Alpha Chronicles Volume 1 Issue 4

The Alpha Chronicles
Volume 1, Issue 4
April 2016
Serving Sisters:
90th Anniversary Celebration Continues
Inside this issue:
Alpha’s Own Spearheads
Service
2
Chimbote Updates
2
First Grade
3
Boy Scouts
3
On the Radio
3
Read Across America
4
Mathletes
4
PJAS
5
Talking Art Museum
5
Pi Day
5
Spring Musical
6
Kindergarten
6
2016 Gala
7
Calling All Alumni!
7
SCRIP
7
Q&A at Alpha
8
Kids of Steel
9
Jump Rope for Heart
9
Summer Activities
9
Forensics
10
March of Dimes
10
Save the Dates
12
The 90th Anniversary celebration this year has kicked off with
a bang! In January, Student
Council members organized a
90th Anniversary Luncheon for
the Sisters. With over 50 Sisters
in attendance, students had their
hands full, literally! Alpha Student Council members worked as
servers for the Sisters during the
luncheon, even providing valet
service! The meal went off without a hitch. Sisters enjoyed a full
lunch of salad, pasta, and dessert
while watching talent show performances from Alpha students.
With the help of Mr. Beacham,
Student Council advisor, and Mr.
Chmay, music teacher and talent
show coordinator at Alpha, Student Council put on a lovely
lunch to acknowledge the Sisters’
past and continued support of
Alpha School. Special recognition
was given to those Sisters who
worked at Alpha in years past.
Catholic Schools Week in February served as another opportunity to recognize Alpha School’s
legacy. With a new theme each
day, plenty of opportunity pre-
sented itself to recognize Alpha’s
history.
The March celebration themed
“90 Years of Alpha Luck” featured a wall of coins and shamrocks full of memories and favorite moments from Alpha students, teachers, and Sisters. The
colorful display was posted in the
main entry of the school as a
reminder of the continued celebrations.
More events are being planned
for the upcoming months in
hopes of making this year-long
celebration of our 90th Anniversary a memorable time in Alpha
School’s history. Plans are already underway for the annual
Gala event, set for November 4,
which will focus on our rich history and plans for a bright future.
Keep an eye out for more 90th
Anniversary plans coming your
way!
Page 2
The Alpha Chronicles
Alpha’s Own Spearheads Service: Girl
Scout Cadette Silver Award Project
Caption describing picture
or graphic.
Alpha sixth grader, GiGi
Corcoran, had just completed her Cadette Journey for the Girl Scouts of
America when she began
thinking of designing a
service project to complete her requirements to
earn her Silver Award.
The Silver Award is the
second highest award of
the Girl Scouts of America, and the highest
award that a Girl Scout
Cadette can earn. In order to be eligible for the
Silver Award, a Cadette
must complete a 50-hour
service project that
leaves a lasting impact
on the community. Gigi
decided to bring service
back to the Alpha community by developing
her own Service Program with the Sisters of
Divine Providence to
make them smile! Her
work with the Sisters is
certainly something to be
proud of, and we’re so
happy to have the chance
to showcase her dedication and commitment to
service here at Alpha!
Congratulations on earning your Silver Award!
Chimbote Update
Alpha students have done
it again! This year, Alpha
has raised over $2,000 for
the Chimbote Foundation.
With donations collected
at Trunk or Treat and
through Catholic Schools
Week in the Penny Challenge, a grand total of
$2,454.11 has been donated to the Chimbote Foun-
dation. Students helped
the Chimbote foundation
by making prayer chains,
attended the Chimbote
dinner to present their
service efforts, and sold
popsicles with their
“Chillin’ for Chimbote”
plan. What a great effort
by our Alpha students!
Plans are already in the
works for even more Chimbote fundraisers.
More than 40 years ago,
the Diocese of Pittsburgh
began to build a bridge of
love and hope between the
people of Pittsburgh and
the needy in Chimbote,
Peru. Donations help to
support the maternity hos-
pital built through the
Foundation to serve the
community, along with
education programs to help
the people of Chimbote
support themselves and
their neighbors. More information on the Foundation is available on the Diocese website at diopitt.org.
