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Senior Katie DeGennaro signed her National Letter of Intent to play field hockey next year at College of the Holy Cross. Katie was a four-year starter and two-year captain of the field hockey team at Springside. She is also the president of the school’s Athletic Association.

After collaborating for over a month, eighth graders Finola Goudy, Marta Peters, and Corinne Leard earned a special award for “Best Indoor Environment” at the 15th Annual Philadelphia Regional Future City Science Competition in January. To participate in the competition, the girls had to build a city using SimCity software, write a 1,000-word research essay on green building techniques and the role of the engineer, write a 350-word essay describing the computer model of the city, build a scale model of a portion of the city using as many recycled materials as possible, and present their work before a panel of judges at the competition. Read more...  

Springside’s Middle School select choir, Musica Mundi (“Music of the World”) was honored to perform in advance of The Soweto Gospel Choir at the Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts recently. Our 25-member choir performed a selection of songs from around the world in the lobby of the Annenberg Center. At the close of the performance, the Springside student choir appeared on stage to present knitted blankets to the Soweto Choir for an orphanage in South Africa.  Read more...  View photo gallery...

Students from Springside and CHA’s Advanced Drawing, Design and Painting class are enjoying prime time on the Avenue with an exhibition in the storefront windows on the corner of Willow Grove and Germantown Avenues (Baker Street side). This undertaking, "Project Sketchbook," has been organized by the Chestnut Hill Business Association and the Chestnut Hill Community Association to help fill empty retail windows. Click here for photo gallery...

Honoring the work of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. with a "Day On," Springside students supported 23 different organizations throughout the Philadelphia region. Click here for photo gallery of projects...

Junior Annie Maxwell was one of over 400 high school students who auditioned for The Pennsylvania Music Educators Association District 12 Orchestra and Band Festivals at Unionville High School. Annie, a violinist, was selected for the District 12 Orchestra Festival, which will be held at Cardinal O'Hara High School in Springfield, PA on January 16. Annie will also have the opportunity to audition for the Regional Orchestra while attending this festival. Good luck, Annie!

Five Springside students—fourth grade student Zamiah Taylor, eighth grader Lizzie McClafferty, and seniors Katie DeGennaro, Lindsay Hope, and Lindsay Yang—have their artwork on display in “Celebrating Creativity,” a citywide art show which runs through January 22 at the Moore College of Art and Design. Honors went to Taylor, whose bejeweled necklace won first place in the fourth grade category, and Lizzie McClafferty, whose copper and painted mask won second place in the eighth grade category. (Click thumbnail image to see works.) Read more...

Students on the Middle School Athletic Association Board raised over $250 before the holidays to purchase a goat for a family in need through Heifer International. The funds, raised through a weeklong candy cane sale, also enabled them to provide several flocks of chickens for a family abroad.

Stephanie Bandura took the stage at the Academy of Music as Marie in Pennsylvania Ballet’s annual performance of George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker. Over Thanksgiving, she had the thrill of performing at the Kennedy Center in Washington—the first time that Balanchine’s classic choreography had been performed in DC. Enjoy the story of Stephanie and cast from The Philadelphia Inquirer (11/27/09) “Notching several firsts in the capital—Pa. Ballet takes its ‘Nutcracker’ to D.C.”...  and also “Tiny Dancer has her dream role in ‘Nutcracker’” (12/24/09). 

Springside and CHA students helped launch the holiday season on Rittenhouse Square this week. The Upper School Chamber Singers performed; Taz, the CHASS robot, entertained people of all ages; and Lower School students were onstage to “help” light the tree! Click here to watch the “CHASS Comes to Rittenhouse Square” video! Click here for a gallery with more photos.

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...

The award-winning CHASS Robotics team competed against 35 other robotics teams from the area at Wissahickon High School’s Ramp Riot. This competition marks the last time that “Taz,” the CHASS robot that finished 3rd in the world, will officially appear. Read more...

Springside's super shooter Katie Rutan, from the Class of 2009, is burning up the court for Xavier University.  Read more...

Thanks to the generosity of the Class of 1957, The Peace Train pulled into Springside in November to the delight of the entire Middle School. The message of music and peaceful coexistence, seen through the lens of those who grew up under the inglorious apartheid system of South Africa, was powerful for our students. Read more...

Five members of the Class of 2010 have committed to play Division I athletics next year for three different sports—lacrosse, field hockey, and crew. The school celebrated the achievements of these scholar-athletes at a signing celebration recently.  View photo gallery...

