Hip Hip Hooray, it's Admissions Acceptance Notification Day!
Accepted students will receive notification regarding their admissions application acceptance on Friday, February 19. Those families will need to submit their signed enrollment contracts by March 1, 2021.
As with many academic adventures at Hutchison, a weeklong lesson on computer science and coding transformed into an interdisciplinary exploration for our girls as teachers from various subjects incorporated coding activities into their day-to-day lessons.
When Leah Grace Wolf is not thinking about solving a science problem or tinkering with a new invention, you can find her at the mixed martial arts gym, thinking about next steps to overpower her opponent. This National Merit Commended Student is the epitome of a Hutchison girl who enjoys exploring a variety of interests.
When Ms. Prewitt’s Pre-Kindergarten class went to the farm recently to look at carrots they had planted, Mrs. Riddle, the director of environmental education and sustainability, was in a bit of a pickle. She said she desperately needed help with her crop of cucumbers.
An outstanding student, avid reader, star volleyball player, and strong leader, Layla Truitt lives up to the Hutchison mission of showing girls they can go anywhere they can imagine.
Sophie Mansour ’21 wants to help young people see diseases and their impact more clearly. Whether it is a classmate with diabetes or asthma, or a family member with Alzheimer’s, Sophie believes everyone would benefit from a deeper understanding. So she created the Memphis Medical Awareness Club at Hutchison, and that’s just the beginning for this conscientious entrepreneur.
Think of them as warm-up stretches – for the brain. Each one of Joe Koelsch’s 7th grade math lessons begins with a “bell ringer.” It encourages the girls to “open up their brains” before class, he says.
Jamie Sokoloff’s '21 teachers describe her as bright and highly motivated. Those adjectives definitely fit this high performer who has her plate full with extracurriculars.
Juniors and seniors in Deborah Brown’s Women’s History class commemorated Women’s Equality Day with a video confirming that their generation is a force to be reckoned with.
Celia Economides ’97 is well acquainted with persistence. As an executive at a biotech company in San Francisco, persistence is a trait that comes in handy. Fostering the development of new drugs for rare diseases often requires soliciting millions of dollars in investments, decades of trial and error in the labs, and lots and lots of patience.
Caroline Halliday '21 had her Hutchison social science certificate project all planned out. She wanted to start a Community Supported Agriculture vegetable subscription service for Hutchison families, but with a pay-it-forward twist: for every one purchased by a Hutchison family, she would provide one for a family in need in Memphis. Then the pandemic hit, and her plans got turned upside down.
As a very unusual school year comes to an end, Hutchison’s spring magazine celebrates our teachers, students, and alumnae who have stayed Hutchison STRONG. The magazine is now in the mail and available online.
Upper school history teacher Ronnie Robinson admits he had to re-think his teaching methodology to make sure students continued to engage in the distance learning environment, but he is up to the challenge.
Joy. It’s a word that is used often when people speak of Hutchison. It appears in our alma mater, and it’s the name given to the statue of a jubilant girl in the school’s courtyard. Laurie Fraser Stanton ’65 loves to see that statue when she walks through Hutchison’s courtyard daily. “It is such a symbol of the joy of this place,” she said. Joy is what has made Stanton’s work at the school over the past 50 years so meaningful. During her time as a student and then as a teacher and administrator, she has experienced a wealth of friendships and joy.
Distance learning had minimal impact on the “Memphis unit," a third grade tradition at Hutchison. Plans for a Living Museum had to be scrapped, but the girls moved forward with promotional brochures, as planned.
Early childhood teachers had to get creative to keep their young charges engaged while learning from home. Not to mention the challenge of hosting a Google Meet with twelve 2, 3, or 4-year-olds.
With more than 20 years of teaching experience, it was a no-brainer for Deborah Brown to integrate the World War I unit in her Advanced Honors Modern World History class to the current global pandemic.
Lauren Huddleston, an English teacher in our middle school, is the recipient of a 2020 Belz-Lipman Holocaust Educator Award from the Tennessee Holocaust Commission. This award is reserved for outstanding educators in the field of Holocaust education.
How fast do honey, cooking oil, and water flow on an elevated cookie sheet? Donna Budynas’ first distance learning lab, to test viscosity, or the measure of how liquid flows, was rather tame. But then, she kicked it up a notch! She asked her sixth grade science class to outrun lava – Indiana Jones-style. Extra credit was offered for wearing explorer gear and family involvement was encouraged.
A lot of things have changed, but labs go on in Mary Lee Wesberry’s AP Biology class! With Google Meet, a cell phone, nail polish, a potted plant, and a portable microscope she received at the St. Jude Science Scholars of Tomorrow, Wesberry quickly switched gears to begin the fourth quarter as planned, with the Transpiration Lab.
If your fourth grader suddenly raided the pantry for unhealthy snacks and said “Señora Chelsoi made me do it,” she was telling the truth! Fourth graders in Kenna Chelsoi’s Spanish class ended up in their kitchens to explain what they had learned in Lucy’s Wesson’s science class. The science lesson was about the nutrients your body needs to stay healthy. Señora Chelsoi asked girls to translate that to Spanish. Sophia Wilson was quick to come up with examples.