- May
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The Recorder (Greenfield, MA) May 8, 2008
Peace Awards Honor Teens
Britt Lilienthal '08 is one of six high school students in Franklin County who were honored May 7 with a Peacemaker Award for their work in peace and justice by the Interfaith Council and the Traprock Peace Center. Britt; with the organization she led, Wipe a Tear: Rwanda; raised $25,000 for orphans in that African nation. She was nominated for the award by Chaplain Michael Corrigan and Chaplaincy Associate Winnie Ganshaw, who also are mentioned in the article.
Click here to read story.
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Peace awards honor teens
By MACKENZIE ISSLER Recorder Staff
Published: Thursday, May 08, 2008
GREENFIELD -- Six Franklin County high school students were honored on Wednesday night for their involvement in peace and justice activities in their communities.
Morgan Cooper of Frontier Regional School, Blake Goodwin of Ralph C. Mahar Regional School, Naika Lewis of Greenfield High School, Britt Lilienthal of Northfield Mount Hermon School, Ben Simon of Ralph C. Mahar Regional School and Erin Tuffy of the Academy at Charlemont were this year's recipients of the Peacemaker Awards. The program is sponsored by the Interfaith Council of Franklin County and the Traprock Peace Center.
Simon, a sophomore at Mahar, was nominated for his leadership on a dating violence prevention initiative, the White Ribbon Day Committee, and for his work as a peer mediator and being a voice for youth in the community.
He filmed and directed a short video in which students demonstrate verbal abuse and controlling behaviors. He was nominated by guidance counselor Paula Swenson.
Lilienthal, a senior at Northfield Mount Hermon, created a service project, 'Wipe a Tear: Rwanda,' which raised $25,000 within the NMH community of students, faculty, staff and alumni.
She 'has demonstrated noteworthy qualities of care, affection and service to others,' said her nomination letter from Chaplain Michael Corrigan and Chaplaincy Associate Winnie Ganshaw.
Goodwin, a freshman at Mahar, 'actively works toward worldwide justice by reaching out to his community,' according to his nomination letter written by Americorps member Alyssa Schmidt of the DIAL/SELF Center in Orange.
He created the multimedia show for the sixth annual Martin Luther King Jr. Day celebration at the Bethany Lutheran Church in Orange.
'When most kids see Martin Luther King Jr. Day as a day to relax, Blake sees it as an opportunity to celebrate equality, diversity and equal rights,' said Schmidt.
Tuffy, a senior at Academy at Charlemont, chose to do public health work in Jamaica as the cornerstone of her senior project, where she did public education work around HIV/AIDS on the island.
She also organized the school's celebrations of National Coming Out Day and Day of Silence.
'Kids are often willing to speak the truth to power, but not as often willing to speak the truth to their peers. Erin is willing to do so,' said Todd Sumner, the academy's headmaster in her nomination letter.
Lewis, a GHS student, is involved with Amnesty International and has served on the Human Rights Commission, where she worked to eradicate graffiti at Poet's Seat Tower. She was nominated by guidance counselor Jeanette Lawrence.
Cooper is a junior at Frontier and led Frontier's first delegation to the Peacejam Northeast Conference, which was held this year at Elms College.
She is the president of the Peacejam group at the school and has 'worked exceptionally hard to bring awareness to the importance of striving for peace in our world,' according to her letter by Julia Mason, nurse leader at Frontier.
'I have joy for helping people,' said Cooper after the awards presentation.
She said she has learned that even though she is only one person, that she can do something.
She sent a message to her peers and everyone else in the world: 'Everyone can do something. There are people out there who need your help.'
Each received $75 awards for such efforts as speaking up for equal rights, participation in constructive problem-solving activities and intervention to reach peaceful resolution of conflict in difficult situations and circumstances.
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Keene Sentinel May 4, 2008
Athol Duo Races to Victory
NMH's outdoor education director Glenn Minshall and Eden Ayer '11 are quoted in this story about a canoe race on the Ashuolot River in New Hampshire. Below the story, a sidebar features a quote from an NMH coach.
Click here to read the story.
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Athol duo paddles to victory
Web Posted 5/4/2008
Article : Gregg Lavoie
Spectators and competitors at the 25th Annual Ashuelot River Canoe/Kayak Race didn't have to battle the black flies this year, but they probably would have preferred to.
Despite the bland conditions, around 75 participants showed up at Ashuelot River Park in Keene on Saturday to compete in the traditional flat water race to West Swanzey.
The canoe divisions were made up of pro men's, pro mixed, pro singles, C-2 racing men's, C-2 women's, C-2 mixed and recreational.
For kayaks, there was a racing division and a rec division.
Brothers Brent and Ryan Lyesiuk of Athol, Mass., captured to pro men's division title, finishing the 19-mile route in 2 hours, 18 minutes and 21 seconds.
Brent, who was racing with his brother for the first time, has now won the race seven straight years.
"The river was pretty clean," Lyesiuk said. "There weren't too many trees down."
The duo of Peter Heed from Westmoreland and Mike Fairchild of Brattleboro placed fourth in the pro men's class in 2:22.33.
Lisa Tambussi and Doug Howard, both of Newfane, Vt., won the pro mixed division in 2:27.07. Westmoreland's Kristen Warner and Dennis Carey of Orange, Mass., were third in 2:31.06.
Keene resident Mary Hamilton teamed up with John Casalle of Southampton, Mass., to take third in the C-2 mixed division. The pair finished in 1:24.12.
Instead of warm weather with the sun beating down, a steady drizzle fell from gray skies for the majority of the race.
Fortunately though, the cold and wet conditions didn't dampen the mood of the paddlers.
"The turnout is light this year because it's raining," race organizer Tom Warner said. "We would have liked to have more people racing in the recreational division, but all in all, it's good for the conditions."
The pro course included a portage near the start to avoid the falls in Ashuelot River Park as well as a turn and trip upstream later in the race.
"A lot of people use this race as training for the 70-mile General Clinton Canoe Regatta on the Susquehanna River in New York," Warner said.
