Wonder, Spring 2021: Seattle Country Day School's magazine

SPRING 2021

Seattle Country Day School’s Magazine

Helping girls lead

What has the pandemic taught us?

The carrot and the Wildcat

FROM THE HEAD OF SCHOOL

A Sense of Wonder How has parent David Enslow’s year been? “I know more about vaccines and immunology than I ever have before,” he responds dryly.

Dave appears in an article on page 7, and I think he speaks for all of us. We’ve all spent this past year learning more about pandemics and, importantly, about ourselves.

And it is in that spirit of reexamination that we at SCDS reconsidered the magazine you’re holding right now: from name, to content, to design.

Wonder is our attempt to delve more deeply and connect more thoroughly with the worlds inside and outside the classroom. In this issue, for example, we talk to teachers and students about girls and leadership, especially in STEM, a realm where SCDS excels. We interview our very own science teacher-illustrator, Ellie Peterson.

If this year taught us about the importance of leadership and science (and leadership in science), it also reinforced the importance of the humanities, the healing touch of creativity and generosity. You’ll see those values — in the revival of the Wildcat, in our gleanings from COVID-19, in the student gallery — present in the magazine, too.

We all grew this year, and Wonder reflects it. Happy reading, everyone.

Kimberly A. Zaidberg Head of School

WONDER

Seattle Country Day School’s Magazine Spring 2021

Head of School Kimberly A. Zaidberg

Editor Delia Ward

Photography Libby Lewis Photography

President, Board of Trustees Ryan Schofield

(deliaward@seattlecountryday.org)

Printing AAA Printing

President, Alumni Council Devon Emily Thorsell ’05 President, Parent Council Lori Marquardt

Writer Meredith Bailey Design/Production Christa Fleming Design Illustration Ellie Peterson

Thank You To the many people in the SCDS community who contributed to this issue This magazine was produced with recycled, FSC-certified paper.

DEDICATED TO DIVERSITY, EQUITY, INCLUSION SCDS actively seeks to increase the breadth of diversity and inclusion in our entire community: the gifted children at the center of a dynamic learning process, their families, and our faculty, staff, and Board of Trustees. We aspire to include a wide variety of backgrounds and perspectives; to foster a deeper understanding and appreciation of differences; and to cultivate diverse thinking essential for creative problem-solving.

We affirm our belief that increasing and sustaining diversity and inclusiveness helps us to fulfill our mission of inspiring gifted children to reach their potential through inquiry, curiosity, and wonder. In support of our mission, we believe in continually examining all aspects of our school, including our curriculum, hiring practices, admissions procedures, communications, outreach, and professional development.

We recognize that diversity encompasses all socioeconomic, ethnic, racial and cultural backgrounds, family structures, gender and sexual identifications, and religious communities. In the spirit of true inquiry, we embrace this journey as an essential learning opportunity.

We pledge to attract, embrace, and support a diverse community; to foster an environment of authenticity and inclusion; to empower compassionate problem-solvers and risk-takers; and to inspire one another to better the world for all.

Measuring Happiness In 2019, if you’d asked me to list what made me happy — well, I’m not actually sure what I would have said. That’s the trick of being in a pandemic. There’s a before, and there’s an after, and now (fingers firmly crossed) we’re approaching the after.

WE’RE WONDERING ABOUT… 2

Helping Girls Lead

Encouragement and mindfulness lead the way

7

What Has the Pandemic Taught Us?

10

SCDS Next

12

The Carrot and the Wildcat

14

The Creative Dream: Ellie Peterson

16

Class Notes

18

The Gallery

20

Wildcat Territory

Musings on friends and school, loss and gratitude

Building the community

Where a mascot finds a kindred spirit

A science teacher and her drawing pad

What I will say now is easy. I’m happy my children go to Seattle Country Day School. Kim and our teachers refused to give up on the mission of educating our kids, whether the model was remote, hybrid, outdoor, or back-to-campus. The board and I deeply admire the school’s perseverance, innovation, and steadfast commitment to our children’s and the community’s safety.

As we head into summer, I’d like to wish our entire community some rest and respite — and the board’s congratulations on a job well done.

Our alumni share their adventures

Ryan Schofield President, SCDS Board of Trustees

Student creations on display

A brief look at the past few months

On the cover Makaila, SCDS kindergartener

PAGE 12

Our commitment to non-discrimination.

The school does not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, creed, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, national or ethnic origin, disability, or other legally protected status in the administration of its hiring policies, employment practices, educational policies, admissions policies, financial aid and loan programs, or athletic, extracurricular, or other school-administered programs.

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HELPING

GIRLS LEAD

By Meredith Bailey

Illustrated by Ellie Peterson

Girls can do anything! It’s a message that many females hear growing up, and on January 20, 2021, those words were imbued with fresh meaning when Vice President Kamala Harris was sworn into office.

