Tomorrow night Potomac will host the annual Tip-Off Basketball Tournament, featuring Potomac's boys and girls varsity teams in a doubleheader. The girls will square off against Collegiate at 6:00 pm. Next up will be the boys, playing The Heights at 7:30 pm. Dinner will be provided for all US students at 5:00 pm in the Leonsis Dining Room. Upper School a cappella group Mixed Company, will sing the National Anthem prior to the girls game, the dance team will perform at halftime of the boys game, and the pep band will play during both games! Afterward, shuttles will run to Trinity, Wells Fargo in NWDC, Ebenezers Coffeehouse in NE DC, and the Marlow Heights Shopping Center. Go Panthers!

Ranked 79 in the nation, Potomac’s speech and debate team has had several strong performances this year. In late October, 18 debaters competed in the 40th Annual Florida Blue Key tournament at the University of Florida, placing fourth against larger Florida programs. While at UF, Taylor Burris '24 placed second in both extemp and impromptu speaking. Ethan Maher '25 placed third in congressional debate.  

Separately, 41 team members recently traveled to Philadelphia for the Villiger tournament at St. Joseph's University. It was our program's best Villiger performance in memory, placing fourth overall against some of the nation's best programs. Potomac students faced and won many rounds against the nation's first- and third-ranked programs at Villiger. 

The most notable wins came in the final round of congressional debate as Armaan Sethi '26 and Sebastian Gardner '25 finished first and second, respectively. Those performances were backed up by Adrian Atwater '24 and Maher, who also advanced to the finals. Burris and Hannah de Souza ’25 continue their leadership in speech events with a season-long series of high placements. 

Two additional debaters won the inaugural Brown University Public Forum tournament in early November. Congratulations to Sasha Leifer '26 and Tristan Mankovsky '27 on their championship.

On November 16, Potomac seniors engaged in their final Community Action Day, supporting 13 community partners across the DC metro area, including Cameron's Chocolates, the Greater DC Diaper Bank, and Higher Horizons. In the afternoon, the students selected a Changemaker Project, led by peer senior leaders, to continue serving others on campus. Making an impact both within and outside of our Potomac community, the seniors created 30 grab-and-go snack packs for families at Ronald McDonald House, prepared the LS and MS garden beds for the winter, boxed and sorted books to prepare our donations from the Book Fair, and engaged with Lower Schoolers. View a gallery of photos from the day and check out the full list of our community partnerships.

To feature the work and mission of our partners, the Upper School Service Learning Club took over Potomac’s Instagram stories that day. Check out the highlights @potomacschool to see the day from their eyes. 

The Upper School Fall Concert was a highly entertaining evening of music that featured more than 130 performers across six ensembles. The audience enjoyed elegant string orchestra pieces written by Josef Haydn and Hawaii's Queen Liliʻuokalani and a not-quite-as-elegant piece popularized by Carmen Miranda. The band performed arrangements of well-known music by John Williams and Edward Elgar and newer selections by Balmages and Ziek. Jazz selections included pieces popularized by Art Blakey and Maynard Ferguson. The evening also included choral performances of 16th- and 20th-century madrigals, a Beatles classic, a modern setting of the Sanctus, and sophisticated handbell showpieces by Michael Sherman and Michael Mazzatenta. The evening concluded with the honors handbell ensemble performing varied works by Helman, Arnold Sherman, and Sallie Lloyd and a setting of "What a Wonderful World." Enjoy photos from the concert, and listen to the recording. 

On Tuesday, students in Advanced United States History visited the National Portrait Gallery to see part of the permanent collection exhibit titled, Out of Many; Portraits from 1600 to 1900. Students examined the artist's choices about how the subject was portrayed and analyzed the museum curators' descriptions of the paintings. The knowledge gained from this experience will be applied to a unit project later this winter when students design their museum exhibits about American experiences during the Civil War. Students will choose what to include in their exhibit and how to frame those items in a historical context. The trip was a great reminder of the many museum opportunities we have in our area.

Career Lab: Security Robots on the Job! – The Alumni Office, in partnership with the Career and Professional Skills Committee (CAPSC), kicked off the Career Lab 2023-24 speaker series by hosting Erik Schluntz ’11. Erik is the co-founder and CTO of Cobalt Robotics, a 160-person company that has raised over $90M to build safety and security robots. He shared his journey as an entrepreneur and answered questions from our students. Read more about Erik in the Spring 2023 issue of The Term magazine.

Thanks to CAPSC seniors – Leila Bodner, Daelyn Dimps, Sofya Donets, Auden Easter, Nuna Endale, Nathanial Estes, Kerri Greene, Emmy Holland, Campbell Hughes, Madeleine Magielnicki, Will Mellis, Zoe Myslewicz, Paige Ramsey, Laith Weimer, and Abigail Woldgebriel – for their work in shaping this program.

Lunchtime Speaker: Chris Martin '14 Shares About Coffee, Anxiety, and Credit Card Debt – Chris Martin '14, a lifer, spoke to the Upper School about his time here as a student-athlete, his challenges and wins both in the classroom and on the football and basketball teams, and the deep bond he has maintained with his Potomac teachers and friends. He also answered questions and shared his vision for his company. 

Chris is the founder and CEO of the recently launched LA-based company Symphony, an SEC-compliant stock market for music. Chris and his co-founder, Kyle Rose, also have a podcast titled "Coffee, Anxiety, and Credit Card Debt," where they discuss the stories behind some of the world's most innovative companies, ranging from Twitch to Home Depot and Reformations to Glossier.