An In-depth (and timely) Study of the History of Vaccines

Vaccines are named as such because the first modern vaccine used cowpox to inoculate people from smallpox. The name comes from “vacca,” which means cow in the Latin language. Eric O’Connor’s 10^th-grade World History 2 class studied this fact and more, as they discussed the legacy of Christopher Columbus. “We watched a video that put Columbus ‘on trial’ and discussed why some celebrate him and some vilify him,” said O’Connor of the divisive holiday that falls in mid-October. “We also looked at the mass death of American Indians during the 1500s after the Europeans arrived in the Americas. That led to a discussion about the impact of COVID-19 in our society and our current hope for vaccines to once again save us from widespread disease.”

Congratulations to our National Merit Semifinalists!

The Seven Hills School continues its tradition of excellence with the announcement of our nine National Merit Semifinalists—about 11% of our graduating class of 2021. Congratulations to the following 2021 National Merit Semifinalists: Owen Foster, Jonathan Gai, William Hawgood, David Kiley, Dhruv Mahajan, Charlie Ringel, Megan Tan, Andrew Yang, and Meg Yuan. Each year, the National Merit Scholarship Program honors talented U.S. high school students for academic excellence. Approximately 1.5 million students from 22,000 high schools across the country enter the program. To be considered for a Merit Scholarship award, Semifinalists must fulfill several requirements to advance to the Finalist level of the competition.   

Advanced Placement Scholars

Of the 153 students who took 355 Advanced Placement exams in 17 subjects in May 2020, 98% of them earned college-qualifying scores of 3 or higher. 79% of students scored 4’s and 5’s, and 31 students were recognized as AP Scholars, scoring a 3 or above on at least 3 Advanced Placement exams.

• 14 were named AP Scholars with Honor, scoring at least 3.25 on each exam and 3 or more on at least 4 AP exams.

• 47 were recognized as AP Scholars with Distinction, scoring at least 3.5 on each exam and 3 or more on at least 5 AP exams.
• 10 students were named National AP Scholars, scoring at least 4 on at least 8 AP exams.

Congratulations to our Upper School students who received certificates for their efforts in four Advanced Placement categories:

National AP Scholar

Receiving National AP Scholar Awards for average scores of at least 4 or higher on all AP Exams taken and scores of 4 or higher on eight or more are senior Jonathan Gai and 2020 graduates Yash Gaitonde, Alexander Grass, Jim Li, Madeleine Magruder, Suraj Parikh, Rajiv Raman, Hannah Wang, Kevin Wang, and Chase Young.

AP Scholar with Distinction

Receiving AP Scholar with Distinction Awards for average scores of at least 3.5 on all AP exams taken and scores of at least 3 or higher on five or more are seniors Wes Gardner, Catherine Kogan, Luke Malloy, Laxmi Namboodiri, Reva Namboodiri, Craig Qi, Caroline Routh, Megan Tan, Meg Yuan, Andrew Yang, and Aaron Ziegler. Class of 2020 graduates who received AP Scholar with Distinction Awards are Annika Alper, Jorge Amadeo-Muniz, Kayzad Bharucha; Adam Chen, Caroline Corbett, Colin Curnow, Emma Dorsch, Ajay Gupta, Krish Gupta, Santosh Hanumanthu, Avital Isakov, Madelyn Kennebeck, Freya Li, Nina Martinez Diers, Megan McLennan, Anika Parameswaran, Sufwan Safdar, Ella Samaha, James Sammarco, Avani Seshiah, Benjamin Skibo, Rhea Srivastava, Andrea Stancescu,  Linah Uchiyama, Matthew Wabler, and Stephen Walsh.

AP Scholar with Honor

Receiving AP Scholar with Honor Awards for average scores of at least 3.25 on all AP exams taken and scores of 3 or higher on four or more are seniors Kurt Drath, Robert Jeon, David Kiley, Annabel Kleinwaechter, Dhruv Mahajan, Steven Mu, Christina Torlone, and Holly Weisfelder. Class of 2020 graduates who received AP Scholars with Honor Awards are Madeleine Creech, Taylor Hauter, Hannah Levin, Nicholas Norton, Jocelyn Spanbauer, and Michael Stein.

AP Scholar

Receiving AP Scholar Awards for scoring 3 or higher on three or more exams are juniors Kathryn Guo and Naina Purushothaman and seniors Grace Arya, Griffin Callow, Emma Cohen, Owen Foster, Alexandra Frohn, Daniel Goldfeder, William Hawgood, Timothy Kalin, Shriya Kilaru, Nandini Likki, Christopher Maring, Abbie Palmer, Charles Ringel, Uma Shenai, and Wesley Wang. Class of 2020 graduates who received AP Scholars Awards are Poppi Baylor, Ruolan Chen, Jasmine Fan, Bryan Fisher, Chloe Gardner, Allison Huffman, Hugh Jacks, Annie Leeper, Rohan Patil, Kristen Porter, Katherine Remaklus, Ethan Rising, Rosalind Roland, and Emma Rooney.

Spanish 4 Students Takes Classmates on Virtual Geographical Tour

Students in Teresa Bardon’s Spanish 4 class shared their research of various Spanish-speaking countries across the globe during five-minute presentations given entirely in Spanish. During the presentations, students discussed a number of areas, such as the structures and cathedrals of Chichicastenango in Guatemala and Medellín in Colombia. Throughout their presentations, Bardon held conversations in Spanish with the students as she asked them to elaborate on their findings. The students then responded fluently to Bardon’s questions in Spanish.

Observing Physical and Chemical Changes in Chemistry

Upper School students are studying chemical and physical changes in Jen Torline’s honors chemistry class. Torline said the complex lab marks the wrap-up of students first unit review of properties and classifications of matter. “The students’ lab focused on the observable signs of physical and chemical changes,” said Torline. “In addition, students learned some new separation techniques, including the use of a centrifuge, a machine that applies centrifugal force to its contents in order to separate fluids of different densities.”