Connections Summer 2017
Cincinnati Country Day School
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TH S E AV DA E TE !
Homecoming AND Reunion Weekend
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Reunions for class years ending in
’s &
’s
Friday, September 22
Saturday, September 23
5:30 P.M. – ALUMNI RECEPTION (TENNIS COMPLEX)
9:30 A.M. – ALUMNI BREAKFAST (DINING TERRACE)
Alumni (all years) & faculty gather for drinks & dinner. Entertainment provided by James Taylor ’77. No charge for this event.
Alumni breakfast honoring the class of 1967 and 50+ year alumni. All alumni are welcome. Presentation of the Chieftain Award. No charge for this event, but reservations are required.
7:00 P.M. – HOMECOMING FOOTBALL GAME (STADIUM)
More details will be forthcoming concerning individual reunions and homecoming weekend.
PLEASE JOIN US! RSVP to Paula Brock (513) 979-0282 or brockp@countryday.net. * To make a monetary gift to Country Day in honor of your reunion year, please visit: www.CountryDay.net/go/CCDS. Connections 2017v2.indd 2
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CONTENTS
6
2 Leadership
10 MIKKI SCHAFFNER
16
6
The Story of Country Day
The Early Years
10
Spotlight on Outdoor Education
5-Year Strategic Plan
16
The Children’s Theatre of Cincinnati
Kim Deaton ’87— Managing Director/CEO
18 Students 26 Faculty 29 Alumni
18
34
News Notes
38
In Memoriam
ON THE COVER Country Day Early Childhood students Adeline Leonidas, and Graham Hall make the environment part of their learning experience.
Connections is published by the Development Office of Country Day. Photos by contributing alumni, students, parents, faculty, and staff. If you have questions or believe any information to be incorrect, please contact Ralph Javens at (513) 979-0234 or javensr@countryday.net. Your classmates and the Country Day Community would like to hear from you. Please submit Class Notes to Paula Brock at brockp@CountryDay.net.
Parents of graduates: If you have been receiving CCDS mail for your graduate at your home address, and they have a permanent mailing address elsewhere, please let us know how to best reach them. We want to stay in touch with our alumni community, and save paper and postage. Please contact Alumni Director Paula Brock at brockp@countryday.net or 513-979-0282 with updated information or send address changes to addresschanges@CountryDay.net.
Cincinnati Country Day School does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, creed, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability, age (40 or over), national origin, ancestry, or military service/veteran’s status in the administration of its educational programs and policies, admission decisions, tuition aid programs, employment practices and benefits, athletic, or other school administered programs.
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LEADERSHIP
Dear Members of the CCDS Community, Measuring a school’s impact is tricky business. Schools, like businesses, must assess their performance and results, but most educational outcomes are not easily quantifiable. While publications and websites rank schools based on measures including student retention, test scores, and graduation rates, how can they measure something like contribution to society or leadership in a community? I have given a great deal of thought on how to best measure Country Day’s success in fulfilling its mission of preparing students for college and life. One clear answer is found in our alumni base. It has been said that “great schools are measured not by the accomplishments of their students, but by the lives led by their alumni.” In my first two years as head of CCDS, I have been deeply impressed by the alumni I have met throughout this country and also abroad. To a person, our alumni are wonderful examples of “virtue in action” in manifold ways and situations.
Above: Noah Fleischmann, Head of School Tony Jaccaci, and Chip Pettengill at a Country Day event. Below: Tony addresses the school community at the 2017 Closing Ceremony.
This past year, I was most struck by a group of our youngest alumni. Country Day continues its tradition of bringing back graduating college seniors to speak with our senior class. Although they are only four years ahead of the 12th grade class, they have pertinent and timely advice on how to navigate the next four years. What impressed me about this group, however, is how well prepared they are for their next stages of life, and I could see what an important role Country Day played in that preparation. In this edition of Connections, I invite you to read the interview I conducted with these four individuals during their campus visit in January. Like other features in Connections, I am hopeful it will articulate what Country Day “success” can look like for our future alumni. I will continue to spend significant time contemplating effective ways to assess how well Country Day delivers against its mission, but in a manner that is not solely limited to metrics that can commodify education. If you have ideas on evaluating school success, I would love to hear your thoughts. After all, an engaged community is another measure of the strength of our school. Sincerely,
Anthony T. T. Jaccaci Head of School
Follow Tony on Twitter at https://twitter.com/TonyJaccaci
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LEADERSHIP
The Board in Action
T
he Country Day Board of Trustees is a group committed to the success and long-term viability of the school. They bring a wealth of talent and experience from our community and give freely of their time and resources. Over the past year, they were highly visible at many events, including commencement, homecoming, The State of the School, Trustee Visitation Day, convocation, CountryDate: Building Community and numerous board and committee meetings. In addition, they were involved in the projects below.
Country Day FORWARD Country Day Forward: The Five-Year Strategic Plan was led by (left) Board of Trustee President Jon Hall, Trustee Jeanne Parlin, Head of School Tony Jaccaci, Trustee Tom Langlois ’77 and Upper School math teacher Greg Faulhaber.
Checking in with Former Leaders
Cindy Hritz, Meredith ’10, friend Stuart, and John
Long-Range Financial Planning Retreat Long-Range Financial Planning Retreat during two sessions: Trustee Paul Stewart, Chief Financial Officer Todd Witt and Upper School Head Stephanie Luebbers
Diversity Retreat
Cindy Hritz, a former parent at CCDS, served on the Board of Trustees and was president of the Parents’ Association. She writes: Our daughter, Meredith, who was a Lifer at Country Day, graduated in 2010 and was accepted early decision to Wesleyan University in Connecticut. Meredith had a wonderful experience at Wes and graduated with honors in 2014. Meredith and her boyfriend, Stuart, met on their first day at Wes in 2010. They now live in Philadelphia, where Meredith works for a PR firm and where Stuart is finishing his third year of medical school at Temple University. Meredith also writes for a couple of blogs and is an avid runner and fitness buff. My husband, John, and I moved to Connecticut in 2011, after 21 great years in Cincinnati. We live in Stonington, an historic, lovely town on the water. John is currently CEO of a steel company near Houston, Texas. He is home in Connecticut often, and we have a place in Texas as well.
The Diversity Retreat: Jessica Beaudoin, Early Childhood; Rachel Corwin, Team Leader, Grade 8, French; Lori Smith, Trustee and PA President; Angela Suarez, US Spanish; Yven Destin, US History; Andrea Rogers, MS Culture Studies; Brittany Patterson, MS Culture Studies
While we have many fond memories of CCDS, I'd say that the friendships that John, Meredith and I built there (and continue to enjoy!) are our favorite memories! ■
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COMMUNITY
CountryDate: Committed C
ountryDate, under the leadership of Nick Recker, was a year-long celebration of the CCDS community. The first event, Bonfire and Brews: Committed to our CCDS Community, was held at the Carey Family Amphitheater in the fall. The event featured food, drink, live music, and a chance to spend time with Country Day community members.
In early winter, the second event was held Stop Hunger Now: CCDS Committed to Service. More than 150 Country Day volunteers gathered to pack 20,350 meals in less than two hours for world hunger relief. Cincinnati Country Day School’s largest fundraiser of the year, CountryDate: Committed to the Future, was a success with nearly 300 guests attending the event at Renaissance Hotel.
CountryDate Committed Chair, Nick Recker and wife Heather.
The event included cocktails, dinner, a Glitz and Glam raffle, Heads or Tails, and a festive live auction. Peter and Mary Horton won the grand prize raffle, $20,000 cash donated by Matt and Marianne Castrucci and the Matt Castrucci Auto Mall of Dayton. Proceeds from CountryDate support faculty resources, scholarship initiatives, and student educational programs. Board Member Nick Recker chaired the event.
Members of the middle school team, Julia Joyce, Rachel Corwin, Casey Schnieber, Theresa Hirschauer, and Ully Marin on stage at CountryDate during the live auction for dinner donated by the middle school faculty.
Jason Wise and Stevie Rufener at Committed to Community: Bonfire and Brews
Ranjit Sharma, Ambika, Sonia Sharma and Anushka at Committed to Service: Stop Hunger Now
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SOCIAL MEDIA
Join in the fun! Stay up-to-date with everything Country Day on Social Media. Follow Country Day at the addresses below and view samples of posts.
MAIN: www.facebook.com/ CincinnatiCountryDaySchool ALUMNI: www.facebook.com/ groups/173110579491410/
MAIN: twitter.com/countryday/
MAIN: www.instagram.com/countryday/
TONY JACCACI: twitter.com/TonyJaccaci ATHLETICS: twitter.com/CCDSathletics THEATER: twitter.com/CCDStheatre COACH HIRSCH twitter.com/CCDSHirsch
Take a stroll down memory lane! Social Media Sweepstakes for best memory of senior year at Country Day. (Brooke Wolf won the drawing.) Erin Head ’93 Senior Halloween We did not lack creativity. That is for sure... And Mr. Cronk was a good sport!
Louie Randolph ’07 AKA Carter Louie My favorite moment ... was just before graduation. ... a teacher who had pushed me to be great but at the same time was always on my case ... said, “I want you to know, I know you will do great. I was never worried about you making it in college”. This was a teacher ...a man who cared tremendously for all of his students. A teacher who ...will be forever missed and never forgotten.
Brooke Wolf ’89 My greatest memories are twofold - Mrs Dunn (basically everything about her and her class - to this day she brings a smile to my face. She was an amazing teacher who brought such wit to her class, that even I looked forward to English each and everyday! Then...simply my classmates!
Suzy Hardesty ’97 It’s the subtle moments that are my favorite. ...I fondly recall the faculty that were proud of us. ...senior year, I would choose decorating my locker as my favorite.
Erika Armstead ’12 Taking Ms. Floyd’s Holocaust class as a senior elective because I learned so much that I didn’t know and it was just an emotional, chilling, and eye opening experience.
Richard Schwab ’67 After I was accepted into Brown University early admission, Mr. Pattison ran down the main US hallway - he hugged me and lifted me off the ground! I will never forget how happy and proud he made me feel.
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F O Y R O T S E TH
Y A D Y R T N COUTHE EARLY YEARS Fo un d in g • P hi lo
so p
P hi la nt hr opy • hy • Aca d em ic s •
Ath leti cs • A rt s
The stor y of the formative years of Cincinnati Country Day School is chronicled through e media accounts of th ted day and supplemen by the school ’s first viewbook 1927-1928. by Ralph Javens
A
s we approach the 100th anniversary of Country Day, the world has changed considerably, but our core principles remain. The vision for CCDS began in 1924, and the school opened in 1926 through the efforts of a group of communityminded individuals who were interested in providing academic opportunities for their children in a healthy environment. It took a great deal of selflessness, leadership, and a spirit of philanthropy to create the school that is Country Day today. In the 1920’s, private schools consisted mainly of boarding schools. The founders of Country Day felt it was beneficial for
students to remain at home but be offered the academic rigor of a boarding school. The private “Country Day” school concept was in its infancy at a time when great change was happening to the country. The years surrounding the Country Day opening saw the invention of radio, television, rotary telephone, and the first pop-up toaster. It was also a time that saw the formation of the BBC, the opening of Route 66, and the creation of the Grand Canyon National Park. Lindbergh made the first transatlantic flight, Macy’s held the first Thanksgiving Day Parade, Walt Disney’s Mickey Mouse appeared for the first time,
and King Tut’s tomb was opened. Country Day started its long and storied history on Tuesday, September 28, 1926 just ahead of the Great Depression and between two World Wars. The Cincinnati Enquirer described the preliminary work on Country Day in an article May 24, 1926. The Community leadership and philanthropy that lead to Country Day.
Yesterday there crystallized in Cincinnati a project which has for a year-and-a-half been in the process of formation. It is an entirely
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FEATURE
new educational Institution for boys between the ages of six or seven and 14 which is to be established at Camargo and will bear the name of the Cincinnati Country Day School. Mr. William Hayden Chatfield, who for many months has been fostering and formulating this plan, with frequent visits to similar organizations in different states and with conferences with those in a position to know the value and support the high ideals of such an enterprise, is the chairman of the committee having the arrangements in charge. This includes Messengers R.L. Black, Frederick H. Chatfield, James Coombe, J.J. Emery, Julius Fleischmann, Frederick V. Geier, Timothy S. Goodman, Lawrence A. Hartsell, John J. Rowe, Albin K. Schoepf, Taylor Stanley, Robert A. Taft, O. de Gray Vanderbilt, Hugh Whitaker, Clifford R. Wright, Lucien Wulsin, and Henry C. Yeiser, Jr. … This active group together with other members of the committee have received such encouragement that already $50,000 has been donated to this cause and will be placed in the hands of a Board of Trustees pending the forming of a corporation under the laws of Ohio. A Headmaster Mr. Harold C. Washburn, a Harvard man and associate professor for 13 years at Annapolis the United States Naval Academy, has been engaged and has taken charge. The site of this newest, and most up-to-date of Country Day school’s in the Middle West will be on the highest bit of ground in Hamilton County - a fascinating stretch of rolling Land on Given Road, Indian Hill… About 20 acres are thus made available in a most salubrious and delightful location, where, it is hoped, a year from next autumn the buildings of the Cincinnati Country Day School will be in operation.
