Torchbearer Spring 2015 | Volume XI | Issue 2

A P U B L I C AT I O N F O R PA R E N T S , A L U M N I , A N D F R I E N D S O F H O LY I N N O C E N T S ’ E P I S C O PA L S C H O O L

LOWER SCHOOL

INNOVATION LABS

Do-it-yourself learning

In This Issue: Globalliance Games SPRING 2015 | VOLUME XI | ISSUE 2

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School-Wide Writing Program

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The Return Of Debate Team

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Spring Drama The spring term was a busy one on the FAB stage, as fifthgraders put on Thoroughly Modern Millie; the Middle School staged Just Another Snow Day; and the Upper School Players presented The Diviners.

Thoroughly Modern Millie Torchbearer | Spring 2015

Just Another Snow Day

The Diviners Torchbearer | Spring 2015

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Holy Season From Ash Wednesday through Easter, Holy Innocents’ held a number of services in honor of the Holy Season, including a first for the school – a foot washing

Robotics Program

service on Maundy Thursday.

Under the guidance of faculty advisor Ian Frame, robotics students created an amazing machine capable of gathering whiffle balls and dropping them into elevated tubes, as part of the FIRST Tech Challenge interscholastic competition.

Kristin Green and her fourth-grade class celebrate their award for raising the most money for charity during Chaplain Timothy Seamans’ “Lent Madness” contest.

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Mission Statement

Holy Innocents’ Episcopal School develops in students a love of learning, respect for self and others, faith in God, and a sense of service to the world community.

School Philosophy

Holy Innocents’ Episcopal School offers an educational program encompassing academics, arts, athletics and spiritual formation.

Through opportunities to grow intellectually, spiritually, physically and emotionally, students develop their individual worth and dignity.

The challenging academic program prepares students for higher education and emphasizes learning

as a pathway toward ethical leadership and a commitment to the common good.

The school provides a welcoming and supportive environment, embraces the differences inherent in a diverse community, and embodies the inclusive Episcopal tradition of respect for the beliefs of others. Holy Innocents’ is an active community of faith engaged in local, national and international service to others.

Contents TORCHBEARER

SPRING

2015

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VOLUME

XI

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ISSUE

2

IN THIS ISSUE: AROUND CAMPUS 08 Third Grader on the Silver Screen

At the fourth grade’s Wax Museum, Logan Hodgson brings Paul Revere to life, explaining just what happened during that midnight ride.

EXECUTIVE EDITOR Nick Roberts ASSOCIATE EDITORS Julie Fennell Peggy J. Shaw CONTRIBUTING EDITORS June Arnold Michele Duncan Dunn Neugebauer Tamika Weaver Hightower Mary Chris Williams GRAPHIC DESIGN Peggy Archambault/archdesign1.com PHOTOGRAPHY Nick Roberts Julie Fennell Special thanks to James Barker of JW Barker Photography CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS Jim Baker Sean Brock Johnny Crawford Billy Howard Terry Kelly Dunn Neugebauer Debbie Reams Alice Thompson LeAnne Weaver HIES Yearbook Staff Gemshots Photographic

From the Editor

09 Ethics Teacher Walks the Walk

I’m a curmudgeon.

I’m the guy who always says I’m glad I grew up before the advent of video games,

13 JDRF Team Repeats – Again

10 Very Personal Holocaust Lesson 11 Primary Schooler in Space

iPhones, or Facebook, back when parents would kick us out of the house on Saturday morning and tell us not to return till the dinner bell rings. If you haven’t heard my spiel about how today’s kids never get to play a game of baseball or basketball that isn’t coached and umpired by adults, consider yourself lucky.

I’m probably two years away from telling someone to get off my lawn.

Then I undertake a story on the new Innovation Labs and all I can think is, “Man, I wish I was a kid these days in Lower School.”

Way back when, if I’d had Jim Barton as a writing teacher, I wouldn’t have approached each assignment as though I’d just been told to mow the lawn. With Susan Rapoport, I would have spent a lot less time on Gilligan’s Island and a lot more in the middle of books.

Cindy Dimenstien actually makes science fun.

Fun! And granted, there were no personal computers when I was growing up, but I bet if Susie Ross had been my teacher, I’d have known what that little “cosine” button on the calculator did.

Oh to be young again…

FEATURES 16 Catching Up With Susan Karimiha ’04, Zach Blend ’02 18 Celebrating Madie Wilbanks 19 In Memoriam – William Bennett Bullock and Sue McCauley 32 Globalliance Completes Middle School Games Cycle 34 Two 21st Century Leaders 36 STEM Club Replaces Science Olympiad

ARTICLES 15 From the Head of School 17 School-Wide Writing Program 20 New Bridge to Holy Innocents’

COVER STORY:

INNOVATION LABS EMPOWER LOWER SCHOOL STUDENTS

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21 Return of Debate

DEVELOPMENT 40 2015 Gala – An Evening In Margaritaville

Nick Roberts

42 State of the School 44 Save the Dates!

Letters to the Editor

Please send to the attention of Nick Roberts, at nick.roberts@hies.org, or mail to: Nick Roberts Director of Communications Holy Innocents’ Episcopal School 805 Mt. Vernon Highway, NW Atlanta, GA 30327

14 Battle of the Bands Is No Contest

45 New Advisory Board 45 Annual Fund Challenge facebook.com/ Holy-Innocents-Episcopal-School

twitter.com/ HIESbears

instagram.com/ Holyinnocentsbears

46 March Mania 47 Class Notes

TorchBearer is published by the Offices of Development and Communications of Holy Innocents’ Episcopal School. Special appreciation goes to the parents, faculty, and staff whose contributions make this publication possible. Every attempt has been made to ensure accuracy within this magazine. Please notify the editor of any errors or omissions and accept our sincere apologies.

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Campus Now Showing in Third Grade N

ot many folks outside the Lower School know third-grader Owen Vaccaro.

But when the movie Daddy’s Home hits theaters later this year, millions of people around the world will undoubtedly fall in love with the precocious young actor.

In the comedy, starring Hollywood big shots Will Ferrell, Mark Wahlberg, and Linda Cardellini, Owen

plays the young son of a man (Ferrell) who goes a bit overboard re-inserting himself into family life when his ex-wife begins dating another man.

“It was really fun,” says Owen of working on a major motion picture. When asked what his favorite part was, Owen replies like a very typical 9-year-old, “You get to meet a lot of really cool people, and there

was a little girl who was my sister in the movie and we would always have play dates at night.”

Daddy’s Home is just the latest acting project for Owen, who has also performed in the independent films A Product of Me and Rom, in a number of stage productions, and in TV commercials for such brands as Ford, Bojangles restaurants, and Nickelodeon. He has quickly developed a stellar reputation in the industry, not just for his skills, but also for his reliability. On the Daddy’s Home set, his nickname

Owen on location with Mark Wahlberg and his movie “sister,” Scarlett Estevez.

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became “One-Take Owen.”

“Owen has done lots of acting,” says his mom, Alli Vaccaro. He got into the field because Alli and her husband, Chris, had run out of ideas for their son’s outside interests. “Chris and I were mostly athletes growing up, so we kept having him try sports – tee-ball, soccer, lacrosse, basketball.

But he didn’t like any of it and we thought, ‘We have to find something for him.’”

Three years ago, they found the perfect fit, courtesy of Owen’s firstgrade teacher, Stephanie Betts. “Mrs. Betts told us, ‘You’ve got to take him to M.Z. Stageworks in Buckhead so he can do drama,’” remembers Alli.

“We had never heard of it and just said, ‘Yeah, ok, we’ll sign him up.’ But she was dead on! He came home that night so excited; he couldn’t wait for the next class. And we were elated because we felt like he finally found something that he was passionate about and wanted to show up for, instead of us begging him to try the next big thing.”

If his star continues to rise, Owen may become the next big thing. But his parents make sure, even with all of Owen’s success, that he stays grounded – and Holy Innocents’ plays a big part in that. “The school has been wonderful,” says Allie. “He loves his teachers and his classmates and he can just be a kid.”

Stephen Jayaraj oversees the debate in his ethics class.

ELIZABETH LAMBACK THROWN A CURVEBALL

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rchestra Director Elizabeth Lamback is a remarkably accomplished violinist who has instilled a passion for music in so many of her

p h oto c o u rt e s y o f t h e at l a n ta j o u r n a l - c o n s t i t u t i o n

AROUND

students. She’s not, however, a big baseball fan.

But Lamback got a taste of the big leagues last December, when she was hired to perform at a wedding for someone named Jair Jurrjens. Anyone who follows the Braves will recognize that name as one of the team’s star pitchers from a few years ago.

Lamback doesn’t follow the Braves.

“We knew he must have been someone famous, because the ceremony was very ritzy, very glamorous –

Ethics Teacher ‘Walks the Walk’

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pper School Religious Studies teacher Stephen Jayaraj took the extra step for an ethics class lesson on the federal minimum wage debate.

He actually took thousands of them, walking to and from school for a week.

His pedestrian commute stemmed from a project in which his students set up a budget for Jayaraj, based on a person working 40 hours at federal minimum wage and 10 at $9 an hour. “We added the ten hours because I believed, even as a single person, I would have to work more then forty hours a week to survive,” says Jayaraj.

The students’ budget wouldn’t allow for fruits and vegetables, replacing them with cheaper staples like rice, beans, and

noodles – not an easy sacrifice for a highly accomplished distance runner like Jayaraj. Also not making the budget, though, was an automobile.

So each morning at 5:30 a.m., he’d begin the 3.5-mile trip from his apartment to campus, then make the return trip after completing his after-school commitments.

“All this was to make the project more real,” explains Jayaraj, “so the students could better understand what a lot of people face out there.”

In the end, neither side of the debate – to raise or not to raise minimum wage – came out as the clear winner. What every student learned, however, is that they’ve got a teacher who’s willing to go the extra mile for them.

not our typical client,” says Lamback. “There was one guy in our quartet and he was the first to get clued in. So we all started looking him up on Google between the ceremony and the reception!”

What they learned is that Jurrjens, a native of Curaçao, now plays in the Colorado Rockies’ organization. Lamback, a native of Macon, will hopefully continue her career at HIES for a long, long time.

Elizabeth Lamback (right) bats 1.000 at the wedding of Jair Jurrjens (third from left).

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AROUND Campus

AROUND Campus

A Tangible history lesson E

ach school year, seventh graders read The Diary of Anne Frank, after which the Georgia Ensemble Theatre visits campus to perform And Then They Came for Me: Remembering the World of Anne Frank. This powerful play has always served as a meaningful way to wrap up the unit for students.

This year, though, English teachers Maureen Danzig, David Gale, and Kathy Yukishige decided to add an extra facet to the study of the Holocaust. On a tip from art teacher Maria-Louise Coil, the English teachers introduced Stones of Remembrance, a project that provides American schoolchildren with a palpable reminder of the 1.5 million innocents who died at the hands of the Nazis.

For the project, each student received a stone from The Weinberg Center at the William Breman Jewish Heritage Museum, plus a slip of paper containing a child victim’s name, date and place of birth, and date and place of death. The HIES students then painted the stones in their own unique way, and carefully added the information about “their” child.

“Each student handled the stones with great care and respect,” says Danzig. “Our students believe that the stone they were in charge Torchbearer | Spring 2015

of is truly a memorial to that particular child, especially because they learned in class that virtually all of the children who perished during the Holocaust did not receive a proper burial.”

Adds Yukishige, “This project is the perfect way for

our students to feel like they did something after learning everything they have about the Holocaust.”

When the project was complete, the Breman Museum retrieved the stones and took them to various Jewish gardens around

Atlanta, where they will serve as permanent memorials to the victims.

Our Nurse Is First

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oly Innocents’ families know what a special caregiver they have in Lower and Middle School nurse Tammy Green. Now the rest of the country does, too.

The National Association of School Nurses (NASN) has named Nurse Green as the winner of the 2015 Outstanding Private and Parochial School Nurse of the Year Award!

The award is given to an individual who goes above and beyond to build a safe and healthy school environment, utilizes the most current research and resources, and displays effective leadership in his or her role. Since she joined Holy Innocents’ in 1999, Nurse Green has done all this and more; most people believe she is overdue for the recognition.

“Tammy is a consummate professional and the guardian of all our kids – not just our Type 1 diabetic community, of which she is a treasured member,” says HIES parent, Jill Kampfe, the mother of a Type 1 student.

“Because of her, our children have a mentor, a watchdog, and a compassionate friend. In our minds, Tammy sets the bar and hangs the moon!”

At first, Nurse Green (who is the wife of the HIES Director of Security, Major Wes Green) had

A Is For Astronaut

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lot of little boys and girls dream of becoming astronauts. But Kellan Phillips-Robertson is the only one we know of who can say he’s actually been in space.

Last November, while serving on the International Space Station, NASA’s Reid Wiseman brought Kellan along for the ride – or at least an adorable photo of the HIES Early Learner in his Halloween costume.

Kellan’s mom, CNN reporter Kyra Phillips, began her long friendship with Wiseman during the first Iraq war, when he served as the lead fighter pilot on the USS Abraham Lincoln, the aircraft carrier on which she was embedded. And ever since her son first met the real-life astronaut, his head has been about 100 miles above the clouds.

