Tackling the Fields: Rugby FSA

Groton’s Rugby Team, formed three years ago, has returned to the fields this year with new players—Dowey Tran ‘17, Ben Cardinal ‘18, Sammy Malhotra ’18, Owen Duggan ‘17, George Altshuler ‘18, and Rohan Varkey ’18— with original players Marco McGavick ’17 and Tristan Smith ’17 leading the group.

They hope to work through various drills derived from previous experience and those introduced by their weekly coach. Their goal is to build teamwork and build both the knowledge and skillset required to play the sport.

Marco believes that rugby succeeds only with group cohesion, and he supports the many values that the sport has to offer.

This appeal of the sport attracted many new members this year, some of whom are interested in learning more about rugby.

“I decided to pursue this FSA because I wanted to try something new. I want the team to continue its undefeated record this year,” Rohan Varkey ’18 said.

Training for the Summer: Biking FSA

Josie Fulton ‘18 is pursuing a biking FSA this spring, in which she will train to ride across the country. She was first introduced to long distance biking the summer before she entered 7th grade, during which she biked from Boston to Acadia. “Although a shorter ride, I fell in love with the movement and being entirely dependent on myself to get from point A to point B,” Josie said.

Thus, her FSA is a continuation of an activity she has long pursued and will continue to explore in the future. Her goal is to gradually increase distance while adding weight and prepare for a trip she plans for the summer from Charleston, South Carolina to Santa Monica, California. In sum, her goal is to build “the strength and endurance” to complete her ride.

Out on the Circle: Ultimate Frisbee FSA

A number of people interested in Ultimate Frisbee have been playing on the Circle this spring, playing and practicing for both leisure and competition. The group consists of nine members— Becky Zhang ‘18, Kevin Xiao ‘18, Michael Xiao ‘18, Cherian Yit ‘17, Ben Milliken ‘18, Jonathan Cheng ‘18, Myles Maxson ‘18, Andrew Pearson ‘18, and Charlie Sun ‘18—and is spearheaded by Jonathan who has previously competed in Hong Kong as well as in China.

He played for the team that won the 2015 Shanghai National Youth Open and continues to pursue the activity because he believes that the sport supports various values such as teamwork, communication, athleticism, and commitment. “My interest just started out as throwing around a frisbee and really enjoying it, then it kind of evolved into the sport,” he said.

Under his guidance as an experienced player, the team hopes to compete in three to four matches, as it is the team’s first year at Groton.

The team’s goal is to sustain itself as an active team on campus and participate in the New England Preparatory School Ultimate League. Jonathan is ambitious. “Hopefully before I graduate, I will be able to push ultimate frisbee into an actual sport, so that we can compete with other schools and support the Ultimate Frisbee scene in the Northeast” he said.

Hot off the Press: Journalism FSA

Hadley Callaway ‘17 is expanding her journalism experience this spring under the guidance of Ms. Friedman. This is a continuation of a similar FSA she pursued last spring, during which she worked with The Groton Herald and learned the basics of journalism.

This year, she will be furthering her interest in journalism by writing for two local newspapers, “The Lowell Sun” and “The Nashoba Valley Voice.” “I’ve always been really interested in journalism as a career and I’ve found that writing for real newspapers gives me a taste of life as a journalist that working on the school paper does not necessarily offer,” Hadley said.

In the process of looking for stories, she has come to appreciate the town of Groton. “From joining a town litter cleanup, visiting a senior center (twice!), attending a forum about turtle conservation, and interviewing citizens in person and over the phone, I have been able to discover what life in Groton, MA is really like,” she said.

Her goal is to publish as many articles as possible, but she recognizes the difficulty of publishing articles. “Getting published takes the longest, just because the articles I do are typically not as important as the other ones the papers run. Since I’m only a beginner, I usually write human interest and feature-y kind of stories, and the juicy news pieces tend to take priority over those,” she said.

Through this FSA, she hopes to explore journalism and fine-tune her skills in coming up with article ideas, gathering information, and working under a deadline. Most importantly, she hopes to further her love for journalism.

Last Moments at Groton: Senior Portraits

Libby Llanso ‘16 and Allie Patenaude ‘16, both having had experience in photography, are taking senior portraits this spring. They plan to take photos of all 83 seniors by the time school ends and display their photos of departing seniors in the Dining Hall, something that was also done last year by Monica Bousa ’15, who also pursued a Senior Portraits FSA in the spring.

According to Libby and Allie, every senior photo will be uniquely its own, in that the picture will reflect different characteristics and personalities of each individual. They will allow the seniors to choose their location, outfit, and pose. “We hope that this will help give the seniors a lasting memory of their time here,” Libby said.

Making Gains: Olympic Weight Lifting

This spring, Carrie Moore is working on an Olympic Weightlifting FSA. She has been weightlifting for almost a year now, continuing her practices off Groton’s campus, and she decided to dedicate more time to the activity in order to improve her techniques and skills this spring. “I’m happy to finally be able to focus my spring on it,” Carrie says.

She travels to a gym off campus three times a week and practices with her team. She has been participating in competitions since the beginning of this year and recently has qualified for youth nationals. “It has been a lot of fun,” she says, “I look forward to [youth nationals] and I am training hard.”

With her team, she has created an Instagram account to upload pictures, records, and videos of her lifting: @girls_making_gainz. She hopes that, with much more time allotted to practice, she can perform well at nationals.

Classic Groton: Groton School Inscriptions

Hanna Kim ‘17, an avid classics student, will actively search for Greek and Latin inscriptions around the school this spring. Her goal is to translate the numerous inscriptions into English and, by doing so, learn about the history of the inscription, as well as about the individual to whom it was dedicated. She is working with Dr. Reyes, who introduced her to this project and will be guiding her along the way.

Dr. Reyes assigned this very same project to the Form of 2007, of which some students had the honor of taking Latin 5 with Dr. Reyes. Hanna will be studying the research completed by the previous students to lay the groundwork for her studies. She will also work with Mr. Brown, who knows more about the school than anyone else currently at Groton.

Ultimately, she hopes to publish a book with twenty entries about the various inscriptions. “I’m learning so much about the history of Groton and all the wonderful people that have helped make this school what it is now!” Hanna said.