Welcome to Hopkins' 348th School Year

Morning Assembly Welcome by Barbara Riley

Good morning, Hopkins. And, welcome to the new school year, which happens to be our 348th.

Personally, I couldn’t be happier about having you all back. The Summer has been active and full: construction projects, Summer School, Breakthrough New Haven, Elm City Prep and the Elm Chamber Fest. But, still, there is nothing for me that matches that first Fall day when we all gather again at Hopkins.

One common, casual greeting is “What’s new?” The answer this year would be “a lot.” “New” is, in one sense, the theme of this first all-school assembly. We will soon (most likely over the December break) move into our new Library; the tennis courts are being reconstructed; we will play on our new soccer field for the first time this Fall. We have new student e-mail accounts, new Pass-Fail courses for Seniors, and a new Technology Policy – you will hear more about that on Friday. We have plans for a new Academic and Arts Building waiting in the wings.

But, then, people are new, too. Every member of the 7th grade – Hopkins Class of 2013 – is new today; there are eight new 8th graders. Junior Schoolers, I think you should start off the day with a rousing cheer for each other and for your advisers, Mrs. Garrity and Mr. Jorgensen.

Just under half of the 9th grade – Hopkins Class of 2011 – is new to our school, but everyone in the class is new to high school. Welcome ninth graders and new tenth graders to what will be, I believe, the fastest years of your lives. You have fabulous Head Advisers in Mrs. Waters and Mr. Tippy, and it might be a good time right now to let them know that you already know that. Welcome, too, to the one new member of the Junior class.

And, although none of you are new to Hopkins, every member of the Class of 2008 is beginning a time that is particularly rich and wonderful – your last year of high school. Although I hope you are not counting the days – yet – I also hope that every day of your Senior year is full of friendship, adventure, learning at new levels, and that funny mix of excitement and apprehension about life after Hopkins.

All of this newness also applies to the faculty and staff who have come to Hopkins, returned to Hopkins, or just taken on new responsibilities at our School. I am going to ask each of the “new” teachers and staff to stand as I read your names, so that we can all start to associate names with faces.

It is my pleasure to introduce:

Shelly Gibson (BA in Psychology and Philosophy from Penn State University and a diploma in outdoor education from the University of Edinburgh) is our new Director of the Adam Kreiger Adventure Program. Jacqueline (Jackie) LaBelle (BFA University of Connecticut, MFA Central Connecticut University) is coming to Hopkins from Staples High School and will teach Studio Art. Jillian Adamiak has completed her BS in Athletic Training and Sports Medicine at Quinnipiac University and started working with Don and Peg in the Athletic Trainers’ Office this Summer. Erika Chapin (BA in Italian Studies and International Affairs at Mary Washington University and MEd in Counseling from the University of New Hampshire) has come from Cheshire Academy to join our College Counseling Office. I am very happy to announce that Carrie Shea Lamothe (BA Mt. Holyoke and MA Tufts) has returned to the Hopkins Classics Department.

We have a number of new History teachers: Megan Chrisman (BA in History and International Affairs from the University of Colorado); Jonathan Meltzer (BA in History from Harvard University); Anthony Piacenza (BA in American Studies from Middlebury College); Jessica Thomas (BA in English Literature from Yale University); and, Douglas Poskitt (BA Bucknell and MS University of Pennsylvania) who comes to us from teaching and administrative posts at Westtown Friends School in Philadelphia.

The Math Department has four new teachers: Jack Ayer (BA in Mathematics from the University of New Hampshire and a MEd in secondary school administration from Plymouth State University) has had nearly 30 years of teaching experience at Brunswick School and Cincinnati Country Day; Arnold Frias (BS and MS in Applied Mathematics from the University of the Philippines, and a MBA from the University of Pennsylvania); Karen Paul (BS in Mathematics and Economics from Muhlenberg College); and, Michael Van Leesten (BA in English and Economics from Dartmouth College and MBA from Columbia University). Michael is also the new Director of Breakthrough-New Haven and spent the summer on campus working with Kate Goldenheim and Errol Saunders.

Signe Damdar (BA in French from the College of Wooster and a MA from Ohio State) will be teaching French; Joany Guzman (BA in Spanish from the University of Connecticut and a MA from the School for International Training) will teach Spanish; and, Lin Lan (MD from Wuhan University and a MS in Elementary Education from Southern Connecticut State University) will teach Chinese.

New to the Science Department are Kristin Amore (BS in Chemistry from Muhlenberg College) who will teach Chemistry and fill in for Sarah Leite for one semester; Stacy Fambro (BA in English Literature and Social Psychology, and MA in Sociology from Stanford University; an MA from Ohio State in Counseling and Psychology; an MS and MPhil in psychology from Yale University) who – no surprise after all those degrees – will teach Psychology; Sarah Fick (BA in Biology and Environmental Science) who will teach Science 7 and AP Environmental Science; and Octavio Sotelo (BS in Chemistry from the University of Mexico) who is coming from KLHT and will teach Physics.

