Late Spring 2022: The Vermont Academy Way

The Vermont Academy Way

The Vermont Academy Way Curriculum A Daughter Honors Her Parents The Importance of Giving

Place-Based Learning Telling Stories Through Art A Lesson in Perseverance VOLUME 2, ISSUE 3 ~ LATE SPRING 2022

Dear Vermont Academy Community, As I write this the first snowdrops are blooming, the daffodils are stretching through the mulch, and soon the trees will be bursting with fresh green buds. We’ll soon celebrate Earth Day with students completing community service projects on campus and in the Saxtons River community.

Our students enjoy being outside in the long sunlight hours, often gathered on the sidelines of our tennis courts and baseball and lacrosse fields cheering on our teams.

The outside continues to become a bigger part of our campus life, and not just through athletics. The Land is a critical part of our strategic plan, which is now fully incorporated into The Vermont Academy Way Curriculum. Students spend more and more time away from their desks as classes take advantage of place-based learning. I’m excited to share more about both of these initiatives in stories in this issue.

You can come and see campus yourself, as we’re welcoming alumni back for the first in-person Reunion since 2019! We’re holding the event in June, which many people told us is an easier time to be able to travel. Casey Cota ’89, P’14, ’17, ’18 talks about returning to campus in his profile we’ve included in this issue. I think you’ll agree with him that coming back “is just like you felt as a kid going to your grandparents’ house: it’s that feeling of comfort, of familiarity.” We hope you choose to visit us, if even for a day.

All the wonderful changes taking place on campus, and the continuation of the school you know so well, are supported by people like you and we’ve included many stories of our supporters on these pages. We would love to include you on May 3 as we celebrate our annual One Day for VA Giving Day. As we march toward Commencement, I wish the same health and success to you and your loved ones as I wish to the Class of 2022! I think we all appreciate these simple things more and more after the last two years.

Warmly,

Dr. Jennifer L. Zaccara, Head of School

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DAY May 3 for VA

2022

“Giving Days” have become more popular in recent years as an opportunity for those in independent school communities to come together and celebrate their love of the school and connection to one another. Vermont Academy’s giving day has been no exception. Our community will celebrate its 7th annual One Day for VA on Tuesday, May 3. A 24-hour celebration, the day offers the opportunity to reconnect with the school and perhaps engage in some friendly competition among classes, while encouraging financial support of the institution.

The Vermont Academy Class of 1999 has been one such class that has embraced the day as an opportunity to show their love for VA. In 2021, they topped the leader board with 24 gifts! It is perhaps no surprise then that new Annual Giving Chair Andy Tyson ’99 is a member of that class.

We are excited to announce we have another match to offer this year thanks to the generosity of Chris Sinclair ‘67 and current parents Alison and Steve Shapiro P ‘22, ‘23. Watch your email, social media, or our giving page for more details!

As Vermont Academy looks to the future, we are hoping to see such commitment at play again this year. Every aspect of the VA experience is improved by the generosity of our donors. We hope to “see” you active online for One Day for VA 2022 on Tuesday, May 3!

Questions about how you can participate? Please reach out to Director of Annual Giving Tonia Fleming P’18 at tfleming@vermontacademy.org, or 802-869-6298.

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The Vermont Academy Way Curriculum Integrating our educational values, mapping our curriculum, differentiating our school. We Ascend Together.

For three years, faculty and staff at Vermont Academy have combined forces on a strategic plan that defines the school’s educational values. Vermont Academy teachers believe that learning and knowledge cannot be fully realized when confined to the traditional classroom alone. The strategic plan cultivates a learning culture where the values of independence, ingenuity, community, and the land liberate learning and knowledge for use in life.

The latest work on the strategic plan has focused on aligning teaching methodologies with these values, providing professional development support to help teachers bring the strategic plan to life, and communicating the values throughout our community. To help communicate the values, Dan Burmester, Vermont Academy’s Strategic Plan Coordinator, developed a series of icons that could be used throughout campus and, most importantly, be tied to courses in Vermont Academy’s catalog.

Ingenuity is represented by a spark — the idea or question in a student’s mind that leads to collaboration, creativity and problem-solving.

