Student Standouts: Puri ’25, Field Hockey Stars, HOSA, Boys Basketball, Girls Swimming & Diving
Faculty Feature: Huber
Congratulations to this week’s standouts below. Way to go #RamNation! And as always, if you have a story to share, please email weeklynews@micds.org.
Junior Selected for Travel Scholarship to Costa Rica
This week, Arjun Puri ’25 was recognized for being selected as one of 12 students across the United States for the Junior Travel Scholarship to Costa Rica! According to the scholarship form, “Each year, the Junior Travel Study Abroad/Away Scholarship provides eligible students the opportunity to travel to and study the language and the culture of a Spanish-speaking country or territory. During the summer of 2024, students will be traveling to Costa Rica with United Planet. This ‘Travel Quest’ is fun, educational, and winners will be performing volunteer work with the Santa Elena Cloud Forest Reserve in Monteverde. The project combines conservation, ecotourism, and education.”
The award includes flights, local transportation, tours, meals, and insurance. Puri’s group will stay at a local hostel in San José and with verified host families in the Monteverde community. Living with host families is a great way to immerse in the local lifestyle while also practicing Spanish. He will also have the opportunity to apply for university credit.
In order to qualify, Puri had to be a junior during the 2023-24 school year, receive medal placement by scoring at or above the 75th percentile on the Level II or above 2022 or 2023 National Spanish Exam, be registered to take the Level III or above National Spanish Exam in 2024, and agree to continue studying Spanish during his senior year in high school.
Puri shared, “Having taken a Spanish course for over ten years, the language has become an extremely important part of my life. I’m honored to receive the opportunity from the AATSP to travel to Costa Rica. I am incredibly excited, and I can’t wait to experience Costa Rican culture, lifestyle, and, of course, the delicious food! I would also love to thank Señora Begley, Upper School Spanish Teacher, for working closely with me throughout this process and for everything she has done to help me.”
A Championship-Winning Goal & Other Field Hockey Successes by our Rams in the Sunshine Showcase
Last weekend, Analea L. ’32 and her Gateway Field Hockey U12 Red team went undefeated (6-0) and won a gold medal in the top U12 bracket (1st out of 28 teams) in the Annual USA Field Hockey Sunshine Showcase at Disney’s ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex in Orlando. Analea scored the game-winning goal in the Championship game with five minutes left in the game! The team had an impressive 44 goals scored and only four goals scored against them. Way to go, Analea!
- U19 Red, 2nd Place, with Ella Brauer ’24, Ella Etherington ’24, Ellie Lochhead ’24
- U16 Red, 2nd Place, with Ellemieke Ferguson ’27, Mallory Jerlecki ’27, Georgia Lochhead ’26, Victoria Noble ’28, Katherine Schott ’27
- U14 Red, 2nd Place, with Lydia Brown ’28, Avery Johnson ’29, Nandini Warrier ’28, Caroline Westre ’29
- U16 White, Pool Champions, with Olivia Brauer ’28, Nora Reynolds ’28
- U12 White, Pool Champions, with Avery Brunt ’32, Blair Cababbe ’31, Jojo Mackin ’32, Annie Mileusnic ’32
Go Rams!
19 Rams Qualify for Next Round of HOSA Competition
MICDS had 27 students sign up for the HOSA State Leadership Conference qualifier which is a state-wide student leadership conference for HOSA members that is held in Rolla each year in March. This year, the event will be March 25-26. Ever since COVID, an SLC Qualifier has been conducted in order to limit the attendance at the physical conference and by default has been incorporated into the process for the conference. Students study a variety of recommended materials and practice skills (depending on their event) and then take an individual qualification test proctored by a non-advisor (this year, it was proctored by Paul Zahller, JK-12 Science Department Chair & Upper School Science Teacher). Even if students are in a team event, their qualification test is individual. For teams, they add the scores together and find the average. Of our 27 Rams who took the exams, 19 students will be moving on to SLC. Those students are chosen as the top 10 in their event (individual or team) for the state. All of the students who are moving on made the top 10 in their event, or they are moving on to the SLC for another reason: they are a state officer candidate and/or they will receive a service award.
