Dear Seniors and Families,
I continue to be very proud of you Class of 2020! I also continue to be inspired by our Bulldog strength, courage and unity! It was great to see so many of you on campus Wednesday picking up your copy of
The Bigs,
one of your senior internship experience options!!
Today's communication reviews a lot of if the information I shared in
my blast last week
and shares a couple of updates. As a high school team, we reviewed results from your survey, and we have continued to be engaged in conversation with your Senior Class Advisor, PAC, Student Council, members of the broader school community, neighboring districts and our district team to make this year special. Students can also continue to contact
Ms. Ippolito
or a senior class officer if they have any questions related to this survey. Student feedback will help to guide our planning of the key end-of-year experiences. Below, you will find thoughts and plans related to many of these events and know that I will continue to update you as we have new information.
Senior Internship:
- For most seniors, Friday, May 22nd will be the last day of classes. Any seniors who still have unfinished coursework may be obligated to continue to attend classes until that work is satisfactorily completed. Your school counselor will let you know if that is the case because we want to ensure that you have fulfilled all of your graduation requirements in order to earn your diploma. If you have any questions or are not sure if this applies to you, please contact your school counselor.
- Given the COVID-19 pandemic, many of our internship community hosts shared they would be unable to host interns from a distance this year. Therefore, in an effort to ensure equity of access, this year the Senior Internship will be different than it has been in the past. This year, students can select one of two possible options for their internship. Senior Internship Options for 2020 (Choose one option and let your teacher mentor know which path you've chosen on or before May 22)
- The Bigs: The first option is reading The Bigs and completing 3 Journal Entries related to the book.
- YouScience: The second option is engaging in YouScience Activities for 3 weeks. All seniors will receive a personal invitation to YouScience via their Irvington email address on May 6th. If you do not receive that email please contact your teacher mentor who can provide your access code.
- The Senior Internship will begin on Tuesday, May 26th and it will end on Friday, June 12th.
- Seniors will have 3 assignments to submit to their teacher mentor on or before the following dates: 5/29, 6/05 and 6/12. Please see the attachment below for more details
- If you are able to engage in a remote work experience and/or if you are teaching yourself a new skill or hobby, we encourage you to continue to use this time for such enrichment, exploration and development in addition to engaging in one of the two internship options this year.
Senior Scholarship Application Reminder:
Applications for 2020 Scholarship Awards are due Wednesday 5/13. Information and directions are available on the Scholarships 2020 Google Classroom page, and students can join with code o4ij3hk if they have not done so already. Joining information is available on the Seniors-Class of 2020 page as well. Please contact
Julie Ippolito
,
Senior Class Advisor, with questions.
Senior Scholarships and Awards
:
Although we will not be able to gather at the DoubleTree to honor our students, we will be posting a beautiful IHS Awards announcement online on June 9th. All scholarship checks will be mailed to the selected students. Book awards, medals, certificates and plaques will either be mailed, PDF emailed or an arrangement for pick-up at a future date will be planned.
Senior Celebrations:
Personalized Signs:
In partnership with PTSA and the Booster Club and our community, we are working together to create an opportunity to honor our students by creating personalized lawn signs, which will be on display up the hill on campus for a length of time later this spring. We will share more details as they become available.
Memory Lane Photo Montage (ACTION REQUIRED):
As we shared, in
partnership with our Yearbook advisor Mr. Pat DiBenedetto and our students involved with the yearbook, we will be sharing a video that captures images of each senior. Please submit the following for inclusion in our Memory Lane Photo Montage which we will share with you in advance of graduation:
1. A photo of your younger self! Preferably K-3.
2. A photo of you in your element! Whether it be showing your school spirit
at an event like homecoming or Color Wars, or showing off your future
college apparel/future dream occupation.
Please be sure to include your full name in the email subject line.
S
pring Senior Athlete Profiles:
Coach Pat DiBenedetto worked with Anika Manchanda, a junior in our Yearbook class, to create this
spectacular senior athlete profile
for our seniors who were expecting to be playing
their spring sports now. Our seniors have been engaged in distance training
during this COVID-19 pandemic.
Additional Experiences:
We continue to work with our students, IHS team, PTSA and the PTSA Graduation Planning Committee and the IEF to plan and share additional new ways to celebrate with and honor our students!
S
enior Closing- Connections
- New this year, our School Counselors will reach out to each senior to find a time to connect individually at least one last time before you graduate to help congratulate you, offer support and help with any questions regarding what's next.
Yearbooks:
The Herff Jones Yearbook production plant just reopened this week. Mr. Dibenedetto and Mr. Resendiz will share more details regarding production and distribution as they become available.
Senior Prom
:
The status of our prom is still unknown. In the likely event that we are unable to have this event in its original form, we will continue to seek input regarding potential alternate options. So far much of the student feedback we have received is that a virtual alternative is not desired. We will share more information as it becomes available.
Caps and Gowns:
Graduation caps, gowns and tassels will be delivered directly to each student's home address via UPS. All packages are expected to be delivered by 6/5. If you have any questions, please contact Ms.Ippolito, your Senior Class Advisor.
If there are any issues related to your delivery, please reach out to our vendor, Oak Hall directly at 800-456-7623 or customerservice@oakhalli.com
Please stay tuned regarding details about a cap decorating event!
Graduation:
We share our community’s belief that the graduation ceremony is an important one, a moment that puts a beautiful culmination on many years of hard work and growth. While we may not be able to hold the ceremony in the same way we’ve done in the past, we are identifying a number of potential ideas that will look to create pomp and circumstance with the safety of all of our students, families and staff in mind. Thank you for your patience and partnership and please understand that we will share more information as it becomes available.
We remain grateful for your partnership and want to remind you that as we continue to be engaged in distance learning, it remains quite stressful for students, teachers, parents and families. Our School counselors, psychologists (
Kelly Murphy
/
Noreen Sabia
), our Student Assistance Counselor (
Danielle Gamar
) and our district Social Worker (
Gina Menendez
) continue to be available to students and families should you need additional support at any time.
Remember we miss you and please stay safe! I will be writing again soon with more information!
Best,
Ms. GM
