At this year’s Honors Assembly, the Hamill Award (presented to that member of the senior class who has demonstrated positive leadership, combined with a high degree of excellence in academics and school activities, and consistently upheld the honor of the school) was earned by Nia Law. The Andrew William Cary Cup (senior chosen to deliver the Valedictory Address at Commencement) recipient was Vaughn Armour. The Faculty Prize (awarded to the graduating senior who has shown the most improvement in academics and in other hard-to-define areas such as character, attitude, physical development, emotional maturity, and citizenship) was shared by Patrick Daly and David Narayanan. And the Alumni Cup (given annually to the senior whose work has been characterized by the highest degree of independence of thought, originality, and genuine intellectual curiosity, irrespective of material incentives) went to Felicia Xiao. Complete coverage can be found in the event's photo gallery.

Join alumnus Avishar Barua '05, executive chef and general manager of Service Bar who was a cheftestant on this year's "Top Chef" television series, at 6pm (EDT) on Monday, August 16th, for a virtual cooking demonstration following a Q&A with upper school faculty member Pat Hogan about his time at Academy and his fascinating career path after graduation. This free event is exclusively available to members of the Columbus Academy community and is the latest installment of our ongoing "Continuing the Quest" series! Register and see more details at columbusacademy.org/ctqavisharbarua.

Rising seniors Soham Joshi and Raaghav Malik continue to garner awards and collect prizes for their invention of a multipurpose robotic glove designed to teach sign language through guided manual motion. At the 2021 Invention Convention U.S. Nationals last month, this duo received the Best of Show - Most Innovative honor from Raytheon Technologies in addition to the Specialty Award in Electronics from Arrow and Patent Award from WilmerHale.

The Parents Association of Columbus Academy (PACA) is offering the opportunity for ad sponsorship in its annual arts and sports programs. Ads are available for purchase in color or black-and-white (in full-, half- and quarter-page sizes) with a one-time price that gets your business or organization in all four publications for the upcoming school year. Click here to view the ad rate sheet. Each program is printed for the student-athletes, performing arts students and their families, and are made available digitally to the entire Academy community. If you or a business you know of may be interested in placing an ad in this year's programs, email communications coordinator Jeremy Morgan (morganj@columbusacademy.org) to secure a spot.

The next Viking Voice newsletter at the beginning of August will be our back-to-school edition containing information to help you get ready for 2021-22. For those of you who like to start preparing early, here are a few items that have already been shared:

In this year’s Scholastic Art & Writing Awards competition, Jia Jia Schottenstein won a national gold medal in photography and Olivia Pierre-Louis also claimed gold for a video in addition to The American Visions Medal for “work that centers around a specific issue affecting Americans today.” According to art teacher David Block, these were the first national gold medals for Columbus Academy students since 2013 and the first time in his 47 years at the school that two were earned in the same year! For more arts and music news, click on the following links:

As part of our Summer Experience program, “Feed the Need” is a two-week community service camp led by Academy faculty members Sarah Hansen and Anne Ramsey in which students work in small groups at a variety of Central Ohio sites to provide support to those in need. At each site, campers learn about the issues of hunger in our community and participate in a variety of tasks to help alleviate this significant social justice problem. On one day alone last week, over 200 families were served with the help of our Feed the Need campers (view photos)! For more examples of service learning in our community, click on the following links:

A trio of Columbus Academy student-athletes were named Player of the Year in their respective sports at the 2021 ThisWeekSports HS Awards Show (watch replay of the event at youtu.be/pAgdtU2tLcg): Stephen Ma for boys golf, Sydni Ratliff for girls tennis, and Regan Cornelius for field hockey! Regan also recently earned a $7,500 scholarship for being named the top female scholar-athlete by The Columbus Dispatch and was selected to attend USA Field Hockey's 2022 U-21 USWNT Selection Camp along with fellow alumna Kiersten Thomassey '20. Check out the links below for more sports news:

In mid-June, we gave a final farewell to Doug Bennett, who has served as Academy's Director of Facilities and Grounds since 2003 (watch video). Harland Young, who began in March as the assistant director to train under Doug for these past four months, has now stepped into the director role. Doug and his wife Leesa will be enjoying their well-earned retirement in Hilton Head. We can't thank them both enough for all they have contributed to our campus and community! Click on the following links for more news about Academy's outstanding educators: