Notes & Accolades

IB Theatre Field Trip

For the past 12 years, Sturgis IB Theatre students (and some lucky teachers) have headed to NYC to attend the ISTA (International Schools Theatre Association) TAPS (Theatre Arts Programme Symposium) conference and workshops.

The students spend their days at Ripley Grier Studios (an actual working actors' studio) attending workshops with IB theatre practitioners from around the world. The workshops this year included (but were not limited to) "Exploring World Theatre Traditions," "Staging Play Texts," and "Performing Theatre Theory."

Over the course of the trip this year, the group was able to attend three Broadway productions: Stereophonic, Water for Elephants, and The Outsiders. All three shows were absolutely amazing and were definitely a highlight of this year's trip!

East IB Art Field Trip

IB Art East students recently visited the MFA Boston, to take their extensive art collection, students focused on finding an artist, a work or art or a curated exhibition to examine and research, and of course sketch. One of the highlights was the juxtaposition of some of Salvador Dali's work with their respective source of inspiration...a very cool and interesting way to curate an exhibit.

East IB Art

A few IB Art East students had the privilege of visiting with a college representative from Savannah College of Art and Design this week, to help them prepare their college portfolio and admissions into their college.

School Counseling Departments

Leading up to the College Application deadlines, School Counselors have been hosting multiple lunchtime sessions where we answer questions and help seniors complete their college applications. These sessions have been packed with students and we’ve increased the number of sessions to meet the needs of the students.

Human Rights Academy

Students on the Equity Teams at both campuses attended the Human Rights Academy. The Human Rights Academy is a conference organized by the Barnstable County Human Rights Commission. Students from all over Cape Cod gather (100 students from 10 schools were there this year!) to think about issues related to equity, accessibility, and compassion. For the last couple of sessions, it has been hosted at 529 Main St. It was a great opportunity for our students to learn with and from other students.

East Key Club - Camp Sunshine

6 members of the Sturgis East Key Club volunteered at Camp Sunshine in Casco, Maine for the sickle cell session. Our students were incredible examples of care and kindness to the children and their families.

Along with our participation in camp, Key Club also supports Camp Sunshine financially by our annual Craft Fair. This year’s Fall Festival was held on October 20 at 529 Main Street and featured 20 local artisans. We raised $1200 for Camp Sunshine through vendors’ fees.

IB Psychology

The IB Psychology curriculum requires the students to understand the different areas of the brain and what they are responsible for. This concept is called “localization.” To demonstrate this, we made brain hats. Students could identify the four lobes and areas such as Wernickes and Broca’s area, the hippocampus, the corpus callosum, and the limbic system.

Sturgis on Stage!

West teachers Anna Botsford and Jon Cornet, East student Zendon Donoho and East Alum Macklin Devine all star in this month's production of Dracula at the Cape Cod Theatre Company in Harwich. This past Tuesday, October 8, over 100 students from both East and West went to see the production. It was an amazing field trip-the students had a blast, asked excellent questions at the talk back, and have been inspired by live theatre!

STAGE East and West

SAVE THE DATE for the first of 2 STAGE productions this fall! Check, Please opens at 529 Main street on November 8 and runs through November 10. Friday and Saturday nights at 7:00 PM and Saturday and Sunday afternoons at 2:00 PM. The cast and crew are a mix of East and West students. 529 will be transformed into a classic Cape Cod seafood joint and will welcome the audience to enjoy the hilarity of some pretty epic bad dates on stage. The team is having a blast at rehearsals!

STAGE also invites you to attend our first ever MUSICAL at 529 Main Street, Songs for a New World. Faculty members Diana Young, Joe Briggs-Magnant and Natalie Sheeler lead students in this song cycle featuring vocalists, performers, and musicians from both campuses. This musical highlights themes of faith, love, and courage, and what we do when we are faced with “the one moment” where you must make a decision that changes the course of your life! We look forward to sharing this beautiful show with you! Songs for a New World will run November 22, 23, and 24!

Mecca & Briggs Advisory at West

We have paired up with a third grade classroom at Centerville Elementary to have pen pals! Our students are writing in English, Portuguese, Spanish, or Russian based on the home language of their pen pal. The high schoolers and third graders have swapped jokes and shared about their friends, families, and hobbies. We plan to continue about once a month for the rest of the school year, and are dreaming up a way to visit their class and meet our new friends in person.

