Amidst the Trees - Spring 2019

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FCDSMagazine FCDS Forsyth Country Day School 5501 Shallowford Road Lewisville, NC 27023 336-945-3151—fcds.org Head of School

Gardner Barrier ’97

Associate Head of School for Academic Affairs Director of the Middle School Michelle Klosterman, Ph.D.

Associate Head of School for Advancement Nathan Battle

Associate Head of School for Finance and Operations Andrea Matney

Director of the Upper School Steve Manna ’02

Director of the Lower School Dennis Moser, Ed.D.

Director of the Johnson Academic Center Ashley Clark

Amidst the Trees Editor

Priscilla St. John

Publication Design

Scarlett Jessup, ROODcreative

Printed by

Slate Marketing

Contributors & Special Thanks

Frank Brown, Jan DiBlasio, Renee Foust, Tom Howell, Cate Reece Lynch ’03, Beth Mack, Chris Turner

On the cover: They won! The FCDS girls’ varsity basketball team celebrates the first girls’ basketball state championship in school history!

Parents, alumni, and friends of Forsyth Country Day School are encouraged to contribute articles, photographs, and other items of interest to Amidst the Trees. Please send them to: priscillastjohn@fcds.org or Editor, Amidst the Trees, Forsyth Country Day School, P.O. Box 925, Lewisville, NC, 27023. Alumni, alumni families, faculty, and friends of the school are encouraged to send Class Notes updates and pictures as well as birth notes and items for In Memoriam to alumni@fcds.org. Amidst the Trees is published twice annually and sent free of charge to parents, alumni, and friends of Forsyth Country Day School. POSTMASTER: please send address changes to Amidst the Trees, P.O. Box 925, Lewisville, NC, 27023.


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A MESSAGE

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CAMPUS NOTES

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from Gardner Barrier ’97 Head of School

Furies making an impact

ALL FOR ONE

The girls’ varsity basketball team’s championship season started and ended with sisterhood.

SAYING “YES” TO OPPORTUNITY

Nick Strauch ’19 goes to China

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LEARNING IN TANDEM

Business & entrepreneurship and engineering come together

THE POWER OF YET

Harnessing a growth mindset in FCDS’s Lower School

IMRAN CRONK: DRIVING A REVOLUTION IN HEALTHCARE Alumnus Imran Cronk saw a need and filled it. We catch up with this young health entrepreneur.

FCDS TAKES TO THE STAGE

Photos from the hit FCDS plays


Head of School Gardner Barrier ’97 teaches his AP Macroeconomics class. To his left is alumnus and alumni parent Mr. David Neill ’79, a longtime mentor of Mr. Barrier.

a message from Dear FCDS Community:

Gardner Barrier

Believe it or not, this magazine didn’t start out with a theme. As information for the articles was gathered, people were interviewed, and the stories were written, it certainly emerged with one, though: empowerment. What does empowerment mean to us as a school? It means that we give our teachers agency to try new things. I’ve recently told them, “Permission granted.” If you think of a new idea for your classroom, a new way to teach an old lesson (or a new lesson to teach), permission granted. If your idea fails spectacularly, you’ll still have learned something (and more important, the KIDS will have learned something). Eventually you’ll find what works. We empower our kids by making failure not only OK, but something to celebrate. Take students featured in Learning in Tandem on page 5. They’ve even changed their product when they realized it was too labor-intensive to make. All that failure is teaching them serious problem-solving skills that they’ll take with them into everything they do. If we’re lucky (and diligent), our youngest students may be able to learn the lesson of failure QUITE a bit earlier—with just one little word. In The Power of Yet on page 15, some of our first and second grade teachers got really passionate about growth mindset and adding that one little word, “yet”, to the end of every statement that starts with “I can’t.” Maybe you can’t read today, but keep trying. Maybe you can’t ride a two wheeler or tie your shoes...yet. But if you keep trying, you’ll get it. That’s

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empowering kids to persevere, solve problems, and have a can-do attitude. Yes! Our girls’ varsity basketball team wasn’t even a team (yet) when the season began, but with hard work, more than a little grit, and building their relationships, they were able to go from a season that almost wasn’t to winning the first-ever girls’ varsity state championship in school history. Wow. Read about that on page 19. Finally, an alumnus saw a problem in healthcare (the transportation barrier) and decided to solve it by creating his own company, Ride Health. Imran Cronk ’12 is empowered, he’s empowering others to take control of their health (even if they can’t literally take the wheel), and he’s seriously impressive. Meet Imran in Imran Cronk: Driving a Revolution in Healthcare on page 23. I hope you enjoy this issue and that you take care, be well, and feel empowered in every area of your lives. Go Furies!

Gardner Barrier ’97 Head of School Follow @gardnerbarrier on Twitter


FCDS 50th Anniversary Celebration! April 17 & 18, 2020 4


LEARNING IN TANDEM

C period. At Forsyth Country Day School, it’s the magic hour where two classes come together in the Engineering Center to collaborate, solve problems, and...run an actual business. Forsyth Tandem Designs, created in fall 2018 by the students in Business & Entrepreneurship and Honors Engineering III,

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originally started because the school acquired a ShopBot CNC machine. “Students create a design on the computer using CAD (computer-aided design) and approximately 50,000 lines of code,” said engineering teacher and science department chair Joe Trotter. “The CNC machine can cut anything you program from wood, aluminum, or plastic.”


When they got the CNC machine, students started playing around with what it could do. “We would cut some things for fun; inlays were easy,” said Nick Strauch ’19. Mr. Trotter and his students experimented with making inlaid coasters to apply what they’d been learning in engineering. They cut discs of maple, cherry, oak, mahogany, and plywood

on the CNC machine, then cut inlays for the coasters, glued them in place, and sanded them before applying a glossy finish of poly or tung oil. “We started to think we could make a business,” Nick said. Since Business & Entrepreneurship meets in the same building during the same class period, teaming up made a lot of sense.