“Kellan calls Reid ‘Tonto,’ which is his call sign at NASA,” says Phillips. “He even has a rocket alarm clock that has a picture of an astronaut on a spacewalk that lights up his ceiling. And for Halloween, of course, there was absolutely no question about what his costume would be.”

These days, Kellan and his twin sister, Jackie, do more than just look up to Wiseman, so to speak. “The twins watched his launch also. It’s been such a special experience,” says Phillips. “Reid is an amazing role model.”

no desire to submit her name for consideration. “A colleague of mine from Santa Fe, New Mexico, nominated me for the award,” she says. “But that created a lot of work for me, since there were all sorts of forms and program descriptions that

needed to be filled out. So I told her, ‘I really don’t have time for this!’ But she just insisted – so I made the time. I couldn’t believe it when I heard I’d won!”

How she made the time is anyone’s guess. Besides her position at HIES, Nurse

Green also works as a parttime Clinical Faculty member at Kennesaw State University, helps with a number of medical and nursing research projects throughout the country, and has published numerous articles in NASN communications.

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AROUND Campus

AROUND Campus

Science Fare

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ssignment: take 500 Upper School students, place them in a controlled environment, and add some amazing science exhibits. Describe the reaction.

The correct answer is, “Cool!”

On April 21, members of the HIES chapter of the Science National Honor Society held their third annual Sciencepalooza, an event created by chemistry teacher Stephanie Garner in 2013, and organized this year by chemistry and physics teacher Mandy Love.

Computerized turtle races, a virtual reality experience, and piloting overhead drones were just some of the many events and exhibits spread throughout the Main and Duncan gyms and on Baker Field. Meanwhile in the FAB, the very passionate Michael Green performed a number of experiments from Science for Everyone, his interactive science and technology company committed to increasing students’ math and science interests.

Sciencepalooza’s mission is to kindle an interest in science careers and hobbies among Upper-Schoolers. Judging from the reactions of students all afternoon, that mission was very well accomplished.

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JDRF Team Re-Re-Re-Re-Re-Repeats

Brothers in Arms

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or six Holy Innocents’ senior baseball players, being teammates means more than having played together on varsity, junior varsity, or even the Golden Bears’ Middle School team.

It actually goes back nearly all of their lives.

Joe Chapman, Joe Charron, Connor Dolan, Cole Hanks, Sam Herrick, and Paxton Juneau began playing the Grand Old Game together as 3-year-olds on the NYO fields.

“We went through tee-ball,

Joe Charron, Sam Herrick, Connor Dolan, Joe Chapman, Paxton Juneau, and Cole Hanks

machine pitch, Little League, all the way through Bronco Baseball,” says Cole. “You don’t even realize what all that time in the dugout together really means till it’s over.”

For two of them, though,

it’s still not over. Both Cole and Sam will continue their careers at the University of the South. Together (of course) they signed their letters of intent earlier this year to pitch for the Tigers.

he most tiring part of being on our JDRF Walk Team might be all the trips to the podium to pick up awards.

For the seventh straight year, the team earned the Golden Sneaker as America’s top team in JDRF’s big Fall Walk fundraiser. They also nearly doubled their own record, bringing in a stunning $76,567!

This year was also unique for another reason – the individual totals that some team members raised.

Here’s a list of those HIES students who placed among the top 100 fundraisers in the country (and remember, there are tens of

thousands of people who participate nationwide): Anna Kampfe – #1 in the country Nicholas Verlander – Top 5 in the country Matthew Christensen and Presley Davies –Top 10 in the country Audrey Farnham and Reed Stewart – Top 20 in the country Will Epperson – Top 30 in the country Claire Hailey – Top 40 in the country Hayden Kirk – Top 100 in the country

Congratulations to these remarkable young men and women! And thank you to everyone who has given so generously to the goal of finding a cure for Juvenile Diabetes.

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AROUND Campus

From the head of school

Student Band Wins Battle Healthcare of Atlanta.

For 18 Mullets, whose name is purportedly a pun on the Portlandia TV skit “Too Much Tuna,” the victory marked the latest step in a journey that began with an impromptu jam of bongos, guitars, and melodica on the sands of Seaside, FL. The musicians decided to form a group and quickly mastered a set list of classic and alternative rock, as well as funk and reggae – then promptly took first place in the NHS Talent Show. They’ve also booked a gig at the Andee’s

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p h oto c o u rt e s y o f s e a n b r o c k p h oto g r a p h y

atch your backs, Phish – 18 Mullets can rock.

The group – made up of HIES junior Benjamin Myer (bass), sophomores Zach Henry (guitar) and Iain Thomas (drums), freshman Ziggy Zoller (guitar), and Westminster sophomore Ian Payne (keyboard/melodica) – reigned supreme at Feb. 20’s Hope Grows: Battle of the Bands, held at the Buckhead Theatre.

Sponsored by the volunteer group girlFriends, the benefit raised funds for Children’s

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Left to right: Iain Thomas, Zach Henry, Ziggy Zoller, and Benjamin Myer.

Not pictured: Ian Payne.

Army fundraiser in June at Chastain Park, and even played as a “relief band” at prom.

“Flight Time” Holds Court W

hen a six foot three inch, 240-pound athlete talks, Lower Schoolers listen.

So last March, when the Harlem Globetrotters’ Herbert “Flight Time” Lang visited campus to deliver an anti-bullying message, every student in the Duncan Gym sat in rapt attention.

Flight Time began his presentation by bringing some students and teachers onto the court to teach them a few Globetrotter-like tricks. Once the mood had been set, he gave a speech on the “ABCs of Bullying Prevention” – A stands for Action; B stands for Bravery; and C stands for Compassion.

The Centenary grad and basketball wizard wound up Torchbearer | Spring 2015

the show with a few moves of his own, dribbling, spinning, and dunking the ball to squeals of laughter and gasps of amazement (and accompa-

nied by the infectious tune, Sweet Georgia Brown).

Rarely has such a serious message resulted in so many happy faces.

It seems when you’ve got this much talent, success isn’t much of a battle.

s the end of my first year at HIES is in sight, I naturally begin to look back and reflect on how quickly it has gone by and how proud I am to be here. It has been an incredible year of transition and growth. One of the perks of being the new guy is all the free advice you get about…….. well, everything.

One bit of advice stands out. I asked alumni for stories about their time at Holy Innocents’ and any advice they may have for me as the new Head. I have kept one letter pinned to my bulletin board since the beginning of the year as a reminder and frankly, a guide. She is a junior at Furman University. Katie and I have yet to meet in person, but her impact on me has been significant, as I have taken her “tips to win the hearts of the student body” to heart. Katie’s tips were as follows: #1 – Start planning your Halloween costume now. You won’t want to miss the preschool/Senior parade.

CHECK! I dressed up as a Ping-Pong Champion and got to walk in the parade with my youngest son, Charlie who dressed as a professional fisherman. A memory I will always cherish!! Thanks, Katie. #2 – Show up and cheer at a Bears cross-country meet. The team is lookin’ hot this season, and you might even make Dunn’s sports write-up.

CHECK! I attended a number of cross-country meets since my oldest, Sam, ran on the middle school cross-country team. It was incredible to attend the state meet in Carrollton. As for Dunn’s sports write-up, I live in hope. #3 – Be a kid. What HIES needs is energy, enthusiasm, and creativity. Yeah, you get to play bossman all day long, but never miss the chances to be the school spirit that leads us to success.

CHECK! It’s easy to be energetic, enthusiastic, and creative when you’re part of such an amazing community of dedicated, pas sionate, and caring people. May we all remember to let our inner kid out to play, laugh, and just be a kid.

Katie Keith may be the best executive coach a Head of School ever had. Her advice is simple, profound, and universal. Don’t Miss the Parade. Show Up and Cheer.

Be a Kid. If that’s not a life theme, I don’t know what is. May we keep Katie’s tips in mind as we lean into our mission and seek new ways to live it out in the 21st century.

These new ways manifest themselves in every division. Be inspired as Primary School students lead the way in service learning. Experience crosscurricular collaboration in the Lower School Innovation Lab. Watch teams of middle school students problem solve and present creative approaches to real-world conundrums through the Globalliance simulation game. Join in as our Upper School students make a positive impact all around Metro Atlanta through our Great Day of Service.

If our mission is nurtured in our students, it comes to fruition in our alumni. I already shared the wisdom of Katie Keith with you. I listened to Emanuel Mathis (Class of 1998) speak with passion and purpose at the International Dinner about how his “thirst for the world began at Holy Innocents’.” Today, Emanuel shapes the lives of students as a teacher and coach at KIPP Metro Atlanta. I had the privilege to meet Shelarese Ruffin (Class of 2000) at an alumni event in Boston. Shelarese shared that she is finishing her work in student affairs at Harvard so that she can embark on a new adventure….. to address systemic issues that create social, financial, and educational barriers to hilltribe communities in Northern Thailand, Laos, and Burma. I responded, “Of course, you are.”

It’s your turn to Transform your World in Three Easy Steps: 1.) Don’t Miss the Parade 2.) Show Up and Cheer 3.) Be a Kid

Go Bears!

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Alumni Catch-ups

Developing A School of Writers: The Outline

A Doctor in the Family: Susan Karamiha ’04 Susan Karimiha ‘04 is a Ph.D. candidate in the Louisiana State University School of Human Resource Education and Workforce Development. Her major is Human Resource and Leadership Development with a Ph.D. minor in Information Systems and Decision Sciences from the LSU E. J. Ourso College of Business.

Susan has served as a teaching assistant in Introduction to Leadership Development courses in LSU’s School of Human Resource Education & Workforce Development. She is also a coordinator in the LSU Agricultural Center’s International Programs office, where she works as the principal investigator for several U.S. Department of Agriculture Foreign Agricultural Service and U.S. Agency for International Development scholar programs. Recently, Susan traveled to Zamorano University in Honduras to work with local universities in developing a plan to address human capital challenges among rural youth in the Corredor Seco, which literally translates to, “Dry Corridor.” The area sees little rainfall and has high poverty and unemployment rates.

Susan graduated from Holy Innocents’ in 2004 where she played basketball, cross country, and track & field. During her junior year, she participated in an HIES-sponsored study abroad program in the Center for Foreign Students of the University of

by Dr. Chris Swann English Department Chair Susan Karimiha

Guadalajara in Mexico.

After HIES, she went to the University of Colorado at Boulder and graduated in 2008 with a double major in International Affairs and Economics. Fellow HIES classmates Alex McLean ’04, Andrew Larwood ’04, Charles Nix ’04, Laura Kimmey Nix ’04, Kate Laird ’04 and Hailey Lowe ’04 also graduated from UC Boulder that same year.

After college, Susan joined the Spain-U.S. Council and became a Junior Economist trainee in the corporate office of BBVA in Madrid.

She began grad school in 2010, receiving her Master’s Degree in 2012 in Human Resource and Leadership Development. She started her Ph.D program immediately afterwards and is currently working on her dissertation, the final step in the process.

Susan says she really enjoys reading updates about Holy Innocents’ and the great work being accomplished by HIES students and staff.

GeorgiaTrend Names Zach Blend ’02 to “40 Under 40” List Last October GeorgiaTrend, one of our state’s leading magazines covering business, politics, and economic development, named HIES alumnus Zach Blend ’02 to their 2014 “40 Under 40.”

The list includes Georgia’s emerging stars in business, government, politics, nonprofits, science, conservation and education.

Here’s what the article had to say about Zach: Zachary Blend, 30 Residential Life Director Goshen Valley Boys Ranch Canton Torchbearer | Spring 2015

“Two years out of Rollins College in Winter Park, Fla., Blend felt a call to join the staff at Goshen Valley Boys Ranch, a long-term residence started by his family for boys and young men ages 9 to 21 in foster care.

“Today as residential life director, he provides oversight and direction to a staff of 35 and offers guidance, advocacy and “a positive influence in the lives” of 40 young residents.

“In addition to his daily responsibilities, Blend assists with development and fund-

raising efforts, community engagement and special events. “‘I wake up every morning feeling like I am led into doing this work, despite the fact it can be difficult at times,’ says Blend, the proud father of a 2 year old, with another baby on the way.

“Blend will finish his master’s at Fuller Theological Seminary in December and hopes to pursue an MBA next fall.”

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Zach Blend

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s Ernest Hemingway reportedly said: “It is easy to write. Just sit in front of your typewriter and bleed.”

Writing is hard. It takes a lot of effort and practice before it becomes good. And yet, like a line drive or a double play, good writing is a joy to behold.

So how do we teach students to write?

Writing instruction is not a linear process. In mathematics, students typically learn certain facts and operations before moving on to others, like ascending a series of steps on a staircase. Writing is taught more as an outward-curving spiral, where steps in the writing process are taught and then retaught, both reinforcing and expanding students’ skills. Sixth, ninth, and eleventh graders all learn how to write a thesis and construct an argument. At each level, teachers ask for more sophistication and focus on different, specific skills, but the repeated emphasis on fundamentals—organization, clarity, support—is necessary.

