4 students earn First Place in MathCounts competition
From left, Anna Solzhenitsyn, Alex Hutchins, teacher Julie Parah, Miles Garvin and Kameron Cummings. Photo provided
our students representing Green Mountian Union High and Chester-Andover Elementary schools finished in First Place among the six schools participating in the Southeast Vermont Chapter MATHCOUNTS Competition in Windsor in early February.
These students that were selected to compete from the National Math Club members are Kameron Cummings (8th grade-GM), Anna Solzhenitsyn (8th grade-GM), Alex Hutchins (7th grade-GM) and Miles Garvin (6th grade-CAES). Anna also earned honors by achieving the first place individual score and Alex finished with the second place individual score for the region. Anna, Kameron and Miles each participated in the Countdown Round, with Anna finishing as first runner up.
Also attending on Saturday, Feb. 6, were Aiden Farrar, Maya Farrar, Jayden Hinkle, Royce Schultz and Sarah Warnacke, all 6th graders at CAES. The nine students were coached by Julie Parah and Rebecca Bushey.
Competition students begin the series at the school level and progress to local chapter competitions, state competitions and finally the National Competition.
The National Math Club gives students a place to learn and enjoy math in a non-competitive setting.
River Valley students develop new website for Chester church
From left, IT instructor Gail Fletcher, Bonnie Watters, Sophia Gulick, Taylor Drinker and Lew Watters. Photo provided.
tudents at River Valley Technical Center’s Technology Essential program have helped St. Luke’s Episcopal Church of Chester to develop a new website,
which you can view here.
The church had approached RVTC instructor Gail Fletcher, who had just finished a Photoshop class with her students and was beginning a unit on website design.
The class submitted nine mock-ups of proposed St. Luke’s websites, which congregants Lew and Bonnie Watters took back to the church for a vote. The top two designs were chose and the two students behind them got to work.
Sofia Gulick and Taylor Drinker worked with photos and content provided by Lew Watters, the church volunteer who had been managing the old site. “Their work was phenomenal,” said Watters. “The students were so patient with us. The school and the students are a tremendous resource and a great way to connect their learning to real-life work,” he said.
The students held sessions with church content managers to train them on how to update and maintain the new site. Watters said that Fletcher and the students were professional and gave them good advice on the website platform and training on how to integrate other technologies into the site. “It couldn’t have worked out better. It was a great collaborative project. Taylor and Sophia have a bright future,” said Watters.
The River Valley Technical Center has two IT programs, Technology Essentials and Hands on Computers. The programs are open to students in grades 10 through 12 from Bellows Falls Union, Black River, Green Mountain Union, Fall Mountain Regional and Springfield high schools, as well as home-schooled and private school students. Enrollment is open for the fall of 2016. An on-line application can be found at
RVTC.org.