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“We joined Business & Entrepreneurship to make one company. If we didn’t partner with them, I don’t know how we could have done it.” With the creation of Forsyth Tandem Designs, the school has two goals. “We want to maximize learning potential and try to own and run a business,” said Associate Head of School for Advancement and Business & Entrepreneurship teacher Nathan Battle. “By bringing the two classes together, they can both learn more.” On the business side, Mr. Battle split his students into three teams that handled market research and setting a price based on comparable products ($50 for a set of four coasters and a holder), costs of production, operation, and maintenance, and telling the company’s story. Will Schomberg ’19 did a lot of the cost analysis. “We looked at raw materials prices and sources, asking, ‘What does it actually cost to make what we want to make’?” He also looked at the time it took to make the coasters. “It took about four days to do a batch—four hours of putting it together, then wait for drying.” Engineering student Anna Lammel ’19 spent a lot of her time working on the coasters—finishing them in particular. “It’s a lot of work,” Anna said. “When people who’ve never worked with CAD or a CNC machine or done woodworking say how easy it looks to make a coaster, I think: ‘You have no idea of the amount of work it takes’.” The coasters were popular, but were labor- and time-intensive. Business student Chase Spittler ’19 reported that engineering students started to come in at 7 a.m. on Day 3 of the rotating schedule. “Engineering students called it Period 0,” he said. “They would come in to get a head start on the work.” But—even with Period 0—working on coasters exclusively simply wasn’t sustainable for a company of students with classes, a home life,

and co-curricular commitments. “We’re trying to find a product that’s bigger in scale,” Chase said. “A bigger product could lead to more revenue and more recognition.” That kind of troubleshooting is something that both engineers and entrepreneurs have in common, and they’re beneficial no matter what you do. “The skills are totally transferable,” Mr. Battle said. “Problem-solving, perseverance, and considerable learning from failure. You make mistakes. We have more scrap wood and broken bits than professional tradespeople would, but you keep at it and you start doing better.” David Craig ’19 agreed. “We encountered problems daily and we learned to

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solve them ourselves,” he said. “That’s what real engineers do.” At press time, Forsyth Tandem Designs had started work on two new products: benches and wood plaques. “We can make 3D things that fit together. A bench takes the same time to make as a single coaster,” Nick explained. The plaques came about because the supplier that made championship and other plaques for the North Carolina Independent School Athletic Association (NCISAA) stopped making them. “If we made them, it would only be about 100 [plaques] a year,” Nick said. “We Googled ‘circular wooden disc’ and they were using the cheapest ones on Amazon. We knew we could do it better.” As the nascent business begins its new chapter, the students hope to accomplish one goal. “We want to figure out a way to make revenue for the school. We want to make engineering self-sustaining,” said Demetri Hodges ’19. Will ran the numbers, and the total they’d need to leave that legacy would be $11,800 annually. “That includes R&D and

the software they use, as well as replacements for parts that break,” he said. Of course, the engineers and business students of 2019 are now alumni, so will the program die with them? Unlikely. “We’d love to see a class be able to take it on so the engineering program can be self-sustaining,” Chase said. Going forward, Mr. Battle and Mr. Trotter will team-teach an FCDS Ventures class that builds off the Forsyth Tandem Designs model (and keeps the company humming), and other classes may focus specifically on the CNC machine. “We’re trying to re-integrate hands-on learning,” Mr. Battle said. “Knowing how to create and build things is never a waste of time. In terms of higher education and hands-on skills, it can be ‘and’ and ‘both’. That’s how we’re preparing our students for what’s ahead no matter what path they go down.”

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S E T O N S U P CAM FCDS Sends 72 Delegates to Youth and Government Seventy-two FCDS Upper School students joined more than 1,000 teens from across the state as Youth and Government delegates to create a mock government featuring executive, legislative, and judicial branches as well as the fourth estate - the press. FCDS representives saw wide successes across Youth and Government, including: • Bella Wiese, who won an award in her individual YAG branch • Jesse Gargis, who received an award for the best bill in the House • Saanvi Pawa, who was a member of the winning Mock Trial All-Star team • Halle Kincaid, who was named an associate justice of the Appellate Court • Joshua Howard, who was elected presiding officer, a position that only one freshman can win each year. Other students in the FCDS delegation succeeded in winning cases, passing bills, and influencing the passage or rejection of bills as lobbyists and budget analysts. Juniors Ashley Parsons and Peter Cromie were named delegation presidents for next year. Peter said he’s thrilled with the opportunity to lead YAG and that he’s learned a lot in three years. “I believe that this program is truly special as it is an opportunity to go to Raleigh and make amazing friends and have a fun weekend, while also being a part of a simulation of our government. I believe that any student who is capable of participating in YAG should because

I have learned so much through the program both in Raleigh and in Chicago at the National Judicial Competition over the summer.” Ashley agreed. “Participating in YAG has been one of the highlights of my high school years. I believe this program is so important because it educates high schoolers on the government in an active way by challenging them to write their own bills, debate in court cases, and become leaders.” The FCDS members of Youth and Government were: Mitchell Anderson, Katherine Angell, Madeleine Bennett, Lexie Breitling, Ellen Buck, Meredith Cavanaugh, Emmie Cawood, Lilly Chase, Serena Chen, Noah Chmil, Katherine Claybrook, Sarah Grace Clifton, David Craig, Peter Cromie, Avery Dew, Caden Didier, Caleb Divelbiss, Nathan Faulk, Jesse Gargis, Amogh Gorantla, Carol Guo, Jacques Hall, Carver Hiatt, Eva Hollar, Sarina Horner, Yasmin Horner, Joshua Howard, Jack Hutcherson, Charlotte Jennings, Oliver Jewell, Ellen Jiang, Emily Kelly, Sam Kilby, Halle Kincaid, Amy Lan, Skylar Lewis, Katherine Li, Lizzy Llanaj, Gracyn Mansfield, Emily Masten, Patrick McBride, Sonya McNatt, Spencer Muller, Brynna Myers, Ellie Norman, Jacob Parker, Blake Parker, Ashley Parsons, Saanvi Pawa, Elizabeth Poppe, Trevor Rich, Carolina Rocha Lima, David Sanchez, Will Scarpa, Sophie Scherer, Ben Schomberg, Will Schomberg, Will Schultz, Mary Gray Speakman, Davis Speas, Haley Stock, Nick Strauch, Sid Subramanian, Richard Tao, Cason TeVault, Lauren Turner, Meghan Turner, Bella Wiese, John Woodard, Edwin Xiao, and Catherine Young.

