An organization can change a great deal in 60 years — and, in some ways, not change at all.
In 1964, a group of parents founded Seattle Country Day School, motivated by the desire for a different kind of educational experience. I can imagine the planning meetings, the search for teachers, and the work parties when the school first arrived on Queen Anne — a level of commitment that was foundational to our school.
Sixty years later, SCDS is well-settled on the hill, the number of teachers and students has grown, and some classes we teach today (the drone elective, for one!) would be unrecognizable to our earliest families. In reading this issue of the magazine, though, I’m struck by the enduring character of the school: How we attract students, teachers, and families who are open and generous, curious and passionate, ambitious and empathetic.
Happy anniversary to Seattle Country Day School. Here’s to the next 60 years!
To the many people in the SCDS community who contributed to this issue
This magazine was produced with recycled, FSC-certified paper.
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.
Community
More than 10 years ago, my family and I moved from Boston to Seattle and found a home at Seattle Country Day School. Although we didn’t know anyone in our new city, the warmth, curiosity, and kindness of the SCDS community drew us in immediately. I watched my children thrive alongside their extraordinary peers, learning to adapt to the inquiry-based mode of learning.
Although my three children have now graduated from SCDS, their closest friends remain SCDS alums, and their preferred way to learn is collaboratively (and by asking endless questions). Some of my dearest friendships began at SCDS, too, with fellow parents who share a love of learning and adventure, always with a dash of humor. As the school celebrates its 60th anniversary this year, I find myself reflecting on what has kept me so involved: the dedication to foster intellectual curiosity, compassion, and deep connection to each other and the world beyond. It’s this mix of rigor and community support that inspires me and gives me confidence that SCDS will continue to nurture curious learners and lasting friendships for the next 60 years and beyond.
Sandra Jerez President, SCDS Board of Trustees
“As a teacher, it was challenging yet rewarding for me not to intervene, not to provide shortcuts, like suggesting to teams that they make their wings longer, or add flaps. It was fun to watch them navigate those challenges and to offer questions.”
—Christian Hagenlocher
WING
Ingenuity and iteration in the Mechanics of Flight elective
It was a day or two before the Electric Propulsion Innovation Challenge (EPIC) Fly-Off at the Museum of Flight in Seattle, and the middle-schoolers in Christian Hagenlocher’s class had split up. Some were up in the lab, making last-minute changes to their gliders or accompanying display boards.
Others were in the multi-purpose room, crouching by their gliders, testing them, stretching full length on the carpet to assess them. There was a bit of a burning smell; one glider motor took in too much electricity, but never left the ground.
“How can you generate more lift?” Christian asks the glider’s maker.
That’s the central question to answer — not only for the EPIC event, but also in the SCDS elective the students are taking: the Mechanics of Flight.
The
Mechanics of Flight
Electives at Seattle Country Day School are meant to give students the chance to try new things, or to dig deeper into subjects they find interesting. What do students in the Mechanics of Flight elective want to learn? A number of things.
“Some students are really driven by a preexisting passion for aviation, and they just want to learn more,” says Christian. “Others want to know how planes fly, or what a day in the life of a pilot looks like.”
“Aviation was always something that interested me, and I did not know how it worked and the mechanics behind it,” says Nafy Y., a seventh-grader taking the class.
The course starts with questions: What do the students already know? What questions do they have about how and why things fly? Then, notes Christian, the class starts investigating the evolution of flight. How did flying evolve among very different creatures? The class does a bird-wing dissection lab, with wings sourced from scientific collections.
“Students can see how the feathers overlap, how the muscle tissue and ligaments connect in order to change the shape of the wing,” Christian says. Then he gives his students an exercise: Try to build a bird-wing model out of paper. “It helps students look at and analyze the different wing shapes and surfaces that allow for lift to be generated over the airfoil — the curved surface of that bird wing,” he says.
Students also study the evolution of mechanical flight and put principles into practice by developing gliders. In the past, students released the gliders from a height (say, a school balcony), and observed their trajectories. This year, though, the Museum of Flight’s EPIC event, which pulled in middleschool and high-school competitors, changed the game completely.
Testing a glider
What was the challenge offered by the EPIC event? Students had to create a glider with a motor, capable of carrying a cargo cube. (By using a motor, each engineering team could start their glide from an in-air position.) At SCDS, the challenge also included building the gliders from the ground up.
“We didn’t go into this looking at a final design, and we didn’t use kits. Students got to select and test different materials,” says Christian.
If you had visited Christian’s classroom during construction, you would have seen a wide variety of gliders; students chose the size of their vehicles, as well as construction materials. They prototyped what they thought a glider should look like, then changed their designs as they gathered evidence for what worked.
