Meet the Ashley Hall students on a mission to establish a school-wide composting program
ASHLEY HALL BOARD OF TRUSTEES 2023–2024
OFFICERS
Anne Frances Bleecker ’76 | Chair
Rhett Ramsay Outten ’82 | Vice Chair
Eric Strickland | Secretary
Kurt Palmer | Treasurer
MEMBERS-AT-LARGE
Lilla Lane Clark ’01
Sara DeWolf
Gautam Ghatnekar, Ph.D.
Lucy Mackilligin Guffey
Kendra Hamilton ’76, Ph.D.
Marlon Kimpson
Lenna Kirchner
John E. Marko Jr.
M. Ann Riopel ’83, M.D.
Rowan G.P. Taylor
Dana Van Hook
TRUSTEES EMERITI
Mary Agnes Burnham Hood
Philip Horn
Martha Rivers Ingram ’53
Patricia T. Kirkland
Hugh C. Lane, Jr.
Elizabeth Rivers Lewine ’54
Karen Jenkins Phillips ’79
Heidi Ward Ravenel ’74
Jerry Reves, M.D.
Conrad Zimmerman Jr.
HEAD OF SCHOOL
Anne T. Weston ’73, Ph.D.
ASHLEY HALL PERSPECTIVES
MAGAZINE EDITORIAL STAFF
Paula Harrell | Director of Strategic Marketing & Communications
Liz Regalia | Editor in Chief & Writer
Kate Daughtry | Creative Director & Designer
Brian Principe | Photographer
Please forward any address changes to Ashley Hall Institutional Advancement Office, 172 Rutledge Avenue, Charleston, South Carolina 29403
22 16
Behind the Scenes OF OUR Cover Shoot
Led by Intermediate Program STEAM teacher Kiki Sweigart, fifth graders visited Bees Ferry Landfill in November to get a hands-on lesson in how food is composted in Charleston. Here, over 80,000 tons of yard and food waste collected in our area is naturally recycled, or composted, each year.
While touring the facility, students learned that mounds of decomposing waste create heat as they break down on the molecular level. They watched as steam crept off the heaps of organic matter which reach 145 degrees fahrenheit, and used a long thermometer to test their temperatures. They also learned what happens when non-organic waste creeps into a compost pile by digging for plastic with a pitch fork.
This off-campus learning experience was the first of its kind, and it was a part of a year-long studentled investigation on reducing food waste at Ashley Hall. “We wanted to see how a landfill and compost center worked on a larger scale and how we might find a resource to help us with our own composting efforts,” Sweigart says.
Read more about Sweigart’s mission to establish a school-wide composting program at Ashley Hall in Feeding the Future on page 40
FRONT COVER | Noni Su ’31, Fiona LeClaire ’31, and Weasie Boyd ’31. BACK COVER | Caitlin Oliver ’31 and Erin Brennan '31. Photos by Brian Principe.
“
If you think small, your world will be small. If you think big, your world will be big.
— PAULO COELHO, AUTHOR
OF 30 INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLERS, INCLUDING THE ALCHEMIST
Why Ashley Hall? This is one of my favorite provocations to pose to members of our community – and to also answer. This spring, I had the honor of welcoming a record number of new families to campus who will be joining us in August. As we got to know one another, I enjoyed hearing the reasons why they chose to enroll their students at Ashley Hall. Phrases like academic excellence and preparedness reflected the learning which happens in our classrooms, while words like congeniality, warmth, and authenticity described what they felt while exploring the atmosphere in which their students will be immersed throughout their academic journey.
In 1961, my own parents made the important decision to enroll me at Ashley Hall. As an alumnae, I know that commitment has affected my life positively in countless ways. As Head of School, however, I find a thrill in showcasing Ashley Hall’s extraordinary programs and people as bold proof of Why Ashley Hall? This issue of Perspectives, which features the actions, accomplishments, and innovations taking place on our campus right now, does just that.
In Rewriting the Ways We Teach, you'll learn how Lower School educators are leading Ashley Hall’s journey to becoming an International Baccalaureate (IB) World School as they embrace inquiry-based learning in Pardue Hall. Read about the incredible work they have done and where we are in the IB process today on page 37. I’m excited for you to also follow fifth grade students off campus as they face how food waste threatens our global community by exploring concepts such as composting which are happening right here in Charleston at Bees Ferry Landfill. See how the Intermediate Program continues to sharpen the minds and social responsibility of our students through this experience in Feeding the Future on page 40.
Finally, I’m so impressed with the two alumnae profiles that are highlighted in this issue as they are the true embodiment of Why Ashley Hall? In Lives That Inspire on page 50, you’ll meet Oklahoma-based Kristina Kiehl ’66, who was recently recruited by Mattel to create a collectible Barbie doll in homage to her friend and inspiration Wilma Mankiller, the first woman to lead the Cherokee Nation. Closer to home, we celebrate Donya Amer ’11, who received the national Lyn McNaught Teacher Award in February for her years of exemplary work with Horizons at Ashley Hall. Don’t miss the article honoring Donya, Full Circle, on page 56.
In the next school year, Ashley Hall will continue work on a set of strategic priorities that we believe will more strongly position our School in the local, national, and international landscape. These priorities provide the opportunity to focus on our mission to offer a well-articulated academic program tailored for girls and their preparation for the future; enhance a sense of belonging for all community members; and strengthen our foundation through strategic enrollment and advancement efforts. I am proud to claim our reputation as a place where students are known, cared for, and challenged to become the best versions of themselves, and I look forward to ensuring we deliver on that claim in the most excellent fashion through this exciting upcoming work.
That, for me, is why Ashley Hall.
Anne T. Weston ’73, Ph.D. Head of School
AROUND THE SHELL HOUSE
Written by Liz Regalia | Photos by Brian Principe
Lear’s Fool played by Rhetta Rutledge ’29, shown above, used the bushes as points of entry into the play and even hung from lamp posts to highlight her character’s ability to become part of the scenery as a survival tactic, Phelan-Deconinck explains.
BEHIND THE SCENES:
Bringing King Lear to Life Through Nature’s Scenery
This March, Ashley Hall revived its centuryold tradition of offering outdoor theater to the Charleston community with its production of William Shakespeare’s King Lear, while embracing nature in entirely new ways. For the first time, audience members were invited to bring blankets and take a seat in the lawn where they would be immersed not only in scenes acted out on the open-air grotto of the historic Bear Cave, but within the scenery surrounding them.
“When directing a show outdoors, at even the smallest invisible level, there’s growth and movement happening all around you,” says Aimee Phelan-Deconinck, performing arts faculty and director of King Lear. “You’re immersed inside of numerous variations of scale, texture, and light, and scenes become exciting and open in previously unthought of ways.”
To bring the themes of King Lear to life, PhelanDeconinck staged scenes all over campus then used technology to make them visible to the audience. “One of the themes in King Lear is nature vs. artifice,” she says. “To explore this, we placed video monitors on either side of the Bear Cave, nestled within the view of the trees, then we livestreamed scenes that, when viewed, were either obstructions or extensions of the scenery.” In some cases, the audience could “see” the character on screen, but not the actual space the actor was inhabiting.
Performing King Lear outdoors this spring also offered exciting opportunities for actors. “Performing inside has the benefit of changing sets and built-in lighting,” says Lucy David ’28, who played the Duke of Albany in King Lear. “But I prefer performing outside because of how much freer I feel. I feel less trapped than I do indoors. I can go anywhere. Burges becomes our backstage along with all of the buildings behind the Bear Cave.”
Here, Phelan-Deconinck and cast members of this year’s production of King Lear offer more behind-thescenes insight on how they used the outdoors to bring their show to life.
Multiple historic sites on campus, including the Shell House shown here, served as the backdrop for pivotal scenes.
“I couldn’t help but think of how extremely fortunate we are to have these spaces for our storytelling purposes,”
Phelan-Deconinck says. “It was a pleasure and privilege to bring this play to life inside of them.”
“I believe that the sun setting during the show and performing the ending at nighttime gave us some unintentional symbolism,” says Helen Kourtidis ’26 who played Lear, shown here on top of the Bear Cave alongside Vayia Kourtidis ’29 who played Earl of Kent. “As Lear falls from his pedestal, so the night descends.”
“The bamboo forest became a repeating place for the change of identity trope that a number of the characters underwent, grounding that idea, for me, at least, in that area which resembled a kind of guerilla warfare,”
Phelan-Deconinck says. Here, Vera Galvan ’28 who played Edgar, Glouscester’s son, emerges from the bamboo, later appearing disguised as Poor Tom.
Staying POWER
Do you know the story behind the sculpture hanging in Pardue Hall? In the spring of 2018, Ashley Hall welcomed environmental artist Aurora Robson to lead a collaborative STEAM project aimed to transform recycled plastic into an art installation for the LoDome. Students across all divisions were involved through various disciplines, including art, physics, and math.
“As an environmental artist, Aurora’s message is about taking plastic out of the waste stream and reinventing it as an art material because plastic is archival,” explains Lower School faculty member Tina Hirsig who helped spearhead what came to be known as the Aurora Project. “It'll last for 500 years or longer, so it's a great art material if you know how to use it.”
The story behind the Aurora Project proved to be just as inspiring – and important –as ever when Hirsig was recently invited to write a chapter about Ashley Hall’s experience working with Robson in STEAM Education: An Interdisciplinary Look at Art in the Curriculum (March 2024). The piece, entitled “The Process of Building an Art Installation With Plastic Waste,” focuses
on how the K-12 project was designed to bring awareness to plastic waste in our oceans, which is one of the largest threats to marine life.
Hirsig hopes her writing will inspire other educators to incorporate plastics that can be repurposed into their art classrooms. Since tackling the Aurora Project, Lower School students continue to have access to recycled sculpture materials every week, along with different tools from the experience, including rivets, Fiskars snips, and hand-crank drills. “A lot of the reason why we invite professional artists in is so that we can learn,” Hirsig says. “This is something that I didn't know much about then, but now it’s an artform I always offer.”
DID YOU KNOW? | Plastic waste can take anywhere from 20 to 500 years to decompose, and even then, it never fully disappears; it just gets smaller and smaller, according to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).
TOP | Lower School faculty member Tina Hirsig. MAIN | A detailed view of the art installation hanging from the ceiling in the LoDome.
from the PAGE to the STAGE
To explore the recitation and performance of poetry each year, Ashley Hall English students in grades 7-12 are required to participate in Poetry Out Loud, a national competition which partners with schools around the country to foster the next generation of literary readers. Why recite poetry?
According to a national study conducted by Poetry Out Loud, students reported that the process of deeply analyzing, memorizing, and interpreting poetry improved their writing and analytical skills. They also noticed having more confidence in group settings. In fact, they were 1.5 times more likely than their peers who did not participate in the competition to engage in community service and volunteering.
“The recitation of poetry brings history to life and creates community,” says Upper School literacy coordinator Chris Hughes. “This annual competition begins in the classroom where each student memorizes a poem and recites it for her class. Winners of the class competitions then advance to the school finals for a chance to represent Ashley Hall at the state Poetry Out Loud competition.”
This January, nine students recited a poem in front of their peers and a panel of faculty judges for the chance to win. Performances were judged on physical presence, voice and articulation, dramatic appropriateness,
level of difficulty, evidence of understanding and accuracy. After careful deliberation, judges selected sophomore Gemma Williams ’26 for her moving performance of “No Less” by Alice B. Fogel.
“I was in shock when they said my name,” Williams said. “I couldn’t believe it because everyone’s poems were just so good.” As the Ashley Hall school finalist, Williams went on to recite her poetry selection at the state-level Poetry Out Loud competition in Columbia, South Carolina last spring. There she competed against five other high school students from Myrtle Beach, Socastee, and Spartanburg.
“No Less” by Alice B. Fogel
It was twilight all day.
Sometimes the smallest things weigh us down, small stones that we can't help admiring and palming.
Look at the tiny way this lighter vein got inside.
Look at the heavy gray dome of its sky.
This is no immutable world. We know less than its atoms, rushing through.
Light, light. Light as air, to them, for all we know. Trust me on this one, there is happiness at stake.
Boulder, grain. Planet, dust: What fills the stones fills us.
I remember, or I have a feeling, I could be living somewhere with you, weighted down the way we aren't now.
Often the greatest things, those you'd think would be the heaviest, are the very ones that float.
TOP | Ashley Hall’s 2024 Poetry Out Loud winner Gemma Williams ’26 performing on stage in Davies Auditorium. BELOW | Williams with Veda Patel ’27 who was named contest runner-up for her recitation of the lyrical poem “‘Hope’ is the thing with feathers” by Emily Dickinson.
ASHLEY HALL EDUCATES THE COMMUNITY ON EARTH DAY
WRITTEN BY LIZ REGALIA | PHOTOS BY BRIAN PRINCIPE
It’s official: Earth Day at Ashley Hall will never be the same. On April 22, over 700 people filled campus for the School’s inaugural Plant with a Purpose festival, an event which hosted 19 environmentallybased local businesses to share not only their eco-friendly items, but their knowledge of sustainable plants and business practices with patrons of all ages.
“The Plant with a Purpose event is an opportunity for the Ashley Hall community to educate not just our students and our faculty and staff about plants, but the broader community, too,” says Upper School faculty member Allison Bowden who helped organize the event. “It’s not only cross-divisional, but it's cross-curricular, and it's really exciting to have the community come together in this way to celebrate Mother Earth.”
Along with off-campus vendors, the majority of which were female-owned, the festival featured 31 stations operated by Ashley Hall faculty, staff, and students showcasing both handmade products and hands-on educational activities. Guests spent the sunny afternoon meandering from booth to booth to soak in a wide range of experiences, including honey tasting, watercolor painting, a lesson on cooking with herbs, and much more.
MEET OUR VISITING ARTIST
During the last week of April, the Visual Arts department hosted sweetgrass artist Nakia Wigfall, shown above, who led discussions and demonstrations for students on the West African artform of sweetgrass basket weaving and its important connection to Charleston’s Gullah community. She kicked off the
THE PLANT FOR A PURPOSE
FESTIVAL FEATURED THE FOLLOWING OFF-CAMPUS VENDORS:
Amor Healing Kitchen
Art and Remedies Wellness
Bangin’ Vegan Eats
Charleston Horticulture Society
Lowcountry Street Grocery
Lucie’s Wreaths
The M.A.R.S.H. Project
MUSC Arboretum and Pocket
Urban Farms
Native Plants to the People
Plan-td Ecological Design
Rita’s Roots Backyard Harvest
Rooted in Charleston
SC Botanical Garden
SC Native Plant Society
Lowcountry Chapter
Slow Food Charleston
Soil3
Sweetgrass Gullah Connections
Wake Refill
Wild Herb Academy
MIDDLE | Lower School students dressed like beekeepers for a photo op at an educational faculty-led booth on beekeeping. BOTTOM | Early School students checking out the plant offerings outside the Rooted in Charleston plant bus, a mobile nursery which travels around town selling everything from Philodendron to succulents.
week by selling items at her own booth at the 2024 Plant for a Purpose festival.
Anna Brock
NAMED ‘ TEACHER OF DISTINCTION ’ BY THE ROYAL CONSERVATORY OF MUSIC
hen you step into pianist Anna Brock’s small office located just behind the Sottile-Thompson Recital Hall, you’ll find not one, but two pianos.
“I'm the only teacher here who prefers to teach on two pianos,” she says, a technique she learned from her own college professors. “That way I can really show students new skills. They can see how I play a piece, or we can play together. It's just my style.”
