On Nov. 13, Chagrin Falls High School (CFHS) held a ribbon-cutting ceremony to celebrate the grand opening of Tiger's Den, the school's new spirit store run by students from the entrepreneurship class who brought the store to life...
CFHS Celebrates Grand Opening of Tiger’s Den
On Nov. 13, Chagrin Falls High School (CFHS) held a ribbon-cutting ceremony to celebrate the grand opening of Tiger’s Den, the school’s new spirit store run by students from the entrepreneurship class who brought the store to life. Products available include custom designed apparel, rally gear, home goods and accessories and snacks. It is located in the high school commons.
The Tiger’s Den allows students to gain first-hand retail experience operating their own brick-and-mortar business. Led by teachers John Bakalar and Amanda Heintzelman, students designed, produced and will sell customized CFHS spirit wear and accessories. Much of the merchandise will be made in the Tiger’s Den workspace and the Creation Lab.
After opening remarks by Principal Amanda Rassi and teachers Bakalar and Heintzelman, the two CEOs of the entrepreneurship class Charlie Busby (Ted & Friends Company) and Harrison Fritz (Chagalicious Company) expressed their gratitude to everyone who helped turn this dream into a reality for the students. They shared the vision of the store for this year which is through collaboration, problem-solving, and the development of critical thinking skills, students will work as business partners to overcome challenges and work to advance one of the two businesses from where it started, Ted & Friends and Chagalicious. At the end of the semester, there will be one business selected who will win the competition.
Attendees enjoyed door prizes, refreshments, store tours and shopping.
The creation of the Tiger’s Den was made possible by funding from the PTO, Educational Foundation, Booster Club and Tiger Prep. Thanks were given to school administrators for their support, custodial staff for renovating the space and additional teachers who aided students in product design.
Store hours are on Mondays and Fridays during Tiger Period and sixth period, and Tuesdays-Thursdays during sixth period. An online store is also available.
All profits will be reinvested to sustain the store for future entrepreneurship students.
In addition to Busby and Fritz, students who will be running the store include Evan Castelluccio and Zach Flaiz, Jack Bradshaw, GiGi Moffa, Caroline Reeder, Ted Brown, Brandon Castelluccio, Mason Hart, Aiden Beresford, Ben Cowan, Charlie Reeder, Jay McGinnis, Petro Sushko, Marissa Becker, Ben Ettinger, Joey McCamon, Louie Sutte, Drew Zelch, Will Graham, Autumn Taylor and Andrew Thompson.
AP Research Student to be Published
Shlok Bhattacharya, a senior at Chagrin Falls High School, immersed himself in the research process through his enrollment in the schools AP Capstone program during his sophomore and junior years.
As a junior, Shlok’s research aligned with his passion in the field of machine learning and his interest in making a positive impact in society. With the growing popularity of social media, he realized that offensive language has been able to proliferate at an unprecedented rate. As a result, Shlok decided to research hate speech detection. Specifically, he was driven to answer the question, “To what extent does the creation of a culturally-weighted training dataset impact the ability of a support vector machine model to mitigate cultural bias in the context of hate speech detection?” His research, entitled “Battling cultural bias within hate speech detection: An experimental correlation analysis,” explored this question.
Shlok’s work filled gaps in existing research, as it explored a new approach to mitigating cultural bias in hate speech detection, namely Categorical Weighted Training (CaWT). Previous studies hinted at the potential effectiveness of methods like CaWT, but none had explicitly applied it to the issue of cultural bias in machine learning models for hate speech detection. Shlok indicated that while hate speech detection systems are vital in today’s digital landscape, they often struggle to discern hate speech from clean speech within different cultural contexts, leading to cultural bias. This study was intended to fill the gap by investigating the correlation between the cultural weight of a training dataset and the model’s performance, ultimately showing that a lower cultural weight is ideal for mitigating bias within the research constraints.
Prior to November 2022 and the widespread release of ChatGPT and other AI tools, Shlok was driven by the question, “Could you teach a computer like a student?” This question became his obsession after stumbling upon the concept of machine learning during the 2021-22 school year. Over the years, Shlok had spent time tutoring students in all grade levels, so the idea of teaching a machine was very interesting to Shlok. Through his research and related studies, he decided to join the Association for Computational Linguistics Anthology. This enabled him to explore various applications of machine learning and natural language processing, actively seeking opportunities to apply his newfound knowledge. Once he identified the societal issue of hate speech, he realized that he could bridge these two areas of interest and embark upon his research journey.
After completing his research, Shlok felt a strong drive to share its insights regarding hate speech and online abuse mitigation through machine learning and artificial intelligence. He sought advice from Dr. Sandra Kübler at Indiana University, Bloomington, who recommended professional conferences and reputable science journals as communication vehicles. From her recommendations, he identified the Journal of Emerging Investigators (JEI), a peer-reviewed scientific journal as a publication which might be most aligned to work like his.
During a summer program at Stanford University, Shlok had the privilege of sharing his research with fellow undergraduates and high school students he had met in my classes. He was excited by their enthusiasm in learning about his work and suggested it had potential for publication. This feedback encouraged Shlok to collaborate with Mrs. Jean Kanzinger, his AP Research teacher, leveraging her valuable contributions, to submit their research to JEI. This manuscript has already been accepted, with an expected publication date in JEI by the end of November 2023, pending final preparations.
Shlok’s research experiences built his interest and foundations in machine learning. He plans to use these essential skills while furthering his studies in the field of computer science, with a specific focus on artificial intelligence and machine learning. In particular, he plans to further study natural language processing and computational linguistics.
In the future, Shlok hopes to explore the exciting realm of quantum computing and actively contribute to its continued development. The foundation in machine learning that he gained through his research will undoubtedly be a valuable asset as he seeks to grow his knowledge and make meaningful contributions to the field of computer science and artificial intelligence.
“Shlok’s enthusiasm for learning and interest in contributing to the field and making a positive difference in society reflects his commitment to grow and thrive,” said Principal Amanda Rassi.
Director of Curriculum Becky Quinn added, “The AP Capstone program affords students like Shlok with the opportunity to grow their research skills while identifying topics and questions that reflect their unique passions and interests. The student agency afforded to students through these courses has the potential to yield amazing future impact – for our students, our community, and the world.”
CFMS Students of the Month
The mission of the Chagrin Falls Middle School Students of the Month is to acknowledge and reward students for exemplary performance. The students depict Tiger Techniques: Think, Integrity, Grit, Effort and Responsibility. Each month, the seventh- and eighth-grade teams collaborate and choose a male and female “Tiger of the Month” and the students receive personalized tiger water bottles from the PTO.
Students of the Month for November are seventh-graders Matilda Hessman and Nate Baraona; and eighth-graders Emily Allen and Micah Berger.
Matilda Hessman is very kind to all her peers and teachers alike. She is always prepared with a smile on her face. Matilda has really excelled as a violinist in the seventh-grade orchestra. She has such a positive attitude and is always prepared for rehearsals.
Nate Baraona is a positive influence to all his peers. He is always inclusive of others. Nate is an explorer whose curiosity helps him understand new concepts deeply and applies them well. He is always eager to participate and interact with his classmates.
Emily Allen is consistently participating in class and contributes meaningful conversation to all discussions. She is always ready to learn with a smile. Emily’s energy and attitude help make our class discussions very focused and engaging. She shows persistence when there are challenges and is kind to all people around her.
Micah Berger is always a positive and encouraging classmate. He is consistently ready to participate in all class discussions, and he has a talent for explaining his discoveries to other students. Micah seeks to understand and is always inclusive of others.
