The Shrewsbury High School Alumni Association, founded in 1993, is a non-profit
organization whose goal is to bring together all interested alumni and friends of Shrewsbury High School graduates and to
promote the best interest of the schools and community by fostering enthusiasm, involvement, and close relationships.
In 1995, the Alumni Association began the Shrewsbury High School Student Grant Program.
The qualifying criteria states that "all grant funds must be used to promote educational or charitable projects or to
foster a sense of community. All SHS student groups. clubs, classes, or organizations, with a minimum of five students,
must either be involved or benefit from the project."
This year, the Alumni Association's SHS
Student Grant Program celebrated its 17th year of existence and
has funded close to $60,000 back to Shrewsbury High School student programs where an
estimated 250 student groups have benefited. Funds distributed are primarily
received from Alumni Association membership, a variety of SHS graduating classes at reunion time and SHS Alum making personal
donations. For a list of donors, please click HERE.
2011-2012 Student Grant Ceremony Program
On November 8, 2011,
Sandra J. Lucas, SHS Alumni Grant Chairperson, welcomed the 2011-2012
Alumni Grant Recipients in the Anthony J. Bent Presentation Room at Shrewsbury High School, Shrewsbury, Massachusetts.
|
| Dr. Joseph Sawyer, Supt of Shrewsbury Schools |
|
| SHS Principal Todd Bazydlo |
Dr. Joseph Sawyer, Shrewsbury's Superintendent of
Schools and SHS Principal Todd Bazydlo offered their congratulations to faculty and students and thanked the Alumni Association
for their generous grant funds.
| Shrewsbury School Committee Representatives |
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| (L to R) B. Dale Magee, Sandie Lucas and Chairman, John Samia |
We'd like
to take this opportunity to thank Shrewsbury School Committee representatives B. Dale Magee
and Chairman, John Samia (SHS 1988), for their support !
Twelve SHS
Student Grant Projects were funded between $150 and $400 for their projects and grant certificates were
awarded by Maria (Longo) Smith, Alumni Association Executive Board member, and Chairman Sandie
Lucas. Many of these projects support a variety of educational and community opportunities ranging
from cultural programs, research materials, artist supplies, technological equipment, state and local competitions, charitable
giving, and a variety of other projects as you'll note by the descriptions of each project below.
|
| Alumni President, Judith L. Donahue |
| Accepting the Award on behalf of Annie Pignataro |
|
| (L to R) Margaret Korab and Thais Neves |
Judith L. Donahue, Alumni Association President,
presented the "Partnership Award" to the SHS Educational Television Studio for their "All About Alumni Grants"
DVD created and produced by Annie Pignataro, under the direction of Margaret Korab, SHS Media Specialist. The Alumni
Association honored Mrs. Korab and Annie Pignataro for their efforts to help the Alumni Association educate the community
about this very valuable Alumni mission.
Congratulations Faculty Advisors !
Thank you for your hard work in seeing these projects through.
Congratulations SHS Faculty Advisors and Students!
2011-2012 SHS Alumni Association Grant Recipients
National Art Honor Society
Artistic Pursuits
- Giving Back To The Community
Advisor:
Pamela LeBlanc
Student
Applicants: Lin Astill & Filia Van Dessel
The purpose of this project is to give back to the community's
senior citizens
and students in Grades K-8 by offering art related
workshops.
The grant funds will help defray the cost
of art supplies.
Special Peer Connections
Bowl-ieve
It or Not !
Advisor:
Kristine Cobb
Student Applicant:
Kira Sommer
Special Peer Connections will conduct an annual bowling trip
to the AMF Bowling Alley in Shrewsbury, MA
as one of their
activities for the year. Since many of the students who have
both physical and mental
disabilities already participate in
bowling activities outside of school, it will be an activity
in an
environment that the students are familiar with and
comfortable in. The
students will also be able to connect
with their fellow peers through an activity that is age appropriate
and
that they would both enjoy.
Funds will pay for the cost
of bowling.
SHS Chemistry Club
Advisors:
Dr. R. Derric Lowery
Melinda
Moynihan
Student Applicant: Ramya
Ravindrababu
The purpose of the Chemistry Club is to provide tutoring
programs to help students struggling in any level of chemistry
and to present programs and create an interest in science
at the Shrewsbury Elementary and Middle School level.
These programs will provide basic explanations to
specific
chemical phenomenon displayed in selected demonstrations
and also
to explain the importance of science and scientific
inquiry in everyday life.
The grant funds will
help to provide materials to achieve these goals.
SHS History Club
Advisor:
Jennifer Difrancesca
Student
Applicant: Joey Oppenhuis
The History Club’s purpose is to promote and gain knowledge
of history and also to better understand it
through their projects
and events. They will also be making connections with local
historical
societies and other schools in town.
The funds will be used to compete
in the regional National
History Day Fair and National History Bee and/or Bowl.
Increasing Engagement in PM School
Advisor:
Sarah Wilkinson
The PM School program is an opportunity for students to make up credits
that they need to earn in order to earn
their high school diploma.
One of the major benefits of the
PM School program is that it is designed
to help a population of students who struggle to succeed during the
traditional
school day.
Funds will help defray the cost for a newly
created resource library
to engage at risk students in reading materials that they might better relate to.
Model United Nations Conference XXIV
Advisor:
Eileen McNamara
Student
Applicant: Matthew Minafo, President,
SHS Model United Nations
The SHS
Model UN Club’s mission is to promote global
awareness of international issues and differing opinions
of nations. Each student will learn the skills to debate
in a formal setting using Parliamentary procedure
while building confidence in public speaking.
Through debates and conferences, students hope to become more
socially aware and develop leadership skills.
Funds
will benefit club members who may not be able to afford the various fees for conferences attended throughout
the year.
Rachel's Table and ConKerr Cancer
Advisors:
Patricia Crosson
Beth Neiman
Student Applicants: Erica
Nader, Sarah Stanley
Co-Presidents
Monica Bhakhri, Secretary
The Education
and Leadership for a Non Violent Age (ELNA) has dedicated itself to helping the
community. Each member
is experiencing what it is like to give back to the community. Rachel’s Table’s purpose is to collect food and
distribute it to homeless shelters. They will also
be making food once or twice a month. ConKerr
Cancer concentrates on making pillowcases which are distributed to cancer patients in the hospital to brighten up their rooms.
Funds will be used to purchase food products and to purchase fabric which they make into
pillowcases.
Student One Acts - Senior Exhibition
Advisors:
Linda Mongiat
Sarah Wilkinson
Student Applicant: Nathaniel Vilandre
For his Senior Exhibition
Project, Nathaniel will write two one-act
plays and then perform them incorporating thirty some odd students.
Performance date: May 4, 2012.
All the actors, stage crew and adults that are helping in this project
are learning a new form of theater that
has yet to be explored in
SHS’s Theatre Dept.
Funds will be used
to help defray the costs of costumes, script
printing and set construction.
TARC - Team America Rocketry Challenge
Advisors:
Paul Wood
Student
Applicants: Raghav Mishra, President
& Jonathan Williams
The purpose
of this group of science students is to build rockets
and robots for fun and to compete locally and nationally with
their design.
Aerospace Industries Association (AIA) and the National Association
of Rocketry (NAR) sponsor all competitions which develop new team
challenges each year.
Alumni grant funds will provide these students with the necessary
hardware to compete in two competitions
this year.
Technology On A Daily
Basis:
Using Digital Projectors and Document
Cameras to Enhance Instruction
Advisor:
Jill Carter
With limited budgets district-wide, consistent availability of
technology
to an individual teacher is virtually non-existent.
The purpose of these funds is to purchase an InFocus projector
and USB Camera to share with other faculty members in the
Biology Department. These
tools will enhance a visual style
of learning, as students are able to constantly see examples,
models,
animations, and videos of things we are discussing
in class, rather than just hearing an explanation or seeing a
written explanation on a worksheet or in their textbook.
Town Crier - SHS
Newspaper
Advisors: Dayna Brown-Dolan
Student
Applicant: Brittany Cullen
The purpose of this newspaper is to give student writers a chance to experience the
field of journalism, time management and publishing.
It also informs the students of SHS about local and national news,
gives perspective to current events and expresses the opinions and feelings of the students who write for it.
The SHS Alumni Grant will help defray the cost of printing the newspaper.
Vision of the World Through Technology
Advisors:
Madeliene Del Toro-Cournoyer
Student
Applicant:
Shreya Sitaraman
The purpose of these funds is to purchase
an Epson DC-06 Document Camera for the Spanish Dept. This portable performer
makes it easy to display documents or 3D objects as part of any classroom presentation. With a 10.7”
x 14.3” capture area, you can share information from text books, models or computer. This teaching
tool will improve the classroom participation and engagement of students, strengthen student’s critical thinking
skills through the exposure of current and general issues that will allow students to engage in discussion, debate and resolution,
transform multimedia presentations into exciting events that leave a lasting impression, provide alternative ways to review
and self-assess growth and progress and refer to authentic sources of information that bring to life the curriculum.
Congratulations, faculty members and students!!
Contact
Sandra Lucas sjlucas@townisp.com for questions/comments.
We
look forward to receiving your .jpg files showing your projects. Please email them to the Alumni Association jldonahue@townisp.com and Mrs. Margaret Korab at the Educational Television
Studio at SHS. The Alumni Association will add your pictures to this area and the ETS group will add
them to the DVD that they will be creating throughout the year.
