Suffield High School June Newsletter
1060 Sheldon Street | West Suffield, CT 06093 | 860-668-3810
Upcoming Events:
Principal's Message
There are just a few days left to the school year and the excitement of the end of the year is palpable. Students are geared up for final exams and seniors are likely taking them at release time of this newsletter. I encourage all students to keep pushing hard toward a successful end to the school year – please make the last few strides as strong as the first few. Many end-of-the-year events have already occurred and I was excited and proud to celebrate the many accomplishments of our students. I am hopeful that you were able to join us for some or all of these celebratory events or will do so as they continue.
I want to thank the parents and guardians that took the time to complete the anonymous survey administered by the Panorama Education group. The survey results are incredibly important to us at the school and while the survey is now closed, we welcome any feedback parents wish to give the school regarding their experiences and interactions. Only through an open dialogue will we be able to best meet our students' needs. Thank you as always for your participation and support of Suffield High School.
On behalf of the faculty and staff of Suffield High School, I wish everyone a safe and restful summer. Whether off to college, the military, or a vocation, I wish our seniors the best of luck in all of their future endeavors and look forward to hearing of their successes. I hope everyone enjoys their summer and is rejuvenated for another outstanding year in 2017-18.
I want to thank the parents and guardians that took the time to complete the anonymous survey administered by the Panorama Education group. The survey results are incredibly important to us at the school and while the survey is now closed, we welcome any feedback parents wish to give the school regarding their experiences and interactions. Only through an open dialogue will we be able to best meet our students' needs. Thank you as always for your participation and support of Suffield High School.
On behalf of the faculty and staff of Suffield High School, I wish everyone a safe and restful summer. Whether off to college, the military, or a vocation, I wish our seniors the best of luck in all of their future endeavors and look forward to hearing of their successes. I hope everyone enjoys their summer and is rejuvenated for another outstanding year in 2017-18.
Core Values - Rigor
Congratulations to the following students for exemplary demonstration in Suffield High School's core value of Rigor:
Senior Ryan Cleaves, Caitlin Little & Andrea Maffei
Junior Marissa Guzzo & Mia Urbanski
Sophomore Dylan Angus & Alyssa Zawawi
Freshman Brian Lin & Vansh Patel
Senior Ryan Cleaves, Caitlin Little & Andrea Maffei
Junior Marissa Guzzo & Mia Urbanski
Sophomore Dylan Angus & Alyssa Zawawi
Freshman Brian Lin & Vansh Patel
Seventeenth Annual Suffield Film and Video Festival
On Tuesday, June 6, at 7:00 P.M., the 17th Annual Suffield Film and Video Festival was held in the Suffield High School Auditorium. Celebrating its 17th anniversary, this year makes the Suffield Festival one of the longest-running American high school film festivals. This festival offers a forum for SHS moviemakers to screen videos of original work including fiction, documentary, and animation that they have produced over the previous year. Our students and alumni have won many state and national awards over the past decades, and the festival's lineup has consistently included shorts produced by students accepted into prestigious university film programs, including SHS alumni in film programs at NYU, Emerson, USC, and RIT, among others.
Prizes were offered in numerous categories. The movies shown at the festival are created by high school students, and content is generally at a PG-13 level. Proceeds from the festival are used for senior awards, filmmaker prizes, program equipment, and supporting materials. The film festival was a night of thrilling movies by Suffield's young filmmakers.
The Emperor Science Award
Marissa Guzzo was selected as one of 100 high school students from across the U.S. to be awarded for her passionate essay detailing the need to find a cure for cancer. This is the second year of PBS Learning Media's and Stand-up-to-Cancer's Emperor Science Award Program. The Emperor Science Award program is an initiative designed to encourage high school students to explore careers in science, specifically cancer research and care, through a unique mentoring opportunity.
Marissa has accepted two mentorships this summer. One is at Harvard University with the Dana Farber Cancer Institute to study DNA repair, with a focus on ovarian cancer. The second is at Yale University with researchers in Clinical Psychology at the Affect Cognition and Regulation Lab.
Marissa will represent Suffield high School and the Greater Hartford Academy of Arts and Science, as well as the entire Suffield and Windsor communities as she continues to enhance her knowledge and skills through this one-of-a-kind mentorship program. Congratulations Marissa!
