Author's note: Daisy's pronouns are she/they and have been used interchangeably throughout this article. Learn more.

Staring at her phone, Daisy Innis ’23 almost couldn’t believe what she was seeing.

It was a June morning, and Daisy was busy at her summer job as a camp counselor. Just moments before, while preparing to wrangle a group of children and their gear onto a bus for that day’s field trip, Daisy had seen a notification from The New York Times Learning Network in their inbox. The winners of the 2023 Student Editorial Contest, to which Daisy had entered an original essay (shared at the end of this story), had been announced.

This year, students from around the world submitted 12,592 essays to the New York Times Learning Network’s annual competition, and only 151 were chosen for recognition.

Part of Daisy’s mind remained on their inbox as she got campers seated and ready for the drive. When that task was accomplished, Daisy settled into a seat, clicked the announcement, and began scrolling. Suddenly, their heart gave a leap of recognition: her own name was among the contest’s 33 honorable mentions. She almost couldn’t believe it. “I was a little bit in shock,” she remembered.

That emotion was understandable. This year, students from around the world submitted 12,592 essays to the New York Times Learning Network’s annual competition, and only 151 were chosen for recognition: 11 top winners, 12 runners-up, 33 honorable mentions, and 95 round-four finalists. Daisy was also the only student from Utah to be recognized in this year’s contest.

For Daisy, the recognition was huge, not only because so few entries could be honored, but because the moment marked an important milestone in a months-long process of reflection and healing.

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Daisy’s journey to New York Times recognition kicked off in a somewhat unexpected way: with a trip to Utah’s Capitol Hill.

On January 24, 2023, Daisy attended a House Health and Human Services Standing Committee meeting for House Bill 132 (later Senate Bill 16) during the Utah State Legislature’s 2023 General Session. As an experienced peer educator for Planned Parenthood Association of Utah, a lobbyist during this year’s session, and a devoted community advocate, Daisy had a clear understanding of the impact that this bill, designed to prevent all gender-affirming care for minors, would have on young Utahns.

“This sort of legislature affects so many people in the state of Utah, in a way that is overall life-changing,” she explained.

As she sat in the meeting, Daisy watched, frustrated, as the bill’s sponsor introduced witnesses who argued against gender-affirming care but were unable to provide evidence of their claims. This was a high-stakes legislative session, Daisy thought, and would affect people’s lives. How could it be that students like her were held to far higher standards in the classroom than legislative witnesses were in committee meetings? “I have been taught that you need to have sources, evidence—you need to back it up, you need to list your sources,” said Daisy.

This lack of sources made the passage of the bill three days later especially upsetting for Daisy. “I was so angry,” they remembered, and that anger, as well as the fear Daisy felt for those affected by the bill, stayed with them. Come spring, said Daisy, they still found themself reflecting on the experience. The anger hadn’t dimmed.

It was at this time that Daisy’s AP Literature teacher, Dr. Carolyn Hickman, introduced a unit titled What Makes Us Human?, an opportunity for students to read works such as Ted Chiang’s Exhalation, Jean-Paul Sartre’s “Existentialism Is a Humanism,” and Megan Garber’s “We’re Already Living in the Metaverse” while collectively trying to process broader hot-topic conversations around generative AI and ChatGPT, which had been picking up in earnest since OpenAI launched their chatbot in November 2022. Dr. Hickman asked students to reflect on these in-class conversations, then find ways to share their own commentary with real-world audiences. As she reflected, Daisy kept thinking back to the misinformation leading states, including Utah, to pass bills limiting or blocking transgender youth health care—and realized she wasn't as worried about AI and ChatGPT as others. What she was actually afraid of were politicians who share propaganda and misinformation that impact human lives.

“What I was afraid of was the legislation being passed. To me, it feels more tangible,” Daisy explained. “At least if you use ChatGPT you can ask it to give you sources.”

Daisy decided to tackle this topic, choosing for their real-world audience The New York Times Learning Network, which had recently opened its 2023 Student Editorial Contest, an annual opportunity for middle and high school students between the ages of 13 and 19 to share original opinion pieces on the issues that matter to them. Student writers are asked to use at least one source published in the Times and at least one source from outside the Times, and to limit arguments to 450 words, with winners chosen from those who “not only ground their claims in strong evidence, but also engage [the judges] with voice and style.”

Once she had picked her topic, Daisy remembers sitting down in English class, putting on her headphones, and letting the words flow onto the page. It was as though all she had been ruminating on had been ready to come out, and she remembers the writing process as cathartic and healing. “It was an honest expression of what I’d been reflecting on for months, and probably a good exercise in writing for me,” Daisy remembered. The process also helped Daisy feel renewed passion for the often exhausting work of community advocacy, as well as helped her better understand, learn from, and harness the anger she’d been feeling.

Daisy's opinion piece asked readers to focus not on how the writing is produced, but instead on all the ways we fail to hold others accountable for the information they disseminate.—Dr. Carolyn Hickman, AP English teacher and Upper School English Department chair

“This was a reminder of the passion piece of advocacy—I was so angry, and being able to channel that anger into this piece helped me to think through it and reflect on it, and also to sort of share that anger, because it can be hard to be angry by yourself,” said Daisy.

Importantly, sharing that anger also helped Daisy realize she wasn’t alone. The New York Times recognition showed her that her perspective had struck a chord, providing a necessary perspective in ongoing conversations about not only AI but human-generated misinformation.

“Daisy's opinion piece asked readers to focus not on how the writing is produced, but instead on all the ways we fail to hold others accountable for the information they disseminate,” said Dr. Hickman. “It doesn't matter if it's generated by AI or simply fabricated out of thin air, she challenged, if we don't insist on careful sourcing of facts, data, and opinions as others wield information in ways that affect us all.”

Daisy said their New York Times recognition has given them more confidence in their writing—and that being recognized by a national paper of record isn’t too shabby, either. “It’s pretty cool to be picked out of 12,000 entries, and it’s also really cool that my name is in the New York Times, especially as an avid New York Times reader and crossword-doer,” she said.

Daisy is currently attending the University of Puget Sound, where she’s planning to pursue a degree in the school’s Science, Technology, Health & Society program, with a minor in bioethics, and is contemplating later earning a master of public health. As a Matelich Scholar, Daisy is also working to build community on the Puget Sound campus and said they’ll continue to draw on this experience to stay passionate about this important work.

“I intend to continue working in the same vein that I have been doing,” said Daisy, “and it’s really important to me to remember my values, and my anger, because that is really going to fuel me, that passion and anger and desire, but also the joy that I feel doing work in the community. Finding that balance, but also remembering the fact that I feel emotions about it, whether good or bad, is the best motivator.”

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We invite the Rowland Hall community to enjoy Daisy’s essay, shared below.

When It Comes to Secondary Education, Are We Fearing the Right Things?

By Daisy Innis, Class of 2023

In the wake of ChatGPT’s release, I cannot quite find it in myself to care as much as my parents and teachers. My mother says I’m a fatalist, and my teachers want to know why. But my question is: is generative AI and ChatGPT the right thing to fear?

Much like Mr. Aumann, a professor interviewed for the New York Times’ reflection on ChatGPT and education, my teachers are considering methods to discourage use of this technology. They’ve considered hand-written assessments and detection programs. They have, like many, spent a significant amount of time trying to outwit AI. For them, the possibility of AI-generated student writing is one of their biggest educational concerns.

But it isn’t mine. It is difficult for me to be concerned about the possibility of academic dishonesty in classrooms when I see much more pressing issues within the (mis)use of information. As a student in Utah, I have watched state legislators—in my state and others—be held to a lower academic standard and pass legislation with disastrous consequences.

As a high school student, had I submitted a paper without sources, or even used an AI tool, I would have been failed, and further disciplined in the case of the latter. That disciplinary action would likely follow me for the rest of my education.

During this year’s legislative session, S.B. 16, a bill preventing all gender-affirming care for minors, became law. I attended the committee meeting of a prior iteration of the bill, H.B. 132. I watched Representative Shipp introduce witnesses who spoke without regard for the desires of trans kids and without clear evidence for their claims. Most memorably, when asked for his sources, Dr. David Boettger replied that he didn’t remember, and that he didn’t have them with him.

As a high school student, had I submitted a paper without sources, or even used an AI tool, I would have been failed, and further disciplined in the case of the latter. That disciplinary action would likely follow me for the rest of my education. Dr. Boettger’s testimony was accepted without consideration of his sources, and used to later pass S.B. 16. His choices won’t follow him. This bill, backed by unnamed sources, endangers the lives of trans kids across the entire state of Utah—a state which already boasts a consistently higher suicide rate among the LGBTQ+ community than the national rate. This bill, which has been held to a lower standard of research than a high school English paper, deprives people I love of care crucial to their livelihood and survival.

So no, I am not terrified about the use of generative AI in classrooms. I am no more afraid of plagiarism than before. I am terrified of the world we live in, where I have been held to a higher standard of academic honesty than my legislators. I am terrified for those who are going to die because of the choices they have made.

Works Cited

Huang, Kalley. “Alarmed by A.I. Chatbots, Universities Start Revamping How They Teach.” New York Times. January 16, 2023. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/16/technology/chatgpt-artificial-intelligence-universities.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare.

“LDS Church and Suicide Prevention.” PFLAG. https://pflag.org/resource/lds-church-and-suicide-prevention/.

“Minutes of the House Health and Human Services Committee.” Utah Legislature. January 24, 2023. https://le.utah.gov/interim/2023/html/00000887.htm.

Schott, Brian. “Blocking Gender-Affirming Care in Utah Could Be Found Unconstitutional, a Legal Review Found.” Salt Lake Tribune. January 26, 2023. https://www.sltrib.com/news/politics/2023/01/26/breaking-bill-blocking-gender/.

Wen, Anne. “ChatGPT and Plagiarism: Student Cheating Concerns May Be Overblown.” Teen Vogue. February 13, 2023. https://www.teenvogue.com/story/chatgpt-plagiarism-cheating-students.

Student Voices

Each August, Rowland Hall holds Convocation, a traditional gathering that brings our school community together to connect, learn, and celebrate the start of a new school year. This year’s event, held the morning of Friday, August 25, centered around the 2023–2024 theme, and school value, Learn for Life.

Every year, Rowland Hall’s student body president is invited to address the group of students, faculty, staff, trustees, alumni, and families gathered for Convocation. This year, Student Body President Omar Alsolaiman highlighted the values of learning, the importance of seeking and applying knowledge, and how dedication to lifelong learning can inspire students to become people the world needs.

Omar’s speech, lightly edited for style and context, appears below.

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Good morning, everyone. My name is Omar Alsolaiman, and I’m your student body president.

Before I start, let’s have the seniors stand up just to be recognized for being in their last year.

Let me first congratulate you all on being here in general—whether you’re in your first years, like our first graders, or you’re about to graduate, like our seniors, or graduated about a century ago like Dr. Dan Jones, you have taken your first steps this year towards lifelong friendships, thinking deeply, and, most of all, learning. Wherever you are on your journey, let’s all take a moment to reflect and appreciate it—to appreciate what we have done and where we will be in the future.

But perhaps more backbreaking than all of our learning put together was of course the middle and upper schoolers’ walk up the hill—give yourselves a round of applause.

I know, it’s just awful. Impossible, really.

Now, I know many of you, despite the fact that you just applauded for yourselves, don’t want to be here on this hot morning, picking grass and listening to people, but as an old lady told me about a week ago on the train when I apologized for being in her way, “We all have to be somewhere,” and you know what, I think your place just so happens to be here today.

Now, when Mr. Hoglund first emailed me in the middle of my summer to tell me what this year’s theme was, Learning for Life, I decided to ignore the email until the end of the summer. But in all seriousness, I basically had no idea how I, a 17-year-old high schooler, could impart the wisdom of a lifetime. I mean, they told me lifetime learning and what am I supposed to do? But as I thought about it, and my internship professor reminded me what his thesis advisor had told him before he graduated, that learning is never ending, even after a single degree or accomplishment. And I realized that the Rowland Hall theme Learning for Life was not about dropping off a big bio textbook in your office cubicle in 20 years to make sure that you still know that the mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell, but instead to prepare you by developing the skills to naturally and easily continue learning, problem solving, and critically thinking for life.

Rowland Hall has taught me to value that journey that leads to what I learn—this effort is what really teaches us and carries on after we are done with a project.—Omar Alsolaiman, class of 2024

So I sat down and thought about what the values of learning are, and I came up with a couple, and that was in the only way I knew how—Arabic.

Now, I do feel kind of bad for KP, who spent the last year teaching me about English rhetoric only for me to come up in front of the entire school to talk about Arabic rhetoric and grammar, but I swear, KP, I did actually pay attention in class last year and I didn’t do too bad on the AP.

But let me give you a quick crash course for Arabic. Now, like some words in English, the building blocks in Arabic are three-letter roots. I will make this short and simple, but for example, F A L, which means to do. And from this, you can conjugate basically any derivative of the original meaning. Yes, lower schoolers, there is actually a purpose of conjugating in Spanish and you do sometimes do it in English as well.

Now, for our case, let's focus on a different word. F A L means to do, but that’s not perfectly relevant right now, so let’s focus on I L M. I L M, try to say that with me: I L M. It’s all in the throat. That wasn’t actually too bad. I was expecting to give you guys a bit more. But, Rowland Hall, you should make sure that Arabic is at some point a course option. Until then, if you need Arabic tutoring, just text me.

Anyway, I L M means to learn, to teach, or just knowledge in general. Now, that’s all well and good, but what’s cool and very appealing to my strict rule-based engineering brain is that if you rearrange those letters in any format, any root you come up with is actually directly related to the original meaning of the word, or sometimes even the direct opposite. So this means that if we take some of these combinations, for example, we switch the lam and the meem, we get I M L, which means to work or to do something deliberately. This tells us that learning for life, and just learning in general, is not just a one-stop shop. In fact, it’s something that requires some intentional effort. Throughout the years, Rowland Hall has taught me to value that journey that leads to what I learn—this effort is what really teaches us and carries on after we are done with a project. For example, last year, as the juniors this year will do, my class worked on the vintage ad project—I know, it's a name that sends shivers down any high schooler’s spine. But despite the torturous time frame we’re given, the scope of the assignment, and the literal countless number of days that I spent with less than a couple hours of sleep, the teachers make a point to let us do the bulk of our research, making sure that our papers aren't spoon-fed evidence and instead have our own lines that we gather from pages of unnecessarily long research papers about Japanese airline statistics in 1964.

Now, that’s one part of I M L’s, or to work, relation to I L M, to learn, but I'd also argue that the work doesn't end with the acquisition of knowledge. Even more literally, another meaning of I M L is to exercise an influence; so instead, after we learn, we have to work to use our knowledge and benefit the world with it. Mr. Wilson has always made a point, and repeatedly taught me and my friends that, when teaching us about global climate patterns and climate change, it's not just classroom knowledge—it’s immediately applicable to the world and must be applied. There's an old Arab parable that compares one who pointlessly absorbs knowledge, or doesn’t absorb it all, to a donkey carrying books on its back. Even if it has every book in the world, it can't really do anything with it and it can’t properly learn and implement the books. That's our job as lifelong learners. Always seek out knowledge, whether that’s learning why your friend has an unhealthy obsession with Crocs or learning about the solutions to making Salt Lake more walkable. And then, once you have the knowledge, use it and invest in it.

The more we continue to learn, the more we shine and become examples for our communities, our families, and even our friends, the more we can actually make an impact.—Omar Alsolaiman

Now, the second rearrangement of I L M that can benefit us is L M I, which means to beam or shine with color. What this tells us is the result of our learning for life. The more we learn intentionally, and the more we implement it in the communities around us, as cheesy as it sounds, makes one stand out, makes us the people that the world needs, as Mr. Hoglund mentioned, and a shining light of hope for our communities and even the world. While I've been at Rowland Hall, it has continued to highlight our students and beckon them to become people the world needs—well, that begins with a dedication to lifelong learning. Even if you came out of high school the person the world needed, especially in the age of information, within five years, you could be as good as obsolete, or even cringe. As such, the more we continue to learn, the more we shine and become examples for our communities, our families, and even our friends, the more we can actually make an impact. Make yourself a toolbox of the bits of wisdom you learn in school and life, and the little bits of knowledge that Rowland Hall, its teachers, its values, and its people have given you. That toolbox will act as a lifelong guide and make you hopefully choose to continue learning as the opportunities arrive.

So when you go home today, or actually, back to school (sorry about that), I want you to remember these qualities and prerequisites of knowledge—knowledge does allow us to make an impact and gleam, but we also must work to gain it and use it.

Thank you.

Student Voices

Welcome, Winged Lions!

Rowland Hall is thrilled to welcome students and families to our campuses for the 2023–2024 school year.

The year kicked off on Wednesday, August 23, with smiles, hugs, and excitement. As students and families poured onto campus, they were greeted by an enthusiastic team of faculty and staff, said hello to old friends (and met new ones), and, for many of our youngest learners, gave a hug or a high-five to Roary, our trusty school mascot. And as the week went on, students had even more opportunities to connect, settle in, and prepare for an exceptional year of learning, including by gathering for Convocation and our annual Back to School Bash. Alumni even got in on the fun at the All-Class Reunion.

We invite you to enjoy some of the images captured during the first days of school.

Community

Rowland Hall is excited to introduce two new assistant principals joining the school in the 2023–2024 school year: Josy Alcindor, Beginning School and Lower School assistant principal, and Stacia McFadden, Upper School assistant principal.

Both bring to Rowland Hall a wealth of knowledge as educators and administrators, and we are thrilled to welcome them to our community.

Learn a bit more about Josy and Stacia below.

Meet Josy Alcindor, Beginning School and Lower School Assistant Principal

Since childhood, Josy Alcindor knew she wanted to work in education. She can even recall one of the first times she stepped into the role of teacher: at 10 years old, Josy borrowed her parents’ English learning workbooks to help an older family friend learn the language, a job she took very seriously. The child of Haitian immigrants, Josy was inspired by her parents’ tenacity and dedication to their own learning, and she wanted to help her friend succeed in a new country. It was an experience that helped to spark a love of teaching that she’s carried through her life. Paired with what Josy calls her “mama bear” approach to supporting and advocating for learners from preschool to the brink of adulthood, it’s clear she’s found her sense of purpose in education spaces.

“I’ve always been in the business of children, for their well-being across the board; emotionally, mentally, academically,” said Josy. “My life’s work is for the betterment of children. It’s my motivator.”

FUN FACT: Josy refers to herself as a closet poet (“I love the spoken word,” she said) and enjoys sharing her passion for poetry with others—especially students. At Wildwood School, she even created a fifth-grade activist poetry unit that allowed students to explore causes they care about. Josy said bringing out the poet in a child can help build their confidence and self-understanding.

And Josy has dedicated her career to this work, earning a bachelor’s degree in women and gender studies from Hunter College and a master of science education from the Bank Street College of Education. She’s spent years in the classroom, teaching students in preschool through fifth grade on both coasts: Josy worked at the Dalton School and the Hewitt School, both in New York City, and Wildwood School in Los Angeles, where she was most recently a fifth-grade teacher and diversity division coordinator. She’s also been a dedicated mentor for teens and young adults as a former board chair of Urban Neighborhood Services, and a board member at the YA-YA (Youth Activists-Youth Allies) Network. In all her roles, Josy has built classroom experience and deep administrative knowledge, and has worked to strengthen communities, including by training other teachers and facilitating conversations around DEIBJ or social-emotional learning. She understands that relationships are at the heart of education, a perspective that played a role in her decision to come to Rowland Hall.

“The sheer joy that I experienced when I walked in here—that solidified it for me,” said Josy of her first visit to the McCarthey Campus. She remembers seeing children happily engaged in learning and hearing faculty speak highly of the school, and knew that Rowland Hall was a place that also valued relationships, and where she could help children, as well as families and teachers, thrive. She was further moved by Rowland Hall’s strategic vision and is excited to be part of its continued rollout.

“I love this philosophy. It aligns with my core values: setting children for success, preparing them for tomorrow, for a changing world,” said Josy. “I look forward to being part of the forward-moving thinking and building off the amazing things that have happened.”

Meet Stacia McFadden, Upper School Assistant Principal

It doesn’t take long when chatting with Stacia McFadden to learn just how much she enjoys collaborating with people, as well as bringing others together.

“I’m such a connector,” she said.

Though Stacia’s professional life is filled with opportunities for connection-making in educational spaces, she didn’t start her career in education. Stacia majored in computer science as an undergraduate, earning a full-ride scholarship to Michigan State University to continue her studies. But a month into the graduate program, she realized that the path she was on didn’t feel quite right—she didn’t want a career that comes with a cubicle, a screen, and, often, isolation. She wanted to work closely with others. Heeding this self-understanding, Stacia changed course, moving to New York City to join IBM as a business analyst programmer. It wasn’t her dream job, but it played a pivotal role in her professional journey.

“While I didn’t find true fulfillment in this role,” Stacia explained, “I discovered joy via outreach through one of IBM's diversity networks, Black Network of New York, and my sorority.” Through these opportunities, Stacia mentored college students studying STEM disciplines, taught community technology workshops, and led a mentoring program for middle schoolers, all of which helped her understand that education is within her—and that she could apply her love of computer science to the field, helping students and teachers use technology to strengthen their work. “I got passionate about the integration of technology to enhance, empower, and inspire thinking and learning,” she said.

FUN FACT: Stacia plays tennis and has been to three United States Tennis Association (USTA) state championships and one USTA sectionals championship. She’s also shared her athletic talent in her career—tennis coach is just one of the many hats Stacia has worn as an educator.

Stacia pivoted again, earning a master’s degree in computing in education from Columbia University’s Teachers College, and teaching math, web design, and computer applications at a public charter school in Washington, DC. She then moved to independent schools, and over the years has held both teaching and administrative roles, many of which center around academic technology (she was most recently chief information officer at the Lovett School in Atlanta). Stacia has also accepted chances to build connections among national colleagues: she’s a faculty member for the National Association of Independent Schools’ School Leadership Institute, and facilitated programming at the 2023 Leadership + Design conference at Rowland Hall, an event which led to her accepting the assistant principal job.

No matter her role, Stacia has kept connections at the center of her work, prioritizing community building and empowering others, and has always found the most joy in student support. While interviewing on the Upper School campus, she said she was impressed by Rowland Hall’s bright, passionate students and their enthusiasm for their studies and interests. “You could tell they really care about the community and had ideas of what they wanted to see the next assistant principal do,” she said. She also loved observing how students and teachers were doing powerful work to bring to life Rowland Hall’s vision of what’s possible in education.

“The vision statement spoke to me: developing people the world needs,” said Stacia. “How simple is that, and how powerful is that?”

Stacia is looking forward to being part of this important work, knowing her experiences as an educator (and the mother of a 20-year-old college student) have prepared her to support today’s students as they find their voices, discover their passions, learn to get comfortable with an ambiguous and dynamic world, and make real and lasting change.

“I want kids to not only find their voice, but, if they see something they want to change, learn how to do that,” she said.

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Banner photo: Stacia McFadden, third from right, with colleagues at the 2023 Opening Meeting for faculty and staff. Photo courtesy Stacia McFadden.

People

Rowland Hall is thrilled to welcome students and families to the 2023–2024 school year.

As you spend time on our campuses in the following weeks, you’ll get to know the newest additions to our faculty and staff, as well as see some of our returning team members in new, adjusted, or expanded roles. For your reference, we’ve listed these staffing changes below. (Please see Fond Farewells 2023 for a list of those not returning for this school year.)

Be sure to check back, as this list will continue to be updated during the school year.

Administration and Staff

New Administration and Staff

• Josy Alcindor joins Rowland Hall as a Beginning School and Lower School assistant principal. Learn more about our new assistant principals.
• Steve Cross joins Rowland Hall as chief financial and operations officer.
• Aliette Frank ’96 joins Rowland Hall as program coordinator for athletics.
• Traci Grigg joins Rowland Hall as director of stewardship and engagement. 
• Stacia McFadden joins Rowland Hall as the Upper School assistant principal. Learn more about our new assistant principals.
• Alina Meneken joins Rowland Hall as advancement operations manager.

Administration and Staff Role Changes and Expansions

• Alec Baden is now director of transportation and assistant director of operations.
• Jij de Jesus is now director of capital giving and director of strategic initiatives.
• Rebecca Mueller-Jones, formerly the Beginning School administrative assistant, is now admission associate.
• Kathryn Pickford is now executive administrator and Steiner Campus project manager.

Beginning School

New and Returning Beginning School Faculty and Staff

• Josy Alcindor joins Rowland Hall as a Beginning School and Lower School assistant principal.
• Mimi Andrews joins Rowland Hall as a kindergarten assistant teacher.
• Jennifer Claesgens joins Rowland Hall as the early childhood experiential learning specialist.
• Liz Ellison joins Rowland Hall as the five-day 3PreK lead teacher. 
• Katherine McMahon joins Rowland Hall as the Beginning School administrative assistant.
• Kiara Rivera joins Rowland Hall as a Beginning School and Lower School associate teacher.
• Kirsten White returns to Rowland Hall as a 4PreK lead teacher.

Beginning School Role Changes

• Dani Carpenter, formerly a Beginning School lunch/playground monitor and experiential learning afternoon support staff member, is now the five-day 3PreK assistant teacher.
• Lynelle Stoddard, formerly the five-day 3PreK lead teacher, is now the three-day 3PreK lead teacher.

Lower School

New and Returning Lower School Faculty and Staff

• Josy Alcindor joins Rowland Hall as a Beginning School and Lower School assistant principal.
• Hannah Blomgren returns to Rowland Hall as the Lower School science specialist.
• Jennifer Claesgens joins Rowland Hall as the early childhood experiential learning specialist.
• Cass Cossette joins Rowland Hall as the McCarthey Campus administrative coordinator and receptionist.
• Samantha Hemphill joins Rowland Hall as a fifth-grade teacher.
• Alissa Kean joins Rowland Hall as a second-grade teacher.
• Kiara Rivera joins Rowland Hall as a Beginning School and Lower School associate teacher.
• Kaelis Sandstrom joins Rowland Hall as the TREC (technology, robotics, engineering, and coding) teacher.
• Rachel Slivnick joins Rowland Hall as a fifth-grade teacher.

Lower School Role Changes

• Dr. Torry Montes, formerly a fifth-grade teacher, is now a second-grade teacher. 
• Liz Sorensen, formerly a second-grade teacher, is now the Lower School Spanish specialist.

Middle School

New Middle School Faculty and Staff

• Kayden Al-Mosawi joins Rowland Hall as the Middle School social-emotional support counselor. Kayden will be covering Leslie Czerwinski’s role during her maternity leave.
• Alana Boynton joins Rowland Hall as a Middle School Spanish teacher and a seventh-grade advisor.
• Eve Grenlie joins Rowland Hall as the eighth-grade American studies teacher.
• Paul Hochman joins Rowland hall as the middle and upper school media arts teacher.
• Lindsay Mackintosh joins Rowland Hall as the seventh-grade science teacher and an advisor.
• Cassia Peeler joins Rowland Hall as a Middle School French and Spanish teacher.
• Grace Riter ’18 joins Rowland Hall as a middle and upper school dance teacher.
• Kate Siwicki joins Rowland Hall as a sixth-grade English teacher and an advisor.

Upper School

New Upper School Faculty and Staff

• Jesse Chavez joins Rowland Hall as the associate director of college counseling and lead class advisor.
• Paul Hochman joins Rowland hall as the middle and upper school media arts teacher.
• Dr. Lydia Jackson joins Rowland Hall as an Upper School English teacher.
• Stacia McFadden joins Rowland Hall as the Upper School assistant principal.
• Grace Riter ’18 joins Rowland Hall as a middle and upper school dance teacher.

Upper School Role Changes

• Carlos Eyzaguirre ’06, formerly a debate coaching assistant, is now the entrepreneurship teacher.

Rowmark Ski Academy

New Rowmark Staff

• Jimena Carlin joins Rowmark as FIS coach.
• Andy Hare joins Rowmark as the Rowmark Junior program director.
• Alli Rathfon joins Rowmark as a Rowmark Junior program coach.
• Tyler Utendorfer joins Rowmark as a Rowmark Junior program coach.

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Banner photo: New and returning Rowland Hall faculty gather for a workshop in summer 2023.

People

On June 1 and 2, visitors to Rowland Hall’s Eccles Library on the Lincoln Street Campus were treated to an exciting opportunity to step into Utah’s past.

Around the room, 30 prototypes of museum exhibits, designed by eighth graders, showcased fascinating areas of Utah history, including homages to the state’s extreme sports, performance and public art, inventors, and local activist movements, among other topics. There was even an exhibit that recreated the area around Delicate Arch and one designed in the style of a Navajo hogan.

As visitors made their way around the library, poring over the models, students shared how and why they decided on their ideas, as well as fun tidbits—for example, the group behind an exhibit on the history of the Utah governor’s mansion shared that a Christmas tree sparked a fire in the mansion in 1993, while the group behind Pixel Pioneers, an exhibit dedicated to Utah’s long connection to the tech industry, introduced visitors to the Utah teapot, a 3D test model created in 1975 by University of Utah researcher Martin Newell that’s become a standard reference object in the computer graphics community.

This event was the culmination of a month-long learning opportunity designed by Mary Jo Marker, eighth-grade American studies teacher, and Brady Smith, eighth-grade English teacher, that asked students to think about the role museums play in society, and allowed them to connect with historians from the Utah Department of Cultural and Community Engagement (CCE), who are currently designing a new state history museum that’s scheduled to open in 2026. The teaching team wanted to give students a chance to pitch their own ideas for museum exhibits to CCE, believing the opportunity would help them think beyond an audience of their teachers and peers, as well as connect their ideas to the larger community through this real-world opportunity.

We wanted them to understand their ideas have value and to think outside the classroom box for their audience.—Mary Jo Marker, eighth-grade American studies teacher

“We wanted them to understand their ideas have value and to think outside the classroom box for their audience,” explained Mary Jo.

To kick off the project in early May, the eighth graders met with Kat Potter, a former Rowland Hall faculty member and a current parent, who is now deputy director of the CCE. Kat partnered with Mary Jo and Brady during the year to design the project, and during her visit she shared with students the need for the museum and what her team is working on, then invited the group to pitch their own exhibit ideas. “Their challenge was to make an engaging, interactive exhibit,” said Mary Jo.

To help the students prepare to take on that challenge, Mary Jo and Brady held in-class discussions about the role of museums and what makes for engaging exhibits, and had students interview community members, including Rowland Hall fourth graders who have been studying Utah history and residents of the Columbus Senior Center, to get their ideas about what would be interesting in a state history museum. The students also had the chance to analyze current exhibits at the Utah Museum of Contemporary Art and a variety of national museums during their visit to Washington, DC, and to reflect on which exhibits were engaging, which were not, and why. This helped them as they began working on their own exhibit pitches and making decisions about how to engage viewers with the people and events that have shaped the state.

Best of all, the real-world connection to the future museum helped to deepen learning and drive students, who knew they may be contributing ideas that will influence the team of historians. It’s clear the teachers are proud of what the students came up with and how their work may potentially help shape the museum.

School is often fully teacher-facing, but I think having students prepare a big project for the outside world is motivating, and hopefully gives a different perspective.—Brady Smith, eighth-grade English teacher

“We were incredibly happy with how the project went,” said Brady. “We had an excellent turnout from parents, community members, and staff from the Department of Cultural Engagement. The latter gave the kids great feedback and suggested that the projects would impact their thinking about the museum going forward.”

Brady added that he also hoped that this opportunity has helped the eighth graders understand how the past year of studies applies to the bigger world and will inspire them to continue to think of ways they can share their knowledge beyond the classroom.

“School is often fully teacher-facing, but I think having students prepare a big project for the outside world is motivating, and hopefully gives a different perspective,” he said. “I hope they see how everything we’ve done throughout eighth grade has concrete applications to public-facing work.”

Authentic Learning

Rowland Hall is proud to congratulate four student-athletes from the class of 2023 who will be going on to compete at the college level.

Rowland Hall Athletics recently recognized these students at our first Senior Signing Celebration, held on May 30.

• Jada Crockett will run track at California State University, Fresno
• Maile Fukushima will play soccer at Occidental College
• Arden Louchheim will golf for the University of Nebraska–Lincoln
• Ezra Shilling Rabin will run cross country and track at Emory University

“We are so proud of these talented athletes and wish them all the best as they go on to compete for their colleges,” said Kendra Tomsic, director of athletics. “We will be cheering them on.”

Watch the Senior Signing Celebration.

Athletics

Every year, sixth graders at Rowland Hall read The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton as a central part of their English curriculum.

It’s not an easy book. In case you haven’t read it, or it’s been a while, this coming-of-age novel deals with some heavy topics: class warfare, education, friendship, love, and death. It’s a lot to handle, and at times can seem overwhelming. Luckily, the students have had Mary Lawlor there to lead them through.

“It’s a novel where they can’t believe these things keep happening. There’s a lot of tragedy,” Mary said. “There are times when they look at me like, ‘Are we old enough to be reading this?’ and I let them know they’ve got it.”

Mary knows her students can handle the tough stuff because she has the unique gift of really understanding sixth graders. It's not a talent many people have.

Mary knows her students can handle the tough stuff because she has the unique gift of really understanding sixth graders. It’s not a talent many people have, as parents, teachers, and even sixth graders themselves will tell you. After all, sixth grade is a weird stage of life. These kids are in middle school now—and once again the youngest in the building. They have to go to several classrooms a day and deal with multiple teachers. Friend groups may be in flux, and, to top it all off, puberty may be starting to hit. They all feel like outsiders at one point or another. But Mary lets them know she’s there for them, because in many ways, she's one of them—often seen as the oldest sixth grader at Rowland Hall.

“She has the gift of being able to be so vulnerable in front of her students and so open,” said colleague Mary Jo Marker. “That allows students to be vulnerable as well, and to allow themselves to be seen. She has a knack for seeing a child for who they are.”

Sixth graders share Mary Jo’s sentiments. When you ask these students about Mary, they tell you about how she empowers them, allowing them to set individual goals, work through problems, and learn to express themselves. “She’s really supportive,” said sixth grader Sasha L. “She lets you have your ideas and have control of what you are doing.”

Mary also brought this approach to coaching students, whether on the volleyball court or the cross-country field. “She let us pick our own personal goals and it could be anything we wanted as long as we worked towards it,” said sixth grader Adrian J. “When we reached our goals she congratulated us and let us know how well we did.”

And Mary’s interpersonal gifts extended beyond her students to the benefit of the entire Rowland Hall community. Her colleagues describe her as the school’s cheerleader, who is always willing to step in and help, give advice, or just be there with a smile and a hug.

"Mary is a model for what a citizen should be in our community. She’s always willing to do whatever needs to be done,” said Lincoln Street Campus Director of Arts Sofia Gorder. “She doesn’t talk about it, she just does it, and her actions speak louder than words to encourage others to do the same.”

Mary is a model for what a citizen should be in our community. She’s always willing to do whatever needs to be done. She doesn’t talk about it, she just does it, and her actions speak louder than words to encourage others to do the same.—Sofia Gorder, director of arts

Middle School Assistant Principal Charlotte Larsen said it is uncanny how Mary is able to anticipate the needs of others. “She was my mentor during my first year of teaching. One day we had been working hard, and she looked at me and said, ‘You’ve bonked, you need to go home,’ and she was absolutely right,” Charlotte said. “She does that for so many people. She sees them and she understands what they need.”

Mary has been at Rowland Hall for 27 years and is moving on to new adventures. She knows it won’t be easy, though. She said she “grew up at Rowland Hall.” In her time here she hasn’t just been a teacher and coach, but also a parent: her two sons and two stepdaughters are all proud Rowland Hall graduates and all, at one time, got to be her students.

“I always have had Mary as a teacher,” said senior Mikel Lawlor of life with his mom. “But I was really excited when I finally got to be in her classroom because I had seen in the past how people were just magnetized to her.”

That magnetism is evident when you watch Mary with her students. It is not uncommon to see a swarm of them around her as she walks down the hall. They come to her not only to talk about assignments and the books they are reading, but also issues they may be having or the cool new sneakers that just dropped. It isn’t just current students either: you can often find former students hanging out in her room because they remember their time with Mary as sixth graders, and how she truly appreciated them.

“I think sixth graders are the funniest things that have ever walked the earth. They are so eager and silly and gross,” Mary said of the student group she has taught for more than two decades. “This is the year when they straddle childhood and young adulthood and are in the middle of it all. The juxtaposition of that and how they handle their learning and how they manage themselves is so charming and so magical.”

Mary Lawlor saw magic in the kids she taught, and made sure the only outsiders in her classroom were in the pages of a book. Her students will never forget that.

People

On June 1 and 2, visitors to Rowland Hall’s Eccles Library on the Lincoln Street Campus were treated to an exciting opportunity to step into Utah’s past.

Around the room, 30 prototypes of museum exhibits, designed by eighth graders, showcased fascinating areas of Utah history, including homages to the state’s extreme sports, performance and public art, inventors, and local activist movements, among other topics. There was even an exhibit that recreated the area around Delicate Arch and one designed in the style of a Navajo hogan.

As visitors made their way around the library, poring over the models, students shared how and why they decided on their ideas, as well as fun tidbits—for example, the group behind an exhibit on the history of the Utah governor’s mansion shared that a Christmas tree sparked a fire in the mansion in 1993, while the group behind Pixel Pioneers, an exhibit dedicated to Utah’s long connection to the tech industry, introduced visitors to the Utah teapot, a 3D test model created in 1975 by University of Utah researcher Martin Newell that’s become a standard reference object in the computer graphics community.

This event was the culmination of a month-long learning opportunity designed by Mary Jo Marker, eighth-grade American studies teacher, and Brady Smith, eighth-grade English teacher, that asked students to think about the role museums play in society, and allowed them to connect with historians from the Utah Department of Cultural and Community Engagement (CCE), who are currently designing a new state history museum that’s scheduled to open in 2026. The teaching team wanted to give students a chance to pitch their own ideas for museum exhibits to CCE, believing the opportunity would help them think beyond an audience of their teachers and peers, as well as connect their ideas to the larger community through this real-world opportunity.

We wanted them to understand their ideas have value and to think outside the classroom box for their audience.—Mary Jo Marker, eighth-grade American studies teacher

“We wanted them to understand their ideas have value and to think outside the classroom box for their audience,” explained Mary Jo.

To kick off the project in early May, the eighth graders met with Kat Potter, a former Rowland Hall faculty member and a current parent, who is now deputy director of the CCE. Kat partnered with Mary Jo and Brady during the year to design the project, and during her visit she shared with students the need for the museum and what her team is working on, then invited the group to pitch their own exhibit ideas. “Their challenge was to make an engaging, interactive exhibit,” said Mary Jo.

To help the students prepare to take on that challenge, Mary Jo and Brady held in-class discussions about the role of museums and what makes for engaging exhibits, and had students interview community members, including Rowland Hall fourth graders who have been studying Utah history and residents of the Columbus Senior Center, to get their ideas about what would be interesting in a state history museum. The students also had the chance to analyze current exhibits at the Utah Museum of Contemporary Art and a variety of national museums during their visit to Washington, DC, and to reflect on which exhibits were engaging, which were not, and why. This helped them as they began working on their own exhibit pitches and making decisions about how to engage viewers with the people and events that have shaped the state.

Best of all, the real-world connection to the future museum helped to deepen learning and drive students, who knew they may be contributing ideas that will influence the team of historians. It’s clear the teachers are proud of what the students came up with and how their work may potentially help shape the museum.

School is often fully teacher-facing, but I think having students prepare a big project for the outside world is motivating, and hopefully gives a different perspective.—Brady Smith, eighth-grade English teacher

“We were incredibly happy with how the project went,” said Brady. “We had an excellent turnout from parents, community members, and staff from the Department of Cultural Engagement. The latter gave the kids great feedback and suggested that the projects would impact their thinking about the museum going forward.”

Brady added that he also hoped that this opportunity has helped the eighth graders understand how the past year of studies applies to the bigger world and will inspire them to continue to think of ways they can share their knowledge beyond the classroom.

“School is often fully teacher-facing, but I think having students prepare a big project for the outside world is motivating, and hopefully gives a different perspective,” he said. “I hope they see how everything we’ve done throughout eighth grade has concrete applications to public-facing work.”

Authentic Learning

When Rowland Hall debaters gathered to defend their two-time state title at the 2023 3A tournament at Ogden High School in March, they weren’t facing an easy challenge.

First, as title defenders, the team had a target on their backs. They were also up against a formidable 19 schools, all of which are larger than Rowland Hall, as the debate team plays up a classification level (meaning our students compete in 3A, rather than 2A, to access more events, including Policy, the school’s flagship event). However, the team felt confident, not least because of the changes they had put into place in the 2020–2021 season and that continued to guide them over this most recent debate season.

“Three years ago, we expanded our goals and expectations,” explained Mike Shackelford, Rowland Hall’s head debate coach. Mike said that online debate during the pandemic greatly shifted the team’s approach to state. Motivated by the isolation of online competitions and distance learning, they chose to compete as a collective unit, rather than individually, that year. “We had always tried to win individual titles,” said Mike, “but had never set our sights on competing as a 30-person roster across 10 different events.”

And when they did, they claimed the school’s first-ever state debate victory, solidifying the collective-approach strategy, which they’ve continued to hold themselves to, even though it is often more difficult to pull off as it requires a deeper commitment from debaters, who must remain flexible, push the boundaries of their comfort zones, and even take on multiple events to make the Winged Lions competitive. But it works: the strategy paid off again in 2022, and for a third time this spring (complete with a new overall point record).

“We continued to demand the most from each other, working hard and flexing our skills across different topics and formats,” said Mike; these topics included immigration, universal healthcare, artificial intelligence, high-speed rail, the Supreme Court, and global security strategy (not to mention the impromptu topics and legislative proposals from Student Congress simulations). “Now we enjoy knowing that we have the depth, consistency, and talent to always be in a position to win,” said Mike.

Our third state victory solidifies the school as a premier program in the eyes of the larger debate community. Winning state one year is an achievement, but winning it three years in a row is a trend. It builds a narrative that Rowland Hall and debate success are synonymous.—Mike Shackelford, head debate coach

Senior Layla Hijjawi agrees with her beloved coach. As a five-year Rowland Hall debater (who will go on to debate for Harvard in fall 2023), Layla has had a front-row seat to the team’s incredible growth, and it’s clear she has a deep respect of her fellow debaters and the work they put in to hold onto the state title for three consecutive years.

“It’s easy to say, but it’s harder to actually comprehend how much work this team puts in to consistently remain nationally competitive and locally dominant,” said Layla. “These students are completing thesis-level research annually on unbelievably complex contemporary political issues. They’re spending upwards of 20 hours at tournaments on weekends, not to mention the hours of practice that lead up to those competitions. And they’re committing to an activity where they’re repeatedly told they’re wrong … for fun! That’s difficult, and it necessitates maturity and tenacity you wouldn’t generally expect from teenagers.”

And as a result of their hard work, the team has built on the name of Rowland Hall Debate, which is becoming more broadly known. While the school has long been known as a place to be if you want to go far in debate, the team’s third consecutive state victory is making more people in the debate world pay attention.

“Our third state victory solidifies the school as a premier program in the eyes of the larger debate community,” said Mike. “Winning state one year is an achievement, but winning it three years in a row is a trend. It builds a narrative that Rowland Hall and debate success are synonymous.”

This narrative definitely shapes how students view the program. Ninth grader Zion Wirthlin-Ngugi, who impressed in their first year on the team by competing in different events with different partners, and finishing in the top five in Student Congress at state, said they knew the reputation of Rowland Hall Debate before enrolling at the school last year, and that reputation played a major role in their choice to attend Rowland Hall. In their first year, Zion was determined to soak in as much knowledge as possible from their more experienced peers, citing an opportunity to debrief with seniors Anna Hull and Zachary Klein after Zion’s first national tournament at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, among their top memories of the year.

Looking back, Zion is grateful to have played a role in this year’s state victory. “I feel accomplished to have assisted the team by making it to finals,” they said, adding that they are impressed by the skill level of the nation’s top debaters and, as they move through the program, determined to be among those ranks. “It was a shocking experience to truly apprehend the depth and scope of the skilled debater realm, both from national competitors and in Rowland Hall,” said Zion. “I am looking forward to being amongst them in the future.”

For Layla, the Tournament of Champions—or TOC, to debaters—was a top memory of the year. (The team attended TOC in person this year for the first time since 2019. TOC was held online in 2020 and 2021, and the team didn't qualify in 2022.) It was a chance to, as Layla shared, “compete with some of the best debaters in the country and to join the legacy of Rowland Hall debaters who have attended the TOC,” and to enjoy the camaraderie built among teammates during these experiences—on planes, at dinner, or during late-night research sessions. These “little moments,” as Layla calls them, are a major part of what she will miss after graduation.

“It’s hard to find a group of kids where someone can make a joke about the state of political affairs in Croatia, and the entire room bursts into laughter,” she said. “We often jokingly call ourselves ‘the most distractible debate team in the nation,’ and I think that’s a testament to how well we get along and how many things we want to share with each other—albeit unrelated to the actual task at hand. I’ll miss that companionship dearly.”

Layla and her fellow seniors will also miss their coaches, Mike Shackelford and new recruit Zach Thiede. In fact, the entire team is quick to point out how the coaching staff’s support and dedication to the debate program has been absolutely essential to establishing Rowland Hall Debate as a premier program in the larger debate community. They especially recognize how Mike, who has coached the team since fall 2007, has created an environment that allowed the program to grow to its current level, and whose dedication to each debater has shaped them into, in Layla’s words, “the competitors, students, and people we are today.”

Our team is special because our collaboration is organic and we have many committed members. Mr. Shackelford, Zach Thiede, and upperclassmen to novices prioritize our learning, experience, and understanding of debate conceptually, which in turn improves performance.—Zion Wirthlin-Ngugi, class of 2026

“Mr. Shackelford is an incredible force on this team, and the Rowland Hall debaters and I couldn’t be more grateful for his dedication,” said Layla. “The Rowland Hall Debate team would cease to exist without the overwhelming amount of care and coaching Mr. Shackelford invests in the team. As I’ve mentioned, the debaters are incredible people, but it’s Mr. Shackelford who cultivates their talent and effort into a cohesive team that is capable of achieving results that lead to Tournament of Champions qualifications. It’s an honor and a privilege to be coached by him, and he deserves immense amounts of praise for both the success Rowland Hall has found debating and the truly uplifting and positive environment on the team.”

After all, it’s this uplifting and positive environment that will continue the momentum of this season, and returning members are excited to build on the team’s latest success. They also recognize the exceptional group they are part of.

“Our team is special because our collaboration is organic and we have many committed members,” said Zion. “Mr. Shackelford, Zach Thiede, and upperclassmen to novices prioritize our learning, experience, and understanding of debate conceptually, which in turn improves performance.”

This team-first approach also builds confidence, and while the debaters can’t know for sure what the future holds, their collective experiences over the last three years have shown them that they can believe in themselves and are capable of holding their team to their newest standard of excellence.

“Success breeds expectations, but as an optimist, I've found that expectations dictate outcomes,” said Mike, who knows that the state of Rowland Hall’s debate program is solid—and its future promising. “Our students can compete against anyone, on any topic, in any format. Our program is as strong as ever thanks to great student leaders and mentors who continued the guidance for each new batch of young debaters and reinforced a culture of success.”

Rowland Hall Debate State Performances 2023

Below are Rowland Hall’s top performances at the 2023 state tournament, by debate event.

• Informative Speaking: Senior Angel Wang earned an excellence rating in this event, where debaters present a 10-minute prepared speech that seeks to inform and explain.
• Lincoln-Douglas: Senior Julia Summerfield was Rowland Hall’s top performer in this event, finishing as a quarterfinalist for her solo debate on the Supreme Court.
• Impromptu Speaking: Ninth grader Anya Ellahie was a finalist in this event in which debaters are given a random topic and have one to two minutes to prepare before delivering five-minute speeches.
• Extemporaneous Speaking: Senior Zachary Klein took second place in this event in which debaters are given a current-event question and have 30 minutes to research, write, and deliver seven-minute speeches. Senior Amelie Corson was also a finalist in the event.
• Student Congress: Sophomore Andrew Murphy took second place in this event where students lead and participate in a simulation where they debate different pieces of national legislation. Ninth grader Zion Wirthlin-Ngugi also finished in the top five of the event.
• Policy: Seniors Ruchi Agarwal and Layla Hijjawi took first place in this event for their debate on the best proposals for NATO security. Juniors Marina Peng and Logan Fang, sophomores Eli Hatton and Aiden Gandhi, and ninth graders Enzo Rust and Baker Campsen all had winning records in Policy, finishing in second, third, and fourth, respectively. That's a clean sweep!
• Public Forum: Senior teammates Micah Sheinberg and Anna Hull took first place in this event for their debate on the pros and cons of India's space program. Junior Sophie Baker and sophomore Elena Owens also made it to finals, giving them the co-championship. Senior teammates Amelie Corson and Iman Ellahie, as well as the team of junior Harris Matheson and ninth grader Harrison Lasater, were quarterfinalists in the event.

