6th Grade Overnight Trip Unites Advisories

The Class of 2021 loads up to head to Refreshing Mountain.

The sixth grade camping trip to Refreshing Mountain was the first really fun activity that the whole grade got to enjoy. It was a great opportunity for the sixth grade advisories to bond and really get to know each other better. Some of the activities were zip lining, rock-wall climbing, the swing, and group challenges. I thought that the best part of the whole trip was when the advisories were doing the swing and everyone was pulling one person from the advisory. That was my favorite part of the trip because it showed real team work and everyone was being collaborative in action. Overall, the whole trip was amazing. The only bad thing was that we had to leave. I had such a fun time and I hope the sixth grade gets to do something like it again.

~ Ariel H. ‘21

Ariel and her fellow archers take aim. The 6th grade spent two days and nights off campus.

 

GA-PC Day Through a Senior's Eyes

I have experienced fourteen Pep Rallies, fifty six hallway themes, and four years of Spirit Weeks. This year was my last year of these experiences. I could not have asked for more fun than running the halls of the entire school, decorating a hallway only to have it torn down in less than twenty four hours, or to storm the football field after a great game. I grew up watching my brother and sister

Seniors congregate in the Pavilion in preparation for the Senior Strut.

prepare for the famous hallway decorating, go to school in crazy outfits, and play on one of the most exciting days of the year. I looked forward to this week every year for the past four years and it will definitely be one of the things that I miss the most when I graduate this spring.

The weekend always starts off with an amazing performance by the GA Belfry. This year Little Shop of Horrors was one of the best yet. I have gone to each year’s show starting as a freshman and while this year’s was definitely one of the creepiest, I was still in awe with the talent of everyone involved. After the show, the students stayed to watch the videos that the varsity sports teams put together. Each team sits together and cheers on the other teams’ videos.

This GA-PC Day was the first in which I played on the field. The whole team put everything into the field hockey game, and we succeeded with a 1-0 win. Whether you were on the bench or on the field, we counted down to the last second and as soon as that buzzer rang, we all sprinted to our goalie and tackled her. As a team with ten seniors, the whole game was very emotional; it was the last game where all of us would play together. I will never forget the happiness and sadness that I experienced throughout that day.

Caroline and her senior teammates before their final regular season game.

Later on that day, as I watched the football game with friends I met in PreK and those I’ve only known since freshman year, I felt honored to stand beside the entire student body as we crept towards the goal posts. We counted down the last minutes of the game, cheered together, and anticipated storming the field. Finally, the buzzer rang on the last GA-PC Day of my high school career. We stormed the field as one, tackled each other and all felt the same happiness. The friends I have made here at GA will always be a part of me, because of the bonds and experiences we have gone through together during Spirit Week.

 

~ Caroline A. '15

Soccer Team Looks to Take Down Rival Quakers

GA-PC Day is my favorite day of the year and, as a senior on the soccer team, this year will be extra special. I love dressing up during Spirit Week and helping my class decorate our hallways on Thursday night, but my favorite part of the week is playing in the soccer game on Saturday morning. Leading up to GA-PC day, the soccer team bonds throughout the week. We make a pump-up video during the week and present it Friday night with the other fall teams’ videos. It’s always a fun time and almost all of the Upper School shows up. On Friday night, we also have a big pasta dinner together with our families before the big day. I have played in hundreds of soccer games throughout my soccer career, but playing on GA-PC Day is by far the most exciting. There is nothing like stepping on the field Saturday morning and seeing a mob of GA students, teachers, and alumni cheering you on. The games are always very intense and fast-paced. GA-PC day will be my last Inter-Ac game and I know I will leave everything on the field. I cannot wait until Saturday morning to beat Penn Charter!

 

~ James R. '15

 

James is eager to replicate last season's success on GA-PC Day.

Editor's note: The GA boys' soccer team's postseason came to an end against the Kiski School in the PAISAA state tournament. However, they have one more match against Penn Charter on November 8th as part of the annual GA-PC Day.

Freshman's First Spirit Week

Now that Pajama Day is over, I have officially begun my participation in the GA-PC Day Spirit Week. I walked into school on Monday morning owning my Angry Birds onesie, excited to see what other people decided to wear. I have grown up watching the Upper School get dressed up in wacky outfits every day leading up to the Pep Rally hoping that someday it would be me. It is finally my time. This is the most exciting week for the entire GA community because it really is a time where everyone can come together and have fun while being competitive.

