Don't miss next week's talk on Gap Years! See below for information on how to sign up and join the webinar.
Belmont High School PTSO
PTSO Parent Speaker Series: Discover Your Gap Year!
Find out why more students are taking a Gap Year between high school and college. Many teens want to increase college and workplace readiness by trying out new interests, traveling, improving professional skills, and engaging in other experiences that increase confidence, independence, and maturity. Join Katherine Stievater, founder of Belmont, MA-based Gap Year Solutions for a presentation and Q&A about why students choose to take a Gap Year, and how to plan transformational and purposeful Gap time on any budget.
Date/Time: Tuesday, February 11, 2025, 7:00pm Eastern Time
Registration link: https://forms.gle/MZ9ZzG4BCHEEdax2A
Speaker: Katherine Stievater founded Gap Year Solutions a decade ago to help students successfully transition to college. Recently she expanded her focus to helping teens increase workplace readiness, via a professional skills course called LaunchPoint. Katherine has four sons who graduated from Belmont High School, and all have taken Gap Years. She is an Accredited Gap Year Consultant, a Professional member of the Independent Educational Consultants Association, and speaks and publishes regularly about the profound impact that Gap Years have on young adults.
Gap Year
Gap Year
Gap Year
Therapy Dogs: Volunteers Needed
The much-loved BHS Therapy Dogs are back for second semester in their weekly spot at the entrance to the cafeteria from 11am to noon. Come say hi to Enzo the yellow lab, Dexx the german shepherd, Monty the black lab, Tuppy the beagle mix, and other special guest stars!
We are looking for BHS parent volunteers to help with the therapy dogs on Friday mornings from 11am to noon. It's an easy gig - you just sit with the super-nice dogs and their owners, and say hi to the lovely high schoolers! Please email the Therapy Dogs program coordinator Kristi Armstrong if you are interested - kristi.armstrong@pobox.com.
Reminder: President's Volunteer Service Award
Dear students, as you go through the year and volunteer to help others, please be aware that the President’s Volunteer Service Award is available to all BHS students who are helping others. This is a prestigious, nationally recognized award given to motivated individuals.
If you are interested, please keep reading to learn what you need to do for the President’s Service Volunteer Award. It’s important to keep track of your volunteering hours and complete the proper documentation, including supervisors' signatures, to qualify to receive an award, which will be given out at the high school award ceremonies in the spring. A total of fifty five BHS students received PVSA awards last year. Your volunteering needs to have been done between April 1, 2024 and March 31, 2025 in order to count for this award cycle. The volunteering hours you do for BHS community service hours (and log in the Mobile Serves app) can also count toward this award if they qualify, but you have to take the extra steps to document and submit your hours as outlined below to earn this extra award. Please follow these steps:
Now is a great time to make a copy of the President Volunteer Service Award’s 2025 Service Log, which is a master list of your volunteering activities. Rename it with your name at the top. Fill it out during the year each time you volunteer.
Print out some Volunteer Service Forms to bring with you each time you volunteer to get your supervisor’s signature at the time of service. If you did service this summer or last spring, contact your supervisor and get them to sign your form retroactively. You will bring all of these to your PTSO volunteer review meeting (which you set up after you have submitted your application form - see the next step).
When March comes around, you will be ready to submit the President’s Volunteer Service Award Application Form. This has a hard deadline of March 31, 2025. Once you have submitted this, you will be contacted by the PTSO to set up a quick (5-10 minute) volunteer review meeting, which will take place at the high school during school hours. There will be several different days offered for this in April.
This program is volunteer-run and funded by the BHS PTSO. Many thanks for the parent donations that make this and other PTSO programs possible to support students.
If you have questions, please send them to bhsptsoservice@gmail.com.
Best wishes,
Amanda Lubarsky & Portia Thompson
BHS PTSO PSVA Coordinators
“We make a living of what we get; but we make a life by what we give.”
PTO Appreciation Month at Mathnasium
This February, Mathnasium is celebrating PTO Appreciation Month. For every Belmont High School student who enrolls at Mathnasium in February, they will donate $100 to the PTSO as a way to show their appreciation for everything PTA/Os do to support the school and community.
Help Us Reach Our Goal!
It's not to late to help support the programming of the PTSO! We are about 2/3 of the way to our goal -- you can help us get the rest of the way there!
The BHS PTSO is a 501(3) non-profit organization. For more information, visit our website at https://www.belmont.k12.ma.us/o/bhs/page/ptso or follow us on Facebook or Instagram.
CORPORATE MATCHING: Please check with your company to see if they offer programs matching employee contributions to non-profit charitable organizations like the BHS PTSO (Tax ID: 020-617-270).
You can donate securely online via PayPal or mail a check (payable to Belmont High School PTO) to us at: Belmont High School PTSO, 221 Concord Avenue, Belmont, MA 02478
Follow Us on Social Media
Follow us on Facebook or Instagram to stay up-to-date on the latest programs and opportunities. You can also contact us at belmonthighptso@gmail.com.
