Congratulations to Sophia Chen in 7-4!

Her submission, The Bolt, was selected as a runner-up out of over 14,000 submissions in the New York Times Learning Network writing contest, Teen Tiny Memoirs. This is the 4th year for the competition which asks teenagers to write miniature memoirs (100 words) about meaningful moments in their lives.
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https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/19/learning/tiny-memoir-contest-winners.html

A huge congratulations to our DECA team on an impressive showing at the recent PA State Conference! Our students demonstrated true Masterman Excellence throughout the event, approaching every competition and presentation with remarkable poise, confidence, and skill.

We are incredibly proud of how they represented our school on the state stage and showcased their leadership and business knowledge.

We would like to give a special shoutout to our individual award winners for their outstanding achievements:

• Giovanny Moniaga: 1st Place in PSPK
• Hana Halimitabrizi: 2nd Place in JOB
• Xin Huang: 6th Place in PFL and Top Role Play score at Masterman
• Samuel Hornik: Top Test Score at Masterman

We are so proud of your hard work and dedication. Way to go, DECA!
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​Masterman debate team’s future is shining bright as they sweep ASAP for the 5th year in a row!🧹🧹 🧹🧹🧹
ASAP is the Philadelphia circuit for Public Forum Debate.
Masterman's team locked out finals in both divisions!
In novice:
🏆Esther+Calla took second place
🏆Mose+Griffin took first place
In varsity:
🏆Leila+Aaryan took third place
🏆Kayla+Ellie took second place
🏆Rowan+Sophia took first place

Masterman also swept speaker awards in the varsity category, plus
Alice, Colby, Calla, Esther, Mose, and Griffin all got novice speaker awards!

In addition, two pairs from Masterman's team competed this weekend and successfully qualified to the National Catholic Forensic League's national debate finals tournament.

See photos and follow the Masterman Debate Team on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mastermandebaters/

Dear Masterman Community,
​Please join me in extending warm congratulations to Vidur Diwakar, our 7th Grade Masterman Spelling Bee Champion. Vidur's impressive performance and dedication to his craft earned him the top spot in this year's competition.

Vidur will proudly represent Masterman at the Regional Spelling Bee at WHYY on Saturday, March 14, 2026. The winner of the regional round advances to the Scripps National Spelling Bee.

We are very proud of Vidur and grateful to Ms. Rowley, Ms. Amit, and all the staff who supported this year's competition. Please join us in wishing him the very best as he prepares for the regional stage.

National Merit Scholarship Finalists
Congratulations to Tova Albert, Kenrick Chen, and Zoe Chen, who have advanced to the  Finalist round of the 2026 National Merit Scholarship Competition.

The National Merit Scholarship Program is one of the nation's most prestigious academic recognition programs. Finalists represent the highest-scoring students on the PSAT/NMSQT and have demonstrated exceptional academic achievement, strong coursework, and meaningful contributions to their school communities. Fewer than one percent of U.S. high school seniors reach Finalist standing.

We are incredibly proud of Tova, Kenrick, and Zoe for this outstanding accomplishment and look forward to cheering them on in the final stages of the competition.

Ramadan Observance
Yesterday marked the beginning of Ramadan, the holiest month in the Islamic calendar. During Ramadan, many Muslims fast from dawn until sunset and focus on prayer, reflection, generosity, and community.

At Masterman, we are committed to supporting our observant students. We are providing a dedicated space during the school day for students who wish to pray.

Special thanks to Ms. Geiger, Mr. Gilken, and Ms. Montgomery for their care and support in preparing and supervising the prayer room.

The Wiz Opens Next Week
A reminder that our school musical, The Wiz, opens on Thursday, February 26, with additional performances on Friday and Saturday evenings.

• Tickets: $10
  
• Doors Open: 5:30 PM
  
• Curtain: 6:30 PM
  

More than 250 Masterman students are involved across cast, crew, and orchestra. It promises to be a wonderful celebration of student talent and hard work. We hope to see many of you there to support our performers.

Staff Shout-Outs

• Gabriella Tavianini and Hans Muse for being amazingly supportive, enthusiastic, and helpful chaperones on the Quebec trip.
  
• The Sunshine Committee for organizing the Palentine's activity. It was such a fun way to spread joy among faculty and staff.
  
• Ms. Fox for her amazing and tireless work with the stage crew in preparing for the show.
  
• Donna Mc for always having a smile on her face.
  
• Steve Gilligan for being a good sport and a great colleague.
  
• Elana Solomon for being a fearless advocate.
  
• Janel Vesci for being a great collaborator and idea generator.
  
• Bego for her joy in teaching and being with students.
  