This is also my first year playing in GA-PC Day. I am so excited to be a part of the day as an athlete because I have always loved going to watch the games.

Madison and her teammates listen to Coach Rader's early season advice.

I can’t wait for the rest of the week with country day, holiday day, and throwback decade day. Ultimately I am most excited to be a part of the games on Saturday and hopefully bringing GA one step closer to the win.

~ Madison P. '18







Editor's note: Madison, a freshman who came through GA's Middle School, is going through her first Spirit Week ahead of the annual GA-PC Day. She and her water polo teammates will take on Penn Charter as part of an all-sports day of competition. Learn more about GA-PC Day here.

Cross Country Senior Looks Back

Josh (left, in red) sprints from the starting line at Belmont Plateau.

As I finish off my year as a high school cross country runner, I look back at the year and realize that our team really persevered. I am so proud of myself and my teammates this year. Belmont Plateau is one of the hardest places to run a 5k, but the training that we have done this year really prepared us for this challenge. At the Inter-Ac Championships we placed 4th out of the 6 teams. I placed 6th out of 42 varsity runners, earning 1st team all Inter-Ac. I think the team, like me, had more in us. I finished my race at Belmont Plateau unsatisfied and ready for another go around in 6 days at the Pennsylvania Independent School Athletic Association Championships. This race, however, included 11 additional schools and 73 more runners. But knowing that this was my last high school race of this magnitude I knew that I couldn’t leave this race without putting everything on the line. The race begins and I feel strong and confident. It is just me and the race and along with me are supportive coaches and teammates cheering me on as I go. I fly through the race making every stride meaningful. I see the ropes that mark the end of the race and whatever was left in the tank I spent crossing that line. I walked through the chute knowing that I ran the race of my life. I ran 16 seconds faster than I did at Inter-Ac Championships with a time of 16:53 min and I got 6th place again, but this time out of 115 varsity runners.

GA's girls' cross country team cheers the boys on at the finish.

Earning1st team all-state was truly a special moment for me, but finding out that our team got 4th again, but this time out of 17 schools, was truly a big step forward for our team. I was truly proud of every one of our runners and I know that I not only left everything out on the table, but my team did as well. I celebrate with the team with chocolate milk and soft pretzels. I am happily overwhelmed by the high fives and the congratulations from my teammates and coaches after the race. As my high school cross country career comes to a close, I am so happy that I had the pleasure of, running, talking, getting to know and being the captain of this team. I know that when I leave, they will continue to do great things.
~ Josh H. '15

Editor's note: Josh and his teammates have one more race left, the traditional season-ending dual race against Penn Charter. That race, part of the full slate of sporting contest between the two school during the annual GA-PC Day, will be run Saturday, November 8th at 10:15 AM. Find out more about the day here.

Inter-Ac Interacts Through Leadership

Middle School Leads, a middle school leadership conference, took place on October 7^th on GA’s campus. The conference revolved around leadership, focusing on different aspects of what makes someone a great leader. Mr. Jay Wright, MS Health and Wellness Department Head, put this whole conference together. He recently came from teaching at the Haverford School and brought with him this idea of the leadership conference, which he collaborated with Mr. Brady, his former co-worker, about. When Mr. Wright asked me to be a part of this conference, I was undoubtedly very honored to be one of the 7 senior girls asked to participate from GA. Being given the opportunity to work with 5 senior girls from Baldwin, 12 senior boys from Haverford, and middle school students from within the Inter-Ac doesn’t happen every day. Mr. Wright and Mr. Brady briefed us beforehand, telling us the schedule of the day and our role in this conference. They stressed the purpose of being facilitators; we were to encourage every member of the group to speak up and make sure that everyone was heard. The 7 GA girls enjoyed the opportunity to work with our co-group leaders from Haverford. It really opened up my eyes to all the amazing different people that each and every school has to offer.

