Alumni, parents and faculty standing up, standing out

above: nice to see Sophie Grosswendt '16 and Lydia Grosswendt '16 representing the Rhode Island Philharmonic Music School in their summer camp ad.

 

Alumni...

After Gordon's math team won the state championship yet again, news surfaced of a few math team alumni who are continuing to find success:

Eric Song '16 made it to the final round of the American Mathematical Society's Who Wants to Be a Mathematician? contest, held at Providence College on March 14th (Pi Day, of course). He ended up in second place, behind a senior at Barrington High. Eric and Kailas Kahler '16 were key members of the Moses Brown Math League team, too, which came in fifth out of thirteen teams in the state tournament.

Neil Panth '18 has already established himself in the Rhode Island Math League's regular season, becoming the highest scoring freshman in the state (tied with another student) and fifth in the state overall. He was the highest scoring freshman at the state playoffs, scoring twenty-three out of a possible twenty-four, and went on to compete in the regional tournament this weekend.

Arlo Robbins '18, who records and performs under the name Bitbybitbot, has expanded his reach beyond Bandcamp and has a batch of new singles up on Spotify and iTunes. His new album drops in May, and he's been booked this summer's PVDFest.

Artist and designer Coby Unger '05 is part of a new exhibit at the Design Museum Boston. Coby's work on a a prosthetic arm for Aiden Robinson brought him to the pages of Atlantic Monthly, to the halls of the White House, and now to Boston as part of Bespoke Bodies: The Design and Craft of Prosthetics, which runs through August. Judging by his instagram feed, Coby may also be reviving his stump chair project, which livened up public spaces across Providence several summers ago.

 

...faculty...

Kindergarten teacher Julie Parsons was a key source for a feature article in DiversityIS, a magazine covering diversity and inclusion topics in the independent school world. Parsons discussed Gordon's history of affinity groups for students, and the contribution these groups can make to a student body's collective mental health. 

Seventh and eighth grade science teacher Angela Flynn got her work on the national stage (again) at the recent National Blended & Personalized Learning Conference. Her presentation, Is Race Really Real?, drew on work from Flynn's Gordon classroom, as explained in her TED-Ed talk of a few years ago.

Music teacher Susan Hodgin shared her insights on teaching ukuele for a front-page article in the most recent newsletter of the Rhode Island Music Educators Association, drawing on the surprisingly rich history of ukulele instruction here at Gordon. 

 

...and parents

Fifth grade parent Darcie Dennigan was recently awarded the Anna Rabinowitz Prize, given by the Poetry Society of America to "poets and their collaborators for venturesome, interdisciplinary work." Dennigan is currently Playwright-in-Residence at the Wilbury Group; careful listeners will have noticed her name, along with that of Gordon Summer Theater faculty Brien Lang, in the Wilbury Theater's recent promotions on the Public's Radio.

Seventh grade parent Mary Beth Meehan has brought her large-scale outdoor portraits to the community of Newnan, Georgia, where they've been inspiring conversation all through the spring. Meehan is known to many as the photojournalist behind the building-sized portraits  in downtown Providence; she's also been an annual guest in sixth grade, sharing her story with students as part of their own study of photojournalism.

Eighth grade parent Angela Bannerman Ankoma was named Rising Star for 2019 by Providence Business News in their annual list of "C-Suite" awards. She's executive vice president and director of community investment at United Way of Rhode Island, and was on this blog most recently for winning the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's prestigious RWJF Award for Health Equity. 

Got another story to share? Email Geoff Griffin at ggriffin@gordonschool.org