Brock’s unique style of teaching piano has made her not only stand out as a member of the Performing Arts department at Ashley Hall for over a decade, but now an international award-winning music educator. In 2023, Brock was named a “Teacher of Distinction” by the Royal Conservatory of Music (RCM), a music education institution which provides a global standard in curriculum design, assessment, performance training, and teacher certification.
Nominated by colleagues Jan Smith, Dr. Elsa Dixon, and Dan McCurry, Brock was
selected as a RCM “Teacher of Distinction” based on the following areas of excellence which she has demonstrated both at Ashley Hall and on stages throughout the Charleston community.
INNOVATIVE AND EXEMPLARY TEACHING PRACTICES
As a nationally certified piano teacher with the Music Teachers National Association, Brock has been giving private piano lessons at Ashley Hall since 2013. She is also certified as both an Elementary and Intermediate Teaching Specialist through RCM. Still, she credits much of the success she has teaching students how to play piano to her experience as a performer.
“I'm actually a performer who teaches, I'm not a teacher who performs,” Brock says. “I teach by example, and I like to play for students in the lesson,” Brock says. “Because I'm a performer first, I am able to tell students what I’d like them to do by playing it for them first.”
Balancing teaching and performing is no small feat, but it's one Brock has mastered
WRITTEN BY LIZ REGALIA
over the years. She is currently the pianist for the Charleston Gospel Choir and plays keyboard for the North Charleston Pops. She also plays as a local hire keyboardist for musicals, which have included the national Broadway tours of Shrek, Hairspray, Wicked, Les Mis, and more.
STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT AND ENGAGEMENT
Throughout the years, Brock’s students have competed in the Charleston Sonatina Festival which focuses on performing sonatinas and sonatas at various levels, as well as state-level competitions through the South Carolina Music Teachers Association. Many also participate in the RCM Certificate Program which offers piano examinations at all levels.
During RCM examinations, students are tested in a variety of ways, explains Brock, including how well they play pieces, how well they listen, how well they play scales, and how well they sight read. “It's a completely comprehensive exam, and it’s different from anything offered in the United States because it has that listening
component,” she says. “Examiners are also trained to an international standard which means there is no grade inflation.”
The prestigious opportunity for students to take RCM examinations has become easier for students to pursue thanks to Brock’s work in certifying Ashley Hall as an official Royal Conservatory exam center in 2018. Now, instead of having to travel to the RCM exam center at the University of South Carolina, students can complete assessments on campus each May.
COMMITMENT AND LEADERSHIP IN THEIR COMMUNITY
Along with teaching private lessons, Brock is also a professional piano accompanist, both at Ashley Hall and within the Charleston community. On campus, she lends her talents to choral and orchestral classes on a regular basis as well as to productions throughout the year. In the community, her recent accompanist performances include concerts with Spoleto Festival USA, Charleston Symphony, Charleston Opera Theater, and Small Opera Company.
This April, Brock led a lecture on the art of piano accompaniment for the Charleston Music Teachers Association during which she shared knowledge that has come from playing piano as part of a musical ensemble for conductors. “Many of us begin by learning solo piano pieces, then wind up teaching solo piano pieces to students,” Brock says. “In my own study of piano, I never learned the skills that I needed to play for choirs, orchestras, music theater or opera singers. I had to learn them on my own, so I want to share tips and tricks for other educators, and also an awareness of the world outside of traditional piano.”
Anna is a real cheerleader for her students and colleagues. She is incredibly accomplished, hard-working, and humble. She is the one who spearheaded making Ashley Hall an Examination Center for RCM some years ago and through her continued efforts, she has managed to nurture it to be the largest exam center in South Carolina. She is an inspiration to me and the rest of the musical faculty at Ashley Hall.
– DAN MCCURRY, PIANO & MUSIC COMPOSITION FACULTY MEMBER
DID YOU KNOW? | Piano is the most popular instrument for private lesson registration at Ashley Hall, followed by violin. This year, 83 students worked with the School’s six piano teachers, the highest number of piano instructors the Performing Arts department has ever had on staff.
OPPOSITE | Anna Brock with private piano student Lucy David ’28 photographed by Brian Principe. TOP | Brock in her office with her award from RCM.
Would you eat a bug?
That was the question Lower School STEAM teacher Meghan Ward posed to the second grade in November. The answer? A collective “Yes!” once students discovered the many health, social, and environmental benefits of adding insects to our diets.
As a part of an investigation into entomophagy, the practice of eating insects, students learned that not only are insects packed with protein and nutrients, but they use significantly less resources to produce than traditional food sources. Edible insects can also be produced in high volume with low-tech equipment making them a sustainable solution to help feed the 1 billion people who are chronically hungry around the world, according to the United Nations.
To give second graders the chance to eat an insect, Ward whipped up a batch of chocolate chip “cricket cookies.” She used a traditional recipe but swapped regular flour for cricket flour purchased from local edible-insect purveyor Jiminy Co. After taking a taste, students were awarded with a certificate celebrating their risk taking and new entomophagy knowledge!
A whopping 2 billion people eat insects regularly worldwide, largely in Asia, Africa, and Latin America.
There are more than 1,900 edible insect species, and beetles are the most commonly consumed bugs on earth.
Crickets need 12 times less feed than cattle to produce the same amount of protein making them a more sustainable food source.
MIDDLE | Ada Amit ’34 sampling a cookie made with cricket powder after learning about the benefits of eating insects. BOTTOM | Millie Hill ’34 proudly showing off a certificate which verifies she ate a bug during STEAM class and expanded her knowledge of entomophagy.
You’ve heard of a triathlon. But what about an aquathlon? A triathlon is a multisport race that features swimming, cycling, and running. During an aquathlon, athletes test their endurance with a swim-and-run race. Don’t be fooled though: Two events are just as fun as three – just ask Ashley Hall fourth graders who took part in their very own aquathon in April.
To cap off a year full of physical fitness milestones, the annual fourth grade aquathlon was created as a fun way to put students’ athleticism to the test. Preparation starts in P.E. class where students learn all about triathlons, as well as “shetris,” which are all-female triathlons.
“The idea is to open up their eyes to something new,” says aquatics instructor
Stroke, Stride,
Cassidy Rindge who has competed in two half and two full Ironman triathlons over the years. “We talk a lot about risk taking in Lower School, and this is a wonderful way to expose students to the idea of doing a triathlon in a safe environment.”
On the big day, competitors start by lining up in race order on the side of Madren Pool, their numbers written on their biceps and swim caps in true triathlon fashion. With the whistle, they dive in one by one to swim three lengths of the pool, then head outside to quickly get dressed in the “transition area” and run a mile around campus. At the end of this year’s race, athletes fell into their classmates' arms in celebration beneath a towering inflatable finish line amidst cheers from faculty and students –their fans' support rivaled only by their support for one another.
MAIN | The Class of 2032 showing off their muscles at the finish line of the 2024 Aquathlon with their teachers, aquatics instructor Cassidy Rindge, and Director of Lower School Polly Kronsberg. BOTTOM | Classmates celebrating after the race.
Leading with Tradition
Written by Liz Regalia
For decades, a classic dark blazer has been a wardrobe staple for Ashley Hall high school students to wear during formal events. During their senior year, it’s tradition for students to affix the School’s patch to their jacket, a much-anticipated milestone which designates just how far they have come in their academic career.
This year, this annual tradition was reimagined by the Class of 2024 and Director of Counseling and Upper School Student Life Kelly Sumner. “With the help of Ms. Sumner, we created a new assembly to honor the patch tradition and let everyone know the importance behind it,” says senior class president Kloe Donner ’24. On November 16, Head of School Anne T. Weston ’73 Ph.D. led a formal ceremony for Upper School students, faculty, staff, and senior class parents to explain the history behind the Ashley Hall patch.
“One of the most beautiful things I think we do at Ashley Hall is celebrate our traditions,” Weston said during her address. She went on to explain the symbols on the Ashley Hall patch, including a rendering of the portico on top of McBee House, acanthus leaves which adorn architecture on campus, and the Ashley Hall motto, Possunt Quae Volunt.
The ceremony concluded with every one of the 37 members of the Class of 2024 taking the stage to receive their patch. “This patch is more than just something you are going to iron onto your jacket today,” Weston said. “It speaks to the beautiful opportunity for the long history here at Ashley Hall to have an impact on you, and more importantly, for each of you to have a large impact on Ashley Hall.”
Jeanne Powell, Class of 1961, was a member of the Resident Board Student Council and voted Best Leader and Most Dependable by her peers her senior year.
To me, the Ashley Hall patch shows the hard work and dedication that you put in your high school experience to get to your senior year and all the privileges that come with that. It’s a privilege to have earned.
– KLOE DONNER ’24 SENIOR CLASS PRESIDENT
& now
ABOVE | Photo of Kloe Donner ’24 by Brian Principe.
| Panther athletes Molly Mettler ’27, Caroline Copenhaver ’27, Martha Rivers ’24, and Parker Gragg ’25. Photo by Brian Principe.
125 athletes 12 sports 1 question
What is a core value that you believe is lived in athletics at Ashley Hall?
This year, Ashley Hall Athletics consulted with experts from Southern Teachers Agency and The McNair Group to evaluate everything from the School’s sports facilities and operation procedures to program necessities and culture.
“We knew there was a desire on campus to continue to push athletics to a new level,” says Assistant Athletics Director Christian Alcantara. “Getting an unbiased perspective from experts in the field gave us invaluable insight on our biggest needs, our weaknesses, our strengths, and ultimately, our next steps.”
Through campus visits and interviews with administrators, coaches, players, and parents, the consultants they worked
with delivered an in-depth Athletics Assessment to help shape a strategic plan for the program which will be released at the start of the 2024-25 school year. But they didn’t stop there. To gain an insider’s perspective on the culture felt within athletics, they surveyed 125 athletes in grades 9-12 on a variety of topics, including this simple question: What is a core value that you believe is lived in athletics at Ashley Hall?
“Core values are fundamental beliefs that drive behavior,” says Director of Athletics Franny Slay ’ 80. “They are important to identify because while we can provide the path for our athletes, they are the ones that have to walk it, so we have to be sure it aligns with their spirit. They
are ultimately the ones carrying out our mission to be the best we can be.”
Out of hundreds of words, there were a select few that repeated over and over across every sport and grade which was both inspiring and encouraging, Slay says. “From our girls' perspective, we discovered there is a very strong culture within Ashley Hall athletics,” Alcantara adds. “It’s widespread, and the majority of our athletes feel like they are living it every day, which means a strong foundation is set. Now it's time to build on top of it.”
According to athletes, these are the core values that are lived every day at Ashley Hall – and driving the future of Panther athletics.
ABOVE | State championship track & field qualifier Madison Middleton ’28. OPPOSITE TOP | The varsity tennis team huddled up before their Senior Night 2024 matches. OPPOSITE BOTTOM | Varsity archer Kiki Trevino ’25 taking aim during competition.
"Sisterhood was the first word to come to my mind because no matter the outcome of our game or match at the end of the day, I always have a group of my School sisters to support me. This year, the varsity tennis team ended up in the semi finals at the state championship. My partner and I were in a third-set tiebreaker, and so was the number two doubles team. We finished at almost the same time, shook hands with our opponents, and immediately ran to the other court realizing we had won the match and were headed to the finals. The group hug that followed was unlike any other, proving my true sisterly bond with this small group of girls.
Throughout my time playing sports at Ashley Hall, I have become more confident because I know it is okay to make mistakes, especially when I have a strong support system behind me. I have also become more of a leader because I have been on several teams for many years, and I have been able to watch great captains above me who led by example, ultimately incentivizing me to do the same."
– MARTHA RIVERS
’24
SISTERHOOD
"I think the most important word in PQV, which stands for ‘Girls with the will have the ability,’ is will. I relate it to your work ethic, and being able to show up every day whether it's to practice or running over Spring Break like we did this year for lacrosse. If you work hard enough, you'll be able to achieve great things. But you need to want to achieve those things, which is what I feel like athletes at Ashley Hall have in common.
I think this is especially important for building a newer program like lacrosse. It’s not like you’re going to win all of your games at first. It's going to take a lot of work. But being able to see progress in the number of goals you’re scoring and see that your work is paying off is the best feeling. Even if you lose, you can recognize you’re improving and playing really well, and that keeps us pushing each other so hard. Everyone on the whole team gets inspired by progress, and you can feel it in every single huddle. We just know we need to keep it up. That’s really all that counts."
– CAROLINE COPENHAVER ’27
COMMITMENT
"I'm new this year to Ashley Hall, and I've noticed that at my old school, it was the coaches that had to motivate you as an athlete. But here, it's really the team. The coach still has a big role, but my teammates are the ones motivating me to work hard and sparking that energy. People really are in it, and I think that’s because there is a lot more pride at our School. We have such a strong bond being all girls that everybody wants to do well for each other, both on the field and off. You want to do good for your people, and we want to carry ourselves since we don’t have a boys team carrying our reputation. It fires us all up.
There’s also a sense that you're going through all of it together. Playing basketball this year, sometimes we were practicing six times a week. You're with your teammates every single day, so you really connect on a deeper level. Even if we were not always winning, it was always about showing up for yourself and each other and sticking through it together. This has taught me a lot, and I've learned playing a sport is not all about winning which is what my mindset used to be. Of course, I always want to win. But I’ve realized that sometimes you gain even more from losing than winning. It's not always about the end goal. It’s about the stuff you experience together as a team that you don't even realize you'll miss until you’re out of season. It’s our routine. It’s being around each other. It’s our relationships with our coaches. It's not all about our record – there's just so many great things through the journey."
Teamwork
– MOLLY METTLER ’27
"Every player supports each other, even if it's between different sports. I'll always remember the first time I subbed in to play as a freshman on the JV volleyball team. As I stepped up to the line and entered the court, I heard the varsity team screaming my name and cheering me on. I was beyond excited, and I think that was the moment I realized how amazing and supportive the sisterhood is in athletics.
I have gained so much confidence in myself during my time playing volleyball at Ashley Hall. My coaches and teammates have believed in me, and they have taught me how to believe in myself. Now, I'm able to do the same for others, and it feels amazing to know that I'm contributing to the future of Ashley Hall athletics."
– PARKER GRAGG ’25
support
DID YOU KNOW? | Director of Athletics Franny Slay ’80, pictured here during her senior year at Ashley Hall, participated in volleyball, basketball, soccer, and equestrian throughout her athletic career.
"I still remember the very first time I heard Ashley Hall fans chanting PQV at a volleyball game. It was 2009, and our students were as proud to shout those three letters as their opponents were confused to hear them. What in the world was PQV?
In a literal sense, PQV stands for the Ashley Hall motto: Possunt Quae Volunt which translates to ‘Girls who have the will have the ability.’ But the way in which this simple acronym inspires both our students and athletes each day is not so easy to explain to outsiders. Still, I try knowing the magic it can bring, and one example that comes to mind happened last summer. I was coaching a volleyball camp, and there was one young athlete from another school who was getting particularly down on herself. Finally, I pulled her aside: ‘Where’s your PQV?’ I asked. ‘What’s PQV?’ she replied. PQV is the knowledge that anything you put your mind to, you can do, I explained to her. It means there’s nothing that can stop you. By then, Ashley Hall athletes were chiming in with words of encouragement – PQV means don’t give up! PQV means you’re strong! You’re so PQV! The girl just took it in. Then she got back out on the court.
PQV
Today, those three letters are printed on the sleeves of our athletics uniforms and the backs of our practice gear because PQV speaks to what we try to instill in all our athletes – that it may not be easy, but it’s how you embrace a challenge that matters. You’re capable of pushing yourself, pushing your teammates, and when we have the will to work together, we can’t lose. "
DIRECTOR OF ATHLETICS
OPPOSITE TOP | Varsity basketball team members Mattie Laney ’24 and Elizabeth Perkins ’24 showing support on the court. OPPOSITE BOTTOM | Swim team members Carson Hyder ’29 and Ella Sidebottom ’30 cheering on their teammates during a meet.
