Wonder Magazine, Spring 2024

The Sky’s the Limit

This issue of Wonder is our “sky’s the limit” issue, bookended by an article about rocketry and another about outer space. In both these stories, and throughout the magazine, you’ll see common threads of aspiration, effort, and joy.

You’ll read about an expansion of the Engineering Event and about the experiences of a NASA ambassador. You’ll learn of one family’s quest for better healthcare and what inspired three wonderful teachers, retiring this year. This issue is full of people who believe in stretching themselves to meet high goals.

Seattle Country Day School continues to stretch, too. This spring, we hired a full-time teacher for Lower School science. Next year, we plan to pilot block scheduling in the Intermediate School, so that students can dive deeper into their subjects. And in the Middle School, we’re reorganizing the science curriculum, introducing full years of chemistry and physics.

At SCDS, we remain committed to helping young people grow and explore — to pushing the boundaries of what they know and believe — and we remain committed to growing and exploring right along with them.

WONDER

Seattle Country Day School’s Magazine Spring 2024

Kimberly A. Zaidberg Head of School

Head of School

Kimberly A. Zaidberg President, Board of Trustees

Ryan Schofield

Parent & Guardian

Council President

Jessica Zen

DEDICATED TO DIVERSITY, EQUITY, INCLUSION

SCDS actively seeks to increase the breadth of diversity and inclusion in our entire community: the gifted children at the center of a dynamic learning process, their families, and our faculty, staff, and Board of Trustees. We aspire to include a wide variety of backgrounds and perspectives; to foster a deeper understanding and appreciation of differences; and to cultivate diverse thinking essential for creative problem-solving.

We recognize that diversity encompasses all socioeconomic, ethnic, racial and cultural backgrounds, family structures, gender and sexual identifications, and religious communities. In the spirit of true inquiry, we embrace this journey as an essential learning opportunity.

Editor

Delia Ward (deliaward@seattlecountryday.org)

Design/Production

Christa Fleming Design

Photography

Libby Lewis Photography

SCDS Photographers

Printing

AAA Printing

Thank You

To the many people in the SCDS community who contributed to this issue

This magazine was produced with recycled, FSC-certified paper.

We affirm our belief that increasing and sustaining diversity and inclusiveness helps us to fulfill our mission of inspiring gifted children to reach their potential through inquiry, curiosity, and wonder. In support of our mission, we believe in continually examining all aspects of our school, including our curriculum, hiring practices, admissions procedures, communications, outreach, and professional development.

We pledge to attract, embrace, and support a diverse community; to foster an environment of authenticity and inclusion; to empower compassionate problem-solvers and risk-takers; and to inspire one another to better the world for all.

Alumna

Teacher Preston Hervey learns

Anticipation

As a parent, I know that children are adaptable to change. One of the things I like about SCDS is that the school helps them become even more adaptable. That’s what inquirybased teaching is all about: asking questions, staying open to ideas, and being willing to grow and change.

The next school year holds many exciting changes for SCDS. We’ll have two new division heads who will bring new ideas and fresh perspectives to campus. The school, as Kim indicates in her note, is making thoughtful changes to classes and curriculum.

To me, change is opportunity. As board president, I’ve been speaking with Kim about these opportunities for some time. I am excited to meet our new division heads in person, and eager to see how our students adapt to new classes and curriculum. I can’t wait for next year!

Combining

Ryan Schofield President, SCDS Board of Trustees

commitment to non-discrimination. The school does not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, creed, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, national or ethnic origin, disability, or other legally protected status in the administration of its hiring policies, employment practices, educational policies, admissions policies, financial aid and loan programs, or athletic, extracurricular, or other school-administered programs.

Reimagining a beloved school tradition

It’s a foggy morning at 60 Acres Park in Redmond, Washington, and the ground is muddy from the November rain. Middle-schoolers mill around with clipboards; a few students are being interviewed by peers with microphones. Parents put posters up on the chain link fence, and there’s a persistent hum from the drones circling above the proceedings.

By the time that sixth- and seventhgrade science teacher Christian Hagenlocher takes up the mic, the sun has mostly banished the fog. He welcomes everyone to the

event — the Middle School Engineering Event — and explains how the morning is organized. Then he says something unexpected.

“Today is not the end point,” says Christian. “Just one data point.” A few minutes later, the students’ rockets begin to fly, with a rapt audience cheering their ascent.

The end is the middle

We’re accustomed to thinking of events as conclusions: Musicians practice new pieces, then hold concerts; by the end of a basketball game, one team has lost and the other has won.

The Middle School Engineering Event, while building upon the strengths of the school’s original, Grades 3–5 Engineering Event, is constructed a bit differently. “For the older grades, the ‘final’ product is not the end,” explains eighth-grade science teacher Jasmine Baker. “You’re still making observations, you’re collecting data, and you’re still in the engineering design process.”

What were SCDS students studying? Rockets, engines, fuel mixes, and flying. They’d spent the weeks leading up to the Middle School Engineering Event constructing rockets, studying biomimicry, and — as seventh-grader

Olivia P. could tell you — running chemistry experiments.

Team chemistry

Olivia doesn’t hesitate when asked about the best part of the Middle School Engineering Event. It was those moments where, with teammates Alexa P. and Ayla S., she experimented with rocket fuel composition.

“The most exciting part was when I was able to test the different mixtures of sugar with my friends and we could watch them ignite in the courtyard,” Olivia says.

