Grosse Pointe South junior Lyla Paschke began working with clay in figurative arts class with art teacher Amber Mades last spring. While other students painted and drew, Paschke explored with clay.
She continued over the summer with what was meant to be just “a fun project.”
“It started as a normal face study,” Lyla said. Before she knew it, the sculpture morphed into something more.
“I was trying to capture really deep emotions,” she said. “It captured my feelings and a lot of repressed feelings about COVID and the pandemic. It kind of turned into what everyone is feeling. You’re pent up, you don’t know what to feel any more, you’re frustrated.”
She titled it “Sanest.”
Because of COVID, Lyla was unable to glaze or fire the clay sculpture in a kiln.
She showed a picture of the unfinished project to Mades at the beginning of this school year. It was her former art teacher who urged her to enter it into the 2021 Scholastic Art Awards competition, the nation’s longest running recognition program for creative teens.
“She said it wasn’t done,” Mades said. “I said I don’t care; it’s good enough without being finished.”
Mades’ instincts were spot on. Not only did “Sanest” win the American Visions Award, representing the highest regional honor presented by the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards, it went on to win national accolades as well.
On March 17, Lyla received a letter from the executive director of the Alliance for Young Artists & Writers congratulating her on being named a 2021 Scholastic Awards National Medalist.
In a pre-pandemic world, Lyla would have been invited to New York City for an awards ceremony and her sculpture would have toured exhibits in the U.S. for two years, Mades said.
This year it will be a virtual ceremony. In lieu of live exhibitions, “Sanest” will be published in June in Scholastic’s Online Galleries at artandwriting.org and Lyla’s name will be listed in The Yearbook 2021, a companion publication to The Best Teen Art and The Best Teen Writing anthologies, which feature a selection of work by National Medalists.
Lyla said she never expected to win. She only started getting serious about art while taking Figurative Arts I, II and III her freshman, sophomore and junior years. Next year she is enrolled in 3D Advanced Placement art with Tom Szmrecsanyi.
“I’m really excited to explore clay more because now that I have done this piece, I feel like I have a lot of confidence in what I can do otherwise,” Lyla said. “I’m really excited to assemble a portfolio because that will allow me to tell a story. I think it will be really cool to have Szmr (as he is known to students) as a teacher because I haven’t had him, but he has helped me fire my pieces in the past. So I’m excited to work with someone who does sculpting as well.”
While she has no concrete plans, she hopes to continue her artistic pursuits in the future.
Mades won’t hear otherwise.
“She’s literally better than any person I’ve ever met artistically,” Mades said. “She’s way better than most adults I know. She is amazing. She’s just awesome. I hope she continues to move on with art. I’m going to try to talk her into it as soon as I see her again. It’s what she’s made for.”
Clubs forge ahead in spite of pandemic
Clubs are an integral part of a Grosse Pointe North or Grosse Pointe South high school student’s experience. Student driven and student led, they offer a way for young people to get involved in their school community, hone leadership skills, and forge bonds with peers outside of the classroom.
While many clubs’ activities have been curtailed as a result of COVID-19 restrictions, students and their advisers have sought creative ways to adapt their programs and still achieve desired results.
“It’s so impressive the amount of leadership that these students take on at a young age,” said Melissa Petz, director of student activities at South.
Peer to Peer is here to hear
One of the newest clubs at North was created in response to the pandemic. Peer to Peer is a mental health awareness club modeled after the University of Michigan Depression Center for Mental Health Awareness, according to school psychologist and P2P staff mentor Christine Kuhl.
The program was built on the premise that many mental health disorders first present themselves during adolescence and teens are more likely to listen to other teens than well-meaning adults.
“It’s for students, by students,” Kuhl said.
Student members serve as go-betweens, connecting their peers with staff and resources. Their theme for the first year is “Peer to Peer, here to hear.”
“It’s really nice that we have our students being the eyes and ears for us,” Kuhl said. “They’re in the classes with these students. They’re connected. We’re just observers.”
Kuhl and several of her colleagues got the idea at a conference last November. They began planning and gained approval for the new club before the pandemic hit. While rolling out a pilot program during a shutdown was challenging, Kuhl recognized the need for it was greater than ever due to the isolation many students were experiencing during virtual learning.
The goals of the program are to educate students about depression and depressive illnesses and support them in finding creative ways to convey this knowledge to their peers to reduce stigma, raise awareness, encourage help-seeking when needed and ultimately help to promote the early detection of depression and related illnesses. Six staff members serve as mentors to the 22 student members selected from a competitive applicant pool.
Senior Mia Cassar said she was drawn to P2P because it was something new and fresh she could get involved in her final semester while her other clubs were winding down.