Independence is represented by a star — a symbol of charting one’s own course of inquiry in pursuit of answers to their questions.

Community is represented by circles of togetherness — a group of individuals coming together to strengthen themselves and Vermont Academy.

Land is represented by an intersection of mountain peaks — an appropriate symbol of the land surrounding Vermont Academy from which students can learn.

The Vermont Academy Way Curriculum aims to provide a combination of foundational courses, content-based courses, and courses centered in our educational values where students independently or collaboratively apply knowledge to real-world problems. When students select courses they will see one or more of the icons listed next to the course to help identify which of the educational values is the focus.

A graduation requirement for seniors and PGs is to be a member of an independence, ingenuity, or land cohort. In their cohorts, students take the lead and apply knowledge to solve real-world problems. The projects can take many forms, including academic research, entrepreneurial endeavors, STEM-based projects, or artistic ventures. These projects can include apprenticeships and collaborations with businesses and institutions that align with their project.

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To prepare for their senior year, juniors will take a project management and design thinking course. This will prepare them for independent and collaborative work. This course will help them create a project proposal. The identification of a project includes students mapping their academic journey and helping them understand the kinds of learning they have preferred during their time engaging with the Vermont Academy Way Curriculum.

Through this thorough understanding of their preferred way of learning and how to use their knowledge and skills in the world, Vermont Academy students will be uniquely prepared to apply to colleges and jobs.

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Linda Leary, Daughter of Alumnus, Honors Parents Linda Leary often tells people, “Vermont Academy played a crucial role in my father’s life.” As a young man, Richard “Dick” T. Leary ’50 dreamt of attending two outstanding schools: Vermont Academy and Dartmouth College. He told his children that achieving this goal provided him with an outstanding education, a lot of successful time on hockey rinks, and the opportunity to meet a young nursing student, Lindy “Loys” Lindgren. Loys became the love of his life — a partner with whom he shared 61 years of marriage and raised four children.

“VA launched him down that path,” explains Linda, “He was grateful. He stayed in touch with classmates, attended every reunion up to his 60th in 2010, and often talked about how much he learned from and respected Dorothy and Larry Leavitt,” she adds.

For these reasons, Linda supports Vermont Academy in a variety of ways.

One of her most significant decisions was to establish a scholarship in her parents’ honor at Vermont Academy. It was named for both parents, Linda explains, because without VA, they never would have met.

The Richard T. Leary ’50 and Loys Lindgren Leary Endowed Scholarship Fund provides assistance to students who have demonstrated financial need with a preference for boys’ hockey players.

Investing in education with scholarships such as this is important to Linda because she wants to help make education more affordable to all students. “As the cost of education goes up, financial aid makes it equitable,” Linda said. She is familiar with the importance of investing, having spent her professional career in the financial services industry. She has made the decision to contribute more to the Leary Scholarship Fund through her estate. This qualifies Linda as a member of the Leavitt Society, VA’s planned giving program.

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Dick Leary ’50 and the 1950 Varsity Hockey Team. Leary is number 28.

“Leaving a bequest,” she says, “allows me to leave a legacy at a certain level that has meaningful financial impact. The investment can grow and ensure the legacy carries on. It was simple to make these arrangements as part of my estate planning.”

A holistic donor, Linda truly gives of her time, talent and treasure. A loyal Annual Fund donor, Linda supports the Academy each year in order to help with the operating costs. She has also volunteered to help with events, as her schedule allows.

“This type of thoughtful individual who is generous and involved on so many levels,” says Director of Advancement Beth Crutcher, “makes an extraordinary difference to Vermont Academy and we are immensely grateful.”

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The Laurence and Dorothy Leavitt Society honors and recognizes alumni and friends of Vermont Academy who make a planned gift commitment.

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Fuller Hall Stair Benches and Bookmarks to Celebrate VA History and Giving Thanks to the thoughtfulness and generosity of former trustee Rick Stark ’74, a unique and meaningful piece of Vermont Academy has been given new life. Rick salvaged, designed and produced benches out of the original stair steps in Fuller Hall to help create a program for recognizing philanthropic commitments and singularly distinguished service to VA. During the summer of 2017, the main staircases in Fuller Hall were replaced.

