Search this site

Near the end of summer 2017, the cast of Deerfield Academy’s Pinkalicious completed their eight-month-long adventure by performing their play four times in Edinburgh, Scotland at The Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Aside from performing for international audiences, the cast members also had the chance to explore London and Edinburgh and experience the rich fabric of both cities’ art and culture. Arriving in London on July 29, the cast had ample time to explore the city and all that it offered. They toured the Globe Theater together, participating in an acting workshop while there, and also saw the musical Kinky Boots in the West End. Cast members had the opportunity to visit other scenic spots, such as the Tate Modern, King’s Cross Station, and the British Library. After two days in London, Deerfield’s Pinkalicious hit the road again, and arrived in Edinburgh. Director of Theater Mrs. Catriona Hynds explained, “I went to boarding school in Edinburgh for eight years and so I am very familiar with the city, but even though I left the theater scene in the mid-nineties, I am thrilled to see that it is still such a vibrant, profoundly creative city when it comes to the arts.” The cast observed that Edinburgh was completely plastered with posters and flyers advertising the various productions. Taking full advantage of this wide range of offerings, Deerfield students sprinted from both ends of towns to catch as many as 40 different shows. They witnessed acts ranging from America’s Got Talent’s Tape Face (a mime/comedy/variety act) to SiX (about Henry VIII’s wives in a female pop band) to Baby Wants Candy (an entirely improvised musical). One of the most notable, however, was Speaking in Tongues. Not only was it “beautifully acted” and “incredible,” their very cast also attended a production of Deerfield’s Pinkalicious. “That performance of Pinkalicious was my favorite because everyone was so energized knowing that these actors we respected were there, and the show went really well,”recalled Suzy Mazur ’18. The final production of Pinkalicious was another cast favorite. “Nobody messed up, and a Deerfield alum came to see us,” said Abigail Lupi ’18. That show, as described by Lilia Brooker ’19, “…was completely packed. There were tons of young kids sitting on the floor in their dress-up clothes. Their energy is really what helped us put on our best performance.” The Edinburgh trip, according to Mazur, also gave students a glimpse of what life in a professional theatre troupe is like. At each show, “There were several things to which we had to adjust, such as a new venue and different lighting and sound boards and instruments, and we only had one two-hour tech rehearsal in the space to get used to it all!” recounted Mazur. “I learned how to quickly adapt to whatever hurdles were thrown at us in the realm of theater.” Mrs. Hynds remarked, “They inhaled the culture, as was my hope, immersing themselves in every opportunity to see plays. I think they got the very best out of the experience and represented Deerfield Academy magnificently.” “Honestly, it was the best trip I have ever been on,” Brooker vouched. Mazur concluded, “It was worth every penny.”

After 28 years as a dedicated member of Deerfield’s faculty, Mr. Thomas Heise will retire from teaching at the end of this academic year. While at Deerfield, Mr. Heise has taught a wide range of history courses, including US History, American Studies, Western Civilization, Africa and Latin America, as well as a wide range of senior history electives, including this year’s American Empire class and a course on the local history of Deerfield. He also spearheaded the design of a number of Deerfield history courses, most notably Modern Times, which is currently offered to seniors. Mr. Heise values the opportunities Deerfield has provided to design his own history courses, stating, “As a teacher, the conditions you have in a classroom to teach the way that you believe is right are pretty special.” Mr. Heise has served as chair of the History Department twice and coached Varsity and JV boys soccer throughout his time at DA. He also acted as the faculty chair for “Imagine Deerfield,” a 2009 strategic plan for Academy development. According to its online reports, Imagine Deerfield served as “the Academy’s most ambitious fundraising campaign to date, designed to ensure that our students continue to have the best resources and opportunities available—and to provide new programs and initiatives that will secure our place as a leading secondary school.” When introducing the plan, Mr. Heise described its ultimate purpose, stating “The world calls to people who are flexible, broadly knowledgeable, interested and skilled, able to learn and grow, and generous of heart. The Imagine Deerfield plan, our response to that call, is the course we will follow to ensure that Deerfield continues to graduate students who serve the world nobly and well.” Mr. Heise’s legacy at Deerfield can be easily measured through