CANNON
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MAGAZINE
SPRING 2015
Celebrating Our Community
Living Our Core Values
> Community Celebrating Our Community..................................................................................................... 4 Cannon’s New Strategic Plan...................................................................................................... 6 Sustainable Solutions: An Expression of Our Core Values .................................................. 9
CANNON MAGAZINE
Meet the Inaugural Kimbrough Fellows ................................................................................10
SPRING 2015
Investing In Our Students .........................................................................................................12
Cannon Magazine is published semiannually by the Office of Advancement. Send address changes to rriemersma@cannonschool.org.
No Such Thing as Too Many Thanks ......................................................................................13
> Engaged Learning
EDITORIAL STAFF
Winterm: A Transformative, Week-Long Learning Opportunity....................................14
EDITOR Beth Levanti Director of Marketing and Communications
Innovative Solutions: Boldly Going Where Others Have Not..........................................16
ASSOCIATE EDITOR Amy Reiss Marketing and Communications Manager
Cannon School Adds Full-Day Kindergarten ......................................................................19
CONTRIBUTORS Lynda Abel, Marcia Brashear, Matt Gossage, Todd Hartung, C. Jemal Horton, Beth Levanti, Anne and Holt Morrison, Siobhan and Hans Peterson, Amy Reiss, and Mimi Wahid ’17
Faculty Focus: Emily Davis, Kindergarten Teacher and Grade Lead ..............................18
> The Big Picture Where Learning Lives.................................................................................................................20
> Athletics
ADMINISTRATION
Creating a Game Plan for College Athletics .........................................................................22
HEAD OF SCHOOL Matthew E. Gossage
Girls Golfer of the Year ..............................................................................................................24
HEAD OF LOWER SCHOOL Michelle Alexander HEAD OF MIDDLE SCHOOL Carla M. Moyer
Cannon Wins Academic Awards for Girls’ and Boys’ Soccer ...........................................25
> Arts Riding the Carousel.....................................................................................................................26
HEAD OF UPPER SCHOOL Debra Otey
Creativity Flourishes...................................................................................................................28
DIRECTOR OF ADMISSION William Diskin
> Alumni
DIRECTOR OF ADVANCEMENT Todd W. Hartung Jr.
Alumni Spotlight Krista Gross ’09...........................................................................................30 Class Notes....................................................................................................................................31
DIRECTOR OF ATHLETICS Dr. Patrick J. Moyer
Experience Guaranteed...............................................................................................................33
DIRECTOR OF BUSINESS AND FINANCE Whit G. Brown
Alumni Event Photos..................................................................................................................34
DIRECTOR OF COLLEGE COUNSELING Anne Shandley DIRECTOR OF HUMAN RESOURCES Beth Way
COVER: Pictured on the front cover are Izzy Sofio ’16 (left) and Grace Turner ’17 (right) at Upper School House Games.
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In This Issue
Letter from the Head of School < < < < < < < < < < < < “We saw the need this school year to be sure we paused and celebrated those who give so much.”
Dear Cannon Family, During the two days of our administrative team planning in June 2014, it became clear to all of us that the 2014-2015 school year would be the year “to celebrate our community.” We discussed the opportunities we had and could create to gather and honor individuals and this special community. The thinking around the table was that we had been through an important and demanding stretch of effort and work to construct buildings and plans that would move us into an exciting period in the School’s history. We saw the need this school year to be sure we paused and celebrated those who give so much. Community is a blend of past, present, and future. Community must include the widest spectrum of constituents. And community involves people literally lost in what they do to make the place so vibrant. This edition of Cannon Magazine creates a celebration in print and photography of the essence of our community. Engaged students and teachers. Innovation in program. Testimonies of commitment. The energy and passion associated with the arts and athletics in brand new facilities. And accounts of alumni in new endeavors. In these pages, we have a wonderful record of what makes this community distinctive. I know you will enjoy participating in this celebration. Sincerely,
Matthew E. Gossage, Head of School
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Celebrating
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Our Community Cannon’s theme for the 2014-2015 school year is Celebrating Our Community. Enjoy this little slice of life in photos, and join us in celebrating what makes us unique and what each of us contributes to the greater whole. And thank you for being part of the Cannon community!
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1. Upper School Science Department Chair Monty Coggins teaching yoga 2. A little walk with the Cannon Cougar 3. Visitors at Grandparents and Special Friends Day 4. Fourth graders singing their hearts out 5. Cannon’s spring production of Carousel 6. Reactions to the new Cannon Performing Arts Center 7. Moms’ tug-of-war at Gold and Maroon Day 8. A heated game of Gaga Ball 9. Oversized fun at House Games
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Cannon’s New Strategic Plan
Shaping the school we want to become. As a learning community committed to Adaptive Expertise, we are no strangers to reflection and the wonderfully intricate and interwoven ideas that evolve when our teachers, staff, students, and parents work together. We know who we are as a school, yet we are most fulfilled when immersed in the constant process of becoming. And in this spirit, we are actively living out Cannon School’s new strategic plan that our Board of Trustees approved in September. The result of eighteen months of work by faculty, students, parents, board members, and the administration, our new plan addresses six focus areas—teaching and learning, people, culture, enrollment and admission, facilities and spaces, and financial stability. Even as we give ourselves the freedom to imagine the school we want to become, we see certain realities with absolute clarity—the classroom is at the center of everything we want be; the health of our community begins with our partnership with parents; and we are keenly interested in the growth of our students, our faculty and staff, and our campus. We believe you will see these common threads woven throughout the snippets below, and we invite you to follow the link at the end of this article to watch Matt Gossage’s State of the School webinar and a student-produced video series, both of which bring our focus areas to life. Focus Area 1: Teaching and Learning The first focus area of Cannon’s new strategic plan is teaching and learning, and our goal is to enrich the learning experiences of our students by deepening our application of Adaptive Expertise and emphasizing the centrality of the relationship in teaching and learning. Our teachers are the catalysts that spark our students’ learning, and the relationships between our teachers and students lay the foundation for how we live out Adaptive Expertise and for everything we do as a community of learners. Under the leadership of Upper School Social Studies Chair Laura Huffman and our IMPACT (Integrating Mission, Pedagogy, Assessment, Curriculum, and Technology) Leadership Task Forces, our faculty has been hard at work developing a living document that is a synthesis of the main ideas of the writers and thinkers who have influenced our commitment to Adaptive Expertise, relational teaching, and deep learning. This document will be a resource for teachers, students, and families, but most importantly, it will inform how we foster purposeful traits in our students to prepare them for a world that none of us can predict. Preparing our students means providing them with more real-life experiences that challenge them to strive towards becoming adaptive experts and take ownership of what learning and fulfillment look like for them. It means we will rethink how we assess what our students are learning and transform the way they view grades. And it means we will focus our students not on strategic learning or learning for the test, but rather on deep learning for their lives. 6 | SPRING 2015 | CANNON MAGAZINE
Focus Area 2: People With our second focus area, the goal is to nurture our greatest strength—the faculty and staff of Cannon. Cannon’s Board of Trustees is deeply committed to the growth and development of our faculty and staff, and this focus area builds upon an already strong foundation of institutional philosophies and practices. With Cannon’s reputation in the larger community for being a great place to work, we receive a high number of applications for every open position. We look forward to making our hiring process even more efficient to give applicants the attention they deserve and to show them what makes Cannon such a special school community. Furthermore, we will look more closely at faculty and staff compensation to both ensure internal equity and benchmark against other schools. Meanwhile, a committee of teachers and staff members has been creating an improved annual evaluation process that focuses on consistency, growth, and giving faculty and staff even more of a voice in their professional development. Further afield, Cannon is committed to a clear plan for the professional growth of faculty and staff that gives them opportunities to take ownership of what that plan looks like for themselves and their colleagues.
Focus Area 3: Culture
Focus Area 4: Enrollment and Admission
By focusing on our school culture, we will build upon one of our key strengths—a community committed to living by our core values.
By giving our continued attention to enrollment and admission, we will remain a school focused on our front door and earning the trust of every prospective family and student.
It is impossible to distill into a few words what makes the Cannon community unique. We take pride in the testimonials that Cannon families, students, teachers, and coaches share about the sense of connectivity, opportunity, and ownership they feel as part of the Cannon family, and these ideals have shaped our strategic plan. We recognize and embrace the reality that Cannon families come from an ever-increasing number of surrounding communities. We will continue to ensure that all families feel connected to one another and the school by building upon the programs, relationships, and technological tools that already work and continue to seek out input from parents in the process. Likewise, we will work to ensure that all students—regardless of geography, financial circumstances, or other challenges—are able to take every opportunity to maximize their learning experience at Cannon. Our Parents at Cannon (PAC) Groups will continue the important work of aligning our parents’ skills and efforts with the needs of our school, whether that means supporting school-wide social and educational activities, diversity awareness, our athletic and physical education programs, or our performing arts and visual arts programs. We will challenge our students to follow the lead of our parents, faculty, and coaches and take even more ownership of the Cannon culture by injecting their passions into our daily campus life. In addition, we will transform our service learning program into a new community outreach program that calls upon our students to do what they love, gain knowledge about the things they are passionate about, and grow into lifelong learners and servants of the community.
With each new year, the Cannon community deepens our understanding of Adaptive Expertise and our commitment to developing Adaptive Expertise traits in every student. While we have done a good job of utilizing traditional methods such as campus visits, testing, and writing samples to engage with prospective students, we are looking at new ways to assess students during the application process for the Adaptive Expertise traits that are important to us as a community of learners. This focus area will also look at the geographic range from which Cannon draws students. We have a strong foothold in our base communities of Concord, Cornelius, Davidson, and Huntersville, and with the help of our Parent Ambassadors, we will continue to attract families from these areas. At the same time, we recognize that growth opportunities exist with the completion of Interstate 485. We look forward with excitement to reaching out to families who have never considered Cannon before and making our school community even more diverse in the process. Diversity and sharing the Cannon story with as many different families and communities as possible remains an important goal for our school. Even as enrollment continues to grow steadily, we are committed to maintaining a student body of just under 1,000 students. We will preserve class sizes necessary for the kind of teaching and learning we do here at Cannon, and we will continue to know every family and every child.
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Cannon’s New Strategic Plan (continued) Focus Area 5: Facilities and Space Having completed the Building Bright Futures Capital Campaign that has and will continue to improve six areas of our campus, we believe that now is the perfect time to evaluate ongoing facility needs that can enhance our mission. We will create a plan that enables key stakeholders in our school community to have a voice in the facility improvements that can elevate learning, artistic and athletic accomplishment, and safety for our students. From this process, we will create a list of short-term goals, larger and long-term goals, and a rubric to prioritize these goals over the next five years. In addition to improving our facilities and campus spaces, we will seek out new ways to bring them to life through enhanced community partnerships. We will build a list of community organizations with whom we currently partner as well as new ones who we hope to engage. Our vision is for Cannon to be viewed as a thought leader and learning resource for our surrounding communities while enhancing our school’s mission in the process. And finally, as we improve our facilities and interact more with the wider community, we will continually audit the security of our campus so that every Cannon student can learn and grow within a safe educational environment. Focus Area 6: Financial Stability In many ways, Cannon’s financial plan envelops the entire strategic plan and has therefore been an ongoing focus of the Board of Trustees. Over the past several years, our student body has continued to grow, energizing our campus, providing a healthy financial position, and allowing for new initiatives each and every year.
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We are excited to forecast that our student body could reach 992 students for the 2015-2016 school year, putting us near capacity—yet in the same breath, this is a success we must meet in a strategic way. Knowing we will reach a stable enrollment, our trustees and administrative team have been projecting a five-year financial model examining our major drivers of tuition, faculty and staff salaries, and financial aid to determine the levers we need to pull to maintain financial health. Likewise, knowing that we want our faculty and staff to continue having innovative ideas that we can fund, they were tasked with finding cost savings for the continued improvement of our school. And we were encouraged when they did just that, allowing Cannon to fund the following initiatives within budget for the 2015-2016 school year—a new Middle School Librarian, additions to the Lower School leadership team, an additional Upper School Dean, increases to coaches’ stipends, an expansion of the Lower School and Middle School Library, improvements to the Lower School playground, geodemographic research for enrollment marketing purposes, and a “bring your own technology” program in the Upper School.
Check Out Cannon Conversations Visit www.cannonschool.org/conversations to watch Matt Gossage’s State of the School webinar and Cannon Conversations, a student-produced video series where students, parents, faculty, and staff share their thoughts as stakeholders in our new strategic plan.
Sustainable Solutions: An Expression of Our Core Values
Cannon’s Sustainability Committee builds community through environmental stewardship. By: Marcia Brashear, Director of Enrichment Programs and Chair of Sustainability Committee Sustainability, a buzzword in the corporate world, in government, and in schools means securing a healthy and enduring human future through environmental stewardship. At Cannon School, we believe sustainable solutions inherently express our core values: courage, teamwork, respect, integrity, passion, and kindness. It takes courage and passion to change the status quo, and it takes integrity to be respectful of our environmental footprint. Students, faculty, and staff work as a team in various “green” programs around the campus and community not only for their own sake, but also for the characterbuilding lessons environmental stewardship teaches all of us. Cannon has a dedicated Sustainability Committee comprised of members from the faculty and staff across divisions and disciplines. The committee’s mission is to improve sustainability on campus and to educate our school community about environmental issues. Some of our sustainable initiatives include: Cannon’s school-wide mixed recycling program drastically reduces the amount of trash sent to county landfills. In addition to bins collecting paper, plastics, glass, and cardboard, we also recycle batteries and ink cartridges. Cannon School celebrates America Recycles Day and Earth Day with programs, service opportunities, and a chance for students to dress to show their “green spirit.” Water fountains throughout the school are equipped with bottle refilling spigots, allowing students to bring and refill water bottles and reduce overall plastic bottle usage. At one water fountain station located in the Middle School hallway, a running total is kept of how many bottles have been eliminated from the landfill. Students excitedly check each day’s new total as they walk between classes. Faculty, staff, and students are also committed to reducing paper and electricity usage throughout the school using educational and accountability programs. Coffee stations have no Styrofoam cups; faculty and staff bring in their own reusable mugs; and printers tabulate paper usage. Rain water is collected and used to water Gay’s Garden. In the dining hall, all paper serving products are compostable, and the kitchen receives a percentage of their fresh produce from local farmers. Additionally, kitchen scraps are composted at the Elma C. Lomax Incubator Farm in Cabarrus County. Future plans include expanding the composting to lunch scraps from all grade levels. Cannon is certified as a Schoolyard Habitat by the National Wildlife Federation (NWF). This program uses school grounds as educational
sites for wildlife conservation and cross-curricular learning. Our campus has several dedicated, no-mow areas which create wildlife habitats, decrease air pollution, and decrease water pollution through reduced fertilizer and pesticide use. Birdhouses in the natural areas enhance wildlife on campus. Cannon also has outdoor classroom space and access to the Coddle Creek natural area for science classes, after-school enrichment classes, and camps. Cannon School has officially adopted Coddle Creek from the I-85 interstate bridges to the Poplar Tent bridge adjacent to Dorton Park and continuing on downstream to the Weddington Road Bridge adjacent to Cannon’s sixty-five acre campus. The school conducts two cleanups each year in which student volunteers walk the entire adopted length, picking up litter, old tires, and car parts. Cannon is also an active participant in the Big Sweep (managed by Stream Watch), which is a statewide waterways cleanup effort from the mountains to the beaches. Volunteers collect, describe, and weigh all trash and report that information to the Cabarrus Soil and Water Conservation District. Our Upper School students in AP Environmental class are leaders of sustainability initiatives on campus. Each student performs twenty hours of community service focusing on environmental issues. They collect recycling in the Upper School and help maintain our natural areas and birdhouses. Two students, now alumnae, Avery Olearczyk ’11 and Brianna Ratté ’11, even installed solar panels at the school that are used for educational purposes. A group of fifth and sixth graders passionate about the environment have formed the new EcoForce Club. The focus project for this school year is Project Compost, with the goal of expanding the composting in the dining hall. Faculty and staff participate in a fall and spring Community Supporting Agriculture (CSA) through a local farmer. The up-front money helps our local farmer cover costs, and in return, members receive seasonal product based on the harvest. CSA members are enjoying learning what to do with spaghetti squash, kale, and even beets. The Sustainability Committee and members of the Cannon community are always looking for more ways to reduce our environmental footprint, so watch for more initiatives to come such as HOP (High Occupancy Parking) spots on campus. We believe that environmental stewardship is another lesson in integrity, respect, courage, passion, teamwork, and kindness, and we encourage everyone in our school community to do their part. CANNON MAGAZINE | SPRING 2015 | 9
Meet the Inaugural Kimbrough Fellows The Kimbrough Fellowship encourages Cannon faculty to pursue professional growth. We all have those teachers who we really remember—the one who taught us that insanely creative technique to remember a difficult concept, or the one who was just so excited about teaching that he made us want to learn. If you have the pleasure of sitting down with Mrs. Teresita Hurtado, Upper School Learning Specialist, and Dr. Xiaozhao Sun, Middle School World Languages Teacher, you immediately get the sense they are each that kind of teacher—the kind who their students will remember long after graduation. And as such, it is no surprise that they were also named Cannon’s inaugural Kimbrough Fellows.
with the hope of increasing participants’ engagement and motivation.
The Kimbrough Fellowship
But Dr. Sun wants us to know that gamification is not just about playing games in the classroom. He explains, “It’s really about looking at our curriculum like a game designer, listening to what games can teach us, and implementing the most effective game elements in our teaching practice. It’s a fascinating topic, deeply intertwined with instruction design, game design, and motivation and psychology. For example, when we play games, we are always given a series of meaningful choices. So how can we provide students with more autonomy in their learning? Or in our game play, we are given challenges and quests, but we are not afraid of failure. So how can we learn from this and reexamine our understanding of student assessments? And how can we learn from the gaming experience to make classroom teaching both fun and challenging?”
The Kimbrough Fellowship for Faculty Professional Development was established in 2014 and is supported through a generous grant made by longtime friend of Cannon School, Mr. Lawrence Kimbrough. A native of Davidson, Mr. Kimbrough is a retired banking executive, Chair Emeritus of the Cannon Board of Trustees, and currently serves as Co-Chair of the Cannon Board of Visitors. “The Kimbrough,” as the fellowship is already affectionately called by Cannon teachers, is designed to provide financial resources above and beyond the professional development funds available through each division to support the faculty as they pursue self-designed professional learning experiences that will allow them to explore in depth their teaching content and pedagogy in order to enhance and impact their classrooms, colleagues, and community. Getting Gamified For his fellowship experience, Dr. Sun chose to explore the concept of gamification and how it could enhance the Middle School Chinese language program. If you’re like most of us, you probably have no idea what gamification is, but you think it sounds pretty awesome—and you would be right. Gamification is, in fact, the application of digital game design techniques to non-game contexts, such as business and education,
Dr. Xiaozhao Sun 10 | SPRING 2015 | CANNON MAGAZINE
“The concept of gamification is relatively new to the educational arena, and it is always exciting to tap into a less explored territory as an educator and researcher,” explains Dr. Sun. “Although my initial interest in this topic derived from my passion in using and designing educational games in teaching, I soon realized that gamification is much more than that and could have a bigger impact on my teaching. Since the concept can apply to different subjects, my study might also serve the Cannon community in the long run.”
