Global Girls: Jetlag, How to Tie a Tie, and Other Aussie Adventures

Alyssa Wolak, Junior Day Student from Oxford, Connecticut

My exchange trip to Australia was an experience that I will remember and cherish for the rest of my life. The program was seven weeks long, where I left on the 12^th of July and returned the 30^th of August. I remember the twenty-seven hour plane ride feeling as if it would never end. When I finally arrived at midnight, it had felt like noon because Australia is exactly twelve hours ahead of America. I went through security, then met my host family who had been waiting patiently at the gate for me to arrive. My exchange school, St. Mary’s, was on holiday for a week after I arrived. During that week I explored Perth City, traveled down south to Augusta, and much more all while still recovering from jetlag. The night before school started, I moved from my host family’s house to the boarding house at St. Mary’s. At Westover, I am a day student, so it was interesting and exciting to explore life as a boarder. One thing that took time to adjust to was that St. Mary’s has a strict, maroon uniform that they have to wear to classes, whereas Westover does not. I spent about half an hour in front of the mirror before the first day of school trying to figure out how to tie a tie before my friend just did it for me. I had seven class periods a day, each forty-five minutes long. During the course of the day, we would have recess and lunch. During those periods, everyone sits on the lawn with their friends and eats. I would sit with my exchange partner, Bec, and her group of friends near the lockers. After three weeks of boarding, I packed my bags and went to live with my co-host, Rachel for the remainder of my time there. Rachel lives only twenty minutes away from St. Marys, and because she had her license, she would drive me to and from school each day. While I wasn’t at school taking classes such as Human biology, Politics and law, and economics, I was experiencing life as an Aussie. I had vegemite on toast every day as a snack, tried surfing, got to meet their friends from their brother school, and went caving. The day I had to leave was one of the saddest of my life. I couldn’t stop crying as I said goodbye to my new school friends at St. Mary’s. After a lot of packing, my host family drove me to the airport for my flight at midnight, where I spent the entire plane ride thinking about all of the amazing memories and friends that I had spent my summer making. It was an experience I wouldn’t trade for the world, and would do again in a heart beat.

 

 

The Deepest Secret

Sara Sykes, Director of Admission

It’s the bird’s eye view of life which brings us a true sense of who we are and where we are on this Earth.

My day started just like any typical day. Alarm went off too early. Baby woke up at exactly the WRONG time (mascara wand in hand, hair dripping wet, dog to feed). Forgot to eat breakfast and was five minutes late out the door. Walked into work with too many emails to read.

Typical.

Then I checked my schedule. “Convocation” at 9:20am in the Chapel. I thought, What’s that again? Do I really have time to go? How am I going to answer that email? Maybe I’ll try and find something to eat…

                                                                                                                                                                          

When you’ve just been a part of something so special, how do you put it into words? How do you want to share it, but, at the same time, want to keep it to yourself? I rushed back to my office to write this blog with a million ideas, and now…I just don’t know how to say it. Convocation turned out to be the typical start of my workday to a job that I forget is work. I smile to myself thinking of how my other friends definitely didn’t—and won’t ever—have a start to their day like I did.

 

I read an article once about humans’ need to be close to one another in proximity, particularly in regards to a mass event. Why do we all come together and watch a concert or participate in a rally? Beyond the need to see our favorite band or stand up for a cause we believe in, we enjoy moments of mass togetherness. It’s vital to our souls to feel and know that everyone around us is there for the same reason we are, touching elbows, sharing the same air. We can be so isolated in our work as humans, whether in a cubicle, studying at a desk, or making a long commute. We need and want to be with others. Convocation is an annual tradition at Westover, welcoming students back to school and setting the tone for the year ahead. More deeply, it is a moment to breathe. A moment to gather. A moment to look around and feel the collective pulse of what it means to be a part of something with only those around you. Kaylie Daniels, a senior, had wise words for the new students who might be feeling overwhelmed. She stressed the Westover community and said, “We will be okay. It will all work out.” Kathryn Albee, head of the language department, shared an experience from her college years as a student finding her way and advised the girls, “Never let one word define who you are.” Our Head of School Ann Pollina shared a statistic that 93% of our thoughts on any given day are actually thoughts we’ve had before. “What I’m interested in girls—is that 7%….”

 

Westover is purposefully small with a big reach. Over 250 faculty, staff, and students squished into our perfect little Chapel built over 100 years ago for women by a woman with such creative genius, the spaces she realized stand the test of time as ones in which girls thrive and incrementally become better versions of themselves. I looked around at this new community I have been thrown into—young, bright-eyed women who will change and create a better world for my son, faculty who give them the tools to do it, wise alumnae who live it, colleagues who believe it—and thought of the e.e. cummings line, “Here is the deepest secret nobody knows…”

 

I took a moment to capture the bird’s eye view of where I was:

A Thursday, just like any day.

A little Chapel on 150 green, rolling acres, filled to the gills.

A blue sky and perfect clouds.

A small, picturesque New England town.

The world spinning around us, for just a brief touch of time.

And a human swell dedicated to the mission and vision of educating girls. Because when you educate a girl, you educate a family, a community, a nation, and a world. And THAT is why we are here. That is our cause.

 

As Director of Admission at Westover, MY mission is to bring the feeling from this morning to all of you—young change makers and their families who have begun the journey of exploring independent boarding schools, and, even more importantly—all-girls. I welcome you to come experience Westover and join our cause.

The (Fifty)Third Time is the Charm

Ann Pollina, Head of School & Math Teacher

… certainly the 52 previous winners of the prestigious Fields Medal, one of the top prizes a mathematician can be awarded, were all men (as were the three other co-winners of this year’s prize). But Professor Maryam Mirzakhani of Stanford University broke the barrier with her work on dynamical systems. Is it important that she has become the first woman who has ever won a Fields Medal or the Abel Prize or the Wolf Prize, the top honors for a mathematician? As one who trains young women in mathematics every day, I believe her success is vital. Achievements like hers shine a bright light on the capabilities of women in a field still dominated by men; 70% of doctoral degrees in mathematics are awarded to men.

Why should we care? There are three potent reasons why the engagement of young women in mathematics and the sciences is essential. The first of these is simple justice. There should be no area of intellectual accomplishment that is inaccessible at the highest level to women. The second is practical. The jobs of the future will require significant experience in quantitative fields; if only half of our workforce is eligible, we will never staff those jobs with domestic workers. But perhaps the most important reason to continue to inspire young women in the field of mathematics has to do with the subject itself. Mathematics needs women; it needs the way they think and the way they apply their knowledge; it needs the diversity of mind they bring to math for the field to develop in the richest possible way.

So Bravo, Dr. Mirzakhani, and thank you.