For over four decades, devoted parent volunteers have made Fall Festival one of the HRA community’s most cherished traditions

This autumn, Hampton Roads Academy will continue one of its most beloved campus traditions as the Navigator community celebrates the 43rd anniversary of Fall Festival.

Scheduled for Friday, October 16, from 2:00 to 5:30 pm, the much-anticipated event will bring students and faculty from all three divisions together with parents, alumni, extended families, and friends for an afternoon of carnival games, exciting contests, delicious treats, and fall fun for all ages.

Highlights will include a petting zoo, a haunted house, a rock climbing wall, a crazy train ride, a cake walk, raffles for gift baskets generously donated by Navigator parents, a pickleball tournament held on the HRA tennis courts, and so much more—all executed on an unprecedented scale.

The festivities would not be possible without a dedicated and growing team of parent volunteers focused on creating an unforgettable experience for every student and a sense of belonging for every family.

New heights of excitement for all ages: Fall Festival features a wealth of unforgettable activities every year

Leading the Fall Festival Planning Committee is a trio of HRA moms who serve on the Academy’s Parents Council. Eleventh-grade representative Julie Patterson and tenth-grade representative Sonja Seutter are Fall Festival veterans, having volunteered and taken on greater leadership roles since their children joined HRA eight and ten years ago, respectively. They are joined by Parents Council Pre-Kindergarten and Lower School division representative Gema McGuiness, who is new to HRA and views her first Fall Festival as an opportunity for her family and others to connect with fellow members of the Navigator community and meaningfully contribute to the life of the school.

“I raised my hand because I did not want to spend the year on the sidelines hoping the community would find us,” McGuiness said. “I wanted our family to be part of building the welcome, not just receiving it.”

HRA invites every Navigator family to join our parent volunteers in building the welcome at this year’s Fall Festival. “It’s simply the best,” Seutter said—“the excitement, the divisions coming together, seeing new and old faces in the community, and creating a lifetime of memories for HRA students.”

A Storied Tradition

Student volunteers serve up cotton candy at the first Fall Festival in 1983

The Fall Festival that the HRA community knows and loves today is the product of a transformation that has spanned more than half a century.

In 1969, when the Academy still served only students in Grades 7 through 12, a devoted group of parents formed the Parents and Friends Committee, a body dedicated to bringing Navigator families together and raising funds to elevate the HRA experience. An annual Spring Festival soon became one of the committee’s signature events.

By 1980, the organization grew into the Parents’ Association, which made the decision to move the yearly festival from spring to autumn in 1983. The inaugural Fall Festival set an ambitious goal: to raise $25,000 for a computer lab at HRA. The event was a resounding success, helping the Academy fully equip the lab the following December, and it would not have been possible without the 144 parents—a group more than a third the size of the entire student body at the time—who stepped up to do their part.

Every fall since then, the remarkable efforts of parent volunteers eager to support HRA have carried on a cherished tradition, strengthened the school community, and helped unlock opportunities for generations of students.

Sweet treats never go out of style: Upper School volunteers scoop snow cones for their fellow Navigators at last year’s Fall Fest

The newly formed HRA Parents Council, an evolution of the former Parents’ Association, will continue this legacy as it hosts its first Fall Festival this October. With a parent representative for each grade level, from Pre-Kindergarten through Grade 12, the Parents Council works in close collaboration with school leaders to align their volunteer efforts with the needs and objectives of the Academy and provide a touchpoint for all Navigator families to support the school and come together for special events throughout the year. Whatever an HRA parent’s background or schedule may be, the Parents Council provides opportunities to connect with a community of adults who share a commitment to providing an exceptional education for their children.

According to Patterson, the Parents Council’s leadership of the Fall Festival Planning Committee “has increased how many parents contribute to the event’s success, giving more parents a sense of accomplishment and pride in Fall Fest and the fun students have at it.”

McGuiness agreed, suggesting that the planning process marked a promising start for the Parents Council’s role in family engagement throughout the school year, fostering “a culture that welcomes parents as partners.”

“Expanding the Footprint”

Always a hit at Fall Fest, the petting zoo will be expanded this year

As the tradition of Fall Festival enters a new chapter, it will evolve in two principal ways.

First, in a departure from prior years, when the event fell on the same date as the Homecoming game, this year’s Fall Festival will be held the previous Friday. This change will extend an annual autumn celebration of the Navigator community into an even more expansive season of festivities, with the fun beginning at Fall Festival, continuing through Spirit Week, reaching new heights as alumni join current families on campus for Homecoming on October 23 and 24, and culminating with parents, grandparents, graduates, faculty, staff, and friends of the Academy gathering to support Navigator Athletics at the 34th Annual HRA Golf Classic on October 29.

The new date will also facilitate a second change. No longer sharing the campus with Homecoming events on a single afternoon, Seutter explained that she and her fellow volunteers will have more space available for “expanding the footprint” of Fall Festival.

A good sport: Middle and Upper School choir director Marshall Severin takes a plunge in the dunk tank during Fall Fest 2025

As a result, the Planning Committee has laid out a more ambitious vision for this year’s event. The festival will feature a larger haunted house, more food choices, a wider array of activities tailored to the interests of older students, and an expanded petting zoo, featuring not only the familiar sheep, goats, llamas, and pigs, but also snakes, bunnies, chickens, and more. In partnership with Amazing Entertainment, the committee will also introduce new bounce houses, rides, and interactive entertainment options.

For her part, Patterson cannot wait to see the students’ “excitement when they race out of school at the start of the event.”

Upper Schoolers run a face-painting station for their peers

Assisting HRA parents as the festival kicks off, all Upper School students will volunteer—either individually or as members of clubs that will be fundraising at the event—painting the faces of their fellow Navigators, facilitating crafts and carnival games, and serving up snow cones, popcorn, cotton candy, and other craveable snacks. Middle Schoolers will have the opportunity to help out as well, both on their own and as members of participating clubs.