In artist Nancy Langston’s Advanced Placement (AP) 3-D design course, individuality is not only encouraged – it is cultivated. The class is conducted in a hands-on studio format which allows students to chart their own path as they explore the principles of three-dimensional design. At the start of the year, they set out to create a series of sculptures and an in-depth AP portfolio to submit to the College Board. Every portfolio aims to represent the artist’s unique ideas and their investigations with different techniques, materials, and tools through experimentation and revision. To document this creative process, students take hundreds – if not thousands – of digital photos of their artistic adventures in the studio.
Here, AP 3-D art student Dagny Mauro ’ 25 shares a behind-the-scenes look at how she turned her latest idea into a work of art.
INSPIRATION
MATERIALS
“At first, I imagined carving it from one big block of wood like I have done with plaster,” Mauro says. “But when I started carving into it, there was no way.”
“My dog Stanley passed away recently, so I wanted to make something for him,” Mauro says. “I always love giving my art pieces to my parents so I thought it’d be really cool.”
EXPERIMENTATION
To create teeth, Mauro carefully drilled into the jaw to create holes. Langston then found long wooden dowels which Mauro cut into small teeth-like pieces. She carved the top of each one slightly so it would fit snugly into each hole, then glued them into place.
“I decided that the snout was going to be the centerpiece,” Mauro says. “So that's where I started by using a practice piece, trying to make it look exactly how it did in the photo.”
ABOUT THE ARTIST
To get her started, Langston cut smaller pieces of wood for Mauro to experiment with. She started by rounding the edges with a wood shaping blade to see how it would feel to carve in the material.
Mauro began by choosing a photo of Stanley, then she sketched her own rendering to serve as a blueprint for her sculpture. When considering materials, she noticed the coloring of Stanley’s fur resembled a light wood grain which sparked the idea of using wood.
Mauro then used a wood burner to shape Stanley’s nose, then recreated the “smile creases” in his cheeks using the same tool. Next, she moved to the top of the head and carved out the eyes.
Using the same thin material she used for the tongue, she created lips hanging from Stanley’s top jaw. She then used a cardboard stencil to create two ears. Once these last pieces were complete, she glued them into place and allowed them to dry under clamps and tape.
The theme of Mauro’s final AP 3-D design portfolio was portraits. Over the course of two years taking class with Langston, she created a collection of different sculptures featuring faces. Stanley was her first animal face. “Maybe it's because I love acting, but I think expressions are so interesting,” Mauro says. “To me, there’s something mysterious about them because even if someone’s expression stays the same, you can still get a sense of how a person – or an animal – is feeling. I’ve come to realize there’s so much more beauty in expression than any facial feature.”
process photos provided by Dagny Mauro ’25. | Artist headshot photo by Brian Principe.
Cultural Immersion in
uébecQ
“The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page.”
Written by Liz Regalia
This February, 27 students and five faculty chaperones packed their suitcases to experience the annual Winter Carnival in Québec City, the largest winter festival in the world, and explore life outside of the United States, many for the first time.
The adventure abroad marked the exciting post-pandemic return of Ashley Hall’s signature intermediatelevel French immersion program for students in grades 6-8. “The goal of this trip is to broaden the horizons of our students while strengthening their linguistic abilities,” says Intermediate Program faculty member and trip
leader Olivia Hipp ’10. “I wanted to give them the opportunity to be immersed in the French language and experience a culture different from their own.”
CULTURE
While abroad, students learned about the unique culture and history of Quebec through excursions and immersion opportunities, including guided tours through the Huron Village to learn about the First Nations' history in Canada and a visit to a host school with students their age. “This was the first year that we were able to go to Québec during the famous Carnaval de Québec that we study, and it was so meaningful to see those touch points come to life for them,” Hipp says. “From the cabane à sucre (sugar shack)
where they got to see maple syrup production and make maple taffy in the snow to seeing the festival mascot Bonhomme (a beloved snowman), they got to see their classroom lessons firsthand all throughout the city.”
ATMOSPHERE
Traveling to Canada in the middle of a Québecois winter is not for the faint of heart – temperatures averaged just 24 degrees last February in Québec. But nothing could deter students from exploring this new frozen city during their time abroad, and if anything, the snowy conditions added an extra special layer to their experience.
“Watching students experience snow for the first time is a memory that will last me a lifetime,” says Lower School faculty member and trip chaperone Tyler Moseley. “Their eyes lit up with wonder each time they were outside. Walking anywhere became quite a feat because each student could not resist the urge to kick the snow, trudge through piles of powder, or roll down even the smallest of slippery hills! It was a full-on immersive interaction, and there was nothing we could do to keep them from enjoying the opportunity to play.”
ADVENTURE
Around every corner in Québec was the opportunity for students to push their limits as young travelers. One adventurous highlight of the trip was the chance to go snow tubing at Village Vacances Valcartier. Perched high on top of the snowy tubing slopes, many students were a bit hesitant to climb into slippery innertubes. But they didn’t let fear stop them.
“While it would have been easy to just sit out, they leaned into the experience even though they were admittedly scared,” Moseley says. “We scooted ourselves to the edge and gripped onto each other’s tubes. The initial screams of anticipated fear quickly turned into squeals of delight. Before our tubes even came to a full stop, I clearly remember hearing Kitty Mack Smith ’30 and Isabelle Reddy ’29 planning their next glissade sur neige, or snow sliding run.”
SCAN
WHERE WE'RE HEADED NEXT
Ashley Hall Travel Programs are proposed annually in a manner similar to an academic course. Here are the planned trips for the 2024-25 school year:
FALL 2024
NANTAHALA OUTDOOR CENTER BRYSON CITY, NORTH CAROLINA GRADE 9
MODEL U.N. CHATTANOOGA, TENNESSEE GRADES 9-12
BUILDING BRIDGES, NOT WALLS NEW YORK CITY | GRADES 10-12
SPRING 2025
NAUTILUS STEM TRIP ORLANDO, FLORIDA | GRADE 8
SPANISH LANGUAGE IMMERSION COSTA RICA | GRADES 6-8
LOUISIANA BAYOUS AND BYWAYS NEW ORLEANS | GRADE 12
MODEL U.N. SPRING TRIP LOCATION TBD | GRADES 9-12
SUMMER 2025
SPANISH LANGUAGE IMMERSION COSTA RICA | GRADES 9-12
A MODERN ODYSSEY GREECE | GRADES 9-12
What's one important thing you learned on this trip?
"That I am capable of doing anything even if I feel nervous."
– GINNA DECKER ’ 30
"I learned a lot about Quebecian culture and the language, specifically the difference in pronunciation from the French spoken in France."
– ADYA SHARMA ’ 29
"One important thing I learned on this trip is that it is important to put yourself out there and try to connect with girls that are not in your grade."
– PIPPA TAYLOR ’ 29
ABOVE | Tobogganing down the ice slides of the impressive Glissades de la Promenade Dufferin outside famous Château Frontenac was another adventurous highlight of the trip. BELOW | Students exploring the light show at Notre-Dame Basilica in Montreal on the first leg of their Canadian French immersion trip.
IN THEIR OWN WORDS
EDUCATOR INSIDER
Ashley Hall administrators and faculty members reflect on a year celebrating traditions, strengthening community, advancing academics, and expanding opportunities for students to grow.
Building Community
Did you know Gorillas, Sloths, and Swans roam Jenkins Hall?
As a part of Ashley Hall’s signature Palio advisory program for ninth graders, students are placed on teams represented by six mythical mascots called contrade to compete in humanities challenges throughout the year. Palio, which is an annual athletic contest which happens in Italy, was introduced at Ashley Hall eight years ago by Upper School faculty member Andrea Muti. We sat down with Muti this fall to hear the inspiration behind bringing the Palio tradition to Ashley Hall students.
In Conversation with Andrea Muti
UPPER SCHOOL FACULTY MEMBER
“The Palio is not my invention. It's actually a tradition of Siena, and the challenges ninth grade students participate in their contrade are really a tradition that comes from my grandma's hometown. My family and I lived in Spoleto, Italy. My grandma was from Castel Ritaldi, a little town near Spoleto, which is where I spent my summers. There, the Palio happened in one week in August with a series of competitions in which five neighboring communities would come together to challenge themselves. You see the whole community come together to watch –even my grandma. I remember the last one that I watched with her – she was 95.
Teams prepare for a full year just to compete in the Palio against one another. When coming together for the talent challenges, they are rivals. They will fight hard. They will make fun of each other. But at the end, they will all go to the tavern and celebrate knowing that there's going to be another chance to win the next year. I always envied that idea of tradition – that idea that there's always next year that I can work toward. I also loved how the older generations took incredible joy in passing their passion for the Palio like a torch to the next generation.
When I came to Ashley Hall, I wanted to recreate that sense of challenge, but really, that sense of community and of pushing each other to be better. The Palio is more than a project. We are building a community. We are asking students to come together through challenges that they have never seen before. They are placed outside of their comfort zone
with a drive, with a challenge, with a pressure to be better than others who are also not in their comfort zone. And in the difficulties of a challenge, in the adversity, is when you come together. It is an environment where they need to stick together to survive with no constructs. This allows for community, but also personal breakthroughs as well. An element that I would like our girls to understand is that sometimes, the pressure of competition is a really positive force that pushes you to go beyond your limits. Not anxiety, but the drive to do better is really what pushes you to excellence.
I’ve seen students come out of their shell from almost being invisible in the classroom during Palio challenges. I’ve seen many exhibit a creative talent that no one was even aware they possessed through coming together for something that is not necessarily academic. To me, that is absolutely beautiful. It allows them to know their peers from a different angle and perspective, and it allows me to do the same as our challenges reflect the individual passions of teachers as well. When we come together as a contrada for a challenge, we often bring in a faculty expert. Teachers bring their expertise to the table, and students take notes. They want to learn. I love that we all grow together. And while I may have been the one to bring the idea of the Palio here, [Upper School Faculty member] Libby Russler was crucial in making it happen – not only because she dealt with the organization, but she also provided ideas that we use for the challenges. Without her, many of the wonderful things we have done would not have happened.
Like many faculty here, when I look at my students, most of the time I see myself in their shoes. I see myself in the classroom as
a student with my fears, my uncertainty, and my dreams. And when I see them working at a Palio challenge and enjoying it, it's almost like I see them in my world. It makes me even more connected to them because now they are enjoying a part of, not what I did, but who I am, because the Palio is not just a tradition, it's an identity. The idea that a freshman will graduate having generated a passion for their contrada that their little sister will inherit, to me, is amazing. When a senior comes to me and says, “Go Griffin!” that to me is a success because I have generated a sense of community that I was looking for – a legacy that will continue.”
The six teams that make up the Palio each year are the Gorillas, Salmon, Griffins, Sloths, Swans, and Phoenixes. Challenges include battles to be the best in graphic design, sonnet recitation, baking tiramisù, and demonstrating expertise in Renaissance culture.
The Palio culminates with a Gran Final in May which is a trivia contest that incorporates physical challenges. As for the prize? Palio comes from Latin pallium or “covering” which references the cloth or banner that is given to the winning contrada – along with bragging rights, of course.
In Conversation with Roscoe Davis, Ph.D. UPPER SCHOOL FACULTY MEMBER
“Since the beginning of the Offshore Leadership Program in the 2007-08 academic year, the motto has been Ship, Shipmates, Self That’s the way I've long taught it, and it’s just what it means: At sea, you have to put the ship first, your shipmates second, and yourself last. That means working as a team for the greater good. But at the same time, there's another common motto in sailing I bring up: One hand for yourself, one for the boat. You need to look out for yourself. Be aware. Knowing how to do this begins with self-analysis, because as I always tell them, you can’t be a leader of others unless you're a leader of yourself first.
A lot of people think of leadership as finding out your strengths as an individual first. But through this course, students realize it’s actually the opposite. By discovering your weaknesses first, you can become fit to lead in a way that is unique to you. Students start by self-identifying their own weaknesses and reflecting on what they’d like to improve on. I have them journal on these perceived personal weaknesses and the steps they could take to make tangible improvements, and the transition to a class will allow for deeper investigation. Throughout this process, one thing I have noticed is that the results of their self-reflections are actually a slightly different take on PQV, or Possunt Quae Volunt which translates to ‘Girls who have the will have the ability.’
Most girls will equate PQV with a definition
Learning Leadership Through Sailing
Now in its sixteenth year, Ashley Hall’s Offshore Leadership Program (OLP) is undergoing an exciting transition. To enhance the program’s signature sailing experience, it has revived its partnership with World Ocean School (WOS) to make a two-week voyage each spring from St. Croix to Charleston aboard the Denis Sullivan, a three-masted tall ship. WOS is a non-profit providing educational sailing experiences, and last October, they hosted eighth graders for an afternoon sail on the Charleston Harbor. We joined them on the water to speak with Roscoe Davis, Ph.D. about the lessons in leadership at the heart of the OLP experience.
that means to jump boldly into any situation and actively pursue something. Well, what I have noticed is that when students begin to self-identify their weaknesses, about half of them do indeed believe that they need to get better at being bold and putting themselves out there. They identify with that active idea of PQV – ‘I need to exert my will and not let people push me around.’ But here’s the interesting part: The other half of students will know themselves well enough to say, ‘I need to dial it back in certain situations because sometimes I can walk over people.’ They see a need to step back in order to be a good leader.
Throughout the years, as I was trying to classify these responses from students, I came to realize that the true meaning of PQV is about a blend of those two self reflections. A balance. A harmony. And in essence, that's a whole self. That ties in with the whole psychology behind the personality types and the concepts of introversion and extraversion, which Carl Jung came up with in his book, Psychological Types, and which we discuss during the course. Jung argues that we are a blend of introversion and extraversion, directing our attention both outward and inward. It’s just that one of these habits of mind, for each of us, is dominant and the other is weaker. To balance them, you can identify your weaker side and decide how to develop it, which is what we do.
We continue the course by talking about different leadership styles to help explore this, and how some are appropriate in some situations and some are not. For instance, at one end of the spectrum, you have the
authoritarian kind of autocratic style. The other end is the more laissez-faire, pure democracy style. And as I explain to my students from my own experiences teaching, the more authoritarian leadership style is appropriate for perhaps seventh graders who need more direction. But then if you try to apply that to older students, who are more autonomous and self-driven, then that creates rebellion. So again, it’s all about balance.
Another interesting thing I’ve observed over the years is that when it comes to leadership, whether they are in ninth, tenth, eleventh, or twelfth grade does not matter. From the very start, it's been the case that once students climb aboard for their voyage, class distinctions fall away. We also intentionally put them in watch groups that are a mix of grade levels. I think this ability for girls to “mix” is a great strength in terms of the Upper School Ashley Hall experience.
Prior to our departure in the spring, we start talking about more practical things about our sailing voyage in class, but it all ties into our philosophical discussions. Just ask any tall ship crew member and you will learn that sailing is about a balance of forces. The boat has to be balanced at all times. This learning can be extended directly back to the same self-analysis we do at the beginning. Unless all girls have a good sense of themselves, then they're not going to know when to dial it back and when to exert dominance. But because they develop this at the start, they all become uniquely suited to become the best leaders they can be at sea.”
A Closer Look Inside OLP
Students accepted to the Offshore Leadership Program (OLP) study a variety of maritime subjects, but, first and foremost, the course is one of self-discovery, self-growth, and self-transformation. In the spring, students spend 14 days on a non-stop offshore passage from St. Croix to Charleston aboard the Denis Sullivan. At sea, they work around the clock in traditional watch groups to sail and maintain the vessel. They use their handwritten journals throughout the voyage for a variety of post-transit assignments, the most important of which is a self-reflection essay on this transformative experience.
