Springside’s in-house tech gurus, iSITE, known within the school community for their go-to service answering any and all software or hardware questions, received the National Coalition of Girls’ Schools’ “Whitty Ransome” award at their annual conference this June. The group was named by Philadelphia magazine last September in their “best of” school issue under the “student techies” category. Their model also caught the attention of KYW News Radio education reporter Dr. Marciene Mattleman, who featured them in an on-air segment this past month. Read more...

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The innovative and transformative teaching practice of Middle School History teacher Hadley Ferguson has earned her several distinctions—just this spring. Learning and Leading with Technology, a magazine published by the International Society of Technology in Education, features an article written by Ferguson which addresses using Twitter as a teaching tool. In “Join the Flock!” she posits that if you’re not using Twitter, you’re missing out on the opportunity to connect with educators from around the world. She shows how you can build a professional learning network and watch links, blog posts, and other resources come to you.

Ferguson’s blog “Middle School Matrix” received an “Education Innovator Award” by eCollegeFinder, an organization dedicated to online education and learning technology. The blog was recognized as one of the the top 50 resources on the web that parallel the same goals of promoting the expansion of learning in new and innovative formats. “Your website has shown its commitment to the advancement of education, and this award is intended to celebrate your efforts and share your site with our visitors.” Read more...

From June 19 through July 4, five advanced French students and four faculty members are traveling and living in Senegal, West Africa as part of Springside's new French exchange program. Travel along with them and learn about their service efforts, girl-to-girl connections with Senagalese students, sightseeing trips, homestays with Senegalese families, cultural connections, and more. Visit our travel blog, Sénégalité.

Three Lower School girls have been invited to participate in the 76ers Junior Dancers—“the city’s most prestigious dance team for young dancers!” Congratulations to Cayla McElwee, Alexa Walls, and Alexia Lindsay! After 76ers Dance Camp this summer, the girls will have an opportunity to perform on the court at several Sixers games and represent the organization at other promotional events next year.  

The Math Olympiad—a yearlong international competition involving 150,000 students from around the world—requires participants to take five tests over the course of the school year. Olympiad participants, or “math-letes,” meet weekly to puzzle out challenging math problems. This year fifth grader Noëlle Goudy earned a pin for achieving a cumulative score that was in the top 10% of students in the fifth/sixth grade division. Michelle Klein and Sydney Caplan tied for first in the sixth grade class, earning both girls a trophy as well. Nine Springside students earned patches for placing in the top 50% of the fifth/sixth grade division: (sixth grade) Michelle Klein, Sydney Caplan, Maddie Megargee, Frankie Reitmeyer, Lauren Easley, Isabelle Zabriskie, and Betsy Sheppard; (fifth grade) Nicole Woo and Stephanie Bandura. 

The crew team traveled to Saratoga Springs, NY this weekend to participate in the Scholastic Rowing Championships. Springside’s Lightweight Double—comprised of Larissa Sfedu and Katie Fitzke—came in 5th and the Varsity Quad—with Verity Walsh, Taylor Apostolico, Jennifer Sager, Anna Valciukas—came in 3rd place! Congratulations to our crew athletes on their outstanding performance.

With an overall record of 16-5 and a league record of 10-2, the team defeated Penn Charter yesterday (9-5) to secure the victory and championship. It was a great team effort. Congratulations to the softball team for a fantastic season!

“Challenged to ease challenges of others,” featured on the front page of the Local News section of the Philadelphia Inquirer, illustrates our students’ work to use applied physics and design concepts to find solutions for the disabled. The ingenuity, creativity, and engineering behind an adaptive device which allows United Cerebral Palsy clients to operate the popular Wii was just featured in a new column called “Class Acts,” which highlights stories “On the Leading Edge of Education.” Click here to read article by Kathy Boccella.

Marcia Pelchat, Ph.D., the 2010 Florence Kleckner Scientist in Residence and an Associate Member of the Monell Chemical Senses Center, spent two days working with students in science labs that explored everything from flavor to taste adaptation, the relationship between taste and smell, cravings, nutrition, picky eating, and addictions. Dr. Pelchat’s major research interest is the development and modification of food and beverage preferences in humans. She shared her research with 17 teachers, including those from Philadelphia School District, South Jersey and Delaware County, in an afternoon workshop entitled, “What’s Wrong With My Juice? The Biochemistry and Psychology of Taste and Smell.”

Competing against approximately 2,200 students in grades 7-12 from all over Pennsylvania, all 14 ninth graders from Springside who attended the Pennsylvania Junior Academy of Science State competition received awards. The girls had already received a 1st place award at the PJAS regional meeting in February. Congratulations to everyone for a great culminating experience after a year's worth of hard work: (1st place) Ashley Beggin, Emily Eisler, Kylie Grow, Madison LaSorda, Rachel Zuckerman; (2nd place) Paris Baldante, Mackenzie Ballentyne, Anna Rose Bedrosian, Kelsea Brewer, Mia Gold, Katie Phillips, Chelsea Richardson, Emily Silverman; (3rd place) Marguerite Zabriskie.

In a competition featuring over 150 videos from nine other area high schools, senior Elizabeth Yaffe took third place in the Experimental category of the Greenfield Youth Film Festival with her video “Regardless of Time.” In addition to a hefty trophy and a $250 scholarship, Elizabeth enjoyed a packed house at the Keswick Theater (over 1,000) for her film and remarks by filmmaker and Temple professor Dustin Morrow who, when announcing her award, stated that it was his “favorite movie of the whole festival.” View her movie at the link above and check back later for other festival winners on the Festival’s YouTube channel. (She is pictured here with teacher Dr. Ellen Fishman-Johnson.)

Congratulations to Courtney Caputo, the recipient of this year’s Springside Aimee Willard Award. Given by the Girls’ Inter-Academic League, the Award is in memory of Aimee Willard from the 1992 class at the Academy of Notre Dame, and presented annually to a senior girl from each Inter-Ac school who has been a multi-sport varsity athlete and has exemplified the characteristics that made Aimee Willard so special. “Honorees should be clearly outstanding in their sports, team leaders, show excellent sportsmanship, be intense, focused, tenacious, coachable, and proud to be representing their school.” Springside honored Courtney Caputo, a soccer, basketball, and lacrosse player. Courtney will continue her lacrosse career next year at Georgetown University. She is pictured (left) with Coach Sara McIntyre.

Springside School took fifth place—in the country—in the Earth Day Challenge contest sponosred by The Green Schools Alliance, Cisco’s One Million Acts of Green Program, and GreenNexxus.  Springside students and faculty logged 2,362 “Acts of Green,” which in turn saved 672,305 lbs. of greenhouse gases. When we all do one act, we act as one, and help the planet. (Click on the link above to see what YOU can do!)

Springside’s Mary Brownell, Middle School Civilizations teacher and reading specialist, is the winner of the 2010 Ellen LaForge Poetry prize, a prestigious national honor bestowed as part of National Poetry Month. Read more...

Eleven students placed in the top 10 percent of the Greater Philadelphia region for the National French Exam this spring; four of the 11 also placed nationally. Felicitations go to Kathryn Saltzman, Karah Barrist, Finola Goudy (national winner), Melanie Rankin, Leah Beight, Sarah Schacht, Alexandra DeGeorge, Allison Smith (national winner), Cecelia Charendoff, Melissa Moxey (national winner), Alexandra Middleberg. (Missing is regional and national winner Elizabeth McClafferty.)

The Johns Hopkins University Center for Talented Youth has named Springside as one of PA’s top 100 schools. “Participating at high levels in the annual CTY Talent Search reflects upon the school’s academic quality, student abilities, and teacher talent. It also reflects upon the school leadership that encourages students to seek out educational challenges beyond traditional school walls.”

Springside 11th grade Biology students earned 50% of the possible medals in the categories that they entered in the 2010 George Washington Carver Science Fair. They were competing against 11th and 12th grade students from Central, Masterman, Science Learning Academy, Engineering and Sciences, and a variety of other public, private, parochial, and charter schools. Awards were presented recently at the Academy of Natural Sciences and medal winners will advance to the regional Delaware Valley Science Fair in April.  Read more...

Springside had the opportunity to preside over the Opening Bell ceremony at NASDAQ MarketSite on Times Square in New York City on March 1. Trustees, alumnae, and parents shared the moment as Dr. Sands rang the bell on a clarion call for education. View our slideshow...  View the YouTube video...

Every girl in the 9th grade Honors Physics class received either a first or second place award for the projects they presented in the Pennsylvania Junior Academy of Science regional competition at Bensalem High School. The first place winners will have the opportunity to compete in the state competition at Penn State University in the spring. For a complete list of winners and their projects, click here...

Springside has “Flipped the Switch” on the largest solar array in the City of Philadelphia!  Nearly 10,000 square feet of solar panels blanket the roof of the Vare Field House. Students, alumnae, parents, trustees, and comunity friends shared the historic moment with a school-wide celebration of the school's GREEN footprints. 
Read about the event on Philly.com's Green Space ...
Read Dr. Sands' remarks...
View the photo gallery from the "Flip the Switch" Celebration...