With so many fun ways for students and parents across all three divisions to get involved and connect with fellow Navigators, this year’s Fall Festival will be a celebration no member of the HRA community will want to miss.

“I want people to arrive, run into someone they know, meet someone they don’t, and leave later than they planned,” McGuiness said. “I am looking forward to faces becoming names, to seeing students from every division in one place, and to helping host the kind of event that makes a new family say, ‘This is home.’”

There are still plenty of opportunities to volunteer for Fall Festival. Sign up to help carry on this wonderful HRA tradition!

Bubbling with excitement: Fall Festival is where memories are made and lasting connections are built

Audrey Elmes ’26 receives the DAR Good Citizen Award

On April 8, the local chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution announced that Hampton Roads Academy senior Audrey Elmes ’26 had, by unanimous vote, been selected as the 2026 chapter winner of the DAR Good Citizen Award. This honor recognizes Elmes’ incredible qualities of citizenship—leadership, dependability, patriotism, and service—as demonstrated in her home, school, and community.

HRA is immensely proud of her achievement, which exemplifies the entire Navigator student body’s commitment to character as well as academic excellence as a foundation for lifelong success. Elmes is the Academy’s first chapter winner since Phoebe Warren ’13, who received the award thirteen years ago.

Having already been designated as HRA’s nominee for the 2026 DAR Good Citizen Award, Elmes was invited to advance to the scholarship portion of the program, for which she submitted a personal statement and wrote a timed essay on the ways in which strong citizenship advances the project of American democracy. Based on this essay, she was selected for the chapter scholarship award from among five other exceptional student candidates from local public and private schools.

At the chapter award ceremony, Elmes read her reflections on the experience of phone banking as a volunteer for a political campaign and discovering unexpected common ground with voters she believed to be quite dissimilar from her.

“Our Founding Fathers and the courageous Patriots of the American Revolution created a democracy that requires unity to thrive,” she concluded in her essay. “Good citizens strengthen American democracy because they foster unity by bridging differences and inspiring empathy in even the most unlikely places.”

“Through understanding, democracy is revitalized and strengthened,” the Tufts University-bound senior told her audience. “The unity that blooms from understanding creates a democracy where every citizen is valued and can work together for a common goal.”

View Elmes’ full reading of her award-winning essay here and join us in congratulating this outstanding member of the Class of 2026!

Director of Alumni Relations and Philanthropy Committee faculty sponsor Tommy Yevak ’83 with Committee members at THRIVE Peninsula food pantry (left to right): Jillian Lassiter ’28, President Owen Hospodar ’26, Sam Overman ’26, and Vice President Joe Kerrick ’26

Hampton Roads Academy strives to prepare students to excel, not only academically, athletically, and artistically, but also as ethical and compassionate leaders within their community.

Each year, no campus organization embodies this service-minded mission more clearly than the student-led Philanthropy Committee, a group of 12 hardworking Upper Schoolers who research, review applications from, and select four nonprofits in the Greater Hampton Roads area to receive $1,000 grants from the Mary P. Blalock Philanthropy Fund. This year, the Committee received a record 45 proposals from throughout the region.

The 2026 grantees include:

• Come As You Are, which will help neurodivergent young and older adults develop foundational skills for entering the workforce, from time management and self-advocacy to professional communication and interview preparation, through their ongoing READY and upcoming But First, READY programs;
• Communities In Schools of Hampton Roads, which will collaborate with civics and economics teachers at Passage Middle School in Newport News to foster eighth graders’ financial literacy skills through their Show Me That Credit program, designed to reinforce accountability, motivation, and responsible decision-making skills with a simulated credit score model;
• the Get Out Prevails Foundation, which will supply book bags and school supplies at no cost to children in low-income communities as part of the organization’s larger mission to support the families of women facing domestic violence; and
• the DeGood Foundation, which partners with Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library to mail free, high-quality, age-appropriate books every month to children throughout Hampton Roads from birth to age five, with the goal of closing the gap in youth reading proficiency (especially in low-income households) and expanding their reach to 65% of all children in the communities they serve by 2030.

The annual awards are a tribute not only to the important work of charitable organizations across Hampton Roads, but also to the legacy of Mary Blalock, a longtime member of the HRA staff who passed away in April 2019. By donating funds in her name to nonprofits that uplift the region they call home, the members of the Philanthropy Committee gain a deeper understanding of their responsibility as citizens while honoring Blalock’s extraordinary dedication to both HRA and the broader community.

The students will formally present the grants to their chosen nonprofits during the Founders’ Day and Memorial Awards Assembly on April 16. The following day, every member of the HRA community will have the opportunity to create a similar impact by making a gift to the school in recognition of HRA Day. During the Academy’s annual day of giving, alumni, faculty, staff, students, and families will join together to help carry on the goal HRA has pursued since opening its doors in 1959: empowering the next generation with an education that combines intellectual, physical, and creative rigor with a commitment to character formation.

A Tradition of Service

A tireless champion of HRA’s mission, Mary Blalock served the school for an incredible 15 years, from 2004 to 2019, most recently as Director of Advancement. Her devotion to the Academy and its students was unparalleled, and she has continued to change lives even after her passing through the Blalock Fund.

With the blessing of her husband, Dr. Ward Blalock ’75, and her daughters Nora ’09 and Marnie ’12, HRA established a permanently endowed fund in her memory, helping to meet the needs of the school as well as those of area charities.

Since 2021, investment proceeds from the fund have made it possible for the students of the Philanthropy Committee to learn about the work of nonprofits first-hand and give back to their community.

