Olivia Wolpe

In sophomore English I had Dennis Kennedy, one of those teachers whom everyone loves but is also a little scared of. The classes were filled with stimulating conversation—and it actually was conversation. If there was disagreement, we discussed it. Once the class was split fifty-fifty on the meaning of a poem about the funeral of a pet. We held a debate-like conversation for more than half the class, each hearing the other side’s opinions. Mr. Kennedy is also known for his love of singing and he would have us sing many times throughout a week. Sometimes after we sang, we could hear English classes next door to us clapping.

 

I’m a student leader of the French group FROMAGE (Francophone Organization for More Awareness of Global Equality). It’s made me much more internationally aware. I used to live in this bubble where I knew that other countries spoke French, but I never thought of them as related to France. Being in FROMAGE, I’ve learned about Senegal and Haiti, about the Ivory Coast and Vietnam. I recently did a project where we made cards with facts about different Francophone countries, and the week they came out I could hear people talking about the Vietnamese theory of the creation of humans and that they hadn’t known Gambia went right through the center of Senegal.

 

I think Alumni Hall, the dining hall, has such personality. The tables and chairs have been in use for almost 50 years, and they’re in fantastic shape. The flags around the ceiling add character and represent the student body. You can walk past tables and hear conversations about who won the last World Cup or which law just made it through Congress. There’s a faculty baby who’s almost eight months old now, and he just floats from hand to hand, just passing right by his parents. Sometimes he’s at a table with sophomores, sometimes the tennis team, more than once behind the salad bar.

 

I love dorm life and knowing everyone you live with. Now when I’m at home, I tend to gravitate toward the hallway, looking for someone to hang out with—then I realize that there aren’t 40 other girls living there. My roommate and I have bunk beds in the dorm, and we’ve taken to making forts in the bed and doing work or talking in them. We have plans to make a room-wide fort by the end of the year.