The AC Blog

Reflecting on a Year of Music Making at AC

Posted on May 19th, 2017 by klapa

Allendale Columbia’s music students have been active throughout the school year in many different county events. The students who participated in these events rehearsed on their own time to prepare their music, had extra lessons with music faculty, and gave up their weekend time to participate in an ensemble. Their participation shows a high level of commitment to their musical learning, and they all did a great job representing AC!

We began the year with the All State Festival. Catherine Kennedy was chosen to participate in the Jazz Chorus, a select group of 24 students from across the state. They performed in December in Eastman Theater to a packed house. Catherine was featured with a scat-solo in one of the pieces. Catherine was later selected to participate in the All-Eastern Music Festival, which features the best singers from the East Coast. This is the first time an AC student has been selected for this ensemble. She traveled to Atlantic City in April to join a choir of 350 singers for four days of music making.

The month of March was full of Monroe County Festivals. Rebecca McQuilken was selected based on her high Solo Festival score to be in the Monroe County School Music Association (MCSMA) All County Jazz Chorus, an honor she also received last year. Though the festival was cancelled because of the wind storm, Becky is hoping to teach one of the pieces to AC’s Select Chorus next year.

The Middle School MCSMA All County Festival was full of AC students; six students represented AC in the choir and one AC flutist was in the band. The chorus students (Cynara Nelson, Michelina Nicodemous, Brynn Peters, Jonathan Ragan, Gunnar Rorapaugh, and Grace Rundberg) joined 113 other students to fill out the choir. Grace was also chosen to sing a solo in the beginning of the piece, “Coming Home.” Middy Vella participated in the Junior High All County Band’s flute section, an honor she earned through her performance of a challenging level-V solo at the January MCSMA solo festival.

Elementary All County followed shortly after Middle School. Lilah Costanzo was selected as the first-chair French Horn player in the band, making this her second year to earn this position. Nathan Roof and Andy Clinton were selected to participate in the chorus and spent two days with over 150 other students in the chorus.

The year concluded with the PEAK (Parents, Educators, and Kids) General Music Festival at Spencerport High School. Adrianna Williams and Ethan Truong both participated in the festival along with 124 other fourth-grade students from across the county. They enjoyed a full day of music making and performed a short concert at the end of the day.

This year was was full of music making both on and off campus. Congratulations to our talented students on all they’ve accomplished!

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Crazy Year For Maple Sugaring

Posted on March 17th, 2017 by bguzzetta

It sure has been a crazy start to the maple sugaring year! The weather was up and down, but never up or down long enough to get the sap moving, so we put off tapping but the students were getting antsy. They finally convinced Mrs. Guzzetta to tap one tree to monitor the week before February break.

Needless to say, we barely collected any sap that week, but the weather forecast for break was drastically different and we knew that we were in for a good week so we tapped a few more. Once the vacation week began, the weather got balmy, and the sap started flowing fast and furious. Two eighth grade club leaders came in one day to help tap more trees for a total of about thirty taps. A third club leader, a veteran of three years, was a big help as he came in twice, once with his cousins, to collect the sap that was flowing.

Even with their help, Mrs. Guzzetta was kept busy collecting once or twice a day in order to stay on top of the flow as it appeared that the season was going to be short. By the end of the week we had about 80 gallons in storage and another 15 or so lost to accidental spills or ants.

When the students came back from break, their collecting started back up on a more regular basis. A couple of students were able to help out during their Citizen Science project time as their project pertained to our maple sugaring project, and others stopped in to collect when they could. One of Mrs. Guzzetta’s sixth grade advisees organized the other advisees and collected during advocacy. During this time, the students had their first encounter with a sugar hungry chipmunk who was found patiently sitting in a bucket of sap waiting for the students to rescue him.

Mike Wheeler, whose son is a leader in the maple sugaring club, coordinated with Mrs. Guzzetta and happily volunteered his time, resources, and knowledge to work with some of the club members to build a sugar shack. He oversaw the club members as they sawed, drilled, hammered, and constructed their very first sugar shack that they will reconstruct each year during the sugaring season. This is a huge upgrade from their pop up shelter with no walls that provided minimal protection from the elements. More on this exciting project coming soon.

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AC in the News – Winter 2017

Posted on February 2nd, 2017 by klapa

Check out AC’s recent media coverage below!

Please note that the clips below will display best on desktop or laptop computers as opposed to mobile devices.

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LLE Research Lands Local Teens in Semifinals
for National Science Competition
January 23rd, 2017

Two local teens have earned recognition in the prestigious Regeneron Science Talent Search (formerly the Intel Science Talent Search) for research projects they carried out last summer at the University of Rochester’s Laboratory for Laser Energetics (LLE). AC senior Nathan Morse is among the 300 semifinalists nationwide chosen from more than 1,700 who entered the competition. Click here to read more!

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TEDx Rochester Returns to Illuminate
January 12th, 2017

TEDxAllendaleColumbiaSchool is mentioned as one of the TEDx events taking place in the Rochester area in this Democrat and Chronicle article about the return of TEDxRochester. Click here to read the full story!

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Victor Resident Joins Allendale Columbia School
January 12th, 2017

This article announces John Palomaki’s appointment as Allendale Columbia School’s development and communications associate. In this role, John is responsible for managing the donor database, gift processing, research, reports, and the development and implementation of a social media plan to extend AC’s reach and engagement online. Click here to read more!