...and on next September 28th the first institution of its kind in the Queen City of the West will be in full operation in the open healthful country far from the turmoil and bad air of town. The Cincinnati Country Day School seeks to provide the advantages of a boarding school without sacrificing home influence and environment. It will be an allday school afternoons until 1:30 or 2 o’clock will be devoted to outdoor play and sports or to nature study in the fields and woodlands except for study... In direct charge of the Masters the boys will be taken to and from the school in buses over the Camargo Pike to avoid the construction on the Indian Hill Road.
The answers to this document have been so gratifying that already the success of this latest development in Cincinnati’s educational possibilities is fully assured. Enquirer September 20, 1926 A new type of school opens
A new type of school for the growing boy where athletics and academics are stressed in an attempt to develop a well-rounded citizen. The school will open on Tuesday, September
As CCDS approached opening, Mr. Washburn marketed the school stressing academics, health, and scholarship. Enquirer September 20, 1926 Scholarship
…The school is not a school essentially for wealthy boys, it is stressed. Because of the tuition rates it will draw a large attendance from this class... From “two little red schoolhouses” in this vicinity Headmaster Washburn expects to draw a number of pupils, the sons of farmers. Realizing that the tuition costs, combined with luncheon costs and bus fare, will amount to a sizeable sum, Headmaster Washburn expects to receive scholarship endowments from prominent Cincinnatians... …the Headmaster will hold special office hours for conferences with parents… He will also confer with parents at their residences or offices by appointment.
28 (1926) in its new quarters on Given Road…Next Sunday, when the school is dedicated, the building will be complete and ready for occupancy, less than two months after building material was delivered. …It contains 13 rooms (classrooms, dining room, kitchen, library) and a gymnasium… and is located on a twenty-acre tract that is one of the highest spots in Hamilton County, an ideal location for a school. Study hours will be arranged so pupils will have to study as little as possible at home. Thus “it is hoped, the boys will be developed along such lines as sportsmanship, hardihood, sense of responsibility… These are things that are not always developed properly in the average school,” Mr. Washburn said.
As an indication of the care with which this undertaking is being pursued, questionnaires have been issued for the purpose of obtaining data of essential importance as a basis for the organization of this new endeavor with respect to number of grades, students, and teachers needed…and the adaptation of the details of the curriculum… The Country Day Seal through the years:
1927
1929
1969
1995 CONNECTIONS | 7
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FEATURE
Enquirer November 22, 1927 Country Day’s first chronicled guest speaker, Commander Richard Byrd, who had already been the first to fly to the North Pole, and two years prior to his historic flight over the South Pole.
Commander Richard Byrd, US Navy, visited… where he talked to the boys…with the aid of lantern slides, took his fellow diners by way of Newfoundland and the Azores to Lisbon in the first transatlantic flight in 1919… Enquirer March 31, 1928 First publicized sporting event at CCDS
The Cincinnati Country Day School of Indian Hill held its second annual boxing tournament before a good-sized crowd yesterday. The tournament was the championship round of several weeks of preliminary rounds…
Enquirer, June 8, 1929
Enquirer, December 4, 1930
Fleischmann Cup Awarded at Field Day
School Preparing Play – The arts featured in PR for the first time
Pictured: Julius Fleischmann presents George Edward Smith Jr. the Fleischmann Cup, which is presented annually to the boy in the entire school who excels in scholarship, athletics, and leadership.
The Laughing Mask, dramatic club of the Cincinnati Country Day School, will present the “Knave of Hearts” in the school auditorium on the afternoon of December 19. The playlet is in one act and is based upon the Mother Goose rhyme of that same name.
Enquirer, February 3, 1930
…the presentation by the Laughing Mask, the dramatic club of the school, of the al fresco Indian pageant, “Boy Without a Boy.”
Triflers Not Desired! Pupils Are Kept Busy At Cincinnati Country Day School Character Building Features Program. Country Day urges further development of the Country Day School movement in Cincinnati.
Emphasizing the advantages of small classes, which result in a more intimate relationship between pupil and teacher, and stressing the important part that a teacher’s influence plays in the character building of the child, Herbert Snyder, Headmaster…urged the further development of the …movement. Of prime importance is the distinct effort to instill such elements of character building as should eventually produce self-respecting citizens of the community.
Enquirer, May 27, 1931 Laughing Mask presents an original production
(The directions to the play were stated as) Take the unimproved road to the north along the polo field of the Camargo Club, turning at the sign reading “Maniton Village.” You may leave your car at the trap-shooting range and following another sign along a short pathway, on foot, you will quickly reach the scene of the play. Enquirer, May 24, 1932 School presents Robin Hood
…students will present an original play. Cleverly drawn invitations have been sent out in
Enquirer, April 24, 1929 A new Headmaster is named …announced that Herbert Snyder, educator and athlete, had been engaged as headmaster, the appointment to take effect at the beginning of the fall term. Mr. Snyder was born in Dixon, Iowa. He is the son of Virgil Snyder, Professor of Mathematics at Cornell University and President of the American Mathematical Society. He graduated from Cornell in 1926 and was a member of the football and wrestling teams.
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FEATURE
The First 100 Years Project As Country Day approaches our centennial, we will tell the story of our first 100 years through the eyes of our community. Spearheading this effort is Country Day’s new Archivist, Nat Tracey-Miller.
the name of Robin Hood and his Merrie Men of Sherwood Forest, the scene of this production to be the grove behind Camargo Club.
their music classes. It will be a memorable experience for students to witness the broadcast by this noted musician.
Enquirer, September 26, 1932
Enquirer, March 18, 1935
School to Begin, on Indian Hill – Enrollment Better Than Last Year.
Annual Gym Meet
…will open tomorrow with its enrollment … slightly above last year. As nearly all private schools in this country are feeling the effects of the depression in lowered enrollments, the Country Day School of the city is making a remarkable showing.
…held its annual gym meet in the school gymnasium. Every student from fourth grade up to the senior class is a participant. Students are divided into two clubs…and points are won by each individual and are credited to his particular club.
Enquirer, March 14, 1933
He will help us chronicle and coordinate materials and data for the project. If you have any information, pictures, material, or items you feel may be of historical significance, please contact/send to: CCDS Archivist Nat Tracey-Miller traceymil@countryday.net 6905 Given Road Cincinnati, OH 45243
Flying Kites All-School kite-flying contest. Older students help younger students
Students…are arranging a kite-flying contest, in which they will enter the toy “airships”, which they have made at school. The younger boys, with the help of the older students, have made kites of various types and sizes. Enquirer, April 7, 1933 CCDS Music classes visit Crosley Studios
The boys of the first three grades, with their teachers, will visit Crosley Studios. This special visit is being made to hear Mr. Walter Damrosch, dean of American Orchestra Conductors broadcasts. Students have been listening each Friday to the Damrosch programs over the radio in connection with
Enquirer, May 12, 1938 Students collect $131 for Community Chest
Country Day students donated $131 to the Community Chest (The precursor to the United Way which came into prominence in 1963.) ■ CONNECTIONS | 9
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Five-Year Strategic Plan
Spotlight on Outdoor Education
by Cindy Kranz
In this and future issues of Connections, we will cover the pillars of the Five-Year Strategic Plan Country Day Forward: Innovative Learning and Teaching, Global Engagement, and Environmental Commitment. This issue will focus on a few of the environmental initiatives already undertaken at CCDS along with plans for the future.
H
ead of School Tony Jaccaci introduced the bold plan- Country Day Forward – to the community.
The three pillars of the Five-Year Strategic Plan are in motion with administrators, faculty and staff collaborating to advance each one. “Using the pillars to guide us, we are changing the way that the teachers, faculty and staff see the world so that we can then change the way our students see the world,” Jaccaci said. “It’s all about changing mindsets.” For Innovative Learning and Teaching, faculty have spent the year working on the Students at the Center professional development program. The focus is not on how to teach, but discovering more about how kids learn. The faculty identified four new ways of learning, developed lesson plans for those methods, and will introduce them to students in their classrooms. Global Engagement is visible at CCDS with
Diwali and Chinese New Year celebrations held on campus. Upper School French teachers Jeanette Hecker and Jane Kairet have forged a relationship with a school in France, resulting in student exchanges during the 2017-2018 school year. This issue of Connections will explore the activities around the Environmental Commitment pillar. The other pillars will be covered in future Connections magazines. “The way I think about the environmental pillar is everything that’s old is new again,” Jaccaci said. “I go back to the origins of this school. Why was this a country day school? Why did they choose Indian Hill so far away from downtown? It was to get the boys, and it was only boys at that time, into the natural world. They did things early in their education. They did camping, scouting, and had lessons and activities outside like horseback riding, climbing and hiking. It wasn’t extracurricular, it was part of the curriculum.”
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FEATURE
In April, Jaccaci held his monthly staff meeting outdoors in the Carey Amphitheater where he asked faculty and staff to think about how CCDS might make the natural world part of the curriculum. Participants could choose one of three activities - hiking, reading nature essays or discussing ways to use the 62-acre campus to infuse more nature into the school day. “This is what differentiates us from our competitors in Cincinnati,” Jaccaci said. “A lot of our chief competitors are in the middle of the city or next to highways, and we are just blessed to be tucked away in a beautiful part of Cincinnati. It’s so idyllic.” Environmental Commitment
We will instill a culture of sustainability and purposeful connection to the natural world through education, partnerships, action, and self-assessment that will empower and inspire our community members to be stewards of our environment. From the Environmental Council to classroom teachers to groundskeepers to the Upper School Environmental Club, virtually every corner of the campus has been involved in the Environmental Commitment pillar. Here are some examples of the pillar in action: BioBlitz
A strategic aspect of the pillar is connecting students to nature. Middle school students were invited to participate in a BioBlitz. During a month-long period, mostly seventh graders used the iNaturalist app to identify species on campus. Having identified 12 different species, they now have a baseline. Next year, the students will be issued a challenge to identify not just the diversity of the species, but also its abundance.
Seventh-grader Christopher Langenbahn uses a net to search for species during a Bioblitz on campus.
Innovative Teaching and Learning We will create the most engaging educational environment by continually examining how students best learn and use that research to continue developing the most effective and pioneering teaching. Global Engagement We will develop responsible global citizens through curricular and cocurricular opportunities that foster the skills, knowledge, and empathy required to engage ethically and successfully in a rapidly changing and interconnected world. Environmental Commitment We will instill a culture of sustainability and purposeful connection to the natural world through education, partnerships, action, and self-assessment that will empower and inspire our community members to be stewards of our environment.
Classroom lessons in nature
Composting
Third graders have used the west woods to learn about the early colonists. “We’ve used the wood by saying, ’This is the charter that you’ve received from the king. You’re colonists. Lay out what your community will look like in this space.’ This is the start of city planning, so to speak,” said third-grade teacher Rick Schoeny. “They start to build primitive homes and huts with the natural materials they find.”
Composting, which ties into the Environmental Commitment pillar, has been a third-grade service project for two years. Students compost food scraps, such as banana peels, apple cores, carrot sticks and other organic materials left from daily snacks. Our Pre-primary amd early childhood students are also involved in regular composting.
Outdoor education teacher Kaki Scheer is also involved in the simulation. “I am usually the Queen of England, and they’re my colonists. They settle in the west woods on campus, and I begin to tax them. That teaches them the lesson of why the Revolutionary War took place. We’ve done that for two years now, but this year we actually taxed them using actual historical content – The Broad Arrow.” In New England, white pine trees that were over 12 inches were stamped with the Broad Arrow mark, and they were reserved for the Royal Navy. “We simulated this in the woods by allowing kids to build houses in their colony. As they collected the wood, we let them do as they please, but then I, as their Queen, decided that any piece over an inch in circumference was needed for my Royal Navy. So, I took their stuff. The chant became “Revolt, revolt, revolt.”’ “We’re using the natural world for math, social studies, science, reading, writing and as an inspiration for writing. We have lots of anthropological history in our natural world that we can cover in the school’s natural areas.”
Third graders Cameron Boswell and Iris Weizer add leaves to the third grade’s compost bin.
Food recycling
The Environmental Council has been collecting food scraps, in partnership with SAGE Dining Services. Unused food scraps from the production process, such as cantaloupe rinds or the end of celery bunches, are picked up by Organics Recycling and taken to a farm where they’re fed to cattle. From September through April 12, 3,610 pounds of food were collected, which meets tier 3 of the EPA Food Recovery Hierarchy. CONNECTIONS | 11
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FEATURE
Learning zones
The Environmental Council plans to establish different learning zones on campus in the edge areas. The first one was planted near the maintenance facility, and the next target is the retention pond area near the Lower School. Planting native prairie grasses and wildflowers, like Black-eyed Susans and milkweed, will reduce the water demand. It will also reduce the need to mow to about twice a year, cutting down on fuel costs and carbon emissions. Plans are to introduce Monarch butterflies to the zones. The area will also attract honey bees. “We’re starting to build a natural ecosystem,” Wood said. “It will be a great place for teachers to take students.” Nature Wonder Wall
This year, Scheer created a Nature Wonder Wall, where students bring her items from nature for further discussion and exploration. Or a student brought in the inside of a bald hornet’s nest. Scheer asked, “What do you wonder about this item from nature?” “But mostly it’s a place where kids engage their natural curiosity and begin to formulate their own ideas and understanding. It’s very inquiry driven.” Sustainability
One of the first projects Director of Facilities Wally Welch tackled when he came on board summer 2016 was to re-lamp all fluorescent lighting. “That is part of sustainability,” he said. “It’s your carbon footprint. That’s part of what the Earth Day Celebration is about - educating people about the earth and the effects that humans have living on the earth.” Three Sisters Garden Eighth graders take turns planting a tree at the southeast corner of the campus for Earth Day.
“That’s a ton and a half not headed to the landfill and being used for animal feed,” said Dan Wood, chairman of the Environmental Council and middle school science teacher. Geocache adventure
The Middle School celebrated Earth Day with a geocache adventure about environmental sustainability. Wood guided his seventh graders in mapping the course and coordinates for 16 sites. Students worked in groups as they criss-crossed the 62-acre campus in search of hidden caches. When finished, students and faculty gathered in the southwestern part of the campus near Shawnee Run Road where each grade planted
an American yellowwood tree (Cladrastis kentukea) to replace trees that died due to disease or the invasive emerald ash borer. Lawn care
Groundskeeper Aaron Loberg has been interested in trying Holganix, a new lawn care product, for a while and finally got his chance. “It will introduce bacteria into the soil, and help the plants perform better. Not immediately, but in the future, we’re going to see 20 percent less water and less fertilizer usage, reducing our carbon footprint.” Golf clubs and universities use Holganix, and so do several Major League ball parks, including the Pittsburgh Pirates.
Head of School Tony Jaccaci, Head of Lower School Jen Jensen, Welch, and the Environmental Council received packets of letters from third graders asking permission to plant a Three Sisters Garden. Permission granted! A Three Sisters Garden (An old Native American practice) plants corn, beans and squash. “The Three Sisters work with each other,” Schoeny said. “The corn grows tall, the beans grow all around and the squash leaves provide weed control and ground cover. The beans provide nitrogen for the soil.” “They will work in a symbiotic relationship. We’ll take compost from the bin this year and re-use that for growing these vegetables.” In their letters, students described the concept and suggested possible sites they had
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FEATURE
Tree planting
The school is moving forward with its Canopy ReLeaf initiative to begin replacing dozens of trees lost to disease and the emerald ash borer. Canopy ReLeaf was inspired by the Taking Root initiative, a local campaign to plant 2 million new trees in the Greater Cincinnati region. CCDS has planted more than 100 trees since last year. Each division was involved in planting 14 trees on Arbor Day at the corner of Given Road and Shawnee Run. This year, each middle school grade planted a tree there in celebration of Earth Day. Groundskeepers planted new trees along the upper school island by the parking lot.
Kaki Scheer, Outdoor Program Coordinator, helps teachers and students extend the classroom to the great outdoors.
explored for the garden. “We’ll be planting where the rock wall used to be, so we’re re-using space while beautifying the area,” Schoeny said. As third graders move into their Native American Social Studies, they will harvest the corn, beans, and squash and use the crops to create authentic meals or foods of the time period. “It becomes a hands-on, outdoor, applicable experience directly related to their social studies curriculum,” Schoeny said. “It brings history alive.” Tree journaling
For two years, students in kindergarten through fourth grade have participated in tree journaling. Students follow a single tree on campus throughout the school year, visiting it monthly and making observations.
Fifth-grader Isaac Bowers and Middle School Head Theresa Hirschauer check their phones for coordinates to find another cache during the Earth Day celebration.
The Upper School Environmental Club was awarded a $2,000 grant from Taking Root to purchase 10 trees for the Neil K. Bortz Family Early Childhood Center playground. Club members, guided by advisor Angela Suarez and Scheer, helped write and apply for the grant. The native trees, all planted, include redbuds, a pawpaw, a river birch, white oaks, red maples, a black gum, and a tulip poplar. Fifty-eight trees of 14 different species will be part of the Will Thayer ’05 Memorial Arboretum along Given Road and Shawnee Run, an effort spearheaded by the CCDS Alumni Council in memory of their beloved classmate, Will Thayer. New trees will include oaks, elms, birch, pawpaw, tulip poplars, American yellowwood, American elm, American beech, service berry, sycamore, and persimmon. Water Bottles
Water bottle filling stations were installed last year in the upper and lower schools. Each division distributed water bottles to faculty and students. The school has saved more than 32,743 disposable water bottles by making reusable water bottles available. ■
Green Team The Lower School has started a Green Team with 12 representatives from kindergarten through fourth grade. The students discussed why they love the campus and then discussed how they can improve it. “Kids love the campus because they love the animals that come to it,” Scheer said. “They love the fruits and seeds produced by our trees. That helps them collect and engage on the playground in the natural world.” The students have decided they want to make the school grounds bird friendly by creating “Bird Land.” “A second grader realized quickly that if we don’t know what the birds want, how do we know what to make for them? We need to observe birds to understand their feeding preferences,” Scheer said. The group observed two birds they will see and watch their behavior - purple martins and killdeer. They’ve met Dan Wood at the purple martin gourds, where they’ve made observations. Students observed how the birds fly and noticed how the birds seem to live, not feed, in the gourds. They identified the gourds as bird houses, not bird feeders. Students were surprised to see the birds appear to be black, not purple. “They asked great questions,” Scheer said. “They wanted to know what the gourds’ wires were for. They also asked how many birds could fit in a gourd and wondered where the birds came from.” The school’s on-site purple martin expert, Dan Wood, answered the student’s questions as a result of their observation of birds. After observing these two birds, students plan to present their findings at an assembly.
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Sweet Times
A cross-divisional environmental project
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by Cindy Kranz
The sap project dovetailed with Pre-K I’s “Project Water” unit. The students observed water (sap is mostly water) in its various states: liquid, as sap dripped from the trees; solid, since it froze in the collection buckets; and gas, as it evaporated in the student-built evaporator.
tudents across all three of CCDS’s divisions participated in a sweet project that involved identifying maple trees, collecting sap, and constructing a water evaporator that turned sap into syrup. Maple trees in Cincinnati usually start their sap flow at the end of January into early March, according to Kaki Scheer, outdoor education teacher. “For ideal sap flow conditions, we need weather that is about 20 degrees at night and about 40 degrees during the day. It’s that freeze-thaw cycle that really gets the sap moving.”
Visitors tasted three different maple syrups of varied colors. The darker the syrup, the more intense the maple flavor. “Trees have a certain amount of sugar, but maple trees, common in North America, have the highest amount, making it the ideal tree for syrup production,” Twyford told students. “We have to boil 40 gallons of sap for one gallon of syrup.”
Scheer and eighth grade outdoor education students worked in early January to identify maple trees in the winter. That’s no small task without their leaves.
Students were curious about the blocks of “ice” placed into the evaporator pans.
Fourth graders determined if the trees were large enough to tap. The trees need to be at least a 12-inch diameter. Using 2x18 pieces of paper, yarn and materials they found in Upper School students sampling the maple syrup made on campus, from left, are juniors Sachi Bhati, Morgan Brown, Ayanna Kemp and Megan Jarrell.
their classroom, students embarked on a math challenge to determine the minimum measurements for tap-ready trees. “The students quickly realized that we needed to determine the circumference, because we can’t measure a living tree’s diameter. All the classes discovered independently we needed about a 36-inch circumference.”
“This is actually frozen sap,” Twyford explained. “When you collect the sap from the trees, you have eight days to cook it, or it will go bad. So, you have to freeze it or boil it – one of the two.” Matt Castrucci, father of Rowan ’21 and Matthew ’23 donated the 55-gallon drum students used to make the evaporator. “We had to come up with a design to use as much space as possible,” Twyford said. “It was about exploring materials and thinking about the process from beginning to end. How would it work?”
Fourth graders tapped three trees, eighth graders tapped two trees, and Marcus Twyford’s engineering students tapped five trees with an experimental gravity flow system that reduced the number of pails. His students also designed and built the evaporator.
Outdoor education teacher Kaki Scheer and Corrine Newman watch as Kamal Dimler taps a maple tree for sap. The fourth graders were involved in a maple syrup project that involved students from all divisions.
“After collecting the sap, you have to evaporate most of the water, because sap is about 98 percent water. Extreme heat is necessary for boil, and then you must watch it. You can’t walk away,” Scheer said. Students, teachers, and parents visited the evaporation site outside the Upper School. Eighth graders helped to educate Lower School classes about the process.
Eighth grade students in an environmental elective class filter the sap in an evaporator built by upper school engineering students. They are, from left; Evey Kallmeyer, Rishi Gabbita and Tyler Compton.
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Only then could the size, materials, venting, and heat source ensure the evaporators would perform efficiently and effectively. The project was a great opportunity to bring students from all divisions together to learn and work on a collective project. Plans for next year have already begun, including how to let students lead more of the process, while teachers provide guidance and supervision.■
US engineering teacher Marcus Twyford stirs the sap in the evaporator, his students built.
Why outdoor education is important “We live on a finite plant. For our world and our way of life to be sustainable, we must understand our relationship with life supporting systems of the planet, the relationship with each other, and the financial institutions that support those relationships.” “One of Cincinnati Country Day School’s greatest strengths is its relationships. Including an environmental pillar in the school’s strategic planning means we’re leveraging our relationships to create a viable future.” — Dan Wood
“It’s important that we as a community try to better our environment for our children and grandchildren. It’s better, overall, for the environment. — Aaron Loberg Why is it important to teach kids about the environment? “This generation of children, like any other, needs to understand environmental stewardship and their carbon footprint. Taking organic waste repurposed into compost reduces what’s going in the landfill. It’s giving back to the earth.
Composting teaches children all sorts of things and builds awareness of their role in protecting their environment.” — Rick Schoeny “Secondary to emotional learning is experiential learning. If you have an experience, it’s meaningful. Content is only meaningful if you have the hanger to put it on. The hanger is the experience.” — Kaki Scheer
Early Childhood teachers Jennifer Hoffman and Tara McMullen take their students on weekly nature walks. CONNECTIONS | 15
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FEATURE
A happy place, in many ways The Children’s Theatre of Cincinnati
by Cindy Kranz The Children’s Theatre keeps admission prices as low as possible (generally between $5 and $7) to ensure that all schools have the ability to attend. Schools that qualify for economic assistance are chosen based on a school’s economic need and the population it serves. No school ever pays more than $7 per ticket even though it costs TCT $25 to put a child in a seat, and some schools are offered even deeper discounts or are able to attend at no cost at all. Providing access to the arts for underserved children is one way TCT gives back to the community.
Kim Deaton ’87 B.S. Education, Vanderbilt University Managing Director/CEO, The Children’s Theatre of Cincinnati
K
im Deaton was born into the nonprofit world and will likely retire from that world. Until then, she’s having a blast as Managing Director/CEO of The Children’s Theatre of Cincinnati, a job she’s held since 2013. “I’ve never worked in the arts before, but really, running one non-profit is no different from running another. It’s just a different product. You have to learn the product. And it’s a happy place. I love being here.”
Deaton has her mother to thank for her foray into non-profits. “My mom was the executive director of the Multiple Sclerosis Society for 26 years, so I grew up handing out water at their walks, volunteering at their bike tours, and stuffing envelopes on snow days,” Deaton said.
The organization’s MainStage series remains at the Taft Theatre where 97,000 people attended performances last season. Attendance was 82,000 the season before. “The productions are Broadway-quality, fully produced theater FOR kids, not BY kids,” Deaton said. “Sometimes, people get that confused. That is arguably the arm of our division that most people know about.” What they don’t know about is the touring division, TCT on Tour, and TCT Academy, Deaton said. Each year, five to seven productions tour regionally, performing in schools, community centers, libraries, and parks. A company of actors is employed for these traveling shows, most of which are written by TCT. Some 60,000 children annually see the shows. “Our TCT Academy is sort of the impetus of this building,” Deaton said. “We had grown out of our other space. We had one performance space where we conducted our MainStage rehearsals, touring rehearsals, and classes. One room. We knew the demand for arts instruction was huge. We kept hearing that from parents, but we couldn’t offer optimum times because the room was being used for rehearsals.”
