Athens Academy Press Releases

Athens Academy Latin teacher Kelly Ryan was recently awarded a Fulbright Teacher Exchange Scholarship for the upcoming summer. Ms. Ryan will spend the summer in Athens, Greece, participating in the 2010 Greece Classics Seminar. As part of the program, she will study Athenian monuments and sites and travel throughout the country, spending a week on Crete, ten days in the Peloponnese, and a week in Northern Greece. The scholarship also provides a stipend for the purchase of classroom materials to be shared with students and fellow teachers upon Ms. Ryan’s return to Athens, Georgia.

The Fulbright Teacher Exchange Program provides opportunities for teachers to participate in direct exchanges of positions with colleagues from other countries for a semester or a year. By living and working abroad, exchange teachers gain an understanding and appreciation of different educational systems and cultures, and enrich their schools and communities by providing students with new perspectives about the world in which they live.

Posted by Kelley Cuneo at 10:00 AM | Permalink

The Athens Academy FTC Sparbots robotics team had a fantastic first season, winning three awards and finishing in fourth place at the Georgia FTC state robotics championship. The state championship took place on Saturday, February 20, on the Southern Polytechnic State University campus in Marietta. The competition included 27 teams from Mississippi, South Carolina, and Georgia. During the three tournaments the team participated in this year, the Sparbots competed in 26, 2.5-minute matches against teams from over 20 high schools from around the southeast. Juniors Christopher McGahee and Caleb Dasher led six Athens Academy Middle Schoolers, including eighth graders Max Ruston, Charles Lankau, Darshan Parikh, and seventh graders Will Divers, Raleigh Lumpkin, and Hayden Lanzilotta. Congratulations on a great season, Sparbots!

Posted by Kelley Cuneo at 10:34 AM | Permalink

On Sunday, February 20, eight Athens Academy students participated in Georgia Shakespeare’s third annual High School Acting Competition in Atlanta. Sofie Wasserman-Smith, Anne Lanier Gilbert, Billy Pate, Cate Jackson, Mary Katherine Malone, Becca Schell, Maggie Kellett, and CJ Brown traveled to the Oglethorpe University campus with Drama Department Director Lorraine Thompson. Anne Lanier Gilbert placed second in the Female Monologue category and Sofie Wasserman-Smith placed third. Three of the seven students selected to perform in the final showcase were from Athens Academy: Sofie Wasserman-Smith, Anne Lanier Gilbert, and Billy Pate. In addition, Athens Academy took the “First Place School” honors for the second year in a row.

The group is pictured with Georgia Shakespeare Artistic Director Richard Garner and Educational Director Allen O'Reilly.

Posted by Kelley Cuneo at 11:24 AM | Permalink

Following the 32nd Annual Schacht Lecture on Wednesday, February 10, 41 Upper School students were inducted into the National Honor Society. The students tapped for the Athens Academy chapter of NHS included Harry Alex, Wrenica Archibald, Mary Banister, Sara Beisswenger, John Braucher, Nick Brown, Jennifer Cotton, Caleb Dasher, Deeva Desai, Tim DeWitt, Jennifer Dorfman, Tavish Gantz, Tom Greene, Emmeline Hale, Bethany Hanscom, Cate Jackson, Hoe Bin Jeong, Anna Justice, Josh Gibbs, Andy Kim, Braden Lapp, Robert Leverett, Madi Linck, Max LoParco, Laney Mallet, Chloe McWilliams, Breanna Moore, Kurt Mueller, Torie Owers, Aneet Patel, Will Seagraves, Lisa Sheppard, Christina Shin, Elizabeth Sinyard, Kelsie Smith, Karishma Sriram, Emma Templeman, Lidya Teshome, Dy’nelle Todman, Daniel West, and Tony Xu.

The National Honor Society was founded in 1921in order “to create enthusiasm for scholarship, to stimulate a desire to render service, to promote leadership, and to develop character in the students of secondary schools.” These are the criteria used by the faculty and administration as they select students for membership. Membership in NHS not only recognizes students for their accomplishments but also challenges them to develop themselves further through active involvement in school activities and community service.

Athens Academy was proud to have Mr. Pat Bassett, president of the National Association of Independent Schools, deliver the Schacht Lecture via Skype from Washington, D.C., before the NHS inductions. The Schacht Lecture honors the late Elmer C. Schacht, for whom Schacht Hall was named. Mr. Schacht became a trustee of Athens Academy in 1968 and became the first life trustee in 1974.

Posted by Kelley Cuneo at 1:44 PM | Permalink