The Compass – Fall 2021

THE

Compass

KEEPING UP THE

By: Bryan Geary and Kate Saunders

The Compass is our NEW quarterly update for alumni and friends.

We want to give you a special bite-sized update of everything Tilton, starting with an inside look at the new year with Head of School Kate Saunders.

Why the name, The Compass?

Kate Saunders: As you have probably noticed, our redesigned logo highlights the clock tower and the navigation markings around the clock face. This change honors something we all experience at Tilton: the intersection of time and direction.

Our time here on the Hill is limited, and we all encounter choices that shape ourselves and our education.

There’s something beautiful about choosing direction in these moments, and that’s what we hope to show you in The Compass!

What has been your favorite part of this fall?

KS: Seeing all the students back in the Chapel! Last year was really hard. We were together but we were limited—now we can bring back our favorite traditions and create more opportunities for fun!

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“We can now bring back our favorite traditions and create more opportunities for fun!”

Our new student leaders this year are AWESOME! They are truly taking the lead with events and helping to facilitate change on campus.

How have the changes to campus affected the students and faculty?

KS: It was wild to begin school without a dining hall! The project dealt with delays and road blocks related to COVID, but Tilton handled it all in stride! In true Rams fashion, we made it work—decorating the tent with lights and getting a ton of mileage out of our grills. We are a community of resilient people!

What was the most unexpected moment of the fall?

KS: Seeing the mummy! I always heard the rumors, and, even after 15 years at Tilton, I still didn’t believe it

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until I saw it. Katherine McCandless (our new Dean of Teaching and Learning) is spearheading work on partnerships with the University of New Hampshire and three other universities to create a community learning experience centered not just on our mummy, but the future of education and how schools like Tilton can lead the way. I’m excited to share more in the next issue of The Compass!

What are you looking forward to?

KS: I can’t wait for our first events at the Alumni Amphitheatre! The lineup is beginning to come together as the construction is in its final stages, and that’s so exciting! The students are getting creative and want to put the ‘amp’ in amphitheatre. One of our first events will feature drums and

percussion to get our community engaged in creating music.

What is important to be mindful of this year?

KS: I think it is really important to remember to take care of our community. Our students and teachers are still recovering from last year. We need to be patient, listen, and remain flexible as we adjust to life in our new environment. As an alum or friend of Tilton, your visits and notes make a huge difference—reminding the students, faculty, and staff that they are loved and appreciated.

What’s next for Tilton?

KS: We have accomplished a lot this year, and this is just the beginning!

We are wrapping up over $3.5 million in campus renovations and we are

very focused on the future. I really can’t wait for June 10 – 11, when we celebrate three classes for Alumni Weekend. Good things happen in threes and everyone should be keeping a close eye on Tilton because we have a lot of momentum right now!

How can I get connected or stay connected?

KS: We have done a lot of work on our NEW website and social media channels. If you’re not already following us, these outlets are a great place to see that we are engaged with our community in a new way. Please remember, you are always welcome home here on the Hill. Feel free to swing by anytime—we would love to see you!

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By: Bryan Geary

Tasked with presenting to Tilton’s Board of Trustees on behalf of the student body, Clément LaBillois ’22 and Kai Tsoar ’23 had all the details planned out, right down to their matching black polo shirts.

“Actually, that was just great minds thinking alike,” says Tsoar. “We didn’t even realize we were wearing the same shirt until someone told us.”

Intentional or not, their coordination is representative of their relationship.

LaBillois, who is from Quebec, Canada, and Tsoar, who is from California, are friends, hockey teammates, and now, running-mates.

They do a lot together, and this new endeavor has been the plan for a while. They bonded through the circumstances of the 2020-21 school year. As a precaution for COVID-19, students coming to Tilton from outside New Hampshire were asked to arrive to campus two weeks earlier than their in-state peers.

“We were the first two students here,” says LaBillois of he and Tsoar. “And we got along right away.”

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The idea to run as President and Vice-President came from Tsoar, who arrived at Tilton knowing student government was something he wanted to do. “I came here with the idea of a fresh start,” he says. “Coming to Tilton from California was going to be a big transition no matter what, so I just realized if I jump in and get involved, I won’t have time to think about missing home.”

