Best of SAAS 2015-2016 by Seattle Academy

BEST OF SAAS THE SEATTLE ACADEMY MAGAZINE 2015-2016 ISSUE

MISSION

FEATURES Rob Phillips, Associate Head of School Joe Puggelli, Head of School Madeline Reddington ’07 EDITORS Sheila Hanrahan Julia Hunt Paula Prewett PHOTOGRAPHERS Thomas Adams ’00 Megan Conklin Rachel Godbe ’07 Nathan Greenstein ’15 Alika Jenner Joseph Lambert

Nick Lew Steve Lew Claudia Smith Mark Stone Lara Swimmer

DESIGN Megan Conklin NON-DISCRIMINATION POLICY Seattle Academy admits qualified students of any race, color, religion, gender, national or ethnic origin, sexual orientation, or disability to all the rights, privileges, programs, and activities generally accorded or made available to students at the school. Seattle Academy does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, gender, national or ethnic origin, sexual orientation, disability, or other legally protected status in administration of its educational policies, admissions policies, scholarship or loan programs, and athletic and other school administered programs. MIDDLE SCHOOL 1432 15th Avenue Seattle, WA 98122 (206) 676-6880 UPPER SCHOOL 1201 E Union Seattle, WA 98122 (206) 323-6600 WWW.SEATTLEACADEMY.ORG FACEBOOK.COM/SEATTLEACADEMY @SEATTLEACADEMY Printed by Olympus Press

PHOTO COURTESY ©LARA SWIMMER

Seattle Academy prepares students for college and life. Seattle Academy of Arts and Sciences is an independent secondary school with a mission to prepare our students to participate effectively in modern society. We, therefore, seek a diversified student body and faculty. We offer a demanding college-preparatory curriculum integrating the arts and emphasizing a global perspective. We utilize the resources of our urban environment to extend out classrooms, to enhance our programs, and to engage our students in public service. Most of all, we seek to graduate motivated young men and women of talent and integrity who are prepared to contribute productively to a changing world.

Preparing students for college and life.

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE 2014-2015 SCHOOL YEAR

STREAM REVEALED The STREAM Building is revealed and catch a sneak peek at the Cardinal Union Building, the next phase of our campus transformation.

FEATURE ARTICLE: OF STUDENTS AND SALMON Rob Phillips, Associate Head of School What if the future or our society requires a generation of critical thinkers and creative problem solvers who don’t follow the patterns and directions of the main group?

FEATURED ARTICLE: PREPARING STUDENTS FOR THE 21ST CENTURY Joseph Puggelli, Head of School The Gallup Corporation’s Education Division issued a report that certain component parts of the educational process demonstrably increase a person’s success and happiness in Life after School.

FEATURE ARTICLE: SENIOR PROJECTS Madeline Reddington ’07 Learn more about the Senior Project Program and the Class of 2015 internships.

FEATURED ARTICLE: INNOVATIONS AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP LAB Madeline Reddington ’07 Read about the growth of this program as well as the collaborative partnerships that are being built.

THE PROGRAM: OUR FOUR PILLARS Seattle Academy’s program is built upon the four pillars of academics, arts, athletics, and outdoor/travel. Learn more about each of these and individual program highlights from the 2014-2015 school year.

COMMUNITY SERVICE Seattle Academy’s service to the community is far reaching. Read about our on-going service projects as well as new partnerships that were formed in 2014-15.

STUDENT LIFE Check out the extra-curricular offerings in which students can participate.

EXAMINING AND SHAPING THE ROLE OF COMPUTER SCIENCE AT SAAS Madeline Reddington ’07 What is the role of computer science in Seattle Academy’s curriculum?

COLLEGE ADVISING Learn more about our College Advising program and the graduates from the Class of 2015.

OUR COMMUNITY We are a close-knit community that understands and appreciates the contributions that each group adds to the whole. Read about our Board of Trustees and Parent Association’s commitment to Seattle Academy, our culture of philanthropy, and recent faculty and staff endeavors.

ALUMNI PROFILES, ANNOUNCEMENTS, CLASS NOTES, AND EVENTS Catch up on our Alumni Association and alumni news.

2015-2016 | BEST OF SAAS 5

2014-2015 Speech and Debate Team Wins Eighth Consecutive State Title; Tenth State Championship Overall Onions Won First Place at Reno Jazz Festival; Third Title and Second Consecutive First Boys’ Golf Team Wins League, Bi-District, and State Championships Fifty-three Seniors Named to Washington State Honors Program (top 10% of graduating class in state) Eight New Clubs Offered for Students Sara Truscott ’15 Announced as a Merit Award Winner in the Young Arts National Competition for Photography and Film – one of 786 young artists, out of 11,000 applicants, that was recognized. Mara Riley ’16 Won the State Title in the 300M Hurdles Steve Retz, History Department Chair and Youth Legislature Advisor, won The Outstanding Advisor Award for the State of Washington

SAAS Photography Program Places Fourth (out of seventy teams) in the Washington State Photography Competition Seniors Jade Chowning and Nathan Greenstein Named Finalists in the National Merit Scholarship Program; Seniors Adam Binford, Jordan Gonchar, Lucy Halperin, Zachary Horvitz, Connor Rice, and Nicole Rinne Named Commended Scholars Michael Cimino, Theatre Teacher, Selected as Only High School Teacher to Participate in a National Webinar on the Meisner Technique with Internationally Renowned Acting Coach Larry Silverberg Megan Barwick ’15 Named to the Soccer All-State Team; Tayla MacPherson ’15 Named to Second Team; Mireya Grey ’17 Receives Honorable Mention Boys’ Track and Field Team Named WIAA Academic Team Champions

Boys’ Basketball, Girls’ Basketball, Boys’ Golf, Girls’ Golf, Girls’ Soccer, Boys’ Tennis, Boys’ Track and Field, and Girls’ Track and Field All Won Emerald City League Championships

Mock Trial Team Qualifies for State; Outstanding Attorney Awards went to Jade Chowning ’15, Julia Delaney ’15, Zach Horvitz ’15, and Maddie Lee ’15; Outstanding Witness Awards went to Jade Chowning ’15, Julia Delaney ’15, Bella Feinstein ’15, Jake Green ’15, Zach Horvitz ’15, and Nick Sievers ’15

National Film Festival for Talented Youth (NFFTY) First Place Winner Went on to Win Regional Emmy for the Short Film Plane Love

Marcus Austin ’18 (Basketball), Allie Morrison ’18 (Basketball), and Aliya Schenck ’18 (Cross Country) Named Emerald City League Rookies-of-the-Year

Fourth Straight Year SAAS Senior Recognized in the Washington Scholar Program, (Top 2-3 Students Per Legislative District)

Erin Aitchison ’97 (Boys’ Track and Field) and Ashley Knight (Girls’ Basketball) Earn Emerald City League Coach-of-the-Year Awards

Dexter Chapin, Upper School Science and Sustainability Teacher, has been developing curriculum around system dynamics for the Institute for Systems Biology. His research has been funded by the National Science Foundation. In March 2015, Dexter traveled to the National Science Teachers’ Conference in Chicago to present an overview of the curriculum he has been developing. His presentation, entitled Building Models to Understand How the Environment Influences Genes, was well attended and received.

Lewis Greenstein ’17 Named a Recipient of the 2015 Anthony Quinn Foundation Scholarships. He will attend the Pratt Fine Arts Bronze Casting summer workshop. Lewis was honored as one of only sixteen students selected from over five hundred international applicants.

SAAS Sends Athletes to State Competitions in Basketball, Cross Country, Golf, Lacrosse, Soccer, Tennis, and Track and Field

Eight School Records Set in 2014-15 – Five in Track and Field, Two in Ultimate, and One in Tennis Abi Gibson ’15 Wins Crosscut’s Community Idea Lab on Improving K-12 Education

2015-2016 | BEST OF SAAS 7

The STREAM Building broke ground June 2014 and was completed 13 months later in July 2015!

A fter

several years of planning and one year of construction the STREAM Building is here! STREAM opened to students and faculty at the start of the school year this past September. Alumni “warmedup” the building with a special Alumni Reunion in late August that left many alumni wishing they were students once again! The entire SAAS community celebrated the opening of STREAM on September 20 with student demonstrations, self-guided tours, and displays of student artwork throughout. STREAM begins a new chapter for SAAS; access to seven science and robotics laboratories, three prep labs, and two-floors of Learning Commons expand possibilities for faculty creativity and studentinitiated projects. STREAM’s formal and informal learning environments, project-based lab, and design spaces will greatly facilitate SAAS’ ongoing emphasis on problem-solving, innovation and collaboration.

2014 RENDERING

2015 REALITY

8 BEST OF SAAS | 2015-2016

7 New Labs Including Biology, Chemistry, Lab Science, Physics, and Robotics We have creative people with innovative ideas; we have great students who are bursting at the seams to try new things; and now we have the space to say,

Yes. Letâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s run with that idea. Peter Clark

Chair, Science Department

Flexibility

Collaboration

Learning Commons

Seattle Academy plans new construction that will unite its Middle and Upper Schools on the 12th Avenue block and generate space for new curricular developments. With the STREAM Building in place as of September 2015 (see pages 8-9) attention shifts to the design and implementation of the new Cardinal Union Building.

Cardinal Union will create 65,000+ square feet

of engaging learning spaces making room for dynamic curricular innovations, community-building interactions, and school-wide efficiencies. Cardinal Union will provide spaces for project-based, problem-based Middle School curriculum while also increasing our programmatic flexibility for P.E., Athletics, and Instrumental Music. Rob Phillips, Associate Head of School, notes that “If we build spaces that have room to grow and spaces that

foster more connections than even exist now, there are going to be exciting things that happen – some that we can predict and some that we can’t.” SAAS Rising is the campaign to bring this vision for SAAS to fruition. Already in progress the campaign has a lot of momentum. Of the campaign Joe Puggelli, Head of School, says, “It will do once again what we've done twice before, which is, through careful planning and with a broad-based community effort, to add the learning spaces that enable our students to have even more opportunities for growth than the considerable number they already have.” Learn more about SAAS Rising and the progress of Cardinal Union at saasrising.org.

A Campaign for Campus Transformation

SCHOOL YEAR

2015-2016 2016-2017 2017-2018

2018-2019

OPEN SEPT 2015!

DESIGN

CONSTRUCT

CAMPAIGN TIMELINE

10 BEST OF SAAS | 2015-2016

OPEN SEPT 2018!

This bird's-eye view of the campus taken from the corner of East Union and 13th Avenue includes a rendering of the new Cardinal Union. Imagine the SAAS campus in 2018!

A new outdoor playfield sits atop a second gym â&#x20AC;&#x201C; dramatically increasing available on-campus space for PE. A greenspace along 13th adds additional outdoor informal gathering space for our community.

In addition to well-equipped classrooms the Cardinal Union design emphasizes community. A Middle School Learning Commons creates room for lunch and collaboration space while grade-level community spaces on three floors allow for grade-specific break-out conversations like the one seen here which overlooks the new playfield to the South.

Of Students and Salmon Rob Phillips Associate Head of School

“And that boy was swimming under the water With his round eyes open. He could not close them. He was breathing the river through his mouth. The river’s mouth was in his mouth. He saw stones Shimmering under him. Now he was Salmon Boy. ” -David Wagoner

I Every summer for the past 30 years, I’ve spent part of my summer in the Alaskan wilderness, much of it fishing for salmon—sometimes waist deep in a river, sometimes trolling in the ocean, and at other times scrambling around rocky points where freshwater spills into the inland passage. The benefits of spending time each year in the same remote places, Out and Away, are many, not the least of which are having time to reflect on the year that has just finished, to look ahead to what’s coming around the bend, and to absorb the patterns and rhythms of Mother Nature. Recognizing and adjusting to patterns is a vital skill that we seek to teach our children and our students. Pattern recognition, and a corresponding ability to respond effectively to those patterns, is central, I believe, to a meaningful education. But there’s a basic problem with pattern recognition: it’s based on an understanding of the past. And a meaningful education needs to prepare students for the future. Try as we might, it’s impossible for us to understand and imagine the world we’re preparing our kids to operate in as adults. We literally don’t know what the physical climate – weather patterns, temperatures, ocean levels – will be like for them, much less the economic, political, and social climates. Multiple possible futures are flying at them as quickly as the sun slips over the horizon on a winter night. And if that’s true, it raises important questions:

What if the future or our society somehow requires a generation of critical thinkers and creative problem solvers who don’t follow the patterns and directions of the main group? Leaders who have the insight, confidence, and resilience to articulate and successfully follow an independent vision? Those are great questions to ponder while fishing late into the Alaskan summer nights. Especially when the salmon aren’t where they’re “supposed to be,” or when they’re present but not biting. When the old patterns of where they’ll be, and how you catch them, aren’t working. I pondered those questions a lot, but I didn’t make a lot of headway in answering them. Until my then 8-year-old son taught me a lesson about fish and fishing, about parenting and teaching, and about the ways that salmon and kids can surprise us. If we let them.

2015-2016 | BEST OF SAAS 13

II In each of those 30 summers in Alaska, I’ve spent an extended period of time at a remote homestead north of Ketchikan that was built by my aunt, uncle, and their daughters. It’s a place that’s meant a lot to me over the years—in some ways the place I learned what it meant to be an adult, how to earn the respect of others through hard work and perseverance, and to connect with the natural world on a deep level. And it’s a great place to go fishing. The act of loading up the boat with groceries, tools, and fishing gear so that we can head out to the house for an extended stay is always a special moment—one of the rituals that is both vexing and exhilarating. And on this particular day, it was especially vexing and exhilarating because I was taking my 8-year -old son out to the homestead for an extended fishing trip.

The day had been hectic: getting from the airport to the marina; swinging by the grocery store and the hardware store; and then realizing that I’d forgotten some key items—including a fishing rod for my son. So as a short term fix, I bought him a $10 rod to use, until we could rig up a real salmon rod. The fishing rod and reel I bought for him had 3 pound test fishing line on it—not strong enough to catch anything we’d fish for. But that rod would be a worthwhile investment if it could keep my always-active and now particularly amped up 8-year-old distracted, while I loaded the boat and got the gear ready before we headed out. We got to the marina where we’d be heading out from on our trip, and I had a full list of last minute tasks—fishing license, bait, ice, boat, fuel—to attend to. My son had other ideas.

14 BEST OF SAAS | 2015-2016

He was in Alaska, on his first big fishing trip, and he had a new rod. No matter that it was more toy than real, and completely unsuited to the use he had in mind for it. He wanted to fish—right then, right there. And it soon became obvious that I wasn’t going to get anything done unless I let him have at it. So I took him down to the end of the dock, where, I thought, he could safely engage in his hopeless quest. Don Quixote had better odds with the windmill than my son had with that rod, on that dock. And when we reached the end of the dock, and we got him set up with the line in the water, he said, “Dad, stay here and fish with me. I’m going to catch a King Salmon.” I said, brusquely, “Can’t. Have to get a bunch of stuff ready. Besides, no salmon here. But you might snag a rockfish. So have fun, be careful, and be ready to leave in a few minutes.” He said, “Dad, what happens if I hook a King Salmon? How do I land it?” Distracted by the list in my head of Really Important Stuff I Needed to Get Done Right Then, I replied “Don’t worry. That’s not going to happen.” He said, “Yeah, OK, but what if I do? Then what?” Increasingly exasperated, I replied, “Not Going to Happen. The salmon are out there, not in here. Just try to catch some smaller fish that we can use for bait.” And he, always one to be persistent and optimistic, said again, “Yeah, OK, but what if I do hook one? A King Salmon. Then what?” “Yell. But you’d better not be joking around. And when I call you, come on up to the boat, so we can get out of here and start doing some real fishing.” III When I first heard him yelling at the top of his lungs, my first thought was: He fell off the dock. Second thought: He’s goofing off. Third thought: He’s busted the cheap rod I bought him. Fourth thought: Maybe he’s really hooked something. Final thought: But that’s impossible.

