Immaculate High School Artists and CyberPatriots Win State Honors

In the past two months, Immaculate High School (IHS) students have won prestigious awards in both art and technology competitions. IHS strives to allow students to attain both academic and extracurricular personal success, and these awards reflect that commitment.

IHS CyberPatriots Defend State Championship Title

The Immaculate High School CyberPatriot team took first, second and third place in the Connecticut Open Division Gold Tier State Round competition, as well as earning a first-place Silver Tier State Round Award for the CyberPatriot IX challenge. This is Immaculate’s second year in a row securing the State championship title. In early February, the team competed again in the regional competition on the Gold and Silver Tier level; Immaculate took 4th place in the Northeast regional round.

IHS students honored in the Gold Tier inlcude: First Place Gold Tier team: Jack Brooks, Colby Bellone, Ben Fletcher, John Palladino and William Wang; Second Place Gold Tier team: Dave Bono and Jake Payton; and Third Place Gold Tier team: Luke Cropsey, Ryan Henn, Taylor Li , Kevin McCoy, Andrew Riotto and Dan Wroblewski.  

First Place Silver Tier winners in the State Round from the IHS CyberPatriot team were James Mok, Andrew Doering, Greg Gruerio, G. Edward Bell and Eric Shields. The CyberPatriot team is coached by Dave Cirella, Immaculate High School’s Director of IT.  

“This has been another great year working with the students. The field of Cybersecurity is complex and difficult, especially for students just entering the computer science field -- with that being said, I am very proud of my students’ commitment and accomplishments for this past CyberPatriot season,” said Mr. Cirella.

CyberPatriot is part of the National Youth Cyber Education Program, conceived by the Air Force Association (AFA) to inspire students toward careers in c​ybersecurity or other science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) disciplines critical to our nation's future. At the center of CyberPatriot is the National Youth Cyber Defense Competition, which puts teams of high school and middle school students in the position of newly hired IT professionals tasked with managing the network of a small company. In the rounds of competition, teams are given a set of virtual images that represent operating systems and are tasked with finding cybersecurity vulnerabilities within the images and hardening the system while maintaining critical services.

Scholastic Art Awards for IHS Students

Five Immaculate High School (IHS) students were named winners in the 2017 Connecticut Regional Scholastic Art Awards.  Linus Jia, David Mercier, Colleen McCann, Veronica Vodola and Krystal Zhangwere noted for their artistic and creative endeavors for IHS art projects, with Mr. Mercier winning a Gold Key award and Mr. Jia winning a Silver Key award. Mr. Jia and Ms. Zhang are part of IHS’s International Student Program.

The Connecticut Regional Scholastic Art Awards is the largest juried student art exhibition in the state, established in 1927. The exhibition features select work from 145 participating Connecticut schools in grades 7-12, and winners are chosen from approximately 3,000 total art entries.

The IHS students were honored at the 2017 Scholastic Art Awards Ceremony on Sunday, January 29 at Lincoln Theater at the University of Hartford. Their artwork was included in a statewide art exhibition held at the Hartford Art School from January 29 to February 3. The students were eligible for Gold or Silver Keys and Honorable Mention places in each of 17 media categories; Mr. Mercier won a Gold Key for his design of the IHS production “Hamlet” program book cover and will move on to the National Level Scholastic Art Award competition, where a national jury will choose works for exhibit in the National Show.

Mr. Jia won a Silver Key award for his painting “A Snowy Day in Canada.” Ms. McCann and Ms. Vodola were honored for their sculptures “Katniss’ and “Singin’ in the Rain” respectively  and Ms. Zhang was honored for her painting “Cityscape;” all three won Honorable Mentions. They are all students of IHS art teachers Samantha Kohler and Leslie Quinn.

“We are very proud of the students,” said Mrs. Kohler. “They all worked very hard and it is nice to see them receive recognition,” she added. She noted that they will find out in April if Mr. Mercier’s program book cover will be exhibited in the National Show.

Immaculate High School is a private, non-profit Catholic college-preparatory institution serving students from 28 communities in Connecticut and New York. Founded in 1962, Immaculate High School also allows students to focus on their spiritual development, personal moral commitments and service to others.  Located in Danbury, CT, Immaculate High School is part of the Diocese of Bridgeport’s parochial school system.

Photos: 

Scholastic Arts Awardees: (From L-R) Linus Jia, David Mercier, Krystal Zhang, Veronica Vodola, Colleen McCann.

CyberPatriots members: (from L-R): Members of the IHS CyberPatriots Team Colby Bellone, John Palladino, Ben Fletcher and Jack Brooks celebrate their victory.