MIKKI SCHAFFNER
When Deaton was hired, The Children’s Theatre had outgrown its old building. She and her board quickly set out to find a larger venue. The result is an impressive $6.5 million, state-of-the-art facility in Hyde Park and a growing audience. Kim Deaton ’87
“Ironically, 12 years after she retired, I ended up as the chapter president of the MS Society, so I literally followed in her footsteps without the people who recruited me to that role even knowing that my mom had been involved.”
Now, TCT has eight studios for beginning, intermediate, and advanced classes including voice, drama, dance, music theater, stage makeup, improv, audition prep, and more. Class attendance during the first session increased by 340% and continues to grow.
Deaton’s expertise spans non-profit management, fund raising, strategic planning, market media development, public relations, special events, grant acquisition, and major gift acquisition. She has a track record of success with a host of non-profits in Cincinnati.
The new building includes a smaller 152-seat theatre, enabling more programming for preschool-age audiences or teens. It’s also a smaller venue where students in classes and summer theater camps can perform for their parents.
Her first job was with New Perceptions in Northern Kentucky, where she conducted job training for adults with disabilities. “I literally made the donuts at Dunkin’ Donuts and bagged groceries at Kroger with those adults to get them trained.”
More than 200.000 children are reached annually through the theatre’s MainStage performances, TCT on Tour and TCT Academy. Besides advancing the arts, the theatre addresses timely topics through workshops designed to tackle social issues, such as bullying, healthy eating, and self-esteem.
Among other non-profits, she was executive director for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, then the MS chapter president and now in the top job at The Children’s Theatre. While she had to learn the language of theater, she seamlessly floated into another non-profit arena.
For many students, their school field trip to see a MainStage production is their first exposure to live theater, Deaton said. TCT gets feedback constantly from teachers about how that experience made a difference in a child’s life or even improved a child’s behavior.
“I love a world in which your duties and obligations change daily,” she said. “That is certainly this world. I love a world that is very team focused, where no person is more important than another, and when you work for an organization, like ours, that’s doing big things with little resources, everybody chips in.”
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How did Country Day prepare Kim? “From a quality of education standpoint, it’s bar none. I remember going to Vanderbilt and taking a statistics class my freshman year. It was one of those huge lecture halls with about 400 students. I had no idea what the professor was talking about, but I was pretty sure that Mr. Tumolo had taught me a better way to do it.” “I got back to my dorm room and called him and, sure enough, he reminded me of an easier way to do it. I remember that while on the phone with him, somebody came up behind him at school and he said, ’Excuse me, I am on the phone with a college student.’”
MIKKI SCHAFFNER
The larger Children’s Theatre location has enabled the TCT to offer more classes as well as The Showtime Theater for smaller productions. More than 200.000 children are reached annually through the theatre’s MainStage performances at the Taft Theatre, TCT on Tour, and TCT Academy.
“One day I went from recruiting our gala honoree to hand metering 800 envelopes. No job is too big or too little for anybody. You do what has to be done.”
“People don’t stop giving to things like that in times of trouble,” Deaton said. “I have not found that that sort of generosity is the first thing to go. You might go to the movies or out to dinner a little less often, but if you’re passionate about a cause, you’re not going to stop giving to it.” Although the economy was in better shape when she took over The Children’s Theatre job, she and the board faced another challenge. They were raising money for the new building at a time when Music Hall embarked on a $135 million renovation – both tapping into the same audience of arts patrons and donors. Deaton was undaunted. When people tell her they can’t give to The Children’s Theatre or they’re donating to Music Hall, Deaton
And, The Children’s Theatre is doing it the right way, she said. The hour-long shows are geared to the attention span of a child. They’re big. They’re flashy. The stage is teeming with activity. “There are times when you don’t hear a peep from our audience the entire hour because they are so mesmerized, and it’s 2-year olds to 14-year olds, depending on the day,” Deaton said. “We really are creating the love of theater in these kids, and they are the ones who are going to fill Music Hall in the future.” Deaton is clearly passionate about her work and firmly planted at The Children’s Theatre, now in its 92nd year. “I want it to be around for another 90 years.” ■
The new Children’s Theatre building A $6.5 million state-of-the-art facility opened in 2015 on Red Bank Road in Hyde Park. An existing manufacturing building was renovated and expanded by Terrex, a development and construction company co-founded by CCDS parent Peter Horton.
Country Day pen flip story Kim Deaton met the brother-in-law of her development director, Bree Ann Murdock ’90, during a business trip to New York in 2008. They were introduced by the Country Day pen flip. Dan Rattner ’74 of Boston was on the national board of the MS Society when Deaton went to New York for a board meeting. “At dinner that evening, they had us assigned to tables. I was sitting at a table and there was a pen in front of me and I was flipping it. I was doing the Country Day pen flip. Dan Rattner, who had never met me before, looks across the table at me and says, ’You went to Cincinnati Country Day. So did I.’ It was great!”
MIKKI SCHAFFNER
While a fluctuating economy could put philanthropy on the back burner for some donors, raising money wasn’t hard during the recession when she was at the MS Society. Besides raising money for research, the organization provides direct services to people living with MS in the community.
is ready with a counter offer. “My response is, ’But, we’re creating the patrons of Music Hall’s future.’”
“The individualized, structured environment was incredibly helpful. The teachers at Country Day, at least the ones when I was there, were there because they cared, and they wanted to see their students be successful. I can’t imagine that’s changed.”
CCDS Connections to The Children’s Theatre of Cincinnati Students who recently appeared in The Children’s Theatre productions: Elf the Musical JR. - Seventh-graders Aubrey Jones and Jackson Higgason (2016-17 season) Tarzan – Aubrey Jones (2016-17 season) Roald Dahl’s Willie Wonka JR. - Freshman Peanut Edmonson (2013-14 season) Bree Ann Murdock, director of development, parent Current board members include: Peter Horton, vice chair, parent Jessica Cicchinelli, parent Lucy Haverland Joffe ’90, parent Meg Kohnen, parent Robin Sheakley, former trustee, past parent
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Service Learning
TAOS by Cindy Kranz
The Taos Pueblo area near Taos, New Mexico the United States. Many Pueblo children whom
L
ast summer’s service learning trip to the Pueblo Reservation at Taos, New Mexico was a lifechanging experience for 11 students who spent five days volunteering and exploring Native American culture.
“I knew they enjoyed it, but it wasn’t until after we returned to school that I could see how it still lived with them,” said CCDS Dean of Service Learning Deborah Floyd. Juniors John Blang, Matthew Davis, and Derek Stevens are returning as senior leaders this summer. “They believe so much in the program that they’re returning to help organize service opportunities,” Floyd said. The Taos experience was CCDS’s first upper school service trip. Taos fit the bill with significant service and cultural education. “That’s what I like about this trip,” Floyd said. “It’s all about service.” Students earned 25-30 service hours, “Because we were there the first week of the
summer, there was a lot to do. Some of the guys took on some tough stuff in the heat, like mowing grass that was up to their hips.” Service each day was divided into three groups of students who worked with children ranging in age from 8 to 13. One group played sports with them. Another group led the art activities. A third group of Pueblo and CCDS students engaged in community service projects. “They made dream catchers, all kinds of great artwork,” Floyd said. “Some of the things we did without the children. We scraped and painted the windows of the Pueblo school. We organized all the shelves in their art center and cleaned out sheds.” During evenings, students soaked in cultural experiences. They visited the workshop of an award-winning silversmith who created a turquoise piece while they watched. They saw Robert Mirabal, a two-time Grammy award-winning native musician, who played a private concert for the students at his home. “That was probably the most magical night.” Floyd said.
The last night, there was a drum circle, complete with a campfire and professional drummers. Students learned some traditional dances and danced around the fire. “I was so proud of our kids,” Floyd said. “There were some other groups that were not as well-behaved. Our students were reverent.” “In fact, the biggest compliment was when the teachers whom we worked with – and these people are poor - hosted a lunch for us and made us fried bread, two kinds of chilis and authentic beans. It was very sweet of them. That’s not part of the trip. They just really wanted to thank us.” Floyd stayed in contact with Floyd Gomez, a native Pueblan who guided them in Taos. She invited him to speak at an assembly last fall as an extension of the Upper School Community Service Day. He also visited some classrooms. “Floyd Gomez is really our ’in’ to the nation,” she said. “Not all First Peoples want involvement. It’s a religion as much as it’s an ethnicity, so they’re very protective of their language. They don’t want their language being taught to outsiders. They teach their
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spent a day playing with the children. The CCDS students also helped prepare the school for the next year by cutting non-native plants and painting a rock wall to cover graffiti. One reason Beyette took the trip is that she was curious after taking Dr. Marygrace Tyrrell’s APUSH (AP U.S. History) class about native peoples and their history, particularly pertaining to Country Day’s mascot. “I expected that they would be appalled by our mascot,” Beyette said. “I talked with several of them about it, and their response really shocked me. It’s kind of a two-sided coin for them. They don’t like it. It’s a stereotype.” “But at the same time, they do like the publicity about school mascots, because a lot of Americans don’t think that there are still Indians and native people here. So, just that little bit of education that comes with having a mascot is really helpful to them.”
Spurred by the Taos trip and her classes at CCDS, Beyette explored the Country Day community’s view of the school’s mascot for her senior project. She asked a group of students and faculty to take a survey about their perception of the mascot and racial stereotyping. After taking the survey, the group read articles by Native Americans about their lifestyles and cultures, and then retook the initial survey. The experience changed her career path and interests. “I would love to find ways to bridge the cultural divide,” Beyette said. “So many of their children must decide when they grow up whether to stay with their native culture and those traditions within the tribe, or whether to go out into the more Americanized world. I would love to be able to help that be an easier transition and help them to bridge the gap between the two worlds.” ■
is the oldest continually inhabited structure in CCDS students met live in the Taos Pueblo.
children their own language, and they’re not supposed to talk about their religious beliefs because they believe there’s power in their language and their beliefs, and they don’t want to weaken that power.” For Blang, the trip enlightened him on Native American culture. “I loved it. Most people don’t understand. They think they’re living in teepees. They still try to hold onto their old traditions but also have had to modernize and keep up with the times.”
Clarissa Conner, left, and Liz Keller spent time with the children in the Pueblo community center pool.
“It’s amazing how they let us into their lives. That’s rare. Normally, they’re very private and don’t let outsiders in. The most interesting part of the trip was seeing how they live and how they accepted us.” Blang, who will be a senior, is writing about the experience for his college essay and wrote about it in his SAT essay. “It was an experience that is different and unique. It sets you apart from everyone else.” Blang’s bond with Gomez helped pave the way for his return visit this summer. Senior Anna Beyette enjoyed forming bonds with the children while doing community service. One day, they went to a creek and
CCDS students and Pueblo children take a snack break from picking up trash around their school. Students, from left, are Owen Moreno, Jake Seide, Derek Stevens and John Blang. CONNECTIONS | 19
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Students Helping Students C
harlie Sachs ’17 has a way of putting a positive spin on the phrase, “What goes around comes around.” That’s because Charlie enjoys the good karma of helping others. Charlie was in Lower School when he participated in Students Helping Students (SHS), an organization that pairs Upper School and younger students as Study Buddies. Upper School students offer educational support in math, reading, foreign language and study skills, as well as other subject areas upon request. Study Buddies coordinate their effort with parents and classroom teachers
by Cindy Kranz
and do their best to serve the needs of the individual student.
remember when I met you,” he told Sachs one morning during their weekly session.
During his junior year, Robbie Pierce ’11 was Charlie’s Study Buddy. Pierce went on to help lead the club in his senior year.
He admitted he was nervous because he didn’t know Charlie. Now, he’s like one of the family. “We’ve become more friends. He babysits us. He’s a really nice person.”
As a freshman, Charlie joined SHS to give back and help someone else who needed a boost as he did. He was paired with Jackson Freeman ’24, and worked with him for four years. Like Pierce, Charlie was one of the club leaders this year. Jackson, a fifth grader this year, has worked with Charlie since second grade. “I still
Charlie added, “The best part about this program is that it gives you a chance to form a positive relationship with another student you wouldn’t normally get a chance to see in your day-to-day life at Country Day,” Charlie said. “Jackson and I have become pretty close. He’s
Senior Charlie Sachs, a student leader and member of Students Helping Students, and fifth-grader Jackson Freeman have met weekly for Study Buddy sessions for four years.
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a really smart kid so, after a certain point, we don’t have to really study anymore and we just talk about, in my mind, the more important things like social life, sports and anything that’s going on.”
About Students Helping Students The 2016-17 school year was the 10th anniversary for the club, which has had several incarnations over the years. This year, 38 Upper School students were paired with Middle and Lower school students as Study Buddies.
