Rafael McCauley picks Carnegie Mellon
Wednesday, March 3rd, 2010
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 »
All winter CWA’s Jumping Jaguars have wowed the crowds at half-time during Upper School varsity basketball games with jump roping skill and their stage presence. This week they will make their last on-campus performance of the season on Friday during a Lower School Town Meeting. The Jaguars will be helping kick off the CWA Winter Olympics for the Lower School. The squad has 18 rope jumping members in this, their 14th season at CWA. 
Just over a month ago a 7.0 earthquake rocked Haiti devastating a country already overwhelmed by poverty and a long history of social and political challenges. Within days, CWA students, like so many people around the world, were pitching in to help. In all three divisions, students have come up with creative ways to raise money, awareness and needed supplies. 
Megan Kelley is one of 13 lifers in this year’s senior class. She came to Charles Wright as a kindergartner and has thrown herself into the life of the school ever since. Next year she’ll trade in her green and white gear for blue and buff. She’s picked a college with a mascot almost as unusual as a Tarrier. She’s going to be a Hamilton College Continental. 
Running is one of the most popular and consistently successful athletic programs at CWA. In the past year, Tarriers have won state championship titles in three events and recorded 16 top-eight finishes. CWA has also dominated the league’s Middle School running events and half the student body in the Lower School belonged to the after-school Running Club this fall. With all that enthusiasm for running, it should come as no surprise that CWA has on its campus one of the fastest runners in the nation. ![photo14[1]](http://cwablogs.org/blogs/wrightblog/files/2009/12/photo141-150x150.jpg)
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. 
CWA’s fall sports seasons are now all wrapped up and the Nisqually League has awarded all-league honors to 16 Tarries who played football, girls soccer and volleyball. CWA won two league championships this fall. Here’s a full report on all the teams. 
Charles Wright Academy is gearing up for a big celebration of Homecoming 2009 this weekend.
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. 
In the company of third grade teachers Deanne Trummert and Jon Flies, and Lower School science teacher Gabriel Newton, Charles Wright’s class of 2019 headed off to Mount Rainier last Friday to find the headwaters of the Nisqually River and begin their year-long study of the Nisqually watershed. The whole trip was caught on video so you can join in the adventure from the comforts of home.