Family Weekend Goes Virtual
By Otto Do, Leela Gandhi, Jessica Huang, Amy Lum and Henry Yao
The Academy hosted Family Weekend virtually this past week from Wednesday to Saturday. Unlike past years when parents visited campus, The Academy hosted a variety of Zoom webinars staggered throughout the week to simulate an interactive experience. Webinars were hosted at different times throughout the day in the interest of families in different time zones.
On Wednesday, Principal Rawson kicked off Family Weekend with an assembly, followed by a student health forum and academic forum. Parents had opportunities to attend affinity group, anti-racist work and Religious and Spiritual Services webinars on Thursday. On Friday, Emiliana Vegas P’19, ’21, spoke about COVID-19’s impact on educational opportunities at Assembly. On the final day of Family Week, the College Counseling Office and the deans held separate forums. Parents were encouraged to schedule individual meetings.
Associate Director of Alumni and Family Relations Ally Goddard elaborated upon the schedule’s offerings. “We have spread events across several days, taking into consideration varied time zones of Exeter families,” Goddard said.
The Academy also offered new sessions on athletics, academics, and extracurriculars to connect parents and compensate for parents’ absence from on-campus activities. Although all events for family weekend were hosted online, Goddard and Assembly coordinator Alex Myers noted that the virtual platform allowed more parents to participate. “[Assembly will] look different, but more families should be able to attend, which is a plus,” Myers said.
After Friday’s assembly, various affinity coordinators hosted virtual parent gatherings to facilitate questions and offer intra-affinity bonding.
International Student Coordinator Jennifer Smith led the international student affinity group. According to Smith, the “Zoom drop-in session for international families is to say hello, ask questions [and] touch base.” History Instructor Hannah Lim, Chinese Instructor Ning Zhou and Spanish Instructor Diego Ardura-Faraj helped facilitate questions.
Asian Student Coordinator Wei-Ling Woo reflected on the Asian parents’ affinity event. “It went well, and that I hope we will hold more affinity spaces for parents in the future, as I see a strong desire within the parents to connect,” she said.
Director of Equity and Inclusion Stephanie Bramlett and Multicultural Affairs Intern Danique Montique hosted the Black and African American parents’ event.
Modern Languages Instructor Vivianna Santos and Associate Director of Admissions and Director of Multicultural Affairs Nahin Jorgge hosted the Latinx affinity parents’ event. “We spoke with parents from New York, Brazil, Mexico, Florida and Connecticut,” Santos said. “They were happy to hear about the work that La Alianza Latina is doing, and they wanted to see in what ways their children could continue to practice, study and preserve Spanish... Often parents feel that it is important to have a connection to one’s culture especially when the predominant school culture is different from our home culture.”
LGBTQ+ Student Coordinator Joanne Lembo noted that the virtual LGBTQ+ parent event allowed more parents than usual to participate. “I also think that the addition of the affinity groups was a brilliant idea. The families who joined the LGBTQA+ group really appreciated meeting the other families and the supportive faculty,” Lembo said.
Religious Service Coordinator Bonnie-Jeanne Casey also hosted various webinars on the Academy’s different religious offerings. “The Zoom connections are nice but they are not the same,” Casey said.
In past years, the Dance and Theatre Department has invited parents to classes and rehearsals. “This year, video and photos will be provided to families of activities from this term with a webinar to facilitate questions,” Dance Department Interim Director Amberlee Darling said.
Lisa Burke P’21 was grateful for having the opportunity to attach “faces and voices to the names” she has seen in emails. “This is especially helpful since [my daughter] Caitlin has been remote learning this fall term and we did not have the opportunity to physically get on campus yet for this school year,” Burke said.
Burke added that the hosted events “help[ed] remote students and parents get a flavor of what to expect when returning to campus after the winter break.”
Manjit Varwandkar P’24 appreciated the online programming. “The online format gave us a lot of flexibility and the disruption to my work was quite minimal. The ability to record these sessions only adds to the flexibility. In the future, if possible, transcripts of the sessions might also be useful,” M. Varwandkar said.
Although recordings were offered, some parents of students in distant time zones believed that the scheduling was not completely equitable. Kiyomi Nozawa Edwards P’24 was unable to attend Wednesday events due to time zone conflicts. However, Edwards acknowledged that it was impossible to accomodate all time zones.
Edwards felt that, due to circumstances beyond the Academy’s control, this year’s Family Week was less engaging than previous years. “I think parents miss out, especially for parents with actually really being on campus, having that experience, eating in the dining halls, being there on campus during the year made me feel so much more at peace with knowing Keona [her child] was there and…what it all felt like, just puts a parent’s mind at ease, cause you’ve experienced it now…I think for a parent to experience that and then feel good about that’s where their kid is,” Edwards said.
Varwandkar concluded that he was grateful to get an insight into campus life. “[I was] comforted to see how many of the activities are being ‘reimagined’ for the new reality,” he said. “As I listened in, it became clear to me how dramatically things have changed thanks to the pandemic.”