“No words can describe OLP. My shipmates and I had to overcome so many challenges, including seasickness, taking care of those who were sick, fighting to stay awake while on the night watches, and the list could go on. But the list of the things I miss and what I gained from the voyage is longer. I not only explored the sea, but I explored myself. Despite this trip revolving around teamwork, I have never felt more in tune with myself. It is the most rewarding experience I think I will ever have in my life.
– FAYE BAILEY ’25
ON THE HORIZON
Starting next fall, the Offshore Leadership Program will be a year-long course offering, rather than an extracurricular commitment. Students participating for the 2024-25 school year have been selected. Applications to join the program in 2025-26 will be available in December 2024. Students will register for this class in Spring 2025.
OLP shipmates Audrey Fennelly ’24 and Faye Bailey ’25.
Alison Parks
DIRECTOR OF THE INTERMEDIATE AND NAUTILUS PROGRAMS
One of the most beautiful aspects of learning I have witnessed this year was sixth graders experiencing the process of growing sunflowers, which hold a significant meaning to their growth at Ashley Hall. It’s tradition that during the Intermediate Program closing ceremony, each student receives a sunflower marking the next step in their educational journey, moving into the Nautilus Program. At the beginning of the school year, sixth grade students began experimenting in their new course. They planted their first crop of sunflowers, and from seeds to flowers, they were thrilled to have something tangible to show for their time and effort. In the spring, they planted more sunflower crops intended to be present at their closing ceremony.
By working diligently and patiently to grow their own sunflowers, students nourished their own journeys through the middle school years. Head of School Anne Weston, Ph.D. ’73 explained that the sunflower is a composite flower – that is, a number of flowers working together cooperatively. Like the sunflower, each of our students had their own roles to play in the success of this project while also working together. Every phase of their experience held more significance as they were responsible for every stage of the process.
Middle school is a time of change. As the bridge between Lower School and Upper School, it is the transition point between
Moments of Growth in Middle School
This year, sixth grade students had the opportunity to gain new skills through hands-on experiences once a week in a new class dedicated to experiential learning. Their weekly explorations included building LEGO robots, engineering personal pinball machines, and getting their hands dirty gardening. Still in its early stages, this course will continue to change and grow to meet the needs of students, but its effects are already apparent.
elementary and teenage years. Students are undergoing physical, emotional, and educational growth. It is also often a time in which schools focus and double down on what is next – that is, preparing them for high school. While it is important to ensure that students are ready to meet the challenges that await them, it is equally important to create a learning environment that meets the needs of students where they currently are. We at Ashley Hall believe that middle school should celebrate the uniqueness of our students. So, we often ask: What is developmentally appropriate and necessary to design an environment specifically for our middle school students?
Over the summer of 2023, faculty in grades 5-8 read Middle School Matters by Phyllis L. Fagell, a licensed clinical professional counselor and professional school counselor. This work inspired us to launch a parent book club focused on Fagell’s second book, Middle School Superpowers: Raising Resilient Tweens in Turbulent Times, which culminated in Fagell visiting our campus in January to join our discussion. Through this work, it became even more clear to us that our students must feel secure to learn. “Tweens need to know that bad things sometimes happen, but they’re not alone, and they can get through it,” Fagell shared with our community. “Our job is to help them embrace imperfection–and see themselves as the hero of their own story.”
We as middle school educators know the importance of championing the messiness of learning by honoring the process. One of the
things that I respect most about our faculty is that they see students as whole beings. Much consideration is given to planning coursework around the needs of our students. If we are going to prepare them to work and thrive in an ever-changing environment, how can we equip them with the skills to do so? This is a common thread among us as we plan how to teach the content of each subject area. We also consider, as Fagell discussed with the faculty during her visit, how current middle school students have not fully developed the social skills expected of this age as a result of the pandemic during their formative elementary years and all it brought with it. Rather than forge forward as we have always done, is it not our responsibility as a school to meet students where they are so they may have the foundation they need to thrive?
No matter the generation, the middle school years are full of moments of growth and learning. More often, however, in these moments, we are so focused on the result that we lose sight of the journey. We forget to celebrate the process. But at Ashley Hall, we promise we have not forgotten. The sunflowers exchanged at this year’s Intermediate Program closing ceremony mean so much more than a token of completing sixth grade. They are a reflection of every step our students have taken along the way to get to this point. This year, it is more real than ever.
Elisabeth Lavin-Peter
UPPER
SCHOOL DIRECTOR
Five wooden library tables, a cozy couch, two giant white boards, and bookshelves filled with handy supplies – colored pencils, markers, staplers, hole punchers, and notecards. It feels like an old-school space in many ways, a place of scholarship. But it is also one of collaboration which is evident as I enter the room mid-day on a Wednesday to find it filled with students.
Sitting down at a table with a seventh grader, I watch the room for a few minutes, and see amidst the more traditional elements, some more modern innovations. There is a station with charging cords – and on the floor below is a sneaker left behind as collateral from a student who wanted to use a charger in another classroom. There are six noise canceling earphones available for borrowing. There are posters and books scattered around the room that encourage students to take pride in whatever type of learning best describes them. Of course, most importantly, in two glassed-in offices, are Upper School Learning Specialist Dr. Mary Allen Edgerton ’87 and Director of Academic Support Grace Wingfield, each working with students.
Welcome to Ashley Hall’s new Center for Academic Support.
In the Upper School, we already have dedicated spaces for Writing Support and a Math Lab where students can get extra help for any mathematical questions. Both of these spaces are vital to the scholarly world of Ashley Hall.
An Upper School Space Unlike Any Other
In September, a brand-new space opened on the second floor of Rivers Library designed specifically for Upper School students: the Center for Academic Support (CAS). Jointly run by Director of Academic Support Grace Wingfield, and Learning Specialist Mary Allen Edgerton ’87, CAS supports students with strategies they can use both now and in the future, including organizational tips, time management skills, and active study tactics, all of which are tremendously beneficial to a wide range of students, from seventh graders to seniors.
So why do we need the Center for Academic Support? In a nutshell, the center is so special because it offers support to all students on the planning and study skills that are common to every subject, while providing a space that is designed to make learning collaborative, engaging, and productive. Thus it is no surprise that Mary Allen calls the Center for Academic Support “transformative” in the resources it offers our students, sharing that it has become “the heartbeat of the library with girls coming and going all day long.”
Sitting below the “Neurodiversity: We All Think Differently” poster are a clutch of students working feverishly as they prepare for an upcoming test. They have been using the whiteboards to outline their ideas and are quizzing each other, anticipating questions that may arise in the test that awaits them. Two other tables each have a single ninth grader, and both are studying a separate subject. One is preparing for a history test, while the other is working on her biology test. As each has questions, however, they call out to the other. “What is most significant about the Glorious Revolution?” one asks. They share thoughts and support each other as they work forward in their preparations.
As the girls continue working, Mary Allen emerges from her office and circulates amongst them, checking in to see if there are questions for one, offering some suggestions on how to organize her thoughts for another. I ask the students at my table why they come to the Center for Academic Support, and they share a range of answers. “I just like studying here,” says Rhetta Rutledge ’29. “I get so much
done!” Soon, a small group of older students arrive, and I ask them what draws them here as well. “I like having a dedicated space for collaborative work,” says Kirsten Marshall ’24. “There are also a lot of tools in here so you know you can always use them when you need them.”
In order for a student to be successful, it is vital that they know themselves as learners, explains Grace. “I am living my dream to have the space for the Center for Academic Support so I can meet with the girls and grow to know them, and to engage with our students in groups and individually,” she says. The space allows her to help students reach that all-important goal of knowing themselves and thus knowing how to make use of their strengths and develop strategies to overcome areas of weakness.
CAS is a space for individual work, for collaboration, for students who have fallen behind, and for students who are striving to stay ahead. It is a space with two types of learning specialists, one trained in learning support, and another with a wealth of organizational and study strategies to share with students. This has become a place where students, regardless of age or academic needs, know they can go to for strategies, for support, and work as a team with other students to tackle their challenges. It is, in fact, a space unlike any other – one that is a testament to the commitment that Ashley Hall has made to the overall growth and success of its students.
THE CHILD HAS
A HUNDRED A HUNDRED hands
A HUNDRED thoughts
A HUNDRED WAYS OF thinking OF playing, OF speaking
EXCERPT FROM THE POEM “100 LANGUAGES” BY LORIS MALAGUZZI, FOUNDER OF THE REGGIO EMILIA APPROACH
But a hundred is only the beginning.
WRITTEN BY LIZ REGALIA | PHOTOS BY BRIAN PRINCIPE
Inspired by the poem written by early childhood educator Loris Malaguzzi, the concept of “the hundred languages” is the foundation of the Reggio Emilia approach. It is a metaphor for the infinite number of ways that children are capable of expressing themselves through play.
“A child’s thinking never stops,” explains Diane Fletcher, Director of the Reggio-inspired Early School at Ashley Hall. “Their thoughts are always evolving, so when they express themselves through any language, it’s actually layered with many more potential ways of thinking. And in order to uncover those layers, you must be curious.”
So how does one get curious? Reggio-inspired learning environments are purposefully designed so that children between the ages of 2-5 can direct their own learning through their hundred languages, explains Early School atelierista Wendy Robbins. Early School educators then use a tool called provocation to unlock even more ways to learn.
“When you ask inquiry questions, the child gets to expand their thinking,” says Early School faculty member Elizabeth Johnson. “They're creating their own knowledge then building upon it exponentially.” After asking open-ended questions, teachers then observe, interpret, and listen. They may then ask new questions based on the responses to create meaningful opportunities for students to construct theories around mathematical, scientific, and literacy concepts.
“This approach is one that is highly structured and dynamic, filled with complexities," Fletcher explains. "Teachers and students are constantly working collaboratively in ways to further children's thinking with the environment as the third teacher.”
This type of inquiry-based dialogue between students and teachers happens every day in the Early School. Here, educators share the types of questions they ask in order to tap into the hundred ways in which children wonder and learn. They also serve as wonderful inspiration for parents of pre-primary, primary, and pre-kindergarten students to try out at home.
How did you create this?
“I just did like some squiggly lines.”
Why were they so cool?
“They were real-life dinosaurs, and I saw a pterodactyl one.”
Exploring Through the Language of Movement and Music
In the atelier, Wendy Robbins provides Early School students scarves to unlock endless ways of thinking while she plays music.
What makes the scarf move?
What makes it float through the air?
Why did the music change? Is it fast? Is it slow?
What happens when you twist your body back and forth?
Exploring Through the Language of Art
After a field trip, Jack Regan ’ 37 chose to paint something he saw in the forest: a set of animal bones. This is the conversation that followed with his pre-kindergarten teacher Elizabeth Fedele:
What do you remember about these bones?
“I remember that they were so, so, so, so cool.”
Why did you want to draw the bones?
“It looked like a little memory.”
What do you think the composer was thinking about when they wrote the music?
How can your body move like the music?
How high can you jump to catch your scarf?
Exploring Through the Language of the Natural World
English McCutchen ’ 39 finds a leaf no larger than the palm of his hand at the Early School Nature Retreat on Johns Island, but pre-primary teacher Rachael Carter discovers his wonder and excitement far exceed the object's size.
Why are leaves important?
In what ways does a leaf move?
What makes this leaf unique to you? leaf created?
How does the leaf feel? Is it fragile?
Exploring Through the Language of Light
A portable light table travels from classroom to classroom to invite students to play in a new way. Here, pre-kindergarten students use different objects provided by teacher Elizabeth Johnson to explore with light and shadow.
Does changing the color of the light make you feel a certain way?
What else feels like glass?
Can you use the glass pieces to create a pattern?
Have you seen plants like this before? Where?
How could we recreate the color of this leaf?
What happens to light when you make a shadow?
Can you change the color of light?
Can you work together to make a design?
Rewriting the Ways We Teach
As Ashley Hall embraces the authorization process to become an International Baccalaureate World School, Lower School teachers are leading the way. Here’s how they have been rewriting the rules by which they teach to develop internationally minded learners.
Written by Liz Regalia | Photos by Brian Principe
Something has changed in Pardue Hall, and the proof can be seen on the walls.
“All you have to do is look at the student work hanging outside our classrooms to notice things are different,” says Director of Lower School Polly Kronsberg. “You can see how we've moved away from traditional worksheetdriven activities to much more authentic learning. For example, kindergartners didn’t just read about simple machines this year; they also led their own investigation on airplanes during a field trip to the airport.”
This shift is a part of the Lower School’s transition to inquiry-based learning, an active method of instruction which gives students agency to ask questions, conduct their own research, and explore new ideas. “Students are still learning the same concepts and skills,
and they are hitting the same benchmarks, but just in a much more meaningful way because they are making their own real-world connections,” Kronsberg says.
While the work displayed in Pardue Hall is a wonderful visual representation of the exciting new inquiry-based learning happening in the Lower School, there’s much more to the story than simply what meets the eye.
For the past two years, Ashley Hall has been implementing new student-centered curricula and global perspectives guided by the framework of the International Baccalaureate (IB), an educational organization which offers age-specific programmes to school’s in more than 146 countries. Specifically, faculty who teach grades K-4 have been focused on incorporating the principles of the IB
Primary Years Programme (PYP) which is an international-minded approach to elementary education.
“In this setting, an international-minded approach means that you are able to connect your world, your life, and your experiences to other people in other places,” explains Lower School faculty member and PYP Coordinator Elizabeth Flowers. “It’s about learning that they impact each other through the understanding of things like empathy and responsibility, so that students can ensure their own impact on the world is a positive one.”
Any school that implements an IB programme, including PYP, gains global recognition as an IB World School, of which there are over 5,680 worldwide. It takes an average of three years to become officially
authorized, however, and the process is tedious. On top of professional development training and on-site IB consultant evaluations, the PYP authorization process requires significant changes inside the classroom.
Educators are required to adapt both the way in which they teach and the units they explore, according to IB standards. To help with the transition, every Lower School teacher has been keeping a journal to document their growth and progress since the process officially kicked off in classrooms at the start of the 2022-23 school year.
"In my own journey through the PYP authorization process, it became clear early on that consistent reflection on teaching practices was going to be key," says Lower School faculty member Katie Rodgers. "My journal has served as a catchall for so many important moments of growth throughout the years – all of my “aha” moments found their way into my notes and entries. By keeping a journal, I was able to document my and my students’ learning, connections, and ideas for the future."
Each week, Flowers shares an IB-related prompt with teachers to reflect on, whether it’s a question or simply an inspiring quote. “Journaling on these prompts has become a cathartic practice that I look forward to each week since beginning the PYP journey,” says Lower School faculty member Erika Russell. “In my journal, you mostly find reflections about my teaching practices – lessons that went smoothly and lessons that didn't go over so well. You can also find anecdotes from students, responses to quotes, and even some stories as a student myself.”
One theme that is consistently present in the pages of educators’ journals are reflections on the IB Learner Profile, a set of ten attributes which were designed to cultivate an international mindset. From principled to caring, knowledgeable to inquirer, these traits are the foundation of the PYP. They are displayed inside every classroom in the Lower School, as well as at the entrance of Pardue Hall. At first glance, the words may seem to stand separate from what’s happening in the hallways. But that couldn’t be further from the truth.
“These are so much more than wellness words,” Kronsberg says. “They mirror the Hallmarks of our School, which is a connection we were able to make with students, and now they are a part of the language they use every day. They are purposeful and connected to everything we do.”
