Like Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland before them, Tyler Arle, his brother, Chad (’14), their sister Alexis, and assorted cousins would for years “put on a show,” in their case when their families got together on holidays. The kids would write scripts, design costumes, choreograph dance routines, and rehearse in the basement. Sometimes the plots were their takes on classics such as Peter Pan and A Christmas Carol, but other times they were variations on a “dorky boy has crush on cool girl” theme.

Chad played the nerd named Snelvin, and Tyler was cast as Brian, the “jerk boyfriend.”

The Arles boys love acting—Chad played roles in several Fenn productions—and Tyler’s passion for being on stage was the subject of his Senior Reflection on September 25. Back during those family shows, Tyler wasn’t all that comfortable “dating my own cousin and making a fool of myself in front of my parents,” he said. For a few years he stayed away from the stage, but one day, after being in the audience for a Concord Youth Players performance, “I began to feel differently about drama and realized that it was cooler than I had thought.”

Thus began Tyler’s passion for treading the boards. The next time his siblings and cousins put on a show, he enjoyed it and “put more into my character.” Since, he’s performed roles in Summer Fenn productions, in the Concord Youth Theater’s The Music Man and, this October, in its production of You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown, for which he will don some dirt to play Pigpen. Over the summer he performed with Chad in Footloose at the Middlesex Summer Arts Program.

Playing the title role in the Fenn Upper School drama, The Elephant Man, last year (to rave reviews), was a challenge because “I had to be someone with a physical deformity on top of just playing the character.”

There is a moral to his journey as a thespian, Tyler said at the end of his Reflection. “You might not be so good or passionate about something now, but revisit it in the future because you may end up loving it the way I love theatre now.”

In an interview later, Tyler explained why he loves theatre: “It’s important to me to be able to interpret and become a character. For John Merrick (The Elephant Man), I found I could relate to aspects of his experiences. It’s such a great feeling when an actor can convey a character well, and I love doing this so much.”

A self-described lover of musicals, Tyler’s favorite is Newsies, and he would love to see the revival of Aladdin on Broadway this year. At Fenn, he is a “science guy,” who “likes to learn” and is intrigued by biology and the study of  “how we’re made.” In his down time at home, which the three Arle children share with pooch Emmy, a Yorkie, and Percy the cat, Tyler likes to play the guitar.

A passion for collecting license plates has provided ninth grader Sam Farley with many new friends all over the United States, the opportunity to write a column for the Automobile License Plate Collectors Association magazine and an experience that has helped define who he is as a person. It has taught him there is nothing quite so wonderful as pursuing one’s passion, for “you never know where it will take you.”  

Sam has covered the walls of his room with some of the 1000 plates he has found at flea markets and antique shops or acquired from other collectors. He has been looking for plates since he was seven and went with his grandparents to a Wellfleet, MA, flea market, where he spied a table of expired plates that fascinated him.

The ALPCA is the largest organization of its kind in the world and Sam is one of its youngest members. “Most are older guys who get senior discounts,” Sam noted in his Senior Reflection, which was punctuated with his characteristic wit. “It’s not exactly a place to meet girls,” he added wryly.

Sam said he has had “so much fun” being a collector and that “I’m a different person as a result.” Plates have stories to tell, he explained, and “they are all unique.” He noted that during World War II, when there was a shortage of metal, some states issued thick cardboard license plates that would deteriorate in bad weather and suffer nibbling by curious goats.  

Sam has been amazed to discover that some states, like his own, have a wide variety of specific plates, such as “Animal Ambulance.” He is currently on the hunt to obtain a dealer plate from every state.

In closing, Sam’s advice to his audience in Ward Hall was, “Just do something you think is cool—not what everyone else thinks is cool. You never know where it will take you.”

At Fenn, Sam plays soccer, basketball, and baseball, was recently elected a class senator for the fall semester, and is a member of the Fenn Radio crew, the Diversity Committee, and the Youth in Philanthropy group. In his down time he likes to hang out with his sister, Elise, a seventh grader, and with his friends, he said in an interview after his Reflection.

When he isn’t connecting with other collectors online or penning his column—he thanked his former teachers Ms. FitzGerald and Ms. Byron for helping him with his writing—Sam likes to read and Bill Bryson is a favorite author. Living on campus (his dad is Fenn’s assistant headmaster for the academic program) is a boon, he added with a smile; “If I forget my homework I can walk home to get it!”

“Good friends,” says ninth grader Owen Johnson, “rally around each other when times are tough.” Owen knows this from experience. For his Senior Reflection he recalled the time he took the stage in seventh grade to deliver a dramatic monologue, one he had rehearsed for days and had down pat.

On the day of the performance, Owen donned his make-up and costume and walked out on stage. AS the curtains opened and the lights went down, he began to deliver his lines and got one of them out perfectly. But then, an actor’s nightmare became reality for him. He went blank. Owen called for his line, and then for the next one, and then he began simply “to make something up.” He stumbled through, and as he walked off, crestfallen, he anticipated being teased by his classmates. “I was angry, disappointed, and embarrassed,” he said.

