Matthew Maring was a four-year, three-sport varsity athlete in cross country, swimming and track. He served as team captain of cross country and track senior year and made it to state in cross country and swimming. Sophomore year, the swim team was the division 2 state champions. Matthew also participated in math club, science club, Inter-alliance of Cincinnati clubs and instrumental ensemble. He was listed on the honor roll each quarter and was a National Merit Scholar. Matthew will attend Colby College in the fall and will swim on varsity swim team. He is not quite sure about his major, but is considering computer science. Matthew has traveled with his school to China, Greece and Italy and competes in triathlons and aquathlons (running/swimming) in his free time.
Zoey Seibert attended Walnut Hills High School and took part in lacrosse, cross country, backpacking club, and sustainability club. She will be attending Miami University this fall, majoring in geology. Zoey says, “The New School has helped shape into who I am today by teaching me to always work together with those around me whether they are in my community or new people I meet day-to-day in life.”
Sam Kaliski graduated from Madeira this past spring, where he and and friend started a computer club. He’s going to go to Xavier University this fall to study engineering physics with a minor in computer science, and he’s very excited!
Grace Robinson attended SCPA where she was an instrumental music major. She was principal cello of the Chamber Orchestra and was selected as a member of the Corbett Quartet Program. She was also a finalist in the Corbett Mayerson Concerto Competition. Grace works with children with developmental disabilities. She is a staff member of Stepping Stones and also is a daily caregiver for children with autism. The small class size and nurturing environment were what Grace thinks made TNSM such a great place. She loved that she had personal relationships with her teachers. Grace will be attending the College of Wooster, majoring in psychology
Hope Oester attended Walnut Hills High School from 7th to 12th grade. While there, she got involved in the theater department. Hope started out acting in the shows but transitioned to a quieter role on the costume crew. Eventually she became a costume designer. Some of Hope’s favorite shows were And Then There Were None, Sweeney Todd, andRagtime. She took voice and piano lesson and sang in the school choir, competing in district and state competitions. Outside of school Hope also danced at CCM and was in the company that put on a performance in the winter and spring. The photo Hope included shows other TNSM grads and friends: Alex, Zoey, Hope and Kendall.
“TNSM taught me some important life lessons. One of the lessons I learned was how to be a leader. Older students were expected to help younger students and to work with them to help them learn. In third grade I did a project about croissants with two fifth graders. It was exciting to work with older students. My ideas and contributions were respected. We researched the history of croissants together and divided up the work for the creating the poster board and making the croissants. When I became one of the older students, I helped younger students in similar ways. I remember I was asked to help younger students with math work. I love that the TNSM is small, so I could easily get to know people not only in my grade but also those that were older and younger.”
Hope is attending Loyola University Chicago in the fall and is planning on studying art history with possibly a minor in business. Hope is interested in working in a museum or an auction house in the future. She would love to study abroad in Italy during college, because it is a city full of art!
Avery Plummer attended Walnut Hills High School, was in the honors program and also graduated with honors. Avery took part in backpacking club as well as a photography class and photography club. She loved the AP English and art history courses at Walnut. Outside of school, Avery balanced several jobs throughout her high school summers and volunteered at Camp Stepping Stones.
Avery will be attending Ohio University in the fall and will be in the Honors Tutorial College for art history. She will have a lot of freedom in her schedule allowing opportunities to study abroad and work one-on-one with her professor to create a program that matches her interests. This process of learning reminded Avery of her experience at The New School where she followed her interests and worked closely with her teachers. She said, “At TNSM I always had a teacher to turn to and at college, I’m already on a first-name basis with my director of studies.”
When Avery looks back on the effect TNSM has had on her life and how it will affect her future, she said, “The senior project was definitely something that was useful. I did countless research papers at Walnut.” With an art history degree, and with a plan to pursue a masters and maybe even a PHD, Avery will be writing a lot of papers in her future. She is excited about her career choice and would like to get into museum work.
This summer, Avery took a cross-country road trip with a good friend to celebrate the end of high school. The photo shows her at Glacier National Park which is the fifth park of seven parks that she and her friend visited. Avery shared that her TNSM class of 2012 remained close and organized a student-planned reunion last September that was a lot of fun and most of the class attended.
Allie Cheng was inducted into the Cum Laude Honor Society at Walnut Hills High School and was the co-captain of Walnut’s robotics team. After 6 years of being on the robotics team, they made it to the World Championships in Detroit, Michigan this year and placed 5th out of over 6,000 teams. Allie plans to attend the California Institute of Technology this fall and will be studying mechanical engineering. She credits her time at TNSM as being beneficial saying, ” TNSM helped me to gain a lot of independence in the classroom, such as giving me a foundation for time-management and learning to work on my own as well as with others.”
When I pressed Allie for more information about her robot, she gave this fascinating explanation of her work. “The program we are in (FIRST Tech Challenge) presents a game each season to all of the teams around the world. This season’s challenge was called “Relic Recovery.” The challenge essentially involved having a robot that could collect and stack foam cubes (Glyphs) and make certain color patterns with them. The robot also had to be able to pick up an object (a “Relic”) and extend it up 32″ beyond the actual competition playing field. The robot must be smaller than an 18″x18″x18″ cube. Our bot used a lot of different linear slide systems to accomplish these tasks (lifting Glyphs vertically and extending the Relic horizontally out from the competition playing field). We used servo-controlled arms to grab Glyphs and another servo-controlled claw to garb the Relic. I attached a team photo that also includes our robot (you can see the wood sidewalls that we use on our robot that we mount all of our mechanisms to).”
Grace Gilbreath very involved with the theater program throughout high school experience at Cincinnati Country Day School, acting in plays in her earlier years and then really getting into the technical backstage aspect. She spent her last two years as the Costume Designer or Props Designer for most productions and also worked on set design, building and stage management. Grace also delved into creative writing and fine art, taking multiple honors and AP classes and winning a Scholastic Art Award and a Cincinnati ARC award. Her work was exhibited at the Taft Museum this past spring. Since the 2016 election, Grace has taken an interest in political activism and was one of the founding members of Cincinnati Country Day’s Feminist Club. The photo of Grace was taken at the Women’s March in Washington D.C. in January, 2017.
Grace is excited be moving to Chicago in the fall to attend The Theatre School at DePaul University, one of the top-ranked theatre schools in the country. She will be studying costume design and hopes to work behind the scenes as a designer in theatre and film when she graduates. This summer, Grace is a camp counselor at Falcon Camp in Carrollton, Ohio, the same camp she has attended for part of every summer since second grade.
Catherine Wadih graduated as salutatorian of her class at Clark Montessori High School. She participated in the student-led theater group Epic and performed in many plays. Catherine played trumpet in the jazz band and enjoyed taking art classes. She also continued to participate in circus skills throughout high school, juggling lighted clubs while unicycling in the Blink parade last year! Catherine joined the Clark Rowing Team (through Queen City Rowing) when it was formed in 10th grade and rowed all through high school. She took part in club national championships over the summer in Camden, N.J. and will be on the women’s rowing team at Marietta College in Marietta, Ohio where she has been accepted into their honors program. Catherine’s family credits The New School for giving Catherine such a great foundation for the success she had at Clark and say that TNSM will always have a special place in their hearts.