Duck Pond Day: The Vague Idea That Became a Vibrant Reality

On the second floor of the Kumar Wang Library, senior Charli Zahtila settled into a chair next to English teacher Mr. Daniel Mendel and wasted no time seeking point-blank feedback. The Upper School event she had spent the better part of three years planning was in the midst of wrapping up — most students were still packing their bags and trickling out of classrooms — when she asked her project advisor, ”So, what did you think?”

Mr. Mendel didn’t hesitate. “You changed the history of this school,” he said, offering high praise as Friends Academy begins to celebrate its 150th anniversary. “This place, year after year, will be better in the future because of what you built. You should be extremely proud of what you accomplished today.”

Charli was the driving force behind the inaugural Duck Pond Day, a morning of interdisciplinary workshops on Jan. 30 that gave students the opportunity to highlight their passions and teach their peers.

Three students joined Charli on the Duck Pond Day planning committee — juniors Sydney Wang and Sahana Gupta, and sophomore Shayla Durrett — and some 35 students took part in teaching 19 workshops held in the library, Frost Hall and the Dolan Arts Center.

In a session called “Prosody and the Self: A Mindful Poetry Workshop,” Charli explored the connection between mindfulness and poetic creativity. She opened with group meditation and then had participants — students and faculty — channel that inner calm into a creative flow to write poetry.

Before the workshops, Charli addressed an Upper School assembly from the stage inside the Dolan Arts Center. “To all student workshop leaders today,” she said, “your passion, hard work, and commitment have transformed an idea into this vibrant reality. You are the heart and soul of this event.

“Every workshop,” she added, “exemplifies the power of asking questions, diving deep, and collaboratively seeking understanding . . . our Duck Pond overflows with brilliant minds and eager spirits. Students have stepped up as facilitators, mentors, and innovators, actively shaping our intellectual landscape.”

When Charli was a sophomore, she and Mr. Mendel first talked about bringing a student-led day of inquiry to Friends Academy. That vague idea took shape over time, with Director of Student Affairs Ms. Camille S. Edwards and Upper School Dean Mr. Jozeph Herzeg joining the committee to help build the framework.

Every workshop on Duck Pond Day had at least one faculty advisor, but they blended into the background as some students taught the lessons and other students dug deep into the explorations.

The workshops offered an array of discovery opportunities:

• The Chemistry of Synthesis: Exploring Slime
• Modern Strategy in Board Games
• Game Theory in Chess
• Logic & Lexical Probability in Wordle
• Craft as Advocacy: Bracelets for Awareness
• Botanical Semiotics: Gratitude in Bloom
• Living Literature: Textual Analysis and Performance
• Ecological Sculpture and Philosophy of Expression
• The Still Point: Moments of the In-Between
• Foundations of World-Building: Narrative Architecture
• The History of the Future: Comparative Time Travel
• The Sociology of Music and Service
• Creative Non-Fiction: Writers at Work
• Prosody and the Self: A Mindful Poetry Workshop
• Solar Thermodynamics and Sustainable Culinary Systems
• Clinical First Response: A Simple Guide to Emergency Medicine
• Peers as Picasso: Artistic Theory in Portraiture
• Seminar in Cinema (Ambition/Identity in Sports)
• Seminar in Cinema (Global Perspectives).
  

“Duck Pond Day was wonderful,” says English teacher Mrs. Nancy Gunning, who served as an advisor for senior Mackenzie Breg’s workshop (pictured above) on the Foundations of World-Building, which explored how history, religion, and language shape the cultural context of fictional and real worlds. “I was her assistant. She was the teacher. In our modern world where teachers aren’t sure how AI might be affecting students, it was powerful and inspiring to hand the kids the reins and watch them own that space.”

By the time Charli had sought out Mr. Mendel in the library for post-event feedback, the level of engagement and excitement in every classroom left little doubt that Duck Pond Day would become an annual tradition of student-led learning. The debrief was ultimately a formality echoing what Lower and Middle School Principal Mr. Alfred (Rik) F. Dugan III, who will become Head of School for the next school year, had said in his speech that morning inside the Dolan Arts Center.

“You are capable of so much,” he said. “I am so confident in our tomorrow because of you . . . have fun, learn something new, follow your passions and share them with each other. Duck Pond Day is more than just a nice thing to do — it is necessary. Carpe diem. Seize the day.”