The Mustang News printed edition was restarted by Sebastian Tringale and Matt Carroll in their junior year of 2016-2017. The goal of the newspaper is to give Medford High School students the opportunity to spread the news about their interests and share a variety of opinions that reflect the community's diversity. The editors of the Mustang News hope to bring the Medford community closer together, and help keep students up to date with events!

Include All is a program started by Elizabeth Passanisi and Omayma Bentalha that revolves around including Medford High’s special needs students into regular gym classes. The project involves introducing general education students to special needs students, helping them become more comfortable. Elizabeth and Omayma came up with many activities for physical education that all students are able to participate in that both special needs students and general education students are open to.

The main goal of Orchard into the Fells is to grow fruit trees outside the school along the pathway up to MHS. The fruit grown would be donated to the cafeteria so that the students would be able to enjoy freshly grown fruit. Along with that, they want to plant flowers along the same path in order to beautify school grounds. The students are working with Ms. Smith, the nutrition specialist at MHS, to make this all possible.

The transition from middle school to Medford High is difficult enough, and when Jacob, Jasper, and Lorrhan were freshmen, they wished they had access to a map. They established a bird’s eye view of Medford High School, identifying each class by its building and room number, the three cafeterias, the gymnasium, guidance and principal offices, and the bathrooms. There is also a directory of the map which lists every teacher and their respective rooms. The Mustang Map not only benefits our students and teachers, but parents as well during parent-teacher nights. The Mustang Map is now available online for mobile use, thanks to the efforts of Darwin Do.

For the past ten years, Tsewang, Tia, Nicole, and Shruti have had the opportunity to attend public school every day to receive an education. There are many children, however, who do not have this privilege due to constant hospital visits. By organizing a fundraiser with the elementary and middle schools in Medford and through donations such as money, books, pencils, and other materials, the group has made education a little more accessible by donating their efforts to the Boston Children’s Hospital, making sure that the children are able to receive the same opportunity as them.

Peter Todhunter’s project for the CCSR is working with the Medford High Hope Chest. The Medford High Hope chest is a program that collects donated materials, such as clothing and school supplies, and gives them out to students of MHS in need of those materials. The program is dedicated to Brianna, a former MHS student who passed away in 2014. This program is all about giving, it takes generous donations from people who may have extra or unused supplies and gives them to some families who are not fortunate to have those supplies themselves. The project is all about supporting the families of Medford and the students who attend the MHS. It is intended to help the students get what they need to make their lives happier and give them the things they need to help them reach their dreams in school and life.

The Great Kindness Challenge is a challenge taken by schools and youth groups to perform as many acts of kindness as possible over the course of the week. The mission of the Great Kindness Challenge is to create a school environment where all students thrive. Different activities were organized to celebrate kindness.

SAFE’s (Stuffed Animals for Emergencies) mission is to provide comfort to children in traumatic or emergency situations through donations of stuffed animals. By doing this, they hope to help children feel safe and cared for during an incredibly stressful event in their lives.

Medford siblings Orlando (McGlynn Middle School 6 th Grader), Delilah (Brooks School 5 th Grader), and Isabella Putnam-Bagley (Brooks School 1 st Grader) are student leaders and members of the Brooks Center for Citizenship and Social Responsibility. They are working with the Medford Rowing board on a fundraiser raffle to benefit Medford Rowing. The siblings have been out and about securing many local business donations for the raffle. They are also collecting signage of the generous businesses to display at the Mayor’s Cup Regatta raffle booth. The Cup is sponsored by Medford Rowing and will be held on May 19th.

McGlynn CCSR members and peer leaders created and maintain the CCSR Message Board. It is displayed where the entire student body will see it. On it you can find inspirational quotes, important notices and dates, working paper information as well as daily birthday wishes!

These peer leaders and CCSR members researched gratitude and the positive effects of the person feeling it and those receiving it. They brainstormed ideas to bring gratitude into our school community and came up with Sticky Notes of Gratitude. They wrote positive messages on sticky notes and then put a sticky note on every student’s locker. The students enjoyed writing the notes of gratitude and finding one on their locker!

Peer leaders and CCSR members created a lesson plan for elementary students and then presented the lesson to a third grade class. The lesson plan focused on self-esteem and finding the good in yourself. They read the book Giraffes Can’t Dance and led a classroom discussion about the importance of positive self-esteem. Then, they did an arts and crafts activity that had the students list five things they like about themselves and share with the class.

Anti-Bullying posters were hung up around the school to support the school's anti-bullying message and help make the walls less bare. Pictured here are Sophea and Soha with their posters (left) and Alanna, Driana, and Sydnee with their kindess posters (right).

In order to help out at the Northeast Animal Shelter and Kitty Connection adoption center, a drive was organized for donations such as towels, linens, food, litter, etc.

Adriana and Francesca’s project is about student involvement. Many Medford High students don’t know the multitude of clubs available to them, so they want to make a source that contains information about them. They are making a website that has information about what clubs the school has, when they meet, and how one can get involved. They want to make a magazine by next year to distribute to the students. Once, they are finished with their website and magazine, they want to start the “Handprint Project”. They want to create a mural in the school, and have people put their handprints with a word or two describing themselves. The goal of this project is to show each person's identity and this will show how diverse our school is.

These brave students helped encourage connective-ness by acknowledging one another with a small but powerful act of kindness simply by saying "Hello" to other students that they didn't know here at the Andrews. They eased the pressures of feeling left out especially in the first few months of Middle School! This brought attention to social isolation by empowering kids with friendship.

Sunday, February 17th was Random Acts of Kindness Day. On Friday, February 15th, students Meach Eliassaint and Yasmine El Fassi began putting sticky notes on all the 8th grade lockers. These sticky notes had compliments written on them. Within the following weeks, the students covered the 7th and 6th grade hallways with sticky notes as well.

Second grader Isabella Putnam Bagley and her fifth grade sister Delilah Putnam Bagley took on the Words of Kindness project. Words of Kindness was made to help everyone, the kind and the not so kind. They had a positive effect on people and made them think about their actions. They made posters and wrote kind words on them. Isabella and Delilah went to stores, like Michaels Crafts and asked for donations of picture frames. In the end, they hung the inspirational words throughout the school.

This group of 3rd-5th graders identified the student bathrooms as a part of our school that could be improved. They observed that the bathrooms get messy very often, with water and paper towels on the floor. They’ve put together data tables and worked on collecting data from each of the student bathrooms in the school, which included as which days and times are the most problematic, and how many students use the bathrooms each day. From this data, they have identified common problems such as smells and faulty equipment and have fixed them, beautifying the bathrooms of the McGlynn Elementary School.

These 3rd and 5th graders decided that they wanted to give back to the younger students at McGlynn, and started a peer tutoring group to work with students in Kindergarten. They’ve worked with the Kindergarten teachers to identify students who needed some 1-on-1 extra help, and have each been meeting with a different Kindergarten student once a week for 45 minutes to work on foundational literacy skills. The group spends CCSR meeting time preparing an activity to do with their Kindergarten friends for that following week, and then they take time during lunch to visit the Kindergarten classrooms and tutor their buddy. The Kindergarten students benefit from the extra help, and the Kindergarten teachers are thrilled to have former students of theirs coming in to help!

These 2nd and 3rd-graders put their artistic talents to good use by creating posters promoting kindness and anti-bullying. When finished, their posters were laminated and displayed around the school, giving students colorful reminders about how to treat others.

This year, a group of students put together a video about the "Mustang Way." which was presented at the Andrews Middle School and the McGlynn Middle School during their Anti-Bullying Assemblies. The video was made with the intention to be presented to other Medford Public Schools in future years. The video was a compilation of clips from students, teachers, and administrators explaining what the "Mustang Way" is and how students should use the "Mustang Way" in their everyday lives.

The "One Smile Away" campaign collected compliments written over a hundred students at Medford High School. All compliments were sent through a google forum and posted in the main lobby anonymously. Students were able to see who the compliment is for, but not who is was from. The campaign was put forth with the intention to reminder other students that there is always someone out there thinking positively of them.

