The following announcement was provided by Minuteman High School:
Minuteman High School has selected four outstanding students as Students of the Term for Term Two of the current school year.
The honorees are freshman Marwa Alwaz of Watertown, sophomore Ellie Vail of Arlington, junior Evan Nardone of Wakefield and senior Jared Burke of Waltham.
This honor is awarded every term to one student from each grade level based upon nominations from the staff. The criteria include character, attendance, improvement and academic success, according to Assistant Principal Brian Tildsley.
All four attended a luncheon in their honor with Principal Jack Dillon at the Fife & Drum Restaurant at Minuteman recently and were given certificates in recognition of their achievement.
Freshman Marwa Alwaz is majoring in Biotechnology at Minuteman. “Best student in the class, hands down,” wrote her English teacher, Kevin Sheerin. “Marwa is one of the hardest-working people I’ve ever been around. She is incredibly disciplined and expects nothing short of excellence. She comes to class ready to work every day. She is always the first to raise her hand, but it’s not to show off or score points. Marwa is respected and admired by faculty and students throughout the building.”
Her favorite academic subject is science and she hopes to attend medical school to become a cardiovascular surgeon. Marwa enjoys playing soccer for Minuteman and being a student ambassador.
Sophomore Ellie Vail “is a fantastic student, incredibly polite and well behaved,” according to Minuteman’s girls’ basketball coach, Dan Murphy. “I have grown to know her very well as her basketball coach and she is a supremely dedicated member of the team who shows up to every practice, game, and meeting without fail. She is a valued teammate, has turned herself into a top shelf JV player for us, and has great prospects for the future.”
Ellie is majoring in Advanced Manufacturing and her favorite academic subject is math. She likes participating in cross country, basketball, the math team, Minuteman’s Girls in STEM Club and SkillsUSA, She plans to go to college to study mechanical engineering.
Junior Evan Nardone “is an all-around winner, noted Patrick Rafter, his Biotechnology teacher and nominator. “He is an honor roll student, a member of our Advisory Board, does community outreach and is involved with Future Farmers of America and Skills USA. He is one of my go to students.” Evan wants to attend Boston University to be a biochemical engineer. He likes chemistry. In his free time, he enjoys playing video games.
Senior Jared Burke likes history and hopes to pursue a career in political science. “Jared has consistently gotten good grades, has good attendance and has volunteered to help with many Minuteman events,” wrote his nominator and Design and Visual Communications teacher, Maria Galante. “Recently, he helped with Showcase Day, filming alumni for admissions, filming and photography for the Advisory Board dinner meetings, created logos for clients, and has taken shop photos for use in social media.
Jared was very helpful with assisting teaching eighth graders in the DVC After School Career Exploratory Program. When Minuteman’s Culinary program visited the State House, Jared photographed the event and edited the images using Photoshop. He is one of the students that I can count on to organize a team to work on a project or help others in the class. Jared has an internship with Cricket Media, where his work is published in many of their magazines such as Muse, Click and Dig (https://shop.cricketmedia.com/). He is currently employed after school and on the weekends at Brothers Market in Waltham.
Anyone interested in applying to Minuteman High School is urged to act promptly. Applications for admission are coming in quickly due to the high level of public interest in the new, state-of-the-art Minuteman High School currently under construction. Please visit www.minuteman.org and go to the Admissions tab on the home page.
Minuteman is six months away from moving into a $145M facility that has been designed to support a robust college and career academy model. The academy model was adopted by staff and administration to create smaller “schools within a school” thereby promoting more personalized learning founded upon close relationships between students and teachers. The Minuteman college and career academy model integrates rigorous academics with relevant technical programming in occupational areas providing individual economic opportunity. The new facility will accommodate project-based learning across disciplines, requiring students to learn how to work on a diverse team, solve problems and think critically. These are essential 21st -century skills that students practice and apply in a variety of school-based and work-based environments.
As an accredited member of the New England Association of Schools & Colleges (NEASC), Minuteman inspires all students to attain their full potential, accelerate their learning, and become purposeful citizens in the global community.