Debate

The rhythms of West Africa, created by Tiya Karaus’ second graders, filled the chapel.

It’s a chance to expose students to different art forms and give them opportunities to interact with experts in artistic fields. They get to see the arts in action and start making connections between themselves and the outside world.—Tiya Karaus, second-grade teacher

Some students took turns on dundun drums while others danced, each taking a part in telling a story. The activity was part of the Artist in Residence program at the Lower School, which brings musicians, painters, photographers, dancers, and more onto Rowland Hall’s McCarthey Campus each spring. For Tiya’s class, the artist was dancer and drummer Déja Mitchell, who was instructing the students on the kuku rhythm, a celebratory call-and-response drumbeat that, in Guinea, is used to signal the return of women to the village from a successful fishing outing. Opportunities like these, Rowland Hall teachers agree, are a great way to deepen student learning and connect them to the larger community, which is what makes the Artist in Residence program so special.

“It’s a chance to expose students to different art forms and give them opportunities to interact with experts in artistic fields,” said Tiya. “They get to see the arts in action and start making connections between themselves and the outside world.”

In addition to West African drumming and dancing, this year lower schoolers took part in learning about photography with artist Kirsten Hepburn, and explored modern dance with a performer from Tanner Dance. The arts are an important part of a Rowland Hall education from the earliest stages of learning. Music and visual arts are woven into the curriculum in Beginning School classrooms, and regular music and art classes are part of the weekly schedule in the Lower School. In the middle and upper schools, students are given multiple opportunities to take part in a variety of artistic endeavors. The arts enjoy a place of prominence at the school not only for the joys they bring, but also for the lessons they teach. Music, dance, theatre, painting, and other means of artistic expression give the students windows into experiences that they may not otherwise be privy to, and also provide mirrors to their own experiences and how they connect them to the world. They also are a way of learning that feels natural to children.

“The whole child is a musical child, is a dancing child, is an artistic child,” said McCarthey Campus music teacher Susan Swidnicki. “That’s part of being human.”

Part of the human experience for Tiya’s students also involved learning about the people on the other side of the world who invented the rhythms they played and the dances they performed. Along with the music and dance, Déja shared with the class the history behind the rhythms and dances, and how and why they evolved. “It’s a way for them to connect with another part of the world and get a deeper appreciation of other people and cultures,” she said.

We live in a very noisy world. For children to do that kind of focused concentrating, listening, and responding is really important to their learning.—Susan Swidnicki, music teacher

A deeper cultural competency is just one of the additional benefits Tiya’s students are gaining through the Artist in Residence program. Self-control and cooperation are two other skills they have developed as they played the drums and learned the dances. Every student will tell you the kuku rhythm isn’t just about where you strike the drum, but also how hard you hit it. You have to have the balance. And you have to be listening to what others are playing, and watching the movements the dancers are making, in order for everything to work together.

“We live in a very noisy world. For children to do that kind of focused concentrating, listening, and responding is really important to their learning,” said Susan. “It’s a great lesson in how to get along with others collaboratively and joyfully.”

The students also gain confidence in themselves, not only as artists but as people. After all, drumming is not easy. But if you mention the term “kuku” to them, they do not hesitate to show you. Dozens of hands instantly start drumming on tables.

“It’s a full-body experience for them. It’s hard work when you are little, and you have little hands,” said Tiya. “As one student said, ‘I love this so much, but my hands are so tired.’”

Academics

This story won Gold in the "Magazine Writing" category of the 2022 InspirED Brilliance Awards.

By Ashley Atwood and Robert Wilson
Original Watercolors by Annie Nash, Class of 2023

Editor's note: This piece is republished from Rowland Hall's 2021–2022 Annual Report.

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In May, Upper School science teacher Rob Wilson embarked on an opportunity of a lifetime: a trip to Ketchum, Idaho, to reside in the home of Ernest and Mary Hemingway as a visiting scholar. There, he wrote teaching resources based on his own use of Hemingway in the science classroom, as well as conducted the property’s first biological inventory. It was both a personal journey and a chance for the educator to invite students into his experience, showing them what is possible when you pursue and cultivate knowledge and passion.

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In late 1939, riding the high of celebrity built as a bestselling author and international war correspondent, Ernest Hemingway traveled to the newly built Sun Valley resort in Idaho on a publicity trip. While the writer was familiar with opportunities like this, it’s almost certain he was unprepared for the impact this trip would have on his life. From that first visit, he saw the Wood River Valley—home to Sun Valley and the former mining town of Ketchum—as a refuge, an idyllic place in which to socialize, hunt, fish, and write. He returned often over the next 20 years, and in 1959 moved to Ketchum full time with his fourth wife, Mary, after their exile from Cuba. The home they bought would be their last together, a place in which they could recharge, write, and entertain, whispers of cottonwood leaves and the rumble of the Big Wood River their constant companions. It is also where, on the morning of July 2, 1961, Ernest’s life ended in the foyer.

Mary Hemingway kept the home after her husband’s death and continued to visit it until her own passing in 1986, when she bequeathed it to The Nature Conservancy with instructions that it be turned into a nature reference library. In 2017, ownership of the house passed to The Community Library of Ketchum, which today honors the Hemingways’ legacy in Idaho through preservation work and educational opportunities, including an annual seminar that attracts those captivated by the author’s life and work. In 2019, the library completed a renovation of the home’s ground-floor garage into an apartment for visiting writers and scholars—a space in which invited guests can take in the landscape that inspired one of the greatest writers of a generation, find sanctuary in which to create, and walk away changed by this house of light.

Silkworms

That night we lay on the floor in the room and I listened to the silkworms eating. The silkworms fed in racks of mulberry leaves and all night you could hear them eating and a dropping sound in the leaves. I myself did not want to sleep because I had been living for a long time with the knowledge that if I ever shut my eyes in the dark and let myself go, my soul would go out of my body.
— Ernest Hemingway, “Now I Lay Me”

For a long time I avoided seeing the house. When I went to Ketchum, I would visit the grave in the town cemetery or the monument on Trail Creek, but I did not want to see the house. It seemed like an invasion of privacy, and it was not until I was invited late last year that I laid my eyes upon it. When I was invited to stay there, I was both thrilled and frightened; I was afraid that I might not be able to sleep knowing what happened in the foyer.

My first night in the house I did not fall asleep for a long time, until I slept deeply in the wee hours of the morning and awoke with a start from a bad dream. There was a hint of light to the east, and I could hear a robin. Ecologist Aldo Leopold calculated that “the robin will give voice when the light intensity reaches 0.01 candlepower.” I’ll take his word for it. I got up and made coffee and went outside to watch the day emerge. Four geese came downstream and turned around right in front of me and landed in the channel. A house wren commenced to sing. Eventually, some pine siskins and a ruby-crowned kinglet started talking. The sun lit up the peaks of the Boulder Mountains. Like a flash, the sun came out from behind a layer of clouds on the eastern horizon, and the house lit up. Glorious! The place was alive, truly alive. I came in to make breakfast, and only then did I realize the hour had already passed of the event that I’d been afraid would haunt me too much. The life of the land and the house outshines the darkness of the foyer.
— Rob Wilson, May 2022

* * *

Rob Wilson fell in love with the writing of Ernest Hemingway in eighth grade.

To this day, he remembers the thrill of that first reading of The Old Man and the Sea: how the novella brought to mind his own fishing trips with his dad. His mind readily painted a picture of the story’s setting: the boat, the deck, the handlines so different from his own rod and reel.

He remembers, as a high schooler, discovering a hardbound copy of Hemingway’s short stories on his dad’s bookshelf late one Friday and spending hours flipping its yellowed pages, reading long into the night. He remembers bonding with college friends over Hemingway, as well as quiet evenings during his early career as a field biologist, sitting on a cabin porch in southern Idaho and watching the sun set over the Pioneer Mountains above Sun Valley as he, again, made his way through Hemingway novels: The Sun Also Rises, A Farewell to Arms, For Whom the Bell Tolls. 

Hemingway’s writings were one of the first influential connections Rob had into the life of an artist, his stories and novels windows into worlds different from Rob’s in many ways, but also strikingly similar, with familiar streams of human experiences running through each tale. With each passing year, Rob began to see beyond the adventure stories that had first captivated him. Each new reading, supplemented by his accumulating life experience, became an opportunity to get lost in a story’s subtext. In Hemingway, Rob also found a kindred spirit—someone who, like him, respected the natural world. “Hemingway noticed the little things around him, and how they lived,” Rob said. The author’s writings are abundant with those observations: how trout hold in a clear river, for example, or the features of a wildfire-blackened mountainside, all described in such honest, sharp ways that it heightens the real-world experience of being outdoors.

In 2015, while re-reading Hemingway’s short story “A Pursuit Race,” Rob’s connection to Hemingway deepened in a new way when he realized how well its understated portrayal of alcoholism and heroin withdrawal could be applied to his health class lesson on substance abuse. He thought it would complement the textbook he usually used for the lesson, but more effectively invite students to contemplate the human impact of substance abuse in a way a textbook can’t.

“What fiction is,” he explained of that choice, “is a way to invite you into examining life.”

It was a successful experiment, one that excited both Rob and then-Head of School Alan Sparrow. Over the years, Rob began adding more texts to his lesson plans, including Aldo Leopold’s A Sand County Almanac and Robin Wall Kimmerer’s Braiding Sweetgrass, as well several Hemingway short stories: “Now I Lay Me” for its themes of metamorphosis, “The Snows of Kilimanjaro” for its tie to the climate, and “Big Two-Hearted River” for its portrayal of earth systems. Like the living creatures he brings to campus—pigeons for genetics, jellyfish to animate the history of life on Earth—Rob has found that Hemingway texts are an effective resource to enrich students’ understanding of science concepts. They’re also unexpected.

Research continues to make it clear that interdisciplinary learning, combining two or more subjects into one activity, benefits students by broadening how they think and how they approach problem solving.

“Students can be strict about silos,” he said, referring to the kind of thinking that draws lines around areas of study: students should reference a textbook or case study in science class and read Hemingway in English class. But research continues to make it clear that interdisciplinary learning, combining two or more subjects into one activity, benefits students by broadening how they think and how they approach problem solving. Hemingway’s signature iceberg approach—the idea that an author should allow a story’s deeper meaning to be implicitly realized by the reader—is an effective method for stretching young minds, allowing students space to lean on their own interpretations and observations.

“This is a major component of my teaching strategy,” said Rob. “If I tell you something, you are more likely to forget it. If you discover it for yourself based on what I provide, you will remember it and be proud of yourself.”

Many Hemingway stories build this skill with multiple examples of inference and deduction, forms of logic necessary to the scientific process, as well as sensory details that can deepen an understanding of natural sciences. While he was in Idaho, one of the stories Rob had his ninth-grade biology students read was “Now I Lay Me,” throughout which narrator Nick Adams, a soldier convalescing behind the front lines during World War I, refers to the sound of silkworms devouring mulberry leaves in his room. It was a natural tie to the class, which had been observing and caring for their own colony of silkworms that spring. Over the weeks, thanks to their worms’ diet of mulberry leaves, the class had watched the invertebrates grow from eyelash-sized hatchlings to fat, round, white worms. And as they read the story—for many, their introduction to Hemingway—that experience both provided a mental picture and enhanced the story’s subtext.

“It was easier to visualize the things described in the reading,” remembered Loc Ossana-Aoki, while classmate Rachel Brague added, “Having silkworms in the classroom helped emphasize the story, showed the bigger picture. Knowing about silkworms, I understood the emphasis on the man's experience.”

It was an experience that helped drive home the ideas that science isn’t static and that interdisciplinary connections enhance learning in exciting ways. Much like a Hemingway story, the students realized, there is always another layer to discover, something new to take away, to enrich overall understanding.

“Without any knowledge or experience, you can read these stories and understand what is happening,” explained Rachel, “but once you know more, the simple writing suddenly seems like the story is much longer and filled with more information than before.”

In past years, Rob has had students share Hemingway discoveries like these in class, but this year’s trip to Idaho gave them an opportunity to make even more connections among the stories, their studies, and his experience when he invited them to ask questions about his time away. “They were really curious,” said Rob. “All I did was say, ‘What would you like to know?’ and they asked questions for the entire period.” Discussion flowed around the Hemingway property’s major geographic features and how they change over time, natural selection, and the landscape itself: mature cottonwoods and blue spruces the Hemingways may have looked upon, a house wren whose call Rob imitated, and pileated woodpeckers whose strikes Rob demonstrated by knocking on the whiteboard. Rob also shared how he placed the class silkworms on the writing desk as he composed his own work, a metamorphosing muse, and his own feelings of fear, peace, and reverence for the sacred space.

“It was really personal for him,” said student Winston Hoffman, “but I think all of us appreciated what he had to say because he was trying to include us in the experience. It was like we had been there too, almost.”

Grasshoppers

As he had walked along the road, climbing, he had started many grasshoppers from the dust. These were just ordinary hoppers, but all a sooty black in color. Nick had wondered about them as he walked, without really thinking about them. Now, as he watched the black hopper that was nibbling at the wool of his sock with its fourway lip, he realized that they had all turned black from living in the burned-over land. He realized that the fire must have come the year before, but the grasshoppers were all black now. He wondered how long they would stay that way.
— Ernest Hemingway, “Big Two-Hearted River, Part One”

I headed north on Highway 93 around 1 pm. It was cool and windy, and I could see flurries of snow in the mountains ahead of me. I always feel such great anticipation during this part of the drive, and I remembered making the drive at other times of the year, doing other things with other people, and always having the sense that I am gravitating toward Ketchum. It’s funny to think of the warm summer nights on Big Cottonwood Creek, when I sat on the porch and looked across the Magic Valley to the Pioneer Mountains and wondered who had watched them fill with snow and returned to see that the snow had melted. Nothing about the drive reminded me of my dad except loading the car, driving past the duck club on the Jordan River and the other one on the Bear River, looking for ducks when I passed canals, geese in fields, bridges over rivers, and birds circling; the exit at Tremonton that we used to take to hunt and fish in Swan Valley (in the winter, the ducks would circle over the cottonwoods and disappear and reappear over the channel under the branches, closer than you were ever used to seeing them); looking out into the sagebrush, wondering if it held sage grouse; and the drive to Magic Valley where we took our last hunting trip that winter, when I broke through the ice on the Big Wood River, and I didn’t know if it would be 10 inches deep or 10 feet.

What I did not know going north is how much better I would understand this way when I took it, just a few days later, going south. I drove on knowing that I could share this experience and return to it.
— Rob Wilson, May 2022

* * *

Rob’s journey to his Hemingway House residency began in September 2016, when he received an invitation to that year’s Ernest Hemingway Seminar from his best friend from graduate school, Jeff Motychak. Titled Hemingway and Nature, the seminar was to feature discussions on “Big Two-Hearted River” and aimed to, in the words of The Community Library, “stimulate deep thinking about the role of nature in Hemingway’s works.” It was a perfect opportunity for two natural scientists fascinated by Hemingway and would play a transformative role in Rob’s life. “I was so deeply inspired,” Rob remembered. “I came back different.”

Rob has participated in the seminar each fall since, and in 2019 joined the planning committee to assist in its arrangement. His annual journey north is a pilgrimage of sorts, where he observes the landscape, reflects, and recharges. It’s also a chance for him to connect with Hemingway enthusiasts—literary scholars, scientists, art curators, educators, writers, and the curious public—who gather to examine a Hemingway novel, topic, or even passage. It was through these discussions that Rob built a relationship with the library, which in September 2021 extended a writer-in-residence invitation, initially hoping Rob would use the time to write the Hemingway lessons he had developed into teaching resources for other educators, a goal that would expand in the intervening months. And though he knew the experience would be deeply personal, he and Upper School Principal Ingrid Gustavson also knew it was a valuable opportunity, a chance to further help students perceive, seek, and discover connections in their learning, and they decided he would schedule the trip during the school year.

“So much of what we're doing with kids in education is modeling lifelong learning,” explained Ingrid. “This opportunity allowed Rob to explore, through his biologist lens, his observer lens, the home of a literary giant and give a new perspective on it.”

So many scientists know the quantitative evidence of what they’re looking at, but the quantitative evidence doesn’t matter unless you know who you’re impacting.—Annie Nash, class of 2023

It’s this kind of thinking that can change students’ lives. For upper schooler Annie Nash, who was first introduced to Hemingway in 2020 as one of Rob’s ninth-grade biology students, and who identifies as both a scientist and an artist, the confluence of subjects in Rob’s classroom felt natural, freeing her to think about how she can apply both sides of herself to her life’s work.

“I never really imagined art separate from the sciences,” she explained. “Science is artistic, nature is artistic, math is artistic—we can’t separate them.” And the older she gets, Annie said, the more she realizes an interdisciplinary approach to education is preparing her for a dynamic world that needs creative-minded and collaborative thinkers to take on its big challenges. “So many scientists know the quantitative evidence of what they’re looking at,” she said, “but the quantitative evidence doesn’t matter unless you know who you’re impacting.”

An aspiring pharmaceutical scientist, Annie knows her personal definition of success depends on more than an understanding of analytical chemistry and biostatistics. One area she’s especially concerned about is the historically negative impact of medicine on marginalized communities. She worries that the traditional approach to science education, one that focuses strictly on data, leaves scientists removed from the real-world impact of their work, and she believes applying topics like English, art, and history to her science studies helps her recognize worrying trends in her desired field so she can do her part to interrupt them. Novels and short stories are especially powerful ways to frame this history, she’s learned. More than other media, they effectively invite readers to reflect on humanity’s shared history and paint an understanding of how the human journey—what we’ve believed, what we’ve valued, how we’ve lived—has shaped the current world so readers can take away lessons for their own lives.

“You understand the time period but also separate the good and the bad—and then further the good in your own studies,” said Annie. “Scientists are sometimes viewed as being antisocial hermits who are detached from real-world issues. I want to break this stereotype so that I can encourage others to be empathetic in their research, to always strive to better the world.”

Cottonwoods

Best of all, he loved the fall. The leaves yellow on the cottonwoods, leaves floating on the trout streams, and above the hills the high, blue, windless skies.
— Ernest Hemingway, eulogy for Gene Van Guilder

I can track with my eye the flow through the deepest part of the channel that would have ruptured the beaver dam. The flow is deflected off of the bedrock wall. Parts of the channel are visible from the east-facing windows, and it is easy to imagine that residents of the house would have watched the river shape this bend over the years. They would have seen cottonwoods bloom with beet-colored catkins, fill in with lush green leaves, and fill the air with a distinct perfume; leaves yellow on the cottonwoods; and the transformation to black and white skeletons against the winter land. From here, they could watch the plumes of snow raised by the wind from the highest peaks. They would have heard the gossip of geese and had a view into the nests of hawks and private lives of kinglets, and been witness to the comings and goings of myriad birds throughout the year. It saddens me to know how much Ernest would have enjoyed this setting over the decades he could have lived here and did not. He has left us his gifts of perception so that we may enjoy it ourselves and teach others to experience the sublime and to protect it.

Teaching is a service of paying forward knowledge, skills, and values that enable another to cope and thrive in an ever-changing world. You can’t be a beacon if your light doesn’t shine. Mary could have walked away, and she chose to stay and have the house protected in perpetuity. The house on the hill of bedrock above the sea of cottonwoods is a beacon that both signals danger and radiates hope.
— Rob Wilson, May 2022

* * *

The house on the hill is designed to maximize its view.

From its wide patios, large windows, or broad lawn, visitors gaze upon a landscape of colors and textures: snow-capped peaks of the Boulder and Pioneer mountains, the Big Wood River flowing over gray stones, the dark trunks and lush foliage of black cottonwoods that, in late spring as they burst into new life, fill the warming air with a honey scent.

Cottonwood forests, or galleries, tell a story of resilience: their survival depends upon the ability of seedlings to keep their roots in contact with capillary fringe, the area of soil that draws moisture from the water table. When flood conditions are met, the trees grow in cohorts, but most years, due to weather or human disruption, those conditions are not met. As a result, one cohort of cottonwoods matures to nurture the next, a process that strengthens the entire gallery.

There are times, though, when a cottonwood forest stops regenerating altogether, a process that happens so gradually the untrained eye misses the first signs. For the caregivers of the Hemingway House and its estate, a loss like this—of Mary’s desire for how the property would continue on—would especially hurt, and so Rob volunteered to conduct the first biological inventory, a task necessary to fully realize Mary’s vision.

“It's the library’s mission, as stewards, to protect that little bit of land,” he explained. “The biggest thing I could offer was to describe the living landscape for them.”

In addition to writing teaching resources, Rob spent hours of his residency walking the property’s 13.9 acres looking for cottonwood saplings as evidence of regeneration and documenting the landscape, from the bedrock on which the house stands to the kinglets and house wrens calling into early spring mornings, all of which he included in a reference document for the land’s ongoing protection and conservation—his personal contribution to its stewardship. “This idea of stewardship is: if you're here, it's your job to take care of things,” said Rob. “That's maintaining a landscape, if that's what you have the opportunity to do, or a place, or a relationship.”

A recurrent theme at Rowland Hall is: be the change you want to see in the world. That’s stewardship. My message to students is they can be interested in something and cultivate it and watch it become bigger and better than they ever imagined.—Rob Wilson

As a scientist, Rob has too often seen how our time in history is marked by a collective lack of stewardship, from climate change to the imperiled animals he studies, and he believes each individual plays a role in stewarding our world. He knows that if in his classroom he can tap into our shared humanity by breaking down learning silos and showing students how their passions, whatever those are, connect to something bigger, he can better prepare them to be the people the world needs.

“A recurrent theme at Rowland Hall is: be the change you want to see in the world. That’s stewardship,” said Rob. “My message to students is they can be interested in something and cultivate it and watch it become bigger and better than they ever imagined.”

It’s a perspective that can be found in hundreds of ways across Rowland Hall classrooms, from cross-disciplinary teaching partnerships in the Upper School to experiential learning in the Beginning School. “Adults at Rowland Hall model so well how to see connections in the world, to get excited about learning across disciplines,” said Ingrid. “No one is too young or too old to discover things we really care about, then go deep and figure out how to teach them to others, support a cause, or further someone else's learning.”

This sharing of knowledge is often viewed as a pinnacle of education, a way of students continuing the journey their teachers set them on. Just as a younger cohort of cottonwoods benefits from the stability and nourishment provided by an older cohort, students benefit from their teachers’ examples, then go on to share what they know. “The true test of a student's learning is not the answer they write on an exam,” said Rob. “It is how they share what they learned with the people around them.”

Ingrid remembered seeing evidence of this truth in May when she stopped by Rob’s classroom to find him and three earth science students caring for tanks of betta fish and the class jellyfish, Calypso. Rob encouraged the students to tell Ingrid about the creatures, which they excitedly did, showing her how they harvest brine shrimp for jellyfish food and test the water, and sharing who was caring for the animals over the summer. In that moment, Ingrid said, she realized the students had fully taken ownership of their learning. “This is theirs now,” she thought.

“I always thought science was supposed to be very straightforward—not bringing your own opinion, your own feelings into it,” said Hope Thomas, one of the students in the classroom that day, and Calypso’s summer caretaker. “For a while, it made it a hard subject for me because I’m a very creative person.” But being in Rob’s classes, where she’s encouraged to see connections among areas of study that another science teacher may never approach, Hope realized that making science personal wasn’t just okay, it was necessary to understanding, and taking on, the challenges of today. 

“It makes it more applicable to us when we can think about science in a more personal way,” she said. “When you care about it more, you are more willing to take action.”

And ultimately, this is the goal of education: to help students make meaningful connections about what matters to them and take action to leave the world a better place than they found it. It’s a lesson, Rob has found, that means more to him with each passing year and is especially clear when he returns to The Old Man and the Sea, the book that started his journey, and the one Hemingway himself called “an epilogue to all my writing and what I have learned, or tried to learn, while writing and trying to live.” With the benefit of time, study, and lived experience, said Rob, it’s now more than just a fishing story—it’s a reminder of what is most precious in the time he has.

“What gets me now,” he said, “is the poignancy of how brief a moment is going to be.”

Authentic Learning

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Banner photo credits: Ernest Hemingway by Robert Capa (c) International Center of Photography/Magnum Photos; Mary Hemingway courtesy of the Jeanne Rodger Lane Center for Regional History, Dorice Taylor Collection. Other photographs provided by The Community Library and Rob Wilson.

Special thanks to The Community Library for their partnership on this story.

For this year’s debate team, there may be one thing that feels better than claiming Rowland Hall’s second consecutive region and state titles.

Doing it in person.

After two years of online-only competition, debaters from across the state were able to gather in person once again for the 2022 regional and state tournaments. After numerous Zoom-room competitions, said Mike Shackelford, Rowland Hall debate coach, these in-person gatherings were a welcome change.

"A return to in-person debate was rejuvenating,” said Mike. “Sure, it meant more planning and earlier mornings—but it also meant pep talks and motivational speeches, real-time collaboration, bonding and playing together between rounds, and supporting one another by watching final rounds as a group. It allowed our students to be truly seen and heard by their opponents, judges, and teammates." And it was especially exciting for the team members who hadn’t yet experienced in-person debate events. “They didn't even know what they were missing,” said Mike.

Sophomore Zac Bahna was one of these students. He experienced his first year of competition—where he placed third in Foreign Extemporaneous Speaking at state—on Zoom, and now understands the contrast between the two settings.

We were able to foster an environment in which everyone was willing to help each other out and push each other to succeed.—Zac Bahna, class of 2024

“The in-person experience is a lot different but more fun,” said Zac, who, with fellow sophomore and partner Harris Matheson, took third place in this year’s Public Forum event. “You get to talk to debaters from other schools and hang out with your teammates between rounds. Although last year’s debate season was still a great experience, the team felt more isolated and disconnected when we were all debating from our own homes. The state tournament was one of the first times that I could really feel the good energy of a team environment.”

That energy makes a difference for Rowland Hall not only because the team plays up a division into the 3A classification, pitting them against larger schools, but also because they had to spend a lot of time preparing for individual speech events—an area they don't practice during the regular season—to be competitive.

“It was so awesome to see so many Rowland Hall debaters come together and push themselves to compete in different events than they normally would and work together to achieve a common goal,” said Zac. “We were able to foster an environment in which everyone was willing to help each other out and push each other to succeed.”

As a result, the team walked away from the state tournament with their second consecutive 3A state title (their total score, 108, was 33 points higher than the second-place team) and an impressive list of performances:

• Senior Samantha Lehman took first place in National Extemporaneous Speaking, an event in which debaters are given a domestic affairs question and have 30 minutes to research, write, and deliver seven-minute speeches.
• Senior teammates Ella Houden and Kit Stevens took first place in Public Forum, an event that includes short speeches interspersed with three-minute crossfire sections, on the topic of the pros and cons of organic agriculture. Senior Samantha Lehman and junior Micah Sheinberg as well as sophomores Zac Bahna and Harris Matheson closed out the top three spots, giving them a co-championship.
• Junior Layla Hijjawi and sophomore Joey Lieskovan took first place in Policy, an event in which teams advocate for or against a policy change resolution, for their take on the best proposals for water resource protection. Juniors Ruchi Agarwal and Julia Summerfield also went undefeated in this event, giving them the co-championship, while senior George Drakos and sophomore Gabe Andrus, as well as sophomores Marina Peng and Logan Fang, tied for third place—a clean sweep of the top four spots! (Learn more about how debaters across the state, including Rowland Hall students, prepared for this topic in The Salt Lake Tribune.)
• Freshman Aiden Gandhi took fifth place in Lincoln-Douglas, a solo debate event, for his speech on journalistic ethics.
• Junior Zachary Klein took third place in Foreign Extemporaneous Speaking, an event in which debaters are given a foreign affairs question and have 30 minutes to research, write, and deliver seven-minute speeches.
• Freshman Andrew Murphy took fifth place in Student Congress, a competition in which students lead and participate in a simulation where they debate different pieces of national legislation.
• Junior Micah Sheinberg took fourth place in Impromptu Speaking, an event in which debaters are required to prepare and deliver speeches on a random topic, with only one to two minutes to prepare.

Samantha Lehman also made school history by being the first Rowland Hall student to win an individual state championship in three different debate events over her high school career. The senior said the accomplishment showed her that she can successfully debate on both national and state levels—and reminded her of what she’s learned over four years.

Debate has made me more confident in my voice.—Samantha Lehman, class of 2022

“Debate has made me a more confident person,” said Samantha. “I’ve always been willing to put myself out there, but debate has made me more confident in my voice, in my ability to convey ideas. I know how to speak to a specific audience, to use my research skills and cater arguments to different groups. I know how to speak efficiently and clearly, in a way that’s not pedantic. I know more about the world: criminal justice issues, arms sales, international relations, water, climate change—subjects you would never find out just in school and reading the news.”

This perspective was echoed by ninth grader Aiden Gandhi, who emerged as a team phenom in his novice season, taking fifth place in Lincoln-Douglas at his first state tournament.

“The season allowed me to grow and learn about topics and ideas that I never would have explored otherwise,” said Aiden. And though he is thrilled about the accomplishments of this year, he’s even more excited about his personal growth. “I think I am most proud of achieving the growth that I did this year in debate. It means that I will be better equipped for next year and future debates.”

It’s this kind of attitude, found across the team, that promises continued excellence for Rowland Hall Debate. Even after graduation, said Samantha, she’ll be keeping an eye on the team—she’s that excited about what lies ahead. Zac and Aiden, also looking forward to what's in the team’s future, have already promised to contribute to ongoing success by challenging themselves and their teammates, cultivating a positive and fun environment, and building community.

“I am excited for the opportunity that next year's season brings to connect, grow, and improve,” said Aiden.

Debate

Research is clear: Investing in early childhood education is a smart move. Not only is it one of the surest ways to set students on paths of lifelong curiosity and well-being, but it’s also been proven to enhance both individual lives and society at large. At Rowland Hall, thanks to a focus on evidence-based education, we have long been crafting a top-tier early childhood program centered around best practices for young learners during crucial years of their development. As a result, students leave the Beginning School viewing themselves as capable knowledge-makers, ready to thrive in the next stage of their joyful educational journeys.

In Melanie Robbins and Mary Grace Ellison’s kindergarten classroom, a small sign hangs over a row of student cubbies. It’s inconspicuous, but, once noticed, seems to summarize the day-to-day happenings of the energetic and vibrant room.

“Play,” it states, “is the work of childhood.”

This Jean Piaget quote, beautifully succinct, is a reminder that the activities that take place in Melanie and Mary Grace’s room, and in all Rowland Hall Beginning School classrooms, are not just fun—they’re incredibly meaningful, and essential to children’s development. By tapping into the most natural and essential of early childhood activities—play—educators are building crucial connections in young brains and setting a joyful foundation for discovering, exploring, embracing, and creating knowledge.

On a Thursday morning in February, the Piaget quote kept watch over a bustle of activity among the kindergartners. Walking by, a casual observer may have thought the activity was free play, but there was a thoughtful academic purpose behind the fun: the five- and six-year-olds were busy making their way through an array of learning centers designed for their Animals in Winter unit, a study of how animals hibernate, migrate, and adapt during the coldest months.

It was a time of play—and yet it was about so much more than the play. The longer the class was observed, the more apparent it became that a trove of educational and developmental benefits were taking shape just below the surface.

At one table, two girls bent over the covers of the animal reports they were creating for the unit; using library books as guides, they illustrated their chosen animals, a chipmunk and a fox, on the report covers. Nearby, a group of students, sprawled across cushions, worked on core literacy skills on iPads, while another, more rowdy, group rolled an oversized die and moved animal figurines across a homemade playing board. On the far side of the room, students looked through a pile of materials—empty oatmeal canisters, bits of cardboard, string—to be crafted into an animal habitat. In between these stations, children sorted animal pictures into groups or practiced writing letters, some with crayons on paper, others with fingers in sand. For an hour, the students enjoyed the freedom to sample whatever most appealed to them at any given moment, and to take from the group what they needed—for a few, it was a time to step back to reflect and quietly work on activities alone; for others, to engage with peers.

It was a time of play—and yet it was about so much more than the play. Like taking a cursory glance at a frozen winter landscape, which doesn’t reveal the rabbit blending into the snow or the entry to an animal den, just glancing at the fun would have limited the viewer’s understanding of what was occurring in the classroom. The longer the class was observed, the more apparent it became that a trove of educational and developmental benefits were taking shape just below the surface: Students cutting materials for the animal habitat or practicing writing the letter S with stumpy crayons were honing fine-motor skills. Those at the game board were mastering math by matching the number of dots on the die to the number of spaces they had to move. And all around the room, students were building social skills, whether while waiting for a turn or while navigating a disagreement.

“This is the power of early childhood,” said Melanie.

A Solid Foundation

At Rowland Hall’s Beginning School, an emphasis on well-grounded early childhood research, such as that around the benefits of purposeful play, is at the heart of the student experience—and for good reason. Between the ages of three and six, the time during which they begin to attend school, children’s brains are in the midst of a tremendous evolution that educators need to understand to fully support.

“The three-to-six age range is marked by huge transformation in the architecture of the brain, and the structures that get laid down during that time will persist,” said Principal Emma Wellman, who has led the Beginning School since 2018, and, in the 2021–2022 school year, took on the expanded role of Beginning School and Lower School principal. During the preschool and kindergarten years, Emma explained, foundational behaviors, aptitudes, skills, and values are ingrained in the brain, so it’s essential that children’s first teachers know how to positively impact this development.

“Early childhood teachers are laying the foundation for lifelong learning in terms of how students relate to school and to one another, and to themselves as learners and workers,” said Emma.

During the preschool and kindergarten years, foundational behaviors, aptitudes, skills, and values are ingrained in the brain, so it’s essential that children’s first teachers know how to positively impact this development.

Through thoughtful play and other proven early education tactics, educators can boost brain-building in ways that last: studies show that students who attend early childhood programs are more likely to later demonstrate high-functioning skills, such as strong emotional and social intelligence, curiosity, and discipline, and more likely to report high rates of fulfilling relationships and fulfilling careers. And it’s not just individual lives that benefit; there are also economic advantages to investing in early childhood education. Dr. James J. Heckman, professor of economics at the University of Chicago and an expert in the economics of human development, has found that investments in early childhood education result in the highest rates of economic returns, both for individuals and society at large. Simply put: investing in early childhood education is one of the best ways to greatly impact lives.

“You’re giving extra support in a time when it matters most,” said Emma.

An Emphasis on Relationship

When it comes to how children relate to school, teachers are often the key factor, and this is especially true in early childhood classrooms, where the trust educators build with young students sets them on paths of learning, curiosity, and self-discovery. In fact, said Emma, because warm, trusting relationships are strongly shown to be vital to early learning, they’re the first thing she recommends people look for when exploring preschool and kindergarten programs.

“The most important thing is the teacher-student relationship, because learning happens in the context of relationship,” she explained. “Everything is built on that.”

In the Beginning School, a focus on relationship, alongside an emphasis on reciprocal respect between teachers and students, guides everything from class sizes to division specialties; as a result, students remain at the center of decision-making. A focus on relationships also encourages more natural student participation in classroom happenings, an essential component to building brain connections in young learners.

“We want to make sure that kids remain in charge of big chunks of their own learning so that they don’t become dependent on the grown-ups to drive it for them,” said Emma.

This ownership over learning expands during children’s time in the Beginning School. As they build strong relationships with their students, teachers can encourage them to work on mastering both early academic skills and self-care activities. Through a process known as scaffolding, teachers support students as they make their way through the zone of proximal development—that is, the difference between what a child can do without help and what they can do with guidance and encouragement from a teacher. It’s a way to meet each learner where they are their own individual development, and it can be applied to both academic subjects, like building foundational skills in number sense and phonological awareness, or life skills, like putting on a coat or a mask.

“School is the perfect place for that practice to happen and to develop those skills, which are critical in other learning,” said Beginning School Assistant Principal Brittney Hansen ’02. “We take our time to let everyone learn that they can do an activity all by themselves and feel that confidence, that sense of pride, and carry themselves a little bit taller because of it.”

A Child-Sized Experience

It’s not difficult to find students owning their learning in the Beginning School: the process can be observed in the 3PreK student working to zip her coat, the kindergartner choosing a quiet-time book from the classroom library, and the 4PreK student sorting a pile of twigs, pine cones, and leaves gathered during outdoor classroom. Active learning is around every corner.

“All of our learning is entirely exploratory and we foster kids’ natural curiosity,” said Kelley Journey, the Beginning School’s experiential learning specialist. “We give kids a lot of authentic opportunities to learn in real-world situations.”

The design of the building even encourages this exploration; you don’t need to walk far into the Beginning School to realize that the place is built for young learners. Bulletin boards, supplies, and books are set at the children’s eye level. Easy-to-access cubbies provide space for each person’s belongings. Child-sized restrooms are attached to classrooms, encouraging independence (while also providing reassurance that trusted adults are nearby, if needed). Simple decor and minimal reference material leave room for imagination. All of these choices, explained Brittney, are based on sound research and made mindfully and intentionally to encourage natural curiosity and to empower students to move effortlessly among spaces as they follow their interests or learn to manage their personal needs. 

“A key function of early childhood education is for students to learn, to be able to take care of themselves and their belongings, to feel ownership over their space and learning environment, and to feel confident navigating the school,” said Brittney.

Educators in the Beginning School are very intentional about integrating areas of learning in meaningful, authentic ways for children.—Brittney Hansen ’02, Beginning School assistant principal

Beginning School days are also set up to harness the ways in which children learn best: there are moments of active play as well as quiet time, and educators stretch young brains with both structured lessons and space for choice and self-exploration—what Rowland Hall often refers to as choice and voice. This inclusion of choice, explained Kelley, is important for all students, but especially significant to young learners who often don’t feel they have a lot of control over their lives: when much of your day includes being told what to do, and when to do it, by adults, having choice in how you want to learn—alongside access to child-sized structures and materials that allow you to work without a grown-up’s help—you begin to view yourself as a capable knowledge-maker. Students given choice can see themselves as scientists, engineers, or artists, and they believe in their ability to find solutions, improve processes, or add beauty to the world.

And because Rowland Hall is an independent school, Beginning School teachers (like teachers across all of the school’s divisions) have the flexibility to explore the topics that spark their students’ interests. They’re naturals when it comes to identifying subjects that light up students’ eyes, and they enjoy the flexibility to adjust lesson plans in order to follow these paths, weaving foundational academic knowledge into the areas their individual classes wish to explore.

“Educators in the Beginning School are very intentional about integrating areas of learning in meaningful, authentic ways for children,” said Brittney. “We are less about saying, for instance, ‘Now is our time for science.’ Instead, we think of something that’s captivating and interesting for the child and then say, ‘It’s my job to figure out how to weave science into this.’”

A Community of Learners

There is a common refrain about Rowland Hall’s Beginning School: “This is a happy place.” Visitors frequently comment on the division’s warm atmosphere and often report feeling a sense of joy during their time there. For Emma and her leadership team, these reactions to the school aren't a coincidence; they’re confirmation that Rowland Hall is providing support exactly where it’s needed—for young learners, as well as for the adults who make their education possible.

Rowland Hall is so special. All faculty members are complete lifelong learners and continually challenge themselves to practice the best theories and pedagogies for children.—Kelley Journey, experiential learning specialist

“One way we show respect to teachers is by giving them opportunities and responsibility to be learners in their own right, to continue their own professional lives,” explained Emma. And this is important because early childhood programs that prioritize the well-being of their educators see numerous benefits—for instance, teachers with supportive administrators spend more of their time focused on students, and they’re more likely to stay with a school for the long haul. Professional development opportunities at Rowland Hall range from growing personal passions or areas of growth, like when kindergarten teacher Melanie Robbins helped incorporate outdoor classroom into the division’s curriculum, to exploring ways teachers can support Rowland Hall’s mission and strategic priorities, such as when 4PreK lead teacher Isabelle Buhler studied equity and inclusion in the early childhood programs.

“Rowland Hall is so special,” said Kelley. “All faculty members are complete lifelong learners and continually challenge themselves to practice the best theories and pedagogies for children.”

They challenge each other too: faculty are encouraged to share takeaways from their professional development experiences, a practice that supports one another’s engagement with, and investment in, their essential roles. It’s a practice that also ensures everything they do comes back to students: by staying current with early childhood research findings, the Beginning School team can provide the school’s youngest learners with what they most need, creating a solid educational foundation for those students and, at the same time, illustrating for them the value of learning.

And it’s perhaps this practice that best explains why the Beginning School is such a happy place: it’s a place that highlights the thrill of learning, where students see in teachers the lifelong benefits of staying curious, and where, through the eyes of children, adults are continuously reminded of the pure joy of discovery, of allowing curiosity to take you to new places, and of understanding just what you’re capable of.

It’s the magic of early childhood.

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Looking for a preschool or kindergarten? Download Rowland Hall's tips for picking a top-tier early childhood program.

Academics

Rowland Hall is centered around the student experience. But the school community is so much bigger than the students and even the teachers who interact with them in classrooms every day. There is a whole system of people working to keep people safe and fed, keep the grounds and buildings clean, and literally keep traffic moving. Then there are others who work not just to support the current students on campus, but students for years to come, through business functions, development, alumni, and community outreach.

It was a shape walk in January that piqued the curiosity of the school’s first graders about the variety of people on campus and created a project involving the whole grade. Going into one unfamiliar area of campus, a student was heard to exclaim, “Who are these people?” The students decided to create their own newspapers—the Rowland Hall Star Journal, The Winged Lion Press, and The Rowland Hall Times—to look at who are members of our community and how they help our school. 

First-grade teachers Susanna Mellor, April Nielsen, and Galen McCallum loved seeing the excitement of their students to take on a new (and rather arduous) project. The students would have to use a number of skills—some they had learned before, and some that were new. Reading and writing were obviously going to be employed. But they also had to learn how to come up with interview questions, and how to overcome nerves to conduct an interview. Photography became very important. One student took more than 75 photos for his piece. 

“I learned that you have to videotape your interview,” said first grader Harper Y., who interviewed Digital Communications Associate Robert Lainhart ’11. “That helped me remember what Robert had said and what to write.”

“There was no lack of confidence from the students during the interviews,” said Head of School (and interview subject) Mick Gee. “I think that came from the amount of preparation they did. They were ready with questions and even asked follow-up questions. They were pretty sophisticated.”

Buddy pairs worked to hone their skills with each other before sending letters requesting interviews to their intended subjects. The letters were an important part of the process since no journalist simply “gets” a big interview; some finesse has to be involved. Many of the students were unfamiliar with the proper format of a letter, so this was another learning opportunity. The teachers worked with them on how to make a proper introduction and explained that the interviews were about more than learning about work—they were also about the people behind that work. “We are all part of this community,” said first-grade teacher Susanna. “It’s important to be known as humans and not just defined by our jobs.”

The importance of voice and choice was key here. We wanted the kids to take an interest in what they were learning and get to know their subjects.—Galen McCallum, first-grade teacher

“They went into areas of the school where they normally never go and practiced speaking to other grown-ups,” said April. “They were picked up by their interview subjects and walked to the interview and back to their classrooms. And the students in my class insisted on wearing their special press badges so everyone would know they’re reporters.”

All of the kids were asked who they would want to interview. Not surprisingly, there was a lot of interest in the school’s kitchen. Two teams of intrepid reporters were dispatched to interview Director of Food Services Julia Simonsen and one of the chefs, Ben.

“The importance of voice and choice was key here. We wanted the kids to take an interest in what they were learning and get to know their subjects,” said Galen. “The students invited Ben and Julia down to see the finished articles when they were done. There is something beautiful about helping them make these connections.”

Being part of the first-grade interview project combined two of my favorite things: getting to know students and sharing my love of Rowland Hall.—Mary Anne Wetzel '01, director of financial aid

And those connections are what every student mentions when you ask them about the project. Briar C. sat down with Zenon Bulka in operations to learn more about him. She reported back that Zenon is from Poland, has two boys, and babysits a dog. “My favorite part of interviewing Zenon was getting to sit with him,” she said.

The interview subjects valued the experience as well. Director of Financial Aid Mary Anne Wetzel ’01 loves passing her new press contacts during the day. “Being part of the first-grade interview project combined two of my favorite things: getting to know students and sharing my love of Rowland Hall,” she said. “I hope they learned a little bit about what I do in the Admission Office, and I got to make two new first-grade friends.” 

It's a sentiment echoed from others involved as well. “I was thanking someone for taking part in the project, for giving their time,” said April. “They responded, ‘Thanks for spreading joy around the school.’”

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The first-grade team wishes to extend special thanks to fifth-grade teacher Jen Bourque for her support and guidance in crafting this project, which was initially used in the first-grade curriculum in the 2019–2020 school year.

Academics

Upon entering first grade, students are just beginning their reading and writing journeys, with varying levels of literacy experience. By the end of the school year, thanks to the guidance of a dedicated team of teachers, these first graders have become confident, age-appropriate readers and writers.

Rowland Hall’s first-grade team—April Nielsen, Galen McCallum, Susanna Mellor, and Lizbeth Sorensen—puts their hearts and souls, and more than 70 combined years of experience, into the art of teaching first graders how to read and write. These teachers are the backbone of Rowland Hall’s uniquely engaging literacy program, a key educational pillar that serves as a launchpad for students’ love of reading and writing, which continues to grow throughout their time at the school. 

Our students leave first grade loving reading and writing. They feel empowered as word professors, readers, writers, and learners.—April Nielsen, first-grade teacher

“Our students leave first grade loving reading and writing,” explained April, lead first-grade teacher. “They feel empowered as word professors, readers, writers, and learners.”

During their first-grade year, students have a variety of opportunities each day to strengthen their skills and foster a foundation of empowerment. They practice reading, writing, and phonics, and learn about different genres and how to use authors’ techniques in their own writing. “Students feel empowered to take control of their own learning,” April said. “They’re excited about their progress as readers and writers.”        

What sets Rowland Hall’s literacy program apart from others? Undoubtedly, it’s the devotion and hard work of the first-grade teachers. The team uses the best research-based practices, as well as their combined years of teaching experience, to create joyful and engaging classroom communities of children who feel safe trying new things while actively learning. “The first-grade literacy program is highly engaging, developmentally appropriate, and thorough,” said Susanna. “It includes explicit, teacher-directed instruction, as well as many components that are discovery-based, requiring students to investigate and explore.”

The program also offers individual support for each student throughout their reading journeys—and this has been especially true during the pandemic. The teachers were proactive following distance learning in spring 2020, identifying students who would benefit from additional support over the summer to ensure they wouldn’t fall behind when they returned to school in the fall. These students were offered a two-week summer learning program where they could focus on reading and writing, as well as mathematics, in ways that would keep them excited about learning. Once students returned to the classroom, the teachers worked tirelessly to offer them individualized literacy instruction, while also being proactive about reaching out to families about progress and how to support children at home. Thanks to Rowland Hall’s small class sizes and administrative support, they used formative assessments to guide their instruction. “We meet with each student individually to find out exactly where they are and what they need instructionally,” explained April. “Then we are able to work with students individually and in small groups to practice the new skills being taught each day.”

As the year progresses, the teachers use methods that encourage students to examine language and build meaningful literacy knowledge and skills. One of the most impressive aspects of Rowland Hall’s program is how they weave together reading and writing units to optimize student success and retention. “One nice thing about our program is when we’re reading nonfiction books,” April explained. “That’s when we’re learning how to write nonfiction, too, so students are really learning how these books are organized both during reading and writing time.”

The first-grade team is constantly hard at work implementing new and innovative strategies for writing workshops that make learning both inclusive and fun for students so that they want to explore those skills.

The first-grade team is also constantly hard at work implementing new and innovative strategies for writing workshops that make learning both inclusive and fun for students so that they want to explore those skills. (In fact, Galen highlighted how, during choice time, students often choose to do reading and writing activities. “I love writing workshop because I can use my imagination to write my very own books,” commented first grader Scarlett M.) Writing workshops allow the first graders to use a variety of skills to write and illustrate their own stories, building confidence and ownership of their own literacy learning. Students create everything from narratives to persuasive writing to nonfiction stories, and at the end of the year participate in an authors’ celebration where they read a story of their choice to their classmates and parents. This May, for example, student Ozzie S. chose to read his story about a “sushinami”—a tsunami made of sushi.

“It was fun writing my story and I'm excited to read it for the class,” Ozzie said. “I really liked drawing the pictures of the sushinami.”

The literacy program has been a longtime strength at Rowland Hall, and during an unconventional year, the program has been especially beneficial to students. Due to the consistent hard work and dedication of the first-grade team and their students, April is confident this year’s first graders will be well-prepared for second grade.

“I am extremely proud of our first graders and my team,” said April. “All of my students have made great reading and writing progress this year because they received intensive, systematic reading and writing instruction.”

Academics

Can art save the Great Salt Lake?