Page 3
Volume 1, Issue 4
In the Classroom & Around Campus
First Grade Stack Attack
First grade students
practice their sight
words and sound swaps
with Stack Attack! In this
game, the students take a
cracker card from the
box. Each cracker card
has a sight word. The
student can either read
the word, or change any
sound - beginning, middle, or end - to make a
new word. From Box to
Fox, Bet to Let, the possibilities are endless! If
they do it correctly they
begin to stack their
crackers. If they get a
Stack Attack card they
must put them all back
in the box. Keep the
cards stacked and don’t
let them fall, though. The
student with the highest
stack wins. The first
graders were divided
into groups to play this
practice game for their
phonics. What a fun way
to learn!
Boy Scouts Earn Arrow of Light Award
Neill Bidlack, Christopher
Smith, and Patrick
McCarthy have earned
the Cub Scout Arrow of
Light Award this
spring. The Arrow of
Light award, which is the
highest rank in Cub
Scouting, embodies the
hard work the boys have
done through their years
in Cub Scouting. These
second-year Webelos
scouts have made their
transition from Cub
Scouts to Boy Scouts,
through the Arrow of
Light. The Arrow of Light
is the only Cub Scout
award which can be carried over and worn on the
Boy Scout uniform. The
symbolism of the award
encapsulates the values
these boys have demonstrated on the trail of
scouting.
The arch of the sun
represents the dawning of
a new beginning in the
scouts’ lives as they move
on from cub scouts to boy
scouts. The seven rays
represent the seven virtues of life: wisdom, courage, self-control, justice,
faith, hope, and love. The
arrow upon which the
arch rests represents
the power of our values to
always point us in the
right direction. Congrats
to our Alpha students!
Alpha on the Radio
This February, Alpha
had the opportunity to
meet with Father Tom
Burke to tape two segments of “Education
Plus” for KQV Radio.
Each 30-minute segment
is all about Alpha, chock
full of praise about the
academics, activities,
and family atmosphere
we all know and love.
The first segment, fea-
turing Alpha parent, Ada
DeFanti, and Alpha students, Adri DeFanti and
Oleg Hartman, will air
on Friday, April 22 at
7pm, and run again on
Sunday, April 24 at
8:30am. The second segment, featuring Alpha’s
Director of Admissions,
Katie Yarzebinski, will
air on Friday, April 29 at
7pm and again on Sun-
Patrick McCarthy,5th grader Neill Bidlack, 5th grader day, May 1, at 8:30am. Make sure to tune in to KQV,
AM 1410, to hear all about Alpha with host Father Tom
Burke!
Page 4
The Alpha Chronicles
Read Across America
Wednesday, March 2,
this year marked the
annual celebration of
Read Across America
Day! Also known as Dr.
Seuss Day, this nationwide read-a-thon is a
celebration of literacy.
Here at Alpha, we embraced the Cat in the Hat
spirit and sat down to
enjoy a good book in
honor of promoting literacy nation-wide. What a
great way to spend an
afternoon! More on Read
Across America can be
found on the National
Education Association
Alpha’s Mathletes
A new math competition hit Alpha students
with challenges this
year, but Alpha students came out on top
once again! Ms. Shick
and Mrs. Forbes arranged to participate
in a new math competition for Alpha this
year.: Catholic Math
League. Catholic Math
League is a national
math competition that
began as a division of
Educontest in 1997,
and in 2009, was renamed Catholic Math
League. Catholic Math
League is a mathematical tool that is used by
hundreds of Catholic
schools throughout the
nation to aid in the
development of mathematical skills in the
lives of their students.
Grades 3-8 participated in the nationwide
math contest for the
4th Grade Winners
Top 3 Fourth Grade Students at Alpha
1st Braedan Golla
2nd Bryan Mizusaki
3rd
Maya Eid
first time this year.
The competition involved a series of tests
and scores are reported to the League for
scoring. Our Alpha
students came out on
top! We’re so proud of
all of our winners!
