There is little more important than building community. Lacking a sense of community can be a formidable barrier to progress, be it at a school, town or city. Our community rallied to support each other in the face of terrible tragedy. Communities are built to care for one another and to provide supports in difficult times and in moments of grief. Caring and comforting one another is critical to the healing process.
Communities gather to grieve, and it is well understood by psychologists and social scientists that people who eat together, who laugh together, and who gather together for social functions generally have stronger feelings of empathy and bonding. It is with this in mind that I invite you to a community event at CCHS.
When: 4 March
Where: CCHS
What: Multi-cultural Food Festival (5:30 - 6:45) & Mr. Joy (Doors open at 6:30 & show starts at 7:00)
The CCHS Class Government would like to invite all members of our community to participate in a celebration of our cultural differences. On Wednesday, March 4th from 5:30-6:45 pm, we will hold The Multicultural Food Festival in the CCHS cafeteria.
This event will use food as a vehicle to celebrate and learn about our differences. Additionally, there will be several culturally specific student performances. Last year was an amazing success with over 80 different families, faculty and staff providing food and 500 people attending.
In order to make this event a success, WE NEED YOUR HELP!!! The teachers, staff, and community members will gather to celebrate the cultural differences within our community.
Signup to bring in a dish that represents your cultural identity. Culture can be defined broadly. Whether you have a cultural affinity from being a recent immigrant, your family immigrating generations ago, your religion, having lived in another country or just have fallen in love with a specific culture, we want you! If you are willing to bring food please fill out the google form by clicking this link: https://forms.gle/
If you are unable to bring a dish, please mark your calendars and come and enjoy the festival on the evening of Thursday, March 4th. Bring the whole family, there is no cost.
For those who sign up to bring food, we will follow up in a separate email with further information and details.
Thank You,
CCHS Class Government
Mr. Joy Neighborhood Tour
Mr. Joy's "Neighborhood Tour" is coming to CCHS on Wednesday evening March 4th (doors open at 6:30pm). ArtsEmerson presents the 4th annual Mr. Joy: The Neighborhood Tour, a series of free theatre performances of Daniel Beaty’s Mr. Joy, a play that explores issues of race and class in America to help us find our common humanity. To reserve your free spot click here.
Funding for Mr. Joy is made possible by METCOIncHq, and a grant provided by BASI and Outside the Box/Act Two, and ArtsEmerson. Also, I want to thank METCO Director, Andrew Nyamekye, for his efforts to make this possible.
Scholarship Award
Please join us in congratulating Kalise Wynter, METCO Class of 2021, for being awarded a grand scholarship of $10,000 by METCO Inc. The Summer Science Camp scholarship will provide Kalise an opportunity to study marine life on the island of Eleuthera in the Bahamas this summer. There are more details on the flyer below.
Track
Congratulations to the Girls Indoor Track Team for winning the State Championship! An amazing team!
The Boys Team performed well led by Will Chaffin who holds the fastest time in the state this year.
Mentors in Violence Prevention
Twenty-nine CCHS students participated in a 2-day Mentors in Violence Prevention (MVP) Training November 21 and 22 in which participants learned concrete tools for confronting, interrupting and preventing gender-based violence. By empowering participants through a unique bystander approach to prevention,
MVP enables communities to stand up against all forms of gender-based violence and challenges participants to understand and embrace their roles as leaders when faced with these issues. The goal is for the participants to become peer leaders in preventing physical violence, sexual harassment, sexual assault and heterosexism/homophobia in the school community. Many of the MVP trained students will be sharing what they learned with parents at an evening event in late January/early February and will conduct similar 1-day training for 8th graders in March.
The 2-day MVP training was facilitated by CCHS teachers Matt Goldberg and Nancy Slocum, who also run the MVP Club at CCHS. We are grateful for Matt's participation this year, and we owe a special thank you to Nancy Slocum for making this program thrive at the high school, and her efforts have brought this important initiative to the middle school as well.
LookUp.Live
WHAT: This student-centered design competition will gather thinkers, creators, and change-makers from all corners of CCHS to address one of the most pressing concerns of our time: youth mental health and digital overload. During this in-house field trip, students of any stripe get a chance to design with and deeply understand their peers, to dream up scores of ideas, and to create innovative new solutions rooted in student’s actual needs. Prizes will be awarded in several categories.
WHO: All are welcome, but the first 25 students to sign up will be awarded a spot in the competition. Join as a team (up to 4 people) or as individuals.
