Ashley Hall students continue to distinguish themselves on the stage and in the studio, earning recognition at the local, state, and even national level for their remarkable musical talents. Whether composing original works, performing in elite ensembles, or receiving prestigious certifications, our students are rising stars in the world of music—and they’re doing it with grace, dedication, and heart. 

Music lessons are offered as an extracurricular option at Ashley Hall, and the number of students choosing to pursue private instruction is growing. This year, the results speak volumes—not only in accolades but in the passion and discipline our musicians bring to their craft. 

All-State Orchestra Honors

After an incredibly competitive audition process, three middle school students earned their place in the South Carolina Music Educators Association 6–8th Grade All-State Orchestra:

• Sky Malloy ’28 (cello)
• Ruby Ghatnekar ’29 (violin)
• Adya Sharma ’29 (cello)

These talented young musicians spent a weekend in Spartanburg rehearsing with top student musicians from across the state, culminating in a powerful full-orchestra performance under the baton of a renowned conductor. Special thanks to their private lesson teachers—Zoe Walker, Aubrey Goio, and Cameron Williams—for helping them prepare for this honor.

Royal Conservatory of Music Recognition

Congratulations to Pearson James ’34, who earned a Royal Conservatory State Certificate of Excellence in piano—an Ashley Hall first! Pearson’s dedication and artistry were celebrated at a Lower School Assembly this year.

Also deserving applause is Beatrice Watson ’31, who received the highest mark in South Carolina for Level 2 Piano from the Royal Conservatory of Music.

Carnegie Hall Appearance

A special bravo to Adya Sharma ’29, who recently performed at Carnegie Hall with the Charleston Symphony Youth Orchestra (CSYO). Sharma has been an active CSYO member and string quartet performer, joining the orchestra onstage alongside the College of Charleston Orchestra and the Charleston Symphony Orchestra—an ensemble that includes several of Ashley Hall’s own string faculty members: Ben Weiss (viola), Frances Hsieh (violin), and Maggie Gould (violin).

Charleston Achievement Day Accolades

Seventeen Ashley Hall pianists participated in the Charleston Music Teachers Association’s Achievement Day at Charleston Southern University this March. This event challenges young musicians to showcase their skills in performance, technique, sight reading, and music theory. Ellie Murphy ’32 was named an alternate for her level and recognized in the Honors Recital program. Sriya Banik ’30 received the Crescendo Award and a trophy for consistently high scores. Thanks to our outstanding piano faculty—Anna Brock, Dan McCurry, Jan Smith, and Dr. Sooyun Yun—for their mentorship.

Charleston Achievement Day Participants:

• Naomi Grek ’33
• Sophie Deupree ’35
• Charlotte Deupree ’33
• Katie Solomon ’34
• Ellie Murphy ’32
• Sriya Banik ’30
• Jaalah Brown ’26
• Lucy David ’28
• Ella Donohoe ’31
• Annie Donohoe ’33
• Emilia Goodwin ’32
• Elly Middleton ’33
• Madeleine Kopf ’29
• Rhetta Lowndes ’31
• Sidney James ’36
• Pearson James ’34
• Suzanne Groat ’27

Composition Competition Triumphs

Our students aren’t just performing—they’re creating. This year saw an impressive sweep across composition contests, from local to international stages.

Highlights include:

Charlotte Deupree ’33, whose original work “Night Waves” won 1st place in the NFMC Junior Composers Contest (South Carolina), Winner in the Southeast Regional round, and Winner of the South Carolina Music Teachers Association Composition Competition (Elementary Solo). She also received Honorable Mention in the International Piano Composition Contest.

Naomi Grek ’33 composed “Bunny Rabbit Hare,” which placed 2nd in the Charleston Sonatina Festival, won in the International Piano Composition Contest, and received Honorable Mention in the Piano Inspires Kids Magazine “Movie Score” Contest.

