmore
Launching the development of One Ardmore Place was not easy, as the Save Ardmore Coalition filed a lawsuit in opposition to the construction of the building on multiple grounds. They cited parking concerns, the use of public funds for private development, and the building’s diminishment of the neighborhood’s historic integrity. Despite the protest from residents of the community, One Ardmore Place was completed and opened.
One Ardmore Place offers a cautionary lesson. Is this the beginning of a trend, or is this an outlier?
One would hope that this massive structure on narrow streets is an aberration and not a portent of future development.
Ms. Snyder said, “I like how Ardmore feels neighborhoody, but One Ardmore Place feels weird because it is so big.”
Service Board connects with local Jamaican church
Jack suter ’23
The Service Board has continued to find ways to stay active throughout the hardships of the pandemic. Most recently, the Service Board has been leading groups of Haverford students over to a local Jamaican church, the Memorial Church of God and Christ.
Oftentimes, Mr. Brian McBride leads the group over to the church, which is just a couple of minutes away from campus. This makes it a great place to participate in service during lunch, which is when most of the groups go over.
Some groups have also gone early in the morning on Wednesdays.
PASTOR DAREN MILLER
These early morning trips are important because the mornings on Wednesdays are when the Church receives about 2,000 - 3,000 pounds of produce.
The church runs a food kitchen where people from any zipcode with any background can come get food. “It doesn’t matter where people come from or why they are coming for the food, it just matters that people get the help they need. That is the important thing,” said Pastor Daren Miller of the Jamaican church.
Arriving at the church, the group of boys funnel into the basement, where the food pantry is located.
“We then have our temperatures checked while we all put on gloves to handle the food,” Fourth Former George Vollmer said.
A typical job is unloading truckloads of produce on Wednesday. Students form a line to pass boxes into the basement. From there the boxes are unloaded and sorted into canned goods, fresh produce, desserts, bread, and other categories.
Even still, premade boxes are prepared to keep the line moving. Some days the pantry will have upwards of 20 cars, with multiple people moving through the pantry in under an hour, proving Pastor Miller’s point of “how important and how necessary the work we are doing is.”
Next year, the Service Board hopes to keep this connection with the church and become more involved, having more and more students come out to help. It is important to see new faces, as this kind of work is beneficial to anyone who is involved. Seeing students giving back to their community working alongside the workers at the church is truly heartwarming.
If after having read this article and you are not already interested in helping out at the church, Ms. Loos has been working on organizing a system so that rising Fifth Formers will have more options for parking in the Church lot.
campus opinions
The new head of school should embody...
JEFFREY YANG ’22
Previous heads of school’s portraits lining the hallway by the administrative suite
Colin Stewart ’22
As the 2021 school year comes to a close, so does Dr. John Nagl’s tenure as Head of School. His surprising resignation part way through last summer left many Haverford students asking the question, “Who will be our next headmaster?”
Dr. Nagl’s love for Haverford and its community was felt and appreciated by all.
Ever since the day of Dr. Nagl’s resignation, Haverford’s administrative body has been searching for a new leader. Little information has been thus far communicated to the student body about this search and its possible candidates. There has been little perceived effort on the side of the administration to ask and understand what students
want in their next head of school.
Therefore, for better or for worse, I will do my best to speak for the student body and what it wants and needs in its next head of school. The three most necessary characteristics: bipartisanship, unconditional love for the school, and empathy.
In a time of polarization unseen since the 1960s and federal party platforms inching farther and farther to the extreme every day, Haverford needs a head of school who will make an effort to facilitate healthy discussion. A good example of this would be not taking a side on hot political issues such as the impeachment of a president or large social movements skewed to one particular ideology. Some may feel that it is the head of school’s responsibility to further certain agendas that they deem to be moral, but any furthering of an agenda that clearly skews to one side of the political aisle ostracizes a group of students and families.
