Commencement 2021 Address: Randy Northrup
Posted on July 8th, 2021 by acsrochester
By Randy Northrup, AC faculty member
Thank you Mrs. Baudo.
We thank you for the tremendous job you have done for all of us during this past year. You took on what seemed an insurmountable task and steadied the ship as we charted a course of full, in-person instruction like no other school could. Thank you too, to Connie, Henry, and Chris for sharing you with us. We are very grateful to you.
And now, Mrs. Baudo, members of the board of trustees, families and friends of the graduates, my beloved friends, members of the faculty and staff, and most importantly on this wonderful day – Allendale Columbia School’s Class of 2021.
Well here we are.
Look around you.
Take it all in.
All this will be over in the blink of an eye. Your parents sitting there are saying, “Where did the time go?” You may even be looking back to your days in Kindergarten and thinking that it seemed like only yesterday…
I can relate.
I have been teaching at this school for 40 of its 130 years. I’ve been around a while. And yet it has gone by so quickly. Yes, I’ve been here long enough to have many memories. Some of you lifers, and others with almost as many AC years, have amassed Allendale Columbia memories as well, but some of you are more recent recruits. I should share with you that I relate to you as well. There are times I feel like a newbie, a bit like a fish out of water myself. You see, there are plenty of people, alums, former faculty, and families whose Allendale Columbia experiences reach back much farther than mine. I am always aware of the people who came before me, the people who set the stage and set the tone, the people who built both the brick and mortar facilities, and the foundations of learning and traditions that we, that you, each one of you, have had a part in.
In preparing this address, one theme that I considered led me to another. I hope that I can connect these two thoughts today. First, I hope you aren’t expecting me to go on about how resilient you have been during “these challenging times.” I hope you have already heard enough of that for now. I’d prefer to speak not of resilience but of fragility. The pandemic has made us aware of fragility, the fragility of life and of health. Our confidence in the ability of medical science to keep us safe has been shaken. Health care workers, despite herculean efforts, could not save the lives of many tens of thousands of people. Life is fragile. But that is not the only example of fragility we have encountered.
Harder this year than ever before in my career has been the difficulty of helping my students understand what is going on in the world. Starting each day with a discussion of current events as I have for many years, I not only had to help my students navigate a global pandemic, but from the very first day of school, I had to help them navigate the issues of racial reckoning as protests and the subsequent responses were right at their doorsteps here in Rochester. Peace, justice, equity— things that should be solid bedrocks of this world we share, all seemed so fragile.
Politics of a presidential election? The truth seemed fragile. And then came the current events discussion of January seventh.
I had to face a room of fifth graders who were full of questions that I could not answer. Had I been naive to have thought that democracy was not fragile?
I’m afraid I even have to say that I have been confronted by concerns that our humanity is more fragile than I ever would have thought. By our humanity I mean my belief in the basic goodness of people. Humanity- humaneness, kindness, consideration, understanding, sympathy, empathy, tolerance… I must really sound like that old fogey now. That gotcha moment we can’t resist – the “Watch them get triggered by this” tweet – slamming each other, scorching each other – canceling – counter canceling.
We are better than this.
We should do better.
Can these things happen here at our school? OUR school? But then, how can AC possibly be an island when all of this surrounds us and encroaches?
We hear often about the importance of traditions at Allendale Columbia. You must know how important those traditions are to me. Strawberry Breakfast, Blue White Day, family-style lunches. Those are all great, but they are hollow rituals compared to what I have always considered the greatest tradition and value of Allendale Columbia: civility and civil discourse.
Words matter.
Yes, actions matter more, but words do matter.
As you go off from here, please remember the lessons I hope you have learned about civility. You will find that you disagree with others. Speak up, dissent, protest as you should— as you must— but don’t do it to trigger someone or roast them. Don’t repay pettiness with pettiness, evil intent with evil intent.
I suppose you didn’t expect such sermonizing. Well now, how am I ever going to tie this all together?
Let me move on to my final example of fragility that leads to the other thought I’d like to share with you today. Here is the example. It is something that hit me hard…
Last year’s parking lot commencement ceremony was unique for sure, but I’ll look back two years to a more traditional AC commencement celebration. In 2019 we gathered in the Gannett Gym on a warm Sunday afternoon, but a dark cloud hung over the event for most of us. At that point, there was to be just one more class graduating from Allendale Columbia School.
