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Academy Alumni in the News
Rachel Mount Hofstetter '03 (pictured), Chief Marketing Officer at Chatbooks, was named one of the top C-Suite executives in Utah by Utah Business magazine. Also included in this month's press clippings are Brian Brooks '87, Max Brown '20, Brad Feinknopf '82, Steve Fireman '84, Lindsey Griffin Halsey '02, Stu Harris '80, Jessica Hile '16, Don Leathery '84 and Angela Phillips Thomas '01 as well as obituaries for Kenneth Harvey Abbott II '55, Douglas R. Murray '57 and Thomas Hoover Van Kirk '57.
If you have clips (either in print or on the web) to pass along for future issues, please send them to Director of Alumni Relations Melissa Clarke Beckett at [email protected].
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A Look Back at Virtual Alumni Weekend 2020
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Last month, alumni enjoyed a weekend celebrating all things CA featuring classes ending in 0 and 5. Festivities began on the morning of Friday, October 9, with the launch of a special Virtual Alumni Weekend Care Package. Throughout the weekend alumni were invited to:
- Enjoy faculty greetings from Christy Bening, Dr. Andy Bezant, David Block, Amy Brooks, Silvia Chaves, Susan Carter, MaryEve Corrigan, Joel Davis, John Exline '64, Stefan Farrenkopf, Pat Hogan, Debbie Keeran, Kevin Morrin, Beth Reifeis, John Street and John Wuorinen '80
- Take a virtual campus tour to see all of the changes and improvements to our beautiful campus
- Catch the best Junior Speeches of 2019
- and more!
Additionally, that evening alumni were invited to participate in an " All-Alumni Welcome Reception" with a program including the opportunity to make a mocktail or cocktail with John Wourinen '80 as he celebrated his 40th Academy Reunion and shared a happy hour toast.
Then, on Saturday morning, Head of School Melissa Soderberg presented the State of Academy. In her presentation, Melissa took alumni behind the scenes for a for a candid look at Fall 2020 at Columbus Academy, addressing both the challenges faced by the school and the solutions we have created as we navigate this unusual semester. Melissa also answered pre-submitted questions from alumni.
Save the date for Alumni Weekend 2021 on October 1-2 when we host the biggest reunion celebration ever and honor classes ending in 0, 1, 5 and 6!
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Honoring CA Veterans
In honor of the 495 Columbus Academy alumni who have served our country in one of the armed forces, as well as the seven current coaches, faculty/staff, facility and security team members (Neal O'Brien and Dan Olexio, United States Army -- Dennis Gilman, Christian Schweers and Matt Mele, United States Air Force -- David Parker and Jon Wagshul, United States Navy) who have also served in the military, the school bell atop Morris Hall will ring 502 times the morning of Veterans Day.
From our very first graduate (Carey Evans, Class of 1914) to our first alumnae to serve -- Mary Beth Ray and Jamie Scheiman, both from our Class of 2006 -- to our most recent graduate Vince Allen, Class of 2018, who is a cadet in Purdue University-Detachment 220, Columbus Academy commends the spirit of service its many alumni, faculty, staff, coaches, parents and friends have chosen to uphold.
Alumni veterans, unfortunately this year we are unable to host you on campus for our celebration of your service. We look forward to the time when we are able to once again have you at school for this annual tradition.
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Partner With Summer Internship Program
The summer internship program is now recruiting partner organizations nationwide with virtual opportunities or in Central Ohio with in-person opportunities for Summer 2021.
Launched in 2019, the Columbus Academy Internship Program partners with businesses and organizations to provide internship opportunities for upper school students, with school-year and summer opportunities. Through internship opportunities, students engage in meaningful endeavors with problem solving, creative thinking and leadership opportunities that not only cultivate their own interests, but also deepen connections, partnerships and engagement within our community.
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Turkey Bowl 2020
Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and recommendations from national and local government and health officials, the Turkey Bowl (our annual alumni soccer game) has been canceled.
Our alumni game has always been a great event, and we will continue to prioritize it in the future. We will miss our alumni this year and look forward to Thanksgiving weekend 2021 when we hope to resume this wonderful tradition!
