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Culture Fair on Monday!!

By: Sasha Chernysehva

What is the Culture Fair? The Culture Fair is your chance to represent your country, make your culture a little more familiar to everyone, or display the aspects of your country that you are proud of. You will see students participate in a fashion show, make their national foods, perform their traditional dance, or sing their country’s music. Each culture has its own traditions and the Culture Fair is a unique tradition at CATS. We encourage you to participate and look forward with enthusiasm to the this important event this year!

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February 2018 Artist of the Month

Bingbin Xia (Carina)

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Mr. Angell’s Vision for CATS

By: Howard Ng

The fall semester has passed and CATS Academy Boston now proceeds into the second semester. The school is delighted to welcome all new and returning students to be members of this welcoming and diverse community. On January 24th, an interview was held with the Head of School, Mr. Angell to discuss his plans for our wonderful school (This article is based on the summary of Mr. Angell’s ideas and rather than a word by word responses).

Mr. Angell, what is your vision for CATS Academy? In five years, how do you think CATS Academy Boston will be different than today?

It is evident that CATS is a very young school with a incredibly diverse community of talented and willing to learn students. In order to enrich the learning environment for our school and enhance the learning environment for our students, Mr. Angell has many plans and projects in the works. Some general ideas include, improving the school curriculum and adding to the already wonderful school facilities. The new dormitory, which is slated to be completed next school year will also bring anticipated growth of the student body.“We will be able to include a lot more wonderful kids in our school,” said Mr. Angell.

Mr. Angell, what are some changes that you think will be made before the beginning of next school year?

Students who are very athletic may be pleased to hear this. Mr. Angell hopes to improve the school’s athletic offerings as students are getting more involved in athletics at our school. A major change that he hopes to realize is to create a better soccer field for our soccer and ultimate frisbee teams. At the same time, Mr Angell desires to change the school’s weight room. “We want to be able to offer a larger area for students to use.” By doing this, students will have a much more accessible weight room for those who like to participate in clubs, activities, and sports and still be able to workout during the evening hours. Mr Angell would also like to improve the offerings of the fine arts department, notably by improving the availability of instruments to students at the start of the next school year.

Mr. Angell, how will CATS Academy continue to enhance the learning experience for students in the coming years?

Mr. Angell responded by stating, “ [CATS Academy Boston needs to ] make sure that our students are ready and able to get into the best possible colleges here in the United States”. In order to accomplish this goal, there is a constant quest to refine the instruction quality and academic program.

The new CATS Innovation program currently features more STEM and STEAM course offerings .Mr. Angell gave many accolades to the faculty who helped morph the CIGB (CATS Institute of Global Business) into this enhanced program.  “CATS Innovation targets specific interests of students and enhances their attractiveness to colleges and universities by allowing students to take classes others school don’t offer,” added Mr. Angell.

Mr. Angell, as an administrator, what are your plans to ensure CATS Academy is sustainable?

Mr. Angell relayed how he values the diverse CATS Academy Boston student population as being key to the sustainability of the school. He stated, “The number one priority is making sure that we have lots of students here. Every school is based around the fundamental foundation of its students.” Mr. Angell wants to make sure that CATS will continue to attract great students from all over the world to study in a great learning environment. Mr. Angell concluded by saying, “The better we make CATS Academy Boston, the more students will want to come here.”

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Model UN Competes at Princeton

By: Amber Nguyen

We checked in at the hotel after a day-long trip. Everywhere, people were striding with confidence. Their heads straight ahead, Starbucks in their hands, pens and paper clipboards neatly spread on the tables, and attire as professional as CEOs of multinational corporations. It was only the meet-and-greet session, the first day of the Princton Model United Nations Conference (PMUNC), yet most seemed to have their plans already mapped out. It was then that I felt slightly intimidated. Princeton MUN goers were intense and passionate, which was overwhelming for me.  I stood in a corner dressed in jeans, a graphic tee, and a bed-head.  Covering tired eyes, I thought about the next few days with excitement.

Nine students and two advisors from CATS Boston took their seats for the opening ceremony. It was a formality and involved a college-style lecture about something that was meant to be important. I could have easily forgotten it just like any other opening ceremony if not for the eloquent speeches and humorous deliveries of the PMUNC organizers, who were all Princeton students. The way they spoke with self-assurance while making fun of their peers contradicted the ideal model of people in fancy business suits. The whole audience seemed to agree by bursting out laughing whenever the Secretary General jokingly called out his friends.

