The Seven Hills School Semester in Review for Fall 2021

SEMESTER IN REVIEW

LOOKING BACK AT FALL 2021

As we close the fall semester of 2021-22, we look back at some of the outstanding accomplishments that marked the first half of the school year.

OUTSTANDING ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT

Eight Seven Hills seniors have been named National Merit Scholar Semifinalists. Congratulations to Kevin Chen, Sarah Croog, Kathryn Guo, Jenny Hu, Robby Ligeralde, Naina Purushothaman, Sebastian Rodriguez, and Manan Vij. NATIONAL MERIT SEMIFINALISTS

Congratulations to Grayson Halonen, Aahana Katneni, Ella Piersma, Aditi Purushothaman, and Cristina Stancescu for being named National Merit Commended scholars. Students qualify for recognition in the National Merit program with their PSAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test scores.

A total of 76 students were named AP Scholars. Thirteen current students and six class of 2021 graduates were named AP Scholars with Distinction, for receiving an average score of at least 3.5 on all exams and a score of 3 or higher on five or more exams. AP Scholars with Honor was given to 11 current students and 26 class of 2021 graduates for receiving an average score of at least 3.25 on all exams and a score of 3 or higher on four or more exams. Thirteen current students and seven class of 2021 graduates were named AP Scholars, for receiving scores of 3 or higher on three or more AP exams. Of the 146 students who took 325 Advanced Placement exams in 16 subjects in May 2021, 84 percent of them earned collegequalifying scores of 3 or higher.

NATIONAL MERIT COMMENDED

PERFECT ACT, SAT SCORES

Four Upper School seniors received a perfect composite score on their college admissions tests. Kathryn Guo, Robby Ligeralde, and Naina Purushothaman received a perfect score of 36 on their ACTs. Jenny Hu received a perfect score of 1600 on her SATs. “Less than one percent of ACT and SAT test takers nationally achieve a perfect 36 on their ACT or 1600 on their SAT, but four of them are Seven Hills students! We congratulate them on this amazing and wonderful feat,” said Director of College Counseling Susan Marrs. ..............................................................................................

SEVEN HILLS RANKED # 1 BY NICHE.COM The Seven Hills School is pleased to announce Niche has ranked Seven Hills #1 Best College Prep Private High School in Cincinnati, #2 Best College Prep Private High School in Ohio, #1 Best Private High School in Cincinnati, #1 Best Private K-12 School in Cincinnati, and #2 Best High School for STEM in Cincinnati.

Niche is the largest data-driven website for researching and ranking K-12 schools in national, state, and local categories using statistical data from the U.S. Department of Education and the National Center for Education Statistics.

New Leadership

LOTSPEICH WELCOMES NEW HEAD

SUSAN MILLER

NEW PROGRAMS AT SEVEN HILLS LOWER SCHOOLS UNIFY MATH PROGRAM Starting this school year, Doherty and Lotspeich Lower Schools are both using

of it. When it was time to update the math curriculum, numerous programs were evaluated and piloted in the classroom before Bridges was selected, with an overwhelmingly positive

Bridges Mathematics, a curriculum that

reception from teachers at both Lower Schools.

focuses on mathematical understanding

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and conceptual knowledge. “It is about

IT’S YOUR WORLD EXPANDS SIXTH GRADER WORLDVIEWS

fully understanding what is happening mathematically versus just memorizing an equation,” Head of Doherty Tracy Murch said.

Head of Middle School Bill Waskowitz, writing teacher Chris Caldemeyer, and librarian Megan Whitt launched the newly designed It’s Your

Lotspeich Lower School welcomed new head

World class for the 2021-22 school year and

Susan Miller. Miller joined the Seven Hills

beyond. The course aims to expose students each quarter to a different global issue, such as

community from Tower Hill School in

migration, climate change, social justice, and

Wilmington, Delaware, where she was also

global health. “I really felt the need for students

Head of Lower School. At Tower Hill, she

to delve into civic engagement and discuss

led, evaluated, and implemented academic,

the issues we’re facing today,” Waskowitz

co-curricular, and social-emotional

said. “We plan to examine these issues, with

programming on the lower school campus, as

our students early on, in an apolitical, fact-

well as remote learning platforms. Miller is

based learning environment.” Waskowitz, Caldemeyer, and Whitt partner with the Middle

replacing Carolyn Fox, who retired after 19 years as the Head of Lotspeich and 40 years with Seven Hills. A few days after school started, Miller visited a first grade class to read them a book with themes of inclusion and self-worth. “I’ve made it a point to be in every classroom to let both the teachers and

Bridges math program in Lower Schools

Head of Lotspeich Susan Miller emphasized the importance of learning critical thinking skills as well. “We want students to understand there may be multiple ways to solve a problem and reach the correct answer,” she said.

students know that I value the work they are

Previously, both Lower Schools were using

doing,” she

the same math program but different versions

said. Head of

School teaching team to cover the four topics, enabling teachers to provide specialized lessons in the subjects. For instance, math teacher Theresa Keller taught students how to calculate migration percentages, and Dean of Middle School and history teacher Andy McGarvey taught students the five themes of geography and how they correlate with push/pull factors for global populations. ......................................