But my son kept yelling. So I got up and headed toward him. And as I got closer, the scene that unfolded left me momentarily paralyzed. The cheap fishing rod in my son’s hands was bent over nearly double, the tip stabbing into the water, pulled under by the powerful pressure of a Very Big Fish. Line was ripping off of the reel at an alarming speed, the rod was bucking in my son’s hands like a rodeo bronco, and his eyes were as big as sand dollars. And there on the surface of the water, powerfully and gracefully slashing through the waves, hook in mouth and line streaming out behind it, moving away from the dock and out to the open water beyond, was the unmistakable silvered outline of a King Salmon. For a second, my mind was a complete jumble. I remember thinking. “This can’t be happening.” Then I looked at the cheap rod, and my eyes got as big as sand dollars. “That rod is going to break any second,” I thought. But the rod held, the line didn’t snap, and my son patiently let the fish run away. Then he slowly reeled it back towards the dock. I grabbed a net off a nearby charter boat, focused on successfully netting the salmon if it got close enough to the dock. The King Salmon continued to make runs to the left and to the right, but then chose to make a run right at the dock. It came close enough for me to lunge out and get the net underneath it. For one excruciating moment the fish balanced on edge, and the line snapped. But no matter. The salmon slid into the net. As I pulled the King Salmon up onto the dock, I realized that a crowd had gathered around—tourists, charter boat captains, local fishermen—and they were all as surprised as I was. But not my son. He smiled, pointed at the fish that was as tall as he was. “I told you I was going to catch a King Salmon.” And in that moment I realized, not for the first and not for the last, how capable both kids and salmon are of surprising us. If we let them.

Like salmon,

If we’re honest, we often appreciate independence in theory more than in practice. Independent kids can be a pain—especially when we as adults want them to respond in ways that are easy, predictable, and convenient.

Salmon must, in their journey, travel downriver, through the estuary and into the ocean, before returning years later to spawn. As adolescents, they have to navigate out of Safe Water and into the Big Water. Then as adults, they navigate from the Big Water back into their spawning grounds in the rivers and streams that flow down off of the mountains.

And if we look at the language we as a society often use when talking about education, it looks and sounds like we’re more invested in establishing and maintaining conformity than in nurturing independence.

students have to navigate countless obstacles.

And to survive and thrive, salmon must develop in themselves many of the same traits that I hope for in my students, and in my own children: resilience, strength, smarts, adaptability, and independence. The importance of resilience, strength, smarts, and adaptability is obvious and well understood. It may be less obvious as to how we can develop those traits, but we agree on their importance. Independence – not so much.

Which would in turn mean that, if our students are like salmon, they might be just fine while making their journey through the Safe Water. But surviving and thriving in the Big Water, and then successfully finding their way back to the rivers of their birth— that’s questionable. Especially if they don’t think like all of the other salmon. What if they have ideas of their own? What if they want to innovate, explore, and create? What if an ability to break from established patterns is their gift?

... to survive and thrive, salmon must develop in themselves many of the same traits that I hope for in my students, and in my own children: resilience, strength, smarts, adaptability, and independence.

16 BEST OF SAAS | 2015-2016

V Children in the Pacific Northwest are privileged to be able to learn about the life-cycle of the salmon directly—by visiting salmon streams in places like Carkeek Park, by visiting local hatcheries, and possibly even by helping release salmon fry into local streams and rivers. And the story of those salmon—from their birth in a stream or river, their journey down to the Big Water, their mysterious life in the ocean, and then their seemingly magical return to spawn and die in the river of their birth—is as fascinating as it is powerful. But that story, of the salmon’s journey home, misses one important point: some salmon choose NOT to come home. Some salmon choose to break the existing cycle and start a new one. The very independence that leads to salmon leaving the safety of the estuary and continuing on into the Big Water also leads a few to venture away from the known. Those few explore the coastline, find new streams, navigate their falls and rapids, and eventually spawn in their headwaters. And in the headwaters that those independent salmon discover and explore, an old cycle then starts in a new place. A whole ecosystem begins to shift and change, as that stream literally becomes a world of new possibilities. A salmon stream. And those hardy, stubborn few—those salmon who leave the familiar in search of the new—are responsible in large part for ensuring the survival of their species.

Because sometimes the old rivers are destroyed by natural disasters, climate shifts, or both. Or the salmon-bearing rivers are destroyed by man-made habitat destruction, through dams, or mining, or logging. Or the salmon population is decimated by over-fishing or by pollution. And if all of the members of the species did what they’ve always done—return to the rivers of their birth—salmon would at some point cease to exist. Despite their grace and beauty and strength and smarts and adaptability and resilience. The success of salmon as a species has been perhaps best served by a small percentage of Rule Breakers, Adventurers, and Stubborn Optimists. The success of salmon as a species has relied on a small group—between 5 and 10% of the overall population…WHO DON’T FOLLOW DIRECTIONS. 2015-2016 | BEST OF SAAS 17

The assembly line stamped out products like cans of salmon, while schools produced students with standardized knowledge and standardized skills, all measured by standardized teachers using standardized tests. VI I can’t help but wonder if our survival as a species doesn’t similarly rely on a small group who won’t follow instructions. And in turn, I can’t help but wonder what the implications are, then, for education, while also noting the pull to standardization in how we think about kids and about fish. So much about our human history with salmon, post industrial revolution, has revolved around our social fascination with “efficiency.” Federal and state agencies monitor population numbers, track catch rates, and set quotas; fisheries deploy boats that vacuum whole species off of the bottom and then process them for market on board; fish ladders, fish farms, hatcheries, and canneries all have their place in a giant assembly line where salmon are seen as commodity that can be produced, regulated, managed, and profited from.

Not unlike much of the thinking that informed the creation of the modern American school system during America’s transition from agricultural to industrial society. The assembly line stamped out products like cans of salmon, while schools produced students with standardized knowledge and standardized skills, all measured by standardized teachers using standardized tests. But what about the 5-10% of students who don’t fit the standardized model? Who don’t follow directions? Or who follow instead their own sense of direction? What if we really need them?

What if we need them now more than ever?

VII How do we treat the student versions of those salmon who wander off? Who look for clean, clear water in new rivers and who refuse to return to the polluted streams of their birth? Who realize one day that, just because you were born a hatchery salmon, you don’t have to stay a hatchery salmon? I can only imagine the salmon conversations outside the fish ladder, as one salmon, the one who won’t follow directions, sees the line stacking up outside the ladder, sees the hungry sea-lions milling around nearby, senses the toxins in the water coming downstream, and decides, “I’m out of here. There’s got to be a better option, and I’m going to find it.” And another salmon, oblivious to the circling sea-lions, says, “Where is that guy going?” To which his friend responds, “Don’t worry about it, he’s crazy. It’s dangerous out there. He’ll come to a bad end. Don’t follow him, follow us. Our stream is this way.”

A few days after my son caught his King Salmon, we returned to the marina to refuel. While I tended to the boat, my son stepped out onto the dock with his fishing rod and dropped the line in the water. A grizzled old charter boat captain walked up to him, pointed to the end of the dock, and said, “Try fishing over there. Another kid, just about the same age as you, caught a huge King Salmon there, just the other day. First and only time that’s ever happened. I would’ve bet my boat it wouldn’t happen, but it did. So give it a try. You never know—it could happen again.” When the captain walked away, my son excitedly ran up to me and said, “See, Dad, I told you there were King Salmon here. I’m not the only one—another kid caught one here this week, too, in the exact same spot as I did! I’m going to see if I can catch another one there.”

And this time, I just smiled and said, “Toss your line in. Could happen. You never know.”

2015-2016 | BEST OF SAAS 19

Preparing Students for the 21st Century JOE PUGGELLI Head of School

PART I : Here’s What Works, According to the Data A year ago the Gallup Corporation’s Education Division issued a report that demonstrated with data that certain component parts of the educational process demonstrably increase a person’s success and happiness in Life after School. 2015-2016 | BEST OF SAAS 21

Preparing Students for the 21st Century CONTINUED workplace engagement, increased workplace success, and increased long-term well-being, three things that are now, according to voluminous research, far less common in this country and in the rest of the world than they should be, especially in the 18-to-29 year old population. Gallup’s data were compiled from polls of parents of 5th through 12th graders, business leaders, and interviews with teachers, superintendents, college presidents, principals, college graduates, and students. Brandon Busteed, the Executive Director of the Education Division, said in an interview, “All told we collected the voices of close to one million Americans.” The essence of the report lies in a crystal clear conclusion and in a depressing observation. Gallup’s conclusion, “We’ve identified six crucial elements of the college experience that have a profound link to longterm success in work engagement and life well-being: three elements that pertain to feeling supported and three that apply to experiential and deep learning.”

have considerable experience coaching athletes and educators, and I know the critical importance of a practice plan that helps literal or metaphorical athletes succeed in actual competition. So when Gallup offered a proven Game Plan that prepares young people to win in the Game of Life, I immediately thought,

“This report is a Big Deal that will make Big News.” Much to my surprise, there was little press coverage; and there was no public outcry demanding that the identified components be incorporated into the curriculum of every school in the country. The purpose of the report was to identify those things in the college experience that correlate with increased 22 BEST OF SAAS | 2015-2016

The report goes on, “College graduates who feel supported during college had 1) professors who cared, 2) professors who made [students] excited about learning, and 3) [the students had the opportunity to develop a relationship with] a mentor-teacher.” Graduates who felt supported during college “doubled their odds of being engaged at work. They were also three times as likely [my italics] to be thriving in all areas of well-being as those who didn’t feel supported.” “College graduates who engaged in experiential and deep learning 4) worked on a long-term project [that required the applications of skills over time to a complex problem], 5) had an internship, and 6) were extremely active in extracurricular activities.” “College graduates who engaged in experiential and deep learning doubled their odds of being engaged at work and were slightly more likely to be thriving in all areas of well-being than students who did not have these experiences.” The depressing observation, “Only 14% of college graduates we studied strongly agreed that they experienced all three support elements, while a

mere 6% strongly agreed that they experienced all three experiential and deep learning elements. The percentage of college grads who hit the career and life lotto on all six was just 3%.”

PART II : Here’s What Doesn’t Work, According to the Data Prior to reading the Gallup report, I had just finished reading several articles about the bleak prospects of the 18-to-29 year old age group. The consistent theme of these articles could be described as “No Jobs, Lots of Loans, and a Grim Future.” The message is simple: This generation can’t find jobs, is saddled with huge, college-related debt, and has cloudier prospects than the generations that preceded them. Implicit in the picture of this group is the fear that for those young people in the pipeline behind the 18-to29 year old group, things are not going to get any better and might get worse. Unfortunately, this concern is consistent with the messages of two major research-based reports I’ve read recently. The first, a White Paper from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, recommends throwing out the current educational system and starting over, because, the reports says, the current system is deeply flawed; the countries in the Organization, it concludes, are doing “a superior job of preparing Twenty-First Century students for the Twentieth Century.” The second, a massive study by the McKinsey Institute, the research arm of the McKinsey Corporation, concludes that there is both a jobs gap—there just aren’t enough good jobs being created—and a significant skills gap— there are abundant good jobs that are unfilled because employers can’t find graduates with the proper skills. The McKinsey report explains the reason for this paradox, “Employers, education providers, and youth exist in parallel universes, with fundamentally different understandings of the same situation. Fewer than half of youth and employers, for example, believe that new

graduates are adequately prepared for entry-level positions. However, 72% of education providers believe that graduates are ready to work.” The McKinsey position that employers, educators, and young people are on different pages is also borne out by data from the Gallup report. Gallup found, according to Brandon Busteed, that “96% of college provosts believed their schools were successfully preparing young people for the workplace, but when you ask recent college grads in the workforce whether they felt prepared, only 14% said ‘Yes.’” And “when you ask business leaders whether they’re getting enough college grads with the skills they need, only 11% strongly agree.” This is not, Busteed says, “just a skills gap. It’s an understanding gap.” So if one views educators as coaches preparing their charges for the Game of Life, what we’re teaching them in practice doesn’t seem to be working in the Game.

PART III : What Seattle Academy is Doing Does Work In June I finished a report to our Board on the Class of 2015, which compiled another superlative record of college admissions. Just as important, at least to us, its members also continued the trend of our seniors’ receiving, as a result of their performances as unpaid interns in our Senior Project Program, outstanding evaluations from their internship supervisors and frequent offers of paying jobs (most of them for summer work, but several for permanent employment) from organizations small and large (Sustainable Fisheries, Boeing, the University of Washington Psychology Lab, Fred Hutch, the Seattle Biomedical Research Institute, etc.). 2015-2016 | BEST OF SAAS 23

Preparing Students for the 21st Century CONTINUED And the Chief of Operations in the office of King County Executive Dow Constantine wrote, “I just rode up on the elevator with Claire Karch. What a great way to start the day! She is smart, confident, and well spoken. The other people on the elevator were blown away when I told them she was a high school student.”

PART IV : Why What We’re Doing Works In the light of the Gallup data, both the superior evaluations our seniors receive from internship supervisors and the job offers they get make sense. Day in and day out, in middle school and high school, Seattle Academy students experience five of the six components that, when present in the college experience (Gallup study), drive long-term success in work engagement and life well-being. The sixth component, the internship, occurs in the senior year.

Given our Mission of preparing young people for college and for life, both the college placement record and the performance of the seniors in their capstone Senior Project internships are important to us. But in terms of providing a counterpoint to the Gloom and Doom of the articles and the reports about What’s Not Working, it is the latter that draws attention. Spencer Laube’s (’15) Senior Project supervisor, the Chief Mechanical Engineer at the UW’s Sea Glider Fabrication Center observed, “We originally had busywork lined up for Spencer, but when we found out that he is an expert in the CAD program ‘Solidworks,’ we asked him to design a recovery cradle for our Deepglider robot. We thought it would take 6 weeks. Spencer did it in 4 days.”

In a Seattle Academy learning environment that includes all of Gallup’s six key components, students learn how to integrate productive skills, behaviors, and attitudes into habits of mind and habits of action; it is this broad, deep, and consistent exposure over time that gives living proof of the power of John Dryden’s famous line, “We first make our habits; then, our habits make us.” By the time our seniors begin their Senior Projects and then graduate into their futures, they have become their habits; and they are, therefore, well prepared—by anyone’s definition—for college and for life.

PART V : How What We’re Doing Works

And Blake Ange’s (’15) supervisor at Blue Sky Cleaners hired him the day the unpaid internship ended, saying, “I wish every employee I hire was like Blake.”

The foundation of the learning environment at Seattle Academy, The Culture of Performance, is the foundation of our entire community, and, I would argue, the answer to the question, “How can we best prepare our children for college and for Life?”

And Amit Perlin’s (’15) supervisor at the UW Aids Clinical Trials Unit said, “Amit is an independent and capable adult. He has been incredible.”

The Culture of Performance prepares young people for college and for Life because this way of teaching replicates Life.

24 BEST OF SAAS | 2015-2016

formulas. I had a significant edge: I had been trained to think conceptually and creatively, to apply knowledge to new situations, and to do things with it.” The Culture of Performance forces the development of a range of 21st century skills, among which our graduates list the following five as most important:

• •

The skill of being creative and productive with technology.

The skill of knowing how to adapt to a new environment.

The skill of knowing how to perform well, both as an individual and as a member of a team.

The skill of knowing how to assess a problem and how to find a solution that adds value.

• From Grade 6 through Grade 12, our young people can’t just sit in class and memorize information: they have to do work, especially project-based work and problembased work, that requires them to use different skills in a moment of action, frequently before an audience that will judge them not by their standardized test scores, nor by how charming they are, but by their actions under the pressure of scrutiny. According to Stanford University’s Bill Burnett, a professor of mechanical engineering and the Executive Director of the Product Design Program, surprisingly few high school graduates are accustomed to this kind of pressure. Burnett says that many Stanford students are neither well prepared to succeed in his program, nor would they be prepared to enter the work force. Burnett says that the first thing he has to do with the gaggle of 4.0, 2400-SAT young people who enter his prestigious design program is to get them to focus on something beyond the grade; the second is teach them how to think. Burnett’s analysis is that most students have learned a lot of content and learned how to find someone else’s “right answer,” but they are completely unaccustomed to using information to solve real-world problems. Burnett strongly believes that real learning, the learning that sets the foundation for future growth, comes from doing things. We agree. Whether in a math, science, or history class; whether on stage or in the dance studio; whether in a soccer game or on the basketball court; whether in Zambia or in Alaska, our students have to take the traditional skills that every school teaches and use those skills to get things done. The result is a distinct competitive advantage that benefits Seattle Academy graduates. Stefan Vraspir ’05 writes about his time at Stanford in the Design School program, where Dr. Burnett was his adviser, “My peers knew all the formulas in the world, but I knew what to do with the 2015-2016 | BEST OF SAAS 25

High-quality written and oral skills.

• •

PART VI : What Needs to Happen to Best Prepare Students for the 21st Century? We believe that to make the design of today’s education match the goals of today’s education, there must be a smooth and effective meshing of the three P’s:

•

The “People” who make the playbook/ curriculum work;

The “Program” that is the school’s playbook and that lays out the development of content and skills; and

“Performance,” that key element within the program which encourages—we say “forces”—the development of the skills and attitudes that are necessary for success.

