KMS
- Feb 4, 2021

January K-Flash

January was an eventful month on campus. Mother Nature blessed us with an abundance of snow and sunshine providing us with optimal training opportunities and freeskiing/riding fun. Our first Head of School Holiday of the new year coincided with a fresh 10 inches of snow and both athletes and faculty members headed to the hill to find their favorite powder stashes!

Our athletes are getting into their seasons as all winter sports teams have resumed competition. We have seen many athletes pick right back up from where they left off last year, and a few have even claimed podium spots! We are excited to see what these next few months of competition hold.

Our academic faculty has also continued to deliver top-notch engaging material to students. Utilizing our robust hybrid-learning model, students are able to stay connected and engaged with their academics while traveling for competitions and completing their subsequent quarantines.

Check out some snapshots of life at KMS below:

Welcome, Christy!

Christine Harris, who has been a winter term teacher for the past two years, will officially join our

full-term World Language team on February 8th. Christy has a BA in Spanish from the University of Vermont and is currently pursuing her Vermont 7-12 licensure through Upper Valley Educators Institute. Christy has lived abroad in Salamanca, Aragon, and Madrid, Spain and Orléans and Provence, France. She studied culture and language, worked on olive farms and vineyards, and was an au pair. In the US, she has worked as a Special Education Paraprofessional and waterski instructor. Christy grew up in the KSC racing program and is also a KMS winter-term language teacher. She most recently interned at Middlebury Union High School. In her free time, Christy likes painting, swimming, hiking and skiing.

Social Media Awareness

For the past couple of weeks our full term middle school students have been studying the dangers of social media by taking an in-depth look at Jeff Orlowski’s The Social Dilemma as well as Bailey Parnell’s Ted Talk Is Social Media Hurting Your Mental Health. They refleted on why they started using social media and analyzed different ways to manage the way they interact with the various platforms. To round out the unit students were asked to present their findings to their peers.

BOOST Language Guest Speaker

After exploring Spanish, French and Linguistics, January Boost Language students were treated to a Q&A with

guest speaker, Dr. Aroline Hanson, Spanish professor and Linguist. We learned about the benefits of multilingualism and the different work of linguists. Dr. Hanson explained the work she does at dictionnary.com, particularly how languages evolve and the many new words of this year. She also explained that over 15,000 definitions have been updated on topics ranging from race and sexual orientation to climate and internet culture. Together, we discussed human migration, new inventions and how cultural relations shape language and dialect, noticing patterns in borrowed words of different languages--like the word for ‘mother.’ Students reflected on learning their second language as well as what they could learn from their own native language. We discovered that English has words from many different languages, making it difficult to learn as a second language. English spelling is inconsistent and not phonetic. If it was, we could spell ‘fish’ like this: ghoti! Merci and Gracias to Dr. Hanson for an inspiring talk!

Student Council

The KMS Student Council, led by President Sarah Gibertoni and Vice President Halston Wilkey, continues to work to effect meaningful change for the KMS student body. This year the Student Council has been holding a fundraising campaign with the goal of financing prom (COVID-19 permitting), or perhaps a new industrial toaster oven for the pantry. They are also working with Meg and Paddy to make improvements to the new locker rooms in the Annex.

NHS Impact

Over the course of this academic year members of our chapter of the National Honor Society have been working diligently in organizing different individual service projects in which they give back to the community in any way they feel can make a positive impact. Some students are giving back to the greater community in the form of supporting the Rutland Community Cupboard and Killington Food Shelf where others are giving back to KMS directly in the form of interning for various staff members. English Department Co-Chair Nate Clifford has this to say about his experience working with senior Brinley Johnson as his teaching assistant:

“Writing is a vulnerable craft. Putting one's words out to be interpreted, assessed and perhaps even criticized by a reader risks our deepest fears of rejection and self-esteem. It is a delicate process of earned trust between student and teacher. I find it often takes months if not years to develop that trust.

Sometimes my students remind me that the prescribed roles of teacher and student are not as obvious as I believe. Brinley Johnson voluntarily stepped in to tutor all four of my classes this year - taking her own personal time to read over a dozen essays and provide perspective, wisdom, and gentle encouragement. When I assigned the mid-term over a weekend fraught with competitions I thought to give Ms. Johnson a rest from the amount of work she was already taking on. To my surprise, all four of my classes pleaded to have her read their work again. In fact, many willingly turned the work in early so that she could have the time to provide them feedback. So valuable is the trust they place in her, that I am reminded; sometimes our students are the greatest teachers we have. Thank you Brinley.”

Freeski and Snowboard Updates

Slopestyle @Okemo 1/22

Myles King -3rd (Open Class)

Aidan Herguth-5th (Open Class)

Owen Ciaglo- 2nd (Menehune)

Emmett Cameron- 4th (Menehune)

Charles Ryder- 5th (Breaker)

Henry Mix- 6th (Breaker)

Evan Tighe-3rd (Youth) First ever ski contest!