The Kimbrough Fellowship enabled Dr. Sun to purchase Articulate e-learning software, a subscription to video courses on programming and game design at Lynda.com, and several books on topics related to gamification. With these new resources, Dr. Sun designed interactive digital learning materials and even some of his own games such as Kung Fu Boy Word Race and Chinese Sentence Maze. “The study of gamification enabled me to redesign the Middle School Chinese program,” explains Dr. Sun. “First, I created online Chinese vocabulary courses on Memrise.com, a gamified language learning
Mrs. Teresita Hurtado platform. It allows students to set goals and study vocabulary at their own pacing in the form of self-study.” Students gain points and badges for their daily lessons and compete with each other on a class leader board, and Dr. Sun says that his students appreciate the sense of autonomy, game-like learning, and healthy competition. Next, thanks to technology, he designed daily online homework and iPad-compatible classroom language practices to provide students with instant feedback, and they enjoyed quickly knowing how they were performing. Another experiment of Dr. Sun’s was related to assessments. He explains, “In real games, playing rarely ends after merely one failed attempt. Instead, more ‘lives’ and chances are given to keep us trying. Along the same line, I designed iPad-compatible quizzes and tests (except for the speaking and writing sections) with a ‘retry’ button that allows students to have another attempt if the result is not satisfactory. The kids love having a second chance.” There are not many things that could make anyone want to return to their Middle School years, but gamification might be one. As Dr. Sun sums it up, “The core of gamification is fun. The students always beg for more!” Stretching the Brain When you talk with Mrs. Hurtado about teaching, you realize that she has a beautiful mind—one that is constantly and rapidly making connections between concepts, teaching practices, and people. So it makes sense when she explains that her Kimbrough experience was rooted in exploring advances in neuroscience research and theory and how they correlate to the “art” of teaching. As Cannon’s Upper School Learning Specialist, Mrs. Hurtado assists students with learning differences become successful learners and self-advocates by helping them make use of a full range of school-based and community resources. She has spent the last three years developing Cannon’s program for academic support of students with learning differences, and the Kimbrough Fellowship enabled her to attend Learning & the Brain’s Summer Institute, Neuroscience and Executive Skills: Strategies for Executive Functions, Memory and Classroom Learning. Learning & the Brain is an organization that connects educators with neuroscientists and researchers to provide teachers and
clinicians with an understanding of the latest research on how students learn as well as strategies to improve instruction and intervention through brain science. “Brain-based research tells us that a lot about learning is relational, which blends beautifully with what we already do at Cannon, such as teaching students to have a growth mindset,” explains Mrs. Hurtado. “For example, there’s the science of neuroplasticity, which means that we’re always forming new neural connections and that learning and intelligence is not fixed. And that’s the approach I want my students with learning differences to have, which is that effort and grit do have value, and that working towards something when it’s at the right achievable challenge level is possible. They can meet that rigor.” In addition to benefiting the Upper School students with whom she works directly, Mrs. Hurtado also wanted her fellowship to involve the faculty. She explains, “Through my work with students, I can affect our school community in a small way. But if I have other teachers who I can guide throughout the school year to teach them what I’ve learned, then the ripple effect is huge. We can reach more students much faster, and that’s what I’m doing with a small group of Upper School teachers called S.O.S. – Supporting Our Students. We’ve done small workshops to really dissect what I learned at the summer institute, and we’re putting that into practice right now in the classroom.” Yet another outcome of Mrs. Hurtado’s Kimbrough experience was the Winterm course, A Brain Stretched, which she created with the help of her student intern, Emily Malmstrom ’15. “We ended up with fifteen students and had a great time,” shared Mrs. Hurtado. The group learned how their brains process information and form memories, as well as study techniques they can bring to their own learning whether they have learning differences or not. Even though Mrs. Hurtado’s work as a learning specialist is complex, her message for students and families is simple and direct, “We all have differences, and we need to work from a philosophy of strength. I try to instill in my students a great deal of self-advocacy and autonomy, which are all the things we want to see in Cannon students. In many ways, I believe our students with learning differences, especially those who have really worked through them, are our finest examples of adaptive experts.” CANNON MAGAZINE | SPRING 2015 | 11
The Peterson and Morrison Families in Gay’s Reading Garden
Investing in Our Students. Every Family. Every Year.
A message to our community from the Cannon Fund Parent Chairs We are proud to be members of this special learning community because we know firsthand that our children benefit from the caring teachers and countless learning opportunities they have at Cannon School. This year, we chose to serve as Co-Chairs for the Cannon Fund because we are passionate about supporting this community of teachers and students and know the importance of the Cannon Fund to provide that support. The Cannon Fund is the School’s most critical yearly fundraising effort because it covers the difference between tuition and the actual cost of a Cannon education. It is an actual line item in the budget, which means that every gift directly supports all that occurs on Cannon’s campus and benefits our children every day. For example, your support of the Cannon Fund helps provide: • Professional development for our teachers and enhancements for new and innovative educational opportunities in the classroom such as Exploravision, Brainology, and an Hour of Code • Coaches, team uniforms, and transportation to competitions for our student-athletes
• Music, art, and dance teachers, instruments, art supplies, scripts, and sheet music for our visual and performing artists • New faculty and staff such as the new Strength and Conditioning Coach, Learning Specialist, and a fourth College Counselor We know the mark of great independent schools is a strong annual campaign, both in dollars raised and parent participation, and this year our goal is to raise $500,000 and reach 100% parent participation. Please consider the fact that Cannon teachers, trustees, and administration find the merits of giving to the Cannon Fund so compelling that they have already achieved 100% participation! Our hope is that every family in the Cannon community will make their donation or pledge so that we, too, can reach 100% parent participation this year. Collectively, our gifts will demonstrate that we all support our teachers and the mission of Cannon School, and every gift helps provide the opportunities for our children to discover and pursue their passions in the classroom, on the field, on the stage, and in our communities.
2014-2015 Cannon Fund Co-Chairs
Anne and Holt Morrison and Siobhan and Hans Peterson Invest in our students. Visit www.cannonschool.org/thecannonfund
to make your gift today and keep track of the latest updates about reaching our goal of $500,000 and 100% parent participation. 12 | SPRING 2015 | CANNON MAGAZINE
No Such Thing as Too Many Thanks The Cannon community’s support of Building Bright Futures inspires us in new ways. By: Todd W. Hartung Jr., Director of Advancement For the past several magazines, I have enjoyed writing about the Building Bright Futures Campaign—what we hoped to accomplish for our students, how we planned to get there, and myriad examples of how Cannon families, friends, and board members were leading the charge. But this update is perhaps my favorite (and hopefully yours too) because my message is one of extraordinary thanks. We will always remember 2014 as the year in which we transformed from a dusty construction zone into a polished campus with the new Cannon Performing Arts Center, Strength Training and Conditioning Center, Randy Marion Family Field House, Central Green, and enhanced locker spaces and coaches’ offices. And now, we are looking forward to the summer months to kick off the final stage of Building Bright Futures with the much-anticipated Middle School expansion. With input from Head of Middle School Carla Moyer and her faculty about what will best serve their students, the Middle School will grow well beyond its existing hallways and flow seamlessly into the space that we know as Taylor Hall—but the changes will be dramatic. In fact, Taylor Hall will transform into an incredible, wellequipped technology center, building on one of the Middle School’s greatest strengths. In addition, there will be a multi-purpose room where an entire grade can learn together, a much needed second science room, and a hallway with administrative spaces. For these significant campus improvements that have created new opportunities for our student-artists, athletes, and scholars, I extend deepest thanks to the more than 400 Cannon families, friends, alumni, faculty, and staff who raised more than $7.4 million. But believe it or not, there is even more for which to be thankful. Our school community’s staunch support of Building Bright Futures will encourage us to keep dreaming big, and it will continue to
remind us of the important role that our facilities play in helping our teachers and coaches deliver on our school’s mission to our students. In that vein, we are committed to continually improving, and I am happy to share two additional construction projects that will be complete by the start of the 2015-2016 school year. Our current Dining Hall represents a real-life math problem—with only 225 seats, 980 students and 200 faculty and staff members are forced to eat lunch from 10:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. As a result, the Board of Trustees approved an expansion of the Dining Hall that will not only add an additional 175 seats, but will also provide a covered, open air seating area that can be heated in the colder months and cooled with fans in the warmer months. And thanks to the group of Cannon families listed below who fully funded this $300,000 project, every Cannon student will enjoy a more reasonable lunch break, and our teachers will have more time to be creative with their classroom schedules. And last but certainly not least, the Lower and Middle School Library located in Snyder Hall will undergo a facelift as well. The office walls on either side of the Library will dissolve, creating a much larger space for Lower and Middle School students to research, work, and learn together with two librarians—all within the school’s operating budget. On behalf of everyone in the Cannon community, we remain both humbled by and thankful for your generosity. You have helped create even brighter futures for all Cannon students, not only through your donations, but also through your unwavering partnerships with our teachers, our coaches, and our school—and that is an incredible legacy to leave our children.
Special thanks to these families and groups who helped us reach our $300,000 goal for the Dining Hall Expansion (architect’s rendering pictured above): Joan and Mick Ankrom, Cannon Connections, Alan and Catherine Chiemprabha, The Reefe Childress Family, Danny and Nan Fisher, Andrew Hudson, Ross and Maya Kellman, Jess and Kim Kirby, Mike and Jennifer McGuire, Jim Michaels and Carolyn Lyons, Michael and Kimberly Nelson, Adam and Connie Ortiz, Bryan and Tracie Persinger, Hans and Siobhan Peterson, Robert and Karen Ray, Dr. Nehal Thakkar and Dr. Sheetal Patel-Thakkar, SunTrust Foundation, Martin and Rachael Williams, Bianca and Jochen Wittgraefe, and Duke and Dawn Zukowski CANNON MAGAZINE | SPRING 2015 | 13
“The idea is to give faculty and students an opportunity to explore their passions in a setting that promotes engagement and risk-taking.�
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Upper School students learn and develop passions by going beyond the traditional curriculum. What do blogging, an art and architecture trip to Italy, and woodworking have in common? All were Winterm course offerings this past January providing Upper School students with the opportunity to explore an interest or pursue a creative project. The classes not only built knowledge, but friendships and confidence as well. This was the second year for Winterm, which offers students an intensive, week-long learning opportunity and a chance to develop potential passions. All Upper School students participated, and each class was taught or led by Cannon faculty and staff. “The idea of Winterm is to give faculty and students an opportunity to explore their passions and interests in a setting that promotes engagement and risk-taking,” said Upper School Math Teacher and Winterm Coordinator Mr. Russ Campbell. “Some important by-products that result are the community building and infusion of energy to begin the second semester.” Course offerings were incredibly diverse, ranging from a trip to visit colleges in the Northeast to an examination of American anxieties as evidenced by the television series The Twilight Zone. All in all, there were thirty-five courses available to students, including: • A sewing course in which participants created baby blankets and burp cloths to donate to the Jeff Gordon Children’s Hospital and the Cabarrus Women’s Center • Cake Decorating • Digital Painting • Set Construction and Design • Sea Island Habitat for Humanity Trip • Italy through Art and Architecture • Yoga, Meditation, and Mindfulness • History of NASCAR Feedback from students and instructors was overwhelmingly positive, and many cited that the classes encouraged them to try something that they might otherwise be hesitant to attempt. For example, Emily Fromke ’15 had thought about starting her own blog in the past but was not sure how to begin. After a week of working with Upper School Math Teacher Mrs. Julie Reulbach in her blogging course, Emily now plans to continue writing after she heads off to college.
Other students used Winterm as an opportunity to improve upon a skill or pursuit. This is the second year that Emma Chaiken ’16 has danced at Cannon, but she was still surprised to learn exactly how rigorous a dancer’s regime was when she undertook the Dance Conditioning class. The course focused on what a professional dancer must do before he or she ever hits the stage, and Dance Teacher Ms. Melissa McDaniel had students learning and performing a combination before judges. Emma said this gave her “a great understanding of how quickly dancers have to pick up on combinations and full-out perform them. Dancing is a lot harder than it looks!” For fifty Cannon students and faculty, Winterm literally opened new horizons when they traveled to far-flung destinations. One popular choice? A journey to Italy to learn about the history of the ancient country through art and architecture. Upper School History Teacher Mr. Jason Wise was thrilled to share his passion for the country’s culture with the twelve students who accompanied him and Upper School Social Studies Teacher Ms. Becca Eury. “Seeing the students ignite new interests, understandings, and appreciation for the history, culture, and art of Italy and being able to introduce them to some new places and to share some new experiences with them myself was phenomenal,” said Mr. Wise. “Perhaps my favorite moment was in the Capitoline Museum as we all looked out at a fabulous sunset across the Roman Forum—this is a museum and view that most school trips don’t see, and I think the students and faculty very much appreciated it.” Other trips served as a way to help communities in need, such as the Habitat for Humanity build in Charleston, South Carolina. Participants worked together on a construction site to erect a home for a family, and the experience proved to be both enlightening as well as an opportunity to connect with classmates. Ben Campbell ’15 explained, “It was a really great bonding experience, not just because the daily construction work was a completely unified effort, but also because of the time together in the evenings to play games or just talk and reflect on what we accomplished.” Plans for Winterm 2016 are already underway, and students, staff, and faculty are looking ahead to another successful year of learning—and fun.
