Academy Newsletter
Kingsway Regional High School: Fall 2018
BLA Hosts its First Summer Seminar
The Business Leadership Academy held its inaugural Summer Seminar I this past July. It was a unique educational experience for the students preparing them for the coursework they will encounter during Phase II of the Business Leadership Academy. The week consisted of a diverse and engaging set of activities and field trips.
Each day of the week long seminar involved different experiences on and off campus. On Monday, students engaged in team-building activities at the South Jersey Escape the Room in Glassboro, NJ. On Tuesday, students remained on campus working on various projects with the theme of "How to Succeed in Business." Wednesday was a day for networking and job shadowing at local businesses such as Farmers Insurance, Franklin Bank, Keller & Williams Realty, and Botto’s Italian Line Restaurant.
The highlight of the week was Thursday when the students were guests at Rowan University Rohrer College of Business and met with several faculty members of this prestigious university’s Business School. The students were invited to be judges for the People’s Choice Award for the Summer Entrepreneurship Academy for High School held at the university. This was exciting and informative experience since this group of Business Leadership students will be participating in this program next year as rising seniors. On the last day, the students had the opportunity to reflect on the various learning activities and provide feedback to improve the program for the next year. All and all it was an eventful week for our Business Leadership Academy students! Student Ayden Magee noted, “My experience at our first Summer Seminar can be summed up with one word, interesting! It was fun and I can’t wait to do it again.” “The Summer Seminar was really fun and engaging," said BLA student Annie Manes. It left me with a nice resume and valuable experiences. Overall it was a cool learning experience.”
Thank you greatly to Ms. Patricia Conn and Ms. Vivian Cassidy who worked hard to make the summer memorable for our rising BLA juniors.
Business Leadership Academy Welcomes New Supervisor
BLA Students Accepted into Summer Programs to Enhance their Learning
This summer, two members of our Business Leadership Academy participated in programs that enhanced their learning and allowed them to explore possible career options.
Elijah Gatling, 11th grade BLA student, took part in the NJ Department of Labor Internship six-week internship program in Trenton, New Jersey. Elijah was one of sixteen students statewide chosen to participate in the program. As part of the program, students toured facilities, heard from professionals about their respective roles in the organization and attended several field trips visiting businesses throughout the state of New Jersey. According to Elijah, “it was such a great experience and a great time with all of the people I met."
Evan Miles, 11th grade BLA student, participated in a Summer Program at the Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland. The program involved real world experiences combined with military training and allowed him to see how his educational experience is applied in the real world and its purpose in the military. Evan participated in modules that broke down white light, completed a circuit in a robot, explored aerospace engineering, and programmed robots. "This definitely helped me focus my career path. The most important thing I brought back with me, was importance of the team-building skills. Although I was with people of similar intelligence, I learned to work with people of different backgrounds and talents to complete a task as efficiently as possible."
Kingsway is proud of Elijah and Evan for seeking these opportunities to advance their education to ensure a brighter future.
DECA Information
Each student enrolled in the Business Leadership Academy is required to participate in DECA. DECA is an international association of high school and college students and teachers of marketing, management and entrepreneurship in business, finance, hospitality, and marketing sales and service. This organization prepares emerging leaders and entrepreneurs for careers in marketing, finance, hospitality and management around the globe.
Kingsway's DECA aims to provide students with the skills necessary to be successful in life and the business world through integrated classroom instruction, applied learning, connections to business, and promotion of competition. To learn more about DECA, please click HERE.
DECA Events:
- Colt Conference: 10/17 @ Kean University – DECA Officers only
- Regional Conference: 1/8 @ Cherry Hill Crowne Plaza
- State Conference: 3/4 - 3/6 @ Atlantic City Harrah’s
- International Conference: 4/27 – 4/30 @ Orlando, FL
Kingsway's DECA Officers:
- Co-Presidents - Kevin Gorman and Annie Manes
- 11th grade VP - Evan Miles
- 10th grade VP - Kylie Ennis
- 9th grade VP - Allison Helkowski
- Secretary - Taylor Gary
- Treasurer - Brooke Ferguson
BLA Professional Dress Days
Just a reminder...
As stated in our Academy Program Guide, all Business Leadership Academy students will be expected to dress in professional business attire on the first Wednesday of every month. Academy polo shirts or professional business attire should be worn on all other Wednesdays. Students are expected to remain appropriately dressed throughout the entire school day.
