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Math Teacher Aaron Duphily started teaching at Deerfield at the start of the 2022-2023 academic year and has significantly impacted the various communities he has been a part of while here. In addition to teaching math, Mr. Duphily was a dedicated coach of the ski team in the winter, traveling with the ski team to Berkshire East each day. Additionally, he coached Girls’ Varsity Rowing this spring, where he worked with a crew of novice rowers to help them acclimate to the sport, encouraging them along the way.  Describing how he ended up at Deerfield, Mr. Duphily said, “I had been in Idaho for four years and was looking for a bit of a change and wanted to be closer to family and friends because I’m from Maine originally.”  Some of Mr. Duphily’s favorite moments and memories throughout his year at Deerfield were the traditions surrounding Choate Week, coaching the downhill ski team, and spending time with his co-workers in the math department, both in and out of a professional context. In terms of plans for the future, Mr. Duphily said that he plans to stray away from teaching and start a career in software or engineering.

After two years in the Theater Department as a teaching fellow, Eve La Puma will bid farewell to the Valley. Before Deerfield Academy, Ms. La Puma earned a Bachelor of Arts in Theater and Performance Studies from Stanford University and is currently earning her Masters in Education at the University of Pennsylvania. At Deerfield, Ms. La Puma co-taught a number of acting classes, founded the fall playwriting co-curricular program, and is currently directing the 2023 spring play, Kate Hamill’s Little Women. She described her time here as both “joyful” and “educational,” especially when working with the writers in the fall playwriting workshop.  Will Sussbauer ’23, who enrolled in the fall playwriting co-curricular, described the workshop as “a space of comfort, collaboration, and exploration.” He added that “[Ms. La Puma’s] leadership and kindness and deep empathy enabled me and my peers to be as creative as possible, figuring out our minds and hearts through those of our characters.” Ms. La Puma believes that she will carry “the memories of both years of workshops far beyond Deerfield, likely farther than I will anything else I participated in throughout my four years.” From the residents of Poc 3 who enjoy Ms. La Puma’s snacks of fried chicken and garlic bread to the chamber group(s) where she played the bassoon, Deerfield will miss this cherished faculty member. However, Ms. La Puma is excited to start her journey at the Quarry Lane School in Dublin, California, where she will serve as the Director of Theater.

At the end of March, Dr. Austin won an Educational Leadership grant from the Edward E. Ford Foundation. His application, submitted at the start of the school year, proposed to “provide a practical school-based framework for Boards, school leaders, and faculty to navigate a moment of political complexity, polarization and division” by helping schools to encourage “expressive freedom without fear” and “determine when — and if — to assert neutrality on matters of politics and social action.” His initiative aims to facilitate conversations regarding free inquiry and civic discourse among private secondary schools nationwide. Dr. Austin’s “framework” includes creating a board or a “task force” of eight headmasters from various private secondary schools around the country. He curated this board based on recommendations from the Edward E. Ford Foundation and suggestions from the educational community. This board is separate from the “Eight Schools Association” that Deerfield shares with some of its neighboring Northeast boarding schools and is instead a variation of private schools from around the country. Dr. Austin picked eight schools of diverse sizes, gender specificities (single sex and co-ed), and geographical locations to see how they would respond to the communication about free inquiry and civic discourse.  Dr. Austin began his project by hiring Lee Levinson, former Head of the Collegiate School New York as the project manager. Dr. Austin stated that he might expand his “task force” as the plan sets into action, but as of now, his board of eight heads of schools and his project organizers are getting the ball rolling. This group will “convene in person over the summer” and begin to discuss what the next few years will look like in terms of achieving their goals. The official grant money will go towards travel expenses for meetings like this one and allow the board to commute to schools that are a part of the membership. Dr. Austin decided to apply for an Educational Leadership Grant last winter and began working on his idea. He said that throughout the process, he was “in contact with John Gulla, the executive director of the Edward E. Ford Foundation in Brooklyn, New York,” about how he would work with the company to realize his ideas. According to its website, the Edward E. Ford Foundation has made generous Traditional and Educational Leadership Grants to secondary schools since 2008. The foundation aims to help schools “grow their own missions” and foster conversations and projects that will help better secondary education overall. Edward E. Ford himself was born in 1894 and had great success in the manufacturing industry, as his innovations eventually made it to the International Business Machine Corporation. He made his first donation in 1957 and started to shape his goals for secondary education before he died in 1963. Since then, the board of his foundation has given almost 2,300 grants that have accumulated to about $133,000,000. One of their more recent grants was awarded in 2021 to the Governor’s Academy, where they will use the $250,000 contribution to build a “coastal studies center,” including a wet lab and workshops for field research, as the school sits near the Parker River and Great Marsh. The Edward E. Ford Foundation works to give grants to a diverse group of secondary schools all over the country, and they have varied in geographical location, size, and financial status.   Dr. Austin hopes that in the future, he and his board can attend and present at National Education Conferences and eventually have Deerfield host its own conference. He is also looking forward to getting the Deerfield community more involved with his plans and bringing his ideas to the students and faculty in the future.

