S-E’s OM teams are all champs
SHERBURNE – Thinking outside of the box and problem solving aren’t new skills for Sherburne-Earlville Central School District’s gifted and talented students.
For more than a decade, groups of highly-motivated and creative students have formed teams and competed – and even won – internationally recognized Odyssey of the Mind competitions held each year in New York.
But what’s new, and extraordinary, is that this year all six of the district’s teams won first place at the Regional OM Tournament in February. Tomorrow, they move on to OM’s state competition in Binghamton. Two teams of seven students each from the elementary, two from the middle and two from the high school will proudly represent Sherburne-Earlville schools.
“S-E OM teams have won countless times before, but this year is the first time in the district’s history that 100 percent of all of the teams in all age groups will be represented. That’s wonderfully special for our program, one that prides itself on brilliant quality and incredible problem solving,” said teacher Jonathan Sherry, S-E OM coordinator for the past 13 years.
Odyssey of the Mind is a global, educational program that provides creative problem-solving opportunities for students from kindergarten through college. Team members apply their creativity to solve problems that range from building mechanical devices to presenting their own interpretation of literary classics. They then bring their solutions to competition on the local, state, and world level. Thousands of teams from throughout the U.S. and from about 25 other countries participate in the program.
New York’s competition gets underway Saturday at various competition sites scattered about the State University of Binghamton campus. An awards ceremony will be held at 6:30 p.m. in the college’s basketball arena.
At Sherburne-Earlville, the OM program is know as a rigorous and healthy educational experience for students, drawing in those who want more competition academically. The school’s gifted and talented program serves as a feeder for interested students and the community rallies around to provide coaching and support.
One of the program’s long-time coaches, since 1988, is retired high school teacher Nigel Seddon of Smyrna. As is often the case, volunteer coaches start out with a young team and progress with them to the high school level. At one time or another, Seddon has coached his own three sons and today, has followed his current team of 9th and 10th grade girls for three years.
“It’s a fantastic program in Sherburne that provides an outlet for kids that is crucial for their development, particularly for collegiate students. The peer work they have to do is good preparation for college,” he said.
Seventeen-year-old Geana Giglio has been competing in OM since the fifth grade. She and her fellow teammates, called the ‘Odyssey Angels,’ tackled their particular problem by depicting a community of selfish people who are ignorant of the world around them. Other team members become the moon and the stars, and deplore the community to listen and to open their eyes and their minds.
“A lot of people, from my generation especially ... we like to stay in our little bubble, our own little community, listening to our own music. We usually don’t know what’s going on in the world around us. We hope to show our audience how people are acting today and how we can change that,” said Giglio.
The graduating senior said the experience has taught her to think outside of the box. She plans to study advertising communications at St. John’s University in Queens.
Sherburne-Earlville School’s Chief Information Officer Ginger Rinaldo said students use her office space after school to practice, and often, it’s difficult for her not to offer suggestions. The advisor, coaches and parents are prohibited from helping students solve the OM problems.
Rinaldo’s daughter, fifth grader Anna, is on an elementary level team that is charged with finding a solution to a bullying-related problem. It’s a very large problem and the students must break it down into management parts in order to come up with a solution.
“It taxes their minds. They want so hard to do the best that they can to solve the problem and have to go through a lot of different solutions... As a parent, you want to say something, but you can have no input whatsoever. That’s quite different than any other parental responsibility,” she said.
The O-M regional champions from S-E are:
High School: Division Three
TEAM: Behret
Kayla Osterndorff, Zoe Enscoe, Erin “Ceridwen” Mahardy, Christina Davis, Geana Giglio, Matt Marvin, and Haley Muth.
TEAM: Seddon
Lexi Irwin, Madeline DuBois, Gemma Godfrey, Allie LoPresti, Madelyn Fetzko, Eleni Brantley and Megan Dushko.
Middle School: Division Two
TEAM: Bachman
Katherine Rounds, Abby Mullen, Molly Bachman, Sierra Gold, Lizzy Bachman, Emily Stanton and Alexis Kane.
TEAM: Pfohl
Annie Albertina, Tyler Rodriguez, Margaret Wansor, Molly Karaman, Deliah Baker, Harrison DuBois and Thaddeus Karaman.
Elementary School: Division 1
TEAM: Mullen
Andrew Mullen, Riley Webster, Owen Rodriguez, Jack Sherry, Nataly Pearce, Rebecca Turner and Anna Rinaldo
TEAM: Johnson
Brandon Howard, Jordan Eddy, Kayleigh Wentworth, Michael Giglio, Adaline Roth, Wayne Furner and Lain Mikalunas.