Though this is easier said than done, a few ways a head could facilitate discussion in a bipartisan manner is by not making outward statements of one’s own view, by bringing in speakers of all political ideologies, and by taking action against teachers who make a clear and dangerous effort to teach their opinion rather than make their best effort at offering both sides of the argument.
Second, the next head needs to have an unconditional love for Haverford, its students, and its community.
This does not mean an inability to criticize Haverford because, as James Baldwin said best, “I love America more than any other country in this world, and, exactly for this reason, I insist on the right to criticize her perpetually.”
The next head should want to right the wrongs in Haverford, all the while wanting the best for every boy that has walked through the school’s halls, every teacher that has taught a lesson in Wilson Hall, every parent that has sacrificed for their son to receive a great education, and every staff member who dedicates time to running the parts of the school students rarely see.
This type of unwavering love is the only kind that will facilitate the creation of a true brotherhood.
Lastly, the next head has to be empathetic. He should not only be able to understand but want to understand each boy that he comes in contact with. He should understand that we, as a community but also as individual students, make mistakes and that no one wants more than the student body to correct these mistakes. Most importantly, he needs to understand that each boy is different, with his own life, problems, feelings, and beliefs, and that the only way he can truly lead them through their lower, middle school, and upper school years is by doing his best to understand each facet of as many boys’ lives as he can.
What we, as a student body, stand for is what our leadership should represent to the wider community—we should thoughtfully consider and discuss that image to the outside world.
Reflections on learning during COVID, a speech to the Hephaestus Society
Matthew Schwartz ‘21
Ithink we are all still assessing what we’ve been through in the last fifteen months. Our Haverford experience was different in every way. None of us could have predicted that new terms like: “I’ll share my screen” or “you’re muted” are now permanent additions to our language.
I’ve come to realize that my most profound learnings during COVID weren’t just in the classroom, but were lessons learned from the adaptations we all made to our altered lives. It will take a while for teachers, staff, and students to have enough quiet moments to come to terms with all we have experienced. And I’m not sure we’ll fully grasp how profound and unique it was for years to come. We owe ourselves a little time for looking back, but we owe it to one another to keep looking ahead.
First, I want to acknowledge how much more other school communities were affected than Haverford. It’s been a very hard year for so many students, educators, and parents across the world. Children living in low-income communities have been disproportionately affected by the abrupt shift to remote schooling. Many of these families still don’t have the job security, stability, means, or computer and internet access necessary to provide a safe and consistent environment for their children to get a quality experience. People have been hurting—badly—and in some cases students slipped away from school entirely. We also know that for younger kids, social interaction at school or playdates is an important part of their development and this past year was filled with social deprivation, replaced with virtual get-togethers and pandemic school. It may take some years to get those students back on track academically, physically, mentally, and otherwise. I worry that this lost year for some could impact racial and economic equity for a generation.
At Haverford, the school did everything in its power and more to preserve all that school should be. We pushed the boundaries of what society, politicians, the county and even some parents thought was acceptable for teaching in a pandemic. More than most, the school did its best to preserve all the elements that make up this place since we aren’t here just for the academic lessons. If we were, school could be reduced to a series of on-demand videos on Khan Academy. We’re also here for the interaction: the interaction of challenging each other as we learn together, the interaction of friendships being built with classmates and teachers, the interaction of sports and activities allows us to expand our bodies, competitive spirit, and minds. In other words, not everything in the curriculum matters and not everything that matters fits into the curriculum. For me, learning has always been a communal experience. There’s something special about seeing those around you get inspired, and it finally clicks how to solve a problem or understand a concept. Or, it can even be comforting to feel that shared sense of confusion, when you simply don’t know what’s going on. We lost many of these experiences when going virtual, as the excitement or disorientation on a student’s face doesn’t translate the same when it’s occurring in a twoinch by two-inch box over Google Meet. This year, more than ever, we learned that the word “school” refers to much more than just academics—because we realized what was missing when it was no longer there. I’m glad the school understood this and worked to make sure our informal education was preserved as much as possible. This pandemic unfolded slowly. I remember hearing that things would be back to normal in a few weeks. Then by summer. Then by fall. Then by Christmas. Maybe a dozen deadlines missed. And guess what: it isn’t back to normal yet, and we’ve all come to realize it never will be. And that’s okay. Some of us stressed out every time the “new” normal date was pushed out. More plans to be canceled, expectations to be adjusted. But at some point, I stopped wondering and started accepting the new normal. Accepting that our world doesn’t have to be perfectly predictable like we’ve been trained by Amazon Prime or the ending of Marvel movies. I also learned that we can take the best of COVID and bring that to post-COVID. Prior to COVID I often found myself overscheduled. From interviews for The Index to writing arguments in mock trial, I always push myself to accomplish too much, but when COVID gave me the opportunity to step back and reflect on all my efforts, I realized my life had become more about doing than being. This recognition was long overdue, and I’ve used it to focus more on what matters most to me, such as friends, family, and ertain activities at school. It’s also helped me de-stress and better appreciate living in the moment instead of spending the present contemplating something I’ve scheduled for the future. Staying committed to my schoolwork during COVID was strenuous, but eventually, as time wore on, school represented a break from the mundane. It allowed me to do something else besides sitting around inside all day.
