St. Mark's School

In an email announcement on February 18, Head of School John C. Warren '74 shared details of the approval of St. Mark's new residence hall. The announcement is below:

I am thrilled to report that the St. Mark's Board of Trustees recently approved moving forward with construction of the new residence hall. The Residential Life Initiative has been a major priority of the Lives of Consequence campaign, and receiving this approval is a significant step toward realizing, in a manner appropriate for this and future generations of St. Markers, the "school under one roof" concept envisioned by founder Joseph Burnett.

In June of 1969, Ethan Anthony "Tony" Loney became the first African American student to graduate from St. Mark's. He arrived on campus in the fall of 1965. "It was certainly eye-opening to me," remembered Loney, some years later. "I had just left a junior high school in Brooklyn with 3000 students, predominantly black and Latino. Now I was at this small school, where everyone knew everybody else: predominantly white, and socio-economically so different from my own background." Unlike today, there was no orientation or training, no emphasis on diversity, and no institutional attempt to understand or address the challenges facing new St. Markers. "The school had no clue. It's like you were dropped into a war zone to fend for yourself." Still, while Loney recalled a few condescending comments and inappropriate epithets, "there was no hazing. The first year was a little tricky, but after that it was a no-brainer."

Christine Ling '23 has released the first edition of Lingoscope, an interscholastic, multilingual online publication. It is a wholly student-run online platform "where students learning foreign languages can engage with each other and publish their work."

In 1890, William Washington and his family moved to Southborough, becoming the first free Black residents of the Town. The son of an African from Ghana who had escaped enslavement and married the daughter of a free Black woman and her Dutch sea captain husband in New Jersey, William became the assistant sexton at St. Mark's Episcopal Church and found full employment at Deerfoot Farms, in both roles working directly for St. Mark's School founder Joseph Burnett. The Washingtons lived in a house at the northwest corner of Southborough's Main Street and Marlboro Road (the location of the current Southborough Public Library).

Harrison Mullen, currently one of the Leaders for Educational and Operational Support (LEOS) at St. Mark's, recently delivered a presentation at the 2021 American Philosophical Association (APA) annual conference.

Throughout the COVID era, the arts at St. Mark's have continued to thrive curricularly. Arts Department head Chris Kent is teaching theater arts remotely, while Director of Music James Wallace has been working diligently with St. Mark's students, producing music for regular chapel services, the uniquely virtual 2020 Lessons & Carols service, and some wonderful a capella vocal productions. The visual arts, taught by faculty veterans Barbara Putnam and Aggie Belt, have been particularly impressive. Ms. Belt's sculptors have created "cultural unity vessels" in which students combine pottery styles from different cultures to produce unique objects. There was also an extraordinarily creative output from Ms. Putnam's studio artists this fall and leading up to the Christmas break. The vast majority of these artistic endeavors have taken place remotely, so it is exciting to realize that the arts at St. Mark's are thriving despite all challenges.

Beining (Cathy) Zhou, a VI Former from China and Australia, has been named a top 300 scholar in the 80th Regeneron Science Talent Search (STS)—the nation's oldest and most prestigious science and mathematics competition for high school seniors. A total of 1,760 students around the country entered the competition this year, which is held under the auspices of the Society for Science.

Between Christmas and New Year's Eve, St. Mark's two a capella groups released their virtually recorded version of Fleet Foxes' "White Winter Hymnal." Arranged by James Wallace—the School's director of music—it was recorded remotely by individual members of the Royal Blues (St. Mark's female acapella group) and the Marksmen (its male acapella group) and then blended together to celebrate the winter and welcome in 2021.

To celebrate the season, the Students for Sustainability (S4S) at St. Mark's created a holiday challenge "to inspire sustainable doing." St. Markers were challenged to take sustainable actions related to the holidays: "including buying, wrapping, making, or reusing." The two most creative entries, declared Dani Ortiz '21 and Lindsay Davis '21—the leaders of S4S this year— would win prizes.

From November 30 through December 4, the National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS) held two of its most significant annual events: the Student Diversity Leadership Conference (SDLC) and the People of Color Conference (PoCC). This year, of course, both conferences were entirely virtual. Six St. Mark's students attended the 2020 SDLC while six members of the School's adult community took part in the 2020 PoCC.

On Wednesday evening, December 16, St. Mark's presented its annual service of Lessons & Carols: this year online. The service is considered a traditional Christmas event at many (if not all) Episcopal boarding schools, as well as numerous colleges and churches around the world.

Elizabeth Goodhue recently received the 2020 Page Turner Award for non-fiction writing for her book The Truth About Down Syndrome: Lessons Learned from Raising a Son with Trisomy-21. It tells a personal story about her experiences with her first child, William, born 31 years ago with Trisomy-21, better known as Down Syndrome.

While attending St. Mark's remotely in 2020-2021, Zifan (Carl) Guo '22 has been teaching Computer Aided Design (CAD) to IV Formers as part of the School's experiential learning program.