Student Standouts: Byrne ’23, Moore ’23, Ray ’23, Coppel ’25, Girls Cross Country, Reddic ’23, Weaver ’23, Birkel ’25, Puri ’25, Chen ’26, MICDS Best Buddies, Cyclocross, Football, Girls on the Run, HOSA, Red Cross Club
Faculty Feature: Dougherty
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.
Senior Wins Men's State Championship in Squash
Football Senior Declared Athlete of the Week
Winston Moore ’23 is an Athlete of the Week according to STL Today.com. He scored six touchdowns in last week’s game, setting an MICDS single-game record, has rushed for 976 yards, and has been named First Team All-Conference. Keep it up, Winston!
Ray Races to State Champion & Cross Country's Season Finish
Julia Ray ’23 raced to victory last Friday and became the Cross Country State Champion in the MSHSAA Class 4 State Championships with a time of 18:14.7! She finishes out her cross country career with the Class 3 State Championship as a freshman, two fourth-place finishes in Class 5 as a sophomore and junior, and now the championship again in Class 4 as a senior. Also finishing with a medal in 24th place was Grace Coppel ’25 who ran over a 14-second PR to finish in 19:55.10 which is the ninth-best time in the MICDS Girls Cross Country program’s history.
Since MICDS Girls Cross Country qualified as a team, seven runners participated at State. Bridget Clennan ’24, Abby Wyckoff ’24, Annabelle Medler ’24, Addison Small ’25, and Addiyln Farmer ’26 all finished close together. This group of girls including Kate Williamson ’24 worked incredibly hard and continued to drop their times together throughout the season. The team finished the State Championships in 11th place. Despite a windy day, our team conquered the Gans Creek course. Way to go, Rams!
Seniors Selected for American Cancer Society All-Star High School Football Game
Dorian Reddic ’23 and Dominic Weaver ’23, in addition to Cortlin Dalton ’23, were also selected by committee to play in the 2022 American Cancer Society All-Star High School Football Game at Missouri Baptist University on December 10! These Rams are three of the 81 players selected from 41 schools to play in this meaningful game.
Sophomore to Compete in ECNL National Selection Game
Sophomore Competes in Cubing Competition
Arjun Puri ’25 participated in a cubing competition held in St. Louis on November 5. What is cubing? It’s a mind sport involving solving combination puzzles, the most well-known being the 3x3x3 Rubik’s cube, as quickly as possible. Arjun took 8th in the 3x3x3 cube and the 2x2x2 cube competitions. He took 12th place in the Pyraminx competition. Watch how quickly Arjun solves one of the cubes in the video below!
Piano Star in Upper School
MICDS ninth grader Ellie Chen ’26 won the Missouri Music Teacher Association Piano State Competition last weekend in the category of Duet for 10th-12th grade! Upon receiving the award, Ellie said, “I am simply glad that I was able to push myself to my fullest potential to receive this award, and I believe that is what this achievement means to me—that anyone can get anywhere as long as they stay true to themselves and work hard to meet their goals.” Way to work hard, Ellie!
A Fabulous Best Buddies Friendsgiving
MICDS has 13 students who have committed to a one-to-one friendship with a person with a disability. As part of the program, they text/call at least once a week and get together at least twice per month, once on their own as a buddy pair and a second time as a group with other MICDS buddy pairs. Many of the buddy matches continued into this year from last year, but Friendsgiving is the event when new buddy pairs get to meet each other for the first time—the matches are revealed at the event. Events at Friendsgiving this year included coloring, drawing, corn hole, a selfie station, movies, and making bracelets and other objects with pipe cleaners.
Several of the Co-Heads shared what Friendsgiving and Best Buddies means to them:
- “Best Buddies Friendsgiving gives the buddies and the MICDS students the opportunity to all hang out together. The smiles on the buddies’ faces while we’re crafting, drawing, or dancing really shows me everyone is having a great time. I am always engaged and learning new facts about the buddies while I’m conversing with them, and I wouldn’t trade the experience for anything else.” – Myla Finnegan ’23
- “We had a lot of fun during our event! Friendsgiving is one of my favorite Best Buddies traditions, and I loved seeing familiar faces and meeting our new buddies and MICDS members. I loved seeing how happy buddies were to be matched and I could sense the excitement people have for Best Buddies this year!” – Noor Awad ’23
The club faculty sponsor echoed the students’ thoughts. “The annual Best Buddies Friendsgiving event is a wonderful and fun way to welcome the new KEEN students to our MICDS Best Buddies Chapter, introduce the new buddy pairs to each other, and see the true friendships and connections the returning buddy pairs have formed over the years,” said Erin Hamill, Director of Upper School Community Service. “We look forward to another year of fun events!
A Strong Finish for the 2022 Cyclocross Team
Rams Defeat Largest School Ever Beaten on Football Field
The MICDS football team defeated Lafayette last week, 60-46. This was the largest school that MICDS has beat in MICDS football history. Congratulations to Winston Moore ’23 for scoring six touchdowns in the Class 5 District 2 semifinal game—the most touchdowns he’s ever scored in one game. Check out the summary of the exciting game on STL Today.com. The article highlights Moore, Steven Hall ’23 (who scored three touchdowns), and Brian Gould ’25 while also quoting Head Football Coach Fred Bouchard. The Rams play Eureka this Friday at 7 p.m. Read the preview of the district championship matchup which also highlights Moore and Hall here and here. Go, Rams!
