Over spring break, school-sponsored trips set off to Italy/Greece, Ghana, Taiwan, and Washington, DC. where students experienced new things, learned by doing, and immersed themselves in their surroundings. 

Teachers Ted Freeman, LJ Scurfield, and Ellen Abbott led 18 Latin students on the trip to Greece and Italy, where they explored the relics of the ancient world. Freeman shares, “We first spent several days exploring the city of Athens, Greece. We took in the grandeur of the Parthenon resting atop the acropolis of Athens. We roamed the Athenian agora, as did so many of the great philosophers and statesmen of antiquity. Our group went into the Greek countryside to visit the fascinating sites of Delphi, Mycenae, and the theater of Epidaurus. 

“We then flew to Rome, Italy, and continued our exploration of the ancient world there. We climbed several of Rome’s hills, including the Capitoline and Janiculum. We spent a day in Vatican City exploring St. Peter’s Basilica and the endless halls of the Vatican museum. We travelled to Ostia Antica, the ancient port city of Rome that is now an expansive set of ruins. Throughout our trip, students read a variety of Latin passages relevant to each site. Students also enjoyed delving into the cultures, languages, and food of modern Greece and Italy.” 

Abbott reflected on their journey: “Aside from group sharing and time for journal writing, we had two amazing Meetings for Worship, one on a promontory overlooking the Aegean and in sight of Poseidon’s temple at Sounion, and one in a Mithraic bath in the abandoned Roman city of Ostia Antica. Both were highlights of the trip. I think the thing that struck me most, particularly in the Ostia Antica Meeting, was the number of tributes shared regarding LJ and Ted, their teaching, their commitment to the students and their love of Latin. These students have found a home in the Classics that is central to their education at Westtown.”

Lynette Assarsson and Marissa Colston led a small but mighty group of students to Ghana to work with our sister school, Heritage Academy, in the village of Essiam. Students gained experience in the classroom teaching Heritage middle schoolers various arts, crafts, and games, which were very popular among Heritage students! Westtown students also led small reading groups daily, where students read aloud together to improve English reading, pronunciation, and comprehension skills. A special time was set aside for our all-girl group to talk with sixth grade girls to discuss education, leadership, and to share about their lives; impactful moments for all. The group engaged in a service project at Heritage: making cement blocks to be used in the completion of a middle school building. Westtown students have been making blocks for this project over the past several trips to Ghana and to honor that work, Heritage will call the new building Westtown Hall! 

Living in a guest house in the village of Ajumako, just down the road from Heritage, afforded students the opportunity to know our neighbors, enjoy authentic Ghanaian cuisine (and pound fufu!), and to join in the hustle and bustle of “market days” in local villages and towns. At the markets, they learned to barter and even got to use a few words of Fante! 

The group traveled to Cape Coast to learn more deeply about the transatlantic trade of the enslaved and had powerful tours of Cape Coast Castle and Elmina Castles, both former trading posts. They also spent time on the beautiful coast and braved the canopy bridges of Kakum National Rainforest. Finally, in the capital city of Accra, they toured the home of author, historian, and civil rights activist W.E.B. du Bois, learning about his life, work, and legacy. All of the elements of this journey are unique and a truly immersive cultural experience for our students. We are ever grateful for the longtime partnership with Heritage Academy, who has been welcoming Westtown students since 2008!

Bei Zhang, Fran De la Torre-Shu, Kyle Layne-Allen, and Megan Williams and a large group of students journeyed to Taiwan. Their adventure began with a tour of Taipei where they explored history, art, and culture through iconic landmarks like the Grand Hotel, Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall, National Palace Museum, National Revolutionary Martyrs’ Shrine, Longshan Temple, Presidential Square, and Cheng’en Gate. They experienced Shilin Night Market, a sensory delight that showcases Taiwan’s culinary diversity. The group had several hands-on learning experiences such as Taiwanese cooking, where they made dumplings and boba for tea, a sky-lantern making workshop, and more! The group ventured into Taroko National Park to take in the natural wonders, and to Yehliu Geopark, known for its unusual rock formations. They also visited the Li Chuan clam aquafarm (and dug for clams!) and Toucheng Farm to observe sustainable agriculture practices.

