During Monday’s assembly, we recognized underclass award recipients for their achievements in the classroom and in both the visual and performing arts (a complete list of award recipients is noted below). For many of these students, this “achievement” may very well be a part of a larger “accomplishment”, but we must never mistake the former for the latter.
There is a fundamental difference between achievement - the completion of a task against an external standard whose reward is the next level of achievement - and accomplishment - the end point of an engulfing activity we have chosen whose reward is, according to this remarkable NY Times Op Ed, “the sudden rush of fulfillment, the sense of happiness that rises uniquely from absorption in a thing outside ourselves.” The ultimate goal of our educational model is not to produce students who can perform well on standardized tests or who are able to earn admission to the most selective colleges, but rather to encourage and reinforce accomplishment in an on-going, never-ending learning journey.
We follow a student’s progress in the theater, in Slocumb Hall’s art studio, or multi-year boat building project and witness the combination of struggle and triumph, frustration and joy, and ultimately pride that emerges from this time. We see a student pursue an Academic Concentration over the course of their junior and senior year, diving deeply into their own research not for a letter grade or some third-party accolade, but because they are curious and hungry to learn. Adam Gopnik writes in the piece linked above, “Self-directed accomplishment, no matter how absurd it may look to outsiders or how partial it may be, can become a foundation of our sense of self and of our sense of possibility. Losing ourselves in an all-absorbing action, we become ourselves…Pursuit of a resistant task, if persevered in stubbornly and passionately at any age, even if only for a short time, generates a kind of cognitive opiate that has no equivalent…The pursuit of accomplishment, what I call the real work, never ends and always surprises.”
This is our mission as a school: to create opportunities for young people to discover and become themselves, to pursue accomplishment without focusing on achievement. Our job is to simply facilitate the process with a safe, supportive, and challenging community. We must always keep this perspective in mind, especially as we frame the giving of awards at the end of the year.
Underclass Awards - 2023-2024
- Frederick W. Johnson ‘56 Memorial Award - Jelena Subasic ‘25 and Brendan Gurtler ‘25
- Harvard Book Prize - Paige Makechnie ‘25
- Outstanding Contribution to Vocal Ensembles - Max Preuss ‘26
- Outstanding Achievement in Applied Music - Hongxuan Li ‘25
- Excellence in Drama, Overall Contribution - Hazel Curry ‘26
- Excellence in Drama Costuming - Gypsy Verite ‘27
- Excellence in Drama, Performance - Isabella Guzman ‘25
- Dance Award - Katelyn McCoy ‘26
- Visual Arts Award - Addie Pine ‘26
- Woodworking Award - Ian Rosenshine ‘25
- Connie Appel Award for Writing in the Electives - Madison McSorley ‘25
- Connie Appel Award for Writing in US History - Hazel Curry ‘26
- Connie Appel Award for Writing in World History - Augustin Didier ‘27
- Excellence in English Award - Jacqueline Connors ‘25, Lily Krehbiel ‘25
- Excellence in English Award - Isabel Dickson ‘25, Madison McSorley ‘25
- Excellence in English Award - Penelope Mathison ‘27
- Hollins Prize for Creative Writing - Ada Goren ‘26
- Excellence in French Award - Niko Cole-Johnson ‘25
- Excellence in Mandarin Award - Lucy Sorkin ‘25
- Excellence in Spanish - Jacqueline Connors ‘25
- Excellence in Science - Class of 2025 - Henry Wagler ‘25
- Excellence in Science - Class of 2026 - Cooper Zapton ‘26, Georgie Nichols '26
- Excellence in Science - Class of 2027 - Sonoma Wong ‘27
- Exponential Growth Award in Mathematics - Madison McSorley ‘25
- Exponential Growth Award in Mathematics - Huyen Anh Nguyen ‘26
- Exponential Growth Award in Mathematics - Sonoma Wong ‘27
- Environmental Stewardship - Actions Speak Louder Than Words Award - Georgia Spater ‘25
- David Fowler Award (Mountain Classroom) - Molly Schad ‘25
Certificates of Bi-Literacy
French:
- Christopher Dakers '25
- Harold de Rouvray Bruck '25
- Hanna Krampl '25
- Aidan Myers '25
- Eva Peterson '26
- Amey Reynolds '26
Spanish:
- Seth Barkan '25
- Magnus Dubois So
- Will Green '24
- Elliot Irwin-Pokorny '27
- Brooke McChesney '25
- Devon Towne '25
- Jason Koziol '24
- Colin Maher '26
- Sophie Mason '25
- Pearce Shultz '24
- Henry Wagler '25
- Turner Zapton '25
- Sedona Read '24
Read more about Proctor's Educational Model
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