Volume 43, No. 2 Groton School, Box 991, Groton, MA 01450 Parents Weekend, October 20, 2012

The Circle Voice

What’s InsideNews & Features: 5,6,8,9Opinions: 2, 3,4 Sports: 10 Arts: 11 Humor: 12

Kara Miller Speaks at Groton 5Groton Conservation Corps 5New Creative Writing Column 6SERVICE SPECIALGroton Students Travel to Peru, Tanzania, Uganda, China 8,9

International Day of Girl 2Overstressed about college? Column by Cynthia Fang 2Brown vs. Warren 3ELECTION SPECIAL Romney vs. Obama 4

Athlete of the Issue:Adam Hardej 10New Archery FSA 10Groton Girls and Boys Row at Henley again 10

Artist of the Issue: Danny Castellanos 11Larry Unger: Banjo Teacher, also teaches in Afghanistan 11 Update on Choir 11

Look Alikes: Can you tell them apart? 12No Mullets! A variation on No Capes! (from the Incredibles) 12Last on the Circle 12

ENVISIONING THE FUTURE: STEM COMES TO LIFEBY KATIE SLAVIK ’15

The conference bell rings throughout the halls of our school, and students hurriedly rush out of classrooms. Teachers with raised voices persistently try to inform the eager students of their homework assignments. Some students head to the Schoolroom, which looks almost the same as it did a hun-dred years ago. At the same time, some head in the direction of Gammons but turn right towards a new, gleaming staircase. These stairs lead up to a large, modern space with a high glass ceiling. Students gather at a café to grab some snacks, and laughter fills the spacious room. Meanwhile, other students have retreated to the library, formerly called the Hall, to hastily finish some Latin home-work. If the blueprints for the new addition to the Schoolhouse don’t change until they are approved by the Board of Trustees, this could be the future of Groton School.

The planning for the additions to the Schoolhouse began two years ago and have been changing. Moving from their prelimi-nary stage to their final stage, the changes are becoming more and more minor. Mr. Hall says that the questions about the plans have progressed from “Where should we put the physics classroom?” to “What kind of doorknobs should we use?”, and “What

equipment should we buy?” The planning will most likely end this January.

If the designs stay the same, the STEM addition and the other renovations to the Schoolhouse will certainly be impressive. “We’re trying to look at everything fifty years ahead, the dining hall, the library, the roads,” Mr. Hall says. “We’re trying to better the entire campus.” Groton not only plans to build an addition to the Schoolhouse but to also change some of the current buildings. The library will be moved into the Hall, which will become the new version of the Reading Room, and a large, multipurpose lecture hall will be located somewhere in the new building. This move will allow students to use the library’s resources during the aca-demic day. The side of the library that faces the Circle, as well as the Reading Room, will remain available to students to study.

In addition, the new STEM classrooms will be positioned by a large room in the center of the Schoolhouse called “The Forum.” The Forum will serve as the heart of social life during school hours. It will include a café for students to grab a snack and outdoor patios that will be added to the entrances of the additional building. Small study rooms may be scattered around so

that students don’t have to study in the often noisy hallways. The Forum will also better incorporate the science, math, and STEM classrooms into the Schoolhouse. “Right now, the Math and Science Wing is busting at the seams,” comments Mr. Hall. The math and science classrooms will be on the same floor as the humanities classrooms which will more fluidly integrate the two.

While the plans are exciting to say the least, one worries if the modern Forum and STEM classrooms will take away the traditional feeling one has when walking through our time-honored hallways. In spite of the fact that the school plans to change the Hall, the Schoolroom, a 19th century relic, will remain the same, and much of the Schoolhouse will keep its old-fashioned look. “We’re trying to balance between the tradition of the school and the demands of a 21st century education,” Mr. Commons says. So while the additions will bring a much more contemporary feel to the School, the traditional feel of the School that Groton values so much will remain.

Though these plans are not yet final, the construction will hopefully begin this sum-mer. The School hopes that the project can be completed by the Fall of 2015.

G3, also known as the Groton Gardening Club, is a group founded three years ago by a group of Groton parents who were concerned about food production in the Groton area. Ms. Palomo said, “Lexi Ladd, mother of Fourth Former Olivia Ladd-Luthringshauser, along with other Groton parents and alumni, attended an event about local agriculture held at Groton School a few years back. They were so inspired by what they heard that they began to reach out to people in the Groton community to figure out how the school could begin the work of growing its own food and creating a garden of its own.” This initial idea of Groton pro-ducing its own food took shape in the form of a garden next to the B&G building where students and faculty members have helped plant and grow food for the past three years.

This year, Beth Suedmeyer and Takashi Tada, a couple living in Ayer who were both involved in the New Entry Sustain-able Farming Project at Tufts, are leasing school-owned farmland, and according to Ms. Palomo, “they will be selling food to Mr. Coughlin for use in our dining hall since the school is not actually paying them.”

Students will have an opportunity to join the members of GCS and the Enviro Board and help Beth Sudemeyer and Takashi Tada plant seeds, weed, and harvest crops at their farm behind Mr. Fry, Ms. Humphrey, and Mr. Lyons’ houses. Sixth Former Gideon Lovell-Smith encourages “the Groton com-munity to get their hands dirty” by stopping by to help, even if it is just for 10 minutes. Students in the past have gotten involved through an FSA in the garden, and they have helped plant and harvest numerous vegetables from the B&G garden.

Access to a larger farm will not only increase the amount of food produced, it will also increase the number of workers needed! Helping out in the garden is an easy

The Groton Gardeners

BY ELIZABETH SALISBURY ’14

Groton Football Crushes Brooks 27-6BY SCHUYLER COLLOREDO-MANSFELD ’14

One of the preliminary sketches for the Forum. (Shepley-Bulfinch)

“I!” Cam yelled into the crowd. “I!” we yelled back, some more enthusiastically than others. Down below the Zebras were beating the Bishops of Brooks School and on the side Alaric Krapf ’15 was dueling a Brooks’s kid. It really didn’t matter that the Brooks football team hadn’t won in two years. What mattered was that three Bucky buses full of Groton students were scream-ing and cheering on the Groton team. For a Groton student this was about as close as it came to the stereotypical

high school experience, something that Groton students often miss out on. While it all had the potential to feel quite forced--a bunch of prep school kids bussed over to a college field and told to wear all white--it somehow wasn’t. The atmosphere created was greatly appreciated by the team according to the fullbacks Will MacEach-ern and Joe Gentile. It was a great opportunity for the school to come together.

The zebras came out strong in the first half, and were able to light

Groton’s offense lines up against the Brooks team. (A. Stern ‘14) Continued on Page 10

Continued on Page 6

Recently, several speakers have come from outside the Circle to speak about their stories and ideas. In chapel, writer Andre Dubus talked about the story of his troubled childhood, his passion for writing and finding happiness, and recent graduate Augusta Thomson described her anthropo-logical research on the pilgrimage around Mount Kailash in Tibet, one of the most sacred pilgrimages for Tibetan Buddhist, Hindu, Jain, and Bon faith traditions. In the Campbell Performing Arts Center, political commentator Kara Miller ’96 talked about the path to her career in media as well as her passion for politics.

How are these speakers brought in? For chapel talks, the arrangement is rather infor-mal. Often, individual teachers recommend and contact speakers. Sometimes, alumni request to talk in chapel. For all school lec-tures, the Speakers Committee invites and contacts speakers with specific guidelines in mind. The all school read generally sets the theme of the year for lectures, and the

Continued on Page 3

OPINION BY JJ KIM ’14

Beyond the Circle:Outside Speakers

Parents WeekendOPINIONSThe Circle Voice 2

The Circle Voice Editor-in-Chief Anita Xu

Opinions Editor Hugh McGladeNews and Features Editor Danielle KimballArts Editor Stephanie KimSports Editors Ellee Watson and Will GrovesHumor Editors Carter Cockrell and Henry BatorPhotography Editor Analia Del BosqueAssistant Opinions Editors Loulie Bunzel, AJ Jeon, JJ Kim, Ryan VoonAssistant News and Features Editors Carolyn Grenier, Lucy McNamara, Elizabeth Salisbury, Shangyan Li, Gates McGavickAssistant Arts Editors Naomi Primero, David HoweAssistant Sports Editors Sky Colloredo-Mansfeld, Derek XiaoAssistant Humor Editors Liam Cashel and Willy AndersonAssistant Photography Editor Hayward Berkowitz

Columnists: Cynthia Fang, David Howe, Ryan Voon

Copy Editors Emma Paine, Olivia Thompson, Johnny Lamont, Kriska Desir, Alaric Krapf

Contributors: Katie Slavik, Ella Anderson, Michael Gates, Evan Haas, Peter Nam, Brittany Zhang, Evan Long, Ethan Woo, Philippe Heitzmann, Michael Ma, Nancy Xue, Elizabeth Dickson, Annie McCreery, Malik Jabati, Louisa Johnston, Varsha Harish, Jae-Hee Lee

Photographers: Candace Tong-Li

Staff Writers Alexis Ciambotti, Loulie Bunzel, Nimesha Gerlus

Managing Editor for Online Affairs Pranay Sharma

CUI SERVIRE EST REGNARE:INTERNATIONAL DAY OF THE GIRL

OPINION BY AJ JEON ’14

It seems that at Groton, the students are constantly told that college is not that im-portant, especially not the name. Especially after the student body questioned why Kara Miller did not enjoy Yale, Groton seems to have exploded with controversy towards this matter.

Faculty, older students, even peers – at Groton, students are always being told to calm down and not to worry about college.

The students get it – we really do. Don’t worry about college. It doesn’t matter as much as we think it does. Going to a good college doesn’t guarantee you success or happiness. It’s all true and makes perfect sense – why is it that no one seems to ac-cept it, let alone live by it? Most of us are overstressed about college.

With the exception of the few who are already exactly sure of the major choices they would like to make in life, most of us are still bumbling about, trying to figure out what it is that will bring us the best future. The Groton environment contributes a great deal to the way we tend to think. What exactly is that environment?

Groton is a preparatory boarding school, top ranked and selective, that undoubtedly gets quite a few of its students into top col-leges. However, all students can agree that Groton is much, much more than just a step-ping stone. There are countless experiences and friendships built, destroyed and rebuilt. On the other hand, we all know that there is a solid end result (not the only result, but nevertheless still a very important one) that is printed and mailed (or even emailed in recent times) – college acceptance.

No one can deny that Groton greatly prides itself on its college matriculation and happily displays the statistics. Sending 30 students to Harvard in six years? Who wouldn’t be impressed? Before even send-ing those primary applications to Groton, a potential student will see the numbers.

In lower school, we’re told to not worry about college, that it’s far away, and to just do what we can and what we want. Then, in fourth form, they continue saying those things, although GPA does start counting.

Witty WordsA Column By Cynthia Fang ’14

KEEPING CALM ABOUT COLLEGE

Fifth Form hits faster than anyone expects, even though we all see it coming – the college buzz fills the air, and people start loading up on APs that they don’t want to take, in subjects they don’t actually like, all for the sake of college.

“I think the school sends mixed mes-sages,” says a Fifth Former. “They tell us not to worry about it, but then they throw SAT diagnostics and AP preparation on us while they all keep telling us not to care. In a way, it makes it even worse because we have to hide our preoccupations with col-lege and pretend that we aren’t in a neck to neck competition with every single student in our form.”

We are told over and over that in applying to colleges, we must choose the right place, not just strive for a good name. However, on the other hand, the school doesn’t try to hide its pride in the high amount of Groton students who go on to Ivy League schools. The best of the best at Groton are the ones who get into the big names, and Groton pushes them the whole way through. The culture of Groton – the things that aren’t necessarily reminisced in chapel talks or taught in lectures – tells us that going to an Ivy is, in fact, something that we should strive for.

It’s not just Groton either. It’s the whole United States, the way everyone would look at you differently if you said you attend a prestigious university. The Ivies are hyped up, not without cause, but the idea is trapped in our minds, and simply telling us otherwise will not convince us otherwise.

The issue is extremely tricky, and perhaps making a change would require upturning society. Groton students are not going to stop worrying about college – they may conceal it, but with the ambition and ex-pectations that exist on this campus, the preoccupation will not cease.

