Hackley alumnus Peter Smith '91, jazz pianist, composer, arranger, singer and recording artist, returned to the Hilltop in November to perform for the Hackley community and spend some time with students in the jazz combo class.
In this month’s blog post on Hackley Perspectives, Director of Academic Affairs Basil Kolani writes about Hackley’s Global Education program and reflects on his recent Round Square trip to Africa. "That we are able to provide opportunities to learn alongside others around the world is a truly special part of a Hackley education," Mr. Kolani notes. Read the post here.
Congratulations to Hackley String Orchestra Director Dr. Lauren Rigby and Jazz Bands Director Dr. Rafi Malkiel on being selected by the Westchester County School Music Association board to conduct All-County groups this year!
This fall, Hackley seventh graders participated in the "Coding is Art Challenge" hosted by imagiLabs. Their designs were noticed and applauded by the team at imagi and, on Oct. 24, co-founder and CEO Dora Palfi spent a day on the Hilltop visiting with our creative coders.
On a bright, beautiful autumn morning on Thursday, Oct. 12, the Intermediate Studio Art classes embarked on a journey to the heart of New York City’s gallery district, visiting 15 Chelsea art galleries.
During the weekend of Sept. 29 to Oct. 1, 12 Hackley debaters participated in the Yale Invitational, one of the largest and most prestigious tournaments of the season.
Five Hackley students and three chaperones are attending the 2023 Round Square International Conference in Kenya this October. Here is what they are looking forward to. #HackleyAtRSIC2023
On Thursday, Sept. 7, the Hackley community came together at Convocation 2023 and formally launched the academic year with welcome notes from Associate Head of School Dr. Cyndy Jean, Community Council President EJ Regalado ’24, Board of Trustees President Dr. Harvinder Sandhu and Head of School Charles Franklin.
By Sami Rowbottom ’23 and Chloe Yancovich ’23, the Dial Editors-in-Chief
Ten years ago, Pete Barrett ’11 published a reflection titled “Renaissance Again: Hackley’s Dial” in the 50th anniversary edition of the Hackley Review. Barrett’s piece covered his experience with the Dial, his opinion on its growth, and its progress over the previous 85 years. Looking back at this article, it is clear that not much has changed.
By Vladimir Klimenko, Upper School history teacher
“Are you excited to be finally going on your Southern Odyssey trip?” The question from colleagues and students echoes repeatedly in the days leading up to spring break. I manage to rouse up a nominal “yes” without elaboration.
On July 1, 2023, Hackley officially welcomed the School’s 13th Head of School Charles Franklin to the Hilltop. Additionally, former Assistant Head of School for Community and Inclusivity Cyndy Jean assumed the role of Associate Head of School, and former Middle School history teacher and dean Damon Hall stepped into the position of Assistant Director of the Middle School.
Hackley juniors Katherine Chen and Aniketh Arvind competed among 349 other finalists at the 2023 International Genius Olympiad held at the Rochester Institute of Technology from June 12 to 16.
On June 3, seven sophomores from Hackley’s Independent Science Research Program joined more than 600 students from the region to present their work at the Somers Science Fair.
By Richard Robinson, PhD, Upper School English teacher
In March 2023, a group of Upper School students and chaperones visited Rome, Florence, Venice and Milan in Italy. In this Hackley Reflections piece, Dr. Richard Robinson, Upper School English teacher and one of the trip’s chaperones, reflects on his experience traveling throughout Italy.
Hackley junior Sam Sanders recently earned the prestigious honor of having his essay on the ancient Greek historian Polybius accepted for publication in the summer edition of The Concord Review.Sam spoke with the Communications Office about the subject of his paper and the path to publication.
In this month’s blog post on Hackley Perspectives, adapted from his Chapel Talk to the Class of 2023, Director of the Upper School Andy King encourages students to find the balance between doubt and certainty by living “a life marked by confidence with perhaps a new way of thinking about confidence. The pursuit of confidence is not the eradication of doubt nor the attainment of certainty. A confident person is someone who understands their doubts and manages them enough to move from doubting to doing and from questioning to acting.” Read the post here.