Last spring, Jim Barton, the Lower School writing specialist, wrote me an e-mail. Terri Potter had asked him to develop a writing program for fourth and fifth grades, and Jim asked if we could work together so his program would be the start of a process that led all the way through twelfth grade. As he wrote in his e-mail, “This could be a fantastic opportunity to cross-pollinate, and transform the ‘one school’ theme into actual, real live learning. Imagine the impact of a 5th grader getting to present his/her work to a senior AP English class.

Or imagine the benefit to that 12th grader in line-editing a 5th grader’s term project. Man, oh man.”

While the English department has always considered writing instruction as one of its core missions, academic departments consist of grades 6-12, and there has not been a clear conduit in place between the departments and the Lower School. Jim was proposing a program to bridge that gap, looking toward the immediate needs of Middle School with an eye toward the future needs of the Upper School.

We asked Kathy Yukishige, who teaches English and Rhetoric in the Middle School, to help us develop a schoolwide program. We had lots of ideas, but we kept coming back to a single premise: what do we want a student writer to look like? Using the HIES Portrait of a Graduate as inspiration, we developed a Portrait of a Writer. Some of the skill sets that we felt were important include: viewing writing as a process rather than an isolated act; valuing creativity and intellectual flexibility; displaying a clear proficiency in the use of mechanics and grammar; writing in a variety of modes and for a variety of audiences; and offering meaningful, constructive criticism of another writer’s work while accepting and implementing feedback on one’s own. Ultimately, we want students to find a sense of purpose, enjoyment, and personal connection in the act of writing well.

This year the English department conducted a review of writing skills, identifying for each grade level which skills are required of incoming students, which are introduced, and which are especially emphasized and reinforced. Now that we’ve established where we are, so to speak, the goal is to make the concept of a writing program a reality. We plan to put writing front and center as a core skill from fourth to twelfth grades. We will reach out to other departments to learn what writing skills they value, and how the English department can work best with them. We will consider writing contests in all divisions, and perhaps invite students from one division to read and judge student writing from another. We will research programs at schools around the country, and borrow and adapt those aspects that would best suit us.

So, where do we want students to end up on this journey?

Do we want them all to be poets? Novelists? Journalists?

Well, no, although those aren’t terrible goals. The English department has the following mission statement: to teach students to read, write, listen, speak, and think with clarity and purpose. Writing with clarity and purpose is a desirable thing, whether you are writing a novel or drawing up a legal document or requesting a bank loan or writing a love letter. As Joseph Conrad said, “My task which I am trying to achieve is, by the power of the written word to make you hear, to make you feel—it is, before all, to make you see. That – and no more, and it is everything.”

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In Memoriam

Celebrating

Madie Wilbanks WHEN THE CLASS OF 2015 processes to the Main Gym during graduation, a beloved classmate will not be among them.

But Madison Taylor Wilbanks will forever be remembered as a dynamic and talented member of their class.

Madie died Feb. 1 from health complications, and to celebrate her life, spirit, and achievements, a scholarship has been established in her memory. The Wilbanks Award for Excellence in Fine and Performing Arts will commemorate and honor this gifted young woman who so inspired fellow students and faculty during her years at HIES. Madie has been described as an ambitious artist, photographer, and writer. “She really loved life and did it her own way,” said her father, Marlan Wilbanks. “No one told her how to do it.”

The 18-year-old tackled the world head-on, traveling extensively, including trips to Spain, France, Germany, and Mexico. “She wanted to live a full life,” explained her father.

“Madie’s charm, beauty, courage and grace in times of adversity were traits she exhibited every day as she battled Type 1 diabetes since the age of five.”

Madie, who hoped to be a photojournalist, had planned to study at New York University for a year, study in Madrid for another, and then finish at NYU. “She was a free spirit. Madie really danced to her own music,” remembered Judie Jacobs, her Upper School art teacher. “We all laughed at a painting she did of rooftops because the angles were different than the photo she was painting from. But Madie said, ‘I just see them that way.’”

Her remarkable talent also shone through her photography.

“In all my years at Holy Innocents’ I have never taught a more mature artist,” said Alice Thompson, Madie’s photography teacher. “She was beyond her years in how she expressed herself through her work.”

Holy Innocents’ was notified after Madie’s passing, in fact, that she had won the Gold Key award from the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards for her photograph titled “Virginia.”

Now the Wilbanks Award for Excellence in Fine and Performing Arts will help other talented art students from Holy Innocents’.

“The award will inspire a graduating senior to cultivate an appreciation for Madie’s most heartfelt passion – the richness Torchbearer | Spring 2015

WILLIAM BENNETT

BULLOCK

(ART) “Rooftops” (PHOTO) “Virginia”

Former trustee WIllIam Bennett (Bill) Bullock passed away at his home on Thursday, Jan. 29, 2015, after a long illness.

Bullock held leadership positions with Holy Innocents’ Episcopal Church and School, serving as the Senior Warden of the Vestry and Executive Vice-Chairman of the HIES Board of Trustees from 2000-2002.

Born in Roanoke Rapids, NC, Bullock graduated from North Carolina State University with a BS in Mechanical Engineering with an Aeronautical Option. He also received an MS in Management from the Sloan School of Management at MIT. He spent 43 years with Lockheed Martin, including positions in engineering planning, marketing and sales, program management, operations, and executive management. His work took him from Marietta to Burbank, Boston, Paris, Fort Worth, and London. He was closely associated with some of the great military and commercial airplanes of the 20th century, including the Jetstar and Jetstar II, C-130, C-141, C-5A, C-5B, F-22, and F-35. In 2000, he retired as the President of Lockheed Martin Aeronautical Systems.

“He was a true Renaissance man,” remembers the Rector

of Holy Innocents’, the Rev. Michael Sullivan. “He knew everything about jets and airplanes, but he was also an extremely accomplished sailor and he would spend hours working with young children in Sunday School.

Everyone who knew Bill describes him as brilliant, but also kind, loving, and generous.”

“Because of his illness, it’s been a while since Bill was active here, but he did serve with passion,” says former Associate Head of School Dorothy Sullivan. “He opened his home for dinners entertaining Board members, and spent countless hours at school working on projects. He was selfless in sharing his time, his expertise, and his resources.”

A memorial service was held on Saturday, Feb. 7, 2015, at Holy Innocents’ Episcopal Church.

SUE and importance of the arts in our culture and the opportunity to express one’s voice through art,” said Head of School Paul Barton. “Each recipient will receive a scholarship and a memorial plaque, and the honorees’ names will be placed on a commemorative plaque in the FAB lobby.”

Donations to the fund can be made through the Holy Innocents’ website under “Support HIES.” Madie is survived by: her parents, Joan Lyman, Marlan and his wife, Diane Wilbanks; a sister, Lauren Seiple ’09; brother, Jackson Lyman; and her grandparents, Charles Oharro and Marilyn and Aubrey Motz.

NotE: Holy Innocents’ is grateful to Madie’s family for their courage and support in the creation of this fiing memorial for Madie Wilbanks.

McCAULEY On March 4, 2015, sue mccauleY passed away peacefully in her sleep at age 91.

Sue was a long-time Holy Innocents’ parishioner and one of our school’s first teachers, having joined the pre-school program in 1960, just the second year of what was then known as Holy Innocents’ Parish Day School.

Like everyone who worked with Sue, Director of HI Flyers Jan Reynolds has fond memories of the HIES fixture.

“When I was hired as director of the after-

school program in 1990, Assistant Head of School Edward England said to me, ‘Sue was the youngest member of the HI Flyers staff’, and so she was!” remembers Reynolds. “Sue loved Holy Innocents’ and every person who walked through the doors. I loved hearing her stories from her early teaching years, of making her paste and checking out books in the public library for her students. I learned so much from her in the thirteen years we worked together until her retirement in 2003, leaving behind a total of forty-two years of service!”

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BY SARAH TOWNSEND ’96

RESOLVED:

Bridging theGap for New Students I know what it’s like to be the new kid.

A little over 20 years ago, I was a new student in 10th grade at Holy Innocents’. Because I made the switch a few weeks into the school year and everything happened so quickly, I showed up the first day without a uniform. That’s a quick and sure-fire way to get noticed; I was immediately and entirely an outsider.

On that first day, my math teacher asked me to stand up in front of the class and introduce myself. I could imagine nothing worse. All eyes on me. The new kid. It felt like there was a continuous spotlight following me as I tried to navigate the crowded halls (and there were only two halls then), the cliques in the cafeteria, and the chaos of carpool.

Of course, much of this was in my head (the mind of a self-conscious 15-year-old can be incredibly and self-destructively imaginative), but the reality is it’s easy to feel like an outsider when you’re entering a class at Holy Innocents’ in which many students have known each other since kindergarten – no matter how welcoming everyone is. Assimilating to my new environment generated a slew of questions in those first few weeks, questions I didn’t know whom to ask.

Where does everyone eat lunch?

Where is the closest bathroom?

What is acceptable outerwear?

Where do I sign in if I’m late?

Who do I talk to if I forget my locker combination?

Will I make friends?

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In retrospect, my first year at Holy Innocents’ was a series of trials and errors, missteps and small victories, and I certainly could have used a security net of sorts.

In an attempt to provide a security net and help new students with the transition to Holy Innocents’, the Learning Resource Department in the Upper School developed a new course for the 20142015 school year called “Bridge.” Students who were new to the ninth grade this year were given the option to take the class, which focused on cultural and academic integration to the school.

Learning Resource Department Chair Cindy Stroman initiated the concept; she and the other deans had a sensitivity to a variety of transition issues that many new students experience.

“For instance, not every new student has used a Mac before,” said Mrs. Stroman.

“And, often, students coming from different schools are unfamiliar with our expectations and school culture.”

In the past, deans and teachers had attempted to close some of those gaps via several avenues including a Reading/ Writing Summer Workshop and the Upper School math lab during the year. But there were still students who occasionally fell through the cracks.

Upper School Learning Teacher Erin McNicholas led the development of the Bridge course curriculum, which focused on three pillars: Understanding the System, Understanding the Tools, and Organization and Content Support. The concept, as Ms. McNicholas describes it, is, “If you want to be successful at Holy Innocents’, what does that look like?”

This year, its inaugural year, the Bridge

Debate Team Returns to HIES

by Thomas McKenzie sarah townsend

stephani kohl

erin mcnicholas class consisted of 12 ninth-grade students and was taught by Learning Resource teachers Erin McNicholas, Stephani Kohl, and myself. In addition to content support and study skills, topics of discussion and activities included a range of items including a dress code review, “Google Tips and Tricks,” Preview of School Clubs, and a Holy Innocents’ website scavenger hunt.

“I felt more prepared and it helped me get ahead in my classes,” said new student James Feiber.

As the program continues to evolve, that is indeed the goal: to help new students feel more prepared and comfortable as members of the HIES family. After all, it’s never easy being the new kid.

s a teacher of AP American Government and Politics, I encourage my seniors (and a few juniors) to question the status quo, get involved in class discussions, and learn to debate different topics with each other. Beginning next school year, History Dept. Chair Kacey Michelsen and I will ask many other Upper School students to do these same things – as part of the new Holy Innocents’ Debate Team.

In the fall of 2015, the HIES debate program will return for the first time in a number of years. This is an exciting opportunity for students to get involved and cultivate skills that will be useful for their entire lives.

Developing arguments around a specific topic (chosen by the Georgia Forensic Coaches Association) and being able to express those opinions through public speaking will prepare students for their college and professional careers. There is also a rumor that many standardized tests, most notably the SAT’s writing portion, will become more focused on “persuasive” skills. Students will be able to improve on topic research and collaborate in a competitive environment – something typically reserved for athletics.

In order for this program to succeed, the debate team will need at least 10-15 participants. The tentative schedule is for meetings to take place on the third Thursday of every month.

Topics for the competition level will be

a

THOMAS MCKENZIE

chosen this summer by the Forensic Coaches Association. Our team’s job will be to choose which type of debate to participate in: “Policy Debate”, where resolutions are presented by the state and the team chooses to argue for or against them (an example of such a resolution might be, “The federal government should re-open diplomatic relations with Cuba.”); and “Lincoln-Douglas,” where opponents, much like on televised debates between political candidates, debate each other one-on-one, utilizing greater speech skills.

Finally, we will decide at what level our team should compete (novice or “first-year”) and how many debates to attend. Ideally, the team will compete in two to three debates in our first year and build on that number as the program matures. Personally, I want the kids to get a taste of competition without getting overwhelmed.

So far, the debate program has generated a lot of interest; when I made the announcement earlier this spring, more than 35 students signed up. It is really exciting for me to know our students are looking for other opportunities for academic enrichment, and that global issues are important to them.

For more information on what the debate program is all about, or if students and parents are interested in getting involved, I would encourage you to visit the Georgia Forensic Coaches Association’s website: www.gaspeechanddebate.org.

Here’s to another chance to say, “Go Bears!”

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do-it-yourself

learning the lower school’s innovation labs foster creativity by having students direct the learning experience.

E

lementary school has always been a oneway street. Knowledge moves from teacher to student, expert to novice, lord to liege.

To most people, this seems only natural. Young students have minimal experience with academic subjects, so of course teachers need to spoon-feed the basics, laying block upon block as each incrementally more complex idea takes hold. How else would schools lay the foundation for the more sophisticated learning that students will encounter as they mature?

