“CWA’s consistently excellent performance is testimony not only to the school’s outstanding academics, but especially to the talent and work ethic of its students,” said Coach John Lemma.  “Charles Wright is always the school to beat.”

Knowledge Bowl is a fast-paced event that uses a quiz-show format to test students’ knowledge of math, science, history, geography and literature. Competitions feature four oral rounds of 45 to 60 questions each and one written round of 40 to 60 questions. Teams have 15 seconds to confer and provide an answer.

CWA won state titles in the 1A division against other schools with 467 students are less in 2001, 2002, 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2008.  In 2009, CWA’s third request was granted to compete against 2A schools.  At the state tournament, CWA out-scored all other teams in the 2A, 3A and 4A divisions in the written round with a record 47 out of 50 points.  In the three-way final against Anacortes and Tumwater, Charles Wright started out slowly, falling behind seven to three.  They came back strong winning ten straight points to surge ahead after 32 questions.  They held on to win the 2A title with 15 points to Anacortes’ ten and Tumwater’s seven.

In 2010, the Tarriers moved up another notch to the 3A bracket.  Although CWA has just 290 high school students this year, their competitors at this year’s state championship will come from schools with up to 1,280 students.

Like a handful of other schools around the state, CWA has qualified two teams to compete at the state tournament.  The are coached by Lemma and David Kangas.

CWA’s A Team is an all-senior squad: Austin Jung of Gig Harbor, Jeremiah Papa of Federal Way, Ben Mishkin of Olympia, Aimee Nguyen of Olympia, Blake Walsh of Federal Way, and William Livingston of Federal Way.  Jung, Mishkin and Livingston were all members of the school’s 2009 2A state championship team.  Jung will attend Yale University next year.  His teammates have not yet announced their college choices.

CWA’s B Team includes: Junior Yuriy Korol of University Place, Junior Alex Smith of Lake Tapps, Sophomore Sarah Yamamoto of Lakewood, Sophomore Anthony Wohns of Tacoma, Sophomore Sarah Sadlier of Gig Harbor and Sophomore Peter Schilling of Tacoma.

In addition to excelling in Knowledge Bowl, this group of students is very involved in other academic programs, athletics, drama and music.

The Tarriers will compete against qualifying teams from North Thurston, Camas, Columbia River, Port Angeles, West Valley (Yakima), Mt. Spokane, North Central, Lakeside (Seattle), Bellevue, Interlake and Peninsula.  The defending 3A state champions, a team from Kennedy High School, are not returning to the state tournament.

Austin Jung, Blake Walsh and Iean Drew are National Merit Scholarship Finalists.  All scored in the top one-percent of PSAT test-takers.  Based upon their abilities, skills and accomplishments, they may be awarded $2,500 National Merit Scholarships, corporate-sponsored merit scholarships or college-sponsored merit scholarships from one of the schools to which they have applied.  Nation-wide there are 15,000 finalists and approximately 8,200 scholarships will be awarded.  Jung plans to attend Yale next year.  Walsh and Drew have not yet decided where they will enroll.

Rafael McCauley is a finalist for the National Achievement Scholarship Program.  He scored in the top one-percent of African American test takers and submitted the same application materials.  He is one of 1,300 finalists for 800 scholarships.  Two types of awards are made: $2,500 National Achievement Scholarships and a variety of corporate-sponsored awards.  McCauley plans to attend Carnegie Mellon University in the fall.  He has been accepted into the highly competitive computer science program.

Every year the Upper School lit mag club selects from a broad range of submissions from the upper school and creates a single volume celebrating the community’s creative literary and visual talents.  The magazine accepts literary work such as poetry, short stories, and short plays, and art work of various media such as painting, drawing, photography, and digital art.  Students in the club then create a cohesive and a creative layout for the publication that highlights the quality of the works included.  This yearlong process culminates in a polished magazine that every student and teacher in the school receives in May.

A copy of Inkblots is given to every Upper School teacher and student in the spring.  If you’d like a copy, call the Upper School or the admissions office.

The 2009 edition of CWA’s literary magazine recently won an excellent rating from the National Council of Teachers of English.  There were 425 entries from around the country and CWA was one of eight Washington state schools honored.  Last year’s Inkblots was created by student editors Ben Mishkin ’10, Tori Portnow ’10, Stephanie Friend ’11, Austin Jung ’10 and Iean Drew ’10.  Patti Crouch and Heather Cantrall both served as faculty advisors.  The eleventh edition featured original works of student poetry, short stories and artwork.

The cover art for the 2009 Lit Mag was created by Colleen Carson ‘09.  Here are a few of the other pieces published in the award-winning magazine:

Rowing
By Rutger Gunther ’09,
now a student at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point

We dig our oars deep
The water ripples away
as if undisturbed

The Lonely Coconut
By Lindsey Evans ’09,
now a student at Santa Clara University

Coarse, rigid, hairy,
Sits the uneven wooden shell upon the sun-heated sand
The hollow object meets the crashing waves
The deep-blue Pacific lures her long lost fruit
Down the shore towards the sea.
The white foam remains
A blanket to the chestnut colored figure.
The warm, grainy sand grips to the object
As the vast ocean beckons this lost, lone coconut
Into unknown latitudes.

