Tori's Journal    see her bio

May 8, 2008

Hi everyone,

I am sorry it has been so long since I have posted; spring term has been incredibly busy. This past week was midterm (which is hard to believe). Each spring, the History 310 classes – an American History class that most students take their 11th grade year – write a large research paper on the topic of their choice. I wrote my paper on America’s minimal response to the Holocaust, specifically the Evian Conference in 1938. The History 310 research paper (well really Upper Spring in general) is a bonding experience for all of the Uppers. We work our way through the term together. I finished my history paper last night and handed it in today, which was very relieving. My class had our papers due earlier than most of the other classes. I know we were all very glad to have finished them.

A few weeks ago I was honored to learn that I have been selected as one of two General Coordinators (GCs) of the Community Service program. The GCs are the student leaders of the community service program. One of my best friends, Marianna, is the other GC, which will make working together even more fun. The two of us are basically interns in the community service office. We serve on several community service related committees, help to support the 23 student coordinators who are each responsible for a particular weekly project, organize special one time events, help run smaller community service projects that do not have a student coordinator, facilitate sign ups at the beginning of the term, reflection and celebration at the end of the term, and everything in between. Community service is one of my favorite things I have done at Andover, and I am looking forward to serving in the General Coordinator position, which will allow me to deepen my commitment to Andover’s fantastic program.

The position literally started right away. I found out about GC on Wednesday and then started meetings on Thursday. Last weekend, we co-sponsored a community service conference at Exeter. It was a great opportunity to learn about how other independent New England schools run their community service programs and discuss common challenges amongst our different programs.

Last weekend actually was full of Exeter related events, for not only did I attend our co-sponsored community service conference on Sunday, but we also had our Andover-Exeter tennis match on Saturday. We won the match 11-4 and continued our undefeated streak. Our team has grown very close; we have a lot of fun together. Hopefully we can keep doing well!

Some of the girls on the team hanging up a sign before our match

Best,

Tori

April 9, 2008

Hi everyone,

We are several weeks into Spring term, and it going well so far. This term, my schedule has changed a bit. I am taking a one-term music class on Jazz History, which is not only an interesting class but also fulfills my music requirement. We are currently looking at the roots of jazz in West African music and American music as well. We have studied American music styles that influenced jazz including: spirituals, minstrelsy, and the blues.

At the end of March break I got some good news; I am the new editor and chief of Backtracks, the oldest general interest magazine on campus! I am very excited to take on this position.

My favorite part of Backtracks is its variety. The magazine has five sections: the hitlist, notes & dispatches, reports, reviews, and readings. The hitlist has entertaining lists of a wide variety of things. For example some articles I have written for the section include the “Top Ten Things To Do in An Airport” and “Top Five Things I Have Learned from Medical Shows.” The notes & dispatches section contains personal opinions, reflections, and stories, while the reports section offers more formal news articles. The reviews section is a great place to get feedback on popular movies, music, books, or restaurants. This year we actually have a columnist writing about unusual careers for the reviews section. She is planning to write about a volcanoligst (scientist who studies volcanoes) she knows for our first issue. The final section of Backtracks, the readings section, contains selections from other publications; more recently we have featured pieces written by English teachers. We also have lots of great artwork throughout the magazine. Overall, it is a very entertaining magazine that I have always enjoyed reading and writing for. I have had a lot of fun with my new position thus far. We just received submissions for the first of two issues we will publish this term. I will keep you posted on how the first issue turns out.

Spring term means it is tennis season, which makes me very happy. The season got off to a very quick start (despite some rainy weather) with several matches our first week back. We actually have three matches this coming week, against Hotchkiss, BB&N, and Choate (other independent schools in New England). We have won all of our matches thus far, which is great because we are coming off the team’s first undefeated season ever last year. We have another strong team this year and are hoping we can do as well!

