The Upper School Theatre Company at The Kinkaid School proudly presents The Miracle Worker, by William Gibson, in the Brown Auditorium on Saturday, October 18 at 7 p.m. and Sunday, October 19 at 4:00 p.m.  Both productions will be sign-language interpreted by interns from the ASL interpreter program at the University of Houston.  Produced by special arrangement with Samuel French, Inc.   Recommend for ages 9+

Few stories reveal the courage and resilience of the human spirit as well as The Miracle Worker.   This family drama is based on the story of young Helen Keller, deaf and blind since infancy, and her heroic teacher, Annie Sullivan, who struggles to reach into Helen's isolation and bring her into contact with the outside world. 

The director, Michelle Ludwig, is excited to share this powerful story with the community and comments: “'Grit' is a popular buzz word in education these days, but I can't think of a better model for this "new" concept than the historical figures of Annie Sullivan and Helen Keller.  It's been so inspiring to work on this show and remind myself and my students of the power of perseverance.”

7^th and 8^th grade students at The Kinkaid School are preparing to see the play by reading it in their English classes.  To understand more about the challenges of being deaf and blind, several classes recently had a Skype conversation with Jaimi Lard, a graduate from the Perkins School in Boston, an institution deeply connected with Helen Keller’s story.  Jonathan Frumovitz, a 7^th grade student who attended, is looking forward to seeing the production: “I’ve learned how difficult it must have been to break through the barrier between Helen and her understanding that everything has a name. I am looking forward to watching the play here at Kinkaid and seeing the actors perform Helen's ‘A-ha’ moment."  

Allison Reynolds ’15 plays Annie Sullivan: “Annie Sullivan is a dynamic woman.  The best part of discovering this character has been to find the balance between her confidence and determination to teach Helen and the lightness in which she handles the Kellers. This show really is beautiful and Annie is truly inspiring. “ 

The six primary roles in the show have been double-cast: 

October 18, 7:00 pm features: Margaret Durning, Alex Eastman, Alex Goeringer, Rebecca Noel, Meagan Roberts and Evan Rosen. 



October 19, 4:00 pm features: Eloise Detmering, Ty Doran, Lily Fitzpatrick, Christina Oti, Harrison Poe and Allison Reynolds.

Tickets are $10 and may be purchased at the door or in advance by contacting the Box Office at 713.243.5442/ box.office@kinkaid.org

Over the last three weeks, the debate team competed at two strong local tournaments and traveled to Chicago.

The Kinkaid debate team took advantage of the long weekend by traveling to Chicago to compete at the New Trier Township High School tournament.  New Trier THS hosted a 'mid-major' of high school debate.  There were 102 teams in attendance representing 36 schools from 14 states.  The tournament only offers a policy division, and the top 8 teams receive bids to the prestigious Tournament of Champions (TOC) sponsored by the University of Kentucky. 

The team found significant success including:

• Sophomores Sam Richey and Sabrina Bajwa reached the top 8 (quarter-finals) of the tournament.  They received a bid to the TOC (reserved for the top 72 teams in the country).  They were 5-1 in prelims, and they beat the best from St. Marks School (Dallas), West Des Moines Valley (Iowa), Glenbrook North School (Chicago) and Glenbrook South (Chicago). 
• Senior Reece Rosenthal and junior Arjun Reddy placed in the top 16 (octo-finals), losing a very close debate on a 2-1 decision to Walter Payton College Prep (Chicago).  Reece and Arjun went undefeated and were the top seed coming out of preliminary rounds. 
• Reece was awarded the 2nd overall speaker of the tournament (out of 204 individuals), and Arjun was awarded the 13th speaker. 
  
  

The same weekend, Kinkaid took a big team, both middle and upper school, to the local tournament sponsored by Cypress Lakes High School.  Thirty competitive schools from throughout Houston attended the tournament.  Jason Courville coached the team to significant success including:

• Varsity Lincoln-Douglas - Sophomore Jason Yang received 2nd place.  Jason received significant points towards qualifying for the Texas Forensics Association State tournament.  Kinkaid had two more in the top 8 (quarterfinals) including sophomore Vivian Liu and junior Alex Kalai. Sophomore Anvi Nandish was also in the top 16 (octo-finals).
• Novice Lincoln-Douglas - first year Jack Beaver placed 2nd. 
• Championship public forum - First-year team of Minhhy Truong and Lauren Ho reached the top 8. 