Jackson and Charlie work together mostly on math and French. “I tend to struggle a little bit in math, Jackson said. “He’s a big help. I’ll come in with a good grade on a math test and will be like, ’Oh my gosh, I got a good grade on a math test!’” When Charlie was in third or fourth grade, he said his parents initially made the decision that it was a good idea to start meeting with someone from Students Helping Students. “Robbie helped me a lot with my grades, but we also just had a fun relationship. It was only meeting, like Jackson and I do, a few minutes before school every week, but definitely gave me kind of a cool feeling to be hanging out with an upperclassman.” Like Jackson, Charlie got help with math. “Math was my hardship, or anything that was troubling at the same time. After we finished up, we would talk about what was going on
“I think it’s always good to have a peer mentor when you’re younger and have somebody in the same school who will look out for you and be able to help you out. I think it’s a great program.” with each other. He was a big basketball player at that time. So, it’s definitely been fun to make those connections.” Charlie and Robbie still keep in touch occasionally. Robbie graduated from Wake Forest with a major in politics and international affairs. He now works as a press assistant for Sen. Rob Portman ’74 in Washington, D.C. He was a member of SHS from sophomore to senior year. He worked with Charlie for one year and with a different student another year, both on math. “Basically it was helping them understand general concepts and helping them out with their homework,” Pierce said.
Students meet at 7:30 a.m. once a week on Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday for the entire school year. Teachers and parents may request a Study Buddy for a student.
Robbie Pierce
“I think it’s always good to have a peer mentor when you’re younger and have somebody in the same school who will look out for you and be able to help you out. I think it’s a great program.” “It’s about being a part of a community and giving back to it. I was at Cincinnati Country Day from kindergarten through graduation, so I look back very fondly at my time there and when you’re older in high school, it’s nice to be able to help out some younger students. It’s cool now, because I’ve been removed for a while now but there are still students who remember me helping them.” This fall, Charlie will attend Dickinson College to study philosophy and swim at the Carlisle, Pennsylvania college. Jackson admitted he will miss Charlie and their 7:30 a.m. Tuesday morning sessions on the Dining Terrace. Jackson is looking forward to carrying on the tradition of joining SHS when he gets to Upper School. “I’ve thought about it, and I think that I probably will because I know that this turned out really well, and I’d like to do the same thing.” “You’d be a great fit,” Charlie said. “I realize how big an impact it made on me as a student. I’m glad it’s just carrying on like it is. The best part of seeing this club grow is that we reach out to everyone in the community. It gives everybody a chance to make a positive impact on somebody else’s life.”
Club co-advisors Paula Butler and Malena Castro, along with the club’s student leaders, match Study Buddies with younger students according to academic need, strengths, personality and mutual interests.
Student Leaders since 2007-08 07-08: Brad Buechner ’08 08-09: Will Portman ’10 and Molly McCartney ’09 09-10: Will Portman and Robbie Pierce ’11 10-11: Robbie Pierce and Jack Wildman ’11 11-12: Lily Cohen ’12 and Tyler Spaeth ’12 12-13: Meg Lazarus ’13 and Hunter Behne ’13 13-14: Kelsey Zimmers ’14 and Grace Krammer ’15 14-15: Grace Krammer, Connor Wiley ’15 and Charlie Sachs ’17 15-16: Taylor Boggs ’16, Charlie Sachs and Grace Pettengill’17 16-17: Charlie Sachs and Grace Pettengill, captains Leadership team: Alex Chantillas ‘18, Kaitlyn Hardesty ‘18, John Pettengill ‘18, and Blake Lykins ‘18
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Here’s what teachers have to say about the Students Helping Students program: “A real hallmark of this program for me is the relationship building that happens. The early morning time is really kind of precious, sacred reserved time that usually doesn’t get eaten up by other conflicts. Upper School Study Buddies do get community service hours. For some, that is a tangible benefit. It’s not really why they do it. I think they get real pleasure from being able to share their knowledge and expertise with someone who needs help. And I think both parties benefit tremendously from forming a long-term working relationship. They don’t just meet one time and say, ’OK. Thanks.’ They’re meeting every week for the whole year. They both grow together through their shared experiences.” Paula Butler, Students Helping Students co-advisor and US science teacher
“I love Students Helping Students because it gives one-on-one attention to a student who sometimes struggles when learning something new or needs a review. The younger students look forward to meeting with and getting to know an upper school student. It has always been a very positive experience for my students and I know when I leave something for them to complete together it gets done. I love when the class comes in and they are jealous that they don’t get to have a upper school student working with them. It also really helps boost their confidence. It is a great program and has had a positive impact on my students over the years. Ann Gardner, Second-grade teacher
The experience has enabled students to succeed when they didn’t think they could. It is rare for a student to want to come to school at 7:30, but they look forward to their time with a Study Buddy. It is also wonderful to see the relationship that has grown over time and they know will continue in the future. Terri Sears, Fourth-grade teacher
“I have three first grade students participating in SHS this year. The first graders and upper school students have made connections that foster fun and meaningful learning experiences. Each student uses their time to practice reading and basic math functions. My students look forward to their sessions with their upper school buddies each week!”
How students helping students started: • Brad Buechner was the founder and captain of the most recent “incarnation” of the program that began in 2007-08. In that first year, there were a handful of pairings - eight Lower School children meeting one-on-one with their Upper School Study Buddies after school from 3:30-4 p.m. (as an “after-school” offering). Hester Sullivan, the Service Learning Coordinator, helped to launch the program in the Lower School and coordinated closely with Brad Buechner and Co-Advisor Paula Butler. • By the next year, Will Portman and Molly McCartney headed up the Students Helping Students program, moving it to a morning meeting time. By mid-year, there were 13 pairs working every week. • That same year, ’08-’09, Jack Wildman and Jules Cantor were instrumental in working with Melonee Ridgeway to create a Middle School Foreign Language tutoring program at lunchtime. A group of Upper School students volunteered to be available at tables in the Upper School Library to provide French and Spanish Language support. This program continued for three years, before being incorporated into the morning offerings. • Three teachers are presently on the faculty whose students participated the first year: Molly Petre, Suzy Smyth and Rick Schoeny. Also, Valerie Gerber was an early supporter of the program. • This is Paula Butler’s 10th year as coadvisor and Malena Castro’s seventh year as co-advisor of the SHS program. Research by Paula Butler
2008
Ann Wimmer, First-grade teacher
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STUDENTS
RIDING ACROSS AMERICA
Christian, who lives in Kenwood, said he was inspired when his grandfather took him on a seven-day trip on the Great Allegheny Passage Trail when he was in second grade. “I had it in my genes and love it,” Christian said. For the past few years Christian has been joining Gary, a resident of Wilmington, on cycling trips in Europe, but the most recent trip was the longest. “My strongest memories are of the people,” Gary said. “I wanted Christian to experience the same thing.” Gary, who is 70 years old, has been an avid cyclist since the mid-1990s. He had cycled the TransAmerica Trail before in 2006 and wanted an opportunity to share some of the locations he visited with his grandson. Christian, who rides a specialized Sirrus, and Gary, who rides a Prof lex mountain bike, would typically average 60 to 70 miles a day. The entire trip was more than 70 days from June to August. However, they not only rode for the experience but to help raise money for a cause. They raised nearly $8,000 for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society. Gary’s wife, Connie, has multiple sclerosis. The trip was memorable for some of the destinations where they stayed. They would typically spend the night at motels, but occasionally, they would also stay at areas designated for cyclists. These locations ranged from churches to a fire station. Gary said a highlight for him was visiting Cassoday, Kansas, which is known as the prairie chicken capital of the world.
At the end of their journey, Christian Page and his grandfather, Gary Page, dip their front tires in the mouth of the York River that leads into the Atlantic Ocean at Yorktown, Virginia.
A Cincinnati Country Day School student spent a portion of his summer riding for a cause.
The following story, written by Community Press reporter Forrest Sellers, originally appeared in the Press newspaper on Sept. 21, 2016 and is reprinted with permission.
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ighth-grader Christian Page joined his grandfather, Gary Page, for a 3,854 mile ride on the TransAmerica Trail to raise money for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society.
“You wouldn’t believe how many small towns there are that you wouldn’t notice if you were driving,” Christian said. “You (also) meet a lot of other cyclists from around the world.” Christian, who frequently cycles to school, plans to join his grandfather once again during a cycling trip to Europe next summer. ■ Update: By the end of last summer, Christian and his grandfather had raised nearly $10,000 for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society. They will cycle for a month this summer in Europe, spending most of that time in Switzerland.
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STUDENTS
Cum Laude Society Inductees
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he Country Day Chapter of the Cum Laude Society inducted seven new members from the Class of 2017 at a dinner this Spring. Christina Agostino, Anna Beyette, Natalie Choo, Elizabeth Johnson, Michael Masterson, Elizabeth Pease and John Tereck.
Students are inducted into the society on the basis of their grade point averages. Ten percent of a given class is inducted at the end of their junior year at the Awards Day in June. An additional 10% of the class is inducted at an assembly in February.
Class of 2017 members inducted as juniors last year: Kyle Bannerman, Elizabeth Keller, Nicholas Krammer, Grace Pettengill, Hailey Spaeth, Kenneth Wang and Kevin Yu.
Cum Laude schools represent the top one-tenth of 1 percent of all secondary schools in the U.S. Among the more than 27,000 secondary schools in the U.S, just over 300 have been awarded membership during the past 103 years. Approximately 4,000 students are inducted nationwide each year. â–
The 14 members of the Cum Laude Society from the Class of 2017 are front, from left: Hailey Spaeth, Christina Agostino, Elizabeth Keller, Grace Pettengill, Elizabeth Pease and Anna Beyette. Second row, from left: Kyle Bannerman, Kenneth Wang, Natalie Choo, Elizabeth Johnson and Michael Masterson. Third row, from left: Jack Tereck, Kevin Yu and Nicholas Krammer.
Lower School Curriculum Night
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ower School Curriculum Night showcased the work teachers and students are doing in connection with the three pillars of the new Long-Range Plan: Environmental Commitment, Global Engagement, and Innovative Teaching & Learning. Fun and engaging activities, designed to INSPIRE,
FOSTER AND GROW, were provided for early childhood through fourth grade children and their parents. Activities included planting spring flowers, creating a gong, planning an African safari, playing with rockets and Moon Sand,
building egg structures, creating an Australian Sandman celebration of winter down under, building a tower with sticks and cups, and square dancing. Visitors could also check out displays and videos of the work the students did on the maple syrup project, steerage and west woods simulations, P.E. and more. â–
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STUDENTS
Four Seniors Named National Merit Finalists
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incinnati Country Day School's four National Merit Semifinalists have been named finalists in the 62nd Annual National Merit Scholarship Program: Elizabeth Johnson, Elizabeth Keller, Michael Masterson and Kenneth Wang.
The seniors have the opportunity to compete for 7,500 National Merit Scholarships, worth more than $33 million. Students first become semifinalists by achieving high scores on the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT). Approximately 1.6 million juniors from more than 22,000 high schools took the test.
Cincinnati Country Day School's National Merit Finalists from left: Michael Masterson, Kenneth Wang, Elizabeth Keller, and Elizabeth Johnson.
The four CCDS students scored in the top 1% of the nation's high school seniors and were among 16,000 students named semifinalists nationwide last fall. Of those students, 90 percent advance to the finalist level after meeting several requirements. ■
MS Students simulate Ellis Island journey
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ighth graders, with their third-grade “children” in tow, experienced the joys, hardships and chaos of immigrants who entered the United States at Ellis Island in the late 1800s and early 1900s. The older students escorted third graders from the Lower School to Ellis Island. Both parents and children, dressed in period clothing, were met outside the Middle School commons by eighth graders who played customs officials. Border guards and customs inspectors questioned the new arrivals about their occupation and whether they had any diseases or ailments. In some cases, their baggage was checked and items were confiscated.
Athletics
State Doubles Champs
As Connections was going to print, Seniors Justin Baker and Vishaal Nalagatla (pictured above) won the state Division II doubles championship. It was Nalagatla’s third straight doubles championship and Baker’s first. Nalagatla is the first tennis player in the 98-year history of the event to win three doubles championships with three different partners. Senior Kevin Yu, last year’s Ohio singles champion was runner-up this year. ■
Arts
Some immigrants were quarantined until their status could be determined. Doctors and nurses checked the immigrants. Some of the women went into labor and gave birth. If immigrants were turned away, the most common reason was for contagious or infectious diseases. The simulation was held following the eighth grade's unit on immigration. Students represented 17 countries. Meanwhile, the third grade studied immigration, traveling in steerage and coming through Ellis Island. They sat on their classroom floor for a week in sections marked off to represent the small amount of space they would have had traveling in steerage. ■
Scholastic Art Awards
After the last issue of Connections was mailed, it was announced that 27 students won for 45 entries in the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards regional competition, including one Gold Key Portfolio, 10 Gold Key single images, 14 Silver Key single images and 19 Honorable Mentions. Pictured above is the entry from Blake Lykins ‘18 of “Skyway Bridge”, a Gold Key single image winner. ■ For all of the great academic, philanthropic, art and athletic news, visit www.CountryDay.net and follow us on social media. CONNECTIONS | 25
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FACULTY
Tim Dunn receives Lifetime Achievement Award community. Some former recipients include Owen Hauck, Pat Mancuso, Steve Rasso and Steve Klonne. Coach Dunn received the award at the National Football Foundation’s 50th Annual Scholar Athlete Banquet on Feb. 28 at the Renaissance Hotel downtown. University of Cincinnati Head Football Coach Luke Fickell was the featured speaker. ■
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he Greater Cincinnati Chapter of the National Football Foundation presented its 2017 Lifetime Achievement Award to Tim Dunn, former Head Football Coach of Country Day.