This weekend was busy. Although we did not have a tennis match, some of the girls from the team and I played until it started pouring and the courts got drenched. Monday also happens to be both my mom and my good friend, Carolyn’s birthdays. Saturday night some of my friends and I planned a surprise party for Carolyn at a restaurant in down town Andover. It was a lot of fun, and she was very surprised. My family and I also celebrated my mom’s birthday. In addition to tennis and birthdays, I also had plenty of homework to do and tests to study for.

I hope everyone is enjoying Spring; hopefully the weather will get nice soon!

Best,

Tori

March 3 , 2008

Hi everyone,

I have a lot of exciting things to tell you about. Life at PA has been pretty busy lately!

We did end up having Head of School Day. It was Tuesday, February 5th, a few days after my previous post. On Monday, February 4th most people were hoping that the next day would be Head of School Day, so almost the entire student body came to Uncommons to wait to see if Mrs. Chase would come. It was an atmosphere full of nervous excitement. Everyone exploded and started cheering when Mrs. Chase came in.

Last weekend was winter Andover-Exeter day, which was a lot of fun. There was a pep rally Friday night, and then the games were at Andover on Saturday. I went to watch the girls’ basketball game and both boys’ and girls’ hockey games, and we won all three, which was amazing. The boy’s hockey game was particularly intense. Unfortunately, the squash teams were away at an end of season tournament that weekend, so I didn’t get to watch my sister play. Both she and the team did well though.

This is a picture of my friend Carolyn and I at the Pep Rally

Yesterday the Center for Global Justice, a community service organization I help run, hosted our annual Fair Trade Coffee House. We had lots of fair trade coffee (of course) and some wonderful performances – mainly musical acts, although our improvetheater group also preformed.  Our goals for the evening were to spread awareness about Fair Trade and to raise money for a wonderful organization called Free the Slaves. In case you are wondering, Fair Trade is a business model based on partnership, transparency and respect that seeks greater equity in international trade. Fair trade organizations cut out the middlemen and deal directly with farmers, paying them a living wage and helping them move from vulnerability to self-sufficiency. Fair trade also helps develop communities and provide schools, hospitals, and health care.  Overall, the coffee house was very successful; I really enjoyed planning it.

This is the board for the Center for Global Justice J

Earlier this winter I applied to be a CAMD Scholar. CAMD is our office of Community and Multicultural Development, and this past summer the office started a program where they sponsor several students to do an independent project researching a topic related to diversity or multiculturalism. I was very honored to be selected to be a CAMD Scholar this summer. I will be working on a project called White Privilege: A History and Its Role in Education. For this project I will be studying the concept of White Privilege in the United States, starting with its history and focusing on its manifestation in the contemporary education. I chose this topic because not only is it incredibly interesting, but it something that is rarely discussed. I hope my research and presentation will get people talking and thinking about White Privilege. I am really looking forward to working on my CAMD Scholar project.

We are approaching the end of winter term, which means exams are also coming up. We have classes this week, exams the following week, and then we have our two-week spring vacation! Everyone is just trying to make it to March 16th (our first day of vacation). My exam schedule is a little different this term because several of my classes have papers instead of exams, which is nice because the work is a little more spread out. Right now I am focused on a research paper for my American history class. I have also really enjoyed reading Pride and Prejudice in my English class. It has always been one of my favorite books, so it was interesting to read it in an academic context.

One last exciting thing is tennis season, which started last week. We have been practicing with try-outs in the Cage, our indoor track, which can be converted into tennis courts. We have our first match a few days after we get back from Spring break. Wish me luck training!

-Tori

February 3, 2008

Hi Everyone,

Sorry it has been a while. Winter term has certainly ramped up work wise. We had midterms last week; I really can’t believe how fast the term is flying by.

