DA's fast philosophers

The recent Philosopher's Way Trail Run, sponsored by Chapel Hill's "Trailheads" running group, attracted over 300 runners to the trails at Carolina North. DA students, alumni, and parents did remarkably well.




Rising sophomore Fred Ward finished 2nd overall in the 7k run (28:08)
Kelly Teagarden '04 finished 2nd among all women (35:48)

Rising sophomore Carl Ward finished 4th overall (28:10)
Wesley Paulson '07 finished 7th (31:22)
David Drewry (father of students Grace, Carolyn, Michael, and Devin) finished 8th (31:31)
Eugene Oddone (father of Cameron, Ania, and Helen) finished 9th (31:45)
Eric Ward (father of Fred, Carl, and Alice finished 14th (33:43)
Erik Paulson (father of Wesley and Luke) finished 21st (35:35)
Eric Teagarden (US teacher/coach and father/pacer of Kelly) finished 22nd (35:48)
Kathy Merritt (mother of Wesley and Luke) finished 31st (6th among women) (38:34)
Gerty Ward (MS teacher and mother of Fred, Carl, and Alice) finished 127th (62:30)

Congratulations, running Cavs!

Seniors in Prague and Budapest, Special O's honors

Study trip to Eastern Europe makes the books come alive
Durham Academy seniors finish the year with Senior Projects, and seniors Ashley Brasier, Si Carpenter, Wyche Carr, Michael Conners, Josh Pathman, Will Ramsey, Sam Schwartz and Sam Shannon embarked on a week-long study trip about the Cold War behind the Iron Curtain. They were accompanied by DA history teacher Dave Gould and his wife, Lyn.

During their time in Eastern Europe, the DA group visited people in Budapest and Prague, some of whom had lived under both the Nazis and the Soviets in post-1945 Europe. In Budapest, they spent two days with Artur Itsak, who showed them his city and recounted stories about the Battle for Budapest during the winter of 1944-45, as well as an enthralling account of the 1956 Hungarian revolt against the Soviets.

The books they read prior to the trip came alive in Budapest when they saw shell marks from the Soviet-Nazi battle on buildings in Buda; stood on the spot where Hungarians pulled down the massive statue of Stalin; spent an evening with Milhaly Kiss, whose family was forced from their home by the Nazis and then by the Soviets; and visited the Terror House where Hungarian secret police imprisoned and tortured Hungarian citizens.

Three days in Prague were full of similar encounters. After guiding the group through the Hrdcany Castle Hill area, Vera Galiova recounted how she watched her father be taken to prison for being a “capitalist” when she was 11. He died 10 years later in that same prison, just before the 1989 revolution which returned the country to the Hungarian people. The group was mesmerized by Jan Ruman’s captivating story of fleeing with his family to Budapest after the Nazi takeover in 1941, returning to Prague after the war and having to scrape out a living, and finally escaping to the West with his wife after the failed Prague Spring uprising of 1968. A visit to Terezianstadt Ghetto and concentration camp was a sobering reminder of the atrocities which occurred during World War II in Czechoslovakia.

On their return to Durham and during the second week of their Senior Project, the group worked in teams to create “I Was There” history media presentations. Their reports were ample testimony to the idea that meaningful history goes well beyond what one can read in a textbook or hear in a class.

“To a person, they now have a much more abiding appreciation about what life under totalitarianism in post WW II Eastern Europe was like during the second half of the 20th century,” said Dave Gould. “It was a Senior Project experience they will not soon forget.”

----

Upper School honored for its support of Special Olympics

Durham Academy Upper School was honored at the Arc of Durham County Awards Banquet held May 18. The Arc presented its Community Collaboration Award to the Upper School for its continuing work in hosting the spring games for Durham County Special Olympics.

This marked the 23rd year that the Spring Games have been held at the Upper School. The Upper School suspends classes for the day so that the entire student body and faculty can be involved in Special Olympics.

The Special Olympics Spring Games involve athletes with developmental disabilities who have trained for a minimum of eight weeks to compete in track and field, softball throwing and play activities. More than 382 athletes participated this spring. These special athletes range in age from five to 21, and all are students in the Durham Public Schools.

Commencement 2008

By Laura Collins : The Herald-Sun
Jun 7, 2008

DURHAM -- Durham Academy celebrated not only the academic success of its students during commencement Friday morning, but also the student body's character education.

Valedictorian Sean Sketch spoke on the importance of good character that the academy has instilled in its students.

"As a graduate reflecting back on 14 years, I believe that DA is least concerned about scientific laws we seniors can recite, or the mathematical theorems we can prove," he said. "For the faculty, character development is paramount to this comparatively trivial knowledge. DA has only a few years to nourish our growth. On the other hand, we have the rest of our lives to memorize, recite and prove."

Though character was impressed on the graduates at Durham Academy, academics weren't lost on them; the class averaged a 3.44 grade point average. Ninety-four of the 95 seniors will attend colleges after graduation and one will attend a military service academy.

Guest speaker Tom Morris, who, besides studying at Durham Academy was also a Morehead Scholar, a doctoral student at Yale and a professor at Notre Dame, said the single greatest piece of wisdom he learned in all his time in a classroom came from his first-grade teacher.