Maybe we shouldn’t be told to stop being concerned with college – clearly, it has not and will not work. If anything, it makes us feel like it is wrong to be working hard and striving towards our goals for college.

The relationship between the Groton administration and students concerning college is and probably always will be a tricky one. Students will care, maybe for the wrong reasons, about the wrong things, but they will care. It simply would be nicer if we weren’t constantly told that we shouldn’t.

(www.care.org)A couple of girls on the Groton Com-

munity Service (GCS) Board and I got together after the second sit-down to dis-cuss how Groton School could celebrate the very first International Day of the Girl. Ms. Hughes, our faculty advisor introduced us to the 10x10 Act and the International Day of the Girl. The International Day of the Girl (October 11th) is a United Nations sponsored event that focuses on advertising the importance of girls’ education. 10x10 Act is a follow-up movement and a film that has signed up more than 280 campuses that will host various events to celebrate the Day of the Girl. “10x10 is a groundbreaking film, directed by Academy Award nominee Richard Robbins, which tells the stories of 10 extraordinary girls from 10 countries, written by 10 celebrated writers and nar-rated by 10 renowned actresses,” and a “campaign to reach global audiences and inspire individuals to take action for girls,” says the website.

Unfortunately, while many around us get in line to get an iPhone 5, people in the Third World get in line for food. They still struggle against treatable diseases, and fight everyday against starvation. Many world organizations and individuals are putting effort into improving the conditions in such countries. Instead of being an observer, people should start tackling fundamental problems and witness long-term changes. Educating girls in those countries is a very effective and crucial way of supporting because “[educated] girls dramatically improve the well-being of their families, their communities, and their countries,” according to 10x10.

Educating girls reduces poverty. The Council on Foreign Relations reported, “when 10% more of [a country’s] girls go to school, [its] GDP increases an average of 3%.” Also, according to the journal Food Policy, “when female farmers are educated, crop yields rise.”

Educating girls reduces HIV infection

rates and child mortality rates. The Council on Foreign Relations, stated that “educated mothers are 50% more likely to immunize their children and when more girls are edu-cated, a country’s malnutrition and HIV rates decline.” Educating girls reduces corruption. According to the Center for Global Develop-ment, “when women take leadership roles in their community, corruption diminishes,” and also academic journal World Politics said that “when women are educated and empow-ered, democracy is more likely to flourish and the conditions that promote extremism are reduced.”Moreover, educating girls reduces population growth more effectively than the government’s vague promotion of contraception. As the United Nations Popu-lation Fund suggests “when girls receive 7 years of schooling, they marry 4 years later and have 2.2 fewer children.”

Last Wednesday, October 10th, many students and faculty members attended the International Day of the Girl meeting and proved the warm heart our community has. The guest speaker of the night, Burch Ford, former head of Miss Porter’s School and the President of the National Coalition of Girls’ Schools, and our own Ade Osinubi(’14) and KT Choi(’14) gave presentations on back-ground information about the importance of this event and education for girls. The meet-ing turned out very successfully: it grabbed a lot of non-GCS-members’ attention and many people participated in the Q&A ses-sion and asked many helpful questions that made the discussion richer. Hopefully, we can continue our interest in this topic and support many girls out there.

Groton is a wonderfully well rounded educational institution, and it would most certainly best represent us if we could return the privileges we have received so far by supporting the girls in need of education. For more information, check out the official website (10x10act.org).

SHOULD GROTON KEEP ITS LATIN REQUIREMENT?OPINION BY ELLA ANDERSON ’17

Latin surrounds all of us, whether we realize it or not. In Lower School, we are required to take two years of Latin. It is a controversial topic among students whether it should be a requirement or just an optional class. Latin is a school tradition. Over the years, hundreds of Groton students have studied Latin. Some have found their pas-sion in this classical language, whereas others can’t wait to finish Latin 2.

Trevor Fry, a current Fourth Former, studied Latin in Second and Third Form, but dropped it this year. The class helped him learn French and he admits he would have tried it anyway had it not been mandatory. But he says “I was tired of it…A basic un-derstanding of the language is helpful and

important, but to me delving any deeper is close to pointless. Learn a language you can actually use to communicate with people!” This is the argument with many students – Latin is a “dead language,” so why bother learning? Ms. Martin-Nelson, one of the Latin teachers, is a strong supporter of the requirement. “[Latin] is like medicine or super foods – it is good for everyone.” Ms. Martin-Nelson makes a strong point. Latin is the root of multiple modern languages, and knowing a bit can’t do us any harm.

Some say that Latin is the worst part of their day, but when students are asked if they supported the requirement, almost all replied “yes.”

Classics Club heads (A. Kopp ’13)

3The Circle Voice OPINIONSParents Weekend

Reflections on the South Africa Chamber Orchestra Trip

OPINION BY EVAN HAAS ’15 AND PETER NAM ’15

At the start of Summer Break, the Groton School Chamber Orchestra embarked on a two week long trip to South Africa. Al-though we had racked up a great collection of pieces over the school year, we were both very nervous as co-principal cellists about the upcoming concerts. Our first destina-tion was one of the three capitals of South Africa, Cape Town, where we were greeted by our hosts - members of Durbanville High School Orchestra.

Staying at host families’ residences was a great way to form closer relationships with not only the students but also their families. We were forced to interact with those whose culture is unlike ours, and to share our experiences with them. This, for us, made the trip unlike any other. It allowed us to develop close relationships that could not have been achieved through sharing meals, conversations, and a house for a week. We watched movies, chatted, and laughed about the odd cultural differences—for example we were offered red paste on my hot dog, which they call ketchup. This was a great bonding experience, and we are both still in contact with our host family. This was true both in Pretoria as well, but not as much so. There the people were certainly much wealthier, and while this might seem nice, it had a negative effect on us. For example, instead of staying in the room right next to our host or even in the same room, for the first night we both stayed together with Jonathan Terry `13, Alaric Krapf `15, and Taich Kobayashi `15 in a separate “guest house” down the street, which distanced us from our hosts. Although we moved into their residence the night after, it was short and we were left feeling separated.

committee seeks to find speakers in inter-disciplinary fields and varies the fields for each lecture. For example, an artist may be the first speaker. Then, the next speaker may be an economist and so forth.

While the student feedback on these speakers has been generally positive, bring-ing in outside speakers can be somewhat of an uncertain bet. Groton generally hears its own students speak in Chapel Talks and speeches of conviction, while writers and alumni speak in chapel and all school lec-tures. Over the years, some speakers have been lauded for their profound insights, interesting experiences and public speak-ing. Sometimes, others have spoken on topics too specialized for students to fully appreciate without sufficient background knowledge and interest. The outcomes are divided. If the lecture or chapel talk is captivating, it is wreathed with laurels. If not, students fall asleep in chapel chairs or complain about losing their valuable work time after sit down.

So here is the question: Should we invite outside speakers for talks and lectures?

The answer, I believe, is a firm yes.Why do we have outside speakers? Sure,

it is interesting to hear them speak about their experiences and ideas. But, the more important reason is to make sure we do not lose perspective on the real world.

Far too often, Groton students become stuck in tunnel vision, what is often re-

Andre Dubus talks about writing. (A. Del Bosque)

Outside Speakers: Worth it or Not?

There is no reason that a Democrat should ever lose an election in Massachusetts. For years, the odds have been, and continue to be, stacked in their favor. Since 1991, Democrats have served 107 terms in the House of Representatives, compared to Republicans serving only four terms. And, in the Senate, besides Scott Brown, the in-cumbent, there has not been a Republican senator from Massachusetts since Edward Brooke in 1978.

The victory of Scott Brown for Ted Ken-nedy’s Senate seat put a dent in the deep-blue political spectrum of Massachusetts, and also changed American politics as a whole. This seat would decide key votes among the Senate, such as health care and the stimulus. Massachusetts has been a Democratic stronghold for years, so why the recent change in heart? It’s hard to tell, but it may be the competition and the recent growth in independents.

In 2010, Brown won in a fairy-tale story type manner over Martha Coakley for the very influential Ted Kennedy Senate seat. Brown at the time was a state senator, not considered a rising politician, as only one of five conservative state senators in Mas-sachusetts. He annihilated the little competi-tion that was presented for the nomination, and moved on to the election. Martha Coakley, on the other hand, was the Mass. Attorney General, well-trained and bred for this liberal style of politics. The Obama administration and the Boston Globe both supported her in the election, yet still Scott Brown arose on top. It was a lengthy cam-paign, and Coakley made a few mistakes. She ran on Obama’s ideals; after a year in of-

fice, he had yet to show much improvement in the economy or the housing market . She tried to relate herself to the “Yes We Can” type principle, whi le many Americans and many Massa-chusetts resi-dents were dis-satisfied with the first year of Obama’s term. Independents, at the time, were becoming a more and more valuable commodity. And Brown’s bipartisan attitude brought him a huge surge from the indepen-dents fed up with the gridlock in Washing-ton. He aired the famous campaign ad, now known as the JFK ad, where Brown turned the beginning of a televised Kennedy public service announcement into an ad. Airing a liberal president in a conservative campaign ad? It does not get more bipartisan than that.

And in this very intense 2012 race be-tween Elizabeth Warren and Brown, the race looks very similar; Coakley and Warren are similar candidates, both attorneys and high standard intellectuals, versus Brown, a more roughian ‘I’m one of you’ type politician. Except the key difference in 2012: indepen-dents. Registered Democrats far outnumber Republicans in Mass., but a whopping 52.2% of the population is unregistered, meaning that independents rule. So, Mass.

isn’t as deep blue as we thought, but more a purple color, in be-tween red and blue. And the independents’ mascot? Scott Brown. He a d v e r t i s e s himself shak-i n g h a n d s with Presi-dent Obama, who his party is currently

trying to tear down. The new image of Brown has become a man in a red and blue shirt, riding around in a pickup truck. In the recent debate at UMASS Lowell, he claimed himself the second most bipartisan senator. It’s become clear that he is pushing toward a more moderate stance for the upcoming election.

Many hope that Brown truly wants to reach across the aisle and encourage mod-erate politics and the end of the gridlock in Washington, but does he really? It seems more like he is conforming to the Massachu-setts parameters that he has been given in order to gain reelection. On the other hand, Elizabeth Warren is not exactly willing to reach across party lines either. She gave a rousing speech at the Democratic National Convention, not so much in support of Obama, but a criticism of Mitt Romney. She especially attacked his tax policy, say-ing that Romney “wants to give tax cuts to

millionaires and billionaires. But for middle class families who are hanging by their fingernails? His plans will hammer them with a new tax hike of up to $2,000 dollars.” Political fact checkers and critics have been all over the speech, accusing it of being not only factually questionable, but also being a far leftist point of view. Yet recently War-ren has pulled ahead in the polls by a small three point lead, but whatever the reason is, her Native American heritage is not getting her votes.

If you saw the first debate at UMASS, you would have seen Elizabeth Warren again explaining that she is Cherokee, but did not and does use it to benefit herself in any manner. As ridiculous as it is that Elizabeth Warren could possibly be considered a mi-nority, it is just petty politics not worth the time of Senator Brown, nor the media. The press has shaped politics into lost birth cer-tificates and heritage, when the focus should be on health, jobs, taxes, the economy, the military, and MONEY. Elizabeth Warren can be whatever heritage she wants as long as I have money in the bank and low taxes, so if the race could stop dwelling upon the minutiae and become a race centered on which candidate is going to help my small business succeed, then we might be getting somewhere. Honestly, neither of the candi-dates is very impressive, but the best bet is Scott Brown. He may seem like a falsified independent, just hoping his bipartisanship will get him votes, but no matter what his motives are, he it is still a step to a more moderate Washington D.C. and a more moderate Massachusetts.

SCOTT BROWN VS. ELIZABETH WARREN: WILL DEMOCRATS LOSE SENATE SEAT IN MASSACHUSETTS AGAIN?

OPINION BY MICHAEL GATES ’15

ferred as the “Groton Bubble” or, in one Sixth Form Chapel Talk, “the Fishbowl.” The Circle microcosm may seem a world by itself in isolation as students become all too preoccupied in what happens inside the Circle, losing perspective. Rumors and gos-sip flies around rather than breaking news and issues of the world.