School Chris Garten said of Miller, “We all feel excited about the warmth and expertise that Susan has brought to our community and will continue to bring in the coming years.”

It’s Your World class in Middle School

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LEARNING THROUGH INQUIRY, HANDS-ON DISCOVERY, TECHNOLOGY, AND COLL ABORATION Eighth graders in history teacher Judith Neidlein-Dial’s class strategized their way through an international alliance game to demonstrate how a small conflict between two countries escalated into World War I. Students divided into six groups representing different fictional countries residing on the same continent. Toward the end of the game, Neidlein-Dial introduced a scenario where one country attacked another. Due to their “The Canterbury Tales” debate in Upper English

alliances, every group’s country became involved, which led to a great war.

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Fourth grade Lotspeich students experienced a multi-subject curriculum covering the lifecycle of the monarch butterfly through the lens of art, science, and Spanish. In art teacher Jody Knoop’s class, students traced over a butterfly stencil, created negative space, and learned transitional shading using a limited color palette. After simulating how the larvae

time to hear from a panel of students and teachers who have a variety of family structures. “The intent of these discussions is to assist students in developing a certain level of cultural competency, sensitivity, and acceptance of others,” Middle School science teacher Kristin Suer said. ......................................

emerges as a butterfly in art class, students cared for caterpillars in science teacher Kate LaBare’s class and witnessed it first-hand.

WWI alliance game in eighth grade history

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STUDENTS DISPLAY LITERARY KNOWLEDGE IN DEBATE

In world language teacher Megan Hayes’ class, students made origami butterflies and sent them, along with letters, to their pen pals in Mexico.

After a spirited debate among students, Using math and engineering to construct bridges

Head of Upper School Matt Bolton ruled to suspend, but not expel, The Pardoner, a

Lotspeich second graders used math

character from Geoffrey Chaucer’s “The

and engineering to construct a working

Canterbury Tales,” who was a Seven Hills junior

bridge out of bathroom tissue rolls and

for the sake of the debate. Mark Beyreis’

other materials during Lower School math

British and postcolonial literature class split

enrichment teacher Phoebe Dierkers’

into two teams and conducted a disciplinary committee hearing through the lens of Seven Hills’ own disciplinary guidelines, overseen by Bolton, for The Pardoner, a character who greedily sells church pardons and fake relics while pointing out the greed in the Church and other people. “There were some readings that were really clever. It showed the students know the book really well,” Bolton said.

project math class. The project enabled Learning about monarch butterflies with origami

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The Middle School kicked off its Real Talk series in mid-October. Students met in The Schiff Center during their advisory

students to learn and build four types of bridges: beam, truss, suspension, and arch. “They used their understanding of the different features and elements of each bridge to develop a plan for the most structurally sound construction. Using continued on page 4

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New Leadership

SEVEN HILLS WELCOMES NEW DIRECTOR OF DIVERSIT Y, EQUIT Y, AND INCLUSION

RACHEAL QUINN

LEARNING THROUGH INQUIRY, HANDS-ON DISCOVERY, COLLABORATION, C O N T I N U E D geometry and measurement, students experimented with the strength of different shapes such as piers and other supports, where tension and compression work together to provide strength,” Dierkers said. .......................................

From academic teams to vintage video games, from stock exchange to protecting paws, Upper School students have a choice

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Numerous robotic vehicles attempted to make their way down a street and successfully turn onto the next, an act which drew a cheer from one Upper School student. Students in Marcus Tywford’s computer science class began their study of robotics by programming the motors in robotic vehicles. The goal was for students

of more than 50 clubs to join this year.

“Clubs give students an opportunity to explore interests in more depth with more rigor,” said history teacher Dan Polifka, who is a co-moderator of Student Government

Racheal Quinn joins the Seven Hills community as the director of diversity, equity, and inclusion. Quinn comes to Seven Hills from Teach for America, where she was chosen to train more than 150 teachers throughout Ohio in ways to meet diverse learning needs. “I am so excited to be joining the Seven Hills community, both as a new parent and as a member of the administrative team. Everyone has been incredibly warm

a chance to explore the variety of clubs during the two-day Club Fair held this fall in the Commons. “A lot of the clubs are really intended to be relaxing social clubs for students to spend time together,” Polifka said of the record number of clubs. .......................................

