The Arlington High School Class of 2010 is history. So how shall we remember it? One way is through the words key students spoke that cloudy Sunday, June 13, at Peirce Field. Below are addresses from four speakers.

We shall remember what occurred that day and the names of all who graduated. See them here:

Graduation program, class of 2010, faculty 

We shall also recall those who were honored:

Awards Night, June 4, 2010

Now read what the students had to say:

From jubilee of success to utter failure, carry your candle

Zachary C. Lee, Student Council President

Good afternoon, parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, friends, teachers, and good afternoon, Arlington High School class of 2010. Together, we made it, we made it even though we had our backs up against the walls.

Through our victories in the classrooms, the auditorium stage, and the athletic fields, to our defeats in those exact same places -- we have experienced the jubilee of success and the utter disappointment of failure.

However, through the ups and downs, we have had each other, day in and day out.

As we all know, high school is a place of learning. There’s the academic stuff, taking notes and writing papers. There’s the social stuff, like meeting people and building relationships. and then there's everything you learn about yourself. Your eyes are opened up, and you become aware that there’s more out there than what you’ve been previously exposed to.

Interests are born and fed. There are so many outlets and opportunities for you to find yourself, such as taking part in new activities and organizations, opening new doors that were previously left shut. And the greatest thing about high school is that in the years prior, these doors would have simply gone unnoticed. In high school, you find that you’re going to meet people who initially don’t seem like a good match, not that there's any negative feelings toward each other, just a sense that you don’t share enough in common. However, in high school, you are often surprised by the friendships that are forged through clubs, organizations, teams, and service groups. These things are what made these past four years special, the friendships that are fueled by common interests, and not just the desire to be like everyone else and do what everyone else does.

If you ask any of the faculty around here at Arlington High School, they will tell you that our class is simply full of good kids who genuinely care about the people around them and the world around them. They will tell you of kids who volunteered to help rebuild houses in New Orleans, they will tell you of kids who offered their time working with the less fortunate in Mexico and they will tell you of kids who volunteer to teach dancing lessons to children for free.

I remember our very first day of football as freshman. Being a newcomer to the school and having not gone to the Ottoson, I only had a handful of friends from elementary school and I was intimidated by the idea of meeting so many new kids. Despite my anxieties, immediately I was pleasantly surprised by the warm welcome I received. Within the first 5 minutes, every player on the team that I did not know had introduced themselves and I knew every kid's name on the team. In my first football practice at Arlington High School, I was being welcomed by my future teammates as if I was a celebrity of lady Gaga's status. However, this welcome that I received was not of a bad romance, but it was a display of pure friendliness and benevolence that embodies this class that is graduating today.

I cannot begin to list the other times that have illustrated this sincere kindness that is existent in every person in our class. When I think back to these last 4 years I think back to the packed stands in support of our athletic teams, the overflowing auditorium in support of our fine arts performances, and Mike T's "are all friends?!" speech on the senior cruise.

The kindness that I experienced from you guys was not a one time thing that I found in one person, but it was a common denominator that i observed throughout all the people in our grade. Through my experiences, I was enlightened to the truth of the quote by Marianne Williamson that was made famous by my favorite character in Coach Carter: Timo Cruz.

Marainne and Timo said “Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine as children do. It's not just in some of us; it is in everyone. And as we let our own lights shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”

You, my friends at Arlington High School, have subconsciously given me the green light to become who I am today, and you have given me the liberty to “let my own light shine”. Let me tell you, your kindness has not gone unnoticed by me, nor will it go unnoticed wherever life takes you next year and beyond. Remember to smile and welcome everyone that you meet just like you welcomed me onto the freshman football team and just how you welcomed me into Arlington High School. Just as it says in the song “Go light your world,”

So Carry your candle, (class of 2010) run to the darkness

Seek out the lonely, the tired and worn Hold out your candle for all to see it

Take your candle, and go light your world…..just as you lit up my world.

Photos by Richard G. Swartz.  All rights reserved.

How to paint a future: Ready to pop your lid?

Thomas P. Sullivan, president, Class of 2010

Here we go with a pretty standard introduction to a graduation speech. In fact, I will go out of my way to copy and paste it from the Internet. Firstly, I need to credit it to 123helpme.com, which I found out is a website that actually sells essays.

