Faculty Awards

FACULTY

RECOGNIZED WITH AWARDS

It’s the people within a community that make a community thrive. Eight exemplary Cougars, who embody all that Collegiate School holds dear in their daily responsibilities as educators, were recognized at the All School Opening Meeting in August for their dedication and commitment to the School. Supervisors shared remarks celebrating each of the eight employees while Head of School Penny Evins and Chair of the Board Carter Reid helped present the awards.

NEIL ETHERIDGE

2021 Lower School Hamill Family Endowment Award

BETH KONDOROSSY

2021 Upper School Hamill Family Endowment Award

MEG EVANS

2021 Middle School Hamill Family Endowment Award

TIA OWEN

2021 Lower School Craigie Endowment for Teaching Excellence Award

YU XIAO

2021 Middle School Craigie Endowment for Teaching Excellence Award

AMY MERCHANT

2021 Ann Griffin Award for Excellence in Teaching

HANNAH CURLEY KATE PARTHEMOS

Beginning With Our Best Paw Forward

There are the simple joys that students, no matter how old, experience each year on the first day of school: the cherished first-day-of-school photographs parents take of their children dressed in first-day-of-school outfits; the stream of students on the sidewalk, some arriving on bikes or jumping out of cars and others gripping a parent’s hand; the gentle wave and smile of a teacher or division head; the first nervous-excited steps into a new classroom; new introductions that will spur lifelong friendships. Each school year starts with this special day, a day of firsts and new beginnings, with the year extending out ahead of our Cougars as they pursue new discoveries and educational experiences — and all of it approached with giddy anticipation.

Lifelong Buddies

In one of Collegiate School’s most beloved traditions, Seniors of the Class of 2022 met their Class of 2034 Kindergarten buddies in September for the first time, beginning a lasting friendship.

The two classes of students connect throughout the year, and Seniors serve as the Kindergartners’ role models. The smiles and laughter shared between the Cougars marked a treasured beginning to the school year for the buddies.

COLLEGIATE GETS IN THE SPIRIT OF GIVING FOR TON OF COINS

The Interact Club hosted the 32nd annual Ton of Coins in October as part of the School's Halloween festivities. Students of all ages brought in bags of change to fill the yellow and green tub to support the Lewis Lawson Ton of Coins Endowment. This endowment helps make a Collegiate education affordable to a wide range of students. During the event, Mr. Lawson visited the campus to bring over some coins himself.

IELC CAPSTONE CONNECTS STUDENTS AROUND THE WORLD

THE VIRTUAL IELCX21 BROUGHT TOGETHER AN INCLUSIVE COMMUNITY OF LEARNERS COMMITTED TO SERVICE OF BOTH LOCAL AND INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITIES.

Collegiate School's 11th annual International Emerging Leaders Conference (IELC), "The Global Economy and the Environment,'' took place virtually in October. Forty-two students from eight international partner schools in China, Ghana, Italy, Kazakhstan, Mexico, Morocco, South Africa and Spain worked together with 14 Collegiate Seniors enrolled in the IELC Senior Capstone course to share ideas, experiences and to create possible solutions to real-world environmental issues.

Upper Schoolers Sign Honor Code

Collegiate School is a community with a commitment to a shared set of values. At an annual assembly at the start of the school year, Collegiate Upper Schoolers renewed their commitment by signing the Honor Code.

ENDOWMENT GRANTS SUPPORT STUDENT EXPLORATION AND DISCOVERY

Each summer, as part of Collegiate School’s commitment to promoting a challenging and supportive educational experience, the School awards grants to Upper School students, allowing our Cougars to explore meaningful opportunities in their chosen subjects of interest. This past summer, five Upper School students pursued enrichment experiences, ranging from marine conservation and backcountry orienteering to intensive creative writing workshops, funded by endowment support. Last summer's recipients recently shared their experiences with faculty, staff and endowment donors. "This experience taught me how rewarding a service project can be," Zehma Herring '22 remarked. "It has been one of the best opportunities Collegiate has given me." To learn more about these opportunities, contact Sarah Redmond, Assistant Head of the Upper School. The following are the students who participated in this summer's engaging endowment programs.

William Reeves Renaissance Student Award

• Katherine Becker ’22, Hollinsummer: Reflect and Create: Creative Writing

Intensive workshop at Hollins College • Caroline Smith ’23, research with the Sanibel-Captiva Conservation

Foundation in Sanibel, Fl.

Mary Parker Moncure Vaden Endowment for Citizenship & the Arts

• Zehma Herring ’22, who organized and led the Oak Grove Bellemeade Outdoor

Camp for the students of Oak Grove Bellemeade

John R. Lower Memorial Grant

• Charlie Loach ’23, Outward Bound Blue Ridge Mountains Backpacking and

Whitewater Canoeing program • Walker Clemans ’22, Sea Turtle Camp

Samuel D. Jessee Endowment for Leadership

• Walker Clemans ’22, Sea Turtle Camp

North Mooreland Road was emblazoned in green and gold in mid-September as Collegiate School’s entire student body — including Kindergartners holding hands with and sitting atop their Senior buddies’ shoulders — processed class by class onto Grover Jones Field for Convocation, the School’s annual celebration to kick off the year. During Convocation, two respected alumni were honored with awards: Dr. Leroy ("Bo") Vaughan Jr. '97 was presented with the 2021 Distinguished Alumni Award, and the 2021 Alex Smith '65 Service Award was given to Frank Mountcastle III '83. (To learn more about Mr. Mountcastle's contributions to Collegiate, head to page 79.) The event marked the first time since 2019 that the entire School gathered together in one place, with parents of Seniors and Kindergarten buddies joining the festivities.