WHEN: March 9th (lunch) and March 12th (all day)
WHERE: CCHS
HOW: Join the movement! LookUp.live is running similar design competitions at Brown, Dartmouth, and the Universities of San Diego, Arizona, Southern California, and Holy Names. CCHS is the first high school to take part in the design competition.
ABOUT: CCHS has partnered with LookUp.live, a trailblazing nonprofit that is sparking a social movement that empowers students to reverse the negative effects of digital overload and the pressure of 24/7 connectivity (e.g. less sleep, less focus, more anxiety, more social isolation) find balance, and embrace the joy of simply being human. Because youth agency is at the heart of their mission and an essential part of their programmatic DNA, LookUp.live doesn’t tell youth what to do. They ask them.
The English Department congratulates the following students selected as this year's winners of the department's annual writing contest for juniors.
Juniors: Rachel Dettelbach and Claire Sun
Rachel and Claire will go on to compete at the national level in the contest sponsored by the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) -- the Achievement Awards in Writing.
The results of the national contest are announced in May. The English department recognizes all the students who participated in the school's contest. As juniors, they have all been recognized by the department for their depth of insight, for their originality of expression, and for their overall achievements in writing.
Mass. Music Educators Association All-State Conference
The Concord-Carlisle HS Select Choir has been chosen to perform at the 2020 Mass. Music Educators Association All-State Conference in March. This was the result of an application process in December that included the submission of live performances and recommendation letters. This is a tremendous honor for the CCHS Music Program and our communities. Only four ensembles of all types (band, orchestra,, and chorus) and of all grade levels K-12, were chosen from the Commonwealth. Congratulations to these students who have worked so hard to achieve this level of excellence! The performance is scheduled for Friday, March 6 at 1:45 pm in the Plaza Ballroom, at the Seaport Hotel in Boston.
Further, we are pleased to announce that the CCHS Music Department has 18 students that have been named to Massachusetts Music Educators Association (MMEA) All-State Concert Band, Chorus and Orchestra. These students will join others from around the Commonwealth in rehearsals at the Seaport Hotel/World Trade Center on March 5-6th, culminating in a performance at Boston’s Symphony Hall on March 7th.
We are incredibly proud of these highly motivated and talented students. This distinction is one that not many high school students achieve and is a result of their dedication to their craft and their progression through the District and State audition process. Please take a moment to congratulate them when you see them!
David Gresko and Deb Smith
Further, we are pleased to announce that the CCHS Music Department has 18 students that have been named to Massachusetts Music Educators Association (MMEA) All-State Concert Band, Chorus and Orchestra. These students will join others from around the Commonwealth in rehearsals at the Seaport Hotel/World Trade Center on March 5-6th, culminating in a performance at Boston’s Symphony Hall on March 7th.
We are incredibly proud of these highly motivated and talented students. This distinction is one that not many high school students achieve and is a result of their dedication to their craft and their progression through the District and State audition process. Please take a moment to congratulate them when you see them!
David Gresko and Deb Smith
Anti-Defamation League Anti-Bias Peer Trainers
Thirty-five students from the sophomore, junior, and senior classes engaged in their first day of training to become Anti-Defamation League Anti-Bias Peer Trainers. This was the first of a three-day training where students engage in thoughtful conversation, activities, and reflection in order to later facilitate discussions with their peers in the sophomore advisories. The program challenges the community to think about topics like racism and bias in order to create a more inclusive, safe school. It was a challenging but very fun and successful day. We look forward to our next training day in February.
CCHS Squash Team
By Pam Goar
We had a great season and enjoyed our time at Nationals. The CC students had fun at the tournament and they competed hard and performed well. We played at 3 different venues around Hartford, CT.
Later in the spring, we are going to hold a "Learn about Squash" event at the Concord Acton Squash Club. We will open it up to rising 9th-graders and all CC students.
We will miss our six graduation players this year. Izzy Frangules and May Goar played all 4 years. Kelly Costello, Elsa Couvillion, Morgan Labadini and Aliana Potter played 3 years.
We have 16 players planning on returning next year and we are excited about another successful season.
CCHS Weather Services Club
Theresa Ruggerio and Stephen Lane along with the CCHS Weather Services Club attended and presented in front of industry experts at the 100th Annual American Meteorological Society meeting in Boston.
Other presenters included Raytheon, college-level weather clubs, and even NASA (yes, THE NASA!). I heard so much enthusiasm on the part of the students in regard to the presentations they made, as well as the connections with industry professionals and the possibility of summer internships.
