Teenagers are forced to work hard, they learn, they train, and towards the end of their journey, they travel from their hometown to the Capitol to begin the rebellion…such was the story of the 8th grade trip.  No, wait a minute, that was “The Hunger Games” trilogy.  Our 8th graders just went to DC and had a few days of sightseeing and fun.  It is an annual trip for them, and is particularly great, because it helps bring the Civics curriculum they’ve studied all year to life.  It’s certainly also a wonderful bonding experience for them, and a great way to finish off their Middle School experience here as they prepare to welcome their new classmates in 9th grade (when the majority of our students enter).

During the three day trip, among other things, they visited Arlington National Cemetery, got a tour of The Capitol, got a peek at the White House, saw several museums including the Holocaust Museum, saw several of the monuments, and in general, sounded like they were on the move from sun-up to sun-down (wise planning by our Middle School Director!).

This has been a great group of young people to watch these two years, and I know they will set a great tone for the 35-40 new 9th graders who will join them next fall!

There is a great deal about Solebury School that makes me proud.  Towards the top of the list, is the values our students and the school in general espouse.  A wonderful example of this can be found in our Teach2Serve program.  We were the pilot school for this program, and we remain the ONLY boarding school in the country that offers this program. While most schools today have a community service requirement, this is truly a unique experience we offer.  This is the second year we have offered the program. Students can apply for the program prior to their 10th or 11th grade year.  It is a two year program designed to give the students the skills they need to do serious social entrepreneurship work – not simply to do community service work, but to create and RUN community service organizations!

During the 2 years, students take a couple of trimester long classes, they need to do a summer internship (that the non-profit organization Teach2Serve which created the program gives them a stipend for), and they need to do a capstone project.  Along the way, there are a variety of speakers and trips they get to experience.  The third cohort of students is about to be selected this week, and the first cohort is just finishing up their 2 years having completed their capstone project.  They did some amazing stuff.  You can see descriptions of their projects here: http://www.solebury.org/academics/academics/academics/student_teach2serve_capstone_projects/index.aspx

During this year, the students and their advisor created a tutoring program which any Solebury student could participate in.  Once a week, a group of our students travel to Village Charter School in Trenton, NJ to work with elementary school students.  This past Saturday, they had an event here at Solebury for their “tutees”.  I brought my children to enjoy this terrific afternoon of games, pizza, good fun, and did I mention pizza?  You can see a couple of pictures of the afternoon below.

It was really incredible to watch my students with the kids from Village Charter – they were so enthusiastic and mature in running the activities!  I was equally awed by the absolute love the students from Village Charter clearly felt for their tutors.  They just adored them, and as much as anything, that spoke volumes about the impact the work they have done has had!

My own children smiled the whole time, and while I know they were largely smiling because they were having fun, my hope is that somewhere in their young minds was a spark of inspiration as they saw these high school students donating their time and energy to others on a beautiful Saturday afternoon.  As I think I’ve said before, I think I’m giving my children an incredible experience by having them grow up on the campus of a boarding school – they get to know teenagers, to watch them do amazing things, and to see lots of talents on display.  On Saturday, more than ever, I felt like my students were helping me raise my children into the people I want them to be someday.

It was a very busy couple of weeks for our sports teams here at Solebury. Lots of our teams had big games.  I’ll hit some of the highlights here.

The Boys’ Baseball team had a big game against Doane Academy as they head towards the playoffs next week.  They won 8-2. Chris Ciccodicola lead the way by pitching seven strong innings.  He struck out nine (WOW!), only gave up two runs and got the complete game victory. The offense was led by Dean Linkroum, who almost hit for the cycle (this is a really rare occurrence in baseball); he was 3 for 4 with 3 RBI.  Alex Rhoads, who will be playing baseball while he attends Dickinson College next year, also had two hits, and Liam Brooks had a key double and scored two runs.  The win locked up the number three seed in the league playoffs this week – good luck Spartans!

The Girls softball team had a tough playoff loss at Girard College on Thursday ending their quest for the league championship.  However, they bounced back with a terrific victory Friday afternoon at home.  It was senior day and the team came to play beating local rival George School in an exciting 19-14 game.  Clover Stieve led the way offensively with three extra base hits (all of which hit the fence just missing being home runs), but there were lots of big hits and nice defensive plays including two great catches by senior Tyler Lloyd in center field and a fantastic diving catch to end the game by shortstop Bria Wilkins.

Recently, the Girls’ Lacrosse team had a night game against the local public school, rival New Hope-Solebury High School.  It was a terrific back and forth game with the Lady Spartans winning 15-14!  Alliyah Allen had a terrific game in the goal, and the offense was sparked by captains Zoe Kreinberg and Rebecca Brady who scored 6 goals each.  I immediately brought my son out to the lacrosse field, put him in goal, and tried to score six goals off him – I couldn’t do it.

The tennis team has been struggling a bit, but with some young guys beginning to step forward, the future looks bright. A recent domination of Girard College showed that good things are in store for this team.  Asaf Davidov and Dan Jablonowski have been battlers in singles, holding their own consistently against very tough competition, and the senior doubles team of Greg Fox and Connor Bahnsen has had a solid season.

