GriffINNOVATION Campaign
The Innovation Center demonstrates the best part of Roycemore: the dedication to giving each and every student the opportunity to express who they are, not just in the classroom but in every aspect of their education. My hope is not that it will transform students, but that it will give students the tool necessary to transform themselves.
— Berhanu Snyder '21
Roycemore Breaks Ground on Stairwell of Future Innovation Center
On Thursday, May 26, 2022, Roycemore School celebrated the groundbreaking of the site of their future Innovation Center. When Roycemore School acquired and renovated 1200 Davis to serve as its new home, it left one space in the building purposely unfinished and dedicated to the future needs of Roycemore’s students. The groundbreaking signifies the start of construction on the stairwell that will be built in the 6,000 sq. ft. space allowing it to be occupied for student use.
In January 2020, a high school junior, Hanu Snyder, embarked on an independent January Short Term (JST) project to learn about architecture. JST is a three-week period during which upper school classes are suspended and students have the opportunity to explore their own passions. Hanu enlisted a current parent who is an architect to serve as his project director and together they developed a plan for a maker space. They partnered with middle school student, Aidan Scheidt, who had focused his Personal Passion Project (P3) on the space known as ‘Room 200,’ and surveyed the students to assess their priorities for what should be included in the space. They made a presentation to the Roycemore Board of Trustees to transform ‘Room 200’ into an innovation center that can serve multiple purposes and created a prototype for consideration.
“I think it’s fitting that this ‘addition’ is not really an addition, but just the filling of a void that has always been here. It does not transform the school that I have always loved, but it refines and expands on the unique qualities that made me love it in the first place. It completes and unifies the Roycemore experience, providing new methods of thinking and creating and dreaming that each student may already have inside them but don’t yet have the tools necessary to bring to life. The Innovation Center demonstrates the best part of Roycemore: the dedication to giving each and every student the opportunity to express who they are, not just in the classroom but in every aspect of their education. My hope is not that it will transform students, but that it will give students the tools necessary to transform themselves.”
Hanu graduated from Roycemore in June of 2021 and gained acceptance to MIT, but took a gap year to help teach and build a school in Ethiopia. He will put those skills to use at MIT where he will be an architecture student this fall. Hanu and Aidan continue to be actively engaged with the Innovation Center project, with Hanu serving on the Steering Committee for Roycemore’s campaign to raise funds, and Aidan serving as the student representative on the Vision-Design team to plan the Innovation Center. Together these teams will make their vision a reality! Aidan and his peers will have the opportunity to see the vision fulfilled and benefit from the opportunities of an Innovation Center during their high school career. Hanu will go forward, pursuing architecture with a realized project under his belt.
The plans for the space include part old-school shop, part high-tech STEAM lab. A Vision-Design team made up of students, parents, grandparents, faculty, and Trustees is working together with information collected from community surveys to build the framework for the new Innovation Center. They are visiting spaces like the Innovation Development Lab at DePaul to gain ideas on the design and use of innovation spaces for students.
“Building upon the project-based learning that has a more than 50-year history at Roycemore, this is the ideal time to invest in a facility that will allow Griffins the space to innovate, invent, and inspire others,” says Dr. Jonathan Holloway, Honorary Campaign Chair and alumni parent of the Roycemore Class of 2021. A world-renowned US Historian, Dr. Holloway was appointed to the position of President of Rutgers University in 2020. Previously, he was the Provost of Northwestern University from 2017 to 2020.
On April 11, 2022, Roycemore’s Board of Trustees approved an engagement with Cordogan Clark, a local architectural firm, for architectural design services for the future Innovation Center. The selection of Cordogan Clark was the culmination of a robust process that involved the Vision-Design Team and the Facilities Committee of the Board reviewing proposals from 9 firms, and selecting 4 to present to the Roycemore administration. Cordogan Clark stood out among the other firms due to their experience with similar projects and their knowledge and thinking about the future of education.
The Innovation Center will be built through funds raised from the GriffINNOVATION Campaign. “The current space beckons to serve a larger purpose,” says Sara McGuire, Director of Development, “to house the imaginings of our students. At its core, the Innovation Center is a place for making, collaborating, learning, and sharing.”
Construction of the stairwell is expected to begin next month with the goal of the space being usable by the 2022-2023 school year.
