Photo by New Jersey Association of Student Councils
WHS Students Recognized
Submitted by Mary Ann McGann
Westfield High School 11th grader T.J. Walsh has been elected to serve as Treasurer for the New Jersey Association of Student Councils (NJASC).
“I began my involvement with Student Council in sixth grade and have since developed a deep-rooted passion for public service and governance,” writes Walsh on the NJASC website introducing the 2021 Executive Board.
The NJASC, the nation’s oldest student leadership organization, is dedicated to helping middle and high school student councils be more active and engaged in their schools and communities. At least five Westfield High School students have served previously on the NJASC Executive Board, the most recent in 2009.
“We are so proud and excited for T.J.,” say Allison McDermott and Jamie Glickman, advisors for the Student Government Association (SGA) at WHS. “This will be a great opportunity for T.J., as well as for WHS.”
Other WHS students and alumni continue to excel and to give back as well. Thomas Lupicki, who graduated in June 2020, was selected last fall by the Union County Municipal Alliance as recipient of the “Volunteer of the Year” Award. “Your commitment and dedication to the Westfield Municipal Alliance is commendable and we are honored to recognize you as the 2020 award recipient,” UCMA officials wrote in a letter notifying Lupicki of the honor.
“Thomas was an active member of the WHS Dream Team and very deserving of this award,” says Dream Team Advisor Lauren Hauser who, with Westfield Municipal Alliance Coordinator Louise DeDea, work together to provide student and community-based efforts to prevent substance abuse. “This is the 2nd straight year, we have had a graduate of WHS receive the Union County VOY award for their efforts and volunteerism within the community to help combat drug and alcohol use/abuse.”
Photo by Adam Wachtel, Westfield Public Schools
Another WHS alumnus – also Class of 2020 – Adam Wachtel is using his artistic talents to give back to the school community, having completed 4 murals across the district, two of them at the high school. With his freshman year at Otis College of Art and Design in Los Angeles on virtual learning, Wachtel remained in Westfield and finished a high school mural he began in March 2020.
“The mural was created to illustrate the meaning behind Dr. Nelson’s now famous quote, ‘We lift as we climb,’” says Wachtel, about the late WHS principal Dr. Derrick Nelson who died in April 2019 due to complications during a procedure to donate bone marrow. “I wanted the mural to send a message of unity as well as brighten an unused space” in the high school.