This year’s Convocation felt particularly like a celebration — a celebration of our students’ accomplishments, our educators’ persistence and Collegiate’s unity.

SCA: REBUILDING THE COMMUNITY

Working tirelessly throughout the summer, the Upper School’s Student Cooperative Association (SCA) strove to rebuild the School’s culture and welcome back everyone for the school year. As the representative body of students, the group is in charge of cultivating the fun events of the school year and serves as a liaison between students and faculty. This year, however, the SCA is bringing new ideas to the table in order to unite the student body after months of distance.

“Events make people excited to come to school, especially with the stuff we do,” says SCA co-chair Will Pace ’22. One thing in particular that the SCA is focusing its efforts on is the reestablishment of the culture of the Upper School. Currently, Seniors are the only grade that has experienced a full year of normalcy. “With that experience, [the Senior class] really needs to help take charge in rebuilding the culture,” Mr. Pace says, emphasizing the large task that the Class of 2022 and the SCA is faced with this year. The SCA wants people to be excited about coming to school and works to create a community that everyone wants to be a part of.

One of the ways they plan on doing this is through random daily events, such as live student music at lunch and free Kona Ice. They have also replaced events like Movie Night, where students would gather and watch a movie. “At the end of the day, people lose sight of what [Movie Night] is about,” Mr. Pace explains. “It’s kind of overlooked by the upperclassmen.” People would often leave the event early, and, to the SCA, it seemed like a stronger, more community-focused event should replace it.

So they changed the event into something that the SCA believed would unite the community more: a Spikeball tournament and field day. This new event on Saturday, Sept. 18 included courtesy food trucks, cornhole, badminton and, of course, Spikeball, which allowed for more bonding between different grade levels. “The Spikeball tournament was a huge success,” Senior Class President Ian Quindoza ’22 says. “It brought together the different grades and definitely was a great way to kick off the school year.” The event went off without a hitch, and it is here to stay. However, the SCA’s main focus has now turned to plan events like Oddball and Homecoming, the two dances of the first semester. Traditionally, Oddball is seen as a Halloween dance and has taken place in Centennial Hall. Homecoming is the more formal of the two, traditionally taking place in McFall Hall. Oddball is commonly attended by groups of friends and encourages costumes, as prizes are given for the best group costumes. Homecoming, on the other hand, has a stricter, more formal dress code, has its own theme and is traditionally attended by couples. Usually, it is the SCA’s job to set up, decorate and clean both dance areas, but this year circumstances are different. This year, Oddball took place under a large tent outside, with masks on. This year's Homecoming dance was held under an open-air tent in the parking lot north of the Sharp Academic Commons.

While much of the SCA’s focus lies in planning events, there is also a strong emphasis on attending extracurricular events, such as the creation of the game of the week. This new program involves highlighting a certain home performance every week, which will draw greater crowds of students. Although sports such as football and basketball usually draw larger crowds, other events, such as concerts, will be featured as well. “The student section is such a great way to come together as a school,” Mr. Pace says. “One of our goals is to bring that to every sport … we really want to spread that energy to everything… ensembles and play performances.”

Many students believe in the goals that have been laid out by the student government. John Wootton '22 and Philip Clarke '22, two Senior leaders of the student cheering section, want the student body to realize the importance of supporting their fellow classmates. “It’s all about Cougars supporting Cougars, and people feed off our energy,” says Mr. Clarke. Mr. Wootton emphasizes a similar point. “Coming together as a school to support each other is a great way to build the community,” he says. To the SCA and the student body, this year is viewed as an amazing way to create an exciting environment that people will love to be in and will unite the School. While the SCA plans the events, it is truly up to the students, especially the Senior class, to build a culture that will last.

By Jonathan Yackel ’22

COUGAR ATHLETICS PUTTING UP NUMBERS

Athletics are an essential part of the Collegiate School experience. From Cub to JV and Varsity sports to Sports Performance and wellness activities, our dynamic athletic programs help facilitate the School’s focus on creating well-rounded students and citizens. Whether our students train in order to compete at the highest level of their chosen sport(s) or simply with a conscientious regard to living a healthy lifestyle, Cougar Athletics provides avenues for our students to achieve personal excellence and build connections through teamwork.

80

ATHLETIC TEAMS

(Cub, JV, Varsity)

277 THREE-SEASON ATHLETES (Grades 7-12)

748

COUGAR ATHLETES

(Grades 7-12)

402 STUDENTS

earned All-LIS, All-Metro, All-Prep or All-State distinction in the past five years

66

alumni currently playing at the college level

121

COACHES

(69 teacher-coaches and 52 part-time coaches)

3

TRAINERS WHO ARE BOARD CERTIFIED

We are very proud of our Cougars who won 3 VISAA state championships in Girls' Cross Country, Boys’ Soccer and Girls’ Tennis, and 4 league championships in Field Hockey, Boys’ Soccer, Girls’ Tennis and Volleyball. Full highlights of the exciting fall athletics season are coming in the next issue of the Spark, as tournaments were underway as this magazine went to press.