Summer 2012 - Glenelg Country School

Spiortad 

Glenelg Country School 

anDràgoin 

Summer 2012 

Celebrating the Class of 2012 

From our first “lifer” to our current graduating class, 

our students know what it means to be a Dragon.

Mission 

The mission of Glenelg Country School is to conduct a challenging 

academic curriculum, enriching opportunities in the arts, and a 

vigorous athletic program in order to develop in each student: 

intellectual curiosity and love for learning; 

effective oral and written communication; 

skills in mathematics and technology; 

athleticism and sportsmanship; 

ecological and aesthetic awareness; 

integrity, respect, and compassion; and 

a global perspective and understanding of other cultures 

so that every graduate is qualified for admission to colleges and 

universities of highest standing and inspired to contribute to the 

greater good. 

Spiortad an Dràgoin (spee-ohr-TAHD uhn DRAH-goyn) 

Celtic for Spirit of the Dragon, the magazine is published by the 

Development Office of the School and is sent to alumni, parents, 

grandparents and friends. 

ACCREDITATION 

Glenelg Country School is accredited, grades Pre-K through 12, by 

the Association of Independent Maryland Schools (AIMS) and by 

the Middle States Association of Schools and Colleges (MSA). 

The School is affiliated with the Association of Independent 

Maryland Schools (AIMS), the National Association of Independent 

Schools (NAIS), and the Educational Records Bureau (ERB). 

SUBMISSIONS 

Article suggestions and letters are welcomed. 

We reserve the right to edit all submissions for publication. 


Attn: Office of Marketing and Communications/Spiortad 

12793 Folly Quarter Road 

Ellicott City, Maryland 21042 

spiortad@glenelg.org 

www.glenelg.org 

410-531-8600 

Head of School 

Gregory J. Ventre 

ventre@glenelg.org 

ASSociate HEAD of School; HEAD of Upper 

School 

Raymond Q. Broderick 

broderick@glenelg.org 

Head of Middle School 

Kevin J. Boland 

boland@glenelg.org 

Head of Lower School 

Anne P. Wooleyhand 

wooleyhand@glenelg.org 

Head of Primary School 

Lynda P. Rotter 

rotter@glenelg.org 

Director of Athletics 

Nan M. Hambrose 

nhambrose@glenelg.org 

Directors of College counseling 

Elise A. Seraydarian and Christopher D. Miller 

seraydarian@glenelg.org; cmiller@glenelg.org 

Chief Information Officer 

William J. Pickett 

pickett@glenelg.org 

Chief Financial Officer 

Wm. Barry Shadrach 

shadrach@glenelg.org 

Comptroller 

Jhan S. Tangires 

tangires@glenelg.org 

Director of Admission and Financial Aid 

Karen K. Wootton 

wootton@glenelg.org 

Director of Development 

Nancy L. Smith 

smith@glenelg.org 

Director of Annual Giving 

Cheryl C. Neely 

neely@glenelg.org 

Director of Marketing and Communications 

Amanda D. Martorana 

martorana@glenelg.org 

Alumni and Special Events Coordinator 

Evelyn M. Johnson 

ejohnson@glenelg.org 

Director of Auxiliary Programs 

Kirsten M. Mahoney 

kmahoney@glenelg.org 

Photos in this month’s Spiortad were contributed by 

Cate Barry, Robert Bartlett, Katharina Boser, Nancy 

Burke, Brant Challacombe, Classic Photography, Karen 

Dodge, Beth Goodman, Connie Jack, Tony Maranto, 

Lauren Roepcke, Marc Schmidt, Charlie Stewart, 

Suzanne Stone, Paulette Ward, and David Weeks. 

Cover Photo by Robert Bartlett; 

Back Cover Photo by Classic Photography 

Table of Contents 

2 From the Head of School 

The Dilemmas of Graduation Speakers 

5 Development 

6 Primary School 

A Night of STEM 

Mrs. Rotter for a Morning 

Exploring Moroccan Art 

9 Lower School 

Speed for Beads 

Geo-Bee 

Using Web-Based Tools to Create True 21st Century Learners 

Calling All Dragons on DECK 

14 Middle School 

Eighth Grade Oral History Project 

The Space Academy 

Instrumental Music: Evolving and Thriving 

16 Upper School 

Spring into STEM 

2012 First Tech Challenge 

Rubik’s Cube 

Good Luck! 

Remembering When... 

Worlds 

Trip to Spain and Paris 

New Orleans 

24 Class of 2012 

Defining what it means to be a Dragon 

26 AWards 

Senior Awards Recognition; College Acceptances 

Academic Awards 

29 Performing Arts 

The Emperor’s New Clothes 

Marches, Meters and Music... Oh My! 

Pippin 

32 Community Service 

Cedar Lane Fair 

Breaking the Cycle of Poverty in Pakistan 

Fund for the Future of Our Children 

36 Athletics 

The New “A” Team 

Athletic Additions 

Pink Out! 

MS Boys Tennis 

Gerald Quarles Signs with Florida A&M University 

42 Faculty and Staff 

Collaborating to “Build Creative Connections” 

44 Alumni 

The First GCS Lifer 

Class Notes 

La Palapa

From the Head of School 

The Dilemmas of 

Graduation Speakers 

By Gregory J. Ventre, Head of School 

This issue of the Spiortad an Dragoin 

is devoted to the outstanding class of 

2012 – a class who achieved much as 

students of Glenelg Country School, whose 

accomplishments were chronicled at our 

recent commencement ceremony and from 

whom much is expected in the future. As 

usual, and as anticipated, we spent time 

telling them how special and wonderful 

they are, and we felt great doing it. 

We always get very positive feedback 

on our commencement ceremonies, 

mainly because they are personal and 

attempt to highlight each student and do 

manage to strum that emotional chord 

that graduations generally regarded as 

“successful” seem to pluck. 

Subsequently, I read a number of 

things that brought me back down to earth 

with a thud. The first was a piece in The 

New York Times Magazine about systemic 

abuse at a well-known prep school in 

New York City. This was preceded by 

a similar story a few weeks before, 

outlining similar incidents at a school that 

I had always held in very high regard 

in my hometown, Brooklyn. Then I read 

a piece in Newsweek by Editor-in-Chief 

Tina Brown called “Generation Special,” 

which, in no uncertain terms, tells the 

current crop of graduates that they have 

been brought up to believe they were 

wonderful and unique, but they had better 

get over it ASAP, because they are in for 

a rude awakening, and nothing in their 

up-bringing has prepared them for it. 

Special Not so much. 

Brown was essentially introducing 

an article by Wellesley High School 

teacher David McCullough Jr., whose 

commencement address at his school has 

generated tremendous attention in various 

media, social and otherwise, and landed 

him in such incongruous places as the CBS 

Morning TV show. McCullough’s message 

is one we have heard before: “You 

see, if everyone is special, no one is. If 

everyone gets a trophy, trophies become 

meaningless… we Americans, to our 

detriment, have come to love accolades 

more than genuine achievement.” Talk 

about pouring cold water on a party! 

Of course, he is right – but there is a 

strong whiff of cynicism in all these pieces 

– both in those that describe the terrible 

abuses in schools and in the “you’re not 

special so get over yourselves” articles, 

that I find very troubling. Those who 

violate the faith we put in our teachers, 

clerics and others in positions of trust are 

certainly worthy of scorn and deserve 

the full weight of justice. It hit home a bit 

too hard to hear McCullough, a veteran 

of 26 years in the classroom, tell us that 

a Nobel laureate he had met “did not 

endure a six week SAT prep class or snort 

Adderall before sitting to take the test. 

Probably his parents did not hire a pricy 

consultant to shepherd him through the 

college application process; nor did they 

lean on teachers to let him re-take tests he 

did poorly on or, better, to just change an 

unwelcome grade…” 

To be fair, his essential point was 

not so far from the one I tried to make at 

GCS’s commencement – to urge graduates 

to find a way to live a productive and 

joyous life that is not self-centered, in spite 

of our best efforts to place their wellbeing 

at the very center of our universe 

and protect them from failure. Brown 

further observes that “there is a growing 

dystopian opinion that we’ve given our 

children everything – except the thing 

they need most – the ability to find their 

core passions without artificial support.” 

Of course, all this brings us to consider our 

school and whether or not we are part of 

this great conspiracy to disable our young 

people. 

My father left high school to join the 

service after Pearl Harbor – I am sure 

that even in his hard-scrabble Depressionera 

education nothing prepared him for 

the horrors of war at 17. I was brought 

up in an era of relative peace and real 

prosperity – but was not prepared for the 

rebellion and counter-culture enthusiasms 

of the late 1960’s. I grant that the world 

our current graduates are entering may 

not be a bed of roses – I mentioned at 

commencement that if science is even 

reasonably close many members of the 

class of 2012 (or a significant or useful 

part of them) will live to see the next 

century. Will they get jobs Will the 

earth still be a healthy place to live Yet 

I remember the lament of every previous 

generation – that they inherited a world 

filled with strife and challenge, yet I also 

know that it is the essence of the human 

spirit to rise above and strive to improve. 

If we who work in schools cannot be 

optimistic about our children we are really 

in the wrong business. Yes, parents seem 

more demanding, expectant, entitled – 

the whole Gen-Y syndrome appears to 

have some basis, and yes, children may 

be used to quick responses, easy paths, 

unprecedented amounts of support and 

accolades, but we really are asking more 

“If we who work in schools cannot be optimistic about 

our children we are really in the wrong business.” 

of them than we have ever asked of 

young people before. Yes, we really are! 

The pressures on them are truly unique to 

this generation, the schedules we impose 

upon them are unmanageable and our 

interference (a purposely chosen word) in 

their development not always productive. 

Add to that the modeling popular culture 

offers – scofflaw athletes, pop stars 

and abusers getting new TV shows, huge 

contracts and more publicity, and we 

come to understand how difficult it is to be 

young today. I know the cultural paradigm 

is to bemoan how little we ask of our 

children and how much we do for them 

compared to “when we were growing up” 

but let’s be clear – we want to do it – and 

I submit we want to do it not because 

we want to infantilize them but because 

we do know how much they are going 

to need to succeed in this future we are 

bequeathing to them. 

Michio Kaku, in his amazing book The 

Physics of the Future, describes the world 

our children will inherit – vast changes in 

medicine, economics, artificial intelligence, 

energy from the stars, a wide-ranging 

tour of technological progress over the 

next century. Who will have jobs Which 

nations will prosper All these topics 

culminate in a fascinating section on the 

future of humanity – this would have 

been not science but science fiction when I 

graduated from high school. How can we 

possibly prepare our students for all this 

Despite all the doom and gloom, I 

believe that we do prepare our students 

for the future by helping them to be 

problem solvers, to approach difference 

with an open mind, to see the potential 

in things, to look at the world in an 

integrated way, and to welcome diversity. 

If we are not cheerleaders for our young, 

what chance do they really have 

2 Spiortad an Dràgoin Summer 2012 

3

Class of 2012 

To celebrate the Class of 2012, the summer edition of the Spiortad an Dragoin had 

custom covers created for each of our graduating seniors. Here is the entire class of 66 

students and their cover photos. 

Annual Fund 

2011 – 2012 

Every year the Annual Fund has two goals. One, concentrating on the dollars which are 

part of the school’s daily operating budget and two, the parent participation in our 

campaign which reflects the support of our families as we seek grants or market the 

family spirit of GCS. 

This year, with the support of our parents, faculty, grandparents, alumni, alumni parents 

and friends, we have exceeded our goal of $525,000. In these challenging economic 

times this was strong support. Our sincere thanks go out to all those who volunteered 

over the year as we gathered these generous gifts, and a special thanks to all those 

GCS families and friends who gave in this year’s campaign. While we still needed 

25 families to reach our 70% goal of parent participation for 2011/2012, the 

Development team is ready to meet the challenge for the new year. 

Nancy Smith 

Director of Development 

Development 

It All Adds Up To 

Excellence! 


Annual Fund 

Annual Fund Giving Levels: 

Excellence 

is what Glenelg Country School represents - in the 

classroom, on the field, and in the community. 

The Annual Fund is no exception. 

Preserve our tradition of excellence in the coming year. 

Make your gift today. 

Your Annual Fund gift helps to realize the greatness within every student: 

•A curriculum that includes the STEM program in each division, Global 

Competitencies, SMART Board integration, cross-divisional collaboration. 

•A dedicated community service and international program that instills the 

importance of helping others and global awareness. 

•A vibrant arts curriculum with music, visual and award winning performing arts 

programs 

•25 clubs and student led programs and 47 Middle and Upper School competitive 

sports teams. 

Please visit www.glenelg.org/donate or use the envelope in this issue to mail your gift 

payable to Glenelg Country School. 

Founders Circle $10,000 and above 

Bagpipers Clan $5,000 - $9,999 

Tower Leaders $2,500 - $4,499 

Dragon Donors $1,000 - $2,499 

Green and White Sustainers $500 - $999 

Spirit Club up to $499 

120% Club 

A gift 20% greater than last year 

Thank you for your commitment to our excellence! 

4 

Spiortad an Dràgoin

In March, Primary School students, parents, siblings, 

and grandparents gathered for an evening to share a 

truly “STEM-ulating” experience when they attended the 

Primary School’s First Annual Family STEM Night. After 

being welcomed by Primary School teachers and offered a 

map of activities, the children and their guests were free to 

roam about the Primary School building and participate in 

a variety of engaging STEM activities. 

The Primary School classrooms were transformed into 

engineering activity stations. The first floor showcased a 

display of first graders’ inventions created in science lab 

and computer class. At the top of the stairs, visitors could 

linger to watch a video entitled NASA for Kids: Introduction 

to Engineering. In the library, many children took on the 

“Boat Float” challenge and solved complex puzzles at the 

Marbles Store station, where representatives from the local 

store shared information about their games and puzzles. 

One of the classrooms was transformed into a Robotics 

Arena. Two of the Upper School’s robotics team members, 

Casey Wojcik ’12 and Alex Grzyboski ’12, amazed the 

children with their robot, which won second place in the 

A Night of STEM 

By Pat Appel, Academic Support, Primary School 

Maryland State competition held at the Johns Hopkins 

Applied Physics Lab. The children were also invited to 

try their hand at programming the Primary School’s little 

bumblebee robot named “Beebot.” 

Another classroom was designated the 

“Deconstruction Area.” In this room, 

students armed with screwdrivers 

painstakingly disassembled various 

common household items such as 

answering machines, CPU’s, bicycles, 

and VCR’s to explore the components 

that made them work. 

The Primary School’s portable SMART 

Board, set up in the hallway outside 

the multipurpose room, was also a 

popular stop for students. At this 

station, they had multiple opportunities 

for hands-on practice drawing and 

designing using a graphics software 

program. 

The Multipurpose Room was buzzing 

with activity all evening long. Children 

and their guests built and tested minicatapults 

and created structures using 

various building materials including 

toothpicks, blocks, and interlocking 

rods. At the “Little Architects” station, 

students had a blast designing and 

constructing a house for the “Three 

Little Pigs” that could withstand the 

powerful lung capacity of the “Big 

Bad Wolf.” 

The evening was brought to a close 

with the sharing of a charming 

video created by the Partnership for 

21st Century Skills and FableVision 

entitled Above and Beyond. Its 

storyline reminded us all how the 

synergy of collaboration, creativity, 

and invention significantly shapes the 

future. Fostering students’ excitement 

about science, technology, and math 

and giving them experiences with the 

engineering process are important 

components of the school’s STEM 

program. 