From May 13 to 19, Noah Nager ’23 and Aniketh Arvind ’24 of Hackley’s Independent Science Research Program joined more than 1,600 students from 64 countries at the Regeneron-International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF) in Dallas, Texas.
Hackley's Upper School Debate Team achieved an unprecedented accomplishment at the Championship for the East Coast High School Public Debate Program (HSPDP) League for the 2022-2023 season on May 6. Hackley was the top team overall with a 100% winning percentage and tied for the most number of wins despite having just three teams in the event.
The Whirlpool Robotics, Hackley's 11th grade ROV team of Cydnee Copeland, Travis Knaggs, and Sam Nadol, had an exceptional performance at the Villanova MATE Regional competition on May 13!
Congratulations to Jenny Leffler, the recipient of this year’s Anton and Lydia Rice Inspirational Teaching Award! The award is presented each year to a member of Hackley’s faculty who, in the estimation of the Senior Class, "has lit and sustained the fire of learning and inspiration, stimulated their intellectual curiosity, and inspired them in positive ways to seize the day and grasp the challenges they will face in the years ahead."
The Independent Science Research Program recently hosted Adjunct Professor and Associate Research Scientist Michelle Levine ’96, as a guest speaker. During her visit, Professor Levine described her current research project focused on the ability to tell a lie from a truth, and her software platform that can train people to become better lie detectors.
On Friday, April 28, Hackley Trustee Dawn Fitzpatrick P ’22, ’24, ’28, Chief Executive Officer and Chief Investment Officer at Soros Fund Management, spoke to Mr. Sykes' two economics classes. Ms. Fitzpatrick gave an outstanding talk to the 11th and 12th grade students, sharing a compelling history about her career path.
Charles Franklin has been named Hackley's new Head of School, beginning July 1. The Board of Trustees unanimously approved the appointment of Mr. Franklin based on the recommendation of the search committee and the hundreds of survey responses and feedback received from members of the Hackley community, including faculty, staff, families, students, and alumni.
On Thursday, April 27, students in Mrs. Washington’s PostAP Spanish: Language and Culture class carried out the service component of their annual service-learning collaboration with community partner, Neighbors Link.
Hackley alumnus Justin Roberts ’01 returned to the Hilltop as a guest speaker in David Sykes’ economics class on Friday, April 21. A partner at Rubric Capital Management LP, Justin shared his expertise and insights on investing, a topic that has been of particular interest to the class throughout the year.
Hackley Engineers, or Aquabots, from the Upper School Minor Submersible ROV Engineering Team earned recognition for their impressive performance at the New England MATE competition held on Saturday, April 22.
The Independent Science Research Program (ISRP) recently had the pleasure of hosting Hackley alumnus Kiegan Lenihan ’15 as a guest speaker. Kiegan is currently working at Carbon3D in the San Francisco Bay Area, where he is applying geometry and mathematics to drastically improve 3-D printing technology.
The Independent Science Research Program (ISRP) was excited to host ISRP alumnus Josh Zhang ’19 as a virtual guest speaker. During his visit, Josh presented his recent research at Notre Dame on combination treatments for pancreatic cancer. What was particularly exciting is that there was a direct connection between his current research with the acute pancreatitis research he completed while in ISRP at Hackley!
During spring break, ten of our Independent Science Research Program students presented their research at the Westchester Science and Engineering Fair (WESEF) and the NY State Science and Engineering fair (NYSSEF).
Independent Science Research Program students Akshi Khowala '23 and Kiran Marfatia '23 joined more than 150 students in the Westchester Rockland Junior Science and Humanities Symposium (JSHS) on Saturday, Jan. 28.
Hackley is proud to announce that Independent Science Research Program senior Vihaan Dheer was recognized as a Regeneron Science Talent Search Scholar for his project entitled, "The Optimization of Flux Trajectories for the Adiabatic Controlled-Z Gate on Split-Tunable Transmons."