The Inside Press

Magazines serving the communities of Northern Westchester

Harvey School

Cookie Cutter Doesn’t Cut it at Harvey

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Rugby match at the Harvey School on April 5, 2022. (photo by Gabe PalacioOpen House at Harvey this year is Saturday, October 22, 2022 from 8 a.m. to 12 p.m.

Open House: Saturday, October 22, 2022 from 8 a.m. to 12 p.m.

https://www.harveyschool.org/admissions/upcoming-events/2022openhouse

The Harvey School will hold its annual Fall Open House Saturday, Oct. 22 featuring a special panel discussion on “How to Find the Right Independent School for Your Child.”

The open house, starting at 9 a.m. and ending at noon, will offer campus visitors opportunities to take student-led tours, speak to current school parents, and meet faculty and administrators who will be on hand to answer questions about such topics as the academics, athletics and student life at Harvey, an independent college-preparatory school for students in grades 6-12.

Tours will traverse Harvey’s bucolic hilltop 125-acre campus on Route 22 in Katonah which features multi-sports athletic fields, the iconic Evarts Ice Rink, the state-of-the-art Walker Center for the Arts and Fenstermacher Athletic Center, the Upper School complex, and the middle school housed separately on the lower campus.

The special panel discussion will be held from 11 a.m. to 11:45 a.m. The school leaders on the panel will include Harvey’s Head of School William Knauer, Head of Middle School Dr. Brendan Byrne, Director of the Performing Arts, Vinny Alexander, Director of Athletics Ray Lacen, English Department Chair Virginia Holmes, and School Counselor Jacquie Butera. Among the topics to be discussed will be how to find a school that fits the needs of your child, how to help your child find their voice, and the importance of understanding your child’s learning profile – recognizing their strengths and interests and what their optimum learning environment would be.

The Harvey School personalizes an educational journey for students in grades 6-12 to be as unique as each individual student. Students don’t conform to a singular “portrait of a graduate.” They have unlimited opportunity to unlock their potential and chase what fulfills them, instilling a desire for greater knowledge, broader perspectives, and cultural awareness. At Harvey, helping students become their best self has everything to do with trust. When students connect with their teachers, they dream big, try new things, and move out of their comfort zone. The result: extraordinary personal and intellectual growth. Harvey equips students with everything they need to live meaningfully, happily, and successfully. Because joy matters.

“The opportunities we get at Harvey are just so diverse. In the fall, you can do the musical, and be a baseball player in the spring. You’re not stuck with one sort of stereotypical group. You don’t have to just be an athlete, or the theater kid, or in robotics. You can do all of them.” – Amanda ‘22

Harvey’s diverse, inclusive, and welcoming community includes students from over 100 communities in New York, Connecticut, and New Jersey, and international students from seven countries including Sweden, Japan, Germany, Spain, China, and Lithuania.

Located on a beautiful 125-acre hilltop campus in Katonah, New York, Harvey provides a college-preparatory program that cultivates academic excellence, artistic exploration, athletic achievement, and service to others, with 5-day boarding in grades 9-12. There’s nothing more powerful than a student who believes they can make a difference.

 

Winners of the Annual Harvey School’s WELLS Speech Contest

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The Harvey School has announced the winners of the 63rd annual Wells Speech Contest which featured several area residents as finalists.

Taking the top prize in the upper school was senior Maria Millette. The runner-up was fellow senior Elyse Rosman of Chappaqua. Other finalists were sophomore Grace Alpern, juniors Julian van den Tol and Jasmine Zhang, and four local residents, senior Greyson Cooper of Katonah, sophomore Kayla Lichtenstein of Armonk, and ninth graders Daniela Rynott of Mount Kisco and Ryan Byrne of Goldens Bridge.

The Harvey Middle School winner was seventh grader Anna Bogenschutz. Honorable mention was awarded to eighth grader Tory Janush of Briarcliff Manor. Among the other finalists were eighth grader Olivia Barsky and two local residents, seventh grader Stephen Millette of Mount Kisco and sixth grader Amity Doyle of Katonah.

Harvey’s school-wide speech contest tasks students in grades 6-12 with writing and delivering their own persuasive essays. The speeches judged the best from each English class advanced to the semifinal round where the finalists were selected.

Bedford Town Justice Jodi Kimmel and Tony-nominated actress Anne Twomey Lloyd of Katonah served as this year’s judges.

