Editor’s Note: For some meetings, the trustees invite a student and a faculty member to speak in matters of interest in their lives on campus. At the April trustee gathering, sixth-former Lauren Provinin and veteran History teacher Richard Stewart spoke. They text of Provini’s speech is below. The News interviewed Mr. Stewart and transcribed his remarks.
Lauren Provini’s Speech
I will never forget the long, intimidating walk to the science center for my early-morning physics class on September 10, 2004. I was a measly thirteen-year-old girl trying to navigate what then seemed to be the “complicated” paths of the Choate campus. Entering as a 3rd former, I had imagined Choate to be a rigorous, top-notch boarding school. The academic rigor of my classes certainly presented many challenges and helped me to grow as a student. However, almost four years later, as I stand before you today as a graduating 6th former, I now know that Choate is much more than a school. For me, Choate has provided a passionate and nurturing community of both faculty and students. Choate is, and always will be, my true family.
To say that Choate teachers are devoted to their students would be quite an understatement. The extraordinary group of men and women who make up the Choate faculty have provided me with an undying network of love and support. Their passion for teaching is obvious in the classroom. More importantly, though, this passion extends far beyond the classroom, allowing me to become close with each and every teacher. In this way, my teachers are no longer just my teachers. Rather, they have become like family. As I reflect on my four years here, I can’t help but smile at the wonderful memories that I have made with my teachers here on this campus. I would like to share a few of them with you. During my freshman year, somewhat daunted by the complex formulas and concepts of physics, I quickly confided in Katrina Homan, a physics teacher who had just arrived at Choate. After many Sunday-night extra help sessions, Ms. Homan made me feel like her home was also my home. So, when a major snow storm hit Wallingford last year, she was the first to offer her couch so that I could spend the night on campus. Also during my freshman year, Tiz (or Mark Tisdale, as you may know him) was my geometry teacher. Now he is like a big brother to me. I’ll never forget the winter I gave Tiz skating lessons so that he could try out for a local ice hockey team. Together we practiced everything on the ice from crossovers to one-foot glides to the ever-challenging hockey stop. And then there’s Mrs. Antunez, my Spanish teacher and adviser. I will always remember her opening her home to me and all of her other advisees for many ice cream sundae parties. She used this as a way to celebrate our accomplishments and to remind us how important it is to sometimes just “stop” and take a break. During my sophomore and junior years, I enjoyed having Ms. Piacenza (or Peach, as we all call her) for English. Once she had me and a couple of friends over to her apartment to bake cookies and listen to our favorite music. By the time the cookie batter was in the oven, we were all singing together. And then there’s Ms. Lease. As my biology teacher, she helped me to realize my passion for cellular development. I’ll never forget the spring afternoon when we sat together on her back porch, and she showed me all of the photos of wildflowers she had taken on her summer field study in Montana. Since then, Ms. Lease sadly has left Choate to get her Masters, but when back on campus this winter, she was excited to take me on a late-night diner excursion for pancakes. And then there’s Ms. Dean. She has been my number one cheerleader throughout my Choate experience, and her warm smile has gotten me over many hurdles. She and I have worked as a team to plan everything from S’more Night to Senior Sledding. Finally, there was Mr. Chang. I will never forget being more or less “adopted” into the Chang family and feeling like a big sister to Abbie and Cal (the Chang children). The Changs have never missed one of my performances…whether it’s the musical, Winter Cabaret, or an a cappella performance, they are always there to support me. Through all of these memories, it is clear that what my Choate teachers have offered me goes far beyond the classroom. These teachers, and countless others, have instilled in me certain values and skills that I will keep with me wherever I may go in life. In this way, I have been inspired by the closely connected “Choate family.” Now, as a graduating 6th former, I am grateful to be a part of this family.
Another “family” which I have been blessed to be a part of is the Science Research Program (or SRP, as we call it). Mr. Chang, the director of the program, and the SRP students, have been a constant support in my life over the past two years. After designing our own controlled experiments, I will never forget the day we all piled into a small bus for an excursion to Wal-Mart and Home Depot to buy our supplies. This shopping trip is only one of my many memories from the Program. We have worked together, learned together, cried together, and celebrated together. In all, my Science Research Program experience has given me three essential ideas by which to live and work: First, receiving and accepting criticism is an essential part of learning. It is important to take this criticism and use it to strengthen and enhance your work and performance. Second, collaboration and group-work provides extra support and ease when taking on a challenge. Third, and most significant, is the importance of accepting personal mistakes and using them to work forward in creating a positive strategy. It is certainly not worth losing hope over simple setbacks, for just as easily these setbacks can be instructive and ultimately lead to success as well as greater knowledge and learning. When I went on to work in a development neurobiology lab at the Yale Child Study Center last summer, I found that the Science Research Program had fully prepared me to take on the challenges of professional research. In all, because of my Science Research Program “family,” I now feel prepared and confident to take on any challenge that may come my way, not just in science, but in all aspects of life.
