The Front Lawn

“Call it cliche,” Sophia Rosenfeld told students as she opened the Levinson History Lecture Friday, Jan. 9, “but choice is what freedom feels like.”

Rosenfeld, the Walter H. Annenberg Professor of History and former chair of the Department of History at the University of Pennsylvania, delivered her talk to a packed Engelhard Hall. Rosenfeld, who is, as St. Andrew’s History Department Chair Matt Edmonds noted, “a historian of the taken-for-granted,” spoke on the age of choice in America. Rosenfeld’s recent book, The Age of Choice: A History of Freedom in Modern Life—a New York Times Notable Book of 2025 and Cundill History Prize finalist—focuses, as the lecture did, on the intricacies at the intersection of freedom and choice, their differences, and their impact on society.

Rosenfeld laid out how choice and the act of choosing has taken over modern society. “Choice now exists as a form of freedom almost anywhere that would call itself a human rights or democratic culture,” Rosenfeld said, adding that choice is pertinent “anywhere we could talk about something like consumer culture or capitalism.” That’s because, Rosenfeld argued, “it allows each of us to think of ourselves as a chooser, the kind of person who's independent, autonomous, and generally adult enough to make determinations for themselves.”

However, Rosenfeld was not interested in just the broader psycho-and-physiological boost one gets from choice. Rather, she is interested in why as citizens, we take it for granted. She acknowledged that in 2026—the year that will see America’s 250th birthday—“it doesn’t seem like a bad idea to start thinking about … what freedom actually is.”

“Freedom itself is not a static thing,” she said, as a larger-than-life image of Thomas Paine’s Common Sense, the 1776 pamphlet Paine wrote arguing for American independence, appeared on the screen behind her. “Freedom has a history,” she said. “Freedom hasn’t always been practiced by the same people, or thought of in the same way.”

This non-linear idea of a history of freedom, Rosenfeld argued, is hard to understand without first looking into the history of choice. Paine’s pamphlet, Rosenfeld said, is the first of many examples of choice and freedoms co-mingling in American history. “Choice isn’t a big theme, but there’s a little bit of poetry,” she said before quoting Paine: “Man knows no master, save creating heaven, or those whom choice and common good ordain.” The quote, she said, defines freedom as choice. She said this notion carried over to the Declaration of Independence. “​​Nothing gets said about choice, but there's a suggestion here again of something about self-determination” in connection to freedom, Rosenfeld offered.

After she detailed how choice impacts not just the large freedoms in our lives, like the right to vote, practice religion, and govern ourselves, she dove into smaller instances—shopping, cooking, and romantic life.

She closed with a rousing call to the Saints in attendance.

“History, freedom, and choice will be up to your generation,” she said.  “Redefine once again what freedom should look like, drawing on 1776, but breaking with it, too.”

 

David N. Levinson ’53 and his family endowed the Levinson History Lecture series so St. Andrew’s students could engage with experts in history, politics, economics, or related social-science fields.

For Margaret Gilheany ’26, St. Andrew’s performance of selections from The Nutcracker is as consistent a marker of Christmastime as decorating a tree. A dancer for most of her life, Gilheany was one of the younger Delaware dancers who worked alongside Saints to make Christmas magic each year.

Gilheany first stepped onto the Engelhard Hall stage at age 11, playing Clara, whose Christmas Eve adventure sets up The Nutcracker's vibrant dances. Below, see what Gilheany says about this year’s full-circle moment, dazzling a new Clara as the Sugar Plum Fairy.

 

The Nutcracker has been with you through so many different periods of your life. How has the show changed for you over time, or been an outlet at different times?

Margaret Gilheany (MG): I do associate different times in my life with the role that I was doing at the time, because we work for months leading up to the performance. The Nutcracker is a big part of my year, and I've learned something different through my different roles. Sugar Plum was so special to do as my senior role, and my last performance, because it's like the culminating role. This role was always held by the person I always looked up to growing up, because it was always an older dancer.

 

What challenges came with the role, and how were you able to grow to meet them?

MG: The thing about dance in general, but especially the role of Sugar Plum, is that you are supposed to make it look easy. Sugar Plum isn’t necessarily the most impressive role to an untrained eye. There aren’t leaps or things like that, but the footwork is very fast and precise. So for the first couple months, I was really focusing on getting all that down. Once I did, it was hard to then add the artistic aspect to it, because I couldn't be too focused on the steps. The challenge was getting those two things to work together: to be able to execute, but also perform. Working with [Dance Instructor] Mr. Gold and with his wife, we would identify particular moments where he wanted my arms to flow more, things like that. We focused especially on working with just my arms and my shoulders, and how that would work. Making the shift to practicing on stage is big for me, too; you're able to imagine the audience and perform more. 

 

What has the dance program brought to you during your time at St. Andrew's?

MG: It's a great place to build relationships through a creative act. Dance can be so vulnerable, so you get really close with the people you're dancing with—and now as a senior, it’s been special to make connections with the underclassmen, because I was really close to the upperclassmen as a younger dancer.

Taking dance as an academic class is such a great creative outlet and helpful to get a break from classes where I'm sitting down. Growing up as a dancer, I was a perfectionist. [Now] I get to express myself through art, have a good workout, and just get my body moving.

I had also never tried choreographing before St. Andrew's. Mr. Gold is so open to letting students do what they want, and he gave me lots of opportunities to help develop choreography skills.

 

Do you think learning to choreograph helped with fusing the discipline of getting the moves right, but then also adding the artistry?

MG: Exactly, yes. Those are all tied together, and I think it helped me balance not being overly disciplined, because I was having fun teaching my own choreography to other people.

 

How does it feel to connect with younger dancers?

MG: The dance program has lots of mentorship opportunities. A couple of seniors taught me how to choreograph, basically. I watched everything that they did and I just tried to replicate it. They were really focused on making the shows cleaner and tighter, and having everything run more smoothly. I really have been trying to do that as a senior as well.

It has made me really happy that a lot of underclassmen come to me with their dances and ask, "Can you watch this and give me corrections?" It means a lot to me that they want to hear my feedback on their work.

 

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

See more photos from The Nutcracker at St. Andrew's on Smugmug.

Dear St. Andrew’s Community,

The remaining weeks of the year are easy to rush. It’s tempting to fill this time with noisy obligations that meet the hurried momentum of the season. As ever, I find myself wanting something different for our community, a season of reflection, preparation, and practice. The Christian calendar has named this season Advent, the four weeks when we wait attentively for the birth of Christ in a shabby barn. Yet the wisdom of Advent is not exclusive to any one faith. It reminds us all—seekers, believers, and non-believers alike—that life is long, and that miracles often arrive in the smallest and simplest forms.

Over Thanksgiving, I read a book that captured this spirit perfectly: The Place of Tides, a work of nonfiction by James Rebanks. The book follows Anna, an older woman living on a Norwegian island the size of a soccer field, who spends each summer gathering the down of eider ducks. Her task is meticulous and vanishingly small: a whole season of work produces enough down for just one duvet. Anna’s work becomes a meditation on humility—on the power of showing up, quietly and faithfully, for the work in front of us.

When he joined Anna on the duck island, Rebanks expected to meet a savior figure, someone preserving a species and guarding a tradition. Instead, he encountered a woman uninterested in projecting her importance. Her wisdom lay in her smallness, in her capacity to disappear into her surroundings and attend wholly to the life before her. Rebanks writes that in our current world—full of noise, self-projection, and the desperate desire to be seen—Anna offered an alternative: a way of living that begins with stillness, trust, and a deep devotion to place and people.

This reminded me of St. Andrew’s. This community depends not on grand gestures but on daily acts of care: finishing the assignment, showing up for rehearsal, wiping the tables, listening closely, asking for help, and offering it. We are what we do; small acts knit a community and build a good life.

As Advent teaches, and as Anna showed, real heroism rarely announces itself. None of us ever “arrives.” We remain learners—children—growing in wisdom through the constancy of our shared work. So, in these days of Advent, my hope for all of us is simple:

• Stay small. Go outside. Be still.
• Do the unglamourous work in front of you. It matters.
• Care for the person beside you. 
• Ask for help if you need it.
• Trust that tiny deeds form the bonds of community and the foundation of a meaningful life.

Thank you for the trust and love you hold for St. Andrew’s. I am grateful for each of you, and I wish that you may glimpse the quiet, humble light that Advent promises.

In partnership,

Joy McGrath
Head of School

Families, as you look ahead to summer plans, we write with a thoughtful recommendation: make a deliberate shift toward less structure for your students.

Research consistently shows that when students put down their screens and escape to the outdoors for unstructured play, they gain greater focus and creativity and they experience lower levels of stress and anxiety. We encourage you to build this essential time into their break.

Summer is also prime time for reading. In an age of decreasing attention spans, the reading of full-length books is a critical practice for students who want to flourish in college and in life, and at St. Andrew’s we expect students to read several books each summer. Please make sure they have the time to do so!

With these thoughts in mind, we invite you (parents and guardians) to our next virtual conversation on Monday, December 15, at 7 pm ET. Emily Pressman, Dean of Teaching and Learning, and Kate Cusick, Chair of the English Department, will discuss the critical impact of reading for SAS students. Please join us!

If you walked into the basketball court in the Cameron Gym this past Saturday night, you might have been confused by the scene: Soccer goals set up on either end of the court, students piling on top of each other to grab seats in the bleachers, the scoreboard lit up and counting down, but not toward the start of a basketball game. Instead, time was ticking down on the 35th season of St. Andrew’s Indoor Soccer League (SAISL), a winter tradition dreamed up by Ruben Amarasingham ’91.

On the opening night of the nearly three-month long season, teams consisting of advisories, dorms, affinity groups, and friends began the winter-long journey toward the coveted chance to win the student tournament and play an all-employee team. In past years, the ultimate prize was bragging rights, but this year, one of the seniors in charge of the tournament turned SAISL into service.

Liam Robinson ’26, who manages SAISL concessions, realized that the league could do more than just provide entertainment in the winter. “The best way to get students to come to anything is food,” Robinson says. “I figured if we made the food into a fundraiser, not only would we be able to have another reason to come to SAISL, but it’d give more meaning to the game.” Robinson decided to use concessions sales to raise money to buy toys to donate to a local chapter of Toys for Tots, a charitable program run by the United States Marine Corps Reserve that collects  toys and distributes them as Christmas gifts to economically disadvantaged children.

As two advisory teams—Tower of Power and Profe’s Princesses (lead respectively by history teacher Melinda Tower and math teacher Jon Tower, and language teacher David Miller)—faced off in fierce competition, Robinson got busy selling Chick-Fil-A sandwiches. He was blown away by the overwhelming student support that accounted for 150 sandwiches sold and $350 raised. “It was so easy because people [here] want to do something good,” he says. 

Robinson sold sandwich after sandwich as football players scored goals on swimmers playing goalkeeper, and as freshmen defended their senior counterparts. Grade levels, different sports teams, different schedules or classes, it all disappears at SAISL. The tournament serves as an intentional student-led example of St. Andrew’s togetherness. That’s why Robinson believes the fundraiser was so successful. “Students were eager to take a simple moment to be part of something bigger than themselves,” he says. 

Robinson, along with some other SAISL leaders, headed to Target to purchase the toys and delivered them to Toys for Tots. “It’s the right thing to do at Christmas,” Robinson says. “SAISL gets people excited and engaged, and now it can be for something bigger than St. Andrew’s.”

Winter sports competitions are officially underway! Here’s where each squad stands heading into the 2025-26 winter season:

Boys Basketball

After last year’s strong 13-6 regular season that sent the Saints to the second round of the state tournament, head coach Terrell Myers’ mantra this year is “opportunity.” “We’ve got a bunch of players who have spent a lot of time in the St. Andrew’s program who finally get to show their skill set,” he says. “I’m extremely excited to work with this team.” 

The team’s first big test is a stretch of five games leading up to winter break; their first home game against Wilmington Christian resulted in a Saints W. 

Girls Basketball

The team is ready to hit the ground running after securing a winning record last season. Although they have lost some key role players, head coach Paul Clemons feels confident entering his fourth season at St. Andrew’s. “The girls are efficient and locked-in,” he says. The team started the season off with a win against MOT Charter on December 5. “We picked up where we left off,” Clemons says.

Wrestling

Tradition and growth are the main focuses of the wrestling program this year, according to first-year wrestling head coach Steve Cacciavillano. Cacciavillano says he’s already ecstatic about the team’s all-in attitude. “St. Andrew’s has a rich history in wrestling in Delaware,” he says. “Having been in the state for a while now, I am incredibly excited to keep growing the sport, and we have had great buy-in from the wrestlers so far.” 

Saints wrestlers hit the mat in their first meets Saturday, Dec. 6 and Sunday, Dec. 7. On December 6, six wrestlers competed in the Polytech Invitational, with standout performances from Welby Smith ’28, who finished the day in 7th place. Chun Cheung ’27 and Julian Toomey ’27 each finished 1-2 at their respective weight classes. On December 7, two wrestlers competed in the Lady Lightning Bolt Invitational. Alice Oswalt ’28 reached the semifinals and finished in 6th place, and Caitlin Hwong ’27 earned her first career victory in her second match.

Squash

On the girls side of the squash court, “We have a more mature team this year,” head coach Doug Whittaker says. “But I am expecting great things from both teams, and with the boys team being a little younger, I am excited to see what we learn this season.” The girls began their season with a victory over Episocpal High, and the boys lost against the same school.

Swimming

Head coach Greg Guldin is ready to see his Saints shine. “I am very excited to get the season underway,” he says. “We have great leadership and a great group of new and returning swimmers, all of whom are bought into making the season the best yet.” Guldin notes the importance of leadership and togetherness for his team, both paramount to get through the long season ahead. “We are not turning away from the demanding work of self-improvement. We are charging into it. While the process is what matters most, I cannot wait to see the outcomes,” Guldin says. 

At the home opener, the 2025 DISC Relay Carnival, the boys team came in first place, and the girls team in fifth.

Indoor Track

Indoor track kicked things off at Franklin & Marshall College on December 6, and judging by the results, this team—which smashed individual and team records last season—looks to continue its success. At that meet, six new school records were set: Ethan Williams ’26 in the 60 meters, Olivia Ike ’27 in the 60 meters, Jaxen Wingard ’28 in the 60-meter hurdles, Margaret Gilheany ’26 in the 60-meter hurdles, Burke Donovan ’26 in the 400 meters, and Claire Hoopes ’26 in the long jump. 

“New team members are eager to make their mark, so each meet is set to be full of improvement,” head coach Jon Tower says. “Many athletes are poised to challenge our current school records. Our training has intensified over the past few months and our runners, throwers, and jumpers are eager to start the competitive season.”

 

Keep up with our winter programs all season at sas-saints.com.

 

I thank the head of school for an exceptional introduction, 35 percent of which is probably true, but by diplomatic standards, that's more than good enough. Ladies and gentlemen, fellow St. Andreans, I know what you are all thinking. I can literally hear your thoughts from here: She has done it again. The head of school has brought another old geezer before us to talk about the Paleolithic Age at St. Andrew’s before there were automobiles, telephones, or televisions. Maybe that's true, but I will tell you also, smarty pantses, that this is not the first time that I have ever stood at this pulpit and addressed the student body here at St. Andrew’s.

The last time was in the spring of 1969, when I was selected through some mysterious process to read the lesson at an evening service. Not being an idiot, I came into the Chapel before dinner and opened the very large Bible that was sitting right here. I found after much search the section of the Bible where the lesson was to be read. For some reason, I think it was one of St. Paul's lessons, Letters to the Corinthians. Fine. I even put a 3-by-5 card there to mark the place, just in case a divine breeze blew through and the pages turned. After dinner, we all assemble at the appropriate moment. I march up to this precise location. I take a deep breath. I look down at the Bible and there before me is a page that does not contain anything related to St. Paul or his letters to the Corinthians.

I was somewhat concerned because I did not at that time have a clue as to where I might find this particular passage. After turning the page once in one direction and once in the other, and looking out at the faces of about 200 people, 195 of whom wanted nothing more than for me to finish so that this service would end, I decided that I would read from the text of whatever page I was on. So I did. I noted that this ended the lesson and I returned to my seat. At which point the chaplain of St. Andrew’s at that time, a gentleman named Sandy Ogliby, stood up. He came to the pulpit. He flipped a couple of pages in the Bible and he said, "That was not St. Paul's letter to the Corinthians. Here begins St. Paul's letter to the Corinthians." I have not been invited back to speak in this Chapel until this evening. You have been appropriately warned.

Ladies and gentlemen, I actually had some difficulty—despite the fact that I'm a native Texan and I speak all the time—deciding what I would talk about. My first thought was that I would entertain you with fascinating stories about life at St. Andrew’s in the late 1960s and 1970. I could have told you about Walden Pell, the first headmaster of St. Andrew’s who would come by the campus once a month or so and actually would talk to us lowly students. I could even have talked about Alexis Felix DuPont Jr., the son of the founder, who was often here. We called him "Uncle Dupy" behind his back, never to his face.

I could have talked to you about the football and wrestling teams that went more than two years straight undefeated, or the crew that won the Stotesbury Regatta in 1970. I could have told you about us rascals in the Class of 1970 who one night went out and picked up the automobile belonging to a not particularly popular teacher at that time, carried it around to the front of the building, walked it up into the cloisters and left it there. Yes, there are six steps that must be navigated in order for that car to drive back down and out. We thought that was uproariously funny.

I could have even talked about the legendary revolt of the Class of 1970 over the haircut rule. Yes, we decided collectively we would allow our hair to grow so long that when combed straightforward, it would in fact cover some of the eyebrow. Never let it be said that we did not fight the just battles and the just causes in the late 1960s.

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I could have told you all those stories, but then I said for you, this would be kind of like your parents telling you that you had to go have dinner with your grandfather and listen to him drone on for an hour about all the things that he did when he was a kid, and you don't deserve that. I mean, you've done nothing to offend me. I see no reason why I should subject you to that.

So my next idea was talk a little bit about my 39 years in the Foreign Service, the diplomatic service of the United States of America. That's pretty cool, right? I had some great adventures during my 39 years. I could have told you honestly, in fact, about 1982, when I was a very young Foreign Service Officer and my grouchy old ambassador, somewhat similar to then-assistant headmaster, Bill Cameron, said to me one day, "Brownfield, I want you to solve the case of the murders of the four American church women, three Maryknoll nuns and one lay sister who had been murdered in El Salvador in 1981.” I of course have never been a police officer, a detective. I was not even a lawyer. However, what the ambassador says, the ambassador gets, and I spent about two months walking through every dirty dark street in the city of San Salvador talking to every thug I could find to get a list of suspects.

I finally recruited a young man who was in the National Guard of El Salvador who agreed to be wired with—wait for it—a Walkman. For those of you under the age of 40, a Walkman was the height of technology in the 1980s. It's a portable cassette tape player, but it also had a record function. So the lieutenant went out, he invited the suspected sergeant to go drinking with him, and he came back the next day with a confession and the names of everyone who participated in the murder. That was pretty cool. I felt pretty good about it. I was 28 years old by that particular point in time, and I thought, “Hey, this career isn't so bad after all.”

Or I could have told you about 2008, 26 years later, when I was the ambassador to Columbia; my problem there was in fact not people who had been murdered, but people who were in fact being held prisoner by the Colombian guerillas, the [Revolutionary Armed Forces of Columbia.]

There were three U.S. government contractors who had been held for five and a half years in the jungle, and we could not find them, far less rescue them. In the course of those five and a half years, we came up with a surprisingly brilliant plan. The first part of it was to use electronic communications equipment to intervene in the guerillas’ communication system, and then begin to issue orders over the radio to the field commanders to move all of their hostages to a designated location. We then created a fictitious NGO on the then fairly new Internet, and we gave the fake NGO a website. We had a bunch of names of people that were in the NGO, and in fact we then staffed up seven officers of the Colombian Army, as well as four of two helicopter pilots and two engineers who had become the NGO, that flew to the guerilla camp and rescued not just our three Americans, but a French woman hostage, and 11 Colombians for a total of 15, allowing me to say, as I say again right now, “The coolest deception operation perhaps in the history of mankind since Ulysses brought the Trojan horse into the city of Troy.” Is that cool? Yes, of course. It's cool.

But then I realized, hey, it sounds a little bit self-serving. It sounds a little bit self-adulatory. Maybe that's not a good way to proceed either. So I concluded, finally, what I will do is talk to you all, and by you all, I mean the students of St. Andrew’s. Everyone else is welcome to listen, but I will be speaking to the students now and will offer the lessons that I believe either one of those kind of dialogue lines might have offered us.

In the words of the great American poet Bob Dylan, ladies and gentlemen, the times, they are a changin’. And my stories, which would've gone from 1970, when we moved cars around in the middle of the night; to 1982 ,when we used a Walkman to solve murder cases; to 2008, when we had a much more sophisticated satellite communication system and phony organizations on the Internet; to 2025 ,and Lord knows what you all are doing these days.

The point is the world is actually moving fairly briskly around us. And in particular, Class of 2026, in six short months, you are going to be marching out there certified as educated young adults to begin to operate in that funky new world. And I will tell you ladies and gents, here in the United States and, quite frankly through much of the rest of the world, this is a more complicated world than I have ever seen before—and I've been around for a fairly long time, if you haven't sensed it already. I have vague memories as a boy of Lyndon Johnson running his mushroom cloud advertisement that torpedoed the presidential campaign of Barry Goldwater in 1964. Or Richard "Tricky Dick" Nixon and his dirty tricks, which basically won him the presidency against both Hubert Humphrey in ’68 and McGovern in ’72.

I was in the State Department when Ronald Reagan won the 1980 election and when his people, the Reagan oughts, came to the State Department. I said, “This is the most hostile takeover of the U.S. government that I have ever seen in my life and suspect I ever will see.” And that was true until last January, when we're actually seeing it come from the other side. So ladies and gentlemen, when I say I don't think I have seen the nation as divided, as tribal, as uncompromising, as suspicious of its institutions as “us versus them” as I see it right now, you ought to be a little bit worried. But I have good news, and it is this, St. Andreans: you are going to be better prepared for this world than the overwhelming majority of your counterparts, your friends, those who have gone through the educational process in a different way or a different place.

And it's not just because of the classes that you attend and the courses that you take, although they are all exceptionally important. It is because you are living, in essence, in a microcosm here in St. Andrew's of that outside world. Hundreds of people who are not all the same people, different people, different backgrounds, different histories, different philosophies, different approaches to life. They're all right here. And as you learn to deal with the annoying guy two rooms down who won't shut up and is just a genuine pain in the ear, you are actually learning a lesson. That opinionated girl who just won't stop offering her opinions on your athletic team is exceptionally annoying perhaps until you discover she has a 125-mile-an-hour blast of the ball into the net at which point you conclude, well, maybe I'll try to find a way to work with her. The person who tells off-color or nasty jokes, you've got to figure out how to deal with that sort of person here at a point where you've got some flexibility in terms of how you deal with other people.

At the end of the day, ladies and gentlemen, as you deal with these issues, problems, and people at St. Andrew's, you're learning to deal with life. Once you leave St. Andrew's, you will of course depart this institution as well-educated scholars, but you will also discover that you're better-prepared for life than you perhaps thought you would be. And let me tell you a secret, that is the real strength of St. Andrew’s yesterday, today, and tomorrow.

At some point, I guarantee you'll all hear this from the head of school between now and graduation: “I’m proud of you,” she will say. And may I suggest to you two things: One, it will be true. She will be proud of you. And even more important, she will be proud of how you have learned the lessons of life at St. Andrew's. So don't just make the head of school proud. Make us all proud. Good luck, Godspeed, and at the most difficult times imaginable, please always remember the words of the great American philosopher, Yogi Berra: “When you come to a fork in the road, take it.”

Earlier this month, St. Andrew’s hosted the perfect warm up to Thanksgiving with a day focused on food as a pathway to community. Baker, writer, and food and theology scholar Kendall Vanderslice spent the day on campus, where she visited with Rev. Thomas Becker’s Sacred & Sensory class, and led a bread-baking workshop with faculty at the home of Head of School Joy McGrath ’92.

In Becker’s class, Vanderslice led discussion around the idea that food and meals are powerful devices for storytelling, memory, and community-building. Students shared stories about memorable meals, from the hilarious—like the time a friend of Alvin Xie ’26 dropped his phone in a hot pot and the group spent about “thirty minutes trying to pick the phone up with chopsticks”—to the meaningful, like the Turkish meal Brooke Simonsen ’26 shared at the home of fellow Saint Bahar Bekirdfendi ’26 that brought Simonsen closer to her friend’s culture. “I tried the most delicious foods,” Simonsen says. “It was so grand, and then afterward, there were like 10 desserts to choose from.”

To prepare for Vanderslice’s visit, students read her book, We Will Feast: Rethinking Dinner, Worship, and the Community of God, which examines how churches worship around the table—a concept familiar to St. Andrew’s students. “My biggest takeaway from the book is how eating in a community is so rare right now,” Simonsen says. “Meals are now a task, something we have to do instead of enjoy. People eat in front of screens more than they eat with others. Her book made me even more grateful for St. Andrew’s because of how often I eat with my friends. I don’t know the last time I ate alone.”

The visit was the perfect complement to the work students had been doing in Sacred & Sensory, which focuses on how different cultural and religious celebrations are centered on food. “Food is the connecting thing in all these different religions,” Simonsen says. “While Christianity and Judaism are so different, they both have holidays focused around food. This is because food is a vulnerable, connective aspect of life. It can bring together people from anywhere in the world.”

“The stories that food tells us are as beautiful and as complicated as the families and the faith communities that we come from,” Vanderslice told students. “Behind every food is a story of gender, of class, of race, and of place.” She quoted Tejana poet Carolina Hinojosa-Cisneros, who calls meals “generational storytelling with an open mouth and a heating spoon.” That idea inspired students to consider the stories told around tables in the St. Andrew’s Dining Hall each day. With table rotations switching often, an intentional choice to place Saints at tables with others across grades, students admitted it could sometimes be awkward when you’re getting to know your new table mates. That’s where Vanderslice encouraged them to lean in. She noted her work requires her to break bread with strangers often. “I’ve learned to embrace that awkwardness,” she said. “I think it eventually leads to people talking and sharing stories that wouldn’t otherwise be told.”

             

           

           

           

             

 

 

 

 

Saints gathered Nov. 19 to celebrate the fall athletics season in Engelhard Hall.  “I want to thank the athletes for their hard work, dedication, and commitment on behalf of Saint Athletics,” said Director of Athletics Neil Cunningham. “It doesn't matter what level you play, I appreciate every single one of you. You show a passion for your sport and your teammates, and you show up, no matter how exhausted you are, or if you don’t feel 100 percent, or if you’d rather nap than get on the Spirit Bus to go cheer on your friends. You show up because that’s the kind of community we are.”

Cunningham also voiced his gratitude for the athletics and coaching staff. “It is a difficult task to teach, coach, and do the many other things you are asked to do at a boarding school,” he said. “You have my utmost trust, respect, and admiration for what you give each day for St. Andrew's Athletics. It's tireless.”

After rounding out his Top 5 moments of the season—which included a dominant opening day for football with a 42-6 win over Dickinson, and a 4-0 field hockey shoutout against local foe Middletown High School that was largely supported by the school’s top two girls squash players, Charlotte Green ’27 and Marion Lindsay ’28—each program celebrated challenges, triumphs, and each other.

 

Boys Cross Country

“In the first week we have a workout we call ‘knockout intervals.’ The way these work is you run around the soccer field in a certain time and then you're asked to run again, faster, and if you don't, you're out. The third time faster and the fourth time faster and faster and faster. One of the reasons we do this is it's a good workout, but it also sends a message to the incoming students early, that we really love a challenge and we want to be showing up.”  Varsity Boys Cross Country Head Coach Dan O’Connell P’19’24

• JV Most Improved: John Heaney ’28

• JV Coaches Award: Jack Grant ’27

• Varsity Most Improved: Ryerson Li ’27

• Varsity Coaches Award: Bo Vaughn ’27

• Varsity Most Valuable Player: Henry Bird ’27

 

Girls Cross Country

“Over 11 weeks, the Saints faced hot runs, rainy runs, challenging courses, and all the ups and downs of training and racing. From day one to the state championship, it has been amazing to watch these athletes grow, challenge themselves and support each other.”  Varsity Girls Cross Country Head Coach Kat Celata

• JV Most Improved: Clara Toole ’28

• JV Coaches Award: Carine Leon-Rosenfield ’28

• Varsity Most Improved: Amelia New ’27

• Varsity Coaches Award: Claire Hulsey ’26

• Varsity Most Valuable Player: Alexi Onsomu ’28

 

 

Field Hockey

“The field hockey program here has improved and it's because of … a team that fosters athleticism, spirit, comradery, tenacity, integrity and grace on and off the field. At the center of it all is doing the hard work, the failing, the getting back up, and working toward something better and greater that makes all of this possible and worthwhile.”  Varsity Field Hockey Head Coach Kate Cusick

• JV Most Improved: Julia Lancaster ’29

• JV Coaches Award: Stella Read ’28 and Eva Griffin ’27

• JV Most Valuable Player: Veda Ipnar ’29

• Varsity Most Improved: Ari Marcus ’26

• Varsity Coaches Award: Marion Lindsay ’28

• Varsity Most Valuable Player: Piper Langston ’27

 

Football

“Football is like building a house, and building a foundation is messy, messy work. It is not the pretty stuff. It's not building the facade and the front. It's not taking care of the interior design. It's hard grueling work. And we're putting together a special culture here.” Varsity Football Head Coach Rick Barron

• Most Valuable Player: Damar Harding ’27

• Most Improved Player: Welby Smith ’28

• Robert M. Colburn Award (for the player who serves as an inspiration to their teammates through their selflessness, determination, perseverance, and good sportsmanship): George Lindsay ’26

• Virginia DeGenniro Award (for the lineman who displays courage, perseverance, and commitment to the success of the team): Leo Teti ’26

 

Boys Soccer

“Thank you for everything that you've given this program for the whole team. Thank you for giving me, the alumni, your families, this school community, a team that they can love and believe in and have so much fun with.”  Varsity Boys Soccer Head Coach Ben Horgan ’19

• Thirds Most Valuable Player: McLean Baker ’29

• Thirds Most Improved Player: Grant Paun ’29

• Thirds Coaches Award: Jack Lunsford ’28

• JV Most Valuable Player: Louis Stiles ’28

• JV Most Improved Player: Charlie Round ’27

• JV Coaches Award: Billy Petrone ’29

• Varsity Most Valuable Player: Liam Robinson ’26

• Varsity Most Improved: Jacob Smith ’28

• Varsity Coaches Award: Liam Wilson ’27

 

Volleyball

“We had a really special team this year. I was grateful to work with them every single day. The consistency they brought to practice was incredibly impressive. The players came into the season really determined to build consistency, intensity, and passion in the program, and that's exactly what they did.” Varsity Volleyball Head Coach Jonah Kai-Baker

• Thirds Most Improved Player: Mikaila Mastrandrea ’28

• Thirds Most Valuable Player: Esther Lin ’29

• Thirds Coaches Award: Mekaila Gallimore ’28

• JV Most Improved Player: Faith Taylor ’28

• JV Coaches Award: Anjola Adepoju ’27

• JV Most Valuable Player: Eliza Berry ’28

• Varsity Most Improved Player: Cole Friedrich ’27

• V Coaches Award: Gibby Cronje ’26

• V Most Valuable Player: Julia Ho ’27

 

Last night, Ty and I left the Dining Hall in the pitch darkness, and when we opened our front door we were accompanied inside by a Carolina wren. The reddish-brown bird had evidently been sheltering in the magnolia wreath on our front door, and now she perched, alert but unafraid, atop a painting of a lady’s slipper orchid in the front hall. Ty greeted her with reassuring words and ushered her gently out the front door.

It felt churlish to exile the wren into the cold night—especially in this season of welcome and gratitude. How fortunate are we to have a warm home to welcome others? How fortunate are we to love and be loved, to be welcomed into others’ warm homes in the darkening winter? Next week, many of us will gather in our own homes, or in others’—and for this, we should be grateful. Gathering to consider our many blessings is something we should do regularly, and not just at Thanksgiving.

At St. Andrew’s, we gather as a full community many, many times each week. Much of our culture flows from these occasions, because these gatherings perfectly reflect the kind of home we seek to be. Together, we give thanks at all five weekly family meals. Together, we say the Great Thanksgiving each Sunday during Eucharist. And every School Meeting starts those who wish to give “appreciations,” which are simply words of thanks for acts of service and kindness. In the building of community and purpose, the practice of gratitude is indispensable.

These daily expressions of gratitude have long been our habit, because we know that expressing gratitude is foundational to the moral formation of children. What child is not taught, early on, to say please and thank you? Social psychologists assert that gratitude deepens human bonds, promotes happiness, and fosters resilience and generosity—qualities that lie at the heart of the St. Andrew’s community and sustain the spirit of learning, service, and love that defines our school.

And so, as gray and cold as it was outdoors this morning, the Dining Hall was bright and boisterous; our students clearly intend to sprint joyfully into the Thanksgiving recess on Friday morning. This ebullience comes from our practice of gratitude, our commitment to welcome friends and strangers, our work to feed the hungry and keep company with those who are alone. In the words of the Great Thanksgiving, “It is a good and joyful thing, always and everywhere, to give thanks”—and so I will offer one more: At St. Andrew’s we are especially grateful for you, and we send all good wishes for a blessed Thanksgiving.

Good evening, St. Andrew's family. It is so good to be here. 

I brought some guests today who I need to acknowledge: my honorary aunt, Sandy [Cadwalader], and her brother, Gardner [Cadwalader ’66]. He was a student here when it was all boys. Gardener has a son and daughter who are also graduates, and they are the ones who brought this experience to me. And I'm so thankful, because I was this young res kid who grew up in a totally different world. Growing up, I spent some of my time in a two-bedroom house with nine family members, and we had to use an outhouse in the woods. We didn't have a toilet. You had to boil water on a stove and pour it in a bin to wash yourself. And [the Cadwalader family] thought that I belonged in classrooms here with who I think are some of the brightest young people and teachers that this country has to offer. Thank you for bringing that experience to me, and to your family for seeing that in me.

I had the ability to express myself and to feel understood because of St. Andrew’s. And that was a gift, because when you come from a people who have been silenced, who are invisible, what greater power can there be than to find your voice?

I'm here to talk about my experience at St. Andrew's and the impact that it had, not just on me, but on my family, my community, and my nation. Boarding school is a dream for many families. I remember having roommates who were looking forward to their siblings or their family friends applying, with all this excitement and hope—how could they not? Look around you. Look at this campus. But that is not my story. I grew up on the Onondaga Nation, which is a little south of Syracuse, New York.

We’re the Haudenosaunee Confederacy—by our less-loved name, Iroquois, [but] it’s not what we call ourselves. It's “the people of the longhouse.” It's a confederacy of Indigenous nations that come together somewhat like the United Nations. For a time, I lived with my grandmother. Oftentimes, English was not spoken in my household when the elders were telling stories. But I do remember a few times when I did hear English, and they were talking about boarding schools. Those were not stories of opportunities. Those are stories of trauma, abuse, and loss.

[Beginning in the late 19th Century] Native children would be forcibly removed from their homes and placed in boarding schools. Some of them disappeared. Some of them grew up into adulthood through the program, lost their language, came back to their families, and could no longer communicate with their mothers and fathers. They were in this lost space between not belonging on the res, and not belonging out in the world. To this day, we find bodies that are buried on the premises of Indian boarding schools. So when I told my family, my community, “Hey, I'm going to boarding school,” it wasn’t the best reaction.

I remember having conversations about, “Those places are to civilize us. They're to beat our language out of us or to Christianize you.” But I had faith in the people here that they would never guide me wrong. When I came here, it opened a door not just for me, but also for students after me who decided to try boarding schools. There has been a movement of Natives in boarding schools. And in my community, it started right here. What had once been an instrument of erasure became, unexpectedly, a place of renewal. 

I come from a very tight-knit family known for certain things, and I'm proud of that. My family is made of athletes, of activists, of members of the resistance, of diplomats for Indigenous rights and for environmental injustices. And as children, we can often be recognized and sometimes constrained by the family legacy. I was once a teenager like you, just trying to figure out, “Who am I?” I was the jock, I was the jazz camp kid. I was the artist, the actress, the singer, the hip- hop dancer. I joined all those clubs. I tried to start all those clubs, but the school that I came from told me I could only choose one or two of those things. I didn't like being told what pieces of myself I was allowed to keep. St. Andrews said, “Why not keep all of them?” That was all I needed to hear. It was here that I first began to test the boundaries of my identity. I came as the first reservation kid, carrying a healthy dose of skepticism. I missed ceremonies back home. That is true. I lost a lot of access to elders with knowledge that will never get back. That's true.

But this school gave me something very powerful: freedom. To explore my mind, my heart, and most importantly, my voice. I read books that my old school deemed “too raw,” stories that reflected histories of where I came from and that the world preferred not to see. For the first time, I found classrooms and teachers including Indigenous literature. In those pages, I recognized narratives and histories that were passed down in my family. I began to feel seen. I was taught how to articulate complex feelings of being a young Indigenous woman who, yes, wanted to celebrate the Fourth of July and watch the beautiful fireworks. But who also had the solemn recognition of what one country's expansion meant for me, “a merciless Indian savage” as stated in the United States Declaration of Independence. What had once been silent confusion became language. I had the ability to express myself and to feel understood because of St. Andrew’s. And that was a gift, because when you come from a people who have been silenced, who are invisible, what greater power can there be than to find your voice? The training here, the writing, the articulation, the courage, would later allow me to sit at tables where very few voices like mine could be heard, and still hold my ground.

I also learned to test my strength here. When I was a junior playing varsity basketball, one of the boys said, “Wouldn't it be funny if some girl wrestled?” And someone replied, “I bet Asa could.” So I did. I left basketball and  stepped into the wrestling room, and no one dismissed me. In fact, they talked me through it. When I committed, the coaches and my teammates stood behind me. I gained real brothers here. They stood up for me when other schools were not so kind. I learned that strength and courage isn't just about doing what is not expected of you, it's also about having people who see you fully, who make room for your decision to grow.

St. Andrew's did not ask me to choose to be just pieces of myself. All of me was welcome here.

As the first reservation kid [at St. Andrew’s], I quickly realized that many people didn't know that we existed. One classmate said, “I thought all Indians were dead.” With the support of the faculty, I organized what I like to call a full-scale Native invasion. We filled this campus with the songs and stories and laughter of my community. Haudenosaunee food was served. We had wooden stick demonstrations. We screened films, had discussions and dances that shook the floors. I was so scared that nobody would come. But this community showed up: teachers, staff, and students, some of whom I had never even shared a hello. I remember thinking, “This is what it feels like to be seen.” And I carried that feeling home.

When I joined the rowing team, I was fascinated by the rhythm, the way eight people could move as one. I come from a place where we have this tradition that before any ceremony or gathering, or before a tribal decision was made, we have the Ganoñhéñ•nyoñ.

It’s like a meditation that's said out loud, and it means “the words that come before all else,” but you hear it referred to as the Thanksgiving Address. There’s [a] refrain that's repeated that means, “and now may our minds be one.” I remember the rowing team going across the pond and thinking, “This is the physical manifestation of this refrain.”

Rowing was the first way that I began to use my experience at St. Andrew's to empower my nation at home. The Onondaga Lake is very sacred to my people. It's where our democracy was born. It's a system that actually inspired the system of the United States’ governance. This lake is where our stories say the peacemaker came and gathered these divided nations to become the confederacy that exists today. By the time I was growing up, our people were removed from the lake, and we lost a lot of the words associated with water activities. The elders who still knew those words were dying out. This place was one of the most polluted lakes in the world. It became a Superfund site, but they still allowed the Syracuse rowing team to row on it.

I brought rowing to my community by trading my experience as a participant in Henley and Stotesbury to negotiate a contract with the local rowing team. The currency to return my people to our waterways was my skill as a rower. Every pull of an oar at home is a prayer answered. It's a gesture toward healing my people's connection to the waters. St. Andrew’s gave me the discipline, the rhythm, the language to connect something sacred that had been interrupted. I carry that same current into my writing, another skill I honed here more than I did at Dartmouth. I now write for The Syracuse Post Standard, sharing the reflection of gratitude and connection to land. Writing is another way to remind people that we are still here.

St. Andrew's did not ask me to choose to be just pieces of myself. All of me was welcome here. The athlete, the scholar, the artist, the believer, the skeptic, the community-builder and the nation-builder. Not every moment was perfect. It was hard. [At times] I had to be silent because I felt that maybe there was nobody else here who would understand my stories. But tonight, this school reminds me that it continues to grow, to listen, to evolve. I've carried what I learned here into every space, from meetings with city leaders on historical representation; to collaborations with, for instance, the Navajo Nation and the Electrical Workers Without Borders; to community projects that braid engineering with ceremony.

Every time I've had to hold my own at a table full of men who are typically lacking diversity in all respects, I draw on the confidence that was nourished in these classrooms, among these friends, and with some of these staff members. To the students here tonight: if you are struggling to find your footing, try to trust your community. There is guidance here, there is love. There is support if you are willing to let people in. And if you ever see silence about something that makes you uncomfortable, name it. This place is alive because of the people willing to make it better. 

And I am proof.

 

This piece has been edited for length and clarity.

 

What began as a clergy wellness retreat in Hawaii blossomed into professional development for Associate Chaplain Rev. Thomas Becker. Becker, who traveled to Hawaii in October, visited four Episcopal churches and a diocesan camp, but the most critical stop for his work at St. Andrew’s was the ’Iolani School.

The journey to ’Iolani—a large Episcopal school in Honolulu—started last November when Becker met ’Iolani educator David Buchanan at a conference. “It was phenomenal,” Becker says of Buchanan’s session. “There is such thoughtfulness with which ’Iolani approaches its curriculum from a religious studies standpoint.” Becker, always seeking ways to connect St. Andrew’s to the wider Episcopal diocese, urged Buchanan to stay in touch.

When Becker was awarded a Delaware diocesan clergy wellness grant, he set his eyes on Hawaii. The bulk of his time at ’Iolani was spent meeting with religious educators and the school chaplains, and sitting in on classes.

