The Seven Hills School Semester in Review for Fall 2022

LOOKING BACK AT FALL 2022 SEMESTER IN REVIEW

As we close the fall semester 2022-23, we look back at some of the outstanding accomplishments that marked the first half of the school year.

OUTSTANDING ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT

Seven seniors were named semifinalists in the National Merit Scholarship Competition. Congrats to Shanaya Bharucha, Elias Buttress, Catherine McAndrew, Rohan Nambiar, Neel Parameswaran, Jack Ringel, and Evan VordemEsche.

Congratulations to Logan Bien, Saahil Chunduri, Sam Froehle, Abigail Li, Emily Rosenfeld, and Julia Tamai for being named National Merit Commended Scholars. Students qualify for recognition in the National Merit program with their PSAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying test scores.

A total of 85 students were named AP Scholars. Sixteen current students and 28 Class of 2022 graduates were named AP Scholars with Distinction, for receiving an average score of at least 3.5 on all exams and a score of 3 or higher on five or more exams. AP Scholars with Honor was given to nine current students and five Class of 2022 graduates for receiving an average score of at least 3.25 on all exams and a score of 3 or higher on four or more exams. Eighteen current students and nine Class of 2022 graduates were named AP Scholars, for receiving scores of 3 or higher on three or more AP exams.

Of the 170 Seven Hills students who took 373 Advanced Placement exams in 17 subjects in May 2022, 91% qualified for advanced college standing by receiving a score of 3 or higher.

Congrats to senior Erin Finn for getting a perfect ACT score and being named a Coca-Cola Scholar semifinalist.

SEVEN HILLS

RANKED # 1 BY NICHE.COM

Seven Hills is pleased to announce Niche has ranked Seven Hills #1 Best College Prep Private High School in Cincinnati, #2 Best College Prep Private High School in Ohio, #1 Best Private High School in Cincinnati, #1 Best Private K-12 School in Cincinnati, and #2 Best High School for STEM in Cincinnati.

Niche is the largest data-driven website for researching and ranking K-12 schools in national, state, and local categories using statistical data from the U.S. Department of Education and the National Center for Education Statistics.

SEVEN HILLS’ NEW TENNIS COURTS UNVEILED

NEW PROGRAMS AT SEVEN HILLS

DOHERTY BEES MEET THEIR HIVES

Doherty students had their first meeting with their Hives, a group made up of 12 students from kindergarten through fifth grade, in October. “It is a cross-grade bonding activity to build a supportive community with the older students as leaders,” said Interim Head of Doherty Christine Garten. The idea to revamp the buddy program to be school-wide came from Head of Doherty Tracy Murch, who was on medical leave at the time. The Hives are

swing during the fall semester! As a club, students learn more about the intersection between science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) while completing various robotics challenges provided by First Lego League. The club is advised by fifth grade teacher and head coach Laura OGrady.

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NEW CLASSES AT UPPER

Head of School Chris Garten shared his appreciation and gratitude for Seven Hills’ four new tennis courts at the ribbon cutting on Sept. 23. “These new tennis courts will not only strengthen our tennis program, they will take it to new heights. It was only possible thanks to Director of Development Margo Kirstein and our very generous donors.” Head tennis coach Tim Drew also shared his enthusiasm. “All I can say is watch out, because we’re excited and ready for next season to go further than we’ve gone before. We’re going to accomplish great things thanks to your support,” Drew said. Seniors Clara Chen, Mallory Dorsch, and Neal Parameswaran, and juniors John Corbett and Ethan Blatt expressed their gratitude to the school, their coaches, and donors as well.

led by the fifth graders, with assistance from two teachers. The Hives spent the first part of the meeting getting to know each other and their teacher-assistants. The Hives then gave themselves a name and created a logo and poster based on their color.

