Trinity Chen '24, a student at the Junior School, earned a spot as a state grade-level winner in the 2017 Zaner-Bloser National Handwriting Contest. Celebrating 26 years, the Zaner-Bloser National Handwriting Contest encourages legible handwriting by evaluating the handwriting abilities (based on the Zaner-Bloser Keys to Legibility: size, shape, spacing and slant) of students in kindergarten through eighth grade whose schools use Zaner-Bloser Handwriting curricula.

After each participating school held its own handwriting contest, one winning student from each grade was then entered in the Zaner-Bloser National Handwriting Contest to compete to become a State Grade-Level Winner. State-level winners then compete at the national level in hopes of being selected a Grand National Grade-Level Champion or a National Grade-Level Semifinalist.

Zaner-Bloser awarded a medallion to Trinity Chen, an etched diamond award to Trinity’s teacher, Ms. Aleise Dennis, and a $200 Zaner-Bloser gift certificate to Detroit Country Day Junior School.

The results for the national language exams in French, German, Japanese, Latin and Spanish were released last week. The national language exams measure students' abilities in vocabulary, grammar, reading, and listening skills. The students take an exam corresponding to their current level of study. Many of our Upper School and Middle School students received national recognition.

The following Upper School students placed in the top ten nationally for their performance on the National French Exam (Le Grand Concours):

The following are the results for our Middle School French students (results for language has not been received yet):

The National German Exam
Gold - Lara Cackovich
Silver - Ava Porter, Tsz Yeung Xu
Achievement Award - Alex Ge, Isabelle Bepler, Sophia Sarda 

The National Japanese Exam

Silver - Tara Tang
Honorable Mention - Celina Yamamoto


The following were the results for our Middle School and Upper School students in the National Latin Examinations:

The following were the results of the National Spanish Examinations for Middle and Upper School:

Congratulations to the following:

• Jacob Mackey '17 was awarded a college scholarship from the Grosse Pointe Youth Nautical Education Foundation. Academics and Jacob's contribution to the sport of sailing were considered, as well as his dedication to growing youth sailing opportunities in the future.
• At the Michigan Music Teacher Association (MMTA) Concerto Competition held at Michigan State University on May 13, 2017, Rosalyn Li '22, received 2nd place in the Division III (grades 7-9)

On Saturday, May 13,  6th and 7th graders went to Stoney Creek High School to participate in the regional Math Pentathlon competition. Ten of our students did well enough to earn an honorable mention and above. They are:

• Honorable Mention: Nicholas Kalkanis '22, Noah Michaelson '22, Akash Raman '22
• Bronze Medal: Asim Handy '23, Sagar Rau '23, Alex Williams '23
• Silver Medal: Reece Chae '23, Tony Chen '23, Rosey Ma '23
• Gold Medal: Adam Boxwalla '22

It’s playoff time and the MHSAA tournaments are underway.  See below for all of the specifics regarding our teams.  Enjoy some beautiful spring weather and come out to support our student-athletes.  As a reminder, the MHSAA charges admission for all state tournaments contests, typically between $5.00 - $8.00

Thank you and GO YELLOWJACKETS!!

Men’s Lacrosse

 
• Regional Round 1 – May 19 at DCDS v Ypsilanti Arbor Prep 5:00PM – Won 1-0 Forfeit by Arbor Prep
• Regional SemiFinal – May 24 at Riverview Gabriel Richard 5:30PM
• Regional Final – May 30 at Riverview Gabriel Richard 7:00PM
• Quarterfinals – June 2 or 3 at TBD Time TBD
• SemiFinals – June 7 at TBD Time TBD
• Finals – June 10 at Howell Parker MS 4:30PM

Women’s Lacrosse

  
• Regional Round 1 - May 24 at DCDS vs Notre Dame Prep 4:30PM
• Regional SemiFinals – May 31 at Cranbrook 6:00PM
• Regional Final – June 2 at Cranbrook 5:00PM
• SemiFinal – June 7 at Novi HS 5:30PM
• Finals – June 10 at Brighton 2:00PM

Baseball

• Districts SemiFinals – June 3 vs Cranbrook at Madison Heights Lamphere 10:00AM
• District Final June 3 at Madison Heights Lamphere  3:00PM
• Regional SemiFinal – June 10 at Marysville HS 10:00AM
• Regional Final – June 10 at Marysville HS 3:00PM
• QuarterFinal – June 13 at Novi HS 4:00PM
• SemiFinal – June 15 at MSU Time TBD
• Finals – June 17 at MSU 11:30AM

