Student Standouts: Girls Cross Country, Boys Swimming, Zhang ’20, Falk ’21, Kain ’21, Mandoli ’21, Diallo ’22, Ray ’23, Cai ’27, Gao ’29, Missouri All-State Choir Members and 14 Winners of the 100 Neediest Cases Competition
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.
Girls Cross Country Wins Inaugural Class 3 State Championship
The MICDS Girls Cross Country team won the state championships last weekend at the inaugural Class 3 State Championships at Gans Creek Recreation Area. “This has been a one-of-a-kind season, and we could not have done it without all of our girls on the team,” shares Coach Travis Menghini. “Our girls truly ran an impressive race.”
Check out this article by STL Today that covers the team’s victory and the first individual state title in our program’s history by Julia Ray ’23. Way to go, Ram Nation!
Day One of Boys Swimming State Meet Recapped
Read the recap of day one of the Boys Swimming Class 1 State Meet in this article on STL Today. The article highlights Eric Ji ’21 who disqualified from last year’s 200-yard individual medley preliminaries. This year, Ji earned the third best time in the 200 IM as well as 3rd in the 100 breaststroke with a new personal-best time of 59.50. Ji and Greg Dreisewerd ’21 are two of the 11 area swimmers who qualified for two individual finals. The MICDS team also had six qualifications.
Let’s keep it up, Rams! Check out how the rest of the State Meet goes by following the MICDS Athletics Twitter page.
Senior Fashion Designer Features Work in China
Fashion designer and MICDS senior Minyi Zhang ’20 recently had her work featured in a runway show in Shanghai, China. She was featured in a student runway named “Glimmer Ashy Zone.” Two of her sets of clothing from her fashion design portfolio were featured.
Minyi shares, “This is the first fashion runway that I’ve been featured in, and it’s been lovely working with Gimmer’s staff and models. I’ve been working on my fashion design portfolio ever since July 2019, and I’m very honored to be selected. I really appreciated this special opportunity, and I feel like all the hard work I put into this project has paid off.” Minyi is looking forward to majoring in fashion design after graduating from MICDS.
Check out the images below, and read about Minyi’s origami-inspired design.
Watch one Minyi’s clothing designs walk the runway below!
Falk Competes in Boys Cross Country State Meet
Will Falk ’21 qualified for and competed in the State Meet for Boys Cross Country, finishing 36th with a personal best time of 16:54. Way to PR, Will!
Kain Earns Youth of the Year Award
Put your hands together for Danielle Kain ’21 who is the Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater St. Louis 2020 Youth of the Year winner! “Being named Youth of the Year is the highest honor a Boys & Girls Club member can receive and a signature national youth recognition program that celebrates the recipient’s contributions to their family, school, community, and their Boys & Girls Club.” As the winner, announced at the Great Futures Gala, Danielle received the Michael & Wanda DeHaven $5000 Scholarship, the Missouri State University Youth of the Year $4,000 Scholarship, a celebratory dinner courtesy of the Saint Louis Club and a car provided by Frank Leta Honda!
According to the Club, here’s how Danielle is described: “Most days at the Club you can find Danielle engaged in the Music Studio or Robotics/STEM programs. She says the Club has been a constant source of support throughout her journey. During her eight years at the Club Danielle has won the BGCA Hank Aaron Scholarship Award, allowing her to purchase STEM materials and equipment to provide sessions for elementary, middle, and high school club members; she participated as a teen panelist at Harris Stowe State University’s Spark the Mind Advancing the Agenda for African Americans in STEM event, which led to her unforgettable personal meeting of Aprille Ericsson, current aerospace engineer for NASA; she competed for the nationwide 2019 STEP Ahead Awards and won 1st Place in the high school division, which included an all-inclusive trip to Washington, D.C; and, spoke at several events sharing how the Boys & Girls Clubs has impacted her life. She also received the Joan Ellyn Silber Award for Volunteerism and Leadership!”
Upon receiving the award, Danielle shared, “I am so grateful to have received the Youth of the Year award which is the highest honor a club member can acquire. I have been a part of this process for the last four years and along the way, I have had the continuous support of the Boys and Girls Club and MICDS. Every year, I’ve needed letters of recommendation and these have always been provided by MICDS faculty. For example, this year I got letters from Mr. Huntoon and Mr. Ludbrook. As part of this award, I received $9,000 in scholarship funds and a car from Frank Leta Honda. Overall, though the process has been challenging, the title is completely worth all of the work that has been put in. Thank you to the Boys and Girls Clubs of Greater St. Louis, my family, and the MICDS community for constantly supporting me in my endeavors.”
