Every few weeks Taft's Communications Department will curate a collection of "good-to-know" stories, videos, and updates and package it into a Taft in 10 digital newsletter. The first issue of the year follows, and is largely dedicated to helping you get to know a bit more about life at Taft.
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Happy New Year from Head of School Peter Becker '95
Moving Forward with Intention
The start of each new school year is always a busy and exciting time. This year, things looked a little different; it’s all part of the work we’ve been doing to develop a new strategic plan for our school and community. Hear more from Mr. Becker in the video below, then read about Convocation 2025.
Convocation 2025
Convocation is a Taft tradition. It is time to gather as a community; it’s a welcome and a celebration. It marks the formal opening of the school year and sets the tone for all that is to come.
In his 2025 Convocation address, Mr. Becker spoke of Taft’s long history (this is Taft’s 136th school year), and of a vision for the future that is now taking shape. It will be shared with the extended Taft community in the coming weeks through our new strategic plan.
In Owen Eastwood’s book, Belonging, he writes that “long standing institutions and teams have to write their own story today, one that takes their history seriously (the glorious parts and the ugly parts), one that takes their present seriously, and one that looks ahead to the story the team or institution wants to be true about itself in the future, and then as new people join the group, they are invited into the full story–past, present, and future–as co-creators of the story,” Mr. Becker shared. “What I find amazing about the positive evolution of Taft over these many years is that we don’t have to go back and ask Mr. Taft for permission to make positive change. He started the school, but it’s our responsibility, collectively, to decide what we want Taft’s present and future to be–to decide which parts of our history we want to hold on to and to allow to inform how we do school today and which parts we want to name and say that were not okay then and we do not want it to continue today.”
The point of orientation—our anchor— as we move forward with intention, Mr. Becker explained, will be Taft’s Core Values and Portrait of a Learner. Each will be detailed anew in the strategic plan. Serving generously (the essence of the school’s founding motto) will remain a core value and guiding principle, and was at the heart of Mr. Becker’s charge to the community as he opened the new school year.
“We know that our capacity for service is built with authentic relationships in a diverse and pluralistic community, a commitment to care for ourselves and others, and the demonstration of compassion, healthy habits, and responsibility for our wellbeing and the wellbeing of our neighbors,” Mr. Becker said. “I hope we all hear in unequivocal terms that at the very center of Taft is a commitment to learning–first and foremost, to developing a rigorous life of the mind–and also learning to live well together; a commitment to care for one another, to demonstrate compassion and shared responsibility for this diverse and pluralistic community as preparation for going out into the world.”
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Week One for the Win!
We’re Off and Running!
Our first week of school is in the books, and it was a busy one! Students enjoyed a range of activites and opportunities to get to know Taft and each other, from “color team” gatherings, pre-season athletics and theater try-outs, practices and auditions, and grade-level trips, to Convocation, the start of classes, and community meals. Take a look!
There are many ways to stay on top of all things Taft in between newsletters:
Fantastic Photos! Taft is fortunate to have a talented photography team on campus, led by career professional photographer Robert "Bob" Falcetti. Mr. Falcetti and his team work to capture candid, "slice of life" moments across campus, from athletic events and theater productions to classroom experiences and downtime around the pond, in the dining hall, and across our stunning campus. Photos are usually available to the community within a few days of each event. You'll find them at TaftPhotos.com
We’re Super Social! Our Communications team maintains "official” school Instagram and Facebook accounts. We're @TaftSchool on Instagram and @TheTaftSchool on Facebook. @ArtsatTaft is also under the Comms team purview, and shines a spotlight on the incredible talent that fills our community. Each of those accounts is active, informative, and brimming with fantastic content.
We also maintain accounts dedicated solely to athletics on the same platforms; that handle is @taftrhinos. Many individual teams, clubs, and student organizations also have Instagram accounts—they are managed and exist independently of the official work we do as a school.
Don't use social media but want to stay informed? Check out the social media mash-up page on our website.
