Plymouth Meeting Friends School shares the following Young Alumni News for February 2011. Featured in this issue are Dillon Gast '10, Jasper Perry-Anderson '10, Jessica Lu, '10, Isabella Dickstein '09 and Andrew McSwiggan '10.
PMFS Alumnus Dillon Gast '10 Named Student of the Month
PMFS alumnus Dillon Gast ’10 was recently voted Student of the Month for his “pod” at Wissahickon Middle School. He was one of two students (one girl and one boy) in his “pod” or section of 125 students to receive the honor, which is the result of teacher nominations and voting. “Dillon is not afraid to be who he is,” says Dillon’s science teacher and wrestling coach, Scott Landis, Science department chair at Wissahickon. “It has been a pleasure to have him in both the classroom and in athletics. He works well with other students…… when he has something to say, it is always meaningful and appropriate.” Dillon has also been on the Distinguished Honor Roll for the first two marking periods this year. Dillon’s mother, Lisa Gargarella, is excited about Dillon’s success in public school. “Dillon has really blossomed and is really into school. I attribute this to PMFS!” she says.
Plymouth Alums Participate in 2011 Philadelphia Math Counts Competition
Every year, 100+ seventh and eighth grade math students in Philadelphia gather for the annual Philadelphia chapter Math Counts competition. Students take several tests at school to qualify and then participate in either the individual or team competitions. This year, three PMFS alumni participated at Math Counts, representing their current schools. Two of those three alumni are shown here: Jasper-Perry Anderson ’10 (left) represented Friends Select School and Jessica Lu ’10 (right) represented Germantown Friends School. Congratulations PMFS alumni!
PMFS Alumnus Qualifies for Language Proficiency Competition
PMFS alumnus Andrew McSwiggan, ’10 has been selected to represent Friends’ Central School in the MCATFL James J. Doyle Annual Oral Proficiency Contest, to be held on March 1, 2011. The MCATFL contest provides a forum for students to measure their oral skills in a foreign language against students from other schools in the county. Individual interviews are conducted by foreign language professionals to determine which students are most proficient in the second language. To qualify for the competition, Andrew was interviewed twice, in Spanish, by the middle school Language Director at FCS. He was then selected to be the 7th grade representative! “Thanks to the PMFS Spanish language program, Andrew started 7th grade ready for the challenges ahead,” shares Felice McSwiggan. “Thanks for getting him so well-prepared!” Congratulations Andrew! Best to you for the contest!
PMFS Alumna Isabella Dickstein '09 on Award-Winning Future City Team
Plymouth Meeting Friends School alumna Isabella (Izzy) Dickstein, '09 was part of an award-winning team of Middle School student engineers from Springside School that participated in the 2011 Future City Competition, a program of National Engineers Week. The team took home the event's "First Winners Award," an award granted by the very first winners of the Future City Competition.
As part of Springside's Future City team, Izzy (front row, far right) worked with her teammates to build a city using Sim-City software, create a scale model (called "Misty Hollow") of their simulated city with recyclable materials, write a 1,000 word research essay on green building techniques and the role of the engineer, and write a 350-word essay describing their computer model.
The mission of the National Engineers Week Future City Competition is to provide a fun and exciting educational engineering program for middle school students that combines a stimulating engineering challenge with a "hands on" application to present their vision of the future.
As a graduate of PMFS, with our emphasis on hands-on learning, environmental stewardship, and exposure to engineering principles through the sixth grade egg drop competition, the Future City competition was no doubt a great fit for one of our alumni. Congratulations Izzy!