Seeking to express solidarity with immigrants, both documented and undocumented, and to raise awareness about issues pertaining to immigration justice, juniors in the Immigration Justice Civic Lab group researched local immigration cases, made signs and traveled to high-traffic and symbolic locations around Chicago to let their voices be heard
Upper School English teacher Alicia Abood and Upper School photography teacher Katie Palmer created an opportunity for Parker writers and photographers to collaborate through poetry
Members of the Upper School Science Department traveled to the University of Chicago Center in Paris as part of the 2022 France And Chicago Collaborating in The Sciences (FACCTS) program, which seeks to foster a broad range of networks and productive partnerships between Chicago-based researchers and France-based colleagues and institutions
Three groups of students in the Upper School Social Entrepreneurship class combined social good with business savvy when they pitched their ideas for a new nonprofit to a panel of friendly judges consisting of parents and alumni
To honor Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month, which is in May, the Upper School Asian Alliance Club has created an infographic. AAPI Heritage Month is a time to recognize and celebrate the contributions and positive impact that Asian and Pacific Islander Americans have brought to the United States
Strong Skills Founder Brian Levenson visited Parker this week for a series of talks with the community as Parker’s 24th Annual Francine C. Rosenberg Memorial Lecturer
Fourth grade students delighted the community with what they have been learning about ancient Greece’s history and mythology through their performance of the Greek Play, this year based on the Trojan War
New York-based brass quartet The Westerlies recently returned to Parker for an encore appearance as Parker’s fifth annual Joan W. Harris Visiting Music Scholars in Residence
The Development Office was pleased to welcome Grandparents and Special Friends back to campus for our beloved Upper School Grandparents and Special Friends Day on Friday, April 29
This past week, a group of 23 Upper School students, under the care of faculty members Andrew Bigelow, Terry Davis and Victoria Lee, departed for the annual Civil Rights and Social Justice experience in Birmingham, Montgomery and Selma, Alabama
Students, teachers and staff combined efforts in support of LGBTQ+ individuals around the world—and within the school—as a part of Parker’s all-school celebration of Pride Week
Upper School students campaigning for a Student Government office in the 2022–23 academic year recently had an opportunity to appeal to their peers for support as part of Parker’s annual Democrafest
This past week, Parker hosted its 15th annual Robert A. Pritzker Visiting Scientist•Inventor•Engineer in Residence: Dr. Jamal Moss, deputy director of Auke Bay Laboratories and supervisory fish and wildlife administrator from National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), visiting all the way from Alaska for a jam-packed full day of educational enrichment
Former Poetry Society of America Executive Director and Parker graduate Elise Paschen ’77 returned to campus to share more about herself, her work and her process with Upper School students as the school’s 8th Annual Jeanne Harris Hansell Endowed Poet
Poetry lovers from the faculty, student, alumni and parent/guardian community recently came together in the Kovler Family Library to celebrate Poetry Month and the robust culture of poetry at the school
Congratulations to Parker’s Upper School Scholastic Bowl Team on capping off a tremendous season with a successful campaign at the Small Schools National Championship Tournament in Rosemont
After exposing 6th graders to work by artists Laetitia Ky and Asya Kozina that focused on themes of power and social reform, art teacher Caroline Gardner challenged students in her class to create paper sculptures of their own focusing on a topic of their choice
Students in Parker’s Astrophysics Club and the Upper School Astronomy, Modern Physics and Philosophy course welcomed special guest Neta Bahcall to an intimate Zoom experience on Wednesday. Bahcall, the Eugene Higgins Professor of Astrophysics and director of the Undergraduate Program in Astrophysics at Princeton University, took time from her busy schedule to meet and discuss her work with these students
Esmé, a fine-dining restaurant across the street from Parker, would like to partner with our student artists to raise money for Kitchen Possible, a nonprofit organization in Chicago that helps children from underserved Chicago neighborhoods make positive things happen in their lives through life lessons in weekly cooking classes
Parker is very proud to announce that the Illinois High School Association (IHSA) Sportsmanship Advisory Committee (SAC) has selected another Parker student from to join this important committee. Senior Sammi Coleman served a two-year term on the SAC, and, with her term ending in June, and after extensive review of the nominees, the IHSA has selected sophomore Ben Kagan
Visual Arts Department Co-Chair Kay Silva recently led her 4th grade students in producing a range of pieces in support of the Ukrainian people currently immersed in conflict
Students in Upper School History teacher Kevin Conlon’s Economics and Society class recently butted heads in a face-off of economic proportions. Conlon and this group of sophomores, juniors and seniors invited members of the community to attend and observe the dispute to see if these Upper School advocators could sway the observers to their side of the issue
More than 200 students and nearly 30 Middle School faculty and staff brought their energy and skills to a one-day Parker Partners event on Thursday, April 7. The Maker event, designed to literally build literacy and create warmth, had students crafting, designing and building
Creative Movement and Dance Development, a new course in Parker’s Senior Kindergarten, invited members of the community to their first Program Performance in the Dance Studio
