DURHAM ACADEMY MAGAZINE

Construction for the Middle School Gateway Center is humming along and is projected to wrap up in spring 2023.

The past three years have provided the ultimate strategic exercise, Head of School Michael Ulku-Steiner says.

We're celebrating senior scholarships and accolades in performing arts, chess, speech and debate, robotics and golf.

She’s shining a spotlight on some of Durham Academy’s unsung heroes.

Durham Academy’s athletics program posted one of its most successful years ever in 2021–2022.

Upper School Digital Art & Design students practice storytelling skills through the use of digital tools to manipulate portraits.

Storytelling and imagination have been integral to her life from the start.

Commencement speaker Gabriel Bump urged the Class of 2022 to nurture the friendships that will support them in times both good and tough.

Family members, friends and faculty gather for Upper School commencement and closing exercises for Preschool, Lower School and Middle School.

DA student-athletes will compete at the Division I and III levels in baseball, cross-country, field hockey, lacrosse, soccer, track and field, and volleyball.

With their time at Durham Academy coming to a close, we asked members of the Class of 2022 to reflect on their time at DA. A common theme of many of their responses? The importance of community.

Pre-kindergartners’ to seniors’ feedback has been immediately incorporated into the process to chart the course of Durham Academy.

Through the Passion Power Hour program, second-graders are given the freedom and support to design projects based on topics that interest them.

Dr. Megan Klenk is helping DA’s youngest students navigate their feelings, big and small.

A couple of the first Innovation Journey Fund grants to be approved include the use of augmented reality for world language learners and a more intentional environmental sustainability structure.

Students are exploring interests in everything from engineering a humanure toilet to helping classmates with learning differences.

Groups create spaces for caregivers to get to know others with a shared religion, race or family makeup, or whose children have shared experiences. 

Beloved activities and traditions — put on pause due to COVID-19 — are returning to DA’s campuses.

With the program on pause for two years, most students who built this year’s robot were new to the process.

Faculty members have written personal notes for each member of the class for the last nine years.

Those saying goodbye have devoted a cumulative 301 years of service to DA.

Faculty and staff members are joining the DA community in nearly every division and department. 

The newest stewards of DA are parents, alumni and school partners.

Learning specialist Dr. Cindy Moore is among students’ most enthusiastic cheerleaders.

We’re on the threshold of the most ambitious fundraising effort in Durham Academy’s history.

Get ready for Durham Academy Homecoming and the Athletic Hall of Fame in 2022.

Lisa Joyner '89, 

In the eight years since graduating from Durham Academy, Tara Nagar ’14 has discovered a passion for computer science and engineering, made multiple cross-country moves and is now helping to reimagine the landscape of temporary labor. 

Dr. Bradley Hardy ’89, a labor economist and professor at Georgetown University, is this year's Distinguished Alumni Award honoree, and longtime maintenance foreman Randy Baker is the Faculty and Staff Legacy Award honoree.

Greg Murray retired this spring, closing the book on 43 years at Durham Academy, among the longest tenures in the school’s history.

The fight against cancer is what drives Dr. Kameron Kooshesh’s career as a young doctor. And cancer is what brought the 2012 Durham Academy graduate from California to Duke Medical Center for treatment when he was a preteen, leading him to enroll as a student at DA as an eighth-grader.

Roger Peña, Leslie Ogden Skardon ’08, Corey Mansfield Moore ’02, Tracy Riddle, Pier Bynum Fowler ’08, Grant Fowler ’08, Annie Giarla Carr ’12, Braxton Carr ’12, Evelyn Soletro, Katherine Spruill and Costen Irons ’98 have all welcomed babies to their families.

Among alumni who have recently tied the knot are Emma Hart '10 and David Fowler '10.
 

Remembering the lives of Ki Caldwell, Charlie Witzleben, Jennie Wallace and Bert Haywood.

Alumni representing nearly four decades now comprise the board.