SKS 2020 Grads

SKS ANSWERS ADVERSITY WITH LEADERSHIP & POISE

On the evening of March 12, the phone calls started to come in to Mr. Tosti, with notification that there would be no busing the following day, as schools across our area shut down due to the COVID-19 crisis. Educators and families alike were incredulous…was this really happening? Maybe a day or two…that extra snow day we never got…? Few anticipated that what we were seeing was the same tide of months-long shut downs that other countries had already begun to experience.

Then Mr. Tosti sprung immediately into action, leading the faculty through an intense but organized process of determining the needs, assessing the resources and gaps, and crafting a plan for remote schooling that would continue the learning for the students of SKS. Educators that had spent their careers thinking about how to build community and strengthen connections in a face-to-face environment were suddenly faced with the challenge of reaching students and families through a computer screen.

Despite the enormity of the task, the SKS faculty boldly stepped up to build SKS Cyber School from the ground up. All the while, teachers centered their planning on the questions that mattered most: What is the best way for our students to learn? How can we support our parents as they took on the role of co-teachers? Most importantly, how will we continue to promote the caring relationships that define the SKS community?

In those early days and over the weeks that followed, the SKS teachers built upon the technology expertise they already had and added in new platforms and tools to engage students in the Cyber School model. They quickly expanded beyond Google applications and found tools like Loom, FlipGrid, and EduCreations to create a rich learning experience. They created original videos to demonstrate new concepts, talk through math problems, demonstrate new skills. They learned to host effective synchronous class sessions on Zoom and Google Meet — essential to maintaining the connections with and among students during this time of separation and isolation. As one parent commented, “Our son has been doing so well with Cyber School, and that has so much to do with his amazing teachers at SKS. They’ve given him the tools and confidence to strive at home as he did in the classroom.”

To keep our community intact, faculty meetings were held weekly virtually. Guidelines and support were given to us by weekly meetings with fellow principals with the Office of Catholic Education. Msgr. Brouwers was with us every step of the way as pastor and gave his full support. We had our first ever virtual school Mass. Our May Procession was a virtual event as we honored Our Blessed Mother with our 8th grade leading the way. Kindergarten held their graduation virtually and received their diplomas. Kindergarten teachers drove to the houses of their students to drop off their parting summer gifts from their teachers.

Our Home and School still found a way to honor our faculty for Teacher Appreciation Week and gifted each teacher and staff member. Drive-bys at the homes of teachers were organized by Home and School President Erin Buckley and homeroom parents that touched the teachers so deeply. A principal appreciation drive-by was organized at school that lasted over one hour, and totally caught Mr. T. off guard! Fox-29 News even showed up unplanned and did a feature on the news that evening. Led by youth minister Steph Twohig and our teachers, service opportunities remained an important part of who we are. So many more communities were adversely affected than ours. Most importantly, we wanted to recognize our Class of 2020 and their families for, in many cases, nine years of commitment and giving to SKS. Our Class of 2020 was celebrated by having congratulatory lawn signs posted on each graduate’s house and by having a SKS Class of 2020 graduation outside, the first in our history.

Our SKS community responded, and we remain proud of the way we have kept our community intact. As of this writing we are still in the midst of the pandemic. While uncertainty remains this fall, we have faith and confidence that our SKS school community will rise through these challenges and show our care and concern for each other and to those around us.

– Lisa Lopez-Carickhoff

SHARK TANK

I am sure the SKS community has heard of the show Shark Tank . This show explains what it’s like being an entrepreneur and highlights products that are seeking help from the best in the business. The eighth grade class is taking on its own spin of the show. The point of the project is to show what it’s like to be an entrepreneur and to teach kids how to design and create their own product. Once they have their “HBW,” or Has-to-Be-a-Better-Way moment, they create their own video commercial. The idea of this project started last year when Mr. Justin Goldman reached out to the eighth grade teachers about a way to help inspire young entrepreneurs and get students thinking like founders and innovators. Mr. Goldman, who came up with the idea, is a founder, entrepreneur, and creator of GrubHub. He is also the co-founder and CEO of RenoFi. “This is my second year working with Mrs. Sevag and Mr. Heacock as the Entrepreneur Mentor for the students, and I am so grateful for the opportunity to work with the students. I’m amazed at the ideas they’ve come up with this year; several are without a doubt viable business ideas that the students could continue to pursue. Who knows, maybe we’ll see them on one of the teams on the real Shark Tank  next season!” said Mr. Goldman.

Did you know that 13 billion pounds of paper towels are used/wasted every year, and a big majority of that comes from insufficient methods of cleaning your pets? With Kate Ryan’s product, “Paw,” that will all change. In this time of the pandemic, Lucas de Gennaro and Stephen Finley have come up with the idea of waterproof masks. This will attempt to help open up beaches around the world. “Food Finder” is the last highlighted project by Riley Carickhoff, Caroline Staley, and Lexi DiMarino. This product helps people who have food allergies find places to eat that are safe for their dietary restrictions. These are only three bright ideas from our eighth grade class.

I will take many points away from this project. One important point is how to creatively think and pitch my ideas. This will help me in life by logically thinking through problems and explaining them. Another key point I will take away from this project is how to research the severity of the problem someone is trying to solve. This is really important for people who are going to create a product. Without this project I would not know how to come up with an idea to change the world. Quinn Schultz, a current eighth grader, uses the quote “If first you do not succeed, try, try, again” by Thomas H. Palmer. Quinn uses this quote because in this project our ideas may have to change several times before they are perfect.

Overall, there are many key lessons and life-skills for our students to take away from this Shark Tank project. We hope this is a stepping stone that inspires many founders, entrepreneurs, inventors, and innovators to emerge from the Class of 2020.

– Colin Campbell, Class of 2020

CLASS OF 2020 SCHOLARSHIP WINNERS

Academic Scholarships Total $340,000