CVU Celebrations

Dear CVU Community,

This week, I was reminded of something I used to say to my sister’s kids when they were little—what became known as the “Aunt Katherine Rules”:
1. Be safe. 2. Have fun. 3. No whining.

With the exception of Rule #3 (though it still kind of applies!), that’s basically the message we shared with the seniors this morning.

Today was one of those “first lasts” for the Class of 2025—their last Red Friday as CVU students. It’s all starting to feel real. Next week, they’ll share their Exit Experiences with families, advisors, and friends. Then comes Prom, Assessment Week, RISE, and all the graduation events leading up to June 13th.

What we encouraged them to do was simple: Be present. Soak it all in. Stay safe. Make memories. This stretch goes by fast, and it’s full of moments worth paying attention to.

We’ve absolutely loved being on this ride with the Class of 2025. And as things pick up speed, we’re here to help make the last few weeks meaningful, fun, and a little less overwhelming. Let’s enjoy this time together while it lasts.

Thank you, Rahn, for sharing your message with our seniors to take care of each other. (shown here with senior Abby Usher)

5/5 - Rising Juniors - Junior Parking Lottery opens

5/9 - Senior Exit Experiences, Grades 9-11 No classes

5/5-5/16 - AP Exams

5/17 - Prom

5/21-5/28 - Wrap-Up Week

5/29 - 6/11 - RISE

6/13 - Graduation

Hello CVU! This is Mira. This week, we had the pleasure of interviewing 6 committee applicants for next year. We conducted the interviews during our normal student council meeting and were blown away by the thoughtful answers and poise of all of the 10th graders we interviewed. Putting yourself out there is a hard thing to do, and it did not go unnoticed. We also geared up for educator appreciation week, which will start on Monday. Lastly, we are finishing up the week with Class President Speeches and Elections. Have a great weekend, Hawks!

From Adrian Walther: 10th grade Humanities students celebrating each other‘s work in the form of a gallery walk; some incredible visual metaphors about the novel The Underground Railroad!

On Friday before break, Visco’s Spanish class went to Parkside to eat and practice ordering food in Spanish. According to the staff “¡hicieron muy buen trabajo con el español!”

Each year, second-semester Principles of Business students put their skills into action by launching and managing their own micro-businesses. Twelve student teams collaborate to apply marketing, management, and leadership principles, all while raising funds for a cause of their choice.

Click the link to learn more about their projects and how you can support them. For any questions, please contact Tamie-Jo Dickinson. PRINCIPLES OF BUSINESS MICRO PROJECTS

The Junior Prom will be held on May 17th from 7-11 pm at The Prindle Barn in Hinesburg, VT. Tickets are for sale ($40.00 cash or check payable to CVU) in the House Offices.

Attention Juniors and Seniors:

Below you will find information about guest passes for your upcoming Junior Prom.

• If you want to bring a guest from CVU that is not a current junior or senior, that is fine.
• If you want to bring a guest from another high school, please remember to pick up a guest form in your house office. They need to be filled out and returned by Wednesday May 14th.
• If you want to bring a 2024 CVU graduate, you will also need to pick up a guest form, have it filled out and return it by May 14th.

Questions? Please reach out to Leanne Morton, Class of 2026 Advisor (lmorton@cvsdvt.org).

From Emily McLean: The CVU Photo Club is excited to announce the winners of our 5th contest of the 2024-25 school year. The themes for this contest were Long Exposure and Double Exposure. You can view the winning entries HERE. Congratulations to Hayden Careau, Roni Csizmadia, Piper Ingersoll, George Francisco, Jack Snyder, and Phoenix Voorhies. Thank you to all of the participants.

