2018
SPOTLIGHT
WELCOME TO THE SPOTLIGHT Happy 20th Anniversary, Orchard House! We are celebrating twenty years of educating and inspiring girls by acting on a mission developed with their unique needs in mind. To commemorate the school’s progress, we created this inaugural publication so that we can share the impactful stories of students, faculty, and community. Just like Orchard House School, this annual publication will grow and evolve. Most importantly, it will represent the Orchard House School experience and mission— one that is responsive, and engaging while fostering the intellectual curiosity, social responsibility, emotional integrity, and physical well-being of girls.
EMOTIONAL INTEGRITY | INTELLECTUAL CURIOSITY
Laura Haskins Head of School Orchard House School
We invite you to celebrate the past with us and cast an eye toward our future as we honor our school’s rich tapestry of community and programs. We look forward to reconnecting with old friends and making new ones along the way. Sincerely,
PIECES OF ME |
BY JETT CLASS OF 2020
My mask represents the pieces that make up my personality. I decided to paint my mask black because before I came to Orchard House, I was always the one in the background. Of course I did well in school and had many friends, but we never had that special bond you feel when you enter Orchard House. In my opinion, black represents sadness, or self-consciousness. Therefore, I glued triangles in the shape of a lion’s mane to show how I have truly found myself, and I’m realizing that I don’t have to be so shy anymore because I have grown with these girls and they have helped me break out of my comfort zone, leading me through things I have never thought possible. The twigs represent my life and experience at this school. It starts out small, but it continues to grow as I build friendships and connections, until one day, the branches cover my life with happiness and change the way I see the world forever.
As part of the 6th grade visual arts program, each girl creates a mask. Using papier-mâché, she sculpts a face to serve as an armature. She then layers on found objects to reflect the various “pieces” of herself. Making the mask allows each girl an opportunity to think about the “face” she presents to the outside world and all of the pieces she has on the inside. She learns to use objects symbolically to represent parts of her personality and identity. The process of using found and recycled materials in art is also directly connected to the values of environmental stewardship explored in the 6th grade CORE curriculum.
Every week, Orchard House dedicates a period to teaching CORE, a curriculum focused on Connections, Openness, Resilience, and Engagement. CORE encourages girls to establish connections within the world to identify potential areas of interest in measurable acts of service. Shortly after the beginning of the school year, students are assigned to a Base Group, composed of girls from each grade level. The purpose of these groups is to work together toward fulfilling a base group project selected by the group’s 8th grader. In the process, girls are exposed to team-building and service. They pull from their CORE lessons to bring these projects to fruition. During the 2017-2018 school year, projects ranged from learning dances from around the world, to animation, to organizing a drive for menstrual products for homeless women. Students presented their projects to an audience on Orchard House’s well-attended Grandparents’ and Grandfriends’ Day. They related their processes for identifying a project focus and implementing a plan of action. In alignment with CORE, OHS Outreach Coordinator, Casey Freeman, invited speakers to share with students their stories about Richmond-based organizations serving our community. From Suzanne Weaver (Parent ‘20), who recounted her experience completing the Ironman race on the fiercely competitive Hawaiian course, to Vanessa Diamond, director and co-founder of HandsOn Greater Richmond, which connects individuals to volunteer opportunities, students learned
valuable lessons about goal setting, setbacks, human connection, and volunteering. Most importantly, they learned that they can offer help or services now, as part of who they are and what they have to offer. Part of CORE‘s curriculum is concentrated on food insecurity—lack of reliable access to nutritious food. For these lessons, OHS 7th graders visited Kroger to research costs to feed a family of four for a month, while Duron Chavis, Community Engagement Coordinator at Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden, talked with the 6th and 7th grade classes about urban gardening. Students then volunteered in the community gardens at the Neighborhood Resource Center of Greater Fulton (NRC), which operates a biweekly food pantry and offers youth cooking classes and daily free healthy prepared meals for community members 18 and under. “There is immeasurable value in a personally engaged, hands-on experience with an organization you’re building a relationship with, as opposed to a more abstract classroom experience,” Freeman says. “We learn by doing.” Math and 6th grade homeroom teacher Janine Russo recognizes the shared value between the NRC and OHS, as well as a chance to teach our students to look for opportunities in their own communities first before seeking them globally. “We’re both trying to design sustainable opportunities for people to grow, and through service, there’s an awareness of a bigger story.”
SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY
COURAGEOUS CONVERSATIONS
RESPONSIVENESS | SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY | INTELLECTUAL CURIOSITY | EMOTIONAL INTEGRITY
MONUMENTAL LESSONS
The summer 2017 saw a slew of protests, largely in Southern cities, regarding the removal of Confederate statues. When the events of Charlottesville threatened to hit nearby with a protest at the Robert E. Lee Monument, Orchard House School chose to address the local and national discourse surrounding the legitimacy of the nearby Confederate memorials. In the spirit of the school’s commitment to being a responsive academic environment, an instructional collaboration between history teacher Taylor Hollander and English and theatre arts teacher Lucretia Anderson arose. They designed a research project for 8th grade students that incorporated five main themes: fact and opinion, historical memory, public space, debate and discussion, and oral and written communication skills. This interdisciplinary approach combined the history of the Civil War and Reconstruction with the literary notions of oral history, authorship, and persuasive writing. Hollander and Anderson found that two of the themes stood out the most - public space and historical memory. Prior to their research, few of the students had given much thought to the significance of the monuments. By walking from statue to statue on Monument Avenue and recording information about the subjects, locations, inscriptions, and unique features, as well as their own first impressions, the girls gained considerable awareness and understanding. They realized how and why public space is often contested.
Most students found it fascinating to interview people outside the school about the Confederate monument controversy. By collecting personal reflections and commentaries, they learned about the richness of the human experience, and how everyday people who largely escape the historical record can have very different views and opinions about the past and present. The girls demonstrated a multifaceted approach to their thinking, noting that the discomfort of talking about Virginia’s history “should not excuse us today from the burden of trying to understand what made the people of the monuments fight in the American Civil War.” Students benefited from sound relationships with faculty, which are the bedrock of Orchard House School. Anderson, who stresses historical context in her lessons, felt the discussion was more nuanced because of diverse voices from faculty and project interviewees. She noted, “You can always say, ‘This could affect people of color,’ but it’s nothing like having a person of color, someone you have a relationship with, saying, ‘Yes, this affects me, and here’s why.’” It is these kinds of connections with faculty that are most often cited by parents and students alike as a major component in their time at Orchard House. Strong relationships and a responsive educational environment allowed our 8th Graders to build their own understanding of the monuments in Richmond and elsewhere in a challenging and productive way.
Tucked in the side streets of Byrd Park, right behind Swan Lake, The Virginia Home has served as a permanent long-term home for adults with disabilities since 1894. It currently houses 130 full-time residents. Twelve years ago, when Orchard House was searching for a practice spot for their upcoming basketball season, faculty member Doug Welch met The Virginia Home’s volunteer coordinator and developed a 5th grade class community connection. It has remained a staple of every girl’s first year here at OHS and is a conduit for lessons on empathy, collaboration, and volunteerism.
from the book and their own research on adaptive equipment, the girls participate in a Q&A session with Sontag to learn the finer points of navigating disability, both for people with disabilities and those who want to know how to best interact with them.
Welch, a math teacher, partners with English teacher Elizabeth Lafoon to oversee 5th grade homeroom. Together they collaborate with The Virginia Home’s Volunteer Coordinator, Rebecca Sontag, to do some preparatory groundwork. The 5th graders are tasked with research on The Virginia Home, learning that the residents benefit from in-house physical therapy and health services, which leaves them more time to do the things they love outside of home. Transportation services are available to take residents to grocery stores, movie theaters, and locations where they can volunteer—a core facet of life at The Virginia Home. Sontag highlights this important point for the girls and emphasizes that the residents are active citizens who give back all the time.
5th graders return to The Virginia Home later in the year and are paired with residents for bowling, bingo, or a variety of skill games to play as a team. The girls understand that taking the reins and doing everything for a resident is not true engagement. “After that last visit,” Lafoon says, “the bus is exploding with stories about how cool and funny these people are.”
The girls are taught about disability awareness through several lessons over the entire year of CORE. As part of their English class, they read and discuss Sharon Draper’s Out of My Mind, which centers on a character with cerebral palsy who is on a quest for adaptive technology to allow her to communicate. Armed with knowledge
After a Q&A session with Sontag, students head out to introduce themselves to the residents and tour the home. While experiencing a day-in-the-life at The Virginia Home, they walk the halls greeting residents with high-fives.
