To launch Black History Month today, our Office of Diversity and Community Life is offering various programming to teachers in each division. An example in our Lower School is this Dream Readers mentorship project that promotes literacy by showcasing mentors of color reading diverse children's picture books and highlighting their personal talents. All of the Dream Readers weekly videos this month will feature Black students and parents from our school's MOSAIC affinity group.

“After attending the opening night production of The Glass Menagerie, both my wife and I were in tears,” said faculty member Chris Bolognese about our upper school fall play that was finally able to be staged early last month. “The production and performance were so incredibly well done. Bravo to Scott Dillon, the performers and the crew for such a thoughtful production.” To watch a scene by the cast featuring Sejal Jindal, Maddie Kazatsky, Colin Harrison and Ryan Reagan, click here. And to see a scene featuring a cast consisting of Rosie Gruber, Kate Fornshell, Raaghuv Vazirani and Ryan Reagan, click here. Coverage of the recently performed middle school show will be shared soon on social media and in the next Viking Voice.

Our senior-kindergarten buddy program stretches back several decades and is often mentioned as one of the most prized memories from an Academy experience. Although this year’s seniors were not paired with their kindergarten buddies until mid-fall, and only via zoom so far, they have already started creating bonds with them. Activities have included show-and-tell and, most recently, kindergartners cutting out and then decorating paper snowflakes while listening to directions and encouragement from their senior buddies (view photos).

Save the date for a fun, casual fundraising event hosted virtually via Zoom by our Parents' Association at 7:00 p.m. on Saturday, February 27th. Wine on High, a Short North shop owned by Academy alumna and parent Sheila Trautner '98 will provide wine and nonalcoholic options for a guided wine tasting session with her shop's in-house sommelier Meghan Hardgrove. Charcuterie options to pair with your beverages will also be available for purchase. More details about the event, cost and registration will be coming soon.

MOSAIC invites the entire school community to join its "Celebration of Excellence & Entrepreneurship." The 2:30 p.m. program is designed for lower school families and features 12-year-old entrepreneur Te'Lario Watkins of Tiger Farm Mushrooms. The 3:00 p.m. event is geared to all adults, as well as to middle- and upper-schoolers, and features a discussion with various entrepreneurs including Academy alumnus Ryan Williams '08, president and co-founder of Jopwell, who was named to Forbes 30 Under 30 list in 2018. Mark your calendars for this exciting event! Zoom link and more details to come.

As a part of our advertising partnership with the Dispatch Media Group, one of the Columbus Dispatch reporters interviewed Head of School Melissa Soderberg and wrote this article about how the school's response to the COVID-19 pandemic has appealed to parents who are prioritizing different things in their children's education.

Columbus Academy juniors Soham Joshi and Raaghav Malik will be representing Ohio at the 2021 Invention Convention national competition this summer! Soham, who is the spokesperson for this award-winning duo that we highlighted last fall, was recently featured in this video with state senator Tina Maharath celebrating Kid Inventors' Day. Also last month, he was interviewed on NPR's "All Sides with Ann Fisher" to talk about their invention of a robotic glove that helps people learn and communicate in sign language. To listen to the "Tech Tuesday" segment, visit https://t.co/jucWxSIJmo?amp=1 and then click on the Listen button and go to the 13:54 mark of the show.

Viking Corner's website reopened for shopping today (Monday, February 1st) with in-store shopping available again this Thursday, February 4th. Thank you for your patience as the store's staff of volunteer parents completed inventory throughout the month of January. To reserve a spot for in-store shopping on Thursdays, click here.

In honor of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Academy kindergartner Gabby R. decided on her own to make a poster celebrating him and his message for kindness and anti-racism. According to her teacher Ms. Quinn, “I thought it would be worth sharing to show that what we are doing and what we are talking about matters to these young kids. They make the future look so bright.” Also included in this gallery are glimpses of just some of the events to honor Dr. King’s legacy such as first-graders decorating a tree with their wishes for the future, Explorers creating a beautiful “Colors of Us” collage of their handprints resembling their skin tones, and a combination of both Service Board members and Latin students meeting on campus to make blankets for Project Linus and provide food (814 handmade rolls and over 10 loaves of fresh bread) to the Faith Mission homeless shelter. For more community life news, click on the following links:

You may remember our school sharing the news in September of 2019 that Academy upper-schooler Sarah Silver had met with State Representative Don Manning, who at the time was vice chair of the Ohio House Health Committee, to advocate for mandating readily available epinephrine auto-injectors in schools. Before he died in March of 2020, Manning connected Sarah with former Rep. Dave Greenspan, who had been working on the Allison Rose Act to create food allergy training at schools. According to this article, Greenspan helped Sarah incorporate her ideas into the act, which was signed by Governor Mike DeWine last month!

“This is an elite group of student-athletes who are going to be able to go on and play at the next level,” Director of Athletics Jason Singleton said while introducing eight Columbus Academy seniors who have committed to join college sports programs this winter (view photos). In addition to five other members of our Class of 2021 who already signed in the fall, Vaughn Armour will play football at Amherst College, Vassar Barney will join the men’s lacrosse program at Centre College, Chloe Gouhin will fence at Columbia University, Brady Hess will continue his football career at Carnegie Mellon University, Robert Mills will play football at Washington University in St. Louis, Jack Madison will join the men’s tennis team at Colorado College, Katie Schiano will play women’s soccer at Bucknell University and Carolyn Tsung will join the women’s tennis program at Washington University in St. Louis. Click on the links below for more sports news:

"With the return of icy and snow-covered roads, please pay close attention to the road conditions and speed limits in and around our campus. This is especially important during morning dropoff and afternoon pickup. Make sure you are watching out for one another and adjusting to the road conditions. Another area to be mindful of is the Beecher Road entrance to our campus. Please be aware of and courteous to the residents who live on Beecher Road as they back out of or pull into their driveways. Let's all be safe and be good neighbors." ~ Tim Williams