Seventh graders from science teacher Kristin Suer’s class read their handmade solar system books to Doherty kindergartners and first

and welcoming, and the school’s dedication

graders. Before this, the seventh graders

to diversity, equity, and inclusion has already

worked in groups to research and design their

been apparent to me in my short time here. I

books based on their choice of planet for their

am excited to work with my new colleagues to help build an even more inclusive community,” she said. Head of School Chris Garten said this of Quinn’s leadership, “In the end, our principal goal is to prepare our students to thrive in a complex and increasingly diverse global community.

Racheal brings a wealth of experience and fresh eyes to so many areas of school life.

She has worked very hard to get to know the school and its culture, to understand what is working well and what needs more attention.

We are thrilled to have her with us!”

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and oversees student clubs. Students had

Unit II project. Students could base the book on the planet itself or as a setting for their story. The leaders of each group presented the books to their peers and read them to Doherty students.

Testing robotic vehicles in computer science

to use their coding knowledge to get the robots to drive through a track. In addition to robotics, Tywford said, the class covers programming, coding, and cybersecurity ....................................

Sharing books on the solar system

TECHNOLOGY, AND

ATHLETIC ACHIEVEMENTS The Miami Valley Conference named Seven Hills boys varsity golf coach Nate Hirsch as coach of the year. Senior Jacob Joffe was named MVC golfer of the year.

Hirsch led the team through a successful regular season. In the postseason, the team defended its sectionals title, finished runner-up at districts, and competed at the state tournament. The team placed sixth with Joffe tying for sixth place overall. He was also awarded second team all Ohio honors.

Jacob Joffe

Visiting professor teaches about biochar

Annie Katuksa

Dr. Eric Gruenstein, a professor-emeritus at the University of Cincinnati, has been teaching Tracy Hickenlooper’s Doherty Unit III class about biochar, a black carbon

Freshman Annie Katuksa was named

produced from biomass sources. “We are

Enquirer Volleyball Player of the Week in

exploring the possibility of slowing down

October for having 28 assists, six digs, and

climate change through plant growth,”

five kills in a single match.

Hickenlooper said. The experiment is based

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on the hypothesis that biochar can make plants grow faster, thus reducing the pace of climate change. As part of their biochar experiment, the students mixed top soil with

Meg Seshiah

biochar and will eventually plant seeds in the soil mixture to see if it grows faster than in regular soil. Students applied their lessons on the scientific method and recorded each step they completed. ....................................

Sixth graders designed and created light up emoji pillows with conductive copper thread

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Congrats to senior Meg Seshiah for being named Miami Valley Conference Gray

and a firesafe electric current inside their

Division Volleyball Player of the Year. She

pillows during Middle School art teacher

led the division with 197 kills. She had a

Elissa Donovan’s class. Students picked their

career high 58 serving aces and a serving

favorite emoji and cut and hand-sewed felt

percentage of 86.

pieces with regular and copper thread, as

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needed, to make a closed circuit. continued on page 6

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ATHLETIC ACHIEVEMENTS , C O N T I N U E D Cross Country, Boys

and Noah Kocher, juniors Will Kersting and Jonny Osman, and sophomore Elan Little surpassed the record of 796 set in 2016. ......................................

Congratulations to senior Corinne Kieser for committing to swim at Emory University.

Senior Corinne Kieser

Cross Country, Girls

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Congratulations to senior Mackenzie Hartman Both the girls and boys varsity cross

second and fourth and moved on to compete

country teams took first at the Seven Hills

at the district tournament. The team’s

Invitational. Freshman Addie Necco took

members are Motch, Zhu, freshmen Fiona

first, senior Riley Jones finished second, and juniors Abigail Li, Olivia Pohl, and Gigi Hawgood came in third, fourth, and fifth.

Freshman Hattie Culpepper finished sixth and junior Ellie Cain placed seventh. The boys also took first place with sophomore Carter Stevens finishing fourth and senior Will Schneider right behind in fifth. Junior Thomas Dunson finished eighth, freshman Nick Roblyer came in

O’Driscoll, Lucie Pease, and DeHaven

for committing to the University of North Carolina for Track and Field.

Senior Mackenzie Hartman

Quinn, and juniors Riley deBuys, Happy Quinn, and Emily Rosenfeld. ......................................

