School news
WUHS students gain valuable experience with the VYCC
WUHS students Des Early and Lyon Maksimovic successfully completed a four week Vermont Youth Conservation Corps crew experience. They worked at Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historical Park on a variety of projects from lumber management to kiosk installation to creating new water drainage on their network of hiking trails.
Des and Lyon learned valuable leadership skills when they worked with The Community Campus campers to maintain trails, and walked away with a long list of new technical skills.
Des is earning school credit for this experience through Woodstock Union’s Center of Community Connections (C3).
Well done, Des and Lyon!
Students complete original scientific research at CRREL
Recently graduated Izzy Cellini and current senior Brody Allen presented scientific posters about their work this summer at the Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory (CRREL). Izzy, a second year intern, and Brody, a first year intern, worked over the summer to gain hands-on research experience in cold regions science and engineering.
Sophomores Check Out Diverse Career Fields on Sophomore Shadow Day
On Thursday, April 25, WUHSMS’s sophomores participated in Sophomore Shadow Day. Students “shadowed” professionals in a wide range of fields, including aerospace engineering, medicine, emergency services, small business management, various science fields, and the building trades. More than 50 businesses, organizations, and individuals hosted students, allowing each student to learn about a career field of interest to them, try out some of the work of that career field, and learn about their host’s career path.
In reflections on their days, students gave high marks for the day and how valuable it was to them. Tucker Filiault, who shadowed at Kedron Valley Garage where he assisted with seasonal tire changes and inspections, as well as an oil change, was happy to have a hands-on, productive day. “It was a great experience!” he said.
Jacob Legayada, who shadowed Darrell Abrico of Nissan of Lebanon, noted, “I really enjoyed joining in the morning conference and see[ing] behind the scenes of a car dealership….” April 25 was actually Jacob’s third day shadowing at the Nissan dealership--and he is happy to report that he has landed a part-time job there this summer.
Alek Cirovic, who shadowed Laurie Beyranevand at Vermont Law School, appreciated talking with many women involved in the field of environmental law and had an opportunity to attend a presentation on the impact of the fashion industry on the environment. She concluded, “I am definitely interested in this field of work! This job shadow gave me more reasons to dive into this career and explore law and the environment.”
Mimi Kanda-Olmstead, who shadowed Jonathan Tuthill at the Hartford Community Restorative Justice Center commented, “What I found most interesting, as well as unique, is how these different organizations throughout the community, with very different goals, all believe in the idea of restorative justice. They all work together to ensure the community is safe….It was overall a very powerful experience, and I am so grateful for it.”
Dominic Palazzo, who joined a group of seven other WUHS students at Mt. Ascutney Hospital and Health Center for Shadow Day, appreciated learning about the many opportunities in health care. “I found the most interesting thing to be the multiple different jobs that there were around the hospital, and how everybody appreciated each person's different expertise.”
Owen Whalen was part of a small group of students who first toured UVM’s College of Engineering College and then visited Beta Technologies, an electric aerospace company. At Beta they had a tour of the company's facilities, spoke with aerospace engineer Riley Giffin (a WUHS alum), and then tried out Beta’s flight simulator. “It was a super cool experience,” Owen commented, “and made me want to become an engineer even more.”
This annual event was organized by the Center of Community Connections (C3) in conjunction with English II teachers Nate Clifford and Martha Perkins, and counselors Sofia Bertocci and Sarah Smith. The organizers and the students are very grateful to all of the community members who hosted students for this event.
Be sure you check out the front page of this week’s Focus Section in the Standard for additional photos and coverage related to this event.
State FFA Winter Career Development Event
Members of the WUHS FFA (Future Farmers of America) Club competed at the State FFA Winter Career Development Event. Students competed in Dairy Foods (Teagan Palazzo & Hailey Dow), Agriculture Business Management (Cora Hewitt & Daxton Redmond), and Winter Forestry (Edwin Lynds & Leland Hall). Individually, Cora Hewitt and Daxton Redmond placed second and third respectively. As a team, they placed second in Agriculture Business Management (just one point away from first place and the FFA National Convention). Congratulations to all who competed!
Woodstock represented at the Women Can Do! conference
Our Center of Community Connections (C3) organized a field trip to the annual Women Can Do! Conference and Expo in Randolph, Vermont on Thursday, October 5th.
Our Center of Community Connections (C3) organized a field trip to the annual Women Can Do! Conference and Expo in Randolph, Vermont on Thursday, October 5th. Women Can Do is an annual, statewide career exploration conference for high school girls and gender-expansive youth.
At Women Can Do, hundreds of students from across Vermont explored careers through hands-on activities and conversations with Vermont employers. WUHS students who attend Hartford Area Career and Tech Center were out in force and leading exhibitions on welding, auto body repair and building trades.
Woodstock students who attended the conference as participants had the opportunity to interact with professionals from a variety of STEM-related careers such as aerospace, medical technology, engineering and more.
Tenth grader Quinn Eckler attended the conference for the second year in a row. Quinn shared, “It was amazing to be surrounded by so many women from all over the state. We were all excited to learn about a wide variety of different jobs, careers paths, and opportunities with a bunch of hands-on stations and lots of information about options for after high school.”