Yet despite Harris’s historic win, the struggle for gender equity continues, and, for many girls, this struggle begins in the classroom: with the level of attention they get from the teacher, the learning materials they receive, even their own conception of what they can do.

The question then becomes: How does Seattle Country Day School create an academic environment that empowers girls to lead?

Working through bias Every class is different. However, for Thea Naikelis, a second-grade teacher at SCDS, there is one thing that remains constant: her commitment to self-awareness.

“You’d be surprised by how often your own internalized gender bias comes into play on an average day,” says Thea. “Because of that, I constantly question my expectations about classroom behavior. For example, if I think someone is being too chatty, I pause and consider, ‘Why do I think that?’”

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One strategy Thea uses to counteract bias is keeping track of students she calls upon, eliciting questions and comments from students who may be reluctant to speak up.

Despite outperforming boys in exams for STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) subjects, a national study of 15–16-year-old girls revealed they were half as likely to consider their best subject to be in STEM, according to Forbes.com. Susan Amsler-Akacem, K–3 technology teacher at SCDS, sometimes sees this reflected in class.

“A couple of my quieter girls said, ‘Oh, he’s a boy, he knows how to code,’” says Susan, noting that she’d encountered this perception at a previous school, too. “Sometimes the girls need reassurance that it’s okay to purposefully play with the coding software, to click this or click that and see what happens.”

“ You’d be surprised by how often your own internalized gender bias comes into play on an average day. Because of that, I constantly question my expectations about classroom behavior.” —Thea Naikelis, second-grade teacher To empower female students, Susan focuses on building confidence by showcasing their work in front of the class and inviting them to take risks. She has found that a little encouragement goes a long way — and that SCDS’s female students are not deterred by setbacks.

“Whether it’s coding or building a simple machine, if they are having issues with a project, they have a growth mindset about it,” Susan says. “They understand it might take a few tries until they get it right.”

Today, her students are using coding to tell stories about themselves, create virtual pets, and design games about everyday superheroes.

Recently, one of the quieter girls followed up with Susan.

“She said she didn’t know why she thought coding was for boys, that it really wasn’t hard at all, and that she can be creative!” says Susan.

“It’s been impressive to see the girls share the steps of their sophisticated work with the class and to watch all the students get excited about their projects.”

Making time and space “There’s this traditional belief that faster is better, particularly when it comes to math,” says Stephen Gussin, a seventh-grade math teacher at SCDS. “And many of my female students don’t like to work that way. They often prefer to

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HELPING GIRLS LEAD

thinking out loud and called out their answers. “They were unaware of how their voices were filling up a lot of airspace,” says Stephen.

To develop recognition of this behavior, Stephen asked all his seventh-grade students to fill out a survey about sharing in class. Then the students discussed the survey data. When it came time to draw conclusions, the group of boys had a revelation: They saw how excessive vocalizing impeded participation and leadership opportunities for others in the class. Classroom dynamics then shifted in a positive direction.

“Students of a variety of gender identities shared that the survey and conversation were helpful for creating a more inclusive space,” says Stephen.

Closing the gap in representation

“ I don’t care how fast students can do arithmetic.

What I care about is what sort of reasoning they apply.”

—Stephen Gussin, seventh-grade math teacher take their time and engage with a concept more deeply.”

In the classroom, Stephen advises against rushing toward answers. “I don’t care how fast students can do arithmetic. What I care about is what sort of reasoning they apply,” he says. “Do they understand why they got a particular answer or how the puzzle pieces of a problem fit together?”

Stephen is also vigilant about classroom participation. One year, a group of boys in his class did their 4

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Managing classroom dynamics is an important part of teaching at SCDS, and teachers also take a close look at the content they present to students. Are all the heroes and innovators male? Are all of them caucasian? Teachers look for ways to share material that is inclusive of genders, sex, and race.

“Many of the recommended children’s books are stereotypical — for example, featuring a boy and his dog going on an adventure,” says Thea. She prioritizes selecting books with diverse casts of characters, including female heroes, and frequently rewrites math problems before presenting them to her second-graders. “Most sportsrelated math examples will feature male characters, and cooking-related examples will all feature female characters, so I like to flip those traditional gender roles,” says Thea.

Materials that perpetuate gender stereotypes or omit women and girls altogether can make a lasting impression on students, shaping how they see themselves and

their classmates as well as what career paths seem possible. The underrepresentation of women and girls in the arts, for instance, is a persistent issue. Historically speaking, male artists of white Western European descent have dominated the art world.

Megan Hosch-Schmitt, fourth- to eighth-grade art teacher at SCDS, tackles this imbalance head on. “We not only discuss this gender inequity and why it exists but we also focus on shifting the narrative, encouraging students to view artists of all genders — and artists of color — as equal players in the art world,” says Meg. To support this shift in student perception, Meg is collaborating with other teachers in the visual arts department to create a diverse catalogue of traditionally underrepresented artists.

“One of my professional goals is to ensure that at least 50 percent of the artists we’re exploring come from an underrepresented population,” says Meg.

