TheGAMGAM: a social meeting of whaleships…with all the

sympathies of sailors [and] all the peculiar congenialities arising from a common pursuit.

Volume XXVI, Number iv March-April 2012

In this issue: Dr. Edgcomb’s research…2 Dr. Ament’s studies…5 Student Honors…6 Scholarship Exam winners…6 Scholastic Arts awards…7 Calendars…8-9 Alumni on Writing…10 Craft Beer Tasting…11 Honor Society…13 Alumni News and Events…14-16

The quiet partner Geraldine Brooksto speak at FACS

Pulitzer Prize-winning author Geraldine Brooks will speak about her fourth and most recent novel, Caleb’s Crossing, at the Falmouth Academy Com-munity Series on Wednesday, March 28, from 7:00 – 8:00 p.m.

The public is welcome. Admission is free.

Caleb’s Crossing is a fictional ac-count of an actual member of the Wampanoag tribe, Cheeshahteau-mauck, the first Native American to graduate from Harvard College (in 1665). Cheeshahteaumauck (Caleb) lived on what is now Martha’s Vine-yard where Ms. Brooks and her family moved in 2006.

Her previous novel, People of the Book, was on the New York Times Bestseller List, and her novel March won the Pulitzer Prize in 2006.

Ω

Falmouth Academy’s commitment to a core curriculum is well known: Falmouth Academy was founded by teachers who believed that most students can meet the demands of a rigorous curriculum that explores history, English, science, math-ematics, foreign language and the arts every year. We focus on the traditional liberal arts curriculum because our teachers believe it contains a body of knowledge that educated Americans should know.

Parallel to that commitment is our less visible but equally impor-tant commitment to teaching the skills that we think are essential to our students’ future success. As they explore and master a core body of knowledge, they are coached to think and read deeply and to express ideas clearly and precisely. Working closely with their teachers, our students develop the skills of critical reasoning, of analysis, and of written and oral expression that provide them with a strong foundation for college where they will start to narrow their course of study.

In fact, these skills serve them well (continued on page 2)

From the Headmaster

2

for graduate school and for life.January brought a number of alum-

ni back to campus for Alumni Day, a meeting of our Alumni Council and visits from young alumni home from college. It’s always a pleasure to see them and to hear how thankful they are to have acquired essential skills here, including time management, presentation skills and self-advocacy. Many of our older alumni tell us that their Falmouth Academy education was their most pivotal educational experience.

Because our students are involved in myriad extra activities — from music classes to volunteering to robot-ics — they learn how to manage their time well. Our seventh-grade teachers start right off with deliberate, spe-cific instruction in the use of a daily planner, and all year they oversee their students’ progress down the path to organization and planning. It is not unusual to hear students discussing their homework: “I have to start my math now because I have basketball practice this afternoon, an away game tomorrow and set-up for Gala on Friday.”

In February we had our 24th all-school science fair where every seventh through eleventh grader presented an independent science research project to judges from our local science, engineering, and medi-cal community. Students have worked with their teachers (and in many cases with a mentor from one of our neigh-boring internationally recognized science institutions) to do and under-stand the research. Such an in-depth approach to scientific work is part of our core. Students’ ability to make a formal presentation, and defense, on

a topic they have mastered is a skill we help them acquire. When they debate the ancient

The quiet partner(continued from page 1)

civilizations of Athens and Sparta in ninth grade, they are studying history AND learning to research and defend a position as well as to pay close at-tention to opposing arguments.

All seniors present a major effort in their physics class, a 40-minute lecture on a topic of their choice.

By the time they leave FA, even our shyest students have confidence that they can make a clear and cogent presentation before an audience.

Falmouth Academy students find their voices and learn how to advocate for themselves. We help them take responsibility for their own learning and use their teachers as advisors, mentors and guides in the process.

I don’t know of another school where seventh-grade students must call their teachers at home as part of their early homework. This is an apparently simple but psychologically difficult step in developing a year-long relationship between students and teachers.

