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Nashoba Valley Technical School District—Serving the towns of Chelmsford, Groton, Littleton, Pepperell, Shirley, Townsend & Westford.

What’s Making Noise at Nashoba Valley Technical High School?

NASHOBA VALLEYTECHNICAL HIGH SCHOOL

100 Littleton RoadWestford, MA 01886

4 Techline / Winter 2013

NashobaTech.net

Automotive Collision Repair & Re� nishing

Automotive Technology

Banking, Marketing & Retail

Carpentry/Cabinet Making

Cosmetology

Culinary Arts

Dental Assisting

Design and Visual Communications

Early Education and Care

Electrical Technology

Electronics/Robotics

Engineering Technology

Health Assisting

Hotel Restaurant Management

Machine Tool Technology

Plumbing and Heating

Programming and Web Development

TV & Media Production/Theatre Arts

INDUSTRYAPPROVED

TECHNICALPROGRAMS

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NashobaTech.net

Now Acceptin

g

Applications fo

r

September 2012 Enrollm

ent

PRSRT STDUS POSTAGE

PAIDPERMIT #7

WESTFORD, MA

2013

will be provided to the first 50 accepted 8th grade students and District* 8th graders who hand in completed applications.

to pick up your tickets, get information or applications, or ask questions.

*Ayer, Chelmsford, Groton, Littleton, Pepperell, Shirley, Townsend, and Westford.

Free Lift Tickets

Visit our Table in the Main Lodgestarting at 10:00 a.m.

nashobatech.netVisit us online

February 20th

Nashoba Valley Ski Area

Wednesdayat

will be provided to the first 50 accepted 8th grade students and District* 8th graders who hand in completed applications.

to pick up your tickets, get information or applications, or ask questions.

*Ayer, Chelmsford, Groton, Littleton, Pepperell, Shirley, Townsend, and Westford.

Free Lift Tickets

Visit our Table in the Main Lodgestarting at 10:00 a.m.

nashobatech.netVisit us online

February 20th

Nashoba Valley Ski Area

Wednesdayat

Nashoba Valley

TECHLINE

Nashoba Valley Technical School District—Serving the towns of Chelmsford, Groton, Littleton, Pepperell, Shirley, Townsend & Westford.

What’s Making Noise at Nashoba Valley Technical High School?

Winter 2013

Did you know?

IN THIS ISSUE:

Nashoba Valley Technical High School’s Life Sciences program gained new life with a grant from the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center.

Nashoba Tech is one of 31 Massachusetts educational facilities to receive a share of $3.2 million in grants to support programs in life sciences.

Nashoba Tech received $96,665.20 from the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center, which for the second year in a row has awarded more than 30 grants worth more than $3 million.

The grant awards were announced at a press conference held at Nashoba Tech on Thursday, Dec. 20, and attended by Lt. Gov. Timothy Murray and Susan Windham-BannistwwWer, president and CEO of the Life Sciences Center.

Murray said the grants, awarded to 29 technical high schools and other high schools in Gateway Cities, as well as two workforce training programs, are a vital part of Gov. Deval Patrick’s goal to retain Massachusetts’ standing as a leader in so-called STEM education — science, technology, engineering and math.

Nashoba Tech Superintendent Dr. Judith L. Klimkiewicz said the district has, for the past two decades, “changed our direction and mission to meet the highest skill standards of the global workplace.”

“We are focused on creating the newest technical programs necessary to meet the needs of the commonwealth and the nation’s growing

science, health, human-services and biotechnology industries,” she added. “We opened Engineering Technology 10 years ago and have continued to expand STEM education in all of our technical programs.

“Use of the equipment purchased through this grant,” she added, “will enable students in our health sciences, Engineering Technology and Advanced Placement biology programs to expand their core curricula to address specific mathematic and scientific concepts unique to biotechnology.”

Gabriella White, Nashoba Tech’s academic and testing coordinator, said students enrolled in the Engineering Technology program focus on core skills during freshman and sophomore years before branching out and specializing in different types of engineering starting in their junior year.

Those options could include biomechanics, cardiovascular engineering, genetic engineering, agricultural biotechnology, tissue engineering, biomedical devices, forensics and bioethics.

NASHOBA TECH RECEIVES $96,665.20 GRANT FORLIFE SCIENCES DURING VISIT FROM LT. GOV. MURRAY

Lt. Gov. Timothy Murray watches as Tiffany Jurewicz looks through a microscope observing bacterial colonies.

Nashoba’s Student NovelistAdams Scholarship Winners

Student Leaders Tri-M Honor Society

• Over 80% of NVTHS graduates go to college

• NVTHS has had 100% passage of MCAS for the past 8 years, in 2011 & 2012 100% passage of ELA, 90% passage of Math test on the first attempt for 10th grade students.

