On Friday December 4th, St. Benedict welcomed a couple of special guests to help with the TD Bank Toy Caravan. Terry and Mell, from Q92, Sudbury’s Best Rock, dropped by to help TD Canada Trust promote their annual toy drive. St. Benedict has been a great supporter of this annual event and has collected more than 2300 new toys over the past three years to be placed under the Christmas Tree on Christmas morning to brighten hundreds of homes across the city. People from across the city were invited to drop by the school with their new unwrapped toy and in return enjoy a free breakfast sandwich. Ms. Kuzenko expressed her pride in the generosity of the staff and students, and Ms. Catalano the school’s lunchroom supervisor and Mr. Pappin the school Chaplaincy Lead battled it out in Battle of the Sexes. Terry and Mell also spoke to Ethan Jodouin and Alassandra Marone and asked why the school was so passionate about this toy drive. “Our students care about others…we want to make sure everyone has a Merry Christmas,” and so the generous number of gifts continues to grow. So far this year the school is well on the way to surpassing its goal of collecting 850 toys for children across the city.”
Category: Student Achievement
St. Ben’s In the Pink for October
Several weeks ago, Lindsey Jones, former St. Benedict Catholic Secondary School student, now employed by the Canadian Cancer Society (Sudbury) contacted her alma mater to see if they were up to a challenge. She asked the school if they would accept the challenge to “pinkify” their school and support a breast cancer fundraiser for the month of October. Never ones to back away from a challenge, the students and staff set a goal to raise $ 2500 by the end of the month. For every $500 raised, the students got to select one staff member to “pinkify”. The school raised money through daily donations, a pink cupcake bake sale and a football buy out game in which the Junior boys football team played the girls flag football team. Both teams also paid 5 dollars per member to take part in the game. In the end, the students surpassed the challenge goal and presented the Canadian Cancer Society (Sudbury) with a cheque for over $4000. On October 30th, as part of the presentation assembly, student council members each “pinkified” 6 of the St. Ben’s staff with lots of pink hair dye and pink feather boas. In addition, St. Ben’s grade 9 student, Willow Nadeau had her head shaved in front of the entire school and donated her locks for the third time. Nadeau volunteers every day afterschool at the Canadian Cancer Society and wanted to show her support alongside her classmates.
“We are completely overwhelmed with the response from our student council, student body and staff with this October Breast Cancer Challenge,” explained James MacNeil, St. Ben’s teacher. “The students wholeheartedly accepted this challenge. We are so proud of our St. Ben’s Bears and are grateful to be part of such a supportive school community!”
Two SCDSB Students Named to Minister’s Student Advisory Council
The Sudbury Catholic District School Board is pleased to announce that two SCDSB secondary students have been selected to be a part of the Minister’s Student Advisory Council- TiCarra Paquet from Marymount Academy and Laura Rinaldi from St. Benedict Catholic Secondary School.
According to the Ministry of Education’s press release, “Students who serve on the Minister’s Advisory Council have many responsibilities. The council meets with (Minister of Education Liz Sandals) twice during the terms and each member is required to participate in at least one regional student forum.
The council also provides:
– ongoing student perspectives, advice, recommendations, and consultations on the Ministry of Education’s policies, programs and practices;
– advice and feedback on the activities more specifically related to the ministry’s student engagement activities; and
– feedback on student-focused communication strategies and products, such as websites, brochures, pamphlets and video clips.
Council members also have many opportunities for leadership and skills development. During their term they learn about strategic planning and the formation of government policy, programs and practices. They also use on-line surveys and other communication strategies to engage their peers and raise awareness about programs and services available for Ontario students.”
Jody Cameron, Chair of the Board states, “On behalf of the Sudbury Catholic District School Board, we would like to congratulate both TiCarra and Laura for showing initiative and leadership, and we know that they will make us proud representing the voice of our students and our board provincially.”
