Carnegie Mellon University is a school many people have never heard of, but it’s one of the nation’s top research universities and the alma mater of six Nobel Laureates.  The computer science department alone can attract more than $100 million a year in research grants, many from the Department of Defense and National Science Foundation.  It’s peer institutions include Cal Tech, Cornell, Duke, MIT, Princeton and Stanford.  Like all those schools, Carnegie Mellon is extremely selective – fewer than one in three applicants are admitted – but CWA senior Rafael McCauley is one of the lucky ones. Read the rest of this entry »

Willamette University is a strong liberal arts school that many Charles Wright students consider.  Located in Salem, Oregon, it’s just a three hours drive from home.  Willamette has an undergraduate study body of 1,800 and most classes have no more than 30 students.  At the same time, the school offers a broad array of academic, athletic and social opportunities.  All of this appealed to Tana Watanabe, a CWA student who applied to Willamette a few months ago and was accepted early into the class of 2014.   Read the rest of this entry »

“Happiness is morning and evening, daytime and nighttime too” in CWA’s new Donn Laughlin Theater.  Students are preparing for the biggest production yet in the new Language and Performing Arts Center and CWA’s first dinner theater show.  Nearly 20 percent of the Upper School’s student body is involved in the production as cast, crew and pit.   Read the rest of this entry »

Aron Roberts, a junior at CWA, has just been selected for the 2010 American High School Honors Performance Series.  Acceptance to this elite group is a direct result of the talent, dedication, and achievements demonstrated in his application and audition recording.  Next June, Roberts will join other performers from the United States, Canada, and Bermuda for a special performance at world-famous Carnegie Hall in New York, a venue that marks the pinnacle of musical achievement. Read the rest of this entry »

Charles Wright’s musicians are hard at work preparing for their Winter Concerts.  All these events are free and open to the public.  Guests are particularly encouraged to attend the Upper and Middle School concerts which can comfortably seat many guests in the new Language and Performing Arts Center. Read the rest of this entry »

This Thursday, Friday, and Saturday at 7:30, in the Donn Laughlin Theater, the Charles Wright Academy Players will present Rhinoceros, a play by Eugene Ionesco.  “If you’re a fan of French Absurdism, biting social satire, or just Tom Jones crooning (yes… Tom Jones… what could be better than that?), then you really must see this show,” says director John Forier. “ The cast and crew have worked so hard through this flu-riddled preparation period in our ginormous new theatre space to put this thing together.”  This will be the first Players Production in the new Donn Laughlin Theater. Read the rest of this entry »

CWA’s Upper School musicians are preping for their first concern in the Donn Laughlin Theater.  They’ve got a few tricks up their sleeves for the special occasion and they’re getting a little help from some familiar faces.  Athletic Director Casey Jones ’66, Middle School science teacher Alicia Bright ’95 and a number of other faculty members will be joining the choir for special numbers.  Bright has also helped the choir with a little choreography.  Read the rest of this entry »

There’s a new way for Charles Wright parents, particularly the parents of Middle and Upper School students who spend less time volunteering in the classroom, to get involved.  The Arts Guild is a newly reconstituted group organized to support and promote CWA’s arts programs.  Initially the group is focusing its efforts on Middle and Upper School performing arts.   Read the rest of this entry »

The 2009 Tacoma Film Festival has accepted films by three young women from Charles Wright Academy — two current students and one alumna.

CWA juniors Emily Harper and Nicole Fannin’s short documentary “Carl Wilkens: An Individual Who Made A Difference” will be shown Sunday, October 4, at 2pm.   Read the rest of this entry »

The Upper School students in Brian Hutcheson’s painting and drawing class start each year by exploring contour lines and how they help artists understand and define three dimensional form.  As part of that exploration this year students made contour line studies of the new Language and Performing Art Center.  They were then challenged to translate their initial studies into larger drawings using blue painter’s tape.  The result was a remarkable installation in the gallery space near the front door of the Upper School.  The exhibit comes down today. Read the rest of this entry »