This year, several Berkshire School alums have come back to share their energy and expertise during the Pro Vita Winter Session. Maggie Meiners '90 summed it up perfectly, telling the students in her Pretty as a Picture class, "This is a one week class. Take risks."

Here's a summary of our alumni contributions in the classroom.

Maddie Hunsicker '10 is joining her former advisor and coach, AJ Kohlhepp, to teach From the Closet to the Screen. The course examines Hollywood's complicated history of dealing with issues of sexual identity. Through in-depth analysis of film, the students are learning to recognize social trends and attitudes. Hunsicker's fresh perspective comes, in part, as a result of her academic focus on women's studies, gender and sexuality.

Be Your Own Marvel: Comics Creation, taught by illustrator Javier Cruz Winnik '96 and language teacher Amy Shen, leads students through the process of telling their own stories thru visual and sequential art, leading characters through a complete story in a graphic novel, comic book or children's story. A working comic book author, Winnik is giving the students an opportunity to learn that process from the inside out.

Travis Kline '87 is engaging students in the investigation of environmental hazards and the risks to those who work in impacted areas in the class he's teaching with science teacher Jeremy Smith titled Risk Management and Toxicology. For good measure, participation in this class means trying on a Hazmat suit.

In the class When Words Fail, Music Speaks, Selina Sun '10 and music teacher Clive Davis are guiding students through the song-writing process and moving them toward performing the songs in front of an audience. The students benefit directly from Sun's years of experience and her two degrees in the field.

In Pretty as a Picture, taught by Maggie Meiners '90 and English teacher Cency Middleton, the focus is on storytelling through photography. Meiners, who in addition to her Pro Vita teaching assignment has created the exhibit Revisiting Rockwell on display in The Warren Family Gallery, is helping students use perspective – human and artistic – to tell their own personal narratives in visual form. Meiner's experience as a professional photographer give the students a clear model of how this process works in the real world.

And in another reunion of student and teacher, Alvaro Rodríguez Arregui '85 visited R.G. Mead's Good Neighbor or Goliath? class on Tuesday as students discussed the role of the United States in the economic, political and cultural development of a 21st century global society. In addition, Arregui, a social entrepreneur, was the featured speaker on Tuesday evening at Allen Theater (watch here), where he spoke about the Social Progress Index (SPI), a measure of the social progress of 130 countries.

Many thanks to all of this year's alumni contributors. It was another successful Pro Vita Winter Session and the involvement of our visiting alumni was invaluable.