In reviewing grant applications, the Committee members prioritize five areas of interest: education, health and wellness, arts and culture, economic development, and the environment. As the Committee’s faculty sponsor, Director of Alumni Relations Tommy Yevak ’83, explained, “The students look for impact near to our footprint here on the Virginia Peninsula, helping out where we live.” In order to provide “laser-focused” assistance in addressing “current, changing needs in the community,” the Committee seeks out proposals that identify specific, timely projects and outline a budget allocating more than three quarters of funds for direct impact, as opposed to organizational operating costs.

Learning leadership and making an impact: Committee members volunteer at THRIVE Peninsula while researching the work of area nonprofits

The Committee, however, does not simply wait for charitable organizations to come to them for help. Committed to hands-on, experiential learning about the nonprofit sector, the students research potential community partners through site visits throughout the school year. During the fall and winter, the Committee volunteered at THRIVE Peninsula food pantry, visited the local Boys & Girls Club, and returned to the headquarters of the RocSolid Foundation, a 2025 grantee that provides “ready bags” and miniature playground sets to comfort children diagnosed with pediatric cancer during their hospital stays.

According to Philanthropy Committee President Owen Hospodar ’26, these trips accomplish far more than informing students about the types of organizations they will support. They also allow Committee members to meet the staff and leaders of local charities, forming meaningful connections that will be an asset for anyone who wants to stay engaged with, or build a career in, nonprofits after graduation. More importantly, while on site, the students are able to connect personally with their neighbors who are in the greatest need of help.

“I have witnessed looks on faces of kids and verbal responses while on field trips to nonprofit organizations that prove to me that the members of the Committee have experienced authentic empathy and compassion and have uncovered a feeling of true desire to comfort those in need,” Yevak said.

Such experiences have played a powerful role in cultivating students’ sense of duty to others during HRA’s Year of Connections—the very duty Mary Blalock stood for.

“We Want the Community to Feel Like a Family”

While the impact of the Philanthropy Committee’s work is undeniable, the students ultimately gain more from their service to the community than they ever could have imagined.

“What I find most fulfilling is that I’m actually able to do something out of my own volition to help these people,” said Hospodar, who was inspired to join the Committee as a freshman and eventually assume a leadership position by his mother’s prior work as chair of the Mathews Community Foundation Grants Committee. Thanks to the Blalock Fund, he and his peers have discovered the unmatched joy of mobilizing one’s resources for the betterment of a wider community.

“That’s really what we’re all about,” the senior remarked. “We want the community to feel like a family. We treat them with kindness and helpfulness as if they were our family.”

For Vice President Joe Kerrick ’26, who, like Hospodar, has served on the Committee for all four of his Upper School years, the most rewarding moment of the year comes on Founders’ Day, “when we give away our grants and get to deliver them personally to the representatives for each organization. It’s such a feel-good moment, and it really clicks that your efforts have amounted to a real benefit.”

As they prepare to graduate from HRA, the two seniors at the head of the Philanthropy Committee are both committed to embracing the ideals of Mary Blalock throughout their careers. Kerrick, who intends to study engineering in college, explained that his experience with the Committee has convinced him of the importance of understanding the people of every community where his work will take him so that he can best serve their needs. Hospodar, who plans to major in philosophy and pursue a career in law, is similarly dedicated to serving as an agent of positive change in his profession, not as a defender of the status quo.

In the meantime, Hospodar and Kerrick are confident that younger students on the Committee—many of whom they recruited themselves—will excel as they assume leadership roles. “As we’ve gone on, we’ve gotten more passionate about it,” Hospodar said. “It just keeps growing.”

With support from the Mary P. Blalock Fund and generous donors who contribute to it, the Philanthropy Committee is poised to continue a tradition of service to the community for years to come. In the process, generations of Navigators will grow to approach their role as leaders with thoughtfulness, intentionality, and a firm sense of moral responsibility.

Interested in supporting the Mary P. Blalock Philanthropy Fund? Make a gift today to carry on a legacy of leadership and service.

Dr. Maribel Gendreau (second from left) with her anatomy and physiology class at THRIVE Peninsula food pantry

With cutting-edge facilities right on its campus, Hampton Roads Academy is committed to using its resources not only to provide an unmatched learning experience for its students, but also to benefit the community at large.

This winter, Upper School science teacher Dr. Maribel Gendreau’s anatomy and physiology class exemplified this wider impact by partnering with THRIVE Peninsula food pantry in Newport News to supply local families with fresh produce cultivated in HRA’s own Martha H. Patten Hydroponics Lab and STEAM Classroom. The two-month-long advocacy project culminated on Thursday, February 26, with a visit to THRIVE Peninsula, where the students delivered the vegetables they had grown and spent the afternoon volunteering in the food pantry.

Gendreau guides her students as they seed leafy greens for their winter 2026 advocacy project

Throughout January and February, as Gendreau’s eleventh and twelfth graders maintained their plants and tracked their growth, they gained hands-on insight into how food is produced and affects our bodies while also learning what food insecurity looks like in their community. A quiet epidemic, food insecurity affects about one in nine individuals in Hampton Roads. The crisis is especially pronounced in the winter months, when food pantries, unequipped with indoor hydroponic growing towers, often struggle to provide fresh produce.

“What excites me most about this project is the chance for our students to give back to the community and really understand that there are families who don’t always know where their next meal will come from,” Gendreau said. “Growing leafy greens to donate to a local pantry lets them take what they’ve learned and actually make a difference,” in the process “building cooking skills, teamwork, and a better understanding of how food impacts health and community.”

Hands-On Learning with a Broader Impact

The anatomy and physiology class’ collaboration with THRIVE Peninsula is part of a year-long curriculum that centers the intersections of biochemistry, diet, and society.

Throughout the fall semester, Gendreau’s students learned about food, nutrition, and human health through such practical activities as growing kale in desktop hydroponic units to make kale chips, cultivating peppers and cilantro to prepare fresh salsa, and exploring the benefits of tea and other foods and beverages rich in antioxidants and vitamins.

