WIZARDS WEEKLYMarch 27, 2015VOLUME 11

THE POWERS CUT FOR A CURE BY LIANA BRATRO !

On March 23rd, the Wizards Against Cancer Club held Washingtonville’s first “Cut-a-Thon”. The purpose of the “Cut-a-Thon” was to raise money for the Hudson Valley Cancer Resource Center. The mother of the club’s president, Lucia Dugan, who owns a hair salon, along with the other wonderful ladies from the salon donated their time and services. At the event, they not only provided hair cuts but also provided manicures and make-up treatments. !One of the highlights of the event was Washingtonville High School’s very own Mr. Powers and his family. The Powers family were some of the first people in line at the Cut-A-Thon. (continued on page 2)

SPECIAL OLYMPICS BY MATT MENDEZ !

Every year, members of the Washingtonville Middle School and High School student body come together to help out and inspire kids get ready for the Annual Special Olympics. The Special Olympics is the world’s largest organized sporting event for children and adults with intellectual and social disabilities. !The Special Olympics has been a part of the Washingtonville community for 8 years now, and is growing every year. These Olympics are held at West Point. This year the event will take place on April 25, 2015. (continued on page 2)

WIZARDNATION

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SSA DELETE WEEK BY MATT MENDEZ

!Last week, from March 16 through March 20, Safe School Ambassadors (SSA), had their annual Delete Week, which is a promotion school-wide to “delete digital drama.” !Mr. Lepere, a teacher at Washingtonville and one of the main SSA advisors, said that it takes place “...the week before spring break because most kids are home during break… and that is when kids are prone to cyberbullying.” !Delete Week is a national event. When Mr. Lepere was asked how and why he thought of the idea to bring to Washingtonville he said there was “an article from ‘17 Magazine’ that mentioned [celebrities] doing a delete digital drama [campaign].” 17 Magazine along with ABC Family stars ran a campaign to end cyberbullying across America. (continued on page 2)

Sports - Wizards

Recognized in Section by Jakob Woods

Upcoming School Events **Order your yearbooks @yearbookordercenter.com !3/27/2015 - FBLA Movie Night, 7pm, HS auditorium 3/29/15 —4/6/15 Spring Break

Editorials - Let The Madness Begin! by

Jack Jennings - St. Absent Day by Daniel

Satin - Makeup by Rey Gonzales

News Stories - SSA Delete Week by Matt

Mendez - Wizards Cut-A-Thon by Katie

Wells and Jacquelyne Ambrosio

- POP Goes My Heart! by Evan Oquendo

- Band Day by Samantha Mauro

Upcoming Sports Events - 4/2/15 Track Meet

Profiles - Powers Cut For A Cure by Liana

Bratro - Student Teachers by Brandon

Toledo - A Future Marine by Kate O’Leary

Washingtonville High School teachers receiving haircuts from Catherine’s Hair Design at the Wizards Against Cancer Club Cut-A-Thon.

Photo by Matt Mendez

Safe School Ambassadors at the end of Delete Week. Photo by Mr. Leonard

This years participants in the Special Olympics. Photo by Matt Mendez

POP GOES MY HEART! BY EVAN TYLER OQUENDO !

On Wednesday, March 18th the different bands and choirs at Washingtonville High School performed for a pop concert. Usually they perform classical music but for this years spring concert they decided to spice things up and perform more recent upbeat tunes. !To start off the show, the concert band performed Highlights from Frozen and Return of King from The Lord of The Rings Trilogy. They were then followed by the Jazz Ensemble, Treble Chorus, Chamber Choir, Concert Choir, Combined Choir, and the Wind Ensemble. Highlights of the night included Dancing Queen, Java Jive, In My Life, Super Mario Brothers, and Video Games Live-Part 1 which was written and conducted by Joseph Favia. !The house was packed for the spring concert with nearly every seat in the auditorium taken. The show was a hit with a couple standing ovations along the way by the audience and choir/band members throughout the night. Hopefully the end of the year concert will live up to the Pop concerts expectations. Cha-Ching!

