Carrie Levinn, a junior from Averill Park, N.Y., received one of 271 scholarships that the Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education Foundation awarded to undergraduate sophomores and juniors from the United States for the 2013-14 academic year. The students were selected on academic merit from a field of 1,107 mathematics, science and engineering students nominated by the faculties of colleges and universities nationwide. The award covers the cost of tuition, fees, books, room and board to a maximum of $7,500 per year.

It’s the third consecutive year that a Geneseo student has received a Goldwater Scholarship and the 17th Geneseo student to receive the honor since the scholarship was established in 1992. Evan Losh, a physics/music double major from Fairport, N.Y., received a Goldwater Scholarship in 2012, and Ben Peterson, a biochemistry major from Nekoosa, Wisc., received one in 2011. Nine of Geneseo’s 17 Goldwater Scholarship winners are women.

Levinn has been involved as an undergraduate researcher at Geneseo under the tutelage of David Johnson, professor and chair of the Department of Chemistry, and Eric Helms, assistant professor of chemistry.

“Carrie is highly deserving of this award,” said Johnson. “She truly enjoys the research process and works confidently and independently in the lab but also works well as a member of a research group, displaying outstanding written and oral communication skills. I am confident she will excel in all of her academic pursuits.”

“I have no doubt that Carrie will excel at anything she puts her mind to,” said Helms. “She stands out due to her genuine interest in the science and not just an interest in her grades — something uncommon among the many students I encounter.”

Levinn’s focus is bioorganic chemistry and the study of natural products. Her goal is to obtain a doctorate in chemistry and obtain a faculty position at a major university.

“Geneseo has provided me with multiple opportunities for research as an undergraduate, which is not something that all students at other schools get to experience,” said Levinn. “I think that has played a large part in my college experience. Being able to test the waters with research has really redirected my overall career goals.”

Among other activities, Levinn is a member of the Golden Key Honor Society, Phi Eta Sigma Honor Society and Gamma Sigma Epsilon chemistry honor society. She also is president of the Geneseo Chemistry/Biochemistry Club and is captain of the indoor and outdoor track and field teams. In addition, she is an emergency medical technician (basic) for the Geneseo First Response emergency medical service team.

The Goldwater Scholarship was established in 1986 in honor of the former U.S. Senator from Arizona. The goal is to provide a continuing source of highly qualified scientists, mathematicians and engineers by awarding scholarships to college students who intend to pursue careers in these fields.

The St. Peter’s trip blog reveals what our visitors found different about life at school at Robert C. Parker School in Albany, NY: a huge playground connected to a forest; playing with “sledges” going down a hill; making plaster masks of their own faces in art class; having “lunch in boxes that their Mom prepares for them.”  Parker students were inspired by the level of English that their new friends have mastered; that they also speak Catalan, Spanish, and French; and that they know many of the same American pop songs.

In Barbara Fredrickson’s NY Times article Your Phone vs. Your Heart, she describes the connection between head and heart, reminding us that social interaction with others increases our capacity for connection, friendship and empathy.

“When you share a smile or laugh with someone face to face, a discernible synchrony emerges between you, as your gestures and biochemistries, even your respective neural firings, come to mirror each other,” she says.

That’s what the week was really about – the connections we made.  Everyone remarked about it all week as we smiled and felt happy with refreshed empathy and understanding.

We got to practice being warm and welcoming hosts, building empathy and friendships that cross the Atlantic.  The world feels smaller and our hearts feel larger!

Accompanied by St. Peter’s teachers, the Spanish students will participate fully in Parker’s daily routine.  Sarah Biondello, Language Arts teacher and Erin Wallace Spanish teacher, have worked with a committee to develop a number of special programs during the visit. These include a welcoming assembly, getting-to-know-you games, a literature exchange, LEGO Robotics sessions, a video presentation from the Spanish students, and a singing concert with new friends.  Together, Parker students and St. Peter’s students will explore Parker’s woods in a natural science context.  There will be a visit to the State Capitol and Museum and social plans that include a pot-luck supper, a bowling party and a farewell dance.

Students will be hosted by Parker families who have discussed issues that might arise, like differences in food and home routines.  They have exchanged information and photos with visiting students about their homes, pets and interests.

“These two weeks at school and living with our families will provide our students and the St. Peter’s students with a much deeper understanding of cultural differences and similarities than they could learn from any book or film or even research project,” said Wallace. “In the end, I predict we’re going to understand that we’re more similar than different.”

“When you have authentic opportunities like this, the world becomes smaller and infinitely larger at the same time,” says Meg Taylor, Parker’s Head.  ”Students will make first hand connections that we hope will last a lifetime.”

Parker teachers along with their Spanish counterparts have worked for over a year to establish relationships between the two schools.  Planning began last January when Biondello and Parker art teacher, Susie Merrett visited St. Peter’s to explore the possibility of a partnership between the two schools.  They presented teachers at St. Peter’s with a packet of letters to the St. Peter’s students written in Spanish by Parker middle schoolers. The St. Peter’s students wrote back in English.  The Principal of St. Peter’s and their middle school director spent time at Parker last fall to firm up arrangements.

“Parker students are delighted that the St. Peter’s students will be coming to visit our school,” said Biondello. “They are now getting ready to use their Spanish in person.”

The experience is a natural complement to both schools. Parker teaches Spanish to students starting in Preschool.  Students at St. Peter’s are expected to master Spanish, Catalan, English and French, with an introduction to German, although English is the primary language spoken at the school.

“We are eagerly awaiting the arrival of our friends from St. Peter’s School,” said Taylor. “We are excited to show them the Parker warmth and the world-renowned New York friendliness.”

I think we will see Junie B. Jones, Dorothy and Fern from Charlotte’s Web from some of the girls.  The boys weren’t telling.

On Read Across America Day at Parker everyone dresses as a favorite literature character.  We have visits from authors, illustrators and storytellers.  Michael Collins, Patrice Kindl, Matt McElligott, Sylvie Kantorovitz, and Kent Busman are on the schedule this year.  There will also be a puppet show from The Ivy Vine Players for the little ones.  There is a character parade and a song led by the Cat in the Hat him (or her) self.  And a used book sale to raise funds for…more books!

~Meg Taylor, Head

Pecos Bill with some friends…from 2011:

The Magic Decade: Structuring Your Child’s Learning Environment During Ages 3 to 13

Monday, February 25 at 6:30 – 8 PM  Presentation and Q & A

Certain areas of the brain have critical time periods for use during these crucial ten years of life. What does this mean to parents, caregivers and educators about structuring the experiences of children during this magic decade?

Join parents and educators to discuss this important topic with educator, psychologist and author, JoAnn Deak, Ph.D.   Dr. Deak has spent more than thirty years helping children develop into confident and competent adults.  Dr. Deak has been an advisor to Outward Bound, a past chair of the National Committee for Girls and Women in Independent Schools, on the advisory board for the Center on Research for Girls [Laurel School], for the Seattle Girls’ School, Bromley Brook School, the Red Oak School, Power Play and GOAL. She consults with organizations and schools across the United States. Most recently, she has worked internationally with schools, organizations, associations and parent groups in every continent [except Antarctica!].

For more information and to reserve child care:  info@parkerschool.org

“Every interaction a child has during the course of a day influences the adult that child will become.”

Dr. Deak’s books will be available at the Forum

• Your Fantastic Elastic Brain
• How Girls Thrive
• Girls Will Be Girls: Raising Confident and Courageous Daughters [now available on ebooks, too]

Jesse started the company with venture capital and now has about 25 employees in San Fransisco.  The TU article said: Pickard attended Parker School in North Greenbush, which he credits with stoking his entrepreneurial spirit. (Yay!)

I am fascinated by the alumni who are doing jobs and using technical and media tools that didn’t even exist when they attended school.  I’d like their feedback about what parts of their education prepared them best for what they are doing now - like stoking the entrepreneurial spirit!

~ Meg Taylor, Head

Taking their learning far beyond the walls of the classroom, the second and third graders at Robert C. Parker School are preparing a display for the Rensselaer County Historical Society museum in downtown Troy.

Students will hold an opening of their exhibit, Native Americans, Farms and Troy: The Transformation of a Landscape on Thursday, December 13, 2012 at 5:30 PM.  They will present essays, 3-dimensional landscapes and painted murals to depict how the landscape in and around Troy and on the school’s 77 acres has evolved over time.  Their research traces the evolution from rural to urban and suburban landscapes.

Teacher, Lynn Schuster, says, “By focusing on big, complex questions like “How did humans change the landscape to better meet their needs? the students had to gather evidence and use analytical thinking.” They worked closely with the Historical Society in three study-groups, using historic maps, photos, documents and artifacts to aid their research.  They went on a scavenger hunt in Troy to find evidence of historic architecture, a trip to Hancock Shaker Village to view a planned community, and hikes around the Parker grounds to map the property and visualize how it might have looked in the time of the Mohicans.

The class has been asked to create a time capsule for the Historical Society that will live in its archives.

“The time capsule will include objects and writing that capture the students’ lives as seven and eight-year-olds, so that their grandchildren will know what life was like in the early 21^st Century.  They have learned that artifacts are crucial for understanding the past,” said Schuster.

The study incorporates language arts, social studies, history, art and statistical analysis.  Essay topics include: wigwams, dugout canoes, three sisters gardens, water wheels, steam engines, row houses and the manufacture of shirt collars.

Robert C. Parker School is an independent, co-ed school for students in preschool through 8^th grade located on 77 acres in North Greenbush.  The school emphasizes a challenging curriculum with learning that has an effect beyond the classroom.

A dedicated bobsledder through middle school and then in high school at Doane Stuart, Morgan switched to crew while at the University of Chicago.   Creating her own major in Scandinavian Studies, Morgan graduated Phi Beta Kappa in 2008.  She received study grants at the University of Oslo during two summers and wrote her bachelor’s thesis about literary and pop-cultural assertions of Norwegian national identity, entitled ”Et lite eventyr” meaning “A Little Fairytale”.

When Morgan decided to go to medical school she got a job as a medical assistant in a primary care clinic.  She completed all the pre-med requirements in one year in the Post-Baccalaureate Pre-Medical Program at Bennington College while also working part time as a nanny and a medical assistant.

In August 2011 Morgan began medical school at Albany Med, joining the US Army’s Health Professions Scholarship Program and spending the summer of 2012 on a base in Texas.   She is a president of the Outing Club, helping to organize medical student involvement at the Capital Region Stand Down for Homeless Veterans event and she is training to become a Tobacco Cessation Counselor.

Tom Dollar ’00 attended Troy High after Parker.  He graduated from Princeton University in 2008 where he majored in public and international affairs, also maintaining an interest in Latin American literature.  Tom recently wrote:

I just started my first year at NYU Law School. So far, it’s going pretty well. I’m interested in doing public-advocacy litigation when I finish, but realize that I may change my mind one or two times before all is said and done. Before law school, I worked at a reproductive rights non-profit in Washington, DC. And before that, I spent a year working in Sierra Leone on public health projects. Sierra Leone was a real eye-opener for me, and helped push me in the direction of legal advocacy for human rights, especially women’s rights.

I think Parker really created a foundation for me for being intellectually curious, not taking for granted that the way the world works is how it has to work, and valuing giving back to the community.

On December 13, 2012 Parker 2-3’s will be mounting and curating a display at the Rensselaer County Historical Society about the development and transformation of rural, suburban and urban communities.  Their study has taken them on a historic scavenger hunt in Troy, a visit to Hancock Shaker Village, and all over the Parker grounds as they analyze census data, maps and historic photos.  The study incorporates language arts, social studies, history, art, and statistical analysis and culminates in an evening event that will be open to parents and the public.