Kelly Anderson

When Sidwell’s varsity soccer squad plays the first game of its season on Sept. 4, some of the school’s most talented players won’t be on the field. In fact, they won’t even be on the team. One of those players, Senior Arjun Rohlfing-Das, has been playing since he was a toddler and has developed into one of the DC region’s top soccer prospects. He works out regularly with a private trainer, and expects to receive multiple offers for soccer scholarships from Division I schools. He has never played a game for Sidwell’s Upper School soccer team.  “The level of consistent competition is higher in the academy system in both games and training,” said Rohlfing-Das, referring to the confederation of teams that form the most competitive level of youth soccer in the United States. Coaches and players also say that college recruiters watch the elite club teams that compete in the academy system, not high school league play, when looking for the prospective recruits. Many aspiring soccer...

Dear fellow Sidwell students, I regret to inform you that you are: “Jewish kids taught by WASPs;" “Self congratulatory and entitled;” and “[Attending] a girls school that happens to have boys.” The good news? Your “moms are hot.” The source of this information is DC Urban Moms, a local parenting website that allows users to post comments anonymously on topics ranging from real estate to private schools. The website has gained a reputation as a place parents in the affluent neighborhoods of upper Northwest Washington and the close-in suburbs go when they want to trade gossip, get advice on day care, or trash talk the private schools attended by their friends’ children. Few schools face more scrutiny on the site than Sidwell, which is frequently criticized for things ranging from its football team to the cafeteria food. According to Jeff Steele, the founder of DCUM, the idea for the site came from his wife, Maria Sokurashvili, who started a listserv in 2002 for fe...

Teens at Sidwell - and their peers across the country - increasingly see getting a driver’s license as more of an expensive, time-consuming hassle than a ticket to freedom. “D.C. is such an easy community to get around by public transportation, so I don’t really feel the need to learn how to drive,” Sidwell senior Jasmin Perrier said. As a District resident, Perrier could have applied for a learner’s permit more than a year ago, when she turned 16, but she just doesn’t think getting a license is worth the trouble. “Parking is a huge issue that I don’t want to worry about, and there are so many other options now, with Uber and other things, that you don’t really need to know how to drive,” Perrier said. Data from the Federal Highway Administration, nationwide surveys, and interviews with Sidwell students show that Perrier is far from alone in putting off getting a license. According to data from the Federal Highway Administration, the number of teenagers who are licensed to dr...

Delight and alarm are competing reactions to an ambitious redevelopment project on the Fannie Mae property across the street from Sidwell’s Upper School campus. Roadside Development, a local real estate firm, plans to break ground on the project at 3900 Wisconsin Avenue after the Federal National Mortgage Association, also known as Fannie Mae, moves its headquarters downtown late this year. Roadside has won DC government approval to replace the existing office complex with a mix of residential units and retailers anchored by a Wegmans grocery along with a boutique hotel and movie theater. Richard Lake, a principal at Roadside, said the project has the potential to fill the gap between the retailers and restaurants in the Cathedral Commons development to the south and Tenleytown to the north, bringing new conveniences to Sidwell students. Lake said Fannie Mae’s move is an opportunity to make the neighborhood more lively. “There was no activity, no energy other than during luncht...

The centerpiece of Sidwell’s new strategic plan is the consolidation of the school’s two campuses into one site, an initiative that Head of School Bryan Garman calls a “once in a lifetime opportunity” but that will require a major fundraising campaign to pay for the renovation of buildings and other expenses related to the purchase of the Washington Home property. The 20-page plan, approved by the Board of Trustees last week, also says Sidwell should attempt to double its $52 million endowment over the next six to eight years in order to provide more financial aid, raise teacher salaries and reduce reliance on tuition increases. Other elements of the plan touch on the school’s culture, including a recognition of the tension between Quaker values such as simplicity and the competitive pressure students feel to excel academically. The four main goals listed in the plan are to “unify” the school at one location, “imagine the future of learning,” “inspire ethical leadership, and “welco...

