Dear Ramsey Learning Community,

We are very excited to finally bring our two cohorts together on May 3rd! Thank you to all the members of our learning community who have worked so hard to make this happen. We are confident that the transition to the Phase 3 Learning Environment will be seamless and hopeful that we will be able to continue in this phase throughout May and June. May is Mental Health Awareness Month and we urge you to take advantage of the many resources available through the school and community for you and your families' mental health. Please consider participating in the District's "Shine Your Light" event on May 6th.

Additionally, we've had to be flexible and adapt our Relay for Life Fundraising campaign this year. Our first ever "BarkOff" was a success and we will continue to raise funds to tackle cancer with a final fourteen Bark Off competition where the winner will be crowned at the Relay event! We invite you to participate in the Hybrid Relay For Life, scheduled for June 4th. Visit www.GoRamsTV.com for further information on voting and donations. Thank you for your support in taking a bite out of cancer.

Finally, we have so much to look forward to as we enter the final few months of the school year. Our Spring Sports are underway and it's been wonderful to see our Student-Athletes back out on the field/course/courts. Mamma Mia on the Big Stage is sure to be a success as will the upcoming FULL Blue Band Cohort and the extra-curricular Wind Ensemble. Our students and staff have worked through tremendous obstacles to bring you these amazing performances.

Thank you for your support and GO RAMS!

Dr. Michael Thumm

Mr. Ryan Esdale

Spotlight on Dave Van Iderstine, RHS Class of '76

Written by Liam Nelson

This month, I had the pleasure of speaking with Mr. Dave Van Iderstine, a graduate of Ramsey High School’s Class of 1976. Mr. Van Iderstine’s experiences at RHS helped develop essential knowledge for his college education and career, and additionally taught him valuable and practical life skills that he has been able to apply to his everyday life. While in high school, Dave recalled taking many honors and advanced courses in STEM disciplines, namely physics, chemistry, and calculus. The workload and discipline required of a student in these classes helped prepare him for college, and he remarked that the depth of the topics covered at RHS helped ease the transition into college as he was already familiar with the entry level course material. After graduating, he attended Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, originally majoring in nuclear engineering but then shifting to electrical engineering, partly due to the skills he learned in the electronics class offered at RHS at the time. Shortly thereafter, he landed a job in software engineering, and has been in that field ever since. He currently works for the audio technology company Bose, as a software architect, and has been at the company for the past 15 years.

In addition to preparing him for college and his career, Mr. Van Iderstine also discovered a passion for woodworking by taking woodshop class at RHS. He recalled coming into the school over the summer to work on projects, and has been perfecting his hobby ever since. Applying the expertise he gained in both woodshop and technical drawing (then known as drafting), he was able to add an addition to his home by himself, and has been able to build a barn and chicken coop on his property in Western Massachusetts, where he has tried his hand at raising animals. Some of his fondest memories from Ramsey come from his four years in the Band, where he played trumpet. He cited band camp as some of the best times he had in high school, and remarked at the sense of camaraderie and community shared amongst musicians in the group.

When I asked Dave what advice he would like to impart on current Rams, he had a few important messages. First and foremost, good self-discipline is important to success in education and in work, and it is especially important to recognize this in college where students must exercise their independence. He also emphasized the importance of staying on top of work and asking for help as soon as one encounters a problem in class. Forming good relationships with his classmates helped him manage the intensity of his classes, and he recommends the same to current students.

Dave Van Iderstine’s story is an example of the profound positive impact the RHS experience has throughout the lives of graduates, and he is exemplary of Ramsey’s past and present tradition of excellence. Myself and many of my classmates can certainly relate to the experience of discovering a passion as a result of the opportunities offered here. Ramsey graduates are uniquely prepared for fulfilling careers and experiences, and Mr. Van Iderstine is just one of many examples.