Well, HIES Lower School educators have some ideas…

TAKING THINGS IN A DIFFERENT DIRECTION This school year saw the introduction of the Holy Innocents’ Innovation Labs, an intermingled group of teachers and classrooms that combines academic areas with young people’s natural creativity and playfulness. Lower School students leave their homerooms and venture to the ground floor, where the labs’ teachers – Jim Barton (Writing Lab), Cindy Dimenstien (Science Lab), Torchbearer | Spring 2015

Susan Rapoport (Reading Lab), and Susie Ross (Technology Lab) – work with them on projects related to their upstairs classwork, but which use innovative methods that compel them to direct their own learning.

“The idea is to integrate many different subject areas, because that’s how children learn best,” says LS Principal Terri Potter. “Not only are they doing critical thinking and problem solving, but we’re integrating that into technology, writing, science – different areas that are separate from the classroom.”

Potter explains that the essential goal of the program is to alter the dynamic of teacher as authority, to have the adults become facilitators and for the students to take control. “The teachers will pose a problem, and the students work together to figure out a solution, or how a problem might be solved. It’s all part of design thinking.”

The concept of design thinking surfaced in the early 1970s, but its application has rarely ventured beyond the business world and higher education. Essentially, design thinking is a group process with the purpose of gathering numerous ideas and removing perceived limits on their relevance

“the essential goal of the program is to alter the dynamic of teacher as authority, to have the adults become facilitators and for the students to take control.”

or practicality during the brainstorming phase. In the classroom, this helps eliminate intellectual insecurity and fear of failure, and encourages participation by everyone, especially those who may not feel confident with certain subjects.

“We’re building a culture of innovation and collaboration, where we allow all the kids who come down here to think big, step outside the box,” says Susie Ross. “We encourage it and celebrate it; they can take the chance to let themselves think.”

Ross points out that innovation and collaboration don’t always happen in

the classroom. “They can become focused on getting a good grade on their report card, so they try to memorize the material and do what the teacher tells them to do,” she says.

“What I see down here, though, with these open-ended group projects, is that the kids start collaborating; kids from my room will go over and look in Miss Rappy’s room and they’ll say, ‘Can I help you with this? Tell me what you’re thinking.’ That kind of collaboration between classrooms and grade levels, where they are supporting each other, is really something special.”

THE JOY OF FAILURE Someone who knew a thing or two about innovation, Mr. Thomas Edison, was once asked why he failed so many times before successfully creating the light bulb. His response, the story goes, was, “I have not failed at all; I have successfully discovered 10,000 ways to not make a light bulb!”

Assistant Principal Jed Dorsey identifies that type of attitude as integral to the Innovation Labs and he uses an example that we’ve all experienced to make his point. “When you were a kid learning to ride a bike and you fell, did

you consider that part of the learning experience, that failure? Yes,” says Dorsey. “But when you take a math test and you fail, is that considered part of the learning experience? No – you failed a math test.”

This difference in the perception of failure – or perhaps, “non-success” would be a better term – is what Dorsey sees as the benefit of the Innovation Labs. “In the Accelerated Reading Lab, for instance, what does Susan (Rapoport) do when a student fails a test? It’s part of the learning experience,” he says. “They adjust the Torchbearer | Spring 2015

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25 powered in the labs is that their work doesn’t receive numerical grades. “To me, there is a big distinction between a grade and an assessment, and down here it’s an assessment,” says Dorsey, referring to the feedback the lab teachers give on assignments, which range from Excellent to Needs Improvement. “So they don’t go home with a grade, there’s no fear of failure,” he continues. “And a natural result of that, I think, is that you get a lot more creativity. Once you remove that fear of failure, the kids really go for it.”

SETTING THINGS IN MOTION

next book they read, or maybe they give the test another try. So it’s more like the ‘trying to ride a bike’ learning experience, as opposed to, ‘I got a 60 on my test, which means I failed.’”

Rapoport backs up Dorsey’s com-

ments by saying, “If a child walks away from my room and feels like they have failed, I haven’t done my job. Because they should never leave these labs feeling like that.”

Another reason children feel em-

Science Lab teacher Cindy Dimenstien describes her classroom as “totally hands-on,” an accurate label for all of the Innovation Labs. Each day, she develops experiments with numerous variables for her students to attempt – and then stands back and enjoys the action.

“I give them some guidelines and they follow through,” says Dimenstien.

“In a lab today, for instance, we were racing balloons across lines strung from wall to wall, blowing them full of air and then releasing it to propel them. So we talked about different shapes of balloons, and where they might place a straw to serve as a sort of rudder, but they had to come up with their own ideas and designs. The only rule was one balloon at a time, with the goal to get it across the room the fastest way possible.”

With these minimal instructions, the students began experimenting on their own, devising all sorts of different configurations.

“I just listened to the kids talking – it was a lot of fun,” she says, smiling. “They’d say, ‘Let’s try placing the straw at the front of the balloon, because if it starts to sag in the front, it’s going to act like a brake and not go as fast!’ I never said a word, but they’re talking with each other and everyone’s giving ideas. ‘Let’s try a fat balloon’, or ‘let’s try a smaller balloon but with more air!’ I don’t think they even knew I was there. They just wanted to figure it out.”

Sometimes Dimenstien’s role is similar to an umpire’s, providing a ruling during the game. “One group asked, ‘Can we double up the balloons?’ And I said, ‘Sure, see what happens. Was it a success or was it not a success?’” she says.

“I’m really a facilitator. I tell them, ‘You see it; here’s the situation. How can we change it?’”

KIDS THESE DAYS… In the Technology Lab, Ross relies on what she calls her young students’ “digital dialect.” “It’s their literacy now,” she says. “They are digitally literate; technology is part of who they are, it’s part of their world. So it’s our job to make those tools work for them.”

Ross lets her students make the decisions on which technology to use for each project. “When, for instance, fifth-grade students come down, there are desktop computers available, iPads, and they bring their laptops,” she explains. “So I give them a challenge – say, to make a movie. And I ask, ‘Which tool is going to work for you?’ They’re comfortable with the terms and what they can do with each tool. I listen to them talking in groups, saying, ‘The iPad will be able to film easier, to record easier.’ ‘The desktop will work better for editing

and production.’ ‘The laptop is a mobile movie screen.’ Each of them has ideas and they all collaborate. They have their toolset and they decide how to get it done.”

One of Ross’s biggest objectives is for students “to make their thinking visible,” she says. “That’s the hot topic right now. Instead of just submitting a finished project, I want to see how they got there. They could draw it, illustrate it, read it – but what does it look like? Show what you know.”

She says there’s a difference between this type of demonstrated understanding and, for instance, a math teacher requiring students to write out each step of a long division problem. “It’s creative, not practiced,” she says. “So they show their learning and understanding, as well as the collaboration and creativity they needed to take those chances.”

“I DON’T THINK THEY EVEN KNEW I WAS THERE. THEY JUST WANTED TO FIGURE IT OUT. ” Torchbearer | Spring 2015

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Ross sees the benefits of group participation extend beyond the lesson at hand. “A sneaky caveat of all this is that they recognize the strength of each other, as do we as teachers,” says Ross. “Someone you didn’t know all that well is suddenly really creative, or is an expert with a

certain piece of equipment. And that adds incredible value to both the lesson and to that kid. They’re seen in a different light by their peers and they get a big boost of self-confidence.

That only comes in a culture of acceptance and with the freedom to take a risk. And that’s huge.”

THE WRITE STUFF It’s understandable how students in Jim Barton’s Writing Lab might feel they’ve entered Hogwarts, instead, or perhaps the library at Oxford. A life-size cutout of Harry Potter casts spells in the corner; framed portraits of literary giants adorn the walls; and Barton’s “desk”

Dealing With Sharks by Jim Barton

I

n 1905, Frank Epperson had an idea. He was only 11 years old, and he wanted to make his own soda pop. After all, it would be a lot cheaper than store-bought soda, he could make as much as he wanted, and he could have it whenever he wanted. The need was clear: more soda.

So 11-year-old Frank set up shop on his front porch. He poured powdered soda mix into a glass and stirred it with a wooden stick. But when he went to bed he left his concoction outside, and it got cold that night in Oakland. When Frank came out the next morning his homemade soda had frozen around the stick.

Voilà! The Popsicle was born.

Originally called the Eppsicle, the frozen treat has grown into an American classic, with over two billion Popsicles sold annually. Certainly, on that cold Oakland night, Frank Epperson didn’t know he was making history. After all, he was only 11 years old. Eleven-year-olds don’t make history, do they?

Try asking that question to the 110 fifth graders at Holy Innocents’. That’s how old many of them are – eleven. And during the recent Shark Tank project, in Writer’s Workshop, many of these students came up with ideas intended to make history, or at least make money.

This year’s Shark Tank project was first and foremost a writing project. Students came up with good new product or service ideas, then developed a ten-page written business proposal that featured many of the elements of a professional business plan: brand name, product name, product description, full manufacturing cost analysis, distribution plan, marketing plan, future growth plan, and more. This proposal, complete with cover letter, was a multi-genre piece incorporating descriptive, narrative, expository, and persuasive writTorchbearer | Spring 2015

ing. It also crossed many disciplines, requiring design thinking as applied to real-world situations.

After completing the proposals, each student presented his or her idea in front of the class. These round-one presentations were all video recorded and uploaded to the Writer’s Workshop web page, where teachers from around the school could view them and offer their assessment. Two students from each fifthgrade class were selected to appear on to the live show on May 1, in the Fine Arts Building.

We’ll talk more about the live show in a moment. But for now, let’s go back and talk about that first part, the part about coming up with a “good” idea.

Good ideas are elusive and wily creatures.

They show up when they want to show up.

Often, they wear disguises. They seldom stick around for long and they’re very devious. They tend to hide their value inside your prejudices and preconceptions. That’s why the ability to recognize a good idea falls somewhere between raw instinct and cultivated art. It’s a talent some people never acquire, which is what makes the list of ideas dreamed up by these fifth-graders so very amazing.

For weeks, students brainstormed the “pain points” of their typical day. They learned to be more observant and to watch for the unmet needs of the average person. As young entrepreneurs, the students then translated those observations into product ideas. And the kaleidoscopic array of ideas they came up with is truly astonishing: sports equipment, charitable organizations, active apparel, consumer electronics, medical equipment, gift items, food items, fashion accessories, and many, many more.

Soon, however, the students learned that coming up with a good idea is only the first challenge. It seems there are a lot of smart people in the world. Many of the ideas had already been

is actually a pedestal of thick, leatherbound tomes.

The room’s aura sets a very different atmosphere for what is often a young student’s most dreaded academic area – and that’s just how Barton wants it.

“I look at this class as ‘life with an emphasis on writing,’ because life

doesn’t present itself in neatly defined curriculums and disciplines” he says.

“You don’t live life that way, so why should you teach life that way? And writing is just an articulate expression of the life experience.”

It almost seems that Barton tricks his students into enjoying writing, sort

Drew Jabaley shakes on an investment deal for his “O-Shock” shock absorber for baseball bats.

Cayden Cameron makes his case for his “Tug It or Lose It” bluetooth fishing rod alarm.

Louise McKown gives the Sharks samples of “Sweet Bites,” her gluten-free mini ice cream cookies.

of like Tom Sawyer getting other boys to enjoy whitewashing his mom’s picket fence. He gets them excited about a creative project and then requires the execution to include a healthy dose of writing.

Barton describes one such assignment that included music, theater, and

developed. So the search for competitors was often a frustrating gauntlet. But everybody had to run it, and eventually, all 110 students came up with an idea. Some good. Some great. All unique and highly innovative.

Which brings us back to the live show.

As promised to the students from the outset, the live show was real, just like the popular television program – real sharks, real deals, real money. Two students were selected from each of the six classes and each made their presentation on stage in front of a live audience. Perhaps the only thing more impressive than the students’ ideas was their poise, their cool in front of an imposing panel of five Sandy Springs business professionals. This panel included bankers, venture capitalists, corporate executives, and experts in mergers and acquisitions. For a fifthgrader – or for anybody – this would be an intimidating audience. But these students stood their ground and made compelling presentations, some entering into negotiations and making counter-offers.

In the end, these presentations were rewarded with $1,500 of seed money across five deals. Those that didn’t receive a monetary arrangement were offered something just as valuable – contacts. These young entrepreneurs were granted some impressive introductions to prominent professional resources that can offer advice and guidance in their product’s development – surgeons, CEO’s, big-league sports executives, product engineers, intellectual property lawyers. Nobody left emptyhanded, largely due to the thoughtful generosity of the sharks.

The lessons? Aside from the academic exposure to multigenre writing, business theory, and presentation skills, the larger message was that ideas matter, that the students’ ideas have real value and unlimited potential. Good ideas don’t care how old a person is. Good ideas don’t care where a person comes from, or what that person has or hasn’t done in the past. A good idea welcomes all comers, provided they are smart enough to keep their eyes and minds open.

Frank Epperson knew that in 1905. Perhaps one of these students knows it in 2015.

