Welcome to St. Andrew's "Cru's News," the e-newsletter that captures monthly highlights of our scholars, artists, athletes, and servants, as well as alumni stories and important event reminders. If you consider yourself a member of the St. Andrew's community, then this newsletter is for you!
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A Note from the Head of School
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Dear St. Andrew's Families,
As we look ahead to our new year together, I want to wish you a peaceful and joyful holiday with your loved ones. I will be traveling to New Mexico, where I am from, to see family, and will spend some time reflecting on our fall and all that we have accomplished together.
As we depart from Lessons and Carols, and all the hope that its message brings, I want to leave you with a verse from one of my favorite hymns:
Let peace begin with me
Let this be the moment now.
With every step I take
Let this be my solemn vow.
To take each moment
And live each moment
With peace eternally.
Let there be peace on earth,
And let it begin with me.
Sincerely,
Sean
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Classes Resume - Jan. 5
MLK Chapel Service - Jan. 7
US Info Session for MS Parents - Jan. 10
Kindergarten Info Session - Jan. 15
MLK Day - No Classes - Jan. 18
Parent-Faculty Book Club Meeting - Jan. 20
Guest Performer: Icy Simpson-Monroe - Jan. 23
LS/MS Band/Orchestra Winter Concert - Jan. 24
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Thank you all for joining us this morning to celebrate the holiday season and bid farewell for the holiday break!
Share your Lessons & Carols photos and videos with us on Facebook (facebook.com/sasaustin) and Instagram (#sasaustin)
Enjoy a few clips on YouTube:
1st Grade's "We Three Kings"
5th/6th Grade's "I Saw Three Ships"
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St. Andrew's Lower School students celebrated "Las Posadas," this week, a 400 year old Christmas tradition that is largely celebrated in Mexico. Our students heard the Las Posadas history in Chapel and then processed to various stations around the Lower School campus and sang traditional
cancions de pedir posada (carols asking for lodging). The celebration ended with
First Grade Christmas Pageant
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Select Choir Gives Stunning Performance at St. Louis Church
On Monday, December 14, St. Andrew's Select Choir, directed by Michael Rosensteel, performed a concert at St. Louis King of France Catholic Church, Austin, Texas. Mr. Rosensteel selected pieces specifically with the venue in mind, allowing our students, and their audience, to appreciate the amazing acoustics of the chapel. If you would like to enjoy their performance,
click here to watch the videos.
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LS Celebrates Hanukkah with Treats, Tournament
On December 8, St. Andrew's Lower School celebrated the third night of Hanukkah at our 2nd Annual Hanukkah Happening in the Rollins Library. SAS parent Katrina Murphy told a Hanukkah-themed story for the 1st-4th graders, followed by "sufganiyot" (jelly doughnuts) and dreidel games! For 5th and 6th graders, the Dreidel Tournament brought some healthy competition to the miracle of lights celebration.
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3rd Graders Learning Code, Teaming with 6th Grade
Will Frazier's third graders have been learning how to code in STEAM Lab:
they've solved navigation challenges by learning how to program instructions for their 'robots'. Click here to watch a clip.
The Frazier third graders and Fraser sixth graders have also become "reading buddies," enjoying beautiful hardcopy books and building language skills together. Click here to watch a clip.
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MS Catalina Island Trip Filled With Fun
As part of the Middle School science curriculum, seventh grade students travel to the Catalina Island Marine Institute on Catalina Island, CA to study marine life and marine ecosystems. During this three-day trip students conduct labs, listen to lectures, snorkle, and sea-kayak, among other activities.
Gibson Marable '21
shared his experience with us: "This year our grade had the pleasure of embarking on a voyage to California's Catalina Island. Catalina was tons of fun. I had never actually gotten on a boat being used for transportation before, nor had I been on an island before...
Read the full story here.
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On December 14, St. Andrew's senior
Caroline Biggar signed her Likely Letter to play volleyball for Brown University in a special chapel service. As an Ivy League school, Brown does not offer athletic scholarships, and thus does not provide Letters of Intent. However, Brown does have their student athletes sign Likely Letters.
Read the full story here
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Since 1972, DecemberFest has "brought more than 1,400 high school guidance counselors, independent school college advisors, and community-based organization leaders to Southern California for a week of tours, information, and networking." Between 40 and 50 counselors from around the world attend each year to "tour nine separate campuses, meet interesting and diverse students and faculty, and speak with admissions staff about the intricacies of their school's selection process."
Director of College Counseling Elizabeth Guice visited Occidental, Caltech, Whittier, Claremont McKenna, Pitzer, Harvey Mudd, Scripps, Pomona, and University of Redlands. Elizabeth says, "Each school we visited is unique but they share Southern California - which gives students access to internships, a diverse community, research, outdoor adventures, and cultural experiences. In addition to learning more about each school, I was also able to catch up with SAS alumni at Scripps, Claremont McKenna, and Caltech!"