“I decided Peer to Peer would be a good fit because I’m a really big advocate for mental health and inclusion and I thought I could meet my personal goals of helping friends and making the school an event better place when I leave,” she said.
“Obviously this year has been one of the most isolating and stressful times in general,” she continued. “We all don’t know what’s going to happen any time, let alone being at home and not being able to have the peer support you might have.”
For Mia and her friends, this includes anxiety about what college is going to look like next year.
“All those unknown factors increase anxiety in people,” she said.
The focus in early stages was to create a mental health awareness campaign informed by a pre-survey. The plan is to follow up with a post-survey to assess the impact of the program.
P2P kicked into gear the first day of full face-to-face learning Monday, March 15, beginning with a short video introducing the program. Students were greeted on arrival by P2P members — who wore buttons to identify themselves — and given information cards with a link tree to mental health resources. P2P members also created bulletin boards with tips on managing stress and checking in on one’s mental health. Finally, they made sure students were aware of the “chill space” in North’s counseling center created by the school’s mental health team.
Kuhl is grateful for the support the student members provide.
“Now more than ever we need all the eyes and ears we can,” she said. “Some students come to us and are comfortable seeking us out. Some we never see; they don’t even know how to make an appointment with their counselor. Those are the holes we are trying to fill.”
Follow GPN Peer 2 Peer on Facebook and @gpnp2p on Instagram.
Service above self
Community service clubs are alive and well at both high schools, even during remote learning. Interact at South is sponsored by the Rotary Club of Grosse Pointe and its motto, according to faculty adviser Kevin Cox, is “Service above self.”
“It’s a student-led club, and we try to help the students lead, learn and serve,” Cox said.
They have held meetings via Zoom, with plans to use tents for outdoor meetings once the weather warms up. Activities this past year include helping with card-making for seniors and health care workers, food drives, and outdoor clean-ups with the Moross Greenway Project. This spring, members plan to offer more outdoor service sessions, including garden preparation and a watershed clean-up.
“As we move forward, we hope to revive some of our global service initiatives and fundraisers,” Cox said. “Although it’s tempting to be insular at a time like this, it’s important that we keep helping others in need, here and abroad.”
Grosse Pointe North’s Interact Club, led by Jill Davenport and Julie Nixon, has been active as well, with a focus on service projects that can be done remotely at home. So far this year, student members of North’s Interact Club, sponsored by Grosse Pointe Sunshine Rotary, made 3,300 sandwiches for Operation Love Our Homeless in October, wrote and decorated over 750 cards for service men and women in November, delivered an entire SUV full of mittens to Mittens for Detroit in January, made over 1,100 Valentines for John Dingell Foundation for Veterans, and collected hundreds of towels and blankets for Detroit Dog Rescue in February. Currently students are working on spring door decorations for local nursing homes.
“Mrs. Davenport and I have been extremely pleased that we’ve been able to help our local community and the community at large with our efforts this year,” Nixon said.
Community service also is a major focus of the National Honor Society and Student Association.
“We have been so fortunate that our students have worked through the kinks and growing pains with us and we have still had an active NHS this year,” said North’s NHS adviser, Kimberly Deptula.
In a typical year, students tutor in the school and community. This year, they provided support classes via Zoom, taking on one-to-one tutoring opportunities at both the high school and middle school, and set up virtual meetings with students outside of school hours to support their peers.
“One of my favorite parts of this year has been watching NHS partner with the Student Association and Interact Clubs more than ever to support our community,” Deptula said. “One of our biggest challenges came in January when we inducted our new members. The induction ceremony is a memorable event commemorating our students’ high school achievements thus far. This year our administration, student leaders and TV Production teacher, Brian Stackpoole, all came together to film and launch a virtual induction ceremony that honored our students’ accomplishments.”
Looking ahead, Deptula said she hopes to continue the collaboration with other student service groups and looks forward to taking advantage of new methods of tutoring to reach students in the future.
Service projects North’s Student Association took on this year included starting a pen pal program with senior citizens at an assisted living facility, raising nearly $13,000 to purchase Kroger cards for an Adopt-a-Family program during the holidays, and collecting toys for a Children’s Hospital toy drive in memory of a Monteith student. They are looking ahead to partnering with South on a community dog walk and outdoor festival to benefit the Grosse Pointe Animal Adoption Society in April.
“We are doing as much as we can as safely as we can,” adviser Jonathan Byrne said.
As students prepared to return to full face-to-face learning this week, Byrne said members of the Student Association were looking forward to being all together as one student body again.
Their goal as student leaders was “to help make everyone feel as normal as possible,” he said.