BAND DAY BY SAMANTHA MAURO !

Band Day took place from 7:35 AM until about 9:15 AM on Wednesday, March 18th in the High School Auditorium. !On this day, all band groups from both the Middle School and High School performed a few songs for other band participants to hear. The purpose of this is to encourage the Middle School students to continue on with band once they reach High School, in a fun and enticing way. Band Day is very similar to Choral Day. !The High School Concert Band played a Frozen mash-up. The song was perceived in such a way by the audience that the band was encouraged to do an encore, Return of the King from Lord of the Ring. !The High School Wind Ensemble played songs that went along with a video-game video made by a student who is in the band. This student, Joe Fabia, plays in the clarinet section and conducted these 3 songs that were played, making it particularly special. !The Middle School students also played select songs from their repertoire.

NEWS STORIESWIZARDS CUT-A-THON

BY KATIE WELLS AND JACQUELYNE AMBROSIO !

Held on March 23, 2015, Washingtonville’s Wizards Against Cancer Club (WACC) hosted its first annual CUT-A-THON in the small cafeteria. Senior Lucia Dugan, President and initiator of the club, said that “It’s a great way to raise awareness throughout the town and community and it’s for a great cause.” !The CUT-A-THON helped raise donations for the Hudson Valley Cancer Resource Center; also, all hair donations were made out to Wigs For Kids, a foundation that creates wigs for younger children going through cancer treatments. !The event lasted from 2:30 to 7:00pm, volunteers from Catherine’s Hair Design and Day Spa were available for haircuts, manicures, and short makeup demonstrations. Residents from all over the Washingtonville community came out to show their support for the club including several teachers, students, and administrators from the school. At the end of the event it was a huge success. There was a total of about fifty people who came in to get a haircut, including men! In addition, a handful of people had their nails and makeup done. !The club’s purpose is to let people know that they are not fighting alone; no one should have to fight this battle without support from their peers. There are students in Washingtonville who walk the halls everyday who have cancer, as well as in the community. !The members of the club are hoping their actions are having a positive effect on the community and are bringing awareness on a serious illness. WACC is in progress of organizing more color-outs for the upcoming months, as well as a seminar to inform people with resources they need to help support someone who is fighting/fought cancer. !June is National Cancer Survivor Month and on June 5th, the club will also be sponsoring a Middle School dance in an attempt to bring awareness to the younger children and celebrate life. !!

DELETE WEEK… (continued) !This year, SSA added Kind-O’-Grams along with what they have done in the past years (Valen-Swine-O’-Grams and other holiday gifts). Kind O’ Grams are little notes that a friend or peer sends to another, and inside there is a message that says something nice and uplifting. Every year SSA tries to upgrade their Delete Week program, according to Lepere. In addition to the Kind O’Grams, SSA teamed up with BGTV to create a commercial shown around the school to promote Delete Week and its positive message. !When talking with Mr. Lepere about trying to expand on Delete Week he stated that “We are trying to make it more than [just] a school event and [we are trying] to expand on making it a district wide event.” Also, in the future, he wants to try to make it so other students who aren’t in SSA can purchase a Delete Week shirt. !This year Delete Week ran smoothly, and SSA hopes to continue the great improvements to expand the event. SSA would like to thank everyone who showed support and brought Kind-O’-Grams.

Mr. Powers and his family after receiving haircuts at the Wizards Against Cancer Cut-A-

Thon on Monday, March 23rd.

Members of the Wizards Against Cancer Club at the Cut-A-Thon.