A very special highlight of the trip was meeting with Westtown alums Steven Wu ’86 and Richard Wu ’87. The Wu brothers gave the students personalized tours of their department stores and learned about their business philosophies and models, and had insightful conversations about their Westtown experiences. Students were also treated to specialty foods such as soup dumplings, bubble tea (from the store that created the first bubble tea in the world!), dried guava and starfruit, and almond cookies. We are grateful to Steven and Richard Wu for sharing their time and insights with our students, and to Amanda Young in the Advancement Office who helped facilitate this wonderful visit!

Religion teachers Lara Freeman and Jonathan Ogle ’88 led a group of students to Washington, DC, to partcipate in the annual Friends Committee on National Legislation’s (FCNL) Spring Lobby Weekend training. FCNL is a Quaker lobby group that “connects historic Quaker testimonies on peace, equlity, simplicity, and integrity with issues and legislation in Washington. Our community brings together Friends and tens of thousands of like-minded individuals, sharing a belief in relationship-based change making to advance the world we seek, one lobby visit at a time.”  

The Westtown contingent joined hundreds of other students from across the country as they learned and lobbied together. The training sessions this year focused on lobbying for The Truth and Healing Commission on Indian Boarding School Policies Act. After they finished their training, students visited the offices of both Pennsylvania senators as well as Representative Chrissy Houlahan. One student, a resident of NJ, visited her representatives, including Senator Cory Booker’s office.  Freeman reports that the students were committed, engaged, and phenomenal participants. 

Solar Eclipse Viewing Parties Near and Far

As was the case across much of the country, the opportunity to see a total solar eclipse was an event! At Westtown, students attended assemblies to learn about the science of what happens during an eclipse. The school provided Westtown-branded protective eclipse-viewing glasses, and Lower Schoolers made masks to go around them. The kitchen staff even made special eclipse cookies. 

At the designated time, students, faculty, and staff spilled out onto campus to witness the spectacle of the eclipse. The lawns were dotted with spectators and a group of students headed for the observatory balcony as well. The sense of joy and community was palpable as everyone marveled at the phenomenon. In our area, the eclipse reached about 89% coverage seen periodically through passing clouds—still an awe-inspiring sight to behold. But far, far away, students in teacher Elson Oshman Blunt’s Astronomy class had a very different experience. He tells the story: 

“As soon as I realized my Astronomy class was small enough to fit in a Westtown van, a field trip to the band of totality of the April 8 2024 eclipse felt predestined. But chasing eclipses is not for the faint of heart. Driving for a dozen hours (or two) doesn’t even guarantee that the three-minute experience of totality will succeed. A single errant cloud in just the wrong place at just the wrong moment can scuttle everything. So this was not a mission I could lay at just anyone’s feet. It would have to be the right group of students.

On the first day of the semester, my classroom neighbor and math teacher Jake Norton greeted my students by asking, ‘What class is this? Astronomy, huh? Are you guys gonna go see the eclipse?’ Well, I’d been planning to broach the subject after getting to know my students a little better, but sure, let’s have this conversation now! As it turned out, it didn’t take any convincing. All seven students were all in for the adventure from the get-go.

After some discussion, the school approved the field trip, and a generous parent sponsor offered to cover the costs. Dean of Academics Karen Gallagher even found hotel rooms still available near the iconic Niagara Falls, an absolutely stupendous place to view the eclipse. The trip was on! We were going to see it!

…Or not. Two days out, Niagara’s forecast all but guaranteed complete cloud cover. Following a short-lived period of sad resignation, we turned our attention to the clear skies forecast in New Hampshire and Maine. After all, would you rather drive twelve hours and not see an eclipse, or drive twice as far and actually get to see it? Karen heroically found us new hotel rooms in Portland, Maine, and we were on our way!