Several weeks earlier it had been announced that we would merge with another institution. As it turned out, the manner of communication led many of us to see this as more of an absorption that would extinguish. It seemed doubtful that most faculty and staff members would be retained, and even the fate of this beautiful campus was in doubt. I sat in the gym and, except when I was listening in rapt attention to the commencement address being delivered by my friend, Mr. Hunt, I looked around wondering what would happen to my friends and to this place. The school I had spent so many years serving, an institution so valuable with such strong roots and fruitful branches – was it all really so fragile?
I would be retiring soon, but how could I come back to visit my friends, and was I never going to see this place again? Yes, a school is more than the four walls, more than the books in the library, more than my old classroom, but there is something deep-rooted in many of us, a desire to visit and to re-experience once familiar places. Places help us to reminisce.
I looked around the gym where we were saying goodbye to the Class of 2019, and I turned to look at the crowd. I don’t know if you ever noticed it. On the wall just to the right of the bleachers, there is a portion of unpainted brown bricks. Hidden in the wall behind those bricks is a time capsule. There seems to have been a resurgence of interest in time capsules during the pandemic. Many teachers assigned time capsules during lockdown. But my thoughts went back 28 years from that day, 30 years ago from now. It was Allendale Columbia’s centennial year, a year of many festive and reflective celebrations. Each class from nursery school through grade twelve was charged with contributing something to this capsule. I only recall one specific item that was placed in that capsule, the photos from my fourth grade class. When they were in fourth grade, the Class of 1999 was interested in this pressing concern. They wanted to let people of the future know what they thought about the Lower School uniform. They contributed two photos. In one, they are wearing Campbel plaid jumpers and navy blue slacks with plain white polo shirts. In the second one, they are modeling what they wished they could wear to school. 1991— you can imagine the neon, the jelly shoes, the oversized basketball jerseys, and hawaiian print visor caps.
However, sitting there that day, one of many unsettling thoughts regarding the pending merger, not as important as teachers and traditions – what would happen to that time capsule? Would anyone care?
Actually, we all know the answer to that last question. People DID care. Behind the scenes, the wheels were turning. A month or so after that commencement day, there was a collective sigh of relief. The merger was off. AC would stay AC. Relief, yes – but trepidation. We were aware of the fragility of our precarious situation. The rally has been remarkable. I for one will be eternally grateful to all of those who didn’t lose faith, who worked and gave, who offered so much. Many of us under this tent kept the faith and hung on. And Graduates, I am grateful to you and your families for sticking with us. We are helping Allendale Columbia to thrive, building on what is good from the past with the best of new ideas.
And what about that time capsule? It should stay there for at least 100 years, I think. That is the purpose of time capsules, to share with people far removed from current times a glimpse of contemporary values, interests, and concerns.
And why did I carry on about fragility and time capsules on this day when we are sending you off into the world from the safety of this nest in the birches? I don’t have all the answers, that’s for sure, but first of all, when things are fragile, we take care with them. We do things to fortify them and keep them sound, just as we have done together for Allendale Columbia. I can commit to do the same myself with the other things that I identified as examples of fragility – justice, equity, truth, and civility. I am retiring, but my work is not done and neither is yours.
Strengthen the things that are fragile.
Don’t take for granted that everything around you can easily continue as you’d like it to stay. If it really is important to you, be prepared to show it by your actions.
Second of all, although this may sound like something I would say to my fifth graders, this is my favorite part: you don’t need a time capsule sealed up in a wall. You have that time capsule right inside you. Remember when I said that the contents of a time capsule represent contemporary values, interests, and concerns? What are your values, interests, and concerns on this day?
Some time ago I asked you to look around, to take it all in. That moment is gone, but perhaps you’ll find you have stowed something away that you can recall when you’re as old as I am. While it may be as simple as the scent of your roses, or how warm it is under this big top, or most likely the feeling of impatience and wishing Mr. Northrup would stop talking— but I hope that one of the values or qualities you identify today is one of gratitude.