Softball

• Districts Round 1 – May 30 at Madison Heights Lamphere vs Cranbrook 4:30PM
• Districts SemiFinals – June 3 at Madison Heights Lamphere 10:00AM
• District Final - June 3 at Madison Heights Lamphere  2:00PM
• Regional SemiFinal – June 10 at Marysville HS 10:00AM
• Regional Final – June 10 at Marysville HS 2:30PM
• QuarterFinal – June 13 at Novi HS 4:00 PM
• SemiFinal – June 15 at MSU Time TBD
• Finals – June 17 at MSU 10:00AM

Men’s Golf

• Regional – May 31 at Fieldstone Golf Course 8:00AM
• Finals – June 9 and 10 at The Meadows @ Grand Valley State University 8:00AM

Women's Tennis

• Regional Final – May 18 at Cranbrook-Kingswood 9:00AM – Won with 24 points out of a possible 24 points
• Finals – June 2 and 3 at Kalamazoo College/Western Michigan 8:00AM

Men's/Women's Track and Field

• Regional Final – May 20 at South Lyon East HS 12:30PM – Men Finished 2nd and Women finished 3rd.  Regional Results  State Qualifiers
• Finals – June 3 at Zeeland East and West High School 9:30AM

Women's Soccer

• District Round 1 – May 30 @ Farmington Hills Harrison HS vs Detroit Mumford 5:00PM
• District Round 2 – June 1 @ Farmington Hills Harrison HS 5:00PM
• District Final – June 2 at Farmington Hills Harrison HS 6:00PM
• Regional Semifinal – June 7 @  Farmington 5:00PM
• Regional Final – June 9 at Farmington 6:00PM
• SemiFinal – June 13 at Novi HS 7:00PM
• Final – June 16 at Williamston HS 4:00PM

Congratulations to Maddie Yang '19 and Shrikant Chand '18 for their fourth and third place award in two Physical Science categories of Biomedical Engineering and Chemistry at the International Science and Engineering Fair.

Madeline's fourth award was under Biomechanical Engineering and her project was entitled High-Dimensional Single-Cell Cytometry Analysis for Understanding Cancer Stemness.

Shrikant's project conducted with Marlies Michielssen from Washtenaw International High School won third prize. The project was under the category Chemistry and was entitled A Novel Zwitterionic Superparamagnetic Iron Oxide Nanoparticle Synthesis.

Congratulations to Maria Cheriyan who received two national writing awards last week!

First, the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) recognized Maria as a “Promising Young Writer.”  Of the 167 entries received, only 63 young writers earned this distinction.

Second, exciting news arrived from the Letters about Literature (LAL) contest.  As the state winner for Michigan, Maria’s letter entered the national competition against letters from other state winners.  Of the close to 50 letters judged nationally, Maria’s letter came out on top – the best letter of the bunch!  In addition to this impressive achievement, Maria also won $1,000.

Congratulations to the following:

• At the Oakland County championship meet on Friday night at Novi High School, our men’s 4x800m relay team of Chaitanya Manam '19, Eric Jackson '17, Michael O’Brien '18, and Scott Greenhalgh '18 set a new school record with a time of 8:13.30, eclipsing the old mark by nearly three seconds.
• Rajeev Kambhatla '18 was recently awarded the honor of Eagle Scout at an Eagle Scout Court of Honor for Troop 1032 at First United Methodist Church in Birmingham. The rank of Eagle Scout represents a milestone of accomplishment, perhaps without equal—that is recognized by many. Rajeev has consistently demonstrated a strong work ethic and a dedication to success and is a deserving recipient of this high honor.

It is my privilege to announce that the DCDS Quiz Bowl A Team played at its best level by far against its most challenging competition this year at this past weekend's NAQT High School National Championship Tournament in Atlanta. The team posted a 10-5 record to finish 15th out of a field of 304 teams.

The team members are junior captain Chris Gilmer-Hill, and seniors Krishan Amin, Rohan Gurram, Rohit Misra, and Omer Siddiqui.

The team is not done yet; in two weeks, they'll be competing in the other universally recognized high school national championship quiz bowl tournament, the PACE Tournament in Chicago.

Congratulations to the following students for their results at the Oakland County track meet on Thursday, May 29.

• Saborn Campbell '21- 2nd place in 70 meter dash
• Jalen Hunter '21 - 3rd place in the 200 hurdles
• Nick Wachol '21 - 6th place in shot put
• Cole Clark '21 - 5th place in long jump
• Mak Manciel '21 - 5th place in 55 hurdles
• The 4x100 team (Jalen Hunter, Kaelen Cooper, Saborn Campbell, and Cole Clark) - 6th place

On June 3, the Meijer Great Lakes Student Choices K-8 Film Festival awarded Charlayne Watkins and the First LEGO League, Jr. teams the “Judges Choice” and a $200 grant for their student-made PSA called “The Project” about diversity. The PSA will be showcased statewide in every school district. The event was held at Van Singel Fine Arts Center in Bryon Center, Michigan. The purpose of this annual contest is to encourage students in Michigan to become personally involved in building character, celebrating diversity and promoting healthy living. The following individuals attended the event Lucas Ahrens, Dr. Kristin & Mr. Robert Ahrens, and Ms. Charlayne Watkins.

Our Men’s and Women’s Varsity Track & Field State Finals qualifiers distinguished themselves with excellence in the state meet. We’re proud of and happy for all our athletes, many of whom earned medals and All-State status:

• Michaiah Thomas '17, 300m hurdles – 2nd Place (44.61 – season-best)
• Men’s 4x400m relay team – Ahlon Mitchell '20, Cole Bearden '17, Michael O’Brien '18, Eric Jackson '17 – 2nd Place (3:24.63 – season-best)
• Ahvon Mitchell '20, 100m hurdles – 3rd Place (14.99 – PR)
• Women’s 4x100m relay team – Ahvon Mitchell '20, Skyler Ways '20, Destini Lewis '18, Alexis Officer '18 – 5th Place (50.21 – season-best)
• Alexis Officer '18, 200m – 7th Place (26.79 – PR)
• Destiny Agomuoh '18, shot put – 8th Place (37’ 11” – PR)

We’re equally proud of the effort and performances of our other qualifiers, many of whom also ran PRs or season-best times:

• Men’s 4x200m relay team – Eric Jackson '17, Ahlon Mitchell '20, Darrin King '19, Terrell Payne '18 (1:32.09 – season best by nearly 2.5 seconds)
• Michael O’Brien '18, 400m (51.17 - PR0
• Isaiah Johnson '18, 110m hurdles (15.65 – PR)
• Men’s 4x800m relay team – Chaitanya Manam '19, Michael O’Brien '18, Eric Jackson '17, Scott Greenhalgh '18 (nearly equaled their school record)
• Darrin King '19, 110m hurdles
• Alexis Officer '18, 100m
• Rahul Khambete '17, 1600m
• Ahvon Mitchell '20, 300m hurdles

Overall, our women’s team placed 6th overall, while our men tied for 25th (but we bested every team in our region – men’s and women’s). See full meet results. 

The D. Corwin Lincoln Book Prize is an annual school-wide essay/documentary contest that seeks to enhance the understanding and preserve the legacy and memory of President Abraham Lincoln. Promoting scholarship throughout our School divisions, the prize encourages historical research and editing - reflecting the scholarly standards of Detroit Country Day and Mr. Donald Corwin (US History Chair) for whom the prize is named.

2017 Winners

• Laura Chamarro 11th grade
• Rachel Jeong 8th grade
• Vikram Goddla 5th grade

Congratulations to our 2017 women's varsity tennis team for their back-to-back state championship win. In this year's tournament, the team took 39 of the possible 40 points to win the state championship. 

Team members: Sadina Fadel '17, Elle Hartje '19, Sasha Hartje '17, Rachel Hilfinger '20, Monique Karoub '19, Nina Khaghany '20, Jenna Lee '18, Helen Li '18,  Maya Nassif '18, Alexis Nardicchio '20, Ruhi Nayak '19, Anushri Radhakrishnan '20, Tara Rahmani '19, Heather Zimmerman '18.  Head coach: Jess Stencel. Assistant coaches: Brian DeVirgilio, Lisa Young

The WordMasters Challenge™ is an exercise in critical thinking that first encourages students to become familiar with a set of interesting new words (considerably harder than grade level), and then challenges them to use those words to complete analogies expressing various kinds of logical relationships. Working to solve the analogies helps students learn to think both analytically and metaphorically. Although most vocabulary enrichment and analogy-solving programs are designed for use by high school students, WordMasters Challenge™ materials have been specifically created for younger students in grades three through eight. They are particularly well suited for children who are motivated by the challenge of learning new words and enjoy the logical puzzles posed by analogies.