• •

Preparing Students for the 21st Century CONTINUED THE PROGRAM Having said that the people who teach the playbook are more important than the playbook, I must also say that it is critical to have a Program that prepares students to succeed not only here, but also at the next level and beyond. A school must match the right kind of People with the right kind of Program, one that provides opportunities not only for those who are good at something and who want to do it at a high level, but also for those who want to try something for the first time to see if they like it.

THE PEOPLE No matter what the human endeavor, the people who make the playbook work are more important than the playbook itself, the design on which the endeavor is based. In education, finding people who have teaching degrees is easy. Finding people who can teach in most schools is easy. Finding people who can teach in a school with a Culture of Performance is decidedly not easy. The Culture of Performance requires teachers who have formidable educational credentials and experience and who also have considerable Life experience outside of the classroom; teachers who can bridge the gap between the classroom and the real world; teachers who can break down material so that it can be learned by all of the students, not just some of them; teachers who will take their own risks every day; teachers who daily expand the traditional role of teacher to include both coach and mentor; and teachers who show students how to perform up to and beyond their potential.

The four cornerstones of our program are academics, arts, athletics, and outdoor trips and foreign travel. In each area we maintain a no-cut policy that encourages even the least experienced of students to do that most Seattle Academy of things, to take a risk and try something new, and the result is often success in both expected and unexpected areas. For example, our kids have won league, state, regional, national, or international championships and awards in speech and debate, soccer, metal sculpture, cross country, film, mock trial, graphic arts, music, ultimate Frisbee, basketball, squash, English, tennis, chess, golf, science, and dance. Now, to be fair, many of those championships and awards were won by kids who came to Seattle Academy knowing that they had a particular talent that they wanted to develop. But kids who were doing things for the first time also played major roles in team successes— for example, in the state champion Mock Trial team and the 10-time state champion Speech and Debate team— and first-timers have won major individual awards. For example, one young lady took a sculpture class because she had to, then another class because she liked the first one, and then won a state championship in Metal Arts competition. What creates such success? Building up knowledge and developing skills, for sure. Equally important is the development of a positive attitude and a resiliency that come from a culture that forces and supports trying something new and taking a risk. As I said earlier, the Culture of Performance works because it replicates Life, and most people who have seen Life would agree that the presence of a positive attitude and a personal resiliency predict success, no matter how one defines “success.” Although there is no standard curriculum or test for

26 BEST OF SAAS | 2015-2016

inner strength and resiliency, there is little chance one will succeed in Life without those qualities. The philosopher Eric Hoffer is emphatic that all young people hunger after having a “justified self-confidence and self-esteem” and that this sustainable inner strength never comes from words alone; it comes only though action.

PERFORMANCE Performance, the third “P,” is action, and our Culture of Performance is learning in action. Put another way, the requirements of action and performance cultivate and enforce a discipline that, as Hoffer notes, will not come from using words in a vacuum. We believe the requirements of performance include the acceptance of failure as part of the process of success; the use of all capacities, including the rational, the emotional, and the intuitive; and the absolute necessity of assessing the audience and adjusting one’s plan based on the reality of the audience.

The consultant Dr. Wayne Boese observed, after three days of visiting Seattle Academy, that our students “exude a confidence without arrogance.” We believe that confidence comes from students’ having developed concrete, valuable skills and from having used those skills in doing things that provided challenges met and challenges overcome.

PART VII : What Does the Future Hold for our Students? I am no better at predicting tomorrow than anyone else, but the broad sweep of the future seems obvious: We know that adaptability, flexibility, and inner resolve will be essential, as many of today’s students will work in jobs that do not yet exist and will use technologies that have not yet been invented. And we know that the problem solver will be to the future what the knowledge expert was to the past; and it is clear that to revive the economy and to heal the community, the problem solvers will have to be innovative, creative, and entrepreneurial. Those who thrive in the future will be young people who are prepared to embrace opportunities upon graduation; who have the skills and abilities to take advantage of opportunities, both in college and beyond; who accept responsibility for their words and actions; and who see Life not as a struggle, but as an adventure; young men and women with concrete skills and abilities and an attitude of engagement that will create success today, tomorrow, and for all the tomorrows down the road. 2015-2016 | BEST OF SAAS 27

W hether they’re blogging for Real Change, doing research for Seattle and King County Public Health, or taking on artificial intelligence work usually given to Ph.D. students at the University of Washington (UW), most SAAS seniors choose to do an off-campus Senior Project in their final trimester of Upper School. Not only are they getting real-world career experience, they’re doing work that matters—and often wildly exceeding the expectations of their mentors. Take Spencer Laube ’15, who worked on Seagliders for the UW School of Oceanography; after he surprised his supervisors with his expertise in CAD software, he was tasked with designing a recovery cradle for the new "Deepgliders,” which they thought would take six weeks—Laube finished the job in two days. “Based on our first conversation, I assumed my SAAS intern was a student at UW or Seattle University,” said Jason Dittmer, who mentored Audrey Thomas ’15 at Seattle International Film Festival (SIFF) this year. “She was so poised, bright and intelligent, I tried to get my head wrapped around who she was and attach it to chronologically how old she was. She’s been marvelous. I had her representing SIFF on the red carpet.” Nearly half of the 110 seniors who did projects in 2015 were offered paid positions or continued internships at their worksites, doing everything from teaching basketball to product and graphic design. In addition to working at their sites for six weeks, seniors attend classes at SAAS on Fridays, where they connect and learn from each other’s job experiences, problemsolve real-life college and career case studies of ethical challenges, and learn from guest speakers about job expectations and culture. At the end of the trimester, seniors present to each other, parents, teachers, and mentors on what they learned during their Senior Project, and reflect on the experience as the culmination of their years at SAAS.

28 BEST OF SAAS | 2015-2016

Madeline Reddington ’07 The Senior Project began back in 2005, when senior and aspiring filmmaker Ashley Bellouin did a Senior Project with SIFF. The school started placing more seniors in projects, and the program took off. “Even the first projects were wildly successful for the students and their employers,” said Community Business Liaison Tom Hajduk. “That immediately confirmed for us that this should grow. In the earliest days, students were so useful to the organizations that they were begging us for another student the following year.” The Senior Project has since become an integral part of the Upper School journey for SAAS students, as their skills for performance, innovation, analysis, and more are tested in the real world. “Time after time, our seniors were asked to research something complex, create solutions, and present all that information to the whole group,” Tom said. “And this is where we always blew people away. Organizations and mentors kept asking us, ‘Are these kids really in high school?’” To use SAAS terminology, the three guiding principles behind Senior Projects are “take a risk,” “integrate disparate skills in a moment of action” (Culture of Performance), and demonstrate the four Core Values, trust, responsibility, integrity, and respect. SAAS students are putting these into practice at environmental nonprofits, art studios, music studios, newspapers, blogs, research centers, sports businesses, marketing firms, finance companies, construction companies, clinics, radio stations, film schools, fashion design studios, architecture firms, and more. “We give the students a great amount of freedom to explore their choices and ‘prove their stuff,’” Tom said. “My favorite effect is organizations or mentors saying ‘We gave our senior intern a problem we gave up on a while ago because we couldn’t solve it. She solved it. And in half the time we thought it would take.’”

Nathan Greenstein ’15 When Nathan Greenstein started wooing the architecture

Spencer Laube ’15

and urban design company, Schemata, for his Senior Project, they weren’t looking for an intern. Also, he had no background in architecture. What he did have was a lot of intelligent curiosity about space and design, a great personality, and a way with words. “The first part that grabbed our attention was his ‘about me,’” reads Schemata’s blog. “With an introduction like that, it would’ve been a shame not to at least talk with such a talented and confident writer. And a few weeks later, Nathan Greenstein has joined the Schemata team.”

Audrey Thomas ’15

Nathan spent his time at Schemata applying his Adobe skills to architectural work, assisting with communication, producing digital renderings, researching, and working on their website. In spite of his lack of architecture experience, he finished his work so quickly that he was able to get in more diverse areas than they thought he would, including creating a template for the building design software Revit that the entire office is now using. And Nathan’s natural tendency for reflection led to him giving a talk, writing a blog post, and inspiring the entire office to have a discussion about the lenses through which architectural spaces are experienced, depending on the mood, companionship, or physical state of the person walking through them. Nathan will be attending Dartmouth College in the fall, and although he isn’t sure what his major will be, his guess is “something that involves people and language.”

Highlights from this year's Senior Projects Alexis Allen â&#x20AC;&#x2122;15 Built a new company website for Pacific Networks Marketing

Mike Bartell â&#x20AC;&#x2122;15 Created a curriculum for teaching inclusiveness, non-violent conflict resolution and selflessness to communities around the globe through Ultimate Frisbee for Five Ultimate

Sabrina Batingan ’15 Integrated art projects into the classroom for students who aren’t usually exposed to art curriculum for Gregory Heights Elementary

Anita Erskine ’15 Made a presentation to a parent group about activities to do with kids with disabilities, and organized a night for parents with newly disabled children, including a panel discussion at Boyer Children’s Clinic

Robert Franco ’15 Helped organize a script-writing contest and reviewed submissions for The Film School

Jordan Gonchar â&#x20AC;&#x2122;15 Learned to cryosection mouse livers to study how tumors grow and identify tumor cells via microscope for Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center

Zachary Horvitz â&#x20AC;&#x2122;15 Worked with artificial intelligence to visualize and understand graphical models for the Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence at the University Washington

Savannah Kinzer â&#x20AC;&#x2122;15 For her Senior Internship, Savannah worked at Carbon Washington, an organization working on environmental tax reform, where she provided data entry support and helped organize their field efforts

Amit Perlin ’15 Created social media presence and a manual for continuing social media engagement for University of Washington AIDS Clinical Trials

David Solovy ’15 Assisted with research and cataloging of video interviews with Holocaust survivors for Holocaust Center for Humanity

Claire Tinubu-Karch ’15 Assembled a report about why administering public health services is more complex in King County, which impressed the executive team so much they are using her research to inform other projects at Public HealthSeattle & King County

AAS recently raised $500,000 to expand the new Innovation and Entrepreneurship Lab. The Lab, which is still developing, focuses on innovation in business, social change, science, and art, and now offers four senior classes where students learn design principles, create their own business pitches, and interview outstanding local innovators. The curriculum incorporates guest speakers and workshop challenges faced by local organizations such as Premera, Crosscut, the Post-Prison Education Program and sustainable clothing company Nube9. The funding to support the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Lab comes from a $250,000 Educational Leadership Grant from the Edward E. Ford Foundation, whose mission is to encourage and improve secondary education by independent schools in the United States. An additional $250,000 in matching funds was raised by the SAAS community. As we continue to to create partnerships and workshops with local innovators, the Lab will use funds to support new science and art courses this year, as well

34 BEST OF SAAS | 2015-2016

Madeline Reddington ’07 as start making connections with existing innovative Middle School curriculum. To facilitate this growth, SAAS recruited two new teachers who combine classroom experience with real-world business and innovations experience to help realize the potential of this program. Dr. Gary Houk, who has taught physics at the Naval Academy and St. Paul’s School in Baltimore and holds a Ph.D. in physics as well as an MBA, will be taking over leadership of the Lab with the support of Lisa Feiertag—who’s been an essential program lead for innovations—before she returns to her first love; teaching the 10th grade. Head of School Joe Puggelli said Gary brings “a rare combination of sound teaching skills and practice as an innovator in science and business.” Gary and Lisa will co-teach the flagship courses on business and social innovations this year, along with David Pynchon, who comes from the world of startups and web media analytics. David will also assist with Middle School curriculum to enhance existing

ABI GIBSON ’15, IN FRONT ROW, CENTER

projects. “I think that the diversity of perspectives and experiences in the teaching staff to support the program is great,” Lisa said. “And because of the format of the class, I am always surprised and pleased with the growth students show in taking Arts to add dance and body movement classes to an idea, investigating it, and developing it into a weekly life skills program for girls age 7-13 at the something with real potential.” Rainier Valley Boys & Girls Club. Examples of this process include senior Abi Gibson ’15, who developed an idea for a student advisory board shadowing the Seattle School Board to help make education more student-focused. Gibson’s proposal won first place at Crosscut’s Community Idea Lab at the Museum of History and Industry (MOHAI), and a team of civic leaders assembled by the museum will help bring that concept to fruition.

“Seniors are really ready to run with things independently,” said Associate Head of School Rob Phillips. “With Innovations, we really wanted to limit the amount of lecture and information dissemination time. Instead, we give kids the basic tools, coupled with great speakers, and ask them to take off on project-based work proposing innovations—whether those are apps, a new delivery model for healthcare for the homeless or sustainable In 2014, the innovations program helped senior strategies for waste disposal—you name it, they’ll Grace Gedye ’14 partner with Cornish College of the come up with it.” 2015-2016 | BEST OF SAAS 35

The recently-opened STREAM building (Science, Technology, Robotics, Engineering, Arts, and Math), will be a big part of the future of Innovations, as the classrooms are specifically made to be modular and adaptable for this evolving curriculum. As the Innovations program continues to grow, more classes will be added, and existing multidisciplinary courses—like the city sustainability course that students can take for a science or art credit—may be expanded or added in. “Classes like Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, and material science don’t sit cleanly within most existing interdepartmental frameworks,” said Joe. “By its nature innovation is uncertain, but full of possibilities. We’ve been creating cross-disciplinary curricula and community engagement projects for years, and students have created some of their most inspiring and compelling work at those intersections. We’re thrilled and grateful to have the E.E. Ford Foundation help give these ideas a home and see where they take us.”

36 BEST OF SAAS | 2015-2016

Spring Pilot Project: Every Spring, students in the Innovations Lab work on a pilot project—local organizations come in to present a problem or design challenge, and students workshop the the idea for three weeks before presenting a solution to the organization, along with an audience of interested parents, faculty and local business owners.

In 2015, one of these organizations was the Post-Prison Education Program (PPEP). Led by former inmate and PPEP president Ari Kohn, the organization fills a huge support gap for recently released inmates as they get back on their feet, lowering their likelihood of ending up back in prison from about 50 percent to around 2 percent. SAAS students made PPEP a viral marketing video telling the stories of former prisoners who had completed the program and been able to move on with better lives. Kohn was blown away. “The entire innovations lab process was amazing!” Kohn said. “What was really cool about the video was your students got it right. If you take the video of [former PPEP student] Becky, our old video started with her crime and DOC number, and ended with her successes. Your students showed the successful person, and then used what might be called shock value to surprise the viewer with the fact that the person was a former prisoner.” “The community partnerships we’ve developed with the pilot project are essential,” said Associate Head of School Rob Phillips. “We wanted to bring in as many outside experts and innovators as possible because at this point it's critical that seniors are hearing from people that are working and innovating out in the world.”

Seattle Academyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s program is built upon four pillars: academics, arts, athletics, and outdoor / travel. In addition, extra-curricular opportunities abound in each area so that students who find a passion in a specific arena can explore it further. 38â&#x20AC;&#x201A;BEST OF SAAS | 2015-2016

Academics Arts Athletics Outdoor/Travel

In each of these areas, students learn to conceive, collaborate, create, and evaluate. Each area provides students with opportunities, both inside and outside the classroom, that foster both personal growth and a global perspective. The program allows students to learn from both their successes and failures and go beyond anyoneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s preconceived notions of who they are and who they might be.

Academics Philosophy Seattle Academy conducts learning in a Culture of Performance. Students are challenged to take risks in front of a variety of audiences, combining disparate skills in moments of action in order to learn and communicate complex ideas. This method of teaching and learning fosters independence and integrity, the ability to collaborate and take risks, and the capacity to cope with change and ambiguity. A Seattle Academy education is both timeless and contemporary. Students develop a foundation for the future through traditional areas of study, and those subjects are invigorated by an 40â&#x20AC;&#x201A;BEST OF SAAS | 2015-2016

innovative curriculum. Teachers instill in their students global and entrepreneurial perspectives while fostering creative and sustainable solutions to tangible real-world problems. We believe students learn best when: â&#x20AC;˘ Relationships between students and faculty are strong. We believe that relationships precede performance and that having a solid foundation in secure and healthy relationships helps students engage, understand, reflect, solve problems, and go beyond self-perceived limits. â&#x20AC;˘ The curriculum includes a combination of direct instruction and discovery. We believe the learning environment should require integration, creativity, and application; inspire engagement, discovery, and reflection; provide a context that includes collaboration and feedback; give students the opportunity to forge their identities and values; and encourage and value diverse perspectives.