The 2019 FCDS Youth in Government delegation poses for a photo by YAG Advisor Tom Howell

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Five FCDS MS Students Sing at Honors Choral Festival

FCDS Upper Schoolers Ace the AMC 10 & 12

Congratulations to seventh graders Ella Bowman and Juliana Rocha Lima and to sixth graders Jenna Patterson, Jack Wall, and Aiden Wiese on being selected for the MiddleFest Choral Festival! All students of Virginia Lee, the students worked with nationally recognized choral director Dr. Oberlin during the February festival and performed with more than 120 singers from across the state.

In February, 28 FCDS students competed in the AMC 10A, 23 students in the AMC 12A, and 11 students took part in the AMC 12B. Administered around the country, these competitions provide an opportunity for high school students to develop positive attitudes towards analytical thinking and mathematics that can assist in future careers. The AMC 10 and 12 are the first in a series of competitions. Congratulations to the following students for their achievements: AMC 10A School Winner: Richard Tao Second Place: Alex Cai Third Place: Saanvi Pawa AMC 12A School Winner: Joshua Howard Placed in the top 5 percent of all participants and qualified for the American Invitational Mathematics Examination (AIME), received Certificate of Achievement awarded to high scoring students in tenth grade or below. Second Place: Gary Yu Third Place: David Craig AMC 12B School Winner: Lucas Zhang Placed in the top 5 percent of all participants and qualified for the American Invitational Mathematics Examination (AIME) Second Place: Gary Yu Third Place: Joshua Howard Special recognition goes to Joshua Howard and Lucas Zhang for qualifying for the AIME. The American Invitational Mathematics Examination (AIME) is a challenging exam offered for those who excelled on the AMC 10 or AMC 12 exams. The AIME is a 15-question, 3-hour examination; each answer is an integer between zero to 999. Even after a grueling 3-hour long examination, they were kind enough to smile for a picture (below). Congratulations to all the students who competed and to faculty sponsor Mrs. Charlotte Phillips!

Sing out! From left: Jenna Patterson, Juliana Rocha Lima, Jack Wall, Dr. Oberlin, Aiden Wiese, and Ella Bowman

Forsyth Feminist Society Raises $329 for Family Services In the fall, the Forsyth Feminist Society organized a fundraiser for family services: students paid to vote on which male teachers would wear heels to work as part of Walk a Mile in Her Shoes, which strives to promote equality in the workplace and advocates for female survivors of sexual assault. History department chair Ed McBride, French teacher Dr. Kevin McCann, and athletic trainer and associate athletic director Kevin Westwood were the winners, and Upper School Director Steve Manna joined them in solidarity (or perhaps because he’s always secretly wanted to wear heels. We’re not judging.) Curious about what look each man wore? Dr. McCann stepped out in eminently practical black block heels (très pratique), Mr. McBride defied all taboos by donning white pumps after Labor Day, Mr. Westwood boldly sported platform cut-outs, and Mr. Manna brought it in a pair of trendy lace-up boots. “When my students came in, I could tell by the look on their faces that something was up,” Mr. McBride said. “I was fortunate that Rebecca [Drucker, president of the Forsyth Feminist Society] chose shoes that wouldn’t cause me to pitch forward or fall. I came close, but it didn’t happen!” He added that he’s always willing to abase himself in the interest of school spirit. “It is a very worthy cause so I was glad to participate.” Mr. Manna agreed. “Yes, my feet were uncomfortable throughout the day, and my calves did scream their displeasure to me the next morning, but that mild discomfort pales in comparison to the suffering of women at the hands of violent men, men who are often women’s loved ones or romantic partners,” he said. “Hopefully, the very small gesture performed by Mr. McBride, Mr. Westwood, Dr. McCann, and myself made a positive impact on the Upper School student body or even elsewhere in our community via its social media exposure. Violence against women — or any romantic partner or person — simply must stop.”

From left: Joshua Howard and Lucas Zhang qualified for the AIME after becoming school winners in the AMC 12A and AMC 12B respectively.

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ting their numerical skills against 120 students from 15 regional schools. FCDS came in second as a school and moved on to the State Finals. The following students placed in the top 20 and went on to represent FCDS at the finals in the spring: Max Drucker (second), Julia Kincaid (eleventh), Asmithaa Vinukonda (twelfth), and Landon Greenwood (eighteenth).

SIGNING ON

In the swim: our award-winning Fury swimmers

Eight Students Win Individual or Group State Swimming Championships

Congratulations go to: Girls’ 200 Medley Relay - Saanvi Pawa, Lexie Breitling, Avery Dew, and Eva Hollar Boys’ 200 Medley Relay - Nathan Jao, Steven Insixiengmay, Caleb Hollar, and Prescott Breitling 50 Free - Eva Hollar 100 Back - Nathan Jao 100 Breast - Steven Insixiengmay Thanks to coaches Bob Jennings, Rachel Baker, and Sawyer Hubbard for their dedication and leadership of these young athletes.

Eight FCDS student-athletes signed National Letters of Intent on Thursday, Feb. 7. Congratulations to Olivia Diaz (softball, Columbia College), Garrett Flinchum (basketball, Guilford College), Haleigh Kozlowski (cross country, University of Lynchburg), Hannah Reid (volleyball, North Carolina State University), Carmen Roberts (softball, Guilford College), Will Schomberg (baseball, Davidson College), Joey Szvetitz (baseball, Winthrop University), and Ashley Walker (rowing, University of Minnesota) for this incredible achievement! It is a great honor to be chosen as a scholarship athlete in the NCAA or NAIA, and we are extremely proud of these talented and hard-working soon-to-be college athletes!