While ’Iolani is much bigger than St. Andrew’s, with over 2,200 students, Becker says its dedication to its mission of community was palpable and familiar.

“A pervasive theme in the school is ‘One Team,’” Becker says. “It's this binding sense of community.” This prompted Becker to reflect on the binding of St. Andrew’s: “I asked questions like, ‘What is it that we’re experiencing? What is our sense of connection, why is it important, and how do we continue to actualize it?’”

A moment of gratitude came when Becker saw the ’Iolani chapel, which is too small for the entire school, requiring split services.

“Their space is beautiful, but it gave me great appreciation for ours,” he says. “It struck me that we have the ability to spend time as an entire school community in one space in a time that is sacred and intentional.”

In the classroom, Becker watched Buchanan teach the notoriously dense book of Leviticus, which serves as an instruction manual. Becker has at times struggled to explain why rules from the ancient past matter today, but Buchanan’s analogy was simple: “It’s ‘a rule of the game, not a rule outside the game,’” says Becker, now armed with a new tool for teaching biblical context. "I was like, ‘That makes so much sense.”

The trip was well-timed, as Becker and Head Chaplain Rev. Dr. Michael Giansiracusa entered the academic year with a revamped curriculum. The update involved redesigning how students study world religions, progressing religion by religion, not topic by topic. “Just seeing how another school does this work is invaluable as it’s the type of thing where you don't know to fix it until you know to fix it.” Becker now has new lesson plans ready to apply. 

Beyond new teaching techniques, the trip inspired Becker to want to continue to build partnerships within the Diocese of Delaware, like the one St. Andrew's has with The Episcopal Church of Saints Andrew and Matthew in Wilmington, and beyond. “Saints Andrew and Matthew has the most racially, ethnically, socioeconomically diverse congregation in the diocese,” Becker says. “When I imagine what the kingdom of God look like, it’s something like that. It’s a really cool thing to be able to expose our students to.”

Once a staple of late-night TV, “stupid human tricks” were a hit with this semester’s Movement for Athletes students—and with the crowd of Saints, family and friends gathered to watch dance performances during Fall Family Weekend earlier this month. As students cartwheeled and lept, each bringing individual flare to the group performance, the audience burst into enthusiastic cheers.

Harrison Rowland ’29 says “stupid human tricks” are one example of the all-for-one, one-for-all energy of Movement for Athletes.

Throughout the course, students gain confidence and build new muscles, literally and figuratively, that they use on athletic fields and courts in the current season and beyond. Part of it, says Kindle Schell ’29, is thanks to the collaborative spirit built between students with different athletic backgrounds and varied skills to share.

“If one person needs help with a move, we're all always open to help each other,” Schell says. “The class is a really good community in that aspect.”

Dance blends athletic and artistic skill, and Movement for Athletes students learn to do the same. Throughout the semester, with instruction and choreography from Director of Dance Avi Gold, students develop dance fundamentals like timing and rhythm, and technical skills like executing a spin without getting dizzy. In time, they come to identify the elements of one form of movement that translate to another.

For Khrissy Collins ’29, Movement for Athletes taps into her background in competitive cheerleading, with direct benefit to her gameplay on the volleyball court.

“I feel like Movement for Athletes was just the right fit for me, because I'm a competitive athlete,” Collins says. “I feel like my legs are way stronger from all the jumps and turns that we do. There’s a lot of jumping in volleyball, especially if you're a hitter or something like that.”

For Rowland, one of many students drawn to Movement for Athletes in spite of not having prior dance experience, the appeal was in the opportunity to develop new physical skills.

“I'm starting squash in the winter, and I've never done it before and I've never been the most coordinated person, so I thought dancing would help with that—and so far, I definitely think it has,” Rowland says. “One of Mr. Gold's big themes is body awareness, and that has helped me think about what I'm doing as I'm doing it.”

In addition to body awareness, Rowland has developed confidence during the class that will serve him across the board.

“Something more general that this class is helping me with is being more confident and comfortable on a stage,” Rowland says. “I think being on stage is always good practice for being in front of a crowd.”

The Warner Art Gallery welcomed alumna Molly Miller ’10 on Monday, October 27^th.  The artist returned to campus to open an exhibit that grapples with memory, loss, and the impossibility of preserving what we hold dear. Students, employees, and alumni filled Warner Gallery to experience her contemplative exploration of how we build, and inevitably fail to complete, the archives of our lives.

“A lot of this work is a continuation of some stuff I’ve been thinking about around the construction of an archive, and how we build these archives of our lives,” Miller says. “I’m interested in the ways that different people record the events and emotions that they experience, and how those records are inevitably insufficient. There’s always something that gets left out.”

Her work draws from deeply personal sources: Miller’s own photographs, her family’s photo archives, film stills, and more. Although she only began painting five years ago—Miller discovered her passion for art during the pandemic—her technical approach demonstrates sophisticated layering techniques. She creates an underpainting first, then builds layers on top while deliberately erasing portions. “I like to leave some of that underpainting revealed to kind of get at what’s on the surface versus what’s underneath the surface,” she says.

Viewers responded warmly to the exhibition’s emotional resonance. Visual arts instructor Charlese Phillips described the work as “expressive” with “a lot of line and texture,” noting that the paintings reminded her of Van Gogh’s expressive brushwork. The portraits in particular struck a chord with Phillips, who praised Miller’s ability to capture emotion through the subjects’ eyes and the sense of “peacefulness and gentle connection” that emanates from the canvases.

Brooke Barry ’27 found herself drawn to the impressionistic quality of Miller’s technique. “I think a lot of the paint strokes make me think of emotions, especially when it comes to some of these human figures laying down,” Barry says. She was particularly captivated by Miller’s drip method on domestic objects. “I like how she uses the drip method on a lot of the pillows and the sofa,” she says.  “That really stands out to me.”

For Miller, the exhibition represents more than just technical skill. It’s about creating opportunities for connection. “I think a lot about encounters, and having an encounter with someone,” she says. “These photographs that I’ve taken are preserving these encounters. I hope that the paintings and the video work and the photos can all become a chance for a new kind of encounter to happen between the painting and the viewer.”

Margaret Adle ’27 felt that connection deeply. “I think the colors are very vibrant. They’re very bright, warm, kind of like innocence,” she says. “It feels very comforting in a way.”

Miller’s exhibition demonstrates the power of grappling with profound questions about memory, preservation, and human connection, themes that continue to resonate long after viewers leave the gallery. You can view the work until November 14.

Looking for Joy's Latest Letter?  Find it here: Gratitude as the Foundation of Community

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Good morning … and welcome to Fall Family Weekend!

A huge thank you to our parent trustees and our parent Saints Fund co-chairs—and a huge thank you to all of you who support the school. It is appreciated and seen! 

I want to mention one more thing, as I look out at this room of people I admire and adore—we are in the admission season and building future classes of Saints. I want more people like you and your kids—and you are hard to find—to be sitting in these seats in the future. Our very best applicants, who are most fit for our mission, come by word of mouth. This school, this program, is not for everyone—but all of you know what it looks like. When you find Saints in the wild, send them our way! It is one of the best ways you can help us.

I cannot remember a year that has started as well as this one. There is a sense of optimism and purpose everywhere on campus—especially in the places we gather as a community. Thank you all for being a part of it.

When I last saw most of you on drop-off day, I mentioned Rebecca Winthrop, who had recently visited campus to share with our faculty her research on modes of learning, especially what she calls achiever mode and explorer mode.

She says that the world often pushes our kids into achiever mode, through the pressure of competition, the fear of failure, and the goal of perfectionism. It’s not great. But explorer mode?! The term is active for a reason!  Picture a ship captain with her map, compass, looking over the horizon!

At St. Andrew’s, we want our students to be seeking in their education: experimenting, creating, and debating! Our goal is to shift students from being mere achievers to become true explorers. This idea got me thinking of one of my favorite books: Italo Calvino’s Invisible Cities. The book is a fictional conversation between Kublai Khan and Marco Polo. As a renowned conqueror, Kublai Khan can easily be described as an achiever, and Marco Polo is of course the very archetype of a great explorer. The premise of the book is that Kublai Khan’s vast empire included many places that he had never actually been, but Marco Polo had explored every corner of the realm, so he could describe those unknown lands. Khan seeks the answers he needs to perfect his empire, but Polo’s tales show that facts alone have their limits. Ultimately, the question of the book is whether societies and civilizations are defined by laws or ideas, by facts or by stories?

Of course, any society—and any education—requires both. Humanity advances in counterpoint: planning and dreaming, reasoning and wondering. And students need that same counterpoint to thrive: fact and meaning, responsibility and compassion, achieving and exploring. Sometimes it’s hard to see all this in the moment. Last week, I shared an update about St. Andrew’s to a group of alumni in Boston. It was an impressive group, comprising several generations with a wide range of accomplishments. They, in turn, shared with me the things they remembered most about their time here.

Yes, they remember the rigor—writing and studying at a high level. But they also said that as time passed, they came to believe that their unstructured time at St. Andrew’s was just as important—ranging across the pond and trails, perusing the shelves of the library, lingering in the chapel, and rambling in common-room conversations until the wee hours. These features of our all-residential, Episcopal boarding school are critical to finding the truth and meaning in our lives—and just as important as essays, problem sets, and tests. 

If Calvino invites us to the realization that both fact and story are needed to understand humanity, the poet Mary Oliver takes us even a bit further. I hope you read her poem, “The Teachers,” which I sent earlier this week. It reminds us that there is a much bigger context to our work as educators and parents. I quote:

 

Owl in the black morning,

    mockingbird in the burning

slants of the sunny afternoon

    declare so simply

 

to the world

     everything I have tried but still

    haven’t been able

     to put into words…

 

Oliver goes on to beautifully describes a space built from wind and sunbeams and a crystalline sky, and yet she simultaneously acknowledges the inadequacy of her description—or even of the very act of describing! She grapples with the futility of putting into words what is already apparent around us. We need only look. Nature’s teachers mentioned in the poem—owls, mockingbirds, sun, and skies—space and time—pervade and surround our beautiful campus. These are the teachers who are not on your child’s schedule, and we must make time for them too.

Families sometimes come to Fall Family Weekend with clear, if not quite empire-building, plans. They are armed with timelines, conferences, questions, and checklists—like Kublai Khan, ready to conquer the weekend in search of clarity, conclusions, and action items. And, in fairness, we push you in that direction, with our sign-up sheets, portals, and schedules.

This weekend, instead, let’s shift into explorer mode. Let’s be like Marco Polo, exploring the edges of your student’s education and your child’s emerging and evolving human story.

Yes, ask your children about what they have accomplished this fall. But also ask them: What’s most interesting to you? How do you spend your free time? What are you curious about? What fills you with wonder? What moves you?

And ask your kids about what they do when they encounter their own limitations, as Mary Oliver does in her poem. How do they make peace with what’s incomplete, imperfect, or undoable? This last bit is the hardest part of learning—and possibly the hardest part of life—especially today, in a world where we are told that if we are not moving ahead, we are falling behind. But the truth is that, if we never hit that wall, we never really learned anything.

In this world, there is no doubt we must be ready to work, do, and grind—but we also make time and space for wonder and imagination, exploration and rest. And sometimes that means saying no to expectation—even our own.

In closing, I offer you a line from our traditional Wednesday evening chapel prayer: “What has been done has been done; what has not been done has not been done; let it be.”

It is pure joy to work with your children, and it is a special treat to have you here with us. I hope you have a lovely weekend, full of exploration, awe, and stories.

Thank you.

Weekends are an indelible part of the St. Andrew’s experience. While trips to Wilmington, Philadelphia, D.C., and beyond are steeped in art, history, culture, or just plain fun, Saturday nights on campus are what showcase that St. Andrew’s “special sauce.” Those are the evenings the whole school gathers to engage in traditions like prom, homecoming, Haunted Trail, Casino Night, Maui Waui, the Frosty Run, and more. And when it comes to building community, nothing beats the first few weekends of the year—that’s where VI Form Council comes in.

Form council, a program innovated by Director of Student Life Kristin Honsel P’24, establishes a core leadership group of six students per class. Those students are tasked with leading weekend programming designed to bring Saints together; each class has certain weekends they are responsible for. This year, the VI Form Council tackled the first five weekends.

VI Form Council member Claire Hulsey ’26 remembers how much those early weekends meant to her as a freshman. “The school has been shaped by the classes who came before me, and I was on the receiving end of all of those wonderful experiences,” she says. “As seniors, we’re here to enjoy the experience, but more so, we’re creating it for other people. What’s at stake is the [new student] experience, so I consider this an opportunity to give back”

Hulsey says senior council is a matter of culture preservation, not revolution. “If we do everything right, no one’s going to notice and that’s great because it means we’re protecting the culture, not changing it,” she says.

Thus far, VI Form Council executed the Frosty Run, in which Saints descend upon various Wendy’s to bond over a Frosty, and the accompanying dance; Homecoming; a Front Lawn movie night; a gaming night, and more. For these events, council members talk logistics, pitch ideas, choose vendors, budget, promote, perform set up and clean up, and rally the whole school. “VI Form Council is massively different than other form councils because seniors set the tone,” Honsel says. “In partnership with the co-presidents, this is a whole-school leadership position.”

Honsel is impressed with this year’s council, who weathered early storms together. Literally. When rain forced the council to cancel a planned foam party not once, but twice, they had to pivot and come up with something creative on the fly, made markedly more difficult when all six members found themselves in different places one Saturday afternoon trying to come up with a new plan for that evening.

“A few of them were at a cross-country meet, so others were able to say, ‘I got this,'’’ Honsel says. “They refuse to give up. Each brings a different strength to the table that complements the whole.”

In addition to Hulsey, VI Form Council is made up of Class of 2026 Saints Bradley Cook, Bixby Hanrahan, Eden Appiah, Natasha Hearder, and Phin Brown.

“We are the face of weekend fun, but it’s more than that,” says Brown. “Our main purpose is to make sure that every student feels that sense of community.”

Brown says the council's different personas are what make it work. “Not everyone is extroverted and bubbly, and we need that introverted presence,” he says. “We also need that person who is going to keep us in check if we have crazy ideas. The only thing you genuinely need is passion for our community. I hope when underformers sees how passionate we are, and the effort and positivity we put into it, they think, ‘Oh, okay. This is just what we do here’ and then they mirror that.”

“I could not do my job without form council, nor would I want to,” adds Honsel. “If it wasn't for them, we would have to rebuild the energy, culture, and tone every year from scratch.”

Next up for the crew? The beloved Haunted Trail. "We have so many ideas," Hulsey says, laughing. "We'll see what actually gets approved."

On Thursday, Oct. 9th, math instructor and Director of Community Service Kelly Lazar took a van of students to the University of Delaware to hear speaker Chris Nikic lecture at the Bob Carpenter Center. Nikic’s talk, presented by Special Olympics Delaware and the 1% Better Foundation, was steeped in the underlying principles of success Nikic tapped into to become the first (and only) person in the world with Down syndrome to complete an Ironman, run all six global marathon majors, win two ESPYs, and become a global ambassador for Special Olympics and Ironman. Post-competition, Nikic has become a motivational speaker who advocates for Down syndrome awareness and accessibility within elite sports.

Students Sophie Hansen ’26, Bixby Hanrahan ’26, Janie Kim ’26, Kayley Rivera ’26 and Will Tower ’26 attended the lecture. Each is heavily engaged in community service at SAS. Hansen and Tower serve as two of the co-heads of the community service program; Kim and Rivera help organize and run the Special Olympics Fall Sports Festival, which takes place each year at St. Andrew’s; and Hanrahan is an Adaptive Aquatics leader. “I think sometimes to do true service we really need to leave campus,” says Lazar. “We as a community work so closely with Special Olympics, and it was amazing to take students to see the true product of their annual energy and commitment.”

When attendees entered The Bob Carpenter Center, each was provided a red Special Olympics “rally towel,” a sight familiar to St. Andrew’s students because of the school’s longtime relationship with the nonprofit. They were encouraged to wave the towels in support of Nikic and the other adaptive athletes in attendance. Hansen and Tower were excited to greet one such athlete, a local adaptive swimmer who the duo worked with last spring.

Nikic spoke about his nonprofit charity, 1% Better, which is designed to support athletes with Down syndrome. The foundation’s name was inspired by Nikic’s philosophy that every athlete can aim to be one percent better every day. Nikic explained that due to Down syndrome, it’s harder for him to gain and maintain muscle mass. It’s what makes endurance sports so difficult, he said, adding further challenge to completing an Ironman race. Nikic called out the athletes in the crowd, citing that they had “no excuse” not to get one percent better every day, an idea that resonated with the St. Andrew’s seniors and Lazar. “His mentality and philosophy really put a lot of things in perspective for me personally,” Lazar says. “I think sometimes students become stuck in a mindset of learning that if they are not seeing immediate growth in their mastery, they are not growing. But even a small bit of progress, just one percent, will pay off.”

Students left the event inspired and thrilled to engage again with Special Olympics next month, on Saturday, Nov. 1, when the Fall Sports Festival takes place on campus. Fall Sports Festival is a beloved weekend on campus that brings the whole student body together. Saints participate as organizers and volunteers, doing work like referring soccer games, running bocce matches, and helping present awards and accolades throughout the day.

During Fall Family Weekend, the curtain will rise in Forbes Theater on the St. Andrew’s October 24 and 25 production of Neil Simon’s play Rumors. The famous farce features a mix of newcomers and experienced thespians—but they have come together to form a family, according to their director, Arts Department Chair Ann Taylor.

The cast includes two ninth-graders, as well as some older students. Of the seniors in the cast, some are performing in third and fourth productions with the school, and others are taking the stage for the first time.

“They're just immediately part of the family,” Taylor says of newer actors. “I had a conversation with the older, more experienced cast members about ways in which we needed to support and lead by example for the younger students. We never, ever, ever want to be elitist about this craft. We always want to be inviting more people in.”

Choosing Rumors was meant to be inviting, too—because it’s a comedic show with a fast pace and roles for a variety of actors. The play requires sharp timing, in both its staging and its wit. Taylor started the cast with rehearsals for Act Two, the toughest portion of the show to memorize because of its exceptional quickness. Taylor’s goal is to help more experienced actors hone their craft, and help newer performers develop fundamental skill and confidence onstage.

Throughout the ups and downs of a rehearsal process, the students have encouraged each other through every challenge. From building each other up for skill-testing scenes to finding patience and fun through hours of slower, detail-oriented work, the Forbes Theater family keeps one another grounded.

“We’re all in it together,” Taylor says. “There are moments when the work is difficult and moments when it's fun and silly, but in order to get the best result and the biggest reward, you have to feel some frustration along the way. There's a quote in my studio here where an actor compares the work to ditch digging. It can be really, really hard, but once you do it … you put in the work and then suddenly you get to live in this place of creative freedom. And nothing compares to that.”

On October 9, members of the Class of 2029 swung into classroom 18 in Founders Hall to spend the evening talking books and writing with author Kenneth Cadow. Cadow, who visited St. Andrew’s students virtually, wrote Gather, the III Form summer all-read. A National Book Award Finalist in Young People’s Literature, Gather is a coming-of-age novel set in rural Vermont. Through the lens of teenaged protagonist Ian, the book tackles homelessness, addiction, resilience, hope, and sense of place, a narrative blend that appealed to Harrison Rowland ’29 and his own sense of place.

“Gather was a thought-provoking book that I felt was especially meaningful for freshmen as we’re all facing the challenges of being in a new place together,” says Rowland, who opted into the conversation out of a curiosity about the creative process that powered the novel. “The story taught me the importance of resilience and hard work, which I found relatable and inspiring.”

“Gather fit the level of difficulty for incoming students, yet it also yielded plenty for us to discuss and reexamine when classes started,” says Stuart Chair in English Gretchen Hurtt ’90. “The book's main character, a young person determined to hold onto his home and his identity, has a strong and memorable voice. The depictions of connections to the people around him, and the setting around him, are compelling and fit with students coming to our campus and setting up new lives. We had good conversations about the book—it was a good way to start the year around the seminar table.” 

At the talk, Cadow told students Gather was a work two decades in the making. “Phase one started when I was collecting stories in hunting camps [in Vermont], places where the tradition of oral storytelling still exists,” he said. Years later, Cadow said, his main character, Ian, “ran” onto the page. “That moment still gives me goosebumps. From that point on, after I met Ian, I wrote like wild. The more real Ian became, the more I stopped writing for an audience and wrote instead because he urgently needed to tell his story.”

Along the way, Cadow noted the best advice he got was to “get out of your own way.”

“That really resonated with me,” says Rowland. “Mr. Cadow advised us to leave judgement behind and keep our fingers off the backspace key. I believe that implementing this in my own writing will help me express more of my thoughts and ideas.”

Marlowe Richman ’29 found the advice applicable, too. “As someone who is a perfectionist in writing, I needed to hear that,” she says. A lover of books who looks forward to the reading curriculum in the English department, Richman enjoyed looking beneath the surface of Gather to find themes with which she could connect.

“Mr. Cadow talked about the danger of labeling people,” she says. “I think that’s something really important to keep in mind, especially as freshman who are meeting so many new people from different places.” To wit, around the table that evening were first-year students from Virginia, Delaware, Georgia, South Korea, New York, and beyond.