Walking with Everyday Heroes
On Monday, May 25 the students and staff of Holy Cross Catholic Elementary School and St. Benedict Catholic Secondary School went for a walk – a walk to honour and support those fighting Cystic Fibrosis. As May is Cystic Fibrosis Month, and there are currently three students enroled at St. Benedict with the disease, the school campus decided show their support with the theme of the day being superheroes. The students and staff were encouraged to dress up as their favourite superhero while participating in the walk – the only two schools in Canada to be hosting their own. Member of the local Cystic Fibrosis organization were on hand to take part in the event with the group as well as families of some of the students. The two schools raised $1000 through a buy-out to
SCDSB Celebrates Sixth Annual Turning Points Essay Contest Awards
Invited students, parents, teachers and invited guests gathered together on May 6, 2015 to take part in the Sudbury Catholic District School Board’s Sixth annual Turning Points Essay Contest Awards ceremony. This essay contest is an initiative that stems from the Learning Partnership, which is an organization that champions a strong public education system to deliver innovative programs, credible research, policy initiatives, executive leadership and public engagement across Canada. Turning Points is a character development and literacy program that allows students to reflect on their fundamental values and, through a process of self-reflection and dialogue, write a narrative essay about a significant event, or turning point in their lives. The Turning Points Essay Contest is a powerful character development and literacy program that all 4 of our secondary schools, as well as the intermediate students at St. Anne participated in this year. There are 3 divisions, Grade 7/8, Grade 9/10 and Grade 11/12. Cash prizes were awarded for secondary essays and all essays will also be published in an annual anthology that will be sent to students and participating schools next year. The students that took part in this contest and authored the winning essays were awarded plaques, a copy of the publication, as well as monetary awards at the celebration. Joanne Bénard, Director of Education for the Board was on hand for the celebration and awarded the students their prizes. After hearing the students read their essays, Bénard was visibly moved by their words and experiences. “I want to thank these students for sharing with us your strength and resiliency, and for being able to see the shining light in your experiences,” Bénard stated. “You have shown us that everyday is a blessing by sharing your emotional stories of strength and courage, accounts of laughter and tears, your deepest secrets, greatest fears, and biggest triumphs. What emerges as these essays take shape is just magic, and it reminds us all of the goodness and beauty in all of our students.”
Top Winners include:
Grade 11/12 Division
First Place – Mia Tullio
Second Place – Emily Brohart
Third Place – Taylor Emery
Grade 9/10 Division
First Place – Jenna Hoolans
Second Place – Julia Moore
Third Place – Alexis Gunther
Grade 7/8 Awards
First Place- Madison Penrose
Second Place – Amy Lucas
Third Place – Kaylee Kruk
SCDSB Award Winning Authors
Three students from the Sudbury Catholic District School Board have been selected as winners of the Young Authors Award through the Ontario English Catholic Teachers Association. Ethan Matte, a student at Immaculate Conception Catholic Elementary Award won for his non-fiction submission entitled “The Art of Fishing”. In the secondary panel, St. Benedict student Nikki Lemieux won for her non-fiction submission entitled “Consumer or Consumed”. The final winner is Bishop Alexander Carter Catholic Secondary School student Shanleigh Brosseau for her short story submission entitled “La Couleur D’Amour”. Her short story “La couleur d’amour” was inspired by the approaching celebration of St. Valentine. Shanleigh enjoys writing in her spare time, especially “chapter books” on her IPhone. Her enthousiasm of music and writing is what pushed her to create a very metaphorical short story of a broken heart pendant.
All three award winning submissions can be found in this year’s OECTA Young Authors Awards 2014.
Congratulations to all three students for your outstanding writing pieces and we look forward to reading future works!
Sizzling Science at SCDSB Science Fair
The Sudbury Catholic District School Board would like to congratulate the following students and schools on their excellent achievements at recent Board-Wide Science Fair on March 26. After the judges had completed their task, thirteen projects were selected to advance to the Regional Science Fair to be held at Laurentian University on April 12th, 2014.
Best of luck to all students in the upcoming Regional Science Fair.
Sudbury Catholic Schools, Science Fair Winners
Marymount Academy
Brittany Thorton – Viscosity: Can it Save You?
Julie Burns – Screen Time and Depression
Sophia Zulich – Electronic Lemons
Mackenzie Bruce – Cotton Cruelty
Emelia Kucyk – Video Game for the Blind
Dana Rachkowski and Hailey McDonald – Aquaponics
Alessandra Kempson – the Effects of WiFi
St. Raphael
Billy Moskal – Does Colour Affect Plant Life?
Emma Dionne – Does Music Affect Your Ability to Memorize?
Colton Gobbo – Hoe Do Video Games Affect Your Health?
St. Ben’s
Laura Rinaldi – Magnetic Spring
Enoch Kim and Max Rizzard – Gauging Gauss and Fluctuating Ferrofluid
St. James
Marina Leblanc – Les pieds froids
St. Ben’s Robotics Team Mentor Rookie BAC Team
On November 14th, 2013, seven St. Benedict Catholic Secondary School students along with the teacher lead, Julianne Falconi, conducted grade level presentations to Bishop Alexander Carter students.
St. Benedict was the first school in the Catholic Board to participate in FIRST Robotics, an innovative competition that combines the excitement of sport with the rigors of science and technology. Under strict rules, limited resources, and time limits, teams are challenged to raise funds, hone teamwork skills, design, manufacture, and program robots to perform prescribed tasks againstt a field of competitors (www.usfirst.org). Last year, team ‘RoBenedicts’ attended a regional competition in Toronto as well as the World Championships in St. Louis, Missouri.