From April 13 to 14, 2023, Deerfield Academy hosted the annual Eight Schools Association (ESA) Spring conference. Heads of Schools and numerous board members and trustees from ESA member schools gathered at Deerfield to discuss the current state of private boarding schools.  A primary topic in this spring’s conference was the future of boarding school teachers. Dr. Austin commented that this subject was “especially important for Deerfield” and questions such as “How can we invest in faculty?” and “How can we sustain, deepen, and renew the high engagement model of teaching, coaching, advising and mentoring?” allowed for a fruitful discussion. Other matters, such as supporting student health on campuses, the excessive attachment to social media, and the financial challenges that schools face, were also discussed. Dr. Austin mentioned that numerous schools were interested in Deerfield’s implementation of the cell phone policy, hinting at the possibility that other schools may consider enacting similar rules.  The ESA is a collaborative association of eight private college-preparatory boarding schools in New England. The association consists of Deerfield Academy, The Hotchkiss School, The Lawrenceville School, Northfield Mount Hermon, Phillips Academy, Phillips Exeter Academy, St. Paul’s School, and Choate Rosemary Hall. Though it was founded in the 1973-1974 school year, 2006 marked the first appointment of a president and an executive director. According to the ESA’s website, the association is “devoted to the exploration of new research and trends in education, and we shall consider together any issues and challenges common to their school and faculty.” The ESA holds two meetings each year, one during the winter and the other during the spring. The winter meeting is held in New York City; it is exclusively for the eight Heads of Schools and features guest speakers. Head of School John Austin described the meeting as an “informal fellowship” among the heads. Past speakers have included Suzanne Nossel, CEO of PEN America and author of Dare to Speak: Defending Free Speech for All, and Jeffery Salingo, an expert on college admissions and author of College (Un)Bound: The Future of Higher Education and What it Means for Students. Each speaker applies their expertise to the setting of boarding schools. For example, Nossel presented on the importance of protecting free speech on campuses. At the same time, Salingo diverged on the upcoming supreme court case on affirmative action, Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard, and its implications on the college admissions process. Dr. Austin commented on the winter meeting, saying, “Being a head of school can be challenging at times, so it’s great to get together with your colleagues and talk about how you’re doing and what the challenges your school might be facing.”  The spring meeting is more inclusive in its participants. The location of the meeting rotates between the campuses of the eight schools. The Heads of School and a couple of board members and trustees from each school attend the conference, unlike the winter meeting. When the COVID-19 pandemic called for social distancing and smaller groups, the ESA adapted and continued the bond between the schools even during the pandemic. The bi-annual conferences were held virtually, and the Heads of Schools met weekly over Zoom to discuss how to handle the pandemic, especially in a tight-knit boarding school community.  Dr. Austin noted that the Zoom discussions fostered helpful conversation that he could apply to his role as Deerfield’s Head of School, saying, “One of the upsides of the pandemic was I was able to spend a lot of time, over Zoom, with the other heads.” Even after COVID-19 restrictions have been lifted, the school leaders within the ESA continue to meet online once every two weeks to discuss the “joys and difficulties” of being a Head of School.  The conversations held during ESA meetings will play a role in the lives of Deerfield students. Dr. Austin said, “[The meeting affects students] indirectly. We tend not to bring decisions to that group, but we often share practices among schools. There is definitely an impact on various campuses.”

