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The first days of the 2008 school year were blessed by the presence of two miracle-working icons of the Mother of God. On September 2, 2008, the Kursk Root icon arrived at the Holy Virgin Cathedral in San Francisco where the Academy is located, and the opening moleben for the school year was served in […]
June 5th, 2008
The Very Reverend Protopriest Serge Kotar
and the Students and Teachers of St. John of San Francisco Orthodox Academy
Dear Father Serge,
Beloved in Christ Students and Teachers of the Academy,
Please accept my heartfelt greetings wit the holy Feast of our Saviour’s Ascension.
Thank you so much for your kind words of greeting and congratulations on the […]
On Thursday, May 15, students in grades 7-11 participated in a Literary Dinner at Mrs Maximova’s home, which was decorated with a Midsummer Night’s Dream theme. Students came dressed as one of their favorite literary characters. During dinner, students presented their character, and afterwards students played literary games.
St. John’s senior graduation ceremony was held on Thursday night, May 29. There were well over 100 people in attendance to honor the two graduates, Artur Gazaryan and Mikhail Yakovlev. Archbishop Kyrill of San Francisco and Western America, the school’s Headmaster, spoke briefly about education and the Christian life, comparing them to a marathon race […]
On Friday, April 4, a five-person delegation from Yekaterinburg, under the auspices of the US Dept. of State’s International Visitor Leadership Program, visited St. John of San Francisco Orthodox Academy. Two priests and three officials from the Ministry of Education and various city educational departments were part of the Civic and Ethical Values in Schools […]
On May 19, at St. John’s annual “I Know” contest, Team B took the honors by answering 24 questions. Nina Avroneva, Sasha Kondratyeva, Jessica Makhlin, Daria Mushtaev, Steven Philipoff, Terence Triantafillidis and Captain Anya Jackovich were Team B’s winning members. The other three teams finished in a near dead heat for the runner up […]
Creative Communication from Logan UT has announced that 10 students from St. John’s have had their poems accepted for publication in the Spring 2008 poetry anthology. Since 1993 Creative Communication has sponsored writing contests for students across the United States and Canada.
The students and their poems are as follows:
Elizabeth Bozhich: “Spring”
Anya Jackovich: “Spring”
Paulie Jajeh: “Happy”
Christian […]
On April 17, 2008, an Educational Specialist from the National Marine Sanctuaries gave a presentation with hands-on activities to the elementary school students of St. John of SF Orthodox Academy. The name of the program is Webs Under Waves, and targets student in grades third through fifth. The program aims to increase awareness of the […]
The Chess Club was started at the beginning of Great Lent and include participants from Kindergarten through 5th grade. The club meets every day except Tuesdays from 2:30 - 3:15 p.m. Supervised by Mrs. Triantafillidis and Mr. Winslow, the competitors play three intense rounds in best-of-three tournaments.
So far, the leader in the tournaments is Maria […]
On March 9, the Sunday of the Triumph of Orthodoxy, our beloved Metropolitan Laurus reposed peacefully in the Holy Trinity Monastery in Jordanville, New York.
Seventh grade students Steven Philipoff and Alex Nowak represented St. John’s Academy in the 26th annual San Francisco Science Fair, held at the Randall Musuem in late February. Over 250 students from 29 San Francisco middle schools paticipated this year. Steven won third place in the category of behavioral science for an experiment with silver […]
Mrs. Kotar, Administrator, and Mr. Jepson, Dean of the High School, attended the 2008 Western Region College Board Forum in Newport Beach from February 25-27. The conference gave Mrs. Kotar and Mr. Jepson the opportunity to hear presentations from other educators about the challenges facing college preparatory schools like St. John’s as well as to […]
Nine St. John’s students in grades 8-12 visited New York City from Feb. 19-22. Chaperoned by Latin teacher Anna Brenneis and Dean of the HS David Jepson, the group arrived early on Wednesday morning, Feb. 20. Upon arrival, Mrs. Brenneis took the rest of the students sight-seeing while Mr. Jepson and one student went to […]
This last January the San Francisco Opera guild brought Richard Wagner’s Das Rheingold to our first through third grades. After being briefly introduced to the opera, the students were taught one of the opera’s main musical themes to actively participate while other students volunteered to come on stage and act. By turn, the […]
On January 21, 2008, St. John’s welcomed a guest speaker, Mr. Bryan Smith, the headmaster of St. Peter’s Classical Christian Academy in Fort Worth, Texas. St. Peter’s is a small K-12 Orthodox Christian day school like St. John’s, and consequenlty Mr. Smith had a good perspective on the kind of school we are. After visiting […]
On the feast of Theophany of our Lord, January 19, it is customary to bless the waters after the liturgy. As is usually done in the Cathedral, the procession around the church stops in the church courtyard, where a large font is set up full of water to be blessed. This year, the church […]
St. John’s students collected toys for less fortunate children of the city and together with Mrs. Triantafillidis, hand delivered the heavy load to the San Francisco Firefighters. Thank you to these students who helped bring gifts and a happy Christmas to deserving children of San Francisco.
