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High School Holds Annual Art Show

  • From left Western Wayne senior featured artists: Emma Pontosky, Cori Talarico, Miranda Kubilus, Courtney Petrilak, and Maggie Millon.
  • : This is the featured artwork of Western Wayne senior Maggie Millon.
  • This is the featured artwork of Western Wayne senior Cailie Thoman.
  • This is the featured artwork of Western Wayne senior Cori Talarico.
  • This is the featured artwork of Western Wayne senior Miranda Kubilus.
  • This is the featured artwork of Western Wayne senior Courtney Petrilak.
  • This is the featured artwork of Western Wayne senior Emma Pontosky.
  • This is the featured artwork of Western Wayne senior Noelle Cruz.

The Hollywood Sign, spider legs, murals, and whimsical-themed pieces were just a few of the things featured through art at Western Wayne High School’s Annual Art Show that took place on Saturday, June 5, in the high school library.
The students and their teachers faced many challenges in their preparations for this year’s show, but they put together a magnificent presentation of the art work they worked so hard to create this year under challenging circumstances due to COVID-19.
Students from grades 9 through 12 had artwork displayed with seven featured senior art displays. The featured senior artists included: Noelle Cruz, Emma Pontosky, Cori Talarico, Cailie Thoman, Courtney Petrilak, Miranda Kubilus, and Maggie Millon.
The featured seniors had a variety of different themes for their displays.
“Mine focused on unfinished sketches,” Emma, who plans to attend West Chester University in the fall to study secondary education English, explained. “I usually fall in love with my sketches before I finish, so I decided to feature my favorite unfinished pieces for my display.”
One of Emma’s favorite unfinished pieces was of an actor from the television show Looking for Alaska based on the popular novel of the same title by John Green.
Senior Courtney Petrilak also had a reference to popular culture as the theme of her senior display. One of her larger pieces was a painting of the Hollywood Sign. Courtney, who plans to attend Penn Tech in the Physician’s Assistant Program, explained how her art work centered around a Hollywood Walk of Fame for ordinary people that she chose to create pictures of.
“Art is like therapy for me,” Courtney said. “It is very relaxing.”
Fellow senior featured artist Cori Talarico agrees that art helps her to feel calm.
“I use the time I create my art as an escapism period where I have peace and quiet time,” she explained.
Cori’s senior display was centered around a favorite mural picture she created from something she drew in her sketchbook. Her mural is of a girl in a blue outfit looking out a window. Cori explained that the other pieces in her display matched the color scheme from her mural. Cori is thinking about studying art in college in the future after taking a gap year.
Senior Maggie Millon also intends to take a gap year and do some online classes upon graduation. She explained the theme of her senior art display as whimsical. Her favorite picture is of an African American woman that she painted using blues, oranges, and browns among other colors.
“Making art allows me to be creative,” Maggie explained. “It helps me to stretch my limits and skill through the pieces I make.”
Fellow senior artist Miranda Kubilus also feels enabled to take on challenges through creating her artwork.
“I love art because there is no right way to really do it,” Miranda explained.
For her senior display, Miranda, who will attend SUNY Oswego to major in creative writing, decided to combine all of her favorite pieces together with no particular theme. Her favorite piece is called “Legs”. She explained how spiders were the inspiration for her piece. She isn’t a fan of the tiny creatures. However, she is fascinated with their legs hence why they inspired one of her favorite pieces of art.
Western Wayne administration and staff congratulate these senior artists and all of the other art students who displayed work in the June art show. They look forward to another fabulous show next year.

Pennsylvania School Climate Survey for the Western Wayne Community

Community members,

Western Wayne is taking part in the Pennsylvania School Climate Survey series provided by The Pennsylvania Department of Education. This survey will provide the district with formative and summative climate data for our needs assessments, program development, and short and long-term improvement planning. Participation in the survey is voluntary; responses are confidential. 

To access the survey as a community member–

  1. https://www.paschoolclimatesurvey.org/main.aspx
  2. Enter the code- WUI1QS
  3. Click ‘invite code‘ to begin 
  4. Click ‘save‘ once you complete the survey. 