To integrate the learner profile into life in the Lower School, every grade begins the school year by exploring the same attribute every
two weeks. “In kindergarten, this serves as an introduction to the learner profile, but in later grades, it’s a great way to refresh everyone,” Kronsberg says. This exploration happens across every discipline, whether that is in dance, STEAM, or art, and each grade tackles their explorations a little differently. For example, third graders studied each attribute through book characters and historical figures, while fourth graders took the stage during Lower School assembly time to speak about what each attribute meant to them.
“What students are learning and the style by which we are teaching shows how all of our individual actions are all globally connected,” says Lower School faculty member Jessica Pyke. “To have these ten qualities, it's going to make you a positive influence on this earth. So by instilling these attributes into students, they're going to succeed on a global scale rather than just a district, state, or country.”
But it’s not just students who are committed to developing the IB learner profile attributes. All members of the Ashley Hall community from administrators to parents are tasked with embracing these traits, including, of course, Lower School teachers. “Our teachers are writing, learning, and growing just like we ask our students to do every day,” Kronsberg says. “We’re so excited for the future knowing our foundation is strong.”
So what’s next? In March, two years after Ashley Hall began the process of becoming authorized as an IB World School, a consultant visited campus to evaluate the progress that’s been made in Pardue Hall. During the two-day visit, the consultant spent time with parents, students, teachers, and administrators, and reported back on the wonderful work that’s been done to implement the PYP program, as well as ways to continue to develop.
“She was very impressed with the sense of community in general at Ashley Hall,” Kronsberg says. “She loved our open campus and how we're all moving amongst each other all the time, which mirrors the collaboration she saw in the classrooms between students and teachers. She wanted to be sure we were committed to inquiry-based instruction, and it was evident we are.”
The School will continue to move through the IB World School candidate phase, and will be in application phase by next year with hopes of receiving authorization by May 2025.
OPPOSITE | A collage of journal pages kept by Lower School teachers this year as they track their journey implementing PYP practices in their classrooms.
Ashley Hall’s Journey to Becoming an IB World School
MARCH 2022 Request For Candidacy
Ashley Hall submitted an official application for candidacy to become a Primary Years Programme and held information sessions with teachers.
MAY 2022
Decision on Candidacy by the IB
Ashley Hall was accepted as an IB candidate school. At this time, members of Ashley Hall’s administrative team completed levelone administrator training through IB.
SUMMER 2022 PYP Preparation
During the summer, Flowers began putting together a plan so that Lower School faculty could hit the ground running at the start of the new school year and begin implementing PYP.
AUGUST 2022 - PRESENT Ib Candidate Phase
During the 2022-23 school year, teachers committed to journaling weekly on their progress incorporating PYP into their classrooms; participated in professional development; and joined after-school IB training sessions led by Flowers. In January, the entire team of Lower School faculty also spent two and a half days in level-one IB training. This school year, teachers have continued attending professional development sessions, further developing the Units of Inquiry, and tackling new recommended reading and research opportunities outside of school to further their PYP knowledge.
Want to get familiar with the IB learner profile?
Here are the ten attributes at the core of PYP, plus just a few examples of how students and teachers alike have been embracing them over the course of the last year to become internationally minded learners.
Thinkers
We use critical and creative thinking skills to analyze and take responsible action on complex problems. We exercise initiative in making reasoned, ethical decisions.
“One memorable journal entry noted my third grade students demonstrating nearly all of the learner profile attributes – but mostly thinkers. In a class discussion based around our novel study of The Wild Robot, students began noting the connections between the story’s elements, our school-wide U.N. sustainability goal to end world hunger, and the unit of inquiry we were studying at the time: ‘The Three Sisters.’ These connections demonstrated how this transdisciplinary learning is so powerful and meaningful. During our discussion, students took the lead and created a chart to illustrate all of the connections they were making.”
– Katie Rodgers, Third Grade Teacher
Communicators
We express ourselves confidently and creatively in more than one language and in many ways. We collaborate effectively, listening carefully to the perspectives of other individuals and groups.
Principled
We act with integrity and honesty, with a strong sense of fairness and justice, and with respect for the dignity and rights of people everywhere. We take responsibility for our actions and their consequences.
Open-Minded
We critically appreciate our own cultures and personal histories, as well as the values and traditions of others. We seek and evaluate a range of points of view, and we are willing to grow from the experience.
“At the start of December, we were immersed in the ‘How We Express Ourselves’ unit of study. We had been learning about different cultures and traditions. We had just read a book about Diwali, and the girls immediately became interested in the tradition of creating rangolis. I had not planned to spend much time on that specific tradition, but the girls wondering led the way to learn more. They watched a woman create rangolis in a YouTube video and were mesmerized. This led the girls to designing and creating one of their own. Each rangoli was beautiful and unique. The girls’ interest and wonders led the way to gain knowledge and awareness of traditions different from their own. The girls were not only open-minded, but also engaged and focused as they worked to create the rangoli.
– Mia Smith, Kindergarten Teacher
Balanced
We understand the importance of balancing different aspects of our lives—intellectual, physical, and emotional—to achieve well-being for ourselves and others. We recognize our interdependence with other people and with the world in which we live.
Caring
We show empathy, compassion and respect. We have a commitment to service, and we act to make a positive difference in the lives of others and in the world around us.
“Every Tuesday morning, every caring member of the Second Grade Green Team links up with a partner and pulls a card with a Pardue Hall classroom on it. Then they go to that room, collect their recycle bin to dump it in the big dumpster in the LoDome. The same cycle repeats until all the recyclables are collected in the building. This happens once a week, but the spirit of the Green Team goes far beyond their 10 minutes of fame every Tuesday morning. It goes all day, all year, every year. When students go out to recess, if they see trash they will always pick it up and get excited to do so. Through their work on the Green Team, they see meaning in their work to recycle and carry it with them throughout the day. It has become a part of them to want to do something for the greater good.” – Jessica Pyke, Second Grade Teacher
Risk-Takers
We approach uncertainty with forethought and determination; we work independently and cooperatively to explore new ideas and innovative strategies. We are resourceful and resilient in the face of challenges and change.
Inquirers
We nurture our curiosity, developing skills for inquiry and research. We know how to learn independently and with others. We learn with enthusiasm and sustain our love of learning throughout life.
Knowledgeable
We develop and use conceptual understanding, exploring knowledge across a range of disciplines. We engage with issues and ideas that have local and global significance.
“This year, I reflected in my journal on practices that encourage a love for reading when exploring ways to make my students more knowledgeable. Reading came easily as a child, and I was surrounded by books and reading materials growing up. I would curl up with a good book after school and often on the weekends… I really believe there is value in children reading physical books. There is something magical about turning the pages and discovering your characters. Encouraging students to read should be about setting them up for success and allowing a lot of voice and choice. Most students fall in love with reading when they've been exposed to just the right character or series. This gets them hooked and makes a path of life-long reading!”
– Erika Russell, Second Grade Teacher
Reflective
We thoughtfully consider the world and our own ideas and experience. We work to understand our strengths and weaknesses in order to support our learning and personal development.
"Reflection is an active part of the PYP program. Not only am I reflecting constantly throughout a unit, but my students are reflecting alongside me. Reflection comes in many forms in my classroom – discussions, sketches, idea journals, and more. For me, reflection has become more of a habit versus a task. Reflecting in my journal captures the successes and challenges I come across. By the end of the year, my journal provides me with snapshots of lessons and experiences I encountered during the course of the year while also providing me with a great resource and understanding of themes, painting an even bigger picture for me as an educator.”
– Tyler Moseley, Third Grade Teacher
Last fall, fifth grade students set out to make a positive impact on food scarcity in the Charleston community. Now, their student-led investigation on reducing food waste at Ashley Hall has sparked a mission to establish a school-wide composting program.
Written by Liz Regalia | Photos by Brian Principe
feeding the future
ABOVE | Ashley Hall fifth graders exploring the composting facility at Bees Ferry Landfill in November where they learned firsthand how yard debris and food waste is used to create compost.
t the start of the school year, Ashley Hall fifth graders got a crash course in composting on their annual camping trip to Green River Preserve in the western mountains of North Carolina.
“We would have competitions where we collected our leftover food after each meal in a big bucket, so it could be composted,” explains Weasie Boyd ’31. “The bucket had
to be less than half full for it to be a good day. If it was more than half full, that would be a bad day. But if it was all the way full, it would be a really bad day.” Students then learned how their food scraps, also known as organic reusable trash (ORT), could be naturally recycled, or composted, into nutrient-rich soil to feed the gardens at Green River Preserve.
So why is a day with more food waste a really bad day? Back on campus, students dove into researching the effects of food waste as a part of this year’s global education theme to explore ways to fight hunger. They learned that 1 in 5 children
in our community faces food insecurity, according to the Lowcountry Food Bank which distributes food across the 10 coastal counties of South Carolina to those in need. That’s when they had an idea.
Led by Intermediate Program STEAM teacher Kiki Sweigart, students set out to create their very own system for reducing food waste at school by bringing back what they learned at Green River Preserve. The goal? Spark a school-wide movement at Ashley Hall that would not only give back to the community, but to the earth.
Here’s what happened next…
ABOVE | Fifth grade students and STEAM teacher Kiki Sweigart exploring McGill’s Bees Ferry composting facility on a tour led by plant manager Billy Crocker. OPPOSITE | Intermediate Program students keeping track of how much food they eat – and waste – during lunch in the Dining Commons to reduce their organic waste.
TACKLING FOOD WASTE
ONE LUNCH AT A TIME
On September 18, 2023, Intermediate Program students got to work. “To keep track every day at lunch of how much food gets wasted, we put out one bucket for fifth grade and one for sixth grade, and then we dump our leftover food in there,” explains Giselle Sheard ’31. Then two designated members from each grade would weigh their bucket and record how many pounds of scraps they accumulated.
That very first day, students made a shocking discovery: It’s possible for 90 Ashley Hall fifth and sixth graders to waste up to 10 pounds of food each lunch period. Knowing they could do better, they set out to get that number lower and lower each week by developing smart new tactics.
“For example, the other day, I filled half my plate with mac and cheese and half with
pork,” Sheard says. “I was thinking about getting soup, but I wanted to make sure I ate what I had first. After I finished eating, I was full so I wouldn’t have been able to eat soup. You just [have to] get small portions. You can always get more, but you can’t get less.”
Sharing is also important, explains Sheard. “We used to see people take one bite of an apple then throw it away,” she says. “But you can cut your apple in half and share. Or you can split your breadstick or even a sandwich to be sure you don’t waste.”
In just two days, food waste produced by the Intermediate Program went from eight pounds per grade to four pounds. And by the end of September? Students were more consistent with generating three to four pounds of food waste per grade daily.
“When we weighed the bucket, it was so interesting seeing how one day we had five
pounds and the next day we would have one pound,” Boyd says. “It was really crazy, and I noticed what the lunch was at school was a really big factor.” For example, she explains, if the food on the menu wasn’t a favorite, the amount of waste was higher. The lesson? “You should only get what you like. It’s actually easier than you would think to change and make a big difference.”
In October, fifth graders spread the word about what they’d learned about food waste during a school-wide global education assembly dedicated to diving deeper into United Nation Sustainable Development Goal #2: End hunger, achieve food security, improve nutrition, and promote sustainable agriculture. After sharing details of their experiment, they left their peers in every grade with a challenge: to try to limit food waste in the cafeteria and at home.
EXPLORING COMPOSTING EFFORTS IN OUR COMMUNITY
By November, Intermediate Program
students had cut their daily food waste in the Dining Commons in half. Armed with a month’s worth of firsthand experience collecting organic waste, Sweigart kicked off the next phase of their experiment: a hands-on lesson in how food is being composted here in Charleston with a first-ever Ashley Hall field trip to Bees Ferry Landfill.
“We wanted to see how a landfill and compost center worked on a larger scale and how we might find a resource to help us with our composting efforts,” Sweigart says. “Combined, they are helping our entire community with resources to collect food waste from schools and restaurants to help in producing usable compost for the county.”
Charleston County began composting yard waste in 1993 at the Bees Ferry Landfill. In
July 2020, McGill Environmental Systems was awarded a 10-year contract to manage the composting facility where they now recycle yard waste collected throughout the area, as well as food waste, explains Billy Crocker, plant manager at McGill’s Bees Ferry composting facility.
“Recycling organic material is important because it saves landfill space,” Crocker explained to students on their field trip. “It also creates a valuable resource called compost.” Crocker led students on the tour of the facility so they could get an upclose look at every phase of the composting process, from collection to mixing to decomposition. (See sidebar)
One of the most surprising tidbits students learned was how hot the mounds of decomposing waste get while they break down on the molecular level. They watched as steam crept off the heaps of organic matter, which reach 145 degrees fahrenheit, and used a long thermometer to test their temperatures. They also learned how workers must keep them cool, as well as
HOW IS COMPOST MADE AT BEES FERRY LANDFILL?
STEP 1 Participating local restaurants, grocery stores, and schools separate food waste and recyclables from their trash.
STEP 2 Private haulers collect food waste for a fee and bring it to the county's compost facility for processing. There, it is mixed with shredded yard waste and a mix of enzymes producing microorganisms to speed up decomposition.
STEP 3 Throughout the composting process, staff monitors and records the moisture content and temperature of the material. A machine called a windrow turner mixes the rows periodically to provide oxygen for the microorganisms to continue breaking down the material.
STEP 4 After 60 days, a nutrient-rich compost product is ready to be sold to the community. Compost can be used in gardens, landscaping, horticulture, and agriculture to enhance soil and help retain water.
Source: Charleston County Government, charlestoncounty.org
what happens when non-organic waste creeps into a compost pile.
“You can't put your food waste in a trash bag because it will ruin the whole point of it,” Boyd explains. “If it’s still in a trash bag, it will not turn to compost. It'll just stay plastic forever.”
Over 80,000 tons of material is composted at Bees Ferry Landfill on an annual basis and compost products are then sold and certified under the US Composting Council’s Seal of Testing Assurance program. “It’s been a tremendous success,” Crocker says. “My first year here, we made 7,000 cubic yards of compost, which is a lot. This year we will make 24,000 cubic yards. So we're seeing exponential growth, and it is all sold before it's even screened. We have no shortage of customers. We literally can't make it fast enough to keep the local landscape nurseries supplied.”
EXPERIMENTING WITH SUSTAINABLE
SOLUTIONS
ON CAMPUS
So how can we start composting on campus? In January, fifth graders began experimenting with ways they could recycle their food scraps, starting with a product called the Green Cone Solar Waste Digester, a natural system that reduces organic waste to its natural components of water and carbon dioxide.
“The girls were very excited about this idea,” Sweigart says. “When we saw the simplicity of this composter, we thought it was a perfect small step to start with the fifth grade students, and we let them use their food waste as a test trial.”
Students dug holes outside of the Intermediate Program building and installed three Green Cones. “It’s a contraption that you dig a hole for,” explains Boyd. “We put our food waste in the top of it and close the lid and organisms can break it down and it would turn back into soil.”
But their efforts were halted when landscaping and wildlife concerns entered the picture. Now, fifth graders are back to square one when it comes to coming up with a student-led composting solution, and more emphasis has been placed on school-wide partnership opportunities to help Ashley Hall compost at scale.
One option would be to enlist the help of SMART Recycling, a private Charleston-based waste pick-up company that works with schools in the area to bring their organic waste to Bees Ferry composting facility. “There are many factors involved in implementing a schoolwide composting program,” explains Sweigart. “It’s a true community effort. Everyone from the kitchen staff to administrators, as well as the students' involvement are all required. Everyone needs to want to make this work. But no matter the cost or the logistics, we need to do the right thing, which is to reduce food waste.”