A noteworthy opening is….

To me, the end of high school is just the beginning of the next step. Today is just the first of many great accomplishments I hope to achieve in my life. I will succeed along with the support my teachers and the staff has given me to keep my motivations in line. Many days have I sat and wondered how long it will be until it's finally over……dot dot dot and that was the end of the free sample. We can all guess where it went from there.

Well, hah, little do they know, I can say the same stuff, but in a WAY cooler manor. Or at least I thought so as I wrote it, and became less and less sure as every line printed out of the printer.

We made it yes, congratulations to all the Spy Ponder of 2010. We are just grand.

So, as all of you must probably know, I work for City Paint. Besides using its name in this speech for some free advertisement so I can get that raise, I can also make an applicable metaphor out of my place of work. As a side note I would like to say this is a place where champions are born and heroes are forged.

All right so, take this paint can here. Empty, metal, not much depth to it. This is the baby, the first stages of one's life. The can comes from the factory. The very first stages of its existence. This baby came from the stork or to those of you that have had the talk; we all know it really comes from the weekly baby catalog, the one in the health section of the globe. This can is unaware of its potential, oblivious to what the world has in mind for it. This is the very same scenario as the baby. Babies live life, not concerned about the next meal or a diaper change, simply because it is done for them.

Next, the can is shipped from its current factory, to a paint factory. There it is mixed into what we call bases. Virtually every product out there is induced with a base before it is ready to become paint, ranging from 1b to 4b. This is a standard white-looking goop that does not have a lasting impact when used. It is simply the base for the future paint.

This is similar to the standard k-12 program we all love and cherish. It is the base knowledge we need in order to be able to apply it to more specific fields. As we start with the alphabet in kindergarten, work our way up to geography in 7th grade, and finally finish off with calculus class senior year, we start to build character, and develop a sense of depth.

This is a fairly standard process; the base fills the buckets as if they were all going to be used for the same job. We grow up for years with the same kids, attending the same schools, learning from the same teachers, and taking the same tests. This is crucial for the next part of this lovely metaphor. Once we are filled with our base, and finish the k-12 system, we are shipped to the store, or, yes you guessed, college, the military, a starting job, whatever we chose next.

The life at the store is nice. You sit on the shelf; meet many other paint cans with loads of different intentions than you. The 1Base of pearl finish next to you is going to be mixed into a bold color called Jamaican Aqua. But our goal is different; we want to choose a different path. So as time passes we see customers come and go, the clock goes round and round, and finally it is our time.

Our lid is popped off, and this right here is a good metaphor for ours heads. The coloring process begins. You are graced with 1 shot of green and 23 shots of magenta. This mixes well in the eggshell one-base. You are now the color we call Bunny Nose Pink. Not to brag, but I gotta do it. The colors I have mentioned have been 100% accurate to their bases and every single drop of pigment has been true its actual color. Pretty neat stuff, huh?

So now we are loaded with knowledge that was shot into our head. This metaphor is approaching awesome, just wait. Now we are ready for sale, or, ready to enter the real world. As we hear the receipt printing and our buyer collects it, we get our diploma, or our uniform, or our raise. It defiantly works better with the diploma one but it still works out.

We are carried away and ready to set out for our journey in life. The ride home can sometimes be shaky, maybe you’re placed into a cold dark garage for some days. You could even be played with by the curious toddler. But one thing happens, regardless of your endeavors before. You spread yourself, almost like spreading your wings, but not really. You make an impact on this world. The world could be, a room, a house, a building, anything, but you make your impact. Yeah, crazy how I thought of this. Your impact affects others. The paint on the street guides drivers and saves lives every day, the fun colored walls in the daycare brings comfort to the little tikes, even the graffiti paint on walls inspire others creativity.

Now enough of my speech; go make your impact. Paint this world. It is up to you if you want to be that dull white beige everyone seems to love to paint their family rooms with, or be that bright red radiating your character, or that profound green expressing your happiest of moods. Regardless of color, however, do your thing. Make your impact, and be proud of it. No one can tell you what rooms to paint, who you paint for, or your reasons to paint. It is you, and this is the time to recognize it.

