Schools

See Who Made the Watertown High School Honor Roll

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The following students made the third quarter honor roll at Watertown High School. Ninth Grade

High Honors
Alexander Abrahamyan
Lelean Aljaja
Amelia Allison
Madiha Begum
Joseph Chau
Nicholas Cordeiro
Caroline Costa
Robert Danielian
Hadi Farhat
Bryan Ferreira
Claire Gabel
Anna Gellerman
Natali Gevorgyan
Siobhan Greene
Salvador Guevara
Melanie Halibian
David Inacio
Didar Jajan
Emily Koufos
Amanda Lewis
Spencer McClellan
Anahid Ohanyan
Jeremy Ornstein
Sarah Pardo
Lauren Petrillo
Elizabeth Powderly
Kian Rice
Mariam Roda
Sergio Salas
Destiny Santalucia
Ana Scott
Rubina Simikyan
Dora Tejada
Kaitlin Tracy
Honors
Hakeem Alhady
Mosab Amleh
Sarah Benites
Gabriella Cacia
Liz Cam
Timothy Camelio
Gabriel Cimino
Julia Cottone
Nelziclea Da Silva
Daniel Fabrizio
David Frabrizio
Alexander Feltner Harrison
Meghan Foley
Julio Fulcar
Jacquelyn Furbish
Valentina Gaete Hurtado
Owen Gallagher
Elder Guevara
Miles Hohmann
Jonna Kennedy
Elizabeth Knell
Christopher Koufos
Katherine Lawn
Jaime MacDonald
Zachery Mazzie-Smith
Diego Moscoso
Jeanie Ngan
Taylor Nygren
Stella Papadopoulos
Catherine Papayannopoulos
Tia Pellegrini
Stellios Pistoftzian
Ayah Rahim
Darlyn Ramirez
Wenston Rodriguez
Molly Ryan
Christine Saroufim
Tigran Shahnazaryan
Brianna Sullivan
Timothy Tat
Isabella Vitti
Albert Yildirim

10th Grade
High Honors
Evamarie Alessandroni
Catherine Bedig
Daniel Carito
Julia Dunoyer
Michael Guyumdzhyan
Leslie Kay
Jenna McMahon
Shannon Murphy
Jillian Russo
Alex Smith
Joseph Tardif
Janaki Thangaraj
Sella Varnum
Olivia Venezia
Honors
Sajda Abbas
Mahdi Alhady
Brian Amedio
Faryal Amin
Genrikh Askaryan
Maria Athanasopoulos
Robert Belli
Larissa Bittencourt
Lauren Burns
Anthony Cardarelli
Samuel Carton
Alexan Cinar
Christina D’Agostino
Sofia DiPace
Maskim Doe
Aurora Fidler
Nicole Frisoli
Colin Gardiner
Sarah Greim
Artem Grigoryan
Ian Groh
Sara Gyulakian
Helene Hoxha
Isaac Huff
Sabir Hussain
Kaysa Jinan
Nareg Kalaydjian
Rosdom Kaligian
Yasir Khan
Stefanos Kiorpes
Eli Krieger
Lance Kuo
Catherine LeBlanc
Tatum Lee
Benjamin Lowry
Thayna Marcos
Hovig Margosian
Karina McAdam
Parsa Medhati
Ryan O’Reilly
Marina Osipova
James Piccirilli
Vasiliki Pistoftzian
Talene Pogharian
Max Potseluev
Ruby Rosenwasser
Lori Shrinian