FCDS Donates Almost $1,000 to School Destroyed by Hurricane

A quarter here, a dime there: it may not seem like much, but when you add up all that change, you can affect real (ahem) change. This December, FCDS students and parents raised $942.14 by donating change from their Scholastic Book Fair purchases. They also bought more than $100 in hard-cover books to benefit the classrooms and main library of Jones Middle School in Trenton, N.C., which was destroyed by Hurricane Florence. Special thanks to FCDS mom Carrie Pinnow, who donated her time to count the change at the Book Fair.

Math counts! FCDS middle schoolers represent the school well at Wake Forest.

FCDS Places Second at MATHCOUNTS In February, ten Middle School students competed in the MATHCOUNTS Competition at Wake Forest University, pit-

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FCDS members of the NC Jr. Western Regional Orchestra Festival. Back row from left: Jack Sweeney, Ryan Reynolds, Hardin Massey, Clyde Morton, Zack Jenkins, Nicky Chung. Front row: Sam Speakman, Ian Hart, Teodora Sorescu, Sam Scott, Olivia Samuels, and Alec Jin. Not pictured: Olivia Gornik and Kaeden Palmer.

Fourteen FCDS MS Students Win Chairs to Elite Orchestras An impressive 14 Forsyth Country Day School Middle School students earned chairs to the Jr. Western Regional Orchestra Festival — more than any other school in western North Carolina. Four hundred and eighty four students competed for fewer than 170 chairs in either the Honors or Repertory orchestras. “This was by far one of the most competitive years,” said Director of Orchestras Aaron Craven. “It is a great honor to be selected to either the honors or repertory orchestra, and I couldn’t be more proud of our students and our program.” Students who earned chairs took part in a two-day festival in Charlotte that culminated in a concert on Sunday, April 6. Congratulations to the following students on this notable achievement! Honors Orchestra Violin II Nicole Chung and Alec Jin Viola Kaeden Palmer


Cello Jack Sweeney Repertory Orchestra Violin I Teodora Sorescu Violin II Olivia Gornik and Sam Scott Viola Ian Hart, Sam Speakman, and Olivia Samuels Cello Ryan Reynolds and Zack Jenkins Bass Hardin Massey and Clyde Morton

You Do the Math: FCDS Middle Schoolers Ace the AMC 8 Sixty Middle School students. 25 questions. 40 minutes to see who would reign supreme in Middle School math. The AMC 8 separates the mathletes from math mortals, and FCDS was represented well at all levels. The school winner, who achieved Honor Roll status for scoring in the top 5 percent in the nation, was eighth grader Max Drucker. Seventh grader Asmithaa Vinukonda came in second in the school, also achieving Honor Roll designation for scoring in the top 5 percent nationally. Fellow seventh grader Luca Pass earned third place at FCDS. The grade winners were: Eighth grade Gold: Max Drucker Silver: Julia Kincaid, Kaeden Palmer, Allie Szvetitz, Leo Wang Bronze: Kyle Haas Seventh Grade Gold: Asmithaa Vinukonda Silver: Luca Pass Bronze: Andrew McBride Sixth Grade Gold: Ava Scherer Silver: Jay Dunnagan, Olivia McNatt, Anika Pawa, Cristina Pinnow, Ethan Xiao Bronze: Grant Faraci, Andreas Kazakos, Aiden Wiese Fifth Grade Gold: Emma Cuthrell Silver: Kathryn (Kelso) Harvey Bronze: Sara Insuasti, Charles Shaffer, Derin Yalcinkaya Congratulations to these students on these impressive results, and many thanks to Mrs. Charlotte Phillips for all of her support and assistance.

Four Students Earn Chairs to the NC Western Regional Orchestra Festival

Four FCDS orchestra students earned chairs to the North Carolina Western Regional Orchestra Festival. Senior Lydia Yu (violin), junior Duncan Hart (violin), and freshman Sonya McNatt (cello) represented FCDS in the Repertory Orchestra while junior Phoebe Turvaville (cello) earned a chair in the Honors Orchestra with the highest qualifying audition score in the region on cello. Students attended the festival from February 22-24, 2019 on the campus of the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Congratulations to these students whose hard work and dedication led to this incredible honor!

FCDS Odyssey of the Mind Team Wins Regionals Seven Middle and Upper School students participated in the North Carolina Odyssey of the Mind Regional Competition in Greensboro in March. The team scored 346.43 out of a possible 350, capturing first place and beating out a veteran team of seniors from Northwest Guilford High School. Congratulations to sophomores Carolina Rocha Lima and Sarah Jin, freshmen Katherine Li, Joshua Howard, and Sophie Scherer, eighth grader Kaeden Palmer, and sixth grader Ava Scherer. Their coach, FCDS parent Brian Scherer, declared it a job well done. “Given that we have four ‘rookies’ this year, I was very proud of their hard work — especially given the participation of these kids in so many other extracurricular activities in and out of school.”

FCDS’s award-winning Odyssey of the Mind team. From left: Ava Scherer, Sarah Jin, Kaeden Palmer, Katherine Li, Carolina Rocha Lima, and Sophie Scherer. Not pictured: Joshua Howard.

Go Furies!

From left: Lydia Yu, Sonya McNatt, Phoebe Turvaville, and Duncan Hart earned chairs to the NC Western Regional Orchestra Festival.

