Middle School Robotics: Micah Buscaglia, Zach Horwarth, Sean McLaughlin

Previously, Malvern’s Robotics team only included students ranging from freshmen to seniors and did not engage with the middle school students. Through some initiative, the new middle school Robotics team, who meets Monday through Thursday, seeks to educate younger students in the fields of mechanical, electrical, and software engineering, as well as the business side of the program. 

The middle school robotics team, started by Micah Buscaglia, Zach Horwarth, and Sean McLaughlin, specifically works with CAD (computer-aided design) and other software to teach 3D printing coding as well as working with tools teaching both workshop safety and craftsmanship to students at a younger age than ever before. 

“Our goals for the club moving forward mostly consist of maintaining a balance between a fun social club and a learning environment with a hands-on learning experience,” members of the Middle School  Robotics Team said. “We have around 30 students participating. The club provides students with the ability to explore new topics outside of typical academics, and allows students to take on new leadership roles within the club through the business team.” 

After holding their first competition this fall in the CSI, the middle school Robotics team seems to be off to an amazing start, especially after gathering a large following since their startup. 

At Learning Demonstration Night, not only did they speak about the new program, they seriously emphasized the importance of educating students in areas of STEM and the beneficial magnitude such education has. 

See You in the Cosmos: Anderson Bresler, Luke Arbogast 

See You in the Cosmos by Jack Cheng is a novel about a space-obsessed boy and his dog where they navigate many different emotions and themes. 

Anderson Bresler and Luke Arbogast furthered the impact of their assigned reading by writing an in-depth analytical essay and presenting it to faculty and alumni at Learning Demonstration Night. 

“I was confident presenting my ideas and my project to alum and faculty,” Bresler said.

The essay was born during an English class where Bresler and Arbogast came up with their thesis statement identifying that hope was an integral part of the story with lots of evidence indicating so. 

Bresler commented on the effect the analytical essay might have on members of the Malvern community saying: 

“The idea of hope can be powerful because it can be used within ourselves and it can be used in the whole community. Seeing how hope can impact characters in a story can help us find hope in our own lives.”

Reconstruction Piece: Connor Kendall, Donnie Sadoff 

In one of Mrs. Tyoe’s Social Studies classes, Connor Kendall and Donnie Sadoff chose to continue their lesson outside of the classroom, presenting on the Ku Klux Klan and the Reconstruction’s effect on African Americans. The pair talked about the difficulty of being an African American in such a period. 

Connor Kendall commented on how he would present his topic to everyone.

“I would accomplish this goal by presenting my project and sharing my thoughts and opinions. I will also let everyone know about the past, how we moved forward to get to this point, and how lucky we all are to live in this world where differences are celebrated.”

The pair’s presentation connects deeply in the Malvern community by presenting one more way of informing students and others of the struggle African Americans faced in the Reconstruction period while having the added effect of emphasizing the importance of having loving families and a communal environment similar to Malvern’s campus. 

Student-Designed Experiments: Dylan Novak, Charlie Morgan

Dylan Novak ’26 and Charlie Morgan ’26 recently presented their self-designed experiment about radish seed growth at Learning Demonstration Night. 

The idea stemmed from a middle school science class, where the student’s goal was to inform others on how they were able to track seed and plant growth in their experiment. 

Their experiment, which was presented in front of alumni and faculty,  gave members of the Malvern community insight into the types of science experiments completed by the middle school. 

Confidently presenting their findings, the pair gave members of the Malvern community a glimpse into not just their experiment, but also the experiments many others like them also perform. 

Student-Created Website: Wyatt Foy, Roman Buono, Tommy Maul, Jacob Buzin, Tylor Stubbs

Mr. Burke’s history class has always been informative, but students Wyatt Foy, Roman Buono, Tommy Maul, Jacob Buzin, and Tylor Stubbs wanted to learn more about their history and took inspiration from Mr. Burke’s class. 

The students created their version of Ancestry.com so they could learn more about themselves and offer others an opportunity to do the same. 

