Torchbearer Summer 2013 | Volume IX | Issue 2

R E A T CY I L A I D m

•Y e ok

Fi

od

ad n • Bro c ast Jour na lis

bo

lm

&

TV

Pr

io uct

ar & Online Journalis rint m • P

ME

A P U B L I C AT I O N F O R PA R E N T S , A L U M N I , A N D F R I E N D S O F H O LY I N N O C E N T S ’ E P I S C O PA L S C H O O L

SUMMER EDITION: in this issue

An interview with

Clay Rolader

Chair of the Strategic Planning Committee

Gala 2013

“A Time To Rock” Rocked!

SUMMER 2013 | VOLUME IX | ISSUE 2

Welcome to the Future of Education

GRADUATION

K GRADUATION

Members of the Class of 2013 celebrate their transition from high school students to graduates on May 18.

As the “big kids� looked forward to college, our youngest students celebrated the transition from Primary School to Lower School on May 21.

Valedictorian Kendall Jackson

SECTIONSCHOOL HEAD SCIENCE LOWER Jim Nark of Party Animals brought along some fascinating friends to Lower School science teacher Kelly Monroe’s class.

4 | TORCHBEARER SUMMER 2013

MIDDLESECTION SCHOOL HEAD PLAY In March, the Middle School Players gave three hilarious performances of A High Schooler’s Guide To The Galaxy.

TORCHBEARER SUMMER 2013 | 5

Mission Statement

School Philosophy

Holy Innocents’ Episcopal School develops in students a love of learning, respect for self and others, faith in God, and a sense of service to the world community.

Holy Innocents’ Episcopal School offers an educational program encompassing academics, arts, athletics and spiritual formation. Through opportunities to grow intellectually, spiritually, physically and emotionally, students develop their individual worth and dignity. The challenging academic program prepares students for higher education and emphasizes learning as a pathway toward ethical leadership and a

SECTION HEAD commitment to the common good.

The school provides a welcoming and supportive environment, embraces the differences inherent in a diverse community, and embodies the inclusive Episcopal tradition of respect for the beliefs of others. Holy Innocents’ is an active community of faith engaged in local, national and international service to others.

From the Editor

James Watson brings Ben Franklin to life during the fourth grade’s annual Wax Museum day, a Lower School favorite.

EXECUTIVE EDITOR Nick Roberts CONTRIBUTING EDITORS Dunn Neugebauer Chris Pomar Peggy J. Shaw Tamika Weaver Hightower Mary Chris Williams Chris Yarsawich GRAPHIC DESIGN Irby Heaton PHOTOGRAPHY Nick Roberts CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS Jim Baker Maria Louise Coil Gemshots Photographic Debbie Reams Alice Thompson Leanne Weaver HIES Yearbook Staff

If the goal of the Upper School’s Media Lit program was simply to introduce students to video cameras and the internet, an apt title might have been, “Modern Media.” But the goal was much broader – and it required a broader name.

The idea behind media literacy is to create educated consumers of today’s media, i.e. for students to become comfortable not just with the techniques of broadcast, print, and film outlets, but also with the rights, restraints, perspectives, and agendas of the world’s media companies. When they graduate, students understand that different media outlets have different motives for choosing the stories they report, how they report them, and the editorial slant of their coverage.

They realize that, for instance, MSNBC, Fox News, the BBC, and Al Jazeera will all cover our political conventions, but that the messages those outlets convey will differ significantly because the reporters and their bosses have significantly different perspectives on the issues. They understand that the Huffington Post and the Drudge Report will both cover the White House, but that the stories on those websites were written for different audiences. In other words, they learn that there is no truly objective or “correct” news reporting – at least not as long as human beings are involved with it.

At its essence, media literacy develops critical thinking skills – vetting news stories, scrutinizing individual and corporate agendas, respecting an author’s or speaker’s first amendment rights, but ultimately making up one’s own mind about a story’s relevance.

And the HIES media lit program teaches students to take these same critical thinking skills to other areas of their lives, both inside the classroom and out.

At its core, the idea of media literacy affirms those parts of the HIES Mission Statement that vow to develop in students a love of learning and a respect for self and others.

Nick Roberts

Letters to the Editor Please send to the attention of Nick Roberts, at nick.roberts@hies.org, or mail to: Nick Roberts Director of Communications Holy Innocents’ Episcopal School 805 Mt. Vernon Highway, NW Atlanta, GA 30327 TorchBearer is published by the offices of Admissions, Communications, and Development of Holy Innocents’ Episcopal School. Special appreciation goes to the parents, faculty and staff whose contributions make this publication possible. Every attempt has been made to ensure accuracy within this magazine. Please notify the editor of any errors or omissions and accept our sincere apologies.

6 | TORCHBEARER SUMMER 2013

26

COVER STORY THE HIES MEDIA LITERACY PROGRAM: ON TOP OF A DEVELOPING STORY

T O R C H B E A R E R

18 21 36 42

S U M M E R

2 0 1 3

|

V O L U M E

F E AT U R E S

A RT I C L E S

The TorchBearer Interview

8 9 13 14 15 16 38 39 40

Clay Rolader, Chair of the Strategic Planning Committee

Five-Year Strategic Plan For Preeminence The HIES Board of Trustees Sets the Agenda

Welcome to the Future of Education!

| | | | | | | | |

DEVELOPMENT

Athletic Year in Review

44 46 47 47

Three More Great Seasons for the Golden Bears

|

I S S U E

iTunes U “Flips the Classroom” Go To History Travel Initiative Girl Talk Leader of the Year Katrina Service Still Going Strong JDRF Walk Team Tops in U.S. Again Principal’s Corner Model U.N. Dept. Chair Speaker Series Middle School Colonial Games

Chris Pomar Sees National Goals Already at Work on Campus

| | | |

I X

2013 Gala - A Time To Rock!

State of the School Luncheon Georgia Tax Credit Scholarship Program Class Notes

2

AROUND CAMPUS

Tuning In Ancient History

Even when students are absent from school, they still attend Chris Yarsawich’s class.

They simply turn on their computers and visit the Upper School ancient history and religion teacher’s iTunes U channel. iTunes U is a free service provided

by Apple and open to any registered educational institution. It allows teachers and professors to post their lectures to a free section of the iTunes store, so that students (and anyone else who’s interested) can view and listen to the content.

“It started as a way to have universal access for my class lectures,” says Yarsawich. “I have a lot of students and if they’re absent, they didn’t have a way to make up what they’d missed. So I began recording some of the discussions.”

After his first few posts, however, Yarsawich discovered that iTunes U

offered the potential for much more. “The early ones are very rough,” he says, “just audio recordings. But as I started learning about the capabilities of iTunes U, I started experimenting with videos, too – I’d use my iPad to create the lectures and drop in maps and images of artwork from ancient history, so it’s a slightly more sophisticated slideshow.”

If the HIES broadcast department ever ventures into reality TV, then Dancing With The Teachers seems like a natural – and its first star would be Jessica Ryan.

The Upper School Spanish teacher is a devotee of the Argentine tango, dancing three nights a week at different venues around Atlanta (which is down from her schedule before moving here from the Boston area).

Ryan wants to make one thing clear, though – the Argentine tango is very different from what you probably think it is. “Ballroom tango – American tango they call it, with the rose in the mouth, the arms out, walking forward – is nothing close to what we do,” she says. “Argentine tango is much more relaxed.

Partners have more of a connection.”

Ryan got hooked on the dance while studying for her master’s at Middlebury College in Vermont. “It was a super intense program, so just to get you out, they have a list of activities

– sports, photography, all sorts of things – and one of them was Argentine tango classes. I figured I’d try it just to take a break.”

She had no idea, though, that her life – or nightlife, at least – was about to change. “In

8 | TORCHBEARER SUMMER 2013

With the audio and visual components of his lectures online, Yarsawich soon realized that iTunes U could help his students dig much deeper into assorted subjects. He credits department chair Kacey Michelsen with encouraging him to experiment. “Kacey was very supportive and encouraged me to look for ways to flip the classroom,” he explains. “So you can condense an introduction of a topic to about a 10- or 15-minute video, have the kids watch it at home, and then use what they saw to facilitate discussion, answer questions, or explore further.”

Moving forward, Yarsawich plans to use iTunes U to build a continuously more insightful class. “My goal for next year – having

Una Pasión Por El Baile

built this small library of lectures – is to have students watch them ahead of time, so when they come in, we can go much deeper.”

It turns out that his students aren’t the only ones tuning it; they’re actually in the minority. “I have more than 700 students right now,” says Yarsawich. According to the tracking function of iTunes U, over 90 percent of his viewers are non-HIES students – with nearly 35% of them watching from outside the United States, and from every continent except Antarctica. “I like the fact that there’s 650 people out there that I’m not going to see on Monday morning,” he says.

“It makes me really think about the quality of what I’m putting up there. It makes me hold myself to a higher standard.”

To access Yarsawich’s iTunes U library, just open iTunes (available on all Mac devices as well as PC), go to the iTunes store, click the iTunes U tab at the top of the window, and search for Holy Innocents’ (you may have to scroll down to the iTunes U content). There’s also a free iTunes U app for all IOS devices.

my very first lesson, I was just hooked. It felt like when I played softball – it was my passion, it was everything, but I had to give that up. And when I tried tango, it was the same feeling,” she says. “I felt like this is what I’d been lacking.”

Dancing the tango comes naturally to Ryan. Describing it, though, is another thing entirely. “There aren’t set steps. With other dances – the waltz, the foxtrot – there are steps to follow and a beat you have to dance to. We have none of that; you don’t have to dance to every beat, you don’t have to dance on a specific beat. You learn how to lead your follower, and then the follower learns to react to how you’re leading.”

Ryan recommends you search “Argentine tango” on YouTube to get a better understanding. “I was trying to tell my students, but not until I actually showed them did they say, ‘Oh yeah, I get it.’”

AROUND CAMPUS

Historic Journeys Holy Innocents’ students are a well-traveled bunch. Each year, faculty guide students around the world: to our sister schools in Japan, France, Argentina, or South Africa; to Italy or Greece to explore early western empires; on foreign language trips; and around the United States, performing community service or attending academic and fine arts competitions.

This year, history department chair Kacey Michelsen decided to take students in a different direction. His new Go To History Travel Initiative offers educational travel far afield of the usual destinations; the first trip takes place this summer to the nation of Ghana, in West Africa.

“When I was in high school, I went on educational trips all around the world,” says Michelsen. “They’re some of the best experiences of my life, being in the culture, seeing the history. Walking through a ruin or a marketplace was better than any textbook or anything a teacher could have said.”

Michelsen chose Ghana as the program’s first destination because, he explains, “I don’t think we, as Americans, spend enough time appreciating or studying African culture. I think we spend so much time focusing on slavery that we devalue the history of the continent and its people to slavery alone.”

Michelsen became interested in the country in a round-about way. “My favorite soccer player is from Ghana – Michael Essien – so by following him, I learned more about Ghana. It was the first sub-

Saharan country to gain independence from a colonial power. And it was the center of powerful kingdoms that ruled for hundreds of years, hundreds of years before colonization. It’s filled with history – yes, history of slavery, but a lot more, too.”

Next year, the department chair plans to take students to Peru. “Again, in a similar sense, we think of the ancient cultures of America as these forgotten people,” he says.

“But the people of Peru have preserved a lot of their ancient culture, from what they eat, to their music, their dress – more than the other, more westernized countries in South America, Peruvians have held on to their Incan culture.”

The following year, Michelsen plans to bring students to Vietnam to study a southeast Asian culture and explore the history of the Vietnam war.

He says he purposefully chooses destinations that students and their families would probably not visit. “These are places that are off the beaten path – once-ina-lifetime opportunities,” he says. “It’s attractive to go to Paris, to London. They’re comfortable. I want to offer opportunities for kids to visit places that have distinct and very different cultures from our own – not just for shock value, but I want students to come back and say, ‘People around the world are good people. They shook my hand, smiled, danced with me, we ate together – in the unlikeliest of places.’ I want them to expand their comfort zones.”

Judging Students By Their Covers This spring, a couple of HIES Middle-Schoolers put a new face on one of America’s most cherished novels.

Eighth-graders Reed Stewart and Sean Hackett took first and second prizes, respectively, in the Sandy Springs Reads’ Book Cover Contest. The challenge was to redesign the cover of Harper Lee’s classic, To Kill a Mockingbird.

Tweaking great works of art is a daunting task. But far from “putting a mustache on the Mona Lisa”, Reed and Sean found wonderful ways of capturing the integrity and youthfulness of Lee’s story. Congratulations to them both.

Winners received cash prizes courtesy of the Friends of the Sandy Springs Library.

TORCHBEARER SUMMER 2013 | 9

AROUND CAMPUS

AROUND CAMPUS

Portrait Of The Artist As A Young Woman Sophomore Anna Kampfe is well-known on the Holy Innocents’ campus – as a leader of our remarkable JDRF Walk team (see page 15), as a performer in numerous theatre productions, as a singer with the Bearettes, and as one of our school’s finest visual artists.

This spring, Anna became well-known to the rest of Atlanta, as well, when her self-portrait was selected for a teen exhibition at the High Museum of Art. The High challenged young artists to create a portrait inspired by Mexican modernist Frida Kahlo to complement their “Frida and Diego: Passion, Politics, and Painting” show. Entrants were judged on technique, skill, and their ability to react to this particular artist’s work.

“Every portrait was different, which was a wonderful thing to see,” said Anna, of the teen exhibition. “I think it’s important to learn

that everybody has a different viewpoint.”

Anna’s work was also part of a High exhibition last fall for art students titled “You Decide.” And out of some 100 Atlanta applicants, the 16-year-old was selected to serve this summer on the High’s Teen Advisory Council—“a group of 15 creative high school students who share a common interest in art and community engagement,” according to museum officials. The teen council will gain behindthe-scenes access to the museum, plan teen nights and events, assist with the High’s summer camp, and learn about exhibitions and collections.

Anna hopes one day to have her own exhibit at the High Museum. And US art teacher Katie Arnold, who describes Anna as “an artist in the making,” would not be surprised. “She is always trying something new and thinking outside the box.”

We The People Of The Lower School When the Davidson children – Charlie British for being an American patriot,” says (first grade) and Sarah Warren (fourth) – Charlie and Sarah Warren’s mom, Mary take U.S. History in Upper School, Frances. “We go to Augusta every they might want to bring in their year during Constitution Week for a genealogical chart for reference. wreath-laying ceremony that the The Davidsons are related to DAR holds. Charlie and Sarah William Few, a Georgia delegate Warren lay a wreath on his to the Constitutional Convention grave.” who not only signed our Not only was Few instrumental country’s founding document, in establishing the United States, but also served as a colonel but he also helped establish the during the Revolution, as one of University of Georgia, serving our state’s first senators, and as a on the school’s original Board of William Few judge in the early federal court system.

Trustees in 1785. (We’ll see if this fact “We are descendants of William Few’s makes an appearance on the Davidson kids’ brother James, who was hanged by the UGA applications in their senior year – Ed.).

The HIES Krewe

Southern Yankee

Every baseball fan either loves the New York Yankees or hates them – there’s no inbetween. When HIES senior Daniel Topping was growing up, however, he never got a chance to decide how he felt – because his grandfather once owned the Yankees.

Daniel Reid Topping co-owned the team with Del Webb from 1945 to 1964. After selling his controlling interest, Topping remained as team president until 1966.

“He also owned some other sports teams,” says the HIES Daniel. “He owned the Brooklyn Dodgers and the New York Yankees’ football team back in the day.”

Daniel himself is no stranger to baseball – this spring he wrapped up a stellar career as a star pitcher on the HIES squad that earned playoff bids Daniel Topping (right) all four years. Next and Del Webb year, he will play at the collegiate level with Birmingham Southern.

He has also made the pilgrimage a few times to baseball’s most hallowed ground.

“I went to a couple of games at Yankee Stadium,” he says, “and I went to an old timer’s game right before they tore the old building down. But I haven’t gotten to the new stadium yet.”

As a native Atlantan, Daniel can “tomahawk chop” with the best of them. But as he says, “I was born and bred to be a Yankees fan. I love the Braves – I really do – but when the Yankees are in town, I have to pull for the visitors.”

Daniel Topping (center) with Yankee managers Roy Hamey and Ralph Houk Charlie (left) and Sarah Warren (right) Davidson with their cousin, Emma Kate Few

For most Americans, Mardi Gras is celebrated vicariously, watching our televisions as the people of New Orleans parade audacious floats through the French Quarter, collect strings of colorful beads, and dance into the night.

Two HIES students, though, enjoy the festivities from the best possible seats – atop the floats.

Harrison Roch (seventh grade) and his brother Logan (K) attend Mardi Gras every year, and since their parents, Bruce and Kristin, are members of some of New Orleans’ famous Krewes – non-profit clubs that organize the parades and balls around Carnival season – they both get a very inside view of the festivities.