So I will leave it at this. Paint this world.

Thanks mom, dad, Fran, Elise, Emily, Kylee, Bailey, and everyone.

Learning the capacity to learn (a la Pirsig)

Simon Ginet, Honors speaker

Today is a day to give thanks, to each other, our parents, teachers, friends, and the school that we have formed together. Today we are graduating, and I am sure we are all thankful for that.

But for what, more specifically, do we give our thanks? We are a class of diverse talents and interests, whose histories and experiences are widely varied and exciting. With so much unique talent, aren’t we all thankful for different things?

To answer, I say that the most important thing we each take from our schooling is not limited to calculus or creative writing, to the beauty of a perfect sports play or even the ability to take our beloved SAT. No, the most important thing we have developed at Arlington high school is something we all share: the capacity to learn.

What I hope above all is that each of us continues to develop this capacity every day, and to be ever-willing to learn from our mistakes and experiences. Learning each day is what allows us to grow, intellectually and socially. If we consistently devote ourselves to learning, we become even more capable of understanding and helping one another. Learning is beautiful, powerful and transformative.

But one thing I have discovered over the years, and I am sure my classmates will agree, is that learning is very rarely comfortable. And many times we feel that it is supposed to be, and this is not always true. I use as an example the process of learning to ride a bike. After days, perhaps weeks of struggle, you finally managed to zoom around the block on two wheels.

What a thrill it was, and remains, to zip down the street powered by your own legs and feel the wind in your face. Not unpleasant in the least. In fact, you were probably having so much fun after you learned to ride that you convinced yourself you were having just as much fun while you were learning to ride.

You probably wrote a sappy, nostalgic poem in 10th grade about the old dirt road behind your uncle’s house where you first took off the training wheels and teetered over. We like to gloss over the memories of the patience-trying repetition, the difficulty of picking the bike up over and over, and that time we thought it was a good idea to go down the hill with only one hand on the handlebars and we slipped in some sand on the side of the road and cut open our knee.

In reality, learning is usually pretty awkward, and it is more often easier to avoid it than to commit to it. It is much more comfortable to keep a hand down in class than to ask even a simple question, and, after all, the question’s probably only going to be worth, what? Like, 5 points on the test anyway.

Learning often asks us to make ourselves vulnerable. This vulnerability can come in many forms. In the classroom, it comes with the humbling admission that we don’t understand something, be it a chemistry problem or what exactly the Missouri Compromise is (just kidding, history department, we all know that the Missouri Compromise is a flea market in St. Louis). In an argument, vulnerability means conceding that there is always a possibility that you are not 100% correct. In everything, it means taking risks and being honest. But when the vulnerability passes, when our flushed cheeks are no longer burning, there is a new strength that was not there before.

It is for this reason that we should embrace the discomfort when it comes. We must not take ourselves as seriously as we take our work and our goals. We should celebrate the ability to appreciate our embarrassments, to feel like an idiot for a minute knowing that in due time we will be stronger than when we began.

As we become more and more willing to learn, opportunities to do so present themselves at every turn, and every conversation becomes a chance to educate oneself.

What I have learned from Arlington High School is that education is not an objective. It is a continuous journey, a journey that is not restricted to the halls of a school but is present in every aspect of our lives. The author Robert Pirsig wrote “it’s the sides of the mountain which sustain life, not the top.” While we recognize goals and achievements we should also realize that the mountainsides, where we trip over roots, grit our teeth, stumble, and continue to climb are the places where we grow and thrive.

The diplomas that we are soon to receive are symbols of our education here, but education is not something that can be framed. Education is a mindset, one that we have all demonstrated a great affinity for. These certificates represent our willingness to continue to educate ourselves, our willingness to be humbled by the many things we don’t know, to be proved wrong, to laugh at ourselves, and to continue to do these things in a world outside Arlington High School.

This world could benefit from a bit more embarrassment. Let’s throw our weaknesses out into the open rather than hurrying to cover them up. Let’s not just cap the oil pipe in the Gulf, let’s ask what it was doing there in the first place. A true devotion to learning and growth means taking a failing and examining it, staring at it head on until it makes you squirm and cover your face up, and then moving beyond it.