 

 

 

 

4/11 Book Reading: Westchester Resident’s Poignant Memoir, The Bridesmaid’s Daughter

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The Mental Health Association of Westchester (MHA) is thrilled to host Pound Ridge’s Nyna Giles and co-author Eve Claxton for the exclusive Westchester reading of their poignant and unflinching portrait of Nyna’s mother Carolyn, whose glamorous life was sidelined by mental health issues. THE BRIDESMAID’S DAUGHTER: FROM GRACE KELLY’S WEDDING TO A WOMEN’S SHELTER—SEARCHING FOR THE TRUTH ABOUT MY MOTHER (St. Martin’s Press; on sale March 27, 2018) is a riveting investigation to unearth the lost pieces of Carolyn’s remarkable life story, as well as tell the tale of the daughter who reclaimed her mother’s memory.

To be held on Wednesday, April 11 at 7 p.m. at the Walker Center for the Arts at the Harvey School in Katonah, the book launch reading includes a Q&A, book signing and refreshments; tickets can be purchased at www.mhawestchester.org for $25. This special event – a rare occurrence to hear from both authors in person – raises awareness for mental health issues and benefits MHA, a community-based nonprofit that provides innovative, person-centered treatment.

“We are thrilled that Nyna has chosen to shine a light on the importance of mental health and getting the right help at the right time. MHA is honored to partner with both authors for this exciting reading of their new release,” said MHA CEO Charlotte Östman, LCSW-R.

“Telling my mother’s story in ‘The Bridesmaid’s Daughter’ has been a highly emotional journey – laying bare the heartbreak and devastation mental illness can cause a family,” said Nyna Giles. “This project was extremely painful at times, but ultimately was one of the most fulfilling events in my life. It illustrates the importance of early intervention and treatment, and has enabled me to find a tangible way to give my mother’s life meaning by helping others. I hope that by sharing her story, I can start many important conversations about mental health advocacy. This is why I feel The Mental Health Association of Westchester is vital to our community, ensuring that mental health services are readily available to those who need it the most.”

At 29 years old, Westchester native Nyna was in line at the supermarket when she looked down and saw the headline: “Former Bridesmaid of Princess Grace Lives in Homeless Shelter.” Nyna was stunned: her family’s private ordeal was front page news. The woman on that cover was her mother. The truth was, she barely knew who her mother had been before marriage. She knew Carolyn had been a model – arriving in New York in 1947 and rooming at the legendary Barbizon Hotel for Women, where she’d met the young Grace Kelly. The two had become fast friends, and Nyna had seen the photos of her mother at Grace’s wedding, wearing the bridesmaid gown that had hung in her mother’s closet for years. But how had the seemingly confident, glamorous woman in those pictures become the mother she knew growing up – the mother who told her Nyna she was too ill to go to school and kept her isolated at home?

Nyna Giles and Eve Claxton

THE BRIDESMAID’S DAUGHTER is a deeply personal memoir about friendship and motherhood, and a clarion call for improving mental healthcare. In telling her own and her mother’s story, Nyna aims to raise awareness for mental health advocacy so that no one else has to experience the issues Carolyn and her family did.

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PRAISE FOR THE BOOK

“A fascinating true story.”

—Good Housekeeping

“Celebrates a lifelong female friendship while shedding light on a powerful, if at times painful and complex, mother-daughter bond. A poignantly compelling memoir about family, mental health, and revisiting the past.”
—Kirkus Reviews

“This is a fascinating story of the toll of mental illness and a daughter’s search for understanding and forgiveness.”
—Booklist

“Here is the heart-rending story of two beautiful and glamorous women, and the spirals of disaster into which one of their lives tumbled. As daughter and detective, Nyna Giles writes with moving sensitivity about the dazzling Grace Kelly and her best friend — Nyna’s own mother. The book unfolds like a novel — a tragic and deeply moving saga. Read it   and weep.”

—Robert Lacey, bestselling author of Grace: Her Lives – Her Loves

 

“Straight from the heart, and told with great bravery, The Bridesmaid’s Daughter is a fascinating and powerful story of a daughter’s love for a flawed parent and the struggle to understand a tumultuous childhood.”

