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WYVERN TALES
A Newsletter for the Alumni Community
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THANKS FOR THE MEMORIES
Whether our Alumni were on campus to attend a Master Class, share stories with current students, take a coin toss as honorary captain, or attend our celebratory dinner, we had a wonderful time revisiting old memories and making new ones during Reunion Weekend.
Click on the Slideshow for a taste of the weekend and come back to visit any time!
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On a gorgeous autumn weekend, the KO Community came out on October 14-15 to enjoy one of our most treasured traditions - Hewett Day.
Spirit Week opened on Saturday, October 8 with the Homecoming Dance. The following week, Student Government picked themes for each day, and students dressed as cowboys, wore their favorite sports jerseys, and came to school in their pajamas (the perennial favorite among students).
Friday was reserved for Breast Cancer Awareness, and all teams wore pink to classes before heading to a Hewett Day Pep Rally. Afterward, Upper School students headed to the fields to cheer on the Middle School athletes, who played their Hewett Day games on Friday afternoon.
The gorgeous weather continued to Saturday, as the Upper School teams took to the fields, courts, and trails. Overall, the Wyverns came out on top more often than not (10-7 overall), and the day ended with a thrilling overtime win for KO Football.
Combining Hewett Day with Reunion meant that the stands were filled with current families and alumni of all ages. It was a true community event on a picture-perfect fall weekend!
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WHAT A DIFFERENCE LEADERS MAKE | | |
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Each day our teachers encourage their students to take on leadership roles in the classroom, in the studio, and on the field.
This generation of Wyverns is confident, kind, bold, and committed to making the most of their journey at Kingswood Oxford.
You can support them by leading the way with a gift to the KO Annual Fund this year!
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"CARE BEYOND SELF" PUT INTO PRACTICE | |
The KO Football team recently organized a school drive for Community First School in Hartford. Head Coach Brandon Batory '10 heard that the school needed school supplies and the team stepped up, organized the drive, donated the supplies, and spent about an hour talking with the young students at the local school.
Batory said, “We preach to the team repeatedly to love and care for others. Not only to love our teammates, coaches, families, teachers, and classmates but to everyone we encounter. To further this beyond talk, we have decided that as a team, we will be doing several outreach programs this year.”
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KO'S COMMENDED MERIT SCHOLARS
Seven Kingswood Oxford School seniors were recently recognized as merit scholars for their exceptional performance and scores on the PSAT/NMSQT test taken last year. Head of the Upper School Dr. Dan Gleason presented the awards to the students at an assembly on Tuesday, October 18. “This award encapsulates the core values that these scholars approach their schooling - learning with passion and perseverance, raising intellectual curiosity, and working hard and taking risks,” Gleason said.
The recipients are Mckenzie Campbell '23, Kyra Dunnirvine '23, Maggie Dwyer '23, Johnny Kung '23, Aidan Ladewig '23, Manu Narasimhan '23, and Raj Patel '23.
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FIRST ESPORTS TOURNAMENT HOSTED AT KO | | |
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Kingswood Oxford hosted its first Esports Tournament on Saturday, October 1, in the Hoffman Field House. Over 50 students from Hall High School, Conard High School, and East Hartford High School participated in the events, with fans and families cheering the gamers on as they played Mario Cart and Smash Brothers.
The KO Esports 16-member team began in 2020 by gaming aficionado (and Upper School French teacher) Coach Ryan Brodeur '01 with the endorsement of Director of Athletics Josh Balabuch and Director of Technology Dan Bateson. Since the KO Esports team's inception, Brodeur wanted to elevate its profile on campus as well as change the narrative regarding the sport. “The more I learned about it, the more I thought, ‘This is awesome.’ I realized there was a way to organize gaming in such a way that it was truly team-oriented and that I could grow a program around it. I wanted to bring in some of the best gaming elements (team-based, communication, roles, execution, self-awareness) and meld them with some of our school's core values and align with our sports requirement of physical activity. As someone who went to KO, I know very keenly the value of being on a team."
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Ashley Buckingham ’24 spent two weeks across the pond this summer studying at Oxford University in a pre-college program as part of her Martin Nicholson Scholar stipend. Buckingham's program was focused on majoring in business, banking, and markets and minoring in journalism.