After running for student government as a 9th grader, Tsoar won the office of Class President during his 10th grade year. Once he and LaBillois became friends, they realized quickly that, not only would leading the student body be fun to do together, but also that they could make a real difference on campus, particularly coming out of the difficult 2020-21 school year.

“I told him we should run together, like a Batman and Robin duo,” laughs Tsoar. “We took the attitude that this is our year and we want to make a positive impact for the whole school.”

You could say that fun is a top priority

of the LaBillois/Tsoar administration.

From impromptu dodgeball tournaments, to lively Black and Gold competitions at school meetings, their mark can be felt in all aspects of life at Tilton. You can even find them each weekend, dressed in their Sunday best, plotting their way across a homemade (modified) golf course on campus.

Beyond the liveliness you can see and hear each day, they’re each enjoying the opportunities for leadership and growth with their positions. “This is a game changer for me,” says LaBillois.

“I came here expecting to play hockey, do my thing, and leave. Now, being someone who is involved in the school community as a leader, it’s a great experience that’s made coming here so worth it.”

“They always told me, ‘you’re going to be a three-dimensional person.’ I never understood that until this year.”

Tsoar echoes the sentiment of his running mate: “I went to a public high school for one year and was always in the middle of the pack. I saw myself as a hockey player who does school. But here, they told me, ‘you’re going to be a three-dimensional person.’ I never understood that until this year; I’m way more than a hockey player and I can’t be more grateful for that.”

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By: Bryan Geary

Three afternoons a week, Hana Imaishi ’23 works quietly in the Helene Grant Daly Creative Arts Center. This particular project began last winter, but the thread of her story stretches back much further. Growing up in Japan, Imaishi learned to sew at an early age under the watchful eye of her grandmother. In middle school, she completed work on a wedding dress that took her three years.

“When I was young, I loved the idea of princesses,” says Imaishi. Her newest project conjures up this very image. Going off of a sketch she drew up in a matter of hours, Imaishi is closing in on a year’s worth of work, making steady, remarkable progress.

The Afternoon Arts program at Tilton provides her with an outlet for this creativity.

“This is why I came to Tilton,” she says. “Here you can make time for what you want to do. This is my favorite part of each day.”

Imaishi hopes to finish the dress this winter, at which point she’ll have to make her toughest decision yet: who gets to wear it.

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“You get an opportunity to practice presenting and speaking to others; to think on your feet.”

“It teaches skills outside of being an entrepreneur.”

“There’s always some time in your life that you’ll have to convince somebody of something.”

The beauty of the class is that its merits are different depending on who you ask. Some are already burgeoning entrepreneurs, cooking up plans for businesses they could run while still in high school. Some are interested in discovering more about themselves and how they learn, hoping to apply those creative thinking and problem-solving skills in college and beyond.

By: Bryan Geary

In Katherine McCandless’s Entrepreneurship class, no two meetings look quite alike. There’s no textbook, there’s no set format, and the content is fluid. It’s like this by design. The class is a metaphor for what learning looks like at Tilton: student-driven and interactive with a focus on skill development.

“This class is where essential skills meet personal pursuits,” says McCandless. As the school’s Dean of Teaching and Learning, that intersection feels as natural as it is 10 | The Compass

intentional. “Here, you’re presented with an idea or a problem that needs solving. To find the solution, you play with different possibilities, you ask questions of others, and ultimately you create something.”

“What I’ve learned is that I can always approach a problem from this point of view going forward,” says Seth McKenna ’22, who talks of learning more than just how to formulate an idea or execute a design, but also

what questions to ask along the way.

“One of the most important questions is ‘who do I need to help me solve this problem?’”

To illustrate this point in real life, McCandless and her students have ventured off campus to talk with local business, like Outdoor New England (ONE) in neighboring Franklin. ONE is an outdoor outfitter, selling, in their own words, “gear and clothing for a life outside.” The shop is also heavily invested in the revitalization of the town of Franklin, beginning work earlier this fall on a new white water rafting park on a section of the Winnipesaukee River. ONE hosted Tilton students for a visit in late September to discuss the concept of social entrepreneurship and community partnership.

