Columbus School for Girls Spotlight on Service Learning
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Columbus School for Girls Forte et Gratum Spotlight on Service Learning AUTUMN 2015 Forte et Gratum AUTUMN 2015 IN THIS ISSUE LETTER FROM THE HEAD OF SCHOOL SECOND ANNUAL SCHOLARS GALA A SUCCESS SIGNIFICANTLY CSG STAFF NEWS COLLEGE DESTINATIONS ALUMNAE WEEKEND COMMENCEMENT CLASS NEWS SERVICE LEARNING CONGRATULATIONS AND SYMPATHIES THE LEGACY OF THE LANDMARK CAMPAIGN ANNUAL REPORT FROM THE HEAD OF SCHOOL JENNIFER M. CICCARELLI “Find a need and fill it” Significantly CSG Ruth Stafford Peale’s simple yet profound directive has been embraced by generations of CSG students. When perusing Meditations of the Heart, which outlines All School programs dating back to 1908, one finds interfaith The PYC Treehouse Dedication services dedicated to serving others. Although the notion of service has changed over time, it could not be more important than it is today. As Gregory Smith and David Sobel explain in the Spring 2013 issue of Independent School magazine, making connections between that which occurs in classrooms and the lives students lead in their communities is crucial not only to the lives of our students, but also to the world in which we live. Acknowledging that US citizens have become more isolated from one another over the past several decades, Smith and Sobel suggest that “…community-based learning can serve as one antidote to this isolation by taking young people into neighborhoods, workplaces, agencies, and city council meetings where they can interact with adults and see themselves as fellow citizens with shared responsibilities…” For this reason and others, Columbus School for Girls provides many opportunities for students to work in the Columbus community and beyond, where they identify and seek to solve problems. As you will see in the pages of this issue of Forte et Gratum, students in the Program for Young Children all the way through Upper School are working with their teachers to make a difference in the world by serving others. From Head of School Jennifer Ciccarelli with PYC students (left to right) collecting books for Reach Out and Read in the PYC and Lower School to Paloma Sanchez ’28, Simone Dean ’28, and Perry Ciccarelli ’28. a service trip to Guatemala during Senior May Program, CSG students are empowered to contribute to the community both meaningfully and globally. As the students acknowledge, the opportunity to help others affects them in ways they could not have imagined when they began their projects. Embedding the transformational impact of service in our classrooms has a lasting impact on CSG girls. As they experience the enduring effects associated with identifying and filling needs, our students CSG’s Squirrel City has a new structure. often internalize this message and seek ways to make a SERVICE IS ONE OF THE MANY On Friday May 1, 2015, the PYC Treehouse difference independently. Wanting to apply what she had was dedicated in an official ribbon-cutting learned in Technology Integration Specialist Christine ENDURING CHARACTERISTICS THAT CSG ceremony. PYC students, faculty, staff, Murakami’s One Laptop Per Child course, Katie Henderson ’16 HELPS OUR STUDENTS TO DEVELOP parents, and Upper School engineering raised funds so she could bring laptops to three girls’ schools and design students gathered for the in Cape Coast, Ghana. Katie traveled to Africa, built these laptops and the groundbreaking occasion. servers to run them and then taught students how to use and maintain the computers. She reflects on all that she learned on this service trip in her blog Throughout the 2014-2015 school year, technologyforghana.weebly.com. the 4/5 class in the PYC was hard at work, collaborating with teachers, parents, the The scope and scale of Katie’s effort to make a difference is extraordinary, but local community, and their “brain buddies” it is not surprising. Students at CSG internalize the ethos of service to others, in Dr. Kevin Sweeney’s Upper School and because of the support of such dedicated, like-minded teachers as Ms. engineering class, to conceptualize and Murakami, they are empowered to make a difference in the world through construct the brand new treehouse. service. Certainly this stance is more than a learned behavior: it is a way of being for CSG alumnae. Service is one of the many enduring characteristics “The catalyst for this project was a that CSG helps our students to develop. The pages of this issue of Forte et combination of the dynamic and movable 2014/2015 4/5 Class Gratum illustrate the many ways that Columbus School for Girls is developing Continued on next page this ethos of service today. 2 FORTE ET GRATUM • AUTUMN 2015 FORTE ET GRATUM • AUTUMN 2015 3 Significantly CSG Significantly CSG CSG Teacher Kay Fetters Ms. Brown’s Class Featured on Publishes Children’s Book NewsDepth Form II Teacher, Khampraseuth Last school year, Keely Brown’s Form V class was (Kay) Fetters, recently published a featured on NewsDepth, a weekly news program they children’s book entitled, Will I Ever watched in class. Just before Spring Break, the girls had Find a Best Friend? The book is a entered a contest sponsored by NewsDepth. The contest multicultural story about a child prize was a visit from the NewsDepth team in honor of who ends up in a different class their 45th anniversary. Their winning acrostic poem read: from her friend and feels excluded. Fetters said, “I had thought about writing a book about different cultures or about my experience coming to America and being the only person NEWSDEPTH IS… in my third grade class who didn’t know how to read, write, NOT YOUR AVERAGE SHOW or speak English.” Fetters was born in Laos and came to EDUCATION, BUT FUN the United States with her family as refugees in 1979. WORTHY OF WATCHING WEEKLY She was ultimately inspired to write this book after SOMETHING WE LOOK FORWARD TO pieces of the PYC playground and the 4/5 class’ frequent teaching elementary students for nearly 20 years. She trips to Cynthia’s Woods. The girls learned about and observed that many of her students experienced similar DISCOVERING THINGS ABOUT OHIO incorporated elements of Squirrel City into the treehouse,” social anxieties and feelings of exclusion but for different EXCITING TO SEE OUR NAME ON SPEAK OUT said PYC Division Director Lynné Steinhaus. reasons. She noticed students needing guidance with PARENTS ENJOY HEARING ABOUT The students were encouraged to work on this project making friends, asserting themselves in a group, or just WHAT WE’VE LEARNED learning to express their own feelings. in the classroom in very unique ways. Teachers provided THE PERFECT NEWS SHOW FOR US students with the opportunity to build digital and physical Her book touches on core value topics such as courage HOLDS A SPECIAL PLACE IN OUR CLASSROOM prototypes and develop dioramas of the space. and perseverance. It is written in first person to provide “Working with the constraints of space, budget, readers the opportunities to reflect on challenges of functionality, and elements, the girls used the same friendships and learning to be sympathetic and empathetic project work flow that is used for the Upper School toward others, and most of all, to help view themselves as engineering class. Some work utilized input from the problem-solvers. The girls found out that they had won when Brown passed out a “pop quiz” during social studies class. When the girls entire group whereas other aspects required committee Will I Ever Find a Best turned over the paper, they read the announcement that work and component design teams,” explained the 4/5 Friend? is available for they had won and erupted into squeals of delight! The class teachers. purchase by directly An example of a diorama and 3-D model—one of many that are on display in NewsDepth team stopped by on Wednesday, April 29, 2015, the Ross Gallery. contacting Fetters Having started in September 2014, this project involved to tape the show. Then on May 6, 2015 the program aired. working with the City of Columbus over Spring Break to (kfettersbooks@gmail. incorporates cut-outs to allow for growth and movement get permits, using technology like the computer program com), or online from of the trees. Glen Sullivan P’28, a structural engineer, Tinkercard to explore the differences between 2-D and various vendors including: advised on the project to ensure that the treehouse is safe 3-D to create 3-D models, conducting site visits to local Amazon, AuthorHouse, or and stable. tree houses like the one at Inniswood Metro Gardens, and Barnes & Noble. visiting the Columbus Museum of Art. The girls also used Photographs, drawings, models, and other work by the Fetters has taught at CSG hammers, screw drivers, and drills to help build parts of 4/5 class and their Upper School Brain Buddies from the since 2003. She taught Form IV for three years before the treehouse. engineering class were exhibited through the end of the transitioning to her current position as a Form II teacher. school year in the Ross Gallery. The treehouse consists of a 10’ x 12’ platform supported She continues to mentor new faculty members and is a by piers around one tree with a rope bridge connecting to The members of the student-run committee were Alonna Lower School representative on the I.D.E.A (Inclusion, a smaller 3’ x 3’ platform at the other tree. The trees are Barnes ’28, Perry Ciccarelli ’28, Sadie Goldberg ’28, Lena Diversity, Equity, and Advocacy) Committee. not physically connected to the treehouse; the structure Mekhjian ’28, and Sydney Tyson ’28. 4 FORTE ET GRATUM • AUTUMN 2015 FORTE ET GRATUM • AUTUMN 2015 5 Significantly CSG Significantly CSG Katie Henderson ’16 A Study in Sound: Ruch Dining Room Achieves Perfect Score on ACT Early in the fall of 2014, Mrs.