Mandoli to Intern for Humans of St. Louis
Congratulations to Ava Mandoli ’21 who was accepted to take on an internship with Lindy Drew at Humans of St. Louis. The internship will begin in January after Ava gets settled in coming back from winter break. She was selected for this internship which is normally reserved for college students at the Washington University’s Brown School for Social Sciences. “I could not be more proud if I tried!” shares MICDS Fine Arts Teacher and Gallery Director Denise Douglas. Ava is a photographer and will be taking pictures, interviewing people and writing content as part of her internship when it begins.
Diallo to Paint a Mural for an Internship
Congratulations to Coumba Diallo ’22 who was chosen as an ArtWorks fall intern. As an intern, she is part of a group commissioned by the University City Economic Development Retail Sales Tax Board to paint a mural in the University City Loop. Saint Louis ArtWorks provides meaningful work experience through apprenticeships in the arts for youth in the St. Louis metropolitan area. Way to go, Coumba!
Athlete of the Week - Julia Ray '23
Freshman Julia Ray has been dubbed “Athlete of the Week” according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch for her outstanding success in Girls Cross Country. She is highlighted for earning the first individual state title in MICDS program history at the Class 3 state meet, contributing to the team’s state championship victory. Her time was 18 minutes, 13.8 seconds, 26 seconds faster than the 2nd place finisher, and this was the fastest 5k running time in the area this season. Way to run, Julia!
Piano Star Declared Runner-up at Competition
Once again, Catherine Cai ’27 is the runner-up of the MMTN 5B piano competition group. Watch her performance here. She enjoys playing piano and looks forward to getting better and better as she continues to perform!
3rd Grade Pianist Earns 1st Place
Evan G. ’29 won first place at Missouri Music Teachers Association (MMTA) State Level Competition in Piano Solo Grade 3B. The competition was held at Missouri State University at Springfield, Missouri on November 10. Congratulations, Evan!
Three Rams Make Missouri All-State Choir
Auditions for the Missouri All-State Choir were hosted at MICDS on Thursday, November 7, 2019. Eighty juniors and seniors from schools throughout the St. Louis Metro area auditioned that evening for only 16 spots (four per voice part) available in the choir.
MICDS had three students selected by audition to perform with the 2020 Missouri All-State Choir:
- Nick Clifford ’20, Bass*
- Akshay Patwardhan ’20, Tenor
- Elena Thomas ’20, Tenor
The 192-voice Missouri All-State Choir will perform on Saturday, January 25, 2020 as the grand finale for the Missouri Music Educators Association Conference and Clinic, held at Tan-Tar-A Conference Center in Osage Beach, Missouri. The conductor is Dr. Jason Max Ferdinand, Associate Professor and Director of Choral Activities at Oakwood University in Hunstville, Alabama.
Congratulations, Nick, Akshay and Elena!
MICDS Takes 35% of Top 40 100 Neediest Cases
Fourteen MICDS students have been selected in the top 40 for the United Way and St. Louis Post-Dispatch’s 100 Neediest Cases campaign competition. This campaign has helped families and individuals during the holidays in St. Louis for 97 years. Local organizations adopt individual cases and donate food, medications, household necessities and holiday presents for the 100 beneficiaries of the campaign.
In the artwork competition, students underwent a demanding problem-solving process to work to convey a specific message to viewers. They utilized brain research by David Hyerle and created their masterpieces with the knowledge that visuals of people help to increase empathy.
Our 14 MICDS students in the top 40 are:
- Olivia Warren ’21 – 1st place
- Hannah Keener ’22 – 2nd place
- Maya Gralnick ’22 – 4th place
- John Curylo ’20 – 6th place
- Hailey Kim ’22 – 8th place
- Dilyn Halverson ’21 – 9th place
- Ava Todd ’21 – 15th place
- Laine Tompras ’22 – 19th place
- Shudi Wang ’21 – 28th place
- Charlotte Bitting ’22 – 29th place
- Landis Bingham ’21 – 31st place
- Sydney Pollock ’21 – 32nd place
- Kendall Rozen ’21 – 33rd place
- Kaitlyn Turnell ’21 – 36th place
Check out the meaningful artwork of all of our MICDS artists in the top 40 here!