News

Written by Alicia Chu '24

The YMCA Delaware High School Youth in Government (YIG) Conference took place from March 22 to 24, 2024 at Legislative Hall and Kent County Courthouse in Dover, DE. Around 150 students from across the state gathered to participate in mock legislative bill debates and mock appellate court trials over the course of the weekend.

On April 10th on the road against Conrad, the Archmere girls soccer team defeated the Red Wolves 5-0, recording their third win in a row this season. It didn’t take long for the Auks to get on the board, with Marina Mahon '25 scoring two first-half goals, and a goal and two assists by Hannah Stewart '25 to begin the game.

The girls lacrosse team remains undefeated after a victory over Saint Mark's on Tuesday, April 9 at home. The Auks came out early and strong, leading 8-1 by the end of the first quarter on their way to a 17-7 win over the Spartans. Archmere senior Bella Hughes recorded her 100th career goal in the third quarter.

On Wednesday, March 27, two teams of Archmere students competed at the State Math Meet Invitational, held in Dover. In order to qualify for the State Meet, Archmere's Math League teams competed in 4 regular season meets from October to February this year, earning excellent results. The 9th grade team won each meet and placed 1st in the region with 72 points, qualifying them for the state meet. The 10-12th grade team also won each of their 4 meets, and won the region with 107 points. 

Spanish teachers Sandra Vieyra and Janna Scheflen accompanied twenty-eight Archmere students to compete in the DECTFL World Language Showcase at the University of Delaware on Saturday, March 16. The competition is organized by the Delaware Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages to give students an opportunity to use and show off their language skills while experiencing French, Italian and Spanish/Hispanic culture through dance, athletic, music and artistic activities.

Last week the Advanced Cancer and Research Analysis (ACRA) class spent the day in hands-on learning situations at the Children's Hospital of Pennsylvania. Our students sat in on a resident roundtable, experienced rounds and surgery observations with Dr. Storm '86 and Dr. Kundishura, attended a lecture on AI in reading imaging from MRIs and CAT scans, and enjoyed a tour of the biorepository facility.

On Wednesday, March 13th, the Archmere College Counseling Office hosted an informative "Why Engineering" night. Led by Director of College Counseling Mr. Chris Boehm, a panel of representatives from Georgia Tech, Swarthmore, the University of Delaware and the infrastructure consulting company, AECOM, shared their knowledge with current Archmere students and their families. Guests gained a better understanding of a career in numerous engineering fields, learned about the best high school preparation for college engineering programs, and were offered explanations to the differences and similarities between STEM and STEAM.

Archmere junior Brianna Yang has been named the recipient of the USTA Delaware District's 2023 Junior Sportsmanship Award. Brianna was recognized at the Annual Awards Ceremony on February 25th at Wilmington Country Club. This award is given to a high school boy and girl who play in Delaware tennis tournaments and show exemplary sportsmanship on and off the courts. Players are selected by a committee of tennis pros, volunteers and referees.

Delaware Music Educators Association presented the All State Orchestra on March 9 at Milford High School. The concert was directed by James Allen Anderson, director of orchestral activities at the University of Delaware. Two students from the Helena Raskob Arts Institute auditioned and were were accepted into the orchestra. 

The Cappies, "Critics and Awards Program," is a program through which high school theater and journalism students are trained as critics, attend shows at other schools, write reviews, and publish those reviews in local newspapers such as The Washington Post, Cincinnati Enquirer, Dallas Morning News, Kansas City Star, and The Philadelphia Inquirer. The Cappies program brought over 50 students from the Greater Philadelphia area to Archmere this past weekend to review the winter musical production on closing night.

Ten members of Archmere's Auks for Earth Club are scheduled to attend the YES! Delaware Youth Environmental Summit on Thursday, February 29. The Summit will take place at the Clayton Hall Conference Center in Newark DE, with more than 500 Delaware high school students ready to network and share ideas about environmental action projects. Planned topics include electric school buses, food waste, climate change, wildlife and hunting conservation, clean water, plastic pollution, green careers, beekeeping, clean energy, and more.

Junior Jace Walker was selected as a student co-host for a national webinar sponsored by the National Art Education Association on February 22nd. Jace was selected by NAHS Sponsor Stephanie SIlverman '00 to represent Archmere Academy's National Art Honor Society Chapter to lead the conversation for the nationally-aired broadcast, featuring a Q&A with 9B Collective, a Concept Art Design Studio whose client list includes Marvel, HBO, Pixar, Netflix, and Nickelodeon. The webcast was recorded and will be made available to the entire National Art Education Association and NAHS Sponsors at arteducators.org.

The Archmere Swim Team competed in the DIAA Swimming & Diving Championship Finals on Saturday, February 24, 2024. The State Preliminaries were held during the week, with Finals taking place all day Saturday at the University of Delaware. The State Championship Meet is a qualifying meet, and fourteen team members of the Archmere team competed in the Prelims, at which four members of the boys team and five members of the girls team earned a spot in Finals. Elizabeth Maher ’24, Kendall Hanna '25 and Kathryn Pyne ’25 qualified for individual events for the girls, along with Melissa Doig ’25 and Aoife McGurk ’25 who competed in the relays. Logan Bustard ’25 qualified for individual events at Finals, along with Luca Anerino ’26, Declan McGrath '27 and Quinn McCormick ’25 who qualified for the relays.