Caught up in our eclipse fever, my aforementioned math neighbor and now total hero Jake Norton agreed to help chaperone the trip and share the driving. Ensconced in our valiant Westtown Van #7, the Astronomy students listened to music, chatted, and played trivia games. When we got to our hotel in Portland that night, spirits were high, and despite being pretty tired most of us weren’t ready to go to bed. What started with a little Calculus homework in the lobby turned into card games, interesting conversations, and more class bonding.

The following day, after a few more hours of oddly manageable traffic, we settled into our viewing spot, a random field in the Rangeley Lakes region near the Maine-New Hampshire border. Luckily, we were able to coordinate with friends to meet there, including Dean of Equity, Justice, and Belonging Louisa Egan Brad and her kids. The skies were exceptionally clear and sunny, just as predicted. We were ready! But with an hour to wait, there was plenty of time for more Astronomy learning, and this week’s lesson happened to be measuring and calculating the luminosity of the sun. Perfect! After finishing the lab, the students got our colander and eclipse glasses ready to view the partial eclipse.

The experience of seeing an eclipse is nothing short of wondrous. The special glasses allow less than 0.00032% of the light through, so the Sun looks like a little yellow disk on a completely black background. As the Moon starts to cover the Sun, you see a crescent shape. It looks exactly like the Moon itself, in fact. How ironic that the Sun impersonates the very thing blocking its light! Partial eclipses are weird-looking, but also fun to play with. We projected crescent images of the Sun by letting it shine through tiny holes like a punched piece of paper, fingers arranged in a crosshatch, and the many colander holes.

As totality approached, the light did diminish noticeably, and several of us put on jackets. But even with just a few minutes left for that sliver of Sun and only 5% of its luminosity (I measured!), it was still quite clearly daylight. That all changed dramatically the instant the last ray finally winked out.

In those last few seconds, we saw a faint shimmering, like a strobe light. I’m told these are called ‘shadow bands’ and are caused by atmospheric turbulence. And then, quite suddenly, darkness fell. We could see a faint glow near the southern horizon, presumably the Sun shining outside the band of totality a few miles south of us. It was time to put away our eclipse glasses and gaze upon nature’s most unforgettable sight.

And there it was: a completely round, black disk surrounded by the ghostly solar corona. Normally invisible due to the Sun’s extreme brightness, the corona is the Sun’s outer atmosphere. It’s far hotter than the surface for unknown reasons—in fact, it’s so hot it shines much more brightly to X-ray telescopes than optical ones, but it’s so thin we can’t usually see it. We also saw bright red dots: solar flares peeking out from the edge, a difference from the 2017 eclipse when solar activity was at a minimum. After taking note of all that, there was enough time left for me to settle into a moment of profound spiritual connection with the universe and its grandeur. And then, with a piercing re-emerging ray of light, it was over.

It was time to become road warriors again. And what a drive that turned out to be! During the eight-hour stop-and-go drive to the other end of New Hampshire, we saw one moose, one almost-closed restaurant whose owners thankfully agreed to serve their last three pizzas to one more group of customers, several overrun gas stations which resembled beehives, and thousands of frustrated humans encased in slowly rolling or stopped metal boxes. By the time we arrived at our hotel near Hartford Connecticut, it was 2:00 a.m. and we were exhausted, exhilarated, and still so very excited that we got the chance to see this amazing thing together. By the time we got back to Westtown the following day, we felt very connected as a group and glad for such excellent company to view one of the great wonders of the universe.

While the star of the show was (quite literally) the Sun, and the best supporting actor has to go to the Moon, our trip was an ensemble piece. Thanks to this positive and adventurous crew, our time together was fun and unforgettable not just during those magic two and a half minutes of totality but throughout our entire trip, including the 26 hours we spent in trusty Westtown Van #7. Thanks to every person who helped make this incredible trip a reality.”