A Community 5K with Girls on the Run
On Thursday, November 3, the MICDS Girls on the Run team hosted an on-campus 5K, and it was a full community event! The third through sixth-grade GOTR team, JV Women’s Cross-Country team, teachers, staff members, and parents ran the 5K while Girl Up (an Upper School club), 8th graders, administrators, and staff cheered on the runners. Congratulations to all participants!
A Successful HOSA Week Inspires Students Interested in Healthcare
HOSA-Future Health Professionals, (formerly known as Health Occupations Students of America) is an international student-led organization that strives to empower student leaders and inspire students interested in healthcare. This week, co-heads of the MICDS HOSA Chapter Saivi Gadi ’25 and Amisha Poojari ’25 actively organized HOSA Week; an event that HOSA chapters around the country partake in. Chapters around the nation celebrate and plan differently. At MICDS, each day of the week had a different health-related theme, from mental health to cancer awareness.
The theme for Monday was Mental Health Day. Members created a wellness board with different prompts that allowed students around the school to share their thoughts and feelings. The wellness board was a success and created a welcoming sense of community! Following this fun activity, Isabel Phillips ’24, co-head of Mental Illness Support for Teenagers (MIST), and Mr. David Hotaling, Upper School Counselor, led a guided discussion about the importance of mental health. MIST is a club initiated to end the stigma behind mental health issues by providing a student perspective on the topic.
The theme for Tuesday was Community. HOSA members participated in Cards for a Cause, a community service project the club initiated in April to send positive messages to children in hospitals. Students made over 40 cards with kind and inspiring words! The club plans to deliver these to the St. Luke’s Children’s Hospital over the Thanksgiving weekend.
Wednesday’s theme was cancer awareness. MICDS HOSA co-head Saivi gave a presentation about the importance of cancer awareness, common signs, and treatment of the disease. Afterward, Upper School Math Teacher Al Begrowicz, a tongue cancer survivor, joined in to speak about his inspiring journey.
Thursday was Heart of a Healthcare Worker Appreciation Day, where students made banners and signs in honor of all the work they have done for the community, especially during the pandemic. Then, HOSA had its first-ever memorial walk where students walked around campus with colorful banners.
Friday was HOSA Spirit Day! Students wore either their HOSA attire or the official HOSA colors (red, white, and blue).
“Overall, HOSA Week was a huge success and was a great way to bring the community together!” said Gadi. “It was great to see students connect through community service, shared experiences, and gratitude. This sense of community is important as people build trust, connections, and friendships. In fact, many non-HOSA members also joined us, and now the club is steadily growing! We look forward to celebrating HOSA week again next year!”
“As I took on my role as MICDS HOSA’s President last May,” said Poojari, “I was driven to engage all members of our community through service projects and fun events. HOSA Week being at the top of my mind definitely required a lot of effort and time with organization and planning for the many activities and events each day. While deciding daily themes, I turned to other clubs and teachers at school for collaboration. It was amazing to expand our overall horizon as a club by trying these new things. Turning toward the experts also allowed our club members to experience different areas of healthcare from newer perspectives. Most importantly, I appreciate the support of our members in coming together for the Cards for a Cause service project as well as the Memorial HOSA Walk to express gratitude to the field of healthcare while spreading positivity. We are also so grateful for Upper School Science Teacher Christine Pickett for all of her dedication and commitment to making our visions for the club become reality! MICDS has built a beautiful community in so many ways, and now, knowing that HOSA Week adds to these traditions, I can proudly say all efforts have paid off!”
Happy HOSA Week, everyone!
A Successful Blood Drive
Faculty Feature: Charlotte Dougherty Visits Charlotte Latin School
Own very own Charlotte Dougherty, Middle School Drama Teacher, recently visited Charlotte Latin School to share her experience with Playback Theater. She was invited by former MICDS faculty member Erica Moore who now serves as Charlotte Latin’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Director.
When asked to describe Playback, Ms. Dougherty shared, “Playback is different from traditional theatre because it is based on the audience’s stories. It is truly interactive. There is no fourth wall as in most staged plays. There is also no script. Playback has a set of forms, or stylized improvisation techniques, that are used to act out a teller’s (an audience member’s) story. Playback is used to build community; it is an opportunity to share stories about a common happening, a tragic event, or to just get to know one another. It can also be healing and very cathartic.
“The main purpose of Playback is to bring the teller’s story to life for them—so they can relive, rethink, revisit, rebuild, share—it is never about the actors. Playback holds a mirror up to the audience; it is a community service. The audience has an opportunity to experience events through the eyes of others to embrace similarities and differences.”
Dougherty’s goal for the visit was to introduce the faculty to playback and show them how it can be used to build community. “I also met with seventh- and eighth-grade theatre students and taught them three forms used in Playback so they can start their own group,” she shared. “The students were great! They caught on right away, and we were up and moving the whole time.”
The trip connected with the efforts of diversity, equity, and inclusion that Erica Moore oversees at Charlotte Latin School. Moore has a DEI committee in all three divisions that are interested in using Playback in their programming. Most immediately, they’ll be using it in the lower school with middle school students leading.
“I love Playback and the opportunities it offers a community. It was exciting for me to share,” said Dougherty. “I was greeted with such enthusiasm and kindness by the faculty and students.” What a special opportunity for Charlotte Latin School and a cherished drama teacher we have here at MICDS!