News of Willis Hall at North Cross School - WILLIS HALL HERALD ONLINE

Freshman bond more on trip to Wilderness Adventures

5/4/2022

Students left on the afternoon of Sunday, April 4 for the annual freshman trip to Wilderness Adventures at Eagle Landing and returned on Monday.
“I have been looking forward to this for a while,” said Henry Lugar.
The trip was led by Upper School administrators Stephen Belderes, Amy Jackson and Leigh Ann Hamlin.
The goal of the freshman trip is for students to meet new people in their classes. Normally the trip goes in the fall right when school starts, but due to Covid, they could not go earlier this year.
Students took part in many activities such as zip lining, high ropes courses, and rock climbing. Wilderness adventures prepared all meals for students and chaperones.
During the rock climbing Tyler Bloomfeld and Christian Lang teamed up on the “Dangling Duo” which is where two people have to climb up horizontal poles stakes one above each other. The goal of the activity is to use teamwork to make and stand on the top rod.
The first time the two climbed up they took their time and went at a slow pace up. The two waited to go for a second time to try and improve their current time. They made it to the top pole in a Whopping two minutes and thirty seconds.
“My favorite activity of the whole trip was the Dangling Duo,” Bloomfield said.
Lang and Bloomfeld were not just good at the Dangling Duo but also made it to the top of the traditional rock wall faster than most.
“I will be looking forward to the same experience next year on the 10th-grade trip,” Lang said.

Dr. Alison Nordt ’88 returns to Fishburn Auditorium to speak about developing the NIRCam on the Webb Telescope

3/21/2022

From a starry-eyed kid with dreams of going to space, to an opto-mechanical engineer developing a camera that can take pictures of the first stars and galaxies in the universe, Dr. Alison Nordt ’88 has accomplished what many can only imagine.

After graduating from NCS in ’88, Cornell in ’92 and Stanford in ’94 (MS) and ’99 (PhD), Nordt went to work for the space division of Lockheed Martin.

“The idea of building space telescopes was fascinating,” Nordt said in a Zoom interview with the Herald staff, Dr. Naginey and Astronomy student Jack Bohr ’23. “Within three years of being there, the NIRCam program was in the proposal phase, and I was asked to help on it for two weeks. Two weeks became 20 years. It was a fascinating program, and I was really interested in the science, and of course, the science of how to build it.”

Nordt said she cannot remember a time when she was not interested in space, having been born around the time of the early Apollo missions. Her mother read about Space Camp starting in Huntsville, Alabama. While her family was still living in New Jersey, Nordt went to Space Camp in 1982, the second year after it opened. She returned every summer after moving to Roanoke and eventually became a counselor during her time at Cornell.

“I went and I just loved it,” Nordt said. “It was the greatest experience for me. I was this little geek who loved space . . . . I would say space camp was reinforcing. It wasn’t what made me originally want to do space, but it was an environment that I loved.”

Her family moved to Salem because her father and uncle moved the family business to Roanoke. Already a soccer player, Nordt was disappointed to discover that North Cross did not have a girls’ team, so Coach Richard Cook invited her to play with the boys’ – initially on the JV, and eventually on the Varsity team. Cook said she was “the first off the bench” on “maybe the best team” he ever coached. The team went 22-1 and won the Virginia Independent Conference title in 1988.

“It was challenging,” she said. “[The ’88 team] was incredible. I think overall, I was accepted by the boys, we certainly played as equals, and I wasn’t coddled in any way for being the girl on the team. I think it was an incredibly shaping experience to play on that team because it was very challenging.

“One of the things it really prepared me for was engineering school. . . . at that point about 10 percent women, and so it was a very male-dominated field – much less so now – as we’ve made great strides in improving women’s representation in engineering and science.

“By playing on that team and by playing boys soccer, I think I was really prepared for making it in a group where I was the only girl. It was harder in soccer than it was in engineering, because I could compete on an even foot in engineering [more] than in soccer, where I just wasn’t as fast or strong. In the grand scheme of things, it really made a difference in my life.”

In addition to helping her play soccer at Cornell, she said NCS prepared her to write well. “When I was in engineering school, my peers were not able to write as well [as I could],” Nordt said.

