In April, Prep middle schoolers participated in the 44th annual Danny Maas Run. Held at El Rancho de las Golondrinas, the run raised over $22,000 for an endowment that helps families in northern New Mexico with children undergoing cancer treatment. To raise that money, students and teachers ran a cumulative total of 1,101 miles! Congratulations and thank you to all who participated, and to La Choza and Chef Eduardo for donating food for the post-race banquet!

Marley Belyeu '26

Last week, The Lensic hosted the Future Voices Festival, honoring student photography and film. 19 schools from across the state participated in the annual competition co-sponsored by Santa Fe Photographic Workshops, and Prep students took home 19 awards for photography. Congratulations to Marley Belyeu '26, Luke Benanav '25, TJ Boyle '24, Asha Davis '25, Crystal Hong '25, Ethan James '25, Rita Kunkel '24, Thomas Leon-Lubowicz '27, Oliver Martin '27, Fritz Murray '25, Max Nerzig '26, Ethan Quintana De Andres '25, Ethan Riebsomer '25, Harper Rosen '27, Tessa Tiegler '27, and Oliver Winkler '25.

Each year, the Aldo Leopold Writing Contest awards 6th-12th grade students in New Mexico for essays written on such topics as climate disruption, biodiversity loss, the growing demand for fresh water, and other pressing global conservation issues. Of the three awards given to essays written by 10th-12th graders across the state, Colette Lee '25 and Andrea Voinescu '25 won two of them! Their essays were written as part of the nature writing unit in Drew Walker's 11th-grade English class. Collette received the First Place David E. Stuart Humanitarian Award for Special Merit, and Andrea was awarded the Estella B. Leopold Memorial Award for Creativity. Read more about the contest and both essays here. Congratulations, Collette and Andrea!

The annual Supercomputing Challenge — a year-long competitive program open to middle and high school students in New Mexico — is often referred to as an academic marathon. Following this year's expo, four Prep students were awarded for their culminating presentations. The overall award for Third Place went to Nandita Ganesan '24, Luke Rand '26, and Greta Swanson '24 for their project titled Computational Hydrodynamic Analysis for Speed Maximization (CHASM); Camila Carreon '26 received the Environmental Modeling Award for her presentation on System Approach to Artificial Light at Night (ALAN). Congratulations to all! If you're interested in participating in next year's Challenge, please reach out to sponsor Jocelyne Comstock.

9th graders in World History I recently traveled the world at the Museum of International Folk Art, exploring cultural artifacts and building inspiration for their own museum exhibits, which range from the steppes of Mongolia to the shores of New Zealand. Students discovered that what they see and learn in the classroom can also be found within the museum's collection. As World History teacher Gabriella Masoni notes, the Italian proverb Tutto il mondo è paese (the whole world is a hometown) rings true in the interconnectedness of humanity across time and place. Check out the students' museum exhibit projects now on display in the lobby of the Admin building.

As the spring sports season draws to a close, there is much to celebrate from our athletic teams!

↳ Congratulations to Santa Fe Girls Lacrosse, which has officially concluded its second consecutive undefeated season! 

↳ Following an impressive showing at the district tennis tournament — Jackson Friedland '25 and Henry Kaufman '25 were district champions in boys doubles, Andrea Voinescu '25 placed second in girls singles, Rhys Harvey '27 and Hannah Kaufman '28 placed second in girls doubles, and our boys team was named district champion for the third year in a row — all five individuals and both the boys and girls teams moved on to compete at the state competition. Congratulations to Andrea for her third-place overall finish, Jackson and Henry for their second-place finish, and all of our tennis players for an incredible season!

↳ The state track and field championships saw a second-place overall finish from our girls team, as well as numerous podium finishes and new school records set. On the field, Nicole Gonzales '24 was Prep's first ever state champion in the shot put, with a school record throw of 34ft, 2.25in! On the track, the girls placed second in both the 4x800m and 4x200m relays and were 4x100m state champions with a new Prep record time of 51.31 seconds. Sophia Bair '26 also set school records in the 1600m (5:30.12) and 3200m (11:52.71) races. In the boys competition, the 4x100m relay team's second-place time of 43.96 seconds was only eight hundredths of a second off the first-place finish. Amazing job, Blue Griffins!

↳ Boys golf district champion William Babcock '25 and Jazmin Leardsakulphasuk '24 (second place at districts) are currently competing in the second day of the state golf championship competition at New Mexico Tech in Socorro. Best of luck to both of them!

SFP Monthly News is distributed August-June to all school parents, students, and faculty and staff. Please send story ideas to news@sfprep.org. 

Rummage Sale

We are excited to announce that this year's Rummage Sale raised a grand total of $19,555! This money will go to support Breakthrough Santa Fe and tuition assistance at Prep. Thank you to all who volunteered and contributed to this important community event!

Monthly Meetings

The final PA meeting of the school year is tomorrow, Wednesday, May 15, at 9am in the Library Classroom. All parents and guardians are invited to attend!

Don't miss this year's Middle School Musical Theatre Class performance of Matlida Jr. The children are rising up — join the revolt in this Broadway Junior adaptation of the Tony Award-winning hit!

Friday, May 17 @ 7pm

Saturday, May 18 @ 2pm

*Free Admission*

While running our Miele coffee machine raffle in April, we received 40 new gifts from Prep parents to the annual fund! This month, we will be raffling "date nights" at a few favorite Santa Fe restaurants. If you make a gift to the annual fund before next Friday, May 24, you will be entered to win:

If you have already given to the annual fund, you are automatically entered to win! Thank you for your support of our school!

We are excited to share some of our end-of-year events via livestream. If you or a loved one are unable to attend in person, please use the following links to join us virtually!

↳ Upper School Awards Assembly

Wednesday, May 15,1:30pm

↳ 8th Grade Promotion

Thursday, May 30, 10am

↳ Commencement

Friday, May 31, 10am

The annual Santa Fe Prep Summer Reading Challenge kicks off this week with new bingo squares and an all-new list of suggested reads for both middle and upper school students! An enthusiastic committee of current 7th and 8th graders offered their favorite books for the middle school newsletter and devised new bingo square ideas. Local bookstore gift certificates will be raffled for completed bingo boards at the end of the summer.

Students can also check out books from the Prep library at the end of the school year and return them in August! Stop by the library with any questions or to pick up a bingo board.

As part of the final unit in their "Once Upon a Time" storytelling elective this semester, seniors watched and discussed season one of the hit television series Dark Winds. To conclude the unit, students were treated to a presentation from Dark Winds actor and writer DezBaa' — an acclaimed filmmaker, writer, professor, and citizen of the Navajo (Diné) Nation born and based in Santa Fe. Currently the Director of Tribal Relations at Northern New Mexico College, DezBaa' spoke with the students about adapting Dark Winds from Tony Hillerman's book series for the screen. Learn more about DezBaa’ at dezbaa.com.

The Youth Celebrate Diversity conference has been postponed and will now be held in the fall of 2024. Our DEIJ team will share details on timing at the beginning of next school year.

Prep alum (and daughter of our own Sarah Stark) Liza Doyle '17 is currently celebrating her first solo art show, BONEPLANT, at Santa Fe's Hollander Gallery. The show — which highlights Liza's belief that humans and nature are part of the same intertwining network — is on display through this Sunday, May 19. Read more about Liza and her art at her website!