One last “family” that I grown to love and confide in is the arts family at Choate. Throughout my theatre and music experiences, I have encountered countless unique and talented individuals (both teachers and students). What has amazed me the most is that each individual, while extremely talented, has proved to be humble and kind. In all of the shows in which I have performed, I have come to love and appreciate the ensemble style of theatre. In every cast, with this solid ensemble in place, we have been able to grow as actors and to build a close-knit theatre community. I distinctly remember performing in “It’s a Wonderful Life” during my junior year. The cast of this show didn’t seem to gel that well at the start of the rehearsal process. Consequently, we decided to try a special activity with the cast: we all sat in a large circle and turned off the lights. Then, each cast member shared one secret that they had never told before. After this intense and emotional activity, there was an immediate sense of family trust and loyalty within the cast. My a cappella experience serves as yet another testament to the close-knit arts family at Choate. Last spring I was handed the magical pitch pipe as the new leader of the Whimawehs. This single, most sacred possession in the history of the singing group has been passed down through the fifty generations of lead Whims. Not only does the pitch pipe keep us in tune, but also it symbolizes the unbreakable bonds between us female singers. In all, the arts family has proven to be a dynamic and accepting community, allowing me to be confident in my talents and encouraging me to embrace my true self.
My countless memories which span my four years at Choate will forever be a part of me. Choate is a journey. As a student, you are never on this journey alone. It’s okay to ask for help, for the nurturing Choate family is what makes this place so special. In all, the single family value that I will carry with me forever I have learned and experienced at Choate: the journey is not about you as the individual, but about giving of yourself to others. Because of my Choate family, this spirit of giving will live in me for the rest of my life.
Mr. Stewart’s Reflections
I think that part of [the reason I like to teach at Choate is that] there’s a group of us who’s been here for 35 or more years. We have one of the largest senior cohorts of faculty at any school, at any private school maybe in the country. There are a large number of us who came in the early 70s, or even the late 60s…There is a group of us who have been together for a long time, and I think part of the reason some of us stayed is because we liked the people we were with a lot. If you look at the people who are still here or who recently retired, if you say, well Tom Yankus is here, Mr. Goodyear is here, Mr. Webb is here, Mr. James is here; we have been teaching and living here for a long time. There are faculty who raised their kids [here] and their kids were each other’s best friends on this campus. This place has been special to our families, and the families here are interconnected in lots of ways. So I think that’s part of the answer to why I like teaching at Choate.
Another part of that is that the History Department has always been, I think, special to the school. It’s the largest part of HPRSS [department.] It’s been an exciting group to be a part of. A friend of mine,Tony Hodgen, gave oral exams to his students in Russian history, and some of the questions were impossible. But the fun of it for him was to see how the students would react. And then that would reveal something about the student. The kid gets a really bad surprise in class, [They think]”I have got to answer this question,” the student would say, “I didn’t study this.” He asked them a question one time when Stalin was head of the Soviet Union: “It has been said that the distance from Moscow to St.Petersburg is greater than the distance from St. Petersburg to Moscow. In what context was this statement made, and to what extent is it true?” That was the question. Some poor kid had to get up to that spot, and it was entertaining for the whole class to see what this poor kid would do…The moment of the kid getting this [question], the other faculty would want to be in [Hodgen’s] room to see what happened. Things like that just made it fun to be here.
I mentioned Tom Generous; he was a great scholar, and teaching in a prep school. We had a college teacher on our faculty, basically. He had a PhD from Stanford. He had a book published, his dissertation printed and then published. At most universities, that’s what you need to do to get tenure. His option when he was looking for jobs was between here and Kansas and one other university. He could have been a tenured professor at Stanford, at Kansas, within a few years. But he came here, and he was a great authority on military law. And he would explain to us how the doctrine of substantive due process evolved. He knew a ton of military history, so he explained how Japan defeated Russia in the Russo-Japanese war. He had studied political history, and so he taught us, and we all incorporated it into our classes, how president Polk, on the eve of the Mexican War, put the troops in a place where they wouldn’t be shot at. And then Polk could say that American blood was shed on the American soil…The point is, that we had a guy like Generous to teach us. And that made it exciting, for me. And I think it did for Art Goodearl, and Zack Goodyear, and others. We all learned from him; we learned a lot. We had an 8 period day [back then], so we were more apt to have a common free period to be able to stay in the department room, and we would talk. And a lot of the time, probably half, we talked about history and politics. So, it was really a forum for ideas. It was like being in graduate school to some extent. It was really interesting and exciting, maybe not every day, but a lot of the time… I think it was invigorating for a lot of us. We were excited to be working with each other. So I think it’s been a great experience that way.
While the personnel have changed, some of my friends have retired. It’s inevitable that someone leaves, someone else will be hired. I still think that we are a really great department. And we’ve got a terrific group of young teachers. I think we now think of the space differently, because we occupy this building with English teachers. It’s two departments and about five disciplines in this building. That means that we’re really working shoulder-to-shoulder with the English teachers, and of course the generations are mixed in these departments so I think the older folk are stimulated often by their contact with some of the younger faculty.
We’ve got terrific young faculty here. I think that it’s been fun to do this for a long time, and its not just because the older teachers were friends with each other. But the school has changed, the faculty has changed, and it’s still interesting.
