Last fall, Athens Academy was pleased to host the District 6910 Interact Conference. As part of the meeting, volunteers from all over Northeast Georgia packaged 10,000 meals for needy families as part of the Stop Hunger Now service event. Those meals were shipped to Mission Touch Ministries in Zambia, where they helped feed hundreds of children through school feeding programs and in orphanages.

Mission Touch is a non-profit that provides aid to many schools and orphanages in Zambia, feeding over 6,000 children on a daily basis around the capital city of Lusaka. Kyle Galenski, program manager for Stop Hunger Now, was grateful for Athens Academy's participation: "I can't thank you enough for your partnership in packaging these meals and spreading awareness about world hunger. This shipment would not have been possible without your support. Thank you for a taking an active role in the fight against world hunger and I look forward to continuing our partnership to create a world without hunger."

Photos courtesy of Stop Hunger Now.

As the secondary school equivalent of Phi Beta Kappa, The Cum Laude Society recognizes superior academic achievement and sound character. Sara Beisswenger, John Braucher, Deeva Desai , Jennifer Dorfman, Tavish Gantz, Anna Justice, Joshua Kundert-Gibbs, Braden Lapp, Robert Leverett, Chloe McWilliams, Kurt Mueller, Torie Owers, Elizabeth Sinyard, Karishma Sriram, and Daniel West were tapped for membership in the prestigious society.

In 1988, Athens Academy became the seventh school in Georgia to be chartered for Cum Laude. This year marked the formal naming of the address as The Cabaniss Lecture by the Athens Academy Board of Trustees, in honor of founding trustee and longtime supporter Dr. Harvey Cabaniss.

Almost 200 teams from across the nation competed in the History Bowl on Saturday, April 28. Most teams consisted of three or four members but Jason competed as a one-man team. Although always out-numbered, he won seven of ten qualifying rounds and advanced to the championship round of 32 teams before being eliminated by Ohio's Warren G. Harding High School.

On Sunday, April 29, Jason was one of more than 200 individuals participating in the History Bee. The morning competition consisted of five rounds in which sets of eight students confronted questions on topics ranging from the ancient Middle East to Medieval England to American History prior to 1932 to the modern world. Jason won four of the five heats in which he participated and made it into the championship round of 20, where he lost in the semi-finals.

The grueling two-day competition lasted twelve hours on Saturday and another seven on Sunday at various sites in the Washington, D.C.-area, culminating at Mount Vernon in Virginia.

On Saturday, May 5, Athens Academy hosted a special Hill Strategies Workshop, a day-long professional development opportunity conducted by professional trainers from The Hill Center in Durham, NC. Jean Neville and Sara Gray Horne spent the day with approximately thirty educators representing public schools in Clarke, Oconee, Morgan, and Franklin Counties; as well as a group from Athens Academy, discussing and practicing strategies designed to meet the individual needs of students at all grade levels and disciplines. Teachers learned about designing engaging, hands-on activities for phonics, reading comprehension, vocabulary, and study skills. Funding for the workshop was provided by The Zeist Foundation, an Atlanta-based family foundation.

On Wednesday, April 18, Athens Academy Headmaster Bob Chambers received the Love of Learning Award from the University of Georgia's Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society. Mr. Chambers was selected for the award due to his "outstanding record of service and promotion of scholarship at Athens Academy, as well as in the greater community at large." As a life-long educator, Mr. Chambers believes that one's educational experience should be a journey of preparing for the future while enjoying the present.

Mr. Chambers has been involved with independent school education for over 45 years. With both undergraduate and graduate degrees from UGA, he began his teaching career at Pace Academy in Atlanta, where he later served as principal of the Upper School and as assistant headmaster. In 1983, he and his family came to Athens, where he has served as headmaster of Athens Academy for the past 29 years.

Mr. Chambers has served on the Board of Trustees of the National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS), the Southern Association of Independent Schools (SAIS), the Georgia Independent School Association (GISA), the Georgia High School Association (GHSA), and the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS). He was the founding member of The Cum Laude Society at both Pace Academy and Athens Academy. As the secondary school equivalent of Phi Beta Kappa, The Cum Laude
Society recognizes superior academic achievement and sound character.

The Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi is the nation's oldest, largest, and most selective all-discipline honor society. Founded in 1897, it supports chapters in nearly 300 colleges and universities. Notable members include former President Jimmy Carter, author John Grisham, astronaut Wendy Lawrence, and Netscape founder James Barksdale. Phi Kappa Phi's mission is to "recognize and promote academic excellence in all fields of higher education and to engage the community of scholars in service to others."
Pictured: Mr. and Mrs. Chambers following the ceremony on April 18.

