TaborTalk Blog

The Board of Trustees unanimously elected Carmine Martignetti ’71, a valued trustee at Tabor since 2006, as our next Chairman at their summer meeting. “I am delighted to serve Tabor, which has been such a significant part of my life, as well as to work with our dedicated trustees and our outstanding Head of School John Quirk.”

By Emma Goodman '11

By Meagan McCarthy '10

I received a letter the other day from Allen Blake '57. The letter was meant to be a "class note," just an update on things, some great old stories and some recent news. Indeed, the note took care of some business, but there was much more there.

By Becky Love, Events Coordinator, Advancement

Amy Richards '88 with Tinker Saltonstall, former faculty

On Thursday last week, Amy Richards '88 came to campus to speak to our community. Amy is a published author, blogger, speaker, and women's rights activist, and has most recently been involved in promoting a documentary film she has helped to get off the ground called Makers.

Makers is a compilation of stories of individual women and their role in advancing women's rights or the positive image of women in America. (The idea was to create a film about the women who helped "make" America.) The women tell their stories through interviews, each having taken a stand to highlight an injustice, or maybe as the first woman to do some activity, job, etc. As an example, Sandra Day O'Connor as the first woman Supreme Court Justice is a "maker," as are Katie Couric and Oprah Winfrey. The interviews are being brought to campuses across the country, which is part of Amy's role in the project, and were aired in full in a three hour movie on PBS last February. See www.makers.com for more information or to watch some of the many interviews. It is an impressive and massive undertaking!

In her talk, Amy shared an interview (click here) with us of the first woman to run the Boston Marathon, Katherine Switzer, and some footage of a race official who tried to forcefully removed her from the race. The woman said she just wanted to run, and was supported by her boyfriend who blocked the official so she could run on and ultimately finish the race. For our students, who take women in sports for granted, it was a bit of an eye opener to learn that women have not always had those opportunities: even at Tabor. It also showed an example of how men have helped to advance women over the years, foreshadowing a final point about how we can all take action.

Amy spoke a bit about what it was like at Tabor as one of the early classes with boarding girls when the school moved back to co-education after a twenty year hiatus. It was during this time that she found her voice as a leader, helping administrators to see certain inequalities (like in sports equipment, uniforms and facilities) as well as biases teachers might have had about academic skills girls either had or did not have. She also shared much of what she loved about Tabor: her friends, teachers and role models, and the challenging academic environment.

Amy told us that the women's movement today is really about fairness, and fairness for all people not just women. She encouraged both the girls and the boys in our community to stand up for fairness in humanity as simply the right thing to do. She asked us specifically to think about how we speak to each other, how we talk about others, what we do with social media etc, to determine if the way we are acting is detrimental to others. She argued that girls and boys can make a difference, for instance, in the high rates of sexual assault across college campuses cited in the news these days, by calling out these behaviors, stepping in to stop a negative situation from developing, or altering and labeling some of the language we use that might lead to devaluing people as being unacceptable. She pointed out that sexual assault, like many issues feminists care about, is not soley a woman's issue as it affects us all, women and men, as well as our families and society.

Amy challenged us to think and act differently in the name of fairness. Indeed, we can all make a difference through our positive words and actions in support of each other.

Thanks for coming, Amy, and sharing your insights with us.

I just came across the LinkedIn profile of our alum Jon Converse ’81. On the profile there is, of course, an engaging description of Jon’s professional life, but being a graphic artist there was also a visual: a video montage of his work over the last 20 years. Talk about a revealing resume: this guy has done some amazing work! Not only was it intriguing to see how he would create a video that pulled together 20 years of projects in a two minute piece, but I was amazed by how much of his work I recognized.

Not body fat! I am talking vegetable oil.

You've heard the saying: our actions have a ripple effect. Today, the saying is Pay it Forward; for every nice thing that has happened to you, try doing something nice for three more people to "pay it forward." These concepts were the focus of a wonderful Chapel Talk by Jessica Lowe '14 on Thursday that caused the audience to jump to their feet in applause.

I wanted to share this lovely poem Tricia Smith, faculty, wrote to the Class of 2013 on the eve of their graduation. I hope some in the class will remember it and realize the importance of the connections they made here. To me, it nicely illustrates the kind of relationships our teachers and students share and the depth of the work that transpires here by and with our students. Enjoy!

Robert Al-Chokhachy '88 in the Arctic, conducting field research

As a research biologist with the US Geological Survey, Robert said he felt very fortunate to be working in the Arctic. He is working with colleagues from Utah State University to conduct research with Arctic charr ~ 80 miles north of the Arctic Circle in a field camp. He explains, "Much of this work is trying to understand how climate, among other factors, influences aquatic ecosystems in the Arctic." He is pictured above pulling a sled full of equipment to a field site. He shared this photo, too, of the beautiful views of mountains and wildlife.

Some reindeer feeding on lichen.