From basketball practice to a decade-long partnership, Welch calls The Virginia Home one of his favorite OHS connections. Often, students feel drawn to expanding this connection beyond 5th grade. Mattie Moon (‘14) volunteered summers at The Virginia Home, earning her the title of Volunteer of the Year. The ultimate lesson for students is all about stretching one’s self to build relationships they would not normally have, and to build connections with communities and organizations in search of a mutual benefit. 5th graders learn early on that relationships, both personal and in service, are built on responsiveness to everyone’s needs, and that leadership is most effective when shared.
RESPONSIVENESS | SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY | INTELLECTUAL CURIOSITY | EMOTIONAL INTEGRITY
THE VIRGINIA HOME CONDUIT
ALUMNAE NOTES CLASS OF 2000
RACHEL (IMBURG) BEVERLY
CLASS OF 2001
REGINA (SOL) TERRY
CLASS OF 2001
EMILY COHEN CLASS OF 2003
KATE BELLEMAN
CLASS OF 2004
KATE (TOWNES) SCHIEFELBEIN
CLASS OF 2004
CHLOE SEIPEL
Rachel currently works for the Commonwealth of Virginia at the Division of Consolidated Laboratory Services as an Administrative Assistant doing purchasing. She has two amazing rescue dogs, one of which is a blind pit bull named Keller. She and her husband Xavier Beverly purchased their first home in January, 2017 in Richmond. They were married on May 28, 2017, at Temple Beth-El.
Since her time at Orchard House and high school, Regina received her B.A. in Spanish at Virginia Tech. Following graduation, she worked for a few years and eventually got married. (She and her husband just celebrated their fourth anniversary — no kids yet.) She then returned to school for her B.S. in Biology, continuing her studies at VCU this fall semester.
After five years studying in Philadelphia, along with a year in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, Emily is delighted to have become Rabbi Emily Cohen! She moved to New York City in July to begin a two-year rabbinic fellowship with Lab/Shul (www.labshul.org) and the Jewish Emergent Network. She’d be glad to connect with other alumnae in the NYC area!
Since leaving the hallowed halls of the Lewis Ginter Recreation Association, fomer home of OHS, Kate has remained very close to Orchard House School and its mission. She graduated with a B.A. in International Communications from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro in 2011. During her time there, she also studied abroad at Linneas University in Vaxjo, Sweden, where she specialized in International Communication. After five years serving as the Community Events and Development Associate for Virginia Repertory Theatre, Kate started a new job in 2017 as the Sales and Events Manager for the Virginia War Memorial Foundation. In her spare time, Kate is an active choreographer in the Richmond area—she won a Richmond Theatre Critics Circle Award for her work on Green Day’s American Idiot—and volunteers on the boards of Orchard House School and Family Lifeline. When Kate isn’t running around like a chicken with her head cut off, she enjoys time outside hiking, traveling, and hanging out with her fiancé Aaron (getting married in October!) and their black lab, Nina.
After graduating from OHS in 2004, Kate received her Bachelor of Arts in Economics with a financial emphasis and a minor in Leadership Studies from the University of Lynchburg (formerly Lynchburg College). Kate currently works in Richmond at the broker-dealer, BB&T Scott & Stringfellow, on a wealth management team, The Lewis Group. She is Series 7 and 66 registered and also holds her Virginia Life, Annuities, and Health licenses. Kate is a member of the Junior League of Richmond and is a proud member of the Board of Trustees of Orchard House School. Kate married William Schiefelbein on May 6, 2017, in Richmond, and they honeymooned in Kauai and Maui.
Chloe and her fiancé, a Navy helicopter pilot, are currently stationed in San Diego and in wedding planning mode. Four of her bridesmaids are girls she met at Orchard House! Chloe attended James Madison University for her undergraduate degree, continuing on to North Carolina State University to earn her Master’s degree. Chloe currently works for a nonprofit as the Communication and Program Manager, which allows her to connect highly skilled corporate employees with nonprofits and other social-minded organizations that benefit from their volunteer expertise.
CLASS OF 2005
NATHALIE OATES
CLASS OF 2008
CATHERINE ASHMAN
CLASS OF 2009
JESSICA OSTROWSKIWRIGHT
CLASS OF 2009
LIA RUSSELL
CLASS OF 2009
PAIGE SIMPSON
CLASS OF 2011
SARAH ASHMAN
Nathalie graduated from Mount Holyoke College in 2013. She is a writer here in Richmond, both as a grant writer for Richmond Ballet and a restaurant critic for Style Weekly. She is thrilled to be reconnected with Orchard House by serving on the 20th Anniversary Committee!