Diversity and social justice
Clubs formed around diversity and social justice have forged ahead in spite of the challenges of the pandemic.
At South, SEEDS — which stands for Student Empowerment: Education for a Diverse Society — has been meeting via Zoom for the 2020-21 school year, according to advisers Lisa Kline and Nick Bernbeck.
“Our student leaders have done an excellent job meeting with us as well as on their own to create weekly topics of discussion for each of our meetings,” Kline said, adding the students used Schoology and various social media platforms to get the word out. While the weekly turnout has been smaller than during a traditional year, meetings still have been well attended and prompted dynamic conversations.
The overarching theme of these discussions has been around social justice and students are in the process of organizing their second annual Culture Week April 5 to 9.
At North, the Diversity Club switched to online meetings as well and decreased the frequency from once a week to every other week to address Zoom fatigue, according to adviser Lauren Klein, with committees meeting on off weeks to work on projects.
“We have incredible student officers who were very creative with creating a virtual community for our members,” Klein said. “We usually host a few parties each school year and they hosted them virtually.”
For example, for Halloween, everyone dressed up, planned a snack to make ahead of time and hosted a Netflix party movie. Students also worked with the Social Justice Club to create North’s first IDEA – Inclusion, Diversity, Education and Allyship – week, which was conducted successfully in a virtual format, Klein said.
To communicate effectively, the students posted events, questions and ideas on Schoology. The hope is to hold meetings outdoors later in the school year. Officer elections for next year already took place so incoming officers can shadow and be trained by incumbent officers for a smooth transition.
“While our events may not go back to exactly how they used to be, we look forward to doing what we can until it is completely safe to gather,” Klein said. “Students are enthused to keep IDEA Week going and will start planning for next year’s IDEA Week.
“Our students are incredibly adaptable and have been continuing to come with high energy and high engagement,” she added. “We are a smaller group this year, but a committed group, and we even have enthusiastic new members.”
An interview
The Public Defense Initiative, a relatively new club at South, focuses on criminal justice. Club president Ben Paolucci shares his thoughts on the club’s mission and growth.
What inspired you to start this club?
The initial idea for starting PDI started around January of my sophomore year. At that time, I had more of a broad scope of our club’s purpose: I was more focused on our legal system and its process, as opposed to criminal justice and political action, as I am now. I think the renewed calls for justice this summer following the deaths of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor surely pinpointed our club’s goal, which is criminal justice and political action.
What is the club’s mission?
The goal of our club is to raise awareness about the discrepancies within the criminal justice system and explore tangible solutions to combat these issues. There are many ways to make a change and we have been exploring many of these ways to facilitate positive change in our community.
Has your membership grown?
Yes. The turnout over the last two months has been very strong. Hopefully, we can continue to expand in the coming months. It’s been great hearing from adults, whether a member’s father who is a prosecutor, or another member’s father who is a defense lawyer and who has spoken to us. Both students and adults have been very supportive and it truly makes everything we’ve been doing worth it.
What obstacles did you encounter as a result of remote/hybrid learning and how did you overcome them?
Being in remote/hybrid certainly presented its difficulties. All of our meetings have been over Zoom, which has been difficult for some students and has presented some technology issues as well. However, being on Zoom has given us certain advantages. Now we are able to record our meetings and use technology — such as videos, interactive slides and podcasts — to our advantage.
What achievements are you most proud of?
I’m most proud of our group of students, dedicated to making a positive change in our justice system. I could not ask for a better group or a better teacher sponsor, Ms. (MaShanta) Ashmon. It’s been such a privilege working with a group of students all focused on the same mission. From our letters to representatives we wrote last month, to our conversation with a circuit-court judge about criminal justice, to our detailed discussions about race and inequality in our country, our PDI members are focused on making a tangible difference in our justice system. I could not ask for a better group to work with.
Happy as Pi
Students in James Fisher’s 3/4 magnet class at Ferry Elementary School celebrated Pi Day on Monday with an escape room on Pizza Pie. Students had to go through a series of virtual rooms and use circumference and area of a circle formulas to advance to the next level — the whole time using various scenarios to create a pizza pie for the restaurant. The “big reveal” at the end, according to Fisher, was although they thought the project was virtual, they were treated to a surprise pizza pie party — live.
“And of course we calculated the circumference and area of actual pizza pies too!” he added.
The next day was monthly “market day” when the students use their knowledge of government, economics and technology to create their own mini businesses, spending classroom currency on their lessons and to shop at the other businesses.
MSBOA accolades
The GPPSS Music Department is proud to celebrate the recent accomplishments of band and orchestra student medalists from all five secondary schools in the 2021 Michigan School Band and Orchestra Association Virtual Solo and Ensemble Festival.