LOTSPEICH WELCOMES NEW ROBOTICS CLUB

The new Lotspeich Robotics club was in full

For the 2022-23 school year, the Upper School has added Gender Studies, African American History, and Advanced Topics in Computer Science. In Gender Studies, students examine the evolution of the ideas of gender in America and globally and explore how it has been integrated in laws, politics, and culture. African American History covers the economic, political, and social histories of African Americans in the United States since Reconstruction. “Students have been enthusiastic about our revised history elective offerings. These two new classes build on that momentum and expand the content and skills students encounter in these seminar-style courses,” said Eric O’Connor, the chair of the Upper School history department. Going beyond the AP Computer Science curriculum, Advanced Topics in Computer Science allows students to create software solutions to real world problems. Topics include artificial intelligence and machine learning, public policy, cybersecurity, and universal access.

Doherty Hives program lead by fifth graders

Lotspeich Robotics Team

LEARNING TH ROUGH INQUIRY, HANDS-ON DISCOVERY, TECHNOLOGY, AND COLLABORATION

SNAKE HELPS WITH ANIMAL LESSON

Doherty’s resident snake ambassador William Snakespeare, a ball python who lives in the science classroom, helped Unit I learn about animals. As part of their lesson on different types of animal skin, fur, feathers, and scales, the students in Robin Taylor-Fabe’s science class got to pet William Snakespeare and shared their observations about his scales and how they felt. They also watched him slither around the classroom, under the close supervision of Taylor-Fabe, to learn about animal movement. William Snakespeare has been at Doherty since 1987 and nearing record old age, with Taylor-Fabe estimating he is between 37- and 43-years-old.

SEVEN HILLS HONORS HISPANIC HERITAGE MONTH

Students and teachers throughout The Seven Hills School celebrated Hispanic Heritage Month, from Sept. 15 to Oct. 15, with specialized lessons, activities, guests, and field trips. Spanish 5 Honors and AP Spanish students created a bracket-style tournament of songs in Spanish. All Upper Schoolers voted on the winner for the day after they were played during the morning announcements. Upper School Spanish students traveled to Xavier University to see the Human Rights/Derechos Humanos: Prints by Oaxaca and Cincinnati Artists art exhibition. Middle School students learned about different genres of Spanish music, such as Flamenco, Cumbia, Calypso, and Reggaeton, every Friday. Eighth graders made a collaborative mural that hung in the entrance hallway and showcased different Hispanic/ Latinx people who have made an impact. Additionally, Jorge’s Taco Food Truck visited the Hillsdale Campus offering real Mexican street food during Middle and Upper lunches.

Pre-kindergarten for 2-year-old students at Doherty learned about Hispanic music and instruments in an activity with their parents.

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TROJAN ARTIFACTS VISIT WORLD HISTORY

As part of their study of the Trojan War, students in Katie Swinford’s freshmen world history class got to handle artifacts from the Trojan War. The class borrowed several artifacts, including pottery and knives, from excavations

in October and learn about the community with an interactive timeline activity. Students examined LGBTQIA+ history from 730 A.D. to present day, such as Francis Bacon, who coined the term “masculine love” in 1623, brilliant trans women of color, Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera, who led the revolution at Stonewall in 1969, and when Audre Lorde, a critically acclaimed novelist, poet, and fierce civil rights activist was named as the state poet of New York in 1991.

STUDENTS PRES EN T FROM BUTTERFLY MIGRATION PROGRAM

in Troy and Pylos conducted by the University of Cincinnati’s Classics Department. Based on everything they had learned about the Trojan War history, artifacts, and legend, the students had to argue if the conflict really happened or not.

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GSA-JUST BE YOU EXPLORES LGBTQIA+ HISTORY

The Middle School’s Just Be You-GSA Club met to celebrate the LGBTQIA+ History Month

Unit II student Narayan King and Unit III student Kishan King gave Zoom presentations for their Doherty classmates from Cape May, New Jersey, where they were volunteering with the Monarch Migration Project. The migration project is a research and educational program focusing on the fall migration of monarch butterflies along the Atlantic coast. Kishan and Project Director Mark Garland taught the Doherty students about how the monarch butterflies cross the bay in Maine and fly all the way to Mexico. The King family has been volunteering with the program since Kishan was a baby.

Artifacts from the Trojan War

Robin Taylor-Fabe’s science class

LEARNING TH ROUGH INQUIRY, HANDS -ON DISCOVERY, TECHNOLOGY, AND

Kishan explained how to catch the butterflies and determine their size, sex, and weight. Narayan and a volunteer naturalist showed the students how to tag the butterflies. The butterflies are then released to see how many survive the migration flight to Mexico.