Athletics
After a slow start the boys' tennis team finished strong this season with some amazing matches at the Conference Tournament. Suffield finished runner-up in the tournament, which is their best placement in over 15 years. Bradshaw Pines and Shlok Patel were nominated to the 2017 All-Conference Team. The girls' tennis team qualified for the state tournament and McKenzie Rusczyk and Ashley Meehan were nominated as All-Conference. The baseball team finished the regular season at 13 and 7 and qualified for the state tournament. Alan Eheander and Nate Roy were selected to the All-Conference Baseball team. The Softball team ended the season on a high note winning three of their last four games. Kaylee Velasquez was nominated to the All-Conference Softball team. The girls' lacrosse team had Madison Fahle and Lindsey Connolly selected to the All-Conference team. The boys' lacrosse team won three out of their last four games and Ian Faherty was selected to the All-Conference team. The girls' golf team had a great season and with so many underclassmen on the roster they have a bright future ahead of them. The boys' Golf team won the league and also won the State Championship on Monday June 5th. The girls' track team won the league while the boys' track team came in 4th place in the league. The girls' track team has one relay and two individuals going to the state open while the boys have two relay teams and one individual advancing to the state open. The two teams had 15 All-Conference athletes. The Suffield 4x400 and 4x800 teams were conference champions. It was another successful spring season for all of our teams.
Athletes of the Month
Congratulations to Marybeth Heyse and Zach DelVaglio, who were chosen as our Athletes of the Month for March. Marybeth is a member of our Outdoor Track Team and Zach is member of our Boys' Golf Team.
Congratulations to Thomas Durkin and Brendan Looney, who were chosen as our Athletes of the Month for April. Both Thomas and Brendan are on the Boys' Golf Team.
We congratulate these athletes on this well-deserved award.
Congratulations to Thomas Durkin and Brendan Looney, who were chosen as our Athletes of the Month for April. Both Thomas and Brendan are on the Boys' Golf Team.
We congratulate these athletes on this well-deserved award.
Scholar Athlete
Congratulations to Lindsey Connolly and Jason Werenski who were chosen to receive the Connecticut Association of Schools High School Scholar-Athlete Award for 2017. These two deserving students, along with their families, Mr. Moccio and Mr. Bosworth attended a ceremony at the Aqua Turf in Southington to receive their award. Congratulations to Lindsey and Jason on this outstanding accomplishment.
Rotary Student of the Month
June
Congratulations to Amelia Picard who was chosen as our Rotary student of the month for June. Amelia has been involved in various activities at Suffield High School. She has been a class representative during her four years of high school and has been the Class President since 10th grade. Amelia is an Honors student who is a member of our National Honor Society and our World Language Honor Society. Amelia has been part of our A-Team, Student Senate, Debate Team, and has been a Manager of the Boys' Basketball and Boys' Varsity Soccer Team. She has also played on our softball team in her earlier years. Amelia has received many awards such as Excellence in Math, French, English and American Studies. She has received the Rotary Student of the Year Award, the Saint Michael's College Book Award, the Herff-Jones Leadership Award and the Suffield Woman's Club Award. Amelia has volunteered as a Coach for our Writing Center and has given her time to help out at Suffield Idol, which is an Elementary Talent Show, and is also the owner and operator of her own photography business. Amelia's guidance counselor states, "Amelia is a motivated and active learner in the classroom and her love of learning, desire to reach her goals, and passion for balancing all spheres of her life is a glimpse into what can be expected of her in the future." Amelia will pursue a major in Biomedical Engineering at UCONN in the fall.
SFES Grants
Suffield High School has just been awarded an SFES Grant for the purchase of a laser cutter. The cutter will be used in a number of classes; Astronomy, Forensics, Integrated Science, Physics and Technology Education. Along with the addition of STEM/NGSS activities into the respective classes, the cutter will allow the school to stay current with manufacturing technology and provide students with real world applications for their learning while allowing them to incorporate model construction and engineering solutions into lessons and activities.
Technology in the arts was a grant that the SFES community helped bring to life. With this grant the Art Department will continue to move in a digital direction. We will be adding the use of Surface Pro tablets to the second level courses in Graphics II, Photography II, and Studio Arts II. Students will be able to create, edit, and explore the arts in a more professional experience as they interact with these versatile tools. The Art Department is very excited to continue to push the digital rigor in the classroom and is excited to showcase the amazing work of our Suffield students next year.
Mrs. Reiser was awarded a grant from the Suffield Foundation for Excellent Schools to fund her project titled "Reading Workshop in the AP Classroom: Experiencing the World through Reading." She was able to purchase eighty-four nonfiction titles to assist students in developing background knowledge, analyzing rhetoric, and supplementing argument and synthesis writing. Mrs. Reiser is excited to utilize these materials in class to provide students with an array of choice reading material which will strengthen discussions and writing both in and out of the classroom.
