Notes & Accolades Summer 2023 Edition

West Point representative Colonel Steve Carter, who was in the Army Corps of Engineers for 23 years and was an offensive tackle for the football team, attended Sturgis East’s Faculty Meeting on May 31st to share the news that East’s Robbie Penswick has been admitted to West Point! This is not an easy feat as he had to get five teacher recommendations, a counselor recommendation, and a congressional recommendation from a state rep or state senator. He had to submit a candidate statement, take a fitness assessment and pass a medical examination. Additionally, Robbie had to submit his transcript and SAT scores. Congratulations Robbie, we are very proud of you!

Treats for Treatment (N. Barrell - West)

Through several bake sales and fundraising efforts, the Treats for Treatment club was able to assemble 20 elaborate gift boxes, with 20 more on the way before June, to Falmouth Hospital’s Clark Cancer Center. Each large, beautiful gift box is thoughtfully curated and substantial: they include fuzzy socks, blankets, mugs, and other essential items for someone going through grueling radiation and chemotherapy treatments. A big thank you to seniors Jack Donahue and Jinpei Holmes for their efforts in assembly and delivery. They will be greatly missed.

Multilingual Learner Department (E. Masil - East & West)

The results are in! 30 graduating 12th graders across both campuses will receive the Massachusetts State Seal of Biliteracy on their Sturgis diplomas. Out of those students, 4 earned the Seal of Biliteracy with Distinction. This year’s students received the award in Spanish, French, Portuguese and Jamaican Patois.

The State Seal of Biliteracy is an award that recognizes high school graduates who attain high functional and academic levels of proficiency in English and another world language, in recognition of students having studied and attained proficiency in two or more languages. To earn the Seal of Biliteracy recipients have to…

Amazing Accomplishments from Sturgis Students (A. Cullinan - West)

After nearly 2 years, senior William Caolo’s vision for a free art wall has been approved by the town of Hyannis. William thanked his English teacher Ms. Jolanda Ferguson for teaching him how not to say “ummm” when public speaking. The community art wall was installed on the side of the Hyannis Public Library in time for the first Hyannis Open Street event on the 21st of May. Please get the word out so people can come see the result and create art! Great Job William, the Sturgis Community is so proud of you!

Here is a video of William’s opening remarks at the Hyannis Historical Society meeting in April.

Student Spotlight (A. Morales & B. Wojtowicz - East)

East Senior Bethany Whitten continues to excel in her CAS project goal of building an outdoor stage at Sturgis West! Although graduation approaches, Bethany hasn’t stopped her fundraising efforts and she recently achieved her half way mark of $3,000! Not only did she create a GoFundMe page, but she has reached out to local businesses and will soon be interviewed on a local radio station to share more about the importance of and connection between the performing arts and service. Stop by West to take a look at what Bethany has already accomplished and please consider donating to this awesome project!

3rd Annual Anti-Racism Conference (M.A.R.C.H. - West)

M.A.R.C.H. hosted its 3rd Annual Anti-Racism Conference at Sturgis West on Saturday, May 6th. The group welcomed students and teachers from a number of other high schools for a day of anti-racist learning and collaboration. Sturgis’ own Iona Masil and Lucas Ribeiro led a workshop for educators titled, “It Takes a Village: The Importance of Community Collaboration in Centering Students of Color.” Teachers Siobhan Curran and Matt D’ Innocenzo led roundtable discussions, as did student leaders Anna Kuznetsov, Izzy Zine, and Sarah Murray. The entire day was hosted by M.A.R.C.H.’s leaders Sudeen Dwyer and Jinpei Holmes. The conference keynote was delivered by Dr. Jamila Lyiscott who extolled the potential of a dedicated anti-racist school community: the ability for every student to be their whole selves at school.

During the week of May 8th, the Sharing Kindness Organization visited both campuses during lunch to promote their upcoming Suicide Awareness Walk and recruit student volunteers for the event. The walk will take place on Sat., May 20th, in Hyannis and offers an opportunity to fundraise for programs that support suicide prevention with youth on the Cape. Sharing Kindness has also spoken at length with the Counseling Departments about an initiative called HOPE Squad. HOPE Squad provides training to student leaders on how to identify warning signs of suicide as well as support fellow students who may be struggling. This program may be a possibility for next year and is already in place at other local high schools!

East Athletics (K. Dumont - East)

On May 4th, we recognized our six senior athletes who have committed to continuing their academic and athletic careers at the next level. Congratulations to our student-athletes!