Finding strength in diversity Representation is an important part of the education — across grade levels and across disciplines — that students receive at SCDS. Sixth-grade humanities teacher Brenda Ajbour, for instance, begins each school year by looking at the women’s suffrage movement, celebrating the unsung heroes (many of them women of color) who were instrumental to the passage of the 19th Amendment. Brenda also founded the GLAMOUR Club, which provides a safe space for LGBTQ students and their allies.

“Our girls deserve everything that we, as educators, can give them,” says Brenda. “And all our students — no matter their gender — benefit when they understand and experience how broad and inclusive the world can be.”

GIRLS AND LEADERSHIP The Colorization Collective Alumna Leadership “When teen artists of color don’t have role models or peers who look like them, they drop out of the arts,” says Anya Shukla ’17.

In summer 2018, Anya and her friend Kathryn signed up for an acting intensive with a local Seattle theatre. Both of them were struck by the fact that their workshop peers were mostly white.

“It can feel alienating when artistic spaces are filled with people who don’t look like you,” says Anya. “It can make you feel like your experiences don’t have value.”

In 2019, they founded The Colorization Collective, a youth-run organization that supports teen artists of color by connecting them with resources and mentorship opportunities with professional artists of color.

The organization also produces original online content, including a blog and a web series that showcases underrepresented artists.

Anya’s belief that she could turn her passion for arts advocacy into reality began when she was a student at SCDS. “There were always opportunities for innovating, like the annual Engineering Event, and I think those experiences gave me the skills to create something from nothing — and the strength to adapt when things go wrong,” says Anya.

Happy Birthday, Addy Student Leadership What do leaders at SCDS look like? They’re inquisitive. They share their expertise. And when they see a problem, they do something about it.

Addy Plauché, a second-grader at SCDS, wanted to meet the challenge of food insecurity.

“I knew that a lot of people were coming to the food bank in my neighborhood because of COVID, so I thought, well, how can I help them?” says Addy.

Her solution was to dedicate her eighth birthday to those in need, forgoing gifts in favor of a food drive. Last December, Addy invited everyone in her second-grade class, along with other friends and family, to participate. She and her mother, Amanda Carr ’92, orchestrated 33 socially distanced pickups of food and other items, ultimately delivering 868 pounds of food and baby supplies (as well as $200 in donations) to the Rainier Valley Food Bank.

“We talk a lot about how important it is to stick up for people at school, and the food drive was my chance to do that,” Addy says.

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GIRLS AND LEADERSHIP Ask Questions Mia West, Grade 4

Is there a woman you admire?

Rosa Parks. She stood up for herself and saved lives by doing so. She was courageous, brave, strong, inspirational, and so much more.

We need more people like this in our world.

Do you think there’s a connection between inquiry and leadership?

Yes. Being a leader doesn’t mean that you tell everyone what to do. It means that you have to get everyone to compromise and to understand what and why you’re doing something. If the leader doesn’t ask questions, they’ll never know what the people they’re leading think. If you don’t ask questions of leaders, then you might have wrong assumptions or just blindly follow them.

What can women and girls do to change their communities and the world?

If we get a woman in the president’s seat, it could really change a lot. If we did a project on sexism or something like that, and let everyone see it, it could change things. I think listening to Martin Luther King, Jr.’s words would help. We can have peaceful protests, we can send letters to the government, and more.

Break Barriers Anvi Bhatia, Grade 6

Is there a woman you admire?

A name that comes to mind is Jacinda Ardern, the prime minister of New Zealand. She has accomplished so much at such a young age, all while seamlessly navigating between her personal and professional life. In fact, she became the world’s youngest female head of government at age 37.

Under her leadership, New Zealand controlled the spread of COVID-19 while the pandemic was greatly impacting the rest of the world. She also exhibited bold leadership by swiftly implementing strict gun laws after a terrorist attack.

Do you think there’s a connection between inquiry and leadership?

Successful leaders ask the right questions and tackle the most pressing issues. Inquiry is essential to understanding the issues that surround us and also to engage with our peers. Leadership requires effective and respectful communication.

What can women and girls do to change their communities and the world?

Ruth Bader Ginsburg said it best in her famous quote, “Women belong in all places decisions are being made.” Women and girls in our community can become strong role models by trailblazing every walk of life — sports, arts, government, business, and more. For all the women and girls out there: Don’t be afraid or too intimidated to take on leadership roles in group situations. Break barriers to be who you’re destined to be.

“ Our girls deserve everything that we, as educators, can give them.

And all our students — no matter their gender — benefit when they understand and experience how broad and inclusive the world can be.”

—Brenda Ajbour, sixth-grade humanities teacher

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Pandemic WHAT HAS THE

TAUGHT US? In late winter, we asked members of the SCDS community to reflect on our pandemic year.