History teacher Hugh Meagher inspired Nordt. She also wrote for the Scarlet Letter – the original student newspaper.

In January of 1986, when the Space Shuttle Challenger disintegrated shortly after liftoff, Nordt remembers being so shaken that she needed to go home early that day.

For her senior speech, she studied the Apollo-Soyuz mission of 1975, when an American spacecraft connected with a Russian capsule to make a “handshake in space” – a sign of hope for peace between the U.S. and U.S.S.R. during the Cold War.

The Near Infrared Camera (NIRCam) that Nordt led her team to develop at Lockheed Martin is the primary camera on the James Webb Space Telescope. Webb has a primary aperture comprised of 18 segments that is about six and a half meters in diameter. NASA chose Lockheed Martin’s NIRCam to capture images that the Webb Telescope enabled as it sits almost one million miles from Earth.

After the telescope settled into its projected spot in space, the NIRCam powered up. The initial photos from the camera needed time to be compiled into image that the public could recognize.

“[The first image] was a picture only a mother would love,” Nordt said, “because there were 18 segments of the primary mirror . . . it looked like 18 smudges of light. And someone said, are those cosmic rays? No, that’s starlight. It was amazing.”

As a mother of two teens, who have spent some of their summers playing soccer at North Cross while visiting their grandparents, Nordt found time to go on adventure across a different kind of space. She and her family sailed from the Caribbean to French Polynesia over the course of about 15 months in 2016-17.

Nordt will return on March 22 to the same stage where she made her senior speech 24 years ago.

Argentinian exchange program offers cultural enrichment for American students

2/16/2022

By Nadia Hosny '24

When Covid hit, North Cross was forced to shut down all possibilities of sending students to other places.
Victor Lamas, Director of Lower School and Assistant Head of School for Academics, has taken the first step forward into getting us back into our exchange programs. North Cross is planning an exchange between Scuola Italiana, a trilingual school in Mendoza, Argentina. The interesting thing about Scuola Italiana is that it also has a relationship with a school in Italy, therefore making it a trilingual school. Many Argentians speak three languages, Spanish, Italian and English. There’s a lot of cultural influence from Italy in Argentina. Though the date of when North Cross students will travel to Mendoza is still being determined, currently June and Thanksgiving week of 2022 is being explored.

Students will come in late March, and stay until mid April, staying approximately 3 weeks. In this time, they will be hosted by the person, who in return, will stay at their house in Mendoza when the time comes. “The easiest thing that I want students to get out of traveling and hosting is a view of a culture and a place, that in some ways is similar to their experience, but in many ways also very different. I think it would be familiar enough to our students that they’d feel comfortable, but unfamiliar enough in an exciting way, that will hopefully spark more desire to travel, whether with the school, for college, or on their own.” said Lamas.
This isn’t the first time North Cross students have hosted and traveled to Argentina. There have been several exchanges between the two schools, the last one being in 2019, which Lamas traveled alongside students and Upper School Spanish teacher Rachelle Phillips.

The relationship between North Cross and Scuola Italiana was sparked when Mariana Hermosilla, our very good Spanish teacher of 11 years here, teaches lower school spanish. Hermosilla was close to where she grew up in Argentina. She brought these connections to North Cross and began the process.

Ned Tower ‘24, is ecstatic to be hosting and going to Argentina. “I’m definitely looking forward to using it as an opportunity to practice my Spanish and get into a mindset where I’d be using it all the time.” Ned’s sister, Margaret Tower, who graduated from North Cross last year went on the Argentina trip back in 2019. When asked about whether her experience impacted his decision to go, Tower replied “She really enjoyed it, and it helped her build up her confidence with Spanish and that’s something I’m trying to improve, and so it was really helpful to hear about her experience. I mean I’m obviously a little worried about being in a place where I don’t speak the language perfectly but at the same time there’s a plus side to that, knowing I’ll be putting myself in a position to learn and improve.”

