Athlete
Ryan
Ryan's
Story
"Chadwick is a very self-motivated environment. There’s so much greenery on campus. It’s not a concrete jungle. The smaller student body here allows for a more personal connection with teachers. It’s a lot of hands-on learning instead of reading a textbook. That helps you understand, rather than just know things. When you understand it, you can work with it and expand the knowledge on your own.
My mom was an Olympic swimmer. I started swimming in 4th grade. I also played baseball, basketball and soccer. With swimming, you bond through the horrible sets you have to endure. It develops relationships I don’t think you can get anywhere else. We train every day except Sunday, with doubles certain days. My sister and I will both use swimming to get into college. I love 3D animation and modeling. I want to go into video game design.
I’ve been at Chadwick since sixth grade. I was really reluctant to come here at first. Now that I’m here, I’m glad they did that. I've learned that the letter grade is not what it’s about. It’s about understanding. As long as you have the will to understand and the desire, you’ll have a way to find out if it works. You’ll figure it out."
Tom Goodspeed
On Ryan
"Ryan is a deep thinker. He’s the type of person who doesn’t give up until he feels he understands what’s going on. He works really hard. He appreciates understanding. I relate that to why he’s a good swimmer. It takes that kind of doggedness to go back and forth in the pool and do the best you can — to be so singularly focused to get it done. You wouldn’t know about his ranking by talking to him. He doesn’t brag and is always trying to get better.
At the Middle School, we’re very supportive of students doing sports outside of school. We know they have goals and are striving and achieving. That’s what makes a good Chadwick student. Science is very inquiry- and project-based learning. That’s something Ryan appreciates — being able to tinker. Tinker is a great word for Middle School science. They play. They design. They think and process and apply in whatever we’re doing. We try to put it in their hands and make it as experiential as possible.
We do a buoyancy project, designing and building model boats to explore buoyancy and how water lines are calculated on ships. They make predictions, float their boats and see how well they do. For the final project, they explore both sides of an environmental issue and come to a position and defend it. They explore a related bill and take meaningful action by writing a congressman, a local committee or federal official. They present the issue to their families. They try to persuade an action to help the cause."