St. Mark's School

On Tuesday, May 22, the St. Mark's Music Department held its traditional Year End Concert in the Putnam Family Arts Center's Class of 1945. It featured performances from the School's Choir, Orchestra, and Jazz Ensemble, involving as many as eighty different students. Sixteen graduating VI Formers were also recognized for their contributions to the St. Mark's music program during their time at the School.

Two St. Markers, Edna Kilusu '19 and Frances Hornbostel '21, have been selling Rafiki bracelets during lunch, to support communities in Africa.

On Wednesday, May 23, the annual Ely Public Speaking competition was held, and Leila Frederick '21, a day student from Hopkinton, MA, was the winner.

On Saturday evening, May 19, the last night of Reunion Weekend, a band featuring St. Mark's students put on a self-described "indie rock concert" in the Putnam Family Arts Center's Black Box Theater. Fellow students, faculty, and even some alumni attended the event and enjoyed the show.

On the afternoon of Saturday, May 19, during Reunion Weekend, veteran SM art teacher Aggie Belt and several of her students hosted the annual Empty Bowls sale to help the hungry.

One of the highlights of this most recent Reunion Weekend was the gift to St. Mark's of a beautiful ship model. A hand-crafted replica of the clipper ship Southern Cross, it had belonged to the late Ben Dillingham, SM Class of 1963. A member of the St. Mark's Athletic Hall of Fame (the first manager to be so honored), Ben Dillingham passed away in November of 2017. A gift from the Dillingham family, it now resides on the second floor of the School's library.

The annual Southborough School luncheon on Reunion Weekend was a small, intimate gathering at Choate House. Three members of the St. Mark's Class of 1978—the first class of young women to graduate from St. Mark's, but who had spent the majority of their high school careers at the Southborough School—were on hand. Rochanya Hickman Generous, Nancy Cocks Karuzis, and Suzannah Cox Halliday were back for their 40th Reunion, and they were joined at Choate House by former Southborough School (and later St. Mark's) staffer Sandy Campbell, along with two honorary Southborough School alumnae: Colleen Finnerty '11 (current faculty member and winner of the Pierson F. Melcher Prize at her VI Form graduation and Nick Noble '76 (current staffer and SM historian).

For the first time in several years, Reunion Weekend was held during the school year. From May 17-19, all Reunion classes gathered on campus, to share memories of St. Mark's yesterdays while discovering much about St. Mark's today and its goals for tomorrow.

On Thursday, May 17, students in the Exploration Sciences advanced elective course shared the fruits of their research into various explorers, discoverers, adventurers, and risk-takers on land and sea. Taking on the personas of well-known individuals—in short, becoming the explorers they were studying—students gathered in the Faculty Room, where faculty and staff asked them questions and evaluated their responses.

St. Mark's alumna Amanda Abend '14 (pictured at right making final adjustments to one of her gowns) was recently winner of the Saks Fifth Avenue 2018 Emerging Designer Award at the Washington University Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts' 89th annual Spring Fashion Design Show.

Despite the stormy weather nearly 40 St. Markers attended this year's Classics Banquet hosted by the Classics Club.

On Wednesday evening, May 16, and Friday evening, May 18, the St. Mark's Theater Arts Department will present three student-directed one act plays in the Putnam Family Arts Center's Black Box Theater. One of the plays was also written by a St. Marker: Kaela Dunne '18.

Four St. Mark's students—Alan Gao '19, Hans Wu '19, Justin Zhang '19, and Mo Liu '18—scored in the top tenth percentile on the challenging National German Exam and earned gold medals from the American Association of Teachers of German (AATG).

Highlighting mid-May at St. Mark's this spring were two music concerts. On Friday, May 11, the Spring Music Showcase featured a dozen student performers, while on Monday, May 14, Jason Hwang '18 gave his solo Senior Recital. Both concerts took place on the stage of the Putnam Family Arts Center's Class of 1945 Hall.

