Around fifty kids danced the night away at The Courtyard Hall while enjoying this year’s “Black and White” theme. Brendon ‘bartended’ and entertained making his unique and fabulous fruit drink concoctions that tasted as delicious as they looked! MaryKate kept the chocolate fountain flowing – the biggest decision being which combination tasted better, the rice crispy treats with bananas in chocolate or strawberries with brownie bites! Margaret danced her way across the floor encouraging students to snap some shots with friends in the ‘photo booth’, while Tammy wandered around with the official yearbook camera capturing candid pics of the evening’s events. Students danced and laughed their way through three hours of music, food and fun. The evening ending with a lovely slow dance from the City DJ, a heavy metal classic for a select few, and then after prom activities and movies for many students.

A big thank you to the Chrysalis teachers who worked so hard to make prom seem so effortless – a lovely night was had by all

Montessori worked for a few years, but then became very rigorous academically in the 7th grade. The same thing began to happen again. I could see his confidence being affected. This beautiful child is an average student, but an exceptional human being. He deserved more. He deserved to be in an atmosphere that rewards him for who he is and encourages his interests.
For 8th grade, I found Chrysalis! It has been a game changer!

Chrysalis customizes education to each student.  My son hated homework…he gets it all done at school before he leaves. My son hated the repetition of Math problems. He works one-on-one with a Math teacher to learn individually. Time is not wasted on things he already knows. They can concentrate on his personal learning needs.  My son is happy and confident. There are about twenty 8th graders and he has many friends. He looks forward to going to school each day and is learning like never before. He looks forward to staying at Chrysalis through High School and is already talking about what colleges he would like to go to.

Lastly, I must share and experience: His English teacher stopped me one day when I ran into school to drop something off. In the past, this would have incited dread in me. She said, ”I just want to tell you how wonderful your son is.” I cried. I have never been told that by a teacher. He is a wonderful boy. Thank you, Chrysalis!

Spoken word poetry, according to the poet Sarah Kay, is the “art of performance poetry”, poetry that won’t just sit on paper. Micro-fiction tells a story in 500 words or less, the art of telling a big story in the fewest words. Part of the fun comes from the audience participation. Everyone was encouraged to respond to lines and phrases they enjoyed by snapping their fingers or offering a vocal “yeah”, and the audience really got in to it.

We presented two sets of performances, ending each set with the original music of Zane DeYoung. David Rollins, Rehana Asmi, Kevin Burns (read by Sarah Harris), Joe Filer and Michael Giordano shared their poetry. Brittany Wilson and Chris Dubois shared a piece of micro-fiction. Teacher Mary Kate Meyer read the work of Christina Sagrelius, Jenny Lefelman, Gavin Stener, and Owen Shuh. David Rollins read a piece by Forrest Martinez. Teacher Deborah Jacobson served as host and also read a piece from Adelle Pickard.

Additional writing was displayed on the walls, including research papers, creative writing and essays. Several students wrote book reviews, encouraging our guests to try a new book. The whole event showcased the many creative writing talents of our students.

Over 70 people attended the event. With all of the positive reviews, we plan to hold another spoken word night next year.

A Memorial Service to celebrate the life of Chappelle Lauba is scheduled for Sunday April 29th at 2PM.

First Presbyterian Church of Bellevue
1717 Bellevue Way NE Bellevue, WA 98004

In lieu of flowers, we ask donations be sent to: Chappelle Lauba Memorial Scholarship Fund c/o CMAC, PO Box 52768, Bellevue, WA 98015

Please feel free to leave your thoughts below.

The Spanish students spent two days before the event preparing homemade regional cuisine. The night of the event there were additional dishes to enjoy like black bean and chicken taquitos, horchata to drink, chicken mole, goulash and two different types of salsas to savor and devour!

Not only was the food superb, but the talent was as well! Sara and Fiona modeled traditional flamenco-style costumes and Zach played Spanish guitar. Amanda graced the stage with a lovely Spanish lullaby, and Zane and Kyle performed a fun rap song completely in Spanish! The room was filled with beautifully designed artwork and crafts from Germany and Japan, France as well as Mexico and Spain.

