On the Hilltop

A few weeks ago, the entire Elgin Academy community received notice that the Head of School, Mr. Hanford, would not be returning to the Hilltop for the 2023-24 academic year. Given the news, the Cupola sought to cover Mr. Hanford’s time at the academy. A number of our writers and editors worked together to secure an interview with him, and the entirety of this article is based on that interview.

Throughout October, students in Conceptual Physics learned how to design and build a stable bridge that could withstand certain weight and size requirements. At the beginning, it was very difficult to imagine how such thin wood could be used to design a bridge that could hold even the smallest amount of weight; by the end, it was fascinating to witness the strength of the bridges that the class had designed and to see the seemingly impossible become possible under Mr. Thomas’s guidance.

This year, two seniors, Hisham Shirazi and Kyle Saurer, revived the club using their knowledge of previous Model UN conferences. They garnered increased student participation, and they worked to educate the newer members on debate procedures and the organization of a hypothetical conference. Hisham and Kyle created a mock conference through which the newer members learned more about Model UN as they put their newly acquired skills into action and gained practical experience. The topic of the conference was preventing a possible World War III scenario where the catalyst for the crisis was China’s threats to invade Taiwan.