The Sky Was the Limit for WHS!

For the Waldorf High School community, “The Sky was the Limit” Saturday night, March 27th, as they entered the gym, decorated in its party finery, for the school’s first spring auction and dinner. More than $11,000 was raised for WHS programs and financial aid.

Our own auctioneer extraordinaire, Chuck Claus, helped set the festive mood for the evening with his rousing adaptation of “Wilkommen” from Cabaret. Chuck and three student musicians, Kerby Billy, River Leonard and Aaron Weiss, entertained the crowd with dinner music and other show stopping arrangements.

Dozens of items, donated from our generous community, from a dozen farm-fresh eggs, to a Hawaiian vacation, from art-work to electrical work, from dog sitting to a ride in a hot-air balloon, were bid upon in the silent and live auctions. In addition to the tangible goods and services, many members of our community will have further get-togethers as they take part in potential good times such as a tour of the special spots of Dorchester, or Belmont, or a bike tour of Boston art studios, a Spanish dinner in Jamaica Plain or an Italian dinner in Cambridge!

The auction was planned and executed by a particularly effective group of PTO (Parent Teacher Organization) volunteers along with three members of the faculty and staff: Chris Arthur and Chuck Claus, co-chairs, Virginia Buhr, Heidi Burbidge, Lucy Cornier, Diane Gantman, Robin Hughes, Julie Kirrane, Deborah Morosini, Teresa Raizen and Joan Wolcott. They met several Monday evenings during the weeks preceding the auction with two goals in mind: to raise money for WHS’s program and financial aid, and to build community spirit. They are to be congratulated on meeting both!

Thank you to all who participated in “The Sky’s the Limit!”. Plans are already underway for next year’s auction. Mark your calendars: March 26, 2011!

Step inside the computer room at Waldorf High School and you will see students working on four new Acer computers and Dell monitors thanks to the motivation of alumnus Trevor Ruggiero, class of 2004, and the generous donation of Trevor and his father, Board of Trustees co-chair, Gary Ruggiero.

What motivated Trevor to update our computer lab? For one thing, he is coming back to teach a course in CAD (Computer-aided Design) and he realized that our outdated computers would be too slow to use SolidWorks, a program for engineer and industrial design that would be used for the course. Also, he felt that students at WHS need to have access to state-of-the art, updated equipment.

Trevor will graduate from Northeastern University in May with a B.S. degree in mechanical engineering and a minor in electrical engineering. An important part of Trevor’s program has been his co-ops where Northeastern students spend alternate semesters in full-time employment in positions related to their academic or career interests.  His first was at Boston Scientific, the largest medical device maker in the world. Then, he was at Sperry Product Innovation, a 12-person company that works on product design.

His current co-op is with Fikst (which translates as “well-done” from Danish), a 5-person company, started by Paul and Doug Sabin, which provides other companies product design and engineering services from concept to manufacturing. This has given Trevor both wide-range and in-depth experiences in engineering as he has worked on several projects, some of which are revolutionary in their field. For instance, he worked on LightLab’s OCT (Optical Coherence Tomography); imaging technology for cardiovascular disease diagnosis.

Just what Trevor does after graduation remains to be seen. He has been offered a position at Fikst. He is also applying to The Gordon Engineering Leadership Program at Northeastern University, an intensive, one-year graduate program directed at building a future corps of engineering leadership professionals.

Trevor attributes some of his engineering interest and skills to his Waldorf education. “In addition to the math and science,” he says, “to be a good engineer, you need creativity. You need your own ideas and to know how to apply them in creative ways. The relationship between engineering and art is not so far-fetched. Art is a bridge between an idea and the final product.”

Trevor sees CAD as a "new" practical art.  For centuries, architects and engineers have used vellum to make their blue prints. While some still use this method, the new tools are industry standard software packages!  The class that he is currently teaching at WHS gives students an experience of what some of the standard jobs of the future may be like.

The nine students in Trevor’s CAD class are learning the fundamentals of using SolidWorks which will provide them with the basic skills needed to begin to design in a 3-D environment.

We are grateful that Trevor has returned to WHS to teach this class, and for his donation of equipment, but he is quick to point out that teaching is, “a great experience for me! As an engineer, I need to be understood as an artist and be able to communicate. I am learning more about managing and relating to people in this class."

