Basketball notebook: Waynflete’s Cleaves glad he heard coach’s plea

Last Thursday the Waynflete Upper School Jazz Combo performed exceptionally well at the Maine Music Educators Association District II Jazz Festival in Cumberland.  They advanced to the State Jazz Festival with an average score of 96.5 out of 100!  All four members earned outstanding musicianship awards for receiving a solo score of one [1].  They will now travel to Hampden on March 14th to participate in the State festival.

With so much happening on the newly designed USNOW page (thanks to Sam Frederick (’15)), you may have missed the new Community Blogs button in the header.  Under that heading, you will find three blogs – two by faculty and one by an alum – that you really should check out:

Making Cents: A Guide to Personal Finance  The Portland Press Herald online edition is hosting a blog created by 6-12 math teacher Steve Kautz.  Named named Jump$tart Maine’s Financial Educator of the Year for 2012, Steve offers the same wisdom on financial matters in this blog that he does to the students in his Upper School electives.

Travels with Sue Stein  Having listened for years to her students tell their stories of living in far distant places and having helped them and their parents to navigate life at Waynflete and in America, EAL tutor Sue Stein decided to reverse the experience by taking a leave of absence this semester to travel throughout much of Africa to make herself the cultural student and to get more an an “in-my-bones understanding” of where many of her students have come from.

Liv Chap (’11): Adventures in St. Petersburg Having caught the “Russian Bug” in high school from her Russian history teacher Alice  Brock, Liv Chap (’11) is spending a college semester abroad in Russia.  With all that is happening now in the news, what a fascinating time to be there.

This is the second year in a row Waynflete has garnered success in the state Poetry Out Loud contest.  Last year, Dyer Rhoads was chosen as the state champion and represented Maine at the National Finals in Washington, D.C

The other day, my literature class was deep into a discussion about Mohsin Hamid’s novel, The Reluctant Fundamentalist.  The discussion pertained to the protagonist’s complex perception of America’s military reach and general influence in the world.  As time was running out on the period and the discussion not yet concluded, I was on the alert for an effective way to tee up its continuance into class the next day. Then a student’s question reminded me of something that science teacher Neil Rice had said the previous fall in his Veteran’s Day talk about the responsibility of citizens in a democratic society to be actively engaged in their nation’s discourse on foreign policy.  Before they left, I asked my students to recall what Neil had said and to be prepared by the next class to relate his message to the topic at hand.

In 2009, with the United States embroiled in two wars, the Upper School faculty and I realized how far we had strayed from the original intent of Veteran’s Day.  In its first iteration, Armistice Day was meant as a time when people across the country would pause in their daily activities at 11:00 each November 11 to share a moment of silence in their communities to commemorate when the guns fell silent at the end of the Great War nearly a century ago.  Since then, as it became clear that the Great War was not proving to be “the war to end all wars” as people then had hoped, the intent changed along with the name to recognize the sacrifice of all those who have served in the military, and instead of being a pause in the daily routines of communities across the country, it became a national holiday.  One unintended consequence of the latter change, at least at Waynflete we realized, was that the higher purpose of the holiday had long ago become secondary to the fact that it was a day off from school.

We decided to start a new tradition in the Upper School intended to remind our students of that higher purpose by inviting a veteran of the armed services to speak at an Upper School assembly each November.  In 2009, Joshua Broder (’97) spoke about being in the Civil Air Patrol while in high school and his subsequent military service as an Army Captain and communications specialist, including the 13 months he spent in Afghanistan.  The next year, we were addressed by Robert Rheault, a US Army colonel, who spoke not only of the lessons learned from his 23 years of military service but also from his extraordinary personal transition from being a Special Forces commander in the jungles of Vietnam to being an assistant trip leader for Outward Bound.  A video of his talk is linked here.  The following year, we were addressed by history teacher Bob Johnson, who served in the Air Force in Thailand during the Vietnam War.  Last year we were addressed by Neil Rice, who drew lessons from his 15 years in the US Navy, including being in ROTC while in college, running the nuclear reactor on a submarine, teaching submarine tactics and navigation, and finally training Iraqi Special Police in Baghdad in 2005.  This past fall, Doug Rawlings, a Vietnam veteran and a founding member of Maine Veteran’s for Peace, read from his collection of poems that were inspired by his experiences at war.

