Our Wildwood, Summer 2018, Volume 43

GIVING VOICE A conversation between community members

Director of Upper School Jenn Spellman & Dylan Vecchione ’17

SPELLMAN: I remember coming into Wildwood and learning about the Habits of Mind and Heart and seeing them in action. The one that was most powerful for me is the Habit of Perspective. Because everything was new to me, I needed to ask people about how and why things were done. It’s a Habit that served me well because it allowed me to get to know and connect with people. What Habit has been the most alive for you this first year in college? VECCHIONE: Since I first learned about the Habits, I also connected the most with the Habit of Perspective and its counterpart within the Multicultural Guidelines, “Approach with a beginner’s mind.” I love how those two complement each other. Going into a new situation, whether that’s college or coming to Wildwood or meeting new people from different backgrounds, it’s useful to be able to approach it with a beginner’s mind and know that their experiences and perspectives are different. VECCHIONE: That’s a great question because what I thought would surprise me—the initial transition to college—ended up being not surprising at all. That’s because Wildwood helped me learn how to develop the skills necessary to transition effectively. So maybe that’s what surprised me at first, how easy the transition was. What ended up surprising me toward the end of the year was the diversity of perspective that you’re able to find at college, and I really loved that. At Wildwood, we focus so heavily on perspective and evidence, so being comfortable with diversity at a large school like the University of Washington was a nice surprise. SPELLMAN: What surprised you most during your first year of college?

Jenn Spellman and Dylan Vecchione ’17 were the new kids at school this year— Jenn as director of Wildwood’s upper school and Dylan as a college freshman at the University of Washington, majoring in physical oceanography and Earth and space sciences. They recently met for the first time and shared how Wildwood welcomed and prepared them for this new phase in their lives.

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