Academy shirts should be free of stains, holes, and wrinkles. Shirts may be worn with black, grey, dark blue or khaki pants. Girls may also choose to wear capris or skirts of appropriate length (to the knee). One shirt is provided for each freshman student; additional shirts may be purchased at the beginning of each school year.
Our first Professional Attire Day was Wednesday, October 3rd.
BLA Field Trips
Field Trips: Dates TBA
Freshmen
- Phillies Organization @ Citizens Bank Park
- Wegmans @ Mount Laurel
Sophomores
- Campbell's Soup @ Camden
- Virtua @ Voorhees
Juniors
- Wawa Headquarters @ West Chester, PA
- Villanova School of Business @ Malvern, PA
Summer Enrichment
Rowan School of Osteopathic Medicine RAISE Program
This year, four Kingsway students, seniors Madison Meyers, Zalak Modi, and Connor Zabielski, and junior Anirudh Muralidharan, participated in Rowan School of Osteopathic Medicine’s RAISE (Recognizing Achievement and Inspiring Student Excellence) Program, a four-week intensive program held on Rowan's campus sponsored by the Kal and Lucille Rudman Foundation.
During the program, students faced experiences of those faced by first-year medical students. This included intense lectures presented by physicians and current medical students. Topics focused on understanding the cardiovascular system and nervous system as well as osteopathic manipulative medicine using a holistic approach to medicine through hands-on labs. Students had an opportunity to conduct and present research to family, faculty, and a local news crew. Students also collaborated in PBL, or problem-based learning, where they were given a hypothetical patient case, and they had to work together to come up with a differential diagnosis for the patient. The students were also given opportunities to dissect organs from pigs as well as humans and interacted with a plethora of physicians as well as patients.
Zalak Modi, stated, "As a student who aspires to work in the medical field as a physician, I felt my love of medicine re-inspired. I realized that medicine is where I truly want to be, regardless of the obstacles I may encounter along the way." She also valued the friends she made in her class and the relationships she made with Dr. Venkat, the supervisor.
Congratulations to each of you for your acceptance into the program; we commend your dedication to your passions!
Kingsway S.T.E.M. Academy Teacher Attends Summer Seminar at Rowan University
The ASM Materials Education Foundation provides for the advancement of scientific and engineering knowledge through its support of education and research at the high school level. This year, S.T.E.M. Academy teacher, Ms. Moraca, applied and was accepted into the seminar. During this one-week workshop at Rowan University, teacher participants learned to apply the basics of Materials Science Technology for high school students. The experience also helps to create ongoing partnerships in science, offering a chance for educators at various levels to collaborate and consult to shape courses for years to come.
The industry presenters and college professors for the seminar provided a unique perspective of how science research and material science is applied in the world of work. Labs offered participants a glimpse into the potential future careers that can be available to our S.T.E.M. academy students. This year's focus was to ensure participants the ability to work hands-on with metals, ceramics, polymers and composites to develop a greater appreciation for the importance of these materials in modern life.
"The entire week’s schedule was fantastic and filled with incredible experiences" continued Ms. Moraca. "We spent each day learning new ways to incorporate and teach the S.T.E.M. topics to our students. We also had the chance to take a tour of Rowan University’s CREATES program, which is the Center for Research and Education in Advanced Transportation Engineering Systems. This allowed us a chance to witness students from Freshmen in Chemistry through the Doctorate level working on research."
Ms. Moraca has already stated to incorporate much of what she learned during that time the classroom with her students. "As I reflect on this experience, it was one of the best professional development opportunities in my 16 years of teaching. This camp served to increase my experience into teaching engineering concepts into the STEM seminar, Chemistry classes, and the possibility to create a new course in Materials Science."
Thank you, Ms, Moraca, for continuing to value your own professional development to influence the lives of your students!
Dragons Extend Their Passions
The following students reported on their summer learning experiences to highlight all the valuable extension activities that allowed them to continue to explore their passions.
- Senior S.T.E.M. student Anjana Chamarthi attended ByteHacks, the largest all-women hackathon in New York City. In 24 hours, she created and presented a mobile app, using Google APIs, that helps prepare people for natural disasters. Her project won first place in the Best Hack for Food/Water/Shelter category. It can be viewed HERE.
