​This year, in lieu of a trip, the Ski Club hosted a coat drive from February 1 to April 1. The drive was a huge success, collecting over 200 items of clothing including 53 coats! All the coats were donated to Button-Up Connecticut, a local non-profit organization, in hopes to give back to our community during the pandemic.
Special thanks to members of the club who assisted with collecting coats and hanging signs for the drive around the school and the new club officers, Adeline Riccio and Kian Kardestuncer for assisting with the final donation! Thank you to everyone who donated! Hopefully, we can continue this drive every year along with the ski trip!

            See more about Button-Up CT here: http://www.buttonupconnecticut.org/ 

by Phoebe Lampos

​The Robotics season has been very different this year for FIRST Team 236-TechnoTicks. The team met via Zoom, and programmed using remote collaboration software. Even the challenge was different this year. Instead of building and programming a robot for the FIRST Robotics Challenge, this year there was the FIRST Innovation Challenge. Teams were asked to “identify a problem or opportunity and design a solution to help people keep, regain, or achieve optimum physical and/or mental health and fitness through active play or movement.”

The TechnoTicks realized that Old Lyme, Lyme, and East Lyme provide many opportunities to engage with nature through hiking trails and open space, but many of the trails are underused. The team designed a system called “Lymelyte”, which consists of a mobile application called “Trailyte” and a Cube Satellite called “Satlyte” to encourage people to experience our local trails.
The Trailyte app provides a hyper-local, personalized experience of the trails in Lyme, Old Lyme, and East Lyme. Although there are some commercial trail apps available, Trailyte is uniquely focused on trails in our immediate area, providing a detailed level of focus that is not offered by other apps. Trailyte will ultimately be augmented by Satlyte, a compact cube satellite that will provide real-time information to the Trailyte app about weather, trail conditions, and more. The team plans to test our prototype Satlyte via tethered weather balloon at the end of April.

To communicate our ideas, representatives from the TechnoTicks wrote and delivered a live presentation to a panel of judges in a remote interview. The judges asked questions about the project components and goals. If the TechnoTicks advance to the Semifinals, the team will create a more detailed presentation and advanced satellite prototype. 
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Check out the TechnoTicks' Business Pitch and Technical Presentation on youtube:

By: Sr. Vázquez
Colleen Walsh (Kelly’s older sister), a former LOLHS student, shared her experience with studying  Spanish in college.
Colleen is studying at the University of Alabama. She is currently minoring in Spanish and majoring in Public Health.  She said that she was going to change to a major in Spanish.
She emphasized the importance of studying Spanish in order to be connected with friends and family, but most importantly, for having more professional opportunities. She said that she left LOLHS well prepared for the challenge of continuing to study Spanish in college.  She told us that one remarkable experience was to volunteer in a clinic and to use Spanish often with patients.  She did this as part of her course called Spanish Healthcare for Professionals.
After answering questions, she said goodbye and encouraged students to keep studying Spanish.
  
Link to watch & listen the presentation: https://region18.zoom.us/rec/share/aVI3UCWHLBdwuG6zCz_QS22j1okXDmIAdUkYSGL0hpJP4eaNevFtKcnTmNUw17A.SekXOJnIHuwCEYFX
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In the Modern US History classes students worked in groups to create a panel of a mural that both represent the art  and the history of the Great Depression. The mural topics included: The First New Deal, Protests and Political Change, The Second New Deal, and Social and Political Impacts. Once completed, students participated in a Gallery Walk where students spend time at each panel analyzing the images  and collecting critical information from each topic.

Take a look at some of their work!

The Chinese III Class had a chance to zoom with their penpals again after several months of periodic emails between each other. The kids used both Chinese and English to discuss their own schools and hobbies and other activities of interest. It's always exciting for all to share their favorite celebrities, movies, and sports, and to find out about each other's academic courses and schedules. They also shared a lot of laughs and a few dance moves. However, it's pretty clear that the Chinese students seem to know a lot more about the American pop culture than their counterparts. 

We had a wonderful time at the Designing Graphics to Share Career Presentation! In collaboration with the Phoebe-Griffin Noyes Library, over 20 students heard how two culture creators (Juanita Austin, college graduate and a creator and owner of a collaborative in New London, & Andre Salkin, Boston University student and a 2020 graduate of LOLHS) got started and how they have used design to accomplish their goals. Students learned about free design software, using and citing credible sources, and establishing an audience and a “look”.

​Do you have confidential documents that need to be safely and securely destroyed?
 
On Saturday, May 1st, from 9am to 12pm, the Classes of 2022, 2023, and 2024 will be hosting a Shredding Event fundraiser.  Come by the Lyme-Old Lyme High School parking lot (near the tennis courts) to drop off any unwanted documents you want to be destroyed.
 
Cash donations accepted, which will be used for activities put on by the Classes.  Come support LOLHS and the Classes of 2022, 2023, and 2024!