Eleanor Gilliespie ’35 earned Runner-Up in the SCMTAC Composition Competition (Elementary Solo) for “The Cave.”

Camila Zuniga ’28 was named Runner-Up in the Piano Inspires Kids Magazine “Movie Score” Contest (13–15 age group) for her piece “Mysteries.”

We are incredibly proud of these students—and the dedicated faculty who guide them—for representing Ashley Hall with such talent and determination. Their achievements show just how far music can take you when passion meets opportunity.

Bravo to all!

Rooted in inquiry-based learning and transdisciplinary exploration, the PYP empowers and invites students to be active participants in their own educational journey. In our recent Perspectives feature, we introduced readers to the IB framework and its impact on student learning. Now, we invite you to take a deeper dive, pun intended, into one vivid example: the Third Grade Biome Project.

Exploring “How We Organize Ourselves” Through Oceans

This year’s third grade students embarked on a powerful exploration under the PYP transdisciplinary theme “How We Organize Ourselves,” centering on the central idea: “Interactions between the natural world and human societies impact biomes.”

Through an inquiry lens, students investigated:

• Relationships within a biome
• How biomes sustain themselves
• The impacts humans have on these systems

After exploring a variety of global biomes, the class unanimously chose to focus on oceans—a rich, complex ecosystem teeming with life and deeply influenced by human activity.

Integrating Art, Science, Language, and Movement

This ocean biome study was not confined to textbooks or single-subject classrooms. In true IB fashion, it became a multidisciplinary, immersive experience that spanned the entire campus:

Art 

Students studied the work of Courtney Mattison, a renowned artist and ocean advocate. Inspired by her sculptures and mission, students reflected on the role of advocacy. Their voices were poignant:

“She’s translating what the coral reef needs.” – Amélie

“An advocate is a politician for the ocean…not making laws, but encouraging people to care.” – Olive

From these reflections, students began to understand their own roles as stewards and communicators of environmental responsibility.

STEAM Lab

With creativity and engineering at the helm, students constructed a detailed, walk-through installation of the ocean zones. The lab transformed into an underwater world featuring:

• A 3-D coral reef and underwater volcano
• Giant squid and a cookiecutter shark
• Hanging jellies, plastic bottle trash, and pufferfish 
• A stop-motion film depicting the human impact on the ocean

These tactile experiences made abstract scientific concepts tangible and memorable.

Movement and Music

In dance class, students listened to ocean-inspired compositions and created interpretive dances to express their emotional responses. Music and French classes added another sensory layer, where students created original ocean soundscapes and stop-motion films narrated en français.

Bringing It All Together

The project culminated in a full-room installation, a fully immersive experience. Students guided visitors through and excitedly explained which parts they worked on, why they made the choices they did, and how it all came together for them. Through movement, sound, visuals, and conversation, guests were invited to “jump into the water” and reflect on their own relationship with the ocean.

The Ocean Biome Project exemplifies what the IB PYP does best: it fosters curious thinkers, creative problem solvers, compassionate communicators, and globally minded citizens. By combining academic depth with expressive freedom, the project helped students understand their world better, gather context on their role in what they were studying and organically present ways to improve it. 

As one student so wisely put it: “The ocean can’t talk, but it can wave!” – Caroline T.

During the 2024–25 school year, Ashley Hall’s long-standing Pop Tab Collection initiative experienced a meaningful transformation as it aligned with the School’s United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UNSDG) project. The project invited students in Grades 1–12 to see a familiar activity in a new light, as the school community collectively focused on Goal #3: Good Health and Well-Being, to ensure healthy lives and promote well-being.

With the added context, the Pop Tab Collection project took on renewed purpose. Students gathered the aluminum tabs from beverage cans to benefit Charleston’s Ronald McDonald House, helping offset operational expenses through recycling revenue. While small, these pop tabs add up quickly—over 1,200 make a pound—and are far easier to clean and store than full cans, making the campaign both manageable and effective.

