For little ones, springtime brings new ways to explore and play, and this April, Early Education Center students have gleefully canvased Ashley Hall’s blooming campus. Among the profusion of flowers, faculty members Rachael Carter’s and Petra Sorelova’s pre-primary class spied some fascinating insects and immediately wanted to know more. They soon discovered what joy small treasures can bring.

“The class has been noticing all of the changes the warmer temperatures and spring have brought,” shared Carter. “We went on a ‘Rainbow Walk’ around campus trying to find all of the colors of the rainbow, and my students noticed insects on the blooming daffodils as well as the pollen all around. We learned about how insects use the pollen and help to make plants grow. Before Spring Break, we saw a few ladybugs on the green hills and went on an insect hunt and found ants, dragon flies, and mosquitoes. We even found a lizard by the Bear Cave that likes to eat insects!”

Captivated by their discoveries, the students were keen to know more, so Carter ordered ladybugs and ants from North Carolina. “Because of their eager minds, our children are fascinated by the natural world and why insects exist,” she noted. “Through observation and inquiry, our class has learned the importance of insects like ladybugs and the value they have within our environment.” The children enthusiastically monitored the mesh ladybug habitats to see firsthand how ladybugs live and to make observational drawings of the little bugs as they journeyed about their habitat. “The children kept asking us if we had fed the ladybugs or if they needed water,” said Sorelova. “We would put them on the tables while the children were having snacks or lunch, and they observed them during coloring.”

The children’s deep care for their ladybugs was clear when it came time to return their small treasures back to nature. “When we were releasing the ladybugs into the EEC Butterfly Garden, the children were very gentle and told them goodbye, and even the ones who were hesitant to touch the ladybugs would let us put them in their palm to place on the milkweed,” said Sorelova. “It was such a great experience to see our class nurture and care for them with such love!”

Ashley Hall’s choral classes, ensembles, and vocal lessons begin a new era of excellence as world-renowned artists and music educators Margaret Kelly Cook and Ricard Bordas assume their directorship. With a wealth of experience, they are committed to fostering artistic growth, enrichment, and confidence among their students.

Cook will oversee the vocal studio and assume vocal private lessons. She earned a Bachelor of Music in Vocal Performance degree from Oberlin College and completed the postgraduate opera course at the Royal College of Music in London.  An active participant on the concert stage, Cook has appeared as a guest soloist throughout England and Europe, appearing in recitals at the Buxton Festival in the United Kingdom, Spoleto Festival, USA, the Salzburg Festival in Austria, and the EuroConcert Early Music Festival in Barcelona, Spain. Locally, she has appeared frequently with the Charleston Chamber Music Society, Charleston Symphony Orchestra, and the South Carolina Philharmonic. Cook is highly regarded as one of the lead vocal instructors in our area. 

Bordas will direct the Upper School choral classes and ensembles. Conductor, countertenor, educator, and Grammy nominee, he graduated from the Royal Academy of Music in London. Bordas has conducted choirs and chamber groups in the United States, Spain, and Britain and is considered one of the leading countertenors of his generation. He has performed in fourteen countries in operas and concerts under renowned conductors and at prestigious venues such as La Scala in Milan, the Netherlands Opera, Royal Albert Hall, Barbican Hall, and the Spanish National Concert Hall. He is currently Assistant Professor of Music at Charleston Southern University, Artistic Director of the Bach Society of Charleston, Director of Choral Music at First (Scots) Presbyterian Church in Charleston, Artistic Director of the Charleston Men’s Chorus, and a writer for the Spanish classical magazine Revista Musical Catalana.   

Fun fact: As husband and wife, Cook and Bordas have collaborated on numerous productions and performances. Above (bottom left photo), they are shown singing in their first opera together, when they met in 1993.

Margaret Kelly Cook Full Biography

Ricard Bordas Full Biography

Q & A

What excites you most about directing Ashley Hall’s choral music and vocal private lessons program?

Ricard Bordas: I am eager to share my love of music and singing with Ashley Hall students. Since conducting the Catalan National Children’s Choir in Barcelona many years ago I have loved working with young voices. It is especially gratifying in that their voices are fresh and the musical possibilities are wonderful. There is a grand tradition surrounding the choral program at Ashley Hall, and I am very excited to have the opportunity to be a part of that lineage. (Also, my mother-in-law graduated from Ashley Hall, so we have a family connection to the School.)

Margaret Kelly Cook: Since returning to Charleston I have had a number of Ashley Hall students in my private studio. I know the music department to be top notch and have seen its evolution over many years. I am excited to be a part of it now and to be able to contribute to its continued success. And, yes, my mama graduated from Ashley Hall and took part in many music and theatre performances. It’s a wonderful connection!

