by Carol Frymire, Director of Alumni and Special Events

Imagine yourself on a trip to a scenic, resource-rich desert filled with Anasazi ruins, petroglyphs, and 1500 frolicking, rescued animals. Now imagine how enriching it would be if your guides were a historian, a biologist, a poet, an intellectual, an environmentalist, a mathematician, and a techno-wiz. Unbelievable? Not if you're a ninth-grade student at Rowland Hall-St. Mark's who just returned from your class trip to Angel Canyon in Kanab, Utah.

 

Faculty members Dorothy Herrington, Peter Hayes, Joel Long, Ryan Hoglund, Rob Wilson, Paul Christensen, and Ben Smith, integrated concepts and themes taught in the classroom into the "field" curriculum which included lessons in biology, math/orienteering, English, history, and art.

The students were engaged in the activities, they worked and played well with each other. What a neat group of kids this class is! By the end of the trip no one could tell who had been at the school for 10 years or who had just started at RHSM a few weeks earlier. They mingled and included each other like the best of friends.

 

 

Parents of prospective RHSM students, 2PreK through fifth grade, are invited to attend an Admission Open House on Tuesday, October 23, beginning at 8:45 a.m. This open house, held during a regular school day, presents a great opportunity for interested parents to meet school administrators, teachers, current parents and students, tour the school, and learn more about Rowland Hall's hands-on college preparatory program.

by LS Art Teacher Kathryn Czarnecki

 

There is a world of nature at Rowland Hall-St. Mark's Lower School. A simple stroll through the school's science garden is a breathtaking invitation to inspiration. Recently RHSM third grade art students explored this wonderful garden. Inspired by French Impressionist artists, the students experimented with en plein air drawing. En plein air is a French term which means "in the open air", and is predominantly used to describe painting or drawing in the outside environment rather than indoors. French Impressionist painters including Claude Monet, Camille Pissarro, and Pierre-Auguste Renoir explored en plein air painting, and much of their artwork was created outdoors.

 

In the garden, students created drawings from observation. Equipped with drawing boards, paper, and pencils, they were asked to sit anywhere in the garden to draw what they saw. Sketches were drawn of  Butterfly bushes, cosmos, sunflowers, bachelor buttons, prairie coneflowers, Queen Anne's lace, wild asters, alyssum, rice grass, maidenhair grass, and little blue stem grass. As the sun shined and wind blew, the young artists remained open to the changing nature of the landscape. Some students made quick studies of the garden grasses while others created longer extended drawings of sun flowers. The children then went back to the art room to color their drawings with water color paint and color pencils. In reflection, many students commented on how they loved the experience of drawing nature outdoors and looked forward to their next en plein air experience. 

View photos . . .

 

Four and Five Year Olds Celebrate Johnny Appleseed's Birthday   

Rowland Hall-St. Mark's seniors Hanna Saltzman and Neel Patel were honored as October's Youth of the Month by the Salt Lake Exchange Club for their personal essays on the topic, "America's Youth: Expanding Our Horizons".

 

The Salt Lake Exchange Club recognizes two students from a local high school each month during the school year, based on their academic excellence, participation in school life and activities, special talents in service, service provided to the community as a whole, writing and speaking skills, and self-confidence. At the end of the school year the Salt Lake Exchange Club will choose one student to compete for a national $10,000 Exchange Club college scholarship. 

 

The students' parents and RHSM Director of College Counseling, Bruce Hunter, attended the Salt Lake Exchange Club program at The Sheraton Hotel on October 10, where the students read his/her essay. Hanna is the daughter of Charles Saltzman and Ingrid Nygaard. Neel is the son of Bhupendra Patel and Anne Kennedy. 

 

Rowland Hall - St Mark's teacher Ryan Hoglund has been selected as the 2007 Outstanding Speech Educator of the Year by the Utah High School Activities Association. The Distinguished Service Award was started in 1987 to honor educators who have shown dedication to their students through exceptional contributions and services. We at RHSM extend our greatest congratulations to Ryan and appreciate his excellent and on-going commitment to all students at RHSM. Mr. Hoglund now provides academic support for both the Middle School and Upper School, taking him away from debate duties. Our new debate coach, Mike Shackleford, and his students are already having great success this fall.

 

 

This last weekend, Chase Burton and Melissa Leeworthy spent their fall break competing at a debate tournament in Chicago. This was the team's first tournament, and they wasted no time setting the bar high for the rest of the year. Chase and Melissa finished in second place behind "the other St. Mark's," (St. Mark's School of Texas).They had big wins over Westminster, Princeton, Montgomery Bell Academy, Glenbrook North, and many more. Chase was also named 3rd Speaker in a tournament that had over 150 students from around the country.

