News
Presidential Race Narrows to Top Three Candidates
By Brian Delaney
The race for School President has reached its final round, whittling down the competition from six to three candidates this Monday at midnight. Chris Batchelder ’11, Jackie Lender ’11 and Mike Mackay ’11 are the three remaining contenders for School President. Faiyad Ahmad ’10, School President, said, “I thought the results were great. The top six [candidates] all had impressive credentials and were very qualified. You really couldn’t go wrong with any of them.” Batchelder said, “I feel the results reflected how much effort was put in by each candidate. Mike and Jackie both did a great job making posters and speaking at the debate. I think all three of us deserve it.”
Lender said, “I’m honored that the voters chose me. It is definitely one of the highlights of my Andover career.”
Mackay said, “When I heard about [the results] I was pumped.”
Lender is the only female candidate...
Shambaugh and Reisinger Pilot First Ever Andover Television Station
By Danny Gottfried
The Andover community can now look forward to weekly broadcasts from PA’s first ever television station, Andover Television Station, beginning in the Spring term. Alan Grimm, Faculty Advisor to Andover Television and Teaching Fellow in Theatre and Dance, said, “The new program will be in a format similar to that of Saturday Night Live but will feature different aspects of Andover life as opposed to world events.”
“Students can expect to see sketch comedy in a news format, but nothing like Fox News or any major news station,” said Grimm.
The station will be student run with Scott Shambaugh ’11 and Will Reisinger ’11 at the helm. Grimm will review the programs prior to airtime. During the first few weeks of broadcasting, Paul Murphy, Dean of Students and Residential Life, will review programs with Grimm. Reisinger said, “Mr. Murphy has the power to shut us down if our content...
Andover Green initiatives Continue
PA works with Eight Schools Association to Raise Student Participation
By Andrew Rindlaub
Andover is looking for new ways to sustain its decrease in energy consumption following the end of this year’s Green Cup Challenge (GCC). Patricia Russell, Sustainability Coordinator and Head of the Department of Natural Sciences, hopes that in future years, Andover will make data on electric, fuel and water consumption available online. “I think as soon as we get data online, we could do inter-cluster competitions. Students would have a much better understanding of how they are doing, and a dorm could track their water use from September till the end of the year to see how much they have improved,” Russell said.
“The community tends to respond to positive reinforcement and friendly competition. This tracking system would be expensive and take time, so it is a long term goal,” she added. Russell is also working with other members of the Eight Schools Association to establish a competition...
Alice Purington Retires to Cope With Illness After 24 Years at Andover
By Danny Gottfried
This profile is the tenth installment in an ongoing series about the retiring faculty in the Volunteer Retirement Incentives Program.
Alice Purington, Associate Director of College Counseling and winner of the Edward Wall Award for Service and Leadership in College Counseling, will be retiring from her post at the end of the year due to an illness.
Purington is currently battling pulmonary fibrosis, a disease that scars the lungs.
“A couple years ago, this illness began to catch up with me,” said Purington. “The school has been wonderful in working out an arrangement that still allowed me to work despite my medical issue.”
In order to better accomodate her medical condition, Purington began working part time at Andover. She shifted her focus from working with students to dealing with paperwork.
“I wish that I could report that my husband and I will be walking the Milford Track in New Zealand, where I...
College Counseling Hosts Panel of Coaches for Students Interested in College Athletics
By Mimi Tanski
The College Counseling Office (CCO) hosted a focus meeting for students interested in college level athletics this past Thursday.
The athletics focus consisted of a question and answer session with two college coaches. Amy Fowler, the Head Field Hockey Coach at Dartmouth College and Geoff Wheeler, the Head Mens Soccer Coach at Wesleyan University answered questions from the student audience. Jonathan Nicholson, Associate Director of College Counseling, said, “We found that the more information [students] have, the better the process is.” “It is all about letting the students get information for the college application process,” said Nicholson. The purpose of the athletics meeting was to provide an “opportunity for student-athletes to ask questions about the recruiting process,” said Nicholson. “We encourage students to ask questions to coaches and college counselors here, but this meeting gives them the opportunity to get information from college coaches,” Nicholson continued. The meeting...