The event wasn’t mandatory, but Richman says she felt strongly about attending, partly due to the gratitude she felt after reading Gather. “I'm into writing, so I wanted to hear from an actual author. I also really liked the book and learned a lot,” she says. “But really, reading Gather made me so grateful for what I have, and the fact that I'm here at St. Andrew's. We have these opportunities that probably the main character in the book wouldn’t have in his rural public high school. We had this rare opportunity, and I wanted to take advantage of it.”

Saints athletics is on fire heading into mid-October. Catch up on recent results for your favorite teams below:

 

Football lost their Sept. 27 Homecoming game against Wilmington Friends School, and their Oct. 3 away game at McKean High School. They face off against visiting Early College School at 2 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 10, and we're rooting for a comeback!

Saints varsity cross-country hosted the Oct. 3 MOT Town Championship, with varsity boys XC coming in first out of five teams. Individually, four St. Andrew's runners placed in the top five varsity boys runners in the 5000 meter run: Henry Bird ’27 in first place, Ryerson Li ’27 in third, Richard Vaughan ’26 in fourth, and Phineas Brown ’26 in fifth. JV boys XC placed first out of three teams, with Saints sweeping the 5000 meter's individual top five slots: Bodin Perrin ’27 in first place, William McNeal ’29 in second, Kaz Yamada ’26 in third, John Kim ’27 in fourth, and Elijah Adewunmi ’29 in fifth.

Varsity girls XC placed first out of five teams in the 5000 meter run, with first through fifth places going to the following individual athletes: Alexi Onsomu ’28, Claire Hulsey ’26, Ines Kossick ’26, Maggie Baker ’27, and Lawson Meyer ’26. In JV Girls XC, the team took first against one challenger in the 5000 meter, and these individual runners hit top five results: Kate Robbins ’27 in first place, Lindsey Liu ’28 in second, Kayla Williams-Johnson ’28 in third, Brookie Barry ’27 in fourth, and Clara Toole ’28 in fifth.

Saints XC will be one of 44 teams running at the Friday, Oct. 17 Joe O'Neill Invitational, hosted by Brandywine High School.

Field hockey's current season record is 5-5. Varsity bested visiting Charter School of Wilmington on Saturday, Sept. 27 (4-1), lost their Tuesday, Sept. 30 match at Sanford School (0-2), came back with a stunning 11-0 win on Friday, Oct. 3 against hosts Christiana High School, and lost 2-3 in a Tuesday, Oct. 7 away game against Tatnall School. The team faces off at home against Tower Hill School today at 3:45 p.m., and we're wishing them another win!

Varsity boys soccer is on a roll with a 10-1 season! Playing away against Wilmington Friends School on Thursday, Sept. 25, the team left the pitch with a 3-1 victory. Their first loss of the season came on Tuesday, Sept. 30, a 1-2 result against hosts Sanford School. The athletes made a comeback with back-to-back 4-0 wins, one on Thursday, Oct. 2 at home against Smyrna High School, and the other at home on Tuesday, Oct. 7 versus Tatnall. Today, Oct. 9 at 4 p.m., the team plays away in a match against Tower Hill.

Varsity girls volleyball took the home court Friday, Sept. 26 for a 3-1 against Wilmington Friends. The team saw two 0-3 away losses, the first on Tuesday, Sept. 30 against Sanford and the second on Thursday, Oct. 2 against MOT Charter High School. 

Girls Collaborative and Saints Volleyball raised over $1,000 for the American Cancer Society, and fundraising wrapped with the Friday, Oct. 3 Pink Out game. Saints attributed their hard-fought 3-2 win to teamwork and spectators' team spirit! Varsity scored another win (3-1) at Tatnall on Tuesday, Oct. 7, and takes the home court tonight at 5:15 p.m. against Tower Hill. Let's go, Saints!

For more information on game schedules and events, check out www.sas-saints.com.

Saints have been busy hitting the books, building community, and pursuing athletic and artistic passions. Take a look at some community highlights:

• When the Homecoming dance was rained out, we pivoted to enjoy video games and bubble soccer instead
• Our animal companions—and their plush stand-ins—received prayers for wellness during the Oct. 4 Blessing of the Animals Chapel
• And more!

The drive from Middletown to Wilmington takes less than an hour, but for the St. Andrew’s students who make regular food deliveries to Epiphany House, the journey is a bridge between two worlds.

Epiphany House is a transitional shelter for unhoused women, providing not just temporary housing but also a structured program that guides residents toward independent living. For years, St. Andrew’s has enjoyed a partnership with the Episcopal-affiliated organization, with students regularly delivering meals to residents. The meals are prepared in the St. Andrew’s Dining Hall and packaged for transport, but students don’t simply drop them off and leave. They stay to have dinner and spend time with the women who live in the home. 

Kayley Rivera ’26 first arrived at Epiphany House with preconceived notions shaped by “media portrayals” of food service. “I didn’t exactly know what to expect, I just knew we were ‘taking a meal,’” Rivera recalls. “My mind went to movie scenes with food banks with big assembly lines.”

Instead, Rivera found herself seated at a dining room table and sharing a meal with residents. The conversation flowed from discussions about St. Andrew’s to personal hopes and dreams.

The similarities to St. Andrew’s own dining traditions, where students gather multiple times a week to share a meal, didn’t go unnoticed. “We shared the meal family style, and said grace together,” Rivera says. “It was like a sisterhood. [The residents] were excited to welcome us and for us to share our lives.” The experience, Rivera says,  has altered how she understands homelessness. 

Dr. Pamela Pears, a faculty member who regularly accompanies students on these visits, emphasizes that the partnership serves St. Andrew’s broader educational mission by taking students “out of our bubble.”

One of the most striking aspects of this partnership is how it challenges traditional notions of who benefits from charitable work, she says. “We get more out of it than I think the people we’re serving,” says Pears.

As an example, she points to arriving at Epiphany House after a difficult week, only to find her mood transformed by simple conversations with residents. “I go in and I sit there with those women and just talk about, I don’t know, Bath & Body Works, and it warms my heart,” she says.

This mutual enrichment reflects the partnership’s success in creating genuine human connections rather than surface-level exchanges. St. Andrew’s students aren’t merely performing a service; both the students and the women at Epiphany House are active participants in meaningful connections that benefit everyone involved.

For students interested in serving, Pears emphasizes the accessibility of the commitment. “All you have to do is have a couple of hours free,” she says. Yet the impact extends far beyond the time invested, she notes.

“I would encourage students to get involved with community service at St. Andrew’s,” Rivera says. She says her experience at Epiphany House exemplifies how stepping outside familiar environments can offer invaluable lessons on gratitude, privilege, and relationships.

The partnership between St. Andrew’s and Epiphany House creates space for authentic relationships to develop across social and economic divides, challenging students to expand their understanding of both their community and themselves—one conversation at a time.

 

Almost a decade ago, Dean of Teaching and Learning Emily Pressman had an idea for community-building among the freshmen girls on Pell Dorm. “We want our students to be able to see, imagine, and pursue all the different ways to be an amazing St. Andrean,” says Pressman. Who better to exemplify various pathways to Sainthood than the senior class? “Wisdom Wednesday,” a weekly post-Chapel senior talk, was born. The tradition has been going strong in Pell since 2016.

Seniors across all dorms sign up to offer intimate chats on healthy relationships, lessons forged from failure, how to take good risks, what it means to be a good roommate, and more. “One of the critical things the III Form has to figure out is navigating the rooming process, which can be emotional,” Pressman says. “To hear from seniors who thought it was the end of the world when they were paired with their roommate and three years later, they’re close friends who still live together, that’s a powerful story.”

Also powerful is talking through smart risks, Pressman says. “You can see those moments during students’ first year when [Wisdom Wednesday] guidance shaped a decision they made whether to try something new or to take a different perspective.” When those III formers become seniors, Pressman delights at the “full-circle moment” when they return to deliver their own talk.

This fall marked another significant moment for Wisdom Wednesday. Not only did Pressman begin her first year of dorm duty in Founders Hall, where all male students live, Wisdom Wednesday also made its Founders debut.

When Founders dorm parents Gabe Perla and Ben Horgan learned about Pressman’s tradition, they wanted make it theirs, too. “When we were thinking about meaningful functions, this seemed like a great fit,” says Perla. “It was the coolest dorm tradition we heard about.”

Wisdom Wednesday has evolved since its first iteration to include adults in the community, particularly those adults who are  St. Andrew’s alumni. Founders’ first Wisdom Wednesday featured Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid Will Robinson ’97 P’26,’28, who spoke about healthy relationships. “It’s important for students to build relationships with adults, particularly those in positions of authority. This conversation was a place for them to hear about a serious topic, but also have fun,” says Perla, who notes that the last few minutes of the talk were reserved for a “speed round” where students could ask Robinson less-serious questions like, "What’s your low-stakes hot take?" and "Favorite Dining Hall meal?" “Ultimately,” Perla says, “St. Andrew’s is a place of respect where how we treat each other matters. We’re doing this work to teach them what kind of community we want to live in.”

Will Harrington ’29 enjoyed the gathering. “Mr. Robinson talked about how important it was to get to know your whole grade,” Harrington says. “It really stuck with me, looking around the room, that not only will I be with these people for the next four years, but these people might be at my wedding. These friendships will go beyond high school, so it’s important to care about these relationships.”

Also in the room to witness a bit of SAS history was Pressman.  “It was a wonderful moment,” she says, smiling.

Last Thursday, student performances inside the dance studio weren’t set to music—instead, group after group of peers put on skits showing healthy and unhealthy relationships. This was the last act before the curtain came down on 2025’s IN Day, an annual event devoted to looking inward to learn about and discuss relationships of all kinds.

IN Day sees Saints partnering with the One Love Foundation—an organization focused on educating, raising awareness, and mobilizing people to end relationship abuse and create healthier relationships. Dean of Students Greg Guldin, who helped bring IN Day to St. Andrew’s in 2022, worked with Director of Counseling Lizzie Brown, Form Advisors, and junior and senior student facilitators to bring IN Day 2025 to life.

“We rely on each other to make [St. Andrew’s] what it is. Yet, relationships are not things we spend much time talking about,” Guldin says. “We assume kids will learn [about relationships] over time and we neglect offering the language they may need to communicate what they are seeing, feeling, or experiencing.”

One Love’s “Ten Signs” of healthy and unhealthy relationships provide a shared framework for Saints on IN Day and beyond. And One Love’s lessons apply to and go beyond spotting and addressing toxic or abusive romantic relationships—positives like mutual respect, or negatives like possessiveness, can crop up between roommates, friends, teammates, and the like as well as between romantic partners.

On IN Day, facilitators—with the help of adult mentors—support peers’ open and honest dialogue in response to a Chapel service and speech, skits, movies and discussion guides from One Love, and vehicles to discuss the particulars of relationship-building in a boarding school environment. The content can be cathartic for students who have experienced unhealthy dynamics, and educational to those looking for tools to help themselves or their loved ones in need of support, Guldin says.

Roberto Buccini ’26 was excited to step into a facilitator role for 2025 and follow in the footsteps of older students who left an impression facilitating for his groups in past years. He felt driven to help sustain the wellbeing of his community.

“I’ve learned how important just having the basic knowledge of healthy and unhealthy relationships is, in terms of how much of a difference it can make,” he says. “Because St. Andrew’s is such a small community, it’s super important that we value every relationship and know that love should never hurt. It’s also important that we know when and how to dispute conflicts.”

Handling conflict was a major piece of students’ skits, from roleplaying bystander intervention in a case of bullying, to acting out a conflict between friends over a broken game. When student-actors made their audience laugh, they were always balancing levity and respect for the topics at hand.

“Even if a student uses the ‘Ten Signs’ in a somewhat humorous manner, they are using the terms, and these are terms they would not have learned in another context,” Guldin says. “It makes logical sense that a community built on trust and trusting relationships would pause to take some time to expand our intellectual curiosity from the classrooms and bring it into our own interactions with others. We think about thinking all the time at St. Andrew's. Now we are thinking about our relationships too. I can think of nothing more fitting.”

For Brian Anderson ’15, a September 24 campus visit to share his work in climate action brought him back to the classrooms of Founders Hall—but it wasn’t a return to roundtable discussions. Anderson and his colleagues work to find and emphasize points of intersection between different sectors impacting the environment, from electric vehicles to agriculture, using an approach familiar to Saints.

“I've really turned my office into quite a St. Andrew's format. I constantly bring everyone into our conference room and we just sit and talk for an hour,” Anderson says. “It's a really good way to push people to explore ideas and figure out ways that things are interconnected.”

Anderson works in Delaware’s state climate office, within the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control. He is currently coordinating the mitigation section of Delaware’s climate action plan, to be published in November, which includes a roadmap for Delaware to reach net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.

Around a table in Classroom 13 on Wednesday, Anderson spoke with environmentally-conscious students and employees, including Coordinator of Sustainable Initiatives Jess Buxbaum. During the roundtable, Saints had the opportunity to talk with Anderson about their own environmental studies, ways individuals and the whole St. Andrew’s community can support Delaware’s transition to net-zero, and more.

Raised in Pennsylvania, Anderson says his years at St. Andrew’s helped shape not only the communication style he uses with colleagues, but also the knowledge of Delaware’s beauty and challenges that informs his work. Though the 2015 grad has returned to campus several times, this week was Anderson’s first chance to pay forward a life-changing St. Andrew’s experience.

“St. Andrew's is where my general interest in the outdoors turned into being interested in what it means to work in environmental spaces or environmental roles,” he says. “I have such a distinct memory: one Saturday, alumni in creative fields came back and taught mini-seminar classes in their fields … I can pretty specifically identify that as the time when I realized, ‘No matter what you pursue, if you're keen on the environment, you can weave it in.’”

Anderson hopes to do his part in encouraging students to weave together environmental work and their other passions. While students told Anderson it often feels like their generation is expected to solve climate issues on behalf of everyone else, Anderson and his colleagues strive to meet younger people where they are when it comes to environmental work.

Anderson believes that projects that use existing features of one’s everyday environment to help make positive changes for the planet are vital—and engaged, knowledgeable people working in varied disciplines help make those projects work. At St. Andrew’s, that might look like Saints’ efforts to combat food waste on campus; in the wider world, community leaders can make infrastructure changes that encourage more sustainable transportation or help community spaces like parks double as barriers for coastal flooding.

“You're taking something that's already there, making a very simple switch, and it's improving everybody's life,” Anderson says. “It's the intersectionality at every turn that I think is really cool. I think that's how we keep students really engaged … It always comes back to what people are most passionate about. If you can identify something that someone is already interested in and then … [show how] that thing can be a component of necessary change for the environment, that's when people respond best.”

On Friday, September 19th, students, employees, and family members of the artist found their way to the Warner Art Gallery to see the work of St. Andrew’s new visual arts instructor Charlese Phillips. 

Phillips’ exhibition, “Years: A Reflection,” features work dating back to her time as a high school student and before, making the exhibition a deeply personal look at her artistic journey. As viewers travel the room, they can jump through time and see how her technique and creativity evolved throughout the years. Phillips’ recent work features fiber artistry, particularly tapestry, and dazzles with intricate brushwork and stitching. 

“This is one of the first exhibitions where I actually included stories about my life and my journey. I feel like [St. Andrew’s] was probably the best place for me to do that,” says Phillips. “Since I have started here, I’ve felt very much at home. Everybody has been so welcoming, and that gave me that safe space to open up and explore.” 

Phillips’ work touched close to home for Saints because it highlighted the artist’s high school experience. “I think it is really reflective … to give [students] a window into that progression that you have as an artist, and seeing where I started, too,” she says. “It has actually been a little bit emotional for me. I’m proud of myself that I kept going.” 

The exhibit showcased the art department’s emphasis on faculty members who are also practicing artists. “That [creativity] is really important in our art faculty because part of teaching is being a role model,” says Head of School Joy McGrath ’92, who attended the opening. “When you are actually creating work that is in time and in space, and devoting time and space to your work, it is an example to students of how it is to be a professional and also practice.”

Abe Perry ’26 enjoyed wandering around the gallery and getting to  know a new community member based on her work. “Getting to see the kind of art our teachers produce is really cool,” he says. “[It shows] how good these people are, and also puts into perspective how many layers there are to start [creating] art.”

The Warner Gallery features three to four visiting artists per year from throughout the region thanks to photography and printmaking instructor Joshua Meier P’28,’24, who also curates the gallery. “It’s this balancing act of wanting the art to be good, and wanting it to be interesting, but you also want it to work within the context of what we do at St. Andrew’s,” he says. Phillips’ gallery, he notes, encapsulates these principles.

The show runs until October 19th, and the artist is happy to discuss her work with those curious about her technique and path. Her words of advice based on lessons learned? “Never stop creating,” she says.

 

 

 

From football fields to volleyball courts, Saints’ support in the stands and on the sidelines helped propel athletes forward in the second and third weeks of the fall season. Catch up on recent results for your favorite teams below:

 

Football lost their Sept. 12 and Sept. 20 games, but they’ll never lose the hearts of Saints football fans! For the Sept. 12 face-off against Tower Hill, defeat didn’t stop six buses worth of St. Andrew’s students from screaming and stomping for their beloved red and white until the clock ran out. Fans will be ready to cheer on Saturday, Sept. 27 at 1 p.m. when St. Andrew’s hosts its Homecoming game against Wilmington Friends School.

Saints varsity cross-country continued competition travel over the last two weeks, first racing in the Sept. 12 White Clay Creek Classic in Newark, De. Henry Bird ’27 earned a Top 10 individual finish in first place for boys, and Maggie Baker ’27 and Claire Hulsey ’26 also broke the Top 10 for individual finishes, earning fifth and sixth place respectively.

Runners took on the Middletown Invitational at Lums Pond State Park on Sept. 19. Full results have not been published, but we will update this article when more information is available.

Cross-country laces up again Saturday, Sept. 27 for the Salesanium Invitational at Brandywine Creek State Park.

Field hockey visited Tower Hill on Sept. 11, then hosted Wilmington Friends on Sept. 13 and Tatnall School on Sept. 16, with all three games ending in a Saints loss. However, the team bounced back for a 2-1 home win against Odessa on Sept. 19, and an 11-1 victory in an away game at Brandywine High School on Sept. 22. Their next game is a Saturday home match at 12 p.m. against the Charter School of Wilmington.

Varsity boys soccer is on a roll with a 6-0 season! With a 4-1 away win against Tatnall on Sept. 16 and a 7-0 victory against Conrad School on the home pitch Sept. 19, Saints sustained their seasonlong streak. The team hosted Newark Charter Sept. 22 and won 2-0. Today, Sept. 25, they have a 4 p.m. away game against Wilmington Friends.

Saints soccer ended last week with even more to celebrate: Jacob Smith ’28 was voted Delaware Online High School Sports Athlete of the Week for Week 2—congratulations, Jacob!

Varsity girls volleyball clinched a gritty home opener win Sept. 16, scoring big in a nail-biting 4th set thanks to strong defense for a 3-1 W.

Although the team did not win their next match, a Sept. 19 face-off on Wilmington Christian School’s court, Saints volleyball returned to our home gym Sept. 23 for a 3-0 win against Odyssey Charter School. They hit the home court again at 5:15 p.m. tomorrow, Sept. 26.

For more information on game schedules and events, check out www.sas-saints.com.

What have Saints been up to in the weeks between Opening of School and Homecoming? Here's a sampling:

• Students cheered on the football team at a Friday night away game;
• Ethos Coffee group members served up caffeine for a cause;
• The Cheese Club expanded their knowledge to include cheese-making;
• Saints served a meal to neighbors in need in Wilmington, DE;
• Seniors gave younger neighbors on dorm a tutorial on tying a necktie;
• And so much more!

The transition to boarding school can be daunting. There are new faces, new rules, new traditions, new buildings, new roommates, new everything.  But Elijah Adewunmi ’29, who hails from Queens, has found his way at St. Andrew’s with a little help from his “big brother,” Widalvis Burgos ’26. “It's been really fun acclimating to school,” Adewunmi says. “I've made a lot of relationships, connecting with new friends across every grade. My big brother has made that easy for me. It’s nice to know that any issue I'll ever have, I can go to him.” (Even when that issue is simply a strong desire for a slice on Pizza Tuesday.) “I do go to him when I’m hungry,” Adewunmi admits, laughing.

The Big-Little tradition is a foundational part of residential-life onboarding at St. Andrew’s. Seniors are paired with incoming new students, no matter what grade the new Saint is entering. The community-building with new students begins not long after they’re accepted: one of the junior class’s lass official acts before leveling up to senior status is to write their “little” a welcome letter, which each new student receives in July.

When Burgos sat down to write his letter last spring, he reflected on his own experience as a new freshman. “I was arrogant and ignorant because I didn’t know who I was,” he says. “I thought I knew everything about myself, but I didn’t. There was so much I had to learn, and during that growth process, it was clear how important a Big Brother was. That’s who I want to be to my little.”

Burgos and Adewunmi share a home town, and each is a graduate of Prep 9, an educational program that helps prepare high-achieving, motivated students from the New York City region for success at boarding schools. Pairings like these are intentional: St. Andrew’s partners new Saints with someone with whom they share some common ground. “Since Elijah and I came from Prep, I understand part of his experience in coming [to St. Andrew’s],” he says. “Everything that’s ‘normal’ here can feel a little strange at first, but I can walk him through that.”