Because our students quickly learn that their teachers are allies, they can work with them comfortably and develop mutual trust and admira-tion. Our students expect to have meaningful relationships with their peers and their teachers and leave FA knowing how to ask for help. They also leave with a plan book and the ability to use it.

At Falmouth Academy acquiring essential skills is the quiet partner of acquiring essential knowledge. As our remarkable teachers help their students acquire knowledge and skills, they also help them develop an en-thusiasm for learning that will always motivate them and serve them well in college and as responsible citizens of the world.

-David C. Faus

3

FA science teacher and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution scientist Dr. Virginia Edgcomb set out on her most recent scientific expedi-tion with three goals for the work. One was called “Pickled Protists” – studying protistan life in deep hyper-saline anoxic basins (DHABs) at the bottom of the eastern Mediterranean Sea, the expedition’s destination.

Second was “Body Snatchers,” col-lecting samples from these DHABs in order to extend earlier research which had pro-claimed a form of metazoan life that survived its entire life cycle without any oxygen.

Her third goal was to test a new water column sampler that Dr. Edgcomb, Dr. Craig Taylor, and McLane Research Laboratories had developed to collect and preserve samples in situ (that is, where they are found) for microbio-logical analyses at extreme depths. These lakes of briny water lie 3.5 to 4 kilometers below the sea surface. In traditional water sampling gear, the microbes must be brought to the surface for study. The physiological changes the microbes undergo during transit to the sea surface render any measurements of gene expression with those samples fairly meaningless. So the development of the new sampler is an important step forward for scien-tific research of microbes in situ in the deep sea.

The expedition was full of surprises, however, including a rescue-at-sea in near gale force winds. [For details of the rescue, see www.falmouthacad-emy.org] But the focus of the voyage on the R/V Atlantis was scientific research and the biggest surprise there

Dr. Edgcomb’s research in the deep Mediterraneanfor Dr. Edgcomb was “seeing for the first time images of the brine lakes I was studying. I had wondered if they would appear different from the sur-rounding sea water, or would just look like cloudy water, and I was surprised by how unusual and how clearly delin-eated they were, with distinct beaches along their edges,” she said.

“The water in these brine lakes looks black and impenetrable in the images transmitted from the ROV

due to its extreme density. In fact, lasers projected from the ROV disappeared in the briny water! I felt like I was looking at some-thing on another planet.

“It was also curious to see tiny organisms and

little fish swimming in the halocline, or salt gradient, that is the transition zone between the ordinary sea water and the brine lakes. The halocline is about two meters thick and rich in microscopic life forms that are food for larger organisms, including the fish we saw, who probably enter the halocline to feed and then leave. It’s not a very hospitable place for them,” Dr. Edgcomb explained.

There’s no oxygen in the brine lakes, which have a depth ranging from tens of meters to hundreds of meters or more.

“The last time we visited these brine lakes in 2009, we had no ROV and no dynamic positioning on our ship. We had over-the-side devices and coring devices, but without dynamic positioning to keep the ship in precise place despite wind and currents and waves, it was impossible to core the sea floor with any accuracy.

Dr. Edgcomb loads fixer into the sampler used in retrieving deep sea microbes.

(continued on page 4)

4

“The National Science Foundation recognized this problem and funded our 2011 supplemental cruise with the ROV Jason, which worked beautifully. We brought back water and sediment samples from the Urania and Discov-ery brine lakes and ROV sediment samples from L’Atalante brine lake.”

As for Dr. Edgcomb’s three goals, she made progress on all of them, despite some challenges. The water column sampler had a few difficul-ties, as one might expect with any newly developed technology. But with collective troubleshoot-ing by Dr. Edgcomb, Dr. Taylor, and McLane Research engi-neers, it ultimately did collect a full set of samples! The engineers at McLane are making adjustments to the sampler based on what they learned during its maiden voyage, as quite a number of scientists have inquired about putting it to use.

“I’m still exhausted from the voy-age,” Dr. Edgcomb reported a week after her return, “but excited and eager to get to work on those samples.”