But the reaction Owen received was a surprise. “My friends rallied around me as if I hadn’t make mistakes at all. They were encouraging and supportive.” The experience was one of his defining Fenn moments.

Owen, who delivered his Reflection with poise and confidence, and without a single stumble, said in an interview afterwards that he sees boys “rallying around each other” often at Fenn, particularly on the football field and basketball court, and that these moments will be among his favorite memories when he graduates next spring. Another favorite memory is his fifth grade experience, when his teacher Mr. Byrd was “so kind and helpful.”

At Fenn, Owen plays football, basketball, and lacrosse, serves on the sports and dance committees, and is a member of the Youth in Philanthropy class. He likes English and woodshop, where he is currently whittling, an art that “takes my mind off things that worry me.” Owen’s younger brother, Ty, is a Fenn fifth grader. Besides the boys’ parents, a “very affectionate” tabby cat named Peter rounds out the family. In his down time Owen enjoys pick-up games of basketball and football and he is a devoted Patriots fan.

Owen said he decided on the theme for his Reflection after thinking about how important his friends are to him.” A good friend, he said, “is caring, kind, and empathetic,” and “has your back, always, no matter what happens.” He will miss his Fenn friends when he moves on next year, but is certain that he will remain connected to many of them.  

Few challenges in life are as difficult as overcoming disappointment. Max Steinert ran into obstacles in his soccer career year after year, but in dealing with each of them, he learned that hope and determination pay off.

Max, in his Senior Reflection, chronicled his journey from playing on a town team when he was a fourth grader to being elected one of four co-captains of Fenn’s varsity team this year. Along the way, he tried out for but did not make the FC Stars team, then made the MPS team, and while practicing for another FC Stars try-out in the summer before his eighth grade year, he kicked the wall while playing soccer in his basement and broke his toe.

Grit and determination kept him going, and this year he is proud to be part of a team in which other players look to him for encouragement and guidance.

The lesson can be applied to anything, Max said after his Reflection. Last year he auditioned for the Upper School Musical but did not get a part, yet that did not discourage him from being on stage; he will have a role in the production this year.

Max loves to ski and sail and he plays tennis and basketball at Fenn, where he is also learning how to play the guitar. His favorite subject is math—“I like being able to get an answer to a problem”—and he enjoys spending time in the woodshop. A member of the Youth in Philanthropy group, Max is also on the Dance and Sports committees. His brother, Nick, graduated from Fenn last spring, his sister, Alexis, is a seventh grader at Nashoba Brooks, and the family has two lively labs named Comet and Cisco.

As he contemplates graduating in June, Max said he will miss the “safe and fun” community that is Fenn and the closeness of his ninth grade class.  “I love that I know everyone,” he declared.

A TED talk given by writer and photographer Taiye Selasi, in which she said that it is the rituals and relationships we experience rather than the geographical place from which we come that informs who we are, inspired Ethan Bondick to apply her message to his own life for his Senior Reflection.

Our identities aren’t decided by our passports or birthplaces, but rather, “It is the people, the places, and the experiences in our life that shape you into being who you are,” he declared, going on to explain how his six years at Fenn have helped sculpt his identity. Six years of All School Meetings, of donut and Hi Chew sales, of Field Days, of A Christmas Carol (complete with Mr. Ward’s stellar performances), he said, “have become a part of me and I, a part of them.”

Ethan said this became particularly clear to him when he left Fenn last year to attend Mt. Mansfield Winter Academy for three months to train for its ski racing team. The experience couldn’t have been more different from his life at Fenn, he said. There were 45 boys and girls and 45 teachers, each one using the curriculum provided by the student’s school. Ethan did schoolwork each morning from before 8 a.m. through lunch, after which he headed to the mountain for the afternoon, skiing in sub-zero temperatures, wind, and driving rain and snow. At night, though “we were all wiped out,” there were hours of homework, followed by the evening ritual of sharpening, cleaning, scraping, polishing, and waxing his skis, sometimes twice.

Attending the program involved “a steep learning curve” for Ethan, he said, but he developed stronger and more effective work habits and learned that “there was somewhere else besides Fenn that I could call home.” He was a little apprehensive about returning to his school—would he be welcomed back and feel as if he still belonged? But shortly after his arrival, Ethan was greeted warmly by Derek Boonisar, associate headmaster and head of the Upper School, “and that made me realize that your home never forgets you and you never forget home,” he said.

Ethan, who will return to MMWA for three months this winter, is on the varsity tennis team at Fenn and plays tennis outside of school; that sport and crew, which he practiced all summer in a Boston program and continues to do on weekends, are his passions—“I need them,” he said in an interview after his reflection, adding that skiing is “a bonus” and that “academics comes first.” His favorite subjects are science and math, the latter because “It makes so much sense to me. Everything has a right or a wrong answer.” Ethan is a Peer Advocate and a tour guide at Fenn and he serves on the Class Gift Committee. At home, where his two Australian Labradoodles, Hedwig and Inca, are “like siblings,” Ethan likes to play video games and spend time outside when he has time.

What will he miss when, after graduation in June, he leaves the place that has so informed him as a person? “Everything,” he said.  “It’s just so nice here.” 