SEVENTH GRADERS SCALE THE SOLAR SYSTEM

Seventh graders in teacher Kristin Suer’s class used proportional math to calculate a scaled version of our solar system and utilized an assortment of objects to correlate with the approximate scaled diameter of the planets. “We want students to put the information they learn into practice and build to the next step,” Suer said. “Along with utilizing knowledge from sixth grade, students are preparing for our next chapter and beginning to ask why jovian planets, like Jupiter and Saturn, need to be farther away from the sun than terrestrial planets, such as Earth.”

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the different jars, to stand for the “cause” they would examine. Necessary and Knecht asked students to hypothesize what they believed would happen when they checked their celery the following Monday. To the students’ amazement, the celery and flowers changed the color of the food dye in their containers!

Students were divided into pairs, each with one of their palms painted a primary color. The pairs would join hands and create their brand-new secondary color. Students erupted with ecstatic laughter after they discovered their new color. Yay orange!

SIX GRADERS ANALYZE CELLS

In September, sixth graders in science teacher Jennifer Licata’s class began using microscopes to analyze and understand the complexity of cells. Students learned about using magnification and adjustment to find their specimens at close range. “We are learning about cells and trying to get experience seeing what they look like since there are so many different kinds!” Licata said. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

CHINESE CLASSES CELEBRATE MID-AUTUMN FESTIVAL

DRAMA OF PHOTOSYNTHESIS

EXPLORING CAUSE AND EFFECT WITH FLOWERS

In October Lotspeich second graders in teacher Danielle Necessary and Cicely Knecht’s classes learned about the nature of cause and effect through a celery and flower experiment. On a Friday, students cut flower stems and placed celery into glass jars filled with water. One by one, students took turns adding food coloring to

Students in Bryce Carlson’s AP biology class dramatically performed the plays they wrote detailing the enzymatic processes of photosynthesis. One group demonstrated the cycle metaphorically with the adventures of some cookies, including Cookie Monster and an electron Uber driver. Another acted out “the challenges and tribulations of life through the microscopic realm of the cell,” where electrons fought to complete an epic journey and a lovers quarrel took place within the Calvin cycle.

PRE-KINDERGARTEN STUDENTS DISCOVER SECONDARY COLORS

In Lotspeich pre-kindergarten teacher Christian Del Vecchio’s class, students learned the magic behind secondary colors.

From making mooncakes and lanterns to creating presentations, students in Mia Wu and Nanyue Zhu’s Chinese classes learned about the Mid-Autumn Festival. The festival, which was held from Sept. 10 to 12 in China and other countries, celebrates harvest

COLLABORATION, Continued ATHLETIC ACHIEVEMENTS

during the full moon and brings together family and friends. Mooncakes are the representative food of the festival and are given to express love and best wishes. .

A STATE TITLE FOR BOYS GOLF

BESTSELLING

AUTHOR VISITS LOWER SCHOOL STUDENTS

New York Times bestselling author W. Bruce Cameron spoke with Lotspeich second through fifth graders and Doherty Unit III students at the Hillsdale Campus in November. Students learned about the process of turning books into movies, how dogs are trained to act, and finding their creative spark to write their own stories. Cameron also shared how he got started in television, and his astonishment when his surprise hit “A Dog’s Purpose,” spent seven weeks at number one on the New York Times bestsellers list and 63 weeks on the list overall. . . . . . . . . .

The boys varsity golf team won the 2022 Division III state championship. After going down on the first day of the tournament, the Stingers were able to make up 11 shots and win by 5 overall. Junior Charlie Mullin birdied on two of the three final holes, which put him in third place overall and earned him a spot on the First Team All-Ohio. .

GIRLS GOLF COMPETES AT STATE

Girls golf team

an in-conference record of 9-1. The boys varsity soccer team became the Miami Valley Conference champions after defeating Cincinnati Country Day 4-0.

For the first time in school history, a Seven Hills girls golf team competed at the state tournament. The team finished eighth overall with junior Julia Zhu shooting a combined 172 and finishing in 26th. The Stingers finished in second place at sectionals to qualify for the Division II state tournament. This is only the second season for the girls golf team.

