May 16, 2012 — Santa Barbara, Calif.

Student artists and musicians at Anacapa School are gearing up for the annual Anacapa Art Show and Concert on Monday, May 21, 2012 at 5:00 p.m on campus at 814 Santa Barbara Street.

Anacapa students earned more than 100 first place ribbons and four Best of Show awards at the Santa Barbara Fair and Expo. These award-winning student entries, including drawings, paintings, and ceramics, will be on display at the event. In addition, Anacapa’s Lower School music class and members of the Upper School ensemble “The Adobes” will perform under the direction of Anacapa teacher and musician Hugo Macario.

In a time when many schools are cutting back their art and music programs, more than 80% of Anacapa’s student body is currently enrolled in at least one of the independent school’s art, music and performance course offerings.

“The arts are alive and well at Anacapa! I am so proud of my students and their artistic accomplishments this year,” said Anacapa’s founding teacher and head of faculty Suzie Sichi. “This is sure to be a tremendous celebration of their talents.”

A selection of refreshments for the whole family including light hors d’oeuvres will be provided at the event.

Anacapa School is an independent, co-educational, WASC–accredited, college preparatory day school for students in grades 7-12. Founded in 1981 by headmaster Gordon Sichi, Anacapa enjoys the best student-teacher ratio of any school, public or private, in Santa Barbara at its historic campus located in the heart of the Santa Barbara civic center.

Media Contact:
Levi C. Maaia
805-604-5384 • levi@anacapaschool.org
www.anacapaschool.org • www.facebook.com/anacapaschool

Upper School Finals Schedule

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Anacapa School’s spring 2012 performing arts department’s performance of “Carnival!” drew large crowds for both Friday and Saturday evening performances. Based on the 1953 film “Lili,” “Carnival!” tells the story of a young girl who joins a run-down traveling carnival called Grand Imperial Cirque du Paris. The Anacapa rendition showcased numerous and outstanding vocal performances as well as carnival acts including a magician, unicyclists, a hula-hooper, sword swallower, snake charmer and palm reader.

With the help of Anacapa’s Engineering Class, Center Stage Theater was transformed into a French amusement show, featuring a Ferris wheel and vending cart, drawing the audience into the action in the cozy black box theater above Paseo Nuevo shopping center.

Rebecca Tinsley has spent her career campaigning for human rights in some of the world’s most vulnerable regions. She is the founder of the Waging Peace and Network for Africa charities. She was at Anacapa for a special Open Breakfast Club to share her passion for affecting change in Africa. She brought her novel, “When The Stars Fall To Earth,” which is based on her interviews with survivors of Genocide in Darfur.

After an eye-opening Breakfast Club presentation, Rebecca turned to the students for questions. As usual, Anacapans had some fantastic follow-up inquiries for her. She commented at the conclusion of the presentation that Anacapa students had the best and most thoughtful questions of any student group she has spoken to, including university level audiences:

It was a pleasure to attend your Breakfast Club because your students are so exceptionally bright and well-informed. I speak in many schools and colleges, and often I am bewildered by how ignorant kids are, despite all the information at their fingertips. But whatever you and your team are doing at Anacapa School, please keep doing it. You are clearly developing the inquiring minds and critical faculties that our democracy and freedom depends on. But more than that, your students are engaged and compassionate. They are a credit to you. – Rebecca Tinsley

Read the complete news release.

AAHAB-2's on-baord camera systems captured images as it climbed to 111,814 feet above the Earth's surface.

Ground Crew Photos | In-Flight Photos | In-Flight Video
KEYT 3 TV News Story | AR Newsline Radio Story

May 7, 2012 — Santa Barbara, Calif.

Members of the Anacapa Near Space Exploration Club (ANSEC) at Anacapa School are celebrating the weekend success of their second near space probe Anacapa Amateur High-Altitude Balloon 2 (AAHAB-2). The high school team launched two payload capsules tethered to a weather balloon on Saturday, May 5 at 6:52 a.m. from a site off Highway 166, northwest of New Cuyama, Calif.

The sunrise launch afforded the team some tremendous photo opportunities. This images shows the balloon's view climbing through 26,444 feet.

Equipped with GPS, atmospheric sensors, high-definition video and still cameras, a television transmitter and a Geiger counter, AAHAB-2 downlinked live data, video and images to the crew during its ascent. As the balloon climbed through the thinning air, the decreasing atmospheric pressure caused it to expand nearly ten times in diameter. Upon reaching its apex above California’s Central Valley, the balloon burst, sending the payload back to the surface under the canopy of a small parachute. By reaching an altitude of 111,814 feet, AAHAB-2 shattered the record of the group’s own AAHAB-1 flight by more than 20,000 feet.

AAHAB-2 was designed and built entirely by Anacapa students Grayson Baggiolini, Julio Bernal, Alex Carlson, Christian Eckert and Genevieve Hatfield under the supervision of their faculty advisor Levi Maaia. The team has been working on the project since September 2011.

