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In this Issue:
News You Can UseSummertime... With the long hot days of midsummer, it may be hard to believe that school will once again be in session in about six weeks. Here at the Upper School, which is filled with students taking summer courses and an international group enrolled in the ESL Institute, PAI and the College Prep Institute, preparations are underway for the first day of school on Monday, August 27. Visit the Web site’s Parents Page for a copy of the student-parent handbook and all the lists, forms and information you need to start getting ready for classes this fall. Bartron named director of STEM Program
Sign language club welcomes speakers
The Sign Language Club held an open forum with guest speakers Mrs. Bertha Zeleski, and her son Ronnie, from West Chester on Friday, May 11. About 70 students and faculty listened to Ronnie interpret for his mother while she delivered her speech in sign language. Mrs. Zeleski has been deaf since birth. Her husband and daughter are also deaf, but her son Ronnie can hear. His first language was sign language and he had to learn English as his second language. It was a very interesting presentation followed by about 30 minutes of questions and answers. The event was made possible by a generous gift from the Wyoming Seminary Alumni Association.
Upper School hosts summer camps The Upper School campus has been busy this summer with a variety of sports camps.
The first boys lacrosse camp was held the next week and included about 32 athletes in grades four through twelve. Bobby Wynne, Salisbury School Head Coach, and several outstanding collegiate players joined Sem coaches Paul Burg and Jon Siff in working with the athletes on skills, positioning, game play and endurance. The week ended with a surprise visit by Jeff Tambroni, Penn State head men’s lacrosse coach. Next up was the Futures Wrestling Camp, which included about 25 wrestlers ages 10 and up who came out to learn from Jeff Blatnick, 1984 Olympic Gold medalist in wrestling. Sem Head Wrestling Coach Scott Green and several well-respected coaches from NCAA Div. I wrestling programs worked with the athletes on skills and strategy.
The final sports camp of the summer is the Sem Boys Summer Basketball Camp, now in its 11th year and running this week. Led by Varsity Basketball Coach C. J. Kersey, the camp includes about 18 athletes learning skills and team play. Several Upper School basketball team members are serving as counselors. Summer at Sem brings new friends to campus Students from more than 11 countries have made the Upper School their home this summer as they learn English and enjoy a variety of fun activities. The Performing Arts Institute has already presented many outstanding free performances on campus, and there are many more to come; check the performance list to see what’s coming up. And the cast of “West Side Story” is busy getting ready for their performance of the blockbuster Tony Award-winning musical “West Side Story” on August 2 and 3 at the F.M. Kirby Center. Call 270-2186 for tickets.
Summer renovations The Upper School campus is busy in the summer! In addition to the ESL Institute, Performing Arts Institute and the College Prep Institute, workmen have installed new windows in the Carpenter Athletic Center gymnasium and the blue gymnasium, replacing the original windows. Take a look at the before and after photos! Nesbitt Hall also has a new roof…
Accolades in Academics, Athletics and ActivitiesStudents excel in math bee
Musicians win Philharmonic piano competition
Sem students win awards for French...
The National French Contest, sponsored by the Northeastern Pennsylvania Chapter of the American Association of Teachers of French, concluded with 50 chapter and 29 national winners from a pool of 465 elementary to high school student entrants from public and private schools in the Wyoming Valley, Milford, Scranton, Pocono, and South Williamsport areas. Continuing a tradition that began in 1977, King’s College hosted a dinner for area national and chapter French contest winners and guests in the Sheehy-Farmer Campus Center. Local middle and high school French contest winners who attended the awards dinner at King’s College are, seated from left: Briana Scorey, Holy Redeemer; Youneun Park and Alexandria Hargrave of WVW Middle School; Gavin Lewis, Crestwood; and Sukanya Roy, Wyoming Seminary. Standing, from left: Elizabeth Wood, WVW Middle School; Louis Jablowski, Holy Redeemer; Mairead Tuttle, Wyoming Seminary; Patrick Loftus, Holy Redeemer; Isaac Sours and Karin Williner of Wyoming Seminary; and and Dr. Margaret Corgan, chairperson of the department of foreign languages at King’s College. ...and in Spanish...
More than 1,200 regional students recently competed in the National Spanish Examinations, sponsored by the Northeastern Pennsylvania Chapter of the American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese. The contest concluded with 47 chapter winners, ranging from elementary to high school students from public and private schools in the Wyoming Valley, Scranton, Poconos, Hazleton, and South Williamsport areas. King’s College hosted a dinner for area national and chapter Spanish contest winners and guests in the Sheehy-Farmer Campus Center. Local high school Spanish contest winners who attended the awards dinner at King’s College are, seated from left: Ben Hornung and Sai Abhishek of Wyoming Seminary; Farrah Qadri, MMI; and Joseph-John Simons and Alannah Trombetta of Wyoming Seminary. Standing: Amanda Schall, Anna Warriner, Katherine Schraeder, Lauren Fernandez, Jamie Williams, and Nada Bader, all of Wyoming Seminary; and Alex Byczkowski, assistant professor of foreign languages and cultures at King’s College. ...and in Latin, Greek and RussianInformation and photos of students who received awards in Latin, Greek and Russian are posted in the News Archives section of the Web site.
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Dr. Kip P. Nygren has named Rachel Warriner Bartron the new Director of the Louis Maslow Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) School at Wyoming Seminary. Bartron will work to develop and implement a STEM curriculum at the Upper and Lower School campuses. In her new post, Bartron will be responsible for ensuring curricular quality of the Louis Maslow STEM School’s programs, along with the development of STEM related corporate and university-level partnerships that will enhance student learning and faculty development. Bartron joined Sem in 2008 as a math teacher and girls lacrosse coach at the Lower School and in 2009 she joined the Upper School as a science teacher, peer group coordinator and dorm parent.
The first week of June brought 21 Lower School girls to the Girls Lacrosse Camp. Now in its 10th year, the camp is run by Rachel Bartron (head girls lacrosse coach, Lower School) and Catie Kersey (head varsity lacrosse coach, Upper School) with assistance from current members of the Upper School lacrosse program and rising ninth grade players. After a week of practicing skills in stations and scrimmaging, the camp ended with Lacrosse Olympics. Highlights included “tutu” day, daily full field scrimmages and crazy counselor antics.
The month ended with the Lady Blue Knights Basketball Clinic, led by Sem former girls basketball coach and science teacher Renee Casterline and Sem girls basketball coach Ron Strothers. Girls in grades 3-8 learned fundamentals of the game and team play.
Four students competed in the final round of the fifth annual Mathematics Integration Bee, held this spring at the University of Scranton and organized by the university’s mathematics department. In the bee, open to college and high school students, the contestants are asked to calculate integrals and, in the final round, find anti-derivatives of a single real variable function within two minutes. Sem graduate Varodom Theplertboon won the high school bee, and Sem rising seniors Hoang Tran and Tyler Martin and rising junior Noah Brewer-Houghton all were finalists. Seen following the Integration Bee are the five finalists, from left: Joshua Cohen, East Stroudsburg South High School; and Hoang Tran, Varodom Theplertboon, bee winner; Noah Brewer Houghton, Tyler Martin, and Stacey Muir, Ph.D., associate professor of mathematics, University of Scranton. (Photo courtesy University of Scranton, Terry Connors, photographer)
Sienna Tabron, a rising sophomore, recently received first place in the annual Northeast Pennsylvania Philharmonic Piano Competition’s Junior Division, held at WVIA-FM-TV. Dominick D., a rising eighth grader at Lower School, took second place. The winners received monetary prizes and the opportunity to perform at Philharmonic events.
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