his deep influence on history students. Logan Knight ’17, who recently took American Empire and is a current student in Mr. Heise’s Freedom Summer to Ferguson elective, described Mr. Heise’s impact on his worldview: “I think [that]… no one can leave his class without feeling a responsibility for others and to do good in the world.” Knight illustrated the powerful knowledge gained from Mr. Heise’s courses, stating how he now recognizes that, “We all have a responsibility for each other, to think about each other, and bad things happen only when we aren’t actively pursuing the good in the world.” Karen Tai ’17, a student of Mr. Heise’s Honors U.S. History and Freedom Summer to Ferguson classes, believes that, for her, “Mr. Heise [is] the first history teacher who made history interesting and come alive.” Tai enjoys Mr. Heise’s classes for their inspiring and stimulating nature. She described, “His classes are intellectually engaging and thought provoking. Just when you think you have an answer, he presses on, forcing you to think harder and deeper…His lessons on history are more than just facts; they are about understanding and considering everyone’s voice and point of view, no matter how small or different they are.” When reflecting on his time at DA, Mr. Heise aims for the lessons taught within his classes to inspire students for years to come. He stated, “I hope [my students] would see the world with greater understanding. I hope they would have a level of curiosity that is higher after leaving a class of mine than it was before. I hope that they would encounter any number of examples in a course where people with good minds and great hearts help make the world better.” Ultimately, Mr. Heise departs his teaching years hoping that “something about having been in this classroom and others at Deerfield will help people become the people they’re supposed to be.” Mr. Heise leaves Deerfield, “very grateful for the support and friendship that [he has] received from adults in this community and very grateful for the students [he has] had the privilege of teaching here.” Gratitude for Mr. Heise’s tenure at Deerfield is reciprocated by students and faculty alike. Tai expressed her appreciation for Mr. Heise, stating “His dedication to and passion for teaching and learning has been truly inspirational. He has a genuine compassion for his students…I owe much of where I am today to his invaluable advice and generous support.” Mr. Mark Scandling, an English teacher and long time friend of Mr. Heise, believes that Mr. Heise’s dedication will hold a lasting impact on the Academy for years to come: “Mr. Heise always offered the best of himself, inspiring his students, his colleagues, and his school to do the same.”

Last spring, the stepping up bonfire made an especially poignant impact on the Deerfield community and set the tone for the class of 2017’s senior year. To an energetic crowd, Griffin Thomas ’17 introduced the slogan “fam17y” and shared the news that his father had lost his life to cancer that morning. In that moment, the creation of this word was much more than just an annual tradition. Thomas said, “We [wanted] a strong word that showed our love for one another… I had just lost my dad earlier that day and was a wreck, but coming to see all my classmates and members of my family rally around me was just magical. That is what family is for.” This slogan has manifested in various forms but nonetheless has unified the class of 2017. For instance, Kathryn Grennon ’17 feels that the slogan greatly decreased the gender divide in the grade. “I think that is what really brought us together this year,” she said. According to seniors, not only have people unprecedentedly branched out and formed bonds with others they might not have known as well before, but they also have become more caring and respectful towards one another. Katherine Von Weise ’17 observed that students this year are more willing to branch out and develop meaningful relationships, stepping outside of their social comfort zone. Xander Li ’17 agreed with Von Weise’s assessment and said, “I feel that this year, as well as in past years, the guys in my grade have always backed each other up no matter the situation. So, in that way, I think we have always been a family because we care and respect each other.” When thinking back on their high school careers, seniors commonly cherish Deerfield not solely for the academic and extracurricular opportunities it offers but also for the priceless memories that students forge each day. “I think I really grew up here,” reflected Grennon. “I, as well as most others, entered here as lost 14-year-old freshmen and leave with a much stronger sense of who we are and a deeper understanding about the large and diverse world around us.” Grennon reflected on her gratefulness for the cameraderie that she has forged with her classmates, steating “For those reasons no matter how much the senior class has or has not changed, I will be eternally grateful for the Deerfield community.”