STAYING UP LATE Alexa Petersen, Grade 4

I really like that I had so many different classes at school, and I also like having pickups and getting new library books every pickup. My dad works in the same room that I do, and he puts us to bed at night. I usually ask him a lot of questions at the end of the day. Sometimes it’s not about anything in particular, and sometimes we accidentally stay up late, talking about whichever thing we’re talking about.

DAD, QUARANTINED David Enslow, Parent

FINAL THOUGHTS. At the beginning of COVID-19, my brother and my dad and I would go on walks to the horticulture center. My advice is to go outside!

The first thing was just understanding what it even meant to live in a world with COVID: Like, how do you wear a mask? Do you wash your groceries? It was a lot of adjustments really quickly. It’s funny, but I was really nervous about having DJ and Nora on the computer for school. I had to figure out web security, and I still haven’t figured out how to shut down YouTube. Having hybrid school, though, has just been a godsend. In fact, when I had to go on a business trip a few months ago, the kids were so excited to go to school that I couldn’t come back in the house. I had to quarantine from the family for two weeks!

FINAL THOUGHTS. I know more about vaccines and immunology than I ever have before.

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WHAT HAS THE PANDEMIC TAUGHT US?

EMOTIONAL FUEL

Joe Tchen, Language Arts Teacher, Grade 7

GOING TO SCHOOL Finlay Rebbeck, Grade 2

We’ve been Zooming and quarantining for school, but I think I like going to school better, because you can see all your friends. And a few days ago, I heard about this new project from Mr. J, and I really like it. You pick an ecosystem in Washington and you do research all about it, and you can do PowerPoints to tell people about it.

FINAL THOUGHTS. It wasn’t the best time of all times, but it wasn’t the worst scenario possible.

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With normal in-person learning, teachers can orchestrate the energy and momentum and inertia of the classroom. Online, it was an entirely new job. We also had to acknowledge the pandemic and work students through it while we worked through it ourselves. I remember going back to my classroom, months after we’d gone remote, and looking at my board. It turns out that the last poem we were covering before the pandemic struck was “In Memoriam,” by Alfred, Lord Tennyson. It’s a eulogy, and it explores how we mourn, how we cope with grief. The pandemic means loss and grief for our students. But what do we do with those emotions? In the way that joy can fuel learning, all of our emotions can fuel learning. So, during our check-ins, I made sure students knew that what they shared didn’t have to be positive. At the same time, we continue to notice joy, and I have students journal about what they appreciate in their lives. It has been a very humanizing and empathizing experience.

FINAL THOUGHTS. I like to be constantly in motion.

After the pandemic, I want to have an acceptance of stillness.

KEEPING FRIENDS CLOSE Syna Mathod, Grade 8

At first, I remember being excited for online school because it was a huge change. The whole platform was different, and I still had my friends, and I was able to have my classes with them. Later on, I sometimes felt lonely, but after we started having in-person school, that completely went away. I’m also trying not to be hard on myself if I’m not always super-productive during the pandemic — that’s something I kind of struggled with for a little bit.

ACCEPTING CHANGE

FINAL THOUGHTS. It’s so important to have friends and to socialize right now. If you neglect that, your mental health will feel the toll.

Olivia Pierce-Bluhm, Associate Teacher, Kindergarten The kindergarteners that I’ve gotten to work with this year are really amazing and delightful.

They want to learn, they want to be there. They find joy in everything. I think the challenge with COVID has been finding those times where we can have them work together without the teacher leading all the time. I’ve also learned that flexibility is a must. You can’t resist change; you have to lean into it and find ways to make it work.

FINAL THOUGHTS. I’m grateful for the parents.

They play a really big role, and I know it’s not a role that all of them have asked for.

A LITTLE BIT SAFE

Michele Weingeist, Parent At first, my husband’s ophthalmology practice was totally shut down, which was scary, because he had 33 employees who all needed paychecks. And he had to pay the mortgage. Also, we were dealing with this plague and, at the beginning, we didn’t know how deadly it was. When my husband got his vaccine, I started bawling. I hadn’t even realized how scary it had been for all of us until he got it, and I thought: Maybe we’re going to make it through and be a little bit safe. Now, I’m volunteering at a vaccine clinic. It feels amazing; everybody is so happy. I’m really grateful to get to have that experience. I feel so much more optimistic, probably because I’m a doer, and I’m actually helping.

FINAL THOUGHTS. The pandemic has reinforced what’s important: family and friendships.

They’re everything.

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SCDSNEXT

Building the Community In adopting an ambitious, multi-year plan to boost diversity and inclusion, Seattle Country Day School intends to deepen its commitment to providing an excellent education, more fully live its mission, and give its students the tools that will help them succeed — as students and as citizens.

“When you have more minds with different perspectives and lived experiences, it deepens the inquiry,” says Kim Zaidberg, the head of school. “Diversity broadens the conversation for students and teachers, and it helps prepare students for further education and the workplace.”

Today, roughly 40% of SCDS’s students are people of color.

