Earth Day

I'm sure there are more Earth Day events that the class participated in - but here's two..

Mark LaFlamme and family went for a run in CA...

And Will Piersol and JK joined Darwin Toll '78 to work on a Volunteer Outdoor Colorado project as part of Deerfield's Day of Service.  The project completed the first section of a new trail to make available the lands of the Rocky Mountain Arsenal Wildlife Preserve (formerly a munitions area for US Army and a Superfund site) to the people of Colorado.  Snow and rain and 35 degrees at the start, sunny and 65 at the finish!

Hockey, Hockey, Hank

John Knight has had a big April.

He travelled Chicago to connect with brother James '81 at the Frozen Four Championship game - where they hung out with United Center and Chicago Blackhawks owner, Rocky Wirtz.

Then he attended a fundraiser for a Colorado nonprofit called Dawg Nation Hockey Foundation and heard a bunch of fun Bobby Orr stories from Peter McNab (NHLer '73-'87)

But the best event was his lunch with classmate Hank Lemieux in Vail, CO on a day off for Hank in his pursuit of the perfect mogul run..

Varsity Pest Control

From David McNeil: It is a red tailed hawk. She is part of our inner city pest elimination program for McNeil properties. (KIDDING!!!).

Bonus from our friends in '81

Pete Nelson '81 recently spoke at DA for the Huffard Lecture on Architecture...

Enjoy!

2017 Huffard Lecture: Pete Nelson ’81 from Deerfield Academy on Vimeo.

Adam Weinberg on finding the right college...

A letter to parents from a college president (and a dad): How to choose the right college.

• Published on April 3, 2017

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Adam Weinberg

President at Denison University

Today is April 3. Over the next month, there will be countless conversations between high school seniors and their parents about which college is the best choice for them. Here is some advice from a college president who also is the parent of two college-age children. 

Let me start with an observation. The college search process has changed a lot over the last decade, as the general economy has continued to shift. For many families, selecting a college is considered among the most important decisions they will make. Families are looking at a competitive job market and believe this decision will impact their child’s earning potential (and, hence, everything else) for the rest of their lives. They are searching for value.

My first piece of advice is this: value comes largely from fit. There are many good colleges in this country where you can get a great education, but if the fit is wrong, it is nearly impossible to get a great education – no matter how good the college is.

What does this mean? We don’t have to guess—we have lots of data on when and why college matters. Elsewhere, I have written about what we can learn from this growing body of data, and I highly recommend reading How College Works by Dan Chambliss and Christopher Takacs as well as The Gallup-Purdue Index.  In essence, students need to go to a college with these qualities:

• Mentorship matters. It turns out that mentorship is one of the defining characteristics of a transformative college experience. In particular, faculty mentorship is crucial.
• Students get involved. Students are more likely to succeed when they are able to participate in activities outside the classroom that supplement their learning (athletics, student organizations, the arts, etc.).
• Lateral learning takes place. Students learn a lot from one another. They need to be at a college where they are surrounded by peers who are in college for the right reasons and are pushing and prodding each other in the right ways.

The question is: How do you find a college where your son or daughter is likely to become immersed quickly, develop a close mentoring relationship with a faculty member, and get involved in sustained co-curricular activities that allow them to find good friends and develop strong life skills?

Have a conversation about fit. Now is the time to have a serious conversation with your son or daughter about where they are in their own personal development and what kind of college is going to be best for them. Are they more likely to thrive in a lecture hall or small classes? Will they be more comfortable in an urban or rural setting? What kinds of people do they tend to thrive around?

Make sure you understand the financial costs. The sticker price, meaning the listed tuition, is not altogether helpful. The financial aid letters you may have just received can be misleading. Make sure you understand: How many years does it take the average student to graduate? At Denison, like most private colleges, it is four years. At some public universities, it often takes five or even six years (therefore, an extra year or two of tuition). And will financial aid be in place for the entire time they are in college?

One of the mistakes prospective families make is selecting a college because of very small differences in price. Fit is most important. It does not make sense to go to a college that is slightly less expensive if the fit is not right. At the same time, debt does matter. My own view is that a manageable level of debt is worth it to get an education that is the right fit for the student, and families need to determine what that level is for them.

Choose a college where your son or daughter can pursue their passions. If your son or daughter plays a sport or has a passion for an artistic endeavor, choose a college where they will be able to pursue that passion. This is really important—don’t choose a college where they only will be able to watch others perform. Choose a college where they will be likely to make the team, be cast in a play, join a music ensemble, and have a chance to pursue their passion.