"My teacher wrote a sentence across the board. I have no idea why, none of us could read," he told the students. "She wrote, then read, 'Life is not what you want it to be, it is what you make it.'"

Morris encouraged students to continue achieving their goals and gave them "The 7 Cs of Success," which he has written about in his books "True Success" and "The Art of Achievement."

He told the graduating seniors to have:

* A clear conception of what they want;

* A strong confidence that they can attain the goal;

* A focused concentration on what it takes to reach the goal;

* A stubborn consistency in pursuing their vision;

* An emotional commitment to the importance of what they are doing;

* A good character to guide them and keep them on a proper course;

* A capacity to enjoy that process along the way.

The ceremony briefly had the feel of a professional basketball game when Sketch launched T-shirts into the audience. Each shirt had one of the school's seven Principles of Community.

"Yep. I just threw that," Sketch said. "And I'd like to launch these other 'character clothes' in honor of the launching of both the class of 2008."

Andrew in Paraguay, Dr. Friedman in the news

Below is the "who I am and why I'm here" section of a new blog from Andrew Kindman '06. See the whole thing at. http://andrewkindman.wordpress.com/.

Hi everybody - my name is Andrew Kindman (that’s me on the right, though I am generally less pixilated in real life). I am a student at Duke University working towards a double major in Political Science and Economics. This summer, however, I am leaving academia behind in favor of some more hands-on development work.

I am living in Asunción, Paraguay from early May to mid August working as an Microfinance Intern with an NGO called La Fundacion Paraguaya. Paraguay is sometimes known as South America’s “Empty Quarter.” It is landlocked and nearly all of the population is concentrated in a handful of cities, leaving the majority of the country uninhabited, and by most accounts, uninhabitable. While Paraguay is very poor economically is was, until quite recently, destitute in terms of democratic capital.

The 2008 is a landmark year for Paraguayan democracy, the nation having elected for the first time in 60 years a president who is not a member of the Colorado party. We learn from the example of other Latin American countries (notably the PRI in Mexico) that a single party holding such sustained hegemonic control over a nation is likely the result of astute and manipulative economic policy.

This summer I will be working right at the margin between politics and economics at a time when both are making progress in leaps and bounds. It is a very exciting time to be in Paraguay. This blog is a space for anecdotes, reflections, points of interest, pictures, and other miscellanea that may appear over the next few months.

----

By ESTES THOMPSON : Associated Press Writer
The Associated Press
Jun 2, 2008

RALEIGH, N.C. -- Dr. John Sampson has spent most of his career studying brain tumors. And if diagnosed with the kind of cancer now faced by Sen. Edward Kennedy, he'd pick Duke University colleague Allan Friedman [father of DA alums James '96 and Marshall '06] for a doctor.

"He's one of the best for this type of surgery in the world," Sampson said. "If someone had to choose, he would certainly be on the top of my list."

For the delicate task of removing the cancerous brain tumor that threatens his life, Kennedy went with Friedman, a 59-year-old Chicago native is a respected leader in the field of neuro-oncology who performs the majority of such surgeries at Duke University Medical Center.

Friedman "is one of the thought leaders" in the field of neuro-oncology, said Dr. Otis Brawley, the top doctor at the American Cancer Society. An internationally known tumor and vascular surgeon, he is responsible for more than 90 percent of tumor resections and biopsies at Duke.

"He's an excellent surgeon. His patients are in very good hands," said Dr. Matthew Ewend, the neurosurgery chief at the nearby University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Friedman is Duke's neurosurgon-in-chief and the program director of the university's Division of Neurosurgery. He also serves as the deputy director of the university's Preston Robert Tisch Brain Tumor Center. An internationally known tumor and vascular surgeon, he is responsible for more than 90 percent of tumor resections and biopsies at Duke.

Duke's brain tumor center was established in 1937 and has a staff of more than 250 who work only on the research and treatment of brain tumors. Doctors and staff there are currently following the treatment of more than 2,000 patients from around the world.

Friedman is a graduate of Purdue University who earned his medical degree at the University of Illinois-Chicago, and did his residencies at Duke and the University of Western Ontario. His wife, Elizabeth Bullitt, is also a well-known neurosurgeon now focusing on research at UNC Hospitals, just eight miles from Duke.

Friedman lists his clinical interests as brain tumors, skull base tumors, peripheral nerve surgery, pituitary tumors and cerebrovascular disease, according the school's Web site.

Along with tumor research, Friedman is collaborating on research into epilepsy and hemorrhages in the space between the brain and the thin tissues that cover the brain.

Kennedy was hospitalized May 17 at Massachusetts General Hospital after undergoing a seizure at his home on Cape Cod. Doctors later announced the 76-year-old Massachusttes Democrat had a malignant glioma -- one of the worst kinds of brain cancer -- in his left parietal lobe.

His decision to head to Duke, a hospital with a sterling reputation, was of little surprise to his friends.

"I think he likes to conduct an exhaustive search of resources out there and then make a decision. I think that's what all patients should do," said Philip W. Johnston, a Massachusetts Democratic activist and former chairman of the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial.