KUA - Exeter Cup Cycling Race Winners

Peter Maher '09 and Brian Moses '09 Win Exeter Cup Cycling Race
5/4/2009
Two Friends, Two Months, Six Seconds

The Exeter (NH) Cup is a prestigious competitive cycling race that takes the top high school road cyclists from New England and pits them against each other in a unique two-man team time trial format. When Peter Maher and Brian Moses were positioned as a team at the start of Saturday's Exeter Cup, they believed they had a special edge.

Maher and Moses, two Kimball Union Academy seniors, knew each other's intricate body language, quirks and strengths as competitive cyclists perhaps better than any other teammates in this annual competition. Last summer the pair spent the months of June and July raising money to help educate underprivileged children a world away. The two friends successfully secured sponsorships and raised thousands of dollars for the newly founded Beverly School in Kenya. The donations and pledges that they were able to raise were in response to their promise to complete a circuitous 4,000 mile bicycle journey from Seattle to Boston, while spreading the word about the needs and hopes of the Kenyan children.


Two Friends, Two Months, Six Seconds

The Exeter (NH) Cup is a prestigious competitive cycling race that takes the top high school road cyclists from New England and pits them against each other in a unique two-man team time trial format. When Peter Maher and Brian Moses were positioned as a team at the start of Saturday's Exeter Cup, they believed they had a special edge.

Maher and Moses, two Kimball Union Academy seniors, knew each other's intricate body language, quirks and strengths as competitive cyclists perhaps better than any other teammates in this annual competition. Last summer the pair spent the months of June and July raising money to help educate underprivileged children a world away. The two friends successfully secured sponsorships and raised thousands of dollars for the newly founded Beverly School in Kenya. The donations and pledges that they were able to raise were in response to their promise to complete a circuitous 4,000 mile bicycle journey from Seattle to Boston, while spreading the word about the needs and hopes of the Kenyan children.

Maher and Moses spent hundreds of hours riding only inches apart while pacing each other over the Rockies and Appalachians and taking their turns at the front pushing through the headwinds of the prairie. It was during this successful transcontinental journey, that the two aspiring competitive cyclists began to learn about the intricacies of each others' ability and unique riding style.

However, that was last summer's accomplishment and now they were to be tested on an equally important journey. While the Exeter Cup event was far shorter, (slightly under 10 miles) than their transcontinental ride, it nonetheless posed a challenge and an opportunity for the pair.

High School bicycle racing in New England is fiercely competitive. On the brighter side, it fosters a sense of health, fitness and camaraderie. However, it is also an inherently dangerous sport where young athletes often approach or exceed the take-off speed of small aircraft. While there are many schools such as Exeter, Andover and Deerfield Academy who field dozens of hardened competitive riders, other smaller schools can still enter talented athletes with similar hopes and dreams of success.

A year earlier, Maher and Moses had won the developmental class in the Exeter event as first year riders but now they were moved up to the more competitive level. Despite the odds against them, they believed in themselves and had every intention of winning this year's challenging two-man team time trial.

The Exeter course is demanding and technical. Riders are subjected to 6 major turns per 1.2 mile lap. Additionally, the narrowness of the streets and placement of the spectator barriers mandates that good judgment is used to avoid crashing. However, when riders are too prudent, winning can be elusive. To win at this level, Maher and Moses knew they had to believe in each other and they needed to take risks.

As each pair of riders left the starting line at ten second intervals, the crowds began to congregate to see the action in the corners. While many two-man teams safely changed their lead positions on the straight sections, the more skilled riders were able to make a faster switch in the corners. By midway, it became apparent through the network of timers and officials that this year's race was going to be one of the tightest finishes in the Exeter Cup's history. Maher and Moses were once again on a mission. They entered each corner with great speed, sometimes elbow to elbow as they made their position change. Occasionally their tires touched and often their shoes brushed against the hay bales at thirty miles per hour. As the bell sounded to indicate the final lap, most of the top teams were within sight of each other. While there was the normal raucous cheering from the crowd that indicates the end of a race, this cheering suddenly turned into a strange and eerie stillness as the riders and their coaches were not sure which team had won.

As the official began taping the results to a board, the riders and coaches began crowding around them like a school of piranhas in a gold fish bowl. The usual celebratory atmosphere of power teams of Exeter, Andover and Deerfield curiously wasn't there. A group of smaller teams from the Upper Valley area had upset the traditional power teams and battled their way into the top positions

Hanover High's Gus Griffin and Jake McLaughlin had ridden to third place, Proctor Academy's riders were second and Maher and Moses from Kimball Union Academy were declared this year's Exeter Cup winners in 19 minutes and 45 seconds, a margin of a mere six seconds. These were the two friends who spent two months of their past summer helping a bunch of kids on another continent. These were the two friends who spent two month learning about each other. And these were the two friends who were also able to put their knowledge and desires to good use and on one day in early May of 2009, they found the edge that gave them the six seconds to win a race they believed that they could.

by William Farrell, KUA mathematics teacher and cycling coach

Tilton School - Renowned Author and Poet Richard Hoffman at Tilton School

Renowned Author and Poet Richard Hoffman at Tilton School

4/22/2009

Author and poet Richard Hoffman visited Tilton School on April 16 and 17 as part of the School's annual celebration of National Poetry Month. Hoffman held a poetry reading at the School's all school meeting followed by a well-attended poetry workshop, "Freedom to Read Poetry" in which he reflected on the question, "Why do we write?"

Hoffman met with students in several settings during his visit to campus, including an informal dinner meeting featuring conversation about writing, poetry and life, visits to several classes, and a poetry workshop, held in the Davis Lecture Hall. Students attending the poetry workshop participated enthusiastically, making many contributions to the initial question posed by Hoffman about what motivates people to write. Hoffman described practical strategies and techniques that can be used to overcome obstacles that writers face, from student writers to professional writers. While ranging over a variety of topics, Hoffman's major point was that writing is a way to engage with life and to ask the difficult questions. Rather than seeing poetry as a way to "escape from reality," Hoffman challenged students to think of poetry as a way of engaging with reality.

Introduced in 1996 by the Academy of American Poets, National Poetry Month is held every April and is designed to celebrate poetry's vital place in American culture. Tilton School's celebration of National Poetry Month is designed to introduce more students to the pleasures of reading poetry, makes poetry an integral part of the school's curriculum, and highlights the legacy of living poets.

Of Hoffman, Academic Dean Margaret Allen said, "He is a writer who understands the power of language to communicate, to heal, and to hurt. As a writer who is also a teacher, he is passionate in his belief that harnessing the power of language is one of the most valuable lessons that students can learn, no matter what life direction they may take. He believes strongly that poetry is not just for a "literary elite", but provides emotional and spiritual sustenance for everyone".

Hoffman's work, both prose and verse, has appeared in numerous literary journals as well as in several anthologies. He is the author of the poetry collections Without Paradise (Cedar Hill Books.) and Gold Star Road (Barrow Street Press). His first major work was the critically acclaimed memoir, Half a House, recently republished by New Rivers Press. Currently Writer-in-Residence at Emerson College, Hoffman also teaches in the Stonecoast MFA program at the University of Southern Maine. He is the recipient of several fellowships and awards, most recently a Massachusetts Cultural Council Fellowship in fiction, and The Literary Review's Charles Angoff Prize. Early in his career, Hoffman was a high school English teacher, and he maintains to this day a belief in the power of the relationship between student and teacher, and in the transformational potential of language as an expression of the human condition.


Further information on Richard Hoffman and his literary work can be found here.

Vermotn Academy - Students About Islamic Stereotypes

Jordanian "King's Scholar" Speaks to VA Students About Islamic Stereotypes
4/28/2009
Jordanian citizen Omer Khalayleh is on a mission. Currently a post-graduate student at Deerfield Academy, Omer is traveling to schools in the area and speaking to students and staff in an effort to dispel myths about Islam, the Middle East and Arabic people in general. He has so far delivered his message at Deerfield Academy and the Eaglebrook School in Massachusetts and will speak at Frontier High School in Deerfield on May 6. He traveled to Vermont Academy on Tuesday, April 28.

While a student at Rusaifa Secondary School in Zarqa, Jordan, Omer applied to and was accepted at Deerfield Academy for a post-graduate year. He was waitlisted due to a lack or scholarship funds but a few weeks later, Omer's family was notified that the scholarship money had become available. They later learned that the funds had come from the Royal Court of Jordan. King Abdullah II of Jordan had attended Deerfield Academy and was happy to support Omer in his quest for an extra year’s preparation for college.


As part of his presentation at Vermont Academy, Omer defined the terms Arab, the Middle East, Islam, jihad and fatwah. He spoke of King Abdullah II's “Amman Message”, which was delivered in November of 2004 and called for tolerance and unity in the Muslim world.


Omer feels that as a "King's Scholar," it is his responsibility to speak out against Arabic and Islamic stereotypes. "I want to overrule what the American media shows the public and give the message of who we really are, from an Arab’s point of view."


Omer will attend Williams College in the fall and has enjoyed his PG year in America, although he misses home and family. When asked about the winter weather in Massachusetts, he replied, "I learned to snowboard for the first time. That was the highlight of my winter."

Vermont Academy - Math Students Meet Governor Douglas

VA Math Students Meet Governor Douglas
5/2/2009
On April 28th, Vermont Academy students Jin Young Lee, Jennifer Kim and Jae Ho Jung went to the University of Vermont in Burlington where they were honored by the Vermont Mathematics Coalition and Vermont Governor Jim Douglas for their performance in the 2008-2009 Vermont Mathematics Talent Search.


On May 30 Jae Ho, Jennifer and Jin Young, along with 17 other Vermont high school mathematicians, will travel to Penn State where they will compete against approximately 70 other teams in the International ARML Mathematics Competition.