• Chris Lebold for working diligently with students to ensure they understand and love physics.
  
• Mrs. Brunner for ordering the food to celebrate the Lunar New Year for the fifth grade.
  
• Miss Hemminger for ordering fortune cookies and red envelopes so the fifth grade can celebrate the Lunar New Year.
  

Thank you all for the many ways you strengthen our One Masterman community.

Stay classy, Blue Dragons!
Principal Laurie

More congratulations are due to Masterman’s debate team! Last weekend, four pairs competed at the Harvard National Speech and Debate Tournament. Seniors Tova and Taylor made it all the way to the semi-final round, placing them in the top four out of 372 entries from around the country. It was especially great to see Masterman debate alumni Ray, Owen, and Henry returning to the tournament as coaches.
This weekend, two additional pairs qualified for States, so three teams will be traveling to Bloomsburg, PA on March 19th. Go Blue Dragons!

​It was a fantastic Friday night at district championships for our Varsity Swimming Dragons. The evening was filled with great swims and medal performances.

The girls team earned medals in the 200 meter medley, 200 free and 50 free.

The boys side medaled in the 200 free relay and the 100 meter fly.

​What a program! Good luck to all at states!

​Let's hear it for our Squash Teams who once again competed at the National Championships this weekend!

The girls were represented by Jaida Brown, Zohar Yurdin, Rowan Bastien, Margaret Olsen, Sophia Plastaras, Vivienne Plastaras, and Noa Yurdin.

The boys were represented by Jonathan Djoenaidi, Kyle Luong, Luca Vitiello, Alec Santoro, Sincere Washington, Aiden Maier and Evan Ou.

​Both teams demonstrated grace , grit and proficiency on the highest stage!

Masterman wins the University of Pennsylvania Liberty Bell Classic debate tournament! Facing hundreds of debaters from around the country, seniors Tova and Taylor made it through six elimination rounds (beginning with tripleoctofinals) to win finals on a 2-1 decision, placing 1st overall in the Public Forum Debate category. Congratulations also to the 7 other Masterman teams that competed!

This weekend, 4 teams are at the Harvard National Speech and Debate Tournament in Boston—stay tuned. 

​Future Scientists: Biology Edition for Middle Schoolers
The Future Scientists: Biology Edition program is designed to give students a taste of life in a molecular biology lab—all participants will explore the topics hands-on. Through supervised experiments, participants will gain familiarity with common tools and experimental techniques used in molecular biology research, meet Penn researchers, and tour Penn laboratories. Techniques include DNA extraction, PCR, gel electrophoresis, bacterial transformation, light microscopy, ELISA, and sterile cell culture.
2026 dates:
Monday, July 6 - Friday, July 10
Monday, August 10 - Friday, August 14
FULL INFO HERE

Penn Arts and Sciences Summer High School Programs
Penn Arts and Sciences (SAS) High School Programs welcomes bright and ambitious high school students to learn from—and alongside—the very best in the Ivy League. Whether your student is ready for an immersive pre-collegiate experience, looking for advanced studies in a field they are passionate about, or planning to get a head start on college admissions by earning academic credit, we have a summer program that will offer them an exciting academic adventure.
FULL INFO HERE

On Wednesday our swim team attended the PIT swim championships. Out of 24 individual races we had 18 best times! 

Freshman Laney Grubb placed 1st in the 100 backstroke and 2nd in the 100 free
Freshman Maggie Grier placed 1st in the 50 free and 2nd in the 100 breaststroke 
Junior Celina Pham placed 1st in the 200 free and 3rd in the 100 free
Junior Jordan Bellosi placed 1st in the 200 IM and 1000 breaststroke 
Junior Colin Ryan placed 2nd in the 100 back and 50 free

Junior David Mach placed 1st in the 100 breaststroke
Micah Neale placed 3rd in the 100 backstroke
Junior Lucas Chen placed 1st in the 100 free and 2nd in the 200 free 
Junior Leon You placed 2nd in the 100 free and 3rd in the 200 free 

Boys 200 free Relay placed 1st and 400 free Relay placed 2nd 
Girls 200 free Relay and 400 free Relays both placed 1st.

Overall Masterman had a wonderful day at the pool! 

What a spectacular day for indoor track at the PPL Championships. You all met the moment, performing your best when it mattered the most. And I mean this quite literally, with 14 different athletes setting their personal bests throughout the day.  - Coach Renikoff

It was a clean sweep for the middle school basketball teams on Friday at AMY James Martin. The girls raced out to a 24-0 lead at halftime and posted a 37-4 win. Juliet Kovatis was a driving force in scoring and rebounding. The boys were awesome again defensively and rallied for a 28-18 triumph to move their record to 3-0 on the season. Both teams are back at it this afternoon at the Masterman Gym vs. Potter Thomas.

