ANAPIA BRUNT INTERNATIONAL BACCALAUREATE LEARNER PROFILE AWARD WINNER

AnaPia Brunt

International Baccalaureate Learner Profile Award Winner

Every other month, Virgin Islands Montessori School and Peter Gruber International Academy (VIMSIA) gives out the International Baccalaureate Learner Profile Award to a high school  student who best embodies the traits of the IB Learner Profile: inquirers, knowledgeable, thinkers, communicators, principled, open-minded, caring, risk-takers, balanced and reflective. Nominations are led by students and staff, and finalized with an Peter Gruber International Academy teacher vote. This month's winner is AnaPia Brunt!

“AnaPia is a motivated, fun-loving, kind and creative young lady. She embodies all of the learner profile traits in her actions and words. It is inspiring to see her challenge herself in her artwork and find success in meeting her goals. Simply put, it's a joy to see her each day with her bubbly attitude and contagious smile. Keep on smiling AnaPia, you make our campus abetter place!” -Ms. Ferguson, PGIA Arts Coordinator

“Over the past year AnaPia has shown tremendous growth. She meticulously uses a variety of successful strategies to improve herself in many different areas. She has a kind heart and is always willing to help out. Congratulations AnaPia, you deserve this award!” –Mr. Stocking

“AnaPia is a terrific balance of many great qualities.  She is can easily go between supporting her own needs and the needs of others.  She is determined, yet knows when to take a break.  She knows when to push herself and also when to cut herself some slack.  She advocated for her needs and seeks additional advice when needed.  She has high goals for herself and is motivated to reach them with effort and persistence.  Keep shining!” –Ms. Butler

“AnaPia has shown proficiency in her studies and communication skills. She is a leader in class and has taken noticeable strides to help others at all times. Congratulations!” –Ms. Kessler

“AnaPia is a joy to teach. She is a role model for her peers, always going above and beyond class expectations to achieve her goals. She is kind and considerate to everyone around her. She is more than deserving of this award!” –Ms. Truax

“It has been an absolute pleasure working with AnaPia as her coach/nurse throughout the years. She is a perfect example of all the Learner Profile traits.  Her caring, thinking and open-minded ways are always welcomed when I’m around her.  Congratulations AnaPia, you deserve this!” –Coach Nurse

“AnaPia is an inspiration to other students to be warm-hearted, zealous, analytical and reflective. I am very proud to be her teacher.” –Ms. Ventura

“AnaPia is always kind and there for everyone. She is funny and supportive, and she finds time in her scholarly life to do sports successfully, and spend time with other people. She’s very successful in school and she’s curious about life. AnaPia is one of the most amazing people I know.” –Fellow PGIA Classmate

2018 Interact Induction

On Tuesday, October 30, 2018, seventeen Virgin Islands Montessori School & Peter Gruber International Academy (VIMSIA) students were inducted into this year’s Interact Club, led by Axel Bartsch, President and Mrs. Michele Weichman, Dean of Students and Interact advisor. A beautiful and touching ceremony was held in the music room with guest speakers Rabbi Michael Feshbach, Peter Gruber International Academy Director Gloria Arpasi, and Rotary members Claudia LaBorde and Leonard Bonelli.

Rabbi Michael Feshbach led the invocation touching upon peace, what it means to show civility and respect to others, and respecting our differences as humans - whether it be physical or spiritual. His words resonated and left an impact on the audience especially right after the synagogue shooting in Pittsburg, PA which left 11 dead.

Rotary Club of St. Thomas Sunrise secretary, Claudia LaBorde explained the origins of Interact and its history. “Rotary wanted students to discover new cultures, to become school and community leaders, make friends locally and globally, and have fun while recognizing the importance of Service Above Self” LaBorde explained.

In 1962 Rotary recognized the important need to pay forward the passion that its members had for doing good within their communities to young people, the leaders of tomorrow. They wanted to empower young people to take action through community and international service projects, develop leadership skills and gain a global perspective that fosters world peace and cultural understanding.

On November 5, 1962, the first Interact Club was chartered at the Melbourne High School in Melbourne, Florida. Within a year there were 177 clubs in 24 countries. Today, Interact is open to students between 12-18 years of age, there are currently 20,372 Interact Clubs, and 468,000 members in 159 countries.

In 2010 The Rotary Club of St. Thomas Sunrise sponsored the establishment of an Interact club at VIMSIA. Last year was a challenge for students - as it was for all of the VI- Rotary understood that keeping Interact activities going in the face of all other challenges wasn’t a reasonable proposition. It was a very meaningful day to see new members inducted with the support of their new advisor Ms. Michele Weichman.