Rick selected some of the wood from stairs where the well-worn tread provided a visible record of more than 120 years of VA students who climbed these stairs on their way to their classes and community gatherings in the Class of 2011 Great Room. He designed and then commissioned benches and bookmarks to be made from these wooden remnants.

Rick said, “When I first saw the stair remnants, some of oak and others of maple, I reflected on the thousands of students who took some of the most important steps of their lives going up-and-down those stairs to class and community events. I resolved to do something with those remnants to memorialize their remarkable history and the journey of growth they supported for so many students. I’m so pleased to have been part of an effort to usefully and appropriately repurpose the stair remnants.”

Former trustee David Newton and Dr. Jennifer Zaccara

The bench design recalls the character of the arts and crafts period when Fuller Hall was built.

The steam-bent oak legs are reminiscent of the building’s large stained-glass windows on either side of Class of 2011 Great Room. Thirty benches have been produced. Each is numbered and will be labeled with a brass plaque recognizing the recipient. They will be awarded to those who positively impact the school through their extraordinary service and/or generosity.

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Rick Stark ‘74

Beginning this June 2022 and concluding with the kickoff to the school’s 150th anniversary in June 2026, two benches will be awarded annually to those classes with the greatest support of the Annual Fund. One bench will be awarded annually to the class with the highest rate of participation in giving. A second bench will be awarded each year to the class who gives the largest total contribution.

The class achieving either of these milestones can vote to give the bench to someone special they want to honor, such as a teacher, or one of their classmates who has been a great representative of VA values. The class also has the opportunity to request that their bench remain on campus and be kept in a significant location.

A few benches will be given to alumni donors who make transformational contributions that help VA achieve one of the school’s fundraising priorities such as refurbishment of a dorm or support of the scholarship program.

Extraordinary gifts of service are also being recognized with these special pieces. Former Headmasters Michael Choukas Jr. ‘46, P’73, GP ‘94 and Jim Mooney P ‘11, ‘14 have received benches. Former trustee David Newton received a bench in celebration of his 37 years of consistent giving and staff member Greg Francis was also presented with one of these special pieces in celebration of his retirement after 37 years of service to Vermont Academy.

A limited number of bookmarks were also created from the wood salvaged from the Fuller Hall stairs and will also be used to recognize the generosity of our alumni.

“We hope that these unique benches and bookmarks will appropriately commemorate the impact made by alumni who give to VA, in whatever way is most meaningful to them,” said Dr. Jennifer Zaccara. She continued, “We are grateful to Rick for this creative and valuable gift as well as his own service as a trustee and an alumnus who is quick to share his time and talent with Vermont Academy.”

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Former Headmasters Michael Choukas Jr. ‘46, P’73, GP ‘94 and Jim Mooney P ‘11, ‘14

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Earth Day Every Day — the best in place-based education Step onto Vermont Academy’s campus and you’ll see students engaging with the outside world to learn. Think sunlight and laughter and excited shouts.

Projectors and laptops are traded for clipboards and binoculars. Books and pens are traded for sap buckets and frisbees, the forest and river. You might see cameras and paint brushes, even a fishing pole. Rolling up your sleeves and getting dirty is expected. The students’ energy — a kind of happy intention — is palpable. Visitors can’t help but wonder, “What is going on?”

Place-based education is learning that’s grounded in the local place — its native culture, nature, history, arts, and music. VA’s faculty are intentionally adapting curriculum so students can immerse themselves in their local surroundings, whether that be our 400-acre campus, Saxtons River community, or greater Vermont environs.

Why is place-based learning so important?

Because childhood is eroding. Playing ball in the neighborhood has morphed into battling on screen. The average student spends 8 hours online per day and 30 minutes outside. One half hour. Studies agree that place-based education programs lead to greater academic achievement across all subjects. Under the leadership of Director of Place-Based Learning Christine Armiger, and with support from faculty, Head of School Dr. Jennifer Zaccara, and the strategic plan, students are cultivating their curiosity, knowledge, and inspiration the Vermont Academy Way.

Q&A with Christine Armiger

Director of place-based learning and environmental studies Describe yourself as a student.

