By Allison Johns '03 and Lissa Petter '03

"You need only claim the events of your life to make yourself yours. When you truly possess all that you have been and done, you are fierce with reality."

After 204 years, Deerfield has symbolically marked the role of females in the institution. Since the middle of winter term, Mattea Kramer '02 and others have been working to decide on a quote for the Deerfield girl, a statue in the Memorial Building lobby. In four meetings with various Deerfield girls, there was a consensus that the quote should be written by a female, but be applicable to males as well as females.

Art teacher Mara Whalen was instrumental in guiding this group, which included Brandon Berkeley '02, Hilary Brooks '02, Kaitie Donovan '02, Mattea Kramer '02, Caitlin McMullen '02, Katie Powell '02, Lizzie Reifenheiser '02, Claire Scoville '02, Caroline Hines '03, Sarah Burnett '03 and Laura Eberly '05.

After discussing possible quotes in their meetings, the group narrowed their choices to three. These three were then distributed to all the girls in the school for a vote, and after the votes were tallied, the quote decided upon was one from Florida Scott-Maxwell.

Scott-Maxwell was a writer and suffragist who focused on analytical psychology. In her book The Measure of My Days, she struggled with ideas such as goodness, individuality, and wisdom.

"People felt really strongly one way or the other about the other two," Kramer '02 said. "This was the most widely accepted quote, and we felt that that was very important."

"This was a chance for people to come together to make a collective decision," said Philosophy Teacher Meera Viswanathan, who has been helping Kramer. "The process is as important as the outcome."

As published in the May 22, 2002 issue of the Deerfield Scroll, the monthly newspaper of Deerfield Academy.