As I reflect on the experience of COVID learning, I can’t help but think about what lessons and actions we can take forward to improve the plight of future students. We’re at a moment where problems have been exposed, new challenges have emerged, and communities are experimenting with all kinds of new ideas and models. I believe that learning how to use new technology, more flexibility in location and time, and more creative teaching methods will have a longterm, positive impact on teaching and learning, here and beyond.
One victim of change is standardized testing. As one of many school rituals, it was completely abandoned last spring. Tests play a critical role in education, but the current form of standardized testing—for example, paper-based multiple-choice SATs—is outdated and doesn’t accurately reflect what students from all backgrounds and learning styles know. Haverford has high-potential students of all kinds and yet standardized testing didn’t recognize that. Maybe the future of SATs will now recognize that more.
While we have all been pushed far out of our comfort zone in the past year, we also should realize that we liked some of COVID’s school changes. For example, the student body has overwhelmingly supported the quarter system introduced this year, and I hope keeping it next year makes the entire learning process more accessible and easy to navigate for students going forward.
With our senior year ending, many people seem to be despairing over this fact, yet I can’t help but feel hopeful. To me, high school was a stepping stone on a longer journey of discovery.
Although it didn’t exactly end as I thought it would, I learned more about resiliency, compassion and self-sufficiency than I ever expected.
The Hephaestus Society logo Tis year, more than ever, we learned that the word “school” refers to much more than just academics—because we realized what was missing when it was no longer there. MR. JAMISON MALEY Mathew Schwartz ’21 alongside former Head of Upper School Mr. Mathew Green (left) and Franklin Dai ’21 (right center) and Kethan Srinivasan ’21 (right) at a mock trial tournament at the University of Pennsylvania, January, 2018
COURTESEY OF HAVERFORD.ORG
off-campus opinions
Partisan polarization is a danger to the country’s future
Bowen Deng ’22
The United States Congress is perhaps in its most divided era since the Civil War. Almost every form of meaningful legislation is proposed along party lines and will likely not pass thanks to the filibuster and in certain cases, an unwillingness to compromise. While disagreements are inevitable and the partisan divide between congressional Democrats and Republicans is far from a new revelation—one can trace this polarization back to the presidency of Bill Clinton—the rate at which this division has accelerated in the past four years is alarming. Our generation will be (and already is) directly affected by the increasingly partisan nature of Congress, and the future looks grim if something does not change soon. I am writing this article not to claim that bipartisanship is always a good thing or that every significant legislative proposal should always have bipartisan support; I simply wish to point out how the staunchly partisan nature of Congress can be extremely detrimental to the future of the United States of America.