Photo by Matt Mendez

THE POWERS… (continued) !Mrs. Powers and their three daughters all traded in their long hair for a trendy short look just in time for Spring. Each of them chopped off a great amount of hair, making it possible for them to donate it. !Members of the community who came in and received a haircut were given the option to donate their hair organization called Wigs For Kids which makes wigs for children who have cancer/are undergoing chemo treatments. One of Mr. Powers’ daughters, made one of the largest hair donations of the night. A total of twelve inches! !When talking to Mr. Powers at the Cut-A-Thon he said, “We’re very excited to be adopting a little [4 year-old Haitian] boy and bringing him into the family. There’s a lot going on now so, I’m just looking forward to bringing him home.” !Along with Mr. Powers and his family, many other teachers, students, and community members came to support the club and the cause. Mrs. Cerar, Mrs. Evans, and Mr. Grencer were just a few of those teachers who showed up and received hair cuts. !Overall the event was a huge success as the club raised almost $10oo for the cause. A big thank you who participated in the first Cut-A-Thon and for making a positive impact in the community. !

SPECIAL OLYMPICS… (continued) !According to Mrs. Cooney, WHS guidance counselor and advisor for the group, “The reason that Washingtonville joined the Special Olympics was in memory of Jordan McGuire, who passed away in the summer of 2006.” !“When Washingtonville started the Special Olympics program, it was in 2007 to honor Jordan.” continued Cooney. !She suggested, “instead of planting a tree, let’s start a Special Olympics Program in memory of Jordan.” !When hearing about Jordan passing, it showed how one person’s life can impact so many people. To this day, he is always remembered in the Special Olympics. !Best of luck to all those participating in the events this year, and stay tuned for our student’s times and results!

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PROFILESSTUDENT TEACHERS

BY BRANDON TOLEDO !Student teachers can be a large part of our educational experience. “What are student teachers?”, many people ask. Well, student teachers are college students that are planning on being teachers once they graduate college. !It is a requirement for the college students to actually student teach for 14 weeks; 7 weeks in the high school level, and 7 weeks in the middle school level. !Washingtonville looks to host student teachers as much as they can. Why? Well from a teacher's standpoint “...We were all in that place at one time. We were all starting out as new teachers and we know how important student teaching is,” according to Ormiston. !Regarding the process of having a student teacher, Ormiston states, “The way the process works is that the college reaches out to us and asks us if we can host a certain number of student teachers for a semester, and then we ask the teachers to volunteer to host.” !Washingtonville does have a special program in conjunction with SUNY New Paltz. The program is a year and half long program where college students, before they start student teaching, would have to do field work hours. They need to vein the classroom early because student teaching usually occurs at the end of your 4 year degree, and that’s the most important way to find out if teaching is for them; to come in and work with the students. Washingtonville teachers pair with these New Paltz students for observation hours at first, which then move into a student teaching placement the following year. !For those of you who have had a student teacher recently, you know that they have left for their second placement. !Mr. Senning, who was a student teacher for Mrs. Vandervloed, one of our high school’s Economics and Government teachers, talks about his experience here at Washingtonville: !“I thoroughly enjoyed my experience here at Washingtonville. Its changed what I thought teaching was gonna be for sure.

“Washingtonville students were great and the staff was very supportive.” !When Mr. Senning was asked what made him want to become a social studies teacher he said, “I was always a very good student until the end of high school, then I didn’t do well at all. And in the beginning of college I failed out of the first college I went to and really just hated school. Then I realized I wanted to do something more than just pushing boxes in a warehouse in Yonkers. It felt pretty useless everyday. So I rediscovered what I enjoyed, and I really enjoyed history. So, I studied history as an undergrad. I was taking so many history classes and I thought, ‘What do I do with all this history?’ because there aren’t many jobs for historians. So I decided to pursue teaching history.” !Senning continues, “Both of my parents were teachers, and my grandparents were teachers, so all I’ve ever known was teaching. I realized that was really the only reality I’ve ever known so I gave it shot. It turns out that I absolutely love it.” !Not only do student teachers make a great impression on our educational careers and lives, we also do the same for them.

A FUTURE MARINE BY KATE O’LEARY

!Making the decision to go out to the battlefield and protect your country is one of the most honorable and respected actions an American can make. Citizens throughout the country willingly join the fight to protect the United States of America and all it stands for. !

