Each year, Viewpoint’s Upper School musicians are recognized at the national level for their commitment to excellence in both music and academics. In December, 11 juniors and seniors earned induction into the Tri-M Music Honor Society, a program of the National Association for Music Education (NAfME).

Tri-M is the only national honor society dedicated to middle and high school musicians and focuses on developing student leaders through music education, service, and advocacy. The students recognized this year include:

• David Wang ’27
• Jamey Tsugawa ’27
• Jasper Hughes ’27
• JP Walker ’27
• Kayla Paschall ’27
• Kian Tabandeh ’27
• Niya Lal ’27
• Noah Fournier ’26
• Racheal Chun ’27
• Samson Harrington ’27
• Winston Ge ’27

Selection for Tri-M is based on a comprehensive audition and review process that evaluates students’ musical growth, technical proficiency, and overall musicianship. Auditions assess students across three areas: sight reading, technical elements such as scales and arpeggios, and a prepared solo performance.

Students are also expected to showcase excellence in academics and active participation in community service. According to the NAfME, student members across the nation collectively contribute over 750,000 service hours to their school and local communities annually, raising nearly $1 million for causes close to their hearts.

Congratulations to the students who have earned induction into the Tri-M Music Honor Society. More information on the program can be found here.

Viewpoint’s Music Department closed out the fall semester on a high note with three Middle and Upper School concerts in December, bringing student musicians from the strings, band and choral programs to the Carlson Family Theater ahead of winter break.

The Middle and Upper School Strings Concert, directed by Dr. Kristin Herkstroeter and Ms. Marisa McLeod, opened the series on Tuesday, December 2, featuring Sixth Grade Strings, Middle School Beginners, Middle School and Upper School string quartets, and the Middle School and Upper School orchestras. The program included introductory pieces such as “Frog in a Tree” by Edmund J. Siennicki and the traditional “Old Joe Clark,” along with works by George Frideric Handel and Edvard Grieg, including “Entrance of the Queen of Sheba” and “Holberg Suite.” The string quartets performed selections by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, while the Middle and Upper School orchestras closed the program with selections by Percy Grainger and Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov.

Held Tuesday, December 9, the Middle and Upper School Band Concert featured a wide range of ensembles, including the Combined Beginning Middle School and Sixth Grade Band, Middle School Concert Winds, Upper School Wind Ensemble, Pep Band Selections, The Four and a Half, and Middle and Upper School jazz ensembles. The program opened with selections such as “Cumbia” by Jorge Vargas and “Creepy Crawly Creatures” by Brian Balmages. The Upper School Wind Ensemble performed “Night on Bald Mountain” by Modest Mussorgsky, arranged by Mark Williams, as well as “Spring Will Come Again” and “The Simpsons.” Pep Band Selections, directed by seniors, and The Four and a Half featured pieces including “Morning of the Carnival” by Luiz Bonfa and “Crimson,” composed by Jishnu Mukherjee ’26. The concert concluded with performances by the Middle School Jazz Lab and Upper School Jazz Ensemble, including “Take the ‘A’ Train.”

The concert series concluded on Tuesday, December 16, with the Middle and Upper School Choral Concert. The program featured performances by Voices Now, Sixth Grade Choir, Middle School Vocal Ensemble, Upper School Concert Choir and Combined Choirs. Selections ranged from contemporary and popular works, including David Bowie’s “Changes” and “Lovely Day” by Bill Withers, to choral repertoire by composers such as Franz Joseph Haydn and Stephanie Mabey. Voices Now performed arrangements by Music Director Bill Brendle and were joined by a guest beatboxer, while student soloists were featured throughout the evening. The concert closed with combined ensemble performances that brought our Middle and Upper School vocalists together.

As the spring semester gets underway, the Music Department will continue the concert season with several upcoming performances. Student musicians will take part in the CAIS Honors Music Festival on Saturday, February 7, followed by the Five through Twelve Grade Strings Concert on March 3, the Middle and Upper School Band Concert on March 16, and the Middle and Upper School Choir Concert on March 18.

On Wednesday, December 17, Viewpoint’s Middle and Upper School gathered for a Celebration of December Holidays. With festive music playing throughout the campus, students gathered to learn, connect, and celebrate together during an event organized by members of the Office of Belonging and Community Life team, with a tremendous amount of support from Viewpoint Operations.

The Upper School celebration took place on the plaza and featured a series of interactive and educational booths highlighting Hanukkah, Christmas, and Kwanzaa. Student affinity groups played a central role in bringing the event to life, with the Jewish Student Union, Christian Student Union, and Black Student Union each hosting booths connected to the respective cultures and traditions. Students also had the opportunity to visit a Girls in STEM booth, where members led a hands-on snow-making demonstration.

Faculty and staff volunteers were present throughout the event and at a pop-up hot chocolate bar, where they made and distributed the delicious drink (cookies, marshmallows, and candy canes, too!), creating a warm and festive atmosphere as students gathered, learned, and connected with one another.

In the Middle School, the celebration featured a wide range of holiday-themed activities. Students participated in cookie decorating, snowflake designing, and snowman making. There was also an ugly sweater contest. A game of musical chairs, featuring holiday tunes and lots of participants, created quite a bit of attention and excitement.  

A campus-wide raffle added an element of friendly competition, challenging students to search for winter-themed penguins hidden throughout the Middle School campus. In addition to the activities, Hanukkah, Christmas, and Kwanzaa displays (supported by wonderful middle school parents) highlighted each holiday’s traditions and featured treats including cookies, candies and latkes for all to enjoy.

“During each school year, we offer opportunities for our community members to learn more about the many cultures and traditions that help to create our beautiful and vibrant Viewpoint family. These activities and events are designed to be inclusive, fostering kindness, respect, and very often, community service,” shared Patricia Jackson, Chief Belonging and Community Officer. “This is one of the ways we help to support education that leads to our World Ready Promise. The Celebration of December Holidays also serves as a nice segway into our winter break.”

From our Viewpoint Family to yours, we wish you health, peace, and joy during this time, and always.

For Lucas Hurwitz ’29, the global clean water crisis isn’t something he learned about in a textbook. It’s something he grew up hearing about at home.

“My grandpa would tell stories about him and his brother having to dig next to the river and let the water filter through the dirt just to make it a little cleaner,” explained Hurwitz. “Even then, the bacteria and parasites wouldn’t go away.”

Hurwitz’s grandfather grew up in rural Ethiopia, where access to clean drinking water was limited and waterborne illness was a daily reality. Those stories stayed with Hurwitz and later shaped how he approached his Bar Mitzvah mitzvah project. Wanting to honor both his Ethiopian heritage and his Jewish faith, Hurwitz chose to focus his mitzvah project on clean water access.

“When you have a Bar Mitzvah, you have to do a mitzvah project, and I wanted it to be something I was actually passionate about,” Hurwitz said. “So many children in that part of Ethiopia and across East Africa still don’t have access to clean drinking water.”

At just 13 years old, Hurwitz decided to turn that sense of purpose into action, working with the nonprofit organization Water to Thrive to raise funds for his first clean-water well in Ethiopia in honor of his grandfather.

The well was completed in June 2025 in the Taramicho community in the Hula District of Sidama, Ethiopia, providing reliable access to clean drinking water for more than 380 people, with many more traveling from surrounding areas to use it.

After seeing the impact of the first well, Hurwitz decided to continue the work and formally launched Drink Well, a youth-led nonprofit focused on expanding clean-water access while empowering other young people to take part in meaningful global change. He has since fully funded a second well, which will be constructed soon.

This fall, he brought the work to campus by launching the Drink Well Water Club at Viewpoint. Since the beginning of the school year, the Water Club has quickly grown to include more than 45 student members.

Faculty-sponsored by Interim Head of Upper School Dr. Bobbi McDaniel and Upper School art teacher Krystal Rhema, the club meets weekly and works toward a shared goal: building the “Viewpoint Well” for a community in East Africa with the greatest need. Those interested in learning more or supporting the effort can do so here.

“Being world ready means actually doing something,” Hurwitz said. “It’s not just about learning or raising awareness. It’s about making real change.”

Alongside his work with Drink Well, Hurwitz has also begun exploring scientific approaches to improving water safety and health. One of his current projects focuses on developing a low-cost iodine disc that attaches to a water container and is designed to improve both water quality and nutrition in communities with limited resources.

“Science has always been my thing,” Hurwitz said. “I want to figure out how we can use it to create simple solutions that actually help people.”

As a freshman, Hurwitz is already demonstrating how personal history, curiosity, and a commitment to service can come together to create meaningful impact.