Cordia Pickerill is a generational Brown Bear- a returning member within the Brown School family. Pickerill is the middle school guidance counselor, was a student, and has other ties to the school as well.

Pickerill began her  journey at Brown in first grade because the school didn’t include Kindergarten at the time. She explains her brother was also here, and it was during the time where siblings could help each other getting into Brown. Her mother taught at the school after she enrolled, but first, “My mother was a library clerk, and then she went back to school and got her degree for 7th and 8th grade ELA teacher.” Pickerill also met her husband at Brown when he was a sophomore and she was a freshman. Though they didn’t talk much to each other, they were able to reconnect after college. 

Returning to Brown with a different perspective, she explained there had been physical changes; however, the important things stayed the same. “I would say the kids are the same, the personalities, the quirkiness, weirdness, loveliness. The activist spirit with the trans movement is more prevalent, we had questioning kids, but we didn’t have labels, it was very progressive. I’m hoping it's something we strive for.” She says while she loves the Brown community, and the freedoms we have being downtown, she says it wasn’t like her days as a student. “There is a lot more structure, which I guess isn’t a bad thing. We would randomly walk down to the Waterfront and there was way less paperwork, but you can’t do that now.” But she says though policies and physical characteristics have changed, it's the same liberal, open-minded environment. 

As both a student and a counselor, she appreciates how interactive with the community Brown continues to be. “I remember back to my 3rd grade teacher, we would write about the trees they were chopping down at the Waterfront.” At the time, before the entire waterfront had been constructed to include all of the playgrounds, and field areas with swings, it was forestry. She said they would get together in class and try to do something about it. “Guys, this is going on, how do we feel about this? And we wrote letters to the editors, - we did that back then - mine got published, and 3rd grade me was so excited. Then, 3rd and 4th grade marched, and we had signs, and sang songs for the trees, and the news was there, that was the kind of spirit Brown has.” She said that is what is most important, “The spirit, that is what Brown School is to me.” She explains that Brown has always sought after issues within the community, and tried to fix it, or try to get people to acknowledge the issue. 

Pickerill explains her main goal as the middle school counselor is to empower her students and help them step into their worth. She does her best to keep them from being beat down by society. “The world can make them feel like they should give up. That's not the answer. I try to instill some hope in them and the teachers.” Overall, within Brown, she hopes students will have a more empowered voice. She wants every voice to have an impact. She also expressed she would like the teachers and admin of k-12 to work more in harmony with each other. “I would love overarching the school to be one. We had a lot more schoolwide stuff that we did, but that's also because so much of my experience was during the 90’s.” She explained that while the 90s were good times as a student, she has new ideas to fit the present, and sees more potential use of our location. “I want to utilize it more. I want to do more with the medical plaza, have field trips or internships there.” 

Pickerill has so much love to offer Brown, especially after taking on middle school. “The kids- working in middle school, that pre-teen, ‘I don’t know anything, I hate and love everyone.’ It's such an exciting time of life,” Pickerill adds her own experience, “I hated it, and I was that awkward black girl, and I didn’t fit into all of the different cliques. I wasn’t what society said I had to be. [But], I found my clique, so I am motivated to help others.” She adds, “We're all just a little off from what everyone tells us to be, and that's okay.”

As she has explained, the students are so incredibly important to her, she says “I like being K-12, I can build a relationship with them, and watch them grow, and see who I am about to get.” After being an orchestra teacher prior, she got to watch kids grow into themselves, but the paperwork, and planning wasn’t for her. Now she says she loves working with her fellow counselors, though they are very different. “I am the social, emotional, love counselor.” She is very appreciative of the help she has from the others- Christy being very elementary and Robin being prepared to send off the high schoolers. She says "in the middle" is her place. Even from a young age, “I knew I wanted to be a teacher in second grade. I was watching Linda and Susan, [my teachers] and I remember saying, ‘I want to be sweet and kind, so I have to be a teacher. That always stuck with me.”

The Brown High School Orchestra attended KMEA on Thursday, March 9th. The trip was delayed after the windstorm that hit the region on Friday, March 3rd. KMEA stands for Kentucky Music Educators Association, and it is a festival students attend to showcase their skills for a group of judges. The orchestra brings a few pieces they’ve been working on in class. They also sight read, proving to the judges that they know how to read music.

Thursday morning, orchestra students in the Gold Day Orchestra class rehearsed their pieces one more time. At 10:20 am, students met in the lobby all excitedly waiting for the day ahead. “The plan is to get on the bus, go to St. Matthews Mall to eat, leave there by 11:45, and then get to Ballard by 12,” Tamika Carr, Brown’s orchestra teacher, explained to the group. But, things didn’t quite go as planned. There was a miscommunication with arranging for the bus- but it all worked out with a slight change of plans.

When the bus driver arrived at the school, the instruments were loaded on and then they headed to 4th Street. Some students went to Dunkin Donuts or Moby Coffee, while others stayed on the bus. After they grabbed their snack, they headed to Ballard High School. Upon arrival, they went into the gym to unpack and then headed to the warm up room. After a 10 minute warm-up, they walked to the fine arts center. 