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Engaged Learning
Week-Long Learning Opportunity
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Winterm: A Transformative,
Innovative Solutions:
Boldly Going Where Others Have Not Introducing students in each division to new ideas to solve real-world problems. A third grader sketches a design for an app that would prevent your car from veering into a ditch. A girl in fifth grade uses LEGOs to create a robot that launches a ball across a table and into a soccer goal. A tenth-grade boy uses digital media and a green screen to create a video interview of a peer.
based competition has students working in small groups to research a current technology, envision what it would look like in twenty years, and describe the development steps. Students gain an understanding of the pros, cons, and obstacles that their inventions might encounter along the way.
These are just a few of the innovative programs going on here at Cannon School—classes that introduce new ideas to solve problems. Cannon has created a culture within the walls of the Lower, Middle, and Upper Schools to take risks, try different approaches, explore multiple answers, and apply better solutions to new or existing issues. This inquiry-based approach to learning has yielded some pretty astounding results as well as classrooms that are models of the twentyfirst century.
Third-grade students began by whittling down a list of potential projects to the two listed above, as well as a car that can apply its own brakes when needed, and an alert system that will stop an impaired driver from operating his or her own vehicle. Students then spent months researching and writing down their concepts in a seven-section paper as well as building prototypes. Mr. Powers then submitted the projects for judging at the end of January.
Exploravision Lower School Science Teacher Mr. Brandon Powers is keeping fourteen third-grade students busy this year—busy creating apps that calm sick children before they go to the doctor or designing a wrist device to keep parents aware of their child’s whereabouts. It’s all part of Exploravision, a Toshiba-sponsored program that Mr. Powers is piloting. The science-
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“The biggest positive for me has been to see the students just jump right in with so many ideas for change,” said Mr. Powers. In March, Mr. Powers was pleased to learn that the dynamic trio of Drew Bitzer ’24, Isabella Hartung ’24, and Rayyan Syed ’24 earned an Honorable Mention for their “Calm Kids” app, which means they ranked in the top 10% nationally in the Exploravision competition.
Brainy Yaks Think LEGOs are child’s play? One glance at the Brainy Yaks’ LEGO robots will have you rethinking that stance. The Brainy Yaks robotics team, made up of students from grades 4 through 8, introduces students to real-world engineering challenges by having them create robots that perform tasks and missions. The Brainy Yaks hosted the regional North Carolina FIRST LEGO League competition in the fall and earned the prestigious Champions Award by placing first in all areas—robotics, teamwork, innovative design, and research. They also fared well at the state competition, which featured judging in four areas—the robot, a research project, a teamwork interview, and a technical design interview. Middle School Dean of Innovation and Technology Mr. Leigh Northrup has worked with the Yaks for the last eight years, and he feels that the kids often learn more from their failures than their successes and grow to understand that there are multiple solutions to problems rather than just one. He also thinks that the program is a great way to prepare students for the unexpected challenges that life may throw their way. “It gives students the opportunity to solve problems in a real-world situation. It’s unscripted and authentic and challenges kids to come up with real-life solutions,” he said.
Media Production Using digital media to tell a story is the goal of Upper School Dean of Academic Technology Mr. Eric Ruddy’s Media Production class. “The Media Production class offers our students the tools, time, and guidance to develop digital products through a production-oriented lens. Creative thinking is at the pinnacle of all tasks in the class because students weave together media and technology to produce creative works in a small group setting that promotes the Cannon community through the eyes of our students,” said Mr. Ruddy. The class creates and presents a weekly broadcast produced entirely by students. Segments may include students interviewing Upper School Science Department Chair Monty Coggins about the benefits of yoga or raising awareness about their senior Capstone Projects. At their disposal is a small studio complete with video cameras, a green screen, lights, and sound equipment. Students also use Media Arts Lab computers to edit, and then post on the Upper School blog. The class also explores topics of copyright law and ethics in journalism. What’s Ahead Cannon looks forward to fostering more innovative classes and concepts as well as developing our students into change leaders who are ready for the future—whatever it throws their way. Here’s to tackling twenty-second century thinking now!
Learn more! Visit www.cannonschool.org/exploravision to watch the “Calm Kids” video that was part of the awardwinning Exploravision project created by Drew Bitzer ’24, Isabella Hartung ’24, and Rayyan Syed ’24. The idea behind their concept is to keep children calm at the doctor’s office by showing them kid-created videos to explain the doctor’s diagnosis.
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Faculty Focus:Emily Davis, Kindergarten Teacher and Grade Lead Teaching students that nothing is out of reach. By: Mimi Wahid ’17 When I remember my days in Cannon’s kindergarten, I am filled with fond recollections of learning to read stories comprised entirely of three-letter words, gluing beans and pasta onto paper in infinite arrangements, and playing HORSE on the playground with my classmates and teacher. Walking back down through the kindergarten hallway to Mrs. Davis’s classroom and learning more about what kindergarten at Cannon means today, it was evident that the teachers at this grade level not only create fond memories, but also establish a strong educational foundation in each and every one of their students. Students learn social skills, cultivate their own creativity, and gain a love of learning. It is Cannon’s exceptional faculty that makes our education such a valuable experience, and Mrs. Emily Davis, Kindergarten Teacher and Grade Lead, is a perfect example of an educator helping to make Cannon the best it can be. Mrs. Davis grew up in Indiana, Pennsylvania, and when asked what sparked her passion for teaching, she gave credit to her childhood roots. “I had a lot of great teachers growing up, and I had aunts who were teachers,” said Mrs. Davis. “I always looked up to my teachers and had great educational experiences myself. I had a family who really supported me and made sure that I knew that education was the most important thing.” After graduating high school, Mrs. Davis went on to the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown where she earned a Bachelor of Science in Elementary Education. Teaching kindergarten was Mrs. Davis’s dream because of the incredible opportunity it holds for guiding youth. She said, “I love teaching reading. I think there is nothing more inspiring than giving a child the gift of being able to read. I can’t think of a more amazing career than being able to open those doors for children.”
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This is Mrs. Davis’s fifth year as a part of the Cannon community, and she is excited to begin the new full-day kindergarten program that will take effect this fall. “It will be full of inquiry and exploration, and the children are going to get an amazing hands-on experience in the afternoons.” In addition to teaching and serving as the Kindergarten Grade Lead, Mrs. Davis acts as the Lower School Math Department Chair and sits on the IMPACT (Integrating Mission, Pedagogy, Assessment, Curriculum, and Technology) Group. She is also a member of a panel who selects the recipient of the Kimbrough Fellowship each year, is a part of the Steering Committee for Cannon’s accreditation, and helps to mentor new teachers. In her free time, Mrs. Davis enjoys hiking and traveling with her husband, Dan, and two children, Kendall (Cannon Class of 2028) and Andrew. Through teaching, Mrs. Davis strives to give her students the tools they need to be confident and take risks. “The most important thing I want our students to know is that it’s ok to make mistakes, and that mistakes are a part of the learning process,” said Mrs. Davis. “In making those mistakes, taking risks is so important. You can’t be afraid to take a risk because you are afraid of making a mistake. They can be anything they want to be, and there is nothing that is out of reach.” When you ask Mrs. Davis’s students about her, they try hard not to talk over one another, but they can’t help it. You will hear a lot about how Mrs. Davis involves everyone, how she makes learning fun, and perhaps most importantly, how she makes her students feel. Naomi Amani ’27 noted with an approving nod, “Mrs. Davis makes the rules fair.” And Brooke Busby ’27 summed up everyone’s sentiments beautifully when she shared, “Mrs. Davis helps us when we raise our hands, and whenever we’re sad, she cheers us up.” Likewise, it is no surprise that when you ask Mrs. Davis her favorite thing about teaching, she wants to tell you about her students. “Each child comes to me with an open book of information and experiences to share,” she said. “They are all so different and special.”
Cannon School Adds Full-Day Kindergarten
Learn about Purposeful Inquiry and Exploration (PIE), a hallmark of the new program. “Most of what I really need to know about how to live, what to do, and how to be, I learned in kindergarten. Wisdom did not lie at the top of the graduate school mountain, but there in the kindergarten classroom.” -Robert Fulghum, author of All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten Perhaps no other word can evoke feelings of excitement, anticipation, and apprehension like the word “kindergarten.” A rite of passage for each and every child, kindergarten at Cannon School is intended to foster a lifelong love of learning supported through the habits of Adaptive Expertise. Therefore, we are excited that beginning this August, Cannon will offer full-day kindergarten in addition to our current half-day option. Why Add Full-Day Kindergarten? Cannon arrived at the decision to add a full-day option in response to the fact that nearly 65% of current junior-kindergarten students take part in Cannon’s Extended Day program. About the same percentage of kindergarten students also participate in Extended Day on a daily basis. “I am so excited about the full-day kindergarten program,” said Head of Lower School Michelle Alexander. “As a Lower School, we strive to create learning opportunities where children are at the center of each experience. I firmly believe that this is a hallmark of our new program and that it will not only celebrate the student voice, but also allow for a true, deep, meaningful, and enriching kindergarten experience like no other.” Cannon’s full-day kindergarten will include academics, co-curricular classes, lunch, rest time, and a new element called Purposeful Inquiry and Exploration (PIE). PIE is composed of three components— inquiry and exploration, play-based learning, and purposeful movement. What is PIE? Inquiry and Exploration: The inquiry and exploration aspect of each kindergartener’s day will begin with an essential question, which will then serve as the “big idea” as the catalyst for learning. The question will guide activities, skill development, and other learning experiences during the inquiry time. It will prompt questions that segue into deeper investigation as well as reflect student interests and curiosity. Hallmarks of the inquiry and exploration element include collaborative learning, integrating subjects such as art and music, and providing indoor, outdoor, and hands-on learning experiences.
encourages children to explore new friendships, engage passions, and try new things. Studies have also shown that play promotes critical thinking, creativity, curiosity, and more. Through the use of different centers in the classroom such as a dress-up area, a kitchen, a stage, an art space, and a building center, children will have the opportunity for memorable experiences. Purposeful Movement: Purposeful movement is a focused brain break through movement to foster learning as well as develop gross motor skills, encourage new ways of moving, and promote healthy lifestyles. Activities are informed by occupational therapists, and examples include yoga movement, nature walks, Tai Chi, Tae Kwon Do, and creek time. Preparing for Success: Both the full- and half-day kindergarten options are meaningful and effectively prepare students for success in first grade—and beyond. The kindergarten environment is challenging, caring, and motivating, allowing children to grow and mature intellectually, socially, emotionally, and physically. Both the half-day and full-day options offer individual, small, and whole-group learning, as well as the co-curricular classes of music, art, computer, science, library, guidance, and physical education. At Cannon, we view kindergarten as a year for children to celebrate childhood and engage in hands-on and collaborative learning experiences to begin to develop their whole selves. We look forward to the year ahead!