From Charlie MacFadyen: CVU junior Clay Nicholson was featured this week on WCAX for his award-winning science fair project. Starting last summer in Hack Club, and continuing the work in the CVU Nexus program, he created a computer model to aid in the medical diagnoses of pancreatic tumors. Clay is heading to Columbus, Ohio as a finalist in the International Science and Engineering Fair. Also featured in the piece is Troy Paradee from Nexus. https://www.wcax.com/2025/04/29/cvu-student-takes-cancer-research-science-project-next-level/?utm_source=taboola&utm_medium=organicclicks&tbref=hp

From Lena Kirillova: The Kirillova/Booth Advisory Olympic Games are well underway for the 2025 season! Today, students competed in hex stacking, delicately balancing hex nut on top of hex nut to make a stack as quickly as possible.

Pictured (left to right): Luke Buehler & Owen Christman.

Welding skills on display in the Innovation and Design Lab.

From Dave Trevithick: Six members of the Shothawks, Connor Denis, Michael Denis, Alden Looft, Gabe Merrill, Sean Maynard and Cameron Juiffre went to Burlington, Massachusetts for the Scholastic Clay Target Program's Regional Shoot. They shot great and had a wonderful time! Gabe, Alden and Michael were the 2nd place JV squad and Connor was 2nd place Intermediate. They were coached by Art Greenbaum, Tom Blair and Brett Allaire. On May 10th, they will be hosting a Future's Shoot Fundraiser at the North Country Sportsman's Club in Williston.

From Marie DiBenedetto: Collage Club - a club where we make collages while listening to EDM has had a fabulous year. Edgar Cohen, our fearless Senior leader, recruited many new members. The kiddos have made impressive art while jamming and connecting. Thank you to Jenny for making promotional materials and to both Ace and Amy Wardwell for providing magazines throughout the year.

From Katie Kuntz: Students in Holocaust and Modern Genocide and Fundamentals English classes were lucky enough to hear Tom Glaser speak about his family and their survival of the Holocaust. We also wrote on leaves which will be sent to the Vermont Holocaust Memorial and placed on their tree. The Memorial is trying to collect 1.5 million leaves to represent the 1.5 million children murdered during the Holocaust. We thank Tom for his bravery in telling his family story!

From Juanita Galloway: Iron Chef Dishes Coming to the Cafeteria!

This Monday, May 5th, the CVU cafeteria will be serving up the winning recipes from this year’s Jr. Iron Chef competition! Come try the flavorful, creative dishes that earned the Crowd Pleaser and Lively Local awards. Big shoutout to our amazing student chefs and their coaches for representing CVU with such heart, skill, and spice!

Tikka Masala with Spiced Naan

Brown Butter Shiitake Mushroom Rice Bowl

Plus — Support our Jr. Iron Chef teams all week long!
We’ll be running a raffle fundraiser during lunch every day next week (5/5-5/8) with fun prizes up for grabs. Don’t miss your chance to support the teams and win something great!

Design Tech MAKERS Finishing Up Cool Projects!

Students in Olaf Verdonk's Woods classes made some cool customized star-gazing chairs

From Henry Lang: LEGO Challenge: Designing for Social Change

Fairbanks CORE Humanities students tackled real-world injustices through imaginative design. Each group analyzed community assets, barriers, and stakeholders for situations outlined in Bryan Stevenson's Just Mercy. Then, they built LEGO structures to explore their views toward juvenile sentencing.

From Henry Lang: Dodgeball Tournament

Thanks to all teams who participated in the annual CVU Dodgeball Tournament to benefit the Class of 2028. Stay tuned for another tournament in November!

RoboHawks Compete In Robotics World Championships

The RoboHawks recently spent a week in Houston to compete in the First Tech Challenge World Championships along with 256 of the best teams from around the world. This is the fourth consecutive time the RoboHawks have attended! Over 50,000 spectators attended the World Championships in the massive George R. Brown Convention Center.

The RoboHawks had their best showing yet, placing 30th within their division—the highest placement of any Vermont team ever! They won 5 of their 10 matches, and they are looking forward to continuing their streak next season.