What are your goals for the coming year? What do you hope to accomplish with students?

RB: After more than one year dealing with the effects of COVID-19, in particular in the world of choral music, first and foremost I want to help nurture the joy of singing and the sheer fun of being in choir. We will prepare music to be shared with the Ashley Hall community, the Charleston area, and hopefully the wider world as circumstances permit. We will also work on developing musical and vocal skills that will strengthen our individual singers and the choral program as a whole.

MC: My goal for those students in private lessons is the development of a solid vocal technique and understanding of how the voice functions while singing a variety of musical styles from classical to music theatre to pop. In private teaching my ultimate goal has always been to enable singers to sing healthily for life whether in a choral setting or as a professional soloist.

What do you enjoy most about music education and working with students?

RB:  Having worked with students from middle school through college level for many years, I love to see how students find their own voice and discover the satisfaction of singing, learning music and working collaboratively. As a teacher, it is very fulfilling to see month after month, year after year, the progress of my students.

MC: For me, there is nothing greater than the gift of music. It stays with us for life no matter our chosen profession. There are numerous books, articles, and studies on the importance of music education in scaffolding all learning and cognitive development. For me, simply, music is the closest experience we have to my idea of heaven. Singing is that much closer. If I can help singers to find their voice, or develop their talent, then it is enough.

In the Intermediate Program, harnessing the power of technology is integrated throughout the curriculum, and students gain hands-on experience through project-based learning. For fifth graders in faculty member Kiki Sweigart’s math and science class, grasping the fundamentals of coding opened the door to some cutting-edge technology: designing and printing 3D avatars.

“We started this 3D coding project as part of my professional development and something that piqued my interest from a fellow teacher who has inspired so many Horizons students in DC to love coding,” said Sweigart. “Once I saw the wonderful 3D printers in our IP building, I was even more motivated.”

Starting in the fall with Microworlds EX, students learned the building blocks of coding in order to progress to 3D designing and printing with Tinkercad. “The lessons helped the girls to see how much math goes into everything in a computer program or game, and we linked many math aspects, such as working with a coordinate grid, symmetry, and spinning shapes,” continued Sweigart. “The whole measuring process was for me the most enlightening and powerful way to show my students a very meaningful transition of using the measuring tools and conversions we have been working on all year. I wanted solid math and problem-solving skills and not just dragging and dropping shapes.”

For their first 3D printing project, students designed avatars, or figurative icons, similar to those they had encountered while playing online games. In addition to completing a physical inventory sheet detailing what her avatar looked like, each girl first drew a 2D rendering on graph paper and measured each piece of the design in millimeters before entering her calculations into Tinkercad.

“Coding strengthened my math skills because I got to learn more about measurement and ways to do graphs,” noted Hazel Smith ’28, who chose a triangle-shape body, cube face, and rectangular hair and mouth for an avatar of herself. “The most challenging part was drawing the avatar on grid paper and figuring out the measurements in millimeters. It was cool to see all of my hard work being finished. I was proud that my avatar did not get messed up while it was printing, which means my coding worked!”

For Caitlin Bennett ’28, who designed an alien avatar, getting the mathematical dimensions correct was key. “We drew our design on graph paper, measured it in square millimeters, and found the perimeter, area, length, width, and the total of each one as well as the total of everything,” she said. “I really liked working beside my friends and helping them as well as their helping me! Mrs. Sweigart explains it so well and is a really good teacher of coding. I would love to continue coding with Tinkercad and making 3D prints!”  

Inspired by the musical Hamilton, Tessa DeHaan ’28 coded an AH-inspired avatar to symbolize both Alexander Hamilton and Ashley Hall. “I thought this was smart and funny because I like having hidden meanings,” she said. “Ms. Sweigart makes it super fun, and the site we coded in was a blast. It was super easy, first introducing us into the simple steps of coding, such as placing blocks and finding different types, and then harder steps, as in grouping them or making harder designs. The most challenging part of my project was getting all the pieces together.”

Now experienced coders, Sweigart’s students have moved into coding with JavaScript through Kahn Academy and tackling robotics. “I’m proud of the fifth graders for showing so much patience, creativity, resilience, collaboration, and joy while working so steadily week by week,” she exclaimed. “I now call them my coding gurus.”