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“when we are working on different projects in here, you would be hard-pressed to see this as a writing class.”

social studies, which he labeled The Survivor Project. “They created islands,” he explains. “These were all-inclusive, imaginary places, and they created these with economies, histories, and cultures – all written down in language that accurately described their creations. Then I would ask them, ‘What’s your native music? What kind of music are you learning in orchestra or band?

Apply what you’ve learned there and write your national anthem.’ But they had to write it, and then be able to explain it – what type of musical structure it is. And then they had to come in here and perform it – which they did in their native garb.”

With the memory still fresh of his students belting out their anthems in

island regalia, Barton smiles. “When we are working on different projects in here, you would be hard-pressed to see this as a writing class,” he says.

“Because it’s all things that support the critical thinking that leads to expression.

And I think that’s the hardest part.”

After a pause, Barton explains, “I don’t teach writing. I teach things that need writing.”

Jed Dorsey appreciates how such an approach would have affected his own school years. “I was not a writer growing up,” says Dorsey. “I hated it when the teacher told us to take out a sheet of notebook paper and a pencil. And in most schools, that hasn’t changed; you pull a fifth-grade boy off the hallway and say, ‘Hey, you have to write’ – you

might as well pull their hair out. But I come in here and they’re all writing!

And I think, how is this happening?

They’re enjoying it, they’re collaborating, they’re giving each other ideas.”

Addressing the Innovation Labs as a whole, Dorsey continues, “That’s kind of the magic going on down here. I’m using Jim is an example, but you also have kids who don’t like science but love being in Cindy’s Science Lab, or who are afraid of technology, but love Susie’s class.”

Adds Rapoport, “These labs, and with these teachers, it’s almost like learning recess. It’s a learning environment that they’re excited about and it has the energy of recess.”

READING IS FUNDAMENTAL There has always been a bit of recess in Rapoport’s Reading Lab. Having taken over the Accelerated Reader program in 1995, she enjoys a steady stream of smiling, excited faces all day, every day.

When a student completes a book and passes a comprehension test, the prize is a piece of candy from the large tub Rapoport keeps filled on her desk – a time-tested technique for keeping kids coming back.

Reading has always served as a complement to writing, the same way lifting weights improves an athlete’s performance, or improv advances acting skills.

But when asked how her discipline fits into the same box as the other labs, with their collaborative group projects, Rapoport doesn’t hesitate. “Reading is the stepping stone for all of it,” she

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declares. “There’s no academic field that doesn’t require solid reading skills.”

Like in the other labs, students in Rapoport’s class direct their own learning. “They drive the car,” she says.

“They’re the ones picking what they do and how they do it. They have complete ownership of their work and they know they’re not going to fail, so they take chances they wouldn’t normally take in a classroom.”

And there are plenty of chances from which to pick. The shelves in the Reading Lab are packed with children’s literature, with books for students still learning the fundamentals of language to those who are comfortable with novels targeting an audience well beyond the Lower School years. Rapoport’s facilitator role becomes almost like that of a cheerleader; she knows each student who walks in the door, the level of his or her ability, and encourages the kids to stretch themselves. She also realizes when students might suffer a bit of self-doubt, and will nudge them toward a title to get them back on track.

But if her students drive the car, then Rapoport relishes her place in the passenger seat. “Lots of schools choose what books their kids will read,” she says. “They’re confined to a very tight channel. We don’t do that; our kids read what they choose to read. Everyone’s interests are different, and if they read what they’re interested in, they’ll become lifelong readers.”

A TIME AND PLACE FOR EVERYTHING The subject areas of the Innovation Labs aren’t new by any means; with the exception of computer technology, they’ve been taught for centuries. So what’s the significance of the name, and where did it come from?

“I stole it,” Ross confesses. “It’s straight from Harvard and my daughter Jenna’s graduate program. In Harvard’s education department, when they pitch an idea that people like, then they become a part of the Innovation Lab. I really liked that name and… umm… I stole it!”

“Part of the confusion of the name is that it’s not innovative teaching,” says Rapoport, “it’s innovative learning. It’s not the teachers; it’s the kids.”

It’s also the atmosphere, according to Dorsey. “I think there’s great value to the physicality of where these rooms are, away from the grade-level hallways” he says. “You leave your homeroom and teacher and you go to a safe neighborhood where everyone is doing similar things but in different subject areas. And it’s just that physical presence; Jim’s writing lab is next to Cindy’s science lab, where they’re blowing things up in experiments. And those two programs are so different, but they’re the same in terms of the experiential, hands-on environment.”

Dorsey also points out that the Innovation Labs’ hallway is the only place in the Lower School with students from multiple grades. “Upstairs, the fourthgrade hall is all fourth graders and the third-grade hall is all third graders,” he says. “But down here, they mingle with each other, talk to each other, collaborate Torchbearer | Spring 2015

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Long-Time Innovators

wo of the teachers running Holy Innocents’ Innovation Labs have brought novel ideas to the Lower School for years – 20, to be exact.

In 1995, Susie Ross joined HIES as the school’s first technology coordinator, and then third-grade assistant Susan Rapoport took over the fledgling Accelerated Reader program. Two decades later, these remarkable educators have both fond memories and big ideas for the future of their programs.

“I was teaching fourth grade in Marietta City Schools,” remembers Ross, “and Holy Innocents’ recruited me to start the technology program.”

The HIES administration had done its homework when they offered the position to Ross. “I had also been consulting with Apple,” she says. “I wrote a couple of manuals for them on how to use technology in the classroom. Marietta didn’t have computers yet, so when Holy Innocents’ called, I knew I could take things a step further.”

Those steps would be taken outside the LS building. “I was in a trailer, out where the Middle School is now,” she remembers.

“There were 25 computers, old Apple IIe machines that were always breaking down.

The Parents’ Association got involved, though, because the kids wrote a petition saying we needed newer computers, and the PA funded the whole thing.”

Another key resource for her program was Coca-Cola. “We had a family connection over there, and they gave us the name of a guy in the IT department,” recalls Ross.

“He would call and say, ‘We’re changing things out,’ and Rappy (i.e. Rapoport) and I would hop in her van and come back with a whole pallet of Macintosh computers that we’d go through and harvest the good stuff and get rid of the rest. That’s how we built the school’s first network.”

The level of understanding among Torchbearer | Spring 2015

Susie Ross

Susan Rapoport

her fellow teachers would take awhile to progress, remembers Ross. “They thought there were two kinds of computers,” she says, “the ‘Apple computer,’ or the IIe, and the ‘Coke computer,’ the Mac. But those Macintoshes let us build that network.”

Rapoport, meanwhile, remembers her first impressions of Accelerated Reader, a product of Renaissance Learning in Wisconsin. “It was introduced in third grade

by Frances Smoot – she was a legend here and I was her assistant,” she recalls. “The whole thing was run out of a janitor’s closet on the third-grade hallway.”

Seeing the value of the program, Rapoport began pitching it to other grade levels, too. “I went to (then second-grade teacher) Janella Brand and said, ‘This is awesome, we need it for second grade, too.’ So I took over the program and within four years, we had all five grade levels doing it. That’s when Dorothy Sullivan (former LS principal) brought me out of the closet and put me on the first-grade hallway.”

Rapoport’s version of Accelerated Reader became unique. “Other schools do it independently, in the classroom where teachers use it as needed, or it’s a library program and it’s hit or miss,” explains Rapoport. “Dorothy and I realized early on that, with reading, the more practice students get, the more proficient they become and it spreads into all disciplines.

So we took it out of the classrooms and it has developed an identity of its own.”

Rapoport has also improved upon the tools sold by Renaissance Learning. “Their program is based on public competition,” she says. “They tell you to post children’s pictures and names on walls. Our kids set personal goals, instead, and then we work to achieve them, but they have ownership of it.”

She also didn’t like what she saw as the punitive nature of the program. “If a child fails a test, they tell you to send a note home to the parents,” she says.

“I don’t believe in that. If a child fails a test, there’s a reason why and we need to talk about that and find them books they’re going to succeed with – maybe they didn’t like the book or it was too difficult and they plowed through it anyhow – but the attempt was there.”

Rapoport changed one other piece of Renaissance’s program to accommodate her students. “They want the children reading in a certain zone, or level, with a specific group of books,” she explains.

“I don’t do that. For the youngest ones, I feel there’s a lot of value in all those little books that aren’t on the lists, where the kids learn morals and values. And if they want to stretch and read something more difficult, then I encourage that, too.

“I have all of Renaissance’s tests, and I’ve developed a lot more on my own, for any book a student might want to read,” she continues. “There’s too much stuff out there to confine the kids’ options to these books only.”

When asked what the best part of their HIES journey has been, Ross offers, “To see how much it’s grown. I’m actually teaching with a lot of those old kids now. And I like that things change; that’s what appeals to me, that it’s constantly changing. You’ve got to up your game to stay current.”

Our school is lucky, indeed, to have such current teachers.

“down here, they mingle with each other, talk

to each other, collaborate together. it’s a very different feel than anywhere else in the building.”

together. It’s a very different feel than anywhere else in the building.”

For Barton, the mixing of grade levels reinforces the Episcopal nature of HIES. “It’s almost like the hallway down here is a microcosm of the ‘One School’ concept, which I think is wonderful,” he says. “We don’t have these little discrete incubators of thought; there is cross-pollination of ideas.”

Barton would like to see the concept extend beyond first through fifth grades. “Ideally – at least in the writing program – my students will go present to Upper School students, and the juniors and seniors will come down here and teach lessons and grade papers.

I’m sure each would be shocked by the perspectives of the other.”

succinct description of that approach when she’s asked what she tells students who haven’t yet gotten the results they were hoping for in her lab: “Oh my gosh!” she tells them. “What do we do?”

Somewhere, Socrates is surely smiling.

800 THUMBS UP Throughout this first year of the Innovation Labs, momentum has built and the reviews have begun to come in. “The first thing I hear from parents is, ‘My child loves it!’” says Principal Potter. “So the parents are excited, the children are excited. And we in the administration are especially excited that it’s been so successful. Until you actually get something like this up and running, it’s just an idea – all you can do is hope it’s a good one.”

Giving children control of their own learning has proven to be an excellent idea, at least at Holy Innocents’. But it takes the right mix of educators to pull it off, and the right pedagogical approach.

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Middle School’s

GLOBALLIANCE GAMES Give Students Real-World Challenges

At the end of February, the entire Middle School participated in the Globalliance Games, a two-day, interdepartmental exercise that challenged students to create solutions to real-world issues using critical thinking and problem-solving skills, and a healthy dose of teamwork.

“We wanted Middle Schoolers to get a taste of what it might be like to be involved with Model UN or Global Citizenship in Upper School,” says history teacher Gary Klingman, who, along with math teacher Daniel Forrester, created the games.

“So we came up with twelve scenarios involving various countries around the world – weather issues, political conflicts, utility problems, security issues, and so on.”

An added dose of realism was achieved with the participation of Atlanta’s NBC affiliate 11Alive. “The TV station’s morning anchors recorded 12 news bites for us, as if they were breaking reports,” says Klingman. “So students were shown a broadcast, then we gave them some text with more details about the issue. It was their job to come up with realistic solutions.”

Students were divided into 46 teams of seven or eight girls or boys, competing against other teams within their grade-lev-

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el. After exploring each issue, teams wrote out proposals and presented their ideas to a number of “World Councils,” composed of Upper School students in Model UN and the Program for Global Citizenship.

“The Upper School kids did a good deal of prep work, investigating the twelve scenarios and coming up with their own sets of possible solutions,” says MS Principal Theresa Jespersen. “They had a rubric to evaluate the teams’ presentations, and awarded points based on both style and substance. I watched a couple of these interactions and was impressed by the questions the teams were asked, and

the ways that the Upper School students involved every member of the team.”

Points were also awarded for answering various subject-related questions, puzzle challenges, fine arts components, and physical challenges. “There was a separate game in each grade” says Klingman. “The winner was decided by total points through all the different components of the game.”

Holding the games takes a great deal of organization and collaboration, as well as every member of the MS faculty and an army of HIES parent volunteers.

“The benefit for students is not just to gain academic knowledge,” says Forrester. “It’s also about learning some really important life lessons – collaboration, teamwork, problem solving, perseverance, and trust.”

Globalliance was the third such division-wide game created by Klingman and Forrester, following 2013’s Colonial Games and last year’s Hunt for the Trust.

Now seen as one of the year’s highlights, they are designed to work on a three-year rotation. “This way, each student will play all three games as they move through Middle School,” says Klingman.

News of the games’ success has spread throughout the educational community.

After presenting their ideas at last year’s Apple iSummit, Klingman and Forrester were approached by a number of teachers from around the country interested in staging the games at their own schools.

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35 Dehavillyn Tyus, Khorkie Tyus, Clay Milling, and Jayne Ann Milling attend the 21st Century Leaders Awards banquet.

THINKING GLOBALLY, ACTING GLOBALLY

GEORGIA YOUTH LEADERSHIP AWARD PRESENTED TO TWO SENIORS

I

n January, the Georgia Youth Leadership Awards selection committee named seniors Clay Milling and Khorkie Tyus as 21st Century Leaders – students who have made a significant impact on their schools, communities, and beyond. Only 20 students in Georgia were selected for the awards, which recognize young people who are “resourceful, service-oriented, passionate about their projects, forward thinking, and able to leverage diversity.”