5th Grade Winners
Top 3 Fifth Grade Students
at Alpha
1st Anthony Arshoun
2nd
Chris Smith
3rd
Alex Ondos
The Fifth Grade as a class won
2nd Place overall in their Division
and Anthony Arshoun tied for 2nd
Place in his Division.
7th Grade Winners
Top 3 Seventh Grade Students at Alpha
1st Andrew Lusebrink
2nd
Annie Snyder
3rd
David Foody
8th Grade Winners
Top 3 Eighth Grade Students at Alpha
1st
Max Kress
2nd Sarah Pritchard
3rd
Hollie Walters
3rd Grade Winners
Top 3 Third Grade Students
in Alpha
1st
Clara You
2nd
Jonas Hong
3rd Brady Trischler
The Third Grade as a class won
1st Place overall in their Division
and the following 3 students
were Ranked in the Top Three in
their Division: Clara Yuo won 1st
place, Jonas Hong won 2nd
place, and Brady Trischler tied
for 3rd place.
6th Grade Winners
Top 3 Sixth Grade Students
at Alpha
1st
Brody Golla
2nd
Maura Shernisky
3rd
Carson Jacob
Brody Golla won 2nd Place in his
Division
Page 5
Volume 1, Issue 4
Alpha’s PJAS Winners
Fourteen Alpha students
competed at the Pennsylvania Junior Academy of
Science (PJAS) competition held on Saturday at
Duquesne University. The following students earned a Second
Place Award: Clare
Katyal, Kirsten Rieder,
Grace Lunak, Hollie
Walters and Matthew
Soller.
Talking Art Museum
The Talking Art Museum
is a highly anticipated
yearly event for the 5th
grade class and this year
was no exception. Students paired up to recreate a famous painting in
art class. In computer
class they researched
that artist and created a
PowerPoint presentation
that they presented to
the entire student body,
parents and faculty.
The presentations this
year were fantastic! I
know upcoming 5th grade
students can’t wait to
have their turn to participate in this very unique
event. Great job 5th
grade!
•Ms. Brown-Clair
Pi Day
The Alpha School celebrated its 4th annual Pi
Day on March 14th.
Students enjoyed hosting
guest mathematicians,
such as parents, relatives,
and family friends, and
celebrating their love of
math. Some of the day's
festivities included learning about Pi through
hands on activities and
iPads, problem solving, a
STREAM Challenge, a
Circumference Event,
and, of course, eating
delicious pie!
The following students
earned First Place
awards: Allison Edwards, David Foody,
Christian Farls, Colleen
Moosman, Annie Snyder,
Macy Worrall, Max
Kress, Anthony Warda
and Sarah Pritchard.
In addition to her First
Place award, Sarah
Pritchard also won a
Director's Award and
special recognition from
the American Chemical
Society student representatives.
Congratulations to all
our PJAS participants. We are proud of
all of you! And special
thanks to Mrs. Cessar for
all of her hard work and
dedication to make PJAS
happen!
Page 6
The Alpha Chronicles
First Star to the Right… Spring
Musical Preparation in Full Swing
“This is a
hard show—
lots of lyrics
to memorize,
lots of lines
and lots of
movement…
the kids are
doing a great
job!”
It’s that time of year
again: Spring musical
season! Here at Alpha,
we’re gearing up for a
great show! With so
much talent in our students this year, the
school play committee
knew they needed a big
show, one with a lot of
parts and a little bit of
magic. They decided on
Disney’s Peter Pan, Jr.
and never looked back.
After auditions in December, the cast was set,
and practices began. The
whole production team
and all the cast members
meet twice a week after
school, working on the
songs, choreographing,
and working on the set.
Mrs. Farina, one of the
show’s directors, commented on the practices
so far: “This is a hard
show—lots of lyrics to
memorize, lots of lines
and lots of movement.
For example, the actors
have to "fight" on stage
and every part of their
actions needs to be cho-
reographed. The kids are
doing a great job!”
