TLC’s show “Ace of Cakes” has nothing on the students enroled in the Exploring Baking and Pastry Arts Dual Credit program at Cambrian College. Sudbury Catholic students Amber Walker (Marymount Academy, Grade 12) and Carlie Vautier (Marymount Academy, Grade 12) were able to show off their extreme baking skills recently as their class was commissioned to create a cake for retiring Cambrian Professor Rick Cooper. Cooper is the Coordinator of Art and Design Fundamentals program and is known for his passion for sailing and his love of bowties. The Dean’s office asked the bakers-in-training if they could produce a cake that paid tribute to Cooper. The end result was a cake entitled “The H.M.S. Bowtie” which was a stunning three tiered cake – each tier a different mouth-watering flavour.
Gaston Theriault, College Link Consultant for the Catholic School Board was amazed with the students’ final product. “What is astounding is that they do everything from scratch in this program,” Theriault said. “Nothing comes out of a box and everything is done on site.”
Kelleen Schonfeldt, Student Success Coordinator for the college spoke glowlngly about the program. “It is all about finding their passion,” Schonfeldt said. “It is so important that they take this great opportunity to find their own place in this program and by exploring the dual credit initiative, the students are able to do things outside of what they might not have considered otherwise.”
As people gathered around the cake to admire it from up close, student Carlie Vautier couldn’t help but smile proudly. “I have always been into cooking and baking,” Vautier said. “I looked into summer programs and found out about this program, applied and was accepted. Being in this program allowed me to see that my strengths are in baking and I do now think I have a future in this industry.” Vautier also spoke very highly of the staff at Cambrian and how supportive they have been throughout the term. “They really treat us like mature adults and give us a real college experience, especially Dual Credit Chef and Professor Lynne Van Beek. She is an amazing teacher and has really made it possible for us to be so successful.”
Many of the students have already found summer jobs in the industry. As well, many are considering registering for the second semester of the Baking and Pastry Arts program at Cambrian as their current program counts as semester one.
Category: Student Achievement
St. Mary Staff Gets “Pied”!!
Recently students from St. Mary Catholic School in Capreol participated in the annual Jump Rope/Hoops for Heart Campaign. Each year the energetic students have raised an incredible amount of money. This year was no exception as they brought in an amazing $1,408.30. In the past fourteen years, St. Mary School has raised $46,072.01. The boys and girls had lots of fun while displaying some very skilled skipping techniques and slam dunking. As always they are very grateful to the wonderful volunteers who give so generously of their time to help out in such a big way. The school is particularly thankful to Miss O’Reilly for co-ordinating this big event. As an added incentive teachers agreed to be ‘pied’ if fundraising goals were met. Each teacher was ‘pied’ by the top fundraiser in his or her class. Mrs. Waszczylo, Principal, was ‘pied’ by the top fundraiser in the school, grade 4 student, Britney Chevrier.
St. Charles College Student Wins OECTA Young Authors Award
St. Charles College student Jillian Campagnola didn’t have any clue that her passion for writing would win her any awards. In her grade 12 Writer’s Craft class, the assignment was to write a ghost short story or myth. Campagnola chose the ghost story. Entitled “White Rage”, her story revolves around a house haunted by an enraged rabid Great Dane dog (ghost) that lives in the walls. Owner of her own big dog, a rottweiler, Campagnola knew that she wanted to include a big dog in her story. Campagnola submitted her story to teacher Nancy Daoust and the end result was top honours in the Ontario English Catholic Teachers’ Association Young Authors Award.
When asked about how she felt when she found out she won, Campagnola replied, “I was really, really surprised and very excited because writing is one of my passions and I just love to write.” Campagnola plans to continue her writing craft and hopes to sign up for more of these classes at University in the fall.
St. Mary Students are Winners at “Raising the Flag”
Students from both the Sudbury Catholic and Rainbow Valley East schools had the opportunity to enter a contest entitled “Raise the Flag Day”. The Kin club of Valley East once again supported this nationally celebrated event and hosted the contest for elementary students from the Valley schools. There was a picture/colouring contest for students from Junior Kindergarten to Grade 4 and a Literary Contest (essay or poem) for students in Grades 5 to 8. Criteria for the contest was similar as the entry had to reflect what being Canadian means to the student and each student received a certificate of participation from Claude Gravelle, MP. A total of seven Valley schools participated and three of the top winners were students from St. Mary Catholic Elementary School. Connor Foucault (Grade 2 – St. Mary) took first place and Jacqueline Brown (Grade 4 – St. Mary) took third place in the picture/colouring contest. As well, Alyssa Menard (Grade 6 – St. Mary) took second place in the essay contest. Mayor John Rodriguez was also on hand to present the winners with their awards. Congratulations to all of our students who participated in this contest!.