What specifically we do with these years ahead of us matters less than the honesty and energy we bring to them. Wherever we go, I hope that we will continue to ask questions of our world, of our friends, and of ourselves.

'The school building also taught me to be open-minded about dissonance'

Olivia Munson, Honors speaker

Thank you, Mr. DiLoreto, for that introduction, and thank you, Mr. Skidmore and the honors speaker committee, for presenting me with this opportunity to speak before you all.

I had imagined high school to be like a scene from a movie: hallways crowded with unfriendly one-dimensional stereotypes and strict teachers who forbade students to even get a drink of water.

Fortunately, four years ago, I learned that high school wasn’t this jungle; instead it was a welcoming and embracing place. But the one obstacle I hadn’t anticipated was facing the impossible layout of this school building.

Navigating this labyrinth of a school required us to make choices. We never did resolve which was the fastest way to get from English on the 5th floor of Fusco to Math on the 4th floor of Downs; using the links might be more direct, but crossing the 4th floor of Collombs meant fewer stairs. Admittedly, making a decision that at most would save us a couple dozen steps is negligible compared to the decisions we will have to make in the future, such as choosing our majors or our careers. But we always did get to class eventually—the different routes just provided some variation in scenery.

The school building also taught me to be open-minded about dissonance. It’s remarkable and surprising that the three different architectures of the three different buildings can merge so well. And like the building, our student body has been simultaneously diverse and unified. We are diverse in spirit, with different goals and different outlooks. Yet at the same time, we have come together to create a single body that represents our town.

I’d like to take a moment to acknowledge and thank so many people in our community who made our educations possible: our teachers, the school’s administration and staff, our parents and families, our neighbors, and everyone else who has supported the principle that education is one of our greatest priorities. Congratulations, class of 2010!

---

Junior Book Awards, June 17, 2010

1. Boston University/School of Education Junior Book Awards: Courtney Roy

2. Bryn Mawr College President’s Book Award:  Erin McKissick

3. Dartmouth Club of Greater Boston, Alumni Club Book Award: Otto Briner

4. Fairfield University Book Award: Christopher Opie

5. Harvard Club of Boston Prize Book: Yannick Doyle, Andrea Delgado

6. Mount Holyoke College Book Award: Lillian Stobbe

7. Saint Anselm College Book Award: Sean Davenport

8. Saint Michael’s College Book Awards: Teresa Renault, Max Zacher

9. Smith College Book Award: Katherine Britt

10. Washington College Book Award: Camille Gharib

11. Wellesley College Book Award: Anna Vanderspek

12. Williams College Book Award: Adam Zakaria

13. Yale Club of Boston Book Award: Esther Jun

Awards and Presentations

1. Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Medal Award: Aidan Dowdle

2. University of Rochester Frederick Douglass and Susan B. Anthony Award: Sarah Ghabbour

3. Rochester Institute of Technology Junior Awards

Computing Medal Award: Christopher Hamblin

Innovation & Creativity Award: Lucas Jaffe

Computing Medal Award: Holly Lofus

Innovation & Creativity Award: Katrina Rosenberg

4. University of Rochester Bausch & Lomb Honorary Science Award: Anna Vanderspek

5. University of Rochester George Eastman Young Leaders Award: Shannon Curran

6. University of Rochester Xerox Award for Innovation and Information Technology: Matthew Plourde

Three months after its inaugural concert, the Music Tech program at Arlington High School returned to the Lowe Auditorium on April 8, with "Blues Roots & Modern Sounds." This time, the musicians ventured away from their trademark synthesizers and prerecorded tracks for something new: live performances.

"It's nice to have you here," said John DiTomaso, the teacher responsible for organizing both events. "We love and need your support."

Once all introductions were made, the show kicked off with one of its few prerecorded songs. Titled "Joey's Blues Remix" and written by junior Joey Lafyatis, it featured a quaint piano arrangement and just a hint of the synthesizers that dominated their first concert. Behind the music stands and instruments were featured photos of both blues artists and artists inspired by blues artists, such as Eric Clapton and The Who.

