Whiz Kids

Robotics Team Reaches High with Robot

Coming off a strong finish last year, the Hopkinton High robotics team is competing again this year.

Patch Whiz Kids of the Week: Achievement:  Last year, the Hopkinton High Robotics Team came in first in the regional robotics competition and also received the highest single round score ever achieved in the First Robotics World Championship. This year, the team is competing again with a robot that will pick up and lift a basket of raquetballs. The goal is for the robot to lift the balls as high as it can. Motivation:  “When you do something you love, you do it," said Ian Randall, a member of the team. "We are way ahead of schedule from last year and the forklift design is much livelier." To see a video of the team in action, visit http://www.hhspress.org/?p=3095.

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Whiz Kid

Whiz Kid Isaac Fadden is the Artist of the Month for November...and for Good Reason

Whiz Kid Issac Fadden is an Honor student at HHS in the middle of his junior year. His recent work in Lisa Bynoe’s Introduction to Painting has earned him the honor of November’s Artist of the Month.

This past semester in Lisa Bynoe’s Introduction to Painting class, Isaac and his classmates were given an assignment meant to teach them about elements of design. In this project, the students focused on the expressive use of line and color, with each student being given a small plastic bottle filled with black India ink to draw their expressive pieces. Then, once the drawing had dried, the students were encouraged to examine their compositions and determine how they could add interest by adding color, shape and value. Isaac, in particular, put a great deal of care and diligence into this aspect of the assignment. Finally, students completed their works by adding watercolor paint. Isaac’s final product for this assignment is simply …

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Whiz Kid

Whiz Kid Dan Barone is a Force to be Reckoned With Both On and Off the Field

Whiz Kid Dan Barone has been an incredible student-athlete these last four years at HHS, and with his final football season off to an incredible start, there's no telling what the future might hold for this already well-decorated student-athlete.

In a game that was built-up to be a clash between two close TVL rivals, Dan Barone lead the Panthers to a twenty-to-nothing shutout of the Hillers, solidifying the Panthers' place as a force to be reckoned in the TVL division. But is this really news? Dan Barone has helped lead the Panthers to back-to-back Superbowls at Gillette Stadium, including last year’s unforgettable championship victory. He earned his varsity letters in football and basketball in just his sophomore year, and is now the Captain of both teams. Standing 5’9” and 159 pounds, the Holliston-hero is also a speedster on the track team, running a 40 Yd Dash that was last measured at 4.43 seconds. To put things mildly, Dan Barone is one heck of an athlete, but how about in …

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Whiz Kid

Patch Whiz Kid of the Week: Anna Leavitt

Colby College senior Anna Leavitt is an environmental science major with a life-long penchant for artistic expression that she has managed to balance most-impressively for the past four years.

○      Whiz Kid: Anna Leavitt, 22. ○      Whiz Kid's School/Church/Community Center: Anna is in her senior year at Colby College in Waterville, Maine, where she is majoring in environmental science. ○      Whiz Kid's Accomplishment: Maintaining honor-level grades while pursuing both her passions and professional goals during her college career. ○      Whiz Kid's Key to Awesomeness: Anna is an example of that special type of student who truly devotes herself intellectually to her work. She is a life-long artist, growing up with a pencil and paper while maintaining a high honors GPA at Holliston High School. Back in 2006, she was accepted to the prestigious Colby College of Western Maine. Since then Anna has been a honors student at Colby, …

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Whiz Kids

Boy Scouts Raise Tower on Town Common

With much team effort, the boy scouts of Troop 4 construct a tower for others to climb.

Name and age:  Hopkinton Boy Scout Troop 4, Ages 11-18.           Accomplishment:  Members of Troop 4 constructed a 25 foot long signal tower made out of wood and rope in the town common to show the community what scouting is all about. Many people think of scouting as camping, hiking and being outdoors.  Although that is a big part of it, there are other skills that Boy Scouts learn.  “In scouting, we use knots and lashings to construct something even as big as a tower,” Senior Patrol Leader of Troop 4 Andrew Hayes said. The scouts used trees of various sizes and about 85 lashings.  There were no other fasteners used to keep the tower together. “The wood was bound together with rope which had to be fused on both ends with a flame so that …

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Leda Arakelian

5:45 pm on Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Thanks Darlene for the detailed explanation. That was truly an amazing structure the boys built in such a short time.   more ›

What We Learned on Patch

Hopkins School Poll Remains on Top

A look back at the week's top stories.

