"Understanding, Empathy, & Purpose" at The National Memorial for Peace and Justice

Saint James School students at The National Memorial for Peace and Justice: the nation’s first memorial dedicated to the legacy of enslaved Black people, people terrorized by lynching, African Americans humiliated by racial segregation and Jim Crow, and people of color burdened with contemporary presumptions of guilt and police violence.

Each year, Saint James tenth grade students visit the Legacy Museum and the National Memorial for Peace and Justice. The Legacy Museum, established by Bryan Stevenson and the EJI, tells the story of slavery in the United States and the lasting effects it has had in history.  In confronting the past, we know our students are today becoming ready to act with character, courage, and knowledge in the future. 

Annually, STJ English teacher, Mrs. Joanna McCurdy, assigns an essay prompt for her students to complete reflecting on their experience. Please find excerpts from some of the essays below.

Saint James students at the National Memorial for Peace and Justice.

After a trip to the museum, I have been given insight into how I view myself and the way that I interact with others. The field trip has shown me that as a society we take a lot for granted. Overall, the trip was a fundamental experience in teaching me how much a person’s ancestry and generational trauma goes into their identity and how it is sometimes easy to overlook that background…This trip was enlightening in many ways. The Legacy Museum is such an important part of our community. It brings up conversations that are uncomfortable, but deserve to be talked about.” -Jakiyah Hyman, class of 2026

“The Legacy Museum and the National Memorial for Peace and Justice stand to remind people from all backgrounds to advocate for a safer world.”

— Haley Hust, class of 2026

“The Legacy Museum and the National Memorial for Peace and Justice impacted my thoughts and life by giving me more knowledge to understand identity, empathy, and the purpose of knowing history.”

— Jack Caradori, class of 2026

Alabama Youth in Government- My Favorite Time of Year!

by: Ava Donaldson, class of 2024

The 2023-24 Youth Judicial “Top Team” Award- STJ!

2024 Scholarship Recipients. I was honored to be presented with the Bill Barringer Memorial Scholarship.

One of my favorite things that I have had the privilege to be a part of in my many years at Saint James is ALYIG. Alabama Youth in Government is a program run through the YMCA where students from all across the state participate in mock trials and debate legislation. I initially got involved with the program in seventh grade with their Junior Youth Legislator, little did I know that it would become my favorite time of the year. Flash forward to my freshman year where I joined a team of seven other freshmen where we competed in a mock trial on zoom for the first time. Although we did not win any of our three rounds of debate, fellow senior Will Alexander and I promised we would qualify for nationals by our senior year. This first year on a glitchy zoom call is where I first met some of the people I would soon call my best friends. Throughout the next four years I made sure I was at every youth in government event. Youth Judicial in November, Youth Legislator in February, and Youth in the City in April, I was at all of them! Year after year my public speaking skills improved tremendously and I became incredibly outgoing. These conferences were what I looked forward to every year because I got to see all of my friends and we could reminisce about all of our terrible speeches and the many times “decorum!” was yelled through the speakers. Aside from all of the unserious and funny moments of these conferences, my ever-changing Youth Judicial team became one to beat at state. In my final year myself along with seniors Will Alexander, Alex Ruona, Carter Miller, Jordan Rossell, Jaden Rossell, Madison Walton, and sophomore Micheal Phan we finally achieved what we had worked so hard for: nationals. This upcoming July we will take on the National Youth Judicial competition in Minnesota. I am so incredibly grateful to my teachers that have helped me throughout my years and all of my friends I made along the way. #wearesaintjamesschool

Science Fair- Biology Meets Art

by: Shelly Taliaferro, AP Biology teacher

left to right: AP Biology students Harrison Allen, Cole Williams, Addison Seale, Reilly Taylor, and Rylee Richardson, with their poster entitled “A comparison of fine-art faunal diversity among two museum communities - a model to utilize Simpson's biodiversity index for AP Biology.”

