Sem Snippets SPRING 2012
Greetings from the Head of School It has been a busy few months here at Sem! As I write, faculty and students are preparing for a much-deserved spring vacation. Once we return, the end of the school year will arrive quickly, and we’ll be graduating another class of strong young women. I am pleased to announce that the Class of 2012 has chosen Lauren Belfer ’71 as this year’s Commencement speaker. I hope if you are in town on June 12, you’ll consider attending what promises to be another memorable ceremony. Thank you for your continued support of Buffalo Seminary. Happy Spring! Best wishes,
All-WNY Academic Team Honoree Congratulations to Sarah Shafik ’12, who qualified for the 2012 list of the 100 most outstanding high-school seniors in the eight-county region. She received Special Mention in the highly competitive program sponsored by Business First. Sarah is the co-president of Sem’s 20112012 Social Service Board, and is also an athlete on our varsity and squash tennis teams.
“Hamlet’s Newsfeed” at 2012 TWT On February 22, Lisa Game Pritchard ’99, a member of Sem’s English Department, was one of the many educators who presented at the 2012 Teaching With Technology (TWT) conference. Hosted by the New York State Association of Independent Schools (NYSAIS), the conference highlighted the use of technology in classroom instruction. Lisa’s presentation, entitled Hamlet's Newsfeed: Using Technology to Teach Narrative in the English Classroom, showed attendees how to use everyday media, including Facebook and text-messaging, to create unique student narratives for an upper-level reading and writing program. She used several examples of student work from her popular senior elective, Multimedia Lit.
Congratulations to the Cast and Crew of Chamber Music This year’s Marion McNulty Dillon ’22 Drama was Chamber Music by Arthur Kopit. Written in 1962, the one-act absurdist play is set in the late 1930s and centers on eight women staying in an insane asylum. The patients are convinced they are important figures from history – writer Gertrude Stein; martyr Joan of Arc; suffragist Susan B. Anthony; Queen Isabella I; Constanze Mozart, the composer’s wife; silent-film actress Pearl White; safari adventurer Osa Johnson; and aviator Amelia Earhart. Directed by Susan Drozd, the production ran the gamut of emotions, and included a surprise cameo by history teacher Dr. Ben Priest, who played the doctor. Throughout the play, the audience was led to wonder whether one of the women – “Amelia Earhart” – really was the famed aviator, given the time frame. For more about the play, go to BUFFALOSEMINARY.ORG/HEADLINENEWS (“Buffalo Seminary’s 2012 Production of Chamber Music to Open on International Women’s Day”)