She had her doubts, though, about working on a team. Olivia and her peers were accustomed to SCDS’s Grades 3–5 Engineering Event, where each student makes their own engineered object, often referred to as a rig. In changing the event this year for the older

students — in making the projects team-based, and in moving away from one rig per child — Jasmine and Christian knew the event would operate quite differently. They also thought that the middle-school students were ready for it.

“We’re trying to bring a systemsbased approach to science at SCDS, so it seemed natural to take a teambuilding approach to the Middle School Engineering Event,” says Christian. “It reflects how professional engineering and design teams work. There are a lot of team interactions, and everybody has a stake and a piece of responsibility for the success of the larger group.”

A new focus

The Engineering Event is a timeintensive project, and in re-thinking it for SCDS’s older students, the science team was responding to Seattle Country Day School’s new direction in science education.

“We’re trying to bring a systemsbased approach to science at SCDS, so it seemed natural to take a team-building approach to the Middle School Engineering Event.”

—Christian Hagenlocher, science teacher

“We want to give middle-school students an area of scientific focus in each grade,” explains Head of School Kimberly A. Zaidberg. “In sixth grade, students will have a yearlong course in physics, seventhgraders will be taught chemistry, and, in eighth grade, students will continue to study biology.”

Jasmine notes that these new priority areas were key in determining what students would do during the Middle School Engineering Event. Students in grade 6, focusing on physics, would build rockets and parachutes that provided opportunity for hands-on modification. Olivia and her seventh-grade peers would extend their learning in chemistry by experimenting with rocket fuel for the engines. Biology-focused eighthgraders would study flying/gliding animals and biomimicry.

Then there were multiple teams that students could join. Each grade had a building team, a design team, and a safety team, among others. There were also media teams and project managers.

“We were all at different places,” says Olivia about the teams. “But it became really fun when we were able to test with the other class and watch the rockets go up together.”

A hive of activity

On any given day in October or early November, you would have found middle-schoolers testing straw rocket launchers in the hallway, burning sugar-fuel in the courtyard, or printing rocket fins with the 3D printer. Teams intermingled to ask questions and consider solutions. It was a hive of activity and learning for the students — and for the teachers, too.

“I saw a lot of questions come up. As an inquiry-based school, that is the ultimate positive thing,” says Christian. “Students asked 100 questions for every five I asked.”

The event also gave students the opportunity to take initiative. Jasmine recalls one eighth-grade team that took on a 3D printing project to help them standardize their straw rocket launch results. “There are all sorts of other avenues that can get involved in the project and really enrich the experience,” she says.

The other thing that enriched the experience? Other teachers, including the middle-school tech instructors. Neal Barbour taught students how to use drones to capture the event on film, for instance, while Preston Hervey helped students print rocket nose cones and fins.

Jasmine and Christian were also making preparations outside the classroom. In addition to planning the event, they ensured its safety by making an extra trip to 60 Acres Park.

“We pre-launched some of their rockets to test them,” says Christian. “We wanted to be sure that students would be safe being 500 feet away from a rocket that travels 1,000 feet in a few seconds.”

“The most exciting part was when I was able to test the different mixtures of sugar with my friends and we could watch them ignite in the courtyard.”

—Olivia

P., grade 7

5, 4, 3, 2, 1…1, 2, 3, 4, 5

At 60 Acres Park on launch day, the first sixth-grade rocket rises with a great hiss. The members of the crowd crane their heads, watching the contrail rise and peter out. Suddenly, a red-and-white parachute blooms. As the rocket floats down, a few children dart out to retrieve it.

“Notice that the parachute got singed,” says Jasmine, holding it up to the crowd.

Noticing is the students’ job today. Middle-schoolers are collecting data and logging observations that will prove useful as they continue to consider such topics as calculating speed and acceleration, the effect of a parachute upon a falling rocket,

and whether rockets can be modified to glide back down to the ground. As Christian and Jasmine note, the event doesn’t mark the end of various engineering projects. Rather, it marks the middle.

Now it’s time for the second rocket launch. “Five, four, three, two, one!,” the crowd shouts expectantly. Then the second rocket fizzles where it stands. “We’re going to troubleshoot and get a new fuse,” announces Jasmine.

Since its founding by Midge Olson (aka Doc O) many years ago, SCDS’s Engineering Event has been used, in part, to teach students about the

benefits of perseverance. About troubleshooting when things go wrong. About re-thinking, tinkering, and improving.

Perseverance remains a core value in this new Middle School Engineering Event, too. When seventh-grade Olivia was asked what advice she’d give to younger students about engineering, she had a ready reply.

“I think the number-one thing I would say is to have patience and believe in the process,” Olivia says. “Also, trust the trial and error that it will take, because you probably won’t get it right the first time.”

Photos: Libby Lewis Photography

NEVER GIVE UP

An SCDS family makes the case for health legislation

“Can you hear me? Can you do your job like this? How do you expect us to go to school and live like this?”

—Hugo, grade 3

When SCDS student Hugo (now in grade 3) was at the podium in front of the Washington State Appropriations Committee last year, he asked legislators to stick their fingers in their ears. Obligingly, they did. Then, says Jill Bujnevicie, her son moved the microphone away from his mouth to be sure the adults couldn’t hear him.

“He said, ‘Can you hear me? Can you do your job like this? How do you expect us to go to school and live like this?’” says Jill.