Signature Programs 6th Grade 7th Grade 8th Grade 9th Grade 10th Grade 11th Grade 12th Grade

SEE Trip to NatureBridge SEE Trip to Fort Clatsop Symposium and Seattle Challenge Ethics Project and Odyssey Trip Soap Project and Salon Project Biology Field Project and American Studies Senior Projects

List of City Resources ( Visited in 2014-15 school year ) Alleycat Acres Boeing El Centro de la Raza Gates Foundation Living Museum Glacial Heritage Reserve International District King County Court House Living Computers Museum Microsoft Mt. Rainier Museum of History and Industry National Geographic Live Northwest Ropes Course Pacific Science Center Pike Place Market Seattle Art Museum Seattle International Film Festival Stumptown Coffee We Day Wing Luke Museum

A Classroom Called Seattle

Profile: The Soap Project All 10th grade students participate in the Soap Project as part of their chemistry class. The project represents the interdisciplinary aspect of our curriculum. Students are tasked with real-life challenges of developing a niche soap for market including:

• Conducting market research. a sample product based • Developing on their research. laboratory tests of their sample • Conducting to meet the criteria of a client company. • Developing a brand look and feel for the product. • Creating a marketing plan for the product. a final presentation regarding the • Providing marketing, branding, and unique properties of their product to a panel of professionals.

The final presentation includes deliverables in the form of:

plans and campaigns with actual • Marketing marketing group feedback on the final prototype. original design concept and any alterations • The based on marketing feedback. entire branding package including the scope, • The value proposition, visual library, slogan, logo,

and trademarks. Scientific reports including two lab reports, any required supplementary experiments, and a summary of the results and impact on the direction of the product design. A financial plan including product price points and cost breakdowns for materials, packaging, and labor.

• •

The end result is a complete experience in developing an idea from a concept to a market-ready product. The project includes inviting multiple guest presenters as the class progresses from the planning phases of marketing research to the branding of the product and concluding with the presentation to the panel of working professionals. Students finish the project with a much better sense of the interconnectedness of science to the real world.

42 BEST OF SAAS | 2015-2016

Academics

â&#x20AC;&#x153;We believe students learn best when relationships between students and faculty are strong.â&#x20AC;?

2014-2015 Arts by the Numbers

Arts Philosophy Through participation in the arts by every student, we create an environment where performance is standard practice. The high level of participation in the arts and the Culture of Performance establish a high level of self-confidence and comfort with performing, the ability to communicate and critique effectively, the ability to assess and take risks, and the ability to apply diverse strategies for problem solving. 44â&#x20AC;&#x201A;BEST OF SAAS | 2015-2016

Shows Offered throughout the year

Performance Nights

170 225

Fall Trimester Performers Winter Trimester Performers

130 7 6 3

Spring Trimester Performers

Theatrical Productions Vocal Ensembles Dance Ensembles

2 5

Competitive Jazz Choirs Instrumental Ensembles

8 6

Scholastic Art & Writing Award Winners Washington State Photography Competition Finalists

Arts Highlights The SAAS Arts Department was designated an

Exemplary School by the Arts Schools Network.

Our Advanced Vocal group, The Onions, won

the Reno Jazz Festival for the third time (second straight year).

National Film Festival for Talented Youth (NFFTY) first place winner went on to win a regional Emmy for the short film Plane Love.

The Advanced Acting Ensemble developed a

partnership with Seattle’s Book-It Theater. The partnership developed an original theater production based on J.D. Salinger’s work under the direction of Book-It Master teacher, Samara Lerman.

Paul Shapiro, SAAS Arts Director, and former

member of the Board of the Art Schools Network (ASN), was asked to be on the planning committee for ASN’s national conference working closely with Jonathan Lindsay of Cornish College of the Arts, the host institution.

Michael Cimino was selected as the sole High School teacher to participate in a National Webinar on the Meisner Technique with internationally renowned acting coach Larry Silverberg.

Seattle Academy placed fourth out of seventy schools in the Washington State Photography Competition.

The instrumental program continues to expand with bands competing at the University of Washington, North Kitsap, and the Reno Jazz Festival.

Lewis Greenstein ’17 was named a recipient of the 2015 Anthony Quinn Foundation Scholarships. He will attend the Pratt Fine Arts Bronze Casting summer workshop. Lewis was honored as one of only sixteen students selected from over five hundred international applicants.

Arts Offerings Costume Design Dance Film Instrumental Photography Theatre Technical Theatre Visual Arts Vocal

Creativity is a Life Skill

Profile: Noah Sarkowsky ’17

Profile: SaraTruscott ’15

Noah Sarkowsky ’17 spent the last two years working as part of the 5th Avenue Theatre’s Rising Star Program. In 2014, he worked as part of the stage management team on the all-student production of Monty Python’s Spamalot. In 2015, he worked on Rogers and Hammerstein’s Carousel. In addition, he has been instrumental in building the stage management program at SAAS. He served as stage manager for the Upper School production of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe as well as Fiddler on the Roof. He has also overseen the work of the stage managers for The Tempest and Hotel Paradiso and created the Seattle Academy Stage Management Handbook.

In late November 2014, Sara Truscott ’15 was announced as a Merit Award winner in the Young Arts National Competition for Photography and Film. She was one of 786 young artists, out of 11,000 applicants, that was recognized. Merit award winners were invited to attend one of 3 regional conferences in LA, Miami, or NY to spend a week working with professional artists attending workshops and events. Sara’s work also won Best in Show, the top recognition, in the 2014 Washington State Photography Contest, the top recognition for which she won a professional camera and a class at the Photographic Center Northwest. She has also won numerous other awards, including a National Television of Arts and Sciences for her film work. She will be attending Pratt Institute beginning in the Fall of 2015.

Arts

2015-2016 Season Offerings November 12-14, 2015 November 16, 2015 November 19-20, 2015 December 3-4, 2015 February 4-6, 2016 February 11-12, 2016 February 11-13, 2016 March 8, 2016 February 25-27, 2016 March 17-18, 2016 April 21-23, 2016 May 5, 2016 May 12-13, 2016 May 19-21, 2016 May 23, 2016 May 26-27, 2016 May 31, 2016 June 3-4, 2016

Upper School Musical: The Addams Family All-Grades Instrumental Concert with 7th Grade Vocal Ensemble 8th Grade Production: CrazyTown Upper School Vocal Showcase Upper School Drama: Cyrano de Bergerac 7th Grade Production: The Last Gladiator Upper School Vocal Ensemble with Jazz Choir II All-Grades Instrumental Concert Middle School Musical: Shrek Upper School Vocal Revue All-Grades Dance Show featuring SAAS Dance Project, Intermediate Dance, and Advanced Dance All-Grades Visual Arts Show Opening 8th Grade Vocal Ensemble Upper School Comedy: Scapin 6th Grade Arts Evening: A Showcase of All 6th Grade Arts Classes 7th Grade Show: Pirates of the Amazon All-Grades Instrumental Concert Jazz Choir I (The Onions) 2015-2016 | BEST OF SAASâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;47

Athletics Philosophy The SAAS athletic program is an integral part of the school community and student experience. Our program is built on a balanced commitment to Participation and Excellence, which means we maintain a â&#x20AC;&#x153;No-Cutâ&#x20AC;? Policy while also offering a range of competitive levels within the Middle and Upper School programs. Athletics is an excellent means of creating community while contributing to the personal growth and education of our students.

Athletics Highlights: Mara Riley ’16 won the state title in the 300M hurdles.

Eight all-time school records were broken in 2014-15 including five in track in field, two in Ultimate, and one in tennis

T he boys’ golf team won the league, district, and state titles.

Record-breaking attendance at all three Athletic Mania events.

SAAS fielded our inaugural Wrestling team. SAAS teams won a total of eight Emerald City League championships this past year.

Zamir Birnbach ’16 finished second in state in tennis. The boys’ track team was awarded the Washington

Interscholastic Activities Association Academic State Championship for highest grade point average.

SAAS offered a record fifty-seven teams for the 2014-15 school year.

Profile: Lucy Halperin ’15 Lucy was a member of the league and state championship girls’ varsity soccer team, earning league all-star status, as well as the state championship Speech and Debate Team. She served as a student facilitator, participated in the Outdoor, Middle East, and Astronomy Clubs, the instrumental program, and Senior Yukon trip. A National Merit Commended Scholar, she will attend the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Profile: Dylan Mortimer ’15 Dylan was a member of the league championship boys’ basketball team (named league all-star second team), golf, and track teams (named league all-star first team). His contributions to the SAAS athletic program earned him the Male Athlete Sports Contribution Award in June 2015. He was also a member of the state championship Speech and Debate team and served as a student facilitator. Dylan was a member of the vocal program, the Middle East Club, and went on the New Orleans and Senior Yukon trips. He will attend Middlebury College. 2015-2016 | BEST OF SAAS 49

Profile: Sophie Johansen ’15 Sophie was a member of the state championship Ultimate team where she also won League Rookie of the Year and League All-Star awards. She played soccer, participated in the Astronomy Club, and went on the Senior Yukon trip. She was named the recipient of the 2015 Katherine Olson Female Sports Contribution Award. She will attend the University of Washington.

Profile: Max Schoenfeld ’15 Max was a member of the state championship lacrosse team and participated in soccer and tennis, where he earned the Coaches’ Award. He was a cast member in Hotel Paradiso as well as a member of the Youth Legislature delegation, advanced improv team, and the state championship Speech and Debate team. He also served as an Associated Student Government officer. He will attend Brown University.

Participation and Excellence

Athletics Athletics Offerings Basketball Cross Country Fitness (Middle School Club Sport) Golf Lacrosse Soccer Squash (Club Sport) Strength and Conditioning (Upper School) Tennis Track and Field Ultimate Frisbee Volleyball Wrestling

Athletics by the Numbers 10

Sports offered throughout the year Teams over three seasons (Fall, Winter, Spring)

57 1 24 27

Middle School Teams Upper School Teams

335 168

Winter Trimester student-athletes

267 49

Fall Trimester student-athletes

Spring Trimester student-athletes

League All Stars

League Rookies of the Year All-State Team Members

3 8

League Champions

Individual State Champion

1 2

Bi-District Champions

Team State Champion Coaches of the Year

Outdoor/Travel Philosophy The Seattle Academy Outdoor /Trips Program promotes trips that can lead to significant growth for the individual, growth that often comes when one is challenged to be in an unfamiliar environment. The program seeks to provide opportunities for students to deepen relationships with other members of the community and develop a responsible understanding about the cultures and the lands through which they travel. 52â&#x20AC;&#x201A;BEST OF SAAS | 2015-2016

Beyond the Classroom The Outdoor/Trips Program teaches students essential skills

that enable them to function in the natural, foreign, or servicerelated environments. We provide students with experiences that physically and emotionally challenge them because we believe these moments lead to personal transformation. Students take risks, confront challenges, and perform under difficult conditions; they learn to balance self-reliance and cooperation, leadership and teamwork, self-reflection and action, choice and consequences.

The Outdoor/Trips Program provides a unique opportunity

for students and faculty to develop relationships that cultivate the core values of the school: trust, respect, responsibility, and integrity. Personal relationships form the basis of our community, and the experience of sharing, working together to solve problems, and accomplishing group goals helps build these relationships. These experiences carry back into school and enrich our larger community.

The Outdoor/Trips Program broadens the global perspective and service orientation of students and adults. Students learn environmental stewardship and develop a greater awareness and understanding of the different perspectives that exist among people as they travel through various cultures and environments.

The Outdoor/Trips Program strives to encourage an

understanding of and empathy towards others through purposeful experiences that emphasize service work. 2015-2016 | BEST OF SAASâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;53

Profile: The Zambia Program The Zambia program began in 2000, when we sent our first group of six students and two teachers to work with the Munali Senior Secondary Boys and Girls School (MSSS) in Lusaka. The mission of the Zambia program is to:

Develop an interactive, educational partnership between SAAS and MSSS;

Share resources from the SAAS community

Munali Secondary Boys and Girls Schools, and Deaf-Blind School (since 2000) • • • •

Donation of laptops to computer labs Assistance with maintenance of lab server and equipment Computer raining for Munali teachers and students Moodle exchange, with SAAS Software Development students

Chelstone Basic/High School (2001-2010) • • • •

Laptops donated to administration Computer lab (with 20 donated laptops) Teacher & student computer training Pen-pal exchange with SAAS students and a bookbinding project.

with the MSSS community;

Birdland Primary School (since 2006)

Provide opportunities for both communities

• • • •

to increase global perspective.

In the years since, the program has expanded to include additional communities in Zambia (including other schools and a rural clinic) and collaborations with other Seattle businesses.

Laptop donations Assistance with school tuition and other needs for 130+ children affected by AIDS and domestic violence Pen-pal exchanges with SAAS Middle School Funded the building and stocking of a school library

SAAS drives have supported the following: • Children’s shoes and medical supplies for Waterfalls Community Clinic, Lusaka • Uniforms and sports equipment for AIDS-prevention program at a school near Lusaka. • Medical and other supplies to support an AIDS-prevention program initiated by Waterfalls Clinic • Donations of money and supplies to Mother of Mercy Hospice & Clinic • Assistance to disabled students at Twatasha School and at Mother of Mercy Hospice • Clothing, toiletries and facility needs for Deaf-Blind School, Munali. • School supplies and clothing for students at Birdland, Chelston and Twatasha Schools. • Educational CD library for Munali computer labs • Textbook shipments to Munali • Books on tape for the Blind at Munali

SAAS students on the Zambia trip have: • • • • • • • •

Transported to Zambia laptop computers, school supplies, and clothing Collected over 80-100 of pairs of shoes, annually, for Zambia school-children Taught computer skills classes to Zambian teachers and students Developed PowerPoint lessons for the Munali computer labs Donated educational CDs for the Munali computer “libraries” Assembled and distributed school supply gift bags to a rural parish near Pioneer Camp Developed long-term pen pal relationships with Zambian students Been enthusiastic “ambassadors” to Zambian children of all ages

Outdoor/Travel Outdoor & Travel Offerings in 2014-2015 Alaska (6th and 12th Grade) Ashland (10th Grade) France (Upper School) Greece and Italy (7th and 8th Grade) India (Upper School) New Orleans (Upper School) Odyssey Trip (9th Grade) Local and Regional Retreats (10th, 11th, and 12th Grade) Seattle Challenge (8th Grade) A three-day homeless experience 6th Grade SEE Trip A science trip studying watersheds on the Olympic Peninsula 7th Grade SEE Trip A history trip exploring Pacific Northwest History at Fort Clatsop Yukon (7th and 8th Grade) Zambia (Upper School)

Travel by the Numbers 5

Service Trips Offered

4 4

Outdoor Adventure Trips Offered Cultural Trips Offered

6 131

Academic Trips Offered Total Number of Days Spent Traveling

Trips/Retreats Offered This Year

990

Total Number of Trip Participants

2015-2016 | BEST OF SAASâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;55

COMMUNITY SERVICE

Service by the Numbers Service hours completed by the Class of 2015 in their 7 years at SAAS

24,379

18,642

11,860

Philosophy We ask each of our students to create meaningful ways to contribute to our community. Middle and Upper School divisions hold organized community service days, and various groups hold targeted collection drives throughout the year. In the Upper School, each student must complete 160 hours of community service hours in order to graduate, and many volunteer in our surrounding neighborhood to complete these hours. These service activities not only prepare our students to be active members of the communities but also help to create a strong sense of responsibility, respect, and integrity. 56â&#x20AC;&#x201A;BEST OF SAAS | 2015-2016

Service hours completed to date by the Class of 2016

Service hours completed to date by the Class of 2017

5,965

60,846

Service hours completed by the Upper School classes through June 2015

450 60

Service hours each student earms on the New Orleans trip by rebuilding homes and completing wetland restoration

Agencies helped by our 8th grade students during this yearâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Seattle Challenge

2000

Number of families toured throughout the school by SAAS student tour guides during our Open Houses

1500

Service hours the 10th grade class donated to the City of Poulsbo to clean up the Poulsbo Fish Park

Service hours each student on the Zambia trip completes teaching computer skills and programs at our sister schools

50 34

Service hours completed to date by the Class of 2018

Service hours completed by Upper School students during Spring Days

Middle School Service Agencies Seattle Academy Middle School partnered with the following agencies in the 2014-15 school year. The Baby Boutique The Blaine Center (First Church) Chief Seattle Club Compass Center Food Lifeline-Shoreline Emergency Family Shelter/Mary's Place Hammond House Homeless in Seattle Hope Place/UGM Women Family Shelter Jubilee House Lambert House Lifelong Aids Alliance Lutheran Compass Center Matt Talbot Center Millionair Club Northwest Harvest Nyer Urness House Operation Sack Lunch Peter's Place Phinney Ridge Shelter/Emmanuel Church Queen Anne Food Bank Puget Sound Keepers Real Change Recovery CafĂŠ St. Francis House St. Martin De Porres Teen Feed Tent City 3 Third Ave Center/Harborview Clinic Treehouse University District Food Bank Urban Rest Stop Westside Baby YWCA Opportunity Place (Angeline's)

2015-2016 | BEST OF SAASâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;57

Profile: Evie Bellew ’15

Evie completed 873 service hours during her seven years at SAAS. The vast majority of Evie’s hours came from her work as a camp counselor and student leader for the YMCA’s Camp Orkila where she also worked on their annual fund campaign. She also served as an Open House tour guide and note taker for the Learning Support Department as well as a panelist for admission lunches, an Upper School facilitator, and a volunteer at SAAS in the City. Evie will attend Tufts University beginning in the Fall of 2015.