The Body Snatchers project, de-signed in tandem with Dr. Joan Bern-hard at WHOI, will probably provide some of the work for FA/WHOI 2012 biology intern Alec Cobban ‘15 [see GAM Jan-Feb 2012]. Ω

[Photos by Cherie Winner©Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution]

We couldn’t do it without you.

The Falmouth Academy Annual Fund makes up 10% of the school’s annual operating budget. We depend on your support to do what Falmouth Academy does best.

Please give to the Annual Fund today.

You can give online by clicking the Donate Here button on our home page at www.fal-mouthacademy.org. Or send a check to 7 High-field Drive, Falmouth, MA 02540. To make a gift by credit card or to make a pledge, call Crissy Pingal in the Development Office at 508-457-9696, x. 242.

Thank you!

Dr. Edgcomb’s research

The GAMPublished six times a year for the community of Falmouth Academy

Integrating science, humanities, athletics & arts for grades 7 through 12

David C. Faus, HeadmasterMichael J. Earley, Director of Admissions

Sarah Pring, Director of DevelopmentBarbara Campbell, Alumni Director

Tucker M. Clark, Assistant to the HeadElenita Muñiz, Publications Director

In its admissions and financial aid programs, hiring process, and in all school programs,

Falmouth Academy does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, gender,

national or ethnic origin, sexual orientation, or physical handicap.

7 Highfield Drive t Falmouth, MA 02540508.457.9696

thegam@falmouthacademy.org

(continued from page 3)

Dr. Taylor and Dr. Edgcomb wheel the sampler along the deck of Atlantis.

5

Teachers frequently ask their stu-dents, “What did you do over sum-mer vacation?” But what do teachers themselves do?

“Every summer,” said Dr. Alison Ament, “I think, ‘Well, I could go to some lectures down in Woods Hole… or I could work in my garden.’ This past summer, with the grant from the Senior Parents Gift Fund, I actually went to the Marine Biological Labo-ratory and got really excited about the possibilities for my students in biol-ogy.”

Dr. Ament applied for a grant from the Senior Parent Gift Fund because she wanted to have a stronger basis in neurosci-ence that would help in creat-ing lessons for two units of the biology curricu-lum. “I bought a Great Courses series called The Neuroscience of Everyday Life, taught by Sam Wang of Princ-eton – a great lecturer,” Dr. Ament reported. “I screened it not only to learn more myself but also to discover whether some of these lectures might be good to show to my classes. I did decide to include two lectures and told my students they would be hearing a college-level lec-ture – good practice for the future!”

As Dr. Ament explained her inter-est in neuroscience, she pointed out that textbooks “don’t answer the kinds of questions that intrigue students, about memory and learning, personal-ity and intelligence. These topics lie

at the limit of what we know about how the brain works, and textbooks don’t cover them because the research is so theoretical. My students are very interested in disorders of the brain: Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s, and traumatic brain injury.

Dr. Ament also took advantage of MBL’s policy allowing guests to sit in on their graduate courses. She visited one on neuroscience and behavior and one on neurobiology. She also sat in on a complete MBL course, designed for college teachers, on brain disorders. “It was great. They brought in pa-tients to talk about their illnesses and

discussed the quest for cures and the develop-ment of drug therapies,” she said. One lecturer visited Dr. Ament’s biology class to speak about the genetics of Alzheimer’s disease.

“I’ve added about four days to the syllabus to expand on the basics of neuroscience, so we can look at questions on the cutting edge of the research, what we’re just beginning to un-derstand. That’s what many people, including my students, really care

about,” she explained.About the support from senior par-

ents, Dr. Ament said, “I loved having that grant! I wish I could do it every summer, but I think others should have a chance so I’m not applying this year. But it was certainly a motivator for me and my course and my students have benefited greatly.”

Thank you to the parents of the class of 2011 – your donations to the Senior Par-ent Gift Fund made possible seven faculty grants this year. Ω

Senior Parent Gift Fund grant spurs Dr. Ament’s study of brain disorders

Hannah Allen and Julia Guérin ex-amine with Dr. Ament the “ant cemetery” that is growing in a classmate’s indepen-dent research project.