The C-2 division course was 91/2 miles long and included the portage, and the recreational course was nine miles and started below the falls in the park.
"The good thing was that they were able to throttle back the dam so that the flow is actually quite nice," second-year competitor Shawn Burke said. "It was a little tricky, but not too bad."
Burke, who resides in Andover, Mass., said the conditions were nicer than last year because there was a little more water in the river.
In the pro singles division, which Burke competed in, Tom Ellsworth of Orange, Mass., placed first in 2:36.38.
Wolfeboro's Howie Bean and Nat Lucy captured the C-2 racing men's division in 1:16.10. Patti Spector and Laura Walton, both of Pittsfield, Mass., placed first in the C-2 women's division with a time of 1:22.43.
Luckily, all the rain the area has received over the last week didn't make conditions too treacherous.
Warner said the water level had dropped from a high of 800 cubic feet to just under 300, and below Keene the depth gauge dropped from 8.6 feet to about 6 feet.
"We are grateful the river dropped feet, that was very helpful," long-time competitor Tricia Heed said following the race. "I love it at this level, but it is cold. You don't feel it too much on the river, but as soon as you get off it hits you."
Heed, though in good spirits, complained that her feet felt like "frozen blocks of ice" as she pulled her canoe up on the shore just past the finish line.
Not everyone was in a chipper mood when they reached the finish near the covered bridge in West Swanzey.
First-time competitors Dave Phelps and Greg LeBlanc took an involuntary swim in the Ashuelot half way through the race.
"We hit a branch and it caught the guy in the back paddling and we just flipped over," Phelps said.
"I'm wet and cold," LeBlanc added as the two men turned over their canoe and dumped out nearly three inches of water.
The race got off to a hectic start when the competitors had to portage early on and carry their canoes and kayaks down a path in Ashuelot River Park and get back in the water below the falls.
Burke got confused and took a left instead of a right on the path, costing him valuable time.
The Lyesiuks snapped one of their paddles hopping back into the water - but a new paddle was quickly given to them.
A group of students from the Northfield Mount Hermon School in Mount Hermon, Mass., also made the voyage down the Ashuelot.
"One of our faculty is a canoeing marathoner, and for a couple of years she's been suggesting that we bring our students up here," said Glenn Minshall, one of the coaches from Mount Hermon. "They've been training in whitewater, so they were a little apprehensive about actually having to paddle."
Each pair of students looked both excited and exhausted as they reached the finish line and unloaded on shore.
"It was a lot of fun," NMH student Eden Ayre said. "I would love to do it again. We usually just go whitewater canoeing."
Scott Livingston of Winchendon, Mass., and Scott Parker of Orange, Mass., won the recreation division title in 1:16.44.
Today, the fun on the water continues with the New Hampshire Whitewater Championship on Otter Brook, sponsored by the Birch Hill Canoe Club.
SIDEBAR:
Best quote: "It looks like you're going on a picnic, not a race." - One of the Northfield Mount Hermon coaches to a pair of students teamed up for the race. The students had two or three plastic bags full of food in their canoe.
Worst miscue: After portaging shortly after the start and carrying his canoe through the trail in Ashuelot River Park, Shawn Burke accidentally turned left at a fork in the trail instead of right. With spectators yelling at him, Burke quickly realized his mistake and made his way in the right direction, but the miscue cost him valuable time.
Worst weather: Granted, we weren't asking for 90-degree heat, but Mother Nature could have at least provided a little bit of sun and warm weather for the race. Maybe next year.
Best help: After Greg LeBlanc and Dave Phelps tipped their canoe midway through the race, a pair of competitors stopped to lend a helping hand and get the duo back in their canoe. Kudos to the mystery helpers.
- April
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The Republican (Springfield, MA) April 23, 2008
Youth of Year is Taking Right Steps
Youth of the Year for the Holyoke Boys and Girls Club is Angel Soto, an Upward Bound student. A profile of Angel mentions how he spends summers at NMH taking classes, visiting colleges, and learning study skills.
Click here to read story.
- Youth of Year is taking right steps
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
By JEANETTE DeFORGE
jdeforge@repub.com
HOLYOKE - Angel D. Soto was only 10, had just moved from Puerto Rico and was learning English. But he knew what he wanted to do in the future.
He wanted to go to college.
"He has always been a reader and a student," said Laurie Millman, program development director for the Holyoke Boys and Girls Club. "He knew from his earliest years he was going to college."
Because of his aspirations, combined with volunteer work and ability to be a role model, Soto, 16, was named Youth of the Year for the Holyoke boys and Girls Club this year.
The award is not easy to win. Students have to write two essays, submit recommendations from teachers and other adults, and show qualities of moral character, citizenship and a sense of life goals, Millman said.
Soto joined the club as a 6-year-old, but then his family moved to Puerto Rico. When he was a fifth-grader he returned and his mother immediately enrolled him in the club, he said. His father, a police officer in Puerto Rico, was killed on duty before he was born.
"When I was 13, 14, I stayed here and started volunteering and I've moved up and up and look at me now - I'm the Youth of the Year," Soto said, a little surprised with the award.
There Soto said he learned it was possible to go to college, even though no one in his family had ever graduated from high school.
He grew friendly with some tutors who help students with homework. Many of them were from low-income families like his, many spoke Spanish at home, and they were in college.
"I would listen to them talk about college and it was so interesting," he said. "I never thought I would reach up to that level but they were so much help."
Then a cousin told him about the Upward Bound program that introduces young teens to higher education. One of the first things he did as a freshman at Holyoke High was go to the library to register.
Since then he has spent part of his summer at Northfield Mount Hermon School taking academic classes, visiting colleges and learning study skills.
At the club, Soto has always been an asset, whether it is volunteering to tutor or working as a lifeguard, Millman said.
"He is very mature, very responsible and he takes the role seriously," Millman said. "He is a good influence."