This year, senior Mikhayla Rothermel took on bridging the gap between students and those around them. The High School Experience is a collection of poems that dive deep into the struggles and experiences of high school students. These poems detail what students wish their teachers, parents, and peers knew about them, in order to make their day at school, or at home, better. "I hope that students will be able to relate to these poems and help not only them, but their teachers and parents as well".

This year, four seniors focused their efforts on the youth that come to PTA meetings. They noticed that oftentimes children are obligated to come and sit in on meetings with their parents, which is difficult for both parties. There are also situations where kids are not able to stay at home because of a lack of a babysitter or other reasons. "We wanted to provide a space for those that have nothing to do during these meetings where their time can be occupied by some means." Be it physical activity or another form or recreation, they provided a free, volunteer-based babysitting program for the children of the PTO.

As a continuation of the project that Jasper Su and Darwin Do started last year, a new group set out to make maps to guide new people in Medford High School. With the intention to reduce as much confusion and panic when navigating through the Mustang halls, the group built off the hard work started by the Mustang Map and expanded to include the vocational school and added landmarks that made way for easier navigation. These maps were customized and put up around the school, similar to the maps in malls.

The Bathroom Beautification Project was created as a result of the myriad of complaints on the condition of the girls bathroom on the second floor. Our female students were appalled by the condition of the bathroom everytime they used it. The group decided to change that and give the bathrooms at MHS a face lift. Along with cleaning up the restroom stalls, the girls added inspirational and encouraging words on the walls. "We hope our words will help inspire and encourage some of our students, and yes! even in the ladies bathroom." Throughout the year, students painted the walls and bathroom stalls; added inspirational and encouraging words and quotes; and provided suicide-prevention information.

The McGlynn CCSR students participated in creating a safety video that was shared with the entire McGlynn Middle School student body. The video shows the correct procedures during a fire drill, a lockdown, and a shelter in place. Drills occurred during class times, transitions, and when in the cafeteria setting. The video is designed to give a visual to students so that they are prepared.

A group of fifth graders held a kindness poster contest. 165 students submitted posters. The CCSR 5th grade girls had a difficult time judging the posters. Ultimately they selected 3 winners from each grade. The winning posters were displayed in the school library. The rest of the posters were shared during lunch periods. Additionally, the last day of the challenge was school spirit day. Students were encouraged to wear shirts with a positive message or the color yellow (like the sun), to brighten the day!

Nev and Kate decided they wanted to make a change to how many tests they were given each month. They wanted to lessen the amount of tests and fight for more review time. They decided to write up a petition and collect signatures to see how other students and adults felt about this. They have been collecting signatures throughout the month of April. They hope to gain 400 signatures and then meet with administrators to see what can be done.

Nathan Falke feels that there needs to be more reading time for students during the school day. He decided to start a petition in order to collect signatures from students and staff around the school who support this idea. He collected signatures throughout the month of April. He is hoping that this will influence teachers to add more reading time to their schedules for next year.

This group chose to create a club for LGBTQ students to create a safe space where all students can feel comfortable. They invited all students to have discussions, ask questions and look for peer and adult support. They encourage all students to attend their meetings, regardless of what they identify as.

Starting at a new school can be scary. This group of students wanted to do something to make things a little easier for new students at the McGlynn. They came up with the idea of making a large-scale map of the school, highlighting relevant locations, to place in the school lobby. They chose locations and did the color-coding and keys all on their own. Once it was finished, we enlarged it on thick poster paper and in August it will be put in the lobby for new students to reference on the first day of school.

Every building has a strong structure of support, and without that support buildings come tumbling down. A parent or guardian is that structure of support for students and communication shouldn’t be a factor that prevents a student from having that support. Many students at Medford High have parents whose primary language isn’t English. “Link-Up” is a project aimed at providing parents of Medford students access to school information in their language without any language limitations. Our goal is to translate documents and information in all the languages present at Medford Public Schools.

While thinking of ideas to help our school and community, it was brought to our attention numerous times the amount of gum stuck under the desks and tables. Our project is revolving around this unpleasant problem every student has encountered, but doesn’t get enough attention to be dealt with. The goal of our project is to rid as many desks of gum as possible. We stayed after school whenever we could to help teachers who want their classrooms to be cleaner.