The Video Production class enjoyed an insider’s view of the WHYY studios, meeting Philadelphia radio legend Ed Cunningham and touring the studio. Cunningham shared his expertise with students as he critiqued their interview videos and then showed the class the new control booth for the TV station, the editing booths, and the radio sound studios. Marty Moss-Coane was preparing for a “Radio Times” interview in one of the sound studios, and they were thrilled to hear the live show on the ride back to school.

The coordinate program of Springside School and Chestnut Hill Academy had 29 students who earned AP Scholar Awards given by the College Board in recognition of their exceptional achievement on the college-level Advanced Placement Program Exams.  Read more...

For the fifth year Springside students gathered to form a living ribbon—this year, pink and teal—as a visible statement of their support for cancer efforts. Fundraising this year will be shared between Springside’s Komen 3-day walkers, The American Cancer Society, The Breast Cancer Research Foundation, and The Melanie Finley Ovarian Cancer Foundation (SS ’97).
 

If you have driven down Cherokee Street and noticed a web of pipes on the façade of the school building between the art and science wings, you have no doubt marveled at the Springside School Rain Wall and Garden. Recently, we gathered to dedicate the work of environmental sculptor, environmental activist, educator, artist, and now Springside partner, Stacy Levy. Read more...

Athletic Trainer Aimee Keough and Katie DeGennaro, 12th grader and Athletic Association board head, organized a group of students who donned Springside “FIGHT” shirts and “Find the Cure” bracelets and walked five miles as a team on October 11 in support of The American Cancer Society’s fight against breast cancer. Kudos to Katie DeGennaro, Colleen Caldwell, Courtney Caputo, Ainsley Healy, Louise Hearn, Maddi Hinchey, Lily Nason, Gianna Pownell, Chelsea Richardson, Erica Schneer, and Morgan Schneer for joining 5,000 participants on a beautiful, chilly Sunday morning in Center City and making strides for a good cause.

Due to their outstanding performance on the ERB tests this past spring—95% or higher amongst those who took the ERB tests (or equivalent) nationwide—34% of the current 7th grade and 52% of the 8th grade qualified to take the SAT or ACT through Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth (CTY). The Talent Search identifies, assesses, and recognizes students with exceptional mathematical and/or verbal reasoning abilities. Read more...

The new Physics and Engineering Lab opened with visits by local preschoolers and Springside's Lower School girls ready to explore concepts of balance, speed, motion, light, energy in a space dedicated to their questions. At every station in the lab, our youngest students build their scientific and technological fluency for the 21st century. Read more...

The Deborah Beeler ’64 Fund “supports the development of an ethic of service and civic responsibility by inviting and funding an annual speaker whose life reflects the same and who can communicate that to young people.” This year Springside was pleased to host Robert E. Kaufmann, a long-time friend of Springside School, a former head of Deerfield Academy, a former director of actor/philanthropist Paul Newman’s Hole in the Wall Gang Camps for seriously ill children, and current head of Fairfield Country Day School. Read more...

With September designated as National Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month, Springside was pleased to welcome back alumna Melanie Finley, from the Class of 1997, to share her story with students in the Upper School. Melanie is an ovarian cancer survivor and has started the Melanie Finley Ovarian Cancer Foundation to raise money for ovarian cancer education and direct financial assistance to young women who have been diagnosed with the disease. Ninth grade students helped spread the word by painting “Raise Awareness” on the crosswalk at school. Click for more photos ...

Our unique iSITE group—Springside’s own student Genius Bar—received three impressive accolades over the summer. Most recently, they were recognized by Philadelphia magazine under the category of “Student Techies.” Earlier in the summer the National Coalition of Girls’ Schools awarded them their prize for “New Media.” In June, iSITE was selected to present at the National Educational Computing Conference where they shared their model for providing technology support and training for the Springside community. This year the group will double in size and take on even more challenges as they help integrate technology throughout the school.

Springside won first place in the National Coalition of Girls’ Schools’ “Hooray for Us” New Media contest. Springside’s student-run “genius bar” called iSITE and the Springside Ning and Ning promotional video earned the school the award, which was conferred at the annual conference of the coalition in June. The coalition, NCGS, is comprised of 137 schools for girls in the U.S. and internationally.

Science department chair Scott Stein was named the 2009 Outstanding Biology Teacher of the Year for Pennsylvania by the National Association of Biology Teachers! Head of School Dr. Sands comments, “This is an amazing achievement for Scott, for his department, and for Springside and CHA. Scott has been a strong advocate for continuing to push his practice, his students, and his own learning and we celebrate this extraordinary accomplishment.” Stein was previously named the 2007-2008 Delaware Valley Outstanding Science Teacher.