WCSNews



News and The E-Connection


The E-Connection is a newsletter published once each week for the Wichita Collegiate School community. If you would like to receive the E-Connection, please send your name and e-mail address to Susie Steed at ssteed@wcsks.com Click here to view the E-Connection page with links to our school newsletter in pdf format
The Latest News from WCS
WCS Class of 2010 Earns More than $4.25 Million in Merit Scholarships! The 61 members of the Class of 2010 at Wichita Collegiate received 177 offers of admission to 90 different colleges and universities, as well as merit-based scholarship offers of more than $4.25 million! To see the destinations of the Class of 2010, click on this map of "The Luckiest Colleges in the World." It's Not Too Late to Apply for Fall It's not too late to apply for admission for the 2010-2011 school year. Call the Admission office 771-2203 with questions or to arrange a tour. Act quickly-- limited space is available. Science Olympiad Teams Perform Well at State Congratulations to the Middle and Upper School Science Olympiad Teams for stellar performances at the State competitions! The Middle School Team placed 3rd in the small school division. The Upper School Team placed 2nd overall, qualifying them for the National Competition in May for six out of the past seven years. Click here to see a list of the medalists and their events. Congratulations to Mitch Fiegel and the Spartan Basketball team. Wichita Collegiate became the first Class 3A team in 30 years to win back-to-back state championships. Click here to read the complete article on catchitkansas.com Middle School Science Olympiad Team Headed for State Congratulations to the Middle School Science Olympiad Team for placing 3rd in the Small Schools Division at Regionals and qualifying for State. The team medaled in 14 of 23 events. Middle School MATHCOUNTS Team to Compete at State Good luck to the MATHCOUNTS team in Saturday's State Competition! 8th Graders Win Scholars' Bowl League Championship! Congratulations to our 8th grade Scholars' Bowl Team for winning the Catholic Schools League Championship! Team members include David Scheffer, Travis Osland, Jake Barrett, Nick Cho, Ann McGuire and Carolyn Lewelling. Record Enrollment! Wichita Collegiate School has started the 2009-2010 school year with a record high enrollment of 1,033 students. This surpasses last year’s starting enrollment of 1,014, which was also a record high enrollment. Read More >> WCS Publishes Strategic Plan In the summer of 2008, the Board of Trustees began a strategic planning process for our school. A Steering Committee was formed and a process was outlined to assimilate input from all constituencies of our community and to create a vision for the future of Wichita Collegiate School. Read More >> Watch Bill Geist's segment on CBS Sunday Morning showing WCS Alumni Grant Mitchell's win at the Pennsylvania Stone Skipping Contest. MUST SEE! Collegiate Joins the Ark Valley Chisholm Trail League We are pleased to announce that Wichita Collegiate Upper School will be joining the Ark Valley Chisholm Trail League (AVCTL) in the fall of 2010. This is a great league consisting of 24 schools divided into 4 divisions. We will be in the smallest division, likely with Clearwater, Circle, Andale, Wellington and Rose Hill. We will meet with the league officially on Monday and set our schedules for 2010. We are excited that we will begin establishing some new traditions with some new schools. We will keep you posted as more news develops. Go Spartans! National AP Teacher of the Year Janice Crowley, Science Department Chair at Wichita Collegiate School, has been named National AP (Advanced Placement) Teacher of the Year by the College Board and the Siemens Foundation. In recognizing Mrs. Crowley's exemplary teaching and dedication to her students, Diane Tsulamaki of the College Board said, "In a pool of extremely strong candidates from across the country, your commitment to teaching AP and ability to engage students in a rigorous curriculum were outstanding." To view the USA Today acknowledgement of Ms. Crowley's award, click here. Wichita Collegiate Science Teacher Wins $10,000 Toyota TAPESTRY Grant David Trombold, Environmental Science teacher at Wichita Collegiate’s Upper School, has won a $10,000 Toyota TAPESTRY Grant that will fund a High Pressure Liquid Chromatograph (HPLC) to enable his students to research “nuts to nutrients” in a project called “Looking for the Good in Food.” Using the HPLC, students will perform technical, scientific experiments as they study the content of nutrients in healthy food sources. As they develop their research skills they will also expand their personal awareness of nutritious foods. Their research will include a review of HPLC fundamentals and nutrition chemistry literature relative to Vitamins A, B, C, and E. They will then develop their technical procedural skills with UV-Vis and HPLC. Their results will be statistically evaluated and presented for peer review at their school, at