6

The four winners of this year’s Falmouth Academy Scholarship Exam were: Kate Delaney and Daniel Gessen, both of Falmouth and Morse Pond School, Oliver Russell of Mattapoisett, who attends Old Rochester Regional Junior High School, and Emma Cho of East Sandwich, who at-tends St. Francis Xavier Prepara-tory School.

Each will receive a $2,000 grant toward their first year’s tuition at FA if they enroll next year. The exam is designed by

Falmouth Academy teachers as a way to recognize scholastic merit. The exam includes sections on vocabulary, reading comprehension, and math, as well as an essay.

Falmouth Academy also has an extensive need-based financial aid program, which is not related to the Scholarship Exam. More than 40% of Falmouth Academy students receive need-based financial aid.

For information about applying for admission or financial aid, please con-tact Mike Earley in the Admissions Office, at 508-457-9696, x224.

Decision letters for admission and financial aid applications for the 2012-13 school year will be mailed on March 10th. Ω

FA Scholarship Examwinners announced

New Record Set! -- Senior Thomas Aviles [center, right] became the high-est scoring male basketball player in Falmouth Academy his-tory with 1,121 points, breaking the record held by David Tamasi since 1990 (1,117). Dave, a member of the Alumni Council, contacted Tom to offer his congratula-tions. Sarah Beninghof ‘98 holds the all-time basketball scoring record at FA, with 1,812 points.

National Merit Finalist -- David Pickart has been named a Finalist in the 2012 competition for National Merit Scholarships, making him eligible for a National Merit college scholarship. David was named one of only seven National Merit semifinal-ists on Cape Cod and the islands in September. National Merit semifinal-ists represent less than one percent of U.S. high school seniors.

German Awards -- Ten of Dr. Petra Ehrenbrink’s students earned awards on the National German Examination given by the American Association of Teachers of German.

In the Level 2 exam, Savannah Maher ‘13 earned a Gold Award.

In the Level 3 exam, Helena Old-enbourg ‘14 and Lily Patterson ‘14 earned Gold Awards; Angela Hodge ‘13 and Lucas Johns ‘14 earned Silver Awards; William Mendelsohn ‘14 earned a Bronze Award.

In the Level 4 exam, Daniel Eder ‘12 earned a Gold Award; Kyle Benton ‘12 and GianPaula Hulten ‘12 earned

News of honors from around the campus…

Silver Awards; Marney Rathbun ‘12 earned a Bronze Award.

15,000 diapers --Angela Hodge ‘13 was recognized by the program direc-tor of A Baby Center in Hyannis for having collected over 15,000 donated diapers since she began her effort last spring. In a letter to Headmaster David Faus, Mary Pat Piersons said, “Angela has been relentless, braving the cold weather to invite people to donate...All this in only seven drives!”

Ω

We couldn’t do it without you.

Please support the

Annual Fund.

FA students earn awards from Scholastic Art & Writing

The 2012 Boston Globe Scholas-tic Art & Writing Awards recognized Falmouth Academy students with 14 awards, including five Gold Keys, two for senior writing portfolios, and three Silver Keys.

Each year, the competition invites high school seniors to submit port-folios of their work in writing or art. Ayla Fudala and Rachel Dragos were among 11 high school seniors in the Commonwealth (and the only Cape students) to earn Gold Keys for their writing portfolios. Gold Keys:

Ayla Fudala ’12 and Rachel Dra-gos ’12 for their writing portfolios;

Hannah Davenport ’13 for her short story, “There Are Paper Planes Everywhere;”

Lela Sethares ‘14 for her drawing, “Self Portrait;”

Caitlin Walsh ‘13 for her photo-graph, “Wampanoag Longhouse.”