She received her licensure as a Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor from the Counselor, Social Worker and Marriage and Family Therapist Board. She met the professional standards established by law and by Board rules, and is now authorized to use the title “Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor” (LPCC). ■
The award is given to former football coaches who have exemplified great leadership qualities not only on the field but also in the
Hirschauer receives top award from Ohio Scholastic Soccer Coaches Association dignity in a win or a loss. I'm very proud of how my girls represent Country Day when they put on their uniforms. Any time you get an honor that comes from your peers — it is special. Being respected by other coaches is a great compliment and makes me proud of the program that we have at CCDS."
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heresa Hirschauer, Country Day's varsity girls soccer coach, received the 2016 Kim Mahoney Award from the Ohio Scholastic Soccer Coaches Association. The award, given to a girls coach for ethics and sportsmanship, is considered the highest honor a coach can receive on the state level. Hirschauer was nominated in the Southwest Ohio district by Dan Brady, Madeira girls soccer coach. She was selected state winner over nominations from all other districts. Her plaque reads: In recognition of your commitment to the teaching of good sportsmanship, respect, character, and the development of the whole person. "I think it speaks volumes about what people think of our program at Country Day," Hirschauer said. "We will compete very hard between the lines but always with the same
Angela Barber-Joiner, team leader and Kindergarten teacher, passed the National Clinical Mental Health Counseling Examination which consisted of 10 clinical simulations designed to sample a broad area of competencies, not merely the recall of isolated facts.
Hirschauer has coached soccer at Country Day for 27 years – 26 as head coach. During that time, she and her teams have amassed an impressive career record of 335-129-38. Last fall, the girls soccer team won its first ever regional championship, advancing to state where they defeated Lynchburg-Clay in the semifinals. The team lost, 2-1 in double overtime in the finals to finish the season as state runner-up. It was the first CCDS girls team, in any sport, to make it to the state final four. ■
Thom Brannock, Middle School math teacher and 3-sport coach, received his graduate degree with honors from Mount St. Joseph University. Brannock was a Distinguished Student Award nominee, the Mount’s highest honor. He earned a Master of Arts in Teaching degree with a concentration in Integrated Mathematics. In addition to coaching middle school volleyball, basketball, and track, Brannock is involved with other activities. ■ Mark Luebbers, Middle School English teacher had two poems published recently: “Air National Guard” in the Winter issue of Kudzu House Poetry Review, and “In Situ” in the Spring issue of The Apple Valley Review. These are available both in print and online. “Air National Guard” can be viewed at: http://kudzuhouse.org/issues/solsticecreative-issues/volume-6-issue-4-wintersolstice-2016/mark-luebbers-air-nationalguard/ and “In Situ” can be viewed at http://www.applevalleyreview.com/ ■
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CURRICULUM
STEAM, Design Thinking, Technology, and Computer Science at Country Day Rob Baker- Director of Technology
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– regardless of their fields – in our digital world.
e are so excited that formal STEAM (Science Technology Engineering Art Math) classes were added this year in the MS in grades 6-8. STEAM, Design Thinking, Technology, and Computer Science are all essential skills, integral to Cincinnati Country Day School’s mission of superior preparation for college and life….inspiring a passion for learning and independent thinking. These courses develop problem solving skills and expose students to computational thinking that will benefit the leaders, creators, designers and thinkers graduating from CCDS, regardless of career path. CS-Engineering courses expose students to hands on, iterative processes that treat failure as a learning opportunity and develop perseverance. Students graduating from CCDS will be confident in their skills, and be able to contribute to projects, ideas and conversations related to technology and computer science.
Computer Science/Engineering is more than a field of study – it is embedded in our way of life. From smart phones to automobiles, grocery stores to airports, every facet of our lives is impacted by computer science and technology, through information management and security, to content delivery, automation, and digital design. Empowering all students to learn and develop skills in computational thinking and apply those skills to develop new technologies is a continuation of our message on the importance of Country Day graduates being leaders, creators, designers, and thinkers
These courses expose students to the Design Process and help them to develop a growth mindset with hands-on problem solving and coding. We tell our students that the teacher’s role is to make them fail, and fail often. They need to apply Design Thinking to prototype a solution and have it fail so that they can learn from it and iterate until a reliable solution is developed. We facilitate this with openended challenges involving coding robots, building with spaghetti, cardboard and balsa wood, and designing/coding gaming devices with circuits, logic, LEDs, sound effects and lots of cardboard and tape. Our students create HDTV antennae out of cardboard and aluminum foil and are able to watch over 50 HD channels with their designs. We are also excited to announce that we have returned to a Computer Science/Engineering Graduation requirement starting with next year’s freshman class. ■
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FACULTY
Catching up with Marcella Trice Cindy Kranz of CCDS caught up with Marcella Trice this Spring for a nice conversation.
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arcella Trice no longer goes to school every day, but she’s never stopped teaching and learning since she left Country Day 21 years ago. Trice was the first African-American educator to teach in the Lower School and the first African-American division head. She came to Country Day during the 1968-69 school year to teach second grade – her favorite.
“It’s a grade where children have a little bit of a background and have started learning some Marcella in the CCDS parts of the reading 1973 yearbook. process and math, and they’re ready to move forward. They still love the teacher, and they still are cooperative. They’re eager to learn. They’re like little sponges in second grade.” Trice became interim head of the Lower School in 1982 and was named division head a year later. She was responsible for educating 4 year olds to sixth graders and continued in that role until June 1996. “One of my favorite memories of Country Day was the absolute joy of being able to try different new things to help facilitate learning,” Trice said. “Bill Hopple was so supportive of innovative teaching styles. We weren’t tied in to script teaching. We were able to focus on the learning styles of the youngsters.”
“After I finished the religious work, I took the training in clinical pastoral education and did my internship at Christ Hospital. That is what I had planned to do, but that became emotionally too much after two years. It was so sad. It was very difficult in terms of how I was affected and seeing so many dysfunctional families. It was just an overwhelming experience.” And so, Trice began volunteering, serving on several boards throughout the city and
“One of my favorite memories of Country Day was the absolute joy of being able to try different new things to help facilitate learning,” giving workshops for different groups. She then took the anti-racism training for the Presbyterian Church USA and traveled to different states for a couple of years doing anti-racism workshops with Presbyterian women’s groups. “It was a wonderful learning experience. I called it a service to humankind.” She trained at Atlanta University to be a parliamentarian and ran how-to facilitate meetings for women’s groups around Cincinnati. She continues making Black History presentations for women’s and senior groups.
“There’s still a lot of work to be done in terms of not just African Americans but different cultures – programs that lead to understanding and acceptance. While there may always be work that needs to be done, it is never finished. It’s important for it to be a part of the school environment, also.” She serves on several boards, including the advisory committee of the Cincinnati Opera Board, Families Forward Children’s Protective Board of United Way and Church Women United Board. Trice was a member of the Hamilton County Retired Teachers Board and the Urban Forestry Board of the Village of Silverton, where she gives Arbor Day presentations at the Silverton school. She also served on the board of Summerbridge, now Breakthrough Cincinnati. “I’ve been very blessed to travel around the world singing with a classical singing group. and I have traveled quite a bit.” She hasn’t been out of the country in several years, but travels with different senior groups on day and week-long trips. Her plans for the future? “Just to stay healthy.” “I enjoyed my time at Country Day. I was there 27 years. It was a wonderful place to work and very supportive of me. I have nothing but wonderful things to say about the school.” ■
Hopple supported professional development so that teachers were always attending conferences to learn new strategies and ways to improve their interaction with students, she said. “I think the ability to grow was one of the things I enjoyed so much about teaching at Country Day.” All told, she said, “Country Day was a supportive environment for me. They were very supportive, considering that I was the only culturally different person, in terms of color, at the school.” When she left Country Day, Trice was one year from getting a master’s degree in religion and family systems, which she completed at Mount St. Joseph. Her goal was to be a hospital chaplain when she retired.
Marcella Trice with her three children, from left, Janice (Trice) Glaspie, James Trice ’77 and Markus Trice. James, a Country Day Lifer, is the library building operations specialist at American University. He lives in Rockville, Maryland.
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ALUMNI
Class of 2017
Commencement took place as Connections was going to print. Look for information on graduation in future communications and for more details visit www.CountryDay.net/go/2017 Sixty-eight seniors from the Class of 2017 graduated on June 9. Front row, from left: Camila Bagley, Abby Evans, Tess Hoenemeyer, Maggie Miller, Anna Beyette and Kaylin Hoffman. Second row, from left: Jordan Lutz, Elizabeth Johnson, Priyanka Dama, Erica Glosby, Anna Geohegan, Katherine Alsfelder and Liz Keller. Third row, from left: Deidre Mohan, Christina Agostino, Emma Isett, Nicole Rosiello, Elizabeth Pease, Grace Pettengill, Natalie Choo and Olivia Brown. Fourth row, from left: Will Swinton, Matt Scheper, Foster Opals, Jacob Nitzberg, Ameesh Mehta, Domenick Doane, Lily Hill, Katie Deacon, Sophie Hudson, Natalie Thornell, Jane Brooks, Hannah Guttman, Olivia Robinson, Brittney Bash, Hailey Spaeth, Holly Jacobs, Georgina Lockwood-Taylor, Yingtong (Adam) Peng, Clyde Bennett III, Kenny Wang, Youmin (Ming) Zhou, Xingang (Bill) He and Justin Ramey. Back row, from left: Jack Tereck, Ian McInturf, John Voss, Derek Yardley, Justin Baker, Marek Mack, Ronnie Allen, Hunter Folan, Nicholas Krammer, Vishaal Nalagatla, Roshan Chandrakumar, Jeremiah May, Charlie Sachs, Jon Miller, Cam Davis, Mickey Masterson, Will Brooks, Myles Jackson, Kevin Yu, Kyle Bannerman, Heman Duplechan, Jalen Mundy, Bryce Flannigan and DR Williams.
Head of School, Tony Jaccaci presented senior Grace Pettengill with the Country Day Award - the school’s highest award. For a complete list of all Upper and Middle School awards, visit www.CountryDay.net/go/awards.
The Class of 2017 includes 15 Lifers who have attended Country Day since at least first grade through their senior year. Front from left: Emma Isett, Tess Hoenemeyer, Camila Bagley and Hailey Spaeth. Second row, from left: Lily Hill, Sophie Hudson, Will Brooks, Jane Brooks and Grace Pettengill. Back, from left: Justin Baker, Derek Yardley, Ian McInturf, Will Swinton, Jacob Nitzberg and Heman Duplechan.
