High School

Western Wayne Community Donates Prom Dresses for Students

Among the many shelves of books in the Western Wayne High School Library hung a variety of beautiful gowns available for students to choose for their upcoming Prom in May.  Students had the opportunity get a dress free of charge throughout the school day on Wednesday, March 27.

          Western Wayne School Board President Mrs. Bernice Fiorella had the idea to get the community involved in such a project because she saw a need for the young ladies in the district to have some assistance in acquiring an item that could set them back hundreds of dollars which they may not have.

          “Someone approached me about there being a need for dresses and once I saw that need I wanted to fill it,” Fiorella explained.

          She later took to social media and other forms of networking in the community to acquire the gowns.  She received about 100 dresses from family in New York and another woman from New Jersey reached out and donated about 200 dresses.  Many other people in the Western Wayne community have also donated to this worthy cause along with Sunshine Cleaners in Hamlin who professionally cleaned all of the donated gowns free of charge.

          Fiorella first did a project like this in the fall of this school year for the semi-formal and after its success she decided to continue to work with everyone involved to provide dresses to any girls who need one for this year’s Prom.

          “It always amazes me how giving our community is,” Fiorella said.  “They exceed my expectations every time.”

          The girls at Western Wayne High School felt so grateful for the community’s efforts and absolutely loved having the chance to choose a Prom dress of their dreams.

          Senior Vaeda Pontosky, who will attend DeSales University next year in the Physician Assistant Program, took advantage of the chance to look for Prom dresses at school.

          “This is such a great opportunity,” Vaeda said.  “I’m trying my best to save money for college right now, and I am so grateful for everyone who made this possible for us today.”

          Vaeda’s classmate, junior Bella Zeiler also felt extremely grateful for the community’s efforts.

          “Along with helping me to save money, it is really convenient for me to have some time during the day to look for a dress, because I have to work after school to save money for things like college and a car,” Bella explained.

          Fiorella is thrilled the event was such a success and hopes to continue efforts of this nature in the Western Wayne community in the future. 

In the meantime, Fiorella is giving the dresses that remain after the Western Wayne event to East Stroudsburg School District so their students can also benefit from this wonderful opportunity to have a dress free of charge for Prom.  East Stroudsburg had reached out to Fiorella after hearing about the success of Western Wayne’s event in the fall to get students semi-formal dresses.

“I look forward to continuing efforts like these to help students through working with the Western Wayne School community and beyond in the future,” Fiorella said.

Get your tickets early!

This is like a Broadway show on a basketball court. Our team will feature tricks, music dunks, comedy, dancing, and audience participation. It is an awe-inspiring, two-hour basketball show including an autograph session! See them take on the WW Ballers (WW faculty). Benefits the WW Football program.

Western Wayne FBLA Represented at PBEA Conference

Pennsylvania Future Business Leaders of America state officers attended the Pennsylvania Business Education Association Conference on Friday, March 22.  At the conference, officers introduced presenters of the various workshops held at the event.  In addition, they answered questions regarding membership in FBLA.  They also assisted with the scholarship auction held at the luncheon and business meeting.  Pictured is Western Wayne Junior Ezra Tetreault. Ezra is the Western Wayne FBLA vice president, Region 22 president of FBLA, and he is the vice president at large for FBLA for the state of Pennsylvania.    

Western Wayne presents ANNIE

Based on Little Orphan Annie by permission
of the Media Tribune Services, Inc.

“Annie” is presented through special arrangement with
Music Theater International (MTI)

-Location –
Western Wayne Veteran’s Memorial Auditorium.

Friday, April 26th at 7 PM
Saturday, April 27 at 7 PM
Sunday, April 28 at 3 PM

ADULTS $5
STUDENTS/SENIORS $3

Middle School Contest Participants Need Your Vote

Pictured are some of the Western Wayne Middle School students involved in the 2019 “What’s So Cool About Manufacturing?” Northeast PA Contest. From left: Trinity Foulds, Alaina Maiocco, Ella Pavlovich, Kailey Tickner, Julie Bryan, Skylar Long, and Evan Peirce. Team members not pictured: Bernie Roedel and Ivan Knecht.

Voting for the second-annual “What’s So Cool About Manufacturing Contest?” will be open from March 27th through March 29th at https://www.whatssocool.org/contests/northeast-pa/  The public can support Western Wayne Middle School students by going on and voting for their video submission as many times as they would like.

          Western Wayne Middle School students are part of this unique learning experience for the second time.  Created by the Manufacturers Resource Center (MRC) in Allentown, PA in 2013, the “What’s So cool About Manufacturing?” contests draw entries from more than 200 teams across Pennsylvania.  The teams of students and teacher coaches receive camera equipment, software, and professional guidance as they learn to script, record, and edit their video stories of what it’s like to work in the manufacturing industry. Students learn about the manufacturing career field and complete their projects at various local manufacturing businesses.

The contest’s objective is to change students’ perceptions about manufacturing careers by sending them to local places where manufacturing is done to complete their submissions for “What’s So Cool About Manufacturing?”.  The “What’s So Cool About Manufacturing?” contests are supported regionally by their sponsors and partners. 