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Allendale Columbia Robotics Team Competes in Tournament
December 27th, 2016

AC’s Robotics Team, the Chrononauts, competed in the Finger Lakes FIRST Tech Challenge Tournament at St. John Fisher College. The team placed 15th overall and was awarded the Rockwell Collins Innovate Award, advancing them to the Excelsior NY Regional Championship in February. The Rockwell Collins Innovate Award is given to one team per tournament that thinks outside the box and has the most innovative and creative robot design. Click here to see the full article!

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No Bologna: Lunch Ladies and a Meal Man
Share their Favorite Holiday Recipes
Winter 2017

This article is a reprint of the feature story that appeared in 585 Magazine and highlights Laura Reynolds-Gorsuch, AC’s Food Service Director. In the article, Laura shares her recipe for AC Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies, a favorite among AC faculty, staff, and students. Click here to see!

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High School Athlete of the Week – Addy Flood
December 1st, 2016

This High School Athlete of the Week article and video feature AC junior Adelaide “Addy” Flood. She states that, “This year as a captain, I hope to encourage my team like the seniors last year and the year before encouraged me.” Click here to see!

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Local Teen Performs in Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade
November 24th, 2016

Several news outlets featured AC tenth grader John Phillips as he performed in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. Click the following links to see the coverage from 13WHAM, Time Warner Cable News, and CNYCentral.com.

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Allendale Columbia School’s Production of “Cinderella”
November 15th, 2016

AC students Phelan Conheady and Catherine Kennedy, and ASL Interpreter Steph Regan, appeared on Good Day Rochester to talk about AC’s production of “Cinderella” and the use of sign language during the show. Click here to see the interview!

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Allendale Columbia School to Host Book Event Series
November 11th, 2016

This Brighton-Pittsford Post article highlights AC’s Book Event Series. Throughout the year, AC will host events so that members of the community can discuss the best-selling book about transforming education, Most Likely to Succeed: Preparing Our Kids for the Innovation Era, by Tony Wagner and Ted Dintersmith. Click here to learn more!

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New Hires
November 11th, 2016

This Rochester Business Journal article announces three individuals who joined the AC team this year: Margarita Chaves as a World Language Teacher, John Curatalo as a Physical Education Teacher, and Angie Burch as an Accounting Specialist. Click here to see!

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Author Charles Benoit Visits Allendale Columbia School
November 2nd, 2016

The Brighton-Pittsford Post highlighted AC’s recent author visit by publishing a photo of AC ninth grader Roxana “Roxy” Reisch introducing Greece author Charles Benoit before he presented a talk called “Stuck in High School: Why I Write Young Adult Fiction (and Why You Should Read It)”. Click here to see!

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Allendale Columbia School to Host Open House
November 2nd, 2016

The Brighton-Pittsford Post highlighted AC’s fall open house, at which attendees had the opportunity to meet teachers, students, and administrators and tour the campus. Click here to see!

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Local High Schooler to Perform in Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade
October 30th, 2016

This television news story highlights AC tenth grader John Phillips as he prepared to perform in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. As part of this experience, his trumpet skills were seen by an estimated 53 million people. Click here to see the story!

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What You Need to Know About the Current State of Rochester’s Kids, Teaching Election 2016 and More
October 27th, 2016

AC’s Summer LEAP Program is mentioned at the 10:43 mark of this television show, which discusses the ongoing effort to improve outcomes for Rochester-area children. Click here to see!

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We’re doing so many exciting and interesting things here at AC and look forward to sharing more media coverage with you in the future!

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Sixth Grade Students Work for NASA

Posted on May 27th, 2016 by tparsons

This March, Allendale Columbia became a certified GLOBE* school. This is an international science and education program that provides access to participate in science experiments and projects to better understand the the global environment. Sixth grade students in Mrs. Parsons’s science class collected soil samples and measured the moisture content for NASA this spring. NASA launched its SMAP satellite in January 2015 to measure soil moisture to improve weather and climate prediction models, as well as better understand processes linking water, carbon, and energy cycles. The students’ data is used to calibrate and validate the measurements being taken from space.

* The acronym GLOBE stands for Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment. GLOBE is jointly sponsored by NASA and the National Science Foundation (NSF), with support from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and Department of State.

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AC Teams Find Success at FIRST LEGO League Championships!

Posted on December 29th, 2015 by klapa

On December 6th, two teams of AC Middle School students competed at the Finger Lakes region FIRST LEGO League Championships, held in the Goergen Field House at the University of Rochester.

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AC’s Liza Cotter Named as a 2015 Broadcom MASTERS® Semifinalist

Posted on August 24th, 2015 by klapa

Please join us in congratulating AC 8th grader Liza Cotter on her recognition as a semifinalist in the 2015 Broadcom MASTERS®, a program of Society for Science & the Public. This honor places Liza among the top 300 middle school science and engineering projects in the United States from over 6,000 nominees.

The next step in the Broadcom MASTERS takes place on September 2nd, 2015 when 30 finalists will be selected from the 300 semifinalists. Finalists and one parent or guardian will receive an all-expense paid trip to Silicon Valley, California to attend the Broadcom MASTERS Finals Week competition from October 1st-7th.  Finalists will present their research and compete in hands-on challenges for top prizes, including funds to attend a S.T.E.M. summer camp, iPads, and the Samueli Prize of $25,000.

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