The schedule was as follows: Mr. Jeswald, the Interim Head of the Middle School, welcomed everyone, as we then broke off into our groups. A Haverford boy was paired with either a GA girl or a Baldwin girl, and these two senior leaders had roughly 8 to 10 kids in their group. Half the groups started with a Self-Awareness workshop lead by Ms. Wujcik from the Baldwin School, in which the students wrote their name on different posters around the room with different categories like Sibling or Artist or Athlete. This activity allowed the students to dig deep into the activities they were involved in and begin to understand and recognize their strengths because once you become aware of your strengths its important to try to use them in a beneficial way. The other half of the groups started with a Communication workshop led by Mr. Wright. This session created an interactive atmosphere where the students went to three different parts of the room based on what they thought the most important quality of leadership was; these three options were listening, nonverbal communication, and communicating with consistency. The students had the task of persuading those in the other two groups to join theirs, opening up the floor for a healthy debate that did encourage some movement from group to group. In the end, we came to the consensus that all three skills are important to being a successful and well-rounded leader.


Middle and Upper School students from across the Inter-Ac converged on GA as part of the leadership conference. Here, they engage in group activities around the Quad.

After these two workshops, Mr. Brady from the Haverford School led the teamwork sessions. The first activity was a ball activity where all members of the group had to pass the ball to the person next to them and say their name as fast as they could. My group started out standing in a circle and performing the task, getting a time of 9 seconds. But after discussion and reasoning, my group decided upon a ‘waterfall’ type of technique that eventually got our group to 2.8 seconds. The next activity was difficult for several of the groups, including mine; the students were asked to create the tallest structure they could out of spaghetti and tape, with a marshmallow at the top of the creation. These two activities challenged these kids who had never met before that day to work together in a productive way in order to accomplish their common goal.

The last workshop of the day prompted the students with a letter from their heads or deans, giving them a real issue from their individual school for which they were asked to come up with a solution. It allowed the students to rally with their school and utilize their strengths to form a probable solution. After this planning, a few representatives from each group presented their ideas to everyone.

This type of learning environment is exactly what I wish I got to experience in Middle School. I’m glad that I was able to be a part of this day and I hope that it will continue so that others can have the same opportunity. I was personally very impressed with the amount of passion and enthusiasm that these students had. They were fully engaged in every workshop and you could tell that they truly wanted to be there. It was inspiring for me, as a high school student who is only a few years older than these Middle School students, to see them so devoted that it gave me great hope for our future within the GA community and globally.

~ Kaela G. '15

Reflections on the End of a Career

With the onset of 12^th grade, the beginning of my fourteenth and final year at the Academy, I find that I’m caught in a whirlwind of nostalgia: the last first day, the last Pep Rally, the last time that I’ll have to twist my neck in contortionist angles for a school photograph. It’s often difficult to live in the moment, though, when I’m so focused on college, on looking back in order to look forward to the future. This year is an exciting time, nevertheless. I’m about to launch into the real world, and 12^th grade gives me the chance to tie a bow on what’s been a memorable childhood.

Senior year brings with it immense freedom. A science geek, I’ve been able to tailor my schedule to fit my interests, continuing courses in studio art and social sciences while enrolling in both Physics and Chemistry. These advanced science classes offer new challenges. Although often discomforting, the act of puzzling over difficult problems, often for hours, has immensely enriched my studies and enhanced my understandings overall – and I welcome the demands of these courses. There’s nothing more rewarding than when, after a night of erasing and reworking a Physics solution, my fragmented ideas come together and I grasp the notion of tension. GA recognizes and contributes to our new freedom as seniors, trusting us to maintain our new Senior Lounge, which, even after just a month, looks weathered and lived in. We all gather there often, listening to music or chatting about weekend football games.

As a student who’s been at GA since age four, it’s odd now to be top dog. I love to work with underclassmen and learn from them, and I’ve relished thus far mentoring (on social, emotional, and academic levels) freshman girls on the cross-country team.

Claudia and her fellow senior runners.

I’ve recruited a few of my younger teammates to write for The Edition, our student-run newspaper, which I head with a few other seniors. It’s been great to get them involved with a club that I’m so invested in. In fact, we’ve re-imagined The Edition altogether, integrating into it more international news stories and revitalizing its online twin, a blog called The Second Edition. I approach my work in this and other clubs keenly aware of both my seminal early-on experiences with them (in 9^th and 10^th grade) and opportunities for impactful change.

 Now with GA/PC Day on the horizon, I anticipate an unforgettable year ahead!

~ Claudia M. ‘15