As the number of schools, restaurants, and local businesses wanting to commit to naturally recycling their food waste continues to grow, McGill’s staff is focused on growth to help meet composting demands. “We're actually about to get a large grant to build a food waste processing station at our facility as well,” Crocker adds. “So once we have some automation, SMART Recycling will be able to step up their routes and partnerships with schools knowing we can handle more food waste.”
Back at Ashley Hall, Intermediate Program students also have their eyes set on the future. Knowing how far they have come with their efforts to reduce food waste, they are excited for the new fifth grade class to visit Green River Preserve in September. They hope they too will be inspired to make a change in the Dining Commons. With their help, and the help of teachers, staff, and community members, they are set on keeping their composting mission moving.
Composting in Early School Classrooms
As part of the School’s U.N. Sustainability Goal of Zero Hunger, Early School educators began their own composting initiative in January 2024 using the Lomi, a countertop food composter. Through a grant, they were able to purchase a Lomi for each classroom. Now, students use them daily to collect food waste. Here, Early School faculty member Katie Harvard takes us through the process:
Next, the children look through the skylight top to see how, when we push the button on the Lomi, it begins its job of grinding down our food into a hay-like substance.
1. 2. 3. 4.
“ “ “ ” ” ”
After making their observations, sometimes with a microscope, students empty their Lomi into new composting bins that sit along the edge of their outdoor classroom. There, it’s mixed with soil to later be used in the Early School gardens.
After we eat snack and lunch, we put all of our food that we would have previously thrown away into our Lomi.
In a matter of hours, their food is transformed inside the Lomi.
We then can explore the contents and examine it closely using our sense of smell, touch, and sight.
Written by Liz Regalia
THE NEXT ADVENTURE
Eliza Willis ’28 meeting Miss Corny Pants, the 12-year-old corn snake that frequents Allison Bowden’s Honors Wildlife Biology class on Freshman Flip Day. In this onesemester elective offered to juniors and seniors, students learn about native wildlife, including non-venomous corn snakes.
Photos by
Brian Principe
Every fall, Ashley Hall eighth graders get a unique opportunity: to see the future.
While it may sound like a magic trick, there’s no sorcery involved – just the clever planning of Nautilus and Upper School faculty members who organize Freshman Flip Day, an event designed to give students a sneak peek into classes and programming offered in grades 9-12.
On this special day, students split into small groups to rotate through a carefully curated lineup of sessions led by Upper School educators to introduce them to their high school experience. From science to world languages, faculty members each offer unique insight into the curriculum they teach, as well as how they work with students.
“One of the biggest differences between eighth and ninth grades revolves around being evaluated for your coursework on a transcript that colleges see,” says Upper School faculty member Sarah Margaret Decker. “I want to be a part of that conversation with students in the eighth grade, so they see firsthand that grades are a partnership with Upper School faculty. We learn alongside one another in their courses, we set goals together, the faculty members give feedback, and students adjust their habits or deepen their engagement, and we move forward together.”
Freshman Flip Day also features sessions that offer a glimpse into student life in the Upper School. “One of the biggest differences that ninth graders at Ashley Hall notice is that there is more freedom and independence,” explains Dean of the Nautilus Program Desiree Bonetto. “The students recognize that this has its pros and cons. Students feel more empowered with their additional freedom, but they also have to be sure to manage themselves and their work.”
To help them with this exciting transition, students learn about counseling and academic support services available in grades 9-12 and meet the faculty members involved. They also explore new buildings located off Ashley Hall’s main campus which house Upper School classes and events to get them both comfortable and excited for how their world will expand in ninth grade.
“Freshman Flip Day serves as a valuable introduction to the whole Upper School experience at Ashley Hall,” says Upper School faculty member Allison Bowden. “This event ignites enthusiasm and anticipation for the upcoming educational journey, leaving students with a sense of excitement and readiness. It is so neat to witness their eagerness to engage in new challenges and cultivate a mindset of lifelong learning.”
We tagged along with one group of students in the Class of 2028 as they explored new corners of campus this Freshman Flip Day. Here’s a look at what they experienced when they swapped places with ninth graders to learn about life in Ashley Hall’s Upper School.
10 A.M.
CLASS OF 2028 BONDING
At the start of the day, students received their much-anticipated Class of 2028 T-shirts – a Freshman Flip Day tradition! They also learned that they will be split into six advisory groups led by a team of Upper School faculty members in ninth grade. But these are no ordinary advisories. Freshmen are placed on teams called Palio contradas which act as their advisory groups, and they will compete against each other in humanities challenges throughout the year. (Read more about the Palio program on page 27)
Students also learned about the annual ninth-grade trip to Nantahala Outdoor Center for rafting, zip-lining, and other team-building activities which kicks off the school year. “One of the reasons I love ninth grade is because we start the year with this great adventure trip,” Upper School faculty member Libby Russler explained to students. “The highlight is whitewater rafting with your advisory group down rapids.”
11 A.M. SCIENCE AT THE GREENHOUSE
Next, students, led by Upper School faculty member Allison Bowden, headed across Rutledge Avenue to the Elizabeth House. Students toured the small greenhouse located behind the building as Bowden shared an overview of the science curriculum in grades 9-12, including ninth grade biology. The class explores ecology, viruses and bacteria, evolution, and biochemistry, Bowden explained. “If you enjoyed life science in seventh grade then you will flourish in ninth grade biology,” she said. “We just dive a little deeper into the topics.”
Bowden also shared details of two one-semester electives she teaches, Honors Botany and Honors Wildlife Biology. Juniors and seniors who sign up for this elective frequent the greenhouse to study native plants and also spend time with native wildlife, including Bowden’s 12-year-old corn snake – who made a surprise appearance on Freshman Flip Day! “Through discussions on topics ranging from snakes to bromeliads, I provide a glimpse of the learning experiences that lie ahead,” Bowden says of her Freshman Flip Day session. “My goal is to leave them with a positive and memorable interaction.”
12 P.M. HUMANITIES IN WARREN STREET HOUSE
Just before lunch, students met around the Harkness table on the second floor of the Warren Street House to get an overview of the ninth grade humanities with Upper School faculty members Andrea Muti and Libby Russler. “Humanities I is an interdisciplinary course in which you will learn to connect the texts we are reading in English class to the concepts you are learning in history,” explained Russler. “The tables encourage a student-centered classroom where each student can share her ideas in a collaborative community of learners. We want students to take intellectual risks and to find their own voices in class.”
Muti shared the topics ninth grade students discuss in European history, including the Dark Ages, Renaissance, and the French Revolution, while Russler highlighted the complimentary texts they read across the hall in English class, including Shakespeare’s Othello, Dante’s Inferno, and Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein.
2
P.M. WORLD LANGUAGES IN THE TEST KITCHEN
Twice a semester, Upper School French and Spanish students take a trip to the kitchen on the top floor of Warren Street House for a cooking activity. For Freshman Flip Day, world languages faculty members Sarah Margaret Decker and Mahe VanDyck designed a crepe cooking demo in the afternoon to show eighth graders what the process is like.
“When you enter the test kitchen, you stay immersed,” Decker explained. “You stay in the language, whether it’s French or Spanish, throughout every task involved.” First, students pick a recipe to study that is unique to a specific European culture. Then they split into teams to get to work translating items in the ingredient list along with verbs detailed in the cooking instructions. Finally, students spend an 85-minute class cooking their recipe in the test kitchen.
“On behalf of the world languages department, I love hosting students in the test kitchen in Warren because it is an immersive experience for both the target language and the culture,” Decker says. “Plus, it is just fun and delicious!”
3 P.M. | TOUR OF LANE STUDENT LIFE CENTER
The day ended with a visit to Lane Student Life Center which houses student life support as well as counseling services for students in grades 9-12. Students met Director of Counseling and Upper School Student Life Kelly Sumner to get an overview of wellness and community service requirements in Upper School, as well as the many societies students can join to explore extracurricular interests in high school.
Eighth graders also met with Director of College Counseling Amanda Murrell, who they will begin working with as freshmen. “In ninth grade, we will begin talking about your transcript and a program we use that allows you to track everything you do in high school, from sports to music, to volunteer work,” Murrell shared. “That sets a foundation for your junior year when we start meeting one-on-one and talking specifically about colleges and gap year opportunities.”
Last but certainly not least, students were invited to sample treats from SLICE, the café located in the Student Life Center. Here, Upper School students can use their badges to swipe and pay for items like snacks, drinks, and coffee, a system modeled after college payment processes to help prepare them for life after Ashley Hall.
Lives That Inspire
The same year that Barbie stepped into the global spotlight as a feminist icon, Ashley Hall alumna Kristina Kiehl ’66 was working with Mattel to create the latest edition in their Inspiring Women doll series, the Wilma Mankiller collectible Barbie. This March, she welcomed us into her home in Tahlequah, Oklahoma and shared how it all happened.
hen alumna Kristina Kiehl ’66 checked her inbox on the morning of December 1, 2021, there was a message waiting that would change not only her world, but the world. “I hope this email finds you well,” it began, an everyday greeting at the top of a not-so-everyday email from the corporate licensing acquisition team at Mattel. She kept reading:
“A key pillar for Barbie is the Inspiring Women line, developed to pay tribute to incredible women who took risks, changed rules, and paved the way for generations of girls to dream bigger than ever before. To continue to build on this powerful series of dolls, we would love to highlight Wilma Mankiller.”
Since Mankiller’s passing in 2010, Kiehl has been working to keep her friend’s legacy of trailblazing Native American activism alive. Together with Mankiller’s widower Charlie Soap, a lifelong community leader for the Cherokee Nation, and indigenous female leaders from across the country, she is ensuring the next generation knows the inspiring accomplishments of Wilma Mankiller. And who else better to help at this point in history than Barbie?
ABOVE | Kristina Kiehl ’66 at her home in Tahlequah, Oklahoma, the capital of the Cherokee Nation. LEFT | Kiehl holding a Wilma Mankiller collectible Barbie, which she helped design with Mattel. For the inside of the box, she chose a quilt-like motif featuring various pictures which reflect different eras of Mankiller’s extraordinary life.
THE WOMAN BEHIND WILMA
Wilma Mankiller was the first woman elected to lead the Cherokee Nation, the country’s largest sovereign tribal government. She was a fierce activist for Native American and women’s rights known for inspiring indigenous communities to come together and create positive change. In 1998, Mankiller was awarded the prestigious Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor. When she visited the White House to be recognized for this outstanding achievement, by her side was Kiehl, her close friend and confidant for over 25 years.
Today, as Kiehl looks out at the running Illinois River from her living room window, Mankiller’s Presidential Medal of Freedom hangs on the wall behind her. Kiehl’s home is nestled in the woods just outside Tahlequah, Oklahoma, the capital of the Cherokee Nation. Keepsakes from Mankiller’s impactful life are on display along with memorabilia from Kiehl’s own life as a political activist.
Kiehl was a boarding student at Ashley Hall before graduating in 1966. “I actually went to 14 different schools before I graduated from high school,” Kiehl says. “We moved a lot, so I was constantly adapting to what I was doing.” From her time in Charleston, there are few of Kiehl’s memories that don’t include her roommate Frances Close ’66, whether it was listening to Bob Dylan in their dorm room or visiting her family in Fort Mill. After graduation, Kiehl graduated from the University of South Carolina, then continued to travel, eventually finding her way to San Francisco.
In 1979, Kiehl co-founded Voters for Choice, a bipartisan women's rights political action committee, with journalist and feminist activist Gloria Steinem. In a hand-woven basket by the spiral wooden staircase is a blanket with the organization’s original logo. It was Steinem who first introduced Kiehl to Mankiller with the suggestion of helping her on the campaign trail in the mid-80s after their work together as organizers in the women’s movement.
“It was a great nexus, and a role I particularly like,” Kiehl says. “I like being able to figure out how to fix what's needed at that moment and look a little ahead. I always prefer to be the helper rather than the person in front of the microphone. My favorite thing to do was be behind Gloria, be behind Wilma, just getting stuff done.”
For the next three decades, Kiehl split her time between Voters for Choice with Steinem and helping with Mankiller’s political campaigns. Her work included creating advertisements, raising money, and planning events under the guidance of Mankiller and Soap.
“During that time, I’d come and stay with Wilma and Charlie doing campaign fundraising and work, sometimes for 10 days at a time,” Kiehl says. “I would also just be Wilma’s right hand and help Charlie with anything he needed when Wilma was sick.” Throughout their friendship, Mankiller suffered various medical complications, including a kidney transplant, surgeries, chemotherapy, and a near fatal car accident which threatened her ability to walk.
“I would be wiped out after those trips,” Kiehl admits. “Wilma, meanwhile, is on 18 different medications, a foot that's broken for a year, and she’s getting called at 1 o'clock in the morning by people who need help in her community.” Tears fill her eyes. “But Wilma made it look easy – all of it, down to being able to walk with a broken foot,” she says. “Our relationship developed with me just being able to help. That’s all I wanted to do.”
Even after Mankiller’s death from pancreatic cancer, Kiehl has wanted to help. In 2013, she and Soap co-produced “The Cherokee Word for Water,” a film inspired by the true story of Mankiller and Soap empowering a struggling indigenous community to build their own 18mile waterline with volunteer labor. The film aimed to spark awareness of not only modern day Native American communities, but
continue to inspire similar self-help projects.
“I think Wilma’s legacy was developing leadership,” Soap says of his late wife. “Tribes all over the country, around the world looked up to her leadership skills – and she had a really simple method.” Soap pauses to touch his chest. “The heart. She always said, ‘Just trust the people, Charlie. They can do anything they want to do. Just give them the tools to work.’”
BRINGING VISIBILITY TO INDIGENOUS PEOPLE
Over the last 14 years, Kiehl has partnered with numerous national and global organizations eager to honor Mankiller for her many accomplishments, including the U.S. Department of the Treasury to create the Wilma Mankiller Quarter, Girl Scouts of America to create a Girl Scout patch, and more. But when Mattel reached out with the idea of a Wilma Mankiller Barbie, Kiehl was hesitant. As a lifelong feminist who helped organize the women’s movement, the dolls were admittedly not something she had any affinity toward. So she asked for guidance.
“Through Wilma and Charlie, I have a strong network of Indian women elders,” Kiehl says. “So the first thing I did was I contacted four of them to see what they would think about a Wilma collectible Barbie.” One of those women was sociologist and attorney Gail Small, a member of the Northern Cheyenne Tribe in Lame Deer, Montana. Small was featured on the cover of Mankiller’s book, “Every Day Is a Good Day,” which tells stories from Indigenous women about their resilience and perseverance.
“I’ve worked with young tribal girls all my life, and I see their self-esteem plummet right around 5 years old,” Small wrote to
ABOVE | The Intertribal Powwow during Cherokee National Holiday begins with a "Grand Entry" during which everyone rises to their feet as an elder leads a parade of dancers into a round arena. During Mankiller’s very last Grand Entry as Principal Chief, she asked Kiehl to join her.
Barbie THE MAKING OF A
While Mattel was not capable of recreating the stripes on the basket Mankiller held in the original photograph due to constraints designing with the plastic, the accessory the doll carries is modeled after baskets which have been hand-woven by Soap’s full-blood Cherokee relatives. This one, which is nearly an identical match, was made with handmade tools from Hickory bark.
The stripes on Mankiller’s dress have deep meaning in Native American culture. “These are medicine colors,” Soap says. “When we pray, we pray for all races, not just our people,” Soap explains who is full- blood Cherokee. The four colors represent north, south, east, and west, and different races around the world.