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Even so, Black, Indigenous, and Latinx people and people from underrepresented socioeconomic backgrounds remain underrepresented in the student body and among the staff.

In preparing for students’ futures and SCDS’s future, the school’s plan — called SCDS Next — is a step toward greater equity and representation in the schoolhouse.

Outside or inside?

Diverse classrooms enhance inquiry and learning, and they also make a fundamental difference in a student’s experience. It’s affirming for children to attend schools with others who share their culture; it’s inspiring for a student to find a teacher who looks like them.

Conversely, the absence of cohorts and role models can be discouraging and difficult. Student

In the work, together

The school has already begun to take up the challenges posed by SCDS Next. This winter, families and employees participated in focus groups to discuss the new priorities.

Our head of school and consultant Robert Greene presented a series of parent workshops, called Decoding the Language of Today’s Social Activism, that spurred thoughtful engagement.

At Courageous Conversation, a workshop regularly offered to parents and incorporated into the learning experience for seventh- and eighthgraders like Adrian, attendees learn how to participate in difficult conversations about race. Along the way, many participants also experience a sense of agency. Eighth-grade student Kyle Frink participated twice, the second time shortly before the murder of George Floyd.

Adrian Loewenherz recalls a group facilitator who recently spoke to his class. “She had the experience of going to an all-white school and feeling like sort of an outsider,” says Adrian. “One of our classmates could relate to that.”

Creating a more diverse community at SCDS will be one of the cornerstones of an excellent education. It’s also likely to take time. In the world of independent schools, there is strong competition for good teachers, especially teachers of color. There is also competition in recruiting students of color, especially from Black, Latinx, and Indigenous communities. What’s more, attracting underrepresented students will take thoughtful, strategic work: Seattle remains a largely white city — a legacy, in part, of years of redlining and discriminatory housing policies.

What Can We Do? Join RIPPLES When parent Maria Gerea attended a Courageous Conversation session a little more than a year ago, she and other parents felt a call to advance the conversation. “We came out of the class with the intention of forming a learning community,” says Maria. “We wanted to help parents teach their children how to talk and learn about race.”

With that, Maria, Chris Butcher, and David Enslow started RIPPLES (Race in Parenting Circles). Last summer, the group discussed race, equity, and civil unrest, and parents gained tools that helped them talk with their children in honest, empathetic ways. The conversation continues.

“Because of the class, we regarded the events differently than we would have,” Kyle says. “Instead of thinking something like, ‘Oh, that’s terrible, what a shame,’ we were thinking about what we could do.”

“There is no simple solution to racism or a racist situation,” says Maria. “And when we listen more deeply, we get to the deeper truths that are going to make change happen.”

In all the work around SCDS Next — engaging in difficult conversations, developing empathy and allyship, creating a more diverse and inclusive school — participation will be key.

For more information

“We all need to be in this work together to build the kind of community we want to be,” says Kim.

RIPPLES has created two discussion groups: one for parents who have attended Courageous Conversation, another for those who have not. Contact ripplesinformation@gmail.com to learn more.

SCDS Next’s Priorities Ensure that our policies and practices help us to retain and attract excellent teachers, especially faculty of color. Develop a recruiting network for faculty of color; assess and/or refine hiring systems as needed.

Ensure the presence and inclusion of families underrepresented in our community — Black, Latinx, and Indigenous families, and families from a wide variety of economic backgrounds.

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THE

“ I just want to bring people joy.”

—Wally

CARROT AND THE

WILDCAT We know that Black Panther is actually King T’Challa.

That Wonder Woman is Diana Prince. But we cannot reveal the secret identity of our new Wildcat mascot.

So, for the purpose of this story, we’ll call our mascot — a student at SCDS — Wally.

“Mascot mentor” was not a title that Josh Kachmarik, SCDS’s PE teacher for grades 4–7, had sought out. The concept of being a mascot was, however, familiar. The time was the early 2000s. The place was Coveleski Stadium in South Bend, Indiana.

And the costume was a carrot.

Josh’s mother was the general manager of the Silverhawks, a minor league baseball team now known as the South Bend Cubs.

One spring, she hired Josh and his teenage friends to entertain the crowd between innings. They brought fans down to the field to play games. They danced to the Village People’s “Y.M.C.A.” Not least, they raced around the bases dressed as vegetables — a stalk of broccoli, a carrot, and an ear of corn — to promote a local grocery store.

“That was when I fell in love with being a mascot,” says Josh. “As a

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kid, I wasn’t super comfortable in my own skin, but in that carrot costume, I could be myself. I could be goofy and have fun — and bring that energy to fans — without the fear of judgement.”

Josh loved suiting up as a mascot so much that he eventually became the Silverhawks’ official mascot, Swoop.

Now he shares his expertise and enthusiasm for the mascot life with Wally, our anonymous Wildcat.

Wally is a self-described introvert, and, like Josh, Wally loves the freedom of anonymity. “When I put on that costume, I’m more myself.