Senior Grace Lee ’26 plants seeds to provide nutritious produce to the community

Support for experiential learning throughout the food and nutrition unit has come from Pilot Light, a nonprofit organization that empowers teachers to bring food education into the classroom and thereby inspire students to become informed citizens. As a member of Pilot Light’s 2025-2026 Food Education Fellowship cohort, Gendreau has received funding for materials and food for weekly hands-on lessons that take advantage of the unparalleled resources available in HRA’s hydroponics laboratory. Her active involvement in this selective professional development opportunity has been a boon to both her students and HRA’s community-engaged mission.

On January 7, just after winter break, Gendreau’s class launched their advocacy project as a way to apply their skills and knowledge beyond the walls of the Academy. Split into five groups of two, each responsible for 28 plants in a hydroponic growing tower, the students tracked the progress of such greens as kale, arugula, butter lettuce, and sweet crisp lettuce for more than seven weeks. In order to ensure that they would produce healthy and delicious produce for families visiting the food pantry, they watered the plants every other day and adjusted the pH and electrical conductivity (a measure of nutrient concentration in the water) biweekly.

This meticulous process, senior and aspiring nutrition and dietetics major Grace Lee ’26 explained, “has taught me that the solution to this crisis is not simply providing more food, but higher-quality, nutritionally sound food. By growing our own food in the hydroponics lab, we are actively attempting to close the nutritional gap in our community.”

Access to nourishing produce, Lee stressed, “is a right, not a luxury.”

Combining STEM with Service

Junior Faith Gregory ’27 harvests vegetables to deliver to the food pantry

By teaming up with THRIVE Peninsula, HRA’s anatomy and physiology students will ensure that every family in Hampton Roads can enjoy that right.

Junior Caroline Short ’27 was especially excited to partner with THRIVE this semester, having volunteered for the organization several times since the summer before her sophomore year and collaborated with them on a food drive through the American Heart Association Club. “One thing I love about THRIVE is that they have a garden connected to the building that supplies them with fresh produce during spring and summer,” she said. “However, during winter, many of the plants can no longer survive.”

With its state-of-the-art hydroponics laboratory, Short noted, HRA is uniquely positioned to remedy this deficit and provide leafy greens rich in essential vitamins and minerals even during the coldest months of the year.

Juniors Ashlyn Davis ’27 and Daphne Ambrosino ’27 help local families obtain groceries while volunteering at THRIVE Peninsula

On February 26, the students witnessed the impact of their efforts first-hand when they delivered their vegetables to the food pantry. The day before, they had harvested the produce they had tended for weeks, weighed it, and separated it into bundles to bring to THRIVE Peninsula. Then, after school hours, they volunteered their time to help families obtain nutritious groceries, including their own leafy greens.

For Gendreau and her class, the gratitude of their neighbors was the greatest reward.

“Through our unique take on ‘farm to table,’” Lee said, “we learned that our resources and skills are not just for our benefit, but are powerful tools that we can use to strengthen and bring our community together.”

“Let’s be honest,” Gendreau added—“everything just tastes better when it’s made to share with others.”

Upper School science teachers Dr. Maribel Gendreau (far left) and Lauren Oaks (far right) accompany members of the Sustainability Club on a visit to the plot they will be rewilding in partnership with the Mariners’ Museum and Park

As soon as they returned from their winter break, the freshmen, sophomores, and juniors of Hampton Roads Academy’s newly formed, student-run Sustainability Club embarked on a partnership with the Mariners’ Museum and Park in Newport News to convert a nearby plot of land back into a native meadow.

The first collaboration of its kind between a high school and the Mariners’ Museum, the rewilding initiative was made possible by a grant from the Walking Softer Foundation, a nonprofit organization that works to raise awareness about challenges confronting the planet and empower student-led environmental projects through investments, awards, and scholarships.

According to Upper School biology teacher Dr. Maribel Gendreau, who serves as faculty sponsor for the Sustainability Club, this inaugural initiative reflects her students’ mission “to turn ideas into hands-on projects that make a difference at school and beyond.”

“What excites me the most about the rewilding project is its ability to make a difference in our community,” said sophomore Henry Kaplow ’28, the club’s founder and president. “Restoring native meadows like these is really important because it expands the habitat of native plants and animals while restoring the area to its original beauty. I hope this project will positively impact the Mariners’ Museum and provide a framework for other schools to follow in our footsteps.”

Planting Seeds

Students measure and mark the boundaries of the plot they will seed with native plants

The Sustainability Club directed the restoration project from the earliest stages of planning in fall 2025. Following initial conversations between Gendreau and the Mariners’ Museum team about the idea of rewilding the local area, the students met directly with their partners at the museum via Zoom to discuss next steps. The club quickly secured funding by submitting a project presentation to Walking Softer.

On Wednesday, January 7, the students hit the ground running with an initial visit to the 10,000-square-foot site off Copeland Lane, near the museum, that they will work to transform in the coming months. With help from Gendreau and Upper School chemistry teacher Lauren Oaks, club members measured the plot, marked its boundaries, and tagged invasive crape myrtles for removal. That Friday, the trees were removed, setting the stage for three rounds of soil tilling over the span of four weeks.

Meanwhile, students will meet to research native Virginia grasses and flowers, selecting and ordering plants based on their knowledge of the history of the Mariners’ Museum site. This meticulous process will ensure that the species they plant thrive and attract pollinators and other wildlife to the plot.

After designing a planting layout, the club plans to return to the site on February 21 to spread seeds, cover them with straw, and erect signage and a deer-deterrent fence. On subsequent visits, the students will monitor and document the progress of the restoration through photographs and video. They will also install cameras to study which insect and larger animal species are attracted to the meadow as it returns to a wild state.