“We want this class to be a model for how Tilton can be connected with the community,” says McCandless.

Additional partners include Highland Mountain Bike Park, iSlides, and the Chesterfield Gallery, teaming our students with alumni and community leaders on both a local and national level.

Today, the assignment is centered around “the elevator pitch.” A skill that students have previously applied to themselves and their ideas, McCandless today asks them to apply that concept in order to “pitch” the Entrepreneurship class to someone who wants to learn more.

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By: Bryan Geary and Michael Landroche

Over the summer of 2021, Tilton School invited students and other community members to read The Hate U Give, a novel by Angie Thomas about a teenage girl who grapples with issues of racism, police brutality, and activism. Veteran teacher Mike Landroche led a small group of department chairs and students in the process of constructing a student summer reading & writing experience with the Thomas novel.

Earlier this fall, Landroche sat down to contextualize the experience and its broader meaning regarding Tilton’s approach to teaching and learning.

What is the goal of the annual summer reading project?

Mike Landroche: Summer reading at Tilton has taken many different forms, but each iteration has been based on two hopes: First, if we invite our students to remain intellectually engaged during the summer, they will join us. We don’t want them to see June, July and August as a vacation from being thoughtful, reflective participants in their own progress as learners, as readers, as critical thinkers, as creative problem 12 | The Compass

solvers, and as mindful respondents to the issues within and surrounding their communities. Second, shared experiences bring us closer. Reading a novel together, thinking about it together, and talking about it together, brings the whole community together.

of race and gender and ethnicity.

Obviously, the politics of power, the politics of justice, apply to more than race. Tilton has made a commitment to deepen its understanding of the politics of ethnicity, gender, wealth, and other measures of human difference.

What is the significance of this novel?

What were some of the most powerful moments for you, observing our students navigate this text?

ML: Well, first, we considered many different nominations for this summer’s project including Trevor Noah’s memoir, Born a Crime, and Ibram Kendi’s Stamped from the Beginning, but after getting some feedback from campus students and adults, the clear choice was The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas.

As the third most challenged book in 2020, The Hate U Give is also significant. By the way, our 9th graders also read a book called All American Boys that happens to be the seventh most challenged book, and the Tony Morrison novel, The Bluest Eye, that’s the 10th most challenged.

Tilton School has made a decision that we’re not going to back away from helping each other negotiate and navigate our way through the politics

ML: So many. When I talk with 9th graders, I see that they are so willing to go with us and have a conversation, always being mindful that one can be honest and respectful at the same time. Their ability to balance being honest by being respectful of the others in the room; they’re so good at that.

I also work with a lot of 12th graders and postgraduates. At the beginning of school, we had 45 minutes together to set the stage for how the English Department would be handling the novel in class. I didn’t know what to expect, but I was so impressed by their awareness of the issues of justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion.

Our conversations throughout the fall

have always acknowledged that the issues raised in the novel are political, that speaking honestly about them will require courage, and to voice one’s thoughts courageously and respectfully signals real growth.

What do you take away from this experience?

ML: Meeting with the 12th graders during orientation and into the fall has just made me so hopeful. We as a community are learning to not just be respectful but also to be curious about the other’s experience. Our reckoning with social injustice and our willingness to walk boldly into conversations across campus has opened our eyes, our minds, and our hearts.

“Reading a novel together, thinking about it together, and talking about it together, brings the whole community together.”

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RAMS IN

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Action

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The Masiello Family Terrace and The Masiello Dining Commons This past summer, the Charles E. Tilton Mansion, originally built in 1861 and placed in the National Registry of Historic Places in 1982, received extensive work to the exterior of the building and the surrounding gardens.

The first phase of this preservation and restoration project came to fruition as a result of a generous gift from the Masiello Family Fund of the NH Charitable Foundation along with a grant from the Land & Community Heritage Investment Program (LCHIP). This stage of the project included a new roof, restoration of the chimneys and porches, preservation of the architectural details, a fresh coat of paint, and all new landscaping and exterior lighting; it’s an amazing transformation!