Our hope in starting a Veteran’s Day speaker tradition was to help make our students more aware of the world around them and their responsibility as citizens of a democracy that possesses the greatest military might history.  In fact, my intent in referencing Neil’s talk in my class was exactly the same.  I remembered that toward the end of his talk, Neil had named the various resources that our students have at hand to make themselves informed citizens because “at Waynflete, you are surrounded by people who embody the principles of freedom.”  He concluded by saying:

“Do you want to honor our veterans? Then get in the middle of everything when it comes time to decide where they are going next. If our military is a hammer, then you are the hand. Don’t blindly trust the media or our government. Question everything. Don’t give up your freedom to wield the hammer or keep it at your side. Members of our armed forces have no control over where they go, but you do. Let them be proud of their service. Let them, from now on, not be aggressive pursuers of our way of life, but true defenders of our freedom.” (The full text of Neil’s talk is linked here.)

And yes, my students remembered Neil’s talk and what he had called on them to do.  Knowing that they are listening reminds us daily of our solemn mission as educators to engage our students with the world around them through meaningful and thought provoking programming such as our Veteran’s Day speaker tradition.  And knowing that our students are not only listening but that they are also smart and savvy and full of hope and integrity is good reason for optimism about our collective future.

As you have likely heard, Waynflete is hosting two performances of Incognito next Tuesday, March 4.  There will be a daytime performance for students in grade 8 through 12 and their advisors and an evening performance at 7:00 p.m. for the community with a reception sponsored by the Parents Association and Parent Diversity Committee in the Arc hallway preceding the performance.

I am writing this note to inform you as to why we are hosting these performances at Waynflete.  Incognito is a one man play in which the actor, Michael Fosberg, tells his personal story of identity.  The performance highlights the many dimensions of identity, including race which features prominently in Mr. Fosberg’s life story.  It also, contrary to the assumption that many hold, highlights the idea that identity is not something stable that one “discovers” once and for all at some point in life but is instead fluid so that the “discovery” of identity is ongoing and sometimes surprising as one’s experiences change and perceptions of experiences evolve.

We are hosting this performance for our students because supporting identity formation is central to our mission.  Helping them to cultivate interests and passions in the present while staying open to the possibilities moving forward activates so much of their potential as students, as leaders, as ethical citizens, as artists, as athletes, or you name it.  In fact, I would name our support for this process as the secret ingredient of the Waynflete experience that propels our students forward and often leaves me wondering as I watch them in and out of the classroom, “Huh, what was I doing when I was in high school?”

Thus, the theme of identity formation underlies much of the Waynflete experience.  It is central to the Ninth Grade Seminar curriculum.  We had a fascinating assembly last fall in which Waynflete alum Lucas O’Neil (’08) told his story of identity formation.  The video of his talk is linked here.  And we hope that the Incognito show will inspire students to reflect constructively on the many dimensions of identity and the ongoing excitement of shaping it.

The show is powerful as Mr. Fosberg’s story is emotionally charged and includes times of anxiety and anguish. It may cause some students to reflect on unsettling experiences of their own, which is why we have scheduled the show so that students will spend time in their advising groups afterwards.  I hope you will be able to engage your child in conversation after the show, and I do encourage you to attend the evening performance.  I have been in regular communication with Mr. Fosberg and have come to realize that his story has messages about identity and race that are relevant to my life as well as to the lives of our students.