The Start of a Community Effort

Invasive crape myrtles removed to clear space for the return of native flora and the restoration of local animal habitats

As Gendreau explained, this project will allow members of the Sustainability Club to apply what they have studied in class about ecosystems, native plants, and human impact to a real-world challenge, empowering them to play an active role in improving the local environment. Through sustainable food production activities in the Martha H. Patten Hydroponics Lab and STEAM Classroom, students have already learned about approaches that can promote healthy, resilient ecosystems. Now, by rewilding a plot of land just a stone’s throw away in Newport News, Gendreau said, the club will “improve soil health, increase biodiversity, and help communities learn how humans can repair and coexist with the natural environment.”

She predicted that a successful transformation of the site will “inspire schools and clubs in the area to partner with the Mariners’ Museum to rewild additional plots until the area is fully rewilded.”

For the students, the prospect of a larger community effort stemming from their work is the most exciting aspect of this initiative.

“I hope that if this project is seen by the public,” said ninth grader and Sustainability Club member Grace Bradley ’29, “they will have a sense of appreciation for nature and the knowledge that change is being made to make a healthier Earth.”

“The most important lesson I’ve learned in the Sustainability Club is that change isn’t something you can do by yourself. It takes a group of like-minded people to get the job done,” she added.

Fortunately, according to Kaplow, HRA is the perfect place to start cultivating a wider environmentally conscious community committed to restoring local biodiversity.

“There is a large group of students and faculty at HRA that share an interest in sustainability,” he said. “Having a dedicated place to interact with all of these amazing people is one way that the Sustainability Club has made HRA a better place.”

Mechelle Hankerson of WHRO Public Media discusses the current landscape of local news and election coverage with HRA’s seniors at the 2025 Election Symposium

Hampton Roads Academy strives to prepare students for excellence in higher education, but we are no less committed to helping them successfully navigate the challenges they will face beyond a college classroom. In their lives after graduation, HRA students will take on few roles more important than that of citizens.

On Tuesday, October 21, HRA’s inaugural Election Symposium offered our seniors the unique opportunity to hear from three individuals with a deep understanding of the electoral process and the nature of representation at the state level.

The event kicked off in the Svein J. Lassen Auditorium with a conversation with Dr. Rebecca Bromley-Trujillo, director of the Wason Center at Christopher Newport University. Later in the program, the students were joined by Mechelle Hankerson, news director at WHRO Public Media, as well as a member of the Virginia House of Delegates who is up for reelection this year: Amanda Batten, a Republican who represents York and James City Counties and serves as House Minority Caucus chair. Delegate Marcia Price, a Democrat who represents Newport News and Hampton, was originally scheduled to appear but could not attend due to a last-minute conflict.

The wide-ranging symposium, organized and moderated by Upper School government teacher and Associate Director of College Counseling Christopher Hailey, allowed the invited speakers to share their expertise on the political process as it specifically impacts Virginians. Topics of discussion included campaigning for office, the role of delegates in serving constituents, potential changes to state elections, and the role of local media and state-level public opinion polling during election cycles.

Senior Nancy Arena ’26, whose eighteenth birthday falls just a few weeks after the voter registration deadline, found the symposium to be immensely valuable. She noted that the opportunity to gain “one-on-one” access to a local delegate deepened her insight into the realities of state government and elevated her enthusiasm to cast a ballot in the near future.

A Timely Learning Opportunity

Delegate Amanda Batten speaks with Upper School government teacher and Associate Director of College Counseling Christopher Hailey during the Election Symposium

With elections for the governor and for delegates across the Commonwealth just two weeks away, the symposium could not have taken place at a more critical moment. “Students—all of us, really—are less tuned in to state elections,” Hailey said. “We should all have good information about the electoral process [and] the people representing us.”

Though most twelfth graders are not yet old enough to vote in 2025, they represent the next cohort of Navigators who will apply what they have learned at HRA to inform their choices at the polls. With a holistic understanding of elections, the vast array of players involved, and the responsibilities of officials selected by the voters, our students will be well-equipped to evaluate political messaging and make decisions that align with their priorities and values, rather than defer instinctively to partisan loyalties.

In an era of intense political polarization, Hailey strove to turn down the temperature by inviting Delegate Batten to explain the work she does on behalf of her constituents every day.

State legislators, Hailey acknowledged, “certainly have their ideological bents.” However, he said, “they are close to their constituents, both geographically and in terms of their ability to contact” voters because “they represent 80,000 people and not 800,000 people.”

Having met one of their representatives face-to-face, Hailey hopes, students will not so easily slip into a “generalized cynicism about politics” that leads many citizens to dismiss all politicians as “crooks.”

“These are real people doing real jobs,” he said. “They’re there to serve.”

“Linkage Institutions”

Beyond obtaining a fuller understanding of their elected officials, students gained insight into the many structures beyond campaigns that shape citizens’ relationship with the electoral process.

In his government classes, Hailey explained, he devotes significant time to the “linkage institutions—parties, media (including polling), interest groups—that connect voters to politics.” With half the guests at the Election Symposium representing such institutions, the event provided a concrete picture of how they operate and face unique challenges at the state level.

Dr. Rebecca Bromley-Trujillo walks students through the methodologies of public opinion polling at the state level

CNU’s Rebecca Bromley-Trujillo, a political scientist whose research reflects the Wason Center’s focus on the relationship between public opinion and policymaking, provided a process-oriented presentation on how pollsters go about conducting meaningful public opinion research. Such data are often lacking for local races due to the difficulty of obtaining a representative sample out of an already small constituency. As Dr. Brompley-Trujillo explained, however, polling organizations like the Wason Center can conduct reliable state-level polls with samples of just 800 respondents by randomly sampling registered voters, filtering results through a likely-voter model based on recent election participation, and taking the time to ensure that the population polled is demographically representative of Virginians as a whole.

Still, as Dr. Bromley-Trujillo stressed to the students, “surveys are telling you a moment in time. … That can and does fluctuate over the course of an election.”

“Polling is information,” she said. “Voting is what matters, though.”