The Spring musical,
open each year to students in third through
eighth grade, is a timehonored Alpha tradition
that gives students the
opportunity to have a
little fun and get experience in musical theatre.
This year, with 39 students in the play, it’s
been an exciting whirlwind! Mr. Beacham is
heading up the set design with lots of parents
helping with the many
costumes needed—
fairies, mermaids, Indians, and Lost Boys, not
to mention the main
characters: Peter Pan,
Wendy, Tinkerbell, and
more. Students are so
excited to put on
the performance. Lindsay
Worral, seventh
grader at Alpha
who will be playing the Lost Boy,
Skunk, loves
practice so far. “This is
my first year doing a play
at Alpha. I like moving
around on stage and having fun at practice,” she
said, while Christian
Farls, seventh grader
who will be bringing
Captain Hook to life,
says “the hardest part
about doing this play is
memorizing all the
lines!”
There’s no doubt, with
the talented students
here at Alpha, that this
year’s show will be an
incredible success! Mark
your calendars for the
Spring musical Peter Pan
debut on April 21 and 22.
It’s a show you shouldn’t
miss!
Learning the Good Book in Kindergarten
The Kindergarteners
have been working hard
as they learn many stories from the Bible. Each
week the children listen
to one of the Bible stories
and then draw their favorite part of the story.
Before Advent, the children began to learn the
stories in the Old Testa-
ment.
Since then, we are learning stories from the New
Testament and how Jesus lived among us and
showed us how to love
ourselves and one another. The last month of
school, we will return to
the Old Testament to
learn about Elijah, Dan-
iel, and Jonah. They are
looking forward to bringing their Bible home on
Graduation Day.
Page 7
Volume 1, Issue 4
Alpha’s 90th Anniversary Gala: Save the Date!
Save the date! The
2016 Alpha Gala will
take place on Friday,
November 4, 2016, at the
historic Duquesne Club
in downtown Pittsburgh.
We hope you will join us
as we celebrate the 90th
anniversary of the school
with a wonderful evening
including dinner and
both silent and live auctions. Tickets will be on
sale before the end of the
school year so keep an
eye out for more information. Purchasing early
will secure your spot for
this not-to-be-missed
Alpha event.
November 4, 2016
at the Duquesne Club
The Gala Committee is
currently looking for
event sponsors as well as
members to help plan
the event. If you are interested in joining the
committee or know of
anyone that may want to
sponsor the 2016 Alpha
Gala please contact Cochairpersons Laura Ritz
at
laura.ritz@outlook.com
or Anita King at
anitamking@mac.com.
Calling Alpha Alumni!
Not only is the Gala
committee looking for
local alumni to join a
special sub-committee,
Alpha School is also
looking for Alpha
memories from your
time at the school!
Help us celebrate our
90th Anniversary by
sending us your memo-
ries, pictures, articles,
or anything else Alpha
related! We’d love to
hear from you!
If you are interested in
helping out at the Gala,
please contact Anita
King at
anitamking@mac.com
If you’d like to send in
your pictures, memories, or articles, please
email them to info@alphaschool.org.
We will be collecting
everything throughout
the summer to share
on social media and
with our Alpha families
in the Fall issue of The
Alpha Chronicles.
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Page 8
The Alpha Chronicles
Inquiring Minds Want to Know: Q&A at Alpha
Mrs. Hiles
Mrs. DeVore
Miss Walters
Ms. Ervin
Director of
Academics
First Grade
Second Grade
Finance Office
Years at Alpha: 14
Years at Alpha: 1
Years at Alpha: 8
Q: If you could turn
into any animal,
what would it be
and why?
Q: If you could be a
cookie, what would
you be and why?
A: A parakeet. It
would be amazing to
fly, but I’d still want
to be able to talk!
A: A chocolate chip
macadamia nut
cookie from
Nordstrom because
they are heaven on
earth!
Mrs. Strawoet
Ms. Dolly
Miss Zozos
Miss Katie
Liturgy Coordinator
Custodial Services
5-8 Social Studies
Years at Alpha: 10
Years at Alpha: 4
Years at Alpha: 2
Director of
Admissions
Q: If you had to
have one song stuck
in your head for the
rest of your life,
what would it be?
