All parents/guardians are welcome to join us on Monday, December 5, for the second installment of our Parent Academy Series with Michael Thompson, Ph.D. This adults-only event will take place in the dining hall from 7:00-8:30 p.m., and Dr. Thompson will also visit with our middle- and upper-schoolers over the two days he is on campus. Dr. Thompson is a consultant, New York Times bestselling author and psychologist specializing in children and families. He is the supervising psychologist for the Belmont Hill School and has worked in more than seven hundred schools across the United States as well as in international schools in Central America, Europe, Africa and Asia. RSVP details coming soon at columbusacademy.org/parent-academy-series.

Apologies for the delay in sharing this year's school photos with you. The new photographer has been dealing with some health issues and promises to have all the student images uploaded soon. All lower school images are ready to be viewed and are organized by individual classrooms (click here and use "CA2023" as the password). Photos of middle- and upper-schoolers will be posted there by the end of the week as well. To place your order, select your child's image and then click on the green "Buy" button in the upper left corner to see all your options. Photo retake day will be Tuesday, November 8, and more details will be shared later this week.

Thank you to everyone involved in making this year's Hispanic Heritage Month celebration so enjoyable. This video highlights just a small portion of the fun our students had pressing tortillas using masa, creating decorative food displays and enjoying the finished product of their very own guacamole. To view photos from our month-long activities, click here.

"Columbus Academy hosted the annual Fall Forum, a mini-Latin convention orchestrated by the OJCL, and it was a huge success,” said Latin Club representative Ceci Reitter. “Students came from all over Ohio, we had a wonderful graphic novelist – Mr. George O’Connor – speak, and several students won awards in the various competitions that were held!” Also, the day before the event, Mr. O’Connor conducted graphic novel design and writing workshops with our middle- and upper-schoolers (see photos & award-winners).

Last month, our first-graders had the opportunity to reconnect with chicks they helped to hatch as part of their kindergarten science study of life cycles last spring! Making their celebrated return to campus were the chickens that students had named Princess Sparklepants, Pumpkin Pie, Apple Dumpling and Licorice. Click on the following links for more recent school news.

The 40th Charlie David Dinner was a huge success! Highlights included the boardwalk games run by upper-schoolers for the youngsters, an appearance by the pep band, yummy food choices, a big football win and much more (view photos). Most importantly, though, it was a wonderful night for our community to be together again. And a special congratulations to the three winners of the Charlie David raffle for reserved parking spots: Kelly Hondros (lower school), Suzanne Lucas (middle school) and Ivan Nedeltchev (upper school).

Our first blood drive of the school year collected 33 units, which included one power red cell procedure. "My son was born with a life-threatening congenital heart defect and had open heart surgery when he was a week old," said second grade teacher Alicia Crain. "I am thankful for everyone who donates blood to help save the lives of others.” The next on-campus blood drive will be in January. Here are more news items from our service department:

All are invited to join us for the school year's first Athletic Signing Day at 3:30 p.m. on Wednesday, November 9, in the dining hall as we celebrate Sofia Slootsky as she plans to play lacrosse at Saint Joseph's University! Congratulations as well to sophomore Melanie Qin, who placed 54th in the Division III regional cross country meet on Saturday, to our volleyball squad for winning its first tournament contest since 2019, and to girls tennis for placing third in the state. Two teams are still competing this fall as our football squad won its postseason opener 36-14 at Centerburg last Friday and will play at Portsmouth West this Friday evening. Boys soccer (view senior night gallery), meanwhile, captured its 15th district title by defeating Bloom Carroll 5-4 over the weekend. The Vikes were led by Charlie Tuckerman (vote for Athlete of the Week) and will face Dayton Oakwood in Wednesday's regional semifinals in Centerville. In addition to this weekend recap, check out more sports coverage on Instagram @academyvikings.

Columbus Academy is very fortunate to have on its staff many talented artists who display their talents at numerous events throughout the area. Some recent examples included band director Jessica Sneeringer performing with The Who during a concert at The Schott, choir director Ryan Jenkins singing the national anthem prior to a Columbus Crew game, lower school music teacher Amy McLaughlin serving as a featured vocalist at Genoa Church in Galena, upper school English teacher Stefan Farrenkopf playing in a band that is celebrating Kurt Vonnegut’s 100th birthday on November 12 at Natalie’s Music Hall in Grandview, and CASE assistant Hunter Minor playing the lead roles in "Newsies" at the Southern Theatre. Click here to learn more about these five and on the following links for more faculty/staff and alumni news: