On March 23, Juliette Anderson '29 won the 77th annual New Mexico State Spelling Bee! The competition lasted through several dozen rounds over five hours, and ended with Juliette's correct spelling of the word "vizierial." In May, she will travel to Washington, DC to compete in the Scripps National Spelling Bee. Congratulations on this amazing achievement, Juliette!

Mo Charnot, Santa Fe Reporter

This semester, juniors and seniors in Lisa Nordstrum's Women of the Southwest class have worked on individual research projects focusing on significant women in New Mexico history. Inspired and mentored by Kansas-based artist Liza MacKinnon, students crafted paper dresses to represent their research subjects. On March 14, these culminating projects were presented at an event held at the historic Acequia Madre House. "I find it’s really important to get students off campus, in archives and doing primary source research," Lisa says of her project-based approach to teaching the upper school elective course. The dresses are now on display in the Prep lobby; stop by and check them out!

Over the first weekend of spring break, Prep's two mock trial teams competed in the state competition, following a successful run at regionals in February. This year marks the first time Prep has fielded a mock trial team, and the students had a great time preparing and arguing both the defense and prosecution of their cases. At the conclusion of the state competition, Luke Benanav '25, Clara Hastings '25, and Fritz Murray '25 were all honored with distinguished witness awards — more than any other school!

Last week in Ms. Masoni's World History I class, guest speaker and filmmaker Terry Ngo shared her bicultural Vietnamese American perspective with the 9th graders. Guided by Terry’s inquiries into bicultural identities, from language to cultural heritage, students reflected on their own experiences and compared monocultural situations in areas with low diversity to more cosmopolitan places. These conversations were contextualized through the lens of culturally aware and responsive citizenship, as defined in Prep's Portrait of a Graduate. If you would like to learn more about Terry and her work, her latest documentary film — Santa Fe Resident Too, about a retired Black opera singer — will screen this month at the Santa Fe Film Festival.

Spring sports are in full swing, with our student athletes setting personal best times and breaking school records from the track to the tennis court!

↳ Over the weekend, girls lacrosse traveled to Colorado to play Palmer High and Liberty High. Two wins maintained their undefeated streak, which dates back to the beginning of last season. Catch them in action this Saturday, April 13 at the Duke City Play Day at Balloon Fiesta Park; varsity will play at 12:30pm and JV at 2:30pm.

↳ Recent track and field meets have seen Prep athletes set PRs (Pippa Barrett '26, Olive Biedscheid '26, and Nathan Santiaguillo '26) qualify for State (Sophia Bair '26, Pippa, Tyler Goering '26, and Cyrus Hnasko '25), and top the podium (Sophia, Emery Kurth '24, and the boys 4x800 relay). This Friday, April 12, the team will travel to Rio Rancho to compete in Cleveland High's Storm Relays; events kick off at 3pm.

↳ Prep's varsity tennis teams competed at the Capital High Invite last weekend, where Henry Land '25 won the boys tournament. This weekend, the teams will travel to Albuquerque Academy; match times TBD.

↳ Our boys and girls golf teams will be back in action this coming Monday, April 15 for a meet at the New Mexico Tech course in Socorro. Best of luck to all our golfers!

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

Upcoming Rummage drop-off dates are this Thursday, April 11 (9-9:30am and 3-3:30pm) and Saturday, April 13 (10-11:30am). Donations can also be made during school hours through Friday, April 19 while the sale is being set up in the gym. Please contact Anna or Leza with any questions or to arrange an alternative drop-off time.

The Rummage Committee is also seeking donations of brown paper bags, shopping bags, and/or eco-bags. Please bring any you can spare to the front desk.

And volunteers are still needed, particularly for clean-up after the sale on Saturday, April 20. Please sign up here. Thank you for contributing to this special community event!

Monthly Meetings

The next regular PA meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, April 17, at 9am in the Library Classroom. All parents and guardians are invited to attend!

Will Cook '24

On Tuesday, April 23, Prep will host a spring visual arts and literary night on campus. Join us first in the Meem for a showing of 2nd semester student artwork, then in the library for middle and upper school readings and the unveiling of the 2023-24 Skirmisher!

• 4-5pm: Visual Art Exhibit (Meem)

• 5-6pm: MS Reading (Library)

• 6-7pm: US Reading (Library)

Thursday, May 2 @ 6pm

Capital Coal Neighborhood Eatery

326 S Guadalupe St

Join the Prep community for an entertaining evening to benefit student athletes! Tickets are $100 per person, with all proceeds going to Prep Athletics. Parent and faculty teams will compete for Best Fitness Routine and your votes. Click here to purchase event and vote tickets to support your favorite team!

Join the College Counseling Department for these upcoming events.

↳ Thursday, April 11; 2:30-4pm

Case Studies with College Admission Representatives (Library)

Junior parents are welcome to join us for the annual Junior Case Study event. College reps from around the country will be on campus to walk through a mock admission committee with students and parents. Parents, please RSVP ahead here. 

↳ Monday, April 22; 5:30-6:30pm

College Counseling Presents: Mythbusters! (Founders' Room)

Join College Counseling for a special event geared towards parents of middle schoolers, 9th graders, and 10th graders. This is the time to get your college admission questions answered and discuss trends you're hearing about in the media. 

On Saturday, April 20, La Cueva High in Albuquerque will host the annual Youth Celebrate Diversity conference. Hundreds of students and teachers from schools across the state will gather for discussions and workshops on such topics as social justice, student activism, and inclusion. If you are interested in attending, please fill out this interest form.