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On Thursday, May 10, Colin Capenito '19 won the Shen Public Speaking Prize competition, for his speech about the Federal Reserve Act of 1913.

At School Meeting on Wednesday, May 9, nine St. Markers were awarded Class of 1968 Fellowship Grants.

On Tuesday evening, May 8, eight current St. Markers were installed as new members of the Cum Laude Society.

Five St. Mark's students earned honors at the 2018 Massachusetts State Science and Engineering Fair over the weekend of May 4 and 5 on the campus of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Two of them—VI Formers Sophie Haugen and Sada Nichols-Worley, advanced to the International Science Fair for their outstanding achievement.

At school meeting on Wednesday, May 9, Classics department Chair Jeanna Cook announced that Luke Lee '20 had earned a perfect score on the International Latin Exam.

Recently, Ernesto Diaz, an assistant professor at Boston's Berklee College of Music, visited St.Mark's and spent time with student musicians.

On Saturday, May 5, the St. Mark's Center for Innovation in Teaching and Learning hosted its inaugural Educator's Meetup event: "Purposeful Learning: A Meetup for Educators in the St. Mark's Community."

On consecutive evenings, Friday and Saturday, May 4 and 5, more than a dozen St. Markers performed songs from a number of Broadway productions as part of the annual Broadway Nights event. Funds raised at these shows went to benefit the St. Mark's Haiti partnership.

On Friday, May 4, St. Mark's recognized 21 graduating VI Formers who intend to play college sports next year. These 21 SM athletes represent nine different sports—football, field hockey, soccer, ice hockey, squash, baseball, lacrosse. tennis, and rowing—at 20 different colleges and universities.

Despite the ravages of a harsh and prolonged winter season, the Southborough School Garden at Choate House is ready for the upcoming Reunion celebrations.

St. Mark's III Formers participating in this year's Global Seminar have been working on collaborative projects focusing on the impact of globalization and a variety of other factors on the spread of infectious diseases. Mentored by V Form biology students, the III Form students have worked for several week on the research and writing involved in this project. On Tuesday evening, May 1, the groups presented the results of their research in the form of a poster presentation, similar to poster presentations give at science fairs and academic conferences.

During the first week of May, the St. Mark's Orchestra traveled to nearby Framingham, MA, to perform at MetroWest Medical's Framingham Union Hospital.

This May, ten St. Markers were named recipients of grants for specialized study. The Matthews Educational Fund, the Anthony A. Jones International Studies Fund, and the Kean '53 Fellowship program providing the funding. The announcement recognizing those receiving these grants was made at an all-school meeting by Mr. John Camp, associate director of the St. Mark's Center for Innovation in Teaching and Learning in charge of student enrichment.

Miles Borchard '15, a student at the Theater Conservatory of the Chicago College of Performing Arts at Roosevelt University, was recently named recipient of a Robert & Ellen Marks/Sarah Siddons Society Scholarship. Sarah Siddons Society scholarships are given "to outstanding theatre students in the Chicago area, enabling them to further their education in fine arts."

Tough weather may have made the start of this spring's St. Mark's athletic campaigns definitely challenging, but just past the mid-season point, with just three weeks remaining until Groton weekend, the Lions are looking strong. Seven varsity teams have posted records of .500 or better, with St. Mark's winning 62% of all varsity contests (as well as winning 62% of all games played by St. Mark's this spring, at any level).

"Happy Poetry Week, St. Mark's!" declared Ms Maggie Caron of the SM English Department. "May your week be filled with verse during National Poetry Month." Once again, the third week in April was Poetry Week at St. Mark's, part of the nationwide Poetry Month celebration.

On Wednesday, April 25, the St. Mark's Parents' Association hosted the 12th Annual Faculty/Staff Appreciation Day in the Hinkle Room. Many parents donated wonderful items in a tremendous demonstration of appreciation for the year-round efforts of St. Mark's faculty and staff.

