SEVEN HILLS The Buzz
A Brief Word from Chris Garten
June 1, 2012
Coffee House 2012 celebrates Upper arts, artists
Today I attended several end-of-the-year picnics in our pre-Kindergarten and Kindergarten classrooms (for Oreos and push-up pops at 10:30 in the morning!). The highlight of the day was watching our youngest students show their parents and guests their “portfolios,” displaying their written work from early in the year and then from the last few days. “Look how far I’ve come,” one boy told his mother with adorable earnestness. “Before I needed help; now I can write this by myself.” To me, that says it all. We are so very proud of what our students have accomplished this year. It is great to see that they are all so proud of themselves. Chris Garten, Head of School
Coffee House 2012 featured a dazzling array of visual art, a slide show of DAC artists, a performance by the Contemporary Ensemble, and improvs by Performance Group (at left, “teacher Erich Schweikher” and “Upper Head Nick Francis”). More on page 2.
Pre-K students join sixth graders in a celebration of birds! Preschoolers paraded in their bird costumes to the Middle School where they joined the sixth graders’ Celebration of Birds—a day of activities culminating the Middle Schoolers’ intensive bird studies— on May 18. See pages 7 & 9.
Inside this Buzz Upper School News
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Middle School News
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Lotspeich News Doherty News
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Commencement, end-of-year awards, spring sports season reports, and more will be in our next Buzz.
More Coffee House 2012!
Above, alumni Leah Ransohoff-Englert ’11 (left) and Bryan Romaine ’10 (foreground) joined the ever-popular “World’s Worst” improv.
Thank you for your suppor t! The Seven Hills Fund is fast approaching its successful completion for the year, with just $33,000 of our $1,050,000 goal left to raise. “A big ‘thank you’ goes out to those who have supported annual giving this year! We’ve heard from many families in our School community, and we’re eager to reach full, 100% participation before the fiscal year ends on June 30,” said Development Committee Chair Jen Stein. page 2
If you haven’t made a gift this year, there’s still time! We have
$33,000 left to raise to meet our goal by June 30, 2012. To make your gift, please click the DONATE NOW button below…and THANK YOU!
DONATE NOW
As a reminder, the School has received a conditional grant from The EE Ford Foundation. They will match, dollar for dollar, up to $50,000, any new or increased gifts from last year.
A look at what’s happening at Upper School
See page 6 for Middle School, page 8 for Lotspeich, and page 10 for Doherty Congratulations to seniors Izzy Arjmand, who won a National Merit® $2500 Scholarship, and to Kate Harsh, who won a National Merit Vanderbilt University Scholarship.
Above, congratulations to members of the Class of 2012 who signed letters of intent to play sports in college: T.J. Nelson, who will play soccer at Centre College; Sarah Austin, who will swim for Williams College; Ryan Ferrell, who will play baseball at Denison; and Matt Cohen, who will play soccer at Ohio Wesleyan.
Dr. Lenore Horner’s AP Physics and Honors Physics students built paper roller coasters to demonstrate principles of physics. “The assignment was to build a roller coaster out of paper that makes a 1/2” steel bearing do interesting things. I gave them only rough limits on size. Each group had to demonstrate and discuss physics principles illustrated by their roller coaster.”
National French Contest 2012
Two P&G managers—Travis Withers (Charmin, Senior Assistant Brand Manager) and Jason Woods (Family Care Packaging Manager)—came to Tim Drew’s Psychology class on May 18 to help with class projects. Tim said, “The students were setting up an ad campaign for various products and services. Travis and Jason explained what went into the success of the marketing at P&G. They covered target groups and statistics, packaging, social norms, and public perception.” Congratulations to the Upper students who earned top honors on the National French Contest and National Spanish Exam. Middle School results will be reported in our next Buzz.