You know what you should be grateful for and to whom you should be grateful as you consider your Allendale Columbia career – that special joke shared with friends, grilled cheese and blond brownies made by a kitchen staff who care, that encouraging compliment when you really needed it, kindergarten naptime. And yes, I know, not all memories are happy, sappy ones. There were tough times too. Ones that are especially tough are when people disappoint you, or when you disappoint yourself. These are important things to keep in your time capsule too because they are often the things that we can learn the most from if we try to move beyond resentment. Can those hard memories fade or give way to forgiveness of others or forgiveness of yourself? Maybe yes, maybe no.
So, now I ask for your indulgence as I look into my own time capsule. You see I am moving on today just like you. There is beauty in this place. How fortunate I have been to teach in spacious classrooms with windows that look out onto the everchanging seasons. Many people who have worked here share my favorite tree – the tall sugar maple outside the music and art building, the first to blaze with color soon after we repeat the annual cycle of returning to school. Shrieks of joy as little sledders hit the jump they made just right on the snowy hill. The referee’s whistle and cheers across the soccer field. The students who made teaching a joy, and perhaps more importantly, the students who challenged me. Some of you are sitting right there. You made me think, and learn, and care. Teachers can’t reach students if they don’t care about them. Most of all, my time capsule holds gratitude— gratitude to the leaders now and those from the past who encouraged teachers like me to be creative, to try new things, and to realize that many old things are valuable as well. I am grateful that this was a wonderful place for my own four children to spend their years as lifers. I am grateful for my colleagues whose example inspired me through the years.
Allendale Columbia School Class of 2021, congratulations. Godspeed. I am proud to be graduating with you, even though it’s taken me a few more years. Enjoy the rest of this wonderful day. Store it in your time capsule. Years from now when you recall this, the memories can tell you what was important to you, what you valued. Are those things fragile? Are they sustainable?
Today in my heart is a feeling of immense and sustained gratitude.
Related Pages:
Commencement 2021
Posted on July 7th, 2021 by acsrochesterCongratulations to the
Allendale Columbia School
Class of 2021!
Commencement Ceremony
- Commencement 2021 Program (PDF)
- Commencement 2021 Senior Address by Sarah Ash ’21
- Commencement Address by AC Faculty Member Randy Northrup
Commencement Photos
Commencement 2021 Senior Address: Sarah Ash ’21
Posted on July 7th, 2021 by acsrochester
By Sarah Ash ’21
Hello everyone, and welcome to the graduation ceremony for the Class of 2021! I’d like to start off by thanking my classmates for electing me to speak today, and I’d also like to thank everyone here for supporting our class throughout all of our years at Allendale Columbia— whether we’ve been here for only one year or for thirteen. I am so happy to say that, despite the pandemic, not only have we all graduated, but most of us are also able to be here to celebrate our accomplishments.
At this moment, I’d like to give a shout out to our international students who cannot be here today because they’re in their home country. We miss you dearly and wish that you were here to celebrate with us.
As a class, I believe that we’ve taken our ability to succeed through these circumstances for granted. Even though we may not realize it, being able to graduate during a pandemic, when a substantial amount of our learning was online, is an amazing feat that shows our passion and commitment to succeed.
I’ve been a student at Allendale Columbia since third grade, and many of my classmates have been here for even longer, effectively meaning that at this point, many of us have spent just about half of our lives growing up together. Throughout these years spent together, we’ve made a lot of memories. We tipped a boat over during our Pathfinder trip, lost our lounge several times a year for a few years because it was always messy, consistently had our all-around-famous lounge debates, which sometimes got a little bit too loud and heated, caused a fire hazard, and experienced second hand trauma when Victoria’s ankle completely dislocated during a visit to the Lincoln Memorial, which was followed by us being forced to continue the tour in the rain while our classmate was rolled out in an ambulance.