This bubble must be broken every now and then to make sure Groton keeps in touch with the world outside. Outside speakers bring in news from outside the Circle, as well as their experiences and ideas. Andre Dubus reminded Groton students to find their own formula for happiness. Kara Miller urged students to venture into the unknown for hidden opportunities. Augusta Thomson told students about the sacred experience of a pilgrimage. True, some of these ideas and themes appear in Chapel Talks. But, outside speakers phrase them in non-Groton terms, using their experiences in the world.

In a more recent chapel talk given by Mr. Raphael Robert from Tanzania, Groton students were reminded of the opportunities given to them and the potential to help the world with such opportunities. Such power-ful chapel talks break the Groton bubble.

Yes, not-so-interesting talks and lectures test our ability to stay awake. But, it is worth trying to listen them – to listen beyond the Circle.

Dania Josua du Preez, our South African tour guide, contributed much to the suc-cess of our trip. Not only did he speak well over a dozen languages, but he also was very knowledgeable in the native culture and South African history; furthermore, he coordinated our concerts and tours without any conflicts.

During the day, the orchestra spent most of its time touring the cities and visiting other schools, where we performed for the students and the local residents. Although the tours were quite enjoyable, the trip would have been more meaningful had there been a bigger focus on community service and performance. A tour in South Africa, though an expensive and unique experience, can be done on our own, but a performance by the orchestra, needless to say, can only be done when the entire orchestra is present. Also, the Groton School Chamber Orchestra barely ever played with the orchestras of the high schools we visited. We performed once with an orchestra in Pretoria, and frankly, the performance was poorly put together. We could have allocated more time to prac-ticing with the South African orchestras instead of visiting another landmark. Had we performed more with other orchestras, we could have bonded much deeper with our South African peers.

We learned and experienced much on this trip. The beautiful landscape, exotic culture and animals, and rich musical history were very much worth the cost of the trip. However, to make the trip more rewarding, there should have been more time assigned to musical service and performance rather than visiting one more tourist attraction.

Groton Orchestra and Waterkloof High School (D. Smith)

Brown and Warren battle for the Senate. (PolicyMic)

Continued from Front Page

Parents Weekend

In this presidential race, one of the few things that both Gov. Mitt Romney and President Obama have agreed upon is that this election represents a fundamental choice between policy, experience, views, but above all, two men. We truly believe that a vote for Mitt Romney is the right choice, and that another four years of Barack Obama would be a disaster.

We’ll start with the President, but first we must make an important point: Barack Obama is not a bad person. He has the same goals as Gov. Romney does -- prosperity, equality, and so on. However, under his leadership, the past four years have starkly illustrated that President Obama is in over his head. The big government that he cham-pions is inefficient, overreaching, and full of loopholes for every regulation.

The President’s p o l i c i e s h a v e failed to stimulate the economic re-covery he prom-ised. It’s unrea-sonable to expect the crisis of ’08 to be fixed in four years, but it is rea-sonable to expect clear progress. Instead, we find ourselves only re-cently dropping to 7.8% unem-ployment with a dismal housing market. Further-more, Obama has verbally and leg-islatively attacked success and slan-dered Corporate

America instead of incorporating it as an important part of the free market system. In Romney’s words, “Is it really any surprise that a president who attacks success has led the worst economic recovery in recent history?”

Apart from the economic woes of his term, Obama’s foreign policy has been lack-ing. It’s true that it was on his orders that Osama bin Laden and Qaddafi were killed. However, he has failed in many other areas in foreign policy. When Russia rattled its sabers in 2009, he promptly cancelled plans to install missile defense systems in the Czech Republic and Poland because Russia objected that the missile defense system was a “threat to her [Russia’s] security.”

The allies agreed to build the defense system and convinced the public that the defense system was a good idea. President Obama betrayed Eastern Europe in a shame-ful and cowardly move. There’s a difference between respecting other countries and act-ing as a doormat. The President has failed to distinguish this difference. You may say Mitt Romney has no foreign policy experience. Neither did Obama when he was elected.

The national debt has increased by almost $5 trillion during Obama’s term. While it’s true that much of our total debt was accrued by President George W. Bush, this president has incurred more debt in 4 years than Bush did in 8. A significant part of that debt has resulted from ‘sugar-high economics,’ or, putting quick money in Americans’ pockets to encourage spending. It’s clear that while unions and especially government jobs were protected, the private sector—the heart of our economy—took a hit. Either way, the debt is on the books, something that Obama promised wouldn’t happen.

It’s true that all presidents make promises they can’t really keep. If Gov. Romney is elected, he probably won’t come through on every promise. However, we believe he will do a better job than Obama. Barack Obama promised to decrease the deficit by 50%. Result: he increased it by more than 33%. Obama promised that the stimulus would keep unemployment far below 8%. Result: after 4 years and a massive stimulus package, the unemployment rate has stayed around 8%. Obama promised to close Guantanamo Bay. Result: he didn’t. Obama promised to reform immigration. Result: he spent the money and time needed to do so championing an unpopular health care law.

Obama has not only failed to keep prom-

On August 23, 2008, when a young, promising man who spoke of change accept-ed the nomination for President of America for the Democratic Party, the US was abuzz. Tired from eight years of a Bush administra-tion that started two wars, drove the federal deficit to unprecedented highs, and created the largest economic recession since the Great Depression, Americans dared to hope for a president who could turn the country around. Four years later, the same man is sporting a head of gray hair reflective of the trials of his presidency. Despite dealing with a Republican Congress that insists that their main goal is to make sure “President Obama is a one-term President,” Obama has managed to move America forward. While President Obama says that the job is clearly not finished, he is confident the country is headed in the right direction, a direction Mitt Romney wants to change. What we see isn’t the face of a man who has lost the hope he created, but rather the face of an experienced leader determined to make sure America feels the change he promised in 2008.

Firs t and fore-most, the issue that rests heavily on most Americans’ minds is the economy. With the economy still on the rebound, the easy thing to do would be to blame the Presi-dent. The truth is that most Americans are better off today. Four years ago, Bear Stea-rns failed, Fannie Mae and Freddy Mac were bailed out, Lehman Brothers was bankrupt, and the entire financial system was in dan-ger of collapse; America was a mess due to the Republicans. However, within a couple weeks of being sworn in, Obama enacted a $787 billion stimulus and bailouts which helped save Detroit, one of the engines of our economy. Today, the economy is recov-ering, and unemployment is decreasing, a sure sign that the plan worked. However, during the financial crisis, Romney said, “Let Detroit go bankrupt.” While most Americans were shocked by this statement, putting it into perspective gives it more sense. Romney was a businessman. His success is undeniable, but because of his experience as a leader and millionaire, he doesn’t understand what it would be like to be laid off. Romney doesn’t care about who he lays off, but that’s how businesspeople succeed. But is this the man that should be our president, one who cares more about dollars than the people?

Not only does Romney want to make a “U-turn” with the economic progress, he also has no foreign policy experience. When asked about his policies, he said, “You could just look at the things the president has done and do the opposite.” This response is fitting, because Romney has just opposed whatever the President did, while not of-fering any better alternative. Obama has four years of experience with dealing with international leaders and has pursued secu-rity policies to keep the American people safe, while closing a chapter in history by devastating al Qaeda leadership, including the death of Osama bin Ladin, and ending two wars in the Middle East. While Obama has shown courage in foreign policy in his time in office, Mitt Romney only stood on the sidelines, criticizing Obama. He did indeed strongly support U.S. military action against Libya, but once Obama initiated action, Romney then strongly opposed it. Once Obama decided to take out Moammar Gaddafi, Romney once again resolutely op-posed it. But once Gadhafi had been killed, Romney decided to approve it. With no definable foreign policy on his own part, it is laughable to hear him criticize Obama for “a lack of clarity as to a foreign policy.”

Obama has also passed, through a tough Republican congress, the Patient Protec-tion and Affordable Care Act, informally known as Obamacare, the most significant

healthcare reform since Medicare and Medicaid. American families can now gain access to quality, affordable health care. It prevents companies from denying preven-tive services for women and sick children, and helps seniors afford their prescriptions. Not only do ordinary Americans benefit, but Obamacare is predicted to reduce the deficit by $127 billion. Despite the benefits, Romney will repeal Obamacare, a health care plan based on Romney’s health care plan for Massachusetts. Repealing the act would mean reversing back to the health-care system we used in the Bush era, and Romney’s plan is to let the states choose their healthcare systems, which is severely flawed as states that have tried to require in-surance companies to cover everyone can’t enforce the rule in a way only possible by

the federal government. Romney is running a candidacy against a plan modeled after the original healthcare plan he pioneered as governor that will provide insurance to an estimated 30 million people, a sure sign that he is not running for the American people, but instead against the Democrats and what they support.

Furthermore, Obama has worked hard to create better education for the less privi-leged. For example, Obama has signed the Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act, which expands Pell Grants, money given by the government to pay for responsible students’ college tuitions. Obama does not want to increase class size, which would further drag America behind rising nations as the intellectual powerhouse of the world. Obama has lowered interest rates on student loans so that more students can achieve their goals, while Romney would repeal the reform and claims poorer students can “bor-row money from [their] parents.” Romney is out of touch with Americans, and as he does repeatedly, he shows how he has no idea what it is like for the middle-class. Because he doesn’t know the hardships of the middle-class, even if he desired so, Romney could not stand up for the middle class.

When then Senator Barack Obama stepped onto that stage in Denver, Colo-rado in 2008, the nation had a reason to be excited. This was a man who first and fore-most, firmly believed in hope for change, but also had the determination and strength to fight for what he believed in. He fought for everyday Americans, for their parents, and for their children. He believes in LGBT rights, and repealed the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy. He supports pro-choice and signed the Fair Pay Act. He supports energy independence and opposes the Keystone XL Pipeline. Although Republicans have made it tough to get America back on the right tracks the last four years, Obama has fought through the challenges and turned in a very productive first term that includes saving the economy from potential disaster, turning al-Qaeda into a loose, unorganized mess, help-ing all Americans gain access to reasonable health care, and supporting higher education for all Americans. While the country is on the right track, however, the job is not done. Luckily for Americans, neither is the man. With another four years of President Barack Obama, America will once again prosper “from sea to shining sea.”

ises but has also made next to no progress. This President has had four years in the highest office in the world (two of those years with a supportive, Democratic con-gress) to fix these problems, and he hasn’t fixed them. America is not helpless. Our President is helpless, and it is time for a change.

Typically an incumbent president can run on his record, but the fact that his campaign has so far only attacked Romney is perhaps the most damning evidence against Obama. Obama has carefully built a small lead through vicious personal attacks designed to make the average voter turn away from Gov. Romney. Most of the attacks focus on Romney’s history at Bain Capital, a large private equity firm that the governor started in the 80’s. Obama’s ads show us that he has nothing to say in support of himself or his own policies. Obama ran on hope and change. Now he’s hoping to change the subject.

After four years of an approximately 48-50% approval rating, it’s easy to forget that President Obama was elected in a landslide. The governor himself said it best at the RNC- “You know there’s something wrong with the kind of job he’s done as president when the best feeling you had was the day you voted for him.”

The main reason we believe that the governor is uniquely well suited to be President at this time is his sterling business background. Although Obama would hate to admit it, Bain has not only become a huge economic success, but also has invested in many large start-up companies, and cre-ated thousands of jobs while saving many more from bankruptcy. Staples and Sports Authority, both household names, started with money from Bain. It’s true that as Bain succeeded, so did Romney, and he is now worth $230 million dollars – money earned from his own efforts and risks. Whether you think that’s wrong or not is your decision, but I think it’s an impressive testament to the payoffs of hard work in the free market system.

It is true that when Bain took over com-panies, there were some layoffs. But that is a common occurrence in any sphere of the business world, and success cannot be made without tough decisions. Painting Mitt Romney as evil for ordering layoffs to save companies is not only wrong; it’s ridiculous. Obama is pointing at Mitt Romney’s busi-ness history as the debt passes 16 trillion dollars and more Americans are in poverty than ever before. Romney has found tremen-dous success in business, and has a brilliant economic mind. You would be hard pressed to find a more qualified man to lead us out of economic despair.

