SIX INDUCTED INTO THE ATHLETICS HALL OF FAME

the track and cross country coach for more than 30 years. Willie Hill has been the basketball coach for 20 years and became the all-time leader in career wins for basketball weeks before his induction.

At the event, Athletic Director Scott Willard introduced the six members of the 2023 induction class to applause and cheers.

“Tonight is a very special night, when we celebrate six spectacular individuals who have distinguished themselves through their body of work here at Seven Hills to be recognized as truly the best of the best. These six individuals were voted into this illustrious group of Hall of Famers by a dedicated committee of teachers, coaches, and administrators. Due to the large number of nominations, narrowing it down was extremely difficult. However, at the end of the day, these individuals clearly stood out,” Willard said.

Lauren of

Year and second alltime leading scorer in basketball. David Stirsman ’82 was a three-sport athlete for Seven Hills and the Male Athlete of Year. Jake Davis ’10 scored more than 1,000 points for Stingers basketball and was the 2009 Player of the Year.

Glenn Shillinger was inducted for his 44 years assisting the athletics department as a bus driver, coach, clock operator, and invaluable volunteer. Tana Luckie has been

To make the night more special, each inductee picked someone to give a speech about their accomplishments and dedication to Seven Hills athletics.

In February, pre-kindergarten for 2-year-old students welcomed Doherty parents who are doctors to their classroom. The doctors explained their medical equipment and taught them about how food travels through the body and what organs are involved. Another parent who is a veterinarian taught the students about medical care for animals, including the pets they have at home. The students took part in medical play, pretending to be doctors based on what they had learned. “I can see exactly how impactful it is to have our parents share their world with us in the classroom. The students’ play shows they are expanding their thoughts, discovery, and mimicking behaviors from these visits,” said Julie Brackett, pre-kindergarten for 2-yearolds teacher.

Lotspeich kindergartners learned how to intuitively read picture books in March and gather context clues based on a character’s surroundings during librarian Lori Suffield’s class. Suffield read stories aloud to the young learners, and when there was a wordless page, students would create probable dialogue or sentences that would accompany the pictures by writing them down and sharing them with their classmates.

In February, Doherty third graders in Ivette Crichton’s class visited their kindergarten reading buddies in Lindsay Pietroski’s class to practice their reading and active listening skills. “Sharing the love of reading is such a win-win. Our third grade reading buddies share more than just a story as they ‘buddy-up’ with their kindergartner. The older students learn the importance of mentorship and each partnership teaches the value of being an active listener. With every visit, these students share a special bond that they will cherish into their high school years,” Crichton said.

Lotspeich fifth graders in Laura OGrady and Danielle Levine’s classes traveled to the Cincinnati Observatory for a special program in March dedicated to learning about pi, the solar system, and model rockets. Students learned about how telescopes work and how we’re able to see planets and other forms of celestial bodies from thousands of miles to millions of light years away with near-perfect clarity. When they returned to the Hillsdale Campus, students also shared their memorization skills during the annual fifth grade digits of pi competition. continued on page 50

Congratulations to Jonah McBride for memorizing 229 digits, Lila EdmondsShahani for 192 digits, and Caleb Cybulski for 159 digits. All three students won the opportunity to ‘pi’ their teachers!

In March, Doherty Unit III students combined what they learned about artist Kehinde Wiley in Kacey Watkins’ art class with the subjects of their essays in language arts. Watkins taught the students that Wiley creates portraits of Black men and women in front of flowers that are important to them. Wiley was influenced by old style European painters, who usually only painted portraits of white men. In honor of Wiley and Women’s History

Lotspeich kindergarten through fifth grade students welcomed author Latoya Turner in February. In her two sessions with students, Turner read her book “Brown Hands, Black Schools: HBCUs” and discussed the importance of Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). Turner also shared how she became an author, her experience as a literacy coach and teacher, and her love and enthusiasm for education.

February earthquake. Each division generously raised and donated boxes full of life-sustaining supplies, such as cases of water bottles, first aid necessities, clothes, and toiletries. The donation drive was mainly student-led, from the idea to host a drive to creating posters, setting up donation drop-off sites, collecting donations, making announcements, and helping plan social media posts. Last year’s It’s Your World classes were also inspired to host an item drive for those affected by the war in Ukraine.

Month, the students researched an inspirational woman of color in their language arts class and wrote an essay about her. They created portraits of their essay subject in the likeness of Wiley’s artwork. Each student presented their portrait and shared why they respected their subject at the monthly assembly about respect.

In March, the sixth grade It’s Your World classes finished collecting donations for Turkish and Syrian citizens impacted by the

In February, seventh graders learned first-hand the trials and thrills of the stock market during social studies teacher Doug Huff’s class. After learning how and why the stock market has changed through the last century, students participated in a stock market simulation game. Students strategized how they should diversify their portfolios, and whether they should be more aggressive and increase their chances for higher profits, or be more cautious and decrease their chances of losing money. The students followed their stocks, with the ability to sell their shares or buy more before the market closed.

For months in early 2023, eighth graders immersed themselves in learning about World War II, the Holocaust, and Nazi Germany in both their history and English classes.

Students read the novel “The Book Thief” by Marcus Lusak and learned from one of the main characters Max about the significance of sharing their beliefs and the harm propaganda causes. In the novel, Max is a German Jew forced to hide to survive. While in hiding, Max reuses a copy of Hitler’s autobiography “Mein Kampf” and paints over pages and works to write his own stories and experiences, and creates political cartoons on the pages. After gaining an understanding of how brave and important Max’s actions were, students were asked to reuse their own pages of “Mein Kampf” in order to either share the struggles of those living and trying to survive during the Holocaust or to express their own views on Hitler and the Nazis.

Throughout the Middle School building on Sunday, Jan. 29, Middle School students the Middle School science department and the Lower School parent community groups.

Students in Marcus Twyford’s Upper School computer science classes taught the ins and outs of coding to Lotspeich students. After a demonstration showing why coding needs to rely on focused directions rather than context clues, Upper School students assisted Lotspeich stepped into the role of teachers and led Lower School students through STEAM activities and events at the Lower School STEAM event. Doherty and Lotspeich students built their own electroscopes, learned about elasticity, and constructed their own boats. The event was put on by

To learn more about trading along the Silk Road, Upper school students in Laura Leonard ’06 history class took part in a simulation. Groups acting as six civilizations—each with their own goods to trade, such as glassware and rugs — stopped in major trading cities along the Silk Road, such as Antioch, Baghdad, and Samarkand, to negotiate trade deals.

Freshmen in Marcus Miller and Marcie Handler’s English classes worked with actors from the Cincinnati Shakespeare Company after reading “As You Like It.” The students participated in workshops with professional actors Patrick Phillips, Candice Handy, and Jeremy Dubin, who guided students in developing the physical presence and voice of their assigned character and helped students block and rehearse scenes from the play. “It’s such an amazing opportunity for our students to have first-hand experience working with a Shakespearean actor,” Handler said. The students also saw a performance of “As You Like It” at the Cincinnati Shakespeare Company in April.

students as they learned how to code games and other activities online.

In March, 14 Upper School students competed at the Southwest Regional Tournament of the Ohio Science Olympiad, a competition designed to increase students’ interest in science and improve science education. The Seven Hills team, led by physics teacher Lenore Horner, placed sixth overall with the group of sophomores Kyle Wang and Andrew Zhou placing first in detector building, which required building a device to measure mass, and scrambler, which involved building a mechanical device to transport an egg without breaking it. Junior Kyler Pang placed second in the bridge event.