Through the eyes of Wally, I get to experience the world in a completely different way,” they say.

The journey from student to mascot began at an inauspicious time: in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Most of the events at which a

mascot would typically appear — sports games, live assemblies, and other school-wide, in-person functions — are on hiatus.

Yet the dearth of in-person community gatherings didn’t deter this Wildcat from following their dream.

Together, Josh and Wally have visited classrooms, dispensed hand sanitizer, and welcomed people to campus. Josh also serves as Wally’s wardrobe assistant and coach, helping to transform preperformance jitters into excitement.

“My job is easy, because you can’t really teach someone to be a mascot,” says Josh. “It comes down to the person in the costume and their desire to take on that persona and be spontaneous. This student is a natural.”

Perhaps the hardest thing about being a mascot, even for an introvert, is staying silent.

It’s one of the few universal rules of the trade. But silence creates space for alternative forms of communication.

Wally loves to bust a move, drawing inspiration from ballet and hip-hop.

“I just want to bring people joy,” says Wally. And they have a request of the magazine’s readers. “If a giant wildcat asks you to boogie — come up and boogie! What is there to lose?”

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THE

CREATIVE DREAM ELLIE PETERSON

For many of us, the telltale signs of morning include the steady drip of brewing coffee or the brisk air of a daybreak run. Ellie Peterson’s day begins with the smooth touch of paper.

Each morning, you can find Ellie, sixth-grade science teacher at Seattle Country Day School, in her home studio crafting colorful origami creatures as a warm-up to the day’s creative endeavor. A science educator for 20 years, Ellie is also a picture-book author and illustrator. She talked with us about the dual delights of teaching and storytelling.

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Q: Why did you become a teacher?

A: I’ve wanted to be a teacher ever since I was in the first grade. Throughout my childhood, many of my teachers were role models for me — I didn’t have a lot of those in my life — so I grew up wanting to emulate my teachers, wanting to give others the same support and encouragement I received. One person who stands out was my third-grade teacher, Mr. Luther. He was a vivid storyteller.

Other kids would visit our classroom just to sit on the floor and listen to him. He also built a treehouse inside of the classroom! His fun-loving attitude brought us a lot of joy, and that’s a quality that I try to carry forward in my own teaching practice.

Q: What do you enjoy most about your job at SCDS?

A: I enjoy the kids. Every day, they make me laugh. They surprise me, and they challenge me. When I reflect on how I learned to become a teacher, the kids were the major influence — more so than any college class, workshop, or continuing education course I’ve taken. They teach me how to teach through the questions they ask, what they respond to, and what they don’t. My students have always been the biggest force driving me to be a better teacher.

Q: What do you want students to take away from their time in your classroom?

A: I think one of the most important skills anybody can learn is how to be an effective self-advocate — how to ask for help and how to solve problems. I want my students to know that they are the most significant agents in their education.

(That’s a lesson that I didn’t learn until my junior year of college!) I also want them to be able to think about how they know what they know. Not only is that a critical skill from a scientific standpoint, but it’s also important for intelligently participating in the democratic process. One day they will be voters, and they’ll need to know how to question the concepts and data behind political issues like stem cell research and climate change.

“ I’ve always loved to write and draw.

It feeds my soul.”

—Ellie Peterson

Q: Who is your favorite scientist and why?

A: I’d have to say Annie Alexander.

She was a self-made scientist, an amateur paleontologist and botanist who went on dinosaur digs in the late 1800s-early 1900s, a time in history when women’s lives were typically relegated to the home. But she didn’t let her station in life — or other people’s expectations — hamper her passion.

Q: Tell us about your love for storytelling.

A: I’ve always loved to write and draw. It feeds my soul. As a child, I used to make comic books for my friends about our adventures as superheroes. We battled mutant wasps and rescued Santa from being kidnapped! Years later, a friend of mine and former colleague at SCDS, Mark Holtzen, published a picture book. His experience was a bit of a kick in the pants for me to pursue my own long-simmering dream of publication. So, I took some local classes on illustrating and writing children’s books. It was a lot harder than I anticipated — you have to be very spare yet intentional with your words, and you have to develop a recognizable artistic style — but I learned a lot and experimented with different mediums, like watercolor and digital art, until I found what worked for me.

Q. What inspires your book projects?

A: My book ideas are inspired by the questions my students have asked me over the years and the science concepts I teach, like how we know that the Earth is round. My latest book, “How to Hug a Pufferfish,” has been influenced by SCDS’s focus on social-emotional learning.

It’s about consent — a pufferfish has personal space needs, and his friends, at first, are not very respectful of those boundaries.

Q. What advice do you have about exploring a dream?

A: When I was growing up, my parents discouraged me from pursuing art as a career because they said I’d always be struggling financially. Yet, along with teaching, creating picture books has been more fulfilling than I ever could have imagined. It sounds cliché, but you’re really only limited by how imaginatively you can dream.

Note to readers Ellie illustrated the “Helping Girls Lead” story in this issue.

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ALUMNI CLASS NOTES Cindy Peyser Safronoff ’83 writes, “At the end of October, I published my second historical narrative, called “Dedication: Building the Seattle Branches of Mary Baker Eddy’s Church, A Centennial Story — Part 1: 1889 to 1929.” I call it an adventure drama about the building of a movement. I previously published an audio edition as a podcast, called “Dedication: A Centennial Story.” The book won a gold medal from the Illumination Book Awards contest for Christian books. My book and I were both part of the “Now & Then” feature in The Seattle Times on February 28 on the Third Church of Christ, Scientist building in the U-District on Greek row. It’s in danger of demolition. I hope my research helps the whole community understand why this building (it’s the twin sister of Seattle’s Town Hall!) is significant and worth preserving.

The adventure continues. I hope to have part 2 done within a year.”

Jill Piasecki ’88 manages the office for her husband, a doctor with a practice in Gig Harbor.

She writes, “It has been one of the biggest honors of our familyrun practice to offer vaccines to community members. All three of our kids, along with our incredible staff, have been there every step of the way. We all love that we’ve been even a small part of our community’s COVID-19 recovery.”

Robin Stewart ’98 writes, “I launched Spendlab.org last year to help research labs plan and track their grant spending visually.

The software is being used by COVID-19 researchers and at least one SCDS alum!”

Cameron Myhrvold ’03, a postdoc at the Broad Institute, started his own lab at Princeton in January 2021 to pursue CRISPR-based technologies. Cameron — to quote STAT 2020 Wunderkinds — “has found that Cas13-based CRISPR systems hold potential as tools to both detect viruses and destroy them.”

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Ala Johnston ’12 writes, “I recently joined the team at Plaid, the financial tech company whose API integrations power apps like Robinhood, Coinbase, and Venmo.

I started working in financial tech last year with an early-stage startup, and expanding financial access has become a major passion for me. The critical thinking skills I developed at SCDS have been a huge part of my ability to grow within the world of modern finance.”

Max Arnold ’15 writes, “I’ve been working on my lockpicking skills. I recently got some new padlocks off eBay and managed to get them all open! All three are in the American Lock 1100 series. There are two aspects that make lockpicking so appealing to me. First, it’s tactile and can be done without thinking too hard, so it keeps my hands busy while I’m watching a lecture or something like that.

Second, lockpicking depends on understanding what’s happening inside the lock, which makes it interesting. You can really feel how different internal pieces affect the lock.”

Jane Lord-Krause ’16 writes, “During the pandemic, I’ve been a mail carrier! I’ve worked for USPS over the past six months, and I just received my first vaccine shot because of the job.

I work six days, 55 hours a week. It’s a hard job, but fun, too.”

Carter Vu ’17, an undergraduate at the University of Washington who is studying aeronautical and astronautical engineering, was named a 2020 Astronaut Scholar — one of only 56 STEM researchfocused students nationwide to be so honored.

Anna Marquardt ’20 is attempting to do a hike a week for a year, and she recently finished hike No. 30. She’s looking forward to summer weather, returning to backcountry trails, and developing her photography skills. So far, Anna’s favorite hikes include Maple Pass Loop in the North Cascades National Park and trails at Joshua Tree National Park. You can see where she’s been on Instagram @hike.52.

Alumni, your classmates would love to hear from you!

Send your updates — and a photo, if you like — to alumni@seattlecountryday.org. Entries may be edited for length or content.

SCDS CLASS AGENTS Interested in joining SCDS’s Alumni Council?

Curious to learn more about the class agent program? Contact your class agent via the “Life After SCDS” tab on the school’s website or email alumni@seattlecountryday.org.

Delphine Mock ’20 Cole Pepin ’20 Kyle Cassidy ’19 Kat Lord-Krause ’19 Avi Berman ’18 Lauren White ’18 Andrew Levinger ’17 Blake Weld ’17 Nathan Burke ’16 Suzanna Graham ’16 Jane Lord-Krause ’16 Emme McMullen ’15 Hayden Ratliff ’15 Cole Graham ’14 Emmy Hunt ’14 Emma Engle ’13 Emily Jordan ’13 Katie Rodihan ’06 Devon Emily Thorsell ’05

Laurel Stewart ’01 Sam Fisher ’00 Emily Hamilton ’00 Chris Loeffler ’96 Josh Donion ’93 Amanda Carr ’92 Catherine (Burns) Humbert ’91 Sarah Leung ’90 Lisa (Narodick) Colton ’89 Carolyn Holtzen ’88 Karim Lessard ’85 Wendy McDermott ’85 Jason Froggatt ’83 Anastacia (Sims) Dillon ’81 Rachel Tillman ’79

Connect Through SCDS’s Alumni LinkedIn Group SCDS sponsors a LinkedIn group exclusively for alumni. Several business partnerships, research experiments, and creative projects have come to fruition thanks to collaborations among SCDS alumni. Visit linkedin.com, search for “Seattle Country Day Alumni,” and request to join today!