Finally, on the weekend of September 26-27, the team went to Cypress Woods HS, one of the most competitive local tournaments.  There were 58 schools in attendance.  The team’s successes were:

• Varsity policy debate - Junior Sita Yerramsetti and Senior Rikki Bleiweiss reached the semi-finals, losing a close debate to Taylor HS (Katy). 
• Varsity Lincoln-Douglas - Kinkaid had three debaters who placed in the top 32.  They all lost in that round.  The LD debaters who placed include Junior Emma Hanan, Sophomore Vivian Liu, and first year David Liang.
• Novice Lincoln-Douglas - first year Christos Papandreau reached the top 16. 

Next weekend, the team splits up to travel to three locations - Bronx High School of Sciences (NY), St. Marks School (Dallas), and locally at Bellaire High School.  Tyler Gamble will be representing Kinkaid at the Bronx HS of Sciences round robin, largely considered the most competitive Lincoln-Douglas round robin in the country. 

Thanks to everyone who supports the team including, but not limited to, the staff who ensured our safe travel, the teachers who teach the debaters, the coaches who work with the students, and the parents who provide endless well wishes and snacks. 

-- Eric Emerson, Upper School Debate Coach

On Saturday, November 1, READ3Zero, the literacy non-profit organization, honored students nationwide at a luncheon and book-signing event for this year’s winners of the I Write Short Stories by Kids for Kids contest and celebrated the organization’s fifth anniversary. The luncheon was emceed by Deborah Duncan of Great Day Houston, and parent of Kinkaid alumni Neil Bush ’73 (fs) served as the keynote speaker.

Two Kinkaid students Sofia Bajwa ’20 and Gina Guerra ’15 entered the creative writing contest and their pieces were selected for publication in the anthology. For Sofia this is her third piece of writing that was included in the annual publication. Gina received the Editor’s Choice Award for her short story Snow Problem.

Congratulations to Sofia and Gina!

The Backyard Project shares Kinkaid's amazing natural space with students from other schools, bringing science to life in the great outdoors. In October, Kinkaid students led fifth graders from Baker-Ripley Elementary School as they explored the Backyard's ecosystem at four learning centers: a leaf station, where students measured and observed leaves; a light station, where students measured the amount of light in an area with a light meter; a soil station, where students used special kits to test the acidity of soil; and a biodiversity station, where students observed the incredible array of living and nonliving elements in the Backyard. Everyone had such a great time that plans are already underway for a visit from Baker-Ripley fourth graders, our next team of Backyard explorers!

The Upper and Middle School bands attended the ATSSB Region Band Auditions on November 8 & 9.

Winning a seat in the Region Band means that the student will perform in the All-Region Band on November 15 in Kinkaid's Brown Auditorium. Conductor of the HS Band will be Robert Sheldon, a world famous composer/clinician and Concert Band Editor of Alfred Publications.

The following students won places in the Region Band and many of them placed high enough to go to the next level, Area, and audition for a place in the Texas All-State Band. 

Paula Ajumobi, bass clarinet - Region/Area
James Bay, trombone - Region
Carolyn Bell, clarinet - Region
Noah Chan, French horn - Region
Willy DuCharme, tenor sax - Region/Area
Nicholas Fernandez, flute - Region/Area
TX Harris, bass clarinet - Region/Area
Nicholas Ho, French horn - Region
Saef Iftikhar, percussion - Region/Area
Kanika Kumar, flute- Region/Area
Kunal Kumar, clarinet - Region
Neeshali Odhav, flute - Region/Area
Drew Perlman, percussion, Region
Tarun Srinivasan, clarinet - Region/Area
Faizan Razak, trombone - Region
Jason Yang, oboe - Region/Area
Eric Yu, clarinet - Region/Area

On Saturday, November 15, six Kinkaid students from all three divisions presented at Episcopal High School as part of TEDxYouthEHSHouston. This event was part of the fifth annual TEDxYouthday where students gather at sites around the globe to share their passions and spread ideas to spark deep conversations and connections. The theme of this year’s event was “Worlds Imagined.”

Ethan Fang '21 shared why it is important to remember the past and challenged the audience to make the world a better place through the elimination of war and by treating each other with respect. Noah Rubinson '20 shared a personal story and asked students to create connections with people with special needs in order to learn more about yourself. Suraj Pandit '21 discussed the other side of martial arts and how the non-fighting aspects of this activity support traits exemplified by Kinkaid’s core values. Our youngest presenter, Baley Metclaf '23, asked us to see the world through the eyes of reptiles and reconsider their role in our lives. Zach Roubein '16 challenged the age-old notion that we should read instead of watch tv, making the argument that dramatic television allows students to grapple with many moral and ethical dilemmas via the storylines these shows develop. Lastly, Bradlee Few '16 asked us to imagine a world without childhood obesity and provided some alternatives to help combat this issue.

Within a few weeks, these student talks will be posted so that members of the Kinkaid community and the world can view. Congratulations to all of these students!

