377: Dimensions

377 T H E M A G A Z I N E F O R S T. L U K E ’ S S C H O O L

Dimensions

Welcome to 377 The Magazine for St. Luke’s School. Our mission is to bring you new perspectives on life and learning on the Hilltop—through the lens of a particular topic. In this issue we celebrate dimensions. The indicates that you can find out more about that specific story online.

You’re walking through your house, down a familiar hallway when suddenly you discover a brand new room, one you have never seen before. This leads to another room and another. You had no idea your house was so full of secrets.

Have you ever had this dream? It’s a common one—right up there with showing up at a test you forgot to study for, or finding yourself on stage without knowing any lines.

Dream interpreters say that the undiscovered rooms in your house symbolize other dimensions of your creative self that you may or may not be exploring.

Our St. Luke’s “house” is full of undiscovered rooms and secret doorways. So many members of our community have other dimensions to their identities—there is more to them than meets the eye.

There are entrepreneurs, firefighting students, makeup artists and figure skaters.

You might have seen them on the Hilltop, over the salad bar or at assembly... and were never the wiser.

We may look and act (most of the time) like heads of school, teachers, students, friends, lacrosse players—but we are more than we seem. Let’s find out more about the dimensions in all our lives, starting with this edition of 377.

Mark Davis, Head of School

1

Chanchali, India, is half a world away from New Canaan in more ways than one. Water is pumped from the ground by hand, women churn yogurt into butter, and education often takes a back seat. Shiksha Vikas Vidyalaya (SVV) is a free afterschool program founded by SLS parent Vinay Singh who recently constructed a building for the program.

“In rural schools, kids don’t learn English until they reach middle school,” Sanchali Singh ‘15 says. “My dad didn't want the village kids to have this disadvantage.”

Last summer, Sanchali taught at SVV. “The children absolutely loved each task, which made me want to teach them even more. They aren’t fluent in English, and I barely know a lick of Hindi, so communicating was fun but difficult.” She returned to SLS and started a pen-pal program for Upper School students to communicate with the Chanchali kids. “The letters take really long to circulate, but SLS students love it!”

2

“If you ask students what it means to pay attention,” says math teacher Elaine Greene, “they don’t really know. To help them understand, I became aware of mindfulness, being in the present moment.”

After discovering Zentangle, “a meditative form of drawing patterns resulting in beautiful pictures,” she thought it might offer a path to mindfulness for her young scholars.

“Mindfulness practices help students settle and center, sharpen awareness and reduce stress,” she says. “The mind is a muscle and can be trained to perform better.”

In the classroom, especially geometry, she “guides students through the Zentangle process. It is a quiet, focused activity that helps one pay attention to every stroke, drawing slowly, feeling the pen on the paper and becoming totally involved in the doing.

They love it and ask for more.”

This is just one of many paths to mindfulness, according to Elaine, which she believes can play a role in relieving student stress.

3

A massive wildfire near Ketchum, Idaho, where her family was vacationing exposed Emma Powless ’16 to thousands of hotshot firefighters who flew in from across the country to contain it.

“I had the unique opportunity to stop and talk with a few of them,” she says. “I thought it sounded like the coolest job and was immediately inspired to volunteer with the Darien Fire Department.”

Emma says, “I love the adrenaline rush that starts as soon as my pager goes off and doesn’t subside until an hour or two after we return from a call. It is such a rewarding experience because I’m doing things I never would’ve imagined, like cutting the roof off of a car or putting out a car fire on I-95 or performing a search and rescue to find victims in a fire.”

Firefighting, Emma believes, is in her future. “I love it way too much to give it up.”

4

Going from American Civics teacher to Director of Safety and Security was not Troy Haynie’s ‘85 original career plan—but that’s just what he did. Haynie has worked as a St. Luke’s teacher, dean, and admissions director, but it was another dimension of his life that led him to this new leadership role. For 22 years, Haynie has been an Emergency Medical Technician in New Canaan.

“Doing service work and being connected to my community is something I’ve done since I was a student at St. Luke’s,” says Haynie. “Integrating those skills into my work life was a natural fit.”

5

“Design thinking is very intelligent.

I had not thought about solving problems from the angle of what people need and care about. I think it’s how things should be done.”

–Jenna Froland ‘15

Michael Mitchell returned from Stanford’s Design Thinking Bootcamp with 3 goals:

1.

