Thank you all for making OE 2014 a great success!  Students and faculty alike have reported a good balance of fun, adventure, adversity, team-work and celebration – a GREAT way to start the year!  A special thank you to parents who have trusted the care of their children to our hands.  Once again, your sons and daughters were wonderful to spend the week with.

A few reminders and requests to bring OE 2014 to a close:

• Please be sure you have returned all the items your child borrowed during OE.  They will be needed next year!
• If you have outdoor gear you aren’t using anymore, we would love donations.  In particular, we could use tents, camp-stoves, backpacks with internal frames and padded hip belts, and cookware.  Keep us in mind as you clean out your storage areas.
• Let us know your thoughts on this year’s trips.  With good feedback, we are more able to improve the experience from year to year.  We have created this Outdoor Experience Survey to help facilitate that feedback.  Thank you for taking a few minutes to fill it out.
• If you have photographs from OE, we would love to have them!  Please email them to .

Thank you!

Emily Graham

Outdoor Experience Coordinator

The Foreign Language department is excited to announce that the French program will be taking a trip to Québec City this spring. The trip is open to Upper School students taking French, and it’s going to be incredibly fun.

We’ll be leaving from school on the morning of Saturday, March 7. This is a three day weekend for students, and it’s also mud season. We’ll be returning on Tuesday evening, March 10.

The trip will be packed with events intended to showcase the culture, history, and natural beauty of Québec Province and Québec City. There’s also plenty of fun slotted in; we’ll have dinner and dancing, we’ll wander the old city, and we’ll eat plenty of local specialties.

For questions or to sign up, pop into Emery 31 and talk to Lindsay. There will also be a second informal information session in the library on Wednesday, October 1, from 5:30-6:30.

In photo: Ali Ghorashi ’15 and Sophia Benson ’14 competing in MEST-UP last year.

Waynflete seniors Julianna Harwood and Stephen Epstein will compete tonight at 7pm on WPXT (The CW, or Channel 12 locally) in a science and math based game show. Schools from around the area send teams of two students to compete head to head in trivia and engineering challenges. Last year’s team (Al Ghorashi ’15 and Sophie Benson ’14) were the overall champions, and Stephen and Julianna are hoping to continue the winning streak! Tune in at 7pm to watch, or catch the show after it airs at http://www.mestup.tv/.

Lately I have found myself describing the teaching and learning that goes on at Waynflete as a two way street, with everyone in this room today incredibly lucky because of that.  Let me explain what I mean by describing us as being on a two way street and why that makes us so lucky. You students are fortunate to have the opportunity to learn from a diversely talented faculty that is universally and passionately dedicated to the art and craft of teaching.  Your teachers care about what they do, and they care about you.  And we, your teachers, are fortunate as well, not only for the joy and privilege of teaching you, but also for the countless opportunities we have to learn – from you.  Hence the two way street.

A recent example for me of learning from a student who herself had learned from her experiences at Waynflete happened last spring listening to Sophie Raffel’s graduation speech.  Sophie described how taking Wendy Curtis’s Astrophysics class started her thinking about the universe and her place in it in ways she had never considered before.  When you look our galaxy, the Milky Way, from Earth as in the picture projected on the screen, you can see why the great majority of cultures throughout history assumed that they were at the center of the universe.  That is a tempting conclusion.  From where we stand, it does look as if the sun and the moon and stars orbit a stationary Earth.

But in Astrophysics, Sophie and her classmates learned of the Earth’s very tiny place in a universe that is, as far as we can tell, infinite.  Here is a picture of Earth from the other side of our moon.  Here is another picture of Earth from the other side of Saturn.  Notice how small we look from only three planets away.  And here is a picture of the Whirlpool Galaxy, which scientists think is what the Milky Way might look like, except to see what something looks like you have to get outside of it, and we haven’t traveled nearly far enough to do that.

And here is a picture of deep space.  Each little speck is a galaxy, similar to our own.  And from Earth, everything in this picture – the thousands of galaxies and billions of stars – takes up less space in our sky than the moon.  Looking at pictures like these drives home the point that the Earth and its inhabitants are far from being at the center of the universe.  We are small, very small indeed.

All of that got Sophie thinking.  Possibly under the influence of Ben Mini’s philosophy class, she started contemplating the seemingly infinite expanse of the physical universe in relationship to the infinitesimally small lives of individual human beings.  In her speech, she noted that comparing the two can make you feel very small in the grand scheme of things, so small, in fact, as to be utterly insignificant.  She said as she was applying to college and getting ready to leave home that she felt as if the universe might be sending her a message: “You are about to go out into a world where you don’t matter.”