Nafy and his team partner, Neel J. (pictured below), created a skinny glider, with a plastic straw for the fuselage. They figured out the best wing shape, the one that provided the best glide ratio (forward movement in relation to altitude loss). They mounted the motor on the front, since
THE FOUR FORCES
If it has been a while since you’ve thought about the everyday miracle of plane (or glider) travel, here are a few useful forces to remember (with thanks to NASA’s “Museum in a Box” series).
Lift. The air that passes over the curved top of a vehicle’s wing speeds up and stretches out, decreasing the pressure on top of the wing. The air passing below the wing moves in a straighter line and the pressure remains roughly the same. The difference in air pressure lifts the vehicle.
Weight. Gravity pulls on the vehicle. Weight opposes lift.
Thrust. The forward force generated by the engine and/or another source.
Drag. A force generated by the interaction of the vehicle with the air. Drag opposes thrust.
that spot generates the most lift. They placed tall landing gear in the front, too, because the angle thus created with the body of the plane provided more lift. They also tested the position of their cargo cube.
“Earlier, we were mounting the foam cube in the very back, but our glider wasn’t taking off, so we put it in the middle,” says Neel. “Then that made it take off because the weight was balanced so it could generate the same amount of lift.”
In short, students experimented, and they learned.
Nafy Y. and Neel J., glider designers
Building gliders from the ground up, SCDS students swept the middle-school competition at the Museum of Flight.
“As a teacher, it was challenging yet rewarding for me not to intervene, not to provide shortcuts, like suggesting to teams that they make their wings longer, or add flaps,” says Christian. “It was fun to watch them navigate those challenges and to offer questions. Everybody got to a design that worked through their own circuitous route.”
The
sweep
On the day of the competition, each glider was fastened to a guy wire that powered the motor. The guy wire, in turn, was attached to the flight tower — a pole with a rotating head. Gliders, once airborne, made circular paths around the flight tower, and teams were judged on the length of glide flight. Christian estimates there were between 150–200 students in the competition, many accompanied by family members.
Although teams were not judged on how their gliders looked, students report that some of the gliders were pretty cool, with foam-carved wings and big wingspans. “During the high-
school competitions, they had a lot of these fancy-looking gliders…they looked top-tier, like they spent a lot of time and energy and put lots of materials into it,” says Nafy.
Although SCDS students admired the other schools’ polished, sophisticated gliders, says Christian, “They quickly realized that a larger, better-looking glider didn’t necessarily fly as well.”
In fact, SCDS students swept the middle-school competition: Neel and Nafy (aka the Double Yardos) won first place. The sixth-grade team of Enzo E., Arjun K., and James L. (the
Unlicensed) won second place and a spirit award. Candy Girls’ team members Aerin K. (6) and Brooklyn W. (6) won third place, while 7thgraders Talin D. and Elijah S. (aka the SCDS Flyers) won an award for their display board.
“I’d say the competition really gives students an authentic outlet for what they’re learning,” says Christian. Some students are already asking if they can work on next year’s gliders.
“It’s really fun to see them hungering for more,” he says.
Brooklyn W. and Aerin K., glider designers
Photo: Christian Hagenlocher
LEAVING HOME
History, empathy, and education
“Many of us think that, once a person comes to America, they’ve made it. And the truth is that, with every single person I met, it’s a daily struggle.”
—Brenda Ajbour
Linus C., standing near the podium in his 6th-grade humanities class, shows no evidence of pre-show jitters. He has done his research on immigrants from Afghanistan. He has invented a story based on his research, as requested by his teacher, Brenda Ajbour.
Now Linus is going to share that story — including two of his own compositions — with his class. He opens his mouth to sing, and the notes are high and sweet.
Life is still not welcoming to us Still we are lucky that we made it
At all
While Linus decided to share what he learned about the immigrant experience in America via song, other students took different routes in showcasing what they learned: skits, puppet shows, murals.
“Anytime I get interested in history, it comes from me having an emotional connection to historical fiction or a true-life character,” says Brenda. “So, in this project, I want students to not only tap in to the things that happen to immigrants, but also to how immigrants feel.”
A revelatory sabbatical
Brenda’s class was informed, in part, by her yearlong sabbatical from SCDS in 2023–24. Her goal was to use the sabbatical to explore two things: completing her not-quite-finished novel (a story for another time), and coming to a deeper understanding of a specific group of individuals.
“I wanted to understand more about people who are refugees and immigrants, and what I could do to make their transitions better,” Brenda says. Her plan was to utilize what she learned in designing the following year’s 6th-grade immigration project.
During her sabbatical, Brenda took on a four-month stint with the local arm of the International Rescue Committee (IRC). After a few weeks of training, she was picking up immigrants at the airport, taking them to their new homes, stocking their refrigerators, and helping 40-some clients — fleeing war and hardship in Syria, South Sudan, Kenya, Ukraine, and Afghanistan — to find jobs.
