CHCA Eagle's Eye and 2023 Annual Report

THE FINE ARTS OF CHCA:
A 25-YEAR MAGNUM OPUS
DIRECTED BY MONA SUMMERS
By Kaveri Easwaran ’24
The CHCA Fine Arts program touches all our students, from
elementary to high school. Mrs. Mona Summers has led
this distinguished program for a quarter century.
Mrs. Summers touched my life for the first time when I was a
kindergartner auditioning for ArtBeat. I was supposed to be
playing the piano, but the only thing I could hear was the nervous
drum of my pounding heart. Mrs. Summers, one of the people
I was auditioning to, quickly put a stop to my nervousness.
Wearing a gentle smile and asking questions about my favorite
color and my music piece, she effortlessly lifted the heavy stone
that was weighing me down, enabling my fingers to fly across
the piano keys. Throughout my time at CHCA, I have witnessed
the love and encouragement Mrs. Summers has poured into
every student. Now, in my senior year, I wanted to recognize
Mrs. Summers and her timeless legacy. So, I sat down with Mrs.
Summers to learn about her journey.
KE: WHAT DREW YOU TO CHCA?
MS: Honestly, it was my children. We are not from Cincinnati, and
when we moved here, we did not know about the school. We found
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out about CHCA later. The first thing that attracted me to CHCA
was the quality Christian education. But we moved to CHCA from
a public school with an outstanding music program. My son had
an incredible time playing in the band for two years there. When
he came here in seventh grade, we knew the arts program had
potential, but it didn’t provide the same level of engagement and
connection my son was used to.
At that point, I could either step aside and be happy with the
wonderful things already offered at CHCA, or I could volunteer and
do what I could to help develop the arts program. I attended a school
meeting for the music program and signed my name on a volunteer
list. The next week, I got a letter from the head of school informing
me I was the vice president of the newly formed arts board, later
to become Friends of Fine Arts! And I thought, “I do not remember
signing up for that.” However, I had experience on different art
organization boards before we moved to Cincinnati, and I thought
this was an opportunity to make an impact.
While volunteering, the head of school kept telling me I needed
to be on staff. After so many times of him saying that, I told him to
make me an offer, and he did! This is how I came to work here.