I loved school growing up, and I was always drawn to being outside. Like most students, I excelled at some subjects — biology and environmental science — and found others more challenging — history and language. It was only later when I began traveling — living, working and studying in other places, that I would develop a deep yearning to learn everything I possibly could about the local history, culture, and language of that place and its people.

Where did you attend college?

I began my undergraduate years in my home state of Maryland. After realizing my program was slanting toward laboratory-based biology, I transferred to University of Montana Western. Like Vermont Academy, it was a small school with less than 1,000 students. The science curriculum was geared to being outside, and southwest Montana became our laboratory. I received an experiential education I couldn’t have gotten anywhere else. I went on for my master’s degree at Antioch University New England in Keene, NH. My amazing professors at both of those schools have inspired me to provide my own students with opportunities to learn from the land using Vermont as our classroom.

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At Antioch, you studied with Tom Wessels — the noted environmentalist and author. What impacted you most from his teachings?

Tom became my mentor when I was earning my Master’s Degree in Conservation Biology, a degree program he founded. His community ecology class was almost entirely field based, and his style of teaching inspired me to get my biology and environmental science students outside as much as possible. Tom’s first book, Reading the Forested Landscape is one of our most important references. It explores how humans are not separate from the earth’s ecosystems but have been influencing them — and been influenced by them — for thousands of years. In New England, these stories are still written in the stone walls, white pine fields, and huge old maple trees scattered throughout our landscape.

What drew you to Vermont Academy?

In 2008, fresh out of Antioch, I was excited to discover that this little gem of a boarding school in Saxtons River, VT was looking for someone to champion place-based learning and environmental studies. I interviewed with then science department chair, Jim Frey ‘66, who exuded an incredible passion for teaching and was clearly adored by his students. After a quick tour of the campus buildings, Jim invited me to hop in the Gator where he showed me what I knew would be my true classroom space — the forest, trails, sugar house, Observatory, Bolles Pond, Arboretum, outing club, and canoe rack at Chivers Center. After this, I was hooked. I had been quite a rolling stone before landing at Vermont Academy. In the previous five years, I had lived and worked in Montana, Alaska, Hawaii, Louisiana, Belize, New Hampshire, and Maine… but after that tour with Jim, and after learning about his own connection with this place, I had a gut feeling that I’d be in Vermont for a very long time.

Visit www.vermontacademy.org/PlaceBased to read more of Christine’s interview and learn how our faculty are using place-based learning to achieve meaningful results.

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A Lesson in Perseverance: Casey Cota ’89 Casey Cota ‘89 P’14, ’17, ’18 is no stranger to hard work. His company, Vermont’s Cota and Cota Heating Fuels, is well known for their impeccable service, which he says is “like companies in the 1950s, when service mattered and everyone knew you.” As president of the company, Cota is the third in his family to run the business, and still thinks back on leadership lessons he learned from his grandfather, who treated employees like family.

This community mindset has served Cota well, as he’s been able to quickly get his employees on board with maintaining the company’s incredible level of service. Everyone at Cota and Cota Heating Fuels handles issues immediately as they come in. “Everything is done today, because tomorrow is only going to get busier,” he says. “When you deal with something immediately, then it’s behind you and you’re only dealing with the future, instead of the past. It’s been a good methodology for us.”

This hard work and sense of the importance of community is part of his genetic make up, but it’s also something that is deeply ingrained in him from his time at Vermont Academy. Looking back on his years at VA, Cota says, “it was one of the more transformative times in my life. Academically, I had a heavier course load in high school than in college, but it was also a time when I wondered what my identity was.” That identity would be shaped by his experiences with several major sports injuries, challenges that Cota overcame with hard work, perseverance, and a forward-looking mindset.

As a football player, Cota suffered two fractured femurs during the fall of his freshman year. After recovering from those injuries, he returned to playing basketball, but in the winter of his sophomore year, he broke his

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tibia and patella and dislocated the knee joint. The doctors told him he may never run again. “I was 15, and sports were my whole identity. It was probably the most traumatic thing that had ever happened to me personally,” he says. “But it was also one of the best things that happened to me.”