Everyone who attended had a wonderful time talking, eating and exploring how hard our students work to learn and experience not just the words but the cultures of the languages they are studying. Thanks to Alison for organizing the food making, John for his delicious tortillas, mole and participation in ‘Jeopardy’ as well as Kari and Eric for their German, Japanese and French connections! Most of all, thanks to all the parents and students who participated and shared their experiences, it made the evening both educational and entertaining.

The evening commenced with dramatic monologues presented by members of the high school theatre class. The performances were gripping, funny and touching. Audience members were also treated to hearing two of our students share their musical talents as well.

After the drama portion of the evening, attendees were ushered down to the ‘gallery’ to view student artwork, photography and film pieces. The common room was transformed into a beautiful gallery filled with a wide range of artistic pieces. All the available wall, shelf, and computer monitor space was covered with incredible artwork, design work, drawing samples, fashion designs, sculpture, and student written and produced short movies. Over 75 pieces adorned the room and every student who participated can be proud of producing such extraordinary artwork.

The night ended at 8pm, after having over 100 people come and share in the Chrysalis community. A huge thank you goes out to Arts Instructor, Margaret Meyer, for managing the evening and to all the teachers that helped organize and prepare and participate in the event. But the biggest ‘thank you’ goes to all the parents, family, friends and Chrysalis community members that attended the evening and made it so successful!

I am a junior at Seattle University where I now work as a photo intern for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer (SeattlePI.com) and am in my 2nd year on staff for SU’s student newspaper, the Spectator. Last year I interned for Seattle University’s Marketing and Communications. I now freelance on occasion for them. Photojournalism was an unexpected turn in my photo career but has brought me a whole new set of challenges and opportunities. I was even lucky enough to win Digital Photo Pro’s Emerging Pro competition in photojournalism in 2011.

For the last two summers I participated in the Young Photographers Alliance summer program, which brings together groups of college photographers from select cities across U.S. and abroad to create individual projects around an annual theme. The photos are then displayed at Calumet Photo in NYC.

I’m also keeping busy with Co-Art Directing my university’s literary and arts annual, Fragments, and Co-chairing my college’s Student Executive Council. My hope is to do documentary work abroad in the near future and hopefully partner with environmentally focused NGOs in need of media.

You can view my work at http://www.lindseywasson.com or keep up with my latest at http://www.lindseywasson.wordpress.com

After Chrysalis I attended Bellevue Community College where I received an Associate’s Degree in Business. Once transferred to the University of Washington I majored in Economics for my Bachelor’s. After University I practiced as a Commercial Real Estate Agent and Property Manager in Santa Barbara, California. In early 2009 I married my College sweetheart. I later returned to Washington and joined AT&T Mobility in their retail sales force. Currently, I live in Redmond near where I work for AT&T as a Sales Compensation Analyst in our corporate offices.

After Chrysalis, I started work on my bachelor degree in Biochemistry at Central Washington University; finished 2008. I then chose to study as a chemistry doctorate student at the University of Oregon. Currently, I plan on defending my thesis work towards the end of summer 2012. My research is in solid state/materials chemistry; specifically I use physical vapor deposition to create ultra-thin film nano-laminates. The generic goal of our research is to investigate the fundamental chemistry behind correlations between physical properties and nano-strucure. Afterwords, I hope to return to the pacific northwest and work for industry in materials chemistry.

Besides work, My wife Stephanie and I celebrated six years of marriage this year and are expecting a baby girl in late February, her name is Chloe and she is our first child. Stephanie works at a local day care; she has always enjoyed working with children.

The last year of a doctorate degree is typically very time consuming… I’m writing this bio at Argonne National Laboratory (southwest of Chicago) where we are running X-ray diffraction studies with the Advanced Photon Source synchrotron. Some year I hope to find the time for another hunting trip.

My advice to seniors at Chrysalis: be intelligent, you should seek further education but not all degrees are created equal. Have the foresight to see that your education will lead to stable employment.