The theater was large, with sound absorbers everywhere. The judges were seated at the back of the theater at 3 long white tables. Onstage, there were lots of chairs and folders already set up. Once they were seated, the orchestra tuned again. Parents came into the theater and sat to watch the performance. The first piece they played was Deep River, which they had played a few weeks prior for the Black History Month program. After concluding the piece, they waited a few minutes for the judges to make notes. After that, they played Symphony #1. After playing, it was time for sight reading. Parents were escorted out of the classroom and the performance judges left. The sightreading judge came in and stated the rules. After 5 minutes of getting rhythms and dynamics together, it was time to play. After sight reading was over, they went to the lobby of the Arts Center. There, they all took a group picture on the stairs before heading back to the gym to pack up. They were all anxiously waiting to hear the results. “I think we are going to get a Distinguished,” Austin Vitato said hopefully. 

When everything was packed up in the bus, the orchestra got on and Carr pulled out the certificate. “We got a Distinguished!” Carr exclaimed. Everyone on the bus celebrated. Then, they went to the mall and spent the rest of the afternoon there before heading back to school.

Even though there were a lot of things that went wrong throughout the day, the Orchestra was still able to succeed. There are also other groups from Brown who are attending KMEA. The high school choir and bandl will also be attending a KMEA festival and we are wishing them all the best!

The Louisville Wild Lights event at the Louisville Zoo began March 10, 2023 and featured the nation's largest lantern festival with over 50,000 LED light bulbs. The event showcases a new perspective of wildlife creatures from all over the world. These animals were displayed through handcrafted silk lit up displays. The theme for this year's showcase was All Over The World, and the displays go beyond animals, portraying multiple plants, landmarks, and countries. 

The event is open until May and includes interactive displays set up throughout the walk for guests to stand on. The stands cause the creatures to "come to life" by moving. 

The zoo continues its interactive activities with a light up playground area for all ages, filled with light up swings, seating, and seesaws. One of the largest attractions to this playground portion is the mirrored box, with a tree in the center that LED lights hang from, mirroring a willow tree. The box lights up with changing colors, and the mirrors on all sides provide for an interesting, vibrant experience.

Along with all of these attractions, the zoo also partnered with Tianyu Arts and Culture, a service that specializes in lantern festivals and provides traditional Chinese costuming and performances: Folk Dance, Face Changing, Spinning Plates, Kung Fu Tea, Jar Juggling, Contortion, and Martial Arts. They provided cultural performances at the MetaZoo stage, and  included Chinese dragon dancers at certain portions of the exhibit. 

Sophomore at Brown and Louisville Zoo employee Sadie Dickson invites everyone to go and see the Wild Lights show. “The Wild Lights show is for anyone at any age. Just be prepared to walk a long path. It typically takes guests an hour and a half to two hours to walk the path. Children, teens, adults, and everyone else can enjoy the fun of Wild Lights.” Dickson explained the uniqueness of the show, as it only comes once a year, and is only a few months long. She says, “Every year, the theme changes to create a new adventure for people to enjoy.” Finally, she described the event to feel special because of the new perspective of different cultures depicted through the experience. “It allows children to experience different cultures in an [entertaining] and interactive way.” She said children ask questions and learn all the while, “having fun and making memories.”

Brown School Freshman, MaKenzie Bridwell, experienced Wild Lights on opening night. She said, “I enjoyed my time with my friends there, and the lights, especially the butterfly display, was beautiful. My favorite part was when my friends and I found the souvenir table with the unique metal-wire figurines.” She also agreed that this experience is made for all ages. She recommends it to younger kids because of all the animals and interactive exhibits, but also for adults looking to make memories. 

Everyone should attempt to make it out to the Wild Lights at the Louisville Zoo for an interactive experience to remember. Online tickets are required and are available on their website at louisvillezoo.org!

March Madness is the NCAA men’s and women’s single-elimination tournament that starts off with 68 teams. Fans can create brackets to predict the winners and enter to win prizes. This year, the NCAA grand prize includes tickets to next year's Final Four and Championship games. Here at Brown, we are having our own competition- with a T-shirt as the prize. Browns’ athletic department has set up a contest for students to enter their brackets to win a T-shirt and their names being on the announcements. The first round of the games started March 16th. 

Some of the teams students have chosen to win include Alabama, Gonzaga, UCLA, Princeton, and Houston. Matthew Davis, the transitional high school teacher at Brown, thinks that Tennessee will win. “The University of Tennessee [will win] because it’s just better than other places. They will win by 7 points in the championship for sure,” he explained. Everything was going great- until after the first 2 rounds. Students’ brackets started falling apart as lower seed teams started beating the higher seed teams. “I chose Purdue [because] their center was really good, but the shortest player [on the other team] stopped him,” Davis explained. So, the Athletic department set up a "second chance" bracket for students to enter in order to make changes starting with the ‘Sweet 16’ group of teams. 

Most students who participated believe that their second chance bracket is going to do a lot better than their original bracket. “I am currently ranked first, but I had Alabama winning and they lost, so I’m not sure how I’m still ranked first.” Peyton Jones, a Brown Junior explained. Since the winner won’t be recognized until after Spring Break, students will be watching their ranks and brackets closely to see who will be the lucky one. March Madness brackets are purely luck, so it is not easy to tell who will win since brackets can become busted at any moment.

There are also lots of classes having their own March Madness fun. Alex Murphy’s classes randomized brackets to see who gets closest. His Blue Day 3rd block class has Texas winning it all. Dr. Kat’s biology classes filled out their own brackets for ‘March Mammal Madness,’ which has the same concept as the normal March Madness- but it is played with animals fighting against each other. Even the staff is getting in on the fun with a staff-wide rock, paper, scissors competition.