This past Thursday I gave my last tour of the season (it was the last day for tours). I hope all of you who were able to come to Andover had a nice time visiting the campus. It is so pretty in the winter with a blanket of snow. Right now all of the students are holding out for Head of School day (HSD). HSD is a day that has a kind of mythological excitement and mystery associated with it. The night before HSD, Mrs. Chase, our head of school, comes into our dinning facility, Commons (or now Uncommons which I will explain in a bit), with a blue field hockey stick, which she holds over her head. All of the students explode because the sight of Mrs. Chase’s field stick means we do not have school the next day. This past week a bunch of senior boys sat in Uncommons with some signs that read: Non Sibi (our school’s motto meaning not for self) Mrs. Chase, head of school day or bust, and don’t keep us at bay, give us head of schools day. No one is quite sure when HSD will be. My guess is some time in the next week or so; I will keep you all posted.

Here are some of the seniors with their signs for Mrs. Chase.

This winter brought a fairly large change to campus: we began eating in a different dinning facility called Uncommons. Uncommons is a temporary facility we will be using until renovations of Commons are finished. I think they are supposed to be finished some time in Spring 09. Although some people were rather hesitant at first, Uncommons has received great feedback. I personally really like Uncommons. The food has been fresher, and the facility is also better for the environment because we updated the equipment. The social scene has been shaken up a bit because we are all in one large dinning hall as opposed to the four different ones in Commons. I think this is a good change that has brought the students closer.

This is Uncommons as dinner is just starting.

This past weekend has been pretty busy for me. Friday night my friends Jess, Marianna, Eliza, and I went into Boston for a Mika concert. Maybe some of you have heard of Mika. He is a British singer who has really upbeat, original music. My friends and I had an amazing time. Mika is even better live than he is on CD! The rest of his band was great, and he had some cool stage props too. I encourage you all to check him out. Here are a couple of pictures from the concert.

Mika singing

Here I am with my friend Marianna before the concert.

The rest of the weekend has been spent playing tennis and doing homework. My sport this term is FIT. In FIT classes a group of students work out with our resident fitness expert for an hour four times a week (Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday). I have had a lot of fun with FIT. It has helped me to get in better shape and has been especially good for my footwork. FIT has allowed me to work on my tennis outside of school. I have been playing tennis a few times a week and playing tournaments on the weekend when I can. The tournaments especially have been wonderful. It feels so good to back on the court playing matches. I had a tournament in Nashua, NH this past weekend, which was fun.

Well I better get back to homework if I have any hope of watching the Super Bowl tonight. GO PATS!

Best,

Tori

January 11, 2008

Hi everyone,

Happy New Year! I hope you all had great holidays. My break was great. I survived exam week and all of the snow that came with it. There was actually so much snow one night that I couldn’t drive home, so I spent the night in a friend’s dorm. Day students are allowed to sleep over in the dorms on weekends, with permission ahead of time. The only reason day students would sleep over in dorms on week days would be extenuating circumstances like the crazy weather that we had.

I spent the first week of vacation working in the admissions office giving tours. We have a great group of tour guides who work over breaks (mainly the winter holiday and over the summer); we have lot of fun together. For Christmas itself, my family and I went to Cape Cod to visit my grandparents. We made gingerbread houses, drank eggnog, went on walks to the beach, and played lots of card games. Although there was a lot of snow back in Andover, we didn’t have very much down on the Cape. It was very pretty though.

This is a gingerbread house my sister made.

This is the beach we walk to near my grandparents house.

After coming home from Cape Cod for a few days, my family went to Stowe, Vermont. There definitely was a lot of snow up in Stowe! They had several feet when we arrived, and it snowed a few times while we were there. I was very excited to go cross-country skiing. We also went for a sleigh ride and even took my dogs with us. Overall, we had a wonderful time and got to relax.

Here we are all bundled up on our sleigh ride!

The start of winter term has gone well. My classes this term are the same. I am continuing English, History, and Biology, which are yearlong courses. My Spanish and Math classes are a part of a sequence, which I am continuing.

