Schools/Sports

Connecticut Affiliate NCWIT Award

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Congratulations to Amanda Litvak who was chosen as a 2018 winner of the Connecticut Affiliate of the National Center for Women & Information Technology (NCWIT) Award for Aspirations in Computing. The award will be presented to Amanda at a reception on Tuesday May 8 at the Connecticut Convention Center in Hartford in conjunction with the Hartford Technology Forum, jointly sponsored by the Central Connecticut chapter of the Society for Information Management and the Greater Hartford Chapter of Women in Technology International. Amanda is also invited to join the last session of the day, “Leadership Development”, where Sabina Ewing, a VP of Business Technology at Pfizer, will moderate a panel of recent college graduates now working at The Hartford, Aetna and Farm Credit Financial Partners. Congratulations to Amanda!

Schools/Sports

Science Fair Club Finals

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At the Connecticut Science & Engineering Fair (CSEF), SHS had the highest participation ever with 17 projects from 24 students reaching the semi-finals. SHS had 6 students earn 2nd Honors (top 2% in the state) while 18 students earned 3rd Honors (top 3% in the state). Six students reached the Finals at the CSEF with Ziad Hassan winning 2nd Place and $300 with the Barnes Aerospace Technology Award; Ziad also advances to the Connecticut Invention in April; Brooke Tillotson was a Medalist for the Petit Family Foundation Women in Science & Engineering Award; the team of Bruce Wilson, Kyle Englander and Michael Sattan won the Samantha Freeman Award for Excellence in Sports Science or Engineering along with $100; Akshita Jindal was selected to advance to the Connecticut Invention Convention in April with the possibility for her to advance to the Nationals in Washington. The Science Fair Club also announces that semi-finalist Lizbeth Serrano won the STEM Poster Exhibition People’s Choice Award in a competition of 39 high schools at the Junior Science Humanities Symposium at the UConn Health Center.

Schools/Sports

Shop Rite Community Service Award

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Miriam Dugas is a senior at SHS and has been a member of the Suffield Regional Agriscience Program for the past four years. She has grown up on her family’s dairy farm, Smyth’s Trinity Farm in Enfield, Connecticut all of her life where she assists with milking the herd and working in the dairy processing plant and store. Throughout Miriam’s high school career, she has been an active member of the Suffield FFA, where she participated in various competitions and events, such as serving as a National FFA Convention chapter delegate. In addition to her involvement in the agriscience program, Miriam has been an active student athlete, serving as this year’s co-captain for the Suffield field hockey team. Outside of school, Miriam continues to be involved in the 4-H organization, where she shows sheep and dairy cattle at various fairs and expositions.

Schools/Sports

SHS Volleyball Marathon

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Organized by Suffield High School’s chapter of the National Honor Society, the Volleyball Marathon (VBM) was held again this year from Friday, March 23 until Saturday, March 24. The annual event is a tradition at SHS and students look forward to a night of competitive volleyball games with their classmates. Each of the 31 co-ed teams that participated was composed of between eight and ten members. Beginning at 7 p.m., almost 300 students entered the Commons wearing team shirts and carrying snacks, games, blankets and other possessions for the long night. Volunteer chaperones, teachers and administrators checked the students in and NHS members led teams to their designated spaces.

Schools/Sports

Agriscience Update

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On March 29, our Suffield Agriscience Program hosted Accepted Student Day, where all accepted eighth grade students from various towns came for one huge shadow day. During the school day they learned about FFA, the student leadership organization, and had the opportunity to ask students on a panel about life at Suffield High School. The FFA Officer Team and the eighth graders participated in a school scavenger hunt, giving these incoming students the opportunity to tour the school and meet some of the teachers. This was the program’s first Accepted Student Day and visiting eighth graders all seemed excited about the program and excited to become a Wildcat next year!