Profile: Harrison Reines ’15 Harrison completed 588 hours of service for a variety of organizations. He worked with the Boys Scouts at the Cedar River Watershed, coached elementary basketball at the Jewish Day School, volunteered at the La Jolla County Day School, and prepared, cooked and served food to the homeless in Tent City. The majority of his hours were contributed at the URJ Goldman Union Camp where he served as a camp counselor and helped in the office. At SAAS, he volunteered as a note taker, open house tour guide, and Upper School Facilitator. Harrison is attending the Elliott School of International Affairs at George Washington University.

A Committment to Service

Upper School Service Agencies Seattle Academy Upper School partnered with the following agencies in the 2014-15 school year. Arboretum Attain Housing City of Poulsbo Food Lifeline Green Seattle Partnership Jewish Family Service Kubota Gardens Lincoln Park Matt Talbot Center Mountain to Sound Greenway Northwest Harvest Pike Place Food Bank Rainier Vista Boys & Girls Club Seattle Tilth Teen Feed Treehouse Volunteer Park

Washington Trails Association West Commodore Park Puget Sound Keepers Real Change Recovery Café St. Francis House St. Martin De Porres Teen Feed Tent City 3 Third Ave Center/Harborview Clinic Treehouse University District Food Bank Urban Rest Stop Westside Baby YWCA Opportunity Place (Angeline's) 2015-2016 | BEST OF SAAS 59

Harvesting honey with the Bee Club

Discover New Talents!

Philosophy

Academics

Clubs allow students and teachers to interact outside of the classroom based on common interests. New clubs arise based on student interest and leadership. A Club Fair is held at the beginning of each year, letting students know what clubs are available, where and when they meet, and how they can join.

2015-2016 | BEST OF SAASâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;61

Speech and Debate State Champions (8th straight state championship)

Profile: Mike Bartell ’15 Michael Bartell ’15 joined Seattle Academy in the 6th grade. Mike was a student facilitator and participated in the Ethics Bowl, the Bee Club, the Outdoor Club, and Econ-Finance Club. He was a finalist in the Washington State High School Photography Competition and a member of the vocal program. While at SAAS, he played basketball and soccer and was a league all star with the Ultimate team where he set school records in assists and blocks. He went on both the 10th grade Ashland trip and the Senior Yukon Trip. He will attend Emory University in the fall of 2015.

62 BEST OF SAAS | 2015-2016

We encourage

students to take a risk and try new things on their way to discovering new talents. Here are two graduates from the Class of 2015 who sampled a little bit of everything that SAAS has to offer.

Profile: Jade Chowning ’15 Jade Chowning ’15 joined the SAAS community in 9th grade. She was a member of the ASB Council, a member of the Washington Legislative Youth Advisory Council, and was the 68th Youth Governor of Washington State YMCA Youth Legislature. She participated the Econ-Finance Club, Robotics Club, and served as editor of the yearbook for three years. In addition, she traveled to France, went on the 10th grade Ashland and Senior Yukon trips, and participated in tennis and track and field. She will attend Yale University in the fall of 2015.

Youth Governor in Youth Legislature (first female youth governor in ten years) Jade Chowning ’15, Front Row, far right

Record Number of Student Clubs

2015-2016 | BEST OF SAAS 63

Clubs by the Numbers Clubs Total

List of Middle School Clubs for 2014-2015 Climbing Club Fantasy Book Club Magic Club Math Club Podcast Club Red Bird Online Newspaper Robotics Club Science Club 8th Grade Student Facilitators Zambia Club

Upper School Clubs

8 696

New Clubs in 2014-2015 Total Members

Members in largest club (Speech & Debate)

Members in 2nd largest club (Robotics Club - Middle and Upper)

58 50 79

64â&#x20AC;&#x201A;BEST OF SAAS | 2015-2016

Middle School Clubs

Members in 3rd largest club ( Science Club - Middle and Upper) Students in Leadership Clubs (8th Grade Student Facilitators, Upper School Facilitators, Student Government)

List of Upper School Clubs for 2014-2015 Avian Allies Bee Club Astronomy Club The Cardinal Online Newspaper Climbing Club Community Service Organization Econ-Finance Club Ethics Bowl Four Corners Diversity Club French Club Global Health Club Health and Nutrition Club Magic Club Middle East Club Mock Trial

Model United Nations Outdoor Club Ping Pong Club Photography Club Queer-Straight Alliance Robotics Club Science Club Speech and Debate Student Government Tea Club Upper School Facilitators (Leadership Club) Youth Legislature Zambia Club

Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Okay To Be

EXAMINING AND SHAPING THE ROLE OF COMPUTER SCIENCE AT SAAS Madeline Reddington ’07

“I’d like a recommendation about what role Computer Science should play in Seattle Academy’s curriculum.” » With that charge from Head of School

Joe Puggelli, a faculty and staff committee formed last fall to study the issue over a two-year period.

66 BEST OF SAAS | 2015-2016

The eleven-member group first documented a with introductory exposures and with mastery baseline. What were teachers already doing in projects; and during the day and after school. We the areas of programming at SAAS, both in classes learned that there were multiple “entry points” and in clubs and extracurricular activities? The to the programming experience at SAAS, that group then created a short video that captured a diverse range of students were involved, and twelve teachers describing their work in Middle that nine different programming languages were and Upper Schools; with boys and with girls; with being taught in the current year! short programming units and full-term courses; David Johns teaches coding to a student in his class

68 BEST OF SAAS | 2015-2016

A parent resource group gave (and will continue to give) expert professional perspective, and dynamic conversations centered around four high-level questions: »

What are the essential characteristics of a SAAS graduate, in college, life, and beyond, and what role does computing knowledge and skill play in that?

In May, the Parent Advisory Committee took a field trip to see students working in an after-school “Wearable Technology” workshop being offered by Meredith Hale (Technology Department), Lily Hopkins (Visual Arts), and Chelsea Wilcox (Mathematics and Robotics).

» What is the appropriate balance between core “computational thinking” vs. vocationally-relevant programming skills/knowledge? » What are the evolving expectations of colleges and universities? » Is there value in offering highly specialized/advanced exposure to computer science and engineering? In 2015-16, the committee will connect with alumni about their experiences in college and the workforce, gather more information about innovative work occurring in schools and colleges nationwide, and continue to work with our faculty to shape and create a full sequence for all our computer science offerings. Anyone desiring more information about the committee should contact Fred Strong, Dean of Faculty. 2015-2016 | BEST OF SAAS 69

Through its four college

advising professionals, Seattle Academy College Advising fuses over three decades of college admission and advising experience with deep knowledge of Seattle Academy and students’ day-to-day life therein. As a result, one hundred percent of Seattle Academy’s seniors enroll in four-year colleges, universities, and conservatories within two 70 BEST OF SAAS | 2015-2016

years of graduation, as up to five percent elect to take a gap year prior to college matriculation. These colleges include the nation’s most selective.

College Advising Highlights from the past year: Monitored

changes to the SAT including attending a workshop on the revised exam. Seattle Academy also worked directly with University Tutoring to develop a practice test that included elements of the SAT and the ACT, included general coaching around standardized tests.

Enhanced

“Special Topics Sessions,” lunch and afterschool meetings that provided more information for students interested in particular application-related subjects. Topics this spring included visiting campuses and interviewing, STEM application processes, business

Percentage of 2015 senior applicants who have had one or more offers of admission

Million

Percentage of 2015 entering two-year college or taking an extended gap year

Percentage of 2015 entering four-year college immediately or after a gap/PG year

Total in merit-only dollars awarded from all colleges to members of the Class of 2015

110

Number of applications filed by Class of 2015

Recommendation letters written by faculty and College Advising

Number of documents filed supporting college applications

Total number of seniors Average GPA

3.55

(ON A 4.0 UNWEIGHTED SCALE)

1770

Mean ACT Composite Mean SAT Composite

601 Average number of applications per student in 2015 Overall admittance percentage

585

Mean SAT Math

584

OUR SENIORS AT A GLANCE

application processes, arts application processes, college essay writing, strategies for teacher recommendations, College Advising summer homework assignments, and applying under “early” plans.

Partnered with The Bush School to host the first-annual

Case Studies program, which brought to Seattle twenty-five deans of admission from schools such as Columbia, Dartmouth, U of Chicago, and Vanderbilt to review mock admission files with juniors and their families and render admission decisions.

Initiated

updates to communication and approaches for athletic recruiting. This included refining existing messages and timelines for athletes to better coordinate recruiting efforts with College Advising.

Hosted its first May 1 “notification party,” where students could stop by, enjoy snacks, and ensure College Advising had accurate information about destinations, outcomes, and merit scholarships, which again totaled over $12 million.

Mean SAT Critical Reading

631 657

Mean SAT Writing

Mean SAT English Subject Test Mean SAT Math Subject Test

Members of the College advising team also: Presented at the National Association of College

Counselors in Independent Schools (ACCIS) conference on recommendation letter writing and risk-taking in college essays.

Co-presented

at the National Association of College Admission Counseling (NACAC) national conference with college advisors from Georgetown Day School (DC), Greenhill School (TX), New Trier High School (IL), Pine Crest School (FL), Ransom Everglades School (FL), Scarsdale High School (NY).

Attended

off-campus events specifically for college counselors hosted by schools such as Brown, M.I.T., and Yale.

Earned one of fifteen college counselor scholarships to

attend St. John’s College’s “Summer Classics” great books program before traveling to St. George’s School for the invitation-only Clambake Institute attended by cuttingedge college advisors and admission deans from around the country. 2015-2016 | BEST OF SAAS 71

COMMUNITY 2015-2016 OFFICERS Donna Bellew, President

(Evie ’15, John ’18, and Helen ’21)

Tom Barton, Vice President

(Kersten ’12, Bryce ’15, and Tess ’19)

Mary Pembroke Perlin, Treasurer (Adam ’18 and Theo ’20) Mark Callaghan, Secretary (Sid ’15 and Greg ’17)

2015-2016 TRUSTEES Rhonda Berry

(Phillip ’06 and Achijah ’10)

Ronnie Cunningham

(Alex Stirgus ’11 and Serena Cunningham ’20)

Quinton Dowling ’05 Richard Fade (Mitch ’14)

Muguette Guenneguez (Raven ’15)

Mike Halperin

(Taylor ’10 and Lucy ’15)

Leslie Hanauer

(Cole ’18 and Lauren ’20)

Peter Heymann

(Nicholas ’18 and Benjamin ’20)

Mary Ellen Hudgins

(Jonah Sterling ’90 and Alex Bush ’02)

Lynsey Lacher ’08 Christine Larsen

(Sophie ’18 and Finn ’22)

Sean O’Leary (Eamon ’14)

Rob Phillips Joe Puggelli Kay Rawlings (Wilson ’17)

Jon Reingold

(Kendall ’12 and Sophie ’14)

Bard Richmond

(Eli ’19, Maxwell ’19, and Owen ’21)

Peggy Rinne

(Nicole ’15, Chas ’19)

Matthew Sweeney

(Caroline ’14 and Drummond ’17)

Ruth True

(Erin Wright ’05, Claire McShane ’07, and Sophie True ’16) 72 BEST OF SAAS | 2015-2016

BOARD OF TRUSTEES Seattle Academy’s Board of Trustees is comprised of twenty-four board members including alumni, current parents and alumni parents. As a group they bring diverse perspectives, backgrounds, and expertise to serve our school. Trustees fulfill their roles and responsibilities largely through committee work with each trustee engaged in one or more areas. Standing committees include: Capital Campaign, Committee on Trustees, Development, Facilities, Finance and Audit, Innovations, and Investment, as well as the Alumni and Parent Associations. In May 2015, Board President Mike Halperin (Taylor ’10 and Lucy ’15) completed his term and “passed the baton” to his successor, Donna Bellew (Evie ’15, John ’18, and Helen ’21). Our sincere thanks go to Mike for the exceptional leadership, commitment, and exuberance that defined his tenure – a pivotal time for SAAS as we launched SAAS Rising: A Campaign for Campus Transformation and completed phase one with the construction of the STREAM Building, which opened in September. Donna Bellew transitions to her new role as Board President after serving as SAAS Rising Campaign Co-Chair alongside fellow trustee, Leslie Hanauer (Cole ’18 and Lauren ’20). New trustees joining the SAAS Board this fall are Quinton Dowling ’05 and incoming Parent Association President, Kay Rawlings (Wilson ’17).

HONORARY TRUSTEES Mary Dunnam (Patrick ’99 and Tom ’02) Ron Hosogi (Renee ’07 and Michelle ’10) Lex Lindsey (Elisabeth ’99) Tom Markl (Matt ’97, Christina ’00, and Peter ’04) Jean Orvis (Lauren ’05) Bill Oseran (David ’94 and Brian ’96) Craig Tall (Lyssa ’87 and Kristina ’89) Maggie Walker (Kina ’06) Martha M. Wyckoff (Jake Byrne ’03, Conor Byrne ’05, and Paul Byrne ’07)

2015-2016 OFFICERS Kay Rawlings, President (Wilson ’17) Bob Steedman, Vice President

(Zachary ’19 and Elias ’21)

Kristine Sweeney, Secretary

(Caroline ’14 and Drummond ’17)

Laurie Breidenbach Forslund, Treasurer

(Olivia ’19 and Grace ’21)

Nancy Senseney, Parent Education Chair

(Van ’19)

PARENT ASSOCIATION The Parent Association (PA) at Seattle Academy builds community among parents and families, supports the school’s programs and faculty, and facilitates communication between parents, faculty, and administration. In the last school year, the Parent Association engaged a record ninetysix parents as class representatives and lead volunteers! These dedicated parents organized volunteers to support SAAS school events including: Open House and Visit Days, New Family Welcomes, grade level Parent Meetings, Fall Sports Mania, Basketball Mania, and SAAS Relays. PA Class Reps also helped organize parent coffees, socials, and potlucks and expressed their gratitude to faculty and staff through weekly Friday Treats, Holiday Gift Baskets, and an End-of-Year Luncheon. The Parent Education Committee (PEC) continued its successful Parent Peer Group discussions providing parents a forum to discuss common parenting issues and concerns. Grade-level discussions are professionally facilitated annually in the fall and spring. This past year the PEC also sponsored guest speakers: Ryan Redmond of the Flourish Foundation, who presented on parenting with awareness and compassion through mindfulness, and Katie Davis, Assistant Professor at the UW Information School who presented on the role of digital media in adolescents’ lives. This fall’s PEC Speaker Series opens with Laura Kastner presenting on The Paradox of Stress: Supporting your Teen’s Success on September 30, 2015.

Special thanks go to PA officers who completed their terms of service in May 2015:

President, Christine Czark-Atkins (Cooper ’16), Treasurer, Claudia Smith (Elsa ’14, Adelaide ’17 and Orson ’20) and Parent Education Chair, Sandy McCullough (Cole ’16). Each brought exceptional skill, spirit, and dedication to their role, and we deeply appreciate their service. All SAAS parents are members of the Parent Association and are welcome to attend PA meetings on September 30, January 20, and June 2. To learn more about volunteer opportunities with the Parent Association, contact Anne-Marie Guerrero at amguerrero@seattleacademy.org 2015-2016 | BEST OF SAAS 73

COMMUNITY

Gifts of time, talent, and treasure make what we do each day possible.

PHILANTHROPY

Thank you to all

Philanthropy has been essential to the success of our school since our

founding in 1983. Today is no different. In fact, as the world changes at an even faster pace, flexible space and flexible funds become even more important. Seattle Academy is certain that developing exceptional purposebuilt facilities designed to maximize programmatic flexibility while investing in growing programs and new innovations will dramatically increase our ability to develop 21st century skills in our students and better prepare students for college and life. The Annual Fund and SAAS Rising capital campaign are critical to Seattle Academy’s ability to meet these changing needs to support our students. The Annual Fund is an important ingredient in what takes a good Seattle Academy education and makes it great! Tuition covers our core curriculum – academics, athletics, the arts, outdoor and travel programs. Every student experiences this extraordinary education. Gifts to the Annual Fund provide additional resources to faculty and students that ensure that Seattle Academy can take advantage of emerging opportunities and invest in curricular innovations, advancements in technology, student clubs and activities, faculty professional development, and need-based financial aid. In the 2014-2015 academic year, Seattle Academy families, alumni, faculty, staff and friends donated over $1.2 million to the Annual Fund, our primary fundraising campaign for program support. Many volunteers aided in the effort to raise these funds including the Development Committee, Leadership Gift Solicitors, and the SAAS in the City Committee.