April 20: SpaceX launched Starship, a fully reusable and the world’s most powerful rocket. The rocket was initially scheduled to take off on April 17 before it was scrubbed due to a frozen valve. Several engines failed before and after lift-off. After around four minutes of airtime, the rocket lost control, and the automated flight termination system destroyed the rocket. SpaceX still sees this event as a success. (BBC, New York Times) April 22: On this day, the wreckage of a Japanese World War II ship, Montevideo Maru, was discovered in a recovery effort by the Australian government. The ship sank in 1942 off the coast of the Philippines when a US submarine sank the ship without knowing that there were around one thousand prisoners of war on board. (Reuters) April 23: In Malindi, a Kenyan coastal town, at least 110 people were found dead in a mass grave after being instructed to starve themselves for salvation. Most of the dead were children. Around 34 were rescued.  (Reuters) In the London Marathon, Kenyan Kelvin Kiptum finishes first with a course record of 2:01:25. (BBC) Retail chain store Bed Bath & Beyond files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. (New York Times) April 25: Harry Belafonte died at the age of 96. April 30: Chinese Ding Liren defeated Russian Ian Nepomniachtchi in tiebreaks, earning him the title of World Chess Champion. Santiago Peña was elected President of Paraguay. (El Pais)  May 1: The struggling First Republic Bank was sold to JPMorgan Chase. (Reuters) Belgian Luca Brecel defeated English Mark Selby to win the World Snooker Championship. May 5: The World Health Organization ended its designation of the COVID-19 pandemic as a global health emergency. (Wall Street Journal) May 6: King Charles III and Queen Camilla were crowned at Westminster Abbey, London. The thoroughbred horse Mage won the Kentucky Derby. May 7: Arab League reinstated Syria’s membership after an 11-year absence due to the Syrian Civil War. (Al Jazeera) May 9: Former President Donald Trump is found liable by a jury for abusing and defaming E. Jean Carroll, awarding her $5 million in damages. Trump repealed the verdict two days later. Imran Khan, the former Pakistani prime minister, is arrested for corruption. This sparked nationwide protests. May 10: At Google I/O, an annual developer conference, Google announced updates to its many services and new phones. However, the most significant announcements were on AI; the company announced image editing AI, a music model, and its newest large language model (LLM), Pathways Language Model 2 or PaLM 2. The company claims that the new model, in some cases, beats GPT-4, the model powering ChatGPT, and published a paper similar to the GPT-4 paper to support its claims. The company has started integrating the model into Google Search, Docs, and Gmail, which will be soon available to the public. (New York Times, Google AI) May 14: In the pivotal Turkish presidential election, incumbent Erdoğan won 49.23% of the vote against Kılıçdaroğlu in the closest race in Erdoğan’s two decades in power. The runoff election will take place on May 28. In Thai elections, Social democratic party Move Forward won a majority of Thailand’s House of Representatives. During the 2019 House election, a similar party was dissolved due to it performing unexpectedly well in the wake of the 2014 coup d’etat. The electoral committee has 60 days to certify the result. (BBC) Russian invasion of Ukraine: The head of the Wagner group, Prigozhin, once threatened to withdraw all his troops from Bakhmut if he didn’t receive any ammunition from the Russian government. Around the same time, Ukraine made various victories on the battlefield. At another point, Prigozhin offered to supply the positions of Russian troops to Ukraine if they withdrew from Bakhmut, and Ukraine refused. Prigozhin had promised to take Bakhmut before Russia’s Victory Day celebrations on May 9, but clearly he hasn’t finished his objective. Sudan: Various peace proposals have fallen through. The death toll has risen to around 700 as of May 15. (Al Jazeera)Global News Update

After weeks of campaigning and multiple rounds of a reformed election system, Preyas Sinha ’24 has emerged as the 2023-2024 school year president. Sinha focused his campaign on “making realistic policy goals not aiming to completely overhaul systems” and focusing on small ideas and achievable goals that he believes can genuinely be accomplished by the end of his term in the coming school year.  The biggest part of Sinha’s campaign was being down to earth and grounded in implementing small, attainable changes, even if it only slightly improves student’s quality of life at Deerfield. These small changes, he says, are what he thinks was the main driver which separated him from his other candidates in the election and the following runoff.  As highlighted at the presidential debate, Sinha’s goals for the coming school year include bigger bowls in the dining hall, changing the second sport requirement for athletics concentration co-curricular activities to accommodate students taking art co-curricular activities, and closed-door parietals for seniors in Spring Term. Sinha is an experienced leader, having served on the Deerfield student council for three years. Even when he first ran for Deerfield’s student council his freshman year, becoming president was something that he “thought about a lot.” His passion for this position comes from wanting to add value to the community in his own way, creating change in policies for the benefit of Deerfield students, and being a “voice of the people” as his way of influencing campus and leaving a legacy. This year, the presidential elections looked very different from previous years. Jerry Huang ’23, this year’s student body president, oversaw the election process. Additionally, elections this year consisted of a two-round election process where if, after the first round, no student had received a simple majority (over 50 percent of the votes), a runoff election between the top two candidates would occur. Last year, the election ran on a choice system where each student had to rank their top three candidates. Huang said the main reasons behind this change were to simplify and improve voting integrity. Huang described the 2022 system as one where candidates “strategized” on who to vote for so that the votes were split in a way that allowed their first choice candidate to win. Because of this, he says the system received “backlash because people preferred to vote for one candidate instead of three” While both elections aimed to achieve the same goal of “voting for a candidate that a lot of people liked,” Huang said the simple majority required for a candidate to win created a more just and equitable system.  