February 10 Highlights

Academic Panel | Spring Break Travel | Urinetown

Tonight: How to Raise an Adult

MOSAIC, PA’s mixed heritage affinity group, is excited to welcome New York Times best-selling author Julie Lythcott-Haims, our 2022 keynote speaker for the Academy’s ninth annual Mixed Heritage Awareness Week, February 7–11.

Please join us via Zoom at 7 p.m. ET: As part of the PSPA Speaker Series, Lythcott-Haims will discuss How to Raise an Adult, her best-selling book that gave rise to a popular TED Talk. Zoom link. Passcode: 2p3kYQ

Lythcott-Haims delivered an in-person address to the senior class for EBI Transitions this morning. Tomorrow she will address students at All-School Meeting. Her visit is made possible by the Donald Sutherland ’49 Fund for Curriculum, with additional funding from the PSPA. All three events will be made available on The Hive for later viewing.

Health & Wellness Update

As of Wednesday, February 9, more than 99% of PA students have received 1+ vaccination dose(s) and more than 84% have received a booster. Seven students tested positive in the past seven days. COVID metrics continue to improve across our campus, community, and state. New cases and hospitalizations are continuing to decline. To see the complete data from Dr. Amy Patel, Sykes Wellness Center medical director, please visit our COVID-19 Updates & Information.

Next and final Student Booster Clinic—Sunday, February 27, 2–3:30 p.m. at the Snyder Center: Boosters are required for those who are eligible and due. Please encourage your student to schedule an appointment via the Sykes Wellness Center Health Portal.

Questions for Our Panel?

On Thursday, February 17 (7–8 p.m. ET), Director of Studies David Fox will facilitate a panel discussion on our 11th- and 12th-grade academic program. We hope you can join us in person in Kemper Auditorium. If you cannot, please use this Livestream link. A recording will be posted on The Hive for later viewing.

Faculty panelists:

David Fox, Director of Studies and Instructor in Art History and English
Kassy Fritz, Director of College Counseling
Dr. Christopher Jones, Instructor in History and Social Science
Carmen Muñoz-Fernández, Chair of the Spanish Department
Keith Robinson, Chair of the Science Division

Parents, do you have a question or two for our panel about the 11th- or 12th-grade experience? Please submit them here. We hope to be able to address all questions, including those posed by the live audience.

Midyear Reflections

Students will begin midyear reflections this week. Point people will use Advising Periods or dorm meetings to go over questions, discuss expectations, and set up appointments for individual conferences with students. These one-on-one conversations between each student and their point person have proven to be invaluable opportunities to enhance connection and offer guidance, counsel, and feedback. At the end of the month, we will email a copy of the reflection to parents or guardians.

Travel Over Spring Break

Phillips Academy will offer Spring Break transportation to and from New York City, with a stop in Darien, Conn. Students can sign up for one-way travel ($90) or roundtrip ($150). Buses will depart at 4 p.m. on Friday, March 4, and return Monday, March 21. Drop-off and pick-up occur at the service plazas in Darien and at Dock 2 at the Port Authority Bus South Terminal in New York City. Answers to travel questions and access to the online bus form are available on The Hive under the Resources tab at the top of the page. This information will also be shared with students.

For transportation to Logan (Boston) and Manchester (N.H.) airports or South Station, arrangements can be made with private taxi and limousine service providers. A list of service providers regularly used by members of the PA community is available on The Hive.

Questions? Email Claudia Scofield or call 978-749-4124.

Live Music Performances!

The Department of Music is pleased to welcome PA families to this weekend’s performances in Cochran Chapel:

Academy Bands—Friday, February 11, 7:30–9 p.m.: The concert features works by Karl L. King, Gary Fagan, and John Philip Sousa.
Academy Chorus, Fidelio Society, and Amadeus Chamber Orchestra—Sunday, February 13, 3–4:30 p.m.: “Light & Love” will be conducted by Dr. Abbey Siegfried, Department of Music chair. The ensembles will perform Fauré’s Petit Requiem (1887) and Kevin Siegfried’s “Songs for the Journey,” a commissioned piece composed in 2010 as a companion piece to the Fauré.