It was convincing testimony. Afterward, legislators passed a law requiring private insurers to cover hearing aid-related expenses, an expense they had not previously been required to cover.

The road to the law’s passage, however, had started several years

before: with Hugo’s diagnosis, at 3, with hearing loss — and with his parents’ realization that there was a gap in medical coverage.

“I was shocked that something so necessary to a child’s development was so completely ignored by our healthcare system,” says Jill, a physician assistant.

“Glasses are covered,” adds Hugo.

Pieter Esterhay, Hugo’s dad and an emergency medicine physician, also weighs in. “We were just flabbergasted. You pay for insurance, and you expect your insurance to cover those things that are medically necessary,” he says.

Although Hugo’s parents could afford to pay for his hearing aids, they felt a call to help people who couldn’t afford the devices. Jill began approaching strangers in Seattle and legislators at the Capitol to ask them if they’d heard

“It

was really exciting because we finally accomplished what we wanted to do. I was working on this since I was four.

Since I was four: half of my life.”

—Hugo, grade 3

about the insurance loophole. “They’d be like, ‘No, I didn’t. But I know this person. Do you want their number?’” Jill says. “It’s all about developing relationships and connecting with people and being persistent, and the need making sense.”

The need for hearing aid coverage made a great deal of sense to Emily Wicks, an ally in the Washington State House who used hearing aids. When Rep. Wicks didn’t seek re-election, however, Jill turned to Rep. Tina

Orwall, MSW, who sponsored the bill. “Jill was so warm, and she was so kind. I knew after our first conversation that this was something I wanted to work on with her,” says Rep. Orwall.

Passing a bill takes time, patience, and collaboration; there are many stages and hurdles. Jill worked closely with organizations such as Washington State Hands & Voices and the Washington Center for Deaf and Hard of Hearing Youth. With doctors and audiologists. With the Office of the Insurance Commissioner, which ran the numbers on health benefits and costs. And with children like Hugo, who, in testifying, were able to convince the legislators.

Hugo notes that he was well-prepared to lobby for his cause. “I practiced a ton,” he says.

In May 2023, Hugo and his brother, Enzo (grade 5), and his parents were invited to watch Governor Inslee sign HB 1222 into law. The law, which requires insurance companies to cover up to $6,000 in hearing aid expenses, went into effect in January 2024.

“It was really exciting because we finally accomplished what we wanted to do,” says Hugo. “I was working on this since I was four. Since I was four: half of my life.” It was an exciting day for Jill, too, who hadn’t been sure their efforts would work.

“Never give —” prompts Hugo. “Never give up,” his mom finishes. “I’m just so happy that we were successful.”

Postscript: In March, Hugo, Jill, and Rep. Orwall were recognized by the Hearing Loss Association of America, Washington State Association. Hugo received the Young Advocate Rising Star Award, Jill received the Impact Award, and Rep. Orwall received the Legislative Impact Award.

YOUR VOICE USING

Rep. Tina Orwall, MSW (33rd District) on sponsoring HB 1222

Passing legislation isn’t easy. What did Hugo and Jill get right? I can drop the perfect bill, but it’s really the stories. It’s people’s stories that move legislation. When Hugo and all of his friends and Jill were there, it opened the hearts of all my colleagues, and there were tears. Hugo and Jill really just helped people understand why this was a top priority and why we had to take action right away. Your voice makes a difference.

Final words? When I saw Hugo and his friends testify, it just gave me hope, because these are our future leaders. They’re going to be sitting in my chair one day. Being engaged at such an early age, I think, is just so powerful. So I felt just a moment of joy and pride to be part of that.

Family photos: Libby Lewis Photography

WILDCAT TERRITORY

A quick glimpse of the past few months, featuring various SCDS Wildcats

OUR DISTINGUISHED VISITOR. Gary Locke, governor of Washington state from 1997–2005 (and the former U.S. Secretary of Commerce and former ambassador to China) gave a popular talk to middle-schoolers during Washington’s Chinese American/Americans of Chinese Descent History Month in January.

EPIC FUN. SCDS’s Parent & Guardian Council treated families to fun at GameWorks for several glorious hours in the fall. (Photo: Jessie Zhang)

SPARKLES! Behold the fashionable, talented volunteer leaders of The Future Is Bright, SCDS’s 2024 auction. (Photo: Libby Lewis Photography)

BE OUR GUEST. The Middle School musical theatre elective brought “Beauty and the Beast Jr.” to the stage this year, allowing us to visit with Belle, the Beast, Gaston, Mrs. Potts, and other old friends.

CULTURAL NIGHT. Hundreds of community members came together to enjoy and learn about multiple cultures (and to eat delicious food) at this Parent & Guardian Council-sponsored event.

A PROFOUND LEGACY. SCDS icon and science faculty Midge Olson (aka Doc O) at the Grades 3–5 Engineering Event, the inquiry-inspired, hands-on event she founded. (Photo: Libby Lewis Photography)

DOING GOOD. In honor of the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday, the Intermediate School contributed 198.5 hours of volunteer time to a variety of projects and organizations, including outdoor work at Kinnear Park. (Photo: Vickie Madriaga)

ALUMS + WINTERIM. Hosted by Alumni Council Co-Presidents Erick Matsen ’92 and Laura Matsen Ko ’96, alumni Winterim day made a triumphal return to Crystal this January. (Photo: Brian Dal Balcon)

The Magnificent

Lisa Lewis 39 years at SCDS

Just a few months ago, Lisa Lewis, Mary Lowry, and Midge Olson (aka Doc O), decided to retire. It is Seattle Country Day School’s great honor to recognize these three teachers, who dedicated much of their careers to teaching our students.

