E-News - East Catholic High School

East Catholic High School E-Ne w s
El e c t ronic Updates on the School, its Students, Fa c u l t y, & St a f f
February 1 , 2012
We hope you will enjoy this issue of E-News. If you know an East graduate, grandparent, or prospective student who would like to
receive E-News, send his or her email address to schroederk@echs.com.
FACS Supports EC Students For several years, a
number of donors have provided scholarship assistance to students at
East Catholic through The Foundation for the Advancement of
Catholic Schools (FACS). These donors and members of FACS take a
personal interest in the progress and well being of the students they
support. On January 18, FACS executive director Cynthia Basil
Howard and trustee John Patrick ’76 visited East to meet with recipients
and present scholarship certificates. In their remarks, both Ms.
Basil Howard and Mr. Patrick praised the students for their hard work
and potential. Seen here are: Natalie Kopiec, EC principal Jason S.
Hartling, Malibia Hernandez, SaSean Sanders, Nathan Watson, Ivo
Jacquez, Carissa Bernard, Lindsay Veilleux, John Patrick ’76, and
Cynthia Basil Howard. Mr. Patrick is president of Farmington Bank.
Happy Chinese New Ye a r ! Recently, East’s Culture and
Language Club hosted a festive celebration of the Asian New Year, featuring
traditional foods prepared
by East’s International
students and decorations
brought from China for the
occasion. Guests watched a
video of the New Year’s Gala
in Beijing the night before,
with celebrants in brightly
colored costumes singing and
dancing to bring in the new
year. Rachel Wang and Yilun
(Mandy) Zhang explained
some of the customs of the
celebration, including how
families celebrate the event
and the cycle of 12
mythological animals used to
denote the year, all of which
Fei Fei Huo, at left, tells principal Jason S.
Hartling about some of the food he and his
father prepared for the occasion. Seen with
Mr. Hartling are Sung-In (Steve) An and
Calvin Kim.
bring happiness and prosperity. English teacher Ligi-Elin Jacob and
Spanish teacher Noemi Jalbert are the moderators for the club.
S r. Peggy is Grand Marshal for
H a r t f o r d ’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade
Guidance counselor Sr. Peggy Evans, SND, has
been selected by the Central Connecticut Celtic
Cultural Committee as the
Grand Marshal for
Hartford’s 2012 St.
Patrick’s Day Parade. The
unanimous choice of the
12-member committee,
Sr. Peggy’s selection was
based on her many years of
service, support, coordination,
and participation in
activities to promote the
Irish American Home, the membership, and her own
Irish heritage. Sr. Peggy shares the honor with her
father, Chris Evans, who came from Castlemaine,
Co. Kerry, Ireland, and was Grand Marshal of
Hartford’s 1981 St. Patrick’s Day Parade.
Sr. Peggy has been a member of the East
Catholic faculty for 43 years, serving as a
Spanish/religion teacher, vice principal of academics,
and presently as a guidance counselor. She is
also senior class advisor. Sr. Peggy especially
enjoys working with the children of her former
students. She was inducted into the East Catholic
Hall of Fame in 2007.
News & Notes From East
Next Entrance Exam is February 8
In response to the strong interest in East Catholic’s
Class of 2016, two additional entrance exams will
be offered in February for eighth graders who were
unable to take an earlier exam.
Exams will be given on Wednesday, February 8
at 8 a.m. and Tuesday, February 21 at 9 a.m. (note
later start of 2/21 exam). Students should arrive at
East Catholic 15 minutes before the scheduled start
of the exam. Dismissal will be approximately 3 1/2
hours after the start of the exam.
Pre-registration is not required. A $25 fee to
cover the cost of processing the exam will be
collected at the time of the exam. For more
information, contact the Admissions Office at
860-649-5336, ext. 238 or 456, or e-mail:
gryphonj@echs.com or carterudv@echs.com.
continued on page 2

Did You Wear Your Brain to School To d a y ?
On January 26, it was easy to pick out the students in Holly
Noble’s Anatomy & Physiology classes. Most of them had
worn their “brain” to school that day!