The boys varsity bowling team broke the Seven Hills record for Baker 4 Game with an 805 total. Seniors Thomas Murphy

Girls Golf

ninth, and senior Sebastian Rodriguez finished tenth. ............................

The girls varsity golf team had a strong showing in its inaugural season, defeating numerous teams and competing at sectionals. Sophomores Maggie Motch and Julia Zhu took

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F IR S T S E M ES T E R F I N E A N D PER FO R M ING A RT S Seven Hills congratulates

love. Students also directed lighting, sound,

senior Robby Ligeralde

and set changes. Encore!

and sophomore Ed Li

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for earning places in the

Lotspeich fifth graders performed the

Cincinnati Symphony

musical “Thwacked,” a tale of falling skies, a

Youth Orchestra

frog prince, and the power of the scientific

Philharmonic Orchestra.

method, for friends and family in The

They performed with the

Schiff Center’s auditorium. Before the

Cincinnati Symphony

performance, Head of Lotspeich Lower

Orchestra during the

School Susan Miller praised the students

Side by Side concert in

for their hard work and dedication. “These

the fall.

Congratulations to

students have spent many hours rehearsing Students accepted into Cincinnati Symphony Youth Orchestra

sophomores Anish Patil and Evelyn Gao for earning places in the CSYO Concert Orchestra and senior Anand Patil for being named concertmaster.

outstanding comedic flair. Actors delivered engaging performances, skilled choreography, and a show rooted in familial

their choreography, lines, and they are so skilled at comedic timing, everyone here had a great time,” Miller said. ......................................

Congratulations to sophomore Celine Tan for earning a place with the Cincinnati Youth

Lotspeich fifth graders, “Thw

acked”

Wind Ensemble and freshman Kyle Wang and sixth grader Mia Wang for earning a place with the Cincinnati Junior Strings. ......................................

The Upper School performed “The Addams Family,” a musical filled with pop-culture influencing characters such as Gomez and Morticia Addams, Fester, Wednesday, Pugsley, Lurch, and Grandma, with

Upper School Theater, “The Addams Family”

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F IR S T S E M E S T E R F I N E A N D PER FO R M ING A RT S,

CONTINUED

their mid-December

Congratulations to all Doherty

winter concerts.

students and Eynon for all the hard

Congratulations to

work in preparation for sharing the

our students, choral

holiday spirit with friends and family.

Director Tina Kuhlman,

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co-Director Lynne Miller, and Technical Director Trey Tatum. ....................

Under the direction Middle School Theater, “Alice in Wonderland”

of music teacher Maria Eynon, Doherty students from pre-

The Middle School performed “Alice in

kindergarten through fifth grade showed off

Wonderland,” a play filled with beloved

their singing skills during the annual Winter

characters such as the Mad Hatter,

Programs. The concerts took place over two

Cheshire Cat, and the Red Queen,

days. Parents and families got involved too

with enthusiasm and thrills. Actors delivered skilled stage fights, engaging

with a sing-a-long to “Jingle Bells.”

performances, and excellent comedic timing. Students were also in charge of

Middle School Chorus

technical components, such as lighting, sound, and set changes. Bravo! ....................................

The Middle School Instrumental Ensembles, along with the Upper School’s Symphonic and Contemporary Ensembles, serenaded The Schiff Center’s audience in early December with concerts featuring a variety of technically challenging songs.

The evening was an impressive culmination of a semester of hard work. Congratulations to our student musicians and instrumental teacher John Rising! ...................................

The Middle School and Upper School Choruses performed a wide array of songs that incorporated percussion, soloists, and spanned multiple countries during

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Upper School Chorus

Middle School Instrumental Ensemble

Upper School Contemporary Ensemble

Doherty students Annual Winter Program

Upper School Symphonic Ensemble

Upper School Contemporary Ensemble

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SEV E N H IL L S A R T S S A M PL E R 2

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Middle School students transformed their tessellation patterns into fabric through a modified batik process.

2 Doherty students celebrated Day of the Dead by

designing sugar skulls.

3 Upper School students sculpted pots while learning

basic pottery construction.

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4 & 5 Lotspeich students created their own flying

butterflies in honor of the great Monarch Migration.

6 Middle School students designed an original

superhero or villain.

7 Sculpted pots made by Upper School students.

8 Doherty students created rangoli to celebrate Diwali.

9 Lotspeich students made a snapshot of a winter

scene complete with snow and a miniature reindeer.

10 Lotspeich pre-kindergarten students learned about murals

through hands-on experience.

© 2022 The Seven Hills School

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