DURHAM ACADEMY MAGAZINE

Our daughter graduated from Durham Academy last month, and it was not what we imagined it would be. It was terrible, beautiful, profound and unifying.

Tackling racism — with its tentacles reaching into seemingly every facet of our society — can feel overwhelming. But, for anyone feeling that way, rising Durham Academy senior Zoe Sinclair wants you to know two things: that you can get started in this work with just a conversation.

Middle Schoolers stretched their creative muscles in the newly opened Arts & World Languages Center in all sorts of ways this spring. They even dabbled in the art of food — making art that looks like real food, that is.

In a year in which very little has felt typical, Durham Academy student-athletes have found a little sliver of normalcy on the soccer field, track, golf course and basketball court. 

Durham Academy Parents Association organized two huge waves of gratitude from parents and students this year.

Following his passions — among them, math, teaching and soccer — has led Saxena to success and fulfillment.

This year — when being together in person was challenging — students, faculty, staff and parents had to be more intentional than ever in their efforts to foster community, preserve traditions and keep learning fresh and fun.

“Wow. We lived through enough history to fill two textbooks,” Emily Norry ’21 told her classmates as they prepared to join the ranks of Durham Academy alumni.

The last year and a half has created unimaginable challenges for the Class of 2021. But these months have also been ripe with opportunities for the class to learn more about themselves, to put things in perspective, to find moments of gratitude.

The Class of 2021 was able to take advantage of the limitations of the pandemic and worked together to learn more about the community in which they live, even though they had to do so remotely.

Nine Durham Academy seniors are trading DA green and white for jerseys and caps of new hues as they compete in collegiate athletics at the Division I and Division III levels next school year.

​​​In a school year when few events took place in the “usual” way, Preschool, Lower School and Middle School followed suit and adapted closing exercises to accommodate for COVID-19.

Durham Academy Upper Schoolers are getting a big taste of the business world thanks to an innovative collaboration with District C, a nonprofit that empowers high schoolers to solve real-world problems for businesses and organizations.

Over the last six years, the Brine King of Spring Face-Off Classic — a lacrosse tournament organized each year by Durham Academy varsity boys lacrosse coach Jon Lantzy — has raised more than $300,000 in support of the Pediatric Brain Tumor Foundation’s Vs. Cancer program.

As part of a virtual Lower School assembly for Black History Month in February, students listened to the book Freedom on the Menu: the Greensboro Sit-Ins by Carole Boston Weatherford.

Seventh-graders write about something they feel passionately about using poetic devices.

This year’s This I Believe speakers included seniors Andria Shafer and Blake Smith; juniors Molly Hunter, Zoe Sinclair and Aaliyah Wines; sophomores Emerson Levin and Ash Granda-Bondurant; and ninth-grader Scout Ross.

In a year when Durham Academy had a renewed focus on inclusion, one conversation took place that had been long overdue — a dialogue about disability and accessibility on DA’s campus.

The first phase of a complete reimagination of the Middle School campus — the Arts & World Languages Center — was completed in early March. The 42,000-square-foot facility opened to Middle School students on March 22.

A group of industrious Middle Schoolers recently took a big step forward in their plan to install a rain garden to absorb stormwater runoff from the new Arts & World Languages Center parking lot.

DA’s 2021 Earth Day celebration spanned an entire week, bringing together Upper Schoolers, Lower Schoolers and Preschoolers to appreciate nature and give the Earth some TLC.

A sixth-grade social studies mini-unit on institutional power and methods of “people power” turned into an opportunity for students to tap into recent real-world events and learn about the Iroquois Nationals lacrosse team’s fight for inclusion in the 2022 World Games in Birmingham, Alabama.

Since starting his eighth-grade elective course, STEAM by Design, in 2016, Karl Schaefer has encouraged his students to use cutting-edge technology, engineering and coding to solve real-life problems.

The OIT team went from working behind the scenes to being at the forefront of DA’s efforts to continue educating students amid a pandemic.

Those saying goodbye have devoted a cumulative 312 years of service to DA.

In addition to the new faces that are to join the DA community this fall, several current faculty and staff members will take on new roles in the 2021–2022 school year.

Jennifer Bullock, Debbie Dibbert, Ashini Fernando, Leora Fields, Randy Gelber, Delores Moore, Lee Patterson, Melissa Pfeil and Jamie Spatola are new members of the Durham Academy Board of Trustees. 

He is the epitome of a life-changing teacher who makes a difference. Thus, it is fitting that Jordan Adair is honored with the 2021 F. Robertson Hershey Distinguished Faculty Award.

The unusual circumstances we have lived in have made us think outside the box about how we can engage and connect alumni with one other and with their alma mater.

The Durham Academy Athletic Hall of Fame will induct its fifth class of honorees on Dec. 16, 2022, at 6 p.m.

Collin Suggs ’08 is a young man who sets goals for himself and pursues them with almost relentless determination

Like the currents that are so powerful now — race, power and fear of displacement — these dynamics played at our school that year when a Black father, Dr. Tyrone Baines, was elected as the first Black parent to become president of the venerable Durham Academy Parents Council.

In The Pocket is inviting fans to an ITP Anniversary Celebration the weekend of Saturday, Jan. 8, 2022! There will be reunions, activities, jam sessions and rehearsals throughout the weekend, with a concert for the public at 7:30 p.m. on Jan. 8. ALL In The Pocket alumni from all 25 years are invited and encouraged to attend!

Torsie Judkins has more than 20 years of experience working in independent school education, and the Durham Academy Class of 1991 graduate says he owes his career to a chance pairing thanks to his passion for golf.

DA alumni from around the country and spanning the decades joined a Zoom call on April 14 to celebrate this year’s recipients of alumni awards: Ward Horton ’94 (Distinguished Alumni Award); Molly Shaw ’98 (Alumni Service Award); and Verle Regnerus (Faculty and Staff Legacy Award).

“Seeing these alumni engage with their alma mater is gratifying on so many levels,” Head of School Michael Ulku-Steiner said. “They are simultaneously helping and imitating their own life-changing teachers. They are building their skills in real-life roles that — this year more than ever — make an immense difference.

Samantha Lanevi ’14 has an international background — her father is Swedish, her mother was born in Cuba, she was adopted from China when she was 6 months old and lived in Switzerland until she was 2-and-a-half — and she’s taking an international approach to pursuing a master’s degree in American history.

Max Isley, who died Feb. 17, was the original architect of the Academy Road and Upper School campuses as well as the father of four Durham Academy alumni.