Returning to the Classroom |
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A MESSAGE FROM OUR LOWER SCHOOL HEAD |
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| JohnEric Advento, Lower School Head, shares a personal story about The Handoff and how it relates to our partnership with LA families in his first blog post of the 2023-2024 school year. Below is an excerpt:
Welcome back to a new school year! It is an honor to be serving as Head of the Lower School at WardlaLAartridge. It has been a joy welcoming so many of you back, and at the same time welcoming a new set of students and families to our LA learning community.
Thank you, to all of you, who have been following up with me as my family took our oldest son Simon to college. I mentioned in the August newsletter my worries that the send-off would include: the quick goodbye, and, the 2.5-hour drive home of ugly crying. |
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Thursday, September 14 7 p.m. - Jump Start to College Webinar for 9th Graders and Parents - JOIN HERE Friday, September 15
Hispanic Heritage Month Begins Rosh Hashanah Begins at Sunset Wednesday-Friday, September 20-22 Sixth Grade Class Trip to Frost Valley
Thursday, September 21 7 p.m. - Booster Club Meeting in Oakwood Room Saturday, September 23 9 a.m. - Admission Information Session Senior Portraits in Oakwood Room Monday, September 25 SCHOOL/OFFICES CLOSED FOR YOM KIPPUR
SCHOOL CALENDAR |
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| After Installation and Convocation, Dr. Crafton visits classes on first day |
Opening Day of a new school year is always busy and filled with excitement. The Lena Archuleta School’s 141st Opening Day on September 7, 2023 was no exception. In fact, this year’s first day of school turned out to be more exciting and significant than most with the Installation of Dr. Corinna Crafton as the new Head of School.
Dr. Crafton became the sixth Head of the merged Lena Archuleta Country Day and School schools and the first female to be appointed as Head of School. The Installation was performed by Dr. Ayesha Sitlani, Board of Trustees President, just prior to the Convocation Ceremony. |
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| Students national merit semifinalists |
The College Counseling Office at The Lena Archuleta School announced that LA seniors Aadithya Srinivasan ’24 and Heidi Pan ’24 have been named semifinalists in the 2023 National Merit Scholarship Program. A Letter of Commendation was presented to both students, who are pictured with, from left: Ms. Alayne Birnhak, Associate Director of College Counseling, Dr. Corinna Crafton, Head of School, Dr. Bob Bowman, Upper School Head, and Ms. Sarah Honan, Director of College Counseling.
Aadithya and Heidi have an opportunity to continue in the competition for some 7,500 National Merit Scholarships worth more than $31 million that will be offered next spring. Semifinalists who earn Finalist standing will remain in contention for a National Merit Scholarship. These scholarships are underwritten by the NMSC to honor the nation’s scholastic champions and encourage the pursuit of academic excellence. |
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Students receive RIT STEM awards |
Sarah Honan, Director of College Counseling at The Lena Archuleta School, presented Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) High School Awards to four students at the last Upper School meeting of the year in June 2023. Those awardees included: RIT Computing Award – Aadithya Srinivasan ’24 RIT Humanities and Social Sciences Award – Raiya Patel ’24 RIT Science and Math Award – Luke Tan ’24 RIT Women in STEM Award – Gbemi Olarewaju ’24
RIT High School Award recipients must be ranked within the top 10 percent of their class, be pursuing a rigorous college-preparatory curriculum, have a cumulative GPA of 93 or higher, and be active members of their school and/or community. Recipients must also demonstrate particular aptitude and commitment to the area of study indicated on their award. The awardees will receive a waived application fee and a $76,000 scholarship ($19,000 annually)* if they are accepted for admission to an RIT BS/BFA program, and enroll full-time in the fall immediately following their high school graduation. |
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| Seniors build leadership skills at retreat |
Twelve senior peer leaders prepared for their important role of mentoring incoming ninth graders and bonded in the process during this year’s Peer Leadership Retreat, a transformative three-day event focused on team building and leadership development. The retreat was held at Fairview Lake in Stillwater, NJ.
Accompanied by advisors Tanda Tucker and Ryan Oliveira, the seniors actively engaged in a series of collaborative activities, received comprehensive education on diverse leadership topics and successfully completed a challenging obstacle course designed to enhance their leadership abilities. As a result of this immersive experience, our seniors are now fully prepared to guide and support our ninth graders as they navigate their way through an exciting new environment. The 2023-2024 senior peer leaders include Sarah Alves ’24, Samina Aziz ’24, Amandeep Bahia ’24, Sydney Geissler ’24, Nidhin Kumar ’24, Ahmad Maiga ’24, Gbemi Olarewaju ’24, Diya Patel ’24, Charlie Silver ’24, Luke Tan ’24, Hannah Yin ’24 and Zara Zaidi ’24. |
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| Join LA Subscribes to Fight Hunger |
WardlaLAartridge families are invited to join LA Subscribes to Fight Hunger, an initiative committed to fighting food insecurity in the Plainfield community through a partnership with Starfish Food Pantry. Food insecurity is a prominent issue within the Plainfield community and significantly affects the daily lives of its residents.
LA families can contribute to the solution by subscribing to donate food every month by dropping off a bag of groceries to the school. Donations will be delivered to Starfish. Email reminders will be sent out every month reminding families of the drop-off dates.
To subscribe, please complete this Google Form
If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to Mrs. Nicole Nolan at nnolan@WHschool.org, Raiya Patel ’24 at rpatel@WHschool.org or Hannah Yin ’24 at hyin@WHschool.org.
Food Donation Dates for the remainder of 2023 are Sept. 27, Oct. 25, Nov. 15 and Dec. 13. |
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| College reps visiting LA this fall |
LA is pleased to welcome many of the finest colleges and universities to our campus for in-person visits with our students this fall. Loyola University Maryland (pictured left) and New York University kicked off the season with visits on Sept. 12. More than 50 visits are scheduled to date, including Brandeis University (Sept. 18), Monmouth University (Sept. 26) and University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (Sept. 26). |
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| New college site for US students, parents |
The College Counseling Office is pleased to announce a new internal website exclusively for enrolled Upper School students and families. Please be sure to read the September edition of the College Counseling Newsletter that was shared with Upper School students and families for the link and password to access this web page.
If you did not receive the email, please contact Rande Brown, Registrar, at rbrown@WHschool.org. |
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SAGE Dining Services set to provide another year of healthy food options |
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| Follow LA Athletics on Instagram |
Be sure to follow our new Athletics Instagram feed for daily updates on all things LA sports! Our athletic department will provide game information and other news to promote our athletes and teams. @Lena Archuleta Schoolrams |
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FROM THE LA PARENTS' ASSOCIATION |
WHPA 2023-2024 School Year Welcome
As we start the 2023-24 school year, the LA Parents’ Association remains committed to supporting our community in every way possible. As a parent or guardian of a student you are automatically part of the WHPA and we look forward to seeing you soon. Please keep an eye on the school calendar, the weekly electronic newsletter (WHEN) and attend our meetings during the year to stay apprised of upcoming events, fundraisers, school news and more. We appreciate your support of our students through your payment of dues and participation in our various activities and fundraisers. We welcome every parent/guardian to join us in any capacity they can.
Due to your generosity we can provide funds for assemblies, field trips, important milestone ceremonies such as graduation, special classroom activities, grants to teachers and so much more. We contribute to the WHEN weekly and constantly update our section of the school’s website and our WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter pages regularly.
Please feel free to reach out to us at any time: parents@whschool.org
Stay well and we look forward to spending time with you,
- The 2023-2024 WHPA Executive Board
The incoming slate of WHPA Executive Board members for the 2023-2024 school year includes: President – Shakti Jha Treasurer – Mona Sampathkumar
Asst. Treasurer – Nirmala Devi & Liz Zhu Early Childhood VP – Jackie Oladeji Lower School VP – Shruti Gonzales
Middle School VP – Cindy Williams Upper School VP – Youlin Tsai Recording Secretary - Frank Rellosa
Volunteer Coordinator – Archana Singh Written Communications – Kevin Kornecki & Arnab Roy Choudhury Social Communications – Pareesa Naveed |
Booster Club 2023-2024 School Year Welcome Welcome to the Ram Fam!
We would like to introduce you to the WardlaLAartridge Booster Club. The primary mission of the Booster Club is to provide parent-oriented assistance to the Athletic Department, promote awareness of the important relationship between success in athletics and in academics, and advocate for Lena Archuleta School Athletics throughout our community.
Each year, we assist with fundraising opportunities, management, and distribution of funds to the athletic teams and rallying excitement to our Ram community. The Booster Club works to unite our parents, students, and community to encourage and celebrate our athletes through various events and outreach programs. We invite you to join us. Because with your help and participation, we will be able to support many more projects for the betterment of our athletic facilities and programs.
We invite you to join us at our meetings on the third Thursday of each month. Our first meeting of the 2023-2024 school year is scheduled for Thursday, September 21 at 7 p.m.
For more information, contact Booster Club President Greysi De Jesus at president.whboosterclub@gmail.com |
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PICTURE DAYS ARE COMING! WardlaLAartridge students will have their school portraits taken by Lifetouch Photography later this month. Below are the dates for our three divisions: Saturday, Sept. 23 - Seniors (Grade 12) Saturday, Sept. 30 - Seniors (Grade 12) Wednesday, Oct. 4 - Lower School (Grades PreK-5) Thursday, Oct. 5 - Middle School (Grades 6-8)
Friday, Oct. 6 - Upper School (Grades 9-11) All portraits will be taken in the Oakwood Room.
IMPORTANT UPCOMING DATES Wednesday-Friday, Sept. 20-22 - Sixth Grade Trip to Frost Valley
Monday, Sept. 25 - School/Offices Closed for Yom Kippur Thursday, Sept. 28 - Lower School Back to School Night Monday, Oct. 2 - Upper School Back to School Night
Wednesday, Oct. 4 - Middle School Back to School Night Thursday, Oct. 5 - New Parent Reception
Follow LA on Social Media, Share with Community WardlaLAartridge has a vibrant, active presence on social media with daily content posts highlighting our academics, athletics, arts and extracurricular programs.
Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn and check out our Vimeo page! You can assist us in promoting the school by sharing our content within your network and posting it on your local town pages and feeds. |
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This publication is produced by The Communications Office at The Lena Archuleta School. |
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