Faces of New Canaan

Meet Mackenzie Lewis, NCHS Senior Intern at NewCanaanite.com

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Starting May 18 and for a full month, New Canaan High School senior Mackenzie Lewis will help us report on what’s happening in town through the increasingly popular NCHS Senior Internship Program. An Elon University-bound student-athlete who has been a staffer at the high school paper, the Courant, for two years, Mackenzie is a native New Canaanite who entered NCHS as a sophomore from New Canaan Country School. Over the next four-plus weeks, you’ll see her byline appear as she reports hard news (police, government, schools), spot features downtown and profiles of local residents and businesses. We talked about her interest in journalism and experience at the Courant on a recent afternoon as the first day of the internship approaches. Here’s our conversation:

New Canaanite: What made you want to do the Senior Internship Program?

News

New Canaan High School Seniors Veronica Ma, Charles Sosnick Selected for Venerable U.S. Senate Youth Program

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Two New Canaan High School seniors have earned a $5,000 college scholarship and weeklong trip to the nation’s capital under a prestigious, competitive program whose alumni include congressmen, governors, judges, ambassadors and presidential advisors. Veronica Ma and Charles Sosnick are Connecticut’s delegates to the 53rd annual United States Senate Youth Program—the first time in memory, officials say, that the two participants selected from each state are also from the same high school. The pair will attend “Washington Week” next month, and the program—sponsored by the U.S. Senate and funded by The Hearst Foundations, is designed “to increase young Americans’ understanding of the interrelationships of the three branches of government, learn the caliber and responsibilities of federally elected and appointed officials, and emphasize the vital importance of democratic decision-making not only for America but for people around the world,” according to a press release. Veronica called it “a once-in-a-life-time kind of thing.”

“It’s crazy that a high schooler like me can experience D.C. from such an incredible, first-hand perspective,” she told NewCanaanite.com in an email. “I’m especially thrilled because I’m looking to concentrate in government next year in college, so Washington Week will be an amazing way for me to explore our nation’s governmental system.

News

‘She Was Everyone’s Grandmother’: Kay Timmis, 82, Beloved Substitute Teacher in New Canaan

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The New Canaan High School family is mourning the passing on Sunday of a beloved substitute teacher who began working in the district in the late-1970s and touched hundreds of young lives here with her rare and unflagging kindness, smile and generous spirit. Kay Timmis was 82. “We started off first period with a lot of tears” as news of Timmis’ passing moved quickly through the school, NCHS World History, Civics and AP Comparative Government and Politics teacher Kristine Goldhawk said Tuesday. “Kay was an original,” added Goldhawk, in her ninth year in the district and who saw Timmis just last week. “She was a sweetheart.