Please note that proper masking is required at all times and that visitors must be fully vaccinated and boosted, if eligible, to attend events at Phillips Academy. If you or anybody in your household is displaying COVID-19 symptoms, you should not attend an event at PA. Performances will be recorded and made available for viewing at a later date.

Addison Gallery Virtual Conversation

Saturday, February 12, at 2 p.m. ET: Join artist Fred Eversley, whose work is featured in the Light, Space, Surface exhibition at the Addison Gallery, and Kim Conaty, the Steven and Ann Ames Curator of Drawings and Prints at the Whitney Museum of American Art and author of an essay in the exhibition catalogue, for a virtual conversation about Eversley’s work and the West Coast Light and Space movement of the 1960s and 1970s. Space is limited. Please register here.

Urinetown: The Musical

The Department of Theatre & Dance Presents Urinetown: The Musical, a three-time Tony Award–winning musical comedy that premiered in 2001. This celebratory ode to the medium of musical theatre was created by Mark Hollmann and Greg Kotis and acts as a humorous form of cultural criticism. Urinetown highlights the limitations of capitalism’s response to climate change and racialized policing. The corporatocratic response at the heart of the show seems more relevant in the midst of the pandemic, where inequities along racial and class lines are on even greater display than when Kotis and Hollmann created it.

Showtimes in Tang Theatre:

Friday, February 18, at 8 p.m.
Saturday, February 19, at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m.
Sunday, February 20, at 1 p.m.

This event is first-come-first-serve seating. We recommend arriving 30 minutes prior to showtime to secure your seat for the show. Families of students involved in the production can check in at the Information Desk to receive priority seating. All persons in your party must be present to claim their seats—there is no saving seats and no late seating. Masks are required in George Washington Hall and Tang Theatre.

News from the PSPA

Thank you to all the PSPA volunteers who helped make Casino Night a great time for our students! We look forward to seeing you at our upcoming events.

Tonight at 7 p.m. ET—PSPA Speaker Series with guest Julie Lythcott-Haims: Join us on Zoom for Lythcott-Haims’s address based on her New York Times best-selling book How to Raise an Adult. Zoom link. Passcode: 2p3kYQ

Lythcott-Haims spoke to Andover seniors this morning and will also be a guest at All-School Meeting tomorrow to address all students. Her visit is made possible by the Donald Sutherland ’49 Fund for Curriculum with additional funding from the PSPA. Recordings of these events will be shared on The Hive.

PSPA General Meeting—Thursday, February 17, at 6:15 p.m. ET: The general meeting (Zoom link. Passcode: a2j8nE) will take place in the Underwood Room, with a light dinner served from 5:45 to 6:15 p.m.

Following the general meeting is a collaborative program from 7 to 8 p.m. in Kemper Auditorium, brought to you by the PSPA and Director of Studies David Fox. Hear from the director of College Counseling as well as a panel of faculty from various departments focusing on the PA academic experience for uppers and seniors. A Q&A session will follow. This event is open to all interested parents! Please see the list of panelists earlier in this Family Bulletin and don’t forget to submit your questions. (Livestream link)

Virtual Mixer and Trivia Night—Thursday, February 24, at 8 p.m. ET: Back by popular demand! Meet parents and guardians at our winter term virtual mixer and trivia night. We will start with introductions and then play a fun and low-pressure team trivia game. No trivia experience necessary. Zoom link. Passcode: qC0ZVb

Shop in person tomorrow—Campus Closet WILL be open Friday, February 11, from noon to 4 p.m. Come browse new items and favorite classics that are back in stock! You can also shop 24/7 online. Consider sending your student some PA gear (a new hoodie or a cozy blanket?) with FREE delivery on campus!

Please remember that all guests on campus must be fully vaccinated, if eligible, and masked in indoor spaces.

This Week’s Religious Gatherings

Friday, February 11

1 p.m.—Muslim Student Association (MSA) Prayers: Led by Noureddine El Alam. Meditation Room, lower level of Cochran Chapel (side entrance). Masks required.
5:30–6:30 p.m.—Jewish Shabbat Service and JSU Meeting: Led by Rabbi Michael Swarttz. Paul’s Room, upper level of Paresky Commons. All are welcome! Masks required if not eating.