(Center, L-R: Elise French ’24 and Skylar Ward ’24 work on their sketches in McBee House under the guidance of Visual Arts faculty member Raúl Miyar. Sketches, clockwise from top left: Davis Murrell ’23, Eads Hubble ’23, Emi Winters ’23, and Mattie Hood ’23)

In Visual Arts faculty member Raúl Miyar’s Foundations of Art class, students come to understand perspective first by study and then through practice. Learning about vanishing points and illusion of space, they train their eyes to discern details hidden in plain sight and transform their observations into art.

“The perspective segment of the semester begins with studying one-point, two-point, and three-point perspective,” noted Miyar. “With these studies, students learn the different ways in which vanishing points determine the illusion of space, dimension, and depth on a two-dimensional surface. In addition, they learn about ‘modeling’ (light and shadow), another term for ‘shading,’ which enhances the illusion of volume, as well as atmosphere.”

As a capstone project, Miyar asked his students to apply their understanding of vanishing points to real space by drawing from direct observation either the exterior or the interior of McBee House. “In most perspective exercises, you are told to draw skyscrapers or simple geometric shapes,” shared Eads Hubbell ’23. “This assignment pushed us a step further by challenging us to take time to accurately draw something as complex as McBee House and its rooms.”

Precisely depicting one of Ashley Hall’s most iconic buildings can be intimidating, but thanks to Miyar’s patient teaching methods, his students were up for the challenge. “I walked into Mr. Miyar’s class with very little art experience or skills, and he has guided us through everything step by step which kept me from falling behind or being stressed about what I was doing,” said Elise French ’24. “I improved my ability to capture perspective by Mr. Miyar teaching us to squint and see which planes are darker and lighter, which helped me notice the difference in how dark or light to shade areas. My favorite aspect definitely was doing the detail of the rug and spending a lot of time on it. The intricate details are very time consuming but worth it in the end.”

Students also appreciated the opportunity to draw McBee House’s classically-inspired architecture. “We got to spend time in one of the many amazing rooms in McBee House and take time to notice the details in the historic architecture and interior design,” enthused Hubbell, who credits Miyar with helping her envision new ways to improve her work. “Mr. Miyar lets us work at our own pace while pushing us to try new techniques and think outside of the box, and he always knows what each of us needs to do to enhance our drawings and teaches us step by step how to make those changes,” she affirmed. “I think that we have all learned to be proud of our finished product of such a challenging assignment.” 

Earlier this month, fourth graders visited Ashley Hall’s Johns Island property to learn from the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) and continue a carbon footprint project they have invested in all year long: the Seeds to Shoreline program.

“Students have been working with DNR to learn about climate change and how we can help,” noted Lower School faculty member Beth McCarty. “One of the ways is to plant marsh grass since plants absorb CO2.” As part of the Seeds to Shoreline program, students learn about the importance of salt marsh ecosystems and actively contribute to the restoration process — including harvesting, storing, germinating, cultivating, and planting Spartina along the coast. For students, the hands-on learning results in a deeper appreciation of the intricate Lowcountry ecosystems found in their own backyards.

Back on campus after their Johns Island visit, students prepared beds and planted Spartina seedlings which they harvested in the fall and hope will eventually sprout. Come May, they will eagerly witness the project come full circle, in more ways than one. “It is a great project because the students can see the marsh from Ashley Hall students last year and the years before,” explained McCarty. “You can see it is helping with erosion too!”

With its inviting greenspace and walkable campus, Ashley Hall is the perfect place for children to lead their own explorations. For pre-kindergartners in faculty members Katie Harvard’s and Dana Schultz’s class, one such excursion led to the discovery of a now-favorite place: their very own “gnome home.”

“The world outside our classroom walls at Ashley Hall is full of enchantment and mystery,” smiled Harvard. “My class has been exploring the magical world of fairies and gnomes and using their imagination to create a world of wonder with a little bit of magic.” In September while on one of their campus walks, Harvard’s students were delighted to spy a garden gnome on Senior Lawn and immediately began investigating the area. Ever since, the children have enjoyed exploring the gnome home during weekly visits to their new friend. “It’s so beautiful!” exclaimed Allie Brazina ’34 while touching the tree that helps form the gnome home. “I love the gnome home,” agreed Alice Carrico ’34. 

“They have noticed different things about the gnome home every time they visit,” said Harvard. “It is fascinating to watch their responses as the seasons have changed! They even made a cozy bed for the gnome because it was cold outside, and they wanted him to feel more comfortable.” On March 1, the gnome’s birthday, the children made him a sand and shell birthday cake and happily sang to him. “We bring him things every time we come here, but we gave him the most gifts on his birthday,” explained Milly Kleiman ’34. Such open-ended, imaginative play not only encourages critical thinking and creativity but also kindness, thanks to the magic of a special friend.