In our community, Washingtonville High School senior, Ron Zelencich, has made the noble decision to join the Marine Corps after graduating from high school. Zelencich chose this branch of military because of the difficulty and implicit structure Marines have. “I’ve always wanted to become [a marine] since I was little,” says Zelencich. !Zelencich is already registered with the Marines and has been to a training session called “poolee functions”. The Marines are trained not only physically, but also are trained with bettering

t h e i r e d u c a t i o n . W h i l e a l l branches of military are trained to be i n t e n s e l y physically fit, the Marines e s p e c i a l l y a r e w e l l k n o w n f o r their intense w o r k o u t s and physical techniques. !

He is also the male winner for h i s c l a s s ’ s

senior superlative: “Most likely to serve your country”. “While in the Marines, besides all the training I have to receive, I hope to travel the world and get a great education, and once finished with my service, I hope to become a New York State Trooper.” Zelencich responded when asked about his future with the Marines. !Of course we support and respect Zelencich in his future endeavours and salute him for protecting our freedom. Good luck in the Marine Corps Ron! !

This is a grand achievement for Picone, as he is only a junior. Picone says, “It feels good to be recognized by the coaches and to have my name mentioned with the players from around the section.” !The expectations for him will be the same as he has one more year of eligibility. His outlook on next year is, “I expect to help the team any way I can.” This is a good sign for the future Wizards in their quest to win a division title in 2016. !The other award recipient is the senior Andy Resignac, winning highest free throw percentage in the section. This award is extremely difficult to earn as you have to qualify for the number of free throws and hit a majority of them. !Resignac was able to hit 88% of his free throws combined from all of the games this season. “It definitely feels good to win this award, and it takes repetition to be a good free throw shooter, just constantly shooting free throws at practice.” says Resignac. “I’ve always been decent, but I’ve always felt like I wasn’t good enough.” This hard work and constant attempts to better his skills helped him with his performance at the free-throw line. !Both of these athletes were a huge part of the 2014-2015 Wizards basketball team. These awards benefitted the Washingtonville basketball program, as it shows that the talent level is rising in the community. !The recognition is a tremendous part of creating the winning program that coach Todd Rose has worked hard to make happen. Congratulations to both of these dedicated athletes with their accomplishments, and good luck to all of your future accomplishments, boys!

Student teacher, Mr. Senning. Photo by Brandon Toledo

Senior Ron Zelenrich. Photo by Stephen Lynch

Senior Andy Resignac and junior Brian Picone. Photo by Jakob Woods

WIZARDS RECOGNIZED IN SECTION

BY JAKOB WOODS !The Wizards boys basketball season came to an end a couple of weeks ago, but they are still winning. Recently, the coaches in class AA had their annual meeting to vote on awards for the past season. Washingtonville had two of their own players win awards. Junior, Brian Picone, was selected to the Section IX class AA all-star team, which includes 12 of the best players in the section. !

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EDITORIALSLET THE MADNESS BEGIN!