“It’s pretty exciting,” says Harrison, “being back in your old hometown, riding on top of a float with thousands of people screaming at you. It’s a big thrill.” Harrison’s biggest thrill came in 2006, when, as a member of the Iris Krewe, he rode as a page to the Queen of Iris.

As they make their way through HIES, you can be sure that Harrison and Logan will teach their classmates to “Laissez les bon temps rouler!”

Russian Bear

When Dasha Khromtsova was 5 years old she told her mother that someday she was going to America. By the time she was 17, the Holy Innocents’ junior had made that dream come true.

Her story, like the great Russian novels, involves some mystery, family history, and a number of unexpected turns.

Dasha grew up hearing stories about her great-grandfather, who had fled to the United States in 1920, following the Russian Revolution. That greatgrandfather, Benjamin Vaganoff, became an accomplished painter in California, and sent letters and copies of family pictures back to his Russian relatives – pictures that were unlabeled for fear of the Bolsheviks.

Through her grandmother, Dasha heard stories about Vaganoff and his new life in America. “I read all the letters and heard the stories and I wanted to learn more,” she says. So Dasha searched the internet for her great-grandfather’s name, posted family photos to art websites, and eventually was contacted.

“Someone was selling one of his paintings, and it turned out to be my uncle,” she explains. “So I emailed him.” Soon, Dasha discovered that she also had a cousin in Smyrna, Ga. – Dr. Brenda Hall, whose great-grandmother was Vaganoff’s sister.

“We communicated, and she convinced my mom and dad to come over.”

Dasha and her parents visited Atlanta and met Hall, her husband Scott Monjeau,

Houston, We Have An Uncle…

Charles Duke on the lunar surface

A Have you ever gazed at the night sky and imagined the man on the moon? When one HIES family looks up there, they can imagine an uncle on the moon – an uncle named Charles Duke who roamed the lunar surface

in 1972 as an Apollo 16 astronaut.

Duke was the tenth and youngest man to walk on the moon. Among his nieces and nephews are HIES students Annelise (tenth grade), Keillor (eighth) and Richard (sixth) Johnston.

“He’s very humble about it; he doesn’t talk about his moon walk very much,” says Annelise. “He did write a book about it, however.” The book, titled, Moonwalker: The True Story of an Astronaut Who Found that the Moon Wasn’t High Enough to Satisfy His Desire for Success, was co-authored with his wife (and the Johnston kids’ aunt) Dotty.

Besides his Apollo 16 adventure, Duke is a former test pilot who was a backup lunar

and their daughters, HIES fourthgrader Olivia Grace Hall and sophomore Olivia Rose Monjeau.

“We knew them for two months and I asked my mom if I could stay here and go to school, and she said we can try,” Dasha remembers. “It was expensive, though, and we weren’t sure we could get visas.”

Dasha did get that student visa, however, as well as a place to stay: Monjeau and Hall invited the young girl to live with their family.

Hall admits to a bit of anxiety at the time, bringing a Russian teen-ager not only into her family, but also to an entirely new society. “But Dasha is easy,” Hall says.

“She pretty much takes care of herself.

Dasha will begin her senior year at Holy Innocents’ this fall. Academically, she’s interested in several areas, including languages (she earned a bronze medal this spring for placing third at the national level of Le Grand Concours, the national French test), chemistry (she credits Upper School teacher Amanda Love for piquing her interest), and theater (she worked behind the scenes on Our Town last spring, and now plans to audition for roles).

She also plans to go to college, as she always has. And if she can extend her student visa, the applications she sends will be to American schools.

“I’m very happy here. I love the English language and I like the people – they’re so friendly,” says Dasha. “And here you have so many opportunities to do anything you want. It’s a dream come true.”

module pilot for the Apollo 13 and 17 missions. He currently lives in Texas where he is a motivational and inspirational speaker.

He is also chairman of the board of directors of the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation.

“We see him every summer at Pawleys Island in South Carolina. He’s a southern gentleman,” says Annelise.

TORCHBEARER SUMMER 2013 | 11

AROUND CAMPUS

Serving Up Some Tasty Licks

Hundreds of students and faculty make their way through the HIES cafeteria each day.

But for Assistant Food Service Director and Catering Manager Sanders Brightwell, the tall guy behind the line with the ready smile, it’s not much of a crowd – not when you’re used to playing in front of 17,000 screaming music fans.

Before becoming a chef, Brightwell played bass guitar for Jupiter Coyote, one of Georgia’s most popular bands from the past 25 years.

The group made eight original albums – the last in 2004 – and toured from coast to coast.

“It’s all I did for 12 years,” he says.

Brightwell joined Jupiter Coyote, which formed in the late ‘80s as The Rockefellers, in 1992, as they transitioned from playing covers

to creating their own, original music.

With a unique mix of instrumentation and solid songwriting, the band quickly gained popularity. “It’s kind of hard to pigeonhole,” says Brightwell about the band’s style. “There’s some country/bluegrass to it, but you’ll also hear some country rock influences and we stretch out and jam every now and then.”

After twelve years on the road, however, the band decided to settle down. “We played everywhere – frat parties, clubs, theaters,” he explains. “It definitely takes its toll, especially when the guys are all married and having kids.”

When asked what was the largest crowd he ever performed in front of, Brightwell doesn’t hesitate. “We opened for the Allman Brothers a few times in the ‘90’s – sold out in front of

17,000 people. That was pretty cool. We also did the first Music Midtown – we played there in ’94, ’95, and again in ’98.”

These days, though, the bassist-chef is more than happy to play it low key here on the HIES campus.

To learn more about Jupiter Coyote and their music, visit www.jupitercoyote.com.

Jupiter Coyote

The Daily Newspapyrus

Not all the journalism programs in HIES this year dealt with recent issues. In Melody Cannon’s 10th grade world literature honors class, students tackled a story that first came to light more than 2,500 years ago.

After reading Antigone, Sophocles’ ancient tragedy about the daughter of Oedipus who defies the king and is put to death, Cannon turned her students into ancient reporters. Their assignment: If the city of Thebes published a newspaper in the wake of events in Antigone, what would it look like using modern technology and tools?

“I wanted to find out how creative they could be,” says Cannon,

12 | TORCHBEARER SUMMER 2013

“how ‘outside the box’ they could think.” She wasn’t disappointed.

Submissions included such ‘papers’ as The Thebes Times, Greek Gossip, and Today’s Thebes, complete with editorials, advertising, sports pages, comics, and even obituaries. “They created Thebay sites where you could sell used chariots and twitter accounts for the characters,” says Cannon admiringly.

“Something that’s very difficult in English is to extrapolate from one discipline to another, like if you’re reading a novel, to then put it into poetry form,” she explains. “It’s like speaking in another language. So to take what they learned and then put it into another form causes them to question, to think a little more analytically, a little more innovatively.”

As you can see from some of the examples on this page, innovation wasn’t a problem.

AROUND CAMPUS As an assistant in Malcolm library, Sharon Barrow knows a thing to two about helping students find what they need to read. One of her favorite ways to help students read is named Shafer, her daughter (HIES class of ’07) Rebecca’s Labrador retriever.

Every other Thursday during the school year, Barrow brings Shafer to the Atlanta Speech School, where she works as a ‘reading dog’.

The story began when Barrow’s mother broke her hip and was recovering in an Atlanta rehab facility. “We started bringing Shafer to provide comfort,” she says.

“And the dog did so well that we thought maybe we should pursue something a little more formal.”

One of their friends told the Barrows about Therapy Dogs Inc., a national organization that provides registration and support for people involved in volunteer animal-assisted activities. “So we went through a several-months process,” says Barrow, “You have to bring the dog to a facility, walk next to someone in a wheelchair, someone in a walker, have the dog approached by different people and touched a lot, on the tail, ears, paws, everywhere – because the dog can’t be very sensitive to that – and just be an overall, friendly dog.”

Shafer passed with flying colors – and so did Sharon and Rebecca, who are now certified handlers.

Then came chapter two.

“One of my neighbors has a child at the Atlanta Speech School,” says Barrow. “She saw us walking one night and said, ‘This is just the sweetest dog – our reading dog moved away and we haven’t been able to find one.’ And I thought, ‘You know, I think I’m supposed to do this.’”

At the Speech School, Shafer ‘works’ from about 10:45 to noon. “They clear out a small office, and one kid at a time comes in and reads out loud to the dog for five minutes,” explains Barrow, who marvels at the connection between the kids and Shafer. “It’s almost like I’m non-existent,” she says. “I’m in the room, but the dog lays on their laps, they put their feet on her, they rest the book on her back. Shafer could be alert and watching, or she’s completely asleep at their feet.”

Like all good dogs, Shafer loves to work. “She seems to know, when she’s wearing her little vest or bandana, that it’s ‘game on’. She really seems to enjoy it.”

After all, who doesn’t love a good story?

Shafer with her friends at the Atlanta Speech School

Dog Star

Walking The Walk With Girl Talk In addition to being named valedictorian of the class of 2013, Kendall Jackson racked up a quite a few more awards during her time at HIES. One that she especially cherishes is the title of National Leader of the Year for Girl Talk.

Girl Talk is an international, non-profit, peer-to-peer program in which high school girls mentor middle school girls to help them deal with the issues they face during their early teenage years. “I got involved at the end of eighth grade,” says Kendall. “That was my first year at Holy Innocents’.”

In her second year on campus, Kendall became the youngest of the HIES Girl Talk chapter’s leaders. “As a leader, you’re expected to attend each meeting; we

plan the whole month, each of the weekly meetings that revolve around all kinds of topics, like how to deal with parents,” she says. “I was nervous about counseling middle school girls when I’d just gotten out of middle school myself, but it’s more about the commitment: taking that extra step, talking to the girls, asking about their lives, showing up for their things after school – like if they’re in theatre, going to a play.”

Girl Talk Founder and Executive Director Haley Kilpatrick realized quickly what an exceptional young woman she had in her ranks.

“Kendall is one in a million,” says Kilpatrick. “She is the real deal and is wise beyond her years.”

Kendall earned the National Leader of the Year award for the program she helped develop during her junior year. The

most prestigious award given out by the organization, all previous recipients had been high school seniors.

“Her quiet leadership is what I admire most about Kendall,” says Kilpatrick. “You can always count on her to do the right thing, to be on time, to have a positive attitude, and to remember details that make people feel valued and loved. I can’t wait to see what is in store for her future.”

Kendall’s immediate future includes Harvard University this fall. But Girl Talk will never be too far from her thoughts. “One thing I’d like to be involved with is extending chapters, wherever I find myself. Girl Talk’s mission is to reach every middle and high school girl in America, and I hope we can accomplish that some day.”

TORCHBEARER SUMMER 2013 | 13

AROUND CAMPUS

AROUND CAMPUS

Eight Years Later And Still On A Mission included updating homes with eco-friendly and cost-saving light bulbs, helping build a Habitat for Humanity home, and carving out some time to enjoy the communities that HIES has helped over the years.

“We worked hard, but we had enough free time this year to visit a little in New Orleans and the surrounding area,” says senior Lindsey Klopfenstein, who has made the journey twice. “Plus it was neat to see all the work we put in last year – we painted the inside of a house then and we sided it this time. And it’s really great to work beside the people who are benefitting from the project – to get to spend time with them.”

“The kids have a great sense that they’ve

A In the fall of 2005, Hurricane Katrina blasted through Mississippi, Louisiana, and the surrounding areas, leaving tens of thousands of people homeless and much of the Gulf coast crippled. Eight years later – though most aid programs have moved on – Holy Innocents’ faculty and students continue to help the Gulf communities recover, returning as they’ve done every year since the hurricane for an Easter weekend of community service.

“Recovery time for Katrina has been estimated at eight to ten years before the area is fully healed,” says trip facilitator and Upper School math teacher Meredith Many. “And each fall, the juniors who went the previous year start badgering me about making plans for the coming spring. So yes,” she adds with a grin, “I’m weak and I cave into pressure. But after all, they are begging to give up their Easter break to go do good deeds. Who could resist? And why would I?” This spring, 24 students and three chaperones made the trip. Their agenda

14 | TORCHBEARER SUMMER 2013

done something tangible, something they can see,” says US math teacher John Taylor, who has chaperoned three mission trips. “In some cases they might not feel they’ve done much, but they get to meet people who have nothing but still have hope and joy in their lives. That’s a powerful thing! It’s all about connecting with people; letting them know others care about them helps so much.”

For the past few years, the HIES group has addressed the city of New Orleans, but the original HIES missions were to

Mississippi. “That’s actually the area that got the most decimated,” says Many. “That’s where the eye hit and we first arrived when things were still a mess.”

The emphasis has, of course, shifted, from crisis to recovery to community empowerment. “The big change, it seems, has been from repairing the destruction of Katrina to simply fixing a city in need,” says Taylor. “Some of the work we do now has little to do with the hurricane; it’s more about helping a city with extreme poverty.”

But as the scope of recovery shifts, Many says there’s still plenty to be done. “Next year I’d like to hook up again with St. Anna’s Episcopal Church – they always do a lot for the community and they can find us plenty of projects. I want to get back to work that has more of a grassroots feel.

“Sometimes,” she explains. “ a detail is all that’s needed to make a neighborhood back into a neighborhood. One bad building can ruin the whole thing – you take care of one spot, then all can be whole again.”

Is there a better lesson for students to learn at Easter?

Holy Innocents’ Outpaces All U.S. Schools in JDRF Fall Walk Last fall, for the sixth consecutive year, Holy Innocents’ JDRF Walk team became the highest grossing school team in the nation! The HIES walkers officially raised $50,478 in the 2012 event—and two HIES students were named to the top five list of individual student contributors: senior Andrew Earle and sophomore Anna Kampfe.

“We are impressed and honored by the dedicated efforts of students at Holy Innocents’, and particularly of Andrew and Anna,” said John Vranas, vice president of fund-raising programs for JDRF, which was founded in 1970 to help find a cure for diabetes and its complications. “It is the passion and dedication of these young people that motivates others to support us in our efforts to bring about a world without type 1 diabetes.”

Andrew was captain of the 2012 Walk team, which included faculty,

staff, and students. Junior Lauren McBroom served as co-chair. Kampfe and McBroom will serve as co-captains of Holy Innocents’ team for this year’s JDRF Fall Walk, Oct. 19 in Centennial Park.

So what’ the secret of Holy Innocents’ JDRF success?

“The whole community really backs up our fundraising efforts with donations and coming out to the event,” said Andrew.

Added his mom, Kimberly Earle, “There is no way that our school could continue to be number-one in the nation without the support and encouragement from Holy Innocents’ and our friends and families. Our parents, students, administration, and faculty, along with JDRF, support us in every possible way.”

TORCHBEARER SUMMER 2013 | 15

GREG KAISER SECTION HEADPRIMARY SCHOOL PRINCIPAL among other jobs, at Six Flags Over Georgia.

I tell you this only because I sometimes find myself marveling at how much of these previous experiences I bring to my work as an educator.

For example, anyone who works with young children knows that you have to think quickly and be fast in your reaction times. I can’t think of much better training for this than dodging traffic and pedestrians while pedaling a bike up and down Peachtree Street, trying to deliver mail from Midtown to downtown.

Another skill needed for working with kids is the ability to improvise, entertain, and speak so people will listen. My six years as a disc jockey with 96rock also required those skills, as well as a willingness to make a fool of yourself every once in a while, a quality that is critical for anyone who wants to truly make an impression on kids. So when it comes to my job at Six Flags? Well, a six-foot bunny costume… ‘nuff said.

Probably more important to my

When we principals are asked to write an article for TorchBearer, there is always a cover story theme that helps one choose a subject for the article. I struggled this time with the theme of Media Literacy. What do we do as a Lower School that prepares our students for the Media Literacy programs in the Upper School? I discovered the answer was very simple – we value the importance of writing in the Lower School.

Writing is one of the most important subjects we teach in the Lower School. Writing is an essential skill that can benefit students throughout their lives. We have the opportunity to foster confidence and a lifelong love of writing.

After all, we all have a story to tell. Through journals and personal story writing, children

can discover their identities and work through real-life problems. The independent writing gives the child the ability to view themselves as authors.

It is our goal that the students learn to love writing and understand the value of clearly written communication.

Good, written communication is imperative. In the 21st century we communicate by e-mail, we read blogs, we use Facebook, and we write text messages. The opportunity to compose abounds as we write and compose for different audiences, purposes, and occasions.

But it still speaks volumes to receive a professional e-communication riddled with writing or grammatical errors. It is a true reflection on the writer and his or her inability to communicate properly. Through our Writers’ Workshop experiences, conducted by our two writing specialists and teachers plus the integration of writing in all subject areas, our students are being taught the lifelong process of learning to

TERRI POTTER

| TORCHBEARER SUMMER 16 16 | TORCHBEARER FALL 2008 2013

LOWER SCHOOL PRINCIPAL

MIDDLE SCHOOL PRINCIPAL career than any other job I held was my work in the Navy. An aircraft carrier flight deck is a loud and crazy place, and one wrong step by a single person can have serious consequences for all involved. The men and women who serve in these roles have to move quickly, be keenly aware of their surroundings, rely heavily on teamwork, and support each other in order to accomplish critically important work. The time I spent on that flight deck serves me well to this day.

