Student Standouts for May 27

Student Standouts: Baumohl ’22, Li ’23, Iken ’22, Scally ’22, Gibli ’26, Myers ’26, Saini ’27, American Computer Science League, Eighth Grade Student Interest Clubs, Girls Soccer, Boys Tennis, Boys & Girls Track & Field, and JV Boys Lacrosse

Congratulations to this week’s standouts below. Way to go #RamNation! And as always, if you have a story to share, please email weeklynews@micds.org.

Two Rams Qualify for Final American Computer Science League Exam

This year, 14 MICDS students competed in the American Computer Science League. In the League, students learned optional and challenging computer science topics outside of class such as computer number systems, boolean algebra, data structures, regular expressions, graph theory, and assembly programming.

Four exams were given throughout the year on these computer science topics which include conceptual questions as well as a programming portion. Sam Baumohl ’22 and Alan Li ’23 have qualified for the final exam which will take place this Saturday, May 28. Congratulations on qualifying for the final exam! Good luck!

Iken Named Sight-Singing Champ for Third Year in a Row

The third-annual MICDS Sight-Singing Bee was held starting on May 5, 2022, and concluded with the final found on Tuesday, May 24, 2022. Samantha Iken ’22 was named the Sight-Singing Bee Grand Champion for the third year in a row.

If you are unfamiliar with sight-singing, it is when a student is presented with a piece of music or a passage of music that they have never seen before and are asked to sing it on sight using the correct pitches and rhythms. “This is a skill that we work on in every single class, every day of the year,” said Dana Self, Upper School Performing Arts Teacher. “Some students figure the sight-singing puzzle out very quickly; others take a bit more time to develop their skills. But sight-singing is something I feel very passionate about as it is a skill that these young singers can use for the rest of their lives, whether it be in a college choir, church choir, community choir, or simply picking up a piece of sheet music just for fun.”

The competition to make it to round one started back in late August. Eighty singers completed 18 different sight-singing assessments this year. Following the completion of exercise #16 in late April, the top-scoring students in each choir were eligible to participate in round one. Round one was completed as an open round (the students in the choirs serving as spectators), with the top three students in each choir advancing to the final round.

The students participating in the final round included:

Mason Bedell ’23
Phoebe Burgis ’23
Nicole Dai ’23
Benjamin Iken ’24
Samantha Iken ’22
Noah Macam ’23
Kate Williamson ’24

After four rounds, Burgis, Dai, and Iken (Samantha) remained as finalists, with only a one-point difference between each singer. Following the fifth round, Dai and Iken were the two students making it to the sixth round. After a challenging round, Iken was named the 2022 Grand Champion for the third year in a row.

“We complete two or three sight-singing exercises in class every day. Kids will balk at it from time to time, asking ‘Do we have to sight-sing today?’ My response is the same every single time, “no, you get to sight-sing today.’ I know too many choir directors that don’t teach sight-singing or think it’s too time-consuming, when in the end, if your students are strong readers, you save time because you aren’t always having to pound out notes at the piano,” Self said. “I’ve never had a student love sight-singing as much as Samantha. They enjoy the challenge of looking at a piece of music and figuring out how the pieces of the puzzle fall together. This skill will serve them well next year when they begin to pursue music at Belmont.”

“I truly enjoy sight-singing every time I do it,” added Samantha. “Now that we did the sight-singing bee, it only adds to my excitement. Music is very much my passion, and being able to have DSelf guide me along my way is truly a blessing.”

Congratulations to all the participants!

Senior Develops Software to Evaluate Accuracy of Dance and Yoga Poses

Written by Emma Scally ’22

“For my senior independent research project, I worked with Dr. Badri Adhikari and Ph.D. candidate Navneet Kaur at the University of Missouri – St. Louis to develop a piece of software, written in Python, that can evaluate the accuracy of dance and yoga poses. We used an open source program called Mediapipe to impose a “stickman” with joints onto a person and find the x, y, and z coordinates of each joint, or landmark, recognized by Mediapipe, such as the knees, ankles, toes, shoulders, elbows, etc. My contribution to the project was in developing the model to recognize dance poses with a mediapipe. My goal was to create a program that could allow dancers to self-correct their own positions if they did not have access to an instructor. This was a common issue faced by dancers during the pandemic, and the lack of access to correction and instruction caused many dancers to regress in their abilities. My model has the potential to help dancers self-teach and self-improve at home.

