Achievements

Faculty and Staff Achievements/Professional Development

Sonoma Academy faculty are highly qualified educators —86% have either a masters degree or a Ph.D. Just as important, they are active members of their respective fields. Below are some highlights of their accomplishments.

Arts

During the 2002-2003 school year, visual arts teacher Hillary Younglove artwork was featured in a San Francisco art show as well as in a six-page magazine spread in Arise Magazine.

Fellowships and Grants

World language teacher Carmen Brant was awarded a summer ’04 fellowship from the National Endowment for the Humanities. She studied Don Quixote for six weeks at Binghamton University in New York.

Published articles

Siobhan Scarry’s short story “Acres” was published in the Greensboro Review in 2005, and her prose poem “Pieta” appeared in Five Fingers Review. Two of her prose poems were published in 2004: " St. John's Parish, Bronx" in Mid-American Review and "The Orpheus House" in jubilat. She is also the author of the. Instructor's Manual to accompany The Writer's Workplace--a 200-page instructor's manual to the college composition textbook series.

Math-science teachers Lisa Schmitt and Sam Horton co-authored an article published in Science Teacher, a publication of the National Science Teachers Association in 2003-4. The article, entitled “Smath” presented Sonoma Academy’s unique three-year integrated math-science curriculum.

Humanities teacher Brandon Spars published an article in the Berkeley Research Journal of South and Southeast Asian Studies entitled “Stages of Change: the Changing Role of the Audience in Balinese Ritual Drama.”

Visual Arts teacher Hilary Younglove authored “The Virtual Global Gallery: an Online Meeting Place for Student Art and Ideas,” in The NAIS Magazine Independent School in 2002-3.

Hillary Younglove has had her artwork selected as cover illustrations for three books -- Remarkable History of the Scientific Theory Evolution by Edward J. Larson, published by Random House, Days of Awe, published by Ballantine Books and a third book published by Kensington Books.

Conference presentations

Humanities teacher Siobhan Scarry presented a paper on “Willa Cather’s My Antonia and Critical Responses to her Work” at the Rocky Mountain Modern Language Association’s conference in 2004-5.

Math-science teachers Lisa Schmitt and Sam Horton have presented the math-science program at the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics conference in Salt Lake City in 2003-4 and for two consecutive years at the National Science Teacher's conference in Philadelphia.

Humanities teachers Jamie Murray presented a paper, “Startup.Edu,” at the Hawaii International Conference for the Arts and Humanities in 2001-2. The presentation highlighted the creative energy needed to found an independent school.

Humanities teacher Brandon Spars participated in roundtable discussions on human rights and how to integrate them into the high school curriculum and school activities at the Western Regional Amnesty International Conference in Salt Lake City in November of 2004.

Other

In summer of 2004, world language teacher Anne Guével-Goldstone taught Sonoma Academy’s first English as a Second Language (ESL) program. A group of six students came to Santa Rosa from France to spend a month learning the language and the culture.

Humanities teacher Marco Morrone has been both a lead reader and a table leader for the grading of AP English Literature exams in June. He has been selected to be a grader for the AP exams for nine straight years.