D-E’s Art & Design Department hosted 11th- and 12th-grade students today from St. Mary’s Anglican Girls’ School in Perth, Australia, as part of a 12-day trip to the United States the school offers every two years. The St. Mary’s students, 18 in all,  joined the Accelerated Art class of Ms. Marisol Diaz, Art & Design Chair, where she guided everyone through a print-making project using black ink, palette paper, printing plates, a brayer, and an electric press machine. Head of School Dr. Calleroz White and Associate Head of School Ms. Preeti Fibiger stopped by Swartley to welcome the art and design students who’d traveled from afar (and are currently on their summer break!). They were chaperoned by teachers Ms. Jess Gazia and Ms. Jodie Sanders, who explained that this was the first time this biennial trip included a visit to a fellow independent school. “It’s a completely unique experience,” said Ms. Sanders. “We would love to continue this collaboration in the future.” And we look forward to a return visit from our peers from Down Under!

Today officially kicked off the Food and Identity Unit for this year’s sixth graders! The cross-curricular program is a D-E tradition for our youngest Middle School students within their MESH (Math, English, Science, and History) classes. “This unit is about building community by looking at who we are as a community,” said English Teacher Ms. Macone. It began with a multicultural breakfast in the Wharton Lessin Dining Hall prepared by Chef Alex, Sous Chef Fernando, and their team. There were four stations with foods that were personally meaningful to the food service staff and faculty—a Japanese breakfast of miso soup, trout roe, pickled turnips, and steamed white rice (a nod to Chef Alex’s wife and children’s heritage); a Dominican breakfast of taro root puree, and fried cheese, salami, and eggs with passionfruit juice (representative of Chef Fernando’s background); a Peruvian quinoa porridge and soursop juice; as well as bagels and lox. Students were encouraged to “try something new and engage in conversation with someone new,” said Ms. Macone. Neeva P. ’32 said she gravitated toward the taro puree because it was like one of her favorite foods, mashed potatoes. Both Allison H. ’32 and Ethan Che ’32 said they’d never tried pickled turnips before—but enjoyed them. Students resumed the day’s lesson in Hajjar Auditorium, where they were asked to share their own memorable experiences involving traditional family meals. As our sixth graders learned, every flavor tells a story!

Congrats are in order for the editors and contributors of the Upper School (US) English-language literary-arts magazine, CALLIOPE! Last spring’s issue was named a 2026 Crown Finalist by the Columbia Scholastic Press Association (CSPA). Being a Finalist means CALLIOPE 2025 is guaranteed a Gold or Silver Crown Award, which will be announced by the CSPA in March 2026. “CALLIOPE features original student art and writing, arranged in intentionally designed spreads that place the art and writing in relationship with one another,” said Steve Petkus, Magazine Advisor and MS/US Librarian. “This approach results in an aesthetic element across the magazine that goes beyond the individual pieces, and it is this ‘holistic’ quality that the Crown adjudication process most highly prizes.” We’re extremely proud of our US students who made this award-winning issue happen, including editors Rebecca Kreynin ’25, Casey Law ’25, and Red Nochomovitz ’25, all members of the Class of 2025. Our current editors—seniors Mandy Friedman ’26, Mara Gualtieri-Horowitz ’26, and Shreya Patel ’26—are doing a terrific job so far this year, and we can’t wait to see the magazine they will put together for CALLIOPE 2026!