Tyler Moseley, Community Partnerships and Global Education Coordinator, shared her enthusiasm for the initiative’s evolution, noting that the UNSDG connection offered students a deeper global context: “Through the UNSDG filter, we’re able to give our students a global perspective and also help them understand that small actions within their community can have real impacts. That’s what the UNSDGs are all about—concrete ways to make the world a better place.”

This year’s program also benefited from the enthusiastic involvement of the Big Sister Little Sister program, which added a collaborative and competitive spirit to the effort. Upper School students teamed up with their younger “Littles” to collect tabs together, sparking cross-divisional camaraderie and grade-level challenges that boosted participation across the Lower School.

By linking a well-known tradition to a globally recognized goal, Ashley Hall gave new meaning to a beloved service activity. The 2024–25 Pop Tab Collection was a powerful example of how small, everyday actions, when framed by broader values, can become transformative educational experiences.

Looking ahead to the 2025–26 school year, Ashley Hall is excited to expand this work by taking a more holistic and integrated approach to the UNSDGs. With an eye toward exploring the interconnectedness of the goals, the school community plans to broaden its lens, encouraging students to examine how health, sustainability, equity, and innovation can intersect in meaningful ways. This widened focus will continue to empower students to think critically, act locally, and engage globally in making positive change.

The holidays are often associated with presents, and retailers have been pushing this message for months. But for the Ashley Hall community, this time of year is not about receiving. It’s about giving.

Every December for over two decades, Ashley Hall has partnered with Chicora Elementary School in North Charleston to spread the joy of the season with its 330 students. Known as the Chicora Gift-Giving Project, this tradition is marked by various holiday assemblies throughout campus and the donation of hundreds of gifts from the School community. But this year, students were reminded that this Ashley Hall tradition is not one of collecting gifts, but one of human connection, thanks to a very special visit by Chicora educator and alumna Elizabeth Blackman ’25.

On November 30, Blackman returned to campus to speak with Upper School students about the Chicora Gift-Giving Project, beginning with how much it has grown since her time as a student at Ashley Hall. “[The Chicora Gift-Giving Project] has changed tremendously over the years in the best way,” Blackman said. “I remember bringing our gifts and it would be one Barbie doll or a soccer ball. Now there are coats, shoes, anything that you can imagine being brought in to give to our students at Chicora.”

Today, donations are specifically curated to meet the needs of individual students at Chicora. Blackman works with classroom teachers beginning in November to build a wishlist for every child in grades 1-5. From clothing and toothbrushes to toys and books, donations are then collected and organized into special red Santa bags labeled with a child’s name that will be taken home at Christmas.

During her visit, Blackman gave students not only a better understanding of the gift-giving program, but, perhaps most importantly, of her students. “Over 90% of our students in first through fifth grades are living at or below poverty level,” shared Blackman, who spearheads the Chicora Gift-Giving Project with Ashley Hall Board of Trustee member and former Early School Director Dana Van Hook. “So they have some struggles, but when they come to school, it’s a different time to shine.”

Blackman went on to share just how much students at Chicora are indeed shining, noting that test scores throughout all grade levels have improved, and the school has recently allocated a new educator to support newly identified gifted and talented students at Chicora. Academics aside, Blackman shared just how similar her students are to those at Ashley Hall, whether it be a love for music or passion for becoming a leader, to highlight the true spirit of the season which is connecting with one another.

“The students of Ashley Hall and Chicora are not so different,” Blackman said. “We’re connected by dreams, by hopes, and we’re connected by the inherent worth of ourselves. Each child, regardless of their background, is full potential. And it’s our responsibility to nurture and support that potential. So in the spirit of the season, let us not only provide material gifts, but the gift of understanding compassion and empathy and kindness.”

Here are a few more powerful messages Blackman shared with students this holiday season:

Donations to Chicora Go Far Beyond Gifts

“I wanted to talk a little bit about the bags and that go to our students. The bags not only offer gifts, but they offer security and consistency for some of our students. Security and consistency are two things that a lot of Chicora students do not have at home. So every year, especially the ones who’ve been there since first grade, they look forward to these bags. They know what is coming. These bags mean more than just a toy.”

The Similarities Between Us

“I want to share some remarkable similarities that exist between our students and you, despite the apparent differences that you may have in your daily lives. At Ashley Hall and Chicora, you’re going to see students hard at work, excelling in some areas, struggling in others. You’re gonna see art displayed. You’re going to hear singing. I heard the chorus in here earlier. It was great. We have a chorus as well. And you’re also going to hear instruments. While you might hear violins here at Ashley Hall, at Chicora, you would hear steel drums. And in both the hallways at Ashley Hall and Chicora, you’re going to hear laughter, see friendships bloom, and see the curiosity that fuels the pursuit of knowledge. These are some of the universal traits that go beyond the boundaries of socioeconomic status.”

A Growing Community of Leaders

“Our biggest thing right now is something called Chicora Changers. It started last year and these students were selected because of their leadership skills, their great behavior, and their major potential that they have. So these students work to provide community service within our community within our school. They have to get a certain amount of hours, and then at the end of the year, they are rewarded with a trip to Disney.”

On Sunday, September 10, nearly 40 Ashley Hall students, faculty, and family members braved the heat and traffic to Wannamaker Park to participate in the Walk to Fight Hunger hosted by the Lowcountry Food Bank, an organization based in Charleston which donates food to agencies up and down the coast of South Carolina. Team Ashley Hall raised over $1,400, the most of all fundraising teams, and the sum will help provide more than 8,000 meals to feed families throughout the Lowcountry. 

Just days before this year’s annual Walk to Fight Hunger, Ashley Hall hosted Brenda Shaw, Chief Development Officer at Lowcountry Food Bank, for an Upper School assembly to speak with students about her organization and what food insecurity looks like in our community.

“People who are food insecure look just like you and me,” says Kelly Sumner, Director of Counseling and Upper School Student Life, who helped organize Shaw’s visit. “They’re your neighbors, they’re your friends; there isn’t a certain look to being in need or a certain community that’s in need. I think students were able to really connect with that [during Shaw’s visit], then connect what the food bank does, who they serve, and take the opportunity to go out and help bring awareness to this issue right here in their community with their friends.”

Both the assembly and walk event were a part of Ashley Hall’s annual global education initiative in which students and educators are exploring ways they can help contribute to creating a world free of hunger by 2030 this year. But the School’s contributions to fighting food insecurity in Charleston is far from new.

“We’ve supported the Lowcountry Food Bank consistently for decades,” Sumner says. “We’ve had so many interesting ways we’ve been connected to them and other organizations over the years, and we’re just so very appreciative to them that they are able to host and support our students in return.”

While initiatives have shifted through the years, Ashley Hall’s dedication to playing a part in ending hunger in its very own community has remained consistent. Here’s a look at how the School’s partnerships with the Lowcountry Food Bank and other local organizations fighting hunger have evolved over the years:

Late 1990s

Every year near the Thanksgiving holiday, Ashley Hall began hosting a school-wide food drive in support of the Lowcountry Food Bank during which Upper School students would designate different food items to different grade levels depending on the needs of the food bank at that time. 

2001

September is Hunger Action Month, and in 2001, all Non-Uniform Days in September were dedicated to supporting the Lowcountry Food Bank, and everyone on campus wore orange, the official color of Hunger Action Month, to show their support!

2007

Ashley Hall began the year with a “Day of Service” on the first day of school, and the Class of 2010 went to the Lowcountry Food Bank to volunteer their time to help pack and organize food donations. “This would be the first time we had a whole grade level volunteer at once,” Sumner says. “It paved the way for future events.”

2010 

In 2010, the School formalized its Community Action Initiative which requires students 20 hours of community service to graduate. Every year since, the senior class has spent time during a dedicated week at the end of the year volunteering together at the Lowcountry Food Bank‘s warehouse to give back.

