Beaver Reflections:
I graduated from Beaver in 1977 and started in 7th grade. At the time, 7th grade was the youngest class and when I came was the second year that Beaver was co-ed. It was a wonderful community and many people from my class still stay in contact. What I learned from Beaver has definitely been reflected in my own career. As someone who works in communications, I do lots of writing and reading — skills that I learned at Beaver. I remember my English teacher Hilary Thompson was demanding but taught us extremely well. It was sometimes frustrating and hard because of the workload. In retrospect, however, the knowledge she instilled in me has been very valuable. All of us who went through her classes felt very well prepared for the college rigor in English and writing courses. Another teacher I remember was Mr. Payton. I took two years of art history at Beaver and ended up being an Art History major in college thanks to him.

What is #happeningnow in your life:
After graduating from Beaver and college, I got a master’s degree in communications and have worked mostly in the technology industry doing public relations and employee communications. Because of this, I feel like I have taken on the role in my class from Beaver as the one who “herds us together” for class reunions and other gatherings. Now, I am working for a software company in Cambridge called Devo Technology where I am Director of Corporate Communications. I am responsible for public relations, employee communications, executive communications, etc. I call on what I learned at Beaver to form the foundation for a lot of things I do.

“It is so important to treasure the friendships you make at Beaver, especially since it is a small school. The fact that all of these years later, I am still close friends with people from high school goes to show how tight-knit the Beaver community is.”

– Andy Pool ’77

Advice to Beaver students:
Take advantage of all of the opportunities that you can grab at Beaver. Try to experiment with different activities and extracurriculars inside and outside the classroom to find what you enjoy because you may not be able to experience that feeling again.