Thank You to Our Donors
Randy D. Podolsky Family Foundation
The Rogue Willow Foundation
Pradeep Chintagunta and Marisa de la Torre
Elizabeth Ellrodt and Scott Schweighauser
Linda Reed ‘65
Jerry and Micki Springer
Aisling Colón and Jonathan Holloway
Adrianne Finley Odell and Rich Odell
Kevin and Diane Foote
The Fromm Family
Fred and Pam Sasser
The Scheidt Family
Anita Shah and Jeffrey Tong
Dorian Bezanis
Laura and Michael Boutross
Sossina Haile and Jeff Snyder
Jennifer Morgenstern
The Adams Family
The Drake Family
Lynn and Tom Ellis
Vicky Kalogera and Fred Rasio
Ted and Katie Karn
Bessie Mbadugha
and Jason Keiper
Deborah Pergament ‘87
Mairéad Reidy and Canice Prendergast
Elizabeth Shepherd and Scott Kinsloe ’72
Juliet and Peter Birnbaum
Dr. Anthony and Derilyn Chambers
Holly and Jim Crilly
Christopher and Liz Deutsch
Aleksandra Egelja-Maruszewski and Joe Maruszewski
Sanford M. Goldberg ’72
Margaret and Robert McCamant
Evan Michael McCombs Memorial Foundation
Candace and Dennis Risen
Nicole Woodard Iliev
Eleftherios Gdoutos ‘05
Barbara ‘52 and John Larson
Brianna Sylver-Galvao and Adriano Galvao
Katrina Veerhusen and Rick McCombs
Devin and Ruth Bell
Abby Ghibaudy
and Adam Schenck
Tim and Lori Hurley
Katherine and Ken Greisman
Leigh Jurecka and Matthew Jacobson
Mairaj Jaleel and Muqeeth Raheem
The McGuire Schnitger Family
Susan ‘60 and Edward Osterberg
Julianne Raymond ‘95
Helen Swanston ‘72
Sammy and Amy Averbuch
Pushpa Gopalan and Dirk Reinhardt
Becky and Charlie Jackson
Peggy Klein
Eva and Lenz Neuhauser
Constance and James Roberts
Olga Vydra and Sam Iosevich ‘91
Staci and Jospeh Zake
Anonymous (4)
Darcy and Kyle Aksamitowski
Staci Aronson
Ololade Bakare
Courtney Barlow
Anna Sue Bouzas
Janine Bragdon
Ana Camino
Katherine Carson and Colin Hart
Marie Cinquemani Thomas
Sarah Coffman and Josh Goldberg
Jonathan Cohen ‘02
Tim and Ana Costello
Gillian and Eric Deinoff
Michelle and Christopher DeMent
Karen Dinelli
Nancy and Dan Dudek
Ellin and Kip Duggan
Layi and Bunmi Durojaiye
Patricia and Bill Eder
Kayla Fortino
Charlotte Freccia
Theodora and Carsten Franck
Egemen and Agnieszka Genc
Judy and David Godinho
Hilda Gonzalez
Morgan Graff
Wendy Griffin
Jane and Evan Gruber
Bari Guibord and Lenka Reznicek
Shannon Henry
Chris and Mary Hill
Bill and Susan Horine
Jane Kim
Jordan and Melissa Koss
Kristina Kriis and Michael Barshai
Brynn and Charles Leavitt
Cheryl and Rob Linkhart
Merlin Liu and Pelle Deinoff
Gina Lorenz
Mark Lowry
Jennifer Marsidi and Christo Sedgewick
Geoffrey Mark ‘85
Beth Negronida and Charles Saxe
Jessica Nguyen and James Rondinelli
Richard R. Norton
April Ohlinger
Ralph and Sara Patrello
Robbyn Pauley and James McKee
Angela Peters Murphy
Victoria Peters
Vicky and John Pickett
Cynthia and René Rivera
Stefanie and Dale Rivera
Jolee and Amiel Rosenkranz
Shalini Shankar and Kurt Mueller
Jill Silverman and Kyle Edwards
Tara and Chris Skinner
Caroline Sloat ‘61
Marielle St. Amand
Howard and Karen Stanley
Ron and Kimmie Tain
Bellamy Taylor-Pines
Karen Tomsa
Naeema and Christopher Torres
Rachel and Adrian Walters
Katie Wilcher ‘15
Bridget Wild and Benjamin Kornfeld
Lizanne Wilson and Todd Hensley
Marge Woodfill
Jessi Wunder
Shauna Young
Now is the Time to Invest in Roycemore
Meet the Teams Behind the Future Innovation Center
Our Vision and Design team is working together with information collected from Parent, Student, and Faculty surveys to build the framework for the new Innovation Center. They are visiting spaces like the Innovation Development Lab at DePaul to gain ideas on design, and use of innovation and maker spaces for students.
Erik Anderson, 2nd and 4th grade parent
Devin Bell, 1st grade parent
Ruth Bell, 1st grade parent
Eric Calvert, Center for Talent Development
Chris English, Head of School Elect
Adrianne Finley Odell, Head of School
Charlie Jackson, RFA, 3rd and 4th-grade parent
Jason Keiper, 4th and 9th grade parent
Mark Lowry, Trustee
Jennifer Morgenstern, 11th grade parent
Paula Olszewski-Kubilius, Center for Talent Development
Barry Praeuner, 6th grade parent
Keith Raheem, 1st and 5th grade parent
Aidan Scheidt, 9th grade student
Beth Shutters, Faculty, 4th grade parent
Ron Tain, Faculty
Alec Wilson, 11th grade student
In April 2022, the Board of Trustees approved our engagement with Cordogan Clark, a local architectural design (and build) firm for architectural design services for our future Innovation Center. The selection of Cordogan Clark was the culmination of a robust process that involved the Vision-Design Team and the Facilities Committee of the Board reviewing proposals from 9 firms, and selecting 4 to present to the Roycemore Administration. Cordogan Clark stood out among the other firms for a variety of reasons but one of the things we really liked about them was their experience with similar projects and their knowledge and thinking about the future of education. The timing related to how soon the Innovation Center can be completed now rests on our success in raising funds, however, having them on board will help us better show a vision for what the space could look like when it is done. There will be opportunities in the months ahead to have additional input beyond the prior surveys and focus groups.
Weese Langley Weese (WLW) is a full-service architectural firm with a broad local client base. WLW is a small, highly effective open architectural studio in the River North area involved in higher education and affordable housing on a wide range of projects including numerous historic structures and new affordable housing construction. WLW Architects and Engineers are working on the permitting, subcontracting, and deliverables for our new staircase.
At Roycemore School’s May 16th Board meeting, the Board approved engaging with W.B. Olson, a local contractor who will build the stairwell to the Innovation Center for us during the summer and fall of 2022.