But then in a flash of inspiration, rather than trying to ignore that message or feeling condemned to a meaningless existence if she failed, she suddenly realized, “why remembering how tiny you are is actually incredibly empowering.  Because in our vast universe, nothing matters until it matters to you.” Filled with a sense of awe at knowing that she was a unique piece of something so big, she challenged herself and her classmates “To seize the singularity of our tiny existences on this ‘Pale Blue Dot’ by finding things that make us matter.”

Finding things that make us matter means finding ways to contribute to something outside of ourselves, to something bigger than ourselves.  But that doesn’t mean that you have to solve monumental problems like world hunger or poverty, although that would be good if you get the chance.  In the meantime, all you really need to do is to seize the small opportunities to make a difference that present themselves multiple times a day.  You make a difference when you:

• invite someone to have lunch who is new to the school and bit nervous;
• or clean up a spill that someone else has left behind;
• or make eye contact and smile as you pass your peers in the hallways;
• or do a little extra research on something that interested you in class and share it the next day;
• or do community service;
• or write letter to the editor of the PPH;
• or express gratitude to your teachers and your parents;
• or apologize if you have hurt someone;
• or forgive the person who has hurt you.

Such small deeds are important. The ALS challenge, which many of you have taken, is a great example of how they can add up to something big.

Finding things that make you matter has another important benefit. It tends to make you happy.  We all know the good feeling we get when we do something good for someone else. In fact, that connection between doing good and happiness has actually been observed by neuroscientists, who have watched the happy places in the brain light up on MRI machines when a good deed is done.

And here is a video (only the first segment was shown) of part of an experiment designed to figure out whether the impulse to do good is something we have to learn or is deeply rooted in the human brain.  The little guy in the video is pre-verbal, which means he is operating on instinct, not on what he has been told.

The important lesson for me in all of this is twofold: First, realizing that the possibilities for us to find what makes us matter are, like the universe itself, infinite; and second, doing good deeds is natural. We just need to get ourselves in the habit of seeking opportunities, big and small, to make a difference.  If we can do that, I believe that together we will become a force helping to shape a better world, one good deed at a time.  And in the process, every day, over and over again, we will light up the happy places in our brains.

I am truly grateful to be a part of this particular constellation of people.  I look forward to another rewarding year traveling along our two way street, teaching and learning with you all.

Thank you for listening. Advising is next.

Ninth Grade Photo Gallery

Tenth Grade Photo Gallery

Eleventh Grade Photo Gallery

Twelfth Grade Photo Gallery

Check out The Forecaster’s fall sports preview for the Waynflete Flyers!

Dana Peirce (’15) returned from her service trip from Thailand with a new perspectives on a lot of things, including reforestation.  Click here to read her letter to the editor of the Portland Press Herald about what she thinks we can learn here in Maine from what they are doing in Thailand.

Elise LeBihan was chosen from a small group of the best music students from Maine who auditioned to participate in the All-National Honor Ensembles Festival in Nashville this October.

Elise began playing violin at the age of 4. She currently studies privately with Ronald Lantz of the Portland String Quartet. She is a member of the Advanced Chamber Ensemble of the PSQ at the Portland Conservatory of Music and has attended the PSQ summer workshop for two years.

This past spring, she auditioned for and was accepted into the All-National Honors Symphony Orchestra of 2014.  She will be representing Waynflete School and the State of Maine at the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, Tennessee, in October of this year.

At Waynflete, Elise plays in a chamber group ensemble, under the direction of Julia Adams of the PSQ, and she has provided accompaniment for theater productions at the School. She also performed with the Waynlfete Chamber Group at the Installment of the Head of School, Geoffrey Wagg.

From a young age, Elise has been performing publicly in a number of settings and situations, ranging from concerts and recitals to playing her violin for diplomats including the Ambassador of France and Governor Baldacci at the Blaine House when she was 7 years old.

Elise was accepted to play in the All-State Festival Orchestra for the past three years. In her Freshman and Sophomore year, Elise auditioned for and participated in the Karger Scholar Program Professional Division at the Portland Conservatory of Music. In middle school, she was a member of the Pineland Suzuki Chamber Music Program for two years and the Advanced Ensemble, Capital Strings, for two years, both under the direction of the late Stephen Kecskemethy of the Portland String Quartet.

This year, Elise will be sharing the first stand with Violinist Shaina Graff in the Mozart Mentors Orchestra at Bowdoin College.

Now a senior at Waynflete, Elise, in addition to playing her violin, is busy preparing college applications. She wants to pursue Violin Performance, French, and Writing in college.