Some people are afraid of spiders; others recoil from snakes, or clowns, or darkness. Matt Sanders fears heights, but not just the idea of being up high. He is afraid that once there, he will lose his balance and not have anyone to support him--a metaphor, in a way, for life itself.

Matt, in his Senior Reflection, talked about his first day at Camp Caribou, where he was staying with his fellow ninth graders in September. His heart sank when he spied the high ropes course. Matt donned a harness and walked quietly over to a bench, hoping no one would notice that he was avoiding the exercise. Then his classmate Sam Farley approached him and asked him what was wrong. “I’m afraid,” Matt conceded.

Sam urged Matt to try the course and encouraged him as the latter reluctantly climbed the ladder up to the ropes. “My legs felt like plug-in massagers,” Matt recalled. From the top, he looked down and saw Sam and a few other friends urging him on and he forged ahead. The next day, Matt faced another challenge: a zip line that runs over a lake and is approached by climbing a perilous set of iron footholds up to a tiny platform. Matt was apprehensive as he gingerly scaled the tree to be hooked up to the line. But he said to himself, “I can’t back down.” When the countdown reached “1!” he plunged off the edge and was airborne.

After his splashdown, Matt clambered into a rowboat that came out to meet him, smiling broadly. To his surprise, he realized that the experience had been exhilarating. “I loved it!” he declared. “And I wanted to do it again.”

Public speaking is another of Matt’s fears, and one shared by most people. Walking up to the front of the hall to deliver his reflection, he felt everyone’s eyes on him and his heart pounded, but he remembered Mrs. Ward’s gentle words of encouragement. Matt delivered his reflection flawlessly and with an occasional smile, appearing as comfortable as if he had been talking to his best friend. When he finished he was flooded with relief, and afterward he felt empowered. “If you have the support of others when confronting a fear, it really makes a difference,” he said.

Matt, whose brother Jake is a seventh grader at Fenn, plays varsity soccer and basketball, and runs track; he also plays on the FC Stars team, which is a major but worthwhile commitment of time outside of school, he said in an interview after his reflection. A member of the Youth in Philanthropy group and the Upper School Debate Club, Matt also volunteers for Heading Home, which he said is very rewarding:
“It’s really cool to see it all come together and watch a family move into a real home.”

When Matt joined the Fenn community in sixth grade, he was worried at first about leaving his friends and his old school and adapting to a new one. He recalled, for example, taking math with Mr. Sanborn and finding it “very challenging.” But each morning the two would meet to go over Matt’s homework, “which made a big difference.”  Experiences such as this one prompted Matt to realize that “Fenn is such a supportive place. Right from the start I felt there was something really special here.”

“That’s one big boy instrument!” thought Peter Blau when he eyed a trombone while attending, as a fourth grader, the instrument “petting zoo” that the music department holds each fall. Peter had considered the oboe and the drums, but the trombone fascinated him. “I had no idea how it worked and I wanted to find out,” he said during his Senior Reflection.

Peter joined the Beginning Band, which he recalls being a bit chaotic, perhaps because a group of young boys getting used to new instruments can generate somewhat of a cacophony at first. “I pretty much didn’t know what was going on,” Peter admitted. By sixth grade, his confidence had increased and Peter realized he had gotten “pretty good” on the trombone.

And so he practiced, and practiced, and practiced, honing his skills. He worked his way to a level of competency that allowed him to audition for the Senior District Jazz Band at Milton High School, where he remembers waiting for hours to be asked to play scales, and then perform a piece, improvise on specific chords, and finally, to sight read. It was a demanding try-out, for which he fell just slightly short. 

So Peter practiced some more. He was invited to the Rivers School Conservatory, where he auditioned successfully for a place in its Big Band; he is the second to the youngest boy in the group, which practices on Thursday nights. “Music is an important part of my life,” Peter told the gathering in the meeting hall. When he asked how many boys in the audience play an instrument and love music, dozens raised their hands.  

Peter performs with the Fenn Concert, Jazz, and Marching bands—at this writing he was rehearsing for the Fenn Holiday Concert. In an interview following his reflection, he said he is inspired by some of the trombonists he listens to who played in the 1970s and 1980s.

Besides pursuing his passion for music, Peter leads a full Fenn life, serving as a Peer Advocate, a host for the Fenn radio show, an admissions tour guide, and a clerk in the school store. He is also a member of the Youth in Philanthropy class.

Brother of Andrew, a Fenn fifth grader, Peter loves science, especially doing biology labs. One of his favorite classes was the one during which he had to extract DNA from strawberries; he called it “a great hands-on experience.” Peter plays squad soccer, basketball, and tennis, and in his free time he loves to be outdoors. He said that when he graduates in the spring, he will miss the sense of community he feels at Fenn, which “welcomed me and made me feel appreciated.” One of his best memories is the time he kicked in the winning goal at a squad soccer meet in 2014. “I felt really pumped,” he recalled. “It was such a great feeling!”

What makes a good friend? Someone who “is there to help, likes what you like, and has your back,” says Callan Fries.

