February 2020 News

Team Places First in Japan Olympiad of Indiana for Third Straight Year

Monday, February 24, 2020

The team from the Indiana Academy placed first at the Japan Olympiad of Indiana, held at Purdue University on Saturday, February 22. This is the third consecutive year in which the Indiana Academy has placed first. Ms. Clara Chi, the team sponsor, said “In the championship round our team members were not only lightning fast in raising their hand, they knew obscure facts in areas such as Japanese geography and history. They attended every weekly practice the past two months, and put in hours outside of practice times. Their dedication, hard work, and stellar teamwork led them to easily dominate the competition.”

The Indiana Academy Level II team includes seniors Mary Wilson (captain), Brandon Kem, Maggie Dong, and alternate Kylie Wilson. Special thanks also go to senior Allie Foury for volunteering her time to help quiz the team at weekly practices.

Science Olympiad Team Advances to State

Wednesday, February 12, 2020

On Saturday, February 8, the Academy Science Olympiad team traveled to the Regional round of competition in Bloomington. The team won medals in twelve events, finished third overall, and qualified to advance to the state tournament.

Competing for the Academy were Carlie Butler, Lehan Hu, Komal Kumar, Evy Lee, Bony Li, Nichole Nguyen, Derek Park, Grace Reynolds, Kavin Saravanan, Abbi Smith, Maddy Witt, Robert Xu, Anna Yang, and Zhiyu Zhang. Mr. Mike Mayfield, Mr. Josh Ruark, and Ms. Heather Rogers accompanied the team.

Congratulations to all! The state tournament will be held in Lafayette on Saturday, March 21.

2020 National Merit Finalists

Monday, February 10, 2020

Congratulations to the following seniors who have been named Finalists in the National Merit Scholarship Program:

Amy Ciceu
Lucille Cochard
Komal Kumar

Academy Instructor’s Film Wins at Canadian Festival

Wednesday, December 11, 2019

Congratulations to David Haynes, Instructor of English at the Indiana Academy, for his second short film Base Camp being awarded Best International Short Film at the Rio Grind Film Festival, in Vancouver, Canada.

Mr. Haynes’ first film, Break My Bones, was also featured at several film festivals.

Rising Stars of Indiana Class of 2021

Monday, November 25, 2019

The Indiana Association of School Principals (IASP) recently announced the Rising Stars of Indiana Class of 2020. Each Indiana high school was invited to recognize up to four students currently in the 11th grade, based on their academic achievement.

Students recognized from the Indiana Academy are:

Lehan Hu
Corrine Meier
Shivali Singireddy
Josie Stevenson

The Indiana Academy, along with IASP, congratulates these students on all they have already achieved, as well as offering support and encouragement as they continue their accomplishments and expand their knowledge, growth and leadership skills well into the future.

Academy Instructors Receive Bell Education Grants

Wednesday, November 20, 2019

The following Academy instructors received a Robert P. Bell Education grant from the Community Foundation of Muncie and Delaware County Inc.:

• Tom Arnold – $238.04 (Election of 1896 Posters)
• John Marsh – $450 (Build an Escape Room)
• Stephanie Nagelkirk – $356.29 (Harlem Renaissance Party)
• Evan Ward – $108 (Ancient & Medieval Medicine Science Fair)

Each of these instructors has been awarded a similar grant in the past, and we are proud of their continued efforts in securing funding for innovative projects for our students.

Fourteenth Annual Harlem Renaissance Party

Tuesday, November 12, 2019

On Monday, November 11, Stephanie Nagelkirk’s African-American Literature class hosted its fourteenth annual Harlem Renaissance Party. The party is the culmination of a research project where students choose a figure from this pivotal time in history and portray that person for the evening.

A class-only dinner was followed by a public show, featuring students portraying such artists as Jelly Roll Morton, Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, Zora Neale Hurston, Duke Ellington, Jessie Redmon Fauset, and others. Performances ranged from vocal solos and instrumental pieces to dramatic readings and speech excerpts.

Ms. Nagelkirk uses the Harlem Renaissance party and performances as a novel way to engage students with a part of history and culture with which most traditional literature classes would be unfamiliar.

Academy Partners with Earlham College for Japanese Exchange Visit

Tuesday, October 22, 2019

The Indiana Academy will host a group of Japanese visitors October 28-November 4. This will be our first time hosting this Japanese group in partnership with Earlham College. There are hopes this could grow into a regular event, with a possibility of future exchange opportunities as well. As hosts, we will guide our visitors, teach them about our school and share our culture. Our visitors will teach us origami and the possibility of a traditional Japanese dance performance is also being discussed. The delegation consists of nine Japanese students and three chaperones. They are joining us from Morioka and Tanohata schools, located within the Iwate Prefecture.

History Professor Publishes and Speaks

Saturday, September 28, 2019

Dr. Daniel Vandersommers, Assistant Teaching Professor of History at the Indiana Academy, has published his first book. Zoo Studies: A New Humanities, coedited with Tracy McDonald, is an original and groundbreaking work that will change the way readers see nonhuman animals and themselves. More information about the book is available here.

In addition, Dr. Vandersommers was the keynote speaker at the 2019 CAZA (Canada’s Accredited Zoos and Aquariums) conference in Calgary on Friday, September 27. He gave a speech titled “Toward Ecological Futures: Zoo Conservation and Embracing Narratives of Entanglement.” CAZA is committed to the advancement of accredited zoos and aquariums as humane agencies of animal welfare, conservation, science and education.

English Instructor Publishes Game Research Paper

Thursday, August 1, 2019

Dr. Phillip Lobo, Instructor of English at the Indiana Academy, published an article in the spring issue of Game Studies, the international journal of computer game research titled “Novel Subjects: Robinson Crusoe & Minecraft and the Production of Sovereign Selfhood.” The article performs a comparative analysis of Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe and the Mojang game Minecraft to demonstrate “how video games have taken up the torch of realism, both clarifying this underlying urge to make of novels a kind of game-of-self, as well as pointing to problematic qualities of the subjects they form and inform.”

You can read Dr. Lobo’s article here.