Note: Parents or guardians of a current Western Wayne student are encouraged to complete a different survey. The parent/guardian survey link is https://bit.ly/3uLUCmn. 

Please contact the District Office with any questions. Thank you for your time. Survey links expire on June 30, 2021. 

Sincerely,

WWSD Administration

Students Place in Rotary Essay Contest

Pictured is Bridgette Flannery with her Rotary Award for her winning essay.

The Rotary Club of Hamlin/ Lake Ariel had an essay contest this past spring where students were asked to write about how they can help and improve the environment.

Western Wayne High School students placed in the competition. Bridgette Flannery, junior, took first place; Jamie Bryan, senior, placed second; and Carter Swingle, senior, placed third. Flannery also placed second in the District which is comprised of 41 Rotary Clubs.

Flannery along with writing is involved in a variety of activities at Western Wayne High School including: band, vice president; drama club, graphic design officer; anime club, secretary; and chorus, secretary. She is also a part of National Art Honors Society, The National Society of High School Scholars, and Northeastern Youth Wind Ensemble. 

Flannery discussed the enjoyment she found in writing the essay for the Rotary Contest.

“My favorite part of writing the essay was to show how I can help the environment around me,” Flannery explained.  “ I didn’t realize how much I have done for the environment because it was just second nature.”

In her winning essay, Flannery, who aspires to study music therapy and education in college, describes how she feels she can make a difference in the environment by doing tasks that seem small but actually help the environment in a big way such as recycling and walking instead of driving places.

To close her essay, Flannery reflects on how helping the environment has helped her to grow as a person emotionally.

“I never realized how much I affect the environment, but I also never realized how much the environment affects me. I thought that only I could affect the environment around me, but the environment can shape a person as well. I also didn’t realize how depressed I was by not taking care of the environment around me,”  Flannery writes in the closing of her winning essay. “ By planting flowers that help produce oxygen and making the place I live a little brighter, I became a happier person. Everyone needs to do their part to make this world a cleaner and safer place to live.”

Western Wayne Middle School Student Recognized by NCTE

Lillian Maros, Western Wayne 8th grade student, has been recognized as a Promising Young Writer by the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE).

This past spring Maros researched the program and asked her English teacher to help her enter.  She had to submit two samples of her original fiction writing– one that she considered her best piece and another piece that focused on a strong theme.

The Promising Young Writers Program represents NCTE’s commitment to early and continuing work in the development of writing. The school-based writing program was established in 1985 to stimulate and recognize writing talents and to emphasize the importance of writing skills among eighth-grade students. Schools in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Canada, American schools abroad, and the Virgin Islands are eligible to nominate students.

This year, schools nominated 90 students. Of that number, 56 received the highest award, Certificates of Recognition, and 34 received Certificates of Participation. Each student submitted two pieces of writing. Two independent judges evaluated each submission holistically on content, purpose, audience, tone, word choice, organization, development, and style.

Maros’ pieces received the highest award of a Certificate of Recognition.

She has always enjoyed writing and was thrilled to have this chance to share her writing with the National Council of Teachers of English.

“I was a writer from a pretty young age. When I was really little I used to carry around a notebook and pen, and I would write down cool things I saw or ideas that I had,” Maros explained. “When I was around 10 I began actually attempting to write books.”

Maros explained the inspiration for the piece called “Emma” that she submitted as her best work.

“My inspiration for “Emma” is a book called Drums, Girls, and Dangerous Pie. It was a book that I had to read for the reading competition [hosted by NEIU 19] and it was centered around a boy with cancer. When the competition said it’s theme for this year was “change” one of my first thoughts was cancer,” Maros discussed. “ But I wanted to do something different than the same old story of the person surviving and forgetting all about the experience because it was so hard. I wanted my story to be a reflection of what actually happens in the real world. I didn’t want to portray death as a horrible thing all the time. In fact, I personally think that we should never have funerals, but instead celebrations of life, and I wanted  to show that in my story.”

Maros further discussed her inspiration for the piece she submitted for having a strong theme called Azara and the Seventh Realm.

