Student Life

Today marked the start of a new Co-Curricular Program for the Winter Term. Students are required to attend two, half-hour sessions each week with options that range from sports psychology, outdoor recreation and a Mind & Body Fitness Challenge to music, photography, Model United Nations (MUN), engineering and more.
 

Two students in the Gunn Music Program, tenor Drew Sutherland ’21 and alto Yolanda Wang ’21, are performing this week in the National Association for Music Education’s All-National Honors Choir, which represents the top vocalists in the country.
 

The Frederick Gunn School presented “Home for the Holidays 2020: A Virtual Holiday Concert and Celebration” on December 17, featuring students in the school’s Vocal Ensemble, String Ensemble, and Jazz Combo, along with special guest musicians, directed by Ron Castonguay, Director of the Arts and Director of Music. It was the first remote broadcast of a holiday concert, and the first holiday concert at The Frederick Gunn School.
 

Last summer, faculty members Amy Paulekas and Cassie Ruscz began thinking about how to design a new course focused on diversity, race, and identity for a new, online curriculum the school was developing called Winterim. Offered over a three-week period in December, Winterim is intended to give students an opportunity to break from the normal academic schedule to enroll in a class that is intensely focused on one big idea or question. Courses are designed by faculty and offered to students across grade levels, which means a freshman can just as easily enroll as a senior. Many Winterim courses are co-taught by teachers who are combining their expertise, and all culminate in a final project that allows students to put into practice what they learned over the term.
 

The Varsity Field Hockey Team is unable to host their annual Play4TheCure event this fall, but the team is still seeking to raise funds toward its goal of $8,200 in support of the National Foundation for Cancer Research. 
 

Mackenzie Teper ’21 and Vivian Boucher ’23 have been selected to participate in ASAP’s 10th Annual Celebration of Young Photographers. More than 200 submissions from students representing 38 schools across the state were received this year. Teper and Boucher were among 60 finalists selected by a panel of professional photographers through a blind judging process. Their photographs will be featured in a unique, large scale professional art exhibition based on the 2020 theme, “Quarantined.”

Although things looked a little different, the tradition of Parents Weekend was able to continue this fall, in the format of what is hoped to be the first and only virtual Parents Weekend in the school’s history. Head of School Peter Becker delivered the State of the School Address via Zoom on Friday, October 23, to parents, alumni, parents of alumni, and friends of the school.
 

The second Community Weekend of the school year offered students the opportunity to participate in a range of outdoor activities based on the theme, “Live Like Fred.” From a star lecture on the Quad, led by science teacher Steve Bailey P’09, and fire pits on the Glade to night hikes at the Steep Rock and Macricostas preserves, water activities at Beebe Boathouse, low ropes and camping at South Street Fields, students were able to spend time together outside in the spirit of founder Frederick Gunn. 
 

On the heels of the first presidential debate last week, and in anticipation of the November election, the newest members of the student-led Gray Party have planned a series of events and updates this fall, including an ongoing voter registration drive on campus.