Friends Select students and faculty certainly didn’t let a little snow slow them down this winter. Here’s a sampling of some recent activities and accomplishments, along with kudos for their talent, energy and initiative.
Mole Street Garden Wins Award
The garden created and maintained by the After School Program (ASP) won second place in the "childrens' community garden" category at the 2010 Philadelphia Flower Show. The award, presented by the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society, was accepted on February 29 by ASP faculty members Joe Hardy, Alec McGovern, Jessica Donnelly, and Hugo deLao.
Even as the last snow was melting in March, ASP students were already at work, planting seeds and readying the beds. Plans for this year include growing food for possible donation to local food pantries.
Fiction Award
Junior Sarah Gleason was named a runner-up for the 2010 Elizabeth Bishop Prize in Fiction for her short story, “Missing Eyebrows.” The Elizabeth Bishop Prizes in Verse, Fiction and Playwriting are administered by the Walnut Hill School for the Arts in Natick, Mass. Named after Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Elizabeth Bishop, they are awarded each year to celebrate the freshest, most accomplished examples of imaginative literary craft by young writers from around the world.
“Missing Eyebrows,” started life as a class assignment in Wendy Buckingham’s 10th grade English class last year. Students were asked to write a story using stream of consciousness after reading Virginia Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway. Gleason’s story will appear this spring in the school's literary magazine, The Blue Pencil Online.
A Sneak Peek at the College List
While many seniors still await word from colleges, a number have gotten the green light already. The accepted list is varied and comprehensive, ranging from small liberal arts colleges to large research universities, with everything in between. The complete list of acceptances will be posted on the school’s Web site later this spring. To see the list as of mid-March, click here.
Viva la Différence
Why do boys and girls learn differently? What can teachers do to promote learning for both genders? These are two of the seminal questions that Friends Select middle school English teacher Dianna Newton will explore at a workshop later this month, along with her co-presenter, Dr. Jo Ann Cohen, learning specialist at LaSalle College High School. The duo will explain the gender differences in the brains of girls and boys and provide specific, proven teaching strategies that help students overcome biological differences and thrive in the classroom.
The workshop, designed for teachers, but open to the public, will be presented by the Pennsylvania Association of Independent Schools (PAIS) on Wednesday, April 14, 3:30 – 5:00 p.m., at LaSalle College High School in Wyndmoor, Pa. More information is available
here.
Upper School Legal Eagles
Friends Select’s Mock Trial Team made it to the third round of a competition organized by Temple University Beasley School of Law and the Young Lawyers Division of the Philadelphia Bar Association. The annual contest, called the John S. Bradford High School Mock Trial Competition, pits teams of high school students playing the roles of lawyers and witnesses against one another in simulated trials. Approximately 50 Philadelphia public, private, charter and parochial high school teams enter each year.
Friends Select’s team won the first round on January 30, by defending its client against third degree murder charges and gaining acquittal. “The winning defense team was led by senior captain Melanie Young, with fantastic performances by freshmen Alex Aaron and Sam Gerson, sophomore Alina Drufovka, juniors Maddy Barton and Maham Zahra, and senior Emerson Hawkins,” said faculty advisor Brian Kors, upper school history teacher and the team’s coach. Though the team actually lost in the second round, it was a very close score, and the team earned enough total points to advance to the third round before being eliminated.
The Mock Trial Team has nearly 20 students, although only up to eight students compete for each side in all trials. In addition to the students named above, the team also includes freshmen Ian DiMedio, Magnus Deppe, Peter McCurry and Henry Russell; sophomores Ben Behrend, Michael Gomella, Nate Levin, and Jonah Rosen; and juniors Mariah Burke and Darien Headen.
Bravo, Jenny!
Freshman Jung Min (Jenny) Choi was one of three finalists in the Philadelphia Orchestra’s Albert M. Greenfield Student Competition, dedicated to fostering and recognizing extraordinary young talent in the Greater Philadelphia region.
The annual competition is open to area instrumentalists, pianists and vocalists. The young musicians, divided into four categories by age, compete against a standard of excellence, not each other, and are evaluated on the following merits: exceptional talent, virtuosity, artistic individuality and projection as a performer.
Since the orchestra’s first student concerto competition, initiated by Leopold Stokowski in 1933, more than 400 young artists have appeared as competition winners with the Philadelphia Orchestra.
Mega Math WeekendFive upper school students spent 14 consecutive hours in March participating in the Moody’s Mega Math Challenge (or “M3”), sponsored by a charitable organization associated with Moody’s Corporation. The goal of the aptly named, entirely Internet-based competition (as described on its Web site) is to “spotlight applied mathematics as a powerful problem-solving tool, as a viable and exciting profession, and as a vital contributor to advances in an increasingly technical society.”
On Saturday, March 6, the students (seniors Haydn Dufrene, Jennifer Shen, Claire Cocroft and Morgan Williams, and junior Min-hee Lee) downloaded the problem at 7 a.m., worked furiously for 14 hours and uploaded their solutions at 9 p.m. They were permitted to use any free and publicly available resources, but they could not discuss any aspect of the problem with, or seek help from, their coach (upper school math teacher Rufus Frazer) or anyone other than their teammates.
Each year, the M3 Challenge involves an open-ended, realistic, applied math-modeling problem focused on a real-world issue. This year, the three-part problem focused on the U.S. Census:
1. Should the census figures be adjusted for the undercount in 2000? If so, how?
2. What method should Congress select for apportioning the House of Representatives?
3. How should states ensure that Congressional districts are fairly drawn?
Min-hee Lee shared her impressions of the day:
"We collaborated well during the entire day. We had originally thought we could finish up earlier, but it took much longer than expected. We had to really rush through during the last few hours. I wish we had had more time to elaborately write up and organize our thoughts. It was exhausting, since we spent the whole day working on the problem, and exhilarating when we submitted our final 12-page paper at exactly 9 p.m."
This was the first year Friends Select has competed in the challenge. Results will be announced later this month.
Gallery Show Features Very Young Artist
First grader Lewis S. recently exhibited his drawings and sculpture at
Art Star, a gallery in Northern Liberties, where he lives. The show, titled
Sea Monsters of Death, opened with a reception on the First Friday open gallery night in February.
Lewis was inspired to produce his body of work by an exhibit at the gallery called
Sea Party. With the cooperation of the gallery owners, he sold prints of his drawings and donated the proceeds to a scholarship fund at
NLARTS, a non-profit community organization that offers weekend and summer art workshops for children. To date, he has raised almost $200 for the arts program, the first-ever donation by a child.
Diplomats in Training?
Seniors Ben Chernoff and Jeremy Schmidt represented the school’s Model U.N. Club at a conference sponsored by the World Affairs Council on March 9 at the Temple University Fox School of Business. They were selected to participate out of a highly competitive pool of candidates from public and private schools across the Delaware Valley.
Chernoff chaired the committee on illicit trafficking of small arms; Schmidt was asked to report on violence against women. Both positions required attendance at multiple pre-conference sessions, in addition to outside research and preparation. Chernoff and Schmidt, the U.N. Club’s president and vice president, respectively, have represented Friends Select in leadership positions at Model Senate and United Nations simulations for the past two years.