National French Contest honorees
Level 5 Sharon Liao—1st in Ohio, 7th in Nation Betsy Johnson—5th in Ohio
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Level 4 Allie Feuerlein—1st in Ohio, 3rd in Nation Isabel Arjmand—3rd in Ohio, 6th in Nation Sarah Williamson—6th in Ohio, 9th in Nation Mia Samaha—8th in Ohio Sara Johnson—9th in Ohio Federica Fernandez—11th in Ohio Madeleine Rogers—14th in Ohio Zoë Pochobradsky—16th in Ohio
Level 3 Greg Sun—4th in Ohio, 6th in Nation Phoebe Um—8th in Ohio, 10th in Nation Luis Visoso, Lauren Weems—11th in Ohio Kerry Hoar—12th in Ohio continued next page
National French Contest continued
National Spanish Exam 2012
Level 2 Claudia Fernandez—6th in Ohio and Nation Katherine King—7th in Ohio and Nation Madeleine Gold, Tess Weisenborn—12th in Ohio Level 1 Samatha Head—9th in Ohio, 10th in Nation Mollie Rouan—11th in Ohio
National Spanish Exam honorees Level 4 Gold Medals (95th percentile or above) Allie Baretta—2nd in Ohio Silver Medals (85th-94th percentile) Leah Yuan Priyanka Parameswaran Bronze Medals (75th-84th percentile) Rachel White Bethany Buck Honorable Mention (50th-74th percentile) Lauren Driskell Georgie Russell Marissa Steele Carson Quimby Shea Renusch Hannah Batsche Brian Collette Hillary Goldsmith Level 3 Gold Medals (95th percentile or above) Andrew Ligeralde—2nd in Ohio
Level 2 Gold Medals (95th percentile or above) Ellie Pasquale—2nd in Ohio Arjun Dheenan Alayna Choo Adam Buford Silver Medals (85th-94th percentile) Linnea Head Nicole Malofsky Ashok Dheenan Stefan Antonsson Clarke Waskowitz Bronze Medals (75th-84th percentile) Mona Scheiber Kayla Kavanaugh George Karamanoukian Tessa Woodall
Silver Medals (85th-94th percentile) Miguel Alemany—1st in Ohio (bilingual category) Bronze Medals (75th-84th percentile) Tess Renusch Zach Abraham Honorable Mention (50th-74th percentile) Sam Ellis Caroline Linne Devin Garrett page 4
The Alumni Association hosted its annual Countdown to Graduation Breakfast for the Class of 2012.
Honorable Mention (50th-74th percentile) Chris Shoemaker Maddy Cole Level 1 Silver Medals (85th-94th percentile) Danielle Caller Carly Harten Bronze Medals (75th-84th percentile) Kenyon Moriarty Alex Li Honorable Mention (50th-74th percentile) Michael Conroy Jared Nelson
Outstanding Spring Choral Concert!
Upper’s Spring Choral Concert featured, in addition to beautiful music under the direction of Tina Groom, accompaniment by a professional chamber ensemble and six soloists, including alumna Elliana Kirsh ’09, Upper math/physics teacher Dr. Lenore Horner, Roger Miller (husband of Lynne Miller, piano accompanist extraordinaire), and other students from CCM. Their performance of Vivaldi’s Gloria was breathtaking! “This was one of the most rewarding concerts I’ve ever directed,” said Tina. “Working toward mastery of such a complex and beautiful piece of music has been quite an accomplishment on the part of the students, and I think the result of all of that work was an incredible experience for us all.”
Walden Ponds Golf Club 6090 Golf Club Lane Indian Springs, OH 45011 513.785.2999
We are open through June 23 We will reopen July 30
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For the latest Upper School news, check out the online student publication, Canvass, at http://7hillscanvass.org/.
All registrations must be received by June 7, 2012. Register online here or go to www.7hills.org/quicklinks, select Bibler Golf Registration Questions or to register via phone Nancy McCormick Bassett ‘83 Director of Alumni Relations nancy.bassett@7hills.org 513.728.2432
A look at what’s happening at Middle School
Hair Fair 2012!