On Saturday Feb 7th, 14 of our middle schoolers participated in the Mathcounts Chapter Competition. 8 teams competed and Masterman took 1st place in the team round!  Congratulations to all competitors, who participated in the intense competition that spanned 4 rounds:

7th Vidur Diwakar
8th Vihaan Kaushik
8th Yitong Jiang
8th Shrinil Amin
6th Rehan Rasul
8th Grace Siegel
7th Aydin Ergi
7th Isaac Aguirre
7th Viven Chen
8th Olivia Ryerson
6th Cassie Zhang
7th Agnibha Roy Chowdhury
6th Emma Cheng
6th Simon Pulzetti

From 100 competitors down to 10 at the start of the countdown round, Vidur took 2nd place!! To be commended were Vihaan at 5th place and Yitong at 7th. Vidur will head to Harrisburg on March 21 to compete in the individual state competition. And, with the guidance of our team captain, Vihaan, Yitong, Vidur and Shrinil will be competing in the team portion, as they nabbed the 1st place team spot!! 
Huge shout out to 10th grader Aaryan Gada and parent Prachi Gada, for their continued coaching, encouragement and dedication to the team!!

​Dear Masterman Community,
You're Invited to The Wiz! Masterman is proud to present our spring musical, The Wiz. More than 250 students are involved across cast, crew, and orchestra, and their dedication over the past several months has been extraordinary. We would love for you to join us and support their work.
Performance Dates:

• Thursday, February 26 at 6:30 PM
• Friday, February 27 at 6:30 PM
• Saturday, February 28 at 6:30 PM

This production represents the very best of Masterman: talent, teamwork, and commitment. I hope to see many of you there as we celebrate the hard work of our students and the vibrant arts culture that makes our school so special.

Staff Shout-Outs

• Ms. McPherson, for always offering her help and support with a smile and for planning meaningful Latino cultural experiences, including the visit to Casa Latina at the University of Pennsylvania with Spanish 3.
• Mr. Beers, for sharing his poem during Monday's assembly.
• Mrs. Nelson and Ms. Ramsey, for organizing the common area outside the counselors' offices to better serve students.
• Nurse Bagley, for her steady care and support of our students.
• Mr. Muse, Madame Tavianini, and Madame Heimann, for accompanying our scholars to Quebec this week.
• Mr. Gold, Mr. Muse, Ms. Smith, and Mr. Zimny, for supporting our Sciad competitors at Girls High last weekend.
• Ms. Elana and Ms. Fox-Jones, for planning the "home" leg of the Poland exchange experience.
• Our 5th grade teacher team, for organizing multiple field trips for our youngest scholars.
• Our grade sponsors, for planning meaningful end-of-year trips and celebrations.
• Ms. Graham, for organizing the Climbers Breakfast and securing speakers for Black History Month.
• Donna Amit, for reinstituting PALentines and strengthening community during the winter months.
• Justin Gilken, for his dedication and readiness to help at all times.

More Good News from Around Masterman

• Attendance continues to trend positively as we move through the winter months. Thank you to families and staff for reinforcing the importance of showing up ready to learn each day.
• Our Instructional Cabinet continues its focused work, and we are seeing increased use of checks for understanding and academic discourse routines across content areas. Steady improvement is happening in classrooms every day.
• Course selection is nearly complete, and early numbers suggest strong interest in advanced coursework across departments. Our students continue to lean into challenge.
• The Poland exchange and Quebec trip reflect something special about Masterman: students eager to engage globally and staff committed to making that possible.
• We have had several students recognized recently for acts of integrity and kindness, living out our PBIS pillars in ways that define our culture.
• Planning has begun for spring athletics, and participation numbers are strong. Our students continue to balance academics, arts, and athletics with remarkable commitment.

The second semester is always when momentum builds. The foundation laid in the fall begins to bear fruit. Classrooms feel focused, performances feel sharper, and our seniors begin to see the horizon.

It is a good time to be at Masterman.

Stay Classy!
Principal Laurie

This past Friday our wonderful teachers and other staff got treated three ways!
In the morning, they arrived to a surprise hot cocoa bar set up by volunteers from SAC with HSA funding. 
Then, they received beautiful Valentine's Day messages and chocolate treats. Thank you so much to everyone who submitted messages of appreciation, and to our stalwart volunteer to put them together! This year was our best response yet and the teachers really saw the love.
Finally, staff stayed for professional development after early dismissal, and enjoyed lunch provided by the HSA.