Another Successful Winterm

#THISISHOME

By Maya McCorkle ’24 and Kayce Campurciani ’24

Over Winterm, sophomores and budding journalists Maya McCorkle and Kayce Campurciani learned the essentials of news reporting: ethics, conducting interviews with sources, and writing without bias. As part of their week, the two wrote the following article about Winterm.

Freshmen and sophomores broadened their horizons as they engaged in Winterms to help others and expand their views about real life.

Winterm topics ranged from crosswords to coding with titles as diverse as “Marvel Madness” and “You Gotta Be Knitting Me.” However, it was not all fun and games; students tackled important social issues, engaged in critical thinking, learned to work together, and set personal goals.

Social Issues

In the Winterm, Marvel Madness, English teacher Mark Dunn introduced students to political and social issues that are found in different Marvel movies that relate to the real world. Students were able to dive deeper into movies such as “X-Men” and “Captain America: Civil War” with Dunn facilitating conversations.

“When people watch some of these movies, they only think about you know the cool powers, and it’s kind of cool to think about some of the political and social issues that come to these movies that I never thought about,” said Isaac Szilagyi ’24.

Students in “Star Wars for Storytellers” had a similar experience with history teacher Laura Huffman. Students examined social issues through the lens of Star Wars and looked at a myriad of the film’s aspects.

“We’re looking at different types of archetypes and correlations between different films,” said William Lomax ’24 said.

Personal Goals

Meanwhile, the Winterms Genius Hour and “Farm to Table” had students working on personal goals. Students in Genius Hour could choose their own projects to work on and complete by the end of the week with the support of science teacher Hilary Smith.

Jimmy Anderson ’24 said, “My personal goal is to learn a new craft…and right now that’s leatherworking.”

While for Stephen Equan ’24, his personal goal was to “create an Olympic game society” in the form of a video game.

In Farm to Table, teachers Heather Oswald and Jenny Weakland took students to different farms where to learn about the food they eat and then to farm-to-table restaurants to eat. By the end of the week, students were expected to incorporate their newfound knowledge.

Meadow Campurciani ’24 said, “My goal is to cook a meal for my family and know where every ingredient came from.”

Critical Thinking

The participants of the Crossword Winterm practiced adaptive expertise, “hit[ting] all but two of the habits,” as their teacher Richard Smith put it, during their time in the classroom.

“They’re trying to teach us that crosswords are not only about having a lot of vocab. It’s more like problem-solving, trying to teach how to solve problems, using critical thinking,” Sun Lee ’24 said.

Teamwork for Community Restoration

The Winterms, “You Gotta Be Knitting Me,” “Something That Matters,” and “Diamond in the Ruff,” focused on community restoration with all of them donating to local charities. Their work required them to work together, too.

Lili Booker ’24 said of her experience in “You Gotta Be Knitting Me,” “One [goal] is to learn how to knit of course, and then we will take the blankets that we made ourselves and donate them.” Students are knitting one blanket together, which will go to My Very Own Blanket, a nonprofit that provides blankets to children in foster care.

“Diamond in the Ruff” is also making a donation, theirs of funds. They plan to auction off their upcycled items and donate the proceeds to a charity to be named. Nayak Duggal ’24 said, “Upcycling is taking old furniture and basically refurbishing it for others.”

Students in “Something That Matters” made the ultimate donation: their time. The group volunteered at Habitat for Humanity to help with the process of building houses for the homeless. Isaiah Henry ’25 said of his experience, “We try to help homeless people and try to give back, and [I’m] and restoring my community with my classmates.”

Conclusion

Throughout this week of Winterm, students showed that they gained a deeper understanding of social issues, critical thinking, personal goals, and compassion that they will carry with them through the rest of their time at Cannon and beyond.