BrewsterConnections(PDF) - Brewster Academy

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HOOPLA Lynne Palmer, Bobcat Since 1987 Director of Admission and External Affairs I remember visiting Brewster with my soon-to-be-husband TJ Palmer for his on-campus interview. As the fiancée, I was encouraged to attend, and I thought it was “nice” for the school to include me in the visit. Now that I know what the expectation and commitment of being a boarding faculty member is, I understand the importance for the school to know what a family can bring to the community. The strong sense of community and people who seemed to really enjoy being a part of something intense was evident early, and for me the idea of living with a lot of people and sacrificing some privacy was normal (I grew up in a family of eight with one full bathroom!). Then headmaster David Smith indicated that there was likely “something for me to do” within the community, and I called upon that vague promise about three weeks into the school year. I started working for Brewster in the Development Office, which was a two-person operation at that time. I had no direct experience but had always been a good event planner and had a strong customer-relationship background, which was quickly put to good use. David was a great mentor for me. We were both problem solvers in nature and relished in the resolution of a strategic puzzle. I loved the process of getting to know our families, alumni, and prospective students. It’s a very rewarding job to meet a student at his or her most nervous moment (interviewing) and then watch him or her grow over the years and finally walk across that stage at Commencement with a sense of pride and accomplishment in which we all get to share . There have been many challenging times on the job. The current economic reality and its impact on enrollment has been one of the most challenging. While many schools decreased their enrollment goals, Brewster has actually seen a rise in our enrollment, a testament that our program has much value in today’s world. Our impact on students’ growth and maturation is a reflection of great leadership (historically and currently) that is foundationally firm but willing to adapt to ensure that our program always remains relevant as well as a commitment from individuals who give so much to the students to whom they feel privileged to teach. Over the years, Brewster has remained committed to teaching a variety of learners. We really do celebrate that responsibility here, and our students know it. They each matter individually, and collectively they are stronger for it. I think that many other schools struggle with who they are and who they serve, and without that definition, it’s difficult to do the job well in admissions. The only change to our selectivity has been in realizing the emphasis on student expectation and thus a stronger focus on what we call the “good kid factor” as a high priority in the application process. When you have such an emphasis as we 25 Years by the Numbers: 7,514 applications reviewed 820 student interviews 21 countries and 32 states visited do in collaborative and cooperative learning, it is a must to bring students who care about learning and appreciate the value of working hard. Still, there are times that test the rewards of the job: when there are just not enough resources in financial aid to make Brewster possible for more deserving families, when you know you have to break a heart with a decision, or watch the departure of someone who wasn’t quite ready for the experience as you thought. I think my greatest contribution to Brewster, professionally, has been my involvement in the implementation of our Leadership Athletics Program. Our focus on integrating recruitment efforts with institutional support has brought highly talented student athletes to our community, balanced our gender representation, and exposed Brewster Academy at a global level that raises our reputation overall. Personally, it has been the relationships forged with alumni, parents, students, and partners in enrollment that have enriched my experiences. Receiving the phone call from an excited first-time father or watching the marriage of someone you watched mature is one of the most rewarding moments “on the job.” Looking back on 25 years astounds me. How did it go so fast? Brady upcoming graduation will close another chapter for the Palmer’s – bittersweet feeling at Commencement will be a little heavier this year. 30 BrewsterConnections – Spring 2012
Marilyn Shea, Bobcat Since 1987 Academic Dean My first day at Brewster was truly daunting. I had never taught at a school that devoted so much time to preparing for the opening of school, and I felt overwhelmed with it all. I could appreciate how the efforts would make for a much smoother start to the year for students, but I will never forget the feeling of struggling to process it all at once. It sticks with me to this day and always makes me very sensitive to the experience of new faculty. During my early years I watched the school grow slowly, year by year, but the real enrollment increases came with the reorganization of the school into the Model’s small teams of students, which I found to be a wonderful way to work with students. It allows you to really focus on the students with whom you are working and allows more time to build relationships. I have been pleasantly surprised each year to find that I have ample opportunities to get to know students. Initially, I worried that an administrative role might limit these opportunities or that my role would become overly focused on working with students only when they got into trouble, but this has not been the case. Of course, I am in my element when I am teaching a class and doing that is one way of staying connected to students. There is something magic about Brewster’s students. They are so open and accepting that relationships seem to develop naturally, and I find myself still very involved in the lives of students and grateful to have it that way. Over the years, changes in the school’s physical plant allowed for more needed classroom space. I was a little saddened to see the familiar give way to a new look as changes took place, and I still catch myself reminiscing when I walk past the space that used to be the late Peter Friend’s classroom or the old computer lab. When I walk into what is now our Tech Office, I get a twinge of nostalgia remembering this was the space where I first taught 10th grade English. I can still see Heather Vaillancourt ‘90 talking about the “Allegory of the Cave” when we read The Republic or John Gibbs ‘90, Eric Kanov ‘90, and Jon Davenport ’90 working on a project of Utopian literature. There are so many memories of old rooms behind new doors. The growth in facilities hasn’t changed my work as much as technology has, however. Although the printing press made access to materials easier and did much to standardize spelling, surely it made the world seem very different to anyone who lived during its introduction and evolution. Computers and the Internet have changed how much we can know and how quickly we can access information, and they have given us completely new ways to acquire learning. They have changed how we connect to each other in ways that are at once wonderful and horrifying – at least if you are an old lady! And they change how I work largely because they keep changing, so I must, in turn, keep changing. It’s exciting. And some days it’s exhausting! With the arrival of the Model I felt liberated to do so much of what my instincts had always told me was the best way to teach. At its heart, the Model asserted that all students can learn if given the right curriculum and materials and the time needed to learn as well as being frequently assessed to discover what they have learned and what they still need to master. I disliked the idea that I needed to fail a few students if my grading was to be taken seriously by colleagues. And it seemed to me an unfortunate paradox to put a deadline on learning and tell a student he or she needs to get it right the first time. What was wrong with letting students get retested? Isn›t the point that you learn? It felt to me as though schools were places where learning was secondary to the race. So I guess I was simply already posed to embrace the tenets of the Model. I really found very little in it that did not reinforce what I already believed. In the early years, www.brewsteracademy.org 31
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