By: Jane McNulty

Typically, summer on the Hill is relaxing and quiet, the days punctuated by the sound of birdsong and crickets. That was not the case this summer! On any given day, the campus was abuzz with the sound of power tools and heavy equipment; it was a summer of progress.

There were four capital projects completed over the summer and we can’t wait for you to see them! All of

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the projects were made possible because of a number of incredibly generous individuals who chose to make Tilton a top priority in their philanthropy. We are a better, stronger community as a result of their investment in our campus and the confidence these benefactors have in our collective future. Put another way, these people—quite literally—make the place.

The Masiello Family Fund of the NH Charitable Foundation also supported the dining hall renovation. The new Masiello Dining Commons is a total renovation of the dining room and servery, allowing for improved traffic flow and adequate seating for the entire community. Updated flooring, lighting, furniture, and the restoration of the wood-paneled walls makes for a bright and beautiful new social hub on campus.

“We are a better, stronger community as a result of their investment in our campus and the confidence these benefactors have in our collective future.”

While the Masiellos clearly demonstrate a deep respect for the past by honoring our iconic places, they are also playing a significant role in fostering a bright future for local students. Each year, The Masiello Scholarship supports deserving students from neighboring towns who otherwise would be unable to attend Tilton. Zoey ’19, a recipient of the Masiello Scholarship says: “Because of Tilton, I was able to pursue interests I did not know I had, embrace my role as a leader, and, most importantly, thrive (with lots of help) in the classroom.”

The ripple effects from the Masiello family’s generosity are profound.

Matt ’90, currently serving on the Board of Trustees, is playing an active role in guiding and stewarding Tilton for the next generation of students and their families.

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Alumni Amphitheatre The events of the last 18 months have underscored the need for multiuse, functional outdoor spaces. Thanks to Holly and John Shaughnessy, the Alumni Amphitheatre is now a beautiful space to gather for school meetings, theatre productions, concerts, visiting speakers, classes, or just to enjoy some sun and fresh air. The new amphitheatre is centrally located off the academic quad and adjacent to Hamilton Hall.

The Shaughnessy family’s philanthropic support isn’t just focused on physical spaces; they have been supporting student-athletes at Tilton for the last two decades through the P.J. Shaughnessy ’02 Memorial Scholarship Fund and the Shaughnessy Family Scholarships. John, a member of the Board of Trustees (and quite possibly Tilton’s most avid hockey fan), and Holly have had a profound impact on Tilton students. Jamie ’20, a Shaughnessy Scholar who is now a sophomore at Williams College says: “Not only would I not have ended up at Tilton if it wasn’t for the generosity of the Shaughnessy family, but they provided my own

family with an outlet of love and support through their kind words and actions after I lost my mother.” Jamie hopes to one day follow the Shaughnessy’s example and make a difference in the lives of young people.

Hamilton Family Pavilion James A. Hamilton, class of 1918, served on the Board of Trustees from 1949-1983 and was a loyal supporter and friend to Tilton throughout his life. Among the many initiatives that he supported during his lifetime, Hamilton, a hospital administration expert, designed and funded the health center, which is named after his first wife, Sabra M. Hamilton. In recognition for his extraordinary contributions, in 1982, the same year he received the Alumnus of the Year Award, Alumni Hall was renamed Hamilton Hall in his honor. Recently, his grandchildren made a generous gift in memory of their grandfather—The Hamilton Family Pavilion. The Pavilion sits at the gateway to the Back 40 and is a space for yoga, outdoor classes, cross-country running and skiing, and is a great place to spend quiet time surrounded by nature.

Donor Roll As we prepare to celebrate Thanksgiving and the season of giving that follows, it seems like the perfect time to express our deep gratitude to the many alumni, parents, and friends of Tilton who made an impact over the past year. So many of you stepped forward to demonstrate your care and support for students and faculty and, in doing so, you helped to make this an extraordinary and successful year in so many ways. This year our campus-wide theme is “The People Make the Place” and you are those people!

To view the fiscal year 2021 Donor Roll, Please visit tiltonschool.org/donorroll or scan the QR code to the right.

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Scan to view Donor Roll The Compass | 19

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