Saint John of San Francisco Orthodox Academy

Two Icons Bless New School Year

admin — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 16:29:41 +0000

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 its presence. On the third day of school, the Hawaiian myrrh-streaming icon of the Iveron Mother of God arrived at the school. This icon has been miraculously streaming since September 27, 2007, and all students and faculty were anointed with myrrh from the icon. The appearance of the Mother of God at St. John’s this year is especially fitting since the Academy, the only full-time, K-12 school under the auspices of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad, is beginning its 15th year and depends solely on the grace of God and the financial and spiritual support of generous Orthodox faithful throughout the world.

See photo album for more photos of the opening of the school year.

Letter from Metropolitan Hilarion

admin — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 16:34:48 +0000

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 occasion of my election to the position of First Hierarch of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia. I was very moved to receive the congratulatory letter with the signatures of so many teachers and students.

I am in need of your holy prayers before our Lord and the intercessions of our holy father among the saints, John of San Francisco, as I assume the many responsibilities of this office.

May God richly bless all of you with His grace. I look forward to seeing you, God willing, in the not-too-distant future.

With love in Christ,

+ Hilarion
Metropolitan of Eastern American and New York,
First Hierarch of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia

Annual Literary Dinner

admin — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 17:22:17 +0000

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.

Graduation 2008

admin — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 16:30:35 +0000

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 requiring perseverance and commitment. David Jepson, the Dean of the High School, also spoke briefly, quoting Shakespeare, Blake, Oscar Wilde, and a Greek monk named Elder Porphyrios in a passage that concluded: “Whoever wants to become a Christian must first become a poet.” After the graduates gave their brief speeches and the diplomas were handed out, there was a sumptuous banquet.

Next came the “final exam” for Artur and Mikhail: they led their dates out onto the dance floor for a waltz that lasted at least 5 minutes and was wonderfully choreographed, with the boys lifting up the girls and spinning around with them, getting on one knee with the girls twirling around them, etc. (The old Russian tradition is that graduation from secondary school is seen as an entry into “society,” and hence, this formal dance by the graduates.) The remainder of the night saw both ethnic and contemporary dancing lasting well into the night.

Delegation From Ekaterinburg Visits St. John’s Academy

admin — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 14:00:10 +0000

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 Project for Russia. The delegation was interested in learning about moral and ethical education and how it is implemented in an Orthodox school setting. Hieromonk Ieronim is Principal of the Royal Martyr’s Secondary School in Yekaterinburg; Father Igor Bachinin is the priest at the Novo-Tikhvinsky Convent.

Team ‘B’ Knows!

admin — Fri, 30 May 2008 17:29:41 +0000

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 spot with two teams scoring 19 while another took 18. This year’s format was slightly different from previous competitions. Each team got to choose the category of its question much like contestants on the famous TV show Jeopardy.

Congratulations to all who engaged in another spirited “I Know” match and to all parents and staff who volunteered.

Student Poets Published

admin — Tue, 13 May 2008 21:14:29 +0000

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 Jajeh: “The Seasons”
Yevgraf Jakimowicz: “God is 1, 2, 3″
Mia Kalo: “Noise”
Anastassia Mushtaev: “My Garden”
Steven Philipoff: “Spring”
Anastasia Triantafillidis: “The Peacock”
Anthony Triantafillidis: “The Dream”

More information about Creative Communication is available at their web site.

Marine Sanctuaries Presentation

admin — Tue, 13 May 2008 20:57:32 +0000

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 effects of plastic chemical disposal on coastal and marine environments, and to empower students and teachers with knowledge that will stimulate them to take action and to ensure the health of San Francisco Bay and the north central California coast. All the students had a fascinating time. See photo album for more photos.

Chess Club

admin — Mon, 12 May 2008 16:05:05 +0000

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 Bekbulatova with a record of 7-0. Second and third places are currently held by Theodore Winslow and Terence Triantafillidis.

Metropolitan Laurus reposes

admin — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 22:08:01 +0000

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.

Science Fair Winners

admin — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 19:10:31 +0000

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 polish, and Alex won fourth place in the category of physical science for his home-made weather station. The awards ceremony was held at the Randall Museum on Saturday March 1st. Steven’s achievement qualified his project for entry in the San Francisco Bay Area Science Fair on April 2nd at the San Francisco County Fair Building in Golden Gate Park. Congratulations to Steven, Alex, and their St. John’s science teacher, Mrs. Helen Solomonoff.

Administrators attend College Board Conference

admin — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 16:44:59 +0000

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 meet representatives from California colleges and universities.

The College Board is well known as the organization responsible for the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT), the Preliminary Scholastic Aptitude Test/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT), the Advanced Placement tests (AP), and the College Scholarship Service (CSS). There were several workshops that explained the latest findings and issues in these areas in addition to a “College Fair” where admissions officers displayed information about their schools to high school administrators.

One of the more interesting presentations was the Keynote speech by Dr. David Conley of the Education Policy Improvement Center on the topic of College Readiness. He spoke about the importance that a college degree will have for young people in the 21st century and about the need for high schools to ensure that their graduates are genuinely prepared for the academic demands of higher education. Dr. Conley expressed his concern that too many graduates of public secondary schools were not really ready for college. Learning facts alone was not enough, Dr. Conley said; the real key to college success was “cognitive strategies,” or thinking skills.

Mrs. Kotar and Mr. Jepson picked up important insights into the current state of secondary and higher education at the conference and also were encouraged to hear confirmation that the academic program at St. John’s is essentially the right one for college-bound Orthodox students.

Grades 8-12 Visit NY City

admin — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 22:55:09 +0000

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 The Hewitt School, a private girls’ school, to give a presentation about Russian Orthodoxy to the combined Russian History and Comparative Religion classes. The presentation went well, and the Hewitt students asked a number of good questions afterwards. The St. John’s group met up later at the Empire State Building and then traveled to Times Square and an early pizza dinner.

Thursday was devoted to visiting the Metropolitan Museum of Art. For the first 90 minutes, the group was given an excellent guided tour of the Greek and Roman galleries. Then the students had time to fulfill their assignments to locate various objects in the museum, draw at least one of them, and write a descriptive essay. There was also free time to explore the impressive Egyptian rooms and European Painting galleries and to browse the huge gift shop.

On Friday, the plan had been to visit the Russian Orthodox Cathedral in NY, but a serious storm blanketed the city in snow that morning, causing various complications and disruptions, and leading to the decision to abandon this part of the program. Instead, the group made its way through snowy Central Park and then headed for the airport. The flight was one of the few that day which was not seriously delayed, and the students and teachers arrived back in San Francisco on Friday evening. See photo album for more photos.

S.F. Opera comes to St. John’s

admin — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 17:02:25 +0000

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 main theme of the opera was acted out by all the students using beautiful costumes and expressive props. As kings, queens, princesses, river maidens, and giants, all the students acted out sections of the opera coming together in a slightly modified moral ending: the relinquishing of the all-powerful ring as selfish Wontan is reminded that the love of one’s family is more important than all the riches of the world. The visit was as loved and appreciated as last year’s. See photo album for more photos.

Guest Speaker: Mr. Bryan Smith

admin — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 23:05:31 +0000

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 classes during the school day, he spoke to the faculty about character education and the importance of thoughts, words, and deeds in the development of good habits. During the evening, Mr. Smith spoke to the parents about the state of American education today and the challenges and benefits of small, private, Christian schools like St. Peter’s and St. John’s. His talk was followed by a lively question and answer session that everyone found very beneficial and enlightening.