Spring Concert
Congratulations to Joe Migliore and Mary DiRoberts on a wonderful evening highlighting the talented musicians in the Jazz Ensemble and Symphonic Band, as well as the outstanding vocalists in the Chamber Ensemble, Treble Choir, and Concert Choir. We are very lucky to have such great kids and it was very touching to hear the senior sentiments of how much they cherish the time they spent as part of the SHS Music family.
Science Department News
AMGEN Pharmaceuticals in conjunction with the Alan Shawn Feinstein School of Biotechnology at the University of Rhode Island have selected Suffield High School as one of only eleven schools (only school selected in Connecticut) to receive grant funding to conduct the AMGEN Biotechnology Experience with all grade ten students for the 2017-18 school year. The program provides approximately $20,000 of research-grade biotechnology equipment and supplies to school districts to conduct innovative biotechnology research in the classroom. Students will learn the principles of gene cloning as they work with Mr. Beigel, Mrs. Radziewicz, Ms. Brown, and Ms. Lanz to clone a gene from a sea anemone and express it in a bacterial cell.
The Suffield High School Science Department is looking for opportunities to expand our communication with students and families. Mr. Autieri (Science Curriculum Leader) and Mr. Beigel (Science Curriculum Chair) worked this year to develop the first science department webpage that will be used to communicate important documents and events including, summer AP assignments, curriculum updates, examination review guides, links to teacher emails, and communications regarding our STEM clubs (ACES High Robotics, Science Fair, and Earth and Outing). Please check out our website at: https://www.suffieldscience.org/.
Science Fair Club
For the very first time, members of the Science Fair Club have entered the Siemens Competition: Math, Science and Technology plus have also entered the Regeneron Science Talent Search. Both are national science fairs for high school students in the United States. Later this summer, students will enter the Google Science Fair, which is a worldwide competition, as well.
Aces High Robotics Team
Congratulations to the Aces High Robotics Team who won the Connecticut State Championship!
Agriscience Department
The Agriscience program competed in the Spring CDEs held at UConn on May 12th. Suffield Regional sent a Vet Science CDE team and a Food Science CDE team. The Vet Science CDE team was composed of Miranda Julian, Cadie Tronsky, Sarah Lewandowski and Gianna Holcomb. The team placed 8th overall. The Food Science CDE team was composed of Morgan Benware, Carly Densem, Eva Nick and Simran Patel. Both teams worked hard and did a wonderful job representing Suffield Regional FFA.
On May 13th, Suffield Agriscience participated in Suffield Garden Club's May Market. The agriscience program grew over 600 geraniums for the Suffield Garden Club as well as many vegetable crops to sell as a fundraiser. In addition, our very own Grace Artioli was there selling beautiful terrariums as part of her SAE project. These were a hit among buyers as mother's day gifts! The sale was a success for both the program and Suffield Garden Club.
FFA Banquet is always an exciting time for our FFA students. Our banquet was held on May 24th. The banquet is an emotional time for our seniors because it is the last big event they attend as FFA Members at Suffield. This is a time to reflect on a fun-filled year. Our night was filled with many awards, great retiring addresses from our senior FFA officers and wonderful year-end slideshows.
Suffield hosted the FFA State Convention for the second year in a row on Saturday, June 3rd. The State Convention is when all of the chapters from all over the state come to visit our facility to compete in Career Development Events, receive awards and State FFA degrees, and to enjoy some fun activities put on by the FFA state officer team. Suffield Regional FFA has a number of CDE teams competing and students receiving awards at State Convention. Our chapter is looking forward to the fun events that are still to come!
Unified Theater
On May 17, Suffield High School Unified Theater performed "Sweet Dreams: Teamwork Makes the Dream Work"! This candy-themed production was written and produced exclusively by students under the direction of a dedicated leadership team - Caelie Flanagan (Director), Cammy Gallagher (Producer), Rachel Bernabe (Stage Manager), Tim Hunt (Inclusion Specialist), Katie Castro and Victoria Nealon (Inclusion/Flex). A total of 52 students were involved in singing, acting, dancing, script writing, set design, and managing all technical aspects of the show. Bravo to all on a wonderful show!
 |
 |
 |
#WeGrowSPS
©2016 Suffield Public Schools
350 Mountain Road, Suffield, CT 06078
Phone: 860-668-3800 (Central Office)