As part of the class’ month-long study of the nervous
system, each student was issued a white swim cap and
instructed to draw the brain in a way that accurately reflected
human brain anatomy. January 26 was designated “Wear
Your Brain to School Day.” Each student found wearing his
or her “brain” received a bonus point. Seen here are: Sarah
Leonard, Kerry Driscoll, Kim Negri, Sam Wing, and Mary
Marena. Kim is holding a tray with the two hemispheres of a
sheep’s brain on display.
NHS Students Seize Opportunities to Serve
Tutors Bethany Rang, Michael Ragazzi, Brittany French, and Kaila
Toce review their notes between tutoring sessions in the Julie Center.
In addition to academics, membership in East Catholic’s
National Honor Society is based on leadership, character, and
service. NHS members give service in many ways during the
school year. Nearly every period of the school day, a NHS
member is available to tutor students in the Julie Center.
NHS students brightened the Christmas season for retired
Sisters of Notre Dame who live at St. Julie House in Windsor.
Students baked and delivered cookies and cupcakes, decorated
the house before Christmas and took decorations down afterward,
and, along with members of Tri-M, sang Christmas
carols with the Sisters. Spanish teacher Jan Reilly is the
moderator of the National Honor Society.
News & No t e s
Four To Compete in
Debate Championships
Four EC students have qualified
to compete in the Connecticut
Debate Association (CDA) state
championships this year. EC
Debate Team captains Kayvon
Ghoreshi and Ryan Baniszewski,
at
left,
will compete as one team, and
Jay Ockert and Wesley Langlais,
at right, will compete as a second
team. More than 35 high schools
participate in the CDA.
The debate format is
extemporaneous. Once the topic
is revealed, students have only
one hour to prepare and build
arguments for both sides of the issue. Topics debated this year
include financial compensation for Division I college athletes,
increased microgeneration of electricity by private citizens, and
Connecticut’s death penalty. Social studies teacher James
Cooper moderates EC’s Debate Team.
continued from page 1
Dressing Down to Help Others
Student Government, under the direction of social studies
teacher James Cooper, sponsored two dress down days in
the fall to support those in need. A dress down day on
Veterans Day, November 11, raised awareness of the
sacrifices veterans make in their service to our country and
resulted in a $2,164 donation to the Wounded Warrior
Project. More than $2,200 raised by a dress down day
before Christmas went toward providing 30 local families
with gift cards to fill their holiday food baskets.
The Guidance C o r n e r
As they hear from colleges, seniors are beginning to
decide which school to attend. Seniors should update their
Naviance accounts, and if they are deferred or placed on a
wait list by a top choice school, they should update the
school on their activities and mention their high interest in
attending that school. Seniors should also sign up in the
guidance office to have their first semester grades sent to
those schools.
Juniors and their parents will attend the College Night
on February 2, an important and informative meeting about
the college search process. Juniors should RSVP with the
number of people from their family who will attend.
Sophomores and their parents attended a meeting on
January 12 to obtain PSAT results and to get a feel for how
these scores fit into the overall standardized testing picture
and college consideration process. Sophomores and freshmen
are meeting with counselors to discuss their current
courses and those they would like to take next year.

Creating a Language of Their Own
Griffin Casey and Megan Stevenson create their
own license plates as part of a project inspired by the
work of artist Mike Wilkins. Wilkins assembled 50
actual US license plates, one from each state, in
alphabetical order to spell out the Preamble to the
Constitution. This metal embossing project focused
on the graphic design element as students designed
and drew out letters/fonts in development of their
own personalized license plate. Students could
choose any location with a coordinating motto/
slogan to create the vanity plate of their choice. This
project is from Judy Landry’s Art 1 class.
For Parents of Freshmen & S o p h o m o r e s
All students must have a blue State of CT physical assessment
form on file in the nurse’s office by the end of Grade 10.
Forms may be turned in to the school nurse anytime during
Grade 9 or 10. For information, contact Diane DeCarlo, RN,
at decarlod@echs.com or 860-649-5336, ext. 207.