Students are able to compete in a health-related event (out of over 60 events) at the conference along with numerous other activities, which include a trivia competition, educational symposium talks, an Anatomage tournament, and a state-wide community service project. Students are also able to test for a few other subjects through the National Geographic Learning Center, called ATC tests, as well as be recognized for a variety of things, including Community Service, specifically the American Red Cross Volunteer Service recognition and Barbara James Service Award, among others. However, they are only allowed to “compete” in one event.
“This year, 2023-2024, our students will be competing in a greater diversity of events and receiving more service awards than ever before in the short history of MICDS HOSA,” shares Christine Pickett, Upper School Science Teacher and HOSA Faculty Sponsor. “We are extremely proud of ALL of our HOSA students and all of their hard work and wish them luck in their future competition!”
Congratulations to the following 19 students:
- Fatima Abosalem ’27
- Bella Anadkat ’26
- Myra Arain ’27
- Saivi Gadi ’25
- Sanjana Gandhi ’25
- Abhinav Katyal ’25
- Diane Li ’24
- Abhiram Madala ’26
- Diya Makkapati ’25
- Yash Malhotra ’25
- Ramya Mariappan ’26
- Anika Mulkanoor ’25
- Evita Okohson-Reb ’26
- Ashley Ordonez ’26
- Aparna Paturu ’26
- Amisha Poojari ’25
- Arjun Puri ’25
- Yash Shelar ’26
- Sophie Yokoo ’25
Boys Basketball Continues Winning Streak
The MICDS Boys Basketball team defeated Park Hills Central last Thursday, 61-60. Check out a summary of the game here. Brandon Clemens ’26 scored 18 points, Jason Stokes ’26 scored 14 and Mason Swartz ’24 scored 10. According to MaxPreps, this was the eighth straight win at home for the team. Way to go, Rams!
This week, the Rams defeated Mater Dei 60-49. In the STL Today recap, Jayden Banks ’24 had 11 points and 10 assists, Brandon had 24 points, and Mason had 11 points.
Girls Swimming and Diving Earns PRs and Several Spots on the Podium
The Rams had a wonderful conference meet with lots of PRs and podiums, falling short of WCA by only four points. Sophia Goodwin ’25, Bella Anadkat ’26, Isabel Phillips ’24, and Mikaela Mikulec ’24 took home 3rd in the 200 Medley Relay, followed by Nina Schuerer ’25 and Everdine Ferguson ’24 who placed 2nd and 3rd in the 200 Free. Lindsay Naber ’25 got 1st in the 200 IM and Grace Coppel ’25 and Mikulec placed 1st and 2nd in the 50 Free. Ferguson & Phillips took home 1st and 2nd in the 100 Fly as well, and Coppel and Mikulec got 1st and 3rd in the 100 free. Not pictured is Schuerer, who got 2nd in the 500 free, and Anadkat, who had an amazing swim and got 3rd in the 100 Breaststroke! Our defending state champs got 1st in the 200 Free Relay, and the Rams also took it home in the 400 Free Relay!
Faculty Feature: Patrick Huber Designs Scenery and Lighting for "Copenhagen"
MICDS’ very own Patrick Huber, Upper School Fine & Performing Arts Teacher, designed the scenery and lighting for the St. Louis Actors’ Studio production of Copenhagen, which opens this Friday, February 9. “I’ve been working with Actors’ Studio since the company began 16 years ago. The founding artistic director was Milton Zoth, who was the theater teacher at Country Day School responsible for bringing me on to teach here 33 years ago,” said Huber.
For the play itself, the script is a conversation between three historical figures: Werner Heisenberg and Neils and Margrethe Bohr. “It doesn’t have any indication of where or when the conversation is taking place, so I had the opportunity to create an abstract space that is based on ideas, not historical circumstances,” said Huber. “The lights aren’t based on any naturalistic elements (day/night/artificial/etc.), so they, too, are abstract and tell a psychological/emotional story, not a historical/physical one.”