Each week, the Hopkinton Patch takes a look back at our top five stories. It's an opportunity for us to see what you, the readers, want to know more about and it's also an opportunity for those of you who may have missed something important to catch up with the news that mattered. Here are this week's top five: 1. Hopkins Fifth Graders Want a Longer Recess (POLL) - UPDATED - This was a look at a letter that Principal Greg Martineau was given from a clever group of fifth graders. They want a longer recess and they know how to go about getting it. 2. These Girls are Card Makers - This is our weekly Whiz Kid column. Two local girls have opened their own web based card making business. Learn more by clicking on the link above. 3. Astrum Solar …

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Whiz Kids

Dreams Come True in Cooperstown

End of little league brings on higher competition for this baseball player.

Name and age:  Marshall Cavallo, 12 Accomplishment:  As part of the Boston Bulldogs baseball team, Marshall Cavallo competed against teams from around the country at Cooperstown Dreams Park in a week long tournament. Using Major League rules and playing on larger fields, he was happy to be participating at a level up from Little League.  Some of the teams he faced were from as far away as Texas and California.  “Playing in Cooperstown was so exciting and I was looking forward to moving to the bigger fields,” says Cavallo. Although Cavallo was nervous at first about playing in Cooperstown, after one game, he enjoyed the level of competition.  Some of the teams from warmer climates had the advantage of playing year round, but their strength …

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Dancing Her Way to a Career

Nearly a decade of dancing led Angela Cole to a highlight performance at Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater.

Name and age:  Angela Cole, 17 Accomplishment:  Angela Cole auditioned and was selected out of thousands of advanced dance students to be part of an intensive summer program at one of New York’s leading dance companies. Cole’s passion for dance began shortly after she began taking ballet and modern dance classes at the Dancing Arts Center in Holliston.  Wanting to get the best dance training possible, she transferred to the Dancing Arts Academy in 8th grade where she was homeschooled and could take three dance classes a day.  “This gave me the extra time I needed to focus on my dance,” said Cole. She remained there for four years, but chose to complete her senior year in Hopkinton in order to acquire the few extra credits she needed for …

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Whiz Kids

These Freshmen Will Cheer on a Varsity Team

These three girls will be cheering for the Hillers.

Name and age:  Kim Cardillo, Sydney Dawson and Savannah Schultz, 14-years-old. Accomplishment: These three friends are the only freshmen who made the cheerleading team at the high school this year.  Since they were all much younger, the girls have been part of competitive cheerleading teams at Pro Athletics in Leominster and Metro West Gymnastics in Marlborough.  They have competed in All-Star competitions locally and outside the state. Key to Awesomeness: “I love cheerleading,” says Schultz.  “I want to become friends with the upper classmen.” “I want to be part of the school system and do things to be tied to the high school community,” says Cardillo. “I like being a cheerleader,” says Dawson.  “This is a great opportunity to make new …

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Whiz Kids

IGNITE Mentors Prepared

A group of eighth grade students who have become IGNITE leaders after applying for the job are mentors to the incoming class of sixth graders.

Name and age:  The group consists of 61 boys and girls from the eighth grade class, all are 13-14 years old. Accomplishment: For the fifth year in a row, students going into the eighth grade were able to apply for the job of being an IGNITE leader.  This year, 61 students become mentors to the incoming sixth graders not only on orientation day the week before school starts, but all throughout the year.  The sixth grade students are divided into teams of nine to ten students and have two IGNITE leaders.   The leaders are trained for three days and learn how to make the transition to middle school as easy and exciting as possible for the sixth graders.  They are expected to be enthusiastic and good role models.  During orientation, each team…

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