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THE GALLERY 1

Megan, Grade 4, and Oliver, Grade 5. Art students learned about Jean-Michel Basquiat, then emulated his methods, creating self-portraits with ink and collage.

2

Ben, Grade 7. The villanelle is a poem shaped by rules of rhyme and repetition. After studying the form, students wrote their own.

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Toby, Grade 2 (cat), and Elijah, Grade 3 (mini-monster).

Art students learned to sew small objects and creatures.

4

Baxter, Kindergarten.

Baxter is fascinated with cars and brought this in to show his teacher.

5

Avyukt, Grade 1.

First-graders explored the Hindu festival of Holi, held in March, and rangoli, colorful floor patterns made with materials such as sand, lentils, and petals. Children drew their own rangoli designs.

Student art and other projects

7

Beatrice, Grade 7. Seventhgraders explored art in activism, then translated their interests into screen-printed projects.

8

Cole, Grade 8. After reading “Richard II,” students were asked to write something analytical and/ or creative based on the text. In creating this comic strip, Cole researched the fate of Thomas Mowbray, exiled to Venice, who later died of the plague.

1

9

Isabelle, Grade 6. Inspired by artist Alberto Giacometti, students created exaggerated figures with wire and tinfoil.

10

Alex (Alexis), Grade 3.

After learning of the internment of Japanese-Americans in World War II, students were asked to write haiku.

1

6

Kailin, Kindergarten.

Students learned about leaders and then explained why they were leaders, too.

6

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THE KITE I see a green kite, Flying about outside, In the snowy night, It is a peculiar sight, To see a snowy kite glide, I see a green kite, It is hard to see who is flying the kite with the lack of light, But I can discern a person with their dog alongside, In the snowy night, The dog is playing in the vanishing light, Its eyes opened wide, I see a green kite,

3

4

The dog thought it was a delight, To be by his owner’s side, In the snowy night, The flying kite seems just about right, To be spied, I see a green kite, In the snowy night.

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3

5

9

Losing the freedom Made us feel like hope was lost It was just hidden 8

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WILDCAT TERRITORY A quick glimpse of the past few months, featuring various SCDS Wildcats: students and parents, alumni and teachers

HEY, BUDDY! Kindergarteners and eighth-graders alike enjoy multiple opportunities to connect over the year to talk and play games, courtesy of the buddy program.

LEARNING ON THE GREEN. As the pandemic progressed, SCDS brought some grades together in outdoor learning programs, helping students fight Zoom fatigue while having socially distanced fun with their friends.

THANKING OUR SUPERHEROES. Captain Community was one of the stars of “Rise of the Wildcats,” the video shown at An Evening to Thrive this spring. Thanks to a whole cast of SCDS superheroes, the event raised more than $275,000 for the school.

GOOD FOOD, GOOD PEOPLE. Ballard Food Bank received a much-needed, 341-pound donation of food (plus some other donations) when the Middle School’s Student Services Committee organized an SCDS-wide food drive this winter.

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MEALTIME IS FUN TIME. The Parent Council’s Parent Ed Committee recruited Harvard faculty member and clinical psychologist Anne Fishel, Ph.D., to talk about engagement at the dinner table — and about supporting children’s resilience, health, and self-esteem.

CRACKING OBSIDIAN. Learning is experiential, and by attempting flintknapping, the eighth-graders in Mary Lowry’s class are gaining an appreciation for an ancient toolmanufacturing method and the Clovis culture that practiced it.

THE CONSUMMATE HOST. Can’t hold the usual in-person gathering? No problem! Alumni Council President Devon Emily Thorsell ’05 wasted no time organizing an online trivia night for the traditional New Year’s Eve (Eve) alumni get-together.

READY, SET, RIG. Students participating in this year’s Engineering Event focused on creating vehicles with suspension systems; these fourth-graders are focused on Doc O’s rig-related demonstration.

IT’S THE YEAR OF THE OX! Devank and many other children in Xiaoling Mo’s Mandarin classes spent several weeks exploring language and culture to celebrate Lunar New Year.

SHARING CULTURES IN FIRST GRADE. Creating a diorama about your family — then introducing it to your classmates — is a great way to explore culture. Elliot created this culture box to represent the multiple countries (including Poland, Germany, Scotland, Ukraine, and others) in his family’s background.

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2619 4th Avenue N Seattle, WA 98109 206-284-6220 seattlecountryday.org

Allison, Grade 6.

This print of a cityscape (with its ghostly afterimages) was part of a places and spaces art unit at SCDS.

SEATTLE COUNTRY DAY SCHOOL Inspiring gifted children to reach their potential through inquiry, curiosity, and wonder

For more information admissions@seattlecountryday.org advancement@seattlecountryday.org alumni@seattlecountryday.org