Ryan Jones- 4th (Youth)

Ari Haddad- 5th (Youth)

Callen Hwang- 2nd (Menehune)

Rocco Jones- 10th (Breaker)

Jamie Hamlin- 5th (Youth)

Lucas Ambler-1st (Junior)

Rail Jam @Jay Peak 1/23

Myles King-1st (Open Class)

Aidan Herguth-2nd (Open Class)

Bode Tracy- 1st (age group)

Ryan Jones-2nd (age group)

Evan Tighe-3rd (age group)

Henry Mix- 3rd (age group)

Charles Ryder-4th (age group)

Emmett Cameron -5th (age group)

Spencer Claffey- 6th (age group)

Callen Hwang- 1st (age group)

Kiara Murphy- 2nd (age group)

Rocco Jones- 2nd (age group)

Eli Kinsler- 3rd (age group)

Jamie Hamlin- 1st (age group)

Freestyle: US Selections

The team traveled to Winter Park, Colorado last week for the US Freestyle Selection Event. Despite a challenging start to the season, we saw strong performances from all of our KMS Freestyle athletes. Ray lamlein, Jesse Duda, Manuela Passaretta, and Tyler Damore all finished mid-field in their first ever FIS event while Brinley Johnson, Jack Patrone, Adam Steifel and Spencer Belsky all qualified for the final round of 16. KMS Alumni, Ian Beauregard, finished on the podium both days. Ian will join former teammates Alex Lewis and Hannah Soar at the Deer Valley World Cup later this week.

While the FIS Team was in Colorado, the team here in Killington was hard at work building our Highline mogul venue. Highline came together nicely over the weekend complete with full training courses for both our Academy athletes as well as KMS/KSC Development Program athletes. The team is split next week with our FIS athletes head to Deer Valley, Utah for a FIS Open event while the regional team will start their season in Bristol, New York.

Alpine

Alpine jumped right into the new year and began training as soon as they could. Our U14 group spent

much of Christmas and the beginning of the new year working on skill development and focusing on building a strong foundation. The U16 and U19 groups have started racing in Vermont and while it looks a bit different than we’re used to - we’re happy to report races have felt safe and athletes are skiing fast. Since alpine has many groups, each month will feature a specific group - starting with the U16 Women for January. Here’s what Head U16 Women’s coach Chelsea Marshal has to say:

“For the U16 Women, Shelby Graves had a solid first race back at Cochran's SL with a top ten finish in 6th place. Chanah Katz made a strong move up starting 93rd to finish the day in 24th.

The conditions were challenging for the women at the GMVS GS on January 20th, with new snow falling and low visibility throughout the morning. We had girls attack from the back making flip second run, strong first runs were had by Megan Bianchi, Eva Young and Chanah Katz. Megan ended the day in 20th, with Eva close behind in 23rd.

At Suicide Six this past weekend, Shelby Graves had a smoking first run with a 4th place finish. She had a good one going second run but had a mistake that cost her, resulting in a hike. Megan Bianchi put two solid runs together with a respectable 17th place finish. Eva Young, starting 70th made a convincing performance to finish 28th for the day. Madelyn Wickless and Eileen Moon also showed improvement by cutting their bib numbers in half. The U16 Women are off the Cochrans for a SL on the 31st, followed by a GS at Smugglers Notch on the 1st. “

Other notable performances from the Alpine team for January:

James Dougherty 23rd Burke SL, 30th Burke SL
Ben Mckenna, 34th Burke SL

U19/21 Men

James Ferri 1st Proctor SL, 1st Waterville Valley GS, 1st Dartmouth Skiway SL
Karl Kuus 3rd Mittersil SL, 3rd Dartmouth Skiway
Wyatt Hoffman 6th Stratton GS, 10th Stratton GS
Ryan Bianchi 11th Stratton GS, 12th Stratton GS
Cole Matusik 29 Stratton GS
Musashi Eto 24th Stratton GS

Residential Life: The Dark Park Saga Continues

KMS residential students have been taking full advantage of the park outside The Darkside. We are greatful to have this playground nearby!

Academic Standout

The KMS teaching faculty is excited to announce the first Academic Standout of the new year: Megan Bianchi!

Winter-Term World Languages teacher Liz also supported this nomination, reflecting upon Megan’s excellent work in French. Liz writes, “Megan has impressed me with her enthusiasm and drive. She is always willing to speak and participate in French. As a language-learner she understands the benefit of taking risks, trying out new expressions or tenses and getting the most practice out of every class session. She is a great communicator and asks good questions. She did an outstanding job navigating travel (with limited internet connectivity) and completed all work while continuing to check in when it was possible. Bon travail Megan!”

Winter-Term Science and Math teacher Donna Brewster also put forth her own nomination for Megan. Donna reflects, “As a winter term student, Megan joined my class and before you knew it, she was gone! I was so impressed with Megan’s work ethic while on the road. She not only got all her assignments done, but also took the time to get clarification on information she was learning and even got a perfect score on the assessment she took while gone. Upon her return she was right up to date with the content and continued to do extraordinarily well both in class and on her independent work. Keep up the great work!!”

Social Studies Department Co-Chair and Middle School Humanities teacher Ian Groezinger also supported Megan’s nomination this week. Ian states, “Megan has been nothing short of outstanding in history class. Every day she shows up prepared, enthused, and ready to learn. She consistently contributes meaningful thoughts and ideas to class, helping to facilitate discussion of the greater themes of the day. In addition, her work has been exemplary since day one.”

Winter-Term Health teacher and school nurse Judy Hamlin rounds out this amazing list of nominations with her own. Judy writes, “ I have Megan in health class and also observe her to be an outstanding student. She contributes to our seminar style class with insight and critical thinking. I appreciated her participation in our class. I also observe her to be a kind person and someone with great integrity. She communicated with me while traveling and that to me shows dedication to her work and academic success.”

Congratulations, Megan! A recognition well-earned! You’ve made our community proud!

Early College Acceptances (and counting...)

Alfred University

Boston University

Castleton University

Colby College

Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences

Montana State University

Mount Saint Mary College

Sierra Nevada University

University of Calgary

University of Boulder