
CISL Newsletter
June 2024

An Amazing End to the 2023-2024 School Year for CISL Students and Families
Goodbye Letter from Mrs. Terenchin
Dear CISL Students, Families, and Guardians,
It has been an absolute honor and a pleasure to serve as your CISL Coordinator for the past two years. For those of you who still have not yet heard, I will be resigning at the end of June as your CISL Specialty Program Coordinator in order to rejoin the Hylton High School Social Studies Team full-time! I originally applied to be your specialty program coordinator not because I was truly ready to leave teaching but because I was worried about the CISL program, its enrollment was down significantly, our turnout at CISL events was dwindling, and I was worried that a program that I know makes a significant difference in the lives of our students would disappear if we did not make significant changes. Only a short two-years and many significant changes later I am confident that this program is back on the right path.
Our program enrollment and retention numbers are up and have almost doubled over the past two years. We have a full and vibrant student CISL Committee poised and ready to lead for the 2024-2025 school year and an equally passionate and devoted CISL Parent/Guardian/Booster Team that I know are ready to advocate for this program and for our students. In the past two-years we have re-aligned the CISL points values, increased program retention and engagement in all of our CISL major and minor events. We have reassured our two longest lasting exchanges and simplified the pathways of the CISL program all while maintaining and even increasing the rigor and high expectations of excellence of the program's initial intentions. More of our students than ever are fulfilling the fullest program requirements, congratulations by the way CISL Class of 2024 on becoming the second most decorated class in CISL's illustrious history!
There is still more work that needs to be done, so I'm calling on all of the Class of 2025, 2026, 2027, and future 2028 CISL students, parents, guardians, and families to give Ms. Lennon (introduction below) your new Hylton CISL Coordinator your full support as she works to carry on and continue to rebuild the size, scale, and impact of our beloved CISL program both within Hylton and within our larger community.
If you have made it this far through my goodbye letter, thank you for all of your support and patience over the last two years. Please don't forget to check out all of the important updates for the CISL program as we work towards the end of the year contained in this newsletter!
Please know that I will miss you all, it has been an honor to serve as your Coordinator, but dear current CISL students I'm only going to be a few hallways away and I will hope to see you in a social studies class soon! Oh, and if any students are interested, I'm proud to be the faculty sponsor relaunching the Hylton High School Model UN Team next year!
Yours Always,
Mrs. T.
Current CISL Coordinator (till June 21st 2024)
Did you Miss the CISL Banquet? Check out our CISL Accomplishments in 2023-2024:
This year we:
- Welcomed and hosted nine of the most incredible foreign exchange students from: Spain, Italy, France, Germany, and Japan!
- Secured and reassured our two longest lasting foreign exchanges!
- Hosted 25 students from Lycee Montchapet in Dijon, France this fall. Making sure that they had an incredible experience.
- Mrs. Maddox, Mr. Troyer, and I had the pleasure of taking 12 intrepid travelers to visit our sister school Lavinia Mondin in Verona, Italy this past March.
- Hosted 23 Italian students from our Italian sister school this spring!
- Met twice as a whole group to talk about CISL upcoming events, to talk about how to get involved, to eat share a meal, and to do international crafts!
- Maintained an expanded the size of our CISL Student Leadership Committee!
- Held an incredible CISL tailgate this year in which we enjoyed international music and cuisine from all over the world. More than 50 families brought dishes to share!
- Participated in the US Freedomwalk Festival, manning the first checkpoint and greeting walkers from many countries of the world.
- Held the largest CISL Book Clubs ever with support from our boosters in which we pushed ourselves to understand more about the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Afghanistan!
- Hosted 8 culture chats where guest speakers gave presentations about different cultures and countries from all over the globe!
- In December we raised more than $650 to fight back against human trafficking through our Dressember events!
- In December we also raised and donated more than $4,250 to purchase supplies to pack more than 10,800 meals for students, families, and individuals in schools and hospitals around the globe. Then we came together and spent a Friday night actively, packing more than 10,800 meals in less than two.
- Next December we are looking forward to partnering with OxFam to host an OxFam Hunger Banquet to educate and raise funds to continue to fight food insecurity in the world!
- Our students participated and volunteered in Multicultural Nights across the division always making a positive impression no matter where they went.
- Hosted seven incredible completely student committee led General Meetings this year. We did a lot of internationally themed crafts this year which students seemed to enjoy!
- Held an incredible 26th Annual CISL Conference this March with the incomparable Mrs. Kyo Dolan of the United States Secret Service, and students, members of the community, faculty members led more than 16 different sessions on international topics.
- Organized and sponsored Hylton’s 15th Annual International Night or I-Night. Only our second since the pandemic. It was an incredible night because we helped bring to the stage incredible cultural performances, shared international cuisine table displays, and an international fashion show.
- Next year I am also proud to say we will welcome the largest group of CISL students in more than 4 years!
- One of our CISL Juniors, Samantha Halander earned the prestigious Congress-Bundestag Youth Exchange (CBYX) Scholarship this year and has successfully completed a year-long exchange in Germany and will be returning for her senior year! Congratulations Samantha!
- One of our CISL Sophomores, Sasha Mashood is a National Security Language Initiative for Youth (NSLI-Y) State Department Scholar. She will be studying Arabic in Jordan this summer! Congratulations Sasha!
What an incredible year we had!