When asked about how students have compared Argentina to the U.S. in the past, Lamas hesitated before answering, saying “I guess you’d probably get a better answer from the students, but I’ve been down there too and experienced it and watched others experience it. Simple things, for example just the environment, literally the physical environment, it’s the kind of city that isn’t very American, for example, an Argentinian city in some ways is like some European cities, where there aren’t skyscrapers and office buildings so much as it is people who live in the cities, it’s quite residential. The food, in some ways, is very different, those that like meat will probably really like it because Argentinians are known for eating a lot of meat down there. The culture, students and their school experience down there is very different from what they’ve experienced here. The uniforms, social norms, interactions with teachers, it’s all different.”

Dabney discusses North Cross Taiwan with Herald staff

10/29/2021

Q: When did the idea for the school in Taiwan
A: The partnership with American Eagle Institute began -- I guess you could say the seed was planted many years ago. I lived in Taiwan 2009-2010 I worked for American Eagle Institute. I was an English teacher there. A good friend of mine was training in that program. That friend is now their sort of dean of their international school. She has moved her way up in the company. She is sort of vice president. We kept in touch. We visited as recently as 2018 when we were both teaching in China. We’ve been talking about ways we can bring our schools together. It’s just a matter of having an interest in developing education abroad. And knowing the right people trying to achieve that goal.

Debbie Taylor starts as the school's first Director of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

9/25/2021

By Hania Raza

As the newly appointed Director of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI), Debbie Taylor has recently taken charge of a very important mission.

Taylor implements programs for the students and provides training for the staff to promote diversity and fairness. These are vital values to have in all educational institutions, and they are crucial for the advancement and improvement of a civilized society.

“North Cross is a school that produces future leaders, teachers, politicians, doctors and lawyers,” said Taylor. “Having diversity and inclusion at a place like North Cross helps to make our next generation better than the present and the last.”

Before coming to North Cross, Taylor went to Johnson C. Smith University and then worked for 15 years at the John Crosland School in Charlotte, NC, an independent school for students with learning differences. She also worked at Brookstone Christian Schools for four years and James Martin Middle School for four years. She started her work in the DEI program at her last school, but she has been passionate about it for the majority of her life. She expressed that it has always been a big part of her life.

“Once you realize you are being treated unfairly, differently and excluded you become passionate about being treated fairly. I have taught my students that everyone is equal. That everyone should be treated fair and with kindness and respect,” said Taylor. “I knew that Diversity, Equity and Inclusion was something I have always done and something I wanted to continue to do.”

After relocating to Virginia this past April, Taylor came to North Cross because it was highly recommended.

“After hearing about North Cross, interviewing, and being on campus,” Taylor said, “I felt it would be a great school to work for.”

During her time at North Cross, Taylor said that she wants to provide a safe space for students, where everyone will feel respected and part of the school.

“I see North Cross as an institution that will embrace different cultures, religions, races, economic status and sexual orientation,” Taylor said, “A place where everyone is comfortable, acknowledged and celebrated.”

Taylor continued by saying that she wants to “increase awareness about biases and stereotypes that many do not know that they have and display.”

So far, Taylor has already made a positive impact on the school by involving the students in Hispanic Heritage Month.

She recently announced that she will be giving out a gift card to the person who can name the most influential Hispanic People.

Stephen Belderes, the director of the upper school, said that he is highly impressed with Taylor’s ability to make a difference at North Cross.

“I think she has already brought a positive change, just in the relationships that she has already established in the last three weeks,” Belderes said. “I’ve actually been really impressed with that.”

“I want everyone to understand we can not fix problems we do not acknowledge,” Taylor said. “Talking and learning about Diversity, Equity and Inclusion does not cause division, it brings awareness.”

WITH NINE MONTHS LEFT, DR. PROCTOR ASSESSES HIS LEGACY WITH THE WILLIS HALL HERALD STAFF

9/24/2021

By Gracean Ratliff

As the new head of school was being chosen, Dr. Proctor provided the Herald staff some reflections on his legacy.
    Monday, June 6, 2011, Dr. Christian Proctor started his position at North Cross as the ninth Head of School. With about 120 fewer students than there are now, North Cross was a lot different: a different campus layout, less strict dress code, bus routes, no air conditioning in the CAC, no extensive Lower School Spanish program, no Global Studies program, no CrossWalk, and no Shanghai campus; Dr. Proctor has drastically changed North Cross for the better.
   Previously, Dr. Proctor worked at other private schools in Texas, South Carolina, and Louisiana; but Roanoke felt like home. Unlike the other schools he was at, where he was only there for a short amount of time; he felt that he actually got to put an impact on North Cross.
“It was the first school that I came to, to kind of fix after 11 years” Proctor said. “It's the first one I decided to stay at for a long time, and so because I stayed for a longer time, I was able to do some things I'd never done before.”
   Some of his fondest memories were the Christmas bonfires, where the lower schoolers would smile cheek to cheek waiting in line to meet Santa. He also remembers cheering on his son, Andrew Proctor ‘14, in his football games.
Proctor said Richard Cook and Mark Thompson gave him valuable advice. He could rely on a strong faculty of longtime teachers like Meade Martin, Jennifer Landry, Stephen Belderes, to name a few.
   However, after 11 years of being the Head of School, Dr. Proctor will say farewell to North Cross. “As of late February, last year, I announced my departure at the end of the ‘21-22. school year to begin a career in consulting,” Proctor said. He plans to take what he learned from the school to connect American schools with international schools.
“My goal is to use the international connections that I've developed, over seven years now of having a school in Shanghai, as well as examining schools in other countries, to use those connections to develop a consulting practice that would put schools in America together with schools in Asia.”
   Dr. Proctor made the school financially sound, and led the school in the $16.5 million campaign to renovate the new campus. The campaign included three, $2 million gifts to renovate, which resulted in a new Upper School, a new Library, a new walkway, and a new entrance.
“I wanted to make sure that I was leaving the school in very good shape for the next person,” Proctor said.
“Schools are unbelievably fun places to work, because you get to come to work with faculty that are interesting and fun to be with and you get to meet all of these students that have 570 different personalities.”
Although watching many students go from being in JK3 to sitting in front of everyone in the senior chairs on the first day of school, and watching them go from girls and boys to young ladies and gentleman; it was a good time to depart from the school.
   Next September will be Proctor's first time in 55 years that he will not start a first day of school. As much as he is going to enjoy having actual vacations now, he will miss ringing the bells on the first day of school, announcing the lower schooler’s teachers, and watching everyone's big smiles as they see their friends they haven't seen all summer.
   “[When I announced my resignation] I wrote down on a sheet of paper the things I wanted to accomplish before I left,” Proctor said. “The first one being to finish reconstruction, done. The second being to fill the dorms. This year we have 32 exchange students living in the dorms, and we have 10 more beds to fill. The third and final goal being to get fully accredited, which will surely be done under our next head of school.”
       He hopes the future of the school will continue to thrive and reach “the next level” as he says, and only go up. He has hope for the years in the future and knows that North Cross will be in good hands.
“I think, by me leaving and bringing a new person in, who will take it to that next level, the school will be in an even better place than it would be if I was there.”

September 19th, 2021

9/19/2021

Film Club at North Cross School

2/11/2021

By Danny Phung '22

Film study club at Northcross is slowly opened again for students coming back to school.
     French Teacher, Chris Brandon the founder of the Film Club has this to say about the reason for making this club. “I created the club to share my interest in film studies with students, and to give them another window into the arts.”
     When asked about the movie that has impacted him the most, Mr. Brandon has a hard time choosing one.“This is a tough question! Many different films have impacted me personally during different parts of my life. Carl Theodor Dryer's 1928 film The Passion of Joan of Arc, a silent film, changed the way I understood what visual acting can achieve. Marcel Carné's film Children of Paradise (made during war conditions from 1943-1945) showed me the beauty of physical acting--and I think we all fell in love with the tragic mime Frédérick. But a movie like George Lucas' original Star Wars fired my imagination as a kid, making me dream of Jedi and spaceships. One of my favorite films to teach is Michael Curtiz's 1942 film Casablanca because it combines so much: adventure story, war story, refugee story, love story and is very artistic with its cinematography. “

     Mr. Brandon thinks that movies can be used as a tool for education. “Movies can definitely be used for education. In the same way that visual arts, performing arts, and literature help us understand what it means to be human, often showing us experiences that are different from our own, film borrows from all of these art forms. Humans have always told stories, and some of the earliest and oldest forms of teaching are through storytelling.” he said.