Last year, the election ran on a choice system where each student had to rank their top three candidates. Huang said the main reasons behind this change were to simplify and improve voting integrity. Huang described the 2022 system as one where candidates “strategized” on who to vote for so that the votes were split in a way that allowed their first choice candidate to win. Because of this, he says the system received “backlash because people preferred to vote for one candidate instead of three.” While both elections aimed to achieve the same goal of “voting for a candidate that a lot of people liked,” Huang said the simple majority required for a candidate to win created a more fair system. Another aspect that differed from previous years were the presidential speeches. This year, they were held during a school meeting, while in the past they were held during optional evening or community time events. Furthermore there was a debate between the two runoff candidates. Huang says this debate “evened  out the playing field between the two candidates” as there could be a large difference in the percentage of votes each candidate received in the initial round and a debate could help to even out this difference. Huang also said it “allowed voters to access more information about each of [the] candidates” so that the student body had the opportunity to make a more informed decision about who they voted for. He acknowledged that the 3-minute presidential speech alongside Instagram campaigns only did so much and that the debate aimed to add an additional layer of information.  Huang’s hopes that a similar system to this year’s is used in the 2024 election. He thinks that the process this year ran smoothly and achieved his goals. He says that “the biggest challenge with a two round voting system is ensuring that in the second round the poll receives the same number of submissions… and there was a pretty even number across the first poll and the second poll so the voter turnout stayed relatively the same.” So, his concern proved to be merely a worry. Regarding next year’s presidency, Huang hopes that Sinha “continues to think outside of the box and think ambitiously.” He says that policies such as free laundry required a lot of “persistence and the ability to think big.” He also hopes that Sinha will foster strong relationships with members of the Student Life Office so that he can create actionable change and fulfill Sinha’s campaign goal to serve as a “voice for the people.”

EcoReps Restart the 2023 Hydrocup Challenge From the 80:20 waste diversion program to dining hall foods that minimize environmental strain, Deerfield Academy has implemented many initiatives in service of its Sustainability Mission Statement to “preserve our heritage by operating in a manner that sustains our natural and human resources” and “model exemplary environmental stewardship”.  Run by students, EcoReps is the Deerfield organization dedicated to climate awareness and initiatives on campus. EcoReps restarted the Hydrocup Challenge this year to raise awareness about water conservation. Throughout Earth Month this April, each Deerfield dorm competed to reduce the most water usage per person for the prizes of a dorm feed and Spikeball net. One of the heads of EcoReps, Edie Huffard ’25, said, “The main goal was to have different communities think about water consumption… how much water they use, how important water is to everyone and different ways that they use water.”  Field won the Hydrocup Challenge, followed by Mather and then Rosenwald-Shumway. Between March 20 and March 31, Field used 37 gallons of water per person per day, which decreased to an average of 27 gallons between April 24 and April 30. In the same time frame, Mather’s per person average decreased from 30 gallons to 28 gallons, and Rosenwald-Shumway’s per person average decreased from 35.5 gallons to 33.5 gallons. Overall, however, water usage actually increased from 32.9 gallons per person per day between March 20 and March 31 to 33.2 gallons per person per day between April 24 and April 30. EcoRep Katie Bruno ’24 wrote that Deerfield Academy uses 18,000 gallons of water per day in total, which is about the size of a backyard pool. She also wrote that the dorms used a combined 600,000 gallons of water per month, which is about the same as an Olympic-sized pool. In previous years, EcoReps has often organized Green Cup Challenges to conserve energy. However, Huffard explained that the EcoReps switched their focus to water conservation this year because “water affects everyone. Also, the water consumption in dorms is a lot easier to track than electricity. You use it every day, and it’s just easier to change your habits with [water].”  Huffard noted that students can easily grow indifferent to global water scarcity, saying, “Even though everything is beautiful and lush and green here …you should take a moment to appreciate how much water you use in a day to feel more connected to those people in the world who don’t have access to this water.” Johnson proctor Ana Vizitiv ’23 agreed that Deerfield students are not mindful enough regarding water usage. She shared her observations moving from Moldova: “When I came to the US, I noticed that people here just don’t have such a big awareness of the resources that they have when it comes to food, to water, to life, to everything.”  She added, “In the US, especially here at Deerfield, there are resources you can use whenever you want. But in Moldova, because we are a very poor country and people don’t have the money to pay for water and electricity, they really take care of how much [water] they use.”  Vizitiv observed how many students produced unnecessary water waste and warned her Johnson proctees about leaving bathroom faucets running. Huffard also pointed out, “I don’t think anyone is intentionally wasting water, but it tends to be when someone brushes their teeth, and then the tap stays on for three minutes or in the showers and not turning it all the way off.” Sasha Diamond ’25 also continued, “[water consumption] is something that people don’t think about that much. I don’t really notice a lot of conversations about that happening, so I think the Hydrocup was a good idea.” Throughout the month, EcoReps promoted the challenge and updated the community through various means; Joe Berman ’25 and HD Lee ’24 made weekly sit-down announcements performing skits. Huffard said, “Joe and HD were balanced quite well with getting the message across, having a lot of fun, and engaging everyone. People tend to respond better to the super fun, high-energy water guns and Harry Potter as opposed to just someone standing up there and lecturing them.” Director of Facilities Operations David Purington granted the EcoReps access to the school’s water databases to track how much water each dorm used. Every day in April, EcoReps compared the average water consumption per person in each dorm to the averages during the last week of March.  