When Lisa, Mary, and Midge first arrived at SCDS, the school was much smaller — in the neighborhood of 100 children or so. Mary, now the school’s 8th-grade social studies teacher and a revered ultimate coach, remembers how children used to be grouped according to math ability, with teachers teaching multiple ages in one classroom. Lisa, our technology teacher for grades 4 and 5, was recruited by the school’s founder, Lucille Beckman. When she started, her annual budget for teaching grades K–8 was $250. And Doc O, our fourth- and fifth-grade science teacher, once taught all the math and science classes for grades 4–8. And she served as a division head for 20-plus years.

We sat down with Doc O, Mary, and Lisa to see how they approached teaching — and to convey a sense of their remarkable work and lasting legacy in the SCDS community.

Tributes from our alumni...

My brother is profoundly gifted, and he struggled in school to find a peer group. I realized then that being gifted is lonely in many ways, but it’s a deeply meaningful thing to have a community that understands you. When I came to SCDS, my colleagues and I found that, by using project-oriented learning and inquiry with gifted children, we could really broaden their intellectual interests. At first, when I was teaching all the grades, I got to see the arc of the children’s growth, which was one of the most exciting things that you can imagine. As the school got bigger, I eventually took on teaching technology to fourth- and fifth-graders; it’s a magic time, because their minds and their hearts are so open. But, of course, what I’ve taught has changed over time. In the 90s, I was teaching BASIC. Now, I’m teaching Lynx. Things are changing so fast, so you need to learn how things work, how to take on challenges. I try to make uncomfortable places for students, where they’re teetering on the border of understanding and not understanding. It’s the perfect place to have an “aha” moment, and while creating that tension is difficult, that’s my job as a teacher. I also want to create an environment where every child is involved, and when you work with different modalities, that’s a way in. If you try different things — the physical, the virtual, the literary, the visual-spatial — children become so interested that they become more willing to work, even on difficult things. When I was in school, I was often bored, and I was a good kid, so I always did exactly what I was supposed to do. I wanted to create a classroom where I could meet every kid where they were and give them engaging and interesting problems to solve. I want my students to see themselves as creative learners who enjoy trying ideas and coming to grips with challenges. I also want students to think critically: to know when to use technology, and when to put it down.

“Here I am, now working in cybersecurity, poking at computers all day…you helped develop a love of technology that has continued to motivate me nearly every day of my life.”

Mary Lowry 42 years at SCDS

I can’t say I had a calling to become a teacher, but I realized after a couple of years that I was kind of a natural. Teaching is not really about how much you know about a topic or a subject; it’s more about how you interact with people. I’ve never been afraid to just tell the kids, “Hey, I don’t know that. I’m going to go learn it, and I’ll let you know what I learn.” When you teach history and social studies, there are things the students need to know — you need to balance that idea of inquiry-based teaching with facts and reading. So, when I first came to SCDS, I went to Midge Olson [Doc O], and she worked with me in learning how to ask the right questions to elicit thoughtful answers. I also realized that the way to use inquiry in social studies was to put in some technological pieces: to look at the archaeological record, for instance, and to hit upon the things that kids were kind of naturally interested in. You also make sure that you have good projects, so that the kids can devise their own questions, then explore. What’s a popular unit? Well, I think the middle-schoolers really like my Viking Age unit because of the pop culture surrounding it. It’s really fun to pick topics apart. Once they’ve read the Norse myths, we can talk about how Marvel movies aren’t faithful to them. Or we can look at a historical image of Pocahontas and see how it differs from the Disney image. I guess I’d say I am a social-justice educator to a certain degree. I want my students to be able to look across periods of time and see trends, like the realization that the European conquest of the Americas had a certain pattern, and it always ended poorly. Most of all, maybe, I want students to graduate with an enjoyment of history. It doesn’t matter so much what precise kind of history I teach them. I want them to be able to delve into their own interests and find their own pathway through.

Doc O 49 years at SCDS

Every child reports data to the group every day. That’s one of the organizers for how I structure my classes, and it’s based on a wonderful little book by Jacob Bronowski called “Science and Human Values.” We collect data, we graph the data, and we don’t fudge the data. Bronowski would call it the habit of truth. I was raised on data by a family of engineers. Engineering has always been a lens through which I view how the world works. It’s a mindset; you want to know how things work in a nonverbal way, as opposed to only memorizing terminology. After 17 years of teaching, I became interested in spatially adept children: It seemed they were not served well by the typical group-oriented language arts program. They survive in school, but they don’t thrive; they were coming to SCDS because they weren’t happy in the normal school setting. So, I learned a whole lot about modalities of thinking — spatial and architectural kinds of thinking — hoping that, if lessons could be grounded in a different way, they might engage those students. It turns out that this method was better for the spatially adept children and, actually, for all the students. I think our study of the heart is quite meaningful for the children; it concludes with an artifact, a beautiful drawing that they make from memory, showing 50–100 parts of the heart. And students have enjoyed Z for Zorro, the study of the heating-cooling curve. My geology unit has changed because the field is progressing rapidly, so we shifted to plate tectonics, and now to our place in the galaxy and how that might correlate with global warming. Whatever the unit, I like watching the fourthand fifth-graders learn the process of science, the argumentation, the focus on the data.