Teacher Anne Yancey told us, “To enhance the study of prepositions, sixth grade English students made some creations out of marshmallows, gummy bears, and fruit slices using toothpicks to construct them. The students took pictures of their marvelous creations with their iPads. Then they wrote creative poems and stories using 20 or more prepositions.” Seventh grade Girl Scouts, co-led by parents Sue VanBaalen and Nancy Clark, continued their tradition of community service by preparing and serving 110 sandwiches at Mercy St. John’s sandwich window in Over the Rhine. Some of the troop’s other community service includes a year assisting the Arthritis Foundation with its programming for children with Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis, hosting snack nights at the Ronald McDonald House, and donating cookies to the Yellow Ribbon Support Service for military personnel serving overseas. Last year troop members earned the Bronze Star Award, the highest achievement for a Junior Girl Scout. Congratulations! Pictured at right are Scouts Eliza Clark, Harper Duncan, Samantha Eng, Nina Lubeck, and Daphne McLaughlin. » page 6
Our thanks to this year’s participants in Hair Fair: Tessa Weisenborn, Molly Donovan, Sydney White, Sarvani Vemuri, Jessica Nordlund, Audrey Wilson, Nicole Tiao, Max Wills, Sallie Hatfield, and Natalie Choo. The volunteers had their long hair cut to donate to Locks of Love, an organization that creates hair prosthetics for financially-disadvantaged children who suffer from long-term medical hair loss, and to Pantene Beautiful Lengths, which creates hair prosthetics for adults. The event is organized each year by teacher Theresa Keller. Our thanks to volunteer stylists Michelle Beamer and Team from Identity Salons. Seventh grade Girl Scouts
Bird Day!
The third annual Celebration of Birds or Sixth Grade Is for the Birds Day took place on May 18, culminating the students’ intensive bird studies. The multidisciplinary celebration included participation by parents, ornithologist and bird bander Dr. Dave Russell, and pre-K students, whose study of birds included creating very colorful and dramatic costumes representing different birds. More images of the pre-K “birds” are on page 9.
Stephanie Park’s eighth grade theater students delighted their audience of pre-K and Kindergarten students with their original play and student-made giant puppets. More images on page 9.
Giant Puppets!
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A look at what’s happening at Lotspeich Fifth grade trip to Dearborn—a long-standing Lotspeich tradition!
Teachers Sara Snyder and Melissa Woodard said, “Our fourth graders went on a field trip on May 16 to Mt. Healthy Elementary. We have Book Buddies that we went back to visit. Our students earned money in the winter by doing extra chores or other activities to buy books to donate to the classroom library at Mt. Healthy. The children had so much fun this time on our return visit. We have participated in this program for over 10 years! The children and teachers at Mt. Healthy School were so appreciative of the books, as well as the time they spent with our students. We helped the preschoolers in their daily activities, including reading, playground, and other classroom learning centers. Our students continue to talk about how much they enjoyed their time with their Buddies.” Second grade teacher Danielle Necessary told us, “Fifth grader Emma Heines was moved by the discussion of students in Uganda in the school’s UforU efforts to do something for others. With the help of a teacher, Emma researched organizations and found Soles 4 Souls, an organization that collects shoes for those in need in other countries or following a natural disaster. The organization also recycles any shoes too worn to pass on, so nothing goes in landfills. Emma and some fifth grade friends banded pairs of shoes together in preparation for shipping. 197 pairs of shoes were collected! The cost of shipping was donated by a local UPS store.“ Congratulations to Emma and friends! page 8
It was a great hands-on learning experience for the fifth graders, when they traveled to Dearborn, MI, to Greenfield Village and the Henry Ford Museum. This is the 73rd year for the Lotspeich trip to Dearborn!
More pre-K “birds” who flew to Middle School for sixth grade Bird Day
More fun with eighth graders’ giant puppets
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A look at what’s happening at Doherty Estimation Carnival
Regina Daily’s math students created a fun and challenging Estimation Carnival for all students.
When Unit II students visited Findlay Market, they got to see firsthand the compost system and to work in the gardens. Students saw the food process full circle, from growing the food to selling it and finally composting it.
Unit I students sailed boats constructed by Sam Adams’ grandfather for “boating day.” The boats were in the style of Spanish galleons, as part of Doherty’s yearlong study of Spain. page 10