the community and state level, and submitted for scientific journal publication. In acknowledging the grant award, Mr. Trombold said, “I am excited about having this HPLC (High Pressure Liquid Chromatograph) through the Toyota Tapestry Grant. It will complement the GC (Gas Chromatograph) that we have already been using for our research class. This research class with both the HPLC and GC will give students the unique opportunity of conducting actual scientific research that usually occurs only in upper level college and graduate courses. The HPLC will allow us to analyze the nutrition content of foods and help raise the students' awareness of eating healthy foods. It will also broaden students' awareness to pursue a career in research.” Mr. Trombold’s award was one of 50 such grants made by Toyota this year. The focus of the program is to enable students and teachers to have opportunities to learn through doing, not just through theory. Proposals are judged on their creativity, vision, and innovation in presenting science. Wichita Collegiate Science Teacher Wins $10,000 Toyota TAPESTRY Grant David Trombold, Environmental Science teacher at Wichita Collegiate’s Upper School, has won a $10,000 Toyota TAPESTRY Grant that will fund a High Pressure Liquid Chromatograph (HPLC) to enable his students to research “nuts to nutrients” in a project called “Looking for the Good in Food.” Using the HPLC, students will perform technical, scientific experiments as they study the content of nutrients in healthy food sources. As they develop their research skills they will also expand their personal awareness of nutritious foods. Their research will include a review of HPLC fundamentals and nutrition chemistry literature relative to Vitamins A, B, C, and E. They will then develop their technical procedural skills with UV-Vis and HPLC. Their results will be statistically evaluated and presented for peer review at their school, at the community and state level, and submitted for scientific journal publication. In acknowledging the grant award, Mr. Trombold said, “I am excited about having this HPLC (High Pressure Liquid Chromatograph) through the Toyota Tapestry Grant. It will complement the GC (Gas Chromatograph) that we have already been using for our research class. This research class with both the HPLC and GC will give students the unique opportunity of conducting actual scientific research that usually occurs only in upper level college and graduate courses. The HPLC will allow us to analyze the nutrition content of foods and help raise the students' awareness of eating healthy foods. It will also broaden students' awareness to pursue a career in research.” Mr. Trombold’s award was one of 50 such grants made by Toyota this year. The focus of the program is to enable students and teachers to have opportunities to learn through doing, not just through theory. Proposals are judged on their creativity, vision, and innovation in presenting science. Article by Wichita Collegiate Teacher Featured in Publication on Academic Rigor Supported by Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Understanding and Reporting on Academic Rigor, a recent publication of the Hechinger Institute at Columbia University’s Teacher College, features an article by Janice Crowley, Head of the Science Department at Wichita Collegiate School. The article is entitled, “Chemistry Lesson: How a Nurturing Classroom Helps.” In the article, Mrs. Crowley explains how critical thinking comes more easily when students feel free to ask questions without ridicule. “A master teacher inspires students to take personal responsibility for their own learning. For students to achieve continuous intellectual growth, teachers need to supply meaningful content and engaging activities. The trick for the teacher is to channel a child’s inner Goldilocks to discover the sweet spot where learning something new is neither too easy nor too hard but rather ‘just right.’ “ The article may be viewed through the following link: http://hechinger.tc.columbia.edu/default.aspx?pageid=780 The entire report can be downloaded from the Institute's web site at www.tc.columbia.edu/hechinger. Crowley is a former Milken National Educator, and 2009, she was named National Advanced Placement (AP) Teacher of the Year by The College Board and the Siemens Foundation. State Tennis Champions! Congratulations to the boys tennis team and coaches for winning the 3-2-1A State Tennis Championship on Saturday. The Spartans took the top spots in doubles, with Paul Abromeit and Wyatt Kesler defeating Varoon Bashyakarla and Brandon Somerhalder for the title. Singles players Daniel Ritchie defeated Miles Dunne for 3rd and 4th. This is the 2nd consecutive State 3A Title and the 18th State Tennis Championship for the boys’ team in the past 22 years. Golf Team Wins 3A State Championship The Spartan boys won the 3A State Championship Golf Tournament at Tallgrass on May 26 by 23 shots. This is the 4th consecutive title for the team, and the 14th State Golf Championship