Come check out the World Championship robot in room 154! Talk to Olaf Verdonk (overdonk@cvsdvt.org) to learn more about the program and how you can join the RoboHawks journey.

Thank you - Clay Nicholson

Hello Students! This summer we will be offering two sections of Summer Personal Fitness during the month of July. These sections will only run if there is adequate enrollment, so please reach out to your friends and invite them to join you in your chosen section! The abbreviated summer schedule means that you will be expected to attend all classes in order to earn credit for the course. We will confirm that your section is running in mid-May so that you can plan for your summer.

We collect a fee for our summer courses to help support this program. If you are in need of financial support in order to take Summer Personal Fitness, please reach out to your school counselor or to Monica Carter (mcarter@cvsdvt.org) and we will assist you.

REGISTRATION FOR SUMMER PERSONAL FITNESS IS OPEN THROUGH MAY 7th

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER

After registering, please bring a check made payable to CVU with the student’s name in the memo line to Debbie Seaton in the Chittenden House Office.

Summer Personal Fitness (Bliss)

Summer Personal Fitness offers students a short but intense dive into the process of building skills to successfully set and achieve their own fitness goals. In-person learning will be designed to test and experience different avenues of fitness and to set personal goals for growth around fitness. Asynchronous learning activities will be designed to track progress on self-created SMART goals. Students will end the course with the knowledge, skills and confidence to enjoy a lifetime of healthful physical activity. Students of all fitness ability levels are encouraged to sign up for this course! Participants can expect to move and be active each and every day. Participants can also expect to experience new and exciting fitness activities along the way!

Session 2:

7/21/25 - 7/31/25 8:30am-12:00pm

0.5 Physical Education Credit

Fee: $300

Happy Administrative Professionals Day (4/23) to: Julie Bevins, Lauren Courcelle, Alisa Craft, Carol Fox, Sue Jipner, Colleen McSweeney, Julie Mincar, Debbie Seaton, Meghan Tatro, Bridget Thomas, Heather Walpole and Jessamyn Walker!!

Help Us Celebrate CVU Teachers!

Teacher Appreciation Week is coming up May 5th–12th, and we need your help to make it special! We’re assembling gift baskets, snacks, and lots of cheer to show our gratitude, and there are a few ways you can pitch in:

Know a business that might donate? We’re looking for small gifts or treats to include in the baskets—please reach out to any local businesses you know! Please email friendsofcvu@cvsdvt.org with the business name so we don’t double-ask. Feel free to edit & use the donation letter.

Ideas: Cheese, soap, plant seeds, gift cards, food, maple syrup, flowers…

Provide snacks! We’re also gathering snacks to fuel our hardworking educators throughout the week.

Click here to sign-up!

Don’t have time? Donate money so we can purchase needed items. Use the PayPal QR code. →

Every little bit makes a big difference! If you can help, sign-up or email friendsofcvu@cvsdvt.org.

Thank you for supporting our amazing CVU teachers!

CVU’s Harkness Student Leaders cordially invite you to a night of community discussion.

Join a Timeless & Timely Discussion at the Socrates Cafe

How does our understanding of time influence how we live? Students, families, community and more are encouraged to join the student-led community discussion about this topic at the 2025 Socrates Cafe.

Monday, May 12

6:30-8:00 pm

CVU Library

“Socrates Cafe is incredibly special in the way that it provides a rare opportunity to gather with a diverse group of community members and communicate in a safe and supported environment, allowing all participants to not only connect but find curiosity in possible new perspectives,” says CVU junior Emma Jean Armstrong. “At the end of the discussion, every contributor walks away with an experience that has either shifted, added to, or confirmed their original thoughts.”

Learn more here and fill out this form if you’re interested in attending. We will try to cap the event at 80 participants.

Reach out to Brad Miller at bmiller@cvsdvt.org with questions.
Snacks and drinks provided by the generous support of the Rowland Foundation.