The turnout and fun had by all 

that evening far exceeded our 

expectations, thanks to the support 

of Mrs. Lynda Rotter, the Science 

Department faculty, and our wonderful 

Primary School teachers. Special 

thanks to Dr. Tony Maranto, Upper 

School Science Department Chair, 

for offering Primary School families 

special tours of the GCS Observatory 

that evening. Beth Goodman, the 

Upper School’s STEM teacher and 

our mentor for this project, not only 

generously offered her guidance 

and time, but brought Upper School 

STEM students Cole Chason ’15, Skye 

Basir ’15, Marissa Diehl ’15, and Alex 

Myers ’15 to help her man the “Let It 

Fly” catapult station. Thank you also 

to Jim Silvestri and Deb Lieberman 

and Middle and Lower School Science 

teachers for helping the Primary 

School faculty offer our students this 

memorable STEM experience. 

Opposite Page: Students, teachers and 

parents gearing up for STEM Night; students 

working at the “deconstruction areas.” 

This page, from top: Cary Pakulla ’24 

and father working on a project together; 

student works with the portable SMART 

Board; Zakaria Siddiqui ’26 enjoys taking 

apart an old phone. 

Primary School 


7

Mrs. Roter for a Morning 

On Monday, May 21st, the Head 

of the Primary School was temporarily 

replaced by an eager young First 

Grader, Rowan Whittingham. Rowan’s 

parents generously purchased this 

privilege at the GCS Spring Benefit 

in April. Rowan arrived on the rainy 

Monday morning to assist with a messy 

morning carpool and to take charge of 

the Primary School’s Weekly Assembly. 

As part of her duties, she declared 

that the following Thursday would be a 

special dress down day, a declaration 

applauded by students and staff. 

By Lynda Rotter, Head of School, Primary School 

Following the assembly, the 

“young Mrs. Rotter” recognized a 

special birthday for a student, visited 

all Pre-K3, Pre-K4, and Kindergarten 

classes to share special books with 

them. Rowan did take time away from 

her duties to join her classmates for 

snack and recess. 

The morning ended with a special 

lunch with a friend and with Mrs. 

Rotter, another special purchase from 

the Spring Benefit. 

The Lower School students scurried around 

the building to the back doors of the locker room, 

quickly changed into their sneakers and hit the 

court. They immediately started running and 

each lap around the Lower School Gym brought 

them closer to their personal victories, running 

one more lap than they did the time before. The 

Speed for Beads Program was launched as a 

mid-year tool to get students warmed up and 

ready to go. Yet, it took on a life of its own as 

students reached each milestone. Students each 

earned a bead when they reached the following 

milestones: 1 mile, 5 miles, 10 miles, 15 miles, 

and the ultimate star bead when they reached 

20 miles. Each time students came to P.E., they 

were able to run more laps in order to earn more 

beads to add to their shoelaces. 

Students used popsicle sticks to represent each 

lap they ran. At the end of the warm up they 

By Jayde Kelly, Physical Education, Lower School 

Lower School 

for Beads 

were able to cash them in. Students utilized their 

mental math skills when adding up the number of 

laps they ran in order to arrive at their “Happy 

Bead Day” moment. After reaching that moment, 

they would come to the front of the class and 

receive a round of applause from their peers. 

Not only did the Speed for Beads Program get 

students warmed up, but it also gave students 

the opportunity to support each other, celebrate 

victory, and appreciate fitness! 

Collectively students ran a total of 107,057 

laps, which is equal to 5,353 miles. This distance 

is enough to get you to California and back! A 

string of 267 Star Beads was presented to the 

Lower School at the last assembly. My challenge 

for them next year is to go even further! I am 

extremely proud of the Lower School and their 

achievements this year and I can’t wait to see 

where we go next year! 

EXPLORING 

MOROCCAN ART 

By Judith Hayes, Librarian, Primary School and Sabrina George, World Languages, Primary School 

Pre-K4 students learned about the 

Moroccan art form of rug making. In 

the computer lab with Mrs. Dodge, they 

used a software program called Tux 

Paint to create their own colorful rugs 

full of “earthy” colors and repeated 

patterns. Using the kaleidoscope 

symmetry tool, the children were able 

to magically turn their designs into 

intricate, symmetrical, digital rugs – 

perfect for decorating any space in 

Moroccan style! 

In the art studio, Kindergarten 

students learned about the Moroccan 

Hand of Fatima, or “hamsa,” a 

symbol depicting an open right hand. 

Legend says that this hand serves 

to protect from the gaze of the evil 

eye. After a thorough exploration 

of many beautifully decorated 

Moroccan hamsas, children traced 

their own hands and created colorful, 

symmetrical designs to adorn their 

hamsas. Their hamsas also included the 

evil eye and many glistening gems to 

complete their Moroccan creations. 

First grade artists learned about 

the intricate design patterns, bright 

color palettes, and symmetrical shapes 

found in Moroccan pottery. After 

researching a variety of photographs 

of this amazing art form, the students 

created their own Moroccan “plates” 

beginning with a radial design. They 

created their art on round cardboard 

pieces with sharpies, oil pastels, 

and glass tiles. Their creations were 

complex and beautiful representations 

of the Moroccan culture. 

Geo-Bee 

By Geoff Reed, Fifth Grade, Lower School 

On Friday, May 4th, eighteen fourth and fifth grade finalists participated in the 

Lower School Geography Bee. The students earned their ranking in the finals after 

the preliminary rounds that were held in their social studies classes. 

When the Geography Bee began, the finalists nervously waited in their seats 

as the Quizmaster, Mr. Ventre, went over the rules of the competition. All students 

in grades three through five, as well as many parents and Lower School teachers 

were in the audience watching. The students fielded questions about the locations 

and capitals of states and countries around the world. After more than an hour 

of competition and hundreds of questions asked, only two finalists remained in 

the competition: fourth grader, Jamie Jobson and fifth grader, Peter Karabatis. 

Both students impressed the audience with their incredible knowledge of world 

geography. 

In the end, Peter Karabatis was named the winner after he correctly identified 

the location of the MacKenzie River in Canada. For winning the competition, Peter 

received a certificate of achievement, a gift certificate to Barnes and Noble, and 

the esteem of his classmates and teachers. 


9

Basic Programming Skills 

New software (Pixie) for creating animations, drawing, 

inserting images and clip art, recording sounds 

The MIT program SCRATCH provides a basic 

environment where students can learn how to write scripts 

to make objects (called sprites) interact and do things, and 

understand how different scripts come together to form an 

overall program. Students moved from passive observers 

and users of programs to creators and puppeteers learning 

to control their environment. One important example is the 

use and understanding of (x,y) coordinate space to get the 

‘sprites’ to move in the direction they wanted them to move. 

Third graders created short animations of their states ‘main 

attractions.’ 

Using Web-Based Tools 

To Create True 21st Century Learners 

Technology skills in the lower school this year have 

involved not only understanding basic computer software 

skills such as using Microsoft Word, Excel and Power Point, but 

also how to use technology as a tool for learning, writing and 

logical thinking. A large part of this skill is learning how to 

follow directions and plan a sequence of actions to attain a 

goal. This process starts with second graders who use logical 

thinking skills in learning where their files are saved, how to 

retrieve files they create, how to access the internet and use 

Moodle. 

Using Internet sites to learn about ancient history 

While skills such as inserting and resizing pictures have 

always been part of the curriculum, the introduction of 

Tech4learning programs into the Lower School curriculum 

this year has allowed students to learn drawing and 

digital storytelling skills at a higher level than in the past. 

Additionally, students are using the internet to explore 

learning websites such as the British Museum’s collection of 

Greek artifacts and have created their own image based 

files showing what they learned about Greek Gods and their 

symbols. The website has a Greek Gods challenge game that 

uses actual images of artifacts to test student knowledge of 

By Katharina Boser, Computer Science, Lower School 

the Greek God symbols and meanings. This project helped 

students to learn how to use windows, keeping several 

windows open, resizing, minimizing and manipulating objects 

and text in the program. Similarly, third graders researched 

Roman Gods, working in pairs to encourage collaboration 

and team work. Students in third grade were given several 

kinds of facts to explore about their Gods and Goddesses, 

with one student maintaining a PowerPoint file and the second 

pulling facts and images together in a shared folder that 

both students could access. The students worked together 

to copy text, insert images, make transitions and animations 

to make their PowerPoint dynamic. They also researched 

the Vikings and made a Viking acrostic poem using text, 

drawings and images in Pixie. The Tech4learning programs 

have a shared site, http://glenelg.k12share.com, where 

students learned to upload their Pixie presentations using 

their username and password. Each student has their own URL 

address so parents and other family members can watch and 

listen to their beautiful creations. 

Second and third graders made a lot of use of the 

drawing and digital recording software called Pixie. Pixie 

contains a huge library of copyright free images that the 

students adopted for a variety of curriculum extending 

projects (including, Greek and Romans, Vikings, Numbers, 

States and more). Pixie also allows students to record their 

voices to hear their sentences which improves writing and 

understanding. Third graders recorded their poetry in this 

way. Second graders used Pixie to represent numbers using 

number rods of tens, hundreds and ones. They learned about 

odd and even numbers and place value by representing 

different number amounts on separate Pixie pages, and 

circling different sets of even numbers. For example students 

had to include verbalization of their images by typing a 

phrase that explained their picture (“This number is odd 

because there are 2 groups of 3 with 1 left over”). At the 

end of the year, we did a special engineering unit about 

bridges, learning from an interactive website – pbs.org/ 

wgbh/building big – about load, forces, materials and 

different kinds of bridges. 

Reinforcing Number skills through Visualizing 

Amounts, Plotting and Graphing 

Number skills are important to emphasize in technology 

classes at all levels, so Excel skills begin in second grade with an 

early unit where we put data in a simple table and make a 

simple graph of how many items of each food we had at a 

party. Students would include the number of items, the number of 

people invited and create a graph showing the items they chose. 

Fourth graders used a google survey tool to ask students 

questions and then created several spreadsheets to represent 

data they had collected from the survey. They then had to create 

a the table of percentages. They had to describe the results of 

the graph accurately to include statements like “more fourth 

grade girls prefer purple than boys, while a greater percentage 

of fourth grade boys like the color black at GCS.” In this way, 

number visualization was tied in with verbalization of number 

and amount to emphasize true understanding of the task. 

Visualizing and Organizing Writing and 

Complex Concepts 

Web organizers of writing are important not only for 

brainstorming ideas and understanding the relationship 

between complex concepts, but mapping out paragraph 

structure. Third graders used graphic organizers (Inspiration) 

to visualize their writing in language arts and social studies. 

They used “Inspiration” to map out their states project 

paragraphs using the Step Up To Writing model. Fourth 

grade used organizers to emphasized character traits, story 

sequence and other plot and narrative devices. Finally, 

by fifth grade they learned to use the graphic organizer 

to organize thoughts and ideas logically, to use good 

vocabulary and transition words making use of word lists 

and the built-in thesaurus. Exporting the file to word and 

editing our personal file using search and replace skills and 

formatting completed the assignment. These essays were 

included in our first epublication to share with friends an 

family. Families can download the ebook at http://tinyurl. 

com/5thGradeEssays2012. 


11

Cartooning With ‘Kerpoof’ 

Fourth graders started off the year using a web based 

cartooning program called ‘Kerpoof.’ They learned to 

integrate technical skills of drawing, image editing, and 

typing into a cartooning tool that allows them to be creative 

in story boarding their tales. These technical skills paved the 

way for students to edit text, images and layout and other 

higher multimedia editing skills in MS Word as they created a 

brochure of their country for the “Country Bazaar.” 

Learning How to Animate With ‘Frames’ 

Fifth graders also needed organization and planning 

skills to construct an animated biography about a famous 

person from the Renaissance. They used Frames, an 

animation program and learned how to represent their 

famous Renaissance person using their technical skills to 

represent what they learned through online research. In this 

program, there was some basic step by step skill learning 

and also some trial and error and editing, beginning with 

the construction of a story board to plan out the images and 

words to be included. Students learned how to edit the files 

they created and how to make the images move in particular 

directions. This project integrated knowledge of historical 

significance of a figure, how to write a good biography and 

turn it into a digital story. 

Calling All Dragons 

on DECK 

By Debra DeVoe, Third Grade, Lower School 

Inventors and Inventions: 

Keeping A Digital Journal 

Students learned about inventions and famous 

inventors in DECK (Discover, Explore, Create, Know) time. 

They learned how to do research about Achimedes and 

DaVinci from resources provided on Moodle. An iPad 

app called “Xperica” was used, which includes several 

interactive experiments of projectile motion, buoyancy, and 

the Archimedes principle. They looked at these experiments 

that lead to famous discoveries, especially since these were 

not only mathematicians and scientists but also artists with 

an orientation toward design (e.g., Archimedes ‘tangram’ 

puzzles) and they used several apps to go virtually to 

DaVinci museums across the world and enter rooms with 

accurate replicas of many of his inventions. 

The students maintained a digital journal of their discoveries 

about the inventors and the process of inventing. This journal 

included students’ own inventions and notes about different 

ideas they had to solve complex problems. They were 

encouraged to think through the process in terms of materials, 

space, time, location and the nature of the problem they were 

trying to solve. 

Learning About The Internet; 

It’s Power And It’s Dangers 

The Internet is an ever-evolving and growing 

phenomenon that many adults still struggle to understand. 

This year, our fifth graders spent time learning about the 

Internet, it’s history, how to search effectively, and how and 

why to be safe. They completed an online learning program 

called ‘Welcome to the Web’ that included many interactive 

online exercises that involved logical thinking and puzzle 

solving to learn file name extensions, what makes a good 

website, and what they need to know for being effective 

online researchers regarding web-browsing, plagiarism 

and websites. Basic information about how computers are 

organized, file locations, keyboard shortcuts and multimedia 

integration were part of this unit. Students were required to 

upload all assignments to Moodle and check back regularly 

for feedback on all assignments as well as deadlines, course 

instructions, handouts, etc. To prepare them for middle school. 

It all started with an idea to make learning at the end of 

the day active and engaging – to wake up tired children. 

The goal was to have fifty-four third graders think, create, 

build, and integrate. The springboard was based on our 

all-school initiatives: Global Competencies and STEM. So 

three homeroom and other teachers rolled up their sleeves 

and shared their passions – they taught the subjects they 

loved the most. This flurry of activity during the last hour of 

the day was named “DECK.” 

The D was for Discover, where children read and then 

discussed biographies and their own autobiographies. 

They learned and wrote about others and themselves. For 

community service, they made blankets for Project Linus and 

wrote letters to children in need. 

The E was for Explore, where third graders explored 

science as they dug up rocks and planted gardens around 

our campus. 

When it came to the C for Connect, students visited the 

computer lab and discovered Leonardo DaVinci with his 

inventions, and then devised their own designs online and 

with LEGOS. 

Social Studies and the Core Knowledge curriculum became 

the K in Knowledge. Students thought abstractly and 

worked with their hands to bring Ancient Rome and the 

Vikings to life. Upper School Latin students taught Latin to 

the young scholars on Toga Day. This culminated in April 

with the State Report Outline. Each student researched and 

wrote about his state, while technology further advanced 

their understanding. 

Almost every day we called “All Dragons on DECK” and the 

Third Graders couldn’t wait to have more fun! 


