St. Johnsbury Academy Winter Sports

By Shane LaCroix

St. Johnsbury, VT

Vermont High School Winter sports are finally under way and St. Johnsbury Academy is already in full gear.

This past week I sat down with St. Johnsbury Academy’s Athletic Director David McGinn.

After our discussion on the bright outlook of the Academy’s season to come, I was able to catch some teams practicing. Later in the week, I was able to see some contests.

The Junior Varsity and Varsity girls and boys basketball teams hosted scrimmages a week ago after they completed their first week of practices.

The Hilltoppers are working on the little things in this early season, as the boys varsity team expects to head back to Patrick Gymnasium, and this time, to claim the Vermont Division 1 State Championship.

Over the weekend St. Johnsbury Academy hosted a wrestling tournament named after long time head coach Sandy Murray. The Hilltoppers came in 2^nd.

After the busy opening 2 weeks, McGinn is certainly putting in extra time making sure that his teams have their needs met.  Mr. McGinn is anxiously awaiting the excitement of contests to begin for all his winter teams.

As a former basketball player at St. Johnsbury Academy, this winter sports season is nothing new to me. I enjoy being able to watch former teammates play in front of a packed Alumni Memorial Gymnasium with students and community members alike, cheering on the mighty Hilltoppers. 

GO BIG GREEN!!

Final Project Outline

For the final project I am working by myself to show a typical day in the St. Johnsbury Academy Athletic Department. Winter sports started this week and I think the Athletic Department does a great job at organizing and making sure things go smoothly.

I plan on using my voice as well as interviewing the Athletic Director David McGinn. I also will include pictures with captions as well as video of practices.

Video 2 Synopsis

Shane, Andrew and I want to create a narrative about the resident assistant’s nightly activities when they are “on duty.”

We will follow the RAs around campus as they go on “rounds” and check the suites on campus to make sure students are safe and being responsible. We will interview the RAs we tape, and have them explain what they do on rounds and when on duty, and why they have to do these tasks.  

The interview will serve as part of our sound as well as the audio we will record to explain certain situations in the video. We will also have natural sounds form the RAs as they go around campus and interact with students.

Andrew and I will be responsible for recording the video because they live on campus and can record the RAs in action.

Everyone in our group will be responsible for editing the video, creating the audio recordings, and writing the writing portion. We will together write, edit, and produce the video and writing portion. 

Resident Assistants at Lyndon State College

At Lyndon State College, students, faculty, and staff all work together in order to keep positive attitudes flowing throughout campus. The 21 resident assistants play a pivotal role in setting the wonderful atmosphere many people love about LSC.

The resident assistants are hard workers. They are hired to keep students on campus safe, and allow their residents to have a great time while living on campus.

Resident assistants are given a ton of responsibility. They have keys to every dorm room on campus. At any time of the day they can be called upon to help out with a harmful situation, or just to unlock a door for a student who forgets his or her keys.

Once a month the resident assistants are responsible for creating activities for residents to attend and enjoy. The R.A.s are overseen by their boss, Erin Rossetti.

Rossetti is the head of the residential life department, and she also serves as the resident hall director for the Rita Bole Complex. She is responsible for going through the hiring process of resident assistants and residence hall directors.

Rossetti has four resident assistants in each building, along with one Resident hall director per building.

Each R.A. is assigned one night per week, and about one weekend per month to be “on duty.” This includes being in their room readily available if an incident occurred, as well as going on rounds to ensure the safety of the students in dorm buildings.

The resident assistants go in pairs to go on rounds each night. They make two or three rounds on a given night, depending on the activity around campus.

Each night one resident hall director is also “on duty” and they are on call in case of a serious situation occurring.

The resident assistants are always busy with their job, but the job is worth the while. There are several benefits an R.A. receives from obtaining the position.

Lyndon State College pays the room and board for the resident assistants, saving thousands of dollars for many of them. The school also gives them the option to have an unlimited meal-plan, or receive money every week to buy groceries.

The job also provides good references for resident assistants to put down when applying for jobs. Being an R.A. also gives the students great work experience, and is a positive piece to building a great resume.

Video Project 2 Synopsis

Mike, Andrew and I want to create a narrative about the resident assistant’s nightly activities when they are “on duty.”

We will follow the RAs around campus as they go on “rounds” and check the suites on campus to make sure students are safe and being responsible. We will interview the RAs we tape, and have them explain what they do on rounds and when on duty, and why they have to do these tasks.

The interview will serve as part of our sound as well as the audio we will record to explain certain situations in the video. We will also have natural sounds form the RAs as they go around campus and interact with students.

Andrew and Mike will be responsible for recording the video because they live on campus and can record the RAs in action.

Everyone in our group will be responsible for editing the video, creating the audio recordings, and writing the writing portion. We will together write, edit, and produce the video and writing portion.

Lyndon State College - "The Critic"

Lyndon State College is a small school located in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont. The school has many news sources on campus for the college population, as well as for the surrounding community. One source of news that is considered to many to be “old fashion” is the student-run newspaper, The Critic.

The Critic staff meets every Thursday night, when school is in session, to edit the stories, and layout the eight pages the paper consists of. Once the editing and formatting is complete, the layout is printed by Upper Valley Press in New Hampshire. On Friday mornings the papers are delivered to Lyndon State, and can be picked up around campus for free.

 Many students will submit articles to the newspaper. Some students enjoy writing news stories, and some submissions to the paper are from the journalistic writing class. It is the job of the editors to figure out which stories to publish. There are several editors responsible for putting The Critic together. Each is assigned a section or page to put together, or write stories for. These editors many times write their own stories, but sometimes may only have to format a page if other students’ work is going to be published.

 The Critic is done entirely by students, but there is a professor who oversees the paper to make sure students are creating the best newspaper possible. Dan Williams is the faculty- advisor to the Critic. He goes through the paper weekly with Editor-in-chief Michael Miley. Williams explains the good and the bad are from the past week’s edition.

 In 2010 The Critic joined social media by creating a Facebook page. This page gets updated with information from the newspaper, and one can also find there an online edition of the most recent editions. The Critic also has its own website, but unfortunately the page is not updated very often.

In recent years the critic has been noticed by the Lyndon State community as a club of high regard. The Critic was named “club of the year” in 2008 and 2010. The mission statement of The Critic reads “To serve and share the student voice of Lyndon State College,” and according to many people, they are successful at doing so.

 Lyndon State College is a strong supporter of the newspaper, as the college states “The Critic is a student generated and produced newspaper that serves as the voice of the student body. The paper includes various stories of interest to the Lyndon State community, including campus events, local area happenings, student issues, and athletic news.”

Written By:
Mike Raimondi
Shane LaCroix

Incredible Story!!