Romney does have a tendency to change positions, especially his views on the health care system. Colloquially referred to as Romneycare, his health care system was similar to Obamacare. Since the Obama label made the system seem liberal, Romney has distanced himself from it. Some look to this as ‘flip-flopping’, and as evidence that Romney doesn’t have clear, strong political beliefs. I disagree. Romneycare was passed in the Mass. State Legislature by a vote of 154-2. It was clearly what the state wanted. Obamacare has an approval rating of 49%, and 26 out of 50 states sued the govern-ment about it. The majority does not want Obamacare.

Romney’s belief in Romneycare stemmed from knowing what was best for his state at the time. His current stance against Obam-acare stems from statistics: universal health care across the country is not popular. Some would call it flip- flopping. We would call it having your constituents’ best interests at heart.

Mitt Romney’s record is good overall, but not perfect. He’s made mistakes along the way, and things at Bain didn’t always work. Sometimes the plants closed and workers were laid off. But he took risks. He created a business, and yes, Mr. President, he built it.

The Governor’s policy shows that he is committed to protecting our allies and fostering a strong image of America. Mitt Romney’s mastery of economics, strong leadership as evidenced by his career in the public and private sector, and commitment to his voters make him a fine candidate.

Obama and Romney battle for the Presidency. (CBS Evening News)

OBAMA VS. ROMNEY: WHO WILL WIN?OPINION BY DEREK XIAO ’15, BRITTANY ZHANG ’15, KATIE SLAVIK ’15 OPINION BY GATES MCGAVICK ’15 AND EVAN LONG ’14

THE CASE FOR OBAMA THE CASE FOR ROMNEY

ELECTION SPECIALThe Circle Voice 4

Parents Weekend The Circle Voice NEWS AND FEATURES 5

THE CREATIVE WRITING COLUMN

BY ANITA XU ’13

This is a new column that will give students an opportunity to display their short stories, creative writing, or other essays. If you are interested in submitting your work, please email the Editor. Thanks!

A descriptive place essay from Laurie Sales’ Exposition class

ALUMNA OF THE ISSUE: AUGUSTA THOMSON ’06

BY PHILIPPE HEITZMANN ’15

Augusta Thomson ’06 returned to the Circle last Friday for a chapel talk that fo-cused on her trek this summer from Nepal to Tibet. Using a digital board conveniently placed in the aisle of the Sixth Form section (a significant technological advance in the history of St John’s Chapel), she described the sacred pilgrimage of the Buddhist and Hindu traditions with images and video clips. The trip consisted of circling Mount Kailash, the most sacred place for Buddhist and Hindus, three times. Along the way, she met hundreds of pilgrims also circumam-bulating the mountain in order to cleanse their sins. Ms Thomson now attends Oxford University where she is completing her third-year of Sacred Studies. The footage and information she compiled during her trip will serve her to write her undergraduate dissertation when she gets back to Oxford.

After she graduated from Groton in 2006, Ms Thomson took a gap year to organize herself for college. She spent six months working at the Tibetan Nyingma Meditation Center (TNMC), in California, where she essentially classified and helped preserve the institution’s collection of ancient Tibetan texts. She was allowed to study the different texts at the center, which fueled her interest in the study of religious Tibetan traditions. After this period, she attended St Hugh’s College in Oxford, where she is now com-pleting her fourth year as an undergraduate at the Oxford Center for Buddhist Studies (OCBS).

Towards the end of her chapel talk, Ms Thomson played a video of some of the footage she collected with the team she led around the mountain. We were transported for an instant from our dull Friday morning to witness pilgrims kneeling to Mountain Kailash in an attempt to be forgiven their sins, or colorfully clothed travelers playing a typical Tibetan flute. The purpose of her expedition was to document the relation-ship between the spiritual devotion of the pilgrims and the material culture of their dif-ferent traditions and how common religious experiences can connect so many people and communities together.

Although many of the people at Mt. Kailash affiliated themselves with differ-ent faiths and came from remote regions of India and Nepal to take part in the ritual cleansing of sins, the fact they came from different backrounds both geographically and religiously did not stop them from bond-ing. Ms Thomson told us during her chapel talk that she had men approach her to offer to carry her equipment. She saw Buddhist monks help Chinese tourists who were unprepared for the high altitude of the mountain cope with the fatigue by offer-ing to carry their loads. Pilgrims who were strangers to each other congregated around bonfires at campsites during evenings to relate stories of the day. Ms Thomson con-cluded that Mount Kailash knit connections between people because all shared and strived for a common goal.

Classbook: The New Online Bookstore for Students

BY ETHAN WOO ’16Textbooks are expensive. This is beyond

obvious. Class textbooks cost a small for-tune, the average price being somewhere between $500 and $800. Groton underwent some drastic changes over the summer but one of the most controversial adjustments is ClassBook, a website that allows you to order school books online rather than pur-chasing them in the bookstore. The idea of digitally ordering textbooks is far more ap-pealing than waiting in long lines, but its ex-ecution was not ideal.

Although one of the main con-c e p t s o f ClassBook is that stu-dents would b e a b l e to pick up their books, ready to go, as soon as t h e s t u -dents ar-rived on campus, a lot of textbooks had not arrived. And, despite the passing days, the class materials still did not come, providing a major inconvenience for both the students and teachers. Some students, during confer-ence or lunch period, paid a daily visit to the bookstore, where they hoped Peggy Duffy would be waiting with a key to unlock the room in the back and hand them a heavy cardboard box containing their books. But for most students, when they found the time to try and pick up their textbooks, found both the bookstore and the back room, empty. Students had no way of knowing if their books were hours away from Groton School or right behind a nearby locked door.

If ClassBook is the cause of such blatant irritation for students, why bother sticking with the program next year? The reason is a financial one. Originally, Groton had to order books by a certain date, and by that time, there was no way of telling how many students would be in each class. This means that even though a class will probably need forty textbooks, Groton has to order fifty for precautionary measures. “And these books are pretty expensive,” says Jim Raney who

works in the business office. “Then later, we find out we only need forty and we have them shipped back but there’s shipping costs so we don’t get the full value in refunds. But with ClassBook, it’s their responsibility. They order the books so there’s less risk and we don’t lose money.”

In the event that students lose their textbook, they would have originally been able to walk into the bookstore and buy a

replacement in l e s s than t en minutes. When addressed with th i s p rob lem, Mr. Raney com-mented, “I get it, it’s far more con-venient. But it’s too expensive to run a bookstore this way.” Class-Book is centered in New York so students can get replacements in a maximum time frame of two days. Theoreti-

cally.As for backorder, students must order

their books by September 3rd in order to have them sent on the first ‘bulk shipment’ and be waiting for them on the first day. “Any time after that, books will be deliv-ered on the next bulk shipment to reduce shipping costs on their part,” Mr. Raney says. To improve the punctuality of class materials, Groton has made an agreement with ClassBook regarding next year: If a student misses the initial bulk shipment deadline, ClassBook will deliver the text-books ordered after that every single day despite the raised shipping costs. This will greatly reduce the amount of books on backorder and it will make ClassBook much more convenient for everyone.

Kathy Leggat addressed the inconve-niences many students experienced and invites direct criticism. “I hope they’ll tell me what went right or wrong, not just, ‘it was awful,’” she says. ClassBook may not have run as smoothly as desired but it is clear that next year it will be better. “This is a new program for us too,” Mr. Raney concluded. “We’re still trying to figure out how to make it work for us.”

305. This is it. I trace my fingers through the numbers, now coarse and dull, carved on a tarnished iron plate. A thick layer of dust clings to my finger, leaving a clean imprint. I can’t help smiling as I remember the chant that I used to sing, “Three-oh-five. Three-ooh-five! My home is three-o-five!” This has always ensured that I would never get lost.

Ringing the rusty, faded doorbell, I hear footsteps rushing towards the door. My grandma appears between the metal bars of the new protection screen. With a click, it snaps open. Ten years ago, returning from daycare, I always shouted “I’M HOME!!” and lunged at my grandma’s legs. Now, I still rush into my grandma’s open arms.

I don’t know what to expect. My old memories of the place hang in limbo—half reality, half a dream. Did grandma refurbish my room? Did grandpa toss out the chess board? How much has changed? I hold my breath as I tread into the sticky humid air of the apartment. The familiar sweet aroma of my grandma’s homemade soup dumplings awakens the taste buds in every part of my mouth. The scent of juicy pork buns steam-ing on the stove instinctively remind me of the dishes my grandma cooked for me when I was younger—the sizzling chicken soup with just the right amount of salt, and the ma-po tofu, a red hot sauce spread lazily over the limp tofu. It looks like she’s prepared her favorite dishes for my home-coming. My grandpa stands to greet me. Oh how he has aged! There are wrinkles around his eyes as he looks me over, many white hairs sprinkled on his head. Afflicted with knee problems, he walks slower and less steadily as he takes my hand and leads me to my room.

The same pink, flowery curtains welcome me. The small roses, deep crimson, have countless layers all beautifully wrapped together in the shape of the golden spiral. Light, airy curtains billow with the breeze from the window, coming alive with a flirty mystery about them. Though my feet feel a chill from the cool, bumpy wooden floor, I feel warmth inside as I notice my bureau, in the corner near the window, completely decorated with stickers. Smiling lady bugs dominate the bureau, but much of it consists of a blend of Mickey Mouse, Bugs Bunny, and Barbie characters of different sizes. A large rectangular image of a stoic white horse jumping from bright raging flames around it sticks out. Oh how I loved stickers!

I spot my white, elegant nightstand, a pile of magazines on top that display headlines in Chinese. Do they think I could still read these? The characters seem so foreign, as if the pieces of a puzzle have all been jumbled and distorted. On the edge of the table is a ripped copy of The Monkey King, a famous Chinese story. Turning the crum-bly, well-worn pages, I see some scattered words, written in my stretched and untidy scribbles. The illustrations suddenly bring me back to my four-year-old self, bounc-

ing up and down on my large queen sized bed and laughing with pure, carefree joy as my grandma sat on the edge of the bed, reading to me excerpts about the “monkey king” conquering another evil spirit by us-ing his large all powerful stick to vanquish his enemies. I always placed my stuffed animals, Jiajia the duck, Piglet, and doggie, towering above the others, in rows on my pillows so they can also listen to the story. Engrossed in the world of supernatural powers and triumphant conquests, I felt safe and protected within my soft pink sheets as I snuggled against my fluffy friends. What could possibly go wrong in a world guarded by the Monkey King and grandma?

The dusty, unfamiliar book lies where it always rested, yet the gateway to my child-hood innocence and story time is latched shut. Under the window, a small grey struc-ture sits undisrupted, out of place. Metal legs hide a broad foot pedal underneath. It once had a wheel spinning on top. Compared to the new electronic sewing machines, this one is bulky and clumsy. The mechanical, dadada sound used to spew from the ancient machine whenever grandma pedaled. The familiar monotonous sound signaled that grandma was making another flowery dress for me. My grandma no longer sews; it’s too difficult for her to see the little pieces of string. The machine now rusts beneath a purple velvet cloth which covers the ancient relic.

A wobbly, wooden table is propped against the wall containing the window. Two stiff chairs, on opposite sides of the table, are cushioned with pink pillows. A chess board stands upright against the table, quietly resting amidst the piling dust, mostly forgotten. The pieces themselves have lost their shine, they are dull and chipped. When I was younger, I would stand on my chair atop the pink cushions as I proudly knocked my grandpa’s pieces. But he was always prepared, easily overwhelming my pieces. As I look over at him now, his hand trembles as he eyes the pieces through his new glasses, and deliberates for a long time. My grandma appears, smiling, surrounded by a cloud of steam. Carrying a plate of juicy buns towards us, she momentarily disrupts our concentration. As I savor the delicious pork bun, I knock out my grandpa’s pieces one by one. I slide my black knight towards victory, completely surrounding his king. Checkmate.

Framed pictures are placed all around the room—hanging on the walls, leaning against the window, sitting on my tables—all displaying images of a little girl sporting short black hair, showing off her dimples. She recites a poem, standing on a stool and acting it out for her grandpa. She frolics in the living room, skipping and holding her cousin’s hand. She, missing a tooth, blows out candles on a birthday cake... This is 305—my link to the past, a rusty treasure chest of memories. I can never forget it.

Lots and lots of books to read. (thesparkreport.com)

Revisiting memories in a childhood home. (www.jimwegryn.com)

Parents WeekendNEWS AND FEATURESThe Circle Voice 6

This fall, Groton School introduced a pre-funded debit card system for student purchases at school stores as well as cash withdrawals at the mailroom window.

Groton has partnered with MyKidsSpend-ing.com, part of Odin, Inc., to implement the debit card system. The cards double as School IDs and will be required to make any purchase at school stores. Instead of mailing checks or paying through wire after receiv-ing monthly statements, parents are now expected to fund the cards either through MyKidsSpending.com or by mailing checks to school. A 4% charge is placed on credit card transactions, and 1% plus a 75-cent per transaction fee on electronic checks. The charges go to MyKidsSpending.com, and there is no fee for checks mailed directly to the school. Parents may also request an online copy of statements as well as set up automatic transfers when the balance drops to a certain point.

Groton students will soon be required to show their student IDs/debit cards with any purchase or cash withdrawal. According to Ms. Peggy Duffy, who oversees the running of both the bookstore and the athletic store, this would reduce issues of accidental bill-ing, which happens mostly when a student charges an item on another’s account. Since students would have to carry the debit cards with them during athletic practice, in order to buy anything at the athletic store, Peggy explained that lanyards would soon be avail-able to make things easier.

Another possible inconvenience with the debit cards is that the students’ remaining balances limit student purchases. What’s more, cash advances made at the business office, which are essentially loans from the school, are no longer available. This means that, in order to make future purchases or

New Debit Card System for StudentsBY SHANGYAN LI ‘14

For the first time ever in Groton history, a full afternoon commitment for environ-mental service was created as the Groton Conservation Corps. The team, led by Mr. Black, currently consists of seven students. Its main objective is to provide stewardship for the woodlands and wetlands owned by the school.

Groton School owns about 400 acres of land, but the areas that students use only occupy about half of the land. The rest of the area is fields, woodlands, and wetlands that surround the Circle. “I’m concerned that the school’s open space is degraded and ignored,” said Mr. Black. “It’s the school’s responsibility to be stewards for its land”.

The group is primarily working around the Lake Romeyn woodland, which is a critical wildlife habitat surrounding the lake. “Some students don’t even know where Lake Romeyn is,” said Peter Nam ’15. The team’s goals include the protec-tion of state listed species, the restoration of wildlife habitats, and the maintenance of trails.

The main project that the team has already completed is the restoration of a crucial turtle nesting site on a peninsula ad-jacent to Lake Romeyn. Before the project started, the peninsula was heavily infested with buckthorns, an invasive species that thrives in this predator-free environment. Not only do they outcompete and outnum-ber many of the native species, but they also mar the beautiful view of the lake.

The team uses tools such as weed wrenches, pulaskis, and axes to elimi-nate the buckthorns manually. Because buckthorns have unbelievably strong and

GROTON CONSERVATION CORPS: THE FIGHT AGAINST

INVASIVESBY MICHAEL MA ‘15

intricate root systems, often more than one person is needed to pull the plant out. “It’s definitely hard work to remove it all, but it’s really rewarding seeing the huge pile of pulled buckthorn we’ve accumulated over the past few weeks,” said Maddy Bossi ‘13. The team was able to transform the penin-sula to a beautiful scenic area.

Currently the Conservation Corps is clearing an old sledding hill next to Lake Romey. They hope that in the winter if the snow is sufficient and the lake freezes completely, people will be able to come and use the area, which has not been used exten-sively, especially by students, for decades. It was once a very popular place.

The Corps have also gone on numerous excursions to explore important habitats. During the second week, the group went to the Rocky Hill wildlife sanctuary, which had just opened to public next to Shaw’s in Groton. The group saw ponds and lakes formed by beavers, including an important nesting habitat to herons. A week after, the team went for a canoe trip up the Nashua River to explore a tributary called the Dead River, which has an unique slow-moving river habitat. They also went to Garden in the Woods, which is a 45-acre property of New England Wild Flower Society showing many native plants and different habitats.

Future plans include further maintenance of the trail system of Lake Romeyn wood-lands. Mr. Black hopes that the team will be able to clear the entrance to make it more welcoming and get rid of more invasive species further away from the wetlands. It is hard and dirty work, but everyone in the Corps enjoys working with nature.

to withdraw cash, the students’ only option is to call or email parents to fund their ac-counts.

While the new system does reduce the time for the school to receive bills, the school’s main initiative of introducing the debit cards, according the Mr. James Raney in the Business office, is to provide parents with greater access through the website. For instance, parents may view a detailed list of each item purchased, through MyKidsSpending.com, instead of the categorized sums on previous monthly statements. Another upside is the immediacy of account funding. With the online system refreshing every fifteen minutes, students would barely have to wait once their cards are funded.

Groton is, in fact, one of the later schools to use student debit cards, Mr. Raney ex-plained. So far, slight issues such as wrong readings of the cards on computers have prevented the system from being enforced, but, according to Mr. Raney, the cards will be required when the system is smoothly running, possibly shortly after long week-end. He also hopes that by this time next year, everything students buy on campus will be paid by the debit card, including snacks at Health Center, and food and drink at Scudder’s and Dory’s. Charge sheets, by that time, would become obsolete.

Before the complete implementation of the system, not much feedback has been received from either parents or students. Mr. Raney did explain that beforehand communication could have been more ef-ficient, since the finalized email explaining the student debit cards was not sent until late August. “We would love to hear more feed-backs from the students”, said Mr. Raney.

Students toil to remove buckthorns on the Lake Romeyn woodland. (C. Ma ’15)

Continued from Front Page

GROTON’S GARDENERS HARVEST FRESH VEGETABLES

way to get involved in service because it is close by and does not require a large amount of time. Ms. Palomo comments that “[G3 hopes] that more people in our community will be aware of the incred-ible, sustainable agriculture going on in our backyard, and that they will get involved!”

On September 24, 2012, Kara Miller, a graduate of the class of 1996, gave a lecture at Groton primarily about the All School Read, Outliers, by Malcolm Gladwell. As a panelist for the program “Beat the Press” and the host of “Innovation Hub,” Miller has had a great deal of experience as a political analyst. During her lecture, she not only spoke about many of the points from Outliers but also provided insight into the college process, the effects of choosing a school, and her work in the media. Many felt that her lecture was refreshing.

As a younger graduate, it seemed that Miller would connect well with students. Mr. Lamont commented on Miller’s invitation and lecture saying that the school wanted to “try to open up kids’ minds not only in the classroom” but in life outside of school and to “consider the many, many options out there.” Having a career in radio and television broadcasting, Miller could “work on her feet,” he says.

During her presentation, Miller spoke about her time at Groton and her college application process. As a day student, Miller wrote for the Circle Voice and loved watch-ing C-SPAN political events. Still, Miller never thought her interest would material-ize into a career. While a Sixth Former at Groton, Miller applied to several schools, though Yale and Wellesley were her favor-ites. After receiving her acceptance letter to Yale, Miller explained that she was ecstatic and decided to attend the school. But after visiting Yale the summer after Prize Day, Miller realized that she may have made a mistake.

She didn’t know whether it was the size of the school or simply the fact that it was not the right fit for her, but she regretted not having attended Wellesley. She expressed her gratitude for the opportunity to go to Yale but also articulated that it had not been the right school for her. Miller felt that she

BY ALEXIS CIAMBOTTI ’14could have had a more positive experience at another college (like Wellesley). When asked if Yale had heavily affected her

present life, Miller said that the colleague working in the cubicle next to her went to Wellesley, so she was unsure as to whether or not her deci-sion had had a profound im-pact. She did, however, take risks that have affected her current life.

After Yale, Miller de-cided to pursue a PhD in medieval literature at Tufts University. As a student, she was fascinated by Chaucer’s works but was not as passion-ate about the subject as some of her professors and did not want to pursue teaching the subject as a vocation. Instead, Miller was much more enticed

by political speeches. All of the spare time that she had spent watching C-SPAN had served a larger purpose. When it was time to write her doctoral thesis, Miller decided to research presidential speeches on the eve of war. But she encountered a roadblock. Her advisor explained to her that she would probably not be employed if she were to make this her thesis. Though it was a serious risk to take, Miller pursued her passion.

Upon graduating from Tufts, Miller wrote for many newspapers including the Boston Globe and the National Journal. She later appeared as a political analyst on television.Though this had been an exciting adventure, Miller realized that people had more of an attention capacity for radio broadcasts than television news. She realized that people would listen to a ten or twenty-minute radio broadcast on their way to work, driving their children to and from school, or simply do-ing chores around the house. Since joining “Beat the Press”, Miller has interviewed many accomplished people including Pro-fessor Howard Gardner, Deepak Chopra, and E. J. Dionne.

Kara Miller Talks About Success

Kara Miller relates her life experiences to Groton community. (umassd.edu)

Olivia Ladd ’15 and Layla Varkey ’15 work in the garden. (O. Ladd ’15)

Olivia Ladd-Luthringshauser ’15 hopes that G3 “will not only teach the Groton community about gardening and local food,” but also “bring the community together to work…in the field and make the community stronger.”

Parents Weekend The Circle Voice SNAPSHOTS FROM THE CIRCLE 7

Girls Cross Country dashes to get ahead. (A. Xu ’13)

Cheering on Boys Varsity Football (S. Kim ’13)

Remembering 9.11 (A. Kopp ’13)

Jared Belsky takes control of the ball for Boys Varsity Soccer (J. Belsky ’15)

Surprise Holiday! (File Photo)

Seniors are ecstatic for their last year on the Circle (D. Kimball ’13)

Lyons’ Dorm Dresses Up As Awkward Cacti (D. Kimball ’13)

The Sixth Form gathers to remember a lost friend. (File

Analia ’13 gets serenaded by Colgate 13. (M. Bossi’13)

Parents WeekendSERVICE SPECIALThe Circle Voice 8

Last spring, several students won Groton summer grants with innovative proposals focusing on global service. Chris Higgin-son ’14, Ade Osinubi ’14, and KT Choi ’14 received grants from the John Endicott Lawrence 1927 Global Scholars Fund, and Manjari Ganti ’14, Cayley Geffen ’14, and Amy Zhang ’14 received grants from the Groton Opportunity for Leadership Devel-opment (G.O.L.D.) Fund. During the past summer, they each brought their respective proposals into realization, working in differ-ent parts of Africa, India and China.

KT Choi ’14 and Ade Osinubi ’14 used their grant to make a documentary while staying in the city of Mekelle, Ethiopia, for three weeks. Their goal was to help women with obstetric fistula (a medical condition in which the patient leaks urine or waste because of the sequels of a difficult childbirth) and reacclimate them to society. “These women are like modern-day lepers,” says Ade. Although the surgery puts an end to their problem, the women are still emotionally separated from their family and community who have secluded them because of their uncleanliness.

Ade and KT financed their trip using the G.O.L.D. grant, Lawrence fund, and money from a fundraiser. The duo made a presen-tation at the fashion show of a prominent designer named Cabi in New York, and received 15% of the profit generated from the event. KT also convinced the head of a Korean hospital to donate one thousand dollars. The school’s money paid for most of the students’ expenses in Ethiopia and afforded material support in the form of books for the women there.

KT and Ade visited Healing Hands of Joy in Mekelle, a non-profit organization dedicated to providing help for women with obstetric fistula. With the money, they were able to pay for the enrollment of nine former fistula patients in a rehabilitation and educational program in rural areas.

In their documentary, KT and Ade inter-view one of these surgical patients about the effect obstetric fistula had on her life. When they graduate from the program, all these women become “Safe Motherhood Ambassadors”; their role is to promote Healing Hands of Joy to other women they know. KT and Ade interviewed a Safe Motherhood Ambassador who helped bring seventy women to the health center, where they received prenatal care and were taught ways to safely deliver a child. One of the messages the Groton students tried to pass on to the women was that getting profes-sional help from a medical institution was a better idea than simply delivering at home. However, Ade says that “these women don’t have phones and many of them have to walk 20 miles to get to a hospital,”- a hard feat to accomplish during labor.

In the future, Ade and KT wish to fund ambulances for the women in Ethiopia and expand their program to other regions of Africa and possibly Asia. “When KT turns 18 [next May] we will be able to apply for different funds,” says Ade. With this extra money, they hope to extend their initiative.

