There was no playbook for Mark Keroack ’72, M.D., MPH, on how to definitively approach COVID-19 when it crept into the Western Massachusetts region in March.
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There was no playbook for Mark Keroack ’72, M.D., MPH, on how to definitively approach COVID-19 when it crept into the Western Massachusetts region in March.
As an emergency physician at the University of Massachusetts Memorial Medical Center in Worcester, Massachusetts, Bonnie Faulkner Ryan, M.D. ’82 was surrounded by COVID-19. For Dr. Ryan, a Fellow of the American College of Emergency Physicians (FACEP), it put her in a potentially fatal environment.
After a shift in careers and just 10 months into his new profession as a registered nurse, Wilbraham & Monson Academy class valedictorian Brett Zalkan ’83 found himself on the front lines in the early and uncertain stages of the escalating COVID-19 pandemic
In her interview for an Academy World article regarding the challenges essential workers faced during the COVID-19 pandemic, Kirsten (Peterson) Falteisek ’95 shared her struggles as a registered nurse at the Phoenix Children’s Hospital in Arizona.
Zoom became a household name in the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Many academic institutions used the online video company to hold classes, while businesses throughout the world benefitted from its user-friendly format to conduct conference-like meetings.
Jeremy Korytoski ’06 was cautious and uncomfortable, but prepared.
For this Academy World story, he was asked questions about being a front-line worker during the COVID-19 pandemic. What was the experience like? How did it affect you?
Like a great athlete with a big game on the horizon, Kayla (Caine) Richards ’09 was ready to play her role in the fight against COVID-19.
Every single day, there was anxiety.
Every single day, there were new patients. Every single day, bodies had to be taken to the morgue. And every single day, COVID-19 didn’t relent for Elijah Barrows ’12.
With a passion for science and the experience of taking care of her ill grandmother in high school, going to nursing school for college made perfect sense for Wilbraham & Monson Academy’s Megan Pehoviak ’14.
Phrases such as “going to war” and “plan of attack” are often used as military terms.
For Hannah Clewes ’15, she was going to war — against an invisible, deadly and vastly unknown enemy called COVID-19.
There is only one thing I know for certain about this school year — that it will continue to challenge the WMA community, all of us, in ways we have never been challenged. I am also confident, although we are still learning more every day, that we have done everything in our power, literally, to prepare the Academy for this year. This preparation, regardless of how extensive, will inevitably be insufficient to totally shield WMA from some impact from the global pandemic. There are hard days ahead, but we remain ready.
WMA’s rapid transition to online learning in the spring was extremely effective, especially for the limited time available to make it happen. We were thoughtful and decisive in our actions, and we led the way among our peer schools for timely and successful communication and implementation of our plans.
As COVID-19 spread, businesses closed and jobless rates skyrocketed during the spring of 2020, one selfless family thought the time was right to step in and help people in need.
Well, technically it’s two families.
OK, breaking things down another step, at this point in their adult lives, it’s really six families — specifically, six Wilbraham & Monson Academy graduates.
A Q&A with Paul Sullivan '91, one of our newest members of WMA's Board of Trustees.
Without WMA, I wouldn’t be where I am today. I was a financial aid student and WMA literally pulled me out of a bad public school setting and gave me the tools to create a life I never would have imagined.
One would never suspect that when Alton “Al” W. Cheney ’38W was born, a loaf of bread cost 12 cents or that the 19th Amendment that gave women the right to vote had been law for barely a month. Mr. Cheney’s voice is clear and steady with an easy chuckle and an obvious sense of humor, completely belying the fact that he turned 100 in September — making him the oldest-known living alumnus of WMA.
I cannot talk about my current accolades without giving a well-respected homage and ode to the life-changing work an experience at Wilbraham & Monson Academy did in elevating a quirky, teenager from Brooklyn, New York, to be a confident Black woman, educator and mentor.
The connection between Wilbraham & Monson Academy and the important history of African American people has been present from the start of WMA’s formative years. It began at Wesleyan Academy, where it sat on the same footprint as the current WMA campus, continued through the days of Monson Academy and Wilbraham Academy, to the current days at WMA.
From “The Hill” to the front of Rich Hall, along Main Street and Faculty Street, and now past the Athletic Center, Academy alumni have designed and left their own, unique 10-inch-by-7.5-inch mark on our campus. All told, approximately 6,500 Senior Stones are permanent fixtures of both individual and Academy history.
1955 Monson
At 85 years young, Dick Bailey is still coaching softball at Saint Joseph’s College in Standish, Maine, and is enjoying time with his family, including two great-grandchildren.