overall. Congratulations to seniors Craig Howell and Andrew Hourani, juniors Ben Hatfield, Brett LeMaster, Tyler Vincent, and freshman Harrison Morris. Special recognition to Andrew (74), Craig (77), and Ben (80) who finished 2nd, third, and tenth respectively. Craig capped off a remarkable four-year career by becoming the 3rd golfer in school history to be a part of four state championship teams, and never finishing lower than 11th place individually in the state tournaments. Andrew finished his career with three state championships and along with Brett LeMaster, celebrated a tremendous year playing a key role on state championship teams in golf and basketball. Micah Watson Wins 1st in State Contest WCS seventh grader Micah Watson, daughter of Ed and Gidget Watson, won 1st Place in the 2008 Kansas Learning Quest Essay Contest and a $1,000 contribution to her college fund from the state's 529 educational savings program. Micah's essay was entitled, "How I can Make a Positive Impact on the World." Travis Osland Wins Geography Bee Seventh grader Travis Osland won his second consecutive Geography Bee at WCS on December 3. Travis is the son of Dr. John and Dr. Jackie Osland of WIchita. Mayor Presents Golden Shoe Award Wichita Mayor Carl Brewer presented the Golden Shoe Award to WCS students for collecting the most shoes in a shoe drive sponsored by the Mayor's Youth Council. WCS students and families collected nearly 700 shoes in this effort. Accepting the award on behalf of WCS was Kamilah Sharpe, a member of the Mayor's Youth Council. Senior Attends Research Institute at MIT Varoon Bashylakarla spent six weeks this summer at the prestigious Research Science Institute on the campus of Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Varoon was one of 50 top-achieving scholars in the nation chosen to attend this highly selective program. Varoon and his fellow "Rickoids" (a reference to the late Admiral H.G. Rickover, father of the nuclear Navy and co-founded of the Center) participated in college-level classes under the mentorship of leading scientists and researchers, and conducted cutting edge research in universuty laboratories, hospitals, and corporate research facilities in Boston. WCS Grad Youngest Delegate Chelsea Ayers, a member of the graduating Class of 2008, is the youngest delegate to the National Democratic Convention in Denver. Chelsea will be attending Princeton University this fall. Grads Admitted to Highly Selective Colleges Each year, WCS students are recruited by the most selective colleges and universities in the United States. Below is a list of colleges and universities that have accepted at least one member of the Class of 2008 and that are recognized in the Barron’s Profiles of American Colleges as either “Most Selective” or “Highly Selective.” In the next few weeks, we will announce additional information concerning our seniors, including their final college decisions. American University (DC) Taylor Sutton Austin College (TX) Ava Saidian Baylor University (TX) Devon Alford, Ashley Gardner, Joel Horton, Carolyn Johnson, Chelsea Katan, Kendal Lovett, Hye-Jin Park, Ava Saidian Boston College (MA) Kendall Bitonte Boston University (MA) Hye-Jin Park Brandeis University (MA) Steven Sparber University of California Seung Tack Baek at Berkeley University of California Chelsea Katan at Irvine Carleton College (MN) Chelsea Loehr Colorado College (CO) Catherine Shrader, Rachel Wilson Colorado School of Mines (CO) Chelsea Katan Columbia University (NY) Chelsea Loehr Dartmouth College (NH) Stephanie Pignatiello DePauw University (IN) Catherine Shrader Emory University (GA) Spencer Ramsey, Taylor Sutton Fordham University (NY) Ashley Gardner George Washington Univ. (DC) Kendall Bitonte Georgetown University (DC) Chelsea Loehr Georgia Inst. of Tech. Spencer Ramsey Gonzaga University (WA) Kendall Bitonte College of Holy Cross (MA) Kendall Bitonte University of Illinois Seung Tack Back University of Michigan Whitney Cooper, Ava Saidian New York University Ashley Gardner Northeastern University (MA) Hye-Jin Park Pepperdine University (CA) Steven Hutchinson Pomona College (CA) Chelsea Katan, Chelsea Loehr Princeton University (NJ) Chelsea Loehr Rensselaer Polytechnic Inst. (NY) Scott Brooks Rose-Hulman Inst. of Tech. (IN) Scott Brooks Stanford University Chelsea Loehr University of the South (TN) Catherine Shrader University of Southern California Manon Strickland University of Texas at Austin Ava Saidian University of Texas at Dallas Seung Tack Back Trinity College (MA) Rachel Wilson Trinity University (TX) Kendall Bitonte, Steven Hutchinson, Chelsea Loehr, Taylor Sutton University of Tulsa (OK) Kim Alexander, Devon Alford, Erin Bigler, Scott Brooks, Jaren Glaser, Josh Glaser, Joel Horton, Chelsea Loehr, Kendal Lovett, Catherine Shrader, Rachel Wilson Wesleyan University (CT) Rachel Wilson Worcester Polytechnic Inst. (MA) Scott Brooks WCS Students Excel on National Latin Exam Latin students in Grades 7-12 recently competed in the National Latin Exam, and once again turned in