On May 5, 2007, we will be celebrating both Alumnae Reunion Weekend and Parents' Weekend on the historic campus of Linden Hall. The Anne Brossman Sweigart Sports and Fitness Center will be transformed for a magical evening featuring an elegant array of hors d'oeuvres and luscious Sweet Street desserts. The silent and live auctions will be overflowing with gift certificates, special events, student-created treasures, destinations, services, teacher outings, just to name a few, plus the largest 50/50 jackpot in the history of Linden Hall.

Your help is very important. Please consider one or more of the following ways you can make a difference:

• Donate one or more items. It might be a gift certificate or something from your place of business. All item donations are tax deductible.
• Make a tax deductible cash donation to the event.
• Purchase a personal and/or business ad in the auction catalog.
• Purchase a $25 ticket for our 50/50 raffle.

College Counseling News
Susan Kirkland, Director of College Placement
Why is April 15 a magical date for seniors? It's the date by which all college admission decisions are received! Waiting for a response is difficult at any time of the senior year, but, as April 15 approaches, anxiety increases. The seniors have been positive and encouraging to each other as they've waited hopefully for the "fat" envelopes that indicate an acceptance. Sixteen seniors have been accepted to a college as of this writing, and their smiles are wonderful to see. We're very proud of their accomplishments.

The juniors have started their college search process and, at this point in time, are busily researching schools on their initial college lists. They have registered for the SAT I, and some students will be registering for the SAT II in the next few weeks. In addition, the girls are in the process of completing the new on-line SAT course, feedback on which has been positive. Two SAT practice tests have been completed at this time, and a third will be taken in April.

Sophomores have taken an interest inventory, and meetings will take place to discuss career options indicated by the results. The students will receive information on resources for career exploration in addition to information from the college handbook on self-appraisal, the very first step in the college process. Parents will also receive this information.

Advanced Placement tests have been ordered for students in AP classes. The exams will be given during the first two weeks in May. Students taking an AP class are expected to take the corresponding test.

As always, please call the advising office if you have questions or concerns.

Upper School Update
Shaaron Lavery, Assistant Head
For more than ten years Linden Hall has offered a four to six week winter program of study for students from Ecuador. On January 14 six girls, ages 13-16, joined our student body for an English language and American culture experience. They were delightful girls who enjoyed their classes, participated in school activities, and made many friends. We were sad to see them leave on February 11.

Middle School Messages
Sally Watkins, Middle School Dean
Our Middle School has been busy since we last sent you our news: the girls supported their Blue/White Teams enthusiastically, have become used to wearing wool scarves to brave the cold from class to class, congregate in the day lounge to chat with their friends, and look forward to Spring Break when some of them will be sightseeing in Italy or France. And with all of this activity comes the most important part of LH: studying and learning while having fun.

English
Sixth graders are reading The Westing Game and continue to work on daily editing and grammar skills. Seventh graders have finished a grammar unit on prepositions and conjunctions and are beginning to study the various parts of the sentence including direct and indirect objects, predicate nouns, and predicate adjectives; the girls have just begun a unit on mythology and fables; having finished the personal narrative, the girls are now busy writing newspaper articles for the middle school newspaper. Eighth graders have finished a unit on the Holocaust that involved reading the drama The Diary of Anne Frank; they will be finishing their own diary entries by polishing them and putting them into a booklet. Coming soon will be literature units on John Steinbeck's novella The Pearl and the novel A Farewell to Manzanar about the Japanese internment camps in the U.S. during World War II.

Mathematics

In pre-algebra students have learned three different ways to solve proportions and are applying knowledge of proportions to congruent and similar geometric figures.

Social Studies

Students are studying ancient Greece and Rome, relating this information to myths and gods and goddesses studied in English class. In eighth grade, students are just beginning a unit on European countries.

Science

Sixth graders are studying plants. In eighth grade Physical Science the class has successfully completed the chemistry portion of the course. Starting next week, the students will begin physics, studying forces, Newton's Laws of Motion, simple machines, and forms of energy. Since this part of the course has a lot of experiments, students are looking forward to using the new Pasco handheld science computers.

Academic Spotlight: Mathematics
Mary Cuba, Dept. Chairperson
January was an exciting month for the Math Department with the arrival of the SmartBoards. Linda Gillingham's and Mary Cuba's rooms were each outfitted with a board, along with an amplifier for sound and a laptop to control it all! We celebrated by having a blue-ribbon cutting ceremony and a "turning of the desks," in which students turned their desks from the old, basic white board to the new 21st Century SmartBoard. Since its arrival, we've been having much fun learning about the capability of our new technology and all of the ways it can enhance learning in our classes.