At the end of the challenge, Field reduced water consumption the most, followed by Mather and Rosenwald-Shumway. Huffard noted that “almost every dorm had a noticeable reduction of water consumption per person.”  Huffard said she hopes that water conservation “might cross [students’] mind[s] before they make a choice.” Mikaylah Meertins ’26 remarked that during the challenge, “there was one instance when I was like, ‘maybe I shouldn’t be taking such long showers.’” Sasha Diamond also explored the challenge’s positive impact on him as a day student: “the challenge was a helpful reminder to think about it [water conservation] at my house, to take shorter showers, and be more mindful of water consumption.” On the other hand, Ana Vivitiz ’23 said, “I really hope that there will be a change, but I don’t think there really was one.” She suggested that the EcoReps should “show examples of people in countries who lack water…people should see that it’s a struggle to have limited resources.”  When asked about how the Hydrocup Challenge could be improved, Diamond stressed that “there should have been more promotion”. Huffard added that EcoReps should improve on “communicating with everyone in terms of posters, bold announcements, and just continuing to make sure [the challenge] is a presence in people’s lives.” Through initiatives like the Hydrocup Challenge, the EcoReps seek to continue increasing students’ sustainability awareness. As Huffard put it, “I just really hope that we are able to take a second to pause and think [about] how even our individual choices, when added up over an entire community, can make a relatively large impact.”

Do you have a hobby not many people know about? I like songwriting, playing the guitar, and doing all sorts of music. I did a lot of singing in college. What is your favorite sit-down meal? Chicken Tikka Masala is probably my favorite. What would you do if you won the lottery? I would buy land in rural Maine.  Where do you see yourself in 10 years? Probably teaching although I don’t know where! As long as I’m around farm fields I’m happy. Where is one place you would like to visit someday? I would love to go to Scotland.  What is your biggest pet peeve? When people are in public space and are walking obliviously to people around them. What is your favorite thing about Deerfield? My favorite thing about Deerfield is the way that everyone cares very deeply about the things they do.

This confession was sent anonymously to the Scroll. It was me. Remember that time when you were alone with your bestie/bro/sibling/scheme and you lean in for a warm embrace just to hear the ice-cold utterance of that cruel word in your vulnerable ears… “Gotcha.” It was me. You are like “What the hell? You had me? What are the odds?”  There were no odds. Everything was predetermined, rigged, by me. I still remember that fateful Friday of April 14th, 2023 when I was approached in the Koch Cafe by two suspicious seniors who introduced me to the leaders of this year’s Gotcha. For my personal safety, I’ll refer to them as Mr. Gamma and Mr. Omicron. They asked me if I could create the target list for this year’s Gotcha. I accepted it without hesitation. They were thinking of using an existing website, but I convinced them to let me write a program for it. Too great was the temptation to use this power to… help other people of course.  Since the moment I took the job, I knew Gotcha was going to be rigged. After all, by definition, if we don’t use our power, what power would we have? It is common knowledge that our clubs and alliances run on connections and eat breakfast with a side of corruption. So when I was making the list, I left a back door that would allow me to manipulate certain pairings before it got converted to the final list. Not for my personal use of course. I would never do something like that. However, I did expect Mr. Omicron or Mr. Gamma to, so I made the back door to save time later on. Sure enough, the morning after I submitted the list, I saw in Google Sheets’ version history that at 3:31am, Mr. Omicron had secretly edited the document and changed four names, giving two of his senior friends underclassmen girls as targets. First of all, that’s SUS, Mr. Omicron. It is also annoying for me technically, because switching names blindly would mess up the entire thing and create separate loops when it should all be one huge loop. It’s not that I have a problem with Gotcha being rigged but you gotta do it through me; I even prepared for it. The comp-sci must be respected! So I talked to Mr. Gamma about it, but he was just confused. Sussy Mr. Omicron had hid his operations from him as well. However, ultimately I was able to get him to admit to his schemes and I executed them my way, preserving the consistency of the loop, but not before some students had already received their targets. So if you gotcha’d somebody in the first week but later learned that you didn’t really have them, that’s because your target got changed as a result of the rigging I performed for Mr. Omicron. The next week, seeing my capabilities, Mr. Gamma sent me a list of exactly 61 people out of the remaining 261 to “rig.” I had successfully made myself indispensable. I looked over the list, seeing friends, siblings, exes, and partners. It was JUICY. I even took personal revenge on a person who forced me to tell him his target by making him my target and getting him out when he tried to coerce me again. You should have seen the look on his face when I uttered the words “Gotcha” while sipping frozen lemonade. It was priceless. As he started pleading desperately for my forgiveness, I felt… powerful. It was fun to be powerful. Power corrupts people, and it didn’t take long for me to realize that it had already corrupted me. I realized that I had to end this, so I took myself out of the list and sent this confession to the Scroll. God save Deerfield.

Senior spring is coming to an end, and with that comes senior privileges. Senior privileges are requested through student council representatives and then negotiated with through the deans.  This year, seniors have a later curfew: 10:30 p.m. on weeknights, 11:30 p.m. on Fridays, and 11:45 p.m. on Saturdays. Seniors also get 2 free froyos per day from the Greer, 24/7 Wifi, an increased AP limit. Finally, day students are allowed to drive boarding students off-campus, which is usually not allowed. Mr. Philie expressed optimism about these privileges saying, “This is a really fun, enjoyable, time during [seniors’] Deerfield experience.” He also stated that he values and encourages them to “be able to spend some extra time with their friends.” Many seniors also appreciate these privileges. Peter Kurto ’23 expressed his appreciation for the 24/7 Wifi, saying, “When I had to pull an all nighter for my econ project, I was able to access sources online 24/7 due to the extended internet.” Thomas Harrick ’23 also appreciated the efforts by Head of School Dr. Austin to keep free froyo exclaiming, “I like the free froyo.” The process for requesting senior privileges begins in mid spring. While the privileges are mostly always the same, each year the seniors collectively write a proposal through their student council representatives. After this submission the deans review the list, in order to keep requests realistic, and then return the annotated proposal. The student council representatives work more with the deans until they agree on a list of privileges, which seniors receive towards the end of Spring term. Mr. Philie also wanted to say, “Enjoy as much as you can… May is the most beautiful month, it’s gorgeous. I hope our kids can value and appreciate this and enjoy themselves, making good, smart decisions as they do so.” While these privileges are supported by the deans, Mr. Philie noted that senior sneakout, a common tradition which entails seniors leaving dorms after check-in and roaming around campus, is a violation of a major school rule and it is not condoned for the safety of the students.

Not every day in the Valley is a day of glory. Anybody who lived through the 2020-2021 academic year has stories of the anomalous POM tracers, the industrial dining hall tent, or the weekly spit-tube sessions. Still, as I reflect on my time as a new sophomore during the Covid era, I keep returning to one common thread: Field II.  (Some context for those who weren’t at Deerfield two years ago: freshmen didn’t have roommates due to the pandemic, so housing had to be moved around. Field and Mac were sophomore dorms that year. Cross-hall visitation, even in the same dorm, was prohibited.) Living in Field could be described by many things. In this article, I’ve compiled a non-exhaustive list of memories that made my sophomore year one of the most confusing times of my life.  Move-in Day: Late August 2020 I arrived at Deerfield excited and nervous to move in and meet my new neighbors in the dorm. With my mask fully on and properly distanced, my two proctors helped move all my stuff into room 210 on the second floor, and I said goodbye to my parents, all within about five minutes. That was the last time I was allowed outside for many hours. I was told, “Okay, you can unpack your things now, but don’t leave your room under any circumstances until we tell you!” Nobody even told me where the bathroom was. So there I was, standing before a mountain of stuff to unpack, wholly disoriented in a new environment. I remember hearing my dorm neighbors yelling in the hallway, reuniting after the online school the year before. A short while later, the hall resident, Mr. Wu, knocked on my door to tell me that I was late to join the hall introduction Zoom call. I was unaware that there was a Zoom call to be late for. On the call, Mr. Wu was explaining a new spreadsheet so that we could make “shower appointments” in the bathroom, and in the midst of all this, I got a bloody nose that spewed blood all over my partially-unpacked room and onto my white rug. Awesome start! Fan Theft: September 2020 The only Deerfield student I knew coming in was a senior girl from my hometown in Minnesota. She had asked me to bring a box fan for her since she had forgotten one. Her advisor, Mr. Barbato, had arranged for me to leave the fan outside my door, and he would deliver it to her. I set the fan outside, and it disappeared the next day. Great. The following week I heard a loud knocking on my door from Mr. Barbato, who asked me where the fan went. I told him I had set it outside my door. The next thing I know, he’s going door-to-door in the hallway asking everybody if they had taken a fan from outside my door. I would have preferred for my hallmates’ first impression of me to be more positive than an interrogation from Mr. Barbato about the whereabouts of this box fan. But, we don’t always have control over these things… evidently.   