It’s a question that students have been asking all year at Rowland Hall through dance, visual arts, and other mediums. In May, the question was laid out in black and white with the production of The Great Salt Film, a one-act play commissioned by theatre teacher Matt Sincell and Upper School students that examines the issues of the lake, and how, or even if, the artistic pursuits of teenagers could have an impact on a looming environmental crisis.

I wanted to empower them to have a voice in the creative process ... to see how art can impact people.—Matt Sincell, theatre teacher

“The play centers on a group of teenagers in a short-film competition to bring awareness to saving the Great Salt Lake,” said Matt. “We start to understand what their frustrations are with feeling powerless, and being asked to solve these problems but feeling like they have no voice and no vote.”

These are feelings the young actors in the play related to and were able to work through by helping create a new piece of art. Playwright Rachel Bublitz brought drafts of the play to the students and allowed them to contribute to not only the semantics of the work, but also to its overall structure and theme. “I wanted to empower them to have a voice in the creative process,” said Matt. “This was a way for them to see how art can impact people.”

The impact is already being felt in small ways. More than $500 was raised through the world premiere of the play, all of which went to FRIENDS of Great Salt Lake. This may not seem like much, but that is a key message of the play: every bit matters. The character of Truth, played by ninth grader Anaïs Bray, makes that point by emptying one bucket of water at a time into the dying lake. “It’s all about the small steps,” she said. “Truth’s mindset is: ‘It’s the best I can do and I need to do what I can do.’”

The bigger impact will be putting the play out into the world. Now that it has premiered at Rowland Hall, it is eligible for publication and subsequent production at schools and theaters all over the world. People who have never even heard of the Great Salt Lake will be able to learn more about its shrinking, and the environmental impact. They will also learn the names of the first cast to perform the play, as they will be printed on every future edition. “It’s fun to know that I’m the first person to do this role,” said ninth grader Henry Olsen.

The message is one of hope.—Owen Thomas, class of 2023

The impact is also through the students who participated in the creation of the play and its first production. They now possess a sense of agency to pick up and examine complex dilemmas and not shy away from them, no matter how insurmountable they seem. After all, there is a lake to save.

“I think the message is one of hope,” said twelfth grader Owen Thomas. “This isn’t a battle we’ve lost yet, but we still have a long way to go.”

Theatre

The rhythms of West Africa, created by Tiya Karaus’ second graders, filled the chapel.

It’s a chance to expose students to different art forms and give them opportunities to interact with experts in artistic fields. They get to see the arts in action and start making connections between themselves and the outside world.—Tiya Karaus, second-grade teacher

Some students took turns on dundun drums while others danced, each taking a part in telling a story. The activity was part of the Artist in Residence program at the Lower School, which brings musicians, painters, photographers, dancers, and more onto Rowland Hall’s McCarthey Campus each spring. For Tiya’s class, the artist was dancer and drummer Déja Mitchell, who was instructing the students on the kuku rhythm, a celebratory call-and-response drumbeat that, in Guinea, is used to signal the return of women to the village from a successful fishing outing. Opportunities like these, Rowland Hall teachers agree, are a great way to deepen student learning and connect them to the larger community, which is what makes the Artist in Residence program so special.

“It’s a chance to expose students to different art forms and give them opportunities to interact with experts in artistic fields,” said Tiya. “They get to see the arts in action and start making connections between themselves and the outside world.”

In addition to West African drumming and dancing, this year lower schoolers took part in learning about photography with artist Kirsten Hepburn, and explored modern dance with a performer from Tanner Dance. The arts are an important part of a Rowland Hall education from the earliest stages of learning. Music and visual arts are woven into the curriculum in Beginning School classrooms, and regular music and art classes are part of the weekly schedule in the Lower School. In the middle and upper schools, students are given multiple opportunities to take part in a variety of artistic endeavors. The arts enjoy a place of prominence at the school not only for the joys they bring, but also for the lessons they teach. Music, dance, theatre, painting, and other means of artistic expression give the students windows into experiences that they may not otherwise be privy to, and also provide mirrors to their own experiences and how they connect them to the world. They also are a way of learning that feels natural to children.

“The whole child is a musical child, is a dancing child, is an artistic child,” said McCarthey Campus music teacher Susan Swidnicki. “That’s part of being human.”

Part of the human experience for Tiya’s students also involved learning about the people on the other side of the world who invented the rhythms they played and the dances they performed. Along with the music and dance, Déja shared with the class the history behind the rhythms and dances, and how and why they evolved. “It’s a way for them to connect with another part of the world and get a deeper appreciation of other people and cultures,” she said.

We live in a very noisy world. For children to do that kind of focused concentrating, listening, and responding is really important to their learning.—Susan Swidnicki, music teacher

A deeper cultural competency is just one of the additional benefits Tiya’s students are gaining through the Artist in Residence program. Self-control and cooperation are two other skills they have developed as they played the drums and learned the dances. Every student will tell you the kuku rhythm isn’t just about where you strike the drum, but also how hard you hit it. You have to have the balance. And you have to be listening to what others are playing, and watching the movements the dancers are making, in order for everything to work together.

“We live in a very noisy world. For children to do that kind of focused concentrating, listening, and responding is really important to their learning,” said Susan. “It’s a great lesson in how to get along with others collaboratively and joyfully.”

The students also gain confidence in themselves, not only as artists but as people. After all, drumming is not easy. But if you mention the term “kuku” to them, they do not hesitate to show you. Dozens of hands instantly start drumming on tables.

“It’s a full-body experience for them. It’s hard work when you are little, and you have little hands,” said Tiya. “As one student said, ‘I love this so much, but my hands are so tired.’”

Academics

Chloe Jones ’11 is back on familiar ground. As the new executive director of UtahPresents, and the assistant dean for art and creative engagement for the College of Fine Arts at the University of Utah, her home base is now Kingsbury Hall.

“I took my first dance class at Tanner Dance when I was two,” Chloe said. “I have vivid memories of being in Kingsbury Hall growing up. It’s surreal to be back on campus in this new capacity.”

I am very committed to continuing our mission of bringing diverse artistic and cultural experiences here to
Salt Lake.—Chloe Jones ’11

While Chloe’s office may be in Kingsbury Hall, the mission of UtahPresents reaches well beyond the grand staircase that leads to the theater. The organization stages performances and cultural experiences across Salt Lake County with the help of several partner organizations. It is also instrumental in arts education, with programs spanning from kindergarten through high school, and into colleges and universities.

“I was drawn to UtahPresents because of the organization’s strong foundation, and I’m excited to continue building on the successes they have had in the past,” Chloe said. “I am very committed to continuing our mission of bringing diverse artistic and cultural experiences here to Salt Lake.”

Chloe is one of the hundreds of thousands of people who make art possible in communities around the world, but she’s not who you might think of when you think of someone who works in the arts. You may picture an actor or prima ballerina, or an up-and-coming sculptor with a hot new show, and while those people are important, they aren’t all the arts have to offer—and are actually a very small part of the overall puzzle.

“A career in the arts is not only about being a performer,” said Sofia Gorder, Rowland Hall’s arts chair of dance education and Chloe’s former dance teacher. “The way we frame a career in the arts has to really shift and change and recognize that it is part of a larger whole, rather than an isolated marginalized space where very few succeed.”

The opportunity to explore different facets of the arts is one of the reasons Chloe is now with UtahPresents. In her new role, she said she is asking what is possible within the arts, and how to tap into the sense of curiosity that brings people to the spaces where art occurs. “Often younger individuals’ relationship to art is through their own practice of art or through consumption of art,” she said. “There are infinite ways to be an artist or an arts worker. That's the beauty of the arts—the space for imagination, creativity, and innovation is vast.”

And those active in the arts will tell you that art should not be centered around a person or persons in the spotlight, but instead involve entire communities. The more voices and contributions to the process, the richer and more profound it becomes. That is the power of art, and its presence enriches the lives of everyone it touches. This is why schools, including Rowland Hall, so strongly emphasize the importance of arts education.

“Art turns up the volume on our nerves so we confront the world in a way that is more human. It allows us to see the world and feel the world, perceive that world that is richer because of the lenses that art gives us,” said Chloe’s former English teacher Joel Long, who teaches Upper School English and creative writing at Rowland Hall today. “All those things heighten our ability and our vulnerability and allow us to enter the world more fully.”

Chloe also knows it isn’t just how art connects us to the world, but also how it connects us to each other and spurs us to action, making us brave in the times when we are most fearful. “I think the arts give us inroads to understand different social issues,” said Chloe. “They are a critical way of convening and building community around those issues. I feel very strongly we need the arts to inspire us.”

Chloe’s education at Rowland Hall laid the groundwork of her arts-filled career. She was a Lifer, or a student who attended the school for 12 or more years. She described the school as her community growing up, and said she is especially thankful she was chosen as a Cumming Scholar in ninth grade. During high school she was a member of the dance company and the co-editor-in-chief of the literary magazine, Tesserae. But it was the more intangible skills she gained that proved to be the most useful.

Rowland Hall made me a critical and curious thinker, and reinforced my love of questions and helped me become more creative and strategic in trying to answer those questions. It was such a nurturing and academically challenging environment, and that combination made me more resilient—and you need to be resilient to pursue a career in the arts.—Chloe Jones ’11

“Rowland Hall made me a critical and curious thinker, and reinforced my love of questions and helped me become more creative and strategic in trying to answer those questions,” she said. “It was such a nurturing and academically challenging environment, and that combination made me more resilient—and you need to be resilient to pursue a career in the arts.”

After Rowland Hall, Chloe attended and graduated from Wesleyan University, and began her career working at the Wesleyan Center for the Arts. From there she went to The Yard, a residency supporting performers and creators on Martha’s Vineyard, where she worked as director of development and associate producer before becoming executive director. Moving through the organization helped her develop skills in fundraising, nonprofit management, curation, and programming. “It was a unique opportunity to invest in the creative process by supporting new work development, while also investing in public programs that build community through the arts,” Chloe said. 

“I’m super proud of her. She has done amazing things,” said Joel of Chloe’s work in the arts. He’s also excited about how these skills promise to now make an impact on Chloe’s hometown. “I am thrilled that she is doing something that will matter to her and could matter to others in relation to the arts,” he said

Now back in Utah, Chloe is certainly applying these early career experiences to her new role. UtahPresents engages more than 45,000 people throughout the Salt Lake Valley in the arts every year through performances, education, and outreach, and Chloe hopes to see those numbers grow and to see experiences diversified. Currently, they are looking at more off-site performances and opportunities like the “Stagedoor” series, where the audience enters from backstage and then sits on the stage to watch the performance.

“It's been energizing to rejoin a campus community at the University of Utah and tap into the sense of curiosity that exists in that environment,” Chloe said. “It is helping me ask the question of what else is possible within the arts. This job really is a homecoming of my dreams.”

It’s a dream homecoming for Salt Lake and the extended community as well. Chloe is set to open doors to a whole new generation of artists, arts sector professionals, and patrons of the arts. Because of her work more people will know what’s possible, and it all started with a Rowland Hall education that never discounted the power of the arts.

Alumni

One common thread you’ll find across Rowland Hall classrooms this year is students’ dedication to protecting the Great Salt Lake—and to educating and inspiring others to do the same.

On February 10 and 11, middle and upper school students took this work to a new level when they used Submerge, this year’s winter dance concert, as a springboard to more widely educate the Rowland Hall and larger Salt Lake communities about the lake through art.

I hope audience members not only learned something new and were spurred to make change, but felt as though this problem isn't some looming, overwhelming thing, but something that can be tackled. I also hope they took away how art can bring many people together, create change, and shape the world for the better.—Mackenzie White, class of 2025

“The arts have the important job of identifying the issues of the day and reflecting, expressing, and interrogating those issues in order to build on-ramps to community development,” explained Sofia Gorder, arts chair of dance education. To further ensure that attendees had the information they needed to get involved, the dancers collaborated with five local organizations—Brolly Arts, FRIENDS of Great Salt Lake, Great Salt Lake Collaborative, Save Our Great Salt Lake, and The Nature Conservancy—who generously agreed to set up tables for concert-goers interested in learning more, and to help promote the event. (Thanks to the collective efforts of all involved—including an essay by senior Anna Hull and a spot on FOX 13—Submerge became the school’s best-attended dance concert ever.)

But the event went even further when it came to inspiring attendees through the arts. Audience members were also treated to two Great Salt Lake–inspired student visual art installations, displayed outside the Larimer Center for the Performing Arts: one of three-dimensional paper tiles, the other of ceramics. It was a way to deepen the learning, but also, the students hoped, to inspire people to leave motivated to help contribute to solutions that benefit us all.

“I hope audience members not only learned something new and were spurred to make change, but felt as though this problem isn't some looming, overwhelming thing, but something that can be tackled,” said tenth grader Mackenzie White, who choreographed the Submerge dance “Ritual Solitude” with junior Lilly Swindle, as well as contributed artwork to both displays. “I also hope they took away how art can bring many people together, create change, and shape the world for the better.”

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We invite you to enjoy galleries of the dance concert and student artwork below.

Submerge Dance Concert

“It is a rare event that has the capacity to unite teens, kids, parents, divisions, multiple subject matters, and faculty to explore, discuss, invent, research, learn, and affirm each other's ideas toward solving a shared collective problem all in one night,” said Sofia. “I think these dances did just that.”

Great Salt Lake–Inspired Paper Tiles

A collection of paper tile reliefs, created by ninth- through twelfth-grade students enrolled in the intro to studio art class, lined the hallway leading to the Larimer Center.

“Students researched imagery of the Great Salt Lake, its flora and fauna, and came up with a visual language to represent the essential nature of their chosen subject,” said art teacher Rob Mellor. “We discussed not just the visible qualities, but sensory ones as well. How does one represent sound, or the feel of wind or salt on the skin?” Rob wanted students to think in modernist and reductive terms, and to work within a limited palette of colors that reflect those of Great Salt Lake’s biome.

Ninth-grade English teacher and poet Joel Long also contributed to the project by supplying short phrases from his own writings, which students digested as they brainstormed pieces.

Great Salt Lake–Inspired Ceramics

Concert attendees enjoyed a collection of middle and upper school students’ ceramic birds, as well as representations of microbialites (rock-like underwater structures made of microbes), in the east hallway display outside the Larimer Center. Some birds were sculpted individually, while others were part of totems (created by first trimester classes) or fountains (created by second trimester classes). Alongside their work, students posted facts about Great Salt Lake, further educating viewers.

“The kids were really excited to use their art as a way to speak out in support of the Great Salt Lake and to teach others about it,” said ceramics teacher Molly Lewis.

Arts

It’s clear: Rowland Hall students are inspired by the Great Salt Lake—and, in turn, they are inspiring others through their tireless work to educate themselves on the crises facing the famous landmark and their actions to save it. This dedication extends to the school’s middle and upper school dancers, who have spent the school year creating original pieces about the lake. As Submerge, the culmination of their months of work, approaches, senior dancer Anna Hull reflects on the vital role the arts play in activism.

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Art and Activism: A Student's Interrogation

By Anna Hull, Class of 2023

I’ve been in a Rowland Hall dance concert every year of high school, and each one brings unique feelings of anticipation, pressure, joy, and the knowledge of success.

However, this year’s dance concert—titled Submerge, which will be performed on February 10 and 11—has a different purpose and relevance than our past shows. When Rowland Hall decided to apply the thematic focus of Great Salt Lake’s climate crisis to the 2022–2023 school year, the dance department adopted this matter as well. This thematic shift meant that along with dealing with costuming and choreography, we’ve been asking questions of the role of activism within the arts. Specifically, how do we address the depleting Great Salt Lake through dance and, at the end of the day, can we actually make an impact?

When we worked on our first Great Salt Lake–inspired piece during the summer workshop, a weeklong intensive for all Rowland Hall dancers that takes place each August, we loved the ways that Great Salt Lake, an integral feature of our childhoods in Utah, was integrated into the choreography: the number of people on stage reflected a change in elevation, echoing the declining water level of the lake, and the multiple scores intensified the piece over time. Despite the fact that the Advanced Dance students understood these elements and their reasoning, we were constantly questioning if the dance accurately portrayed the impending crisis—and did it do so to an extent that it would cause an audience to change their behavior, join the activist cause, or simply care?

When we finished the dance, we were shocked to see tears in the eyes of the audience. Despite our apprehension, our short performance had created a massive impact. Since then, we’ve been trying to recreate this outcome.

Our first time performing one of the dances inspired by the lake, “In Form Memoriam,” was at the Great Salt Lake outdoor auditorium following a University of Utah academic forum. We expected this performance to be a throwaway and felt largely unprepared both as dancers and as agents of change. However, when we finished the dance, we were shocked to see tears in the eyes of the audience. Sofia Gorder, our dance teacher, informed us that despite our apprehension, our short performance had created a massive impact. But what caused it to be so moving? Was it the kind of audience, the setting of the lake, or simply the experience of watching young adults perform? Since then, we’ve been trying to recreate this outcome and the relationship that occurred between us and our audience.

Our second showing, at the Rowland Hall Deliberate Dialogue event Aridity, did not quite succeed at this goal. Although the arts played a role in this event, they were placed as a finalé to speeches full of alarming facts and calls to action. And although the speakers eloquently conveyed their message, our glances toward the audience told us that the information was crushing, rather than motivating. We realized that the art needed a place at the forefront of the event in order to create a context, gain the audience’s attention, and establish an emotional connection rather than a cerebral one. 

I hope that Submerge succeeds in representing our efforts as artists and activists, and that it doesn’t only leave the audience with a collection of information, but a desire to truly be a part of the solution.

So in preparation for Submerge, we’ve strategically recorded informative video clips conveying the magnitude and timeline of Great Salt Lake’s evaporation to accompany the dances, allowing logic to complement the art instead of overwhelm it. Moreover, each piece in the concert has a clear story that displays a human experience as an on-ramp to the dense material, rather than coercing a sudden wave of activism. This, to me, is the best way to use the arts to make social change. Performance has the unique ability to quickly and profoundly reach an audience, and only by using that connection can art be successful as advocacy.

Thus, I hope that Submerge succeeds in representing our efforts as artists and activists, and that it doesn’t only leave the audience with a collection of information, but a desire to truly be a part of the solution.

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Update March 2023: Thanks to the efforts of students like Anna, Submerge became the school’s best-attended dance concert ever. View photos from the event.

Student Voices

The middle school years can be tough. Emotions can be sweeping and relationships can be tentative. It’s a time when students are feeling more grown up, but also are still firmly in childhood. Finding a place of refuge can be difficult. At Rowland Hall, many students are finding that island of confidence in the dance program.

“Middle schoolers are looking for a way to express themselves and to learn more about their own identities,” said Middle School Social-Emotional Counselor Leslie Czerwinski. “Dance is a space where you can show up, be yourself, and process thoughts through movement.” 

Students are not only learning how to move, but how to find their voice through movement.

Dance is the largest Arts & Ensembles class in the Middle School. Some students take more than one section of dance each semester because the program is unique and the community is so important to them. While most dance programs start with a foundation in ballet and other Eurocentric traditions, students coming into the Rowland Hall dance program begin with break dancing. Instead of focusing on a straight spine or the proper turnout, students learn how to use gravity and shift their weight. They are not only learning how to move, but how to find their voice through movement. And once students find their voice, explained Co-Director of Dance Sofia Gorder, training becomes fun.

“They are using rhythm and music. It’s a language they understand,” said Sofia. “Then, later, they can go on and learn ballet and other techniques so that they have their voice but also the training to support that voice.” 

Students take part in every aspect of creating dance pieces: they help in picking the music and costumes, they choreograph the movements, and they work together to compose the message and mood they want to convey. “Sofia gives us a lot of freedom with choreography,” said dance student Gabrielle H. “For Platform [the 2022 dance concert] we did an ocean dance as a group and we all got to contribute in some way.”

 

Collaboration helps build a strong interpersonal community among the dancers. The studio becomes a place where they can express themselves without fear of judgment and know their ideas will be taken seriously.

That collaboration helps build a strong interpersonal community among the dancers. The studio becomes a place where they can express themselves without fear of judgment and know their ideas will be taken seriously. “It’s a time to not really worry about things and just do what I love,” said dancer Meg H. “I like how everyone has their own style and has different movements that they like to do depending on their personalities.”

Discovering these differences and how to make them work together is another important aspect of the program. Sofia explained that part of the process is discovering how the same movement looks different when done by different people, and that can change the meaning. “Dance is just the platform we use to do the important work of understanding ourselves and the people around us,” she said. 

While the artistic and personal discoveries are essential, some students enjoy the dance program simply for its physicality—and because it’s fun. It’s a time to move and share energy with others in a welcoming environment. “It’s a strong physical space to express yourself,” said dancer Jack G. “You feel amazing when you finally master something and when you finish a show you feel relief.” 

No matter what they are seeking, Middle School students appear to be finding it in dance. “Regardless of one’s background, everyone can find joy in moving to music,” said Middle School Principal Pam Smith. “Our program can help students find joy, build their self-confidence, and connect with other members of our community.”

Dance

Rowland Hall Middle School’s annex, a blink-and-you-might-miss-it room located just a few steps away from the cafeteria, may seem like it can’t contain much.

But if you happened to walk by the annex this October, when it was serving as a studio for visual art teacher Anne Wolfer’s public art class, the small room appeared to have magically expanded: passersby could catch a glimpse of more than a dozen students, a collection of paints and brushes, and, leaning against the perimeter, sixteen 18-by-48-inch medium density fiberboard panels—the building blocks of a 24-foot-long mural, titled Outer Space, that the students designed for the Lincoln Street Campus.

Public art, a class in which middle schoolers study media created for the general public’s enjoyment, covers everything from murals, sculpture, and architecture to graffiti, environmental art, and digital art. Students learn how to look at public art critically, said Anne, as well as work together on one or two of their own public art pieces each semester, deepening their understanding of what they have been studying. Past classes have created a community tree and wall hanging, but this is the first time a group has taken on a mural.

“The projects are getting bigger,” Anne laughed.

Participating in the behind-the-scenes steps of a large-scale art installation is beneficial to students, as it helps them confidently build artistic, collaborative, and even cross-subject skills.

It’s not just the mural’s dimensions that are large; the process for a project this size is too. But letting students participate in the behind-the-scenes steps of a large-scale art installation is beneficial, as it helps them confidently build artistic, collaborative, and even cross-subject skills. For instance, before ever putting brushes to fiberboard panels, the class collaborated on a theme (nature or space) and then voted on mural designs they each submitted. (The winning design, a colorful take on the solar system, was created by seventh grader Mina G.) The students also tapped into math skills to transfer their chosen design from paper to panels, twice gridding Mina’s drawing to enlarge it to mural size.

And because this project required a balance between individual and group work, students additionally learned how to showcase their own styles while also ensuring cohesion among the mural’s sixteen panels. To help guide the class through this part of the process, Anne enlisted help from her friend Trent Call, a Salt Lake City-based professional artist known for his murals, who joined the class for two periods to share his artistic approach as well as to coach students during their final days of painting.

“It’s fun to see the different styles,” said Trent, as he watched the middle schoolers add color to their boards. Periodically, he would stop next to a young artist to offer a technique for creating texture and movement—then encourage that person to share the knowledge with students next to them.

“Personalize it, make it your own, but collaborate,” said Trent. “Look at the panel on each side and see how you can work together.”

Across the room, the three eighth graders tasked with painting the Saturn panels, Chase D., Kendra L., and Samuel L., were taking Trent’s advice. Standing side by side facing their boards, they discussed the best methods for adding pink, white, and yellow clouds across the surface of the planet—an unplanned addition, they said, but one that made sense after Samuel recommended it.

“They have been working as a unit together,” said Anne of the group, with a smile.

Without [public art], our communities would be dull.—Student Nathan L.

It’s clear that helping students build the kind of collaborative skills that will benefit them not only in art class, but in life, drives Anne, and this type of project, with its intrinsic focus on teamwork—of teaching students to find solutions as a group and to take turns in leadership roles—brings her joy. “I want them to experience what it means to do collaborative work, intentionally and artistically,” she said.

It’s also clear the unique atmosphere of this class—with its focus on the art that injects pride and personality into the places we call home—is providing a special benefit to the community-builders of tomorrow. Eighth grader Nathan L. certainly believes this. As he added yellow and orange paint to the tail of a shooting star, he noted that public art not only makes a statement, but contributes to people’s enjoyment of the places where they live.

"Without it,” he pointed out, “our communities would be dull.”

Visual Arts

This spring, Rowland Hall junior Isabel Hill was awarded three Honorable Mentions in the 2021 Scholastic Art & Writing Awards (West Writing Region-at-Large) for the short story “Now You See Me” and two pieces of original artwork: the painting The Goat in a Suit and a handmade necklace. This work has been shared below with Isabel’s permission.
    

Now You See Me

By Isabel Hill, Class of 2022

Maybe things changed when I first cut my hair. Or maybe things changed when I refused to grow it out again. My parents loved my hair; I think that might have been one of the reasons I thought It had to go before I did. Mom and Dad never like the thought of me leaving home. We weren’t exceptionally close, but it was kind of a protective love that they gave me. They gave me their opinion, and they gave me what was best for me, and yet I cut away every line they roped around me. My hair seemed like one of those ties. It was long and flowing and beautiful, an altar to my parents' depiction of perfection. 

I think I scared myself when I looked in the mirror after setting down the silver-bladed scissors. The dark halo around my head had been reduced to something jagged and sharp, like messy broken glass. I just stood there, longer than I knew how to count, holding fistfuls of severed wavy locks, and holding my breath even tighter.

I learned my first magic trick with a deck of cards. I learned how to make things disappear and reappear, but I didn’t stop at cards. I taught myself when to disappear. To disappear from friends, from teachers, and sometimes my parents. But no matter how long I had disappeared for, I always came back. Not with a flourish, or a puff of mysterious smoke, but in silence, as if I had never left to begin with. But staring at this stranger in my own mirror was scary. I couldn’t make my hair reappear. It was really gone. I didn’t think I would miss it, and I was right. It was my parents who were furious. 

When I left home I stopped wearing skirts and dresses and switched over to dress shirts and ties. I sometimes annoyed myself when I insisted on wearing a tie. It felt too tight, too close, but it looked good on me. It looked refined and precise, just how I wanted to feel. I didn’t think my parents would approve, but the thought became numbed, like a dull headache that one can learn to live with.

My new friends seemed to like my wardrobe choice, and I built my demeanor around that knowledge. I stood straight, with my shoulders squared, and spoke kindly but firmly. Confident and calm, like a gentleman should be. So self assured, yet not self absorbed. The one thing past my appearance that everyone seemed to adore was my magic. 

I could perform acts with smooth fluidity. People could get as close as they wanted, they would never figure out how I did it. They wanted to know my secret and learn my spells, and I would always tell them the truth with a little wink. I told them that It's not magic, it’s misdirection.

They liked it when I deceived them, so I kept practicing magic. It became my signature, the thing that people would whisper about me with awe. I liked doing it, and seeing people’s faces melt with wonder at the thought that maybe, just maybe, magic really was possible. I continued to practice new tricks. If there was something I couldn’t figure out at first I knew I would master it eventually. It was only a matter of time. My performance was as important as the trick itself, but I soon came to realize that it wasn’t just my shows that I was performing in.

When I stood with my new friends it was like standing on a stage, only my audience was surrounding me. I would easily enchant them with my witty and friendly act. But it wasn’t magic, it was misdirection. Whenever I was in a group I was surrounded by companions, but a piece of me always felt hollow. I could thrive in the spotlight, the center of attention, but that was all an act of magic. I had taught myself how to disappear and how to go unnoticed, I didn’t know what to do with myself if I tried to show what was behind my expression instead of what was behind a spectator’s ear. 

My expressions hid an emotion, a kind of feeling that I couldn’t touch under my fingertips. I felt it crawling under my skin from time to time, but I couldn’t grab a hold of it and crush it. It was infuriating, and I didn’t know what to do about it. I wanted to cut away my confused pieces like the shriveled leaves in my mother's garden that the plants didn't need anymore. I tried to reshape who I thought I was, pruning myself into a beautiful rose. But no matter how many leaves I trimmed the thorns would always grow back.

I kept performing. It was only a matter of time before I met Adrien. The one with a soft smile and sharp eyesight, the one who was always too perceptive for my own good. Or maybe it was for my own good. He was very kind to many people, and I seemed to be one of them. Adrien’s eyesight was sharp enough to cut through a person’s skin and see what they were underneath. He could see people opened up like the petals of a flower. 

I was scared to open myself up, as if doing so would break myself as well, like a flimsy little piggy bank. He didn’t need permission though. He wasn’t invading, he was just too attentive. Adrien could tell the difference between my thoughtful silence and my upset silence and I had no idea how he did it. He seemed to take a special fascination with me and I found it almost alarming.

It took me a while to figure out that Adrien’s fascination was more of a friendship. I already had friends of course, it was something I prided myself with, but this felt different, more honest. And Adrien, he was like glass. He was transparent, but somehow he was not fragile. He could get angry, and act cold, and sometimes his accomplishments would go to his head and he would talk too much. 

He was more transparent than me at least. I found it charming. Sometimes I would see him fraying like a rope when it was pulled too tightly. But he never broke. He never shattered. I’m not sure many other people could see when he was fraying. I was attentive to detail, it was how I became such a good magician. 

I liked to baffle him with my magic. I still enjoyed doing it, and even more so when I believed I was fooling someone who seemed to see things so clearly. He never figured out the secret behind my magic, or if he did he didn’t find it important to mention.

Once he asked me to go perform magic at one of his parties, and I said no. Once he asked me to join him and his friends at a café one afternoon, and I said no. But once he asked me to go walking in a local park, and once, I said yes.

I was scared for days. I’m not sure what intimidated me so much about being alone with someone, maybe it was the knowledge that there would be no one else to help pick up the conversation. It was daunting, and the thought lurked behind me like a shadow.

It followed me as a dark and transparent figure tugging at my heels. It pulled at me, but it couldn’t pull me back from the time Adrien had set. No amount of misdirection could change the advance of time. Yet when the time came, I performed again. Only this performance seemed different. I was only hiding my nervousness, for my sake of course, and eventually the theater mask fell away. 

It started to happen before I went to meet my friend, when I had chosen my outfit after fretting over it like a child. I looked at the person in the mirror, and I saw myself. I had a nice and relaxing posture, and I spoke softly; I no longer needed the confidence that dripped from my tongue as it had before. My short, dark hair haloed around my face, the tips curling upwards like the tendrils of a tiny sun. I wore a blue vest with little stripes, and a white blouse cuffed up to my elbows. I thought I looked beautiful. I didn’t wear a tie that day.

I met Adrien outside the park. The shadow was back, gripping at my ankles, yet somehow managing to take hold of my throat and close it up in the process. I managed to bluff my way all the way past the first fountain until we could manage to walk without needing to fill the cacophony of noise with our own voices.

He picked a flower at his feet and handed it to me to admire. It was a little purple clover. Its leaves were being nibbled away by some small insect, but it was just so pretty sitting there between my finger and thumb. Adrien smiled and said he thought it looked nice against my vest. He was right, it really did seem perfect. I kept the flower.

We only talked about neutral matters, or at least, I did. Adrien told me about what he had been up to, and what his parents were doing. We kept drifting back towards school, and the weather, and the national news. Once he asked me about my magic, and a smile crept towards my face. That was something I understood.

Later that day we promised ourselves we would meet again, probably at the same place, and perhaps on a similar time around a weekend. It was later that day when I realized something else about him. Adrien was like a mirror. He would take peoples images and reflect them back at you, but somehow you would only see the best frames. 

Maybe by watching him closely enough I would understand that trick, how he could see through our skins and see something pretty amongst the coiling veins and tendons. I would figure out the secret behind that trick someday. It was only a matter of time.

Student Voices

On June 1 and 2, visitors to Rowland Hall’s Eccles Library on the Lincoln Street Campus were treated to an exciting opportunity to step into Utah’s past.

Around the room, 30 prototypes of museum exhibits, designed by eighth graders, showcased fascinating areas of Utah history, including homages to the state’s extreme sports, performance and public art, inventors, and local activist movements, among other topics. There was even an exhibit that recreated the area around Delicate Arch and one designed in the style of a Navajo hogan.

As visitors made their way around the library, poring over the models, students shared how and why they decided on their ideas, as well as fun tidbits—for example, the group behind an exhibit on the history of the Utah governor’s mansion shared that a Christmas tree sparked a fire in the mansion in 1993, while the group behind Pixel Pioneers, an exhibit dedicated to Utah’s long connection to the tech industry, introduced visitors to the Utah teapot, a 3D test model created in 1975 by University of Utah researcher Martin Newell that’s become a standard reference object in the computer graphics community.

This event was the culmination of a month-long learning opportunity designed by Mary Jo Marker, eighth-grade American studies teacher, and Brady Smith, eighth-grade English teacher, that asked students to think about the role museums play in society, and allowed them to connect with historians from the Utah Department of Cultural and Community Engagement (CCE), who are currently designing a new state history museum that’s scheduled to open in 2026. The teaching team wanted to give students a chance to pitch their own ideas for museum exhibits to CCE, believing the opportunity would help them think beyond an audience of their teachers and peers, as well as connect their ideas to the larger community through this real-world opportunity.

We wanted them to understand their ideas have value and to think outside the classroom box for their audience.—Mary Jo Marker, eighth-grade American studies teacher

“We wanted them to understand their ideas have value and to think outside the classroom box for their audience,” explained Mary Jo.

To kick off the project in early May, the eighth graders met with Kat Potter, a former Rowland Hall faculty member and a current parent, who is now deputy director of the CCE. Kat partnered with Mary Jo and Brady during the year to design the project, and during her visit she shared with students the need for the museum and what her team is working on, then invited the group to pitch their own exhibit ideas. “Their challenge was to make an engaging, interactive exhibit,” said Mary Jo.

To help the students prepare to take on that challenge, Mary Jo and Brady held in-class discussions about the role of museums and what makes for engaging exhibits, and had students interview community members, including Rowland Hall fourth graders who have been studying Utah history and residents of the Columbus Senior Center, to get their ideas about what would be interesting in a state history museum. The students also had the chance to analyze current exhibits at the Utah Museum of Contemporary Art and a variety of national museums during their visit to Washington, DC, and to reflect on which exhibits were engaging, which were not, and why. This helped them as they began working on their own exhibit pitches and making decisions about how to engage viewers with the people and events that have shaped the state.

Best of all, the real-world connection to the future museum helped to deepen learning and drive students, who knew they may be contributing ideas that will influence the team of historians. It’s clear the teachers are proud of what the students came up with and how their work may potentially help shape the museum.

School is often fully teacher-facing, but I think having students prepare a big project for the outside world is motivating, and hopefully gives a different perspective.—Brady Smith, eighth-grade English teacher

“We were incredibly happy with how the project went,” said Brady. “We had an excellent turnout from parents, community members, and staff from the Department of Cultural Engagement. The latter gave the kids great feedback and suggested that the projects would impact their thinking about the museum going forward.”

Brady added that he also hoped that this opportunity has helped the eighth graders understand how the past year of studies applies to the bigger world and will inspire them to continue to think of ways they can share their knowledge beyond the classroom.

“School is often fully teacher-facing, but I think having students prepare a big project for the outside world is motivating, and hopefully gives a different perspective,” he said. “I hope they see how everything we’ve done throughout eighth grade has concrete applications to public-facing work.”

Authentic Learning

The rhythms of West Africa, created by Tiya Karaus’ second graders, filled the chapel.

It’s a chance to expose students to different art forms and give them opportunities to interact with experts in artistic fields. They get to see the arts in action and start making connections between themselves and the outside world.—Tiya Karaus, second-grade teacher

Some students took turns on dundun drums while others danced, each taking a part in telling a story. The activity was part of the Artist in Residence program at the Lower School, which brings musicians, painters, photographers, dancers, and more onto Rowland Hall’s McCarthey Campus each spring. For Tiya’s class, the artist was dancer and drummer Déja Mitchell, who was instructing the students on the kuku rhythm, a celebratory call-and-response drumbeat that, in Guinea, is used to signal the return of women to the village from a successful fishing outing. Opportunities like these, Rowland Hall teachers agree, are a great way to deepen student learning and connect them to the larger community, which is what makes the Artist in Residence program so special.

“It’s a chance to expose students to different art forms and give them opportunities to interact with experts in artistic fields,” said Tiya. “They get to see the arts in action and start making connections between themselves and the outside world.”

In addition to West African drumming and dancing, this year lower schoolers took part in learning about photography with artist Kirsten Hepburn, and explored modern dance with a performer from Tanner Dance. The arts are an important part of a Rowland Hall education from the earliest stages of learning. Music and visual arts are woven into the curriculum in Beginning School classrooms, and regular music and art classes are part of the weekly schedule in the Lower School. In the middle and upper schools, students are given multiple opportunities to take part in a variety of artistic endeavors. The arts enjoy a place of prominence at the school not only for the joys they bring, but also for the lessons they teach. Music, dance, theatre, painting, and other means of artistic expression give the students windows into experiences that they may not otherwise be privy to, and also provide mirrors to their own experiences and how they connect them to the world. They also are a way of learning that feels natural to children.

“The whole child is a musical child, is a dancing child, is an artistic child,” said McCarthey Campus music teacher Susan Swidnicki. “That’s part of being human.”

Part of the human experience for Tiya’s students also involved learning about the people on the other side of the world who invented the rhythms they played and the dances they performed. Along with the music and dance, Déja shared with the class the history behind the rhythms and dances, and how and why they evolved. “It’s a way for them to connect with another part of the world and get a deeper appreciation of other people and cultures,” she said.

We live in a very noisy world. For children to do that kind of focused concentrating, listening, and responding is really important to their learning.—Susan Swidnicki, music teacher

A deeper cultural competency is just one of the additional benefits Tiya’s students are gaining through the Artist in Residence program. Self-control and cooperation are two other skills they have developed as they played the drums and learned the dances. Every student will tell you the kuku rhythm isn’t just about where you strike the drum, but also how hard you hit it. You have to have the balance. And you have to be listening to what others are playing, and watching the movements the dancers are making, in order for everything to work together.

“We live in a very noisy world. For children to do that kind of focused concentrating, listening, and responding is really important to their learning,” said Susan. “It’s a great lesson in how to get along with others collaboratively and joyfully.”

The students also gain confidence in themselves, not only as artists but as people. After all, drumming is not easy. But if you mention the term “kuku” to them, they do not hesitate to show you. Dozens of hands instantly start drumming on tables.

“It’s a full-body experience for them. It’s hard work when you are little, and you have little hands,” said Tiya. “As one student said, ‘I love this so much, but my hands are so tired.’”

Academics

The Great Salt Lake Institute needed help.

With a mission to connect people to the Great Salt Lake through research and education, the GSLI, as it's known colloquially, works hard to educate Utahns about the famous state landmark. But the GSLI team had recently become concerned that their urgent messages weren’t reaching enough people—especially from a younger audience. 

So in fall 2022, when Rowland Hall’s seventh-grade English teacher, Jill Gerber, and seventh-grade science teacher, Anna Wolfe, approached the GSLI about partnering on a student-led, project-based learning opportunity that would support one of the GSLI’s current challenges, the team jumped at the opportunity.

“Anna and Jill approached me with their idea for a collaborative project and asked about a problem that we as an institute needed help with,” said Carly Biedul, GSLI coordinator and Rowland Hall’s former Lower School science teacher. “We know we need to expand outreach—especially to younger people, as they are the future scientists and changemakers—and knew the seventh graders would offer a new perspective. And since I previously taught many of the students, I know how creative they are.”

Project-Based Learning: A Brief Overview

Jill and Anna’s English-meets-science collaboration is one example of the many exciting project-based learning (PBL) opportunities happening at Rowland Hall this year. While not new in education circles—or at Rowland Hall—PBL has been regaining popularity in recent years because of its proven approach to inspire and motivate learners of all ages.

Through PBL, students are more motivated, and learn more meaningfully, broadly, and deeper than in traditional structures.—Wendell Thomas, director of teaching and learning

“When project-based learning is done well, it incorporates strategies that we know help students learn,” said Wendell Thomas, director of teaching and learning.

Explained simply, the PBL approach is a way to provide student-led, active learning opportunities tied to real-world connections, from expanding the GSLI's reach to researching ways to help communities thrive. The magic of PBL comes from how it engages and transforms students. Unlike assignments that heavily rely on teacher-defined parameters, PBL empowers students to drive their own learning by asking questions and applying their findings, ideas, and observations to the problem, scenario, or task at hand.

Wendell explained that high-quality PBL supports students developmentally, as proven by self-determination theory—the idea that, thanks to humans’ inherently curious nature, we pursue learning and development opportunities when our needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness are met. In other words, when we’re allowed to engage in self-guided learning, seek out and master challenges, and establish close emotional bonds and secure attachments with others—all of which are elements of high-quality PBL—we want to continue to learn.

“Through PBL, students are more motivated, and learn more meaningfully, broadly, and deeper than in traditional structures,” said Wendell.

Creating a High-Quality PBL Experience

Anna and Jill knew that creating a high-quality PBL experience for their students would require a solid foundation: a partnership with a community member who had a genuine need. Though they knew their students wouldn’t be engaged in the project until after winter break, Jill and Anna set out to identify their partner early in the school year, seeking one, in Jill’s words, “whose work would be relevant to students and would have social value, and who, as a person, is relatable to the students.” They saw Carly, and the GSLI, as that partner. With Carly’s knowledge of the school and her connection to Great Salt Lake, they knew the partnership would offer an ideal way for students to make an impact on a local, and familiar, issue.

Jill and Anna prepared for the project by building knowledge that the students would need, including an understanding of abiotic and biotic interactions within ecosystems, as well as research and presentation skills. They further explored what lake advocacy looks like by joining FRIENDS of Great Salt Lake for a day program that helped build students’ familiarity with and connections to Great Salt Lake.

In addition to identifying a community partner, Jill and Anna prepared for the project by building knowledge that the students would need, including an understanding of abiotic and biotic interactions within ecosystems so they would understand the fragility of Great Salt Lake’s ecosystem and have a common language, as well as research and presentation skills, including design thinking, decision filters, and the components of quality research. They further explored what lake advocacy looks like by joining FRIENDS of Great Salt Lake for a day program at the lake, which also helped to build students’ familiarity with and connections to Great Salt Lake. “We thought that would help them feel a sense of urgency and connectedness to this problem,” said Anna.

By late January, the teachers were ready to introduce the students to the project, and brought Carly to campus to share information about the GSLI as well as to present the institute’s problem, which was simplified to a question that would guide the students’ work over the following three weeks: How do we broaden our reach to new audiences so our community understands and prioritizes the local impact of the Great Salt Lake? The students were then able to ask clarifying questions that would help guide their work.

Looking back, the teachers remember the seventh graders seemed understandably nervous about the PBL task. “I think they were intimidated by a big, open-ended question, which is so different for them,” said Anna. Many students initially questioned why the GSLI would give seventh graders this assignment—if adults couldn’t find a solution, how could they? Student Will W. remembered that he believed the group could take on the task, but still felt concerned about its many unknowns. “I felt a sense of honor because they trusted me, and I knew that my peers and I were ready to complete this task,” he explained, “but I was a little concerned about who I would be working with and how they would contribute. Then, I was concerned about what the guidelines would be and what we were and weren't allowed to do. Finally, I was concerned that I would have to really be a creative and thoughtful student, and I would have to really think hard about it.” Students’ early concerns were understandable—and natural.

“Like most real-world problems, this project was challenging and uncomfortable,” said Jill, but she and Anna were prepared to coach the seventh graders, especially during the earliest stages of the project, while they built their confidence. Through protocols designed to clarify the GSLI’s problem and craft solution hypotheses, each group, assigned by the teachers, created an initial research plan, then leaned on the skills and knowledge they had been building to identify the solutions they thought would best help the GSLI meet its goal. They also identified a target audience for each solution, then started the research phase, a step that included conducting their own original field research in Salt Lake's 9th and 9th neighborhood in early February. Through it all, the teachers provided opportunities to check in.

“Every day there were goals that we were hitting,” said Anna, “and at the end of each week, students had a ‘share-out,’ or summary presentation, to give.” This not only broke the work into more bite-sized pieces, but also got students comfortable with presenting. “My teachers had us do weekly share-outs about what our group was doing. During that time they would give us feedback,” said Vivi K. “That was a great way to gain confidence.” Jill and Anna further built kids’ confidence by bringing in two guest speakers who talked to them about crafting field market questions, including how to ask unbiased questions, and professional presentation skills.

Additionally, the teachers continuously reminded the students about their very real capabilities—the reason, they said, that Carly enthusiastically agreed to partner with them. They reminded the students that, as members of one of the age groups that the institute wants to reach, they already knew what engages kids their age and inspires them to act. Their perspectives were assets. Instead of thinking of themselves as unqualified because they were students, Jill and Anna encouraged them to think of themselves as competent business consultants who were supporting a problem that desperately needs attention.

“At the end, it clicked that they knew more about their topic than the institute, so they were the experts,” Anna said. “I think that was a cool feeling for all of them.”

The Impact of PBL

On February 15 and 16, the days of their presentations, the seventh graders swapped their Rowland Hall tees and sweatshirts for dressier duds, then loaded onto a bus that would take them to the Westminster College campus, home of the GSLI.

“You could definitely feel the nerves,” Anna remembered. “Putting their professional dress on and going to the location made it more real; presenting outside school added authenticity.” Student Tori S. agreed, saying her pre-presentation nerves were the most challenging part of the assignment for her. “When we were on the bus on our way to Westminster to present I was so nervous,” she remembered. Around her, students were practicing their presentations, sitting quietly, or taking in last-minute advice. “My teachers helped me build my confidence by talking to me,” said Mina B. “Ms. Gerber gave me a pep talk about public speaking and how I shouldn't be scared.”

After arriving at Westminster, the seventh graders made their way to the business school auditorium. As they took their seats, Jill and Anna reminded the group how the morning would run, noting that Carly and Cora would sit in the front row, where they would take notes on each recommendation, then ask follow-up questions.

As each group took the stage, it soon became clear how much time and thought the students had put into their solutions for the GSLI. Ideas were proposed for community members as young as eight to those in their 40s, and for groups from students to families to even skiers and snowboarders. Solutions varied too: many groups touted the benefits of expanding the GSLI’s social media presence, showing examples of how TikTok engages younger audiences or how nonprofit organizations connect to followers on Instagram and Facebook. One group recommended museum exhibits and educational kits to spread information about the lake; others highlighted community events, murals, posters, and stickers. As each presentation wrapped, a calm seemed to settle over the room. Those who had presented felt confident in their work, while those still waiting realized how prepared they were. “After seeing other groups present, I started to calm down,” Tori remembered. “In the end, presenting wasn't even that scary."

We were beyond impressed. I had high expectations and they exceeded them. I took copious notes the whole time and learned so much.—Carly Biedul, GSLI coordinator

Anna recognized how the setting of the college auditorium—alongside factors such as working toward a deadline and presenting to a real client—solidified the students’ view of themselves as knowledge experts. “They realized that role way more than if they had done it in my classroom,” she said. Vivi, for one, had a strong experience that confirmed that role when she saw Carly taking a picture of one of her slides. “I was proud because she was actually going to use some part of our idea,” she said.

In the audience, Carly felt like a sponge as she soaked up the ideas that would help her team reach more people. She was surprised by the extensive research the seventh graders had done, and appreciated how they included examples from similar organizations. “We were beyond impressed,” she said. “I had high expectations and they exceeded them. I took copious notes the whole time and learned so much.”

And thanks to the PBL approach, the students knew the excitement of the day would last long after their presentations were finished, as some of their recommendations would go on to be put into action by the GSLI—and that they may be a part of that work too.

“I told the presenting groups I will need their help in the future, and plan to reach out as we implement their ideas,” said Carly, who said she is working to apply multiple student ideas at the GSLI. “It was pretty clear we need a better social media presence, so we will be expanding that soon. We are looking into a TikTok, as that seems to be where many young people get their news and information from. We were also inspired to have more events in the future, perhaps maybe a trivia night that one group alluded to.”

For Jill and Anna, watching the students blossom and receive validation for their innovative solutions supported their decision to devote substantial time to this new collaborative community partnership. “Jill and I were so blown away and so proud of them,” said Anna. “I think it was definitely the most unique moment of my teaching so far, to see students actually be business consultants and give meaningful solutions to a problem. It was really cool to see these kids go through the struggle and all of the emotion, but then to come out on the other side with actual information someone will use.”

Students recognized the benefits of the experience too. When asked to reflect on what they learned about themselves, they listed a wonderful mix of academic and professional skills, including leadership, motivation, time management, critical thinking, teamwork, problem solving, communication, creativity, public speaking, and how to apply research and analyses to a real-world project.

I felt honored and privileged that the GSLI gave seventh graders the opportunity to help solve Utah's greatest environmental problem.—Seventh grader Will W.