Jason Gibson ‘19 begins each school day before the sun rises, waking up to take a shower, get dressed, and eat breakfast in time for his mother to drive him the 46 miles from their home in Severna Park, Md., just northwest of Annapolis, to Sidwell in time for his 8 a.m. class. Gibson’s commute, the longest by distance of any current Upper School student, goes through some of the most traffic-clogged roads in the Baltimore-Washington region, and takes an hour and a half in each direction assuming no road work or accidents are causing unusual delays. “The only good part is that I get to sleep during the car ride,” Gibson said. But “it's hard to get a ride down to D.C. on the weekends when I want to hang out with my friends.” Gibson has the longest commute to Sidwell by distance, but a number of other students also have lengthy, complicated trips to and from school. Rama Somborac ‘19, who lives in Bowie, Md., said her 29-mile, hour-and-a-quarter commute to school has impacted ...

Several members of the Sidwell community felt the emotional impact of two of the most devastating storms to hit the U.S. in recent memory -- Hurricane Harvey and Hurricane Irma. History teacher Joanna Premand’s sister lives in Jacksonville, Fla., which was hit with storm surges and devastating flooding as the St. Johns River overflowed. Her sister’s property was not in the path of the worst flooding and did not suffer serious damage, but the house still had not regained power as of publishing. Premand said her sister’s neighborhood was located outside the mandatory evacuation zone, so her sister decided to stay put with her husband, their dog, and two cats and wait out the storm in their home. But since she quickly lost power once the storm made landfall and wanted to preserve her phone’s battery in case of emergency, Premand and her family got no response to check-in texts or calls for nearly seven hours. “The hardest thing about it is the duration of a hurricane,” said Prem...

Part two of my trip recap is about the aspects of life in Japan that I will miss the most. Hope you enjoy! T he first part is available  here . The food:  Japanese food is just so good. I don’t know of another place with such uniformly high quality restaurants. The worst sushi I had in Japan was better than the best sushi I’ve eaten in America. Hmmmm....sushi Excellent ramen Matcha (green tea kit kats). They have matcha flavored varieties of everything! A half-vanilla, half-matcha ice cream cone Restaurants  are held to a much higher standard than they are in the United States, which seems to give the customer more control over the dining experience. It is considered impolite to tip waiters, and most restaurants have a button at each table that can be used to signal waiters, as opposed to trying to flag them down by making eye contact. It's also much easier to pay the bill. At the end of a meal, the server gives you the receipt and you wa...

I have so many reactions and memories kicking around in my head that I am breaking this summary of my trip to Japan into two parts. The second part will be ready in a few days, but I wanted to get some of my ideas into writing as quickly as possible. Our group atop Mt. Wakakusa, near N The day before I began my trip to Japan, I made some predictions about what my experiences would be like  (click here to read them) . Now that I’m back home, it’s time to look back at those predictions to see how they turned out -- and also to reflect on some things that came as a surprise, or "predictions I could not have predicted" before the trip.  Language:  I learned how hard it is to do even the simplest things in a country where you don’t speak the local language. Almost all signs on public transit and at tourist destinations were in English, but restaurant menus and ingredient labels were not, which was a big problem for me because of my tree nut allergy. Almo...

It's always hard to say goodbye. We are sad to be leaving, but we were able to make the most of our final hours in Japan. I went on one last run in Mitaka, and after breakfast, I was off to Yotsuya Station, where we went to tour guide's offices and wrote an essay reflecting on the trip. I am going to wait until after I get back home to publish the essay, along with some other thoughts on my experience, because I want to spend some more time thinking about it on the plane ride tomorrow.  We finished writing around noon and were given free time for the rest of the day. Jamie and I decided to go to the Sumo Wrestling Museum. This was an easy choice, because one of my only regrets about this trip is that we were not in Tokyo while the annual sumo wrestling tournament was in town. It rotates around the country throughout the year and won't be back in Tokyo until September. This was in the train station adjacent to the arena We were determined to get a d...