“I started writing Azara and the Seventh Realm  last year. My inspiration came from my dreams. I would dream of scenarios and swordfights and villains and I just became captivated by the ideas, and I had to write them down,” Maros explained. “The book is about a girl named Azara who runs away from home with her best friend, James. Neither of them knew that the universe was bigger than just their realm. They are taken to one of the other realms and their adventure begins.”

When Maros isn’t writing fiction she can be found participating in a variety of activities at the Western Wayne Middle School.  She serves as Student Council president and is a member of the Color Guard, Drama Club, and Middle School band.  In high school, she hopes to also become a member of the Political Science Club and FBLA along with continuing to work on her writing.  Maros feels humbled to have been recognized by the National Council of Teachers of English for something that she enjoys doing so much.

 “The best part about writing fiction is that I get to create a circumstance better than my own. I can write about how I wish my life would work and adventures I would love to have. I can envelop myself in a world that no one can touch me in,” Maros explained. “I usually base my characters off of some of my friends because I know their tendencies and feelings. However, I do have some characters in my story who are unlike any friend I’ve ever had, which makes them the most difficult characters to write about.  You have to step outside of your own body and tendencies and imagine what you would do or say as a completely different person.”

For more information about the Promising Young Writers Program, see http://www.ncte.org/awards/promising-young-writers/.  The National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) is the nation’s most comprehensive literacy organization, supporting more than 25,000 teachers across the preK–college spectrum. Through the expertise of its members, NCTE has served at the forefront of every major improvement in the teaching and learning of English and the language arts since 1911. www.ncte.org

Western Wayne Hosts Outdoor Prom

Pictured is the Prom 2021 Court, from left Madison McGlone (Sr), Cassidy Asinski (Sr), Jada Siino (Queen), Matt Henneforth (King), Allison McCarthy (Jr), and Sarah Collins (Jr).

Western Wayne High School celebrated their Prom the evening of Saturday, May 1, at the Anthracite Hotel in Carbondale outside under a tent.  The students were thrilled to have the opportunity to celebrate their Prom and followed COVID guidelines for the event.

Western Wayne Students Participate in Virtual Reading Relay

Front row, from left, Western Wayne Middle School students: Daniel Hall, Logan Pauler, Judah Strocchia, Annie Williams, Aveah Drelich, Kiernan Herlihy, (online – Lilli Maros and Reina Gomez), and Laylah Epstein.
From left, row one, seated: Alexandra Butler, junior; Jennifer Hall, sophomore; and Rebecca Boots, junior. From left, row two: Mrs. Megan Rush, advisor; and Mrs. Starlah Robbins, advisor. From left, row three, standing and on Promethean Board: Hudson Malinowski, junior; Hailey Robbins, senior;, Keyly Robinson, senior; Ivan Knecht, sophomore; Bernard Roedel, sophomore; Riley Pongracz, sophomore; and Kaiden DeNunzio, sophomore.
From left: Elizabeth Wasylyk, sophomore; Emily Brophy, sophomore; Cheyenne Haney, senior; Josefine Vizcaino, junior; Lillian Morcom, sophomore; Tommi Vizcaino, sophomore; Ash Mangieri, sophomore; Angelina Salvatore, sophomore; Alyson Buchinski, sophomore; Mrs. Amanda Jenkins, advisor; Cassia Sheehan, sophomore; and Mackenzie Weist, sophomore.

Western Wayne Middle and High School students participated in the NEIU-19’s Virtual Reading Relay this past May.  The students got the chance to virtually participate with students from other local districts in a book competition similar to how they had done so for years when the competition had taken place in person on Western Wayne’s campus. Students read books from a shared list and competed in rounds on their knowledge of the stories. The students were thrilled to share their love of reading with students from other districts in this new virtual format and look forward to many reading competitions in the future.  Back row, from left, Western Wayne Middle School students: Luckus Balmer, Katelyn Nunez, Kayelin Martin, Audrey Agnello, Maggie Kotchessa, Samantha Duval, Grace Moser, Jeremy Brophy, John Catania, and Brooklyn Sutton.