Sunday, February 13

3:30–5:45 p.m.—Protestant Ecumenical Gathering: Led by Rev. Gina Finocchiaro, interim Protestant chaplain. In recognition of U.N. World Interfaith Harmony Week, the group will gather to watch the virtual interfaith panel (see below). Ada’s Room, Upper Level, Paresky Commons.
4–5:30 p.m.—Virtual Interfaith Panel: The Catholic Confirmation class will attend a virtual panel titled “Serving the Good, A Conversation Among Leading Voices in Interfaith Dialogue,” which celebrates U.N. World Interfaith Harmony Week. This six-member panel will be hosted by Dr. Mary Kantor, Catholic chaplain.
6:45–7:30 p.m.—Roman Catholic Mass: Overseen by Dr. Mary Kantor, Catholic chaplain, with priests of the Archdiocese of Boston presiding. Kemper Chapel, lower level of Cochran Chapel (side entrance). Reception will follow. This Mass may be open to (masked) campus community only; please email Dr. Kantor with inquiry. (Subject to change if need to return to virtual setting)

Order a 2022 Yearbook

Families are encouraged to order the 2022 Pot Pourri online (enter school code 3591). Order forms are also available on The Hive. The deadline to order is March 1. Yearbooks—full color and typically about 300 pages—will be delivered to students in mid-May.

Curriculum Corner

Highlights of the Academy’s extensive course offerings

Focusing on the personal essay in the fall, poetry in the winter, and fiction in the spring, Writing to Read, Reading to Write (ENG200) is our three-term English course for lowers. Throughout the year, we encourage students to think beyond what a text means and consider how a text works. Emphasis is on writing as a multistep, collaborative process; hallmarks of the course include drafting, peer editing, workshop participation, revision, and reflection. We ask students to go beyond their comfort zones as writers and readers by taking creative risks in their essay assignments; by reading a wide variety of voices, authors, genres, and styles; and by reflecting upon issues of race, class, gender, and sexuality in their own writing and in the work of others.

ENG200 celebrates the diversity and wide experiences of our student writers. They learn that there is not just one way to write, let alone a “right” way, and that different writing goals and audiences demand different rhetorical tools.

You Are Invited!

February 10: TONIGHT! Mixed Heritage Awareness Week Virtual Keynote: Julie Lythcott-Haims
February 11 on Campus: Academy Bands Concert

February 12: Virtual Conversation with Artist Fred Eversley and Curator Kim Conaty
February 13 on Campus: Academy Chorus, Fidelio Society, and Amadeus Orchestra
February 16 on Campus: Student Music Recital
February 16: Excellence at Our Core, with Head of School Raynard S. Kington, MD, PhD, P’24
February 18 on Campus: Academy Jazz Band and Ensembles
February 19 on Campus: Chamber Music Concert
February 20 on Campus: Academy Orchestras Concert
February 22: Pan-European Regional Leadership Team’s Welcome to the Neighborhood, with Amy Kellogg ’83
February 23: Peabody Diggin’ In Series: Community Archaeology of the Manton Family
February 25 on Campus: Addison Gallery of American Art Opening Reception for the Winter Exhibitions
February 25 on Campus: Chamber Music Concert
February 26 on Campus: Coed Alumni and Parent Basketball Game
February 26 on Campus: Coed Alumni and Parent Hockey Game
February 27 on Campus: Coffeehouse Performances
March 1–31: Rosie’s Place Food Drive Non Sibi Project, with Rosalina Feliciano ’81
March 3: A Conversation with Tricia M. Taitt ’96, author of Dancing with Numbers
March 23: Abbot@Andover Committee Hosts a Conversation with Dorothy Tod ’60
March 26: Sharing our Asian and Asian American Stories
March 28: Blue Runs Deep Industry Series: A Conversation with Alumni on Climate Change
April 4: Blue Runs Deep Industry Series: A Conversation with Alumni in the Business of Sports
April 5 & 7: Kids in Tech Career Day Non Sibi Project, with Christine Cloonan ’98
May 12: A Conversation Between Ai-jen Poo ’92 and Dan Koh ’03

All events are virtual unless otherwise noted. Please join us!

Please check the Events Calendar on Andover’s website regularly for additional in-person and online events that may be open to families. The Weekender is the Academy’s one-stop guide to weekend student activities, opportunities, club-organized events, guest speakers, performances, and athletic contests.

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Andover, MA 01810

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