For elementary school students, early technology training, a growth mindset, and teamwork skills can help them make the most of opportunities that come later in life. Former Clairbourn School students Nina Luo and Caroline Kwan, from the Class of 2018, exemplify this perfectly. The following article describes their new app, “Dishcovery,” and how Clairbourn School provided early educational advantages that helped them to take on this later technology challenge.
Nina Luo and Caroline Kwan, creators of the Dishcovery app. Both young women are Clairbourn School alumnae.
Anytime an interactive tool or device is created, there is a lot to learn and accomplish. Having an ability to think conceptually as well analytically is key to generating the initial idea, the plan, and the steps for development and deployment. When busy high school students Nina Luo and Caroline Kwan set out to create an app for their summer computer class at Coding Minds Academy, they didn’t flinch when faced with the mountain of work involved. They chose to invest their precious free time, both in and outside of class, to make an app that had meaning and value for their everyday life.
As food enthusiasts who frequently eat out and enjoy discovering new dishes, Nina and Caroline realized they wanted a way to quickly identify the customers’ favorite items on restaurant menus. Both of them were aware of Yelp.com but felt that reading through multiple posts and clarifying what was worth ordering was too time consuming. So they decided to build an app that could determine the preferred items mentioned in user reviews and then list the top ten dishes at restaurants.
Magician Rmax Goodwin, from Clairbourn’s Class of 2008
While our Clairbourn School alums end up in a multitude of industries, there is a common thread that runs through their stories. They are hardworking, dedicated to making a difference in people’s lives, and they are impressively accomplished. They also understand the importance of giving back, which this featured alum, Rmax Goodwin, demonstrates so well.
Rmax (pronounced Ar-Max) Goodwin became interested in magic when he was six years old, and at Clairbourn School, he was encouraged by his teacher, Mrs. Wreede, to audition at the Magic Castle. His life changed at this point when the Magic Castle became a resource for him to network and learn from some of the modern-day masters. His pursuit of excellence in his craft also made him keenly aware of the intellectual and academic parts of performing. He recognized that the audience-performer relationship is quite complex and that his mentalism, which is punctuated by unique presentations, had to be well-researched and practiced over and over again. This was where he put his bachelor’s degree in Philosophy from Pitzer College to use, as he applies his ability to think persuasively and logically to his unique and sophisticated form of entertainment.
Erin Price, Class of 2012, plans to co-teach at an elementary school in Lawrence, Massachusetts.
Erin Price, Class of 2012, radiates maturity, poise, and purpose. She embodies the qualities of an outstanding Clairbourn alum. Just this May, she graduated from Smith College with a degree in Psychology and Education & Child Study and plans to co-teach at an elementary school in Lawrence, Massachusetts. Being a community builder with a heart for service and helping others has always been a core value in Erin’s life.
Trusts and Estates Lawyer Anne Gifford Ewing, Class of 1992
Possessing an Audrey Hepburn elegance coupled with the intelligence of Madeleine Albright, Anne Gifford Ewing from the Class of 1992 speaks with an arresting precision and poise. One could point to her training and current profession as a trusts and estates lawyer as the key ingredient for her competence as a wordsmith. One could also note her passion for literature, writing, foreign language, history, music, and theater as influential in shaping her career interests and encouraging her to lead a reflective and well-examined life. While all of these factors played integral roles in honing Anne’s skills, what stands out the most is her time at Clairbourn School, which laid the foundation for her future and cultivated a love of learning.
(Left) Paige Dyrek, from Clairbourn School’s Class of 2006, who is now a Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine.
For the men and women who dedicate themselves to the medical profession, it is truly a calling. Paige Dyrek, from Clairbourn School’s Class of 2006, is no exception. She has chosen this career in medicine because she was passionate about helping people who have overcome traumatic and life-altering injuries.
She received her Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine degree form Western University of Health Sciences in Pomona and is completing her Preliminary Medicine year at UCSF-Fresno. In June, she will head to Stanford to complete her residency in Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, a specialty that deals with the acute rehabilitation of traumatic brain injuries, spinal cord injuries, neurodegenerative diseases, and sports-related injuries.
Paige credits Clairbourn School with providing her the knowledge and skills to succeed, as well as a positive learning environment that instilled in her a passion for learning. To learn more, Clairbourn’s Alumni Director Dr. Janny Chang conducted the following interview with Paige about her journey from Clairbourn to a promising career in medicine:
Clairbourn teachers, like most educators across the globe, spent late March and early April converting their lessons over to an online format so students could continue to make progress in their studies during the COVID-19 crisis. The Internet has so many tools and resources to help with the transition, but Clairbourn is a close-knit community, and nothing can replace the human connection. With teachers missing seeing their students in person, they worked together to make a printable poster message to say hello and give their students added encouragement.