Brenda remembers one case in which a father and son from a refugee camp were trying to find a job baking together. She drove the two men to an interview, secured a translator, and promised the bakery that she could get the recipes translated; the men wrote a thank-you letter to the employer. Two weeks later, she found out the bakery hired someone else — someone who could read the recipe. Another client received a job offer in retail, only to have it rescinded when the store found out he’d be commuting by bus, rather than by car.
Brenda learned many things from working with the IRC: how difficult it is for a newcomer to this country to find a job, how many people live on the edge, how hard it is to get a driver’s license if you don’t speak or write English, and how difficult it is to live without family and community.
“Many of us think that, once a person comes to America, they’ve made it,” says Brenda. “And the
truth is that, with every single person I met, it’s a daily struggle. They really long for their country, and they want to go back.”
Research and imagination
Brenda shared these and other stories with her sixth-graders. Then, it was the sixth-graders’ turn to think deeply, through the lens of history, about being in a new country.
Over the course of several weeks, students chose a wave of immigration to research, created a historically based fictional character to represent that wave, then developed a showcase project to share with the class. Students were to use their showcases to chronicle what life was like for their character before immigration, during the journey, and after arrival in the U.S.
Sophia P. developed a story and a mural about her character, a 14-yearold Italian boy fleeing poverty by immigrating to the U.S. in the late 1800s. While doing her research, Sophia recalls being surprised by the length of the transatlantic voyage taken by real-life immigrants and the crowded conditions on the ships. “Then he gets to New York,” Sophia says, but the journey isn’t over. “His family reads a newspaper that tells them about an organization that hosts refugees in California,” she explains. Eventually, her protagonist opens a coffee shop on the West Coast.
Isaac M. explored the experience of Russian Jews leaving Europe around 1800. For his showcase, he worked with two classmates to devise a game where students would learn not only about his group, but also about people from Nicaragua and Afghanistan.
“I learned that Russian Jews lived in a lot of concentrated villages; they weren’t allowed to be spread out. Also, they had a lot of really cruel punishments,” he says. Why did Isaac think this group came to the U.S.? “That was when there was the assumption of America as the land of the free, and the land of gold, and everything,” he says.
Brenda knew that students, through their research, would discover that immigration was a long and often arduous process. She also hoped that students, in thinking and developing their characters, would develop empathy for immigrants and refugees. On that point, Linus gets the last word.
“Fin’lly have a chance,” Linus sings. “Learn to speak English from the kind people But we are not employed yet On one morning, Afsana told her ma Please tell me that all will be fine.”
With this story, we bid a fond farewell to Brenda Ajbour, retiring after 23 years with SCDS.
Photo of Brenda Ajbour: Libby Lewis Photography
Linus C. at the podium.
Mina P. and Shristi S., absorbed by the presentations
Refining Her World
Ledya T. — a short-story writer, guitar player, and member of the Class of 2025 — came to SCDS in her 6th-grade year. When we heard she volunteered for a local nonprofit called Bellevue Youth Link, we wanted to learn more!
Tell us about Bellevue Youth Link. The summer before seventh grade, I was researching ways that I could help my community and do good with my time, because I wanted to be productive and also help people. Bellevue Youth Link is a place where youth can come together and make a difference in their community. For instance, there’s a coat drive, and a mental health project, and a diversity action team. They also hold a lot of cultural events where they lift people up and prioritize community, which is really special.
What inspires you to volunteer?
At SCDS, we genuinely believe in using what you have for the good of others. I remember in 6th grade, we learned about people who are underrepresented or don’t really have as much influence as others. That’s been a big factor in why I volunteer.
So, what are you doing at Bellevue Youth Link — and what’s making you happy? I’m on the diversity action team, which organizes events, but I’m more active on the marketing
team. I usually design posters or make stuff look cool, basically. To just have this way of working with other people to refine your world is a really cool thing. I feel like making sure that a little kid has a coat for winter or making sure that someone who doesn’t feel like they belong anywhere has this place. I feel like those are really good things and mean so much.
How is 8th grade compared to 7th grade? I think this is a year where teachers see you eye to eye and fully help you come into yourself. You can develop more of a sense of who you are and who you’ll be in high school, which is really important to who you are overall.
I hear you’re a writer? Writing has always been really special to me. Since I was young, I’ve always had a dream of growing up and being a writer. Usually, I like to write fiction, and most of it’s very charactercentered. I try to write something that’s meaningful and that I can be proud of at the end of the day.
Is there anything you’d like to say to other students? Your thoughts and actions really do have a weight and value to them. Reach out, connect to others who also feel that way, because there’s power in numbers. And remember to be kind and use the privileges that you’ve been given to help other people.