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Green Schools Alliance Highlights St. Andrew's
The international association of sustainable schools, Green Schools Alliance, has selected St. Andrew's as their featured school for December 2015. Senior
Read Barbee '16 wrote an article summarizing the green improvements to the school since the student-run Coalition for the Environment began at the Upper School last year. Read says, "The changes happening here are incredibly inspiring. I feel that I am at a school that truly cares about mitigating its environmental impact, and that my fellow students and I can play a meaningful role in how we go about making those changes. Above all else, St. Andrew's values its close-knit and supportive community, and I believe it is this environment that has allowed us to make such large strides so quickly. I have great hopes for this school and its sustainability efforts, and I look forward to seeing how my fellow students and I will improve the world with the skills we have learned here."
Click here to read the full story
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Milt Zoth Directs in NYC This Winter
The St. Louis Actors' Studio is taking their one-act play showcase to the 59E59 Theater in New York, and they've asked our own Milt Zoth to co-direct! Before joining St. Andrew's as the Dell Fine Arts Center manager, Milt was the artistic director of the St. Louis Actors' Studio for six years. During that time, he helped launch the LaBute New Theater Festival, featuring one-act plays by various playwrights. Catching the attention of 59E59, the company is now invited to showcase six of their favorite Festival selections in New York this winter, including playwright Neil LaBute's own "Kandahar." Milt will direct three plays: romance "Present Tense," drama "Two Irishmen Are Digging A Ditch," and comedy "The Comeback Special." Click here to get more details
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Jazz Band Earns All-State Spots, Dazzles at SU Concert
The Upper School Jazz Band recently had three students selected to the Texas Private School Music Educator's Association (TPSMEA) All-state Jazz Band. An elite ensemble accepting only the top instrumentalists in Texas private high schools, the two alto saxophonists chosen were St. Andrew's own
Chris Jones
and
Selinda Qiu
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Jeff Wang
was selected as one of the only five trumpet players for the ensemble. These students will take part in a three-day convention in January that is comprised of over 400 concert band, jazz band, orchestra and choir students, culminating in a convention-ending concert. Click here to read the full story
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St. Andrew's Certamen Take 3rd in Latin Tournament
by William McKinnerney '17
The St. Andrew's Lower, Middle, and Upper Schools traveled to Westwood High School on Dec. 5to compete against 30 other teams in the classic Latin game of knowledge, Certamen. This is just one of several Certamen tournaments our teams will attend to prepare themselves for the upcoming Area, State, and National Latin Conventions. All teams did very well and made it to the final round, but only one of the teams from the Lower and Middle schools is allowed to play in finals, according to the rules. However, since the Lower and Middle School students practice together, it was definitely a team effort to get them all in position to be eligible for finals. Both of the St. Andrew's teams placed third in the finals. The Advanced team was comprised of captain
Walton Schmidt, Rachel Nezzer, Hana Arriaga, and
Pouya Mohammadi. The Middle School team was comprised of captain
Will Snider, Jack Cowan, and Henry Erlinger. The Lower School team was comprised of captain
Bering Edwards, Sabrina Kalmans, and Emily Williams. Congratulations to all the players for such an amazing win!
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Watch 'Wheel of Fortune' Tonight!
Cheer on alumnus Trey Garza '06!
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Cheers to a Festive 2015 Alumni Holiday Party!
Over 100 St. Andrew's alumni and several current and former faculty members gathered together at the beautiful home of Dan and Peggy Keelan to share some holiday cheer and catch up with each other. The Select Choir was on hand to sing some holiday favorites, and our alumni happily joined in! Thank you to the Keelan family for opening your home to us this holiday season! Go to our Facebook page to see more photos
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Ashley Dill '13 was mentioned recently in a
USA Today article for her work at the Mike Curb Institute in Memphis
. Ashley shared with us some background information on her involvement in the Institute, and her plans for the future.
How did you become involved in the Mike Curb Institute?
Last year I was able to become involved as an advertising and marketing Curb Fellow for the institute and specifically for our exciting new project "An Evening at Elvis.'" This past spring I was named the Rhodes Student Associate of the Mike Curb Institute which essentially means I'm the student point person for both "An Evening at Elvis'" and the Mike Curb Institute under the director of the institute, Dr. John Bass. My job includes booking bands, marketing the show, budgeting, managing student teams, and interviewing the artists.
How has St. Andrew's prepared you for this work?
I've always thrived off of being incredibly busy, which is how my life is at Rhodes, and St. Andrew's absolutely prepares you for that. Being involved in athletics, the musical, choir, clubs, and on top of all of that the rigorous academic environment at St. Andrew's can prepare you for almost anything. There may not be enough hours in the day to do it all, but having gone to St. Andrew's all 12 years, they certainly teach you how to do it all and how to do it all well.