The work of all Gold Key win-ners will be forwarded to New York for entrance in the national Scholastic competition.Silver Keys:

Rachel Dragos ‘12 for her photo-graph, “Diner,”

Julia Guérin ‘14 for her photo-graph, “The Missing Shadow” and

Lauren Hoyerman ‘13 for her photograph, “Dual.”

Honorable mentions:Lauren Hoyerman for three other

photographs, “Clavicle,” “Farben,” and “Lacquer.”

Grant Doney ‘16 for his drawing, “Hamlet;”

Ayla Fudala ‘12 for her photo-graph, “Dreaming of Flight;”

Elizabeth Stimson ‘13 for her drawing, “Self Portrait.”

Clare Beams teaches Creative Writing at Falmouth Academy. Susan Moffat teaches photography and ¡Cuba! and Lucy Nelson teaches studio arts and Arts-in-Humanities.

An exhibit of Gold Key and Silver Key art will hang at the Transporta-tion Center in Boston from February 13 through April 20 from 9:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. weekdays and 12:00 noon – 4:00 p.m. Saturdays & Sundays.

The Awards Ceremonies will be held March 11 at the John Hancock Hall in Boston. Ω

Boston Globe winners Hannah Daven-port, Lela Sethares, Grant Doney, Julia Guérin, Lauren Hoyerman, Rachel Dragos, Ayla Fudala. Missing from the photo are Elizabeth Stimson and Caitlin Walsh.

7

Falmouth Academy Refrigerator Calendars March 2012 April 2012

We couldn’t do it without you.

Please support the Annual Fund!

The Simon Sinfonietta

with Mark Miller, clarinetist

Music by Boyce, Swilich, von Weber, and Haydn

Saturday, March 31 at 7:30 p.m.

For reservations, please call 508-457-9696, x227.

8

Geraldine Brooksauthor of Caleb’s Crossing

will speak at Falmouth AcademyWednesday, March 28 at 7:00 p.m.

Admission is free.

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9

Falmouth Academy Refrigerator Calendars March 2012 April 2012

Two Honor Society events in April:• April 2-6 -- Canned Food Drive, for Falmouth Service Center. 5 cans or $5, please!• April 9-13 -- Clothing, Shoes, & Sports Equipment. Check your closets for gently used but still serviceable items.

Donations should be placed in the class boxes in the side entry foyer. Thank you!

spirit week is coming! April 23-27…Go, Mariners!

10

Alumni Day Panel discussion moderated by Ruth Slocum, Chair, English Departmentwith panelists Ray Bartlett ’88, Elizabeth Dean ’98, Colleen (Bulman) Dunn ’93, Lisa (Schneider) Freudenheim ’86, Yuki Honjo ’90, Katharina (Plumb) LiVigne ’01, Alex Walsh ’88

FA alumni carry their careful training with them. From constant practice in seventh grade in writing focus sentences and paragraphs to habitual proofreading in senior year, they have learned how to write. In January, alumni panelists spoke to FA high school students about some of the ways good writing skills make them successful professionals.

“Fundamentals matter,” said Yuki Honjo, chief operating officer at McLane Research Laboratories. “Writing is your right to be heard,” she said. “If you don’t write clearly, your audience won’t understand what you think. In the real world, if you write well, you can differentiate yourself and be important. This is essential in any industry.” She rotates proofreading tasks among her team members so they constantly edit their own and their colleagues’ writing.

Lisa Freudenheim teaches attorneys to write clearly. She advises them to become familiar with their weaknesses so they can be particularly alert for those mistakes when they edit their work. Another of her guiding principles: Be aware of the reader.

Katie LiVigne, the media manager for the New York City Ballet, agrees: “My language has to be appropriate for the New York City Ballet. What I write may show up in the New York Times.” She avoids abbreviations, even in Tweets. “‘I’m on my iPhone’ is not an excuse for sloppy writing.”

“Letters have to be clear, concise and convey information,” said Liz Dean, a claims unit manager at Travelers Insurance. She found so many grammar, spelling and punctuation mistakes when she edited her employees’ letters that she wrote a guide, “From Salutation to Sincerely.” In it she emphasizes the importance of proofreading. “I credit Mrs. Hobbie with making us write ‘I have proofread this’ on all of our papers,” she said.