Since the earthquake that ravaged Haiti on Jan. 12, many worldwide have responded to lend support to the impoverished nation. Now, Arlington High School has taken action to help the devastated nation.

Hope for Haiti, a new school club, founded by junior Anna Glina as soon as the earthquake virtually destroyed the city of Port-au-Prince, has raised "about $7,000 plus."

"I organized the group the day after this happened because I understood immediate action needed to be taken," Glina said.

Boston Globe, Mrach 21: How Haiti Saved America

The club worked with numerous programs, such as the music, drama and international groups, to "bring in a constant money flow," she said.

Club members have set up donation deposit containers in the school, running bake sales at lunches and canning at lunches. To date, the donations have exceeded the club's initial goal of $5,000.

All the money raised goes directly to Partners in Health, an organization with established ties to healthcare in Haiti. "They've been specializing in medical care in Haiti for years. Our money is going to the on-the-field medical care," Glina said.

The club of about 30 regular attendees is broken up into three groups: Actions, Fundraisers and Communications. Participants meet in Room 406 on Tuesdays and Room 304 on Fridays.

The most ambitious fund-raising project the group has undertaken was a beach bash-themed dance held Feb. 12 in Old Hall.

"We hoped the beach theme would uplift school spirit, since the bad weather has really been affecting everyone," said Luke Heckly, a junior member of the club.

The dance featured a Tiki bar with everal blenders to serve drinks to the attendees and student DJs. The club hopes to make it an annual event.

Future ventures in which the club expects to take part are a clothing drive and a number of  bake sales.

Some long-term plans are to send three $1,000 care packages from ShelterBox USA. The boxes contain tents, water purification tablets, nonperishable food, toys, survival kits, etc., and will be shipped directly to Port-au-Prince once acquired. 

Glina also has the long-term goal of setting up a continuous support system to five Haitian families, communicating with them and fulfilling their specified necessities during the long road to recovery. 

Other school groups have also caught on. Another dance, organized by the Interact Club, was held March 5 in the Blue Gym, and all the proceeds will go to to ShelterBox.

Hope for Haiti is not limited to raising money. Raising awareness in the school and all over the town is on their agenda as well. The group's final goal is to "make this a statewide program," with divisions centered in schools throughout Massachusetts, Glina said.

She is astounded at the progress so far: "I was so happy and surprised that students were able to step up and really take up this  cause. There is a selflessness that is simply amazing, and I look forward to expanding the club further next year. Just because the earthquake may no longer be front-page news, does not mean we cannot continue to help."

Kyle Bartholomew, a member of Arlington High's 2009 graduating class, spent the beginning of last summer very differently from the rest of his classmates. Instead of getting ready for college, he was preparing to go to South Carolina to attend the U.S. Marine Corps training camp.

He was in a minority among his classmates -- just 0.3 percent of his graduating class enrolled in the military.

     Bartholomew at boot camp. /Elena Bartholomew photo

In the days leading up to his departure, Bartholomew remembers, "I started having trouble sleeping. I guess it was from all the different people coming up and asking, "Are you really sure you want to do this?" and "Are you ready?"

"I started to question myself and wondered if I really was ready. I knew I wanted to, but I just didn't know if I was mature enough and if I should wait a year or two."

Bartholomew left Arlington in June, shortly after graduating. Despite the fact that he was not sure that his decision to join the Marines was the correct one, he soon learned that he should not have doubted himself. It turned out that the instructors were not as strict as he had expected, which made him feel more at ease.

After passing the first wave of homesickness, Bartholomew got used to life at boot camp and adjusted quite well, always looking forward to his ultimate goal.

He recalls, "I just started taking it in milestones or a checklist, if you will. Each training evolution I completed brought me closer to becoming a Marine."

Bartholomew even found some of the drills to be somewhat enjoyable, such as the obstacle courses, confidence courses, and rifle range. By the end of boot camp, he realized that he had learned many valuable life lessons. "Boot camp teaches you to work as a team or you will suffer, and in combat, individuals get people killed," he says.

Along with his lessons learned, Bartholomew believes that every single experience at boot camp was worthwhile.