The 2014-2015 school year has just let out for summer vacation, and my first year as a member of Waynflete’s Girls’ Leadership Training (GLTr) has come to an end. While I plan to milk all the lazy summer days for what they’re worth and ignore how rapidly my senior year is approaching, all those year-end course evaluations got me thinking about what I’ve learned and how I’ve changed in the past year. I’ve always been in favor of the rights and equality of women, but I know that, just one year ago, I wasn’t nearly as comfortable in my feminism and in my own leaderships potential as I am now; I’ve got GLTr to thank for that.

I’ll be honest: I wasn’t always a feminist. In fact, when I started attending Waynflete, I was actively opposed to the movement. As much as it pains me in retrospect, I fell prey to the stereotype that feminism was all about man-hating and bra-burning. Thankfully, during sophomore year I was delighted to discover millennial-friendly social media-based feminism, and with this discovery my perspective of basically everything changed. On the bright side, I learned to embrace my secret love of all things “girly” (read: pink and glittery), but the barrage of negativity that my feminism wrought overwhelmed me. On the streets there was harassment, and in English class there was the gruesomely misogynistic The Taming of The Shrew. I wasn’t sure I was “doing” feminism right, or even if I should pursue it, so when I heard about GLTr, I figured I’d take a risk and see what other girls in the Upper School had to say. I couldn’t have anticipated all that would come from my involvement in the group.

            Did I mention that this is only GLTr’s second year as a Waynflete activity? It’s kind of mindboggling that Waynflete has only had a girls’ group for two years, and even though GLTr still might not have as much presence in the community as, let’s say, the athletic department, GLTr has already accomplished so much in such a short period of time.

In the first few months of my GLTr membership, I’d already read Sheryl Sandberg’s novel Lean In and helped host a fundraiser screening of CIEE’s documentary on the rights of young women internationally, Girl Rising; both works resonated with me deeply, and to have a half-hour every Friday to sound off with the other girls (plus Lydia Maier and Lindsay Kaplan!) helped me become more and more assured and confident in my feminism, and in myself.

Shortly after wrapping our annual mentorship program with groups of seventh-grade girls, we hosted the last GLTr event of the school year, a generation-spanning panel made up of Waynflete alumni Anne Zill (’59), Kristen Graffam King (’89), and Desiree Lester (’04). The panel was nothing short of enlightening; though each woman’s perspective of feminism might have varied, they were all geared towards the same goal: equality for all women, and the right to do as they please as ambitious women in often male-dominated or unequal workplaces.

As inspired as I may be to pursue opportunities to gain leadership as an ambitious young woman of Waynflete – school’s out, summer’s here, and I’m ready to relax. But I know that, when I’m a senior and GLTr kicks up again, I’ll be ready for another year of exploring what it means to be a woman at Waynflete.

Last spring, John Thurston, recently hired as Waynflete’s Director of College Counseling, sat down with then Junior Alex Lambert for an interview, recorded here.

John began work on July 1.  He has been busy meeting with parents and students getting ready for the application season this fall.  He will be heading up to the Forks on September 2 to go whitewater rafting with seniors on Outdoor Experience.

The Upper School Office will sport a new look this fall for the first time in a decade.  Lydia Maier, who has been the Upper School Dean of Students, has taken on a school-wide role as Dean of Student Affairs. In that role, she will be working across the divisions, including the Upper School, and will continue to be an Upper School advisor. Cathie Connors, who has been the Upper School Assistant, is now the Upper School Dean of Students. Holly Khiel, who has been the Assistant Director of Admissions at Bennington College, is now the Upper School Assistant. As communicated last spring, John Thurston, formerly the Associate Dean of Admissions at Bowdoin College, is now the Director of College Counseling. Holly will also be assisting John and Breda White with college counseling. Students and parents are encouraged to introduce themselves to Holly and John and to congratulate Lydia and Cathie on their new jobs.

With the intent of staying no more than five years, I started work at Waynflete in the fall of 1991.  I had become intrigued with Waynflete through conversations about schools with Bill Bennett, then the long serving Headmaster.  He and I were enrolled in an educational leadership doctoral program, and I noticed how he viewed virtually everything about school through the lens of the student experience.  I became curious: Can a school that truly prioritizes the experience of students actually function?  Does it really exist in Portland, Maine?  What is the special ingredient that makes it work?

Last fall, at the start of a new Headship more than two decades later, I decided to try to pinpoint what distinguishes the Waynflete experience.  As the Upper School Director, I focused my attention on the division that I know best.  I surveyed ten current faculty members who were teaching in the Upper School when I arrived and asked them to what extent they agreed with my assessment that while much had changed, “there is something fundamental in the current Upper School experience that was not only present when I arrived in 1991 but was then and is now integral to the the Upper School identity and success.”