Carrier Warner Aitkenhead ‘01 (BS in English from Southern Connecticut State University) will manage the School Store and coach, as Tracy Bray (BS University of Connecticut and a MLS from SCSU) is taking up her new role as Assistant Librarian. Sandra Cooke (BS in English from Central Connecticut State University and a MA from Fairfield University in Media Technology) completes the Library Staff. Finally, Tejal Pandya (BS University of Bombay, MS Dakota School of Mines and Technology, and MS University of Bombay) will continue her work with the Technology Department, but she will join the faculty as our AP Computer Science teacher. And, since I am on the subject of Technology, D.J. Plante assumed his new responsibilities as Hopkins’ Director of Technology this summer.

Then, last but not least, there are several additions to our staff: Carol Migdalski (mother of Margaret, Grade 8) is the new manager of the Heath Cafe. Lauren Bontecou (BS in Educational Psychology from Cornell University) has most recently been the Director of Development at Dutchess Day School and has joined our Development Office as the Director of Annual Giving. Kristen Wich (BA in Communications and English from the University of Connecticut and coming from the position of Communications Director at the Hole in the Wall Camps) comes to Hopkins as our Associate Director of Communications in the Development Office. And, yes, there is a connection: Kristen is married to Scott Wich ‘89, and that makes her JoAnn’s daughter-in law. And, in the moving parts department: if you have been in to Baldwin, you already know that Holly Paul has taken over as Administrative Assistant to the Front Office in Baldwin Hall. Heather Voloshin (who is so new she will not even start for another two weeks) joins the Technology Department.

And, finally, David Baxter (BA Brandeis and an MBA from Boston University) is our Chief Financial Officer and joined us in early June. At the time, David said that he was over the moon about his new appointment – we’ll see as we take the administrative team out for a day on the ropes course!

I want to start this new school year by remembering a Hopkins student, Paul B. MacCready, who graduated in 1943 and who died last week at the age of 81. If you were at Hopkins two years ago, you’ll remember him as the creator of the Gossamer Albatross, the human-powered aircraft that flew across the English Channel in 1979, the model of which flies in the Malone Science Center Atrium.

I would like to quote a bit from the New York Times obituary; partly because I want you all to remember Paul MacCready, who was an eminent aerospace engineer and scientist who had one of the world’s most inventive minds, but more because his life and career tell us something important about how we should go about living and learning at Hopkins.

Paul B. MacCready was born in New Haven in 1925. “He was dyslexic and had trouble concentrating, but he showed passion for things that interested him. His interest in butterflies was in trying to figure out how to build one . . . he marshaled his gift for building odd model flying machines to a win a national competition when he was 15 [and a student at Hopkins School].”

“Anybody who is not interested in model airplanes must have a screw loose someplace,” he said [in an interview with the San Diego Union-Tribune in 1992].

He studied mechanical engineering at Yale, but he took his inspiration from watching birds fly. “His inspiration came on a cross-country trip with his family. He watched a hawk, then a vulture. He realized that if he could increase the wingspan of a plane without increasing its weight, a superbly conditioned bicyclist could pedal fast enough” to lift and power an airplane. He proceeded to build a plane from wire, aluminum tubes, bicycle parts, Mylar film and a propeller. If you go up to the Malone Science Center Atrium, you’ll see a model of his Gossamer Albatross. If you go to the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C., you’ll see his Gossamer Condor flying beside the Wright Brothers’ first plane and next to Charles Lindbergh’s “Spirit of St. Louis.”

All of us, as we start a new school year, will do well to keep in mind the fact that Paul MacCready never lost his “innocent sense of wonder. . . and that he believed daydreaming was his most productive activity. “I am more interested in what works than what sells,” Dr. MacCready said in an interview with Popular Science in 2003. It was his willingness to let his own intellect “soar” that literally “propelled” him. He remained somewhat suspicious of technology, referring to himself as an “ambivalent Luddite: his real passion [being] for unbridled thought.” His inventiveness, his sense of joy and play, his fascination with flight, his passion for ideas and for the environment all should remind Hopkins teachers and students alike that some of the most important habits of mind you will develop here are curiosity, perseverance, and, back to his wonderful word, daydreaming.

In the spirit of Paul MacCready, I have a gift for you as we start the new school year. Each of you has a pass, occasionally, to daydream at Hopkins. If your teachers question an attention lapse, you should remind them about this Assembly. There is only one requirement: you do need to be deep in thought, and you need to be able to remember what you were thinking!

With high hopes and great expectations for the 2007-2008 school year, welcome back to Hopkins!

Click here and here to read more about Dr. Paul MacCready's visit to Hopkins in April 2006.

View Scenes From the First Day of the 2007-2008 School Year.