For five Saturdays in April and May, 17 West Haven High School students participated in the CICSTART program sponsored by the National Science Foundation and Connecticut’s Regional Center for Next Generation Manufacturing.
CICSTART is a program designed to build career interest in computer science through advanced real-world technology. Students participated in this program virtually this year as opposed to in-person as in years past. The goal of this program was to provide students with a concise and focused laboratory-based program with a structured approach to basic engineering, teamwork, interpersonal, and technical writing skills.
Westie students honed their technical and professional skills while taking personal responsibility for their contributions and communications for weekly team projects. Mr. John Birch, Founder and President of the Birch Group, LLC., a national full-service organizational talent-optimization consulting company, provided students a 360° feedback evaluation which included a DiSC® personal assessment tool and emotional intelligence training. DiSC® is a personal assessment tool used by more than one million people every year to help improve teamwork, communication, and productivity in the workplace.
Professor Eric Flynn, Professor Mehrdäd Fäézi, Teacher Mr. Andrew Angle (Science Teacher at Bloomfield High School), and Mr. Eric Rice (STEM/CTE Department Chair & Teacher at West Haven High School) led students through a series of microprocessor labs, solid modeling, and engineering mathematics activities. Flynn is the Engineering Technology Department Chair at Gateway Community College and Fäézi is the Program Coordinator of the Precision Manufacturing Certificate Program and the STEM Division Coordinator at Manchester Community College.
WHHS Students who Participated in the Program:
First | Last | Grade |
Kareem | Abdelaziz | 9 |
Jerry | Booker | 12 |
Malachi | Calhoun | 10 |
Malik | Coulibaly | 11 |
Lena | Elnaw | 9 |
Jaheime | Gordon | 10 |
Ali | Hamza | 9 |
Brianna | Montano-Vazquez | 11 |
Ahmed | Osman | 9 |
Mustafa | Osman | 9 |
Enrique | Rivera | 10 |
Sufyan | Sayed | 9 |
Brandon | Sihaphong | 9 |
Antonio | Worrell | 11 |
Justin | Woychowski | 9 |
Llianay | Romero | 11 |
Christian | Reyes | 9 |
Saleh | Mohamednour | 10 |