In addition to making our own unique memories, we’ve also taken part in a lot of our school’s traditional events. Year after year, we attended and performed at events that make Allendale Columbia, Allendale Columbia. One of my favorite events is Strawberry Breakfast, with donuts and strawberries, the sword dance and the maypole, singing and music, and the crowning and pinning of our senior class. We also have Holiday Breakfast, with speakers, food, and singing, plays, music concerts, forums, and Blue and White day, which many people are convinced always has fake scoring— especially because we all know that the blue team should win every year 😉
Watching each other grow up over the years has been such an interesting experience, and I am so glad to have the ability to say that I strongly believe our class is full of potential leaders. As a class, we’ve matured together, becoming incredibly passionate, strong, and charismatic in many different ways. As we’ve grown together, I’m sure that we have learned a lot of lessons together, and taught each other some too. One of the most important lessons that I can say I’ve learned is about failure. It’s very cliche, but it is the truth. I’m sure that almost everyone who has taken a Neeley class has heard him say, whether directly or indirectly, something like, “one bad grade on a test won’t change your future”. As someone who has failed, or nearly failed, their fair share of tests and quizzes, especially in those classes, I can say with certainty he is absolutely right. At the time, I absolutely hated hearing it, and it kind of sounded like a lie, but it’s true. Failure has taught me a lot of things, the first and most important being that you don’t have to stop when you fail, and you shouldn’t. Revisions and retests were a grade and life-saver. However, I also learned that sometimes, you can try and try and still not really master a concept. On that note, I just want to say a quick thank you to Dr. Spragana for being extremely patient and kind with me through AP Euro because to be quite honest, against her best efforts, I still don’t think I ever really grasped how to correctly answer a DBQ. But that is the important part of failure: learning where your weaknesses lie, doing your best to surpass them by working towards success, and remembering that while everyone can’t be good at everything, everyone is good at something. I’m sure several of my classmates have also learned and grown from not only failure but other necessities of life in these past years.
Believe it or not though, today is when and where our growth as a class ends. From this day on, all, if not most, of our paths will continue to diverge from each other as we learn where we want to go in life, whether it be STEM, like Eshmeron, Lena, and myself, law, like Ellie and Chinara, or even “to be decided”, like Jack and Myles. I, for one, am beyond excited to see what we do with these next few years, as they are the springboard to the rest of our lives. As we look forward to our next chapters, I hope that we continue to establish and maintain strong relationships with both new and old people. I hope that we find passion, drive, and commitment in our lives; academically, recreationally, and beyond. I hope that we discover what makes our lives more meaningful, such as hobbies like traveling, painting, yoga, hiking, and dancing.
Before leaving the school grounds today, I would like to thank the faculty for making our experience here as amazing as it was. Thank you to our teachers for answering our last-minute emails about tests the next day, teaching us through our incessant chatting, moving deadlines when nobody did the work, and grading late work that may have been turned in way too late. Honestly, I would not be surprised if some of us still have an assignment or two that still says missing in big red letters. Thank you to the lunch staff for cooking for us daily, having the utmost amount of kindness, and giving us anything we asked for, even if it was an entire extra tray of desserts. Thank you to the maintenance and cleaning crew who went the extra mile this year by consistently sanitizing the school to help keep us healthy on top of keeping our grass cut, floors clean, trees trimmed, and effectively, our campus beautiful.
I personally would like to say that I am extremely grateful to my family and Allendale Columbia for helping to mold me into who I am today: someone strong, passionate, driven, devoted, and ready to take on the world.
As the Class of 2021 leaves campus this year, I would like to remind you all to keep an eye out for business cards that we hid during prank day. Some of them are a little too well hidden, so hopefully, you’ll be finding them for years to come.
I only have one thing left to say to my classmates as I close my speech today: we have left our mark on Allendale Columbia, and now we’re off to leave our mark on the world.
Related Pages:
Nine AC Upper School Students Display Work at Image City Photography Gallery
Posted on April 6th, 2021 by acsrochester
Untitled, by Jacqueline Henry, ’22
Congratulations to AC’s nine Upper School students whose photography work is being exhibited in a professional gallery setting: Jacqueline ’22, Sophie ’22, Ava ’22, Jonathan ’22, Jennifer ’22, Yuxiang (David) ’22, Fenshuo (Adam) ’23, Mara ’21, and McKenna ’21. These students are included in Image City Photography Gallery’s eleventh annual Through the Student Lens show, which introduces work by local high school photographers to the public. AC is one of thirteen high schools participating in this year’s exhibition. All of the work has been professionally printed and is for sale.
Through the Student Lens 2021 runs from March 23 – April 18th, and there are two ways to view and enjoy this show–in person and online! Image City Gallery is located on University Avenue in the Neighborhood of the Arts, near the Memorial Art Gallery. Click here for hours, directions, and information. You can view the entire student show online here.
2021 African American Read-In
Posted on March 25th, 2021 by achew
“Look. How lovely it is, this thing we have done – together.”