For our project we will be focusing on the idea of a stress-free midterm period at Medford High School. No matter what classes you take, who your teachers are, or what grade you are in midterms are a stressful time for everyone at Medford High School. There is immense pressure to do as best on your test as possible which can create unnecessary stress and worrying. We want students at Medford High to be able to get some sort of stress relief during this time period. Our group made slime and put it in all three cafeterias during the week of midterms. The purpose of this was for students who might be feeling the extra pressure of studying and cramming for midterms to be able to come by and relax for a short or long period of time. The slime is meant to be enjoyable and helpful in relieving some unneeded tension before testing. We think it is so important for everyone in Medford High to do great on their midterms. While we can’t help the students during the tests we wanted to give them a sense of relief before the test. Our goal was to ultimately help students feeling extra pressure during midterms clear their minds for an afternoon so they can do the best on their tests as possible.

CCSR members thought of ways to be kind to each other throughout the day and distributed these ideas throughout the school. They also gave teachers and students links to write their acts of kindness. Once stapled, the links have almost reached all around the Roberts cafeteria! In addition, they painted a sign that says, “Be the I in KIND,” for students to be photographed in front of and shared on social media to spread the message of kindness.

Our CCSR project for this year is the Basketball Game for Betterment. One thing that all three of us have in common is a want for inclusion in Medford High School. Inclusion is when you invite someone into a group or gathering who does not usually have the opportunity to. We’re focusing on the Special Education program, and the students of the Access Program. We want to make new friends, and learn more about the people in our high school who we don’t normally speak to often. After getting to know some students from these programs, we learned that they enjoy sports and doing activities with others, with one specific sport being basketball. That is why we have created the Basketball Game for Betterment; to raise awareness for inclusion, to have fun while doing it, and maybe even make a few friends along the way!

The English Learners Give Back Program, or the EL Give Back program, is currently running in its third year. The student-run project, led by Nischal, Tien, Emmauela, Hetvi, and Khushdeep, seeks to provide informational videos for incoming EL students. The videos were uploaded to the EL Give Back website and its YouTube Channel. The videos were uploaded in English, Portuguese, Spanish, Haitian-Creole, Arabic, Mandarin, Vietnamese and this year, Hindi will also be added. In addition, the project also highlighted the difficulties and problems EL students face when they first arrive in the United States. Overall, the goal of the EL Give Back Project is to provide meaningful resources for EL students on how to perform tasks and navigate Medford High School. The videos can be accessed at https://elgiveback.weebly.com/

Our CCSR project was focused on the inclusion of students in Medford High School with disabilities. Inclusion deals with joining students with disabilities and simply talking and getting to know them better from both an academic and personal viewpoint. During these class periods, we went to their classroom, came up with activity plans, and used those activity plans to get to know our new friends better. We gained an understanding of those around us, and by doing this project, we hope people will recognize that these students are just as nice, funny, and smart as your friends. We hope everyone will be able to greet these students on a first name basis, and not have fear of what they might say in return, because even a simple “hello” can go a long way! Our CCSR project was focused on the inclusion of students in Medford High School with disabilities. Inclusion deals with joining students with disabilities and simply talking and getting to know them better from both an academic and personal viewpoint. During these class periods, we went to their classroom, came up with activity plans, and used those activity plans to get to know our new friends better. We gained an understanding of those around us, and by doing this project, we hope people will recognize that these students are just as nice, funny, and smart as your friends. We hope everyone will be able to greet these students on a first name basis, and not have fear of what they might say in return, because even a simple “hello” can go a long way! Our CCSR project was focused on the inclusion of students in Medford High School with disabilities. Inclusion deals with joining students with disabilities and simply talking and getting to know them better from both an academic and personal viewpoint. During these class periods, we went to their classroom, came up with activity plans, and used those activity plans to get to know our new friends better. We gained an understanding of those around us, and by doing this project, we hope people will recognize that these students are just as nice, funny, and smart as your friends. We hope everyone will be able to greet these students on a first name basis, and not have fear of what they might say in return, because even a simple “hello” can go a long way!