11th Grade
High Honors
Tyler Gardiner
Julia Harrington
Jeremy Holt
Sabiha Khalid
Sarah Lampasona
Erika Libertini
Austin Lin
Joanna Lopez Ordonez
Lillian Pennington
Christopher Rohlicek
Honors
Valeria Aedo
Kareem Alhady
Olivia Almeida
Danila Alyokhin
Jaime Amedio
Mark Amirbekyan
Michaela Antonellis
Nelli Balian
Tawhid Bibi
Dominika Bondaryk
Jeremy Breen
Thomas Brennan
Matthew Busconi
Niko Carvajal-Janke
Ryan Clancy
Lola Dement Myers
Grace Duguay
Barry Dunn
Karl Elbakian
Sofia Farhadi
Kyle Foley
Karina Franca
Sara Fulton
Jaslyn Gomez-Jobson
Michael Gorman
Briana Guillory
Sasha Helfner
Jason Hughes
Abboud Kaouk
Allyson Kazanjian
Robert Kennedy
Christa Knell
Ruth Komukyeya
Nicole Lanzo
Farid Mawanda
Ally McCall
Hannah McCall
Daniel McCurley
Steven Mey
Riyan Moore
Molly Munger
Nathan Nibiye
Cristopher Patvakanian
Sean Peschier
Kira Peterson
Katelyn Rourke
Arshdeep Singh
Samantha Smith
Layza Souza
Leah Sutherland
Samantha Tat
Katherine Tolman
Yesayi Tolmoyan
Jason Wilkins
Grigor Yeghishyan

12th Grade
High Honors
Kashif Ahmad
Tessa Collins
Jeffrey Comeau
Ghislaine Coulter-de Wit
Molly Day
Alec Deyermanjian
Keegan Duguay
Austin Farry
Christopher Fidler
Shannon Foley
Samuel Ford
Nicholas Girodano
Michael Hagopian
Dana Hammerle
Rebecca Hellman
Yvef Jorge Almonte
Melanie Kahn
Noreen Khan
John Kupelian
Kayla Lawlor
Crista Logakis
Nathaniel Munson-Palomba
Nicholas Ohannesian
Rebecka Riendeau
Jake Roche
Gina Stanizzi
Aashma Sunuwar
Tinhinan Touri
Honors
Olivia Ames
Jody Askaryan
Jonathan Azevedo
Brendan Berkeley
Taquina Cachimuel
Rachel Campbell
Lisa Carcerano
Emily Carito
Gemma Carroll
Pluksaa Chueayoonan
Siran Cinar
Samuel Cohen
Gianna Coppola
Alexandra Doggett
Matthew Dolan
Demetri Dorceus
Shayna Farmelant
Isaac Fitts-Sprague
Kayla Furbish
Eric Furtado
Jared Grillo
Erin Hickey
Abid Hussain
Kayla Johnson
Jessica Lai
Bishal Mishra
Jamilah Monroe
Jillian Mungenast
Kaitlyn Murphy
Matthew Murphy
Thomas Perry
Clarissa Phillips
Julia Thompson
Charlotte Vitti
Arooj Zahid

Schools

School Committee Member Wants System for Electives at WHS More Fair

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Getting into elective classes at Watertown High School can be challenging, and some freshmen do not get any of their choices, but one School Committee member wants to change that. 

During a discussion of the Watertown High School handbook, School Committee member Julie McMahon said students can list their top five choices for elective classes, but some unlucky WHS students don’t get any of their classes. She who has a freshman at the high school. “Electives are the things that children are attracted to,” McMahon said. “They may be interested in video, but it might be filled.” The “luck of the draw” freshman year has a snowballing effect later, she said.

Schools

What Should be Watertown High Schools’ New Mascot?

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Watertown High School students will soon choose a new mascot, and perhaps even a new nickname. 

For years the WHS teams have been called the Red Raiders or just Raiders, but since around 2007 the school has not had a mascot or logo on its uniforms and other places. Before that the school used a cartoon-like image of an American Indian. “There hasn’t been a mascot since I got here,” said Superintendent Jean Fitzgerald. “There is a ‘W’ on any clothing I have. The kids miss having a mascot.”