WHRO’s Mechelle Hankerson built on this discussion by noting how the news media similarly face distinct challenges in covering local and state-level elections. Recent federal budget cuts for public media organizations like WHRO have only exacerbated long-term struggles, such as the decreasing number of local outlets that must determine how to use limited resources to present useful information to markets containing multiple constituencies.

Despite these difficulties, Hankerson explained, newsrooms like hers have one major advantage. “Political reporting—the way we traditionally think of it—is just not useful. We need to focus more on policy instead of politics,” she said. “At the local level, you can really dig into policy and who that affects. … We’re really focused on thinking about it from a community standpoint.”

Future Cycles

With the success of this year’s lively Election Symposium, Hailey looks forward to organizing similar events in future election years. This sort of program, he suggested, would be most interesting to students in off-years, such as 2027, when there will be neither federal campaigns nor a gubernatorial contest to help draw voters into local elections.

“I think that the most important time to get kids tapped into the electoral process is when fewer people typically are paying attention,” he said.

By all indications, HRA’s symposia will have a significant role to play in energizing the students who will soon help to decide local as well as nationwide races.

Gage Beach ’26, who confessed that he had not kept up with the upcoming gubernatorial contest as much as he would have liked, found this forum for discussing the political process eye-opening. Having learned more about pollsters’ methodologies and “the inner workings of the House of Delegates and the State Senate” than he thought he could within just a few hours, Beach is excited for the part he and his classmates will play in elections after graduating from HRA.

Excitement and community spirit fill the air as faculty, alumni, families, and friends of HRA gather for friendly competition and fundraising at the annual Golf Classic

For Hampton Roads Academy trustee Marissa Lanier, co-president of the parent-run Navigator Club, the school’s annual golf tournament is “more than just a tradition. It’s an event that brings faculty, alumni, parents, and community members together in support of our school, year after year.”

Hosted by the Navigator Club on the stunning and challenging course at James River Country Club on Thursday, October 30, the 33rd Annual HRA Golf Classic will be a highlight of the social and charitable calendar, not only for the Academy, but also for our friends throughout the region. Blending friendly competition, meaningful networking opportunities, and community spirit across eighteen holes of four-person captain’s choice golf, the tournament will allow participating teams to showcase their athletic talent while furthering HRA’s mission.

Late October is an ideal time for golf at the stunning James River Country Club

Proceeds from this year’s tournament will support upgrades to the HRA Tennis Complex, along with additional needs of the Athletics Department. More than 100 golfers are expected to compete, helping raise funds to provide a superior educational experience for our students.

“Year after year, this event demonstrates the incredible strength and generosity of our community, uniting organizers, volunteers, players, and sponsors to give HRA teams the very best,” said Director of Athletics Laura Stoner. “Thanks to their tireless efforts, HRA Athletics continues to provide top-notch facilities and make meaningful upgrades to training equipment and amenities, ensuring our athletes and coaches have the resources they need to excel.”

A Storied Tradition

A golf tournament may seem to be a natural fundraiser for the athletic booster club of a school with such accomplished golf teams as HRA. Navigator Golf won an impressive 11 TCIS tournament championships between 1985 and 2001 and a state championship title in 2021. Not until 1993, however, was the idea for the HRA Golf Classic born.

Evan Peterson, who had recently joined HRA as Head of School (1992-2002), spearheaded the inaugural tournament, along with then-vice chair of the Board of Trustees Svein Lassen and Board member Ben Williams, as a way to fund a capital-intensive project that exceeded the athletics budget at the time: installing lights on the school’s football field.

Thomas Capstick, representing the team from tournament sponsor PBMares, spins the “Beal Wheel” for prizes at the 2024 HRA Golf Classic

As Peterson recalled, “We were talking socially about what we could do for the football program,” in which his son and Williams’ nephew were both players. These informal conversations evolved into an organized fundraiser that would soon become the Navigator Club’s largest and most successful annual initiative. In the more than three decades since its inception, the Golf Classic has supplied invaluable support not only for the football field project, but also for the construction of HRA’s 4,000-square-foot Fitness Center and the purchase of chartered coach buses to transport players on the school’s many sports teams.

After Lassen’s passing in 2006, with tremendous support from his wife Betty Marie and son Lars ’97, the HRA Golf Classic took on new significance as a memorial event honoring the former trustee and Navigator parent. To this day, the annual tournament is dedicated to Lassen’s memory.

Although he oversaw the execution of the Golf Classic for more than 25 years, through its many triumphs and transformations, longtime Director of Athletics (1981-2020) Max Gillespie is quick to give credit to other key players without whom the tournament would not have become the success it is today. Every president of the Navigator Club, Gillespie said, has done “a fantastic job in making the tournament come about and making it work,” as have the Golf Classic chairs, the HRA Advancement Office, and former trustee Debbie Tanner ’70, in her capacity as Director of Alumni Relations (2010-2018).

Carrying on a Proud Legacy

Former HRA trustee Larry Pope, his grandson Will Flannery ’20, and Will’s parents Carey and Joe Flannery get in the spirit of spooky season at last year’s golf tournament

Inspired by this tradition of excellence in promoting HRA Athletics and uniting the Navigator family, the current leadership of the Navigator Club looks forward to surpassing expectations at the 2025 Annual Golf Classic.

The day of fall fun and philanthropy will open with a registration reception at 11:00 am, followed by a seated lunch for golfers. Play will begin with a shotgun start at 12:30 and conclude that evening with an awards reception. There is still time to register as a player or sponsor for the event.

“What excites me the most,” said Navigator parent Meredith Hutchens, who presides over the Navigator Club alongside Marissa Lanier, “is knowing that each dollar raised will be wisely spent to improve the appearance and function of HRA’s athletic facilities.”

