Letter from Mr. Peterson

February 21, 2012

Dear Parents,

This is my last letter until we return to school on March 12th following our spring break. I will be chaperoning an exciting Upper School adventure to China, which departs RDU early Sunday morning and returns twelve days later on March 8th. Eight students from our Upper School will join Eric Wintersteen and me on this trip that starts in Beijing before we fly to Chengdu where we will spend an entire week at our partner school, Chengdu Experimental Foreign Language School West Campus. The excursion to China is one of five trips offered to our students this year as part of Off Campus Education Week. The others include trips to Washington DC, New York City, Boston, and a trip that will visit eight colleges in and around North Carolina. Other students will be doing interesting internships in town and elsewhere.

Schools usually flourish with significant and/or culminating school activities in the spring, and our students are already bursting forth with amazing shows of effort and success. This past weekend was an Oakwood “slam dunk.” On Saturday morning, Oakwood eighth graders and high school students from other schools participated in our Oakwood Merit Scholars Competition. Saturday afternoon and into the evening, our basketball teams competed for league championships at Faith Christian Academy in Rocky Mount. And on Sunday, students from all the grades showcased their artistic accomplishments at the Annual Oakwood School Art Show at the Greenville Museum of Art. I was fortunate to be able to attend these events and by Sunday afternoon, I was chock-full with Oakwood pride.

This year’s Oakwood Scholars Competition brought together twenty-one Oakwood eighth graders and non-Oakwood eighth graders or high school students to compete for merit scholarships to our Upper School. Students had submitted their academic transcripts and teacher recommendations prior to Saturday morning. Saturday, they convened at the Upper School to write contemplative essays and interview with Paula Shelton, Tom Feldbush, and Gene Foster (Oakwood students) or with Michelle Graziosi, Jennifer Smith, and Catherine Allen (non-Oakwood students). Paula, Tom, and Gene, all local residents who do not have students at the school, donated their time to conduct the interviews because they care greatly about education and Oakwood. Paula worked in higher education at both Eastern Michigan University and Kent State University before moving to eastern North Carolina five years ago. Tom is a former science professor at ECU. Gene is deeply involved in the local Kiwanis Club, which sponsors our Key Club at Oakwood. We are indebted to each of them for giving willingly of their time to help the school identify qualified scholars for our Oakwood Merit Scholarship program. Gerry Prokopowicz, an ECU history professor and author of several books, will grade the student essays that are marked with numbers instead of names. I thoroughly enjoyed greeting students and meeting with parents and watching the event flawlessly unfold. Louise Haney does an outstanding job running the competition, and each year we grant several scholarships to outstanding young people as a result of this initiative.

Another highlight of the weekend was traveling to Rocky Mount and to The Faith Christian School, which hosted the CPIC Basketball Championships. Saturday was a busy day for four Oakwood teams that had reached the championship round. The JV Girls, JV Boys, and Varsity Girls played their hearts out but fell to worthy opponents. The Boys’ Varsity team, however, came home with the championship trophy defeating the number one ranked small independent school in the state, Greenfield. This marked the first time Oakwood had ever defeated Greenfield, and what a game it was! Oakwood scored a beautiful basket at the buzzer to push the game to overtime when we rallied from a deficit to pull off a 62 – 60 stunner! I congratulate all our basketball players for representing Oakwood so well at the CPIC Championships and throughout the season. Our students are excellent athletes and excellent sportswomen and sportsmen who work long hours all winter to perfect their individual and team games often during late hour practices. Our coaches, Steve Branch and Shawn Moore, do an excellent job training our players and emphasizing team play and team spirit and our students benefit enormously from their patience, guidance, and expertise. This evening, we have the opportunity to cheer on both the Girls and the Boys Varsity teams when they play in the first round of the States on our home court. I hope that many of you will come out to support our 4th ranked girls and boys teams as they attempt to move one step closer to the state championship.

The Arts Department hosted an opening reception of the Oakwood Annual Art Show at the Greenville Museum of Art Sunday afternoon. Every student who takes a studio art class at Oakwood had a work of art on display in the second floor galleries at the Museum. I so enjoyed viewing every student masterpiece before listening to some of our outstanding student musicians sing or play an instrument at the reception. Nancy Winn and Cindy Reed have mounted a truly magnificent art show, one that I urge every parent to view. I am deeply grateful to our art teachers for their work with your children and to Erin Scully who organized the music portion of the reception. The Oakwood Art Show truly showcases the enormous artistic talents of our students.

I hope to see many of you later tonight in The Monk Family Gymnasium for the first round of the Basketball State Tournament. The contests start at 5:30 pm with the girls’ game, and the boys’ game follows. I also want to remind all of our Lower School parents of the Transition Night planned on your behalf this Thursday evening in Founders’ Hall.

I wish all of you a relaxing and happy spring break, and I look forward to sharing with you the wonders of China upon our return to school on March 12th.