Ursula Budd - University of Rhode Island (Sailing)

Juan Gomez - Anna Maria (Soccer)

Aidan Kelly - Boston College (Swimming)

Lexi Lundell - Lynn University (Swimming)

Robbie Penswick - West Point (Baseball)

Thomas Terry - Bridgewater State (Soccer)

Multilingual Learner Department (K. Lucich & I. Masil - East)

Multilingual students currently in ELD and/or Multilingual Learner Support at the East campus enjoyed an end-of-year celebration at Par-Tee Freeze, where students played mini-golf (some for the first time ever!) and had lunch and ice cream with their ELD teachers. This annual celebration recognizes the growth and achievement of our multilingual students as well as the upcoming graduation of students who have been a part of the MLD program throughout their time at Sturgis. The MLD recognizes how much our multilingual students have taught us as a community, and we are so grateful for all their contributions to Sturgis.

HL1 Chemistry (S. Curran - West)

After Spring Break, the HL1 Chemistry class explored polymers, spectroscopy, some organic reactions, and thermochemistry. In a recent lab, we calculated the specific heat capacity of different types of chocolate. In order to avoid a liquid to solid phase transition for the chocolate, we pre-cooled our calorimeters with dry ice. The whole class wrote a memo about their findings and proposed next steps.

Then, we went to visit the Boston Scientific global headquarters where students had the chance to learn about a variety of noninvasive and minimally invasive medical devices and the materials chemistry testing that is done to help support that research. The director of R & D for endoscopy kindly put together a talk to provide an overview of the business and products, and the head chemist at the facility gave us a tour of his lab. This was especially exciting because he was able to show us his (much more accurate) calorimeter as well as a device that we learn about in HL Chemistry, but do not have in our own lab called an infrared spectrometer. The chemist even tested one student’s Apple Watch wristband to determine which polymer it was made of! The students were proud of themselves when the chemist was talking about a polymer they had not learned about in class, but they could predict the method of polymerization based on its structure! He said older groups do not usually get that right! I was really grateful for the flexibility of the IB program that allowed me to reorganize some of the year 2 content into this year in preparation for this field trip. Students enjoyed the trip. My favorite quote was from one girl who said her main take away was that, “I could totally picture myself doing that.” Our hosts also appreciated the class gift of chocolate with the memo students made about its specific heat capacity.

Sturgis Key Club (H. Raftery & R. Todoroff - East)

East Key Club had a great time at the annual District Convention! They won prizes for Membership growth (3rd place), the Best Video produced (2nd place), and the Signature Project Award (1st place). We also have a Sturgis East Key Club Member, Emily Ladd, serving as the District Governor. The club has been active helping serve lunches at the Salvation Army, preparing food bags for needy veterans at the Veterans Center, raising money for Unicef and Camp Sunshine by serving waffles on “Waffle Wednesdays” and supporting the school and community in many other ways.

ELD (I. Masil & A. McClorey-Timoh - East & West)

Erica Tso Haidis of Belonging Books visited the ELD classes at East and West as part of a multilingual storytelling unit. The students shared their experiences as readers and how their relationship with reading has changed over the years. Erica suggested books for each student based on their interests before leading a discussion on the ever evolving and personal process of understanding yourself as a reader (and how readers can use that knowledge to find new books to read!). We are so appreciative of Erica, her visit, and the space she has created with Belonging Books.

English 9 (C. Emerson, S. Meisel, & A. Morales - East)

During the third quarter, 9th grade students were introduced to the novel Night by Elie Weisel. Night captures Weisel’s memories of his time during the Holocaust, a candid account of survival in the Nazi death camps. Due to the nature of this text, the unit was scaffolded with historical context and reflections from the Anti-Defamation League, Shoah Foundation IWitness, and National Holocaust Museum. Students also had an introductory presentation from Rabbi Freelund of Cape Cod Synagogue and a visit from Ms. McInerney, East librarian and psychology teacher, midway through the unit to discuss the psychological aspects behind bystanderism and pluralistic ignorance. Students finished the unit by completing an in depth comparative analysis research project of other genocides along with a Socratic Seminar addressing concepts of identity and responsibility.

9th grade Biology (K. Houston & R. Saudade - West)

West 9th grade students took a trip to Waquoit National Reserve and worked in various stations. They listened to members of the Wampanoag tribe share their experiences of land conservation including how they burn woods to create boats. Students also went ‘fishing’ and learned about the effects of climate change on the local economy.

