Windsock

Poetic Puerto Rico

Our E-Term

Plantains

Utopia

El Morro de San Felipe, historic fort in Old San         Juan

Rumpelstiltskin, Touring Choir mascot

Tainos, aboriginal Puerto Ricans

Ocean

 

The Soup and Arts Fest: A Yearly Tradition

One night a year, purple paint, hot chili, and Celtic music come together in a wondrous combination at Eastern Mennonite School.   On Saturday evening, March 26, students, faculty, parents and community members joined together in a celebration of the arts.  The 2011 Soup and Arts Fest was once again an incredible success. 

The 13th Annual Biotech Symposium

Ever since its birth in 1994, the Shenandoah Valley Biotechnology Symposium, hosted by Eastern Mennonite School, has sought to maintain its mission statement “to heighten the exposure of students to the ever-expanding knowledge, laboratory techniques, and possibilities within the field of biotechnology.”  This year's symposium succeeded in doing just that. 

On Friday, March 4, over twelve different schools came together to experience a day filled with seminars, electrophoresis, and all things biotech-y.  At nine o'clock, after registration was complete, 260 students and faculty gathered in the auditorium.  The day was outlined by two moderators, Kelsey Blosser and Robert McConnel, from the EMS biotechnology class who then proceeded to introduce the day's keynote speaker, Dr. Curtis Van Tassell.

How to Approach High School: An Editorial

Ever since I came to EMS as a sixth grader, there were classes that I thought would be really cool to take.  I distinctly remember my freshman year when I was finally able to enroll in courses ending with “logy;” for some reason that was really cool.  As a freshman, my main goal for high school was to take whatever classes I needed to in order to be able to get into a really good college when I graduated.  Since then, while still doing my best to succeed, my goals for life after high school have changed dramatically.  Now in the final semester of my senior year, I've been pondering what I chose to study and what I forfeited.  What I've come away with is the realization that high school shouldn't be so much about “specializing” academically, but trying out a wide variety of options.

The 10th Kennel-Charles Lecture Held on Monday

On Monday evening, Daryl Byler, a 1974 graduate of Eastern Mennonite High School, gave the 10th annual Kennel-Charles Lecture at EMS.  Currently residing in Amman, Jordan, Byler serves as the Mennonite Central Committee contact in the Middle East.  Through his first hand witness of this war-torn area of the world, Byler has come to several ideas of how Christians have contributed to and helped transform Middle East conflicts.

Varsity Volleyball Falls Just Short

Leah Jacobs and Kelsey Blosser have been representing the Flames on the volleyball court since they were in the seventh grade.  This past weekend these two seniors finished up their high school volleyball careers with a run for the state championship. 

National Honor Society's Plans

National Honor Society is a rarely heard from group of hardworking seniors.  This assembly of students works to maintain four basic requirements for eligibility:  scholarship, service, leadership and character.  In order to be considered for NHS, a student must be either a junior or a senior, maintain a grade point average of 3.5 or higher, be committed to leading and completing 8 hours of community service activities, and be a person of good character.  The induction of new members will occur a little later this school year.

EMS Welcomes Diana Berkshire!

The daughter of an alum, and an alum herself, and the mother of four graduates, Mrs. Diana Berkshire is no stranger to the EMS community.  After her instrumental role in the gym renovation project, Mrs. Berkshire joined the EMS staff the fall of the 2010 school year. 

Before coming to EMS, Mrs. Berkshire had owned a business and worked as a nurse for four years.  She took a year off from nursing and had begun to pray about finding a new job outside the medical field.  She wanted to find work some place where she would be useful.  Head of School Paul Leaman called the idea to hire Mrs. Berkshire to work at EMS a “divine inspiration,” when he initially talked to her about her current position.  The job offer was an answer to prayer. 

EMS Welcomes Elena Stuckey!

When Mr. David Lehman moved from Harrisonburg to the Williamsburg area to take a position as a pastor, students and teachers alike wondered who would fill his shoes in the mathematics department. Elena Stuckey (“like 'cookie'”), a newly married graduate of Christopher Dock Mennonite High School in Souderton, PA, and most recently a 2010 graduate of Goshen College, came to take his place.

Stuckey's mother, who works at CD, heard about the job opening at Eastern Mennonite and passed word along to her daughter. Mrs. Stuckey said she “applied on a whim,” and ended up getting the job. This meant a move and transition to the Valley.

Mr. Eberly's New Role

You know him as the Dean of Students, but this coming fall, Mr. Eberly will be taking on some new responsibilities as the High School Principal.

The impetus leading up to this change was Mr. Ernie Martin's announcement of retirement at the end of last year. Since then, the school has been working to adjust the administrative structure's function to accommodate the loss of an administrator. A new model for administration was formed through several meetings with Elaine Moyer of the Mennonite Education Association, previously principal at Christopher Dock Mennonite High School. Mr. Eberly will be taking on the roll of High School Principal while Principal Paul Leaman becomes the Head of School. Additionally, another person, unknown at this point, will become a principal for the middle school. Depending on how everything comes together, Eberly may not have as much involvement in discipline in the middle school next year. 

Beginning in the fall of 2010, Mr. Eberly will be “spending time in high school classrooms working with faculty in the area of formative supervision and evaluation.” He will work more closely with the faculty than he has in the past. However, even though his title is changed, many of Eberly's responsibilities will remain the same:  he will continue “giving direction to student life activities.” Next year Mr. Eberly will no longer be working with the Crisis Management Plan that oversees things such as safety inspections and fire drills – Business Manager Mike Stoltzfus will take on the job. 

“I have always enjoyed my role as Dean of Students...” states Mr. Eberly.  “I am looking forward to additional interaction with faculty in a new capacity in my role as High School Principal.”

- Malinda Bender