Faculty News

Mandy Augst, librarian, was a presenter at the annual conference of the Virginia Association of School Librarians (VaASL) in November 2020. In her session on “DIY Breakout Boxes,” Augst shared costeffective ways to recreate the “breakout box” experience where students solve online puzzles together and teachers can create fun alternative assessments.

Stefanie Jochman, English teacher, presented at the NCTE (National Council of Teachers of English) Annual Convention, held virtually in Denver, CO in November 2020. The theme of the conference was “Confluencia! Songs of Ourselves,” and it focused on how teachers foster community and individual voices. Co-presenting with two other teachers, Jochman discussed her work with community outreach projects and bringing poets and writers from around the world into the classroom. “To present, we collaborated on a slide show and then recorded our portions of the presentation individually,” said Jochman. “I knit the pieces together in iMovie, and teachers could access our presentation ‘on-demand’ over the course of the conference.”

On Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, Laura Hamlin Weiler ’00 attended a panel seminar to watch and reflect on the

VPM documentary Heard with Thad

Williamson from the University of Richmond’s Jepson School of Leadership and the former leader of the Office of Community Wealth Building in Richmond. After the viewing, participants met in small-group discussions of the film, facilitated by VCIC as well as HandsOnGreaterRichmond, where participants discussed the film and action steps that could be taken in our own communities.

Kimberly Ryan

performed with local String Quartet “Rosette” in a special Valentine’s Day concert as part of a local concert series presented by Bon Air Presbyterian Church. Their “box of chocolates” program featured music by a diverse group of composers spanning from Mozart in the classical era to Florence Price in the 1920’s to Lang Zhou in the modern day.

Chris Markunas ’01 and his band Cheap Comfort live streamed a virtual concert as a fundraiser for a cancer research organization called C-TREC on September 23, 2020.

In Vogue’s September version of 73 Questions, Joe Sabia interviewed singer and entertainer Lizzo. During the video recorded interview on September 24, the artist began making tea and pouring it into ceramic mugs made by Molly Sanyour ’01! The video has reached over 1 million views on YouTube. In October, a Lizzo decal mug created by Sanyour was featured on David Letterman’s segment “My Next Guest Needs No Introduction.”

FACULTY MILESTONES

Jenny McQueen and husband Rome became parents of twins on January 7, 2021! Lena weighed 6 lb 14 ounces and Jaxon weighed 7 lbs., 12 oz.

Laura Swiatek and husband Kevin welcomed Connor David on October 9, 2020. He weighed 8 lbs., 5 oz and was very excited to meet big sister Emily!

Wendy Williams welcomed her first grandchild, Asher Wesley, on October 6, 2020. Her son Jake Williams ’06 and wife Brittney are new parents and soaking up every minute!

Julia Bowling earned her master’s degree in nonprofit studies from the University of Richmond in December 2020.

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