As different and unique as each of my prior jobs have been, I consider myself fortunate to now work in a place where I have the opportunity to utilize the best of what my previous experiences taught me. It is my hope that, here in the Primary School, we build a foundation for your children that will provide them the opportunity and the courage to follow their own unique paths throughout their years here at Holy Innocents’ and beyond, and to learn and grow from each new experience that they encounter along the way.

write. The Lower School teachers believe all students have the capacity and ability to write, that writing can be taught, and that teachers can help students become better writers.

The Writers’ Workshop affords students the opportunity to be a working author and to take their writing seriously. The writing process includes the draft, rethinking, revising, and drafting again. Improvements are built into the experience of writing as the act of writing generates many ideas. Writers think of ideas they did not have in mind before they began their writing.

The 21st century has presented writing options that we have never seen before. People are writing more for different audiences and for various purposes. The foundation of knowing how to write and expressing yourself through the clear written word still stands paramount in the education of our students. A student’s writing remains a reflection of the true student.

PRINCIPAL’S CORNER

This issue of TorchBearer focuses on our Media Literacy program, which includes our outstanding broadcast journalism classes. The work that our young broadcasters are doing has me recalling my work prior to teaching; specifically, the six years I spent as a disc jockey and marketing director for WKLS/96rock, a once legendary but now-defunct rock radio station here in Atlanta.

Besides my radio work, before becoming a teacher 17 years ago, I held several other jobs that might also be considered “off the beaten path.”

The list includes miniature golf course and videogame arcade attendant (when I was twelve), bicycle messenger in downtown Atlanta, and working on the flight deck of a U.S. Navy aircraft carrier. Perhaps the most unique job I ever held was the two high school summers I spent playing Bugs Bunny,

THERESA JESPERSEN SECTION HEAD

For our sixth annual Middle School Film Festival we had ten films entered in competition.

They represented some very advanced pieces, including some that incorporated animation with live action, or used green screen effects to make live actors look like giants crashing through downtown Atlanta. Our young filmmakers are technologically adept and able to support their artistic ambitions.

As they used to say in ads in my mother’s Redbook magazine, “We’ve come a long way, baby.”

Many years ago in the Upper School I began assigning film projects in my economics classes: we would divide the chapters among the different classes to help students review the concepts for the exam. Back then, we had one video camera that weighed about ten pounds, and the students had to shoot their scenes in chronological order, rewinding to the correct spot for a second take since they filmed right onto the VHS cassette tape.

Creativity sat right up front with logistical planning, as the films were basically pre-edited, and some

productions were quite good. There were superheroes fighting price fixing, news shows documenting diminishing marginal utility, episodes of “Dawson’s Creek” involving fundraising, and commercials for retail clothing outlets like Inflationary Gap where everything was too expensive, or Recessionary Gap where deals abounded.

I realized we were entering a new era when one particular class took the film project to an entirely different plane. Not only did they embrace the project, but they worked together in a complex and collaborative effort I hadn’t seen before (I used to scold them for their unused “raisin brains.”) When I arrived at school one day, several of the students were standing outside my door to see my reaction to their set design.

They had “borrowed” the stage curtains from the FAB and turned my classroom into a network news set complete with anchor desks (don’t ask where they got those), and built a wheeled tripod to hold the camera for encircling shots. The planning put into this production was amazing, but the technology available in the

spring of 1999 allowed them to do so much more. The cameraman had a “real” camera that used smaller tape cassettes that could be edited. The editor had access to his dad’s computer, and took the raw footage and combined it with special effects, music, and actual TV clips. What they turned in was jawdropping in its technical capacity, far beyond the projects from just a year before. The project was a testament to the future, where “What if” meets with “Let’s,” although it was entitled, “Raisin Brain Economics.”

Those students were real pioneers in media technology. The cameraman has gone on to a successful career in reality television, and the editor is now the webmaster at a large university. It would be cool to bring them together with our young filmmakers now, wouldn’t it?

HIES senior Brendan Rosenberg recently entered the Brock Safety MVP Contest (www. saferyouthsports.org), open to high school and middle school students nationwide, in which students submitted videos that answered the question – “Why is safety as important as winning to your sports team?” The film, which featured head football coach Ryan Livezey, took top honors in the national competition and, thanks to Brendan’s efforts, the school will receive $5,000 in sports equipment from Safer Sports.

Brendan will be recognized at the first US assembly in September.

Recognition and awards, such as the one given Brendan, that involve media and communication technology are becoming far more common at HIES for a variety of reasons. Certainly, the academic credentials of those applying to and matriculating to the school

have improved dramatically since Holy Innocents’ graduated its first class nearly 20 years ago. Mostly, though, the rising tide of expectation surrounding media literacy and the use of communication tools such as iMovie and Garage Band, and social media such as Twitter, Pinterest and Tumblr, have flooded the HIES classroom. Online activities to enhance educational pursuits and create learning networks are now becoming the rule rather than the outlier in education. Not too many years ago students began to explore the various uses of PowerPoint as a way to spice up the traditional book report or school presentation. Now, that tool is becoming a relic only available to the last living relics in any school: the teachers!

Students are finding new and different avenues to capture

their creativity and make learning relevant. For the adults in our community, the wave of communication and media tools should be viewed as an opportunity to live our mission. Can we as teachers model a love of lifelong learning by embracing the new technology available to us? We want the answer to be a resounding ‘yes!’ It’s my hope that teachers replace the fear of not knowing what the next new media ‘fad’ will be with the joy of learning a bag full of new and exciting tricks with their students.

And there is one thing I know for certain: the students will respect and appreciate their effort.

UPPER SCHOOL PRINCIPAL

CHRIS DURST

TORCHBEARER 2013 | 17 TORCHBEARERSUMMER FALL 2008 | 17

TORCHBEARER INTERVIEW

TORCHBEARER INTERVIEW

Clay Rolader The HIES Board of Trustees recently adopted a new five-year strategic plan which identifies five key areas to address by the end of the 2017-18 school year (see page 21). We sat down with Mr. Clay Rolader, chair of the Board’s Strategic Planning Committee, to discuss the plan and its potential for our school.

TB: What was the impetus for developing a new five-year strategic plan? Was there a sense of urgency or did the Board simply feel that it was time?

CR: The genesis was not last year’s retreat, where we actually wrote the plan, but the year before. I was just coming on the Board and we went off-site and spent two and a half days really talking about the school – what do we think we do really well and what do we think we need to work on?

It led to a commitment that we ought to look at this in a more systematic way and create a plan. So a year later, we engaged the firm Independent School Management to help us. Walker Buckalew, one of ISM’s executive consultants, came and led an exercise and put those ideas up on a board so we could see themes and sort of connect the dots. It’s a unique way to do a plan – I’ve been involved with them in other places where they took months or years.

But I think the reason it clicked was that the Board had a sense that the school has done

all these wonderful things and we all value them and feel strongly about them, but there was a more systematic way to focus on doing more of the good stuff. Within that weekend, there was real consensus around the plan and the five main goals are a distillation of the most important things that came out of it. So maybe it was a twoyear process, but the actual crafting of the plan was really over a weekend.

if we’re going to do this, let’s put time frames on certain steps and let’s assign responsibility to different people. Some of the tasks are Board-related and Board members are in charge of them and some are school-related and administrators are in charge of them. So we just mapped out a time frame and assignment of responsibilities and gave that to the Board and Administration to work on.

TB: Is this something that is standard in education?

TB: So looking at the plan, is this set in stone or is it amendable? Things move awfully fast today, especially in terms of technology and educational theory – so can you tweak a well-thought-out plan if something new suddenly develops?

CR: It is. I don’t know if there had been a plan before – I wasn’t on the Board – but I don’t think there had been. But for most educational institutions – and I’ve been on several prep school boards and college boards – it’s a major part of the focusing of the Board’s activities and then a charge the Board ends up giving the Administration to implement.

Once the plan was agreed upon, then several of us took the plan and said, “Ok,

CR: Absolutely. And what we’re finding as we work on certain things is that we weren’t asking maybe the right questions – so you end up shifting it a bit. And one of the most fruitful conversations we’re having is this definition of our Episcopal identity.

That committee has been extremely active,

because it’s important for a number of reasons. It touches on what I think people walk around here and intuitively feel – a sense of community and a sense of caring.

And it’s a place where every kid can find something to excel at or a group to be part of; we all feel that. But I think – and the Board thinks – part of it is that Episcopal identity. That is what Episcopalianism at its best brings to the world: a sense of inclusiveness, a sense of caring. So we’re trying to articulate that, to write down the intuitive part of it so it can be a touchstone for what we do. That’s an important goal just in itself. But a secondary goal is to say, “Ok, if that’s something that’s really important to us, then we need to let our little light shine. We need to say to the Atlanta educational community, ‘That’s what Holy Innocents’ represents.’ So if you’re a family looking for an environment like that, here it is.” A second follow-on to defining that identity is going to be figuring out how to get our message out – using the admissions process, participation in community activities – there’s a wide range of ways it can manifest itself. But first we need to define it if we can.

TB: With that in mind, how much of a role does the Episcopal Church play in the planning – on the parish as well as diocesan level?

CR: Well, maybe there’s an official way it does and a non-official way. Clearly, the rector of the church is on the school Board and is very active, gives us lots of input.

And the Board of Trustees is approved by the vestry - so there are all these crosses.

We “live here together” is the way to say it, I guess. So the rector and a number of church members are on the committee that’s informing this conversation. But I also think we’re incredibly lucky to have the bishop, who, as a Board member, has been willing to sit in that group and is one of the most articulate spokespeople I’ve ever run into for what it means to be Episcopalian. So I don’t have any doubt that we’ll come out of this with a wonderful product because of the involvement of our church and, maybe unofficially, the bishop.

But the diocese doesn’t have real input to it. It’s being informed by the relationship between our school and our church. And we just happen to be lucky that the bishop is involved.

TB: Is there an order, or hierarchy, to the points? The defining and branding of our Episcopal identity is listed first in all materials – so will that be the original focus, or is that considered the most important?

CR: I don’t know that there’s a hierarchy.

They’re all just the key things we are working on. But the most active ones to start with have been defining the Episcopal identity and then the funding and construction of the new Upper School building. In some ways, they’re the easiest to get started on. The others have less tangible markers, so it takes some time to build consensus around what it is we want to do and how we measure the effectiveness

of it. But I don’t think I’d put a hierarchy on it. I mean the faculty is just as important as that building – so to continue to recruit and attain good faculty and provide appropriate salaries and benefits. One of the main goals is to increase the funding for faculty training; and then, how do you push it out through the faculty to get people to go take part in training and then bring it back and share best practices and best thoughts?

I mean the faculty is why we’re here. So if there’s something deliberate about the order of the plan’s points, it’s to put the faculty in front of that building; that part was deliberate. But the others are pretty equally important for us to figure out. The first two have always been the first two – the others have sort of flipped around as we’ve thought about it.

TB: Of the five tenets included, the only fully quantifiable one is the construction of the Upper School building – the others are more abstract. So how will we gauge the plan’s success?

CR: I think that it will be in the activities that come out of them. This year has been about fleshing out what we mean by those topics and assigning people jobs. You know, in some ways, you’re asking a really hard question. If you’re a high-performing school that people already love – A: are you going to mess it up? That would be one measurable. Or B: if you’re talking about progress at the margins, how do you actually see that? It won’t be in test scores, probably, or accolades from the outside world. But I

TORCHBEARER INTERVIEW think if we see that we articulated the steps and we followed through on them, then I bet we’re going to see an end product. But I can’t guess what those accolades are going to look like. I don’t know exactly what the Episcopal identity is going to look like, but I’m betting money it’s something that will be a torch for the school.

TB: How far down the road does the Board look? Have you discussed future possibilities beyond five years? Were there just the five points that came up, or did you have, say, 10 and you weeded them down?

CR: There are some longer term ones – for example, what should you do about the long-run buildout of the school. And it’s a complicated question because it’s restricted by borders, it’s restricted by zoning. Some of those are things we are going to have to address but they’re not really immediate for us. So the plan is that, over the first three years, we’ll accomplish some of the tasks that have been articulated. We did prioritize, so we’re on a schedule to complete one set of them this year. We’ll assign another set over the next three years. And at the end of those three years, we’ll be at a place where we ought to start thinking about the next plan. So there’s a commitment that before this plan finishes, we’ll complete a plan for the next five years. Is there any magic to five years? It just seems to be a cycle that people think in. I’ve seen them for three

years; I’ve seen them as long as ten. But I think maybe the takeaway is that the Board is committed to doing this on an ongoing basis.

TB: Would it be safe to say the longer-range points will deal with the physical plant?

CR: That’s what popped in my head, but some of the ones that I suspect will have more focus in the next plan will probably have to do with pedagogy. Because it’s changing so quickly. Holy Innocents’ has been, really, in the vanguard of schools in terms of technology and the introduction of technology into the classroom. A lot of teachers have figured out great ways to do that, while some teachers – perhaps from my generation – you know, it’s not as intuitive. So there’s an awful lot of conversation going on in academia about these tools and how to best use them in the classroom to engage students. And that’s the key. Some of these things, like the Upper School building, we just need to get done in order to have the physical plant to deal with some of the other longerrange issues. But I think there will be a big focus in the next plan on training for our teachers – PLCs, you know, how do you share best practices among our teachers?

How do you teach collaboratively across the curriculum? How do you get kids to problem-solve? To collaborate? These are the work skills that every employer says

2013-2018 STRATEGIC PLAN they want. Even the colleges are saying, “That’s great that you’ve got five APs, but if you can’t figure out how to create a business plan for your non-profit out of that, then what was the point?” And I think ultimately, that’s going to call into question AP classes, for example. Are they still serving the purpose that they did? You’re already seeing the folks who write the AP exams acknowledge that and change the exams. I think the whole AP structure is either going to change or it may go away. So those kinds of pedagogical issues are where the school will probably need to focus next.

Since one of the jobs of a school is to get people into colleges and then to employers, a lot of people are saying, “I don’t know – this process really hasn’t changed since the 19th century. Why?” With all these wonderful tools and new research on how people learn, why are we doing it the same way? I think every school will be grappling with that. And we’ve been such a leader on the technology forefront that it’s just a very natural follow-on to everything we’ve been doing. We have practitioners here who are just lights out ahead of the rest of the country in leading this. And we have others who haven’t embraced it in the same way. I think at some point, you want to get a consistency of the classroom experience by getting those people together and letting them share experiences.

2013-2018

STRATEGIC PLAN FOR PREEMINENCE Holy Innocents’ Episcopal School has launched an ambitious multi-year program of strategic advancement focused on key areas that shape how we fulfill our mission:

Develop in students a love of learning, respect for self and others, faith in God, and a sense of service to the world community.

Educating the next generation to thrive and lead in a complex, challenging society is a sacred trust of the highest order. A critical aspect of this preparation is to surround students with excellence that is relevant to the world of today and tomorrow, inspiring their own consistent best efforts. The strategic planning process begun in May 2012 is designed for this purpose.

DEEPLY ROOTED: The Holy Innocents’ Philosophy Since 1959, Holy Innocents’ has grown from a parish pre-school to one of Greater Atlanta’s most respected college preparatory schools, serving students age 3 years old through 12th grade. A clear and consistent philosophy of education has guided us across the years.

We offer an educational program encompassing academics, arts, athletics, and spiritual formation. Through opportunities to grow intellectually, spiritually, physically, and emotionally, students develop their individual worth and dignity. The challenging academic program prepares students for higher education and emphasizes learning as a pathway toward ethical leadership and a commitment to the common good. The religious life curriculum begins in the earliest grades of the Primary School and continues in every grade, including ethics courses in both Middle and Upper School.

The school provides a welcoming and supportive environment, embraces the differences inherent in a diverse community, and embodies the inclusive Episcopal tradition of respect for the beliefs of others. HIES is an active community of faith engaged in local, national and international service to others.

TORCHBEARER SUMMER 2013 | 21

2013-2018 STRATEGIC PLAN

2013-2018 STRATEGIC PLAN

OUR STRENGTHS

STRATEGIC OBJECTIVES

OBJECTIVE:

OBJECTIVE:

In shaping our strategic plan, the Board of Trustees and Administration are building upon Holy Innocents’ strengths as America’s largest Episcopal parish day school and fourth largest Episcopal school in the country, as well as a leader in the broader independent school sector locally and nationally.

Five areas of opportunity have been identified that can sustain Holy Innocents’ remarkable trajectory and ensure continuous distinction and advantage in the competitive independent school landscape. Over the past year, each of these areas has been researched and analyzed by a task force to articulate goals and tasks necessary to meet them.

Define our Episcopal Identity and optimize its benefits for the community.

Select and nurture an excellent faculty and staff

Being a comprehensive, pre-K through 12th grade Episcopal school sets HIES apart in the Atlanta school market and gives us a special character.

