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Chiang-Elghanayan Center for Innovation and Collaboration

The Chiang-Elghanayan Center for Innovation and Collaboration is home to Blair's technology and fine arts departments and the building's open-architecture, technology-rich academic center is unlike any other campus facility. With classes in everything from robotics to ceramics throughout the day, and club meetings and community gatherings in the evenings and on weekends, the Chiang-Elghanayan Center’s well-equipped classrooms and flexible, comfortable meeting spaces are constantly abuzz.

Below, several students and teachers to share their experiences in the Chiang-Elghanayan Center, a venue designed to inspire creativity and facilitate hands-on, collaborative learning. Their impressions give the entire Blair community a view into the activities taking place within the Chiang-Elghanayan Center's glass-walled spaces—and a glimpse at how these activities continue to build on the best of Blair’s academic and community traditions.

Chiang-Elghanayan Center

The Chiang-Elghanayan Center is awesome. I love how the glass walls let you see outside the classrooms and how they let people peek in as they walk by—it will be great for prospective students, as they will be able to easily see what we're doing in class!

Irene Choi
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Read More about Irene C. '18
video class

I teach film and animation, meaning and media and graphic arts in the Chiang-Elghanayan Center’s media lab, which is very well equipped for all of these courses. The green screen room/recording studio is an excellent resource for student filmmakers.

robert hanson
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Read More about Mr. Hanson
maker space

Digital fabrication equipment is new to us at Blair, so organizing and setting up our materials and tools has occupied much of my first week in the Chiang-Elghanayan Center. I have also dedicated many hours to training students and faculty in the concepts of design and use of equipment so that they can work independently.

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Read More about Mr. Garrant
Chiang center at night

This is a really cool building. It's the perfect place to study because there's plenty of room, we can talk and eat, and there are places to meet with a group or just work on your own. The first night I had Chiang-Elghanayan Center manager duty, almost 100 kids signed in to study, and they used every area of the facility, from the art studio on the third floor to the maker space in the basement.

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Read More about Ryan G. '19
ceramics class

My ceramics and sculpture students got their hands a little messy during their first week in the Chiang-Elghanayan Center, but I front-loaded some technology instruction, too, to help them begin thinking about how they might use the 3D printer, laser cutter and vinyl cutter to enhance their pottery and sculpture projects. We used the software packages I researched during the Faculty Summer Institute and learned more about the capabilities of our new technology as we worked.

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Read More about Mrs. Sykes
computer science class

In addition to debugging some of the Chiang-Elghanayan Center's new equipment and software, I had the pleasure of kicking off my AP computer science and artificial intelligence courses in a dedicated and well-equipped technology classroom, as well as engaging with kids during evening duty as they acclimate to the new facility and explore how they might use it for curricular and co-curricular projects.

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Read More about Mr. Adams
Ann Williams class

Even before the school year started, Chiang-Elghanayan Center student managers came to me with a great plan for open houses. They wanted to get as many community members as possible into the Chiang-Elghanayan Center right away, to help everyone feel comfortable there and learn their way around.

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Read More about Mrs. Ryerson
Skeptics

Although I don't have any classes in the Chiang-Elghanayan Center, I volunteered to be a student manager because I'm excited about the prospect of the new building. As soon as it opened, we took a tour with [Head of School] Mr. Fortunato, who explained that our job is to learn how to use all the equipment in the maker space and throughout the building so we can help others. Safety is our first priority.

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Read More about Summer W. '19
music class

Everything in the technology classroom is high tech! The projector is like those I've seen in college classrooms, and it is amazing that we have that technology in high school. I'm used to taking technology classes in the basement of Timken Library. In the Chiang-Elghanayan Center, the classroom is wide open and has a very different feeling—much freer and lighter. We can really observe what our classmates are doing, no matter where we are in the room.

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Read More about Jason P. '18
Chiang-Elghanayan Center conference room

The openness of the robotics classroom is especially profound because people will actually be able to see the progress robotics students are making. I took robotics last year and want to stay involved this year with a project of my own. As a Chiang-Elghanayan Center student manager on Friday nights, I hope to make that happen.