Soto believes he owes the staff plenty. He said he has read about other youth in his situation who turned to gangs. "They did not find a way to get out," he said.
He also credits his mother, Sonia Lopez, a prep cook, for giving him the support he needs as well as teaching him wrong from right.
"She is the one behind me; she tells me, 'I just want you to do something with your life,'" he said.
He knows he serves as a role model to his sister Sonya Rivera, 12, who is a club member.
The club staff did things his mother could not, like giving him his first job as a peer leader when he was 14. He said he used the money to buy his sister uniforms as she entered Holyoke Community Charter School.
Later staff learned he was a member of the Holyoke High swim team and offered to train him as a lifeguard. He continues to work at the pool and give swimming lessons.
Now Soto, who earns A's and B's in school, is thinking ahead. He has selected several colleges he has visited and would like to go to Boston University.
He said he enjoys science and is interested in the medical field. He may major in nursing and eventually go to medical school.
He is preparing for the day he will become the first in his family to graduate high school.
"I've been telling my grandma (in Puerto Rico) I'm going to buy her a plane ticket so she can see me," he said.
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The Recorder (Greenfield, MA) April 22, 2008
With Bells On
A striking photo of carillon bells in the tower of the Rhodes Arts Center dominates the front page, along with an article about the carillon's history and new life at NMH after residing on the Northfield campus since 1924. The article extensively quotes performing arts chair Sheila Heffernon.
Click here to read story.
- With Bells On
BY ARN ALBERTINI RECORDER STAFF
Published: Tuesday, April 22, 2008
GILL -- Since 1924, the peals of bells have been a symbol of the Northfield campus of the Northfield Mount Hermon School.
That tradition stopped when the school consolidated to the Gill campus in 2002.
But soon the sound of bells will re-join NMH students, this time on the Gill campus.
'When we combined campuses, one the great sorrows for us was to leave Northfield behind,' said Sheila Heffernon, chairwoman of the performing arts department. 'What we're trying to do is bring the spirit of Northfield to this campus.'
'To bring an emblem of Northfield on to this campus will make it all feel more complete to me.'
Last week, the carillon moved out of the Russell Sage Chapel in Northfield and it is being installed in the school's new state-of-the-art Rhodes Arts Center , which on track to open next fall.
The carillon's 47 bells range in size from about 10 inches in diameter and 33 pounds to the largest, which is two tons and just over 58 inches in diameter.
The bells, made of copper and tin alloy, were forged at the Paccard Foundry, nestled in a small village of the French Alps. It's the same foundry that forged bells for St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York City, the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C., and the replica Liberty bells.
The carillon is a donation of Carl C. and James C. McRoberts in memory of their parents, Mr. and Mrs. William J. McRoberts, who were longtime summer residents of Northfield. It was installed in the Russell Sage Chapel in 1966.
The carillon includes a set of eight bells that had been a gift to the Northfield School for Girls in 1924 and that were re-cast as part of the 1966 donation.
Each bell is named after a biblical figure and each bell reads 'Paccard Me Fecit, Anney 1966,' Latin for 'Paccard made me in the year 1966.'
When the carillon was in Northfield, it was operated by a series of wooden hand and foot levers, which pressed the clappers into the bells.
Some levers, especially the larger ones like the two-ton bell, were a challenge to move, said Heffernon, who began playing the carillon when she arrived on campus as a teacher in 1980. 'When I played, I had to jump on it. It was like working out at the gym.'
Because of the space and complication of the system, once the carillon is up and running in Gill, it will be operated by an electronic system, Heffernon said.
Anyone who plays the piano will now be able to play the carillon and they'll be able to produce a fuller sound, she said. 'You can activate more clappers at the same time because every time you press a finger on the keyboard, it electronically activates a clapper.'
There's no set schedule of when the bells will play, but Heffernon said she envisions them played during graduation, after a wedding at the chapel or perhaps as students go into all-school meetings each Monday morning.
She said she hopes the sound of the carillon will become part of the students' experience at NMH so whenever they hear a carillon they will think back fondly to their time at the school.
The carillon will be played for the first time at its new home at the class of 1958's 50th reunion on the second weekend of June, said Heffernon. The class of 1958 organized the fundraising effort for the $500,000 it will cost to move the carillon.
You can reach Arn Albertini at: aalberti@recorder.com or (413) 772-0261 Ext. 264.
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The Republican (Springfield, MA) April 22, 2008
Bells Moved to Gill Campus
The move of the carillon bells is the subject of a story that quotes Sheila Heffernon.
Click here to read story.
- Bells moved to Gill campus
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
By DAVID A. VALLETTE
dvallette@repub.com
GILL - Jeremiah may have been a bullfrog, so the song goes, but at Northfield Mount Hermon he is a 3,300-pound bell.
That giant bell is one of 47 being painstakingly installed in the tower of the new fine arts building on campus. Together, the bells will form a carillon - a musical instrument.
Jeremiah is not the biggest of the special bells, which were cast in the 1960s in the French Alps Paccard Foundry. That honor goes to Jeroboam at 4,730 pounds, well more than two tons, and with a diameter of nearly five feet.
The smallest of the bells is 33 pounds.
"Each of the bells is considered a spirit, a personality, and each has a name," Sheila L. Heffernon, chairwoman of the Performing Arts Department at the school, said yesterday.
The arrival of the carillon is perhaps the final element of the school's sister campus in Northfield to make the transition to the Mount Hermon campus in Gill. Once operating at both campuses, the school consolidated three years ago at Mount Hermon, and its Northfield campus is on the market.
Yesterday, as hard-hatted workers carefully installed each bell, there was not silence. The bells couldn't help ringing as they were maneuvered and anchored into their chosen place. It was like an orchestra tuning up.
The bells of the carillon were housed in and rang out from the Russell Sage Chapel in Northfield, replacing an eight-bell chime. Those eight bells are more than just a predecessor to the carillon, however, because they were melted down and became part of the bronze set of 47 that was dedicated and began to play in September 1966 at what was then the Northfield School for Girls.