On the other side of the Equator in Zimbabwe, Chris Higginson ’14 used his Lawrence grant to work with Grassroot Soccer (GRS) in promoting efforts to stop the spread of HIV through soccer. Chris spent the first half of his three week project in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe’s second largest city, where he worked with GRS on HIV education and trained with a local profes-sional soccer team, the Bantu Rovers. Chris started by learning about the organization’s mission and soccer-based approach. In an activity called “Risk Field,” for example, participants would dribble a soccer ball between cones representing HIV-related risks. One person’s hitting a cone would mean 3 pushups for everyone on the team, demonstrating the consequences on the entire community of one’s action.

According to Chris, he had a powerful ex perience in Bulawayo when he met a group of around 150 children, all HIV-positive, at a local clinic. “There were kids who were born with HIV and only three, four years old.”

Follow-ups on Innovative

Student ProjectsBY PHILIPPE HEITZMANN ’15 AND

SHANGYAN LI ’14

TRAVELS IN TANZANIA: STUDENTS PUT ON PRODUCTION OF ROMEO AND JULIET

BY ELIZABETH DICKSON ’15

One dark night in July of this past sum-mer, sixteen Groton students, four Groton faculty members, and one Robert Beams, nephew of Fred Beams, all stepped off an airplane into the unknown of Monduli, Tanzania for our three week service trip. We arrived at our hotel, the Emanyatta, and met the “security guard” (an armed Massai warrior) before quickly settling down to sleep despite the seven hour time difference.

On our first day, we started the process of journaling, which quickly became a common pasttime. This period of time was designated to writing down our thoughts and feelings about each day’s events. We met up with some local Tanzanians who attended Groton’s partner school, The Orkeeswa School. We also reunited with Flora and Anna, who had spent spring term studying at Groton. We each were given 2000 shil-lings (equivalent to $1.35) and set out with a new friend into an African market. Our Tanzanian companions made us feel safe and at ease, and we completely forgot that we had been dropped into the center of a foreign culture.

The close relationship we developed with the children of The Orkeeswa School flourished in a matter of seconds. We fell into a daily routine of driving to the school in the morning, having a quick one-on-one

Swahili lesson from a student, working until lunchtime, playing sports games with the children, and then going back to the Emanyatta. Our work consisted of dig-ging irrigation ditches, clearing fields for soccer, digging out a volleyball court, and plastering, sanding, drilling, and painting the school’s classrooms.

The Orkeeswa Secondary School was founded by an American, Peter Lewis, and completely runs on donations and spon-sors; therefore, the supplies and labor that we were providing to fix up the school was much needed and appreciated. As we worked, we laughed and shared stories with our Tanzanian friends. At the end of each day, the Groton students would come together and play card games, walk to the local shop to buy snacks, journal, do leader-ship exercises, or just discuss our day.

At the end of the first week the Groton and Orkeeswa students joined a drama club run by Laurie Sales, where we worked on a production of Romeo and Juliet. At the end of the second week, small groups of Groton students went on two-night homestays to the boma of an Orkeeswa student. We ac-complished Tanzanian daily tasks, such as fetching water, chopping firewood, making meals of rice and beans, milking cows and herding animals. We exchanged gifts with

our host families such as Uno cards or Bop-Its, while they gave us beaded jewelry and warm hospitality.

Although the students’ families did not speak a word of English, the Groton kids came to find that the language barrier made the laughs more genuine and their stories more interesting. After we returned from our homestays, we got back into the swing of working on our building projects and drama production. One afternoon, the Or-keeswa basketball team played the surpris-ingly functional and talented Groton School makeshift basketball team. Another day we traveled to a different Tanzanian school to cheer on our Orkeeswa friends in netball and soccer. We also went on a safari with the students, where we saw a multitude of African animals in their natural habitat.

Our entire trip had been sprinkled with leadership activities, plenty of photographs by Cindy Beams, and ideas for the future relationship with the Orkeeswa School. The goodbye celebration with the children was filled with letter exchanges, traditional Massai dancing, our production of Romeo and Juliet, and teary hugs with those friends who, although they live across the world, have touched our hearts forever.

CHOPSTICKS IN CHENGDE, CHINABY NANCY XUE ’16

This past summer, I joined the group of five from Groton and went on the first service trip of my life. It was an unforget-table journey for me and I gained so much throughout the experience.

Chengde, a small city in China right next to Beijing, where I was born and raised, is completely different now. Although it is located right outside of Beijing, the devel-opment of the city is way slower than it is in the capital. I met with the trip group in the airport and headed over to Chengde as soon as they got here. Thus, the journey started.

Working at the primary school in Chengde left the deepest impression on me. The school is located in a pret-ty remote part of Chengde, and it’s a really small school for kids from local villages. Standing at the school gate, you can see the whole “playground.” It’s simply an open space filled with some bricks where kids have P.E .classes and spend their free time every day. The whole campus was really small and the worst part was definitely the road that leads to the school gate. It’s covered with layers of dirt, which become very slippery on rainy days, and it’s really dangerous for the kids to walk on. One of our jobs was to help the school rebuild the road.

Growing up in a big city, I did not even know how the big roads were built. The ex-cavator finished digging mud pretty quickly, and what we had to do for a couple days

was move the stones. Filling the road with big stones and the gaps with gravels looked easy, but it was actually a big project. After bending down a couple times and picking up the heavy stones, I started to feel sore in my arms and legs. But thinking about how cool it would be to walk on the road which I actually helped build cheered me up and

kept me working. Because of the fact that we only had five people on the team, the school sent four kids to help us with the work every day. Most of them were third or fourth graders who were not strong enough to hold up the huge stones, but every single one of them worked very hard to help us.

Every morning when we came to the school, the kids would give us the warm-est greetings and ask us a lot of interesting questions about America and, often times, questions about life at Groton. Their words and their expressions told us how curious

they were about everything. It’s hard for us to imagine the lives of kids in remote vil-lages as their lives differ so much compared to kids in the big cities.

It’s sad that we didn’t get a chance to see the new road before we left since the school needed to finish covering it with ce-ment, but it’s still a pleasure to imagine how

happy the kids will be when they walk on the new, safer road. It took us two weeks of hard work, but the happiness of the students is defi-nitely worth it. Our biggest im-pact in Chengde was not the new road, but the conversations we had about the outside world that helped the students dream bigger.

As a Groton s tuden t w i th Chinese edu-cation experi-ences, this trip

made a big impression on me. By seeing and helping the kids in remote areas, I now value what I have even more. The first year exploratory trip to Chengde was a great success and we built a strong connection with both schools we worked at. We hope to have more people, especially kids who are currently taking Chinese, come with us next year. We will have a presentation about more details of the trip at the end of the term and we hope more people will join us for the summer of 2013!

Students paint murals in Chengde. (V. Zhang ’13)

Students play with children from the Orkeeswa School in Tanzania. (Cindy Beams)

Continued on Page 9

Parents Weekend The Circle Voice SERVICE SPECIAL 9

EXPLORING THE SACRED VALLEY: PERUBY ANNIE MCCREERY’15

This summer, I along with students from the Second through Fifth Forms traveled to Peru for a Groton service trip, accompanied by Mr. Das, Mr. Gemmell, Mrs. Hughes, Jobi Gemmell-Hughes, and Ms. Palomo.

We took off from JFK Airport on June 17 and landed in Lima, Peru. We then flew to the city of Cusco, where we visited a ruin site called Sacsyhuamain, ate lunch, and went to an Incan temple. We then drove to Ollantaytambo where we remained for the rest of our trip. The first night in Ollantay-tambo, we stayed in a hotel as we arrived very late. We then got debriefed by our leader Jason about our trip and the precau-tions we should take, then continued on to meet our host families.

During our trip we worked in Anco Pacha, a very poor town whose inhabitants were relocated by the government because their villages had been destroyed by landslides. In Anco Pacha, we fixed a run down building

and turned it in to a library and community center. The process of transforming this building included clearing out the rocks and debris in the building, plastering the outside, painting the inside and outside of the building, painting murals, and bringing in furniture.

One week into our trip we went on a half-day trek to the quarries in preparation for our overnight hike at the end of the trip. On our overnight hike, we walked up the mountain to an open grass area where we were to set up camp. Before we were able to do so, we had to get rid of the many bulls roaming around the site. After we had cleared out the site, we set up our tents with our room-mates, ate dinner in one large tent prepared by the Peruvians who accompanied us on the hike, and then sat around a campfire watching the stars.

We were fortunate enough to be in Peru during the winter solstice festival; we got to

go the Sun Temple and watch a performance about a love story between Ollanta and an Incan princes in Quechua, the Incan lan-guage. One of our last days in Peru, we woke up at 5:30 to take a train to the famous site of Machu Picchu. There we toured around and those who were not feeling ill walked up to the sun gate to get a better view of the ruins. Finally, on the last day we woke up very early, said goodbye to our host familes, took a bus to Cusco, flew to Lima, and ar-rived at JFK on July 3.

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed traveling to Peru as I not only got to see a new part of the world and a new culture, but also discovered many things about the community I live in here at Groton. I became close to many stu-dents and teachers I may not have met had I not gone on the service trip. I also learned how fulfilling it is to help those outside of our community and to experience the daily lives of people outside of Groton.

Students celebrate atop Machu Picchu. (C. Mellgard ’15)

He played soccer with them and even taught them American games. “It was amaz-ing to see how soccer united people even from across the world who don’t really know each other”, Chris said. “It also made me feel how privileged we are,” he commented, “Their fields were always bumpy, and here at Groton we have a better soccer field than the one in their city stadium.” Chris com-pleted his project in the nation’s capital, Harare, in collaboration with his friend Dr. Peter Kilmarx, an AIDS researcher at the Centers for Disease Control.

Cayley Geffen ‘14 and Manjari Ganti ’14 went on a service trip to India with three other American students to help orphans with physical and mental disabilities. Their destination was the center of the Ashajyothi India Handicapped Welfare Society where they taught math and letters to the children. They also donated books and other supplies to the center. Their trip was funded by their extensive fundraising for the non-profit or-ganization Ashajyothi USA, also a G.O.L.D. grant, whose money Cayley and Manjari directly donated to the center in India. Their civic service abroad highlights the message of our school’s motto --Cui Servire est Regnare-- the most fundamental value this institution was built on.

The center that Manjari and Cayley visited currently supports seventy orphaned children with a range of different disabili-ties, from autism to blindness and Down syndrome. “They are the most adorable, sweetest, innocent children I have ever met” writes Manjari on her blog.

Every morning, the kids woke up at 4:30 and ate in a communal dining hall where there was hardly enough space to accom-modate all of them. Manjari and Cayley witnessed the physically able children feed-ing the less able ones at meals; although they are orphans with disabilities who have never been part of a real family, they have the sense of responsibility of adults. “I am continually amazed at the unselfishness of these children” said Manjari. During the day, the students taught the children the English alphabet, arts and crafts and other games. Regardless of the language barrier that separated them, everybody danced to the rhythm of Hindi music and other songs during the evenings.

The students plan to return to the center in the summer of 2013 to see the children once more and support the center with donations.

Meanwhile, Amy Zhang ’14 used her grants to continue a long-term project at Sunshine Playhouse Childcare Center, a nonprofit playhouse located in Children’s Hospital of Fudan University in her home-town Shanghai, China. The past summer marked her fifth year helping out with young leukemia patients at the center, as well as the start of an English-learning program for those children: for a period of ten weeks from June to August, Amy taught them basic English every weekend. She started with the alphabet and encouraged the kids to learn through drawings and building blocks.

Most of the patients were children of rural migrants, who could barely afford the treatment. The hospital was in poor condi-tions and overcrowded, according to Amy. The children were also isolated, out of fear of the leukemia patients’ vulnerability even to regular illnesses. She recalled that they looked for people to play with, since most of the nurses were adults.

Her greatest challenge was taking care of a group of children whose ages varied greatly from 4 to 12 years old. “There was a big difference in the kids’ English levels and their willingness to participate,” said Amy, “In the end I was glad to see that some kids could sit still for more than 40 minutes.” The primary purpose of the program, according to her, was to restore a learning environment for those forced out of school for yearlong treatments and whose personalities changed for the worse.

“There are problems right around where you live,” Amy believed, “Starting small is always a smart option.”

