Seven Hills honors Lifers with Lunch

The third annual Lifers Lunch honored the 29 members of the Class of 2024, who spent their entire education at Seven Hills. To be a lifer, a graduating senior must have started at Seven Hills in at least the first grade. But some started as early as pre-kindergarten for 2-year-olds and spent 15 years at Seven Hills.

“One of the great joys of being a school is watching the arc of people’s lives and seeing how they grow up. It has really been a pleasure of my life to watch the people in this room grow in so many ways,” said Head of School Chris Garten, who began his career at Seven Hills the same time as the lifers and is retiring at the end of this school year.

Director of Development Margo Kirstein thanked the seniors’ parents for entrusting Seven Hills with their children for so long. Each lifer was gifted a plaque with their school photo from their first year at Seven Hills and a group photo taken this year with their fellow Doherty or Lotspeich Lower School lifers.

Max Gollobin ’09, a member of the Alumni Board, encouraged the lifers to cherish the sense of community and value of what they experienced during their time at Seven Hills.

“You guys are part of what makes this community so great and I hope you stay in touch in the years to come,” Gollobin said.

Rick Tate Visits

The Upper School welcomed Rick Tate to campus. Tate will be taking over as the Head of Upper School at the start of the 2024-25 school year. He spoke with students, visited classrooms, attended the annual Lifers Lunch, and spent time getting to know the Seven Hills community. Tate will be succeeding current Head of Upper School and Head of School-elect Dr. Matt Bolton.

Students Share Personal Challenge Projects

From raising chickens to designing video games to learning American Sign Language, Upper School students shared their Personal Challenge Projects with their classmates and teachers throughout the Upper School on Feb. 14. Students explained how they chose their topics and the challenges they overcame, while sharing their achievements and answering questions about their projects.

Cultural Lunch and Learn

Upper School students attended a lunch and learn about cultural appropriation vs. appreciation hosted by the Upper School Equity Council and Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Racheal Quinn.

Seniors and Equity Council members Ria Mittal and Aleesha Adhami explained the differences between the two and Quinn helped illustrate it using pop culture examples.

“You can understand culture or learn about culture and still participate in it. Appropriation doesn’t mean we can’t do that. It’s about how we can be supportive and how we can appreciate and push culture forward as a collective,” Quinn said.

Students then broke into groups each focusing on a way to avoid cultural appropriation, such as listening first, examining and sharing their own culture, and considering context.

Senior Featured in Northeastern Magazine

Four Students Named Presidential Scholar Candidates

Seniors Alice Bachelder, Megha Gaitonde, Oliver Szabo, and Mikul Wyer have been selected as candidates for the United States Presidential Scholars Program for their outstanding academic achievement and performance on their ACT or SAT tests. Each year up to 161 students are named U.S. Presidential Scholars and awarded the Presidential Scholars Medallion in June. The Presidential Scholars program began in 1964 and honors students who demonstrate excellent scholarship, leadership, and selfless service to others. It is one of the nation’s highest honors for high school students.

HOSA Competes at Regionals, Qualifies for State

The Health Organization Students of America, or HOSA, Club competed at the regional competition on Feb. 3. Junior Madi Kasman placed first in the medical reading competition. Junior Sydney Schneider placed first in the nutrition competition. The team of juniors Obadiah Alshami, Shlok Mehta, and Parth Mehta, and senior Dhanush Bearelly placed first in public health. Seniors Evelyn Gao and Julie Jiang placed first in forensic science. Juniors Kira Njegovan and Andrew Zhou, and freshmen Clayton Blust, Sakshum Vij, and Jason Zhou placed first in HOSA Bowl. Freshmen Irene Zhang, Rebekah Tesfaye, Anju Green, and Noor Arif placed first in medical innovation.