“I learned that I can do hard things, I can push myself to my limits and succeed,” shared Mina, who believes this opportunity helped her overcome a fear of public speaking and showcased her leadership abilities. “I am most proud that I stood out as a leader and led my group to a successful presentation. I overcame fears and ended up having a great time.”

The students also recognized the satisfaction that comes with contributing to real-world solutions. “I felt honored and privileged that the GSLI gave seventh graders the opportunity to help solve Utah's greatest environmental problem,” said Will. It’s a perspective that the teachers hope will keep the group motivated as they continue their educational journeys. 

“They learned a ton about themselves,” Anna remarked, “and who knows how this experience will impact their future moving forward?”

It’s a reflection that’s also true for the GSLI—and will doubtlessly be true of other organizations who engage with Rowland Hall students in PBL projects that serve as opportunities to both strengthen our shared community and shape tomorrow’s leaders.

Authentic Learning

What do you get when you ask a class of resourceful fifth graders to take the lead on a community-focused project?

An impressive array of impact-making solutions.

That’s a truth that Rowland Hall’s fifth-grade teaching team discovered this year, thanks to a new project-based learning (PBL) opportunity that kicked off in the fall and, after months of dedicated student work, wrapped earlier this month.

The project, the first of its kind for the grade, began taking shape at a summer PBL workshop attended by two of the fifth-grade teachers, Sam Johnson and Colleen Thompson, who brought an idea to fellow teachers Jen Bourque and Dr. Torry Montes, both of whom had PBL experience from previous schools and were excited to bring a new idea to life in their Rowland Hall classrooms. The team wanted to connect their students’ learning with an understanding of their place within community, as well as—thanks to the nature of PBL, which promotes deep learning through student choice and leadership—empower them to take charge of an opportunity to build connections across the larger Salt Lake community. They decided to identify a shared public space that could use improvement, picturing it as a canvas on which students could lead the charge of finding ways to better serve the community, and they chose Bend in the River, a somewhat neglected park along the Jordan River Parkway, as the space for the project. They planned an October field trip to introduce students to the area.

Their discussion focused not on transforming the space they stood in, but on examining larger societal issues that contributed to unmaintained spaces, pollution, and a lack of housing. And since PBL is designed to follow students’ areas of interest, rather than adults’, it quickly became clear that the project was going to shift in unexpected, and exciting, ways.

But when the teachers took the students to Bend in the River, things didn’t unfold quite as expected. Instead of discussing how they wanted to change the area, the kids instead wanted to discuss the why behind what they were seeing: litter, broken structures, water pollution, and unhoused people. Their conversation focused not on transforming the space they stood in, but on examining larger societal issues that contributed to unmaintained spaces, pollution, and a lack of housing. And since PBL is designed to follow students’ areas of interest, rather than adults’, it quickly became clear that the project was going to shift in unexpected, and exciting, ways.

“We had this idea of proposals to change this park, but that didn’t come from the kids,” said Jen. As a result, the role of Bend in the River changed. “It became the place we used to come back to how that place is related to issues that touch the greater Salt Lake community.”

To better support their students’ burgeoning interests, the fifth-grade team refocused the project, moving away from transforming a specific space to answering an essential question: What do communities need to thrive? In November, they relaunched the project with an in-school field trip composed of rotations that would help students answer that question, determine what they were most passionate about, and identify where they wanted to work toward making an impact. “We were embracing the ever-moving target that is project-based learning,” explained Jen.

As part of the in-school field trip, the teachers brought in community members who could speak about creating connections and working toward solutions that benefit a shared community, a choice that was well-received and led to visits from additional representatives who generously shared their knowledge over the coming weeks: Britney Helmers and Josh Schuerman from Little City; Will Wright from the Salt Lake City Office of Economic Development; Tyler Fonarow, recreational trails manager for Salt Lake City Corporation; Ann Wigham (parent), Stan Stensrud, and Kimo Pokini from Ruff Haven; David Garbett (parent) from O₂ Utah; Greta Hamilton, stormwater program supervisor for Salt Lake County Public Works & Municipal Services; Brian Tonetti from Seven Canyons Trust; Mat Jones, District 2 supervisor for the Utah Department of Public Lands; and foothill rangers Haley Long and Eric Creel.

As the students learned about and discussed what communities need to thrive, four areas of interest naturally rose to the surface: environment, unhoused community, arts and community spaces, and trails and parks. It was decided that, in place of the original Bend in the River idea, students would find solutions to community problems within the four areas, each of which would be led by a teacher who could provide coaching, feedback, and support. And as an added benefit, the teachers structured the project so that students could work with their peers in other fifth-grade classes, a helpful experience for this group of rising middle schoolers.

The three A's allow students to be young changemakers in their own communities and prepare them for the challenges of the world they are going to inherit.—Dr. Torry Montes, fifth-grade teacher

The teachers also wanted to use the experience to help students better understand the many ways people can make real-world impact, which they did by introducing them to the three A’s: awareness, action, and advocacy. They explained that each A stood for a way people can make change: generate awareness by bringing attention to a problem, take action by moving forward on a solution, or act as advocates for policies that help people. The three A's, explained Dr. Torry, are often considered the goal of high-quality PBL.

“Educator Tony Wagner states that project-based learning is one of the best ways to meet all of the 21st-century learning goals,” she said. “The three A's allow students to be young changemakers in their own communities and prepare them for the challenges of the world they are going to inherit.”

Inspired by the ways they could make communities better, the students set to work researching causes and solutions, reaching out to groups and organizations, and creating a variety of projects that impressively showcased each of the three A’s, including proposals, petitions, posters, websites, flyers, and even a poem. By early March, when the students shared their final solutions at an open house, they had truly illustrated how young learners, when empowered to lead their learning, can take action, build awareness, and advocate for what they believe in. And as parents and caregivers wandered the fifth-grade wing, examining the projects, they were amazed by what they saw, recognizing how this work would benefit community organizations—including Salt Lake City Corporation, Tiny Village, Family Promise, Crossroads Urban Center, and Rowland Hall, not to mention the community members whose lives would be enhanced through the students’ ideas around clean water, safe shelters, and environmental protections—as well as the students themselves. Through this experience, the students learned life skills that will benefit them long after they leave their fifth-grade classrooms—including leaning on their own thinking to approach real-world problems. It’s a skill that’s essential, and one they’ll be encouraged to build on as they move on to middle school, and beyond.

“This is preparing them for their futures,” said Jen.

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Project Galleries

As part of their community project, Rowland Hall’s fifth graders were asked to not only choose the areas of change they wanted to pursue, but also to decide how they wanted to creatively share their work with others. We’re proud to include in this story the students’ choices for the Rowland Hall community’s enjoyment, and have provided examples of the students’ work in the galleries below. We also invite readers to read the students’ reflection essays on the experience, written to be published here in Fine Print.

Awareness

Students learned that generating awareness is essential to bringing attention to a problem, what needs to be done, and who should be involved. Click below to view the gallery.

Action

Students learned that action means moving forward on solving a problem they have identified. Click below to view the gallery.

Advocacy

Students learned that advocacy is designed to influence policy, helping to mobilize community members toward improvements. Click below to view the gallery.

Authentic Learning

Close your eyes and visualize a third-grade class. Now, describe what the students are doing.

Chances are, you’re picturing a lot of activity: kids running around a playground, perhaps, or enthusiastically waving their hands in their air, hoping to be the next to contribute to a class discussion. But if you happen to visit Katie Schwab’s classroom on the McCarthey Campus right after lunchtime recess, you may just be surprised by what you find.

On this particular January day, as the third graders made their way back to their room, they began to do some unusual things. First, someone turned off the overhead lights. Then the group began to spread out around the darkened room. Some students took cushions from the window seat to put under their heads, while others chose to lie flat on the floor without support; one lucky person grabbed a spot on the classroom couch. Any quiet chatter trickled to silence as a class member began to lightly play a tongue drum, its chimes a calm ocean wave softly rolling across the room.

Katie's aim is to equip students with a variety of centering techniques they can use to identify emotions and how they’re manifesting in their bodies, and then reset and regulate their nervous systems.

“I would like everyone to start to find your rest,” said Katie. “Maybe close your eyes. If you’re sitting up, be still and grounded to earth.”

As each student settled into their position of choice, a soft voice came over the sound system: the narrator of the day’s Mind Yeti meditation exercise, “More Love, Not Less.” As they made their way through the meditation, the students repeated affirmations such as “Whatever is going on inside you, you are worthy of your life” and “When I am sad, I deserve more love, not less.” After being led through a range of emotions, students were asked to insert whatever feeling they were experiencing in that moment.

While meditation isn’t something you often see in elementary school classrooms, for Katie, it’s become an important tool in her teaching quiver. Over the past few years, she’s noticed how factors including the pandemic, overwhelming world events, and a constant exposure to technology have put kids in a heightened state of anxiety—one that can be hard to come down from. “Just being present is a challenge,” she said.

So this year, Katie decided to bake a mindfulness routine into her class schedule, inserting purposeful time for meditation or relaxation in the space between the class’ midday recess and a period of quiet individual work time. Her aim is to equip students with a variety of centering techniques they can use to identify emotions and how they’re manifesting in their bodies, and then reset and regulate their nervous systems. It’s been a new experience for most of the children, and while many admit it was hard at first, as the months have passed, they’ve gotten good at it and started to recognize how it’s making a difference in their lives.

“After we do mindfulness, I feel calmer,” said Nina E., “and it’s easier to do some stuff.” Classmate Will W. agreed, adding that the practice has helped him better focus after recess. He’s even started meditating at home with his mom before bed. “It helps me fall asleep faster,” he said.

Katie’s class has also had the chance to build on their skills thanks to bestselling author Dr. Pedram Shojai, a Rowland Hall parent of two (his son is in Katie’s class) who shares the benefits of mindfulness with people around the world. Like Katie, he knows that young minds are being overwhelmed today, and that technology—designed to trigger a dopamine release in young brains, particularly boys’, to make money off their attention—is a major culprit. “The attention economy has really gotten all the way down to children as young as three,” he explained, so it’s imperative that kids growing up today learn how to center themselves amid tech noise that isn’t going away. “You need to learn how to hold that line, and have control over your own mind and your own consciousness and your own attention.”

Meditation and other mindfulness exercises can teach kids how to do just that. During his visit, Dr. Shojai continued to help build the kids’ toolbox of mindfulness techniques by introducing them to Jedi skills (Jedis meditate too!) and mindful movements such as peripheral vision training, which coordinates the eyes, mind, body, and breath to activate a state of relaxation. He also had them practice a tried-and-true technique to calm the fight-or-flight instinct they feel when wound up: bend your knees to relax your calf muscles, put your tongue against the roof of your mouth, and breathe from your lower diaphragm.

By building mindfulness into our children’s everyday routines, said Dr. Shojai, we’re normalizing the practice, making it more likely that the skills will become second nature to them—“the gift that keeps on giving in every facet of their lives,” he said. This is especially true if children begin practicing the skills between the ages of six and eight. Plus, there is now solid science behind the ancient practice of meditation. “After six weeks of just 10 minutes a day of basic meditation, fMRI scans show 10 to 15 percent greater density of the cortical neurons in the prefrontal cortex. That means you’re actually growing a part of your brain by meditating,” Dr. Shojai explained. “The prefrontal cortex is responsible for executive function—higher-order thinking, negation of impulses, and higher moral reasoning.”

Meditation can actually grow the prefrontal cortex, the part of the brain responsible for higher-order thinking, negation of impulses, and higher moral reasoning.

Those are the kind of outcomes that any parent or caregiver can get behind. But don’t worry if your kid is older than the recommended age, or even if you're an adult who wants to jump into meditation, said Dr. Shojai; it’s never too late to start building those skills and reaping their benefits. (Check out his tips below.)  Katie can certainly attest to this. While she introduced meditation into her classroom to benefit her students, she can’t help but notice how the practice has helped her as a teacher. “The nature of my work is multitasking,” she said,” but this practice helps me slow down every day so I can be present with my students.” After all, she added, “They look to me however I’m showing up on a given day.”

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Mindfulness at Home

Interested in bringing the benefits of meditation into your home? Here are Dr. Shojai’s top tips:

• First, understand what meditation actually is. There’s a lot of misunderstanding around meditation, and as a result, it can be hard for people to try it or to stick with it. Meditation doesn’t just look like sitting quietly in a room by yourself with your eyes closed. There are numerous techniques you can use, depending on what works best for you (that’s why Katie’s students have been trying so many options). “I meditate when I’m skiing through the trees or on a chair between runs,” said Dr. Shojai. “There are a thousand ways to climb the mountain. Find what works for you.”
• If you want to add meditation into your family’s routine, add small moments of mindfulness—and keep them fun. Don’t worry about doing too much. “Keep it easy and keep it gamified,” said Dr. Shojai. For instance, defuse a moment of tension by suggesting that everyone put a hand on their lower belly and take 10 deep breaths, or ask everyone to take five deep breaths together before starting dinner. “The key is intercepting things we’re already doing with behavior that can be modeled,” he said.
• Model the kind of behavior you want for your kids. Remember that your kids are watching you for clues on how to behave. “If mom’s a nervous wreck and she’s like, ‘You should meditate,’ and she‘s no good at it, it’s not going to happen,” said Dr. Shojai.
• As with any other positive behavior, praise kids when they’re successfully applying their new skills. The aim of mindfulness is to activate the prefrontal cortex to override a natural instinct to react (say, by hitting a sibling who’s teasing them). When your child is consciously stopping a negative reaction, show them you noticed that choice. “It’s all about positive reinforcement,” said Dr. Shojai. “The important part is to acknowledge that a child’s agency did it.”
• Remember that it’s going to take practice. “As parents, we’re also pulled into the instant gratification attention economy, where we expect things to happen faster than they do in nature, but kids’ little nervous systems need time to absorb these skills,” said Dr. Shojai. It’s okay if your child (or you!) makes mistakes while building these skills. Remember that another chance to practice them will come up.

Experiential Learning

This story won Gold in the "Magazine Writing" category of the 2022 InspirED Brilliance Awards.

By Ashley Atwood and Robert Wilson
Original Watercolors by Annie Nash, Class of 2023

Editor's note: This piece is republished from Rowland Hall's 2021–2022 Annual Report.

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In May, Upper School science teacher Rob Wilson embarked on an opportunity of a lifetime: a trip to Ketchum, Idaho, to reside in the home of Ernest and Mary Hemingway as a visiting scholar. There, he wrote teaching resources based on his own use of Hemingway in the science classroom, as well as conducted the property’s first biological inventory. It was both a personal journey and a chance for the educator to invite students into his experience, showing them what is possible when you pursue and cultivate knowledge and passion.

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In late 1939, riding the high of celebrity built as a bestselling author and international war correspondent, Ernest Hemingway traveled to the newly built Sun Valley resort in Idaho on a publicity trip. While the writer was familiar with opportunities like this, it’s almost certain he was unprepared for the impact this trip would have on his life. From that first visit, he saw the Wood River Valley—home to Sun Valley and the former mining town of Ketchum—as a refuge, an idyllic place in which to socialize, hunt, fish, and write. He returned often over the next 20 years, and in 1959 moved to Ketchum full time with his fourth wife, Mary, after their exile from Cuba. The home they bought would be their last together, a place in which they could recharge, write, and entertain, whispers of cottonwood leaves and the rumble of the Big Wood River their constant companions. It is also where, on the morning of July 2, 1961, Ernest’s life ended in the foyer.

Mary Hemingway kept the home after her husband’s death and continued to visit it until her own passing in 1986, when she bequeathed it to The Nature Conservancy with instructions that it be turned into a nature reference library. In 2017, ownership of the house passed to The Community Library of Ketchum, which today honors the Hemingways’ legacy in Idaho through preservation work and educational opportunities, including an annual seminar that attracts those captivated by the author’s life and work. In 2019, the library completed a renovation of the home’s ground-floor garage into an apartment for visiting writers and scholars—a space in which invited guests can take in the landscape that inspired one of the greatest writers of a generation, find sanctuary in which to create, and walk away changed by this house of light.

Silkworms

That night we lay on the floor in the room and I listened to the silkworms eating. The silkworms fed in racks of mulberry leaves and all night you could hear them eating and a dropping sound in the leaves. I myself did not want to sleep because I had been living for a long time with the knowledge that if I ever shut my eyes in the dark and let myself go, my soul would go out of my body.
— Ernest Hemingway, “Now I Lay Me”

For a long time I avoided seeing the house. When I went to Ketchum, I would visit the grave in the town cemetery or the monument on Trail Creek, but I did not want to see the house. It seemed like an invasion of privacy, and it was not until I was invited late last year that I laid my eyes upon it. When I was invited to stay there, I was both thrilled and frightened; I was afraid that I might not be able to sleep knowing what happened in the foyer.

My first night in the house I did not fall asleep for a long time, until I slept deeply in the wee hours of the morning and awoke with a start from a bad dream. There was a hint of light to the east, and I could hear a robin. Ecologist Aldo Leopold calculated that “the robin will give voice when the light intensity reaches 0.01 candlepower.” I’ll take his word for it. I got up and made coffee and went outside to watch the day emerge. Four geese came downstream and turned around right in front of me and landed in the channel. A house wren commenced to sing. Eventually, some pine siskins and a ruby-crowned kinglet started talking. The sun lit up the peaks of the Boulder Mountains. Like a flash, the sun came out from behind a layer of clouds on the eastern horizon, and the house lit up. Glorious! The place was alive, truly alive. I came in to make breakfast, and only then did I realize the hour had already passed of the event that I’d been afraid would haunt me too much. The life of the land and the house outshines the darkness of the foyer.
— Rob Wilson, May 2022

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Rob Wilson fell in love with the writing of Ernest Hemingway in eighth grade.

To this day, he remembers the thrill of that first reading of The Old Man and the Sea: how the novella brought to mind his own fishing trips with his dad. His mind readily painted a picture of the story’s setting: the boat, the deck, the handlines so different from his own rod and reel.

He remembers, as a high schooler, discovering a hardbound copy of Hemingway’s short stories on his dad’s bookshelf late one Friday and spending hours flipping its yellowed pages, reading long into the night. He remembers bonding with college friends over Hemingway, as well as quiet evenings during his early career as a field biologist, sitting on a cabin porch in southern Idaho and watching the sun set over the Pioneer Mountains above Sun Valley as he, again, made his way through Hemingway novels: The Sun Also Rises, A Farewell to Arms, For Whom the Bell Tolls. 

Hemingway’s writings were one of the first influential connections Rob had into the life of an artist, his stories and novels windows into worlds different from Rob’s in many ways, but also strikingly similar, with familiar streams of human experiences running through each tale. With each passing year, Rob began to see beyond the adventure stories that had first captivated him. Each new reading, supplemented by his accumulating life experience, became an opportunity to get lost in a story’s subtext. In Hemingway, Rob also found a kindred spirit—someone who, like him, respected the natural world. “Hemingway noticed the little things around him, and how they lived,” Rob said. The author’s writings are abundant with those observations: how trout hold in a clear river, for example, or the features of a wildfire-blackened mountainside, all described in such honest, sharp ways that it heightens the real-world experience of being outdoors.

In 2015, while re-reading Hemingway’s short story “A Pursuit Race,” Rob’s connection to Hemingway deepened in a new way when he realized how well its understated portrayal of alcoholism and heroin withdrawal could be applied to his health class lesson on substance abuse. He thought it would complement the textbook he usually used for the lesson, but more effectively invite students to contemplate the human impact of substance abuse in a way a textbook can’t.

“What fiction is,” he explained of that choice, “is a way to invite you into examining life.”

It was a successful experiment, one that excited both Rob and then-Head of School Alan Sparrow. Over the years, Rob began adding more texts to his lesson plans, including Aldo Leopold’s A Sand County Almanac and Robin Wall Kimmerer’s Braiding Sweetgrass, as well several Hemingway short stories: “Now I Lay Me” for its themes of metamorphosis, “The Snows of Kilimanjaro” for its tie to the climate, and “Big Two-Hearted River” for its portrayal of earth systems. Like the living creatures he brings to campus—pigeons for genetics, jellyfish to animate the history of life on Earth—Rob has found that Hemingway texts are an effective resource to enrich students’ understanding of science concepts. They’re also unexpected.

Research continues to make it clear that interdisciplinary learning, combining two or more subjects into one activity, benefits students by broadening how they think and how they approach problem solving.

“Students can be strict about silos,” he said, referring to the kind of thinking that draws lines around areas of study: students should reference a textbook or case study in science class and read Hemingway in English class. But research continues to make it clear that interdisciplinary learning, combining two or more subjects into one activity, benefits students by broadening how they think and how they approach problem solving. Hemingway’s signature iceberg approach—the idea that an author should allow a story’s deeper meaning to be implicitly realized by the reader—is an effective method for stretching young minds, allowing students space to lean on their own interpretations and observations.

“This is a major component of my teaching strategy,” said Rob. “If I tell you something, you are more likely to forget it. If you discover it for yourself based on what I provide, you will remember it and be proud of yourself.”

Many Hemingway stories build this skill with multiple examples of inference and deduction, forms of logic necessary to the scientific process, as well as sensory details that can deepen an understanding of natural sciences. While he was in Idaho, one of the stories Rob had his ninth-grade biology students read was “Now I Lay Me,” throughout which narrator Nick Adams, a soldier convalescing behind the front lines during World War I, refers to the sound of silkworms devouring mulberry leaves in his room. It was a natural tie to the class, which had been observing and caring for their own colony of silkworms that spring. Over the weeks, thanks to their worms’ diet of mulberry leaves, the class had watched the invertebrates grow from eyelash-sized hatchlings to fat, round, white worms. And as they read the story—for many, their introduction to Hemingway—that experience both provided a mental picture and enhanced the story’s subtext.

“It was easier to visualize the things described in the reading,” remembered Loc Ossana-Aoki, while classmate Rachel Brague added, “Having silkworms in the classroom helped emphasize the story, showed the bigger picture. Knowing about silkworms, I understood the emphasis on the man's experience.”

It was an experience that helped drive home the ideas that science isn’t static and that interdisciplinary connections enhance learning in exciting ways. Much like a Hemingway story, the students realized, there is always another layer to discover, something new to take away, to enrich overall understanding.

“Without any knowledge or experience, you can read these stories and understand what is happening,” explained Rachel, “but once you know more, the simple writing suddenly seems like the story is much longer and filled with more information than before.”

In past years, Rob has had students share Hemingway discoveries like these in class, but this year’s trip to Idaho gave them an opportunity to make even more connections among the stories, their studies, and his experience when he invited them to ask questions about his time away. “They were really curious,” said Rob. “All I did was say, ‘What would you like to know?’ and they asked questions for the entire period.” Discussion flowed around the Hemingway property’s major geographic features and how they change over time, natural selection, and the landscape itself: mature cottonwoods and blue spruces the Hemingways may have looked upon, a house wren whose call Rob imitated, and pileated woodpeckers whose strikes Rob demonstrated by knocking on the whiteboard. Rob also shared how he placed the class silkworms on the writing desk as he composed his own work, a metamorphosing muse, and his own feelings of fear, peace, and reverence for the sacred space.

“It was really personal for him,” said student Winston Hoffman, “but I think all of us appreciated what he had to say because he was trying to include us in the experience. It was like we had been there too, almost.”

Grasshoppers

As he had walked along the road, climbing, he had started many grasshoppers from the dust. These were just ordinary hoppers, but all a sooty black in color. Nick had wondered about them as he walked, without really thinking about them. Now, as he watched the black hopper that was nibbling at the wool of his sock with its fourway lip, he realized that they had all turned black from living in the burned-over land. He realized that the fire must have come the year before, but the grasshoppers were all black now. He wondered how long they would stay that way.
— Ernest Hemingway, “Big Two-Hearted River, Part One”

I headed north on Highway 93 around 1 pm. It was cool and windy, and I could see flurries of snow in the mountains ahead of me. I always feel such great anticipation during this part of the drive, and I remembered making the drive at other times of the year, doing other things with other people, and always having the sense that I am gravitating toward Ketchum. It’s funny to think of the warm summer nights on Big Cottonwood Creek, when I sat on the porch and looked across the Magic Valley to the Pioneer Mountains and wondered who had watched them fill with snow and returned to see that the snow had melted. Nothing about the drive reminded me of my dad except loading the car, driving past the duck club on the Jordan River and the other one on the Bear River, looking for ducks when I passed canals, geese in fields, bridges over rivers, and birds circling; the exit at Tremonton that we used to take to hunt and fish in Swan Valley (in the winter, the ducks would circle over the cottonwoods and disappear and reappear over the channel under the branches, closer than you were ever used to seeing them); looking out into the sagebrush, wondering if it held sage grouse; and the drive to Magic Valley where we took our last hunting trip that winter, when I broke through the ice on the Big Wood River, and I didn’t know if it would be 10 inches deep or 10 feet.

What I did not know going north is how much better I would understand this way when I took it, just a few days later, going south. I drove on knowing that I could share this experience and return to it.
— Rob Wilson, May 2022

* * *

Rob’s journey to his Hemingway House residency began in September 2016, when he received an invitation to that year’s Ernest Hemingway Seminar from his best friend from graduate school, Jeff Motychak. Titled Hemingway and Nature, the seminar was to feature discussions on “Big Two-Hearted River” and aimed to, in the words of The Community Library, “stimulate deep thinking about the role of nature in Hemingway’s works.” It was a perfect opportunity for two natural scientists fascinated by Hemingway and would play a transformative role in Rob’s life. “I was so deeply inspired,” Rob remembered. “I came back different.”

Rob has participated in the seminar each fall since, and in 2019 joined the planning committee to assist in its arrangement. His annual journey north is a pilgrimage of sorts, where he observes the landscape, reflects, and recharges. It’s also a chance for him to connect with Hemingway enthusiasts—literary scholars, scientists, art curators, educators, writers, and the curious public—who gather to examine a Hemingway novel, topic, or even passage. It was through these discussions that Rob built a relationship with the library, which in September 2021 extended a writer-in-residence invitation, initially hoping Rob would use the time to write the Hemingway lessons he had developed into teaching resources for other educators, a goal that would expand in the intervening months. And though he knew the experience would be deeply personal, he and Upper School Principal Ingrid Gustavson also knew it was a valuable opportunity, a chance to further help students perceive, seek, and discover connections in their learning, and they decided he would schedule the trip during the school year.

“So much of what we're doing with kids in education is modeling lifelong learning,” explained Ingrid. “This opportunity allowed Rob to explore, through his biologist lens, his observer lens, the home of a literary giant and give a new perspective on it.”

So many scientists know the quantitative evidence of what they’re looking at, but the quantitative evidence doesn’t matter unless you know who you’re impacting.—Annie Nash, class of 2023

It’s this kind of thinking that can change students’ lives. For upper schooler Annie Nash, who was first introduced to Hemingway in 2020 as one of Rob’s ninth-grade biology students, and who identifies as both a scientist and an artist, the confluence of subjects in Rob’s classroom felt natural, freeing her to think about how she can apply both sides of herself to her life’s work.

“I never really imagined art separate from the sciences,” she explained. “Science is artistic, nature is artistic, math is artistic—we can’t separate them.” And the older she gets, Annie said, the more she realizes an interdisciplinary approach to education is preparing her for a dynamic world that needs creative-minded and collaborative thinkers to take on its big challenges. “So many scientists know the quantitative evidence of what they’re looking at,” she said, “but the quantitative evidence doesn’t matter unless you know who you’re impacting.”

An aspiring pharmaceutical scientist, Annie knows her personal definition of success depends on more than an understanding of analytical chemistry and biostatistics. One area she’s especially concerned about is the historically negative impact of medicine on marginalized communities. She worries that the traditional approach to science education, one that focuses strictly on data, leaves scientists removed from the real-world impact of their work, and she believes applying topics like English, art, and history to her science studies helps her recognize worrying trends in her desired field so she can do her part to interrupt them. Novels and short stories are especially powerful ways to frame this history, she’s learned. More than other media, they effectively invite readers to reflect on humanity’s shared history and paint an understanding of how the human journey—what we’ve believed, what we’ve valued, how we’ve lived—has shaped the current world so readers can take away lessons for their own lives.

“You understand the time period but also separate the good and the bad—and then further the good in your own studies,” said Annie. “Scientists are sometimes viewed as being antisocial hermits who are detached from real-world issues. I want to break this stereotype so that I can encourage others to be empathetic in their research, to always strive to better the world.”

Cottonwoods

Best of all, he loved the fall. The leaves yellow on the cottonwoods, leaves floating on the trout streams, and above the hills the high, blue, windless skies.
— Ernest Hemingway, eulogy for Gene Van Guilder

I can track with my eye the flow through the deepest part of the channel that would have ruptured the beaver dam. The flow is deflected off of the bedrock wall. Parts of the channel are visible from the east-facing windows, and it is easy to imagine that residents of the house would have watched the river shape this bend over the years. They would have seen cottonwoods bloom with beet-colored catkins, fill in with lush green leaves, and fill the air with a distinct perfume; leaves yellow on the cottonwoods; and the transformation to black and white skeletons against the winter land. From here, they could watch the plumes of snow raised by the wind from the highest peaks. They would have heard the gossip of geese and had a view into the nests of hawks and private lives of kinglets, and been witness to the comings and goings of myriad birds throughout the year. It saddens me to know how much Ernest would have enjoyed this setting over the decades he could have lived here and did not. He has left us his gifts of perception so that we may enjoy it ourselves and teach others to experience the sublime and to protect it.

Teaching is a service of paying forward knowledge, skills, and values that enable another to cope and thrive in an ever-changing world. You can’t be a beacon if your light doesn’t shine. Mary could have walked away, and she chose to stay and have the house protected in perpetuity. The house on the hill of bedrock above the sea of cottonwoods is a beacon that both signals danger and radiates hope.
— Rob Wilson, May 2022

* * *

The house on the hill is designed to maximize its view.

From its wide patios, large windows, or broad lawn, visitors gaze upon a landscape of colors and textures: snow-capped peaks of the Boulder and Pioneer mountains, the Big Wood River flowing over gray stones, the dark trunks and lush foliage of black cottonwoods that, in late spring as they burst into new life, fill the warming air with a honey scent.

Cottonwood forests, or galleries, tell a story of resilience: their survival depends upon the ability of seedlings to keep their roots in contact with capillary fringe, the area of soil that draws moisture from the water table. When flood conditions are met, the trees grow in cohorts, but most years, due to weather or human disruption, those conditions are not met. As a result, one cohort of cottonwoods matures to nurture the next, a process that strengthens the entire gallery.

There are times, though, when a cottonwood forest stops regenerating altogether, a process that happens so gradually the untrained eye misses the first signs. For the caregivers of the Hemingway House and its estate, a loss like this—of Mary’s desire for how the property would continue on—would especially hurt, and so Rob volunteered to conduct the first biological inventory, a task necessary to fully realize Mary’s vision.

“It's the library’s mission, as stewards, to protect that little bit of land,” he explained. “The biggest thing I could offer was to describe the living landscape for them.”

In addition to writing teaching resources, Rob spent hours of his residency walking the property’s 13.9 acres looking for cottonwood saplings as evidence of regeneration and documenting the landscape, from the bedrock on which the house stands to the kinglets and house wrens calling into early spring mornings, all of which he included in a reference document for the land’s ongoing protection and conservation—his personal contribution to its stewardship. “This idea of stewardship is: if you're here, it's your job to take care of things,” said Rob. “That's maintaining a landscape, if that's what you have the opportunity to do, or a place, or a relationship.”

A recurrent theme at Rowland Hall is: be the change you want to see in the world. That’s stewardship. My message to students is they can be interested in something and cultivate it and watch it become bigger and better than they ever imagined.—Rob Wilson

As a scientist, Rob has too often seen how our time in history is marked by a collective lack of stewardship, from climate change to the imperiled animals he studies, and he believes each individual plays a role in stewarding our world. He knows that if in his classroom he can tap into our shared humanity by breaking down learning silos and showing students how their passions, whatever those are, connect to something bigger, he can better prepare them to be the people the world needs.

“A recurrent theme at Rowland Hall is: be the change you want to see in the world. That’s stewardship,” said Rob. “My message to students is they can be interested in something and cultivate it and watch it become bigger and better than they ever imagined.”

It’s a perspective that can be found in hundreds of ways across Rowland Hall classrooms, from cross-disciplinary teaching partnerships in the Upper School to experiential learning in the Beginning School. “Adults at Rowland Hall model so well how to see connections in the world, to get excited about learning across disciplines,” said Ingrid. “No one is too young or too old to discover things we really care about, then go deep and figure out how to teach them to others, support a cause, or further someone else's learning.”

This sharing of knowledge is often viewed as a pinnacle of education, a way of students continuing the journey their teachers set them on. Just as a younger cohort of cottonwoods benefits from the stability and nourishment provided by an older cohort, students benefit from their teachers’ examples, then go on to share what they know. “The true test of a student's learning is not the answer they write on an exam,” said Rob. “It is how they share what they learned with the people around them.”

Ingrid remembered seeing evidence of this truth in May when she stopped by Rob’s classroom to find him and three earth science students caring for tanks of betta fish and the class jellyfish, Calypso. Rob encouraged the students to tell Ingrid about the creatures, which they excitedly did, showing her how they harvest brine shrimp for jellyfish food and test the water, and sharing who was caring for the animals over the summer. In that moment, Ingrid said, she realized the students had fully taken ownership of their learning. “This is theirs now,” she thought.

“I always thought science was supposed to be very straightforward—not bringing your own opinion, your own feelings into it,” said Hope Thomas, one of the students in the classroom that day, and Calypso’s summer caretaker. “For a while, it made it a hard subject for me because I’m a very creative person.” But being in Rob’s classes, where she’s encouraged to see connections among areas of study that another science teacher may never approach, Hope realized that making science personal wasn’t just okay, it was necessary to understanding, and taking on, the challenges of today. 

“It makes it more applicable to us when we can think about science in a more personal way,” she said. “When you care about it more, you are more willing to take action.”

And ultimately, this is the goal of education: to help students make meaningful connections about what matters to them and take action to leave the world a better place than they found it. It’s a lesson, Rob has found, that means more to him with each passing year and is especially clear when he returns to The Old Man and the Sea, the book that started his journey, and the one Hemingway himself called “an epilogue to all my writing and what I have learned, or tried to learn, while writing and trying to live.” With the benefit of time, study, and lived experience, said Rob, it’s now more than just a fishing story—it’s a reminder of what is most precious in the time he has.

“What gets me now,” he said, “is the poignancy of how brief a moment is going to be.”

Authentic Learning

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Banner photo credits: Ernest Hemingway by Robert Capa (c) International Center of Photography/Magnum Photos; Mary Hemingway courtesy of the Jeanne Rodger Lane Center for Regional History, Dorice Taylor Collection. Other photographs provided by The Community Library and Rob Wilson.

Special thanks to The Community Library for their partnership on this story.

Beyond the Classroom 2021 was a great success!

"We were so glad to be able to offer our Beyond the Classroom program again this year after taking a break due to COVID in 2020,” said Upper School Principal Ingrid Gustavson. An Upper School tradition, Beyond the Classroom is a four-year sequence of experiences designed to take students out of the classroom and into the broader community.

We enjoyed a great day of relationship building, exploration, and self-reflection.—Ingrid Gustavson, Upper School principal

“Beyond the Classroom offers an opportunity for students in grades nine through eleven to engage with the greater Salt Lake City community and its natural surroundings to learn leadership skills, identify areas of interest, and develop an understanding about how to have an impact through individual and collective action,” said Ingrid. “Students heard from guest speakers, worked in teams, and explored areas of our own backyard, like the state capitol and Three Creeks Confluence, while also having a chance to go much further afield in the High Uintas. Seniors focused on their college applications, with a full day of workshopping their essays with college counselors and English teachers. The smiles in the photos say it all! We enjoyed a great day (three days for ninth graders) of relationship building, exploration, and self-reflection.”

This year’s event was held on September 21 and included the following experiences.

Ninth Grade

Ninth graders enjoyed activities around the theme Water and the West, first learning about federal water policy—including tension between the federal government and states around managing and conserving water—from the Debate Team. They then worked with the Seven Canyons Trust and Jordan River Commission to understand current efforts to daylight creeks.

Ninth graders continued their Beyond the Classroom experience with learning rotations at Camp Roger, located in Utah’s High Uintas, on Wednesday and Thursday, and meetings with advisors and teachers on Friday.

Tenth Grade

Tenth graders spent the day at Camp Roger, where they enjoyed learning rotations involving watercolors and hiking.

Eleventh Grade

Eleventh graders spent the morning examining climate effects in the West and how they disproportionately impact communities. They then mapped the heat island effect in the Folsom Corridor before traveling to the state capitol to learn from Better Utah about Utah’s climate and air quality issues.

Twelfth Grade

Twelfth graders participated in a college counseling workshop where they received assistance with their college applications from Rowland Hall’s college counselors and senior English teachers.

Experiential Learning

“An editorial cartoon isn’t just a funny picture,” Pulitzer-Prize-winning editorial cartoonist Michael Ramirez told Rowland Hall eighth graders at a special virtual presentation on January 25. “A good editorial cartoon is a fine instrument of journalism: It defines an issue. It challenges hypocrisy. It reveals the best and the worst of humanity. It calls the reader to arms against the complacent, the lethargic, the evil-doers, the indolent body politic, the champions of the status quo, the sordid predators of society.”

Editorial, or political, cartooning isn’t often a subject that middle school students examine closely. So when Rowland Hall had the chance to invite Michael—uncle of eighth grader Elli Ramirez and senior Ke’ea Ramirez—to speak to eighth graders, teacher Sarah Yoon jumped at the chance. She knew that the discussion on editorial cartooning, free speech, journalism, and citizen responsibility would tie to current studies as well as give students a unique opportunity to interact with an esteemed artist: in addition to two Pulitzer Prizes (1994 and 2008), Michael’s awards include a 2015 Reuben Award for Outstanding Cartoonist of the Year (the highest honor the profession bestows) and three Sigma Delta Chi awards for excellence in professional journalism (1995, 1997, and 2007). 

Michael urged students to seek out balanced information on complex issues, noting that this practice will provide them with a more comprehensive view of those issues, help them better understand and solidify their own beliefs, and prepare them to have constructive conversations.

At the January 25 event, Michael talked about how he views his role to help protect and inform the public, and gave students the chance to ask questions about his work, his career path, and even his love of surfing. He also used the time to inspire students to become active citizens and, one day, voters. The job of members of a democratic republic, he told them, is to be informed.

“Information is a necessary component to guide you in a political system based on self-governance and individual liberties,” Michael explained. He urged students to seek out balanced information on complex issues, noting that this practice will provide them with a more comprehensive view of those issues, help them better understand and solidify their own beliefs, and prepare them to have constructive conversations.

“You cannot make a substantive opinion on anything if you don’t know the depth of what you’re talking about,” he explained. “You can’t build a car if you don’t know the mechanics of an automobile; in the same way, you cannot construct an argument unless you know the mechanics of the debate.”

Michael’s presentation encouraged students—some noted that it aided them in understanding the power of their voices, while others reflected on how learning about Michael’s career helped them realize that they can express themselves in creative ways. They tapped into this inspiration as they embarked on their post-event assignment: to create their own editorial cartoons. In the weeks following the presentation, they became junior editorial cartoonists, researching, editing, and drawing (by hand or computer) their opinions on topics such as the January 6 attack on the US Capitol and the impact of COVID-19. For Monica Fernandez, the assignment gave her a chance to share her views on a subject she cares deeply about: climate change.

“I decided on the subject of my cartoon because I think climate change is a very important and real thing in our lives, and we should all try and become more aware of it so we can make smarter decisions in our day-to-day lives,” she explained. Like Michael and his fellow editorial cartoonists do, Monica took time to research her topic and consider the best approach to make her viewers think.

Monica's perspective is a reflection of what she and fellow students took away from Michael’s presentation—that good editorial cartoons inform and challenge readers as well as draw them into debate and action, and that engaged citizens have a say in the destiny of their country.

“I decided to include an hourglass, because I think this was a good way to visually show how fast time is running out,” she reflected. “My original plan was to show different natural elements (animals, trees, glaciers, people, oceans), but after creating a rough draft I realized that it looked sloppy and didn’t get my point across. I decided to just use the visual of the globe, and I was more happy with that design. My end result was three hourglasses—as the time goes by, each hourglass has more sand at the bottom and less world left.”

Monica hopes that, in addition to making viewers think, this image may also inspire them to change behaviors. “Even the little things in life that we do on a day-to-day basis can affect how much longer we can all make this world last before it all runs out,” she explained.

Her perspective is a reflection of what she and fellow students took away from Michael’s presentation—that good editorial cartoons inform and challenge readers as well as draw them into debate and action, and that engaged citizens have a say in the destiny of their country. The powerful images the students created prove that it’s never too early to help them think about their role as American citizens and sharpen the skills that will support them in that role. After all, as Michael pointed out, “Developing future citizens and participants in our democratic republic is so important.”

Experiential Learning

By Caelum van Ispelen, Class of 2023

Saunter past Upper School room A-11 on Wednesdays at lunch and you will hear the rumbling gears of some fascinating minds.

Some days you'll listen to combinatorics; other times it might be hyperbolic trigonometry—or if you're lucky, the venerable Chicken McNugget theorem. But invariably, that classroom holds students exploring the reaches of mathematical knowledge that extend well beyond what is traditionally taught in school.

This is the Math Club: a group of students coming together to connect over mathematics and its enigmas. Led by senior Zachary Klein, with the guidance of seasoned math teacher Adella Croft, its five-year history has seen not only valuable connection and bonding over a shared interest, but also exceptional performances in national and international mathematics competitions.

Compared to the courses offered at school, the Math Club offers a much more varied perspective on mathematics. "We don't have a set agenda; we just do what interests us," said club president Zachary. For many students across all knowledge levels, this flexibility rekindles an appreciation for math's intrinsic beauty. "It's refreshing to think about a broader range of approaches to problems rather than peering through the same lens for the whole year, as would be the case in a class," said club member Caelum van Ispelen.

There's something meaningful in struggling with a problem and not managing to make progress. It's valuable exposure for everyone, and we learn how to deal with things that seem impossible.—Senior Zachary Klein, Math Club president

A primary goal of the club is to enrich people's appreciation for the creativity in math and problem-solving. Asked about the difference between competition and school math, Zachary said, "The main difference is your level of preparedness ... when you take a math test at school, you've already seen the same problems, just with different numbers." In competition math, he argues, none of the questions follow this pattern. "You're never going to see a problem you've seen before. You have the tools to solve them, but you have to figure out how to use those tools in a way that's almost unique to yourself and your identity."

Even students who might not find a use for the range of mathematical concepts covered in the Math Club still walk away with indispensable wisdom: the ability to fail. "There's something meaningful in struggling with a problem and not managing to make progress," said Zachary. "It's valuable exposure for everyone, and we learn how to deal with things that seem impossible."

As students leave for college and brace themselves for the much-increased challenge of its courses, this exposure will certainly come into play. In fact, many Math Club members are already experiencing university-level rigor in the form of the newly introduced Advanced Topics in Mathematics course. Faced with the complexities of percolation and group theory, these students find themselves remembering the Math Club wisdom in their struggle to persevere. "Doing competition math and taking tests where 25 percent is considered a good score definitely sparked my tenacity for challenging material," said Caelum.

Armed with a drive to connect to other math-minded people, the members of the Math Club are helping to spread their burgeoning knowledge to younger students as well. Zachary now leads Mission Math Utah, a nonprofit organization dedicated to creating awareness and appreciation for STEM topics across elementary and middle school students. Remarking on the organization's no-questions-asked financial aid policy for tutoring and competitions, Zachary said, "I've heard from people how thankful they are for the easy financial aid, and it lets them discover more math. That's really meaningful to me."

Senior Zachary Klein and juniors Dean Hijjawi, Sophie Zheng, and Isabelle Jiang ranked in the top 5 percent of American Mathematics Contest test takers, qualifying for the American Invitational Mathematics Examination (AIME). This success marks the second-highest number of AIME-qualifying students from any school in Utah in 2023—as well as the fourth year in a row Rowland Hall students have performed at this level.

Beyond the Math Club's success in spreading creativity, the 2022–2023 school year has been no exception to the students' prowess in nationally renowned competitions. After periods of intense studying, wrestling through heaps of problems and scratch paper, students in the Math Club participated in the American Mathematics Contest (AMC), an immensely competitive exam that demands the most creative and intricate problem-solving skills. In a stellar performance, senior Zachary Klein and juniors Dean Hijjawi, Sophie Zheng, and Isabelle Jiang ranked in the top 5 percent of AMC test takers, qualifying for the American Invitational Mathematics Examination (AIME). This success marks the second-highest number of AIME-qualifying students from any school in Utah in 2023—as well as the fourth year in a row Rowland Hall students have performed at this level.

On top of this astounding achievement, students from the Math Club participating in the American Regional Mathematics League (ARML) are performing phenomenally as well. With their participation, the Utah team won first place in the ARML Power international competition in 2022. The team was then invited to travel to Boston where they competed in the Harvard-MIT Mathematics Tournament. In the team round, they ranked seventh place in the nation.

Given this legacy of achievement and contributions spread throughout the past five years, the Math Club will continue to thrive. And with Zachary graduating this year, it will be up to the younger generations of students to take the helm—and they are well prepared.

Student Voices

Dr. Sophie Janes ’12 remembers when she first realized she could have a career in STEM.

“I was in Mr. Hayes’ ninth-grade biology class and it just clicked for me,” she said. “I realized I really liked science.”

Dr. Janes is now an OB/GYN resident at the University of Utah, and she returned to Rowland Hall’s Lincoln Street Campus on March 17 to talk to current students about how they, too, can find a place in science, tech, engineering, and math—or STEM.

We want students to see themselves reflected in different role models and in different fields. We want them to know they can successfully navigate career pathways they are passionate about.—Dr. Chandani Patel, director of equity and inclusion

Dr. Janes, a representative from the medical field, was one of the speakers who attended the school’s first annual The Future of STEM: A Symposium with Local Innovators event, a program held in honor of Women’s History Month. She was joined by physician Dr. Tricia Petzold (medicine) and mathematics professor Dr. Priyam Patel (math), as well as teachers Ben Smith ’89 (computer science), Dr. Padmashree Rida (biology), and Christian Waters (technology); Great Salt Lake Institute Coordinator Carly Biedul (environmental science) was also scheduled to attend, though she had to cancel due to illness. The event was set up so students could meet with women currently working in STEM, learn about various career paths, and find out how to get started on their own pathways to STEM careers, while also supporting peers along the way. The event’s keynote speaker, tech CEO and incoming Rowland Hall Board Chair Sarah Lehman, advised the group to “get comfortable with the uncomfortable,” to not be afraid to stake their claims in fields that interest them, and, when faced with challenges, to "focus on what is important to you and let other things roll off."

The symposium included a goal of encouraging historically underrepresented individuals to pursue their interests in STEM fields, including seeking out mentors who are doing work that is exciting to them. One of the sessions was on how women can navigate these fields, while another explored how to be an ally and make STEM more inclusive to a variety of people. “We want students to see themselves reflected in different role models and in different fields,” said Dr. Chandani Patel, director of equity and inclusion. “We want them to know they can successfully navigate career pathways they are passionate about.” 

Dr. Patel said the STEM symposium was only the first of what she hopes will be many events aimed at bringing community leaders and professionals to the school to share with students career options and opportunities the students may not have even considered. Events like these underscore the importance of building strong partnerships to create learning opportunities, both in and out of the classroom.

“I am so glad to be able to help show them what’s possible and what steps they need to take,” said Dr. Janes. “I want them to be brave and make  the most of the opportunities available to them.”

STEM

Every day on the Lincoln Street Campus, students walk past a bulletin board displaying the award-winning Annual Report story “Computer Science for All at Rowland Hall.” The bold headline is a lofty aspiration that is becoming a reality, one class at a time.

“We’ve always known this was an area that we wanted to grow,” said Director of Technology Integration Christian Waters. “We feel that increasing opportunities for students in computer science and robotics is in line with the strategic priority to prepare students for an ever-changing world.”

There is an argument that coding is a new literacy skill everyone must have, along with reading, writing, and arithmetic.—Christian Waters, director of technology integration

And in today’s digital world, no matter what fields students want to go into, an understanding of the basics of computer science is not only an asset—it’s a necessity. “There is an argument that coding is a new literacy skill everyone must have, along with reading, writing, and arithmetic,” said Christian.

Knowing this, Rowland Hall has made recent investments in our computer science offerings, which are already making a difference across divisions, including in the Middle School. This year’s hiring of the division’s first full-time computer science teacher is one substantive proof of the school’s commitment to growing the program, and the Middle School team is taking advantage of the opportunity to offer classes students haven’t always had access to before. This year, they are building robots made of LEGO bricks, designing games, and coding their own websites. Next year, there will be even more opportunities, like application design, expanded robotics offerings, and a maker class.