All the News That’s Fit to Print: Ok, we took that from the New York Times, but we do love to write about our active, fascinating, and accomplished students and alumni. We often share their stories in the news section of our website. You'll find it on our home page at TaftSchool.org. A historical catalog of student and alumni stories lives in the Taft Voices section of our website.
GO BIG RED! Interscholastic competitions typically take place on Wednesday and Saturday afternoons. We love it when families cheer our teams on in person, but that simply is not possible for everyone. When it is logistically feasible, games are live-streamed here so you can cheer your Rhinos on from afar. You can also find athletics schedules, scores, team rosters, athletics news and more on Taft's athletics website and social media channels.
Creativity Abounds! Taft mounts three theater productions each year, plays or musicals in the fall and spring in Bingham Auditorium, and a winter play in the Woodward "Black Box" Theater. Gallery shows, dance performances, concerts and more fill our calendar throughout the year. Events are usually featured in the news section of our website, and both the main Taft School social media accounts, and @ArtsatTaft. You can access the Arts calendar here.
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Keeping Up With Your Taftie
Staying Connected
When You Just Want to Hear Their Voice
Taft students are allowed to have cell phones on campus, though they may NOT use them during the academic day, that's from 7:30 am to 2:45 pm. Service may be spotty with some carriers and in some locations on campus. It is important that you know your child's full schedule—including afternoon activities and study halls—and call at times outside of their daily commitments.
Don't Forget to Write!
Who doesn't love mail from home? The school post office is located just under the dining halls on the lower floor of Mortara. Each student is assigned a PO box for regular mail. They can also receive packages in the same location. Mail comes daily except Sundays and holidays. The post office is open from 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday, and from 8:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. on Saturday. The school bookstore sells stamps. Send your student's mail to: First Name, Last Name, The Taft School, 110 Woodbury Road, Watertown, CT, 06795.
Special Occasion? We've Got You Covered!
Taft Dining Services will make a birthday cake for your child's special day. Cakes are $25, and need to be ordered at least 48 hours in advance; they also offer cupcakes in a variety of flavors. Not into cake? How about a pizza party? (Or both!) Find details about what’s available here, then email your order to taftdining@taftschool.org. Everything you need to know is on Taft Dining's Campus Dish web page, including information about menus, nutrition, sustainable sourcing, and more.
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We're Here for You
Supporting You and Your Taftie
The Taft community is built on connections. Each member of our community wears many hats and fills a variety of roles, all of them equally vital. Often, parents aren't sure exactly who to connect with about certain issues. We've got you covered.
Assistant Head of School for Student Life Jeremy LaCasse: If you think that sounds like a big title, you're right. Mr. LaCasse oversees student life outside the classroom. That's everything from life in the dorms, co-curricular programming, service activities, and meals, to school meetings and assemblies, clubs, student digital life, discipline systems, the advisor program, and much, much more. Huge. In this role, he works very closely with the student life and residential life teams.
Dean of Students Lindsay Leal: Ms. Leal is someone every student seems to get to know and value as a trusted adult in our community. You'll find her in the Office of Student Life (OSL), which takes care of things like travel permissions and transportation, our conduct system, and the [very full!] school social calendar. Questions? Usually it is the Office of Student Life that has the answer. Associate Dean of Students Ozzie Parente is deeply connected and dedicated to Taft students, and Coordinator Courtney Shanley keeps things fun, and running like clockwork.
Director of Residential Life Anastasia “Tessie” Salatas: For most of our new students, dorm life is a new phenomenon. It comes with all kinds of considerations, and parents are bound to have questions. Ms. Salatas is a tremendous resource, as are our "dorm parents"—faculty members who live in the dorms—and "dorm monitors"—student leaders intentionally selected for these important peer support positions. You can learn more about Ms. Salatas and each of these res life roles here.
Academic Dean Lisa Parente: Ms. Parente works with both students and faculty to ensure institutional and individual success. Working closely with Registrar Jackie Maloney, Ms. Parente builds a truly massive and meaningful academic schedule that accommodates the needs of almost 600 students taking more than 200 different classes. Wow!