- Sophomore S.T.E.M student, Bhavana Charmarthi attended Kode with Klossy, a two week program founded by Karlie Kloss for girls ages 13-18. During the experience, Bhavana learned Ruby, HTML/CSS and was able to network with other girls interested in computer science. She also attended a 24-hour Hackathon in NYC. With her Klossy friends, Bhavana designed a website for the American Red Cross volunteers and EMTs to offer their patient's quick medical assistance on the go. The website highlights include the importance of simple medical advice for volunteers or EMT's in the face of an emergency. The group of students won "The Best Health Hack" out of 37 other groups who enter the contest. VitSquad, the name of the website, can be accessed HERE.
- Senior S.T.E.M. student, Madison Meyers, attended the Naval Academy Summer Seminar. This 6 day event at the USNA exposes students to the life of a midshipmen with morning workouts, classes and rigorous squad team-building activities following the schedule that the shipmen keep. She also attended ALA Jersey Girls State where 400 girls from all over the state came together to form a state government from the local level up to the governor with campaigning and hearing from a plethora of guest speakers.
- Senior S.T.E.M. student, Kyle Daugherty, served as a counselor at a week long sleep away New Jersey National Guard Youth Camp. This is a camp for students ages 9-12 with parents/guardians in the National Guard.
- Junior S.T.E.M. student, Alexis Juliano, volunteered all summer at the Physical Therapy Center at Jefferson Hospital.
- Junior S.T.E.M. student, Jack Fitzpatrick took a course at Drexel University as part of the High School Scholars Program.
- Freshman Peyton Rieger also completed a 3 week volunteer position at Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, where she had the chance to work with doctors and nurses and go into an operating room (OR) with a nurse anesthetist and see how they work and help with patients.
Annual Events in S.T.E.M.
S.T.E.M. Academy Field Trips
Field Trips: Dates TBA
Freshmen
- Rowan University Engineering and Technology lab tours. Virtual Reality lab tours.
Sophomores
- Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory Tours and campus tours - December 12, 2018
- Virtual Live surgery
* sophomore/juniors will be assured a spot in at least one of the opportunities. Due to open spots students may be denied one placement but will be given top priority in the next opportunity.
Juniors
- Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory Tours and campus tours - December 12, 2018
- Virtual Live Surgery
Seniors
- Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine - tours as well as participation in simulation labs and cadaver lab explanations.
Additional Information
Academy Meetings
Below are the dates for the meetings throughout the year. If they need to be changed for any reason, students will be communicated to in advance.
Academy Cohorting
As noted throughout this edition, team-building among and between students is an important life skill that carries over into an array of different careers, whether business oriented, S.T.E.M. oriented, or military oriented. Through the inter-academy cohorting, BLA students and S.T.E.M. students are able to interact in a manner that allows for consistent support and learning at high levels while learning from each other's strengths, whether interests rest in the world of business or the world of S.T.E.M. In essence, this model allows for an extension of the "students as a teacher" model.
Additionally, the inter-academy cohorting allows Kingsway to run various elective courses for students that historically may not have run due to size or scheduling conflicts.
Academy Steering Committee
The Steering Committee as a whole currently consists of 20 individuals. The committee is broken into 3 subcommittees with annual goals. These include the following:
- Curriculum Sub-committee - Chair, Patricia Calandro, CAO
- Communications Sub-committee - Chair, Balvir Singh, BLA Supervisor
- Finance Sub-committee - Chair, Jennifer Cavallaro-Fromm, Parent
If you are interested in serving on one of the sub-committees, please contact Patricia Calandro at calandrop@krsd.org. The next meeting date for the committee is noted below.
Upcoming Events to Highlight
- BLA Parents Night: Nov. 1st, 2018 @ 6:30 pm
- Academy Night Information Session for Incoming Students: October 10 @ 6:30pm
- Academy Steering Committee Meeting: October 16 @ 3:30pm
- Freshman Academy Service Learning Project: Academy Program STEAM Night: May 3rd, 2019 @ 6:30 pm
Academy Contacts
S.T.E.M. Academy:
- Megan Bruder, S.T.E.M. Supervisor, bruderm@krsd.org
- Apryl Palazzo, S.T.E.M. Guidance Counselor, palazzoa@krsd.org
Business Leadership Academy:
- Balvir Singh, BLA Supervisor, singhb@krsd.org
- Vivian Cassidy, BLA Guidance Counselor & DECA Advisor, cassidyv@krsd.org
- Patricia Conn, Business Teacher & DECA Advisor, connp@krsd.org
Academy Oversight & Program Development:
- Patricia Calandro, Chief Academic Officer, calandrop@krsd.org