Wyoming Seminary Welcomes Dance Theater of Wilkes-Barre

by Grace Rushmer ’26

On Saturday, December 16th, The Kirby Center for the Creative Arts welcomed the Dance Theater of Wilkes-Barre to the stage for their annual production of the Nutcracker.

This traditional Christmas ballet demonstrates the magic of the holiday season as it follows Clara through her dreams of frolicking sweets and an array of dances that could be seen in many countries. The classical repertoire is performed by professionals and students alike, all throughout the world. This year, this production hosted many of Wyoming Seminary’s current students and alumni including Robert Zaloga ‘20  and Lucy Lew ‘24.

The studio’s Nutcracker and numerous other shows allow opportunities for young dancers as well as more advanced students to perform in front of an audience. “Having the opportunity to dance on the KCCA stage was such an incredible experience,” says Lew. Here at Sem, the performing arts department works incredibly hard behind the scenes of every performance.

With the help of Floyd Bussie, Wyoming Seminary Technical Director, the Nutcracker production was brought to life. “I am so thankful for all of the help we had here at Sem, especially from Mr. Bussie for all of his help with lighting and sound,” remarks Lew.

The arts are an extremely important part of life at Sem, and it is so amazing to see such a wonderful audience outcome coming to support this production. Putting on a dance show requires countless hours of rehearsals, costuming and logistical planning. The dedication and hard work of the staff and dancers at the Dance Theater of Wilkes-Barre didn’t go unnoticed. Dancing on the KCCA stage allowed this company to put on their production as well as demonstrate how important it is to celebrate the performing arts, especially during the holiday season.

Security Measures Keep Us All Safe

by Brady Wood ’24

Wyoming Seminary Upper School has a recurring issue with students not having fobs and student cars not being registered to the school. The security office works very hard to keep all of the students and faculty members safe, students not having fobs is not only putting themselves in more danger. It puts students in danger because if there is ever a threat outside on campus and students seek for shelter, they will not get in without a fob. An emergency can be anything from weather, chemical spill, suspicious individuals and armed individuals.

Recently many public schools around the area have been getting bomb threats, luckily none came to Wyoming Seminary but security expresses that everyone knows the procedure just in case but students will be locked out of buildings without a fob.

The head of security and former state trooper Matthew Grebeck puts in a lot of work for the safety of faculty and students, he said, “Fobs also dictate who is allowed to access certain buildings through authorization.”

Fobs are not only for students to be able to enter the buildings but for people to not enter the building. If you ever see a suspicious person on campus and they try to act as if they belong in a building, don’t let them in! They can cause great danger to everyone in that specific building, thankfully due to the Security team, people are seen walking onto campus before potentially trying to do something they shouldn’t.

Another occurring issue for the security at Wyoming Seminary is day students registering their cars. Grebeck said, “vehicles parked on campus property need to be registered so the security department can identify  who the vehicle belongs to in case of an emergency.”

An emergency in this case would be somebody illegally parked, car broken into and damage to their vehicle. If there is not a sticker on the back of an illegally parked vehicle that says Wyoming Seminary, security will not know that they can save a student from getting their car towed.

New Improvements Make Sem Shine

by Evan Coates ’24

Improvements to campus have been going on since the start of school. So far, they have included the exterior and interior repainting of different buildings and various landscaping upgrades. Some of the more routine work around the 25 acre campus ranged from the cutting of lawns, making and laying new mulch, and pruning trees, all the way to seeing up every single on campus event, both athletic and social.

The amount of time and work that goes into these tasks is remarkable and should be appreciated by the entire community, as many on campus events would never be possible without the maintenance team led by Janet Murray, Director of Facilities Operations. 

One of the more current project on campus was the repainting of the Sprague Hall basement and offices. This brought a refreshed and updated look to the building, making it a more pleasant experience to spend time there for both faculty and students.

These are just some of the improvements done during the school year, while the vast majority of the work to residential houses, school buildings, and dorms were completed over the summer.

Sem residents were happy when they returned from summer break to find common spaces and residential spaces fitted with multiple upgrades. These included, but are not limited to; a new roof for the Pettibone Dickson Darte Center , new flooring and painting for the 3rd floor of Swetland Hall, along with new furniture for the 3rd and 4th floors, 45 new windows, trims, trims, surface sills, and painting in Nesbitt Hall, the expansion of the athletic training center, and repairs to the tennis court. The combination of these projects adds to the visual aspect of Sem’s sophistication and appeal as a day and boarding school. Looking into the future, the maintenance team is considering seeking board approval for pool renovations, more roof replacements, new HVAC chiller for Sprague Hall, and possibly more.