“My goal was to present a website I made where I can share what my family members were doing during monumental times in history,” Buono said.

The group felt very excited to present their project to the Malvern community.

“My project is positively impacting Malvern because it shows an uncommon way to present information about a project. It was fun to make because it was about my own family,” Buono said.

Myths and The Art of Storytelling: Ben Donohue, TJ Donnelly, Owen Hammond

Many people can immediately recognize how essential the art of storytelling is to Greek Mythology. Originally, students Ben Donahue, TJ Donnely, and Owen Hammond, created a project on Greek Deities, but they edited their project to emphasize the actual story-telling process, which is essential in Greek Mythology. 

“The original goal of our project was to give a presentation on the Greek gods Athena and Hermes. In that project, we outlined their history, personality, appearance, stories, and more. But, to better suit the audience at Learning Demonstration Night, we’ve decided to repurpose it into a presentation on Myths and the Art of Storytelling (the new official name),” Donohue said. “It’s a presentation meant to tell the story of how we went from learning about short stories to writing our own. The thick of it will still be the Greek gods and their myths, but the overall message of it is the art of storytelling.”

It would be disheartening for the group to have a disinterested audience, so the students spent the bulk of their time preparing their slideshow to have an entertaining and captivating presentation, similar to how the Greek writers they studied wrote to their audiences. 

“We took up quite a large task when we decided to reconstruct our slide show. Not only did we have a lot more work to do, but we also had to work on our storytelling skills, seen as that was now the intent of the presentation.” Donohue said. 

The benefits of Ben, TJ, and Owen’s presentation do not end after Learning Demonstration Night, rather, they continue through Malvern’s community by teaching and informing others of the importance of storytelling and its effect on the narrative’s themes. 

“I believe our project has a ton of potential to positively impact Malvern’s community. Storytelling is far more than just being able to come up with a good plot. Storytelling is about delivery. You may have the best story ever written, but if you can’t tell it in a way that hooks listeners and holds onto their attention, no one cares. If we manage to deliver this project well, it will teach not only the power of storytelling but also its importance in our daily lives.” Donohue said. 

The idea comes from Mrs. Giordani’s Literature and Composition classes and the skills involved in students learning to effectively communicate a narrative.

Rube Goldberg Machine: Mason Matlack

A Rube Goldberg machine is a machine designed to accomplish a simple task in an overcomplicated way. Mason Matlack, a sixth-grader at Malvern, designed his very own Rube Goldberg machine and presented it and its design at Learning Demonstration Night.

“I feel that presenting my project to faculty and Alumni is awesome and I really think that it is a super cool thing to do because most people will never be able to do that. I think it’s an honor,” Matlack said. 

Matlack also discussed how the project served the dual purpose of showing both his project and his talents. 

“I want other people to be able to see it and I want them to realize how good a sixth graders’ work can be if you try hard enough,” Matlack said. 

The project, like many others at Learning Demonstration Night, started from an idea during a science class that was continued and researched outside of the classroom to be presented in front of faculty and alumni. 

“I came up with my project from science class when we had to create a Rube Goldberg chain reaction and I decided to do one that went through my house, and I ended up having a really good reaction compared to others,” he said.

Matlack spoke about how his hard work paid off and how his work allowed him to present and be a part of the Malvern community’s academic celebratory event.

“I think that my project can positively affect Malvern’s community because it just shows that if you work hard enough, you’ll be able to have a chance to do something great like Learning Demonstration Night,” Matlack said.

Finding Strength in Learning Difference: Will Adolph and Tyler Kinka

What does Malvern do for students who have more difficulty learning? Malvern students who are having this trouble go to Mrs. Cox’s office in Tolentine to work through these problems. One of those people, Will Adolph, is seeking to create a stronger community with many of these students by creating a club that is united in their struggles. Adolph talked about how he started the club saying: 

“At Mrs. Cox’s office, because of COVID, we didn’t have a lot of sophomores and freshmen down there and, over the years, I filled up a lot of connections with upperclassmen and lower classmen through it. So I was thinking, how can we get more people involved who don’t even need to have an IEP to get in there? And I thought of this club, we opened it up to everyone including Middle School. It might bring everyone closer together.”