BROWNELL MIDDLE SCHOOL
Superior First Division
Anna Burlaka, violin solo
Lily Kester, violin solo
Sigrid Schwartz, viola solo
Tristan Wininger, cello solo
Lilliana Wodzisz, viola solo
Lilliana Wodzisz, violin solo
Excellent Second Division
Mia Gielniek, violin solo
Olivia Husek, violin solo
Sydney Schwartz, cello solo
Sigrid Schwartz and Sydney Schwartz, viola and cello duet
PARCELLS MIDDLE SCHOOL
Superior First Division
Lauren Loper - flute solo
Wes Ramsey - trumpet solo
Jack Ryan, viola solo
Excellent Second Division
Jhilmil Chhaya, violin solo
Aine Mahoney, cello solo
Peter Moe, violin solo
Sophia Salvador, flute solo
Chris O’Connell, clarinet solo
PIERCE MIDDLE SCHOOL
Superior First Division
Isaac Brenner, piano solo
Isaac Brenner, saxophone solo
Daniel Gross, cello solo
Jackson Montague, viola solo
Erin Simpson, viola solo
Excellent Second Division
Lydia Johnson, bass solo
Abigail Macey, cello solo
Andia Nazarko, violin solo
Verona Relan, violin solo
Koyla Resnick, bass solo
NORTH HIGH SCHOOL
Superior First Division
Stephen Barstys, Proficiency II Alto Sax solo
Ben Graham, viola solo
Sophia Graham, Proficiency 1 oboe solo
Eli Johnson, Proficiency II flute solo
Belle Kalus, clarinet solo
Grace Korkmaz, Proficiency I bassoon solo
Sarah Lawlis, violin solo
Danielle Lubienski, Proficiency I french horn solo
Rodd Monts, violin solo
Madelyn Olsen, Proficiency I flute solo
Alexis Richardson, Proficiency I viola solo
Alicea Sommerville, Proficiency I harp solo
Jean Paul Shemmai and Rita Shemmai, violin duet
Josh Stuckless - percussion solo
Megan Swaneck, Proficiency I euphonium solo
Victoria Treder, Proficiency I violin solo
Michael Villeneueve, Proficiency I viola solo
Isabelle Waurzyniak, Proficiency I flute solo
Stephanie Westrick, Proficiency I solo
Excellent Second Division
Tegan Barber, violin solo
Drew Behringer - alto sax solo
Emmett Cho, Proficiency I piano solo
Noah Dean, Proficiency I cello solo
Gavin Ford, Proficiency I trombone solo
Mac Graham, trumpet solo
Alton Notebaert, cello solo
Alicea Sommerville, Proficiency I viola solo
Niko Truza, bass solo
Good Third Division
Alina Cooney, violin solo
SOUTH HIGH SCHOOL
Superior First Division Medalists
Mara Adams, Proficiency I French horn solo
Mikinzi Allen, viola solo
Grant Corrion, Proficiency II violin solo
Jai-Lauryn Dearing, oboe solo
Ema Ellefson, Proficiency I cello solo
Lily Geer, Proficiency II violin solo
Brenna Goodman, viola solo
Troy Liu, violin solo
Maria Maraldo, Proficiency III violin solo
Charlotte Parent, Proficiency III viola solo
Joseph Stapleton, violin solo
Evan Smolen, Proficiency I baritone saxophone solo
Julia Tibbits, viola solo
Grace Wininger, Proficiency I flute solo
Claire Wininger and Grace Wininger, woodwind duet
South Chamber Orchestra (Igor Trifunovic, Maria Maraldo, Cara Chadwell, Lily Geer, Grant Corrion, Dominic Cugliari, Sienna Clark, Amelia Zeitlin, Troy Liu, Lily Wodzisz, Joseph Stapleton, Charlotte Parent, Mikinzi Allen, Caroline Parent, Isabelle Van Arragon, Katherine Beardslee, Daniel Gross, Camille O’Mara, Ema Ellefson, Abe Neds-Fox)
Excellent Second Division Medalists
Alex Blyth, tenor saxophone solo
Michael Hannon, Proficiency I trumpet solo
Lydia McNanney, Proficiency I violin solo
Camille O’Mara, cello solo
Tadgh Sahutske, violin solo
Ella Taylor, clarinet solo
Ethan Taylor, bassoon solo
Maddy Zann, clarinet solo
Amelia Zeitlin, Proficiency II violin solo
School Pointes is a publication of the Grosse Pointe Public School System. To submit story ideas or Pointes of Pride, email info@gpschools.org.