News

Upper School Life | February 2020

Jenise Gordon, Head of Upper School
Our girls stretch their minds and muscles during Winterim.
If the recent weather is a harbinger of things to come, we may or may not be thawing out soon. To counter those inevitable winter blues, GPS strategically places our Winterim and winter break right in the middle of the month to serve as a rallying point for our girls and our teachers—and rally it did. Our students, faculty, and coaches regaled us all with wonderful stories, photos, and memories of their road trips and their time spent here in their own school and community. If you did not have an opportunity to keep up with us via social media, please take some time to go back and enjoy the highlights on our website. 

The Upper School students were flung far and wide on their adventures. One group enjoyed studying Renaissance Art in Rome, while another traveled to the Iberian Peninsula to experience the best of Spain and Portugal. Several girls explored the city of Charleston, South Carolina, while another group stayed in Chattanooga and enjoyed some amazing trails in their own backyard. If you are interested in learning more about infectious diseases, find one of the girls on the DNA, Diseases, and Me Winterim. They traveled to Atlanta to explore the CDC and did internal exploration of their own DNA. 

Since we did not have snow of our own, three groups headed to different snow havens. A group of girls visited Denali National Park in Alaska, snowshoed through wintery passes, met up with some reindeer, and enjoyed the Northern Lights. One group explored one of the most beautiful valleys in the world, Yosemite, while another (now dubbed the GPS Dogsled Team) enjoyed snowy adventures each day at the Wintergreen Dogsled Lodge in Minnesota. Our Terpsichord girls almost got detained by our own 5-inch snowfall, but they managed to break away to the Big Apple and enjoy the sights while taking professional dance classes and seeing professional dance and Broadway performances!

For those girls looking forward to warmer temperatures, they got a headstart in some sunnier locales. Over half the seniors ventured to the Happiest Place on Earth (Walt Disney World), and our third group at the White Stallion Dude Ranch in Arizona enjoyed daily rides through rainbows and sunsets. San Francisco-bound students enjoyed all that the Silicon Valley has to offer with trips to Googleplex and Facebook, while meeting GPS alumnae and experiencing the classic sights of the city—Golden Gate Park, Fisherman's Wharf, and Lombard Street. 

On campus we had budding Greta Gerwigs, who wrote and created films while another group in our theater pursued individual passion projects in an open-ended workshop under the guidance of a mentor and fellow collaborators. Back by popular demand, the Yarn and Ewe crew explored the multidimensional world of fiber arts, following the fiber from the original source (sheep, alpaca, cotton, hemp) and learning how to create textiles of many forms.

Some of our girls took a more practical approach to their Winterim time by honing their standardized test-taking strategies, taking the Haman’s driving course, becoming a certified lifeguard, learning CPR and first aid, or exploring life skills in the #adulting course. One group focused specifically on the Art of Well-Being and spent their days engaging in myriad activities, from yoga to self defense. A handful of juniors and seniors took advantage of this time to work closely with a mentor (several were GPS alumnae)  in a specific field in order to gain a better understanding of a particular career. 

All-in-all this very busy week, on campus and off, was filled with adventures and stories our girls will not soon forget. (To see a slideshow of the Upper School excursions click here.) Please take time to send a quick note to the teacher who planned and sponsored your daughter’s Winterim trip. Our teachers are tireless in their pursuits of meaningful opportunities for our girls, and they give of their own family time to travel with our students. Winterim is a place where we truly shine as a school, and all the credit lies with our faculty and staff for making this possible! 
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