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Every year, seniors have the option to end school a month early and participate in a senior project. Seniors must submit a proposal in the fall that has to get approved by the Senior Project Committee. If accepted, seniors end school at the end of April and are excused from classes and finals. At the end of May, the students participating in senior projects present to a group and share what they have done. This year, my brother is building a desk out of wood for his senior project. Other projects include writing research papers, photo projects, baking, etc. He is finishing his academics today and he will start to build his desk this weekend. It is a very exciting time ...
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Currently in it's third successful year, the Summer Grant program is funding student run and initiated projects over the summer. The process starts with an application, where you tell the PA Grant Committee (made up of members of the Parents Association) and your dean what kind of project you want to do, what materials you'll need, and what kind of advising you may want. This program is really great because it gives kids (and even some faculty!) the chance to explore all these different interests outside of school! Projects range from building a surfboard to creating your own shoes from pictures and memories. This summer, I am going to be building my own laser projection microscope. The basics of how it ...
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The track season ends (for us anyway) on May 20th, with a few exclusive meets afterwards. It's been a great season and so far my best 400M time is 55.1 seconds. We got some new additions to the track team this year, Tristan and Neiko, who ran a 53.3 and a 53.5 yesterday, respectively. Another blogger, Vera, ran 2:39 800M and set a new personal record. Track, admittedly, is incredibly hard and you feel sick to your stomach before every practice. But we all do it because we love the feeling of finishing a hard practice and then having that hard work pay off in a meet. The end of the year is coming up (we take our finals in ...
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Hey guys! It's been a while since we had a blogging session! I've been pretty busy these past few weeks with track, the term paper and a bunch of other things. But anyway, the term paper is due next Monday and although I feel that I'm in pretty good shape, I still can't help but feel anxious and that I'm not going to have time to finish my last edits, add extra quotes, etc. On another note, track has been going really well! Everyone on the girls team has improved a lot, and I'm really excited for Ivy Champs!
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I just got back from Spain and it was amazing!! I spent a week with a family doing a home stay, where I learned a lot more about their culture and just the difference between conversational Spanish and "classroom" Spanish. The first morning I woke up, it definitely felt different going into "Spanish" mode, but by the end I really enjoyed speaking in Spanish and it definitely felt more natural by the end! (Shows what just a week can do when studying a language!) I did everything from visiting a zoo and zip lining to seeing peacocks in the park and going to the beach. Some of the biggest differences were the more relaxed time schedule (10:00 dinners) and that ...
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We just got back from Spring Break and I'm not too sure how I feel about that. It's not that I don't love school, I just love my bed more. I've had a few minor assessments in the last few days but it hasn't been that rough. Yesterday we had an assembly that was different than usual. We all (the Upper School) sat in the gym in a circle and stood up to show that our answer to an asked question was yes. Some of the questions had to do with race, religion, and nationality. Other, more difficult questions, dealt with financial situation and sexual orientation. The whole exercise was silent and the point was to reflect on who among ...
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Hey guys! We just got back from spring break. I knew that after break there would be more pressure and work, but after three days I've already had so many tests, quizzes and papers. Also, we have the term paper now so that adds a lot of stress to everything. But one thing I'm looking forward to is beginning track meets! I'm really excited about just getting on the track and beginning to actually run the races and just compete! There's only about two months of school left which seems crazy but it also feels like a really long stretch of time. But I always really like these last two months because the weather becomes really nice which makes everything so ...
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In about two or so weeks, twenty-five students will make the annual the trip to New Orleans, Louisiana. The trip is lead by the Head of Middle School, Milton Sipp. The trip has been running for three years already. I have been on the trip the past two years. The trip itself is usually three or four days. We usually spend a day or two touring around the city of New Orleans, going to the French Quarter Festival and visiting the Lower Ninth Ward. The other days are spent working on a service project helping to restore houses in the Lower Ninth Ward. Last year, we painted and restored a front porch. We work with an organization called Beacon of ...
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During the year at Riverdale, many students participate in electives and mini courses. Electives meet four times every week, the same as a normal class. Mini courses, on the other hand, meet only twice per week. There are a variety of topics ranging from cancer biology to journalism to many other topics. The teachers for these courses are very interesting, even Mr. Randolph teaches a course! During the second semester, I am in the Cancer Bio class with Dr. Cox which meets twice a week. We have short homework assignments like reading a cancer article or reading in our cancer book. Every class, two students lead a discussion about our reading assignments for that class. We sit in a circle ...
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For as long as I can remember my brother and I have always gone to Riverdale. We both started in kindergarten with Ms. Mahoney. He is currently a senior and I am a sophomore. Next year, he is going to Cornell University in Ithaca. I know I will miss seeing him in the hallways at school and spending time at home. It will be odd to be an only child and home and not have my brother there. I will definitely go up to visit him and I hope he will come back to visit often! Russell will have a great time and I wish him all the best!
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