Tradition ContinuesTwenty recent 2013 Chagrin Falls High School graduates are…

June 13, 2013

Tradition Continues
Twenty recent 2013 Chagrin Falls High School graduates are children of Chagrin alumni. Five of them have both parents as graduates of Chagrin. They all received corsages to signify this tradition at graduation.
They included: Whitney Black (Jim ’76 and Cheryl Williams Black ’78), Wes Bomback (Ron ’76 and Wendi Cotesworth Bomback ’80), Jonathan Bourisseau (John Bourisseau ’64), Meg Cantlay (Doug ’77 and Christine Youngberg Cantlay ’85), Shannon Clegg (Jim ’79 and Kelly Mahoney Clegg ’79), Cody Croucher (Brenda Jacobs ’86), Rory Gilbert (Chris Gilbert ’80), Kate Girouard (Cindy Keim Girouard ’85), Madison Hendricks (Kelly Shuster Hendricks ’83), Jamie Litzler (Kathryn Wise Litzler ’78), Matt Markley (Lisa Howard Markley ’83), Anna McCuaig (Gwen Griffiths McCuaig ’81), Joey McSherry (Jim McSherry ’73), Ben Miralia (Ben Miralia, Jr. ’80), Dylan Miralia (Gary ’79 & Barbara Rentz Miralia ’79), Tommy Murtaugh (Dave Murtaugh ’72), Nate Stapulionis (Heidi Exline Stapulionis ’85), Austin Wade (Kristin Lund ’85), Abby Weber (Rob Weber ’81) and Matt Wolfe (Mary Beth O’Donnell Wolfe ’82).
Summer Art Scholarship Won
Chagrin Falls High School junior Julia Englhardt was recently notified that she been awarded a summer art scholarship to study art in Colorado Springs, Colo., for two weeks. She will be attending the Marie Walsh Sharpe Art Foundation Summer Seminar, which is a scholarship program with full tuition, room and board and all seminar related expenses. It is available nationally to artistically gifted high school juniors (2012-13) in public and private schools.
The summer seminar, held on the campus of The Colorado College in Colorado Springs, is designed as an art institute offering an intensive visual art studio program for the students. Three, two-week seminars will be held this summer. The two-week program allows each student to gain a stronger foundation of skills and understanding in the visual arts through experiencing college-level drawing and painting classes in a group setting. Artists-in-residence serve as the primary instructors. Trips are planned to draw and paint in the mountains, visit area museums and sightsee in the Pikes Peak area.
Senior Projects a Big Success
This year, more than 150 Chagrin Falls seniors participated in senior projects in a wide variety of settings and interests, including advertising, music, law, engineering, professional sports management, medical fields, philanthropy, arts, video and TV production, investing, small business management and teaching, as well as many other interesting careers.
The Chagrin Falls High School Senior Project is designed to provide interested seniors with the opportunity to work on meaningful, independent hands on projects within an area of interest. Senior projects occur during the last three weeks of the school year. The students develop a deeper awareness of self-discipline, the world beyond the classroom, professional interactions, work ethic, problem identification and action planning. Senior projects encourage a student’s individual pursuit of personal interests and can serve as an excellent learning experience as student’s gain “real world” experience and information regarding a potential long-term interest.
Students are required to spend a minimum of five hours per day for 15 days for a minimum of 75 total hours at their mentor’s place of business. In addition, they meet with a faulty advisor throughout the project, complete hour log sheets and write personal reflections of their experience.
At the completion of the project, all seniors took part in a senior project showcase that was similar to a science fair in the high school gymnasium. A panel of more than 50 community members, teachers and students listened to the presentations evaluating the student’s presentations on, evidence of student learning, use of visual, clarity of presentation and overall quality.
Seniors Annie Bryan and Ashlyn Flaherty did their senior project with St. Joan of Arc schools where they worked on, among other things, the “Kick IT” program helping to raise more than $4,600 for the group.
When asked about their senior project experience, the girls said, “Working with Kick-It and Flashes of Hope was one of the most rewarding experiences we had during our four years in high school. We are so grateful to have been able to work during our senior project with such an awesome organization and with such dedicated employees… their work is truly inspiring. We encourage upcoming seniors to get involved next year and help out a phenomenal cause. Thank you to everyone at Flashes of Hope and Kick-It!”
Juvenile Diabetes Donation
The Chagrin Falls Middle School’s “Together On Tuesdays” program held their culminating project and donated $1,000 to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. Together on Tuesdays is designated as a 20-minute block of time where students meet in a specific group (their family) to learn about compassion and community service. Each week a different lesson is taught school-wide so that all students are exposed to similar concepts. Money was raised by selling concessions, cleaning and providing services to people in attendance during the Destination Imagination regional competition program held on the 7-12 campus. The money was donated through Team Maya named for a local girl with juvenile diabetes.
Drum with Me Program
Recently, the fourth-grade parents at Chagrin Falls Intermediate School had the experience of drumming with their child. Mrs. Susan Smith and her students created a drum ensemble based on a lemonade theme. The theme tied in with the book, “The Lemonade War” by Jacqueline Davies, which the entire school read as their “One School One Book” project.
Students taught their parents the basic technique and tones involved with drumming. Once the parents were successful with the basics, the students taught their parent to play one part of a four-piece ensemble. The entire ensemble was played at once with the students coaching their parents. The students were thrilled to be able to share the joy of making music with their parents.
CFMS Texting Lessons
Recently, Detective Mark Clark from the Geauga County Prosecutor’s Office spoke to male and female students separately regarding the dangers of sexting – legally, socially and psychologically.
Community member and communications expert Jesse Weinberger followed up with students later in the week with a presentation about media literacy. She presented much on advertisements and how to analyze true facts, but she also spoke about social media. Her message encouraged students to think on their own rather than believing all the messages that are sent through media.
CFIS Launches Rocket Day
The Chagrin Falls Intermediate School Rocket Club is a fantastic opportunity for the school’s fifth graders. Students stay after school for two weeks to build model rockets. The club project ends with an all-club launch following the two weeks of hard work. Students truly find the exercise to be a “blast.”
The club would like to give a special thank you to the Chagrin Falls Dad’s Club for providing a grant that allowed them to purchase the necessary materials to build their own launcher. Secondly, a big thank-you goes to Warren Farr who has been volunteering with the school’s rocket club for 16 years and built the new multi-rocket launcher last summer.