For more than a decade, groups of highly-motivated and creative students have formed teams and competed – and even won – internationally recognized Odyssey of the Mind competitions held each year in New York.
But what’s new, and extraordinary, is that this year all six of the district’s teams won first place at the Regional OM Tournament in February. Tomorrow, they move on to OM’s state competition in Binghamton. Two teams of seven students each from the elementary, two from the middle and two from the high school will proudly represent Sherburne-Earlville schools.
“S-E OM teams have won countless times before, but this year is the first time in the district’s history that 100 percent of all of the teams in all age groups will be represented. That’s wonderfully special for our program, one that prides itself on brilliant quality and incredible problem solving,” said teacher Jonathan Sherry, S-E OM coordinator for the past 13 years.
Odyssey of the Mind is a global, educational program that provides creative problem-solving opportunities for students from kindergarten through college. Team members apply their creativity to solve problems that range from building mechanical devices to presenting their own interpretation of literary classics. They then bring their solutions to competition on the local, state, and world level. Thousands of teams from throughout the U.S. and from about 25 other countries participate in the program.
New York’s competition gets underway Saturday at various competition sites scattered about the State University of Binghamton campus. An awards ceremony will be held at 6:30 p.m. in the college’s basketball arena.
At Sherburne-Earlville, the OM program is know as a rigorous and healthy educational experience for students, drawing in those who want more competition academically. The school’s gifted and talented program serves as a feeder for interested students and the community rallies around to provide coaching and support.
One of the program’s long-time coaches, since 1988, is retired high school teacher Nigel Seddon of Smyrna. As is often the case, volunteer coaches start out with a young team and progress with them to the high school level. At one time or another, Seddon has coached his own three sons and today, has followed his current team of 9th and 10th grade girls for three years.
“It’s a fantastic program in Sherburne that provides an outlet for kids that is crucial for their development, particularly for collegiate students. The peer work they have to do is good preparation for college,” he said.
Seventeen-year-old Geana Giglio has been competing in OM since the fifth grade. She and her fellow teammates, called the ‘Odyssey Angels,’ tackled their particular problem by depicting a community of selfish people who are ignorant of the world around them. Other team members become the moon and the stars, and deplore the community to listen and to open their eyes and their minds.
“A lot of people, from my generation especially ... we like to stay in our little bubble, our own little community, listening to our own music. We usually don’t know what’s going on in the world around us. We hope to show our audience how people are acting today and how we can change that,” said Giglio.
The graduating senior said the experience has taught her to think outside of the box. She plans to study advertising communications at St. John’s University in Queens.
Sherburne-Earlville School’s Chief Information Officer Ginger Rinaldo said students use her office space after school to practice, and often, it’s difficult for her not to offer suggestions. The advisor, coaches and parents are prohibited from helping students solve the OM problems.
Rinaldo’s daughter, fifth grader Anna, is on an elementary level team that is charged with finding a solution to a bullying-related problem. It’s a very large problem and the students must break it down into management parts in order to come up with a solution.
“It taxes their minds. They want so hard to do the best that they can to solve the problem and have to go through a lot of different solutions... As a parent, you want to say something, but you can have no input whatsoever. That’s quite different than any other parental responsibility,” she said.
The O-M regional champions from S-E are:
High School: Division Three
TEAM: Behret
Kayla Osterndorff, Zoe Enscoe, Erin “Ceridwen” Mahardy, Christina Davis, Geana Giglio, Matt Marvin, and Haley Muth.
TEAM: Seddon
Lexi Irwin, Madeline DuBois, Gemma Godfrey, Allie LoPresti, Madelyn Fetzko, Eleni Brantley and Megan Dushko.
Middle School: Division Two
TEAM: Bachman
Katherine Rounds, Abby Mullen, Molly Bachman, Sierra Gold, Lizzy Bachman, Emily Stanton and Alexis Kane.
TEAM: Pfohl
Annie Albertina, Tyler Rodriguez, Margaret Wansor, Molly Karaman, Deliah Baker, Harrison DuBois and Thaddeus Karaman.
Elementary School: Division 1
TEAM: Mullen
Andrew Mullen, Riley Webster, Owen Rodriguez, Jack Sherry, Nataly Pearce, Rebecca Turner and Anna Rinaldo
TEAM: Johnson
Brandon Howard, Jordan Eddy, Kayleigh Wentworth, Michael Giglio, Adaline Roth, Wayne Furner and Lain Mikalunas.
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