Thank you to these amazing volunteers and to our generous donors! The SAAS Rising capital campaign saw significant progress toward securing our $35 million goal by June 2017 (see saasrising.org/progress to see current status). The Capital Campaign Committee is the working volunteer group charged with actively fundraising for gifts and pledges to meet the SAAS Rising capital campaign goal. Through volunteer efforts and the generosity of many donors, steady progress was made to build the STREAM Building, which opened in September 2015, and to begin the design of the Cardinal Union Building. STREAM and Cardinal Union add 100,000+ square feet of new space on the 12th Ave Block and include a permanent home for the Middle School, Second Gym, Outdoor Playfield, new Science Laboratories, a Robotics Lab, and Learning Commons. Seattle Academy is prepared to strengthen its educational offerings and continue to push the boundaries of the secondary education experience. The successful completion of the SAAS Rising capital campaign will reflect broad support of the SAAS mission and teaching model and ensure continued transformational curricular and co-curricular innovations that have become a hallmark of Seattle Academy. 2015-2016 | BEST OF SAAS 75

our volunteers and donors!

COMMUNITY DONOR APPRECIATION DINNER On Wednesday, October 29, 2014, a fabulous crowd turned out for Seattle Academy’s Donor Appreciation Dinner. With pleasure and gratitude, SAAS said thank you to nearly 300 guests in attendance – all donors to the 201415 Annual Fund, our primary campaign for program support. The evening included a light supper featuring menus from Tom Douglas restaurants including Brave Horse Tavern, Lola, Serious Pie, and Dahlia Bakery. The brief program centered on a message of thanks for all this community gives to our school, students, and faculty. Highlights of the event included: a spirited Thank You video starring SAAS students and faculty created by alumna Rachel Godbe ’07; remarks by Joe Puggelli, Head of School, and Rob Phillips, Assistant Head of School; and exceptional musical performances by students in the C Block Band and Jazz Choir II. Gifts of all sizes provide over $1 million annually taking the core curriculum - Academics, Athletics, the Arts, Outdoor and Travel programs - to the next level of excellence. The remarkable support received each year for curricular innovations and programs makes great things possible at SAAS.

Thank you to all who support Seattle Academy’s Annual Fund, and to everyone who shared in this fun celebration.

Save the Date: April 14, 2016

SAAS looks forward to recognizing the philanthropic spirit and generosity of this community at our next Donor Appreciation Dinner. Please support SAAS and mark your calendars to join us for the celebration!

To learn how you can support Seattle Academy, visit www.saasrising.org or contact Anne-Marie Guerrero, Annual Fund Director, at amguerrero@seattleacademy.org 76 BEST OF SAAS | 2015-2016

SAAS IN THE CITY SAAS in the City… It’s not an auction. It’s a party, and what a party it was! On January 24, 2015, a crowd of nearly 450 turned out for SAAS in the City at Fremont Studios. Guests enjoyed cocktails and appetizers, mingling with friends, the Wine Grab, Raffle, and new Centerpiece Sale. Called to dinner by the lively SAAS Drum Line, guests sat down to a delicious, Asian-inspired, three-course meal prepared by City Catering Company. The E Block Band kicked off the program performing “Fantasy,” followed by “Bushel and a Peck” by the Middle School cast from Guys and Dolls. Athletic highlights illuminated the video screens while Advanced Dance performed “Cybernetic.” In a joint project, the Speech, Science, and Dance Programs crafted a spoken word/interpretive dance piece entitled “No Brain, No Pain,” and the Onions returned to SAAS in the City’s stage with “Smack Dab in the Middle.” Lively student performances were complemented by inspiring remarks by Head of School, Joe Puggelli, Assistant Head of School, Rob Phillips, and SAAS faculty members Alana Bell ’03, Makenzie Brandon ’09, Mark Hoover, and Melinda Mueller. The evening culminated with a compelling ask for gifts to our Faculty Development Fund presented by 2014-15 Board President, Mike Halperin (Lucy ’15 and Taylor ’10.) Guests responded generously donating nearly $200,000 to support our faculty as they develop new programs, fuel curricular innovations, and create a learning environment that cultivates 21st century skills, creativity and intellect. Thank you! Special thanks to our SAAS in the City 2015 tri-chairs – Megan Conklin (Nicholas ’14 and Emma ’17,) Kristine Sweeney (Caroline ’14 and Drummond ’17,) and Gerlinde Whetzell (Jessica ’16) – for their dedication and leadership, to their corps of energetic parent volunteers, and to the faculty, staff, and students engaged in creating this special evening. To learn more about volunteer opportunities contact Anne-Marie Guerrero at amguerrero@seattleacademy.org There are many ways to get involved. Join us! 2015-2016 | BEST OF SAAS 77

COMMUNITY FACULTY Faculty Professional Development at Seattle Academy is the fuel that drives curricular innovation. Professional Development is an integral component in the creation of project-based learning, and is critical to providing an innovative and engaging educational experience for all of our students. The Faculty Professional Development fund provides the resources to send faculty to conferences and workshops, to support faculty as they develop new programs, and feeds the Culture of Performance at the faculty level.

Faculty Profile: Gerald Elliott Gerald Elliott started working in the University of Washington (UW) Oceanography Department as a machinist/instrument maker while taking a marine science course his sophomore year at Garfield High School. Gerald’s position at the Oceanography Department ended up becoming an eleven-year career which led him to work in chemistry labs, work with robotics at the Seaglider Fabrication center, and embark on research cruises with teams of instrument makers, engineers and scientists working together. Meanwhile, he double-majored in History and the History and Philosophy of Science at the UW and tutored math and science at Rainier Beach, where he secured a grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to start a robotics team with his students. Gerald started thinking about ways to connect his History of Science degree with his work experience in applied science and entered the UW Master’s program for Teaching Secondary Social Studies. What drew him to SAAS was the robotics club, relationship-first approach to teaching, and interdisciplinary focus. He currently teaches 9th Grade Ancient Civilizations, 12th Grade History of Science, 12th Grade Civics, 12th Grade Globalization, and History of Hip Hop. He also brings his wealth of experience to the Robotics Club as a mentor. “I love weaving science, math, and engineering into my history course while working with the English Department,” he said. “Having students learn about science and engineering as not a closed book but a work in progress excites me. Have students learn about STEM frameworks and how to shake them up has enormous potential.” Gerald focuses on tying his class experiences together with the community and inviting students to add their input about how history is being taught and the issues that matter most to them, especially around social justice and technology. “Gerald brings to his teaching a real-world experience that helps him to connect the classroom to the world in a way that really works for his students,” said Head of School Joe Puggelli. Photo: Gerald (back row, top left) with fellow colleague Ellie Wolf (kneeling, front row) and members of the Robotics Club

78 BEST OF SAAS | 2015-2016

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT Alana Bell

National People of Color Conference

Shaun Burl

Basketball Clinic

Dexter Chapin

National Science Teachers Association Conference

Nick Creach

STEM Conference

Christine Davis-Goff Association on Higher Education and Disability Conference Learning and the Brain Conference PESI Seminar Rick DuPree

Taking Smoke Signals Digital Conference Citizen’s University

Emily Feder

Bard Writing and Thinking Workshop Howard Debate Camp

Lisa Feiertag ‘02

National Association of Independent Schools Conference

Pete Flynn Northwest Association of Independent Schools Leadership Conference Meredith Hale

Northwest Council for Computer Education Conference

Mike Haykin

Innovations Conference

Mark Hoover

Jazz Edu Network Conference Monterey Jazz Festival

Lily Hotchkiss

Clay Classes

Julia Hunt

Social Media Workshop

David Johns

Northwest Association of Independent Schools Conference

Kate Kerr

Learning and the Brain Conference

Lauren Lee

International Dyslexia Association Conference

Caitlin Lyons

International Dyslexia Association Conference

Lewis Maday-Travis Coding Through Traffic Lighting Workshop Megan McCall

Second Language Webinar International Dyslexia Association Conference

Bess McKinney

Problem-Based Learning Workshop

Introduction to Differentiate Instruction Workshop

Lori Metcalf

FERPA and Social Media Seminar

Mia Mlekarov Choices Program: Brings to life current and historical public policy issues for high school students. Jennifer Nelson

Assessing and Managing Suicide Risk Conference

Kathi Petrotta

Learning and the Brain Conference

Melanie Reed Association of College Counselors in Independent Schools Conference Erin Schwartz

Learning and the Brain Conference

Paul Shapiro

Visual Arts Summer Training

Andrew Spitzer

Social Media Workshop

Ali Stewart-Ito

Yoga Training for PE

Fred Strong

Digital Learning Conference Folio Collaborative Workshop

Lindsay Thomas

Ropes Training Course

Ellie Wolf

International Dyslexia Association Conference

Bailey Zahniser

Pilchuck Glass School 2015-2016 | BEST OF SAAS 79

COMMUNITY FACULTY ANNOUNCEMENTS Erin Aitchison ’97, Assistant Athletic Director and coach, was named the Emerald City League Coach-of-the-Year in Boys’ Track and Field. Freddy Carley ’04, 10th Grade Coordinator, and his wife Jessen gave birth to their first baby boy, George Warren, in March 2015. Dexter Chapin, Upper School Science and Sustainability teacher, has been developing curriculum around system dynamics for the Institute for Systems Biology. His research has been funded by the National Science Foundation. In March 2015, Dexter traveled to the National Science Teachers’ Conference in Chicago to present an overview of the curriculum he has been developing. His presentation, entitled Building Models to Understand How the Environment Influences Genes, was well attended and received. Dexter was also featured in an interview in the October 2014 issue of Anthropology News, the online newsletter for the American Anthropological Association. Dexter discussed the recent rise in the teaching of anthropology in high school curriculum across the United States. Michael Cimino, theatre teacher and director, was selected as the sole High School teacher to participate in a National Webinar on the Meisner Technique with internationally renowned acting coach Larry Silverberg. Lisa Feiertag ’02, History and Innovations teacher, gave birth to Felix Alan McIntyre on August 15, 2014. In March 2015, Lisa gave a presentation at the National Association of Independent Schools’ annual conference. The workshop on innovations was co-presented with The Hawken School in Cleveland and The Lovett School in Atlanta. These schools were invited to present by the E.E. Ford Foundation as recipients of the E.E. Ford Education Grant. In 2013, Tom Flood, visual arts teacher and sustainability teacher, and his company Diluvian LLC, finished a construction project on the site of the old Madrona Auto Building. The building, now known as Pike Station, recently won the American Institute of Architects Award of Merit and Home of Distinction. The project was also featured in the May 2015 issue of Seattle Magazine as a live/work project with an eco-friendly design. For five weeks this past summer, Jason Gough, College Advisor and English teacher, taught English for Phillips Exeter Academy’s summer session in New Hampshire. Lily Hotchkiss, visual arts teacher, was recently featured in the February 2015 edition of Seattle’s Child. The article discusses the mobile art lab that she and two other artists began over four years ago as a community program to make art more accessible. The mobile lab, housed in a truck, travels to various locations in the city, providing arts supplies and inspiration for artists young and old.

80 BEST OF SAAS | 2015-2016

Faculty Profile: Chelsea Wilcox The first thing that drew Chelsea Wilcox to SAAS in 2011 was the energy and kid-centered culture she found stepping into the Middle School Building. Since then, she’s been teaching math, leading outdoor experiences, and developing a robotics program in the Middle School, including an after-school club, summer camp, and upcoming computational thinking elective. “I think the most rewarding part of working with SAAS students is being a part of their lives beyond the time I see them in the classroom each day,” Chelsea said. “Our students are involved in so many activities and as faculty, we get to be involved with clubs, sports, and trips that allow us to be a part of multiple facets of kids' development.” Chelsea has a Bachelor of Science degree in Teaching Secondary Mathematics from New York University and a Master’s degree in Computing and Education from Columbia University. Though her family lives in Anacortes, she came to SAAS from New York, where she taught math, coached volleyball and developed curricula for Algebra at Williamsburg Charter High School, and consulted on curriculum for Believe High Schools Network. She also tutored for Kaplan Kids and the Door Tutoring Service, and received the President’s Service Award for Volunteerism at New York University. At SAAS, she teaches Integrated Algebra for 7th and 8th grade and Pre Algebra for 7th. “The most important part of my job is helping students develop the skills and mindset needed to find their passions and have the attitude of a learner in whatever they decide to pursue,” Chelsea said. “I want my students to be excited about learning, know how to access and use various resources, take risks and try new things, advocate for themselves, ask questions, etc. I see math as a vehicle for helping my students practice these things, and I try to model this for them in and out of the classroom.”

Upper School math teacher David Johns presented MathChat, a collaborative homework-help app he helped develop for iOS, at Edsurge’s Los Angeles Tech for Schools Summit in September 2014. Rebecca Klein, Spanish teacher, and her husband Max Handler, gave birth to their first child, Remy Isaac Handler, in June 2015. Ashley Knight, physical education teacher and coach, was named the Emerald City League Coach-of-the-Year in Girls’ Basketball. Ashley’s baby girl, Charley, was born on December 4, 2014. (In photo, far left) Jennifer Nelson, Middle School Counselor, gave birth to Cody August Nelson in March 2015. Director of College Advising, Melanie Reed, presented at the National Association of College Admission Counseling (NACAC) national conference and at the Association of College Counselors in Independent Schools (ACCIS) national conference. At the end of the 2015 Youth Legislature session in Olympia, Steve Retz, History Department Chair and Youth Legislature

Advisor, won The Outstanding Advisor award for the state of Washington. Paul Shapiro, SAAS Arts Director, and former member of the Board of the Art Schools Network (ASN), was asked to be on the planning for ASN’s national conference working closely with Jonathan Lindsay of Cornish College of the Arts, the host institution. Andrew Spitzer, Development Assistant, married Carley Brockmiller in August 2014. Joel Underwood, Speech and Debate Coach and Rhetoric Department Chair, was featured in the October 2014 ParentMap article The Case for Debate: Technology and TED are Helping to Reinvigorate Speech in School. The article, subtitled Why Joining the Debate Team Could Be the Best Thing Your Teen Does for College and Career Success, discusses how the accessibility of information via technology has changed the speech and debate landscape. The article also discusses the multiple skills developed through speech and debate, such as presentation, active listening, and how to analyze what others are saying.

2015-2016 | BEST OF SAAS 81

ALUMNI PROFILES “Time” By Adrian Brandon. Los Angeles

Adrian Brandon ’11 Adrian Brandon ’11 is multi-faceted; his passion for people and community is as deep rooted as his skill for basketball and visual art. At SAAS he led the boys’ basketball team to an Emerald City League (ECL) title—and won the ECL MVP award, took honors courses, traveled to India and the Yukon, was a leader in the Four Corners diversity club, and even made a stage debut in Hairspray his senior year. Adrian just graduated from Pitzer College, where he was a shooting guard on the Pomona-Pitzer basketball team, dual majored in studio art and environmental analysis, and studied abroad in Costa Rica his sophomore year. Starting in September 2015, he will be teaching English in Taiwan for a year on a Fulbright Scholarship, where he hopes to encourage students to take risks in the classroom, use his artistic background to teach in an innovative way, and draw on his 15 years of competitive sports experience to organize pickup games and join a local team to promote cross-cultural exchange. He’ll be chronicling his experience on his website, www.adrianbrandon.com, which also hosts a mix of his illustrations, digital art and graphic design work, including a Black Lives Matter collection highlighting America’s dissonant perspective on race, and a series of “trading cards” exploring the frequent lack of legal accountability required from professional athletes. Pieces from Adrian’s art series are also available for purchase on his website. Adrian often uses his art to question oppressive structures and promote positive human interaction. He’s also done murals, including one at an elementary school in Platanillo, Costa Rica called El Hombre Basura. His idea was to inspire more public art in the community: he interviewed community members in the process to better understand their artistic values, and used the mural to address littering as an environmental problem. He has two other murals in Los Angeles. Adrian plans to use illustration to document his adventures during his year in Taiwan, and most likely the same resourcefulness that led him to capture a trout using a rock as a fishing pole on the senior Yukon Trip will ensure that he has many of them to share.