Clairbourn Teachers and Staff Made this Poster to Greet and Support Clairbourn Students.
Clairbourn School Provides Private School Education for Preschool, Kindergarten, Elementary School, and Middle School Grades | Serving Families in the Pasadena, California, Area and Surrounding Cities (K-12 Private Schools) Clairbourn is a 501(c)3 charitable organization. Click here to request information.
Outer space, with its jewel-like planets, shimmering stars, and astronauts with their cool technology, is very exciting to the imagination! Naturally, Clairbourn School preschoolers dove right in to their STEM unit about space with great enthusiasm. The whole class got busy learning about the Milky Way, our solar system, and the planets—and some students even learned the planet names in order!
This was an immersive unit with academic, artistic, and hands-on components. One of the features included a visit from Outreach Coordinator and Astronomer Dr. Jeff Rich from Carnegie Observatories in Pasadena, California, who came to Clairbourn with an inflatable planetarium that fit the entire class inside. A film projector animated the inside of the dark dome with popular wonders of the night sky, and the students were educated about how to locate and identify well-known stars and planets.
Clairbourn students, with Dr. Rich from Carnegie Observatories, entered the inflatable planetarium where projections of planets and stars were projected onto the ceiling of the dome.
In the classroom, students learned solar system terminology—made more engaging by letting the students choose their own word to learn each morning. They also had homework assignments to build a miniature rocket ship and present it to the class by sharing what materials they used, who helped them, and if it was hard to make. They had to share a fun fact about each planet, research who was the first man on The Moon and find out how astronauts sleep, eat, and shower in the space ship.
Left – a student practices writing the space words learned in class each morning. Center – two classmates play “astronaut” during activity time. Right – While wearing an astronaut costume, a student makes a painting of the moon’s cratered surface.
It soon became
obvious that all of the students wanted to identify as astronauts, so not only
did they make art pieces where their faces were combined with astronaut
pictures, but they were able to wear full astronaut costumes with helmets in
the classroom’s Space Activity Center. One inspired preschool parent, Yue Ma,
enhanced the activity center by building a kid-sized, 3D, cardboard rocket ship
playhouse and also a wooden-cutout rocket ship with scenic background that all
the children could use.
Left – The rocket ship wooden cutout, painted by parent Yue Ma, helped students bring their space dreams to life. Right – Moms play astronaut with their children during Mothers Visiting Day. (On the back wall, student-made rocketships provide additional decoration to the classroom’s Space Activity Center.
When the rocket ships props showed up, Preschool Teacher Sayra Rubio became inspired to make a movie with the students playing astronauts in space talking about the planets. Using the school’s video room and Communications Department staff, the filming and editing took place over a two-week time span.
Preschool students were filmed “floating in space” in the school’s green-screen video room. (Note the 3D cardboard spaceship playhouse on set, built by parent Yue Ma, which was used in the filming.)
The parent-made spaceships and the classroom astronaut costumes were all used in the movie, and each student had time on camera either walking on the moon or pretending to float in space in front of a green screen. Afterwards, the students’ own narration of space facts was recorded and combined with the footage. The final movie was shown to students and parents on Mothers and Grandparents Visiting Day, and all the moms were given a copy of the movie for their family memories.
Clairbourn Preschool students have been studying the planets. They learned planet names and facts, dressed up like astronauts, played in a classroom spaceship made of cardboard, and filmed green-screen video segments to help create this presentation.
Watch Clairbourn preschoolers what they know about outer space, the planets, and black holes in their very own movie production!
Additional
memorable moments from the Space STEM Unit included a student asking their
parents take them to a museum so they could see a real rocket ship! Two other students decided to create their
own solar system using clay and Play Doh to interest their fellow
classmates. And, one additional student
took the initiative to make a self-narrated slide presentation about black
holes just so she could share her excitement about the subject with the
class.
This kind of enthusiastic subject exploration is the result of the teacher and child-initiated programming opportunities offered by Clairbourn’s preschool program, with the end goal to create pre-academic readiness and a life-long love of learning in each student.
Clairbourn School Provides Private School Education for Preschool, Kindergarten, Elementary School, and Middle School Grades | Serving Families in the Pasadena, California, Area and Surrounding Cities (K-12 Private Schools) Clairbourn is a 501(c)3 charitable organization. Click here to request information.
With an infectious laugh and effervescent personality, Taryn Johnson, Class of 2000, simply glows. Now that her daughter Harper is enrolled in the kindergarten class at Clairbourn, it marks five generations here.
The family history dates back to the mid-1940s when Taryn’s great-grandmother, Lola Wallden, started her career as a school bus driver and retired in 1982 as the Assistant Head of School. Taryn’s grandmother, Beverly Thomson, was the preschool and kindergarten teacher from 1971 until the year 2000. Taryn’s mother, Jodie Robison, is also an alum of the school and worked in the finance office for years.
