My name is Caroline Smith. I graduated from Mount Madonna School (MMS) in 2017 and am currently a junior at Smith College in Massachusetts. At Smith, I’m majoring in history and minoring in religion, and as of a few weeks ago, am the captain of Smith Rugby. Sports have always played a crucial role in my life; including my time at MMS where I ran cross-country and co-founded the track and field team. Before coming to Mount Madonna, I played touch rugby – essentially the same sport as the rugby you would be familiar with, but without tackling. The fact that, as a girl, I was told I couldn’t tackle and could only play touch rugby instilled in me a sort of embarrassment about the sport. I have distinct memories of my mom proudly bragging to people that I was a rugby player, and all I was concerned with was making sure they knew it was touch and not tackle. I didn’t want to seem tough because I had been taught that being tough wasn’t something I was supposed to, or allowed to be. If only middle school me could see college me now: captain of a top-tier college rugby team. Not only am I playing full tackle rugby, but I am incredibly proud to do so.

I owe a lot of this confidence and self-assuredness to my time at Mount Madonna and specifically some of my teachers. I always looked up to Nicole Culbertson as an educator and as an athlete. I still remember Nicole’s first day at Mount Madonna, she had a presentation about herself and one of the slides was reserved for sports. She told us how she ran cross-country in college, and is an avid soccer player. Nicole was who I wanted to be when I grew up and inspired me to continue to play a sport when I got to college. That brings us to Smith Rugby and how I got to be captain of this incredible team.

I’ve been playing on this team since my first year at Smith and knew for a while that I wanted to be captain eventually, but always thought I would never have the guts to run. My classmates from MMS could tell you I was never the loudest in any room; I never thought I had what it took to be a good leader. But as I’ve gotten older I’ve realized that you don’t have to be loud to lead: what you say is what makes the difference to people, not how loud you say it.

This semester I let myself believe that not only could I run for captain, but I could win and do a good job. Sometimes I still can’t believe I was able to give a speech about myself and let others decide if they thought I would be a good captain (something middle school me could never have even dreamt of). I’m sure a lot of my fellow MMS alumni will relate to the thoughts of ‘if I can do song share, I can do this.’ Even though I was paralyzingly nervous to run for captain, it was something I really wanted and had the experience (thanks to Mount Madonna) to know that putting yourself out there, while scary, is worth it. That has been my biggest takeaway from my time at Mount Madonna, and something I genuinely hope current students will take away as well. I won’t lie to you, there were times I didn’t want to sing in front of the entire high school, or read my work at the Creative Writing Reading, or put myself out there in the numerous ways MMS expects you to. But I can’t thank Mount Madonna enough for those experiences and the confidence they have given me. I can confidently say I would not be in the physical or mental place I am today without my time at Mount Madonna.