Ted Turner gives advice to 2010 graduates

On May 22, the seniors at Charleston Collegiate School graduated, victors in the "war" of high school.

Valedictorian and honor graduate Jordan de Jong gave an emotional speech.

Media businessman, CNN founder and philanthropist Ted Turner gave the commencement address. Turner's son, Teddy Turner, is an Upper School teacher at Collegiate.

Instead of an ordinary speech, Turner was interviewed by graduating senior Will Northcut. Turner talked about the dangers of panicking when life is difficult, and the need to improve ways of dealing with the environment. He also stated that humans were intended to be helpful toward others.

Before the ceremony, Turner was asked if his goals had changed from his adolescence to the current time, and what his inspirations were. He said, "My goals haven't really changed since I was a youngster. I wanted to do the best I could. Work hard, and do the best I could, and be a big success. And that's what I still want to be.

"I wanted to do more than just make money, I wanted to make things better for people," Turner said.

Seniors complete Mastery projects

Seniors worked on the last-minute details of their Senior Exhibition of Mastery projects until the week before graduation. The seniors were helped by much of the faculty, who became advisers for the work that lasted from fall to spring.

In this project, a senior has to find an interesting topic and acquire answers to contribute to a presentation in May. To help their research, the seniors have to answer an essential question, have to speak with people who are knowledgeable on the topic and create a summary product.

One of this year's advisers, Upper School teacher Jenny Pringle, said, "I think it was the best year so far for Senior Exhibitions, and I think it's only going to get better. They worked hard, and not only discovered things about their topics, but themselves, which is the goal."

Seniors have to work on these projects on top of ACTs, SATs, college applications and other academic course work. Some of those who made the presentations got awards for their hard work.

One of these award recipients, Shareef Elkady (with a presentation on Freudian theories in horror movies), stated, "As hard as the process was, the fulfillment of the actual event was spectacular. To know that I did something as extensive as this project was makes me very proud."

New learning for 'tweens

Next year, Charleston Collegiate is starting a new system of learning for fifth- and sixth-grade " 'tweens," as Middle School Head Gretchen Batalis has dubbed them.

The hope is that instructors can give these students a greater readiness for the latter parts of Middle School, she said. The students still can move up to higher math courses if they wish to.

She spoke about an academic team that did research on the developmental needs of the 'tweens, and found out that this "baby-step" ideology gets the kids ready for Middle School. She said, "I think it will be very successful because we have a strong team of Middle School teachers who are experts not only in their subject areas but kids in this age level. I think this will provide a necessary transition into having multiple teachers and classes as students do in Middle School."

Fine Arts Week in its ninth year

From May 3-8, all of the students at CCS were participating in and/or watching events for the ninth annual Fine Arts Week.

Some of the Fine Arts Week activities this year involved massive team chalk paintings on the asphalt drive, ballroom dance instruction, a 1920s-30s jazz band concert by the V-Tones, a student art show, student film showings, choral concerts, a middle school Bollywood dance and student-written spring plays "Lost and Found" and "A Year in the Life."

Of the chalk contest, 11th-grader Angelic Cuvarrubio, captain of one of the teams, said, "I think it was good for the kids just to demonstrate their creativity and to have fun."

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