The duo prioritizes connecting. They shoot in the gym to get locked-in for basketball, they share breakfast, they check in on academics, they have a standing Friday meet-up, and Burgos often visits Adewunmi on dorm at night. “He’s in a triple, so when I check on him, I’m checking on all three of them,” Burgos says. “The senior class is in this together. We understand the mission. The whole point of senior year is to help shape the experiences of the underclassmen. We don’t have our own [senior] dorms for a reason.”

Adewunmi says he was hesitant about St. Andrew’s at first. “One of the first things I asked Widalvis was, ‘Is this school really going to be for me?’ And he said, ‘At this school, if you put your heart into it, the place is for you. You got here, and you deserve to be here,’” Adewunmi remembers. “I hope to be the kind of big brother he is when it's my turn.”

A crucial part of dorm life at St. Andrew’s is building family connections even if you’re far from home—something senior Residential Leaders (RLs) facilitate by looking back at impactful alumni.

Seniors do not have dorms of their own, instead living in smaller senior dorm teams—captained by RLs—across underform housing. Dean of Residential Life Stacey Duprey ’85 P’04’10’13 says senior leadership is fundamental to campus culture, with seniors modeling St. Andrew’s values in everyday dorm life and showing younger students what strong leadership looks like.

“Some of the first and most impactful people new students meet are the seniors who will be living alongside them, modeling what it means to welcome and care for others,” Duprey says. “Living with these seniors, they see what it means to work hard academically, athletically, and artistically, and to work collaboratively with caring adults. Even if they are not fully cognizant of it, they are learning what will be expected of them [senior year].”

RLs have chosen to add increased responsibilities on dorm to the already-busy schedule of a first-semester senior. Drew Merriman ’26, like many RLs, is fueled by a desire to pay forward the support he received.

“There was a senior my freshman year, Jayson Rivera [’23] … a fantastic leader. He knew how to prioritize our needs,” Merriman says. “It takes a lot to find friends as a freshman, and Jason did a great job of building a close-knit community. I'm on a sophomore dorm now, so I’m trying to apply that sense of community, and also make sure they have support to branch out.”

Each dorm has a theme, and sometimes Merriman enters his Bahama vacation-decorated common room as a cruise director, encouraging camaraderie with snacks and activities. Other times, he’s like a lifeguard, working proactively so he can help if waters grow choppy.

“[Each night] I try to talk to the guys about their days, and make sure they feel like they can talk to me,” Merriman says. “That's big for creating a safe, supportive, and fun culture.”

For Tanner Caldwell ’26, being an RL for freshmen means helping students build support systems in a brand-new environment, as well as helping with dorm-life staples like laundry and cooking.

“I think the biggest thing about St. Andrews is you're able to be yourself and to push what you’re interested in and who you want to be,” she says. “Freshman year, you're still trying to figure it out. It's important to find your people. Being open to change and growth is hard and vulnerable. And getting them to that point is my goal.”

Caldwell’s confidence in helping lead younger peers is often drawn from the advice of her last RL, Isabela Hernandez ’25.

“I remember asking her, ‘How do you make it look so effortless and graceful?’ And she was like, ‘That's so funny that you think that, because I did not think that was graceful at all. I felt like I had no idea what it was doing, I just led with my heart,’” Caldwell says. “Sometimes I might feel like I don't know what I'm doing or like I’m not doing the right thing, but it meant a lot for her to say, ‘lead with your heart.’ That goes a long way, that you can trust that what you have to do, that it’s the right thing to do, based on how you feel about the community on dorm.”

After a demonstrative week one 42-6 victory over The John Dickinson School, St. Andrew’s football lost to Tower Hill, 38-8, under the big lights on Friday, September 12. The defeat didn’t stop six buses worth of St. Andrew’s students from screaming and stomping for their beloved red and white until the clock ran out.

The first “spirit bus” game of the fall athletic season, Saints, equipped with megaphones, face paint, and posters to celebrate their favorite Saints athletes, brought a taste of the SAS community to the home turf of their Wilmington rivals. Quarterback Toby Nix ’26 says he not only felt the love, but was fueled by it. “The under-the-lights game is always one of my favorite sporting events of the year,” he says. “The energy being emitted from the stands means a lot to us as a team, and even when we struggled on the field, the Saints in the stands showed incredible support.”

Standout performances included Austin McEachin ’27 on defense, who led the team with eight tackles. Alex Kernistant ’27 added seven more, including one tackle for loss. Offensively, Burke Donovan ’26 scored the lone touchdown, which whipped the Saints contingent into a frenzy. Roberto Buccini ’26 then converted for two points on the ground.

“Losing is never something that’s even considered, not until the very end of a game, and that’s what I saw,” Nix says. “I saw a drive to keep moving forward. Even through a difficult loss, we continued to fight. I think that speaks a lot to the character of this team.”

Next Saturday, September 20, the 1-1 Saints march into Charter School of Wilmington to face an 0-2 team. Nix says he’ll be coming in to that matchup with better focus, borne of elevated practices and intense film study. “I want to further my studies of my opponent to get better knowledge of their defense,” he says. “I’ll also be looking to do something to get better while on the field, even in my downtime. Practice time is limited, so maximizing the way we work during practice will continue to make or break our team.”

If you think the Saints are daunted by the loss, think again. “I’m amped,” Nix says. “Week two was a wakeup call that’s going to force us to adapt the way we think about ourselves. I believe that this team has the ability to bounce back and really take it to Wilmington Charter.”

You can find the football schedule, roster, and updated scores at sas-saints.com.

Saints varsity boys soccer dominated rival Tower Hill 5-1 on Thursday, September 11, improving to 3-0 on the season. Of the five goals scored, three came by way of two Saints new to the varsity roster. After being down 0-1 for most of the first half, new sophomore Max Newman ’28 scored, forcing a tie heading into halftime. 

Post-half, the Saints kept the pressure on, with multiple attempts on goal. With 16 minutes left, Alvin Xie ’26 scored from the edge of the box. Less than two minutes later, Jacob Smith ’28 followed suit with a goal. 

Up 3-1 with five minutes remaining, Newman took a corner, allowing Smith to nail a header into the back of the net for his second goal. The Saints weren’t done yet: with less than two minutes on the clock, Calder Lopez ’26 slid a goal into the back left corner.

Fired up after his big game, Smith took the time to acknowledge some of the varsity players that inspired him. “I didn’t make the [varsity] team last year, but I was close,” he says. “Liam [Robinson ’26] and Calder [Lopez ’26] saw that and they pushed me not just to keep working to make it to the team, but to really make an impact when I got here. They really are the motivation and standard for the whole team." 

How’d that first goal feel? “I was ecstatic," Smith says. "I ran toward the sideline and saw the school community cheering, and it just made me want to keep going. And after that second one, it was just insane.”

It also made him hungry for more. “We plan to keep rolling, keep our win streak going, and make it to the championship,” he says. “We plan to win this year."

“Starting 3-0 sounds good, but we’re on to the next one and have to move forward,” says head coach Ben Horgan ’19, adding, “We might need to work on our goal celebrations, though.”

Looking for more on Saints soccer? Delaware Online caught up with Smith and Newman post-game.

From fields to courts, in competitions at home and away, Saints athletics saw teams make strong early-season showings.

 

Football tackled their first game of the season on Sept. 5 and left the home field with a 42-6 win against John Dickinson School. They’ll be under the Friday night lights at 7 p.m. tonight, Sept. 12 at Tower Hill School—good luck, Saints!

 

At the Sept. 6, 2025 Lake Forest High School XC Invitational in Felton, DE, Saints Varsity XC left competitors in the dust. Boys XC placed third in a field of 13 teams; all six competing athletes finished in the top 40 percent in a field of 84 individual runners, with Henry Bird ’27 earning a first-place finish.

Girls XC placed fourth in a field of 13 teams; all seven competing girls XC athletes finished in the top 50 percent in a field of 83 individual runners, and Maggie Baker ’27 clinched 10th place.

Saints XC laces up their sneakers again today, Sept. 12!

 

Field hockey left it all on the home field Sept. 8, beating visiting Wilmington Christian 4-0. Their 3:45 p.m. Thursday match at Tower Hill ended with a win for the home team.

 

Varsity boys soccer is 2-0! Saints kicked off the season Sept. 5, away against Wilmington Christian (3-0), then scored a Tuesday win away against Caravel Academy (1-0). They took the pitch at home on Thursday at 4 p.m., facing visiting Tower Hill, securing a three-game winning streak.

 

Varsity girls volleyball ended a Sept. 8 away match at Odessa High School one point behind their opponent. Saints hit the court at Tower Hill at 5:45 p.m. Thursday, ending the match with a loss. They're on the home court Sept. 16—a new opportunity to bring home a W!

 

For more information on game schedules and events, check out www.sas-saints.com.

On August 31, our full community reunited on campus for the Opening of School. We began the new year by supporting one another—starting with an energetic welcome and teamwork during move-in. Ever since, we've been busy with:

• Traditions like Square Dance, Open Mic Night, and Frosty Run;
• A Voluntary Chapel where our chaplains gave back-to-school blessings;
• The year's first All School Meeting and advisory functions;
• And so much more!

Abe Perry ’26 and Lila Lunsford ’26 can still feel the moment they were named co-presidents. “I was thrilled,” Lunsford says. “What made me most excited was that I got to be with Abe.” Adds Perry, “I was like, ‘Wow, this place really cares about me.’” 

Perry was encouraged to run by trusted mentors like his advisor, Stephen Mufuka, and his mother, former English faculty member Dr. Martha Pitts. Lunsford, on the other hand, was initially hesitant.

“Co-president wasn’t on my agenda,” she admits. It was her father who shifted her perspective. “You love this school so much, you’re willing to do anything for it,” he reminded her. Her cousin, Charlie Lunsford ’24, a former co-president, also encouraged her.

Each says their school involvement helped prepare them for the role. Lunsford, a three-sport varsity athlete, understands the demands of balancing academics, athletics, and leadership. Perry’s diverse involvement, from theater to crew, gives him critical touch points across the community.

The duo also previously served on Form Council together. “We know each other’s [leadership] styles,” Perry says. “Lila’s more bubbly than me, and that helps when having conversations with adults.” 

The co-presidents say their approach to leadership will be “practical and heart-centered.” “It’s not what we want,” Perry says. “It’s what we’re doing for everyone else.” 

One of their first initiatives is to strengthen the “big sibling-little sibling” tradition, wherein new students are paired with returning students to navigate boarding life. They are strategizing ways to maintain the bond the entire school year to address a “troubling trend where connections fade due to busy schedules,” says Perry. 

Lunsford says mental health is another priority. “We want to open up conversations, especially on dorm, with how to approach self-care and tackle mental health,” she says. She also emphasizes sustaining positive energy throughout the year. “It’s important for our grade to have fun energy, because those younger than us will follow.”

Lunsford and Perry welcome healthy dialogue around their ideas. “We don’t want a bunch of ‘yes’-people,’” Perry says. “We want people to share their opinions.” 

The co-presidents’ favorite St. Andrew’s traditions reflect different personalities but a shared passion for community-building. Lunsford lights up about the Frosty Run. “Everyone’s just so excited to be back together,” she says. “I love the bus ride. We’re singing and people are taking photos [with a digital camera].” Perry champions the new Front Lawn spring party. “We never thought Mrs. [Kristin] Honsel would say ‘yes’ to a mechanical bull,” he says. “Everyone was out there, even people that usually aren’t outside.” 

Their advice to underclassmen comes from hard-earned experience. Lunsford emphasizes self- compassion. “Your 100 percent is going to look different every day,” she says. “Just make sure you’re giving your best effort.” Perry encourages exploration. “The school isn’t like any other school,” he says. “You could be an athlete who loves to act.”

As they consider the year ahead, the legacy they hope they leave centers on fostering genuine love for their school. “I want people to fall in love with this place as much as I have,” Lunsford says. 

“Let’s go to events,” Perry implores his peers. “Let’s go to volleyball. Let’s go outside. Let’s act like this place is special.” 

 

The thrill of competition is in the air as Saints athletes gear up to represent St. Andrew’s across fields, trails, and courts. Here’s a look at fall sports:

BOYS SOCCER 
A dramatic 2024 run for the state championship ended in a Saints loss after a tense November penalty shootout against Sussex Academy. Yet the squad is “on the rise” according to the Delaware News Journal, which recognized the team’s year-over-year improvement: soccer went from a 3-11-1 record in 2023 to 9-9-1 in 2024, representing one of the largest win total boosts of all Delaware high school teams last fall. “[This season is] a lot of competitive games against good teams and good coaching,” says head coach Ben Horgan ’19. “But the guys are ready. The seniors are strong, we have players coming up from JV who are ready to build, and some new faces, too.” 
GAME TO WATCH: Be there Homecoming Weekend for a state championship rematch at home against Sussex Academy on Sept. 27.

CROSS-COUNTRY 
Finishing second in the state in 2024 with All-State runners Peter Bird ’25, Chris Onsomu ’25, and Henry Bird ’27 leading the pack, boys cross-county looks to make a statement this fall. Head coach Dan O’Connell’s game plan?  Build on past success. “The boys are dedicated and hardworking,” he says. “We have a good group of varsity runners who are close to each other, and close in their abilities.” O’Connell highlights Bird as one to watch. “Henry’s pace and skill are a level above. He is ready to dominate.” 

Girls cross-country also earned second in 2024. Two of the team’s three dominating 2024 All-State athletes, which included Leah Horgan ’25, Claire Hulsey ’26, and Maggie Baker ’27, are back. “People think that running is an individual sport, but running as a team made a world of difference in our success last year,” says varsity head coach Kat Celata. “We worked together, we relied on each other, and we showed up as a whole. We’re hoping to continue that.” 
MEET TO WATCH: Both teams are eyeing reigning DISC champion Tatnall. The DISC Championship happens on Tatnall’s turf on Oct. 23. 

FIELD HOCKEY 
Field hockey secured its first winning record in 17 years and saw five athletes pick up All-Conference nods in a breakthrough 2024 season. Head coach Kate Cusick says the focus shifts to building on last year’s success. “We work hard, but we know how to balance the hard work with fun,” she says. “The culture is so healthy that people are willing to play in different places on the field, and I appreciate that.” 
GAME TO WATCH: Catch the team’s home debut Sept. 8 against Wilmington Christian School.

VOLLEYBALL 
Under the leadership of then-new head coach Jonah-Kai Baker in 2024, girls volleyball secured the team’s first winning record since 2018, adding four names to the Saints All-Conference athlete total along the way. After a taste of success, coaches and players are hungrier than ever, Baker says. “There is a lot of playing time that's now going to be filled with players who were on JV or didn't get as much time last year,” he says. “I’m excited to see [the players] trusting themselves that they absolutely can fill those shoes.”
GAME TO WATCH: On Oct. 3, cheer the Saints at home against Christiana and support breast cancer research for the annual Volleyball Pink Out Fundraiser, brought to you by Girls Collaborative.

FOOTBALL 
Saints football has a new look, thanks to roster moves and new assistant coach Steve Cacciavillano. Head coach Rick Barron says the team is already building. “I am excited for the season ahead because this team has great chemistry and wants to build on the progress we made last season,” he says. “Pre-season went well, and new starters stepped into their roles. Our senior leadership will inspire us to play our best.”
GAME TO WATCH: The storied tradition of the Cannon Game continues: catch Saints vs. Tatnall at home on Oct. 18. 

For more information on game schedules and events, check out www.sas-saints.com.

For Dave DeSalvo, my mentor at St. Andrew’s; and for the late John Higgins, math teacher at St. Andrew’s from 1980 to 2012, and Rev. DeSalvo’s mentor once upon a time 

From time to time, folks ask me what my favorite Latin word is. Some of them may know a little Latin, so they expect me to say semper or fortasse or celeriter. All are fabulous adverbs, and in fact my favorite word is also an adverb, but it is underappreciated when compared with semper (always), fortasse (perhaps), and celeriter (quickly). My favorite is one of Latin’s little words – just three letters long – but it’s one of the most powerful and profound words I know. My favorite Latin word is iam – spelled I-A-M. 

I’ve studied ancient languages for a long time, and I have yet to encounter a word that’s so small yet so mighty, so meaningful, so multitudinous. Iam, you see, has a superpower; it’s a word that can transcend time. What I mean by this is that used with a present tense verb, iam means “now, at this very time” (I am talking now). With a past tense verb, iam means “already, a while ago” (I was already talking). With a future tense verb, iam means “then” (after I stand, I will then talk). These are the rules of Latin grammar, and iam – unlike any other little word that  I know – defies human constructions of time and exists in a lofty, ethereal timelessness. Henri Matisse channels the power of iam in The Red Studio (1911), which you will find on the back of tonight’s bulletin. The painting is an experiment in color, perspective, and dimensionality, but it is also a meditation on the creative process. If you look carefully, in a room full of canvases, sculptures, and furniture, Matisse places in the middle of things a grandfather clock with no hands.  

To create art, then, is to escape time, and as a humanist, I’m always thinking about past and present, impermanence and eternity, memory and self-knowledge. This year I’ve been teaching a lot of books that explore these themes: in English 4, Sophocles’ Oedipus the King, Herman Melville’s “Bartleby the Scrivener,” and Toni Morrison’s Beloved. In Latin, my juniors and seniors are reading Vergil’s Aeneid, and we’ve recently emerged from the labyrinthine  Underworld, where all notions of past, present, and future collapse. In my history class on  ancient Athens, we’ve been considering the project of history as Thucydides writes a narrative not “to win the applause of the moment, but as a possession for all time.”¹ And, of course, all of us have given time to this chapel space, where, for nearly one hundred years, the rituals of worship and wonder, of service and spirit, of πίστις καὶ ἐπιστήμη (faith and learning), have begun, ended, and then begun again. 

However, the initial logic of this talk took shape on Thursday, October 19th, 2023, the Thursday before Parents Weekend, when I left my home of eight years, St. Andrew’s, to travel back home to Providence, Rhode Island, where I lived for six years. The occasion was a retirement celebration for Professor Arnold Weinstein, who taught comparative literature at  Brown University for fifty-four academic years.² Arnold is one of my great mentors. I served as his teaching assistant for six semesters, and I watched him lecture to hundreds of undergraduate students, inspiring them to read and appreciate some of the most challenging and fascinating texts in world literature. A brilliant and eloquent communicator, Arnold had the rare gift of engaging the familiar in new ways while making the unfamiliar accessible and exciting. He was also a exemplary teacher. Every week, he would meet with us, his teaching assistants, and in these dialogic sessions, we pressed him to elaborate on his ideas, while he solicited our views. Arnold modeled interdisciplinary thinking, showed us the significance of synthesis, and encouraged us to be unafraid of improvisation. This last point, it seems to me, is an essential component of great teaching, and I am grateful to Arnold for having the chance to develop it in his classes.

So it was my pleasure to drive to Providence on Thursday afternoon, spend Friday at Brown, attend Arnold’s celebration, and then drive back to Delaware in the middle of the night in order to make my first conference at 8:30 on Saturday morning. It was a dizzying, emotional odyssey, and one that has stuck with me ever since. On Friday morning I arrived at Brown to have breakfast with one of my buddies from graduate school, Derek. After we parted ways, I was walking up the street when, to my surprise, someone shouted, “Dr. Walsh!” I spied Gavin Green ’22, one of my former Latin students, who rushed over to say hello. We had a joyful conversation: he told me about Division I rowing and life as a college sophomore. I then went to have lunch with Will Vogel ’22, and we talked about politics, history, artificial intelligence, Sigmund Freud, and Greek tragedy.

By that point the word on the street was that I was on College Hill, and the direct messages started arriving. I met up with Albert Sung ’23, and I listened as he explained linear algebra to me and needing to work really hard to keep up with talented peers. I reminded Albert that he himself is an incredibly hard-working, talented young person, and I encouraged  him to trust his instincts and the learning process. William Yu ’22 was next. We connected and walked up Thayer St., where we bumped into Zach Atalay ’23. Then Andrew Park ’21 messaged to say hello, but by that point I needed to get dinner with Derek and some other old friends.

Long story short, I was visiting Brown to celebrate my dear mentor. I was joined by several peers, a few of whom I hadn’t seen in many years. We spent quality time with Arnold and chatted with other professors and staff. I was gratified to see so many of my former St. Andrew’s students, who were very eager to greet me. However, in the days following, I was struck by waves of sweet-bitter nostalgia and twinges of sadness. I kept thinking about a philosophical fragment attested to Herakleitos: “The river which we stepped into is not the river  in which we stand.”³ Brown, my beloved home, is the same, and yet it is not. Arnold and my old friends are the same people, but they are not. Those St. Andrew’s alumni march on, but they too are different from when they sat in the very pews you’re sitting in right now. I myself am the same person who graduated from Brown in 2008, and I’m not. But instead of wallowing in existential indeterminacy, I’m filled with great joy and optimism because these folks are a part  of me; and I, of them. When I was young professor, I used to joke that whenever I was in a classroom, Arnold’s voice was always in my head. I still use that line from time to time, and as I’ve gotten older, my intention is less to elicit a laugh and more to tell a story of a wise mentor to  whom I am forever fused.

That, I think, is the magnitude of mentorship. One of the insights I gained during my trip to Brown was how dynamic and lasting the relationship between a mentor and mentee is. Mentors teach, advise, coach, and minister; mentees watch, listen, reflect, and learn. At some point the mentee is ready to strike out into the world, or the mentor moves on. Perhaps they are no longer physically proximate, but a timeless bond is established. Arnold, in his most recent book, describes this idea as a “living chain”: for him, that chain includes a high school English teacher, a professor at Princeton, his students, and even the books that he teaches.⁴ I’m a part of that chain and so are many folks in this space like Rev. DeSalvo, whose loving spirit always brings me peace and purpose. That chain also includes my students – past, present, and future – who understand the transformative power of words and ideas.

This chain of teaching and learning ensures that Arnold’s voice will continue. It also  ensures that my voice will carry forward, rippling through and echoing back in the years to  come as my students, friends, and colleagues go out into the world and make the change they want to see. They are a part of me; and I, of them, and at this point I should reveal that iam has another superpower – this one hidden in plain sight. Yes, iam is iam (now, already, then), but iam is also “I am”: the English first person singular, a muscular declaration of presence, a miraculous exclamation of existence, a defiant vow of being. “I am,” of course, is inextricably linked to what is past and what is to come: “I was” and “I will be.” In life and in literature, we become “I am” not through an intense focus on ourselves, but through our relationships with others: the communities that we create, the mentors that we seek out, the families that we cherish, and the real and fictional worlds that we explore. In other words, we become “I am” by acknowledging and exalting the influence of others. I am not the center the universe. I am not, as Macbeth once soliloquized, a “poor player, / that struts and frets his hour upon the stage, / And then is heard no more.”⁵ I am because of those in my life who were, who are, and who will be. 

I want to close this talk tonight by asking for your full presence, your complete nowness. This aspect of iam is the most challenging for me, and, I imagine, for most of you. It’s so easy for our minds to be distracted: to go back to last week, last month, last year; or to flash forward to tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow. We can achieve presence, however, by working  together. If we think hard for the next two minutes, the hands of the grandfather clock will disappear, and we will be iam . . .

On August 31st, 2019, the Saturday before the opening of school, Rev. DeSalvo sent me a quick email of good luck. I’ve modified it slightly to suit this occasion, but the message is intact:

So here it is, the first Wednesday night chapel of the spring. I can feel the blood coursing in your veins, the anticipation, the joy. I can feel the hesitation, the anxiety, the second guessing about the spring ahead and how well-prepared (or not) you are for the challenges you are about to face. My mentor, the late John Higgins, used to write me little  notes at this time of year . . . He would write, “Remember, St. Andrew's is a high school.” He was not putting the school down, but was doing what he could to raise me up, to build my confidence . . . [that] I would be fine. It was a word he used a lot, and not lightly: “fine.”

So as we move into the spring, let us remember that St. Andrew’s is a high school. Ninth graders, you are ready to stretch yourselves as learners, athletes, artists, and ambassadors of the school. We wish you hard things because we believe in your courage, integrity, and excellence. Tenth graders, we eagerly anticipate hearing your chapel talks. Leven us with your signature wisdom, dignity, and ideas. Eleventh graders, this is the time to become who you already are: motivated, serious, and compassionate servant-leaders. You will soon be the keepers of the castle. Twelfth graders, we’ve seen your love of St. Andrew’s in the classroom, in the dining  hall, on dorm, and on the playing fields. You’ve cultivated the old flame of ethos, and you’ve earned our admiration. We are nearing the end of the race. Continue to work, compete, create,  and inspire . . . This spring is going to be awesome. All of you will be fine . . . Thank you.

---

¹Thucydides, The History of the Peloponnesian War 1.22 (translated by Richard Crawley): “In fine, I have written my  work, not as an essay which is to win the applause of the moment, but as a possession for all time.” 

²https://www.browndailyherald.com/article/2023/10/elegant-suave-sophisticated-professor-arnold-weinstein retires-after-54-years-at-brown

³Herakleitos, 7 Greeks, trans. Guy Davenport. New York: New Directions, 1995, 169.

⁴Arnold Weinstein, The Lives of Literature: Reading, Teaching, Knowing. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2022, 315-6.

⁵Shakespeare, Macbeth V.5 (text here).

 

Photo credit: Avi Gold

Text and photos originally published March of 2024

For Classics Department Chair Philip Walsh P’28, the cornerstone of St. Andrew’s teaching and learning is deep, engaged relationships between educator and student. “This kind of teaching is collaborative, it's creative, it's intellectual, and it requires the talent of improvisation to allow for the imagination of students to animate the classroom,” Walsh says. “Teachers and students work closely as students dive into their curiosity and pursue the big questions they're most interested in.”

These relationships don’t end at Commencement, as proven by a new anthology co-edited by Walsh and illustrated by studio artist and alumna Emma Hunter ’25. A Folded History: Poems and Mythologies, which publishes October 3, was inspired by an issue of The Classical Outlook, the nation’s leading scholarly publication for teachers of Latin, Greek, and the ancient Mediterranean world. The journal calls St. Andrew’s its institutional home thanks to Walsh’s appointment in 2023 to a four-year editorship of the publication.

Folded is a collection of poems from 48 poets, paired with each writer’s reflections on the ancient world and its ideas, authors, and places. (Yet another Saint in the mix is poet Chris Childers, former classics instructor and creative writing teacher.) “The book is a work of scholarship as much as it is a work of creative writing,” Walsh says. “This interdisciplinary enterprise—the collection is meditative, intellectual, and philosophical—is very much a piece with what my colleagues and I do at St. Andrew’s.”

Hunter’s illustrations, featured throughout the anthology, are the twin passion of her classics studies and her art major path at St. Andrew’s. “I’m someone who is inspired by the visuals all around me or from reading a passage that’s breathtaking, or even going somewhere and seeing something that’s inspiring,” Hunter said in an interview that is excerpted in Folded. “My first thought is I want to recreate that [moment], and this can be very daunting because it’s hard to reimagine something that’s already beautiful or emotionally stirring. But I want the images that I create to have hidden, mysterious qualities.”

Hunter’s drawings were also inspired by the classics department’s study abroad trip to Greece in spring 2025, where Hunter served as a key senior leader.

“For our work together, I served as editor and Emma as artist, but at a certain point, I became the student and Emma the teacher,” Walsh says. “That was certainly the case when we traveled to Greece. I was proud of her preparation, and how eloquently she spoke [to her peers] about the ancient sites and rituals of prophecy. Her artwork helps me to see and understand deeply the dynamic intersections of past and present, of presence and absence. Her illustrations can be read on multiple levels: accessible to someone familiar with the ancient Mediterranean world, but also inspiring philosophical reflections on beauty, love, loss, grief, and time.”

Navigating the creative process this summer that brought Folded to life—particularly doing so with a former student—spurred in Walsh a revived sense of anticipation for his return to the classroom. “It gave me great joy to see a student develop confidence, commit to craft and process, realize her creative vision, and catch a glimpse of excellence,” Walsh says. “That's my business as an educator, and I can't wait for students to return to campus so that we can begin again.”

Dear Families, In these jungly and abundant days of late summer, our campus hosts more raptors than humans. The cries of owls, eagles, and hawks echo across the pond. Yesterday, a fledgling hawk appeared in our yard at dusk. Red-tailed and yellow-eyed, she landed awkwardly, tumbled over, and fussed. Hopping, whistling, squalling — she hoped her parents would comfort her, and perhaps bring her something to eat, as they had when she was a nestling. Her parents were indeed perched nearby, looking on. They didn’t move. They knew that everything essential was already inside her, and that despite the evening’s struggles, she would learn to fly like a knife, to hunt like Diana, and to become a creature wild yet wise. She didn’t need help, but rather the time and space to fail and try again. We are all like this fledgling hawk: unfinished business requiring unmerited grace. We all need to find our own way, but we also need someone perched nearby, believing that we can. Is there a better metaphor for the task of a parent or teacher at a boarding school? Is there a better illustration of the profound connection between the two words of St. Andrew’s motto, “faith and learning”? The world asks our kids to be great, to do hard things. And what our students truly need is already inside them. What matters most is our patience, love, and faith in them. What matters most is our shared belief that they can do what they think is impossible. Soon it will be your children’s voices that echo across the pond, and it will be their trials and triumphs that I see out my window. I look forward to our work together, parents and educators alike, as we create a place where each student thrives, animated by their peers and supported by the unwavering faith of adults looking on. In partnership, Joy McGrath Daniel T. Roach, Jr. Head of School

As part of Opening of School faculty dialogue, St. Andrew’s hosted guest speaker Rebecca Winthrop, a senior fellow and director of the Center for Universal Education at the Brookings Institution, and author, with Jenny Anderson, of The Disengaged Teen: Helping Kids Learn Better, Feel Better, and Live Better. Winthrop’s August 20 visit was the culmination of greater faculty discourse around the topics of teaching, learning, and the intellectual culture of St. Andrew’s.

Dean of Teaching and Learning Emily Pressman, who initiated Winthrop’s visit, was fascinated with Winthrop’s work after listening to her on an episode of The Ezra Klein Show titled “We Have to Really Rethink the Purpose of Education.”

“No sooner had I begun to type an email to department chairs to listen to this episode, I had an email sitting in my inbox suggesting I do the same,” said Pressman, who included Winthrop’s book on the faculty “summer mixtape,” a curated list of reading and listening opportunities to inspire conversation.

Throughout her presentation, “Student Engagement, AI, and Education,” Winthrop and faculty members tussled with big questions: What is the purpose of education? What signals an engaged student? How do educators redefine the purpose of education in an AI world?

“Why should we care about student engagement?” Winthrop asked. “Educators might tell you engagement is ‘nice to have’ after you deal with the real stuff. But my messaging is engagement is not the cherry on top—it’s the whole ice cream.”

Bolstered by a discussion model that championed audience participation, Winthrop analyzed the four dimensions of student engagement: behavioral, emotional, cognitive, and initiative. She also shared the modes of engagement, with students falling into either passenger, resister, achiever, or explorer roles, and asked faculty to choose which most fit their teenage experience and discuss with peers.

The conversation then shifted to students and generative AI.

“When we think about our roles as educators, and as stewards of young people’s minds and hearts, there is nothing with more seismic impact than generative AI,” Winthrop said. “It’s almost like a new species is evolving—there is now this other ‘thing’ that impacts how we work and how we teach. Yet it all depends on what we do as humans with agency.”

Winthrop shared research from the Brookings Global Task Force on AI In Education and spoke about the educator’s role in equipping students with the skills to navigate this new world and in deepening students’ intellectual curiosity.

Next week, when faculty members joyfully fling open their classroom doors again, they will do so having reflected together on teaching priorities with enhanced learning from Winthrop, and with a strong reminder that the foundation of the St. Andrew’s experience already prioritizes engagement, authenticity, and wonder.

“As Dr. Rebecca Winthrop shared what the science shows about student engagement and agency, we affirmed our core St. Andrew's approach—our focus on relationships and being present together, our work to engage students deeply in their learning and help them develop their authentic voices,” said Associate Head of School for Academic Affairs Gretchen Hurtt ’90. “We have a unique opportunity to enhance and push student engagement because we are already fully residential, phone-free, and community-focused. Dr. Winthrop encouraged us to hold to our mission and values while also preparing leaders who will think creatively and wisely about the ethics, questions, and opportunities afforded by new AI technology.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Recently, the daughter of U.S. Navy Captain Sarah Abbott ’99 drew her a picture. “It was like, ‘What mom used to do,’ and it’s me flying a jet aircraft, and then it’s, ‘What mom does now,’ and it’s me typing at the computer,” she says, laughing. Abbott, currently a program manager for Naval Air Systems Command in Patuxent River, Md., is a 2003 graduate of the United States Naval Academy and a 2005 graduate of Stanford University, where she earned a master’s in aeronautics and astronautics. She became a naval aviator in 2007 and was the first woman in her F/A-18 squadron before she became a test pilot. She’s logged almost 2,000 hours in 31 different aircraft, flown in multiple combat operations, and earned three Meritorious Service Medals.

“While I was the first woman aviator in the squadron—the first woman running around in a flight suit—there were plenty of women working on the flight line and in the hangar,” she says. “So aviation squadrons, we do our own maintenance, and there’s 250 people in that squadron, and a couple hundred of them are out there working on jets every day. There were many women. They had just never seen a woman flying the plane.”

The day of Abbott’s first flight, she noticed something—a lot of women watching. “They had organized their schedule so they could launch me,” she says. “I was happy to be able to represent. Some of them came to talk to me like, ‘I can be a pilot, too?’ Yes, you can be a pilot. You should see yourself in this role.”

She was drawn to aviation because she liked “hard, cool, fast stuff”—although having a grandmother who served in World War II inspired her, too. “At a certain point, you realize you like friction experiences and you’re activated through challenges, and I’ve leaned into that,” Abbott says. “There’s a part of me where if it’s not hard, it is just not the right thing for me.”

Her most exhilarating experience? “Launching off an aircraft carrier,” she says. “I did that over and over and over again, but it is still the best feeling in the world, especially on a beautiful sunny day. Just imagine you’re somewhere around the middle of the Pacific. You get to launch off the front of this floating island aircraft-carrier home and go out and bend around a really capable combat aircraft. That’s the fun part. The rewarding part is directly supporting troops in combat.”

While she misses the visceral thrill of flying, Abbott acknowledges the trade-offs. “Flying is awesome. Flights are what we live for,” she says. “I think what people don’t realize is you spend hours ahead of that flight getting ready for it. You spend hours afterwards debriefing. Some missions are six to eight hours in an ejection seat. There’s a lot of physical and life things that are better now. I get to see my kids at night, be here for my family, not to mention my back and neck feel great from not sitting in that seat.”

As a program manager, she’s responsible for developing, acquiring, and sustaining weapons specific to carrier-based use on naval aircraft. Instead of skies, she now spends her days navigating budgets, contracts, and stakeholder viewpoints, but the work is far from mundane. “I love it,” she says. “But you have to love getting in the scrum with a bunch of people with different opinions and stakeholder viewpoints.” From contracts teams to financial overseers, test teams to vendors, and fleet stakeholders to war fighters, Abbott helps orchestrate a symphony of competing interests.

She feels her pull to service began at St. Andrew’s. “St. Andrew’s lays a foundation for its students to be drawn to a life of service,” she says. “I specifically wound up at the Naval Academy because of St. Andrew’s. I never was super profit-motivated, to be honest. I find it really powerful to be serving our war fighters out there, supporting the fleet, and trying to make the right things happen for U.S. national security interests. I am motivated to serve my country, to serve the sailors out there who are deployed every day, and I’ve stayed over and over because of that.”

As a mother of two children, Abbott finds herself often thinking about St. Andrew’s through the lens of a parent. “I’m thankful that St. Andrew’s is there and thriving as a place, like [Head of School] Joy [McGrath ’92] says, where my kids could go and still be kids,” she says. “It’s wonderful to think about one day possibly sharing that experience with them. To continue to be a part of this community, this family, has been very rewarding for me.”

Editor’s note: This story was originally published in the Spring issue of St. Andrew’s Magazine in a story called “Making Their Mark: A Sampling of St. Andrew’s Women who have Transformed their Spaces.” If you enjoyed the story above, read its “sister” stories here.

Picture this: you’re sitting by a wide, peaceful expanse of water on a summer day. Your phone is nowhere to be found, the sound of updates and incoming messages replaced by bird calls and the chatter of close-knit community members recapping one activity on the way to the next. 

Perhaps you pictured our campus, but if you’re one of the generations of Saints who has spent time at Camp Arrowhead, then the Episcopal summer camp on Rehoboth Bay may be on your mind. This year, there were plenty of familiar St. Andrean faces at camp, from alumni and current students working as counselors, to our Associate Chaplain Thomas Becker in his inaugural summer as Camp Arrowhead’s chaplain.

Becker is the latest, but not the first, Saint to see all St. Andrew’s and Camp Arrowhead share: camp is phone-free and forms “families” by cabin that lead to lifelong friendships. Both environments emphasize service and leadership, are built on foundations of faith, and foster interdependence and a growth mindset.

“The people who are plugged into [these] places are people who desire high-quality, community interactions with fellow humans,” he says. “One of the big things they say at St. Andrew’s, and I’m still leaning into it, is this whole idea of ‘challenge by choice,’ [and] I think that’s very true of camp, too. If you’re ready to do the rock wall … if you’re ready to ask some hard questions during Christian [Education] … it’s that innate sense of curiosity coupled with a desire to apply that curiosity meaningfully [that both places share].”

One challenge Becker and his fellow staffers have chosen for the summer? Successfully cultivating genuine care, building long-lasting bonds, and making lifelong memories with campers who will spend just a week or two at Camp Arrowhead. 

Although there’s a wider age range at Camp Arrowhead than at St. Andrew’s—campers are anywhere from 6-years-old to teens, and counselors in their teens and early 20s—Becker sees that as less than a challenge and more like a new context for his ongoing work. Becker may teach more scripture through arts and crafts in the former environment than the latter, but ultimately the goal is the same: helping young people of all faiths become their best selves.

“When I think about what it means to be a priest [who works in these environments], I feel like I’m engaging that in a way that I’ve always known is really important to me,” Becker says. “It gives me tools for a toolkit that is always growing.”

Just as life at a 100 percent boarding school allows Becker to see students not just in Chapel or in the classroom, but also in community spaces, or pursuing their artistic and athletic passions, sleepaway camp provides a more whole-picture approach to someone new—at least for an observer who pays attention.

“That multidimensionality is really special,” he says. “And I think I’m going to be able to apply that [this upcoming academic year at St. Andrew’s] in a way that allows me to clue in—even as I am not going to be coaching, even as I’m not going to be in the dorm—and still look for those things intently.”

That multidimensionality exists in the overlap between our school community and Camp Arrowhead, as well—many of the seasoned camp staffers who helped Becker settle into his new environment included alumni and current Saints. Becker was both grateful for their guidance and excited to see people he had previously only known as students in a new way: as his colleagues.

“[I] get to see how they are applying the passions and the skills that they’re honing at St. Andrew’s in the real world,” he says. “I could not be more proud to be known to them, and to have them known to me, and to have us both associated with the same place. There’s no one from St. Andrew’s newer at Camp Arrowhead than [me], and that’s also been a gift, to be able to learn from them.”

Camp counselor Margaret Gilheany ’25 paid forward to “Rev. B” the gift she’d gotten from her older sister, Hannah Gilheany ’24: a welcome into the Camp Arrowhead staff community, from someone who had gone before.

“Rev. B is so good at keeping kids engaged and interested in Christian education, and I’ve loved seeing him shine in this way,” Margaret says. “Seeing him in this new role as camp chaplain is so cool. He caught on to camp and made a positive impact immediately, I think especially due to the fact that [Camp] Arrowhead and St. Andrew’s have so many aspects in common.”

Chief among the commonalities is scheduling. Balancing schoolwork, campus leadership, athletics, and other activities at St. Andrew’s has taught Margaret skills that have kept her organized, productive, and calm under pressure throughout the activity-packed summer of a camp counselor.

Margaret is able to help facilitate campers’ bonds and safe summer fun in part because of lessons from St. Andrew’s, but just like Becker, she is fine-tuning skills by the Rehoboth Bay and bringing them back to Noxontown Pond this fall. Taking responsibility for the wellbeing of others as well as for oneself applies as much to the St. Andrew’s Discipline Committee, for which she serves as a member, as it does to leading a cabin, among other transferable skills. 

“Another skill I have translated is the patience and joy of interacting with kids. I get to spend my entire summer having fun and hanging out with children, and at school I try to find outlets for that as well like Adaptive Dance, mentoring, and now Sunday School,” she says. “Working as a counselor has helped me become more confident in being a leader.”

Margaret’s first summer at Camp Arrowhead also kindled her confidence in her faith, something she carries with her across the shift from campus to camp and back again each year.

“There are many different reasons I think I feel connected to God at camp: being constantly surrounded by nature, having responsibility for many kids, and our activities of gratefulness all contribute to a faith-filled environment,” she says. “I always loved being a part of these two Espiscopalian-rooted communities, because the values they stress have helped me become the best version of myself and have led me to make the best friends.”

The St. Andrew’s Board of Trustees is pleased to announce two new board appointments for the 2025-2026 school year. Halimah DeLaine Prado ’93 P’27 and William Dixon Shay ’89 will both join the board, for a two- and three-year term, respectively.

“I am thrilled that Halimah DeLaine Prado and Dixon Shay are joining the board this year,” says Board Chair Richard Vaughan Sr. ’88 P’24,’27. “Halimah is a powerful strategic thinker who also will be an important voice as the board helps Head of School Joy McGrath ’92 think through embracing and utilizing technology in ways that support SAS learning and values. Dixon brings tremendous experience in construction and renovation of historic structures and has already been an important source of knowledge and expertise as we consider how best to prepare Founders Hall and the campus for the next hundred years.”

DeLaine Prado, who serves as general counsel of Google, says she’s looking forward to tackling the intersection of technology and St. Andrew’s in a mission-forward way. “I wanted to be a trustee of St. Andrews because I credit the school with profoundly shaping who I am today, instilling in me valuable lessons about embracing failure and change,” she says. “I am passionate about contributing to this institution by providing insights on the opportunities and challenges new technologies bring to best prepare students for the future while being a responsible steward of the school’s mission of developing students’ independence and character to prepare them for lives of citizenship, service, and purpose.”

