12 minute read
What Sets Episcopal Apart
A compilation of classes unique to The High School.
STEFANIE SPARKS SMITH
PRACTICES WHAT SHE PREACHES.
When Episcopal offered Stefanie Sparks Smith a position on the faculty, she was a full-time practicing trial lawyer with Ekstrand & Ekstrand in Durham, N.C., and working on the biggest case of her career, the Duke lacrosse case, which lasted from 2006-2014. (Smith was a standout lacrosse player at Duke so the case was particularly meaningful to her.) The criminal case lasted just over a year followed by years of civil litigation. That case, which resulted in the first time the state of North Carolina proclaimed defendants innocent in an official court filing, was one of the many cases she has worked on that now informs her Legal Principles and Trial Advocacy class.
For over five years, Smith has taught the course, which shows students the ins and outs of courtroom trials and the art and effectiveness of persuasive advocacy, using hypothetical cases gathered from her time at Georgetown University’s esteemed law school. The course culminates in a mock trial in front of a practicing judge on the D.C. Court of Appeals. The Honorable John P. Howard III, a friend of Smith’s from law school, has been presiding over these mock
trials since the course’s inception, and has hosted numerous Episcopal externs over the years. Howard, who was initially appointed by former President Trump then reappointed by President Biden, embodies the bipartisanship Smith teaches her students.
Smith’s love for the law is infectious in the classroom. Now serving as Episcopal’s General Counsel in addition to teaching legal electives offered to juniors and seniors, Smith’s real-world experience provides a perspective in the classroom unlike any other. Natanim Bekele ’25 said she “would have been so surprised and so proud” if someone had told her one year ago that she would deliver an opening statement in a real courtroom to a presiding judge. “It was just an incredible experience. It boosted my confidence.”
“I always tell them as they’re getting ready and preparing for the mock trial that there are experiences and opportunities in life that you’ll regret not investing time and energy into. This is one of them. Commit to the preparation and work hard,” she said.
Commit to the preparation and work hard.
To include the greater community, Smith invites parents, friends, and EHS Board members to sit in on the trial, which is always well attended. Former students of the class and faculty sometimes act as witnesses. Each team has a practicing attorney mentor including Smith’s husband Stephen, a trial lawyer for the Department of Justice. The energy and engagement from the attendees, according to Smith, is one of the best parts of the experience. Parents and other spectators agree. “The trial was one of the most incredible educational experiences I’ve ever seen,” said Jen Ryan P’24 in an email to Smith after the event, “and we are thrilled that Beau had the opportunity at 19 years old! From the directions to the selection of the judge from the mentors for each team to your leadership in the room, it was a well orchestrated and safe learning environment.”
I feel I’ve gotten students to look at the bigger picture, at both sides of the argument.
PETER GOODNOW
FLIPS THE SCRIPT AND HAS STUDENTS PRESENT THEIR FINDINGS TO EXPERTS.
Until the early 2000s, social studies teacher Peter Goodnow was teaching Advanced Placement Government. Ultimately, he felt the standardized curriculum limited the impact studying government in the nation’s capital could have on Episcopal students, and with the support of the School, he set about creating an Advanced Government class completely unique to our location. His class seamlessly integrates Washington, D.C., and Goodnow builds the coursework around national and global news. As a result, no semester is the same.
Goodnow, a former CIA officer with many connections in the D.C. area, takes a different approach when he brings his classroom to meet with industry experts. He has his students study the person’s policy, business, or role, and then essentially give them a report card. Rather than taking students to hear a lecture or be taken on a tour, Goodnow has students take a leading role, making the history come alive.
As the 2024 election approaches, Goodnow created a unit on third parties. If a percentage of Democrats want a candidate other than President Biden, or a percentage of Republicans want a candidate other than
former President Trump, how should third parties use this data to their advantage? The students explored questions like: Would you risk Biden winning by voting for a thirdparty candidate that might lessen Trump’s chance, and vice versa? At the culmination of the unit, the class traveled to the D.C. office of No Labels, an organization which strives to put country first and political party second. There, the students met with No Labels co-founder Holly Page. As is customary in Goodnow’s class, students presented their findings on the political viability of selected No Labels positions and compared them with historial third parties dating back to 1912, impressing Page with their attention to detail and individual points of view.
Goodnow invites hard conversations, especially when students disagree. He willingly shares his own perspective, not to change students’ minds but to engage in meaningful civic discourse. “I feel I’ve gotten students to look at the bigger picture, at both sides of the argument. If they honestly examine both sides, that’s a net plus because they’ve thought critically.” And it is not just the students who are challenged to think differently; Goodnow himself thrives on the discussion that results when students find something in their research that is news to the veteran teacher. “I’m always glad when that happens,” he said, “because it not only expands my knowledge, but it also gives the rest of the class more perspective to deal with the topic at hand.”
To gather real-world data for assignments, Goodnow includes the greater EHS community by sending polls to all faculty and staff to get the pulse of public opinion on campus, while recognizing that campus could not appropriately capture the wide swath of the nation’s view. “It’s so important to understand we are a democracy,” Goodnow said of his strategy. “Public opinion matters.”
DR. RYAN PEMBERTON
CHALLENGES STUDENTS TO EMBRACE THEIR OWN LEADERSHIP STYLES.
