A World Cup Preview for St. Markers: in English and en Español
By Drew Ladner, V Form, Taylor Collins, V Form, Kemar Darlington, VI Form, and Chris Wong, VI Form
In Mr. Neil Cifuentes’ “Contemporary Issues in Latin America” course, the class has completed a recent unit on the World Cup; the students were asked to work collaboratively in groups to create a magazine article, blog, or documentary previewing the Latin American qualifiers to the World Cup. The following project aims to provide the St. Mark’s community with a comprehensive preview with predictions. (more…)
Ambition, Energy, Enthusiasm, and Grit: Getting Accepted to St. Mark’s and Following the Road to Success
By Elise Morgan, Associate Director of Admission
Interviewing prospective students is an art, not a science. Admission officers have a very small window to connect with prospective students when they come to interview, typically 30 minutes. Great kids can have an off day leading to an unimpressive interview and kids that may not be a good fit for the school can sometimes fool us with a fabulous interview (which is why we carefully evaluate the entire admission application). However, every now and then admission officers interview an applicant that is so impressive that they just know for sure that this is a kid that they definitely want at their school.
Ernie Pichardo (St. Mark’s Class of 2014) had a powerful motivation to achieve his goal of attending an independent (more…)
Donald Trump Is a Dinosaur–and You Can Be One, Too!
By James Wallace, Director of Music
“For which century are you educating your students?”
So began a faculty workshop with guest lecturer Charles Fadel, co-author of 21st Century Skills – Learning for Life in our Times[1] back in December. According to Fadel, economists now commonly say that due to advances in technology, most of the jobs current high school students will hold 15 years from now do not yet exist. How does a school prepare its students for a workplace that hasn’t yet come into existence? (more…)
Promoting Healthy Eating–The Great Cannection
By Enrico Shippole, VI Form
Imagine that I’m standing in front of you with a large grocery bag and that I’m going to offer to make you a dessert. From my bag, I would extract sugar, salt, three dyes (red 40, yellow 5, blue 1), and petroleum oil. Yes, petroleum oil is in many of our baked goods. I could keep going but I’ll lose your interest somewhere in the litany of the other 30 additives and preservatives.
I love food; I grew up in an Italian family, where gatherings happened around the kitchen table with real, fresh food. Today, it seems that too many family gatherings happen at a fast food counter. (more…)
A Small Difference Worth Doing
By Brittany Andrea, V Form
When I first heard of the OutReach 360 Dominican Republic trip, I thought it was a glorified vacation. A large
group of Saint Markers going down to a beautiful Caribbean island, going to the beach, and playing with the most adorable kids for a week sounded like fun. I didn’t have the opportunity to go until this year, my junior year, and what I would actually experience shamed my ignorant first impressions.
On one very small level, my first impression was accurate. There ended up being plenty of time to go to the beach because we stayed by the water’s edge. We got to play with the children every day; I threw a baseball with a semi-pro pitcher whom I expect to sign with a (more…)
Robotics and Collaboration: A Symbiotic Relationship
By Seung Jae (Ryan) Lee, V Form
At our Gray Colloquium Day on March 27th, we were fortunate to have Don Bossi, president of FIRST Robotics, as our morning keynote speaker. FIRST, For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology, seeks to inspire young students to take an interest in robotics and encourages collaboration and cooperation. St. Mark’s has developed an intricate and intimate relationship with FIRST over the last four years. Thanks to the generous support from the school, the St. Mark’s Robotics Team with the team name Gone Fishin’ and a team number 3566 has finished its fourth season. Every year, the robotics team competes in the FIRST Robotics Competition (more…)
AP French: Capturing the Plight of the Homeless in Paris (SDF)
By Griffin Starkey, VI Form and Aly Skelly, VI Form & Mary Lane, VI Form, Anya Harter, V Form, and Riona Reeves, VI Form
From Dr. Stephen Lynch: the assignment for my AP French class was to create videos that captured the plight of the homeless (SDF = sans domicile fixe) in Paris. They could create a documentary — a journalist interviewing the homeless of Paris about their challenges and what they hoped for OR a conversation between homeless people talking about their difficult lives. We read articles about the homeless problem in France and watched and discussed YouTube videos from French news about this growing problem — the economic, human, social factors. (more…)
Seeing Is Believing: Learning to Draw in Studio I
By Barbara Putnam, Art Faculty
LEO 