Enterprising students from Minuteman High School have created an intricate, triple-themed project as their entry in the SkillsUSA State Leadership and Skills Conference, to take place from April 25 to 27 in Marlborough.
SkillsUSA is a national organization that allows students in career and technical education to compete in a host of rigorous competitions. Gold, silver and bronze medals are awarded for first, second and third place, respectively.
Sage Romano, a senior from Woburn; Jen Mills, a senior from Waltham; and Ella Doyle, a sophomore from Arlington, joined forces to do a project that illustrates career and technical education promotion, patriotism and citizenship, and community service.
All three students, shown at right with their quilt, are majoring in environmental science at Minuteman.
The most visually striking and imaginative part of the students’ project is a seven-foot-by-six-foot quilt they designed and made that features emblems symbolizing various aspects of student life at Minuteman. The impressive quilt, which took two months to complete, came about when the three students sought a few pointers from two Minuteman teachers, environmental science instructor Alice Ofria and visual arts instructor Erin Bordeau.
How the project came together
After the students’ idea was refined and completed, the students met with Bordeau and sketched out a rough template of the quilt. They bought the fabric that she suggested and cut the squares that were going to be painted on and brought them to school. After they were finished, the students cut the other squares and sewed the front together at Romano’s house with her mother’s sewing machine. They added the buttons to put the squares together and stitched it together with a binding as a team with the help of Sage’s mother.
The quilt is made out of simple fabrics and the fabric that was used to paint on is white muslin. In the middle is batting and the back is another blue fabric. The quilt is sewn together and pieced by buttons. The materials were purchased from a fabric store, and the project was funded by Minuteman’s SkillsUSA advisory board.
For the promotion, the Minuteman team went to Clarke Middle School in Lexington and demonstrated its major, environmental science. Sage, Ella and Jen taught the Clarke students about Minuteman’s ecosystem and had each of the Clarke students make an ecojar to represent it.
The ecosystem they made was housed in a biodegradable cup made out of corn, as was the cap. The jar had multiple layers. The first layer was rocks, the second was sand and the third was soil to represent the different types of layers of the Earth. The students added abiotic and biotic factors to represent living organisms and nonliving ones like the Earth has. They added meal worms, bark, a small plant, and grass. Finally, they put water in and closed the jars permanently.
The patriotism part
After the activity, the three Minuteman students showed the Clarke girls the quilt and explained to them what vocational schools are and how career and technical education is an option for them when choosing a high school to attend.
For the patriotism and citizenship part of the project, the students set up a Valentine’s Day card table during lunches at Minuteman where students could make Valentine’s Day cards for soldiers overseas. The students sent 600 cards they created, along with pieces of candy, to Operation Shoe Box in Florida for distribution to U.S. troops overseas.
The community-service part of the project entails pulling invasive species and promoting native species growth at the Assabet River National Wildlife Refuge.
Sage said, “I learned many things from doing these three projects. One of the best things I learned is how to get in contact with people and connect with others to do amazing things for our community. I also learned how to make a quilt and work together with my group as a team. I learned so much from them as well.”
Jen observed, “This project was fantastic and a great way to spend my senior year! I loved working so closely with my good friends Ella and Sage. The project taught me how to communicate not only with my peers but also with people I didn’t know. They had the same goal as we did, which is helping others. Throughout all three aspects of the project, we met very generous people willing to guide and support us through the process. It was such a great experience and I am so glad I decided to compete in SkillsUSA.”
How Ella sees it
Ella had a similar takeaway. “From this project, I learned how to communicate with teachers and other adults in my community and my team members. I also learned how to work with the community and do things to help other people.”
The two seniors in the group have exciting plans after they graduate from Minuteman in June. Sage will attend Brigham Young University in the fall to study childhood development and take environmental classes. After college, she intends to teach children about environmental science. Jen will attend Mass. Maritime Academy this fall and will be in the environmental program there.
Ofria, the environmental-science instructor, noted her pride in Sage, Jen and Ella and her excitement about what they are accomplishing:“When this team came to me expressing their interest in the American Spirit competition I was ecstatic! I have been involved with SkillsUSA as a former competitor, and now as an adviser.
“I know firsthand how much time, effort and dedication it takes to be successful. The American Spirit competition is comprised of three very intense and time-consuming projects, but I knew this dream team could handle the job. They have gone above and beyond, as usual, and even though all of their projects are underway they are continuing their efforts to build upon the work they’ve done. I am very proud of this group and cannot wait to see how far they go.”
Applications for admission to Minuteman High School are coming in quickly, because of the high level of public interest in the new, state-of-the-art Minuteman High School under construction, a March 15 news release says. Visit www.minuteman.org and go to the Admissions tab on the home page.
Minuteman is six months away from moving into a $145 million facility that has been designed to support a robust college and career academy model. The academy model was adopted by staff and administration to create smaller “schools within a school” thereby promoting more personalized learning founded upon close relationships between students and teachers.
This news release was published Friday, March 15, 2019.