On February 9, world-renowned psychologist and researcher Dr. Suniya Luthar came to Deerfield to administer a comprehensive survey to the student body. For almost an hour, students gathered by grade to answer questions about all aspects of life at our school. Similar surveys have been conducted by several other New England boarding schools such as […]

At the end of my senior year at Deerfield, I felt as prepared as I could be for college. I’d lived away from home for three years and had challenged myself at an academically rigorous institution. But as soon as I stepped foot onto my college’s campus, I reverted to my first few days at DA. Suddenly, my three years of preparation went out the window. I quickly became nervous, timid, and overwhelmed by my unfamiliar surroundings. It was an entirely new environment: it was scary, yet at the same time, exciting. I was the new kid again, with hundreds of other new students, all with incredible stories to share and adventures to begin. My classmates come from all walks of life—some undocumented immigrants, some refugees from Syria, and some the children of Wall Street titans. Sure, I was prepared for a more intense workload, and I was more disciplined with my work than many others who were still adjusting to life away from home and learning to manage their own time. But what I was not prepared for were the many conversations about salient issues or interesting events in the world. I could talk at length about my senior English elective on African American voices, but I could not confidently engage in debates about the geopolitical climate in the UK or the political origins of terrorism in Egypt or offer any pointed perspectives because honestly, I didn’t know enough about these matters. Moreover, I didn’t have the necessary skillset to evaluate a current issue and form a coherent point of view on it. I didn’t realize it while at Deerfield, but I had bought into a crowd mentality—a norm of living that I am no longer accustomed to, after having gone through two years of college. Deerfield is an incredible place with incredibly talented students, but it is worth noting that the majority of students, although not all, grow up relatively well-off, when compared to the average American teenager. The small student body as a whole has a seemingly homogenous take on issues that surround it: the school has historically been relatively conservative, albeit this is a generalization that does not apply to certain minorities of students. This combined with the fact that, in high school, we are young, impressionable kids allows us to get sucked into the group mentality. The community you grow up in, especially if it is an isolated one like DA, provides a foundation for your worldview. And if you ever feel that your opinion opposes the majority opinion in that community, it is harder to speak up. At least this was the case for me. For example, when the Charlie Hebdo conflict occurred in 2015 (my senior year at Deerfield), I didn’t speak out about it, even though I could have had a unique voice on the matter, especially being a Muslim. I felt strongly about it but I didn’t know how to coherently and logically convey my feelings. At the same time, I was scared to challenge predominant (yet sometimes misguided and uninformed) positions. Similarly, when Deerfield students started hosting Greer chats when I was at DA, I always knew I wanted to say something but I didn’t know how to without letting my emotions overshadow my reasoning. I didn’t know how to handle a debate without it becoming a shouting match. Deerfield should prepare us for real-life conversations, but this preparation shouldn’t only take the form of teacher-led discussions or rigid, planned class debates. Controversial conversations should be organic: we should be able to have these kinds of conversations naturally, in the dorms or when walking on the pathways to class, which is what I have found happens in college. But in order for this to happen, we first have to learn how not to be offended by differing opinions, how to disagree without getting defensive. We need to be able to have informed opinions based in fact and logic, so that emotion and judgement do not undermine productive conversation. Deerfield did an excellent job preparing me for the academic world but not so much for the real world, for the interactions that count. That’s what really matters in life, and I wish I had more exposure to that as a high school student. It certainly seems that DA is heading in that direction with the Global Studies and the Inclusion departments, but it needs to take a bigger step in stimulating conversation and teaching its students how to be critical but respectful and how to develop and articulate informed opinions. Students also have a key role to play in driving this change. Now is the time to develop these skills so that the shock does not set students back once they step outside of high school.