In an induction ceremony last Sept. 4, he became a U.S. Marine. Although he faced many struggles, he says, "On the day I got my eagle, globe, and anchor and claimed my title as a U.S. Marine, I felt that everything was worth it. All the early morning PT [physical training], the same food every week, the quarterdeck, the nonstop ache, the hot weather, and all the hikes seemed like nothing compared to what the title of Marine is worth."

At this time, and his reserve unit are scheduled to be deployed to Afghanistan in mid-2011. Asked how he feels about this, Bartholomew replied, "I'm not worried about deploying or really even dying, for that matter. I guess it's a confidence thing.

"They drill into you that you are the best of the best, and machine gunners are the baddest mothers in the infantry. And it's something that you come to believe yourself. But I'm confident in my ability to do my job well, and if I do that, then it's just up to chance what happens over there."

The writer is a senior in the honors journalism class at Arlington High School.

 

'Voyages' launches tech trip at AHS

As about 150 parents and students filed into the Lowe Auditorium on Thursday, Jan. 14, for Arlington High School's first music tech concert, "Sonic Voyages I," they were greeted with a stylish graphic of a never-ending street.

This display -- one of many, as reflected in the images with this story -- captured the very nature of the concert and gave audience members the sense of starting their journey in the first place.

'Arlington's entrance into the direction music is going.'

Once it was time for the show to start, Pat Tassone, interim head of performing arts, welcomed everyone. "This marks Arlington's entrance into the direction music is going,” he said.

The concert was certainly unlike anything featured at AHS in recent memory. In addition to live performances, nearly all the pieces were prerecorded and made by students using computers in the music tech classes. "This is a totally different way of making music," Tassone said.

The program itself was divided into three suites. "Suite I: Music of the Spheres" explored a wide range of musical tones and styles, from heavily synthesized, spiritual tunes to eerie drumbeats drumbeats accompanied by a melancholy piano.

But the graphics truly set the mood for this first suite. These focused primarily on space and otherworldly images, from streams of pink energy to supernovas and back to flashes of white light. Viewers were also treated to the first images of our own planet, with views of rolling landscapes and the setting sun.

Following this impressive display was "Suite II: Martin Luther King and Malcolm X Tributes," made in honor of both civil right leaders. Here, photos and footage of both men, mainly King, were the focus of the graphics.

In this suite the voiceovers took charge of the music as lyrics; mainly King's words were used, such as "be true to what you said on paper," and words from his famed "I have a dream" address in 1963.

As displays of both urban and natural settings blended into the background of the graphics, the tone of the music during King's voiceover varied from hopeful, to downtrodden. The music played during Malcolm X's significantly shorter voiceover took an overall belligerent tone.

Finally, in "Suite III: Remixes and Diatonic Projects," the left projector displayed images of space and the right images of Earth nearly the entire time. The music here was definitely the most varied, featuring the first trumpet, xylophone, and acoustic guitar accompaniments of a night featuring mainly synthesizers and heavy drumbeats. Remixes included that of Jimi Hendrix, the "Requiem for a Dream" soundtrack and a tribute to hiphop artists Tupac, Nas, and Big L.

After nearly two hours of prerecorded pieces, John DiTomaso, the music tech teacher, wanted to end the show with a bang: a live performance by several students and him. The final live piece featured the same heavy synthesizers that were so prominent in the program overall as well as several electric guitars.

The show certainly lived up to DiTomaso's claim of being "nontraditional music." As more than 70 music tech students gathered in front of the stage to take a bow, DiTomaso thanked the audience for their support, adding that "we hope to see you at the next [concert]."

The writer and the photographer for this story is in the honors journalism class at Arlington High School.

 

Like entrepreneurial Davids facing down fiscal Goliaths, students from Ian MacKay's economics class at Arlington High School offer a heartwarming tale of fear turned to victory. At the first New England International Economic Summit, seniors Vojtech Klinger, Sara Ahmed, Jennifer Lawrence and Sean Boyle took the coveted top spot of grand champions.

The unanimous reaction to the win was shock.

"By the time [the announcer] was calling the grand champion, I had given up," said Ahmed, whose group represented Indonesia throughout the conference. "I sat for two seconds, and it didn't register in my brain. Then I was like, "Wait, that's us!"