News from the Parents A s s o c i a t i o n
The Parents Association thanks all those who came to the
January 18 parent social and meeting. The event was a great
success. The association hopes to hold similar events in the
future.
The association is building an internal communications
network to keep parents informed about association and
school events. We are looking for one parent from each
athletic team to act as a liaison between parents and the
association leadership. His or her job would be to relay
information to team parents about upcoming meetings and
events. If you are interested, contact Mary Bollash at
marycayjwb@gmail.com.
Volunteers and donations are needed for the Staff
Appreciation Luncheon on March 14. The co-chairs are
Doris Welner and Kim Marsden. Contact association president
Elizabeth McGuire at echsvp@aol.com if you can help.
Project Graduation will host a Brunch and Silent Auction
on Sunday, March 4 at Georgina’s in Bolton. Proceeds will
support the spectacular after-graduation party at Nomad’s for
all seniors.
The next Parents Association meeting will be held
Wednesday, March 21 in the cafeteria. All parents are
welcome to attend.
ECCE members Tim Kaseta, Brendan Konicki, Moriah Maresh,
Molly LeRoux, Bobby Gawlik, Maria McGeary, Bridget Driscoll,
Nathan Gasek, Isabel Monteleone, Margaret Vassilopoulos, Michael
Luszczak, and Dylan Fabas received a warm reception after singing
the National Anthem at the January 20 CT Whale game. Photo
courtesy of CT Whale/Whalers Sports & Entertainment.
Musical Notes
This month’s Lunch-Time Concert Series took place on
January 18. During the concert, sponsored by East’s chapter
of Tri-M, the national music honor society, students perform
for their peers in the auditorium during lunch. Performance
slots are available to all East students. The next concert is
Wednesday, February 15.
The Pep Band made its first winter appearance at the
boys basketball game against Manchester High School on
January 20. The band helped cheer the team on to a thrilling
victory.
The Jazz Band and Stage Band held their annual Pasta
Supper on January 27. This event offsets the costs of
festivals the groups participate in during the year. After a
delicious meal, guests were treated to performances by
both groups as well as by the Jazz Combo. These groups
will be going to three music festivals later this year.
East will participate in Manchester High School’s Jazz
Festival on Tuesday, February 14.
Death by Chocolate
Saturday, February 11, 7 p.m.
Sample a variety of chocolate goodies
provided by local vendors.
Jazz Choir and ECCE will add their own
sweet touch of love songs
in honor of Valentine’s Day.
Purchase tickets from members of
either group before the event.

East Catholic Calling During their winter break,
four recent grads
returned to East to
help with the
advancement
office’s annual
phon-a-thon.
Thanks go to
Monika Debski ’09
of Shenandoah
University, Greg
Horvath ’09 of St.
Bonaventure, and
Matt Farrell ’09 and
Tom Dannehy ’10
of UConn for giving their time to help support East.
SAVE THE DATE
EAST GOES WEST!
MARCH 31, 6 P.M.
Join us a for a night of country fun
Music provided by
John Cadillac Saville Productions
Food by Danny’s Little Taste of Texas
Silent & Live Auctions
featuring trips, concert & sporting tickets
For details, go to www.echs.com
From left: Jordan Sabin plays the
puck as his teammates look on.
Megan Murphy and Chris Burt show
their skills on the basketball court.
We Love Science! While faculty in the science department
work as a team, it’s not often that they dress as team as well.
Thanks to Christmas gifts from department chair Holly Noble, they
now have matching T-shirts with a scientific theme. Seen here
showing off the backs of their personalized shirts with electrons of
an atom swirling around a globe are: Maria Snihurowych, biology;
Holly Noble, anatomy and physiology; Kathleen Batchler, physics;
James Roberts, biology; Lisa Heaney, health; Paul Hammer,
physics; Lesa Milas, AP biology, and Amy Coan and Stella
Thonakkaraparayil, chemistry.
The winter sports season is winding down, but
t h e re is still time to come out and cheer on the
Eagles! Check the website for game schedules.
Go Eagles!