Inside SAAS

SAAS Bills Passed at State Youth Legislature

shanrahan — Fri, 18 May 2012 19:48:54 +0000

May 18, 2012 – This year’s state Youth Legislature was held from May 2-5 in Olympia. SAAS sent nineteen students in their delegation to join the four hundred plus students in twenty-eight delegations from around the state. In all, the session reviewed two hundred bills, one hundred of which made it out of committee to the Senate and House. Thirty of those bills passed both chambers and were signed by the Governor.

The SAAS delegation presented eleven bills, ten of which passed out of committee, and seven of which were prioritized in the top three bills in their respective committees. Two of the bills in the junior Senate, one written by Jade Chowning ’15 and the other by Julia Delaney ’15 and Grace Shapiro ’15, were included in those signed by the Governor. Three of the bills passed out of both chambers were also signed by the Governor. Those bills were written by Sally Slade ’13, Elliot Frank ’13, and Alex Nelson ’14. Steve Retz, SAAS Youth Legislature advisor with Lisa Feiertag, commented on the success of this year’s bills. “The SAAS delegation has built a solid reputation over the past decade for bringing well-crafted bills and then arguing persuasively for them in the House and Senate chambers. This year’s group did exactly that, and we all had a ton of fun in the process!”

The SAAS delegation included two major officers, Nithya Menon ’12 (Secretary of State) and Bailey Stonecipher (Editor-in-Chief). We also had three state officers in our delegation: Kendall Reingold ’12 (Governor’s Cabinet), Elliot Frank ‘12 (Committee Chair), and Sally Slade ’13 (Committee Chair).

“This was a strong year for our juniors and seniors who were veterans in the program,” added Steve of this year’s delegation. “Five of the eight were elected to state office and helped run the state legislative session in Olympia, which also meant that they served as great role models and teachers for our new freshmen and sophomores. There were twelve new kids in the delegation this year, and after a great learning experience, several are already working on bill ideas for next year and planning their campaigns for a run at state level offices.”

Photo Above: The 2012 state Youth Legislature delegation on the steps of the Capitol Building. Nithya Menon ’12 and Bailey Stonecipher ’12 are featured in the front row, far right, with this year’s officers.
Photo Below: Youth Legislature Senate in Session

Upper School Drama Opens This Evening

shanrahan — Thu, 17 May 2012 20:21:15 +0000

May 17, 2012 – Seattle Academy’s Upper School drama, William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, opens tonight! Michael Cimino has directed a new version of this well-known play to take place “a long time ago… in a galaxy far, far away.” It gives a whole new meaning to the phrase “a pair of star-cross’d lovers.” The play stars Claire Parchem ‘12 as Juliet, Tessa Garcia-Duarte ‘14 as Romeo, and Gracie Truex ‘12 as the Nurse. The play opens tonight to a sold out crowd and continues through Saturday night in the Arts Center Theater at 7 PM. For ticket information, call Kelly Rettenmier at 206-676-6895.

Top Photo: Claire Parchem ‘12 and Gracie Truex ‘12
Poster Below: Tessa Garcia-Duarte ‘14 as Romeo and Claire Parchem ‘12 as Juliet

Alums Give Back to Neighborhood

shanrahan — Thu, 17 May 2012 17:21:18 +0000

May 17, 2012 – Over the weekend, several alumni, along with teacher Tom Hajduk and Dani Cone, founder and owner of High 5 Pie and Fuel Coffee, walked around the Seattle Academy campus to pick up trash for the 12^th Ave Clean Sweep, a local community service event created by the Capitol Hill Chamber of Commerce to help clean up the streets around the 12^th Avenue corridor. Among the alumni were the Alumni Director, Liz Erickson ‘01, multiple Alumni Board members including Celeste Jalbert ’04, Christine Primomo ’06, Paige Pauli ’04, Quinton Dowling ’05, and a few alumni who just wanted to support the cause, including Saskia de Jonge ’04, Case Blum ’04, Jasmine Azpiri ’04, and Pearl Klein, who was from the founding class of 1984! It was a great group that made a great impression on the community.

A Tired Cardinal

SAAS Athletes Shine at League Competitions

shanrahan — Mon, 14 May 2012 14:52:02 +0000

May 14, 2012 – Last week, our spring athletes competed in league competitions with many advancing to the tri-districts tournaments. Here is a recap of the results:

Boys’ Soccer

The boys’ team won a 2-1 game in overtime against Seattle Christian on Friday night to advance as the #2 seed in the first round of state. This game will be on Wednesday, May 16, at Starfire at 6:00 PM against White Salmon.

Girls’ Tennis

Nithya Menon ’12 and Paulina Phelps ’12 qualified to participate in the tri-district tournament which will be held on Thursday, May 17.

Girls’ Ultimate

The girls played in the Seattle Invite this weekend. They went 3-0 on Saturday, allowing only 10 points scored against them in 3 games as well as knocking off the number 2 seed Nathan Hale. They finished second in the tournament. Lena Klarnet ’12 was named the team MVP, Bela Sotero de Menezes ’12 won the Spirit Award, and Sophie Johansen ’15 was named the Rookie Award. Their name game is semi-finals in state this Friday against Ballard (time and location TBD).

Track and Field

The Middle School team competed in the Cross Town League Championships on Friday at West Seattle Stadium. Those results will be forthcoming later this week.

The Upper School Track team competed in the Emerald City League Championships on Thursday and Saturday. The boys’ team finished third in league, and the girls’ team took home the championship! Coach Erin Aitchison was selected as the Emerald City League Girls’ Track Coach of the Year.

The team also produced several individual league champions, including:

Sophie Brooks ’14 in the 100M
Nick Conklin ’14 in the 400M
Sophie Pierce ’15 in High Jump
Lucas Trautman ’13 in Triple Jump
Lindsey Vandergrift ’12 in Triple Jump
Boys’ 4×400M

The following athletes qualified to move on to tri-district competition:

Addy Carvajal ’12 in Javelin, Long Jump, and Triple Jump
Sophia Barsher ’14 in Pole Vault and Triple Jump
Sophie Brooks ’14 in 100M, 200M, and 400M
Andrew Crites ’13 in Pole Vault
Meghan Hanrahan ’14 in Discus and Shot Put
Maddie Mark ’12 in Pole Vault
Sophie Pierce ’15 in High Jump and Triple Jump
Alana Saladino ’14 in 300 Hurdles and Pole Vault
Julie Shankland ’14 in 400M (With a New School Record)
Grace Shapiro ’14 in 100 Hurdles
Caroline Sweeney ’14 in High Jump
Lucas Trautman ’13 in Long Jump, Pole Vault, and Triple Jump
Lindsey Vandergrift ’12 in 100 Hurdles, 300 Hurdles, Long Jump, and Triple Jump
Sam Zieve ’13 in 100M
Boys’ 4×100M
Girls’ 4×100M
Girls’ 4×200M
Boy’s 4×400M
Girls’ 4×400M

GO CARDINALS!!!

Boys’ Soccer Team Qualifies for State Tournament

shanrahan — Thu, 10 May 2012 01:31:46 +0000

May 9, 2012 – Senior Alex Barsher scored a pair of second half goals, leading the Seattle Academy boys’ varsity soccer team to a 2-1 victory over Kings yesterday at Kings High School.

The victory gives Seattle Academy a berth in this year’s state tournament. The Cardinals will next play this Friday night, May 11, at 8 PM at Sammamish High School against Seattle Christian. The game on Friday is for seeding only. Seattle Academy’s first round state game will be on Wednesday, May 16, time and opponent to be determined.

Middle School Students Compete in State Math Championships

shanrahan — Wed, 09 May 2012 16:13:23 +0000

May 9, 2012 – On April 28, the SAAS Middle School Math Club travelled to Blaine, WA for the Washington State Math Championships. There were 339 teams from around the state competing. It was the third year that we have gone and the first year that there were teams from each Middle School grade represented! All of the teams had a good showing and enjoyed displaying their math skills. The 8th grade team has attended the Math Championships all three years and has shown much improvement from year to year. Their commitment to the Math Club and its mission has inspired younger students and paved the way for the increased involvement in this event.

The eleven students that attended the Washington State Math Championships this year were:

8^th Grade
Cooper Atkins
Sarp Orgul
Lizzie Willsmore-Finkle

7^th Grade
Lauren King
Emma Lam
Kammy Yedor

6^th Grade
Ethan Englert
Max McCuller
Molly Sanderson
Ben Sievers
Jesse Walling

SAAS Students Attend World Language Day

shanrahan — Tue, 08 May 2012 17:02:59 +0000

May 8, 2012 – On Friday, May 4, four Seattle Academy students accompanied Math Department Chair Gary Anderson to make a presentation at the University of Washington’s World Language Day Conference. Together they presented their work and that of their class in creating a web site for teaching the language Esperanto to other high school students. Seattle Academy’s Software Development program strives to work on interdisciplinary projects so that the software that is made has real-life uses. The project for the current trimester is focused on language learning in general and the Esperanto language in particular.

After introductions, Sarah Hughes ‘14 presented the basics of the language including the alphabet and pronunciation of words and phrases. She then lead the audience through an exercise of reading and interpreting what was written, giving those attending immediate success with language. Sarp Orgul ‘16 then presented the innovative principals of word constructions in the language, including the flexible use of affixes that give power and beauty to the language. Next the students moved to the technology side of the presentation with Liat Perlin ‘13 demonstrating some of the tools used in the course for vocabulary acquisition which is one of the core challenges of language learning. She demonstrated the tools not just in Esperanto, but based on audience input, in Norwegian. Finally, Max Pfeiffer ‘13 presented some of the tools that have been developed by the students so far this trimester including interactive answer checking, audio integration, and interactive web pages to help learners read and learn the meaning of text in new languages being studied.

Gary Anderson remarked how impressive it is to bring Seattle Academy students to make such presentations as they bring their performance experience into practice in explaining new and complex ideas to others in such an engaging way.

Over 80 Seattle Academy students have studied Software Development this year, making it one of the more popular electives. Projects such as the Esperanto language website make their experience real and give them the tools to move on to develop websites and learning tools of their own.

Above: Sarp Orgul ‘16, Max Pfeiffer ‘13, Liat Perlin ‘13, Sarah Hughes ‘14, and Gary Anderson (Math Chair) prepare to present at the UW World Languages Day.

Below: Sarp Orgul ‘16 explains the principals of flexible word construction in Esperanto.

Varsity Boys Win First-Round Tri-District Game

shanrahan — Mon, 07 May 2012 23:39:18 +0000

May 7, 2012 – Led by senior Connor Freeman’s three goals, the Seattle Academy boys’ soccer team defeated Cascade Christian 8-0 on Saturday in a first round tri-district game at Sammamish High School.

Senior Alex Barsher added two goals as the Cardinals led 5-0 at halftime. Owen Harrang ‘13, Niall O’Dowd ’12, and Peter Sprugel ‘12 all added one goal each in Seattle Academy’s biggest scoring output of the season.

The Cardinals will next be in action tomorrow night, Tuesday, May 8, taking on Kings at Kings High School at 6 PM.

SAAS Arts Program Recognized

shanrahan — Mon, 07 May 2012 16:10:03 +0000

May 7, 2012 – Last week, ArtsEd Washington (ArtsEd WA) in partnership with the Association of Washington School Principals (AWSP) announced the winners of the second annual Schools of Excellence in Arts Education Award. The Schools of Excellence in Arts Education Awards are inspired by a program of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. All Washington state K-12 schools with exemplary arts education programs are eligible to apply for the awards. Adams Elementary in Seattle and Parkwood Elementary in Shoreline were the two winners.

Additionally, ArtsEd WA and AWSP recognized two other award nominees as “highly commended” for their strong arts education programs. SAAS (along with Everett’s Cascade High School) was noted for its high level of offerings in multiple arts disciplines and for effectively tapping into Seattle arts institutions to form community connections.

ArtsEd Washington is a nonprofit organization devoted to advancing and increasing arts education in K-12 schools, working to ensure that all students in Washington state have access to a complete education that includes the arts: dance, music, theatre, and visual art. ArtsEd Washington is a member of the Kennedy Center Alliance for Arts Education Network.

The Association of Washington School Principals is a professional association serving principals, assistant principals and principals in training. Formed in 1972, the association includes more than 3,400 members from public and private elementary, middle and high schools statewide. It is governed by a board of practicing principals drawn from the elementary, middle and high school levels.

BIG THANKS FOR SUPPORTING SAAS!

shanrahan — Fri, 04 May 2012 17:02:47 +0000

May 4, 2012 – Thank you to everyone who donated to Seattle Academy through the Seattle Foundation’s GiveBIG Campaign on May 2. During this 24 hour online campaign $3,415 were raised for Seattle Academy to help prepare students for college and life. Seattle Foundation will stretch these gifts by matching a share of each donation using a “stretch fund” provided by corporate sponsors, individual contributors and the Foundation.

Special thanks to our alumni who donated one third of the gifts received! Gifts came from SAAS graduates representing classes from 1993 to 2011, and from places across the country including Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Jackson, Chicago, Washington DC, Gainesville, New Orleans, Brooklyn, and Boston. Way to go Cardinals! We also thank the current parents, grandparents, alumni parents, and faculty who went online yesterday to GiveBIG for SAAS. We appreciate you all for your generosity and wonderful school spirit!