SEVEN HILLS The Buzz
A Brief Word from Chris Garten
March 7, 2011
Congratulations, Seven Hills winter athletes!
Seven Hills is blessed with a unique culture of affirmation where students, guided by the school’s values, are encouraged to treat each other with kindness and respect. That being said, we are certainly not immune to concerns about “bullying” and unkindness. So, over the last several weeks, students in Lower and Middle Schools have participated in a series of developmentally-appropriate, full-day retreats, conducted by Youth Frontiers. At the Courage Retreats, seventh and eight grade students learned to identify the social fears that impede them from acting on their best impulses and committed themselves to changing their behavior and to standing up for their classmates who are victimized. At the fifth grade Kindness Retreat, students worked in small groups with sophomore mentors to develop a list of behaviors that they want to ban from our community and enumerated actions they can take to be heroes for others.
Winter MVPs were Roderick McFarland, TJ Nelson, Miles Hill, Lauren Weems, Claire Duncan; Jack Tyndall, Alex Wilt, Libby Carter, Graeme Harten, Carly Harten.
A report on the varsity winter sports season, all award winners, and more photos start on page 10.
All 11 National Merit semifinalists qualify as finalists
All three days culminated in a very moving activity, where students wrote individual plans of action or apologies to someone to whom they had been unkind. In these extended retreats and in the hundreds of daily interactions all over this campus, our students dedicate themselves to living the school’s values. How cool is that? Chris Garten, Head of School
Save the date: Youth in Politics Seven Hills is presenting the community event, “Youth in Politics: Developing a Voice in Our Youth,” on Saturday, April 9, from 11:00 to 2:00 on the Hillsdale Campus. Sponsored by the Seven Hills Network of African American Parents (SNAAP), the event will include a student panel discussion and small group discussions with community leaders. For more information, phone 513-550-9692.
All of Seven Hills’ 11 semifinalists in the 2011 National Merit Scholarship Program have qualified as finalists. These 11 represent 16% of the senior class. This continues a tradition for Seven Hills of having top percentages of semifinalists in the senior class among area schools.
Seven Hills’ National Merit finalists are Chase Atherton, Julianne Bain, Gabriel Blanco, Justine Cefalu, Peppar Cyr, Elisse Hill, Victoria Huang, Sasha Lieberman, Nathan Markiewitz, Haleigh Monaco, and Mia Perlman. In addition, Elisse Hill qualified as a National Achievement finalist.