Congratulations to Columbus Academy seniors Hannah Clay, Ebube Nwoke, Jordan Pace, Tsega Seleshi and Javier Sais on being selected as College Board National Recognition Program Scholars! All five of them scored among the top 2.5% of PSAT test-takers nationwide, and this honor enables them to highlight their outstanding educational achievements to top colleges and universities.

For the first time, Columbus Academy arranged with Board of Elections for Franklin, Delaware and Licking counties to provide seniors (Cooper Schnitzer, Olivia Pierre-Louis, CJ Leet, Jahnea Potts, Laura Campbell, Patrick Daly, Bea Sull, David Narayanan, Miles Walter, Lauren Motta, William Heywood, Ashwini Gunawardena, Nischal Chennuru, Regina Ortiz, Sophia Sommer, Cal Wade, Nia Law, Chloe Gouhin & Caroline Bloomfield) and faculty members (Charity White, Pedro Mena, Dr. Suzanne Ritter & John Wourinen '80) as poll workers. David was even interviewed by ABC6 on election day!

Prospective families are welcome to join us for a Lower School Virtual Open House at 6 p.m. tonight (Tuesday, December 1st) to learn about our Explorers Program through Grade 5 (register here). Also, we invite everyone to watch a new video featuring our Early Childhood Program as Associate Head of Lower School Brelle Farrenkopf gives an inside look at the day-to-day happenings for our youngest students!

Veterans Day began with a solemn morning ceremony in our Senior Quad with the symbolic ringing of the school bell 502 times to honor the 495 alumni and 7 current faculty/staff members who have served in the U.S. armed forces, ending with "America the Beautiful" sung by Academy's Camerata. The day also included classroom visits by veterans to receive thank-you notes and to share their military experiences. Thank you to all who have served admirably and sacrificed on behalf of our country!

In a mid-November email, Head of School Melissa Soderberg shared a link to this video by Quest, an upper school group founded in 1968 to showcase the talent of Columbus Academy students beyond their academic performance by exploring the depth of their artistic and literary achievements. "Since Quest cannot hold their annual Art Fair in person, they created a video featuring photography, 2-D pieces, ceramics and live performances," wrote Dr. Pascal Losambe in his instructions to upper-schoolers, who watched it during advisory. "A big shout-out to Ms. Stout, Felicia Xiao, Nia Law and the whole Quest crew!"

In case you missed all of the creative costumes our students and teachers wore to school this year, check out the photo gallery. Without a schoolwide parade to enjoy this year, our faculty had to get a little creative in coming up with activities to celebrate Halloween on campus. Our middle-schoolers were sent on a scavenger hunt to look for yellow, green and orange pumpkins made out of construction paper that were placed throughout our wooded areas.

In late October, our Upper School Pep Band decided to hold a mini-concert outside on Hondros Field, much to the delight of our students, faculty and staff who were able to enjoy the nice fall weather! We thank band director Jessica Sneeringer and assistant band director Susan O'Rourke, as well as the band students, for helping to make a bright spot in everyone's day (video highlights).

Dionte' Johnson, owner of a boutique store in the Short North, recently visited campus to benefit from ideas provided by Academy students in Beth Reifeis' "Writing in the Market" class. Students researched and offered solutions to help Sole Classics maintain and improve its social media presence as well as spread the word about the store throughout the community and beyond. For more community life news, click on the following links:

We are grateful for everyone who contributed in some way to our Kids 4 Kids food drive that made this a better Thanksgiving for others in our community. Our annual service learning project included setting up collection boxes that were distributed to each classroom on campus, sorting all of the food donations, preparing selections for each family, hosting a “sleep out” when upper-schoolers and volunteers worked throughout the evening and heard from Academy parent Alissa Lopez (principal at Royal Manor Elementary School in Gahanna where 10 families received care packages), and then the actual loading up and delivery to the Childhood League. Our student-run Service Board now has plans in place to create “Blessings/Little Pantry” boxes near campus that it will stock on a weekly basis to keep providing support to the local community year-round. More on this to come!

Our athletics department has been thrilled to have Ohio State basketball player CJ Walker as an intern throughout this fall. Pictured here with Academy athletic director Jason Singleton, CJ has been gaining experience in all elements of running a school athletic program, including doing some of the live-streaming that has enabled our families and fans to enjoy watching live game action while attendance at events has been severely limited due to the ongoing pandemic. According to Jason: "CJ has been a great addition to the Columbus Academy Athletics Department. Being an elite student-athlete, it's great to see CJ using that same work ethic in a professional setting. He will be very successful in whatever he decides to pursue when he finishes playing basketball." CJ's senior season as a starting guard for the Buckeyes began with a pair of wins last week. His internship with us will wrap up in early December at the conclusion of his academic semester. Click on the links below for more sports news:

We are excited to officially announce two new faculty members: Kelsey Ingle, online learning coordinator for grades 4-5, and 5th/9th grade art teacher Jennifer Jenkins. Also, click on the following links for more news about Academy's outstanding educators: