Success Begins Before School for ITC's Freshmen Class

A sense of pride and hope was displayed by the staff and juniors at the freshmen orientation ceremony from 4 P.M. to 6 P.M. at IT Central on September 3, 2009. The staff and juniors wore black robes representing the unity of the ITC community. The Ceremony was lead by the Master of Ceremonies, Michael McCrary. After greeting the parents Mike invited Mr. Piraino to talk about the candle ceremony. Of the 8 juniors who took part in the ceremony 5 were representatives of the principles of the National Honor Society, Service(Sanjeev Kumar); Leadership(Saddiyyah Alexander); Scholarship(Malaysia Parks); Character(Julianne Knittel). With Mr. Piraino holding the Candle of Knowledge. A brief speech was given by our new principal, Mr. Williams along with representatives from Say YES to Education (SCSD) and GEAR UP (SU) discussing the resources that school will give to our incoming freshmen. Then, each freshman was called in order to split them up into two teams. As the students joined their groups the juniors pinned an I.T. Central logo pin on each student.

The two groups, were put in different rooms to explain various subjects from the rare qualities found in this school and it's students to behavior expectations. Schedules were handed out for students to analyze amongst themselves and their peers. As this was occurring, the football team helped transport food out to the field. When the food was grilled and ready to be served, everyone ate as a group interacting with each other and relaxing with the beautiful sunny day. A few interviews were conducted on teachers, freshmen, guidance counselor and the new principal. To see these various interviews, please refer to the video that is in this article.

We want to achieve excellence in our school but community is also important to us. We hope that this sense of pride and community was established in the orientation. We seek higher than the bare minimum and we expect students to work at 110%. This school is unique in ways that we don’t go for a high school diploma, but go for a college diploma which will bring our society up and running for more success within the education aspect of Syracuse. “We will graduate! We will go to college! We will succeed in college! We are I.T.!” All of this will happen because: I.T. works.

Written by Sanjeev Kumar
Photos by Jake O'Connell
For more photos by Jake, please click here