And students are discovering a passion for the subject—even if they were unsure what to expect when they began. Eighth grader Emery L. thought she was signing up for a mechanical engineering course, so was surprised when it was software engineering. Now, though, she’s passionate about creating with code. “I enjoy the problem solving,” she said. “The more you learn, the more tools you have to work with, and eventually you can put them all together and create something big and impressive.”

Eighth grader George J. sees the possibilities as limitless when it comes to what he can do with his growing knowledge of computer science. He also said it has changed the way he views the world. “I like looking at websites and knowing how they were built, and knowing I could build something similar,” he said. “If I see a problem in the design, I know I could fix it."

The number of students discovering a passion for computer science in the Middle School is expected to increase in coming years, due largely to the exposure they are getting in the Lower School. Starting in kindergarten, Rowland Hall students are introduced to STEM and robotics principles, and starting in second grade, all Lower School students take computer science as part of their curriculum. Students also have access to more resources, including an all-new TREC (technology, robotics, engineering, coding) lab, which is home to multiple 3D printers and has plenty of space for students to build, experiment, and explore.

“Not only are they building skills and knowledge, but they are also building interest,” said Director of Curriculum and Instruction Wendell Thomas. “In a couple of years, the students coming into the Middle School will have significant experience, and we will be able to offer them next steps and challenges.”

I enjoy the problem solving. The more you learn, the more tools you have to work with, and eventually you can put them all together and create something big and impressive.—Emery L., class of 2027

Introducing these skills and knowledge earlier also means more students are invested in computer science and see themselves as a part of the field—an important step in fulfilling the school’s goal of bringing computer science to all. “We realize that, like schools across the country, we still have work to do to ensure girls and people of color are represented in our computer science classes,” said Christian. “Everybody should be able to see themselves as successful in computer science and robotics.”

It's a plan Emery supports. Even though she’s not currently taking computer science this semester, she is continuing the work she started in the fall on her own time, learning various code languages and continuing to work with computer science teacher Jon Poll on projects. She enjoys the challenges the subject presents and the opportunities her experience will bring in the future. “In any job, tech is always present,” she said. “If you have these skills and abilities, there will be a way to apply them in any career that you choose. Even if it’s a minuscule part, there still is something to do with it.”

Wendell agreed, noting that the future of computer science in the Middle School, as well as the school as a whole, all comes down to fulfilling our vision to prepare students to make a difference in today’s world. “People the world needs need to understand how computers work and how they can be used,” he said. “We are doing that at Rowland Hall.”

STEM

Robots are really cool.

When you think of a robot competition, you probably picture Battle Bots, with machines bent on destruction. But in reality, robotics competitions are about showcasing the work of the creators. Can these machines work independently? Can they follow commands in real time? It doesn’t sound exciting, but every person in the room is on the edge of their seat. Cool.

The cool factor is the first thing any member of the Rowland Hall Robotics Club wants you to know. Building a robot for competition allows these students to start with an idea and watch it come to life. They take it from the design phase to building and testing, then through competing and troubleshooting. They use mechanics, mathematics, engineering, computer-aided modeling, 3D printing, intelligent and inspired design, prototyping, and other tools to reach their goals. And through it all, they are the ones calling the shots. All while playing with robots.

This is student-led and student-run. It’s a collaborative effort of a community of students to set and reach their goals.—Ben Smith ’89, computer science department chair and teacher

“This is student-led and student-run,” said Ben Smith ’89, computer science department chair and teacher, and robotics coach. “It’s a collaborative effort of a community of students to set and reach their goals.”

Rowland Hall has had some sort of robotics program since 2012 (Alex Beaufort ’13, a current coach, was one of the first members), but the club officially started in 2019. There were only three students in the club that year, but they still competed at the state tournament and took home prizes. Things have only gotten better since then. Now, roughly 18 students make up the club, and they have built two robots that they take to competitions around the state.

The students aren’t just responsible for the robots, though. As Ben said, this club is student-directed and student-run by design. That means the students also have to do the marketing, the fundraising, the publicity, the event planning, and handle the logistics when they travel. Those responsibilities, coupled with the knowledge required to build the robots, mean one skill is central to making it all happen: communication.

“Communication is critical,” said Alex. “They have to learn how to communicate effectively and how to include everyone in those communications to make it a team. Otherwise, things don’t work out.”

“It teaches you assertive communication,” said tenth grader Anna Lui. “You need to be able to put your thoughts out there without being afraid of being rejected. It forces you to take initiative of your own part. Even if you don’t know how to do it, you need to try. You might surprise yourself with your ability.”

Expanding abilities is a central theme for every robotics team member. All of them are doing something outside of their comfort zone. Luckily, they have the support of their teammates. “We all try to help each other, and it’s amazing,” said tenth grader Evan Weinstein. “You have to support each other even when competing because the team you are competing against in one round could be your partner in the next.”

The fact that every student brings a different skill set to the team means they must support each other to succeed. There are no rock stars or prima donnas here. Every team member knows this is a unique opportunity they won’t find elsewhere. “Experience is gained in doing it,” said tenth grader Spencer Brady. “The only way to learn how to build robots is to build them.”

And though that robot building is what hooks the students on robotics, it’s clear that the subject is about so much more: building and refining skills like problem solving and computational thinking that will last the students a lifetime and prepare them to take on other challenges in college and their careers. While most of these students want to go into a computing or engineering field, even those who don’t know what they want to do or want to take a completely different path see long-term value in their robotics experiences. 

The robotics team is giving us skills we can use almost anywhere.—Omar Alsolaiman, class of 2024

“It is so fulfilling seeing something from start to finish, and learning to work on a team is amazing,” said eleventh grader Jack Campsen. Classmate Omar Alsolaiman, also in eleventh grade, added, “The robotics team is giving us skills we can use almost anywhere. We run the team essentially like a business or real engineering firm, so a lot of the skills will transfer to future jobs.” 

The skills even learned go beyond those used in educational, professional, and business arenas. Team members are building skills to help them become independent and well-rounded human beings, building blocks essential for becoming tomorrow’s leaders. “It’s not just the mechanical or engineering skills I’ve learned. It’s also about learning my own limits as a person,” added Evan.

And as the club grows, so does its impact on the school. It’s something Ben loves to see. “Robotics has a place at Rowland Hall because it asks students to do some of the hardest things they have to do,” he said. “I hope it’s as attractive and desired as other programs that we have, like dance or creative writing, and becomes enmeshed in our school culture in a similar manner.”

After all, robots are cool. As Coach Rob Lingstul said, “These kids are creating and producing some crazy awesome things.”

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Keep up with the fun! Next month, Rowland Hall robotics students will visit Southern Utah University to attend the state robotics championship. Follow the two robots built by the club (Monochromats and Iron Lions) on social media.

STEM

Rowland Hall equips students with the skills and experiences they need to thrive in a dynamic world. We believe education is active, and that deep, authentic learning experiences engage students in powerful ways, enabling them to view themselves as innovators and creators. Our new vision and strategic priorities are helping to center and formalize this work, but it’s long been a part of the Rowland Hall experience, inspiring generations of students to pursue, create, and share knowledge both in and outside the classroom. In the past year alone, we’ve watched many of our young scientists and engineers, fueled by their personal passions, tackle real-world problems and offer innovative solutions designed to better our shared world. This fall, we’re spotlighting some of their stories. (Be sure to also check out "Ruchi Agarwal Named Runner-up in National Stockholm Junior Water Prize Competition," "Three Rowland Hall Students Place Fourth at International Science and Engineering Fair for Aviation Engine Design," and "Research Science: Taking Classroom Discoveries to the International Level.") 

The below text is an abridged version of this story for Fine Print. If you would like to learn more about the science behind the academic paper highlighted in this story, we invite you to view the full version.

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With more than 20 years of experience as a molecular and cell biologist—including over a decade as a breast cancer researcher, with a particular interest in racial disparity among breast cancer outcomes in the United States—Upper School science teacher Dr. Padmashree Rida has had plenty of opportunities to support other scientists.

Prior to joining Rowland Hall in 2021, Dr. Rida worked as a university research scientist, a role that offered her regular opportunities to advise graduate students working on original research and academic papers. A natural-born mentor, Dr. Rida has always enjoyed opportunities to help others blossom in their careers. But she’s also seen how disheartening it can be for scientists who, years into their professional journeys, realize that academic research—a field rife with opportunities for failure in everything from choosing the right hypothesis, to uncovering negative or inconclusive results, to the struggle of getting top-notch journals to publish work, to securing grants—isn’t for them. “There are no guaranteed returns in research; it’s always a gamble,” she said. “You can put in so many years to discover you were barking up the wrong tree.”

When Dr. Rida was invited to contribute to a special issue of the International Journal of Molecular Sciences, she saw an opportunity for a teaching experiment. What if she were to invite one of her Rowland Hall students to assist her? She thought it may be an ideal way to challenge a promising young scientist, exposing them not only to the processes, skills, and risks of real-world research, but also to the nature of scientific collaboration.

So in April, when Dr. Rida was invited to contribute to a special issue of the International Journal of Molecular Sciences (IJMS) focusing on hypoxia, a state of oxygen insufficiency in the body, she saw an opportunity for a teaching experiment. What if she were to invite one of her Rowland Hall students to assist her? She thought it may be an ideal way to challenge a promising young scientist, exposing them not only to the processes, skills, and risks of real-world research, but also to the nature of scientific collaboration, as Dr. Rida would be working closely with one of her long-standing collaborators, Dr. Nikita Jinna, and a group of Dr. Jinna’s colleagues from the City of Hope cancer treatment and research center to write the article. She thought the opportunity could be similar to an internship, allowing a student to try out a career option, risk-free, to get a sense of fit. “They could get their feet wet and ask if it’s for them,” she said.

For the student to do well in this project, though, they would have to have a certain set of skills: a strong biology background, of course, as well as the ability to critically read and write, as they would be reviewing dense academic materials, drawing conclusions, distilling insights, and synthesizing information. Dr. Rida saw these traits in Max Smart, then a senior in her Advanced Topics in Biology class.

“Dr. Rida recognized a project like this was perfect for me,” said Max, a Rowland Hall Lifer whose love of the natural world has driven his lifelong interest in the sciences, and who also loves to write. And Max recognized how valuable the experience could be. “I could tell this was a phenomenal opportunity,” he remembered. He said yes and, after completing finals in May, began assisting Dr. Rida, first by helping her and Dr. Jinna look into the role hypoxia may play in patient resistance to androgen receptor inhibition, a treatment option for a subset of patients with a particularly lethal type of cancer: triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC). “We knew these treatments often work successfully for a short period, but most patients eventually develop resistance,” explained Dr. Rida. “Consequently, their disease relapses or progresses, and when this happens, we don't have good next-line treatment options for such patients.”

With several lines of evidence supporting their suspicions on hypoxia’s role in therapeutic resistance, the team focused their IJMS article on the topic, hoping their research would help shed light on how and why existing treatments fail, offer a broad view of study results on treatment options, and, because such therapeutic resistance is a problem for some other androgen-signaling-dependent cancers, make progress that could potentially have wide benefits. And though early evidence indicated a promising direction, as they began writing, Dr. Rida, heeding her own experience, made sure to set Max’s expectations. “There’s no guarantee we’ll find anything,” she remembered telling him, “but that’s the gamble with science.” 

That gamble didn’t deter Max, though, who jumped enthusiastically into the project, even, he said, as he faced a series of steep learning curves—beginning with getting acquainted with science writing. After Dr. Rida taught him how to use PubMed, a biomedical literature database, to search for primary literature with clinical trial data, Max remembered initially feeling overwhelmed as he worked to make sense of the jargon, acronyms, and medical terminology within these studies. “These are serious medical publications; it’s no joke,” he said. “It was like hitting a brick wall right out the gate—every sentence is riddled with words that mean nothing to you.” But after Dr. Rida recommended that Max make lists of unfamiliar words, terms, or methods so they could discuss them together, he got better at understanding the complex material. “With Dr. Rida's help, it became second nature,” he remembered. “Her mentorship broke down that brick wall.”

That mentorship continued as Max was challenged in other ways. He had to learn, for instance, how to pull from hundreds of pages of information the hard data that can benefit cancer researchers, and leaned on Dr. Rida’s advice to give himself space to process complicated material before looking for gaps or clarity within it. He also learned from Dr. Rida the importance of reading the literature critically, as well as broadly, to avoid scientific siloing. “Reading broadly allows ideas from different domains to network in ways that allow us to see things anew or from different vantage points,” explained Dr. Rida. So, in addition to reviewing studies on androgen-dependent TNBC, Max looked at studies on androgen-dependent prostate cancer, which behaves similarly to androgen-dependent TNBC and, because it has been researched for longer, offers an array of data on drug options and combinations that might be able to help researchers find what he called the “golden treatment” for TNBC patients. 

Getting Max on board with this collaboration taught him team science—and all good science these days is team science.—Dr. Padmashree Rida, science teacher

Additionally, Max learned firsthand the essential, though often tedious, nature of academic collaboration: how a group of researchers narrows a paper’s focus, finds consensus, reviews drafts prior to submission to a journal for peer review, and revises a manuscript to address reviewers’ feedback and concerns. By letting Max participate in the full process, Dr. Rida was helping to prepare him for success in a world in which the best scientists, no matter their fields or roles, need to be able to go beyond the scope of their individual disciplines to solve problems or create change collaboratively. “We teach science in class, but we don’t talk much about how science is really done, how science is disseminated, and the community behind it,” she said. “Getting Max on board with this collaboration taught him team science—and all good science these days is team science.”

It also taught him the joy of team success. After more than two months of collaborative researching, drafting, peer reviewing, revising, and waiting, “Adaptation to Hypoxia May Promote Therapeutic Resistance to Androgen Receptor Inhibition in Triple-Negative Breast Cancer” was published in IJMS on August 9. When asked what it felt like to see his name listed in an international science journal alongside his mentor’s and five City of Hope researchers only two months out of high school, Max said it was gratifying—but was quick to point out that that gratification went far beyond his personal benefits.

“I hope it’s going to play some small role in this field of research so we can get better treatments for people suffering from cancer,” he said. “If we helped just a tiny bit, that’s really gratifying.”

For Max, who will start at Middlebury College in January after taking a gap semester, it’s clear the experience will drive his professional decisions. Though he’s still deciding what he wants to study, working on this paper taught him how much he values using his passion for science and his love of writing—skills he worked on during his time at Rowland Hall—to help people. “I really appreciated being able to put knowledge and skills I’ve spent my entire academic career honing toward something that is actually going to, hopefully, play one tiny, small part in benefiting people who need good treatment,” said Max. “That was a pretty unique and awesome feeling.”

I really appreciated being able to put knowledge and skills I’ve spent my entire academic career honing toward something that is actually going to, hopefully, play one tiny, small part in benefiting people who need good treatment.—Max Smart ’22

For Dr. Rida, her self-described teaching experiment was also gratifying. Even before the rollout of Rowland Hall’s strategic priorities, she had been thinking about how she can harness her experience, resources, and background to give Upper School students opportunities to help find solutions to real-world problems and to participate in the construction of new knowledge. With this project under her belt, she’s even more aware of how she can best support them. “I learned so much about how to teach about clinical issues, to mentor, how students learn, what misconceptions they may have, and how to explain things,” she said of her time working with Max. She also learned how inspiring it can be to watch a high school student step up to a new challenge. “Max was willing to put in hours and hours of reading and writing, painstakingly plowing through literature,” she said. “Not once did he say, ‘I’m done.’”

And while she knows future experiences might not always be such a good fit, seeing how Max blossomed over their months together—his openness to new ideas, willingness to take risks, ability to successfully take feedback, and determination—showed her that offering them is worth the risk. Moreover, she knows such authentic learning experiences can impact young scientists’ identities, sense of belonging, and understanding of science. Thanks to this opportunity, Max took away an essential life lesson he’s grateful for—and one that will continue to give back to him, whether or not he becomes a researcher himself.

“I certainly got a taste of how some research can end up leaving you with very little to show. It can be discouraging. But then again, what isn't discouraging from time to time?” said Max. “It was an experience that helped teach me that anything you invest time and energy into can end up disappointing when it doesn't always pan out how you want. But when you hit those junctures, you just have to keep persevering.”

Authentic Learning

On September 21, a line of Rowland Hall buses pulled up to Great Salt Lake State Park and dropped off a group of fourth- and eleventh-graders, who began making their way to the shoreline.

It was a longer walk than it used to be. For years, Great Salt Lake has been shrinking, and in recent months there’s been an increased outcry to protect the lake. And it’s not just adults who want to find solutions to the possible loss of one of the state’s most renowned landmarks. On this sunny fall day, the Rowland Hall students—who had the chance to come together thanks to Beyond the Classroom, an annual Upper School event that engages students with the greater Salt Lake community and its natural surroundings—were focused on taking away inspiration from the lake to power their own Great Salt Lake projects this year.

Kids are really motivated by problems and love to solve them. They think outside the box, they’re creative, they take chances adults won’t.—Tyler Stack, fourth-grade teacher

For the fourth graders, the day was extra special, as it was a chance to get personally familiar with the lake that will play a prominent role in their classrooms this year. While a study of waterways has always been part of Rowland Hall’s Utah studies curriculum, the pressing issues of Great Salt Lake, which many lower schoolers are well aware of, have given the fourth-grade team—Marianne Love, Cheryl Chen, Haas Pectol, and Tyler Stack—a natural opportunity to help students connect classroom learning to real-world conversations, delve into the role we all play in protecting our shared natural resources in the desert we call home, and search for solutions.

“Kids are really motivated by problems and love to solve them, and it’s cool to get their ideas about a bigger issue,” said Tyler. “They think outside the box, they’re creative, they take chances adults won’t. Maybe someone will think of a solution no one has thought of.” And reminding kids that they can make a difference also helps connect them to their community. “It gives them pride in where they live, and ownership and stewardship,” said Marianne.

The trip to Great Salt Lake allowed students to begin to connect to the lake as they discovered what about it most appealed to them and made them excited to learn—like why the lake is salty or what story its exposed waterlines tell. With the support of their Upper School buddies, they were asked to see, think, and wonder about the lake as they explored. “We want them to think about why they think we should save the Great Salt Lake, not just ideas they hear from adults or teachers,” said Tyler.

After visiting the lake, the students, with the help of their buddies, created slideshows that highlighted their areas of interest—the jumping-off point of research projects they will work on over the year. These slideshows also opened the door to another opportunity: the chance to present at Aridity and Great Salt Lake, a community discussion on water in the West held at Rowland Hall on October 12. Three students volunteered to speak, excited to share with a larger audience what they had learned and why it was important.

Everyone can help.—Hadley R., fourth grade

“I wanted them to know about how much the Great Salt Lake was drying up,” said Hadley R., who also wanted to remind attendees that they can make a difference. “Everyone can help,” she added.

These fourth-grade presenters also wanted to remind the group that many lives depend on the lake. Millie C., who is fascinated by Great Salt Lake’s well-known Black Rock and the creatures who call it home, shared, “I wanted them to walk away thinking about things near the Great Salt Lake.”

Fourth graders will continue to build on this early Great Salt Lake work with upcoming projects, including writing persuasive letters about the lake to state representatives (as well as visiting the Utah State Capitol during the General Session in January) and presenting their research to a panel of community experts. It’s certainly an exciting year to be a Rowland Hall fourth grader, and our school community is looking forward to seeing the many ways these students will inspire others, drive important conversations, and contribute to solutions to protect our shared home.

“This is a great place to live, and we want to keep it that way,” said Marianne.

Authentic Learning

Rowland Hall equips students with the skills and experiences they need to thrive in a dynamic world. We believe education is active, and that deep, authentic learning experiences engage students in powerful ways, enabling them to view themselves as innovators and creators. Our new vision and strategic priorities are helping to center and formalize this work, but it’s long been a part of the Rowland Hall experience, inspiring generations of students to pursue, create, and share knowledge both in and outside the classroom. In the past year alone, we’ve watched many of our young scientists and engineers, fueled by their personal passions, tackle real-world problems and offer innovative solutions designed to better our shared world. This fall, we’re spotlighting some of their stories. (Be sure to also check out "Ruchi Agarwal Named Runner-up in National Stockholm Junior Water Prize Competition," "Three Rowland Hall Students Place Fourth at International Science and Engineering Fair for Aviation Engine Design," and "Max Smart ’22 and Science Teacher Dr. Padmashree Rida Published in International Journal of Molecular Sciences.")

This piece is republished from Rowland Hall's 2021–2022 Annual Report.

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There was a lot of buzz surrounding a poster presented this spring at the Materials Research Society (MRS) meeting in Honolulu, Hawaii. 

“Discovery of Structure-Property Relationships of Intercalated Graphite Compounds Using Machine Learning” had the potential to lead to major discoveries in the field. But that isn’t what had people talking. It was that those presenting the poster weren’t researchers or professors, but four teenagers from Salt Lake City, Utah.

They were the only high school students there. People were very confused and very impressed.—Tascha Knowlton, Upper School science teacher

Rowland Hall seniors Tyler Gerstein, Ford Hodgkins, Samantha Lehman, and Olive Milavetz, along with science teacher Tascha Knowlton and University of Utah associate professor (and former Rowland Hall teacher) Dr. Kaci Kuntz, traveled to the conference to present findings from the school’s research science class, now in its second year.

“They were the only high school students there,” said Tascha. “People were very confused and very impressed. They were taken aback—some of them literally stepped back when they found out how old they were.”

The students’ work isn’t typical for high schoolers. They started their journey with document reviews, an undertaking that isn’t very exciting but is the bedrock of most scientific discoveries. They went through thousands of pages of research on the properties of graphite sheets—or graphene—to learn all they could about how they react with other compounds. “It was a lot of data mining and very time-consuming,” said Tascha. “They might go through multiple papers and only find one small piece of data worth using.”

The document reviews were just the tip of the iceberg. The students then took that data and dove into code writing and machine learning software to predict how the graphene would react to other unknown compounds. Would it take electrons from them or donate electrons to them? And what would the movement of those electrons do? The more they worked with the software, the more accurate the predictions became.

“We were able to predict color changes in the graphene depending on the compound placed between the sheets,” said Samantha. “It’s cool because color is an electric optical property.”

We got a lot of experience doing scientific writing. I got some coding experience, and we had to figure out machine learning. Then on top of all that, we had to navigate presenting our work to professionals in the field. We got to experience a range of activities in the scientific spectrum.—Samantha Lehman, class of 2022

There is still more work to do, though, and it will be carried on by students at Rowland Hall in 2022–2023. They will take the data gathered and the predictions made this year and begin to look at how these compounds may be useful and how to engineer them for various purposes. “Graphite is the most stable form of carbon and very lightweight,” said Tascha. “It could be used in building batteries, or in touch screens. There are some possible medical applications. Lots of possibilities.”

While the students who presented at the MRS conference won’t be actively working on the project full time anymore, that doesn’t mean they are completely walking away. “We can come back in to help in any way we can, or be a mentor to younger students,” said Samantha. “It’s cool because the involvement is whatever I want it to be.”

Beyond the scope of the project, the students can take the lessons they learned into new educational and career opportunities. They left high school with many skills most don’t acquire until college, or even graduate school. “We got a lot of experience doing scientific writing. I got some coding experience, and we had to figure out machine learning,” said Samantha. “Then on top of all that, we had to navigate presenting our work to professionals in the field. We got to experience a range of activities in the scientific spectrum.”

It wouldn’t be unlikely to see some, if not all, of these amazing budding scientists presenting at many conferences to come.

Authentic Learning

Rowland Hall equips students with the skills and experiences they need to thrive in a dynamic world. We believe education is active, and that deep, authentic learning experiences engage students in powerful ways, enabling them to view themselves as innovators and creators. Our new vision and strategic priorities are helping to center and formalize this work, but it’s long been a part of the Rowland Hall experience, inspiring generations of students to pursue, create, and share knowledge both in and outside the classroom. In the past year alone, we’ve watched many of our young scientists and engineers, fueled by their personal passions, tackle real-world problems and offer innovative solutions designed to better our shared world. This fall, we’re spotlighting some of their stories. (Be sure to also check out "Ruchi Agarwal Named Runner-up in National Stockholm Junior Water Prize Competition," "Research Science: Taking Classroom Discoveries to the International Level," and "Max Smart ’22 and Science Teacher Dr. Padmashree Rida Published in International Journal of Molecular Sciences.")

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For many, air travel is a necessity in today’s world. It’s easier, faster, and, in many cases, cheaper than other transportation options. But there’s an environmental cost to that convenience: emissions. Currently, the aviation sector accounts for more than two percent of global carbon dioxide emissions, an environmental impact that scientists and engineers are working to lessen. That group of researchers now includes three Rowland Hall students.

In fall 2021, Aiden Gandhi, Eli Hatton, and Evan Weinstein, then ninth graders, were hard at work choosing a science fair topic. They knew they worked well together (as middle schoolers, they had teamed up for the You Be the Chemist Challenge), and they were united in a common goal: to create a project that could qualify for the International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF), the world’s largest high school STEM competition and an opportunity the young scientists had been waiting to be eligible for. As upper schoolers, that wait was over, so the only question was: what topic did they want to tackle?

The team’s priority was to choose a project that balanced members’ individual interests in engineering and physics. They decided a project on sustainable aviation would meet that objective. The choice allowed each member to play to his strengths—a good strategy when aiming for ISEF-level research. Additionally, the team liked that an aviation project would let them address climate change.

“We had lots of ideas of different areas of science we wanted to work with,” remembered Eli, but the team’s priority was to choose one that balanced members’ individual interests in engineering and physics. After discussion, they decided a project on sustainable aviation would meet that objective. “It’s a blend of everything we’re interested in,” explained Aiden. The choice also allowed each member to play to his strengths—a good strategy when aiming for ISEF-level research. “We each have individual interests within aviation—physics, technical—which meant we had a pretty diverse background going in,” said Evan.

Additionally, the team liked that an aviation project would let them address climate change. Like their peers around the world, they’ve long been aware of environmental challenges facing their generation, and, as aviation enthusiasts, they’re also aware of the industry’s role in carbon emissions. And because flying isn’t going away, they explained, air travel needs to become more environmentally friendly and efficient. “If we can’t completely get rid of it, we can at least make it better,” said Evan. 

The team first considered designing an entire sustainable aircraft—an idea they soon dismissed. “We realized that was far too complicated,” said Eli. Instead, they chose to focus on what Evan called the part that “makes airplanes more or less efficient”: the engine. An airplane’s engine, after all, is the source of its power—it’s where jet fuel is burned to provide the machine’s thrust (the force that moves an airplane in the air). But jet fuel is inefficient and the main contributor to an airplane’s carbon output: after fuel is burned inside the engine’s combustion chamber, it releases carbon waste into the atmosphere. However, it’s tricky to find a good substitute for jet fuel. Research has been done on other fuels, but many still release potentially harmful chemicals into the environment, and others are too volatile or expensive. And even ideas around electric aircraft have limited reach—the team found that current designs were only capable of short-distance flights. They wanted their experimental model to both eliminate the use of jet fuel and be available for international travel.

Goal in mind, the team set to work on a computer-aided design of an engine that creates propulsion via electrically heated tungsten coils in the combustion chamber. Tungsten, they explained, can efficiently heat and pressurize air, so they felt it was the right material choice. By February, the group was ready to present their project, named “Engine-ering the Future of Air Travel,” for the first time at a regional science fair, where they qualified for state—the step at which they would be considered for ISEF. They felt good about their odds: they placed second in the Mechanical and Materials Engineering division and fifth overall at the University of Utah Science and Engineering Fair, putting them in excellent position for an invitation to ISEF, which arrived a couple weeks after state.

“We were really happy we were invited,” remembered Aiden of the moment the group learned they had reached their goal.

But the team’s ISEF invitation wasn’t the end of the road—in fact, in many ways, the group had to work harder than ever to ramp up for international competition. They used the weeks leading to the May ISEF meeting to adjust their presentation to meet fair requirements and to tinker with their engine’s design. One major change the group made at this time was swapping the tungsten coils for tungsten fits, which, said Aiden, “have more surface area and would be better for transferring heat from the tungsten to the air throughout the engine.” They also began testing their model in ANSYS—engineering software that simulates airflow, thermal, and physical stress—to refine it. Additionally, as ISEF competitors, they had access to new resources, including local engineers Daniel Baxter and Duke Speer, who could provide feedback on their project to ensure it was ready for a higher level of scrutiny. And the team continued to seek support from Rowland Hall faculty. Robotics coach Alex Beaufort ’13 went over the mechanics of their engine, while physics teacher Robin Hori reviewed its physical properties and concepts to make sure they made sense theoretically. Their project mentor, science teacher Dr. Padmashree Rida, was invaluable to the group’s presentation practice. A former ISEF judge herself, Dr. Rida knew what they needed for the international competition, and she was impressed by what she saw.

What blew me away about this team of young scientists was their unflappable spirit, their ability to see around corners, the initiative they demonstrated by taking on a challenge that even industry experts have struggled with, and their motivation to continually innovate, iterate, and improve their original engine design.—Dr. Padmashree Rida, Upper School science teacher

“What blew me away about this team of young scientists was their unflappable spirit, their ability to see around corners, the initiative they demonstrated by taking on a challenge that even industry experts have struggled with, and their motivation to continually innovate, iterate, and improve their original engine design,” said Dr. Rida. “When they presented their poster to me for a practice session, I was amazed by how they had thought through every minute detail of their design, and how hard they had worked to research their problem inside out and to think of good responses to potential questions and critiques. They received feedback with heartwarming grace, showed inspiring tenacity and focus when faced with setbacks, and were deeply committed to their purpose: to do something about the pressing crisis of climate change.”

Robotics coach Alex echoed Dr. Rida’s sentiment, calling out the team’s impressive determination even when encountering hurdles just a week before competition—a promising characteristic of these future professional scientists and engineers. "They overcame obstacles with tenacity,” said Alex. “Even during the last week, when they encountered problems, they were able to adequately address them in a professional manner, approaching the solution with the scientific mindset that is ever evolving.”

These weeks of preparation were valuable, the team said, not only when it came to making their project more realistic, but also in helping them learn to better convey their ideas. By the time they headed to Atlanta in May, Aiden, Eli, and Evan were confident their updated engine could compare to today’s commercially used engines, and they were ready to present their work to some of the top engineering minds in the field. And though competition was high (the three Rowland Hall students were among 1,750 competitors from 49 US states and 63 countries, regions, and territories), what they remember most is the feeling of camaraderie among attendees—an essential component of their future careers.

“It’s important because you need more than one person to make a significant change in the world,” said Aiden. Evan added, “Not only are you making friends, but you’re also creating partnerships. Likely, these are the people you’ll be researching with at high levels.”

It’s safe to say that Rowland Hall’s jet engine crew would have been satisfied at this point: as ninth graders they had already made it to ISEF, they were mingling with innovative students from around the world, and they got to present their original research to engineering experts. But they soon learned their hard work had paid off in another exciting way. As attendees, the group was eligible for the event’s Grand Awards, prizes presented to the first- through fourth-place winners in each of ISEF’s 21 categories. (Top ISEF awards are then selected from the group of 21 First Award winners.) As the young scientists and engineers gathered on award night, the Rowland Hall team was thrilled to hear their names called over the loudspeaker—they were the Fourth Award winners in the Engineering Technology: Statics and Dynamics category, which had 81 total entries.

“We were very surprised and shocked and happy. It felt surreal,” remembered Eli. “We thought just making it there was our biggest achievement.”

These achievements won’t be wrapping up anytime soon. Now sophomores, Aiden, Eli, and Evan are still immersed in their jet engine research, currently choosing a 2023 science fair project that will build on last year’s work (details are still being kept quiet at this stage). With the benefit of their first ISEF experience, the team is excited to see what they can do next, and they’re quick to encourage other students to try science fairs themselves, noting how a Rowland Hall education, including excellent faculty support, prepares young scientists and engineers for these opportunities to take on real-world problems. “The resources at Rowland Hall are incredible,” said Aiden. “Faculty, our schoolwork, and papers and research in history, science, math—all that definitely prepared us for ISEF.”

Without a doubt, these students will continue to do incredible things, and the Rowland Hall community is looking forward to watching what they take on next. “I am super excited about the positive impact they will have, and the changes they will drive,” said Dr. Rida.

Authentic Learning

Each August, Rowland Hall holds Convocation, a traditional gathering that brings our school community together to connect, learn, and celebrate the start of a new school year. This year’s event, held the morning of Friday, August 25, centered around the 2023–2024 theme, and school value, Learn for Life.

Every year, Rowland Hall’s student body president is invited to address the group of students, faculty, staff, trustees, alumni, and families gathered for Convocation. This year, Student Body President Omar Alsolaiman highlighted the values of learning, the importance of seeking and applying knowledge, and how dedication to lifelong learning can inspire students to become people the world needs.

Omar’s speech, lightly edited for style and context, appears below.

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Good morning, everyone. My name is Omar Alsolaiman, and I’m your student body president.

Before I start, let’s have the seniors stand up just to be recognized for being in their last year.

Let me first congratulate you all on being here in general—whether you’re in your first years, like our first graders, or you’re about to graduate, like our seniors, or graduated about a century ago like Dr. Dan Jones, you have taken your first steps this year towards lifelong friendships, thinking deeply, and, most of all, learning. Wherever you are on your journey, let’s all take a moment to reflect and appreciate it—to appreciate what we have done and where we will be in the future.

But perhaps more backbreaking than all of our learning put together was of course the middle and upper schoolers’ walk up the hill—give yourselves a round of applause.

I know, it’s just awful. Impossible, really.

Now, I know many of you, despite the fact that you just applauded for yourselves, don’t want to be here on this hot morning, picking grass and listening to people, but as an old lady told me about a week ago on the train when I apologized for being in her way, “We all have to be somewhere,” and you know what, I think your place just so happens to be here today.

Now, when Mr. Hoglund first emailed me in the middle of my summer to tell me what this year’s theme was, Learning for Life, I decided to ignore the email until the end of the summer. But in all seriousness, I basically had no idea how I, a 17-year-old high schooler, could impart the wisdom of a lifetime. I mean, they told me lifetime learning and what am I supposed to do? But as I thought about it, and my internship professor reminded me what his thesis advisor had told him before he graduated, that learning is never ending, even after a single degree or accomplishment. And I realized that the Rowland Hall theme Learning for Life was not about dropping off a big bio textbook in your office cubicle in 20 years to make sure that you still know that the mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell, but instead to prepare you by developing the skills to naturally and easily continue learning, problem solving, and critically thinking for life.

Rowland Hall has taught me to value that journey that leads to what I learn—this effort is what really teaches us and carries on after we are done with a project.—Omar Alsolaiman, class of 2024

So I sat down and thought about what the values of learning are, and I came up with a couple, and that was in the only way I knew how—Arabic.

Now, I do feel kind of bad for KP, who spent the last year teaching me about English rhetoric only for me to come up in front of the entire school to talk about Arabic rhetoric and grammar, but I swear, KP, I did actually pay attention in class last year and I didn’t do too bad on the AP.

But let me give you a quick crash course for Arabic. Now, like some words in English, the building blocks in Arabic are three-letter roots. I will make this short and simple, but for example, F A L, which means to do. And from this, you can conjugate basically any derivative of the original meaning. Yes, lower schoolers, there is actually a purpose of conjugating in Spanish and you do sometimes do it in English as well.

Now, for our case, let's focus on a different word. F A L means to do, but that’s not perfectly relevant right now, so let’s focus on I L M. I L M, try to say that with me: I L M. It’s all in the throat. That wasn’t actually too bad. I was expecting to give you guys a bit more. But, Rowland Hall, you should make sure that Arabic is at some point a course option. Until then, if you need Arabic tutoring, just text me.

Anyway, I L M means to learn, to teach, or just knowledge in general. Now, that’s all well and good, but what’s cool and very appealing to my strict rule-based engineering brain is that if you rearrange those letters in any format, any root you come up with is actually directly related to the original meaning of the word, or sometimes even the direct opposite. So this means that if we take some of these combinations, for example, we switch the lam and the meem, we get I M L, which means to work or to do something deliberately. This tells us that learning for life, and just learning in general, is not just a one-stop shop. In fact, it’s something that requires some intentional effort. Throughout the years, Rowland Hall has taught me to value that journey that leads to what I learn—this effort is what really teaches us and carries on after we are done with a project. For example, last year, as the juniors this year will do, my class worked on the vintage ad project—I know, it's a name that sends shivers down any high schooler’s spine. But despite the torturous time frame we’re given, the scope of the assignment, and the literal countless number of days that I spent with less than a couple hours of sleep, the teachers make a point to let us do the bulk of our research, making sure that our papers aren't spoon-fed evidence and instead have our own lines that we gather from pages of unnecessarily long research papers about Japanese airline statistics in 1964.

Now, that’s one part of I M L’s, or to work, relation to I L M, to learn, but I'd also argue that the work doesn't end with the acquisition of knowledge. Even more literally, another meaning of I M L is to exercise an influence; so instead, after we learn, we have to work to use our knowledge and benefit the world with it. Mr. Wilson has always made a point, and repeatedly taught me and my friends that, when teaching us about global climate patterns and climate change, it's not just classroom knowledge—it’s immediately applicable to the world and must be applied. There's an old Arab parable that compares one who pointlessly absorbs knowledge, or doesn’t absorb it all, to a donkey carrying books on its back. Even if it has every book in the world, it can't really do anything with it and it can’t properly learn and implement the books. That's our job as lifelong learners. Always seek out knowledge, whether that’s learning why your friend has an unhealthy obsession with Crocs or learning about the solutions to making Salt Lake more walkable. And then, once you have the knowledge, use it and invest in it.

The more we continue to learn, the more we shine and become examples for our communities, our families, and even our friends, the more we can actually make an impact.—Omar Alsolaiman

Now, the second rearrangement of I L M that can benefit us is L M I, which means to beam or shine with color. What this tells us is the result of our learning for life. The more we learn intentionally, and the more we implement it in the communities around us, as cheesy as it sounds, makes one stand out, makes us the people that the world needs, as Mr. Hoglund mentioned, and a shining light of hope for our communities and even the world. While I've been at Rowland Hall, it has continued to highlight our students and beckon them to become people the world needs—well, that begins with a dedication to lifelong learning. Even if you came out of high school the person the world needed, especially in the age of information, within five years, you could be as good as obsolete, or even cringe. As such, the more we continue to learn, the more we shine and become examples for our communities, our families, and even our friends, the more we can actually make an impact. Make yourself a toolbox of the bits of wisdom you learn in school and life, and the little bits of knowledge that Rowland Hall, its teachers, its values, and its people have given you. That toolbox will act as a lifelong guide and make you hopefully choose to continue learning as the opportunities arrive.

So when you go home today, or actually, back to school (sorry about that), I want you to remember these qualities and prerequisites of knowledge—knowledge does allow us to make an impact and gleam, but we also must work to gain it and use it.

Thank you.

Student Voices

Welcome, Winged Lions!

Rowland Hall is thrilled to welcome students and families to our campuses for the 2023–2024 school year.

The year kicked off on Wednesday, August 23, with smiles, hugs, and excitement. As students and families poured onto campus, they were greeted by an enthusiastic team of faculty and staff, said hello to old friends (and met new ones), and, for many of our youngest learners, gave a hug or a high-five to Roary, our trusty school mascot. And as the week went on, students had even more opportunities to connect, settle in, and prepare for an exceptional year of learning, including by gathering for Convocation and our annual Back to School Bash. Alumni even got in on the fun at the All-Class Reunion.

We invite you to enjoy some of the images captured during the first days of school.

Community

Rowland Hall is excited to introduce two new assistant principals joining the school in the 2023–2024 school year: Josy Alcindor, Beginning School and Lower School assistant principal, and Stacia McFadden, Upper School assistant principal.

Both bring to Rowland Hall a wealth of knowledge as educators and administrators, and we are thrilled to welcome them to our community.

Learn a bit more about Josy and Stacia below.

Meet Josy Alcindor, Beginning School and Lower School Assistant Principal

Since childhood, Josy Alcindor knew she wanted to work in education. She can even recall one of the first times she stepped into the role of teacher: at 10 years old, Josy borrowed her parents’ English learning workbooks to help an older family friend learn the language, a job she took very seriously. The child of Haitian immigrants, Josy was inspired by her parents’ tenacity and dedication to their own learning, and she wanted to help her friend succeed in a new country. It was an experience that helped to spark a love of teaching that she’s carried through her life. Paired with what Josy calls her “mama bear” approach to supporting and advocating for learners from preschool to the brink of adulthood, it’s clear she’s found her sense of purpose in education spaces.

“I’ve always been in the business of children, for their well-being across the board; emotionally, mentally, academically,” said Josy. “My life’s work is for the betterment of children. It’s my motivator.”

FUN FACT: Josy refers to herself as a closet poet (“I love the spoken word,” she said) and enjoys sharing her passion for poetry with others—especially students. At Wildwood School, she even created a fifth-grade activist poetry unit that allowed students to explore causes they care about. Josy said bringing out the poet in a child can help build their confidence and self-understanding.

And Josy has dedicated her career to this work, earning a bachelor’s degree in women and gender studies from Hunter College and a master of science education from the Bank Street College of Education. She’s spent years in the classroom, teaching students in preschool through fifth grade on both coasts: Josy worked at the Dalton School and the Hewitt School, both in New York City, and Wildwood School in Los Angeles, where she was most recently a fifth-grade teacher and diversity division coordinator. She’s also been a dedicated mentor for teens and young adults as a former board chair of Urban Neighborhood Services, and a board member at the YA-YA (Youth Activists-Youth Allies) Network. In all her roles, Josy has built classroom experience and deep administrative knowledge, and has worked to strengthen communities, including by training other teachers and facilitating conversations around DEIBJ or social-emotional learning. She understands that relationships are at the heart of education, a perspective that played a role in her decision to come to Rowland Hall.

“The sheer joy that I experienced when I walked in here—that solidified it for me,” said Josy of her first visit to the McCarthey Campus. She remembers seeing children happily engaged in learning and hearing faculty speak highly of the school, and knew that Rowland Hall was a place that also valued relationships, and where she could help children, as well as families and teachers, thrive. She was further moved by Rowland Hall’s strategic vision and is excited to be part of its continued rollout.

“I love this philosophy. It aligns with my core values: setting children for success, preparing them for tomorrow, for a changing world,” said Josy. “I look forward to being part of the forward-moving thinking and building off the amazing things that have happened.”

Meet Stacia McFadden, Upper School Assistant Principal

It doesn’t take long when chatting with Stacia McFadden to learn just how much she enjoys collaborating with people, as well as bringing others together.

“I’m such a connector,” she said.

Though Stacia’s professional life is filled with opportunities for connection-making in educational spaces, she didn’t start her career in education. Stacia majored in computer science as an undergraduate, earning a full-ride scholarship to Michigan State University to continue her studies. But a month into the graduate program, she realized that the path she was on didn’t feel quite right—she didn’t want a career that comes with a cubicle, a screen, and, often, isolation. She wanted to work closely with others. Heeding this self-understanding, Stacia changed course, moving to New York City to join IBM as a business analyst programmer. It wasn’t her dream job, but it played a pivotal role in her professional journey.

“While I didn’t find true fulfillment in this role,” Stacia explained, “I discovered joy via outreach through one of IBM's diversity networks, Black Network of New York, and my sorority.” Through these opportunities, Stacia mentored college students studying STEM disciplines, taught community technology workshops, and led a mentoring program for middle schoolers, all of which helped her understand that education is within her—and that she could apply her love of computer science to the field, helping students and teachers use technology to strengthen their work. “I got passionate about the integration of technology to enhance, empower, and inspire thinking and learning,” she said.

FUN FACT: Stacia plays tennis and has been to three United States Tennis Association (USTA) state championships and one USTA sectionals championship. She’s also shared her athletic talent in her career—tennis coach is just one of the many hats Stacia has worn as an educator.

Stacia pivoted again, earning a master’s degree in computing in education from Columbia University’s Teachers College, and teaching math, web design, and computer applications at a public charter school in Washington, DC. She then moved to independent schools, and over the years has held both teaching and administrative roles, many of which center around academic technology (she was most recently chief information officer at the Lovett School in Atlanta). Stacia has also accepted chances to build connections among national colleagues: she’s a faculty member for the National Association of Independent Schools’ School Leadership Institute, and facilitated programming at the 2023 Leadership + Design conference at Rowland Hall, an event which led to her accepting the assistant principal job.

No matter her role, Stacia has kept connections at the center of her work, prioritizing community building and empowering others, and has always found the most joy in student support. While interviewing on the Upper School campus, she said she was impressed by Rowland Hall’s bright, passionate students and their enthusiasm for their studies and interests. “You could tell they really care about the community and had ideas of what they wanted to see the next assistant principal do,” she said. She also loved observing how students and teachers were doing powerful work to bring to life Rowland Hall’s vision of what’s possible in education.

“The vision statement spoke to me: developing people the world needs,” said Stacia. “How simple is that, and how powerful is that?”

Stacia is looking forward to being part of this important work, knowing her experiences as an educator (and the mother of a 20-year-old college student) have prepared her to support today’s students as they find their voices, discover their passions, learn to get comfortable with an ambiguous and dynamic world, and make real and lasting change.

“I want kids to not only find their voice, but, if they see something they want to change, learn how to do that,” she said.

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Banner photo: Stacia McFadden, third from right, with colleagues at the 2023 Opening Meeting for faculty and staff. Photo courtesy Stacia McFadden.

People

Rowland Hall is thrilled to welcome students and families to the 2023–2024 school year.

As you spend time on our campuses in the following weeks, you’ll get to know the newest additions to our faculty and staff, as well as see some of our returning team members in new, adjusted, or expanded roles. For your reference, we’ve listed these staffing changes below. (Please see Fond Farewells 2023 for a list of those not returning for this school year.)

Be sure to check back, as this list will continue to be updated during the school year.

Administration and Staff

New Administration and Staff

• Josy Alcindor joins Rowland Hall as a Beginning School and Lower School assistant principal. Learn more about our new assistant principals.
• Steve Cross joins Rowland Hall as chief financial and operations officer.
• Aliette Frank ’96 joins Rowland Hall as program coordinator for athletics.
• Traci Grigg joins Rowland Hall as director of stewardship and engagement. 
• Stacia McFadden joins Rowland Hall as the Upper School assistant principal. Learn more about our new assistant principals.
• Alina Meneken joins Rowland Hall as advancement operations manager.

Administration and Staff Role Changes and Expansions

• Alec Baden is now director of transportation and assistant director of operations.
• Jij de Jesus is now director of capital giving and director of strategic initiatives.
• Rebecca Mueller-Jones, formerly the Beginning School administrative assistant, is now admission associate.
• Kathryn Pickford is now executive administrator and Steiner Campus project manager.

Beginning School

New and Returning Beginning School Faculty and Staff

• Josy Alcindor joins Rowland Hall as a Beginning School and Lower School assistant principal.
• Mimi Andrews joins Rowland Hall as a kindergarten assistant teacher.
• Jennifer Claesgens joins Rowland Hall as the early childhood experiential learning specialist.
• Liz Ellison joins Rowland Hall as the five-day 3PreK lead teacher. 
• Katherine McMahon joins Rowland Hall as the Beginning School administrative assistant.
• Kiara Rivera joins Rowland Hall as a Beginning School and Lower School associate teacher.
• Kirsten White returns to Rowland Hall as a 4PreK lead teacher.

Beginning School Role Changes

• Dani Carpenter, formerly a Beginning School lunch/playground monitor and experiential learning afternoon support staff member, is now the five-day 3PreK assistant teacher.
• Lynelle Stoddard, formerly the five-day 3PreK lead teacher, is now the three-day 3PreK lead teacher.

Lower School

New and Returning Lower School Faculty and Staff

• Josy Alcindor joins Rowland Hall as a Beginning School and Lower School assistant principal.
• Hannah Blomgren returns to Rowland Hall as the Lower School science specialist.
• Jennifer Claesgens joins Rowland Hall as the early childhood experiential learning specialist.
• Cass Cossette joins Rowland Hall as the McCarthey Campus administrative coordinator and receptionist.
• Samantha Hemphill joins Rowland Hall as a fifth-grade teacher.
• Alissa Kean joins Rowland Hall as a second-grade teacher.
• Kiara Rivera joins Rowland Hall as a Beginning School and Lower School associate teacher.
• Kaelis Sandstrom joins Rowland Hall as the TREC (technology, robotics, engineering, and coding) teacher.
• Rachel Slivnick joins Rowland Hall as a fifth-grade teacher.

Lower School Role Changes

• Dr. Torry Montes, formerly a fifth-grade teacher, is now a second-grade teacher. 
• Liz Sorensen, formerly a second-grade teacher, is now the Lower School Spanish specialist.