Catherine received her Bachelor’s and Master’s from Christopher Newport University and is currently teaching third grade.
Jessica graduated from James Madison University in 2017, where she majored in Psychology and minored in both Sociology and Studio Art. She has since begun graduate school at George Mason University, where she’s pursuing a Master’s in Global Affairs and a Graduate Certificate in Women and Gender Studies. In addition to her studies, she has had the opportunity to travel and engage in activism through a number of great internships. Most importantly, she has just adopted an adorable kitten with inexhaustible energy! Following her graduation in 2019, she looks forward to pursuing activism and work within the nonprofit world.
After graduating from the University of Virginia in 2017 with a major in Comparative Literature and Political & Social Thought and a minor in French, Lia joined the Peace Corps as a Secondary School English teacher in Rwanda. Lia moved to a rural village in Northeastern Rwanda in December, and has since been teaching English to students in the American equivalent of 7th and 8th grades. About her experience in Rwanda, Lia says, “The joy and energy of my students reminds me of how much I enjoyed my years at OHS, even though everyone claims that middle school is a terrible time, or that middle schoolers are ‘difficult’ to work with. I’ve found this to be anything but true based on my experience as a student and teacher; the years I spent at OHS were some of the best of my life, and the kids I work with are respectful, enthusiastic, bright, engaged, and full of promise.” In the coming months, she plans to write a grant in order to refurbish her school’s library. In addition to teaching, Lia has started an English club and a girls’ career club at the school while spending her free time hiking in the hills, eating the best avocados she’s ever had, visiting volcanoes, and gardening.
Paige continued her studies at Christopher Newport University, where she majored in Psychology. She graduated in 2017 and is now gearing up for graduate studies in School Counseling at George Mason University. Currently, she serves at a mental health treatment center working with adult women with eating disorders. She hopes to work with middle schoolers once she is a licensed school counselor and is excited to take her education and current experiences into the school system.
Sarah is entering her senior year at the University of Virginia, having earned the Wagenheim Scholarship from the Department of English. She is a columnist for The Cavalier Daily.
PHYSICAL WELL-BEING | EMOTIONAL INTEGRITY
MIRROR MIRROR Monday mornings are busy at the front desk - the exchange of permission slips, transportation notes, and general information is at its height. So is fielding one question from students over and over: “Is Mirror, Mirror meeting today?” Front Office Coordinator and Business Office Associate Jenna Stickley began Mirror, Mirror in the 2013-2014 school year. Each week, students have the option of joining this lunchtime discussion that begins with a focus on body image as it relates to middle school girls but quickly evolves into brainstorming about changemaking and self-compassion. Stickley noted the use of an agenda is not paramount— rather, the students just need a place to talk. What started as a discussion on combatting messaging that is not girl-positive has transformed into one about how girls can use their voices. By foregrounding stories about adolescent girls who act as catalysts for change, Mirror, Mirror often ends each session with a group of energized girls ready to find ways to speak up on behalf of themselves, and others in their community. Another OHS long-running program called RED (Respecting Everyone’s Differences) began as a club sponsored by Melody Imburg, that celebrated diversity in its many forms. RED topics have since been included in a dedicated schoolwide, year-long curriculum on diversity, contributing to the school culture. Mirror, Mirror, RED, and the Orchard House mission have
been officially recognized in a recent research study. During the 2015-2016 school year, C. Blair Burnette, Melissa A. Kwitowski, and Suzanne E. Mazzeo from the Virginia Commonwealth University Department of Psychology conducted a study and published their results in an article titled, “‘I don’t need people to tell me I’m pretty on social media:’ A qualitative study of social media and body image in early adolescent girls” in the journal Body Image. Orchard House School’s 7th and 8th graders participated in the researchers’ focus group. The results “strongly suggest the culture of the school contributed to softening the impact of social comparisons and fostering appearance satisfaction.” Specifically, the study named Mirror, Mirror, RED, health education, and a single-sex environment as contributing factors to the culture. The study highlights the importance of “educating early adolescent girls about the consequences of appearance comparisons, as well as equipping them with tools to reframe such comparisons.” Finding the right language and habits to support oneself and others is a life practice. It does not necessarily happen naturally or easily. During Mirror Mirror, Stickley is direct with students about how they need to train themselves to be self-compassionate. “It takes effort to dig the groove in so that your automatic thought is something kind to yourself.” We’re here for girls while they find that groove, and we’re here when they spread that message in their future communities.