Witnessing the Eclipse

On April 8, the entire Seven Hills community ventured outdoors, donning their eclipse glasses, to marvel as the moon obscured nearly the entire sun. Before this cosmic occurrence, seventh grade science teacher Kristin Suer’s students presented a play for Lotspeich and Doherty, which explained the mechanics behind the eclipse.

Seven Hills Students win hundreds of Scholastic awards

The Regional Scholastic Writing Awards recognized 116 Middle and Upper School students of The Seven Hills School with 204 awards for their work across various writing categories, including poetry, critical essay, flash fiction, short story, and personal essay.

The Scholastic Writing Competition is the oldest and largest student writing competition in the nation and more than 50 schools competed in the Southern Ohio and Northern Kentucky Region. The number of awards Seven Hills received greatly exceeded other area schools, said Upper School English Department chair Mark Beyreis.

Ten of the awards were earned by five Middle School students. Eighth graders Josephine LaBare and Cecilia Pohl earned Gold Keys for poetry. Pohl also won a Silver Key for poetry, along with fellow eighth grader Mia Wang, who won three Silver Keys for poetry.

“I am so proud of my eighth graders for having the courage to share their poetry and very pleased that the judges recognized their talent. We have an incredible pool of talented writers in the Middle School,” said Middle School English teacher Laura Clemens.

Clemens credited the strength of writing in the Middle School to the seventh grade writing workshop class with Tom Roth, which gives students the option of taking creative writing or journalism as eighth graders. Students also find a supportive, community of writers in the Writer’s Collective club.

“All of these programs mean that by the time they are in eighth grade, they are amazing writers who see themselves as writers. These awards just confirm what we already know,” Clemens said.

Eighth graders attend Youth Leadership Day

Eighth graders Zahabia Shahpurwala, Mia Wang, Rhea Shah, Hasika Avanigadda, Valentina Bardon, and Maggie Jackson, accompanied by Middle School history teacher Judith Neidlein-Dial, attended the Jacob G. Schmiddlap Bystander to Upstander Youth Leadership Day at the Nancy & David Wolf Holocaust & Humanity Center on March 5. Students spent the day with 140 seventh and eighth graders from all around the Tri-State area. Attendees had the opportunity to work with FC Cincinnati, Bespoken, and The Children’s Theater and heard from Steve Coppel, whose father was a Holocaust survivor.