13

Middle School 

Eighth Grade Oral History Project 

Each year in the Middle School, the eighth grade class hosts 

senior citizens who participate in the Oral History Project, which has 

been in place at GCS for almost thirty years! This year, twenty-six 

senior citizens from the area came to talk to students about a wide 

range of topics. The topics that the seniors covered were a reflection 

of the diverse community in which we live. This year’s topics ranged 

from the story of the Apollo and Gemini space missions to the history 

of segregation in America. This year’s senior citizens truly provided 

the eighth graders with a historical account that cannot be found in 

any history book. 

One of this year’s participants, Mr. James Smith, came to 

discuss his career as a computer specialist at the Goddard Space 

Flight Center. Mr. Smith shared his stories, and experience working 

on the Apollo and Gemini missions, with eighth graders Bridget 

Wooleyhand, Eddie Jewell, and Michael Hannah. Another senior, 

Ms. Suzanna Merrett, came to discuss her experience living through 

WWII as a young girl in Swansea, England. Eighth graders Palmer 

Foran, Emily Ferkler, and Gabi Hernandez had the opportunity to 

hear about Ms. Merrett’s incredible life story. These diverse topics 

represent the wealth of information that the senior citizens were able 

to share with the students. 

By Charlie Stewart, Social Studies, Middle School 

This year’s Oral History Project was extremely memorable. 

Eighth grader Kazeem Anifowoshe, who had the opportunity to work 

with Mr. Ray Powell and learn about what it was like to grow up in 

Jamaica in the 1950’s, summed up the experience when he said: 

“His stories were amazing. Hearing about how different life was for 

Mr. Powell back in Jamaica really made me appreciate our country 

on a different level. I was amazed to hear about how he came 

to the United States in the 1960’s at the height of the Civil Rights 

Movement.” Without a doubt, all of the eighth graders learned 

lessons from this experience that go beyond the classroom. 

The 

“Space Academy” 

On April 27th, a group of 

middle school students were able to 

participate in the “Space Academy” 

series. Launched in 2000, the program 

takes middle school students behindthe-scenes 

of actual space missions and 

introduces them to the engineers and 

scientists working on some of NASA’s 

most exciting projects. This event 

typically involves about one-hundred 

Maryland middle school students from 

three different schools (approximately 

thirty-five students per school). The 

Space Academy is a hands-on, mindson 

experience designed to excite and 

inspire both students and teachers. It’s 

held twice a year on the The Johns 

Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab 

campus, located just south of Columbia, 

MD. 

When our students visited, the 

day-long event included a briefing 

on the “mysteries of the unknown 

Over the past six years there has been 

a strengthening tradition of band music 

at Glenelg Country School. When I took 

over the program in the fall of 2011, I 

was pleased to find a solid group of band 

students, enthusiastic about playing their 

instruments and building on the tradition 

of instrumental music that was previously 

established. It was also exciting to discover 

that there was a constituency of parents 

and students who were hoping for a new 

tradition to begin, one that would lay the 

ground work for a string program at GCS. 

Using after school and activities time for 

rehearsals, eight middle school students 

By Lauren Roepcke ’09, Communications Office Assistant 

moon,” a student “press conference” 

with lunar project team members, 

lunchtime discussions with scientists and 

engineers, and science demonstrations. 

The briefing was run almost like a mini- 

NASA press conference, with students 

playing the role of reporters. Students 

came prepared to ask the scientists 

and engineers many interesting 

questions related to the moon and their 

jobs. It was a great experience had by 

all. 

Instrumental Music : Evolving and Thriving 

By Mitch Cyman, Instrumental Music, Lower and Middle Schools 

met one to two times per week to rehearse 

music written for the violin and cello. The 

group finished the year performing with 

remarkably more confidence and musicality 

then they had when we first met in October. 

It will be exciting to see this new ensemble 

grow and develop along with the band 

program over the next few years! 

14 

Spiortad an Dràgoin

Upper School 

Spring into STEM 

The students in my Introduction to Engineering Design 

(IED) class had the opportunity to explore two very different 

sides of design this Spring. In order to understand how 

something is made and works, sometimes it is necessary 

to take it apart. We call this reverse engineering. The IED 

students chose a household item to dismantle and analyze. 

Many of the students chose flashlights, although there were 

a few phones and a pair of toy binoculars. 

The students had to apply many of the skills they have 

learned in the IED class and in previous math and science 

classes. Sketching and measuring became critical as the 

students photographed and documented the slow careful 

processes of taking apart a mechanical object. Each part 

had to be accurately measured in order to reconstruct 

them in the 3-D computer environment called Autodesk 

Inventor. “Why,” the students asked, “do the parts have to 

be measured so accurately” As some of the student groups 

discovered, parts that are inaccurately or inconsistently 

measured will not fit together properly. 

By Beth Goodman, Mathematics, Upper School 

Once the students measured and constructed the parts 

of their object in Inventor, they were required to assemble 

and analyze them. During this process quite a few students 

had to revisit the parts that they created to fix dimension, or 

sizing errors. One of the deliverables for this project was 

making a display board with the actual parts of the object 

that was disassembled and the computer-generated parts 

that the students constructed. 

Following the reverse engineering 

project, the students worked in groups 

to design a castle from scratch with 

group members from Texas. The virtual 

design challenge was created with 

several intents: the first was to impress 

upon the students the importance of 

communication and record keeping; 

the second was to give students the 

freedom to explore their creativity 

within given constraints. Finally, students 

were able to explore the functions and 

capabilities of the Inventor software in 

a less structured environment. 

Similar to experiences with 

professional research teams, the 

students encountered a number of 

frustrations both with their group 

members and with the software. Some 

student groups did not communicate 

as frequently as they had initially 

outlined. When communicating, mostly 

through email, students were not 

always clear on which team members 

were completing which parts of the 

castle. In some cases, students charged 

ahead with designing and constructing 

castle parts without the consensus of 

the rest of the team. Add all of this to 

the difficulty of sending files to each 

other through email due to security 

issues and file size constraints. The 

result was some grumpy groups who 

felt overwhelmed. 

In the end, I was very impressed 

with the students’ work and the 

perseverance that they exhibited 

over the course of the project. I 

know that this project was not easy 

for them; however, each group 

produced a castle that met most 

if not all of the initial constraints. 

I expect through the process of 

creating a castle design that 

the students learned something 

about themselves and their own 

capabilities. 

2012 FIRST Tech 

Challenge 

By Marc Schmidt, Computer Science, Upper School 

In February, Glenelg Country School 

took home the “Champion” title at the 

FIRST Tech Challenge held at Marriott’s 

Ridge High School. As part of the 

winning alliance, the team advanced to 

the State Championships on February 

25th at the John Hopkins University 

Applied Physics Lab with the opportunity 

to qualify for the First Robotics National 

Tournament. 

Going by the name “Dragon Slayer”, 

Alex Grzybowski ’12, Casey Wojcik ’12 

and Batu Balimtas ’14 competed in ten 

rounds over the course of eight hours. 

Through strategy, excellent design, and 

superb collaboration; their winning 

alliance beat out 21 teams from the 

area. According to faculty mentor Marc 

Schmidt, “this team worked really hard 

on the design and it was great to see 

them perform so well under the pressure 

of the competition.” 

The Maryland FIRST (For Inspiration and 

Recognition of Science and Technology) 

organization is part of a national 

organization that awards nearly $14 

million in scholarships nationwide in 

recognizing students’ technical and life 

skills. For more information please visit 

www.mdfirst.org. 


17

Rubrik’s 

Cube 

Remembering When... 

The Time I Tried to Retire 

By Katie Modrow ’13 

18 

By Lauren Roepcke ’09, Communications Office Assistant 

This April, eight members of the Upper 

School GCS community participated in the 

“You CAN do the Rubrik’s Cube Contest” at the 

National Electronics Museum in Baltimore. The 

GCS team included Upper School Science teacher 

Tony Maranto, Jamal Anifowoshe ’12, Gbenga 

Awotunde ’12, Gennaro Illiano ’13, Kelly Johnson 

’14, Lexi Markmann ’13, Jessi Mongold ’14, Alex 

Myers ’15, and Christian Vinyard ’14. When the 

GCS team competed, there were twelve other nonprofit 

schools from the greater Washington D.C. 

area participating in the high school division. 

The team’s average in the competition was 

about two minutes and thirty-six seconds per 

cube, although Jamal and Alex did several cubes 

in about one minute each. Unfortunately the GCS 

team did not place in the top three overall, but 

had a blast in the competition and received great 

T-shirts as a memory for this fun day. 

Good Luck! 

This past May, Paula Wong ’13 created a video 

wishing her fellow Chinese students “Good Luck” on 

the Chinese National Exam that they took in mid-June. 

For her video, Paula taught GCS teachers and 

students how to say “good luck on your exams” in 

Chinese, and then filmed them saying it. She posted 

this video on Weibo (Chinese version of Twitter) 

and RenRen (Chinese version of Facebook) and had 

over 5,000 shares and more than 60,000 hits in five 

days. The response to the video was overwhelmingly 

positive and people were talking about how much 

this video motivated them! On May 30th, Chinese 

Central Television (CCTV) aired the video as well. 

Use your smartphone to watch the “Good Luck” video, or visit 

http://www.56.com/u72/v_Njg2NjY5ODk.html. 

Spiortad an Dràgoin 

Growing up, I thought bakers were either fat doughboys 

or perfect women in dresses and pearls. I was neither of them, 

so I assumed that baking was not for me. When I came to GCS 

my freshman year, I didn’t know anyone. I was having difficulty 

making friends, but there was one group of people who were 

always welcoming and sincere; my Beginning Drama Class. I really 

wanted to thank them for their kindness so I decided to bake 

cupcakes. for them. I should note that although I bake cupcakes, 

I personally don’t like them. My favorite part is the frosting. I 

have always despised store bought frosting because it just tasted 

so artificial. So I wanted my frosting to embody the homemade 

feeling that my cupcakes have; although, “homemade” does not 

equal perfection. 

My first genuine friend was Nikki Reisher. I was really grateful 

to become friends with her, so for her birthday I decided that I 

would bake her special cupcakes. Although people enjoyed the 

cupcakes, at the end of my junior year, I realized that I didn’t like 

to bake. So to make it official I posted on Facebook “I will never 

bake again.” I expected one or two comments but instead, I was 

blasted with people denying me my retirement! In fact, over 15 

people commented. Sammi Weiner ’13 said “Katie Modrow don’t 

say that.” Emily Walsh ’13 posted “your insane.” And my favorite 

Most schools have swings and monkey bars, but here at GCS 

all the “cool” kids played something called “Gaga.” Melissa 

Wolf ’13 remembers, “everyone was always in the Gaga pit.” 

Nowadays if anyone mentions “Gaga,” the very extravagant popstar 

Lady Gaga comes to mind. But the real, original Gaga is a 

game. Ever since I have been at GCS, Lower School students have 

been consumed by the recess activity. “I think everybody who’s 

been here since then has played it at least once,” Melissa added. 

The game takes place in this old empty pond on campus, right 

near the Lower School jungle gym. That old pond serves as the 

“pit.” The rules are very simple: don’t let the ball touch your feet. 

The ball must stay on the ground at all times and the kids are only 

allowed to use their hands to roll the ball. “Whenever you got 

somebody out, trying to tap their feet with the ball, which really 

wasn’t that hard, was really exciting.” Imagine this; a pit full of 

third graders hunched over trying to get each other out, and you 

may hear some screams here and there from the kids trying to 

dodge the ball. 

I have one vivid memory of this epic game. It was a nice 

spring day, and a normal recess was going on. There were the 

kids on the swings, some playing football, and then there was the 

Gaga pit. It was completely full, but I squeezed in there somehow, 

and the game could not have been more intense. People were 

being “knocked out,” meaning the ball touched their feet and 

The “Real” Gaga 

By Tyler Hooper ’13 

post was from Cooper Taylor ’14. He merely said “NO” with 

about 1,000 O’s. The next day at school, Nikki came up to me 

and told me that I couldn’t retire. I was planning on just blowing 

Nikki off and saying what I had told everyone “I was tired of it 

and someone else could bake.” But instead of Nikki talking about 

cupcakes, she stated the events that happened with the cupcakes. 

Nikki reminded me of freshman year, “Remember when 

we went to our first JV boys soccer game We spent the entire 

time eating cupcakes and making up cheers. It was so much fun. 

Freshman year, we went to basically every JV soccer game and 

ate cupcakes. It became a tradition.” That is when I realized that I 

could not quit baking. It was not about the cupcakes but about the 

memories. All the frosting fights were caused by cupcakes. All the 

games attended with a cupcake in hand. Those are the reasons 

why I couldn’t quit baking. And now I will say something that I 

have not told anyone else yet. I, Katie Modrow, am coming out of 

baking retirement. 

they were out. And then all of a sudden someone screamed, 

“Snake!” and before you knew it the entire pit was cleared out, 

completely empty. Nicole was standing right next to me when it 

happened. “And then just as I am like oh my gosh he’s kidding 

and I turn around and sure enough there is a snake right by my 

foot!” There in the pit, was a little teeny-tiny snake. It only could 

have been 8 inches long, a baby snake, but all in the same it was 

a snake. “I just remember running to the playground and getting 

to the highest spot.” When the maintenance guy came to take it 

away, I remember him saying it was a small baby copperhead. All 

that meant to me was it was poisonous. In a third graders point of 

view, I was lucky to be alive. 

Despite the snake incident, students returned to the pit the 

next day. However, it took a while for Nicole; “When I was asked 

to play, I never wanted to play again because of that snake, it just 

really scarred my childhood experience with the Gaga pit.” But 

hey, a pit full of dirt, and snakes It just added some excitement to 

the game! Today, Lower School students love the game, and Gaga 

will forever and always be an “unofficial” GCS sport.

Trip To 

Spain and Paris 

Worlds 

By Debra DeVoe, Third Grade, Lower School 

Who can resist the lively beat of a jig or the whirling music 

of a reel Even if you are one of the rare ones who can, chances 

are that you won’t be able to once you’ve watched Conor Burke 

’13 step lively into the spotlight, as he recently did in a major Irish 

Dance Competition in Belfast, Ireland! 

As seventeen-year-old Conor Burke pounded the boards, the 

stomps and taps of Irish step dance echoed throughout the massive 

theater in the heart of the capital of Northern Ireland. Heel clicks 

rang through the air, as Conor, with his steely gaze, never faltered. 

His arms were rigid; glued to his sides. He was the percussive 

instrument, stamping out the traditional Irish steps. 

This was not just any performance for this junior in our Upper 

School, he was one of 4,500 dancers competing in “Worlds” (as 

the competition is familiarly known in the dance communities). 

Worlds is to Irish step dancing as the World Cup is to soccer. 

Dancers came from countries all over the world, including Austria, 

New Zealand, Russia, Ireland, England, Scotland, and Wales. The 

participants performed two rounds in front of seven judges. Their 

scores were totaled and the top half were recalled and danced 

a third round with different judges. Conor first performed a Hard 

Shoe Round, “Treble Jig,” with two other men onstage. Then he 

pulled off a “Reel” in the Soft Shoe Round with one other dancer. 

For Conor, it was the culmination of a long journey. Although 

he didn’t go to the third and final round, he was still victorious! 

Earlier this year, he became the reigning champion of The Southern 

Region Oireachtas in 2011. He won this title at the competition for 

the U-16 age group in the Southern Region of the United States. 

This qualified him to compete in Belfast, along with four others. 

It takes many years of intense practicing and endless 

classes to make a dancer. Conor began when he was six-yearsold. 

