Kevin Salipante, Class of 2019, has earned a 2019 National Merit Mary E. Beyerle Scholarship as part of the National Merit Scholarship Program. This corporate-sponsored merit award, given by The Trust Under The Will of Mary E. Beyerle for finalists from Maryland, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, provides a $2,500 scholarship to each recipient. In 2018, just seven finalists received this award.

In the fall, Kevin was recognized as a National Merit Semifinalist. This spring, Kevin was inducted into the Cum Laude Society and earned the Cassy Richards '01 Athlete of the Year Award along with his Cross Country teammates as part of the Upper School Class Day awards.

Congratulations, Kevin!

Student artists, their parents, Visual Arts teachers, and Head of School Dr. Scott D. Fech celebrated the second installation of rotating student artwork in the Head's Office at a reception on Tuesday, May 21. The four works, representing each division and both campuses, will remain on view through the end of the school year:

Pastel Exploration
Mary Bemer, Pre-Kindergarten
Lower School City Campus

O'Keeffe Rose
Sebastian Pellathy, Grade 3
Lower School North Campus

Portrait Inspired by Lynette Yiadom-Boakye
Zara Sleet, Grade 6
Middle School

Recent graduate Nadine Oury '19 earned a 2019 National Merit $2,500 Scholarship as part of the National Merit Scholarship Program. Nadine was one of just 2,500 recipients across the nation from a pool of more than 15,000 National Merit Finalists. A committee of college admission officers and high school counselors selected the finalists in each state who had the strongest combination of accomplishments, skills, and potential for success in rigorous college studies as recipients.

Nadine and classmate Kevin Salipante were two WT students to earn National Merit Scholarships this year.

In the fall, Nadine was recognized as a National Merit Semifinalist. This spring, Nadine was inducted into the Cum Laude Society, recognized as one of ten gold medalists in the Trib Total Media Outstanding Young Citizen Awards for exemplary character and leadership, community service, and academic excellence, and as a Student Ambassador Leader at Upper School Class Day. In addition, she served as the Student Council President for the 2018-2019 school year. She has also earned recognition for her writing as part of the Scholastic Writing Awards and created a documentary, Songbird Artistry: A Family's Journey through ALS, during her Upper School career.

Nadine speaking at Commencement 2019

Each year, Winchester Thurston School teachers are recognized for teaching excellence. Congratulations to Kimberly Blaney, City Campus Kindergarten teacher, the 2019 recipient of the Judy Apt Nathenson Memorial Chair for Excellence in Elementary Education and Callie DiSabato, Middle School English teacher, the 2019 recipient of the Jane L. Scarborough Award for Teaching Excellence.

Judy Apt Nathenson Memorial Chair for Excellence in Elementary Education: Kimberly Blaney

Director of Lower School City Campus Nancy Rogers presented the award to Blaney at the 2019 Lower School City Campus Moving Up Ceremony.

Blaney, who had been teaching at WT for eight years, is known for not only being an outstanding educator and problem solver, but also for her patience, kind nature, and care for her students and colleagues. "A skilled practitioner of early childhood education, Kimberly understands what it means to educate the 'whole child,' and the importance of the physical, cognitive, social, and emotional development of children," shared Rogers.

Like Judy Apt Nathenson, Blaney is a problem solver with a growth mindset, as she continually advances her knowledge of best practices, pedagogy, and curriculum. She is sought out by colleagues for her expertise in teaching literacy skills and instilling confidence and love of reading in students.

Rogers concluded with reflections from Blaney's colleague who also praised her for empowering children "to flourish in their own unique way... Kim puts her whole heart into creating an inviting and caring classroom so that her students can develop a strong sense of self while they grow into the best students they can become."

The Judy Apt Nathenson Memorial Chair for Excellence in Elementary Education was established in memory of Judy Apt Nathenson, a 1969 graduate of Winchester Thurston School and Kindergarten teacher who sadly passed away in 2000. Judy vigorously championed the importance of early childhood education at Winchester Thurston School and throughout the Pittsburgh community.

