Black alumni speak to, inspire Bunnell students
STRATFORD — Students at Bunnell High School heard inspirational messages from six black alumni Thursday during a “virtual field trip” video Q&A.
Afterward, they wrote about the program and participated in class discussions relating their own experiences to those of their predecessors.
Ty Jenkins, a special education teacher and head football coach at the school, led the program with student moderators Mia Noisette and Reece Seperack.
“Being the only male of color in this building, I felt it was my responsibility to kind of put something together,” Jenkins said.
“We wanted to find a way to unite us in our building, past, present and future,” he said of the Q&A with alums. “To say ‘Hey, let’s celebrate Black history but let’s find a common denominator and that’s that we’re all from Bunnell.’”
The panel included Shaquille Brewster, a 2010 graduate, a producer and correspondent for NBC News.
“It’s those high school years that are really formative years where you’re trying to figure out what you like, what you want to do,” Brewster said during the Q&A. “You learn how to study, how to learn.”
The panelists recalled in-class experiences with teachers they remember fondly, as well as notable memories from extracurricular activities and sports.
Hayley Mitchell-Adams, from the class of 2014 and now a research fellow working at a Yale psychiatric lab, said her swim coach, Adam Fielding, taught her about leadership and commitment, but also was particularly supportive of her as a Black woman in a predominately white sport.
Chris Temple, a registered nurse who graduated in 1999, remembered football coach Robert Mastroni delivering a speech during halftime en route to an upset victory over Stratford High School on Thanksgiving of his sophomore year.
Brewster said physics teacher and class council advisor Kristen Record “was the one who always
kept me on my toes throughout high school.”
“Any time I thought I was doing something right, she was there to say, ‘Actually you could have done this better,’ which is something you need because it’s so easy to get complacent,” he said.
Other participants in the panel included Courtney Mayberry, an academic coach at Quinnipiac University from the class of 2010, and two current college students: Kellie Taylor, who is president of Housatonic Community College’s NAACP chapter and serves on the state’s COVID-19 Urban Strategic Advisory Committee; and Tyler Staggs-Burgess, who graduated from Bunnell last year and is attending Bentley University.
Taylor remembered being nervous
after getting called to Principal Nancy Dowling’s office her senior year, but soon having her fears allayed.
“She just wanted to talk to me to see what my head was about college and career-wise,” she said. “She planted seeds in me and went out of her way to encourage me to push on.”
After watching the Q&A, students wrote reactions and discussed takeaways.
In social studies teacher Michelle Scatamacchia’s freshman world history class, Scatamacchia and Jenkins prompted students with questions about what they had learned.
“It shows that in life, even when sometimes life might get tough you can really succeed if you try your best,” Kaliyah Dailey
said. “You have teachers to support you throughout the way, you have family that supports you, you have yourself to support you through it all.”
“Follow your dreams and do what you love,” Tyler Vassel said.
“Put your all into everything you do, whether it’s academics or athletics, just give it your all and keep trying,” David Sanchez said.
Jenkins said it was good to show students examples of people who have put their public education to good use.
“I wanted to make sure that students who watched today were able to see that they could go to Yale, that they could be an NBC correspondent, they could be a scholarship athlete, a nurse, anything they want, and that they’re not the first to do so,” he said.
Dowling said diversity is important in a town where racial and ethnic minorities make up 60 percent of the school district’s students.
So, she said, “it is critical that our students hear from successful people who look like them; yet, we also want all of our students to understand that we have much in common by emphasizing that these accomplished alumni have all walked the halls of 1 Bulldog Blvd. just as they currently do.”
Jenkins said he hopes the program can become an annual tradition to cap the school’s celebration of Black History Month.
“Hopefully next year it’s live and in person,” Jenkins said.
At 31 years old, Dustin Amore has to wait at least a few more months before he can receive a COVID vaccine.
Amore, a bartender, said he already felt slighted by Gov. Ned Lamont’s new vaccine rollout that does not prioritize essential workers like himself and now he’s even more anxious with the state’s plan to open up restaurants to full capacity.
“March, April, May, without a vaccine and then more people — it sounds unsafe,” Amore said.
Lamont announced Thursday that capacity limits will be lifted at all restaurants, retail stores, personal services facilities, houses of worship, museums, aquariums, zoos, office buildings and other similar businesses starting March 19.
While mask wearing and social distancing requirements will remain in effect, Amore said the plan still creates some trepidation for food industry workers who have not been vaccinated.
“I think it’s going to cause a little bit of anxiety
for workers in this industry, as well as for consumers, because they’re going to be walking into a place with less vaccination,” said Amore, who works at Conspiracy in Middletown.
Sal Luciano, president of Connecticut’s AFL-CIO that represents about 220,000 workers, including those in the restaurant and hotel industry, said “there’s
mixed feelings out there” about the state’s reopening plan.
Luciano said workers felt it was a “slap in the face” to not be prioritized for the vaccine after assuming they were next in line.
Luciano said he’s also concerned about the impact the reopening plans will have on bus drivers. Though COVID-19 protocols
for buses, such as restricting people from using the front door, remain in place, Luciano is worried that could change. He’s also concerned about the impact lifting restrictions on restaurants and other businesses will have on bus ridership that will place drivers at higher risk.
“This puts them in greater danger, when they’re not in line to get the vaccine first,” he said.
Others concerned about the reopening plan include library employees. Helene Murtha, director of the Fairfield Public Library, said she was somewhat alarmed to hear that capacity limits are being lifted at library buildings.
“The vast majority of library staff (and patrons) are still not eligible for the vaccine, creating an unsafe workplace and public space,” Murtha said.
She pointed out that some facilities, including Plumb Memorial Library in Shelton and the Darien Library, have each had recent COVID outbreaks that forced the facilities to close. In the case of the Shelton library, officials said at least one death was linked to the outbreak.
A representative of one retail industry does not expect the governor’s order will greatly affect his members.
Wayne Pesce, president of the Connecticut Food Association — which represents roughly 240 food retailers, wholesalers, distributors, and service providers in the state — said he doesn’t expect the grocery industry to be greatly affected by the changes.
“I’m of the opinion that grocery stores will not be impacted by this ruling one way or the other,” Pesce said. “As long as food retailers don’t see the surges that they experienced at the start of the state lockdown, Connecticut grocery stores will individually make decisions on capacity limits. However, we don’t anticipate much change to our current consumer traffic due to this latest announcement.”
Allyson McCabe, who celebrated her 21st birthday in quarantine, said she wishes the state had waited until May to ease restrictions when everyone will be eligible for the vaccine.
As an assistant manager at a large Stop & Shop in Simsbury, McCabe does not expect eliminating the capacity limits on retail stores will put her in contact with more people. On a typical day, she said the store runs below capacity.
But she is worried eliminating caps at other businesses could lead to a spike in cases, and place frontline workers who are not yet vaccinated at higher risk.
“I think there will definitely be a spike,” she said. “I’m not happy about it.”