Students Recognized in State Poster Contest

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The Modern and Classical Language Department is thrilled to announce that the following students were recently recognized for creative excellence in the Annual Poster Contest sponsored by the Vermont Organization of Classics and Language Educators (VOCALE, formerly the VFLA).

• Clara Burkholder earned 1st Place in the High School division.

• Myra McNaughton earned 3rd Place in the High School division.

• Isla Segal earned 2nd place in the Middle School division.

• Jackson Fellows earned 3rd place in the Digital Category

(Open to all grades!).

All students received certificates and copies of their posters as notecards. Their original posters have been framed and will be hung near the MAC Language classrooms.

WUHS Poetry Out Loud Contest 2024 Rallies for a Sweet Event on the 16th

Poetic Hearts held on for the delayed Woodstock Poetry Out Loud contest, originally scheduled for Valentine’s Day. With tectonic efforts, fifteen of the initially scheduled eighteen competitors were able to recite their self-selected poems if not live, in person, than via Zoom from The Boston Public Library. Luca Morris kicked matters off from Boston with Rosin Kelly’s “Oranges,” noting the ways in which the selection of such a fruit, its peeling and eating, is akin to understanding love -- self love, or otherwise. Poems often contain such truths, and Maggie Knox’s recitation of “Dust” (Dorianne Laux) was one such reminder that when someone (“Someone”?) sheds some light on truth, that truth is something to wake up for and to get up for.

In an uncanny way, junior Finn Farrell’s recitation of “What Kind of Times Are These” (Adrienne Rich) with “our country moving closer to its own truth and dread,/its own ways of making people disappear” held resonance with several other students’ selections of contemporary poems for our time. From Boston,and capturing 5th place overall, sophomore Mimi Kanda-Olmstead recited Palestinian poet Rafaat Alareer’s (1979-2023) “If I Must Die,” concluding, “If I must die/ Let it bring hope/Let it be a tale”. Freshman Lylah Zeitlin came away with third place overall with her recitation of “the world is about to end and my grandparents are in love” (Kara Jackson), sending out the haunting question, mid-way through the poem, “will i go taking somebody’s hand, my skin becoming their skin?” To be sure, getting to a truth is hard to do without questions, and sometimes the truth hangs in the air, known but unsaid, unwrit, just after the question. Sophomore Quinn Eckler’s recitation (4th overall) of Kai Conradi’s poem “son/daughter” was one such example, concluding: “Will I be allowed to come back to earth/ and be your son?” In some ways, this 2024 recitation contest came together as a conversation between students via poets’ voices and truths. “If’s” and “questions” mark our 21st century time, so equally interesting was the question sophomore Priscilla Richardson (6th place overall) brought to Robert Frost’s mid-twentieth seeming declarative: “Two roads diverged in a wood, and I -- I took the one less traveled by…” The way Priscilla delivered Frost’s poem suggested the buried question is in the stutter’s uncertainty, as well as in the way the final stanza begins, “with a sigh”.

Ultimately, the hotly contested top two recitations went to sophomore Agnes Kardashian with Edward Hirsch’s “Poor Angels” (151 points) and senior William Obbard with Weldon Kees’ “The Coming of the Plague” (149 points). William held his audience, baited, with his dramatic recitation about “strange worms crawling… Queer fungi sprouting… the swarms of frogs swollen and hideous,/ Hundreds upon hundreds, sitting on each other,/ Huddled together, silent, ominous” -- nature’s response to all of the humans’ and countries’ “miscarriages,” “quarrels,” and “jealousies” -- a plague on all of us. With “Poor Angels,” Agnes took her audience to experience the dichotomy of a “strange, unlikely tethering” between a soul, “ecstatic,” “married” to a body, “glum” and sunken. One was reminded of Whitman’s point about the flesh and the soul -- “lack one, lack both” (these two must stick together in order to live)-- yet “Poor Angels” explores that “quarreling” within the self that happens when the soul “dreams of a small fire of stars” while simultaneously, in the same experience, “the body stares into an empty night sheen, a hollow-eyed darkness.” Building to a tangible compassion, Agnes led her audience to Hirsch’s final plea for those souls and bodies: “don’t separate yet. Let what rises live with what descends.” Agnes will represent Woodstock Vermont’s regional Poetry Out Loud competition on March 7th at The Barre Opera House, reciting a pre-twentieth century poem “Early Affection” by George Moses Horton and her signature piece, “Poor Angels'' by Edward Hirsch. In addition to “The Coming of the Plague,” first alternate William Obbard will prepare Dennis O’Driscoll’s “Tomorrow”. Our school champion. Agnes Kardashion, will compete with region two schools: Sharon Academy, Bellows Free Academy, Fairfax, Arlington Memorial High School, Brattleboro Union High School, Williamstown High School, Stratton Mountain School, Bellows Free Academy, St. Albans, Harwood Union High School, Burr and Burton Academy, Lyndon Institute. The top five recitations of two poems in region two will move on to compete with the top five recitations from region one, on March 14th, at The Flynn in Burlington. Good Luck, Agnes!

