Dory

NMH helped me know what I was looking for. A lot of kids when they're planning their future life have no idea, and I do have an idea.

Dory

No stranger to the woods and outdoor sports, Dory nevertheless credits Northfield Mount Hermon with giving her that extra push outside. Mountain biking, skiing, kayaking, and canoeing are among her top pursuits outside of classes, and when asked to describe what her future looks like, Dory will likely describe a mountainous vista.

Coming from Weathersfield, Vermont, a town of less than 3,000 people with a K-8 school serving 250 students, Dory had a gut feeling from the start that Northfield Mount Hermon would provide the school community she needed.

“It was so beautiful,” she says. “And everybody was saying ‘hi’ as we walked with the tour. It was so different from my school before. I was ready for a change.”

It was in Nordic skiing at NMH where Dory first went outside her comfort zone and found a new passion. NMH friends urged her to put a lackluster middle school experience with cross-country behind her and experience the miles of trails that the NMH campus has to offer.

“Something really clicked, and I got super into it,” she says. “We ski like 15 miles a day, go out in the morning if it snowed, and we go out during practice for two hours. It’s so much fun.”

Dory has been the captain of NMH’s mountain biking team for two years, seeing them through competitions against other schools in the New England Road Cycling League.

“It’s a competitive team and a very inclusive team. We have all skill levels, from people learning to bike and people in the top race categories. I love that.”

The endurance training that’s required for competition has taught her the fun of a challenge.

“We call it type-two fun. In the moment, it’s painful and really hard, but afterward it feels so good, and you feel so powerful and so strong.”

NMH’s Spanish IV Service Learning Project, in which students teach the language to younger children at a local elementary school, lands high on her list of favorite classes. So does the Farm Semester Program, which combines classroom coursework with hands-on farm work into two full-credit, linked courses, one in science and the other in English. 

In particular, Dory praises “Reading and Writing the Land,” the farm semester’s English course,  led by Department Chair Meg Eisenhauer. “She has so much in her brain,” Dory says. “We went whatever way we wanted with the class, and she shaped it around that: a lot of indigenous land knowledge, and feminism, bringing in all sorts of writers. That was probably my favorite class.”

With activities like skiing taking up to four to five hours at a time during the height of the season, keeping up with classes can be a squeeze. But Dory has a fairly simple solution: get up really early and study in the nearly deserted Alumni Hall.

“It's quiet, and the lighting is nice and warm,” Dory says. “There’s tea and all the workers there are so nice.”

Dory has learned leadership at NMH, serving both as a team captain and as a Resident Leader in Manchester, the dorm for 9th-grade girls.

“In mountain biking, it's a lot of hyping people up and getting them excited to do a strength circuit or hill repeats, or get ready for a race,” she says. A Residence Leader’s job is more serene, like planning an activity, posting birthday announcements, or just speaking with students about their day.

“I think the main thing I've learned is deciding to buy into something and give your all to enjoy it. Just deciding you're going to enjoy something really works.”

Last summer Dory interned at the Gentle Landing Birth Center in Hanover, New Hampshire, shadowing Katherine Bramhall, midwife at the center.

“I went into appointments with her and saw how she interacted with the women she was giving care to. I helped with behind-the-scenes operations — lots of laundry, lots of sending out labs, talking to people, checking them in.”

And Dory also observed a birth.

“That was amazing,” she says. “So powerful. And not at all what I expected. It was … quiet, when I thought it was going to be crazy.”

Dory plans to study nursing this fall at the University of Vermont, looking ahead to forging a career in midwifery.

“I mean, I love babies, but as I’ve become older, I'm really interested in reproductive health and women's health.”

Dory has seen her attitude mature at NMH from one of pessimism to one of optimism. Dory’s more confident and more assertive, and more comfortable joining in.

“NMH helped me know what I was looking for. A lot of kids when they're planning their future life can have no idea, and I do have an idea. And I think that's because I went to such a good school.”

— By Bill Sweet