Activities, Accomplishments, and Accolades
There are many ways, big and small, that Wheeler faculty, students, and staff learn their powers and a re answerable for their use. Here are just some of the ways we aspired to our mission during the 2021-22 school year! You could read more below as well as in our latest issue of Now & Then.
Wheeler’s robotics team, the Electric Quahogs, took home the title at the FIRST Tech Challenge State Championship Tournament in March! The team went undefeated at the event, going 6-0 in tournament play and 4-0 in their finals play as part of a group they captained along with two squads from Shea High School. “We’re so proud of our students, and I’m so appreciative of the support from my assistant coaches and the mentors in our Wheeler community,” said team Coach and Director of the Hirsch/Alperin Design-Innovate-Build (DIB) Lab Dylan Ryder. “The team worked tirelessly for months to get to this place, and the students certainly rose to the challenge!”
After becoming the top team in Rhode Island, the Electric Quahogs went on to compete at the FIRST World Championship in Houston in April. “We had an incredible time learning from and connecting with teams from all over the world,” said Mayte S. ’24. Teammate William K. ’22 added: “With each successive match, our team refined our point-scoring abilities, communication, and collaboration skills. And, in our final match, we worked with a team from Delaware to achieve our personal best score of 306, one of the top 10% of all scores for the event.”
Read and see more from their state championship appearance here and the world championship appearance here.
Wheeler 5th-graders presented plenty of classroom solutions at the Design Challenge Showcase last April. They were responding to real challenges that faculty had submitted to the DIB Lab earlier in the year, with projects ranging from a special bulletin board with mini-shelves, to a custom doorstop, a specialized pull cord for projector screens, and a protective cover for chalk. The students enjoyed the freedom to design, create, and test their inventions, while–perhaps most importantly–learning from their mistakes.
“Enlightening,” “insightful,” and “inspiring” were just some of the words that 19 Upper School students used to describe their experiences at the Wheeler Student Diversity Leadership Conference held in Cambridge, Massachusetts last December. During the three-day event, the students explored issues of identity, diversity, equity, and leadership with one another and various guest speakers like Cambridge Mayor Sumbul Siddiqi and Providence City Councilman (and Wheeler Teacher) John Goncalves ‘09, who led a workshop focused on political activism and engagement.
Director of Unity & Diversity Princess Sirleaf Bomba P’16, P’18, Student Support Coordinator Rose Phildor P’28, and former Upper School Unity & Diversity Coordinator Marc Harrison P’16, P’21 organized the in-person conference as a way to fill the void after the National Association of Independent School’s Student Diversity Leadership Conference went virtual due to the pandemic. “It was amazing, and I’m glad we took the chance on it,” Ms. Bomba said. “We’re so lucky that 19 amazing kids also expressed an interest and trusted us to come and be a part of something special.”
World-renowned jazz musicians Myron Walden (saxophone, flute, and bass clarinet), Ferenc Nemeth (drums), and Adam Cote (bass) were the latest guest artists to visit Wheeler as part of The Contemporary Improvisation Series in October. The program started a decade ago when Upper School Jazz Teacher Francisco Cardoso invited his friend and Grammy Award-winner Esperanza Spalding to campus. “It has always been my goal to bring in game-changers that can offer wisdom to our student community,” said Mr. Cardoso, who has come to know many of the artists as a professional musician himself.
Wheeler student and electric bass player Joseph A. ’24 described it as “a really surreal experience…When you’re playing jazz, there is a certain amount of communication that is involved, and when people around my age are learning it together, sometimes it’s like we’re all learning a language, so it’s not perfect. But when you’re speaking with someone who speaks that language fluently, you can learn so much, and it pushes you out of your comfort zone.”
Cape H. ’32 has a scoop…well, it’s really more of a cookie. “I liked the ‘Wookiee Cookie,’” Cape said of one of his favorite articles from Lower School News, which he created last year. “It’s a newspaper for Lower School so little kids can get to hear about their teachers and fun activities.” A new issue of the newspaper came out each Wednesday, and Cape, who was then a Hamilton 2nd-grader, hand delivered them around school and on the playground. Producing the paper was a powerful statement, both about Cape and The Hamilton School. “It has been a delight to watch Cape’s confidence with written language grow and the excitement he has for creating the paper each week,” said his mom, Selby. At the time this story was written, Cape was considering a different media approach for this school year. “In 3rd-grade I’m probably going to change from paper news to recording my voice,” he explained. We can’t wait to hear the podcast!
Last December, Wheeler 6th-graders made some new international friends as part of a Mystery Skype that allowed them to virtually connect with another class in a different country while honing their critical thinking skills. The students in Teacher Dana Tatlock P’20, P’24’s class asked their Skype partners questions related to geography, culture, and other topics to figure out where the mystery class was located. Ms. Tatlock’s students discovered they were speaking with a class from the Hans Christian Andersen School in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The students in Argentina also posed similar questions to help them discover they were interacting with students from Rhode Island.
