Happy Birthday, Sarah!

Sarah's birthday is today, and we celebrated at the dorm meeting on Tuesday with enthusiastic singing and chips and salsa! Happy Birthday, Sarah!!!

Minami's Capstone

Minami's capstone was today, and she presented to a full house--I think there must have been 30 people there to listen to her! For her capstone, Minami explored portraiture and interviewed subjects before doing a conceptual portrait conveying their personality. Minami really explained her process very well, and it was amazing to see that the process of doing this--and other art while at CSW--has really changed her in some ways, and pushed her outside of her comfort zone. It gave me goosebumps to hear what a meaningful process this was for her! Unfortunately, there were such crowds around her artwork that I couldn't get pictures!

New Head of Boarding Life

Tonight we had elections for next year's Head of Boarding Life, which also includes being the Boarding Life Town Meeting Moderator. This year, our own Hyeon Jin did a fantastic job with the position (and Rada and Cheyenne were elected to represent the Barn on the boarding life committee). The Boarding Life Committee really works hard to build community, plan events, and address concerns that come up within the boarding community. They have the ability to create policy changes and put them up for a vote within the boarding community, so it's a very influential role to have and a huge honor.

This year we had four candidates for the position...and three were from the Barn! What leadership we have in our dorm! We're very excited to have such good representation from the dorm, and we're also excited that the Barnies showed such thoughtfulness in preparing for the position and giving their speeches, and answering some tough questions from boarding students. Courtney, Briana and Jane put themselves out there in front of the community and showed how much they care about CSW and we were really proud of all three of them. (Leo from Aleph did a great job too!!) Courtney and Briana also get kudos for being brave and showing such initiative after only one year as part of our community...and Jane for wanting to take on an additional leadership role even after being elected to our dorm leader position. They all did a great job and it was a good experience for them to have. They all seem destined for leadership roles at CSW. Congrats to all of you for your courage and investment in our community!

When the votes were tallied, Jane was elected to be the new Head of Boarding Life, and we are so excited for her! We know you'll do a terrific job, Jane!

Minami in Shakespeare Ensemble

Shakespeare Ensemble is a much-anticipated 7th mod class each year. The students focus on character development, timing, expression, and, of course, Shakespeare. The course culminates in a production. This year, it was "A Midsummer Night's Dream" and Minami was a beautiful fairy, doing Puck's bidding. It was a truly wonderful performance by all, with sincere acting and a light-hearted approach. As in all things at CSW, the students put their own (80's) twist on the show. =)

Oh, and at the end of tonight's show, all of the seniors--Minami, included--received roses from the cast. A beautiful end to a beautiful night!

Kandice takes 2nd Place

Kandice spent all day today in Dorchester, competing in an Oratorical Contest! Go Kandice! You're awesome.

Jofia's Capstone

I would fail as a reporter--I missed the first half of Jofia's capstone because an admissions meeting ran over. But I got there just in time to see all the pictures of the amazing jewelry she made. It was truly impressive...professional, but still clearly ringing with Jofia's "voice". Nicely done, Jofia...you rock!

Jin's Capstone Presentation

Jin made a children's alphabet book with each page and letter representing an internal organ. She made a particular (and successful!) effort to make the illustrations soothing and beautiful, since internal organs are often thought of as icky. Her presentation took us step-by-step through the complex process of her capstone...it was very impressive. Conrgats, Jin! You're done!!

Student Trustee Speeches!

Jenny and Cheyenne gave speeches in front of the whole school at assembly today: both are running for a coveted position as a student VOTING member on our Board of Trustees. They are also running with two Trapelo residents. Good luck, everyone!

Dorm Dinner 2009!

Photo credit for group photo: Jen Quest-Stern (thank you!)

Every year, we get together for a family style meal at a local restaurant. This year, we decided to go to Friendly's, so we were able to get delicious desserts as well. We were sad that not everyone could make it, but *almost* everyone was able to make it for our group picture at least. It was really nice to spend the time all together as one whole group, just being silly and having fun. We'll try not to think about the fact that 9 of our Barnies are graduating in just a few short weeks...

Blen's Capstone Presentation

For Blen's capstone, she taught herself Amharic, which seems (at least to me) like a VERY difficult language to learn, with are 33 basic characters, each of which has seven forms depending on which vowel is to be pronounced in the syllable. Amharic is a Semitic language spoken in North Central Ethiopia. It is the second most spoken Semitic language in the world, after Arabic. Suffice it to say we were all very impressed that Blen had the initiative and perseverance to teacher herself Amharic! I wish I had gotten there earlier to see more of her presentation (and take more pictures!)

Another thing I learned at Blen's capstone was that we've all been pronouncing her name incorrectly all this time! It's meant to be pronounced like BLAINE. How beautiful. I can't believe she didn't tell us earlier!

Hyeon Jin's Capstone Presentation

Hyeon Jin learned how to make natural soap for her capstone (and all the chemistry and research that goes along with that process.) She presented what she learned today (to a full room of about 20 students and faculty), and she also showed us how to make chocolate soap. She even gave us samples of the soap she made, which everyone was really excited about! I hope to make it to the capstone presentations of most of the graduating Barnies, or at least the ones that aren't shy and secretive about it! Stay tuned...

Cheyenne Presenting at Faculty Meeting

Cheyenne, along with classmates Jesse and Anneke, presented at the faculty meeting today. They talked about their experience in CSW's revolutionary (really!) ABLE class. For the uninitiated, ABLE stands for Alliance-Building LEadership course, and the students have spent the year building a safe community to explore and challenge issues and perceptions around race, class, and other identity characterstics. They're at the forefront of amazing, really difficult work, and they were very articulate in presenting it to the faculty. We were all really impressed. (And I was really proud of Cheyenne!)

Good luck!

Good luck to Jane and Rada, who are currently taking an AP Calculus BC exam! (Not that you guys need it, you smarty-pantses, you!)

Mod Break in the Barn

Some of the girls are off enjoying the 4-day mod break with friends and family, but plenty of them remain on campus. Several of the girls in our dorm took the SAT's on Satuday (what a fun way to spend the morning!) and we know they did REALLY WELL! Oh--and we got a new, hexagonal picnic table outside the dorm this past week, and had a nice BBQ last night with Jen and Kevin (former Barn dorm parents and current neighbors). The weather has been AMAZING! It's hard to believe that tomorrow signifies the first day of the last mod of the year.

We have a lot of end-of-year traditions in the Barn, and the first one this year will be our annual dorm dinner. We've voted and have decided to head out to Friendly's for dinner and ice cream on Tuesday, May 12. We'll be saying good-bye to our seniors, which will be really sad, but we'll try to focus on the fun and ice cream. We still have 5 weeks left, after all.

Tweeting!

As if this blog wasn't enough (and I don't see how that's possible)...you can now get up-to-the-minute (okay, up-to-the-hour) updates from CSW by following us on Twitter. I'm tweeting for the admissions office (@CSW_Admissions) if you want to join in. Don't know what Twitter is? (or tweeting?) Learn here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter

CSW Merit Badges

I'm not sure anyone in the Barn was in this class, but our Soft Sculpture class made "CSW Merit Badges" which I thought was pretty awesome. Can you guess what each one represents?? How many have you earned?

(I've got the composting toilet one!!)