This weekend 19 Model UN students competed at Central Texas Model UN (CTMUN) in Austin. All students competed well and three students won the award of "Commended Speaker" for their performances. Congratulations to:

Kaveh Badrei ’16 for playing the role of Lin Biao in The Chinese Civil War

Noah Pintar ’17 for playing the role of US Senator Maria Cantwell

Zubair Mukhi ’17 for playing the role of Li Zongren in The Chinese Civil War

A small group of the Model UN group will be traveling to Budapest for a Model UN Conference hosted by Yale University over the Thanksgiving break. Good luck to those students! 

On Sunday, November 23, ABC Channel 13 featured Claire McCarthy's ’15 volunteer project at Nora's Home.  Nora’s Home was established for organ transplant patients and their families to recuperate after surgery in Houston.

Claire’s project involves painting tiles with the patients.  Once the artwork is completed, Claire brings them to Kinkaid where they are fired in the School’s kiln for completion.  The tiles are then placed on wall at Nora’s Home.  In addition to the currently established wall, the center is expanding their facility with 20 additional rooms, which will include a tile wall as well. 

Please click on the video link below to watch the Channel 13 feature. 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQF5TMwRyBw

This fall, Martha House '16 took her love of fly fishing and created a wonderful nonprofit organization called Catch and Give. The first annual Fish-A-Thon tournament raised over $30,000 for the Children's Community School in the small town of Ennis, Montana. With an operating budget around $60,000, the funds raised this fall are truly life changing for the school and town. Martha's organization was featured in December issue of Houston Magazine Buzz.

Read her story below! 

http://tanglewoodbuzz.com/2014/12/buzz-kidz-by-martha-house-age-17/

Kinkaid recently had the unique opportunity of hosting adults with special needs from the Brookwood Community.  Upper School student volunteers talked and interacted with the Brookwood citizens while having fun exploring nature right here in Kinkaid's Backyard!  By buddying up, students really had some great fellowship with the citizens. "I felt a little anxious before interacting with the citizens since I had never really worked with adults with special needs before, but by the end of this event, I felt very comfortable socializing with them and really enjoyed myself" said sophomore Noah Pintar.  Senior Nicholas Ho commented, "It was really cool to see how much they appreciated us and genuinely enjoyed what we were doing with them."  After the visit to the Backyard, the students and citizens had a great time showing their falcon spirit and cheering on the JV Girls Basketball team! 

Written by, Grant Martin '15

Mathew Morico ’15, Amy Pascoe ’15 and John Pederson ’15 were 2014 recipients of the W.T. and Louise J. Moran Foundation’s Young Philanthropist Award for their excellence and dedication in volunteer service to the Houston Museum of Natural Science.  

As recipients of the award, the students were given the opportunity by the Moran Foundation to select an item for the Museum’s permanent collection.  The three Kinkaid seniors met with the HMNS curator and they chose a very special fossilized shell to display in the Malacology section of the Museum.

Congratulations to these three seniors!

Over the Thanksgiving holiday, eight Model UN students, Aliza Kajani ’16, Neeshali Odhav ’16, Jeel Mehta ’16, Mary Caroline Scofield ’16, Kylie Lohrenz ’16, Welcome Wilson ’16, Tarun Srinivasan ’16 and Rahul Popat ’17 and their teacher sponsors, Mrs. Wainright and Ms.Ellis, headed across the Atlantic to attend the Yale Model Government Europe Conference in Budapest, Hungary.

The students did an excellent job representing one of the three American schools at the conference and came home with a greater understanding of how European governments function after role playing various European politicians and a US NATO representative.

Aliza Kajani was selected to write for the conference Press Corps. This was an amazing experience, as the students were also able to enjoy some of the nearby sights during their stay. A highlight of the trip was a visit to Bratislava, Slovakia. 

In the final week of interim term, "The Kinkaid Apprentice" class has been hard at work developing their own businesses and marketing them.  A group of students' company "Cookies and Cocoa", need a celebrity spokesperson to help promote.  Lindsey Siff '16, a member of the team, tracked down Texans Quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick to see if he would fill the spot.  While the initial answer was no, the group never expected to see Fitzpatrick and his family show up on Wednesday to help promote the company.

ABC Channel 13 featured the story on their Thursday afternoon news report. 

Click here to watch the ABC 13 video clip!

Please congratulate the following Upper and Middle School students who won honors for this year's Scholastic Art and Writing Regional Competition. The Harris County Region received over 1290 submissions this year and awarded 80 gold keys. The work of the gold key recipients will move on to the national competition, which will report the winners in March. 