Currently he trains at the Hurley School of Irish Dance in 

Laytonsville, MD. “There are a lot of teachers in this country who 

are first generation Irish,” says the red-headed dancer, “and others 

were raised in Ireland and moved here. So the training between 

here and Ireland is pretty much the same. There’s no difference, it’s 

pretty even.” 

Conor flew to Northern Ireland with his mother, to a country 

he describes as “surprisingly similar in geography and people to 

Ireland. It was as green as I remember in Ireland, with a ton of 

grass everywhere.” 

“The level of dance competition was unbelievable,” adds 

his mother, Nancy Burke. “No detail was too small to perfect. The 

jumps were higher and floating through the air, the hang or stall 

time was longer, and kicks were practically touching the dancers’ 

noses. It literally took my breath away.” 

Conor felt the dancers at Worlds were pretty nice to each 

other. He hung out with those from the States, since he’d seen 

them in past years. They were all anxious backstage. It was a 

tense scene. “There were these tiered balconies a mile high in the 

theater,” says Conor, “which were very intimidating.” As he put it, 

an overwhelming feeling came over him just before he performed. 

“The epic-ness of it just hit me. Here I was in the world dance 

competition.” 

Worlds will be in Boston in 2013. “Hopefully I’ll qualify and 

be able to go there next year,” says the Irish dancer. Count on 

Conor for another round of championship dancing! 

By Emily Vallejo, World Languages, Upper School 

During this year’s Spring Break, eighteen 

Upper School students, Mrs. Billie Muñoz, Mr. 

Edison Vallejo and I enjoyed the experience 

of touring the highlights of Paris, Barcelona, 

and Madrid. Students experienced the 

sights, sounds, and tastes of these three cities 

while learning about travel etiquette and 

responsibility. The EF tour began with our 

arrival in Paris mid-afternoon. Although the 

time difference had everyone feeling the 

effects of jet-lag, the day was warm and 

bright and we were excited to travel by 

metro to central Paris to meet up with another 

group of teens from western Canada. Dinner 

that evening was a delicious typical Parisian 

dish of Beef Bourguignon. We returned to 

our hotel in the area of “La Defense” in Paris 

and had time to stroll around the plaza full of 

shops, restaurants, and fountains. We had a 

clear view of the Arc de Triomphe and even 

the Eiffel Tower lit up for the night. 

The next morning began with an early 

wake-up call and a rainy forecast. We 

toured the center of Paris by bus and saw 

famous sites such as the Arc de Triomphe, 

the Opera, the Champs Elyseés, the Seine, 

the Notre Dame Cathedral, the Luxembourg 

gardens and the Louvre. The afternoon 

was filled with a trip to Versailles outside 

of Paris, and a tour of the palace. Among 

the many items of history and art, we saw 

Marie Antoinette’s bed and were amazed by 

the Hall of Mirrors. In the evening we were 

treated to a boat ride on the Seine and the 

Eiffel Tower. The rain continued the next day 

but our group stayed in high spirits as we 

followed our indomitable tour guide, Elena, 

and her signature “Vámanos!” We toured the 

Catacombs of Paris and walked through the 

Latin Quarter with an opportunity to sample 

more authentic cuisine. In the evening, we 

found ourselves at Mon Martre with clear 

skies and a beautiful view. Students were 

able to venture out to explore the shops 

around the area and even enjoy the portrait 

artists! 

Our time in Paris ended with more rain 

and our tour of the Louvre museum and Notre 

Dame Cathedral. After time for dinner and 

shopping, we boarded the night train for 

Barcelona. This was an experience in itself. 

Students were grouped four per 

“couchette.” The warnings about 

not bringing large luggage 

turned out to be valid! Our 

close quarters were fun for the 

most part, but we soon learned 

that our train was full of French 

middle school students too. Our 

students were very well behaved in 

comparison! 

We woke to a beautiful day in 

Barcelona and immediately traveled by bus 

to see some of Antonio Gaudí’s most famous 

work at Parque Guell and the Sagrada 

Familia Cathedral. That day and the next 

were spent exploring the shops, restaurants, 

and museums of Barcelona. Through even 

more rain, we enjoyed seeing the corrida de 

toros (bull fighting ring) now turned shopping 

mall, the Picasso museum, the Spanish Village, 

and Las Ramblas. Many students tried paella 

and other seafood dishes as well as tapas. 

One student even tried cuttlefish! 

Our adventure took us next to Madrid 

by way of Zaragoza. In this city we were 

able to tour the famous El Pilar Basilica and 

try some local food for lunch. We arrived in 

Madrid in the late afternoon, in time to check 

in and travel by metro to dinner at Museo 

del Vino where we tried more paella. We 

finished the evening with a walk to the Plaza 

Mayor. Our next and last full day in Europe 

was just that – very full! We took a bus tour 

of the center of Madrid and saw the Puerto 

del Sol, Gran Vía, Paseo del Prado, and 

Plaza Colón to name a few. 

The highlight was 

a guided tour of 

the Palacio Royal, 

where the Spanish 

royal family still 

holds official and 

elegant events. We 

then had time to visit 

the Prado museum. 


21

New 

Orleans 

By Cate Barry, Performing Arts, Humanities, Upper School 

This Spring Break, I had the 

pleasure of accompanying ten 

students and one additional teacher 

on an adventure to New Orleans. 

The goals of the trip were simple: 

work with Alex Owens ’04 and the 

St. Bernard Project (SBP) on a project 

home and have fun. Needless to say, 

we reached all of our goals and then 

some! 

The St. Bernard Project was 

created in 2006 by Liz McCartney 

and Zack Rosenburg in response to 

the atrocities brought on by Hurricane 

Katrina. SBP’s mission “is to remove 

physical, mental and emotional 

barriers for vulnerable families, senior 

citizens and disabled residents who 

are struggling to recover from the 

devastation and trauma caused by 

Hurricane Katrina and the oil spill.” 

Alex Owens, former GCS teacher 

and 2004 alum, lives in New Orleans 

and works for the St. Bernard Project. 

The Dragon Crew was excited to be 

assigned to Alex’s work crew, where 

we worked on Mrs. Patricia Legohn’s 

house. 

Mrs. Legohn and her family were 

forced to evacuate their home when 

Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans 

in August 2005. The family initially 

headed to Georgia, but ended up 

settling in Texas, while waiting to 

return to their home in New Orleans. 

Mrs. Legohn was a victim of contractor 

fraud. The family received funds to 

rebuild, and hired a family friend 

from Mississippi to complete the work. 

The contractor sent picture updates, 

and called weekly with progress 

reports, and the family had hopes of 

finally returning home. It wasn’t until 

Patricia’s daughter, Ingrid, returned 

to the city for a home inspection that 

the family realized the contractor was 

a crook. The promised work that was 

completed was poorly done. There 

was still water and mold damage 

throughout the house, and a gaping 

hole in the roof. The contractor 

returned quickly to Mississippi with the 

Legohn’s money without completing 

the work, and the Legohn’s were left 

with a house in shambles. 

Mrs. Legohn’s health has taken a 

hit with the stress of not being able 

to return home. She has suffered 

five strokes; a sad reality of elderly 

victims of Katrina’s wrath. As one 

Katrina survivor said, “when you are 

on a vacation, you say again and 

again I can’t wait to go home. We’ve 

been saying that since 2005.” Mrs. 

Legohn applied to The St. Bernard 

Project, and was approved for a 

home rebuild in 2012. 

The Legohn house project started 

in late February 2012. The shoddy 

workmanship was stripped, and new 

electric, plumbing, and dry wall were 

put into place. When the Dragon 

Crew arrived to the work site, we 

were ready to learn the “ins and 

outs” of sanding and mudding the drywall. The goal for 

our group was to have the walls ready for painting by the 

end of the week. No one from The Dragon Crew had ever 

sanded or mudded drywall. With Alex Owens’ excellent 

direction and keen eye for a good dry wall joint, we were 

all experts by the end of the week. Rose Zhang ’12, one 

of our international students from China, was a rock star 

at mudding. Emily Schreffler ’13 bravely stood on rickety 

platforms to help Alex mud the stairwell. The rest of the 

crew braved ladders, mastered corners, walls and ceiling 

seams. It was a week of trying new things, overcoming 

challenges and fears, and saying “YES” instead of “NO.” By 

the end of the week, the walls were ready for paint, and as 

of April 2012, Mrs. Legohn’s house was ready for the family 

to move back in. 

Our week in New Orleans wasn’t completely about 

work. We built in lots of time for fun! We arrived on 

March 17, and made it to the French Quarter just in time 

for a St. Patrick’s Day parade. On Sunday, March 18, we 

enjoyed The Super Sunday Indian Chief Parade, which 

was an amazing showing of Mardi Gras costumes worn 

by neighborhood chiefs. We braved the wilds of the 

Pearl River Swamp, and made friends with hot dog and 

marshmallow eating alligators. We experienced traditional 

New Orleans jazz at Preservation Hall, and discovered 

Zydeco music at New Orleans Rock and Bowl. We toured 

the Voodoo Museum, and spent a reflective morning in the 

Louisiana State Museum, exploring the Hurricane Katrina 

exhibit. We experienced a St. Bernard Project homecoming, 

and met survivors of the Joplin, Missouri tornado; all the 

while we experienced true and genuine southern hospitality. 

We survived living in a bunk house with thirty other friends, 

two working bathrooms, bunk-beds with roommates from 

around the world, crazy weather, and a tornado warning. 

The food was also incredible: beignets, chicory coffee, 

alligator sausage, turtle soup, po-boys, gumbo, jambalaya, 

crawfish at the Crawfish festival, and two visits to the 

Waffle House! It’s a good thing we worked long days to be 

able to enjoy such a rich diet! 

Returning home never felt so good, and yet I can’t 

wait to take another Dragon Crew to New Orleans for the 

Spring Break of 2013. As one grateful Katrina survivor said 

to me, “it’s because of people like you, volunteers like ya’ll, 

that I got back into my home. Thank you.” 

22 

Spiortad an Dràgoin 

Summer 2012 23

Class of 2012

Dan Koscinski’s Graduation Speech 

Let me first express how honored I am to 

have been given this opportunity to speak to you all 

today. I first came to GCS in 9th grade and could 

not have succeeded without those who helped me to 

achieve my goals. Thus, I, as well as my classmates, 

am extremely grateful to the countless teachers, family 

members, and friends who have made it possible for 

us to be here today. Our successes and setbacks have 

provided us with the opportunities to laugh, to learn, to 

grow, and most importantly to reciprocate the blessings 

that we have received to others. 

As freshmen we first walked into the foyer in 

August of 2008 filled with fear of the future, of the 

friendships that needed to be made, of the unknown 

hardships that lay ahead. Nevertheless, the Class of 

2012 rose above our challenges together, and yet, 

there are individual journeys that define each of us. 

Some of us are athletes, musicians, or scientists, and 

two of us are even robotic superstars. But the fact is, 

no individual’s journey is “more worthy” than someone 

else’s. We cannot see each other through the lens 

of high school drama or division, but rather people 

on their own journeys, people in need of the same 

compassion that made it possible for us to be here 

today. 

I realized that I stand here in this gym four 

years after where my own journey began. For it 

was in this very place where orientation included 

such sophisticated activities as the hula-hoop game. 

Whether it was moments as trivial as playing that 

game, or occasions much more meaningful, the Class 

of 2012 could not have begun to bond and develop 

without them. We carried on through the romantics of 

European history, the formulas of chemistry, and the 

memorization of Walt Whitman. Today, I see a class 

that has had future soldiers on the stage, athletes 

in the garden, and dancers in the laboratory. Even 

though I cannot call myself exactly a part of any 

of these groups, I can still say that GCS has guided 

me to where I am now and where I hope to go in 

the future. The acts of service, whether as ordinary 

as leading the sophomores in picking up trash or as 

significant as mission trips to Haiti, heeded to the old 

proverb that states “Service is love made visible” and 

justified my confidence in moral action. And it was 

thus these experiences that reaffirmed my decision to 

take the road less traveled, one that already has and 

will require much sacrifice, as I will be attending the 

Catholic seminary in the fall. 

The best definition I have ever heard of a 

vocation is that it’s the place where your great joy 

meets the world’s great need. For us to build on that 

vocation will take both compassion and courage. 

There are infinite possibilities for us to strive for 

our aspirations and capture our dreams. Many in my 

class may have already started this process with their 

college acceptances. However, we must remember 

that those who do not get their dreams aren’t losers, 

or perhaps more importantly, those who do, aren’t 

winners. For each of us possess that same duty to use 

our passions to serve others, whether it’s through God, 

country, or intellect. 

I know it is typical for graduation speakers 

to give advice but I have very little to give you. 

Instead, I would like to ask something of you as well 

as of myself. Let’s decide that today will be both a 

day of celebration and a day that we embrace a 

challenge. Let’s look back with pride at all that we 

have accomplished, and let’s also look ahead with 

confidence, knowing that we will go forward to use all 

of our talents and abilities, all of our creativity and 

energy to find a way to be of service to others. If we 

do that, life will not be easy, but we will have chosen 

for ourselves very meaningful journeys. 

Thank You and Congratulations to the Class of 

2012! 

Very best of afternoons to you all. 

Our gathering here today is truly a celebration. 

A year ago, I came to GCS as a boy who was just 

overwhelmed by the first scene of American culture, 

as a boy who wasn’t even able to communicate 

properly. As someone who moved to the U.S. at the 

age of 15, I once grappled with the feeling that my 

classmates and I belonged to different worlds, worlds 

with different language and different values. Then, 

after I flew back to Korea for a summer, I received 

a letter from one GCS friend, that said “Come back 

home!” As one who was always self conscious about 

how “foreign” I was and therefore felt a wall blocking 

my entry to any community, this message made me 

realize that I was no longer a foreigner, but there 

was a community out there which I can call “home.” I 

truly became a part of the GCS community. My fellow 

graduates, this is an incredible place, where everyone 

knows and cares about each other, even people like 

me, the newcomer, the kid outside of the mainstream, 

the non-native speaker who struggled with Moby Dick 

in American literature class. Today is an incredible 

day, for graduation is the tradition that connects the 

generations of GCS students past and generations to 

come. I believe today is more than merely following 

the tradition, because we stand at the center of a 

unique place of education. Remember, we didn’t 

Talan Baek’s Graduation Speech 

have to come here, we chose GCS and GCS chose 

we, and we have learned so much from each other. 

We have brought the passion and individuality to 

our classrooms, our libraries, and our fields. GCS has 

prepared us more than just for success in whatever 

path we walk on in the future. The experiences we 

have taken from here, the friendship and the bond we 

have built will always come along with us; the friends 

that we made here are precisely the people who will 

stay with us and keep us happy and healthy for the 

rest of our lives. 

I’m sure we all have so many precious 

memories here, but among those, I want to mention 

Senior Integrative Seminar, a unique class that only 

GCS provides. I remember that one time, we were 

asked the question, “what is the relationship between 

family, love, and job” and I said “there is a clear 

mathematical connection among them.” Mr. Hudgins 

smiled and some of my peers rolled their eyes on 

the geekish-ness of my opinion at first (I expected 

that), but what surprised me was that in the end 

they appreciated my rather unorthodox thought. I 

saw something that I didn’t expect; they listened to 

me, especially when we disagreed. This is just one 

incident, and there was so much that I have learned 

and received from my peers, teachers, and GCS that 

I wanted to repay them by sharing my culture. I even 

sang my national anthem in Korean in front 

of the entire school. It’s somewhat an embarrassing 

memory to me because, well now I can confess that I 

was so nervous that I actually messed up every lyric of 

the song. But it didn’t matter, for you still cheered and 

supported me. 

