SALMAGUNDY The Official Student Newspaper of Miss Porter’s School Winter 2026
Pushing Through or Pushing Too Far? Porter’s Athletes Play Through Pain By Caroline Callahan ’26 Sports Editor
Where do student-athletes at Porter’s draw the line when it comes to injuries? For many student-athletes, injuries develop gradually and become part of daily participation rather than forcing an immediate stop. They become conditioned and learn to adjust to injuries while continuing to compete. Annie Tang ’26 and Kendall Manuel ’26 described playing through injury as a choice shaped by personal expectations and self-imposed standards. Tang, a member of varsity volleyball and squash teams, described a “shoulder injury from volleyball that continued through squash because of the same arm movement.” Instead of stepping away, she kept playing. “I have always tended to play through it,” Tang said, “but it has affected the way I play and sometimes made it worse. I always just keep icing it.” Tang emphasized that the pressure she feels does not come from others. “I have never felt pressure from someone else to keep playing even if I am hurt,” Tang said. “I have only felt that pressure from myself.” While she noted that Porter’s culture does not encourage athletes to play through injury, she said the internal push to continue is still strong. Tang recalled a moment during the Dig Pink game in October when she felt she had to continue despite the injury. During competition, pain often fades, she said. “I never feel it as much during the game because of adrenaline,” Tang said, “but afterwards I tend to feel it.” Manuel experienced an injury more suddenly. She fractured her back before attending Porter’s and could not participate in sports for a year and a half. “It never healed properly,”
Annie Tang ’26 continued to compete while managing a shoulder injury throughout the 2025 season. Photo courtesy of Stephan Wang.
Manuel said, adding that crew and later squash aggravated the injury further. The experience changed her relationship with pain. “Sometimes I feel like perseverance is pushing through the pain,” Manuel said, “but I also get scared that it’s going to get worse.” Dealing with injuries, she added, has made her
feel “fragile.” Long after a game ends, self-judgment around injury continues to shape how athletes show up at Porter’s, for their teams and for themselves. But when does persistence begin to take more than it gives?
In College, Ancients See Greater Rigor and Looser Community By Claire Shen ’28 Layout Editor
Jennifer Lin ’24, a former Editor-in-Chief of Salmagundy, did not find the transition from Porter’s to college overwhelming. Instead, she found it led to clearer academic paths. As a student at Northwestern University, Lin points to the grading system as a key divergence from Porter’s to college. In Lin’s experience, Porter’s relied largely on project-based assessments while college offered direct feedback through exams and clearly weighted evaluations. College, Lin said, permits students to understand their academic standing more precisely.
“In college, everything is percentage-based. You know exactly where you stand. A 93 percent is an A or an A-minus,” she said. “At Porter’s, the four-point system felt like an unnecessary extra layer that made things more stressful without adding clarity.” For current students at Miss Porter’s School, Lin’s perspective is clarifying how Porter’s distinctive grading model compares with more standardized systems at institutions such as Northwestern University. As Porter’s has recently implemented a Mastery Transcript Consortium record and plans to shift attention away
from the traditional GPA, Ancients’ experiences offer a practical lens on how Porter’s education translates to college expectations. For June Liu ’25 at Barnard College, college is also a more positive experience, but in a different way. Studying in New York City, Liu said she was better able to engage in various civic opportunities and stay politically active in the classroom and extracurricular activities. “At Porter’s, it felt like there were limits to how much we could do,” said Liu, “At Barnard, I’m constantly engaging. I didn’t realize See story page 5