• NVTHS had highest SAT scores in the 495 belt.*

• NVTHS is the only technical school with 6 approved Advanced Placement Classes

• NVTHS is the only technical school with Theatre Arts, Music And Foreign Language program

* Boston Magazine, September 2009, Worcester T&G, October 4, 2009

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Nashoba Valley Technical School District—Serving the towns of Ayer, Chelmsford, Groton, Littleton, Pepperell, Shirley, Townsend & Westford.

Nashoba Tech Student Council officers, from left, Sofia Reppucci of Pepperell, Ellice Cunningham of Chelmsford, Dana Hopf of Shirley and Danielle Robinson of Lowell, with adviser Emily Smith.

2 Techline / Winter 2013

Members of the Music program at Nashoba Valley Technical High School have something to sing about.

The school recently became the latest charter member of the national Tri-M Music Honor Society. An induction ceremony was held in the Performing Arts Center before the annual Holiday Concert.

The Tri-M Music Honor Society (the three M’s stand for Modern Music Masters) is a program of the Virginia-based National Association for Music Education. Inductees must have the academic qualifications (a grade of C or better in all classes), but with music added (a grade of B or better in Music classes). There are also elected officers — president, vice president, secretary, treasurer and historian.

“It’s like National Honor Society but with music,” Music instructor Laura Lamore said. “It’s the best of the best of music.”

Lamore said having the Tri-M Music Honor Society at Nashoba Tech gives the 4-year-old Music program a little more cachet.

“The kids get to have more ownership of the program and make more of the decisions,” she said, adding that students will receive extra credit for performances the band and chorus produce.“It’s good to have that national affiliation,” Lamore added.

NASHOBA TECH MUSIC PROGRAM JOINS NATIONAL TRI-M HONOR SOCIETY

The first members of Nashoba Tech’s new chapter of the national Tri-M Music Honor Society include, front row, from left, Julia Phelps, historian Alexis Tucker, Rachel Casey, Jennifer Goulart, and Music instructor Laura Lamore. Back row, from left, are Manuela Romano, Jordan Forrest, Rachel Straitiff, Emily St. Amand, vice president Russell Byron-Kelly, secretary Emma Parla-Aziz, treasurer Skye Nogler, Marc Macedo. Missing from photo are members Kirsten Pudsey, president Raysam Donkoh-Halm, Amy Gould, Camron Clark, and Sofina Russell.

NASHOBA TECH STUDENT LEADERSHOPE TO LEAVE ‘LASTING LEGACY’

Sofia Reppucci wants to leave a “lasting legacy” at her high school.Ellice Cunningham, Danielle Robinson and Dana Hopf like to plan activities and get others involved in them.

Together, the four have rejuvenated the Student Council at Nashoba Valley Technical High School and are the council’s leaders, elected by their peers: Sofia, a Pepperell resident, is president; Ellice, a Chelmsford resident, is vice president; Danielle, of Lowell, is secretary; and Dana, a Shirley resident, is treasurer.

All four, along with advisor Emily Smith, attended a recent officer-training workshop, hosted by the Massachusetts Association of Student Councils and which was at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester. What they learned there they brought back to Nashoba Tech, holding a four-hour, first-of-its-kind leadership training seminar for selected stu-dents who are leaders in sports or are active in extracurricular activities.

“The girls decided they wanted to bring the training back to our school,” said Smith, who is also a Theatre Arts instructor at Nashoba Tech.

“We enjoyed ourselves at the workshop at Holy Cross and learned a lot,” Danielle said. “We thought the class officers and leaders here at Nashoba Tech could greatly benefit from the exercises we learned.”

On the eve of the workshop for Nashoba Tech students, the girls spent four hours at Chili’s planning the day. They came up with four leadership-building activities: Sofia led a seminar on public speaking; Dana led a workshop on stress relief; Ellice’s was on building bridges; and Danielle’s seminar focused on team building.

All four (Dana is a junior, and the other three are seniors) have grand plans for the council this year and beyond.

“I want to make the council grow and definitely wanted to do every-thing I could to have a great senior year and to leave a lasting legacy,” Sofia said.

Her goal this year is to get the members of all the school’s groups, clubs, sports and activities “on the same page.”

“All the different groups and clubs seldom have an opportunity to work together,” Sofia said, “and Student Council enforces everyone working on the same page and trying to get everyone involved as much as possible.”

Ellice said Student Council is a natural way for her to stay as in-

volved as possible with her school.“I ran for class president and didn’t get that, but I wanted to

help plan events to get students involved,” she said.The girls have already planned several events for the 2012-2013

school year, including a semi-formal dance, a Toys for Tots col-lection, a talent show and an Ultimate Fan Couch at two football games, at which a lucky raffle winner got to watch the game with a group of friends, with free snacks and refreshments.

