Dear Friends of Sewickley Academy,
As we look back at the past year and contemplate all that our students, faculty, and staff achieved, we are mindful that they did not succeed on their own. They were supported, as they have been over the years, by the many benefactors whose generosity ensures that learning is supported and the foundations for future dreams are laid.
During the 2016-2017 school year, we dedicated the Events Center and rededicated the Means Alumni Gym, dramatically visible signs of the community’s support of our students and their teachers. We celebrated Dr. Bevan Koch, now our Director of Teaching & Learning, as the 14th Clark Faculty Chair honoree, and honored Joe Jackson, esteemed dance teacher, as a Simmons Family Chair for Excellence in Teaching. We also welcomed Dr. Peter Lau as the sixth Head of Senior School.
We cheered on our athletic teams, which racked up amazing seasons: the boys varsity soccer team won the WPIAL Championship and made it to the finals of the PIAA tournament for the fifth straight year; the boys varsity golf team captured a fourth straight WPIAL title; the boys varsity basketball team won both the WPIAL and PIAA Championships, and coach Win Palmer was named the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s Coach of the Year; and the boys varsity tennis team captured both the WPIAL and PIAA Championships.
The year also allowed us to honor alumna Beth (Richardson ’60) Clements, who writes under the name Beth Gutcheon, the author of 10 (and counting!) remarkable novels, with an induction into the Academy’s Distinguished Alumni Hall of Fame.
In June, as we bid farewell to the Class of 2017, we did so marveling at the list of colleges and universities they are now attending and the over $5.2 million in scholarship support they were collectively awarded. While we always miss our graduates, we look with pride at all they have accomplished and reflect with wonder on who they will become.
Prizes, awards, milestones aplenty, but in the end, we know a Sewickley Academy education is actually more profound. At its core, it is rooted in the relationship between a student and a teacher, the former eager to learn and grow and the latter seeking ways to promote and support that learning. As each of us reflects on all that we have achieved and the difference that our teachers made in our lives, we are reminded of how essential and important education is to a life well lived. With the generous support of all of the many individuals, foundations, and corporations listed in the pages that follow, Sewickley Academy has been able to support the journey of our students, from the moment they arrive on campus to the moment they pass through these doors into a future full of possibilities. Our students are on their way to becoming their best, most authentic selves; young men and women who have a sense of their power to contribute to, and make a difference in, the world. Your gifts to the Academy makes this all possible.
Thanks to all for your amazing and inspiring generosity.
Warmly,
Kolia O’Connor
Head of School