Today I had a great opportunity to be a part of a leadership workshop focused on facilitating cross-cultural dialogue. The office of Community and Multicultural Development (CAMD) sponsored the workshop. It was wonderful to be able to work with student leaders from so many different campus organizations. We all learned facilitating and leadership skills that will be very useful for our different organizations.

December 10, 2007

Hi everyone,

When we returned from Thanksgiving break, I was very luck to be one of six students chosen to attend the Student Diversity Leadership Conference. I am so glad PA values diversity and has such a deep appreciation for different types of people.

At the conference, we looked at various aspects of diversity: race, religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation, ability, social economic status, age, and gender (which we called the Big 8). This helped me to realize that the diversity includes much more than race and also, race in America is not as simple as “black and white”.

For me, one of the most valuable parts of this conference was the experience of being in the minority within the United States, which is something white people rarely experience. Although the conference environment was very safe and welcoming, it still felt like I needed to prove myself, show that I deserved to be there.  I also felt like I was speaking for white people as a whole, not just myself, which helped me comprehend the idea of being a "token student." Generally speaking, white people rarely talk about their race or race at all, so it was a fantastic learning opportunity. I think people are often intimidated by the topic of diversity or feel that whiteness does not belong there, but we need to join the conversation and take action too. We all have the potential and responsibility to make positive changes in relation to diversity.

This is my family group (the ovals) from the conference

I feel like I have changed significantly because of the conference and become more aware of multi-culturism and how the Big 8 operate in our society. I understand diversity better and am making an effort to be a white ally. SDLC taught me how to talk about, understand, and combat challenging topics in general, which is something I and the other students who attended the conference are bringing back to the PA community.

Right now we are in the midst of assessment week, so we have all been studying non-stop. Assessment week is a new end of term system implemented last year where classes each have a time slot where teachers can do whatever type of term concluding assessment they think is appropriate. I have exams in my Spanish, biology, math, and American history classes. For my English class, we are writing two in class essays. I have my Spanish and biology exams tomorrow. This week is tough, but I will be on vacation at 5:00pm on Friday after I walk out of my math exam. We are almost there!

Over the weekend my family and I took a break from studying to decorate our Christmas tree. It was so much fun!

Tori

Here I am in the process of decorating our tree! 

11/25/07

Hello everyone,

I hope you all had wonderful Thanksgiving vacations. Mine was a lot of fun, and it was so nice to have time to sleep and relax, although the break was rather busy.

We were away on Thanksgiving itself, so my family celebrated early with my grandparents at their house in Cape Cod. It was nice to spend time together as a family, and as you probably guessed there was lots of good food. I got to help with some of the cooking; mashed potatoes are my specialty. The picture below is of a rather amazing cake that looks exactly like a turkey (complete with all the trimmings). There is a great bakery my grandparents go to that makes specialty cakes, so they got this one for Thanksgiving.

I spent most of the vacation in upstate New York with my mom, twin sister Lauren, younger brother Zach, and our two dogs Java and Chip. Lauren and I were playing in an 18 and under national tennis tournament, so our trip was filled with tennis. Lauren played singles and doubles, and I played doubles, which I love. The tournament had great competition and also gave us a chance to play some girls from outside New England.

On the way home, we stopped at my mom’s alma matter, Middlebury College, which was on the way home. The campus is gorgeous, and I enjoyed visiting. I know my mom had fun reminiscing and telling us stories from her college days. Here is a picture of Lauren, my mom, Java, Chip, and I in front of the art building at Middlebury; my mom was an art and bio double major, so she wanted to show us one of the buildings she spent a lot of time in.

Right now I am writing a column for the Eagle Tribune, a local newspaper published in the Merrimack Valley. I began writing for the paper over the summer and have really enjoyed it. I recently wrote an article on Canadian Thanksgiving (yes there is a Thanksgiving in Canada – it’s the second Monday of October). I also got to write a movie review of Fred Claus, which I don’t recommend. Writing for the Eagle Tribune has allowed me to see how real newspapers are run and deepened my interest in journalism. Between the Eagle Tribune and the PA student publications I have been writing a lot lately.

