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We look forward to seeing you on campus. Good afternoon, I enjoyed meeting many of you earlier this week at our first Lower School Parent Visit and look forward to opportunities to gather at other events over the next few months. In order for you and your family to get a glimpse into life at Hockaday, we encourage you to visit our campus, if you are able. We have parent visits throughout the year that allow parents to see classes in action. Additionally, we welcome the whole family to visit Hockaday for the Middle and Upper School Admission Preview on October 21 and/or the Inclusion and Community Panel and Reception on January 13. Click here or on the image below to register for an event.
In the last few weeks, the Lower School students have enjoyed playing on the new playground and I know the zip line is a favorite among the girls! The Hockaday and St. Mark's Parents' Associations hosted "Super Fun Day" on our campus for boys and girls Prekindergarten through Fourth grade complete with laser tag, bounce houses and other games with prizes. On Monday, the Prekindergarten and Kindergarten/Primer girls sang fun songs with parents at the first of many "Rotunda Rocks".
Additionally, the Boarding students met their Boarder Buddy families at the Residence Picnic, the Cross Country team posted their season's best times at the Ken Garland 5K and placed 3rd out of 13 teams, and the Upper School girls hosted a successful club fair. The Upper School Fine Arts Board meets tomorrow to organize a student works showcase of monologues and scenes directed and produced by students. Today, the Fifth graders are about to head out to Balcones Springs for their annual trip and the eighth graders have started collaborating on their annual musical, The Wizard of Oz, which is open to the public on Wednesday, October 24 at 6:00 p.m. I look forward to seeing you on campus soon.
Hockaday is a dynamic community and we welcome you to come to see us in action!
All My Best, Maryanna Phipps
Director of Admission and Enrollment Management
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A note from Dr. Karen Warren Coleman, Eugene McDermott Head of School I am especially pleased to tell you about the soon-to-launch Hockaday Institute for Social Impact. Led by Executive Director Laura Day, the Institute is a distinctive approach among independent schools across the country. It uses the power of engaged, hands-on learning to prepare our students for leadership in their communities, workplaces, and society. Building on our longstanding partnerships and successful program of community engagement in Dallas and beyond, the Institute allows students to engage with diverse partners, learn from civic leaders, tackle projects with community impact, and put their creative ideas into action for lasting social benefit. You’ll be hearing more about the Institute as it gets underway this fall.
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20 Students Advance as National Merit SemifinalistsThe Hockaday School proudly recognizes 20 students who will advance as semifinalists in the 64th annual National Merit Scholarship Program, a national academic competition for recognition and scholarship that began in 1955.
The community celebrates these seniors' achievement. They have worked tirelessly to take every advantage offered by the educational opportunities at Hockaday and are lauded for their commitment to academic excellence. These students were chosen from approximately 1.6 million juniors in more than 22,000 high schools by taking the 2017 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test. This year, more than 16,000 semifinalists have been named in the United States, and these individuals now have the opportunity to continue in the competition for some 7,500 National Merit Scholarship awards, worth approximately $32 million. To be considered for the finalist designation, students must have an outstanding academic record throughout upper school, be endorsed and recommended by an upper school official, write an essay, and earn SAT® scores that confirm their prior performance on the qualifying test. The National Merit Scholarship recipients will be announced in April 2019, and these scholarship recipients will join more than 330,000 other distinguished individuals who have earned the Merit Scholar title.
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| Explore Hockaday's new Lower School playground by clicking on the video below.
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Curious about an All-Girls School vs. a Co-ed School?
We see the benefits of an all-girl environment on a daily basis at Hockaday. There is research collected by the National Coalition of Girls Schools to show that a single-sex classroom provides girls with a safe place to explore their limitless potential. Click the video below to learn more.
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Hockaday Alumnae in Politics
Hockaday has a Women in Politics Speaker Series where alumnae speak to current students about their work. Last week, Katie Payne '14, Finance Director for Collin Allred, Democratic nominee for Congress in Texas’ 32nd District and Grace Gilker '14, Communications Director for Justin Nelson, Democratic nominee for Texas Attorney General spoke to Upper School Students. They both worked on political campaigns and shared how well Hockaday prepared them to work hard for civic change. Current students asked lots of questions about their journey to get there.
In other news, Celese Gierhart has recently been appointed by Mayor Rawlings to represent him and District 15 on the Youth Commission. In this position, she will be working alongside fourteen other boys and girls from each district all across Dallas. Throughout her next two years as a commissioner, Celese will hold town halls, organize city events, implement new projects in her district, and work to improve the city of Dallas.
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Hockadaisies Visit MIT for 10th annual Math Prize for Girls Competition
On Sunday, September 23, the 10th annual Math Prize for Girls competition was held at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). The Math Prize for Girls competition’s goal is to promote gender equity in the STEM professions and to encourage young women with the exceptional potential to become mathematical and scientific leaders. This competition is a welcome change for our students who are used to competing in male-dominated math competitions.
Each year, students must apply and if the students earn a certain qualifying score on the American Mathematics Competition (AMC), then the students are invited to attend. This year, the US Math Club had the following three representatives competing in the prestigious math competition.
There were a total of 285 girls from the United States or Canada and they had two and a half hours to complete a 20 question examination. It is an honor to be invited to this competition to compete against the best high school female mathematicians.
In addition, the night before the competition, the students got to meet Stephen Wolfram creator of Mathematica, Wolfram|Alpha and the Wolfram Language; the author of A New Kind of Science; and the founder and CEO of Wolfram Research and get a signed copy of one of his books. Also, while in Boston, the students visited two alumnae, Mary Zhong ’15 and Lydia Li ’16 who both attend MIT.
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