Thirty-three students Inducted into Language Honor Societies

Thirty-three Upper School students were inducted into the French, Chinese, Spanish, and Latin honor societies in a series of ceremonies in April and May.

“We are proud of the students’ hard work in their language studies,” said Teresa Bardon, chair of the Upper School world language department. “Now, we could talk about the various grammar and vocabulary concepts we have studied throughout their language years, but learning a language is not solely about syntax. It is about understanding the true meaning of global citizenship. It is about understanding who they are and what they can achieve.”

Congrats to seniors John Corbett, Callie Drew, Magnolia Fan, Gardner Follin, Evelyn Gao, Heidi Jurgensen, Leon Li, Ria Mittal, Erin Pierani, Abby Robinson, and Margret Schnirring for their induction into the French National Honor Society.

Congrats to juniors Vikasni Bandinani, Daniel Choi, Anna Kunkel, AJ Lee, and Nicholas Roblyer for being inducted into the Chinese National Honor Society.

Congrats to juniors Ahalya Nambiar and Sophia Schuermeyer and seniors Dhanush Bearelly, Leila Blackshaw-Brown, Max Brown, Megha Gaitonde, Julie Jiang, Avi Mahajan, Anish Patil, and Shravan Sekhar for their induction into the Spanish National Honor Society.

Congrats to juniors Rowan Blair, Evie Ferguson, Erin Jackson, Caleb Hamon, Josie Schneider, Kavan Vadivelu, and Lauren VordemEsche their induction in the Latin National Honor Society.

Upper Schoolers Donate to Bethany House

The Upper School AAA (African American Awareness) Club held an item drive for Bethany House and collected more than $1,000 worth of items brought in by Upper Schoolers. The club also donated half of the funds raised from the Soul Food Lunch in February. The Bethany House is a nonprofit that serves mothers and children experiencing homelessness with the goal of getting them settled in a new home. The Upper Schoolers collected items like bedding, kitchen utensils, cookware, and cleaning supplies.

Alum Returns to Campus

Hannah Bloch ’80 returned to the Seven Hills Upper School as the last member of this year’s Alumni Speaker Series, celebrating the 50th anniversary of the merger that created The Seven Hills School.

Bloch is the lead digital editor for NPR’s international desk, overseeing NPR correspondents and freelance journalists around the world. She visited Shauna Whelan’s creative writing class and Kyla Morgan Young’s U.S. history class to explain how her journey took her from Seven Hills to all over the world as a foreign correspondent and science reporter for National Geographic and NPR.

In her keynote speech at the all-school meeting in The Schiff Center, Bloch explained how her interest in writing was sparked by her junior English teacher Susan Marrs and that the international presence at Seven Hills opened her eyes to other parts of the world.

“There is way more that holds us together than what separates us. It is easy to assume the worst of people you don’t understand and whose lives are very different than our own. We should not assume the worst of those we don’t know and don’t understand. Journalism plays a key role in helping people rethink their assumptions,” Bloch said.

Challenge Experience Sharing

Seven Hills has Two National Merit Winners

Congratulations to seniors Oliver Szabo  and Arjun Gupta for being named National Merit winners. Szabo received the award from the National Merit Scholarship Corporation and Gupta  received a college-sponsored National Merit Scholarship from Indiana University Bloomington. They and seniors Alice Bachelder, Dhanush Bearelly, Nicholas Cohen, Timothy Jordan, Ed Li, Carter Stevens, Leo Weller, and  Mikul Wyer were named National Merit Finalists. The National Merit Scholarship Program is an annual academic competition that honors academically talented U.S. high school students. Students qualify for recognition in the National Merit program with their scores on the PSAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test.

Anatomy and Physiology Takes part in BioSkills Lab

On April 24, the Upper School anatomy and physiology class participated in a BioSkills Lab at Summit Woods Beacon Orthopaedics and Sports Medicine. The students learned about different health care careers, the anatomy of the knee, common injuries to the knee along with how they often occur, and how to treat these injuries The students were able to participate in a dissection of the human knee along with learning how to suture on a human knee. “It was an amazing experience for everyone!” said teacher Bridget Ancalmo. “We want to give special thanks to Beacon and to Joe Lucas, M.Ed. AT; Chad Rairdon, AT; Kevin Stokes, MS, AT, and Mike Clemons, M.Ed. AT; who made this experience so great!”

Freshmen Battle with History knowledge in Tournament of Greatness

Two founding emperors of Chinese dynasties battled it out in a heated debate in Founders Hall on May 8 with Kublai Kahn being crowned the champion of the Upper School history department’s annual Tournament of Greatness.

Freshman Sakshum Vij, portraying the founder of the Mongol-led Yuan dynasty Kublai Kahn, debated freshman Irene Zhang, portraying the founder of the Song dynasty of China Song Taizu, and was named the winner by a jury of fellow history students. The two students advanced to the finals after defeating all other freshmen history students, who picked a historical figure and debated their greatness in the bracket style tournament

Awards Roundup

Upper School students often show their talents, academic achievements, dedication to service, and strong characters outside of school and are honored for it. Here are some of the awards recently given to our Upper School students:

TAP Health Summer Academy
Juniors Parth Mehta, Elena Pohl, and Shlok Mehta were accepted in the TAP Health Summer Academy for 2024. The program provides career exploration and learning opportunities for students interested in the healthcare field.

The Princeton Prize in Race Relations
Senior Grace Dunson received The Princeton Prize in Race Relations from Princeton University. The award is given to high school students who have shown leadership and challenged their communities to advance racial equity. Dunson was honored for helping the Upper School English department implement the LatinX Summer Reading Program during the 2023-24 school year, which will continue as the Multicultural Summer Reading Program, highlighting a different identity in the books Upper Schoolers read during the summer.

FTC Robotics Honors
Junior Vikasni Bandinani is a member of the FTC Robotics team Quantum Leap, for students living in Mason, which was one of only three Ohio teams that competed at the FIRST World Robotics Tournament. The team advanced to the semifinals and won the “Think Award,” which honors the maturity of their engineering design process.