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ALUMNI
5 Questions for recent alums Each year, the Upper School holds a bi-yearly event, Senior Seminar, to help prepare its soonto-be graduates for college life. During the Tony Jaccaci seminar, recent Country Day graduates return to campus to offer the senior class their perspectives and helpful advice on maximizing the college experience. Last year, during his first year as head of school, Tony Jaccaci was so impressed with the annual Senior Seminar that he invited handful of presenters from this year’s session to sit down with him for a deeper discussion on post-CCDS life. How the school measures success is a topic that continually informs programmatic decisions, and hearing from recent alumni is one more way to assess how well the school is fulfilling its mission of preparing students for college and life. Joining Mr. Jaccaci (TJ) for the post-seminar interview: Julian Braxton ’14 (JB), chemical and physical biology major, Harvard University Holly Dayton ’13 (HD), history major with a minor in theater and performance studies; Stanford University Sam Hall ’13 (SH), mechanical and aerospace engineering major; Princeton University Gunnar Lykins ’15 (GL), mechanical and aerospace engineering major; University of Dayton TJ: You were trained at Country Day to achieve at a high level. In a couple of presentations, I have heard that failing is important to the college experience. How have you allowed yourself to fail? SH: At schools like Harvard and Stanford, you’re not going to be the best like you were here. The lesson I learned is that you shouldn’t try to be the best at everything. You can do everything here, but in college, you can’t. People over-extend themselves freshman year trying to recreate that. I don’t think it’s wise in college.
by Cindy Kranz
HD: Know that if you do badly on one midterm, there are three over the course of the semester. Everything feels monumental at Country Day because you’re trying to get into college. That’s the one big goal. Realize that your GPA matters just a little bit less than you thought it did in college, and small failures aren’t the end of the world. JB: Finding balance in college is important. In high school, everybody does classes, sports and a couple of clubs. In college, if you put all your eggs in one basket, realize there’s an opportunity for more failure. It was important for me to realize there are a lot of smart people, just like me, and I can’t expect to be the best in every single class. Julian Braxton GL: Once you get to college, you realize how much free time you have. You can sit around and do nothing, or go out and be the most active person in one club or be involved in a lot of clubs. People get caught up in the GPA in high school, but in college a 3.7 versus a 3.8 is not going to be the end of the world. It’s about what you do in those clubs to make a lasting impact. TJ: Holly, you said in high school, the goal, and why you were here, was pretty clear. It was getting into a great university. What is the “why” or goal at college? HD: It’s OK to not have a “why” for a while or to let the “why” change. Julian and I were chatting about how what he’s studying has changed a couple Holly Dayton of times. I thought I wanted to pursue theater. I thought that I wanted to be a theater historian. Now, I’m on track to being an academic. I’m getting my master’s next year. Allowing your why to be fluid and not holding yourself to one goal is crucial for mental health. Don’t beat yourself up if you don’t do perfectly in the discipline you planned to do or discover you hate it. People go into pre-med and discover
they can’t stand biology. It’s OK. They find something else they’re passionate about. SH: When I went to Princeton, I didn’t want to be an engineer, but I wanted to study it and figure something else out. Eventually, I settled on what I’m doing now, but I didn’t know what that was until September of this (senior) year. Sam Hall It’s really how you position yourself to be the most successful. You’ve got to get good grades, but it’s also choosing your battles. Do you become president of this or a member of eight other clubs? I think the answer is the former. TJ: There’s an adage: “Take the professor. Not the course.” Is that something that still holds true on university campuses? SH: The professor makes or breaks the class. As far as impactful teachers in my life, it won’t ever get better than this (Country Day). I know the teachers at CCDS far better than I know the professors at college. As an engineer, you’ve got to take fluid dynamics no matter who teaches it. My experience has been that I have not been able to take the cool, fun classes. That’s just the reality of my major and how Princeton operates. HD: As a history major, I took the History of South Africa this past quarter, which I don’t think I would have sought out if it hadn’t been taught by one of my favorite professors – the way the professor makes the subject very approachable and understandable in a world where students coming into the class barely know anything about the subject. It is worth it to ask other people, ’What are the classes I should absolutely take? Who are the people I need to hear?’” GL: For me, in aerospace engineering, the professors are huge. For example, my statics class I had last year, I decided to take a professor who didn’t have a good reputation and it had an impact, because all those classes lead forward with that foundation. Now, I’ve taken fluid mechanics, which is supposed to be a class that destroys engineers, but it was one of my favorites because I loved the professor. I’ve taken him for two or three other classes, and it’s really sparked my interest in aerospace.
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ALUMNI
HD: It connects to something Mia (Fatuzzo ’15) was talking about in her speech. She said great professors give you good letters of recommendation, and you can do research with good professors with whom you develop a relationship. It pays off in dividends to take a class from a single professor more than once to develop a relationship.
HD: Because they told me I was doing things wrong. Pat Dunn marked up my essays. Until 10th grade, everyone had told me I was doing great. I wasn’t doing the best I could do, and she put a red pen on my essays. Tim Dunn gave me a C+ on an AP biology test. That hurt. I did poorly because they held me to high standards and that’s special.
TJ: You have a time machine and can go back to the beginning of Upper School. What advice would you give yourself?
GL: I agree with Holly. It didn’t really hit me until college. When you have free bells or
breaks in between classes, you can go talk to the teachers (at Country Day), ask how they’re doing, talk about sports. When you’re in college, it’s like, ’Our office hours are here on these days for an hour and a half.’ For some classes, I’m lucky they know my name by the end of the semester. It’s important to know that the relationships you build here can be life-lasting, and it can have an impact on what you do in your future. ■
HD: It’s affected a lot by where I’ve gone. I go to Stanford. It’s a very liberal, hippy dippy school, in a great way, so I would tell myself to be less uptight. GL: Do not fall into your own comfort zone. When I was (at Country Day), I fell into my ways of doing this club, being a part of this team, but no other Gunnar Lykins ones. Always be open to more opportunities that are in front of you. JB: Don’t be so single-minded. When I entered (Country Day), I was basically set on the hard sciences and that showed in my extracurricular activities and other experiences, but having gone to college now, I probably missed other opportunities that would have been valuable to me in my development as a high school student. It probably would have benefited me in college if I had explored other opportunities or interests besides biology or chemistry. SH: Cherish your time (at Country Day). When I think of the opportunities here, I couldn’t be closer to my high school friends. I’m still closer to them than I am my college friends. When I think back, every fall, I got to be with them every single day and play golf after school with them and Mr. Faulhaber. Now, the opportunity to do that happens like once a year. You don’t realize how you take that for granted. HD: Acknowledge that the amount teachers care (at Country Day) is unprecedented. The amount that Mr. Carr cared when he was here, Mr. Fossett, Pat Dunn, how much they care about your education is beautiful and is valuable. TJ: How did you know that your teachers cared that much?
Head of School Tony Jaccaci interviewed four alumni who returned in January to talk with seniors about their college experiences. They are, front from left, Holly Dayton ’13, Sam Hall ’13 and Julian Braxton ’14. Gunnar Lykins ’15 is in back with Head of School Tony Jaccaci.
Distinguished Alumnus 2017 Navy Reserve Chief CJ Mitchell ’86 Force Master Chief of the Navy Reserve CJ Mitchell ’86 received the 2017 Distinguished Alumnus Award during the Alumni Business Lunch at the Mercantile Library. Head of School Tony Jaccaci presented the award. Mitchell spoke to the audience about the Navy’s place in the world today and recalled fond memories of Country Day. He answered questions about his job and shared a few tidbits of unclassified information about the country’s recent bombing of Syria. He also visited Country Day to talk with students in two divisions. Mitchell talked about the importance of teamwork and showed a video of all the people who are essential to complete a military operation. He talked about the global aspect of his job, having been in 40 countries. Mitchell also reminisced about his time at Country Day. ■
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ALUMNI
Home to a wealth of authors “If you only read the books that everyone else is reading, you can only think what everyone else is thinking.” – Haruki Murakami, Norwegian Wood
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ountry Day’s new librarian is building a literary collection of books written by alumni and teachers. The idea blossomed last fall after Nat TraceyMiller ’05 saw Francie Pepper, whose son David Pepper ’89 has written a political thriller novel. When she learned Tracey-Miller was now the CCDS librarian, she encouraged him to pick up the book. “From there, I decided to start putting together a collection of books written by alumni and current and former faculty just to centralize the literary legacy of the school,” Tracey-Miller said.
“I had done a couple of searches for some of the music criticism written by Ashley Kahn ’78 and Alan Light ’84 and realized that was missing from the shelves. I figured it was time to make a concerted effort to get as many books as possible here and in one section.” So far, Tracey-Miller has procured more than 30 books from several genres, including music history books by Kahn and Light, and poetry collections by Jeffrey Harrison ’76 and Jeannine Hall Gailey ’91. Tracey-Miller also wants to include some music scores in the new collection. “We certainly have several accomplished musicians and composers who have graduated from here, so that will be a part of it, as well.” He’s also accepting self-published work – anything that represents the creative output of alumni since graduation. While he has a budget for this project, he’s also happy to accept book donations.
Tracey-Miller hoped to have the first round of books processed, cataloged and shelved by the end of the semester. The books will have custom-made bookplates and will be covered with plastic for more protection. The books will have their own shelf location and specific designation in the library catalog. “This is a continuing project,” he said. “I would love to make this the heart of the library collection and a place where people can come back and see their work included.” “I welcome opportunities to talk to people about their work. I’d really like to center the library space as the literary heart of the school. ■ For more information or to donate a book, email traceymin@countryday.net.
Books in the CCDS Library collection by Ashley Kahn ’78 The Universal Tone (with Carlos Santana) Alan Light ’84 Let’s Go Crazy, Jeffrey Harrison ’76 Signs of Arrival, and Buck Niehoff ’65 Jammu Mall. John Raushenbush, former Head of School, with current Head of School Tony Jaccaci, showcases John’s new book, Mike Mulligan: The Magic Eagle of Yellowstone
The following books are now in the library collection: Janet Chahrour (Former US/MS science teacher) Flash! Bang! Pop! Fizz! Jeannine Hall Gailey ’91 The Robot Scientist’s Daughter Becoming the Villainess Unexplained Fevers Field Guide to the End of the World She Returns To The Floating World Jeffrey Harrison ’76 An Undertaking Into Daylight Incomplete Knowledge Feeding the Fire Signs of Arrival The Names of Things
Ashley Kahn ’78 A Love Supreme The House That Trane Built Kind of Blue The Universal Tone (with Carlos Santana) Alan Light ’84 The Holy or the Broken What Happened, Miss Simone? Let’s Go Crazy Angeline Stoll Lillard (CCDS Montessori alumnae) Montessori: The Science Behind the Genius Jeremiah McCall (US history teacher) Gaming the Past Swords and Cinema The Sword of Rome The Cavalry of the Roman Republic
Vijay Natarajan ’01 Crunching Numbers (with Jason Fitzgerald) Buck Niehoff ’65 Something Funny at the Library Jammu Mall David Pepper ’89 The People’s House John Raushenbush (Former Head of School) Mike Mulligan: The Magic Eagle of Yellowstone Andrew Speno (Former 3rd /4th grade teacher) The Great American Foot Race Timothy J. Wollaeger ’62 It’s Not Just Business
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Gettler Writing Award “We write to taste life twice, in the moment and in retrospect.” — Anaïs Nin
I
n 2008, Benjamin and Dee Gettler established the Thomas D. Gettler ’76 Creative Writing Award in honor of their son, who found his literary voice at Country Day. Gettler fueled his passion for writing by contributing poems and short stories to the school’s literary magazine and through the production of his original plays, “In the Lap of the Gods,” and “The Brilliant Lawyer.” The annual award is Cincinnati Country Day School’s most comprehensive writing award and represents the highest level of achievement in writing. Students submit work they’ve done for class, the InWords literary publication or independently. “We just stay away from academic essays,” said Deborah Floyd, English teacher and InWords advisor. “It’s got to be of the creative genre. It doesn’t have to be our best writer, necessarily. The spirit of the award is the writer’s life – someone whose writing is an integral part of their life.” Members of the Country Day English Department choose the winner based on his or her creative writing portfolio, which can include work from freshman through senior year. The work is judged on originality, consistency of voice within each piece, command of language and mechanics, versatility either within or across genres, sophistication of content and expression, as well as any genrespecific or additional factors. The winner receives $400 and decides how an additional $100 should be used to best serve Country Day’s writing program. The winning portfolio is posted on the CCDS website. Some past winners have continued their writing beyond Country Day. Jordy Alonso ’10 is a published, award-winning poet. He graduated in 2014 with an AB in English with an emphasis in Creative Writing from Kenyon College, where he studied poetry and literary translation. He currently is the Turner Fellow in Poetry at SUNY Stony Brook Southampton. Emma Robitaille ’16, who won the writing award last year, writes: “Since moving out to Los Angeles to attend Occidental College, I've had so many opportunities to become more involved with my writing, both on campus and off.
I am currently taking a creative writing course with a visiting author this semester and have become very involved with Highland Park, the neighborhood which surrounds Oxy, art + writing community. Additionally, I am in the midst of a six-week poetry workshop led by Los Angeles-based poet Suzanne Lummis. I, as well as the other emerging and already-established poets, are currently preparing for our show in which we will be reading our own work.” In presenting the Gettler Award to Robitaille last year, Floyd said, “This award is tailormade for the writing life of Emma Robitaille. She dons poetry and slips on fiction with an eye to written truth so crisp and so clean, you can almost miss the complexity in the clarity. She marries the abstract and concrete in a manner that speaks to her commitment to the ’white heat’ of the craft, always revisiting and revising, until the final piece stands in sartorial finery.” ■
Emma Robitaille ’16
Here are samples of Robitaille’s poetry from her winning portfolio:
Whit
at the threshold of our rhubarb beginning, the stream runs fresh with the blood of my wounds and of your wordsour timbered hearts tumble through the cattails. the pines beckon. my kingdom anew. Organic Decomposition
cold, clean, bathed in gray collarbones dip in a brief immaculacy chalk fingers tug at the corners of blue eyelids the ruby skin breaks exhale of goodness noiselessly tangled in a smoky crimson blur. CONNECTIONS | 33
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News Notes Spring 2017 1962 Tim Wollaeger: “Cindy and I hosted a lovely group of alumni and staff, including Head of School Tony Jaccaci at our home in La Jolla, CA. What a great group that has benefited from their experience at CCDS. Let’s keep it going and support Country Day!”