The doll’s look takes inspiration from this iconic photograph of Mankiller taken by Soap. “Wilma was comfortable being a prism through which people unfamiliar with Indian Country could get to know a wider version of Indian Country,” Kiehl says.
The design process began with Mattel sending eight different Barbie doll heads to Kiehl so she could, together with Soap, decide on the best coloring.
TOP RIGHT | Photo of Wilma Mankiller courtesy of Kristina Kiehl.
Kiehl. “As they grow up on the reservation, it becomes increasingly dangerous for their safety and wellbeing. I feel like this Wilma doll is Wilma pushing us…to keep doing the important and meaningful work for our tribes.”
The response from the group was unanimously in favor of working with Mattel to have indigenous women represented by the iconic doll. So Kiehl got to work, first discussing contracts. In particular, she requested that Mankiller not be the only indigenous doll produced, but rather one of many. Kiehl sent Mattel a list of both notable Native American women who could be collectible doll options, as well as a diverse list of occupations, cultures, and tribes to be considered for non-collectible indigenous dolls.
“Wilma wanted interest in her to be a prism to see and understand a bigger picture,” Kiehl says. “She would've wanted this to be
a vehicle for more visibility of not only other indigenous women and men doing incredible things, but their history and range of potential accomplishments and opportunities going forward. Not just for Native people here, but indigenous efforts worldwide.”
indigenous cultures. They also committed to creating a Maria Tallchief Collectible doll in 2024 who was the first Native American prima ballerina. “They embraced all of it,” Kiehl says.
The second thing Kiehl negotiated focused on Mattel’s Dream Gap Project, a program which has provided over $1 million in funding to various organizations working to remove barriers that prevent young girls from reaching their potential. Under Soap and Kiehl’s recommendation, they initiated a fund for Native American girls.
As a result, Mattel partnered with Illuminative, a Native American woman-led racial and social justice organization, to create four indigenous dolls in 2023 that reflected
With contracts signed, and plans in motion, next came the truly hard part, according to Kiehl: designing a Barbie doll in the likeness of Mankiller. From body type to skin color, shoes to clothing, the decisions were far more challenging than she could have imagined from the very start. Overwhelmed, but not
Kiehl with family friend Max Sweeney opening his new Wilma Mankiller collectible Barbie. His mother, television producer Melanie Sweeney, worked on “The Cherokee Word for Water” with Kiehl and Soap, and offered support and guidance throughout the Barbie design process. Max even got a chance to help when Sweeney was selecting photos to appear inside the box.
deterred, she reached out to sports and talent agent Lindsay Kagawa Colas who represents some of the most important female athletes in the world. Her clients include WNBA star Brittney Griner and champion fencer Ibtihaj Muhammad, who also happens to have a Barbie which Colas designed with Mattel.
“Lindsay helped in several ways,” Kiehl says. “One, in reassuring me that Mattel wanted to get it right – which is huge. And second, in terms of body type, you have a limited range, but her depiction could go beyond the doll itself. You must focus on representing a time that you want people to notice, but with other capacities they have, like the box, you can widen that range.”
INSPIRING THE NEXT GENERATION
When the Wilma Mankiller Barbie was released in November 2023 in celebration of Native American Heritage month, it sold out in less than 24 hours. But as grueling as they were to decide, the doll’s plastic details were not the reason for the doll’s success – it was the momentous mark Mankiller has left on history.
“A small doll can carry a vibrant weave in this tapestry of dialogue that is framing our times,” Jay Hannah, trusted Mankiller advisor during her time as Chief, wrote to Mattel on the launch of the Barbie. “For your good work to provide young and old alike yet another touchpoint of goodness is laudable. Wilma’s life was a touchstone for our people and the truths of her services can be for a broader audience.”
In conjunction with the doll’s release, Hannah, who is a citizen of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, led a panel with Kiehl for Mattel’s global brand marketing team to share first-hand stories about Mankiller, as well as his native Cherokee language. “The impact of that call was raising visibility and awareness of not just history and culture in the sense of something that's passed, but as something Wilma embodied and now reflects out to the world,” Kiehl says.
Listening to those who were closest to Mankiller reflect on her legacy, the admirable traits Mankiller embodied feel infinite. From intelligent to honest, diplomatic to charismatic, Soap and Kiehl oscillate from laughter to tears when asked to describe the human they loved. But there is one trait she possessed that seems to enter conversations about Mankiller more than any other.
“Wilma was inclusive,” Kiehl says, offering a memorable story. “She marched with [Black civil rights leader] Coretta Scott King in Atlanta in 1981. Afterward, she was approached by a Cherokee woman who said, ‘Why are you doing that? She's not your race, and she's not our race.’ And Wilma simply replied, ‘Yes, she is. Same race – human race. We all are.’”
After nearly two years working with Mattel to create the Wilma Mankiller Barbie, Kiehl prioritized sharing the doll with Mankiller’s loved ones. She spent weeks alongside a post office clerk named Danielle in Tahlequah after the doll’s launch to ship more than 100 preordered Barbie’s to friends and family around the world anticipating they would sell out. But while Kiehl was busy paying for postage, an unfortunate error was discovered on the Barbie box that has since been corrected. The bumps along the way made for an exhausting end to a long labor of love, a time so taxing both emotionally and physically that Kiehl didn’t even think to open a single doll herself until months later.
In March during our visit to her home, which she now shares with Soap, Kiehl opened her first Wilma Mankiller collectible Barbie. She was giving it as a gift to a young family friend named Max who was desperate for his own. Together, they took the doll out, then they headed into the living room. With Max in her lap and Mankiller’s Medal of Freedom behind her, Kiehl shared stories about her friend, then flipped over the empty Barbie box to read last lines written at the bottom aloud:
“Girls – and boys – need more role models like Principal Chief Wilma Mankiller, because imagining they can be anything is just the beginning,” Kiehl said softly. “Actually seeing somebody who does that can make all the difference.” She paused. “Wow,” she added..“Who would've thought a doll could make a difference?”
A LASTING Legacy
“The secret of our success is that we never, never give up.”
– Wilma Mankiller, 1945-2010
In addition to allocating funds to Native American girls through the Dream Gap Fund, Mattel also donated $25,000 along with Mankiller Barbies to four non-profit entities representing different indigenous communities around the country, including: American Indian Resource Center; Arizona Native Vote; Calling Our Spirits Forward; and Indigenous World Organization.
Contributions were timed to celebrate not only the doll’s release in November 2023, but Mankiller’s birthday on November 18. Within various communities, Native American elders and children came together to sew their own traditional dresses for their Wilma Mankiller Barbies.
“What both Gloria and Wilma would always say is this: ‘It’s
what you do with what we've shared that
is
what matters,’”
Kiehl says. “There is so much more that can come of their work if young people, especially females, continue it. And that is the message.”
This story was produced in collaboration with Kristina Kiehl and Charlie Soap.
100FULL CIRCLE
Written by Liz Regalia | Photos by Brian Principe
Educator Donya Amer ’11 in her fifth grade classroom at Memminger School of Global Studies holding a photograph of younger self in first grade at Ashley Hall. “This is when my grandma came into my class to teach about Ramadan, and she brought me up to teach with her,” Amer says. That’s also my teacher Dana Van Hook who’s now retired and on the board of Horizons at Ashley Hall. It definitely feels like everything has come pretty full circle.”
While most teachers say goodbye to their classrooms come summertime, Ashley Hall alumna Donya Amer ’11 trades one for another. Now, her dedication to teaching young people in Charleston year round feels like it’s come full circle as she celebrates being nationally recognized for her work as an elementary educator on the same campus she once called home.
Sitting outside a coffee shop on the corner of Beaufain Street in downtown Charleston, Donya Amer’s eyes are on the playground across the street. Her fifth grade students from Memminger School of Global Studies have spotted her after hours. Their school is only a block away.
“Hey, Ms. Amer!” a young girl shouts from her scooter.
“Did you do your homework if you’re out here playing?” Amer shouts back with a smile.
“I did, I swear!” Then off she goes giggling with her friends.
“I tell my girls all the time I’m going to be harder on them than the boys because it's harder for us out here in the world,” Amer says, who has taught fifth grade at Memminger for four years. “I explain to them that women are held to a different standard unfortunately, so you have to take things seriously – then I tell them that they can rule the world. The bigger the risk, the bigger the reward for us.”
In 2018, Amer, a 12-year Ashley Hall girl and graduate of the Class of 2011, took her own big risk. She pivoted from a 9-5 life working in internet technology after graduating from Wofford College and went back to school to pursue her passion for working with children. Now the rewards? It’s safe to say they are paying back in spades.
A DEDICATED EDUCATOR
Upon graduating from College of Charleston with a master of arts in teaching in 2020, Amer spent a year student teaching at Memminger through Urban Synergy, a program that places rising educators in Title I schools to deepen their own learning. It was then that Amer learned many of her students spent their summers across town at her very own alma mater attending Horizons at Ashley Hall, an all-girls educational program designed to prevent learning loss during the summer. Applying to join this program felt like a natural step.
“I just love developing relationships with the kids,” Amer says. “It's my favorite part, and the biggest benefit of working with Horizons
"is being able to bring the relationships that I build in the summer back into the everyday classroom. I can use the extra information that I already know about them from the summer, and also give any input that I can to other teachers.”
Amer has been teaching year round ever since, splitting her time between Memminger and Horizons at Ashley Hall, and her dedication to her students these past four years has not gone unnoticed. This year, Amer was selected as a Lyn McNaught Teacher Award winner from Horizons National, an award that recognizes educators who have excelled in Horizons classrooms by providing exemplary opportunities for students.
“Donya’s classroom has a calm and joyful energy where students thrive academically and emotionally,” says Nolie Mangan, Executive Director of Horizons at Ashley Hall. “She is an inspiring teacher who creatively engages her class, creates clear structure and expectations, and infuses social-emotional learning intentionally and thoughtfully in everything she does.
Donya is the epitome of the characteristics required for receiving the Lyn McNaught Teacher Award. She is dynamic, charismatic, caring, driven, and compassionate. She has worked diligently to ensure that many of our students at Memminger benefit from the beautiful Horizons Summer Program. We are proud of her and know that the correct winner for this award was selected this year.
– CHERYL WASH, ASSISTANT PRINCIPAL AT MEMMINGER SCHOOL OF GLOBAL STUDIES
Amer in Pardue Hall, the same building where she attended grades 1-4, with the 2024 Lyn McNaught Teacher Award from Horizons National.
Donya’s classroom is a safe space and close-knit community where students feel empowered to take risks, be themselves, and be vulnerable.”
As a Lyn McNaught Teacher Award winner, Amer has been working with Horizons educators from around the country. In February 2024, she led a session for other educators to share teaching techniques that have been successful in her classrooms, including cooperative learning structures which prioritize communication and active student engagement.
“Cooperative learning is all about building a really good community within your classroom,” Amer says. “For example, we start the year with team building activities because there has to be a lot of trust for kids to feel comfortable communicating and
It's truly the best of both worlds to do what I love in the place where I grew up. In a sense, I think I always knew I'd find my way back at Ashley Hall.
– DONYA AMER ’11
leading a conversation. There has to be a lot of mutual respect, and I have loved bringing that into Horizons classrooms.”
BEYOND THE CLASSROOM
The level of support Amer offers both Horizons and Memminger students does not stop in the classroom however. She builds strong and lasting partnerships with Horizons families as well, checking in regularly throughout the year, explains Mangan. “On several occasions, when a Horizons family has been in need of support, in crisis, or there is exciting news to celebrate, Donya has been the first person called, which demonstrates the depth of her relationships with our Horizons families and the trust that she builds in these partnerships.”
It’s this commitment to going the extra mile for families that first impressed Horizons Board Chair Eric Strickland when he first met Amer in 2020. “She worked tirelessly with families to help with options for middle school after they graduated from Memminger,” Strickland says. “She identified talents in students and showed them how to build a portfolio to apply to School of the Arts, and other middle and high school options.”
This is work Amer continues to do every year for every one of her students. “Donya's strength is her ability to form relationships with her students and their families,” says Assistant Principal Cheryl Wash at Memminger. “She works to ensure that her students and their families have access to the school choice process for middle school selection. She has organized food and clothing drives for students here. Donya really cares about her students, and they know it.”
PAYING IT FORWARD
Amer’s commitment to going the extra mile for her students is something she credits to her own teachers at Ashley Hall who showed her the same support growing up. “I always felt like they had my back no matter what,” Amer says. “I knew if I ever became a teacher, I wanted my students to feel that exact same way. I just appreciate them so much.”
Ashley Hall educators like Sarah Margaret Decker, Dr. Roscoe Davis, Meghan Ward, and Franny Slay ’80 are just a few mentors Amer now refers to as her educational inspirations. Today, they recall Amer as brimming with confidence as Student Body President during her time as an Upper School student. Yet prior to graduating, Amer admits to struggling with pressures most didn’t realize. “Deep down, I always wanted to work with kids,” Amer says. “But choosing a career, I felt a lot of cultural pressure. I grew up in an Arabic household, and it was very much ingrained in me that you’re going to be a doctor or you're gonna be a lawyer.”
Which is ironic, Amer confesses, because both her grandmother and great aunt were teachers. “My grandmother taught English to kids in Kuwait,” she says. “Then when she came to the U.S., she was a special education teacher. So it's in our blood, yet there was a ton of cultural pressure that I was actually
unknowingly putting on myself. It was really on me to make the decision to do what I knew I always wanted to do, which was work with children.”
While Amer emphasizes how different the pressures her own students feel while navigating their education in Charleston are from those she felt, the traits required to overcome any obstacle growing up are universal. Those are the traits she works hardest to instill in her students, especially in her all-girls classroom at Horizons at Ashley Hall.
"I want my girls to know they are not limited to any area or life, and to always feel proud, confident, and like they can speak up for themselves in a way that's respectful in any environment,” Amer says. “I want to be a role model for them in that sense. They are in charge of their own future, and they really can rule the world.”
BELOW | Amer
her
and Horizons
HORIZONS AT ASHLEY HALL AT A GLANCE
Through a balance of academics, enrichment, swimming, and confidence-building activities, each Horizons program inspires the joy of learning. Here’s a closer look at what Horizons at Ashley Hall offers and the impact on its students.
ACADEMICS | Horizons features a hands-on curriculum of literacy, STEM, social emotional learning and the arts, resulting in an overall national average of 8.8 weeks gain in reading and math skills over the course of the daily six week summer program.
COMMUNITY PARTNERSHIPS | Horizons works closely with other nonprofits and organizations in the community with like-minded visions and missions to provide unique opportunities that otherwise may not be accessible to Horizons students.
SWIMMING | Swimming is a core component of Horizons, and students receive daily swim instruction, a lifesaving skill that instills confidence in the students that transfers to the classroom.
SOCIAL EMOTIONAL LEARNING | Social-emotional learning benefits both students and teachers by teaching social awareness, self- awareness, and self-management, which leads to more positive social behaviors and relationships, improved attitudes about the self and others, increased ability to manage stress, and increased academic performance.
IMPACT
• Higher attendance rates
• Fewer disciplinary referrals
• Higher GPAs in ninth grade
• Consistent gains of 6-10 weeks of grade equivalence in reading and math over each summer session
For more information or to get involved, visit www.horizonsatashleyhall.com
with
Horizons students
Assistant Teachers (HATS) at Ashley Hall in the summer of 2023. Photo by Kelly Grace Photography. BELOW RIGHT | Amer in her Horizons classroom on the second floor of Pardue Hall. Photo by Kelly Grace Photography.
Alumnae Weekend 2024
MINGLE CELEBRATE CONNECT... REUNION!