Third grade students and teachers recently combined their collective efforts and energies to offer two special performances of a Spring Sharing Morning Ex, centering around Earth Day to inspire the Parker community to make positive changes for the environment
Members of the Parker underwater robotics team Subaquatic Equations participated in a hands-on ecological field trip run by Pigeon Key Marine Science Center in Florida
This year, more than 80% of 5th grade parents made a gift to the Parker Fund before the end of December, and for this reason, 5th graders won the Parent/Guardian Participation Challenge
Last Friday, more than 50 alumni—representing classes from 1962 to 2014— returned to campus to participate in Upper School Career Day, an all-day event for alumni to share their career experience and offer advice to Upper School students
Seventh grade students in Caroline Gardner’s Art classes have been flexing their creativity recently to bring awareness to a range of environmental causes
Parker’s very own sophomore Kai Uemura joined other members of the U.S. gymnastics team to sweep the men’s junior and senior team titles at the 2022 DTB Pokal Team Challenge and Mixed Cup at Porsche-Arena in Stuttgart, Germany
On Monday, juniors Rania Jones, Mortimer Buckley and Mollie Gross, the editors of Scout, presented a Morning Ex on the origin, purpose, publishing process and desired impact of the school’s teen magazine
Fifth graders created their own virtual reality (VR) games using Cospaces, a Web-based program that allows students to build their own 3D creations, animate them with code and explore them in virtual or augmented reality. Creating with CoSpaces helps students develop digital literacy, collaboration and coding skills and empowers them to become creators
Eighth grade students, under the direction of Middle School drama teacher Ed Garza, larked about for the amusement of their classmates and an audience of Lower School students, sharinh original acts as the culmination of their recent study of vaudeville performance at the turn of the 19th century
Each year, the Illinois Basketball Coaches Association (IBCA) selects the top players in the state by the IHSA classification system. This year, Parker is proud to announce that junior Payton Pitts was selected for the Illinois Basketball Coaches Association (IBCA) Class 2A All-State Team—Special Mention
Parker’s Music Department spread some Holi magic with a Morning Ex performance and sharing featuring an Indian baraat band from Chicago, who taught students about the celebration of Holi in Indian culture and provided a brief history of baraat music, the instruments in baraat bands and the motivations behind the musicians who make the music
Students in Upper School History Department Chair Andrew Bigelow’s second semester Civil Rights elective welcomed sociology professor Dr. Eulalie Laschever from DePaul University for an intensive discussion about social movement theory
Nearly 200 young women of color from more than 10 schools around the city and country came together on a sunny Saturday in March to celebrate and explore their identities and share connection and community at this year’s Young Women of Color (YWOC) Symposium, a collaborative endeavor between Loyola Academy and Parker
First graders spent several weeks exploring different robots, bringing coding to life in the Kovler Family Library. Students worked in small groups to code two kinds of robots: Dash robots and Sphero robots.
Students from Junior Kindergarten through 5th grade joined together for a Lower and Intermediate School Share Morning Ex, when four grades presented elements of recent classwork
Clinical psychologist, author, certified life coach and parenting and relationship expert Dr. John Duffy spent a day at Parker speaking to the importance of self-care and care for one another during times of stress, depression and grief
In 5th grade art class, students have developed their animation skills through a sequence of prompts beginning with 2D animation and culminating in a short stop-motion film, and this week they showcased their short films for a larger audience of their peers to enjoy
On Thursday, the Collab Lab became design central as students in 4th grade used their engineering skills and creativity to propose and prototype potential events for a HexBug Olympics
Students in 3rd grade recently immersed themselves in a study of European settlers in this region during the 1800s for this year’s annual Settler Activity Day
Learning in the youngest grades at Parker is a process that relies on teaching foundations and building upon those foundations in a gradual, developmentally appropriate manner. As elite educators, Parker’s faculty avoid rigid methods and relay these foundations in ways that allow students to have fun and create memories. One recent example was the celebration of the 100th Day of School.
Members of Parker’s Black Student Union (BSU) orchestrated a Morning Ex prior to February Recess, during which Black students, faculty and alumni spoke honestly about their experiences at the school and hoped to broaden perspectives
This past Monday during Morning Ex, the Kupcinet Gallery was lined with devices that were spinning, sliding, whirling, flashing, detecting and making noises as 5th graders capped off their programming and engineering unit at their STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Mathematics) Expo
Middle and Upper School Librarian Annette Lesak was featured in the latest episode of the Project Invent Podcast to share stories about working with students to “Make Failure OK.”
Alderperson of the 43rd Ward Michelle Smith recently visited the school for a special Morning Ex with 3rd grade students to share more about her role in the larger context of our country’s democracy and each of their roles as citizens in the democratic process
The Social Justice Committee, which encourages activism in the student body, has been hard at work this year and is ready to share the second edition of its newsletter
On behalf of Bea Koch ’08, Leah Koch ’10, the Alumni Association and the Development and Alumni Office, thank you to everyone who came out to The Ripped Bodice for the Los Angeles Alumni Regional Gathering!