Callan talked about friendship in his Senior Reflection, saying that he values how welcomed he was as a new boy in the fifth grade and that one of the first boys he met has become one of his best friends. When Callan walked into his classroom that first day five years ago, he was apprehensive. “I didn’t know what to expect,” he explained, adding that he worried he would not feel he belonged because most of the boys had likely formed friendships in the fourth grade.

But Callan was happily proved wrong. “Kids said hello and talked to me,” he recalled, and soon after, he connected with one of them, Colin Cunningham, another new Fenn boy whom Callan observed eating an orange (“which he did nearly every day, I later noticed”) in the corner of the room. “We’re still good friends,” Callan said.

At least two other great opportunities for bonding occurred as the years went by. One was the Washington, D.C. trip, “where I talked with kids I had never really gotten to know before,” Callan said. Another is being part of a small ninth grade class, “where we’re all like one big happy family. We know each other like brothers.”

Callan, whose brother, Cam, is a Fenn seventh grader, plays football and baseball, and he wrestles in the winter. He is a member of the Youth in Philanthropy class and the Dance Committee. Callan performed the role of Lydia Lansing in the Upper School Comedy last year, saying it wasn’t too difficult to play a female since one needs to commit to whatever character he or she plays. “But there was one challenge: “walking in high heels,” he said with a smile. Callan loves math, “because I like to solve problems,” and his second favorite class is woodshop.

Dedicated to helping others, Callan, with his dad, regularly helps provide dinner during the evening program for students at Nativity Prep in Boston, a tuition-free Jesuit middle school serving boys from low-income families. In the summer he volunteers mornings in a non-profit hospital thrift shop on Nantucket, surfing off the island’s beaches in the afternoons, he said in an interview after his reflection. At home, down time means playing football with friends, even in the snow. And feeding rickets (“dead,” he clarifies to his momentarily distressed interviewer) to his twelve–inch long uromastyx lizard, a gift from his grandfather a couple of years ago.

Callan has had a great five years at Fenn, he says. He values the friendships he has made so much that he vows to work on staying connected to his classmates once he graduates in June. 

“Imagine you are me,” said Tad Scheibe as he began his Senior Reflection. “You are twenty feet up a tree, looking down through a tangle of branches, and below you is someone who wants what you have in your hand—his dorm keys.”

Tad grew up at Middlesex School, where his father, Dan, was a teacher and administrator, and more recently, at Lawrence Academy, where Dan is in his fourth year as the head of school. As a boarding school faculty child, Tad and his siblings, including Peter, a Fenn sixth grader, and Hans, a fourth grader (big sister Lily is at Yale), had a built-in community where they could safely ride their bikes around and around the campus and catch frogs, snakes, and fish in the woods and pond, and they would delight in eating in the dining hall. But as boarding school faculty kids are wont to do, they not only were babysat by students but they also idolized some of the teenagers and gently teased others. One of those was Chase, they boy whose keys Tad held that day. "We loved to chase Chase,” Tad said with a grin.

Tad had fun growing up on a boarding school campus, “which is a special thing to do,” he said, but he also gleaned life lessons from observing the teenagers who were students there. “I learned how to listen first, and then act,” he explained, or simply “how to observe and be quiet.” Tad said that being an introvert is part of his “multi-layered” personality. “There’s more to most of us than what others might see and judge,” he pointed out, “and for me it’s that I am a quiet person, but I have many interests and like to have fun.” He urged his audience to “think about what inside you other people may not see, and take the time to see what isn’t visible in others.”

Tad is an avid reader who counts the Game of Thrones series and Anne Patchett’s Bel Canto as among his favorite books. He is a competitive swimmer who practices four to five times a week. And he is one of Fenn’s all-time great cross country runners, who swept across the finish line in first place at Homecoming in September and set a new course record during the season. When he needs to de-stress and “reset,” Tad said, he likes “to do projects.” He might redecorate a room in his house or make a diorama of something that interests him; he hopes to construct one of a “tiny house” next, he said in an interview after his Reflection. A devotee of the Star Wars movies, he has bought figures of its characters online, retooled and painted them, and sold them on eBay.   

Besides running with the cross country team at Fenn, Tad, a High Honors student, is on the varsity tennis team. A former Trebles singer, he plays the trumpet and tuba, performing with the Fenn Band, and he has appeared on stage numerous times; he is currently rehearsing for his role in the winter musical, Godspell. Tad is a member of the Youth in Philanthropy class, which made site visits this week to decide which area non-profit organization the group would like to support with funding provided by the Foundation for MetroWest.

When Tad graduates in June, he will most miss being in a community “where I pretty much know everyone and where I have such great relationships with my teachers,” he said. His favorite subjects change “based on what we are studying and who is teaching,” Tad said, but he added that taking a science class with Derek Cribb for two years “got me excited about the subject.” Then again, “I like to go through all the steps to solve a math problem,” and “English and Global Studies are where you can do some free thinking."

Tad’s favorite Fenn memories include “sitting with friends at lunch around a wooden table on the dining hall deck and talking about everything,” and more generally, “Just the whole vibe at Fenn, which I love so much.” When asked what he hopes to be remembered for, he thought a moment before saying, “That I was accessible, accepting, and non-judgmental. And fun, too.”

Most boys are understandably nervous when faced with speaking in public, and any amount of encouragement helps. In the moments before Patrick Lessard presented his Senior Reflection, his classmates gathered around him to offer reassurance. What’s more, Andrew Metellus, president of the School, introduced Patrick and then remained sitting on the stage steps to show his support for his friend.

His peers’ support was invaluable, Patrick said later, and enabled him to talk confidently about his passion, snowboarding, which he has pursued for several years. Patrick was about six when he looked up one of the slopes at Mt. Sunapee in New Hampshire and saw “these cool kids doing tricks on snowboards.” He knew then he wanted to do that, too.

Snowboarding, Patrick soon learned, requires lots of practice: “At first I tried, and fell, and tried, and fell,” he said. “But when I was able to learn new tricks and land them for the first time, it was the greatest feeling!” Patrick’s skills improved so much that he began competing on a team four years ago.

Patrick is snowboarding as a sports alternative this winter. He instructs eight- to ten-year-olds at Nashoba Valley Ski Area in the afternoons and competes on weekends with the Mt. Sunapee Snowboard Team. Why does he love the sport so much? “It makes me feel free,” Patrick said.

Patrick plays lacrosse and football at Fenn and is a member of the Youth In Philanthropy class. He says science is his favorite subject because it is “hands-on.” He went on to describe how the class had been studying DNA transformation, using recombinant DNA technology to insert a gene into bacteria to make the bacteria glow in the dark and be resistant to antibiotics. In the summer, Patrick, who has an older brother, Philippe, a student at Lawrence Academy, works mornings on a 120-acre farm near Mt. Sunapee. He helped build a barn there from wood on the property, and he assists with tending to the cows, chickens, goats, and pigs, and with the vegetables grown on the land. In the afternoons he enjoys another favorite sport: waterskiing.

In Sam Pring’s household, there are implicit expectations: that children respect their elders and that they work hard to achieve the better life that their parents have made possible for them. Sam, like his identical twin brother, Dan, is first generation Cambodian. In his Senior Reflection, Sam talked about his roots—his great-grandmother who left China for Vietnam but landed in Cambodia, where she met Sam’s future great-grandfather. He spoke fondly of his grandparents while employing his characteristic sense of humor. “My grandfather speaks a little Vietnamese, but only to females,” he said, to audience laughter.

Sam said he doesn’t like hearing children talking back to, or worse, swear at their parents, as “respect is the most important thing we are taught. We even have to say ‘hello’ to an elder the correct way, which is different from saying ‘hello’ to someone our age,” he explained. And when Sam sees “kids on TV saying they hate their parents,” he is shocked. “We would never say that about our parents,” he declared. Cambodian children are taught to eat everything they are served, he continued. The “food pyramid” he is most used to, he added with a smile, “is rice, rice, and rice,” though in an interview after his reflection he noted that his mother now makes spaghetti sometimes after repeated requests from her children.   

Lowell, where Sam and his family live, is home to more Cambodian residents—about six percent of the population—than any other city in Massachusetts, he said, and it is the second most Cambodian populated city in the U.S. behind Long Beach, CA. His family settled in Massachusetts to have more opportunities, which Sam, Dan, and their younger sister, Alyssa, continue to appreciate. “They want us to have a better life,” and one that includes a good education, he said.

At Fenn, Sam is on the soccer, basketball, and track teams, and he plays oboe and sax in the Fenn Band. He serves as a Peer Advocate and tour guide, and this year he is particularly proud that he and Sam Farley were elected their class senators after running together every year since the fourth grade. Biology is Sam’s favorite subject and, an animal-lover, he hopes to become a veterinarian.  

In his down time, Sam loves to read, particularly fantasy and adventure books, and to play video games. Having an identical twin means that “someone is always there for me,” he said. When he graduates, Sam will miss “how nice my teachers are” and experiences such as the ninth grade trip to Camp Caribou, “where we got to know each other well.” How would Sam like to be remembered at Fenn? “As a fun person who helped the community,” he said. 

When Lucas Lisman was in the fourth grade, he had a baseball coach who “influenced me and helped me become who I am today,” he said in his Senior Reflection.

The coach had a saying he would use to motivate his players about the importance of practice, but he delivered it with a twist: “Perfect practice makes perfect.” Lucas has carried that message with him into his performance on the field and off, and in his school and personal lives.   

In football, Lucas, who was a running back on the Fenn team, had to learn a number of plays and routes for running passes. On defense he served as a manager on the field, calling plays and helping his teammates if they couldn’t remember a play. This took significant practice so that he could commit the plays and passes to memory.

In basketball, his other favorite sport, Lucas knows that it’s not enough to practice three or four free throws; he makes himself throw twenty, even forty. His dad made up a game in which Lucas wins a point for each free throw he makes, but deducts a point for each one he misses.

Perfect practice applies to doing homework, said Lucas. He knows that when teachers assign outside reading some students don’t do it, “but I know I need to read it and read it closely,” he said. The phrase even applies to making friends, he added. “At the start of the year I had four or five good friends, but there were so many other boys I hadn’t connected with. I made an effort and now there are about eight who are among my best friends.”

Lucas, whose brother Zack graduated from Fenn in 2013 and is now a student at Rivers School, will play baseball this spring, and in his down time sports plays a big role; he might be outside shooting hoops or inside watching a game on TV. Mostly, he likes to hang out with his friends. He and his dad care for a dozens of fresh water fish that live in a thirty-gallon tank. Lucas is drawn to water, he said in an interview after his reflection; he loves swimming and other water sports and the family spends time on Martha’s Vineyard in the summer.

A member of the Youth in Philanthropy class, a Big Brother to a Lower School boy, and a tour guide on campus, Lucas said math is his favorite subject because “I like solving problems.” When he graduates he will most miss his friends and his teachers—“how caring they are, and how nice.” His favorite Fenn moments will be winning the basketball tourney this winter (“and beating Fay by 30 points”) and going to football practice, “which was so much fun.” Lucas hopes he will be remembered as being “friendly” and for “trying to live Fenn’s four core values.”

Last summer Nick Landman volunteered at My Brother’s Keeper, a non-profit Christian ministry in Easton and Dartmouth, MA, which delivers furniture and food to families in need. Anyone living in its service area in southeastern Massachusetts is eligible to receive help, regardless of religion. In his Senior Reflection, Nick said delivering food to homes where people were in need gave him “a good feeling” and reminded him how fortunate he is.  

Nick will return to My Brother’s Keeper this summer, where he will put in an eight-hour day once a week for five weeks, riding in a truck filled with food for those without enough to eat.  

At Fenn Nick runs cross country and is on the track team, and in the winter he does a sports alternative, fencing, about which he is passionate. He has been fencing for nine years and participates in competitions. Nick says fencing requires stamina and endurance and is physically and mentally demanding.

Nick will serve as the stage manager for the winter musical, Godspell. He says Global Studies is his favorite class and that he enjoys learning about different religions. At home, where Nick has a sister, Julia, who is 12, and an English setter named Gwennie, Nick enjoys reading; he particularly likes science fiction and Ray Bradbury is his favorite author. 

When he graduates this spring, Nick says he will miss the Fenn community and the support he has received here, all of which, he says, reinforces his Senior Reflection message of “I feel lucky for what I have.”

Jake Harvey’s older sister Lily, now 16, taught him lots of things, including how to spell, Jake said in a Senior Reflection in which he emphasized the importance of not taking one’s family for granted. His little sister Cam, 11, has a cheery outlook that can lift Jake’s spirits, he added. As for his parents, there are all of the meals they make and the places they drive him, including to the ER after he fractured his clavicle earlier this winter while playing hockey. He was “bummed” to be injured, but his sisters bought him candy and made him laugh. “They’re great,” he declared. 

Jake, who admitted in an interview after his reflection to feeling “terrified” before speaking from the front of the hall and to comforting himself with the realization that “it will be over quickly,” asked the audience members to think about the family members in their lives and all that they do. His parents were in the balcony, a fact that both pleased him and, given the subject of his reflection, “made me feel a little embarrassed,” he said.

At Fenn, Jakes plays hockey, lacrosse, and soccer, is a member of the Youth in Philanthropy class, and serves as a Big Brother to a Lower School student (with whom he is constructing a cardboard vehicle in the makerspace.) He plays trumpet in the Concert Band, for which he serves as a co-president; the band has just begun rehearsing (in mid-February) for the Patriots’ Day Parade in Concord. Jake also plays hockey for a Concord-Carlisle team.

English is Jake’s favorite subject as he likes “to read a good book,” and he said The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian was a recent favorite. He will miss his teachers, his small classes, and the closeness of the ninth grade class when he graduates this June, and he hopes he will be remembered for “leading by example and being a good citizen.”

Sometimes you just know you are going to have a bad day. That’s what Tyden Wilson suspected on the second day of the Massachusetts Junior Amateur Championship, which is sponsored by the Massachusetts Golf Association, one of the last tournaments of last year’s season.

Tyden, who has been playing golf since he was five and playing competitively since he was ten, had shot a 79 on the first day of the tournament and knew he had to score no more than a 75 the next day. He even showed up early to practice with a friend, but on the first tee he carded a dreaded double bogey (two strokes over par on an individual hole).

“It didn’t bode well for the rest of the day,” Tyden said, whose Senior Reflection was about the lessons that imperfection can teach us. 

Tyden didn’t make the cut at the tournament, and he was disappointed in himself. But later he was listening to “Wait Wait…Don’t Tell Me," the current events radio show on NPR, when a contestant lost, but instead of feeling badly he told the emcee, “I may have gotten two questions wrong, but I learned two new things today.”

That comment resonated with Tyden, who told his audience in Ward Hall, “I realized you can learn a lot by not doing well."

Tyden picked up the game of golf when he was a small child visiting his grandparents, who lived at the time on a golf course in Arizona, he said in an interview after his Reflection. A self-described early riser, Tyden had "nothing to do" when he got up early in the morning so he went outside and hit golf balls. Now he competes often, with a tournament coming up during March break in South Carolina, where his grandparents now live. More tournaments are scheduled for next summer in New England.  