This is also true for students who want to major in the sciences. So much of the value of undergraduate work in the sciences comes from hands-on research. Choose a college where undergraduates get to conduct their own research and where it is built into courses. Be wary of places where graduate students replace professors in classrooms and knock undergraduates out of the labs.

Pay attention to the first-year program. Transitioning into college can be hard. Select a college where a lot of attention is paid to how students transition into college and the support they receive if and when they stumble. Once students get connected to courses, faculty, friends and co-curricular activities, they will be fine.

Visit the colleges one more time. If you have narrowed it down to two or three colleges, go visit them one more time. Try to attend one of the April Visit Days that most colleges offer for admitted students. Let your son or daughter spend the night at their top two or three colleges, and tell them to go with their gut. Don’t be strident with your views. Ask your son or daughter questions, as opposed to offering observations. Where do they feel comfortable? Which one feels right?

Here are some questions to ask during the April Visit Days that are important, but not often thought of: What is the size of the endowment per student? Endowment translates into the financial resources a college can spend on providing student experiences. What is the mood on campus? You want to be someplace where faculty, staff and students are proud of the college.

And pay attention to location. You want to be on a campus that has a good vibe. I also think there is a huge advantage to being in a location that has a healthy community surrounding the college and easy access to an airport and city. And I will admit that this is self-serving, given that Denison has one of the best locations of any liberal arts college in the nation. We have a beautiful campus in an idyllic village that is 25 minutes from Columbus, which has become a vibrant city filled with music, culture and global businesses.

Once you select a college, make sure the conversation continues. But try to dial down the stress. As I mentioned earlier, there are many colleges in this country where students can get a great education. Too often, the rankings lead readers to imagine that choosing the right college is all about where it sits on a list. Nothing could be further from the truth. Choosing the right college is far more personal than that. It’s about fit. And remember, we expend way too much energy worrying about getting in and selecting the right college, and not nearly enough focusing on how to transition into college and how to take full advantage of the college experience.

Hank makes a move

Reposted from FB with permission from Hank LeMieux:

"Apologies, a little overdue announcing this, but a major, exciting (to me) change in my life that I want to share.

In October I left my career in tech start-ups to go try and help improve humanity.

I know, a big aim, but fortunately there are a lot of people working on this.

This has been my life dream since 1990. There were twists & turns, but I persisted, WITH HELP FROM A LOT OF YOU and eventually got to a place where I can, hopefully without starving, dedicate myself full-time to it.

I had a teacher in third grade whose husband had recently passed. One day she told the class that thing that all of us hear as children, but have no ability to understand at the time , "Life is really short."

She was right. And life is also an unfathomable opportunity. Put those two things together and it's really clear: "Don't screw around."

Humanity is also an unbelievable opportunity. We are, as a race, a force of nature. Sometimes for good, sometimes for bad. But that difference is totally within our control. And that is really a cool concept when you internalize that it is _you_ who have that control.

You.

With things that go on, it is easy to forget, but we have been maturing as a race -- albeit in fits and starts -- over 300+ generations of existence. We _have_ steadily made progress. Just in the last 200 years we outlawed slavery in most of the world, earned women the right to vote (and then a majority of us voted for one as leader of -- practically speaking -- the world), ended authoritarianism in the developed world, installed multiple protections against majority tyranny over minorities, and an endless list of other improvements in who we are as a race. Most of our work remains ahead of us, but the world today is not the one we lived in 200 years ago.

Who did all this?

We did.

People like you and I. We are the ones that will drag our race its subsequent steps forward.

That's what I'm going to do.

(And nothing is special about me. You can do it too. :-)

As part of this I moved to New York. In the US, if you want to work in global humanitarian work, that is the center of it. It's like coming to Silicon Valley if you want to work in tech start-ups. So here I am. I hope all of you take several chances to visit.

Everyone's first question is, "What are you going to work on?"

There is no shortage of problems, agreed? It's overwhelming. So I need to zero in on where I can make the biggest impact, given what I can "bring to the table." That's what 2017 is about; figuring all that out. Progress is being made, I promise.

But admittedly, first I am going to take a "time-out." Another one of my long-held dreams has been to ski moguls for one straight month so my legs have a chance to get into shape and actually do them right (or rip themselves into multiple "yard sale" pieces, which could also happen). So I'm airborne to that goal right now. Please come join if you like.

And then it's down to business.

...

I hope all of you have dreams. And believe in them. And make them happen.

Really, that's what life is about, in my opinion."