Episcopalians comprise approximately one-fourth of the student body. While the balance comes mostly from other Christian traditions, we welcome all other faiths and value what they add to our understanding of each other and the world. Our students learn that our differences of faith and indeed humanness elevate, glorify and dignify us and make us better people.

Professionalism, warmth and dedication to our students are the attributes we seek and find in the HIES faculty. Averaging 14 years of service at the School, our faculty is deeply invested in our mission and program, and flourishes in the spirit of inquiry that permeates our learning environment.

Long-term growth in quality and quantity requires that we nurture HIES’ highly-regarded faculty, coaches, and artistic directors and provide compensation that reflects the School’s values as well as the state of competition for excellent independent school faculty and staff.

We live our mission and philosophy daily.

We pursue excellence in all aspects of the educational program – superior academics complemented by opportunities in the arts, athletics, service and spiritual development, giving every student the chance to pursue his or her passions and succeed as a member of a team, theater or musical group, affinity organization or club.

True to our Episcopal mission, our school community is exceedingly warm, caring, inclusive, welcoming and familyoriented. Further, a curriculum in spiritual life is a hallmark of the School and one of the outward and visible signs of that mission, as are weekly chapel services and a multitude of community service opportunities.

We strongly believe in our obligation to educate HIES students as “global citizens,” with sister schools in Japan, France, Argentina, and South Africa, an Upper School Chinese student exchange program, an expanding World Languages curriculum, and a capstone diploma program in Global Citizenship in the Upper School, including opportunities for social entrepreneurship (with several new nonprofit organizations funded and incubated at HIES in recent years) and international community service.

As one of the first schools in Atlanta to adopt a one-to-one technology program with laptops, HIES students become highly proficient using their MacBook Pro computers in all aspects of the curriculum, utilizing this 21st century learning tool in collaborative learning, from well-established film festivals and applications in art, design and music composition to presentation mastery, robotics, physics, and just about every subject you can name.

The dedication of our faculty, staff, parents, administration, and Board positions HIES to succeed in achieving the goals of the strategic plan.

22 | TORCHBEARER SUMMER 2013

Episcopal Identity statement: Adopt a statement to explain what the Holy Innocents’ Episcopal Identity means in application.

Funding of salaries and benefits: Plan for increases for faculty and staff that exceed the expected rate of inflation over the next four years.

Continue to pursue diversity among students, faculty, and board of trustee composition: As recommended by the National Association of Episcopal Schools, HIES will “seek to exemplify our commitment to Episcopal identity and governance by adopting policies and practices which will assure the dignity and equal worth of every member of the student body, faculty, staff, and board; and that as part of this stance, we seek an equitable mixture of social, economic, and racial representation in all these components of the school’s life.”

Instructional technology: Develop a powerful strategy for instructional technology that will increase the appeal of the HIES educational product for faculty and students alike.

Marketing/branding: Develop communication strategies to sharpen awareness of our Episcopal Identity with relevant constituencies, including parents, alums, students, faculty, prospective students and families.

Sustained and enhanced church-school relations: Maintain a strong Joint Committee with committed, engaged and capable members.

Retention: Refine and strengthen internal marketing to optimize retention at all levels of the School.

Faculty/staff development: Establish a plan for the ongoing development and evaluation of the HIES faculty and staff.

Increased faculty/staff development funding: Provide for funding of faculty and staff development consistent with peer group benchmarks by no later than 2018 (year 6 of the strategic plan).

Enhanced culture: Monitor and enhance the student culture and corresponding components of the faculty culture by leveraging the Student Culture Profile II, Faculty Culture Profile II, and Characteristics of Professional Excellence II as recommended by Independent School Management (ISM). Utilize results to attract the highest-qualified faculty at all grade levels.

Career-long development: Create a strategy for the long-term professional development of all employees.

TORCHBEARER SUMMER 2013 | 23

2013-2018 STRATEGIC PLAN

2013-2018 STRATEGIC PLAN

OBJECTIVE:

OBJECTIVE:

OBJECTIVE:

Enhance academic and extracurricular student programs

Create and implement Board development and governance plan

Fund and construct a new Upper School building

The HIES student experience is a finely-tuned balance of academics, arts, athletics and spiritual life. In a rapidly changing world, maintaining this balance with maximum relevance for college, life and personal growth requires continuing review and adjustment – a never-ending process for schools like ours that are both innovative and progressive.

The long-term health and vigor of HIES rests in the hands of a strong volunteer leadership that operates in a structure fully aligned with the strategic plan, with all members actively involved in bringing it to life.

Perception of our graduates by colleges and universities: Communicate the quality and uniqueness of our graduates by integrating the HIES Portrait of the Graduate into our college counseling and placement program.

STEM program support and visibility: Create a plan to strengthen and sustain support for our STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) programs, while enhancing STEM visibility through marketing strategies that show the impact of STEM programs and their potential in 21st Century life.

Enrollment and financial aid practices: Identify optimal entry points, starting grade level, class size, financial aid growth strategies and policies for tuition assistance.

Metrics for “balanced excellence:” Develop metrics specific to each pillar of our overall program: academics, arts, athletics, spiritual life.

Leadership development: Explore and implement leadership development programs and opportunities for students in grades 6-12.

24 | TORCHBEARER SUMMER 2013

Board development: Craft a Board development plan utilizing the Strategic Board Assessment instrument to set annual Board agendas that reflect the strategic plan.

Strategic financial model: Develop and adhere to a rolling five-year strategic financial model that offers sufficient detail to provide a clear, accurate and timely window into key drivers of HIES finances.

Board governance: Identify and implement best practices for board operations and governance of the school.

Board profile: Create a fresh Board profile that considers the implications of our “Episcopal Identity” and includes parents, alumni and outside experts as non-Board committee members.

Long-term endowment growth: Build a strong foundation of financial resources for the future with emphasis on planned giving.

In many respects the Upper School is the HIES “flagship” – the visible, tangible emblem of our quality to the community, and the focus of prospective families as they consider our school for their children’s education. Our facilities must communicate the preeminence of HIES in a clear and compelling way.

Capital campaign: Plan and implement a $22.5 million capital campaign to build a new Upper School building Design and budget: Complete the conceptual design and budget Master plan development: Review and refine the master plan, including an optimal facilities use plan taking into account increased demand and enrollments in the Middle and Upper Schools.

Through this strategic plan, we are shaping the future of Holy Innocents’ Episcopal School that will illume new generations to become discerning, ethical young adults, ready to move forward in life with full hearts, confidence, vision and grace.

The HIES founders could not have imagined what their best efforts would one day make possible.

Our best efforts will make this bold plan the reality for Holy Innocents’ Episcopal School and all the young people who will grow and learn here.

MEDIA LITERACY

THE HIES MEDIA LITERACY PROGRAM:

ON TOP OF A DEVELOPING STORY

In the fall of 1959, those families that took a chance on the brand new Holy Innocents’ Parish Day School probably owned a TV set, since more than 80 percent of American households had one by that point. But as they got ready for school in the morning, those families didn’t turn on the TV. For one thing, programming didn’t begin until 7 a.m. and the shows that the three available channels aired that early, like Sunrise Semester and Continental Classroom, were dry as dirt.

Instead, while the kids read the funnies, parents scanned the morning’s headlines in whichever Atlanta newspaper they subscribed to, getting up to date on all that had happened before about 9 p.m. the previous night. Any overnight news or news from that morning might be available on one of the few AM radio stations you could tune in, depending on how far from downtown you lived, but would probably need to wait for the 15-minute Huntley-Brinkley Report later that night, or until the evening paper hit the doorstep, whichever came first.

Ah yes, the good old days, when ignorance wasn’t bliss, it was simply the news cycle.

26 | TORCHBEARER SUMMER 2013

MEDIA LITERACY THE WORLD IN TECHNICOLOR Since HIES first opened its doors, no other area of American life has advanced more quickly or dramatically than the media, i.e. our sources for information and entertainment. Back then, there existed a total of three television options, ABC, CBS, and NBC (and if you were lucky enough to live near a major city, you could probably tune in all three of them).

Today, of course, a cable or satellite receiver can bring in nearly 100 American networks alone, which broadcast nearly

400 separate channels, 24 hours a day, every day of every year, and to every square foot of the entire country. Unlike the original “big three,” the great majority of today’s networks are devoted to singular topics like sports, news, music, religion, shopping, comedy, movies, etc. With this hyper-targeted and omnipresent coverage, broadcast television has become the overwhelmingly dominant source of news, opinion, and entertainment in today’s society.

As TV exploded, radio’s role in Americans’ lives decreased dramatically.

However, even though families no longer huddle around the set to listen to Uncle

Milty or live broadcasts from the White House, we now enjoy a huge variety of AM and FM commercial stations – 72 in Atlanta alone. And if that’s not enough, we can also subscribe to a satellite radio service offering hundreds of unique formats.

And then there are newspapers.

Remember them?

With the pervasiveness of the internet, hardcopy newspapers have nearly disappeared from the American scene, to the point where a number of American cities no longer have a single printed daily.

The simple reality is that people now read

their news online.

From an education standpoint, the most fascinating aspect of today’s media is its utter incongruity with the media programs available to American students. Nearly all schools have a yearbook program and most continue with monthly or quarterly printed newspapers. But that’s it. Most schools still don’t offer anything beyond these basic, print media programs.

In other words, in the majority of American schools, media programs reflect a market more reminiscent of 1959 than today’s digital and video-dominated industry. What this means for students

at those schools is that, upon graduation, should they wish to pursue a college program or career in today’s media, they’re virtually at square one. And in the opinion of the Holy Innocents’ administration, that’s not a very good place to be.

THE FINE ART OF MEDIA EDUCATION The Holy Innocents’ media literacy program began six years ago, when Upper School principal Chris Durst and former fine arts department chair Joshua McClymont discussed ways to integrate the school’s growing computer and technology TORCHBEARER SUMMER 2013 | 27

MEDIA LITERACY

MEDIA LITERACY

platform into the fine arts. “We wanted to create some design around how we engage students in the study of media,” says Durst.

The question, though, became where to house such a program, since journalism had traditionally fallen under language arts, but the new journalistic platforms blurred the lines between language, technology, and the visual and performing arts.

“As it related to Upper School, it was more about the creativity around the media,” Durst says. “So we thought, because of the creative enterprise and with the advent of film and television, it would be a good idea to include these in the fine arts program, to create a larger fine arts

“They’re working in a place where they’re living right now – online and television and film – so that’s highly relevant. But I think it’s fun. That kind of learning is fun.”

With fun comes popularity. And over the next couple of years, the popularity of the digital lifestyles elective prompted the administration to create the HIES media literacy program – combining print journalism, broadcast journalism, film studies, and yearbook.

To become eligible for one of these programs, freshmen were required to take the class Intro to Media Lit. “We needed a gateway class – an entry point so we could train kids so they’d be prepared for

participation, it has gained equal footing with the other HIES performing and visual arts programs. And the talents of the students involved have become evident on a very regular basis.

EXTRA! EXTRA! READ ALL ABOUT IT! For years, the Crimson & Gold newspaper had served as the sole journalism program at HIES – a standard student newspaper printed every few weeks throughout the school year. With the demise of printed newspapers, however, and the constraints on “current” news

National Scholastic Press Association, the Columbia Scholastic Press Association – what kinds of articles were winning awards, what types of publications they had, were they running traditional newspapers or magazines?”

Through their research, the students discovered that the best journalism programs in the country had moved closer to a real-world model – online news sources for current events and printed news magazines for long-form articles and

C&G staff at their inaugural issue’s launch party

umbrella.”

Thus was born “Digital Lifestyles,” a new elective focused on video production and internet technology. “It was not at all what it is now,” says fine arts department chair Heidi Domescik. “It was kind of tied up with the computers and the technology program, had a film class, but it didn’t include the newspaper – and the broadcast journalism program hadn’t begun yet.”

But the seed had been cast – and it had been cast into remarkably fertile soil. A new HIES broadcast center was built in a classroom next to the Campus Shop, with state-of-the-art video cameras, a green screen for special effects, and three editing 28 | TORCHBEARER SUMMER 2013

booths running professional video-editing software. Students organized an Upper School film festival to show off the work they’d created over the school year. And the idea of adding a TV news broadcast to the journalism program quickly gained traction.

The administration saw the excitement building around their new elective and realized its potential for a broader curriculum, one that combines educational goals (writing proficiency, research skills, critical thinking) with those things students enjoy spending their time on outside of school. “The education is experiential – they’re actually doing it,” says Durst.

broadcasting,” says Durst. “And then we decided to broaden that to include the other strands.”

Domescik explains, “The idea was to have a collaboratively taught class. You’d get a quarter of yearbook, a quarter of documentary photography – which is relevant to all the media lit programs – a quarter of print journalism, and a quarter of film and TV production. So you really got a chance to work with all the different faculty and get a sampling of the different areas, and then choose which strand that you want to get into.”

This past school year, the media lit program reached maturity; in terms of

inherent in their extended production editorials. “The first couple of weeks, they schedules, faculty advisor Rebekah Goode- each made a presentation for what they Peoples realized that the program needed proposed be done, and it could have been modernization. So last August, she turned anything,” Goode-Peoples remembers. to her students for ideas.

“Each student had examples “The beginning of the year of what they liked, types of was a good opportunity to articles they wanted to see, take stock of everything they and after we looked at all of were doing, figure out what them, we came up with a list of the staff liked and wanted to common themes. They chose keep doing, and how they to switch to a hybrid model: could improve,” says Goodeno more traditional newspaper, Rebekah Goode-Peoples Peoples. “So they compared because that’s what’s what had been done in the happening in the real industry; past with what they were seeing from the and they wanted to appeal to their audience, winners of the national competitions – the which is the Upper School, and they

Bringing Media Lit Into Focus Freshman year’s Intro to Media Lit class helps direct students toward one of the program’s subsequent strands – yearbook, print journalism, broadcast journalism, or film. But one section of the intro class doesn’t lead any further – instead, the quarter devoted to photojournalism teaches skills required in all strands.

Taught by Upper School photography teacher Alice Thompson, photojournalism begins at square one and, in just a few short weeks, takes students on a high-speed tour of advanced camera techniques, photographic elements, and image-editing software.

“Most of these kids don’t know how to use a camera – they’ve never touched digital, single-lens reflex,” says Thompson, referring to professional DSLR cameras. She smiles as she remembers a student who turned one on for the first time and told her it was broken – “The display was showing the settings interface instead of a picture of what he was pointing at,” she says. “So that’s where we start.”

Thompson realizes she’ll never get students up to expert level in a single quarter, so she concentrates on the basic areas they’ll need in the different media lit strands. “They learn all the settings and how to shoot on manual mode, so they can get whatever effect they’re going for,” she says.

“Then they need to know about lighting and how it affects the way people look – in direct sunlight, or shooting somebody next to a window, what a fluorescent light will do to skin tone.

“They learn how to make a photo dramatic, which means the angle you’re shooting from,” continues Thompson, “so they’ll understand how to achieve the desired effect in their journalism or film courses – to get their point across.”

Students also learn composition. “The ‘rule of thirds,’ where to place a person in a photograph,” Thompson explains. “They have to learn how to shoot a group. They learn all the compositional rules – or I call them guidelines, because rules are, after all, meant to be broken.”

Once they’ve completed their quarter of photojournalism, Thompson’s students fly the nest and move on to the world of journalism, yearbook, or film – but armed with the photographic skills necessary to succeed in any of them.

TORCHBEARER SUMMER 2013 | 29

MEDIA LITERACY

MEDIA LITERACY

live online now, too. So they developed crimsonandgold.org, which is an online news site where they publish mostly daily, short, informative pieces about current events, and then C&G, which is a quarterly news magazine.”

Throughout her descriptions, GoodePeoples consistently uses the pronoun ‘they,’ meaning the students, and reinforcing the fact that journalism is now an entirely student-run program. The new vehicles have received enormous and welldeserved fanfare for both the quality of the writing and the fearlessness of the reporting. “They peer edit,” she says. “I read their stuff, but I don’t edit. I ask a lot of

Goode-People explains that the articles aren’t meant to stir up controversy, but to initiate discussion. “You don’t want to do something that’s controversial just because it’s controversial,” she says. “My role as an advisor is not to tell them that they can or can’t write about anything, but to give them advice – and they choose to do with it what they will.

“They realize it’s ok to deal with difficult subjects if it’s for the community’s benefit to have that conversation,” she continues.

“They’re not trying to tell people what they should think or believe, they’re just trying to start informed conversations so that we can push ourselves forward as an

week’s WHIS newscast. Housed on the photo and video sharing website vimeo.com as well as the HIES website’s media gallery, the broadcasts have become “must-see TV” throughout campus.

Episodes mirror professional network newscasts, with a stylized intro, desk anchors, and field correspondents covering that week’s news, sports, arts, and relevant events.