Class Deans: Each grade is assigned two Class Deans—faculty members who get to know each student in their assigned grade exceptionally well. Class Deans are available to talk to, guide, and support students individually as they navigate their journey at Taft. Class Deans also help organize and create group bonding activities for their class.
2025-26 Class Deans
Advisors: Each new student is assigned a temporary advisor at the start of the school year. After three weeks, students may switch to a new advisor. Advisors are considered an extra faculty touchpoint for each student.
Student Mentors: Returning students serve as student mentors for new students, helping them navigate Taft's 226-acre campus and myriad hallways and passageways, learn about Taftisms and community culture, answer student life questions, and be a familiar and friendly face in what can feel like a very big crowd during the first few weeks of school.
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The Life of the Mind
Exceptional Faculty
Academics lie at the heart of the Taft School mission. A Taft education is built on academic rigor, driven by intellectual curiosity, and supported by an ever-evolving and innovative curriculum—a curriculum delivered by passionate, compassionate, and exceptional faculty whose experience and accomplishments extend well beyond the classroom: video production students learn from an Emmy-winning director and producer; Global Studies and Service scholars may be mentored by a teacher who, as an educator in South Africa, built a democracy training curriculum connecting student service projects with local NGOs; several of our science teachers have traveled to the Amazon rainforest to work with a group of indigenous people whose understanding of ecosystem adaptation allows them to survive. In short, our faculty not only bring a world of academic experience to our classrooms, they bring their experience in the world. Find Taft's full faculty and staff directory, which contains bios, phone numbers, and live email links, here.
Meet the Arts Team
Our English Department Faculty
History and Global Studies & Service Department
Mathematics
The Science Team
World Language Teachers
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We’re Here for What Comes Next
College Counseling
This is one of the busiest times of year for the professionals in the College Counseling Office, as Tafties consider all they learned during college visits over the summer and seniors begin looking at application deadlines. It can all seem daunting. Taft’s College Counseling team, in partnership with the Eastern Independent Secondary School Counseling Admission Personnel (EISSCAP) group, is here to help. On September 25th they’re offering a special webinar featuring Jeff Selingo, bestselling author and leading authority on higher education. He’ll talk about what discovered while writing his newest book, Dream School, releasing next week.
Selingo is an award-winning journalist with more than two decades of experience researching college admissions and the future of higher education, and former editor of The Chronicle of Higher Education. His last book, Who Gets In and Why, explores the complex factors that influence college admissions decisions today. Dream School builds on his prior work by offering a fresh, hopeful perspective focused on helping students find the right college fit—one that aligns with their individual goals, talents, and values. In all of his work, Selingo’s goal is to empower families to approach the college process with clarity and confidence.
The September 25th webinar begins at 7 pm ET. Please register using the button below. The passcode for the event is 458402.
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Beyond the Classroom
Taft’s Afternoon Program
Taft students are required to participate in an afternoon activity, or “ex,” in each of three seasons: fall, winter, and spring. Some students opt to play team sports, while others commit to service-oriented programs, experiential learning, or opportunities in the arts. The wide range of offerings—and the requirement that all Taft students participate in activities that enrich their experience outside of the classroom—effectively reflects Taft’s founding mission to educate the whole student, and the important role collaboration plays in fostering and promoting a strong sense of community.
Andy Dunn is the Director of Athletics and the Afternoon Program. You'll hear from him frequently with updates on student achievements on the field, on stage, and on the courts. The Afternoon Program is vital to our school community, to student growth, achievement, and balance, and through our service work, to the greater Watertown community. Mr. Dunn keeps the Afternoon Program humming.
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Global Understandings
Bringing the World to Taft
What does it mean to be human? It is an essential and existential question with multi-faceted answers. Those answers may be broad, scientific, and rooted in anatomy, genetics, and other biological traits. They may be borne of cultural perspectives, or moral and spiritual beliefs and understandings. They may be philosophical and deeply personal, informed in part by individual and communal human experiences.