Q: What is your hidden talent?
Years at Alpha: 13
Q: If you could
switch lives with
someone for a day,
who would it be and
why?
A: A fighter pilot—
the view would be
amazing!
A: Maybe “Carry
On” by Crosby,
Stills, Nash, and
Young
A: Dog training. I
love helping people
to train their dogs!
Q: Where is the
most boring place
you ever went on
vacation?
A: Zanesville, Ohio
for my sister’s softball tournament.
Q: If you had to
choose one thing to
eat for the rest of
your life, what
would it be?
A: Pickles!
Years at Alpha: 1
Q: What is your favorite condiment?
A: Ranch! It’s good
on anything!
Page 9
Volume 1, Issue 4
Kids of Steel:
Alpha Students Participate in Pittsburgh Marathon
This year at Alpha, we’re
promoting health and
wellness by participating
in the Pittsburgh Marathon’s Kids of Steel program! This program is
designed to encourage
students all around the
Greater Pittsburgh area
to eat healthier and be
physically active! The
program consists of two
portions. The first portion includes tracking
and filling out an Activity
Log. For each 15
minutes of play, students
receive 1 mile towards
their marathon goal
(26.2 miles). Students
track their progress on
their Activity Log until
they reach the golden
number of 25.2
miles. This is one mile
short of a full marathon! At the Kids of
Steel Marathon on April
30, those who have registered will finish their
marathon by running
one mile. The race starts
outside of PNC Park and
finishes at Point State
Park. This is a great opportunity to meet new
friends and be physically
active while doing
so! The students have
been tracking their mileage in gym class. All of
Alpha is encouraged to
come down to PNC Park
on April 30 to cheer on
these runners!
Alpha student Theo
Tedesco in the 2015 Kids
of Steel Marathon.
Jump Rope for Heart
Alpha students at Jump Rope for Heart This year’s Jump Rope
for Heart celebration
kicked off on February
8th with a visit from the
American Heart Association! Mr. Kramm, Alpha’s physical education
teacher, organized the
event to promote wellness and help raise funds
for the AHA. “Jump
Rope for Heart is a great
opportunity for kids to
do something fun like
jumping rope, for a good
cause. It puts the fun
back in fundraising,”
Kramm says with a
laugh. Students at Alpha
raised a total of $5,686
this year, and were motivated by more than just
jumping rope. The lucky
student who helped to
raise the most money
won a chance to shave a
heart in Mr. Kramm’s
hair! “I thought it would
be a fun, extra incentive
for the kids,” Kramm
Summer Activities in the Works
Summer sessions of
some of the activities you
love are in the works
here at Alpha. While still
hashing out the details,
classes like Chess, Tennis, Tae Kwon Do, Green
-E Academy, and Ultimate Sports are on the
menu, along with a few
new additions:
ScIKAmP— a hands-on
science camp with Dr.
Rebecca Bozym, Assistant Professor of Chemistry at LaRoche and
fellow Alpha parent,
along with a new soccer
camp, Soccer 7. Most of
the camps will be held in
week-long sessions in
June or July. Depending
on the success of the
camps, even more activities could be added to
the after-school menu
for the 2016-17 school
year. Details on the summer camp opportunities
will be available midApril, so keep an eye out
for the e-mail! Questions
about summer-camp
signups can be directed
to Nathan Kramm via email at
nkramm@alphaschool.o
rg, or by phone at 412366-4455.
said, though he seemed a
bit nervous at the
thought of a heart in his
hair. John Dickinson,
third grader, was the
lucky winner, and the big
hair-cutting event is
scheduled for field day!
Mark your calendar and
don’t miss this celebration of Alpha’s hard work
in raising money for this
amazing charity!