Meanwhile, the other half of the broadcast journalism program, GBTV, debuted in 2012 as a quarterly news magazine show – think 60 Minutes vs. the CBS Evening News. Stories take a more in-depth view of school issues and the

Conway explains how he and Jackson bridge that gap. “In the intro class, when they move from straight journalism into the broadcast phase, they’ve already received a nice grounding in what a story is,” he says.

“They arrive thinking, ‘I know what a focus statement is, I know how to structure these things.’ So the challenge is to get them to figure out how to use the visual language of the camera to communicate the same things they were doing before with words on a page – how they’re going to shape the piece into something that’s either informative or entertaining, and hopefully both.”

According to Conway, that challenge is, counter-intuitively, a result of today’s

questions – if there are problems with, say, AP style – but I feel if kids are empowered and feel ownership of their work and are writing about the things they want to write about, they care about the quality and take time to make sure it’s good.”

Content on the crimsonandgold.org website includes up-to-the-minute stories on campus life – sports, the arts, student affairs, and the like. It’s as close to a professional news outlet’s website (like ajc.com or nytimes.com) as you could hope for, considering that its creators aren’t journalism professionals, but young people with full course schedules, homework, athletic practices, performing arts

institution, to strike a balance between pushing people to have conversations they need to have and honoring the fact that we’re an independent school and that you have to be delicate and stay positive.

It’s never about one administrator or one policy; it’s about how do we make ourselves better?”

cameraman, and we work around that – but personalities within our community. everybody learns all areas of the program.”

For both shows, film and TV production Before they get anywhere teachers James Jackson (HIES near a camera or news desk, class of ’03) and Joe Conway however, students first learn make sure that students learn the art of storytelling on video, every aspect of the broadcast which begins, of course, with industry. “They’re going to get writing. “Broadcast news has equal time behind the camera a heavy writing component,” and in front of the camera, so James Jackson says Jackson. “Everybody has they have to do every facet,” to write; whether they’re a field reporter or says Jackson, who cut his teeth in the an anchor or doing the weather or sports, TV industry as a video editor for an they have to write a script. Besides the Atlanta production company. “As the year basics of English and grammar, there’s progresses, we can see where some kids also a creativity and a different approach to might be better suited – or they might writing for screen than there is for print.” ask to be an anchor or field reporter or

students literally growing up with television. He points out that most people never realize what they’re actually watching – so he and Jackson show them.

“Whether it’s movies or sitcoms or stories on the news, things they’re watching on their iPods or cellphones, the media is designed, really, to wash over you,” says Conway. “It’s designed so that you don’t see the composite parts, but the piece as a whole. So we begin by looking at news stories and breaking down all their visual aspects. We hit the pause button and ask, ‘Did you notice this? Did you notice that?’

And they’re like, ‘What? No, I didn’t.’ You have to stop it and look at each transition,

30 | TORCHBEARER SUMMER 2013

rehearsals, and, of course, social lives.

The C&G magazine, meanwhile, consists of longer, in-depth articles that tackle the broader social issues facing teenagers.

And its first two issues have done so unflinchingly, with investigative stories on such topics as the HIES drug and alcohol policy, teen psychological disorders, and sexism in corporate marketing.

FROM IDIOT BOX TO INFORMATION SUPERHIGHWAY Each Friday morning for the past four years, every student and faculty member has received an email with a link to that

TORCHBEARER SUMMER 2013 | 31

Joe Conway Would Like To Thank The Academy, And Vice Versa.

One reason the HIES film and TV production class has become so exceptional is the fact that long-distance relationships don’t work. If they did, then Joe Conway wouldn’t teach at our school.

As it turns out, Conway is much more than a film teacher; he’s also a celebrated screenwriter with three feature films to his credit.

While living and writing in Los Angeles, he happened to fall in love with a woman who works for CARE’s Atlanta

degree and took a job teaching high school English at St. Stephen’s Episcopal School in Austin. “It happened to be the same school that a writer/ director named Terrence Malick graduated from years earlier,” remembers Conway.

“He reached out to me on a whim because he heard I was organizing a faculty basketball game. He said, ‘I love that gym and I’d love to join you.’ So I said, ‘Sure – I don’t know who you are – but come join us.’

He turned out to be a really

a producer, and it took awhile to get made but it was my first film,” says Conway. “My first script turned into my first movie.”

Produced in 2004, Undertow received significant acclaim in film circles. The late, great critic Roger Ebert listed it as one of his top 10 films of the year.

Conway’s next film was Paradise, Texas, another critical success. “And now I’ve got one in production down in Albuquerque, New Mexico called Things People Do,” he says. “I’ve got high hopes for it.”

It’s not just the silver screen for which Conway writes. “I have a TV pilot, too – I’m trying to get into the TV world,” he says.

office (Conway often flew to Atlanta to visit his dad, who lives in Augusta). “We started dating long-distance, and we did that about a year,” remembers Conway, “when she asked, ‘Hey, should I pick up and move to LA?’ I said, ‘I’m just writing stupid screenplays but you’re saving the world, and I’m not going to have you quit your job.’ So I came to Atlanta” Having married and settled comfortably in our city, Conway heard last year about an opening at HIES. “It was teaching broadcast journalism and film,” he says. “So I came in and interviewed – they called back to offer me the job, and I accepted it the next day. I love it.”

Conway downplays his Hollywood success.

“I’m a pretty good storyteller,” he says. “The only thing I can attribute it to is that I come from a big Irish family and there are a whole lot of stories. From the tiniest age, I remember hiding under the kitchen table and listening to the old folks tell stories – not knowing what they were talking about, but realizing there was something entertaining and dramatic and cool about it.”

That early fascination led him to major in Creative Writing and English at the University of Texas, after which he earned his master’s

good guy and we got to be friends. After about six months I finally said, ‘So what do you do?’ And he said, “Well I made a few films back in the ‘70’s’ – and I was like, yeah, whatever…”

Still clueless about his new friend’s reputation, Conway rented the film Badlands one night and saw Malick listed as writer and director. “So the next time I saw him, I said, ‘Man, I can’t block your shots any more. You’re like hot!’ That was a great, great movie. But I think because I didn’t know who he was, it helped – the first time I walked on the set with him, I saw how revered he is, so he knew I didn’t care about any of that.”

Meanwhile, Malick attended a play in Austin that Conway had authored. “So he said to me, ‘Look, I know you’re a writer. Why don’t you try a screenplay, show it to me, and if I like it maybe we can get something done with it?’

So with his help, I went and wrote this script called Undertow – and he liked it, showed it to

Conway describes his stories as character-driven. “They’re about characters who are a little dissatisfied with the status quo, and who maybe go to extremes to try to find some way of living in a world that’s not to their liking. Sometimes they go too far, sometimes they make mistakes, sometimes they end up finding their way.”

As an example he explains the plot behind Things People Do, the film currently in production.

“It’s about a guy who gets desperate living a lie. He’s been telling everyone – his wife and friends and family – that he’s going off to work everyday, keeping things just as they were.

Then we realize he’s actually lost his job and everything’s about to fall down around him, and he gets so desperate that he picks up a gun and starts robbing people. It’s got a little thriller aspect, but it’s got kind of a dark, comic tone.”

Conway’s own story also has a happy ending – in the HIES broadcast studio working with his students.

MEDIA LITERACY rewind it, and watch it again and again and again, pointing out how producers cut on this word, or this line from an interview. It’s a matter of repetition and deconstructing what they believe they know already. They think, ‘I’ve seen a million movies, a million news stories’, and when they start to look at them frame by frame and cut by cut, they realize they may have seen them, but they never understood the mechanics.”

The HIES broadcast schedule – weekly newscasts and quarterly GBTV magazines – would stress even the most seasoned professional. So Jackson is glad the program became so popular that it doubled in size and helped spread the students’

workload a bit thinner. He and Conway now divide each semester into equal parts, with groups alternating between the shows.

“It’s tricky, because we don’t want them to get burned out,” says Jackson. “When we’re in production, it’s hard to churn out four weeks of stories in a row. They’re kids.

They’ve got sports practices and games, and they’ve got core classes – but they enjoy it. And I know they enjoy the end result of having all their friends see them up on that screen.”

With the heavy language arts focus of the journalism programs, a concern among students and parents became the fact that they fell under the fine arts umbrella, and

the effect that might have on building a transcript for college applications. “We’ve gotten approval for an English credit,” says Goode-Peoples, “so even though it’s in the fine arts department, which is where we want to stay, the students who take journalism can now receive a HOPE credit towards their GPA, which is a good thing and will help people to stay in the program.”

MOST LIKELY TO SUCCEED The longest tenured program within media lit is Ursidae, the HIES yearbook,

which has been produced by students since the Upper School began 22 years ago.

Yearbook’s goals differ from journalism’s in a number of ways, though many of the same skills are learned.

Obviously, a book designed to provide a lifetime of memories won’t report the week’s LeAnne Weaver weather or explore sexism in the media. But, as yearbook advisor LeAnne Weaver points out, writing and design play important roles. “We teach the basics of print design – eyeline, spacing, how white space affects

the impressions,” she says. “And there’s a lot of writing involved. It really comes down to how the page looks and how the content flows – what’s going to keep people interested with a particular spread.”

Probably the main difference between yearbook and the journalism programs is what career path the work opens up for students. While broadcast and print journalism lead naturally to TV and news reporting, yearbook gives students a solid understanding of marketing. “I explain that you can drive down Roswell Road and see a gazillion branding messages that are aimed directly at you,” says Weaver. “And what ad agencies are doing with those TORCHBEARER SUMMER 2013 | 33

MEDIA LITERACY billboards and store signs are basically what we do in yearbook – branding and advertising. So how can you take what you learn in here and apply it, not only to Ursidae, but to your next project in your next class?”

Weaver remembers one time her lessons showed up in another class. “I had a math teacher come in here who’d done a class project and one of his kids had put a stroke around a picture,” she says. “He came in and said, ‘I knew she was on yearbook – nobody else does those little finishing touches.’”

Those little touches are, after all, what make successful marketing firms and media

most prestigious national awards, including those from the Columbia Scholastic Press Association, the American Scholastic Press Association, the Georgia Scholastic Press Association, and Jostens’ National Program of Excellence! outlets. “It’s getting kids to realize there’s more to yearbook than just creating a book for the school. It’s about presentation, and that can be pushed into other classes and, eventually, magazines, web design, marketing industries.”

They’re also what make successful yearbook programs. For five consecutive years, Ursidae has received an array of the 34 | TORCHBEARER SUMMER 2013

READY FOR THEIR CLOSE-UPS The final strand of the media lit program is also its newest: film and TV production.

Students use similar skills and equipment as the broadcast journalism program, but instead of reporting stories, they create them.

“There’s a lot of overlap,” says Joe Conway, who brings years of Hollywood success to the classroom (see box, page 32). “It’s learning the language of the camera. For a journalist, there’s a way to tell a story that’s grounded in reality and there’s a certain kind of filmic language that broadcast journalists need to know.

It’s a similar language, or grammar, for filmmaking, but you’re making up stories and you’re also inheriting some of that grammar from a hundred years of filmmaking. So how do you use that to tell your own stories, to have your own style?”

Based on the entries in the 2013 Upper School Film Festival, individual styles come

there’s a lot of forethought that must go into it. I use the example of that grammar that you inherit from 100 years of filmmaking, people realizing that this kind of shot makes an audience member feel this way. But you have to learn that grammar first. Just like a conductor for a symphony – he’s working with the same notes as another guy; they’re just notes on a page, but he’s going to bring his own personal style to those notes. And I think a script is just like that.

So the student filmmakers have to learn the language they‘re working in, the grammar, the vocabulary, if you will. Few of them in Film 1 will ever get past that – they’re just kind of playing with style, imitating, which

to finish, with students doing every facet, in front of and behind the camera.”

“We’re really excited about this great collaborative venture between the different strands of the fine arts,” says Heidi Domescik. “Especially with Atlanta now being so movie-friendly and Joe being so involved with his real Hollywood experience, it will open doors for some of our kids to get on a set and see what that’s like. I think some of our kids had no idea that’s where their passion would lie. And now they’re getting a chance to explore that through curriculum.”

naturally to our students (to view the films, visit the HIES website’s media gallery).

The festival resurrected a student-run film fest, and it allowed our school’s aspiring Spielbergs to continue with the work begun in the enormously successful Middle School Film Festival that MS teachers Gary Klingman, David Gale, and Maria Louise Coil have held for years.

In the Upper School, Conway and James Jackson continue the work done in Middle School, but at the professional level. “In Film 2 and 3, we have a stronger writing emphasis – get the script down,” says Conway, “because a lot of them think, ‘Give me a camera, I’ll tell you a story.’ But

is great at that age. In Film 2, they’re starting to experiment a bit. And in Film 3, they’re hopefully inventing their own film persona, as a director, as a writer.”

Film 3 will be a new class in 2013-14, and Conway’s and Jackson’s plans are ambitious. “One of our goals is to have kids come up with a concept for an original film – write a script and do everything necessary before they go into production – but actually work with the theatre department kids, the actors,” says Jackson. “We asked those actors if they’d like some experience in front of the camera, and they were all chomping at the bit to do it. So we want to move forward and do a full HIES production, from start

WHAT’S THE LATEST FROM ALPHA CENTAURI? People haven’t changed in the years since Holy Innocents’ first opened its doors.

They still love movies, watch TV, and follow the news. The media available for their entertainment and news has changed completely, though – and who knows what it might look like in another 50 years?

It’s a safe bet that whatever develops in the world of media, our school’s programs will remain state-of-the-art. And that’s the good news.

TORCHBEARER SUMMER 2013 | 35

FUTURE OF EDUCATION

FUTURE OF EDUCATION

Welcome to the Future of Education!

by Chris Pomar, Assistant Headmaster for Enrollment & Planning

One of the first things you would have heard from National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS) President Pat Bassett in talks over the last few years is, “The future is already here!” Pat, who retired from his post as president of NAIS this summer, was uniquely positioned to comment on trends and best practices in education after a 42-year career in schools, the last 12 of those as president of NAIS. Pat is an engaging and dynamic speaker, always full of terrific school-based anecdotes, loads of data (he loved quoting former education secretary Margaret Spellings, “In God we trust; all others, bring data.”), and inspiring examples from schools pushing the boundaries of what it means to be great school.

Faced with the intimidating proposition of providing tomorrow’s education today, many schools are taking drastic steps to proclaim they are seeking or possess the qualities of “schools of the future” or “21st century education” or “design thinking” and are preparing to re-examine, re-engineer, or revise their curricula and strategic plans to meet those challenges. May I be so bold as to suggest to many of these schools, “Come on in and join us!” HIES has been delivering an education for the demands of the 21st century for quite some time.

As evidence, take a look at how we stack up against the “Essential Capacities for the 21st Century” inventory from the NAIS Commission on Accreditation’s Committee on Schools of the Future: Analytical and Creative Thinking and Problem-Solving: Among the ways our students and faculty demonstrate these traits are the frequency with which they are asked to work in teams from the Primary School to the Upper School in subjects as varied as French, statistics, or visual art. The Lower School’s Continued Understanding Brings Success (CUBS) curriculum, for one example, is based entirely on critical thinking skills and group problem-solving, instilling lessons that will stay with our students throughout their school lives and beyond. The ways we foster creative thinking are almost too numerous to count from the deep and impressive visual arts curriculum through all four divisions and our academic partnership with the High Museum of Art to the creative 36 | TORCHBEARER SUMMER 2013

writing assignments and the Rhyme & Reason literary journal in the Upper School; from the Lower School’s wax museum of historical figures to video assignments in eighth-grade history to the apps being developed for facial recognition software by our 2013 salutatorian, James Best. Living out our Episcopal mission, students learn to problem-solve on their feet in community service projects throughout the metro-Atlanta area, in Louisiana and South Carolina, and throughout the world.

Many, many more examples of analytical and creative thinking and problem-solving occur daily.

Complex Communication – Oral and Written: It would be much easier and more concise to make a list of the courses not utilizing complex communication skills in

HIES classrooms. These skills are taught very early at HIES in the Early Learning and Pre-K grades and are furthered by the active listening curriculum in Kindergarten classrooms and the professional and thorough writer’s workshop courses in Lower School.

In Middle School, writing styles are honed, presentation and oral report skills are polished, and projects like creating press kits for non-profit agencies of students’ choice pull many of these skills together. Journal keeping is practiced in many grade levels, and wiki pages are frequently involved in English assignments, including the year-long novelwriting assignment of AP English language

students. We get feedback from recent graduates that they are extremely popular with their peers at group project times for the cogent and concise presentations they master as HIES students. Weekly chapel services at every division emphasize the spoken and written (and sung!) word, along with listening, reflecting and responsorial participation.

Many, many more examples of complex written and oral communication occur daily.

Leadership and Teamwork: One of my favorite aspects of working at an Episcopal school is the heavy emphasis on community service and the frequency with which our students zero in on a cause that means something to them and become leaders at an agency or for a specific cause. There is no better way to practice and learn leadership skills than through these real life examples. A number of our students have been recognized nationally for their efforts. Kendall Jackson, the 2013 class valedictorian, was the 2012 Girl Talk Volunteer Leader of the Year (see page 13) and rising senior Amber Abernathy, with her “All Teens Against Violence” program (also incubated through Girl Talk), won the Julie Foudy Sports Leadership Academy’s Choose to Matter contest.

