WOODBURY – Many students choose Nonnewaug for their high school years. But why?
Nonnewaug has a successful and expansive agriculture program.
Nonnewaug accepts students from 11 towns: Ansonia, Beacon Falls, Bethany, Derby, Middlebury, Naugatuck, Oxford, Prospect, Seymour, Southbury, and Watertown.
These towns send students to go to the Ellis Clark Regional Agriscience Program here at Nonnewaug. The ag department provides students with a balance of agriculture, academics, and leadership.
Students are also able to pick which agrsicience concentration they want to focus on when they come to Nonnewaug.
“I am looking forward to learning more about vet science and landscaping,” says freshman Tatum Kociszewski, who is from Watertown. “I chose Nonnewaug for all of the program options and for a change of schools.”
Like Kociszewski, the other freshmen are coming into a new school and are having to meet new people.
“Nonnewaug is wonderful so far,” said Sophia Kallianiotis, a freshman from Naugatuck. “The people are so nice and I love all of the activities.”
Kallianiotis says that she loves all of the course offerings at Nonnewaug.
“I am looking forward to the vet science class,” said Kallianiotis.
Nonewaug has a freshman class of 166 students including out-of-district ag students. This freshman class is one of the largest classes at Nonnewaug, which is due to a surge of applicants.
“We had a total of 151 applicants to the school this year,” said Lee McMillan, the director of the agriscience program. “That is a 17% increase from the previous year.”
Thirty-seven of those applicants were from within Region 14, and the other 114 were from sending districts.
Nonnewaug can take 100 students from out of district per year, which is an increase from the past years when the school only accepted 85 students from out of district.
“We hired a 10th teacher, and that was Mrs. [Gillian] Blood, to handle an increase,” says McMillan.
When student applicants are being considered for the agriculture program, one of the main things that administrators look at is their grades.
Kallianiotis was one of the 100 students who were accepted into Nonnewaug, part because of her good grades and also part of her passion for ag.
“It felt good to know that I was accepted, and I felt special being here,” said Kallianiotis.
Nonnewaug science teacher and student council advisor Joshua Kornblut, feels that students should be keeping up with the hard work that got them into the program.
“Students should be reflecting on their grades even once they’re part of the program,” Kornblut says. “So far, the students that I have are doing well and they are reflecting what helped get them into the program.”
