Congratulations to Ned Henneman'23, the 2023 Chatham County STAR Student! Ned earned the highest score on the SAT in a single sitting among all high school seniors in greater Savannah. He selected orchestra teacher Paula Swart as his STAR Teacher. Sponsored locally by the Kiwanis Club, the Student Teacher Achievement Recognition (STAR) program honors Savannah's highest-achieving high school seniors and the teachers who have been most instrumental in their academic development. Congratulations to Ned and Mrs. Swart!

A huge congratulations to the Middle School Math team on their first place finish at the region MathCounts competition. Our team of Ben Yoo, Kohki Maeda, Keating Taylor, and Victoria Kang qualified for the state competition to be held in Atlanta on Monday, March 13. Of the top ten individual finishers, Ben Yoo placed 1st, Kohki Maeda 2nd place, Keating Taylor 4th place, Grant Umbel 5th place, and Evan Hay 9th place. Gal Polansky and Andrew Kim also competed well. Congratulations to the entire team!

Bravo to the cast and crew of Fiddler on the Roof. In addition to a packed house of family and friends, the final performance on Saturday included over forty alumni and alumni parents who returned to celebrate DJ Queenan’s final SCDS musical before retirement. There were many smiles, a few tears, and thunderous applause for the final curtain.

Today we were honored to welcome Mr. Lloyd E. Campbell as our Black History Month Speaker. Mr. Campbell’s father and uncle were both Tuskegee Airmen during WWII and shared some important life lessons he learned from them — particularly the importance of philanthropy and giving back. A huge thank you to Mr. Campbell for spending time with our Middle School and BSU students to talk about the impact the Tuskegee Airmen have made on his life and society as a whole. 

On the morning of Tuesday, January 31, Robert James, II '88 was presented with the Distinguished Alumni Award for 2022, becoming the twenty-second individual to receive the honor. Mr. James was recognized at a campus assembly among family, friends, fellow alumni, former teachers, students, and faculty.

Mr. James is currently the President & CEO of Carver Financial Corporation and a two-time Chairman of the National Bankers Association. Carver State Bank is one of only 18 remaining black-owned banks in the United States. In 2000, when he joined the bank, there were nearly 50 – with the 2008 recession hitting small, community-focused, and minority-owned banks especially hard. However, through Robert II’s leadership, as well as that of his father, Carver State has been able to weather the storm and, against all odds – grow while still holding true to the bank’s vision of “financial freedom for all” and its mission to “provide the building blocks of financial freedom” to those who are underserved by larger, majority banking institutions.

Congratulations to Oskar Johnson-Liu ‘28 (cello) who auditioned successfully in Atlanta on January 14 and will be participating in the GMEA All-State Orchestra in Athens, Georgia on March 2-4! Bravo!

We kicked off our Black History Month activities on February 1 with a visit from SCDS alumnus and board member Kevan Jackson '84, who met with Upper School students at assembly. Mr. Jackson, who is the Director of Program Management for the G650/G650ER aircraft models at Gulfstream, shared with students his experience at Country Day, the trajectory that led him to his current career, and some sage words of wisdom: "Don't settle. Always push harder."

Thank you to Mr. Jackson for visiting campus and speaking to our students!

Last week Upper School Drama students spent the day at SCAD. While there, they participated in multiple acting workshops, visited Hamilton Hall film and sound facility, and enjoyed a tour of the SCAD XR Studios. It was a fun day of theatre and technology!

It was Socs versus Greasers in sixth grade English class! A long-standing tradition for Country Day, our students honed their knowledge of the classic book, The Outsiders, by having a rumble — with their smarts, of course! Students donned their 50's best and joined teams to quiz each other on The Outsiders facts. What a fun way to learn about the classic novel!

The US Jazz Ensemble and Jazz Combo traveled to Universal Studios Orlando to do a recording session in a professional studio. The band recorded the soundtrack, voice-overs, and sound effects for a portion of Despicable Me. Mr. Elliott arranged the music for the band. The sound crew at Universal was impressed with the level of performance and preparedness of our band students. While two hours had been allotted for the session, only 1 hour and 15 minutes was needed to complete the final product. This session provided the students with a unique look at the music industry that we do not offer at SCDS -- recording for TV and film. The students called the experience a WIN and want to do it again next year!