10 . This first prank involves former Sports Information Director and DirJoseph Morsman ’55. “He used to drive around in a little Volkswagen Bug,” math teacher Sean Keller recalled. “I believe a bunch of kids picked [his car] up and they carried it straight into the dining hall. Because if you get twenty people on one of those, you could carry it. It’s a really small car.” 9 . One of Facility Services Manager at Physical Plant Tim Wondolowski’s favorite pranks was “One year when the senior class kept spreading rumors about what they were going to do…they had security looking over their shoulders. They had administrators looking over their shoulders. It turned out that their class prank was no prank at all!” 8. Many pranks have involved Amie Creagh, former Dean of Students and currently the Assistant Head of School for Student Life. Last year, a group of seniors hired a mariachi band to follow Ms. Creagh for three hours straight. She even invited them to perform on stage at Wednesday school meeting. 7. Besides senior pranks, another popular senior tradition at Deerfield is the sacred “senior grass” that surrounds the Main School Building. This grass is reserved only for seniors. All other students must walk around the grass to the brick walkway in order to enter the building. One year, some particularly clever seniors placed sod down along the front walkway. As a result, no other students could access the building without treading on the newly formed “senior grass.” 6. One day in the 1980s, during the time of Headmaster Robert Kaufmann, everybody entering the main school building was greeted with a stunning sight: thousands and thousands of cups of water that spread across the floor of the building. “It took some coordination to do that,” said Mr. Wondoloski. “Nobody got hurt, nobody got disrupted. Everybody’s emptying the cups of water into buckets. From the admissions office to the Caswell—door to door, eight-ounce cups of water.” The best part? The cups were all filled up and placed again the next day. 5. In past years, the faculty sat in the first three rows of the auditorium on the left and right. A small group of seniors went into the auditorium before the school meeting and undid the screws that were bolting the seats down on the floor. They took the seats and flipped them backwards so that the faculty seats were facing away from the stage, and bolted them back down. 4. One year the seniors really decided to leave their mark at Deerfield. They brought a cow on campus and led it into the Main School Building, easing it up the stairs until it was on the second floor. Mr. Keller explained, “Once you get a cow to the second floor, they don’t want to go down. They can go up, but going down is a different story.” 3. The black security vehicle is a familiar sight for all Deerfield students. How much was the vehicle worth? Last year, a group of seniors decided to find out. They posted a listing for the security vehicle on eBay and let the offers pour in. As an added twist, they posted Ms. Creagh’s cell phone number as the primary point of contact for information about the vehicle’s sale. 2. Certain items in everyday Deerfield life are commonplace yet crucial. Seniors emphasized this point when they collected all the silverware in the dining hall and hid it in a day student’s car. Come sit-down lunch, everyone had to eat with their hands – and the meal was none other than shepherd’s pie. 1. While the kidnapping of the ninth graders has become a regular senior prank, none were executed as smoothly and effectively as the original, which took place around fifteen years ago. Mr. Keller described, “We were a bit of a smaller school at the time, so there were fewer freshmen than there are now. They took them all at some early hour of the morning.” However, rather than sending the freshmen out to the Rock or some other far location, the seniors hid them right on campus in the basement of the Crow Commons. “The seniors provided orange juice and breakfast food. They simply closed the door and let the freshmen watch movies with their blankets and pillows. And there were signs all over campus that said, ‘Where are the freshmen?’”

Every year, winter and spring Koch Friday Concerts (KFC) invite Deerfield students to showcase their hidden talents, sing along with friends, and enjoy music-filled Saturday nights. After discovering the potential for a student-run show, Visual and Performing Arts Teacher Mr. David Dickinson founded KFC in 2004 to showcase hidden talent. Mr. Dickinson explained that he believes the event allows students to contribute to the community by performing for each other. KFC was not initially intended to be a “big event” on campus. He explained, “It was supposed to be a small Friday night event. In 2007 it didn’t fly, because it’s hard to get into the calendar at this school. Since Friday nights were so heavily booked, it was moved to Saturday nights.” In the spring of 2008, KFC was a hit. Mr. Dickinson noted that the entire community went crazy over it, especially the homemade banner, which is still used today, and nearly twenty acts performed. In 2011, a few members of the Board of Trustees who witnessed this lively social gathering were taken back by the large level of talent and asked twelve acts to perform for the 1797 in New York at the Broad Street Ball Room. Mr. Dickinson had three words to share: “It was phenomenal.” Despite the fancy ballroom, lights, and stage, Mr. Dickinson’s favorite part of KFC is the hidden talents that come out. He stated, “I love it when I see a student who comes out of the shadows, and everyone is blown away at their abilities. I love seeing kids from all different backgrounds come together in a band to make music. It all gels, and that’s the beauty of KFC.” Throughout the years, students of all backgrounds have been able to pursue their passions. KFC veteran Kate Hadley ’17 has developed special stories of personal growth with each KFC performance. Hadley reflected that, being a shy 9th and 10th grader, she did not perform at KFC until the winter of her junior year, when she took the stage with Henry Conlon ’16. She recalled, “We made a mash up ourselves. It was one of the first times that I got up in front of the whole school and did something I really wanted to do. It was awesome.” Hadley’s favorite part of KFC is the enthusiasm: cheering, seeing people’s reactions, and dancing. She stated, “It’s fun doing what you love in front of the people you love.” Talha Tariq ’17 shared his own story of learning how to become a performer since his first KFC in his 9th grade year. He recalled, “In my mind, that was a professional concert.” As the years have gone by, KFC has transformed from being a nerve-wracking performance to being the most important and enjoyable concert that he plays all year. To show an example of his growth, Tariq stated, “I don’t get nervous anymore. Now I get excited to go on stage.” To musicians, KFC is an outlet to give the Deerfield community a taste of their passion. To students in general, KFC is lively event where they get to cheer on their friends. To Mr. Dickinson, KFC is an opportunity for students of all sides of campus to get together to make music. Whether it’s in the Koch Science Building or outside of the Hess Center for the Arts, everyone in the community are always looking forward to the next KFC.