“My years at St. Andrew’s were among the most important in my life,” Shay says. “I owe so much of who I am to St. Andrew’s—my values, my appreciation for community, my respect for and enjoyment of the natural world, and my love of architecture and historic buildings. I’ve always wanted to give back to the school in a meaningful way. Serving on the Board of Trustees presents a unique opportunity to lend my expertise at this critical juncture. I’m honored to assist in preserving the school’s rich history while ensuring the campus meets the needs of future generations of students. I look forward to working with Joy, Richard, and my fellow trustees—a welcome opportunity to express my gratitude for our amazing school.”

Other transitions include outgoing trustee Henry McVey P’25, who diligently served the St. Andrew’s board in his tenure, particularly when it came to his work on the finance and advancement committees. “As a parent trustee of the Class of 2025, Henry has provided the wise perspective of a visionary leader, bolstered the school, and helped to define its future,” says Head of School Joy McGrath ’92. “He has served the school in engaging constituents in our mission,” McGrath says. “Without his service, the school would not be the place it is today.”

Halimah DeLaine Prado ’93 P’27

Halimah DeLaine Prado serves as general counsel at Google, leading the company’s world-class legal team and advising on some of the most complex and important legal issues of the digital age. Prior to that, she was a vice president of legal. In this role, she managed the Products and Agreements Legal Team, a global team responsible for the product and commercial counsel advising of Google’s products, including Ads, Search, Cloud, Hardware, Platforms and Ecosystems, and YouTube. She has been with Google since 2006.

Prior to joining Google, DeLaine Prado practiced media law and products liability law at Dechert and Levine Sullivan Koch and Schulz, which has since merged with Ballard Spahr. She also clerked for the Honorable Mary A. McLaughlin of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. DeLaine Prado obtained her J.D. from Georgetown, and her undergraduate degree from Yale. She is on the board of the Leadership Council for Legal Diversity, the World Justice Project, and a member of the American Law Institute. She was the St. Andrew’s commencement speaker in 2024 and a speaker at St. Andrew’s Women’s Network events in the past.

 

William Dixon Shay ’89

William Dixon Shay has been a dedicated alumnus and has provided material service to the school as it approaches major restoration and renovation of its facilities in the coming years. He joined Shay Construction to assist in the growth of the company in 2002. Prior to joining Shay Construction, he practiced corporate law in the District of Columbia office of Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld.  He holds a B.A. from Bucknell and a J.D. from American University Washington College of Law.

In January 2014, Shay took over sole ownership of Shay Construction and its operations. Under his leadership, Shay Construction has grown its presence and reputation in the Philadelphia area by focusing on optimizing design, achieving maximum value for clients and delivering superior project management services. The firm is considered one of the finest for luxury private residences in the Philadelphia area.

 

You may think you know the Hamptons as a frothy, summertime hamlet that hosts the likes of Scarlett Johansson, Beyoncé and Jay-Z, Jerry Seinfeld, and other Very Big Deals each season. But you probably don’t know the real Hamptons, not like Ellis Rattray ’28 and his friends, who, since last summer, have emerged as the teenage beat reporters of Montauk, New York.

When Rattray was in 8th grade, he, along with a cousin, Teddy, and a friend, Billy, were dreaming up what to do with their summer when inspiration hit, partly thanks to Rattray’s father, a long-time paperman who owns The East Hampton Star. Instead of yet another summer spent working to serve the season’s tourists, the three teenagers opted for bylines to serve residents instead. The Ditch Weekly, “Local News by Local Kids,” was born. 

Although they have a masthead that features a 15-year-old editor in chief, a 14-year-old director of sales, and a host of 13- to 16-year-old writers like Rattray, these are no cub reporters. The Ditch Weekly—so named for Ditch Plains Beach, the founders’ favorite place to hang, having spent countless summers there together—scored an interview with Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer its freshman year for a story about Gen Z voter turnout. Their sophomore season, not only has the editorial staff bloomed to 20 teens, but The New York Times gave ink to the paper in a feature that dropped in conjunction with the Ditch’s first issue of the season, which was distributed this Memorial Day Weekend.

“Everyone thinks of [Montauk] as just a rich, touristy place, but there’s so much of the past that nobody really knows about,” Rattray told The New York Times. Writing for Ditch, he added, “I learned so much about the town I live in.”

And he’s still learning.

This summer, which marks his second year as a journalist, Rattray says he has experience from St. Andrew’s to help find a new angle.

“I think I’m a much better writer now,” he says. Rattray, who digs history, examined the past of the famous Montauk Shores Condominiums—colloquially known among residents as the “trailer park”—for a story in the July 4 issue. He says taking history with Lauren Urbont informed how he approached the piece. “[Mrs. Urbont] completely changed how I think and write about the past,” he says.

Aside from the academic boosts, the incoming sophomore says he’s gone into this summer’s exhausting production schedule—the Ditch plans to put out an issue a week until Labor Day to the tune of 2,000 copies per drop—as a better, more organized, leader. “St. Andrew’s helped me get to where I wanted to be a better leader,” he says. “Last summer, I procrastinated and turned in my stories late. I feel like I’m more punctual and organized now.”

When they started, the teens got a few assists from the grownup newspaper professionals in their life. Rattray’s dad taught Rattray how to interpret the police blotter, and an East Hampton Star designer offered the Ditch staff a crash course in layout. But the work, Rattray says, is solely on the newspaper staff. From ad sales, which fund the paper; to layout and design; to printing; to distribution—the teens do it all. “This is a real job,” Rattray says. 

Ever the son of a newspaper man, Rattray says newspapers have always been a part of his life. “I grew up reading my dad’s section, and after school, I’d go hang out in his office,” he says, then pauses: “Like I read an actual newspaper. I wish more people did that.” That “actual newspaper” has been in the Rattray family for three generations. His parents, he says, are pretty proud of him. Except it’s tough to get a hold of him during the summer when he’s working, so, “My mom texts me a lot,” he says, laughing. 

Rattray says he’s not sure news is in his long-term goals, but writing might be. “I really love creative writing,” he says.

Summer in Montauk is, as Rattray succinctly puts it, “crazy.” There’s more than enough to write about, from events, to restaurant reviews, deep-dives into the history of local landmarks and institutions, interviews with entrepreneurs, new business news, surf tips, high school sports, a roundup of “small-town crimes and misdemeanors” (the July 4 installment was titled “Stars, Stripes, and Sirens”), and  more. One particular event Rattray is psyched to cover is the 27th Rell Sunn Surf Contest on July 19, which is held on his hallowed ground of Ditch Plains Beach. “I’m really excited to walk around the beach and interview people,” he says.

Rattray fully dismisses the notion that Montauk is simply a place to see the stars. But that’s not to say he hasn’t been involved in a celebrity sighting. Except, in this case, he was the celebrity.

“I remember distributing papers to a restaurant, and this man stopped me and said, ‘Wait. Do you write for The Ditch Weekly?’ I said, ‘Yes,’ and he was so excited,” Rattray says. “He said he had just posted about us on his LinkedIn, about how impressive he thought it was because it was local news, but also that we were kids. I thought it was so cool that people care so much about our town in this way. We care about our town. That’s why we’re doing this.”

Although our fields, courts, and trails are empty for a few more weeks as we await the return of fall athletic camps, when our student athletes arrive, they will do so inspired by a competitive spring sports season that saw postseason runs for boys lacrosse, girls lacrosse, tennis, and girls soccer; a boys first-doubles tennis state championship; historic crew outcomes, even at a weather-shortened Stotesbury Regatta; and more.

When our athletes succeed, they do so with the anchoring guidance, wisdom, and spirit of their coaches. Three such St. Andrew’s coaches were recognized this year with Delaware Independent School Conference Coach and Assistant Coach of the Year awards. The St. Andrew’s baseball program, helmed by History Department Chair and Head Baseball Coach Matt Edmonds and Modern Language Department Chair and Assistant Baseball Coach David Miller, was doubly honored: Edmonds was awarded DISC Coach of the Year and Miller awarded DISC Assistant Coach of the Year. First-time Girls Head Soccer Coach Megan Altig, who also serves as assistant director of advancement operations, also won DISC Coach of the Year.

Altig, along with former Head Girls Soccer Coach Matt Carroll, has been working to build the girls soccer program for years. Her mindset going into her first year as head coach was pretty simple: “Don’t screw it up!” she says, laughing. “For four years, [Matt] Carroll and I had been building and teaching, and I was able to find out my coaching philosophies along the way, particularly as we were trying to instill certain principles in our athletes, like getting them to understand the importance of the little things in soccer, like good defending or completing a five- to ten-yard pass.”

Despite losing five key seniors from the 2024 squad, which set a new school record for wins in one season, Altig was confident in her new team’s potential, and set two goals for 2025 Saints girls soccer: emerge as the conference champ, and make a postseason run. The team did both, although, due to a tie in the win column with another school in the conference, St. Andrew’s shared the title as a conference co-champion. Ranked No. 8 going into the state tournament, the team lost in the quarterfinal game against No. 1 Caravel. 

Altig, a decorated collegiate soccer player, was pleasantly surprised to find that as she was teaching skills to the girls, she was also on the receiving end of some interesting lessons. “I learned more about myself than I'd expected,” she says. Those learning moments came as she felt the weight of her new responsibilities, like navigating tough conversations with players. “At the end of the day, it’s on me now,” she says. “I spent a lot of time thinking about, ‘What is best for the team, and what is going to help make us successful?’”

Altig says she strived to create an environment where players could resolve issues independently, fostering a sense of ownership and safety, and emphasized the soccer pitch as a place of refuge from external pressures. “The next two hours, just be in the moment together, have fun, and forget about life,” she says. “I wanted to create a culture that is safe, where they feel comfortable, confident, loved, and that they have somebody in the corner. At the same time, I want us to be as competitive as we can be.”

She already can't wait until next season. “Our last few senior classes have been pretty large, so we’ve had a lot of leadership in each class as they’ve become seniors, and this [incoming] class is no different,” she says. “I’m really looking forward to seeing how they step into their roles as  leaders. And something I look forward to every year is seeing what this new team, with new players and new dynamics, can accomplish, and being on the journey with them. Everyone grows so much. To see where they start and how they finish is always one of my favorite parts of coaching.”

While Altig says being named Coach of the Year feels pretty darn good, the real reward for her is witnessing the journey. “I love seeing the moment the light bulb goes off,” she says. “It’s incredible to see what that moment of clarity and understanding does for a player and for their confidence. The award is nice, but it’s really a reflection of the players.”

For Edmonds and Miller, the baseball diamond is a sanctuary. Both have been around the game since Little League, with Miller playing through college. Miller, one of the longest-tenured members of any coaching staff at St. Andrew’s, has been involved with leadership of the baseball team for 25 years. “You learn a lot over that time,” says Miller. “The greatest teacher that I had during my coaching career has been Bob Colburn. His influence continues to pervade our program, and my thoughts about baseball and coaching.”

Miller says one of his most important lessons along the way, particularly when it comes to how he evolved his coaching philosophy, was pivoting from the idea that there is one way to do something and therefore one way to coach. “I realized that while it seems like there should be a one-size-fits-all approach to certain baseball mechanics—you throw a ball like this, you catch a ball like this—that’s not really the case,” he says. “I’ve learned to really individualize my coaching to fit each player on the team.” A standout for him this past season was working with pitcher Toby Nix ’26, trying out new approaches to his stuff. “It's been rewarding to watch a kid like Toby grow into himself over the past few seasons,” he says. 

Also rewarding, says Miller, is the coaching honor. “It's certainly nice to get a moment of personal acclaim, but more than that, it’s recognition of the improvement and success of our program, so much of which owes to Matt’s [Edmonds] leadership and the commitment of our players,” he says.

Edmonds says he and Miller have a good give and take, which is why he was thrilled to put Miller’s name forth for the assistant coach award. “He has real character and commitment to this team,” Edmonds says. “I’m flattered to have gotten this coaching award, but I’m just as happy that Dave got it, because this is very much a partnership I value.”

Edmonds echoes the importance of individualized coaching, particularly when it comes to St. Andrew’s athletics. “On of the unique things about St. Andrew’s is that we have such a wide range of not only ability levels, but also commitment levels, because of the school’s multisport requirement,” he says. “We have kids for whom baseball is love. And then we also have kids who say, ‘I've never played baseball before, but it looks like fun.’ We need to reach all those kids, and understand their different relationships to the sport.”

On paper, the 2025 Saints baseball season ended a few games under .500, with a 7-10 record. But what’s not evident in the record, Edmonds says, is an “elevated competitiveness.” He says he turned this year’s focus to “learn how to compete,” which included enhancing the daily grind at practice. “Last year we had a lot of games where if we got down by three or four runs, that was it,” Edmonds says. “We would just pack it in. And this year it was like, no. We're going to play seven, win or lose. We’re going to throw everything we have at them and see how it works out.” He says the newfound spirit was evident. “We had one game that really wasn’t competitive. It would’ve been easy for us to come into that second game against this same team and say, ‘Well, we lost by 16 last time, and so we won’t even show up.’ They didn’t do that. We played from behind a lot and fought back, and that became our identity.”

As for his own identity, Edmonds’ decision to become a coach was shaped by his high school baseball experience, including being a role player on a state championship team. “I came to appreciate that not everyone’s going to be the star, that a bullpen catcher is an important role,” he says. After a relationship with a coach that he felt was “simply transactional,” Edmonds knew what kind of coach he’d never be. “If at the end of the day it’s only about winning and losing, that’s kind of toxic,” he says.

As an added bonus to being named coaches of the year, Edmonds and Miller coached in the Blue-Gold Bob Colburn All-Star Baseball Game—so named for Colburn, the St. Andrew’s legend—in June at Frawley Stadium in Wilmington. The game ended in a 9-9 tie. “It was a really good experience,” says Edmonds, “particularly because I got to do it with Dave, and because Ray [Quinones ’25] got to play on our team.”

If you’re looking for mechanical engineer Margaux Lopez ’11, look up—way up—to the summit of Cerro Pachón, a mountain in the Chilean Andes. There, almost 9,000 feet above the coastal town of La Serena, sits the newly constructed Vera Rubin Observatory, where Lopez toils to help reframe everything humankind believes it knows about the mysteries of the universe. 

That isn’t hyperbole. We’re talking enhanced knowledge about far-away galaxies and dark energy (the enigmatic “something” that drives the universe’s accelerating rate of expansion); the discovery of new asteroids, comets, stars, and exploding supernovas; and the most complete map of the Milky Way that has ever been created. 

“This thing is legitimately going to revolutionize astronomy,” Lopez says. The “thing” in question is the Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST) Camera, the game-changing, car-sized digital camera which, in March, was affixed to the observatory’s Simonyi Survey Telescope. For the next decade, the LSST will repeatedly scan and photograph the southern night sky, resulting in an ultra-wide, ultra-high-def time-lapse record of the universe—the greatest movie about the universe ever produced. 

The 3,200-megapixel, 6,700-pound beast of a machine was built at Stanford University’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. Lopez, a SLAC engineer, began on the project at 21 as her first engineering gig. As a member of the LSST integration and test team for the last decade, she has worked on everything from troubleshooting how to keep the extremely temperature-sensitive camera sensors cool by constructing coolant lines that climb the length of the telescope to where the LSST camera is mounted; to developing robotic tools to put together the camera, which had high-level assembly requirements; and performing what she calls “pathfinding” on a test version of the camera she helped build to ensure that when the real deal showed up in the Andes, it worked. 

Perhaps as daunting as those objectives were the logistics Lopez was tasked with: safely packing and shipping a car-sized camera—with a $168 million price tag—from California to Chile. 

“I started planning shipment in 2019,” Lopez says of the LSST, which arrived in Chile in 2024. “We chartered a 747 and added 50 metric tons of support equipment. I was in charge of all of this: talking to the trucking company, the airline, the people doing the loading, the people packing. That was a wild process: how do you get a fully built instrument from the U.S. to Chile on a custom vibration isolation system with custom procedures to get it in and out of the container, and to control the process of loading and unloading the plane? It was a lot of pressure.” 

So, too, was getting the LSST from the maintenance area in the observatory where it was lying in wait to get hitched to the telescope, a feat possible thanks to a sophisticated lift system. 

“Finding anything interesting in space is really hard,” Lopez says. “The universe is huge and interesting, so if you have a small field of view, the chances that you [find] something are pretty low. It’s a needle in a haystack problem. Our solution is to gather millions and millions of haystacks of data.” 

In its first year, Lopez says the LSST will collect more data than every other telescope in history has ever collected … combined. “We’re going to be doing that for 10 years,” she says. She cites the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, which operated out of New Mexico’s Apache Point Observatory. “That survey took 20 terabytes of data in 10 years,” she says. “We are taking 20 terabytes of data per night.” 

Ever the St. Andrean, one of the aspects of LSST Lopez is most excited about is access. “I think it’s very cool that this data will be more open for access than most other observatories,” she says. 

The data will be available to professional astronomers and students affiliated with institutions in the U.S., Chile, and other international programs, then become fully public after a two-year proprietary period. 

LSST’s “First Light”—the first evening of scanning—is scheduled for July 4. “There’s this interesting vibe at the observatory right now where all the engineers are saying, ‘Oh my gosh, we are so excited for this thing to be done,’ and all the astronomers are saying, ‘Oh my gosh, we are so excited for this project to start,’” Lopez says, laughing. 

Lopez, who moved to Chile in 2020 but in 2023 moved back to the States, will visit Vera Rubin for repairs once the camera is fully operational. 

When she thinks about her first few months in Chile, she thinks about St. Andrew’s. “It’s hard to move to a new country, by yourself, and not speak the language,” she says. “But the confidence St. Andrew’s created in me, this sense of independence and the ability to exist on my own and create community, helped.” 

She also spent time reflecting on her Senior Exhibition, which she did on Chilean-American writer Isabel Allende’s House of the Spirits. “The book never specifically mentions Chile, but the events mirror the country’s dictatorship past. When I got here, I was like, ‘Wow, this thing that I spent a long time thinking about at St. Andrew’s happened in a real place, and that place is Chile, and there are museum exhibits and stories about it.’” 

The LSST project itself mirrors the intellectual curiosity St. Andrew’s urges. “Essentially this is a project about curiosity,” Lopez says. “Humans have always wanted to travel to the highest mountain, go across the ocean, know more. This is the modern-day frontier, and I can’t wait to see what it discovers.”

Editor’s note: This story was originally published in the Spring issue of St. Andrew’s Magazine in a story called “Making Their Mark: A Sampling of St. Andrew’s Women who have Transformed their Spaces.” If you enjoyed the story above, read its “sister” stories here.

Head of School Joy McGrath ’92 announced and welcomed the new faculty who will join St. Andrew’s in the 2025-26 school year. She expressed gratitude to Dean of Faculty Wilson Everhart ’95 and the many students, department chairs, and faculty members who participated in the faculty hiring process this year.

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Jannely Alamonte Ortiz will serve St. Andrew’s in various roles: as a Spanish teacher, dorm parent, and coach, as well as a part-time addition to the academic and college counseling office. A proud Bronx native, Jannely has dedicated her career to independent school education. While she briefly explored corporate human resources, her true calling lies in working with young people. She returned to her alma mater boarding school, where she spent 10 years as a Spanish teacher, coach, international service trip coordinator, and dorm supervisor, building a strong foundation for her approach to education.

Wanting to be closer to family, Jannely continued her work at an independent day school In New York City for another 10 years. There, she taught Spanish, advised students, coached, mentored faculty, led international trips, and served as a class dean. As an educator, Jannely is deeply committed to helping students recognize their strengths and inherent value in all aspects of their lives.

Jannely joins the St. Andrew’s community alongside her husband and two high school-aged children, who are themselves thriving in boarding school environments. Outside of her professional life, she cherishes time with her family and enjoys running, hiking, and enriching her mind through nonfiction literature.

Chaz Brackeen, who will join the school’s wellness department, is a dedicated and compassionate licensed master’s level social worker with over 15 years of experience supporting youth and families across healthcare, education, and community-based settings. With specialized expertise in adolescent mental health, she brings a trauma-informed, student-centered approach to her new role at St. Andrew’s. Chaz most recently served as a pediatric social worker in the emergency department at Nemours Children’s Hospital in Wilmington, Del. In this role, she provided crisis intervention, emergency psychiatric support, and care coordination for children and families navigating acute mental health challenges. Her ability to remain calm, compassionate, and resourceful in high-pressure situations has further deepened her expertise in trauma-informed care and adolescent crisis response.

Prior, Chaz spent 12 years with the State of Connecticut Department of Children and Families, where she worked in Child Protection Services. There, she conducted investigations into abuse and neglect, developed service plans, and advocated for the safety and well-being of children and teens across diverse communities in the state of Connecticut.

Her background also includes work as a clinical therapist, and as a professor in residence at the University of New Haven, where she taught courses in adolescent development psychology, clinical counseling, forensic psychology, health psychology, and abnormal psychology. Chaz is well-versed in cognitive behavioral therapy, dialectical behavior therapy, psychosocial assessment, and collaborative treatment planning.

Chaz is deeply committed to fostering emotionally safe, inclusive environments where students can thrive socially, emotionally, and academically. She is an active member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority and Jack and Jill of America, and brings with her a strong foundation in leadership, service, and community engagement.