Many people who have learning differences would benefit from this club as it acts as a discussion board for how to overcome such struggles. 

“Well, I think it could give them a confidence boost feeling that they’re no longer alone in this and they have people to lean on. And, overall if they follow up, we’re going to talk about advocating for yourself and what other peers have to say. I think they’ll all end up succeeding, whether that be them making different arrangements with their teachers or even a student or an older student or something stepping in and helping them out.”

Adolph also said that the main goal of this club aligns with Malvern’s values of community and brotherhood. 

“It’s to make up this sense of another brotherhood within itself.”

Personal Narrative: Brian Chamberlain 

“In English class, we were assigned the task of making a personal memoir. It had to show many emotions and be very interesting, so I thought writing about my experience killing my first buck with my dad would be perfect,” Brian Chamberlain ’25 said. 

On learning demonstration night Brian will be able to share this personal experience and speak about hunting in general. 

“[I want] to inform people about the beauty of hunting and the impact it has had in my life by sharing my experiences with hunting and my personal narrative” Chamberlain said. 

Chamberlain is an 8th grader and reading aloud his narrative to alumni, faculty, parents, and even high school students is something new for him. 

”I feel confident that people will like my presentation, I am just worried about the public reading part. Public reading is one of my biggest weaknesses,” Chamberlain said. 

Nevertheless, he is excited to share his experiences and educate the community about hunting. He stated, ”Not many people that are a part of the Malvern community hunt or understand the sport of hunting so this opportunity gives me the chance to inform people in my community.”

Demonstration and Discussion of Manga Drawings: Jimmy Bruder 

Jimmy Bruder, Class of 2024, will be able to share his expertise in manga on learning demonstration night. Magna is the drawing of anatomy, facial expressions, buildings, and panel layout in an art piece. Along with his drawing, Jimmy also strives to create a story that follows a plotline and builds suspense. 

“I am very excited to present to Alumni and Faculty to teach them about my journey and the dedication it takes to get to new levels of drawing and artistic ability. It will give me the chance to tell my story and also promote my upcoming manga.” Bruder said.

 He uses his artistic talents to benefit the community as well.

“My art positively affects the Malvern community. I was asked to make a design of Friar Augie in front of Duffy for this year’s homecoming shirt, and the student council printed it on shirts for everyone to wear during the homecoming sports games. Another example is using my art skills to make comics for various classes, like in 9th grade when I made a Romeo and Juliet comic for my Honors English class,” Bruder said. 

Upon coming to Malvern, he was able to take his drawings to the next level. This advancement in his work is something that he wants to share. 

“When I was younger I would always draw dragons for fun in detail and I was kind of born with a love for art. It was always something I could just do, but I didn’t get serious about my art until the start of 9th grade when I took a studio art class with Ms. White. She taught me many things and at the same time I began to watch Anime shows and I loved the way everything was drawn. I decided to study these characters and along with that I learned how to draw structures and buildings” Bruder said.

Impacting the Malvern community is something he loves to do with his art, but he strives for more than that. 

“Every day I’m now getting closer and closer to reaching the top level, and once I do, my manga stories will start releasing to the world,” Bruder said. 

Making Malvern More Accessible: Joey Azzara

Seniors Joey Azzara & Breck Lotz have been working on a way to alleviate the difficulty of traversing through Malvern’s campus, specifically for older visitors, or those who have trouble accessing various buildings and fields from parking areas. Through their Leadership & Psychology class, they were able to begin formulating a tangible plan of action.

“Mr. Sillup proposed the idea of a valet service,” Azzara said. “This would help not only the parents and grandparents who struggle to make the hike around the baseball field, but it would help [disabled] people to get around campus with ease.”

On-campus valet services are growing exceedingly popular on campuses across the country, therefore Azzara is very eager and hopeful to get their plan in motion before graduation.