Play-Based Learning: Young children gain an understanding of both themselves and the outside world through the concept of play, and Cannon believes that there is enormous value in this element. Play CANNON MAGAZINE | SPRING 2015 | 19
Where Learning Lives What a difference a year makes! Our campus has transformed from a dusty construction zone into the beautiful school community you see here with the new Cannon Performing Arts Center, Strength Training and Conditioning Center, Randy Marion Family Field House, enhanced locker spaces and coaches’ offices, and Central Green. Our campus is a place where learning lives, and its buildings, places, and spaces are where we feel at home, even as we strive to “go beyond.” Photo courtesy of Russell Stamey.
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The Big Picture
Strength Training and Conditioning Program Cannon’s newly-constructed, 3,500 square-foot Strength Training and Conditioning Center was built with the goal of preventing injuries and helping student-athletes become more competitive, as well as enhancing the tradition of excellence and sportsmanship here at Cannon School. This state-of-the-art center is designed to enhance the physical education of students in all grades, from junior kindergartners learning coordination to varsity football players preparing for a Friday night. Highlights include: • A full-time Strength and Conditioning Coach. Mr. Shawn Powell spent five years as Head Strength and Conditioning Coach at Penske Racing and seven years as Assistant Strength and Conditioning Coach with the Carolina Panthers. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Health Promotion and Kinesiology from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and an Associate of Arts in Health Fitness Technology from Brevard College. 22 | SPRING 2015 | CANNON MAGAZINE
• The Strength Training and Conditioning Center first floor includes eight fully-equipped strength stations. These feature legend fitness racks with benches, 90 lb. PowerBlock dumbbells, and 6, 8, and 10 lb. medicine balls and bands. There are also sixteen 45 lb. lifting bars and four 25 lb. lifting bars, eight kettle bell handles, four sets of plyo boxes, and ten sets of Jungle Gym XT suspension trainers. • The Strength Training and Conditioning Center second floor features four spin cycles, two treadmills, and two rowing machines for rehabilitation, conditioning, and low-impact cardio work. The School’s Middle School, junior varsity and varsity teams have taken full advantage of the center, already resulting in significant decreases in non-contact injuries.
Advice for student-athletes and families about competing at the next level. Everyone’s heard the stories—there’s the child who can’t yet drive but has already been scouted to play ball at a big-name college. Or there’s the student who has yet to take her SATs but has already been recruited to swim at a major university. Headlines like these can make it difficult for parents and student-athletes alike to understand the realities of competing at a college level as well as the timeline and the practical preparations. So, exactly where should student-athletes begin if they are thinking about pursuing athletics in college? Director of Athletics Dr. Pat Moyer has some words of wisdom to help guide them on their way. Start Thinking Early—But Not Too Early Dr. Moyer says that a good time for student-athletes to begin investigating playing at the college level is when they enter high school. That doesn’t necessarily mean actively pursuing which institution to attend, but instead for families to simply begin the thought process. Parents can start with what type of school appeals to their child. One that is large with many different programs? Or would he or she feel more comfortable at a smaller college? Academics should always be at the forefront of the decision, as 99% of all college athletes go pro in something other than sports. “Playing college sports should always be parallel to the pursuit of where they would like to go to college from an academic standpoint,” said Dr. Moyer. He tells students, “Don’t think about going to a small school just to play,” if a larger environment is what they desire from every other standpoint. Dr. Moyer suggests partnering with College Counseling early on so each student-athlete has a realistic expectation of his or her future. They should be exposed to not only what it would take to get into a collegiate athletic program, but also what their day-today life would be like for the four years they attend and compete. Hone Your Craft If families decide that playing at a collegiate level is a valid possibility, Dr. Moyer suggests focusing on getting better each
and every day. “If you think you want to play, hone your craft of being an athlete,” he said. However, that does not mean focusing solely on the sport in which the student-athlete wishes to compete. Rather, Dr. Moyer says that college coaches value multi-sport athletes since oftentimes, single-sport athletes can burn out easily. Dr. Moyer also says that becoming better requires time in the Strength Training and Conditioning Center becoming stronger as well as keeping muscles healthy and preventing injuries. Finally, bear in mind that the most successful college athletes are those who develop their leadership skills at the high school level. College coaches will look for those who have led a team through wins and losses, growing on a personal level with each success and failure. Let the Coaches Do the Coaching Although it can be difficult for parents to avoid coaching from the sidelines, Dr. Moyer emphasizes that work is best left to a good coach who understands and values each child. “Let the coaches push the kids, and have the parents support their children,” he said. In turn, this will help build students’ confidence levels so they’re unafraid to try something new. And if they fail? That, Dr. Moyer says, is a necessary lesson for any athlete who wants to succeed in college athletics—and life in general. “Kids need to understand failure rather than fear it and handle it with grace, humility, and courage. Then they can get together with their coaches and their team, and do it better next time.” The Benefits of College Play Many will say that the real benefits of playing both high school and college sports go far beyond a winning record and are instead intangible—learning discipline, the value of teamwork, confidence, and appreciating the many relationships that are established in the process. No matter what level they play, student-athletes should be reminded to enjoy the ride!
Learn more! Visit www.cannonschool.org/athletics to enjoy archived issues of Cougar Tracks, Cannon’s monthly newsletter that keeps our community up to date on the latest news and events of Cannon Athletics with the AD Corner, season highlights, and game photography.
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Athletics
for College Athletics
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Creating a Game Plan
Girls Golfer of the Year:
Cannon’s Redding Affected the Lives of Many By: C. Jemal Horton, Independent Tribune because her father, Dr. Mark Redding, has gone to Kenya numerous times as a visiting physician at Tenwek Hospital. After learning that the hospital was in need of neo-natal incubators, Redding wanted to help, too, but she also wanted to incorporate her other passion: golf. That’s when “Birdies for Babies” was born. Redding solicited sponsors to donate money for each birdie she made while competing for her Cannon School squad and in some outside individual tournaments in the fall. The goal was to raise $20,000 by the end of the year so an incubator could be purchased. She convinced sponsors to give $250 for every birdie she made. “I’ve always been into giving back,” Redding said. “I’ve really wanted to go over to Africa and help this hospital whenever my dad goes over there. I haven’t been able to go over there, but I’m still really helping out in a major way. It just kind of gets at me [emotionally]. I feel like I’m saving lives, even when I’m not really over there physically doing the work.” In Cannon’s first match of the year, there were immediate signs that Redding would achieve her goal. Playing just nine holes, she sank six birdies that day. “Every time I made a birdie, I thought about Tenwek,” Redding recalled. “I had a little sticky note in my bag that just said ‘Birdies for Babies’ on it. Every time I made one, I just thought, ‘$250 is going toward that hospital.’ It was just amazing. It made me feel really good.” True to her track record, Redding did better than the $20,000 she initially targeted. Redding played well enough to raise $22,000 to buy the hospital an incubator. Anna Redding ’15. Photo courtesy of James Nix.
In all, she made 65 birdies and three eagles.
Anna Redding already was an accomplished golfer. The kind of golfer who had already been nationally rated, earned an athletic scholarship from an Atlantic Coast Conference school and led her high school squad to three consecutive state championships.
“It was crazy,” Redding said. “It was an amazing feeling to, first, make a birdie. And the fact that I was making up to $250 for every birdie that I made was incredible. I would get such a rush after making every birdie, I just wanted to make more. Making 65 birdies and three eagles is kind of insane, and then to raise all that money it’s … unreal.”
Those achievements, by themselves, are things any teenage golfer would covet. The accolades, which also include an individual state title for Redding this fall, helped the Cannon School senior become the Independent Tribune’s 2014 Girls Golfer of the Year. “She’s an outstanding golfer, just a great leader,” Cougars coach Pat Whisnant said of Redding. “It’s just amazing what she’s done.” But despite her stellar track record, Redding feels she did not learn the true meaning of achievement until the 2014 season concluded and she took inventory of EVERYTHING she has done this season – things that could not be measured by championships or rankings. Like all Cannon seniors, at the start of the school year, Redding was tasked with completing a capstone, a service project for which she has extreme passion. Some students went on mission trips, and others volunteered locally. Redding was familiar with the power of service 24 | SPRING 2015 | CANNON MAGAZINE
“My dad is a pretty good golfer, and usually when we go out and play, I’ll make one birdie per round. But I was almost making two or three birdies a round.” Redding ended the season in November by leading Cannon to its fourth consecutive N.C. Independent Schools Athletic Association Championship. In the process, Redding took home the individual state crown by firing a two-day score of 139, seven strokes better than the second-place finisher. It’s the kind of play that made her one of the state’s most attractive college recruits. Several colleges wooed Redding, and she whittled her final choices down to North Carolina, N.C. State, Ohio State, Georgia and Virginia. Ohio State was especially close to her heart because her father played tennis for the Buckeyes, and both her father and mother, Andrea, attended medical school there.
Virginia, on the other hand, had never been on Redding’s radar until her swing coach, Kelley Phillips, who had worked with golfers from the program, told Redding she should take a look at the Cavaliers because of the academic tradition of the school and the success of the women’s golf program. Redding reluctantly gave Virginia a glimpse. After a while, she couldn’t turn away from the school.
Redding would like to be on the LPGA Tour some day, just like her role model, Cydney Clanton, a Concord native.
The seminal moment came in November 2013, when Redding and her mother visited the campus and Redding learned about the school’s tradition of having “girls in pearls and guys in ties” for athletic events. Redding had her mother buy her a new dress for the Virginia football game against Oregon.
Now that she has singlehandedly raised $22,000 for such a tremendous cause, Redding believes she can attain any goal she establishes for herself. “Birdies for Babies” also made Redding a better overall golfer.
