Joyfully Reaping What’s Been Sown
It’s commencement week at the College. Our seniors are getting ready to reap the rewards of all the sowing accomplished during the past four years. Upper School graduation follows on May 30. If you can’t make it to the metropolis of Elsah for the festivities this weekend, tune in to Principia Internet Radio (PIR) on Friday night at 8 p.m. (CDT) for the baccalaureate service that kicks off the weekend. During this celebratory event, four seniors selected by the graduating class will share talks about significant lessons and character growth gained through their understanding and demonstration of Christian Science while at Principia. Commencement also will be broadcast live on PIR at 2 p.m. Saturday. For College rugby players, however, the school year isn't over yet. The Thunder Chickens head to Denver, Colorado, May 23–24 to defend their title as USA Rugby College 7s National Champions. If you'll be in the area, cheer them on in person. If not, you can watch a live broadcast of the games at www.usarugbytv.com. Also, check out www.principialumni.org/rugby often for updates on the competition schedule and information about Denver-area events celebrating the team. At the School, students from various grades are diving into more experiential learning trips. The third graders spent two nights at a working 1830s-era settlement in Indiana last week, expanding their understanding of early American history. Fifth grade leaves for Colonial Williamsburg next week. The Upper School students head out May 18, with freshmen studying history, art, and culture in New Mexico; sophomores conducting service learning in the Dominican Republic; and juniors gaining insight into the life of Mary Baker Eddy on a tour of Boston and Concord, New Hampshire. Don’t miss this month’s video, in which students share what they’ve gained from experiential learning trips earlier in the year. Optimus Prin, the School’s robotics team, competes this Saturday at the Missouri Robotics State Championship in Sedalia, Missouri. Go team! In the lower grades, we are getting ready to launch a renovation project that will house Early Childhood and Lower School in one building. Our outdoor areas and playgrounds will receive a major refresh, and indoor learning spaces will be reconfigured as we introduce multilevel classes. Teams of two experienced teachers will collaborate in leading kindergarten and grade 1, grades 2 and 3, and grades 4 and 5. We are excited about the enriched learning environment our youngest students will enter next year and expect these upgrades to directly support the long-term pedagogical shifts being made for the benefit of our students. Upper School seniors have just begun their three-week senior projects, exploring career interests (through business and legal internships, for instance) and developing talents of all sorts (creative writing, horsemanship, videography, and more). Eighth graders are preparing their Middle School “graduation” speeches and also working on capstone projects that will be presented to the community on the final night of the school year. I am grateful to report that we are having a strong, successful hiring season this spring. We’re looking forward to welcoming some terrific educators and contributors to our School and College teams during the coming months. I’m also very pleased to announce that Principia College has won the 2014–2015 Individual Conference Champion title in the College & University Green Power Challenge. This honor recognizes our use of more green power than any other school in the St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference. We beat our conference rivals by using more than 10 million kilowatt-hours (kWh) of green power, representing 100 percent of our annual electricity usage. This kind of recognition plays an important role in operationalizing our values and letting our light shine. Finally, there are still spots available for Summer Session, taking place June 13–27 on the College campus. If you can’t spare both weeks, join us for one. We’ve got a terrific lineup of classes and great entertainment planned for the evenings. You’ll love getting to know the other adult learners, too. Registration is open through June 1.