Pantherbeat - Fall 2019

PARISH EPISCOPAL SCHOOL NEWS

FALL 2019

Pantherbeat Feature: Parish Summer campers hack mobility obstacles for young patients. > Story on page 3

My Parish Moment – Will Harrington ‘20 Parish student raises money and awareness for suicide prevention through five-day music tour in Texas. The concerts, which included three other Parish seniors, benefitted Grant Halliburton Foundation, Parish's partner in centerED for Social & Emotional Well-Being.

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https://vimeo.com/366576265

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PARISH PANTHERBEAT

Parish Online

parishepiscopal.org Celebrating Our Veterans Hillcrest and Midway campuses had lots of special visitors and performances to celebrate our Veterans.

To Selfie or Not to Selfie Many of our faculty and staff have joined Instagram to give you more glimpses of life @parishepiscopalschool https://www.instagram.com/ mrsmcewenparish/

https://www.facebook.com/parishepiscopal/videos/1149478521912719/

Parish Facebook

Watching the Progress with Parish Operations Follow @parish_ops for updates on our major construction projects as well as the day-to-day from this vital group at Parish. https:https://www.instagram.com/p/B3uun5SnQQN/

IMPACT for Students As the IMPACT habits of work roll out, 3rd and 4th grade students learn about tenacity with @hillcrestchaplainparish https://www.instagram.com/p/ B4ywsSkHJrne89-Sq11mQ8nuVNXzMwaLVRcYTA0/

Parish Instagram

District Champs!

PreK Starts at 3!

Current 3rd grade teacher @msobrienparish created a fantastic video of the 2018-19 PreK classes to show how much fun Lower School is! #parishLSrocks https://vimeo.com/371624594

Congratulations to the Parish Volleyball team who finished with a perfect 10-0 record in district play! https://www.instagram.com/p/B3vfNo8nuYg/

Belonging in Higher Education Mr. Monaco’s writing and podcasting theme this year is Belonging. In this podcast episode, he talks to Dr. Paul LeBlanc, President of Southern New Hampshire, about creating belonging in an innovative college model.

From My Angle Podcast

From “Our” Angle Mr. Monaco is joined by Omari Hayes ’21 for several episodes of his podcast this season and they discuss topics with Upper School students. https://soundcloud.com/user203363571/from-my-angle-omarifinding-your-social-fit

https://soundcloud.com/user-203363571/from-my-angle-paul-leblanc

#service in Middle School Becky Crawford, Director of Middle School Experiential Learning, discusses how service is woven throughout the curriculum. https://vimeo.com/362563452

Parish Vimeo

New Addition:

Noble Family Performing Arts Center, Coming Spring 2021 On Friday, September 27, during the School’s Homecoming festivities, Parish broke ground on a new performing arts center at its Midway Road campus. Students, parents, faculty and staff, along with donors to the $30 million Limitless campaign funding the facility, gathered to celebrate the start of construction. The 55,000-square-foot venue, scheduled to be completed in the Spring of 2021, will transform the face of the School’s Midway campus as well as the experiences of its students. Read more about the space https://bit.ly/33wvJ1t

"Just imagine, two years from now, on this very courtyard, will stand a new state-of-art venue worthy of our students' talents," said Dave Monaco, Allen Meyer Family Head of School. "Here we will highlight their performances, celebrate community milestones, and showcase artists and speakers to broaden our students' understanding of the global society. The potential in this new edifice will far exceed its walls, because it will cultivate limitless possibilities for young people of impact."

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FALL 2019 | PAGE 3

Pantherbeat Feature:

Parish Summer campers hack mobility obstacles for young patients Summer camp at Parish Episcopal School was not all waterslides and popsicles. Don’t get us wrong, we did that too and had a blast; however, this year, some Parish Summer campers had the opportunity to serve children who lack mobility independence.

Caroline modified everything based on Elena’s small size and stature, and even created a foot platform to allow Elena’s feet to touch the bottom of the equipment. Many of her modifications can be adjusted or removed to maximize the usability of the vehicle.

Caroline made it Elena’s by adding special touches such as Elena’s favorite colors and fun stickers.

Campers worked in coordination with WorkChops, a makerspace/ Fab Lab in East Dallas, and Early Wheels, a Dallas non-profit with a “purpose to provide motor opportunities to children with disabilities, ages 0-4 years, using repurposed toys and baby equipment.”

“The majority of toddlers do not qualify for an electric wheel chair,” said Mess Wright, owner and founder of WorkChops.

This is where Parish Summer’s camper-volunteers come in.

“During planning we sought a partner who could work with us on a program that would offer a unique and impactful service opportunity for campers,” emphasized David Fisher, Director of Parish Summer.

“WorkChops provided the perfect opportunity for our older campers to utilize their passion and talents in STEM to benefit children and thereby provide a meaningful summer experience for both campers and the children served by Early Wheels.”

The campers met with the children and their families to get to know them. They measured the children and interviewed the families to better understand the individual needs of each child. This allowed campers to design the provided Power Wheels® to specifications that not only improved the quality of life for these children but also added a level of customization that might not otherwise be possible with off-the-shelf equipment.

As Early Wheels states on its website, research shows that “independent mobility is linked to cognitive, social, motor, language and other developmental benefits in young children.”

“The Early Wheels camp was the most amazing camp my daughters have ever attended,” exclaimed Stacey Bixby, a Parish Parent with two daughters participating in the camp. “Not only were they able to develop their mechanical and electrical skills they were also improving their soft skills . . . It was an incredibly powerful experience with too many life lessons to count and I am grateful to Parish for providing such a meaningful opportunity for my daughters. We will never forget it!”

In the process, campers soldered, worked with circuit and motor drive boards, coded with Arduinos, and added their own special touches to the toys to brighten the children’s experience a little bit more.

“Students went above and beyond and spent their own money looking for items to make the project extra special for the children,” added Wright.

Parish student, Riley Gilligan ’23, worked with Cage, a quadriplegic who suffers from seizures. Riley utilized Stanford’s d.school resources for design thinking to identify which alterations would benefit Cage.

He created a reclining seat to provide support for Cage’s torso and head in case of seizures. Additionally, instead of a joystick or a single wheel control, Riley installed buttons to make the Power Wheels® easier for Cage to drive on his own.

Caroline Bixby ’22, worked with two-year-old, Elena who is too weak to walk on her own. Elena will be in her Power Wheels® for many years. Caroline’s challenge was to make the vehicle adaptable for Elena in order to accommodate her changing needs as she grows and becomes both stronger and more independent.

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Parish Summer is glad that a few of our campers were able to help these young children have the opportunity to move and explore independently. As we say at Parish Episcopal School, “futures have no limits,” and thanks to Early Wheels, our students got a chance to help remove limits for mobility challenged children as well.

Registration for Parish Summer 2020 will open on February 12, 2020.

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Exploration Classes Begin January 13, 2020 Registration is open: www.parish.org/explorations

Ask Pete – Pet Partners Did I recently see dogs on campus and in classrooms?

Yes! Through the Parish centerED partnership with Pet Partners®, trained therapy dogs have been on both the Hillcrest and Midway campuses to interact and engage with students.

Research shows that pets can reduce stress and anxiety for all man-kind. In addition to the successful programming that Parish affords its students to create an environment of balance and joy, we are excited to be partnering with Pet Partners for another aspect of that programming.

In introducing this program, we’ve also received the question: “Can I bring my dog to school too?” And, while we love all pets and welcome many of them during our annual Blessing of the Animals, unfortunately, we can’t let everyone bring their pet to school on a regular basis. However, the Pet Partner therapy dogs and their trained handlers will be on campus throughout the year!

Pet Partners

®

of North Texas

Touching Lives, Improving Health

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Alumni Spotlight Becca Davis ‘10 Becca graduated from the University of Missouri-Columbia where she majored in Psychology with a minor in Human Development and Family Studies, and received an International Studies certificate.

I graduated from college still not knowing what I wanted to do. Someone suggested that I look into startup companies. . . and I landed my dream job working for a social enterprise, Wild Timor Coffee Co. in Melbourne, Australia. Since then, I have been working in operations in the startup world and love it. I now work for Peloton Interactive as the North American Scheduling/Operations Center Manager, managing 50+ team members who own scheduling for bike and treadmill deliveries, the technology behind scheduling, process improvement for final mile deliveries as well as the back-end support for all of the teams that make our deliveries possible!

Biggest lesson learned to date?

Being a dreamer isn’t as rare as I once thought. Being a doer is what is rare. Few people actually do what they dream or talk about. This doesn’t have to be anything big; just following through with ideas . . .

You can’t live without your…?

Dogs. I have two large labradoodles and they make my life so much more fun. They remind me not to take everything so seriously.

Would you like to give a shout out to anyone at Parish? . . . Ms. O’Rear. She always had time to talk to me about different social impact ideas and really

inspired me to love volunteering. During college some of my favorite memories are volunteering for Hospice Compassus, The Crisis Hotline, and a special needs pottery class. I don’t think I would have had the knowledge to seek out those experiences if it wasn’t for her.

What advice would you give Parish students?

Follow your passion. As cliché as it sounds, I've found that if you follow your passion success will come. In my first role after graduating from college, I took the job at Wild Timor. It was a social enterprise that I was really passionate about that donated half of their profits back in to East Timor, one of the smaller and poorest countries in the world. I was literally serving coffee in the beginning, I wasn't even allowed to touch the coffee machine. . . . A silly job in a coffee shop led to my passion for the startup world and operations. Many people never would have taken the risk of working in a coffee shop with a college degree . . .

Career Services for Alumni

Have a Parish Alumni story to share? Submit it to the Alumni Office at alumni@parish.org

it’s all about who you know.

SAVE THE DATES FOR THESE FUN GALA EVENTS!

Whether you’re in college or you’ve already started your career, meeting professionals in your field is a huge benefit.

I PARISH

ParishConnect introduces you to Parish Episcopal community members who work in your desired field, and who can help you build your network and further your future.

FEBRUARY 22, 2020•6:00 PM•THE RENAISSANCE HOTEL DALLAS AT PLANO LEGACY WEST•WWW.PARISHEPISCOPAL.ORG/GALA2020

TABLE SALES: NOVEMBER 18, 2019 GALA BINGO: SATURDAY, JANUARY 11, 2020 GALA: SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 2020 TO LEARN MORE OR GET INVOLVED: WWW.PARISHEPISCOPAL.ORG/GALA2020

To learn more, contact Lauren Henderson at LHenderson@parishepiscopal.org.

WIN $5,000 NORTHPARK GOLD!

BUY A RAFFLE TICKET! $50 PER TICKET OR 5/$200

PURCHASE TICKETS ONLINE & VIEW THE OFFICIAL RULES OF THE PARISH GALA RAFFLE AT WWW.PARISHEPISCOPAL.ORG/GALA2020

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SCAN THE QR CODE TO PURCHASE ONLINE!

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Volunteer Spotlight:

Parish Grandparents Parish Episcopal School is inviting grandparents to bring their energy, skills and knowledge to our school by volunteering. Grandparents already participate in Grandparents’ Visiting Day and Grandparent Socials, and now they’re exploring ways to get engaged on a more personal level through the Parish Grandparents Organization.

“We’d like grandparents to volunteer in something that they’re interested in and we’re trying to make it a little easier to know what’s available,” said Diane Webber, Director of Alumni Relations and Special Events. “We'll be sending out opportunities for them to be at Hillcrest and Midway; to work in the art room, STEM, computer lab, to read, and a variety of other things.”

Grandparents interested in volunteering complete a safety form and review the student safety and protection policies. So far, nearly 30 grandparents have either completed or started the process. Shari Markey, whose granddaughter is in 2nd grade at Parish, started volunteering in November.

“Volunteering is in my blood,” added Markey. “I think there’s something for everybody, so I say get involved and jump in.”

More grandparents are taking an active role in the day-to-day lives of our students. This volunteer effort will give them a chance to get a better idea of what’s happening inside their grandchild’s school, with opportunities to participate in everything from classroom activities to serving paninis in the cafeteria.

“Parish is beyond just a school. It really makes you feel like you belong to a bigger something and I like that a lot,” noted Markey.

Grandparent Bob Marshall already spends a lot of time at Parish helping with grandparent activities. He also serves on the Board of Trustees as Treasurer, Advancement Committee and Budget & Finance Committee, and is Grandparent Chair for Parish Fund, the School’s annual fund.

Marshall is so active that he says he’s on the verge of going from a really funny grandfather to a social outcast with his two granddaughters.

Kidding aside, Marshall knows his presence is important.

“Nobody relates to kids like grandparents do,” noted Marshall. “I think they need to see grandparents participating in their world.” Marshall believes all parents love their kids unconditionally, but that grandparents offer a positive style that differs from parents. “Maybe more patience, and more acceptance.”

Interested in getting more involved in your grandchild’s school? Contact Diane Webber at 972-852-8847 or dwebber@parish.org for more information on Grandparent Volunteer opportunities.

PARISH EPISCOPAL SCHOOL NEWS

FALL 2019

What’s inside:

Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Heather Mills Managing Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . Bianca Araujo Contributor . . . . . . . . . . . . . Heather Behrens Alumni . . . . . . . . . . . . . Lauren Henderson '07 Digital . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Courtney Joyner Photographer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Wiley Williams

Pantherbeat Feature: Parish Summer Campers hack mobility obstacles for young patients . . . . . . . . . . 3 Parish Online . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 New Addition: Noble Family Performing Arts Center . . . . . . . . . . 2 Ask Pete: Pet Partners . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Alumni Spotlight: Becca Davis ‘10 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Volunteer Spotlight: Parish Grandparents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Photo Contributer . . . . . . . . . . Parish Summer

Pantherbeat is the magazine of Parish Episcopal School | 4101 Sigma Road | Dallas, Texas 75244 | parishepiscopal.org

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