Congratulations to the Rotary Student of the Month for December, Kandace Royce! Agriscience Teacher, Mrs. Oliver wrote, “Kandace is absolutely deserving of the Rotary Student of the Month. She is currently serving as our Suffield FFA President and is highly involved in all aspects of school, agriscience classes and community events. She can be found working with our ninth and tenth grade students, helping them to feel welcome in the program, organizing leadership team meetings to create great FFA events, all while working and managing her own family farm where she raises beef cattle, sheep, goats and pulling horses. She is extremely dedicated and has done well scholastically. She states she plans to be an ag teacher and I would be proud to see her achieve her goal one day as she will do well educating the next generation of agriculturalists.” Additionally, Kandace is an active member of the National Honor Society, District and Chapter President of the FFA Leadership Team, Committee Chair of the FFA Recruitment Committee, and a busy volunteer with the Connecticut Draft Pony Association. Throughout high school she has earned several awards, including FFA Chapter and State Degrees, Diversified Livestock Proficiency Award, FFA Greenhand Degree and an FFA Star Greenhand Award.
On March 12, the Suffield Rotary honored two Suffield High School seniors, Ianuria Mosneaga and Kandace Royce, at the new Fire on the Mountain Smokehouse.
Congratulations to the Rotary Student of the Month for February, Ianuria Mosneaga! Spanish Teacher, Mr. Shultis wrote: “Ianuria has been the leader in my advisory group. She always encourages participation and supports everyone in their goals. Despite not being in a World Language class she brought in so many canned goods for the World Language Honor Society food drive that my advisory came in second place out of ALL of the advisory classes. She continues to be a model for others!” Family and Consumer Sciences Teacher, Mrs. McCluskey wrote: “Ianuria’s dedication to leaving the school a better place than she found it began the first year she joined Suffield High School. She joined our school halfway through her junior year, and it would not be an exaggeration to say that within only a few days, she had already made strong connections with peers and teachers. Her leadership skills are outstanding, and she has quickly become an immensely positive participant in our school community. For instance, within a few weeks of her start at SHS, she was the organizer of a door decorating contest, an all-school event that hadn’t happened in many years. As a member of Mr. Shultis’s advisory, Ianuria decorated his door for the contest at the holidays in fabulous style. She encouraged all of the other students to participate and helped lead them to victory with the contest. Ianuria decided this year the bulletin board in the design lab needed an overhaul. Mr. Sanchez and I were more than willing to let her have creative control over the process, and she created a fabulous display, full of color and aesthetically pleasing. She has worked with Mrs. Haefner to create pizzas to acting as a student chef and to provide an example for them to follow. She is also a member of the Wildcat Cooking Club. Ianuria has shown an unwavering commitment to excellence, and her ability to overcome challenges, particularly as a non-native English speaker, demonstrates a high level of maturity and work ethic. She has even become one of the main anchors of our live morning news video show! Ianuria has also created many beautiful displays for our school library and has worked with Mrs. Casinghino on a new club that celebrates diversity and strives to create a welcoming environment for the students in our school community whose native language is not English. As part of the club, Ianuria has spearheaded a few community events to promote cultural awareness and to highlight the diversity in our school population. What sets Ianuria apart is not just her outstanding academic and extracurricular achievements but also her genuine passion for making a positive impact in the lives of others. She has a natural ability to connect with people from diverse backgrounds and is always ready to lend a helping hand.” Congratulations, again, to Kandace and Ianuria on their well-deserved honor.