Photo: Libby Lewis Photography
OUR 60-YEAR ANNIVERSARY
Seattle Country Day School founded; located at Lake Burien Presbyterian Church; enrollment was at 30 students.
1964
SCDS purchased a site on Queen Anne for $185,000.
1976
1966
Lucile Beckman became the first head of school.
1978
Inaugural Engineering Event held; enrollment was at 132 students, grades K–8.
Shining Brightly
Hundreds of community members gathered at Shine Bright, the 2025 auction, to raise funds for SCDS’s work — including the enhancement of the school’s science program and facilities.
Winterim began; Snoqualmie Pass and Stevens Pass were the first sites.
1980
New wing, including the library, added to the Lower School; technology program inaugurated; enrollment was at 206 students.
1985
1981
Dedication of the three-story Ruth W. Huff Memorial Math/ Science Building for grades 4–8 (then called “middle-schoolers”). Today, this building houses grades 4 and 5.
1986
The school began using traditional grades (grades 2, 3, etc.) instead of grouping students by letters.
1988
1992
Intermediate School expanded after school’s first capital campaign.
The SCDS Networking Event
To pay tribute to our 60th year, and to create an opportunity for alumni to connect with the community, SCDS created our first networking event. The Allen Institute kindly provided the space, and roughly 130 attendees came to listen to panelists discuss the topic of inquiry and industry. Many thanks to SCDS trustee and moderator, Yousri Omar, J.D., associate general counsel at Amazon, and to our panelists:
Lisa Brummel, co-owner of the Seattle Storm; Rui Costa, DVM, Ph.D., president and CEO of the Allen Institute; Inbal Israely, Ph.D., assistant professor and neuroscientist at the UW School of Medicine; Ambika Kumar, J.D., partner and co-chair, media law practice, at Davis Wright Tremaine; Gaurav Oberoi, group vice president of product at Docusign; and Jonathan Sposato, CEO of Seattle Magazine and Seattle Business Magazine.
Lucile Beckman retired; Dr. Jayasri Ghosh named head of school.
Event photos: Libby Lewis Photography
ANNIVERSARY
SCDS enjoyed celebrating its 60th anniversary throughout the year: at our auction, at Founders’ Day in June, and with the creation of a brand-new SCDS Networking Event in May.
Michael Murphy named head of school; enrollment was at 309 students.
Social-emotional learning work launched; gymnasium renovated.
2004 2011
2001 2007
Chris Massi named head of school; enrollment was at 304 students.
$15 million campus expansion, including today’s Middle School building, the Green Top, and the courtyard.
2013
Kimberly A. Zaidberg named head of school.
2018 2019
International trip program for eighth-graders established.
Founders’ Day and the SCDS Carnival
On the first Saturday in June, we combined the Parent & Guardian Council’s traditional year-end carnival with Founders’ Day, our final celebration of the 60th anniversary. We were so pleased to welcome alumni Sally Jewell, Janet Stuart, and Erick Matsen, as well as former Head of School Jayasri Ghosh and other esteemed visitors, to join us. Our guests proceeded to share school history and reminiscences at a community talk and on an informal tour of the school. It was a lovely day.
Enrollment surpassed 400 students.
2021
Program expanded to include Middle School electives, grades 4–8 band, Mandarin, and associate teachers.
2024
SCDS celebrates its 60th anniversary.
The Beckman Family’s Beautiful School
Lucile Beckman is at the heart of SCDS’s history — she led the school for approximately two decades in its earliest years, helping determine its goals and foster its growth. So it was with great pleasure that we welcomed alumna Janet Stuart, Lucile’s daughter, for a visit in November. Janet, who taught French at SCDS for four years, talked to children, teachers, and administrators. She had always thought that instructors at SCDS were on a mission — and thinks they still are today. “I feel the same energy I felt when I was here,” Janet said. “Such a beautiful school.”
WILDCAT TERRITORY
A quick glimpse of the past few months, featuring various SCDS Wildcats
BOOTS, THEN SNOW. Sponsored by the Parent & Guardian Council, the Winter Gear Swap is a welcome way to recycle skis, snowboards, boots and the like in preparation for the Winterim program.
FOR THE LOVE OF THE GAME. Middle-school teachers display their NCAA basketball bracket right before the Final Four.
TREASURES. First-graders displayed their traditions, explaining what they treasured to visiting parents: from time spent throwing a football with their dad to a special áo dài (a traditional Vietnamese dress).
CONVERSATIONS ABOUT JAPAN. Matthew Bateman ’05 (pictured here with faculty Vickie Madriaga and Lily Medina) visited with the eighth grade to discuss the history of WWII-era Hiroshima and Japanese-Americans.
HOORAY, CULTURAL NIGHT! Food, games, and learning mark this Parent & Guardian Council tradition.
