One of our young alumnas, Shelby Ottengheime ​’18, has had an adven­tur­ous first year at Pitzer College.

This week’s post is from an email sent to Waverly’s art teacher, Michelle Dakan, from Anne Schiller, a colleague and friend from Pacific Oaks.

Nature has always been an inte­gral part of my life. As a wee child, my mother brought me to Drumlin Farm, where I watched the foxes and the wild birds with the rapt atten­tion only a three-year-old can manage. I grew up hiking through the woods owned by the water company.

It seems slightly obvious to say some­thing about how impor­tant the concept of ​“commu­nity” is at a school. School, ideally, is a series of various inter­act­ing commu­ni­ties: parent, teacher, class, campus. Nothing ground­break­ing here. But, see, we’re not talking just school, we’re talking Waverly. And as you might have expe­ri­enced in your time here, we’re a little…different. I can’t even say why, exactly. It’s just there, that feeling.

When I came to Waverly for the first time five years ago, it was the last prospec­tive school on my long tour list. I didn’t know what to call what I was looking for exactly at these highly varied campuses for my two daugh­ters, so I toured as many schools as I could.

For parents who remem­ber partic­i­pat­ing in their own school holiday shows (which consisted of the class stand­ing in a line, wearing Santa hats and singing a Christ­mas song), the Waverly holiday show will be an espe­cially wonderful surprise.

I have loved quite a few toys in my life. A favorite recur­ring dream takes me back to my child­hood home to find an entire floor of the house filled to the ceiling with toys and games of every kind. There are dolls and board games and Yo-yos and Hula Hoops, Easy-Bake Ovens and Thing­mak­ers, bicy­cles with banana seats, Barbies, army men, pogo sticks, you name it. Liddle Kiddles, Gumby and Pokey, Chatty Cathy, Poor Pitiful Pearl. Color­ing books, Color­forms, Lincoln Logs, Tinker Toys.

Next week is Thanks­giv­ing and I have a story to share. Every Wednes­day the junior class and I gather together for Well­ness. Junior Well­ness is centered around a discus­sion of what it is they believe, and some Waverly faculty and staff come in to share their own beliefs in an essay of 500 words or less. Some of the students are still at work think­ing on the core belief that is true for them.