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The Power of Yet

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Words are powerful. As we learn to read, we acquire sight words that we save in our memories like money to spend, and what we buy is the ability to express ourselves, and to understand others. One little word, only three letters long, has tranformed the year in Forsyth Country Day’s first and second grades. Don’t say you don’t know what it is. Say, “I don’t know...yet.” Tacking the word “yet” onto the end of an “I can’t…” or an “I don’t know…” is a simple way to establish what’s called a growth mindset. It simply means that we embrace the idea that, through making mistakes, we learn and grow our brains. A

fixed mindset, on the other hand, is the idea that we are born the way we are and that we can’t change. Over the summer, first grade teacher Happy Bell-Wiatrek and second-grade teacher Alie Brinegar were reading The Innovator’s Mindset by George Couros (a personal favorite of Head of School Gardner Barrier’s) for professional development and looking for books that would help translate the concept of the growth mindset for their students. “It was so ironic,” said Ms. Brinegar. “Gardner e-mailed me and said, ‘Hey Alie, I was on Amazon and I ran into a book called Bubble Gum Brain. Literally a week prior, I had bought Your Fantastic Elastic Brain.”


Both books discuss fixed versus growth mindset in ways that are accessible to young learners, and the teachers and their counterparts — second grade teacher Rebecca Miller and first grade teachers Rachel Riddle and Catherine Keating — started to get excited about introducing the concept to their students. When first graders entered Mrs. Bell-Wiatrek’s classroom on the first day of school, they saw the word YET over her door. They saw little YETs on toothpicks. “It sparked curiosity,” Mrs. Bell-Wiatrek said. She read Bubble Gum Brain to them, which presents two characters: one with a Bubble Gum Brain and one with a Brick Brain. Brick Brain is afraid of trying new things,

afraid of failing, and gives up when things get hard. Bubble Gum Brain, on the other hand, loves trying new things and learning from his mistakes, because he knows that they help his brain to expand. “We talked about Bubble Gum Brain and how when you learn new things, your brain grows,” Mrs. Bell-Wiatrek said. “Bubble Gum Brain is always changing, always growing, always fluid, while Brick Brain is a heavy rectangle that never changes its shape.” To help her “Grade One Wonders” grasp the concept, Mrs. Bell-Wiatrek had her students change the way they ended their

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Second grade teacher Alie Brinegar works with students at the Teacher Table.

sentences. “We added ‘yet” to every ‘I can’t’,” she said. “I can’t do that...yet’. The idea clicked with different kids at different times, but when they make that connection, it’s so powerful.” The idea of embracing a growth mindset and the power of “yet” is to empower children to learn, and it’s really playing out in both first and second grade. “We’ve learned that we’re capable of creating the design of our own brains and that we can learn to do new things with effort and perseverance and practice,” Ms. Brinegar said. “We’ve been working a lot on coming up with mulitiple strategies for success, so that if one strategy doesn’t work, we can try another. We can ask, ‘What can we do to reach a goal’?” Mrs. Miller said she learned about growth mindset two years ago, but only began implementing it this year. “A lot of kids who have poor confidence think they can’t do something, but this is teaching them that there are strategies to help them get there.” The teachers are turning to literature, such as Bubble Gum Brain, Your Fantastic Elastic Brain, and the Book of Mistakes to help the children better understand. “We’re trying to create useful habits to increase their confidence and skill,” Mrs. Miller said. “I’m seeing more of a willingness to help one another. One child will get discouraged, and say, ‘I cant !’ and another

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will say, ‘You can’t do it...yet’.” When a student is struggling with a concept (and their Brick Brain saying “I can’t”), students will take a toothpick with a “YET” on it. “They take one and give them to their friends,” Mrs. Bell-Wiatrik said. “I never do it myself. It’s all about student empowerment.” Ms. Brinegar is seeing her students become empowered, too. “I’ve been quite blown away at how accountable they are,” she said. “I believe that I’ve seen a lot fewer tears this year, and I’ve also seen a very supportive classroom environment. Several children will speak up and say, ‘I can’t’ and others will say, ‘yet’. Even when children overcome something, they’ll say, ‘Look what you did! I do think it has changed the dynamic. It’s definitely empowering them as individuals.” Mrs. Miller agreed. “Learning is more joyful. They remind each other. I’m seeing them become more empowered.” A key component to making growth mindset work is knowing your students. “We all have a fixed mindset sometimes, so we ask, ‘What are the triggers? What can we do to get over their triggers?’” Mrs. Miller said. “One child may shut down because they think math is hard, or they’re hungry, or they didn’t sleep well. This is when knowing your kids is so important. You get to know them and their triggers and can help move them from


that fixed mindset to growth.” Second grader Reese Battle is all-in on the growth mindset. “We call it the power of yet because if you use it, you can get a lot farther,” she said. “I like it because you can use different strategies. You might say, ‘I give up’ but instead you try another way.” Ms. Brinegar has seen children take ownership over the concept and actively apply it themselves. “I find that they’re truly applying it throughout their lives in different things they do. One student talked about gymnastics and how she hadn’t been able to get a backbend kickover, but she knew she had to keep trying and doing the different practices they use in gymnastics,” Ms. Brinegar said. “One morning, she came into morning meeting and said ‘I did my backbend kickover!’ So it’s not just academics.” Head of School Gardner Barrier would love

to see the can-do attitude of a growth mindset flourish school-wide, but it’s not something he believes could or should be imposed from the top down. “I wanted the teachers to have the information, to know about the growth mindset, but it’s not something you impose. I’ve said ‘Permission granted’ to the staff to take risks in their teaching, to change things up and embrace new ideas. How the first and second grade teachers have taken this and run with it is just what I hoped would happen.” Will the power of yet spread up through the grades? “I’m eager to see next year,” Ms. Brinegar said. “They’ll have had this background and they’ll come into it next year knowing about the power of ‘yet’. We’re collaborating with other teachers, sharing stories and resources, so I hope it will flourish. It’s definitely a powerful thing.”

