Vestal High School students and staff were pleased to host SUNY Broome President Kevin Drumm on Wednesday, November 16, 2016. Dr. Drumm was welcomed by officers of Vestal High School’s Student Government, who welcomed him with his very own Vestal Golden Bears' T-shirt. A comprehensive overview of Vestal High School’s educational program, community efforts, student organizations and collaborations with other local schools was presented by Student Government officers Cassie Grossman, Sydney Cogswell, Michelle Anderson and Haashim Shah.
Next, Dr. Drumm enjoyed a walking tour of Vestal High School with special focus on the district’s Project Lead the Way program, STEM curriculum and the Fast Forward classes that Vestal offers as part of the SUNY Broome program that allows Vestal students to earn college credits. Partnering with SUNY Broome in offering Fast Forward classes is yet another way to help our students be better prepared for the transition from high school to college. When Dr. Drumm stopped into a Project Lead the Way class taught by Mike Evans, students were busy with a statistics exercise, calculating the standard deviation for a set of wooden blocks. They were determining the cubes' accuracy in preparation of constructing a puzzle with them.
Next stop was an International Baccalaureate Chemistry classroom, where Tracy Suggs, Vestal High School chemistry chair and New York State Master Teacher, welcomed him as her team of chemistry students prepared to present a Chemistry Magic Show to fourth-graders from Vestal Hills Elementary. Funded by the Vestal School Foundation, the Chemistry Magic Show is a tradition in the district, with many students now presenting the shows recalling that their love of science and chemistry was ignited when they themselves enjoyed the show as fourth-grade students.
The tour continued with introductions to Anatomy & Physiology teacher James Cerra, IB/AP Physics teacher Peter Klimas, also a New York State Master Teacher, and Spanish 5 IB/HL teacher Sandra Flesher. Senora Flesher's course is one of the SUNY Broome Fast Forward classes. Next, Dr. Drumm was welcomed into Carol Reynolds C++ classroom, another SUNY Broome Fast Forward course (Computer Science IB/AP/SL). While he was there, students were intently working in C++ Visual Studio.
The other Fast Forward courses that Vestal High School offers are French 5 IB/HL and Graphic Design. The last classroom Dr. Drumm visited was the art room of Melissa Restuccia, Vestal Art Department Chair. She shared with him how she is structuring her Introduction to Computer Graphics course as part of the Fast Forward program.
The invitation to tour Vestal High School was extended to Dr. Drumm to continue the district’s initiative to build partnerships in the community and cultivate more opportunities for our students. We thank him for his time and attention as we showcased how our team of administrators, teachers and guidance staff are working together to present Fast Forward courses at Vestal High School.