School Days 10.8.14

Bishop McHugh
Students and their families gathered at Bishop McHugh Regional School on September 12, 2014, for Family Fun Night. The evening featured carnival-style games, face painting, a dunk tank, pie eating contest, bouncy houses and sports. This annual event, sponsored by the PTA, is a chance to welcome students and their families back to school.
Bishop McHugh Regional School is a PreK-8 regional school in Cape May County with a student-centered curriculum grounded in the Gospel values. For more information, visit http://bishopmchugh.com/mchugh/.
The community is invited to “Like” Bishop McHugh on Facebook at www.facebook.com/BishopMcHughRegionalSchool and follow Principal McGuire on Twitter at @BMRCSPrincipal.
Lower Township
CHILD FIND, a community-wide effort to provide improved educational opportunities for preschool handicapped children, is being organized in the Lower Township Elementary School District.
Parents, educators, and members of local organizations, business firms, and government agencies are taking part in the program to locate preschool children who may be handicapped.
Once a child has been located, either through a letter or phone call from a parent, guardian, or other concerned adult, the school district will set up free screening for the child. The child will be placed in a free special education program, if needed.
If you live within Lower Township Elementary School District and have or know of a child who may have a physical, mental, or emotional difficulty, two and a half to five years of age, and is not receiving services, contact the school.
Call the Lower Township Elementary School at 884-9440 or write to the Supervisor of Special Services, Lower Township Elementary Schools, 905 Seashore Rd. Cape May, NJ 08204.
Middle Township Elementary
On September 22, students in Miss DelCorio’s 3rd grade class walked to the Superior Court in Court House to meet with Honorable Judge John Rauh. During their visit, they were able to see a courtroom, and discover the jobs of a K-9 officer. The field trip was aligned with the book the class was reading, entitled, “The Trial of Cardigan Jones”.
Wildwood High School
Two Wildwood High School seniors learned aiming high may be hard work but it definitely has its benefits. The two are now more certain their futures include higher education in the areas of science, math and technology after the pair attended the Aim High Science and Technology Program.
This past summer found Benjamin Erickson and Rick Amado in a month-long program at Rowan University that exposed students to the rigors of college life and the high expectations that would be placed on them as science, math or technology students. Both young men not only rose to the occasion but are more convinced that their futures lie in the fields of the sciences, mathematics and technology.
Admission to the highly-selective program included an interest in science, math, technology or engineering, said Amado. “We also had to have the grades. You had to be a good student.”
Erickson said the admission process began in February. “Over 200 people apply, but only 40 are accepted.”
According to Amado, the focus of this year’s Aim High program was biology. “It was very interesting.”
During their month-long stay on campus, in addition to other college-level classes, both Amado and Erickson took a human anatomy course that resulted in both of them having three college credits under their belts. “The credits are transferable to any college,” noted Erickson.
Both students learned a similar lesson about college life – tests are hard. “Only 64 percent of students passed the anatomy class test,” said Amado. “We were part of that 64 percent.”
For Erickson, the best part of the program was meeting 40 new people. “I liked being independent, I liked how the teachers said ‘Just do it.’”
Amado said part of what he learned was time management. “When we got back to our dorms, we could spend our time hanging out with our friends or doing our homework. I chose the homework life.”
“With these 40 people, we did everything together. We became close very fast. We spent a lot of time with these people, you make a lot of friends,” Erickson said.
The Aim High program is a comprehensive developmental summer program designed to assist high school students who are pursuing STEM majors, stated Rowan University’s College of Education. The goals of the program include promoting college and career readiness; expose transitioning students to a college setting academically, personally and socially; to expose students to career fields and course work in science and technology and to allow students to interact with new friends, undergraduate students, graduate counselors-in-training and college faculty.
As high school seniors, college is on the horizon for Amado and Erickson. Both young men are looking forward to it.
Amado said his experience at Rowan helped him decide to apply to the school for admission next year. Erickson’s future major, Forestry, is not offered at Rowan.
“It was a great program,” said Amado. “It really helped me realize I could do much more. We did a lot of fun stuff, too. It made it worthwhile.”
Three Wildwood High School students learned first-hand their futures begin now when the trio attended an intense week-long summer program at Richard Stockton College of New Jersey.
Selected by the school to attend The College Career Readiness Academy, Monika McGrath, Zulymar Vega and Natacha Jimenez found themselves learning the importance of applying themselves to their high school work in order to be successful in college and beyond.
Awarded full scholarships to the academy, the three teens were the first ever from Wildwood High School to attend the program, said Michelle Shaw, WHS guidance counselor.
According to The College Career Readiness Academy, the majority of colleges report “slightly more than half their students earn a bachelor’s degree in six years – the rest take much longer.” Attributing the low graduation rate to students’ failure to work hard in high school and poor high school course selection along with other poor student choices, the summer program focuses on optimizing student high school performance as a precursor for college success.
“The program gave us a taste of college and what we we’re going into once we decide where we want to go,” said eleventh-grader McGrath.
“We did all sorts of things,” added Vega. “We learned about business, we learned how to build our resumes, how to do handshakes.”
Jimenez said the business panels were most helpful to her during the July 21- 25 on-campus academy.
At the time of the program neither Vega nor Jimenez had attended high school. Each had left eighth grade and was readying to become part of Wildwood High School’s freshman class.
Living on Stockton’s campus for a week gave the three students a taste of the ins and outs of college life such as getting along in a dorm situation, being independent and the rigors of higher-level classes.
“It was scary at first,” said Jimenez. “You realize you’re getting a taste of college and we weren’t even freshmen yet.” She added the experience did whet her desire to attend college four years from now.
While McGrath is closer to high school graduation, the program served to give her a taste of college life.
“It was a good program,” she said. “It really opened my eyes up to what it’s going to be like. I realize now I still have a lot to learn.”