I am very excited and honored to be one of six PA students who will be attending a Student Diversity Leadership Conference in Boston. I know it will be an enriching and eye opening experience. I will have to tell you more about it soon.

Ohh and I almost forgot to tell you… it snowed! Granted, it was not very much snow at all, but it is something (see the picture below). I love the winter and am looking forward to real snow.

Happy Holidays!

Tori

11/11/07

Hi everyone,

The past few weeks have been very busy! For me, they have included a lot of public speaking. On October 27, I spoke to the alumni panel as a part of a student council speaking about Non Sibi Day. It was fun to share my experiences with the alumni and also to hear stories of people’s lives after Andover.

The following day I spoke at the Day Student Open House, which was held in the chapel. This was a complete turn around from the day before when I had been speaking to alumni who had already finished their time as students at Andover. The open house gave me a chance to tell prospective students all about PA and to give them some advice for the admission process. Maybe I met some of you who are reading this at the open house! In case I didn’t I will add the advice here:

“As all of you sit here, thinking about secondary school, I encourage you to look for things that will challenge you. Don’t just focus on classes, activities or sports that you have always done because you will end up trying things you would have never expected. Be yourself, but not just the person you think you are right now. Imagine the person you always wanted to be and the person you think you can be. If you’re not quite sure who that person is yet, don’t worry. Because as you go through high school you start to find out whom you are, find your passions, find a direction and the high school you choose will be instrumental in defining that. I know this might sound a bit intimidating but be sure to have fun with this because it is really an exciting process.”

This past week was one of my favorite weeks of the year: fall Andover – Exeter (A/e) week. Though not affiliated, Phillips Academy Andover and Phillips Exeter Academy were founded by the same family (PA was founded first, in 1778). The two have been rivals for the majority of their histories. At the end of each term, there is something called Andover-Exeter day when all of the varsity teams play each other. Andover and Exeter take turns hosting the day, and this fall it was up in Exeter, NH. All of the varsity teams went up in addition to 14 busses of fans, so basically the whole school was up at Exeter. Fall A/e is unique because it not only takes place on the weekend, but there are things going on during the week as well.

Thursday was Exeter Geek Day, which is when PA students dress up like geeks in red to make fun of Exeter. It is always hilarious to see the costumes people end up wearing. Here are a few pictures:

Friday was true blue day, which is a chance for everyone to show their school spirit. People spend the day covered in blue, in some cases wearing every piece of blue clothing they own. Friday night I went to the cluster soccer finals, which were held in Phelps Stadium under the lights. Unfortunately, my team did not make it to the finals. There are five clusters in the school, but there were so many people playing cluster soccer that we had seven teams. I was on TNT, which was one of the teams that did not represent a particular cluster. Although my team did not make it to the finals, my cluster, Abbot, ended up defeating West Quad North in the finals, which was the next best thing. After the cluster finals, everyone went to the pep rally. People cheer and scream a lot at pep rallies! I was particularly proud of my grade, ’09, because we were much louder than usual. During the pep rally different varsity teams did skits and the blue key heads, spirit leaders, practiced the cheers with everyone to get ready for Exeter.

Andover – Exeter day itself, Saturday, is always incredible. The day started out pretty early as we loaded all fourteen busses of fans. When we got to Exeter, the boys’ soccer game had just started. Towards the end of the game, I left to go and give a speech at a luncheon for alumni and supporters of the school. This was a nice opportunity to share my PA experience and thanks with people who help our school significantly. As you can see in the picture below, I painted my face, but I decided to wait until after giving my speech to do that!