Leonard Bonelli Sr, better known as “Brother B” was born and raised in St. Thomas and a graduate of Charlotte Amalie High School class of 1947. Brother B served in the US Army, Korean Conflict. After leaving the army he returned to St. Thomas where he served in various positions in the VI Government and private sector. Bonelli assumed the position of Club President in July 2018. With Bonelli’s help, he led newly appointment Interact Officers through the induction and officially named Axel Bartsch as President, Radiance Peets as Vice President and Kira Mitchell as Secretary.

Axel Bartsch, a senior at VIMSIA, spoke about his goals, visions and mentorship opportunities for the club and thanked his peers for joining the effort. Bartsch thanks Interact members for their efforts and accomplishment on the Breast Cancer Awareness campaign the club led throughout the month of October. Inducted into the club were the following members: Maia Aqui, Baianca Campbell, Tiffany Connor, Trevelle Connor, Devonte Duncan, Isaiah Jarvis, Jessica Paiewonsky, Javyn Potter, Toni Risker, Adia Thomas, Ariana Tyson, Mya Vigilant, Eliza Walker, and Mia Willis.

LaBorde encouraged attendees to always, “live your lives by the 4-Way Test”. When you apply it to challenges that face you, decisions you have to make, it will be your compass that will allow you to head in the right direction.

Is it the truth?

Is it fair to all concerned?

Will it build goodwill and better friendships?

Will it be beneficial to all concerned?

Random Acts of Kindness

For October's random act of kindness, the PTA gave all teachers free tickets to spend at last Saturday's Fall Fest. The tickets had another purpose too, they were entered into a raffle for a gift certificate to Amber Day Spa. Congratulations to our winner, Helen Sidiropolous, we appreciate you and all the hard working teachers at VIMSIA. Thank you! 

Volts Represent USVI at Concacaf

VIMSIA junior Jimson St. Louis and senior Ammiel Maynard.

Sports fans will want to follow the USVI U-20 soccer team as they compete in a 34-nation tournament that will determine our region’s teams that will participate in the FIFA U-20 championships next year. The team includes current Virgin Islands Montessori School & Peter Gruber International Academy (VIMSIA) students Ammiel Maynard & Jimson St. Louis, alumni Grant Farrell ’18 and Seidon Nemeth ’18, displaced-by-Irmaria student Quinn Farrell, and former student Orion Mills (older brother to current student Jacob Mills). The USVI will play 5 games November 1-9, including meeting the USA team Saturday November 3! Games can be viewed on the concacaf website. Go USVI, go VIMSIA VOLTS!

Cross Country Update

Varsity boys - Volts isaiah, TEagan, Devonte and Axel

More in sports!  Unofficially, the Boys Varsity Cross Country team won their meet Tuesday with a 47 point performance.  The boys lost last week with a close second to Antilles, but had a great bounce back this week. Shout out the all JV and Varsity runners on the Cross teams and big ups to their efforts on the field.   

Elementary Cross team nearly swept the meet on Tuesday! Volts took 1st through 4th place unofficially winning the meet - Owen 1st, Khafri 2nd, Pedro 3rd and Malachi 4th. Girls also unofficially won their meet this week with Marianna taking third place.

Mega huge photo credit and thanks to Dionne Sinclair (Tolud) for these great pictures. There are a bunch on this post - click here to see all of her photos from Tuesdays meet. Thanks for sharing, Dionne!

Owen leading the pack

Official results from Tuesday, Oct 16 are in with Elementary Girls and Boys Volts each winning their elementary meet. Owen took first and Malachi taking second for the boys - Devin took third for the girls. Maia won the JV girls race and Varsity boys took a close second for their team race.

JV Girls Volleyball Remain Undefeated

Volts JV Volleyball Team

Congratulations Leah - tournament MVP

Our JV girls have been hard at work - winning all of their games thus far. They represented VIMSIA well and won the season opener invitational tournament at Antilles School. PGIA 9th grader, Leah Smith, was named tournament MVP. Kudos, Leah! Check out the team’s great trophy in the front office!

Natalia placing the tournament trophy

The Volts took Tuesday’s game with Julius Sprauve in three. Their next game is Thursday, 10-25 at 4:00 here at VIMSIA.

Go Volts! Keep up the great work!