Sociedad Honoraria Hispánica
Advisor: Mr. Carlos Arzabe
Front: Abigail Dillon, Katie Camp, Claudia Evaristo, Holly Williams, Nilu Vyas, Jessica Gross, Shannon Hodgson; back: Edward Tie, Kyle Mueller, Rooshi Patel, Ian Dawkins, Ethan Ruhl, Connor Guess, James Hylton; not pictured: JiWhan Sung, Austin Schulte, Brent Gelfand, Daniel Sullivan

Société Honoraire de Français
Advisor: Dr. Rachel Norwood
Anamaria Otalora-Garcia, Morgan Mason, Miranda Dahl; not pictured: Jennifer Cotton

Societas Latina Honoraria
Advisor: Mr. Will Hunter
Front: Annabelle Martin, Natalie Busener, Madeline Mullen, Rebecca Schofield; back: Alois Cerbu, Nick Rorabaugh, Darshan G. Parikh, Oliver Woodruff, Max Ruston, Myles LoParco

Athens Academy's Middle School is pleased to announce that eighth graders Sean and Colin Murphy have qualified for the Duke TIP Center for Summer Studies 2012. They were selected from over 2,000 applicants for the program and will participate in the "Marine Biology: Near Shore and Oceans" course at the Duke Marine Lab in Beaufort, North Carolina. The course will last three weeks, beginning mid-June.

Students who qualify for the Center for Summer Studies represent the highest-scoring students in Duke TIP's Seventh Grade Talent Search. The courses offered at the Center for Summer Studies are some of the most challenging and rigorous available to academically gifted students in the country.

Academic Team Wins State Championship!

On Saturday, March 24, the Athens Academy Academic Team departed from school at 5:30 a.m. with very bleary eyes, gearing up for a long day at the Single A State Academic Team competition at Bleckley County High School in Cochran, Georgia. After a rocky first two matches (winning one and losing the other), the team went on a tear for the final three games, finishing the prelims 4-1 and advancing to the playoffs with the #1 seed. Athens Academy beat Paideia School, 330-200, in the quarterfinals, then beat Whitefield Academy in the semifinals with a final score of 460-140. In the championship, the team faced off against The Walker School, finishing the day with a score of 350-170. Thanks to these performances, Athens Academy is the current state champion and was rewarded handsomely for their hard work with a massive trophy!

Athens Academy Literary Team Competes at Prince Avenue

On Monday, March 5, the Athens Academy Literary Team traveled to Prince Avenue Christian School to compete in the Region 8A Literary Competition, where they posted some impressive results. In the essay portion of the day, juniors Caroline Sanders and Jimmy Robinson both placed second, while in extemporaneous speaking and dramatic interpretation juniors Elyse Paneral and Jessica Gross each placed third, respectively. Junior Ward Archibald and senior Ben Burnum also competed and performed impressively. This year's alternate team members, sophomores Anna Candler Kimsey and Chris Marbut, and freshmen Caroline Robinson, Reid Walker, and Gordan Zhang, did not compete but were on hand to support the team.

Students Selected for Governor's Honors Program
Athens Academy juniors Houston Gaines and Jimmy Robinson have been selected to participate in the Georgia Governor's Honors Program (GHP).
GHP is a residential summer program for gifted and talented high school juniors and seniors. A function of the Georgia Department of Education, it takes place on the campus of Valdosta State University (VSU). The 2012 program will be the 49th summer, making it the longest continually running program of its kind in the nation.
More than 2900 students from across the state were interviewed and auditioned over three weekends in January and February, and from those nominees 690 finalists were chosen to participate in the 2012 program. Since the program is fully funded by the Georgia General Assembly, there is no charge for students to attend.
Students will arrive on the campus of VSU on Sunday, June 24. For four weeks, students will spend the morning in their major area of nomination, exploring topics not usually found in the regular high school classroom. During the afternoons, students choose one of the other areas in which to study. The curriculum in all the areas is challenging and engaging. Evenings are filled with seminars, activities, concerts, and performances.

Athens Academy Named President's Challenge Demonstration Center
Athens Academy has been selected to serve as a President's Challenge Demonstration Center by the President's Council on Fitness, Sports, and Nutrition. The award states, "By promoting physical activity and fitness your school serves as a role model to other schools within your community, state, and throughout the nation." Athens Academy is the only school in the state of Georgia to be selected for this honor.
"As more and more attention is paid to the principle of healthy activity being a crucial component for well rounded student development, we can all be proud that our students have many opportunities each day in physical education, recess, and the athletic program to reach for personal wellness," says Physical Education Department Chair Don Chuboff. "I would like to thank all of the instructors for their tireless work in creating, evaluating, and executing the program that we currently enjoy. Our parents, students, administration, teachers have all worked together to create a program which faithfully serves the mission statement of the school, assists and trains students in the concepts of fitness for life, consistently reaches and exceeds national best practices, and which is uniquely Athens Academy in its scope and sequence."

The Bone Marrow-thon was a Huge Success!
The final count from the 24-hour bone marrow drive was 2,938 swabs collected, beating the previous Guinness Book World Record of 2,400! The final count from the entire week, including drives at the Perfectly Polished events, the Chamber of Commerce reception, and the UGA sorority collections was 4,004 total swabs. Thanks to everybody who came out and made this drive a success.
For the latest updates and information on the Be A Hero For Kajal project, go to Facebook/beaheroforKajal.