Kathryn Reddick, the School’s Director of Alumnae Engagement & Giving, reflects on her first year at Ashley Hall and the opportunity to work alongside the Alumnae Association Board to execute a joyous schedule of events during Alumnae Weekend 2024 in April.
“My first year at Ashley Hall has been an incredible one. The community as a whole – especially the alumnae community – has been so welcoming while I have settled into the PQV lifestyle. Having come from a coed private school, Ashley Hall's all-girls spirit has been a breath of fresh air. The camaraderie between students I see every day on campus has been rivaled only by the spirit of our alumnae who returned to Ashley Hall in April for Alumnae Weekend.
It was amazing to see the Alumnae Association Board come together to execute such a wonderful weekend. From the Special Reception for Boarding Students to the Purple & White Party, I experienced every event and witnessed sheer joy as alumnae mingled with friends, many of whom are more like family. Being able to see the sparks of reconnection between old classmates and the heartfelt embraces between bonds nurtured throughout the years was truly a gift. I look forward to many years of serving the Ashley Hall community and continuing to engage with all graduates as I believe the tradition of our School lives on greatly through our alumnae.”
2024 DISTINGUISHED ALUMNAE AWARD WINNERS:
MARTHA RIVERS INGRAM AWARD
Frances Humphreys Roosevelt ’ 74
FERN KARESH HURST AWARD
Susanne Riley Emge ’59
CRANDALL CLOSE BOWLES AWARD
Lisa Sanders ’ 74
TONISHA BELL ALSTON AWARD
Mariana Hay Avant ’09
DEWAR GORDON HOLMES AWARD
Susan Hutto Robinson ’68
ABOVE | Alumnae celebrating on campus during Alumnae Weekend 2024 main events, including Mingle at McBee and the Purple & White Party.
"Returning HOME
In a girl’s school, you watched your peer group taking risks, whether they were directing a play, acting in it, or on the student board. Nobody was holding back... When I got into a small college environment, I had become so confident in the way I was presenting myself, and it's because of these amazing women. – Ruth Makemson McCullough ’64
DID YOU KNOW? | The original Ashley Hall boarding program operated from 1909 to 1974. Boarders attended classes alongside day students, but there were perks of living on campus – one being nightly treats which were served in McBee House. “Every night you would find your way to graham crackers and milk at the bottom of the stairs,” McCullough says. “They were always put out for us. It was tradition.”
To kick off Alumnae Weekend this April, Ashley Hall hosted a special reception honoring students who were a part of the School’s original boarding program. The event was the first of its kind and welcomed 30 alumnae who lived on campus between the years of 1954 and 1974 back to McBee House – the very same building they once called home.
On the evening of April 18, classmates caught up, then reminisced about their time as high school students. From trading shoes to tanning with tin foil, making clothes to dyeing each other's hair, they laughed at how much times have changed since they were in high school. “I lived in the ‘penthouse’ on the fourth floor which is no longer there,” recalls Mary Walker ’64, pointing toward the ceiling of the Drawing Room. “There were five rooms up there, and one bathroom – and we used to crawl out through one of the windows to sunbathe on the roof.”
However, as Ashley Hall alumnae, they also delighted in how much remains the same at their alma mater today. When they were students, seniors were still the only ones allowed in the Shell House, Walker recalls. They also performed Shakespeare plays at the Bear Cave, including “As You Like It” in 1955 and “Twelfth Night” in 1958. And not surprisingly, they still crammed for tests late into the night back in those days – just in secret. “The bathrooms in Lane Hall were the only place with lights, so after ‘lights out’ we’d hide in the shower stalls to study,” Walker says.
By the end of the evening, it became clear that the bond of sisterhood shared by every Ashley Hall alumnae and student also had not changed. “When you're a boarding student, you don't have a lot of freedom; you have a lot of rules,” Ruth Makemson McCullough ’64 says. “You’ll be told to be here, be there, but you’re always together, and that’s the wonderful part of it. You get to know each other on a different level. I've been open to having fabulous women friends my whole life, and I promise you it’s because of what I experienced here as a boarding student.”
ABOVE | Members of the Class of 1964 Peggy Burnett, Ruth Makemson McCullough, and Mary Walker in the McBee House for the boarders reception which kicked off Alumnae Weekend 2024.
SAVE THE DATE: DECEMBER 13, 2024 ST. MATTHEWS LUTHERAN CHURCH
Join Ashley Hall in marking the centennial of this cherished school tradition. First presented in 1924 under the direction of School founder, Mary Vardrine McBee, The Christmas Play draws from English medieval Mystery Plays retelling the Nativity story through song and verse. This anniversary performance is not to be missed.
THE M c BEE SOCIETY
The Planned Giving Society at Ashley Hall
Ashley Hall’s founder, Mary Vardrine McBee, exemplified and championed the merits found in a life of valuedbased philanthropy. Today, she is the patroness of the McBee Society, an organization of foresighted and generous donors who have included Ashley Hall in their estate plans. Bequests and other planned gifts have a lasting impact on Ashley Hall and serve as a continuing source of support. The McBee Society has over one hundred members who have made commitments that will positively impact our community for future generations.
Anonymous * Jennet ’70 and Jack Alterman
Dot Porcher Amis ’58
Mary W. Anderson ’68
Marietta Wade Aurand ’41 *
Nella G. Barkley
Katherine ’65 and William Bates
Esther Hoshall Beaumont ’53
Ruth Russell Belding ’43 *
Marguerite McLaughlin Bishop ’49 *
Anne Frances Bleecker ’76
Michele G. Booth
Ann’70 and John Boyce
Margaret Richards Breeden '52 *
Gene E. Burges ’64 *
Julius E. Burges *
Jean Martschink Buyer ’51 *
Margaret P. Carr ’29 *
Robert S. Carr
Lynda M. Chase ’57*
Helen and Bob* Clement
Debbie Lipman Cochelin’70
Anne de la Morandiere Cooper ’64 and Thomas Cooper
Ann Bacot ’80 and Belk Daughtridge
Harriett B. Daughtridge ’70
Emmie Aichele Dawson ’70
Ann W. Dibble ’70
Susan Estey Edgerly ’43 *
Evelyn A. Florance *
Nancy Friday ’51 *
Nora Alston Flynn ’53 *
Alice ’61 and Mike * Gaines
Celinda H. Harkness ’59 *
Virginia Clyde Douglass Harper ’47 *
Jane * and T. Fleetwood Hassell
Jane Evatt Hill ’47 *
Laurie Arnold Host ’73
Sally ’61 and Charles Hubbard
Fern Karesh Hurst ’64
Martha Rivers Ingram ’53
Amy E. Jenkins ’82
Joan Ferney Kaselitz '47 *
Elizabeth C. Keith *
Trish and Tommy Kirkland
Croft and Hugh Lane
Ann Brockinton Lee ’70
Daisy Leland *
Barbara Angel Levin ’50
Melissa and Jan Levitan
Elizabeth Rivers Lewine ’54
Margaret and Ian MacDonald
Merlee Ann Madren ’56
Amanda and Roy Maybank
Terry and Luke McBee
Marie Ferrara McGahan ’70
Pam and Pat McKinney
Nancy J. Muller ’71 and Warren Mersereau
Piper Parker Moffatt ’70
Eleanor Hope Moore ’56 *
Jill and Lorenzo Muti
Kathy and Pete Nistad
Frances K. Palmer ’26 *
Caroline Pardue *
Lee ’73 and Rhett Perry
Corinne Neely Pettit *
Karen ’79 and Mark Phillips
Linda Muckenfuss Plunkett ’69
Dale C. Poulnot ’73
Mabel Stowe Query ’39 *
Eva R. Ravenel ’73
Heidi ’74 and Arthur Ravenel
Margaret L. Read ’38 *
Caroline H. Ragsdale Reutter’70 *
Jenny and Jerry Reves
Shannon Reynolds
Sally ’66 and Edmund Rhett
Artie Richards
Ms. Keith C. Richardson
Maureen Ann Riopel
John M. Rivers, Jr.
Mary Moore Roberson ’57
Cliff P. Robertson *
Judy Webber Ross ’53
Bobbie Gail ’54 and Herb* Rothschild
Katherine B. Salmons ’71
Iona and Paul Sanders
Beverly Ann ’54 and John Settle *
Lindsay Lyman Skelton ’00
Mary Mahony Smith ’37 *
Mindy J. Spar ’80
Laurel Gale Stewart ’50
Shana and Bobby Stockton
Martha and Will* Story
Rhoda Treherne-Thomas ’44 *
Virginia and Thomas Thorne *
Thomas E. Thornhill *
Anne Thornhill Weston ’73
Alice and Mike White
Elizabeth R. Williams ’45 *
Elizabeth S. Williams ’34 *
Margaret A. Williams ’34 *
Porter Williams, Jr. *
Caroline M. Williamson ’70
Martha Mohl Wolf ’56
Beautsie ’63 and Fred Zahrn *
Barbara and J. Conrad Zimmerman, Jr.
Elephare Dwelle Zimmerman ’40 * *deceased
For more information about including Ashley Hall in your estate plans, please contact the Ashley Hall Office of Institutional Advancement at (843) 965-8480 or Shana Stockton at stocktons@ashleyhall.org.
WINDS OF CHANGE
Written by Liz Regalia | Photos by Brian Principe
Thirty-seven members of the Class of 2024 took their last steps as Ashley Hall students on Sunday, May 26, 2024, marking the end of one incredible chapter of their education and the beginning of the next. Rather than reminisce, graduates were urged to look forward to the future and embrace the power of the unknown during this year’s Commencement Exercises.
“All of us had an idea of what today would look like,” said First Honor Graduate Emorie Stockton ’24 addressing her classmates holding bouquets of red roses in their laps. “But we had no idea what this moment would feel like. Some may now feel overjoyed, relieved, or nervous… In reality, life is unpredictable. The
sooner we realize that, the sooner we can forge our path to create the life we want.”
To prepare them to boldly explore the world beyond the gates of Ashley Hall, the senior class selected a teacher who has led by example as their commencement speaker: Upper School faculty member Andrea Muti. During their time together, Muti has not only led members of the Class of 2024 in humanities discussions in the classroom, but through the streets of Europe and New York City on educational trips aimed to open their eyes to new cultures and experiences.
“As Mahatma Gandhi once said: ‘If you want to find yourself, sometimes you need to lose yourself,’ Muti said as a gentle breeze seemed to beckon the endless possibilities which lie ahead. “For this reason, the main advice I want to share with you today is to explore the world around you. Travel. Get out of your comfort zone. Expand your horizons. We were not born with roots to be planted but with feet so we can walk.”
Originally from the small town of Spoleto, Italy, Muti knows firsthand the rewards of taking a risk on the unknown. In 2009, he moved to the United States, and a year
later, he put down roots in Charleston when he joined the Ashley Hall faculty. After 14 years of service to the School, Muti, who is now a certified International Baccalaureate Educator, will be relocating to Rome with his family this summer. The serendipitous timing of his own departure no doubt deepened the meaning behind his final message to the Class of 2024 on their graduation day:
“Along your academic, professional, and personal journey, you will undoubtedly encounter numerous obstacles,” Muti said. “But regardless of the daunting nature of the trials ahead, what truly defines you is how you confront adversity and rise resiliently after each stumble. So when your goals seem out of reach, or the weight of disappointing a loved one burdens your spirit, take pause and ask yourself, perhaps in the quiet solitude of the night, if you have given your all. And if, in that solitary moment, you can respond to yourself that you've poured your heart and soul into your endeavors, then rest assured – you are weaving the fabric of a life well-lived.”
TOP | Gloria Migliori ’24, KK Roof ’24, and Lauren Piebenga ’24 on the porch of McBee House prior to Commencement 2024. LEFT | First Honor Graduate Emorie Stockton ’24 addressing her classmates.
“Change begins with your actions when you ‘dare to use your own understanding,’ in the words of Immanuel Kant, challenge the norm, and inspire others to do the same. These are the leaders that I hope you will strive to be –young women who lead by example because they fight for what they believe in and do not run after an empty label behind which they hide.
– EXCERPT FROM THE 2024 COMMENCEMENT ADDRESS DELIVERED BY ANDREA MUTI
A GIFT TO THEIR ALMA MATER
Student speakers in this year’s Commencement Exercises also included Second Honor Graduate Elizabeth Perkins ’24 and President of the Class of 2024 Kloe Donner ’24, who presented the Senior Class Gift: a set of new adirondack chairs to be placed on Senior Lawn. This special location (shown right) on campus is where the class spent much of their final year at Ashley Hall, as well as their final moments as students.
“Our hope is that these chairs will remain on the lawn for the dozens of senior classes to come,” Donner announced during commencement. “However, we are not simply gifting chairs, but rather sustaining a place for endless conversations, many laughs, many tears, and a place to remember the everlasting sisterhood that everyone who attends Ashley Hall experiences and cherishes forever.”
CONGRATULATIONS
ASHLEY HALL CLASS OF 2024
The 37 outstanding young women of this year’s graduating class were accepted by 57 of the most prestigious colleges and universities in the nation, garnering $2.9 million in merit scholarships. The Ashley Hall community is proud of all they have accomplished!
Appalachian State University
Auburn University (1) (1)
Boston College (1)
Bucknell University
Charleston Southern University
Clemson University (6) (8)
Coastal Carolina University
College of Charleston (1) (5)
Columbia College (Chicago)
Connecticut College
Davidson College (1)
East Carolina University
Elon University
Florida Atlantic University
Fordham University
Furman University (2)
Hawai’i Pacific University (2)
High Point University (1)
Lafayette College
Lehigh University
Lipscomb University
Louisiana State University (2)
Miami University (Oxford)
Middlebury College
Northeastern University (1)
Penn State University (University Park)
Savannah College of Art and Design
Sewanee: The University of the South (7)
Southern Methodist University (1) (3)
Syracuse University (1) (1)
Texas Christian University (1) (1)
The University of Alabama (2)
The University of Tampa (3)
The University of Tennessee (Knoxville)
Tulane University (1)
University of Arizona
University of Colorado Boulder (1) (2)
University of Dallas
University of Delaware (1) (1)
University of Denver (1)
University of Georgia
University of Kansas
University of Kentucky (1) (2)
University of Miami (1)
University of Mississippi (5) (10)
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (1)
University of Richmond (1) (2)
University of South Carolina (5) (14)
University of Vermont (2)
University of Virginia (1) (1)
Vanderbilt University
Virginia Commonwealth University
Wake Forest University (1)
Washington and Lee University (1)
West Virginia University
Wingate University
Wofford College (1) (4)
Bold in PURPLE type = Schools graduates will attend BLACK type = Schools graduates were accepted
SPREADING LOVE BEYOND THE GATES
Brian Principe
ASHLEY HALL PHOTOGRAPHER
Nestled in the heart of the peninsula, Ashley Hall plays a crucial role in the Charleston community. As a School, we are committed to actively engaging with our city, and this Valentine’s Day, some of our youngest primary and kindergarten students embraced this responsibility through love.
Accompanied by their teachers, the children eagerly ventured out, clutching handmade Valentine's Day cards adorned with glitter, stickers, and heartfelt messages. Their eyes sparkling with excitement as each passerby approached, extended their tiny hands and offered tokens of affection to strangers and neighbors alike.
As the children distributed their cards, their infectious smiles lit up the faces of those they encountered. From MUSC students strolling down Rutledge Avenue to busy commuters heading to work, each recipient was touched by the genuine warmth radiating from these pint-sized ambassadors of love.
This Valentine’s Day, our students learned that a simple act of kindness, no matter how small, has the power to brighten someone's day and plant the seeds which forge meaningful bonds within our community. For a photographer, this was yet another reminder of the importance of capturing these small moments that happen every day at Ashley Hall.