Check the schedule for this week’s games - Varsity Girls, Varsity Boys and JV Girls have teams.

Huge thanks and appreciation to our Volleyball Coaches - Nalani Figueroa, Ivan Figueroa and Ronald Blyden!

Robotics and Cyber Security Class - go STEM!

I can’t even begin to say how much I love that we have this class. No words needed - just check out below. Thanks Ms. Hoffart and Mimi - you guys are great!

Libary Catalog "Collections" Feature - Great Resources

VIMSIA Library Catalog - “Collections” page

Ms. Schlesinger has been working with a great new tool provided within our School Library Cataloging system (Destiny). Please click on the image above to check out this “collections” feature. It allows us to pull just about any kind of information (books, weblinks, articles, ebooks, pdf’s, etc) into one very easily accessible area.

Visit the College Resources Collection for all things college for VIMSIA. Great reference books for researching colleges, access to our own online tools like Naviance and Method Test Prep, tips and articles for SAT and ACT prep and more. Thanks Ms. Schlesinger and Ms. Ebe for their hard work on this.

All things Montessori Parent Education - Yep, we’ve pulled together great information to help you research what Montessori is all about.

Children’s books for your island child - visit the Virgin Islands Books for Children collection. With her many years of experience here and at Dockside, Ms. Schlesinger has a great grasp on books for our children that reflect their island roots.

…and so many more!!!

Destiny - VIMSIA Library Catalog

The VIMSIA Library Catalog got a facelift as well - please visit it! If you want to find VIMSIA Library catalog on your phone, download the app - Destiny Discover.

Thursday Theater with Ms. Christensen

A note from Ms. Christensen:

I had a wonderful time with these students!!! They catch on really fast and are enthusiastic!

I did mention that there is optional homework this week. 

If appropriate for each individual family, I told them to watch one or all of the following:

• •Newsies (on Netflix) for the song “seize the day”

• •Annie for the song “it’s a hard knock life”

• •The greatest showman for the song “This is me”.

We’ll be working on those songs with scene work and choreography and hopefully present them in a final performance.

Pre-DP Dance with Ms. Helen

Here is just a taste of some of the cool things going on in Ms. Helen’s Pre-DP Arts Elective Class. 24 9th & 10th graders meet twice a week to shake, rattle, roll and apparently “flip”. Can’t wait to see them perform!

Exercise Science Class welcomes Synergy VI

From John Hairston, VIMSIA Enrichment

4:28 PM (17 hours ago)

Bethany Miller and Bonnie Barr of Synergy Fitness and Wellness Center are heroes in physical education today. Bethany came as a guest speaker for an Exercise Science class at VIMSIA. A former Athletic Trainer turned Physical Therapy Assistant, she explained and guided our class through a Functional Movement Screen- exploring mobility and stability in our student athletes. It was an illuminating and entertaining day of class, and we are thankful for their involvement.

Sewing Class: Recycle T-Shirts into Chew toys!!

Ms. Stephanie’s After School Sewing Class

A note from Ms. Stephanie: For our class, we partnered with the Human Society of the Virgin Islands to take discarded T-shirts and make them into dog toys.  I am going to donate these back to Donna at the Humane Society.  The kids had so much fun and we’re going to do it again before the semester is out.

Taquitos de Pollo

As the DP 1 Spanish class explores cultural identity and living a healthy lifestyle, students collaborated and made "taquitos de pollo", while communicating in Spanish in the kitchen. "Taquitos de pollos" are Mexican appetizers made from  shredded chicken seasoned with chile, cumin, garlic powder and topped off with Mexican blend cheese wrapped in small flour or corn tortillas. Students enjoyed the "taquitos" while practicing their Spanish language communication skills. ¡Que viva el español!

Highlights Wednesday Movement Class

Grades 7-10 PGIA Wednesday Movement Elective Class participated in teamwork activities, strength building, trust & confidence development. Coach DeGannes and Helen Sidiropoulos also partook and demonstrated.

First General PTA Meeting

On Wednesday, September 26, 2018 the VIMSIA PTA held it’s first general meeting led by President, April Baynes. Special guest speaker Mara Brownell helped provide behavior tips and strategies to VIMSIA parents.

Celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month

Each year, Americans observe National Hispanic Heritage Month from September 15 to October 15, by celebrating the histories, cultures and contributions of Americans whose ancestors came from Spain, Mexico, the Caribbean and Central and South America.