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Furies Win First-Ever State Championship in Girls' Varsity Basketball

The Fury girls’ varsity basketball team has made school history as the first-ever FCDS girls’ basketball team to win the NCISAA 3-A State Championship. Forsyth ended its 2018-2019 regular season with a 16-8 record, tying 4-A Greensboro Day School for the Piedmont Triad Athletic Conference (PTAC) Championship. “We shared the conference title with GDS, and the only games we lost were to each other,” said Head Coach Frank Brown. Forsyth was seeded fifth in the run for the state title, and the small eight-person team was a decided underdog going into the state tournament. In the first-round game, the Furies beat non-ranked Grace Christian School 56-10 at home. In the second round, the Furies defeated Asheville Christian Academy at home on Valentine’s Day. In the third round, Forsyth faced the fourth seed, Hickory Grove Christian School. “We had played them previously and lost with our leading scorer battling the flu. We were fairly confident that they had shown us their best, but we knew we had more to show,” Coach Brown said. “We just wanted revenge,” said sophomore captain Josie Kilborn. “We knew that we could have beaten them [before] and

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we wanted to show it.” In the semifinals, the Furies faced their toughest opponent yet: Fayetteville Christian School, the Sandhills Conference Champion and the number-one seed in the tournament. “Before we played them, they were 28-1,” Coach Brown said. “We gave them only their second loss of the season.” In this key game, the Furies — whose tallest players are only 5’10” — faced girls who were 6’4”, 6’2”, and 6’1”. “We outworked them,” said Coach Brown. “Sydney Hopkin and Trinity Sanders [both sophomores] are the MVPs of that semifinal because they outworked girls who were bigger than them. They outrebounded all of them.” The Furies defeated the titan Fayetteville team 51-38. Seemingly against the odds, the Furies were headed to the NCISAA 3-A State Championship game against Concord First Assembly Academy, the Metrolina Conference Champions. The teams had similar records going into the game, and the Furies ended the first half down by eight. During halftime, the Furies went into a vacant classroom and sat in silence for two solid minutes. “We sat in that classroom and it just clicked for us: O.K., we got this,” said Olivia Diaz ’19 who was sitting out with a concussion. “So we went out in


the second half of the state championship game and we started our press. During our press, Amira [Willams, the junior captain and team high-scorer] stole the ball and made a shot. In our next possession, she hit a three-pointer, and that’s when we knew, we got this. She was on a roll and everybody else was boxing out. I don’t think they scored in those three possessions.” Senior captain Haleigh Kozlowski, the team’s point guard and the player Coach Brown describes as his “floor general”, grabbed the last rebound of the game. “I saw her dribble up the court and look at the clock and it was going down,” said Amira. “Four, three, two...it was crazy. Because we actually did it. We won.” The Furies beat Concord First Assembly 44-38 in a true team effort. “In the championship game, it wasn’t just one person, it was everybody...even people who didn’t get in the game,” Haleigh said. “They’re cheering from the bench, they’re helping us call out plays, read the defense...it was everybody...not just one or two or three people.” This win, Coach Brown said, has his team getting the respect they deserve. “They’re good kids, good role models,” he said.

“Even if they hadn’t won the state championship, seeing them be successful and to have them recognize, ‘You know what? This was an accomplishment!’ is amazing. Teaching these girls to be-lieve in themselves and that if they do the hard work and work with other people, they can accomplish great things. I’m just so glad they got to have that experience.” Coach Brown also credits his assistant coaches: Gary Haley, who’s been with the Fury girls for four years, and Ashton Fleming, who is in her second year with the basketball program. “We wouldn’t have won the state championship without Gary and Ashton on our staff, or without the strong foundation laid in the preceding years by Coach Monty Gray, Coach Ronnalee Terry, and Coach Annette Kozlowski. They all played a part in this.” “I am so proud of this team and all of the adversity that we had to overcome this year,” Coach Fleming said. “This is a special group and I am grateful to be a part of such a historic moment for the school. Despite where we began, the girls continued to fight, put in the extra work, and do the little things to win game after game after game!”

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ALL FOR ONE:

How a Team Came Together and Became Like Family When coaches focus on getting to know their athletes and fostering close relationships with and among them, amazing things can happen. In the weeks leading up to try-outs for the Fury girls’ varsity basketball team last fall, Head Coach Frank Brown, also the school’s director of diversity, inclusion, and outreach, found himself with only three returning players. Coach Brown and assistant coaches Gary Haley and Ashton Fleming were encouraged by the anticipated additions of a few new students to round out—if not completely fill—the roster. Transfers Trinity Sanders ’21 and Amira Williams ’20 were planning to join the team, and softball player Olivia Diaz ’19 had also agreed to play. “We knew we’d have at least six, but we would need seven players in order to have a team,” Coach Brown said. “We knew we had a new guy and we were kind of scared because we had good success last year with Coach [Monty] Gray,” Haleigh said. “The first day of practice, we were scared that we weren’t going to have a team. Some girls quit, but then some of them came back. [Coach Brown] was telling me I needed to get girls to play, and now I think he realizes how hard it is.” Sydney Hopkin ’20, a life-long basketball player, was Haleigh’s recruit. “My mom works with [her] mom and she told her that I was a basketball player and they didn’t have enough girls on the team to start the season,” Sydney said. A committed volleyball player, Sydney admits that she doesn’t love playing basketball. “Haleigh, Amira, and Josie came and they talked to me. They said, ‘Hey, we really need another player or else we’re not going to have a team this year’, so I was like ‘O.K., I’ll play.’ I told them they had to work around my volleyball schedule, so that’s what they did.” More help arrived in the form of eighth grader Mary Kate (MK) Gargis ’23. “I’ve been playing basketball since I was eight,” MK said. “I was very excited to get called up to varsity. It was definitely a big goal for me.” Coach Brown now had enough girls to field a team, but he still didn’t know exactly WHO he had. “I’d seen Haleigh play,” he said. “I knew she had skill and was going to be the de facto leader.” As for the others, Coach Brown had never seen any of them play. “I didn’t know the other girls. I didn’t know their interests,