Next with my game face on, I headed to the girls soccer game. This game was especially fun to watch because several of my good friends are on the team. We ended up tying girls soccer, but we won boys soccer. The final sporting event of the afternoon was the football game. The football game is amazing – there is no other word for it. Both schools pile into opposite sides of the stadium and cheer like their lives depend on it. The game went very well for Andover. We actually scored a touch down in the first 13 seconds! We won the game with a final score of 24-14. At the end of the game, the Andover fans poured onto the field and sang “We Are the Champions” while jumping up and down.

Here are the football teams huddling before the game

I had to show you this one – it is the chaos that ensued after we won the football game and rushed the field

After the football game, we all headed back to campus. Although we were cold and rather tired, the day was not over; we still had the Sadie Hawkins dance. Sadie, as it is typically called is one of several semi-formal dances throughout the year. For this dance, the girls ask boys, which puts a different spin on things. Sadie was a lot of fun. We had a great DJ from Kiss 108, a popular radio station, which made it even better. There is a picture below of a few friends and I all dressed up before the dance.

Today was filled with homework and studying for the tests I have tomorrow. I also drank a lot of tea to try and get my voice back – I lost it at Exeter this weekend!

-Tori

10/25/07

Hi everyone,

One of the things I keep telling people about upper (11th grade) year is: although there is a significant amount of work, we have more flexibility with our schedule and thus have more freedom in the classes we take. This means that you are doing a lot of work, but it is work for classes you are really passionate about. One of my favorite classes this year is American History with Mr. Gurry. I have always liked history, but Mr. Gurry is taking things up to a new level. He is very engaging and also has a great sense of humor. He is genuinely excited about history, which makes the class a lot of fun. You know this is true because I am actually writing this while taking a break from studying for a giant history test tomorrow. If I have all these good things to say about a teacher the night before a test, you know he must be a pretty good teacher!

This past weekend was parents’ weekend. Since I don’t have soccer on the weekends, I had parents’ weekend free for the first time.  Being a day student, it is a little different for me. For many of the boarders, parents’ weekend is one of the few times they get to see their parents. It was funny seeing everyone walking around campus with their parents. On Saturday, my mom came to some of my classes and met my advisor. It was a rather crazy day for her because she had to split her time between my classes and my twin sister Lauren’s classes.  Actually, all of the parents went to classes instead of their children. While the parents were going to our classes, most of the uppers were taking the PSATs.

For me there were two very exciting things about parents weekend. One, it was a long weekend, so I was able to sleep in and relax. Highlight number two: Grasshopper night. This student run talent show was amazing, once again. I especially enjoyed Slam’s performance. Slam is our school’s step team. Their big season is the winter, when they perform at all of the home basketball games, but they also perform in school shows as well. One of my friends from tennis team is in Slam, and last spring she tried to teach me and a few other girls from the tennis team one of the routines. It was so hard! After trying it, I had even more respect for everyone in Slam.  They, like everyone else in Grasshopper night, did a fantastic job.

Slam performing

 Here’s the entire cast of Grasshopper at the end of the show

On Sunday, my friend Vivian and I decided to go into Boston to watch the Head of the Charles, a large international regatta. It was my first crew experience and a lot of fun. PA was sending a bus into Boston, so we took that into the city. Once we were in Boston, we took the T (Boston’s train) over to the race. Andover actually had a tent in the reunion village, so we had a great view of the races. Going to the Head of the Charles was a fun little adventure (especially because Vivian and I got off at the wrong T stop and got to explore a little more than we expected).

