Students and Faculty Recognized at Fall Awards Ceremony

Headmaster Graham Cole opened the fall 2009 awards ceremony on Dec. 3 by praising the Sixth Form for all of its hard work. “You have managed the stress and strain of applying to college, achieving your best academic results, and missing Mountain Day while simultaneously setting a very positive and good tone for the school, and I am proud of you,” he said. He then saluted everyone on a very successful Service Day. “You should be very proud of the positive and enthusiastic feedback the school received from the many organizations we helped. Put simply, they raved about Westminster.” He also acknowledged the enormous pride he took in First Field Hockey and the support it received in the New England tournament from the school.

“A successful term, after all, consists of more than high-profile triumphs of summus awards and winning records; it must also have those daily, small, human interactions which build the sense of community, leadership, character and simple good will,” he continued. “This term we had them in abundance, and many good people will not receive an award or recognition, but we should understand that you all, in small, often unnoticed ways, helped to make the term successful.”

Academic Awards

Director of Studies Greg Marco and the deans presented the following academic awards:

Sixth Form Summus

Kwaku Akoi, Vladimír Bok, Kathryn Brady, Anne Cervas, Kip Denoyer, Alex Gioia, Isabelle Hill, Sean Kelley, Jeanne Kim, Maddie King, Tiffany Liu, Riana MacKenzie, Suchi Mandavilli, Kristen Maxwell, Maddie McPhee, Tammie Moopenn, Francheska Munoz, Connor O’Brien, Charlotte O’Herron, Colby O’Neil, Sam Reynolds, Ben Ross, Green Rungrojchaiporn,

Kingsley Schroeder, Will Smith, Emily Snoddon, Adam Susaneck, Clare Ulrich, Margaret Wyatt and Karin Yoshida

Fifth Form Summus

Margaret Berry, Grant Brainerd, Casey Breese, Andrea Cross,

Nora Edmonds, Caitlin Fabbri, Kathryn Griffith, Katie Hill, Kaleigh Kelley, Jacob Lee, Nick Mahany, Louise Marenakos, Sarah Ogden, Emma Pinney, Mari Prescod, Rebecca Wardell and Shishan Zhang

Fourth Form Summus

Ellie Baker, Caroline Brady, Brooke Brazer, Alana Carpenter, Christi DeSimone, Hadley DesMeules, Isha Garg, Michael LeBlanc, Julia Lee, Iris Lu, Marissa Mason, Jacob Medina, Evan Neugold, Meaghan O’Herron, Tyler O’Neil, Gwen Pastor, Caroline Pluta, Lulu Spalding,

Patrick Spano, Peter Tang, Emily Teschner and Patrick Yoon

Third Form Summus

Curtis Brackett, Maggie Garrison, Bridget Gorham, Greg Jarvis, Julie Dee LeBlanc, Jane Lee, Alex Marshall, Xavier Morin, Dana Niland, Morgan Rubin, Eliza Worcester and Ronald Yeung

Athletic Awards

Director of Athletics Dennis Daly presented the fall athletic awards beginning with the Berry Awards, named in honor of faculty member Richard P. Scott Berry. These awards recognize the player from each lower team who gave the best effort and demonstrated the best attitude throughout the season.

Second Boys' Cross Country: Ben Sharaf

Second Girls’ Cross Country: Colette Kim

Second Field Hockey: Emily Snodden

Third Field Hockey: Grace Brown

Second Football: Cameron Kurtz

Second Boys' Soccer: Harry Wise

Third Boys' Soccer: Andrew Fu

Fourth Boys’ Soccer: William Schmidt

Second Girls' Soccer: Natalie Biedron

Third Girls' Soccer: Marissa Eklund

First Team Awards

Boys’ Cross Country:

   Most Improved Runner: Emmet Shipway

   The Jones Most Valuable Runner: Colin McLaughlin

Girls' Cross Country:

   Most Improved Runner: Sarah Ogden

   The Wilbur Most Valuable Runner: Kathryn Brady

Field Hockey:

   Most Improved Player: Karlyn Calamita-Crowley

   The Pitcairn Most Valuable Player: Sara Nolan

Football:

   The Hovey Most Improved Player: Carter Walsh

   The Lynch Most Valuable Player: Stephen Seymour

   The Chapman Cup Most Valuable Defensive Player:

      James Mangum and Brian McQuillan

Boys' Soccer:

   The Wilbraham Most Improved Player: Mark Swank

   The 1956 Team Most Valuable Player: Will Smith

Girls' Soccer:

   Most Improved Player: Laura Gineo

   Most Valuable Player: Amanda Boulier and Stephanie Piperno

The Stephen Harris Squibb Bowl awards, which honor the athlete from each first team who demonstrated the greatest sportsmanship, consistent effort and inspired performance throughout the season, were given to:

   Boys' Cross Country: Ben Mandell

   Girls' Cross Country: Kathryn Brady

   Field Hockey: Margaret Miller

   Football: Tyler Moseley

   Boys' Soccer: Sean Kelley

   Girls' Soccer: Corinne Werner

The Hopley-Jackson Award, which is given to the Westminster lower team with the best season, was presented to:

   Third Boys’ Soccer

   Coach: Scott Berry

   Captains: Charlie Geitz, Andy Kent and Taylor Paul

The Frederick D. Houghton Award, which is given to the Westminster team with the best season, was presented to:

   First Field Hockey

   Coaches: Colleen McDonald and Dana Chapin

   Captain: Maddie King, Margaret Miller and Sara Nolan

The fall team captains then introduced the first team captains-elect for next fall as:

   Boys’ Cross Country: Jacob Lee and Marquez Cummings

   Girls’ Cross Country: Ashley Mercede and Sarah Ogden

   Field Hockey: Rachel Farrel and Mallory Mason

   Football: Harry Richards, Corey Taber and Nick Thompson

   Boys’ Soccer: Kevin Hope and Brad Woodruff

   Girls’ Soccer: Amanda Boulier, Gaby Christman and Whit Powell

Performing Arts

In the performing arts, Theater Director Rob Lazar presented the Frances Laurel Hopkins Award, which is given to a student for outstanding contributions to the Westminster Dramat Association, to Hannah Ford.

He then introduced the newest member of Dramat, the student dramatic organization requiring 120 hours of service on at least two different Westminster productions, as Julia Lee.

He also announced the newest member of the Williams Hill Players, requiring a total of 500 hours of work on Westminster Dramatic Association productions, as Andrew Lunenburg.

Headmaster’s Awards

The final segment of the awards ceremony was the presentation of the Headmaster’s Awards, which recognize members of the Westminster community who have made special contributions to the community during the term, especially in the areas of service, leadership and citizenship. The award comes in the form of a gold Westminster lapel pin.

The winners included faculty member Gloria Connell who served the Westminster community and the larger Hartford community with her hard work leading and coordinating Community Service Day; Kevin Boyle, Margaret Miller, Adam Susaneck and Corinne Werner for their work on the Halloween Haunted House; Eddie Gentle for the time and effort he put into a new student mentor program; Medical Director Dr. Kendra Lawrence and Nursing Director Janna Zemsky for the long hours and hard work they and other members of the Health Center staff put in caring for the Westminster community during the swine flu outbreak; and Director of Information Technology Sara Anderson and Assistant to the Director of Technology Audra Harris for their tireless work in getting faculty, students and staff and all of the new technology in the Armour Academic Center ready for the opening of school.