impressive performances! Congratulations to all of the students who participated and all of those who received special recognition, and to their teachers, Virginia Kehoe and John Leddy. Kudos to Adam Grider, who received the Maureen O’Donnell Oxford Classical Dictionary Book Award for earning his 4th Gold Medal on all of the exams taken for Latin I. II. III and IV, and to Abby Amstutz and Tyler Dobbs for turning in perfect scores on the Latin I exam. For a complete list of the results, please click on this link. Top Rankings on National French Exam Three WCS French students ranked in the top 10 in the country in their particular course levels on “Le Grand Concours” National French Exam for 2008. These three students and 13 others also ranked among the stop students in the State of Kansas. More than 100,000 students participated in this year’s national exam. To view the complete list of results, please click on this link: Bunny Hill Wins National Science Award Bunny Hill, Head of Middle School at Wichita Collegiate, has won the 2008 Ciba Specialty Chemicals Middle Level Principal Award for from the National Science Teachers Association. This program recognizes one Middle School principal in the country who has demonstrated leadership in developing, implementing, and maintaining an outstanding science program; supported staff development in science; promoted positive relationships between the school science program and the community; and has been an advocate and leader for the development of science process skills and positive attitudes toward science among children and teachers. WCS P.E. Teacher Wins National Title Earlier this year, Kathy Wagner, Chair of Collegiate’s Physical Education Department and Early Childhood P.E. Teacher, earned recognition as the Kansas State Elementary Physical Education Teacher of the Year. She then went on to win the Central District Title, which includes 8 states in addition to Kansas. As the Central District winner, Mrs. Wagner was one of 6 finalists for National Elementary Physical Educator of the Year. Last week, Mrs. Wagner traveled to Fort Worth Texas, for a last round of interviews, and learned that she had been selected as the National Elementary Physical Education Teacher of the Year! This award is given in recognition of outstanding teaching performance and the ability to motivate today’s youth to participate in a lifetime of physical activity. Part of the decision was based upon an unedited videotape that was made of one of Mrs. Wagner’s P.E. classes. Mrs. Wagner was honored at the annual Hall of Fame Banquet Congratulations, Mrs. Wagner, on this well-deserved honor! Distinguished Teacher of the Year Susan Ensz, kindergarten teacher at Wichita Collegiate School, has been selected as the 2008 Distinguished Teacher of the Year by the Kansas Association of Independent and Religious Schools. She will be honored in Topeka on February 11th at the annual KAIRS conference and banquet. Congratulations to Mrs. Ensz for this well deserved honor! WCS Senior Wins Prestigious Scholarship WCS senior Seung-Tack Baek has been selected to receive the Siemens Foundation Scholarship for the state of Kansas this year. In conjunction with The College Board, the Siemens Foundation awards a $2,000 scholarship annually to one male and one female student in each state who have recorded the highest number of “5” scores on Advanced Placement examinations. Mrs. Koepsel Featured in Classics Newsletter The fall 2007 issue of the PRIMA Newsletter for Excellence through Classics featured a front page article entitled, "Wichita Kids Get Hooked on the Aeneid.” The article focused on the creative ways in which 7th grade WCS English teacher Cindy Koepsel introduces the Aeneid to her students. Through the structure of a debate, Mrs. Koepsel acts as a mediator for group discussions on the topics. The newsletter quotes Mrs. Koepsel as saying, “My students are switched on to the reality of the living human characters within the Aeneid, an this creates a lasting love of this classic story.” Several student drawings also accompanied this article, including those of William Short, Nicole Smith, Ellie Newlin, and Myles Copeland, who were in Mrs. Koepsel’s class last year. WCS Takes First in Robotics On December 1st, the WCS Upper School Robotics team won the 1st place trophy in the robotics division at one of the three national BEST (Boosting Engineering Science and Technology) Robotics competitions that was held at the University of Arkansas, Ft. Smith campus. The finest robots from Arkansas, Illinois, Oklahoma, Kansas, Minnesota, Illinois, North and South Dakota and Indiana battled it out and Collegiate came out on top. Over 140 schools participated in the tournaments that led up to this event. The team has been working since September – building, driving, testing and re-working until the robot could perform the assigned task. The task was a simulation of unloading a Mars supply vehicle (ASV). The robot is given three minutes to exit the base and drive across the “Martian” surface, drive