Housatonic Valley Regional High School girl lacrosse poses with the second-place trophy after the game in Watertown Wednesday, May 28.
Photo by Riley Klein
Freshman Annabelle Carden, no. 9, scored the first two goals for HVRHS in the title game May 28.Photo by Riley Klein
Housatonic's defense held Watertown to six points in the championship game. Watertown, the number one team in the WCLC, averaged more than 12 goals per game this season.Photo by Riley Klein
Lou Haemmerle created offensive opportunities for HVRHS in the league final.Photo by Riley Klein
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Charlie Castellanos, left, and Allegra Ferri, right, sitting in the HVRHS library to talk about their experiences in the U.S.
Anna Gillette
“I would say if you are thinking about doing the program, do it because you get out of your comfort zone and learn so many things...” —Charlie Castellanos
Every year, Housatonic Valley Regional High School welcomes foreign exchange students to attend classes through the AFS Intercultural Programs. This school year, two students traveled to Northwest Connecticut to immerse themselves in American life and culture. Allegra Ferri, a 17-year-old from Italy, and 16-year-old Charlie Castellanos from Colombia sat down to reflect on their experience at HVRHS. As the academic year is coming to an end, they shared a few highlights of their time in the U.S. and offered advice to prospective exchange students.
What has been your favorite part of your exchange experience?
Allegra: “My favorite part of this exchange year was coming here and experiencing an American high school.”
Charlie: “My favorite part is coming to high school and living the American dream and probably going to ski [for the first time].”
What extracurricular activities have you been involved with?
Allegra: “I played volleyball in the fall and I really liked it because everyone was so nice. Then during the winter, I was part of the crew for the musical and now I’m doing tennis. I really enjoy it because it’s a good team. I love how American high school has sports and activities after school.”
Charlie: “I did soccer in the fall, which was my favorite. I did the play in the winter and right now I’m doing track and field. We don’t have school sports in Colombia. This is one of the things I’m going to miss the most.”
What would you say to someone considering doing an exchange year?
Allegra: “I would say do it because living in another country is a great experience to grow and improve another language. It improves your skills of being by yourself.”
Charlie: “I would say if you are thinking about doing the program, do it because you get out of your comfort zone and learn so many things like culture, language and it’s just a completely new experience. It will stay with you your entire life.”
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From left, Ibby Sadeh, Anna Gillette, Nathan Miller, Maddy Johnson and Caitlin Hanlon proof the pages of HVRHS Today at the Lakeville Journal office while Shanaya Duprey teleconferences in on Thursday, May 29.
James H. Clark
Students from Housatonic Valley Regional High School wrote and produced the inaugural edition of HVRHS Today, a new publication by and for students in the Northwest Corner.
This inaugural issue of HVRHS Today marks the first student-led journalism effort at the high school in several years. The program is a collaboration between the Lakeville Journal, the Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation and the 21st Century Fund.
Anna Gillette, Mia DiRocco, Shanaya Duprey, Madelyn Johnson and Ibby Sadeh volunteered to form the first group of students comprising the staff of the HVRHS Today.
The five girls got to work just before spring break, meeting as a group of reporters for the first time at the Lakeville Journal office in Falls Village on Wednesday, April 9. That night, the team hit the ground running throwing out ideas for their first reporting projects and discussing the basics of gathering news and reporting facts.
In the following weeks, the students gathered weekly every Thursday at the Lakeville Journal office to discuss interviewing, writing and reporting and plan their coverage for the paper. The students took the lead at every turn, choosing which topics they would like to cover and deciding what sources were best for each story.
Anna Gillette, of Lakeville, joined the program out of a passion for research writing and a desire to learn about a potential career path. “I don’t really know what I want to do in the future and I don’t know what career I want to pursue,” Gillette said. “So I think that this is a good opportunity to, kind of, test the waters to see if this is something I would be interested in.”
Gillette contributed reporting on the latest production of the high school’s Unwritten Show, a completely student-led annual production written this year by Sara Huber and co-directed by Huber and Alex Wilbur. Gillette also reported on and profiled the winner of this year’s “Next Top Mountaineer” pageant, a senior named Manny Matsudaira.
Madelyn Johnson, of North Canaan, said she joined the program to hone her writing skills. “My English teacher calls me a ‘stupendously boring writer,’” Johnson said. “There’s not much emotion or anything in my writing. It’s pretty much just fact, fact, fact.” This is a good thing, Johnson said, for Advanced Placement tests, but not necessarily for more creative assignments.
The program pushed Madelyn Johnson out of her comfort zone, something she said her mother has spent her whole life teaching her to appreciate. “My mom has always had me facing my fears,” Johnson said. “Even if I didn’t always like them, I was always sort of forced to try new things. So I’m trying to continue that with the new independence I get as I grow up.”
Johnson profiled the seniors of the HVRHS track team that will be going on to run for their collegiate teams after graduation, and Richie Crane, who won a Sondheim Award for his performance of Old Man Strong in this year’s production of “Urinetown.”