“I have to put everything in writing and be very precise,” added Colleen Dunn, human resources manager at Falmouth Hospital, “If there’s the least op-portunity for misinterpretation, it could land your business in court.”

Alex Walsh is president and founder of ePaint, developer and manufacturer of environmentally-safe marine cover products. Much of his business is funded by government grants that require written proposals and reports. “I wouldn’t have a business if I couldn’t convey ideas,” he said. “If I can’t convey, I can’t get funding.”

A published author who specializes in travel writing, Ray Bartlett stressed the importance of knowing how to focus and write well for a global economy. “Writ-ing is like dressing yourself. You write appropriately for the occasion, whether it’s an opinion piece, résumé or a text. Good writing does matter, even more so now than in the past,” he said. “The world is getting smaller and writing is bringing us together.”

Falmouth Academy teaches students how to write. We are used to hear-ing from our young graduates that they are so confident in that skill that they are teaching their college roommates how to write. We are grateful to the older alumni on this panel for explaining how skills in clear thinking, writing, and

presenting — skills that FA helped them develop — are essential in their professional success. Ω

The Write Stuff: why good writing skills matter

11

Mariner Craft Beer TastingA Falmouth Academy Fundraiser

Saturday, April 28, 2012 at 6:00 p.m.

Plans for Falmouth Academy’s spring fundraiser are “brewing” so mark your calendars for Saturday, April 28, for a Mariner Craft Beer Tasting, in the gym at 6:00 p.m.

This social event will feature sam-ples from Cape Cod Beer, Offshore Ale Co., Cisco Brewers and more, as well as abundant complementary food pairings from local restaurants and caterers. Come and sample some new favorite local beers and learn more about how these delicious brews are made! (Other beverages and refresh-ments will be available.)

Live music by Allan McGarry, silent and live auction items, fund-a-need and games of chance will round out the evening. Proceeds from the event ben-efit the school’s Annual Fund, which supports our program.

Do you have a nautical item you’d like to lend? We are looking for nauti-cal items to borrow for decoration, such as sails, spinnakers, signal flags and dinghies. Please contact Maribeth Wadman if you would like to lend an item: mbwadman@verizon.net.

Contribute to a vacation-themed lot. Donate a week or long weekend at your vacation home or condo, or amenities to make a trip that much better. Or, maybe you’d like to offer an afternoon sail with cocktails on your boat. To donate, contact Katie Hollander: KHollander1212@aol.com.

Tickets are available by contacting the school: $45/person ($25/alumnus or guest, age 21-30); $70 for an individual sponsor; $700 for a sponsored table of ten ($250 is a tax-deductible contribution).

For more information, call Barbara Campbell at 508-457-9696, x227. Ω

We couldn’t do it without

you.

Please

support the

Annual Fund.

12

We couldn’t do it without you.

Please support the

Annual Fund.

Who was here for Alumni Day?

The Roundtable Hosts

Alumni Women’s

Basketball

Alumni Men’s Basketball

The Writing Panel

13

Although we’re a small school, our Honor Society membership is quite large: slightly less than half the students are members. Membership require-ments are based on grades and, in the upper school, on a written application as well. As this year’s president, Rachel Dra-gos ‘12 said, “It’s more than an honor roll. The National Honor Society (NHS) and the National Junior Honor Society recog-nize students who have demonstrated excellence in the areas of scholarship, leadership, service, and character.”

She added that membership in the FA chapter not only acknowledges students’ existing accomplishments but also “challenges them to develop further through active involvement in school projects and community service.”

The NHS’s community service focuses on the school and on the wider world. Every year, NHS members organize and carry out the fall ori-entation for new students entering in grades 8-12. A new fall event, “Zumba for a Cause!” brought to-gether some 60 students and adults to exercise with a Latin beat. They raised $861 for the Housing Assistance Cor-poration here on the Cape.