— Toni Morrison
On March 10th, AC students and faculty participated in an African American Read-In. Though this was AC’s first year participating in the event, it was originally established by the Black Caucus of the National Council of Teachers of English in 1990. The NCTE describes the event as “groundbreaking effort to encourage communities to read together, centering on African American books and authors.” It has reached more than 6 million participants.
At our event, we invited readers and audience members to attend in person or via Zoom. Each reader chose a short text to share. Authors ranged from Sojourner Truth to Lucille Clifton, Ralph Ellison to Jalil Muntaqim. Whatever text was chosen, a highlight was hearing the readers explain why they chose a particular text. Some of these explanations were personal. Readers described first encountering a text before they really understood it and only later coming to fully appreciate it, or they spoke of finding inspiration and solace in what they chose to read. Others spoke of how their texts connected with historical or current events, whether the large-scale rethinking of colonialism that began in the middle of the 20th century or the current fight against systemic racism. A couple of the readers had even personally met the authors they read.
Like all literature — poetry, fiction, memoir, etc. — these texts may be “important” on paper, but they only truly live when we read them and make them meaningful to our own lives. Texts by Black authors historically have been marginalized. When we read them together in a shared event like this, we show how central they are, both in an American context and globally. Thank you to all who came and shared in this event.
View a recording of the program
AC Students Receive Regional Honors in Scholastic Art and Writing Awards
Posted on February 8th, 2021 by acsrochesterCongratulations to McKenna Shearing, Jacqueline Henry, Katie Chapados, Jessica Chapados, and Mackenzie Opira! Each of these students recently received regional honors in the 2021 Scholastic Art and Writing Awards. Scholastic is the country’s longest-running, most prestigious recognition program for creative teens. Jurors look for works that exemplify the Awards’ core values: originality, technical skill, and the emergence of personal voice or vision. Notable Scholastic alumni who were award winners themselves in Middle and High School include Andy Warhol, Joyce Carol Oates, Ken Burns, Truman Capote, Robert Redford, Charles White, and Kay WalkingStick.
McKenna Shearing ’21 received a Gold Key Award in Digital Art for her digital collage, Untitled, and Jacqueline Henry ’22 was awarded a Gold Key in Ceramics and Glass for her ceramic sculpture, Untitled.
Mackenzie Opira ’26 received a Silver Key Award in Photography for her image, “Helping Hand.” Jessica Chapados ’26 was awarded an Honorable Mention in Photography for her photo, “In the Field,” and Katie Chapados ’26 received an Honorable Mention in Photography for her image, “Pride.”
Gold Key Award winners advance to Scholastic’s national-level adjudication in New York City.
More information about the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards program can be found here: https://www.artandwriting.org
AC Teen Entrepreneurs Pitch Ideas in ELEVATE Competition
Posted on February 2nd, 2021 by acsrochester
Eleven enterprising teens pitched creative business ideas from athletic clothing and GPS stickers to affordable rental housing, platforms for mental health, script sharing, and inventors, and even genetically modified fish in the ELEVATE competition at Allendale Columbia School on January 21st, 2021.
In the culminating activity for AC’s semester-long Essentials of Entrepreneurship class, taught by the Director of the AC Center for Entrepreneurship, Amy Oliveri, students learn to develop the mindset and skill set necessary, using design thinking, to turn ideas into viable products, services, and businesses. The class covers the fundamentals of thinking like an entrepreneur, coming up with new business ideas, attracting investors, marketing their business, and managing revenues and expenses.
Judges Rupa Thind (Associate Director of the Albert J. Simone Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship at RIT), Tony Tepedino (AC Dean of Student Life), and Julie Barrett (AC Welcome Desk Associate), awarded Luca Palomaki ’24 first place for “ScriptArena”, an online platform for script sharing, writing, collaboration, and licensing. Second place was awarded to Myles Wilson ’21 for his “Simple Living” affordable work-for-rent housing concept. Olivia Fries ’23 and her “GPX” GPS stickers for locating household items earned third place honors.
“I love acting, theater, movies, and TV, and I know it’s hard to develop a script and get it produced. I thought ScriptArena was a pretty good idea that I could implement quickly and pitch with enthusiasm,” Luca related. “I usually have a lot of ideas bouncing around in my head, and this class helped me figure out how I might be able to develop those ideas into real businesses that could maybe make some money and help people.”
