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Housatonic Valley Regional High School senior Lou Haemmerle is finalizing work on her Capstone.
FALLS VILLAGE — Seniors at Housatonic Valley Regional High School discussed their “Capstone” projects with The Lakeville Journal Friday, Feb. 14.
Lou Haemmerle of Salisbury will attend New York University in the fall. Interested in music production, Haemmerle’s Capstone project started off by releasing music to online platforms such as Spotify.
“But I did that early.”
So the scope of the project was widened to answer the question “How do I implement myself in the creative industries?”
Asked for more details, Haemmerle said she did a number of internships, which required some travel — to Los Angeles. The internships included set design, soundproofing music studios and videography. Haemmerle was aided in this by a grant from the 21st Century Fund for HVRHS.
Haemmerle said the result was “a lot more learning and information on the industry that I wouldn’t have learned otherwise.”
There was some pressure involved. “I had to be on site, and put on my big girl pants.”
HVRHS senior Jake Bosio is finalizing work on his Capstone.Patrick L. Sullivan
Jake Bosio of North Canaan, with the help of a grant from the Region One Athletic Fund, installed a golf simulator in the Hewatt-Mahoney Science and Technology Center.
He explained how this works. There is a 10 foot screen and a projector. The player boots a golf ball into the screen, and a “launch monitor” provides club and ball data.
Plus the device shows the golfer where the ball wound up on the virtual course.
Bosio said he is the captain of the HVRHS golf team and wants to be a golf pro, so his Capstone was truly a “passion project.” He added his handicap is 13.
He will attend the University of Hawaii.
Ellie Wolgemuth is a senior at HVRHS who has recently completed her Capstone project.Patrick L. Sullivan
Ellie Wolgemuth of Salisbury’s Capstone revolves around her four years as being the primary student intern working for the Kearcher-Monsell Gallery, located in the HVRHS library.
Ellie saw a need for the job’s requirements to be spelled out clearly, for whoever takes over.
Things like “how to hang a show, host an opening, make sure things run smoothly.”
Ellie wound up with a “60,000 word Google document” that can be accessed and modified by future interns.
Ellie was not sure what the next step was — possibly Princeton, maybe the Rhode Island School of Design and/or Brown University.
Diana Portillo is a senior at HVRHS who has recently completed her Capstone project.Patrick L. Sullivan
Diana Portillo of North Canaan, a volleyball and softball player, made friendship bracelets, some adorned with the mascots of other Berkshire League schools, some without, and gave them to players on opposing teams.
The idea was to promote sportsmanship among the league schools, and to foster a sense of community among student athletes.
The first bracelet was given to a Gilbert player.
Each bracelet came with a QR code that took the recipient to a Google form, where the recipients could enter their personal information.
It took a little while to catch on, but it worked.
“From 75 bracelets I got 75 responses.”
Daniela Brennan researched theology for her Capstone.Patrick L. Sullivan
Daniela Brennan of North Canaan was unsure where she would attend college, with Worcester Polytechnic Institute a strong possibility. She plans to study mechanical engineering.
Her Capstone project headed in a different direction.
A Roman Catholic, she was curious about other faiths, and acquired first-hand experiences with Judaism, Muslim and Hindu congregations.
She kept track of her observations and thoughts in a journal.
She said that “in monotheistic faiths, the core beliefs are similar.”
“The way they show it makes them seem different, and that’s where biases and misassumptions come from.”
Asked how she decided on this course of inquiry, she said “I get it from my dad, he loves philosophy and religion.”
“And learning about it helps me learn my own faith.”
Jassim Mohydin “reverse engineered last year’s robot.” Patrick L. Sullivan
Jassim Mohydin of Lakeville, who will attend Florida Institute of Technology to train as an airline pilot, turned his attention to computer aided design, or CAD, for his Capstone project.
Specifically, he used CAD in conjunction with his activities with the HVRHS Robotics team.
“I reverse-engineered last year’s robot,” he said. He identified deficiencies and came up with solutions.
Because robotics is a collaborative effort, his work will inform future Robotics team members.
“You have to think about the whole robot, not just your bit.”
All six students agreed that the Capstone projects required them to get out of their comfort zones and provided opportunities to do things that they might not have attempted otherwise.
Kent School is facing a class action lawsuit on behalf of 70 students whose personal data were illegally accessed by a senior school IT employee.
KENT — Kent School is facing a proposed class action suit filed on behalf of 70 current and former students whose personal photographs and video files were allegedly illegally accessed, viewed, copied, and retained by a former senior school IT employee.
Typically, a class-action lawsuit is started by filing a complaint that names at least one representative, and that representative files the lawsuit on behalf of the entire proposed class of plaintiffs.
The case was filed Tuesday, Feb. 11, in Torrington Superior Court by three former students—Hannah Kent, of Halifax, Nova Scotia, Olivia Leary, of Goshen, Conn., and Natalie Hudson, of Sharon, Conn.—and all others “similarly situated.”