Valentina Ramos '26, was awarded second prize in the prestigious international harp competition, Concours Francais de la Harpe in Limoges, France. Valentina was one of 131 contestants representing 20 countries. She wowed the judges with her jazz rendition of Lullabye of Birdland.

Congratulations, Valentina!

On Tuesday, February 20, the Archmere boys basketball team took on Concord High School at home in the Moglia Fieldhouse. This was the last regular game of the season, and the Auks took the opportunity to honor their seven seniors with a 52-49 win. The team is led by seniors Miles Kempski, Drew Duncan, Jack Dellose, Matthew Malloy, Gavin Lee, PJ Blessington, and Ryan Campbell.

Archmere senior Lucy Oliver scored her 1,000th basketball point, hitting the milestone in the first half of the game against Wilmington Charter on Thursday evening, February 16, in the Moglia Fieldhouse. Lucy is the fourth player in Archmere history to hit 1,000 points.

Congratulations to the six members of the Helena Raskob Arts Institute String Ensemble, who were awarded Superior Plus, which is the highest grade possible, at the Delaware State Music Teachers Association Ensemble Festival, held last Sunday at the Music School of Delaware. The Ensemble performers for this event were Sophia Chen '24, Michelle Zhang '24, Alex Xu '25, Ryan Dam '26, Daniel Qi '26, and McKayla Hwang '27. This was the first time a string ensemble participated in the Ensemble Festival.

In the last meet of the year, Archmere's 9th grade Math League team placed first in the meet and first in the region overall, scoring an impressive 72 points.

After four Math League meets this year, the Archmere team qualified to participate in the State Invitational, held in in Dover, Delaware. The 10-12th grade Math League team played in 4 rounds of online competition, from November to January, winning every single match and then the region with an impressive 107 points. The next team was 11 points behind.

The 2023-24 Delaware high school indoor track and field season came to a close on Saturday in Landover, Maryland. The 200 meter oval at Prince George’s Sports and Learning Complex was the perfect site for the DIAA State Championship meet. After an incredibly successful season, the girls ended the indoor track season with a 6th place finish and the boys ended the season in 8th place, the highest in program history. Senior Jack Maister took 1st overall in the long jump, with a leap of 22-8.5.

On Saturday, January 27th, the Archmere boys basketball team took on Tower Hill on the road at the Carpenter Field House. With just 4:21, Charlie Malloy '25 hit a three-point shot, one of his four of the night, to give the Auks the lead. After an exciting back and forth battle, Archmere claimed the 46-38 win.

Tapestry 2023, the Archmere Academy Student Literary Magazine, has been recognized as a Superior "Distinction" magazine by the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE). The National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) is devoted to improving the teaching and learning of English and the language arts at all levels of education. The mission of NCTE’s REALM program is to publicly recognize excellent literary magazines produced by students with the support of their teachers. Published annually, Tapestry is a student run literary and fine arts magazine, supported and advised by Archmere English Teacher Mr. Stephen Klinge.

On January 13th in the Moglia Fieldhouse, the boys basketball team took on Indian River High School, recording their fourth straight win in a row. Senior Miles Kempski had 24 points in the 59-28 win.

Congratulations to Michelle Zhang '24, who earned the second seat for Violin II in the Delaware All-State Orchestra, and Daniel Qi '26, who was awarded the first chair for Violin I, and will therefore serve as Concertmaster for the March 9th performance. This was the first time that Archmere string students were able to audition for All-State Orchestra, as students in the HRAI String Ensemble are now acknowledged as a school ensemble.

Congratulations to Zimo Liu '25, who advanced to the national level of the Music Teachers National Association student competition as winner of the Eastern Division Piano Duet Competition. Zimo and his partner Jessica Li will compete for the national title at the association convention in Atlanta, Georgia this March. Zimo is a student musician in Archmere's Helena Raskob Arts Institute, under the supervision of Mrs. Mary Ellen Schauber.

In the Diamond State Athletic Conference opener for both teams on January 4 at the Moglia Fieldhouse, Archmere controlled the fourth quarter after a back-and-forth third to defeat Newark Charter, 40-29. After a slow start, the Auks went into the half with a 12-10 lead thanks to senior Miles Kempski's shot with 10 seconds left on the clock.

The indoor track and field team traveled to NY again last weekend to compete in the Hispanic Games at the New Balance Track and Field at the Armory. Competing against 14 other combined teams, our Auks recorded several personal bests and one school record.

The 2023-2024 wrestling season kicked off on December 9th with the Milford Invitational. With sixteen students on the roster this year, the Archmere team came out strong in multiple weight classes. Jimmy Buggy '26 made the podium at 138 pounds, placing third. Jason Suydam '26 took fifth at 126 pounds and Seamus Naughter '26 placed fifth at the 144 pound weight class.