Six St. Markers and two teams will be honored at the 2018 St. Mark's Athletic Hall of Fame ceremony, which will take place at 10 AM in the Putnam Family Arts Center's Class of 1945 Hall on the Saturday of this year's Reunion Weekend.

On Monday, April 23, the two St. Mark's acapella singing groups—the Marksmen and the Royal Blues—performed at nearby Algonquin Regional High School's Acapocalypse Festival.

This April, St. Mark's welcomed ten visitors from Bhutan. Seven students, two teachers, and the CEO of the Desi High School in Thimphu, Bhutan arrived on the Southborough campus and immersed themselves in the life of the School.

On Friday and Saturday evenings, April 20 and 21, the St. Mark's Musical Comedy Club wowed audiences in the Black Box Theater with their production of Hairspray.

On Sunday, April 22, St. Mark's hosted a Gay-Straight Alliance brunch open to students from New England independent schools.

On Sunday afternoon, April 22, 20 St. Markers were confirmed,while one student and one faculty child were baptized, at a special service in Belmont Chapel. The Rev. Barbara Talcott, Head Chaplain at SM, noted that this is the largest single confirmation class at St. Mark's since 22 students were confirmed here in 1958.

Along with students at more than 2500 schools across the country, St. Markers took part in a walkout on Friday, April 20.

The St. Mark's Musical Comedy Club will be presenting "Hairspray" in the Black Box Theater this Friday With music by Marc Shaiman, lyrics by Scott Wittman and Shaiman and a book by Mark O'Donnell and Thomas Meehan, "Hairspray" based on the 1988 John Waters film of the same name. "Hairspray" originally appeared on Broadway in 2003, winning eight Tony Awards.

In April, Nicola Hartman '19 presented a check for $2,295.18 on behalf of St. Mark's to the Special Olympics program.

On Saturday, April 14, the St. Mark's Crew program and the School community dedicated a new rowing shell in honor of longtime faculty members Lee and Ken Wells, on the occasion of their upcoming retirement in June.

On April 11, a triumphantly successful first-ever SM Giving Day shattered its stated goal of inspiring 360 gifts in one day—representing one for every student currently enrolled at the School—as 551 gifts were made and almost a quarter of a million dollars raised in support of the St. Mark's Annual Fund.

Wrestling, Girls' Squash, Boys' Hockey Excel This Winter

After March blizzards delayed the official end-of-season ceremony, the SM Winter Athletic Awards were finally presented on Friday evening, April 13. This winter saw two St. Mark's varsity teams—Wrestling and Girls' Squash—post their winningest seasons ever, while Boys' Varsity Hockey earned a playoff berth. Once again, Boys' 3rds Basketball had an outstanding campaign, and overall it was a solid winter for SM athletics.

From April 4-7, ten St. Mark's students and two faculty members traveled to Grand Rapids, MI, for the 19th annual White Privilege Conference (WPC).

On Monday, April 16, as you watch some 30,000 runners in the Boston Marathon, keep an eye peeled for #13090. That will be Elise Morgan, Senior Associate Director of Admission here at St. Mark's, competing in the 122nd running of the classic event. Ms. Morgan, in her eleventh year at St. Mark's, has run several half-marathons in recent years, and last September she ran her very first marathon, in Erie, PA. Her time in that race qualified her for this Monday's event, making her Boston debut her second-ever marathon.

At school meeting on Wednesday, April 11, the current Monitors announced the new Monitors for next year at St. Mark's. Current V Form classmates Tom Paugh and Zoe Maddox will be co-Head Monitors for 2018-19.

On Monday evening, April 9, Dr. Helen Moore was the guest speaker for the St. Mark's Mathematicians at Work series. Her topic: "How to Use Mathematics to Predict Whether a Cancer Patient is Responding to Immunotherapy"

On Sunday, April 8, eleven St. Mark's students attended the annual Asian-American Footsteps Conference at Deerfield Academy.

On Sunday, April 8, fourteen girls from St. Mark's attended the annual Girls STEM Summit at Regis College in Weston, MA.