Recently, AP Biology students participated in the Greater East Alabama Regional Science and Engineering Fair, held at AUM, where they received third place in the Earth and Environmental Sciences and Environmental Engineering category. They advanced to the Alabama Science and Engineering Fair, held at Auburn University, where they placed third in the Animal and Plant Sciences category and also won the Biological Sciences Award for Creative Application of Biological Principles. Students received a certificate, a medal, and a monetary award. 

The science project involved AP Biology students conducting an inventory of animal "species" found in artwork at the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts and the Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Art (Auburn), then calculating and comparing a biodiversity index between the two museum "communities." Due to constraints of time, transportation, suitable habitat, and weather, AP Biology classes usually use types of cars in the parking lot, different varieties of dried beans, or colorful beads as "organisms" for calculations of community diversity. To our knowledge, this is the first time an AP Biology class has utilized artwork animals for these calculations. Our approach includes a more organismal focus to the biodiversity calculations as well as known benefits of integrating art with science, such as increased student engagement, learning, and retention.

#wearesaintjamesschool 

Prom 2024- A Night at the Disco!

Campbell (second from right) and some of her classmates from the STJ c/o 2025.

by: Campbell Wright, class of 2025

Earlier this month, the Saint James junior class hosted our annual prom. The theme for this year was “A Night at the Disco.” It was a night full of dancing, great music, and incredible decorations. I am a member of the prom club led by Mrs. Ward, along with other junior girls and officers. Our club spent the year planning out and organizing details and ideas to create this magical Prom night. The Friday before Prom, our club ensured the seniors had the best last Prom by setting up fabulous disco decorations, creating memories and sharing laughs as we set up for the night.

The Warehouse at Alley Station was groovy with disco balls, silver accents, and lots of sparkles!

Prom night began for me at Wynlakes Country Club where the entire Junior class took pictures. My friends and I had the best time taking pictures together, capturing our memories of an unforgettable night. After pictures, the class split up for dinner, delicious food combined with excitement and anticipation for the night to come. When it was time to arrive at the Warehouse, we were greeted with our beautiful decorations and a room full of disco fever. The room had a snack bar, photo booth, and stage with a perfect dance floor. Soon after arrival, the bittersweet senior leadout began and we watched our seniors close out their final high school Prom.

The sadness quickly ended when the fabulous Park Band started their music and everyone began dancing. The band kept the excitement high the entire night and everyone was sad to leave. This year’s Prom was an unforgettable night with new memories I will cherish forever.

Saint James students and their dates before Prom 2024.

The National Merit Process: Months in the Making

The National Merit banner at the front entrance of the STJ campus.

My sister, Emilee, a sophomore at STJ, and my family have been very supportive during this process.

by: Will Alexander, senior

Every school year during the fall, it comes time to take the PSAT, and every year, grades 9 through 11 dread the thought of taking another four-hour standardized test. But for the juniors, those four hours have the potential to mean a lot more. When I was a junior, I knew that the PSAT was used to determine National Merit Semifinalists, but I didn’t really conceive just how big that was. After a long four hours of what felt like mind numbing testing, I walked out of the room thinking I was done with Pre-SAT forever and that was it. But to my surprise, the fall of this school year I got called into my counselor, Mr. Clinton's, office one random day. While a lot of different possibilities of why I was in there ran around in my head, not all good either, he told me I had done well enough to be a National Merit Semifinalist. With a bunch of excitement and joy, I went home that night with a letter explaining how the whole process would work from there on. After they calmed down and were able to collect their breath, my parents helped me to finish getting an application together for the next step. I had to get letters of recommendation, ACT/SAT scores, my transcript, and a bunch of other information together in order to be a candidate for National Merit Finalist. I turned in my forms, listed my expected college information, and waited. And waited. And waited. The banners and praise were very gratifying, but those months between Semifinalist and Finalist announcement felt like forever. I went from not even thinking about National Merit to it consuming my thoughts everyday all the way to one February day. In the middle of lunch, Mrs. Poplin called me up onto the stage and in that moment it felt surreal. Many colleges offer some smaller scholarships for being a Semifinalist. But being a Finalist, that’s where things really ramp up. Just like that it felt gratifying and relieving to know the whole college admission process just became that much less stressful. Now as graduation nears and I get ready to go to Auburn for my next four years, I look back on the whole National Merit Process and smile, knowing how exciting, nerve racking, and incredible it was, and just how important it is, even if it doesn’t seem like it when you’re taking the PSAT. #wearesaintjamesschool