IB Art East

October 19th is National Portfolio Day in Boston, three of our aspiring young artists will be attending to receive valuable feedback from a variety of art colleges they hope to attend. We had a portfolio session in the art house to prepare the artworks, images and discuss the process of constructive assessment for this awesome real world art critique opportunity for our students.

Girls’ Varsity Soccer (East)

The East Girls’ Varsity Soccer team (9-2-3), ranked no. 27 in their MIAA division and no. 1 in the Cape and Islands League as of Saturday, punched their ticket to the state tournament after defeating Saint John Paul II on Friday, October 18. This marks the team’s second ever trip to the state tournament after their short run last year. The Storm are unbeaten in their last six games and now tied with SJPII for most goals scored on Cape. Allen Gunn of the Cape Cod times writes that “the culture that fosters growth within Sturgis East’s girls’ soccer team helps fuel its wins” -- read more here.

IB Chemistry (West) - Curran

Every long block is a lab day in IB Chemistry. So far this year we have had some old classics like the carbon snake in SL1, voltaic cells for seniors, and the oscillating clock reaction for juniors. We have also taken on some new labs like a redox titration I have never tried before for the seniors. One of the coolest of the new labs revolved around an HL topic: complex ions. These can be used to make some really beautiful, colorful solutions (the blue ones pictured), and to make colorfast fabric dye. We tested out our use of complex ions with different ligands and different pH on different types of yarn. We also had pencil bags for the HL seniors to attempt the natural dye process. I did a workshop over the summer to try and understand the art side of the process a bit better, and it was fun to see the lab in action!

Biology (East)

Sturgis East senior biology students - Ritika Chalise, Capri Faranetta, Prachi Patel, Noriann Wray, Avery Hamblin, Cody Conrad, Faith Colby, Tessa Cassidy, Angela Rivera and Asmi Acharya - were published in the journal Pediatric Research. The group created a poster and video to illustrate basic science research. Here are links to the poster and video. Recently, a physician at the Children’s Hospital of Chicago, who is a professor at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, emailed to ask permission to use the video in his teaching.

Multilingual Learning Department and Math (West - Mecca and Torrellas)

NASA Astronaut, Suni Williams, visited a group of MLD students and a Math class at West on 9/16 to give students a tour of the International Space Station! Suni also took questions from students who asked about how she trained to be an astronaut, what they eat and how they stay fit in space and what it feels like to be stuck up there longer than the 8 days she anticipated! She even took a group picture with us. What an amazing experience it was for all!

Girls Varsity Soccer (East)

For the second year in a row, 8 members of the Girls Varsity Soccer Team ran August’s historic 7.2 mile Falmouth Road Race as charity runners for Gosnold Behavior Health Center. Together, the players, Coach Emerson (soccer) and Coach Frantz (XC & Track) raised over $10,500 for the organization.

Spanish (West - Profe Moynihan)

On 9/13 students in Spanish 2 and SL2 had a mini “feria de clubes” (club fair) in class, tying into their respective units on school/activities and “Organizacion Social” (IB).

New Student Orientation - West StuGov Leaders

West StuGov sponsored our annual New Student Orientation on Saturday August 24th. West student leaders hosted our incoming students in a series of team-building activities to help ease the transition and anxiety for our new students. Each pair of student leaders led small groups of incoming students through stations involving name games, ice-breakers, walking through the new students’ schedules, etc. The event concluded with a pizza lunch.

New Student Orientation - East (hosted by Student Council)

Similar to West, Sturgis East Student Council hosted our annual New Student Orientation on Saturday, August 24th. We had small group ice breakers, building tours, an upperclassmen student panel, and large group games. We finished the day with a pizza social. With over 70 new students and 20 student leaders in attendance, it was a great opportunity for the class of 2028 to be welcomed to the school as a whole grade for the first time.

School Counseling Department (East & West)

The School Counseling Team hosted College Boot Camp for Rising Seniors on August 20th from 9 am-12:30 pm at the East Campus. We had 148 students registered to attend. The class of 2025 rotated through 4 different workshops, The Common Application, The College Essay, Financial Aid, Scholarships & Resume, and Organizing your Senior Year. This allowed students to get a head start on college applications before school started. Some of the feedback from students after the sessions were “The financial aid overview was helpful” “I’m stressed but now feel like I can handle it” and “Learning about the common app was very helpful, thank you!”, “Everything was very helpful”. 98.8% of students felt they were on their way with their college essay and 96.2% thought they made progress on the Common Application. 95% felt they had a good handle on financial aid knowledge and 94% felt mentally prepared for 12th grade. It was great to see the Rising Seniors cohort.

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