Parker is excited to announce that the second annual Young Women of Color Symposium, in partnership with Loyola Academy, is officially open for registration
Recently, Parker’s 9th grade Biology students were wrapping up their study of genetics and welcomed a presentation on the four main branches of advanced biotech treatments by Parker parent Dr. David Lennon
Upper School student members of Parker’s Men of Color Heritage Association (MOCHA) launched a week of events observing Black History and Futures month this week by orchestrating a Morning Ex that combined fun, learning and motivation
Students in Nanci Moore’s Senior Kindergarten class spent time this week talking about Valentine’s Day. While this is not an atypical event in younger grades, normally involving heart-drawing and candy-eating, Moore wanted to reinforce these conversations through a hands-on experience
Congratulations to junior Ana Franco on receiving a Division 1 field hockey scholarship offer to Wake Forest University, as well as a slew of other awards
As people across America celebrate and observe Black History Month, two new events debuted at Parker and were a resounding success. While the community was hard at work in class and at the special Morning Ex events, there was a need for events outside the classroom, and the Parker community delivered
This Saturday, Parker once again hosted the FTC Robotics Chicago League Championship. Our two US FTC robotics teams put on a thrilling performance both on and off the field, finishing the qualification rounds in 2nd and 3rd place out of 15 teams competing
Students in the Upper School welcomed Harrison Agrusa to Parker recently for a series of conversations that were truly out of this world. Agrusa is a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Maryland who primarily works on NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) Mission
Upper School students have been hard at work in the Creating Historical Documentaries course, co-taught by Visual Arts and Graphic Design teacher Travis Chandler’s and Upper School History teacher Dan Greenstone, as they worked to complete their final projects
In Integrated Learning and Information Science (ILIS), 4th graders examined Native American social justice movements, using thinking routines from JusticexDesign to examine their messages, choices and impacts
Parker was honored as a runner-up for this year’s American Field Service (AFS) Global School Award based on the school’s ongoing work to bring global ideas to students in and outside our classrooms
Freshman Zarin Mehta recently tied for second place at the International Young Artist Concerto Competition (IYACC), a Chicago-based competition in which 76 musicians from around the world age 18 and young submit video auditions of concerti
Members of the Upper School FIRST Tech Challenge Robotics team orchestrated a Morning Ex to introduce each of the school’s robotics teams and provide an overview of their work this season to date
Members of the class of 2022 joined their younger siblings in Junior Kindergarten through 8th grade to further foster connections they established at the beginning of the year as part of Parker’s Big Siblings program
Parker students with a passion for orchestra have something new to tap their toes to, thanks to the gift of a vast sheet music collection for the school’s Music department from Vicky Rozich, the daughter of David Ellis Miller, a deceased North Side cellist and music collector
French II students have prepared scenes to present at this year’s Francophone Youth Theater Festival, joining participating students in other Chicago high school French classes. As in the past, playwright, director and actress Pascale Daniel, who lives in the south of France, wrote the scenes expressly for Parker French students
Colin Bennett, Virgin Galactic Astronaut 003 aboard the Unity 22 Spaceflight, “visited” Parker via Zoom for the first Morning Ex of the second semester
Tania Maria Giordani ’16 was recently featured in the PBS NewsHour series, “Brief But Spectacular” where she shares “her Brief But Spectacular take on building a community based on love.”
In 6th grade, Gardner’s students learned digital painting in the Art Rage iPad app. To practice these newfound skills, they “adopted” a pet in need at a local shelter and created a piece of artwork to bring awareness to the pets that need homes in the community
On Saturday, January 15, all four of our MS Robotics teams, Bots Go BRRR!!!, Spicy Chicken, Escargot and Stern Sail-Oars, traveled to Elgin Community College to compete in the FLL Illinois State Tournament, which they had qualified for by performing well and garnering awards at their tournaments in December
A little cold couldn’t keep Upper School physics students from getting firsthand experience with the principle of energy conservation, as the Science Department recently led the charge across Parker’s turf field to launch rockets
Students and teachers from Junior Kindergarten through 5th grade combined their talents, efforts and energies to develop and share two unique, developmentally appropriate Morning Ex presentations this week focusing on the life and work of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. under the broad theme of “Teamwork Makes the Dream Work.”
First grade students recently participated in a memorable Zoom-based experience that connected each classroom with a former Parker teacher—and current 1st grade grandparent—who attended the March on Washington in 1963 when Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. gave his “I Have a Dream” speech
Parker’s youngest students gain confidence and knowledge in the arts through the exploration and practice of different styles and the artists who use them
On Saturday, January 8, Parker’s Upper School Scholastic Bowl team competed in the annual IHSSBCA Turnabout Tournament at Homewood-Flossmoor High School
Relationships that start at Parker can last a lifetime. Two alumni, Haj Young ’95 and Marty Morris ’94, knew each other when they were students; recently, they returned to Parker to share the story of their newest venture, Econergy, a company that offers solutions to reduce power costs and make it easier for businesses to choose renewable energy
Six members of the Parker community have joined teachers and students from 30 regional high schools to participate in the fifth annual Chicago Shakespeare Slam, which will be streamed online on two consecutive evenings
Francis W. Parker School educates students to think and act with empathy, courage and clarity as responsible citizens and leaders in a diverse democratic society and global community.