Schools/Sports

Winning Programmers Honored

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Three Suffield students went to Washington, D. C., on their spring vacation, but not for a holiday. As reported in the March issue of the Observer, Marissa and Gianna Guzzo and their team-mate Alexandra Smith were the 2017 Connecticut Second District winners of the Congressional App Challenge, a national program now in its third year in which about 4,900 students participated last fall. The Suffield team was invited to visit Washington on April 11 to 13, and on April 12, Demo Day, the House of Representatives became the House of Code. Along with over 200 winners from 39 states, they presented their app to members of congress in a ceremony in The Rayburn Congressional Office Building, and Representative Joe Courtney of the Second District honored them with certificates of achievement. The team demonstrated their app to the lawmakers and pitched it to industry experts from the tech field, including Microsoft and Amazon, and participated in interactive sessions with tech leaders.

Schools/Sports

Aces High Aims to be World Champ

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In the six weeks allowed for designing and building, the Suffield/Windsor Locks High Schools’ team in the FIRST Robotics Competition created a sturdy, capable robot and developed good skill in operating it. Aces High did very well in their first three meets. In the team’s favor is the general high-tech environment of this region, and the very favorable circumstance that WLHS provides the team with a well-equipped meeting space and a competent machine shop including up-to-date computer-aided machines. This year the team’s chief mentor is Peter Davis, the WLHS teacher in charge of those facilities in his day job. There are about 40 students on the team – high school level and a few middle school – with a majority from Suffield.

Schools/Sports

Visiting Teachers See American Special Ed at Spaulding

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Five schoolteachers from China came to Suffield to learn about good methods for educating special needs students. The Yale-China Association in New Haven, collaborating with the Center for Children with Special Needs (CCSN), in Glastonbury, is undertaking a project to build programs and services for children with autism in China. As described by Suffield School Superintendent Karen Berasi, CCSN had been asked “to provide the delegation with an opportunity to see high-quality programming that encompasses evidence-based, structured Applied Behavioral Analysis programming for students with autism and other complex needs in the public schools.” Aware that Suffield was known for its exemplary special ed program, leaders of the project escorted the visiting teachers to Spaulding School on March 9. Helped with skilled translation by Dr. Helen McCabe, of Yale-China, and Dr. Mark Palmieri, assistant director of CCSN, they spent the day in discussion with Dr. Dianna Kolodziey, Suffield supervisor of special ed and other Suffield school system personnel as well as in visiting several classrooms. Dr. Berasi had commented, “We want our guests to see in person what can be accomplished with high-quality teachers, motivated administrators, and good staff training and development.”

Schools/Sports

SHS Walkout Becomes Vigil

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Exactly one month after the Parkland shooting, a majority of the schools in the country walked out of their school at precisely 10 a.m. in the morning. Suffield High School joined along, 135 students signed up to walk out of class at 10 a.m. to walk to the auditorium. After the students piled in, high school senior Madison Kadamus leads the group into seventeen minutes of silence. Every minute, Kadamus would say one name of the seventeen victims of the shooting. The entire auditorium was enveloped in silence, the only noise coming from the occasional squeak of a chair and a cough here and there.

Schools/Sports

Aladdin, Jr. Enchants at SMS

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This year’s choice for a musical drama at the Suffield Middle School was Aladdin, Jr., and a great choice it was. Adapted from a Disney animation of a version of the marvelous old fairy tale, the script offered the opportunity to involve a tremendous cast on stage, colorfully costumed in great variety and make good use even of the school’s “Elite Voices” choir. Sixty kids performing and 31 more in vital supporting tasks obviously had a great time, and audiences in the SMS auditorium on February 22, 23, and 24 enjoyed the production fully. There have been many versions of the Aladdin story over the centuries, and this one featured the “diamond in the rough” street boy who becomes involved with a Middle Eastern princess who must choose a husband. Offered a poor choice among three visiting princes, she eventually finds Aladdin, who is transformed into “Prince Ali” with the first of three wishes offered by the genie he has inadvertently released from a magic lamp.