School news
Students attend Latin Day at UVM
Woodstock students in grades 7-12 attended Latin Day at UVM and met hundreds of other students from across the state who also study Latin and the ancient world.
Students participated in various fun and educational breakout sessions, including a tour of Latin inscriptions at UVM, trivia and Latin grammar competitions, a visit to UVM’s special collections where they could see 500-year-old books, and a session on how Roman military formations worked.
Students in Latin II and IV wrote and performed a skit about Emperor Claudius battling an orca in the port of Ostia, and they got a ton of laughs and won first place! Woodstock students also received 1 silver and 2 gold medals for their participation in outdoor Olympica competitions.
Overall Woodstock earned 3rd place in the small school division! We're pretty excited about that since it was our first time (at least in recent memory) going to Latin Day, and we look forward to attending again next year! Venimus, Vidimus, Vicimus!
9th grade students study dystopian fiction
The ninth grade students at Woodstock Union High School began their school year with an all-too-relevant topic: dystopian fiction. In this ebook compilation, you will find short stories, chapter excerpts, and works of art that relate to the utopian and dystopian literary genres, all penned by Woodstock Union High School English I students. In their stories, you’ll notice a glimmer of hope--that one individual can disrupt even the most oppressive societies, and can make change through rebellious acts, like writing in a journal, sacrificing oneself for others, or daring to love during a time of great peril. You will find evidence that even in the darkest of times, both real and imagined, there is always hope for better times ahead. Enjoy!
Social Action Club hosts civil rights activist Shirley Jefferson
Shirley Jefferson gave an engaging and inspirational talk about her life as a civil rights activist and law professor to students in Mr. Clifford’s, Ms. Hagge’s and Ms. Perkins’s Block 5 English classes in the library on Thursday, February 16.
Danny Smith and Annie Hauze organized the event as part of the Social Action Club’s programming for Black History Month. In 2020, Danny Smith saw Professor Jefferson speak at a Black Lives Matter rally in South Royalton and recently invited her to speak at WUHSMS for this event.
She shared her story and her history as a little girl growing up in Selma, Alabama marching to Montgomery with the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and John Lewis, to living in Baltimore, Washington, DC and South Royalton, Vermont where she went to law school and is currently a law professor and the Vice President of Community Engagement and Government Relations at the Vermont Law School.
Throughout her talk, she gave encouragement and advice including, “Think of positive things in your life when you get down” and “Start thinking about what you want in your life.”
Her story is an inspirational one. She he integrated her high school in the early 1970’s—some twenty years after the US Supreme Court decision Brown v. Board in 1954 was supposed to desegregate public schools. After explaining how she was passionate about her cases, she proclaimed, “Use your brain!”
When Isabel Konijnenberg asked Professor Jefferson if law school helped her tackle the injustices she had faced, Professor Jefferson explained that first she had to “let a lot of bitterness go” if she was “going to embrace the law.” She explained that before she could fight injustice for others she had to fight injustice within herself.
Ella Stainton asked about the effect she wanted to have on her students and Professor Jefferson replied, “I want them to know they can do it and I will fight for them.”
Junior Leah Kuhnert is State of the Union Essay Contest Finalist
Congratulations to Junior Leah Kuhnert, a finalist in the 13th Annual Bernie Sanders State of the Union Essay Contest. The contest drew essays from 382 students from 31 Vermont high schools. Leah wrote about climate change and industrial agriculture, and she shared her ideas with Senator Sanders and fellow finalists during a round table discussion in Montpelier last Saturday. After the event, Leah and her parents were interviewed by ABC 22 news. Leah’s essay will be sent to the Congressional Record.
“It’s an amazing opportunity to have a direct connection with someone who could make large-scale changes for high school students. And it’s something that I think should be done more often.”
WUHS Winter Carnival Fun
Despite the lack of a true winter, students enjoyed the blue bird day, warm temperatures and lots of activities to explore during the Winter Carnival on February 15th sponsored by the Student Council. The kick off assembly featured a lively play written by Latin students who took first place for the effort at a recent Latin Day event at UVM.
Following the assembly students migrated to their chosen activity. Many chose active events such as skating at the Arena, sledding in the Bowl or competitive dodgeball, basketball and ping pong games. Others chose more peaceful pursuits such as arts & crafts, board games, a pop up music jam, or watching a movie in the Auditorium. To top off the afternoon, many students also enjoyed hot cocoa and s’mores by the firepit outdoors or the yummy baked goods in the cafeteria, or both!!