Schools

Watertown High School Senior Earns College Scholarship

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Watertown High School senior Eric Furtado got a financial boost for college from a local bank. To support members investing in their education, and in honor of former staff and volunteers, MIT Federal Credit Union awarded $1,000 Memorial Scholarships to accomplished students at their recent 75th Anniversary Celebration, held in conjunction with the Annual Business Meeting on April 21, 2015, according to the announcement from the bank. Recipients were selected based on essay content, grades, financial need and extracurricular & community activities. “We take pride in supporting a variety of communities at MIT, including young people investing in their education,” said MITFCU President/CEO Brian Ducharme. “In its ninth year it continues to be an honor to learn of these students’ accomplishments and present them with their awards at our Annual Meeting.”

One of the Memorial Scholarship recipients is Eric Furtado from Watertown.

Schools

Group Seeks to Make Watertown High School Safe for Transgender Students

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A group of Watertown High School students has requested that the School Committee add a school district policy for transgender and nonconforming students to make these students feel safe to attend the town’s schools. 

Transgender students do not feel comfortable at Watertown High School, said members of the Gender and Sexuality Alliance (GSA) at WHS. “A lot of it was the school culture,” said GSA President and WHS junior Jeremy Holt. “When we decided to put this in place the school culture was not open and accepting (of transgender and nonconforming students).” As part of the new policy, they seek some changes to improve the atmosphere at the school. Some changes include creating gender-neutral bathrooms and locker rooms, teachers using the pronoun preferred by the student when addressing the student, and not telling parents what their preferred sexual identity until the student is comfortable telling them. “The three main goals of the policy are to reduce stigmatization of transgender and gender nonconforming students, maintaining the privacy of all students and fostering cultural competence and professional development for school staff,” WHS junior and GSA member Kira Peterson told the School Committee on Monday night.

Schools

Watertown Students Host SPEAK Week at High School

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The following article was written by Watertown High School junior Crist Patvakanian:

It’s that time of the year again! SPEAK Week, organized by the Watertown Youth Coalition Peer Leaders and funded by the Watertown Community Foundation, took place from March 9th to March 13th at the Watertown High School. For those of you who are unfamiliar, SPEAK Week, which stands for Sharing Personal Experiences and Knowledge, is a week where speakers and activities take place in WHS to help educate students about healthy decision-making, substance abuse, bullying, and suicide prevention. SPEAK Week also allows the diverse clubs of the school to promote their own interesting and useful messages during lunch periods. This year’s clubs that participated include the Watertown Youth Coalition, the Feminist Coalition, the Armenian Club, the GSA, the Animal Rights Club, the Environmental Club, and the International Club.

Schools

Several Watertown High School Artists Honored in State Competition

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Several Watertown High School student artists received awards in a competition that honors the best high school artists in Massachusetts. The Scholastic Art & Writing Awards announced the 2015 awards. In 2014, the program received more than 250,000 submissions. A ceremony for Massachusetts’ award winners was held at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston on Saturday, March 7. Watertown’s winners were:

Julia Harrington – Silver Key for drawing
Liana Aleksanyan – Silver Key for drawing and honorable mention for painting
Emily Hart – honorable mention for painting
Katie Eaton – Gold Key for design
Melanie Halibian – Silver Key for design
Emerson O’Connor – Silver Key for design
Christopher Patvakanian – honorable mention for digital art
Erika Libertini – honorable mention for digital art

See the student’s artwork on the Watertown Public School’s website by clicking here.

Schools

Speaker Will Talk About How Teens Can Reach Their Potential

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Nationally recognized speaker Ed Gerety will speak about helping Watertown High School students can help reach their potential. In his talk, titled “Bridging the Gap: Helping Our Kids Their Full Potential,” Gerety will talk about building better relationships with middle school and high school students

“An expert on the topic of student leadership, Ed brings a refreshing look at today’s youth,” according to the Watertown High School announcement. “He will share techniques and principles that will help parents and their children work together to break down barriers and strengthen communication with our teens.” The event is for both parents and their children. Together they can learn about “how respect, character, appreciation, leadership and positive attitude make a difference when it comes to raising young people.”

Schools

WHS Students Hold Vigil for Classmate Who Took His Own Life

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Saturday afternoon, group of Watertown High School students gathered at Victory Field and exchanged hugs, attempted to light candles in a frigid wind and remembered their classmate who ended his life a week ago. 

The 40 or so students, parents, and others held a candle light vigil next to the court where their friend, Adonis, used to spend afternoons playing basketball. They huddled together, stunned and saddened by the suicide of their friend and classmate. The vigil was organized by WHS students who spread the word over Facebook. Fellow WHS sophomore Abraham Fuentes remembered Adonis as a happy guy who always had a smile. But he also struggled with depression.