Waldorf High School Embarks on
Summer Venture Enriching Workshops
for Grades 5 - 8

Waldorf High School announces “Summer Venture -- Enriching Workshops for Grades 5 - 8,” for two weeks in August, 2010. This program will include participatory and fun workshops in two- and three-dimensional art, Computer Simulation and Programming, Creative Writing, Drama, Book Making, and Community Service Leadership. Workshops will be conducted in a modular format so students may choose morning and/or afternoon workshops for one or two weeks (August 9-13 or August 16 - 20).

Teachers for the workshops include both long-time Waldorf teachers and dedicated teachers new to Waldorf. Counselors and community service workshop leaders may include older Waldorf High School students and alums.

Summer Venture was initiated by our Board of Trustees and Administration as a result of last year’s long-range planning and discussions about increasing our visibility in the wider community. It is also the Board’s goal to better utilize our building during the summer.

An exploratory committee, chaired by Board member Teresa Raizen, conducted a market research survey last fall. This survey indicated interest in a program for middle school students in August when there aren’t so many “camp” options as there are in early summer. An interest in artistic options such as creative writing, art and drama was also made evident.

Using the results of the survey and wanting to shape a program in alignment with the mission of Waldorf High School became the basis for this year’s pilot program.

You may read more about Summer Venture on our website, Summer Venture 2010. We do hope that everyone in our community will help us get the word out that Summer Venture at Waldorf High School of Massachusetts Bay will be a great opportunity for students in grades 5 - 8 in our area.

Mrs. White teaches the Parzival  main lesson which is described in the Handbook as follows:

Taking elements of the well-known and often-told Arthurian legends, this book tells the story of Parzival's individual journey.  It weaves together aspects of the East and West and other "opposites" allowing us to imagine the balance of polarities of all kinds.  It is a picture not only of what we might strive for as individuals, but for humanity as well.  Some aspects explored through this story are: separation from what we know, reflection on what we do, acknowledging our expanding orbits of experience, recognition of our effects on others and the world, and ultimately, compassion for others as a necessary part of becoming truly human.  Students will respond to these topics in essays and main lesson books and create an artistic project.

At the Sports Banquet in March, Yojin Higashibaba, the assistant coach for the girl's basketball team, could not be present.  (Yojin graduated from Waldorf High School two years ago.  Her two sisters, Kijin in 12th and Anja in 9th, both played on the team this year.)  She wrote her address to the team and it was read at the banquet.  Here is an excerpt.

I'm sorry I could not be here for this dinner. I have a new job and could not get away.  Mr. Brooks asked me to send in some words to you.  Here they are.

As often happens in a small private school like ours, we are not a very big team.  We had only seven girls, which isn't even enough players to run a scrimmage in practice.  Most players had to play the whole game with almost no breaks. This didn't affect the spirit and stamina of the team, however.  Some of our strongest moments were in the last five minutes of a game.  I would ask for a final push or "spill your guts on the court!" and you would.

Overall we had a very good season.  Even with our tiny team, we made the playoffs, which our  school hasn't done in years.  For me, however, it was not about how many games we won or lost. It was about the attitude and team spirit, our working together, struggling together and breaking-through together.  I remember when I played basketball I would get on a "basketball high".  When a perfect play was played through the "non see-able" teamwork it was almost like magic.  I would feel tingles up my spine.  These are the moments in basketball when we feel like we're soaring, and it is worth all the struggle to get there.  These moments of teamwork is what basketball is all about. I saw many of these moments with this team.  This team had no "one-man show" star player.  It took each and every player to get that ball to the hoop, and we used each and everyone.  This team was so good because of this support and trust in each other. 

I am very happy and provileged to have coached these girls. It was my first time coaching.  They were always tolerant of my yelling, listened carefully to what I said, and tried to follow it.  I would like to thank Coach John (O'Brien) for his support.  We made a good team!  And lastly I would like to thank Mr. Brooks for giving me this opportunity.  Remember girls, the lessons that we learn on the basketball court will help us in all aspects of our lives.  Just go through life with awareness, drive, excitment, and a good attitude and you will win every game!  I would like to thank you all for an irreplaceable experience and awesome season.

A group of 11th grade students enjoyed the spring weather on the soccer field at Waldorf School of Lexington where they learned the art of javelin throwing from Mr. Brooks.