Vermont Academy - Mock Crash at VA Campus

Mock Crash at VA Campus

5/7/2009
Students and staff assembled Thursday after classes at Chivers Center on the VA campus to witness a mock crash. Five students and one faculty member acted the parts of the crash victims, the drivers, and the mother of a victim. The Saxtons River Fire Department and the Vermont State Police responded to the scene in exactly the way they would if it had been an actual crash situation.

As the enactment finished, the parents of two local teenagers who were killed in 2006by a driver under the influence spoke to the students. They described the impact the crash has had on their lives since then and the pain they feel over the loss of their children. They asked the students to consider how quickly their lives could change if they were to be involved in a similar situation.

Hebron - STUDENTS, STAFF PREPARE FOR MALAWI

Eight Hebron juniors will be traveling to an orphanage in Malawi this summer to help make a difference: Andy Churchill, Emma Leavitt, Camree Thompson, Geoff Bowen, Charles Evans, Jordan Wade, Seung Hee Lee, and Mario De La Isla. They will be accompanied by five staff members from the Academy: Katie Coyne, Ian Cross, Bill Flynn, Janet Littlefield and Ashley Webb. The students and staff will live at the orphanage, Little Field Home, for one month, alongside the 72 children and 14 workers who live there permanently. Their main focus will be to conduct projects at the orphanage and with the greater community pertaining to health, education and agriculture.

Janet Littlefield, the executive director of the Home and dorm parent and coach here at the Academy is looking forward to seeing the students make connections with the children in Malawi. The students are expected to work hard at the Home and live like the Malawians, with no electricity nor plumbing and few health or educational resources. The students will teach the children and show support for the orphans and vulnerable children in Malawi, but they will also gain a great deal of practical experience. "They will be working collaboratively with the Malawians on projects to help alleviate poverty in the area and they will return to Maine global citizens with a better perspective. I appreciate the work they do for the community and orphans over there, but as an educator to see these kids thinking and acting globally is fantastic! I hope what they learn will help shape their future," said Littlefield.

The students will conduct workshops on HIV/AIDS and malaria, two diseases that are rampant throughout Sub-Sahara Africa. Malawi has over one million orphans and most of the population, especially in the district the orphanage is located in, is under 14 years of age.

One major project the students will participate in is building a sustainable farm at Little Field Home. Malawians rely on their short rainy season to harvest their crops for the year. To help in this effort, students will host a Walk-a-thon at Hebron Academy on Sunday, May 17, at 11:00 AM to raise the funds to install a borehole/well and solar powered irrigation system at the Home. The project costs $14,000 and will allow crops to grow year round with multiple harvests and a high food production. This project will help put an end to hunger in the area and create employment for the local Malawians. If sufficient funds are raised, the Maine students will help install this system in July at the Home. Those interested in learning more about the Walk-a-thon or about Friends of Little Field Home can visit www.littlefieldhome.org.

Hebron-ENTREPRENEURSHIP CHALLENGE RESULTS

ENTREPRENEURSHIP CHALLENGE RESULTS

5/4/2009
The final event in Hebron's Entrepreneurship Challenge program, in which teams of students plan and implement business ideas and compete for prize money, was held Thursday, April 30, in the Treat Lecture Hall, where a panel of judges determined the winning teams based on most profit, best plan and best presentation. The prize winners were as follows:

First Place for most profitable--Merit Genesissor (Seok Won Jee '10, Jai Kim '11, Seung Woo Kim '10, Seung Hee Lee '11, Sang Min '10 and Hoin Na '10), sellers of anion bracelets. Popularized by Team Korea in the World Baseball Classic, the bracelets--said to improve health and sports ability--were a big seller, and the team, each of whose members will receive $500, has promised to donate part of the profits to a church and part to the sophomore class. As for the team name, it was an original coinage of the group.

Second Place for best business plan--T&N Enterprises (Taylor Theriault '11 and Natalia Pena '11), sellers of custom T-shirts listing Hebron seniors. Members to receive $250 each.

Third Place for best presentation--Prestige Enterprises (Andrew Burgess '11, Kees van Haasteren '09, Tom Pagnozzi '11, Erika Thomas '11, Jeff Morgan '09), sellers of Andrew Burgess' original music CD's. Members to receive $200 each.

Consolation Prize for most fun--Jackie Chen Enterprises (Yu Zhang '09 and Kai Chen '09), sellers of food items for the dorms. Team to receive $100.

Hebron Academy Trustees Bob Rich '49 and Scott Nelson '91, and local businessman Daryel Duhaime served as judges for the event, which marked the end of a year-long program involving several guest speakers and regular Monday night sessions throughout the winter and spring led by faculty adviser Bob MacLellan.

"Despite interruptions in the form of three snow days," says MacLellan, "the students did an amazing job, and I'm very proud of their accomplishments."