DiSabato (L) receives the Jane L. Scarborough Award for Teaching Excellence from Head of School Dr. Scott D. Fech (R).

Jane L. Scarborough Award for Teaching Excellence: Callie DiSabato

Head of School Dr. Scott D. Fech and the 2018 recipient of the Scarborough Award, Middle School History teacher Adam Brownold, presented the award to DiSabato at the 2019 Commencement ceremony. DiSabato was chosen by a committee comprised of faculty members, students, and members of the Board of Trustees who received nomination letters from faculty and students.

DiSabato, a WT teacher since 2015, is known for meeting students where they are and inspiring them to be active, inquisitive, and open-minded. She creates a supportive learning community where students learn and grow "by leaps and bounds" as writers and critical thinkers. "In the words of one of your students, 'I can confidently say that in the two years I have had her [DiSabato] here at WT, I have improved more than I ever have in my whole life,'" shared Brownold.

DiSabato is also celebrated for her curiosity, high standards, care, and compassion. She creates safe spaces for her students to explore sensitive topics, spreads enthusiasm throughout the eighth grade research project, and embodies WT's credo each day by surrounding ESL students with important topics from their home countries.

"Constantly advocating for your students, colleagues, and our school, you exemplify everything for which WT stands. You are passionate about your work, and each day you transmit this devotion to your students," concluded Brownold.

The Scarborough Award is given by the Board of Trustees to a returning member of the faculty who is making an exemplary contribution to teaching by demonstrating a strong professional commitment to the Winchester Thurston community, respects the uniqueness of the individual, values intellectual inquiry and mastery as well as intellectual honesty and humility, models for others the frustration and excitement of learning and the exhilaration of discovery, and views the experience of teaching as an opportunity to remain a lifelong learner.

Congratulations to North Campus Librarian and Instructional Technology Specialist Kate Weber, the 2019-2019 recipient of the Mary Houston Griffin Award.

Weber received this award for her proposal to use her in-depth look at the Holocaust, through a trip to Poland with City as Our Campus Partner Classrooms Without Borders this summer, as a catalyst to help students grapple with hard questions and challenging experiences. Weber previously earned this award in 2015 through which she incorporated the "Bigshot Camera," a build-it-yourself camera, to combine technology, makerspace, science, art, and storytelling into the curriculum to enhance student learning.

Weber's proposal was inspired by her own plan to process her emotions through poetry while visiting historic sites where concentration camps and ghettos once existed in Poland. She then thought about how writing could also be a useful tool for students to process events. Weber wondered, "What if instead of pushing these emotions under the rug, we used them to help educate some of our youngest students about both our tragic shared history, as well as current events that they are confronted by so often?"

She plans to have students in grades 2 – 5 keep haiku journals throughout the year, as a creative space to wrestle with their feelings about what they are learning in school, in the news, and in their own personal lives. At the end of the school year, students will present haiku poems they are willing to share at a haiku exhibition. Weber will also share more of her experience in Poland with fifth-grade students, in age-appropriate ways, in conjunction with their curriculum.

In addition, Weber plans to expand the collection of children's books that discuss the Holocaust in age-appropriate ways in the North Campus Library and incorporate City as Our Campus experiences with authors during the 2019-2020 school year, including a dual campus haiku-writing workshop.

Upper School Latin students and teacher Dr. David Seward contributed 3,000 sentences to Duolingo's newly launched Latin course.

After a lunch conversation with a Duolingo employee in which Seward made a "tongue-and-cheek" case for a Duolingo Latin course last fall, Duolingo, the most popular language-learning platform and the most downloaded education app in the world, reached out and invited Seward and his students to collaborate on the development of a Latin Course, along with the Paideia Institute, in December 2018.

Following a training by Duolingo, Seward and Upper School Latin students created 3,000 sentences for the course during the 2018-2019 school year for which nearly 24,000 people signed up to be notified in advance of its launch on August 28. Students were also tasked with refining the English Translation.

We're so proud of Dr. Seward and our Latin students!