“When I was sitting in the stands, I felt I fit in,” Redding said with a giggle. “I just knew I could be a student there for four years. I could just feel it. I can’t articulate that, but I just knew. I felt it was where I belonged.” Not that Redding has abandoned her Ohio State allegiance entirely. “We’re a Buckeye family — we still are,” she said. “It took a while to finally put down the Buckeye sweatshirt and put on the UVA sweatshirt, but my dad was really excited for me. He didn’t go with me on my visit, so he didn’t really understand things. But he sees now that UVA is the place for me.” “I can’t wait to get there. The golf program is amazing, and the coach, Kim Lewellen, is phenomenal. She’s a real players’ coach, and she’ll help me become as good as I want to be.”
“[Clanton’s] kind of my inspiration because she can really play, she’s local and she made it,” Redding said. “That just makes me believe I can also make it.”
“It really changed my mind-set on the course,” Redding said. “Other seasons, I just kind of wanted to play well. And this season, I really wanted to make birdies. With my mind-set being changed, I was a lot more aggressive. I just kind of went after it a lot more, and that helped me with the season.” Redding said the entire experience changed her, making her a better golfer and a better person. “Everything that I could do for them had to come from me and my golf ability, so I’ve become such a better golfer because they were my inspiration,” Redding said. “And then it’s such an amazing cause. They really needed help, and I’m really glad I was able to be that help for them.” This article, published on December 15, 2014, is reprinted with permission of the Independent Tribune.
Cannon Among Only Fifty-Three Schools Nationwide to Win Academic Awards for Girls’ and Boys’ Soccer
Cannon School is one of only fifty-three schools nationwide to receive the 2013-2014 High School Team Academic Award for both the girls’ and boys’ soccer programs from the National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA). A total of 335 soccer teams (142 boys’ and 193 girls’ teams) throughout the United States have earned the NSCAA Team Academic Award for exemplary performance in the classroom as a team during 2013-2014. To qualify for the award, the high school team must have a minimum grade point average of 3.25 for the entire academic year. The team GPA is determined by adding every player’s GPA, then dividing by the number of players. “This is the fourth year in a row our boys’ and girls’ programs have received this honor,” commented Director of Soccer Mr. Matt Barlow. “Our Cannon soccer players continue to raise the bar in the classroom as well as on the playing field.” Pictured here are senior All-State soccer performers Chris Gaskin ’15 and Kendall Thomas ’15, who have been part of multiple NSCAA Team Academic Awards. “They, along with the rest of their teammates, perform at a high level not only on the field but in the classroom,” said Coach Barlow. Chris Gaskin ’15 and Kendall Thomas ’15 CANNON MAGAZINE | SPRING 2015 | 25
“I wouldn’t say that I’ve grown as an artist, I’d say that I’ve become one. ”
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Just days before opening night in late February, the cast of Carousel was contending with a final rehearsal schedule that had been decimated by snow days. One might have expected them to be nervous, but during a late dinner break with the seniors of the cast, we found them laughing and bantering, much like professional actors—and that confidence came from their trust in their teacher, their relationship to the story, and their friendships with one another. Collectively, Jessica Abel, Logan Foster, Colleen Hurley, Seth Newkirk, and Joe Joe Vaccaro have been part of Cannon Theater Company (CTC) for twenty-four years, and their relationship with the storyline of Carousel started nearly a year ago. As Joe Joe explained, “Around this time last year, we threw out ideas for the spring musical to Mac (as they affectionately call Mr. Andy Macdonald, Director of Theater Arts). Mac will look them up and see if he likes them based on things like the size of the cast and the musical range. It’s a really long process, and it’s amazing that Mac can do it.” “Carousel is really a progression piece,” added Logan. “We wanted to do something meatier this year. That was one of the things Mac talked about. And we really wanted to get more dance into the show because we have the best dancers we’ve ever had.” And choosing Carousel was a bold choice. Hailed by Time Magazine as the greatest musical of the twentieth century, the storyline follows the troubled romance between carnival barker Billy Bigelow and millworker Julie Jordan. The story raises important questions about love and family and is at turns sweet, heart-wrenching, frustrating, and funny. It also raised significant challenges for the actors involved as they immersed themselves in the process of finding common ground with their characters. Colleen, who played Julie Jordan, explained, “Well, for me, I fundamentally disagree with my character on almost every level, so it’s a struggle for me to see where she’s coming from. You just have to sit and think and re-imagine yourself. I’ve also talked to Mac a couple of times about it, and he’s been really helpful.” “For me, it starts at an emotional level,” began Seth, who played The Starkeeper. “It starts with what the character is feeling, and once I figure that out, I go back to my own memories. And I’ll be able to feel not only the memory of what happened, but feel the emotions of what happened. I’ll think about that and then start reading my lines and analyzing my character with that emotion.”
kind of character for me to play. So it’s fun because it’s not typecasting, but at the same time, I had to have a different mentality and approach the show in a very comical, whimsical, free kind of way, or else it doesn’t play right. Singing soprano (instead of mezzo or alto) has also been a challenge, but a good one.” “And technically, the singing is really hard, and some of the harmonies you have to lock up with other people aren’t easy,” added Joe Joe, who played Enoch Snow. “But from a character perspective, Enoch is very ambitious, which I relate to.” Logan, who played Billy Bigelow, reflected, “With Billy, it’s an extremely touching piece, and it’s a very dangerous piece to do, because if you don’t do it right, you can come off as obnoxious the entire show. It’s a tough role because he goes everywhere, and he has extreme high and extreme low soliloquies—heck, sometimes within five minutes. But with all these challenges, we’re all professionals, and it’s what we do. It’s a show that we have chosen to do, so it’s one of those times that you suck it up and do it right.” As Colleen and Seth looked at the time and ran off to make their rehearsal with Mr. Macdonald, we asked our remaining seniors how they think they have grown as artists by being part of CTC. Logan began, “I feel like I came into the theater at the best time I could have, starting with Fitz (Cannon’s former Theater Teacher, David Fitzsimmons) and finishing out with Mac. With Fitz, everything was based in realism, and then Mac showed us how to relate that to everything else in the theater world, because there are so many different types of theater. Mac sort of said, ‘Ok, now take this wonderful kind of realism, and bend it.’ That’s been a really wonderful part of my journey.” Jessica added, “I had been singing a long time before I started theater, seven or eight years. When you’re singing, you’re singing someone else’s music, but then when you’re in theater, you are the character. Sometimes I learn more about myself through a character than I do being myself. It made me into a performer rather than looking at the arts from the outside.” “I wouldn’t say that I’ve grown as an artist, I’d say that I’ve become one,” reflected Joe Joe. “I always loved presenting things and being in the spotlight for school projects, but CTC allowed me a way to take that, something I was good at, and turn it into art. I wasn’t really aware of that at first. I mean, obviously you know theater is an art, but when you realize it’s something that you’re good at, and something that people love and makes them laugh, it’s just magical.”
Jessica, who played Carrie Pipperidge, shared, “Carrie’s up in the clouds for the whole show, which is a very different Pictured at left, seated from l-r: Colleen Hurley ’15 and Jessica Abel ’15. Standing from l-r: Seth Newkirk ’15, Logan Foster ’15, and Joe Joe Vaccaro ’15. CANNON MAGAZINE | SPRING 2015 | 27
Arts
Cannon Theater Company’s seniors talk about their spring musical and their growth as artists.
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Riding the Carousel
Creativity Flourishes Cannon’s inaugural alumni art exhibit showcases alumni talents and their teacher’s dedication. By: Lynda Abel, Alumni Relations Manager The Inspiration In the fall of 2014, the Cannon community celebrated the grand opening of the Cannon Performing Arts Center. Upon entering this wonderful building, you find yourself in the Campbell Gallery, the glass-fronted atrium exhibit space for the visual arts. As student artwork adorns the walls, allowing us to appreciate the creativity flowing from our Lower, Middle, and Upper School artists, we cannot help but also reflect on the history of the visual arts at Cannon. And no one knows more about that history than Director of Visual Arts Mrs. Belinda Armstrong. As she often does, Mrs. Armstrong hatched a brilliant idea this winter—curating Creativity Flourishes, Cannon’s inaugural alumni art exhibit. Mrs. Armstrong issued an open call to all alumni artists to contribute to the show, which opened on January 9 and featured the work of five alumni artists who you will experience here. She envisions this as the beginning of an annual tradition—a way to showcase visual art students after they leave Cannon, as well as a chance for current art students to enjoy the influence of more mature artists and consider pursuing an art-related field in the future. Leaving a Legacy Mrs. Armstrong has built a strong and loyal student following during her fifteen years teaching art at Cannon. Earlier this year, she announced her plans for retirement at the end of the 2014-2015 school year to pursue her own artistic calling. Although she will be greatly missed by her students and colleagues, her legacy of excellence in the arts and the launching of the new tradition of alumni art exhibits will carry on. We thank her for her passion, creativity, and dedication! The Alumni Artists Sarah Brown Rosen ’03 married her high school sweetheart, Jonathan Rosen, who also attended Cannon from 1999-2002. They have two children, Marley, 8, and Zayne, 2. Sarah enjoys making jewelry, working with chalk pastels, and creating portraits of family pets who have passed as a memorial for their owners. She also loves creating portraits of people. Sarah gives credit to Mrs. Armstrong for encouraging her artistic journey and for introducing her to the medium of chalk pastels. She is “forever grateful” for the guidance. For more information about Sarah’s commissioned portraits, email her at sdbrown924@hotmail.com. Patrick Beck ’10 is studying architecture at the University of Miami and will graduate in May 2015. He has studied in Rome, Italy, and is currently working for a local architect in Coral Gables, Florida. He is also doing some architectural model-making work for the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
Patrick approaches art from an architectural perspective and enjoys the mediums of pen and ink and black and white pastels. While at Cannon, Patrick spent time immersed in music and jazz, which influences his work. He aspires to get licensed as an architect, but is also interested in yacht design, furniture design, and woodworking. Jackie Ramdin ’12 is a junior at North Carolina State University studying fashion development and product management within the College of Textiles. She is spending a semester studying international buying and marketing in Shanghai, China. The textile and fashion designs she displayed were created using computer-aided design programs, which were then printed, woven or knitted, but Jackie prefers “the freedom of mediums such as charcoal or oil pastels.” Mrs. Armstrong’s guidance at Cannon taught Jackie fortitude. “Now I am more patient with my work and realize that my desired outcome will most likely not result from my first attempt, but that shouldn’t discourage me from trying to reach my end goal.” Reed Harmon ’14 is a freshman at North Carolina State University. When asked to describe herself as an artist, she said, “My art is such a reflection of myself in that moment. It is one of my most vulnerable times where I allow myself to be expressive without bounds.” She loves working with pencil, ink pens, and on the computer. Reed is grateful for the opportunity she had to study multimedia art forms while at Cannon. Mrs. Armstrong taught her she could be as good as she wanted with practice and passion. Reed ultimately wants to help people with her art, perhaps by using positive messages in an advertising career or photography to raise social awareness. Nick Rossitch ’14 is a freshman studying architecture in the College of Design at North Carolina State University. He says, “I love the idea of bringing to life something that comes from our imagination, our mind. As an artist, I am very hands on and attempt to look at things from a new and unique perspective.” His preferred mediums include pen and ink and graphite and charcoal, as well as model making. Nick feels that his time at Cannon allowed him to grow and experiment as an artist, and it helped him decide to pursue his creative studies.
