Nicole Dancel

NMH surprised me every day. I’d be sitting in class talking about Afghanistan or Shakespeare or whatever, and the student next to me, who had otherwise been silent, would jump in with this great, insightful point. Everyone here is really smart, but the lack of arrogance means they don’t feel the need to be spouting an opinion all the time.

People here just like to learn things. Teachers don’t have to force us. Kids read up on things and know their stuff. And it’s not just textbook-y stuff. It’s politics and social issues and current events. They learn on their own and connect it to the world around them.

I never liked history until I took a class here that looked at the perspective of people who weren’t in power. It was taught by a wonderful teacher, Martha Neubert. She’s the type of teacher who says, “Yes, we have a curriculum, but if something happens in the world that we need to talk about, we’re going to talk about it." For our research project we could study anything in US history. I wrote mine about gay rights and the Matthew Shepherd murder. I was shocked at how few people knew about it, so I wanted to get the word out and make sure people knew that things like this can still happen in our country. That’s what got me involved in the Laramie Project, which is a theater piece constructed from court scenes and interviews with people from Laramie, Wyoming, where Shepherd was murdered. We did a dramatic reading of the script as a faculty-student collaboration. It was my first directorial job and my first human rights project, all rolled into one.

I’m a very strong believer in the fact that you need to follow your passion. Here so many teachers encourage you to do what you love. Everyone has different talents for a reason. You owe it to the world to do what you love.

Nicole graduated in 2009 and attends Skidmore College.