Meet a Knight: Glass Master Mike Fradin

Our ongoing series Meet a Knight features discussions with members of the PCD community about what they do on and off campus. We began the year by having conversations with two new faculty members, and today we present our first chat with a current student, junior Mike Fradin. Mike is well known around campus as a student and an athlete. What most Knights don't know, however, is that Mike has also been creating glass artwork outside of school for years. @PCD caught up with Mike to talk about his art, a sample of which can currently be seen in a display in Lund Hall.

@PCD: I don't know that I've ever met a student who was also a glass blower. Can you tell me how you got into it?

MF: I started around 12 or 13, so I've been doing it now for four or five years. It's a class through RISD - my mom was the one who found the class and asked me if I wanted to do it, and I said, "sure!" and I've stuck with it ever since. 

@PCD: Do you still take the class?

Mike Fradin's glass is on display in Lund Hall. 

MF: In the beginning years it was really a class and I got a lot of directions from the guys who run the studio and have been blowing glass for a while. But after a while they lay off the directions and just let you do it. So I do still go to the class, but it's pretty informal. I go in for about three hours one day a week and take turns blowing with whoever else is there.

@PCD: I know almost nothing about blowing glass other than that it looks pretty intimidating. Can you explain the process of going from nothing to having one of your beautiful pieces of glass? I assume there is a lot of fire involved!

Meet a Knight: Photographer Jo Sittenfeld

Ms. Sittenfeld snapping a photo.

Our series "Meet a Knight" features discussions with members of the PCD community. We are beginning the year by speaking with the faculty and staff who are new to the school this year. After starting with college counselor Terry Ward last week, today's chat is with Art Teacher Jo Sittenfeld.

Ms. Sittenfeld actually joined PCD last spring, so this marks her first full school year at 660 Waterman Ave. She is a woman who wears many hats. At PCD she teaches photography and digital media. She also works as an adjunct professor at the Rhode Island School of Design, where she currently teaches a range of photography classes and in RISD's "Project Open Door," an after-school program aimed at getting high school students interested in art. She somehow manages to take photographs for her own work, which she has exhibited all over the country. You can find her around PCD every day, either teaching a class or shooting photos of our busy students.

@PCD: Hi Jo, thank you so much for talking with us. How did you get into photography?

JS: Well I feel like my mom actually steered me--she would always get me these biographies of Margaret Bourque-White and all these pioneering women photographers when I was around eight. But when I was in college I took a photo class. I'd always loved art and art history, and thought it was this side thing I would do, and that I would be an English major or a science major or something like that. But during my sophomore year I took a photo class and it sort of changed my world and my life, and ever since then I have been doing photography steadily. I was an Art and Art History major and got my teaching certification, and from there taught high school art before I came to RISD and got my MFA in photography. It's always been this balance between making art and teaching it, which for me is a really good balance.

Meet a Knight: College Counselor Terry Ward

Welcome to the second of our new series: Meet a Knight, where we will be talking with members of the PCD community and sharing their perspectives. Kicking off the series is PCD's new college guidance counselor, Terry Ward. 


Mr. Ward comes to PCD most recently from the Ross School in East Hampton, NY, where he was the director of college counseling. With many years of experience on both the independent school and college sides of the college admissions process, Mr. Ward has hit the ground running at PCD. Mr. Ward is busy working with the new seniors, but we took a couple minutes to catch up with him as he was settling into his new role here at Country Day.


@PCD: Hi Terry--thanks for taking the time to speak with us! Can you tell us how you got into college counseling?