For the last two years, Clay has combined his talent for filmmaking and a spirit of servant leadership to create free promotional videos for nonprofit organizations. One of them, for the Andrew P. Stewart Center for Children, helped the center raise more than $175,000 in its 2013 capital campaign. And last summer, Clay traveled to Texas to film a promotional video for Blue Skies Ministries, which helps children with pediatric cancer, and their families.

Clay was also named a “Top 20 Under 20” student this year by Atlanta INtown magazine, has his own business, RCM Productions, and plans to continue doing video work for nonprofits while studying journalism and film making at the University of Georgia.

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Khorkie, is the founder of Warm Love, a project (now a nonprofit) that provides specialty kits for chemotherapy patients. In 2012, after her mother was diagnosed with breast cancer, Khorkie responded by putting together Warm Love 4 Chemo Patients kits with such items as ointments to combat dryness, bottled water and special snacks to help with nausea, blankets to stay warm, and items like toothpaste and deodorant made without aluminum, since aluminum can bother chemo patients.

Since then, Khorkie has raised more than $10,000 to purchase products for the baskets, which she hand delivers to patients at the Piedmont Cancer Institute. She has also received donated supplies from many individuals, groups, and corporations.

In the same week that she was presented with the 21st Century Leaders award, Khorkie accepted the Girl Scout Gold Medal, the highest award in Girl Scouting, along with a $2,000 Girl Scout scholarship. She was also selected this year as a Posse Scholar and plans to study at the College of Wooster.

nIne HolY Innocents’ senIors have been awarded $2,500 each to complete their Capstone in Social Entrepreneurship projects – social venture plans that make up the final course in the Holy Innocents’ Program for Global Citizenship.

Students are asked to address significant social problems affecting communities in the United States or abroad. Their projects are then evaluated

by HIES students, staff, and members of the community.

And projects that are well planned, original, are likely to make a lasting social impact, and have high student engagement are awarded school funding “These projects give the students the opportunity to reflect on their experiences in the Global program and apply what they have learned by choosing a real world social problem they want to fix,” said Erik Vincent, HIES Director of Global Studies.

Receiving funding this year: Sydney Coleman for “Write Spot,” a creative writing program for at-risk, Atlanta elementary school students; Maria Crosswell for SpringUp, which will offer unique opportunities to children from less-advantaged communities, in partnership with Sandy Springs Mission; and Kira Donaldson for “Teach to Eat,” a plan to provide nutritional counseling to 15 families in the Bedford Pines community.

Also approved were: Erin Ernst for Project Lotus, which seeks to fund the education of at least one girl per year in Darjeeling, India, in partnership with Atlanta’s The Learning Tea; Matt Gates for “Hearing for All,” a project designed to develop a low-cost hearing aid and hearing

Sydney Coleman, Nicole Price, Savannah Smith, Matt Gates, and Kira Donaldson (not pictured – Maria Crosswell, Erin Ernst, Rachel McGovern, and Caroline Ward)

test; and Rachel McGovern for Leap to Success, designed to provide the Naz Orphanage in New Delhi, India, with laptops, so that the children can learn life skills, grow as students, and compete with other young adults as they move out of the orphanage.

Funding also went to: Nicole Price for “Shine On,” a plan to deliver inexpensive, waterproof, and portable solar lanterns to a rural community in the Philippines; Savannah Smith for “Each One Reach One,” a counseling and mentoring plan for Atlanta’s homeless women, in partnership with 7 Bridges to Recovery; and Caroline Ward, who is working with Lingua Franca, a small-scale organization providing English classes to Nicaraguan children who have the desire to better their economic situations.

Congratulations to these wonderful global citizens!

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What’s Going On Here?

Science Marches On in Middle School

f

or years, the Middle School’s Science Olympiad team enjoyed a remarkable string of success, consistently advancing beyond regionals and, in 2011, finishing second at the state competition and earning a trip to nationals.

So what do you do with such a successful program? According to MS science teachers Laurel Sandler, Janet Silvera, and James Jackson, the best option was to scrap it.

“We’ve always had lots of kids who loved science, but were unable to make the after-school commitment to the Olympiad team – it was a pretty big commitment,” explains Sandler. “They were involved in so many other activities and had to pick which ones not to pursue. We wanted something that would give all interested students an opportunity to participate.”

So this school year, in place of Science Olympiad, the Middle School added STEM Club. STEM, which stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math, not only includes the disciplines addressed through Science Olympiad, but also opens a wide variety of related fields.

“With Science Olympiad, a lot of things were out of our control when choosing topics,” says Jackson. “But with STEM club, we can decide what the students work on and what areas of science they explore.”

Without the more strict participation requirements, the club attracted nearly 80 members in its first year – more than double what the Science Olympiad team drew at its height. And by

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opening the areas of study beyond the national competition’s required events, the students are actually learning much more.

“Our goal is to present a different topic each month,” says Sandler. “Some kids are interested in physics and some kids are interested in biology, so they can participate when we’re working on something that really interests them.”

Also, since STEM extends beyond the traditional sciences, the new venture results in a more collaborative experience, for both students and teachers. The science teachers leading the club will often bring in their math and technology counterparts to incorporate their expertise with certain projects.

“I’m excited about our new STEM Club,” says MS Principal Theresa Jespersen. “The passion and enthusiasm of our science teachers, who worked on the organization of this club for months, has been matched by an extremely strong showing of interest and support from our students.”

One of the longest-serving and most beloved educators at HIES, Silvera sums up what she sees as the true benefit of the switch to STEM club “The nice thing is that we can be flexible; we can work around what is happening on campus and fit the things in that we want to cover,” says Silvera. “We know these kids are involved in athletics and arts and all sorts of activities, and we can work around those so that they don’t have to choose one or the other.

We’re not be locked in like we were with Science Olympiad.”

The STEM Club faculty advisors have dreamt up all sorts of projects for their students, using related fields in science, math, and technology.

Below are just a few of the challenges they’ve devised. messing with magnets – Students test the polarity and fields around certain magnets and then participate in a competition to see who can design the fastest magnetic car.

LAUREL SANDLER ADVISES STUDENTS

Go Figure – Students use math to optimize different scientific scenarios, such as charting the movement of carnival rides, figuring out the most effective parking lot patterns, or making graphs of water filling glasses with different volumes.

Bubbleology – Students discover why the structure of water molecules causes them to cling together and form surface tension. Activities demonstrate which substances reduce or increase the surface tension of water, then students create their own solutions in a competition to make the largest bubble.

Haven’t Got a clue – Students learn about chromatography, how to identify fingerprints, identify certain fibers, and test powders from a crime scene.

JAMES JACKSON EXPLAINS A PROJECT

JANET SILVERA

ring my Bell – rube Goldberg Project –Students build complex machines, each with a minimum of three simple machines, in order to release a marble that ultimately rings a bell.

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on saturday, march 21, the Holy Innocents’ community gathered for the Parents’ Association’s annual Gala, once again held in a stunningly decorated Main Gym. The theme this year was An Evening in Margaritaville, which lent itself to some outstanding (and outlandish!) apparel in honor of Jimmy Buffett’s fans, aka “Parrotheads.” Attendees also dined on tropical delicacies, danced to island music, and bid on hundreds of fabulous auction items.

Please mark your calendar now for next year’s Gala, scheduled for saturday, april 2, 2016.

The Parents’ Association would like to thank their very generous sponsors for supporting the 2015 Gala: Presenting sponsor Piedmont Healthcare margaritaville sponsors Affairs to Remember Caterers Chris M. Carlos, National Distributing Company Delta Air Lines cheeseburger in Paradise sponsors Chris M. Carlos It’s Five o’clock somewhere sponsors Lynn and Rob Brindell Sibet and Bruce Freides, Idea Associates Jeri and Charlie Waken

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changes in lattitudes, changes in attitudes sponsors Atlanta Orthodontic Specialists Deborah and Kevin Blasé Brooks - Berry - Haynie & Associates, Inc. Heather and Phil Deguire Molly and Adam Fuller Graceful Tables Jill and John Kampfe Julie and Mel Landis Peachtree Tents and Events Laura and Peter Mace The Patricia Bowman Terwilliger Family Foundation Ed Voyles Automotive

a Pirate looks at Forty sponsors Karen and Mike Altman Christine and Charles Bradley Alexandra and Chris Burris David and Sylvia Corts Shane Cox, Design Logistics Emily and Aaron Gilcreast Susan and Jim Hannan Connie and Mark Hawn Heather and Tim Henn Jon Taylor, Hodges and Hicks General Contractors Brindley and Mike Johnson Caroline and Neel Jones Shah Janet and Joe King Kami and Tony Luigs Allyson and Jon Lundquist Tricia and Mark Maloney Mary Anne and Richard Massie Lorri and Forrest McClain Kathy and Phillip McCrorie Michele and Jeffrey McKinnis Lorin and Matthew Middelthon Shannon Nease Barbara and Marc O’Connor Nancy and Dan Robitaille Misty and Steven Smith Suzy and Ed Smith Roberta and Derek Taner Ally and Todd Wandtke Corley Watson - United Capital

Parrotheads sponsors Lori and Scott Answorth Shereen and Joe Anis Tammy and Bob Arnold Cindy and Craig Belisle, GV Financial Advisors Tressa and Chris Bell Jenny Pittman Cantrell Helen and John Donahue Peggy and Brent Farnham Kara and David Fentress Sou and Bruce Ford Laura and Johnny Foster Stacia and Danny Franke, Custom Pools of Atlanta LLC Tricia and Matthew Gephardt Kerrie Harrison, Atlanta Fine Homes/Southeby’s International Realty Tara and Jonathan Hayes Lockton Companies/The Hutcherson Family Kelly and Andrew Kardian Kim and Steve Keever Shellie Davis and Raymond Davis Stephanie and Chris Langford Michelle and Barry Lee Jolie and Al Maxwell Madelaine McCrorie Kristine and Grant Morain Yvonne and Richard Nelli Kris Pinto and Ava Zagoria Catherine and Arnie Pittman Christina and Jim Price Diane and Ken Quinn Kim and Ashok Reddy Kristin and Bruce Roch Karen and Clay Rolader Laura Williams Sirotkin Linda and Nick Theos Donna and Andy Toledo Becky and David Wallis Tasha and Scott Whitehead Beth and Ridley Williams Teri and Michael Zarrillo other sponsor Parker Uniforms LLC

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Diamond As Big As The Ritz → The 2015 Gala Committee: (Back row) Suzann Moore, Lori Ainsworth, Tricia Gephardt, Lisanne McDearman, Julie Grigsby, Diane Quinn, Stephanie Langford, and Tamika Weaver Hightower; (front row) Tracy Wilson, Julie Landis, Caroline Jones Shah, and Cassandre Bride

Carnival World ↑ Hey Good Lookin’ ↑

Elizabeth Brown, Tuition Raffle winner David Dean, and Paul Barton

Gareth Morgan, Jean Sonnenfield, Jackie Hale, Rob Hale, and Heather Deguire

It’s Five O’Clock Somewhere↑

Jim Griffin, Tom Raney, Jim Hannan, Paul Barton, and Susan Hannan

Fins ↓

Rick and Wendy Martin

An Evening in

Margaritaville With the Main Gym transformed into a tropical paradise, Parrotheads galore turned out for the Parents’ Association’s annual Gala on March 21.

Cheeseburger In Paradise →

Dan and Dominique Cornell with their new puppy, Beau

Jolly Mon Sing↑ Nothing But A Breeze → Kristine and John Mallady

Nicole and Chris Carlos

Trip Around the Sun ↓

One Particular Harbour →

Theresa Jespersen and Dorothy Sullivan

Banana Wind ←

Jayne Ann and Clay Milling, Dorsey and Geoffrey DeLong

Stacia Franke, Shelly Deriso, and Laura Foster

Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes↑

David and Chrissy Neumann, Kaki and Charlie Scroggins

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FROM THE DEVELOPMENT OFFICE State of the School Luncheon At the State of the

School luncheon on April 14, 2015, two long-time HIES volunteers were honored.

David Stockert and J. Bart Miller received Distinguished Service Awards for their dedication and support of Holy Innocents’ Episcopal School.

Dave Stockert chaired the Board of Trustees from 20082011, during a downturn in the market and the transitioning of Heads. He invested countless hours working with HIES, while also serving as CEO of Post Properties. He was the first non-Rector Board Chair following a change in the school’s by-laws. He chaired the One School Campaign at Holy Innocents’ and was able to secure over $22.5 million in less than two years – the largest and most successful campaign the school has ever held. In addition to giving his time, Dave is a generous donor; he is a member of the Lifetime Giving Society. He has three children who attended HIES, all of whom are Alpha Omegas. His son Joe was the last of the Stockert children to graduate this May. Dave and his wife, Cammie Ives, have been important members of our community since 1997.

In addition to his dedication to Post Properties and HIES, Stockert sits on the boards Torchbearer | Spring 2015

of Central Atlanta Progress (Chair), YMCA of Metro Atlanta (Chair), the Georgia Apartment Industry Education Foundation (Chair), the Buckhead Coalition (past-Chair), Grady Memorial Hospital, Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce, National Multi-Housing Council, and the National Association of Real Estate Investment Trusts. He also serves on the Government Affairs Committee of the Atlanta Apartment Association.