Middle School

New Middle School Faculty and Staff

• Kayden Al-Mosawi joins Rowland Hall as the Middle School social-emotional support counselor. Kayden will be covering Leslie Czerwinski’s role during her maternity leave.
• Alana Boynton joins Rowland Hall as a Middle School Spanish teacher and a seventh-grade advisor.
• Eve Grenlie joins Rowland Hall as the eighth-grade American studies teacher.
• Paul Hochman joins Rowland hall as the middle and upper school media arts teacher.
• Lindsay Mackintosh joins Rowland Hall as the seventh-grade science teacher and an advisor.
• Cassia Peeler joins Rowland Hall as a Middle School French and Spanish teacher.
• Grace Riter ’18 joins Rowland Hall as a middle and upper school dance teacher.
• Kate Siwicki joins Rowland Hall as a sixth-grade English teacher and an advisor.

Upper School

New Upper School Faculty and Staff

• Jesse Chavez joins Rowland Hall as the associate director of college counseling and lead class advisor.
• Paul Hochman joins Rowland hall as the middle and upper school media arts teacher.
• Dr. Lydia Jackson joins Rowland Hall as an Upper School English teacher.
• Stacia McFadden joins Rowland Hall as the Upper School assistant principal.
• Grace Riter ’18 joins Rowland Hall as a middle and upper school dance teacher.

Upper School Role Changes

• Carlos Eyzaguirre ’06, formerly a debate coaching assistant, is now the entrepreneurship teacher.

Rowmark Ski Academy

New Rowmark Staff

• Jimena Carlin joins Rowmark as FIS coach.
• Andy Hare joins Rowmark as the Rowmark Junior program director.
• Alli Rathfon joins Rowmark as a Rowmark Junior program coach.
• Tyler Utendorfer joins Rowmark as a Rowmark Junior program coach.

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Banner photo: New and returning Rowland Hall faculty gather for a workshop in summer 2023.

People

Every year, sixth graders at Rowland Hall read The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton as a central part of their English curriculum.

It’s not an easy book. In case you haven’t read it, or it’s been a while, this coming-of-age novel deals with some heavy topics: class warfare, education, friendship, love, and death. It’s a lot to handle, and at times can seem overwhelming. Luckily, the students have had Mary Lawlor there to lead them through.

“It’s a novel where they can’t believe these things keep happening. There’s a lot of tragedy,” Mary said. “There are times when they look at me like, ‘Are we old enough to be reading this?’ and I let them know they’ve got it.”

Mary knows her students can handle the tough stuff because she has the unique gift of really understanding sixth graders. It's not a talent many people have.

Mary knows her students can handle the tough stuff because she has the unique gift of really understanding sixth graders. It’s not a talent many people have, as parents, teachers, and even sixth graders themselves will tell you. After all, sixth grade is a weird stage of life. These kids are in middle school now—and once again the youngest in the building. They have to go to several classrooms a day and deal with multiple teachers. Friend groups may be in flux, and, to top it all off, puberty may be starting to hit. They all feel like outsiders at one point or another. But Mary lets them know she’s there for them, because in many ways, she's one of them—often seen as the oldest sixth grader at Rowland Hall.

“She has the gift of being able to be so vulnerable in front of her students and so open,” said colleague Mary Jo Marker. “That allows students to be vulnerable as well, and to allow themselves to be seen. She has a knack for seeing a child for who they are.”

Sixth graders share Mary Jo’s sentiments. When you ask these students about Mary, they tell you about how she empowers them, allowing them to set individual goals, work through problems, and learn to express themselves. “She’s really supportive,” said sixth grader Sasha L. “She lets you have your ideas and have control of what you are doing.”

Mary also brought this approach to coaching students, whether on the volleyball court or the cross-country field. “She let us pick our own personal goals and it could be anything we wanted as long as we worked towards it,” said sixth grader Adrian J. “When we reached our goals she congratulated us and let us know how well we did.”

And Mary’s interpersonal gifts extended beyond her students to the benefit of the entire Rowland Hall community. Her colleagues describe her as the school’s cheerleader, who is always willing to step in and help, give advice, or just be there with a smile and a hug.

"Mary is a model for what a citizen should be in our community. She’s always willing to do whatever needs to be done,” said Lincoln Street Campus Director of Arts Sofia Gorder. “She doesn’t talk about it, she just does it, and her actions speak louder than words to encourage others to do the same.”

Mary is a model for what a citizen should be in our community. She’s always willing to do whatever needs to be done. She doesn’t talk about it, she just does it, and her actions speak louder than words to encourage others to do the same.—Sofia Gorder, director of arts

Middle School Assistant Principal Charlotte Larsen said it is uncanny how Mary is able to anticipate the needs of others. “She was my mentor during my first year of teaching. One day we had been working hard, and she looked at me and said, ‘You’ve bonked, you need to go home,’ and she was absolutely right,” Charlotte said. “She does that for so many people. She sees them and she understands what they need.”

Mary has been at Rowland Hall for 27 years and is moving on to new adventures. She knows it won’t be easy, though. She said she “grew up at Rowland Hall.” In her time here she hasn’t just been a teacher and coach, but also a parent: her two sons and two stepdaughters are all proud Rowland Hall graduates and all, at one time, got to be her students.

“I always have had Mary as a teacher,” said senior Mikel Lawlor of life with his mom. “But I was really excited when I finally got to be in her classroom because I had seen in the past how people were just magnetized to her.”

That magnetism is evident when you watch Mary with her students. It is not uncommon to see a swarm of them around her as she walks down the hall. They come to her not only to talk about assignments and the books they are reading, but also issues they may be having or the cool new sneakers that just dropped. It isn’t just current students either: you can often find former students hanging out in her room because they remember their time with Mary as sixth graders, and how she truly appreciated them.

“I think sixth graders are the funniest things that have ever walked the earth. They are so eager and silly and gross,” Mary said of the student group she has taught for more than two decades. “This is the year when they straddle childhood and young adulthood and are in the middle of it all. The juxtaposition of that and how they handle their learning and how they manage themselves is so charming and so magical.”

Mary Lawlor saw magic in the kids she taught, and made sure the only outsiders in her classroom were in the pages of a book. Her students will never forget that.

People

“I am so ready to retire,” said Mary Jo Marker.

It was 1 am, and she had just arrived at the Salt Lake International Airport with 80 eighth graders in tow after spending a week on a tour of Washington, DC. It was one of numerous trips Mary Jo has taken with students over her 27-year tenure at Rowland Hall. This trip was different, though, because it was her last.

Mary Jo is, in fact, retiring.

Mary Jo’s tenure at Rowland Hall began in a strange way. She was taking education classes at the University of Utah and had to present a US history lesson plan in the classroom of her professor, who was also a teacher at Rowland Hall. The next thing she knew, she was being asked to teach a full section of the course to a group of Rowland Hall 10th graders.

From the very beginning Mary Jo wanted to improve her skills and never stopped pushing herself.—Alan Sparrow, former head of school

“The teacher quit, and they needed someone to step in,” she said. “It would never happen now, but I don’t think I even had a contract for more than a week after I started teaching.”

That trial by fire experience shaped the teacher Mary Jo would become. She started learning on the job and hasn’t stopped since. She is a teacher who doesn’t believe in coasting, but instead has always been up for a challenge—and is always ready to learn something new. “From the very beginning Mary Jo wanted to improve her skills and never stopped pushing herself,” said former Head of School Alan Sparrow. “She was and is an outstanding teacher. It was a joy and a privilege to work with her.”

Mary Jo’s pursuit of excellence is something she has pushed for her students as well. US history can be a difficult subject, and there are many parts that can be uncomfortable or difficult to comprehend, but Mary Jo doesn’t try to sugarcoat hard truths or dumb down complicated material. She believes in the abilities of her students. “Ms. Marker is very matter of fact when she talks to us,” said eighth grader Meg H. “She lets us know exactly what she expects from us, and that she knows we can do it.”

It's been more than two decades since he was in her classroom, but Nate Kogan ’00 remembers Mary Jo the same way. “She had high expectations of us as a class and left a lot of responsibility in our hands,” he said. “She empowered us to rise to a higher bar of intellectual challenge.”

Nate now teaches history at Rowland Hall—in fact, he teaches the same course once taught to him by Mary Jo, and her methods made an impact on him. When he was first teaching at a school in Texas, he remembered, he went back through his high school materials to try to “reverse engineer” lesson plans and emulate Mary Jo.

“She demonstrated how important it is to have high lofty goals for your students and know that they are totally capable of reaching them. That confidence in students is a really empowering thing to provide,” Nate said. “It’s something I felt from her and something I have tried to convey in my own classroom.”

She demonstrated how important it is to have high lofty goals for your students and know that they are totally capable of reaching them. That confidence in students is a really empowering thing to provide. It’s something I felt from her and something I have tried to convey in my own classroom.—Nate Kogan ’00, Upper School history teacher

Mary Jo’s teaching hasn’t only happened in the classroom. She’s led kids on adventures all over the state and the nation, and these are some of her favorite memories. She has been on multiple class trips filled with long bus rides and rainy campsites. She’s taken part in Interim trips, including sailing in San Diego, golfing in Palm Springs, or the “Tour de Tooele,” which had her and Paul Christensen leading a pack of kids on bikes through Utah’s West Desert. “These were the experiences that became grand stories for the students later,” she said. “The best were the ones where I came and thought, ‘This is hell, and I love it.’”

Mary Jo’s other treasured memories from her time at the school don’t come from big events, but from little moments such as student interactions in the hall or small talk in the faculty lounge. She also recalled the impact of having her own kids attend Rowland Hall. “I had to learn to keep my professional hat on and let them have the experience of other kids, not rush in and be a mama bear,” she said. “I also got to learn a lot by seeing my colleagues as my kids’ teachers.”

Now it’s time to make memories beyond the campuses of Rowland Hall. Mary Jo says she plans to travel and will be taking lots of trips that she won’t have to plan around events like parent-teacher conferences and Back to School Night. She says she will enjoy being the master of her own calendar. “I am looking forward to not having to be somewhere at 8 o’clock if I don’t want to be somewhere at 8 o’clock,” she said.

After all, that’s what retirement is all about. And Mary Jo Marker is ready for it.

People

Every organization needs a person like Pam Stone.

She’s the team member behind the scenes who handles the details. The one who is organized and precise and doesn’t let things slip through the cracks. In her 38-plus years at Rowland Hall, 25 as an employee, Pam has filled a variety of roles at the school, from parent and volunteer, to host mother for Rowmark and foreign students, to assistant librarian, to her current position as administrative assistant in the Upper School Athletics Department. While the roles have varied, one thing has not: having Pam around means things get done, and they are done well.

“She does the things that no one sees,” said Upper School Principal Ingrid Gustavson. “Most of the time people don’t know what she’s doing, but if she wasn’t doing it, that would lead to big problems.”

She’s a lifesaver. She takes care of all the little details, all of the little things. She keeps things organized and everyone in line, and she knows what you need before you need it.—Kendra Tomsic, director of athletics

“She’s a lifesaver,” said Director of Athletics Kendra Tomsic. “She takes care of all the little details, all of the little things. She keeps things organized and everyone in line, and she knows what you need before you need it.”

Pam may work behind the scenes, but some of her work has been visible in the halls of the Upper School for years. For more than two decades, and up until the beginning of this school year, she was the creative force behind the division’s bulletin boards and display cases. It started when she worked in the library and wanted to get kids more interested in reading, and in recent years, Ingrid enlisted her to do a complete overhaul of the bulletin boards, as communication had become primarily digital and many of the boards were not looking so hot. “I’m more of a creative person than anything else,” said Pam. “So this was something that was perfect for me to do.”

Pam transformed some of the boards into inspirational and motivational messaging for students, and others she preserved as messaging centers, but turned them from eyesores to showcases.  Every bulletin board reflected her creative nature, her attention to detail, and her desire to make things “just a little bit nicer,” as her son, and member of Rowland Hall’s Alumni Executive Board, Conor Bentley ’01 put it. Her daughter-in-law, Rowland Hall Director of Financial Aid Mary Anne Wetzel ’01, calls it the “Pam touch.”

“There were no pre-made borders or clip art pictures,” Conor said. “She took the time to make a plan, and then cut things out by hand because she cares about everything she does, and she cares about Rowland Hall.”

When Conor and Mary Anne were students in the Upper School, they appeared in several of the school’s theatrical productions. That’s when Pam got to play her favorite role during her time at Rowland Hall: backstage mom. No matter the show, she used her creative prowess and artistic skills to source costumes, create props, and perfect hair and makeup. “For Grease, she had us all collecting toilet paper rolls that she turned into curlers for the song ‘Beauty School Dropout,’” Conor said.

“I don’t think she saw a full production in all four years I was in high school,” he added. “She was always backstage curling hair or applying blush, basically making sure everyone looked amazing when they went on.”

Pam’s attention to detail and level of care has played a role in the lives of members of the Rowland Hall community, not just professionally but personally as well. She is a talented hair stylist who has cared for more than one member of the community who faced cancer and the cold reality of losing their hair. Without asking for payment, and with no fanfare, Pam was there to provide them with cuts and styles that made the process less daunting.

Pam’s attention to detail and level of care has played a role in the lives of members of the Rowland Hall community, not just professionally but personally as well.

Friend and former French teacher Doug Wortham recalled Pam’s help when his partner, Nick, faced a health crisis in 2008. She created a “prescription for happiness and encouragement,” he said, writing out small messages and stuffing them into pill casings, then placing them in a medicine bottle with official “doctor’s orders” on the outside. Every morning they opened one to keep their spirits up. Doug says he can only imagine how much time and effort must have gone into the project to get it just so, and he remembers the impact it had on him and Nick. “It was truly a heartwarming thing that I have never forgotten,” he said.

And though Pam is moving on from Rowland Hall, she has no intention of slowing down. She is excited to focus on her writing, starting with her blog and potentially moving on to larger projects. She has already written two books and is eager to send them out to publishers. She also has a condo to remodel, yoga classes to attend, a pile of books to read, and many friends and family to see. “I am going to spend time with my 99-year-old mother,” she said. “She can’t see, but she is still sharp as a tack and can do the Wordle in her head.”

Pam also said she is thinking of doing some volunteer work; the only question is which entity in need will be lucky enough to nab her. After all, Pam Stone is the kind of person every organization needs—and we’re glad that, for almost four decades, Rowland Hall was lucky enough to be one of them.

People

This school year may be wrapping, but Rowland Hall’s incoming Home & School Association presidents are already thinking about 2023–2024.

Virginia Gowski will lead the Lincoln Street Campus Home & School Association, while Aimee Nussbaum, Alexis Swaringer, and Jamie Waters will lead the McCarthey Campus Home & School Association. The four volunteers have eight children at Rowland Hall: Virginia’s sons, Freddy and Jack, are rising tenth and sixth graders, respectively, while daughter Liza is a rising eighth grader. Aimee’s son, Daniel, is a rising ninth grader and daughter, Emily, is a rising fourth grader. Alexis’ two sons, Mason and Connor, are rising second and first graders, respectively. Jamie’s daughter, Alessandra, is a rising second grader.

These four committed volunteers are dedicated to strengthening the Rowland Hall community in the coming school year and looking forward to connecting with families in the coming months. We recently asked Virginia, Aimee, Alexis, and Jamie to share a bit more about their work with Home & School and what they’re looking forward to. Responses have been lightly edited.

How did you first get involved in Home & School?

Virginia: I think I first got involved with Home & School as a room rep when my oldest son, now finishing his freshman year, started at Rowland Hall in kindergarten. His teacher was Kate Nevins, who was one of our favorites.

Aimee: I first became involved in Home & School as a classroom representative when my oldest, Daniel, was in third grade. I really enjoyed it and continued this role throughout the remainder of his time in the Lower School. I also started volunteering as a classroom representative once Emily started Rowland Hall in 4PreK. I found that it was a great way to meet other parents and interact with students in the classroom.

Alexis: I first became aware of the Home & School program through various volunteer opportunities that I participated in the last two years. Two of my favorite events were Teacher Appreciation Week and the Auction. I thoroughly enjoyed volunteering my time interacting with the children, teachers, staff, and parents, while doing my part to enhance the Rowland Hall community.

Jamie: As a new family, we wanted to get involved in the school and meet Rowland Hall families. I volunteered with Home & School as a room representative and in the library. Spending time in the classroom gave me insights into my daughter’s learning, and we love seeing each other at school.

As a Home & School president, what are your goals for the 2023–2024 school year?

I hope we can help all families feel a stronger connection to Rowland Hall and to each other.—Virginia Gowski

Virginia: My priorities as Home & School president this year are to continue Amy Damico’s great work of getting more families involved, and to build an even stronger community with current and new families. COVID took away so many opportunities for us to connect, and got us out of the habit of reaching out of our comfort zones to meet new people, welcome new parents, and really get to know our students’ teachers and administrators. Through the creation of some new roles on the Lincoln Street Campus Home & School Board, including in community outreach and parent socials, I hope we can help all families feel a stronger connection to Rowland Hall and to each other. We have a great team on the Home & School board this year, and I’m so excited for the dedication and enthusiasm around the table.

Aimee: Some of my goals for the 2023–2024 school year are to continue to educate families about the work that Home & School does and inform them about the multitude of ways there are to get involved. I would also love to increase the number of people who volunteer with Home & School, especially encouraging those who have never volunteered before. Volunteer opportunities are always open to all Rowland Hall parents and caregivers and no prior experience is necessary.

Alexis: My goal is to continue to support and advocate for our children by partnering with the faculty to create a safe and inclusive Rowland Hall community where children have a positive learning environment.

Jamie: I would like to help families be engaged and make meaningful connections, foster a community of kindness and treating others with respect, and support our amazing faculty and staff in a positive manner. Together, at both home and school, we can develop our kids into people the world needs.

How do you hope to get more families involved in Home & School, and why do you recommend that they do so?

Virginia: Home & School is the connection point between parents and school. It’s a great way to get to know the community that our children spend so much time with. Home & School’s monthly meetings are always open to anyone, whether or not you have an official role. We’ll publicize those meeting dates, times, and locations in Friday Facts. We’ll have a number of opportunities to volunteer time or bring things (food, supplies, etc.) starting as early as Convocation the first week of school and ending with graduation events for eighth and twelfth graders in June. The best way to stay on top of how to get involved is to read Friday Facts—all the way down to the bottom where the Home & School news is posted—or to visit the Home & School page on the Parent Portal. Middle School parents, keep an eye out for your grade-level e-newsletters launching next school year. Finally, new families will receive an email or phone call from a current parent, who can also be a resource for learning more about Home & School.  And always, please reach out with any suggestions or questions.

The stronger we are as a connected community, the easier it is to support our students.—Jamie Waters

Aimee: I hope to get more families actively involved in Home & School by continuing to provide an open and inclusive environment for any parent or caregiver to participate in. Home & School is also a great way to meet and learn from others who you might not have otherwise interacted with (families with children in different grades or divisions). I would recommend volunteering to anyone interested in meeting more people and to learning more about Rowland Hall.

Alexis: I hope to expand the inclusiveness of the Rowland Hall community that the previous Home & School members developed. It’s important to me that existing and new families feel welcome and know that their ideas are encouraged. By doing so, I believe it will increase volunteer participation.

Jamie: Parental involvement in school boosts student achievement. But sometimes we are reluctant to be involved because of time constraints or unsure of how to proceed. I encourage families to be involved in a manner that works best for their lives and never hesitate to contact us with questions or comments. I would also like to help families, especially new families, feel welcome and connected. The stronger we are as a connected community, the easier it is to support our students.

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Questions or ideas? Email the incoming presidents:
Lincoln Street Campus: Virginia Gowski
McCarthey Campus: Aimee Nussbaum, Alexis Swaringer, Jamie Waters

People

Rowland Hall is proud to congratulate four student-athletes from the class of 2023 who will be going on to compete at the college level.

Rowland Hall Athletics recently recognized these students at our first Senior Signing Celebration, held on May 30.

• Jada Crockett will run track at California State University, Fresno
• Maile Fukushima will play soccer at Occidental College
• Arden Louchheim will golf for the University of Nebraska–Lincoln
• Ezra Shilling Rabin will run cross country and track at Emory University

“We are so proud of these talented athletes and wish them all the best as they go on to compete for their colleges,” said Kendra Tomsic, director of athletics. “We will be cheering them on.”

Watch the Senior Signing Celebration.

Athletics

Since childhood, Jada Crockett has played a lot of sports.

“I've been involved with sports from a very, very young age,” she said. “My parents put me in gymnastics, tennis, swimming, basketball—almost every sport. And that gave me the opportunity to continue the sports that I enjoyed the most.”

For much of her life, Jada found herself most drawn to two sports: soccer, which she started playing as a preschooler, and track, which she first tried in fifth grade. And while over the years she often took long breaks from track to concentrate on soccer, by her sophomore year, Jada decided to fully devote herself to running.

“I wanted to do track at the highest level that I could,” she said.

I wanted to do track at the highest level that I could.—Jada Crockett, class of 2023

And as a member of Rowland Hall’s track and field team, Jada certainly pushed herself to new heights. Some of her top accomplishments as a Winged Lion include taking first place in the 100 meter and second place in the 200 meter at state (as well as setting school records in these events) as a sophomore, completing the 200-meter dash in 25.46 seconds as a junior, and taking first, and setting a new 2A record of 56.74 seconds, in the 400 meter as a senior.

During her time on Rowland Hall’s team, Jada also worked toward a goal to run track at the NCAA Division I level, a hope that recently became a reality when she committed to join the track and field team at California State University, Fresno. Not only will she get to run at Fresno State, she shared, she’ll also enjoy a big school with good academics, diversity, and year-round warm weather. Jada said she knew Fresno State would be a good fit as soon as she set foot on campus, where she was able to get a feel for the team, coaches, and academics.

“I went on an official visit a few months ago and as soon as I got there, I just knew it was the right spot,” she said. “ It was just a great environment. I was very confident in my decision. I'm super excited to go out there and continue to run.”

To celebrate Jada’s decision to run for Fresno State, we asked her to share a bit more about her athletic journey and what she’s looking forward to in college. The following interview has been lightly edited.

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Congratulations on committing to Fresno State! What do you love about running that made you want to continue the sport at the college level?

I enjoy the individual and team aspect of everything, just being able to run for yourself as well as get points for your team. And it's just a time where I can really free my mind of everything, clear my head. It's a good getaway from all the stressors in my life.

What are you looking forward to as a college athlete?

I want to continue to improve my times and get close to all my new teammates. And I'm really excited to figure out what my major will be and to use all the tools that I've been given from all the teachers at Rowland Hall.

Looking back on your time as a Rowland Hall athlete, both in track and field and in soccer, what moment as a Winged Lion are you most proud of?

It's very hard to narrow it down just to one, but I'd say my top two would definitely be winning state soccer my freshman year with my sister, because that was the first time we ever played together, and the last time, so that was an amazing moment. And I'd also say probably last year, my junior year, winning state in the 100 and 200 and breaking some of the school records was exciting.

Rowland Hall has definitely prepared me for this next chapter in my life, and I want to thank the faculty and staff, my peers, and my family for all their support because I wouldn't be where I am today without all the support of my amazing village.—Jada Crockett

Tell us about the skills, both academic and athletic, you built at Rowland Hall that you'll be taking with you to Fresno State.

I'd say the biggest thing is definitely time management because being a student-athlete at Rowland Hall, with the heavy workload and everything, made me manage my time and be very productive whenever I got the chance. I'll definitely bring that to college. 

Is there anything else you want our community to know about your athletic and/or academic journey?

I want to say that Rowland Hall has definitely prepared me for this next chapter in my life, and I want to thank the faculty and staff, my peers, and my family for all their support because I wouldn't be where I am today without all the support of my amazing village.

Congratulations, Jada, and best of luck at Fresno State!

Athletics

For most of her life, Arden Louchheim was a dual-sport athlete in golf and ski racing.

Arden first discovered an interest in golf at just three years old after her family moved to Park City and rented a house on a golf course, which gave the preschooler plenty of chances to hit golf balls, a skill she quickly discovered she was not only good at, but enjoyed. “When you’re a little kid you don’t get to hit stuff very often, so I thought that was fun,” she said.

Ski racing came just a couple years later, in kindergarten, and by the time Arden was in elementary school, she was succeeding in both sports. Thanks to the support of club pros and coaches on the golf course, Rowmark Ski Academy coaches on the mountain, and her parents—whom she credits with a no-pressure approach that drove her interest in both sports—Arden excelled. By the time she was an upper schooler, she was regularly playing in tournaments against the nation’s top young golfers, had joined the Rowland Hall’s girls golf team, and was competing for Rowmark. And though Arden was successfully juggling both sports, alongside her academic responsibilities, over time it started becoming clear that her long-term interest lay in golf. “I knew golf was what I should be doing and what I love the most,” she said. And because Arden wanted to play golf at the college level, she didn’t want to risk a racing injury derailing that goal. “I didn’t want to do anything that could mess up the rest of my golf career,” she said. 

 

Arden has been the player every coach dreams to have on their team. She is dedicated to the game, dedicated to the sport, and inspires everyone else around her.—Brianna Coopman, coach

So Arden made the difficult decision to quit Rowmark after her sophomore year to focus on her golf game, using the time previously spent on the slopes for golf-specific workouts, which target different muscles than ski conditioning does, and golf practices. As she worked, Arden dropped her score significantly—a welcome result as she began contacting schools of interest. With her parents’ help, said Arden, she made a list of schools she’d like to attend, narrowing them down not only based on their women’s golf programs, but also on their size and school pride. Though her family helped her make sure her choices were achievable, said Arden, some of them still felt like a reach, including the NCAA Division I University of Nebraska–Lincoln, which remained in the golfer’s top-three schools during nearly the entire recruiting process. “It felt for a long time that Nebraska was a dream,” she said.

But over time, by highlighting her achievements, determination, and team-positive attitude, Arden built a relationship with Jeanne Sutherland, head coach of Nebraska’s women’s golf team. They first emailed and talked on the phone, then Coach Sutherland came to watch Arden compete in a tournament and ended up offering her a spot on the team. In July, Arden headed to Lincoln for her first visit and immediately felt a connection to the golf team and coaches, and—necessary for the aspiring journalist—Nebraska’s College of Journalism and Mass Communications. At the conclusion of their trip, her parents asked her an important question: Would you want to be here with a broken leg?—meaning, if you couldn’t golf, would you still want to attend the school? For Arden, the answer was an enthusiastic yes. Later that month, she verbally committed to Nebraska, and this week she signed her National Letter of Intent, making her an official Husker.

“Arden has been the player every coach dreams to have on their team,” said Brianna Coopman, head coach of Rowland Hall’s girls golf team. “She is dedicated to the game, dedicated to the sport, and inspires everyone else around her. When I heard the news she was signing with Nebraska and the Big Ten Conference, I could not have been a prouder coach. Nebraska will be lucky to have her, and I have full confidence she will excel at both golf and academics during her time there. Congrats! Go, Cornhuskers!”

To celebrate Arden’s decision to golf for Nebraska, we asked her a few questions about her athletic journey. The following interview has been lightly edited.

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Congratulations on signing with Nebraska! You’ve long wanted to play golf for a large university; in 2020, you even told HER Fairways, “I would love to play for a D1 women’s golf team at a school with a lot of school spirit and a football team.” How does it feel to know you’ll be attending and competing for a Big Ten school next fall?

It still doesn’t totally feel real. If you compare Nebraska to what I said in the HER Fairways article, it literally checks every box that I had for a college and more. Not only does it have a strong golf program, a football team, and school spirit (for all sports, not just football), it also has one of the best journalism schools in the country, which is what I want to major in. I feel so incredibly lucky that I get to go to Nebraska next year because it truly feels like it is the perfect place for me.

There have been so many people who have put in time and effort to help me achieve this goal.—Arden Louchheim

The recruitment process is a long journey. How did you feel when you received the offer from Nebraska?

Overall, I felt so extremely grateful. Grateful to the Nebraska coaches, Coach Sutherland and Coach Zedrick, for their belief in me; grateful to my parents for their undying love and support; grateful to my coach for all of his guidance with my swing; and grateful to everyone else who supported me on this journey. There have been so many people who have put in time and effort to help me achieve this goal, so it was really amazing to see not only my hard work, but also everyone else’s effort, come to fruition. I also definitely felt some relief. I learned and grew so much from the recruiting process, but it was long and stressful, so it was nice knowing that I had finally reached the end of it.

You've had a successful golf career at Rowland Hall, including helping to lead your team to back-to-back 2A state championships, earning top 2A medalist honors for three consecutive seasons, and being named team MVP twice. What moment as a Winged Lion are you most proud of so far?

I am most proud of the team’s back-to-back state wins. It is really fun to win individually, but it is even more rewarding to come together as a team and achieve our goals as a unit. In the 2021 season I believe we only won state by three strokes, so we knew going into the 2022 season that we needed to practice hard to make sure we defended our state title. Watching all of my teammates come to practice motivated me every day, and seeing all of our hard work pay off with a large margin of victory at state in 2022 is a moment I am very proud of.

As previously mentioned, you’ve achieved so much already as a Rowland Hall golfer, but because girls golf is a spring sport for the UHSAA, you still have one more season to play before graduating. What are your hopes and/or goals for your final season as a Winged Lion?

My two main goals for the season are for the team to defend our back-to-back team state titles and for me individually to gain my fourth state title. My goal going into high school was to be a four-time state champion, so it would be really cool to achieve that goal with a win this year. Other goals I have include setting a new personal best for 18 holes, and maybe even trying to set a 2A record. My 67 in state last year was my personal best and set a Rowland Hall record, and I would love to try to lower that even further.

Tell us about the skills—both academic and athletic—you built at Rowland Hall that you'll be taking with you to Nebraska.

Rowland Hall played a massive part in achieving my goal of playing D1 college golf. Academically, Rowland Hall is a very challenging school, and while balancing golf and school was difficult, it taught me to be disciplined and to manage my time well. I learned to budget the time I had each day for practice, homework, workouts, and social events so that I could excel in academics and athletics while still enjoying time with friends and family. Additionally, the discussions that we have in classes like history and English helped me gain comfort expressing myself clearly and concisely. A lot of the recruiting process is emails and phone calls with coaches, and the speaking skills that Rowland Hall taught me benefited me greatly in these conversations with coaches.

Rowland Hall provided me with a place to grow as an athlete.—Arden Louchheim

Athletically, Rowland Hall provided me with a place to grow as an athlete and to experience team golf for one of the first times. Golf is largely an individual sport, and there are only a couple of team tournaments per year, so getting the chance to play with my classmates representing my school every year has been an incredible experience for me. Additionally, our school’s ski academy, Rowmark, is a very competitive program and the athletes are expected to hold themselves to the team’s high standards. These expectations instilled in me at a young age the responsibility, work ethic, and focus needed to be a member of the team. Once I built these habits, I was able to apply them outside of ski racing, and they have served extremely useful in my golf career, and my life as a whole. I have been at Rowland Hall since kindergarten and I take a lot of pride in this school, so getting a chance to use my athletic skills to represent the school is an opportunity I am very thankful for.

What do you think golf has taught you about yourself?

In my opinion, golf is one of the sports that most closely resembles life, so it has taught me so much about myself as an athlete but also just as a person. First and foremost, golf has taught me that I am a competitor. I love the feeling of adrenaline that comes with a must-make putt or a drive on a tight hole where I have to hit the fairway. The opportunity that competition provides to showcase every skill that I have worked so hard on is my favorite part of the sport. Golf has also taught me to be very, very resilient. In golf, progress is not always linear, and learning to fight through a single tough round or a couple weeks of rough play has made me a stronger golfer and person who is more prepared to face adversity.

Is there anything else you want our community to know about your athletic and/or academic journey?

I am so thankful for the support that Rowland Hall has provided me. Golf tournaments, as well as Rowmark events, required me to miss a lot of class, but my teachers were always so understanding and supportive. I have had math teachers take time out of their lunch breaks or free periods to go over material I missed, and history teachers who allowed me to sit in on class periods other than my own to hear lectures that I was not at school for. The faculty and staff’s willingness to be flexible in order to allow every student to achieve their full potential is not something that I take for granted, and my success is a direct result of the support that I have received from Rowland Hall. I am very proud to be a Winged Lion.

Congratulations, Arden!

Athletics

At only 18 years old, Rowmarker Mary Bocock has already had an impressive skiing career.

In addition to her achievements as a top Rowmark Ski Academy athlete, Mary had the chance to compete with the US Ski & Snowboard Team in Europe in January 2021, an opportunity that led to her first nomination to the US Alpine Ski Team later that year. Earlier this month, she was nominated to the US Ski Team for a second time. And prior to sustaining a knee injury in December, Mary was ranked first in super-G, third in giant slalom, and eighth in slalom in the United States for her age.

Mary will soon add another achievement to her resume—college athlete—when she joins the Dartmouth College women’s ski team next year. She plans to enroll as a first-year student in fall 2023, after taking a gap year to continue her healing and focus on her commitment to the US Ski Team before she dives back into a routine of balancing school, training, and racing.

“Joining the Dartmouth ski team has been one of my athletic goals since I started thinking about colleges,” said Mary, who long considered the Ivy League school not only because it offered a top ski program, but also because of its academic excellence.

“This is a great fit for Mary on all levels,” said Todd Brickson, Rowmark Ski Academy program director. “Dartmouth has a long history of developing world-class ski racers within their storied NCAA Division I ski team, in conjunction with their flexible academic structure and top-notch education.”

To celebrate Mary’s plan to attend Dartmouth, we asked her a few questions about her decision and her journey as a skier. The following interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

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When did you find out that you have a spot on Dartmouth's ski team? How did it feel to receive that news?

I started talking to the coach about a year and a half before I committed to skiing for him. I knew the coach was interested in me, but I knew that I shouldn’t get my hopes up because there could be other girls out there. So when he told me he wanted to offer me a spot in the fall of 2023, I felt relieved and excited that I didn’t have to worry about my college experience.

You'll be taking a gap year before heading to Dartmouth. Why did you make that choice?

I will be taking a gap year after I graduate in the spring so that I can focus on my commitment to the US Ski Team and take advantage of all the resources they provide. Throughout my whole racing career, I have always had to balance traveling and school, so I want to experience the sport without having to balance the stresses of high school alongside the pressure of performing well in races and traveling. The Dartmouth coach actually offered me a spot to start in the fall of 2022, but I decided that I want to take a year to mature as an athlete and really focus on racing to make the most of my opportunity with the US Ski Team.

You've been offered a spot on the Dartmouth team and you're on the US Ski Team—basically, you've achieved two of your dreams. While you can't know what lies ahead, how are you approaching these two amazing opportunities?

I feel very lucky to have these two incredible opportunities ahead of me. I am trying to stay present and not worry about how I will balance the two programs. I am just trying to take advantage of the places and lessons I am experiencing. I always try to not take anything for granted—especially after COVID—and make the most of my time traveling and exploring new mountains and countries.

Focusing on your time at Rowland Hall, what moment as a member of Rowmark are you most proud of?

I’ve had a lot of great experiences on Rowmark, so it’s hard for me to pick my favorite moment. But if I had to, I would say one of my favorite memories is when I won a GS [giant slalom] race in Breckenridge, Colorado, at the end of my junior year. It was that race that helped me lower my points enough to make criteria for the US Ski Team. When I came down and everyone was cheering for me, I was so excited that I couldn’t stop smiling. Then, a few minutes later, my coach came down and gave me a hug (which is rare because he’s not one for hugs), and I started to experience an overwhelming amount of emotions because it all felt real.

On the other side, some of the most memorable experiences from Rowmark have been off the snow. The conditioning/team bonding week is always a highlight of the year because the whole team comes together to compete with each other in a very cohesive way. Competition is one of my favorite aspects of ski racing, so I always have a lot of fun on the camping weekend when the whole trip is just filled with competition.

Tell us about the skills you built at Rowland Hall and on Rowmark that you'll be taking with you after graduation.

One of the most notable skills I’ve learned from being on Rowmark while attending a challenging high school is time management and communication. In order for me to keep up with my work while I’m gone, I have to be very diligent with letting my teachers know when I will be gone and updating them on my progress throughout my trips. My first few training camps with the US Ski Team have been very different compared to those with Rowmark because nobody else in my group is in school. I am the only one trying to keep up with classes while skiing at a high level. I have to find time to separate myself and sit down and do school work while my teammates do their other activities. However, I have actually started to really enjoy Zooming into my classes while I'm away on ski trips because it is an opportunity for me to take time off from thinking about skiing and still feel connected with my life at home.

Congratulations, Mary!

Athletics

Congratulations to junior Elisabeth Bocock, who this week was nominated to the US Ski Team.

Elisabeth is one of 42 athletes nominated to the US Alpine Ski Team and one of three athletes who will be joining the women’s Development Team (D-Team) for the first time for the 2022–2023 competition season. (Athletes qualify for the team in the spring based on selection criteria, and the official team is announced in the fall once nominees complete physical fitness testing and medical department clearance.) She is the youngest addition to the D-Team and the only new member from the state of Utah.

“It was unreal,” said Elisabeth of the moment she received the call from US Ski Team Coach Chip Knight congratulating her on her season and confirming her place on the team. “It was what I’ve been hoping for basically my whole life.”

She’s not kidding. Thanks to her family’s love of skiing, Elisabeth has been involved with the sport for as long as she can remember: she clipped into her first pair of skis at age two, and some of her earliest memories include traveling with her family to Colorado to watch the World Cup—an experience that inspired her first dreams of joining the US Ski Team. “Seeing people on the team there was super exciting,” she remembered. “It made me want to be a part of that.”

It was unreal. It was what I’ve been hoping for basically my whole life.—Elisabeth Bocock, class of 2023, on being nominated to the US Ski Team

It also didn’t hurt that Elisabeth has three older siblings—brothers Scottie ’18 and Jimmy, and sister Mary—who were early naturals on the slopes and whose ski racing journeys inspired her own competitive drive. Elisabeth began racing for the Snowbird Ski Team at age six, and she joined Rowmark Ski Academy at age 13—a move she credits for preparing her to excel in both racing and academics, and where she’s had an exceptional career. In the 2021–2022 season alone, Elisabeth had five podium finishes in elite-level FIS races and is currently ranked first for her age in the US in slalom, giant slalom, and super-G, and second in the world in giant slalom.

“What is so impressive about Elisabeth objectively earning a spot on the US Ski Team is that her season was filled with setbacks,” said Foreste Peterson, Rowmark Ski Academy’s head women's FIS coach. “Whether it was having to quarantine from COVID exposures, or the many hard crashes she took that left her concussed, bloody, bruised, and banged up, she was knocked down time and time again. Yet, she bounced back every time, better than before, and always with a smile on her face. It was truly a pleasure to work with Elisabeth this year, and I so look forward to seeing what her future holds.”

And while Elisabeth’s riding the high of simply making the US Ski Team, she’s also enjoying an additional perk not available to every athlete in her position: the knowledge that this new experience will include her older sister (and role model), Mary, who was nominated to the US Ski Team last spring. “I’m super excited to work together in a different atmosphere,” said Elisabeth. “Mary’s been a real inspiration to me and has shown me what it takes to get to where I need to go.”

We can’t wait to see where she goes next. Congratulations, Elisabeth—we’ll be cheering you on!

Rowmark

Ever since Briggs Ballard learned he could play lacrosse while also studying finance and business development in college, he focused on turning that goal into a reality.

“From the day I realized I could play college lacrosse, it has been my biggest dream,” he said.

That dream came true on March 4, when Briggs committed to play for Texas Christian University (TCU), a Division 1 school with a lacrosse team that competes in the Men’s Collegiate Lacrosse Association. It’s an impressive step for the talented young athlete, who has been passionate about lacrosse since the age of three, when a Rowland Hall parent who moved to Utah from the East Coast created a mini lacrosse team for the community as a way to introduce students to the sport.

“I was a little too young to suit up,” Briggs said about the experience. “However, my brother [Boston Ballard ’20] played and I was always there watching and waiting for my turn. As I watched the older kids, I knew I wanted to play, and from that day on lacrosse was my sport. When I got my chance, I hit the ground running.”

And he’s excelled: by third grade, Briggs was playing competitive club lacrosse, and by sixth grade, club box lacrosse, and he was a member of youth teams at both Brighton High School and Corner Canyon High School, where his eighth-grade team won the state championship. In ninth grade, after a family move, Briggs began playing for Highland High School, where, as the only freshman on the varsity team, he led in goals, assists, and total points, earning him Freshman of the Year and Most Valuable Player accolades. When COVID-19 canceled his sophomore season, Briggs decided to use the time to think about how to take the skills he’d been building to the next level. “During quarantine, I decided I needed to push myself and play at the highest level of high school lacrosse,” he said. After making the team at IMG Academy, a prestigious sports training facility and boarding school in Florida, Briggs chose to spend his junior year there, where he practiced seven days a week and traveled the country playing top teams.

“It was a difficult decision to move away from my family and to leave Rowland Hall, but I decided to go for it and spent my junior year at IMG,” said Briggs. “The experience was one I will never forget; I learned so much about lacrosse and myself.”

He also learned just how much he appreciates his family and the Rowland Hall community: Briggs returned to Utah for his senior year, where he’s been enjoying time with friends, wrapping up his studies in the Upper School, playing lacrosse (of course!), and preparing for the next chapter of his story.

To celebrate Briggs’ decision to play lacrosse for TCU, we asked him to share more about his athletic journey. The following interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

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You're a Rowland Hall student who has pursued the sport you love (but one that's not offered by the school) alongside your studies. How have you juggled both responsibilities?

Juggling the rigor of Rowland Hall and the intensity of my lacrosse schedule has been challenging. I've had to learn to manage my time and plan ahead. I've done a lot of homework and studied on planes while flying home from tournaments. Even though Rowland Hall does not have a lacrosse program, the school and teachers have been very supportive and have always worked with me. Along with the challenges, playing for other schools has also been a blessing in many ways. It has enabled me to meet and socialize with kids outside of Rowland Hall and it's really expanded my social circle.

Can you briefly describe how you connected with the TCU team and how you made your decision to join them?

The lacrosse recruiting experience has been both awesome and stressful. I've had to really consider what level of lacrosse I want to play and balance that with the kind of college experience I want. My options were all over the board, from D1 schools to some smaller D3 schools, and several club options. Ultimately, I was heavily recruited by TCU, which happens to be where my brother goes to school. My brother has several friends currently on the TCU lacrosse team and because he knew I would love TCU, he had them reach out to me and from there the coach reached out. I fell in love with everything TCU has to offer, including their D1 lacrosse program. In addition to the lacrosse program, TCU checks all of the academic boxes for me and I can't wait to be a Horned Frog!

How did you feel when you officially committed to play for TCU?

I felt proud of myself and like all of my hard work paid off. I felt like I had finally done it and was relieved to have made a decision. The feeling of finally committing is a feeling I will never experience again and I am so grateful for how everything worked out.

What are your top memories from your lacrosse career (so far)?

My top memories of my lacrosse career so far are traveling all over the country with my parents and my best friends/teammates. I have played with several of the same kids since we were in the first grade and they have truly become some of my best friends. The summer tournaments are always memories; staying together as a team and playing the sport we love are memories I will never forget. Finally, last year, my IMG team traveled to Indiana, where we played Culver Academy, one of the best teams in the country. While we did not come away with the win, playing in front of so many people, and in a nationally televised game, is a very cool experience and a major memory for me. 

Tell us about the skills you built at Rowland Hall that you'll be taking with you to TCU.

I strongly believe Rowland Hall has set me up to succeed at TCU both academically and socially. Rowland Hall has taught me how to learn, how to be a critical thinker, and how to manage my time. Rowland Hall is a one-of-a-kind school and I cherish my time here and the education I’ve received. I know I will be a strong writer and contribute to the TCU community because of my Rowland Hall experience.

Is there anything else you want our community to know about your athletic and academic journey?

Just that I am beyond grateful for everyone who has supported me and helped me on my journey. My Rowland Hall friends have always been so supportive and encouraged me to keep on with lacrosse. From the teachers and staff to my friends, family, and coaches, I will forever be thankful for all of you. 

Lastly, GO FROGS!

Athletics

We are proud of the Olympians representing Rowmark Ski Academy and Rowland Hall at this month's Olympic Games, which kick off February 4.

Since their earliest days on the mountain, these skiers have been on a journey toward athletic excellence. Being named to their countries’ alpine ski teams is one of the highest honors of their careers, and represents hours of sacrifice and a steady commitment to intense training and competition.

While four of our former athletes qualified for the 2022 Olympics, two will be competing in Beijing this month.

“Unfortunately, Breezy Johnson and Madi Hoffman both sustained season-ending knee injuries while training for the Games and will not be able to compete,” said Todd Brickson, Rowmark Ski Academy program director. “Nevertheless, they qualified for the Olympics and we could not be more proud of Breezy and Madi. Injury is a common reality in our sport and the timing is devastating, but they will be back stronger than ever. Katie Hensien and Katie Vesterstein will carry the Rowmark Ski Academy and Rowland Hall torch, and we will be watching!”

To help the Rowland Hall community prepare to cheer on our former Rowmarkers at the Games, we have provided brief overviews of the Olympians below (as well as a throwback photo for each!).

Team USA: Katie Hensien ’18

Katie Hensien graduated from Rowmark and Rowland Hall in 2018. She is a five-year member of the US Ski Team, and also currently skis for and attends the University of Denver. Katie is originally from Redmond, Washington, and will make her Olympic debut in Beijing. She is the 2020 national champion in giant slalom and was a part of the Junior World Championships team that won the silver medal in the team event in Val di Fassa, Italy.

“Katie is an incredible talent and hard worker, and is someone who always has a huge smile on her face,” said Todd. “She brings incredible energy and positive vibes into every room.”

Update February 9, 2022: Katie placed 26th in slalom.

Team Estonia: Kaitlyn (Katie) Vesterstein ’17

Katie Vesterstein graduated from Rowmark and Rowland Hall in 2017. A native of Duluth, Minnesota, Katie is currently a senior at the University of Utah and an All-American member of the university’s national champion ski team. Katie is a dual citizen of the US and Estonia and will be representing Estonia at the Beijing Games.

“Katie is a fierce competitor and incredibly kind teammate who grew up ski racing on the small hills of Minnesota before joining Rowmark and Rowland Hall for two years and propelling herself onto the prestigious University of Utah ski team,” said Todd.

Update February 7, 2022: Katie placed 35th in giant slalom.

Update February 9, 2022: Due to a crash, Katie received a DNF in slalom.

Team Australia: Madison (Madi) Hoffman ’18 (Injured)

Madi Hoffman graduated from Rowmark and Rowland Hall in 2018. She has been a member of the Australian National Team for several years and is also a two-year member of the national champion University of Utah ski team. Madi is a three-time Australian National Champion in slalom and giant slalom, and was one of only two Aussie women to qualify for the 2022 Olympics in alpine skiing. She had been preparing for this moment with her coach (and former Rowmark head coach) Jim Tschabrun for four years.

“Madi is one of the hardest working and thoughtful young women I have ever had the pleasure to coach,” said Todd. “Her unfortunate knee injury will keep her from competing in this Olympics, but she is a very determined, talented ski racer, and I have no doubt that she will be back stronger than ever."

Team USA: Breezy Johnson ’13 (Injured)

Breezy Johnson graduated from Rowmark and Rowland Hall in 2013. Originally from Jackson Hole, Wyoming, Breezy joined the US Ski Team in 2014 and qualified for her first Olympic Games in 2018, where she placed seventh in downhill and 14th in super-G. Prior to her knee injury, Breezy was a clear medal contender after reeling off seven podium finishes and nine top-fives in her last 10 World Cup downhill races.

“In Breezy's time at Rowland Hall and Rowmark, she was incredibly determined and hardworking, both on the hill and in the classroom. At a young age Breezy had a very strong belief in herself and what was possible for her to achieve,” said Todd. “All I can say is that she is one of the world's best and she will be back with a vengeance.”

Schedule

Women’s alpine skiing events begin on Monday, February 7. Check out the full Alpine skiing schedule for event information.

Help Us Cheer on the Athletes!

Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter for updates.

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Banner: Katie Hensien competing for Rowmark Ski Academy.

Alumni

When you realize that Rowland Hall senior Drew Lang grew up in a family filled with passionate and successful wrestlers—including two adored older brothers—it’s not surprising that he became intrigued by the sport at an early age.

When asked when Drew first showed an interest in wrestling, his mom, Jill Lang, shared an especially sweet memory: at a wrestling tournament for the family’s two oldest boys, Will and Jack, then in elementary school, where she discovered the then-toddler Drew attempting to change out of his training pants and into a wrestling singlet.

“I said, ‘Oh no, honey, it’s a little too soon,’” she said, chuckling at the memory.

Luckily for that determined toddler, the wait didn’t last much longer: Drew stepped on the mat for the first time at age three. And he hasn’t stopped wrestling since.

Though Drew’s initial interest in wrestling can be traced to simply wanting to do what his big brothers were doing, a deep personal connection to the sport has kept him going for more than 15 years. It’s clear when talking to Drew that wrestling—a sport that, though organized by teams, is very individual—speaks to his innate drive for excellence. He said he remembers enjoying the repetition of early training sessions, which allowed him to slowly hone his skills, as well as benefiting from exposure to a variety of styles shared by the array of families that made up the first wrestling club the Lang family joined after moving to Utah, Team Legacy. He believes these early experiences set a foundation for success.