I didn’t know their athletic ability.” Coaches Haley and Fleming, who were both with the girls’ program under Coach Gray the prior year (and Coach Haley with the program the three previous years), provided some insight into the returning players and offered invaluable advice on how to ensure that the girls who signed up stayed on. “Gary warned me early on not to go too hard on the girls or they’d leave,” Coach Brown said. “We let the girls be themselves. We had this culture within the team where we wanted people to show their quirks and be silly and be funny and just bring their full personalities to the team...that seemed to work. We were serious about the work that needed to be done—this is a varsity sport and there’s a certain level of commitment, but if you’re not having fun with what you’re doing, why are you doing it?” The players embraced that, and getting to know one another as people began to pay dividends both on the court and off. Trinity, who had just transferred, thought she’d have to work hard to be accepted. “When I came here, they kind of all knew each other and I thought, ‘I guess I have to try to get into their group’, but it was nothing like that,” she said. “It was like they wanted to actually open their arms and let people inside their little circle, which was great.” MK agreed. “I thought it would be a lot harder for me to adjust because I’m a middle schooler so I wouldn’t get to see them as much, but the coaches and the players brought everyone in and just accepted you. It was like a family.” Coach Brown noticed the close relationships forming during the first half the season, when they had a lot of road games and spent a lot of time on the bus, sharing meals on the road and bonding. “Those moments really build camaraderie and sisterhood, where nothing’s going to come between those girls,” he said. “We would see the typical disagreements that come naturally with being part of any group. We even had some intense practices with heated exchanges between players. There were times when they didn’t all get along, but you’d better believe they’re going to stand up for their sister when it matters most. It was really cool to see that developing.” The idea of a sisterhood clicked with Haleigh after Marc Winbush, the coach of the 2016 state champion boys’ lacrosse

Congratulations to the entire Fury girls’ varsity basketball team, who are:

Capt. Capt. Haleigh Kozlowski Amira Williams

Capt. Josie Kilborn

MK Gargis

Sydney Hopkin

Trinity Sanders

All-Conference: Amira Williams, Josie Kilborn, Haleigh Kozlowski All-State: Amira Williams, Josie Kilborn, Sydney Hopkin

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Olivia Diaz


team, talked to the girls before the quarterfinal game about the brotherhood that had formed on the team before their 2016 win. “I think it stemmed from that,” Haleigh said. “After that, we were like, ‘We are a family. We win together and we lose together. And we need to play together instead of playing selfishly. We need to distribute...and that’s exactly what we did.” Olivia agreed. “At the beginning of the season, we were all doing our own thing. Different people stepped up in different ways and then we started hanging out together, talking to each other in the hallways,” she said. “We’d have team sleepovers and stuff. We just really got close.” Amira said the team is the most close-knit she’s ever been on. “I said it to them when we won, but this is the one team I’ve

Sienna Ricciardi

Rylie DeSabato

Marlena Hall

been on where we were truly like sisters,” she said. “You go to other teams and you hear ‘You’re a sisterhood,” and you may be close, but this one—we’re close like family. This is honestly my second family.” Sydney agreed. “I would consider these guys like my second family. I love them so much. We have a lot of fun together, and we know how to work together and how to play together and that definitely helped us win.” That sisterhood went far beyond mere wins and losses. “When we began working as a team and when people started believing in each other and trusting one another, that’s when you saw our true success,” Coach Brown said.

Manager Lucas Zhang

Head Coach Frank Brown

Asst. Coach Ashton Fleming

Asst. Coach Gary Haley

North Carolina Private School All-Star Game Selection: Haleigh Kozlowski Conference Co-Coach of the Year: Frank Brown

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Driving a Revolution in Healthcare

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I think the FCDS environment created a mindset of creativity. The thing I remember is the motto: pride, freedom, and responsibility. It’s the balance of freedom and responsibility and really taking those values to heart. We were given a lot of freedom but we had to do something with it. That kind of carried through.

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LET'S GIVE THANKS FOR BEING FURIES!

SAVE THE DATE for the

ALUMNI THANKSGIVING GATHERING FRIDAY NOV

FOOTNOTE 634 W Fourth street Winston-Salem *CLASSES OF 1973-2016*

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7:0 7: 00

PM


Donor Profile:Why WE Give

Melanie and Robert Niblock In this edition of Amidst the Trees, we celebrate Melanie and Robert Niblock, who have supported the school through 21 years of consecutive giving. Here’s what the Niblocks had to say: “Our children’s experience at Forsyth Country Day School was outstanding with many fond memories they cherish today. Their teachers at FCDS were supportive and caring from kindergarten through their senior year. Not only did our children create friends for life; we also made dear friends. FCDS ensured our sons were well prepared to enter college and to maximize the value of their postsecondary education. Alex “Nibby” ’10 and Taylor “LT” ’12 acquired their nicknames while attending FCDS and those nicknames follow them today. Even after entering the working world, they still live with FCDS friends in Charlotte. Nibby and LT have lifelong FCDS friends and we are proud to support a school that helps shape young boys into fine young men.” ~Melanie and Robert Niblock

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Curiosity — and the willingness to just say “yes” to opportunities — sometimes opens doors you never could have imagined. That’s what happened when Nick Strauch ’19 visited a local business. “Mr. [Nathan] Battle came to me and asked if I wanted to see a manufacturer that 3D prints in titanium,” Nick said. “Of course I did.” Nick went to Trans Machine (whose CEO is FCDS parent Barry Leonard) and was duly impressed with what he saw. “I went there, toured, met the CEO, met an engineer, and before I left, they offered me a summer internship.” As soon as his last exam was over in spring 2018, Nick headed to Trans Machine, where he worked a 40-hour unpaid internship that transitioned to a paid position. “I learned a ton about materials science,” Nick said. “Materi-