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Read More about Liam J. '19

The Chiang-Elghanayan Center Comes to Life: A Photo Gallery

Students gather in the Chiang-Elghanayan Center for Innovation and Collaboration
Kate Sykes works with a student in Blair's maker space.
Chiang-Elghanayan Center for Innovation and Collaboration
Chiang-Elghanayan Center for Innovation and Collaboration
Chiang-Elghanayan Center for Innovation and Collaboration
daVinciRobot
Computer science class in the Chiang-Elghanayan Center for Innovation and Collaboration
Society of Skeptics gathers in the Chiang-Elghanayan Center for Innovation and Collaboration
Freshman seminar class with Carolyn Conforti-Browse
Robotics
Students meet in a Chiang-Elghanayan Center for Innovation and Collaboration conference room
art class
Student working on a painting during class
Chiang-Elghanayan Center for Innovation and Collaboration
Chiang-Elghanayan Center for Innovation and Collaboration
International Weekend 2020
Chiang-Elghanayan Center for Innovation and Collaboration
Chiang Center
Fine arts teacher Eli King instructs an architecture class.
Robotics
Robert Hanson teaches video editing.
Blair's third-floor art studio.
Students gather for International weekend festivities
Science Poster Expo
Art students work on projects in the Chaing-Elghanayan Center.
Student fashion show during International weekend
Chiang-Elghanayan Center for Innovation and Collaboration
Keith Rauschenbach leads roundtable event
Students engage in conversation during MLK day seminar
students engage in conversation during MLK Day seminar
Student studies in CECIC conference room
Kate Sykes works with a student at the wheel during ceramics class.
Fine arts teacher Tyson Trish helps a student inspect his film.
Architecture students work on their furniture builds.
A Blair photography student inspects her film.
A student shows off a piece she made with Blair's 3D printer.
A student shows off a piece she made with Blair's 3D printer.
A student works on a project in the architecture classroom.
Doug Bandow Skeptics
Students work together in one of the Chiang-Elghanayan Center's conference rooms.
Architecture at Blair Academy
Ryan Manni instructs a digital music class.
Student leads MLK Day seminar
Ashley Thompson addresses the Society of Skeptics.
Students work on projects in the Chaing-Elghanayan Center's maker space.
Young Alumni Skeptics 2021
An art student works on projects in the Chaing-Elghanayan Center.
Architecture students work on their furniture builds.
Blair prefects make signs for their dorm
Chiang-Elghanayan Center for Innovation and Collaboration covered in snow
Doug Bandow Society of Skeptics 01/17/23
Skeptics James Basker
11/12/22 - Robotics Meet
11/12/22 - Robotics Meet
Students work in the Chiang-Elghanayan Center's maker space.
Students work on their J-Term presentation.
Students work in the Chiang-Elghanayan Center's maker space.
Students present poster presentations in the Chiang-Elghanayan Center.
Students work in the Chaing-Elghanayan Center's maker space.
Students present poster presentations in the Chiang-Elghanayan Center.
A student uses a saw in the maker space.

A Closer Look: Inside the New Building

Peter Curran
The Chiang-Elghanayan Center for Innovation and Collaboration brings the Blair community together in myriad ways, every day of the week. When students and teachers gather for a Skeptics lecture in the Forum, an evening seminar in a conference room, or an art or technology class in any of the well-equipped classrooms, connections, learning and deeper relationships result.


Peter G. Curran, Head of School 

Nathan Molteni
This is the first academic space at Blair that is open, where you can literally walk into the midst of intellectual discourse. The Chiang-Elghanayan Center for Innovation and Collaboration emphasizes what we've always said about learning at Blair: that it extends beyond the walls of the classroom. The creation of classrooms without walls and classrooms with transparent walls is a visual representation of what is happening intellectually.


Nathan Molteni, Dean of Academics

Marianne Lieberman
The Chiang-Elghanayan Center for Innovation and Collaboration is everything we are at Blair. Its glass-walled and light-filled spaces promote teamwork and allow all the more for the development of the relationships on which we pride ourselves.


MARIANNE LIEBERMAN ’79, Blair Trustee & Task Force Committee Member