HELPING OUR NEIGHBORS. The Middle School’s Student Services Committee organized a hygiene drive for the guests at Mary’s Place, collecting over 500 items.
OUR AMAZING POET LAUREATE. Middle-schoolers were pleased to meet Rena Priest, an enrolled member of the Lhaq’temish (Lummi) Nation and Washington’s Poet Laureate, 2021–2023. Rena read her poetry and conducted a writing exercise that threw the idea of varied perspectives into sharp relief.
DO YOU WANT TO BUILD A SNOWMAN?
Middle-school students put on Disney’s “Frozen Jr.,” a great tale of warmth and sisterhood.
THE YEAR OF THE SNAKE. Although the school’s Lunar New Year Festival was initially postponed because of snow, the rescheduled festival featured excellent performances, a trivia quiz, food, and cultural crafts and games.
TECH EXPO. Students in grades 4–8 displayed the work they’d done during the fall in their AI, maker, and tech classes. Presentations included a virtual reality game, a 3D diagram of a Moon colony, and a model of a device designed to clean up ocean plastic.
How TO BE AN Artist
In the studio with grade 2
What do students learn in art class? If you’re a student at Seattle Country Day School, you learn technical skills — and a great deal more. We followed along as art teacher Madeleine Cichy and her second-grade students embarked on a painting project: illustrating a family tradition.
Artists tell stories
It’s a Tuesday, and the second-graders are sitting on the rug, looking at a painting called “Empanadas” by Carmen Lomas Garza. The painting is full of colors, patterns, and people of various ages. Madeleine asks the children what’s happening in the picture.
“They’re setting up the table and they’re cooking,” says one child.
“She’s protecting a plate of food from the cat,” says another, indicating a specific character.
As it happens, the children make many observations, because the painting is bursting with activity. “This [all that activity] is an important thing to remember,” Madeleine tells her students. Then she asks the children if the painting reveals any cultural clues about the artist. The students mention the elements they see in the painting: hair color and skin color, the food, an ornate drawing on the cupboard.
About the lesson. “When Carmen Lomas Garza puts her hands on her forehead and closes her eyes,” says Madeleine, “she sees a movietheater screen of her childhood memories. She’s drawing upon that. She talks about being from a Mexican-American family and wanting to show the life, the richness, and the culture — and that [her family’s experience] is an American experience. Technically, it’s a good lesson for texture. More generally, the theme for secondgrade art is about storytelling, from life and from the imagination.”
Artists warm up
“Today, we’re going to practice drawing bodies and faces,” says Madeleine.
She has students divide a sheet of paper into four sections; each section will contain the child’s response to a drawing prompt. “Draw your face when your favorite song comes on the radio.” Or “draw your face when you left your lunch at home.” In addition to inspiring drawing, this last prompt also inspires some commentary.
“That’s never happened to me,” says one student.
“That has happened to me,” another student says ruefully.
“Once I forgot my whole backpack,” says a third child. These drawing prompts are followed by other exercises. They start by sketching a classmate’s facial expression. Then Madeleine asks two students to stand on a table. “Draw what you see,” Madeleine tells the rest of the class. “You have three minutes.”
One of the models has an interesting, difficult-to-draw stance, and one of the children captures it handily. The student sitting next to him takes a different approach, setting context for his sketch by drawing the table the models are standing on.
About the lesson. “Warm-ups are important,” says Madeleine. “I call it people practice. Picture someone running, or someone waking up from a nap, or reading a book. Picture the head; what’s the body position? Students may be a little bit stumped, and then they kind of think through it. And then each time that they reapproach it, they build their confidence. And then this practice warms them up to think about what people will be doing in their family tradition painting.”
Artists observe and learn
Today, students are working on more prompts: Draw yourself jumping; draw someone sitting and crying; draw two people high-fiving. Then Madeleine asks the children to add color to their drawings. This means it’s time for a little inspiration regarding color use, especially with skin tones.
Madeline heads to the front of the room to start a video called “Drawing Differences,” created by a group called EmbraceRace. The video explains the power of observation in art and the great variety of skin color and facial features among different people.
“What jumped out at you from this video?” Madeleine asks the second-graders.
“That you could make totally original skin colors,” answers one student. “That you don’t need to be perfect [as an artist],” says another. Students then go about mixing their own skin-color tones, using various combinations of yellow, brown, and orange.
Having brainstormed, it’s time to sketch out the scene, lightly. Then to paint large details, and then small ones. One student asks if he can make a change and go in a different direction. Madeleine responds in the affirmative. “The best project is the one you’re excited about,” she says.
About the lesson. “One year, someone said, ‘That’s weird. Their family tradition is weird,’” says Madeleine. “Then we talked about it, how if something seems weird, then maybe it’s just something you don’t know about yet!
The ‘Drawing Differences’ videos really tie into that idea of familiarity with new ideas; they get students curious about drawing different facial shapes and creating a variety of skin colors. As for the larger project — well, the students are learning about their peers’ cultures and traditions in this fun, approachable way.”
Artists change their minds
Madeleine asks the students about their traditions. What time do they spend with family members that reveals something about their family?
The children think for a moment, and the answers start coming. Going to their grandparents’ house for Thanksgiving. A scavenger hunt at Hanukkah. Making pierogis, making dumplings for Chinese New Year, making Christmas cookies. These ideas will form the basis for their paintings.
One student is puzzling over family activities. Madeleine crouches beside him, asking questions about traditions. Then she switches tacks. “What do you do at home?” she asks. “Get annoyed by my younger sister,” he replies immediately. Eventually, this student creates a Christmas scene.
About the lesson. “Second-graders have these amazing powers of technical ability and thinking,” says Madeleine. “They think more conceptually, and they still have the playful imagination. To tell the story of your family or your tradition, you have to think: ‘What do I want someone to feel?’ I think they also start to realize that they’re behind the levers; they actually have agency and mastery.”
Artists need encouragement
During class, Madeleine is buzzing around the classroom. Sometimes she’s dispensing paint, sometimes encouragement, sometimes technical advice. She asks questions to prompt deeper thought, and she asks the children to mix their own colors. Walking around the room, you can see a multitude of blues, a charcoal black, a deep teal, an unapologetic mauve.
Students are painting their traditions and telling their stories. They are painting movie night with their parents and a family lighting the menorah. They’re lavishing a snowfall of white paint on green trees. They are painting skiing, baseball games, and Cannon Beach.
One child hesitates. He’s finished his pencil sketch, but he’s not sure if he’s ready for the next step. “Can I paint?” he asks Madeleine.
“Yes!” she says.
Students label their paintings with brief explanations. “My family tradition is going to Babar with my mom,” writes Haedron S. “It is always so fun!”
RISE UP AND READ
An SCDS family decides to do a good, practical thing
Reading is relaxing, thoughtprovoking, fun. And, in the view of Susanna Block, M.D., MPH, a pediatrician with Kaiser Permanente, decidedly good for refugee families. When Susanna did volunteer medical work in Tijuana, Matamoros, and Reynosa, she found that refugees not only needed care, food, and shelter, but were also concerned about their children’s linguistic and emotional development.
“Many of the families that I have taken care of in clinic over the years in refugee camps were telling me, ‘My child has not gone to school, they’re not learning how to read, they’re not speaking when I think they should be speaking,’” says Susanna. In response, Susanna co-founded a nonprofit called Rise Up and Read. We sat down with Susanna and her children, alumna Lilah S. ‘24 and student Mari S. (grade 7), to discuss the program.
Tell us a bit about the families you’ve seen in the refugee camps.
Susanna. Through the pediatric experience of simply doing clinic in Mexico, I realized there’s just a tremendous number of children. In some of the camps, 50% of the people are under the age of 15. Most of these children will be displaced throughout their educational years.
How does Rise Up and Read help families?
Susanna. The basic idea is to promote early language literacy, and it took a couple of years to figure out what was going to work best. We’re doing pop-up physical libraries where we just put out books and throw out thought questions and activities, and we give reading “prescriptions.” And now we’ve created a virtual library that people can link to with a QR
code, where books are being read in Spanish, French, and Creole.
Lilah, Mari, I hear you’ve helped with the program?
Mari. We took a trip to Mexico City, and in our time there, we did one of the pop-up libraries my mom mentioned, where we just got out a bunch of books, set out some picnic blankets right outside of one of these refugee camps, and let all these families and all these younger kids go over and just read for a couple of hours. Then they can take the book with them, if they want.
Lilah. I got to sit down and read with children.
There are benefits to reading aloud to a young child, aren’t there?
Lilah. It creates a sort of attachment between the parents and the child, and it helps the child feel safer and
less nervous in their surroundings. It can also calm the parent down.
What age groups are you trying to help?
Susanna. This unprecedented human migration — there aren’t good demographics to really decide what and who to target. The data I have comes from literally counting people twice during a six-month interval. So, about 20% are probably under the age of 1, about 30% are in that 2–5 age group, and maybe another 20% are 5–8. And then I just sort of lump 9 and up together. In our physical libraries, we try to break down the books that we bring by those age groups.
This seems like a big project… do you have any help?
Susanna. We have an incredibly talented board, including Dr. Rachael Merola, a visiting research professor at the Center for Economics (CIDE) in Mexico City and Dr. Robyn Becker, a speech-language pathologist at Montclair State University; with the help of her grad students, we’ve developed a service-learning component. Other board members
include Dr. Kimberly Perkins, a pilot and expert in project evaluation; my husband, Dr. Jonathan Scheffer, an emergency physician; and Krista Barbour, who does social media.