In a way, one could argue that this level of polarization was inevitable; the Republican party shifted towards conservatism, while the Democrats remained staunchly supportive of the big government ideal espoused by FDR and LBJ. While there was a fair share of liberal Republicans and conservative Democrats in the past, they are now virtually nonexistent. Conservative Democrats have joined the Republican party, while liberal Republicans have shifted to the Democratic party — the states of New England and the Deep South demonstrate this shift the best.
However, the current disagreements between both parties go far beyond social or economic issues; our elected politicians cannot come together to investigate an incident of domestic terrorism. The January 6 Commission failed in the Senate, with just six Republican senators voting in favor of the commission, far from the 60-vote threshold needed to break the filibuster. The proposal was far, far from partisan. Republican Representative John Katko and Democratic Representative Bennie Thompson modeled it after the 9/11 Commission: five Democrats and five Republicans chosen by their respective leaders would create a report on the events of Jan 6. Even after Susan Collins proposed compromises to make the bill more appealing to the Senate GOP, it failed.
There are many adjectives to describe this: puzzling, disappointing, but more significantly, worrying. If we cannot trust our elected officials to work together and make sure the events of January 6 do not happen again, what can we trust them with? This should not be a Republican vs. Democrat issue, but it has turned into one; Republicans seem more concerned about their standing in the 2022 midterm elections than the safety of D.C.
It was not always like this; meaningful and necessary proposals were not thrown away for the sake of partisan gain. The Civil Rights Bill of 1964 would not have passed if it weren’t for bipartisan efforts in both chambers of Congress. President Kennedy worked with Republican Representative William McCullough for the foundations of what would later be the Civil Rights Bill. After Kennedy’s assassination, President Johnson and Senate Majority Leader Mike Mansfield knew that without the support of the Republican party, they would never overcome the Southern Democrats’ racist filibusters and get enough votes for passage. Thus, they turned towards Senate Minority Leader Everett Dirkson to court Republican support. Dirkson knew that it was an election year and the Civil Rights Bill would be a significant legislative victory for Johnson’s re-election campaign, but still put country over party and did the right thing. Senate Republicans worked with the Democratic Party to create the strongest piece of legislation (at that time) addressing racism that both parties — save for the Southern senators — could support.
Even Reagan’s tax cuts were able to overcome a gridlocked Congress, with many House Democrats supporting them (there are strong opinions associated with Reaganomics, but the point remains that they could not have been enacted without the help of Democrats). However, there is no point in reminiscing about the past or looking at it through a rose-tinted lens.
So, is bipartisanship dead? Yes, and no. Despite Biden pledging to restore unity, he faces staunch opposition from the Republican Party on whatever he proposes. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has said that “100% of my effort is on stopping this current administration.” Some progressives see no point in negotiating with the Republican party and are encouraging the President to press on without them. However, there are the likes of Democrat Joe Manchin and Republican Lisa Murkowski in the Senate; both have actively tried to seek policies that both parties will agree upon (for example, both have called for a reauthorization of the Voting Rights Act), but it may not matter. There will always be those who advocate for bipartisanship, but they may just drown in a sea of voices.
The United States of America cannot continue like this. At the moment, Congress is a danger to the Union itself and the issues that America faces. As it stands, any meaningful legislation will happen along partisan lines, with the majority chamber ramming it through. While this is not always a bad thing — for example, the American Rescue Plan has been deemed a success by the American people, despite no Republicans voting for it — Congress will continue to grow increasingly partisan and politics will grow nastier and nastier. And what will happen when an issue arises that should not be a partisan one? Can we trust a partisan Congress to keep that issue nonpartisan?
arts
Mr. Raeder, beyond the school’s studios
Ethan Lee ’24
Many students are unaware of the lives of the teachers that roam the halls alongside them. As one of the creators of an artistic practice called Better Lovers, Mr. Jacob Raeder has a business and artistic life that he does not often share with his students.
“I have been working with Layla Marcelle for about six years,” Mr. Raeder said. “There are two sides to this company. One is the business side, where we make functional ceramics to fund the other side, which is focused on other stuff like cinematography and other such mediums.”