MVC CHAMPS FOR BOYS SOCCER AND VOLLEYBALL

The varsity volleyball team was the Miami Valley Conference champions this season with

Boys varsity golf team

Boys varsity soccer

ATHLETIC ACHIEVEMENTS,

CROSS COUNTRY GOES 1, 2 AT FIRST RACE

The girls varsity and boys varsity cross country teams placed first and second, respectively, at the Cincinnati Country Day Invitational in late August. For the boys, junior Carter Stevens placed third. In the girls race, senior Annelise Hawgood finished third, sophomore Addie Necco placed fourth, and senior Abigail Li finished sixth.

GIRLS TENNIS COMPETES AT DISTRICTS

The girls varsity tennis doubles team of sophomore Charlotte Scharfenberger and senior Sohana Thompson competed at the district tournament and advanced to the second round. They defeated Summit Country Day in the sectional tournament

to take third place and qualify for districts. For the week of Oct. 10, Scharfenberger and Thompson were nominated for the Enquirer’s Top Doubles Tennis Team of he Week.

Girls Volleyball

Boys Cross Country

Boys varsity soccer

Girls Cross Country

Girls Tennis

FINE AND PERFORMING ARTS

STUDENTS SELECTED TO PLAY IN PRESTIGIOUS ENSEMBLES

Seven Hills congratulates six students for placing in the Cincinnati Symphony Youth Orchestra! Senior Owen Lutz and junior Anish Patil were selected for the CSYO Concert Orchestra and juniors Evelyn Gao, Ed Li, Julia Zhu, and sophomore Kyle Wang, were selected for the CSYO Philharmonic. Zhu was also selected to play in the Ohio Music Education Association’s southwest regional orchestra and the All-State orchestra.

FRESHMAN WINS COMPOSITION AWARD

Freshman Rhys Ceron received an Honorable Mention from the 2022 Music Teachers National Association (MTNA) Composer Competition for the State of Ohio Senior Division. Ceron was awarded second place in his age division (Honorable Mention) for a classical guitar

trio that he wrote titled “In the Canopy.” It was Ceron’s first composition outside of piano, where he composed and received several awards for solo pieces.

PROFESSIONAL ACTOR VISITS WITH THEATER STUDENTS

Eric C. Lynch visited Upper School theater teacher Marc Raia’s Advanced Acting and Directing and Theatre I classes in early September for a Q&A with students. His credits include “Black-ish,” “Chicago Med,” “Chicago P.D.,” “Black Lightening,” and many more. Lynch offered students real-life

stories, shared wisdom for staying positive in the industry, and tips on how to grow a personal network of connections. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

MIDDLE SCHOOL PRODUCTION EXPLOSION OF FUN

The Middle School production of “Shakesplosion” was a wonderful comedic feat of incredible proportions! The play follows two student bards who have the ambitious goal of performing every single one of Shakespeare’s plays. With energy, charm, excellent timing, and the largest cast and crew for a Middle School production in many years, they accomplish this incredible feat. Bravo to the cast and crew!

Students in Cincinnati Symphony Youth Orchestra

Eric C. Lynch visits Upper School Theatre I classes

The Middle School production of “Shakesplosion”

Rhys Ceron

FINE AND PERFORMING ARTS, CONTINUED

JUNIOR JOINS PROJECT NOUVEAU

Congratulations to junior Oliver Szabo for being accepted into Cincinnati Symphony Orchestras’ Project Nouveau program! The program’s goal is to help increase African American and Hispanic student participation in classical music by providing equitable access to music study and performances. Nouveau members receive weekly chamber music coaching, perform throughout the season, and participate in ageappropriate workshops and activities.

Seventh and Eighth Grade Choir Concert

Upper School Musical “Guys and Dolls”

Upper School Musical “Guys and Dolls”

Doherty Strings Performance

Oliver Szabo

Sixth Grade Choir Concert

Upper School Instrumental Concert

Doherty Kindergarten through Grade 5 Winter Program

Lotspeich Fifth Grade Musical “Summer Camp”

Doherty Pre-kindergarten Winter Program

Middle School Instrumental Concert