Page 10
The Alpha Chronicles
Forensics Finals
Alpha Forensics Students at the Christmas Forensics Showcase Alpha students competed in the Southwest
Pennsylvania Forensics
All-Star meet on Saturday, March 12. Approximately 20 schools participated in this meet, competing in categories from
poetry and prose to multiple reading. In this
tournament, students are
not placed as first, second, or third; they are
instead winnowed down
to one winner per category with the top 5 rec-
ognized as finalists. Out
of Alpha’s competitors—
Allison Edwards, Sarah
Pritchard, Bryce Trischler, Adri DeFanti, Addie
Neuman, Kirsten Rieder,
Maura Shernisky, Grace
Lunak, Ellie English, and
Annie Snyder— Grace
Lunak won the category
of Prose with the first
place trophy, while Ellie
English and Annie
Snyder were Finalists in
Poetry and Declamation,
respectively. A big con-
gratulations to the participants and our Alpha
winners!
From left: Ellie English,
Grace Lunak, Annie Snyder
March of Dimes Ambassadors At Alpha
President Franklin Roosevelt's personal struggle
with polio led him to
create the National
Foundation for Infantile
Paralysis at a time when
polio was on the rise.
Better known as the
March of Dimes, the
foundation established a
polio patient aid program and funded research for vaccines developed by Jonas Salk,
MD and Albert Sabin,
MD. These vaccines effectively ended epidemic
polio in the United
States.
Its original mission accomplished, the foundation turned its focus to
preventing birth defects
and infant mortality. The
March of Dimes has led
the way to discover the
genetic causes of birth
defects, to promote newborn screening, and to
educate medical professionals and the public
about best practices for
healthy pregnancy.
Since 2003, our fight to
save babies has been
strongly characterized by
our Prematurity Campaign. The rising incidence of premature birth
has demanded action,
and the March of Dimes
has responded by initiating an intensive, multiyear campaign to raise
awareness and find the
causes of prematurity.
This year, two of Alpha’s
own have been named
the Western Pennsylvania March of Dimes Ambassadors: Emma and
Easton Ritz! These twins,
along with their parents,
Laura and Brian, make
up Team Ritz, who have
raised over $25,000 to
help make sure all babies
are born healthy. This
year, as the Western PA
Ambassadors, Team
Ritz’s goal is to raise
$5,000 for this year’s
walk. The walk, which
takes place on Sunday,
April 24, is a 5K run/
walk that benefits March
of Dimes. Anyone is welcome to join! The event
begins with check-in at
Heinz Field and continues along the Riverfront
Trail and through downtown before ending back
at the Field. Runners and
walkers are encouraged
to register online at
MarchforBabies.org. You
can also donate to March
of Dimes on the Team
Ritz page here: https://
www.marchforbabies.org
/lauraritz. We’re so
proud of these two Alpha
kindergarteners for their
support of such an amazing organization, and we
can’t wait to see what
else they do as the Western PA Ambassadors this
year! Congratulations,
Emma and Easton!
Emma and Easton Ritz
Volume 1, Issue 4
Page 11
INTERESTED IN
ADVERTISING WITH US?
Get your business noticed by placing an
ad! We have a variety of options for ad
placement that fit every budget!
To reserve your space or for more information, contact Katie Yarzebinski by
phone at 412-366-4455 or by e-mail at
kyarzebinski@alphaschool.org
Providence Heights Alpha
School
9000 Babcock Boulevard
Allison Park, PA 15101
Phone: 412-366-4455
Fax: 412-635-6317
Website: www.AlphaSchool.org
Alpha alum, Troy McChesney, along
with his classmates, are organizing a 5K
to benefit
Special Olympics Pennsylvania
for their Junior/Senior Project! The race
is on April 23rd.
Interested participants can sign up to
race here:
https://runsignup.com/Race/PA/
AllisonPark/5KNorthPark
Celebrating
90 Years!
Save the Dates
Peter Pan
Earth Day
Annual Day of
Giving
Book Fair
April 21 and 22
April 25
May 3
May 11 and 12
Teacher
Appreciation
Week
Mother’s Day
Mass
May 13
May 2-6
Sports Banquet
First
Communion
May Crowning
Mass
Annual Alpha
Art Show
May 13
May 14
May 20
May 20