The injury, Cota says, taught him perseverance. After recovery, setbacks, surgery, and more recovery, he learned not only how to work hard to overcome an obstacle, but how to shift his mindset. “It was so long and hard, and difficult for my adolescent mind to process,” he says, “and I had to learn how to overcome my fear of it happening again. I had to learn to give up my illusion of control and accept that it would happen again or not, and I couldn’t control that.”

Luckily, he didn’t have to do it alone. “My English teacher, Don Tinney, was also an athletic trainer, and he became a great listener and a great mentor to me,” Cota says. “He was able to pump my tires when I thought they were flat, and let me know that I was heading in the right direction.” Tinney helped Cota adopt a life mantra that he still holds today: never give up. “No matter what other people say, you don’t quit until you say you quit. You don’t lose until you say you’ve lost.”

That tenacity served him well academically at VA, as well. “I was the sort of student who needed a lot of time for studying, so I would study for three or four hours every night,” Cota says. “And if I didn’t, I would wake up in the middle of the night because I hadn’t finished something. I’d be up late at night finishing the work, and I’m still that way today. If it’s got to get done, I’m going to stay and get it done.”

After graduating from VA, Cota attended Ithaca College, and then, with his brother Sean, he purchased Cota and Cota Heating Fuels from his father in 1995. In 2011, he bought out Sean’s half of the business, and the company has grown by leaps and bounds over the last 25 years, something he attributes to VA and how he learned to overcome challenges here.

And, to give back for those valuable lessons, Cota is still deeply involved with the school. He’s coached basketball, sat on the board of trustees, and, of course, watched his three children graduate from VA. Coming back on campus, he says, “is just like you felt as a kid, going to your grandparents’ house: it’s that feeling of comfort, of familiarity. There’s just something about campus that gives me a feeling of peace, that reminds me of a time when life made sense.”

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Telling Stories Through Art Visual Arts Chair Ms. Lisa Eckhardt McNealus ‘79, P ‘14 recently used collage to help students learn how to tell a story through art. “We encourage the development of visual literacy through a combination of art making and learning about art history in all levels of our Visual Arts courses,” McNealus explains.

The class focused their study on two important artists and their work: the Black American artist Romare Bearden’s “Odysseus Series” and the medieval artist Robert Campin’s “Merode Altarpiece.”

In 1977, Bearden created 20 collages and watercolors based on Homer’s epic poem “The Odyssey.” The series formed an artistic bridge between classical mythology and Black culture. The collected works told a story of a dislocated but heroic traveler’s search for a way home, which is a pervasive theme throughout Bearden’s work. The series was displayed for only two months in New York City before being scattered to private collections and public art museums. In 2012, the Smithsonian Institute brought the series together along with other works by Bearden for a three-year national tour.

Campin’s “Merode Altarpiece” is one of the most celebrated early Netherlandish paintings. The triptych, which is dated around 1427, is known for its detailed observation and rich imagery depicting the biblical story of the Annunciation, when the angel Gabriel tells the Virgin Mary that she will be the mother of Jesus.

“Students had to create their own story or new version of a story to be viewed as a triptych,” explains McNealus. “They were able to use any single or blend of collage technique as well as any type of support, like cardboard, mat board, or paper, to make the triptych.” The triptych format allows artists to tell a story in three acts: the set-up, confrontation, and resolution.

In completing the assignment, students created a sketch of the idea, the artwork itself, and an artist statement about the work. Each student then presented the work to the class and answered questions asked by their peers.

Selected works are presented here.

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Benjamin Morgado-Cabuto ‘22

Lilly Shlosser ‘22

Elizabeth Pitts ‘22

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2022

Go to www.vermontacademy.org/reunion to find registration details, the schedule, and more!

June 3–5, 2022

Gather with fellow Vermont Academy alumni and former faculty from all class years to celebrate a very special Reunion, our first to be held in-person since 2019!

Register Now for Reunion!

Go to www.vermontacademy.org/give to make your gift!

Reconnect with Vermont Academy! Engage in friendly competition among classes! Support your school!

Our community celebrates its 7th annual One Day for VA on Tuesday, May 3!

for VA

DAY May 3 P.O. Box 500 Saxtons River VT 05154

PAID

WHT RIV JCT VT PERMIT 86

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