     For Mr. Brandon, his favorite activity in the club is listening to students about the movie. “Honestly, my favorite part is hearing what students think and how they react to what they see.”
     The most memorable moment that he had in the club is the first of the Club.”I think my favorite memorable moment in the club was the first day when we talked about film scores and music and we listened to different famous scores and tried to decide what emotion was being conveyed. It was super fun!” Mr.Brandon replied.

Club member, freshman Isabella Onufer decides to join the club because she likes movies. “I chose to enter the club originally because I was bored and happened to be interested in movies .Once I got to know the class, teacher, and students, it turned into an extracurricular activity I am constantly looking forward to.”
Isabella had learned alot from the club, especially about diction movies. “I have learned a lot from this club. In my opinion the most interesting things I've learned are directing and filming techniques. For example, how lighting plays a role in how the movie "feels" (Example: film noir; dark lighting, heavy shadows. Generally gives the movie a mysterious and dark feeling). Or how certain props in the movie are set up to make a room feel clustered or too big. “ Isabella said.“My favourite is how perspective is used. Have you ever seen Jurassic Park? If not, then you should (it's amazing), but there's a particular scene where the group of people look up and see this huge dinosaur. The way the camera is positioned makes the human seen inconsequential and tiny.”
When asked about her favorite movie, she also has a hard time picking one. “ Let me just say this: having one favourite movie is extremely difficult. For example, some movies are too different, but you like them both (romance and horror). But my favourite types of movies are about time, or the ones that make you think about the reality you live in. The Butterfly Effect, Interstellar, The Matrix, Inception, and Terminator are some of my favourite movies.”

Josh Kier

2/3/2021

Blood drive donators exceed expected amount

2/3/2021

By Helen Hertz '24
Last Wednesday in the game gym, twenty-three students and faculty gathered to
donate blood for hospitals around the Roanoke area. For the North Cross blood donations you have to be at least sixteen with parental permission, but if you are 18 you are free to walk in and donate blood.

Giving blood is no easy feat. Along with being generally painful, having blood taken can cause someone to faint or be dizzy. According to Medical News Today, bruising, fatigue, and minor bleeding can occur. So, the students and faculty who donated should all be applauded for their services.

On Wednesday all around the school, you could hear students discussing their experiences giving blood. Several mentions of passing out for a few minutes or feeling tired. You also could hear students talk about the many attempts it can sometimes take to find a vein. Which from experience, can hurt quite a bit. As well as the talk of giving blood, you can see the donors sporting tiny Band-Aids.

“The blood drive was a huge hit!” says Connor Erwin, the director of this year’s blood drive. He also believes that this was “The biggest turnout” North Cross has ever had. The goal of the blood drive was originally 15 donations. The goal was absolutely crushed, beating the goal by 6 more donors. Twenty-one out of the Twenty-three people who showed up were viable donors.

Giving blood may seem small, but it is extremely generous. According to the Red Cross, just 1 blood donation can save up to 3 lives. About 43,000 pints of all blood types are donated each day, each one needed equally as much as the last. Out of the 46 million people who receive blood each year, one of those people could be a family member, a friend, or just someone passing you on the sidewalk.

A massive thank you goes out to everyone who was able to or attempted to give blood. Someone out there will be grateful for your contribution.

the Willis Hall Herald

Contact: willishallherald@northcross.org
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Founded in 2010, and based in the Journalism elective, The Willis Hall Herald is the official student-led publication of the Upper School at North Cross School in Roanoke, VA. The Herald may be published in magazine form three times per year. GeoPrism: The Global Studies Journal may be published in magazine form once or twice per year. The Herald welcomes letters, commentary and submissions of original content that adhere to the Herald's dedication to factual journalism. Letters and other content must be signed and may be edited for length and Herald style. The Herald does not guarantee publication of outside submissions. Please contact Robert Robillard for ads. The Herald won Gold Medals from Columbia Scholastic Press Association in 2012 and 2015.

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