On Wednesday, March 7th, and Thursday, March 8th, high school juniors had the chance to navigate a profession of their interest in what is known as the Junior Transition Program.

The program is run annually by the English department, which guides the students in a process of writing resumes and cover letters and making arrangements to shadow adults in the workforce.

Over the course of the two days, juniors shadow the adults and work in the profession of interest to gain insight on potential career opportunities. At the end of the experience, the students conducted presentations to their fellow classmates on what the job was like, the challenges, benefits, and qualities needed to be successful in that career field.

Lauren Mayer spent the day with Killington TV, where she learned all about television production. “We did a lot of [film] editing, so I learned all about the editing process and the software and how to use it. It took a lot of time, and I liked it. I learned a lot,” she says.

We’ve all seen Mr. Henderson and the Jazz/Funk band at Best Thursdays and sporting events, but what has our new band director really been preparing for all year? The weekend of March 10th, 11 kids and Mr. Henderson crammed into a van and headed off to Boston for Berklee College’s High School Jazz Music Festival.

From Luke Dupuis’ mind blowing sax solo, to Sawyer Matteson’s shredding guitar, good tunes and a classy atmosphere was all this weekend was about.

There are two divisions of the WUHS jazz band, the sextet and the quintet. About three days a week all year, these two bands have been practicing at 7 A.M. for an hour, preparing constantly for this one gig that has just come to pass. The two bands arrived in Boston at promptly 10:00 A.M. on Saturday just in time to hear a phenomenal Cuban infused jazz band from the Boston Arts Academy, which consisted of a solid wall of bongo drums, a keyboard, and a lead guitar. This event, which consisted of bands from over two hundred different American high schools, is the largest of its kind and this year completely filled Boston’s Hynes Convention Center with over five thousand attendees.

In the upcoming school year, freshmen won’t have to ask their friends what English, Science, or History teachers they have. If they know one of the teachers their friends have, then they will be able to tell what other teachers they have.

Freshman year has been revamped to allow the three disciplines of English, Science and Social Studies to be more closely linked together and thus make the classes more relevant to each other. Teachers will now be able to coordinate better with each other, so they can connect units, and avoid having big papers or projects due on the same day. “It can be a really powerful way to build consistency,” said Mr. Underwood about the changes made to freshman year.

Freshman English, science, and social studies teachers will be broken into two groups of three. If a student has a teacher in one group, then he has the other two teachers in that group as well. The first group is comprised of: Mrs. Fields (English), Mr. Cross (Science), and Mr. Underwood, (Social Studies). The second group is: Mrs. Beda (English), Ms. Stainton (Science), and Mr. Tindall (Social Studies).

Four WUHS students got the opportunity to see Jodi Picoult, author of My Sister’s Keeper and more, speak at Simon Pearce in Quechee, thanks to Ms. Piccoli, school librarian.

Picoult, who currently resides with her family in Hanover, NH, read from her newly released book, Lone Wolf, shared her knowledge of wolves with the audience, and gave advice to the young writers. Our WUHS students who attended were among the first of the audience to be able meet the renowned author and receive signed copies of her new book.

The event was hosted by the Norwich Bookstore on the release date of the novel.

Ms. Piccoli is taking a course on Young Adult Literature for Simmons College and she interviewed Kia Amirkiaee, Annie Arthur, Shannah Blaine, and Brielle Finer when it became apparent that Picoult was among all four students’ favorite authors.