up onto the ASV and load supplies, drive off the ASV and store the supplies in a storage bin at the “Martian” base. Congratulations to all Robotics team members: Jacob Alefs, Devon Alford, Elliott Alvis, David Bae, Seung Baek, Erin Bigler, Scott Brooks, Ryan Dahlke, Jon Ellis, Stewart Grindel, Nick Heldman, Michael Malone, Hye-Jin Park, Chelsea Katan, Jordan McClain, Stephanie Pignatiello, Trey Regan, Manon Strickland, Isaac Young, Alex Chung, Nathan Hawley, Kim Lewelling, Phillip Seo, Jonathan Ellis, Diana Heldman, Mike Katan, Harold Kim, Jason Seo, Jack Kim, and Han Tu. The team would like to say thanks to Coach Scott Hawley, mentors Bill Saathoff and Bill Patterson from Hawker/Beechcraft and Nathan Battan from Cessna. The team is truly grateful to all of the team parents who attended the competition in Ft. Smith for their support and to those who have kept dinner coming throughout the weeks of practice! GO SPARTANS! WCS Students Continue to Excel on PSAT Examination The College Board has released the results of the 2007 PSAT (Preliminary SAT) examination, and Wichita Collegiate School students continue to excel. Our current juniors, the Class of 2009, performed exceptionally well on the examination this year. Twenty-eight percent of the class scored in the top 10% of the college bound juniors who took the test. Fifty-two percent scored in the top quartile and eighty-three percent scored above national average. These scores are especially impressive because the vast majority of schools in the United States allow only their top 10-20% of students to take the PSAT. Therefore, Collegiate students earned these scores in competition with the very best students in the country. WCS gives the PSAT to all freshmen, sophomores, and juniors. For the freshmen and sophomores, the PSAT forms a critical part of our test preparation program. For the juniors, the PSAT examination serves as the qualifying examination for the National Merit Scholarship competition. The scores from this exam are also used by colleges and universities for recruitment purposes. The qualifying scores for National Merit Semifinals and National Merit Commended Student recognition will be released in the fall of 2008. Twenty-three Win AP Scholar Recognition The College Board has recognized 23 WCS Upper School students for their performance on Advanced Placement examinations. The students have been recognized in four categories: AP Scholar: In order to be named an AP Scholar, a student must have earned earn a grade of 3 on at least three Advanced Placement examinations. The WCS AP Scholars for this year are Varoon Bashyakarla (09), Chris Brito (08), Sam Chandler (07), Peggy Chang (07), Andrew Foulston (08), Stewart Grindel (08), Katie Hatfield (07), Dylan Holmes (08), Amy Johnson (07), Chelsea Loehr (08), Spencer Ramsey (08), David Reed (07), Ava Saidian (08), Jennifer Solis (07), and David Zurita (07). AP Scholar with Honors: In order to be named an AP Scholar with Honors, a student must earn an average grade of 3.25 on all AP Exams taken AND have scored a grade of 3 or higher on at least four exams. The WCS AP Scholars with Honors are June Lloyd-Davies (07) and Kendall Bitonte (08) AP Scholar with Distinction: In order to be named an AP Scholar with Distinction, a student must earn an average of 3.5 on all AP exams taken and a grade of 3 or higher on at least five exams. The WCS AP Scholars with Distinction are Seung Tack Baek (08), Thomas Greaves (07), Hayley Jansson (07), Robert McIntyre (07), Andrew Neel (07), and Stephanie Pignatiello (08). In addition, the College Board has recognized on WCS student as an AP National Scholar. To earn this designation, a student must earn an average grade of 4 on all AP exams taken and a score of 4 or higher on at least eight exams. Our AP National Scholar this year is Robert McIntyre of the class of 2007. During his career at WCS, Robert took twelve AP Examinations earning six grades of 5, four grades of 4, one grade of 3, and one grade of 2. The Scores Are In! WCS students in Grades 1-8 continued to score as a group at the 99th percentile on this year's Stanford Achievement Tests. Students in Lower and Middle School (Grades 1-8) at Wichita Collegiate School took the Stanford Achivement Tests in April of 2007. Again this year, the students have scored as a group at the 99th percentil in reading and math when compared to other groups nationally. Congratulations to all of our students and teachers for another wonderful performance! Click on the links below to see the scores for 2007. Stanford Math Scores 2007 (pdf) Stanford Reading Scores 2007 (pdf) Senior Wins Prestigious Scholarship Wichita Collegiate School senior Seung-Tack Baek has been selected to receive the Siemens Foundation Scholarship for the state of Kansas this year. In conjunction with The College Board, the Siemens Foundation awards a $2,000 scholarship annually to one male and one female student in each state annually who have who have recorded the highest number of “5” scores on Advanced Placement examinations.