Art 

Gold Key
Eren Baysal-Photography
Christina Choi-Painting
Morgan Daniel-Photography

Silver Key
Halle Brazda-Photography
Christina Choi-Painting
Charlotte de Marigny-Printmaking
Claire McCarthy-Sculpture
Kristine Yang-Drawing

Honorable Mention
Whitney Burke-Drawing
John Churay-Drawing
Amy Das-Art Portfolio
Robin Kate Davis-Photography X2
Emmy Heyser-Printmaking
Clay Pollock-Drawing
Brooks Thornton-Sculpture

Writing

Gold Key
Emily Ashworth (for an 8-piece portfolio)
Kendyl Bree
Allison Dyer (for an 8-piece portfolio)
John Pederson
Hallie Perlman (for an 8-piece portfolio)

Silver Key
Catherine Baker
Katherine Berman
Andreea Calin
Allison Dyer
Joseph Edwards
Bradlee Few
Zach Roubein
Natalie Thurman

Honorable Mention
Halle Brazda
Emily Grinstead
William Miner
Catalina Parra
Hallie Perlman (for two submissions)
Mitali Sharma

Middle School Honorees
Writing
Caroline Grey Marinell - Gold
Onuchi Ndee - Silver

Art
Sophie Ghauri - Photography - Gold
Sophie Ghauri - Digital - Honorable Mention 

Kinkaid recently learned that Emily Paul ’15 performed extremely well on her AP Spanish Language and Culture exam in May 2014. As many know, Advanced Placement Exam scores are reported on a five-point scale, where five is the equivalent to a grade of A in the corresponding college course. Emily not only received the top score of five – but she answered every multiple-choice question correctly and earned full points on the free-response section of the exam. She is one of only 91 students in the world to do so on the AP Spanish Language and Culture exam!

Please congratulate Emily on this extraordinary feat! 

Varsity wrestlers Noah Chan '18 and Colin Lawler '18 both took first place at the Prep State Wrestling Championship held at McKinney Christian Academy, February 20-21, 2014.  Chan, wrestling in the 138 lb. class, won all three of his matches to take the gold.  Chan pinned Matthew Baker of St. Thomas H.S. in the first round.  He next met Jackson Fitzgerald of Episcopal School Dallas in the second round and pinned him in the the second period to advance to the championship.  Chan, who had previously defeated St. Mark's Blake Spangler to win the SPC championship, again defeated Spangler 17-4 to win the State Championship.  Chan was voted Most Outstanding Wrester by the coaches in attendance.  Lawler, competing in the 220 lb. class, handily won all three of his matches by pins.  Lawler pinned Jess Williams of McKinney Christian Academy, followed by a pin against Liberty Christian Academy's Caleb Taylor.  Lawler defeated Trinity Christian Addison's Joey Tkach to win the State Championship.  Falcon grapplers John Goettee '17 and Phillip Smith '16 finished fourth place in their class.  The Falcons amassed 71 points to finish 7th out of 14 teams competing.  Chan and Lawler will next compete at the Prep Nationals Tournament hosted by LeHigh University in Bethlehem, PA, February 27-28, 2014.  Congratulations to our State Champs and Good Luck at Nationals!  For individual match results, click Prep Individual Results and for team results, click Prep Team Results.

John Goettee, Noah Chan, Phillip Smith and Colin Lawler sport their State medal.

Since 1992, The Kinkaid Upper School Students, Health Services and Parent Volunteers have conducted an annual blood drive. This years' blood drive saved over 400 patients’ lives with 135 blood components donated! In addition, the School had 66 first-time donors this year!

Our life-saving goal was accomplished by US Senior Chairs - Sophie Gaylor and Ashley McGaw, Junior Chairs - Aliza Kajani and Lindsey Jacobe, Sophomore - Kat Smith and Ellie Nakfoor and Parent Volunteer Coordinators - Laurel Shaper and Anita Gaylor.

It was a true family affair with parent couples donating together, mother/daughter and brother/sister donating side by side, and faculty arriving as early as seven am and staying late to donate after school meetings!

This 2015 Blood Drive is a great accomplishment towards helping the children of Texas! 

Lauren Rae '15 and her fellow teammates on the Houston Polo Club Girls Interscholastic Polo A Team won the U.S. Polo Association (USPA) Central Region Tournament held at ERG Polo Farm in Brookshire, TX.  The girls beat Culver HS and Hillside HS teams in two great games to secure their place in the highly competitive upcoming USPA National Tournament in Indio, CA, March 6th - 9th, 2015.  This year marks the second time Rae and her teammates have won the regional tournament.  Congratulations Lauren and good luck at nationals!

(L-R) Courtney Price (Foster HS), Megan Rahlfs (Post Oak School), Nora O'Neill (St. Agnes), Coach Mark Prinsloo, Lauren Rae (Kinkaid), Cinderella von Falkenhausen (Aubrey HS), Grace Mudra.