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MIDDLE SCHOOL LIFE

Our program is designed to make students feel safe, supported, and engaged.

Life at The Ethel Walker Middle School is rooted in community — built in and out of the classroom.

Whether waking up on campus or arriving at school at 7:30 a.m. to enjoy breakfast with friends before the first class of the day, Walker’s Middle School students’ days are filled with activities that are both developmental and fun.

The goal of Walker’s student life program is to make students feel safe, supported, and engaged. There are a variety that students engage in the life of the school and with each other, from inclusive lunch options in the dining hall to weekend activities that serve all Middle School students.

Our Middle School student life program pays special attention to the unique developmental needs of young teen-aged girls, helping them balance a growing desire for independence with the necessity of adult involvement and supervision.

Middle School Leadership

Every girl is a leader and how she leads should be authentic to who she is and how she engages with the world around her. Here, leadership sometimes happens explicitly, such as when a girl holds an office or is captain of a team. Other times, it’s in less traditional ways such as when a student offers guidance to a classmate when she shares a skill that she has mastered or when she models positive ways to influence her peers. The Ethel Walker Middle School is committed to developing leaders that will act with confidence, courage, conviction, and integrity.

Fab Five

The Middle School student government consists of five leadership roles: president, vice president, secretary, head of community partnerships, and beginning in 2020, a sixth grade representative. These student leaders, or the Fab Five, are elected by the Middle School student body and work together to promote school unity and spirit, while also listening to and advocating for Middle School student needs. The Fab Five works closely with the Head of Middle School on topics concerning both the Middle School day and boarding communities.

Leadership Workshop Series

Middle School student leaders have the opportunity to participate in a series of Leadership Workshops designed to guide every girl in the discovery of her leadership abilities and style. Each Middle School Leadership Workshop session focuses on one of the Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership created by James M. Kouzes and Barry Z. Posner:

  1. Model the Way
  2. Inspire a Shared Vision
  3. Challenge the Process
  4. Enable Others to Act
  5. Encourage the Heart

The Middle School Leadership Workshops take place on five Sundays throughout the school year and students who successfully complete the program receive a certificate of completion. This workshop is taught by the Head of Middle School Isabel Ceballos, and the Director of Social Justice and Inclusion Elisa Del Valle.

Middle School Fav 5
Middle School Student Leadership

Student Clubs

The Ethel Walker Middle School has a number of student-organized clubs. Students who have particular areas of interest can create new clubs by partnering with an interested faculty advisor and setting up regular meetings and activities. Clubs are approved by the Head of the Middle School and they meet during assigned club blocks during the academic day. The club schedule is published in the student life calendar. New offerings may be added every school year.

The Middle School Garden Club promotes gardening as a hobby and maintains the Middle School garden. During the off-season, the Garden Club learns about plants, engages in gardening-related crafts, and experiments with indoor growing techniques, from pots of soil to simple hydroponics.

Faculty Advisor: Dr. Christopher Semk

Origami Club was founded in 2019 by two eighth grade students with a passion for origami that they wanted to share with their peers. Students gather each week to practice new origami patterns and to develop their skills, sharing techniques and learning from each other.

Faculty Advisor: Noel Grisanti

Math Olympiads Club is designed to generate enthusiasm, foster creativity, and strengthen intuition in mathematical problem solving. Girls challenge themselves by taking the five monthly tests independently and work together to review their solutions, creating a low-pressure collectivist environment.

Faculty Advisor: Julie Greshin

The Middle School Yoga and Dance Club was started by eighth grade students with the goal of trying out different yoga, dance, and fitness routines. Members enjoy moving together and the classes are led by all of the members of the group who occasionally bring in sweet treats to enjoy together.

Faculty Advisor: Cheri Soule

Middle School Garden Club
Middle School Dining

Not Just a Place to Break Bread

Every Tuesday, lunch is much more than a meal. It’s a time for the Middle School community to gather in advisory groups to catch up on all the latest news, plan for the upcoming week, and listen to Middle School Fab Five leaders share announcements about birthdays, awards, or shoutouts for a job well done. Every Tuesday students connect here — with each other and with faculty.

Students in the Middle School may eat three meals a day in Abra’s Dining Hall, whether they are boarding or day students. Meals are well-balanced with plenty of healthy and comfort selections on the menu, while catering to everyone’s personal dietary needs.

Explore the Menu

After School Program

Middle School students are invited to stay on campus after school to participate in a variety of different programs. Students can join our interscholastic Debate and Robotics teams, Middle School Orchestra, or spend time in the Bell Library to manage schoolwork or meet with peer tutors. Some students spend this period of time competing at the JV or varsity level of sports or taking riding lessons. After school programs take place Monday through Friday beginning at the end of the school day through 5:30 p.m. Once dinner is open in Abra’s at 5:30 p.m., students are welcome to enjoy dinner with friends before day students are picked up by 6:00 p.m. At 6:30 p.m., boarding Middle School students return to the dorms with dorm faculty for evening activities.

Walker’s debate team began in 2014 when the Connecticut Middle School Debate League was formed. The team competes against other Middle School teams in CT and nearby states using a parliamentary-style with three students on each team. Students complete their own research and prepare arguments for both the proposition and opposition sides of each debate. Club meetings are spent practicing debate skills, preparing speeches, asking and answering questions, practicing public speaking and command of the floor, weighing arguments, and much more. Students gain skills in thinking quickly, recalling facts, arguing effectively, taking notes, and listening to the other side in order to refute their arguments. The tournaments are all-day affairs with each team debating three times. The interest in the Debate Team has grown to now include two sections: Open and Novice. Each year there are three tournaments and one scrimmage with parents participating as judges for the tournaments.

The Middle School Orchestra is for all musicians who wish to deepen their expressive and technical skills, share their talents and play together by delving into the joy of making music. Each year we have a new group of musicians, including strings, woodwinds, brass, and percussion, so do not hold back on sharing your talent. Bring your instrument and enjoy yourself while remembering why the word “play” is used when talking about playing an instrument. Find the fun, honor the discipline, and shape the musical sound on campus.

Middle school students explore solutions to engineering based problems by incorporating team work, creativity, and cooperative learning with their peers and mentors by participation in Walker’s Robotics program. Students build their confidence, get hands on experience in many aspects of design and manufacturing of a robot, and develop strong problem solving skills as a member of the team.

Walker’s Robotics team, cleverly named the Wirecats, competes in the FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC). This challenge is open to all students at Walker’s and combines STEM skills, engineering principles, and innovation to create and build a functioning robot that can compete at the games. Our students learn JAVA-based programing while creating a robot to compete in the head-to-head challenge of FTC.

If students chose to not engage in other after school offerings, they have the opportunity to get started on their homework under adult supervision in the Constance Lavino Bell Library. After the school day ends, students check in with the adult on duty in the library and begin to tackle whatever assignments are in their planner for that evening. The library is a comfortable, quiet space where students can engage with their work and each other. In addition to an abundance of resources for digital and print research, the library also has a carefully curated collection of books of particular interest to Middle School reader.

Middle School Debate Team with Faculty Advisor, Lee-Ann Harris P’13

Weekend Life

Weekend Activities feature events both on-campus, where students deepen their relationship with each other and with on-campus faculty and upper school students, and off-campus, where students connect with the larger middle school community. All Middle School students have an opportunity to have fun and engage socially within and beyond our community where they can discover new passions and pursue pastimes they already enjoy.

Activities are designed with Middle School students in mind. Off-campus weekend activities include trips to the movies, museum visits, and outings to historical sights. There are seasonal offerings too, including winter skiing and tubing, attending a spring flower show, or picking apples and pumpkins in the fall. There is fun to be had on-campus, such as baking with a dorm parent or “dive-in” movies at the Centennial pool. Students also attend social and community service events with other schools, including mini-golf, laser tag, and our end-of-year Eighth Grade Social.

Middle School Boarding

Middle school boarding school students are fully immersed into the school’s residential program with faculty specifically dedicated to managing the care of Middle School students.

Under the guidance of a Middle School boarding life coordinator, seventh and eighth grade boarding students are guided during weekday evenings with managing homework assignments and their involvement in evening activities in order to be prepared for classes the next day and with enough time to get into bed early, refreshed and ready for the school day ahead. On the weekends, students’ schedules are filled with leisure and athletic activities that they choose based on either their co-curricular commitments or their personal interests. To learn more about Walker’s Middle School boarding program, please contact Associate Director of Admission Amy Paul at apaul@ethelwalker.org or +1-860-408-4207.