Read the full story on Triblive.com: Winchester Thurston students help in development of Duolingo Latin course

At WT, the only thing more powerful than what students learn is why they learn it.

Junior Ayisat Bisiriyu's story covering "Speak Up!," a program that teaches young girls effective negotiation skills to minimize wage and leadership gaps between men and women for iGeneration Youth was picked up by MSN.

Ayisat, the Pittsburgh Bureau Chief for iGeneration Youth, has written two additional stories that have also been picked up by MSN:

• "A robot's view of how AI and humans can work together"
• "Just because you don't eat meat, doesn't mean you have to sit out of summer cookouts"

Congratulations to Ayisat!

Congratulations to Upper School and Middle School English teacher Ms. Emily Mohn-Slate who has earned the 2019 New American Poetry Prize for her book of poetry, The Falls. Mohn-Slate was chosen as the winner by writer Sara Gelston on behalf of New American Press. As the winner, she will receive $1,000, and The Falls will be released in Fall 2020. Mohn-Slate has also written FEED, winner of the 2018 Chapbook Prize from Seven Kitchens Press, and has poems and essays published in many publications.

Winchester Thurston School is proud to announce students who have been recognized by the National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC) for their performance on the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT) their junior year.

The following students were honored as semifinalists:

Daniel Branstetter
Scott Routledge
Sophia Scheatzle
Nicole Shigiltchoff

More than 1.5 million juniors from about 21,000 high schools entered the 2020 National Merit Scholarship Program by taking the 2018 PSAT/MNSQT. The approximately 16,000 semifinalists, representing less than one percent of U.S. high school seniors, includes the highest-scoring entrants in each state.

These academically talented students have an opportunity to continue in the competition for one of three types of National Merit Scholarships worth more than $31 million: the National Merit $2,500 Scholarship (2,500 scholarships awarded as a single payment); corporate-sponsored Merit Scholarship (approximately 1,000 awards of varying amounts); and college-sponsored Merit Scholarships (approximately 4,100 awards of varying amounts for finalists who will attend the sponsor institution). Merit Scholar designees are selected on the basis of their skills, accomplishments, and potential for success in rigorous college studies.

The following students were commended for excellent academic promise:

Margaret Balich
Leo Berzon
Esmeralda Bessor-Foreman
Charles Burton
John Stern

Approximately 34,000 commended students throughout the nation are being recognized for their outstanding academic promise. These students placed among the top 50,000 scorers of more than 1.5 million students who entered the 2020 competition by taking the 2018 PSAT/MNSQT.

Congratulations to all!

Join us in cheering on the Bears as the Boys Soccer and Cross Country teams compete for WPIAL titles!

Boys Soccer, Co-Section Champion for Section 2-A and the No. 1 seed, began their playoff journey with a 4-0 shutout of Beaver County Christian School in the first round of the Class 1A WPIAL Playoffs. On Wednesday, October 23, they will take on Brentwood High School in the quarterfinals at Mt. Lebanon Senior High School. Purchase tickets. Adult tickets are $7, and student tickets are $5.

The Boys and Girls Cross Country teams will compete in the WPIAL Championships at California University beginning at 12:45 p.m. The Boys Cross Country team has won the Class 1A WPIAL title for the past three years. They have also been featured in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette several times this season.

For the full Athletics schedule, visit winchesterthurston.org/athletics.

This fall, the WT Art Gallery is exhibiting Is Your Neighbor Worth Loving?, 20 photographs that alumna Lynn Johnson '71 took for National Geographic magazine in the aftermath of the massacre at Tree of Life Synagogue.

Johnson is known for finding beauty and meaning in difficult subjects—threatened languages, zoonotic disease, rape in the military ranks, the brain, the centrality of water in village life. Her master's thesis probed the impact of hate crimes.

The photographs from the exhibition are available for loan to schools, religious institutions, and other organizations to further the conversation about the importance of community, and to explore this question that Fred Rogers asked when Johnson interviewed him for her thesis: "Is your neighbor worth loving?"

