Families, Teachers Plant Nearly 200 Saplings from Doherty Acorns
November 4, 2025
On Nov. 1, Seven Hills families from all divisions came together to plant Doherty oak saplings in a temporary nursery on the Hillsdale Campus.
From acorns he collected at the Doherty Campus, Upper School biology teacher Bryce Carlson grew nearly 200 saplings over the course of a year.
“It’s been really fun learning about the oak saplings from hands-on experience,” Carlson said. “For me, one of the reasons that I chose a career in education is that I would get to continue learning throughout my life.”
Carlson said watching faculty, parents, and kids show their excitement for the oak saplings was one of the rewarding and fulfilling parts of the project.
“I really think it’s such a powerful idea to connect our communities symbolically,” Carlson said.
The saplings offer the opportunity to unify Seven Hills on an ecological level, according to Carlson.
The Growing Together event also provided coffee and snacks, and a chance to gather as a community while growing our environmental impact.
At the event, students scooped vitamin-rich soil into the sapling planting pots before their parents helped them carry the plants over to the nursery. Once students handed their sapling to Carlson or another volunteer, they received a corresponding stick on which they wrote their names and could use to keep track of that sapling’s growth.
Doherty parent Peter Lovass expressed how meaningful this project is to his family, and to the larger Seven Hills community.
“I was drawn to the idea of cultivating and developing new oak trees, specifically the ones that came from the Doherty Campus, and how it encapsulated the goals the team is striving for through the merging process,” Lovass said.
Lovass shared that there are many aspects about the project, both literal and figurative, that speak to him.
“Literally, the school is choosing to plant a key stone species on the new site. This commitment to the environment and area is going to support a vast array of wildlife for years as the trees and school grow from infancy into maturity. As the trees and communities grow, there will be parts of both campuses contributing to the bright and expanding future of The Seven Hills School,” Lovass said.
Once construction is complete, the saplings will be transplanted around the new Doherty Lotspeich Lower School.