“We are meeting with numerous faculty and staff to get an idea of funding, insurance, and volunteer opportunities. The first goal is to bring awareness to the subject so that we could market our idea to the community to make sure it’s something they would find useful,” Azzara said. “The second goal is to bring the idea to fruition. We are aiming to start this project during the spring sports season.”

Although initially rooted in a simple empathetic gesture towards getting loved ones to see their boys play baseball, this project will now have an enormously positive impact on the accessibility of campus and the diversity of the Malvern community for many years to come.

“We want everybody to be included in these events, feel like they are wanted there, and don’t have to worry about getting around while it’s under our control,” Azzara said.

Travis Manion Foundation: Joe Verrekia ‘23

The Travis Manion Foundation is a non-profit organization that empowers veterans and the families of fallen military heroes to develop character in future generations. This local foundation has been connected to Malvern for many years; however, through the leadership of Joe Verrekia ‘23, strides are being made toward having Malvern’s very own Travis Manion Foundation Club. 

“Our goal is to help out to demonstrate and spread the values of the Travis Manion Foundation, which is centered around the ‘If Not Me Then Who…’ motto,” Verrekia said. “We want to encourage leadership through many different character traits as well as help out our community by various means of service.”

Obviously, these goals deal very much with the intangible side of human development; nonetheless, the club would be ready to set in motion events to work towards those ideals.

“TMF mentors have come for Character Strength Demonstrations for the members of our club, through talks about real-life stories and lessons about good character traits,” Verrekia said. “We are also currently planning some service events for the future, but we hope to expand much more.”

Due to the mission of this respected and well-established organization, Verrekia is more than hopeful to receive the help of alumni & faculty to spread this message to the community.

“Our project aligns very well with Malvern’s core values of Unitas, Caritas, and Veritas. We want to use these values of our school and not only teach more about them, but show more ways of how to apply them,” Verrekia said.

Robotics Projects — Raspberry Pi: Billy Yacovelli & Scoreboard: Danny Mendler

Robotics Team members Billy Yacovelli ‘23 and Danny Mendler ‘22 have been doing extensive research to learn the proper necessary code and wiring for their impressive robotic endeavors.

“My project is to connect two different computers, a Raspberry Pi and an Arduino, with an I2C connection so that they can communicate with each other,” Yacovelli said. “That way I can reprogram the Arduino using the Raspberry Pi, allowing for the Arduino to be more convenient to use.” 

“The goal of my project is to make a working scoreboard using a PCB Board, Arduino, and other components. I am doing this by printing the PCB Board, soldering connected wires into the Arduino, and troubleshooting the code and the PCB Board,” Mendler said.

Nonetheless, projects to this degree not only take time and effort to accomplish but dedicated research and studying must be conducted to succeed.

“I am going to accomplish this by doing extensive research on programming forums, such as stack overflow, in order to learn the code and wiring necessary to make this happen. Through four different electrical lines and about 100 or so lines of code, I have made this happen,” Yacovelli said.

The legacy of an intricate project such as Yacovelli’s and Mendler’s will have not only practical applications for a variety of things around campus but show a further level of development for student innovation at Malvern.

“This is a tool that can be used to teach students how to code and explore the different things that coding has to offer,” Yacovelli said. “The evolution of Malvern’s Technology and Science departments are meeting the high tech age of modern times and are preparing students to be innovators.” 

Renovating Athletic Facilities: Ryan Cochran 

Senior Baseball player Ryan Cochran has taken the initiative to advocate for the renovation of Malvern’s sports facilities, specifically locker rooms, to match the quality of the school’s high-caliber athletic programs.

“The baseball team is without a locker room, which was my first concern and initially sparked the idea for this project,” Cochran said. “Through some asking around, I found out other teams are having a similar issue concerning locker rooms and other facilities.”

Although a more long-term and lofty goal, Cochran has been taking the necessary steps to move forward.