For information about borrowing the photographs, please contact WT's Visual Arts Department Chair, Sally Allan, at allans@winchesterthurston.org.

Please note: The exhibition contains images that may not be appropriate for all audiences. Students are encouraged to check with their teachers, Division Director, or Sally Allan if they have further questions or if they need support in reflecting upon the images.

For the fourth consecutive year, Boys Cross Country earned the Class A WPIAL Title, with a score of just 37 points, and five individual medals:

• Scott Routledge, Class of 2020
• Sean Heintzleman, Class of 2020
• Gus Robinson, Class of 2021
• Patrick Malone, Class of 2021
• Benjamin Bermann, Class of 2021

After finishing in second place at the PIAA State Championships last year, the Bears will compete for the state title in Hershey, PA on Saturday, November 2.

Girls Cross Country

Girls Cross Country finished sixth at the WPIAL Championships, and two Bears qualified to compete at the State Championships:

• Cyd Kennard, Class of 2023
• Janvier Lamont, Class of 2021

We're so proud of both teams!

Cheer on the Bears at Highmark Stadium at the WPIAL Finals!

After three consecutive postseason shutouts – 4-0 defeats of Beaver County Christian and Brentwood High School, and a 3-0 defeat of Carlynton – the Bears will take on rival Greensburg Central Catholic in the 2019 WPIAL Class A Boys Soccer Championship this Friday, November 1 at 6:00 p.m.

Tickets can be purchased at the gate for adults ($10) and students ($5). Tickets can also be purchased online through Ticketmaster. Please visit Highmark Stadium's website for more details about the venue, including parking information and to review their clear bag policy.

For the full Athletics schedule, visit winchesterthurston.org/athletics. Go Bears!

UPDATE, November 13: The PIAA Semifinals game has been moved to Peters Township High School.

UPDATE, November 12: Due to inclement weather, the PIAA Semifinals game has been postponed to Wednesday, November 13 at 7:30 p.m.

Cheer on the Bears as they compete for a PIAA State Championship!

After back-to-back shutouts in the first round and quarterfinals of the PIAA Class A Boys Soccer State Championships, – a 7-0 defeat of Bishop Carroll and a 4-0 defeat of Lancaster Country Day, respectively – Boys Soccer will face Greensburg Central Catholic in the semifinals on Wednesday, November 13 at 7:30 p.m. at Peters Township High School.

It has been an incredible fall Athletics season for the Bears – Girls Tennis playoff appearances, a Boys Cross Country WPIAL title and state title, Boys Soccer Co-Section Champion title, a WPIAL playoff run, and an upcoming appearance in the PIAA State Championship this weekend. And that's not all: The Bears have also been recognized by the WPIAL for displaying exemplary sportsmanship, while bringing home these big wins

WT was selected as a WPIAL and PIAA Sportsmanship Award winner for the 2018-2019 school year. Student representatives from WT were invited to accept the award on behalf of the school at the Sportsmanship Summit at the Heinz History Center. The summit explored the qualities and actions that comprise sportsmanship and celebrated the schools that best embodied sportsmanship.

• Tatiana Barelli, Class of 2020
• Benjamin Gutschow, Class of 2021
• Angela Hayes, Class of 2020
• Alessandro Memoli, Class of 2020
• Diederik-Paul Schlingemann, Class of 2020
• Elie Stenson, Class of 2021

Congratulations to our Boys Cross Country team for earning the PIAA Class A State Championship! After winning their fourth consecutive WPIAL Class A Championship title at the end of October, the Bears earned their third state title since 2014 with a score of 113 points on November 2.

Individually, senior Scott Routledge finished fifth, junior Patrick Malone finished eighteenth, junior Gus Robinson finished twentieth, senior Sean Heintzleman finished twenty-seventh, junior Benjamin Bermann finished forty-third, and junior Sam Freudenberg finished seventy-second.

Congratulations to all!