Bart Miller is a Principal of Sterling Risk Advisors, an Atlanta-based regional Property and Casualty Insurance Brokerage firm.

Prior to entering the insurance business, he was Vice President

of Atlanta’s Northside Hospital.

Bart has been involved with HIES since 1989, when his son Bartley enrolled. Bart has three children and six grandchildren. He was on the Board of Trustees from 1999 – 2006 and is currently serving on the Board of Advisors. Bart was instrumental in bringing football to HIES, has sat on two Head of School search committees, helped bring the Distinguished Service Award and the Distinguished Alumnus Award to HIES, was an Annual Fund Grandparent Chair, served on the One School Campaign Steering Committee, and is involved with the school on a consistent basis.

Bart was named to the

Carol and Bart Miller with HIES Athletic Director Ruth Donahoo and Varsity Football Coach Ryan Livezey

Athletic Wall of Fame of Holy Innocents’ Episcopal School in 2010 for his involvement in the school’s football program.

He continues to be active as a mentor to a number of our administrators, someone to

lean on for advice, and who is a staunch advocate of the school both internally and externally.

Both Bart and Dave are members of Holy Innocents’ Episcopal Church.

stuDent alumnI cluB

Inaugural Year Paul Barton, Bart Miller, and Dave Stockert

Seeing a need to link Upper School students with its alumni, Holy Innocents’ recruited members for a new Student Alumni Club (SAC). Little did the School know what a helpful group this would turn out to be!

An energetic group of students quickly signed on and helped with several alumni-related events over the year, entertaining children of alumni at the Alumni Reunion Cookout, the Alumni Pumpkin Bash, and the Easter Eggstravaganza. Club members quickly became indispensable. Little ones were so entranced that they had to be torn away to eat dinner with mom and dad.

SAC members stuffed both care packages for alumni suffering through college exam season and invitations to Winterfest. Things went so well, in fact, that they were asked to help

with Grandparents Day – not actually an alumni event – and no one complained!

These club members proved their affection for HIES and did it a great service.

The Stockert family: Olivia, Joe, Cammie Ives, Dave, and Emily.

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FROM THE DEVELOPMENT OFFICE

saVe tHe Dates

Ribbon Cutting for the New Math, Science, and Commons Building On Friday, Aug. 21, 2015, at 8:30 a.m., the entire HIES community is invited to join the festivities at the ribbon cutting for the new Upper School Math, Science, and Commons building! Take a tour with an Upper School student as your guide. Coffee and pastries will be served in the new dining hall; then everyone is welcome to attend the All School Assembly in the Main Gym. More details forthcoming.

2015 HIAA Golf Tournament Be sure to set aside Monday, Oct. 19, 2015, for the annual Holy Innocents’ Athletic Association Golf Tournament!

Once again, we’ll hit the links for fun, fellowship, and bragging rights at the fabulous Dunwoody Country Club. The HIAA raises over $40,000 each year from the generosity of families, athletic teams, and corporate sponsorships, money which supports many critical programs within the HIES Athletics department. Hansell Roddenbery will again chair the event.

Art and Fashion Show The Fine Arts Alliance’s biennial Art and Fashion Show will be on Thursday, Feb. 25, 2016 from 9:30 a.m. – 1:00 p.m. This event is a wonderful celebration of art, jewelry, and fashion. The FAA is thrilled to offer creations and designs by some of the most talented artists in the Southeast, including many within the Holy Innocents’ community. The 2016 Art and Fashion Show will be chaired by Mary Bev Barrett and Jayne Ann Milling.

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FROM THE DEVELOPMENT OFFICE aPoGee

A Very Fast Year for the Georgia Tax Credit Scholarship Program the 2015 Georgia tax credit scholarship Program began in August, 2014 and ended on Jan. 1, 2015. The program was oversubscribed and each approved donor was allowed only 63.4% of their requested amount. Apogee Student Scholarship’s “Apply Early” program, strong returning donors, and quick marketing helped make this a successful year.

Holy Innocents’ had 240 people and several matching gift companies donate for a total of more than $500,000. This was our highest participation yet.

LLCs, partnerships and S-Corps were strong this year and, with their ability to redirect up to $10,000, helped with the total despite the prorated funds for the program.

Holy Innocents’ began participating in this program in 2010 when 114 families contributed $249,000. The following years saw an increase in contributions as the state funding ran out earlier and earlier. We received $436,300 in Tax Credit scholarship funds in 2013 and $524,000 last year. This is a wonderful way to help the school’s financial aid program through the redirection of tax dollars. Donations came from parents, grandparents, parents of alumni, corporations, partnerships, and friends.

We have at least 35 students who will receive Tax Credit

financial aid in the coming school year.

These students must meet all of HIES’s requirements before being admitted and before being offered, or continuing to receive, Tax Credit financial aid. Participating families must be able to fund some of their tuition themselves as the maximum amount that can be given is $8,966. Some of the tax credit funds are kept in an endowment for future years’ use for approved students.

The 2016 Georgia Tax Credit Program will start up again on Aug. 1, 2015, through Apogee.

The cap was not increased by the State Legislature so the funds will disappear again on Jan. 1, 2016, with some proration expected. Once again, we are asking everyone to participate as early as possible.

Thank you to everyone who took advantage of this simple and convenient way to redirect your taxes to support HIES financial aid. And a special thank you to Neal Smith, Parent Volunteer Chair for the fourth year, who managed to contact previous donors and parents who had partnerships, and explain the program’s benefits to both the taxpayer and the School. Thanks also to Rebecca O’Connor who assisted Neal this year.

The Annual Fund’s $100,000 Challenge Early in the school year, Holy Innocents’ trustees, alumni board, faculty, and staff reached their usual level of 100% participation in the Annual Fund. Knowing the importance of elevating parent participation to a similarly impressive level, The Thalia N. Carlos and Chris M. Carlos Foundation issued a very generous challenge to our parent body by promising to

match all new or increased parent gifts to the Annual Fund – dollar for dollar – up to $100,000.

Seeing an opportunity for their dollars to do twice the good, many parents answered the call, helping to raise our parent participation to its current level of 80%. This year’s Fund will close on June 30, and new parent gifts made by that date will drive it even higher.

Why is participation so important?

One reason is that foundations use parent giving as

a barometer of a school’s success. With more requests for funding than they can satisfy, foundations give to institutions that have the overwhelming support of their own constituents. The way the school has of tracking voluntary parent giving is through giving to the Annual Fund. The bottom line is that if our community doesn’t support the school voluntarily, foundations see no reason why they should. For this reason, every family’s gift is vital and irreplaceable because it increases participation.

What is the money used for?

Annual Fund proceeds are used to pay for what tuition alone cannot. At independent schools such as ours, tuition does not cover the full cost of a child’s education. Schools must raise additional dollars to fully fund their programs.

At HIES, tuition covers 88% of the cost and the Annual Fund is the primary way we have of raising the rest. Without a successful Annual Fund, the school would be unable to offer the full array of academic, athletic, and artistic opportunities that students currently enjoy.

Correction In the 2013-2014 Annual Report, the following donors were listed incorrectly:

Newly Formed Advisory Board Now Serving Holy Innocents’ The purpose of the Advisory Board of Holy Innocents’ Episcopal School is to develop and maintain relationships with important constituents of the school.

These constituents will be given current information on the school’s operations, intermediate and long-range plans, and current and upcoming school needs so that they may serve in an advisory capacity and, when requested, assist the school’s Board and/or Administration.

The first meeting of the Board of Advisors took place on Tuesday, March 31, 2015.

Mrs. Lorri McClain (Chair)

Dr. Gary S. Hauk

Mr. John D. Snodgrass

Mr. David S. Aldridge

Mr. William S. Hollett

Mr. and Mrs. Charles P. Stephens

Mr. Frank M. Bishop

Judge Robert P. Mallis

Mr. Lever F. Stewart

Mrs. LeDonna G. Bowling

Mr. J. Bart Miller

Mr. David P. Stockert

Mr. and Mrs. Alston D. Correll

Mr. Alexander W. Patterson

Mrs. Dorothy S. Sullivan

Mr. W. Daniel Faulk

Mayor Rusty Paul

Mr. David F. Haddow

Mr. Louie A. Pittman

Mr. James B. Hannan

Mr. and Mrs. James K. Price

One School Capital Campaign Honor Roll of Donors Mr. and Mrs. Edward D. Smith: Developers The Go Big Red Foundation – Jim and Sarah Walton: Associates Annual Fund Honor Roll of Donors Mrs. Lisa J. Dobbs: Anniversary Club Mr. and Mrs. B. Clayton Rolader: Founders’ Club The Go Big Red Foundation – Jim and Sarah Walton: Trustees’ Circle We apologize for the errors.

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FROM THE DEVELOPMENT OFFICE

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March Mania and “Throw Down Before We Tear Down”

E

ach year, the Development Office holds an Annual Fund drive to support the goals and high standards that our school maintains.

A significant part of that effort, of course, focuses on our alumni.

This year, we tried to inject a little fun into the campaign with a competition patterned after the NCAA’s “March Madness.” We called it “march mania” and it proved to be a fun way for many of our alums to donate.

We are very appreciative of everyone’s contributions, which provide program support for students, attract and retain top faculty, and support our libraries, fine arts, and athletic programs. These resources touch the lives of each student, just as they did for every alumnus.

Winning March Mania with 48% participation was the class of 2004! Thank you to Alumni Board Member, kate Stice Stewart, for working so hard to get support from her class. The class will be named on the Highest Class Participation plaque at Alumni Hall.

The Class of 2000 was close to winning it all with 33% participation.

Thank you to Alumni Board members stephanie Brown and Michael Griffin for encouraging their classmates to give back to the school.

And congratulations to michael mcGreevey ’00, who won the raffle for a $100 VISA gift card!

March Mania winners were announced at the throw Down Before We tear Down event, which was held to celebrate the significance of the Riley Building and Porter Dining Hall in our school’s history. This summer, the front section of Riley and all of Porter will be torn down to make way for our new Upper School STEM Building.

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notes.

PEOPLE + PLACES + EVENTS Alumni Happenings

Alumni CLASS NOTES

HOLY INNOCENTS’ VISITS ALUMNI This year, HIES administrators and faculty traveled to several cities to meet with alumni.

In February, Head of School Paul Barton, Upper School English teacher Niki Simpson, and others visited Boston for a meeting with alumni.

If you would like to submit class notes for the Fall issue of Torchbearer, please contact Tamika Weaver Hightower at tamika@hies.org or 404.303.2150 ext 181.

If you are interested in serving as a class representative, please contact Heather Hahn ’91 at heather.hahn@hies.org.

CLASS OF 1995

Daniel Blaustein, Austin Pound, Christina Touzet, Rob Aitkens, John Mitchell, and Will Allen.

Kate Stice Stewart and Nicole deLeede Harmon.

Lucie Bornholm and her daughter Cami Bornholm Wood.

On April 9, Paul Barton and Tamika Weaver Hightower gathered with alumni in Washington, D.C. at Sonoma Restaurant and Wine Bar. Below on the right is a photo from the event. Look for us in more cities next year. We love to meet alumni and see what you are doing!

CALLING THE CLASSES OF 1995, 2000, 2005, AND 2010 FOR ALUMNI REUNION WEEKEND Please save the dates Friday and Saturday, Sept. 25-26, 2015, for your reunion! On Friday, we will have class receptions at your favorite local hangout. Then Saturday, Holy Innocents’ will host you at the Homecoming football game.

Class Representatives: Jill Herndon Littlefield: jilllittlefield@hotmail.com; Audra Mullen Thompson: audra.thompson@hies.org

*Save the date for your 20-Year Reunion on Friday and Saturday, Sept. 25-26, 2015.

William alan morgan and Claire Boetticher welcomed their first child,

Peter Austin Morgan, on Jan. 17, 2015. William and Claire met at the University of Texas in 2005, where he received a Ph.D in Latin American History and Claire received a Master of Arts degree in Latin American Studies and a subsequent Masters of Science degree in Information Studies. They were married in 2010 and currently live in Houston, Texas.

CLASS OF 1996 Class Representatives: Gralyn Crumpler Daily: gralyn.crumpler@gmail.com; Raine Crumpler Hyde: raine.hyde@gmail.com; Emily Brown Latone: emilylatone@gmail.com

Gralyn crumpler Daily, her husband, Stephen, and daughter, Emmalyn, are ecstatic to welcome Nolan Scott Daily to the family!

He was born on Jan. 9, 2015, at 7:28 p.m.

Emmalyn loves being a big sister and, rest assured, will be chasing her little brother around in no time!

For details, contact the reunion chairs: Class of 1995: Audra Mullen Thompson – audra.thompson@hies.org Class of 2000: Stephanie Brown – brown.stephaniekay@gmail.com Class of 2005: Allyson Young Barganier – allysonyoung87@gmail.com Class of 2010: Halle Addison – haddison34@att.net Ashton Thurmond Ragone and Audra Mullen Thompson.

Claire Abreu Webber and Jeff Webber.

Facebook and linkedIn Join the Holy Innocents’ Alumni Association on Facebook and LinkedIn. This will keep you connected to the school with news and events.

Head of School Paul Barton, Josh Waldron ‘12, Chris Waldron ‘13, Andrew Parrish ‘10, Zach Waldron ‘13, Lisa Kurdziel ‘99, and Courtney Tate ’03.

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49 sarah moreland sherman and her husband, Hans, welcomed twin baby boys, Henry Lehner and Colt McDowell, on March 10, 2015. All is well with mom, dad and babies! The Shermans live in San Francisco, CA.

raine crumpler Hyde welcomed McNeer Hulsey Hyde on Jan. 22, 2015. He weighed 8 lbs. 2 oz. Big sisters, Evelyn Grace and Tillan are very protective and in love with their little brother!

Stephanie Spottswood Scurlock and her family recently moved back to Atlanta (Roswell, actually) from Greenville, South Carolina, for her new job. She is the Manager of New Business Development for Piedmont Office Realty Trust, a publicly traded Real Estate Investment Trust in Johns Creek.

CLASS OF 1997 Class Representatives: Ashton Thurmond Ragone: ashtonragone@gmail.com; Kristin Wolford Tiliakos: kristinjwolford@aol.com

CLASS OF 1998 Class Representatives: Katie McGoogan Weeks: katie.weeks@hies.org

Prather rehm has loved working in the Fine Arts department of HIES, but she will begin her graduate studies this fall at The Actors Studio MFA Acting Program at Pace University in New York City.

CLASS OF 1999 Class Representatives: Jennifer Cavanaugh Brown: jcb924@gmail.com; Samia Hanafi: samhanafi@gmail.com; Drew McDonald: tam1980@gmail.com

lisa kurdziel currently lives in Washington, D.C. and owns a consulting firm. She ran her second Boston Marathon and is working on a race to raise money for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society in honor of her mother.

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CLASS OF 2000 Class Representatives: Stephanie Brown: brown.stephaniekay@gmail.com Shelarese Ruffin: ssruffin@gmail.com

*Save the date for your 15-Year Reunion on Friday and Saturday, Sept. 25-26, 2015. stephanie Brown accepted the position of Development Manager at Susan G. Komen Greater Atlanta after eight years at the Georgia Aquarium. The local non-profit serves Metro-Atlanta through breast health screening and diagnostic services. Komen Atlanta serves the local community by partnering with local heath care organizations to financially subsidize services for women and men who cannot otherwise afford them; the local office also supports national research through Komen National, with several programs taking place at Emory.

CLASS OF 2001 Class Representatives: Allender Laflamme Durden: allenderl@gmail.com; Cara Puckett Roxland: cara.roxland17@gmail.com

lauren Fryer tucker and her husband, Scott Tucker ‘00, welcomed Clare Cross to the world on Feb. 18, 2015.

She weighed 8 lbs. and was 20.5 inches long at birth.

They couldn’t be more in love with their sweet baby girl! Lauren and Scott live in Atlanta.

CLASS OF 2002

CLASS OF 2003

Class Representatives: Malinda Greenbaum Hlavenka: malinda.greenbaum@ gmail.com Katie Kirtland Manning: katie.kirtland@gmail.com;

Class Representative:

Alley Pickren: alleypic@gmail.com

Emily Weprich: emily.weprich@yahoo.com

CLASS OF 2004 Class Representatives: Amy Fore Kane: kaneamyf@gmail.com

Zach Blend has been accepted into the Executive MBA Program at Reinhardt University, and has most recently completed his Graduate Certificate from Fuller Theological Seminary. emily olsen Howell and her husband, Elliot, welcomed their first child, Lucille Cordelia, on March 7, 2015.

Katie Kirtland married Patrick Manning on Feb. 28, 2015 at Peachtree Presbyterian Church. They met at Auburn University.

Her sister, sarah-elizabeth kirtland craw ’07 and Jennie Wilson ’02, were matrons of honor. elise Baumann, meredith kromehoek, and missy Gardner, all class of 2002 were bridesmaids. ruth agee ’02 and malinda Greenbaum Hlavenka ’02 were also in attendance. The couple currently resides in Buckhead.

Collins Marshall: collins.marshall@ml.com; Gordon Silvera: gordon.silvera@gmail.com

lanie Draper and her husband, Brent, welcomed their second little boy on Jan. 6, 2015. George Konstantine weighed 8 lbs. 14 oz. and was 22 inches long. Big brother Theo is over the moon! catherine Herzberg graduated in December 2014 from the University of Florida, with a Master of Education and a Specialist in Education with a major of School Counseling and Guidance.

She is a member of the Florida School Counselor Association, the American School Counselor Association, and Chi Sigma Iota, Beta Chapter, the Counseling Academic and Professional Honor Society International. Catherine is now working as a Professional School Counselor at Saddlewood Elementary School in Ocala, Florida. She is looking forward to attending this year’s American School Counselor Association Conference in Tucson, AZ. Susan Little Jones and her husband, Sawyer, welcomed their first child, Hardwick Sawyer, on January 18, 2015.

The family resides in Atlanta.

Jennifer Bickley sewell and her husband, Kyle, welcomed a baby boy, Robert “Bobby” Crosby, into the world on October 16, 2014.

Bobby was born at Emory Hospital Midtown exactly one hour before his official due date, weighing 7 lbs. 6 oz. and measuring 20 inches. The Sewell family is soaking up every minute of parenthood.

James Williams is engaged to Maggie Laneve of Atlanta. Maggie is a graduate of the University of Georgia and James is a graduate of Clemson University so they have lively discussions during football season. Both are accountants – James is a staff accountant with Coyote Logistics and Maggie is an accountant with Randstad. A June wedding is planned in Atlanta.

CLASS OF 2005 Class Representatives: Tyler Rathburn: tprathburn@gmail.com Rachel Shunnarah: rshunnarah@gmail.com; Kate Sternstein: kasternstein@gmail.com; Allyson Young Barganier: allysonbarganier@gmail.com

*Save the date for your 10-Year Reunion on Friday and Saturday, Sept. 25-26, 2015. liz knapp married Eugene Hsu on March 7, 2015. Ashton Bligh ‘05 was the maid of honor.

Eugene is from Los Angles and is about to finish his second year as a medical student at Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine’s Georgia campus. Liz is teaching TAG social studies for Fulton County Public Schools. They are living in Buckhead. eva mcDonald recently graduated from

Ross University School of Medicine. In July, she will begin working as an Internal Medicine Resident Physician at Memorial Health University Medical Center in Savannah, GA.

laura thompson and Richie Woodard were married on April 25, 2015 on St. George Island, FL. The couple honeymooned in Europe and live in Atlanta. Laura received her MBA from GA Tech last August and is a manager at SapientNitro, while Richie is a supervisor with Eagle Excavation. Pictured at the wedding are: ashley chandler ’04, Heather lee taylor ’05 (matron of honor), Laura, Richie, katherine cochrane ’05 (maid of honor), nicole Deleede Harmon ’04, and Hannah Ward moore ’04.

CLASS OF 2006 Class Representatives: Kaitlin Duffy Snodgrass: ksnodgrass@stmartinschool.org; Miller Edwards: edwardm@auburn.edu; Anna Pickren: annalovettpickren@gmail.com; Amy Schwartz: amy@interbevusa.com

CLASS OF 2007 Class Representatives: Charlotte Bissell: charlottebissell@gmail.com; Sarah-Elizabeth Kirtland: sarahelizabeth.kirtland@gmail.com; Taylor Pack: pack_t@bellsouth.net; Emily Phillips: emily.phillips88@yahoo.com

CLASS OF 2008 Class Representatives: Kate Decker: kated7523@gmail.com; Trevor Gillum: gillum.trevor@gmail.com; Kerry Martin: kerrym46@gmail.com; Rachel Sullivan: res6w@virginia.edu

taylor adams and her siblings, Payton ’11 and Grayson ’14, will be in South Africa this summer to partner with African Community Outreach. They will work with the founders Torchbearer | Spring 2015

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notes.

THE

to provide daily care for the 5075 orphaned and at-risk youth currently housed there, and will be sharing the gospel. This trip is running through the Athensbased nonprofit Son Safaris, founded by native South African, Fledge Fiamingo.

received the James Madison Graduate Fellowship, which supports aspiring American Constitution teachers. Megan will be attending the UGA College of Education for graduate studies in secondary social studies education.

CLASS OF 2009

lauren Glazer graduated from Queens University of Charlotte with a Bachelor’s in Art History on May 9, 2015.

She will be attending Sotheby’s Institute of Art in New York City in September to obtain her Master’s in Art Business.

Class Representatives:

eryn Delaney will be graduating in May 2015 with a 4.0 GPA and an M.ED in Counseling (with an emphasis in Career and Sport Psychology) from the University of MissouriColumbia. After she graduates, she plans to move to Virginia to continue to work in the sports or counseling field.

CLASS OF 2010 Class Representatives:

*Save the date for your 5-Year Reunion on Friday and Saturday, Sept. 25-26, 2015. anna Pierce taylor graduated cum laude from Kennesaw State University on Dec. 17, 2014, with a degree in Early Childhood Education.

CLASS OF 2011 Class Representatives: Megan Ernst: megernst11@gmail.com; Delaney McMullen: delaneymcm@ gmail.com; Andrew Parrish:m.andrewparrish@ gmail.com

megan ernst is graduating from UGA in May with undergraduate degrees in Journalism and Political Science and a Master of Public Administration. She Torchbearer | Spring 2015

Frank Fallon and sarah meyer graduated from Southern Methodist University on May 16, 2015.

They are part of the university’s centennial class.

The commencement speaker was George W. Bush.

CLASS OF 2012 Class Representatives: Katie Keith: katiekeith12@gmail.com; Brittany Ketchup: brittanyketchup@yahoo.com; Greg Sullivan: gregsullivan12@gmail.com

clint Dolan has been inducted into the Phi Sigma Iota honor society at the U.S. Naval Academy.

CLASS OF 2013 Class Representatives:

CLASS OF 2014 Class Representatives: Bailey Lyles: blyles14@gmail.com; Warner Ray: jwray3@go.olemiss.edu; Mary Hollis Schmidt: mhschmidt12@gmail.com

LOST

ALPHA-OMEGA CLASS

alumni

We are missing contact information for the alumni

of

listed below. If you are in contact with any of these HIES graduates, please encourage them to get in touch with the HIES alumni office. You can also log on to the

2015

website at www.hies.org. Click on alumni. If you have never logged onto the site before: Your username is firstnamelastnamegraduationyear (i.e.

TamikaHightower97) Your password is your date of birth (i.e.MM/DD/YYYY) this includes the slashes. name

nickname

maiden name

class

Katherine L. Schultz

Kathy

1996

William P. Thomas

Will

1996

Kimberly A. Campuzano

Kim

Christopher B. Chappell

Chris

Perisino

1997 1997

Kathryn N. Wegman

Kate

1997

Keith A. Cooper

Keith

1998

Mary M. Kyle

Mary

1998

George M. McCord

Michael

1998

Laura H. Bond

Laura

1999

Lauren D. Friedrichs

Lauren

1999

Holly M. O’Keefe

Holly

1999

Kyoko F. Sadoshima

Kyoko

1999

Katharine M. Duke

Kate

2000

Noah K. Hauber

Noah

2002

Stephen A. Satterfield

Stephen

2002

Lawrence E. Gill

Larry

2003

Rachel M. Small

Rachel

2003

Mary V. Coleman

Ginny

2004

Elizabeth A. Walters

Lizzie

2006

Thomas C. Dickinson

Coston

2007

Andrew C. McMullen

Chase

2007

Haley R. Pope

Haley

2008

Spencer R. Allen

Rawson

2009

Peter T. Allen

Peter

2010

William O. Allen

Will

2010

The Alpha-Omega Class of 2015 was honored at a reception at Maggiano’s Restaurant on April 8. We’ll all miss this special group of young men and women, and wish them all the best as they venture out into the world!

Front Row, kneeling: Caroline Cotton, Alexandra Stoughton, Claire Kelsey, Anna Parks Muecke, Sally Raney, Rebecca Maitski, Madeleine Minotto, and Erin Ernst.

Second Row: Mary Harris Morgan, Graham Thomas, Rachel Morton, Carter Basham, Lily Wood, Annie Hudgins, Olivia Moore, Sarah Joe, Mary Mac Hailey, and Maria Crosswell.

Third Row: Paxton Juneau, John Michael Klopfenstein, Cameron Johns, Andrew Coggins, Connor McClain, Matt Gates, Walker Thomas, Nate Davies, Connor Barry, Will Reiger, Kevin Tang, Michael Weaver, and Joe Stockert.

Back Row: Ivano Milo and Johnny Maier.

Not pictured: Dylan Thomas and Ivan Piligian.

Torchbearer | Spring 2015

NON-PROFIT ORG. U.S.POSTAGE PAID ATLANTA, GA PERMIT NO. 312

805 Mt. Vernon Hwy, NW Atlanta, GA 30327 www.hies.org

And so it begins… seniors who will enter Georgia Tech next fall face off against their Dawg-bound counterparts at the senior cookout on april 30.

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