“My goal with this prototype is that I can continue to refine it throughout this year and my college career. This project is the intersection of my two passions, STEM and art, and I am hopeful my program and ideas can one day be used to improve the accessibility of dance training and teaching.”

Scally put her prototype to work with Lower School students recently. She met with Lower Schoolers in the MAC, explained the value of her project and computer science research, and taught them how to do an arabesque. Then, they tried the dance move in front of the camera and learned how to improve the move with the use of her program. Phenomenal work, Emma!

Club Soccer Team Wins USYS Presidents Cup State Championship

On May 22, Samson Gibli ’26 and Cooper Myers ’26 along their club soccer team, St. Louis Scott Gallagher 2008 Liverpool, defeated 2008 KC Blaze Academy to win the US Youth Soccer Presidents Cup State Championship. They will go on to compete in Regionals June 16-20, and hopefully Nationals in July. Go, Samson and Cooper!

Student Receives Second and Third Place in NorthSouth Educational Contests

Maahi Saini ’27 participated in the Educational Contests by the North South Foundation (NorthSouth), a volunteer-driven non-profit organization established in 1989, and earned second place in the Junior Public Speaking contest and third place in the Senior Geography Bee. These Educational Contests are designed to encourage academic excellence among children K-12.

Students Make Blankets for Babies of Faculty & Staff

Our Eighth Grade Sewing Student Interest Club has been busy! Students decided to knit quilts for some very special MICDS faculty and staff members who are expecting new additions to their families this summer.

Thank you for being so thoughtful to Erin and Teron Sutherlin, Middle School Counselor and Associate Director of Admission – Upper School, respectively, and Lev Guter, Middle School Math Teacher. Such sewing skills couldn’t have been put to better use in wrapping these babies up in some love from MICDS students.

Girls Soccer Shuts Out St. Clair in District Semifinals

On Monday, MICDS Girls Soccer defeated St. Clair in the Class 2 District 3 semifinals, 5-0. According to emissourian.com, here are the highlights:

Goalkeeper Parker Scheele ’23 earned the shutout with one save for MICDS.
Madolyn Mackin ’23 led the goal scoring with a brace.
Nicole Dai ’23 and Campbell Schultz ’22 each recorded one goal and one assist.
Penny Chen ’23 added a goal.
Sophie Donnelly ’24 and CeCe Harris ’25 were each credited with an assist.

The Rams next play Westminster for the District title. Let’s go Rams!

State Medals Earned in Boys Tennis Singles

Justin Jan ’22 and Jai Patel ’25 brought home two Boys Tennis State medals with second and sixth-place finishes, respectively! Way to go at the State Tournament, Rams!

Stellar Sectionals Results for Track & Field Programs

The Boys & Girls Track & Field teams had stellar performances during the Class 4 and 5 Sectional 3 Championships on Monday, May 23. Here are the highlights:

Tony Nunn ’22, Winston Moore ’23, Tristan Williams ’24, and Novo Onovwerosuoke ’22 broke the oldest track & field school record while earning first in the 4×400 with a time of 3:25.58. The previous record was set by David Hinch ’85, David Son ’87, Doug Teasdale ’85, and Mike Mayweather ’87 in 1985.
Maya Anderson ’23 broke the school record while racing to first in the 300 Meter Hurdles with a time of 43.69 which beats her own record from the 2021 State Championships.
Nicole Green ’25 ran a 15.46 in the 100 Meter Hurdles which is the eighth best time in school history.
Lauren Douglas ’22 threw 13.62m in the Discus which is the third best throw in school history.
Moore ran 10.79 in the 100 Meter Dash which is the second best in school history.
Onovwerosuoke ran to first with 21.86 in the 200 Meter Dash which is the second best in school history.
Brandon Mitchell-Day ’22 jumped to first in the Triple Jump with 13.54m which is the sixth best in school history.
Nate Schuckman ’23 threw 45.35m in the Discus which is the fourth best in school history and earned him second at Sectionals.
Steven Hall ’23, Williams, Cameron Lester ’23, and Moore ran to third place with a time of 43.27 in the 4×100 Meter Relay which is the third best time in school history.
Nunn, Moore, Williams, and Onovwerosuoke ran 1:28.49 in the 4×200 Meter Relay which is the fourth best time in school history.
A total of seven personal records were set in open events (not including relay splits)
Onovwerosuoke finished second and Nunn finishe in third in the 400 Meter Dash