The biggest news for Solebury athletics recently came from the track!  Our track and field team competed in the league championships this Thursday.  It was an incredibly exciting meet – everywhere you turned there was something exciting – people jumping, people sprinting, people throwing sharp or heavy objects, it was very cool!  In the end, BOTH the boys and the girls teams came out as CHAMPIONS!!!  This marked the 5th consecutive title for the girls and the end of a championship drought for the boys.  They did an incredible job!  Several school records were set, including those by Hadiyyah Graves and Gerald Truehart in the 200 meter dash, and the boys 4×200 relay team.  Let me just say there’s almost no sporting event I like watching more than a good relay race in a track meet – it’s awesome!   While the sprinters set the records, the meet was largely won by the distance runners who simply dominated the competition.  Nick Carugati, Sam Arnold, and Ilona Wilde just were too much for the other teams and led a host of Solebury distance runners in a points grab that helped push us to victory.  Sam and Nick are running between 5 and 6 minute miles – just watching them makes my stomach start to cramp and makes me feel as if I might lose my lunch.  Congratulations to the entire track team and its coaches on a great victory!  I’ve got a few photos of the track meet below, including a great shot of Mark Granville in flight on a high jump.

This weekend was the Spring Drama Production.  It was “An Evening with Shakespeare” which is a parody including three shows.  It was hysterical.  The actors, Director Shawn Wright, and the tech crew all did a fantastic job!  My wife and I had the pleasure of watching the play with a family who was visiting which was really nice.  The attached video is from the first of the three plays – it is the story of a collection of Shakespeare’s characters are in hell and are trying to figure out where they went wrong in life.  I didn’t shoot video of the last two plays I’m afraid – I’m especially sad I missed Wes’ performance in the 2nd play where he was part of a group of teenagers trying to rehearse a Shakespeare play – he was understated and played it perfectly, and Beatrice’s in the third, where she played a crazed Ophelia if I recall.  She was really out of this world.  If I had recorded it, you wouldn’t have been able to hear any of the dialogue over my laughter.

The second video is part of a public performance by two of our 9th graders.   For their English class, they did a project on Macbeth where they had a few choices.  One of them was to write a rap song outlining the story of Macbeth.  They had shared this with their class, and their teacher thought the class did such a good job that she had them share it with the school in one of our all school assemblies.  You can see what a terrific job they did!

I’m not a coffee drinker.  In truth, most people who know me are afraid of the idea of me on caffeine.  However, I can’t imagine anyone really needs the coffee at coffee house to make their blood run a little faster.  It’s always an incredible night.  The spring is always even a touch more special, as it has the added feature of sentimentality.  For the seniors, it’s a big item on the list of “lasts” at Solebury, and it is a reminder to all of us that their time here is coming to a close.  The seniors turned out in force and gave some great performances.  While the school will miss them and all they do for us, you can certainly see the amount of talent that will still be here.  Still, I know I was not alone in feeling a bit nostalgic as I watched this wonderful group of seniors – seeing how much they’ve matured since they’ve been here, seeing how solid and whole and confident they are.  Thank you to them, to all the rest of the performers, and to the crowd for making it a fantastic night!

Check out the video below to see clips of all the performances!

Last night was the Solebury School prom.  Our prom is a little unique in that it isn’t a senior prom – it’s an event for the entire upper school. The students are always incredibly excited about it obviously.  Some go in couples, some go just with groups of friends.  There’s a lot less of the hoopla that surrounds some proms – limos, etc. (which I LOVE), but it seems like they have a lot of fun.  And I have to admit, they look fantastic all dressed up.  I’ve attached some pictures; most are at the actual prom, but one is of a bunch of the boarding students outside as they got ready to go (my kids in particular love to go around and see all the students dressed up – especially the “princesses” as they call them – hey they’re 7 and 5).  One photo is of the faculty who gave up a Friday night to chaperone this shindig.   Thanks to them and to all the students for making sure this was what it was supposed to be – a fun, special night – and making the good choices I expect our students to make thus avoiding the drama that too often surrounds proms in this country!

The English department started a new tradition this week – Magnetic Poetry week.  On the doors of many of the classrooms are an assortment of magnetic poetry tiles.  Students and teachers can use them to make a poem.  They take a picture of it, send it to the English faculty, and leave it for everyone to enjoy.  Each night the tiles are mixed up again.  The best poems in a variety of categories – structured poem, funny poem, philosophic poem, etc – at the end of the week will win prizes.  It’s been a lot of fun and people have been enthusiastic about it.  Here are a couple of examples of poems I saw today.  Obviously, creativity runs in all shapes and sizes.  To my colleagues in the English department – wonderful idea!  To all you poets out there, I envy your dexterity with words!

 

This week is MOVE week here.  It’s the brainchild of our Community Council Presidents and our Director of Activities, NIcole Mount.  The idea is to have activities each day during time where students may have some time and to organize activities to bring students and faculty together, have some fun, and get some extra exercise.  There’s been everything from yoga, to 4-square (photo below), to ultimate frisbee, to zumba.  I partook of the zumba workshop this morning.  I had never done zumba, but it was being run by one of my advisees and I wanted to support her (she’s an avid zumba fan). I didn’t know there were avid zumba fans, but she is one.  You can see her in the far right of the below photo (I’m the awkward looking guy on the far left).  She actually has zumba gear – I was impressed. For those of you who don’t know, zumba is basically one of those dance/exercise classes.  While I can’t say I was good at it, in fact, by all measures, I was painfully mediocre at best, I had a blast.  It was a ton of fun, and I was so impressed with my advisee who ran the class really well! 

This year, we have begun a partnership with St. Christophe school from Toulousse, France.  Over spring break we had about a dozen students and a couple of faculty members travel there, visit the school, live with families, and experience French culture.  Today marked the second stage of this relationship.  We welcomed 15 students and 2 teachers from St. Christophe to Solebury School.  They will stay with our families, enjoy a couple of days on campus, as well as have trips to Philadelphia, Washington D.C., and several local attractions.  I had the pleasure of meeting them this morning at a welcoming gathering we had for them, and of helping them see New Hope this afternoon. The above picture is of all our friends from France as well as Solebury faculty member Christine LeGall in New Hope today. The students couldn’t have been more enthusiastic or fun to be with and the teachers who accompanied them are wonderful.  I’m especially excited since in two weeks I will see them all again as Steve Benoit (the foreign language chair who next year will take over as the Director of Studies) and I will be traveling to Toulousse as St. Christophe hosts their annual celebration of their global connections.  I’m so excited to see the school and meet new friends from all over the world!  Our partnership with St. Christophe is one of several new international opportunities we are offering our students.  This summer, we will send some students on a service trip to Guatemala with the organization “Where there be Dragons” (could there be a cooler name?), and next year should mark the first year of a new exchange partnership with a school in Japan.  How I wish I had opportunities like this as a teenager!  I guess ill just have to find a way to chaperone!

What a weekend it was! Friday night, we had an unbelievable concert here!  Cathy Block, who directs two of our music groups told me it was going to be great.  Actually, she had pumped this thing up so much it seemed to have nowhere to go but down; however, after seeing it, I actually thought she undersold it.  It was truly tremendous.  Our Jazz Roots group gave us a tremendous set of music, including a rousing number with the Swing Dance class.  They gave the stage up to the House Jacks – a fantastic a cappella group (but not before the two groups shared the stage for a song.  I’m an a capella fan.  Truth be told, if there is one skill I wish I really had (beyond the superpower variety obviously), it would be to be able to really sing well.  I can’t express how happy this would make me.  Well these guys could SING!  Each of them could go high, low, do melody, do harmony, do percussion, imitate a horn, do bass, etc.  Just crazy amounts of talent.  There’s a bunch of video of it below.  Two notes about the video – one, my flip camera’s battery ran out in the middle, so the 2nd House Jacks video is done on my phone and the quality isn’t quite as good.  2nd, my phone’s battery ran out eventually as well so I missed some stuff unfortunately including a bunch of our students pretending they were animals – Nikki, Carder, etc. – you were hysterical, and I missed their finale, “Summertime” which was so beautiful and which included the tall guy with the glasses do this vocal trumpet part that was honestly one of the most incredible things I’ve ever heard a human do with their voice. Let me just say we have had several concerts by touring performers here this year, and it is truly amazing what we’ve had.  Thank you to the Arts faculty and to Nicole Mount, our Director of Activities, for making all this happen!

There were a bunch of other fun activities this weekend – there was a paintball trip, there was a 10th grade trip to the Philadelphia Zoo, there was a trip to Princeton, and there was the first annual Solebury School Home Run Derby.  About 30 students and five teachers met on the softball field to test our skills.  It was a lot of fun (although it is harder than we all thought it would be).  It came down to two juniors – Matt and Liam – in the finals.  They both hit fantastically throughout the competition, but in the end, Matt prevailed.   Great job to everyone, but particularly to these 2 who were head and shoulders above the rest of us!

Sunday was supposed to be a really special afternoon as we were going to take a bunch of students to the Trenton Thunder game (the Thunder are the Yankees AA affiliate).  The chorus was going to sing Take Me Out to the Ballgame during the 7th inning stretch, and then our own Solebury Spartans were going to take the field after the Thunder game to play Doane Academy.  The chorus was going to sing the National anthem for Solebury’s game.  Unfortunately, Mother nature had other plans in mind, and while we desperately need the rain here, it ruined what should have been a great day as the games were rained out.  I believe they’re postponed until next weekend, so we’ll still get to enjoy this hopefully.

Finally, in an earlier post I mentioned my excitement from last weekend’s race as I and some other Solebury folk all won our age groups.  As I suspected would be the case, the moment of glory has come and gone for me.  I ran another 5K this weekend and in fact finished way, way further back in the pack, didn’t come close to winning my age group, got beat by the Solebury student I beat last weekend, got beat by several local kids who work for me at the Day Camp here, and got beat by a set of 11 year old twins who will be hearing from our cross country coach soon.  Ahh reality, thou art a cruel, cruel creature.