Tartan Snapshots
What’s happening around St. Margaret’s, from Early Childhood School to Upper School.
By Ryan Wood
2020-2021 School Year Begins With Spirited Film ‘To Tartans, With Love’
Kicked off by a joyful, spirit-filled film featuring more than 65 members of the professional community, St. Margaret’s officially opened the 2020-2021 school year with its annual All School Opening Ceremony in August. The special film featured welcome messages and well wishes from professional community members across campus.
Professional Community Devotes In-Service Day to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Symposium
St. Margaret’s professional community dedicated an in-service day on Tuesday to immersing in diversity, equity and inclusion professional development, which included the formal launching of affinity groups, insights from panels, and workshops around culturally responsive teaching, concurrent learning and classroom ideas for teaching identity, diversity, justice and action. The symposium was organized by St. Margaret’s 52-member Equity Team, led by Director of Equity and Inclusion Victor Cota.
Upper School Engineering Classes Take on Design Challenges Inspired by NASA’s Lunar Missions
St. Margaret’s introduction to engineering classes took on design challenges created by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and inspired by the NASA lunar missions. JPL’s rapid design activities are a way to learn engineering concepts using common household materials such as paper cups, cardboard, straws and string. Each block of the class, taught by Upper School science teacher Eric Trumbauer, completed three challenges.
Grade 4 Students Explore Archways in Engineering-Based Remote Challenge
The Grade 4 STEAM Block completed an engineering challenge that explored the design and structural elements of archways, a common theme seen in California’s 21 missions, including Mission San Juan Capistrano.
That led to a home challenge for students to create different structures that incorporate one or multiple arches, testing the load of their creations and recording their load capacity in the form of a bar graph.
St. Margaret’s Inducts 24 Into Prestigious Cum Laude Society
St. Margaret’s inducted 14 seniors and 10 juniors into the Cum Laude Society, a prestigious honor which recognizes and celebrates academic achievement. The new Tartan inductees join 10 current seniors inducted in 2019 as juniors. The inductees were honored during the Upper School Awards Ceremony, which took place remotely in a Zoom presentation.
Student-Driven Seminars Engage Upper School in Wealth, Poverty and Ethics Class
The Upper School’s wealth, poverty and ethics class explored perspectives and ethical questions through a student-created and student-driven seminar format as classes shifted to remote learning. “The goal of the ethical dilemma seminars is for the students to challenge each other to consider different perspectives, identities, ethical frameworks and alternative decisions,” said Director of Equity and Inclusion Victor Cota, who teaches the class.
St. Margaret’s Uses 3D Printing to Make Medical Supplies During Pandemic
St. Margaret’s utilized the school’s 3D printers to make PPE supplies in an effort to help frontline medical workers stay protected during the COVID-19 outbreak in the United States.
STEAM teachers Ashley Ricart and Stefani Baker took home 3D printers and materials and had them continuously running, making frames designed to hold standard-sized plastic sheets that protect the faces of medical workers.
St. Margaret’s Takes Part in NAIS Strategy Lab Sandbox
Head of School Will Moseley and Assistant Head of School for Strategic Initiatives Ryan Dahlem were invited to the National Association of Independent Schools headquarters in Washington, D.C., to participate in its first NAIS Strategy Lab Sandbox in the fall of 2019 with a handful of the most innovative schools across the country.
#WinAtSocial Program Promotes Positive, High-Character Approach to Social Media
With the goal of empowering students to navigate social media and technology in positive, high-character ways, St. Margaret’s introduced #WinAtSocial, an educational program created by The Social Institute. The Social Institute CEO Laura Tierney visited St. Margaret’s over two days in September 2019 to launch #WinAtSocial with St. Margaret’s students and share details of the curriculum with parents.
104th Archbishop of Canterbury The Rt. Rev. Rowan Williams Visits SMES
Sharing a message of community and togetherness with the school, the 104th Archbishop of Canterbury, The Rt. Rev. Rowan Williams, spent the day at St. Margaret’s in September 2019.