Questions to pop culture
By Jeff Crabill ’10

Why does shortie want a thug?
What type of candy shop is this?
Which club are you in precisely?
Don’t you think this is sort of a mediocre moment to wait a lifetime for?

How does mo money equal mo problems?
As is the relationship between the two variables fixed or exponential?

Maybe a scrub could be a nice guy?
What’s so great about big butts?
Well, even if you didn’t start the fire, then who did?
Why do you want to jump so badly?

You will be watching me for every breath I take?
How about some personal space?

Even if you do get his girl, what about Jesse?
Won’t your good friendship with him be ruined?

Yes, you know how to love, but could you survive today’s financial crisis?
Why on Earth was everyone Kung Fu fighting?
If this song isn’t about me, which it probably is, then who could it be about?
Yes, I know you heard it through the grapevine, but could be more specific?
How can you think that letting her into his hearth will allow Jude to start to make it better?
Isn’t it possible that ther is a mental block which is preventing you from getting your satisfaction?
How could one really fit the whole world in his hands?

Back in 2001, CWA sixth graders first tackled the issue of removing tons of garbage that had been dumped along one of the trails leading down to Chambers Creek over a period of many years.  The creek runs through CWA’s campus and the area in need of help was just a half-mile from the school.  Those students, members of the graduating class of 2007, are now juniors in college.

By 2004, CWA students had removed approximately 3,500 pounds of garbage, including tires, washing machines, televisions and countless cans and bottles.  Once the garbage was removed and vehicle access to the trail was eliminated, putting a stop to future illegal dumping, the students turned their energy to removing English Ivy.  Over the next two years, students removed approximately 2,700 pounds of ivy, an invasive species affecting the wildlife habitat quality in the canyon.

Caring for Chambers Creek is more than a community service project, it’s an integral part of CWA’s sixth grade science curriculum which examines biology and sustainability.  Two or three times a year, students make the half-mile walk from campus to the Chambers Creek Canyon to spend two to three hours on the project.

“The CWA sixth grade has unofficially adopted this area of the canyon and over the years developed a strong connection with Chambers Creek through their tradition of taking action to improve our community,” wrote Stephanie Leisle, an environmental educator who nominated CWA for the award.  “Each new group of students sees the impact of their peers who came before them and in turn gets excited about their own contributions.  Their consistency and dedication is not only saving the County money with their clean-up efforts, they are also helping to preserve valuable stream riparian habitat.”

Middle School Head Brynn Starr, who helped create this project while teaching sixth grade, is particularly pleased with the way in which the service project connects with the Middle School science program.  “More than 540 students have worked at Chambers Creek,” she says.  “They really understand how humans and invasive species impact their local environment.  Many get the opportunity to go back as eighth graders to continue helping with clean-up efforts and they feel a strong connection to the neighborhood around the school.”

This is the second community service award CWA has received in recent weeks.  The Salvation Army recognized the contributions of Upper School students in February.

This issue includes stories by Teacher Jim Albers, Headmaster Rob Camner, Katie Welch ‘12, Koby Deitz ‘12, Karolina Koperwas ‘10, Teacher Emily (Parker) Stokes ‘99, Todd Silver ‘01 and Sohaira Siddiqui ‘04.

For one week in mid February, ten students and two teachers from Charles Wright ventured to Joshua Tree National Park for a rock climbing winterim.   Joshua Tree lies in the high desert, straddling an ecological transition zone between the Mojave Desert and the Sonoran Desert.  Here, the desert plants employ a variety of strategies (thick waxy cuticles, spines and thorns, and long periods of dormancy) to survive the cooler  winter temperatures.  For human visitors however, the strategies to keep warm are different: multiple layers of fleece, polypro and wool and a conscious effort to find shelter from the driving wind.

The namesake trees of the park evoke memories of Dr. Seuss.  They are awkward desert figures with long fan like leaves spreading in all directions, and at every possible angle.   Adapted to surviving in an extreme climate, they face  frost and snow during the winter and a blazing sun during summer  (temperatures in July may top 110 F).  At night, they are peculiar in the headlights, evoking images of an alien landscape.

Over the next week, the students challenge themselves on rock faces ranging from 30 feet to almost one hundred feet off the ground.  The students quickly realize that this is no longer the climbing gym.  Mighty “jugs” (handholds) and plastic indoor pieces are replaced by a steep face, interspersed with cracks and pockmarked waves of various rock types. Handholds and footholds are difficult to see as climbing in Joshua Tree demands patience and perseverance. Fingertips are cut by the sharp rock, and falls against the gritty rock face result in scrapes and bruises.

“Stand up on your right leg! Stand up on your feet!  Put your heels down!” The guides repeatedly call out, offering encouragement and advice.

