Alice

Hometown: Swampscott, MA
Time at Waring: 2013-2018 (8th-12th)
Favorite Class: Humanities was always my favorite class while at Waring, but I also loved Math and Physics. I ended up majoring in Math and History in college, and my favorite classes I took were Real Analysis and Modern European Intellectual History: From Rousseau to Foucault.
Favorite Waring experience: It's hard to pick just one favorite Waring experience! A couple favorites include: being a writing TA for 6th and 7th grade students. Helping lead a Shakespeare endterm in which we put on a performance of Much Ado About Nothing. Learning that I actually WAS a science person when taking junior year physics. Discovering my love of both admiring and creating visual art in my Waring art classes and endterms throughout the years.
Why no grades: I think not having grades matters for two reasons. First, not having grades allowed me to take more risks in my classwork because I was free of the fear of getting a "poor grade" if things didn't work out the way I had hoped. Instead of the end game of each course being to receive a "good grade," I rather valued learning and exploration as their own ends. Second, not having grades was valuable because I found their alternative, narrative evaluations, to be much more instructive and informative on my performance in each class than grades could have been. Written evaluations gave me concrete feedback on what I had done well in any given course, and what specifically I could improve on.
Favorite book and/or film: My two favorite books are Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut and Darkness at Noon by Arthur Koestler. Both books were transformative for me in that they exposed me to new methods of narrative storytelling. Slaughterhouse Five tells a story in achronological order with supernatural elements in order to convey the author's traumatic WWII experiences. In Darkness at Noon, the author infuses a similarly achronological narrative framed by a particular prisoner's experience during a Stalinist purge with philosophical musings on ethics, subjectivity, and morality.
Why French: The French program at Waring is about so much more than just learning the language. In my French classes at Waring, we were able to connect and engage with a rich, literary tradition, while also learning about all the various cultures in which the French language is spoken. France and the French language have had a pervasive influence around the globe. I currently live in the Cajun country of Louisiana, where everything from the French language to French culinary tradition is ingrained in the culture. From my experience learning French at Waring, I have an understanding and appreciation of the culture I know find myself immersed in.
After-school activities: Outside of work, I like to cook, read and do yoga. Most nights, I can be found either reading a historical fiction or fantasy novel, or else watching whatever sports are on TV - especially football and hockey.
Our community: I value the community at Waring so much because it is not just classmates in your own grade that you make connections with. Rather, relationships are forged at all levels of the community. Some of the deepest connections I made at Waring were with older students who mentored me, younger students I mentored once I became an upper classman, and teachers who guided me throughout my five years at the school.
What have you done since your time at Waring? After graduating from Waring, I attended the University of Notre Dame where I majored in Mathematics and History. While at Notre Dame, I was a member of the Glynn Family Honors Program and completed a senior thesis on how philosophical movements - specifically structuralism and post-structuralism - have influenced the ways in which contemporary historians tell historical narratives. Outside of the classroom, I worked for the Notre Dame Football team in the Football Operations Department during all four years of my undergraduate education. I also spent time with the New York Giants as a Pro Personnel Intern during the summers of 2020 and 2021. I currently live in Baton Rouge, Louisiana where I work for the LSU Football team as an advance scout.

Class of 2018

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