What we have accomplished here at GCS 

either as individual or as a part of the community 

will empower us to make a life time contribution, 

empower us to make the world a better place to live, 

and empower us to shape a better and brighter future 

by working together in service and society. This deep 

personal connection, I believe, is the foundation of 

success. I uphold that more than anytime in history the 

world needs our talent, and that there is much vital 

work to be done by us. I know that everybody, even 

we ourselves, expects great things of us. Now, let me 

be clear, as GCS graduates, we will continue to think 

big, support and expand our passion, and be the best, 

while keeping our feet firmly planted on the ground. In 

all that we do, we will take with us the special spirit of 

this place. It doesn’t matter if you are a lifer or a first 

year student at GCS or a foreigner like me, because 

from today, you will always be remembered as a 

dragon. Congratulations to my fellow peers, now is 

the time to cure for those seniorities and graduate. So 

congratulations again and God speed.

Humanitarian Service Award 

Katerina Rice 

The Jani Family Service Award 

Tala Ahmadi 

Fund for the Future of Our 

Children Service Recognition 

Lanre Faderin, Ogechi Nwodim, 

Nike Awotunde 

Special Commendation for 

Distinction in the Arts 

Visual Arts 

Hailey Kim, Roma Jani 

Photography 

John Chalk 


Distinction in the Performing Arts 

Theater 

Lauren Dawson 

Vocal Music 

Brian Hoyson 

Theater Technical Design 

Marisa Jack 

Instrumental Music 

Brian Canet 

Margaret Wesley Music Award 

Deirdre Ricaurte 

Senior Award Recipients 


Distinction in Math 

Casey Wojcik 

Math Contest Award 

Ryan Oh 

American Math Contest Award 

Ryan Oh 

Carolyn Cradler Award; Special 

Commendation for Distinction in 

Biology 

Joseph Broderick 


Distinction in Chemistry 

Talan Baek 


Distinction in Physics 

JiaRui (Rose) Zhang 


Distinction in Economics 

Ajit Gill 


Distinction in Business 

Diana Mezzanotte 


Distinction in Spanish 

Casey Wojcik 


Distinction in French 

Tara Hutchinson 


Distinction in Chinese 



Distinction in Latin 



Distinction in Technology 

Casey Wojcik 


Distinction in Humanities 


Chapman Distinction in History 

Award 

Olivia Clark 

National Merit Scholarship 

Finalist 

Casey Wojcik, Deirdre Ricaurte 

National Merit Scholarship Letter 

of Commendation 

Ryan Hayes, Jinwoo Lee, Abagayle 

Renko, Taylor Smith 

Hispanic Recognition Award 


Class of 2012 College Acceptances 

National Achievement 

Scholarship Program 

Lauren Dawson, Victor Crentsil, 

Amon Jones 

Maryland State Merit Scholastic 

Award 

Charles Wojcik, Deirdre Ricaurte, 

Lauren Dawson, Abagayle Renko 

Moxley Scholar Athlete 

Joseph Broderick, Taylor Smith 

Laurie Aguera-Arcas Aesthetic 

Appreciation Award 

Hailey Kim 

Timothy C. Callard Integral 

Awareness 

Abagayle Renko 

The Upper School Students’ 

Award 

Victor Crentsil 

Faculty Prize 

Abagayle Renko, Joseph Broderick 

Always a Dragon Award 

(Alumni Award) 


CTY Awards, High Honors 

Math and Verbal 

Hillary Hwang 

Mathcounts Club 

Michael Hannah, Steven Eisner, 

Brian Hersey, Ime Etokebe, 

Daniel Chalk, Elizabeth Kim, 

Mary Kathleen DeLeonibus, Ryan 

Zanoni, Hillary Hwang, Paul 

(Nicky) Wojcik 

Maryland Math League 

Contest 

8th Grade 

Timothy Davis, Lois Ruffle, 

George Ding, Seo Young, 

Melissa Kim, Sarah Nemsick 

Middle SchoolAcademic Awards 

Certificate Magna Cum Laude 

Daniel Chalk, Julia Sheehan, 

Derek Jeng, George Ding 

Silver Medal, Maxima Cum 

Laude 

Shelby Patrick, Megan Hooper, 

Edward Jewell, Mary Kathleen 

DeLeonibus, Russell Porter 

Gold Medal, Summa Cum 

Laude 

Austin Clime, Ime Etokebe 

Latin II 

Certificate Cum Laude 

Emily Mongold 

National Spanish Exam 

6th Grade Level I 

Honorable Mention 

Philip Carroll, Spencer Goldrich, 

Sophia Jalali, Ben Wolfe, 

Reinaldo (Rey) Robinson, Carly 

Schiller, Paul (Nicky) Wojcik, 

Sarah Beth Sisney 

Bronze Level of Recognition 

Caroline Campbell 

Silver Level of Recognition 

Charlotte Chason, Ashley Good, 

William Murphy, Grant 

Hernandez 

8th Grade 

Genna Portner – Diamonds 

Andrew Schreffler – Human 

Migration 

Sam Sisney – Anti-Matter 

6th Grade Literary Award 

Ashley Good, Inzali Htut 

7th Grade Literary Award 

Rachael Heydt 

Citizenship Award 

6th Grade 

Alex Dorsey-Tarpley, Priynaka 

Pandya, Sarah Beth Sisney, Ben 

Wolfe 

Alabama A&M University 

Eastern Nazarene College 

Indiana University at Bloomington 

Northeastern University 

Susquehanna University 

American University 

Elizabethtown College 

Indiana University of Pennsylvania Northwestern University 

Syracuse University 

Arcadia University 

Elon University 

James Madison University 

Notre Dame of Maryland University The University of Tampa 

8th Grade Level II Honorable 

Babson College 

Emerson College 

Jamestown College 

Ohio Wesleyan University 

Temple University 

Certificate Magna Cum Laude Mention 

7th Grade 

Baldwin-Wallace College 

Emory University 

Johns Hopkins University 

Pace University, New York City 

Texas A&M University 

7th Grade 

Michael Hannah, Felisha Lee Palmer Foran, Kaila Friedman, Erynne Rasheed, William 

Bethany College 

University of Evansville 

University of Kentucky 

Pennsylvania State University, Altoona Towson University 

Elizabeth Kim, Ryan Zanoni, 

Genna Portner, Bridget 

Solomon, Myles Williams, 

Daniel Chalk, Mikie Allen, Mary 

Silver Medal, Maxima Cum 

Boston College 

Ferrum College 

La Roche College 

Pennsylvania State University, Harrisburg Tulane University 

Wooleyhand 

Jenson (Jenny) Wolfe 

Kathleen DeLeonibus 

Laude 

Boston University 

Flagler College 

Limestone College 

Penn State, Schreyer Honors College United States Military Academy 

Timothy Davis 

Silver Level of Recognition 8th Grade 

Bryant University 

Florida A&M University 

Loyola University Chicago 

Pennsylvania State, University Park Vanderbilt University 

6th Grade 

Sam Sisney 

Sophia Kalaris, Lois Ruffle, 

Bucknell University 

Florida Gulf Coast University 

Loyola University Maryland 

Pfeiffer University 

University of Vermont 

Jacob Doody, Fletcher Hudson, 

Gold Medal, Summa Cum 

Sam Sisney, Nicholas Tharkur 

University of California at Berkeley University of Florida 

Lycoming College 

University of Pittsburgh 

Villanova University 

Zena Abro, Ashley Good, Paul 

Laude 

Middle School Academic Fair 

University of California at Davis 

Fordham University 

Lynchburg College 

Princeton University 

Virginia Commonwealth University 

(Nicky) Wojcik 

Steven Eisner, Elena Moncada, 6th Grade 

Community Service Award; 

Carnegie Mellon University 

Franklin and Marshall College 

University of Maryland, Eastern Shore University of Puerto Rico, Mayagüez Virginia Tech 

Rachel Steeley, Andrew 

Caroline Campbell – Mercury MYPIC 

Case Western Reserve University 

Franklin Pierce University 

University of Maryland, Baltimore County University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras Virginia Wesleyan College 

National Latin Exam 

Schreffler 

Ashley Good – Platinum Kaila Friedman, Megan Hooper, 

The Catholic University of America Furman University 

University of Maryland, College Park Purdue University 

University of Virginia 

Achievement Certificates 

Priyanka Pandya – Sodium Nila Lahijan, Elena Moncada, 

College of Charleston 

The George Washington University 

University of Massachusetts, Amherst Randolph-Macon College 

Wake Forest University 

Elena Heinrich, Elise Ferkler, 

American Classical League 

Alexandru (Alex) Todor - Silver Lexi Rieu, Madeleine Miller, 

Chestnut Hill College 

Georgia Institute of Technology 

McDaniel College 

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute 

Washington College 

Michael Diangelo, Priyanka 

Recognition for a Perfect Score 

Sarah Nemsick, Nicholas 

University of Chicago 

University of Georgia 

Methodist University 

University of Richmond 

Washington University in St. Louis 

Pandya 

Andrew Schreffler 

7th Grade 

Tharkur, Spencer McClung, Justin 

Clemson University 

Goucher College Greensboro College Michigan State University 

University of Rochester 

University of West Florida 

Tara Basir – Convergent Luna, Timothy Davis, Steven 

Coastal Carolina University 

Gwynedd-Mercy College 

University of Michigan 

Rutgers University 

West Virginia University 

Latin I 

Evolution of Flight 

Eisner, Andrew Schreffler, Nabil 

Colgate University 

Hampton University 

MidAmerica Nazarene University 

Saint Louis University 

Widener University 

Certificate Cum Laude 

Ime Etokebe – Tuberculosis Halim, Sam Sisney, Demetrius 

University of Connecticut 

University of Hartford 

University of Mississippi 

University of South Florida, Tampa College of William and Mary 

Nabil Halim, Bailey Doloff, Alex 

James Murphy – 

Ravenell, Haley Toomer 

Dartmouth College 

Harvard University 

Missouri University of Science and Tech. Southern New Hampshire University Winthrop University 

Yoon, James Cole, Samantha 

Chromatophores 

University of Delaware 

Heidelberg University 

Mount Saint Mary’s University 

Spelman College 

Xavier University of Louisiana 

Morningstar, Sophia Kalaris 

Myles Williams – Muscular 

DePaul University 

High Point University 

University of New Hampshire 

St. Mary’s College of Maryland 

Yale University 

Yianni Karabatis 

Sclerosis 

Drexel University 

Hofstra University 

New York University 

Stanford University 

York College of Pennsylvania 

Duke University 

College of the Holy Cross 

North Carolina A&T State University Stevenson University 

East Carolina University 

Hood College 

University of North Carolina, Charlotte Stonehill College 

East Tennessee State University 

30 

Howard University 

University of North Carolina, Wilmington SUNY Binghamton University 

Spiortad an Dràgoin Summer 2012 

31

Academic Excellence Award 

6th Grade 

Zena Abro, Michal Brown, 

Caroline Campbell, Charlotte 

Chason, Landon Clime, Michael 

Diangelo, Jacob Doody, Michael 

Fagan, Zachary Frizzera, 

Spencer Goldrich, Ashley Good, 

Elena Heinrich, Grant 

Hernandez, Inzali Htut, Sophia 

Jalali, Asha Kunchakarra, 

Gemma Lundergan, William 

Murphy, Caidon Owen, Priyanka 

Pandya, Sarah Beth Sisney, Alex 

Todor, Brady Trenchard, Nicky 

Wojcik, Ben Wolfe 

7th Grade 

Tara Basir, Paige Beidelman, Ali 

Bhatti, Daniel Chalk, Kathleen 

DeLeonibus, Ime Etokebe, Brian 

Hersey, Rachael Heydt, Hillary 

Hwang, Aaron Jarvie, Yianni 

Karabatis, Elizabeth Kim, Simon 

Klementsen, Su Young Lee, Raj 

Malviya, Samantha Morningstar, 

T.K. Olaniyan, Russell Porter, 

Erynne Rasheed, Shahz Saeed, 

Riley Schmidt, Connor Turner, 

Myles Williams, Jenny Wolfe 

8th Grade 

Austin Clime, Tim Davis, George 

Ding, Steven Eisner, Emily Ferkler, 

Michael Hannah, Michael 

Heitzmann, Megan Hooper, Erin 

Jack, Sophia Kalaris, Melissa 

Kim, Nila Lahijan, Felisha Lee, 

Maddie Miller, Elena Moncada, 

Emily Mongold, Sarah Nemsick, 

Taylor O’Connell, Shelby 

Patrick, Genna Portner, Lois 

Ruffle, Jennifer Rushe, Andrew 

Schreffler, Sam Sisney, Rachel 

Steeley, Nicholas Tharkur, Haley 

Toomer, Bridget Wooleyhand 

Music Club Participation 

Award 

Haley Toomer, Spencer McClung, 

Palmer Foran, Timothy Oh, 

Sophia Kalaris, Trudi Henderson 

Erin Jack, Andrew Scheffler 

Kaila Friedman, Lexi Rieu, 

Sam Sisney, Lois Ruffle, Emily 

Mongold, Gabbe Cadoux, 

Kiara Bell, Justin Luna, Megan 

Hooper, Caleigh Covell, Tim 

Davis, Michael Hannah, Elena 

Moncada, Gabrielle Hernandez, 

Eric Wootton, James Seiferth 

Art Award 

Laura Holland 

Music Award 

Trudi Henderson 

Drama Award 

Taylor O’Connell 

Emily Ferkler 

French Award 

Nicholas Tharkur 

Spanish Award 

Sam Sisney 

Latin Award 


History Award 


Science Award 

Tim Davis 

Math Award 

Felisha Lee 

English Award 

Elena Moncada 

Scholar Athlete Award 

Megan Hooper, Genna Portner, 

Michael Heitzmann, Andrew 

Schreffler 

Always a Dragon Award 

Nicholas Tharkur 

The Emperor’s 

New Clothes 

Lower School Musical 

Performing Arts 

Exceptional Growth Award 

9th Grade 

Marissa Diehl 

Ranjit Gill 

Muneebah Qureshi 

10th Grade 

Cameron Baumgardner 

Andrew Hahm 

David Ruffle 

Upper School Awards 

11th Grade 

Shiv Patel 

Minahil Choudry 

Sarah Bates 

12th Grade 


Lawrence Davis 

JiaRui (Rose) Zhang 

Community Enrichment 

Awards 

9th Grade 

Sabrina DeLeonibus 

Collin Dizon 

Koko Etokebe 

10th Grade 

Mallory Pappas 

William Seiferth 

Andrew Smith 

11th Grade 

Tala Ahmadi 

Nicole Reisher 

Emily Schreffler 

Community Contribution 

12th Grade 

Talan Baek 


Lee Pappas 

Marches, Meters, and Music... 

Oh My! 

By Brant Challacombe, Performing Arts, Upper School 

and Mitch Cyman, Instrumental Music, Lower and Middle Schools 

Instrumental music is thriving on the GCS 

campus. A new GCS tradition was born 

on May 12th as Mitch Cyman and Brant 

Challacombe proudly took thirty-one 

instrumentalists from the Middle and Upper 

Schools to Hershey Park to perform in 

Hershey’s Concerts in the Park Series. The 

students performed two pieces for a panel 

of judges, “Sousa, Sousa, Sousa” and 

“The Knights of Dunvegan.” Following our 

10:30am adjudication, it was off to the 

roller coasters at Hershey Park! After being 

tossed around, filled with goodies and tired 

out from walking the park, we got on the 

bus and received the judge’s scores. We 

received a rating of “excellent”, a terrific 

achievement for the group’s very first 

adjudication. Congratulations to all of the 

Middle School and Upper School musicians 

who worked tirelessly on the concert music. 