Wheeler’s radio station, WELH 88.1 FM, recently made some big programming changes for its listeners. When WELH and Rhode Island Public Radio formed a lease agreement in 2011 to broadcast National Public Radio content throughout the week, there was only a small window for Wheeler-produced student programming on Sunday evenings. However, that agreement ended last October, meaning all of the programming is now developed by The Wheeler School. As part of the transition, WELH launched a “Cutting Edge Classic” music format featuring alternative rock from the 80s and 90s, and students have the opportunity to create shows and podcasts which run every weeknight. Featured programs include sports shows, music shows, and even a car review show. WELH also represents the foundation of Wheeler’s Media Program. Middle School students can take Aerie enrichment classes where they are on the air, and Upper School Students can join the WELH Radio Club and visit the Digital Production Studio to create their own weekly broadcasts.
In January, Marion C. ’26, Robin L. ’26, and Sadie H. ’26 were named finalists in The New York Times’ 3rd Annual Personal Narrative Essay Contest for Students. More than 11,000 students from around the world submitted essays, and the judges selected just over 200 finalists — of that group, Sadie was a round 4 finalist, Robin was a runner-up, and Marion was one of eight winners to have their piece published by the Times. “My favorite thing about having students submit their original work to the NYT contest was that they were writing for an audience beyond our classroom walls,” said 8th-Grade English Teacher Clare Kim. “In the time of COVID, it felt necessary to give my 8th-graders the opportunity to share a small portion of their lives in a meaningful way.”
There were more winning words in April, when Jacquelyn S. ’24 was named a Gold Medalist in the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards in the Personal Essay and Memoir category. “My memoir, ‘Fishing for False Memories,’ was inspired by my father’s hometown in rural China,” Jacquelyn said. “I owe Mr. Koppel, my writing teacher, for altering my assumption that a ‘good memoir’ needs a life-changing message and encouraging me to aim instead for artistry and honesty. Due to his advice, I was able to craft a memoir that captured my relationship with my roots–a lighthearted adventure, exploring the conflicts in identity of a first-generation American and the youngest in my immediate family. Receiving a Gold Medal was a huge surprise! Recognition made me realize that I was being heard, which encouraged me to pursue writing with more passion and dedicate love and attention to the creativity of others around me.”
A group of seven 10th-graders created a new theater group last year, called the Ensemble 10, to create original one-act plays and inspire each other as much as their audiences. The pieces focused on subjects ranging from a student judicial council, to the aftermath of a romantic relationship, and even a murder mystery in a high school theater group. “One very important job of theater in education is to allow students to find their own creative voice and then use the tools and skills we learn to help them articulate clearly and theatrically what they want to say,” said Theater Teacher Joel Sugerman. “This class developed into the perfect playground for just that kind of learning.”
Beatrice S.‘24 said it was amazing to see what her Ensemble 10 peers could create together. “I love being able to bring all their hard work to life,” she said shortly before the performances. “This has been such a fun and fulfilling experience. I’m so excited to perform these!”
Several Wheeler 7th-graders developed and applied their camera skills during the Middle School’s All Grade Interdisciplinary Learning Experience (AGILE) mini-term. Through the AGILE sessions, which were held last November and March, students spent four afternoons at Wheeler Farm exploring various disciplines. They could choose from various workshops, ranging from a role playing game lab, to envisioning a design-thinking approach to public art, to creating a play experience for Nest students. Participants in the photography workshop became photojournalists, documenting the activities of other AGILE groups and taking nature-based photos.
See more from last November and March.
Griffin Haisman ‘25 is shooting for the stars–literally! The images he’s captured with his camera have, in turn, captured a great deal of attention. As part of a project in his 8th-grade English class at Wheeler, Griffin submitted his astrophotography to The New York Times Learning Network’s “Coming of Age in 2020” Contest, which was compiling art pieces to tell the story of how young people dealt with the emerging COVID-19 pandemic and accompanying lockdown. While he didn’t hear back from the Times at first, over the next several months, his work started to be noticed in other ways. In March 2021, he was featured in an episode of the Space Junk podcast, highlighting the next generation of amateur astronomers. Then, in November, he received word that his submission to the Times would be included in a “Coming of Age” book. “I was both shocked and ecstatic when I read the email informing me about its selection,” he said. His parents were equally delighted to hear the news, and Griffin said many of the other people who now know about his photography have also been very supportive. His social media presence has steadily grown, with more than 6,000 people following his astrophotography through his Instagram account (@arcturusastro) at the time this story was written. Griffin said he enjoys answering their questions about his incredible images.
In achieving a perfect score on the Mathematical Olympiads last year, Daniel S. ’28 accomplished something that has only happened three times at Wheeler in the last four decades. The Olympiads are a series of five tests of increasing difficulty that participating students take over the course of several months. “The Olympiads contests give our 5th- and 6th-grade students the chance to really wrestle with challenging multi-step problems–to put their skills to good use,” explained Aerie Program Director Mark Harris P’08, P’24. “Kids measure themselves against 15,000 or so mathletes in their age groups from around the country. The most valuable lessons come from reviewing solutions afterward and comparing different strategies for attacking problems.
Students don’t typically receive praise for making noise in class, but that’s exactly what Wheeler 4th-graders experienced during their Waves of Sound unit last December when they learned how the brain processes sound. Aerie Teacher Travis Dumais teamed up with Lower School Science and Math Teacher Julie Abodeely P’32 to help teach concepts like hertz, decibels, and other sound fundamentals, and the students used a synthesizer to create unique sounds and viewed the resulting waves through an oscilloscope.