The 2019 “What’s So Cool About Manufacturing?” Contest for Northeast PA is produced by the Northeastern Pennsylvania Industrial Resource Center in Hanover Township, PA. Participating schools are from Lackawanna, Luzerne, Monroe, Pike, and Wayne counties.  Western Wayne is one of eleven schools participating in the Northeast PA Contest.

 For the second year, Western Wayne Middle School students had the opportunity to explore Boyce Products Ltd., a manufacturing facility located in Damascus, for their project.  This winter the students toured Boyce to learn about the manufacturing career field and gather information for their submission.

The group of Western Wayne students consisting of Bernie Roedel, Ella Pavlovich, Alaina Maiocco, Skylar Long, Trinity Foulds, Evan Peirce, Ivan Knecht, Julie Bryan, and Kailey Tickner felt rewarded and fulfilled after their experiences at Boyce and in creating their video submission.

The students were surprised to learn that Boyce makes a variety of products used in the national spotlight.  For example, the students learned Boyce creates set pieces for CNN News, the tables used for interviews in the NFL, along with different props used in popular movies, and the call boxes used in New York City subways.

“It was neat to see how much work goes into each piece they create,” Evan Peirce, 8th grader from Western Wayne, said.

Evan’s fellow classmate Julie Bryan said she was excited to see the different equipment in use at Boyce.

“We got to see laser cutters going through metal,” Julie explained.

After their trip, the students worked on creating their video submission about their experience.  Eighth grader Bernie Roedel acted as a student leader for this effort.  The film is now finalized and can be viewed on the Western Wayne website at https://ww3.westernwayne.org/western-wayne-manufacturing-video-submission/

The Western Wayne School Community invites the public to vote for Western Wayne Middle School’s video submission to “What’s So Cool About Manufacturing?” at   https://www.whatssocool.org/contests/northeast-pa/

The students have the chance to win for a variety of categories.  Your vote can help them win the Northeast PA Viewer’s Choice Award.

Western Wayne Drama Club Hosts Broadway Actor

The Western Wayne Drama Club hosted New York based actor/singer/ dancer/ instructor Darius Jordan Lee for a Broadway Workshop held Monday, March 18, through the support and arrangement of the Western Wayne Drama Parent Board.

          The students and parents have held many fundraisers throughout the school year to pay for this and other programs to support the students learning of performance arts.

This workshop was funded by our Western Wayne Drama Parents.  We are excited to use our many fundraising efforts to bring more opportunities to our students in the future.

          The students welcomed the opportunity to learn from a professional who most recently was seen in Clueless the Musical as the role Sean/ Murray Cover at the Signature Theatre Company. Lee’s credits include:  Guthrie Theater: West Side Story (Riff), John W. Engeman Theater: In the Heights (Benny Cover), Mamma Mia! (Eddie), among many others.  He has a B.F.A. in musical theater with a minor in computer science from Montclair State University.

          Lee treated the students to a two and half hour session of sharing his professional experiences, leading them in acting exercises, and teaching a dance combination from the musical Clueless.

          The students were very engaged with Lee and enjoyed having the chance to perform and be critiqued by a professional actor.  Lee felt most grateful for being able to help students get out of their comfort zones and gain confidence in themselves.

          “I’m so glad I was able to get them to try something new and not be afraid to be themselves,” Lee said.

Western Wayne Become District Event Winners at FIRST Robotics Competition


From left, kneeling: Bailey Quick (Boyce Products Representative), Drew Hazen, Josh Shelly, Ryan Fiorelli, Matt Rosengrant, and Collin Murray.  From left, standing:  Brian Landry (Western Wayne Mentor), Nick Denoie, Cody Kretschmer, Cal Downey, Cooper Mistishin, Jacob McCormick, Michael Wass (Computer Programming Mentor), Max Phillips, Nathan Taggart, John Gilson, Kristoff Bien-Aime, Joel Landry, Levi Landry, and Joe Mang (Wayne Highlands Mentor).

Western Wayne and Wayne Highlands students earned the title of District Event Winner at the FIRST Robotics @ Bridgewater 2019 competition held in March.  The team is called FRC 4285 Camo-Bots  and is a partnership between Western Wayne School District and Wayne Highlands School District to operate a unified robotics team that resembles the blended post-secondary/workforce that students will encounter after graduation. Students develop their individual talents to be utilized as a collaborative team effort though our academic and business/industry partnerships.

            Students involved in the FIRST Robotics competition produce and present business plan, design plan, machining and production, testing of components, engineering analysis, networking with students/engineers/business/industry, web page design, computer programming, advanced electronics/pneumatic/mechanics/sensor, and intense competition.

The competition has strict rules, limited resources, and an intense six-week time limit, teams of students are challenged to raise funds, design a team “brand,” hone teamwork skills, and build and program industrial-size 125 pound robots to play a difficult field game against like-minded competitors. It’s as close to real-world engineering as a student can get.

