John Hersey High School ARC

The BEST thing about books is seeing life through the eyes of people who may not be like you. At Hersey, we celebrate the diversity of voices that make up the human experience. This is the last day of Black History Month. If you did not see the books we had on display, there is still time to check one out. Click on the images below to see the books we selected to celebrate not only Black History, but Disabilities Awareness Month and Women's History Month, too!

Senior Warren Burdin has several sock puppets. Earlier in the year, he came to the ARC with an idea: make children's radio episodes featuring his puppets as a spin off of his short subject series "Puppet Films" made with his company, Tell-A-Camera Pictures Inc.  He ended up writing a script and recruiting some teachers to provide various voices --- and voilà!  Rainbow and His Puppet Gang .  Here is the first episode, featuring Rainbow and Zap.

Michal and Philip are back for a new episode of Huskie History. This episode is called:  Balloon Tanks and Drugged-out Nazis: Stories of D-Day. In it, they discuss the planning behind D-day, and offer some great stories about balloon military equipment used to deceive German intelligence. Plus, they talk about the use of methamphetamines among nazi troops.  Listen below or in your favorite podcast app.

S03E03: Push Puppets, Adventures of the Musical Union and Elvis Costello’s Pizza: A Conversation with Erich Specht Erich Specht is a 1986 graduate of Hersey High School. He also attended River Trails back when it was a junior high. As the man behind the band Push Puppets, Erich came to the ARC Studio to talk about his life in music, the new Push Puppets album and played a few songs.  He also reminisced about his time at Hersey and the founding of a short-lived club called the Adventures of the Musical Union. Oh, and he also talked about a slice of pizza he got from Elvis Costello. Listen to the episode to understand this picture: More information about Erich Specht and Push Puppets can be found at https://www.pushpuppets.net .  Digital downloads are available on Bandcamp . The new album from the band is called Allegory Grey . You can also find the Push Puppets on Spotify . The episode features a lot of music references. Here is a list of the bands, artists and songs mention...

I first read Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus when I was in junior high. Like most people, I was indoctrinated first by the Hollywood iterations of the story and only knew “Frankenstein” as Boris Karloff, and was surprised by the novel and the way in which the ideas of monstrosity were not associated with the creature, but with Dr. Victor Frankenstein. In particular, I was taken by the humanity and intelligence of “the monster,” who articulately narrates a significant portion of the book.  The novel remains one of my favorites, and I have returned to it several times in my life. But the novel is problematic, in many ways. In particular, the characters outside of Victor and the “Monster” are never fully developed and their motivations and personalities are never fully explored in the epistolary nature of Shelley’s work. Unnatural Creatures , by Kris Waldherr, corrects this flaw and presents Frankenstein in its full human and emotional potential by focusing no...

  Freshmen Michal and Phillip are history buffs. They like history so much, they approached Radio Club with an idea to create a history podcast. The result: Huskie History! The first episode is available and deals with the Battle of Osowiec Fortress in World War I -- and it involves zombies! Well, not really zombies, per se -- but close. The plan is to put out episodes every couple of weeks. Huskie History is a student written and produced podcast out of the ARC Studio in the Academic Resource Center at John Hersey High School. You can listen to Huskie History below, or anywhere you listen to podcasts. Currently, the podcast is available on Anchor , Spotify and Apple Podcasts .

Freshman Matthew Grajkowski is an autograph collector. Over the last few years, he has amassed an impresses library of signatures. Some of them are in the form of letters. Some are signed pictures. Some are signed trading cards or even jerseys. Recently, he received this signed picture from Harrison Ford: On this episode of the ARCLight Podcast, we sit down with Matthew and discuss the business of autograph collecting. He discusses how he got involved in the hobby and gives tips and pointers on how to be successful in getting the autographs of politicians, athletes and celebrities. You can view Matthew's collection at the following locations: International Famous Replies on Facebook or on his Instagram site . Or listen to the episode below: Subscribe to the ARCLight Podcast on the following platforms: Apple Google Spotify