 

 

 

Students in Joe Pitti and Kristina Obermark's 4 PreK class are learning about sunflowers. They visited the nature yard and saw plants in their natural setting. They painted pictures of sunflowers and made books showing their parts. They participated in a fine motor activity where they removed sunflower seeds with tweezers and counted out a group of ten into boxes. Elli R. (see photo) is studying their shape, size, and characteristics.

Poet Anne Caston read from her new collection of poems, Judah's Lion, in the Rowland Hall-St. Mark's Upper School Library at noon on September 28th. Anne Caston's first collection of poems, Flying Out with the Wounded, was published in 1997 and was awarded the New York University Press Prize for Poetry.

A small group of students, teachers, and parents gathered to hear Caston share her thoughts and read six of her newest works. Caston's soft Southern accent belies the intensity of her poems. With the agility of a detective, Caston sets up and solves the small mysteries of life. Some of the audience appreciated the story line of the poems, while others were gripped by the emotional content. She also presented in Joel Long's 4th period class.

 

 FALL SPORTS

 

Golf Team Takes State Honors!

 

by Shawn MacQueen, Head Coach
JZ Davis, Asst. Coach

The 2007 Winged Lions golf team are the 2007 2A State Champions!  They played an incredible tournament at Soldier Hollow Golf Course. The first round was played on the Silver Course, in very difficult conditions. Carson Huiskamp shot a 75 to lead the tournament. Tom Veghte, Quentin Morse, and Eric Hutchinson also posted scores toward the team total of 319. This score put RHSM up by 25 strokes on the next closest team. This cushion gave the players a chance to relax and play their best round of the season. The final round of the tournament was played on the more difficult Gold Course and the team shot 297, their lowest score of the season!  Carson shot another 75 to take the top medalist honor. He was followed by Quentin, who shot the low round of the tournament with a 71 and finished two strokes behind at 152. Tom took the 3rd medalist honor with a score of 156. Eric took 5th place with his score of 162, and Joey Polychronis shot a personal best 74 to finish in the top ten.

Congratulations to the team and coaches on an outstanding season.

Even after a tough double overtime 1-0 loss to St. Joe, the RHSM Girls' soccer team had a strong enough record to remain ranked first in the region. The team has had the best regular season record in the program's history and this is the first region title. With a first place finish, the team advanced directly to the state quarterfinal on October 13 at RHSM.

The tournament is a single elimination format. As RHSM won the *October 13 match they will advance to play  in the 2A State Semi-final competition at Woods Cross High School on October 19. The finals will also be played at Woods Cross High School on October 20. Watch for an update on the outcome of these matches.

*October 13th Victory as Reported in the Deseret News . . .

 

 

All of the members of the RHSM Cross-Country team ran last Tuesday's Regional Cross-Country competition with a focused "desire-to-win" attitude that bodes well for the upcoming State Cross-Country Championships. Though some individual runners wished they had run faster times and placed higher in the standings, at the end of their 5K effort the team ran their best meet of the season. The combination of the pre-region contest held two weeks prior, and now this very strong performance has them primed to run their best race next Wednesday at Sugarhouse Park in the State Championships. 

 

Cross country web page . . .
 

 

This year's 6th grade girls' volleyball team started with excitement and enthusiasm, fielding one of the biggest teams in the past few years. They began the season with a tough away game against Redeemer Lutheran. After another disappointing loss to a strong St. Joseph's squad, the ladies rebounded with a convincing 2-game sweep of Layton Christian Academy. They continued their streak with a 25-23 and 25-20 win over Grace Lutheran. With the season half over, the team has shown remarkable improvement and we're excited for the second half.

 

This year's team is coached by Chad Obermark and Julie Lloyd and the players include: Nikita Abraham, Emily Bernstein, Solenne Donnelly, Marisa Eng, Lainey Epperson, Heather Ernst, Emily Fouché, Mallory Metz, Emily Nicoloff, Money Nielsen, Olivia Pecora, Alice Rocha, Sawyer Smith and Emily Sundquist.

The 8th grade team got off to a slow start due to the low number of girls that came out for the team this season. As a solution, the 8th graders joined forces with the 7th grade team. Coach Roberts and Virden have formulated a squad-like environment focusing on developing the skills of the group as a whole. However, the coaches have been working with the 8th graders separately during practices as well, going into greater detail of the more complex concepts and technical skills of the sport. All of the 8th grade girls have really stepped up and truly become leaders in both practices and games. While the final scores may not show it, the girls have been playing great and really implementing the skills and strategies emphasized in practices. The team has shown great improvement already and with this group of eager and spirited girls, they are sure to see many more strong and impressive games. The 8th grade team consists of Jena Glazier, Sophie Janes, Ellie Kimball, Christine Livsey, McCall Moody, Koko Novak, Laraib Sial, Zoe Wheatley, and is coached by Sarah Virden.

 

 

Just follow the convenient link at the bottom of each e-marker to forward the good news along to extended family, friends, and colleagues. Access archived E-Markers from school info/publications on the RHSM website.