Lanier added that she looks forward to making treasured memories with her fellow members of the HRA community. She fondly recalls such highlights of last year’s Golf Classic as pompom-shaking alumni cheerleaders selling raffle tickets on the course, former trustee Larry Pope and his family team decked out in Halloween-themed polo shirts, and golfers spinning the “Beal Wheel,” so named for then-tournament chair Brynn Beal, to win prizes at the tenth tee. The 2025 Golf Classic promises no shortage of similarly memorable moments.

Such fun shared experiences “keep the HRA family connected,” said current trustee and Navigator parent Hank Hankins ’92, who chairs this year’s Golf Tournament Committee with his cousin Catie Ashe ’99. “Spending four hours on the golf course is an easy way to catch up with old friends while contributing to the continued success of the school that was so integral in shaping our lives.”

Head of School Jay Lasley putts at the 2024 HRA Golf Classic

Director of Alumni Relations Tommy Yevak ’83 could not agree more. When asked what he looks forward to most as he prepares to compete in this year’s Golf Classic, his answer was simple: “It’s the people.” Having played several times with fellow 1983 graduates and dear friends Mark Short, Clay Edwards, and Stuart West, he is excited to add another former classmate and “outstanding golfer,” Ellen Wildman Fiscella, to his team.

“My wife Kathy refers to ‘lily pads’ in life,” the highly anticipated, joyous occasions between which one “jumps,” Yevak said. “For me, the golf tournament has become a lily pad every year.”

Director of Alumni Relations Tommy Yevak ’83 (left) and Coach David Legg ’80 (right) remember their fellow alumni while relaxing on a memorial bench gifted to HRA by the Class of 1980

For the Hampton Roads Academy Class of 1980, Homecoming 2025 will represent far more than their landmark forty-fifth reunion. It will also be an opportunity to cheer on their classmate, Coach David Legg ’80, during the varsity football game and an occasion to give back to HRA while celebrating one another.

During the weekend, the alumni will unveil a special gift to the Academy: a trio of memorial benches to honor three departed 1980 graduates—Jones Macon, Chip Temple, and Doug Snead. Placed along the wall of the Mary and Larry Pope Dining Hall, facing toward the athletic fields, the benches will not only carry on the memory of these beloved classmates, but also provide Navigators for years to come with a place to relax, study, socialize, and watch sporting events like the Homecoming game, which brings together the entire HRA community.

Nearby, a boulder will display a plaque recognizing the Class of 1980’s “gratitude for the laughter shared, the lessons learned, and the memories cherished.”

A Tribute to the Lost and to a Special Bond

The deeply meaningful gift is the result of a fundraising project spearheaded by class ambassador Faye Ferguson ’80. As Ferguson explained, news of Snead’s unexpected passing, just a few years after the loss of Temple and Macon, came as a blow during discussions of class reunion plans earlier this year. “The reality of having lost three of our classmates brings things into focus,” she said. “This gift seemed like an appropriate way to recognize those we have lost as well as those still making a difference with the current students at our alma mater.”

“We talked about a memorial gift to the school in remembrance of our classmates,” Ferguson recalled. “That idea evolved into a more expansive conversation about our fondness for our classmates and how we all appreciate each other and recognize what a special class we have.”

In the spirit of honoring the entire Class of 1980, a more ambitious goal soon took shape: to recognize Coach Legg along with the classmates’ departed friends. Their efforts expanded to raising funds beyond those required for the bench project to help Legg fulfill his vision for the revitalized HRA varsity football program.

“The fact that, 45 years after graduating from HRA, half of our class contributed to the class gift and are planning to return for the reunion weekend speaks volumes about our mutual affection and caring,” Ferguson said. “We have classmates coming in from California, Wisconsin, Massachusetts, New York, Georgia, North Carolina, and Florida, as well as all parts of Virginia.”

“An Environment Where Belonging Was an Embedded School Value”

For anyone familiar with the wealth of memories the Class of 1980 made at HRA, it is no wonder that so many alumni—from this cohort and others—are eager to return to campus, support Coach Legg, and contribute actively to the life of the school.

HRA graduate and Director of Alumni Relations Tommy Yevak ’83 remarked that the Class of 1980 Homecoming gift “gives me a sense of pride in my era as a student here and specifically in those folks from that class, a class I looked up to as a young freshman in high school.”

Yevak looks back especially fondly on his relationships with the senior student-athletes with whom he shared fields and courts in 1979 and 1980. Former trustee Tripp Spencer ’80, Yevak recalled, went out of his way to protect him on the gridiron when he injured his hand during a football game against a particularly fierce rival. “Tripp was not only talented and extremely tough physically, but also kind,” Yevak said.

That same year, he shared an impressive Noodle Night basketball victory with seven members of the Class of 1980—Johnny Becouvarakis, Chip Harris, David Legg, Geof Nochimson, Chuck Richardson, Paul Short, and the late Chip Temple.

“We were underdogs in that game but won in a dramatic finish in front of a huge home crowd that was certainly a fire marshal violation in attendance,” Yevak said. “That’s the kind of experience that provides a lifetime of value and joy, and I was fortunate enough to share it with those guys from ’80. I think about all of them quite often.”

For her part, Faye Ferguson is most moved by the memory of the community she found as a student at HRA. “I certainly had my share of trials and tribulations during those years,” she said, “but I felt supported by the school throughout my six years at HRA and not sporadically, but every single day.”

The Academy’s outstanding teachers and coaches, Ferguson remembered, “cared about the students and believed in us. It’s only after many years of other experiences that I can look back and see some of what went into creating an environment where belonging was an embedded school value.”

A Homecoming to Remember

With the Class of 1980 gift lending both solemnity and joy to the occasion, Homecoming weekend 2025 will be a time for HRA alumni to make new memories at the school that shaped them all in profound ways.

The fun will begin at HRA on Friday, October 17, with our annual school-wide Fall Festival in the afternoon and the All-Alumni Tailgate from 5:00 to 7:00 pm. Immediately afterward, Coach Legg’s Navigator football team will take on Atlantic Shores Christian School. Alumni will line up on the field for a celebration at halftime.