The costumes were daunting

Klinger agreed, saying that he was "surprised and satisfied" by the unforeseen win in December.  

On behalf of the AHS students, surprise may be justified. After an hourlong bus ride to Bridgewater State College, the school hosting the summit, many students were discouraged by the initial appearance of their opponents. "Everyone looked so prepared!" exclaimed Randeep Saini, a junior who was on team Egypt.

The daunting factor was the costumes: "People had on face paint, flags, traditional garb," Saini said. "It was like stepping into some strange parallel world where residents from all countries were forced to peacefully sit in one room."

Noted Alex Trepler, a junior on the Russian team: "It looks like these kids shelled out hundreds of dollars for all their props."

Including MacKay's class of 16 students, representing Russia, France, Egypt, and Indonesia, 67 teams from 10 schools participated in the summit. Buses transported economics students from as far off as Connecticut and Vermont in order for them to compete. 

All teams had been preparing for the conference for the past few months in their economics classrooms. Even with such a level of foresight, the AHS students felt shaky on entering the summit. "I would have liked to do more preparation," MacKay said. "But we had to skip three chapters of the regular curriculum to prepare for this."

Glimpses of the global economy

The summit's goal is to simulate the inner workings of global economy while highlighting the competitive edge needed to survive in real-world economics.

Organized by the Federal Reserve of Boston, Bridgewater State College and the Challenger Foundation, the conference cost more than $20,000 to put together. Margret Brooks, a professor of economics at Bridgewater and the president of the Mass. Council on Economic Education, said the cost of the summit is largely due to preparation.

“We had to pay for transport, as well as the teaching materials needed in order to get students ready,” Brooks said.

Each group of four to six students was assigned to a team, which was then allotted a specific country. Before the summit, teams researched their countries, finding out such information as the gross domestic product and the amount of Internet users as a percent of the population. Each team also wrote an economics proposal, aiming to stimulate the global economy while combating such issues as poverty and hunger.

The summit was point-based. Each team received a specified number of points for each part of the conference it completed or participated in. Scheduled to run from 8:30 to 3, the conference started about 40 minutes late. After a quick briefing on the day’s agenda, the conference began with a 10-question geography quiz.

AHS's teams of Egypt and Russia were among the 10 teams who had received perfect scores.

Following the quiz, students were asked to mingle and gather signatures from other "countries" signifying support of their economic proposals. The six teams with the most signatures at the conclusion of the 30-minute session were invited to share their proposals in a debate format, where the audience was allowed to ask questions or challenge their proposals. An AHS team did not manage to make it into the debate. 

After the debate, students formed "alliances" with other countries. Each team could belong in as many as two alliances of six countries a piece. An alliance would allow free trade between the teams in the following portion of the summit. "The whole process is an interesting mix of companionship and competition," Trepler said.

After a quick lunch, teams returned to the summit hall for the final portion of the conference. First, another test was in order. A 12-question assessment examined students about their knowledge of general economics concepts. Then the trading session began.

A stressful push in the last hour

The pinnacle of the summit was the last hour, where students frantically rushed back and forth between countries trading goods and services in exchange for ones specified for their countries. Each team was given a distinct supply of various goods, such as food, energy and transportation, represented by colorful flash cards. Each team had an allotted number of imports it needed to get a full score. "I was running, screaming, wearing a weird costume," Klinger said, referring to his approach to the most stressful part of the conference. 

The award ceremony concluded brought the summit to a close. Categories included best costume, best table display, low-, middle- and high-country category winners, and the ultimate title of grand champion.

As each award was announced and given to non-AHS teams, spirits dropped. "I was getting discouraged," Ahmed said.

Yet when the master of ceremonies announced the winning team, with a massive amount of 167 points, as Indonesia, there was a momentary silence. "I was shocked and so happy to see kids from my class had won!" says Saini, who, like many others, soon responded to the pronouncement with an echoing cheer. 

"I'm ecstatic that one of the teams from Arlington can represent the school so well," MacKay said. "I'd like to do this program in future years so other students can experience learning about economics in a very hands-on fashion." 

"We deserve it," Klinger said, summing up the feelings of AHS's victorious economics class.

The writer, a junior, is a member of the AHS honors journalism class.