Dear Country Day Alumni and Friends,

2023 has been an amazing year! We welcomed many of our alumni back to campus for homecoming and reunion weekend, sporting events, and arts productions. We were thrilled to honor some of our outstanding alumni with alumni awards, including the recent induction of our third class into the CCDS Arts Hall of Fame. And we were continuously inspired by all the wonderful achievements and contributions of our alumni and community members throughout the year.

We are truly grateful to those who have supported us in so many ways and for your dedication to our students, faculty, staff, coaches, and school.

We wish you and your loved ones a wonderful holiday season and a happy and healthy New Year!

Sincerely,

The Advancement Team

19th Annual Wrap-In Shows Virtue in Action

On December 8, the school came together for the 19th annual Wrap-In - a day of gift-wrapping, cross-divisional fun, and giving back. 

The Wrap-In is a tradition during which students from all grade levels bring unwrapped items to gift wrap, putting our school motto – Virtue in Action - into practice. All pre-kindergarten through grade 12 classes pair up to wrap gifts together (while enjoying a gingerbread cookie or two!) before meeting in the dining terrace to drop off the gifts and meet for an all-school assembly. Many of the younger students – and some older ones – learned how to properly wrap a gift for the first time.

This year the school collected 1,010 gifts to donate to the Boys and Girls Club of Greater Cincinnati and ProKids, exceeding last year's total.

“I believe it’s important to bring our community together to celebrate the holidays and to recognize a common thread that binds us all together: our common commitment to serving the world around us,” said Laura Gunn, Upper School math teacher and director of service learning. “[It] is a time for us to forget about ourselves. The Wrap-In is an opportunity to help those who really need our care. It instills the habit of caring for others.”

Alumni Council Having Major Impact

Members of the Alumni Council during the council's most recent meeting. From left to right: Nevie Smith '19, Erin Head '93, Anne Pohlman '04, Alumni Council President Holly Mott '95, Lauren Legette '07 (joining remotely), Sally Hernandez '05, Madeleine Morales '18 (joining remotely), Nate Adams '12, Rob Shively '06, and Mary Mitchell '92.

Cincinnati Country Day School’s alumni are valued members of the school community and their continued involvement with the school is vital to the school’s vibrancy. Our alumni are bridges between the school’s past and the school’s present, helping to preserve and celebrate the school’s history; they are also bridges between the school and the outside world, serving as ambassadors of the school, encouraging prospective students, and sharing their professional experiences with current students.

Alumni engagement is important to the life of the school and the Alumni Council is a vehicle for alumni engagement in the life of the school. Consisting of 22 alumni from across the country, the Alumni Council represents the alumni, giving them a voice in school affairs, promoting connections between alumni and the school, and encouraging alumni participation in the community.

Under the leadership of Holly Mott ’95, the Alumni Council is having a very good year. Four committees and one working group have been formed and are actively pursuing a variety of issues.

The Career Exposure and Alumni Connections Committee is working closely with faculty and staff to expand the school’s current job shadow program into a more robust one providing students and recent graduates with expanded exposure to a variety of careers and to alumni and other leaders working in those careers. If you are interested in participating in the job shadow program, keep an eye out for an alumni survey coming in early January; through that survey, you can share the nature of your work and how you would like to participate in the program. For more details, see the article immediately following this piece.

The Community Service Committee has been tasked with promoting and facilitating community service by alumni. Thanks to the committee’s good work, a handful of alumni will kick off the new year by serving lunch to the residents of the Tender Mercies facilities in Over-the-Rhine on January 14. The committee will work to offer additional service opportunities through the rest of the school year.

The Belonging and Inclusion Committee is helping Angela Barber-Joiner (Director of Belonging and Wellbeing) in her work to improve the experiences of and to increase the engagement of students and alumni of color and to increase applications from prospective students of color. The well-attended inaugural Black Alumni Network Gathering held over Homecoming Weekend in September was an important early step in this work.

The Nominations Committee will soon start reviewing nominees for the 2024 Distinguished Alumni Award and for the Alumni Council seats opening up at the end of this school year. If you would like to nominate an alum for the Distinguished Alumnus/Alumna Award or for the Alumni Council, please contact Peter Fossett, our associate director of alumni, by email [email protected] or by phone 513-979-0283.

Last, the Ad Hoc Working Group on Alumni Merchandise is working to design and bring alumni-specific CCDS clothing to market through the school’s online store. This working group was formed in response to much alumni interest in CCDS gear identifying the wearer as an alum.

Students Meet Mentors, Garner Career Advice through Job Shadow Program

People on Dr. Viral Jain’s staff at Children’s Hospital Orthopedics clinic kept mistaking Reed Horton ’25 for a medical student, especially after he observed three hours of surgery without feeling woozy. “The college kids were fainting, but I thought it was awesome,” Reed said.

Val Benitez ’24 put in nine hours a day during a three-day job shadow at EY, joining Jeremy Vaughan on everything from Zoom calls with international clients, to one-on-one meetings with CEOs and a Cintrifuse board meeting with Cincinnati business leaders. “It was really fun,” Val said. “I saw people in cool roles that I might like to do.”

Sarah Fu ’25 was excited to see the relationship between graphic design and marketing during her shadow at Jurgensen Companies. “I like art, and I didn’t realize it was as interconnected with marketing as it is,” Sarah said.