Mia DiRocco, of Cornwall, said she wants to pursue a career in journalism after graduation. “I’m really passionate about politics, and now is a great time for that,” DiRocco said. “And I’m really interested in international relations, linguistics — and I love writing — so, it’s a career that I think encompasses all my interests in one.”
DiRocco focused her reporting on the no-longer-imperiled tennis team and sports involvement at HVRHS in general. Her reporting dug into the benefits of the brand new tennis courts and the efforts required to bring back previously dissolved groups — like the recently reformed cheerleading team.
Ibby Sadeh, of Falls Village, said she expected the program to help her with her social skills. “From the first meeting I definitely thought it could be fun and valuable to learn new skills and build on my social skills,” Sadeh said. “And also help with my writing skills. I’ve only done essays and reflections for class. I haven’t actually written in this form before.”
Sadeh contributed the inaugural reporter’s notebook report, reflecting on this year’s trip to Europe. Sadeh also worked with DiRocco to recap the first year behind the scenes with the Bias Education and Response Team, and with Gillette to produce a Q&A with this year’s foreign exchange students — 17-year-old Allegra Ferri from Italy and 16-year-old Charlie Castellanos from Colombia.
Shanaya Duprey, of North Canaan, like many of her compatriots in the program, wanted to seize an opportunity to improve her writing, but for a career in marine biology. “I’ve always been really interested in animals,” Duprey said. “I’ve found a new passion for the ocean. There’s not a lot of attention on marine conservation so I’d like to do that.” Duprey said style of researched, journalistic work she produced for HVRHS Today could help her in a future career as a scientist writing and submitting grant proposals and research papers.
Duprey focused her reporting over the past six weeks on the 21st Century Fund, a nonprofit organization that provides funding for educational opportunities and scholarships to HVRHS students. Her reporting focused on Silas Tripp, a student at HVRHS that could attend multiple educational engineering camps thanks to money from the 21st Century Fund.
HVRHS Today can be found online at www.lakevillejournal.com/hvrhs-today.
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John DeDonato
Class of 2027
“Some I prefer are the grilled cheese. Pizza’s okay with some sauce. Hamburger too, I guess. The least favorite that I’ve tried is probably the hot ham and cheese. I don’t like that. I’ve started to see that they’re doing French fries, which I kind of like. They should probably start doing more of that.”
Abram Kirshner
Class of 2026
“My favorite lunch is probably the mac and cheese and popcorn chicken. I’d like to see it more frequently. Grilled cheese, cheese quesadilla, french toasts sticks, and chicken fajita
can all go.”
Georgie Clayton
Class of 2027
“My favorite is beef nacho grande. My least favorite is probably the fajitas.
I wish we had chicken nuggets and mashed potatoes more often.”
Celeste Trabucco
Class of 2026
“General Tsou’s chicken is my favorite lunch. Also, the popcorn chicken and mac and cheese.
I really don’t like the French toast sticks or that we have pizza every Friday. We need some more variation.”
Photos by Ibby Sadeh and Mia DiRocco
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Housatonic Valley Regional High School
File photo
As the 2025 school year concludes, so does the first full year of the Bias Education and Response Team being utilized at Housatonic Valley Regional High School.
This team, or BERT for short, is a team made primarily of students, with staff to supervise, that respond to incidents of bias in the school. This program was presented as an opportunity to combat and respond to incidents of bias and educate the students and faculty on what bias is.
BERT was introduced with a presentation from two counselors and educators outside of the HVRHS community, Carolyn Corrado and Karen Garrity. They taught the school about the Bias Incident Reporting System, or BIRS, which is a google form that anyone from the school community can fill out, reporting bias that they have seen or heard. Then, students on the team respond to these incidents. This system aims to create a positive school environment through addressing bias.
Students and faculty involved with the program traveled to Shepaug in October for the Youth Climate Summit, an event where high schools all over Connecticut came together to discuss ways to improve their schools. The entire team gave a presentation on BERT, the work they’ve been doing, and how to utilize the system. “By seeing and potentially utilizing programs that other schools have implemented and found successful in ours could make the schools climate far better for all students and faculty members,” said Silas Tripp, a member of BERT who attended this summit.
On April 3, three of the team members — Maddy Johnson, Silas Tripp and Ayden Wheeler — and the principal, Ian Strever, made their way to Nashua, New Hampshire, to give a presentation at the New England Association of Schools and Colleges Conference. This was a huge success for the team, Wheeler said, “the presentation seemed to be received well with some school representatives coming up to us and wanting to integrate it into their schools.”
“The goal is to make our school a safe environment for all and to make the students feel at home at our school and I truly believe our attendance to these gatherings are helping us reach this goal,” Tripp said. The team also has plans for reaching out to the regional middle schools and making a presentation in the fall to promote lessons of kindness and equality in grade K-8, said Johnson, the subcommittee lead for this objective.
Richie Crane, Carmela Egan, and Georgie Clayton, the members of the “Who We Are” subcommittee, created an instagram account where they post educational information and videos to spread the word about BIRS and what bias is, which you can follow @hvrhs.bert on Instagram.
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