Common Ground is a reversed inclusion classroom that allows high school students to form connections within The Access Program, a program that works with Medford High School students with significant disabilities. The goal was to incorporate students in Common Ground within classrooms and activities to feel included within the MHS community. Emily McDaid, Jacqueline Madigan, and Ava Heinegg worked alongside Ms. Andre to create an environment in which the students could participate and feel welcome. By working together doing team building activities, they implemented a more inclusive environment that will outlast their time at Medford High School.

Every year there are students who want to take an AP or honors course but feel as though they cannot due to their learning disability. ADHD, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, is one of the most common disabilities and kids who have ADHD tend to also have other learning impairments, such as dyslexia, dyscalculia and dysgraphia. Most often when ADHD is discussed, it is looked at as if it is only hyperactive kids who do not want to work. When side effects are brought up, you only see the problems with math or reading, never with writing which is only seen as a common problem anyone could have. We enlightened teachers and helped students to understand what ADHD is through informative videos and a club/elective.

The purpose of this project was to buy something to make the playground at the Brooks School more fun. They researched different playground items that were affordable and approved by the principal, and took a poll with the students at the Brooks School to ask what they wanted. They got the money from a grant to purchase the playground equipment.

These 3rd-and-5th-grade students decided to put their knack for crafts and creativity to good use for their project. They made origami boats and tucked a tiny note inside each one. Each note contained a kind or inspirational quote, or a fun joke or riddle. They made enough for every 5th-grade student, and spent their lunch and recess hiding one in each 5th-grader’s desk. When their classmates came back from lunch, they had a race to see which class could find their notes in their desks the fastest! Fellow 5th-grade students loved getting this fun surprise from their peers!

The 1st-graders of CCSR, with the guidance of parent volunteer Reneé Hanley, wanted to put a smile on every McGlynn Elementary student’s face. That’s why they spent the session diligently decorating enough sticky notes to stick on the lockers of every student in the school! They worked on a different grade each week, from Kindergarten through Grade 5, and then the final week of the session they canvassed the whole school, placing a uniquely designed sticky note on each locker. When everyone came in the following morning, students from Kindergarten through Grade 5 were overjoyed to discover handmade sticky notes with kind sayings and whimsical drawings adorning their lockers! Notes included sayings such as “live, laugh, love,” “be happy,” and “you are smart,” along with drawings of flowers, unicorns, smiley faces, and more! It was amazing for the 1st-graders to get to see the whole school so excited by their kind gesture.

“We want to teach other kids math,” was what these boys said. Thus, peer tutoring was conceived. These boys researched online math games that could be accessed on a chromebook.  The plan was for each of the boys to work with students at the end of lunch of 3 days of the week. Third grade boys worked with 2nd graders with whom they shared a common lunch period and fourth grade boys worked with kindergarten students for the same reason.  Not only was this a nice example of older students helping teach younger students, but this use of chromebooks at the end of lunch was great for those wiggly students for whom sitting half an hour is a long time.

School Supplies Drive is a project that focuses on raising funds and collecting donations of school supplies in order to help out the teachers at Medford High School. Four sophomores at Medford High School, Liza Lopes, Christina Zheng, Juliana Melo, and Cailee McCray, created surveys in order to understand the specific needs of teachers at Medford High School and collected supplies that will benefit them. Frequently, teachers have to pay for school supplies with their own money and do not get reimbursed for the supplies that they buy for their students. This project brought some financial relief to teachers and accommodate the needs of individual classrooms. It is our mission to make our school a better place.

We are juniors at Medford High School. Our goal for this project was to complete the outdoor classroom that we began creating last year and make it a lively and usable classroom space. In order for this to happen we added artwork created from recycled material and overall improving the look of the space in order to allow it to be visually appealing enough for the use of teachers to teach their classes in. We began a “trial period” in which teachers can reserve the classroom and later provided suggestions and comments on how they enjoyed using it as a learning tool for their class. We organized and maintained the classroom throughout the year. We are immensely proud of the progress we have made on our project, and we can’t wait to see the outdoor classroom being used for the future school years to come!