Ayla Daoud ’26 “loved every second” of her job shadow at Dr. Khurram Khan’s oral surgery practice, where she observed wisdom teeth removal, dental implants and root canals. When Dr. Kahn used lab-grown tissue in surgery, “It was cool to see how advanced medicine has become.”

Country Day students had these experiences and more last summer as part of our CCDXperiences Job Shadow Program. Students in the program see firsthand what it is like to work in a field that interests them. They garner advice about college and careers from parent and alumni hosts and learn early the value of networking.

The experiences immediately expand students’ understanding of work. “It allowed me to see that being a doctor is so much bigger than performing surgery and making a lot of money,” Reed said. “Dr. Jain is changing the lives of real people. I used to want to win a Nobel Prize, but I can see that you can change the world in much smaller ways. It’s so fulfilling.”

Both hosts and students enjoy getting to know each other. “Dr. Khan was amazing,” Ayla said. “He gave me so many tips about my future. He told me what kinds of extracurriculars stand out on medical school applications. And he told me it’s ok if you’re not getting 100% in every class. If you’re determined, you can do anything.”

Val Benitez called Mr. Vaughan “a great guy. I loved working with him.” For his part, Mr. Vaughan was “very impressed. Val belied her years in terms of her ability to understand both the business content and context, and also in her ability to read the room. I look forward to hearing how she gets on in the future!”



Country Day is eager to expand the CCDXperiences Job Shadow Program. If you are interested in offering a job shadow or internship to Country Day students in 2024, stay tuned for the alumni survey coming in early January.

Send in Your Nominations for the 2023 Athletic Hall of Fame!

The purpose of the Athletic Hall of Fame is to honor former CCDS athletes, coaches, and members of our community who have contributed to the strong tradition of CCDS athletics.

To be eligible for nomination the candidate must either have been:

• A student-athlete who has been graduated from CCDS for 10 years.
• A coach who has been retired from coaching at CCDS for 5 years or is over the age of 60.
• A community member who has made a major contribution and impact to the CCDS athletic program.

We are also accepting nominations for the Arts Hall of Fame, Distinguished Alumni Award, and Virtue in Action Award. Visit our website to read more about alumni awards and make a nomination.

Save the Date for CountryDate!

Lights, Camera, Philanthropy! Join us for a night of glamour, glitz, and giving back at CountryDate 2024 on Saturday, March 2 at the 20^th Century Theater in Oakley!

Invest in Education: Your sponsorship (net admission) directly supports the Country Day Fund and provides our students with the tools they need to shine in their own starring roles.

Step into the Spotlight: As a sponsor, your family/business will have red carpet visibility with recognition in on-campus signage, social media, and at the event! Enjoy VIP access with a cocktail hour just for sponsors preceding the event.

Lights, Camera, Sponsor: CountryDate is 11 weeks away but the time to sponsor is now! Event invitations will be sent soon; sponsorships received by Tuesday, January 2^nd will be featured on the invitation. Take a CountryDate leading role as Paparazzi, Main Cast, Director, Production Manager, or Executive Director of this fabulous community event. Click here to get details, become a sponsor, buy your tickets, take a chance in the raffles, and more! 

Thanksgiving Weekend Reunions

Over Thanksgiving weekend, CCDS alumni got together and closed out the 2023 reunion season with a bang!

Members of the Class of 2013 celebrated their 10th reunion with a few special guest former faculty members.

It’s the most wonderful time of the year - time for geometry students to make their holiday ornaments! Students took circles and made them into equilateral triangles to create an icosahedron. Such a fun and creative way to use geometry around the holidays!

It was a joy-filled opening reception for Project Shapes in the Messer Art Gallery! Our young artists from Pre-KI, Pre-K2, and Ms. Bertsch's kindergarten class brought shapes to life in their beautiful and creative pieces through this project-based learning experience. 

Elizabeth Zimmerman '24, daughter of Country Day alumni Mary Zimmerman '92 and James Zimmerman '92, was recognized by the Ohio Army National Guard as "an outstanding leader in her community and school". Zimmerman was a member of the state-winning girls soccer team this fall, recording an assist for the only goal in the state championship game. She is a three-sport athlete, playing soccer, basketball, and lacrosse during the school year.

Fifth graders worked together in groups to solve a variety of KenKen logic puzzles, and then shared their problem-solving strategies and what made their group successful or things they could have done differently to be MORE successful.

The ECC and Lower School are grateful for their new EDI libraries! Made possible by funds from last year's Scholastic Book Fair and the generosity of ECC parents Eric Elias and Sarah Habib '07, these new libraries bring meaningful lessons and conversations about equity, diversity, and inclusion into classrooms through the magic of stories that are read aloud to students.

Middle School & Upper School students showed off their impressive musical talents during the winter choir and band concerts. Their stage presence and enthusiasm for performing wowed everyone in the crowd! It was certainly a joyous culmination of a semester's worth of hard work and dedication.

Third-grade outdoor education students wrapped up their Indigenous American study with a three-sisters stew celebration! Students started vegetable seeds and planted the 7125 House garden beds as second graders. Then as third graders, students harvested their crop and prepared the stew. The reviews of this corn, beans, and squash stew were a bit mixed but overall, students thought it was delicious.

Any gift postmarked or received online between now and December 31 will count toward our goal and your 2023 taxes. Thank you for supporting the extraordinary students, faculty, and staff at Cincinnati Country Day School!