Practice design thinking daily

2.

Bring design-thinking experiences to students and faculty

3.

Work with the Center for Leadership to launch St. Luke’s designLab.

Check, check and...check. Since his July Bootcamp experience, Mitchell has indeed practiced and is now preaching. Groups of trustees, students and faculty have undergone design-thinking training and St. Luke’s designLab launched in April 2015.

“It’s about more than just the answer.

It’s about the progress you make and the path you take.”

–Tyler Klein ‘15

Welcome to St. Luke’s designLab...

A Curriculum Reimagined Experimentation is central to the designLab ethos. As newly appointed designLab Director Mitchell says, “we want to offer the time, place and inspiration to design a better way.” This includes new approaches to traditional curriculum.

Mechanical and Electrical Design and Robotics classes—now under the designLab umbrella—will be portfolio-based. Rather than moving forward through material based on a class schedule, individual students progress at their own pace as content is mastered. Students also collaborate with the teacher on grades, asserting and defending their positions.

“This approach is a first for St. Luke’s,” said Center for Leadership Director Jim Foley.

“We piloted the program in select classes this year.The experience has reinforced our belief in the portfolio model's capacity to deeply enhance proficiency and develop problem-solving skills.”

“It’s about mastering material, making progress and improving design,” explains senior Tyler Klein. “Rather than memorizing materials given to you, or using research that’s already been done, you’re kind of paving a path for yourself.”

“It reminds me of art classes I’ve taken,” adds junior Paige Ballard. “You have to be your own critic and that can be difficult.

It’s a new concept to have someone ask you what you think you deserve.” Senior Jay Van Elslander agrees: “It’s kind of cool.

In another class if you get a B, and you think you deserve an A, you can’t really change that. But in engineering you can defend your grade.”

“This approach really gives you a chance to structure your own creative process,” according to senior Christian Kennedy. “The fact that the only deadline is ‘get this done by x date’ leaves an entire world of possibilities open for trying things, brainstorming, prototyping...or whatever.”

A Space for Experimentation… designLab leverages spaces throughout the school which foster creativity and collaboration. These encompass advanced rapid prototyping areas (“FabLab”) equipped with 3D printers and a laser cutter, as well as flexible environments with plenty of white board space and Post-it Notes for brainstorming—a critical step in idea generation and problem solving.

Philanthropic support would help us expand the FabLab.This would create more space and opportunity for tinkering, building, experimenting and hands-on learning.

“Ideas can happen anywhere,” says Mitchell. “But having a space to experiment and create prototypes puts us leaps ahead in what we can teach.”

Home of Design Thinking Design thinking permeates all areas of the designLab. A creative problem-solving process, design thinking can be applied to any field of study, any line of business, anywhere an unmet need exists. It’s a mindset and an actionable skill.

The design-thinking process starts with empathy, a central focus of its pedagogy. In keeping with St. Luke’s mission and motto, designLab projects will reflect a service-oriented influence. This altruistic focus is captured in designLab’s motto: Make it Better.

“Our engineering students already created prototypes of toys to help Middle School teachers convey difficult math concepts,” explained Mitchell. “And this summer we’d like to bring our FabLab capabilities to Waterside and Inspirica. We want to share our good fortune and what we’ve learned with kids who may not have access to such amazing equipment.”

Participating in one of St. Luke’s three Scholars programs pushes most students’ academic boundaries. Which makes one wonder why Casey Zhu ’15 chose to become both a STEM and Global Scholar.

“I was really curious about the possibilities for research beyond the traditional class setting,” he says. “After I realized I was on track to meet requirements for both programs, I decided to take on two projects.”

Casey’s fields of study touch on different parts of his background and passions. His Global topic, China’s One Child Policy: Past, Present, and Future, has great personal relevance: “All of my cousins are only children, and it is still a very controversial issue and has caused major population concerns.”

His STEM studies, Quantum Computational Chemistry: Theory and Practice, on the other hand, speak to a fierce intellectual curiosity about chemistry. Casey partnered with Andrew Laub ’15 intent on a chemistry-related theme. “After Mr. Lebris mentioned computational chemistry, our project took off.”

Casey is also a runner, plays the clarinet, and was a founder of St. Luke’s math team. “Over the years I have learned to better use my time. It has been a challenge, but at the same time it is extremely rewarding.”