This year, we noticed a big problem facing both students and teachers alike: school supply expenses. School supplies are an important investment, but they are often expensive. In addition, teachers often have to spend money from their own pockets to pay for supplies for the class. To help combat this issue, we have decided to raise funds to buy a set of supplies for every teacher and staff member in the school. Any remaining funds or supplies will be donated to the Hope Chest.

We gathered clips of the influencers in the Medford Community and questioned: “What does the Mustang Way mean to you?” Some of the people we interviewed included principals at the McGlynn and Medford High School, teachers and staff. The goal for this video was to show it at the Mustang Way Assembly, but also to show the benefits of what the Mustang Way does to you not even at school, but in your everyday lives as well to the 6th graders at the McGlynn Middle School.

We hosted a Mustang Way Assembly for the new 6th graders. We had middle school and high school students share their stories about what the Mustang Way means to them. This assembly took place on November 6, 2019. High school students and 8th graders shared the importance of ACE, the Mustang Way and how it is applied to school and our everyday lives.

In the middle of the elementary school playground, between both sides of the playground,  sits a tree. This tree is a favorite meeting place for students of both grades using the playground.  Unfortunately, this tree is in need of soil and mulch to cover its many roots. These boys thought about incorporating a kindness activity with a beautification project.  They thought up an idea to have all the students of the school paint kindness words/sayings on rocks with buddy classes. Later on, these rocks would be put outside, along with some soil and mulch to decorate the meeting tree.  Kindness Rocks!

These second grade girls are big believers in a bully free school where kindness and empathy are the key words.  They chose to incorporate a love of emojies with a kindness project. They put together a bulletin board that was displayed outside the cafeteria.  On the bulletin board they put a message: “Kindness Counts Emojies: Make one, take one”. Next to the bulletin board they left a stack of sticky notes and markers along with some examples of emojies that could be drawn to represent kindness/ empathy.  Students enjoyed stopping by and taking emojies for their friends’ lockers or demonstrating their artistic talent and making their own unique emoji to leave on the bulletin board for someone else to take.

During the week of November 4th, we accepted $1 donations at lunch. Students were able to write cards and letters to their friends or teachers. Students were told to write kind messages to their friends or teachers, or simply thanking them for something. The letters were delivered on Wednesday November 13th, which is World Kindness Day.

Our project was about empowering our peers and teaching students to be kind to one another. We filmed a video telling people that they are beautiful to see their reaction. Nowadays people are now calling other people beautiful so we wanted to do an experiment. As a part of this project we also posted colorful post-it notes with encouraging and uplifting messages on bathroom walls to boost confidence among students

This year, our project focuses on fundraising to help support students in AP classes financially. AP tests are very expensive, and we do not want any student to not have the opportunity to take an AP test, and possibly earn college credit, because they are unable to pay for it. With the fundraisers we had this year, we gave back to some of the students and lessen the stress of paying for AP tests.

Diversity Week is a school-wide event where diversity and different cultures are recognized and celebrated. For each day of the week, diversity-related activities are organized and all students and faculty can take part. The aim of Diversity Week is to encourage acceptance and appreciation of different cultures through interaction, discussion, and collaboration. In past years, Diversity Week has included screenings of movies featuring other cultures, panels from the GSA and other community groups, and Diversity Dress Up day, when everyone is encouraged to wear clothing that they feel is representative of them and their background. Diversity Week has also featured the World Cafe in conjunction with Interact Club, where students can discuss world issues. In addition, Diversity Week incorporates an annual Community Fair, in which students can meet community organizations and school clubs and get more involved in the community. Hopefully, Diversity Week can help make students better community members and world citizens.

Our CCSR project is based on black pride. We had a Black History Month dance and an assembly. Our hope was to teach Medford High School students and faculty more than what is mainly taught in school, like racism and slavery. We focused on teaching the Medford High School community about the struggles AND triumphs.

Our project aimed to implement an inclusive music program for differently abled students who were beginner musicians, for which we peer mentored during 6th period music class throughout the year. New musicians learned beginner pieces on keyboard to practice and play along with peer mentors who could accompany in two or three part arrangements towards group music making.

