Fidler on the bike

 Upper School (US) faculty and students rode a combined 488 miles in the second annual Bike Challenge created by US Library Co-Director Shawnee Sloop and US Science Teacher Jay Shah. The challenge started Oct. 6 and lasted a week. Contestants competed for prizes, including a Dunkin’ gift card, a pizza party in advisory and bike swag.

 US Math and Computer Science Teacher Mark Fidler surpassed his previous record by biking 132.43 miles to repeat as the faculty winner.

 “There was one day, it was supposed to be rainy all morning, so I woke up at 5:30 a.m. and came to school early to beat the rain,” he said. “It gave me an extra 15 miles when no one else biked that day.”

 The school’s new bike shed helped Mr. Fidler pursue his goal through the rain, he said.

 “The new bike shed is nice, so I can park my bike outside and not have it get rained on. You do not want to have your bike soaking wet and the gears rusted.”

 Last year, Ms. Sloop received an Innovation Grant to build the new shed with stable racks and a protective roof.

 Alexander Cohen ’26, who was the student and overall winner, biked 134.48 miles. He sometimes bikes to school but not the majority of the time.

 “Biking can have a sense of freedom to it,” he said. “You are more mobile than in a car. I was biking wherever I wanted to. I did not have a specific destination most of the time.”

 The weather deterred some bikers, Ms. Sloop said.

 “I was hoping to get 600 combined miles of biking, and we came short of that goal, but with any new activity or any new programming, there is always fluctuation, and there is certainly room to grow.”

 Ms. Sloop said she hopes biking culture continues growing at the school and is already thinking of ways to expand participation next year, including a stationary bike option for those who cannot ride to school. 

—Morgane Massard ’28

Locked down, looking ahead

 Moving desks and avoiding windows, Upper School (US) students and faculty barricaded themselves in rooms for 10 minutes Sept. 30 for a lockdown drill. US Director Jessica Keimowitz said she wanted to expose students to some of the faculty’s training.

 “Last year, we had faculty sit and talk through a lockdown drill, and then this year, we wanted to make sure we did a similar type of drill with students.”

 The goal of the drill was to prepare students for potential emergencies.

 “We didn’t want the drill to be scary,” Ms. Keimowitz said. “We wanted to increase awareness and have kids think strategically for when they are in school and out of school.”

 Ms. Keimowitz said the school wanted to make sure the announcement system worked and students were as prepared as they are for fire drills.

 Students and faculty were both informed of the lockdown drill ahead of time. The school’s security partner, Synergy Solutions, briefed students at an all-school assembly the day before.

 US Math Teacher Sarina Simon had takeaways from the faculty training earlier in the year.

 “For me, it really helped to do the Synergy demonstration at the start of the year,” she said. “In preparation, I made sure my classroom had extra ropes to tie the doors and made sure the different parts of my room were secure.”

 Daniel Driscoll’s ’28 class physically barricaded their room as if in a real lockdown.

 “Our classroom was 100 percent secure, and I believe our whole class felt successful,” he said.

 The lockdown experience differed among classrooms. Gemma Friend ’28 said her class talked through the drill because of the number of windows in her science classroom.

 “It’s a hard topic to think about, but I really tried to talk about ‘what ifs.’ It wasn’t as secure as other places in the school, but we felt like, if we needed to, we could secure the room enough.”

 Ms. Keimowitz said the US community can expect two to three lockdown drills a year in the future.

—Tess Neuefeind Lessig ’28

Bonding by the beach

 Before the demands of school could fully take hold, the 18 Upper School (US) peer counselors took a step away to relax and bond on Thompson Island.

 This annual retreat, which biennially switches between Provincetown and Thompson Island and was held this year from Sept. 28-29, wasn’t just an escape from homework. Olivia Richter ’26 said the trip was much needed.

 “It was a chance to separate from all of the chaos going on around and being on that island, just us, allowed us to focus solely on peer counseling.”

 “A part of peer counseling is trusting each other,” Health and Wellness Educator Claire Herrmann, who also attended the trip, said. “Bonding as a group and building trust through activities trickles into their work as peer counselors.”

 Once on the island, the group dove into team-bonding activities, games and conversations designed to strengthen communication and trust.

 US Counselor Sarah Vollmann said the retreat enabled students to learn a crucial concept, the ability to listen to and acknowledge others.

 “Peer counseling often becomes ingrained in who they are because they’re learning to listen and be supportive in a deeper way,” she said. “They often incorporate it into their identities.”     

 That sense of openness carried into each activity, from problem-solving games to quiet discussions on the beach. Collaborating with each other, the peer counselors opened up, helping them model support between peers.

 “It was really interesting to see how much you can connect to people when you’re being vulnerable like that,” peer counselor Abby Brown ’26 said.

 Outside of structured exercises, the peer counselors were able to venture off into the island. Unstructured time proved just as meaningful as the workshops themselves, peer counselor Princess Adeoye ’27 said.

 “The time where we got to know each other best was when it was not in the realm of doing exercises. It was just when we were hanging around each other.”

—Anya Lundberg ’28