After being cut by his hometown high school’s varsity lacrosse program his ninth grade year, Rob Pannell ’08 carved out a name for himself, not only as one of the best players at Deerfield Academy but also as one of the best lacrosse players of all time, earning many honors in his high school, collegiate, and Major League Lacrosse careers. This March, Pannell re-connected with Deerfield when he helped coach the team at IMG Academy during the preseason program. Pannell eagerly lent his time to lead some practices for the team. Young Hur ’18 describes being coached by Pannell as “both intimidating and exciting. Looking up at such a successful player, I definitely tried to incorporate all of the tips that he gave us into the drills that we were doing.” Pannell has dominated opponents on the lacrosse fields for years and is notorious for his turn-around shot. During his year at Deerfield, he played both lacrosse and basketball. He set and still holds the Deerfield lacrosse record with ninety-nine points in a single season. Also, he won the Stewart Lindsay, Jr. Award for the most outstanding attackman in the New England Prep School Athletic Conference. Andrew Philie ’09, an influential player on the 2008 New England champions Deerfield boys lacrosse team and current varsity boys lacrosse coach, remembers playing alongside Pannell: “He was really calm, cool, and collected, not trying to force anything. He was a really smart player. He didn’t have to do too much to let the game come to him. He also did a good job of getting everyone involved.” Boys varsity lacrosse captain Jared Strauss ’17 recalls following Pannell’s rise to fame: “I remember watching him my freshman year while he was at Cornell and finding out that he went to Deerfield. One time we were watching him and my dad told me, ‘This guy is going to be the best player in the nation,’ and he did that.” Pannell steamrolled into the Ivy League at Cornell. During his freshman year, he led Cornell in points. A broken foot in the second game of his senior season forced Pannell to rehabilitate, but he returned stronger for a fifth season. Finishing his college career as a three-time All-American, two-time National Player of the Year, and Tewaaraton Award winner, he was drafted first overall by the New York Lizards in the 2012 MLL draft. In his four years playing in the MLL, Pannell continued collecting accolades. He has been named a three-time all-pro selection, two-time league leader in scoring, and offensive player of the year. In 2015, Pannell led the New York Lizards to their first MLL championship in twelve years. In addition to coming to Deerfield lacrosse’s preseason, Pannell is trying to expand his coaching into other formats. Pannell offers an online instructional lacrosse video series through The PlayersStudio. “He was always mature, poised, and ambitious at Deerfield,” said coach Chip Davis. According to Mr. Davis and Mr. Philie, Pannell has many strengths beyond pure lacrosse talent. “He’s not laid back. He’s not going to let someone keep repeating mistakes on the field. Like his game, he’s very precise,” Mr. Davis said. Mr. Philie remembers Pannell for his work ethic: “He was a guy that went about his business. He didn’t make a big deal of getting ninety-nine points in fourteen games here. He attacked every day with the love of the game on his mind.” Pannell is starting up his fifth season with the New York Lizards where he has been an all-star his entire career.