“What a revelation it was to be treated, intellectually speaking, as an adult, and to have serious conversations about history, ethics, and so many other meaningful subjects in an environment where ideas were both respected and critiqued.”

“You, Doc O, not only made us prove our theories, but in doing so, we proved our own self-worth and capability in a complex world. You accepted us as we were and challenged us to be better, and we wanted to because you inspired us.”

ACCESS to the ICE

ALUMNA BELLA FRITZ ’22 AND THE CHANGING LANDSCAPE OF ICE HOCKEY

When Ivan Provorov decided not to wear a Pride Night jersey in January 2023, citing religious beliefs, the National Hockey League player ignited a controversy. He also motivated SCDS alumna Bella Fritz ’22 to write an award-winning case that would, eventually, lead to a meeting with the Seattle Kraken.

Where ethics meet ice

Bella began following ice hockey in eighth grade, when her dad — who

was keeping her company through a bout of COVID-19 — introduced her to the game. When she heard a podcast story on Ivan Provorov and the jersey controversy, Bella decided to write a case about the issues at play for the 2023 National High School Ethics Bowl competition.

“The league couldn’t do anything about [his decision] because their players’ association had a clause on freedom of speech and freedom of

expression,” says Bella. “So, in the case, I discussed the tension between player beliefs and franchise values.” Her case went on to tie for second place in the bowl, a fact that SCDS celebrated over social media. Alumni parent Winston Yeung — a recreational ice hockey player and a proponent of DEI — pricked up his ears.

“I interact fairly often with the One Roof Foundation [the Kraken’s philanthropic arm]. Hockey is primarily white and historically pretty maledominated, and they’re doing a lot of work to try to raise people of color and girls and women in the sport,” says Winston. “When I saw the posting, it was like an immediate connection. I thought, ‘We’ve got to make something happen here.’”

And he did, reaching out to connect Bella with Kraken personnel. Bella was excited to meet her local heroes and to discuss the ethics of inclusion, for all players and audience members, at ice hockey games.

“I’ve always felt that everybody should be treated with equity,” she says. “There was a lot of emphasis on diversity at SCDS and making sure that everybody feels comfortable and included.”

At Kraken headquarters

Who is ice hockey for? It’s a question Kraken personnel consider on a regular basis.

“We do a lot of thinking around what it looks like to grow our fan base and the population changes in King County and our wider region in the next 20-plus years. This is a driver in our efforts to build an inclusive hockey community,” says Naomi Woolfenden, the Kraken’s DEI specialist. “Everyone should have the opportunity to take part in this amazing game, whether as a player, coach, fan, or on the business side. And our organization and the sport will be better for it.”

“I’ve always felt that everybody should be treated with equity.”

—Bella Fritz ‘22

When Winston reached out to Naomi to see if she’d be willing to talk to Bella, Naomi (and her colleague Justin Rogers, assistant athletic trainer and DEI Council member at the Kraken) were very interested to meet the SCDS alumna.

The three talked about the jersey incident, the subject of Bella’s case. They also discussed the NHL’s DEI initiatives and inclusion and fan development within the league. “What does positive change look like in hockey moving forward?” Naomi asks. “All three of us come from a place where we want to see the culture grow and expand.”

Aiming for the goal

If Bella were an NHL team manager — and she would like to be — she’d prioritize recruiting a solid roster of players and creating a youth outreach program. The SCDS alumna would also like her team (and the NHL, generally) to cultivate a wider audience: to be more financially inclusive, to bring in people with disabilities. To bring in more women, people of color, and members of the LGBTQIA community, just as the Kraken aim to do through programming and financial aid.

“I think it’s important that everyone has the opportunity to participate in the things they love, without exclusion,” Bella says. “Hockey should be for everyone.”

OUR GRADUATES

Seattle Country Day School would like to congratulate this year’s graduates: the Class of 2024, proceeding to high school, and the Class of 2020, attending college and pursuing other adventures. Below, we list the fine institutions they will be attending (as of publication).

Class of 2024

Bishop Blanchet High School

The Bush School

The Downtown School

Eastside Catholic School

Eastside Preparatory School

Holy Names Academy

Lakeside School

The Northwest School

The Overlake School

Phillips Academy (Andover)

Seattle Academy of Arts and Sciences (SAAS)

Seattle Preparatory School

Seattle Public Schools

University Prep

Class of 2020

This list is shorter than usual because — given the national issues with scholarship forms — a number of students had not yet made their decisions.

Boston University

Carleton University

Carnegie Mellon University

Cornell University School of Engineering (Cor nell Engineering)

Georgetown University

Gonzaga University

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Middlebury College

Montana State University

Oberlin College

Tufts University

University of California, Berkeley

The University of Chicago

University of Michigan

University of Washington

OPEN-ENDED TEACHING AND CODING

Teacher Preston Hervey learns what SCDS and MIT have in common

It’s January, and middle-schoolers are drifting, chatty and cheerful, into Preston Hervey’s animation and game design class. “All right, beautiful people,” he calls out, and they turn to the front of the room.

Today, students are going to start coding their own 3D runner game, and Preston asks the class for examples of runner games. “Subway Surfers,” one student calls out. Other students give examples, too.

Asking this type of question — one that engages students and turns a lecture into an exchange — is a skill that Preston practiced when he attended the MIT Science and Engineering Program for Teachers in summer 2023. The program, he says, changed the way he delivers information in class.

“Last year, I might’ve just told them to do XYZ in a line of code,” he says. “This year, I’ll show an example with something missing, and I’ll ask them, ‘What did I miss?’ I ask questions instead of giving them the answer.”

At MIT, Preston and his cohort — including doctors, engineers, teachers, and scientists from around the world — learned from MIT instructors and from each other. In Preston’s track, animation and game design, attendees worked together to create their own games. They collaborated on “unplugged,” noncomputer-based activities, another topic that interests Preston and inspires his teaching.

“A lot of things are automated online,” Preston says. “But if students have to think about the code and write it out, I think it allows them to get a better understanding.”

Working in a group at MIT was a rewarding process for Preston, and MIT made sure that program attendees understood the value of collaboration. “Their admissions officer told us that if students are not willing to work in groups, they are going to struggle,” Preston notes. That statement was reassuring to Preston, now in his second year of teaching at SCDS. “A lot of the things that we do here at SCDS are what they do at MIT,” he says. In other words, both schools value groupbased work, where students share perspectives and resolve differences, and inquiry-based instruction, which keeps learning open-ended.

Back in the classroom, Preston walks students through some of the features of the Unity game engine, the platform they’ll use to design their runner games. Then he sets them loose to consider next steps. Their projects will vary significantly, but everyone will have learned a lot about the thinking, iteration, and evaluation that go into coding.

“I love that about computer programming, that there’s no right answer to make a program run,” Preston says. “It’s open-ended, and it’s just the way the programmer sees it.”

Preston’s attendance at the MIT session was made possible by SCDS’s Summer Inquiry Grant program, funded by auction donors in 2022. “As lifelong learners, teachers want to continue to grow,” says Preston. “Opportunities like this grant set us apart from other schools.” Many thanks to our contributors!

Photo: Libby Lewis Photography

DESIGN FOR CHANGE

Late last year, Intermediate School teachers had a great idea: to create a link between two existing classes, Synapse and Inventors’ Quest. This year, 4th- and 5th-grade students are taking inspiration from one class to help them solve problems in another. This is how “Design for Change” worked.

Lily Medina, Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. We knew that some Inventors’ Quest students were working on inventions with social justice themes, and we started wondering. What if we linked the Design for Change project in Synapse (where students build empathy, consider fairness, and learn about societal issues), with Inventors’ Quest, where they could build solutions?

Charles. I want students to realize that they can be creative, positive, and persevering problem-solvers. And I want them to learn how to build short-term goals for these very long-term projects.

Finlay. Our idea is to put a gray water tank in your utility room. The water from the washing machine, the bathtub — you could basically send all that gray water to refill toilets. We’ll have a model of a house, and we got a small pump for $3, and we’re going to use a water bottle (or something) as a gray water tank.

Charles Janovick, Teacher, Inventors’ Quest. Our Design for Change project is a team exercise because you need multiple perspectives to pursue real-world problems. I asked teams to choose one of two basic topic areas: everyday challenges that people face, or an issue that affects local salmon. Finlay’s group (which also includes Enzo E., Grady N., and Lincoln W.) chose the fish.

Finlay R., grade 5. One issue that affects salmon is that humans use a lot of fresh water. And so salmon can’t go up the river if it’s too dry to go through. They can’t go back up to their nesting grounds to lay eggs.

Charles. After considering solutions, teams make a prototype that will create the change they’re seeking. They have to test it and gather data to see if their idea is producing the desired effect. Then they showcase their work in May.

The

“At the end of the day, the question is: How is this invention going to improve our human experience in the world?” —Charles Janovick

FEELING SEEN

WHY WE LOVE GRAPHIC NOVELS

In addition to sisterly squabbles and the challenges of middle school, Lucy and GiGi also have to contend with the loss of their father. One day, tensions come to a head, and Lucy challenges GiGi to a fencing match. That’s the premise of “Duel,” a graphic novel published in 2023. Joanne Sobieck-Lingg, our librarian, sat down to interview the book’s creators: SCDS parents Jessixa Bagley (author) and Aaron Bagley (illustrator).

Joanne. Did you create “Duel” for a specific reader?

Jessixa. Every time we do a school visit, I ask, “Raise your hand if you have a sibling. Keep your hand up if you’ve ever fought with that sibling.” And everyone puts up their hands, and then extra hands! So, any kid or adult who’s had a sister or brother.

Joanne. What was the genesis of the middle-school setting and the sibling rivalry?

Jessixa. The sisterly rivalry was definitely inspired by my relationship with my older sister, SiSi. And the whole concept of “Duel,” where it’s this back and forth between the two sisters, was an opportunity for me to explore that if you don’t get along with somebody, they actually have a side, too, and what does their side look like? Then, there are also unresolved feelings that are worth exploring in the middle-school

setting. Really, when you think back to those memories, they’re still as raw sometimes as the day they happened!

Joanne. Aaron, knowing the people the characters are based on — how did that affect your illustrations?

Aaron. Jessixa’s character is Lucy, and so I immediately knew how I was going to draw Lucy, but I didn’t keep too close with the other characters. I think the only other character in the book that really resembles someone from real life is the grandma, who is based on Jessixa’s mom.

Joanne. Traditionally, not many middle-grade books address grief. Why did you two focus on it?

Jessixa. We all experience grief or loss. That’s something that connects us all, but it’s never the exact same for everybody. And I think that marries very easily with this idea that both sisters have their own realities that they’re experiencing, right?