Multilingual Learner Department (East & West)

On Friday May 19th, multilingual learners from both campuses went on a field trip to explore Cape Cod’s natural history and conservation efforts. The trip was designed to enrich students’ learning in their science, history, TOK, and arts classes. Students visited the Cape Cod National Seashore, the Salt Pond Visitor Center Museum, the Atlantic White Cedar Swamp, and White Crest Beach. Because language acquisition is a cultural and interdisciplinary journey and our students represent a range of grade levels and courses, students had differentiated essential questions to frame their experiences, including: What does the environmental protection movement look like on Cape Cod?, How might differences in worldviews create challenges for collaboration between environmental scientists and holders of traditional environmental knowledge?, and Compare and contrast the flora and fauna found at White Crest Beach and the flora and fauna found at the Atlantic White Cedar Swamp. Our multilingual students always appreciate opportunities to connect with one another, and it was a particularly joyful day of learning. Thank you to the MIT Club of Cape Cod for awarding us a mini-grant to make this STEM field trip possible!

Human Rights Academy Student Spotlight (S. Meisel & A. Morales - East)

On May 15th, 10 East students from various grade levels attended the biannual Human Rights Academy Conference hosted at Cape Cod Academy. The event is sponsored by the Barnstable County Human Rights Advisory Commission. This year’s theme focused on Pathways to Peace and asked HS students to consider how mediation is facilitated at their schools along with what student support looks like through clubs and activities. A number of groups shared ideas including: CCA’s Youth Climate Leadership Program, Nauset’s Lunch with Legislators, and Cape Cod Tech’s Interact / Peer Mediation Club. This was the first time Sturgis attended and, although they didn’t plan to be on the itinerary, students felt compelled to share about their inclusive experiences at Sturgis with S.T.A.G.E., Students of Color Coalition, and more! They are excited to attend next year’s event in October, 2023!

Multilingual Learner Department (West)

The MLD Department went to Gone Acai in May to celebrate the end of the year with our EL and FEL students! Students selected toppings for complementary mini acai bowls and enjoyed lunch with friends. It was a beautiful day to celebrate upcoming graduations and the end of the school year!

Project art by Nora Quill

IB Biology (S. Stair and S. Gilligan - East)

East juniors, Lauren McNamara, Nora Quill, Amaya Murphy, Kylie Farhadi, Eden Schwenk, Joao Oliveira and Audrey MacKenzie, participated in the Science for Kids Project, sponsored by the medical journal, Pediatric Research. The group created a comic strip to explain research on post-COVID conditions in children and adolescents. Students were delighted to talk with the lead author of the study, from Frankfurt, Germany. They asked the scientist, “What did you like the most about the research process?” He answered, “This is like in a good thriller, where in the beginning of the book, you do not know what will happen in the end.” The project will be reviewed by journal editors and published in Pediatric Research in the coming months. This project was a wonderful way to expose students to current research and scientific writing.

Counseling Dept. (East & West)

On May 22nd, representatives from Cape Cod 5 Bank in coordination with the counseling departments presented a program called Credit for Life to our graduating seniors. Credit for Life is a nationally recognized financial literacy program, where high school students assume the role of a 25-year-old adult and are given the opportunity to make personal financial decisions. Seniors were tasked with choosing a career, finding a place to live, navigating transportation, paying bills and loans and facing the challenges of navigating financial independence. Along with this great life lesson, we treated the seniors to breakfast and financial trivia and awarded gift certificates to local eateries, all funded generously by Cape Cod 5 Bank

Alumni News - Ainsley Cantwell

Ainsley Cantwell was 2022's Barnstable Comedy Club's Recipient for The Peter Eustace Scholarship in the Creative Arts for 2022. Ainsley graduated Sturgis East in 2022 and is a student at Suffolk University. She describes her goal as "having a career in the photography industry and work with people all over the world to inspire others to learn about other cultures and heritages". At Sturgis, as an HL IB Visual Art student she created a realistic sculpture of plaster hands that symbolizes domestic abuse throughout the pandemic. She was honored to be presented with the Arts and Writing Scholarship and Silver key placement for her creation.

Senior Service Day (East & West)

As part of their Senior Week activities, our soon-to-be graduates participated together in a Day of Service at various non-profit organizations across the Cape! Running a Carnival at Centerville Public Library, cleaning up turtle nesting areas in West Barnstable, making over a room for a child in need with Colorful Kidz, beautifying the HyArts campus on Main Street Hyannis – just a few examples of the varied projects our students tackled around our community.

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