The steadfast HIES Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation volunteers have garnered the annual “Top Fundraising School Community” recognition for six years running. These projects and many more have both local and global impact.

Examples range from recent graduate Robert Moore’s Kicks for Kids program to provide shoes for orphans of war in Afghanistan, or his classmate Emma van Beuningen’s micro-business to establish solar powered cell phone charging stations in Kenya to rising senior Mary Catherine Thomson’s service on the board of the HIES Horizons chapter and 2013 graduate Katie Serafen’s heartfelt dedication to Hospice Atlanta.

Aside from the leadership through service inherent through our mission as an Episcopal school, teamwork is fostered in: all of our phenomenal music ensembles; drama productions from the Kindergarten nativity pageant to the 4th grade flash mob playground takeover to the impressively professional 5th grade, Middle and Upper School plays to the award-grabbing Upper and Middle School musical; as well as the obvious examples of the 20 varsity sports programs and their JV and Middle School counterparts. That HIES seems to always finish in the top five of all athletic programs in the state and in 2013 was the highest-ranked independent school in the GHSA single A Director’s Cup final tally is more evidence of

the very high quality of our programs. Many, many more examples of leadership and teamwork occur daily.

Digital and Quantitative Literacy: Standout teaching and learning in mathematics and technology has become an HIES hallmark, and this excellence will be even more apparent when the new Science/Technology/ Engineering/ Math (STEM) classrooms and labs are built in the new Upper School building in two years. In addition to quantitative skills inherent in unique courses in personal finance and social entrepreneurship, the Middle School’s Math Counts team was the largest in history this year, and the Upper School’s math honor society had several of its members featured in the Upper School film festival’s Statlanta Police feature (a must-see in the Media Gallery).

A paragon of our school’s digital literacy, the Middle School film festival has become such a fixture of the school year that it is taken for granted, but HIES was the first school in Atlanta to launch such a venture, and our festival is now the oldest in the city. The film festivals are just one example of the outcomes possible from our well-established one-to-one laptop program. Our students’ comfort level with their MacBook Pros yields proficiency not only in film-making, but in the broadcast journalism program (the envy of many schools in our region, as frequent visitors and admirers from other schools will attest). The leaps and bounds made by the Crimson & Gold online newspaper and C&G print magazine this year have elevated the online and print productions to a new level.

Many, many more examples of digital and quantitative literacy occur daily.

Global Perspective: Our students benefit from a robust sister school program, with exchanges in Sapporo, Japan, Briey, France, Buenos Aires, Argentina, and Cape Town, South Africa. The international perspective is not limited to the sister school relationships. Through a partnership caption with the Ameson Foundation, Gene Bratek has been to China, and Chinese students have spent five weeks taking Upper School classes in mid-winter each of the last two years. The Lower School is expanding its world languages program to include French this fall, and Mandarin will be taught for the second year in the Upper School. Several of our students are traveling to China and Ghana this summer, and a trip is planned to Peru in 2014. Language students have Skype conversations with students around

the world, and at least one international student has been enrolled in the Upper School each year since 2004. HIES graduates have gone to college at St. Andrew’s University in Scotland and at the Sorbonne in France. This summer, rising senior Peter

Myer will participate (on a full scholarship) in a language immersion program in Mandarin at the Xiuzhou Modern Experimental School in Jiaxing, China. Peter is also an award-winning member of the HIES Model U.N. team (see page 38). The Upper School’s diploma program in Global Citizenship graduated its second class in 2013, and another section of the class is being added to the 10thgrade curriculum this fall. Many, many more

examples of global perspective are present throughout all HIES grade levels.

Adaptability, Initiative and Risk-Taking: Consider as an example the think tank experiences in the Middle School and this winter’s Colonial Games exercise. Students were tasked with colonizing a fictional land and were divided into teams. Each team chose a leader, who drew lots to determine who would claim plots of land and ascertain their production focus (agricultural, fishing, mineral, etc.). Colonies had to design flags that represented their societies and assigned roles to every one in their group. Over the

course of the school day, the colonies competed to acquire land, resources, and power, some of which were acquired by answering academic quiz questions, competing in feats of strength and agility in the gym, trading on the market floor and in military combat via a roll of dice. Live feeds were broadcast throughout the building from the marketplace and war room so each colony could follow the progress (or lack thereof) of the other nations. Each colony produced a keynote presentation to show their progress throughout the day. When all of the flags, beads, and keynotes were turned in at the end of the day, winners were declared for each grade, claiming a non-uniform day and pizza party as the spoils of victory. Many students complimented the exercise and are eager for next year’s rendition to apply the lessons learned from the inaugural games. Many, many more examples of adaptability, initiative and risktaking occur daily.

Integrity and Ethical Decision-Making: Along with the emphasis on community service, character development is one of the most obvious and outward ways HIES lives its mission as an Episcopal school. Courses in religion and character development are part of the curriculum at every grade level, including ethics classes in both the 8th and 11th grades. Chapel services encourage reflection on what it means to be a good person and live a life of virtue and values. Students serve in leadership roles on the Judicial Board and Integrity Council in the Upper School, and the signing of the integrity code banner by every student is one of the first things to occur in chapel at the start of each school year. Many, many examples of integrity and ethical decision-making occur daily.

This list is certainly not revolutionary, or unique to HIES for that matter. Many schools of quality, for example, offer lessons in teamwork and leadership through their arts and sports programs, but I would argue that our combination of gifted and caring directors, teachers and coaches are as good a cast as you can find. I brag on them constantly to prospective parents as people with whom you cannot help but trust your children with as much as they care about our students not only as performers and athletes, but also as students and human beings.

What might be unique about these characteristics from education of, say, 20 years ago, is the amount of cross-curricular continued on next page TORCHBEARER SUMMER 2013 | 37

SPEAKER SERIES

FUTURE OF EDUCATION integration that takes place across many subjects, the evolving role of technology in delivering a top-notch education, and the ongoing refinement of how skills and knowledge acquisition are assessed and utilized.

HIES continues to grow and evolve along with expectations of what it means to be a school of the highest quality, and it is gratifying to observe how many of the characteristics mentioned above we knock out of the park on a consistent basis.

A recent article by Anne Mellow, Associate Director of the National Association of Episcopal Schools posed the question of how being an Episcopal school fits into “this changing landscape of ‘21st century education.’” Ms. Mellow told the story of a New York City Episcopal school growing an Upper School and adding its inaugural 9th-grade class in 2012. As part of their research and planning, school officials surveyed college admissions officers from around the

country and heard the following: “There aren’t enough (values-based) schools out there where the students are academically strong….where ethics, inclusiveness, civic engagement, responsibility, appreciation and encouragement of difference…are the foundation of the school.” Another said, “There is a shortage of values-oriented learning, schools with a commitment to a better world.

There’s a huge market niche for this. A little more nurturing with sound academics is a good direction.” Doesn’t this sound like they are describing HIES? Ms. Mellow concludes her column saying “Ethics, inclusiveness, engagement, responsibility, appreciation and encouragement of difference, a commitment to a better world: this is the gospel call of

the 21st century. Episcopal schools can lead the way.” Indeed! I tell prospective parents several times a week that Episcopal schools have the power to change the world.

The engine room of our great and glorious enterprise, is of course, our faculty. And that’s the point with which I would like to close. Yes, HIES is continually growing and in the act of becoming our best self, building and changing and improving – that is what lends such a positive energy to our campus.

When all of that quality and forward direction is couched in a setting of respect, warmth, nurturing, and our Episcopal mission, it is pretty darn magical. But who facilitates all of that alchemy? Educational trends come and go, but there is no substitute for hiring the best faculty possible, and then giving them the freedom to innovate and connect with their students. I cannot wait to see where they lead us next. The future of education is here, and it is in good hands.

Model United Nations’ Inaugural Year at HIES

by Chris Yarsawich, Upper School history teacher “So long as we are subject to unjust sanctions on our peaceful exploration of nuclear power, the people of the Islamic Republic of Iran will not allow the agents of Western imperialism to enter our nation for any purpose, not even environmental ones.”

These words did not appear in any newspaper articles, nor were they spoken by any Iranian diplomat. Rather, this was a statement made by a HIES student delegate for Iran in the UN Environmental Programme committee meeting on Desertification at the 2012 Emory Model United Nations conference.

Model United Nations, or MUN, is a student club newly on offer at HIES, made possible by the generous support of a HIES family.

The MUN team attended two conferences in our inaugural year, one at Emory University in the fall and a second at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in the spring.

For each conference students chose a nation and researched that country’s historical involvement with and current position on a contemporary geo-political topic that will be addressed by their UN Committee. The trick is to emulate the collaborative problem-solving processes of the UN while faithfully defending the interests of your chosen country. The goal of MUN is to promote the diplomatic skills of compromising to build consensus and finding creative solutions to some of the more daunting problems facing the world today.

Students prepare by intensely researching and writing about both the global topic of their committee, and how their country is trying to address that topic. Conferences take place over a weekend, and students meet all day in their committees for multiple 38 | TORCHBEARER SUMMER 2013

four-hour long sessions. They quickly identify other participants whose countries’ interests align with their own, and work together to craft resolutions that are debated and voted on by the entire committee. Students learn

to use Parliamentary Procedure to run the meeting, address each other as “delegate” or by the name of the country they represent, and in every possible way mimic the procedures of the actual UN. What is perhaps most fascinating for the teachers who bring the students to these events is how utterly absorbed the students become in the topics, the procedures, and the experience of diplomatic relationships. Students hone their analytic and research skills and practice public speaking, collaborative writing, negotiation, compromise for the common good, asking and answering tough questions on their feet, and working within a formal organizational framework. All of this is achieved with minimal teacher guidance, as the conference delegates do all the work, from researching their country and topic to running the committees. It truly is a holistic learning experience, and one with an impressive display of student engagement.

Next year, plans are to attend three conferences, including at least one at a university in another region of the U.S. that interests our students, thereby combining the MUN experience with a college visit and informational tour. Students also discussed the possibility of attending a major MUN conference in New York, San Francisco, or even internationally. From the teacher perspective, so impressive was the engagement and effort shown by our students, that Kacey Michelsen, club advisor and chair of the history department, was inspired to encourage his fellow teachervolunteers to adopt the MUN methods in their own classrooms. Whichever direction the club takes, it will be a growing contributor to the educational experience at HIES.

The bar was set high for last spring’s second HIES Department Chair Speaker Series at the High Museum. Harnessing Chaos had the challenge of following Holy Innocents’ first inspirational evening of TED-type talks in November 2012, but the results were no less impressive.

The second Speaker Series, presented April 4 in the High’s Walter C. Hill Auditorium, was an evening designed to explore the beauty and challenges of lives lived passionately in the midst of chaos.”

Six speakers were featured. >> Helene D. Gayle, an expert on health, global development and humanitarian issues, was named to Forbes’ list of the “100 Most Powerful Women” and Newsweek’s top 10 “Women in Leadership.” A medical doctor, Dr. Gayle worked with AIDS research for many years at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention before becoming president and CEO of CARE, an international humanitarian organization that reached 122 million poverty-stricken people in 84 countries last year.

“CARE was born out of the chaos of World War II,” explained Gayle. “We started to send food and other commodities to people in need as an effort to build peace. We still try to make sure people have adequate food but we look at underlying issues to see how people are mired. We’re looking at the consequences of poverty but also the root causes.”

Even though the United States continues to face tough economic times, Americans can, and should, continue to try and make a positive impact on economies around the world, Gayle said.

“To help grow other economies helps all of us.

It’s the small things we do every day that lead up to the change we want to see.” >> Andy Greenberg is a technology reporter for Forbes and author of This Machine Kills Secrets, which tells the story of how WikiLeakers, cyberpunks and hacktivists use the chaos of information to reach their goals.

“I write about hackers, really,” explained Greenberg. “There are two factions in the world: those who want to resist the flow of information and the ones who will help it flow.”

In that context, Greenberg discussed secrets, such as those involving Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers, and the concept of shared information, like that in the Whole Earth Catalog.

(It was Whole Earth Catalogue founder Stewart Brand who famously proclaimed, “Information wants to be free,” Greenberg noted.)

Greenberg also talked about WikiLeaks being an organization run by a former hacker. “I started thinking that anybody could eviscerate the

Helene Gayle interviewed by Kacey Michelsen Andy Greenberg

corporation or government agency they worked for,” Greenberg said. “I thought about cyberpunks in the 1990s, and radical libertarians. What these guys saw planted the seeds for WikiLeaks. …

“Does all information want to be free?”

Greenberg asked his audience rhetorically. “Is order born out of chaos?” >> Jonida Beqo, an award-winning slam poet and performance artist, describes herself as “an immigrant of dual nationalities, a wife and mother, a poet, a seamstress, a survivor and, above all, a believer.” Beqo grew up in the chaos of Albania, where “it was anarchy in the streets,” and then left Albania in 1998 with her future husband, as an emancipated minor.

She writes about a sense of displacement—an awareness of being in two places at the same time and belonging to neither of them.

In Christianity, however, Beqo discovered what she called an effective harness.

“The chaos can be controlled by directly relating with your Creator—who helps us deal with the chaos around us.” >> Sydney Coleman, a rising HIES junior, recently completed the manuscript for her third novel, Summer’s End. “I would not have been able to do this without getting rid of some of the chaos in my life, but it was complicated,” Coleman said of the times when she was distracted by the demands of school, sports and other activities. “I couldn’t focus on my writing. Everybody knew I had this talent and wasn’t focusing on it.

“I was in school and it was chaotic,” she stated.

“And I wouldn’t have been able to do it without harnessing chaos.” >> The Middle School’s dynamic faculty duo, David Gale and Gary Klingman— teachers and founders of the MS Film Festival—believe, as Gale said, that “Creativity is all around us, and it’s chaotic.”

“What we want is for students to go into chaos and see this world in a different way, to be creative and create a product…,” Klingman explained.

“The chaos brings collaboration, pride, teamwork and so forth—fun, recognition.” >> Talented cellist Wick Simmons opened the Speaker Series program with a performance of “Pampeana No. 2: Rhapsody for Cello and Piano.” The 2013 HIES graduate compared playing this complicated piece to “trying to put puzzle pieces together.”

“Chaos? Yes!” Simmons said.

Holy Innocents’ Episcopal School is proud to be an Academic Affiliate to Atlanta’s High Museum of Art, one of just four Metro Atlanta schools selected for this stimulating, inter-disciplinary arts program.

Aiming High Jonida Beqo

David Gale

Gary Klingman

Sydney Coleman

TORCHBEARER SUMMER 2013 | 39

COLONIAL GAMES

COLONIAL GAMES

Let the Games Begin!

A ‘girlFriend’ With A Mission

‘Colonial Games’ Were More Than Just Child’s Play

Most schools teach colonization through history books and a bit of class discussion.

This spring, the HIES Middle School decided to let students experience colonization by doing it themselves.

That was the innovative idea that Middle School teachers Gary Klingman and Daniel Forrester came up with for the “Colonial Games”—two days of fun, creative thinking, and integrated learning.

The Games were a surprise to students when announced over the PA system, but faculty and staff were well aware, and prepared, for the cutting-edge experience, which included live-streaming events, using computer/Smart Board hookups, and giving students the opportunity to learn more about their own talents and think on their feet.

“The idea for the Games was based on a combination of The Hunger Games and the game of Risk, and was meant to help students understand all the components of establishing a colony,” explained Klingman. “Each grade level held its own simulation, with the goal of becoming the colony that sustained the best standard of living while developing new ideas and tools to advance their civilization.”

Providing defense, safeguarding against natural disasters, dealing with disease, and making critical decisions about land expansion were just some of the challenges facing students.

Colonists expanded land holdings, for example, by purchasing geographical squares on a map—with food beads. But each colony had to pay a food tax for every square purchased and so, as that colony grew, values dropped because it cost the settlers too much. “They had to be wise in the way they expanded,” said Klingman. “They had to think about expanding and if they had enough food.”

Territories were also expanded through war, which consisted of colonists rolling dice against each other in the War Room. “Much as we discouraged war, some of the colonies settled so close to each other that there was conflict,” Forrester explained. “So if they started stepping on each other’s toes, we had a system where the defeated territory had to give up a square.”

Other important colonial decisions involved resources. Colonists went to Market with beads representing commodities like cotton 40 | TORCHBEARER SUMMER 2013

Gary Klingman

and spices, but no value was assigned to the beads. “It was supply and demand,” said Klingman. “But the kids caught on quickly that if they had lumber, it was highly valued by other colonies. Others learned to branch out and get their own lumber.”

Some items also just attained value, providing an interesting lesson in economics, even for the teachers. “We had provided small pipe cleaner strips to use in manufacturing housing,” said Klingman, “but then there was some hoarding that began taking place.

