During the current school year, CONNECT, the free afterschool program for second through sixth graders at the Highland Falls Intermediate School, found a new partnership, with O’Neill High School students enrolled in the RISE program.
RISE — Raider Individualized Senior Experience – is a program offered in senior English classes as an internship. Recently, CONNECT attended a volunteer fair at the high school and met Quinn Manning, who she signed up to volunteer with CONNECT. With the help of CONNECT teacher Kiera Flannigan, Manning created a new theatre class for CONNECT.
Throughout the semester, the students have worked on various scenes, a script, performed improv, and learned projection. Their favorite class was to go outside for the projection class. This class is being used to help prepare students for a future audition or show they may participate in. Students continue to participate in mock auditions, script writing, creating bios, and potentially working toward staging scenes from different plays or a full-length play. They practiced with “The Wizard of Oz” screenplay.
CONNECT staff said Manning, who has been involved with the HFIS Drama club for four years and the O’Neill Drama club for years (she has been its president for the past two years), was a “wonderful addition to our CONNECT team”. Manning is looking to pursue a degree in Elementary Education with a minor in theatre, at Southern State University in the fall.
CONNECT hopes she will come back to CONNECT when she returns from school during her breaks.
If any O’Neill senior is interested in volunteering or an internship at CONNECT, they can contact Christine McDonald at: [email protected]. CONNECT is run by the West Point Association of Graduates.