Twenty Seniors Recognized by the National Merit Scholarship Competition
Twelve seniors were named semifinalists. Congrats to Adi Duggal, Anna Kunkel, Ahalya Nambiar, Nick Patel, Evelyn Quint, Nicholas Roblyer, Sydney Schneider, Sophia Schuermeyer, Kyle Wang, Brett Woffington, Keliang Yao, and Andrew Zhou.
Eight students were named National Merit Commended Scholars. Congrats to Michaela Atkinson, Daniel Choi, Abby Deimling, Evie Ferguson, Ethan Hu, Everett Rinaldi, Josie Schneider, and Tony Wang.
Seven Hills Ranked #1 by Niche
Seven Hills is pleased to announce Niche has ranked Seven Hills #1 Best Private K-12 School, #1 Best Private High School, #1 Best College Prep Private High School, and #1 Best High School for STEM in the Cincinnati Area for 2025.
Niche is the largest data-driven website for researching and ranking K-12 schools in national, state, and local categories using statistical data from the U.S. Department of Education and the National Center for Education Statistics.
Seven Hills was also ranked #2 Best Private K-12 School and #3 Best Private High School in Ohio.
Seven Hills Named to AP School Honor Roll as a Platinum School
The Seven Hills School has been named to the Advanced Placement School Honor Roll as a Platinum school.
The AP School Honor Roll recognizes schools whose AP Programs are delivering results for students while broadening their access to AP courses by increasing a college-going culture and the opportunities to earn college credit and maximizing college readiness. The AP School Honor Roll offers four levels of distinction with Platinum being the highest.
"I'd like to congratulate our Upper Schoolers for their hard work and thank our stellar teachers for combining their expertise in their subject areas with a deep commitment to their students," Head of School Matt Bolton said.
Twenty-Nine Seniors Inducted into the Seven Hills Scholars Society
In November, 29 members of the Class of 2025 were inducted into the Seven Hills Scholars Society.
The Seven Hills Scholars Society is closely tied to the Seven Hills values and honors students for meeting requirements in GPA, community service hours, class participation, and Challenge Experiences. The program replaced the Cum Laude Society during the 2023-24 school year.
BLINK Artist Visited Doherty Kindergarten
Doherty kindergartner Remy Milz brought his family friend, artist Alan Marrero, to campus to tell students about his installation at BLINK. Marrero's installation “When Pigs Fly” hung in Piatt Park during the festival. Marrero described how he made the flying pigs with translucent resin and real feathers and how he made them into lights.
Kindness and Diwali at Doherty
For the November monthly assembly, Doherty students in kindergarten through fifth grade discussed the Seven Hills value of kindness and learned about Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights. Multiple Doherty students and parents shared how they celebrate Diwali with their families before leading everyone in a Diwali dance. In their Hives, the students wrote and decorated thank you cards to send to veterans on Veterans’ Day with the older students showing their kindness by helping the younger ones.
Unit I Learned about Animals from Snake Ambassador
Doherty’s resident snake ambassador William Snakespeare, a ball python who lives in the science classroom, helped Unit I learn about animals. As part of their lesson on different types of animal skin, fur, feathers, and scales, the students in Robin Taylor-Fabe’s science class got to pet William Snakespeare and recorded their observation in their journals as William Snakespeare slithered around the classroom, under the close supervisor of Taylor-Fabe.
Meet William Snakespeare:
Upper Schoolers taught Lotspeich Students about Computer Science
During Lotspeich’s Hour of Code, third graders learned the basics of coding while fourth graders learned about the foundations of AI and how it can use multiple factors to determine its next “move.” The Upper School’s computer science students helped the Lower School students understand coding through games and activities. Third graders were told to give directions on how to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, an activity that showed students the importance of writing specific instructions as their code. Fourth graders battled AI during games of tic-tac-toe and gained some insight into the strengths and limitations of AI.
Morning with the Bridges
In December, Lotspeich second graders proudly hosted Morning with the Bridges, an event where they showcased their recreated models of bridges from around the world. The project was the culmination of weeks filled with engaging lessons on bridge construction, geography, and more. With enthusiasm and creativity, the students took on the roles of architects and engineers, researching and recreating their bridge models.
Friends, family members, and teachers gathered in Founders Hall to celebrate their hard work.
During the event, the young architects presented their creations with confidence, sharing the stories behind their chosen bridges and explaining the inspiration and thought process that went into their designs.