Better Lovers produces functional ceramics. “Designed ceramics,” on the other hand, are intended to be mass-produced and sold.
While Mr. Raeder sells his work, it is all handmade.
“We have siloed parts of our practice into two categories that help each other,” Mr. Raeder observed, “One part of our practice helps to fund the other side of our practice.”
Better Lovers specializes in creating pieces with crawl glaze.
Crawl glaze has a bumpy texture that is not conventional in mass-produced ceramics.
“We generally think of glaze on ceramics as not having texture,” Mr. Raeder said. “I became interested in crawl [glaze] because I wanted to make ceramics that were not only visually interesting but also interesting to the touch. That knobbly, rough texture was just as appealing as the way it looked.”
One of the ideas he considered was how a visually impaired person would react to the cup.
“Would it be an interesting object to use?” Mr. Raeder asked. “Would it be an attractive object to use or a repulsive object to use?”
Mr. Raeder chose the name “Better Lovers” for a number of reasons. One key factor was the emotional attachment people have to oft-used objects.
“We wanted to think that the objects in our lives were anthropomorphic,” Mr. Raeder said. “We were interested in thinking that the ceramics we made had emotions and attachments.”
Another reason was the obstacle of finding a name that was not already being used.
“We had to make sure that this name wasn’t taken,” Mr. Raeder said. “Marketing is a part of the business that we understand is important.”
Aside from the functional ceramics, Better Lovers also produces experimental hypnotism films.
“The films have no plot as they are experimental,” Mr. Raeder explained. “The end goal of the film is to teach you how to throw a pot on a pottery wheel without you ever sitting at the wheel.”
The idea came from an audiobook on how to improve your tennis in your sleep.
“The idea that you could listen to this tape and be in a trance that it would actually impact me was interesting,” Mr. Raeder stated. “I’m not sure of the efficacy of this, but we are interested in the visual language around hypnotism.”
Mr. Raeder does not discuss the business side of his ventures outside of school with his students.
“I don’t want students to focus or even think about how much their project is worth monetarily,” Mr. Raeder said. “But I think there is still value in talking about this kind of stuff—talking about teacher’s lives outside of school.”
Mr. Jacob Raeder poses in the ceramics studio
COURTESY OF MR. JACOB RAEDER
MR. JACOB RAEDER ’2#
Artist spotlight: Charles Witmer ’22 enters virtual vocal competitions
Austin Zhuang ’22
Whether he is playing his cello before school for the orchestra, rehearsing with the Notables, or attending private singing lessons, Fifth Former Charles Witmer spends a large part of his free time with music, honing his vocal and instrumental skills.
Witmer’s first exposure to music was when he joined a choir after his mother encouraged him to participate.
“I like [singing]. I’ve done it since third grade. If I hadn’t got at least moderately good at it by now, I would feel kind of disappointed,” Witmer joked.
His humble assessment fails to show how good of a singer he is. Last year, Witmer was able to advance all the way through the Pennsylvania Music Educators Association (PMEA) competition from the district level to the All-State chorus, where he had the chance to join the National Chorus. Unfortunately, it was cut short by the pandemic, something that continued to cause difficulties for Witmer in competitions this year.
Normally, competitors audition in person, but the pandemic forced singers to record videos and send them to the PMEA organizers, something Witmer disliked.
“I just don’t sound that good online,” Witmer said. “I mean, like, no one really does, but it obviously didn’t help [my chances for success].”
Besides the PMEA competition, Witmer also received an Honorable Mention for Senior Voice at the Tri-County Concerts Youth Festival, an impressive achievement. And despite the effort put in behind the scenes to reach his level, the reason he attends all these competitions is simple.
“I heard about it [from my private teacher] and thought, ‘Hey! Why not try?” Witmer said.
His willingness to put his skills to the test and showcase his singing abilities comes from his enjoyment of the activity, and it shows his unique approach to music.
Witmer’s achievements speak for themselves, and despite his lack of boasting it is clear that he is a major part of Haverford’s performing arts program.