This year’s Christmas Program (Yolka) was a musical version of the Nutcracker, directed by Mr. Seraphim Winslow and Mrs. Veronika Bozhich. Students from grades K-6 participated by singing, dancing and acting. The wonderful performance was full of truly gifted actors and dancers. Following the play, St. John’s was honored with a visit from the […]
This year the 7th graders read Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol in English class and were fortunate enough to attend the ACT production. Unlike past years, this years’ production was special in that our 6th grader Mia Kalo played one of the characters. Under the guidance of their English teacher Mrs. Maximov, the students decided […]
St. John’s students from grades K-6 are rehearsing for the annual Christmas school production of “The Nutcracker,” which will be performed on January 8 at 7:00 p.m. The performance is being directed by Mr. Seraphim Winslow, with the singing conducted by Mrs. Veronica Bozhich. The 5th grade students created a special poster for the event […]
This week, the students of St. John’s collected clothes, toiletries, icons and toys for orphans in Romania. The St. Philothea Project is a non-profit organization that supports orphanages in Romania, and is collecting money and packages for the poor for this Christmas. One of our teachers, Nicholas Kotar, has spent two summers working in […]
St. John’s student Mia Kalo is a member of the cast of the American Conservatory Theater’s production of A Christmas Carol, currently (December, 2007) playing in downtown San Francisco at the A.C.T. theater. Mia plays Belinda Cratchit in this adaptation of Charles Dickens’ much-loved story. A 6th grade student at St. John’s, Mia has been […]
On October 29, 2007, the city of San Francisco hosted its 2nd annual Russian Arts Festival at City Hall. St. John’s students contributed a display of artwork produced during the year under the direction of Mrs. Armine Mukaelian and Mrs. Elena Winslow. After the festival, the school was presented with a Certificate of Honor recognizing […]
Eight students, three teachers, and one parent from St. John’s Academy made a pilgrimage to the Monastery of St. John of San Francisco in Manton, California from November 5-7, 2007. Although both are dedicated to the same patron saint, the Monastery is affiliated with the Orthodox Church of America (OCA) and has no direct relationship […]
The 2007-2008 school year was blessed at the very beginning with a visit by the miraculous “Reigning” or “Derzhavnaya” icon of the Mother of God. This icon left Russia for the first time in history to visit parishes of the Church Abroad in celebration of the reestablishment of communion between the two parts of the […]
This summer two of our graduates, Alaythia Calhoun (2006) and Nicholai Goncharoff (1998) both had weddings. Alaythia was married in the Kazan Church of the Mother of God on August 12, and Nick was married in the Holy Virgin Cathedral on September 9. We wish them God’s blessings and Many Years!