St. Benedict is excited to announce that there will be two new schools joining in on the robotics program: Bishop Alexander Carter and St. Charles College. St. Benedict will be mentoring and guiding these two teams throughout the off-season, robot build-season, and competitions. “We are happy to be mentoring other schools that are participating in FIRST Robotics. The experience is incredible and it’s exciting to see more people getting involved,” said Team Captain, Mark Abantao.
The goal of the presentation was to spark student interest and recruit members for the newly formed BAC team. Overall, it was very successful, and the St. Benedict students will be attending St. Charles on Monday November 25th.
In attendance from St. Benedict were Mark Abantao (Team Captain), Max Bennett and Brendan Sullivan (Engineering Leads), Elisa Basik and Francesco Modesto (Business Leads), Carter Bourette (Programming Lead), Owen Sarmatiuk (Strategy Lead), and Ms. Falconi (Teacher Lead).
St. Benedict Student Receives the Craig T. Noble Award
On June 19, St. Benedict Catholic Secondary School student Katelyn Ruff was presented with the Craig T. Noble award from ICAN (Independence Centre and Network) Sudbury. Ruff, a student in the lifeskills class was born with a condition called Tetra X Syndrome which is a rare chromosomal disorder caused by the presence of four X chromosomes instead of two X chromosomes. This often results in learning difficulties, joint problems and emotional stress. Ruff has had a number of surgeries over the years and often experiences pain. According to her teacher, Pam Colasimone, Katelyn works very, very hard every day to overcome her physical challenges. At school she is quite independent and extremely helpful towards her peers.
Nominated for the award by her teacher, Katelyn received the Craig T. Noble award in front of a group of her friends, classmates, staff and ICAN representatives. The Craig T. Noble award is named after a twelve year old student – Craig Noble – who was one of the first participants in the ICAN afterschool program. Noble began the program a shy, quiet student and very quickly became a confident role model for the other participants. In 2006, at 15 years old, Noble passed away, and the Craig T. Noble award was established to support youth with physical disabilities to reach their goals of independence. The award is given every year to a teen who demonstrates similar qualities to Craig; an ambition to be independent, a positive attitude, a strong work ethic towards independence, an involvement in the community and record of volunteering and has set goals for independence.
Marie Leon, C.E.O. of ICAN presented the award to Katelyn and described her as a “friend, daughter, student, classmate and a very special person who is willing to help her friends and teachers.” Leon told the group she was proud to know Katelyn.
Colasimone echoed Leon’s comments and described Katelyn as a wonderful student and friend and is involved in a number of extra-curricular activities including taekwondo and swimming.
Upon receiving the award, Katelyn was visibly moved and very quietly thanked the group and ICAN for giving her this award.
St. Benedict CSS Sr. Boys Soccer finishes 4th at OFSAA
St. Benedict Bears Senior Boys Soccer Team completed a fantastic season June 6 – 8 at the OFSAA “A” Championships in Timmins, Ontario. After an undefeated season locally in Sudbury (winning the “A” division city championship), St. Benedict won NOSSA versus Franco Cite in convincing fashion on May 31st. At OFSAA, St. Benedict posted a round robin record of 2 wins and 2 ties, good for 1st place in Group A. In the Quarter-Finals, St. Benedict defeated Glengarry Secondary School 4-2 on goals from Shawn Wilcox (with 3) and Brandon Moxam (1). Unfortunately, the undefeated season came to a halt in the semi-final (Saturday morning) versus private school Ridley College from St. Catharines. Battered and bruised, the Bears dropped a 4-0 decision to their opponents. In the bronze medal game (with numerous players injured and/or in different positions), the Bears lost a tight 2-1 decision to London Christian private school. The Bears finished their 2013 season with a record of 11 wins, 2 losses (only on the last day of the season), and 4 ties – good enough for a 4th overall ranking in the province of Ontario. This is the greatest result for boys soccer in school history. St. Benedict teacher and coach Giuseppe Politi stated, “All in all, it was a positive result for the team, the program, the school, and the city. If you would have told me at the beginning of the season that we would finish top 4 in Ontario I certainly would been ecstatic. Looking back, in the group stage we ran into some trouble finishing off opponents (gave up a few leads). This didn’t let our starters get the rest they needed to last through 3 days of intense competition (7 games total). In the end, it caught up to us on Saturday morning. We just didn’t have the gas or capacity to keep up to more-balanced and fresh opponents in Ridley College (St. Catharines) or London Christian. Both George Urso (co-coach) and I are extremely proud of this squad and its accomplishments this season. We certainly overachieved in the group stage (considering the number of competitive players we have on our team, compared to the other teams at the tournament). A lot of our students played beyond their means and that should be recognized. It’s a bit frustrating to know that we could have won the bronze if we were a bit more fresh. That said, the boys should be proud of what they’ve accomplished (best result in school history) and it was a great student-athlete experience for the entire team. Hopefully, we’ll get another opportunity to showcase our program at next year’s championships.”