Only at Rowland Hall | 2022–2023

Only at Rowland Hall

OUR IMPACT: 2022–2023

Dear Rowland Hall Community,

I love the excitement that arrives each June as the school year draws to a close. As we put the finishing touches on another period of learning and growth, I can’t help but reflect on all we’ve accomplished together and marvel at how each year feels more monumental, inspiring, and exciting than the last.

The 2022–2023 school year was certainly no exception, as Rowland Hall continued to demonstrate the reach of exceptional independent education. Some of our many notable accomplishments this year include:

• Our strategic vision raised our school’s national profile. In fact, in my travels as head of school, I’m often sought out to share more about our promise to develop the people our world needs.

• We reached record-high enrollment

• We deepened investments in our computer science curriculum across divisions, adjusting and adapting to the evolving technological landscape.

• We continued to invest in diversity, equity, and inclusion to ensure that every member of our community thrives.

• We recruited national top talent, as people wish to join our welcoming, innovative community.

• Our Board of Trustees approved an employee cost-of-living raise that exceeded the national average.

• Our 42nd Biennial Auction, Back for the Future, broke the record for the highest amount raised at any Rowland Hall Auction.

• Financial support of the school—including the largest gift to date in support of the Richard R. Steiner Campus—reached an all-time high.

Most importantly, thanks to the dedication and commitment of our faculty and staff, we accomplished incredible things in our classrooms. In these pages, I’m thrilled to share some of the deep learning and community connections our students enjoyed this year. I know this is just the beginning of what we’ll accomplish during this chapter for our school, as we continue to build on our legacy of exceptional education and celebrate student experiences that can only be found at Rowland Hall.

Thank you all for being a part of this journey.

Mick Gee Head of School

Did You Know?

In the 2022–2023 school year: 10+ BEGINNING SCHOOL

hours were spent in outdoors studies each week

18

nature studies were conducted

LOWER SCHOOL

17 field studies were conducted by fourth graders

103,667 lines of code were written by Lower School students

UPPER SCHOOL

42 28

MIDDLE SCHOOL ART

5

advanced research courses were developed

26 1

community outreach solutions were presented to the Great Salt Lake Institute by seventh graders

74%

Middle School electives gave students choice and voice in learning arts performances, including the studentdesigned community outreach dance concert Submerge

ATHLETICS

students took first place at the 2023 Utah Science and Engineering Fair, qualifying for the International Science and Engineering Fair

22

of Middle School and Upper School students participated on school sports teams school sports were offered—more than at any other time in school history

Upper School–commissioned play about the Great Salt Lake was performed

4 6

ROWMARK

1

Rowmarker podium sweep took place at the NorAm (North American) Cup

Rowmarkers were members of national teams: four on the US Ski Team, one on the Australian national team, and one on the Estonian national team

Beginning School

YOUNG MINDS IN MOTION

Outdoor Classroom Enhances Learning and Sparks Wonder and Joy

The Beginning School team will do just about anything to help Rowland Hall’s youngest students learn to love learning—including rolling wagons of books, art supplies, and science experiments to Sunnyside Park for outdoor classroom time. While a focus on indoor–outdoor education has always been a divisional priority, an increased emphasis on outdoor learning during the pandemic solidified the practice, thanks to outdoor classroom’s proven ability to deepen student engagement and build learning stamina through extended, open-ended play. Outdoor classroom continued to be a crucial component of the Beginning School experience this year, exposing students to connections between the natural world and subjects including math, language, literacy, and science.

Preschool Engineers? We Have ’Em!

Enter a Beginning School classroom and you’ll likely have to step over block walls or towers—and right into the middle of a lesson. That’s because blocks provide the perfect introduction to early engineering concepts. This year’s beginning schoolers explored techniques like staggering, plank and pillar, and crisscross, giving them the skills they needed to go big: recreating famous Utah buildings or, as mini city planners, building a block city from their own blueprints. This type of play is not only fun, it’s essential to building a foundation of knowledge around spatial relationships, cause and effect, problem solving, and math. But more importantly, it’s sparking students’ natural curiosity, giving young learners purpose and agency, building their creativity, and helping them see themselves as capable problem solvers.

Lower School

EMPOWERING BRIGHT FUTURES

Can 10-Year-Olds Change the World? You Bet They Can!

This year, fifth-grade teachers empowered their students to take charge of community-building projects across the Salt Lake Valley. Fifth graders examined what communities need to thrive and learned how change comes through awareness, action, and advocacy. They then identified four areas of interest—environment, unhoused community, arts and community spaces, and trails and parks—and created an impressive array of projects that not only benefited organizations such as Tiny Village, Family Promise, and Crossroads Urban Center, and but also illustrated the many ways students can make a difference.

Curriculum Investments

Computer Science

Coding

Design Thinking

Engineering

Robotics

Higher Academic Achievement Begins with Social-Emotional Learning

At Rowland Hall, we’re committed to building a community where each person thrives, knowing that feelings of safety, inclusion, and connection directly influence students' academic success. To encourage students’ social-emotional growth and sense of belonging, the Lower School continues to utilize Responsive Classroom, an evidence-based, student-centered approach to social-emotional learning that creates joyful, safe, and inclusive classrooms, and helps students take responsibility and ownership in classroom communities. Responsive Classroom fosters social-emotional competencies, including personal responsibility, self-control, and empathy, provides a predictable start to school days, meets students’ need to belong, and offers opportunities to practice listening, speaking, and noticing others, while also reinforcing academic skills.

Middle School UNLEASHING POTENTIAL

Seventh Graders Provide Real-World Support to Great Salt Lake Institute

Rowland Hall teachers are reimagining lessons to connect their students with more community partners, deepening learning. This year, seventhgrade teachers Jill Gerber (English) and Anna Wolfe (science) engaged the Great Salt Lake Institute (GSLI) on a student-led project designed to expand the GSLI’s outreach to younger audiences so more people understand and prioritize the local impact of the lake. Acting as business consultants, the seventh graders presented their methods for community engagement to the GSLI in February—and many of those solutions are already being implemented.

Curriculum Investments

Additional art programming: Advanced Acting: One-Act Plays, Musical Theatre, Playworks, Advanced Ceramics, Art with Code, Beginning Guitar, and Comedy Club Computer science electives: Robotics FIRST LEGO League, Engineering, Game Design, Robotics, and Inventing to Learn

Engineering

Introduction to Personal Finance

Model United Nations

Technology electives: Technical Theatre and The Physics of Toys

Writing offerings: Creative Writing and Critical Reading and Writing

"We were beyond impressed. I had high expectations, and the students exceeded them. I took copious notes and learned so much from them."

Carly Biedul, Great Salt Lake Institute coordinator

Computer Science: A New Literacy Skill

In today’s digital world, no matter what career paths students choose to pursue, an understanding of the basics of computer science is a necessity. Computer science equips learners with critical thinking, problem-solving, and computational skills that are necessary across various domains and the evolving technological landscape. To ensure our students are comfortable with these essential skills, this year Rowland Hall made further computer science investments, including hiring the Middle School’s first full-time computer science teacher and offering new Middle School electives: Robotics FIRST LEGO League, Engineering, Game Design, Robotics, and Inventing to Learn. As a result, more middle schoolers than ever have discovered a passion for the subject.

Middle School Student Achievements and Accolades

• Eighth grader Sadie Datoo (pictured top right) took fifth place in the state MathCounts competition

• Seventh grader Sophia Zhang (pictured center right) won first place in the Civil & Environmental Engineering Elementary Division of the 2023 University of Utah Science & Engineering Fair

• Six middle schoolers—Mary Ellen Hoglund, Nas Khan, Lucas Lamas, Milo van Ispelen, Nyki Younten, and Mia Zhang—traveled to Washington State in February to represent Rowland Hall at the Northwest Association of Independent Schools’ Annual Student Diversity Leadership Retreat (group pictured bottom right)

• Every member of the Middle School Debate Team won at least one debate round in competition this year, and six debaters qualified for state: Sofia Drakou, Andrew Frech, Lucas Lamas, Emery Lieberman, Izzy Utgaard, and Chloe Vezina

Upper School LEADING THE WAY

Rowland Hall to Join National Campaign to Address Heat Inequalities

For Upper School climate science students, it’s not enough to simply study how climate change affects weather; they also examine how extreme weather impacts communities. As part of this work, science teacher Rob Wilson spearheaded an application, in partnership with organizations including the Utah Climate Center and Salt Lake City Government, to join the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s urban heat island mapping campaign, which maps heat inequities to help reduce the health impacts of extreme heat. In March, Salt Lake was chosen as one of 18 participating communities, which will enable students to volunteer, alongside community partners, as citizen scientists in the summer of 2023.

Curriculum Investments

Advanced Placement World History

Advanced Research Biology

Advanced Research Chemistry

Advanced Research Debate

Advanced Research Humanities

Advanced Research Mathematics

Applied Forensics

Biotechnology

Entrepreneurship

History of Conspiracies

Integrated Engineering I

Integrated Engineering II

Leadership Lab

Media Arts

Python Programming

Robotics

Wait … How Many of Your Students Have Been

With an increased focus on original research that deeply engages students with topics of interest, we’re proving that high schoolers are capable of creating impactful knowledge. For instance, this year, Max Smart ’22 and Tina Su ’22, in collaboration with science teacher Dr. Padmashree Rida, published articles in the International Journal of Molecular Sciences (Max) and Cell (Tina), while, as an ophthalmology lab intern under Dr. Majid Moshirfar, senior Jaiden Handlon was published in the Journal of Ocular Pharmacology and Therapeutics and the Journal of Clinical Medicine. And Rowland Hall continues our tradition of building editorial writing skills, with junior Samuel Morse becoming our most recent student to be published in The Salt Lake Tribune in March.