Red Bull: Late September 2020 The Covid year was partitioned into social “phases” to avoid virus transmission. There was the quarantine phase, during which nobody was to leave their rooms; the quiet phase, which entailed designated tracts of time for specific halls to leave their dorm; and the emerging phase, during which in-person classes would resume, and students were granted limited access to campus. At the end of the quiet phase, my next-door neighbor was so moved by the moment that he opted to shotgun a Red Bull in his room. Around this moment, I realized that I had been placed in a hall with thirteen kids whom I would not have opted to socialize with under normal circumstances. Worse, the Covid-based restrictions prevented me from pursuing friendships with people in other halls, so I officially found myself in a social pickle. I hope he enjoyed that Red Bull.  Ceiling Coffee: A Thursday in February 2021 I awoke to the sound of dripping and the scent of coffee. I thought I had been dreaming about it, but I looked down and noticed a small brown puddle soaking into my rug. Coffee had leaked out of my overhead light (photo proof below). Now that my rug had both my blood and my coffee on it, I moved my trash can under the light to contain any further damage and went to Mr. Wu’s apartment, asking to file a work order. He was used to this by now; this was my third work order, the previous ones concerned a faulty electrical outlet and my window curtain breaking altogether. Note that I haven’t had to make any work orders since I moved out of Field.  I had heard a rumor that Field has sewage pipes that run through the ceilings, so I want to dispel any doubts that this brown liquid was indeed coffee by adding that while replacing the light, the physical plant employee spotted coffee grounds in the ceiling. Also, I’m fairly sure that the resident in the room above me was Morgan Haisman ’23. Infestation: May 2021 One thing that New England and Minnesota have in common is that after a long, cold winter, summer is warm and humid. Mosquitoes and other critters thrive in these environments, so copious bug bites always accompany the summers. One evening in my dorm room, I noticed a flying gnat. Odd, I thought, considering that a bilayer of glass and screen blocked my window, and I had been disposing of all of my food with aplomb. I squashed the gnat and moved on. Later, I noticed three gnats flying around, so I also dealt with them. Then another appeared. And another. I looked under my bed and saw an array of bugs climbing and flying around my wall. Soon after, there was a swarm of gnats flying around my room. Thankfully, they didn’t bite, but I still got the heebie-jeebies every time one of them would land on me. I called security and placed my fourth (and final) work order with Mr. Wu to try and have them removed. Security told me that nothing immediate could be done and offered that I could sleep in the Health Center. I promptly evacuated the building and slept that night bug-free. When I returned the following morning to prepare for class, all the bugs had vanished. I’m not sure if the physical plant had gotten to exterminating the bugs, but they were later gone and never returned.  Hello Kitty: May 2021 This tale isn’t as much of a horror story as it is a ray of hope at the end of my year. It was my first Spring Day, and I was all dressed and ready in my purple swimsuit with orange dinosaurs. After the long Spring Athletic Awards, we all moved down to the lower fields where there were inflatable pools, food trucks, and Spikeball; but best of all was the ice cream truck. There was a classic assortment of options: SpongeBob popsicles, oreo bars, ice cream drumsticks, strawberry shortcake bars—the whole shebang. What stood out to me, though, was the Hello Kitty ice cream bar. It was pink, red, and yummy. I took it back to my dorm and ate it, knowing I had made it through a truly rough year. The next year I was assigned to OBC, and this year I’m living happily in Simmons. I’m calling that placement divine intervention for the disaster that was my residence in Field.  To anybody reading this article, know that your time at Deerfield will often stray from the brochure. Initially drawn by the promise of unforgettable memories and lifelong friendships, I started my Days of Glory in isolation and confusion. I didn’t experience Deerfield until my Junior year, and even then, I still struggled to get my footing. Your rugs will likely be stained with more than one undesirable fluid. You will feel the same dizziness I felt on move-in day. You will sometimes feel out of place among the people around you. But at the end of it all, there will be a Hello Kitty ice cream bar waiting for you.