Our 2025-26 Speaker Series will allow Taft students to consider what it means to be human from a range of perspectives. Speakers will help shape and guide conversations by sharing their unique insights and experiences. They will also tackle other questions this inquiry elicits: How do the ways we tell our stories shape (or deform) our humanity? How do we understand our humanity in a world of AI and other technological advances? What do our bodies tell us about our humanity? What does it mean to be human amidst physical, ethnic, intellectual, and social diversity? How do our different intellectual disciplines reflect our humanity?
Currently, we have invited five speakers to visit Taft during the 2025-26 academic year. They are:
Daniel Nayeri, September 30: Daniel Nayeri was born in Iran and spent some years as a refugee before immigrating to Oklahoma with his family at the age of seven. Nayeri shares memories of his life and a refugee and immigrant (and that of his family’s fascinating multi-generation history) in Everything Sad is Untrue (A True Story), winner of the Michael L. Printz Award, the Christopher Medal, the Middle Eastern Book Award, and Taft’s 2025 all-school summer read.
Nayeri will be in residence at Taft for several days. In addition to addressing the full school community, he will meet with lower-mid English classes for a “how to tell your story” workshop. He will also meet with Human Geography classes to talk about immigration, and with students involved in Taft publications to talk about the publishing industry.
Max Stossel, October 21: Max Stossel is an award-winning artist, and the founder of Social Awakening, an organization dedicated to helping young people survive and thrive in the modern world. Before working in this field, Max was a media strategist, crafting digital identities and voices for big brands; he later worked in-house at a social media agency. He has spent the past 10 years speaking with over a million students, parents, and educators around the world about social media's impact on our lives and creating resources to help manage that impact. He will address the entire school and then stay on campus for small group gatherings and a Zoom conversation with current Taft parents. (Details to follow.)
Pilobolus, January 27: Since 1971, Pilobolus has “tested the limits of human physicality to explore the beauty and the power of connected bodies.” They bring their art to audiences across the globe, and through collaborations with some of “the greatest influencers, thinkers, and creators in the world. They bring decades of expertise telling stories with the human form to show diverse communities, brands, and organizations how to maximize group creativity, solve problems, create surprise, and generate joy through the power of nonverbal communication.”
Pilobolus will join us to perform for the full community, then lead student workshops throughout the afternoon.
Clint Smith, February 24: Clint Smith is a New York Times bestselling author. His book, How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America, won the National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction, the Hillman Prize for Book Journalism, the Stowe Prize, the Dayton Literary Peace Prize, and was selected by the New York Times as one of the 10 Best Books of 2021. He is also the author of two books of poetry—Above Ground and Counting Descent. He is currently a staff writer at The Atlantic and host of the YouTube series Crash Course Black American History.
Smith will talk with students and faculty about how the way we tell our stories shapes (or deforms) our humanity.
Jennifer Wallace, April 21: Jennifer Breheny Wallace is an award-winning journalist and bestselling author whose work explores the power of mattering in our everyday lives. Through research and storytelling, Wallace examines the hidden forces shaping modern life, from the crisis of meaning in achievement culture to the essential role of mattering in personal, workplace, and societal health. She is the founder of The Mattering Institute, whose mission is to create cultures of mattering in workplaces and communities, and co-founder of The Mattering Movement, a nonprofit whose mission is to create cultures of mattering in schools and educational spaces.
Wallace’s first book, Never Enough: When Achievement Culture Becomes Toxic — And What We Can Do About It, was a New York Times bestseller. Mattering: The Secret to a Life of Deep Connection and Purpose will be published in 2026.
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Each school year, the Taft community engages with a guiding question through an all-school read, community conversations, morning meetings, work by faculty in and outside our classrooms, and through our outside speaker series. We expect series speakers to, among other things:
• Catalyze transformative conversations around our guiding question
• Offer ideas and information that help us become a community of lifelong learners, thoughtful citizens, and caring people
• Offer diverse and varied perspectives on politics, society, and ideas
• Shape the imaginations of our students so that they begin to envision possibilities for growth and change personally, locally, and even globally
Faculty and student leaders play a crucial role in engaging with the ideas presented by our speakers throughout the school year. With each major speaker, we will offer opportunities for students and faculty to meet in smaller groups for conversation. We will also provide follow-up questions for discussion among faculty and students at sit-down meals, and, at times, for discussion among advising groups, afternoon activity groups, or other groups of students.
Photos courtesy danielnayeri.com, wordsthatmove.com, pilobolus.org, clintsmithiii.com, jenniferbwallace.com
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Celebrating Excellence
Endowed Teaching Chairs
Celebrating the work of our exceptional faculty is critical to who we are as a school and as a community. One of the many ways Taft acknowledges and supports faculty excellence is by awarding endowed teaching chairs. Head of School Peter Becker ’95 announced ten new honorees during a ceremony at the start of the school year. Congratulations to: Thomas Antonucci, The Independence Foundation Chair II; Amanda Benedict, The Bradford C. Laube '51 Senior Master Chair; Dana Bertuglia, The Edwin C. Douglas Chair; Eileen Bouffard '98, The William E. Sullivan Chair; Robert Campbell '76, The John B. Small Chair, Jen Chandler, The Independence Foundation Chair I; Helena Fifer, The van Beuren Family Chair; Brianne Foley, The Littlejohn Family Chair; Caitlin Hincker, The Holcombe T. Green Chair of English; and F. Michael McAloon, The Wold Family Chair in Environmental Studies and Stewardship.
They join current chairholders Peter Becker '95, The Frances L. and E. Philip Snyder Jr. '38 Head of School’s Chair; Erin Duffy, The Parish Family Chair; Shannon Guidotti, The Henry L. Hillman Chair; Michael Hoffman '97, The John W. Dayton '64 Family Chair; Jack Kenerson '82, The Robert Congdon Memorial Chair of History; James J. Lehner, The Leonard R. Sargent Chair; Brian Norledge, The Mary and Robert Stott Chair; Sean Padgett, The Library Science Chair; Alvin I. Reiff, Jr. '80, The Holcombe T. Green Chair of Mathematics; Mark Traina, The Donald Oscarson '47 Master Chair; and Jingci Wei, The Kathryn Wasserman Davis Chair of Distinguished Teaching.
Read more, including award criteria for each chair here.
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Save the Date!
(And Meet the Team That Makes it Happen...)
There will be many opportunities for parents, families and friends to join us on campus and in the community throughout the year. Here's a look at what we have on the calendar so far:
Taft Today & Fall Family Weekend, October 24 & 25
This annual event is always a fun time for students, families, and friends.
Friday features a series of programs throughout the day, all curated for new and returning families alike. Hear from faculty, students, and school leaders as they invite you take a peek "under the hood" and see what makes Taft go.
Catch the Big Red spirit Friday evening when the girls’ varsity soccer team takes on Kent under the lights on MacMullen Field, or join the community in Bingham Auditorium for the fall musical, Pippin. Everyone is invited to enjoy a reception, dinner, and family-friendly activities.
Saturday offers more opportunities for you to experience Taft—with open classes, musical performances, affinity gatherings, athletics, community meals, and more.
Watch your email, the full weekend schedule and registration week will be coming your way soon!
Other Events and Gatherings
Find additional details and registration information for each of the gatherings here.
Taft is known for hosting pretty incredible events, both on and off campus, that bring our community together in fun, creative, and meaningful ways. We hope you'll attend the events listed above, and those we add to the schedule throughout the year. How does it all happen? Largely through the hard work of the Alumni & Development team, a group of nearly 20 hardworking and passionate professionals. You can meet them here, and on campus when you come! Their offices are at 25 The Green.
Taft's school calendar is both full and dynamic. To keep up with current and upcoming school events, bookmark and visit the calendar page of our website regularly.
We've used this edition of the Taft in 10 digital newsletter to highlight information that answers some of the most common questions parents raise. But there is so much more to know! Fortunately, we've tucked it all into one easy-to-access page on the Taft School website. You'll find information about the health center, laundry services, Business Office contacts and services, the Parents' Fund, the student handbook (be sure to read it!), upcoming events, and much, much more; it's all right here on our parents' page.