My name is Gio and I am from Vernon, Conn. While on my way to my interview and first ever visit to the Putney School—and the state of Vermont, for that matter—something quite unexplainable happened. In my hometown about an hour and a half away, only two minutes from my front door, my mom and I found ourselves driving next to a truck with the words Soundview Paper Company, Putney VT written on the back, a place I would later come to learn is the town of Putney’s infamous rotten-egg smelling paper factory.

At that point I wouldn’t have called myself a superstitious person, but I knew seeing that truck was a sign that Putney would soon become my home. A week into my third year at Putney, I can say that premonition turned out to be true. 

What I found at Putney is something that I could not find anywhere else that I had visited; the freedom to be whoever you’d like to be. After already having spent my middle school years at a private school that could be described as the antithesis of Putney, I knew how valuable this was and how rare it would be to find. When I reflect now, it troubles me to imagine how I could’ve turned out anywhere else, pressured into being anyone but myself. 

I call myself an art kid. I’ve gone to visual art programs from Michigan to Ireland. But, in the last year I’ve realized a new passion that I’m excited to pursue; environmental science. I remember carving waterways for the runoff of melting snow into the ground during chilly New England winters, and designing maps and ecosystems and alien animals in my childhood sketchbooks. Putney School project weeks (our ~2 week long opportunity to explore any topic, question or art form we can imagine, twice yearly) supplies me with the perfect occasion to take a deep dive into this subject, supported by faculty with individual attention who I know are just as passionate about the topic as I am. 

I’m very excited to see you all around campus!