“[College-Level English Seminar] taught me how to engage in complicated but intellectual academic discourse, and how to say there is this piece of information on the table and there are six ways to look at it.”

Preston McNulty Socha ’24

Making Hay Every Day

Preston McNulty Socha will long remember his swimming days — and not just because he was a two-time captain.

Preston says one of the best pieces of advice he received came from Grant Gritzmacher, the boys swimming and diving head coach at Loomis Chaffee.

“We have a lot of sayings on the swim team,” Preston says. He laughs. “Some make sense, some don’t.”

This one made perfect sense to Preston: “Every day, Mr. Gritzmacher says we’re putting hay in the barn so we can feed the horses. When it comes to [big races], you have stored all that hay in the barn, and you can go out and feed the horses. … [T]hat advice has stayed with me. When you are doing something so intense for so many months, even if it is outside of swimming, there are a lot of times you feel like you’re dragging and saying, ‘Where is this really getting me?’ But I always have that — I’m putting the hay in the barn, and eventually I’m going to reap the results.”

Preston stored a lot of hay in the LC barn as a member of the swim team. Yet that is just a part of the person Preston became in high school. He had never played water polo and was reluctant to try the sport. As a junior, he took the leap. 

“Swimming is more of an individual sport,” Preston says, “and water polo is six things happening all at once in perfect sync, so that was a great learning experience.”

Another reason he joined the water polo team, he says, was that he “wanted to do something purposeful with all my time here.”  

Goal achieved. Swimming captain as a junior and senior. Water polo captain as a senior. President of the Student Council (StuCo). Cellist in the Orchestra and alto in the Concert Choir. Norton Fellow the summer before his junior year, when he taught music classes and read books at the Hartford Public Library for lower income children with limited access to musical instruments. Recipient of a Global & Environmental Studies Certificate. All of it led to Preston’s being awarded the Jennie Loomis Prize for outstanding contributions to the school at Commencement.

Preston likes mentoring and helping others, whether as Student Council president, a team captain, or a Norton Fellow. “On the swim team, I loved being that senior to help guide freshmen and sophomores in their first swim meets. So I think that is the same in StuCo,” he says. “I wanted to be in a position where I am helping lead the culture of our organization, creating a positive and hard-working environment, and having a personal connection with each of the [members].”

Leadership seemed to be a natural part of his progression through his years at Loomis.

“I was never one to always be the loudest in the room, or just talk for the sake of talking,” Preston says. “I like to be a purposeful listener, and I think my leadership comes from [the fact that] I care so much for StuCo, for swimming, for water polo.”

Preston was accepted to the five-year Harvard/New England Conservatory dual-degree program, through which he will work toward both a bachelor’s degree at Harvard and a master’s degree in music at the conservatory. Music has been a big piece of his identity on the Island. 

“Music at Loomis is a lot about community,” Preston says. Making music as part of a group helped him gain skills in both musicianship and collaboration, he says, adding, “What you learn playing your instrument and how you interact with each other, that is one of the ultimate gifts that just takes you places.”

Preston used his music skills during his Norton Fellowship in the summer of 2022 as he worked with children in Hartford. 

“That helped me think about the word ‘apply,’” Preston says. “How do I take all that I do here and apply that to the community?”

The word apply also comes to mind in regard to the College-Level English Seminar that Preston took as a junior.

“I’ve never had to embrace discomfort so many times,” he says. “I knew every day coming into class that our discussions would be purposeful and confront the foremost things in our world. Coming out of that class, I think it taught me how to engage in complicated but intellectual academic discourse, and how to say there is this piece of information on the table and there are six ways to look at it. That informed one of my core values that I tried to foster in StuCo.”

That core value was to hear all the perspectives in the room because, he says, “if we just hear one or two, we are not getting as much as we could from the people we have. That class taught me that great learning comes when we have all those conversations with one another. The class was never predictable and always inspiring.”

Quick Takes

College: Harvard/New England Conservatory of Music dual-degree program, Boston, Massachusetts

Clubs/activities/honors: Swimming & diving (two-time captain), water polo (captain), Student Council president, Orchestra, Concert Choir, tour guide, Norton Fellow, William C. Card Junior Music Award, Aaron P. Pratt Jr. Senior Music Prize, Samuel C. Suisman Senior History Prize, Global & Environmental Studies Certificate, Cum Laude Society honors, and Jennie Loomis Prize. 

On the beauty of the campus: “It’s so stunning, nicer than a lot of college campuses. One thing that is amazing to me is that the campus is contained in a loop. ... Obviously it is large, but contained, and I think that helps with the sense of community.” 

Favorite place on campus: “I love the pool, that’s for sure. I also love the Harkness tables in Chaffee. I love Founders Lounge.” He says his greatest intellectual discussions were at the Harkness tables, long classroom tables designed to foster dialogue as equals. 

Favorite snack: Chex Mix and Kit-Kats

As a freshman I was ... “one who wanted to explore. One who lived by the word ‘try.’”

As a senior I ...  “still live by the word ‘try,’ but I also say I’m pretty resilient. When you come out of Loomis Chaffee, you have had a lot of experiences, so when you experience them again, you don’t get knocked down. ‘Oh, I’ve been in tough situations before, I’ve made tough decisions, or had a lot of work and I’ve done it.’ So, you don’t really fall. You’re resilient. You're tough.”