The Path September 2023

Convocation Celebrates Sixth Graders, Seniors, Creativity, and Courage

Chargers returned to campus for the 2023-24 school year on a sunny morning filled with hugs, applause, and words of encouragement. The year began with Convocation – an Academy tradition that welcomes our incoming sixth graders and celebrates our seniors as they march up the Path, with family members and the rest of the school cheering them on. This year, every student from the classes of 2024 and 2030 was specially paired so they could begin making connections that they will be able to nurture at other schoolwide events, such as Community Day.

Once everyone was assembled on the field, Head of School Julianne Puente addressed the crowd with a powerful message about the importance of the arts in schools, noting that creativity is critical to every discipline, especially in the age of artificial intelligence.

“An arts education isn't a luxury,” she said. “It's a fundamental necessity that fosters holistic development. When we infuse arts into every aspect of learning, we cultivate creativity, critical thinking, collaboration, and emotional intelligence. Every invention, every scientific breakthrough, every technological advancement starts with a spark of creativity. The arts cultivate this kind of creativity, encouraging us to explore new horizons, challenge conventions, and envision possibilities beyond the realm of the predictable.”

Student Senate President Abhishek Narahari ’24 shared his appreciation for many aspects of Academy life – including trust among students, commitment to diversity, and willingness to have difficult conversations – and encouraged a continued focus on student wellness and trying new things. “While risks may carry with them the potential for failure, the rewards you will get from them are something you will never reap if you pass up the opportunity.”

'78 Grad Continues to Blaze Trails

By Ted Alcorn '01

Two weeks after crossing the Rocky Mountains by foot, Deborah Cantrell ’78 was still nursing her blistered toes. This July she was perhaps the only law professor to walk the Colorado Trail, a nearly 500-mile trek running east-west across the state. She was almost certainly the only such professor with a splash of rainbow-colored hair.

Deborah is not afraid to stand out. In her years at the Academy, she had little choice — her class was the third to admit girls. The school integrated awkwardly; for example, she recalled how all the female students were placed into a single math class, regardless of level.

But being in a tiny minority among the students had its benefits, too. She walked onto the softball, track, and field hockey teams. And in spite of typical high school-age pressures to conform, she found — and founded — a culture among her peer athletes that celebrated all teammates as they were.

The Academy was intellectually challenging, but most importantly, the school taught her to challenge herself, to truly engage. “I could not get away with being a sloppy thinker,” she said. “I never felt like I was chastised or embarrassed or shamed, but I absolutely felt like I was being called forward to do better, bring more.

“It's not that you have to know what you want to do, because many of us don't,” she said. “The Academy fosters the steadfastness and the willingness to step into uncertainty.”

That practice is apparent in the life Deborah has built in the decades since. After graduating from law school in California and making partner in a firm, she realized her heart was really in public interest work. So she returned to New Mexico to help set up a program to assist seniors around the state with their legal affairs and then ran a large anti-poverty non-profit. The through-line, she said, was her belief in proactively seeking out ways to be of service. “I think lawyers have an obligation to make the effort to find the communities that could benefit from assistance,” she said.

The Academy left a mark on her spirituality, too. A visit Mr. Pennington’s class on world religions took to a Zen monastery helped spark what is now her deep commitment to Buddhist practice. She’s written legal scholarship about the religion, and it also shapes her everyday choices. She believes deeply that even if she can’t change the world, every action she takes, no matter how trivial, has consequences. “I need to live a good life each day, being compassionate, equitable, thoughtful,” she said, whether that is carefully listening to a student or helping someone at the grocery store.

Her month-long walk this summer was a good reminder of this inescapable responsibility. For all the solitude she found in the high mountains, she was also, inevitably, a member of a group of people moving the same direction along the trail. “You are always in community.”

Academy Welcomes Future Chargers at Admission Open House October 22

The Academy will host its annual admission open house on Sunday, October 22, from 12-2 p.m. This is a wonderful opportunity for interested families to explore our campus; meet with faculty, students, and parents; learn about student organizations; enjoy performances; and get details about admission and tuition assistance for the 2024-25 school year!

If your family or a family you know is interested, please share the registration link and plan on attending; reservations for an arrival time slot are required. We would love to meet you on our campus!

Apply now for Fall 2024.

English Teacher to Introduce CliFi Curriculum Following NEH Program

English department member and Academy alum Norah Doss ’08 was one of 25 secondary school teachers selected to participate in the National Endowment for the Humanities’ Climate Futurism program for two weeks over the summer at Sonoma State University.

She and her fellow teachers, representing disciplines that included history, theater, and library science, explored CliFi — or climate fiction — through texts like Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sower, short stories, and theoretical pieces. They also created art, worked through their readings in the theater, and conducted fieldwork at places like the Fairfield Osbourne Preserve, a nature reserve in Sonoma County, California.

“I have been a science fiction fan since I read Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula Le Guin for sophomore summer reading,” says Norah. “Oftentimes, people view science fiction literature as non-academic, but I love how Le Guin talked about science fiction from an anthropological lens.”

Norah plans to teach two of the texts from the institute — MT Anderson’s FEED and Cherie Dimaline’s The Marrow Thieves. “I am also bringing back lots of innovative teaching practices.”

Working with academics from other institutions, including Indiana University, the University of Connecticut, UCLA, and Arizona State, was amazing, she says. "I learned so many relevant teaching strategies. We worked with an art teacher to make stop-motion films; I made a short about a California poppy blooming. We also got to write poetry while in the field, which was a wonderful experience to be by a creek, with newts and fish swimming by.”

Norah has always been interested in environmentalism and the outdoors, so this particular program seemed like a perfect fit.

Part of the charge of the NEH program is to disseminate what participants learned, so she hopes to use the curriculum she’s developing for her students to build reproducible units to present at the National Council for Teachers of English Conference in 2024 and publish it in journals like Climate Lit.

“The sub-genre of CliFi can definitely fit into other popular genres like dystopian fiction, which makes it a particularly high-interest genre for students. Climate fiction also allows environmentalism and future thinking to exist outside of STEM classrooms.”

Academy Student Honored in NPR Podcast Challenge

Sophia Wrobel ‘24 earned an honorable mention in NPR’s Student Podcast Challenge for her podcast, The Perfect Romance Novel. The annual contest invites students to create podcasts and compete for a chance to have their stories featured on NPR.

Sophia, pictured here in the spring musical, has been developing podcasts for several years. They helped serve as outlets for her writing and acting talents during COVID. They also helped her process the chaos brought on by the pandemic.

Sometime last year, her mother, who listens to NPR, introduced her to a podcast challenge they were having. With scholarship opportunities on the radar, Sophia says, “I added it to my list. I had some scripts that I had started but forgot to finish, so I picked a random one and added to it. (I tried to stray away from heavy or deep topics because I had a feeling many of those kinds of stories would be submitted.) I decided to start with a basic "cooking show" format but make it a novel instead.”

Sophia’s teacher and advisor, Karen Glenn, acted as her sponsor for the NPR competition, helping her upload the podcast and serving as her teacher contact. Not expecting an "off the top of my head" podcast to make it to NPR’s honorable mentions, Sophia says it took about five hours to create, and since “my brain tends to move faster than my mouth” she had to re-record it many times.

Listen to Sophia’s podcast, The Perfect Romance Novel.

Get Ready to Reconnect at Alumni Weekend on October 27 & 28

Academy alumni, please join us for a broad range of activities geared toward our alumni and their families. There is something for everyone! Check out the schedule of events. On Friday, alumni are welcome to attend Community Day by offering to share their passion, profession, or hobby with students and attend the Alumni Art Show or the Alumni Awards Dinner. On Saturday, join us for meals throughout the day featuring New Mexico favorites and Charger classics, Bear Canyon hikes, State of the Academy Address and annual Alumni Association meeting, pick up games of basketball, tennis, pickleball, volleyball, and a cross-country run with your family. Come cheer on the Chargers football team as they play the Bernalillo Spartans, watch an evening balloon glow, attend benchmark reunions or an All-Alumni Reception off-campus.

We hope to see you at one of the events! Visit aa.edu/alumni-weekend for complete details and to register for activities with limited availability or that require a ticket and register for Community Day.

Guest Speaker Ignites Discussion on Artificial Intelligence

Days before the school year started, faculty and staff had the opportunity to be students themselves, learning about artificial intelligence from Luyen Chou, an educator, entrepreneur, and technology innovator. “An avalanche is coming,” he told the group.

Like many academic institutions, Albuquerque Academy is exploring the role of artificial intelligence in education. Luyen, who started his career in the early 1990s as a high school history and social studies teacher, and an early pioneer in classroom technology, said that AI technologies like ChatGPT are still in their infancy, and there is no question they will improve quickly over time. Understanding their strengths and weaknesses is important as educators seek to understand the implications of their work with students. “Technology is easy; how we use it is hard.

“The answer isn’t to start an arms race between AI’s and anti-AI AI’s,” he said. “Rather, it’s for educators, and students, to use this moment as an opportunity to rethink the rhythms and rituals of education and to fundamentally improve the ways that we teach students to think and express themselves in a rapidly evolving world.”

Juniors, Seniors Recognized by College Board

Thirty Academy students have earned academic honors from the College Board National Recognition Programs. These National Recognition Programs grant underrepresented students academic honors that can be included on college and scholarship applications and connect students with universities across the country, helping them stand out during the admission process.

Students who may be eligible have a GPA of 3.5 or higher who take AP®, PSAT/NMSQT®, or PSAT™ 10 exams PSAT/NMSQT or PSAT 10 exams and are African American or Black, Hispanic or Latino, Indigenous or Native, or attend school in a rural area or small town.

See the full list of honorees here.

Academy Wins NMAA Director’s Cup for Fifth Straight Year

Albuquerque Academy has been awarded the New Mexico Activities Association 4A Director’s Cup for the 15th time since its inception in 2005 and for the fifth consecutive year. “It should not be a surprise,” says Athletic Director Taryn Bachis, “with as many championships we competed in. In fact, we had the most points overall, regardless of class.”

Read the news story for more.

9th Graders and New Chargers Tackle the Wilderness

The experiential education department (Ex Ed) started the year with four 9th-grade trips exploring several different areas – the South San Juans of Colorado, Cruces Basin, and the Latir Mountains in northern New Mexico. “This was the students’ capstone Ex Ed experience – they camped, cooked, traveled, tried to avoid the rain, and finished the week a little more self-reliant than when they started,” says Department Chair Sarah Councell. And new 10-12 students got the opportunity to experience an Ex Ed trip, traveling into Bear Canyon for their first Academy overnight.

For more information about the Ex Ed program, including wilderness first aid courses, visit the experiential education webpage.