Wrestling is very much a sport where what you put in, you get out. The feeling of putting in so much time and effort and sacrifice, and then at the end of the day receiving the results you want, it’s very satisfying and worth it for me.—Drew Lang, class of 2022

“A lot of wrestling is knowing what to do in certain positions, and the only way you can really know that is by wrestling in all sorts of positions,” explained Drew. “You pick up on different things when you learn to wrestle against different types of kids.”

And even though Drew was one of the youngest kids in Team Legacy when he got started, his mom said he wasn’t scared to challenge himself. “From a very early age, he has never, ever been afraid of anything,” said Jill. “It wasn’t that he always thought he was going to win, necessarily, but he always was confident in his ability and he was always willing to try things.” It was an approach that worked: around age five, Drew began to place in, and even win, national tournaments, and that taste of victory marked a turning point.

“The feeling of winning is really what sparked my passion for this sport,” Drew remembered. “Wrestling is very much a sport where what you put in, you get out. The feeling of putting in so much time and effort and sacrifice, and then at the end of the day receiving the results you want, it’s very satisfying and worth it for me.”

Since those first wins, Drew has continued to amass an impressive list of achievements, both in national competitions as a now-member of the Sanderson Wrestling Academy and on the West High School wrestling team (although Drew attends Rowland Hall, he is one of its students who plays a sport not offered by the school at another local high school). In January alone, the two-time 6A state wrestling champion finished in eighth place at the Doc Buchanan Invitational in California (”arguably the toughest high school tournament in the country attracting the nation’s top high school wrestlers,” said Jill), first place at the Utah All-Star Duals, and first place at the Rockwell Rumble. On January 19, he was ranked the number-one Utah wrestler, pound for pound, by the Beehive Top 25. And to top it all off, he’s inching his way toward becoming the winningest wrestler in West High School history, a title currently held by his brother Jack Lang ’19 (who, by the way, won it from the oldest Lang brother, Will, in 2019); Drew should take the title by the time the 2022 state tournament wraps later this month. As Drew heads into the final phase of his high school wrestling career, his chances of additional victories, including a third state championship, are promising indeed—especially when you factor in the impressive mental fitness, refined alongside his physical strength, that the young athlete will tap into as he faces his last high school opponents. It’s a kind of fitness that, at such an elite level of wrestling, can truly mean the difference between victory and defeat.

“Once you get to a certain point,” Drew explained, “mindset is almost more important than the physical aspect, just because everyone is so good. But the people that are the best are mentally strong.”

Nowhere is this more evident for Drew than when he revisits opponents who have previously bested him on the mat: his 2021 6A state championship win, for instance, came against Westlake High School’s Jacob Finlinson, who wrestled the state title away from Drew in 2020, and this year’s win against Juab High School’s Channing Warner at the Utah All-Star Duals was revenge for Channing’s one-point victory over Drew at the same event in 2021.

“I think that’s what’s really helped propel him to do so well in this sport,” Jill said. “He’s never made excuses. He’s accepted what has happened, win or lose, and if he does lose then he immediately goes into the mindset, ‘OK, how do I need to train differently? What would I have done differently in this match if I had a rematch?’”

It’s a mindset that Drew has also applied in the classroom: while the young athlete said he doesn’t often view himself as the top student, his years of wrestling have taught him that he is one of the hardest working. “I think having that work ethic at such a young age really helped me,” he said.

It certainly made a difference in his college search. In middle school, Drew told his parents that he wanted to wrestle for an Ivy League school, and it became a goal that he dedicated himself to with the same energy that he brings to the mat—and with similar results. This fall, he’ll be heading to Princeton University, where he hopes to reach new wrestling heights (he’d like to be a starter by his sophomore year as well as an All-American) and make connections toward a fulfilling career. “The academic growth I’ll have there,” he said, “I think is going to set me up for the rest of my life.”

I think the skills from this sport—learning how to be a good winner, learning how to be a gracious loser, time management, accountability, not being afraid of taking risks—are so beneficial.—Jill Lang, parent

Because when it comes down to it, Drew explained, few people go on to wrestle professionally—but that doesn’t mean the sport doesn’t continue to shape them. “There’s a quote about wrestling: ‘Once you’ve wrestled, everything else in life is easy,’” he said. “I think there’s some truth behind that, just because wrestling is the same as everything else: you’re going to fail at times, you’re going to be successful at times.”

Jill agreed. “Drew’s not going to be a wrestler his entire life,” she said, “but I think the skills from this sport—learning how to be a good winner, learning how to be a gracious loser, time management, accountability, not being afraid of taking risks—are so beneficial, whatever he decides to do.”

The sport has also shown him, and those around him, the power of family and community, all of which came together to support Drew’s dreams. While much of this credit goes to Jill and her husband, Dave, as well as to Drew’s favorite role models, Jack and Will, and his coaches, Jill also took time to express gratitude to Rowland Hall for playing an important role in Drew’s journey.

“I’ve been so blown away by how accommodating the school has been; that’s helped Drew be where he is today,” she said. “Middle School Spanish teacher Bill Shann literally has watched more matches of Drew’s than I could ever tell you—away matches, home matches, matches online. He’s just been so supportive. The teachers have been so accommodating, as I’m sure they are with other kids that have interests they want to pursue. That’s been such a blessing for our family, to have such a supportive network.”

And no matter what happens on the mat this month, Drew will end his high school wrestling career surrounded by those who love him most.

“This is Drew’s moment, and I’m so grateful I get to share in it,” said Jill. “I just want him to go out there, and do his best, and enjoy that moment, and just know, whatever place he takes, we’re right up there watching him, as we always are.”

Update February 7, 2022: Drew won the 6A Boys Division Tournament, held February 4–5, and will be the #1 seed going into the 6A Boys State Tournament, which begins on February 18.

Update February 19, 2022: Drew has ended his high school wrestling career with a third state championship; read more about his victory in the Deseret News. Congratulations, Drew!

Athletics

By Dr. Chandani Patel, Director of Equity and Inclusion

My second year in the inaugural director of equity and inclusion role was an opportunity to build capacity across the school so that more individuals share the responsibility for advancing an equitable and inclusive school community. One key addition this year was the Divisional Equity and Inclusion Coordinators program, through which one faculty member in each division coordinated learning and action centered on equity and inclusion. These coordinators now help make up the Office of Equity and Inclusion, which brings together key partners across the school to collaborate on equity and inclusion initiatives, including the committees listed below. This year in review highlights programs and initiatives we led this year to cultivate a community where each member thrives. 

This year in review highlights programs and initiatives we led this year to cultivate a community where each member thrives.

We want to thank the students, faculty, staff, trustees, alumni, and parents/caregivers who have contributed to this work this year. We look forward to working with many more of you in the years to come.

New Faculty Support for 2022–2023

During the 2022–2023 school year, divisional equity and inclusion coordinators collaborated with and provided support to faculty colleagues to advance equity and inclusion in classrooms and divisions. Coordinators worked closely with Dr. Patel and division principals to identify key needs, design resources, and facilitate learning opportunities. The coordinators were Quincy Jackson (Beginning School), Abigail Bacon (Lower School), Susan Phillips (Middle School), and Dr. Kate Taylor (Upper School).

We also hosted a national Seeking Educational Equity and Diversity seminar, led by fifth-grade teacher Jen Bourque, where participants considered how they can use their classrooms, communities, or workplaces to create a more equitable environment for all.

2022–2023 DEI Committees and Affinity Groups

• JEDI Committee: This faculty and staff committee focused on four main areas this year: community education, inclusive and accessible practices, curriculum, and making our core values actionable.
• Student JEDI leaders: This group of Upper School students developed and facilitated learning opportunities for peers, including on topics like microaggressions and recognizing and respecting differences.
• Affinity groups: Affinity groups—spaces that bring together people with common identifiers or life experiences—in the lower, middle, and upper schools built relationships and engaged in shared learning (see list of groups below). A faculty and staff BIPOC affinity group, for those who identify as Black, Indigenous, and other People of Color, gathered to recognize cultural heritage months and build community. The White Antiracist Educators group met to discuss key readings related to equity and inclusion and ways to activate allyship.
• Inclusion, Outreach, and Equity (IEO) Committee: This committee of board members and administrators worked to identify and support strategic alignment centered on Rowland Hall’s priority to advance diversity, equity, and inclusion across the school community.

Student Affinity Groups

Sixteen affinity groups supported lower, middle, and upper schoolers this year:

• Banana Splits, Lower School*
• Kids of Color, Lower School*
• Rainbow Club, Lower School*
• Neurodivergent and Allies Affinity Group, Middle School*
• Sexuality and Gender Alliance, Middle School
• Students of Color, Middle School*
• Asian Affinity Group, Upper School
• Black Student Union, Upper School*
• Girls of Color, Upper School
• Infinity: Neurodivergent and Allies Affinity Group, Upper School*
• Jewish Affinity Group, Upper School
• Latine Affinity Group, Upper School
• Multiracial Affinity Group, Upper School*
• Muslim Affinity Group, Upper School
• Pagan Affinity Group, Upper School*
• Queer Straight Alliance, Upper School

*New in 2022–2023

Affinity groups in the Lower School are requested by families, led by faculty mentors, and provide space to build community and support. Affinity groups in the middle and upper schools are requested by students and are student-led in terms of topics and activities. Those interested in forming affinity groups should speak to their principal (Ingrid Gustavson, Upper School, or Pam Smith, Middle School) or Dr. Patel.

2022–2023 Programming

• MLK Week 2023: Afrofuturism: Building a Beloved Future: This year’s MLK week theme, Afrofuturism, invited us to imagine more inclusive futures and featured two prominent guest speakers: New York Times bestselling author Rio Cortez and youth climate activist Aniya Butler. Rio Cortez’s community poetry reading, “Afrofuturism, Frontiers, and Pioneers,” drew over 100 audience members from the broader community. The daylong student program featured dance, poetry readings, discussion, and artifact creation, all centered on building a future in which all individuals are celebrated.
• The Future of STEM: A Symposium With Local Innovators: This inaugural program was designed to offer our middle and upper school students an opportunity to learn from innovators in STEM about the state of their fields and about their journeys to their current roles. The program was also a recognition of Women’s History Month, highlighting prominent women leaders in STEM and providing allies with some tools to support underrepresented folks in STEM.
• Pride Parade 2023: More than 100 participants from the Rowland Hall community marched in the Utah Pride Parade this year. The group was led by student members of the Upper School’s Queer Straight Alliance and Middle School’s Sexuality and Gender Alliance. 

Community Education

Deliberate Dialogue Series

• Practice the Unpracticed: A Deliberate Dialogue On Racism (November) was an opportunity for the community to practice unpracticed conversations together around topics of race and racism.
• Making the Invisible Visible: A Deliberate Dialogue on Neurodiversity (March) was a forum for the community to learn about neurodiversity and how it impacts all types of learners, including the challenges and opportunities they encounter in educational settings.
• Celebrating Our Stories: A Deliberate Dialogue on Storytelling (May) allowed participants to explore how different ways of storytelling can help us connect to others' stories as windows or mirrors to our own experiences.

​Have You Been Wondering About… Resource Series

• The Office of Equity and Inclusion continued our series Have You Been Wondering About… as resources to help deepen learning in our community. This year’s topics were “How Racism Affects All of Us,” “Neurodiversity,” and “How to Be an Upstander.”

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Banner photo: Aniya Butler and Rio Cortez join Dr. Chandani Patel for Rowland Hall's Afrofuturism event in January 2023.

DEI

Can art save the Great Salt Lake?

It’s a question that students have been asking all year at Rowland Hall through dance, visual arts, and other mediums. In May, the question was laid out in black and white with the production of The Great Salt Film, a one-act play commissioned by theatre teacher Matt Sincell and Upper School students that examines the issues of the lake, and how, or even if, the artistic pursuits of teenagers could have an impact on a looming environmental crisis.

I wanted to empower them to have a voice in the creative process ... to see how art can impact people.—Matt Sincell, theatre teacher

“The play centers on a group of teenagers in a short-film competition to bring awareness to saving the Great Salt Lake,” said Matt. “We start to understand what their frustrations are with feeling powerless, and being asked to solve these problems but feeling like they have no voice and no vote.”

These are feelings the young actors in the play related to and were able to work through by helping create a new piece of art. Playwright Rachel Bublitz brought drafts of the play to the students and allowed them to contribute to not only the semantics of the work, but also to its overall structure and theme. “I wanted to empower them to have a voice in the creative process,” said Matt. “This was a way for them to see how art can impact people.”

The impact is already being felt in small ways. More than $500 was raised through the world premiere of the play, all of which went to FRIENDS of Great Salt Lake. This may not seem like much, but that is a key message of the play: every bit matters. The character of Truth, played by ninth grader Anaïs Bray, makes that point by emptying one bucket of water at a time into the dying lake. “It’s all about the small steps,” she said. “Truth’s mindset is: ‘It’s the best I can do and I need to do what I can do.’”

The bigger impact will be putting the play out into the world. Now that it has premiered at Rowland Hall, it is eligible for publication and subsequent production at schools and theaters all over the world. People who have never even heard of the Great Salt Lake will be able to learn more about its shrinking, and the environmental impact. They will also learn the names of the first cast to perform the play, as they will be printed on every future edition. “It’s fun to know that I’m the first person to do this role,” said ninth grader Henry Olsen.

The message is one of hope.—Owen Thomas, class of 2023

The impact is also through the students who participated in the creation of the play and its first production. They now possess a sense of agency to pick up and examine complex dilemmas and not shy away from them, no matter how insurmountable they seem. After all, there is a lake to save.

“I think the message is one of hope,” said twelfth grader Owen Thomas. “This isn’t a battle we’ve lost yet, but we still have a long way to go.”

Theatre

What do you get when you ask a class of resourceful fifth graders to take the lead on a community-focused project?

An impressive array of impact-making solutions.

That’s a truth that Rowland Hall’s fifth-grade teaching team discovered this year, thanks to a new project-based learning (PBL) opportunity that kicked off in the fall and, after months of dedicated student work, wrapped earlier this month.

The project, the first of its kind for the grade, began taking shape at a summer PBL workshop attended by two of the fifth-grade teachers, Sam Johnson and Colleen Thompson, who brought an idea to fellow teachers Jen Bourque and Dr. Torry Montes, both of whom had PBL experience from previous schools and were excited to bring a new idea to life in their Rowland Hall classrooms. The team wanted to connect their students’ learning with an understanding of their place within community, as well as—thanks to the nature of PBL, which promotes deep learning through student choice and leadership—empower them to take charge of an opportunity to build connections across the larger Salt Lake community. They decided to identify a shared public space that could use improvement, picturing it as a canvas on which students could lead the charge of finding ways to better serve the community, and they chose Bend in the River, a somewhat neglected park along the Jordan River Parkway, as the space for the project. They planned an October field trip to introduce students to the area.

Their discussion focused not on transforming the space they stood in, but on examining larger societal issues that contributed to unmaintained spaces, pollution, and a lack of housing. And since PBL is designed to follow students’ areas of interest, rather than adults’, it quickly became clear that the project was going to shift in unexpected, and exciting, ways.

But when the teachers took the students to Bend in the River, things didn’t unfold quite as expected. Instead of discussing how they wanted to change the area, the kids instead wanted to discuss the why behind what they were seeing: litter, broken structures, water pollution, and unhoused people. Their conversation focused not on transforming the space they stood in, but on examining larger societal issues that contributed to unmaintained spaces, pollution, and a lack of housing. And since PBL is designed to follow students’ areas of interest, rather than adults’, it quickly became clear that the project was going to shift in unexpected, and exciting, ways.

“We had this idea of proposals to change this park, but that didn’t come from the kids,” said Jen. As a result, the role of Bend in the River changed. “It became the place we used to come back to how that place is related to issues that touch the greater Salt Lake community.”

To better support their students’ burgeoning interests, the fifth-grade team refocused the project, moving away from transforming a specific space to answering an essential question: What do communities need to thrive? In November, they relaunched the project with an in-school field trip composed of rotations that would help students answer that question, determine what they were most passionate about, and identify where they wanted to work toward making an impact. “We were embracing the ever-moving target that is project-based learning,” explained Jen.

As part of the in-school field trip, the teachers brought in community members who could speak about creating connections and working toward solutions that benefit a shared community, a choice that was well-received and led to visits from additional representatives who generously shared their knowledge over the coming weeks: Britney Helmers and Josh Schuerman from Little City; Will Wright from the Salt Lake City Office of Economic Development; Tyler Fonarow, recreational trails manager for Salt Lake City Corporation; Ann Wigham (parent), Stan Stensrud, and Kimo Pokini from Ruff Haven; David Garbett (parent) from O₂ Utah; Greta Hamilton, stormwater program supervisor for Salt Lake County Public Works & Municipal Services; Brian Tonetti from Seven Canyons Trust; Mat Jones, District 2 supervisor for the Utah Department of Public Lands; and foothill rangers Haley Long and Eric Creel.

As the students learned about and discussed what communities need to thrive, four areas of interest naturally rose to the surface: environment, unhoused community, arts and community spaces, and trails and parks. It was decided that, in place of the original Bend in the River idea, students would find solutions to community problems within the four areas, each of which would be led by a teacher who could provide coaching, feedback, and support. And as an added benefit, the teachers structured the project so that students could work with their peers in other fifth-grade classes, a helpful experience for this group of rising middle schoolers.

The three A's allow students to be young changemakers in their own communities and prepare them for the challenges of the world they are going to inherit.—Dr. Torry Montes, fifth-grade teacher

The teachers also wanted to use the experience to help students better understand the many ways people can make real-world impact, which they did by introducing them to the three A’s: awareness, action, and advocacy. They explained that each A stood for a way people can make change: generate awareness by bringing attention to a problem, take action by moving forward on a solution, or act as advocates for policies that help people. The three A's, explained Dr. Torry, are often considered the goal of high-quality PBL.

“Educator Tony Wagner states that project-based learning is one of the best ways to meet all of the 21st-century learning goals,” she said. “The three A's allow students to be young changemakers in their own communities and prepare them for the challenges of the world they are going to inherit.”

Inspired by the ways they could make communities better, the students set to work researching causes and solutions, reaching out to groups and organizations, and creating a variety of projects that impressively showcased each of the three A’s, including proposals, petitions, posters, websites, flyers, and even a poem. By early March, when the students shared their final solutions at an open house, they had truly illustrated how young learners, when empowered to lead their learning, can take action, build awareness, and advocate for what they believe in. And as parents and caregivers wandered the fifth-grade wing, examining the projects, they were amazed by what they saw, recognizing how this work would benefit community organizations—including Salt Lake City Corporation, Tiny Village, Family Promise, Crossroads Urban Center, and Rowland Hall, not to mention the community members whose lives would be enhanced through the students’ ideas around clean water, safe shelters, and environmental protections—as well as the students themselves. Through this experience, the students learned life skills that will benefit them long after they leave their fifth-grade classrooms—including leaning on their own thinking to approach real-world problems. It’s a skill that’s essential, and one they’ll be encouraged to build on as they move on to middle school, and beyond.

“This is preparing them for their futures,” said Jen.

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Project Galleries

As part of their community project, Rowland Hall’s fifth graders were asked to not only choose the areas of change they wanted to pursue, but also to decide how they wanted to creatively share their work with others. We’re proud to include in this story the students’ choices for the Rowland Hall community’s enjoyment, and have provided examples of the students’ work in the galleries below. We also invite readers to read the students’ reflection essays on the experience, written to be published here in Fine Print.

Awareness

Students learned that generating awareness is essential to bringing attention to a problem, what needs to be done, and who should be involved. Click below to view the gallery.

Action

Students learned that action means moving forward on solving a problem they have identified. Click below to view the gallery.

Advocacy

Students learned that advocacy is designed to influence policy, helping to mobilize community members toward improvements. Click below to view the gallery.

Authentic Learning

Change may be slow, but it’s worth the wait.

This life truth was recently made clear to Jodi Spiro’s third graders, a group of students passionate about doing their part to save the earth—particularly when it comes to limiting the amount of garbage that’s dumped into the environment, a topic they’ve discussed often this year.

“We knew there was a problem, then we watched this video of how much trash ends up in rivers and oceans, and we thought it was really sad,” said class member Helena A. “We saw this island made out of trash—it’s bigger than Texas.”

“It feels like people don’t really care about what they’re throwing out,” added classmate Declan M.

And it really bothered the third graders to imagine Rowland Hall contributing to the problem—especially in one specific way: even though the school had returned to a traditional serving line at lunch (during the pandemic, individually packaged meals were delivered to classrooms), the dining hall hadn’t shifted back to using metal cutlery. The students knew the use of plastic utensils had to be creating a lot of waste, so in October they visited the dining hall to get an idea of just how much. The third graders began by counting the number of plastic utensils that fit into the dining hall’s cutlery dispenser, then determined how many times that dispenser was filled. They were shocked to learn that the McCarthey Campus was tossing around 900 plastic forks, knives, and spoons each week.

We realized how much we were throwing away and we wanted to know why, and we wanted to change it.—Third grader Declan M.

“We realized how much we were throwing away, and we wanted to know why, and we wanted to change it,” said Declan.

And though the students were anxious to make those changes right away, Jodi knew they would need the support of campus partners, including SAGE Dining Services, Rowland Hall’s lunch provider, which she knew was probably using plastic cutlery for a reason. Jodi saw the moment as an opportunity for her class to not only understand the reasoning behind that decision, but to learn how to respectfully present their request to reverse it.

“The way you go about something is the way you’ll get lasting change,” she told the class. “You’re going to get better buy-in from everybody if you’re respectful.”

So the class began by writing persuasive letters to explain their concerns and to propose their solution, which they sent to Julia Simonsen, food service director for SAGE, in November. They received a prompt response explaining that there was indeed a reason behind the use of plastic cutlery: students had been throwing away the dining hall’s metal cutlery, as well as reusable cups and even lunch trays. This was its own problem—the dining hall simply couldn’t afford to keep replacing these items. The third graders realized that, in order to address their cutlery concerns, they would first have to tackle another waste issue. So they made Julia an offer: they would teach lower schoolers how to properly use lunchroom materials if SAGE agreed to bring them back. Julia agreed.

With their end goal in mind, the third graders jumped into making plans for educating fellow students both on the proper use of cafeteria materials and on limiting what they sent to the landfill. They knew they would have to talk to every Lower School class, so they divided into teams, with each team choosing the grades they wanted to present to and the approach they thought best for that age group, such as a slideshow, a game of Kahoot!, or a Book Creator story. They also teamed up with staff and faculty members Emily Clawson, Mary Anne Wetzel, and Collin Wolfe to create a TikTok video demonstrating these skills, which they played for every class.

@rowlandhall1867

Jodi Spiro's third-grade class is on a crusade to make our school more environmentally friendly, and their first stop is the dining hall. After seeing how many plastic utensils were being thrown away, the students knew they had to take action. They urged the school to bring back metal cutlery, reusable cups, and compost buckets. Even at such a young age, these students are authentically learning and making a difference not only for our school, but for the world. Great job, third graders!

♬ original sound - Rowland Hall

Rowland Hall third graders demonstrate where to discard leftover milk, how to separate trash from compostable materials (which are then used by the Lower School’s Garden Club), and where to return utensils, cups, and trays.

These class presentations were another chance for the third graders to tap into their respectful dialogue skills: they had to present their material in ways that didn’t place blame on anyone and inspired students to want to help. “We wanted to make sure everyone understood the problem,” explained Helena. “We showed them what’s been happening and what they can do.”

And the presentations made an impact. From first to fifth grade, students expressed a desire to help fix the dining hall’s dual waste problems through their daily actions. “I didn’t really know that I could actually convince people this well of what's been happening in the cafeteria,” said Declan. “It felt really good.” Fellow third graders in Matthew Collins’ and Katie Schwab’s classes even created posters to help remind students to pay attention when disposing of items on their lunch trays, which are helpful resources as students continue to build these habits.

From her perspective, Jodi was thrilled to see not only how other classes responded to her students’ hard work, but how the experience also built the students’ confidence. She said her class loved being seen as experts on a subject and answering their peers’ questions; after each presentation, they returned to the classroom beaming and asking to talk to more people. “I think it brought out parts of themselves that they probably didn’t even expect,” she said.

They learned change is slow, but change is possible, and to be persistent: just because you want something to change doesn’t mean it’s going to follow your timeline.—Jodi Spiro, third-grade teacher

It also showed them that hard work on a cause you believe in is worth it. When the reusable cutlery and cups returned to the dining hall after April break, the moment was more than just the culmination of a nearly school-year-long goal; it was a strong reminder of how young learners can help address problems that seem insurmountable—such as waste in the environment—and truly make a difference.

“It’s so easy to get overwhelmed with the bigness of it,” said Jodi, “but the students learned you can start with something small and in your control, like what’s happening in our school. They learned change is slow, but change is possible, and to be persistent. Just because you want something to change doesn’t mean it’s going to follow your timeline.”

They also learned that making good choices add up and that, often, being the change you wish to see in the world starts by simply making a small decision to do something.

“Don’t be a problem starter,” summarized Jodi. “Be a problem solver.”

Ethical Education

Disagreement is everywhere. At times it feels like it has overtaken discourse and that a civil exchange of ideas is near impossible. How are young people supposed to navigate this world?

When faced with disagreement the natural reaction is to pull back. But it is in those moments when leadership is needed most.—Ryan Hoglund, director of ethical education

At Rowland Hall, it is with the help of their teachers, administrators, and a bevy of special guests who are part of the recently revived Upper School Speaker Series.

The theme of this year’s series is “Leading with Impact While Navigating Disagreement.” The aim is to help students understand the importance of listening to diverse perspectives when forming opinions and to teach them to become leaders even in the face of contentious arguments.

“When faced with disagreement the natural reaction is to pull back,” said Ryan Hoglund, director of ethical education. “But it is in those moments when leadership is needed most. The speakers are helping our students learn how to lead in those moments.”

English teacher Kody Partridge began the speakers series more than a decade ago as part of her 11th-grade rhetorical research project. (As was the case with many programs, the series was shelved last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.) Series speakers are all considered changemakers—people who recognize when positive change is needed and take action to make a difference—in their respective fields. In their presentations, they lay out for students how they have dealt with disagreements in their professions and how those disagreements have helped them grow their skill sets and reach important goals.

The series kicked off in October with Brittney Cummins, educational advisor to Utah Governor Spencer Cox. Since then, Salt Lake Tribune Executive Editor Lauren Gustus, Millcreek City Council Representative Silvia Catten, alumna and activist Dulce Horn ’20, First District Congressional Representative Blake Moore, Senate Candidate Becky Edwards, Flourish Bakery and Flourish Ventures Executive Director Rev. Aimee Altizer, and Utah Senator Derek L. Kitchen have spoken to students.

I have really enjoyed how the speakers have helped us understand the importance of implementing these dialogue tactics in our day-to-day lives.—Kaitlyn Bates, class of 2022

“Millcreek City Councilwoman Silvia Catten discussed navigating billboard controversies,” said Dr. Carolyn Hickman, English department chair, when asked to share an example of a message from this year’s series that stood out to her. “She vividly illustrated the importance of active listening and empathy building as she spoke to the challenges of building compromise at the local level.”

“She explained how she worked around conflicts to help benefit her own community; I found her tactics about how to approach the more tense situations to be super informative and engaging.” added senior Kaitlyn Bates. “I have really enjoyed how the speakers have helped us understand the importance of implementing these dialogue tactics in our day-to-day lives.”

The speaker series is a companion piece to the Deliberate Dialogue skill set taught throughout the Upper School curriculum. These skills, defined early in the year so that students can develop an awareness of when to use them, include:

• Open-Mindedness: I am open to learning about the lives, values, and beliefs of others.

• Listening: I can reflect what the other person is saying.

• Speaking: I can speak for myself and not on the behalf of others.

• Responding: I am able to respond empathetically to others.

• Reflecting: I can find differences as well as similarities between my life, values, and beliefs, and those of others.


“Collaboration is messy. We want students to know that conflict can be productive and when that mess is managed you get the best outcomes,” said Ryan. “This not only helps prepare them for college, but for the world at large.”

Ethical Education

This week, Rowland Hall celebrated Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s life and legacy by focusing on the ways we can build a beloved community—a trusting, loving place where all people feel welcome and where individuals unite across differences.

Because each person in a community plays a role in realizing this vision, Rowland Hall dedicated the week surrounding Martin Luther King Jr. Day to a series of events and conversations designed to prompt reflection and foster solidarity towards action. 

"Students across the lower, middle, and upper schools were able to collectively engage in a program called Beloved@RowlandHall,” said Dr. Chandani Patel, director of equity and inclusion. “The interconnected program focused on Dr. King's idea of the beloved community, one that leads with love, understanding, and solidarity. Beloved@RowlandHall helped remind students that each of them holds the potential and responsibility to be a changemaker and that each of them is a valued and integral member of our beloved community."

Beloved@RowlandHall helped remind students that each of them holds the potential and responsibility to be a changemaker and that each of them is a valued and integral member of our beloved community.—Dr. Chandani Patel, director of equity and inclusion

On January 14, middle and upper schoolers had the opportunity to view the Brolly Arts film Beloved Community, a documentary featuring some of Utah’s civil rights leaders, and enjoy a performance by Utah’s Hip Hop Education and Resource Center—activities that, Dr. Patel explained, allowed them “to interrogate the power of storytelling through multiple methods towards a shared goal of recognition—of ourselves, each other, and our community.” Students then created artifacts depicting what they need from one another to feel beloved and how they can help build a community in which each member feels valued, integral, and beloved.

At Lower School’s annual Changemaker Chapel, held on January 18, students continued this practice of creating their own reflective artifacts, as well as learned from dancer and educator Ursula Perry, who performed a piece for students and “elicited their reflections about Dr. King, movement, stories, and each of their hopes for the world,” said Dr. Patel.

In addition to student events, Rowland Hall celebrated Dr. King’s legacy with a virtual evening of dialogue for all members of the school community. After viewing Beloved Community, participants had the chance to engage in a Q&A session featuring the Rev. France Davis, pastor emeritus, Calvary Baptist Church; Marian D. Howe-Taylor, communication and media outreach manager, Salt Lake Community College, and co-creator, Black Social Change Utah; Ursula Perry, dancer, Repertory Dance Theatre; and Amy MacDonald, director and founder, Brolly Arts.

Thank you to all members of the Rowland Hall community for your thoughtful participation this week and for the steps you are taking to shape our beloved community. As you continue on your own personal journey, we invite you to view educational material related to Brolly Arts’ current project, Black Social Change Utah 2.0. Also, keep an eye on our diversity, equity, and inclusion web page, where we’ll continue to announce upcoming evenings of dialogue.

Equity & Inclusion

Dr. Chandani Patel wasn’t looking for a new job when she learned that Rowland Hall in Salt Lake City was searching for its first director of equity and inclusion. But when a recruiter sent her the posting, she found her interest piqued.

At the time, Dr. Patel was director for global diversity education at New York University, a challenging and rewarding role that she had no immediate plans to vacate. However, as she read Rowland Hall’s position statement, Dr. Patel was surprised to find herself contemplating a move: not only did Rowland Hall demonstrate a long-term commitment to the diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) work she’s dedicated her career to, but the school greatly emphasized community—a value that had risen in importance to her family after nearly a year of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“In the New Jersey/New York area, we did not have much community at all, really, because we were far from our workplaces—everyone commutes,” explained Dr. Patel. “The pandemic really shifted our priorities. We didn't feel embedded in a community, and we really wanted that.”

As Dr. Patel and her husband, English teacher Dr. Brady Smith, discussed the Rowland Hall opportunity, they realized that Salt Lake City may be just the place to grow the community connections they craved, both for themselves and for their young daughter, Aashna, then four years old. The location worked both personally—Dr. Patel already had a sister in Salt Lake, her parents were willing to relocate, and Brady’s parents live in nearby Colorado—and professionally: Salt Lake’s size and growth opportunities, including the ability to build partnerships in the DEI space, greatly appealed to the two academics-turned-educators. Furthermore, Rowland Hall serves a student population that, after more than a decade in higher education, Dr. Patel felt pulled toward.

“I had been thinking about transitioning to PreK–12 education for a couple of years,” she said, “because I was starting to see key challenges in higher education: a lot of the unlearning that folks were engaged in as adult learners needed to have happened a little earlier in their lives.” In other words, Dr. Patel had been observing students entering college classrooms with little to no experience engaging with those whose backgrounds or beliefs differ from their own, and it had become clear to her that students need earlier opportunities to practice navigating conflict and building trust across their differences.

“The world is, in many ways, super interconnected, yet we continue to be siloed; we continue to see patterns of kids only hanging out with kids who look like them or like the same things,” explained Dr. Patel. “Research backs this up, even from—or maybe especially from—a racial identity standpoint.”

School Today: What’s It For?

As Rowland Hall’s inaugural director of equity and inclusion, Dr. Patel is now playing a role in building the collaboration skills that today’s students will need in college classrooms and beyond. But even though preparing students to respectfully handle tough conversations, particularly with those who have differing opinions, in today’s world is of vital importance, she explained, it still often isn’t a priority in PreK–12 schools.

“In many schools, those are not the skills educators are explicitly talking about or helping students learn,” said Dr. Patel, “yet in every single industry, the first thing that any hiring committee will ask about is collaboration skills or a time you encountered and navigated a conflict.”

And employers need staff members who work well with others. Many cite so-called soft skills—such as teamwork and collaboration, leadership, critical thinking, and communication—as areas they most desire in new hires. And it isn’t just day-to-day business tasks that benefit from these skills; the most pressing problems we now face—the ones today’s students will help find solutions to, including inequality, climate change, and a global pandemic—can only be solved by coming together.

“Students have inherited a whole lot of problems that require really creative and out-of-the-box solutions; we have to imagine different possibilities to build a different and better world,” said Dr. Patel. PreK–12 schools offer ideal environments in which students can safely learn how to build relationships, practice collaboration, and navigate conflict—which, Dr. Patel pointed out, is a helpful life tool.

Schools are now the places where students should acquire and practice human-centered skills that machines can’t replicate—like teamwork, curiosity, judgment, and creativity—and where they learn what to do with all the information available at their fingertips.

“We need to help students understand that when conflict arises, you don't back away from it but embrace it, so that you can learn something new—maybe about yourself, maybe about the other person, maybe about that issue, maybe about the world,” she explained. “If that process can happen at a younger age, then we have many more opportunities for students to practice, and to understand how to work across their differences.”

For some, this can be an unfamiliar perspective: we haven’t often thought of PreK–12 schools in that way. But just as twenty-first century employers have been rethinking the skills employees need to succeed, so too should educators be rethinking the role twenty-first century schools play in student success.

“School is no longer a place to just learn facts and information—we have that available to us on the internet,” said Dr. Patel. Instead, she explained, schools are now the places where students should acquire and practice human-centered skills that machines can’t replicate—like teamwork, curiosity, judgment, and creativity—and where they learn what to do with all the information available at their fingertips.

Creating Student Leaders

For a DEI professional like Dr. Patel, refocusing the role schools play as we look to the future is important in enhancing students’ learning experiences, especially as they participate in current conversations around equity and inclusion. By emphasizing human-centered skills alongside traditional academic subjects, students are better able to see the humanity behind their studies, building a stronger understanding of our collective history and how it shaped, and shapes, our daily lives. Examining diverse lived experiences in an English class, for instance, or learning about the contributions of historically underrepresented groups to the sciences helps students understand cultural contexts, while engaging in classroom discussions helps students learn to express themselves, make connections, and practice respectful disagreement.

By emphasizing human-centered skills alongside traditional academic subjects, students are better able to see the humanity behind their studies, building a stronger understanding of our collective history and how it shaped, and shapes, our daily lives.

“It’s important for them to recognize that even if we have a lot of shared experiences and shared identities, we're still not going to always agree—and that's not a bad thing: that means you always have something to learn from each other,” said Dr. Patel. This applies to educators, too, who help solidify these skills by modeling what it means to learn from others. “My goal,” said Dr. Patel, “is to help students learn how to facilitate conversations, navigate conflict, and build a collaborative process.”

Importantly, this focus on building human-centered skills in the classroom should be viewed as an enhancement to learning—not something that comes at the expense of the academic rigor we expect from schools—because it enriches learning, helping to develop lifelong thinkers who can ask thoughtful questions to build their understanding of the world, their place in it, and their role in creating knowledge and change.

“Our students want to have hard conversations, and we want them to have the tools to ask questions of the world,” explained Dr. Patel. “We're not in the business of making any student feel bad or responsible for something that's way bigger than them—that is not how learning happens. The goal is to give students tools to ask questions around why things are the way they are and how they might be different in the future so that everyone can thrive.”

These actions benefit students in other ways too: as we emphasize human-centered skills, we show the value of all lived experiences, giving students a deeper sense of belonging to their school communities. And as they feel that belonging—and their confidence grows—students are more likely to speak up, to take action, and to believe in their own ability to make change.

“I'm really invested in the idea that every single one of our students is a leader,” said Dr. Patel. “And we need to cultivate that sense of leadership.”

Looking Ahead

For Dr. Patel, building leaders doesn’t stop at students—in fact, she said, one of the most exciting things about joining Rowland Hall is discovering the community’s collective commitment toward lifelong learning and making the school a welcoming place for all.

Rowland Hall has been doing this for over a decade. This is a community that really does care for each other, that really does want to do the hard work, because everyone is in the space of wanting to learn.—Dr. Chandani Patel, director of equity and inclusion

“Rowland Hall has been doing this for over a decade,” said Dr. Patel. “This is a community that really does care for each other, that really does want to do the hard work, because everyone is in the space of wanting to learn.”

As she continues to settle into the school community—now her family’s community—Dr. Patel is committed to involving all stakeholders, including families, in supporting their students as well as in navigating their own learning journeys, and she’ll be engaging various groups in conversation to identify the top challenges, opportunities, and questions that will inform Rowland Hall’s DEI work in the coming years.

“I'm invested in learning from a diverse array of folks,” she said.

And because Dr. Patel knows that it will take time to get to know the entire community, she’s also committed to providing ongoing updates on what she’s learning and what families can expect from her, beginning with a community forum tentatively scheduled for February.

“I want to talk with the community about what I'm learning, answer questions, and really make sure the work that I'm doing is transparent. This is not work done in secret; it’s shared work that is always going to be important to talk about and make visible,” said Dr. Patel with a smile. “There is a lot of excitement and enthusiasm, and we have a really great opportunity to build on that momentum.”

Equity & Inclusion

On Tuesday, October 13, Upper School students and faculty participated in Half Day/Whole Heart, a long-standing Rowland Hall tradition.

“Half Day/Whole Heart is meant to get students out in the community, exposing them to organizations they could do continued service with, providing illustrations of concepts from classroom curriculum and dilemmas, and experiencing the satisfaction of doing good in the community,” said Director of Ethical Education Ryan Hoglund, who organized the event. “We know from brain science that service opportunities benefit the giver as well as the receiver. Also, when illustrating classroom concepts like working at the Jordan River while studying Utah watersheds or helping organizations that support the most vulnerable in our community, learning and empathy come to life in ways not possible in the classroom alone.”

This year’s Half Day/Whole Heart included the following grade-level opportunities, many of which supplemented Beyond the Classroom curricular connections.

When illustrating classroom concepts like working at the Jordan River while studying Utah watersheds or helping organizations that support the most vulnerable in our community, learning and empathy come to life in ways not possible in the classroom alone.—Ryan Hoglund, director of ethical education

Ninth Grade

Ninth graders continued their study of local watershed dilemmas, working with the Jordan River Commission to clean the river corridor and seed native species and wildflowers, mitigating invasive weed species.

Tenth Grade

Guided by Chaplain Jeremy Innis, tenth graders continued their exploration of world faith traditions in our community by visiting local religious sites to meet with faith representatives, then reviewing pilgrimage films.

Eleventh Grade

Eleventh graders continued their study of community dilemmas requiring individual and legislative action, this time focusing on food insecurity and unsheltered people. They heard from Glenn Bailey, executive director of Crossroads Urban Center, and Rina Jordan, a local food security advocate (and parent of two Rowland Hall alums), about individual commitment to this work and the legislative challenges of addressing the needs of the most vulnerable in our community.

Twelfth Grade

Twelfth graders completed deferred maintenance projects around the campus of The Sharing Place, a nonprofit that helps children and adolescents navigate their grief following the loss of a parent or caregiver.

Ethical Education

Todd Brickson stands tall as a mountain in the world of ski racing. 

For the past 20 years, he has served as the program director of Rowmark Ski Academy, Rowland Hall’s world-class ski racing program, founded in 1982. An international level 500 coach in the US Ski & Snowboard Association, Todd has worked with hundreds of top-level Olympic, World Cup, and collegiate athletes. But, even with all that experience, those who know Todd don’t immediately bring up his coaching prowess, or his experience on the slopes. Instead, they talk about who he is as a person—and for good reason.

Priority one, before coaching, is to be a very good role model. You need to be the kind of person who young people aspire to be one day. Todd is solid in that way.—Olle Larsson, Rowmark Ski Academy co-founder

“Priority one, before coaching, is to be a very good role model in front of people. If you fail that, it doesn’t matter what kind of coach you are,” said Olle Larsson, former Rowmark program director and the co-founder of the program, who was instrumental in hiring Todd. “You need to be the kind of person who young people aspire to be one day. Todd is solid in that way.”

Building athletes of good character is central to Todd. He makes that clear on the first page of the handbook given to all team members. There, he writes that the main goal of the program is “for each Rowmarker to learn and develop responsible independence.” He emphasizes that there is more to being on the team than just making it down the hill, adding, “This is above all a process, a time of trial and error, a time to learn from mistakes, a time to learn how to win—and learn how to lose.”

The values of responsibility and independence that Todd promotes create a strong bedrock on which he builds exceptional competitors and people. But here is where Todd steps back a bit, to let the athletes find that fire within that’s needed to push themselves farther and achieve more. He’s the iconic definition of a coach in these moments, trusting that his athletes are capable of practicing what to do, and he allows them to do it. That mutual respect is what launches Rowmark athletes into greatness.

“Todd provided me with tools and then didn't put any pressure or expectation on race day. He knew that pushing wouldn’t help, and that I needed to figure it out,” said former Rowmarker and Olympic athlete Breezy Johnson ’13. “He provided me with the means to reach my incredibly high goals, and then was there with a hug and a word of advice, win or lose, at the end of the day.”

Todd does teach competitive spirit, but not in ways you may expect. He meets his students in competition in other arenas to show them that he respects them enough to go nose to nose. It may be on the golf course, in a go-kart, or by the side of a lake with a fishing pole in hand. Todd understands that coaching is a disposition and not contained to a certain time or place.

“There have been times when Todd has played hockey with us on a pond after skiing, or field hockey on dry land,” said Elisabeth Bocock, a senior who currently competes for both Rowmark and the US Ski Team. “He is never afraid to go shoulder on shoulder with us if that’s what it takes. He is super intense and does what he needs to do to win the game.”

And in his 20 years with the program, Todd’s intensity has helped raise the bar for Rowmark as an elite ski academy. Since 1988, there has been a representative from Rowmark at each Winter Olympics, and in 2014, the program became one of the first in the nation to achieve the Gold Certification level from the US Ski & Snowboard Association, and they’ve held onto that certification in the eight years since.

Rowmark’s skiers achieve off the slopes as well. The team currently has a 100 percent college placement rate, and its students are sought after by the best colleges and universities in the nation. “Todd is very involved in our academic success,” said Ian Hanrahan, co-captain of the Rowmark Academy Program. “He and the other coaches do a lot of work to make sure our teachers understand our busy schedules to help us stay on top of school and make sure we are successful skiers while still growing our academic careers.”

And Todd’s concern about the success of Rowmark skiers starts before they are even on the team. From the outset, he makes sure new recruits can thrive in the program. “Todd gives so much time to prospective families,” said Kathy Gunderson, former director of admission for Rowland Hall. “He cares so much about the candidates not only being a good fit for Rowmark but also finding academic success at the school as well. He’s brought recruiting to the next level.”

Todd’s recruiting prowess also extends to the coaches he selects to help guide the team. Every coach on Todd’s team knows they were selected for their excellence and are expected to reach extraordinarily high standards. But they also know that Todd views them as peers and wants them to feel welcome and able to grow as professionals through trial and error.

“Todd works to develop his staff,” said Rowmark Junior Program Director Troy Price. “Recently, three former staff members have gone on to coach for the US Ski Team. You must have excellent training to get job offers at that level.”

Staff development goes beyond coaching skills under Todd’s mentorship. After all, there is much more to the job than improving skiing skills. There are also all the logistical concerns, financial planning, health tracking, and emotional support needs that must be handled. Then there are the moments that are totally unexpected.

“My first season with the team we had a group of Rowmarkers involved in a head-on car accident while racing in Oregon,” said Troy. “Todd was coaching at another race in Whistler, Canada, yet he made arrangements to get to Portland. He stayed with our injured members during this extremely difficult time and was the glue that held everyone together. His empathy for others and his ability to stay calm in difficult situations is unmatched.”

Todd was a very important person in my development as an athlete. He taught me the tools I needed both technically with the fundamentals, and the greater work ethic required to make it to the highest level.—Breezy Johnson ‘13, Olympian

Todd’s two decades with Rowmark have left an indelible mark on all aspects of the program, and that impact will only continue to grow in the coming years. In 2019, an alpine training addition to the Utah Olympic Park became the team’s primary training facility, giving athletes access to the very slopes where their idols have competed. “This is the most important development for Rowmark since 1982,” said Olle. “The training arena that they now have does not exist anywhere else in the Northern Hemisphere.”

Time will tell what athletes will come off those slopes and into the national and international spotlights, but it’s clear that all of them will have benefitted from having Todd Brickson as a coach, mentor, and friend, just as those who came before them have.

“Todd was a very important person in my development as an athlete,” said Breezy. “He taught me the tools I needed both technically with the fundamentals, and the greater work ethic required to make it to the highest level.”

Rowmark

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Todd's anniversary isn't the only celebration for Rowmark Ski Academy this year. Rowmark is also excited to celebrate its 40th anniversary with a celebration weekend, March 10–12.

At only 18 years old, Rowmarker Mary Bocock has already had an impressive skiing career.

In addition to her achievements as a top Rowmark Ski Academy athlete, Mary had the chance to compete with the US Ski & Snowboard Team in Europe in January 2021, an opportunity that led to her first nomination to the US Alpine Ski Team later that year. Earlier this month, she was nominated to the US Ski Team for a second time. And prior to sustaining a knee injury in December, Mary was ranked first in super-G, third in giant slalom, and eighth in slalom in the United States for her age.

Mary will soon add another achievement to her resume—college athlete—when she joins the Dartmouth College women’s ski team next year. She plans to enroll as a first-year student in fall 2023, after taking a gap year to continue her healing and focus on her commitment to the US Ski Team before she dives back into a routine of balancing school, training, and racing.

“Joining the Dartmouth ski team has been one of my athletic goals since I started thinking about colleges,” said Mary, who long considered the Ivy League school not only because it offered a top ski program, but also because of its academic excellence.

“This is a great fit for Mary on all levels,” said Todd Brickson, Rowmark Ski Academy program director. “Dartmouth has a long history of developing world-class ski racers within their storied NCAA Division I ski team, in conjunction with their flexible academic structure and top-notch education.”

To celebrate Mary’s plan to attend Dartmouth, we asked her a few questions about her decision and her journey as a skier. The following interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

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When did you find out that you have a spot on Dartmouth's ski team? How did it feel to receive that news?

I started talking to the coach about a year and a half before I committed to skiing for him. I knew the coach was interested in me, but I knew that I shouldn’t get my hopes up because there could be other girls out there. So when he told me he wanted to offer me a spot in the fall of 2023, I felt relieved and excited that I didn’t have to worry about my college experience.

You'll be taking a gap year before heading to Dartmouth. Why did you make that choice?

I will be taking a gap year after I graduate in the spring so that I can focus on my commitment to the US Ski Team and take advantage of all the resources they provide. Throughout my whole racing career, I have always had to balance traveling and school, so I want to experience the sport without having to balance the stresses of high school alongside the pressure of performing well in races and traveling. The Dartmouth coach actually offered me a spot to start in the fall of 2022, but I decided that I want to take a year to mature as an athlete and really focus on racing to make the most of my opportunity with the US Ski Team.

You've been offered a spot on the Dartmouth team and you're on the US Ski Team—basically, you've achieved two of your dreams. While you can't know what lies ahead, how are you approaching these two amazing opportunities?

I feel very lucky to have these two incredible opportunities ahead of me. I am trying to stay present and not worry about how I will balance the two programs. I am just trying to take advantage of the places and lessons I am experiencing. I always try to not take anything for granted—especially after COVID—and make the most of my time traveling and exploring new mountains and countries.

