Upper school students who study French are headed to Paris and the Loire Valley with Ms. Spittler and Mr. Vanterpool over Spring Break. They will see Île de la Cité, Notre Dame Cathedral, Île St. Louis, the Latin Quarter, the Louvre, the Arc de Triomphe, Champs‐Élysées, Eiffel Tower, Champ de Mars, École Militaire, Les Invalides, Conciergerie, Tuileries, Place Vendôme, and the Opera House in Paris. In the Loire Valley, they will stop at Chartres Cathedral, Château de Chambord, Azay‐le‐Rideau, Château de Chenonceau,Troglodyte Village, the Church of St. Vincent, and the Tomb of Jacques Cartier. Students will also visit Normandy Mont‐St‐Michel monastery and D‐Day beaches.
Due to a snow day, students were not able to celebrate Pi Day on March 14th as planned. The annual event, which allows students in the middle school to compete to show who knows the most decimal places of the important number, will be postponed a week to April 4. Last year current ninth grader OIiver Stevens won the top honors, followed by current eighth grader Mihir Patel. Patel is hard at work looking to best his personal record, but he will definitely have competition from younger students as well. The winners will get to sample delicious pies made by faculty members and will also get to toss whipped cream pies in the face of their teachers.
Last week fifth graders took part in a trip to the Building Museum. The annual event combines elements of history and math, as students consider various tenets of design. There were two activities at the Building Museum: Geodesic Dome and Architecture 101. Two groups built geodesic domes about 6 feet tall. In Architecture 101, the other two groups sketched pictures of ceramics to learn about different perspectives architects us to share their ideas. Students designed a floor plan for an imaginary client. They got to make a model of the floor plan with card stock and lots of tape. These hands-on experiences give them a concrete view of the decisions that artists, engineers, designers, and architects must make in their daily jobs.
Washington Latin’s theater production of In the Heights premiers Thursday, with a show at 7pm, plus a show at 7pm on Friday, and shows Saturday at 2 and 7pm. The play is a story of a close-knit community in Washington Heights. The narrator Usnavi tells about the romantic, financial, and family woes of the community, in a show filled with dance, modern slang, and upbeat music. It premiered in New York in 2006, off-Broadway and eventually went to Broadway. The play, written by Lin-Manuel Miranda of Hamilton fame, tells the story of all aspects of the American Dream, including a family’s hope to be able to pay for expensive private college. The play stars seniors Ned Yarsky, Maggie Dalzell and Tabatha Smith, junior Nate Crystal, freshman Will Geist, and eighth grader Ketan Mampara.
Senior Jenesis Duran won the UNC-Chapel Hill Morehead-Cain Scholarship, a first for a Washington Latin student. The award includes a full ride to the college, including tuition, room, board, books, laptop, and supplies, and also includes funding for four summer experiences in the areas of outdoor leadership, public service, inquiry and exploration, and private enterprise. Duran had to submit her application for the scholarship and to UNC for admission back in October before all of her other peers were submitting applications and then go through a series of online, recorded interviews, and this past week, was flown to NC to complete her final interviews on campus. The scholarship committee looks for scholarship, leadership, character, and physical vigor. Though the number varies from year to year, an average of 60 scholarships are awarded annually, and just over half of them each year go to NC residents. Duran is active in Model U.N., and traveled to Switzerland in 2014 to complete scientific research after winning an award at the D.C. STEM fair her freshman year.