A SmartBoard is basically a white board that acts as another monitor for a computer system. The cool part is that you can control what is on the board by just touching the icons that appear on it! You can project anything from the Internet, run any software program, or just use it as an electronic white board.

We look forward to continued use of this technology and to learning how to best utilize it in our curriculum. We feel very fortunate to have access to it as we prepare our students for their future.

Easel, Film, and Clay
Nora Workman, Art Department Chairperson

Scholastic Art Awards
February is always an exciting time in the Visual Arts Department at Linden Hall. It is the time when we hear the results from the Scholastic Art Awards. This begins as a regional competition, and the Gold Key winners at the local level move on to compete in New York City against winners from all over the country. Each year our school does very well in the competition; this year is no exception. In Photography our students have earned a total of forty-five Honorable Mention awards, twelve Silver Key awards, four Gold Key awards, and one Special award; one photography portfolio was accepted to travel to New York. In Art students earned fourteen Honorable Mention awards, three Silver Key awards, and two Gold Key awards.

The names of the winning students will be announced at a future assembly and will be listed in future Linden Hall publications. We are very proud of our students and their talents in the arts. On Thursday, March 1st the students who have won awards in this competition will be honored at their very own Fine Arts Banquet.

Regina Paloma Reyes (9th Grade) Gold Key Award Winner for her "Self Portrait" painting using ink on paper.

Jennifer Darrell (12th Grade) Gold Key Award Winner for her photograph, 'Unstable.'

Drama
The Drama Department is buzzing with activity.  Three productions are in rehearsals.  The Middle School D-Block class will present "Wilde, Wilder, Wildest!" on Friday, February 23. Performed in the style of medieval morality plays, the play features three of Oscar Wilde's fairy tales: "The Birthday of the Infanta," "The Selfish Giant," and "The Happy Prince."  The ten middle school students are literally onstage the entire length of the play, changing roles by adding bits of costumes and props in full view of the audience.

The Linden Hall Drama Queens (our competition team) are gearing up for the Fulton Theater High School Drama Festival in April.  They will be performing bits from “The Complete Works of Wllm Shkspr (abridged)."  This year's team includes Jennifer Darrell, Paige Espenshade, Emily Horne, Cerah Kolarcik, and Abby Milnor-Sweetser.  Mr. Foreman, LH's Drama Teacher, intends to perform the entire play next fall.

Rodgers and Hammerstein's "Cinderella" will be on the boards for Parents' Weekend in May.  Boasting one of the largest casts in recent LH history, the show began rehearsals in late January.  Emily Jubb will undertake the title role with Mary Hathaway as her fairy godmother.

Arts Night
At the annual Arts Night on March 22nd at 7pm, we will showcase the Scholastic art and photography winners' work, as well as the work of other talented Linden Hall artists and musicians. Performances by the competition Drama troupe and advanced-level musicians who are studying privately will also be featured.

Court and Field
Linda Mummert, Athletic Director

Riding Results
Reserve Champion IEA January 20 at Grier.
3rd place TSEL January 20 at Grier.
3rd place TSEL February 3 at Garrison Forest.

Varsity Basketball Results

Grier	31		Linden Hall	43
York Country Day	37		Linden Hall	24
Hershey Christian	35		Linden Hall	31
Harrisburg Academy	28		Linden Hall	43

Middle School Basketball Results

York Country Day	27		Linden Hall	14
Harrisburg Academy	19		Linden Hall	17

The Basketball Team celebrated Senior Night by honoring Tianna Steel and Pascale Naske. Students Alexandra Wellington and Megan Hathaway sang the National Anthem. Flowers were presented to both seniors and to parents Mrs. Carole Simons and Mrs. Ana Pilkington for their dedication and support throughout the season. The parents also hosted a post-game feast for all in attendance as well as opponents Harrisburg Academy. The team has two games remaining on the schedule.

Blue and White week featured a host of talent and some very competitive venues. Team leaders for White were Katie Errigo, Emily Jubb, and Karen Jensen; Liz Scarff, Chelsea Kiser, and Emma Keeney set the pace for Blue. Faculty member Lynn Millard provided the entertainment for the closing ceremony.

In the Dorms
Dennis Foreman, Upper School Dorm Director
The Linden Hall dorms are sporting a fresh coat of paint as the dorms continue to be refurbished! Competitive energy has been the hallmark of the dorms during the winter months. Posters proclaiming team colors decked the halls during Blue and White Week. On February 4, a huge group of LH ladies and staff members gathered in Honeycutt for our annual Super Bowl Party. The scene was repeated on February 7 as we watched a soccer game between Mexico and the USA. No matter the outcome of the soccer match, the friendly rivalry and cheering fans - complete with Mexican flags painted on faces - made for a fun evening for all.