Saturday evening, while current students show off their best moves at the Homecoming Dance, the Classes of 1965, 1970, 1975, 1980, 1985, 1990, 1995, 2000, 2005, 2010, 2015, and 2020 will reconvene on campus for tours of their alma mater and a reunion party from 6:00 to 8:00 pm.

The weekend’s festivities will serve as a reminder that every Navigator has a home at HRA, no matter how many years have passed.

“We are at that point in our lives,” Ferguson said, “when we can clearly see how these relationships we made while at HRA are enduring and remain important to this day.”

Director of Lower School Susanne Swain ’78 welcomes class flag bearers to the stage at the first Lower School Leadership Assembly of the 2025-2026 school year

On the afternoon of Friday, September 26, Hampton Roads Academy’s Lower School proudly continued a ten-year-old tradition with the first Leadership Assembly of the 2025-2026 academic year.

Led each month by members of the Lower School Student Council Association (SCA) and including many Navigator families as well as the student body and faculty, the assembly “pulls us together as a community,” according to Director of Lower School Susanne Swain ’78. “It gives the visitors—the parents and grandparents—a peek into our school’s values and how we reinforce those values as we go through the year.”

This month’s Lower School Leadership Assembly, entitled “Stitched Together: The Year of Connections,” provided an opportunity for HRA administrators and SCA officers to share their perspectives on the theme that will inform the life of the entire school throughout the year. The program reinforced for our youngest learners the role they have to play as leaders of a community whose strength lies in our connections to one another.

“Friendships, Kind Hearts, and a Caring Community”

Students in Lindsay Morena’s Pre-Kindergarten class follow their flag bearer into the auditorium

The day of the assembly, this crucial lesson was front-and-center from the very start. Students arrived in the Lower School Commons in the morning to see their class quilts, featuring squares to which they had all signed their names, prominently presented and tied together, thanks to the efforts of Lower School substitute teacher Lisa Hartman, Peninsula Piecemakers, and Colonial Piecemakers. This display, Swain explained, demonstrated to students that “as a community, we are linked together.”

Students also received custom-made Year of Connections pins to display on their backpacks as a visual reminder of the meaning of the yearlong theme.

The assembly itself began that afternoon in the Svein J. Lassen Auditorium with the presentation of the colors, after which second grader and Lower School SCA Secretary/Treasurer Lydia McCallie ’36 led the Pledge of Allegiance. Following Swain’s welcome remarks, students who had been granted the honor of serving as class flag bearers and leading their classmates into the auditorium brought their class flags onto the stage as Head of School Jay Lasley called roll.

Lower School SCA President Sophia Barbosa ’34 addresses her peers

Next to take the dais was Lower School SCA President Sophia Barbosa ’34, who delivered a thoughtful speech on the theme of connections.

“When we connect, we build friendships, kind hearts, and a caring community,” Barbosa told her peers, stressing the importance of “small daily gestures, such as smiling at someone, eye contact, and showing interest in getting to know another student.”

“These daily connections with students, teachers, and everyone we come into contact with are the fabric that makes HRA a special place,” she said.

After Barbosa completed her remarks, Lower School SCA Vice President Shreyan Paul ’35 spoke on the importance of HRA’s core values—honesty, respect, and responsibility.

“These core values aren’t only to be used at school, but also can be used anywhere,” the third grader said. With this trio of principles as a lodestar, he explained to his fellow Lower Schoolers, “[we can] improve ourselves and make a better world around us.”

Like the Honor Council Assemblies for our Middle and Upper School, this presentation served to help Lower School students understand what our community stands for and how they can be ethical and responsible learners at HRA.

Celebrating Each Member of the Navigator Community

As a demonstration of our students’ and parents’ investment in the HRA community and commitment to outstanding character, the program included a gracious acknowledgment of families who had lent a helping hand in tending the Lower School Garden over the summer. These generous volunteers included the Pruitt family, the Prohaska-Moon family, the White family, the LiBrando family, the Dunn/Lomonaco family, and Lower School grandparent Dabney Morgan. HRA is deeply appreciative of all their contributions. 

The Lower School community also proudly welcomed its newly elected second-, third-, and fourth-grade SCA representatives:

Toward the end of the assembly, the Lower School chorus, led by music teacher Erika Caulford and accompanied on piano by HRA senior and former Lower Schooler Zack Patten ’26, came to the front of the room to sing the Academy’s Alma Mater. The program then concluded with the monthly recognition of student birthdays. This “little one-on-one touch,” Swain said, “lets each child know we remember their special day.”

Critical Leadership Skills: Learning by Doing

The Lower School chorus performs the Hampton Roads Academy Alma Mater

The monthly Lower School Leadership Assemblies are not simply community events. They also provide young students with an invaluable introduction to such important skills as speechwriting, speaking or performing in front of an audience, and assuming a position of responsibility within a community. Believing that students acquire these learned skills through practice, the Lower School faculty make an effort to extend every student an opportunity to appear on stage in one capacity or another over the course of the year, whether as a flag bearer, a speaker, a choir singer, or a participant in a group performance.

As Junior Kindergarten teacher and Lower School SCA faculty advisor Jordan Gray explained, “It is important for even the youngest students to take on leadership roles because it allows them an opportunity to develop pride and confidence within themselves. Students at every grade level look forward to getting the chance to be a flag bearer and represent their class in front of the whole Lower School community.”

Fourth-grade teacher Savannah Whitten, who shares advising duties with Gray, underscored the vital role that Lower School Leadership Assemblies play in our students’ education.

“I believe these early leadership experiences help students understand the value of teamwork, initiative, and accountability, skills that are essential for success in Middle School and beyond,” she said. “They also empower students to see themselves as capable leaders, laying a strong foundation for future growth.”