Schools

Watertown High School Senior Earns College Scholarship

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Watertown High School senior Eric Furtado got a financial boost for college from a local bank. To support members investing in their education, and in honor of former staff and volunteers, MIT Federal Credit Union awarded $1,000 Memorial Scholarships to accomplished students at their recent 75th Anniversary Celebration, held in conjunction with the Annual Business Meeting on April 21, 2015, according to the announcement from the bank. Recipients were selected based on essay content, grades, financial need and extracurricular & community activities. “We take pride in supporting a variety of communities at MIT, including young people investing in their education,” said MITFCU President/CEO Brian Ducharme. “In its ninth year it continues to be an honor to learn of these students’ accomplishments and present them with their awards at our Annual Meeting.”

One of the Memorial Scholarship recipients is Eric Furtado from Watertown.

Schools

Group Seeks to Make Watertown High School Safe for Transgender Students

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A group of Watertown High School students has requested that the School Committee add a school district policy for transgender and nonconforming students to make these students feel safe to attend the town’s schools. 

Transgender students do not feel comfortable at Watertown High School, said members of the Gender and Sexuality Alliance (GSA) at WHS. “A lot of it was the school culture,” said GSA President and WHS junior Jeremy Holt. “When we decided to put this in place the school culture was not open and accepting (of transgender and nonconforming students).” As part of the new policy, they seek some changes to improve the atmosphere at the school. Some changes include creating gender-neutral bathrooms and locker rooms, teachers using the pronoun preferred by the student when addressing the student, and not telling parents what their preferred sexual identity until the student is comfortable telling them. “The three main goals of the policy are to reduce stigmatization of transgender and gender nonconforming students, maintaining the privacy of all students and fostering cultural competence and professional development for school staff,” WHS junior and GSA member Kira Peterson told the School Committee on Monday night.

Schools

Watertown Students Host SPEAK Week at High School

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The following article was written by Watertown High School junior Crist Patvakanian:

It’s that time of the year again! SPEAK Week, organized by the Watertown Youth Coalition Peer Leaders and funded by the Watertown Community Foundation, took place from March 9th to March 13th at the Watertown High School. For those of you who are unfamiliar, SPEAK Week, which stands for Sharing Personal Experiences and Knowledge, is a week where speakers and activities take place in WHS to help educate students about healthy decision-making, substance abuse, bullying, and suicide prevention. SPEAK Week also allows the diverse clubs of the school to promote their own interesting and useful messages during lunch periods. This year’s clubs that participated include the Watertown Youth Coalition, the Feminist Coalition, the Armenian Club, the GSA, the Animal Rights Club, the Environmental Club, and the International Club.

Schools

Several Watertown High School Artists Honored in State Competition

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Several Watertown High School student artists received awards in a competition that honors the best high school artists in Massachusetts. The Scholastic Art & Writing Awards announced the 2015 awards. In 2014, the program received more than 250,000 submissions. A ceremony for Massachusetts’ award winners was held at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston on Saturday, March 7. Watertown’s winners were:

Julia Harrington – Silver Key for drawing
Liana Aleksanyan – Silver Key for drawing and honorable mention for painting
Emily Hart – honorable mention for painting
Katie Eaton – Gold Key for design
Melanie Halibian – Silver Key for design
Emerson O’Connor – Silver Key for design
Christopher Patvakanian – honorable mention for digital art
Erika Libertini – honorable mention for digital art

See the student’s artwork on the Watertown Public School’s website by clicking here.

Schools

Speaker Will Talk About How Teens Can Reach Their Potential

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Nationally recognized speaker Ed Gerety will speak about helping Watertown High School students can help reach their potential. In his talk, titled “Bridging the Gap: Helping Our Kids Their Full Potential,” Gerety will talk about building better relationships with middle school and high school students

“An expert on the topic of student leadership, Ed brings a refreshing look at today’s youth,” according to the Watertown High School announcement. “He will share techniques and principles that will help parents and their children work together to break down barriers and strengthen communication with our teens.” The event is for both parents and their children. Together they can learn about “how respect, character, appreciation, leadership and positive attitude make a difference when it comes to raising young people.”