Every faculty member surveyed agreed with that statement wholeheartedly.  When asked to describe what they saw as the distinguishing ingredient, they all cited the mutually respectful and trusting relationships between the students and adults.  As one respondent put it, “There was and is a warmth and trust that is extended to all students that creates an environment of acceptance and being known – mixed in with some good silliness and high expectations.  An environment that lets students (and faculty) be themselves.”

Nobody who has experienced Waynflete should be surprised by their response.  In fact, practically every person who visits even for a short time notices the strength of relationships.  In his chapter on Waynflete in his recently published book, “What Schools Teach Us about Religious Life,” Dan Heischman wrote, “In all the many years I have visited schools, I have seen few places where students make such extensive use of teachers as they do at Waynflete.  Healthy relationships between adults and students in the community are a given at this school” (34).

But while a relational culture may distinguish the Waynflete experience, in what way is it integral to the School’s success?  Creating a powerful, life altering learning environment for our students is our primary goal.  With that in mind, how do relationships between students and adults actually matter?

As the parent of two children who attended Waynflete from the age of three on, I highly valued knowing that they were growing up in a community in which they knew and were known by non-parental adults.  In an educational system that segregates students by age, I saw the cross generational connections as crucial to their healthy development as they sought to “live up” to relationships with adults about whom they care.  Lydia Maier has been the Dean of Upper School Students for the past decade and has now moved into an all-school role as Dean of Student Affairs.  She attended Waynflete in Upper School and describes the “living up” phenomenon this way:

“I arrived on campus preoccupied with finding my way around each unique building and very quickly shifted my energy to deciphering each individual teacher. I’d never had an adult ask me to sit down to ‘talk about my essay;’ I didn’t even know what an ‘essay’ was.  Here was Michele Lettiere walking me through paragraph structure and use of the ‘green’ metaphor in Lord of the Flies, then asking me to tell her what passages mattered most to me.  In that moment, more than by her illuminating explanations, I was inspired by realizing that this new teacher of mine clearly believed that I could produce a point of view, and that it would be worthy of being voiced in the world.  I would ask her a question and she would reply in a manner that I would soon become used to at Waynflete: ‘Good question.  What do you think?’”

Alums and their parents report countless examples like Lydia’s of how “living up” to relationships with adults at school inspires our students to do and be more, whether by taking the risk at the suggestion of an advisor to apply to a special program or by revising an essay one more time to get it right before submitting it to a respected teacher.

And evidence of the power of meaningful relationships to fuel learning is not only anecdotal.  It is rooted in science.  In his book, “Brain Rules,” molecular biologist John Medina asserts that “there is surprising empirical evidence” to support the notion “that our ability to learn has deep roots in relationships” (45).  In his new book “Brainstorm,” Dan Siegel, M.D. describes how teen brains are hardwired for risk-taking; suppressed dopamine levels in the brain mean a higher threshold of challenge and novelty required to activate the teen brain’s reward system, a key component in motivation and growth.  Risk-taking is a critical evolutionary task if teens are to acquire new competencies and eventually become independent (and confident) enough to leave home.  Relationships provide a key component of what is needed to manage the stress that accompanies such risk-taking and the the constant demands of school.

In her psychology class last spring, Lydia had her students explore the science of the relational roots of growth and learning:

“My students mapped neuropsychologist Rick Hanson’s concept of ‘red brain, green brain’- observing how frequently they found themselves in each brain state- with “red brain” being a reactive mode that diverts the brain’s resources away from its potential for self-expression and self-soothing.  He refers to that all too frequent anxious state as one of ‘chronic inner homelessness’ that actually cuts off the brain’s access to its own higher level thinking and creativity.  Hanson, Ph.D, is a Senior Fellow at the Greater Good Science center where extensive research is being compiled on the brain’s capacity for expressing kindness, empathy, and awe- qualities that characterize our more responsive “green brain” state.  This research underscores the notion that time spent connecting with calm and caring teachers reinforces the same circuitry through which our highest learning occurs- a win-win situation for stressed teens.”

Moreover, the power of a relational culture is mutually motivating for faculty as well as the students.  Being allowed into the lives of our students and their families makes working at Waynflete infinitely varied and stimulating.  It is a cherished privilege that the faculty honors constantly by striving to deepen and enrich the experience of our students, just as Bill Bennett described more than two decades ago.  The fact that I have stayed at Waynflete nearly five times longer than intended (and counting) as a member of an unusually long serving and notably dedicated faculty is testament to the power of relationships to inspire all those involved to “live up” to the opportunities they afford.  Our relationships demand that we give our best each day; neither the faculty nor the students at Waynflete would want it another way.

Congratulations to the boys and girls tennis teams who were both crowned as Class C Regional Champions today.  Boys defeated NYA 5-0 and girls defeated Winthrop 5-0.  This is the 4th consecutive regional title for the girls and the 7th for the boys.