What a busy week for the girls and their teachers! ERBs were administered on Monday and Tuesday; your child’s results on those tests will be sent to you in early June. Thank you to all for sending in donations for the Essential Items Drive. Your gifts will truly make a difference for area children in need as they begin their summers. I extend appreciation to all of our fifth grade parents who came out to support the girls during a very successful Olympics, to those of you who served as team moms, and to Allyson Lindsley and Jenna Woodberry who served as co-chairs of the event. The fifth grade teaches and our PE faculty truly presented the girls with a memorable day. Fabulous weather, fabulous efforts, fabulous sportsmanship, and fabulous fun!

As you may remember, eighth-grader Emma Deshpande represented Hockaday at the recent state round of the National Geographic Bee. Emma’s eligibility was based on being the school-wide winner of this year’s Bee and on her subsequent performance on a qualifying test, which identifies the top one hundred students in Texas. While Emma narrowly missed moving into the final round, as a geographic enthusiast, she enjoyed the competition immensely. Founded in order to increase geographic literacy, the National Geographic Bee celebrated its twenty-fifth anniversary this year. Hockaday has participated for twenty years, and our school winners have qualified for the state competition fifteen times. This is Emma’s second visit, having qualified as a fifth grader in 2009. Typically, girls are under-represented at this competition. In 1993, we were greeted at registration with “Oh good, a girl. We don’t get too many here,” and, indeed, they don’t. This year ten girls were eligible; it was a record.

Our “Kids Stand Up” elective is sponsoring another initiative in the next several weeks, “Ka$h for Kiva.” Both this week and next they will put on a bake sale to raise money for the Kiva organization. Kiva is a non-profit organization which provides loans to people around the world who are living in poverty and are starting up businesses. Members of this elective chose this organization as the recipient of their funds because “Kids Stand Up realizes that we are very lucky to go to a school like Hockaday and get to experience amazing opportunities… we would like to try to help and give other people around the world similar experiences for a better life and a chance to succeed.”

Please check your calendars carefully for next week’s events—it’s performance week for our choirs and orchestras! Both will perform at assemblies for our students and then again in the evening for parents and guests. The choir performance is on April 23rd at 7:00 p.m. in Hicks. Our orchestra concert is on April 25th at 6:00 p.m. in the auditorium. In addition, our Middle School Latin students will join their Upper School peers at the annual Roman Banquet on the evening of April 22nd at 6:00 p.m. Those students celebrate Roman culture together with ceremonies, games, and food (of course) on Graduation Terrace. Seventh grade parents are also invited to a parent meeting on April 24th at 5:45 p.m. in Biggs Dining Hall during which you will receive information about shifts in the academic program in seventh grade and news about our Middle School athletic program. And as that week draws to an end, our seventh graders will take off on their trip to New Mexico on Sunday, April 28th. Seventh grade parents, please be sure you have turned in all forms and checked over the packing list carefully. Please contact your daughter’s advisor if you have any questions.

As you may have heard from your daughter, Student Council elections for 2013-2014 now are underway. Our process mirrors our national election process, offering an authentic experience for our students. Interested girls must first file to be a candidate by filling out an application form and administering an oath. Each grade level then has a "primary" where the field is narrowed down from those who filed to just a few candidates who will actually run for the office. Those girls then compete in the general election for the position they are seeking. Current seventh graders run for the offices of President and Vice President. Our sixth graders will serve as Speaker of the House and Secretary during their seventh grade year, and fifth graders campaign for the office of Treasurer. Our campaigns are not as "authentic" as is our process; Middle School Student Council campaigns are very low-key events and limited in both time and scope. Darin Jeans and Natalie Thomas, Student Council sponsors, provide the candidates with guidelines for their campaign posters, and each candidate gives a speech to grades five through seven before the actual election. Those who are selected will begin the next school year by engaging in a workshop on leadership and planning for the year's events.

In closing, please remember that Kim Wargo will be meeting with eighth grade parents on April 29th at 8:15 in Hicks Meeting Room. I hope many of you are able to join her.

Have a lovely weekend,

Linda Kramer