Continued from Page 8

Innovative Service Projects

UGANDA: BUILDING ROCKET STOVES FROM CLAY BRICKS

BY MALIK JABATI ’15This summer, Groton School hosted a

trip to Uganda for the first time since the inception of the Groton Global Education program. Seven students and three chap-erones made the trip. For Peter Laboy and Christina Strater, who graduated last year, this was their last experience with Groton. Eddie Lee and Jacob Berman, two Viacava’s prefects, joined the trip after going to Kenya in 2011 with Groton. Eddie Lee said “I decided to go because I went to Ke-nya previously. I found that the way of life was something I missed and wanted to go back to.” Atiba McReynolds, Ycar Devis and I made our first service trip as representatives of the school.

The group prepara-tion for the trip started in January 2012. Because this was the inaugural trip to Uganda, the itin-erary was still changing, even while we were in Uganda. After getting our vaccinations in early June, we started to discuss how we would build rocket stoves, one of the primary focuses of our trip. These rocket stoves are characterized by a vertical chimney that causes the air to rapidly rise --or rocket-- hence the name. These types of stoves are useful for limiting deforestation, which is a major problem in many develop-ing countries, and for lowering the health risks associated with wood-burning cooking indoors. Because they use less firewood for the same amount of cooking, the burden of harvesting firewood is also lessened.

We all met again at the John F. Ken-nedy Airport on June 20th, 2012 in New York City to prepare for our departure to Uganda. Including layovers, the flight was around twenty hours long. We stopped in Brussels, Belgium along the way, and ar-

rived at the Entebbe International Airport in Entebbe, Uganda at around ten o’clock at night Ugandan time. After exiting the Entebbe airport, we met our hosting service Venture Uganda. We took a bus to Kampala, the capital city of Uganda, and arrived there sometime after midnight. The journey to Kampala from Entebbe took about one hour,

and, like much of Uganda, it consisted of both dirt and paved roads.

We stayed in a Kampala hotel for a couple of days and then moved into a village locat-ed in the Rukungiri district of Uganda. The village was medium sized with one main street and is where we spent most of our time in Uganda. We lived for five days and nights with a local family, and the rest of the nights were spent in a local governor’s house. Our main affiliate in Uganda was Bishop’s High School Kyabugashe (pronounced shah-boo-GAH-shee). We worked with them for two weeks, painting classrooms, reading to students, playing soccer with the students and locals, and participating in their daily routines.

While at the school, we demonstrated our rocket stoves to the community multiple

times. Teachers, students, and parents were all part of our demonstrations. We built one of our rocket stoves from clay bricks and river silt and bought the other from Mak-erere University in Kampala to use in our demonstrations. Makerere is one of many universities in Uganda that has a program increasing the sustainability of Uganda’s re-

sources. Our demon-strations were mostly successful, and we ex-pect some families to begin using a rocket stove soon.

After our stay in the village, we went to Queen Elizabeth’s National Park and saw animals indigenous to the East African savannahs. We wit-nessed elephants, wa-ter buffalos, Ugandan cranes, antelopes, and the very rare sight of lions mating. Before we left, we returned back to Kampala and then flew back to the United States. We

spent three weeks in total in Uganda.Everyone on the trip found it extremely

satisfying, and everyone said they would do it again. Eddie Lee said, “The thing I enjoyed the most about Uganda was the newness of everything. Although having an established plan is nice, it is very excit-ing to witness the birth of a new service program.” Jacob Berman said, “My favorite part of Uganda was hanging out with my homestay buddy and everyone in town.” The Ugandans really understood how to treat us as part of their community and this was apparent in how they treated all of us. Groton plans to continue the program next year, and a presentation will be given soon on the experiences of all the participants.

Energy-efficient rocket stoves made by students. (Malik Jabati ’15)

Parents WeekendSPORTSThe Circle Voice 10

Athlete of the Issue: Adam HardejBY LOUISA JOHNSTON ’13

ARCHERY: A FUN FSABY DEREK XIAO ’15

Almost every weekday afternoon, while most Groton students are busy donning shin guards, shoulder pads, or sneakers for the various team sports that Groton offers, a group of four students instead head off campus. They go to a little field just outside of the Groton gates, in front of the Lamonts’ house with bows and arrows in hand.

There, they practice archery for about an hour and thirty minutes 4 times a week, play-ing games and having fun while improving their skills in archery. This year, the archery group consists of head Sam Gosden ‘13, Byanka Lugo ’13, Louisa Johnston ’13, Taehoon Lee ’13 and Anthony Chu ’15, as well as Mr. Lamont and Mr. Levin, the

faculty advisors. It is not an exclusive group, however, because according to Sam Gosden, “There will be an extra archery practice on most Saturdays for all of those who want to come join us for a day when they don’t have a game of their own.”

On Saturdays, little archery tournaments are held among themselves. A normal prac-tice begins with arduous task of setting up the equipment upon arrival. As Sam Gosden says, “It probably takes more practice to learn how to string a bow effectively than it does to learn how to shoot it.” After they set up the equipment, the real fun begins.

During a typical archery practice, the stu-dents play several games. One such game is called “storm the castle,” in which a target is placed on the ground about 100 yards away. Then, the archers shoot the arrows in the air, over imaginary walls and hopefully onto the target. There is also “save the princess,” where archers have to shoot all the different rings on the target in order to reach the center of “the castle” and save the princess. Finally, there’s the classic game of “tic tac toe,” only with a twist that one has to shoot the desired square instead of marking it with a pen.

With all this practice, the four beginner archers are starting to show progress in their development as archers. Their goal is to have fun while learning to shoot a bow so that they can keep archery alive at Groton for future students to enjoy.

Sam Gosden ’13 lines up a shot with 2 arrows. (A. Del Bosque ’13)

Over the first month of the summer, a team of 21 rowers, 4 coxswains and 4 coaches took off to England to participate in the Henley Royal Regatta (HRR), undoubt-edly the best known regatta in the world.

“Well, I went last year, so I knew what to expect, but this year we are staying for twice as long,” said Maeve Hoffstot, one of the captains of girls’ crew. This year, their second at Henley, the girls sent a four and a cox-less quad (quadruple scull). The dif-ference, as director of rowing Mr. Anderson puts it, is that in sculling boats, each person has two oars instead of one which normal sweep boats such as the four have. “We had no coxswain,” said Maeve, the bow seat on the quad. “Olivia Bono’13 had to manage the stroke rate, Allie Banwell’12 had to call out instructions, and I had to steer.”

The boys sent an eight and a four after showing great potential both on the ergs and on the boats over the season. Mr. Mad-den, the boys’ head coach, said that it was the fastest crew that he had seen in recent years as this was their first trip to Henley since 2002.

Just a day after the team arrived, both the girls and the boys raced in the Reading Amateur Regatta. Despite everyone being jetlagged, all the boats did very well. The girls’ quad had Groton’s first success as they won their event.

The girls then raced in the Henley Wom-en’s Regatta. The rain and the winds were the worst they had ever seen. Despite the ter-rible conditions, both the four and the quad still managed to win the first round of races. On the second day, the weather turned from terrible to “atrocious”, with the Thames in “extremely dangerous conditions.” Both boats lost because of such unbelievable weather. Unfortunately, for the rowers in the four, this marked the end of their trip

since there is no women’s junior fours event at HRR. Mr. Anderson said that the results could have been much better if the weather had been better.

Meanwhile, the boys raced at Dorney Lake, Eton, on the course for the London Olympics games. With relatively better conditions, the boys’ four had a really close race on Saturday, falling second to Reading Rowing Club by only 1.3 seconds. On Sun-day the boys’ eight won two events, winning their first medals. The four later had a race with Belmont Hill, but unfortunatly lost by only 1.2 seconds. “The losses were disap-pointing as each race was determined by one solid stroke, but we also greatly improved, and being able to beat crews with British college kids definitely felt rewarding,” said Johnny Bianco, the three-seat in the four.

The girls’ quad and the boys’ four then had to race in qualifying races for the HRR as the events had been “overbooked.” Unfortunately, both crews did not make it, but the boys’ four defeated many colleges as the event they competed for had no age restriction. Therefore, they had much more competition.

Just a day later, at another regatta, the boys eight beat Belmont Hill for the first time. This was a gigantic success because “I think that race proved to us that we were the best American crew there” says Captain Johann Colloredo Mansfeld ‘13.Belmont was the steepest competition as it had swept New England’s in May and placed second in the U.S. Nationals. The four also had one last fight against Belmont; however, Groton came just short again, as during the race, Brunswick School clashed oars with the Groton boat.

The boys’ eight, having pre-qualified for the HRR, raced against Reading Blue Coat School, the school that they had lost to two

weeks ago at Reading. The eight beat them in the first round, showing great improve-ment. On the second day they faced Hamp-ton School, one of the strongest crews in the event. After a close start, Hampton gradually pulled away. The eight rowed hard, trying to catch up. Ultimately, Hampton crossed the line first.

“I think we were all pleased with our results in England. It’s tough to lose, but we definitely had a number of victories in England,” said Johann as Hampton defeated Belmont Hill on the next day. As for the girls, “The results were slightly disappoint-ing, but overall the experience was amaz-ing,” said Maeve.

Mr. Anderson said that because Henley is in a single elimination format, sometimes luck is required, and he thinks the team had bad luck on the whole. Overall, the trip was a success. It had planted an idea in the rowers’ minds that “if we are fast enough, we’ll go.”

Groton Crew Hops Across the PondBY MICHAEL MA ’15

up the scoreboard after Fourth Former Will Richardson jumped on a fumbled snap in the endzone. Groton’s defense remained strong throughout the rest of the first half shutting down the Bishop’s offensive bids and making it hard for Brooks to move the ball on the ground or in the air. Fifth Form-ers Jack Tyler, Matt Borghi and Ausin Stern all came up big defensively. The first half ended with a spectacular 40-yard touch-down by Adam Hardej ’13. The Bishops came out hard in the third quarter, scoring a touchdown after recovering their own kickoff. Brook’s momentum however was quelled in the fourth quarter as Groton put two more touchdowns on the board. The first was an impressive 43 yard run by Francisco Fernandez ’13 followed by another rushing touchdown by Adam Hardej for his second of the game. 27-6 was the final score, a decisive victory for Groton.

Since the Brooks game, Groton suffered a disappointing loss to Rivers; however the team remains optimistic. “Rivers was a tough game,” Henry Bator ’14 said “but there is no point on dwelling in the past. We are all just focused on bouncing back with intensity in the coming games.”

Continued from front page

Adam Hardej is a stellar athlete. He has been tri-varsity in football, basketball, and lacrosse since Third Form. Although all three sports are very different, something universal in all of them that he likes is “when a team comes together and is com-fortable playing with one another.”

In basketball he is a forward and in lacrosse he is a midfielder. He gets in the zone no matter what sport he’s playing by or-dering a Bread Bowl of Soup from Panera bread, the meal of champions.

He recently came into pub-lic attention for his incredible performance during the Brooks football game under the lights this year, but that was not his favorite game, although he knows it was his most impres-sive stat-wise. His favorite was beating BB&N last year not only because of how much they performed and achieved as a team but also because of the in-credible level of crowd support at the game.

He has such prowess in the sport both due to his massive size but also because of his notable technical abilities, as he clearly demonstrated in his recent game under the lights at Brooks.

There is nothing more inspiring to him than the moving speeches of Coach John Lyons before every game. Adam feels that Groton football took a definitive turn for the better after team leadership came under Coach Lyons. He felt that Coach Lyons’ ability to inspire the players was best ex-emplified in his speech before the St. Marks game last year.

Coach Lyons said, “Adam has really come into his own this year. He has always had great physical skills, but not only is he paying more attention to getting more out of those skills,but he’s also emerged as a leader.”

Adam is taking this year to step into a leadership role. He is attempting to make a better impression on those who look up to him. “I am someone who gets really angry

at myself. I yell at myself, but I don’t yell at teammates. After I didn’t get voted captain, I realized I affected people in a negative way by how I act towards myself. I never really realized eyes were watching me all the time, but now, I understand that kids look up to me.”

Adam has modeled his role as a senior based on the football players from the Form of 2012. “Last year, we had ten seniors who were dedicated to football. They loved the sport. They didn’t have to be out there, but they wanted to be. I’ve never really seen that at Groton. I’m really grateful for that experience. That’s what you hope for.” St. Mark’s Day last year was especially power-ful for Adam because it was the last game he played with the Form of 2012. “I played thirds’ with those guys. I played every year of football possible with those guys.” See-ing all the seniors so emotional hit home the impact those seniors had not only on Adam but on the Groton Football program as a whole.

But now another year has passed, and Adam is one of the seniors approaching the end of his football career. Unlike lacrosse

Groton Football Crushes Brooks 27-6

and basketball, football is an organized game where the uniform, pads, and field are necessary for a real contest. It’s possible to play pick-up lacrosse or basketball any time; Adam says, “I’ll play pickup for the rest of my life.” But his football days are dwindling, and he’s going to miss it. He’s

going to miss the physicality, “I get really fired up during sports, and in football, it’s encouraged. I’ll miss that aspect.”

In the winter, Adam will com-mence his last season as a Groton basketball player. Though he trum-pets the physicality of football, he enjoys the aspect of power and finesse in basketball. “I like the combination of having to be strong and having to be soft,” he explains, quickening his voice and adding hand gestures, “Like in a layup, you have to be gentle to make the shot, but at the same time, you have to power through people to get to the basket.”

Gary Lorden ’13, a teammate since Second Form, praises Adam’s abilities, “He’s a great basketball player. He gets up and down the floor well and takes off for a dunk with ease. Whenever he gets the ball he makes something exciting happen.”

After a goodbye to basketball, Adam will transition to his final season of high school lacrosse. He made Varsity lacrosse as a Second Former and is proud to say he has seen Groton lacrosse change from a joke to a competitive team. He believes Groton has been incredibly lucky to have the team it has. The team has become a unit because of the time spent playing together: “There’s a lot of us who have been on the team since freshman year. Peter and I have been playing since Second Form.”

Adam will continue to play lacrosse in college. He committed verbally in Fourth Form spring to Princeton. Mr. Low believes Adam will make an outstanding college ath-lete: “Adam is a difference-maker everytime he sets foot on the field. His physical gifts, skills, and love for the game will all bring much to Princeton University’s lacrosse program.”

Adam blows past a defender. (A. Hardej ‘13)

Tex going hard at Henley. (T. Cecil ‘13)

Parents Weekend The Circle Voice ARTS 11

Artist of the Issue: Danny CastellanosBY ALARIC KRAPF ‘15

As you sit in Sunday chapel, you will probably hear a powerful voice singing: “O lord, open thou our lips.” That voice is Danny Castellanos, singer, pianist, actor, and composer extraordinaire, a true gift to Groton’s arts community as well as a very gifted individual. Danny is a music prefect, a choir prefect, a Grotones head, and the cantor for all of the responses in Sunday chapel, due to his exceptional voice and perfect pitch. A senior this year, he is now becoming more involved than ever in musi-cal and performing arts at Groton.

Danny says he has always had his perfect pitch; when he started playing guitar at a young age, he had a CD which he would tune his guitar to. A regular beginning gui-tar player would turn on the CD and tune the guitar to it every time before playing. However, Danny “only had to listen to the CD once;” and he could tune it perfectly ev-ery time. He had been blessed with perfect pitch, or the ability to always know what frequency a note is played at without being given a reference note. In other words, if Danny stood with his back to a piano and you played a note, he would be able to tell you the note that you played. Not only that, but if the note is a little sharp or flat, he’ll be able to tell by how much most of the time; he’d be able to tell you if the note was 5 hertz below what it should be. Though he didn’t know that it wasn’t something every-one had, after joining a church choir at 7, he quickly learned that his talent was far from

commonplace. After that, his music career took off; he started taking voice lessons and playing piano.

When Danny came to Groton, his musical career hardly stopped; he has become a huge player in the music scene at Groton. Making a splash in Choir, Grotones, and Madrigals from his very first year at Groton in 3rd form, he clearly has shown that he has incredible singing ability and talent for music. How-ever, that’s only to be expected; in the past, he has performed in such exclusive venues as Carnegie Hall and with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra. It’s no surprise that he was a valuable addition to Groton’s singing groups.

Danny has not merely been a performing talent, though; he has been creating his own music as well, composing and dreaming up melodies of his own. In the past, he has composed music for choir. If you ever see “Arr. Castellanos” in a program for Sunday chapel, that’s something Danny has put to-gether. Also, he has provided “most of the arrangements” for Grotones, taking songs which the group has decided to sing and cre-ating voice-only music for the group. This year, he is taking composition even further, composing music for Groton’s fall produc-tion of “The Crucible.” As he explained it, the script calls for music during the inter-mission from off-stage, and he is working

on composing his own vocal scores. He said that he is trying to make it match the theme of the Salem witch trials by making it “weird” and “creepy,” attempting to make it as unsettling as the subject of the play. Com-posing is “his favorite part of music.” As if that weren’t enough involvement in drama, he’s also a talented actor; this fall, Danny is going to be playing Reverend Parris, a main role in the play, whom he describes as “vain” and “money-loving.” Other roles he’s played include his unforgettable performance as the Modern Major General Stanley in last year’s musical, “The Pirates of Penzance;” the year before that, he played Agwe, God of Water in “Once on This Island;” and he has performed in multiple one-acts, including such colorful and varied roles as a suicidal mailman, a homicidal Mexican gardener, and as an actor in a play about playwriting. His contributions to Groton’s artistic scene extend far beyond just singing and piano; Danny has been valuable to Groton’s arts community in more ways than any other.

Danny is most likely Groton’s most talented and gifted musician, as well as a brilliant thespian and one of the school’s few composers. His personal achievements as a musician and his contributions to Groton as leader of multiple music groups, composer and arranger of music, and a dramatist make him an incredibly valued member of the community and someone we are honored to have as part of our community.

A new faculty member, Law-rence (Larry) Unger, has been officially added to the Groton circle as a banjo teacher. He briefly visited the Circle last year, and this year, he will be joining us every Wednesday.

Mr. Unger has never taken banjo lessons in his life; instead, he learned by listening to re-cords and reading books. His friends helped him as well. He commented, “I would visit old people… old like 80 years, and I would listen to them. I learned by ear.” He is a true self-taught musician. He has been a musi-cian for approximately 30 years. Being a banjo player, he does not play classical music but mostly traditional folk. He spends part of his time as a teacher, but he performs quite often as well.

Before he came to Groton, he had visited Afghanistan be-tween December and January. His friend, who is in the New England Conservatory, gave him infor-mation about the Afghanistan National Institute of Music. Due to their program, Winter Music Academy, the music school was initiating recruitment for outside faculty to come. This is an intensive program that has a duration of eight weeks and it was de-signed to offer Afghanistan youth from age 10 to age 30 a musical experience. When Mr. Unger heard about this, he accepted the offer because he knew that this would be a wonderful opportunity and travelled across the world to Afghanistan. A while ago, the Taliban had forbidden the kids from getting involved with music or musical activities. According to Mr. Unger, a very “coura-geous” man, Dr. Ahmed Naser Sarmast, had decided that this was not justified or fair and built this school in Kabul. While Mr. Unger was there, he taught banjo, mandolin, guitar, and blues guitar. He also helped out with the music theory classes that were going on. He mentioned that the school was reforming some of the things that were once practiced in Afghanistan. This reformation allowed the school to make a significant change in the country and left a positive impact on the students. “The boys and girls weren’t even allowed to be in the same classroom. The students are so excited about learning music because they weren’t allowed to have it in the past. I feel like this mattered more to them than the kids who are here because they couldn’t have it. You can hear the kids running up and down the halls, yelling

“Teacher! Teacher! Can you help me with this?” all the time,” he says. He plans to go back to the elite music school in Afghanistan for the same program.

Mr. Pomeroy is the main reason why Lar-ry Unger has joined the music department at Groton. He had wanted to take banjo lessons and he contacted nearby music facilities. Therefore, Larry was informed about Groton School and he seized a chance to come teach here. Mr. Pomeroy is one of his students now. His other students include sixth form-ers Sinclaire Brooks and Mike Somerby. They both said that they had started taking the banjo lessons last Thursday. They had never taken any other musical instruments before and they both think that banjo is a very difficult instrument to learn to play. They chose to play the banjo “because [they] enjoy bluegrass music,” and they plan to play after Groton. They agreed that Larry Unger was a nice, patient teacher. They both look forward to taking lessons from him and added that the lessons are very fun. So far, Larry Unger has enjoyed his time at Groton. He said that he does not know the students or the faculty members well yet, but he is excited that his students were interested in doing well and looks forward to a having a great experience at Groton.

LARRY THE BANJO GUY CAROLS AND CRUMPETSBY NAOMI PRIMERO ’13

Time flies quickly, as everyone knows, and it won’t be long before the Christmas spirit hits the Circle with snow, Secret Santa gifts, and one of Groton’s most beloved tra-ditions, Lessons and Carols. For the three Lessons and Carols services this year, Mr. Hampson is planning a good mix of reflec-tive verses and lively carols, songs “that touch upon different aspects of the Christ-mas story.” As tradition holds, a soloist among the female singers of the choir must be picked for “Once in Royal David’s City”. (Word is flying about that Mr. Hampson is considering pointing to a singer randomly right before the solo in the service.) Along with the traditions, a few new treats are in store for Lessons and Carols, during and after the services. In addition to old favor-ites such as “Personent H o d i e , ” spectators should look forward to n e w r e n -dit ions of the carols “Hol ly in t h e I v y ” and “Away in the Man-ger.” Al-though the s e r v i c e s will be glob-ally available through live streaming, Mr. Hampson hopes to professionally record the choral music for iTunes, where people can purchase the album, with cover artwork created by Analia Del Bosque. The choir will not only be making music for others; music will be made for them. For Lessons and Carols 2013, Mr. Hampson has commis-sioned a new carol by a prominent British composer for Groton’s choir.

Long after the Christmas season, when the snow melts and the birds come back, the choir will be preparing for the Spring Concert in May. Although it is subject to change, the repertoire currently is to include “Psalm World” by Andrew Gant, who is not only the high composer to the Queen of England but was also Mr. Hampson’s professor in Oxford. This piece, which in-cludes parts for a soprano soloist, chamber orchestra, and full choir, is an amazing op-portunity for the Groton choir; the choir’s performance will be the U.S. premiere of the piece. Additionally on the tentative pro-gram, the sopranos and altos of the Chamber Choir will sing a reconstruction of Vivaldi’s famous “Gloria,” which is conjectured to be originally scored for sopranos and altos also

singing the tenor and bass parts. And, yes, the choir is going to Great

Britain this spring break. This trip will take the choir to Edinburgh and Glasgow in Scotland and Oxford and Cambridge in England, where it will rehearse, perform church services, take master classes with famous British choir directors, and, of course, go sightseeing. These significant choir directors include Stephen Cleobury, Frikki Walker, Duncan Ferguson, and An-drew Gant (the same composer of the spring concert repertoire). When not singing, the choir will visit Churchill’s birthplace, sample some of the finest British cuisine, and inevitably experience the various pre-cipitation of the British Isles.

All of these exciting events could not be possible w i t h o u t the talent o f e a c h member of the choir. Within this group, the II formers are a spe-cial part. Although II formers a r e u su -a l l y n o t allowed to

participate in choir, last year five II formers coordinated with Mr. Hampson to provide them an op-portunity to sing with the choir. Following the pattern from last year, the II formers meet once a week with Mr. Hampson to learn all of the service music and join the full choir for the Sunday service. The special II Form choir program reaches its second year under the direction of Mr. Hampson with a few new II formers joining. The “gradu-ates” of last year’s II form group—Emma Rimmer, Jae-Hee Lee, Sarah Adeola, Laura Sodano, and Alex Taber—are still singing in the choir today. Aside from the fabulous II formers, the choir also has two members who were accepted into one of the presti-gious Eton Choral Courses. Both Emma Izard and Austin Stern experienced a week full of intense choral singing this past sum-mer. To add to this enormous talent, Mr. Hampson, master fortune-teller, predicts that the choir will hit 60 members in winter term—a great number for the upcoming events. So if you like to make friends with interesting people, even vaguely like to sing, like British choir directors, or just like authentic fish and chips, come join choir. It’s always a party.

BY JAE HEE LEE ’16 AND VARSHA HARIS ’16

Danny as Major General Stanley in Pirates of Penzance (File Photo)

Mr. Unger squirms in fear of bear attack (larryunger.net)

Choir members sing out their souls (File photo)