After dinner I searched for my committee room on a maze-like floor. There were so many more people there than I had previously imagined there would be. Everyone seemed occupied in clusters of people, likely from the same committee. Although most of them were strangers to each other, they quickly established comradery with polite introductions.

Then, the first committee session took place. My committee – the International Criminal Court (ICC) – went straight into business. The chair introduced the procedure briefly before calling on the first case. ICC is a specialized committee and does not function like normal general assemblies: we were a court. Therefore, each individual did not represent a country, but rather a judge for the court. Each team had four to five judges, and were appointed to defend, prosecute and judge different cases. Judges were all unfamiliar to each other, and I was no exception. My team were lucky (or unlucky due to the strain from travelling previously in the day) as the chair looked favorably upon the defense of Ariel Sharon. With extensive research and background checks, I realized that Sharon was almost impossible to defend before the ICC for the crimes of Genocide that he committed. With minimal contribution in the opening statement, I went back to CATS meeting at 11pm in defeat.
The next day was the campus tour and two committee sessions in the afternoon until the evening. After a late arrival to the hotel, I burst into the committee room with adequate preparation that I have gathered the whole morning. My teammates did incredibly well, and the witnesses we cross-examined were all giving answers to our favor. I caught up with the fierce flow of the court and began to actively participate in every case. Outside the sessions, our team met up for more tranquil times to prepare for our next arguments.

We functioned independently then came together as a group to put our ideas into a logical schedule. With sharp questions and distinctive observations (and tons of notes scribbled with ugly hand-writings), my team won the first case and successfully defended a man who was – as the chair said – completely guilty. Now, if it was reality, we would have felt terrible. Still, the simulation of a real-life event was what PMUNC (and MUN in general) is all about. It was a special event for high schoolers to take up roles and emerged themselves in the world of professional politics. Nothing was clearly white nor black, and one’s logically assessments were the key to determine a specific case. After all, our team ended winning another case – the prosecution of Tony Blair – and fairly pronounced Harold. S Truman as guilty.
After four days of hard work and determination, I left PMUNC with pride, friendship, experience and knowledge. Before leaving, we took a walk down the famous Times Square. On the bus back to school at 8pm, I thought of the event thoroughly and decided that Princeton Model United Nations Conference was a great thing before falling asleep.

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November 2017 Student of the Month: Victoria Shi

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Student Government Announcement

By: Sasha Chernysehva

You may not be aware of it but your student government has been putting in a lot of work to enhance your experience at CATS Academy this year. While other students are enjoying free time on Thursday, during breaks or at lunch, the student government has been working in order to make our experience here more remarkable? I hope you will all join me in expressing gratitude for what the student government, with Professor Mike in charge, has done for the CATS community. The haunted house and the Halloween dance were done with great proficiency and enthusiasm, which is why they both turned out to be very enjoyable. So thank you!

I would like to announce that the student government, is now actively stepping into its next big project, our charity fundraiser.

What is charity?

Charity is a non-profit, voluntary act of kindness. There is a great array of things that one can do for charity, including financial aid, physical help, or even moral support. Most of the time, charity involves donations or financial aid for different purposes.

Why should you get involved?

Our school now cooperates with a charitable organization called United World Schools (UW) that also works with other schools in an attempt to raise enough money to advance education in Nepal. Their goal is to build as many schools as is needed, so that they are available for children in the shortest possible distance.

The current situation in Nepal is very troubling.

Children get a poor education or don’t get one at all due to a lack of schools; many children are not allowed to go to schools. More children can be educated with the development of more schools.

In order to fulfill our annual plan for this charitable effort, we need to raise $10,000 this year. It doesn’t take much for this amount to be raised. We could do this if each student helped raise $20.

Although you are not required to participate, the student government encourages you to participate in the charity. Help us raise money for this worthy cause.

How and where can I volunteer to help?

In order to find out more about this fund raising effort, you should speak to one of the organizers of the fundraising campaign: Sandrine Veilleux or Professor Mike.

Another area that the student government plans to concentrate on is student satisfaction. There will be further information on this effort next semester.

If you have any questions or concerns, please contact the student government, and we will do our best to help you!

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Fall 2017 Band Concert Video

Courtesy of Anastasia Dvoryanchikova

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1HkvNbNM-pM6HmMjrain4qSLtivOJV7c2/view?ts=5a253daf 

 

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Finals Are Approaching! Study!

