Three Minuteman Students Create Unique Multi-Themed Project

Left to right - Minuteman High School students Sage Romano, Jen Mills and Ella Doyle with the quilt they created for their SkillsUSA project. Photo by Alice Ofria.

By Judy Bass

LEXINGTON – A team of enterprising students from Minuteman High School has created an intricate, triple-themed project as their entry in the upcoming SkillsUSA State Leadership and Skills Conference which will take place from April 25-27, 2019 in Marlborough, Mass.

SkillsUSA is a national organization that allows students in career and technical education to compete in a host of rigorous technical and leadership competitions. Gold, silver and bronze medals are awarded for first, second, and third place, respectively.

Sage Romano, a senior from Woburn, Jen Mills, a senior from Waltham, and Ella Doyle, a sophomore from Arlington joined forces to do a project that illustrates career and technical education (CTE) promotion, patriotism and citizenship, and community service. All three students are majoring in Environmental Science at Minuteman.

The most visually striking and imaginative part of the students’ project is a seven-foot-by-six-foot quilt they designed and made that features emblems symbolizing various aspects of student life at Minuteman. The impressive quilt, which took two months to complete, came about when the three students sought a few pointers from two Minuteman teachers - Environmental Science instructor Alice Ofria and Visual Arts instructor Erin Bordeau.

After the students’ idea was refined and finalized, the students met with Mrs. Bordeau and sketched out a rough template of the quilt. They bought the fabric that she suggested and cut the squares that were going to be painted on and brought them to school. After they were all finished, the students cut the other squares and sewed the front together at Sage Romano’s house with her mother’s sewing machine. They added the buttons to put the squares together and stitched it together with a binding as a team with Sage’s mother’s help.

The quilt is made out of simple fabrics and the fabric that was used to paint on is white muslin. In the middle is batting and the back is another blue fabric. The quilt is sewn together and pieced by buttons. The materials were purchased from Joann’s Fabrics and the project was funded by Minuteman’s SkillsUSA Advisory Board.

For CTE promotion, the Minuteman team went to Clarke Middle School in Lexington and demonstrated their CTE major, Environmental Science. Sage, Ella and Jen taught the Clarke students about our ecosystem and had each of the Clarke students make an ecojar to represent it.

The ecosystem they made was housed in a biodegradable cup made out of corn, as was the cap. The jar had multiple layers. The first layer was rocks, the second was sand and the third was soil to represent the different types of layers of the Earth. The students added abiotic and biotic factors to represent living organisms and non-living ones like the Earth has. They added mealworms, bark, a small plant, and grass. Finally, they put water in and closed the jars permanently.

After the activity, the three Minuteman students showed the Clarke girls the quilt and explained to them what vocational schools are and how CTE is an option for them when choosing a high school to attend. They explained all the CTE majors at Minuteman and described what being a student there is like.

For the patriotism and citizenship part of the project, the students set up a Valentine’s Day card table during lunches at Minuteman where students could make Valentine’s Day cards for soldiers overseas. The students sent 600 cards they created, along with pieces of candy, to Operation Shoe Box in Florida for distribution to our troops overseas.

The community service portion of the project will entail pulling invasive species and promoting native species growth at the Assabet River National Wildlife Refuge.

Sage said, “I learned many things from doing these three projects. One of the best things I learned is how to get in contact with people and connect with others to do amazing things for our community. I also learned how to make a quilt and work together with my group as a team. I learned so much from them as well.”

Jen observed, “This project was fantastic and a great way to spend my senior year! I loved working so closely with my good friends Ella and Sage. The project taught me how to communicate not only with my peers but also with people I didn’t know. They had the same goal as we did, which is helping others. Throughout all three aspects of the project, we met very generous people willing to guide and support us through the process. It was such a great experience and I am so glad I decided to compete in SkillsUSA.”

Ella had a similar takeaway from the experience. “From this project, I learned how to communicate with teachers and other adults in my community and my team members. I also learned how to work with the community and do things to help other people.”

The two seniors in the group have exciting plans after they graduate from Minuteman in June. Sage will attend Brigham Young University in the fall to study childhood development and take environmental classes. After college, she intends to teach children about environmental science. Jen will attend Mass Maritime Academy this fall and will be in the environmental program there.

Ms. Ofria, the Environmental Science instructor, mentioned her pride in Sage, Jen and Ella and her tremendous excitement about what they are accomplishing.“When this team came to me expressing their interest in the American Spirit competition I was ecstatic! I have been involved with SkillsUSA as a former competitor, and now as an advisor. I know firsthand how much time, effort, and dedication it takes to be successful. The American Spirit competition is comprised of three very intense and time-consuming projects, but I knew this dream team could handle the job. They have gone above and beyond, as usual, and even though all of their projects are underway they are continuing their efforts to build upon the work they’ve done. I am very proud of this group and cannot wait to see how far they go!”

Anyone interested in applying to Minuteman High School is urged to act promptly. Applications for admission are coming in quickly due to the high level of public interest in the new, state-of-the-art Minuteman High School currently under construction. Please visit www.minuteman.org and go to the Admissions tab on the home page.

Minuteman is six months away from moving into a $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.