—Wendy Lawless, New York Times bestselling author of Chanel Bonfire

 

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

NYNA GILES is the youngest daughter of Carolyn Scott Reybold, a Ford model best known as one of Grace Kelly’s bridesmaids. Nyna has worked in advertising sales with leading media organizations such as Westchester Magazine, 914INC, Westchester Home, The Daily Voice, Record-Review and Westchester and Fairfield County Business Journals. Today she is COO of Giles Communications. She is also an advocate for the mentally ill, having served as a vice president on the board of The Association for Mentally Ill Children of Westchester for ten years. In the spring of 2015, Nyna and her husband, Peter, co-chaired The Mental Health Association of Westchester’s MHA On The Move 5K Run/Walk. Nyna lives in Westchester with her husband, and has three grown children and three stepchildren.

EVE CLAXTON is a writer, editor, and Peabody award-winning radio producer. Since 2006, she’s worked as an editor or co-writer on popular non-fiction books for major publishers including the memoir “He Wanted the Moon,” co-written with Mimi Baird, described by The New York Times as “utterly impossible to put down” and currently being adapted for Brad Pitt’s Plan B with a screenplay by Tony Kushner. Eve is also the editor of The Book of Life an anthology of the best memoir writing throughout the ages.

ABOUT THE MENTAL HEALTH ASSOCIATION OF WESTCHESTER

For more than 70 years, The Mental Health Association of Westchester has promoted mental health in Westchester through advocacy, community education and direct services. MHA offers a range of services that are recovery-oriented, trauma-informed and individualized to promote recovery and wellness. To learn more, visit www.mhawestchester.org.

Harvey Presents: An Afternoon with Actress Glenn Close on November 5

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KATONAH, NY– Stage, screen and TV actress Glenn Close will appear at The Harvey School on Sunday, November 5 at 4 p.m. as part of the community program series Harvey Presents. Close, a six time Academy Award nominee and winner of three Tonys and three Emmys, will appear at Harvey’s Walker Center for the Arts. The event will be moderated by special guest host, acclaimed film and theater critic Pat Collins.

General admission is $50. Seating is limited.

To order tickets go to www.harveyschool.org/harveypresents or call (914) 232-3161 ext. 161 for more information.

 

 

More on Glenn Close and Pat Collins

A six-time Academy Award nominee, Close stars in the title role of the film adaptation of Meg Wolitzer’s bestselling novel, The Wife, with Jonathan Pryce and Christian Slater for Swedish director Bjorn Runge. The film had its world debut at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival premiering to rave reviews for her performance. Close is also in Julian Fellow’s adaptation of Agatha Christie’s Crooked House alongside an all-star cast that included Max Irons, Christina Hendricks, Gillian Anderson and Terence Stamp.

Close reprised her Tony Award-winning role in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical Sunset Boulevard in a new production at the London Coliseum in the Spring of 2016.  For that performance she won a London Evening Standard Award and was nominated for an Olivier Award. The full production, starring Close, opened on Broadway this February, for an exclusive limited engagement.

Close made her feature film debut in George Roy Hill’s The World According to Garp, earning her awards from the Los Angeles Film Critics Association and the National Board of Review as well as her first Academy Award nomination. She was subsequently Oscar-nominated for The Big Chill, The Natural, Fatal Attraction and Stephen Frears’ Dangerous Liaisons (for which she was also a BAFTA Award nominee).

Close received her sixth Academy Award nomination in 2012, along with Golden Globe and SAG nominations, for Albert Nobbs. She wrote the screenplay with (Man Booker prize-winning novelist) John Banville. Close was also a producer on the film and composed the lyrics for the Golden Globe and World Soundtrack-nominated song, “Lay Your Head Down.” For Albert Nobbs, she received the Irish Film and Television Award (IFTA) as “Best Foreign Actress,” was voted “Best Actress” at the 2011 Tokyo International Film Festival, and was honored for her performance by the San Sebastian Film Festival (Donostia Award), Hollywood Film Festival, Mill Valley Film Festival and the Palm Springs Film Festival.

Her recent film appearances include What Happened to Monday, The Girl With All the Gifts, Wilde Wedding and the upcoming comedy Bastards. Her film credits include Richard Marquand’s Jagged Edge, Barbet Schroeder’s Reversal of Fortune, Franco Zeffirelli’s Hamlet, István Szabó’s Meeting Venus, Ron Howard’s The Paper, Stephen Herek’s 101 Dalmatians, Kevin Lima’s 102 Dalmatians, Wolfgang Petersen’s Air Force One, Robert Altman’s Cookie’s Fortune, Rose Troche’s The Safety of Objects, Merchant Ivory’s Le Divorce, Chris Terrio’s Heights, Rodrigo García’s Things You Can Tell Just by Looking at Her and Nine Lives, Evening, Low Down, 5 to 7, Anesthesia, The Great Gilly Hopkins and Guardians of the Galaxy.

