“I really like the design of regular objects. I love to look at mugs and bowls and small things like that and how the form and function are combined. I had always been interested in that, even before ceramics, but to think about form and function and aesthetics as I am creating something in real time is cool.”

We recently caught up with senior Emanuelle Marcus, who has been a head e-proctor for the past two years, working with other students on global and environmental programming and events, including this year’s Earth Week events. 

“I have always had an appreciation for nature and noticing the small things we often overlook,” Emanuelle said. “Growing up in Texas, obviously the wildlife is different from here, and I also remember lying in my backyard and looking up at pecan trees and always being mesmerized by them.” She said it is important to appreciate all the trees on the Loomis Chaffee campus and not take them for granted. “Those trees in my backyard got wiped out by a tornado. So having the memory of those trees, and knowing they are gone has made me appreciate what I have.”

Year: Senior

Hometown: Dallas, Texas

Clubs/activities: Head e-proctor, manager of the girls varsity tennis team, Students Activities, Founders Prize winner as a junior, Junior Art Award, Chaffee Leadership Institute as a sophomore.

On her enjoyment of ceramics: She had never thrown on a wheel until her junior year and said she fell in love with it. “I really like the design of regular objects. I love to look at mugs and bowls and small things like that and how the form and function are combined. I had always been interested in that, even before ceramics, but to think about form and function and aesthetics as I am creating something in real time is cool. And I am a very impatient person, and to get on the wheel and have a form done in 10 minutes is very nice as opposed to other parts of ceramics that are more time-consuming. I enjoy making mugs with odd handles; it is a cool way to express something interesting in a form.”

On her experience in the Chaffee Leadership Institute, a program for sophomore girls: “That got me thinking about interesting things.” One of them sticks in her mind two years later, “specifically how women tend to talk in the workplace and in an email, where they use apologetic language, such as ‘I’m sorry, but could I ...’ And so that is something that I still think about when I am asking for things — to not apologize for asking for something.”

Favorite meal at home: Her father’s rack of lamb. “My contribution is moral support.” She said he is a really good cook, and he spends a lot of time preparing the dish, letting it sit, then cooking it the next day. “It’s the best, and somehow every time it gets batter.”

Favorite place on campus: Founders Hall. She appreciates the classic look inside and outside the building, “a testament to the school’s history. Sometimes I will study there, and it's just nice to sit in a place and know students from the past 100 years were once in the same spot you are.”

On being the varsity girls tennis manager: “Watching tennis is fun, first of all, but being a part of a community I otherwise would not have been is great.”

How she has changed since freshman year: When she entered Loomis Chaffee, she said, she felt the definition of success was “doing everything. I had a realization the end of my freshman year that has continued to evolve. That is not the definition of success. [With] everything I do, I ask myself, ‘Why am I doing this? Because I really want to or [because] it will look good on a resume?’ If it's because it will look good on a resume, I now know that is not being genuine to myself and fair to others. So I am going about the world in a much more genuine way, knowing how important that is.”