Category: News

by Liz Mantush ’25

On Friday, September 6th, Mr. Martin Mooney was officially Installed as Wyoming Seminary’s 15 Head of School after almost a year and a half of coming to know and love our community. He was surrounded by his peers, friends, family, and students from both the Upper and Lower School campuses. The ceremony was preceded by Mr. Mooney’s favorite way to begin an event, whether it’s graduation or his own installation, a pipe band. As the band played, faculty entered the building in their academic regalia, led by a team of SEM students acting as flag bearers, proudly displaying the array of countries that Wyoming Seminary represents.

Seated on-stage among Mr. Mooney were his colleagues, Anthony Berger, Raymond Cabot, Rev. Charles Carrick, Jay Harvey, Kathryn Mercado, and student speaker Ifechi (Chi) Ebi-Ekweozoh. 

Levi Sprague Fellow, Ifechi (Chi) Ebi-Ekweozoh began the ceremony with a moving speech regarding Mr. Mooney, touching on both the impact he has had on her and the friendship that they have built over the past year. She spoke on her feelings and hopes for SEM’s future, as well as Mr. Mooney’s character. To both Chi and all of Wyoming Seminary, we are “on the right track” as we enter a new era of growth, change, and excitement. As a Levi Sprague, Chi exemplifies the core values of Wyoming Seminary, and the connection that Mr. Mooney has built not only with Ebi-Ekweozoh  but the entire student body is something that brings hope to all parts of our campus.

Over the last year Mooney has made himself a “noticeable and welcoming presence,” Ebi-Ekweozoh said. Whether it’s a handshake, a smile in passing, or a conversation over lunch, Mooney has solidified himself as a kind and approachable face on our campus. His belief that “community must be built” comes  from years of experience in the world of teaching and mentoring young people.

Over the last year, Mr. Mooney has made himself a “noticeable and welcoming presence” Ebi-Ekweozoh said. Whether it’s a handshake, a smile in passing, or a conversation over lunch, Mr. Mooney has solidified himself as a kind and approachable face on our campus. His belief that “community must be built” comes from years of experience in the world of teaching and mentoring young people. 

Earning his undergraduate degree from Dartmouth, following that with a masters from Middlebury College, Mr. Mooney went on to teach English at Peddie and Hill, where he solidified his love for teaching. Before his time at SEM, Mr. Mooney held multiple offices at The Hill School and Peddie, such as the Alumni and College offices.

Mr. Mooney’s experience in both administration and teaching has caused him to have a genuine affinity with students, their lives, goals, and achievements. When speaking to him, he makes it a point to make you feel special, like he’s truly hearing what you have to say. Mr. Mooney truthfully stated that “SEM’s resilience has been tested over the last 5 years” but it’s safe to say that Mr. Mooney’s addition to our school will bring nothing but growth, and our community.

by Finn Ruderman ’25

Just for a second, put yourself in their shoes. You wake up and instead of a daily morning routine, you have to grab your empty five gallon water container—weighing over 40 pounds when full—and set out on your walk to a water reserve roughly five miles away. 

For almost everyone in rural Burkina Faso, this is their everyday lives. There is no running water, and the water obtained from these daily treks is almost always dirty and unsafe to drink. This, as you can probably imagine, causes a lot of problems for those in this situation. These problems are exactly what those involved in the recent Walk For Water conducted here at Sem sought to resolve.

For the past couple of years, Sem has partnered with the Barka Foundation, an organization dedicated to improving the lives of those without access to clean water in Burkina Faso through the implementation of water wells in different villages throughout the eastern part of the country. For this past walk, all of the funds generated went directly to the new well-building project in the village Fada-N’gourma. 

The walk, organized by the Upper and Lower Schools’ Environmental Clubs and myself, was a fully in person event for the first time since Sem has started doing them. 57 Sem students, faculty, and friends, along with five dogs, came together on April 21st to walk from back campus, to Kirby Park, and back for a total of around three miles all whilst carrying jugs and containers of water in an effort to simulate, even in a very small way, the journey that the residents of Fada need to make daily to get their water.

In total, the walk managed to raise over $2,000, roughly one-fifth of the total cost of the well—a fairly significant amount. As always, one of the main purposes of the Walk For Water, aside from raising money, is to call attention to certain aspects of life (in this case, having access to clean/fresh water) which you may unconsciously take for granted, all while others who go without are struggling.

For all those who helped in any way, I offer you a sincere thank you.  And to those who missed it this year, the Walk for Water will be an annual event, so there will be more opportunities to come.

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.