Click here for the announcement of the World Record.
Statement from Athens Mayor Nancy Denson about the World Record.

Important Links:
The sixth grade Flash Mob at the University of Georgia.

"The Edge of Healing" video by the Class of 2018 and Mr. Drew Brantley--a must-see!

Bone Marrow-thon Event List (updated hourly)

Volunteer Sign Up Sheet

Kajal's Page on BeTheMatch.org (to order swab kits or find out more details on the registry)

Be A Hero for Kajal video

More to Come! Please feel free to share these and other links with friends and family.
Thank you!

Five students represented Athens Academy at the fifth annual High School Acting Competition sponsored by Georgia Shakespeare. Ben Burnum, Jennifer Cotton, Anna Candler Kimsey, Robert Leverett, and Chris Marbut competed against students from all across Georgia on Saturday, February 25, on the Oglethorpe University campus. For the fourth consecutive year, Athens Academy won the trophy for "First Place School," which includes a performance by the Georgia Shakespeare touring company this fall. In addition to the top school honors, senior Ben Burnum was awarded the bronze medal in the Male Monologue category. According to Drama Department Chair Lorraine Thompson, "This competition is an excellent way for students all across Georgia to celebrate the works of William Shakespeare."

The High School Acting Competition, held annually since 2008, brings together theatre students from schools across the state as they demonstrate their skills in monologue and scene work and compete for a full scholarship to Georgia Shakespeare's Summer Shakespeare Conservatory and more. Founded in 1985, Georgia Shakespeare is committed to assembling a professional company of local artists to bring a rotating repertory of Shakespeare performances to the state of Georgia.

Athens Academy is pleased to announce that four seniors have been named National Merit Finalists. Congratulations to Jenna Dorfman, Tavish Gantz, Robert Leverett, and Daniel West. They will be eligible to win Merit Scholarships this spring.

The National Merit® Scholarship Program is an academic competition for recognition and scholarships that began in 1955. High school students enter the National Merit Program by taking the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT®). Of the 1.4 million entrants, some 50,000 with the highest PSAT/NMSQT® Selection Index scores (critical reading + mathematics + writing skills scores) qualify for recognition in the National Merit® Scholarship Program.

On February 8, 43 Athens Academy students were inducted into the National Honor Society based on their qualities of scholarship, leadership, character, and service. The students were inducted following the 34th annual Schacht Lecture, which was delivered by Ross Mason, founder of the Healthcare Institute for Neuro-Recovery & Innovation (HINRI) and HealthTrain Ventures. An Athens Academy alumnus originally from Madison, Georgia, Mr. Mason became passionate about healthcare after volunteering at an AIDS hospital in Zambia and after a bicycle accident left him paralyzed from the collarbones down. In addition to his work with HINRI and HealthTrain, Mr. Mason is also a fellow of the Center for Health Transformation. The Schacht Lecture is named in honor of first life trustee, Dr. Elmer Schacht.

Congratulations to the students who were inducted into NHS: Kyle Adams, Prakash Agrawal, Walker Buchner, Logan Burdette, Natalie Busener, Katie Camp, Alois Cerbu, Jesse Conley, Miranda Dahl, Ian Dawkins, Claudia Evaristo, Brent Gelfand, Mykal Gerald, Connor Guess, Shannon Hodgson, Ben Hope, James Hylton, Anna Candler Kimsey, Abby Knight, Mark Leonard, Myles LoParco, Zander Mason, Kyle Mueller, Madeleine Mullen, Anamaria Otalora-Garcia, Darshan G. Parikh, Rooshi Patel, Abbey Pylant, Natalie Ray, Nick Rorabaugh, Haley Ruhl, Max Ruston, Michael Santamaria, Rebecca Schofield, Carly Settles, Jiwhan Sung, Edward Tie, Nilu Vyas, Holly Williams, Oliver Woodruff, Alex Young, Halie Zastre, and Angel Zha.

Congratulations to Athens Academy senior Torie Owers, who recently signed a National Letter of Intent with The University of California at Berkeley to continue her Track & Field career. Torie will participate in the Shot Put, Discus, and Hammer Throw. Go Spartans.....and Go Cal Bears!

Athens Academy's Mock Trial Team took top honors at the Region 2 competition Saturday, February 4, at the University of Georgia Law School. In addition to the regional win, several students were recognized for excellence: Ward Archibald and Karishma Sriram (Outstanding Attorneys), and Jessica Gross, Elizabeth Naclerio, Robert Leverett, and Nathan Iyer (Outstanding Witnesses). Karishma Sriram was also recognized as a four-year participant, and the team's senior attorney-coach, Ernie Harris, was recognized as Outstanding Coach. Mock Trial faculty advisor Alan Hickerson was pleased with the team's work: "They performed wonderfully throughout a long and stressful day."
Special thanks to the local attorneys who volunteer their time to help coach the team, including Mr. Harris, Art Archibald, Chris Conley, and David Ellison, and to the many parents and students who came out to support the team on Saturday.
Athens Academy will compete at the state mock trial tournament on March 17-18 in Lawrenceville.