Reid Furubayashi ’11 As a member of student government, Four Corners Diversity Club, Mock Trial, varsity soccer, varsity track and field, and the Seattle Foundation Youth Grantmaking Board as well as a national Speech and Debate finalist, Reid Furubayashi ’11 was an engaged student at SAAS. His senior project was working for a small law firm interrogating witnesses, preparing cross-examination questions, documenting crime scenes and testifying in court about his findings—and he’s since taken his skill set for leadership, critical thinking, research and rhetoric far and wide. As an incoming freshman at Claremont McKenna College (CMC), Reid was honored by CMC’s University Rotary Club with its Service Above Self Award for his work with the Seattle South African Scholarship Foundation, The Seattle Foundation, the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure, and the AIDS Walk. He went on to become the president of the mock trial team, leading and coaching the entirely student-run 36-member program, as well as creating and managing a $14,000 program budget—the largest club budget on campus. As a sophomore, Reid won the fifth annual Robert Day Business Case Competition, where he was awarded $5,000 for presenting the best business strategy in response to the annual Harvard Business Review Case. With four days to prepare, he competed against both undergraduate and graduate students. During his junior year, Reid studied abroad at the American College of Thessaloniki in Greece, where he took a semester of business administration and philosophy course and traveled to countries around Europe. He also worked as a business development analyst for Asia Pacific Investment Partners, including going with the CEO to a week-long roadshow in Tokyo to prepare presentation materials and organize meetings with potential investors. Reid graduated from Claremont McKenna College this year with an interdisciplinary major in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics (PPE) Leadership Sequence, and he’s now taking his talents to Bulgaria to teach English on a Fulbright Scholarship. As a Fulbright Scholar, he will have the opportunity to meet, connect and live with people in Montana, Bulgaria, and learn about their lives and perspectives to promote mutual understanding, intellectual freedom, and integrity. 82 BEST OF SAAS | 2015-2016

Reid (left) and Adrian (right) have both received Fulbright Scholarships for next year. The Fulbright U.S. Student Program provides grants for individually designed study/research projects or for English Teaching Assistant Programs. Adrian will be teaching English in Taiwan, and Reid will be teaching English in Bulgaria.

Nina Finley ’12 Nina Finley ’12 is the type of person who happens across a dead fish on the beach and decides to pop it open to show you what gill arches look like—while reminiscing about the time she made a pseudo lab on her front porch to dissect fish heads in Ecuador. And after that she might go workout in the woods to stay in shape for her Ultimate Frisbee team, The Lady Sweets. A biology and environmental studies student at Whitman College, Nina’s currently applying her curiosity, talent for detailed observation, and hands-on style of exploration to a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) funded internship studying sea stars at the Seattle Aquarium. In May, she was awarded an Udell scholarship for environmental leadership. “What makes her unique is that she comes at green issues from a research-driven, science-grounded perspective,” said Keith Raether, Director of Whitman College's Office of Fellowships and Grants. “She wants to connect micro to macro, microbe to biome to ecosystem health.” Nina’s research has focused on the relationship between wildlife disease epidemics and ecosystem health and livestock, an interest she was already building back in high school when she started the city’s first 4-H youth urban farming club to teach middle and high school students how to grow vegetables as well as raise and slaughter meat. At the time she was also a serious force on the SAAS Ultimate Frisbee tea. As a sophomore, she was the youngest player selected to play on the USA National Team at the World Junior Ultimate Championships in Germany, and she played again as a senior. In 2013, she was named the Skyd Ultimate All-American Freshman of the year at Ohio State. Nina’s adventurous spirit has taken her far and wide for research and life experience. She has studied livestock husbandry in Ohio, forestry in Brazil, sea lion diet in the Galapagos Islands, hawksbill sea turtle nesting in coastal Ecuador, and sculpin jaw morphology on San Juan Island. She’s documented her travels and handson wildlife experiences on her blog, Natural Selections, where her pictures range from an Incan colonial palace to a tiny, marble-like lens she cut from the eye of a fish. 2015-2016 | BEST OF SAAS 83

ALUMNI PROFILES Alexa Jarvis ’08 SAAS alumna Alexa Jarvis ’08 has so many music credits that when a Seattle Times reporter asked her if she’d sang on the Final Fantasy videogame soundtrack, she had to take a pause and mentally sift through her own resume to remember. The interview was a preview piece for a July show called “Distant Worlds: Music from Final Fantasy,” in which Jarvis and several other singers joined the Seattle Symphony to perform music from the wildly popular video game at Benaroya Hall. Alexa, who was in Vocal Ensemble and The Onions at SAAS, first started singing with Northwest Girlchoir and Vocalpoint! Seattle, and imprinted the SAAS community with memories of her powerful voice with songs like How Can I Keep From Singing performed with the Vocal Ensemble her junior year. After SAAS she went on to study opera at DePaul University in Chicago, briefly lending her extensive musical skills to teaching in the music program at SAAS after college as well. Alexa has since built herself a blossoming career as an opera singer, including singing for Hollywood’s top video game soundtracks as she developed her stage career. Though the live performance was her only experience with Final Fantasy, she also sang on The Hobbit, Halo 4, Diablo and World of Warcraft soundtracks. She has performed throughout Europe, including bringing her “beautiful, stirring voice” to Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni in Lucca, Italy and a stint as a Summer Studio Artist at Germany’s Lüneburg Opera, where she was in La Bohème. Alexa was Alitsa in “Our Earth” at Seattle Opera, and also sang with the Seattle Symphony on the Grammy-nominated choral recording of Samuel Jones’ composition The Shoebird. She won the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions Washington District, and was a Runner Up in the Palm Springs Opera Guild Competition in both 2013 and 2014, and has played Micaëla in Le Tragedie de Carmen, Suor Genovieffa in Suor Angelica, Pamina in Die Zauberflöte with Northwest Opera in the Schools, Poppea in L'incornazione di Poppea, and Yum Yum in Gilbert & Sullivan's The Mikado with Seattle's Gilbert & Sullivan Society. In 2015 Alexa won the Northwest District Metropolitan Opera Competition, becoming a Northwest Regional Finalist. Alexa moved to New York City in August 2015, where she’ll be earning her Master of Music at the Mannes School of Music at The New School.

Adam Quinn ’11 When he took on the role of Edna Turnblad in Hairspray at SAAS, Adam Quinn ’11 didn’t play Edna; he became Edna—complete with a costume that provided him with the necessary robust stature. In fact, his duet with Evan Jayne ’11, You Are Timeless to Me, received nearly perfect scores from judges at the Washington State Thespians Individual Event Festival – West. Adam was a staple of the Seattle Academy stage in high school. He directed the school’s first entirely student-run musical, won two playwright competitions, worked as an assistant director of two professional musicals during the summer—Working in Chicago and America Rocks! at New York’s Lucille Lortel Theater with Gordon Greenberg—and somehow found time for The Onions and indoor soccer. He also did his senior project as a casting intern at 5th Avenue Theater and wrote a play in James Watson’s 12th Grade Honors English class called Civilized Manner that was one of eight plays selected by ACT Theatre to be produced for a staged reading at the Festival of Young Playwrights. Adam’s doing much of the same at the University of Michigan, where he’s now a senior earning his BFA in directing—a program that accepts just four new students each year. He has directed three full-scale plays on campus; Next to Normal, Rent, and Into the Woods, a musical that follows famous fairytale characters to the end of their stories and then explores what happens after “happily ever after.” He directed the show with an eye to breaking away from the restrictions of the fairytales, past productions of the play itself, and even traditional ways a play might be rehearsed and staged in general. Adam also assistant-directed a production of Rent at 5th Avenue Theater in his sophomore year of college and just wrapped up the 5th Avenue’s production of Grease this summer. He was featured in Variety’s Education Impact Report as one of 110 students to watch in 2015, and he’s been nominated for the University of Michigan UpstART Award, given to integral members of the arts community at UM for their spirit of passion, creativity, and artistic expression.

84 BEST OF SAAS | 2015-2016

Alexa Jarvis ’08

Adam Quinn ’11

Christine Primomo ’06 If the SAAS community remembers anything about Christine Primomo ’06 as vividly as her instinct for compassionate leadership, fondness for the outdoors and love of learning, it must be her wide smile, ready laugh, and enthusiastic attitude. At SAAS, Christine was a leader of the outdoor club, a captain of the cross country team, a mentor on many outdoor trips, and participated in student government. As a student and in her professional career beyond SAAS, she has repeatedly demonstrated her ability to drive steadfastly toward her goals, support others with a compassionate heart, and meet people where they are. Christine earned her Bachelor’s degree from Pitzer College with a major in science, technology, and society as well as a minor in environmental studies. It was during an AmeriCorp position teaching after school science in Austin, Texas that she realized her passion for engaging young people in environmental education. She went on to earn a Master’s degree in Science Education at the University of Washington, including a three-year residency at Islandwood, an award-winning environmental learning center on Bainbridge Island. Christine has combined her passions to teach math and science at Lake Washington Girls Middle School (LWGMS), where this May her students surprised her at their school assembly with a massive check—a Centurylink Clark M. Williams Foundation’s Teachers and Technology Grant for nearly $5000. Both surprised and delighted, she plans to use the funds to buy four complete sets of Vernier computer interfaces for the school. Vernier interfaces will enable students to expand their science learning with elegant tools for measuring, logging, and analyzing data. She will also attend the Vernier Summer Institute to prepare to integrate technology into the school’s curriculum. Students will be able to test and retest their designs and solutions and gain experience collecting data during scientific investigations related to ecology, human biology, physics, chemistry and more. “This technology will allow students the opportunity to collect, analyze, and communicate data on investigations such as the pollution levels in a local stream before and after a school-wide habitat restoration project,” Christine said. “This invaluable learning opportunity seamlessly integrates science and technology in our students’ lives, supporting students to discover how to use science and technology to make an impact on their communities.” Christine believes “education should inspire all learners to be creative problem solvers, active community members, and engaged critical thinkers.”

Christine (wearing scarf) holding a check from the CenturyLink Clark M. Williams Foundation’s Teachers and Technology Grant 2015-2016 | BEST OF SAAS 85

ANNOUNCEMENTS

Engagements I Q R L K D O H B F S

G N C P J E A

Jacob Luft ’93 engaged to Sue Chantorn Dave Gertler ’02 engaged to Shilpi Chhotray Margaret Y. Irribarra ’03 engaged to Jeremy Swanson Julia Demmert ’05 engaged to Darroch Malcom Lauren Gill ’05 engaged to Cole Weyenberg Mimi Maritz ’06 engaged to Ben Grannan Nicholas Brown ’06 engaged to Megan Mullay Mira Patrick ’07 engaged to Kael Melanson

Marriages Eve Fordyce ’93 married Justin Bowles Miriam Sternoff ’94 married O’Neal McKnight Michelle Leary ’03 married Joe Chang Christopher Pitcher ’03 married Arin Amsler Case Blum ’04 married Molly Cherkin ’03 Nathan Fihn ’04 married Quinn Hooper ’05 Lauren Rubinfeld ’04 married Philippos Kyriacou Austen Holman ’04 married Jared Tankel Mackenzie Lawrence ’05 married Christopher Matthews Cameron Nichols ’05 married Miki Bird Yael Grundstein ’05 married Luis Garcia Ali Alhadeff ’06 married Conor Pollom Julia Day ’07 married Brad Webb

New Arrivals

Greg Ferguson ’91, Coleman Jack Rosen ’01, Rita Filomena Lisa Feiertag ’02, Felix M Freddy Carley ’04 & Jessen (Myburgh) Carley ’04, George Warren Meagan Mays ’04, Marilyn Andrew Mullins-Williams ’07, Henry

B 86 BEST OF SAAS | 2015-2016

R Q

Andrea Maki ’84

Andrea Maki ’84 graduated from New York University in 1988 with a B.S. in Visual Art and Painting. She is a Seattle native and has been working as a contemporary visual artist with exhibitions and installations nationally over the last twenty-eight years. She is also the Founder and President of Wild Love Preserve, a non-profit that addresses issues of native wild horse populations in their landscapes. Founded in 2010 and located in central Idaho, the mission of Wild Love Preserve is to preserve native wild horses in their habitat and nurture the legacy of indigenous ecosystems on wild public lands in a responsible and sustainable manner. Andrea’s efforts have been recognized in national media outlets including publications such as Sun Valley Magazine, All Animals Magazine, Horsetalk Magazine in New Zealand, and was the featured charity in the November 2011 issue of the Cambridge Press. In 2014, Andrea was nominated to the nine88 BEST OF SAAS | 2015-2016

Annie Brady Sheehan ’99 with husband Patrick Sheehan

seat National Wild Horse Advisory Board in Washington, DC. Guy Hutchison ’90 graduated from Santa Clara University in 1994 where he earned BSCSE in Computer Science and Engineering. Since graduating, he has worked in chip design for various engineering companies like HP, Cisco Systems, and Marvell Semiconductor. He is a private pilot and has served as a volunteer emergency service worker for the Civil Air Patrol. In 2011, Guy founded and served as CEO of XPliant, a semiconductor company designing next-generation switching silicon. Xpliant was acquired by Cavium, Inc. in 2014. Following the acquisition, Guy is the Associate Vice President of Hardware Engineering at Cavium, Inc. He is married with two children and lives in Santa Clara, CA. Miriam Sternoff ’94 graduated from the New York Fashion Institute of Technology in 2000. After school,

she worked for stores like Bergdorf Goodman, Ralph Lauren, and Barney’s where she styled window displays. In 2003, Miriam began working as a Freelance Fashion Stylist with Exclusive Artists Management a celebrity hair, makeup, and styling agency based in Los Angeles, CA. In 2010 Miriam co-founded Mac and Mir, a styling company that specializes in celebrity, commercial, and advertising. This past year Miriam starred in the Lifetime reality series “Kosher Soul” that followed her life with her fiancé comedian O’Neal McKnight as they prepared for their nuptials. She recently launched her own website, www.miriamsternoff. com, that features her professional portfolio, a fashion inspiration blog, and chronicles her personal style. Annie Brady Sheehan ’99 graduated from Washington State University in 2004 where she majored in Communications and Sociology. While working as the Executive Assistant to the CEO of WB Games,

Whitney Linscott ’03

Adam Stelle ’05

Annie founded her own photography studio annie b STILLS, and was the Staff Photographer for Seattleite from 2010-2013. Now Annie works as a full-time freelance photographer and owns her own studio space in Pioneer Square for annie b STILLS. She specializes in subject matter including food and products, design, corporate and commercial events, head shots, and portraiture. She works with clients such as Nieman Marcus and Sur La Table and has been published nationally in works like Interior Design Magazine, PEOPLE Magazine, and Writers Digest. Currently, Annie is developing a home styling and design offshoot of annie b STILLS called annie b STYLES.

owns and runs a corporation called Soniferous, which provides audio production services such as live and studio album recording/mixing/ producing, concert production, and live sound support. Soniferous also services the film and television industry by providing location sound engineers, post-supervision, score recording, and mixing. Soniferous partners with many music entities, LA Opera, LA Philharmonic, major record labels, concert production companies, orchestras, and arts organizations around the country. Nick is also a co-producer of the music festival Moogfest in North Carolina. You can read more about Nick's work and client list on his website: Nicktipp.com.

