The students at WUHSMS hosted the second Leadership Summit for Social Justice at the Killington Grand Hotel. The event had a mix of students from Woodstock Union High School Middle School and Hartford Area Career & Technology Center attend from 9 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Students from Woodstock organized an eventful day starting with a session by Ithaca School District's Superintendent Dr. Luvelle Brown who spoke to the students about stories, policies, and student voice in his school district. This was followed by a presentation on the results from a Community Survey by School Board Chair Keri Bristow. The remainder of the day was spent in a student-led workshop to craft a Vermont Student Equity Guide for schools in the Upper Valley.

Recently, Juan Carlos (a well know photographer in Woodstock and Boston) came to our school to visit WUHS’s AP Spanish class. He came and introduced himself and shared ideas with the class in regards to other possible activities they could do or events they could attend within the area to contribute to the Hispanic Community.

Juan Carlos also received a total $526.89 donation that was collected from our AP Spanish students within the school. The money was sent to IBA (Inquilinos Boricuas en Acción) to support the residents of Puerto Rico to recovered from Hurricane Fiona.

Thank you to our administrators, faculty, staff and students for such an amazing team effort to help our friends from Puerto Rico!

By Sophia Nisimblat '24

Every fall, about 15 soccer players from the Woodstock High School soccer teams participate in a program called Top Soccer. It is a national community-based program designed to create a fun environment where children and young adults with physical and intellectual disabilities can play soccer together with high school soccer players.

Our Top Soccer program meets at Woodstock High School every Sunday afternoon throughout the fall at the varsity field. High school players are paired with buddy athletes, and we practice together and form strong bonds of friendship on the soccer field.

As a culminating event, the Top Soccer high school players and their buddies travel to Norwich University to participate in the Unified Champion School Special Olympics Tournament. The Tournament was held on Thursday, October 13th this year, and although it was a rainy day, all the athletes had a great time, and the Woodstock team came home with the GOLD medal! We are always looking for new athletes to join the program and play with us next year.

Please contact the Top Soccer faculty advisor, Ms. Smith, if interested.

On Thursday, October 6, a group of WUHS students attended the Women Can Do! Conference at Vermont Technical College. This conference was attended by more than 250 students from across Vermont and was organized by Vermont Works for Women. The conference is designed to give girls and gender-expansive youth an opportunity to explore careers in the trades, such as welding, carpentry, and excavation, as well as careers in the sciences, engineering, and technology.

WUHS students had a great time. They talked with enthusiastic career professionals, checked out cutting-edge technology (such as a robotic dog that is used at the GlobalFoundries microchip plant in Essex Junction), and did many hands-on activities.

This field trip was facilitated and sponsored by WUHSMS’s Center of Community Connections, which seeks to engage students in thinking about their career and educational pathways.

Maya Sluka and Quinn Eckler try out some woodworking tools, while Lili Morris learns how to sharpen a chisel using a bench grinder in the bench grinder. The Generator Makerspace booth was a popular stop for WUHS students. Generator is a makerspace in Burlington.

In this video, students reflect on a week-long CRAFT summer experience. They were asked, "What do we need to survive and thrive?"

In order to answer this question, students explored the components of our food and forest systems by visiting various farms and forested landscapes. Students learned firsthand from farmers and foresters the processes necessary to grow, harvest, process and distribute local food products as well as ways to sustainably manage our forests.

They visited Calabash Gardens, a BiPoc saffron farm, in Wells River, Vermont. They learned about their value-added products and how saffron is grown, harvested, processed and sold. They visited Kiss the Cow Farm in Barnard, Vermont to learn about rotational grazing and raising dairy cows in a more sustainable environment.

They also visited the Second Wind Farm in Woodstock to learn about how they sustainably raise cattle for beef and meat birds. A visit to Marsh Billings Rockefeller National Historic Park taught students how to take specific measurements in the forest to determine its health and biodiversity.

Students also visited the King Farm to learn about the Vermont Land Trust and C.R.A.F.T.’s of this property.

The video was created by Oliver Szott as an independently funded project. The students who participated in the summer programming were; Izzy Cellini, Ada Mahood, Sadie Boulbol, Jette Gallant, Pea Richardson, and Tua Shaw.

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

The WUHS Student Council was thrilled with the turn out during Spirit Week Events for 2022! The schedule of ‘Spirit Week’ clothing themes generated some prizes for the best costume of the day. On Thursday, 10/13 a Best Day assembly was held in the gym and the students were captivated by the keyboard and singing talent of freshman Leo Winawer-Stein who sang The Scientist by Coldplay. As well, there were some fun games such as dodgeball and of course kudos and raffles!

The High School Homecoming Dance was held in the WUHS Gymnasium, and after many students attended a campus bonfire and some sporting events, they came to kick up their heels and enjoy some fun dancing in the gym!

Adeline Praud, a native of Nantes, France, is an artist of many mediums. She is a photographer, documentary filmmaker and one of the founders of Orphelinat Centre Emmanuel, an orphanage in Togo, Africa. Adeline’s mission is to bring the “invisible,” people who are on the edges of society, to the fore. As part of this mission, she worked at Dismas House in Rutland, helping people who are in the throes of transitioning from addiction to sobriety. She wrote extensively about this experience for a French journal. Adeline focused on what she views as the grit and bravery it takes for one to emerge from the depths of addiction to reintegration into society. She also set up artistic workshops for occupants of the Dismas House.

Adeline is often hired to shoot photos for Le Monde and L’Humanité, two of France’s most prominent newspapers. Her photographs of Togolese people were awarded top prize for the British Journal of Photography’s Portrait of Humanity.

Adeline has been coming to French classes and the French Club for the last five years. On Friday, October 7th Adeline was the presenter at the French Club meeting, and described to the students the mission of the orphanage that the French Club will support as part of their objectives for this year. She will be back on October 21st to talk to students in various French classes about her projects that marry art with social action. We are so pleased that she can take the time to share her experiences with French students and their teachers.

Physics students have launched a project that centers around designing and renovating our school's greenhouses to minimize energy use while also maximizing production and learning.

Abbie Castriotta, Greenhouse Manager and CRAFT Teaching Assistant, lead a tour of our three greenhouses followed by a presentation of design goals, programmatic needs, budget, and inspirational resources.

Tim Brennan will facilitate the exploration and application of scientific concepts coupled with the design cycle to help students actualize solutions. This type of interdisciplinary learning is exactly what CRAFT is all about-fostering Community and Climate Resilience through Agriculture, Forestry, and Technology.

Dave Eastman and Marty Banak from Greater Upper Valley Trout Unlimited visited Ms. Hagge's block 3 English III class on September 26th. Students learned a bit about the different species of trout, the bugs that trout like to eat, and the fact that trout are "indicator species" that reflect environmental conditions.

They then had an opportunity to practice casting on the soccer field. We thank the GUVTU volunteers for helping English students make this hands-on connection with the book they are reading, Norman Maclean's A River Runs Through It.