Waynflete Takes on Titan Challenge – http://jamaine.org/programs/titan-challenge/    

by Zak Starr

On Wednesday, February 12, eight students along with math teachers Steve Kautz and Zak Starr went to the University of Southern Maine to compete in the 8^th Annual Titan Challenge.  The event, sponsored by Junior Achievement and including volunteers from many local and national businesses, took place at seven different universities across the state of Maine.  The competition is a simulation in which groups try to create the ultimate business model for their product weighing factors such as marketing, research and development, and charitable giving.  The eight students from Waynflete were split into three different groups that eventually placed 25^th, 35^th, and 59^th out of 130 teams in the state.  This is the second year that Waynflete students attended and we are looking forward to coming back next year.  It was a challenging experience and the students represented their school very well!

The eight participants – split up by group:

Sahal Hourdeh, Rowan May, Mason Saltz

Salli Li and Emily Wasserman

and Abdi Dahir, Cody Tiparos, and Jackie Xiao

The Forecaster Article

Portland Press Herald Article

Between rounds, we set the robot on the table and prepared to remove the malfunctioning motor. Sticking the hex wrenches into the various crevices of the robot, we unscrewed the motor from the structure and replaced it with the new one we had just purchased. We finished in the nick of time, with just enough time to test it before our next competition. Our conjecture as to the robot’s problems had been correct, and it was now back in competing form. We moved it to the competition arena, waiting for the referee to give us the signal to start. Lexi drove the robot this time, with Tim and Owen in her proximity. She maneuvered the robot effectively, pushing the balls into the goal zone with ease.

This all took place on January 18, 2014, at Erskine Academy, where my fellow roboticists and I competed with other robotics clubs in the region and managed to turn in our best performance to date. The competition involved lifting balls of different sizes and putting them in elevated goals as well as floor goals. By the end of the qualifying rounds, we learned that we had made it to the quarterfinals, and, for the first time, competed in yet another round of competitions. Our robotics team is quite new, having only competed for two years, but we have made tremendous progress in that short amount of time by working together and with the guidance of our faculty coach, science teacher Neil Rice. We went from totally non-functional robots to functioning, successful, and pride-inducing robots.  Coach Rice explains the robotics club this way:

“The robotics activity is entirely student-run. They come up with their own ideas, create their own designs, and build their own robots. Some students prefer building, others prefer programming, but they all contribute to the final product — which is never quite finished. And that is the most exciting part — watching them think and work under pressure to get the robot onto the competition floor after some unexpected mechanical failure or design flaw is revealed.”

Next year, we aspire to build an even better robot, with the hope of possibly placing among the top schools at next year’s meet. We have already taken apart our previous robot and drawn up plans for a new one. We hope to attract even more freshman in the fall so that the team can be self-sustainable after its founding members graduate.

Preparing the Waynflete roboticists of the future, Middle School robotics coach Page Lennig looks on with her two sons at a competition held last year.

Sports are important in most high school careers. They bring communities together, create new friendships, and make team bonds that can last forever. The Western Class C Student Athlete Summit held annually in the fall is a chance to create bonds with other students from “rival-schools” in a friendly, non-competitive environment. This year’s summit was held at the beautiful  Saint Joseph’s College campus.

Eight students from each Class C school were chosen to participate in the Summit. The criteria for the people chosen were “student athletes that are current or future leaders on the teams” according to Waynflete’s Athletic Director, Ross Burdick, who heads up Summit Planning for the Western Maine Athletic Conference. The eight Waynflete students chosen to attend this year’s summit were Khalid Suja ‘17, Kiera MacWhinnie ‘17, Meddy Smith ‘16, Willy Burdick ’16, Mike Rodway ‘15 Phoebe Calvin-Oehmig ’15, Leigh Fernandez ‘14, and Serge Nyirikamba ‘14.

For the past four years, Ross has put activities together as a way for the students to get to know each other, as well as for students to have input into the sports programs at their home schools and to help their Athletic Directors. “We (parents) may think that sportsmanship or schedules are important, but really it should come from the students.” Ross says. In fact, one of the activities from the Summit was made into a pamphlet called “Sports Are My Thing”, a guide to parenting a child in sports.This Summit is going to move forward in the following years because it is essential to the student athletes and Athletic Directors. Ross says. “You get to hear and share ideas about leadership and how to be a leader within your team”