Natick High School - Sassamon Yearbook (Natick, MA)

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1974 Class Advisors Mrs. Robbins Mr. Smith We, the class of 1974, would like to express our sincere appreciation to two advisors who have given of themselves unselfishly over the past three years. Mr. Roger Smith, of the Industrial Arts Department, and Mrs. Martha Robbins, of the English Department (better known to us as Ms. Curran), have helped us as a class and have offered individual guidance to many. We wish to express our deep gratitude to these two individuals for their time and effort and we hope they have much happiness and success in the coming years. 26

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Many students were not aware of the fact that Mr. Hennigar was responsible for some of the programs in which they participated, such as Modified Open Campus, Work-Study Programs, and diversified elective courses. He also supported the “House Plan”, believing that it could help solve many of the problems caused by the rapidly growing population of Natick High. Mr. Rosen, who was a dose co-worker of Mr. Hen¬ nigar’s for many years, says that perhaps Mr. Hennigar ' s greatest contribution was guiding Natick High School and helping it to retain its stability through many years of tension and pressure when changes in the educational system were coming rapidly. Mr. Rosen compliments his forward-looking approach , and his role in expanding the curriculum so that it could be more flexible. Mr. Rosen said that above all, ‘7 respect the man very much. He was able to change with the times and deal with innovations as they came. ” 25

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AFS Student Although this year ' s American Field Service exchange student was known to almost everyone as Kelly, he did not come to Natick from Ireland, Kilenga Ernest N ' tagosera was chosen from among some 200 students of Uganda, Africa to attend Natick High. At 6 ' 4 (and still growing), Kelly was impressed with the size of Natick High and the feeling was mutual. The school was different from the boarding school he had attended in Uganda, which was not coed and only half the size of Natick High. There was also the absence of uniforms, a strict all-male faculty and lunch periods lasting an hour and a half, which were some of the characteristics of Kelly’s former school. Kelly managed to fit right in from the beginning, playing for our varsity soccer team and offering Swahili lessons to interested students after school. Although the cold, snowy weather was not a welcome experience, it was one of the many unexpected surprises for Kelly while he was staying here. He pointed out differences between his culture and ours in both our customs and language. For example, in his country, the young people do not remain at home as long as they do here. Also, after finishing high school, a student in Uganda must pass a qualifying exam in order to further his education. Since Kelly already passed this exam, he received only a certificate of attendance from Natick High. Kelly would jokingly argue about some of the customs and which country did them the “right way such as who laced their shoes right, or who drove on the correct side of the road, or whether suspenders were more logically called braces”. Kelly’s welcome smile and friendly manner will be greatly missed by many of us but he left us with a very important lesson that all of us will remember. On Class Day, when he presented us with his gift of a flag from Uganda, he told us that from his experiences here, he found that no matter where one comes from, people are basically the same. We thank Kelly for bringing some of h,s culture into our lives, but most of all we are grateful for his friendship.