Hailing from a small, rural community in Wester Connecticut, Kiersten Todt gave her honest, unvarnished assessment that she was not psyched to be coming to Andover as a junior.
Living in Abbey House in Abbott during her junior year, she didn’t love the place from the get go. It was her PE class that first fall with Coach Leon Modeste surviving the ropes course, the swimming requirement, and the physical challenges that helped her get over her ambivalence.
The place gave her the grit to preservere and problem solve in the hard and humbling academic environment of the place. By the time she got to college, like many of us, Kiersten thought “Oh, I’ve done this”.
The grit and determination to figure it all out remain great lessons from her time at PA, along with learning to handle disappointment basically on our own.
From 14 to 18, we were without parents, excepting those pay phone calls once a week or so. As she said, “It wasn’t easy” but it provided great lessons in the non-linear journey that is life.
