ÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½

Meet Gio ‘22 

My name is Gio and I am from Vernon, Conn. While on my way to my interview and first ever visit to the ÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½ School—and the state of Vermont, for that matter—something quite unexplainable happened. In my hometown about an hour and a half away, only two minutes from my front door, my mom and I found ourselves driving next to a truck with the words Soundview Paper Company, ÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½ VT written on the back, a place I would later come to learn is the town of ÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½â€™s infamous rotten-egg smelling paper factory.

At that point I wouldn’t have called myself a superstitious person, but I knew seeing that truck was a sign that ÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½ would soon become my home. A week into my third year at ÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½, I can say that premonition turned out to be true. 

What I found at ÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½ is something that I could not find anywhere else that I had visited; the freedom to be whoever you’d like to be. After already having spent my middle school years at a private school that could be described as the antithesis of ÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½, I knew how valuable this was and how rare it would be to find. When I reflect now, it troubles me to imagine how I could’ve turned out anywhere else, pressured into being anyone but myself. 

I call myself an art kid. I’ve gone to visual art programs from Michigan to Ireland. But, in the last year I’ve realized a new passion that I’m excited to pursue; environmental science. I remember carving waterways for the runoff of melting snow into the ground during chilly New England winters, and designing maps and ecosystems and alien animals in my childhood sketchbooks. ÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½ School project weeks (our ~2 week long opportunity to explore any topic, question or art form we can imagine, twice yearly) supplies me with the perfect occasion to take a deep dive into this subject, supported by faculty with individual attention who I know are just as passionate about the topic as I am. 

I’m very excited to see you all around campus!