On March 18^th Holyoke High School hosted its very first family math night. The event lasted an hour and was filled with speeches, awards, PowerPoints, and good times. Melissa Vasquez, a former Holyoke High student herself, hosted the event and invited teachers, students, parents, and even past graduates.

Teachers handing out awards to their deserving students took up a large portion of the night. Several of the math teachers here at Holyoke High participated, including Mrs. Alberecht, Ms. Checa, Mr. Bose, Mr. Feinberg, and more. The award categories ranged from Most Improved to High Achiever. There were no shortage of awards given out, proving how special our students truly are. Before calling the names of award winners, some of the teachers spoke about what teaching math here in Holyoke means to them.

Mr. Bose said, “I like the Holyoke kids. They’re not spoiled brats, they’re resilient,” while Mr. Feinberg gave a more generalized, but still endearing statement, “Education is the most important thing there is. That’s all I have to say.” Cheers and applaud echoed throughout the cafeteria in support of all the winners of the night.

Another event of the night was the presentation of Mr. Bose’s students’ catapults and their PowerPoint presentations that went along with them. This was a chance for students to show off their hard work to the audience. They spoke about how they constructed their catapult, their experiment process, as well as how they connected this project to the real world.

The night was an overall success and you can look for more events like this in the future at Holyoke High School. The main message of the night was clearly conveyed through every speaker: math is important, even when it doesn’t seem like it.