January 2021 Dear Alumni,
Happy New Year! Despite the many challenges we've endured in 2020, I have to say our faculty, staff, and families managed to pull through in incredible ways to prove just how amazing Catherine Cook School truly is. In 2021, I look forward to fresh starts, continued successes, and the power of strong connections within the Catherine Cook community, including with our Alumni. I wish you all the very best in this new year and good health for you and your families.
All my best, Lori-Anne Brogdon, Ed.D. Head of School Barbara Dawn 3rd - 8th Grade Art Teacher How many years have you been teaching at Catherine Cook? Over twenty years - 23 years to be exact!
Are you a coach or moderator? If so, for what group? I hosted Art Club for many years and I also used to teach after school painting classes.
Favorite piece of Catherine Cook apparel? The long sleeved shirt with the Cougar on the front.
Do you have a favorite assembly? If so, which one is it? I love the musicals, the MLK assembly, student recitals, Halloween Parade and festivities, the Catherine Cook Book Awards. There are so many creative teachers and talented students in this school that it makes all of them fun and informative.
What is your favorite Catherine Cook tradition? What I love about Catherine Cook is that there are so many traditions. Gathering together at assembly on Fridays to be together as a school (it's something I really miss this year), the Musical, the Halloween Parade, Language Olympics, PE games, creating in the gym with the entire Lower School, the Bridging Ceremony at Graduation, holiday concerts, and of course the All School Art Project and the Art Fair.
What is the best Catherine Cook memory? I've been at Catherine Cook for so long that there are too many great memories to pick just one. So, I'll give you a short montage of some of them. Dance parties in advisory, table tennis in advisory, playing records in art class, the clean up song, a fashion show in my cabin at Camp MacLean, Art Camp with Pepper the fuzzy footstool, ice cream sundae Fridays, and All School Art Project assemblies. To name just a few.
What is your favorite room/space in the building? The library is the coziest. I love when the fireplace is on. After that its the IDEA Lab because it's such a creative space.
Words of advice/encouragement for Alumni? Stay true to yourself. Keep up with your old friends, they were your first and best friends. Travel as much as you can (when you can) because not everything is learned in school. Come back and visit us because we love seeing and hearing the things you are doing.
Surya Newa '18 Surya will be participating in the Wharton Global High School Investment Competition in May. His team works with trades and strategies while learning about stocks and securities. Surya also recently received an award in the worldwide Bowseat Ocean Awareness contest in which more than 5,000 teens from all around the world competed.
Sophia Manrique '14 Sophia graduated a year early from the University of Washington and is planning to intern with Amazon for a second year. During Summer 2020, she was able to travel around the Pacific Northwest and Montana (see the amazing photo below!).
Catherine Cook invites alumni and parents to Catherine Cook's Winter DEI Book Club. This is an opportunity for a cross-section of our Cook community to read and discuss a seminal nonfiction text. Together we will seek to uncover ways we can help create a more equitable community. The Winter DEI Book Club will take place over four sessions. You can read the whole book ahead of the sessions or read it in parts, as each session will focus on a different portion of the book.
This season our book is Covering: The Hidden Assault on Our Civil Rights by Kenji Yoshino. Originally published in 2006, Yoshino's argument for why we as individuals in the community need to focus on human rights still resonates today. By sharing his own intimate story, Yoshino takes us through a personal journey to help the reader understand the pain of systemic oppression and the agency we have to create new, better inclusive systems.
All conversations for Covering will be held over Zoom, from 6:00 - 7:15 pm Central on the following dates:
Thursday, January 21 Tuesday, February 9 Tuesday, February 23 Tuesday, March 2
Gala Save the Date We may not be able to gather together as we have in the past, but the Gala will still continue on - this time Live-streamed! We hope you will put on your totally tubular 80s outfits and join the fun. Please save the date for Gala 2021 and check out our Gala page for more details as they become available. Class Captains As we continue to grow our Alumni program at Catherine Cook, we are looking for those of you who are interested in being Class Captains. If you are interested in representing your class or helping to plan alumni events, email Lindsay Bartlett, Associate Director of Annual Giving and Special Events. |