Minuteman Students Design Materials for aCATpella Festival

By Judy Bass

For the third consecutive year, students in Design and Visual Communications (DVC) at Minuteman High School in Lexington have created publicity materials for an event that serves two noteworthy purposes - honoring an Arlington teen who lost her life to sarcoma and raising awareness and money to fight this rare form of cancer.

Several Minuteman juniors who are students of DVC teacher Maria Galante designed postcards, tickets and the event program for “A CATpella: A Festival to Belt Out Cancer,” which will be held on Friday, January 25, 2019 at Lowe Auditorium at Arlington High School, located at 869 Mass. Ave. in Arlington. General admission tickets are $20. More information is available at www.catherinemalatesta.com/a-catpella-festival.

The occasion honors Catherine “Cat” Malatesta, a 16-year-old girl from Arlington who lost her battle with sarcoma in 2015 less than a year after being diagnosed with the disease.

Catherine’s mother, Jennifer Goodwin, described the purpose of the Catherine J. Malatesta Foundation, a non-profit 501(c)(3) charitable organization. “The Foundation’s mission is to save the lives of cancer patients, with an emphasis on children, and to inspire hope and lend support to the families and patients caring for, living with and surviving cancer,” said Catherine’s mother, Jennifer Goodwin. “This will be accomplished by funding scientific research, raising awareness through fundraising events and providing grants to organizations dedicated to early detection, finding a cure, and optimizing the patient care and family experience during and after their cancer journey. Currently, the ‘a CATpella Festival to Belt Out Cancer’ is the primary source of funding for the Catherine J. Malatesta Foundation. Recipients of grants from the Catherine J. Malatesta Foundation may include the Sarcoma Foundation of America, The Dana Farber Cancer Institute, The Broad Institute, Team Impact, The Children's Room, and so forth.”

She explained why she has returned to Minuteman for three years in a row to design the publicity materials for this event. “Catherine died at the age of 16. The juniors in the Minuteman Design and Visual Communications program are also 16. Catherine would very much appreciate that students are creating these marketing and promotional pieces. I have returned to Minuteman for the third year because I love the creativity from a 16-year- old's perspective. I love that through this event we are providing Minuteman students with real-life work experience. I love that this partnership works so well for both parties.”

Ms. Galante, the students’ teacher, feels that the experience is especially meaningful because it helps familiarize them with the process of collaborating with a client, as well as with each other. “When students are out working,” she said, “they will work with others in a team environment and this project has multiple components that foster teamwork. It also provides the opportunity for students to work together as an entire group and then as small groups for the individual items.

Ms. Galante continued, “Jennifer comes in to speak with the students and they ask her important questions that guide the visual solution to the project. She provides valuable feedback in the beginning and along the entire process, which is reflective of a designer and client relationship. I like to think that Jennifer comes back because not only do the students do a great job, but they enjoy working with her and she directly contributes to their creativity and portfolio.”

DVC junior Emma Leone, of Lancaster, said, "This project hits close to our class, for we are currently juniors, and aCATpella honors Cat, who was a junior in high school before she passed three years ago. It really puts a perspective on our own lives and that cancer can affect anyone."

Ms. Goodwin agreed, stating, “I think the magic of this partnership with Minuteman is that the students have an emotional connection with Catherine's life and untimely death and that shines through in their ideas. The students produce such top quality and highly professional work. We consider ourselves very fortunate to have discovered and to be able to continue this partnership.”

Minuteman is eight months away from moving into a new $145M facility that has been designed to support a robust college and career academy model. The academy model was adopted by staff and administration to create smaller “schools within a school” thereby promoting more personalized learning founded upon close relationships between students and teachers. The Minuteman college and career academy model integrates rigorous academics with relevant technical programming in occupational areas providing individual economic opportunity. The new facility will accommodate project-based learning across disciplines, requiring students to learn how to work on a diverse team, solve problems and think critically. These are essential 21st-century skills that students practice and apply in a variety of school-based and work-based environments.

As an accredited member of the New England Association of Schools & Colleges (NEASC), Minuteman inspires all students to attain their full potential, accelerate their learning, and become purposeful citizens in the global community.