The students, teachers and chaperones had 

a most wonderful time. We are very much 

looking forward to next year’s trip! 


33

This spring, Upper School students showcased their talents in the spring musical Pippin. Students worked 

incredibly well together performing this famous play, even garnering Best Musical at this year’s Cappies Gala. 

CAPPIES 

The 2012 Cappies of Baltimore Awards Gala took place on May 20, 2012 at the Hippodrome Theatre in Baltimore City. It 

was a fantasic night had by all, and congratulations to all of the winner and nominees! 

2012 Cappies AWARD Winners 

Lighting – Marisa Jack 

Male Vocalist – Brian Hoyson 

Senior Critic – Marisa Jack 

Critic Team – Glenelg Country School 

Musical – Pippin 

2012 Cappies Nominees 

Senior Critic – Tara Hutchinson 

Senior Critic – Marisa Jack 

Critic Team – Glenelg Country School 

Marketing and Publicity – Tyler Hooper 

Sound – Lexi Markmann 

Lighting – Marisa Jack 

Costumes – Jessi Mongold, Shayna 

Keller, Ellie Mamula, Katie Modrow & Co 

(including Lexi Markmann and Marisa Jack) 

Make-up – Tara Hutchinson 

Stage Crew – Brandon Ocheltree & 

Transition Team 

Orchestra – Pippin Pit Orchestra 

Choreography – Nikki Reisher, Justine 

Wollman, Marissa Burks, Emily Schreffler 

Ensemble in a Musical – Dancer 

Storytellers (Nikki Reisher, Justine 

Wollman, Marissa Burks, Emily 

Schreffler, Tessa More, Megan 

Steeley, Olivia Clark) 

Featured Actress – Saraniya 

Tharmarajah 

Female Dancer – Lauren Dawson 

Male Dancer – Brandon Ocheltree 

Male Vocalist – Brian Hoyson 

Comic Actor in a Musical – 

Joe Broderick 

Supporting Actress in a Musical– 

Olivia Clark 

Lead Actress in a Musical – 


Song – Love Song 

Musical – Pippin 


35

Community Service 

Cedar Lane Fair 

By David Weeks, Community Service Director, Humanities, Upper School 

Smiles and joyful responses of the physically and 

cognitively challenged Cedar Lane students greeted the 

spirited GCS ninth graders as they hosted a Spring Fair at the 

Cedar Lane School on May 16. This annual event has proven 

to be a highlight in the year for the Cedar Lane students 

and a very meaningful service-learning project for the Civic 

Leadership students in the ninth grade. 

To prepare for this experience, the GCS students 

journeyed to the Cedar Lane School for an orientation about 

the education of special needs children and a tour of the 

school’s state of the art facility. In small groups, Principal 

Paul Owens and members of his Cedar Lane staff discussed 

learning styles and needs as well as demonstrated the assistive 

technology used to help the Cedar Lane students communicate. 

Seeing the Cedar Lane students in their classrooms 

accompanied by staff members, and volunteers in the hallways, 

the GCS students gained an appreciation for the learning and 

living challenges faced by the children of Cedar Lane. These 

impressions enabled the ninth graders to more fully understand 

how to design developmentally appropriate stations for the 

Spring Fair that would be attractive and fun. Working in small 

teams, the ninth graders created an interactive station and 

considered ways to reward the Cedar Lane students for their 

participation at the Fair. A creative and “catchy” sounding sign 

naming each station, such as Bombastic Bowling, was made. The 

GCS students also considered how they would work together 

to greet the Cedar Lane students and support their activity 

interaction. The station experiences were multi-sensory and 

radiated in color. They also provided positive reinforcement by 

having small gifts as rewards for accomplishments. 

To manage approximately fifty Cedar Lane students 

and their adult escorts, a select group of ninth graders 

became “keepers of the flow” and were responsible for 

initially distributing the Cedar Lane students to the different 

stations. A group in colorful clothing, sporting a Hawaiian 

look complete with plastic leis, were the GCS guides who 

warmly welcomed the Cedar Lane students and their 

escorts, launching them into the fun fair. 

While the ninth graders prepared to entertain the 

Cedar Lane students, a small group of tenth graders: Taylor 

Blackwell ’14, Margo Madden ’14, Cecilia Narrett ’14, 

Jessica Romualdo ’14 and Shiko Wambaa ’14 formed as 

the Sophomore Leadership Team. Their mission was to raise 

approximately $400 in funds to support the material needs 

of the Cedar Lane Fair for the ninth graders. Having all 

experienced the intrinsic value of given joy to the Cedar 

Lane students, these sophomore leaders were dedicated 

to do what they could to make this year’s ninth grade have 

all that they needed materially to entertain the students 

at Cedar Lane. To better understand the importance 

of networking and philanthropic pursuit in leadership, I 

brought the Sophomore Leadership Team to meet with Mr. 

Joseph Murray, Ascend One’s Director of Public Relations, 

at his corporate headquarters in Columbia, MD. After 

this engaging meeting, the students and I brainstormed 

fundraising ideas over dinner at a local Chinese restaurant. 

The sophomores decided on staging a Middle School dance 

with an “All the Lights” theme to benefit the Cedar Lane 

Spring Fair. In addition to securing a DJ and a venue in the 

Primary School, the students and I purchased refreshments 

and rallied a group of student volunteers to help decorate 

the multipurpose room used for the dance. The sophomore 

leaders also got on the dance floor and helped motivate the 

middle school students to enjoy dancing. This event rose over 

$700 which after expenses provided the needed funds to 

meet Cedar Lane expenses. 

The joyful Cedar Lane Fair not only provided GCS 

students with an opportunity to bring “sunshine” to the 

Cedar Lane students, but it also reminded the students of 

the gifts they have and the importance of supporting those 

less fortunate. 


37

Fund for the 

Future of Our Children 


Breaking the Cycle of 

Poverty in Pakistan 

Born to a mother washing dishes for wealthy patrons and 

a father trying to find work as a gardener, Amir was trapped 

in poverty in Karachi, Pakistan. Given a free education with 

government primary schooling, he fortunately could demonstrate 

his intellect at a young age. Amir was identified as a child of 

great intellectual promise and his teacher wanted to advance 

his education into middle school with a financial grant from the 

World Education Foundation. Recognizing his need and potential, 

the World Education Foundation not only provided him with 

opportunities to learn at the Middle School, grade 6-10 level, 

but also at the college level, grade 11-12. Amir won multiple 

science competitions at the local, regional and country levels and 

eventually Intel Company supported his travel for a conference in 

San Jose, California. From that recognition he progressed to being 

a student at the Textile University of Pakistan in fashion design 

and has now begun to support his extended family with his income. 

This “rags to riches” story is typical of the empowering vision of 

the World Education Foundation which is fortunate to have Aleena 

Warich ’13, giving it support. 

Aleena learned about the World Education Fund from her 

Aunt Munaza Cheema who, in Karachi, was responsible for finding 


the children who would receive funding for advanced schooling 

beyond the primary level of education. Aleena was inspired by 

her aunt’s work and wanted to make her own positive difference 

in the lives of poor Pakistani children. With great intellectual 

promise, Aleena wrote a service leadership grant proposal to 

the Washington based Fund for the Future of Our Children and 

received a grant for $1,000. Conducting a fundraiser in her home 

and working with the GCS Fashion Club on its benefit fashion show, 

Aleena raised an additional $1,000 which the Fund for the Future 

of Our Children in turn matched with another $1,000. At the end 

of her junior year, Aleena successfully raised $3000 to support the 

valuable humanitarian work of the World Education Foundation 

which has now expanded from providing for the educational 

needs of fifteen to twenty children per year in communities in and 

around Karachi, to also providing for the needs of the DA Middle 

School in Karachi. The funds from the World Education Foundation 

have supported the development of a computer lab and library, 

along with providing students with uniforms, shoes and books in this 

special school, serving the needs of educationally motivated poor 

children in Pakistan. 

GCS students seeking to be 

empowered with funds to realize their 

visions for change in the world are 

fortunate to have access to the Washington, 

D.C. based Fund for the Future of Our 

Children (FFC). This foundation challenges 

students to write an essay on a theme 

related to the three Abrahamic faiths of 

Judaism, Christianity and Islam and include 

a connection to a service proposal in need 

of funding. The theme this year centered 

on women’s influence. Students were to 

research the ways Yocheved, Mary and 

Khadija influenced the three prophets: 

Moses, Jesus and Mohammad. 

At the seventh annual Children of 

Abraham Award Ceremony in the Riggs 

Library of Georgetown University, three 

GCS students: Nike Awotunde ’14, Lanre 

Faderin ’13 and Ogechi Nwodim ’13 were 

among this year’s $1,000 grant recipients. 

Seeking to improve the quality of 

education in a high school in Nigeria, Nike 

Awotunde wrote a proposal to develop 

a discovery lab to strengthen a science 

program. In her essay Nike reflected on 

the value of service by writing, “I have 

learned that whenever presented with an 

opportunity one should step out of his/ 

her comfort zone and help as much as one 

possibly can.” Concerned about the issue 

of hunger among the impoverished in this 

country, Lanre Faderin proposed to build a 

fruit and vegetable stand near the Howard 

County Food Bank Garden to receive the 

surplus harvest of crops from the private 

gardeners with adjacent garden plots. 

Inspired by compassion, Lanre wrote in her 

essay, “Writing about the importance of 

women in the three Abrahamic faiths and 

how they emphasized compassion in the 

foundation of each of the religions was 

a learning experience for me.” With her 

love of volleyball, Ogechi Nwodim wanted 

to establish a GCS volleyball tournament 

to draw attention to oppressed women in 

developing countries and to raise funds to 

improve their quality of life by supporting 

the Women to Women Foundation. 

Ogechi’s passion to champion social justice 

for oppressed women was reflected in 

her essay as she wrote, “The idea that 

women are treated as substandard citizens 

around the world became very real to 

me. It became apparent that society sees 

what it wants to see. If reality is harsh, then 

it is often ignored or at least not given 

any spotlight.” Sharing her compassion 

for oppressed women, Anna Agyeman 

’14 joined Ogechi in establishing a 

very successful Upper School volleyball 

tournament and cookout on May 18, which 

not only benefited oppressed women but 

also fostered a strong GCS community. 

At the FFC Awards Ceremony former 

grant recipients, Minahil Choudry ’13 and 

Aleena Warich ’13 along with Kikanae 

Punyua ’11, were awarded matching 

$1,000 grants for the $1,000 each 

student raised for their respective projects 

to improve the quality of education for 

those in need in Pakistan and Kenya. Tala 

Ahmadi ’13, Victor Crentsil ’12, Rishabh 

Khatri ’12 and Fahad Ahsan ’11, all of 

whom were former grant recipients were in 

attendance, in addition to Marian Wright 

Edelman, founder of the Children’s Defense 

Fund, and Mary Cosby, founder of The 

Church of the Savior who were being 

recognized by the FFC for their life time 

achievements. The ten GCS students who 

participated in the Fund for the Future of 

Our Children’s Youth Leadership Award 

Ceremony on April 15, demonstrated how 

they could make a positive difference 

in the world and were stellar service 

ambassadors for GCS. 


39

Athletics 

The New “A” Team 

This past basketball season was an incredible 

experience for my teammates and me and we will have 

memories from this season that we’ll carry with us for the 

rest of our lives. Coming into the season we found that 

individuals doubted we would be very successful, with the 

major concern being if we were going to be able to survive 

in the “A” Conference without All-Metro Player, Isaiah Miles. 

Many people openly stated that we weren’t going to make 

the playoffs or that we were going to be at the bottom 

of the conference. We used those thoughts as motivation 

throughout the season. 

The previous season we won the MIAA “B” Conference 

championship against Annapolis Area Christian School 

(AACS). From then on, people had high expectations for us 

moving up to the “A” Conference. We felt that with the same 

team coming back the next year, there was no way that we 

couldn’t dominate the “A” Conference as we did in “B.” In the 

“B” Conference we had a more than impressive conference 

record of 18-1. For the 2012 season, The Baltimore Sun 

had faith in us Dragons and ranked us 14th at preseason. 

The summer prior to the first season in the “A” 

Conference was like no other. A motto that I pushed the 

By Warren Powers ’13 

guys to live by in the summer was “No Days Off” and I 

advertised it on Twitter with the hashtag, #NoDaysOff. The 

#NoDaysOff movement included, Lawrence Davis ’12, Amon 

Jones ’12, Kevin Boyd ’13, Chancellor Barnard ’14 and myself 

going to the gym every day. Whether it was at GCS, The 

YMCA, The Columbia Gym, Supreme or simply the hoops 

at our homes, basketball was going to be played. We 

knew that in order to be successful in the “A” Conference, 

we had to work harder than any other team out there. The 

“A” Conference wasn’t going to be as easy as “B,” and it 

was a challenge we were up for. As we came back to GCS 

in the fall, Coach Quinlan, or “Coach Q,” introduced us to 

our new center, Cedric Moune ’12 who was from Cameroon, 

Africa. We saw Cedric as a great addition to our team. 

When we started playing our fall league games 

people saw our team play and their expectations for us 

slowly started to rise again. No one believed that we were 

going to win the “A” Conference but they figured that we 

would be able to hold our own. We used that positive 

reinforcement for our first game against Chapelgate. 

That game was the first appearance of GCS’s first ever 

“A” Conference team. The game was close, but we didn’t 

disappoint – we won by a respectable 

margin. Chapelgate was a great 

game, and it was a great warm-up 

to our first real “A” Conference game 

against McDonogh. 

McDonogh came into the season 

ranked #8 by the Baltimore Sun 

and no one who followed Baltimore 

basketball gave us a chance to beat 

McDonogh. That day, the game had 

been advertised as a huge event 

around campus because it was our first 

real game in the “A” Conference. It was 

the moment that I had been dreaming 

of ever since I first came to GCS. That 

game was our opportunity to prove 

that the Dragons weren’t going to be 

an easy win. 

From the blow of the whistle to the 

final buzzer, it was an intense battle. 

The crowd was on their feet cheering 

for us the entire game. I can’t explain 

how great that made all of us feel. 

When the closing minutes came, we 

stayed composed and were able to pull 

a win by seven. Kevin Boyd ’13 had a 

great game leading us in points, and I 

had a field day re-bounding the ball; 

together we were able to out-tough 

the McDonogh Eagles. That game sent 

shock-waves throughout the conference, 

by letting them know that GCS was 

in the “A” Conference for a reason. 

However, we went from playing one 

of the best teams in the conference to 

playing one of the best teams in the 

country! We played against DeMatha, 

who at one point during the season was 

ranked #5 in the Country. We were all 

excited about the challenge to test our 

talents against one of the best teams 

in the Country. Unfortunately, we lost 

the game, but at half-time we were 

only down by six points. Going into 

the fourth quarter we were losing by 

twelve points. I can guarantee that we 

earned the respect of DeMatha that 

day. A little team from Ellicott City took 

on the “big-dogs” and gave them a true 

Dragon fight. 

From that point on, we had some 

huge wins beating Calvert Hall, St. 

Frances and other respectable teams, 

but we also had some key losses. The 

“A” Conference was definitely a huge 

change because we realized that we 

couldn’t take any days off. A team like 

Loyola, who was at the bottom of the 

conference could come in and steal a 

win at any moment (which they did to 

us in a tough one point loss). Coach 

Q really gave us some encouraging 

words in our tough losses. He told us 

to continue fighting and that the true 

character of us as young men would 

be tested by how we bounced back. 

