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.”

By Chloe Hunt '21
Murder on the Orient Express astounded audiences this past weekend, and in line with North Cross’s stringent Covid protocols, the performances were virtual. Orchestrating a production of high caliber virtually is not a task for the faint-hearted, as director Jess Jones-Gausla learned.
Jones-Gausla boasts a strong theatrical resumé dating back to her childhood. 
“I did a few plays when I was very young and in highschool became active in the local community theatre and college theatre scene,” Jones-Gausla said. “I got a BA in Theatre Performance from Barton College and worked in the NC Triangle for many years. When I found that unsustainable monetarily, I went to graduate school at Cal State LA and received my MFA in Theatre, Film and Television: Acting. This training was to allow me to make a living in my chosen profession.”
Although the pandemic prevented Jones-Gausla from utilizing her graduate degree, it did allow for Jones-Gausla and her husband to make new plans. 
“I graduated in 2020, so the world has gotten in the way a bit, the pandemic is what brought my husband and I to Roanoke and it completely changed our plans of making a career in LA. Since LA is not the center of the pandemic, we have made other plans to go to Oslo, Norway, and pursue careers there.”
Jones-Gausla’s love for theatre began with England’s national poet, Shakespeare. Although Shakespeare’s works can be jarring for young performers, Jones-Gausla fell in love with seeing Shakespearian works performed.
“Shakespeare got me interested in acting - particularly seeing it performed - not reading it. I loved the way the actors could so clearly tell a story and take you on a journey in a theatre or in your own living room that we would have no way of going on in real life,” Jones-Gausla said. “I became obsessed with this in highschool and went to a few summer programs at Cambridge University that only deepened my love for this style of communication.”
Jones-Gausla then realized that theatre provided an opportunity to explore the world. In her eyes, theatre prompts dialogue and conversation, thus connecting audiences and actors in a unique way. 
“As I grew older it became a way to heal the world for me. You can present anything on stage without it having to have actually happened, or explore something from the past, and make your audience think about what they have seen,” Jones-Gausla said. “It connects us in seeing an actors perspective and allowing the audience to form their own opinion about that perspective that they have just seen, without critiquing an actual person, it gives permission to dive in.”
For her MFA thesis, Jones-Gausla had the opportunity to analyze perhaps one of the most transformative plays in American history. This project not only increased her affinity for theatre, but made her more aware of an important epidemic. 
“Harper Pitt in Angels in America. This was my thesis project to receive my MFA and one of the most important plays in American history, if not the most important play,” Jones-Gausla said. “It centers around the AIDS crisis and is one of the first works for the stage that explores queer lives as full lives and not as a tool to tell a straight story.”
For students who are considering pursuing a career in theatre, Jones-Gausla has some advice, and one thing that want-to-be theatre professionals should be mindful of. 
“Money. Because this is a gig to gig business, it is difficult financially. 'Survival jobs' in coffee shops and restaurants are great in theory, but the wage for that work in this country is horrendous and it takes too much of one's time and energy, at least as you get older, away from your career,” Jones-Gausla said. “This is why I have opened up my view to film and television and received a degree where I can now teach college level courses and look to being an associate professor at a university to augment my income while continuing to build a career as an actor.”
Although a career in theatre has its difficulties, Jones-Gausla believes that theatre has the unique opportunity to better our world. 
“ It is about and for the community and forms a discussion that has the potential to further society.”

By Chloe Hunt '21 

I love crime and thriller movies: Knives Out, The Firm, The Departed, and really anything like that. Movies have the unique ability to keep you on the edge of your seat and really make you want to eat popcorn, but so many people believe that they can only find that exciting, suspenseful element in movies rather than literature. After all, I do not think I am alone as a high school student in saying that a movie is typically more engaging than a book. 
That is why I love The Secret History. This story kept me on the edge of my seat, so-to-speak, from the very beginning. An inverted crime novel, this thrilling piece will draw you in in an inescapable manner, even if you think you do not like books. My only critique is that this book is long, a stunning 592 pages, but it also provides an unique and exciting escape from reality.
The narrative begins with a lower-class teen from California attending college in Vermont. The narrator is immersed into an environment of intellectual sophistication, and he befriends students who are studying the Classics with a questionable professor. However, this group spends a lot of time not focused on school, but rather in a drug-filled haze, which leads them to kill someone. The novel revolves around this story line.
The book about murder is not new– in fact, it is done quite frequently. What is so interesting about The Secret History is primarily the perspective. So many murder mysteries are told through a third person omniscient narrative, which can garble the essence of the story. However, this novel is told through the first person point of view, Richard Papen, which enhances the chilling atmosphere of the book and makes it a more compelling read.
What is also interesting is that the author, Donna Tartt, provides a new take on the murder mystery. It is not a “who-dun-it,” but a “why-done-it.” From the beginning (so this is not a spoiler), the audience becomes aware that the narrator was culpable in a murder. As the reader, you will initially be left confused, which is why I urge you to keep reading. Tartt’s prose is not just strong, but it is so deliberate, using each word to craft a narrative so compelling that page turning becomes irresistible.

I am certainly late to the game reading this novel nearly 20 years after its publication, but I do not think I am alone. I urge all high school students to find a hard copy (more fun to read) or just search for a PDF online. Whenever you find yourself jaded by your studies of calculus or Spanish, start reading The Secret History, because as cliché as it may sound, all of its wonders are so secret and so special. 

​We live in a society where globalization is present in our everyday lives. It has
gradually become an essential component of the way we communicate with
each other, how business is conducted, and the way people understand
current affairs. Globalization is a phenomenon that brought about the
acknowledgment of cultural diversity and the widespread idea that
multilingualism is a consequence of it. Therefore, it is no surprise that
multilingual classrooms are becoming more common even though they may
still be in their early stages.
Multilingual education has acquired more relevance because a growing portion
of the student population can understand and/or converse in more than one
language so multilingualism is no longer just a way to reflect one aspect of
your identity, it is a true representation of what the classrooms have become:
an extension of globalization. Therefore, multilingualism in education needs to
go hand in hand with the present times. Education cannot fall behind when it
comes to keeping up with the current trends in the global village our world has
become.
Multilingual education is an enriching feature in our classrooms that is here to
stay. It presents the possibility of interpreting our world from multiple
perspectives. It opens new doors to understanding other cultures from a
standpoint where this is no "right" or "wrong" answer about customs and
traditions. Individualities are presented in a different light and, consequently,
we can develop skills that help us appreciate and reflect on what makes us
different when considering these differences may enrich our lives and
experiences. These features go beyond languages and affect many aspects of
education and students' perceptions of the world.
Multilingual education can also bridge the gap among intercultural
coexistence. If multiple languages are present and there is a conscious effort
when creating a curriculum with a pacing guide and units of study, lessons,
and projects that focus on languages and the cultures of those languages with
an emphasis on comparing how each language has evolved based on how its
culture has affected it, then students of different cultures may begin to
understand each other better by actively engaging in exchanging ideas about
their language and their customs. In this type of learning environments, class
activities like translations, interpretations, and compare/contrast help develop
skills that put education in a new dimension where critical thinking skills,
emotional learning, and experiential learning are just some of the added

benefits. They can also help our frame of mind become “more flexible” and
broaden the borders of concepts by putting everything into a more "malleable"
state. It is comparisons what many times trigger reasoning from multiple points
of view and higher thinking skills.
Multilingual education offers the essential tools to access more opportunities
to grow in a future career or occupation. A child that has been exposed to a
rich multilingual education knows no barriers or distances and one can only
dream of the exponential growth in that child's education and the potential for
a greater future. However, multilingual education has not become more
relevant just because of all the advantages it can have in academics or a
future job. Multilingualism reflects a society that is going through great and
deep changes to adapt to a new era that is ever evolving at a rapid pace.
The increasing recognition and use of multiple world languages are what has
put multilingualism at one of the top spots of desired high-quality education
and it is becoming a major goal for many educational communities around the
world. Nevertheless, it is vital to remember that there would be no multilingual
education without a diversity of cultures that coexist in the same environment
and actively interact with each other. Multilingual education is the result of the
effects of globalization and the social and psycholinguistic impact it has on our
society.
There is much more to come in multilingual education as it continues to strive
for permanent success in its implementation. Our current system of education
must find ways to meet the demands of a student population that is gradually
and steadily taking a leading role when it comes to making sure their voice is
heard. Educators and administrators are the ones who must ensure that
further steps are taken towards establishing new programs that can be taught
in a wider variety of educational contexts that welcome all languages and all
cultures.
Mariana B. Hermosilla de Casco M. Ed.