Spanish Club - Lenguaje y Cultura

Cristian Pintovidal, STJ Commons Dining Coordinator- Chile. Pictured with STJ Spanish Club students and club sponsor, Rhea Grate.

The Saint James Spanish Club gives students an opportunity to learn more about the language and culture outside of the class period.  Guest speakers, discussions, celebrations of holidays, food, and art/cinema are explored in this weekly club.

Students work to develop their speaking, listening and reading skills through Spanish Club. This dynamic and enriching way of practicing the language is supplemental learning outside of class time. Spanish teacher and Spanish Club sponsor, Sra. Rhea Grate, invited several members of the Saint James family to visit the club period and talk to students about their home countries.

Marisa Dana, Pre-K3 teacher assistant - Argentina and Maria Light, Pre-K4 teachers assistant and STJ parent -Colombia

Reyna Girdner, parent of STJ high school student - Honduras

Students learned about customs, traditions, and holidays from our guest speakers. They discussed the climate, currency, and heritage of their home countries. Students enjoyed hearing traditional music and learning about traditional dress.

STJ Spanish Club is one of the many special interest clubs and organizations at Saint James School. High school students choose two clubs to participate in each year. During advisory time, students attend club meeting and work on special projects for their organizations.

#wearesaintjamesschool

Stop (Motion) in the Name of Cell Division

Michelle Taliaferro’s AP Biology students created stop motion movies to visually demonstrate mitosis and meiosis. Cell division and reproduction is a highly tested concept on the AP Biology exam, which students will take this spring. To help master of these concepts, students wanted to make a tangible, visual model of how cells behave in the phases of mitosis and meiosis. Over the span of several days, two student teams filmed their colored play-doh “cells” frame by frame to create a stop motion video.

AP Biology students filming their stop motion videos.

Meiosis is a special type of cell division of germ cells and apicomplexans in sexually-reproducing organisms that produces the gametes, the sperm or egg cells. It involves two rounds of division that ultimately result in four cells, each with only one copy of each chromosome. Mitosis is a part of the cell cycle in which replicated chromosomes are separated into two new nuclei. Cell division by mitosis is an equational division which gives rise to genetically identical cells in which the total number of chromosomes is maintained.

AP Biology is one of 30 honors and AP classes offered at the high school level. Advanced Placement (AP) courses are college-level classes that challenge students to master concepts and push themselves. As a college preparatory institution, Saint James School has a robust AP and honors curriculum and provides professional development and support for the faculty who teach these courses. #wearesaintjamesschool

Kindergarten/Senior Buddy LOVE

by: Reilly Taylor, senior

Reilly’s buddy, June

What a sweet valentine’s day my senior class had with our k5 buddies! We all met up in the Commons and patiently waited for our little buddies to walk in! We exchanged gifts, decorated paper bags with valentine’s day themed stickers, colors, and more! We then filled each bag with water, play-do, and a fun valentine’s day card we got to color with our buddy! The bags we decorated and put together are going to be sent to Child Protect, a non-profit organization that focuses on minimizing both the physical and mental trauma some children have experienced. This was a very special valentine’s day as we got to spend precious time with our buddies, involved them in making someone else’s day special, and shared the love we each have in our hearts!

Reilly has been a Trojan since preK. She is a cheerleading All-American, member of the tennis team, and loves to volunteer. Reilly also is a second year Student Ambassador, serving as an official hostess of Saint James School.