Hives Fostered Multigrade Friendships and Student Leadership
Through monthly get togethers, Lower School students built friendships across grade levels, fostered a sense of belonging and identity in their school community, and worked on community service projects together in their Hives.
The Hives are multiage buddy groups with students in kindergarten through fifth grade, each with their own name and color.
Lotspeich introduced Hives this year and all students were sorted with a celebration on the Upper Field.
Doherty began Hives three years ago and welcomed kindergartners into their Hives with confetti and dancing.
Under the leadership of the fifth graders, the Doherty and Lotspeich Hives have played games to get to know their Hives members, had friendly board game competitions, tie-dyed T-shirts, and made new friends.
Sixth Graders Produced Insects Skits
During Creepy Critter Day, sixth graders, along with their parents, wrote, designed, and performed skits about insects with props, costumes, and face paint. The student and parent teams were randomly assigned an insect the sixth graders had learned about and had a limited time to create their skits, including facts about their insect, its habitat, and its predators.
Seventh Grade Battled Robots
In early October, seventh graders put their Sumo-bots’ skills to the test against their classmates during the Innovation Lab’s Exploring Computer Science Sumo-bot Competition.
For several weeks leading up to the competition, students worked in groups to program remote-controlled Sumo-bots.
Teams coded a transmitter and a receiver and had the option to build attachments for their robots.
During the competition, students had to push their opponent’s robot outside of the arena to win the round.
The top three teams were awarded laser-printed trophies, which did not impact their final grade.
Sixth Graders Explored Books at Carnival
Sixth graders had fun exploring literary genres while playing carnival games during the fourth annual Sixth Grade Library Carnival. Games included Connect Four, a modified dart game, and a fishing game. After completing a game, students were given a genre of books to look through and select ones to potentially check out.
“We wanted students to discover new genres or authors they might not have otherwise leaned toward. While the students enjoyed playing the games, they were also introduced to different types of books,” Upper and Middle School head librarian Megan Whitt said.
Upper School Hosted Danish Students
In November, the Upper School hosted 10 students and two teachers from Høje-Taastrup Gymnasium in Taastrup, outside of Copenhagen, Denmark. The Danish students stayed with Upper Schoolers and attended classes with them during the week. On their first day at school, they were welcomed during the all-school assembly and shared their first impressions of the United States. Able to witness the 2024 Presidential Election, the Danish students and their teachers took part in the Post Election Day International Discussion with a group of Seven Hills students and the Upper School history department.
Juniors Took on Puritan Commandments
Juniors in Beth Driehaus’ A.P. U.S. history class wrote their own version of the Puritan Commandments after learning about documentary sources. The students debated what should be included in the commandments based on what they had learned about the Puritans, who lived in Colonial America.
AP Physics Students Build and Test Cars
Students in Lenore Horner’s AP Physics class tested the cars they built in teams to see if they were able to successfully convert gravitational potential energy into enough motion to get their cars to move down the science hallway.
The students built the cars out of wood and used weights on a pulley and string to propel the cars. They had to consider the stability of their cars, the friction between the wheels and the floor, and how the diameter of the pulley is related to the wheels.
“The important aspect of any building project is to highlight the gap between simple models we teach that make for nice calculations and reality, as well as the gap between the way you imagined something being built and how accurately you can accomplish that,” Horner said.
Boys Golf Reached State Tournament
The boys varsity golf team reached the state tournament for the fifth consecutive year. The team finished fifth overall with senior Billy Good finishing in the top 20. The Stingers finished second at the district tournament and were sectional champions with sophomore Matia Kastner (pictured left) winning the tournament and senior William Hartmann finishing third.
Boys Soccer’s Impressive Post-Season Run
The boys varsity soccer had an impressive run in the postseason becoming district champions after defeating Williamsburg 6-0 and Troy Christian 1-0. The Stingers beat Botkins 2-0 and reached the finals of the regional tournament. Junior Harrison Zhang scored in both games.
Unit I Recited Poetry
As part of their performance for their guests on Special Persons’ Day, Doherty Unit I students recited poetry. Working in pairs and small groups, the students memorized the poems, learned the rhythm and voice, and practiced their performances before the big day.
Middle School Performed “Back to the 80s”
The Middle School cast and crew of “Back to the 80s” time traveled with its audience to 40 years into the past without ever leaving The Schiff Center. In a show filled with heart, laughter, and adventure, students showcased a wide variety of skills and theatrical prowess from helping with set construction, managing light cues, acting in multiple roles, and more.