How has the program been doing?
Susanna. Since June 2024, we’ve sourced $17,000 worth of donated children’s books in Spanish, French, and Haitian Creole, transported them to Guadalajara and Mexico City, launched two permanent libraries in migrant centers, and hosted 8–10 pop-up libraries. We now have two staff members in Mexico City, running the pop-ups on a regular cadence! We’ve partnered with Télécoms Sans Frontières to project our virtual library into 19 migrant centers from Colombia to Mexico. With Rachael, Robyn and her students, and public policy students in Mexico City, we’ve developed field assessments and questions and activities to go along with the reading.
Field assessments?
Susanna. Metrics are our challenge, but I’m trying to get a sense of what people want and whether they’re finding it helpful. And, while the
research is not specifically about migrant populations, there’s a wealth of literature that shows that having a safe, stable, nurturing person in their life has long-term health benefits for children in terms of reducing the heath impacts of toxic stress.
Mari. Every night, when I was a lot younger, my parents would read to me before I went to bed. I just remember it being super-calming, just a place where I could relax entirely.
What are your hopes for the people you’re helping?
Lilah. If I see a photo of refugees in Reynosa or Mexico City, I think, oh, that’s a lot of people, but I don’t think much more about it. But talking to some of the people personally, especially the children, really reminds you that they’re real people, and they are struggling, and they want to be helped.
Susanna. It’s very easy to feel paralyzed. So I just remember that it’s better to do something. At least we can do one small, practical thing.
P.S. SCDS third-graders, with the help of their Spanish teacher, Erick Linares, and middle-school translators, created their own Spanish-language books for the children and families served by Rise Up and Read. Hooray for service learning!
Photos: family photo by Libby Lewis Photography; other photos provided by Dr. Block.
ALUMNI CLASS NOTES
Send your updates to alumni@seattlecountryday.org. Entries may be edited for length or content.
Rita Cella-Trousdale writes, “Mark Trousdale ’94 and his wife, Daria, live in London. They are also developing a winery in Sicily.”
“Kaj Bostrom ’11 successfully defended his Ph.D. in natural language processing at University of Texas at Austin; the title is ‘Equipping Language Models for Systematic Reasoning,’” says Dr. Ann Bostrom. “We are grateful for the excellent education he received at SCDS, and he is, too!”
We learned from Kris and Courtney Klein that Cooper Edward Klein ’16 graduated from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in 2024. “He is joining the 16th Combat Aviation Brigade at Joint Base Lewis-McChord as a second lieutenant in military intelligence,” they write.
Evelyn Kim ’20 took a gap year. This fall, says dad Moonsoo Kim, she’ll start attending NYU Tisch School of the Arts (the Rita & Burton Goldberg Department of Dramatic Writing).
Two SCDS graduates, reports Eunhee Sumner, were elected to the Seattle Youth Commission, which connects youth to local elected officials. “My son, Harry Sumner ’23, was so happy
to see his classmate and friend Caleb Goldberg ’23 on the committee, too,” she says.
SCDS CLASS AGENTS
Curious to learn more about the class agent program? Want to keep in touch with your classmates and your school? Email alumni@seattlecountryday.org to learn more.
Bartu Hamdemir ’25
Ayla Solomon ’25
Lila Scheffer ’24
Remi Wang ’24
Zach Ismail ’23
Nora Su ’23
Bree Miksovsky ’22
Matteo Montague ’22
Maddie Schofield ’21
Brady Tessin ’21
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
Shannan Frisbie writes, “Ryan Frisbie-Smith ’24 was selected to attend the Fir Acres Writing Workshop at Lewis & Clark this summer. There were hundreds of applications from around the world (the most received in 37 years), and Ryan, a highschool freshman, was selected in the first round of 30 out of 60 workshop spots.” As for Duncan Frisbie-Smith ’21, Ryan’s brother? Duncan, who will be entering Brown University this fall, won the 800m, 1,600m, and 3,200m at the 1A Track & Field championship in Washington, breaking the state meet record in the 800m. His 800m time earned him an invitation from HOKA to compete as one of eight runners in the “final surge” high-school 800m run at the HOKA Festival of Miles in St. Louis, Missouri. Duncan placed third and earned his spot in the top 20 highschool
runners in the country with a time of 1:50.33. (Fun fact: Duncan ran into former SCDS kindergarten classmate Benjamin Bouie at the HOKA festival. Ben had the fastest time in California in the mile during this outdoor track season, and he will be running for Harvard.)