Thirteen Schools that Led Me to STJ

by: Cora Wojak, class of 2024

Age 3, saying goodbye before my dad deployed to Afghanistan

Being a military child is what defines me; it is all I have ever known. My dad was sent off to Air Force Dive School five weeks after I was born and still actively serves to this day. I have lived in ten different military bases in the United States, Japan, and Europe. My education has been spread out over thirteen different schools, so change is all I experience. Every two years, my family has to pack up our lives and move to either a different state, country, or continent with only a few months' notice. At every duty station at the end of a family’s tour, it’s calculated how long the veteran in the family was away. For my dad, whether he was deployed to Djibouti, the Philippines, or Afghanistan for the third time, he was gone 60% of the time that we lived somewhere. However, these changes that have defined me have given me a unique perspective on life and taught me lessons I will forever work to remember. 

Edinburgh, Scotland- Age 10

Okinawa, Japan- Age 9

A trait that military children are practically born with is adaptability. I have been to thirteen different schools in my twelve years of education, but I have never had a problem of being able to adapt to an unfamiliar environment. Walking into a new school over and over again was nerve-wracking because I never knew who I was going to meet. From first grade to freshman year, I went to military schools, so all the kids were in the same boat as me. We knew to never get too close because the goodbyes that were sure to come would break us. So, we kept to ourselves and refrained from opening up. 

Berchtesgaden, Germany- Age 11

But then came sophomore year when we got stationed in Montgomery, Alabama. Being a military family means you live in a small world, and coincidentally the Wright family, who we knew in England, lived here. We reached out to them and immediately began talking about school and they had only amazing things to say about Saint James. My parents toured STJ and sent me an application within minutes. Next thing I knew, I was taking my entrance exam, getting accepted, and choosing my class schedule. The second I moved here, I began cheer practices and met some of the sweetest girls in my entire life.

They welcomed me with open arms and helped me through my transition to Saint James. The staff understood my situation and helped me through any difficulties I had while starting out. Saint James is the school that almost every military family chooses and it is easy to see why. 

First day of senior year at STJ.

Now I am in the first semester of my senior year, I am beyond excited for what is to come, but I will forever miss this school and the opportunities it gave me. I’ve accomplished so many things academically that I never thought I would, like becoming an AP Scholar and receiving my biliteracy certification in Spanish. I am so proud to say that I get to graduate from Saint James and I will always cherish the experiences and lessons I was taught while being a Trojan. #wearesaintjamesschool

“These changes that have defined me have given me a unique perspective on life and taught me lessons I will forever work to remember. ”

— Cora Wojak

High School Career Panel: Called to Serve

Lt. Col. Dex McCain, Seaman Jessica Davis, MST1 Katherine Posey, and Col. Keo Bailey

Throughout the school year, our high school counselors host several "Careers and Professions" discussion panels centered around various lines of work. The most recent panel featured careers in the military. Saint James has families proudly representing all branches of the United States Armed Forces as well as many parents and grandparents who are veterans. We also have many international families with a parent attending Air War College who have a wide range of military experience in their home countries.

High school students had the opportunity to ask questions after the panel.

This panel featured three Saint James parents: Lt. Col Dex McCain (ret.), USAF officer and dad of seniors Hope and Hannah; Col. Keo Bailey, USAF officer and dad of sophomore Karly; and Colonel Ali Albalushi of the Air Force of Oman, dad of STJ senior Faris and sophomore Rawdha, sixth grader Mai, and first grader Maha. We also welcomed MST1 Katherine Josey and Seaman Jessica Davis of the United States Coast Guard.

Our panelists discussed their careers in the military as well as educational benefits and pathways to service after high school. Students asked questions and had great conversations about life in the military. Thank you to our panel of STJ parents and our guests from the US Coast Guard who made this experience so fruitful. The high school counseling office will host additional career panels featuring other professions and fields later this school year. #wearesaintjamesschool