While at Hampden-Sydney College, Dr. Ryan Pemberton taught multiple classes related to leadership theory. When he began at Episcopal as The William Stamps Farish Fund Director of the McCain-Ravenel Center, he hoped he might be able to adapt aspects of those classes for the high school setting — while still maintaining the standards he had for his college classes. The result? Two semester-long classes called Leadership Theory, which focus on D.C. and U.S. institutions in the fall and D.C. and international institutions in the spring. Both courses use experiential learning (EL) pedagogy, which the faculty uses widely, primarily in flex blocks, to bring the material to life. EL can be loosely described as a model where students learn concepts, act, and then reflect on the experience, according to Pemberton.
Pemberton’s classes are built around interactions with expert leaders in a wide range of fields from politics to law and nonprofit leadership. Students begin by learning leadership concepts like organizational culture, leader-follower interaction, and ethics. Pemberton has learned that creating engaging interactions with leaders provides the students with a sense of ownership. Pemberton builds self-reflection into the course to encourage students to think critically about leadership concepts and their own goals, priorities, and values. “Students move from being passive bystanders to active participants who will serve with intellectual and moral courage — the foundation of our Portrait of a Graduate qualities,” Pemberton said.
In the course, students discuss how much a leader’s background can and does influence his or her leadership style. They study famous leaders from Ronald Reagan to Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Malcolm X along with Mother Teresa and Winston Churchill. As they dive into leaders’ backgrounds, Pemberton reminds his students of the power of civic discourse, an initiative essential to the ethos of the McCain-Ravenel Center. “If you don’t understand what the other person is going through, it’s really hard for you to move forward together,” Pemberton tells his students. “It’s not solely being nice for nice’s sake, it’s so you can do things collectively and move the institution forward.”
Like Advanced Government, Pemberton’s class can turn on a dime to respond to real-world happenings. During the spring semester, for example, students studied the conflicts between Israel and Hamas, Russia and Ukraine, and China and Taiwan, keeping up with current news and diving into leadership styles of each group and country. Pemberton tells his students that “the purpose of education is to connect what you’re doing in the classroom with the world beyond campus.” He also knows how rare these opportunities are for high school students — opportunities made possible by Episcopal’s location and vast network. “We are so fortunate to be located where we are and to be a part of this EHS community. Alumni and parents go above and beyond to share their experiences with our students. The world really is closer here at EHS.”
Throughout the class, students also evaluate their own leadership styles. The students assess their individual strengths and opportunities for growth and track them throughout the semester. At the culmination of the course, they present a creative project to explain how they grew and evolved. “I’ve learned that to be a good leader, you have to connect with those you’re leading. Meeting them where they are and honoring that space is so important,” said Ava Reese ’25.
The purpose of education is to connect what you’re doing in the classroom with the world outside.
TOMMY PRATT
MEETS STUDENTS WHERE THEY ARE.
The summer before he arrived on campus, math teacher Tommy Pratt went to an institute to hone his skills teaching Advanced Placement Computer Science. As the first day of classes approached, Pierce Brennan, chair of the mathematics department, realized there was a need for a class above AP Computer Science for the seven students who had already aced the exam and were looking for another challenge. Brennan tasked Pratt with designing a higher-level computer science course, and the new teacher quickly jumped at the opportunity to continue doing what he loved so much in undergrad at Duke University, where he majored in the subject.
Pratt began to design a course called Advanced Topics in Computer Science, with the first semester focusing on Algorithms and the second on Computer Architecture. The two sections of the class build upon each other as the year culminates in one large project: designing a fully functioning computer processor. “It’s so empowering to come in as a brand-new teacher and be given so much freedom,” Pratt said of designing the course that is meant to demystify computers. “It’s rare to be given the opportunity to delve into subject matter that is so intrinsically interesting to me.”
Pratt draws inspiration from his time as a teaching assistant in a computer architecture class while at Duke, and he intentionally keeps a college pace because he knows his students can handle it. “I hope I’ve scaffolded them to the point where any introductory level computer science class they take in college will be a breeze.” Pratt’s teaching style is to push the students as much as they are able, and if they falter, he will start fresh alongside them. “It’s a heavy lift, but they’re flying through the material,” he said proudly.
Leo Melton ’24 spoke of what he thinks makes the class special: “It’s taught me to consider the ‘why’ behind everything. You want to understand how things work and why things work. You don’t just want to regurgitate information.”
Alexa Parchment ’24, who plans to major in engineering in college, agreed: “Mr. Pratt has this fresh angle. He can see the area where we’re going to struggle, because he just struggled himself.” Pratt himself knows the power of this teacher-student connection. “I’m relatively close to having learned the material myself in the classroom,” he said.
While touring Clemson University’s famed College of Engineering, Computing and Applied Sciences, Parchment told the director of the program about her recent work in Pratt’s class. “We ended up talking about the Traveling Salesman problem, and I told him I learned about it in our first semester,” she recounted. “He had never met a high schooler who knew about the problem. It made me really get a grasp on how ahead I will be going into college.” She even got advice from a current junior at Clemson who told her the problem was the basis for many interview questions for summer opportunities.
The ultimate lesson Melton and Parchment have taken from the class is to embrace the challenge. “Even if we do really poorly on a problem, at least we try,” Melton said. “It’s better than not trying at all.”
You want to understand how things work and why things work.