That melt-down provided a technicality which, along with the intercession of the late U.S. Rep. Silvio O. Conte, of Pittsfield, saved the school from having to pay a tariff when the foundry delivered them to America, Heffernon said. It allowed the school to say that the imported bells were merely a new version of the old bells, she said.
The carillon was a gift to the school from Carl C. and James C. McRoberts, in memory of their parents, Mr. and Mrs. William J. McRoberts, longtime summer residents of Northfield.
The gift of transferring the bells to Mount Hermon, at a cost of about $500,000, is from the Class of 1958, which on the second weekend of June will hold its 50th reunion and hold a new dedication ceremony for the carillon.
"People are getting pretty excited," Heffernon said.
Along with being played at the dedication, the carillon may be playing the school song at graduation exercises, which will be held in a field adjacent to the bell tower of the new Rhodes Arts Center , set to formally open in September.
"We hope to play our seniors out when they graduate," Heffernon said.
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The Recorder (Greenfield, MA) April 15, 2008
NMH Campus Sale Focuses on Buildings
A front-page story outlines NMH's refocusing its efforts to sell the Northfield campus from 300 acres to 102 acres of the core campus.
Click here to read story.
- NORTHFIELD -- When Northfield Mount Hermon School first decided to sell its Northfield campus almost three years ago, it had about 300 acres on the market. About a month ago, the school decided to refocus its sale to 102 acres, which more clearly defines the land necessary to run the campus, said Richard Wood, NMH's chief financial officer.
''It's not a change in strategy, it's just a tightening of the definition of the campus.''
Neighbors of that core campus are interested in what will happen with the rest of NMH's Northfield holdings. Mount Grace Land Trust and other land trusts are eyeing the 1,587 acres of forest the school owns for permanent protection as the school's land abuts forest that has already been protected. And the town of Northfield has expressed interest in the 117 acres NMH owns in the Mill River area, for recreation and to tie into efforts to preserve the Schell Bridge.
''We're not agreeing to sell anything else (but the main campus),'' Wood said. ''However, in order to understand how a potential user of the core campus would see the property or potential use of the property, you have to have a holistic view of everything that's here (in Northfield),'' Wood said.
For example, a small college might need the 32 residential properties the school owns as housing for faculty, he said. Some buyers have also expressed an interest in the forest land, Wood said. So, until the core campus is sold, NMH will hold off on making any decisions on its other Northfield holdings, he said.
''The reason is, we don't know whether the other pieces will make a difference in the sale of the core campus.''
Once the core campus is sold, the school can talk about what to do with its other property, he said. Besides the campus, the residential properties, the forest and the Mill River area, the school owns a nine-hole golf course. NMH will hold onto 12.4 acres, the Moody Legacy Area, which includes the home where the school's founder Dwight L. Moody was born, and abuts the campus. The replacement value for NMH's Northfield campus is $150 million, but the campus is listed for $20 million because the real estate costs so much to maintain, said Wood. In reality, with the cost of building materials and the unique architectural styles, the campus is irreplaceable, he said.
There are three parties currently interested in the property. Because of confidentiality agreements, Wood said he couldn't say anything about those groups, except that they have educational missions. The highest, best use for the property would be one that continues the campus' role as an education institution, he said.
''The buyer of the core campus is going to need to have a mission that is going to support the buildings on it.''
Although NMH students aren't on the Northfield campus during the year, it's not closed, said Wood. There are 50 people who work there and over 30 families live in housing in Northfield. Last summer, the campus hosted a performing arts camp, sponsored by American Idol. The same camp, with a new sponsor, will be back next summer, said Wood.
You can reach Arn Albertini at: aalberti@recorder.com or (413) 772-0261 Ext. 264
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The Recorder (Greenfield, MA) April 14, 2008
Northfield to Identify Land Priorities at Wednesday Meeting
The town of Northfield's Conservation Vision Steering Committee will hold a public meeting April 16 to present its picks for land conservation. Among the choices are parcels owned by NMH.
Click here to read story.
NORTHFIELD -- For six months, the town's Conservation Vision Steering Committee has worked to identify local priorities for land conservation. Public meetings in October and January and a survey conducted in between engaged nearly 50 residents each and a broad range of perspectives.
On Wednesday, from 7 to 9 p.m., the Steering Committee will host a public meeting at Town Hall to present the results of its work.
These results will include maps of Northfield showing overall land conservation priorities, specific sites that were nominated and ranked by residents, and priorities for five goals: farmland, water quality, wildlife habitat, recreation, and historic and rural character.
The overall priorities were determined at a meeting on Jan. 30, with residents casting votes to determine the relative weights of the individual goals. Farmland emerged as the highest priority goal. Among the nominated sites, the zone encompassing the Mill Brook conservation area, Schell Bridge, and the River frontage in between ranked highest, followed by Crag Mountain, the Northfield Mount Hermon School trails east of campus, the historic NMH campus, and the Cascade waterfall area.
In addition to maps and related statistics, the Steering Committee's final report to the selectmen will include implementation recommendations to help the town and its boards and committees to be more successful at pursuing conservation opportunities of high value to residents.
While the report will be essentially complete by Wednesday's meeting, it will be revised to note comments made at that meeting before it is completed. To ensure that all input is adequately addressed, any Northfield resident with suggestions for implementation is requested to pass them on to a committee member or to Clem Clay at The Trust for Public Land in advance of the meeting and as soon as possible.
Steering Committee members include Jane Abbott, Joel Fowler, Steve Malsch, Joanne McGee, Al Rogers, Sue Ross, Tom Shearer, Jerry Wagener, and Kathy Wright, with Hank Henry substituting for Jane Abbott at a number of meetings. This group includes members of the Agricultural Commission, Board of Assessors, Board of Selectmen, Finance Committee, Open Space Committee and Planning Board.
Residents interested n participating in the process may contact Clem Clay, TPL's Connecticut River Program Director, at (413) 584-6686 or clem.clay@tpl.org.
