Upper School News

Rowdies’ Mr. Wolf Explained

If you’ve been to a JA Raider athletic event (and who hasn’t?), you have glimpsed a gray figure that seems quiet and still amid the raucousness of pep rallies and games. Mr. Wolf, who accompanies the boys spirit team known as the Rowdies, is a stalwart supporter of the Raiders. But why?

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Encore and Showtime Overcome Obstacles on the Path to Competition

Normally, choreographers Kevin Chase and Nick Quamme spend a week at JA teaching Encore and Showtime the dances for their upcoming competition season. But 2020 isn’t a typical year. Instead of visiting Jackson, Chase and Quamme taught choreography via Zoom from their studios in Iowa and Wisconsin as students watched from the Performing Arts Center’s choral music room.

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Three JA Seniors Recognized as National Merit Semifinalists

Jackson Academy is proud to recognize three 2021 National Merit Semifinalists. Seniors Zoe Ladner of Jackson, Isabelle Lee of Brandon, and Priya Ray of Brandon are among approximately 16,000 Semifinalists in the 66th annual National Merit Scholarship Program, officials of National Merit Scholarship Corporation announced last week.

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Three JA Ninth Graders Attend Trent Lott Leadership Institute

Each year, the Trent Lott Leadership Institute for Rising Ninth Graders accepts 50 students from the state of Mississippi. In 2020, three of those students were from JA. Blair Wilson, Red Deaton, and Benjamin Watson were nominated in December of 2019 and earned their place in the program through a two-part application process that focused on their leadership backgrounds and aspirations.

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The Show is Going on, Online

“The show must go on” may be the theatre’s best-known maxim. Jackson Academy Theatre has taken the saying to a new level, adapting their spring plans to fit the times by taking projects and productions online. In Director of Theatre Arts Kerri Sanders’ theatre tech class, the spring syllabus includes learning costume construction using hand-sewing techniques in the classroom. Instead, students are putting those same skills to use as they sew surgical masks at home.

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2019-2020 Academic Honor Society Inductions – Science and Spanish

JA Upper School Chair of the Science Department Sarah Shaw and Spanish Honorary Sponsor Leah Busby announce the 2019-20 Upper School inductees into the National Science Honor Society and the National Spanish Honor Society. Each Thursday look for other JA academic honor society inductions presented by our faculty. Congratulations to these students for their academic accomplishments!

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