2013

As a part of a local nonprofit initiative entitled I Heart Hungry Kids, Ashley Hall students spent their Saturdays throughout the year volunteering to fill backpacks  belonging to kids in under-resourced areas with donated food for them to eat over the weekend. “It would be enough food to sustain these children who were getting most of their nutritious meals at school,” Sumner says.

2015

In 2015, the Lowcountry Food Bank created a program for students in local schools to help carry out their work as Hunger Advocates. After being elected by a School committee and passing an application process with the food bank, alumna Tiffany Dye ’15 became Ashley Hall’s first ever Hunger Advocate. During her senior year, she increased the number of school-wide food drives and more people than ever volunteered, Sumner says. Her sister, Marissa Dye ’21, would then follow in her footsteps as a Hunger Advocate. “These girls were so dynamic in so many ways, and they truly cared about the community and wanted to serve,” Sumner says.

2021

The Lowcountry Blessing Box Project stocks containers in neighborhoods around Charleston with non-perishable food items, basic toiletries, baby supplies, and anything else that might be considered a blessing to people who find themselves in need. In 2021, Intermediate Program faculty members Katie Perez-Phillips ’07 and Kiki Sweigart partnered with the organization so Ashley Hall students could maintain their very own box with regular food donations. Students and families are still stocking our Ashley Hall Blessing box at FUEL restaurant week in and week out!

What can a novel teach us about history, and how can history deepen our understanding of a novel? That was the two-part question seventh and eighth grade students were busy tackling in both their English and history classes last month.

At the start of the year, students read “Blue-Eyed Slave,” a carefully researched historic novel set in Charles Towne in 1764 with two 13-year-old heroines, one a slave and one a Sephardic Jew. Then they immersed themselves in their own research and writing for five weeks to explore the book’s three major themes: Judaism, enslaved people, and the global influences in Charleston.

“We used the book to introduce historical thinking, and what studying history is all about,” says history teacher Mary Webb who collaborated with her humanities colleagues to create the interdisciplinary project. In her class, students studied primary sources to deepen their understanding of historical events and references in the book. “From studying old maps of Charleston to reading The Book of Exodus which narrates the escape of the Jewish slaves from the Egyptians, we did a deep dive into the book’s main threads.”

From there, students were tasked with creating an object that represented something significant in the book, whether it be a teapot which was a popular souvenir after the repeal of the Stamp Act or a replica of the Da Costa House where Jewish people gathered to worship before synagogues existed in Charleston. “Then we used their ‘artifacts’ as an opportunity to showcase how to write a historical essay,” says English teacher Nana Westbrook. “First you identify the object, explain what it means in the book, what it means in history, and what you think the significance of it is.”

The project culminated on Wednesday, September 20 with a very special visit from Marshall Highet and Bird Jones, the co-authors of “Blue-Eyed Slave,” who spent a day on campus tying everything together. In English classes, they taught students how to analyze a photo without dates or explanation to try and figure out its historical context, and from there, create a story around it.

“We were asking what things were, and Bird would say, ‘Oh, I don’t know either!’” says Harper Haselden ’29 with a laugh. “I think that was the best part because when you read the book, you think they know everything. But really, they didn’t know everything at first – they’re just good at figuring things out. She went to actual places to figure out facts she put in the book, and research like that seems really fun.”

That evening, Jones, the researcher, and Highet, the author, discussed their joint approach to researching and writing during an event open to the public as a part of the Ashley Hall Writers Series. As they spoke, the audience was surrounded by the artifacts created by Nautilus students, as well as posters they had researched and created.

“It was wonderful seeing the students engage so deeply in an activity rooted in critical thinking, analysis, and information seeking,” says Allison Parks, Director of the Intermediate and Nautilus Programs. “I love what this project showcases overall–learning at Ashley Hall goes beyond the words on a page.”