Here I am in front of the Charles River in Boston

This past summer I traveled to Mumbai, India with PA for a service-learning trip called Niswarth. Niswarth itself is a Hindi word meaning selfless, chosen to mirror Phillips Academy’s motto, “Non-Sibi,” a Latin phrase meaning not for self. The focus of this trip was children’s rights. During the trip, we explored the topic of children’s rights in Mumbai through service with partnering Non-Government Organizations (NGOs), reading documents on the topic published by the UN among other agencies, and speaking with Indian government officials. In this way, we were able to look at children’s rights in Mumbai through many different lenses. I think the most valuable and moving of these varied perspectives was that of the children, whom I greatly enjoyed getting to know. Right now I am actually in the process of setting up a pen-pal program between some of the Indian students we worked with at a NGO called Akanksha and PA students. With India’s rising place in the world, I think cross-cultural understanding between the US and India is very important, and the Akanksha pen-pal program is one way of facilitating that. We are sending out the first batch of letters in the next couple of days. Luckily, the organization we are partnering with has Internet access so we can send the letters by email, which will be much faster and easier. I can’t wait to hear back from the Akanksha students.

Anyway, I better go study for my history test now!

-Tori

October 17, 2007

Everyone is looking forward to this weekend because it is parent’s weekend when all of the parents come to visit. We also have Monday off, which means students will be able to spend time with their families, relax a bit, catch up on work, and rest! One of the best parts of parent’s weekend is a student run talent show called Grasshopper Night, which is probably the most popular theater event of the year. There are musical performances by acapela groups, bands and individual students as well as dances, comedy skits and much more. It is always a great show. A couple of my friends are in it and they have been so busy with rehearsals this week. I can not wait to see them all perform.

It’s hard to believe last week was midterm week; the term is going by so fast. Here are some of the highlights far:

The first weekend of school, PA had its first ever Non Sibi Day. Non Sibi Day is a day when the entire Andover community - students, teachers, faculty, staff, alumni, parents and friends – all around the world came together and did community service projects around the globe. We not only had projects in Andover, but we also had them in cool places like the Togo, London, Cairo, Japan, Kenya, and in cities across the US. One of the reasons Non Sibi Day was particularly exciting for me was because I was one of the students involved in the planning process. I first heard about Non Sibi Day last February, and it was amazing to see this great idea actually turn into a global event. On Non Sibi Day itself, I spent the morning helping get different projects out and helping with logistical things. In the afternoon, I had the opportunity to volunteer at a local nursing home, which was a lot of fun. I had a great time, and believe it or not, we have already started planning Non Sibi Day 2008. If you want to see any pictures from, there are some great ones on the Andover website http://www.andover.edu/MultimediaGallery/PhotoGalleries/NonSibiDay07/ 

Here is a picture of some of my friends (including my twin sister) at Cluster Day. Cluster day is a day on the first weekend of school with a lot of fun events including a club rally where you can learn about the many different clubs offered at PA. There are also a lot of events where you compete by cluster, such as human foosball and an obstacle course.

Another exciting event was the first night football game. Andover has a strong football team this year, and it is actually something I hear about a lot because my advisor is one of the football coaches. All students have an advisor who helps them with academic issues and also life in general. I meet with my advisor and other students in my advising group about once a week to check in and see how things are going. My group always ends up talking about football. Anyway, back to the game. This game was against Choate on a Saturday night. The night home games are always a lot of fun, especially because everyone gets into cheering. We have a group of students called Blue Key Heads, our school spirit leaders, who lead the cheers and get the crowd pumped up. They had a couple of good new cheers that they tried out on the crowd. Everyone needs to learn them before our game against our big rivals, Exeter.

This fall I am playing cluster soccer. Cluster is intramural coed soccer done by clusters (smaller communities within the school), and we play games four days a week. It has been a blast and also a great way to meet new people. One of the best things about cluster soccer is it gives me time more time to spend on other things, such as tennis, school events, community service, and writing. I play on the varsity tennis team in the spring and play a lot of tennis year round. I use the extra time to play tennis tournaments on some weekends and also to squeeze in some practice during the week. My twin sister Lauren (who is one of the co-captains of the team) and I practice together a lot. We also enjoy playing doubles together. One of the benefits of being a day student is that it makes it a lot easier for us to keep up competitive tennis in addition to our school sports. I have also been using my extra time for community service and writing for school publications. I have had so much fun trying different things at PA!