Symposium Week 2021: Express Yourself!
The Penguin Hall community came together for its annual Symposium Week 2021, with this year’s theme — Express Yourself!— woven into master classes, a guest speaker, and the academic showcase.
Engaging Master Classes
From Tuesday, June 1 to Wednesday, June 2, students were able to choose from a myriad of master classes taught by both students and faculty. Master Classes are designed to help students gain exposure to new, interesting and diverse topics; and also to help girls understand why intellectual curiosity and passion for life-long learning are important qualities to maintain throughout their lives. From Ballroom Dancing and Palette Knife Painting, to Karate, to identifying cemetery iconography, there was a Master Class for every student.
The extensive list of Master Classes includes: An Introduction to Annotation and Essay Writing for Fun, APH Cheer!, Cemetery Iconography, Flowers and Frosting, Geocaching, Guitar Basics, Introduction to Ballroom Dancing and Latin Dancing, Palette Knife Painting, Russian and Chocolate, Structural Racism: A Short Primer, The Great American Outdoor Cooking Show, Turning Your Junk Into Yard Art, Vocal Master Class, Art, Drum Circle, Field Study in Public Art in Salem, MA, Intro to Guided Meditation, Karate, Learn to Knit and Crochet, Scrabblemania, The Happiness Experiment, Video Editing, and Waste Not, Want Not: The Fundamentals of Composting.
Guest Speaker and Feature Film
On Thursday, June 3, the APH community viewed independent film Borderland: The Life and Times of Blanche Ames Ames. Blanche Ames Ames was writer, inventor. political cartoonist and a prominent activist in the women’s suffrage movement, supporting for voting rights for women. She was also a strong advocate for birth control and the choice for women to have complete control over their own bodies. Ahead of her time, Blanche helped paved the way for women for generations to come. We were then treated to a special Q&A with Kate Klise, who wrote and narrated the film. Kate Klise is a former People magazine correspondent and the author of more than thirty books for young readers.
Ms. Klise shared about her writing process and how she came to learn about the extraordinary life of Blanche Ames Ames–an incredible leader in women’s rights. We were so honored to be one of the first groups to view this film upon its release and for Ms. Klise, who dedicated her time to sharing this experience with our students.
Read more about this experience: Author Kate Klise Shares Her New Documentary, Borderland: The Life and Times of Blanche (Ames) Ames with APH
The Academic Showcase
On Friday, June 4, Symposium Week concluded with its culminating event, the Academic Showcase. Parents and friends were welcomed to campus to view the art galleries and hear students give their presentations. The Showcase, featured student work across all grades and presented from courses that include Art of Diversity, Capturing Oral History, Creative Coding, Critical Analysis of Science and Society, French, Global Humanities, Integrated Science, Music, Theater, and Web Development. It was the perfect way to wrap up a week of intentional learning and to demonstrate the hard work our students have put in all year to their academics.
