Fabiola Salas Villalobos Middle School Spanish teacher Fabiola Salas Villalobos, a doctoral candidate at UNC-Chapel Hill, won a $250,000 U.S. Department of Education grant in November, along with her team at the UNC School of Education. The threeyear award — one of eight Title VI International Research and Studies Program Grants offered — funds research on how dual language immersion programs strengthen student literacy.
Howard Lineberger
DR. HARRY THOMAS Durham Academy faculty, students and alumni attended the launch of Upper School English teacher Dr. Harry Thomas’ book, Sissy! The Effeminate Paradox in Postwar US Literature and Culture, at a reading and signing in October. The event was held at UNC-Chapel Hill’s Bull’s Head Bookshop. Thomas’ book — published by the University of Alabama Press in September — is an exploration of postwar representations of effeminate men and boys, from the writings of Truman Capote, to vampires in the Twilight book and movie series. Thomas discussed his book — which was honored with the Elizabeth Agee Prize in American Literature — as a featured guest on WUNC’s The State of Things in November. Listen to the interview at bit.ly/thomaswunc.
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Durham Academy // Winter 2018
Culminating 13 months of research with the NASA/IPAC Teacher Archive Research Program (NITARP), Upper School science teacher Howard Lineberger helped present the results of his team’s work at the winter meeting of the American Astronomical Society in January in Washington, D.C. NITARP partners small groups of largely high school educators with mentor professional astronomers for original research projects. Lineberger was among just eight teachers from around the country selected for NITARP’s 2017 class. His team made use of Spitzer Space Telescope data obtained from the entirety of the Cryogenian era, looking for the most unusual and faintest infrared excess objects serendipitously detected. Lineberger’s NITARP teammates included three other high school teachers from around the country and mentor astronomer Dr. Varoujan Gorjian, a research astronomer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Sharing in the research experience and attending the American Astronomical Society meeting were Durham Academy senior Lillia Larson and juniors Joseph Walston and Mekai Scott.
Karl Schaefer Middle School digital learning specialist Karl Schaefer won the Coach/ Mentor Award at the FIRST LEGO League (FLL) robotics qualifying tournament in November. Schaefer has headed up the Middle School’s FLL program since its inception in the 2014–2015 school year; in that time, the program has grown from a single team to three squads, and DA teams have qualified for the state tournament six times. For a video of Schaefer taking a victory lap, see bit.ly/schaeferfll.
Susan Ellis
For more on the team’s work, including research posters, visit bit.ly/linebergernasa.
Varsity girls soccer coach Susan Ellis won the United Soccer Coaches’ High School Coach of Significance Award in September. Ellis, who is also a Middle School physical education teacher, is among just 23 soccer coaches (of girls and boys teams) around the nation who comprise the award’s first-ever class of recipients. The High School Coach of Significance Award acknowledges high school coaches who go above and beyond the playing field by using their coaching position to teach life lessons and provide opportunities to develop outstanding young men and women.