Seattle Country Day School

Changing laws takes time, effort, and perseverance; there’s no guarantee of success. But in this case — the passage of HB 1222 — there was a decidedly happy ending! Hugo, a third-grader at Seattle Country Day School, and his family spent several years garnering support for legislation that would require private medical insurers in Washington state to support the cost of hearing aids. Learn more about his family’s inspiring legislative odyssey on the SCDS website. bit.ly/scdsnews Photo: Libby Lewis Photography.

When Crystal Kaya was a child, she and her dad loved watching the night sky, visiting planetariums, and attending astronomical talks. Crystal, now a parent at Seattle Country Day School, noticed that she was always the only girl in the audience, and that the speakers were all male. “It never even occurred to me that I could do it [astronomy] professionally or seriously,” she says. Today, Crystal (inspired by her son, Atlas) is a NASA Solar System Ambassador, visiting schools, leading planetarium talks, and providing a role model for budding astronomers and scientists. Learn about her visit to SCDS on our website. And catch her, if you can, at your local planetarium! bit.ly/scdsnews

Sibling rivalry. Swordplay. Middle-school drama. And, not least, the loss of a parent. These are some of the topics taken up by “Duel,” a graphic novel written by Jessixa Bagley, illustrated by Aaron Bagley, and published in late 2023. The Bagleys, parents at Seattle Country Day School, sat down with our librarian, Joanne Sobieck-Lingg, to talk about middle school, taking sides, and graphic novels’ superpower: helping readers, especially youth, feel seen and valued. Read the interview on the SCDS website. bit.ly/scdsnews

Seattle Country Day School was honored to have two medical professionals visit with our fifth-grade class in late April: Nicole R. Jackson, MD, MPH, a forensic pathologist, and Bitania Wondimu, MD, a pathology resident. The two women, both from UW Medicine, spoke on ethnic/racial underrepresentation in the medical workforce. Their talk was part of SCDS’s Synapse program, a K–8 program that combines social-emotional learning and concepts related to DEI. Drs. Jackson and Wondimu: Thank you for the interesting, data-rich talk and for your inspiring work! Read more here. bit.ly/scds-speakers  

When Gary Locke finished speaking with the middle-school students at Seattle Country Day School, their applause was loud, enthused, and sustained. The former two-term governor of Washington state had kept his young audience’s full attention with his ready answers to their questions, with his warmth and approachability, and with his story: a classic American tale that encompasses sacrifice and risk-taking, change and encouragement, and belonging and immigration. Read more about Governor Locke’s visit — held to help celebrate Washington’s Chinese American/Americans of Chinese Descent History Month — at our website. bit.ly/scds-speakers

The Viking missions, which relayed information from Mars between 1976 and 1982, fundamentally changed what we know about the red planet. In her turn, Seattle Country Day School alumna Rachel Tillman ’79, has made it her mission to collect, preserve, and share information about the Vikings. We were pleased to welcome Rachel, the founder of the Viking Mars Missions Education and Preservation Project, to speak at SCDS’s new lunchtime science series in November. Rachel made a point of telling students that exploration and discovery is not only the purview of researchers and scientists, but also the realm of writers, managers, and people with myriad other interests. “All the things you love can have a place in your life,” Rachel told our Middle School students. “Just explore.” Read more about Mars, Rachel, and Rachel’s dad (James E. Tillman, a member of the Viking team) on our website. https://bit.ly/scds_alums

“It’s science,” said Jeff Hogan, the founder of Killer Whale Tales. “It’s ok for your guess to be wrong.” Jeff was visiting Seattle Country Day School to teach second-graders about orcas — and to help them hypothesize about animal behavior and the effectiveness of drone-based observation. In the process, students also got to touch a cast of a killer whale’s skull; as you can see, they are very impressive. Learn more about Jeff’s visit and the Salish Sea’s endangered Southern Resident orcas at SCDS’s website. bit.ly/scds-speakers