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Come Together: EHS Spring Family Weekend Photos and Videos

Some 300 families and 75 grandparents came to The Holy Hill on April 12 and 13 for Spring Family Weekend’s full slate of activities and events.
The weekend opened with a special chapel service (LocalLive video; free registration) and continued with a host of informal and formal events in which members of the EHS community connected with each other, celebrated the semester’s work, and looked ahead.
 
Among the highlights:
  • 25 juniors and seniors were inducted into the prestigious Cum Laude Society, with second-year EHS members of the organization offering moving, personal testimony about each honoree’s academic achievements and contributions to school life. Daniel Porterfield, president of the Aspen Institute, delivered the keynote address (story, photos, and video).

  • A dozen student groups put on a performing-arts showcase featuring dance and jazz as well as a cappella, choral, string, wind, and orchestral music (video and photos). Members of the Class of 2018 involved in the performing arts this year were also honored. 

  • Students delivered two performances of the spring play, “You Can’t Take It With You,” in the Breeden Blackbox Theater (story and photos). 

  • Rain storms washed out a few sports events, but beginning Friday afternoon through late Saturday, student-athletes competed in lacrosse, baseball, softball, and crew. (photos; video of boys’ varsity lacrosse, girls’ JV lacrosse, boys’ JV lacrosse). Also, some 100 people gathered for the dedication of a new crew shell in honor of a teenage Washington-area rower who died of germ-cell cancer several years ago. (story)

  • Students exhibited paintings, prints, ceramics, digital works, and other art at the Angie Newan Johnson Gallery in the Ainslie Arts Center. 

  • At the annual Grandparents and Special Friends Day reception and program, performances by a cappella groups were followed by several presentations of classroom innovations. Students demonstrated their work in robotics, a new performance-based study of Shakespeare, and expanding work in digital history (photos).

  • The Office of Community and Equity hosted a reception in which parents and grandparents heard from student leaders on campus and explored the physical and digital archives that students have used in their coursework to examine the School’s history. 

  • Admissions officials from several universities offered insiders’ views of the college-admissions search. American University’s Andrea Felder discussed making the most of the high-school experience (video); Patrick Salmon from Johns Hopkins talked about admissions at highly selective universities (video); and Sayaka Smith from Tufts joined Matt Wilcox from the University of Georgia to advise parents on how to find the right fit (video). Also, EHS college counselors talked with parents of 9th and 10th graders about the School’s approach to the college-search process (video).

  • In a session for all parents, Head of School Charley Stillwell discussed key initiatives from the 2018 Strategic Plan. Also, Episcopal Medical Director Adrianna Bravo talked about growing research into the dangers of e-cigarettes and vaping and how the School and parents can respond (video).

Other photos from the weekend — including those from the crew boat dedication, the art exhibition, the Office of Community and Equity reception, the college counseling sessions, and the chapel service — can be viewed on Episcopal’s Flickr channel.
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