Whale Watching Trip
Jennifer Cairns, Science Teacher and Dorm Parent
Over Easter Break, April 5-9, students will have the opportunity to travel through Southern New England with the ultimate destination of Plymouth, Massachusetts, and a four-hour whale watching excursion off the coast of Cape Cod. Other places we will see include Mystic, Connecticut, home of the Mystic Marinelife Aquarium and Institute for Exploration; and Newport, Rhode Island, a seaside city known for the hundred-year-old mansions of America's wealthiest families. In addition to these sites, we will have a home-cooked Easter dinner with the parents of Ms. Cairns, a science teacher at Linden Hall, and do some shopping along the way. The cost of the trip is $400 and includes all transportation, accommodations, meals, and admission prices. If you would like more information or would like to sign up your daughter, please contact Ms. Cairns at (717) 626-8512 or cairns@lindenhall.org

Student Council Corner
Evan McGrath Ed.D., Student Council Advisor
Student Council is as busy as it has ever been. On Wednesday, January 24th, we hosted the Student Council Officers of the Phelps School at a working lunch. A social calendar was formulated, and great connections were made. The plans are rolling for International Night and Asian New Year. A Mardi Gras celebration is planned, and we hope many students will return from Spring Break wearing green for St. Patrick's Day.

Student's Soapbox
Songna Choi, Class of 2007
In preparation for her college essay, Songna Choi spent weeks planning a topic and then composing just the right paper to showcase her writing ability as well as her personality for college admission directors to see. Songna is a Senior boarding student from South Korea who has been at Linden Hall for four years.

It is surprising how random events can change life significantly. For me, a positive fortune-telling and a haircut changed my life in a remarkable way.

When I reached the point when my school college-adviser started to see me, when I registered for the SAT, and when my grades really become important, I just let it all go. School was no longer a place for learning but a place for torture. No longer existed the exhilaration of learning, and school was filled with numerous rules that I could never seem to follow. Whatever I did, the teachers saw as a bad influence, and those misbehaviors accumulated and erased my credibility. Everyday was just another depressing yesterday. On one of those stupid days, I was struck with a question:“Why go to college?” Thinking about this question seemed an obviously reasonable action for anyone going through the junior year of high school; however, it also seemed that everybody else, not I, was preoccupied with memorizing SAT vocabularies. Soon, I had the impression that maybe I was a bit slower than everybody who seemed to know the answer to the question that almost felt like a part of my brain. My junior year was a catastrophe.

Even though they were depressing, stupid days, they were still days that culminated in summer vacation. Knowing that I had been disappointing my parents, I tried my best not to make any trouble. My parents were glad that I was being calm, but they knew something within me had changed. The change was not a welcomed one, so my mom decided to seek a fortune-teller. On another stupid, calm day, my mom told me, “The fortune-teller says you are supposed to live like a full-blossomed cherry blossom tree on a fine spring day. This is not how you are supposed to live.” It was a catalyst. It was a manifestation. Whether that fortune-teller was telling the truth or not did not matter. The meaning of “cherry blossom tree” did not matter, but all that mattered was that I felt something positive and that I felt my heart pounding. Instead of the question that I never got to answer, a bright ray of light imprinted my brain. For once in my long stupid days, I wanted to do something meaningful. So I went to a hair-salon. To honor such a positive change and to actually remember the moment of a bright ray of light, I chose the closest part of my body to the brain and decided to change a little bit. I had long, dyed-in-brunette hair. “Can you cut my hair so that it hangs right under my ears?” It felt revolutionary. Even though it was just an impulsive haircut, the fresh wind on my neck was redolent of my favorite quotation: “I want to live before I die.” That haircut made me feel alive on a series of lethargic days.

Under so much pressure as a junior, my breath was running out. All the positive ideas gone, I was sunk in my doubts. When I was still sinking under pressure and doubts, my uncle had said, “You just need a special moment.” Frankly, I never believed my uncle. How can a moment be special, let alone meaningful to a devastated high school junior? As it turned out, that special moment did exist and could be meaningful. From a positive fortune-telling, I learned to believe in myself even a little bit. I was not a superstitious person like my mom, but with even a little bit of authenticity, superstitions deserve to be believed by somebody. Just like fortune-telling, I learned no matter how incapable I might seem, I deserve to be believed by somebody, and among that somebody, I better be the first one to believe in myself. My haircut gave me courage to carry out an action. Now that I think back on it, it was more than just an impulse. It was the hard, first step of changing myself. With encouragement, whether it is from a fortune-teller or from myself, somewhere inside me felt that I wanted to change my life, and the important fact is that I have done so successfully.

Sometimes, all you need in life are a positive comment from a fortune-teller and a haircut.