St. John of San Francisco Orthodox Academy is proud to announce Mr. David Jepson as our new Dean of High School. Mr. Jepson comes to us from the TASIS school in England (england.tasis.com) where he has had over 25 years of experience both in teaching and administration. We are looking forward to Mr. Jepson’s vast […]
June 8-9 the Administration of St. John’s Academy attended the first annual Conference on Orthodox Schools held in Fort Worth, Texas, presented by St. John of Damascus Academy (whose students visited us in May, 2007) and St. Peter’s Classical School in association with the OCEC: Orthodox Independent Schools Project. The focus of the conference was […]
May 24 - CONGRATULATIONS! St. John of San Francisco Orthodox Academy Class of 2007 Graduates - Nicholai Casey and Alexandra Iwaszewicz. The Senior class parents hosted a lovely graduation ball. Valedictorian Alexandra Iwaszewicz received the President’s Award for Academic Excellence and President’s Award for Service. Both students received certificates for Math Achievement. Alexandra […]
May 8 the 4-8th graders, led by Mrs. Iwascewicz and accompanied by a few intrepid parents spent the day and night aboard the Balclutha, an early 20th century ship. It was an exciting and rewarding experience for everyone involved, but the highlight for the students seemed to have been the hoisting up of Mrs. Iwascewicz! […]
Every year our students take the California Math League Contest in grades 4-8. This month the 4th graders took the contest. Paul Richter won First Prize and Eugene Lytnev received a Certificate of Merit . Congratulations!
St. John of SF Orthodox Academy students will have their art exhibited at the De Young Museum May 5-13 at the Young at Art Exhibit in a project with the SFUSD. Artwork will be shown in the education gallery. There will be a Gala opening on Friday, May 11 5:30-8:00pm. For questions call the SFUSD […]
Three students of St. John’s Academy passed the audition for the San Francisco Opera Guild Summer Conservatory. Anya Jackovich, Liza and Yuliya Bozhich were chosen to participate in a summer opera training camp where they will receive training from experienced and qualified industry professionals in singing, acting, musicianship, etc. culminating in an original performance at […]
The 7th and 8th grade students attended the ACT production of Charles Dickens’ David Copperfield.
The school students went on a 4 day camping trip with Mrs. Brenneis to Los Angeles where they visited the Getty Villa, which houses various antiquities, and they were able to share their experiences from their Latin classes. They also stopped at the Reagan Library, UCLA and other interesting places, camping along the way. Thank […]
April 20
Today we had a visit from students and administration from St. John of Damascus Orthodox Academy in Santa Barbara. The students were middle school students in grades 6 and 7 who were accompanied by their Headmaster Mr. John Van Fossen and two other guests. We were very happy to welcome representatives of another Orthodox […]
March 23
Today we were visited by some Russian orphans who came from a small Russian orphanage located outside of Vladimir. Our students prepared small gifts for them and spent some time talking to and playing with them at recess.
March 16-17 A few of our middle and high school students went away on a weekend retreat sponsored by St. Christina of Tyre Orthodox Mission (OCA) in order to participate in community service with other Orthodox youth.
Fr. Justin, a monk from St. Catherine’s Monastery in Sinai, visited the school and explained the icon exhibit which he brought to the Getty museum (see photo page). Fr. Justin is also one of the authors of the book on the Sinai icon exhibit which was published for the Getty exhibit. Thank you Fr. Spyridon […]
The High School students flew to L.A. with Mrs. Kotar on a one day field trip to the Getty Museum to see the Icons in Sinai Holy Image Holy Ground Exhibit. Photos will be posted soon.
Our seventh grade student Anya Jackovich participated in the 15th Annual U.S. Open Music Competition held Feb. 19-25 in Oakland, California. She won 4th place in the Showcase open solo and 3rd place - a bronze medal- in the Treasure baroque intermediate. Congratulations to Anya!
The younger elementary students were treated to The San Francisco Opera’s The Magic Flute presented by a docent of their education department, who happened to be Orthodox! (see photo page).
Jonathan Kathrein of Future Leaders for Peace will be doing a workshop for students and parents. Jonathan has been featured on numerous local and national news programs and magazine articles. (See photo page)
September 26, 2006
Today our students participated in an Art Exhibit held at San Francisco City Hall. We received a Certificate of Honor from Mayor Gavin Newsom, recognizing and honoring St. John of San Francisco Orthodox Academy for our hard work and dedication at the First Russian Art Show held at City Hall. Thank you to […]
