By Connie Zhang and Ly Nguyen

     From England to America, Maryland to Staunton, Dean of Students Ms. Holyer starts her brand new journey here at STU this year!

     Ms. Holyer was born in England and moved to the US when she was two years old. She’s the oldest child in her family, with two brothers and a sister. She studied at the University of the South, earned her Master’s degree at the University of Virginia, and worked at UVA's Music Library for a couple of years. Before she came to Staunton, she worked for 10 years at a small independent school in Maryland, teaching music and theater, and serving as the Acting Head of School for the past two years. Ms. Holyer loves music, and she has been playing the violin since she was two. She also likes photography, reading books, hiking, hanging out with friends, canoeing, and traveling. In fact, she would like to travel all around the world when she retires, so she can get to know different cultures.

     Ms. Holyer enjoys her new work very much; for the most part it is because she gets to spend more time interacting with the students, something she couldn’t do in her last school because “There are just so many other things the head of school has to worry about.” She tries to be here early in the morning at around 7:15 and to have breakfast in the dining-room so she can get to see the boarders coming in and be ready when the questions and requests come up. She sees her work as basically making sure everything is okay and all the student are having a good time while conducting themselves appropriately. She wants to be the person to whom the students and the teachers can go when they have problems or need help.

     As for now, Ms. Holyer is still learning the culture at STU, which, in some cases, is a lot different from her last school. "They [students] had uniforms in my last school, [they] couldn’t have cellphones, and they were not allowed to eat in buildings at any time." She was there for ten years, so it is taking her awhile to adjust, yet she has already got some innovative ideas for STU . She will create more student leadership opportunities and also add more fun events. She wants to make sure each class has some fun activities that they are doing. She would also like to listen to the ideas that students and faculty have about what they like and where they would like to see some changes. When Ms. Holyer first came STU, she was impressed by the politeness and kindness the students showed. They seemed so much at ease. “It was a good comfortable feeling,” she states.

     “Embrace the chaos” is Ms. Holyer's motto. She learned about it from the community theater experiences she had during her high school years. When things get very crazy and very disorganized, we tend to run away from them or just sit there and try to make things fit their patterns, which can always cause a lot stress. Ms. Holyer explains that “Embrace the chaos means accepting the chaos that is going to happen in some point in life and don’t be afraid of it. We do try to work with it and make some sense of it, but don’t try to control it. Everything is going to work itself out.”

     Lastly, Ms. Holyer wants to give her students a piece of advice. Based on her experiences of 10 plus years working with students in different places, she wants us to think before we speak or do anything. She knows that it might be difficult for teenagers, but thinking carefully before we act can save us from doing stupid things or making wrong decisions.

     We hope Ms. Holyer will enjoy her new job and have a wonderful year! She is a great new member of the Stuart Hall family.