Today, college has become closely associated with competition. At Deerfield, students of already incredibly high caliber are competing to be the biggest fish in the ocean. Here, even the smallest things become a competition because many of those small things we do are for the purpose of getting into a top university. Healthy competition is great: it pushes us to be the best we can possibly be. But in the words of John D. Rockefeller, “Unhealthy competition is a sin.” Students at prep schools vie for spots in colleges and many will do whatever it takes to get there, whether that means starting a club just to talk about it in an interview or participating in community service just to beef up a resume. It seems that there is a major flaw in the college application process: as certain schools get more and more selective, applicants become more and more susceptible to empty commitments. Deerfield students are known to overextend themselves as it is, taking rigorous courses and participating in both co-curricular and extracurricular activities throughout the school year. Yet some are still trying to knock the rest out of the field, to rise up to be the cream of the crop. To some extent, we all fall prey to this competitive spirit, but when we let competition and comparison consume us, we lose sight of what really matters: the invaluable opportunity to make a real difference. These opportunities that Deerfield students have to make an impact are often seen as mere stepping stones to college. Many students will travel on a service trip, attend a conference, or take advantage of any of the countless opportunities we are offered but then never speak of or act on what they learned afterwards. Unfortunately, it seems that many do it just to say they did it, not for the sole purpose of affecting positive change in the world. But we can make an impact, starting with the slightest alterations. One of our peer schools, Phillips Academy Andover, recently made an amendment to their community service department. Instead of using the word “service,” which has come to negatively connote obligation, they now use the word “engagement.” This change might seem minor, but it can have a major impact on the overall outlook of the department and its participants. Instead of looking upon service as a duty, as something students have to do because their school or college advisor tells them to, students are encouraged to look upon “engagement” as an opportunity: an opportunity not to increase your appeal as a college applicant, but as an oppurtunity to appreciate and give back to a community that does nothing but give to you. When you help others for the purpose of helping yourself, nobody is really being helped at all. What most overlook as they go through the motions of “helping others” and “doing good” is why they are helping. If true interest and enthusiasm do not drive our actions, then our accomplishments, regardless of how seemingly great they may be, lose meaning. We might receive an award or a title but we will not have received it for the right reasons: we will not truly have been a catalyst for the greater good. As philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel said, “Nothing great in the world has ever been accomplished without passion.” With these words, we advise you to find your passion, foster and explore it. Find something or even a few things that you genuinely take interest in, and run with them. Don’t just go through the motions: do things that mean something to you. In the end, our achievements, our legacies will be measured not by the colleges that we got into, but by the positive and productive impact that we had on the world around us.

In the past, the spring play has often consisted of a collection of one-acts, and is frequently an opportunity for veteran actors and newcomers alike to explore new genres and techniques. This year, the theater program is providing students with a unique opportunity ­— a spring play, , that is entirely student-written, blocked, and performed. “This play is a devised theater piece, which means the inspiration all comes from the ensemble,” explained the director of the play Ms. Adaire Robinson. “It’s really nice to be able to see people tell not just stories that they think are interesting but stories that are also theirs… A lot of plays are not actually about teenagers, and if they have teenage characters, they’re often very narrow characters that don’t express the wealth of views and knowledge and information that our students have.” Eleven actors and one sound manager were actively involved in the genesis of this play. Titled , the play is about the students themselves. It is meant to express the ups and downs they’ve experienced in life, drawing inspiration from moments of joy, frustration, failure, and success. To create the script, the ensemble brainstormed nearly a hundred different ideas and partook in timed writing exercises. “This [time] pressure helped students like myself hesitate less about what to write and simply share ideas in a genuine and honest manner, which was encouraged by the very friendly environment,” observed Noah Lang ’18, a member of the cast. As the script was finalized, rehearsals became more reminiscent of those during fall and winter, requiring the cast to memorize and breathe life into their roles. These twelve students have been able to weave together all their stories into an hour-long production that they invite the Deerfield community to enjoy. “Twelve” will be performed in the Black Box Theater from Wednesday, May 24, to Saturday, May 27th, a total of four shows.

