(While I am, obviously, quite fond of the writing I produced below, the Journal itself is accessible by link at the bottom of the page. If you’d like to cut to the meat and potatoes, I promise I’ll only take minor offense).

***

Where do ideas come from? Generally it’s a tough question, but the idea for the Scholarly Journal came from a certain teacher of mine, many years ago. He suggested that perhaps in lieu of science fair, upper school students could elect to pursue a long-term research or literature project. This way students who didn’t quite have a handle on, say, linear regression and mold growth would have the chance to demonstrate their other academic strengths before a wider audience.

I like to think that part of this idea was born out last year when Maya Peterson and I petitioned Mr. Green for a student newspaper. Students who wanted to hone their craft and publish regularly could now do so alongside like-minded writers. But Maya and I were fairly clear from the beginning of The Chandlery that we wanted to limit how much academic writing the paper republished. We wanted to focus on new, journalistic work. 

But there is writing produced daily at Falmouth Academy that deserves some sort of acknowledgement beyond student and teacher, and there are phenomenal writers who are precluded from writing for The Chandlery by scheduling, athletics, and countless other commitments. And so the Falmouth Academy Scholarly Journal sprang into existence. After countless emails and announcements, a number of late nights, and at least one marathon Zoom call, we’ve gathered twelve essays from eleven of Falmouth Academy’s most acute thinkers and writers. Their subjects range from renewable energy to the advent of Christianity to the duplicity of Jordan Baker in The Great Gatsby – in other words, they reflect the intellectual diversity that the Falmouth Academy classroom inspires and they demonstrate the marriage of both abstract and technical skill. 

At some point this spring it became evident to me that some sort of scholastic competition or publication could be produced by the Chandlery staff and published through the paper’s website without being presented as journalism. We’re a newspaper of the students, by the students, and for the students, to borrow a brighter man’s turn of phrase; publishing the school’s best academic work from throughout the year, for a wider audience than it could ever have reached before, seemed less a desire than a responsibility. 

A few words of explanation (and thanks) regarding the actual assembly of the Journal, which is linked at the bottom of this page. As most members of the community are aware, the call for academic writing went out to the entire student body in April. Each faculty member in the English and history departments was encouraged to pass on to the Scholarly Journal’s judging panel two or three of their most exceptional student essays (with the permission or encouragement of the writer). Every single faculty member in the Humanities forwarded the Chandlery student essays, and for their enthusiasm, excitement, and flexibility, these twelve faculty members have earned my unreserved gratitude.

From all of the school’s compiled writing, a panel of six judges selected the twelve winners to be published, and developed a list of honorable mentions. These six judges were: Alice Tan ‘21, Mrs. Monica Hough, Mrs. Julie Swanbeck,  former faculty members Mr. Mike Deasy and Mrs. Lalise Melillo, and me. For agreeing, perhaps foolishly, to this end-of-year undertaking, I offer the judges my sincerest thanks. 

I would like to return now to where I began: Where do ideas come from? For me, bits and bobs of thought or language have a way of finding their way into my brain and hiding there until I have a chance to connect pen to paper, or thumb to touchscreen. I cannot say if this is the same for other writers. What I can say is that there is no shortage of brilliant ideas at Falmouth Academy, and I think that the Scholarly Journal proves exactly that. We can never underestimate the power of a student writer – be they an aspiring scientist, a journalist at The Chandlery, or the world’s next great historian. In reading this first edition of the Scholarly Journal, it is my hope that you learn from what these authors have written and are reminded of the tremendous intellectual force of the student. With any luck, the publication proves popular enough to become a staple of the paper.

And with that, I hope you enjoy the Journal.

Sincerely,

Noah Glasgow ‘21

Editor-in-Chief

The Falmouth Academy Chandlery 

(Signing off)

Read: The Falmouth Academy Scholarly Journal