After fifteen years of serving as the Student Activities Director, Dr. Nancy Banks has bid farewell to scheduling events and has again said “Hello” to her love of teaching in the History
Department. She teaches classes like American Radicalism, The Rise of the Right, Kennedy Legacy, Nazi Germany and The Holocaust and The New Yorker
In 2011, Banks’s job as Dean of Student Life which she inherited from Lorenzo Krakowsky, was constantly evolving. Banks coordinated the club fair, MADs, FADs, ALPs, the summer book committee, assemblies and advised the student government. Additionally, Banks was the point person for all student initiatives.
As Banks reflected on being a student ally rather than leader, she said: “This is not about me; it’s about the power of a progressive, truly student-centered, student life program, where the students in many ways are leading the adults and we are there to give them advice and to guide them.”
Banks’s former position gave her a larger entryway into students’ lives than she ever had before. My older sister, Steff Chavez, a Fieldston alumna, was one of the many students who utilized Banks’s famous glass windowed office in the lower 500’s corridor. Banks said she wouldn’t have had it any other way; sharing her office space and getting to know an array of students was her favorite aspect of the job.
“That was an office that I happily shared with students. It was a place where I got to know students in a very different way,” she said.
A major factor in Banks’s decision to step down was her “first love” of teaching. Working as the Activities Director severely cut down her time in the classroom. As a full-time history teacher, Banks taught four classes, but as the Activities Director she was supposed to instruct only one, however, she taught two.
Banks provided her reasoning for taking on the extra history class: “I just loved teaching and I wanted that added connection to the students.”
After over a decade on the job, Banks believed that it was time to pass the torch: “I really believe it’s a young person’s job and you know, I’m not that old, but I sure feel like it’s time for fresh ideas and to get someone else in the position to continue the amazing traditions,” she stated.
Her decision was a complicated one that was slightly influenced by the challenges she recently faced. Banks reflected on it becoming increasingly hard to “collaborate with students and really work with students in a way that their voices were actually heard and adults in the community listened to them. There was a little bit of frustration there.”
Banks may have left her position as Activities Director, but her love and passion for the work still flourishes: “I continue to be deeply passionate about a lot of the things students care about. I hope to continue to be involved in student life here,” said Banks.
At the end of the interview, Banks described three of her most meaningful experiences as Activities Director, which all happen to be because of student initiatives. The first was the Assembly After Dark program when Women’s Leadership brought Anita Hill to speak. The documentary about Hill truly inspired the students, so much so that they insisted on inviting her to campus.
“They were just so determined for this to happen,” she exclaimed while talking about the assembly, “Their perseverance attracted 250 people to witness an incredibly compelling speech.”
In 2017, students entered Banks’s office concerned about issues surrounding consent at Fieldston. Their initiative led to an incredibly successful FAD in the middle of the year that was completely the students’ visions. Banks guided the students by asking: “What are the issues that are important to you and what can we do in this community to educate students about consent?” Banks thought that this day was extremely powerful, especially in terms of educating male-identifying students.
Banks said when discussing the day of the FAD: “It was also one of the most successful days in terms of getting community buy-in.” There were 10-15 outside speakers as well as student-led workshops that brought the community together.
Banks’s final meaningful moment was when the summer book committee selected The Hate You Give by Angie Thomas. After reading the book, a student walked in late to class boasting about the book, saying that “This is a story the community needs to hear.” The school was able to bring in Thomas to speak at the fall MAD later that year.
Banks said: “In my mind, Angie Thomas was one of the most memorable assembly speakers.” She reiterated the fact that during the student discussions that day “it was all the kids” and that she was “just facilitating.”
All three memories highlighted a part of the job Banks strongly enjoyed. “In some ways, and I think this is hard for adults to do, you gotta get out of their way. Gotta get out of the kids’ way. You have to guide, you know, obviously you have to create spaces where students feel like they can achieve a particular vision, and you can’t allow kids to just do whatever they want,” explained Banks.
The Activities Director no longer exists; most of the responsibilities were passed down to Rashad Randolph, the Assistant Principal of Student Life. After fifteen years, the goodbye is bittersweet, but I invite the Fieldston community to assist me in welcoming Banks back to her full-time position in the history department.