SCDSB Secondary Schools Host Social Justice Fair
On May 6th, 2010, the Sudbury Catholic District School Board’s first ever Social Justice Fair involving students from all SCDSB Secondary schools took place at Marymount Academy. Students from grades 7 – 12 came together to learn more about local and global issues of social justice. They had the opportunity to listen to inspiring speakers, participated in engaging seminars, visited displays of community organizations working for justice, and celebrated what they are doing in their own schools. Some of the community organizations in attendance included Coalition for a Liveable Sudbury, Development and Peace, Access Aids, Community Foodshed, Free the Children, Sudbury Action Centre for Youth, and Chalice. Some of the seminars offered for the students included, Habitat for Humanity, Native Awareness, Global Solidarity, Social Inclusion (Sudbury Planning Council) Exposure trips, Environmental Awareness and Using Art for Justice. Jennifer Geddes, Chaplaincy Lead for the board was involved with a lot of the planning for the fair. “Today was about celebrating our achievements and exploring how our Catholic Secondary schools and community continue to champion social justice,” Geddes said. “The great thing about today is that they have been given even more tools to take back to their own schools to share with the other students and teachers. As well, the partnerships between the schools and the community organizations have been made even stronger and we will be continuing to act together for social justice.”
St. Charles College Presents “The Wedding Singer”
The S.C.C. Drama department is hard at work on this year’s musical “The Wedding Singer. It originally made its debut on Broadway in 2006, and was nominated for several Tony awards. Based on the film starring Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore, the show features a rock score that will bring you right back to the 80’s. “The Wedding Singer” tells the story of Robbie Hart trying so hard to find love when it’s “right in front of his eyes”. The cast of 24 is creating a show that will definitely make you tap your feet to the beats and go right back to the 80’s! Audience members of all ages are welcome!
The play runs from May 11 – 15 at 7 p.m. Tickets are $10 for adults; $8 for seniors; children 5 and under free.
St. Michael Student Becomes Published Poet
Congratulations to Alicia Cunningham Dunlop in Junior Kindergarten at St. Michael School. Alicia won the provincial OECTA Young Authors Award. It is a great honour for Alicia and for St. Michael School!
The provincial winners will be published in a commemorative book that will be distributed to all Catholic schools and all main branches of the public libraries.
Alicia’s poem is titled “My Butterfly”.
My Butterfly
My butterfly was orange
it had two wings
it flew to my house
it sat on a flower
i watched it for one hour
then it fly away
I hope it comes back some day!
St. Michael Student Becomes Published Poet
Congratulations to Alicia Cunningham Dunlop in Junior Kindergarten at St. Michael School. Alicia won the provincial OECTA Young Authors Award. It is a great honour for Alicia and for St. Michael School!
The provincial winners will be published in a commemorative book that will be distributed to all Catholic schools and all main branches of the public libraries.
Alicia’s poem is titled “My Butterfly”.
My Butterfly
My butterfly was orange
it had two wings
it flew to my house
it sat on a flower
I watched it for one hour
then it flew away
I hope it comes back some day!
SCDSB Students are “Spellbound” at C.P.C.O. Spelling Bee
Elementary students from the Sudbury Catholic District School Board spelled their way to the Championship at the Catholic Principals’ Council of Ontario ( C.P.C.O. -Sudbury Chapter) Spelling Bee on April 21, 2010. Every two years, the C.P.C.O. sponsors this event and the Sudbury Catholic students have the opportunity to compete for the title of Spelling Bee Champion. In order to qualify for this event, each school participated in their own spelling bees and a semi-final competition was held in early April. The students that placed in the top three then qualified to compete in the final event. At the end of the night, the students that claimed the title of top spellers were Kaedan Cronk (Grade 7, St. Paul Catholic Elementary School) for the Intermediate Division and Kamilla Kowal (Grade 6, St. Michael Catholic Elementary School) for the Junior Division.
The Sudbury Catholic District School Board wishes to congratulate all of the participants for their excellent spelling efforts!