BY JACK JENNINGS !It’s that time of year again, March, and for most sports fans that means only one thing. College Basketball. Not only is this a time of possibilities, it’s a time of heartbreak. This mixture of heartache and opportunity gives the fan a chance to experience a moment of total exuberance and escape from their everyday troubles. The shortest second of gut-wrenching anticipation during timeouts; the moment when the best player on the team hits the big shot; the pain of losing in the final seconds on the game. This is what sports offers to us all the time and it’s what keeps us coming back. !College basketball is something that I’ve grown up watching and often found myself yelling at the television. Being from New York I’m expected to be a die-hard Syracuse, but for some reason I’ve always loved the UConn Huskies. That’s beside the point though. The Big East is what really fascinated me and up until recently I never realized the true complexity that it was. I recently saw a film on ESPN called “Requiem for the Big East” which is apart the ESPN weekly 30 for 30 films. In this film it explains the enigma that is the Big East. !The Big East was created in 1979 by a man with the name David Gavitt. Previous to this time the East coast was not a part of mainstream collegiate sports because they weren’t within any of the “powerhouse conferences.” These conferences included the Big 10, ACC, SEC most of which out West and left East coast schools in the dust. The East coast teams were independent and would have to set up their own games, often not getting enough fans to attend. Mr. Gavitt knew something had to be done and being the head coach of Providence he decided to make a change. He held a meeting with 9 schools to set up a conference of their own. 2 schools declined the offer, Holy Cross and Rutgers. The other 7 thought it was a fantastic idea and realized that it was time for these East coast teams to join in on the fun. And so it was Providence, Georgetown, Syracuse, St. John’s, Seton Hall, and Boston College would all make up the Big East. !So they had the conference, now all they needed was big time players, a T.V contract to show the games, and of course fans to go support the teams. Gavitt realized that the only way they would survive is to start recruiting talent; Lucky for him talent is exactly what New York City had and they had a lot of it.

What better place to recruit basketball players than the playgrounds on New York. A young white kid from Brooklyn named Chris Mullin was the spark Gavitt needed. After much convincing Mullin decided to attend St. John’s; this was a big step for the conference, but it still had a ways to go. !All they needed was one big player and they would be big time, and Patrick Ewing was exactly that. He gave the conference instant credibility and brought a reputation for toughness. Not only would Ewing outplay any player, he would outhustle and usually rough up the competition. This toughness was on that propelled every team in the conference to the top. The Big East instantly became a household name within college basketball, and of course this meant a big amount of money. More fans lead to more games and more games lead to bigger venues to play. !All throughout the 70’s and 80’s the conference could not be matched and was on the up and up. More schools joined and the popularity began to skyrocket, but all good things have to come to an end. Last year in 2013 one of the original schools, Syracuse announced it was leaving the Big East and joining the ACC. This was a shock to most as you can imagine and left many questions unanswered. Unfortunately, like many other things, once one goes many follow. A couple more schools have announced they would leave as well. As Americans we love the underdog and love hearing a story of something coming up from nothing. Essentially this is exactly what the Big East accomplished Although, it’s hard to tell how much longer it will be around for, it offered the fans a great show of athleticism and memory. These memories will live on in the hearts of those who love them and that’s all that matters.

ST. ABSENT DAY BY DANIEL SANIN !

On Tuesday, March 17th (St. Patrick’s Day), student’s attendance in this school was lower than average. Significantly. That’s because many members of the student body travelled down to New York City to attend the St. Paddy’s Day Parade. !Hundreds of thousands of people attend the parade each year, even if they are not Irish, because on St. Patrick’s Day, “Everyone is Irish in the Big Apple!” Marching up 5th Avenue in the city on this Irish holiday has been a tradition for 254 years. It’s this country’s oldest Irish tradition. !Every March 17th at about 11 A.M., marchers gather to walk 35 blocks, starting on 44th Street, passing landmarks like St. Patricks Cathedral on 50th Street and the Irish Historical Society on 79th Street, where the parade ends at around 5 o’clock that night.

Yet back here at Washingtonville High School, students were missing everywhere. Was this an excuse to get out of class and visit the city? Or are people actually celebrating their heritage and the Irish heritage in this country? !Some teachers see it as the students excuse to not show up. Ms. Bastian for instance, a Statistics teacher, was missing half of her students. “Well they’re the one’s missing out” said Bastian. “If they want to skip they can skip, I’ll still be here with my students” she said due to the upcoming test that the class was studying for. !While many people believe that this was just an excuse, it is still a very traditional and celebrated holiday in our country. Americans are proud of their individual heritages, and this day is merely another example of that. !So while students who still went to school missed out on one of the biggest celebrations of the year, those students who missed school missed out on some important lessons and school events.

IGNORANCE CAUSES INTOLERANCE BY HANNAH SHEBOY !

