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The Magazine of Cary Academy FALL 2017 Ditch Your Comfort Zone 101 page 4 Aces on & off the court page 18 So Biggie Smalls & da Vinci walk into a room… page 24 FUN FEST & FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS GET SPIRITED page 11If there is a thread that connects these individual pieces, and the history of Cary Academy, it would be “curiosity.” You can see this visualized with the question mark motif on the cover. And we hope you can see how it pervades the work we do and the stories we tell. We believe this word accurately captures the wide-eyed enthusiasm of our youngest students, who enter in 6th grade eager to make new friends, get new learning tools like laptops, and explore new ideas with their teachers and classmates. As they progress through the school, their teachers help them learn both subject matter and ways to question assumptions about these new ideas. Students also develop and explore new interests through classes, clubs, activities, and athletics. You can see this in our feature story on the semester-long experiences our students have had in the widest of wildernesses and the biggest of cities. Of course, as our mission makes clear, we are a “learning community.” This means that our faculty and staff also are curious – about their subject matter and about the best ways to share these passions with their students. This curiosity manifests itself in continual reflection on the work we do and a willingness – perhaps a need – to try new things. In short, we must model what we want to see in our students. Curiosity is a part of our culture. Enjoy this issue. We look forward to illustrating more of what makes this school such a special place in future issues. Welcome to the inaugural issue of ?, The Magazine of Cary Academy. We hope to bring you the best of what’s happening on campus, as well as interesting updates on community members and thoughtful stories about our work. Mike Ehrhardt, Head of School FROM THE HEAD OF SCHOOL Q: Guess who inspired the name“ ? ”. A: the late, great Prince ( ). Call this the magazine formerly known as “Discoveries.”In this issue 4 When the world changes you. The Rockies. The Capitol. The German countryside. Semester and gap-year programs are breaking down students’ boundaries in more ways than one. 14 The PTAA wants Y-O-U. The mission: Bring the entire CA community together. PTAA president Trude Bate is more than up for the challenge. 18 Alumni spotlight: Taylor Meyer ’08 Champion Launcher. On the tennis court and in the start-up sphere, it’s all aces for this alumnus. He’s serving up state titles and entrepreneurial know-how at CA. Snap- shots 11 Campus News 2 Alumni News 22 The Big Question 24 The Magazine of Cary Academy FALL 2017 COMMUNICATIONS TEAM Michael Ehrhardt Kathleen Mason Dean Sauls COMMUNICATION INTERNS Kennedy Byrd ’18 Lily Lee ’18 Maya Agnihotri ’19 Alex Bandong ’19 Abby Geigerman ’19 DEVELOPED AND DESIGNED IN PARTNERSHIP WITH MINDPOWER INC. PHOTOGRAPHY Chris Martin & courtesy of the CA community HEAD OF SCHOOL Michael Ehrhardt UPPER SCHOOL HEAD Heather Clarkson DIRECTOR OF DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION Jason Franklin DIRECTOR OF FACILITIES Jess Garcia DIRECTOR OF ADMISSIONS Denise Goodman DEAN OF FACULTY Martina Greene MIDDLE SCHOOL HEAD Marti Jenkins DIRECTOR OF TECHNOLOGY AND INNOVATION Karen McKenzie DIRECTOR OF BUSINESS OPERATIONS Deborah Reichel is published three times a year by Cary Academy. CARY ACADEMY 1500 N. Harrison Avenue Cary, North Carolina 27513 (919) 677-3873 www.caryacademy.org The PTAA is the brain behind some of Cary Academy’s favorite traditions, from decorating the campus Chargers to the Charger Derby 5k .Nearly every Cary Academy student and teacher filed outside, bespectacled in special filtered glasses supplied by the PTAA, and tilted upward to watch the moon pass almost completely over the sun – 93 percent according to NASA. On August 21, 2017, at 2:44 p.m., as the sky darkened, everyone became awestruck by the once-in-a- lifetime phenomenon. To prep for the eclipse, CA treated Upper School students to a presentation. Middle Schoolers learned about differences between solar and lunar eclipses. And CA’s U.S. Association for Young Physicists tournaments club drove to South Carolina to witness totality and measure the sun and its shadows. No matter where you were, the eclipse brought CA together. GOT A ROBOT TO BUILD? HEAD TO THE DESIGN LAB. It’s one of several brand-new campus spaces launched by the Strategic and Master Facilities Plans. The Lab is a gathering place/art classroom/Middle School makerspace combo decked out with new design carts and 3-D printers (making it the perfect workshop for the MS Robotics Team). Another new spot to explore right next door: the Discovery Studio, a flexible 145-person mixed-use area (think classes, dances, and more). On campus? Come take a peek! CA’S BOARD OF DIRECTORS WELCOMES Glenn Kleiman, Executive Director of the Friday Institute for Educational Innovation and parent of two CA grads; Kendall Bell ’15, Founders’ Award recipient and current Duke University Reginaldo Howard Memorial Scholar; and Trude Bate, 2017–2018 PTAA President and 8th grade parent. CA IN SERVICE The CA community has been active in a variety of service activities this fall. See what we’ve been up to at bit.ly/ca-at- your-service. Campus News CA’S COMMUNITY: A bright spot during a shady eclipse. 