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Charlie Dennis '13
Charlie is currently studying at New York University, where he is in his third year in the Playwrights Horizons Studio at the Tisch School for the Arts. He is pursuing a BFA in Theater with a Concentration in Directing, and minoring both in Film and the Business of Entertainment, Media, & Technology.
Charlie says, "I recently had my directorial debut at NYU the weekend before Thanksgiving. I directed a production of the play "Springtime" by Maria Irene Fornes. I am going to spend the Spring semester abroad in Prague at the FAMU film academy, which teaches how to make short films on 35mm film print. I will be there from late January until May."
Charlie is also working on bringing some talented alumni back to St. Andrew's campus as a part of his proposed SAS Alumni Festival this summer. He says, "The festival will take place between June 22-26, 2016, and will serve as a creative outlet where alumni can showcase or workshop creative projects in a supportive setting using St. Andrew's state-of-the-art facilities. Thinking as a producer, I realized that I not only wanted to direct a show but wanted to propose a program for the school that would allow other alumni (not just in the theater arts) the same opportunity that I was being afforded." Charlie plans to direct the play "Museum" as a part of the Alumni Festival this summer.
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Conor is in an
a cappella group, X-Factors, at Northwestern University. They go on an annual tourand this year Conor arranged for an Austin visit, performing at at The Trail of Lights, Whole Foods' Ice Skating Rink, Mozart's and other venues.
On Tuesday, December 15 they came to St. Andrew's to perform and do a workshop with Select Choir. They performed three numbers and then broke into groups and taught the Select Choir their arrangement of the song "Maybe." They then joined forces to sing the song together. It was a lot of fun and gave the Select Choir a glimpse at what a college singing group could be like. The workshop ended with a Q& A about college including singing opportunities in college, how an
a cappella group works, college majors, and more.
Click here to watch a video clip of their singing!
Select Choir Director
Michael Rosensteel says, "We thoroughly enjoyed listening to and working with X-Factor. Conor Keelan is doing amazing things at Northwestern. I think it's very valuable that alumni are willing to come back and share their stories and experiences with our SAS students."
Thank you
Peggy Keelan for contributing this alumni news story!
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Announcements & Reminders
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next PA Meeting on Feb. 17 at 12:15 at the Lower School.
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When You Shop This Season, SAS Benefits Too
The St. Andrew's Parent Association benefits from many businesses that return a portion of their proceeds to our school whenever you buy something. The best part is you don't have to spend any extra money to help! Just enroll in their program (see below for details).
* Amazon.com - If you shop on Amazon.com, instead go to smile.amazon.com. Same great products and service, but Amazon donates 0.5% of their sales to an organization of your choice.
* Randall's - Randall's will pay SAS 1% of your purchases every time you use your Remarkable Card as part of their "Good Neighbor Program." Link your existing or new card to St. Andrew's by choosing #412 as your charity.
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Donate Your Old Tech For Students!
This holiday season if you are getting new technology as presents and you no longer need your old technology, consider donating it to the SAS Innovation Center (aka the "mLAB"). The mLAB will take any old tech items (phones, computers, tablets, TVs, monitors, video game consoles, etc.) and transform them into new tech for student projects! Quality doesn't matter only that the tech still (sort of) works. Contact Josh Nelson if you'd like to donate.
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Parent-Faculty Book Club Meeting on Jan. 20
Book:
Elizabeth McCracken's
Thunderstruck and Other Stories
Where:
Upper School Library
When:
Wednesday, Jan. 20 at 12:15 pm
Lunch:
Parents may bring a bag lunch or arrive early enough to go to the dining hall where Sage will be happy to serve you a plate of lunch to bring over to the library.
Join us!
The Upper School parent-faculty book club is a great opportunity to read something new, meet other parents and faculty members, and to enjoy a casual but stimulating lunch hour discussion.
McCracken is perhaps most widely known for her bestselling 2006 novel
The Giant's House.
She has also just released a well-reviewed memoir and currently
holds the James A. Michener Chair in Fiction at the University of Texas, Austin.
Questions? Contact parent coordinator Katrina Murphy at [email protected]. (And if you cannot make the January meeting, put April 13, 2016 on your calendar for our final meeting of the year, book selection tba.)
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See Icy Monroe-Simpson (feat. Michael Rosensteel and Artina
McCain) on Jan. 23
When: Saturday, Jan. 23, 6:00 pm
Where: Upper School DFAC
Admission: Free!
Soprano singer Icy Monroe-Simpson will be joined by St. Andrew's Michael Rosensteel and Lori Hahn, as well as Artina McCain.
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Free Heart Screening for Young Athletes on Feb. 6
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