A baseball and basketball player at Fenn, Tyden is a Big Brother to a Lower School student; the two often play football together out on the green. He also helps out in the school store, where the clamoring of younger boys seeking snacks can often get a little crazy, he says with a smile.

At home, Tyden has two older siblings—a brother at Bennington College and a sister at Vassar--and a younger sister at Shady Hill School. A Samoyed named Keeka is the family pet, but she is partial to Tyden’s dad, he says.

Tyden, who has attended Fenn since the sixth grade, says that when he graduates he will miss having friends of all ages, “knowing that I can play with anyone here, whether he is a fourth grader or a ninth grader.” After he graduates, he hopes to be remembered as “a good, all-around athlete.” 

"Why did you want to climb Mount Everest?"

This question was asked of George Leigh Mallory, who was with both expeditions toward the summit of the world’s highest mountain, in 1921 and 1922. His answer? "Because it's there."

Perhaps that is what motivated ninth grader Mark Reiss and his dad, Stan, to climb all of forty-eight peaks of 4000 feet or higher in New Hampshire, most of which are in the White Mountains range. They began their quest in 2012 and finished about two years later. The experience, Mark said in his Senior Reflection, drove home the importance of persevering through difficulty.

“If you’re challenged by something, push yourself,” he declared. “You’ll remember it forever.”

Mark and his dad didn’t really know “what we were in for,” Mark said, and hadn’t considered at first that one has to hike to the mountain before one can hike up it. The hikes, up mountains that ranged from 4003 to 6288 feet, were “really difficult,” some of them involving a fifteen-mile round trip. And there were the “heartbreaking moments,” he added, of reaching the top of a peak only to realize that they were only partly there; another peak loomed in front of them.

The hikes, though meditative, were sometimes a bit exciting. Like the time father and son turned a sharp corner and confronted some ground birds that began screeching and flapping at them. Or the days when the fog that settled over the mountain caused them to be disoriented, if not temporarily lost.

The hikers were exhausted and sore, Mark said in an interview after his reflection, and he usually fell asleep on the ride back home after a stop at their “landmark” Burger King. But even when the two considered quitting, they would say to each other, “We started this, and if we stay committed, we’ll be glad.”

Now Mark and his dad maintain a trail on one of those peaks, Mt. Monroe, that they have adopted, cutting branches below the tree line, and above it, creating four-foot by four-foot rock cairns to help guide hikers in the fog.

Mark is an outdoors enthusiast, and when he isn’t hiking he likes to ski and play soccer, his favorite sport. He plays at Fenn and on the FC Stars team. Mark was a member of the Youth in Philanthropy Group this year, and serves as a Big Brother to a younger student. He calls biology his favorite class as he likes “learning interesting things, hands on,” but adds that his Spanish class is “always a lot of fun.”

At home Mark is one of three children; he has a twin sister and an older brother, both of whom attend Groton School, where Mark will join them in the fall. When he is not playing soccer or hiking, Mark enjoys spending time with his family, especially watching movies; a recent favorite is The Martian, but Mark always tries to read the book first, and in this case (and in many others, he notes), “the book was better.”

When he graduates in June, Mark will miss, “The way the boys act here; how they reflect the School’s core values [honesty, empathy, courage, and respect],” he said. "There are a lot of really nice guys here.”

“When life gives you lemons, make lemonade,” goes the proverbial saying that is meant to encourage optimism in the face of adversity or misfortune.

Liam Tasker felt that life had handed him a lemon when he did not get into the schools to which he applied while in eighth grade. The saying, however, “tells us to be problem solvers, to learn how to deal with curveballs,” Liam said at the start of his Senior Reflection. So when he was encouraged by his classmates and teachers to stay at Fenn for ninth grade, Liam resolved to make the best of it, he said. And what he made was lemonade.

What surprised Liam is that a few months into the first term he realized he was enjoying himself. He was being given leadership opportunities, such as serving as a Big Brother to a younger student, and he even led All School Meeting one Friday when the president and vice president were unavailable. “My Little Brother said it was cool to see me up there. It felt really good to know someone was looking up to me.” Liam was recently elected to serve as a School Senator for the second term, is the vice president of the Diversity Committee, has been a Peer Mediator, and was a member of the Youth in Philanthropy group this year.  

At the end of his reflection Liam exhorted his fellow students to “realize that with hard work, determination, and perseverance you can turn lemons into lemonade.”

Liam has grown close to his ninth grade classmates—“I know and talk to everyone in my grade,” he said during an interview following his reflection, adding that he will miss this camaraderie when he graduates in the spring and heads to Middlesex School, where his brother Gavin ’13 is a senior bound for Tufts. Friendship is very important to Liam: “I was just telling my Dad the other day that I can be in a situation that is boring or not fun, but as long as I have a friend sitting next to me, I enjoy it.”

One of his favorite Fenn experiences is his fourth grade class with Kristen FitzGerald, during which the boys set up an economy on their own, in their free time. Eventually they were minting what they called “Pizzo Bucks” (Kristin’s last name at the time), with a competing currency called “Paul Dollars,” after Paul Emello. They launched businesses, including a casino. Sam Farley, another class member, eventually sold ad space to his classmates on a back bulletin board that Kristin allowed him to control. Liam and James Bernene (who graduated last year) became “tycoons,” Liam recalled with a grin.

