BYOB - Bring Your Own Brescia

LA students enrolled in the Winterim, Be Your Own Boss (BYOB), lead by Mr. Brescia.  They are learning from Ken Parker how to be an entrepreneur. Ken Parker is successful enough to teach at universities and LA while still maintaining a job. Students are learning the basics of business.

This afternoon the students packed up and went off to an indoor skydiving facility in Nashua NH. This is part of the curriculum because it represents an experiential business franchise. Unlike most franchised business like McDonalds or Wendy's, this franchise makes money on giving people an experience instead of a product, like a Big Mac.

Pre-Game Warm-up

The Special Olympics has a rich and long history. Our students heard from the retired Massachusetts chapter President/CEO, Mr. Bob Johnson, yesterday on their first day at the Yawkey Sports Training Center in Marlborough, MA.  The Special Olympics was created and built on the foundation work of Eunice Kennedy Shriver.  It was incorporated in 1968.




Our LA students will help the Special Olympics of Massachusetts staff organize the various preparations for the annual Winter Olympic Games, which are scheduled for this coming weekend.  LA students will be volunteering all weekend at the games as well.  Over 2,500 athletes will gather in the greater Worcester area for the games, which include four major sports: skiing, basketball, bowling and floor hockey.

On Monday, the LA students found themselves doing some manual labor and a lot of filing! All of their hard work or "pre-game" warm-ups this week will culminate in an amazing volunteer experience with serious athletes this weekend.

No sleep for the wary - Winterim Evening Activities

Students in on-campus or local Winterim projects are well entertained each night.  The Week One Evening Activities are:

Monday - WIPEOUT (in the gym) [Check out the videos and photos from this night.)
Tuesday - Shear Madness (Boston)
Wednesday - Sports Night (in the gym) and Legacy Place
Thursday - Blue Man Group (Boston), North End (Boston), and 3v3 Basketball (in the gym)

Students should know what they are signed up for each night - a schedule was put in your mailbox recently.  If you have any questions see Mrs. Waldie.

Crack, Shatter, Crash.

In the bowels of Schoolhouse the sounds of breaking glass may alarm you at first. Upon further inspection, however, you will be delighted to find the breaking glass is just the discarded glass from stained glass projects being created by LA students.  After the design is cut, the extra glass is snapped off and thrown away in the trash, creating the sounds of art being created.

LA students in Stained Glass Creations are learning to use the specialized tools required to cut and shape the glass. They are making simple creations at first, but will soon be on their own creating something unique that is all theirs. The students are being lead by Randy Gange. A respected professional stained glass artist based in central Massachusetts, who has over 25 years of experience in all things stained glass.

Flying at Night

Students in Project Peru left the US Monday afternoon and flew overnight to Cusco, Peru. Tomorrow they will be oriented to the Clean Stove Project and perform volunteer work for this mission (the link provides information from a volunteer organization, which may not be the organization we are using.) The purpose of this project is to install more efficient and clean non-wood burning stoves in homes.  The wood burning stoves used in the homes are often not well ventilated, causing smoke inhalation related health issues for the families, especially for the women and children of the home.

Next week they will be volunteering at a non-profit pre-school, helping with repairs and playing with the children. We hope they had a restful flight overnight and are enjoying their first moments in Peru today!

UPDATE - we received an email from the faculty leaders at 12:45 p.m. our time:

Hello everyone!

After long travels, we have made it to Cusco, Peru! We were greeted by our lovely guide, Lucho, at the airport and we are currently in our hotel, showered and almost ready for lunch. Everything went smoothly and we are looking forward to getting our trip started. We will be exploring various parts of Cusco today and heading to our clean stove service project tomorrow.

See you all at the end of next week!

Theresa Ryan and Courtney Cronin