8

While many sixth-grade girls dream of becoming an Olympic figure skater, it could be a reality someday for St. Luke’s student Emilia Murdock. In January, she won the silver medal in the juvenile girls division at the 2015 U.S. Figure Skating Championships.

Emilia, who began skating when she learned to walk, is a dedicated young person with big aspirations. “Skating has taught me how to work hard and use my time wisely,” she says. “I wake up every day at 3:45am, and I skate with my coaches Marylynn Gelderman and Inese Bucevica from 5:30 to 8:00am. Then I do thirty minutes of off-ice training. On Sundays I skate with coach Timothy Goebel.”

Goebel won the bronze medal at the 2002 Olympics.

“My main goal is to go to the 2021 Olympics and the 2020 World Championships,” Emilia says. “But my goal for this year is to make it back to Nationals in the intermediate division.”

9

During the school year math teacher Corey Gammill loves teaching and coaching. But come summer, he makes a beeline for Nantucket, where he runs Bill Fisher Tackle and Bill Fisher Outfitters, one of the island’s largest guide operations.

“My older brothers were in the fishing business and my favorite teacher from middle school was a guide,” he says. After high school, he found work as a mate and years later his beloved teacher hired him. “It was a dream to work for my role model and to run boats rather than help on them.”

In 2004, Corey and three friends bought Bill Fisher Tackle, an island icon. “Buying it was surreal. I was establishing a place for myself in the Nantucket fishing world.”

Does he ever wish he had summers off? Never. Despite working seven days a week that start before dawn, he loves it. “When I am not on the water or in the shop during the day, I feel a bit lost.”

10

She’s known around St. Luke’s as “the makeup girl” and for good reason. At 13, St. Luke’s eighth grader Lila Childs is an experienced makeup artist whose craft has been put to the test on the stage at SLS as well as on the sets of professional modeling shoots.

“After I realized that makeup artistry was something I enjoyed, I practiced everyday after school and on the weekends,” she says.

“I watched YouTube videos and looked at anything for inspiration, then I experimented with different looks and techniques.” Lila says her Instagram account, with nearly 1,400 followers, has taken her artistry to the next level. “It forces me to practice even more.”

When asked about her future prospects, she says she dreams of winning an Oscar. “I don't think I could tell you exactly what I’d want to do, but I know that makeup is as much a part of me as my laugh in some ways.”

11

Virginia Mahoney ’16 ignited a movement at St. Luke’s and hopes it will catch fire across the country and around the world. It’s based on a simple premise: be kind.

“My family founded the B kind Foundation in honor of my father in hopes of carrying on his legacy to always be kind to others,” says Virginia, whose dad Bill died of pancreatic cancer.

“I hope that St. Luke’s B kind Club inspires us to make the community a better place through any gesture of kindness,” she says. “Hopefully, we can motivate other schools to embrace this message as well.”

St. Luke’s B kind Club took its cause to the White House and asked the U.S. government to officially recognize World Kindness Day. “Unfortunately, we did not meet the signature requirements by the deadline,” she says, “but we are definitely going to try again next year!”

12

It’s been two years since the Mahoney family, and the St. Luke’s community, suffered the loss of Bill Mahoney—St. Luke’s parent, trustee, and friend to all.

Through the B kind Club and countless other acts of service and altruism, we continue to celebrate Bill’s greatest gift: his enduring kindness.

This fall, thanks to a generous donor, St. Luke’s unveiled “Be Kind” Plaza located at the School’s entrance. A simple stone sits in the plaza reminding all who enter what matters most. It is inscribed with this quote from Henry James: “Three things in human life are important: the first is to be kind; the second is to be kind; and the third is to be kind.”

Senior Clay Kontulis was just named the second recipient of the annual Be Kind Award. Clay met the following criteria: The Be Kind Award will be given to a graduating senior who has actively practiced kindness and radiates good cheer. Through frequent acts of kindness and a contagiously generous disposition, the awardee makes people feel good about themselves, generates a spirit of inclusion, and inspires others to “pass it on.”

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377 North Wilton Road New Canaan, CT 06840 www.stlukesct.org

Cover art by Caitlyn Conetta ’17 See more student art: www.stlukesct.org/arts/visual

Let us know what you think at communications@stlukesct.org.

377 Editor: Nancy Troeger Photography Director: DesirĂŠe Smock Contributing Writer: Valerie Parker Design: Peapod Design 5/2015/#9/Dimensions