Four weeks of summer art and music fun culminated last week with exhibitions and performances at Huntington High School, where hundreds of entering first through ninth grades have been enjoying a long list of interesting classes.
Huntington UFSD collaborated with SCOPE on the initiative. Participants were able to register for up to four periods of classes. Periods were 50 minutes in length and ran from 8:30 a.m. to 12:20 p.m.
This summer’s classes included Ukulele, Crafts, Ceramics, Orchestra, Band and Cartooning to name just a few of the offerings. A new addition to the program was a selection of STEM courses, including Edible Science, Lego Engineering, Coding & Robotics,
“Thank you to everyone involved in our summer program,” said Brian Stellato, coordinator of K-12 art and music education. “A special thank you to our co-directors, Nicole Lynch and Jenna Rinaldi for their hard work and commitment to this valuable experience for our students. Also a special shout-out to our summer program nurse, Margaret Vaccaro for all of her help and support. And of course, thank you to our talented and wonderful summer teaching staff for giving the kids such a positive and productive four-week experience.”
A course in musical theater utilized a three period block of time that ran from 9:30 a.m. to 12:20 p.m. It proved to be one of the most popular offerings. All in all, art, music and STEM students all shined throughout the summer program.
“The musical theater group started out auditioning that first week with students from all grades and quickly became a tight knit group of students who worked together to create a wonderful performance in just a few short weeks,” said Mrs. Lynch, a district music teacher. “The displays from the STEM and various art classes were impressive as always and our students were extremely proud to show off their personal creations to family and friends on our final day. Our musical performing groups had exciting performances. It’s always amazing to watch the beginning instrumentalist finish with such confidence.”
Organizers are quite pleased with how the program went. “I was excited to have Mrs. Lynch as my co-director this summer,” Ms. Rinaldi said. “I believe that because of our collaboration and knowledge in our content areas, we were able to provide the Huntington community with a fun and successful summer program.”
Many of the students participating in the program are veterans of the summer classes, but there were also dozens of newcomers.
“Our program has provided students from a variety of ages to express themselves through art, music, dance, theater and STEM,” Ms. Rinaldi said. “It is quite amazing what young students can prepare in such a short amount of time. Thank you to the families for the continued support and allowing their child to explore with us! We are looking forward to summer 2023.”