An extra special round of thanks go out to our 2024 Poetry Out Loud judges -- Garon Smail, Beth Hayslett, Kat Robbins and Tim Brennan, along with accuracy judge, Erin Hanrahan, prompter, Sarah Hagge, and the dynamic scoring team, Heather Vonada and Andy Smith.

Complete contest results are available at the library circulation desk.

Tori McNamara receives Congressional nominations for the US Air Force Academy

Tori McNamara has received three Congressional nominations for the US Air Force Academy (from Bernie Sanders, Peter Welch and Becca Balint). She recently attended a reception at the VT State House to honor the students who received nominations to attend US Service Academies. Before the ceremony, there was a roundtable discussion where the nominees discussed what motivated them.

Congratulations, Tori!

CRAFT program at the Upper Valley Teaching Place Collaborative Conference

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Huge kudos to Aleks Cirovic, Riley O'Neal, Owen Whalen, and Chelsea McDermott who represented the CRAFT program at the Upper Valley Teaching Place Collaborative Conference at the Lake Morey Resort last week! Students presented in front of a group of 25 educators about CRAFT, reflected on meaningful learning experiences, and elegantly answered a number of questions.

They facilitated the harvest and sampling of microgreens and shared everything from Food Justice to EcoArt to Wind Turbine building. Educators were impressed by their articulateness and the interdisciplinary opportunities that they are taking advantage of. We hope that CRAFT can serve as a model for other schools to integrate place-based learning into their curriculum in deep and connected ways.

Congratulation to the Class of 2023!

A recording of the Class of 2023’s graduation ceremony from Woodstock Community Television.

Woodstock Union High School, Class of 2023

• Jordan Allard
  Merrimack College, marketing and communications

• Emma Allegretti
  Villanova University, environmental studies and communication

• Meghan Bailey
  Gap year

• Cody Bartlett
  Army National Guard

• Austin Bloch
  Plymouth State University, business administration

• Christopher Bradley
  Gap year

• Jacob Carey
  College, exercise science

• Nicholas Champine
  Carpentry

• Jared Clark

• William Coates
  University of Vermont, business

• Owen Crossmon
  Oregon State University, outdoor product design

• Maya Cully
  University of Vermont, psychology

• Stephen Darling
  CDL certification program

• Ethan Dean
  Worcester Polytechnic Institute, mechanical engineering

• Emma Durney
  Working toward LNA certification and working at The Village

• Audrey Emery
  University of Vermont, environmental science

• Graham Farrington
  Landscape construction for ArborScape

• Kali Filiault

• Skylee Gadapee
  Savannah College of Art and Design, film & television

• Joshua Garcia

• Aryana Gibson

• Myeia Griffin
  Vermont State University, Applied Business and technology management

• Lily Gubbins
  St. Lawrence University, environmental studies

• Cyrus Harkins
  Spring Brook Farm

• Norah Harper
  Saint Joseph’s University, biology

• Anne Hauze
  Swarthmore College, religion

• Nathaniel Leo Hough

• Daniel Jones III
  St. Lawrence University, business

• Isabel Konijnenberg
  Williams College, biology and economics

• Holden Larmie
  Flint, Blake and Boles Roofing

• Samuel Leggett
  University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, English

• Luke Maxham
  Trade school for plumbing, St. Cyr Plumbing and Heating

• Declan McCullough
  University of Vermont, environmental science

• Daphne McDermott
  University of Vermont, studio art

• Graeme McKeon
  Anna Maria College, sports management and recreation

• Zedekiah McNaughton
  Hamilton College, undeclared

• River Miles
  University of Vermont, biochemistry

• Emily Miller
  O’Brien’s Aveda Institute, cosmetology

• Shelby Miller
  New England College, illustration

• Andries Morin
  Vermont State University, electromechanical engineering

• Dillon Moss
  Virginia Commonwealth University, interior design/interior architecture

• Natalie Parent
  Florida International University, education

• Ethan Parker

• Joss Perkins

• Jack Rasmussen
  Project Search at Rutland Regional Medical Center

• Cooper Redmond
  Rochester Institute of Technology, electrical engineering

• Aidan Reed
  Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, biochemistry and biophysics

• Corbin Richardson

• Morghan Robinson
  Work and animal care

• Damon Rogers

• Reece Sheehan
  Champlain College, game design

• Alec Smail
  Colorado College, political science

• Rowan Smail
  Tufts University, biology

• Daniel Smith
  Middlebury College, computer science

• Logan Sudol
  Pennsylvania State University, architecture

• Oliver Szott
  University of Vermont, computer science

• Kyra Tarleton
  Online criminal justice course, work, travel

• Hayden Taylor
  Vermont Technical College, construction management

• Violet Tuckerman
  University of Tampa, marketing

• William Underwood
  University of Rhode Island, business

• Ethan Westney
  University of Vermont, business

• Ariana Winawer-Stein
  University of Vermont, economics

• Forrest Yeager
  Ohio University, philosophy