The two-minute pitches were evaluated based on how well students conveyed their project’s value proposition, viability research, competitors, definition and marketing to target customer segments, cost and revenue structures, implementation timeline, and social responsibility.
The other participants offered ideas that also could potentially impact their defined areas of need:
- Greg & Jayden: Athletic clothing line
- Evelyn: Mental health salon – Providing education and mental health training to hair stylists, makeup artists, and nail techs to provide people with an everyday safe space
- Cynara: “Gender Forward” – An online site and app to empower and educate people of all ages about an array of issues regarding gender.
- Natalia: “HND Book” – An app that specialized in providing students with mental health resources, including meditation sessions, advice, podcasts, etc.
- Jake & Cameron: Genetically modified plastic eating fish to solve plastic pollution in our oceans
- Lai – An app to connect young inventors with investors to be able to bring a product to market
“The ELEVATE pitch competition has been a fun way to focus the students on not just learning about entrepreneurship but really developing a problem-solving, entrepreneurial mindset and putting it into practice as an entrepreneur does,” Oliveri said. “They learn that these concepts can be applied to help them take any idea they have in their work, school, or home life and turn it into something meaningful.”
The Essentials of Entrepreneurship class provides an introduction to Allendale Columbia’s Center for Entrepreneurship, which launched in 2017 with a commitment to being a hub for community problem solving and social innovation. Its mission is to “create opportunities for our students/participants to make an impact on the world at an unprecedented level by learning to adapt to a constantly evolving world, connecting globally, and carving their own path. This authentic way of thinking and working develops a universally applicable and transferable mindset and skillset.”
Students can also explore entrepreneurship through the Center’s other courses as well as offerings from the AC Invent Center for STEM and Innovation. Those courses include Design Thinking, Making An Impact (Locally, Globally), Production and Design, and an Entrepreneurs as Innovators Cohort in which students build upon an entrepreneurial, problem-solving mindset and skill set to bring their solutions to market.
A recording of the pitch competition is viewable on YouTube.
Posted in: Centers for Impact, Entrepreneurship, Highlights, Upper School
AC Students Earn “Best in State” Title in TEAM+S Competition
Posted on January 21st, 2021 by acsrochester
Written by Mary Cotter ’22
Right before the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020, I was a member of the 9-10 Allendale Columbia TEAM+S team that included Aidan Wun ‘22, Harmony Palmer ‘23, Chris Smoker ’23, and me, Mary Cotter ’22. We competed in the Tests of Engineering Aptitude, Mathematics and Science (TEAM+S) competition, earning the title of NYS Champions! Our win would have earned us a position at the National competition, but this was cancelled due to COVID-19.
The TEAM+S competition encourages students to explore the field of engineering through problem solving and collaboration with their teammates. The theme for the competition this year was improving zoos. This encouraged us to delve into research about solutions to common complaints about zoos, the costs of such solutions, and the environmental impact.
Before the competition, our team wrote an essay responding to the prompt: “Your team is tasked with modifying an existing zoo within your state to develop innovations that would maximize economic, environmental, and/or societal benefits.” We wrote about modifying the Utica Zoo by planting native plant species, installing more energy-efficient appliances, and transforming the zoo into a sanctuary.
Zoo animals, including those at the Utica Zoo, have been observed as “anxious and bored” creating a “depressing” experience for visitors, according to Google Reviews. And it’s easy to see the reason for bored animals and bored children. Utica Zoo attendance has declined in recent years, and the Zoo has suffered financially. The Utica Zoo depends on government bailouts, but our essay outlined a few changes that could transform the Zoo into a healthier environment for the animals and a fun and educational experience for visitors.
On the day of the competition, we worked together on a 90-minute, 80-question multiple choice test. The topics of the questions were centered around the theme and required us to divide the questions based on individual strengths in math, biology, technology, and creative problem-solving. Then we completed the engineering challenge in which we created the lightest crane to lift the most weight to the greatest height. We were given limited time and resources to create our crane.
This competition was very intellectually stimulating and forced us to work collaboratively to find the best solutions to complicated problems. It was a fun way to explore the field of engineering.
Learn More About the Invent Center for STEM and Innovation
Posted in: AC in the News, Authentic Learning, Highlights, Invent, Upper School