Lise's Lens: October 30, 2025

Next week, we will welcome nine visiting team members from the AISNE (Association of Independent Schools in New England) accreditation committee, hailing from Moses Brown, Long Trail School, Tabor Academy, BB&N, Windsor, Noble & Greenough, Meadowbrook, St. Georges, Putney, and The Academy of Charlemont. We have been preparing for this moment for years, with every single member of our faculty and staff contributing to the planning and self study. So much goes into making sure we are putting our best foot forward while also being our true and authentic selves, and it’s hard to believe that the visit is finally here. At this point, I’m really just excited to show off our incredible school and everything we stand for.

I was moved by these remarks from Lars Westra, EU Youth Delegate to the United Nations. Young people with big ideas, like Lars (and our students) are too often shut down or criticized for being naive. But instead of seeing naivety and idealism as faults, Lars sees them as a super power. “That’s the power of young people,” he says, “the fact that we can be naive, can be idealistic. The fact that we can dream and the fact that we can believe.” As we grow older so many of us grow more pessimistic and jaded, and we think that makes us wiser somehow. But we could all learn something by accepting Lars’s challenge to “dare to dream” like we are his age again.

As long as I’ve lived here (and well before, I am told!) campus has been home to gorgeous hawks like this one, captured on camera by Heron Sturgeon '29. It’s not uncommon to see one perched on a campus sign or a tree branch on the quad.