By the end of the trip the students will be familiar with J Tree rock climbing techniques such as smearing, smedging, edging, fist jamming, hand jamming (did Caitlin just do a body jam?), stemming and chimneying.  It’s a unique winterim experience and one, which the kids reflect, isn‘t limited to just one type of student.  “You don’t have to be super strong to climb.  There is so much more to the climbing -using your feet, being confident on the rock,” quoted one J-Tree student at the end of the trip.

Back at camp, a little laughter around a fire can go a long ways to keep people warm. Friendships are formed between students who may have not hung out at school together.   Students assume leadership roles prepping and cooking food for the group.  The guides teach the students about how to lessen their impact at climbing sites and at camp.  The lessons of mastering a difficult move on a climb after failing many times are transferred back home:  “You can take that impossible climb that you ended up finishing and tell yourself back at school, I can improve in this class,” said one student.

A setting sun casts the final shadows of day over the desert landscape.  A faint reddish glow gives the Joshua Tree an eerie quality, as they hardly move in the rising wind. The desert is a land of extremes and incredible beauty.   The students of the 2010 Winterim tree opened themselves to all that Joshua Tree had to offer, and they returned home with a remarkable experience and memories that will last forever.

Rafael moved to Tacoma in fourth grade and enrolled at CWA.  In Middle and Upper School he has excelled in academics, athletics and the arts.  He’s taking three Advanced Placement courses this year, chemistry, physics and calculus, and already has AP U.S. history and computer science under his belt.  He ranked in the top 1% of African American test takers on the PSAT and was recently named a National Merit Achiever Finalist.  He plays football, earning all-league honors as second team defensive back, and varsity soccer.  He directs one acts for the spring festival, plays competitive chess for the school club, studies improvisational theater, and holds down a part-time job at Taco Bell.

His junior year, Rafael started seriously looking for the right college.  His strong interest in computer science drew him to Carnegie Mellon right away.  The program is one of the best in the world.  “I’m interested in operating systems right now, but that may change,” says Rafael.  “I like how precise computer science is as a subject.  Some people seem overwhelmed by its complexity and I’d like to find ways to make using computers simpler for other people.”

His interest grew when his college counselor, Marc Janes, also suggested the school.  Because his interests and abilities are so broad, Rafael wanted to find a school that also had strong arts programs.  “I don’t necessarily want to pursue those fields,” he explains, “but I want to be surrounded by people with diverse interests.”  This guided him away from school like MIT and Cal Tech and furthered his interest in Carnegie Mellon.  If his academic focus changes, he’s glad to know Carnegie Mellon has many other strong programs he can consider.  After all, this is the school attended by both Nobel prize-winning mathematician John Nash Jr. and artist Andy Warhol.

After visiting Pittsburg, Rafael felt confident the school would be a good fit.  He liked the size and location of the campus.  There are nearly 6,000 undergrads and the University of Pittsburg is just a few blocks away “so there will never be a shortage of people to meet.”

Rafael also considered the number of students relative to the number of faculty members.  Carnegie Mellon boasts a 10:1 ratio.  “It’s small enough that you can really get to know your professors and that’s especially important to me given my experiences (in small classes) here at Charles Wright,” he says.

He also somewhat sheepishly admits that he really liked the food, especially the meatball sandwiches and Philly cheese steaks.

One consideration that did not strongly factor into his decision making process was the 2,523 miles between Tacoma and Pittsburg.  “The idea of going far away just never really seemed like an issue to me,” he says.

In early December, Rafael turned in his early decision application and was accepted.  He won’t know for a several more weeks what his final scholarship and financial aid package from the school will look like, so he’s been busy applying for scholarships from other organizations as well.  In the month of December alone he wrote 14 unique essays.  “That was pretty terrible,” he acknowledges.

Spring sports began this week so Rafael is now busy with soccer, as well.  He’s also directing his second one act play for the spring festival.  He’s considering turning out for football at some point in college, possibly his sophomore year, so over the summer he plans to continue training.  He’ll also be working at Taco Bell until he leaves for college.

Diamond is in town to give two sold-out lectures to the general public this week and National Geographic Live offered local schools the chance to send students and teachers to this special morning event for free.  History teacher Nick Coddington’s World Civilizations class took them up on the offer.  In class, they are examining the roots of European hegemony and Diamond’s interdisciplinary work directly examines how and why some civilizations achieve such dominance.

A MacArthur Foundation “genius” grantee, Jared Diamond is professor of geography and environmental health studies at UCLA.  In Guns, Germs and Steel, Diamond aimed to uncover the root causes of Eurasian dominance of the modern world, arguing that this dominance was the result of geographic variables rather than cultural superiority. In his most recent book and upcoming National Geographic Channel film, Collapse, he addresses exactly the opposite question: What causes great societies to fail? Collapse contrasts past and present to help modern society identify what is sustainable—in essence, what can we do differently to avoid becoming the next failed society?

The lecture was a unique opportunity for CWA students to discover why this renowned thinker and field scientist believes that the big problems the world faces in the coming decades can be solved by their generation.  Diamond encouraged the students to consider that when and where a person is born largely determines the course of their life and that the study of geography, often a neglected discipline, can answer some of the most interesting questions about humanity.