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Pickle Pioneers
A culinary team of Jacob Barash ’25, Jack Krieble ’25, and Ryan Sadowsky ’25 experimented and tested a savory concoction of brine and spices over the course of three weeks to perfect the perfect balanced pickle. The Pickle Pioneers, so-named because this was their first business venture, sold 50 jars of their wares at the recent West Hartford Pop Up Kids Market that showcases young entrepreneurs' products.
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Nature's Classroom
Over the summer, many take to exploring new pursuits, and others double down on an existing passion. A nature devotee, Eli Brandt ’23, falls into the latter camp as he groomed trails and backpacked in Wyoming for four weeks this summer.
Brandt found his trip through National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS), a non-profit organization that teaches wilderness skills. He and ten other students backpacked in the Shonsone National Forest, located southeast of the Grand Tetons. Seeking a more service-oriented trip, Brandt was involved in back-breaking work, maintaining the trails and building new sections with the National Forest Service. “We would trim the vegetation away, so it’s easier to navigate the trail and safer to walk on,” he said. “The goal is to have the trail maintained and clear enough so that you don’t need the blaze marking the trail.”
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Turning Lockdown into Research | |
During the pandemic, some took up new hobbies, and others did endless puzzles and watched too many episodes of Tiger King. But Arav Kumar ’23 spent time thinking about thinking.
“I didn’t have much else to do but think,” he said. “What are you going to do after a while? Video games get boring. I watched Friends ten times and got sick of Ross.”
Kumar picked up a book, The Philosophers Book of Questions and Answers, and started to read. He explained that the book is comparable to two or three years of a philosophy degree and is organized by categories such as happiness, God, ethics, and politics. One overriding lesson Kumar learned from his reading was to stay open-minded to new ideas. “You have to keep pace so your ideas and thoughts don’t get outdated.
In all, Kumar wrote three papers this summer, which he has submitted to various journals.
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ARCHIVISTS CORNER
with Brenda Semmelrock
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Reunion Weekend 2022
It was a wonderful Reunion Weekend on October 14 and 15 thanks to all the alums who returned! A very special thanks and congratulations goes to the Oxford Class of '72 and the Kingswood Class of '72 as they celebrated 50 years, and the Kingswood Class of '62 (60 years!). It was great to have archives open for tours, and I so appreciated the interest, enthusiasm, wonderful questions, and fabulous stories that were shared.
It just so happens that on display in archives is a collection of Dux Prize books that were donated by John Goodrich '62. The Dux Prize was awarded at Kingswood School to the boy in each form who led the Form in scholarship for the year. That prize continues to be awarded to this day, and many young women have earned it through the years. The Dux Prize is awarded to a senior at the Prize Assembly, a few days before graduation, in May. The other Form winners must wait until September to hear their names called during the Convocation ceremony. Today the books are very carefully chosen by our wonderful librarian, Nancy Solomon. She takes the time to match each award winner's interests to specific books.
Impressively, John Goodrich was awarded the Dux Prize in each Form, II-VI (1958-1962). The titles of the books he was awarded include some intense reading for summer vacation-The Boys Life of Theodore Roosevelt, Mutiny on the Bounty, The Modern Universe, Brothers Karamazov, and War and Peace. He was also awarded the Wyper Prize for excellence in Latin (Daily Life in Ancient Rome), The Shipman Hobby Prize (Technics and Civilization), and The Williams Memorial Prize for excellence in Math (The Meaning of Relativity). What an outstanding accomplishment!
It was great to meet John and put a face to the owner of the Dux Prize books that he donated. John came to Archives with his friend, Jim Keller '62, and I enjoyed learning about some great memories of their time spent at Kingswood.
Please feel free to share your memories/stories with me!
Brenda
semmelrock.b@kingswoodoxford.org
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KO Big Thinkers Blog
KO Faculty, Administrators, and Staff are passionate about helping students to succeed and become stronger, more confident individuals. The KO Big Thinkers Blog shares their thoughts on how they navigate that path with their students.
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A Note from Admissions
KO Applications for Fall 2023 are live!
Help us spread the word about our school - refer a Wyvern to us here in this form!
For more information on KO and the Admissions process, visit our website!
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