For more from these alumni artists, visit www.cannonschool.org/alumniart
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1.“Design Thinking,” chalk pastel, Reed Harmon 2.“Gustav Coordinate 2,” woven, Jackie Ramdin 3.“Remy,” acrylic, Sarah Brown Rosen 4.“Indecisive Watch,” nuts, bolts, and chain, Nick Rossitch 5.“Pantheon,” pastel, Patrick Beck. Photos courtesy of Allison Abel ’19.
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Alumni Spotlight Krista Gross ’09
that is an amazing opportunity. I loved playing in Italy. I was playing for the Naples team at the time, but we traveled all throughout Italy—Milan was really nice. When we went to play in Sicily, we took the cruise back to Naples, which was really beautiful. What advice would you give younger athletes who aspire to play in college and beyond? They need to understand that the sacrifices they make now will be worth it in the end. Being a college athlete is an experience that I wouldn’t trade for anything. If you were not a professional basketball player, what would you be doing? I would probably be in medical school or PA (physician assistant) school because I have always been interested in medicine. Where do you see yourself in five years? In five years, I see myself having finished up my career as a professional basketball player and having started my career in the US. Your travels have kept you from visiting Cannon often. Has campus changed much since you attended?
Krista Gross ’09 Krista is a graduate of University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she earned a B.S. in Biology in 2013. During her college career, she served as a captain of the Tar Heels women’s basketball team and was inducted into the Order of the Golden Fleece honorary society for her outstanding leadership both on and off the court.
Cannon has changed a lot since I’ve been here, but the general feel of Cannon that I enjoyed while I was here hasn’t changed. There are lots of new teachers and buildings, but Cannon is still a welcoming environment with people who are dedicated to education with a rigorous curriculum in a relaxed and supporting environment. Is there anything else you would like to share? A favorite Cannon memory?
Krista played for the Finland national team and in the EuroBasket Tournament and the World University Games during college. Following graduation, she played for the Italian Saces Mapei Napoli basketball team from 2013 to 2014 and is currently playing forward for the Tapiolan Honka team in Finland. Krista aspires to have a long-term career in the medical field.
My time at Cannon has been a huge part of my life, and academically, Cannon definitely set me up to succeed at UNC-Chapel Hill, and I’m very appreciative of that.
What is one thing you wish you knew in high school to prepare you for college athletics?
Driven. I have known since Krista moved to Cannon in seventh grade that she had a goal of playing basketball in college. She was driven to achieve that goal and had offers from several exceptional programs. She excelled at Chapel Hill on the court while managing the course load of a science major and has “gone beyond” by playing at a professional level.
I wish I knew how much off-the-court stuff you need to do to learn the game and become a better player—things like watching film, learning how to read situations and defenders, and learning how to create spacing and scoring opportunities for yourself and your teammates. Defensively, you watch film to learn how to read your player and adjust to situations. Before every game, you watch film to learn your player’s tendencies and her weaknesses. You also watch film of yourself to see your own weaknesses and strengths. How were you able to balance athletics and academics during college? Balancing the two really teaches you about your priorities and tests your time management skills. Time management is essential, and you learn to make sacrifices for the things you value most. What has it been like to play abroad professionally? Playing overseas has been amazing. I love traveling and experiencing new cultures, so being able to play professional basketball while doing 30 | SPRING 2015 | CANNON MAGAZINE
We asked Carla Moyer, Head of Middle School, to give us three words to describe you. Here is what she said.
Relational. After her UNC games, Krista was often faced with an adoring crowd. This crowd included some of her family members (who almost never missed a game), friends, and young fans who were inspired by her. She made each visitor feel important, special, and appreciated, and she never gave the impression that she didn’t want to take time for others. Krista is a kind and compassionate person who truly exemplifies all of Cannon’s core values. Strong. Krista is physically strong and athletic, but she also exemplifies the “mentally tough” athlete. She has had to battle opponents at a Division I level under the basket, face coaching changes and work with varying ability levels on a team, and play through pain and recover from injury. She has does all of this with a determined and steady approach.
2004 Eddie Alcorn lives in Chapel Hill and works in strategic planning at UNC Health Care, where he helps the health care system make decisions about new projects like hospitals or procedures to pursue. He also teaches a class in spreadsheet modeling at UNC-Chapel Hill. He continues to serve as the President of the Cannon Eddie Alcorn ’04 and Sarah Alumni Board and is looking van der Horst in Topanga, CA forward to hearing about the impressive things being done by his former classmates and students from Cannon! Kim Dillard is working as a nurse in Georgia. She has two kids. Her daughter, Parker, is 6, and her son, Branson, is 3. Her family loves to travel and try new things. She is pursuing a career as a CRNA (Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist). Kristen Lovin is an attorney at Quinn, Emanuel, Urquhart & Sullivan in San Francisco, CA, practicing patent litigation. She graduated from Harvard in 2008 with an A.B. in Electrical Engineering, an S.M. in Computer Science, and a citation in Spanish. While there, she was a Teaching Assistant and was involved in The Harvard Crimson and the Harvard-Radcliffe Christian Fellowship. She also first-authored a paper on 3T1D memories, which was published in International Conference on Computer Design (ICCD). After undergraduate studies, Kristen worked at Microsoft from 2008-2010 as a Program Manager on the Windows Application and Device Compatibility team. While in Washington, she climbed Mt. Rainier twice and became an avid rock climber. Kristen graduated from Columbia Law School in 2013 and was a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar, Editorin-Chief of the Columbia Science and Technology Law Review, and recipient of the Carol G. Harper Prize and Julius Silver Prize. Kim Dillard ’04 works as a nurse in Georgia.
Diane Paulsen is living in Raleigh and working for an IT staffing firm in Research Triangle Park. She enjoys coaching youth USTA tennis teams and running half marathons in her free time. Flaviu Simihaian lives in New York City and is working hard on iMedicare to simplify Medicare for friendly pharmacies and their patients across the country. Katie Wells is living and working at the Pomfret School in Pomfret, CT. She teaches history and coaches the outdoor adventure team each fall and varsity girls’ crew team each spring. She and her partner, Katy Field, are dorm parents for twentyfive sophomore girls on campus. The hope is to rent an RV and take a cross-country road trip together this upcoming summer! 2007 Anthony Oddo has been busy this past year studying at Boonshoft School of Medicine at Wright State University. He spent this past summer in Swaziland, Africa, working in a mobile outreach hospital unit traveling to various rural towns all over the country to help with surgical procedures and comprehensive healthcare. A second-year medical student, Anthony is currently hard at work studying for his first round of board examinations. 2008 Bethany Corbin, founder of Cannon’s annual Project WrapIn, graduated Wake Forest School of Law in 2013 and is now a lawyer for Bradley Arant Boult Cummings, LLC in Charlotte. She visited campus during this year’s Wrap-In event in December to share words of inspiration and wisdom with current Cannon students. Watching her idea turn into an annual tradition at the school has been one of the highlights of her life, she told the students. 2009 Katie Wiebusch graduated from Wofford College in 2013 with B.A. degrees in Finance and Spanish and a minor in Economics. She lives in Spartanburg, SC, and is the Director of Franchise Consulting for Pure Barre. Katie Wiebusch ’09 pictured Katie was recently engaged with fiancé Kyle Grissom ’08 to her Cannon high school sweetheart, Kyle Grissom ’08. Kyle is a graduate of Pfeiffer University with a B.S. in Business Administration, working at Grissom Motorsports. The couple will marry on January 30, 2016 in Charlotte.
>Class Notes
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Alumni
Jessica Peterson-Sielen recently celebrated the release of book two of The Hope Diamond Trilogy, titled The Millionaire Rogue. She pitches the series as “The Thomas Crown Affair” meets Jane Austen. Book three, The Undercover Scoundrel, will be released in June. She blogs about her books at www.jessicapeterson.com.
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2010 Lyndsay Cooper was recently appointed as the new Graphic Design Chair for the Board of the Young Affiliates of the Mint Museum. Hayden Keziah graduated from Appalachian State University on December 13 with a degree in health care management with a minor in sociology and a focus on gerontology. He is beginning his one-year Administrator in Training Program at Sharon Towers in Charlotte. 2011 Crystal Bennett is currently in her last semester of nursing school at Boston College. This semester, she will be completing her senior synthesis with a preceptor on a burn/trauma unit at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. She is also a Patient Care Assistant on the Orthopedics floor at the Brigham and an active member and leader of BC’s Dance Ensemble. She is looking forward to applying to New Graduate Nurse Residency programs and seeing where her next adventure will take her! 2012 Vicky Bruce finished her first semester at Davidson College in December. It was a very hard transition from UNC-Chapel Hill, but she loved every second of it. The classes are much smaller, so she gets to engage with fellow classmates and have relationships with her teachers. Vicky Bruce ’12 ( first row, #4) on the Davidson Wildcats Davidson recently switched to the women’s soccer team A10 Conference, so she is competing against some of the best schools in the country for sports. She’s sad that her third year of collegiate soccer is over, but it was a great first year to be a Wildcat! Jane Campbell is the President of Kappa Delta Gamma Epsilon Sorority at Florida Southern College. Tim Gruber is a junior at University of Richmond studying history and French. He is still a member of Richmond XC/track and serves as Secretary to the University of Richmond Honor Council. Rebekah Harmon is still bringing it on for the Pack, making the Dean’s List and tutoring student-athletes at State through the NCAA. Caroline Johnson is currently serving as Vice President of Communications as a representative of Zeta Tau Alpha for Greek Life’s Panhellenic Executive Council. Mason McClanahan is currently a junior an UNCChapel Hill studying biomedical engineering. Mason is a member of the Sigma Nu Fraternity, where he serves as part of the chapter’s leadership team. His current research focus is biomedical Mason McClanahan ’12 (second from developments for cancer right) in London treatments. During the summer of 2014, Mason traveled to London to study music and art history. While in Europe, he was also able to visit Scotland and Amsterdam. 32 | SPRING 2015 | CANNON MAGAZINE
Derek Pace is pursuing a degree in political science and religious studies at UNC-Chapel Hill. He will write a thesis during the coming academic year and expects to graduate with honors in May 2016. This year, he works as a Resident Advisor and expects to be inducted into Phi Beta Kappa, the national collegiate honor society. Derek has accepted a summer internship with the Family Equality Council, which will allow him to work with families headed by LGBTQ parents in Boston. Charles Sterner has had the opportunity to work with both the football team and the tennis team as an athletic training major at the University of South Carolina. The experience has been very rewarding and educational for him. He has always loved athletics, so being around it and getting to know the players while helping them achieve their goals has been an exciting experience. He is glad to be in this field and hopes to continue to help people reach their goals as an athletic trainer someday. Hailey Wade will be the Resident Advisor Mentor for Ehringhaus Dorm at UNC-Chapel Hill next year. Patrick Odum and Hailey were engaged on January 1, 2015. 2014 Reed Harmon is a freshman at NC State, diving into her first semester by making the Dean’s List. Her artwork was displayed in the inaugural alumni art exhibit, Creativity Flourishes, at Cannon School this winter. Angela Poffenbaugh is currently a part of the Macabre Theatre Ensemble and was appointed as the Stage Manager for a Murder Mystery Tea Party that took place in October. Additionally, she plans to become a part of ICTV, one of the oldest and most famous television networks hosted by the Park School of Communications. She will become involved in either acting for a television show or entertainment broadcasting. She is also a part of the clubs More Than Me and Colleges Against Cancer. More Than Me is a club that funds education for girls living in the slums of Liberia, and Colleges Against Cancer raises money for the American Cancer Society. This winter, she will be joining the ski club and skiing weekly with her friends! Reed Harmon ’14 and Rebekah Harmon ’12 represent the best of Cannon, the best of sisters, and the best of NC State.
Daniel Wyatt says his time at Cannon School readied him for the academic rigors of Stanford University in California. Stanford is on the quarter system, and Daniel did not start school until mid-September. He used this “extra time” to visit his friends who started earlier at UNC and Georgia. With today’s communication methods, distance is not an issue; his family uses FaceTime to keep in touch. One unexpected Daniel Wyatt ’14 (center) with difference between college and his brother Ben Wyatt ’16 and high school was clubs. At Stanford, sister Amelia Wyatt ’20 admission into some clubs is very competitive, and students have to submit resumes, fill out essays, and may even be interviewed. He advises working hard in the beginning and building a strong base!
Experience Guaranteed
Two Cannon alumni stretch themselves beyond the classroom to jumpstart their careers.
cliché, but never be afraid to move somewhere for an amazing opportunity. I never imagined moving to Minnesota, but this internship has been an amazing experience. I am affirmed every day in my choice to aim a little higher. I will be the ninety-eighth intern to be trained by this program, and I couldn’t be happier or more humbled by having this opportunity.”
By: Lynda Abel, Alumni Relations Manager Many college and post-graduate students participate in internships and fellowships as a way to gain experience in their prospective fields, refine career goals, and build networks within an industry or organization. We caught up with two Cannon alumni at different stages of their careers to gain insight into the value of how their experiences in the field have helped guide them on their individual journeys.
Davis Gossage ’12: Davis, a junior at the Pratt School of Engineering at Duke University, is planning to major in Electrical/Computer Engineering and Computer Science. He recently participated in Melissa & Doug Entrepreneurs, a year-long fellowship program at Duke that is focused on turning business ideas into action, and is sponsored by the founders of Melissa & Doug Toys. The fellowship began last spring when Davis, along with eleven other fellows, had the opportunity to visit a variety of startup businesses in the RaleighDurham area and participate in workshops that taught some of the fundamentals of innovation and entrepreneurship. Katherine Sherrill ’10: Katherine graduated from Appalachian State University in May with a Bachelor of Music in Music Therapy and moved to Minneapolis to take the next disciplined step in her journey to become a board certified Music Therapist. She is currently interning at Park Nicollet Health Services, where she provides music therapy services for patients in the hospital, homecare hospice, the Frauenshuh Cancer Center, and the Struther’s Parkinson’s Center. Katherine’s internship is a requirement of the American Music Therapy Association, and all music therapists must go through a sixto nine-month internship—or 1,020 hours of clinical contact with patients—to sit for their board examinations. Katherine shared, “This internship is vital to my career goals. It has helped me shape what population and setting I want to work in for the future.” Beyond making Katherine confident in her ability to find a job that will meet her goals, she explained, “This internship has really helped me develop how to be a part of a treatment team. When people are admitted into our program, they have a variety of staff members working with them, and with that comes a large amount of communication among all of us. It is not always perfect, but I am shown every day how important it is to our patients’ care. I have also gained so much insight about hospice services and how to best serve people and their families at the end of life. It has been a powerful experience.” When we asked Katherine what advice she might have for Cannon students, she advised, “Go where the opportunities are. It sounds
“I learned so many things relating to so many aspects of starting and maintaining a business,” Davis explained. “I learned about what it takes to raise a seed round, how to pitch to investors, how to sell a product to customers, and how to manage and scale a growing company.” As the fellowship progressed over the summer, Davis worked on and further developed CrowdTunes, a startup that he co-founded. Available on the App Store and already in use by several bars in the Durham area, CrowdTunes (crowdtunes.com) is a mobile bidding platform and music management service that empowers patrons of a venue with the ability to choose the music they want to hear. In the fall, Davis had the opportunity to pitch CrowdTunes in front of a room full of Duke entrepreneurs and investors and shared with us, “The feedback and insight I received throughout this fellowship was invaluable. I will use the lessons I’ve learned and the connections I’ve made during the past year for the rest of my life.” Davis feels that his fellowship experience with Melissa & Doug Entrepreneurs helped him with his career goals by immersing him in the startup world and allowing him to compare that experience with that of a traditional internship at a stable, mature company— like Apple Inc., where Davis will intern this summer. Reflecting his entrepreneurial spirit, Davis offered the following advice to current Cannon students, “Creating a business, even if it fails or never leaves the idea stage, shows passion and determination and is something that many companies like to see.” CANNON MAGAZINE | SPRING 2015 | 33
1. Class of 2004 Reunion at Ramsey Creek Park in June. Adults from l-r: Kim Dillard Lostetter, Naomi Bailey, Kristi Shullaw, Elizabeth Barnes, Alissa Mroz, Eddie Alcorn, Kristen Lovin, and Matt White. Children: Kristi is holding her daughter, Zoe. Kim’s children, Parker and Branson, are in the front row. 2. Class of 2009 Reunion at Red Rocks in December. Front row from l-r: Austin Felker, Parth Shah, Drew Glenn, Maggie Peterson, Ashley Cunningham, Alex Ramdin, Taylor Williams, Rebecca Dayton, and Kristin Foster. Back row from l-r: Will Kerr, Tyler Webb, Allain Andry, Hannah Klein, Luke Carnes, Curt Black, Kristian Andaas, Austin Dollar, Josh Sotomayor, Matthew Poppe, Sarah Wheeler, Marina Provenzano, Ross Adams, Savannah Sipperly, Meredith Frazier, and Anna Royal 3. Visiting alumni and faculty members got reacquainted at the Alumni Jazz Café and Faculty Luncheon in December. Alumni Jazz Band from l-r: Chris Pope ’12, Thomas Goode ’13, Michael Pope ’13, Brett Morton ’13, Brad Davis, Cameron Cook ’11, Dominick Vaccaro ’13, Will Keenan ’12, and Mason McClanahan ’12. Not pictured: Max Krumdieck ’14 4. Alumni visiting the Alumni Tent at Homecoming 2014. From l-r: Holt Morrison ’91, Anne Morrison ’90, Tommy Chepke ’13, Maggie Goode ’12, Jessica Peterson Sielen ’03, Hailey Wade ’12, and Matthew Dacus ’13 4
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5. Members of the Alumni Board met in January to plan for next year’s alumni events and initiatives. Front row from l-r: Vice President Jessica Peterson Sielen ’03, Rosemary Sirois ’10, Juliana Sirois ’14 Back row from l-r: President Eddie Alcorn ’04, Heidi Gruber ’10, Tim Gruber ’10, and Michael Pope ’13. Not pictured: Denny Alcorn ’08, Maddie Colcord ’10, Catherine Falkenbury ’06, Jeremy Miller ’10, Secretary Marie Morgann ’01, Katherine Sherrill ’10, and Will Sherrill ’07 6. Alumni vs. Varsity Soccer Game in August. Front row from l-r: Anna Estep ’14, Iliana Ragnone ’14, Maddie Colcord ’10, Rosemary Sirois ’10, Kristin Foster ’09, Jenna Sarett ’10, Drew Glenn ’09, Larkin Felker ’14, and Patrick Murphy ’11. Back row from l-r: David Sirois ’12, Eric Rossitch ’12, Jake Flynn ’14, Nikolas Stylianou ’14, Grant Gossage ’14, Kamil Manzoor ’14, Zack Tysinger ’12, Nick Rossitch ’14, Jeffrey Schachner ’13, Bradley Barnhart ’13, Bryan Metz ’12, and Scott Krusell ’12. Not Pictured: Chris Batchelor ’14, Charley Powell ’14, Baylor Koch ’12, and Jackson Sipperly ’11 7. Alumni vs. Varsity Basketball Scrimmage in December. Alumni in grey jerseys and varsity team members in white jerseys from l-r: Eric Fromke ’14, Denny Alcorn ’08, Eddie Alcorn ’04, R.J. Dixon ’07, Ryan Marks ’14, Philip Jewell ’14, Nemanja Djorvic ’15, Coach Kelvin Drakeford ’08, Cory Deveaux ’17, Zion Hendrix ’18, Coach Ché Roth, André Dahan ’16, Jordan Battle ’16, Philip McKenzie ’17, Zach King ’16, Myles Martino ’13, Jordan Jackson ’15, Bryan Bennett ’18, Dominick Reid ’07, Grant Gossage ’14, Darren David ’13, Tommy Chepke ’13, Deion Smith-White ’08, Chris Batchelor ’14, Milija Cosic ’15, and Jonathan Green ’14 6
Interested in getting involved?
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Alumni volunteers are always needed to help plan reunions and affinity gatherings, and to collect class notes. Alumni interested in volunteering or joining the Alumni Board are encouraged to submit a membership application. Contact Lynda Abel for more information or visit www.cannonschool.org/alumni.
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5801 Poplar Tent Road Concord, NC 28027 www.cannonschool.org
CANNON Jazz Concert Series at the Cannon Performing Arts Center
The Jazz Program at Cannon School is proud to announce a new monthly webcast concert series at the Cannon Performing Arts Center. Performances will be streamed live from the stages of Lincoln Center in NYC, blown up on the big screen, and heard through a state-of-the art sound system. Each show will be preceded by a thirty-minute primer from Cannon’s Director of Jazz, Brad Davis. April 24, 7:30 p.m. - John Scofield and Taj Mahal celebrate Muddy Waters May 15, 7:30 p.m. - Wayne Shorter with Wynton Marsalis and the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra