Olivia Skriloff ’18 on stage naming names. Photo provided.
Olivia Skriloff ‘18 broke the school record for recalling the names of every student and staff member at Northwood School. She accomplished the feat in just one week, memorizing over 200 names.
The tradition of naming students and faculty has been alive for decades but this year was the first time it had been successfully completed in many years. Each first school meeting of the year, Mr. Broderick stands up and gives the daunting challenge, which is is always met with sighs and laughs. This year, Olivia decided to not only take the challenge, but also crush the record.
She accomplished both goals in eight minutes and with only one week to learn names. Olivia now holds the new school record. She took to the stage at school meeting on Monday, September 11. Beginning with the maintenance crew she worked through the entire auditorium row by row until each individual was named. She was even able to name the identical twins, Addie and Angie Castillo ‘21, without breaking a sweat.
Olivia practiced non-stop over the course of the first week of school. Each day she could be spotted by the fireplace running through flash cards or standing in the dining hall naming off everyone who came in to eat. Both of these methods proved to be very successful when the challenge came Monday afternoon.
School officials actually don’t know the previous record, but everyone said nobody has come close to doing it in seven days, as Olivia did.