- March
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The Recorder (Greenfield, MA) March 28, 2008
NMH Speaker: Don't Forget Africa
Coverage of NMH's State of the World speaker Nana Fosu-Randall describes her speech about what war is doing to ordinary Africans, especially women and children. Her nonprofit, Voices for African Mothers, aims to help the situation there. The article mentions that a group of NMH students asked Randall how they could volunteer with her in Ghana.
Click here to read story.
- NMH speaker: Don't forget Africa
By JEREMY DIRAC Recorder Staff
[ Originally published on: Friday, March 28, 2008 ]
GILL -- Although much of the country's attention is on Iraq and Afghanistan, in Africa alone there are 10 countries with tragic conflicts, said the founder of the nonprofit Voices for African Mothers, Nana-Fosu Randall.
Randall said that in 29 years visiting war-torn countries for the U.N., from Israel to Cambodia, it was on break in Liberia that she chose to start Voices for African Mothers, or VAM, which attempts to help Africans.
Randall spoke to about 20 people as part of Northfield Mount Hermon School's State of the World series. In the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, NMH started it with the belief that what happens in far-away places like Vietnam, Afghanistan and Uganda is increasingly relevant.
She said that, at a Liberian shopping center, she saw a girl of about 13 without hands or feet sitting nursing a child in her lap. Through her driver, Randall learned that the woman lost her hands and feet after not cooperating with soldiers who raided her home one night.
''That day my life changed and I said I would do whatever I can to help these people who cannot speak for themselves,'' Randall said.
In Swaziland, which is not at war, Randall said a bigger problem is AIDS. There, she met a 7-year-old girl who lost her parents to AIDS. Randall recounted what the girl said.
''If I sell my body for a loaf of bread and an orange, my two brothers will be able to eat. And if I get AIDS, I won't die right away. It will take at least five years. At that time, my brothers, 4 years old and 2 years old, they will live,'' Randall said.
Africans are using guns from Western countries; meanwhile, some African leaders ''instead of using their resources to buy medicine for our sick ones, they use it to buy small arms to kill ourselves,'' Randall said.
But hate is a waste, she said. ''Life is too short.''
You don't have to be a millionaire or retired to help the less fortunate, in Africa or the U.S., Randall said.
''Just put your arms around a child who's orphaned,'' she said.
In 1997, Randall founded a Ghananian Montessori School that now educates 700 students. In 2004, she started VAM. It bought 100 acres by the Volta River in Ghana to create a partly self-sustaining farming, medical, educational and cultural center.
VAM also teaches women in three villages in rural Tanzania how to do things like raise poultry, weave rugs, bake bread, make jewelry and grow peanuts. In Uganda, VAM gave a school of 375 children, desks, benches, books, school supplies and shoes.
After Randall spoke, a group of NMH students asked her how they could volunteer with her in Ghana.
For more information on Voices of African Mothers, go to:
www.vamothers.org.
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The Brattleboro Reformer March 15, 2008
Chesterfield Girl is World's Fastest Rower
A profile of Tessa Gobbo '09 follows her win at the CRASH-B Sprints in Boston. She'll find out in April if she's qualified for the Junior Olympics tryouts.
Click here to read story.
- The Brattleboro Reformer
March 15, 2008 Saturday
Chesterfield girl is world's fastest rower
By ROBERT PLAIN, Reformer Staff
BRATTLEBORO -- Tessa Gobbo, a high school student from Chesterfield, N.H.,
recently became the world's fastest rower in her age group this year, all
without ever getting into the water.
That's because a Feb. 24 competition in Boston, that attracts the best high
school rowers on the planet, was performed entirely on rowing machines in the
Boston University Ice Arena.
Gobbo, a junior at Northfield Mount Hermon School in Gill, Mass., completed
the simulated two kilometer competition in six minutes and 56 seconds.
She just narrowly defeated a high school student from Germany to win the
race.
"I could see her on a screen in front of me," Gobbo said in regards to how
one monitors the competition in a stationary race. There were 13 rowing machines
in a row, and several rows of them. With nobody actually going anywhere, the
screen -- and sideline coaches called coxswains -- are the only way to gauge the
competition.
"We broke off from the pack in the beginning and it was pretty neck and neck
the whole way," recalled Gobbo. "She was definitely pushing me."
Had they actually been on the water, Gobbo doesn't know who would have
prevailed. But she feels she had an advantage being on the machines.
"I've always been a better on the 'ergs' than I am in a boat," Gobbo said.
"Ergs," she explained, is short for ergometer, the technical name for an
indoor rowing machine.
"It's more technical in a boat," she said, while indoor rowing requires more
size and brute strength. At 6'1" and 178 pounds, Gobbo has plenty of both.
"Not many girls my age are over six feet," she said, noting that her father
is 6'3", her mother is 5'11" and she has a twin brother who is 6'7".
"So much of the ergs is throwing your weight around," Gobbo added. "I'm
getting better in a boat, but I'll probably always be a better erger."
But don't let her modesty fool you, she's good enough in a boat to have
attracted the attention of Junior Olympic coaches, as well as college
recruiters.
"I definitely want to row in college," she said. "It's really big in the Ivy
League schools."
So far, she is on track to be able to compete with the best rowers in the
world. She said Olympians regularly break six minutes and 50 seconds for a 2K
race. While she is almost there, she confessed, "As you get closer to that, it's
harder to shave off seconds."
Her work ethic, however, will serve her well in that quest. Even during
basketball season, Gobbo would go down to the locker room after practice and
work out on the ergometer for an hour or two, she said.
Putting her modesty aside for a moment, she admitted to being the fastest
indoor rower at her school and one of the better sweep rowers in the water.
Sweep rowing is the term used to describe rowers who use one paddle. Sculling
is the term used to describe rowers who use two paddles.
Erging, the indoor rowing, is a take-off on sculling. But when it comes to
being in the water, Gobbo says she is better as a sweeper. The boats in both
versions are known as shells.
Gobbo will find out in April if she qualified for the Junior Olympic tryouts.
