Latest News

Williston Northampton School was proud to have been recognized this week with the AP Computer Science Female Diversity Award for expanding young women’s access to AP Computer Science Principles. This award acknowledges schools for their work toward equal gender representation during the 2019-20 school year. We caught up with Williston computer science teacher and Director...

  Three student speakers addressed Assembly this week, asking the Williston community to see beyond their surface identity as Black male athletes.  As part of Black History Month, these presenters shared a bit about who they are, in addition to the sports they play. Psychology teacher Matthew Porter, himself a Black man, introduced the three...

Where can you find seniors saying hi to first years and students interacting across disciplines and from distant dorms? If new school counselor Deborah Potee has her way, the answer is “everywhere.” During a year when mask-wearing and social distancing has put literal barriers between people, she and colleague Joseph Katz have initiated a program...

Today’s Dr. Martin Luther King Day Speaker, poet and University of Texas Austin Associate Professor of English Dr. Roger Reeves, posed this question to the Williston community: “Will you open your door for a stranger?” The talk was inspired by King’s final book, Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community. During the hour-long...

In a talk designed to help Williston Northampton School students understand how biased comments can hurt fellow classmates, and how to turn that around, presenter Rosetta Lee explained how dynamics of difference work, and how to stop harm by engaging in courageous conversations. She is one of several speakers on diversity, equity, and inclusion to...

As part of the school’s commitment to anti-racism work, Williston will host several trainings for students, faculty, and administrators at the start of the school year—a focus that will continue throughout the year. On August 21, student leaders—admission interns, international student leaders, proctors, student council members, and student mentors—will gather for online leadership trainings with...

Student leaders got to hear from Dr. Liza Talusan yesterday. Her talk focused on self-care in unprecedented times. When we take care of ourselves, she said, we are able to let go of the idea that we have to be perfect, and we learn how to love ourselves—which allows us to create a space that...

After an accident in the kitchen—you’re slicing a strawberry, you do it every morning, but the knife handle slips—there’s a tiny window after the skin is pierced but before the blood comes. That moment, a few seconds at the most, is where the beauty and power and fear of Sarah Levine’s poems live. Consider this,...

Identity and inclusion were the focus during Williston’s fourth Why Not Speak Day. Williston’s fourth Why Not Speak Day—a day in January set aside for discussions about identity and inclusion—gave the community plenty to talk about and do, with 37 student- and faculty-led workshops, a featured speaker, and activities that encouraged empathy. The theme for...

Please click here to read a recent statement from Head of School Robert W. Hill III on the steps the Williston Northampton School is taking to support diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Williston’s fourth Why Not Speak Day—a day set aside for discussions about identity and inclusion—gave the community plenty to talk about and do, with more than 30 student-and faculty-led workshops, a featured speaker, and activities that encouraged empathy. The theme for this year’s event was “Hello, I’m Proud to Be _____,” and student and faculty...

In an emotionally stirring talk peppered with humor, Martin Luther King Day speaker Mykee Fowlin encouraged Willistonians to look beyond first appearances, to be curious, and to view stereotypes with skepticism. “How do I find those things we have in common?” he wondered. Fowlin explored this idea by embodying four characters, a six-year-old boy with...

Students today made 240 sandwiches and delivered them to the Easthampton Community Center to help alleviate food insecurity. It was a tangible way to make a dent in a problem that affects 37.2 million Americans, 6 million of them children. The sandwich activity kicked off Social Justice Week, organized by students with help from Erin...

The Williston Math team announces the firstst Whitaker-Bement Girls in Mathematics Competition! Our vision is to bring together 100+ elementary and middle school girls for a day of fun centered around mathematics, empowerment, and growing a strong female-centric mathematics community! The event will take place on Sunday, January 19, 2020 at the Williston Northampton School....

The following speech was given by Bryant McBride ’84 during Convocation on September 13, 2019. Read more about Bryant here. See photos of the event here, and video here. Read the address by Class President Nat Markey ’20 here.   Bryant McBride’s career in hockey began on the rinks of Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, and eventually took...

Students took a break from classes Tuesday, January 29, to participate in our fourth annual Why Not Speak Day, a day devoted to exploring identity, diversity, and inclusion. During the day, the student body attends two of their choice of 60+ faculty- and student-led workshops to speak about the differences and similarities  among people through the lens...

Sophomores Anaya Akpalu and Tomi Akisanya gave Martin Luther King Jr. Day speaker Arno Michealis the perfect introduction, together reading a powerful poem they co-wrote called “Change” (video here). Describing changes over generations, and more personally in our own perspectives, the poem teed up the idea that we all have the option to alter who...

Author and Williams College Senior Lecturer Karen Shepard read from her collection of short stories, Kiss Me Someone (see the New York Times review here) at the final installment of the Writers’ Workshop on January 14. During her visit on campus, she visited the Writers’ Workshop English class and gave a public reading. The author...

On October 26, Rita Plouffe’s Chinese I, II, and III classes and Colin Mann’s Bass Chorus visited the UMass Fine Arts Center to watch a Chinese culture dance and music performance called “Chinese Warriors of Peking.” Chinese acrobatics were first recorded in the Qin Dynasty (225-207 BC) when China was unified by the first Emperor...

On the 20th anniversary of Matthew Shepard’s death, Williston students explore themes of tragedy and understanding in the fall play, The Laramie Project. This fall, 20 Williston students participated in a production of The Laramie Project, a play based on the hundreds of interviews conducted by a theater company in the wake of the hate-crime...