The Day
Times
| Detroit Country Day School
22305 West Thirteen Mile, Beverly Hills, MI
New year, new faces!
ion!!!
hool Edit c S o t k c a B l pecia
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Welcoming the Upper School’s new incredible faculty members By NICHOLAS KALKANIS Editor-in-Chief PhotosCourtesy of Nicholas Kalkanis
For decades, one of DCDS’ proudest attri “I knew I wanted to teach at an independent school butes has been the outstanding strength and diversity and DCDS had such a great reputation for not only havof our faculty. Regardless of the changes to our school ing outstanding academics but also fantastic kids who or the unpredictable challenges of Covid-19, each year attend the school. I also love the emphasis on athletics the faculty serves as DCDS’ bedrock and provides the and the focus on students being well rounded and havworld-class education that sets our school apart from ing numerous outlets to pursue their passions” said Ms. the rest. For 2021-2022, the Upper School has welcomed Nussbaum. six new full-time faculty members who will be teach Next, Mr. Mitchell Eithun, who grew up in Northing in nearly every department. The six are Ms. Heather eastern Wisconsin, is one of the math department’s newHuhn, Mrs. Lisa Vidican, Ms. Elizabeth Nussbaum, Mr. est recruits. He completed a BS from Ripon College in Mitchell Eithun, Mrs. Chelsea Terman, and Mrs. Allison Mathematics and Computer Science (and with a minor Liddane. in Music) and then he completed a MS in Computational Ms. Heather Huhn, who is originally from Mathematics, Science, and Engineering from Michigan Wisconsin, is one of the newest additions to the English State. In addition to Mathematics, Mr. Eithun is an active department. Ms. Huhn taught in Washington DC for church musician, and spent the pandemic doing what he four years, and has taught at Stuyvesant High School in loves: publishing dozens of pieces of music for handbell New York for the past five years. Ms. Huhn will be teachensemble, as well as producing virtual choir videos for ing ninth and tenth grade English, and is most excited to faith communities. teach The Odyssey. “I firmly believe that anyone can have success in FOUR OF THE new faculty members, from left to right: Ms. Allison Liddane, Mr. “I spent a day at DCDS when I came to intermath. I enjoy finding creative ways to demonstrate the view, and that’s what really sold me – students were engaged Mitchell Eithun, Ms. Lisa Vidican, & Ms. Heather Huhn (Not Pictured: Mrs. relevance of math in our lives. I am excited to work on Chelsea Terman & Ms. Elizabeth Nussbaum) and creative, and the staff was so welcoming and passionate building a supportive community in my classroom and about their work. I’m used to teaching a class of 34 students, so I’m excited about forming stronger identifying the unique contributions that every student brings to our school” said Mr. Eithun. connections with my smaller classes at DCDS and working closely with each student to develop writing Next, Mrs. Chelsea Terman, who grew up in Fraser, Michigan, is another new member of the skills” said Ms. Huhn. math department. Mrs. Terman taught at Legacy High School in Broomfield, Colorado, for five years, Finally, Ms. Huhn will also be co-advising The Day Times, and is looking forward to helping run our and was a long-term substitute at DCDS from February to June of last year. This year she will be teachschool newspaper. ing intermediate Algebra and Algebra II, and says that they are some of her favorite classes in addition Next, Mrs. Lisa Vidican, who is originally from Rockford, Illinois, is another new addition to Precalculus. to the English department this year. Mrs. Vidican has taught at Lane Tech College Prep High School “DCDS is truly an impressive school; a competent and committed staff and great students are in Chicago for the past seven years. Mrs. Vidican will be teaching 9th grade Lit, Speech, Comp, and what make this school something special” said Mrs. Terman. Grammar, as well as 10th grade American Lit and Composition. One of Mrs. Vidican’s favorite studies Last, but not certainly not least, is Mrs. Allison Liddane, the newest addition to the Science in English is a non-fiction unit on Rhetoric, in which she aims to not just utilize and apply rhetorical department. Mrs. Liddane grew up in Grosse Pointe and went to Kalamazoo College, and she peranalysis skills, but also understand the complexities of identity and historical marginalization of people formed cancer research at Wayne State University Medical School for four years. This year she will be in order to make students more informed and empathetic citizens of the world. teaching Biology and AP Environmental Science, and says that some of her favorite topics are genetics, “This school is not only an exemplary learning environment, but also a place of genuine meiosis, and natural selection. kindness, collaboration, and humanity. I am very grateful to be a part of this school community because “I have actually been coaching at DCDS for seven years. I coach volleyball, basketball, and it really does feel like a family where people get to know and care about one another” said Mrs. Vidican. track at the upper school and volleyball at the middle school. I am really excited to be joining the Next, Ms. Elizabeth Nussbaum, who is from Rochester, New York, will be joining the History community as a teacher to see students succeed in everything else that DCDS has to offer, outside of department this year. Ms. Nussbaum will be teaching 9th grade Ancient World History and 10th grade athletics!” said Mrs. Liddane. Modern World History, in which she hopes she will help students better understand international con- With the start of another new year, we are so excited to see new faces among our faculty, and flicts and cultural similarities and differences. Ms. Nussbaum graduated from Lehigh University (where we want to extend the warmest DCDS welcome to Ms. Huhn, Mrs. Vidican, Ms. Nussbaum, Mr. Eithun, she also played goalie on the women’s lacrosse team) and currently coaches women’s field hockey at Mrs. Terman, and Mrs. Liddane! DCDS.
Celebration of a Sucessful Career Ms. Keeler retires after 32 years of service to DCDS 32 years of service to the DCDS community. In those 32 years, Ms. Keeler created memories that will last a lifetime. On August 19th, 2021, Mr. Williams announced that Ms. Keeler, the former Upper School Librarian, would be retiring. Ms. Keeler had a long, successful career at DCDS. She worked in the Middle and Upper school libraries. At one point, she was the librarian in both the middle and upper school. She was involved with all different aspects of the DCDS community and really enjoyed her different jobs. “I coached 6th girls basketball for several years - the scariest was the year I had Bill Lambeer’s daughter - she could really play and I had other girls who had never touched a basketball. I was on several tech committees, the FAC, worked in the box office for performing arts (and had a cameo appearance as a librarian in Music Man), kept scorebooks for teams, timed track meets, on the Character Education committee, sponsored Community Service Club and Model UN,” said Keeler when asked about her duties around campus. Although she engaged in all different kinds of clubs and activities at DCDS, Ms. Keeler said, “The important thing about ALL of these was the opportunity to get to know students outside of the classroom. You learn alot about what makes them tick and how they learn. It is an important and valuable part of working at DCDS and adds tremendously to one’s own personal growth,” said Keeler. Ms. Keeler enjoyed supporting all the different DCDS sports teams. When asked about her favorite sports memory at DCDS, she said there are too many to pick just one. “If I have to pick 1 memory, I guess it would be the women’s basketball championship game of 2009 at Eastern Michigan. I sat with my phone in hand, and in the last seconds of the game I got a text telling me that my first grandchild, a girl, had just been born. I left the game (when it was over) and drove 2 miles to St. Joe’s hospital and met Elizabeth for the first time. It was an amazing evening on so many levels.” Advisory was very important to Ms. Keeler and she took her role as advisor very seriously. “Advisory is unique to independent schools and one of the most valuable parts of the school. I loved getting to know my advisees and many times when I would interview a potential new
The Day Times | September 2021
student/family, I would talk about advisory and how I have 3 children of my own, but have graduated 100s of students I think of as children I shared and that advisory was a home away from home.” Ms. Keeler’s final words to the DCDS community: “I am a very different and better person today than I was the day I entered DCDS in 1989. I have learned so much about myself and grown as a person. I thought I had experiThe Library already feels empty without you Ms. enced many things growing up, Keeler! but discovered it was a very safe world, with few challenges. DCD challenged me every day, and I learned something every day. I met amazing people who came from different backgrounds, different situations, had different goals and wishes. I am so very grateful for all the opportunities DCD gave to me. One last thing, I learned a lot about kindness and that it has many different meanings. Sometimes it is kind to help someone; sometimes kinder to help them help themselves. Sometimes it is kind to offer a solution; sometimes it is kinder to just listen and let a person find the solution for themselves. Sometimes it is kind to give a person a “break”; sometimes it is kinder to maintain the expectation and help the person through the consequences and learn. Kindness has all shapes and sizes, but is one of the greatest gifts. I will miss DCD and the many kindnesses shown to me.”
Vol. 98 | Issue 1
Photo courtesy of Clara Yuhn
By CLARA YUHN, Editor-in-Chief