By: Ian S. Kim and Helen Xiong
With warmer days coinciding with the arrival of spring, students and faculty resumed their routines and classes for the final trimester. Members of the school community reflected on their objectives for the last term, sharing their motivations, goals, and plans to achieve them.
Maddie Yang ’29
This spring, I’m really focused on Papers, so I want to refine my research paper and push it to a level I’m proud of. [Reaching out] to mentors and upperclassmen who can give me feedback is something that would help me reach my goal. I also want to keep improving on Girls Varsity Crew and contribute as much as I can to the 3V boat, such as by erg-ing in my free time. Crew is a huge time commitment, so balancing and managing my time efficiently is probably going to be a struggle. It’s something I need to focus on this term.
Anoushka Pandey ’28
The weather’s been getting better, so I’m hoping to spend as much time outside as I can, [such as] being outside and studying on the lawn with my friends instead of going back to our dorms. The spring does tend to be heavier with work. The same amount of material is being crammed into a shorter period, but all in all, it should be alright. There’s not really that much to do during winter because it gets dark so quickly, so I want to make the best of the daylight saving change because now [sunset] is finally at a reasonable hour.
Comfort Halsey Leckerling
I am doing a yoga teacher training course, so my goal is to complete that and learn as much as I can. I practice every day in some aspect, so I hope to challenge myself to keep doing that. In the community garden, I’m also working on building a perennial bed and transplanting some plants from Eaton Cottage. I go to the garden every day to move plants one at a time and to see how things are going. I really enjoy doing both of those things. They’re concrete things that I do to feel well.
Owen Huang ’27
A goal I have for the spring is to get more organized with schoolwork and to set myself up better, so that I feel more inclined to do work and avoid procrastinating. I’ve been using my calendar app to put in blocks of time, such as for studying bio or for working on my history paper. Last term, I ended up procrastinating a lot of work and having to do it last minute, so I want to be able to get ahead on work and avoid falling behind. In addition to managing my own life, I would like to help some of my younger dorm mates manage their work as a prefect. I’m also rowing this spring, so I’m looking to improve by building speed.
Sylvia Su ’29
As a day student who lives quite far away, I hope to be a more active member of the community by attending more weekend events. I am pretty active in clubs, but I hope to contribute more. I’m really passionate about the clubs that I’m a part of, such as Mock Trial and Model UN, and I want to get better at public speaking because that’ll benefit me in the long run. Despite pollen allergies, I also hope to experience the spring weather, go lawning, and do all those classic Phillips Academy spring activities. Being outdoors gives me some peace of mind, which I feel is very important since this is such a rigorous place.
Sherri Hallgren
In the classroom, I have a goal of inspiring my students to run fast on this last stretch of spring term, ditching their screens to read for pleasure on the lawn, or under a tree bursting with new leaves. More generally, I hope they discover the pleasure of their own minds connecting with the sorrows and joys of lives in the literature we engage with. On a more personal level, I’m determined to finish a quilt I started a couple of months ago – playing with the colors and shapes of fabric is my new obsession – a break from the words, words, words I work with every day. Well, for the quilt, I grab a little time on weekends to push the quilt project along, one step at a time.