Focusing on your time at Rowland Hall, what moment as a member of Rowmark are you most proud of?

I’ve had a lot of great experiences on Rowmark, so it’s hard for me to pick my favorite moment. But if I had to, I would say one of my favorite memories is when I won a GS [giant slalom] race in Breckenridge, Colorado, at the end of my junior year. It was that race that helped me lower my points enough to make criteria for the US Ski Team. When I came down and everyone was cheering for me, I was so excited that I couldn’t stop smiling. Then, a few minutes later, my coach came down and gave me a hug (which is rare because he’s not one for hugs), and I started to experience an overwhelming amount of emotions because it all felt real.

On the other side, some of the most memorable experiences from Rowmark have been off the snow. The conditioning/team bonding week is always a highlight of the year because the whole team comes together to compete with each other in a very cohesive way. Competition is one of my favorite aspects of ski racing, so I always have a lot of fun on the camping weekend when the whole trip is just filled with competition.

Tell us about the skills you built at Rowland Hall and on Rowmark that you'll be taking with you after graduation.

One of the most notable skills I’ve learned from being on Rowmark while attending a challenging high school is time management and communication. In order for me to keep up with my work while I’m gone, I have to be very diligent with letting my teachers know when I will be gone and updating them on my progress throughout my trips. My first few training camps with the US Ski Team have been very different compared to those with Rowmark because nobody else in my group is in school. I am the only one trying to keep up with classes while skiing at a high level. I have to find time to separate myself and sit down and do school work while my teammates do their other activities. However, I have actually started to really enjoy Zooming into my classes while I'm away on ski trips because it is an opportunity for me to take time off from thinking about skiing and still feel connected with my life at home.

Congratulations, Mary!

Athletics

Congratulations to junior Elisabeth Bocock, who this week was nominated to the US Ski Team.

Elisabeth is one of 42 athletes nominated to the US Alpine Ski Team and one of three athletes who will be joining the women’s Development Team (D-Team) for the first time for the 2022–2023 competition season. (Athletes qualify for the team in the spring based on selection criteria, and the official team is announced in the fall once nominees complete physical fitness testing and medical department clearance.) She is the youngest addition to the D-Team and the only new member from the state of Utah.

“It was unreal,” said Elisabeth of the moment she received the call from US Ski Team Coach Chip Knight congratulating her on her season and confirming her place on the team. “It was what I’ve been hoping for basically my whole life.”

She’s not kidding. Thanks to her family’s love of skiing, Elisabeth has been involved with the sport for as long as she can remember: she clipped into her first pair of skis at age two, and some of her earliest memories include traveling with her family to Colorado to watch the World Cup—an experience that inspired her first dreams of joining the US Ski Team. “Seeing people on the team there was super exciting,” she remembered. “It made me want to be a part of that.”

It was unreal. It was what I’ve been hoping for basically my whole life.—Elisabeth Bocock, class of 2023, on being nominated to the US Ski Team

It also didn’t hurt that Elisabeth has three older siblings—brothers Scottie ’18 and Jimmy, and sister Mary—who were early naturals on the slopes and whose ski racing journeys inspired her own competitive drive. Elisabeth began racing for the Snowbird Ski Team at age six, and she joined Rowmark Ski Academy at age 13—a move she credits for preparing her to excel in both racing and academics, and where she’s had an exceptional career. In the 2021–2022 season alone, Elisabeth had five podium finishes in elite-level FIS races and is currently ranked first for her age in the US in slalom, giant slalom, and super-G, and second in the world in giant slalom.

“What is so impressive about Elisabeth objectively earning a spot on the US Ski Team is that her season was filled with setbacks,” said Foreste Peterson, Rowmark Ski Academy’s head women's FIS coach. “Whether it was having to quarantine from COVID exposures, or the many hard crashes she took that left her concussed, bloody, bruised, and banged up, she was knocked down time and time again. Yet, she bounced back every time, better than before, and always with a smile on her face. It was truly a pleasure to work with Elisabeth this year, and I so look forward to seeing what her future holds.”

And while Elisabeth’s riding the high of simply making the US Ski Team, she’s also enjoying an additional perk not available to every athlete in her position: the knowledge that this new experience will include her older sister (and role model), Mary, who was nominated to the US Ski Team last spring. “I’m super excited to work together in a different atmosphere,” said Elisabeth. “Mary’s been a real inspiration to me and has shown me what it takes to get to where I need to go.”

We can’t wait to see where she goes next. Congratulations, Elisabeth—we’ll be cheering you on!

Rowmark

We are proud of the Olympians representing Rowmark Ski Academy and Rowland Hall at this month's Olympic Games, which kick off February 4.

Since their earliest days on the mountain, these skiers have been on a journey toward athletic excellence. Being named to their countries’ alpine ski teams is one of the highest honors of their careers, and represents hours of sacrifice and a steady commitment to intense training and competition.

While four of our former athletes qualified for the 2022 Olympics, two will be competing in Beijing this month.

“Unfortunately, Breezy Johnson and Madi Hoffman both sustained season-ending knee injuries while training for the Games and will not be able to compete,” said Todd Brickson, Rowmark Ski Academy program director. “Nevertheless, they qualified for the Olympics and we could not be more proud of Breezy and Madi. Injury is a common reality in our sport and the timing is devastating, but they will be back stronger than ever. Katie Hensien and Katie Vesterstein will carry the Rowmark Ski Academy and Rowland Hall torch, and we will be watching!”

To help the Rowland Hall community prepare to cheer on our former Rowmarkers at the Games, we have provided brief overviews of the Olympians below (as well as a throwback photo for each!).

Team USA: Katie Hensien ’18

Katie Hensien graduated from Rowmark and Rowland Hall in 2018. She is a five-year member of the US Ski Team, and also currently skis for and attends the University of Denver. Katie is originally from Redmond, Washington, and will make her Olympic debut in Beijing. She is the 2020 national champion in giant slalom and was a part of the Junior World Championships team that won the silver medal in the team event in Val di Fassa, Italy.

“Katie is an incredible talent and hard worker, and is someone who always has a huge smile on her face,” said Todd. “She brings incredible energy and positive vibes into every room.”

Update February 9, 2022: Katie placed 26th in slalom.

Team Estonia: Kaitlyn (Katie) Vesterstein ’17

Katie Vesterstein graduated from Rowmark and Rowland Hall in 2017. A native of Duluth, Minnesota, Katie is currently a senior at the University of Utah and an All-American member of the university’s national champion ski team. Katie is a dual citizen of the US and Estonia and will be representing Estonia at the Beijing Games.

“Katie is a fierce competitor and incredibly kind teammate who grew up ski racing on the small hills of Minnesota before joining Rowmark and Rowland Hall for two years and propelling herself onto the prestigious University of Utah ski team,” said Todd.

Update February 7, 2022: Katie placed 35th in giant slalom.

Update February 9, 2022: Due to a crash, Katie received a DNF in slalom.

Team Australia: Madison (Madi) Hoffman ’18 (Injured)

Madi Hoffman graduated from Rowmark and Rowland Hall in 2018. She has been a member of the Australian National Team for several years and is also a two-year member of the national champion University of Utah ski team. Madi is a three-time Australian National Champion in slalom and giant slalom, and was one of only two Aussie women to qualify for the 2022 Olympics in alpine skiing. She had been preparing for this moment with her coach (and former Rowmark head coach) Jim Tschabrun for four years.

“Madi is one of the hardest working and thoughtful young women I have ever had the pleasure to coach,” said Todd. “Her unfortunate knee injury will keep her from competing in this Olympics, but she is a very determined, talented ski racer, and I have no doubt that she will be back stronger than ever."

Team USA: Breezy Johnson ’13 (Injured)

Breezy Johnson graduated from Rowmark and Rowland Hall in 2013. Originally from Jackson Hole, Wyoming, Breezy joined the US Ski Team in 2014 and qualified for her first Olympic Games in 2018, where she placed seventh in downhill and 14th in super-G. Prior to her knee injury, Breezy was a clear medal contender after reeling off seven podium finishes and nine top-fives in her last 10 World Cup downhill races.

“In Breezy's time at Rowland Hall and Rowmark, she was incredibly determined and hardworking, both on the hill and in the classroom. At a young age Breezy had a very strong belief in herself and what was possible for her to achieve,” said Todd. “All I can say is that she is one of the world's best and she will be back with a vengeance.”

Schedule

Women’s alpine skiing events begin on Monday, February 7. Check out the full Alpine skiing schedule for event information.

Help Us Cheer on the Athletes!

Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter for updates.

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Banner: Katie Hensien competing for Rowmark Ski Academy.

Alumni

Since the age of six, Rowland Hall junior—and passionate ski racer—Mary Bocock has had a big goal: to join the US Ski Team. That dream just came true.

I’ve wanted to be on the team ever since I started racing, so getting the call felt like I was achieving a goal I’d had for over 10 years.—Mary Bocock, class of 2022

On May 3, US Ski & Snowboard announced that 44 top national athletes, including Mary, have been nominated to the US Alpine Ski Team for the 2021–2022 competition season (athletes qualify based on published selection criteria in the prior season). Mary is one of only three new members of the women’s Development Team, also known as the D-Team; she’s also the youngest addition to that team and the only new member hailing from the state of Utah.

“When I got the call from [US Ski Team Coach] Chip Knight congratulating me on my nomination to the D-Team, I was overwhelmed with excitement,” said Mary. “I’ve wanted to be on the team ever since I started racing, so getting the call felt like I was achieving a goal I’d had for over 10 years. I am looking forward to skiing with a group of girls who push me and who know what it takes to be the best.”

Mary had a sensational 2020–2021 race season, which included a November 2020 US Nationals performance with Rowmark Ski Academy that earned her an invitation to compete with the US Ski Team in Europe. After placing in several races in Cortina, Italy, and Garmisch, Germany, in early 2021, Mary returned to the United States to finish the season: at the FIS Elite Races at Sugar Bowl Resort and Squaw Valley, California, she took 10th place overall (second for U19s) in giant slalom, and 11th place overall (fourth for U19s) in slalom. At the FIS Spring Series in Breckenridge, Colorado, she won the giant slalom race—a win that currently ranks her second in the nation and sixth in the world in giant slalom for her age, as well as first and ninth in the world in super-G. Finally, she ended the season with a 12th-place finish in super-G at the US National Championships in Aspen, Colorado.

Mary's fierce competitive nature is among the best in the world and I'm confident that she will take advantage of this opportunity.—Graham Flinn, head FIS coach

“Mary has worked incredibly hard day in, day out, not only this season but for many years in order to put herself in a position to accomplish the goal of being named to the US Ski Team,” said Graham Flinn, head FIS coach for Rowmark Ski Academy. “I'm very proud of the way she carried herself throughout this past year's successes and challenges. She continues to impress with her drive and ability to be a student of the sport. Her fierce competitive nature is among the best in the world and I'm confident that she will take advantage of this opportunity.”

The US Ski Team’s alpine athletes have already kicked off pre-season camps, and the official team will be announced this fall once nominees complete required physical fitness testing and US Ski & Snowboard medical department clearance. We will continue to update the Rowland Hall community on Mary’s progress in this exciting new chapter in her ski-racing career—which she’ll balance alongside her senior year at Rowland Hall—through the fall and winter.

Congratulations, Mary!

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The below video, first shared with the Rowland Hall community in April 2021, features Mary's reflections on competing in Europe earlier this year.

Rowmark

This summer, Rowland Hall welcomed former competitive ski racer Foreste Peterson to the Rowmark Ski Academy team.

We could not be more excited to have Foreste on board to work with our Academy athletes on and off the hill to share her knowledge, work ethic, and grit.—Todd Brickson, Rowmark program director

Foreste joins Rowmark as U19 International Ski Federation coach and academic liaison. A former racer for the Squaw Valley Ski Team, US Ski Team, Dartmouth College Ski Team, and Team X Alpine private women’s team, Foreste brings to Rowmark valuable elite athlete knowledge and experience that will benefit our student-athletes.

“We are thrilled that Foreste has joined our Rowmark Ski Academy staff,” said Todd Brickson, program director. “Her international experience and skill as an elite ski racer; her determination to scratch and claw her way to the top of collegiate skiing, all the way to the World Cup; and her humble yet confident demeanor all combine to bring an incredible person and personality to our coaching team. We could not be more excited to have Foreste on board to work with our Academy athletes on and off the hill to share her knowledge, work ethic, and grit.”

To help introduce Foreste to the Rowland Hall community, we asked her to play a round of 20 questions. (Be sure to also check out 20 questions with Colette Smith, Upper School girls soccer coach, published earlier this fall.) Foreste's answers have been lightly edited for style and context.

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1. We’re so excited that you’re one of our Rowmark Ski Academy coaches. What made you decide to join the Rowmark team?

Thank you, I’m excited too! It was a pretty easy decision to join Rowmark. I had just retired from my own racing career and knew that I wanted to stay in the sport and give back to the next generation of ski racers. I also knew I wasn’t ready to leave Utah, so it was a no-brainer to not pass up this opportunity.

2. What initially got you interested in ski racing as a kid?

Both my parents were ski racers and avid skiers, so they put my older sister and me on skis at the age of two. At four I joined the Squaw Valley Ski Team junior program, which transitioned into the race program. Skiing has always been a huge part of my family’s lifestyle, so I didn’t really have a choice in the beginning. Luckily, I fell in love with it early on and knew that I wanted to take it as far as I could.

3. You have impressive credentials: you were a member of the US Ski Team for four years, then competed for Dartmouth College, where—among your many achievements—you raced in World Cup competitions and earned the Class of 1976 Award as one of the college’s most outstanding female athletes of 2017. You also skied for Team X Alpine, the elite private women’s team, for two years. How did these opportunities as an athlete prepare you for this new chapter of coaching?

While I’ll certainly take all that I’ve learned from my experiences as an athlete into my coaching career, I think what prepared me most were certain pieces of feedback and advice I got from my former coaches over the years. How I thought about skiing and how I carried myself as an athlete were largely influenced by how I was coached. Now that I’m the one in the coaching role, I’m still benefiting from the pearls of wisdom that struck me back when I was an athlete. This wisdom has not just prepared me, but has compelled me to stay in the sport so that I can pass it on to the next generation, and hopefully make a difference in their athletic careers.

4. You are coaching Rowmark’s U19 athletes (students aged 16–18). As someone who began competing with the US Ski Team at age 16, you understand what it’s like to juggle athletics and academics at a young age. How do you see yourself helping your student-athletes balance those areas?

I do know what it’s like to juggle athletics and academics, and I know how challenging it can be. It wasn’t until I got to Dartmouth that I realized what time management really meant. More than that, I learned how incredibly important it is to make the most of the limited time you have, whether in the library, in the gym, or on the ski hill. I found that staying present, focusing on the task at hand, and being deliberate about what I was trying to accomplish helped keep me grounded, especially in times of stress.

I’m already so impressed by how much the student-athletes I’m working with have on their plates and how well they manage the loads. That said, I realize there will inevitably be bumps in the road for each of them, so as their coach I fully intend to serve as a resource, provide guidance, and do whatever I can to help them figure out how to best strike a healthy life balance so they can focus on what’s important in the moment.

5. As a competitor, you skied all over the world. If you could only ski at one resort for the rest of your life, which one would you choose?

That is a really tough one, but if I had to pick one, it would probably be Jackson Hole.

6. If the powder fairy granted you the chance to pick your perfect ski weather, what would it be?

Twenty-five degrees, bluebird skies, little to no humidity, and no wind!

7. Necessary equipment aside, what’s the one item you can’t be on the mountain without?

A neckie, a.k.a. neck warmer, neck gaiter, or buff. No matter the temperature, I feel naked if I’m not wearing one.

8. What’s your favorite aprѐs ski meal?

Nothing beats Wiener schnitzel in Europe.

9. Who’s your favorite professional skier to watch?

When I was younger it was always Bode Miller. Nowadays, it’s probably Wendy Holdener for the women and Alexis Pinturault for the men.

10. Let’s step away from skiing for a moment and chat about other areas of your life. What is one of your favorite things you did this summer?

I went home to California to see each of my parents, which I hadn’t done in a long time. Part of my time I spent visiting my dad in Squaw Valley and Berkeley (where I split my time growing up), and the rest of my time I spent visiting my mom in Santa Barbara. Squaw Valley and Santa Barbara are two of my favorite places, so getting some quality time in each place made me really happy in and of itself.

11. What book do you read over and over?

All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr.

12. What’s the last show you binge-watched?

I’m not much of a binge-watcher, let alone TV watcher, but I’m currently making my way through Ozark.

13. What’s your dream vacation?

Anywhere that has white sand and clear blue water. It would also include eating freshly caught seafood for most meals, hiking to waterfalls, no snakes, and daily massages.

14. What’s one fun fact about you that you don’t often get to share?

I have two: (1) I am a fifth-generation Californian, and (2) I strangely enjoy the hiccups.

15. What one phone app could you not live without?

Probably Spotify. Music and podcasts add a lot of enjoyment to my days.

16. If you could have dinner with anyone in history, who would you pick?

This one is really hard for me, so I picked three from our lifetime: [musician] Taylor Swift, [tennis player] Naomi Osaka, and [basketball coach] Steve Kerr.

17. You grew up in Berkeley, California, but moved to Park City when you joined Team X Alpine. What do you most enjoy about living in Utah?

I love being able to walk out my front door and be on a hiking or mountain biking trail within five minutes, or to be within a 30-minute drive to some of the best skiing in the US. The access here is truly incredible. I also love the community feel of living in a mountain town. There’s always something going on, and it’s so fun to live in a place where the options are endless everyday.

18. Who has been one of the biggest influences in your life?

Each of my parents has been very influential in my life. They have always been my biggest supporters, no matter what the outcome looks like. They’ve taught me how to put my best foot forward and give 100% in whatever it is I’m pursuing. They’ve shown me what it means to set your mind to something, and what it takes to get there. I definitely wouldn’t be where I am today if it weren’t for them, and I feel incredibly fortunate to have had them as my role models.

I’d love to be able to instill a resilient mindset in my student-athletes … if they can learn to be resilient in this sport, they will be resilient in all other areas of life.

19. What is the top life skill that you want to help build in your student-athletes this season?

I’d love to be able to instill a resilient mindset in my student-athletes. 2020 is certainly showing all of us that life can throw some major curve balls, so whether it’s on the scale of a global pandemic or a DNF [Did Not Finish] in a ski race, I want my athletes to be able to pick themselves up when the going gets tough and “keep on keeping on.” That’s not to say I want them to be heartless, emotionless robots—absolutely not. I just think that ski racing can teach them so much about not giving up when things aren’t going well or as planned, and if they can learn to be resilient in this sport, they will be resilient in all other areas of life.

20. If you had to give your athletes one piece of advice or one affirmation to keep in mind before they race, what would it be?

Trust in your abilities and take the reins. Once you get into the starting gate, you are the boss, so make the most of it!

Rowmark

After a four-month delay caused by the global pandemic, the US Ski & Snowboard Intermountain Division (IMD) announced on September 22 their 2019–2020 season awards. We are thrilled to share that Rowmark Junior Program Director Troy Price was named IMD Official of the Year.

An already well-recognized coach (Troy was most recently named US Ski and Snowboard’s Development Coach of the Year in 2018), Troy’s career is marked by an exceptional commitment to his student-athletes and colleagues, as well as to the larger division—he is actively involved with IMD, running yearly officials’ clinics and, this month, completing studies to become a International Ski Federation (FIS) technical delegate, the senior alpine official at internationally scored events. With the completion of this certification, Troy has become the division’s first new FIS technical delegate in 25 years—a necessity for this area of the country.

“There is a desperate need for this certification in our division and region,” said Rowmark Program Director Todd Brickson, who also noted that Troy takes on both his IMD and Rowmark tasks “with tremendous passion and knowledge of our great sport.”

As someone who is enthusiastic about helping to improve the ski-racing experience for athletes not only in Utah, but throughout the West, Troy is honored to be recognized by his peers for his work—although he is quick to point out that he is one of many working toward this goal.

“All alpine officials play a critical role to ensure our athletes have a safe environment and to enforce the rules of our sport. Our division is full of great individuals willing to donate their time and expertise,” Troy said. “I have had the pleasure to follow the lead of many great officials that have guided me throughout my career. I now have the pleasure to share my experience with the next generation and some outstanding folks who volunteer their time throughout our division. I look forward to continuing my education and giving back to the sport for many years to come.”

In addition to Troy’s recognition, five Rowmark student-athletes were recognized by IMD:

The breadth of the awards, both academic and athletic, across all ski racing disciplines is a reflection of our Rowmark values of teamwork, balance, and determination.

• Carter Louchheim ’20 was named the 2019–2020 season’s Alan Hayes Intermountain Scholar for his athletic and academic achievements.

• Harry Hoffman ’23 earned the Bryce Astle Intermountain Cup Award for men’s overall, as well as Intermountain Cup Awards for men’s slalom (first place), men’s giant slalom (first place), and men’s super-G (second place).

• Elisabeth Bocock ’23 earned the Bryce Astle Intermountain Cup Award for women’s overall, as well as Intermountain Cup Awards for women’s slalom (third place), women’s giant slalom (first place), and women’s super-G (second place).

• Jack AbuHaidar ’22 earned an Intermountain Cup Award in men’s giant slalom (third place).

• Dagny Brickson ’21 earned an Intermountain Cup Award in women’s downhill (second place).


“I'm so pleased to have so many Rowmark athletes receiving awards from our Intermountain Division,” said Troy. “Carter, Harry, Elisabeth, Jack, and Dagny all came through the Rowmark Junior Program. It is extremely rewarding to see them continue their love for the sport and their pursuit of excellence.”

Todd echoed Troy and said Rowmark is proud of its award winners. “The breadth of the awards, both academic and athletic, across all ski racing disciplines is a reflection of our Rowmark values of teamwork, balance, and determination.”

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Banner photo: Troy Price, left, with coaches Megan Hanrahan and Jay Sawyer and some of the members of the Rowmark Junior 2019–2020 All-Mountain Rippers team.

Rowmark

Author's note: Daisy's pronouns are she/they and have been used interchangeably throughout this article. Learn more.

Staring at her phone, Daisy Innis ’23 almost couldn’t believe what she was seeing.

It was a June morning, and Daisy was busy at her summer job as a camp counselor. Just moments before, while preparing to wrangle a group of children and their gear onto a bus for that day’s field trip, Daisy had seen a notification from The New York Times Learning Network in their inbox. The winners of the 2023 Student Editorial Contest, to which Daisy had entered an original essay (shared at the end of this story), had been announced.

This year, students from around the world submitted 12,592 essays to the New York Times Learning Network’s annual competition, and only 151 were chosen for recognition.

Part of Daisy’s mind remained on their inbox as she got campers seated and ready for the drive. When that task was accomplished, Daisy settled into a seat, clicked the announcement, and began scrolling. Suddenly, their heart gave a leap of recognition: her own name was among the contest’s 33 honorable mentions. She almost couldn’t believe it. “I was a little bit in shock,” she remembered.

That emotion was understandable. This year, students from around the world submitted 12,592 essays to the New York Times Learning Network’s annual competition, and only 151 were chosen for recognition: 11 top winners, 12 runners-up, 33 honorable mentions, and 95 round-four finalists. Daisy was also the only student from Utah to be recognized in this year’s contest.

For Daisy, the recognition was huge, not only because so few entries could be honored, but because the moment marked an important milestone in a months-long process of reflection and healing.

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Daisy’s journey to New York Times recognition kicked off in a somewhat unexpected way: with a trip to Utah’s Capitol Hill.

On January 24, 2023, Daisy attended a House Health and Human Services Standing Committee meeting for House Bill 132 (later Senate Bill 16) during the Utah State Legislature’s 2023 General Session. As an experienced peer educator for Planned Parenthood Association of Utah, a lobbyist during this year’s session, and a devoted community advocate, Daisy had a clear understanding of the impact that this bill, designed to prevent all gender-affirming care for minors, would have on young Utahns.

“This sort of legislature affects so many people in the state of Utah, in a way that is overall life-changing,” she explained.

As she sat in the meeting, Daisy watched, frustrated, as the bill’s sponsor introduced witnesses who argued against gender-affirming care but were unable to provide evidence of their claims. This was a high-stakes legislative session, Daisy thought, and would affect people’s lives. How could it be that students like her were held to far higher standards in the classroom than legislative witnesses were in committee meetings? “I have been taught that you need to have sources, evidence—you need to back it up, you need to list your sources,” said Daisy.

This lack of sources made the passage of the bill three days later especially upsetting for Daisy. “I was so angry,” they remembered, and that anger, as well as the fear Daisy felt for those affected by the bill, stayed with them. Come spring, said Daisy, they still found themself reflecting on the experience. The anger hadn’t dimmed.

It was at this time that Daisy’s AP Literature teacher, Dr. Carolyn Hickman, introduced a unit titled What Makes Us Human?, an opportunity for students to read works such as Ted Chiang’s Exhalation, Jean-Paul Sartre’s “Existentialism Is a Humanism,” and Megan Garber’s “We’re Already Living in the Metaverse” while collectively trying to process broader hot-topic conversations around generative AI and ChatGPT, which had been picking up in earnest since OpenAI launched their chatbot in November 2022. Dr. Hickman asked students to reflect on these in-class conversations, then find ways to share their own commentary with real-world audiences. As she reflected, Daisy kept thinking back to the misinformation leading states, including Utah, to pass bills limiting or blocking transgender youth health care—and realized she wasn't as worried about AI and ChatGPT as others. What she was actually afraid of were politicians who share propaganda and misinformation that impact human lives.

“What I was afraid of was the legislation being passed. To me, it feels more tangible,” Daisy explained. “At least if you use ChatGPT you can ask it to give you sources.”

Daisy decided to tackle this topic, choosing for their real-world audience The New York Times Learning Network, which had recently opened its 2023 Student Editorial Contest, an annual opportunity for middle and high school students between the ages of 13 and 19 to share original opinion pieces on the issues that matter to them. Student writers are asked to use at least one source published in the Times and at least one source from outside the Times, and to limit arguments to 450 words, with winners chosen from those who “not only ground their claims in strong evidence, but also engage [the judges] with voice and style.”

Once she had picked her topic, Daisy remembers sitting down in English class, putting on her headphones, and letting the words flow onto the page. It was as though all she had been ruminating on had been ready to come out, and she remembers the writing process as cathartic and healing. “It was an honest expression of what I’d been reflecting on for months, and probably a good exercise in writing for me,” Daisy remembered. The process also helped Daisy feel renewed passion for the often exhausting work of community advocacy, as well as helped her better understand, learn from, and harness the anger she’d been feeling.

Daisy's opinion piece asked readers to focus not on how the writing is produced, but instead on all the ways we fail to hold others accountable for the information they disseminate.—Dr. Carolyn Hickman, AP English teacher and Upper School English Department chair

“This was a reminder of the passion piece of advocacy—I was so angry, and being able to channel that anger into this piece helped me to think through it and reflect on it, and also to sort of share that anger, because it can be hard to be angry by yourself,” said Daisy.

Importantly, sharing that anger also helped Daisy realize she wasn’t alone. The New York Times recognition showed her that her perspective had struck a chord, providing a necessary perspective in ongoing conversations about not only AI but human-generated misinformation.

“Daisy's opinion piece asked readers to focus not on how the writing is produced, but instead on all the ways we fail to hold others accountable for the information they disseminate,” said Dr. Hickman. “It doesn't matter if it's generated by AI or simply fabricated out of thin air, she challenged, if we don't insist on careful sourcing of facts, data, and opinions as others wield information in ways that affect us all.”

Daisy said their New York Times recognition has given them more confidence in their writing—and that being recognized by a national paper of record isn’t too shabby, either. “It’s pretty cool to be picked out of 12,000 entries, and it’s also really cool that my name is in the New York Times, especially as an avid New York Times reader and crossword-doer,” she said.

Daisy is currently attending the University of Puget Sound, where she’s planning to pursue a degree in the school’s Science, Technology, Health & Society program, with a minor in bioethics, and is contemplating later earning a master of public health. As a Matelich Scholar, Daisy is also working to build community on the Puget Sound campus and said they’ll continue to draw on this experience to stay passionate about this important work.

“I intend to continue working in the same vein that I have been doing,” said Daisy, “and it’s really important to me to remember my values, and my anger, because that is really going to fuel me, that passion and anger and desire, but also the joy that I feel doing work in the community. Finding that balance, but also remembering the fact that I feel emotions about it, whether good or bad, is the best motivator.”

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We invite the Rowland Hall community to enjoy Daisy’s essay, shared below.

When It Comes to Secondary Education, Are We Fearing the Right Things?

By Daisy Innis, Class of 2023

In the wake of ChatGPT’s release, I cannot quite find it in myself to care as much as my parents and teachers. My mother says I’m a fatalist, and my teachers want to know why. But my question is: is generative AI and ChatGPT the right thing to fear?

Much like Mr. Aumann, a professor interviewed for the New York Times’ reflection on ChatGPT and education, my teachers are considering methods to discourage use of this technology. They’ve considered hand-written assessments and detection programs. They have, like many, spent a significant amount of time trying to outwit AI. For them, the possibility of AI-generated student writing is one of their biggest educational concerns.

But it isn’t mine. It is difficult for me to be concerned about the possibility of academic dishonesty in classrooms when I see much more pressing issues within the (mis)use of information. As a student in Utah, I have watched state legislators—in my state and others—be held to a lower academic standard and pass legislation with disastrous consequences.

As a high school student, had I submitted a paper without sources, or even used an AI tool, I would have been failed, and further disciplined in the case of the latter. That disciplinary action would likely follow me for the rest of my education.

During this year’s legislative session, S.B. 16, a bill preventing all gender-affirming care for minors, became law. I attended the committee meeting of a prior iteration of the bill, H.B. 132. I watched Representative Shipp introduce witnesses who spoke without regard for the desires of trans kids and without clear evidence for their claims. Most memorably, when asked for his sources, Dr. David Boettger replied that he didn’t remember, and that he didn’t have them with him.

As a high school student, had I submitted a paper without sources, or even used an AI tool, I would have been failed, and further disciplined in the case of the latter. That disciplinary action would likely follow me for the rest of my education. Dr. Boettger’s testimony was accepted without consideration of his sources, and used to later pass S.B. 16. His choices won’t follow him. This bill, backed by unnamed sources, endangers the lives of trans kids across the entire state of Utah—a state which already boasts a consistently higher suicide rate among the LGBTQ+ community than the national rate. This bill, which has been held to a lower standard of research than a high school English paper, deprives people I love of care crucial to their livelihood and survival.

So no, I am not terrified about the use of generative AI in classrooms. I am no more afraid of plagiarism than before. I am terrified of the world we live in, where I have been held to a higher standard of academic honesty than my legislators. I am terrified for those who are going to die because of the choices they have made.

Works Cited

Huang, Kalley. “Alarmed by A.I. Chatbots, Universities Start Revamping How They Teach.” New York Times. January 16, 2023. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/16/technology/chatgpt-artificial-intelligence-universities.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare.

“LDS Church and Suicide Prevention.” PFLAG. https://pflag.org/resource/lds-church-and-suicide-prevention/.

“Minutes of the House Health and Human Services Committee.” Utah Legislature. January 24, 2023. https://le.utah.gov/interim/2023/html/00000887.htm.

Schott, Brian. “Blocking Gender-Affirming Care in Utah Could Be Found Unconstitutional, a Legal Review Found.” Salt Lake Tribune. January 26, 2023. https://www.sltrib.com/news/politics/2023/01/26/breaking-bill-blocking-gender/.

Wen, Anne. “ChatGPT and Plagiarism: Student Cheating Concerns May Be Overblown.” Teen Vogue. February 13, 2023. https://www.teenvogue.com/story/chatgpt-plagiarism-cheating-students.

Student Voices

Chloe Jones ’11 is back on familiar ground. As the new executive director of UtahPresents, and the assistant dean for art and creative engagement for the College of Fine Arts at the University of Utah, her home base is now Kingsbury Hall.

“I took my first dance class at Tanner Dance when I was two,” Chloe said. “I have vivid memories of being in Kingsbury Hall growing up. It’s surreal to be back on campus in this new capacity.”

I am very committed to continuing our mission of bringing diverse artistic and cultural experiences here to
Salt Lake.—Chloe Jones ’11

While Chloe’s office may be in Kingsbury Hall, the mission of UtahPresents reaches well beyond the grand staircase that leads to the theater. The organization stages performances and cultural experiences across Salt Lake County with the help of several partner organizations. It is also instrumental in arts education, with programs spanning from kindergarten through high school, and into colleges and universities.

“I was drawn to UtahPresents because of the organization’s strong foundation, and I’m excited to continue building on the successes they have had in the past,” Chloe said. “I am very committed to continuing our mission of bringing diverse artistic and cultural experiences here to Salt Lake.”

Chloe is one of the hundreds of thousands of people who make art possible in communities around the world, but she’s not who you might think of when you think of someone who works in the arts. You may picture an actor or prima ballerina, or an up-and-coming sculptor with a hot new show, and while those people are important, they aren’t all the arts have to offer—and are actually a very small part of the overall puzzle.

“A career in the arts is not only about being a performer,” said Sofia Gorder, Rowland Hall’s arts chair of dance education and Chloe’s former dance teacher. “The way we frame a career in the arts has to really shift and change and recognize that it is part of a larger whole, rather than an isolated marginalized space where very few succeed.”

The opportunity to explore different facets of the arts is one of the reasons Chloe is now with UtahPresents. In her new role, she said she is asking what is possible within the arts, and how to tap into the sense of curiosity that brings people to the spaces where art occurs. “Often younger individuals’ relationship to art is through their own practice of art or through consumption of art,” she said. “There are infinite ways to be an artist or an arts worker. That's the beauty of the arts—the space for imagination, creativity, and innovation is vast.”

And those active in the arts will tell you that art should not be centered around a person or persons in the spotlight, but instead involve entire communities. The more voices and contributions to the process, the richer and more profound it becomes. That is the power of art, and its presence enriches the lives of everyone it touches. This is why schools, including Rowland Hall, so strongly emphasize the importance of arts education.

“Art turns up the volume on our nerves so we confront the world in a way that is more human. It allows us to see the world and feel the world, perceive that world that is richer because of the lenses that art gives us,” said Chloe’s former English teacher Joel Long, who teaches Upper School English and creative writing at Rowland Hall today. “All those things heighten our ability and our vulnerability and allow us to enter the world more fully.”

Chloe also knows it isn’t just how art connects us to the world, but also how it connects us to each other and spurs us to action, making us brave in the times when we are most fearful. “I think the arts give us inroads to understand different social issues,” said Chloe. “They are a critical way of convening and building community around those issues. I feel very strongly we need the arts to inspire us.”

Chloe’s education at Rowland Hall laid the groundwork of her arts-filled career. She was a Lifer, or a student who attended the school for 12 or more years. She described the school as her community growing up, and said she is especially thankful she was chosen as a Cumming Scholar in ninth grade. During high school she was a member of the dance company and the co-editor-in-chief of the literary magazine, Tesserae. But it was the more intangible skills she gained that proved to be the most useful.

Rowland Hall made me a critical and curious thinker, and reinforced my love of questions and helped me become more creative and strategic in trying to answer those questions. It was such a nurturing and academically challenging environment, and that combination made me more resilient—and you need to be resilient to pursue a career in the arts.—Chloe Jones ’11

“Rowland Hall made me a critical and curious thinker, and reinforced my love of questions and helped me become more creative and strategic in trying to answer those questions,” she said. “It was such a nurturing and academically challenging environment, and that combination made me more resilient—and you need to be resilient to pursue a career in the arts.”

After Rowland Hall, Chloe attended and graduated from Wesleyan University, and began her career working at the Wesleyan Center for the Arts. From there she went to The Yard, a residency supporting performers and creators on Martha’s Vineyard, where she worked as director of development and associate producer before becoming executive director. Moving through the organization helped her develop skills in fundraising, nonprofit management, curation, and programming. “It was a unique opportunity to invest in the creative process by supporting new work development, while also investing in public programs that build community through the arts,” Chloe said. 

“I’m super proud of her. She has done amazing things,” said Joel of Chloe’s work in the arts. He’s also excited about how these skills promise to now make an impact on Chloe’s hometown. “I am thrilled that she is doing something that will matter to her and could matter to others in relation to the arts,” he said

Now back in Utah, Chloe is certainly applying these early career experiences to her new role. UtahPresents engages more than 45,000 people throughout the Salt Lake Valley in the arts every year through performances, education, and outreach, and Chloe hopes to see those numbers grow and to see experiences diversified. Currently, they are looking at more off-site performances and opportunities like the “Stagedoor” series, where the audience enters from backstage and then sits on the stage to watch the performance.

“It's been energizing to rejoin a campus community at the University of Utah and tap into the sense of curiosity that exists in that environment,” Chloe said. “It is helping me ask the question of what else is possible within the arts. This job really is a homecoming of my dreams.”

It’s a dream homecoming for Salt Lake and the extended community as well. Chloe is set to open doors to a whole new generation of artists, arts sector professionals, and patrons of the arts. Because of her work more people will know what’s possible, and it all started with a Rowland Hall education that never discounted the power of the arts.

Alumni

Dr. Sophie Janes ’12 remembers when she first realized she could have a career in STEM.

“I was in Mr. Hayes’ ninth-grade biology class and it just clicked for me,” she said. “I realized I really liked science.”

Dr. Janes is now an OB/GYN resident at the University of Utah, and she returned to Rowland Hall’s Lincoln Street Campus on March 17 to talk to current students about how they, too, can find a place in science, tech, engineering, and math—or STEM.

We want students to see themselves reflected in different role models and in different fields. We want them to know they can successfully navigate career pathways they are passionate about.—Dr. Chandani Patel, director of equity and inclusion

Dr. Janes, a representative from the medical field, was one of the speakers who attended the school’s first annual The Future of STEM: A Symposium with Local Innovators event, a program held in honor of Women’s History Month. She was joined by physician Dr. Tricia Petzold (medicine) and mathematics professor Dr. Priyam Patel (math), as well as teachers Ben Smith ’89 (computer science), Dr. Padmashree Rida (biology), and Christian Waters (technology); Great Salt Lake Institute Coordinator Carly Biedul (environmental science) was also scheduled to attend, though she had to cancel due to illness. The event was set up so students could meet with women currently working in STEM, learn about various career paths, and find out how to get started on their own pathways to STEM careers, while also supporting peers along the way. The event’s keynote speaker, tech CEO and incoming Rowland Hall Board Chair Sarah Lehman, advised the group to “get comfortable with the uncomfortable,” to not be afraid to stake their claims in fields that interest them, and, when faced with challenges, to "focus on what is important to you and let other things roll off."

The symposium included a goal of encouraging historically underrepresented individuals to pursue their interests in STEM fields, including seeking out mentors who are doing work that is exciting to them. One of the sessions was on how women can navigate these fields, while another explored how to be an ally and make STEM more inclusive to a variety of people. “We want students to see themselves reflected in different role models and in different fields,” said Dr. Chandani Patel, director of equity and inclusion. “We want them to know they can successfully navigate career pathways they are passionate about.” 

Dr. Patel said the STEM symposium was only the first of what she hopes will be many events aimed at bringing community leaders and professionals to the school to share with students career options and opportunities the students may not have even considered. Events like these underscore the importance of building strong partnerships to create learning opportunities, both in and out of the classroom.

“I am so glad to be able to help show them what’s possible and what steps they need to take,” said Dr. Janes. “I want them to be brave and make  the most of the opportunities available to them.”

STEM

You don’t have to be part of Rowland Hall for long to realize: this community is really special. 

In fact, community is often the top reason people say they love Rowland Hall, and this feeling runs especially deep for those who grew up on our campuses. It’s not unusual for former students to return to Rowland Hall to share their time and expertise in a variety of capacities—including as members of our faculty and staff.

Today, the Rowland Hall team boasts 16 of our own alumni, whose graduation years span nearly three decades. Below, eight of those alums—Ben Smith ’89, Laura Hermance ’90, Mary Anne Wetzel ’01, Brittney Hansen ’02, Gita Varner ’05, Chris Felt ’06, Robert Lainhart ’11, and Sam Thomas ’16—share some of the reasons why they love Rowland Hall.

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Ben Smith, Class of 1989
Computer Science Department Chair and Teacher

Tell us some of your favorite memories from your time as a student.

Having Tony Larimer as a teacher, going on the senior raft trip, and having a senior lounge (now the Forum).

Why did you decide to work for Rowland Hall?

I was teaching in West Jordan at Copper Hills High School, but lived a block from Rowland Hall and went in to ask about openings one day. It just turned out they were hiring, and 22 years later….

What do you love about your job?

I like to think that my experiences as a student inform my teaching.—Ben Smith ’89

The freedom I have been given to explore teaching different subjects, the energy around supporting us to become better teachers, my colleagues, and the support of the entire community. I love the innovative spirit and the transformation the school has and is taking.

How does your role help provide today’s students with the kind of life-changing experiences you had at Rowland Hall?

I like to think that my experiences as a student inform my teaching. I stay connected to continuing the tradition of teachers who encourage thinking deeply, ask students to solve problems, engage with students in meaningful ways, and develop relationships that are more than just about the subject I teach.

What do you love most about Rowland Hall?

My colleagues. And Interim.

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Laura Hermance, Class of 1990
Lower School Administrative Assistant

Tell us one of your favorite memories from your time as a student.

I loved science classes. Ed Macner could easily be derailed by a question about driving in Italy, but he was also super interesting and we got to do all sorts of experiments. Also, in seventh grade, my vision started to decline. My parents weren’t too concerned until Paul Christensen, my math teacher, phoned to say he thought I was struggling to see the board. I got glasses immediately and I’ve been forever grateful to him.

Why did you decide to work for Rowland Hall?

I was working at Nordstrom and taking my lunch break during one of the incredibly busy Anniversary Sales that happen in the summer. I would often do a crossword in the newspaper, and on the opposite page were the classified ads, where I saw a posting for an administrative assistant in the Lower School. I was nervous to apply since I didn’t have any experience working with kids, but I loved the idea of working at the school I had attended and I was pretty done with working retail.

What do you love about your job?

I love that I’m part of the important work of educating people the world needs without having to be in a classroom. I love the variety that comes with each day, I love feeling useful and helping people, and I love the funny things kids say.

How does your role help provide today’s students with the kind of life-changing experiences you had at Rowland Hall?

Being a person that kids know, feel comfortable with, and trust helps me help them be a part of this amazing community.

What do you love most about Rowland Hall?

I really appreciate the long history of the school and my long history within that. I love that so many teachers I knew as a student are still involved in the school, and that so many have worked here for so long. And it’s really neat how many former students come back as board members or employees, or send their own kids to Rowland Hall.

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Mary Anne Wetzel, Class of 2001
Director of Financial Aid and Assistant Director of Admission

Tell us one of your favorite memories from your time as a student.

There are so many! I will pick one. We were reading Absalom, Absalom! by William Faulkner in Dr. Carolyn Hickman’s AP English class. This was a particularly challenging text not only due to Faulkner’s unique writing style, but also because of the many complex themes and subject matter. As a reward after our final test on the novel, Dr. Hickman made us some authentic Southern pecan pie. It was my first time tasting pecan pie, and it was delicious. But that day was about more than just a wonderful dessert, made with care by our teacher. Our class had a shared feeling of accomplishment that we had successfully made it through the Deep South together with Dr. Hickman as our guide. It was a moment to pause, celebrate, and breathe a sigh of relief that after all our hard work, we had our first Faulkner novel under our belts.

Why did you decide to work for Rowland Hall?

I thought it would be a great way to continue being part of a community that I love and that I could perhaps help impact students positively in the way I was impacted by the faculty and staff at the school.

What do you love about your job?

I love developing relationships with families and sharing things we love about Rowland Hall. Also, even though I don’t get to work with students directly every day, I love to work in a place with children around. They provide energy, humor, and spots of joy every day.

How does your role help provide today’s students with the kind of life-changing experiences you had at Rowland Hall?

I have the opportunity to help families realize the dream of a Rowland Hall education for their children by helping make tuition affordable through financial aid and scholarships. As an Ian Cumming Scholarship recipient myself, I know the transformational power financial assistance can have for students and their families. I would not have been able to attend Rowland Hall and experience the life-changing education I had without the generosity of Ian Cumming. Now, I hope I can pay that forward in my job every day by helping families who would otherwise not be able to afford Rowland Hall have the opportunities I did.

What do you love most about Rowland Hall?

The people I work with and the values we share as a community.

Fun Fact:

Mary Anne married her high school sweetheart, Conor Bentley ’01, whom she met in her sophomore Western Civilizations class (the couple, at their 2001 graduation, is pictured on the right). Conor is a Rowland Hall Lifer (someone who attended the school for 12 or more years), a former faculty member, a current member of Rowland Hall’s Alumni Executive Board, and the host of Rowland Hall’s award-winning podcast, princiPALS.

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Brittney Hansen, Class of 2002
Beginning School and Lower School Assistant Principal

Tell us some of your favorite memories from your time as a student.

I have so many fond memories from my time as a student at Rowland Hall. I remember writing and performing a decidedly mediocre rap at Middle School morning meeting to solicit donations for a food drive for the Crossroads Urban Center and spending hours with my friends sorting food into brown paper bags in the cafeteria to be handed out each Winter Break.

I remember so clearly exploring tide pool life forms while on the Oregon Coastal Adventure Interim trip, alongside my closest friends and our legendary biology teacher Peter Hayes. We learned so much not only about biology, but also about one another and ourselves while traveling by plane for the first time without our parents.

How does your role help provide today’s students with the kind of life-changing experiences you had at Rowland Hall?

I love that my current role at Rowland Hall allows me to help maintain some of the most beloved traditions held by our community, many of which were a part of my own school experience, and to move the program forward in meaningful and exciting ways. I get to think daily about what excellent education looks like for kids today and work hard to develop programs that are uniquely Rowland Hall.

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Gita Varner, Class of 2005
Operations Project Manager

Why did you decide to work for Rowland Hall?

I accidentally fell into working at Rowland Hall. I was moving back to Salt Lake and didn’t have a job lined up. I checked Rowland Hall’s website for teaching positions for someone else and saw the development database and office manager position posted. The job was in my skill set and I knew Robyn Jensen ’02, director of institutional advancement, from growing up (she was my neighbor and in my sister’s class), so I decided to apply and I’ve been here since.

How does your role help provide today’s students with the kind of life-changing experiences you had at Rowland Hall?

Helping Rowland Hall through COVID-19 allowed me to help ensure that students had the opportunity to see and continue to connect with the amazing faculty and staff at the school.

What do you love most about Rowland Hall?

I know it is said a lot, but I love the community. I love the friendships I have maintained with classmates and faculty/staff since I was four years old, but also enjoy the new communities and connections I have found since working here in my colleagues and fellow alumni.

Fun Fact:

Andrea Hoffman ’05, all-school nurse, and Gita have been BFFs since 4PreK.

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Chris Felt, Class of 2006
Accounts Payable and Accounting Associate

Tell us one of your favorite memories from your time as a student.

My first year at Rowland Hall was seventh grade. Just before classes started in the fall, I was invited to join other incoming peers on a field trip (Star Trek space mission!). From that icebreaker of an afternoon, I forged friendships that have lasted over two decades.

Why did you decide to work for Rowland Hall?

My wife, Andrea Hoffman ’05, is the all-school nurse. She let me know as soon as a job opened in the business office. It has been a wonderful fit for me.

What do you love about your job?

I love the community. My team is amazing.

What do you love most about Rowland Hall?

I love the lifelong relationships that have formed from my time at school and through the Alumni Association.

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Robert Lainhart, Class of 2011
Digital Communications Associate

Tell us one of your favorite memories from your time as a student.

In trying to decide one favorite moment to mention, I realized that doing so was an impossibility; there are too many to count. From Jeanne Ziegler teaching me to tie my shoes in first grade to making music videos for Battle of the Classes in the Upper School; from making the move from the Avenues Campus to the McCarthey Campus in fourth grade to having my first kiss at a seventh-grade dance in the Lincoln Street Campus cafeteria; and from the many sponge fights of Color Day to forming lifelong relationships with faculty, the memories are endless.

Rowland Hall transformed me into the person I am today, and the thought of helping the school that I love so much have that same impact on the next generation of students made me want to return.—Robert Lainhart ’11

Why did you decide to work for Rowland Hall?

Rowland Hall was my home for 15 years of my life, and when I graduated I couldn’t shake that feeling of wanting to return home. Rowland Hall transformed me into the person I am today, and the thought of helping the school that I love so much have that same impact on the next generation of students made me want to return.

What do you love about your job?

The people. Rowland Hall is a special community where the people are truly the heart and soul of the school. Being around like-minded faculty, staff, and students who want to make the world a better place is unbelievably gratifying.

Fun Fact:

In fall 2021, Robert and Ashley Meddaugh, McCarthey Campus Technology Support Center manager, reestablished the popular Lower School Pokémon Club aft