Schools

Watertown High School TV, Radio Program Expanding

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After starting with a couple of periods of television production classes last year, Watertown High School students now have five classes to choose from, including one focused on radio. With an expanding program, the high school hired Todd Robbins – a first year teacher but experienced broadcaster – to run the multimedia production program. Students can choose from two sections of television news production, documentary film making and radio. In TV news production, Robbins allowed students to choose what kind of program they wanted to do for the class. “Both periods came up with similar panel style shows,” Robbins said.

Schools

See Who Made the Honor Roll at Watertown High School

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Watertown High School released the first term honor roll lists – see who made it during the fall of 2014. Ninth Grade – High Honors
Evan Aldridge, Amelia Allison, Joseph Chau, Nicholas Cordeiro, Caroline Costa, Jacquelyn Furbish, Claire Gabel, Anna Gellerman, Siobahn Greene, Melanie Halibian, Emily Koufos, Katherine Lawn, Spencer McClellan, Katherine Nilov, Jeremy Ornstein, Sarah Pardo, Lauren Petrillo, Elizabeth Powderly, Darlyn Ramirez, and Destiny Santalucia. 
Ninth Grade – Honor Roll
Alexander Abrahamyan, Hakeem Alhady, Madiha Begum, Sarah Benites, Christina Borelli, Gabriella Cacia, Liz Cam, Gabriel Cimino, Julia Cottone, Arianna Curry, Nelziclea Da Silva, Julie Der Torossian, Hailey DiBacco, Daniel Fabrizio, David Fabrizio, Hadi Farhat, Alexander Feltner Harrison, Meghan Foley, Julio Fulcar, Owen Gallagher, Natali Gevorgyan, Didar Jajan, Jonna Kennedy, Christopher Koufos, Amanda Lewis, Jie Sen Lian, Jeannie Ngan, Anahid Ohanyan, John Papadopoulos, Stella Papadopoulos, Catherine Papayannopoulos, Tia Pellegrini, Sydney Poulin, Kian Rice, Molly Ryan, Sergio Salas, Christine Saroufim, Ana Scott, Elza Shakhverdova, Rubina Simikyan, Brianna Sullivan, Timothy Tat, Kaitlin Tracy, Isabella Vitti, Rubina Vosbigian, Connor Walsh, James Walter, and Ana Zoubian. 10th Grade – High Honors
Evamarie Alessandroni, Samuel Carton, Alexis Catsoulis, Alexan Cinar, Julia Dunoyer, Nicole Frisoli, Michael Guyumdzhyan, Sara Gyulakian, Rosdom Kaligian, Stefanos Kiorpes, Thayna Marcos, Hovig Margosian, Lily Mills, Shannon Murphy, Ryan O’Reilly, James Piccirilli, Ruby Rosenwasser, Alex Smith, Stella Varnum, and Olivia Venezia. 10th Grade Honor Roll
Mahdi Alhady, Brian Amedio, Faryal Amin, Elizabeth Arauz, Andres Arenas, Ani Aroyian, Sarine Ashjian, Christopher Baccari, Natalia Balan, Emma Bannon, Robert Belli, Larissa Bittencourt, Benjamin Bunnell, Lauren Burns, Anthony Cardarelli, Daniel Carito, Joseph Chomthakham, David Conlon, Julia Dario, James DeRocher, Maksim Doe, Aurora Fidler, Colin Gardiner, Isaac Gibbons,  Sarah Greim, Artem Grigoryan, Mayra Guerra, Isaac Huff, Sabir Hussain, Kaysa Jinan, Nareg Kalaydjian, Lisa Kalies, Leslie Kay, Yasir Khan, Zelal Kort, Fatima ez Zahra Kouchaoui, Eli Krieger, Lance Kuo, Catherine LeBlanc, Tatum Lee, Benjamin Lowry, Karina McAdam, Samantha McFarland, Hanna McMahon, Jenna McMahon, Lisa Nantongo, Emerson O’Connor, Vicky Orellana, Marina Osipova, Gabriel Pino, Vasiliki Pistoftzian, Talene Pogharian, Max Potseluev, Nayara Ribeiro, Zachary Rimsa, Fatima Roda, Elizabeth Santourian, Reid Shanabrook, Brendan Shanahan, Lori Shirinian, Aidan Sullivan, Janaki Thangaraj, and Emmanuel Theodore. 11th Grade High Honors
Nelli Balian, Niko Carvajal-Janke, Karl Elbakian, Kyle Foley, Karina Franca, Tyler Gardiner, Zoe Grodsky, Julia Harrington, Sabiha Khalid, Erika Libertini, Austin Lin, Joanna Lopez Ordonez, Steven Mey, Cristopher Patvakanian, Christopher Rohlicek, Arshdeep Singh, and Deanna Solari.