“One student held up a pipe cleaner and said how much is this worth? And then they took on a value of their own.”

Students also had to make crucial decisions about roles within the colonies. For example, the leader’s responsibility was to guide his or her colony, acting as the spokesperson and overseeing the development of that colony’s form of government.

The trader was an economist who went to Market and traded beads to get what the colony needed.

Archivists kept colony records, and developers acquired new technologies.

Roles were well defined in the Games, but some circumstances could not be controlled; they were luck of the draw. For example, colonists drew cards at the start of play to ultimately determine what kind of colony the group would become, and where they would settle.

“They chose seven or eight geographical squares then, based in the area they chose, the map that told them what they specifically did, like mine for gold,” Klingman said. “It was all based on luck of the draw and where they settled on the map.”

One constant in the Games, however, was technology. “We could not have done this without the one-to-one laptop program,” stated Forrester. “The students were able to create a Keynote, retrieve files from a drop box, and put their final docs in so we could grade them.”

With live-streaming video, colonists could also watch battles being waged and beads being traded. Players used iChat to communicate, a development table to chart progress, and Quizlet and Google Docs to interface information.

“So they were all using the same files, asking questions and checking on the score,” explained Forrester.

“Technology, and our technology team, were the unsung heroes,” agreed Principal Theresa Jespersen. “Could we have done this without the laptops? Maybe, but it would have been a vastly different experience.”

Also critical to the Games’ success were

Daniel Forrester (center) oversees the War Room

the creative, collaborative teachers and staff members who worked together, months in advance, to generate two inspirational days.

“They had an early buy-in and enthusiasm for trying something new—that’s something special about this group,” said Jespersen.

“And our people are generous with their time.”

Klingman and Forrester spent hundreds of hours from December until March, bringing their idea to life. Teachers shared ideas in weekly meetings, and, in addition, geography teachers and art teacher Maria Louise Coil created an impressive map, James Jackson and others took over the development table, and faculty created their own videos and produced detailed manuals ahead of time.

“The teachers bought into it from the beginning and stayed with it to the end,” said Klingman. “But there were no egos involved in this. This was about the kids, and it involved thinking creatively. They understood that.”

Faculty and staff even had a dress rehearsal—a run-through before spring break. “So we had it figured out before the students walked in the door, and we had good collaboration,” said Jespersen. “They knew they had to work in concert with one another, and so during the day there was a lot of cooperation.”

But the Colonial Games also succeeded because of the enthusiastic Holy Innocents’

students, themselves. Jespersen likes to point out that HIES Middle School students are encouraged frequently to think outside the box. And the word that organizers reportedly heard most from students describing the Games was “awesome.”

Noted Forrester, “They may have not learned a lot of algebraic equations, but they learned a lot of other important things.”

The Colonial Games, itself, will not be repeated again for at least three years, but plans are already under way for something to follow what Jespersen calls a smashing success.

“Best of all, several students have stepped up to say they would like to be part of the planning for future experiences,” she added.

“What could possibly be a better outcome than engaged and empowered students?”

The Friends organization is known around Atlanta for its support of Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta (CHOA), and in 2012 a teen group was formed to help CHOA even more. In its first year, “girlFriends” raised more than $8,000 for Children’s, and one of the key leaders was Holy Innocents’ junior Anne Claire Pittman, who was presidentelect of girlFriends this year and will serve as co-president next term, along with HIES junior Katherine Correll.

Some 100 metro Atlanta girls in ninth through 12th grades participated in girlFriends during its inaugural year, hosting a fashion show, helping with the Children’s Healthcare Christmas Parade, decorating cards, filling Christmas stockings, playing with young patients, and making treats such as pinwheels or cookies, among other activities. And the group is growing. “(The) girlFriends became so popular this year that it was too much work for one president, so we’ll have co-presidents next year,” explains Anne Claire, a young leader described by advisor Niki Simpson as being “methodical, meticulous, and all-around awesome.”

A quiet 17-year-old who’s considering a career in public relations, Anne Claire says she’s gotten as much as she’s given to girlFriends this year, gaining leadership skills, and learning more about marketing and connecting with people.

Anne Claire and the girlFriends have also explored serious topics such as autism and stress reduction at meetings, says her mother, Catherine Pittman, a CHOA volunteer. She considers girlFriiends to be a great way for Anne Claire and other teen girls to get together and support Children’s, and she has particularly enjoyed seeing her daughter work with young patients. “It’s wonderful to see her interacting with the children—to see her so patient,” Pittman explains. “And this brings out a child-like quality that all the girls still have.”

Other girlFriends officers this year included Holy Innocents’ students Mary Wade Ballou, Sarah Borne, Madeleine Gibson, Emma Grace Harrell, and Ansley McGhee.

David Gale (left) and Mekisha Parks (right) stream video from the marketplace TORCHBEARER SUMMER 2013 | 41

2012-2013 ATHLETIC YEAR IN REVIEW

by Dunn Neugebauer, HIES Sports Information Director

If you want to know just how successful the HIES teams were this school year, simply look at the numbers. Of the 20-plus varsity sports teams that took to the fields, more than 85% made it to postseason.

Below is a brief capsule of one of the best athletic seasons in school history.

FALL

Starting with football, the varsity team rolled to its sixth consecutive year of postseason, finishing the year at 6-5 and ending among the top of the heap in Region 5A. The Bears, again guided by Coach Ryan Livezey, had many key wins during the season before falling to Savannah Christian in the Sweet 16 of the state playoffs.

The volleyball team wasn’t to be outdone – Coach Taylor Noland took a young team with no seniors and guided them to the Elite 8 of the state. The Lady Bears were state-ranked throughout the entire campaign and look to be a force once again when next season rolls around.

In cross country, the boys team took third in region and ninth in state. They averaged 17 minutes, 59 seconds among their top five runners – the best ever in school history. Warner Ray made All-State for the third straight year. The girls, though falling short of state, were ranked in the state throughout the fall season.

The softball team – though failing to make the playoffs – had only one senior and finished up a great season regardless.

Three were named to the All-Region team and the young squad missed the playoffs by one spot in the Power Rankings.

The cheerleaders had another banner year, earning the Top Cheer program for the second year in a row at UGA camp among 32 teams. Seven were named AllAmericans by the Universal Cheerleaders Association and they also earned the Leadership Team Award at camp as voted on by 400 student-athletes who participated.

42 | TORCHBEARER SUMMER 2013

WINTER

The wrestlers got it done once again, as Coach Stacey Davis’s squad captured second in the state in both the State Duals and the Traditional State events. Three took individual titles – Jason Grimes, Brendan Quigley and Grant Chastain. HI also had its best finish ever at the Prep Slam, one of the most prestigious high school wrestling tournaments in the nation.

The swim team made some serious waves – the boys finished 10th in the state and was best among Class A schools.

Two competitors – Kathleen Charron and Clayton DeHaven – qualified for postseason individually in every single event and Coach Andy Morrison had more state cuts than ever before from his 2012-2013 outfit. The Bears accomplished all this and with only one senior on their roster.

The girls basketball team went deep into postseason – the Final Four to be exact.

The Lady Bears emerged as Region 5A champs and posted yet another 20-plus win season. This was their fifth straight trip to the playoffs and, with only four graduated, many more are sure to follow.

For the boys, Coach Terry Kelly led his boys to a winning season and their first trip to postseason in 11 years. HI finished among the top of their region and advanced to the Sweet 16 of the state before losing in Cartersville.

SPRING

The girls track team made the most noise in the spring, finishing third at the state meet and coming away with three individual champions. Alexandra Juneau brought home a state title in the pole vault, Chelsea Zoller won her crown in the 400-meter run and Randi Bohler took the championship in the 100-hurdles.

Jason Grimes led the boys squad with a second-in-state finish in the pole vault.

The boys 4 X 100 relay team – consisting of Braxton Lindley, Andrew Coggins, Josh Ledbetter and Clay Pfohl – also took second.

Boys lacrosse had its best season ever, going 16-2 and making it to the state quarterfinals. They were led by AllAmerican defenseman E.J. Thurmond and premiere scorer Owen Penn.

Girls lacrosse, though falling short of postseason, was led all season by top scorers Annie Bennett and Claire Kelsey.

The baseball team finished among the top in the area and advanced to the Elite 8. Four senior pitchers – Jim Voyles, Ed Voyles, Will Small and Daniel Topping – were four of many key players.

Both soccer squads won Area titles and advanced into the Elite 8. All-State performers Bailey McBride and Julia Bird paced the girls, while Captain Clay Pfohl and top scorer Dylan Thomas were two of many who stepped up for the boys.

Both tennis teams earned state playoff bids, advancing into the Sweet 16 of the playoffs before falling. Connor Thompson, who now has a 48-1 lifetime record at the #1 singles slot, again paced the boys. Anne Claire Pittman was the top girl.

In golf, both the boys and the girls advanced to state. The girls took fourth in the area and third at sectionals before competing at state. Freedom Wright,

Mei Landskroener and Kira Donaldson led the team all year.

The boys emerged as area champs before ending their season in the state playoffs. Sam Asbury and John Michael Klopfenstein led the squad all year; Clayton Null was the top man at state.

TORCHBEARER SUMMER 2013 | 43

Laura and Johnny Foster and Catherine and Arnie Pittman

GALA 2013

Susan and Jim Hannan and Bruce Ford and Sou Brune

Bishop Rob and Beth-Sarah Wright

Rebecca O’Connor, Mel and Julie Landis, and Suzy Smith

GALA COMMITTEE Standing – Tiffany Wray, Lori Ainsworth, Stephanie Langford (chair), Diane Quinn, Laura Foster, Barbara O’Connor Sitting – Dana Patton, Tamika Weaver Hightower, Liz Henry

The HIES Parents’ Association hosted “A Time to Rock” Gala, transforming the Main Gym into an 80’s nightclub that featured the Uncle Mike Band. Uncle Mike, led by our very own Mike Henry, blazed the airwaves with rock music. Many thanks go to parent Janice Wilmer, who arranged for Proof of the Pudding to cater the event. There were plenty of class baskets, teachers’ treasures, works of art, travel excursions, and entertainment

44 | TORCHBEARER SUMMER 2013

options to choose from in the auction. Before leaving for the night, guests were treated to Krystal hamburgers, which satisfied late-night cravings after a fun night out with friends.

The Gala is the Parents’ Association’s largest fundraiser of the year and it raised almost $200,000. Many thanks go to our friends and families for supporting the event through sponsorships, auction donations, and purchases!

Uncle Mike Band

Dana Patton and Patricia Crown

(standing) Anne King, Pam DeVore, Laura Topping, Ben Voyles, and John Topping (sitting) Krist Voyles, Jessica DeHart, Elaine Thurmond, and Gail Jokerst

Molly and Mark Klopfenstein, Maria Arias, and Jerrold Levy

Lucky owners – Tracy and Jackson Wilson

TORCHBEARER SUMMER 2013 | 45

FROM THE DEVELOPMENT OFFICE

State Of The School 2013 At this spring’s State of the School luncheon, Holy Innocents’ honored two amazing women: Mrs. Alice Law Malcolm received the Lifetime Achievement Award,

tion to our school and education as a whole is why Alice was named the 2012 Personal Woman of Achievement by the organization Georgia Women of Achievement.

Born and raised in Atlanta, Alice is the mother of three sons, Pete, Andrew, and Geoffrey, and widow of Owen Malcolm. She has five grandchildren, Carole ’09, Geoff ’06, and HIES triplets Kent, Libby, and Owen, all class of ’19.

During her time at Holy Innocents’, Susan Humphlett Carlson was an honor student and a member of the National Honor Society, as well as various clubs and committees.

Susan Humphlett Carlson and Gene Bratek Susan graduated from the which recognizes individuals who have University of Georgia in 2001 with a degree provided outstanding service and loyalty in Communication Sciences and Disorders. to Holy Innocents’ Episcopal School She went on to attend the University of North through leadership, recruitment, advocacy, Carolina at Chapel Hill, receiving a Master of fundraising, and/or faithful service to the Science in Speech Language Pathology. school; and Susan Humphlett Carlson ‘97 In 2009, Susan spent 10 weeks received the Distinguished Alumnus Award, volunteering at Peace Matunda (PM) which recognizes outstanding alumni for their orphanage and primary school in Tanzania. personal and professional accomplishments and significant contributions to their community.

Mrs. Malcolm served as Headmaster from 19831996, the period which saw the most significant advances in our school’s history.

She played a key role in acquiring the Riley Elementary School adjacent to HIES, thereby making possible the Holy Innocents’ Upper School. The acquisition also brought a significant tract Alice Malcolm of land, on which the main gym and Baker Field were constructed. From Twenty-four orphans currently reside at PM start to finish, she not only governed the and over 150 children from the surrounding school, but also served as its main cheervillage attend the on-site school. Realizing leader, fundraiser, and construction manager. that too many of these children will not Through perseverance, force of will, and a have the opportunities they deserve, Susan most gracious spirit, Alice earned the same formed Peace by Piece, a scholarship level of commitment from the members of program for secondary school education. our community that those members saw in A return trip to Tanzania in 2010 laid the her. She truly led by example. foundation for obtaining 501(c)(3) status, which Mrs. Malcolm will always be more closely was officially granted in June 2011. associated with HIES than any person in Susan lives in Myrtle Beach with her our history. In a recent interview she said, husband, Chad (HIES ‘97). She is a speech “I think everyone felt that the school was a pathologist at a local hospital while continuing great place for children, and the people who in her role as Director and Chairman of the worked here felt that they were respected.

Board for Peace by Piece. To learn more, It’s a very warm, caring place.” Her dedicaplease visit www.PeacebyPieceAfrica.org.

46 | TORCHBEARER SUMMER 2013

CLASS NOTES HIES Named Top 100 Atlanta Workplace, Wins Award for Continued Employee Training This spring, Holy Innocents’ was named one of Atlanta’s Top 100 Workplaces by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. HIES was ranked 10th in its midsize group, and also received the highest award of any company in Metro Atlanta for continued employee training.

“Your employees have told us that you’re a great place to work,” said AJC Editor Kevin Riley at an awards ceremony in the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre. “This is a huge accomplishment.

These factors make the difference between having a job and loving your job.”

AJC Publisher Amy Glennon went on to explain that “the companies included in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Top Workplaces list were selected based on a survey of employees measuring qualities such as company leadership, compensation and training, workplace flexibility, and diversity.”

Comments from Holy Innocents’ employees included the following: “I am allowed to teach in a creative and fun way. I work with amazing people who value what they do. The students are happy and excited to learn.”

“The school’s mission statement is at the heart of every decision made at HIES. We have a very supportive and forward moving faculty, administration, student body, and parent community.”

“I have been able to grow as an individual and an educator through amazing in-house and outside learning opportunities.”

Employees responded confidentially to surveys last year. The awards were announced on Sunday, April 28, in a special section of the paper.

Tuition Raffle

This exciting fundraiser offered one lucky raffle winner free tuition for the 2013-2014 school year! The Parents’ Association sold a record number of tickets – more than 1,100 – and raised more than $17,000. At the Gala, raffle chair Lori Ainsworth announced the winner, Jenny Pittman Cantrell, the mother of William Cantrell, sixth grade.

Another Great Year for the Georgia Tax Credit Scholarship Program Despite additional last-minute funding by the Georgia State Legislature this year, the Georgia Tax Credit Scholarship Program ended in early May, three months ahead of last year. Even with the shortened time, Holy Innocents’ had a successful year raising funds for Financial Aid funds through the redirection of tax dollars.

A special thank you to Neal Smith, our Parent Volunteer Chair, who was helped by Kent Hammond, Chris Genovese, and Mike Dolan. This core of volunteers contacted previous donors, parents of alumni, grandparents, and friends through letters, emails, and one-on-one contacts at HIES sporting events or work.

The final numbers were not in yet from the Department of Revenue, but it appears we were close to our total from last year of $417,108. HIES had 180 donors and several matching gift companies participate this year.

In a last-minute change, LLCs, partnerships and S-Corps were able to redirect up to $10,000. Unfortunately the announcement of this change came at the end of available funding so we fear that none of our parents who were eligible and applied (even on the first day!) made it.

HIES began participating in this program in 2010 and now has 25 students who receive Tax Credit financial aid.

These students must meet all of HIES’ requirements before being admitted and before being offered Tax Credit financial aid.

The maximum aid allowed by law is $9,046 so participating families must be able to fund some of their tuition themselves.

The Georgia Tax Credit program will start up again on Jan. 1, 2014, through Apogee.

Once again we are asking everyone to participate as early as possible, especially with the expanded participation by entities other than individual taxpayers.

Thank you to everyone who took advantage of this simple and convenient way to redirect your taxes this year and to support HIES financial aid.

ALUMNI HAPPENINGS

CLASS OF 1995 Class Representatives:

SAVE THE DATE Alumni Reunion Weekend Alumni Reunion Weekend will be held Friday and Saturday, October 4-5. On Friday, alumni and parents of alumni will gather for a barbecue at Riverwood High School before the varsity football game. On Saturday, each class will have a reception at a local venue. This year’s reunion classes are 1998, 2003, and 2008.