Aaron. Sometimes people think that grief is broken into stages of anger and denial and bargaining or whatever, but I don’t think that makes sense for everyone’s experience. Generally, we have a pretty griefavoidant culture, and it’s good to have more books about it.

Jessixa. Kids have feelings, and they need to see how complicated and messy feelings are at times. We (and our editor) also wanted to make sure that “Duel” was balanced. You don’t want to have just this sad book, because I don’t think that’s how kids experience grief and relationships. They can have a terrible morning, then everything’s fine later in the day. I think adults brood and stew more.

Joanne. What can graphic novels do that other books can’t? What’s their magic power?

Aaron. In a well-illustrated graphic novel, facial expressions go along with words, and pairing those together can really help kids to interpret social situations. We’ve also heard from librarians that kids like to read graphic novels over and over.

Joanne. They do. I think it’s because they connect better with it, that the characters become more real to them because there’s a visual element as well.

Jessixa. I think graphic novels’ superpower is that they’re this amazing marriage of text, art, and emotion. They’re also relatively new, and they’ve been blossoming over the last 10 years. More people and different kinds of people are creating them, so we’re getting different kinds of characters and seeing different kinds of experiences. So, now more kids can see themselves reflected in these books. And that reflection validates your existence, it makes you feel seen and valued. It makes you feel real.

Student art and other projects THE GALLERY

Ava, grade 5. First, students drew a realistic animal — then a stylized one. Then they made chibi figurines, such as this fox.

Renata, kindergarten. Kindergarteners and firstgraders thought about their happy places, then placed themselves in them. (This is cat and bunny land.)

Calvin, grade 2. Using oil pastels, students made designs, then translated the designs into their complementarycolor versions.

Maxine, grade 1. A delicious strawberry cake! Also a painting.

Remi, grade 8. Photograph, titled “Thing that makes people stop.” From digital photography class.

SPEEDING THE PROCESS

A major investment promotes equity and inclusion

When Chris Butcher was growing up in New Zealand, he says, there were no programs for gifted students. Even so, school administrators stepped in to provide him with academic opportunities.

“I’ve come to realize that those privileges just wouldn’t have been offered to me if I had been born into a different family,” says Chris. “If I had been of Māori descent in New Zealand, chances are very likely those doors would’ve been closed.”

Today, Chris and Cara Butcher draw a connection between Chris’s

experience and that of three of their own children: Ethan ’22, Hazel (grade 4), and Sterling (grade 2). “We’re very lucky to be able to attend SCDS, but not everybody has those same opportunities,” says Chris.

This recognition inspired the Butchers’ philanthropic investment, made in late 2022, to Seattle Country Day School’s strategic priorities: the recruitment and retention of excellent teachers, especially teachers of color, and the inclusion of families underrepresented in the school’s community (Black, Latinx, and Indigenous families, as well as families from a wide variety of

“It means so much to us that our vision for SCDS is embraced by our parents,” says Kimberly A. Zaidberg, the head of school. “The Butchers’ gift is promoting a campus that is more racially and economically diverse, one recognized by people of color as a safe, welcoming space for Brown and Black children and teachers.”

In addition to believing in the school’s priorities, Chris and Cara felt that the time was right to support DEI at SCDS. “Some of the changes that you want to make to an institution in terms of increasing inclusion and equity, it’s like a flywheel, right?,” says Chris. “You start things moving, and then you move them more quickly.” An injection of capital would, they thought, speed the flywheel.

The Butchers were right. Over the past year-and-a-half, the family’s contribution helped launch the POCIS (People of Color in Independent Schools) Seattle website, which provides resources for school employees, job-seekers, and parents of color. Just this spring, their gift kickstarted the Saturday Enrichment Program with SCDS’s public-school partner, South Shore School; the program gives highly capable students at South Shore additional opportunities for learning and growth.

In addition, the Butchers’ gift is allowing SCDS to share its Synapse curriculum — which combines socialemotional learning and DEI — with other educators nationwide. SCDS is also using the Butchers’ contribution to expand school bus routes further north and south.

“Curiosity and acceptance of the whole child is such a powerful combination at SCDS; it creates this environment where children from all backgrounds can explore and learn about themselves and about the world at the same time,” says Chris. “If our family is fortunate enough to have those opportunities, we think other people should have them, too.”

ALUMNI CLASS NOTES

Send your updates to alumni@seattlecountryday.org Entries may be edited for length or content.

After graduating from Lakeside and Columbia University, Jordan Selig ’01 spent a number of years in New York, Berlin, and Stockholm, among other cities and countries. She and her husband, Johan Strand, now live in Seattle and have two children: Noah (big brother) and London (little sister, sporting a Spider-Man costume). “2023 was a remarkable year for us both personally and professionally,” Jordan says. “As the executive vice president of our family business, Selig Real Estate, I’m proud of our completion of 400 Westlake, the largest ‘living building’ in the United States.” You can read more about this cool, green office building at 400westlake.com.

It was a tremendous year for Corbin Carroll ’15 of the Arizona Diamondbacks. Not only did he play in the World Series, but he was named National League Rookie of the Year. WOW.

Photo: Libby Lewis Photography.

