Northwood has been preparing for Family Weekend activities, ranging from Huskies Fight Cancer games to student-led and parent-teacher conferences. The weekend will give families opportunities to learn about students’ academic experiences, meet their teachers and support a community fundraiser.
“This interaction between students and families and teachers—Family Weekend is really our only chance to do that,” Dean of Academic Affairs Mr. Simon Shergold said. “I think that’s why it’s an important Friday and Saturday for everybody on campus this weekend.”
Signature Academic Program
The weekend will begin with the Signature Academic Program, a student-led presentation showcasing some of Northwood’s distinctive courses.
“The importance of the Signature Program presentations is that it highlights things that Northwood provides in a sort of uniquely Northwood way,” Shergold said. “We don’t look at all of the subjects we teach—we look at the ones that are either Northwood-defined or Northwood-different.”
Highlighted offerings include Peak Pathways, Language Lab and dual-enrollment courses.
“What we’re trying to do is showcase the ways in which Northwood’s curriculum is a little different and why that might be appealing to families, and also to allow families to understand what subjects their kids are taking in a little more detail,” Shergold said.
Shergold also highlighted Peak Pathways, Northwood’s approach to language instruction and advanced programs offered in conjunction with Paul Smith’s College.
Northwood’s advanced courses are intended to provide a level of academic rigor comparable to Advanced Placement courses. Some qualify for college credit and receive an additional 0.5 GPA weighting.
“We don’t look at regular APs in the Signature presentation because lots of schools have regular APs, but we have slightly different advanced offerings,” Shergold said.
Students will lead much of the presentation. Faculty members generally introduce each course before students discuss their work and explain how the experience has shaped their learning.
“Teachers are obviously able to present, but we only see those subjects from our viewpoint,” Shergold said. “We don’t know what it’s like to work on a yearlong project independently as a Peak Pathways student, or what it’s like to contact a scientist for STEM Research, or what it’s like to be in the weeds of a Humanities project where you’re kind of lost in the data.”
Shergold said the presentations should include the challenges students encountered, not only their finished work.
“We want to hear about the process because that’s where all the learning takes place,” he said. “The learning comes from the struggle, and if the kids are telling us about their struggle and about where they hit roadblocks, I think that’s a more helpful presentation than just saying how great it is.”
Huskies Fight Cancer
In recent years, Northwood has held Pink the Rink and Pink the Pitch games during Family Weekend to raise money for the FitzPatrick Cancer Center in Plattsburgh. This year, the initiative has been renamed Huskies Fight Cancer as its focus expands from breast cancer to all forms of the disease.
Ms. Leigh Riffle, who has helped organize the event, said Northwood made an initial attempt to hold Pink the Rink approximately four years ago, when all three hockey teams were playing at home during the same weekend.
“The following year, we moved it to where now it occurs over Family Weekend,” Riffle said. “We do it then because all of our teams are here, which is so hard for us to have. This will be the third year we do it in the formality that it has now.”
The Huskies Fight Cancer games will feature purple-themed jerseys. T-shirts will also be sold to students and families, with proceeds benefiting the FitzPatrick Cancer Center. Student sales will begin during Spirit Week, and families will be able to purchase shirts at the games.
“It goes so much farther than just Plattsburgh,” Riffle said. “It reaches families; it reaches the patients. Some of those proceeds get put toward research.”
Riffle said the fundraiser is also intended to teach the Northwood community how small contributions can have a wider effect.
“I think one of the aspects that maybe is overlooked is that we think it’s such a small impact, whereas really the impact is so much larger than just who we are,” she said. “I think that’s part of the goal of this whole fundraiser and weekend—really educating everyone on what we can do and how a little can do so much.”
Conferences
Students have also been preparing for student-led conferences with their families.
“Kids are able to present, either in person or online, about their first month at school, so the families get to have a little insight,” Shergold said.
Families will also have opportunities to meet individually with their students’ teachers.
“It’s the only real opportunity for families and teachers to sit down and talk during the parent-teacher conferences,” Shergold said.
Shergold said the meetings can be especially valuable for new families adjusting to having a student living away from home.
“Seeing what their kids have been up to, seeing how they’ve settled in, seeing where they’re struggling and where they’re thriving in the classroom and outside the classroom is really valuable,” he said.