The fall canned food drive (one of two the Honor Society runs) gener-ated 390 cans of food plus $461 in cash, donated to the Falmouth Service Center.

The Falmouth Service Center is also the destination of the warm hats, scarves, and mittens that come in to decorate a holiday tree in the school. The Honor Society’s big holiday Hugs & Kisses project not only provides sweets for students–it also is the main

support for the annual Honor Society Scholarships awarded at Recognition Day to three or four students whose

support for the community is es-pecially generous. This year, that project sold over 23,000 chocolate Hugs and Kisses -- all of which had to be sorted for delivery at All-School Meet-ing in December.

Naturally interested in

education, the Honor Society pays for the schooling of one boy in Nigeria through the charity, PLAN, and ran a clothing-and-school-supply drive to benefit the Orchard Garden Park School in Roxbury. They run a Jeans Day (where students and faculty pay for the privilege of wearing blue jeans to school) to support the Falmouth Service Center’s Fresh Start Program, providing well-equipped back packs to low income students at the start of school.

They hope upper school students (age 16+) will have the opportunity to work again on a Habitat for Humanity Build this spring, while younger mem-bers plan to hold a car wash. These will be in addition, of course, to the spring canned food drive and planning their important induction ceremony for new members in May.

Summer doesn’t end their work! They prepare a packet of summer vol-unteer opportunities for FA students as an extension of the many volunteer opportunities they make available during the year. As NHS president, Rachel also serves on the Student Council, helping to coordinate and support each group’s efforts during the year. And those ef-forts are most productive! Ω

FA’s Honor Society works hard all year long

Honor Society elves display (and model) the collection of hats, mittens and scarves headed for the Falmouth Service Center. [l. to r.] sophomores Ruth Collins, Drew Bur-chill, Lily Patterson, Cassidy Reves-Sohn.

14

In January, 25 alumni returned to share their college, grad school, and career advice with current juniors and seniors. Here are a few tidbits we overheard.

• There are some amazing gap year opportunities. Anna Van Voorhis ’10, freshman, McAllister College

• Asking questions helps you stand out. Leave your door open in the dorm to connect socially and meet new people. Margot Wilsterman ’11, freshman, Connecticut College.

• Go to professors’ office hours. It makes a difference. Joseph O’Connor ’11, freshman at Catholic University

• Get as many core courses and prerequisites out of the way as you can–early! Jules Buccino ’10, sophomore, Mt. Holyoke College

• You have to actually participate. They won’t come looking for you. Tim Wadman ’09, junior, Villanova Univer-sity

• In a women’s college, the class-room dynamic is so different, the maturity level is higher, and classroom conversations can be directed to issues of concern to women. Grace Foster ’10, sophomore, Mt. Holyoke College

• Study abroad. Get as far away as you can from what you’re familiar with, and then visit everywhere nearby. Xandy Walsh ’11, freshman, St. Andrews University, Scotland

• Internships are a great way to start or try out a career, but they are mostly unpaid. Still, it gets you in the door. Katie (Plumb) LiVigne ’01, Media Manager, New York City Ballet

• A good GPA buffers bad GRE scores, as do good interviewing skills and interpersonal skills. The biggest thing in applying to grad school is good recommendations from people in your field. Sarah (Lafaver) Mc-Carron ’96 DVM , Marshfield Animal

Hospital• Learning how to integrate

was the best thing at FA. Scott

Overheard at Alumni Day SAVE the DATE to Celebrate FA and

honor our FacultyFriday, June 8, 5:30-7:30 p.m.

Plan to be at Falmouth Acad-emy on Friday, June 8 to help us celebrate our faculty, especially our founding faculty, our alumni and Falmouth Academy’s 35 year anniversary.

We will cheer on our new Alumni Council and see the pre-miere of the alumni video, Because of FA. Still in production, it is thoughtful and imaginative, filled with alumni stories from our first scrappy days in rented space in the basement of a retirement home to the present day on our own hand-some campus. You will see that even if our spaces are different, FA has the same spirit and culture.