Nick Tipp ’02 graduated from the University of Southern California in 2007 with a B.A. in Music Industry Technology Track. Nick is currently engaged in changing the sound of recorded classical music and live amplified orchestra concerts. He

Whitney Linscott ’03 graduated summa cum laude, one year early (’0 6) , from A r izona S ta te University's W.P. Carey School of Business. While attending ASU, she interned with Merrill Lynch before working as a Commercial Lending

Analyst with Ally Financial. She now is the Director of Dealer Lending with Santander Bank in Dallas, TX. She is currently a semi-finalist in D Magazine's annual search for the most powerful, confident, influential, and beautiful women in Dallas. Outside work, Whitney volunteers with Dallas CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocates), a nonprofit organization of volunteers appointed by a judge that advocate on behalf of abused and neglected children in court. Adam Stelle ’05 graduated from the University of British Columbia Cum Laude in 2005 with a B.A. in Philosophy. Since graduating, Adam has been involved in the world of entrepreneurship and startups. He traveled to South Africa and launched a pilot leveraging microfinance to help entrepreneurs sell green energy home appliances to low-income households. On returning to Seattle, he worked as the Chief Operating Officer for Startup 2015-2016 | BEST OF SAAS 89

Parker Reddington ’05

Weekend, providing communitydriven workshops for aspiring entrepreneurs throughout the U.S. and beyond. In 2013 he co-founded UP Global, a non-profit offering learning programs, resources, and networks in partnership with groups like Google, the Case Foundation, Microsoft, and the White House. As the VP of Growth, Adam drove global impact by opening offices inLondon, Mexico, Brazil, India, and Malaysia. Recently, Adam took on a role as Vice President at Galvanize, a venture-backed education company creating outcome-driven learning opportunities for engineers, data scientists, and entrepreneurs with campuses in Colorado, San Francisco, and Seattle. Parker Reddington ’05 graduated from New York University in 2009 with a B.A. in Branding and New Media Design. Parker works freelance 90 BEST OF SAAS | 2015-2016

Andi Alhadeff ’07

as a producer for his own media production and design company, Slap Crackle Pop, where he consults on branding, audio/video production, web development, and social media content and strategy. With his company, Parker has worked with prestigious clients such as Ford, CocaCola, and Chrysler. Concurrently, Parker is one-third of the independent electronic pop band The Flavr Blue, where he produces, writes, directs, and designs content as well as performs. The group performed in Seattle at the Capitol Hill Block Party and has played shows both nationally and internationally in the last year. Anna Thomas-Henry ’07 attended the Shanghai Conservatory of Music in Shangai, graduated from The American Musical and Dramatic Academy, the Circus Warehouse Pro Program in NYC and the School of Acrobatics and New Circus Arts

Professional Prep Program (SANCA) in Seattle. Anna is now a specialty performer focusing on aerial fabric. She earned first place in the 2015 U.S. Aerial Championships in New York City and was selected to compete in the 2015 Aerial Acrobatic Arts Festival in Denver. She is based out of Seattle and coaches aerial, handbalancing, strength, and flexibility locally at SANCA and the UMO School while at home. You can also find her performing with the locally based contemporary circus company The Acrobatic Conundrum as well as traveling to perform and teach. A n d i A l h a d e f f ’ 0 7 g r ad u a t e d from Northwestern University in 2011 with a B.A. in Theatre and Certificate in Musical Theatre. Andi has been working in the world of musical theatre since graduation, both onstage and behind the scenes. She was an associate producer for

Anna Thomas-Henry ’07

Marcus Petitt ’09

Memphis (2009), the hit Broadway musical that won the 2010 Tony Award for Best Musical. She has also been featured onstage in multiple productions at Seattle’s very own 5th Avenue Theatre. Her shows include Oliver!, The Sound of Music, RENT (2012), and the brand new musical Jasper in Deadland (2015). This past summer, she was featured as ChaCha in the 5th Avenue’s production of Grease.

for students of varying experience. Marcus resides in Los Angeles and serves as a director for the youth and young adult choirs at Holy Name of Jesus Catholic Church. In 2013, Marcus formed his own Gospel music group known as Marcus Petitt & Eclectic Praise. The ensemble is currently recording its debut album and recently released the first single, God’s Gonna Do It, several months ago on marcuspetitt.com, iTunes, Amazon MP3, and Google Play.

Since graduating in 2013 from the University of Southern California’s Thornton School of Music with his B.M. in Music Industry Studies (emphasis in Vocal Jazz), Marcus Petitt ’09 has been performing with non-profit organizations like the Inner City Youth Orchestra of Los Angeles. He has also been teaching music (he is the Music Program Director at St. Anastasia Catholic School) and provides freelance vocal instruction

Chloe Scholes ’09 graduated from the University of Oregon in 2013 with a B.S. in Health Services, majoring in Human Physiology. After graduation, she moved back to Seattle where she worked at Lakeside School helping develop curriculum for their summer school program. She spent the last year as a Resident Teacher at University Child Development School (UCDS), co-

Hannah Elisabeth Dougherty ’09

teaching early elementary students. Summer 2015, Chloe started a twoyear position teaching pre-primary students at the Ascend International School in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. Ascend is the India-based partner school to UCDS and part of the Kasegaon Education Society, a n orga n iza ti on tha t p rov id es educational opportunities to over 26,000 students in Maharashtra. Hannah Elisabeth Dougherty ’09 graduated from Loyola University New Orleans in 2014 with her B.S. in Psychology. While in school, Hannah ran cross country and earned multiple awards. She was awarded Athlete of the Week in October 2014, named to the All-Decade Team, and ran the second fastest 6k time in Loyola University history her senior year. Hannah has continued to run longdistances and qualify for races like the Boston Marathon. Most recently, 2015-2016 | BEST OF SAAS 91

Hannah Van Nostrand ’10

she was selected to be one of thirty adults to run across America as part of 4K for Cancer through the Ulman Cancer Fund for Young Adults. This past summer, Hannah ran across the United States, from San Francisco to Baltimore in forty-two days, stopping at various cities on rest days to visit and offer support to families who have been affected by cancer. When she isn’t running, Hannah works for Summit NOLA, a company that buys, restores, and sells homes in New Orleans. Hannah Van Nostrand ’10 has traveled around the world since graduating from SAAS. She spent two semesters in Costa Rica studying Spanish and International Relations, studied Arabic in Morocco and Jordan, and lived in Patagonia with the National Outdoor Leadership School. She previously attended Zhejiang University where she was studying Mandarin in Hangzhou, 92 BEST OF SAAS | 2015-2016

Joshua Schenkkan ’10 (Top photo) Sarendum Alemu ’11 (Bottom photo)

Zhejiang, China. Currently, Hannah is attending the Long Island University Global College in New York where she will graduate in 2016 with a B.A. in Global Studies. At school, Hannah has acted as the Student Representative to China and served as the Student Government Secretary. Joshua Schenkkan ’10 graduated Magna Cum Laude from Brown University with a B.A. in Religious Studies (Honors Program) in 2014. At Brown, he was nominated and awarded the Brown University Distinguished Thesis Award, an award that recognizes the top five theses across the entire graduating class. He was also awarded the Bishop McVickar Prize for best senior thesis on the study of religion. While at school, he worked as the features editor for The College Hill Independent, Providence's second-largest weekly newspaper. Currently, Josh is living in Seoul, Korea, and working as the

Deputy Business Editor for the Korea JoongAng Daily, which is the sister paper of the International New York Times in Korea. Sarendum Alemu ’11 is currently attending the University of Oregon and will graduate in 2016 with a B.A. in Business Administration and Management. Since 2014, she has served as the first AfricanAmerican President for Women in Business, a club within the Lundquist College of Business that is aimed at creating networking opportunities to empower women and increase female enrollment at the school. As President, she is planning a Women in Business Gala for the spring of 2016 that will host over two-hundred guests. Additionally, she has helped to design and implement a retail management program and major at the University of Oregon. Sarendum is currently interning as a General Merchandise Intern paired with the

Addison Carvajal ’12

VP of Operations and VP of General Merchandise at the Kroger-Fred Meyer Main Office in Portland. Addison Carvajal ’12 is currently attending Bowdoin College and will graduate in 2016 with a B.A. in Economics and Government Studies. At Bowdoin, she plays varsity rugby and is on the track and field team. In 2014, Addison was recruited to the United States National Rugby Team and invited to the Olympic Training Center in California to train with the national team in preparation for the 2016 Olympics. She was named the Division III Women’s Athlete of the Week by the U.S. Track and Field Cross Country Coaches Association based upon her performance at the Bowdoin College’s Tri-Meet in January 2015 where she broke the school’s indoor Pentathlon record by setting personal records in the long-jump, shot put, and hurdles.

Duncan McCormick ’14

Currently, Addison is working as a Support Sales Intern at Kepware Technologies in Portland, Maine and was named to the 2014-15 Women's Collegiate All Americans as a Back in women's rugby. In August 2015, Addison was invited to the Collegiate All Americans and USA Women’s Eagles rugby team recruiting camp in Greeley, Colorado where she was in the selection pool for the Women’s National Rugby Team for the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

powerhouse Sounders FC squad. Duncan is no stranger to the Seattle Sounders FC club considering his father played on the USL team from 1998-2002, and Duncan has played with the Sounders Academy since 2011. When not on the pitch, Duncan has prepared for a post-soccer career and earned his real estate license, working as a property manager for three complexes on Capitol Hill. Expect to see exciting things from Duncan as he continues to develop and make a name for himself among the Sounders organization.

Duncan McCormick ’14 Duncan was offered a scholarship to play soccer for Wake Forest University in North Carolina but deferred in hopes of achieving his dreams to play soccer professionally. In early February 2015, Duncan was one of the first players to sign with the newly formed Sounders S2 team, the developmental team that is one small step below the MLS 2015-2016 | BEST OF SAAS 93

L to R: Blaire Piha ’07, Sam Chapman ’07, and Rachel Godbe ’07 *

Hadley Rodden ’09, Bailey Zahniser ’08*, and Abby Callahan ’09

Alumni Holiday Party • December 21, 2014 This year’s Holiday Happy Hour was held at one of Seattle Academy’s local favorites, The Chieftain. Attendees

included alumni spanning three decades, from the Class of 1990 all the way up to recent grads from the Class of 2012. The evening was a huge success with over one-hundred alums in attendance to reconnect and celebrate the holiday season.

L to R: Yurij Rudensky ’03, Kina Walker ’06*, and Blaire Piha ’07

Jessen (Myburgh) Carley ’04 with husband Freddy Carley ’04* and baby George ’33

Alumni Spring Happy Hour • May 29, 2015 The Alumni Board hosted a new event in May to celebrate the end of the school year and the beginning of

summer. Hosted at Auto Battery, alums played pool, shuffleboard, and skee-ball and enjoyed a hot summer evening on the popular night spot’s patio. Dean of Faculty, Fred Strong, stopped by to visit and SAAS Technology Coordinator/photographer, Nick Lew, was able to capture the fun.

Class of 2005 10-year Reunion • August 1, 2015

The Class of 2005 celebrated their 10-year reunion at Chuck's Hop Shop CD. Alums enjoyed the specialty beverages featured at Chuck's as well as snacks provided by the rotating food trucks the Hop Shop offers on a daily basis. Alums enjoyed good conversation and the warm Seattle summer evening on the front patio.

Class of 1995 20-year Reunion • August 8, 2015

The Class of 1995 celebrated their 20-year reunion by visiting the Seattle Academy campus! Hosted by ’95 alumna Kelly (Aitchison) Rettenmier, the class enjoyed a cocktail hour hosted at school, took a special tour of campus and had a sneak peek at the new STREAM building. After the tour, alums enjoyed dinner and conversation at neighborhood restaurants, The Tin Table and Tavern Law. Class of 1995 20-year Reunion, L to R: Matt Bronson with daughter Lula, Chelsea Tripp, Jim Gow, Anna Welland, Kelly (Aitchison) Rettenmier, and Monique Heineman

All Alumni Reunion 2015 August 21, 2015 For alumni. By alumni. From the food to the drinks to the music,

Seattle Academy alumni were the highlight of the All Alumni Reunion 2015. Founding faculty member of Seattle Academy’s science program, Melinda Mueller, and Science Department Chair, Peter Clark, helped host the annual event with over ninety SAAS Grads in attendance, including alums spanning three decades, from the Class of 1998 to recent grads from the Class of 2015. Over thirty faculty and staff members, both current and former, joined to reconnect and catch up with former students in the newest addition to the SAAS Campus, the STREAM building! Alumni toured STREAM and saw 33,000 square feet of lab science spaces, the new robotics lab, and two-story Learning Commons. Sustainable technologies were also on view including an 11,000 gallon cistern, solar panels, and natural ventilation. STREAM is the first of two buildings to be constructed over a five year period as part of SAAS Rising: A Campaign for Campus Transformation. See page 8 for more details.

The soundtrack for the evening highlighted a handful of the many talented

alumnae artists SAAS’ music program has produced. The voices of Alana Bell ’03, Whitney Fliss ’05, Alexa Jarvis ’08, Jennifer Hoyt ’09, Rylie DeGarmo ’11, and Isadora Matthews ’15 were featured in an eclectic mix of classical opera, alternative rock, blues/jazz and folk music.

L to R: Fred Strong* and Melinda Mueller* with former founding Humanities teacher, Canfield Smith

L to R: Dexter Chapin* with Anita Erskine ’15 and Connor Rice ’15

Alumnus Sean Roberts ’07, founder of Llamas’ Brewing Company, crafted

four special beers inspired by Seattle Academy. Sean’s handcrafted brews included: Seattle Stout, Academy Amber, Arts Porter, and Sciences IPA. Luke Armitstead ’07 designed label art for each beer which was printed on drink coasters as a memento for guests.

Tom Hajduk, faculty member and co-owner of local wine shop, Vino Verite,

offered wine-tasting with a twist. Each wine was inspired by a department or a faculty member at SAAS. Alums sampled rare and exotic red blends from ancient Macedonia, the south of France, Italy, and South Africa.

L to R: Conor Grisham ’06, Nell McInerney ’06, and Maddie Stein ’12

Local taco-truck and catering company, El Camion, provided the main course for dinner delivering a delicious taco bar.

Joel Gameron ’03, Senior Resident Chef at Sur La Table NYC, provided

a finishing touch with his STREAM Salsa. Inspired by the letters from the building’s name, Joel hand-crafted a unique recipe featuring scallions, tomatoes, radishes, extra virgin olive oil, apple cider vinegar and mint to create a slow-roasted Sungold tomato salsa. Joel says, “I love this salsa spooned on top of cooked fish or smeared on a charred piece of rustic country bread. Of course you could dive in with a chip as well.” Any way you want it, this salsa is delicious!

L to R: Peter Clark* with Justin Lim ’12, Claire Looney ’12, and Lindsey Vandergrift ’12

Chef Amy Underwood and the SAAS Lunch Program whipped up a

batch of Head of School Joe Puggelli’s favorite “Kitchen Sink” cookies with macadamia nuts, toasted coconut, chocolate chips, and other tasty ingredients.

Alumni

left messages to the future generations of SAAS Grads on STREAM’s glass marker boards in the Learning Commons. Sage advice was left behind for Seattle Academy students as they return to campus to begin the new school year. *Seattle Academy Faculty or Staff Member

L to R: Achijah Berry ’10*, Phillip Berry ’06, Sarah Freeman ’03, Rob Phillips*, Alana Bell ’03*, and Brooks Hopp ’08*

2015-2016 | BEST OF SAAS 95

Seattle Academy Calendar 2015-2016 SEPTEMBER 1 September 8 September 9 September 25 OCTOBER 15 NOVEMBER 10 November 12-14 November 16 NOVEMBER 16 November 19-20 December 3-4 December 18 Dec. 21 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Jan. 4 JANUARY 9 JANUARY 14 January 30 February 4-6 February 11-12 February 11-13 February 15-19 FEBRUARY 19 FEBRUARY 23 February 25-27 March 8

ONLINE APPLICATION OPENS Orientation Day First Full Day of School Parent Enrichment Evening OPEN HOUSE OPEN HOUSE Upper School Musical: The Addams Family All-Grade Instrumental Show with 7th Grade Vocal APPLICANT STUDENT VISITS BEGIN 8th Grade Show: Crazy Town Upper School Vocal Showcase Basketball Mania Winter Break ISEE TEST APPLICATION DEADLINE SAAS in the City Community Celebration Upper School Drama: Cyrano de Bergerac 7th Grade Show: The Last Gladiator Upper School Vocal Ensemble Mid-Winter Break UPPER SCHOOL DECISIONS ANNOUNCED UPPER SCHOOL ADMITTED FAMILY RECEPTION Middle School Musical: Shrek All-Grade Instrumental Show

MARCH 11 MARCH 15 March 17-18 March 19 MARCH 21 Mar. 31-Apr. 8 April 21-23 May 5 May 12-13 MAY 17 MAY 19 May 19-21 May 23 May 26-27 May 31 June 3-4 June 7 June 10 June 13 June 14

MIDDLE SCHOOL DECISIONS ANNOUNCED MIDDLE SCHOOL ADMITTED FAMILY RECEPTION Upper School Vocal Revue Spring Mania and SAAS Track and Field Relays APPLICANT RESPONSE DEADLINE Spring Break All-Grade Dance Show All-Grade Visual Arts Show 8th Grade Vocal Show MIDDLE SCHOOL NEW FAMILY WELCOME UPPER SCHOOL NEW FAMILY WELCOME Upper School Comedy: Scapin 6th Grade Arts Evening 7th Grade Show: Pirates of the Amazon All-Grade Instrumental Show Upper School Advanced Vocal: The Onions Senior Project Night Last Day of School / Curtain Call 8th Grade Moving Up Ceremony Class of 2016 Graduation Ceremony

For questions regarding any of these events, please contact Sheila Hanrahan, Communications Director, at (206) 676-6858 or shanrahan@seattleacademy.org.