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als science is how atoms are arranged. You’ll have two pieces of steel and one will be strong and one brittle...you learn how to arrange subatomic particles to change the material.” During his internship, Nick helped set up machines, such as the blue light scanner, which can scan any object and make a 3D image on the computer, and the hardness tester, which can determine how durable a material is. “I did anything they needed me to do.” Trans Machine is a global supplier of components for railroad, automotive, mining, and is an original equipment manufacturer. “They can make anything,” Nick said. “They’ve even made a prosthetic femur. The only limit to what they can make is the size of the machine.” But it didn’t end with the internship. Mr. Leonard saw Nick’s fascination with the work and asked if he’d like to come to


Saying “Yes” to Opportunity

China to tour the manufacturing facilities there. Again, Nick said yes. Nick, Mr. Leonard, Trans Machine CFO (and FCDS parent) Elizabeth Hutcherson and her son Jack FCDS ’21 all flew to China. “We got to see a bunch of facilities, foundries, CNC machines,” Nick said. “I learned so much about manufacturing. It really opened my eyes. I realized that the U.S. can’t compete with China in terms of what they’re doing, the cost of labor. If America wants to complete, we should be doing a different type of manufacturing.” During his ten-day trip, Nick also got to visit the Great Wall of China, historic temples, Shanghai, Beijing, and Qingdao province.“They didn’t just take me to factories,” he said. “They really exposed me to the culture there. I never thought I would go to Asia, but I saw the reality of what it’s like to live and work

in China. I wouldn’t change a thing about that trip.” Nick being Nick, his favorite take-away from the trip was an idea. “It really opened my eyes to what our country needs to do if it wants to go back to manufucturing.” In China, he said, they use a subtractive process in which they start with a block of metal and cut it away to get the shape they want. He thinks American manufacturers could complete with an additive process, such as the one at Trans Machine in Winston-Salem. “You can make parts you couldn’t make in the past. Our factory workers could have engineering degrees.” Nick said he goes back to Trans Machine as often as he can, and the young alumnus, who will attend Duke University in the fall, plans to major in engineering with an eye towards working in materials science. “I know enough now that I want to do something in it.”

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Taylor Boone ’10 and his wife Mary of Denver, Colorado, welcomed a son, Levi Taylor Boone, on Feb. 20, 2019. He weighed 8 pounds, 1 ounce and is doted upon by his new abuela and abuelo, Middle School Spanish teacher Kristen Boone and her husband, Steve!

In Memoriam

Cindy (Peterson) Bingham, wife of long-time Head of School Gordon Bingham and the mother of two alumni, passed away on Sept. 13, 2018. She was 76. The Binghams met at Middlebury College, where they both earned their degrees in 1964, marrying in 1966. A math major, Cindy began her career in insurance, where her math skills made her a standout - and one of the first employees of National Insurance to be trained on something called a computer, which set the stage for her entire career. Cindy was recruited to develop the computer infrastructure at Union College in New York, which is where their sons, Christopher FCDS ’88 and Matthew FCDS ’90 were born. Cindy, described as “an early adopter of the working mom lifestyle”

Samantha (Wood) Zecopolis ’10 and her husband Chris welcomed a baby girl, Audrey Eloise Zecopolis, on Jan. 20, 2018.

continued her work as she and Gordon raised their children, next implementing the adminstrative computer system at Hamilton College. When Gordon became Head of School at Forsyth Country Day (a position then known as Headmaster), Cindy changed gears and became a long-term, full-time consultant at R.J. Reynolds. Cindy with a group of women who called themselves the “Data Madams” - led a massive project to convert to a new computer database system and train Reynolds employees how to use it. As passionate as Cindy was about her career and family, she also worked hard helping support Gordon in his role as headmaster. She volunteered extensively at FCDS and in the community at large. Gordon retired from FCDS in 1999, and Cindy followed suit - but retirement didn’t really “take” for either of them. From 2000-2005, Cindy and Gordon teamed up to run the North Carolina Association of Independent Schools (NCAIS), with Cindy handling all of the financial and logistical details. They created a website and newsletter, planned conferences and workshops, and recruited sponsors. The pair retired for good in 2005, and Cindy was able to indulge her life-long passions for knitting, sewing, reading, gardening, and walking. She was also a devoted volunteer at the Community Care Center in Winston-Salem, which provides free medicare care to low-income clients, and Friends of the Lewisville Library. In addition to Gordon, Matthew, and Christopher, Cindy is survived by her daughter-in-law Whitney Allen, grandchildren Alex, John, Katie, and Lucy, her sister Janice (Petersen) Wilson, niece Ashley Maina, and Ashley’s husband Mike and son Luciano. She was predeceased by her nephew Erik Wilson. Forsyth Country Day School expresses its deepest sympathy to the Bingham family and celebrates the life and legacy of Cindy Bingham. FCDS runs short articles in memory of alumni, faculty or former faculty, and friends of the school in the spring issue of the magazine. If a friend or loved one is not included and you would like him or her to be remembered in our next issue, please send the information to alumni@ fcds.org. Editor’s Note: This “In Memoriam” was adapted from an obituary that appeared in the Winston-Salem Journal. https://www.journalnow.com/obituaries/bingham-lucinda-elise-petersen/article_a316b630-27ea-5023-a432-de4e5ef31a7d.html

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A grumpy ogre, a chatty donkey, a spunky princess, a villain short...on charm, and a swamp full of fairytale creatures? The Middle School production of Shrek the Musical Jr. was a huge hit!


By turns funny, touching, and powerful, the Upper School’s She Kills Monsters featured a cheerleader who enters the world of a role-playing game to learn who her sister really was. Also, sword fights and zombie cheerleaders.


In the Upper School’s production of The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, actors embod-

ied sixth grade spelling bee contestants with unique reasons for wanting to win. The musical spanned the emotional depths from touching to hilarious and featured great music and SPELL-binding performances.


The Lower School and Fifth Grade Academy’s production of Seussical Jr. was fun, whimsical, and full of delightful and engaging musical numbers. Oh, the thinks you can think when you think about Seuss!


Forsyth Country Day School 5501 Shallowford Road Lewisville, NC 27023

PRSRT STD US POSTAGE PAID RALEIGH NC PERMIT No. 327


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