This is an opportunity to recognize an outstanding teacher in our district as well as an outstanding employee whose work supports the programs and operations that service the children of our district. 
If you would like to nominate, complete the form by accessing the links below:

Congratulations to the Science Olympiad team for persevering through the year and competing in the state tournament adapted to an online format. The competition consisted of 22 events held over three weekends in February and March. Congratulations to Ali Kyle and Dylan Sheehan for winning 1st place in Chemistry Lab. Other medal winners are Connie Pan and Jack Conley in Fossils (3rd place), Nikolai Stephens-Zumbaum and Ali Kyle in Codebusters (3rd place), and Sarah Burnham, Nevin Joshy and Jenna Schauder in Experimental Design (3rd place). Overall, the team came in 8th place. The rest of the team is rounded out by Sophia Adkins, Regan Kaye, Will Larson, Mari Mather, Adeline Riccio, Eli Ryan, and Mary Wholean. 

And for ​B- Division (grades 6-9)
Boomilever - 2nd place: Mark Burnham and James Lahot
Crime Busters- 3rd place: Abby Hale and Kat Gryk
Dynamic Planet- 3rd place Agatha Hunt and Ava Cumins
Fossils - 3rd place: Audrey LeCour and Carson St. Louis
Meteorology - 1st place: Abby Hale and Kat Gryk 
Ornithology - 2nd place: Abby Hale and Kat Gryk  
Road Scholar - 2nd place: James Lahot and Agatha Hunt
Water Quality - 2nd place: James Lahot and Simon Karpinski

​The Visual Arts Department of Lyme-Old Lyme High School is proud to announce outstanding results from this year’s Future Choices Art Show, sponsored by the Shoreline Arts Alliance.
Senior Olivia Bartlett won First Place in Drawing/Printmaking and Best in Show for her dry point etching, “the Puppeteer,” also earning the Earl Grenville Killeen Founders Award for Mr. Allik as teacher of the Best in Show recipient. Other first place winners included Senior Marina Melluzzo in Sculpture/Ceramics and Senior Aidan Powers in Digital/Mixed Media. Oliva Bartlett also took second place in Digital/ Mixed Media while Senior Francette Donato earned second place in Sculpture/Ceramics. Third place awards went to Marina Melluzzo in Drawing/Printmaking and Connie Pan in Painting.
Other LOLHS students with works juried into the show included Brianna Melillo, Bella Hine, Samantha Geshel, Grace Coverdale, Elle Myers and Lea Wilson. The exhibit is virtual this year, and can be viewed at https://www.shorelinearts.org/future-choices-2021.
Students who reside or attend school in the 24-town Shoreline region are eligible to submit up to seven works each for this juried competition. Award-winners earn cash prizes that were announced at the virtual Awards Ceremony held Monday, April 5, and still viewable on the organization’s Facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/ShorelineArtsAlliance/videos/3093181697634681

Small Efforts Big Impact. For more than a year, Maddie McCullough and Izzy Reynolds have been quietly helping neighbors with roadside clean up and shoveling paths for seniors, among other things. ​

​The freshman class of 2024 organized a bonding event that took place last Thursday night.  Five teams of five students met in the commons for a night of volleyball and games.  Brackets were created, including a “pity bracket” for teams that did not advance so that all could keep playing.  In the commons, teams not currently playing engaged in games like UNO, Catch Phrase, and Jenga.  It was a raucous event and a good time was had by all.  Be on the lookout for the Spring Freshman bonding event…..! 

The Chinese Club and Chinese Honor Society members came together to express their support to Stop Asian Hate. They had a better understanding of Asian countries and stand in solidarity with the Asian communities in their fight against discrimination and injustice. 

by Emma Boardman
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The Spanish National Honor Society, led by Señor Vazquez, is always looking for new ways to educate ourselves and others about Hispanic culture. We have recently put together a project related to Hispanic identity. The juniors and seniors split up and did their own projects relating to separate topics. The senior’s project for this semester was to do research on all the different identities that someone who speaks Spanish may fall into. Among those a few of the lesser-known identities would be Tejano, La Raza Latina, and Nuyorican. As you can see from the various pictures above, each senior was in charge of doing research on a certain identity. See all the hard work that our seniors did by stopping by the Spanish National Honor Society bulletin board and checking out the research! 

Ms. Fuller, LOLHS School-to-Career Coordinator, set up and held a Virtual Career Day on March 31. The day, called Career Conn, was sponsored by the CT Office of Higher Education. The career day presentation consisted of a number of virtual speakers addressing various different careers from medical to construction.  FBLA Vice President, Elise DeBernardo, introduced Ms. Fuller who explained the process of connecting online to watch and participate in the event.  Students were able to pick from a list, watch a number of different career speakers, and ask online questions about the careers. Also pictured is Isabelle O'Connor, FBLA Secretary.