St. Margaret’s Well-Represented at NAIS People of Color Conference
St. Margaret’s had a delegation of 15 professional community members and six students at the 2019 National Association of Independent Schools People of Color Conference and the adjacent NAIS Student Diversity Leadership Conference in Seattle.
Upper School Students Conduct College-Level Research at UCI
Taking on research projects in chemistry, robotics, biomedical engineering and more, 10 Upper School students spent the summer of 2019 working in a college research environment through a longstanding partnership between St. Margaret’s and the University of California, Irvine’s Samueli School of Engineering.
Students Learn About VR and AR Medical Innovation from Dr. Robert Louis of Hoag
Sharing valuable insight into innovation, technology, problem-solving and the pursuit of purpose, Dr. Robert Louis of Hoag visited St. Margaret’s in the fall 2019 and demonstrated to Upper School students how virtual reality and augmented reality are being used to make groundbreaking medical advancements.
Kindergarten Students Learn About Habitats Through Interdisciplinary Bird Nest Challenge
Using leaves, twigs, feathers and other items collected in the Lower School Outdoor Classroom, St. Margaret’s kindergarten students built their own bird nests in a nature-based design challenge in the fall of 2019 centered around animals and how they live. The interdisciplinary lesson was led by Lower School K-1 science teacher Erin Moore and Lower School STEAM teacher Laura Redman.
ARTS
Upper School Dance Students Express Hardship of 2020 Through Performance
Upper School dance classes integrated some of the most difficult topics of 2020, such as social justice and the lasting impact of COVID-19, into the program’s in-person and remote-learning curriculum.
During remote learning at the beginning of the 2020-2021 school year, dancers worked on projects related to current social justice issues, such as racial and wealth inequities, homelessness, mental health and wellness, human trafficking, stress, world hunger, and addiction. The dancers were asked to identify what social justice is and brainstorm how dance can be used effectively to raise awareness for a social issue. They then picked a song that best fit their topic, choreographed collaboratively online with one or more partners, filmed the dance, and provided information about their topic and why they selected it.
St. Margaret’s Band Students Collaborate on Memorable Performance of Rocky Theme Song
St. Margaret’s Concert Band, Jazz Ensemble A and Jazz Ensemble C students collaborated on a fantastic performance of “Gonna Fly Now” from the soundtrack to the 1976 film Rocky.
St. Margaret’s Band Director Chris Carbajal created the arrangement and click track custom-tailored for each student. Then the students recorded their parts separately on their smartphones, doing multiple takes to perfect their part. Mr. Carbajal and and film teacher Karen Bennett took the student audio and videos and brought them together for an incredible film with some evocative and emotional images of the Class of 2020 band students, as well.
Upper School 3D Artists Create Sculptures Through Ancient Pit-Fire Method
Students in Upper School 3D art classes created sculptures using a pit-fire technique that dates back 30,000 years in the fall of 2019. Through this outdoor experiential activity, students learned more about the ancient firing method and how past civilizations used pit firing to create tools and artwork.
Tartans Win National Medals in Scholastic Art & Writing Awards
St. Margaret’s students Marie Byun and Amy Shi won national medals for their acclaimed creative work in the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards.
Marie, a junior, won a national silver medal in painting for her piece “Floating Away.” Amy, a grade 8 student, won a national silver medal in novel writing for her story “Armorial Luck.”
ATHLETICS
Class of 2020 Students Commit to Play Intercollegiate Athletics
St. Margaret’s had 13 student-athletes from the Class of 2020 commit to play intercollegiate athletics at top colleges and universities around the country.
To view the full list, visit smes.org.
Jackson Adelman Wins CIF State Cross Country Championship
St. Margaret’s junior Jackson Adelman won the CIF Division-V State Cross Country Championship in November 2019, beating the field at the famed Woodward Park course in Fresno in a time of 15:39. Adelman led the St. Margaret’s boys to a second-place finish at state. The girls, led by freshman Liesel Blau’s third-place finish, placed third as a team. The state meet was one week after Adelman and the St. Margaret’s girls each won CIF-SS Division V championships.