Liam plays varsity soccer, varsity lacrosse, and basketball, and he just finished a season with the Fenn Flames. He hopes to play on a club lacrosse team this summer, a break during which he has attended arts and lacrosse camps and spends time in the Canadian wilderness with his family. There, it’s “like a detox,” he jokes, explaining that there is no TV, no cell reception, and no Wi-Fi, and that he spends time hiking and exploring the area.

At Fenn one of Liam’s favorite subjects is biology. That day of his reflection he had just learned a fascinating fact in class: that mammals have a type of circulatory system in which the blood passes through the heart twice before completing a full circuit of the body; blood is pumped from the heart to the lungs and returns to the heart before being distributed to the other organs and tissues of the body. “I like finding out how life works,” Liam declared.

There are lots of ways to learn life lessons, and one of them is through particular relationships. For Henry Warzecha, playing golf with his Uncle Richard helped him realize that “one needs to bounce back from mistakes and move forward, not look back,” he said in his Senior Reflection.

Henry’s uncle, his dad’s brother, lives in Minnesota, where Henry has visited him. In the summer, Richard joins the family at their home on Prince Edward’s Island, and he and his nephew enjoy playing on the many good golf courses there. Henry has learned by example the importance both of doing one’s best and of showing respect to opponents.

His uncle might hit a ball into the woods, but “he doesn’t dwell on it and instead focuses on his next shot,” says Henry, who has carried this lesson to school, where, if he doesn’t do well on a test, he comes in the next day “determined to work harder." And after each round, he and his uncle remove their hats and shake hands with their opponents.  

At Fenn, Henry plays baseball, his other favorite sport, and basketball, and he serves as a Big Brother to a younger student. Henry helps run the school store, which is “fun, but chaotic sometimes,” he said in an interview after his reflection. His favorite subject is English because he prefers writing to speaking. “I like to think about my words and I can do that better when I write than when I speak,” he said.

One of Henry's interests is economics, and he has run a hedge fund for over two years. Using a loan from his parents, he follows the markets each day and his initial investment has increased by fifty percent. He is allowed to keep twenty percent of the profits. Henry is also interested in computer science and has built his own computer, in part to use it to do his homework but also “for the experience of seeing what it’s like to put one together.” Henry has an older sister, Annie, and the family has a Brittany spaniel named Dakota.

Henry said that one of his best memories is going on the seventh grade D.C. trip, where “I got to know my friends much better” while riding on the bus, staying up late to talk, and touring the monuments and museums. He has attended Fenn since fourth grade and said that since he will be moving on to a coed school, he especially appreciates attending a boys’ school, “where you can be yourself and not feel judged.” 

Ninth grader Bennet Kracz has two memories of his six years at Fenn that are a bit painful: one was the time he stood on the Robb Hall stage with his fourth grade class, singing a song. “I was in the front row [of the singers] and suddenly I grew dizzy and nauseous and hot,” he said. This was the first sign that speaking—or even singing—in front of people was not going to be his favorite activity. Four years later, in eighth grade, his classmates chose him to advance to the Ward Hall stage to present his memorized piece in the W.W. Fenn contest. Terrified at the prospect, Bennet declined the honor and allowed another boy to advance.

Looking back at that second moment, which he did during his Senior Reflection, Bennet said he realizes he missed out on a great experience. He has since learned that “If you mess up on the stage here, no one will make fun of you. Fenn is a safe place.” He urged those in the audience not to make “the same mistake I did,” adding that they should “take advantage of all of the opportunities you are given here.”

Bennet stood in front of the hall again this winter to introduce the non-profit organizations that were to be presented checks by the Youth in Philanthropy group, of which he was a member, and he delivered his Senior Reflection on April 21 with poise and confidence. In an interview after his reflection, he said he is more confident about public speaking now, in part due to the support of his peers and teachers. He was particularly touched, he said, by the encouragement offered to him by his fourth grade teacher, Ben Smith, before Bennet walked to the front of the hall to address the community. Mr. Smith, Bennet added, is the teacher who had the most impact on him at Fenn, making him feel comfortable and welcome when he arrived as a nervous fourth grader.

At Fenn Bennet has played soccer and basketball and is playing tennis this spring. Science is his favorite class because of the “hands-on learning” involved, as Bennet would like to become an engineer. He is “one of those kids,” he said, “who spent hours in his room building Legos and taking apart cameras and computers.”

In his free time, Bennet does chores at home, plays video games, and enjoys the company of the family’s two dogs, a black lab named Sawyer and a terrier-poodle rescue dubbed Tater because “he looks like a Tater tot,” he says with a smile. One of Bennet’s favorite Fenn memories is of his fifth grade spring trip to Merrowvista, during which, “We were in small groups, so we could bond, and it was great to be outdoors together.”

Bennet looks forward to doing the Orientation At Sea program at Tabor Academy this summer, an optional six-day sail on the schooner SV Tabor Boy that enables students to get to know one another and the school.