Houghton Academy

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The Houghton Academy family donated over 700 food items to the local food pantry through the National Honor Society’s spring food drive.

Students and faculty at Houghton Academy are acclimating to some amazing new software on school computers thanks to a generous donation by the Manley Foundation. Houghton Academy gratefully received nearly $25,000 to spend on new software and software upgrades, as well as some technology hardware. Some of the software has already been rolled out, while other software will be installed over the coming weeks.

Officials from Key Bank, administrators of the Manley Foundation Grant, present a check for $25,000 to Scott Frazier and Dale Shatto, Interim Heads of School at Houghton Academy. Officials from Key Bank, administrators of the Manley Foundation Grant, present a check for $25,000 to Scott Frazier and Dale Shatto, Interim Heads of School at Houghton Academy.

Always a PC-based institution, Microsoft’s Windows XP operating system has long been the Academy’s operating system of choice. The Manley Foundation grant enabled the school to upgrade both server and client operating systems; all the faculty, staff, and students will soon be benefitting from the advantages of the Windows 7 platform. Additionally, the school has upgraded its Microsoft Office Suite from the 2003 version to the 2010 version.

An exciting addition to the school’s software collection is Adobe’s Creative Suite 5.5 Design Premium. Since 2004, Houghton Academy’s yearbook has been produced with Adobe’s InDesign and Photoshop. The Manley Foundation grant has upgraded this industry-standard software platform to include the most recent versions of these programs, as well as expanding software offerings. Adobe Creative Suite Design Premium includes programs to create and edit vector graphics (Illustrator), web pages (Dreamweaver) and animations (Flash). Even better, the Creative Suite will be available on every computer in school, and not just in the yearbook computer lab as in years past; upgrade licenses have already been purchased to keep Adobe’s software current over the next two years.

Hardware funded by the grant includes document projectors for several teaching stations, as well as a camera to use in video production and webcasts.

Thanks to the generosity of the Manley Foundation, Academy students will be able to engage and master the most current applied computer technology as they prepare for college and beyond in a digital era.

In support of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, Houghton Academy’s National Honor Society in concert with the athletic department recently sponsored two fundraisers. During a home soccer game, fans were invited to pay for the opportunity to take a penalty shot, with the local youth pastor Jon Cole in goal. In between games at the last home volleyball match, all the seniors lay on the floor and served as targets while fans (and even the other team!) paid for the opportunity to hit the senior targets with served volleyballs. All proceeds went to the American Cancer Society.