AHA’s Senior Scientists Mentor Sixth Grade Health Class

Senior scientists from the Academy of the Holy Angels Upper School exhibited scholarship and mentorship as they hosted an impromptu mini-health fair for the sixth grade.

“My senior anatomy students invited the sixth grade health class to join them for a session,” science teacher Patricia Prucnel said of the collaboration with Christine Paladino’s health class.

Small groups of middle school students visited the multiple learning stations, where seniors presented short talks and demonstrations about nutrition, bones, heart health, and body systems.

“My seniors showed the AHA Middle School students things like nutrition, blood pressure, listening for a heartbeat, and more,” Prucnel added. “It was a way to have older students work with younger students and to expose them to health topics.”

Prucnel and Paladino developed the concept for this collaborative effort. The mini-health fair continued the mentorship between upper school and middle school students. In the spring of 2022, Sharon Jureller’s Advanced Placement Chemistry students led an experiment for AHA’s seventh grade science students. Students met in the upper school’s chemistry lab, where they explored double-replacement reactions. Middle school students discovered how positive and negative ions from two ionic compounds trade places to form new compounds.

Founded by the School Sisters of Notre Dame in 1879, the Academy of the Holy Angels is the oldest private girls’ school in Bergen County. While AHA is steeped in Catholic tradition, this prestigious school serves young women from many backgrounds. AHA provides a first-rate education in a nurturing environment where equal importance is placed on academic excellence, character development, moral integrity, and service to others.