Saints Debate Club & Our First Debate

Last week was an exciting week for our very own SSSAS Debate Club. Last Wednesday, was our very first formal debate. The topic for the Debate was The Legalization of the Recreational Use of Marijuana. We had two teams: one team that argued for the legalization, which was known as the affirmative and another team that argued against the legalization, or the negative. We ordered pizza, as it is a tradition for Debate Club, and began the debate. Sarah Lowe and I, as co-presidents, split the club into two and started preparing for the debate. At the end of the debate my team (against the legalization) was crowned the winner. It was fun and involved some fiery, but interesting points. I was so proud of everyone there as we all performed respectfully and excellently.
This week, we have our monthly "Free-for-All" where members and non-members alike come in and debate whatever they would like and we choose our topic for the next debate from that session.
Stay tuned for an update for more information regarding our next debate. Great Job Saints Debate and keep up the good work!!

Saints Coffeehouse

This past friday, I had the opportunity to attend the 2nd Annual Gallery Coffeehouse. The Coffeehouse is similar to our Evening of the Arts talent showcase in the spring, except it has a more intimate setting. Whereas Evening of the Arts includes electric performances, the Coffeehouse is more personal with acoustic performances, poetry, and short stories read by members of the Saints Community. It is held in the library rotunda, cider and coffee are served, and student artwork is displayed around the room. I am so glad that I was able to attend. One of the amazing things about our school is the amount of artistic talent that our peers have. Listening to original music and poetry was inspiring. I even had the chance to get up and do a little improv poem during the Open Mic session of the night! The St. Stephen’s & St. Agnes Community is one where each individual students talents can grow and flourish. The Gallery Coffeehouse is an excellent sampling of the great talent we have in our school community.

The End of the First Quarter!

Yesterday, every Upper School students' grades were uploaded to our school website, along with comments from each of our teachers. Because of this, we had a long advisory to discuss our grades with our advisors. At SSSAS, you meet with the same group of people and the same faculty advisor all four years every Monday to discuss upcoming events, important deadlines, and chat about what how we are doing and your weekends.
My favorite advisory, however, has always been the advisory where we go over grades with our faculty advisor, because it gives students a chance to have a sanctioned one-on-one with someone who is always available to us for help.
This advisory has become even more important to me as I navigate the College Process and my senior year.  It is great that my advisor is always there for me, especially during busy times.

Spanish Exchange

SSSAS offers many spring break trips, and after my positive experience traveling to the Bahamas to research marine biology last year, I decided to look into more trips for this spring. This year, the exchange trip to Madrid caught my attention. The unique part of this trip was that each American student is paired with a Spanish student, whose house they would stay in for the duration of the trip to give a full cultural experience. When I received the contact information for my exchange student, Sonia, I was excited and anxious to meet her and immediately contacted her via email. We quickly friended each other on Facebook, and followed each other on Twitter and Instagram.

The Spanish students arrived October 16 and stayed for 12 days. While 12 days initially seemed like a long amount of time, it went by quickly. Everyday was busily filled with trying to give the full “American experience” to these teens who were so much like us, yet lived so differently. For instance, did you know that there is no peanut butter in Spain? It was small things like these that we insisted they try.

The best part of signing up for this trip was not just the excitement of traveling to a new place; I made amazing new friends both across the globe and within this school. We still have a Whatsapp group chat with all the students from both countries where we constantly talk in a mixture of the two languages. I got to know American students that I would have no way to get to know otherwise when we would hang out as a big group on the weekends or after school. With each passing day, I got closer to all of the students, and by the end I had made some of my closest friends.

It was sad when they left; the potluck on the final night and the goodbyes the next morning were teary-eyed and heartfelt, but I am equally excited to travel to Spain as I was to meet the students. I can’t wait to be reunited with my international friends and to emerge myself in a new culture in Madrid.

Hanging out in Georgetown with the exchange students on the weekend

Getting ice cream in old town