Lausanne Collegiate School

For our final Visual Art Week feature, we're showcasing this incredible student-made mural!

Titled Stronger Together, the mural is a collaborative piece, involving 20 students from the Integrated Art and Design course and is the newest art installation on the Lausanne campus. Located in the rotunda of the library, the mural is comprised of 35 individual canvases. Although Covid-19 restrictions (6 feet social distancing) required that students were physically separated from one another in the classroom, they maintained a conceptual and meaningful relationship throughout the entire process. With all the uncertainty that was going on around us, coupled with feelings of isolation from family and friends, it felt essential to find a way to connect with others. This mural provided the students with a sense of being a part of something bigger while giving them a collective sense of one.

Day 4 of Visual Arts Week is dedicated to Upper School's annual Mystery Model workshop.

Every year in the Michelangelo Project-Atelier, the artists engage in a three-week portrait workshop. This is a unique opportunity at the high school and middle-school level, as the workshop is similar to those more typically presented to adult-aged professional artists. The first two weeks include lectures, presentations and drawing sessions focusing on proportions, features and the perspective quality of the head. The third week culminates in the artists each creating a drawing or painting made by direct observation of a model who is posing consecutively over a week’s time.

Day 3 of Visual Arts Week is all about our Lower School artists!

Today's feature includes some of the art pieces making the halls outside Lower School's Art room bright and beautiful! Students in Lower School art have been exploring their creative expression, learning new skills sets and creating pieces inspired by the techniques of various artists they learned about in class.

It's day 2 of Visual Arts Week at Lausanne, and today's feature highlights some of the unique pieces our Middle School artists created!

Middle School art students have been focusing on creating three-dimensional art this trimester. In addition, seventh and eighth-grade students explored the medium of paper mache to design bucket masks and mystery creature taxidermy art. Using paper and cardboard, students created a bucket mask character with facial features built up three-dimensionally. The taxidermy creatures were also formed using paper, tape and paste. This process allows the students to think, plan and execute their project using three-dimensional building skills of the mind. Adding a third dimension of physical space enables young artists to explore design properties in new ways. Three-dimensional materials allow children to design with length, width, and depth and add an element of fun!

Over Spring Break, we'll be celebrating Visual Arts Week to highlight our amazing Lynx artists and the pieces they've been working on recently. Keep a lookout as we share art from a different division each day this week!

Today's feature includes creative works from LOOKING TO SEE, the annual Design and Ceramics exhibit that is currently on display in Blackmon Gallery. Featuring a wide range of media, the exhibition showcases the talent of the students currently enrolled in design or ceramics and reflects the strength and diversity of practice in the design and art programs at Lausanne.

Way to go, Lynx!

This year's Mars Home Expedition experience has been out of this world for our first-grade students!

As part of their PYP unit, "Where We Are In Place and Time," the annual class project includes engaging exercises that explore how we can create prototypes for future civilizations on Mars.

Students took a field trip to the Sharpe Planetarium at Memphis Museum of Science and History, built their own Mars civilization and spoke over Zoom with experts from Nasa and the University of Michigan.

Read more about their unit below:
https://www.lausanneschool.com/news/posts/pyp-unit-takes-first-graders-on-a-voyage-to-mars

Second-Generation Holocaust Survivor Shares Life And Legacy With Upper School Class

Teary eyes filled the room as Mrs. Dorothy Goldwin shared the heartwrenching story of how her mother was only 12 years old when she and her family were forced into a Polish ghetto and had to endure unimaginable starvation, abuse and multiple near-death encounters. The students continued to listen intently and emotionally as Mrs. Goldwin followed with her father's tragic and very different experience as he had to live through the Death March from Auschwitz, which began with him and 4,000 others on the march and ended with only 300 survivors.

Click below to read more about our Upper School students' visit with Mrs. Goldwin, a second-generation Holocaust survivor:
https://www.lausanneschool.com/news/posts/second-generation-holocaust-survivor-shares-life-and-legacy-with-upper-school-class

Second-Generation Holocaust Survivor Shares Life And Legacy With Upper School Class Understanding the gravity of the Holocaust is a critical component of Heather Price's Facing History and Ourselves course, and her Upper School students gained a deeper understanding of the period recently when Dorothy Goldwin, a second-generation Holocaust survivor, stopped by to share her parent's...

"The community at Lausanne is unparalleled," Suhani Koka '22 shared. "Every teacher genuinely works to see each student succeed, and all of my teachers will do whatever it takes to help me. I've watched Mr. Kearl explain homework to students that he doesn't even teach because Lausanne teachers are passionate about seeing every student flourish. The college counselors work relentlessly to ensure that every student finds the school they match – I woke up one morning to Mrs. Gray editing my essay document at 3 am. The Lausanne community has become my family and has influenced me by pushing me to be a better person everyday."

Read more about Suhani's Lausanne experience in the senior profile below:
https://www.lausanneschool.com/news/posts/senior-profile-suhani-koka-22

Lausanne is honored to announce that Ryan Thornton '08 has been named this year's Chair of Ideas. With a resume boasting esteemed roles at Ketchum, Sony Music and Facebook, Ryan has spent his entire career in digital marketing and strategy, helping brands, talent and organizations tell resonating stories. In his current role as Head of Catalog Music for YouTube, the Lynx alumnus manages relationships between YouTube and the music industry's major and independent record labels.

Click below to watch Ryan's Chair of Ideas speech and to read more about the alumnus and how he spent his time while back on Lausanne's campus:
https://www.lausanneschool.com/news/posts/ryan-thornton-08-named-2022-chair-of-ideas

In a letter written to fifth-grader Phoebe Holman '29, President Joe Biden tells the Lynx student she has the power to change the future and make history.

The letter was a response to the one Phoebe wrote the president a few months ago. After learning about environmental issues and the benefits of a more sustainable planet in her classes at Lausanne, she decided to reach out to express her concerns and share ways Biden could help make a difference.

"I'm very passionate about the environment," Phoebe shared. "I decided one of the best ways to help was to reach out to the president to help give ideas about cleaning up the oceans and the world around us. I wasn't sure if i'd hear back, so I was really excited when I received his letter. It feels good to be heard."

We love that Phoebe uses her voice to make the world a better place!

Lausanne Upper School students took to the fields on Thursday to enjoy the warmer weather and engage in a friendly competition between classes during community time/advisory.

On the lower field, freshman and sophomores divided up and faced off in two games of kickball. Meanwhile, on the turf field, juniors and seniors took part in a game of capture the flag.

It was great to see everyone’s smiling faces as students enjoyed a break from the classroom and an opportunity to engage in a fun competition.

Congratulations to Edens Richardson '24 and Skylar Harts '22 for representing Lausanne well at the Memphis Area English Speaking Union's annual Shakespeare Competition!

"All of the contestants were truly wonderful, and our Lausanne students did a great job," Middle and Upper School Drama teacher Ashley Bugg-Brown said. "The judges said it was their best group of competitors in years!"

Skylar Harts '22 also came home with the Stage Presence Award and received a check from the English Speaking Union.

The Shakespeare Competition begins as a schoolwide contest, with the winner moving on to a community-level competition, in which they perform another monologue followed by a Shakespearean sonnet.

"I believe in the philosophy that you should "show, don't tell," and as the president of the Lausanne VR Club, I want to apply that to the latest form of media: Virtual Reality," Shranav said. "In VR, we gain the ability to tell stories and truly show people what the future holds. It's bright."

Read more about Shranav's Lausanne experience in the senior profile below:
https://www.lausanneschool.com/news/posts/senior-profile-shranav-palakurthi-22

Sophia Holland '22, Annabella Tian '22, Jyotika Maharaj '23 and Michelle Liu '24 have teamed up to join the Society of Women Engineers (SWE) to participate in the cube satellite project with MIT's Lincoln Laboratories.

The SWE/BWSI Build a CubeSat challenge is a robotics-style competition sponsored by the Society for Women Engineers in conjunction with MIT's Lincoln Laboratories. The main goal is to design and construct a cube satellite and boost women's involvement in STEM fields.

"I am coaching them in the process of building," Upper School Design and Science teacher Subash Gautam shared. "As of December 2021, less than 15% of all computer engineers are women, so opportunities like the Build a CubeSat challenge are extremely important to expose more young girls to potentially life-changing career paths."

Throughout the next few months, the Upper School team, Pi in the Sky, will be researching the programming and engineering components that go into building a CubeSat using an online course put together by MIT researchers. Our hope for the final competition is to create a functional and creative satellite.

"We're all incredibly excited about what's to come," Subash said.

Lausanne Dance Celebrates Black History Month With Performance

The Lausanne Black History Month celebration continued last week as Lausanne dance classes performed to Stand Up, a song by Cynthia Erivo.

Originally scheduled to be performed in EPAC in front of an audience, the performance was moved to the virtual setting after COVID numbers rose.

“As part of Black History month, we are committed to expressing the significance of how dance is used in its culture and the big impact it has in the world.” Upper School dance teacher Noelia Jones said. “Black History Month is the opportunity to learn about a community and groups of pioneers that paved the way for artists filled with talent, resilience, and beauty.”

Check out the story for a video of the performance.

Lausanne Dance Celebrates Black History Month With Performance The Lausanne Black History Month celebration continued last week as Lausanne dance classes performed to Stand Up, a song by Cynthia Erivo.Originally scheduled to be performed in EPAC in front of an audience, the performance was moved to the virtual setting after COVID numbers rose.“As part of Bla...

Our sixth-graders are moving to the mathematical rhythm!

Students in Bethany Woods' math class had the opportunity to create a music video using Proportional Relationships as their content. The class was tasked with coming up with songs and music that included at least three ways of representing proportional relationships and implemented pictures, props or visuals in their videos.

"First step was to find a song or create their own music as their beat," Mrs. Woods shared. "Then creating lyrics that go along with their beat using Proportional Relationship notes that they learned in class and finally, a video of themselves singing their lyrics to create their math music video."

Upper School Students Represent Lausanne At Model UN Convention

Over the past weekend, 10 Lausanne students attended the VOLMUN VII Conference at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Debating as ambassadors to countries in the UN, they practiced diplomacy and proposed solutions to global issues ranging from healthcare inequalities to honoring indigenous rights.

Read more about the Model UN attendees below:
https://www.lausanneschool.com/news/posts/upper-school-students-represent-lausanne-at-model-un-convention

Upper School Students Represent Lausanne At Model UN Convention Over the past weekend, ten Lausanne students attended the VOLMUN VII Conference at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Debating as ambassadors to countries in the UN, they practiced diplomacy and proposed solutions to global issues ranging from healthcare inequalities to honoring indigenous righ...