We took what Coach Q said to heart 

by battling all the way up from a 

possible bottom seed in the playoffs 

to a #4 seed spot in the playoffs 

securing us with our first playoff game 

at home! Our conference record was a 

respectable (8-8). 

Despite all of the memorable 

times on the court, my most memorable 

experience from the season was a 

non-conference game against AACS. 

It was the Pink-Out game and a rematch 

of the previous “B” Conference 

Championship game. The game was 

packed with all of the breast-cancer 

supporters, students from AACS and 

GCS. Everyone wanted to see the “rematch” 

and we did not disappoint. The 

game was close the whole way and it 

came down to the final buzzer, literally. 

I was having one of the best games of 

my life, having scored twenty points in 

the first three quarters. However, it was 

the final four seconds of the game that 

created all the controversy. A foul was 

called on me for supposedly “hitting 

the player on the arm in his act of 

shooting a fade-away.” The call from 

the referee was terrible and Coach 

Lightening, our assistant coach, let the 

referee know it. Coach Lightening was 

called for a technical foul, which not 

only gave the original player two free 

throws but it gave AACS two technical 

free throws as well and possession of 


41

the ball afterwards. The game was 

looking over for us, but I still had faith 

even though AACS’s student section 

didn’t. They were screaming my 

number, “24! 24! 24! You’re a bum! 

How does it feel to cost your team 

the game” For some reason I never 

panicked, I smiled and kept my cool. 

When the player who I fouled went to 

the free throw line it was a tie game 

and he had missed both free throws. 

Then, their best free throw shooter 

went to the line to shoot the technicals. 

He missed the first free throw and 

made the second one. 

At this point AACS was up by one 

point and they had possession of the 

ball. When they inbounded the ball, 

we immediately fouled and time went 

down to two seconds flat. They had 

another chance to shoot free throws. 

This time it was a one-on-one situation, 

which meant if they made the first free 

throw they got to shoot another, but if 

they missed the first shot and we got 

the rebound, it’s our ball. It was just 

our luck that the player missed the shot 

and we got the rebound. We called a 

time-out immediately with 0.9 seconds 

left on the clock. Coach Q substituted 

Lawrence, who has the best arm on our 

team by far. Our goal was to launch 

the ball the length of the court and 

have someone miraculously catch it 

and throw the ball in the hoop in less 

than a second. The play was designed 

for me to be that guy for the job and 

I was up for it. When we walked back 

on the court, AACS’s fans let me have 

it once again. “24! 24! What’s up 

now” However, I paid no attention. 

When the referee blew the whistle, 

Lawrence got the ball and launched 

it the length of the court as planned. 

The pass was beautiful and I was able 

to jump in the air, over two defenders, 

catch the ball, turn around and shoot 

the ball as quick as possible. When I 

shot the ball I was a little bit below the 

three point line and the ball twirled 

and twirled in the air and kissed off 

of the glass, and fell in the hoop for 

two points! We had won the game! 

When I made that shot I ran right over 

to the student section and shouted “24! 

24! 24! 24!” until I couldn’t scream 

anymore. My teammates ran, jumped 

on and hugged me. The first person I 

ran to was Lawrence and hugged him 

thanking him for that beautiful pass. It 

was a surreal moment that I will never 

forget. 

In the first round of the playoffs 

we faced Calvert Hall which was 

our first playoff game in the “A” 

Conference. We went on to win that 

game by double-digits and there was 

no way that we could have done it 

without the support of our great fans. 

Our fans were amazing, cheering 

us all the way to the “A” Conference 

Semi-Finals. 

The next game was against Mount 

Saint Joseph in the Semi-Finals and the 

entire school was amped. We had fan 

buses making their way to Irvington 

to support us and we were all excited 

for the chance to make history. Before 

the ball tipped there were over 1,000 

people in attendance at our game 

which made it the most attended game 

we had ever played in as a school. 

When the game started, it became 

clear that we were no match for the 

Gaels that day. They shot 70% in 

the first half, which was stronger than 

any game all year long. It may have 

been their night, but we didn’t back 

down. At one point, we were down by 

twenty-three points, but we brought it 

back to a respectable fourteen (which 

we ultimately lost by). Even with the 

disappointment of defeat from that 

game, we were granted the highlight 

of the year by Chancellor. Chancellor 

drove down the court in the first half, 

rose up and dunked right on the head 

of a Mount Saint Joe defender in front 

of their student section. Everyone in the 

gym went crazy including the St. Joe 

fans (it can be found on the Glenelg 

Country School YouTube page or following the QR code 

below). 

Our season was filled with memories and moments 

that I will cherish for the rest of my life. We learned some 

valuable life lessons and we grew closer together as a 

basketball family which was one of Coach Q and Coach 

Reed’s desires for us as a team. 

On a personal side, Kevin and I achieved our goal 

of making the All-MIAA Conference First Team! It was an 

amazing honor that we couldn’t have achieved without the 

support of our teammates. Additionally, on January 12, 

2012 I scored my 1,000th point against Mount Saint Joe 

which was an accolade that I was very proud of. I have 

truly been blessed and hopefully next year I will hit my 

2,000th! Thank you for your support, and I hope that you 

have gained more interest in Dragon Basketball and will 

come see us go for the MIAA “A” Conference Championship 

in 2012-2013! 

Athletic Additions 

Beginning Fall 2012, Glenelg Country School 

will be adding two new features to the athletic 

program – a state-of-the-art turf field, complete 

with a six-lane competition track, and the 

beginnings of an equestrian team. 

Construction on the new field will begin in late 

summer, with a completion date of late fall to 

early winter. GCS has contracted with Clark 

Construction to handle the project and photo 

updates will be posted under the Athletics Page 

once construction begins. 

The turf field will round out the current athletic 

facilities that boast a 35,000 square-foot athletic 

center with two basketball courts, a multipurpose 

athletic room, fitness and training centers, locker 

rooms and offices, three additional playing fields 

(two of which are Bermuda), a baseball field and 

five tennis courts. 

The Equestrian program will begin as a club 

team, under the direction of head coach Kara 

Listrani. Senior Lexi Markman will be the student 

captain for the inaugural season. Practices and 

boarding of horses will be at Walnut Pond 

Farm in Brookeville, Maryland and the team will 

compete as part of the Interscholastic Equestrian 

Association (IEA) in hunt seat, saddle and western. 

42 

Spiortad an Dràgoin Summer 2012 

43

PINK OUT! 

On February 4, 2012, Glenelg Country School (GCS) and 

Annapolis Area Christian School (AACS) joined efforts in 

hosting the 4th annual “PINK OUT” to raise funds for Breast 

Cancer research. 

Three years ago, Grace Mercer, a senior at AACS started 

the first PINK OUT basketball tournament. Her mother was a 

breast cancer survivor and Grace was greatly impacted by 

her mother’s battle. In three years, the event has raised over 

$22,000 for breast cancer research. 

This year, AACS partnered with GCS and St. John’s Catholic 

Prep in efforts to raise an additional $10,000 for breast 

cancer research. All proceeds went to the JoAnn DeCesaris 

Cancer Institute in Annapolis. 

Each team was charged with soliciting sponsors for their 

shoot-a-thon. Through AMAZING efforts by our Upper and 

Middle School basketball players we have far exceeded 

any other school that AACS has partnered with in the past 

three Pink Outs! 

The Top 5 Team Fundraising Totals were: 

MS Girls B Team $2046.10 

Varsity Girls $1399.00 

MS Boys C Team $1340.00 

MS C Girls Team $1327.71 

MS A Girls Team $1064.25 

Ultimately delivering $8491.26 to AACS! 

The top fundraisers were: Abby Renko ’12 with $745 

and Sophia Kalaris ’16 with $680. Abby and Sophia and 

Athletic Director Nan Hambrose presented a check to the 

DeCesaris Cancer Institute later that month. 

Our Middle School added to the total by raising $386 

through an assigned Tag-day. 

A great time was had by all, and great people were able 

to come out and support this great cause! Thank you for 

showing, yet again, what it means to be a Dragon! 

MS Boys Tennis Team 

By Brad Black, Middle School Boys Tennis Coach, Social Studies, Middle School 

The boy’s middle school tennis 

team ended a successful season 

winning five matches and losing only 

one. As a team, the boys won thirty 

six individual and doubles’ matches 

while losing only six, a .857 winning 

percentage. There were thirteen 

team members this year, including 

three sixth graders and nine seventh 

graders ensuring GCS another strong 

team next year. Every team member 

had a winning record against their 

opponents. 

The team was led by Palmer 

Foran ’16, Ryan Zanoni ’17, Austin 

Birch ’17, and Connor Turner ’17 

combining for an incredible record 

of 20-2. In addition Yianni Karabatis 

’17 went 4-1, Daniel Chalk ’17 5-1, 

Brian Hersey ’17 and Shahz Saeed 

’17 went 4-1, Alex Yoon ’17 went 

4-0, Raj Malviya ’17 went 3-0, and 

the doubles team of Morgan Adams 

’18 and Arthur Niseen ’18 went 5-1. 

Tennis newcomer Nicky Wojcik ’18 

went 2-0. 

The team’s end of the season 

Coach’s Awards were given to 

Palmer Foran, Ryan Zanoni, and 

Austin Birch for setting fine examples 

in sportsmanship, leadership, and 

excellence in tennis skills. 

Gerald Quarles Signs 

with Florida A&M 

University 

Gerald Quarles ’12 will be playing 

baseball for Florida A&M University 

(FAMU) next year, a D1 school, part of the 

Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) in 

Tallahassee, Florida, under the direction of 

head coach, Willy Brown. 

Quarles has been at Glenelg Country 

School since 2009 and has been the 

starting catcher on the Varsity Baseball 

Team for two years. In this role, Quarles 

has anchored the defense and provided 

key leadership, calling all the pitches for 

the GCS pitching staff. Quarles has been 

playing baseball since he was seven-yearsold 

and has come a long way since that 

time. Quarles has also further enhanced 

his baseball experience by playing on 

numerous travel teams throughout his career 

such as the Raiders, the Diamond Pros, and 

the Yankee Rebels. 

Quarles first discovered FAMU by attending 

a game, cheering for a rival school. FAMU 

had an incredible victory, which motivated 

Quarles to explore the school and program 

further. Quarles ultimately decided FAMU 

“because of the campus atmosphere and 

the fact that is a historically black college.” 


45

Faculty and Staff 

Collaborating to “Build Creative Connections” 

By Pat Appel, Academic Support, Primary School and Marie Reed, Humanities, Upper School 

Each year, in addition to attending local professional 

development workshops, seminars, and national conferences, 

GCS teachers participate in an all-school Professional 

Development Program that includes a summer reading 

program that is focused on school-wide goals and initiatives. 

This past year’s theme of “Building Creative Connections” 

challenged teachers to employ their own 21st century skills, 

particularly critical thinking, collaboration, and creativity, 

to enhance students’ learning and further advance the GCS 

community. 

This year’s Professional Development Program 

schedule featured two “FedEx Days.” GCS FedEx Days 

are inspired by Daniel Pink’s Drive, the 2010 Faculty 

Summer Reading selection. In Drive, Pink argues that the 

most innovative results come from intrinsic motivation which 

most often develops in situations where individuals are 

given the freedom and support to develop a project or 

idea that inspires them. On FedEx Days, faculty identify 

the ideas and problems they would like to address. These 

days afford teachers essential time for collaborative 

research and design. Since this mode of faculty-driven 

professional development proved highly productive when 

piloted last year, one FedEx Day was focused on divisional 

initiatives and the second FedEx Day’s focus was openended. 

Many teachers chose to spend FedEx Day time 

researching and planning ways to embrace this year’s two 

all-school initiatives. They worked at finding ways to enrich 

instruction with the goals of building students’ STEM skills 

(Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) and Global 

Competencies. 

In November, Divisional FedEx Day projects were 

mostly focused on learning ways to integrate SMART Board 

technology into existing curricula and researching STEM 

and Global Competency projects. For many teachers, the 

time spent in their divisions during this highly productive day 

yielded the research and preliminary planning necessary to 

fine-tune projects during the “faculty choice” FedEx Day late 

in February. 

It was truly amazing how many new, integrative, and 

exciting projects were planned this year as a result of 

teachers taking full advantage of these two days dedicated 

to innovation. In addition to learning new instructional 

methods and ways to integrate new technologies, teachers 

planned and even implemented many new lessons and 

student projects before the end of the school year. Primary 

School students enjoyed the first Primary School Family 

STEM Night, the Family Tree, Elmer the Elephant, Morocco 

Day, the French Salon, new Mount Vernon Field Trip 

Activities, an International Dance Assembly, and a variety of 

STEM and Global Awareness projects. 

As a result of Lower School teachers’ efforts during 

FedEx Days this year, students will be able to: interact with 

SMART Boards in most of their classes, complete a science 

research paper in fifth grade, use interactive timelines, 

experiment with a color-coded paragraph writing program, 

Skype with a French-speaking class from Quebec, enjoy a 

band trip to Hershey Park, an Ancient Greek Olympics Day, 

and an expanded MLI K9-9K Walkathon. 

The Middle School faculty continued the focus with a 

group of five teachers using the day to research and plan 

a year-long interdisciplinary “Passport Project” which will 

require sixth grade students to design their own passports 

in computer science classes and then “travel” through the 

curriculum with them while developing a variety of skills 

in their Computer Technology, Art, English, Library, Math, 

Science and Foreign Language classrooms. Other teachers 

considered the use of iPads, field trips, and web resources 

to enhance the authenticity of student learning. 

The Upper School teamed up to develop a digital 

textbook and video archive for the American Studies 

program, generate materials for a STEM Summer Camp, 

and design science labs that would encourage students 

to use new data collection devices and to see connections 

across the different scientific disciplines. These and other 

teacher-generated projects reflected the Upper School’s 

focus on interdisciplinary and student-centered learning. 

Beyond the FedEx Days, monthly convocations provided 

time for department and committee meetings, teacher 

mapping and planning, and all-school faculty meetings. 

Convocation time was also used to convene the new STEM 

and Global Competencies Task Forces. These task forces, 

comprised of faculty volunteers, initiated the process of 

drafting GCS’s STEM and Global Competency Programs. 

Their efforts will continue next year. 

Once again this year, allowing teachers time to 

research, organize, plan, and innovate resulted in enhancing 

the quality of our programs and our community. Next year’s 

Professional Development Program will carry the FedEx 

Day model over to incorporate one open-ended facultychoice 

day. During the 2012-2013 school year, professional 

development time will create opportunities for the faculty 

to continue “Seeking Deeper Understandings.” Under this 

theme, faculty will focus on effective communication skills 

and the further advancement of the STEM and Global 

Competencies Initiatives. 


47

Alumni 

Craig Lourens 

Glenelg Country’s First Lifer 

By Evelyn Johnson, Alumni and Special Events Coordinator 

As Craig Lourens ’89 reminisced 

about his time at Glenelg Country 

School, he remarked that “you 

can never forget the smell of the 

boxwoods, especially after a rain.” He 

recalled how the boxwoods completely 

surrounded the playground, how it 

seemed there were whole rooms 

underneath their canopy, and snakes 

under them too – lots of snakes. He 

also clearly remembered that if one 

was caught playing in the boxwoods 

– or with the snakes – they were 

promptly sent to sit on the time-out log. 