30% OF THE CLASS OF 2018 IS NATIONAL MERIT RECOGNIZED. 46% OF SIXTH GRADERS ARE CURRENT CA STUDENT SIBLINGS. 88% OF CARY ACADEMY STUDENTS TRAVELED OUT OF STATE LAST SUMMER. THE CLASS OF 2017’S 109 GRADS ATTEND 56 DIFFERENT COLLEGES. ADMISSIONS COUNSELORS FROM 116 COLLEGES ARE VISITING CA THIS FALL. THE ANNUAL HANDSHAKE CEREMONY SAW 184,241 HANDSHAKES.* ? The Magazine of Cary Academy Two * Congrats to 7th grader Michael Singleton for calculating this as part of a MS math challenge. WE GOT SPIRIT! HOW ’BOUT YOU? The CA community plays a huge part in keeping athletes fired up. From student fans who pack bleachers all across the state to X-Factor (Cary Academy’s spirit club) hosting events like Friday Night Lights, Volley-bros, and the annual dodgeball tournament – CA knows how to keep school spirit alive. Athletes make State(ment). For the first time in recent years, all fall varsity sports teams made State tournaments. At the time of publication, every CA varsity team earned a first or second place finish in the TISAC conference, giving our teams positive momentum headed into post-season competition. CA teams earning seeds at State tournaments: girls tennis, 2nd seed; volleyball, 3rd seed; field hockey, 5th seed; and boys soccer, 7th seed. The third-year girls’ golf team had their best season yet and earned their highest state seeding. The varsity cross country teams once again had an outstanding regular season and headed into the Conference and State meets as one of the teams to beat. For more of these stories: bit.ly/athletes-finish-strongWHEN THE WORLD CHANGES YOU. How semester and post-graduate adventures help Cary Academy students discover who they are.RLD S Liz Jones ’18 was waist- deep in snow, facing a mountain in the middle of the Colorado Rockies. Well, it was more like a really humongous hill, but with the 60-pound sled of camping supplies strapped to her, it was practically a mountain. There was no going around, only through. She couldn’t do it.“I turned to our advisor, Jacob, and said, ‘Tell me we’re not going over that.’” He looked back at her and told her, “You got this, Liz.” She’d felt weak, like her body was crumbling, but she made it across, pulling a pack half her weight up and over a mountain to set up camp on the other side. “It was a reminder that I could accomplish anything,” she says. That was Liz’s second two-week wilderness expedition with High Mountain Institute, an independent school in Leadville, Colorado. (Her first and third were hiking through canyons in Utah.) Its specialty: semester and summer programs focused on interacting with the environment. Every year, Cary Academy invites a variety of semester programs to speak to sophomores about the wealth of opportunities beyond the CA campus. That’s how Liz became curious about High Mountain. “I’ve always loved the outdoors. I have such a strong connection with nature – it’s where I’m most comfortable. So when High Mountain came to campus, I was so excited to apply,” Liz remembers. ? The Magazine of Cary Academy Six “You got this, Liz.” “I turned to our advisor, Jacob, and said, ‘Tell me we’re not going over that.’” He looked back at her and told her, ? The Magazine of Cary Academy Though she was nervous about going for it – she’d never left home for 12 weeks before, and she’d been going to school with the same people for six years – Liz saw High Mountain as just the thing she needed to push herself. In fact, most students who explore these experiences do so for the same reasons: It’s a challenge and a way for them to grow into better people. Liz is just one of nearly a dozen students over the last nine years who’s picked up her life in North Carolina and dropped it miles and miles away for a whole semester. KATE SANCHEZ ’19 will follow in her footsteps – and make her own way to High Mountain later this year. SONUM THARWANI ’14 is another. A few years ago, during an Affinity Group discussion, a CA alumna pegged Sonum as a perfect fit for The School for Ethics and Global Leadership (SEGL) in Washington, D.C. A champion of ethics, Sonum jumped at the chance. For months, Sonum lived and explored and learned to be a vocal activist in the shadow of the U.S. Capitol. She wrote a speech critiqued by Hillary Clinton’s speechwriter. Tackled global issues with classmates from all different kinds of backgrounds. And helped draft a nuclear policy that she presented to real D.C. leaders and lawmakers. As Sonum puts it, from start to finish, SEGL transformed her into an empathetic citizen. “SEGL challenged me and changed my way of thinking. To write better policies, we have to empathize. We have to first change ourselves to become the effective leaders we want to be and that the world should have.” It also redirected her path. As a high school junior, Sonum had viewed her passion (becoming a doctor) on a micro level – treating patients. But SEGL opened her eyes to a whole world of SevenNext >