1967 Tom Block is the first descendant of Isaac Bernheim to be elected President of the Bernheim Board of Trustees. The Bernheim Arboretum and Research Forest, located in Clermont, Kentucky, was founded in 1929 by Tom’s great-grandfather Isaac Bernheim and has been recognized as one of the ten prettiest parks in the US.
Sandra Scholl Brande: “I have been in San Diego since 1996 and am in advertising. The newest thing in my life is that I have a 21-month-old daughter.”
1994 Bryce Dessner and wife Pauline welcomed their daughter, Octave De Lassus Dessner, on February 2, 2017.
1995 Holly Oblinger Mott and husband Mike welcomed their daughter Georgina “Georgie” Halloran Mott on December 30, 2016
Adrienne Beech Eynon ’98 and Barrett Eynon ’95 welcomed daughter Bridget Decker Eynon on October 7, 2016.
1977 James Jared Taylor: “I am teaching art and art history in Temecula, CA at Chaparral High School. I recently produced a show about Kansas City Jazz and played guitar.”
1981 Daniel Blatt: “I am fulfilling a dream I had since I read the Hobbit in 6th grade. I am writing a fantasy epic.”
1985
1997 Rhiannon Davis: “I recently moved from Washington, D.C. to San Diego, CA and works in the field of clean energy and climate policy.”
Howard Winston: “I am now living and working in Santa Monica, CA.”
1989
1998
1992 Zachary Paul: “I am stock trading for Quasar Trading LLC.”
2000 Elizabeth McKnight Tuke, the daughter of Melissa Kinne Norton of Cincinnati, Ohio, and Mr. and Mrs. Carl F. Tuke Jr. of Hobe Sound, Florida, was married on October 1, 2016 to Robert Dale Dake, the son of Irene and Roger D. Dake of Harrison, Ohio. The Rev. Stephen Caine performed the Episcopal ceremony at Indian Hill Church followed by a dinner, dancing and fireworks at The Camargo Club in Indian Hill, Ohio. Fellow CCDS alumni guests included Elizabeth Murphy Dohrmann ’01, Grace Mefford Boyles ’96, Katie Williams ’02, Christina ’00 and Greg ’00 Vollmer, William Applegate ’00, Will McLean ’00, Abby Thayer Esselen ’00, Richard Thayer ’03, Jolene Frank West ’00, Elizabeth MacVeigh ’99, Christine Barrett Haslam ’01, Elizabeth Vollmer ’01, Cooper Herrlinger ’98, Carey Herrlinger ’00, Meridy Vollmer MacLean ’01, Tricia Knowles Brown ’98, Jenifer Reiber Walsh ’00, and Stephanie Sheakley ’00.
Jaysen Covington: “Recently relocated to San Diego after living in Phoenix for 12 years. The lure of Oceanside living was too strong to ignore and I haven’t looked back.” Drew Fleischer: “Living in Los Angeles and working on The Bachelor. Proud uncle to Paxton Fleischer current student at CCDS!”
David Pepper Son, Charles, “Charlie” born on November 28, 2016.
Jill Warm Lawton ’98 and Nate Lawton ’97 welcomed their third son Gregory William (Will) on January 23, 2017
Tricia Knowles Brown and her husband Marc welcomed their first child a son, John Harvey Brown “Jack” on November 27, 2016.
Elizabeth is founder and CEO of Tuke Consulting in New York, a boutique public relations firm with a focus on fashion and lifestyle clients around the world. She was recently featured on lifestyle platform, One Kings Lane as an ’Entrepreneur on the Rise.’ Following Cincinnati Country Day School, she received a Bachelor of Arts from Hobart and William Smith Colleges in Geneva, New York.
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Mr. Dake works in New York as Vice-President of National Accounts at Brixmor Property Group, a commercial real estate investment trust. He graduated from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, and New York University. The couple met in New York City where they reside.
Hans Smith: “I relocated to Southern California in 2014 after joining Ohio headquartered law firm Baker & Hostretter in their Costa Mesa, CA location. I have two boys aged 3 and 4 and am enjoying raising them with my wife Beatrice.”
Prithvi Bhaskar married Sharmeela Saha of New Albany, Ohio on March 11, 2017 at the Hilton-Polaris in Columbus, Ohio. Alumni in attendance included: Sheela Bhaskar ’05, Ryan Chahrour ’00, Bradley Floering ’00, Michael Fulton ’00, Christine Go ’96, Michael Go ’92, Phillip Go ’98, Abby Lee Katabaro ’98, Matthew Hontanosas ’04, Michael Hontanosas ’00, Lisa Lee Lippincott ’96, Jonathan McGrath ’00, Anahita Moussavian ’00, Adam Morgan ’00, Edward Muhlhauser ’00, Allister Sears ’00, Alison Hontanosas Wheeler ’01 and Branden Yee ’00. The newlyweds reside in Loveland, Ohio with their dog, Buddy, and they look forward to becoming active members of the local community.
Katherine Hale Grambling and Greg Grambling welcomed their third child, a baby girl named Natalie Hale Grambling on January 19, 2017.
2002 Chrissey Barrett Haslam and Aaron Haslam welcomed their first child, Anne “Annie” Evans Haslam on December 30, 2016 Tyler Wright and his wife Kate welcomed their first child, a baby boy named Griffin on January 23, 2017. Vijay Natarajan has co-authored a new book, “Crunching Numbers, An Inside Look at the Salary Cap and Negotiating Player Contracts in the NFL.”
2003 Danielle Mendelson: “I moved to Nashville, TN because I have family in the area and I decided to join their family business. The company was getting ready to grow significantly and I have a background in recruiting so they thought I could be a good fit! They own a wine and spirit distributor and I am their Human Resources Manager. Nashville is growing significantly and I am loving seeing it change and all the restaurants and shops opening here. And the music... the music is pretty good too.”
2006 & 2007:
Alex Vollmer ’01 and Emily Geier Vollmer ’04 welcome their first child daughter Makena Lynne Vollmer on January 23, 2017.
2001
Jenna Tysoe Miller and her husband Eli welcomed baby boy, Henry Miller born July 24, 2016.
Palmer FitzHugh married Eric Dooley on October 1, 2016 at the beautiful Resort at Pelican Hill in Newport Beach, California. The couple met as throwers on the Duke University Track & Field team. They reside in Half Moon Bay, CA with their labradoodle, Hurley. Palmer trains guide dogs at Guide Dogs for the Blind and Eric is the Quality Director at Veniti. They are excited to begin 2017 as newlyweds.
Peter and Kim McGarey announce the marriage of their daughter Madeline Ann McGarey to John Tharp Lawrence IV, son of Tad and Sue Lawrence. The wedding ceremony and reception were held October 15, 2016 at Camargo Club. Jennifer McGarey served as her sister’s maid of honor. Roo Rosenkrantz ’07 served as best man. Madeline is a graduate of The Summit Country Day ’07 and Miami University where she graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Organizational Communication. She is currently a real estate agent with Sibcy Cline Realtors. John is a graduate of Cincinnati Country Day ’07 and University of Colorado Boulder where he graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Political Science. He is currently a Financial Advisor with UBS Financial Services Inc. After a honeymoon in the French Polynesian Islands the couple resides in Hyde Park.
Kira Butler: “I work for Adventures by Disney in Los Angeles. I have worked for the Disney Company for 10 years at Walt Disney World in Florida and LA.”
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Claire ’06 and Charlie ’07 Nordloh had baby Maxwell James on December 25, 2016. Danielle Gross ’07: “I’ve been living in Los Angeles for 5 years working as an actor and a screen writer.”
2011 US Science teacher Paula Butler visits with former advisees - the “Butler Boys” while they were home to attend their reunion over Thanksgiving. Pictured with Paula are Mick Abrahamson, Baldur Tangvald, Will Duncan, and Mac McKee.
2013 Hakeem McGee: “I am completing my final year at Miami University studying finance. During my junior year, I was able to study abroad in Cuba through Miami. It was a great experience. The country is filled with kind and hopeful individuals. I recommend it to anyone. Starting in July, I will be relocating up north to Cleveland to work in corporate finance.”
2014 Emma Hoenemeyer: “All’s well, Centre’s great! I’m currently a junior, majoring in French and minoring in Global Commerce. This year has been my first year as an RA. I’m an RA for first-year women. I’ve learned a lot in the role, and I’ve also had a lot of fun. I’m president of the French club. We do fun activities like pétanque and crêpe-making to celebrate French culture on campus. I’m taking voice lessons, and I’m in a band called Kentucky Ensemble— we specialize in bluegrass and folk music.
Professionally, my big-picture goal is to work for a large, international company in supply chain management, so I’ve been working on finding an internship in supply chain for the summer.” Charlotte Ward: “School is great! I am currently doing an operations co-op at a tech start up that does remote data monitoring for industrial equipment. The company I am working for is called “Tagup” and we work in a clean energy incubator called “Greentown Labs” with 51 other green startups in Cambridge, MA.”
2016 Emma Robitaille: “Finishing my first semester at Occidental College and loving it!” Emma Rust: “First year of college going very well! I am loving all the new experiences and meeting all these new people.”
In Memoriam Susan Castleberry passed away March 16, 2017 at the age of 84. She is survived by her husband Edward “Hap” Castleberry ’50. Dear mother of Kelly S. Castleberry of Missoula, Montana; Anne Castleberry, Bizzy (Martin) Driscoll, and Christine (Wayne) Lippert of Cincinnati. Loving grandmother of Kathleen and Clare Castleberry; Maggie, Bryant, and Andrew Pund; Jacob and Lauren Driscoll; Lily, Holland and Trey Lippert.
Catherine (Geoff) Starsiak, Westwood, MA; John (Kate) Eschelbach, San Francisco, CA; Kristin (Ryan) Bartolucci, Palatine, IL; Bailey (Alex) Edelson ’02, Washington, DC; Jess Hopple, Cincinnati, OH; Casey Hopple ’09, Cincinnati, OH and 10 great-grandchildren. She graduated from Lotspeich School in 1934, Hillsdale School in 1940 and Wellesley College in 1944. Phyl and Bill were married May 12, 1945.
Phyllis Siebenthaler Hopple, age 94 passed away on December 31, 2016. Cherished wife of the late William H. Hopple, Jr ’39. Loving mother of Ann (Stephen) Gardiner ’66, Cambridge, MA; Laura (Walter) Eschelbach ’68, East Peoria, IL; William (Mary) Hopple III ’71, Cincinnati, OH; grandmother of Becky (David) Erwin, North Andover, MA; Austen (Vickie) Gardiner, London England;
Nathan Laffoon ’67 passed away on February 8, 2017. He is survived by his children Flip Laffoon and Catie Laffoon and brothers Polk Laffoon IV ’63 and Peter Laffoon. He will be remembered for his sense of humor and fierce intelligence and being a passionately devoted father. Mary Simpson March died peacefully at the Deupree Cottages in Hyde Park on Dec. 23, 2016. She was 91. Mary was born on May 6,
1925. She was predeceased by her husband John, her sister Betty, and her brother Lad. She is survived by her brother Jock of WilkesBarre, Pennsylvania, her son John and his wife Maude of Seal Harbor, Maine, her daughter Elizabeth and her husband David Stein of Newton, Massachusetts, her daughter Lucy of New York City, her son Jeffrey ’80 and his wife Jeanette of Indian Hill, her granddaughters Elizabeth, Sarah, Hadley, Jennifer, and Perrin, and her great-grandson Jamie. Thomas Simon, age 84, passed away December 30, 2016 in Grantham, NH. He is survived by his wife Carolyn and his children John Simon ’75 and Jane Simon Fritz ’78 and grandchildren Joey Fritz ’10, Evan and Alec Simon and step children Bo Blackburn, Luke Blackburn and Lucy Blackburn.
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NON-PROFIT ORG. U.S. POSTAGE PAID CINCINNATI, OH PERMIT NO. 871
Address Service Requested Parents of alumni: If this publication is addressed to your son or daughter, who no longer maintains a permanent address at your home, please notify CCDS of his or her new mailing address by emailing the change to alumniaddresschanges@countryday.net.
2017 Athletic Hall of Fame inductees
To read the story and see additional pictures visit www.CountryDay.net/go/HOF
Athletic Hall of Fame inductees at halftime of the Boys Varsity Basketball Game: (l-r): Athletic Director Chris Milmoe, John Minturn ’72, Chris Bortz ’92 , Laura Heinichen ’95, Brad Keiser ’03, John Graves ’06, and Head of School Tony Jaccaci. 38 | CONNECTIONS
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