Featuring a range of passionate student speakers and performers, the weekly All-School Meeting (ASM) centered around the “Next” component of the 50th anniversary of Andover and Abbot’s conjunction. This ASM is the last of three ASMs pertaining to the “Then, Now, Next” theme of the 50th anniversary.
Tina Phan ’26, who gave the opening remarks for the ASM alongside Chloe Song ’26, reflected on the program. She talked about how this final segment was a great conclusion to the series.
“[The ASM] was a great way to frame the year. We’ve split the school year into three terms already, [and] it just made so much sense. It was really clever, and I liked that framing of looking forward to the future… I thought [this ASM] was a really well put together program and I was really honored to be able to speak at it. I also thought the other remarks were so well written, the performances were beautiful, and they fit the vibe perfectly. I think it was just a really beautiful way to culminate the Abbot-Andover celebrations,” said Phan.
As one of the students who performed on stage in a dance piece, Tara Wei ’25 spoke about her hopes to promote the dance community and elaborated on how the group’s choice of music related to themes of gender equality central to the ASM.
“I thought it would be a good opportunity to bring the dance community to the ASM because dance [has] not [been] performed in a while, [and] I think it was good to represent the dance community. I think [the connection to ASM] comes a lot with the song ‘Killing Me Softly With His Song.’ It has a lot to do with the silencing women have had in the past, and I think that the merger really brought together the two voices,” said Wei.
Music was also how Michela Rowland ’24, a member of Tempress, the all-female and non-binary jazz band that opened the ASM, expressed themselves. They noted how the focus on student presenters and performers made this ASM more impactful.
“It was super fun to open for [the ASM], definitely a really good time for the band. I think it was a cool opportunity to hear from student voices. A lot of ASMs are speakers from outside, and I think it’s fun to see people that we know on stage. For me it was very impactful to be in that space playing music because to do that in a space where there’s so many people watching is scary, but also very empowering,” said Rowland.
Anny Wang ’26, another member of Tempress, pointed out the significance of the performers’ opening remarks. She mentioned how combining words with art allowed her to understand more about her roles on campus and her experiences as a female.
“The process of coming up with what we wanted to tell the audience was probably the most meaningful part of it because that was the time when we actually talked about our experience as females [and] jazz musicians on campus. Condensing that into just a few lines, and engaging with the whole school, even though we didn’t do a speech, was very powerful in a subtle way” said Wang.
Although Wang commemorated Andover’s significant bounds towards gender equality on campus and Friday’s powerful reflection of that, she also mentioned how gender inequality continues to remain prevalent on campus, albeit more subtly. She recalled Blue Key Head Auditions as an example of this.
“Reflecting as female musicians on campus, I realized that there are a lot more subtle and hidden inequalities that still exist on campus that are not addressed and that are normalized by the campus which shouldn’t be. In general, there’s just so much more competition for females, and you also just have to work harder in order ‘prove’ [yourself] in a more male-dominant space like jazz or leadership roles,” said Wang.
She continued: “For example, this year during the Blue Key Head election, there are far more girls fighting for just five spots, [but] there’s only a [few] boys fighting for the same amount of spots. I think this year has been kind of reminding people that there still are these things that exist, and our journey of combating gender inequality has not ended yet. I think this year’s theme provided us with a lot of time for reflection, and also space for improvement for the coming years.”
Phan spoke of a similar concept to Wang. She acknowledged that the fight for gender equality was not over and that as Andover continues to move forward, equality can be attained by refusing complacency.
“When it comes to the dynamic between Andover and Abbot, I really got to understand what it looked like during those first years of the merger and how it’s evolved since then. Personally, I think that leaving complacency behind is part of our ‘next’: reforming student culture, [and] even policy at our school,” said Phan.