Image of Bela Vega cooking in the new dorm
A weekend activity for Middle School boarding students

Meet the Middle School Boarding Faculty

Mallory Pasquariello

Mallory Pasquariello

Director of Residential Life and Student Activities

Mallory Pasquariello

 860-408-4237

B.A., Roger Williams University
M.A., University of Leicester

Mallory is a graduate of Roger Williams University with a bachelor’s degree in art history and a triple minor in architecture, business management and English literature. She also has an M.A. in Museum Studies through the distance learning program at the University of Leicester. Previously, Mallory served as teller supervisor and customer service representative for Northwest Community Bank in New Hartford where she has gained a wealth of experience in customer service and organization. Here at Walker’s, Mallory serves as the Director of Residential Life and Student Activities. She is also a housefaculty member in New Dorm.

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Dr. Melissa Bernardo

Science Faculty

Dr. Melissa Bernardo

 860-408-4328

B.A., Eastern Connecticut State University
Ph.D., Wesleyan University

Melissa joined Walker’s in 2017 after completing her Ph.D. in Biology from Wesleyan University. Her dissertation dealt with nutrient-mediated manipulation of host-feeding behavior by a parasitoid. Melissa has taught a range of topics at the university level and brings her knowledge and enthusiasm to Walker’s chemistry, biology and environmental science classes. She also coaches volleyball and softball.

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Tavia Lee-Goldstein

Tavia Lee-Goldstein

Director of Communications and Marketing

Tavia Lee-Goldstein

 860-408-4393

B.A., University of New Hampshire
M.B.A., University of New Hampshire Whittemore School of Business and Economics

Tavia, a New England native, joined Walker’s in 2022 after serving many years as Director of Communications for an independent middle and high school in Houston, TX. In addition to her time in school communications and marketing, she has taught communications, film, theatre, and business & economics at the high school and college levels. She also spent five years directing an academic summer program for high school students. Tavia has an extensive film portfolio which focuses on short-form documentaries and also includes nationally distributed feature-length documentaries and television commercials. She and her family live on campus.

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Karim Mabrouk

Karim Mabrouk

French Faculty

Karim Mabrouk

 860-408-4314

B.A., Iona College
M.A., UConn

Karim joins Walker’s faculty on a full-time basis this year as a member of the World Languages faculty specializing in French; previously he served on the faculty on a part-time basis. Karim will teach French 1B, 2, and 4 this academic year. He is fluent in French and Arabic and has focused some of his work on teaching French for diplomacy and international affairs. Previously, Karim was a Graduate Fellow and Visiting Lecturer at Trinity College (Hartford, CT), an instructor at Yale University, and he held various teaching and administrative roles at the University of Connecticut. He is a Ph.D. candidate (ABD) at the University of Connecticut in French Language & Literature. He holds Master of Arts degrees from UConn in both International Studies and French Culture Language & Literature and a Graduate Certificate in Human Rights Studies. Karim earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in both International and French Studies from Iona College. Karim is a JV soccer coach and will coach swimming in the winter.

John Monagan

John Monagan

Interim Athletic Director, History Faculty

John Monagan

 860-408-4290

B.A., Johns Hopkins University
M.S., Drexel University

John Monagan grew up in Waterbury, Connecticut, where he attended Chase Collegiate School from 6th-12th grade. From Waterbury, John headed south to attend Johns Hopkins University, where he majored in history. After four enjoyable years in Baltimore, John’s years in private school led him to The Ethel Walker School, where he taught history and English. John spent his first four years at Walker’s teaching 6th-9th grade history and 6th-7th grade English. He has also spent time running student activities. John earned his Master of Science degree from Drexel University in Sports Management while working at Walker’s. He previously served as Walker’s Athletic Director for nine years and continues to teach in the history department. John is the head coach of the varsity basketball and softball teams and lives on campus with his wife and daughter.

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Randall Sho Northrop

History Department Chair, History Faculty

Randall Sho Northrop

 860-408-4304

B.A., Saint Michael’s College
M.A., Oxford University

Randall joins Walker’s from Beaver Country Day School in Brookline, MA, where he taught Global History and Social Sciences. At Beaver, Randall also served as the grade dean for 9th and 10th grades, facilitated students of color and affinity groups, and coached the BVR Model UN team. Raised in Okinawa, Japan, he is passionate that students see themselves as a part of an interconnected local and global community, full of rich and complex narratives.

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