Top WordMasters scores for final meet:

Gold Division:

• 3rd grade: Harsha Narayan (20/20)
• 5th place: Vikram Goddla, Nishan Inampudi (20/20)

Highest Honors recipients

• 5th grade: Trinity Chen, Nishan Inampudi, and Vikram Goddla

Highest Honors for the overall year competition are for students who placed among the top 10-15 percent among students in their division

Congratulations to seniors Alexa Hartje (Sasha) and Steve Mann for their selection as finalists in the Detroit Athletic Club's Michigan High School Athlete of the Year. Sasha has played for DCDS in tennis, hockey, volleyball, and soccer.  Steve has played on both the baseball and football teams. The winner will be announced on Monday, May 8, 2017.  Good luck to our finalists!

Post updated - Steve Mann was selected as the winner of this year's contest.  Congratulations Steve!

Congratulations to the following students for earning an invitation to participate in the Honors Band and Honors Orchestra as part of the Michigan Youth Arts Festival (MYAF) May 18-20 at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, MI. Students are invited based on their proficiency scores at the state solo and ensemble festivals held around the state.

• Alexander Bosch '17 - Honors Band - alto saxophone (scored 50/50 on his solo and a 96/100 proficiency score)
• Melissa Beyrand '18 - Honors Orchestra - violin (99/100 proficiency score)

Congratulations to the following students for nominations as outstanding soloists. These students are invited to participate in a concerto competition in April in Mount Pleasant, MI at Central Michigan University. From this competition, four soloists will be selected to appear with the Grand Rapids Youth Orchestra in a Gala Concert the Friday of the MYAF weekend.

• Melissa Beyrand '18 - violin
• Alexander Bosch '17 - alto saxophone
• Christopher Soo '18 - cello

The following students have been nominated as an Outstanding Small Ensemble and invited to audition in April for one of the small ensemble spots to perform at MYAF. Congratulations to:

Anna Sun'19 and Madeleine Yang '19

Trinity Chen '24, a student at the Junior School, earned a spot as a state grade-level winner in the 2017 Zaner-Bloser National Handwriting Contest. Celebrating 26 years, the Zaner-Bloser National Handwriting Contest encourages legible handwriting by evaluating the handwriting abilities (based on the Zaner-Bloser Keys to Legibility: size, shape, spacing and slant) of students in kindergarten through eighth grade whose schools use Zaner-Bloser Handwriting curricula.

After each participating school held its own handwriting contest, one winning student from each grade was then entered in the Zaner-Bloser National Handwriting Contest to compete to become a State Grade-Level Winner. State-level winners then compete at the national level in hopes of being selected a Grand National Grade-Level Champion or a National Grade-Level Semifinalist.

Zaner-Bloser awarded a medallion to Trinity Chen, an etched diamond award to Trinity’s teacher, Ms. Aleise Dennis, and a $200 Zaner-Bloser gift certificate to Detroit Country Day Junior School.

Congratulations to Maddie Yang '19 and Shrikant Chand '18 for their fourth and third place award in two Physical Science categories of Biomedical Engineering and Chemistry at the International Science and Engineering Fair.

Madeline's fourth place award was under Biomechanical Engineering and her project was entitled High-Dimensional Single-Cell Cytometry Analysis for Understanding Cancer Stemness.

Shrikant's project conducted with Marlies Michielssen from Washtenaw International High School won third prize. The project was under the category Chemistry and was entitled A Novel Zwitterionic Superparamagnetic Iron Oxide Nanoparticle Synthesis.

Congratulations to Maria Cheriyan who received two national writing awards last week!

First, the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) recognized Maria as a “Promising Young Writer.”  Of the 167 entries received, only 63 young writers earned this distinction.

Second, exciting news arrived from the Letters about Literature (LAL) contest.  As the state winner for Michigan, Maria’s letter entered the national competition against letters from other state winners.  Of the close to 50 letters judged nationally, Maria’s letter came out on top – the best letter of the bunch!  In addition to this impressive achievement, Maria also won $1,000.