Upper School Student Achievements and Accolades

• Six upper schoolers—Aurora Cichos, Neha Dixit, Layla Hijjawi, Frances Hodson, Sophie Lieskovan, and Marina Peng—earned 2023 Aspirations in Computing honors from the National Center for Women & Information Technology

• Six upper schoolers—Logan Fang, Kavitha Kasturi, Hasan Rahim, Elli Ramirez, Serenity Thompson, and Sylvia Rae Twahirwa—traveled to San Antonio, Texas in November to represent Rowland Hall at the National Association of Independent Schools’ Annual Student Diversity Leadership Conference

• Junior Maddie Mulford took first place in the sixth annual Westminster Honors College Essay Contest

• Twenty-seven Upper School debaters contributed to the school’s third consecutive state title this season, including Ruchi Agarwal and Layla Hijjawi (first place in Policy), Micah Sheinberg and Anna Hull (first place in Public Forum), and Zachary Klein (the team's top individual event speaker) (debaters pictured top left)

• Senior Ruchi Agarwal (pictured top center) was named the Utah winner and a national runner-up in the summer 2022 Stockholm Junior Water Prize competition

• Junior Gabriella Miranda was named a recipient of the 2023 University of Utah Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Youth Leadership Award

• For the second year in a row, tenth graders Aiden Gandhi, Eli Hatton, and Evan Weinstein (group pictured top right) qualified for the International Science and Engineering Fair with their project on sustainable aviation

• Upper Schoolers Zachary Klein, Dean Hijjawi, and Sophie Zheng took the top three finishes, respectively, in the Utah Math Olympiad

"This was a really unique and special opportunity to hone research skills in a real-world environment."

–Max Smart '22

Partnerships

BUILDING A BRIGHTER FUTURE FOR ALL

Rowland Hall students are actively building and engaging in long-term collaborative partnerships throughout our region and beyond, resulting in authentic and relevant learning experiences. Through partnerships with organizations and community stakeholders, students have the opportunity to tackle real-world issues and gain hands-on experience in problem-solving and critical thinking while becoming active contributors in their communities.

ROWLAND HALL PARTNERSHIPS

Brolly Arts

Crossroads Urban Center

Great Salt Lake Institute, Westminster College*

International Rescue Committee

Jordan River Commission

National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration

People’s Health Clinic, Park City

Salt Lake City Mayor’s Office

Salt Lake City Public Lands

Internships

Seven Canyons Trust

Spice Kitchen Incubator

Sunnyvale Neighborhood Center

TreeUtah

Utah Climate Action Network

Utah Council for Citizen Diplomacy

Utah Department of Cultural & Community Engagement

Wasatch Community Gardens

APPLYING LEARNING IN THE REAL WORLD

Rowland Hall is proud to offer a robust summer internship program that helps students explore careers through practical experiences. Established in 2013, our internship program invites Rowland Hall sophomores, juniors, and seniors to experience a variety of workplaces and encourages them to apply classroom learning to real-world tasks.

2023 INTERNSHIP PLACEMENTS

Alliance for a Better Utah: Legislative Activism

CORE: Entrepreneurship and Software Development

McNeill Von Maack: Law

Museum of Utah: Exhibit Design

People's Health Clinic: Healthcare for Undocumented Residents

The Orthopedic Specialty Hospital: Biomechanics and Human Performance

The Orthopedic Specialty Hospital: Sports Performance Training

University of Utah: Birds, Ecology, and Conservation

University of Utah: Cardiology and Research with the Drakos Clinical and Research Team

University of Utah: Nursing, Cardiovascular ICU

University of Utah: Conservation Biology

University of Utah: Electrochemistry, Department of Chemistry

University of Utah: Neuroscience & Kinesiology

Utah Spine Medicine: Spine Medicine

Office of Utah State Senator Luz Escamilla: Legislative Action

Zartico: Data Science

*Read more about the successful partnership between our seventh graders and the Great Salt Lake Institute on page 6.

Congratulations TO THE CLASS OF 2023

The class of 2023 earned admission to 149 colleges and universities, with 75 percent of them receiving at least one merit scholarship. As they begin their next adventures, we wish them all the best, knowing that wherever their paths lead, they will live extraordinary lives and leave their own authentic, indelible marks on the world. The class of 2023 will matriculate to the following institutions:

California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo (2)

California State University, Fresno

Carnegie Mellon University

Colgate University

Columbia University

Dartmouth College

Denison University

Emory University

Georgetown University (2)

Harvard University

Indiana University Bloomington

Macalester College

Montana State University

Northeastern University

Occidental College (2)

Park University

Purdue University

Santa Monica College

Southern Methodist University

Syracuse University

The University of Tampa

The University of Utah (13)

Trinity College Dublin

United States Air Force Academy

University of California, Berkeley

University of California, San Diego

University of Denver

University of Florida

University of Miami

University of Michigan

University of Nebraska

University of Pennsylvania

University of Puget Sound (3)

University of San Francisco

University of Southern California

University of St Andrews

University of Toronto

University of Vermont

University of Virginia

University of Washington (3)

Utah State University

Vanderbilt University

Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

Western Washington University

Westminster College (2)

Willamette University