If she does, and does well there, she will again go up against the best rowers
in the world, this time in Austria.
Robert Plain can be reached at rplain@reformer.com or 802-254-2311, ext. 271.
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The Recorder (Greenfield, MA) March 6, 2008
NMH Aims for Year-Round Sustainability
NMH's sustainability work, including the Green Cup Challenge, is the subject of a story that quotes teacher Becca Leslie and three eco-leader students.
Click here to read story.
GILL -- Northfield Mount Hermon School wants to make sustainability a year-round practice.
Three years ago, NMH, along with Phillips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire and Lawrenceville School in Lawrenceville, N.J., started the Green Cup Challenge aimed at reducing carbon emissions by developing habits that continue year-round.
This year, the Green Cup Challenge included 31 private schools from all around the Northeast and ran from Jan. 30 to Feb. 24. The schools reduced electricity consumption by a total of 7.5 percent, or 755,165 kilowatt hours, which prevented an estimated 1,170,506 pounds of carbon dioxide from being released into the atmosphere, said Becca Leslie, a biology teacher who helped coordinate the Green Cup Challenge.
NMH students cut their emissions by taking shorter showers, turning off lights when they weren't being used, turning off computers when they weren't in use, plugging appliances into power strips and studying together in common areas instead of in their own individual rooms.
''The tangible evidence of energy reduction in dorms showed me that turning off lights and so on really does make a difference,'' said Julian Tryba, a junior from New Hampshire.
''Global warming could completely alter our lifestyles in the future. It is important that we change now and deal with the problem before it hits us. It's about being proactive and not reactive.''
Sergio Tarraf Filho, a senior from Brazil, came up with an unusual way to try to persuade his classmates to take shorter showers.
''The boys in my dorm spend too much time in the showers,'' he said. ''To make them leave the shower quickly, I put lights out for five seconds and then on again.''
Filho said he's trying to convince the school to put timers in the bathroom to help his classmates keep track of how long they spend in the shower.
Last fall, to help make the school more sustainable, NMH established ''eco-leaders,'' students charged with reducing and saving energy in their dorms.
One eco-leader, Ruth Shafer, a junior from Vermont, has started a project called Sustainable Scribbles. She makes notebooks from paper she digs out of recycling bins.
Several of the eco-leaders say it's sometimes hard to persuade their classmates to change their practices.
''The hardest thing about promoting sustainability is that it requires nagging and stepping on people's toes,'' said Shafer.
''Nobody wants to believe that global warming is their fault, and it isn't one person's fault at all, but each person has to be willing to make a difference for anything to happen.''
Also this year, NMH signed a pledge to reduce its carbon footprint over the next five years.
As part of that pledge, the school used a grant to buy and install a photovoltaic panel for one of the school buildings. The school is also working on drafting a sustainable building policy for all future renovations and new buildings, said Leslie.
You can reach Arn Albertini at: aalberti@recorder.com or (413) 772-0261 Ext. 264
- February
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The Brattleboro Reformer February 12, 2008
Helping others globally, local students take action in Model U.N.
Several NMH students talk about the chance they've been given to make a difference in the world by attending a Model United Nations session in Genoa, Italy.
Click here to read story.
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Helping others globally, local students take action in Model U.N.
By BOB AUDETTE, Reformer Staff BRATTLEBORO
Tuesday, February 12
It's been said children are the future, and if three area high schoolers are any indication, the future is in good hands. The three are traveling to Genoa, Italy, at the end of the month to take part in an international Model United Nations program.
The students, seniors at Northfield Mount Hermon School in Gill, Mass., will be joined by teenagers from Austria, Bangladesh, China, Egypt, Germany, Jordan, Kuwait, Qatar, Spain, Saudi Arabia, Sri Lanka and Turkey.
They will be discussing issues such as bioethics, AIDS, disarmament, global warming and the Israeli/Palestinian conflict.
In Genoa, Evan Abrams, of Guilford, will be representing Russia in the U.N. Security Council.
"That should be really exciting," he said, though to understand the motivation behind Russia's political positions is "a little tough at times."
Students arrive at Model U.N. with resolutions in hand, said Abrams. They meet with each other, compare resolutions and sometimes consolidate similar one, lobby, debate the merits and then vote.
Abrams is still in the process of researching what resolution he plans to take with him to Genoa.
The meetings are also a chance to network with other students and build relationships that might last well into the future.
"One of the really interesting things is you get to meet kids from all over the world," said Abrams, which gives students "a lot of different perspectives on the issues."
"I have always been involved in politics," said Annamae Manning, who was born and raised in Brattleboro. "My family has always been politically active, but I've always formed my own views."
Manning will be taking on the role of Saudi Arabia, in the Disarmament Commission. At previous Model U.N. meetings, she represented Iran in debates over oil consumption.
"The more radical you are, the more fun it is," she said. "It gives you license to say things that would be totally absurd coming from someone else."
In Brazil, Abrams represented Pakistan on the Human Rights Council. For him, it's an intellectual exercise to determine how a government got to its position on an issue "even if you don't agree with it."
"It was interesting to delve into that and get into the shoes of the Pakistani government," he said.
The Model U.N. in Lisbon had an environmental focus, said Abrams, in which students debated topics such as global warming.
"It was really cool to see a roomful of kids trying to work out ways to solve one of the biggest problems facing us today."
Through the debate over global climate change, Abrams realized there is no easy answer, especially when you add in such factors as poverty and economic growth.
During a visit to South Africa, separate from the Model U.N. program, Abrams spoke to political leaders about the humanitarian crisis in Darfur and listened in on a debate on whether the African Union should get involved.
"That was something that sparked my interest in joining the Model U.N. class," said Abrams. His participation in Northfield Mount Hermon's student Congress, starting in his sophomore year, also got him interested in the Model U.N. program, he said.
It goes deeper than that though, said Abrams' mother, Bette, who said his family has always encouraged him to discuss international politics.
"We talk a lot about world issues and social justice," she said. "But being at Northfield Mount Hermon, he has really had an opportunity to delve into this at greater length. He certainly has become a lot more knowledgeable and his interest has really developed through the Model U.N. class."
Being a participant in Model U.N. has helped Manning build her self confidence, said Manning.
"I've always been shy," she said, and speaking in front of people or getting adjusted to a new school had been tough for her. But she feels having to convey her point in front of 500 people at a time helped build her self confidence.
"In Italy, I hope to learn more about the lobbying process," she said.
Both Abrams and Manning have big plans for after high school.
"I've applied to international relations programs all over the country and in the United Kingdom," said Manning. "I would love to go to either Brown or Tufts."
Though Abrams has applied to a number of colleges, he said Georgetown would be his preferred school, where he would like to learn about international business.
Thomas Fagan, of Newfane, is also attending the Model U.N. in Italy but was unavailable for comment.
"(Thomas) has always been interested in the welfare of others," said his mother, Christin Fagan.
Christin Fagan managed the volunteer program at Brattleboro Memorial Hospital when Thomas was 2 years old. "He was aware of what I was doing and what a volunteer was. From a young age he understood what that was."
"He's always seen that you do things because it's the right thing to do," she said.
The summer after his freshman year, Fagan did volunteer work at a children's center in Oaxaca, Mexico.
Fagan currently writes op-eds for the NMH school newspaper, The Bridge. According to his mother, he's planning to major in international political economy and wants to work in diplomacy and foreign policy.
He recently applied to the Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown for early action, and was accepted.
Students from Northfield Mount Hermon in the Model U.N. program have previously traveled to St. Petersburg, Cairo, Istanbul, Amsterdam, Rio de Janeiro and Lisbon. In total, Northfield Mount Hermon is sending five students to Genoa. The students leave on Feb. 24.
There are 631 students who attend Northfield Mount Hermon, both day and boarding, in grades 9 through 12.
Bob Audette can be reached at raudette@reformer.com or 802-254-2311, ext. 273.
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Keene Sentinel February 9, 2008
Teen to Take Part in Model United Nations
Andre Gobbo '09 and NMH classmates will be tackling the world's problems at the Model United Nations in Genoa, Italy.
Click here to read story.
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Keene Sentinel
Saturday, February 09, 2008
Teen to take part in Model United Nations
NICOLE COlSON
Sentinel Staff
CHESTERFIELD — Sure, he’ll learn a lot about how global issues are resolved, but Andre Gobbo’s contribution to a Model United Nations session later this month may ultimately change the world.
Gobbo, son of Ken and Linda Drake Gobbo of Chesterfield and a junior at Northfield Mount Hermon School in Gill, Mass., will be one of four students from the school traveling to Genoa, Italy, for a four-day conference structured pretty much exactly like the real thing.
Northfield Mount Hermon will be one of six schools representing the United States this year — there are 30 more schools representing 13 other countries.
This year’s conference (Feb. 28-March 1) is the first for Gobbo, a former Chesterfield School student and member of the Northfield Mount Hermon hockey team.
Since his sophomore year, he’s wanted to take the school’s Model United Nations course.
It’s taught by students and advised by faculty and gives participants the opportunity to debate real-world issues.
Classes are structured as simulations of the United Nations General Assembly, Security Council and other United Nations committees, with students role-playing positions of various countries.
“I’ve been more interested in foreign affairs, especially since the war in Iraq,” Gobbo said.
So he took the initiative to take the course and submit an application to attend the Genoa session. Each year at Northfield Mount Hermon, a team of students is selected to attend based on management of their roles in class.
In past years, they’ve traveled across the globe to other Model United Nations conferences in such cities as St. Petersburg, Istanbul and Lisbon.
The goal of the Genoa Model United Nations is to develop solutions to the world’s problems through discussion, negotiation and debate.
The first Genoa session was held in 2002, but its parent organization, The Hague International Model United Nations, was formed 40 years ago in The Netherlands. It is the oldest and largest United Nations simulation for high school students in the world.
The conference is managed by a student-formed “secretariat,” including secretaries general, chairs, press staff and administrative staff.
All the bodies of the United Nations are represented at the conference. The General Assembly consists of six specialized committees — the Security Council; the Special Conference, which discusses a different issue each year; the Economic and Social Council; the Environmental, Disarmament and International Security Committees (each with two subcommittees); the Human Rights Committee; the Mediterranean Conference; and the International Court of Justice. Two delegates will represent each delegation.
The theme of this year’s Genoa Model United Nations is climate change, but students will tackle a range of other issues, including bioethics, AIDS, disarmament, and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Although Gobbo said he has a solid background in all of these issues, he didn’t know how other United Nations countries view them.
To gain general knowledge for the conference, Gobbo has been working with his three fellow attendees to research each country’s positions on these issues.
Each student-delegate brings a draft resolution to the conference pertaining to the topics on the agenda decided on by Model United Nations staff and students.
Gobbo’s area of focus will be disarmament and international security in Argentina.
Delegates then lobby and discuss their draft resolutions in their committees to come to a resolution using the same procedures used in the real United Nations.
At the end of the conference, Gobbo and his fellow Northfield Mount Hermon students, along with delegates from each subcommittee, will act together as the General Assembly and vote on the resolutions. Those resolutions will then be sent to the United Nations in New York, with the intent of offering insights to real United Nations councils and members.
Even real United Nations delegates aren’t all work and no play, which is why Gobbo and his fellow student-delegates will stay in Italy a bit longer and enjoy the sights.
They are arriving three days before the conference and staying for two days after it ends, which Gobbo said will allow for “a whirlwind tour of Venice.”
As far as the language barrier, he’s planning to cross it with the help of an English-Italian pocket dictionary.
He’ll certainly enjoy a gondola ride to take in Venetian architecture, but Gobbo thinks the Genoa conference will be the highlight of his trip to Italy.
“I’m looking forward to getting to meet a lot of new people from all over the globe,” he said, “and understanding more about where they come from and getting to work with them to get things done efficiently.”
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The Republican (Springfield, MA) February 3, 2008
High School Students Discover an Asteroid
Hughes Pack and three of his astronomy students are mentioned in a story about the asteroids they discovered using images from an Illinois telescope and computer software to search swaths of sky.
Click here to read story.
If the name "2007TK238" rings no bells, that would not be surprising.
What is surprising, however, is that it was students at Northfield Mount Hermon School in Gill, Mass., not some established astronomer, who discovered an asteroid subsequently identified with that number-filled name.
A trio of students in S. Hughes Pack's astronomy class and Pack himself got official credit for discovering a group of asteroids while working with the Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Mass. They used images fed to their computers from a 32-inch telescope in Illinois.
The class pored over the images, primarily to give position reports on asteroids that already had been discovered, thereby enabling the center to keep tabs on where the potentially lethal bodies were traveling, and if they were a threat to Earth.
But the students, Wida Li from China, Josh Throckmorton from Bedford, Mass., and Chelsea Bunker of South Deerfield, Mass., came up with some blurry, small objects that weren't on anybody's list and determined they were previously unknown asteroids, rocks left over from the creation of our solar system. Their finding was investigated and confirmed by the center.
"Being able to step into the shoes of a professional astronomer and actually contribute to the world of science is one of the coolest things I have ever done," said Throckmorton.
And, fortunately, the asteroids the students discovered are not headed this way.
"We don't want to be the ones to find the asteroid that hits Earth," Pack said. In his classes, Pack tries to impress upon the students the enormity of the consequences should a large asteroid hit Earth. It's an event that already has happened, wiping out whole species.
He shows them Hollywood's "Armageddon," in which Bruce Willis leads an expedition of miners to land on an oncoming asteroid to successfully blow it up, a film full of scientific absurdities-but one that gets the attention of students, he said.
There is little that could actually be done to deter an asteroid, Pack said, and only with knowing its exact course could an impact area be evacuated in an attempt to save lives.
For Pack, the process is the thing.
"These are high school students doing real science. It is not easy and it is mundane - that's what real science is," he said.
Despite the tedium of the asteroid location and positioning work, the students found it thrilling.
"It was really fun, actually," said Bunker.
"It's good to know we are making a contribution while not even into college yet," Throckmorton said.
- January
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The Recorder (Greenfield, MA) January 24, 2008
Asteroid Coming? NMH Students Keep Eye out for Threats from Space
Students in Hughes Pack's astronomy are performing real science, and have discovered real asteroids!
Click here to read story.
- GILL -- Several large asteroids have already hit our planet in recent (in geological terms) history -- and one impact might be what killed off the dinosaurs.
And more such asteroids are likely on the way.
'Hughes (Pack) jokes around, 'You may be on your way to the dining hall and we could be hit by an asteroid,' but, it's kind of only a matter of time before the earth is hit,' said Chelsea Bunker a Northfield Mount Hermon School senior from South Deerfield, talking about her astronomy professor.
While many asteroids burn up in the earth's atmosphere, some are big enough to make it through, she said.
Pack's astronomy class at NMH is doing its best to make sure we know as much as possible about the next large asteroid destined for a collision with earth.
'The way Hughes described it, it's like if you're in a huge snowball fight -- a lot may miss you, but eventually you'll get hit by a snowball,' said Joshua Throckmorton, a senior from Bedford.
'We're hoping to find the snowball before it hits us.'
The students, along with those from 12 other colleges and high schools in eight different countries, are working on the project with the Astronomical Research Institute in Charleston, Ill., to track near-earth asteroids that might be a threat to our planet.
For NMH, the project started last semester. Next month, this semester's class will continue working on the project.
Each of the 12 schools was assigned a different group of asteroids to observe.
Telescopes in Illinois took pictures of the part of the sky where asteroids cluster at two to three-minute intervals, then sent the images to the schools. Students then use a computer software program called Astrometric to lay the pictures on top of each other and flip back and forth between them.
This helps track how the asteroid moved against the background of the stars. The layering of the images was important because asteroids are very faint and only just visible, said Pack.
'These guys are helping save the world. It may sound like a big deal. It may sound funny, but it's real,' said the teacher, who was wearing a tie featuring Vincent Van Gogh's 'The Starry Night' on the day of the interview.
The information the students gather goes back to the Astronomical Research Institute to help scientists more precisely predict the impact hazard of certain asteroids.
'They were looking for us to help them,' said Bunker. 'We were doing real work. It wasn't just busywork.'
The more people look at a certain section of sky, the more likely it is that an asteroid will be discovered, she said.
In the process of trying to track near-earth asteroids, last semester's class found four new ones.
'Finding asteroids is just an offshoot, but it's cool,' said Pack.
'It made you feel like a real scientist because you got to find stuff,' said Throckmorton.
'We got to apply what we learned to real life. We are scientists even though we are still in high school.'
And they got to do something to help people, said Yidan Li, a sophomore from China.
'If we didn't do it, nobody else would,' Throckmorton said.
Li, Throckmorton and Bunker were all part of last semester's class.
'Professional astronomers are not interested in asteroids in the main solar belt,' said Pack. 'Most astronomers are more interested in black holes and exploding galaxies. They're interested in deep-sky objects, objects far from our solar system.'
The main solar belt lies in between Jupiter and Mars and is where the students tracked asteroids.
But, it's important to learn about the asteroids in the main belt because it's a way to learn more about our solar system, Pack said. 'We don't really know exactly how the solar system was formed and how it evolved.'
'The more information we have the better we can understand our very own solar system.'
There is no definitive plan for what to do if it's discovered an asteroid is heading toward earth, said Bunker.
One option -- popular in science fiction, but based on solid fact -- would be to try to destroy it, she said.
'If we launched a rocket that makes the asteroid go a little bit off its path, it might fly by the earth,' Li said.
You can reach Arn Albertini at: aalberti@recorder.com or (413) 772-0261 Ext. 264