FIRST Robotics Competition operates during the school year. Teams form and register in the fall. However, the “official season” begins early in January when the season’s Challenge is announced at a Kickoff ceremony to the world. Teams are then given six weeks to create their robot. District and Regional competition events start in late February and continue through April. Teams that qualify are invited to FIRST Championship at the end of April. There are also many off-season events in which teams can participate, strategize, hone their skills, learn new technology, meet other teams, and have fun!

FIRST FRC Competition is honored as the highest form of STEM competition on the planet. Every team is given the same competition constraints, time format, and open-ended strategy. It is up to the team then to produce a robot to compete within the 300 page rule book, present, and attain awards.

This is FRC 4285 Camo-Bots team 3rd “Blue Banner” win. Only the 1st place winner attains this and it a very highly sought after recognition and award. Many teams compete for decades and not attain this, the Camo-Bots have attained this goal in eight years. The FRC 4285 Camo-Bots are always recruiting any student interested in areas of business, marketing, webpage design, Computer Aided Drafting, CNC machining, electronics, sensors, computer programming (Java & Python), presentation, engineering analysis, mechanical, and networking with students/colleges/business/industry. The team has had five students in their eight years take advantage of the FIRST scholarship program utilizing over $500,000 in paid college tuition in engineering related STEM fields.

Western Wayne Team Mentor Mr. Brian Landry is very proud of the success of the Camo-Bots and is very thankful to Western Wayne administration, staff, students, their families, and members of the local business community who have and continue to support the efforts of the team.

Western Wayne Hosts First Engineering Day for Students

From left: Freshmen Ryan Vinton and Richie Reed enjoy learning at Western Wayne’s first Engineering Day held on Tuesday, March 12, at the high school.

Western Wayne Class of 2015 graduate Carly Swingle wants students at her alma mater to choose fulfilling career paths and not settle for work they find uninteresting.

          On Tuesday, March 12, Swingle had the unique opportunity to return to Western Wayne High School as a part of the first Western Wayne Engineering Day for students in grades 8 through 12.  The program included presentations by employees of Lockheed Martin, where Swingle has worked for the past three month, a video presentation about the engineering field, a female panel discussion of engineers and future engineers, and a 3-D printing activity with Johnson College.

          Industrial arts teacher Mr. Brian Landry worked with high school science teacher Ms. Maria Masankay and middle school guidance counselor Mr. Joe Totsky to coordinate the event to give Western Wayne students the chance to learn about opportunities in the engineering field.

          “Sometimes middle and high school students don’t realize that the engineering field is so diverse,” Landry explained.  “I hope this event gives them some exposure to it.”

          Students in both the middle and high school were given the option to attend the event, and about 40 students interested in learning more about the engineering field attended.

          The attendees believe that their experience at Engineering Day has helped them to get more information about possible career paths.

          Eighth grader Tarena Strasburger has always felt interested in an engineering career.  She feels her time at Engineering Day has helped her want to pursue a career in this field.

          “When I was younger I enjoyed building things out of wood or playing with Legos,” she explained.  “I love to build and would like to develop my skills and someday work in aerospace engineering.”

Tarena’s classmate, fellow eighth grader, Kristin Hauenstein has also felt she has excelled at working with her hands from a young age.

          “I like working on cars and am looking forward to taking introduction to auto-technology in high school,” Kristin said.  “I most enjoyed finding out about mechanical engineering at today’s event.”

          The high school students in attendance also were excited to attend a program focused on a career field they found of high interest.

          Senior Josh Shelly wishes to attend Johnson College next year to study CNC Manufacturing.  Josh became interested in engineering through his work with Western Wayne’s Robotics Team.

          “I really want a career where I can work hands on rather than sitting in an office and was glad to learn about this from a former Western Wayne student,” Josh said.

          Josh referenced Western Wayne graduate Carly Swingle who spoke to the students about her work at Lockheed Martin as an engineer. 

          “My job is constantly changing,” Swingle, who recently graduated from Robert Morris University in Pittsburgh, explained.  “Each day is never the same as the last.  I get to design things some days and work with power tools to do building tests the next.”

          Juniors Jake Shepherd and Cody Aleckna aspire to do engineering work in the military.  Both Jake and Cody wish to become mechanical engineers in the Air Force. 

          “I think it is easier to concentrate on hands on work,” Jake explained.  He hopes to follow in his grandfather’s footsteps in joining the military. 

          Cody wishes to follow the path of his father and cousin who each served in the military.  

          “It was good to gain more knowledge on a field that I am going into to know what’s to come,” Cody explained.

          Freshmen Richie Reed and Ryan Vinton both went into the experience highly interested in the engineering field and were also thrilled to gain more knowledge on their future career paths.  Richie enjoys working with cars and welding in his metal shop class at school.  Ryan became interested in the civil engineering field after having the opportunity, through a friend, to visit a job site where a bridge was being built across the Delaware River last year.

          Students like Richie and Ryan and all of the others in attendance at the first Engineering Day at Western Wayne are why Mr. Landry hopes to make this a yearly tradition that grows with time.  He wishes to get other Wayne County schools involved next year and eventually to work with schools in Lackawanna County on giving students the opportunity to explore the engineering field.

          “I think it’s worthwhile for our students to learn about such a developing career field,” Landry said.