For the past ten years, Shruti and I have had the opportunity to attend public school every day to receive an education. There are many children, however, who do not have this privilege due to various factors such as location, money, etc. By organizing a fundraiser called Kit Kat for Kids in Medford and through donations such as money, books, pencils, and other materials, we made education a little more accessible by donating their efforts to schools around the world, making sure that the children are able to receive the same opportunity as we do.

We came up with the idea of presenting a fashion show. This fashion show was intended to not only bring something new and entertaining to MHS, but to broadcast student’s culture and sense of style. This fashion show raised money for the junior prom. We hoped this would bring different students together to promote each other’s ideas, and we believe it was very successful in doing so. Presenting this can shows how Medford High’s students can come together to embrace one another and have fun while doing so. This was an enjoyable experience for many.

We participated in the Mustang Way Assembly at both the Andrews and McGlynn Middle Schools. We wrote speeches about what the Mustang Way means to us and how we apply it in our everyday lives. We spoke on what it means on and off the field, in school and in extracurriculars. The Mustang Way exemplifies kindness, leadership, and ACE(attitude, concentration, excellence). Each student embodies this practice when helping a peer with homework or picking up a friend’s books when they drop them. This practice allows for a connected and sincere community where everyone feels welcome. The Mustang Way was presented to the 6th graders to demonstrate the principle set of values of both schools.

High school is very different than middle school to prepare the eighth graders we went down to the middle schools with some volunteers and hosted a panel discussion. The high schoolers answered the students questions to their ability on the panel and talked about all the opportunities to get involved such as sports clubs, etc. Then they split into groups to interact with them and answer any other questions they were afraid to ask in front of a large group. This took place during the students WIN block so no classes were missed. By doing this we hope students will feel less anxious about coming to a bigger school and will get involved.

Mallika Limose and Shruti Sood want to bring Spirit Week and the spirit assembly back to Medford High School. Our freshman year was the first year the spirit assembly did not take place and through the past few years, we have noticed a decline in school spirit. Our goal is to have Spirit Week after April break. With AP testing, the MCAS, and SATs coming up this spring, we want students to have a sense of enjoyment and relaxation before this rigorous studying period. We hope that this Spirit Week will act as a catalyst for school spirit in the years to come.

In a word overwhelmed with measuring talent and expertise, we often fail to observe the significance behind the role of inspiration. Inspiration awakens us to new beginnings by granting us the possibility to rise above our standard experiences and limitations. Inspiration sets in motion a person from lack of interest to great potential, and over the course of time it changes the way we perceive our own capabilities. Many may fail to notice inspiration because of its evasive nature. However, throughout the existence of humanity, many have looked forward to that breeze of inspiration as something to grasp and hold onto, such as the likes of Michael Jordan, Oprah Winfrey, J.K. Rowling, and countless more. Whether it's in the sense of an inspiring story or simply just someone saying two straightforward words, these celebrities used inspiration to push them in the midst of their darkest times, and came out stronger. Hence, to continue the everlasting idea of inspiration, and urge others to keep pushing, Anderson Prince and Nishant Saini created inspirational quotes. These quotes would ultimately be displayed around the school to encourage many to not just simply be inspired, but to also be a source of inspiration.

Amy and Tory helped promote the high school CCSR school supplies collection here at the McGlynn Middle School. They made flyers to promote the collection. The school supplies that were collected were donated to Medford students who needed supplies.

McGlynn Middle School has a Friday new show however it provides information that is given out by teachers.

The boys in this group also wanted to support the kindergarten students.

These 5 girls worked with kindergarten students last year and wanted to continue the project this year.

These 2 fifth graders wanted a different type of project. They wanted to work with kindergarten-aged students as “teacher helpers”.

We were interested in ways to make families' holidays happier and wanted to assist with Thanksgiving Drive at the McGlynn Elementary School.

CCSR 5th grade students Nick Berryman and Rhodey Vining worked together to use lunchtime food waste to create nutrient-rich soil with the help of a new compost tumbler.

The Mystic River and Park Cleanup Project has taken place at various local parks throughout the past two years and will be bimonthly in 2023!