October 2025 Accolades

We are sharing Student Accolades from:

DME Art Competition >>

ISL Volleyball >> 

Cross Country >>

First Place award for The Augur Bit >>

DME Art Competition

Please join us in congratulating GDS 3rd grader Martín Sarzosa-Rojas '35. Martín submitted a work of art to the DME Art Competition under the theme “Heritage & Education: Painting a Brighter Future.”  Competition officials at the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Education, in conjunction with the Executive Office of Mayor Muriel Bowser and Deputy Mayor Paul Kihn, have selected his piece "More Than What Meets the Eye" as a finalist for the Spring DME Art Competition. There will be a special ceremony and public display of his artwork at the John A. Wilson Building.

ISL Volleyball

With a win over National Cathedral School last week, the varsity volleyball team completed an undefeated regular season in ISL Upper Division play, winning the AA Division regular season championship for the second time in school history! 

We are entering both the ISL AA tournament next week and will be entering the DCSAA State tournament the following week as their #1 overall seed. The DCSAA state championship match is scheduled to take place at the University of the District of Columbia on Friday, November 7!

Recent Commitments

We're so proud of our current Hoppers who have committed to continue playing volleyball in college:

• Fiona McDermott '26 - Colby College
• Gigi Wigglesworth '26 - Denison University
• Tessa Fergusson '26 - Tufts University
• Alexa Telly '27 - American University

Alumni Updates

• Liz Higday '25 has kicked off her freshman season at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, where the Engineers are off to an excellent 7-4 start
• Jada Aksu '25 has kicked off her freshman season at Lafayette College, recently totaling 14 kills and 5 blocks in a 3-0 win over rival Lehigh
  • Check out Jada's postgame interview here!: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F103JFvJ7gg
• Shiraz Benyoucef '25 has kicked off her freshman season at UC Santa Cruz, recently totaling 27 digs (!) vs. Gallaudet on their trip to DC.
  • The GDS varsity coaches were fortunate to watch the freshman libero and her Banana Slug teammates reverse sweep Mount Union this past Friday in DC!! Go slugs!

Upcoming Volleyball tournaments

• October 29, 30 - ISL Tournament Dates (Quarterfinal Semifinal, Final)
• November 5, 6, 7 - DCSAA Tournament Dates (Quarterfinal, Semifinal, Final)

–Reported by Brandon Wiest 

Cross Country

Approaching the championship meets at the end of the season, the GDS men's and women's cross country teams were off to their strongest starts in years..

At the highly competitive Virginia Showcase meet on October 18, Shira Wenthe '27 and Oliver Wolin '26 both took individual victories in the small school races for women and men. Our varsity women's team won the small school race and our varsity men were 5th in that same small school division. Not to be outdone, in JV contests that were open to both the 56 small schools as well as the 26 large schools, our JV men placed 3rd and our JV women were 4th! In classic GDS fashion, the Varsity girls missed attending their awards ceremony because they were too busy cheering for their GDS teammates in the JV races.

The week before, at the MDXC Invitational in Cockeysville, MD, Shira Wenthe '27 broke her own school record running 18:02 on the grassy 5 km course. Every single GDS competitor who competed that day ran their season-best time, which was a real testament to their previous two months of training.                 

–Reported by Anthony Belber

First Place for The Augur Bit    

Please join us in congratulating the staff of The Augur Bit for winning First Place in Quill and Scroll's international high school newspaper contest for the third consecutive year! 

The Bit was among nine student newspapers in the nation to win the award. (Only ten won the highest prize, the Gallup Award).

The award-winning staff is a team of reporters, opinion writers, critics, photographers, illustrators, editors, and other staffers, all under the guidance of editor-in-chief Sam Gross, and managing editors Teresa Dean, and Molly Kurtzer-Ellenbogen. 

Congrats to all!