Final Parent & Guardian Meeting of the Year
CISL Parents and Guardians please join us at Uncle Julio's in Stonebridge Town Center at 7:00 pm tomorrow, Monday, June 3rd to celebrate all of our hard work and success this year!
Congratulations to the 2024-2025 CISL Committee
Vice President: Saniyah Brooks
Secretary: Angelo Arce
Projects Director for Out-of-Country Events: Chloé Mitchell
Projects Director for In-Country Events: Alexandra Perot
Public Relations: Sophia Kona and Beulah Sarsah
Interactive Activity Coordinators: Autumn Brown and Fatima Zaraket
Senior Class Representatives: Cesar Castro-Delgado, Samantha Halendar, Eva Lazo, Jarely Vela Gonzalez, and Alexa Zarkauskas
Junior Class Representatives: Meklit Asfaw and Sasha Mashood
Sophomore Class Representatives: Ahna Boyce, Abigail Mejia, Valentina Nunez, Antonella Olmos Carrasco, Padma Reilly, Adriana Webster
Didn't gain a seat on CISL Committee this round? Don't give up, we will hold elections again in the fall and we will be looking for 1 Senior Representative, 4 Junior Representatives, and 6 Freshmen Representatives!
Meet Your New CISL & Specialty Program Coordinator: Ms. Lennon!
Ms. Lennon grew up in Lansdale, Pennsylvania, but has lived in Virginia for the last fourteen years. She has taught Spanish for the last eight years at Battlefield High School. Before that, she taught at Gar-Field for six years, and for two years at a middle school in Pennsylvania.
Ms. Lennon graduated from Millersville University with a degree in Spanish Education, and earned her Masters in Administration and Supervision from Averett University. In her free time, she likes spending time with her husband, going to baseball games (She's a Phillies fan!), reading, traveling, and relaxing at home.
Ms. Lennon will officially become your new CISL & Specialty Program Coordinator on July 15, 2024.
Congratulations and welcome to Hylton and CISL Ms. Lennon!
CISL Points: How to Log Them Using X2VOL
If You’ve Never Logged Into Your X2Vol Account Start Here:
Step 1: Go to X2Vol.com
Step 2: In the top right corner click on Login
Step 3: Click on New User
Step 4: Click on complete registration under the “my school instructed me to complete my registration
Step 5: Now it says find your school type in “Hylton” into the search bar on the screen and click “Search”
Step 6: Now under “Account Lookup” Type in your Last Name and Student ID number and hit Search
Step 7: Answer the questions it asks and set up your password. Make sure you remember this password so that you can get back into your account
Video Instructions- How to login to your X2VOL Account for the 1st Time!
How to Log CISL Points Once You've Logged Into X2VOL:
Step 1: Go to X2Vol.com
Step 2: In the top right corner click on Login
Step 3: Enter your PWCS email and your password and click Sign In
Step 4: Click Find Opportunities
Step 5: Scroll through the list and click on “Add to My Opportunities” for anything that you have done and would like to log points
Step 6: Now scroll back up to the top of the screen and click “My Activity Log”
Step 7: Click “Add Hours” (Remember in X2Vol, “hours” is their term for “points”)
Step 8: Answer the questions as you go down the form
· Under Claim Hours Section
- Put the Date of the Activity & for “Hours” put how many “Points” you are requesting
- In this section make sure you upload proof of attendance if it isn’t a school sponsored event
- Ex: if trying to claim points for global travel, we need an image of a ticket stub or picture of attendance there is a section that says Add files as attachments
- Not needed for school sponsored events because we at CISL monitor and sponsors (librarians, club sponsors, and CISL Coordinator) can verify attendance through sign-in sheets, QR codes, event rosters, etc.
- Here is also where you can add a reflection (remember reflections increase your points values)- what did you learn, what challenged you, what did you take away from the experience?
- Under Apply Hours to Goals
- Make sure you check the button next to apply to all non-exclusive goals
- Check the box saying that the hours “points” you are submitting are accurate and the details are truthful
Step 9: Hit the submit button
Video Instructions: How to Log CISL Points once you are in your X2VOL Account!
Frequently Asked Questions about CISL Points
Question: I don't see anywhere to log "points" just a request for "hours". What do I do?
The truth is you're right X2VOL doesn't have a way for us to change the word in the system from "hours" to "points" but we don't really look at hours we look at points in CISL. Points values may be and often are higher than the number of hours of the event because they are based on the level of contribution and potential impact of that event on yourself and on the community. So, where it says hours in the system please request the number of points that you would like. And, don't panic, the coordinator can override the number of "points" you've requested to help you out. So, if you requested 7 points for CISL Conference because that's how many hours you were at conference the coordinator will override to give you at least 15 points plus up to 5 additional points for reflections.
Question: What if I haven't logged points for things I've done in other years.
Not to worry, CISL Points never expire, just try to log them before you forget about all of the great things you've done!
Question: Do I need proof or pictures?
Yes, and no, for Hylton clubs and CISL events the answer is typically no because we often collect attendance records through sign-in sheets and microsoft forms (book clubs, culture chats, club meetings, CISL General Meetings, Conference, etc.).
However, with events where we don't take attendance or things that you do outside of Hylton that have furthered your international understanding of language, culture, travel, etc. we do need proof of attendance, a picture of you and or your family, tickets, etc. can help establish and provide proof. Again, this is really only for things you do outside of Hylton and CISL for which you're requesting points.
Question: What if I can't remember exactly when I did something?
It's okay, the truth is put in an approximate date and we'll take it from there.