Jennifer Tierney Discusses Doctors Without Borders’ Role in Haitian Reconstruction
By Thurston Smalley
Jennifer Tierney’s presentation on Doctors Without Borders last Friday shed valuable light on international relief efforts in Haiti and other third-world and extremely poor countries.
Tierney is the US Development Director of Doctors Without Borders. In her presentation, Tierney said that Doctors Without Borders has performed 28,251 surgeries in Haiti alone as of February 18.
Doctors Without Borders, which received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1999, serves 60 different countries, and is funded mostly through private and corporate donations. Doctors Without Borders does not accept funding from the governments of countries that play a part in the conflicts that it attempts to address.
According to Tierney, there were 3,177 staff members in Haiti as of February 18, a great number of whom were deployed from other countries. During the earthquake, the Doctors Without Borders’ Haitian hospital collapsed, creating the need for makeshift facilities as well as additional staff.
In addition, Doctors...
Gay Straight Alliance Sponsors Andover’s First Ever Transgender Awareness Week
By Andrew Cho
Last week marked the first Transgender Awareness Week sponsored by the Gay Straight Alliance (GSA).
Throughout the week, Phillips Academy students engaged in discussions regarding the relationship between gender identity and expression. According to GSA, to be transgender is to be in a state in which the gender that a person self-identifies to does not match the person’s biological sex.
All students and faculty were invited to the three GSA sponsored programs throughout Transgender Awareness Week.
On Monday, keynote speaker Toby MacNutt, a diversity consultant and a former student at Phillips Academy, delivered an in-depth presentation on gender identity and gender expression distinct of one’s actual sex. The presentation began with an overview and explanation of gender terminology, followed by a question and answer session and a group discussion facilitated by MacNutt.
Talarico said, “The presentation was very interesting and opened me up to aspects of transgender issues that I had...
Upper Girls to Pilot New Mentor Program Focusing on Female Leadership
By Trey Jennings
25 Junior girls will partake in a pilot mentorship program this spring. The program consists of 21 Upper girls and 25 Junior girls, and its purpose is to encourage Junior girls to take leadership positions in the PA community through the support of Upper mentors, who already serve as leaders on campus.
On Tuesday, the Juniors and their Upper mentors met for the first time. At the meeting, the Juniors were assigned to their respective mentors. A group of Upper girls who collaborated with Becky Sykes, Associate Head of School, found the program last winter. Kathleen Dalton and Tony Rotundo, Instructors in History and Co-Heads of the Brace Center for Gender Studies, were also involved in the execution of the program. Sykes said, “[The program] came from the girls. Last year a group of girls met with Alana Rush and Malin [Adams, Former School President]. The group decided...
Beloved Arabic Instructor Mohammad Harba Steps Down from Teaching Position
By Brian Delaney
A crowd of upperclassmen gathers in the lobby of Samuel Phillips Hall for a class picture. Amidst the chatter of his students, Mohammad Harba, Instructor in Arabic, smiles.
After the picture, all the students line up to say their last heartfelt goodbyes to their teacher. This bittersweet farewell followed Harba’s announcement this past Friday that he would be stepping down from his position as the Instructor in Arabic.
“[At Andover] I was given the opportunity to work with some of the brightest men and women, and I was so impressed with how much they wanted to learn Arabic not only as a language, but also as a culture,” he said.
Harba never pictured himself leaving because he built such strong relationships with students and faculty. He said he felt blessed and honored to be a part of the students’ lives.
“I really don’t look at what I do here as a...
Andover Model UN Club Participates in a Variety of Assemblies in BOSMUN
By Danny Gottfried
Phillips Academy won “Best Small Delegation” at the Ninth Boston Invitational Model United Nation Conference this past weekend. The “Best Small Delegation” award is given to the school that won the most individual awards per delegation. Andover competed against over 1100 students from around the world. “I am so glad that I got to know these kids and got a chance to see their hard work pay off,” said Teruyo Shimazu, Instructor in Japanese and Faculty Advisor to Andover MUN. “These students gave up their weekend of social time in order to participate in this conference. Usually I don’t care about winning a trophy, but this time I was overwhelmed with pride,” Shimazu said. This was the MUN’s first time participating in the conference sponsored by Boston University. While Andover usually attends the NAIMUN Conference at Georgetown University, budget cuts prevented Andover from doing so this year....