And they’re not done yet. Upcoming events for the remainder of the school year include a second talent show in the spring and a trip to Hyannis for the annual three-day Massachusetts Association of Student Council conference.

“I’m really proud of these girls,” Smith said. “They worked their tails off to get this thing off the ground.”

When Stephanie Bacon was 10, she wrote her first novel.“It was 500 pages long on looseleaf paper,” she says. “I’d be

embarrassed to read it now.”Maybe nobody read that book, but people are reading — and

loving — Bacon’s first published piece of fiction — the novel “Painting Lola.”

Bacon, a 2009 graduate of Nashoba Valley Technical High School, wrote “Painting Lola” over the summer, and it was published on Oct. 5. And though she’s only 22, Bacon has been working on

getting published for some time.“I got lots of rejections,” says

Bacon, who grew up in Ayer and now lives in Nashua, N.H. “I sent a lot of stuff to magazines, and no one wanted them. I just kept sending them. I was kind of annoying about it.”Those early stories were “kind of sci-fi/fantasy type of stories,” which caught the eye of Nathaniel Parkinson, author of the fantasy novel, “Bishop and the Pixies, Book One: The Hunt Begins.” Parkinson is a friend of Bacon’s aunt. He read Bacon’s

stories and liked them. He encouraged her to write a novel. The result is “Painting Lola,” which is not a fantasy.

As Bacon says, “It’s about a girl with a rare skin condition. She’s at the bottom of her life. She has nowhere to go. But she gets an offer to model for a famous painter who hasn’t been able to paint for years. The experience brings them closer and forces them to face the demons they’ve been subconsciously hiding for years.”

Amazon published the novel, and the reviews have been promising.

“Stephanie Bacon is a gem!” writes one reviewer on amazon.com. “A very promising new novel from this young talent. She has a wonderful imagination for characters.”

Another review reads: “Ever since I received this book in the mail, I couldn’t put it down. …From the moment you open the book, it draws you in. I recommend this book to everyone.”

Nashoba Tech Class of 2009 graduate Stephanie Bacon, center, donates a copy of her first novel, “Painting Lola,” to the school. With her are, from left, Superintendent Dr. Judith L. Klimkiewicz; two teachers Bacon says influenced her, English teacher Bruce Sullivan and Design & Visual Communications teacher Nathan Meharg; and Library/Technology Specialist Nora Clooney.

NASHOBA TECH GRAD HAS FIRSTNOVEL PUBLISHED AT AGE 22

Forty-one members of the Class of 2013 at Nashoba Valley Technical High School have qualified for the John and Abigail Adams Scholarship, representing 25 percent of the senior class, the maximum number that is eligible for the award.The John and Abigail Adams Scholarship is a Massachusetts Department of Education grant that provides free undergraduate tuition to state colleges and universities to students who score in the Advanced category in either the Mathematics or English Language Arts section of the 10th-grade MCAS test, and in the Proficient or Advanced category in the other section.

In addition, students must: have a combined MCAS score on those two assessments that ranks in the top 25 percent of their school district; be a permanent Massachusetts resident; be a United States citizen or eligible non-citizen; enroll in a postsecondary institution full time in the first traditional academic semester after high-school graduation; and complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA.

The following students have qualified for the scholarship:Ayer: Caitlin Cuoco, Desmond Davis, Richard Hughes.Chelmsford: Thomas Barrett, Matthew Brennan, Ashley

Curtin, Nicholas Hamel, David Luz, Kylie McCaul, Brendan O’Neill, Aaron Rogers, Justin Sheehan.

Dracut: Cameron Dumais.Fitchburg: Rachel Lake.Littleton: John Himmelberger, Jordan Martel, Kirsten

Pudsey.Lowell: Jamal Antongeorge, Rhiannon Archambault,

Malaysha Perez, Danielle Robinson, Shawston Rosw, Anna Schrank.

Pepperell: Kayla Buchanan, Rachel Casey, Anthony Orazio, Sofia Reppucci, Christopher Rudkowski, Hannah Whiting.

Shirley: Courtney Deck, Kayla Drinkwater, Kelly Gallagher.Townsend: Mitchell Ashe, Victoria Forbes, Jaid Hall,

Cynthia Messina, Christopher Schiavo.Westford: Evan Cassidy, Aaron Febbi, Briana Lumbert,

Krystyn Robbins.

ADAMS SCHOLARSHIP MAXIMUM NUMBER OF NASHOBA TECH

SENIORS EARN

Superintendent Dr. Judith L. Klimkiewicz

At Nashoba Tech, Bacon was an honor-roll student in the Design & Visual Communications program, where she was an accomplished artist.

She’s not planning on “Painting Lola” being a one-shot deal.

“I’ve already started the next one,” she says.

Techline / Winter 2013 3