REF is always happy to see grants in action. Here are some recent highlights!

Radnor Middle School 7th-Graders Participate in Girls Leadership Program

Twenty Radnor Middle School 7th-grade students were selected by their counselors or team teachers to participate in a leadership program for adolescent girls, Girls Lead, presented by Women’s Resource Center in Wayne. RMS was one of nine middle schools and two high schools that participated in the program during the 2017-18 school year.

The participating RMS students were FarnazBazyar, Gianna Bloomfield, Olivia Brubaker, Bryn Carrigan, Louisa Clark, Angela Esgro, Tara Hug, Ava Imperato, Belle James, Elizabeth Johnstone, Hannah Kwak, Paige Leflar, Cayla McLeod, Darci McRae, Zoe Muetterties, Sydney O’Shea, Anne-Aurora Rayer, Anna Sanderson, Jillian Spiller and Margaret Weidenborner. They were identified based on their leadership potential.

Through 12 school-based meetings, the annual Girls Lead Conference, and a leadership project, the Girls Lead participants improved their communication, decision making, conflict resolution, problem solving and advocacy skills.

The Girls Lead Conference welcomed 135 young women from nine participating middle schools to the RMS Large Group Instruction Room on February 28. Centered on the theme of “Unspoken Words,” discussions and activities focused on body language, popular music messaging and implications of social media use.

The leadership project allowed participants to address a problem in their school or community that was discovered during their school-based discussions. The RMS students chose to focus on the transition from elementary to middle school and planned a visit to Ithan Elementary School during 5th-grade recess on March 1. The 7th-grade students led small group activities focused on the core skills they’d been practicing and held small group conversations to answer 5th-graders’ questions about entering 6th-grade.

Previously known as the Girls’ Leadership Program, RMS has been a participating school since the 2007-08 school year and has hosted the annual conference since 2011. For the past two years, Girls Lead at RMS has been funded, in part, by the Radnor Educational Foundation.

Radnor Robotics Qualifies for Pennsylvania State Championships

Two teams of Radnor High School students qualified for the VEX Robotics Eastern Pennsylvania State Championships following strong performances at the Spring-Ford In the Zone State Qualifier at Spring-Ford High School on Feb. 17.

Radnor Robotics Team 101A went 5-1 in their division, ranked 2nd and advanced to the finals. Team 101B finished 6-0 in their division, ranked 3rd and advanced to the semi-finals. Both teams will compete in the State Championship on March 3 at Norristown High School.

Team members on Team 101A are A.J. Bloomfield, Charlie Frick, Paul Lacroix, Alex Leonardi, Scott Massey, Eliana Schlagman and Grant Stephano. Team 101B consists of Ben Adams, Kiran Brennan, Natalie Clark, Julia Grossinger, Matthew Leonardi, Zach Marino, Jack McNamara, Joey Pevner and Edgar Ryan.

The Spring-Ford VEX Robotics Competition is one in a series of tournaments supported by the Robotics Education & Competition (REC) Foundation and various national, regional and local sponsors. The competition season culminates each spring, with the top performing teams from local and state VEX Robotics Competitions competing against each other at VEX Worlds. At VEX Worlds, these exemplarily teams will have the opportunity to challenge their top-ranked peers from over 30 countries around the world, including Brazil, Canada, China, Colombia, India, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Puerto Rico, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Spain, United Kingdom and the United States of America.

Radnor Robotics typically meets on Thursdays after school with additional meeting dates added during the build and competition season (January to March). The Radnor Robotics club is led by faculty sponsors and RHS teachers Ken Delaney and Drew Krupp and supported by a grant from Radnor Educational Foundation.