Seniors Aria Eppinger and Nicole Shigiltchoff were named top 300 scholars in the 79^th Regeneron Science Talent Search, the nation's oldest and most prestigious science and mathematics competition for high school seniors. Aria and Nicole were selected as 2 of 300 scholars from a field of 2,000 entries from 659 high schools and 49 states. Of those entries, only eight students named top 300 scholars were from Pennsylvania, and only three were from Pittsburgh.

The students earned this outstanding achievement with the following projects:

"Serum Glyphosate Levels are Associated with Alterations in the Bacterial Composition of the Human Oral and Gut Microbiomes."
Aria Eppinger

"Allorecognition in Hydractinia symbiolongicarpus: Determining the Loci of Genes Controlling Allorecognition in Addition to Alr1 and Alr2 Using Machine Learning."
Nicole Shigiltchoff

As top 300 scholars, Aria and Nicole will each receive $2,000, and WT will receive $2,000 per scholar for STEM-related activities. They are also in the running to be named in the top 40 Finalists, receive $25,000, and invited to compete at the final competition in Washington, D.C. in March. The 40 Finalists will be announced later this month.

Congratulations to Aria and Nicole!

Aria and Nicole present projects at past Upper School STEM Symposiums. Explore more WT STEM stories.

Started in 1942 as the Westinghouse Science Talent Search, the Regeneron Science Talent Search (Regeneron STS) recognizes and empowers our nation's most promising young scientists who are developing ideas that could solve society's most urgent challenges.

Upper School students will perform Shakespeare's The Tempest on January 23, 24, and 25 at 7:30 p.m. in Falk Auditorium, Molloy Posner Hall under the direction of Performing Arts faculty member Barb Holmes.

This year's production will be an exciting collaboration between the Performing Arts and English Departments. Students in Kristin Kovacic's English course, Song, Stage, and Screen read The Tempest and learned about the broad role of dramaturgy from the City Theatre. Building off this experience, the students are serving as educators to both the cast and the larger audience, through the production of program notes, interviews, and more. Some are diving deeper by acting, designing costumes, composing original music, and producing magic behind-the-scenes as crew members. An authentically immersive experience in literature and theater!

You don't want to miss this special production. Join us!

Student artists, their parents, Visual Arts teachers, and Head of School Dr. Scott D. Fech celebrated the winter installation of rotating student artwork in the Head's Office today. The pieces, representing each division and both campuses, will remain on view through the end of the trimester. Reception attendees also enjoyed beautiful music from musicians seniors Scott Routledge and Leon Sleator.

Lower School North Camus

Cookie Monster Collage
Sam Grubman, Pre-Kindergarten
Henry Miga, Pre-Kindergarten

Ceramic Fish Plate
Isaiah Hayes, Grade 2

Sushi Print
Joshua Nicholson, Grade 2

Ceramic Frog Bowl
Nika Papachristou, Grade 3

Lower School City Campus

Shoe Paper Sculptures, Grade 5
Alice Bussler
Emmet Bussler
Elizabeth Butera
Marcus Ost
Julius Poller-Prince

Middle School

Blotted Line Mono Prints, Grade 6
Dashae Cochran
Olivia Lowry
Una Shen

Upper School

Abstract Sculptures, Grade 9
Jocelyn Hayes
Liam Riley

Self Portrait
Julia Stern, Grade 10

Ceramic Fruit Bowl Teapot
John Stern, Grade 12

Junior Jingqi 'Rose' Li's business plan for "J Market," an e-commerce farmer's market focused on high-quality food and sustainable food production, was recognized as one of the top ten in the state as part of the Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA) Business Plan Competition. Rose has also qualified to present the business plan and compete at the Pennsylvania FBLA State Leadership Conference on April 6.

After reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver, Rose was inspired to create something that could address issues in the food industry – pollution, food waste, food transparency, and food diversity. She subsequently designed and submitted a 15-page business plan for "J Market" to the FBLA Business Plan Competition.

As part of J Market's mission "to provide high-quality food with an emphasis on sustainability, convenience, food transparency, and food diversity," customers could expect to purchase locally grown produce and items that are semi-perishable like homemade salsa, jam, and honey.