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
Matt Baskett ’84
Jason Froggatt ’83
Anastacia (Sims) Dillon ’81
Rachel Tillman ’79
WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS
Why do students at SCDS love to play ultimate? Partially, it’s the legacy of the great Mary Lowry, a faculty member who fostered the growth of youth ultimate in our region. In addition, the school is fortunate to employ a number of people who play the game at a high level and serve as coaches and mentors. We checked in with three faculty — Lexi Garrity, Intermediate School social studies, Steve Gussin, 7th-grade math, and Brice Dixon, P.E., grades 3–8 — to gather their thoughts on a fantastic year for ultimate.
BRICE DIXON. Team: Seattle Sockeye (all-male). Position: D-line handler/hybrid defender; captain in 2024. Origin story. I played Frisbee because I wasn’t good enough at tennis to make the highschool team! Thoughts? I’ve lived in a bunch of different cities and countries, and, everywhere I’ve gone, Frisbee’s been the one big connector. I really like the connectedness that the students have with teachers at SCDS because of ultimate. P.S. I think ultimate has taught me to seek out new experiences, seek out new people, and to become more comfortable with being uncomfortable.
LEXI GARRITY. Teams: Seattle Tempest (all-female, pro); Seattle Mixtape (mixed); SaLT (mixed); Team USA (mixed). Position: Offensive cutter. Origin story. I started playing in 2010 — I was burned out from competitive fiddling. Thoughts? What I really like about Frisbee is that if you don’t come from an athletic background, you can still be an athlete. It can become a home for people that have, perhaps, never had a home in sports before. My hope for SCDS students and all kids is for them to see women and non-binary people playing at a high level. P.S. Ultimate shaped my values; Mixtape was my introduction to having friends who didn’t look like me or come from the same background as I did.
THE GARRITY-GUSSIN CHAMPIONSHIP ZONE. Lexi and Steve co-captained SaLT, a master’s mixed team, which won the master’s mixed nationals in 2023. SaLT went on to become Team USA, and Team USA participated in the world’s competition in fall 2024, mixed masters. They won that, too!
STEPHEN GUSSIN. Teams: Seattle BFG (mixed); SaLT (mixed); Team USA (mixed). Position: Offensive handler. Origin story. I fell in love with ultimate because my friends and I started the team at Ballard High School. Thoughts? I’ve played a lot of team sports, and ultimate is, by far, the most team-focused sport that I’ve played. The sport depends on self-officiation. If something happens on the field, players get together to talk about it; they dig into the weeds. That really resonates with SCDS kids in a very clear way. P.S. I’ve had a lot of opportunities in ultimate, but none of them came about because I was this overwhelmingly great player. I’ve had to work for my teams in other ways — it’s expanded my own growth mindset, discipline, and self-awareness.
Photos: Libby Lewis Photography
Student art and other projects THE GALLERY
Josie E., grade 7. Students used cardboard to mock-up buildings, part of their urban drawing and architecture elective.
Stella L., grade 8. A painting from the portfolio class elective.
Mina G., grade 5. In these pieces, students were asked to use a viewfinder to capture a small part of their physical selves and to consider quotes that communicated their inner selves. Students also applied the shading techniques they’d learned.
Talin D., grade 7. “Fire Flower” from the nature photography elective.
Odeda C., grade 2. Sewing stuffies with superpowers — this one’s superpower is happiness. “When my brother fights me,” reads the tag, “I will go tell my stuffy, and it will make me happy again.”
Aiden D., grade 4. In the global city project, students looked at architecture from all over the world, then designed their own buildings based on architectural details they’d noticed. Each project included multiple structures influenced by buildings on three different continents.
William H., Keira D., and Lev S., grade 1. Three paper-plate-and-paint sculptures.
OUR GRADUATES
Congratulations to the Class of 2025, heading off to high school in the fall, and the Class of 2021, attending college and pursuing other adventures. Below, we list the fine institutions they will be attending as of publication.
Class of 2025
Bellevue School District
Bishop Blanchet High School
The Bush School
The Downtown School
Eastside Preparatory School
Holy Names Academy
Kent School
Lakeside School
The Northwest School
The Overlake School
Seattle Academy
Seattle Preparatory School
Seattle Public Schools
University Prep
Class of 2021
Amherst College
Barrett Honors College at Arizona State University
Boston College
Boston University
Brown University
Cal Poly (California Polytechnic State University)
Columbia University
Cornell University
Fordham University
Indiana University
Lehigh University
Northeastern University
Pitzer College
Purdue University
Salve Regina University
Santa Clara University
Stanford University
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
UC San Diego
UC Santa Barbara
UC Santa Cruz
University of Georgia
University of St Andrews (Scotland)
University of Washington
Vassar College
Yale University
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Seattle, WA 98109
(206) 284-6220
seattlecountryday.org
SEATTLE COUNTRY DAY SCHOOL
Inspiring gifted children to reach their potential through inquiry, curiosity, and wonder
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