Steve Cacciavillano joins St. Andrew’s as director of auxiliary programs, assistant athletic director, assistant football coach, and head wrestling coach. Born and raised in South Jersey, he graduated cum laude from Ursinus College with a bachelor’s degree in biology and earned a master’s degree in biological sciences from Clemson University.

Steve has worked in education for 13 years in boarding, public, and independent day schools. He began his career at Northfield Mount Hermon School as a biology teacher, assistant football, wrestling, and lacrosse coach, and dormitory head. Steve most recently worked at Tower Hill School where he served as an upper school science teacher, assistant football and wrestling coach, assistant athletic director, and interim science department chair during the first half of his tenure before becoming the director of athletics in the spring of 2021. He firmly believes in the power of servant leadership and the importance of meticulous attention to detail, and has prioritized both throughout his career. 

Outside of school, Steve enjoys spending time with his wife, Hannah, and their three kids, Shaelyn, Stephen, and Hadley. He is a loyal Philadelphia and Penn State sports fan, and continues to torture himself on the golf course whenever time permits. Steve and his family are excited to join the St. Andrew’s community!

New English instructor Mia Franz grew up the daughter of an independent school English teacher and loved writing and reading, especially poetry and mysteries, and was frequently published in her school’s literary magazine. Despite this, she went off to college determined to stay “undecided” in her major for as long as possible, which lasted all of one semester. She graduated with honors with an English degree, a minor in religious studies, and as a proud member of the first poetry writing concentration class at the University of Virginia. After a year of travel and work, she earned her MFA in creative writing/poetry at Indiana University. Like her father before her, she chose the path that allowed for the joy of connection through relationships: she became an independent school English teacher.

While teaching, coaching, and mentoring at Foxcroft School, Mia met Robert, and when they married in 2010, one of the strong threads that bound them was their love of teaching. In 2015, the family, now including Owen and Gareth, moved to Tampa, Fla. An on-again/off-again runner, Mia decided she needed to find a hobby that she could pursue indoors during the eight months of Florida’s summer weather, so she started practicing yoga, and two years later, earned her 200-hour teaching certification. The family took advantage of summer breaks to travel, visiting family and friends up and down the East Coast as well as several national parks and the rainforests and beaches of Costa Rica.

Now, Mia, Robert, Owen (13), and Gareth (11), cats KK and Yeti and dogs Artemis and Astrid, are excited for the next adventure at St. Andrew’s. In her free time, Mia can be found reading; walking/jogging; practicing and teaching yoga, meditation, and breathwork; and baking sourdough and sweets.

Robert Franz brings nearly three decades of experience in independent schools to his new role in the history department St. Andrew’s, combining a deep passion for teaching with strategic leadership and curricular innovation. Robert served as the head of upper school at Tampa Preparatory School, overseeing the academic and daily life of 500 students and 60 faculty members. His work centered on fostering instructional excellence, building student-centered programs, and supporting faculty development. While at Tampa Prep, he also led initiatives in equitable assessment reform, AP placement, the integration of generative AI, and designed experiential learning programs including a Civil Rights trip and a curriculum on hate speech and antisemitism.

Before joining Tampa Prep, Robert taught history and ethics at Berkeley Preparatory School, where he co-directed the Berkeley Speaker Series and restructured the U.S. History curriculum to focus on contemporary issues. He also served as head of middle school at Fredericksburg Academy, where he developed leadership programs, service-learning initiatives, and sustainability education.

A hallmark of Robert’s career has been his leadership in curriculum design and interdisciplinary learning. As history department chair at both Highland School and Hampton Roads Academy, he advanced global studies initiatives, launched school-wide leadership programming, and created pathways that emphasized 21st-century skills. He has also contributed nationally through his work with the Gardner Carney Leadership Institute, serving as faculty, mentor, and symposium organizer.

Robert holds extensive experience in faculty evaluation, accreditation, and program design. He has presented at NAIS, FCIS, and VAIS conferences. 

Whether in the classroom or through institutional leadership, Robert remains committed to student growth, civil discourse, and educational equity. He believes in schools as communities of inquiry, belonging, and character, and brings this ethos to every role he holds.

Kate Hardwick ’07 returns to St. Andrew’s as a history teacher, bringing nearly 15 years of experience in public and independent schools. She most recently served as history department chair at St. Stephen’s and St. Agnes School in Alexandria, Virginia, where she taught a range of courses including World and American History, research seminars, and electives on human rights and global issues. In addition to her teaching, she served as an advisor and global travel chaperone and contributed to several committees, including admissions and professional growth.

Kate holds a master’s in independent school leadership from Vanderbilt University and a bachelor’s in history from The George Washington University, where she graduated summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa. 

Having grown up on a boarding school campus, Kate is excited to return to boarding school life. She loves working closely with students and helping them engage meaningfully with the past and present. In her free time, she enjoys spending time with her family, reading, cheering on the Washington Nationals, and exploring the world through travel.

Devondra McMillan joins St. Andrew’s as a classics instructor. An accomplished educator with a deep passion for classical languages and student development, Devondra has engaged in the full life of her residential school communities for the past two decades. She joins SAS from The Webb School, where she served as a Latin teacher, dorm parent, and assistant coach for cross-country and track. Her experience includes leadership positions like dean of students at The Lawrenceville School (2021-2023) and assistant head of the upper school at The Walker School (2020-2021), where she was instrumental in guiding student life, residential programs, and faculty development. Prior to these roles, Devondra dedicated many years to The Lawrenceville School as language department chair (2016-2020), II Form level director (2014-2020), and classics master, teaching various levels of Latin, designing electives, and leading international travel programs. Her early career also includes teaching positions at Middlesex School and SEED Public Charter School. Academically, Devondra pursued coursework toward an M.A. in Classical Languages at the University of Georgia (2012-2014) and earned her B.A. in Classics with a concentration in Latin from Yale University (1996-2000), following her diploma from Saint George’s School (1992-1996). Her commitment to education is further evidenced by numerous professional development certifications, grants, and awards, including a Fulbright Grant and two distinguished teaching chairs. Devondra is also an active member of several professional organizations, including the American Classical League and the Society for Classical Studies.

Originally from the Eastern Shore of Maryland, new arts instructor Charlese Phillips graduated from Salisbury University in 2011 with a bachelor’s degree in fine arts. There she focused her studies on ceramics and wheel-thrown pottery. In 2019, she earned her master’s degree in elementary education studies from Wilmington University.

Charlese’s experience in teaching expands from substitute teaching, to managing a public school digital photography classroom for four years. During that time, she also became the advisor for the school’s yearbook, an assistant coach for the track and field team, and head coach for one season of outdoor track. Her coaching tenure included helping two athletes earn state championship titles in high jump and set new school records. She has also taught workshops at multiple art institutions, and served as a Resident Teaching Artist across the state for the Delaware Institute for Arts in Education. 

A 2023 Delaware Division of the Arts Individual Artist Fellowship Grant recipient, Charlese has taken the past few years to develop her artistry and grow her creative reach as a practicing artist. Her personal art focuses on the themes of identity, color, texture, and nature. She pulls a variety of mediums together in her work, which often includes an element of fiber or weaving. Since receiving her fellowship, Charlese has received multiple awards for her art, including “Best in Show” in 2024 at the Rehoboth Art League’s 11th Regional Juried Biennial Exhibition.

Noah Rickolt ’14 joins St. Andrew’s as a math teacher, crew coach, and squash coach. Originally from Landenberg, Pa., Noah graduated with a BS in physics and a minor in applied mathematics from Davidson College where he also taught the college’s sailing and water skiing PE classes. While attending St. Andrew’s and Davidson, he spent four summers as a counselor at a large overnight camp where he wore various hats including sailing instructor, medical assistant, and kitchen staff.

Prior to returning to St. Andrew’s, Noah worked in finance, first as an investment banking analyst in Charlotte, N.C., and then as a real estate acquisitions professional at private equity firms in Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. During his time in private equity, he closed over $1.4B in new investments across nine U.S. metros. While living in Charlotte, he volunteered at Heart Math Tutoring, which supports students at local public elementary schools.

In his free time, Noah enjoys adventuring outdoors as much as possible and is an avid runner, hiker, cyclist, and skier. His favorite book series is A Song of Ice and Fire, and he once won a Game of Thrones trivia competition while touring the film locations in Northern Ireland. A former member of the St. Andrew’s Pipes & Drums, Noah is excited to bring bagpipes back to campus.

Will Scully joins St. Andrew’s as a physics instructor and head boys crew coach. Originally from West Simsbury, Conn., Will graduated from Trinity College in 2014 with a bachelor's degree in physics and German. While at Trinity, Will was a four-year member of the rowing team, where he won two New England Rowing Championships and served as the team captain his senior year. Will was also a member of the Trinity Accidentals, an all-male acapella group.

After graduating, Will continued his rowing career at Penn AC in Philadelphia, where he represented the club at U23 Trials and Canadian Henley, and then at Mosman Rowing Club in Sydney, Australia, where he trained with members of the Australian U23 and Senior National teams and competed with the club at the Sydney International Rowing Regatta.

Prior to joining St. Andrew’s, Will spent nine years at The Hill School in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, where he taught math and physics, lived in a dorm of 72 upper-form boys, and served as the head boys coach for Hill’s upstart rowing program. Under Will, the Hill boys secured multiple Stotesbury Cup finals appearances, including a win in the Junior 4+ in 2018. During his summers, Will serves as the head boys coach for Penn AC Gold on Boathouse Row in Philadelphia, where he has coached multiple summer national championship winning crews and has led the team to two consecutive Independence Day Regatta team points trophies and most recently, the USRowing Colgan Cup Team points trophy. Will also dedicates a few weeks of his summers to coaching sculling camps at the Craftsbury Outdoor Center in Craftsbury, Vermont.

Will is looking forward to moving to campus with his wife, Samantha, and their Australian shepherd, Cortado. Will enjoys playing music and likes to spend his free time cycling or hiking.

 

Although St. Andrew’s tennis teams have been off the courts for some time, their impact still lingers in the greater Middletown community—and it has nothing to do with how well these athletes swing a racket.

Prior to their summer departure, players from the school’s tennis teams joined in on one last act of community service, which is a staple of St. Andrew’s student life throughout the academic year.

This particular service project, the Sports All Summer Backpacks Program, centered on purchasing backpacks for children and stuffing them with supplies for summer fun, sun safety, and more. The project took shape after junior varsity girls tennis head coach and science department chair Dr. Ashley Hyde read an article on how current economic conditions will make it harder in 2025 for many families to buy back-to-school essentials, including backpacks.

“The backpack project came out of an attempt to give a little extra sprinkle of summer magic to some families and young kids in our community who might be having a hard summer,” Hyde says.

Thanks to the Murphy Family Fund for Athletics, which was established by Jane and Paul Murphy P’17,’19,’22 to support and encourage teamwork, community-building, skills development, and positive coaching in athletics, the tennis program was able to purchase 168 backpacks and enough goodies to keep local school-aged kids busy, safe, and active this summer.

The backpacks contain sunscreen, insect repellant, an eco-friendly water bottle, reusable water balloons, a jump rope, a beachball, sidewalk chalk, stickers, sunglasses, and more. A 30-day fitness challenge also went in the bags, which aims to offer children accessible physical engagement regardless of one’s interest or experience in sports. Daily tasks on the challenge include “take five giant steps” or “do 10 frog jumps," providing a playful way for kids to build active habits. In the fall, the children will have a new backpack to take to school.

Of course, no St. Andrew’s act of community service is complete without a dose of mission-centered authentic human connection, so Saints wrote letters that were placed in each backpack.

“I said to our students, ‘I don't want you to underestimate the power of your communication here, because [younger kids] admire older kids so much,” Hyde says. “Your words have real power.” 

The athletes took this advice to heart, and showed their coach—and each letter’s recipient—exactly who Saints are. They introduced themselves, encouraged their readers to “crush” their summer, and shared their interests to model engagement to embrace screen-free, active, outdoor fun.

“I read all of the letters our students wrote, and what struck me was how much they all understood the value of what we were doing,” Hyde says. “I gave a template, but every student wrote their own version of a letter. What I thought was lovely was how many of our students started off their letter saying, ‘Hi, friend,’ or ‘Hey, buddy,’ with an exclamation mark, or a heart, or a smiley face. The level of care and interest that came across was so nice to see.”

Tennis players worked together to tackle the stuffing. Although the project could have been finished quickly, assembly-line style, Hyde says students instead took the time and care to color-coordinate the backpacks and contents, hand-select sticker sheets, and more—laughing, talking, and giving back as a unit.

Some students went above and beyond to help with backpack delivery or letter-writing. Others showed up early for packing time, untangling a knot of jump ropes, sorting reusable water balloons into neat piles, and more so the work of their teammates’ and coaches’ would go more smoothly.

“There was a really positive student reaction,” Hyde says. “Everybody had a way that they could help out and be involved, setting up the room, actually going around and checking the backpacks, or working on a little team of [letter] proofreaders.”

The backpack project intersected with one of the school’s key community-service projects, the SAS mentoring program, which takes Saints out into local schools and education centers weekly to work face-to-face with young elementary-aged mentees. To help get the packs to those who’d benefit most, French instructor and associate coordinator of community service Dr. Pamela Pears P’24 connected Hyde with those schools that Saints frequently visit.

Of the total backpacks packed, 120 went to students at either Townsend Elementary School, Brick Mill Early Childhood Education Center, or Spring Meadow Early Childhood Education Center.

The backpack stretched beyond nearby schools, also going to the Appoquinimink State Service Center in Middletown, an agency that assists local families in need with everything from food to clothing, shelter to social services. The State Service Center is an important off-campus partner for the SAS community as part of another of the school’s service projects, Project Zero, which collects gently-used books, clothing, sports equipment, and other items that Saints don’t take home for the summer. At the end of every school year, Appoquinimink State Service Center leaders work with Director of Student Life Kristin Honsel P’24 to process donations from Project Zero.

Because summer break began before the backpacks were fully distributed, Hyde helped deliver bags to the schools, who passed them on to families in need.

“They said at one school that some kids return in the [fall] and their family couldn't get a backpack,” Hyde says. “Often, the school is trying to source discount backpacks or donated backpacks for those kids. My son helped me drop off the backpacks, and he said, ‘It’s a present in a present,’ because of the backpack and the items inside. I loved that.”

 

 

St. Andrew’s celebrated its annual Reunion Weekend June 6 through June 8, welcoming more than 350 alumni and their families back to campus for the three-day celebration. This year's Reunion honored class years ending in 0s and 5s, from the Class of 1955 to the Class of 2020, with the Class of 1975 celebrating its 50th Reunion, and the Class of 2000 celebrating its 25th Reunion. Weekend events included a “SAS Today” faculty panel discussion and conversation session; a session on the school’s financial model; an All-Alumni School Meeting; and of course, food trucks, karaoke, good times on the Front Lawn, crew races on Noxontown Pond, and much more.

“I just want to thank you—for loving this place, for showing up, for supporting the students today,” said Head of School Joy McGrath ’92 during her remarks to alumni on Saturday. “The future I [envision for our school] will demand historic levels of alumni support, but I rest easy knowing this community will step up, for this ‘out of step’ place, as you always have.”

At the All-Alumni Reunion Banquet on Saturday night, the Class of 1975 was awarded the Giving Bowl, which recognizes the Reunion class that has contributed the largest total amount of gifts to the Saints Fund (as of Reunion Weekend) in the current fiscal year. Our 1975 alums have given $114,329 to the Saints Fund in 2024-25, which sets a new 50th Reunion giving record, unseating previous record-holder the Class of 1974.

The Fishers of Men and Women Plate recognizes the two Reunion classes (pre-1981 and post-1981) with the greatest percentage of alumni making gifts to the Saints Fund (as of Reunion Weekend) in the current fiscal year. The pre-1981 Fishers Plate was awarded to the Class of 1975 with 82 percent participation. The post-1981 Fishers Plate was given to the Class of 1995 with 54 percent participation. 

Alumni giving is also honored with a third award: the Founders Cup. Instituted in recognition of the School’s 75th anniversary in 2004, the Founders Cup recognizes the importance of alumni support of every kind, and is given to the Reunion class that has given the greatest total support to the school (Saints Fund, capital, endowment, and planned gifts and pledges) since their Class’s prior Reunion. This year’s Founders Cup was awarded to the Class of 1970, for their total giving of $1,465,178 to St. Andrew's since their last Reunion in 2020.

Finally, this year’s Distinguished Alumni Award was presented to two members of the alumni body: Bill Brownfield ’70 and Chesa Profaci ’80. The Distinguished Alumni Award celebrates an alumna or alumnus who has distinguished themselves professionally, personally, and in service to the community and country with strength, commitment, and perseverance. The Distinguished Alumni Endowment Fund was created by the Class of 1959 at its 50th Reunion in 2009, and the award brings the recipient to campus during the following school year to deliver a Chapel Talk on Founders Day, and to visit classes and speak with students, teachers, and staff.

In her introduction of Brownfield at Reunion, Head of School Joy McGrath ’92 said:

Bill’s deep connection to this school began as a three-sport varsity athlete, a writer for The Cardinal, and a member of the Spanish Club. He would go on to graduate from Cornell, the University of Texas School of Law, and the National War College—but the values instilled in him here have been a compass throughout his life. With his wife Kristie Kenney—herself a trailblazing ambassador—they represent over 75 years of service to our nation across six ambassadorships and ten countries. Together, they have not only served—but they have given back—founding the Foreign Service Scholarship Fund to help children of federal service members access a St. Andrew’s education.

Ambassador Brownfield—Bill—your life’s work is nothing short of inspiring. You remind us what it means to lead with humility, to serve with honor, and to give with heart. It is with deep gratitude and admiration that we present you with the 2025 Distinguished Alumni Award.

In her remarks on Profaci, Head of School Joy McGrath ’92 said:

For decades, Chesa has been the heart of our alumni community. Her story at St. Andrew’s began as a student, where she was elegant, athletic, clever, and unmistakably herself—radiating warmth, wit, and boundless energy. …

From the moment she began work here in 1990, Chesa brought not only professional brilliance, but deep emotional intelligence and fierce devotion to the role. As Director of Alumni Engagement, she was both architect and builder of the purposeful, interwoven network we now cherish. Reunions, Coast-to-Coast Toasts, alumni gatherings large and small—all have borne her imprint. But more than that, Chesa has given us something even more enduring: relationship. She knows—and genuinely remembers—our alumni across generations. … She’s been a listener, a matchmaker, a historian, a connector, and a tireless champion of every Saint who walked through these doors. Whether welcoming nervous new students, reminiscing with the Class of 1965, or staying up all night during Reunion just to make sure everything was perfect—Chesa’s dedication has known no limits. And so tonight, with deep affection and admiration, we present to you, Chesa, the Distinguished Alumni Medal, in recognition of a lifetime of service, vision, and love for this school and for its people.

Thank you to all of our alumni who made the trek back to campus for Reunion Weekend 2025! If you weren’t able to make it, please know that you were greatly missed by your fellow Saints.

Click here to view all photos from Reunion Weekend 2025.

Campus gets quiet when our community scatters for summertime pursuits, but we’ve got a great way to stay connected: summer reading.

“While reading may initially feel like a solitary venture, as you know—or will soon come to know—from your English classes at St. Andrew’s, one of the great joys reading makes possible is having a lively conversation with others about stories and ideas,” says Emily Pressman, Dean of Teaching and Learning. “In this sense, reading is a way to build connection.”

We’re inviting students, faculty, and staff; students’ loved ones; alumni; and others to connect through reading this summer. For SAS underformers, that looks like reading one book assigned to their entire form (more on that below!) and (at least) one book from suggestions by adults on campus. 

The latter list saw recommended reads from adults across our varied, vibrant community—from faculty members, to staff in our Health Center, Athletics leadership, and beyond. With books on topics from coming of age, to surviving war, to living creatively, to the history of tuberculosis, and much more, there’s something on the list to engage even a reluctant reader.

“It’s a wonderfully wide-ranging list: fiction and nonfiction, brand new works and longstanding classics, lifetime favorites and books that are on the top of the adults’ ‘to be read’ pile, which they’re excited to discover alongside you,” Pressman says. “All of these adults will be eager to connect with you in the fall to discuss the book(s) you’ve chosen.”

Also connecting underformers, their peers, and adults are these assigned texts: All rising III formers are required to read Gather by Kenneth M. Cadow; rising IV formers required reading is Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel; and the rising V formers are required to read The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga.

Finally, all rising VI formers are required to read two texts from the Senior Exhibition list, which includes: By Night in Chile by Roberto Bolano, The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes, Quicksand by Nella Larsen, Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin, and The Awakening by Kate Chopin. 

For the VI Formers that have elected to take AS Humanities, the exhibition list is as follows: Giovanni's Room, Quicksand, To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf, Angels in America by Tony Kushner, Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller along with Fences by August Wilson.

Regardless of their form year, students looking to read beyond what they’ve been assigned have a bounty of books from which to choose. We’re excited to see what ideas, themes, and lessons they’ll bring from their summer reading to book discussions, to coursework within and beyond the humanities, and to campus life and culture.

Read Emily Pressman’s full letter to families on summer reading here.