Recently, GA continued its annual tradition of the Faculty Voices assembly, highlighting Ms. Cravero, Mr. Bratton, and Ms. Ritz. They shared life-changing experiences and the lessons learned from them.
On Friday, January 14, Germantown Academy continued its annual tradition of the Faculty Voices assembly. This year’s speakers, Ms. Elizabeth Cravero, Mr. Roxie Bratton, and Ms. Sara Krupnick-Ritz, told stories from their pasts, with lessons intended to benefit the GA community.
Ms. Elizabeth Cravero, Upper School chemistry teacher, described her journey of “self-discovery and exploration” through her academics in high school and college. She explained that by combining her passion for science with her desire to help others, she was able to better her community. A major turning point in her life was AP Biology with her teacher, Mrs. Raybuk, whom she described as Ms. Frizzle from the Magic School Bus. Mrs. Raybuk guided her with nudges of help while still giving her independence and room to make mistakes.
Ms. Cravero also said that she completed many service projects. She recalled her project to help a family of seven build a wheelchair ramp for the grandfather that lived with the family. Ms. Cravero stated that through her service work, she learned that she “didn’t have to travel across the country to make an impact.”
She described that by the end of high school, she had lost her “drive and ambition” to think about her future. When she made her decision to attend Kutztown University, she said, “I felt like I made the wrong decision for my future.” But after 2 years and a seemingly “rash decision”, Ms. Cravero transferred schools and found her academic confidence.
Just as she began to realize that her true passion was education, she was diagnosed with cancer. This disruption in her life gave her another chance to reflect on what was meaningful in her life. With this, she decided to get a master’s degree in education and to teach at GA. She concluded by saying that she wants everyone to realize that “they don’t have to have everything figured out at this moment. Their future is a journey of evolving into the humans they are meant to be! Self-discovery and evolution is an exciting process.”
The next speaker at the Faculty Voices Assembly was Mr. Roxie Bratton, Upper School history teacher. He shared the journey of his childhood and resilience. He talked about how his mother worked incredibly hard in the rural area they lived in. She told him, “Nothing is easy. The more I work, the more I have to.” He talked about the difficulties she encountered and how the resilience she displayed encouraged him. Mr. Bratton was the second oldest son of five children and never knew his biological father. Coming from his living situation, he realized that “from a very young age, life would be hard.”
While his mom worked in dining services at the hospital, Mr. Bratton and his siblings spent hours outside doing activities that ranged from making forts out of broken tree limbs to playing softball games with neighbors.
He said that he started to learn to be resilient from learning, creating, and problem solving. After giving his speech, Mr. Bratton said, “I’ve been given so much from some extraordinary people in various ages and stages of my life. It is a joy to share those reflections regardless of the context.” He wanted the GA community to take away “whatever resonated with them; to create their own metaphorical resiliency quilt […] to be mindful of affirming the specialness, preciousness, and dignity of others – mini revolutions start with each one of us.”
The final speaker was Ms. Sara Krupnick-Ritz, Upper School art teacher and Head of Truesdell House. She shared three stories about her journey that included imagination, love, and a Japanese concept of repair called “Kintsugi”. She began by explaining her childhood summers, where she spent her days in a marina all by herself, and she mentioned how those days “proved to be the happiest of [her] life.” She learned how to weave seagrass and make sculptures out of mud and clay. It was there that she understood the infinity of imagination, and her imagination gave substance for her love of art.
She said that adolescents have the imagination to understand that “love is as infinite as life is finite.” She said that we ought to practice this love. She told the story about an advisee of hers that thought like this. He had osteosarcoma and lost his battle to the disease before he left GA. Ms. Ritz noticed that he always said what he thought, as if he was never going to see her again. She said that one day after school, he stopped her car and told her that he was grateful for her. He reminded her to be honest and say what she feels.
Her last story was about learning of the Japanese concept of repair – “Kintsugi”- through a friend of hers who was battling against cancer and had a mission of personal restoration. “Kintsugi” is related to the term “wabi-sabi”, the appreciation of flaws and the beauty of imperfection. Ms. Ritz saw her friend as an example of self-rejuvenation and abundant love. She says that with these ideas in mind, “imperfection is something to celebrate, not hide”. She provided the example of Japanese artists making pottery that fractures during the firing process, restoring it with a mixture of precious metals, and making it more beautiful than it previously was.
After speaking, she said she felt lucky and humbled to share this message. She continued, “I am hopeful that by sharing a bit of my own humanity, my own beauty and frailty, that someone might be impacted and recognize that we all contain multitudes, a limitless imagination, and a capacity for love.”
This year’s Faculty Voices assembly brought three amazing teachers to the stand. Mrs. Cravero, Mr. Bratton, and Ms. Ritz all hope that we can take away something from their speeches, whether that be about self-discovery, resiliency, or our imagination and capacity for love.