Carlson, an 18-year-old senior at Anacapa, and Hatfield, a 15-year-old sophomore, earned their amateur radio licenses, allowing the group to use specialized higher-power wireless equipment to transmit live video images and data from the capsule to the ground crew throughout the flight. With the support of members of the Santa Barbara Amateur Radio Club, the Anacapa crew watched the live television downlink as the balloon climbed through the freezing, harsh conditions of the upper atmosphere into the dark, eerily-silent skies of near space.

AAHAB-2 was recovered from a ranch near Bakersfield four and a half hours after launch.

“I am confident in saying that AAHAB-2 was a success,” said Carlson, the mission’s flight director. “There are some things we would do differently next time around, but overall we accomplished more than I ever expected.”

The craft’s three-hour and 18-minute flight was about one hour longer than the team anticipated, causing some moments of anxiety as they watched position reports creep eastward toward the Sierra Nevada.

“Our initial projections showed that it would touch down near Taft,” said Eckert, a 16-year-old junior. “We never expected it to climb so high and stay there for so long!”

Fortunately for the crew, the descending capsules landed just short of the ridgeline, touching down in ranchland at the base of the foothills south of Bakersfield.

The students expect to thoroughly document the flight and analyze the collected data over the coming weeks. More information, including additional photos and a condensed version of the in-flight video can be found online at www.anacapaschool.org/ansec.

Anacapa School is an independent, co-educational, WASC–accredited, college preparatory day school for students in grades 7-12. Founded in 1981 by Headmaster Gordon Sichi, Anacapa enjoys the best student-teacher ratio of any school, public or private, in Santa Barbara at its historic campus located in the heart of the Santa Barbara civic center.

Google Earth 3-D flight model (click for larger version):

Media Contact:
Levi C. Maaia
805-604-5384 • levi@anacapaschool.org
www.anacapaschool.org • www.facebook.com/anacapaschool

Famed local artist James “Bud” Bottoms stopped in to Anacapa’s season finale First Thursday Breakfast Club to share his life journey from World War II soldier to commercial artists to revered bronze sculptor. Bottoms is a native Californian with a lifetime of experience swimming and diving in the
Santa Barbara Channel.

Bud Bottoms showed students a naturally occurring nugget that the Chumash believe represents the upper, middle and lower worlds. The shape was the inspiration for the base of 'Dolphin Family.'

He is the creator of the Stearns Wharf centerpiece “Dolphin Family” sculpture as well as countless other sculptures and monuments around the world honoring marine mammals. His admiration for the intelligence of whales and dolphins influences much of his bronze work.

While working on the now famous “Dolphin Family” bronze at Stearns Wharf, he overcame many technical and political hurdles, but, he explained, the reward was worth the effort. During his presentation, Bud encouraged students to chase their “highest aspirations in life.”

After the main presentation, students and parents talked with Bud in more detail during which he revealed his close ties with many influential people across disciplines ranging from spiritual leaders to space pioneers to scientific futurists!

May 3, 2012 — Santa Barbara, Calif.

Anacapa School is extending its Open Breakfast Club series with a special post-season encore event with Rebecca Tinsley on Wednesday, May 9 at 7:50 a.m. on campus at 814 Santa Barbara Street.

Tinsley has spent her career campaigning for human rights in some of the world’s most vulnerable regions. She is the founder of the Waging Peace and Network for Africa charities. In 2003, she and her husband Henry were asked by President and Mrs. Carter to start the Carter Centre UK which, according to its mission, seeks the “alleviation of human suffering and to prevent and resolve conflicts, enhance freedom and democracy, and improve health.”

As a journalist, Tinsley has reported for the BBC and the Huffington Post. Her articles have appeared in such publications as The Telegraph, The Guardian, the New Statesman and the Santa Barbara News-Press.

“It is an incredible honor to have Rebecca come to our campus,” said Gordon Sichi, Anacapa’s founding headmaster. “Her admirable work for human rights is a guiding light for our students who seek to make an impact on the world.”

In 2004, while the world was largely ignorant of the genocide in Sudan, Tinsley visited the Darfur refugee camps to interview survivors about their experiences. The resounding message from the women in the camps was clear: “Go and tell our story. No one knows what’s happening here.” And that is exactly what Tinsley has done. Published in 2011, her third novel, “When The Stars Fall To Earth,” is based on her interviews with these survivors. She is donating all of her author royalties from this book to Darfur Refugee Rescue Efforts.

Anacapa School hosts dozens of expert guest presenters each year. Every month, the school opens its doors to the wider community to honor a special guest lecturer as part of its Open Breakfast Club speaker series. Prospective parents and their students who are interested in Anacapa School are welcome to attend to see a Breakfast Club in action at no charge. After the presentation, guests are invited to join a conversation with the speaker. For more information about this event, parents are encouraged to contact the school’s main office at (805) 965-0228.

Anacapa School is an independent, co-educational, WASC–accredited, college preparatory day school for students in grades 7-12. Founded in 1981 by Headmaster Gordon Sichi, Anacapa enjoys the best student-teacher ratio of any school, public or private, in Santa Barbara at its historic campus located in the heart of the Santa Barbara civic center.

Media Contact:
Levi C. Maaia
805-604-5384 • levi@anacapaschool.org
www.anacapaschool.org • www.facebook.com/anacapaschool

May 2012 Calendar