Ms. Blau's Honors US History 1 class took a trip to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Students analyzed different pieces of art in the American Wing to asses its significance to the Antebellum period. Many students took pictures with the paintings, either posing like it or often times face swapping with the sculptures.

Mr. Gorman's Advanced Graphics class created Proud American t-shirts to sell as a fundraiser for the Gary Sinese foundation, which builds custom homes for disabled veterans. The t-shirt sales raised $2,000 for the foundation.

Congratulations to Kevin Doran for being named our NJSIAA Scholar athlete and to Sarah Ross and Jack Schetelich for being selected as our Union County Scholar Athletes.

Two CHS students were recently honored for their achievements at the National Center For Women in Information Technology Aspirations in Computing New Jersey Affiliate Award Ceremony at Kean University. Kathleen Shatinsky, a senior, is a winner of the New Jersey Affiliate Award, one of 34 in the entire state. Marisa Sigas, a junior, received Runner Up for the New Jersey Affiliate Award. Read the full press release here.

The French 5 and AP classes went to New York City to visit the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Students went on a scavenger hunt to find French artists in the museum. After, they had an Alsatian lunch at the Heidelberg restaurant.

The following students participated in the 37th annual duCret School of Art High School Students Art Show and received awards:
Brianna Scotti, 1st prize for her collage.
Maria Ruiz, 3rd prize for her collage.
Ben Bacall, 3rd prize for his mixed media piece.
Mairead O'Gorman, honorable mention for her watercolor.
Rae Powers, honorable mention for her mixed media piece.
It is impressive to note that the show represents 437 students from 26 New Jersey public and private high schools.

Congratulations to the following German 4 students and their achievements on the National German Exam:

Silver Award - Tom Armstrong
Bronze Award - Kayla Grady, Matt Duscusin, Rebecca Piassek
Achievement Award - Laura Feeney, Nick Macchi, Partick Hoey, Billy Lentz

Twelve students will represent Cranford High School in the American Choral Directors’ Association (ACDA) All-Eastern Honor Choirs this weekend in Boston. Selected from hundreds of high school singers auditioning from all over the Northeast, the students will perform on Saturday in the culminating concert of the ACDA Eastern Division Conference in Jordan Hall at the New England Conservatory of Music. These students have been prepared and sponsored by their teacher Anthony Rafaniello, Director of Choirs at Cranford High School.

From March 2nd through March 6th, the Cranford High School Dance Academy will be traveling to Point Park University in Pittsburgh, PA to participate in the National High School Dance Festival. This event, open only to high schools with dance programs, gathers over 1,000 dance students and their teachers at the state of the art facility in Pittsburgh for four days of scholarship auditions, master classes and performances. Students will have the opportunity to study with world renowned dancers and choreographers and see over eight performances of classical and contemporary dance.

The Cranford High Assistant Program, or CHAPS, is a student run volunteer group that provides assistance to families in Cranford who are in need of a variety of services. Over this snowy weekend, CHAP members including Zack Pierce, Suzy Shen, John Santulli, Luke O'Brien, Trevor Aschmies, Specer Pascal, Roy Walton, Kevin McCarthy, Robert Schork, and more, shoveled snow for Cranford residents.

The Cranford High School Model U. N. Club participated in the 46th Annual YMCA Model United Nations Conference in Hershey, Pennsylvania. Our delegation of 120 students participated in the conference with approximately 1900 students representing over 30 schools throughout the New Jersey, Delaware and Pennsylvania area.

Here is a list of our students' accomplishments:
Hannah Jacobson was recognized for Outstanding Country as a delegate from China.
Jacob Snover was recognized for Premier Country as a delegate from the United Kingdom.
Bart Lahiff was recognized as Premier Delegate in the International Criminal Court.
Arika Daryani was recognized in General Assembly A for writing an Outstanding Country Research Paper.
Anne Stochel was recognized in the World Health Organization for writing an Outstanding Country Research Paper.
Emma DeBole was recognized as the Outstanding 1st Year Delegate in the World Health Organization.
Adam Hollanek was recognized as Outstanding 1st Year Delegate in the International Court of Justice.
Cam Hay was elected to Chair the Political and Security Committee for next year’s conference.
Elsa Rodriguez was elected as Chief Justice in the International Criminal Court for next year’s conference.

The Cranford High School delegation as a whole was awarded Outstanding Delegation. This distinction is given to schools in the conference for their adherence to program rules, and overall preparation and performance of the student delegates.

The following students were invited to attend the annual YMCA Youth Conference On National Affairs (CONA).Twenty-five student delegates of the approximately 1900 who attend conference are selected for this honor. We have the distinction of having 2 students attending. Those students are Adam Hollanek and Sabrina Huwang.
The following students were selected as alternates:
Olivia DelVecchio, Cam Hay, Erica Henninger, Bart Lahiff, Elsa Rodriguez, and Karina Vizzoni.

We are very proud to announce the winners of the 2016 DECA Regional Conference that was held yesterday at Kean University.
Attending were 130 students who competed in a variety of business and marketing related events. Of this number, 30% are now eligible to compete at the NJ State Career Development Conference in Cherry Hill, NJ at the end of February. We are extremely proud of how hard our students worked to prepare for this event, and the manner in which they represent us as a school and the Cranford community. The full list of winners can be found here.

Here is the press release for more information.

On Wednesday, December 19, 2015 students in Discrete Mathematics semester course attended the Museum of Mathematics located in Manhattan. Upon arrival, students had an opportunity to explore the interactive exhibits. Student then attended a “Graph Theory” session on Game Theory. Students explored the concept of the game chromatic number. After the session, students continued to participate in the interactive exhibits. Senior Brendan Aszklar, took particular interest in the coding exhibit.

The CHS student council went to Kean University to participate in UC STEP, a program that offers hands-on activities focused on leadership, personal growth and civic engagement.

The FEA hosted Memorial High School from West New York, NJ on December 10th. Twenty-one FEA members were paired with CHS FEA members to tour the building. The Urban School students attended class with CHS students and experienced a common school day at CHS. For a full write-up click here.

Ms. Cathcart, Mr. Corazza, and Ms. Overton Skype with Stefania Davia who lives in Lesotho, Africa where she is working for the Center for Disease Control and AIDS patients. She discussed with the freshmen classes the crisis that is AIDS in poverty stricken nations such as Lesotho, where 1 in 4 people have AIDS and the life expectancy is only 48 years old. She spoke about how she became interested in doing this, her life living in Africa and took questions from the classes. The students loved it and it really put a face to a serious problem affecting millions of people. Freshmen Seminar classes will follow up with a clothing drive after the holidays. Clothing donations may be made through any Freshmen Seminar teacher and will be sent to Lesotho, Africa, where items will be distributed to local residents.

The CHS Latin Club held its annual Saturnalia banquet with 40 of its members present.

CHS Football beats Chatham, winning the state championships with a score of 50-23.

Gobble Gobble! Turk a Teacher has returned for another successful year! This year, we raised $177, and the lucky teacher wearing a turkey costume is Mr. Jala!

Congratulations to the following seven CHS students who are members of the NJ All-State Mixed Chorus:

Lauren Costa
Benjamin Gelber
Samantha Gordon
James Lynch
Dylan Randazzo
Todd Sweeney
Sarah Vollenbroek

They will be traveling down to Atlantic City today and will be performing on Friday night in Atlantic City in conjunction with the convention. They will also be performing their concert again on Sunday, November 15th at NJPAC in Newark.

Cranford High School Senior Ben Gelber organized a co-ed a cappella group comprised of CHS students to compete in Macy's All-School A Capella Challenge. Ben's video entry demonstrates his capabilities as a director and a musician. The video can be found here.

The NJFEA Northern Region Conference will be held on Friday, September 25, 2015, beginning at 9:00 a.m. at William Paterson University. Attendees will have the opportunity to participate in nearly 20 breakout sessions covering topics such as: exploring the way that a “learning difference” affect students in the classroom; learning what districts look for when interviewing new teachers; learning what you need to know and be able to do to become a science educator; exploring how picture books can build young children’s interest in math and science; understanding the financial aid process for college; understanding the Common Core Standards and PARCC assessment; showcasing how using multimedia and hands-on tablet-based apps can facilitate learning of science for elementary students, and much more!
The conference offered CHS students two morning sessions conducted by college professors on a variety of topics related to education, teaching, learning, and the profession.

Cranford High School senior Connor Marti recently participated in the New Jersey Governor's School in the Sciences, a 3-week residential program where students are immersed in intense college-level research, hosted at Drew University. Connor completed 3 classes, Neurobiology, Special Relativity, and Rulers Compasses and Famous Impossibilities, each in areas outside the realm of ordinary high school classes, as well as a computer science lab. At the end of the program, Connor along with 84 other rising seniors from across New Jersey presented the findings of their team projects' research. Connor and his group focused on the toxic metals that escaped from improperly disposed electronic waste, and they wrote a 20 page research paper detailing their findings. 2015 was the second year in a row that a Cranford High School student attended the prestigious program (Julia Nicholas in 2014). Learn more about the Governor's School program here.