This celebration is for all past and present members of the Falmouth Academy community– alumni, faculty and staff, trust-ees, parents, friends. Two of our founding faculty, Janet Kearsley and Nancy Twichell, plan to retire in June so they, of course, will be on hand to celebrate with their colleagues and FA families, past and present.

(We are going to need a lot of help before and after this event. To volunteer, please contact Bar-bara Campbell.)

Brown ’89 Ph.D, Associate Scientist, Rochester Institute of Technology

• College is the time to figure out what you want to do. Just work for the best GPA you can. Mareana (Ricci) Tiapula ’99 MBA, owner Bayview Campgrounds Ω

15

Alumni NewsCongratulations to Shannon

(McLaughlin ’02) Taylor and her husband, Cole, whose baby Alison Mae was born in January. The proud grandmother is Ruth (Murray ’79) McLaughlin.

Nate Haycock ’11 has been busy at Franklin & Marshall. “I went with a group of 16 F&M students and three advisors to Greensboro, Alabama, to help rebuild the local pastor’s home, which was destroyed in the tornado in April. We finished framing and roof-ing the house, put in all the windows and doors (which weighed about a thousand pounds each!) and started insulating. The pastor, Kirvin Jones, cooked us some delicious fried catfish and showed us the town, which has promise but is impoverished. It was a project run through a club at F&M called Catastrophic Relief Alliance

(CRA) and we linked up with a hous-ing/general welfare agency in Hale County called HERO.”

Alex Lloyd-Evans ’07 will spend the next year in Lansing, MI working with AmeriCorps. His focus will be on disaster-related planning for the state, particularly for “underserved and minority” citizens.

Alumni to gather in Washington, DC and

New York CityTwo events are planned to help

local alumni network with each other – and share a bit of their city’s cul-ture. On Sunday, March 4, alumni in Washington, DC, led by Bridget Miskell ’07, Sean O’Neill ’04 and David Tamasi ’90, will meet for lunch at the Hill Country Barbecue at 1:00 before touring the National Portrait Gallery at 2:30.

New York City alumni, led by Katie (Plumb) LiVigne ’01, will meet Thursday, April 12 at The Coliseum Pub/Restaurant at 6:00 p.m. and then walk to the Museum of Art and De-sign (voluntary admission charge).

To RSVP, please contact Barbara Campbell. Ω

Lights, Camera, Action! We invite YOU to be in the FA alumni video

How has your FA experience influenced your life? You are invited to answer this and other questions in Because of FA, a video we are producing to capture messages from FA alumni around the world! The video will debut Friday, June 8 at FA’s 35th Anniversary celebration. To see a sample of the first few interviews done at the Alumni Soccer Game, go to www.svpweb.com/fa.html and click Falmouth Academy. Twenty-five alumni have participated so far!

We would really like to represent FA alumni from every decade and from across the globe. We encourage you to record footage and send it in. The deadline to submit is March 30. For information on how to submit your

video, visit the Alumni page on the FA web site.

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Sarah Swanbeck ’03 is in transition. “I finished up my MPP at Berkeley in May and started a new job with the Controller’s Office for the City of San Francisco in September. In between, I did some contract work for the City dur-ing the budget process, moved to a new apartment in Oakland, and spent several weeks travelling in the Czech Republic. I’m settling into the new job slowly - my department is essentially an internal consultant for the city, doing various kinds of analysis for different city departments. In that way, it’s nice because I get a lot of variety in my work. Right now, for example, I’m doing projects with the City Library, Juvenile Probation, the Department of Public Health, and the school districts.

I also was recently accepted into a program called Emerge, which trains Democratic women to run for office. The program operates in nine different states, and this year they accepted 24 women from California. There’s more information on the website: http://www.emergeca.org. Through the pro-gram, I’ve been to several fundraising events lately, one for Tammy Baldwin who is running for Senate in Wiscon-sin and another for Elizabeth Warren, running for the U.S. Senate in Mas-sachusetts.” Sarah is pictured at right with Ms. Warren at the Emerge conference.