ŷ��AV

Our 2021 students are using their coursework to make a difference in their classrooms and the profession. 

Dave Cunningham: Athletics at an Independent School

Dave graduated from Amherst College in 2016. During his time at Amherst, he played varsity hockey and baseball for four years, earning All-conference honors in both sports. He majored in english with a focus in film Studies and poetry and pursued a career in sports journalism at the New England Sports Network during college. Upon graduation, Dave earned Amherst’s Hitchcock Fellowship, awarded to one senior student-athlete looking to pursue a career in coaching and education, and spent the following year coaching hockey and baseball. He then worked at the Williston-Northampton School as a teacher and coach for two years, before returning to his alma mater, Belmont Hill School, as a faculty member in the fall of 2019. At Belmont Hill, he teaches english and sports analytics while coaching middle school football, varsity hockey and baseball.

Will Harrington: Involving Students in Decision-Making at Independent Schools

My capstone was inspired by the work I do every day to take students seriously and have them take themselves seriously. By exploring attitudes towards student involvement in independent school governance my hope is to expand the role students play in crafting their own education. Not only is this an important opportunity for students, but also for schools; a healthy board is filled with trustees who represent a variety of skills, perspectives, and backgrounds—all united in a fiduciary duty to sustain the school. Who better to do exactly this work than the students who are the most engaged with every facet of the school and who have the most at stake in its success? I hope that my data is useful in framing a conversation about increasing the number of schools who value their students as essential voices in their own education.

Dasia Johnson-Kemp: Teach in Peace

For my Capstone Project, I created a guided workbook for educators titled “Teach in Peace.” This workbook will provide educators with several self-care strategies as well as reflection questions that will help them to think about how each strategy can be implemented in their own careers as well as their personal lives.

Lauren Kim: National Board Certification

Lauren has been working in education for nine years. She holds her Master's degree in Education from the University of California, Santa Cruz. She has just graduated with another Master's degree in Teacher Leadership at ŷ��AV. She currently teaches in Los Altos, California, in the heart of Silicon Valley. Lauren has trained and worked alongside leaders in the field of education and positive discipline. As an educator, Lauren centers her practice on helping her students learn to be kind, wise and resilient. As we navigate new approaches to schooling, we could all use support in cultivating these qualities both in ourselves and our children. She is currently pursuing National Board Certification in Literacy because she fiercely cares about best teaching practice for ALL learners.

Michael Lawrence-Riddell: Self-Evident Media

Michael Lawrence-Riddell is an award winning public school educator with twenty years of experience in elementary, middle, and high school classrooms. He founded Self-Evident Education in September 2019 in response to the urgent need for our society to honestly and rigorously engage in work to understand the histories and legacies of race and institutional racism. Michael was inspired, in part, by his scholarship as an African-American studies major at Wesleyan University, his work as a teacher of American History I, and the failures of our nation to truly reckon with the racial inequities present in history and our contemporary society. When Michael could not find the kinds of engaging and accessible multimedia resources he was seeking to critically examine the histories and legacies of systemic racism in the United States, he set out to create them with a team of brilliant and trusted collaborators. Michael believes fully in the power of stories to change the world.

Kathleen McAuslin: Intake Process to Address Racial Disparities in Early Intervention

Kathleen has a background in Severe Special Education. She has worked with children in settings including schools, homes, hospitals and international orphanages. Currently she works in Early Intervention as a Developmental Specialist, Staff Trainer and Intake Coordinator in Hampshire County, Western Massachusetts.

Lisette Martinez-Samalot: Kiddie Korner Media

Despite the best efforts of educators and parents, children face complex, and at times trying, experiences every day. It can often be hard for anyone to talk about it all. Having witnessed educators go out of their way to avoid these crucial conversations for a myriad of reasons, often because they don’t know how to even begin those conversations, Lisette wanted to create the Kiddie Korner Media website and podcast for her Capstone project.

Kiddie Korner Media is devoted to researching and sharing media and literature created for children to help them understand and cope with complex issues in a developmentally appropriate manner. In addition to curating resources, she has enlisted the help of other educators to discuss how these resources can be used to facilitate intricate conversations with students.

Mel Stier: Rethinking the Afternoon Program

Mel currently works as an independent school teacher at the Charlotte Latin School in Charlotte, NC. She teaches biology, genetics, and anatomy & physiology to high school juniors and seniors. In addition to teaching, Mel coaches high school soccer. Mel graduated Amherst College in 2015 where she majored in pre-med/biology and played varsity soccer. She worked at Cushing Academy in Ashburnham, MA as a teaching fellow upon graduating Amherst College, and then worked at Governor's Academy in Byfield, MA for four years coaching soccer, softball, and basketball and teaching biology and marine science.

Holly Whipp

Holly Whipp is a fourth grade teacher with six years of experience working alongside her colleagues and peers in New Bedford, Massachusetts. She graduated from ŷ��AV in 2015 with an interdisciplinary degree in psychology and education...and liked it so much she returned in 2019 to work on her graduate degree in teacher leadership. Holly is passionate about the dissemination of information in the education field. She enjoys demystifying the often confusing language that acts as a barrier in educational policy and sharing it with others.

Helen Woods: Little People, Big Conversations

Helen Woods (she/they pronouns) is a special education preschool teacher in Northampton, Massachusetts, and a dually licensed teacher in early childhood education and in moderate to severe disabilities special education. Helen has been teaching for three years, after graduating from UMass Amherst with a dual degree in early childhood education and theater. Helen is active in leadership committees both within her school, her district's union, and the greater community around her school. Most recently, she has graduated from ŷ��AV with a Master of Arts in Teacher Leadership. Outside of school, Helen is passionate about social justice, organizing around worker's rights, and the performing arts.