Harlan Ellison once said, “You are not entitled to your opinion. You are entitled to your informed opinion. No one is entitled to be ignorant.” !Ignorance is the root of injustice. !Recently, in Pine Bush, there has been a flood of intolerance that is fueled by ignorance. This is not uncommon in Pine Bush. The school district is currently being sued for anti-semitic harassment that occurred in the district last year. !In Pine Bush, to celebrate National Foreign Language Week, the Pledge of Allegiance was supposed to be read aloud in different language s each day for a week. !But, to the consternation of many Pine Bush residents, the Pledge was recited in Arabic on Wednesday. !The response that many people had was perplexing. !Some students sat down, others cat-called, and many students didn’t think there was anything wrong.

Then a battle broke out on Twitter between students who were outraged and thought the school should apologize and students who thought that there was nothing wrong. !The majority of people who were upset by the reading either lost family members in the recently war in Afghanistan, or were Jewish. !But here are where the issues lie; Arabic is not one of the major languages spoken in Afghanistan. The two most common languages spoken in Afghanistan are Dari and Pashto. Therefore, this reason to disapprove of the reading is invalid. It is rooted in ignorance and blind intolerance. !Although, Arabic is the main language spoken in Palestine, it is not ‘ok’ to grow angry at the use of a language. It is ignorance, of each other’s beliefs, cultures, history and humanity that has allowed the conflict between Palestine and Israel to perpetuate. !The condemning of an ancient language will not bring back relatives who have died in the Middle East. It will also not end the conflict over ancient lands. !By allowing its policies to be dictated by perpetual ignorance, Pine Bush schools missed a beautiful opportunity to teach their students about one of the most spoken languages in the world and the human beings that speak Arabic. !Pine Bush should have allowed the National Foreign Language Week festivities to continue. Instead, they allowed ignorance to continue in their local community and in the global community. We should not be afraid to shake off our blissful ignorance in order to truly understand the people and the world around us.

Meet the Editorial Staff for Wizards Weekly and search “#WIZARDNATION” on iTunes to listen to their podcasts.

Liana Bratro is the current Editor-in-Chief for Wizards Weekly and a senior at Washingtonville High School. She is one of the newbies around these halls as she transferred here last year and remained under the radar. This year she is a dedicated member of the Yearbook and Wizards Against Cancer Club. She is a hardcore music and concert lover. Bratro has dreams of majoring in communications/journalism and someday writing a New York Times #1 Bestseller. #WIZARDNATION

Katherine O’Leary is a senior at Washingtonville High School, who plans on graduating this June and next year is going to further her education at a 4-year University. O’Leary is a Wizards cheerleader, wanna-be southern belle and Bachelor enthusiast. She loves dogs, warm weather, swimming, and watching football & baseball. #WIZARDNATION

Daniel Sanin will be attending SUNY Albany in the fall of 2015, and is planning on majoring in communications & media or social welfare and minoring in business. Purple and gold are his favorite colors, so that’s convenient. He’s been part of Masque and Mime here at WHS for his entire four years of high school and plans on continuing a similar tradition up at college. College will also consist of every Mario Kart game in existence. #WIZARDNATION

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MEET THE STAFFMatt Mendez is a senior at Washingtonville High School who aims to get a career in accounting or journalism. He wants to become the greatest DJ of all time by the age of 22. Matt spends his time after school practicing his DJing skills and playing whatever sport is out there.Matt hopes to go to a four year university to pursue his career.#WIZARDNATION

Jakob Woods is a senior at Washingtonville High School. He was a varsity football and basketball captain for your Wizards. He loves to talk and play all types of sports. He will soon be playing football in college. The college that he chooses is still unknown but he will decide soon. He also enjoys hanging with friends and playing video games. #WIZARDNATION

Brandon Toledo is a senior at Washingtonville High school. He is planning on attending a 4 year college to pursue his career in cyber security. He wrestled throughout High school. He loves to watch soccer on the weekends. He likes to DJ on his spare time as well. #WIZARDNATION