Eventful Week Caps Off a Year of Achievement
Last Saturday, it took Upper School junior Corey Carter all of 21.89 seconds to roar down the track to become the 2016 Missouri State Champion in the 200-meter race—to loud cheers from his teammates in the crowd.
This coming Saturday, it will take somewhat longer for our 86 seniors to walk down the ramp to receive their diplomas—though the cheers will be just as jubilant!
These two events bookend an exciting week of celebrating achievements at all levels of the School. In a recent letter to parents, Principal Travis Brantingham referred to the “innumerable instances of excellence and progress arising from . . . many individual moments of effort, persistence, and teamwork,” noting that “all members of the Principia community play a role in nurturing and reaping the annual harvest of academic, athletic, and character achievements.”
An inspiring Cum Laude chapel kicked off the week on Tuesday morning, featuring alum Sarah Andrews (US’03, C’07) as the keynote speaker. Nine seniors were inducted into this honor society for their superior scholastic achievements and citizenship records.
Since then, seniors have been busy delivering presentations on their three-week Senior Projects—which ranged from shadowing managers and DJs at St. Louis radio stations to exploring quantum theory to building a sonorous musical instrument from PVC pipe. Underclassmen, meanwhile, have been preparing presentations on their curricular trips, which took place at the end of May—and sharing their learning with peers and parents. Tomorrow brings the annual Awards Assembly.
For both Lower and Middle Schools, today marked the last day of classes. Kindergarten through fifth grade celebrated with their annual Field Day, which included a variety of athletic activities and demonstrations of their music and PE skills in the Lower School Gym. Middle schoolers, meanwhile, closed out three days of enjoyable and intensive inter-house competition—with members of each house (Blue, Gold, and Black) vying for points in a variety of challenges, including a cross-country race and an art, robotics, and music “triathlon.”
A major highlight was a boat race across one of the campus ponds—with Assistant Principal Kim Ott, Principal Travis Brantingham, and Dean of Innovation and Academics Peter Dry as the competitors. The three administrators rowed beautifully crafted boats that were built from scratch by Middle School students over several semesters of the boat-building class. The boats proved thoroughly seaworthy—and Dr. Ott won the race to much cheering!
Tonight, the entire Middle School gathers once again to celebrate the “graduation” of the eighth graders, who will give short, end-of-year student speeches after exhibiting their capstone projects. These projects include composing and performing a song, creating instructional basketball videos, building a circuit board, and making a handcrafted guitar.
These milestone events are interspersed with plenty of opportunities for both students and parents to share gratitude—at the Senior Boys’ Dinner on Tuesday, an all-School Gratitude Chapel in Ridgway Auditorium yesterday, and a Senior Parent Gratitude Meeting tomorrow. From the littlest preschooler to longtime alums and parents, there has been an outpouring of gratitude for good received and experienced this school year.