Craig is Glenelg Country 

School’s first lifer. He started at 

Glenelg Country School in 1975 as 

a kindergarten student and attended 

GCS through his senior year. He was 

among the first group of students to 

attend classes in the newly built Upper 

School and one of the ten students that 

comprised the very first graduating 

class of 1989. Lifers – students who 

have attended GCS for at least 13 

consecutive years – are traditionally 

honored at graduation and presented 

with a plaque by Primary School 

Head, Mrs. Rotter, formerly known as 

Mrs. Ellestad, who has taught at GCS 

for 32 years. 

Recently, Mr. Ventre received a 

letter from Craig’s mother, Rosemary 

Lourens Walsh, explaining that 

Craig was the first student to spend 

all of their school days at GCS. 

Unfortunately, Craig was unable to 

attend his graduation ceremony in 

1989, and his status as a lifer went 

unrecognized. So, this year, the school 

invited Craig to commencement to 

receive his lifer plaque along with the 

twelve lifers honored from the Class 

of 2012. Craig, his sister Christine 

(Chris) Lourens ’92, and their mother, 

Rosemary, were all in attendance 

at Glenelg Country’s twenty-fourth 

commencement ceremony held on June 

8th. 

The morning of commencement, 

Craig and his family toured the 

Manor House. When Craig and his 

sister, Chris, were students at Glenelg 

Country School, the Manor House was 

the only school building on campus. 

They both attended kindergarten 

through eighth grade in that building 

and, as they walked through it, both 

noted the changes since they had 

been students. The current library was 

once the auditorium, where Ms. DeVoe 

and Mr. Weeks would direct shows, 

the landing at the top of the stairs 

was once partitioned off as a faculty 

lounge (which also housed the ditto 

machine), and one of the current fifthgrade 

classrooms was the art room, a 

place where students worked on Art 

d’Man projects. 

Many of the memories they 

shared are ones you can only find 

at a school in a country setting, like 

the aforementioned snakes in the 

boxwoods or the smoke from the farm 

next door pouring across the athletic 

fields so thickly you would choke. 

But many memories were simple, 

every-day flashes of school life such 

as learning to do math with Roman 

numerals and an abacus in Latin class, 

walking around the teardrop during lunch with your friend, 

or discovering the consequences of not paying attention in 

Mrs. Fitzpatrick’s class. 

Craig also fondly remembers how Mr. Miller, 

headmaster from 1977-1990, would stand at the doors to 

school every morning and greet each and every student 

by name. Mr. Miller was there every afternoon, too, to say 

goodbye at the end of each day. He recalls the one-on-one 

attention he received from teachers and the tight-knit feeling 

of belonging to the GCS community and how these things 

formed a “protective bubble” around GCS, where students 

felt safe from the outside world. 

When remembering his high school years, Craig reflects 

that one advantage to having a class of only ten students is 

that the whole class can go to a restaurant or show together. 

More importantly, there was no way to hide with only ten 

students in your class, so everyone received a large amount 

of individual attention from their teachers and peers, but, 

most of all, everyone was a friend. 

Craig has donated to the 

Annual Fund every year since 

1999. After the graduation 

ceremony, when asked why he 

feels so committed to giving back 

to the school, he explained that 

he will always give back because 

he believes in the school’s mission. 

He believes that GCS teaches 

students how to think and work 

through problems – something that 

is missing in the public school system. 

“Knowledge is useless unless you 

know how to use it in everyday 

situations. After spending thirteen 

years at GCS, [that knowledge] 

became a major part of me and I 

want to see this feeling continue with each current and future 

student. GCS is and always will be a special place.” 

Since Craig’s senior year in 1989, many more GCS 

lifers have received their diplomas and gone out into 

the world, each prepared with the knowledge and skills 

necessary to succeed as adults. Just as importantly though, 

are their memories of GCS, which truly is a special place. 

Opposite Page: Craig Lourens ’89 accepting his GCS 

Lifer plaque from Mrs. Lynda Rotter and Greg Ventre; 

This page, top left: Craig Lourens ’89 participating 

in a holiday performance; Top right: Craig Lourens ’89 

(center) and classmates enjoying the boxwoods; 

Below: Mrs. Cradler’s sixth grade class, Craig Lourens 

’89 seated front row, far left. 


49

Class Notes 

Tell your fellow alums and the GCS community how life is for you after Glenelg Country School! Update us on marriages, births, awards and 

achievements, future plans and goals, relocations, career changes, or anything else you may want to share! Email updates to 

alumni@glenelg.org or visit the alumni section of the website to update us. 

’80 

Christopher Partridge and Patricia 

Ordóñez Rozo both graduated from 

the University of Maryland, Baltimore 

County in May. Chris received his Master 

of Science, Information Systems from the 

Department of Information Systems, and Patti 

earned her PhD in Computer Science from 

the Department of Computer Science and 

Electrical Engineering. Chris will be working 

at SAIC this summer and Patti is working 

at UMBC Training Centers, directly across 

from one another on Columbia Gateway 

Drive. However, Patti will soon be moving to 

Puerto Rico in August to become an Assistant 

Professor of Computer Science at the University 

of Puerto Rico, Recinto de Río Piedras. 

’98 

Chris Shematek and his wife, Haritha 

Divakaruni Shematek ’00, welcomed their new 

baby girl, Maya Ann Shematek, on Friday, March 

23, 2012. Maya is their first child and officiallly an 

Elg. shematek@glenelg.org 

’06 

Nicholas Murphy was appointed to 

the Board of Directors for Seminole County 

(Florida) Cultural Arts Council 

in August 2011. He directed South Lake 

(Florida) Theatre Company’s production of 

Jacob Marley’s A Christmas Carol in December 

2011. In January 2012, Nick founded 

Cornerstone Theatre Company; he also 

serves as Artistic Director. Cornerstone’s first 

production, Picnic, which he is directing, was 

staged at Lowndes Shakespeare Center. He is 

also very active with Florida State Thespians, 

serving as an adjudicator for District 3 and 

District 5, and adjudicator and workshop 

presenter for State Thespians. 

Nicholas_Murphy@emerson.edu 

Terence McAuliffe recently had the 

extraordinary opportunity to train with 

Brazilian soccer star Alexandre Pato. 

Pato, professional footballer and striker for AC 

Milan and the Brazilian national team, came 

to Life University in Marietta, GA to receive 

chiropractic care from Dr. Carrick at the LIFE 

Functional Neurology Center. Other professional 

athletes have also sought treatment at the 

LIFE Center, which recently helped Pittsburgh 

Penguins center and team captain, Sidney 

Crosby, get back on the ice. 

McAuliffe is currently pursuing his Doctorate in 

Chiropractic degree at Life University. He will 

complete his schooling in 2014, and plans to 

begin his career as a chiropractor at his father’s 

practice in Laurel, MD. 

Pato and McAuliffe crossed paths on the final 

day of Pato’s week-long rehab session at LIFE. 

The center was looking for soccer players who 

could take part in full-speed drills with Pato. As 

some of the top footballers on campus, Terence 

and his friends were asked to assist with the 

training. 

At GCS, Terence was a 4-year starter for 

the varsity soccer team. He captained the 

team when they won the MIAA-C Conference 

Championship in 2004 and when they played 

their first MIAA-B Conference season in 2005. 

When Terence left GCS, he was the lead goal 

scorer in GCS history and a 3-time lead goal 

scorer in Howard County. He was elected 

first team MIAA-C Conference and first team 

MIAA-B Conference as well as winning an MVP, 

a Dragon Award and a Coaches Award, each 

once. 

Working out with Pato “was a dream come 

true” for McAuliffe and an experience he will 

never forget. 

’07 

Aleena Hasnain graduated from University 

of Maryland, College Park with a B.A. in 

Communication; Public Relations in December 

2011. She began working for a crisis 

communication firm in Washington, D.C., Levick 

Strategic Communications. She also was admitted 

to Georgetown University to get her masters in 

public relations and corporate communications 

and started in May. Aleena stated, “I am 

so blessed and I owe that to my Glenelg 

Country School education; so proud to be a 

GCS Dragon Lifer.” aleena.iman@gmail.com 

’08 

Jacob Brody graduated this May from the 

College of William and Mary. He is interning 

this summer at the Academy on Human Rights 

and Humanitarian Law and will begin studying 

for a degree in human rights law from American 

University Washington College of Law in the fall. 

Brittany Henderson graduated this 

May from Auburn University. She will pursue 

a degree in law from Nova Southeastern 

University in Florida this fall. 

Alice Zients has been awarded the Princeton 

in Latin America Fellowship to go and work 

with a NGO in Latin America for the upcoming 

year. She recently graduated from Franklin 

and Marshall College with a degree in Public 

Health, which lead to her placement in Santiago 

Atitlan, Guatemala in Hospitalito Atitlan. 

Santiago is made-up of an almost entirely 

indigenous Mayan population, so she will be 

working closely with the new culture as well 

as an indigenous language. She will be the 

Development Coordinator for the Hospital, 

dealing with everything from fundraising to 

traveling clinics. She left for Santiago on July 

1st and has an active blog recording her 

adventures: http://aliciagoesguate.tumblr.com/. 

… through the Dragon’s Lair. 

Look to your mailbox for a letter containing the username 

and password you need for exclusive access to the 

alumni portal on www.Glenelg.org. 

With this new feature, you and your fellow alums will 

enjoy access to the alumni directory, news, events and 

other alumni-specific material. Additionally, you will be 

able to maintain and update your own alumni profile. 

If you have not recently updated your information, or if 

you have not received a letter, please send an email to 

alumni@glenelg.org with your current information. 

’09 

Lindsay Menton was chosen as an NXTsports 

summer 2012 intern. NXTsports interns assist 

with all aspects of the company, including 

helping to organize and direct NXT’s fastgrowing 

slate of summer lacrosse events, 

camps and tournaments. Lindsay is a rising 

senior at Gettysburg College and a member 

of the Bullets’ women’s lacrosse team. She 

was the recipient of the 2011 NCAA Division 

III Women’s Lacrosse Elite 88 Award and 

more recently was awarded the Centennial 

Conference Sportsmanship Award by her team 

this past spring. Lindsay is majoring in Theories 

in Politics and Society and is in the Elementary 

Education Certification Program at Gettysburg. 

Stay Connected… 

Alexis Monroe is a rising senior at 

Dartmouth College. This summer, Alexis 

is working at the Baltimore Museum of 

Art, writing, editing, and researching in 

preparation for the re-opening of the museum’s 

contemporary wing this fall. She is studying 

Comparative Literature with concentrations 

in French and Art History, and is currently 

developing her honors thesis. She is also 

pursuing a minor in English. 

’10 

Joseph O’Clair was selected as one of fifty 

students from the University of South Carolina 

sports and entertainment management program 

traveled to London this summer to intern at the 

2012 Olympic Games. The internship will last 

three months and is worth five class credits. 

Students will shadow at different sporting 

venues, working with volunteers to set up 

payrolls and keep each venue on budget. 

’11 

Taylor Pryor was selected to attend a 

summer intensive workshop at the prestigious 

Paul Taylor Dance Academy in New York City. 

… with the Alumni Board. 

The Glenelg Country School Alumni Association Board 

is a group of alumni volunteers who work to promote 

the interests of the school while encouraging a spirit of 

loyalty and pride among the alumni of Glenelg Country 

School. The Alumni Board works to strengthen the 

relationship between Glenelg Country School and its 

alumni, as well as stimulate alumni involvement and 

financial support of the school. 

Become a member of the Alumni Board to stay active in 

the GCS community and participate in the future of the 

school with fellow alumni. 

For more information on joining the Alumni Board, contact Evelyn 

Johnson, Alumni Coordinator, at 410-531-7370 or 

alumni@glenelg.org.

Always a Dragon Awards Recipients 

By Evelyn Johnson, Alumni and Special Events Coordinator 

The Alumni Association is pleased to announce the 

recipients of the 2012 Always a Dragon Scholarship 

Awards. 

The Upper School scholarship has been awarded 

to graduate Joseph Broderick ‘12, who is attending the 

United States Military Academy at West Point in the fall. 

This GCS lifer, School Council President, and team captain 

credits scouting and GCS athletics for playing a large role 

in developing his strong leadership skills. He believes a 

leader should lead by example, inspire those around them, 

recognize the needs of their community and work to meet 

those needs. This was evidenced when he led the initiative 

to create a new outdoor classroom at Glenelg Country 

School as part of his Eagle Scout Project and also through 

his work with the Columbia Teen Advisory Board and his 

volunteer efforts with Special Olympics. He was awarded a 

Congressional Medal Silver Service Award for his work with 

recent amputees at Walter Reed – an effort which taught 

him that he could make a difference in people’s lives. His 

genuine passion and love for GCS and his commitment to 

the school and campus is unmistakable. 

The recipient of the Middle School scholarship is 

Nicholas Tharkur ’16 who will be a freshman in the Upper 

School at GCS next year. According to Brita Stewart, 

eighth-grade English teacher and Nick’s advisor, Nicholas 

“is a student who leads by example. Though he is not one 

to seek out the spotlight, his quiet integrity, reliability, and 

humility have drawn attention from both the faculty and his 

peers. On the playing field and in the classroom, he can 

be counted on to uphold the values that our school holds 

most dear. We are proud of the growth that we have seen 

in this young man during his time in the Middle School, and 

we look forward to seeing him emerge as a leader in our 

Upper School.” 

The Always a Dragon Awards, established by the 

Alumni Association Board in 2011, are a way for current 

alumni to recognize and reward future alumni who 

demonstrate exceptional leadership skills both at school and 

in the community. The awards are funded each year through 

proceeds from the Dragon Dash 5k run and walk, which 

is hosted by the Alumni Association and held each fall at 

Glenelg Country School. 

This year, the Alumni Association raised enough funds 

at the Dragon Dash to increase the amount of scholarship 

money awarded to each recipient. Joe Broderick received 

$2000 for winning the Upper School Always a Dragon 

Award, and Nicholas Tharkur accepted $1000 when 

granted the Middle School Always a Dragon Award. 

The Alumni Association congratulates Joe and Nicholas, 

and wishes each of them the best for a distinguished and 

bright future. 

For more information on the Always a Dragon Award 

or the Dragon Dash 5K, contact Evelyn Johnson, Alumni 

Coordinator, at 410-531-7370 or alumni@glenelg.org. 

Grill & Cantina 

June 8, 2012 

Alumni, faculty and friends gathered for the annual fiesta at La Palapa Grill and 

Cantina in Old Ellicott City on June 8, 2012. Everyone enjoyed the Mexican fare 

and cold beverages, but especially appreciated spending time with old friends 

and catching-up with former teachers. A great time was had by all and alumni and 

faculty alike remained at La Palapa long after the party ended. Plan to join us 

next year as we gather at La Palapa on June 7, 2013. 

2012-2013 

Events 

Dragon Dash 

October 6, 2012 

Bull Roast 

November 10, 2012 

Cracker Barrel 

January 4, 2013 

Basketball Night 

January 4, 2013 

Lacrosse & Baseball 

Alumni Games 

May 22, 2013 

La Palapa 

June 7, 2013 

Would you like to host an alumni event 

Contact Evelyn Johnson, Alumni 

Coordinator, at 410-531-7370 or 

alumni@glenelg.org 

Follow us on 

and

12793 Folly Quarter Road 

Ellicott City, Maryland 21042 

www.glenelg.org 

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Permit No. 500 

The Class of 2012 showcasing their college t-shirts; a gift from the Alumni Association.

Summer 2012 - Glenelg Country School

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