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School News
In June, we came together as a community to unite our resolve against racism and amplify the voices of Black students, alumni, parents and staff at our "Standing Together Against Racism" event. That evening, we committed to taking action and creating meaningful change in our community. Our work began with dozens of conversations listening to our community members of their experiences and needs. For most of the summer and into this fall, we proceeded with a schoolwide, in-depth reflection on our practices and identified actions we can take to better support students of color, address racism and educate for racial competency. With the input and unanimous endorsement of our Board of Trustees, in addition to the comprehensive work of the Leadership Team with members of our faculty and staff, we share with you a new declaration of our continued commitment to our students, families, alumni and faculty/staff that pursuing the ideals of diversity, equity and inclusion is rooted in making us an excellent school.
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Columbus Academy's Upper School produced 99 AP Scholars for 2020! Of those students who took AP Exams in the spring, 21 received an average score of at least 4 on all AP Exams taken with scores of 4 or higher on eight or more of those exams to earn National AP Scholar recognition: Panya Bhinder, Andrew Cahall, Mark Carroll, Nischal Chennuru, Ashton Cofer, David Cooperman, Alexandria Graham, Grant Hillmann, Lucas Huang, Jacob Liu, Aniv Ray, Kathan Reddy, Charlie Sabgir, Medha Sinha, Leah Valdman, Alex Wang, Howard Wang, Felicia Xiao, Hanrui Xu, Carolyn Zhang and Michelle Zong. In addition to those 21, we had 20 more AP Scholars of Distinction, 29 AP Scholars with Honor and 29 AP Scholars. View the complete list.
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To uplift and connect people in our community after several weeks of quarantine in the spring, our music and choir teachers Amy McLaughlin and Amy Brooks sent out a request for Academy families, staff, alumni and friends to individually record themselves singing the same song and submit those videos to the school. An editor then pieced them together over the summer into this beautiful and heartwarming compilation!
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Sports News
Our boys golf program made history by winning its 4th-straight state championship, becoming the first 4-peat team for Academy! Also, their opening-round score of 300 was the lowest ever for a Division II squad on OSU's Scarlet course and their total score of 615 tied the Division II state tournament record. Individually, sophomore Stephen Ma followed up his even-par 71 with a final-round 73 to become just the fourth Viking to claim individual medalist honors. His 144 was three strokes better than the runner-up, and he was followed by teammates Russell Ahmed (155) in 11th, MSL-Ohio Player of the Year Aditya Reddy (156) in a tie for 12th, Jake Stouffer (162) in a tie for 18th and Arvind Rajagoplan (170) in a tie for 37th in the 72-player field.
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Our girls soccer team repeated as regional champions by winning 1-0 at Lynchburg-Clay on Saturday! A first-half goal by Evie Gee and a stout defense propelled our Vikings to a 7pm state semifinal match tonight against defending Division III state champion Cincinnati Country Day. All of our other sports have concluded their fall seasons. Girls tennis earned state runner-up honors for the sixth time after barely getting edged by Hathaway Brown 3-2 in the OTCA team finals, and Sydni Ratliff completed her prep career with her third individual state runner-up result in singles to go along with her 2019 title. Our two-time defending state champion field hockey squad claimed its 24th district crown but fell to eventual state champion Watterson 1-0 in double overtime in the state semifinals. After winning its first MSL-Ohio outright title, our football team prevailed in its first home playoff game since 2003 with a 45-21 victory over Coshocton but lost a rematch with Harvest Prep 20-17 in a Division V Region 19 semifinal. In cross country, Luke Nester, Jake Huddleston and Regan Cornelius all competed in the state meet where Luke achieved All-Ohio honors with a 16th-place finish. And our boys soccer program collected its 14th district title and 10th in 17 seasons under head coach Ron Leach, but lost 2-1 in overtime to Botkins in the regional semis.
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Send In Your Class Notes
We love keeping in touch with our alumni, and we want to hear all of your latest news. Here are some of the updates we are looking for:
New family additions
Big moves
New jobs
New schools, titles or degrees
Exciting trips or accomplishments
General updates
Engagements/Marriages
We also love pictures, so you can send those along as well. Fill out our class notes form at columbusacademy.org/alumniclassnotes or send via email to [email protected] to be sure your message is included in an upcoming issue of Experience, the school's newly redesigned magazine!
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