In 2012, Close headlined the fifth and final season of the critically-acclaimed original legal thriller, Damages. For her riveting portrayal of high-stakes litigator ‘Patty Hewes’, Close won two consecutive Emmys as “Best Actress in a Drama Series” and two subsequent Emmy nominations, along with a Golden Globe Award and three SAG Award nominations.

Close’s twelve Golden Globe nominations include a Best Actress win for Andrei Konchalovsky’s adaptation of The Lion in Winter (which also earned her a SAG Award). Among the television projects that have brought her twelve Emmy nominations, is an Emmy Award for her performance as Margarethe Cammermeyer in Serving in Silence: the Margarethe Cammermeyer Story (for which she also received a Peabody Award as executive producer).

Other television credits include The Shield, The Elephant Man, Something About Amelia, Stones for Ibarra, The Ballad of Lucy Whipple and In the Gloaming, for which she won a CableACE Award. She executive produced and starred in Richard Pearce’s musical remake of South Pacific for ABC TV. She also executive produced the Sarah, Plain and Tall trilogy for the Hallmark Hall of Fame, starring in all three opposite Christopher Walken.

Close made her theatre, and Broadway, debut in Harold Prince’s revival of Love for Love. Her theater credits include The Crucifer of Blood, The Singular Life of Albert Nobbs (Obie Award), Barnum (Tony nomination) and Tony Awards for her performances in The Real Thing and Death and the Maiden, both directed by Mike Nichols. In London, she reteamed with the director of the original Sunset Boulevard stage production, Trevor Nunn, in his Royal National Theatre revival of A Streetcar Named Desire. She returned to Broadway for the 2014 revival production of Edward Albee’s A Delicate Balance.

In 2009, Glenn Close co-founded Bring Change 2 Mind, a charity dedicated to confronting, head-on, the stigma and discrimination associated with mental illness by empowering people to start the conversation. The idea for the organization came about following Close’s first-hand observation of battles with mental illness within her family. For more information, please visit www.Bringchange2mind.org.

Close actively supports Puppies Behind Bars and their program Dog Tags: Service Dogs for Those Who’ve Served Us. Close is a Founding Member and current Co-Chair of the Conservation Council for Panthera.  Panthera is an international nonprofit whose sole mission is conservation of the world’s 36 species of wild cats. She is a trustee emeritus of The Sundance Institute, having served as a board member for 16 years.

 

Pat Collins

Pat Collins, an Emmy Award-winning critic, has enjoyed a long professional relationship with Glenn Close from the actress’s early roles on screen and on Broadway. Collins won Emmys for “The Pat Collins Show” and as a member of the news team at WCBS TV where she served as its film and theater critic. Subsequently, she covered entertainment news for “Good Morning America” and “The CBS Morning News.” At WWOR-TV, Collins hosted a number of behind-the-scenes-Broadway specials in addition to reviewing film and theater for the “10 O’ Clock News.” Collins has hosted several specials for CUNY TV including “Kinky Boots: The Road To Broadway,” a three-part series on independent films, and a special marking the 50th anniversary of “Fiddler On The Roof.” 

Collins serves as the president of The Joe Raposo Music Group which administers the catalogue of compositions of her late husband Joe Raposo, a co-creator of “Sesame Street” and its longtime musical director. Pat and her husband William Sarnoff live in Bedford.

 

 

Harvey Admissions to Host Fall Open House

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harvey-school-sign-photoKatonah – The Harvey School will host its annual fall admissions open house Saturday, Oct. 22, from 9 a.m. to noon for families exploring educational options for September 2017 in the middle school or upper school.

Director of Admissions William Porter, Middle School Head Dr. Brendan Byrne and Upper School Head Phil Lazzaro will speak to Harvey’s academic mission, goals and program features and offer a Q/A segment.

In addition, visitors will have the opportunity to tour Harvey’s 125- acre campus and its academic buildings and athletic facilities.

Located on Route 22 in Katonah, The Harvey School is a coeducational college-preparatory school for students in grades six through 12.

For more information, visit www.harveyschool.org or call Admissions at 914-232-3161, ext. 138.