Deerfield students often engage in pursuits outside the classroom, whether it be testing their physical limits in sports or exercising their creative minds through arts. However, many Deerfield faculty members also find ways to extend themselves beyond the Valley by partaking in further education opportunities, pursuing writing, and even creating podcasts.
Dean of Residential Life and History & Social Science Teacher Rebecca Melvoin shared that she is currently on track to complete her Doctor of Education degree (EdD) through virtual University of Southern California classes by May. When asked for her motivation in pursuing this voluntary rigor, she explained she “was interested in learning more about school leadership.” While unsure of where the degree will take her, she hopes to later publish her dissertation — a comparative case study looking at the ways that boarding schools in the Northeast support gender expansive students with a specific emphasis on their residential experiences — as a shorter article.
In terms of how her outside work has impacted her teaching life, Ms. Melvoin said, “Being a student again made me more empathetic as a teacher.” She explained, “Knowing that I rarely looked forward to completing discussion board posts, I limited some of the tasks I originally planned for my students.”
Additionally, Ms. Melvoin remarked on the support of the Deerfield community, saying, “Colleagues frequently check in with me to ask about coursework or the writing process.” She continued, “Dr. Austin has allowed me to interview him for a paper I wrote; I’m grateful to so many people, including my students, who have cheered me on during this process.”
History & Social Science Teacher Mary Ellen Friends also engaged in further education, receiving her Ph.D. in East Asian Languages and Literatures from Yale University in May 2019. Her research focused on Classical Chinese Womens poetry about the Double Seventh Festival, the Heavenly Weaver Girl, and the relationship between weaving, womens writing, and shifting gender expectations in Late Imperial China. Dr. Friends noted that her dissertation titled, “Love, Gender, and Reader Reception in Double Seventh Literature,” is available online for anyone to read and critique.
Before coming to Deerfield, Dr. Friends had completed many of the requirements for her Ph.D., having already finished her coursework and even defended her prospectus. She said, “All I needed to do was re-teach myself how to read classical Chinese, do a bunch of research, write a 300-page paper, and get a thumbs up from each of my committee members!”
Finding it challenging to balance a full-time job with family obligations, Dr. Friends shared that she completed this project over five summers in the comfort of her “beautiful classroom on the 3rd floor of the MSB [with] air conditioning.” Working on her project for 30 to 40 hours per week for 12 of her 14 weeks of summer, she said, “I don’t own a cell phone, so I was able to fully engage with the project for several hours at a time.”
Additionally, Dr. Friends noted, “The project helped me improve my teaching of research and writing; it made me appreciate our incredible library staff more than ever, and it made me more empathetic to students who are undertaking research.” She also noted that her research imbued a sense of confidence in Deerfield’s preparation of students for higher-level study and writing projects while also making her a more patient person.
Dr. Friends echoed Ms. Melvoin’s comments regarding how conducive Deerfield’s environment and community are to outside goals. She said, “[Deerfield], in general, is quite supportive of continuing education, and the Dean of the Faculty’s office encourages faculty to pursue all sorts of professional development opportunities, including summer courses and workshops, in-house institutes and team projects.”
The school also supports and funds professional development sessions. Dr. Friends noted, “The school sends a very strong and positive message that it places high value on teachers who are passionate about their fields and who ‘walk the walk’ in terms of being lifelong learners.” Through her own pursuits, she hopes that students see that “research is energizing, not draining, and that writing is not about a grade or a gold star.” She said, “It’s about the joy of communicating to others — at whatever level of articulation you can manage — all the cool stuff you’re learning along the way.”
English Teacher Melissa Dickey shared accounts from her experience as a published poet. Passionate about writing from a young age, Ms. Dickey attended the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts in high school, the University of Texas, and the University of Iowa’s Writers’ Workshop residency program, where she received her Master of Fine Arts degree. Additionally, Ms. Dickey met fellow Deerfield English Teacher and future husband Andy Stallings in a poetry workshop in college, and they are both now practicing poets.
In terms of finding time to write at Deerfield, Ms. Dickey explained that she only teaches two to three classes per term, which is less than the teaching course load. She said, “I think that’s why I can dedicate more time to writing because I also have kids, so there are so many things to balance.” She continued, “One thing that’s nice about being an English teacher is that we have a lot of freedom in what we teach, so I can choose books that I want to read for myself, or we can study poets that I want to study for myself, so in some ways, the teaching and the writing can go together.”
Regarding her writing process, Ms. Dickey explained, “I write my notes by hand and then try to put them together.” She continued, “I always have this working notebook, and then I’ll go back through notebooks and find sentences I like or things I noticed, such as an image or detail. I use writing and poetry especially to try to weave together different things I’m thinking about, whether external things in life, this moment in culture, family stuff, or relationships.” Ms. Dickey plans to publish her third book of poetry in the fall of 2023 and hopes to host an event in one of Deerfield’s art galleries to let students hear about her work.
For History & Social Science Department Chair Brian Hamilton, his outside pursuits involve hosting an environmental studies podcast he created five years ago. In his podcast episodes, Mr. Hamilton chats with authors of new nonfiction books to help others understand the interconnectedness of social, political, and environmental struggles.
Mr. Hamilton discussed his own learning resulting from hosting the podcast, saying, “Every author blows my mind at least once!” He explained, “In our attention economy, even books by brilliant scholars can fail to get their ideas into circulation. I’m proud to do a little bit to help with that. And it keeps me current with the latest scholarship, which makes me a better teacher.”
He recorded one of these interviews live in his Environmental Justice class, and Science Teacher Rich Calhoun invited one of Mr. Hamilton’s podcast guests to speak in his class come springtime. His next two episodes will be with Malcolm Harris about his book Palo Alto: A History of California, Capitalism, and the World and the other with Virginia Tech Professor Anna Zeide about her U.S. History in 15 Foods.
Mr. Calhoun is also involved in environmental work on and off campus. One of his close friends, Mike Bensen, ’96, recently started a small farm in Maine. Mr. Calhoun shared a few of his students’ theoretical farm ideas with Mr. Bensen a few years ago and has since involved his students in data interpretation and research for Mr. Bensen’s farm. Mr. Calhoun said, “Students have created a wide range of project ideas for crops, cultivation ideas, and concepts to generate revenue on the farm.” He continued, “Ideas range from potatoes, bee hives, garlic, solar panels, greenhouses, apple orchards, cross-country ski trails, a small concert venue, a fish waste composting facility, and an organic vegetable co-op for local markets.” Of these proposals, Mr. Bensen has made a few decisions based on DA student projects, including a blight-resistant chestnut orchard planting project, a forest-based shitake mushroom operation, and a successful lettuce program.
In terms of applications of his course to the work of Mr. Bensen, Mr. Calhoun shared that his Environmental Science class spends time learning about various agricultural practices and their impacts on local and global systems. He said, “We tour a medium-sized dairy and veggie farm in Deerfield, and then students can apply their understanding of practices and economics to create viable projects for a small New England farm.” He explained, “It allows students to be creative while demonstrating their understanding of agricultural principles.”
These Deerfield teachers, along with many of their fellow faculty members, are committed to a variety of unique endeavors, proving they take their responsibility to heart as role models of, in the words of Dr. Friends, “lifelong learners.”