A lifelong lover of visual art, Ellie Koschik ’17 grew up admiring buildings. “When my family and I [went on roadtrips], other people looked at the countryside, but I stared at the buildings,” said Koschik. Her exposure to architecture began during her 9th grade year, when she took Deerfield’s Graphics class. Here, she realized she preferred the “neat” parts of drawing to the “creative” aspects. Starting with Architectural Design in her junior year, Koschik went on to exhaust all the architecture classes offered by Deerfield. With guidance from Visual Arts Teacher Mr. David Payne, she learned how to draw by hand and develop her own personal style of design. During her time at Deerfield, Koschik has been a prolific architect, and her building designs have served a wide variety of purposes. In addition to creating multiple apartments and houses, she collaborated with other students in the spring of 2016 to plan a new health center. The group then presented the project to Chief Financial Officer Mr. Keith Finan and former Director of Medical Services Dr. Thomas Hagamen, as well as to the entire school during school meeting. One of the most extensive projects she has worked on to date was a ski house on the Alps. Designed during the past winter term, the building was created with Xander Li ’17 serving as Koschik’s “client.” Koschik explained that the planning process was made easier by having the client give her a clear idea of what facilities he wanted. However, she did not have as much freedom to do what she wanted. Currently, Koschik is taking a spring elective titled The City as a Work of Art, a class focused on urban planning. She is also in a directed architecture study with Mr. Payne. For her final project, she is working on a chapel for the Deerfield campus, which she described as a place that is not necessarily religious, but more of a place for people to sit with their thoughts. Mr. Payne described Koschik as being “meticulous, precise, and detail-oriented,” praising her drawings as “very crisp and clean.” He noted that Koschik has shown immense growth and discovered her artistic side while learning how to design, stating, “Everybody can do [architecture], but some people are naturally more gifted at it than others, and I think that’s the case for Ellie.” Koschik shared that she has learned from the buildings around the Deerfield campus. “A really important part of a neighborhood or town is for buildings work together and look similar, and I think Deerfield is a good example of that,” she stated. Although she is not sure what type of buildings she wants to specialize in planning, Koschik’s goal is to design buildings that, regardless of their commercial or residential use, are sustainable for the planet. She recalled, “I was at the Island School [in the Bahamas] last year, and they talked to us about how efficient they are about water use, which got me interested in the environmental aspect of architecture.” Above all, Koschik hopes to design buildings that function well, remarking that buildings “shouldn’t just be something to look at, but something people can make use out of.”

Next school year, Deerfield plans to complete its official Climate Action Plan and pitch it to the Academy’s Sustainability Board. Ten years ago, Deerfield realized the negative effects of some of its practices and the importance of making meaningful changes in order to protect the environment. It was at this point that the Academy chose to create a sustainability plan that consisted of 45 “action-items,” created with the intent of improving Deerfield’s performance in environmental efforts. Deerfield also incorporated the term “environmental stewardship” into its mission statement. Today, the Climate Action Plan differs from the sustainability plan in that it sets out exact percentage reductions that the school should aim for in order to reach an ambitious but possible goal. Putting a real Climate Action Plan into effect is time consuming and challenging. Mr. David Purington, the Environmental Management Coordinator and member of the Sustainability Board stated, “It is important for next year that everybody understand we are not there yet. It’s almost like a race: we are training for the race, but we haven’t run it yet.” According to Dr. Ivory Hills, the current Director of Sustainability, who spearheaded the movement along with Mr. Purington and the rest of the board, the plan itself is “a process where we collect relevant information and community sentiment to construct a document that works for our school. We are still in the early stages.” Anticipated challenges arise from the fact that many activities that occur at Deerfield release large quantities of greenhouse gas. Jackson Cohlan ’18 plans to head the student committee next year that will aid the board with the CAP. Cohlan spoke of some of the challenges that Deerfield faces in creating the plan, explaining, “We have to make the carbon emissions as low as we can without impeding the things the school wants to do. For example, research conducted by a firm hired to survey and evaluate the Academy’s emission levels showed that [our trips abroad] with the CSGC and Dr. Curtis going on fundraising trips burn a lot of carbon emissions.” However, with a hopeful outlook, Cohlan believes that the Academy does not have to sacrifice these important activities that also emit greenhouse gases. Rather, we can find a balance. Dr. Hills indicated that the CAP would be a collective and impactful initiative, stating, “When the CAP is completed, it will be relevant to the whole community. Thus, I anticipate every student and adult helping to implement the plan.” Cohlan believes that many people take the importance of climate change for granted. While the climate change conversation is relevant to everyone, its importance is especially clear to Cohlan. When asked about his motivation to join the climate change movement, Cohlan said, “I live in southern Florida, and my house is officially below sea level. I have watched a bunch of documentaries about it and done a bunch of research, and if sea levels rise above two feet, my house will be underwater because it will get flooded, and it’s predicted to do that within the next one hundred and fifty years. It’s a thing that a lot of people don’t pay attention to, but I think it’s really important.” Through the creation of a personalized and thorough Climate Action Plan, students, faculty, and all members of the Deerfield community will take an active role in alleviating the amount of carbon emissions the Academy produces, making positive changes that extend to affect the global community at large.