To the left are two photos of Emerson (Emme) McMullen and Declan O’Neill, SCDS Class of 2015. The soccer photo was taken around 2007. As for the other photo, parent Ramona Emerson writes, “My daughter and Declan both went to SCDS for K–8, then to Lakeside (Class of 2019), and

SCDS CLASS AGENTS

SCDS celebrates its 60th anniversary next year.

Plans are under way, and we’ll keep you posted!

to Harvey Mudd College. They graduated in May 2023. Emme’s major is math, and Declan’s is engineering.”

A blast from our past! When SCDS students Kimberly and Rebecca Yeung built a spacecraft in 2015, they were only 8 and 10, respectively. The news of their escapade — in which they launched a weather balloon, equipped with a flight computer, a parachute, and two cameras — was picked up by national media and garnered them a trip to the White House. The balloon travelled to 78,000 feet, sending back scientific data and images of farmland, clouds, and, eventually, the curvature of the earth. Their dad, Winston Yeung, reports that Rebecca ’19 is now a freshman at Barnard College and a coxswain on the Columbia women’s rowing team, and Kimberly ’21 is a junior at Lakeside School.

Curious to learn more about the class agent program? Want to keep in touch with your classmates and your school? Email alumni@seattlecountryday.org to learn more.

Zach Ismail ’23

Nora Su ’23

Bree Miksovsky ’22

Matteo Montague ’22

Maddie Schofield ’21

Brady Tessin ’21

Delphine Mock ’20

Cole Pepin ’20

Kyle Cassidy ’19

Kat Lord-Krause ’19

Avi Berman ’18

Lauren White ’18

Andrew Levinger ’17

Blake Weld ’17

Nathan Burke ’16

Suzanna Graham ’16

Jane Lord-Krause ’16

Emme McMullen ’15

Hayden Ratliff ’15

Cole Graham ’14

Emmy Hunt ’14

Emma Engle ’13

Emily Jordan ’13

Katie Rodihan ’06

Devon Emily Thorsell ’05

Laurel Stewart ’01

Sam Fisher ’00

Emily Hamilton ’00

Chris Loeffler ’96

Josh Donion ’93

Amanda Carr ’92

Catherine (Burns) Humbert ’91

Sarah Leung ’90

Lisa (Narodick) Colton ’89

Carolyn Holtzen ’88

Karim Lessard ’85

Wendy McDermott ’85

Jason Froggatt ’83

Anastacia (Sims) Dillon ’81

Rachel Tillman ’79

THE NIGHT

CRYSTAL KAYA, AMBASSADOR

“Do we want our spacecraft to pop?” SCDS parent Crystal Kaya asks. She’s holding a pink balloon, pushing and pulling it to demonstrate the forces of tension and compression. The entire third grade at Seattle Country Day School, collected in the multipurpose room, yells: “No!”

Crystal visited SCDS in late October to talk to the third-graders about the Artemis mission, NASA’s quest to send humans to Mars in the 21st century. Advised by science faculty Charles Janovick, she’d geared her talk to tie in to third-graders’ unit on physical forces.

How did Crystal become knowledgeable about NASA’s goals? She translated her lifelong obsession with the cosmos into the position of NASA Solar System Ambassador.

Stars and opportunities

When Crystal was a child in Ojai, California, she and her father delighted in observing stars and watching meteor showers — in seeing light that’s been traveling for

NIGHT SKY

AMBASSADOR TO THE STARS

thousands, even millions, of years. The two travelled to planetariums and attended talks, and Crystal noticed that she was always the only girl in the audience. The speakers were male, too.

“I never once saw a woman leading any of those events,” she says. “So, frankly, it never even occurred to me that I could do it [astronomy] professionally or seriously.” Instead, Crystal studied industrial organizational psychology and women’s studies in college and relegated the study of the cosmos to a hobby, later joining the Seattle Astronomical Society (SAS) and buying her own telescope.

The Atlas Doctrine

Crystal, though, still had a craving: the desire to work or volunteer for NASA. Then she heard about NASA’s ambassador program at an SAS meeting. “I didn’t take it seriously because I don’t have a degree in astrophysics or astronomy,” Crystal says. Still, she mentioned the program in passing to her husband, Yasar, and their son, Atlas (grade 3).

A few days later, Atlas had a talk with his mom. “He said, ‘You always tell me I should follow my dreams, and I’m really disappointed that you’re making a bad choice by not following yours,’” Crystal recalls. “And I was like, ‘Yikes!’” Not long after, she applied to the program.

Today, Crystal is reveling in the role of ambassador, which allows her to learn directly from NASA scientists and to share the cosmos with adults and children, in planetariums and at schools.

Rovers and representation

Crystal begins the third-grade session at SCDS by explaining NASA’s Artemis mission, which aims to create a longterm presence on the Moon, followed by the first crewed mission to Mars. After a discussion of thrust, impact, drag, and other forces, she sends the children off on their own mission: breaking into teams and creating Mars landers out of cardboard and other materials.

Before they go, though, she makes a point of emphasizing another “first”: that Artemis will put a woman and a person of color on the Moon. When young people see adults who look like them standing on the Moon — or teaching at the planetarium — she knows they’ll be inspired to dream big dreams. Science needs that next generation, Crystal notes.

“We are on a planet floating in space. It is a very fragile, tenuous place to be,” says Crystal. “And understanding what is going on in the rest of this cosmos is fundamentally important to our survival in the future.”

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SEATTLE COUNTRY DAY SCHOOL

Inspiring gifted children to reach their potential through inquiry, curiosity, and wonder

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