The complaint asserts that “highly private and personal photographs (including photographs of a sexual and intimate nature), videos and communications” were accessed without their consent by Daniel Clery, former network and systems administrator at Kent School.
The complaint alleges that a state police search of computers belonging to Clery, revealed “3,670 personal image files that either belong to or depict current and former Kent School students” as well as screenshots of text messages and emails.
A private cybersecurity firm hired by Kent School reportedly found that Clery accessed and copied 81 persons’ personal files, both of students and former employees of the school. Of these, 79 were female.
Clery, of Brookfield, was arrested in June on two counts of first-degree computer crime, according to the complaint and is next due in the state Superior Court in Waterbury on March 20. His case is statutorily sealed.
The women are represented in their case against Kent School by David S. Golub and Jennifer B. Goldstein of Silver Golub & Teitell.
The lawsuit seeks to hold Kent School responsible for failing to oversee and supervise the employee, failing to establish a system to monitor access to the school computer network and students’ personal devices, and failing to protect students’ privacy over a period of four years.
The lawsuit alleges that Kent School ignored a complaint filed in 2022 by an employee who discovered that her computer had been accessed. In spring or summer of that year, the staff member asked Clery for help with a computer she had been issued by Kent School.
The complaint states she left the room while he was working on the laptop and, when she returned, found him looking at photos filed in her private Google account. He quickly closed the screen, according to the complaint. She reported his behavior to her supervisor, but it is believed no action was taken.
The complaint reports about eight months later, the same staff member was approached by Clery, who told her he was checking the school’s antivirus software and that he needed to access her laptop.
After he left her office, she received an email on her Kent School account notifying her that a software product called RClone had been granted permission to access her Google account, according to the complaint.
She contacted Michael Siepmann, head of the school’s IT department, to inquire about the software. RClone is a command-line program to sync files and directories to and from different cloud storage providers, the complaint states.
When Siepmann questioned Clery, he was told that Clery used RClone to transfer the school’s antivirus program and had “accidentally” reconfigured RClone to access the staff member’s Google account.
Later that day, Clery again approached the woman, saying he had to access her computer, according to the complaint. This time, she stood beside him as he worked and noticed a gallery of her vacation photos on his phone. When she reported this, the school “belatedly initiated an interior investigation,” the complaint states.
Clery’s employment was terminated in February 2023.
The school subsequently hired Vancord, an information and cybersecurity firm, to examine Clery’s work. The Vancord examination concluded that Clery used the Kent School system to systematically target female students to find and upload pictures saved on their personal computers from 2019 until 2023.
The lawsuit seeks damages “in excess of $15,000” from Kent School for its alleged negligence, invasion of privacy, computer privacy violations, recklessness and negligent infliction of emotional distress.
Cornwall receives Democracy Cup
Secretary of State Stephanie Thomas came to Cornwall Thursday, Feb. 13, to present the town with the Democracy Cup for garnering the highest voter turnout in the November 2024 election at 90.46%. From left: Selectman Rocco Botto, Secretary of State Stephanie Thomas, Democratic Registrar of Voters Jayne Ridgway, Republican Registrar of Voters Brittany Mosimann, Selectman Jennifer Markow, State Sen. Stephen Harding, R-30, First Selectman Gordon M. Ridgway and State Rep. Maria Horn, D-64.
Legal Notices - 2/20/25
Legal Notice
CANAAN FIRE
DISTRICT
WARNING
All persons eligible to vote in meetings of the Canaan Fire District are hereby warned that the Annual Meeting of the said District will be held at the North Canaan Town Hall on Tuesday, March 4th, 2025 at 7:00 p.m. to consider and act upon the following items:
1. To name the legal depositories for the funds of the Canaan Fire District for the fiscal year beginning July 1, 2025 and ending June 30, 2026.
2. To name an auditor to inspect the accounts of the Canaan Fire District for such fiscal year.
3. To elect three members of the Executive Committee to serve for three-year terms.
4. To elect three officers for the positions of Warden, Treasurer and Clerk of the Canaan Fire District to serve for three-year terms
5. To transact any other business proper to come before such meeting.
Dated at North Canaan, Connecticut this 21st day of February, 2025.
Anthony J. Nania
Warden
02-20-25
Liquor Permit
Notice of Application
This is to give notice that I, Elesh R Patel, 11-05-66th Avenue 3A, Forest Hills, NY, 11375
Have filed an application placarded 02/18/2025 with the Department of Consumer Protection for a Package Store Liquor Permit for the sale of alcoholic liquor on the premises at 13 E Main St, North Canaan CT 06018.
The business will be owned by: stateline liquor store llc
Objections must be filed by: 04-01-2025
vist:https://portal.ct.gov/remonstrance for more information Stateline Liquor Store, LLC
02-20-25
02-27-25