Pam Enlge, Director of Advancement and parent at Virgin Islands Montessori School & Peter Gruber International Academy (VIMSIA), visited the Lower Elementary classes to share a bit of her Peruvian culture. Children learned about typical Peruvian dances such as “la marinera” and “musica negra” and learned about the many ways Peru’s rich culture is found in textiles, food and in songs. Children listened to “El Condor Pasa” and learned about the “lost city of the inca”, Machu Picchu.

Hispanic Heritage Month started in 1968 as Hispanic Heritage Week under President Lydon Johnson and was expanded by President Ronald Reagan in 1988 to cover a 30-day period starting on September 15 and ending on October 15.

The day of September 15 is significant because it is the anniversary of independence for Latin American countries Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua. In addition, Mexico and Chile celebrate their independence days on September 16 and September 18 respectively.

VIMSIA Receives Substantial Gift from Marion and John E. Anderson Foundation

On Monday the Marion and John E. Anderson Foundation along with local subsidiaries Bellows International, West Indies Company, Dorchester Insurance Company, TOPA Insurance Services, TOPA Properties and Leeward Islands Management Company announced a substantial donation to the Virgin Islands Montessori School & Peter Gruber International Academy (VIMSIA), a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that raises funds for Montessori and International Baccalaureate education.

The gift announcement was made Monday morning at the VIMSIA campus in the presence of students, members of the Board of Trustees and administration. Richard Berry, President of Bellows International, along with Theresa Fabela, President of Dorchester Insurance Company, and Michael Bornn, Head of School, facilitated the announcement.

Divina Kamra '24,  Vidhika Khemani '22, Zia Gibbs '25, Santiago Brunt '25, Richard Berry, Steve Morton, Tommy Brunt, Michael Bornn

“The generosity and kindness bestowed onto our school is the ultimate display of Meraki,” said Bornn. He explained that this year VIMSIA’s school theme is Meraki - a Greek word meaning to do something with love, soul and creativity, to leave a piece of yourself in your work, and to leave something behind. The donation made to VIMSIA’s endowment fund will provide faculty support, student financial aid, and operating funds not only now but for years to come.

“VIMSIA has played an incredible role in offering high level education to a highly diversified student body from across sections of St. Thomas and St. John. Many of these students attend some of the finest colleges and universities in the mainland as well as UVI” stated Fabela.

VIMSIA Director of Advancement, Pam Engle explained how these funds help make VIMSIA education accessible to all students and families who seek to participate in their globally acknowledged curriculum and international school community. “It’s been a difficult recovery for many amongst our community,” Engle said. “Our sincerest appreciation to the Marion and John E. Anderson Foundation for their kindness and generosity.”

The Marion and John E. Anderson Foundation is a philanthropic organization through which the Anderson Family supports educational, healthcare, and other community-based organizations including UCLA, Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, and many other organizations.  The Anderson Grants in the USVI have supported teachers and their students for two decades.

Tommy Brunt, Richard Berry, Michael Bornn and Steve Morton

College Visitors: NYU, Johns Hopkins and Vanderbilt University

Admissions representatives from Vanderbilt University, New York University and Johns Hopkins University presented to PGIA students today!  They shared information on each of their institutions, the college admission process and facilitated a great Q&A.  The opportunity to connect with colleges is very important for students here in the Caribbean.  This group will also provide a session open to the entire Virgin Islands community tonight at 6PM here at VIMSIA.  We are so pleased to be able to provide this type of programming to our students and community!  

Packed House At End Session

Last night’s event had an excellent turnout; a full house with standing room only. The highly anticipated comeback of End Session 2019, brought much excitement to the families of the PGIA. This program which focuses on promoting International-mindedness has already brought students to over 40 countries. This year’s plan will provide students with 8 exciting course options, 5 on campus and 3 traveling. Topics include: film-making, computer science, up-cycling, Spanish immersion, outdoor adventure and more! 

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Gardening in Enrichment

From Pierre-James, Gardening Enrichment: We first added some shade, to protect the plants from the hot noon sun. When cleaning up the old pots, we found one with a bunch of little papaya trees, we transplanted each one to separate pots, they are doing great. So far none of the seeds we got from Home depot have sprouted - a little disappointing. We sowed basil, cherry tomatoes and Spinach. Luckily Martin gave us some mystery seeds from Dominica, they have sprouted nicely and we transplanted them yesterday. Yesterday everyone also received a baby basil that they took home to watch grow and care for. We have also sowed some passion fruit seeds, lettuce, arugula, bell peppers and dill. Next week will try our luck with corn as well.