“I presented my ideas to the Board of Trustees and I’m very excited for the faculty and alumni to hear them as well,” Cochran said. “I recognize that fundraising plays a large role in this, and I think more presentations of the idea will help the fundraising process.”

Ultimately, a project like this could very well get the ball rolling for the continued efforts in creating and sustaining Malvern’s athletic prowess throughout different programs.

“I truly think this will help our athletes train and improve, while also giving them space to build relationships and strengthen the brotherhood,” Cochran said.

Pursuing Excellence: Carter Marks 

“My project’s goal is to provide examples of what we learned in class this year and to let people know how I interpret each topic,” Carter Marks said. 

In Dr. Rick Poce’s class this year, they discussed various topics across numerous subject areas. Marks was able to learn a lot and was excited to share his experience with faculty and alumni at Learning Demonstration Night.

“By using the knowledge I learned through the class I will share valuable information with people when I sense they need to hear it,” Marks said. 

Everything he learned in this class he feels can benefit others on a personal level. He commented: “I will be able to positively affect Malvern’s community by the fact that people will know more about their inner self.”

Toolbox Project: Declan O’Byrne 

Seventh-grader Declan O’Byrne ‘27 made a hands-on project that took a lot of learning to create.

“My project was to learn about woodworking and powerful tools to [understand] important skills for the future,” O’Byrne said. “Making a toolbox with [the] help of people from maintenance, they taught me how to use important tools and screws and wood glue to make it.”

O’Byrne put a lot of time and effort into his project and took the opportunity to learn valuable skills while having fun.

“Although I was assigned this project, I took some creative liberties with designing and painting it and putting stickers on it to make it more of my own project,” O’Byrne said.

Presenting to a group larger than just his peers was something new to O’Byrne, but he faced it head-on. “ I am able to show the Malvern Community the useful skills I was taught and how important it is,” he said. 

A New lens on American Progress: Bryson Drummond, Mark Effendian 

“Our project was to demonstrate how Westward Expansion negatively impacted Native Americans,” Bryson Drummond ‘26 said. 

Bryson worked on this project along with Mark Effendian ‘26 in class for a project.  They thought it would be a great idea to put them on the door for the decorating contest for Native American History Month. 

“We thought it would be great to put those pictures up on the wall, and then when we won the contest, [the competition] was tight,” Effendian said. 

Both guys were happy with the drawings they made and were excited to present them to faculty and alumni. Drummond commented, “It had a positive impact on the whole community. We educated some people that  didn’t know about the topic and some of the things that happened in the past.”

Vision Board Concepts: Colin Fanning, Jack Arbogast, Jack Chamberlain, Cody Coolidge, Bryce Perkins, Jack Morley 

Colin Fanning ‘26, Jack Arbogast ‘26, Jack Chamberlain ‘26, Cody Coolidge ‘26, Bryce Perkins ‘26, and Jack Morley ‘26 all worked on a project together making a vision board. They made this project in Mr. Taylor’s Theology class, and in addition, to share what they did at Learning Demonstration Night, they got a lot more out of the project on a personal level. 

“Our goal I would say is to not only learn about our class but to learn about ourselves. It was based on our opinions and what we think,” Fanning said.

Speaking for himself Fanning commented, “I felt really comfortable and everything came naturally presenting to faculty and alumni.”

A More Sustainable Malvern: Clint Meridith, Chris Smith 

Clint Meridith ‘25 and Chris Smith ‘25, worked on a project to think of ways to enhance  Malvern’s various clubs and activities.

“Our project’s goal is to bring a consistent flow of money to the clubs and activities [at Malvern], so they would have some extra funding,” Meridith said. 

Knowing that Malvern students aren’t just involved in athletics on campus, being able to provide these clubs with some extra money will allow them to take their activities to a whole new level; benefiting not only the members of the club but the whole Malvern community with what they do. 

“We would accomplish this by putting in a snack stand that is volunteer-run, so all of the profits would go to these clubs and activities,” Meridith said. 

Starting this stand would be a great benefit for Malvern students and both Meridith and Smith wanted to share their presentation to make it happen.