By: Howard Ng

Finals are deemed by some of us as the most frightening event of the whole year. The feeling of anxiousness is enhanced by sitting in the completely quiet gym and staring at our exam wondering if we are answering the questions correctly. You can help limit your anxiousness through diligently studying for each exam and seeking out teachers during their office hours, the day before the exam, to ask any last minute questions. Honestly, if you have properly prepared, you can treat finals just like a relaxing and tranquil trip to the shopping mall. Here is some advice to boost your confidence on how to be prepared for the finals:

1. Balance the appropriate amount of studying, sleeping, and eating in advance.

Sleeping and eating are obviously essential tasks that everyone should be doing on a daily basis. During finals preparation, you should not be your typical overachieving self and study until 3am in the morning and wake up at 6:30 to eat breakfast. The most likely outcome of tMIT Outreach Program.Image 1.jpghis approach is that you will forget the material before you have the chance to use it on the finals. You should try to study during the day making sure to constantly take short breaks after each hour of studying. This persistence will allow you to remember most of the concepts and topics for the long term. You are likely receive higher exam scores when you study effectively and get enough food and sleep.

2. Be resourceful (Mr. O’Donnell)

Mr. O’Donnell regularly recommends to his students that they should “be resourceful!!!” This wise advice is given because he wants his students to effectively utilize every opportunity that is available to them.

There are many resources available to help us study for the finals, but some of us don’t know what they are. An easy, yet efficient way to utilize your time is to study with your classmates. You can meet up with your classmates, perhaps in front of a huge whiteboard in the dorms or in the academic building to review essential material for your exam. Your study group should conduct an open discussion of the topics on the review sheet.

An additional way to successfully prepare for exams is by creating possible questions, your teachers could ask on their finals. Do this with your study group classmates Questions can be easily formulated through the learning objectives your teachers uses every day. This study technique harnesses the power of multiple brains which can be more efficient than one. With this strategy you will also receive live help, support, and even encouragement from your classmates. Additionally, there are many other online resources that your group can use and share.

Websites such as Khan Academy and other online media platforms, such as YouTube, have many instructional videos to watch which may help you review for your final exam.

Final exams do not have to be scary! Keys to success are sleeping, studying, eating, and being resourceful! If you follow this essential advice and prepare, then there is really nothing to fear. Good luck!

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Mathematics Comes to Life with Gerrymandering Lecture

By: Nuray Salina

On Tuesday, November 7th, the CATS Innovation program hosted their first guest, Mira Bernstein from Tufts Universitty, to discuss gerrymandering. According to an official on Tufts University’s website, Mira holds a research faculty position in the interdisciplinary program in Science, Technology, and Society. She is also the founder of the Metric Geometry and Gerrymandering Group (MGGG). She gave CATS Academy students a lecture about the Mathematics behind Redistricting (Gerrymandering) in the United States.

Ms. Bernstein discussed the gerrymandering definition from the Black’s Law Dictionary: ”Gerrymandering is the process of dividing a state or other territory into authorized civil or political divisions, but with such a geographical arrangement as to accomplish a sinister or lawful purpose.”

In other words, Gerrymandering is a division of an area of districts, in which the results of elections are intended to be predetermined. This word appeared in the 19th century, when the Boston Gazette insinuated that Massachusetts Governor Elbridge Gerry redistricted voting areas to favor his Democratic-Republican Party.

Our guest showed us the small possibility of victory for minority candidates during elections. The process of gerrymandering is to divide your territory so your supporters will represent the majority in more districts than your opponents. This picture will help you to understand the nature of Gerrymandering more clearly:

Mira Bernstein noted that communities are not typically divided fairly. She emphasized the following three main problems of Gerrymandering:

gerry

  1. Compact doesn’t mean neutral.
  2. Neutral doesn’t mean fair.
  3. Do we even know what is fair?

Gerrymandering is a major issue throughout the world. Some politicians and political parties come to power without having the majority of supporters. Redistricting makes elections unfair, because it doesn’t allow every person to have an independent vote. Bernstein’s lecture also emphasized the connection between geometry and politics.

This lecture was interesting and thought provoking for our students, who were curious enough to ask Ms. Bernstein questions about gerrymandering.

This engaging lecture was the first to be sponsored by the CATS Innovation Program. The program is an interdisciplinary curriculum that helps students follow their academic passion in focused areas of study.

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