Wall of Fame Induction on Friday, Oct. 18, 2013 There will be a reception prior to the football game at 6:30 p.m. at Riverwood High School. During half-time, the inductees will be presented with Wall of Fame plaques.

The 2013 Wall of Fame Inductees are: Travis Canby (Basketball) - Class of 2000 Ben Cornwell (Baseball) - Class of 2007 Haley Kolff (Cross Country & Track) - Class of 2007 Jack Templeton (Wrestling) - Class of 2007

FACEBOOK AND LINKEDIN Join the Holy Innocents’ Alumni Association on Facebook and LinkedIn. This will keep you connected to the school with news and events.

ALUMNI CLASS NOTES If you would like to submit class notes for the Fall issue of the Torchbearer, please contact Tamika Weaver Hightower at tamika@hies.org or 404.303.2150 ext 181.

If you are interested in serving as a class representative, please contact Heather Hahn ’91 at heather.hahn@hies.org.

Stephanie Little: sll1176@yahoo.com Jill Herndon Littlefield: jilllittlefield@hotmail.com Audra Mullen Thompson: audra.thompson@hies.org

Holli Austin-Belaski and her husband Jeremy welcomed a daughter, Lily Grace, weighing 6 pounds, 1 ounce, on October 7, 2012. Lily joins big brother, Remy, who will be 4 years old in August. The family continues to reside in Laramie, WY, where they enjoy snowboarding, snowshoeing and hiking. Holli currently works as an attorney for Corthell & King, P.C., and Jeremy is employed as a firefighter for the city of Laramie.

Ian Marshall and his wife Kristi welcomed their new son, Reid Alexander, on April 6, 2013. He weighed 6 pounds, 2 ounces and was 19.5 inches long.

CLASS OF 1996 Class Representatives: Emily Brown Latone: emilylatone@gmail.com Raine Crumpler Hyde: raine.hyde@gmail.com

Gralyn Crumpler Daily and her husband Stephen welcomed their first child, Mary Emmalyn (7lbs 4oz and 21 inches long) on Jan. 11 at 10:30 a.m. She looks like her daddy but (luckily) is going to be tall like her LuLu (grandmother)!

Here she is hanging out with her new buddy, Reid. They are three days apart! Reid is the son of Lauren Schwartz Trapani ‘96. They met for the first time at a purse party hosted by Monique Caracola Biddle ‘96 and Jill Neumann Edwards ‘96!

TORCHBEARER SUMMER 2013 | 47

CLASS NOTES Emily Brown Latone and her husband, Justin, have two sons.

Here are Emily and her husband with their first son, Davis, at Emily’s graduation last summer. She graduated with a Master’s in School Counseling from Mercer University. The other photo is of her second son, Oliver, who was born on November 8, 2012.

CLASS OF 1997 Class Representatives: Ashton Thurmond Ragone: ashtonragone@gmail.com Kristin Wolford Tiliakos: kristinjwolford@aol.com

CLASS OF 1998 Class Representatives: Katie McGoogan Weeks: katie.weeks@hies.org Effie Swartwood Thompson: effiesthompson@gmail.com

Effie Swartwood Thompson and Amy Gray’s love of beautiful monograms and linens have inspired their new venture, Bobbins (www.bobbinsdesign.com), an online boutique carrying baby bibs, blankets, linens for the home, and more.

Lauren Rhoads Thompson and her husband, Jeremy, welcomed Jaxon Graham Thompson on June 1, 2012. He weighed 7lbs, 7oz and was 20 inches long. Jax was born at Greenville Memorial Hospital in Greenville, SC. Lauren and Jeremy moved to Greenville a year ago from Atlanta for Jeremy’s job as a Project Manager with Brasfield & Gorrie, a general contractor.

CLASS OF 1999 Class Representatives: Jennifer Cavanaugh Brown: jcb924@gmail.com Samia Hanafi: samhanafi@gmail.com Drew McDonald: tam1980@gmail.com

Jennifer Brown recently founded Every Advantage Tutoring and Test Prep, which focuses on 3rd-8th grade math and SSAT prep. A former 4th grade teacher at HIES, she decided to stay home with her kids after the birth of her second child.

48 | TORCHBEARER SUMMER 2013

CLASS NOTES Doug Davis and his wife welcomed their first child, Brenley Samantha Davis, born on Dec. 20, 2012.

She weighed 5lbs, 13oz. and was 20 inches long.

Melissa and David Peterson were blessed with a baby boy on Christmas Eve, Dec. 24, 2012. His name is David Whittemore Peterson (Whit Peterson). He weighed 6 lbs 12oz and was 20 inches long. The story of his name makes this a little more interesting if you can believe it.

The name “Whit” is taken after Melissa’s grandfather 12 times over, one of the most famous heroes of the Revolutionary War, Capt. Samuel Whittemore. If you are fuzzy on his legend, you might want to browse http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_ Whittemore. It’s quite an amazing story!

CLASS OF 2000 Class Representatives: Stephanie Brown: sbrown@georgiaaquarium.org

Courtney Dutson married Mark Wolfgang on May 11, 2013, at a small beach wedding with close friends and family. They were friends who surfed together for about 3 years before becoming a couple in January 2012. Courtney and Mark dated for exactly one year before getting engaged, and were married within 4 months of the engagement. The couple is living happily by the sea in Cocoa Beach, FL. After almost 6 years of working in Costa Rica, Hunter Kowalewski accepted a position at a biotechnology startup company last year, moved back to the U.S. and is living in Montclair, New Jersey. He is the Vice President of Sales for CellHealth Institute. Hunter is pictured with Sir Richard Branson of Virgin Global at the Liberty Science Center Gala.

CLASS OF 2001

CLASS OF 2002

Class Representatives:

Class Representatives:

Cara Puckett Roxland: cara.roxland17@gmail.com

Katie Kirtland: katie.kirtland@gmail.com

Allender Laflamme Durden: allenderl@gmail.com

Alley Pickren: alleypic@gmail.com

Allender Laflamme Durden and Eric Durden happily welcomed their daughter, Elizabeth “Gray” Durden, to the world on July 4, 2012.

She weighed 6 pounds 6 ounces and was 19 1/2 inches long. They are enjoying every moment with their little girl. The family currently lives in Atlanta. Eric works for CBRE and Allender retired from teaching at The Schenck School.

Kristin Bayer married her best friend, Thomas A. Slinn II, on March 9, 2013. They were married in an intimate ceremony in the backyard of the house they bought together in Marietta, surrounded by their grandparents, parents, and siblings. They then celebrated with a large Great Gatsby/ Art Deco inspired party and danced the night away with all of their friends, coworkers, and family at 5 Seasons Brewery Sky Bar on Howell Mill. Tom is the Brewer for Red Hare Brewing Company in Marietta, GA, and Kristin is the Designer/ Merchandising Manager for the T-shirt company LAT Sportswear in Canton, GA.

Cara Puckett married Jon Roxland in Savannah on Nov. 17, 2012. Cara works as Special Events Coordinator at Shepherd Center Foundation, where she met Jon, who is a Senior Major and Planned Gifts Officer there, as well. Scott Tucker ‘00 served as Officiant, and fellow HIES Alumnae Lauren Fryer Tucker ’01 and Marisa Puckett ’01 served as bridesmaid and maid of honor, respectively. Other HIES 2001 classmates, Allender Laflamme Durden, Jeff Sweetwood, Stephanie Saffold Berthelsen and Kristen Wright Novay, made the trip to celebrate with Cara and Jon, who currently reside in Brookhaven.

Zachary C. Bush was recently hired to serve as a Visiting Assistant Professor of Writing and Linguistics at Georgia Southern University. In late June, Zach and his girlfriend will be relocating from the New York City area to Savannah, GA. He holds an MFA in Poetry from the City College of New York and is a doctoral candidate of Ancient Greek Mythology (Homeric Studies) at Drew University.

CLASS OF 2003 Class Representative: Emily Weprich: emily.weprich@yahoo.com

Ladson Haddow and Caroline Baker married at her home in Savannah, GA, on Nov. 17, 2012.

Alumni in the wedding were Anne Haddow Freeman ‘01, Stuart Haddow ‘07, Tommy Orton ‘03, James Jackson ‘03, Jeff Campanella ‘03, Pano Balomenos ‘03, Scott Seaborn ‘03, Steve Williams ‘03, and Scott Hutchinson ’03.

Tommy Orton married Jessica Lewis, on May 4, 2013, at First Baptist Church of Roswell.

Ladson Haddow ’03 was the best man.

Other Holy Innocents’ alumni from the class of 2003 in the wedding were James Jackson, Pano Balomenos, Scott Hutchinson, Scott Seaborn. Other alumni in attendance were Steve Williams ’03, Bryan Jones ‘04, and Nash Petusky ’03.

CLASS OF 2004 Class Representatives: Amy Fore Kane: kaneamyf@gmail.com Collins Marshall: collins.marshall@ml.com Gordon Silvera: gordon.silvera@gmail.com

Amy Fore Kane and her husband Michael welcomed their daughter, Mary Grace Kane, on May 17, 2013. Mary Grace was 7 lbs 4 oz and 21 inches long. Amy, Michael, and Mary Grace live in Brookhaven.

CLASS OF 2005 Class Representatives: Tyler Rathburn: tprathburn@gmail.com Rachel Shunnarah: rshunnarah@gmail.com

Katherine Anderson has applied her knowledge and creativity as a wedding and event planner since graduating from the University of Georgia with a degree in Furnishings and Interiors and receiving her certification in event planning. Presently, she is employed at Beyond Details Catering and Floral Design.

Kate Sternstein: kasternstein@gmail.com Allyson Young: allysonyoung87@gmail.com

Katie Downs Jame and her husband, Russell, are excited about their move back to the U.S. after three years in Sydney, Australia. Russell has accepted a position with the Finance faculty at University of Kentucky. The couple will be moving in July to Lexington, where they just bought their first home! Katie will graduate in June with her Master’s in Organizational Behavior and Management and will serve as adjunct faculty in the UK’s School of Management in the fall.

Tyler Rathburn graduated from dental school at Georgia Regents University (formerly Medical College of Georgia) in May and will be staying at GRU to attend a residency program in orthodontics. He hopes to one day practice with his mother, Melisa Rathburn-Stewart and stepfather, Michael Stewart, in their orthodontic practice in Atlanta. Tyler also recently became engaged to his girlfriend of nearly five years, Stephanie Delatorre. They met in college at the University of Virginia.

CLASS OF 2006 Class Representatives: Kaitlin Duffy: duffykc@auburn.edu Miller Edwards: edwardm@auburn.edu Anna Pickren: annapic@uga.edu Amy Schwartz: amy87@uga.edu

CLASS OF 2007 Class Representatives: Charlotte Bissell: charlottebissell@gmail.com Sarah-Elizabeth Kirtland: sarahelizabeth.kirtland@gmail.com Taylor Pack: pack_t@bellsouth.net Emily Phillips: emily.phillips88@yahoo.com

Class of 2008 Class Representatives: Rachel Sullivan: res6w@virginia.edu Kerry Martin: kerrym46@gmail.com Trevor Gillum: Kate Decker: kated7523@gmail.com

Class of 2009 Class Representatives:

Madison McBride graduated from the University of Georgia in May and has accepted a job at Northwestern Mutual as an associate financial representative.

Jennifer McMinn graduated from the University of Georgia in May and accepted a job offer with RaceTrac Petroleum as the Category Support Coordinator.

This spring, Lauren Seiple and John Aldridge graduated from the Kenan-Flagler Business School at UNC, Chapel Hill. Lauren will go to work for Bank of America and John will work for Wells Fargo, both in Charlotte.

TORCHBEARER SUMMER 2013 | 49

COLLEGES OF MATRICULATION

CLASS NOTES Travis Stout was named to the Louisville Slugger NCAA Division I AllAmerica Team. Stout used a record-breaking performance in the back end of Jacksonville State University’s bullpen to earn All-OVC second team honors. Stout set a new JSU record for saves in a season with 17 and also set the school’s Division I record for earned run average in a single season at 1.42. He made a team-high 31 appearances on the mound and posted a 3-0 record with his 17 saves. In OVC play, Stout appeared in 16 games and saved 12 of them behind a 0.49 ERA. Opposing batters hit .213 against him.

Class of 2010 Class Representatives:

Darius Bowling has been named the ECAC Specialist of the Week for his stellar lacrosse play at Ohio State University.

Bowling, a junior long stick midfielder, won a career-high eight face-offs, picked up six groundballs, and caused two turnovers in a regular season win over Penn State. The lacrosse team won the ECAC conference tournament and made it to the quarterfinals of the NCAA tournament as well.

Class of 2011 Class Representatives: Megan Ernst: megernst11@gmail.com Delaney McMullen: delaneymcm@gmail.com Andrew Parrish: m.andrewparrish@gmail.com

Class of 2012 Class Representatives: Katie Keith: katiekeith12@gmail.com Brittany Ketchup: brittanyketchup@yahoo.com Greg Sullivan: gregsullivan12@gmail.com

50 | TORCHBEARER SUMMER 2013

DECEASED ALUMNI

LOST ALUMNI

Leonard H. Seawell IV ’87, 44 of Atlanta, died March 28, 2013. Mr. Seawell was a graduate of The Westminster Schools Class of 1987 and from Georgia State University where he graduated Summa Cum Laude. He also served in the U.S. Navy for 9 years. He is survived by his wife, Carly Seawell; sons, Charles Henderson Seawell, Jonathan Chen Seawell, James Robert Seawell; mother, Penny P. Seawell; father, Leonard H. Seawell, III; brother and sister-in-law, Haygood P. and Virginia Seawell; nephew, Haygood Paterson Seawell, Jr.; and niece, Mary Pearce Seawell.

We are missing contact information for the alumni listed below. If you are in contact with any of these HIES graduates, please encourage them to get in touch with the HIES alumni office.

Ben Gaudreault ‘97, 33, died on Jan. 15, 2013, in Laguna Beach, California due to freezing temperatures. Gaudreault came to California to dispose of his mother’s ashes.

A funeral service was held in Atlanta on May 25 for both Ben and his mom, Sharon Laucey.

You can also log on to the website at www.hies.org. Click on alumni. If you have never logged onto the site before: Your username is firstnamelastnamegraduationyear (i.e.

TamikaHightower97) Your password is your date of birth (i.e.MM/DD/YYYY) this includes the slashes.

Name Katherine L. Schultz Kelly B. Teague William P. Thomas Kimberly A. Campuzano Christopher B. Chappell Kathryn N. Wegman Keith A. Cooper Mary M. Kyle George M. McCord Laura H. Bond Lauren D. Friedrichs John P. Gallagher Holly M. O’Keefe Kyoko F. Sadoshima Katharine M. Duke Jasmine Nadja M. Grape Michael S. McGinn Noah K. Hauber Stephen A. Satterfield Rachel M. Small Robert W. Caperton Mary V. Coleman Shaquita N. McWilliams Jaimal F. Scott Elizabeth A. Walters Thomas C. Dickinson Haley R. Pope DeMarcus C. Acree

Maiden Name Class 1996 Harrison 1996 1996 Perisino 1997 1997 1997 1998 1998 1998 1999 1999 1999 1999 1999 2000 Smiri 2000 2001 2002 2002 2003 2004 2004 2004 2006 2006 2007 2008 2009

Members of the HIES Class of 2013 will continue their educations at some of the finest schools in America.

Congratulations to these outstanding young men and women!

American University Auburn University Baylor University Belmont University Birmingham-Southern College Claremont McKenna College Clemson University College of Charleston Colorado College Cornell University Florida State University Georgia College and State University Georgia Institute of Technology Georgia Southern University Harvard University Harvey Mudd College Howard University Jacksonville University Life University Mercer University Middle Tennessee State University New York University Northwestern University Oglethorpe University Ohio University Pratt Institute

Rhodes College Rollins College Southern Methodist University Southern Polytechnic State University St. John’s University Syracuse University The Citadel, the Military College of South Carolina The University of Alabama The University of Georgia The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill The University of Texas, Austin Tulane University University of California at Los Angeles University of California at San Diego University of Colorado at Boulder University of Kentucky University of Miami University of Michigan University of Mississippi University of Richmond University of South Carolina University of Vermont Valdosta State University Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University Washington and Lee University

NON-PROFIT ORG. U.S.POSTAGE PAID ATLANTA, GA PERMIT NO. 312

805 Mt. Vernon Hwy, NW Atlanta, GA 30327

Past and present Alan A. Lewis Award winners pose with Mrs. Jeanine Lewis at this spring’s Lower School’s Honors Chapel. Back row from left: Alexandra Stoughton, Emma Yaniger, Benjamin Maitski.

Front row: Morgan Jabaley, Mrs. Lewis, this year’s winner Nick Reddy, and Blake Morain.

Address Service Requested