The Peach Tree Rascals, an upcoming band from San Jose, California, graced Deerfield Academy’s campus on Saturday, May 13, for the 2023 Spring Concert.  When the news of the band’s performance was first announced at the previous school meeting with an amusingfunny video, students had mixed reactions. Ever since their song “Mariposa” SinceKnown for their song “Mariposa” that went viral on TikTok in 2019, the Peach Tree Rascals have been climbing in the world of music.  Their music falls in a variety of genres, such asfrom rap, to pop, and to alternative.  While many students were excited to welcome them to Deerfield, others had their concerns at first about whether or not their music would be suitablefit for a concert. Adeeva Alli ’‘25, who had not heard of the band before, voiced her thoughts, saying, “I just feel like if you go to a concert and you don’t really know it [the artists], you can’t really enjoy it as much. Because like, one, you can’t really appreciate the music because you haven’t spent time on it, like just enjoying it yourself. Secondly, you’ll feel excluded from whatever might be happening, because you just can’t get the full experience of it.” Student Activities Director Connor Merrill, on the other hand, expressed his thoughts on the uniqueness of the Peach Tree Rascals’ music in a Scroll interview, saying, “I think theat kind of versatility that they bring to the table is just going to bring a different kind of unique feel for the concert, and I think not everyone’s gonna like it, but I think other people are gonna be like, ‘Hey, that’s kind of different. That’s kind of cool.’” Normally held in the winter, the annual concert was held in the spring this year, which was another unique aspect of the concert.  Mr. Merrill explained that Deerfield had almost lined up an artist to perform around February, but they backed out at the last minute.  However, rather than canceling the concert, Mr. Merrill connected with a new agency and the Peach Tree Rascals. Through their hard work, Mr. Merrill and Student Planning Committee members Muyi Woghiren ’‘23, Stella Fierro ’‘23, Peter Aznar Klein ’‘23, and Chelsea Davis ’‘23 were able to secure a concert from the Peach Tree Rascals.  However, the concert was made possible due to multiple other groups the Academy worked with. Mr. Merrill, when speaking on his experience with the music agency, said, “…the agency’s been phenomenal to work with…and one of the beauties of working with them is that they serve as a middleman and handle all those types of logistics.” A Seeing as the band is based in California, the agency arranged transportation, hospitality, etc., which took a big responsibility off Deerfield’s shoulders. Laser lights and a variety of student artists opened the concert to the forming crowd.The concert itself was opened by a variety of student artists that pumped up the already forming crowd, with the laser lights only adding to the atmosphere.  Many students gravitated towards the stage and barriers, making it difficult for latecomers to grab a sport.  Some students expressed their surprise at this, and they soon realized much of the action was going on at the front. The Peach Tree Rascals, Dom, Tarrek, Joseph, and Jorge, appeared to a roaringacame out with lots of energy to a roaring crowd.  Throughout the concert, they showed their personalities by interacting with Deerfield students.  Singers Tarrek and Joseph grabbed phones of spectators and filmed videos for them from the stage, and even came up to the barriers, giving supporters high fives. Towards the end of the concert, Tarrek and Joseph even came over the barriers into the crowd of thrilled Deerfield students.   Janis Zempare ’‘26, expressed her excitement at the friendliness of the band, exclaiming, “I loved how they interacted with the crowd personally, like I was so excited when they literally took phones and recorded.  I personally have never been to a concert like this before, and having that happen was just life changing.” Zempare ’26’s had similar thoughts to thoughts were the same as those of many other students.  THowever, the Peach Tree Rascals’s attitudesactions were not unexpected.  Mr. Merrill expressed the how positive energy he sensed from the band has been when working with them, especially when it came to creating the video message that was shown at School Meeting, saying, “AAnd then I think adding that piece to the end with the actual band, talking to us as a community, I think that really kind of got people out of their seats a little bit.” The concert also benefited had some benefits for the Peach Tree Rascals, who were “trying to continue to climbing the ladder in the music industry,” according to Mr. Merrill.  Although many students attended to hear the band’s hit song “Mariposa,” the concert allowed the Peach Tree Rascals to share more of their music. Zempare ’26 shared her growing interest in the band, saying, “I think that I definitely will check out more songs, because they’reb. Bbecauseecause they’re a really talented group. They’re really good singers a. And I think they definitely do need more recognition.  However, I think they definitely gained more supporters and followers and [the concert] definitely contributed to their growth.” Though Deerfield Academy encountered challenges in hiring an artist to perform for the Academy this year, and some members of the community casted had their doubts on the band when they were first announced, the Peach Tree Rascals were able to put on a memorable performance.