GRB Students Honored for Academic League Championship

May 31, 2013 Submitted article

Students at G. Ray Bodley High School in Fulton have reason to celebrate. For the fifth time in the history of the Oswego County Academic Youth (OCAY) League, the school clinched the title of overall champion.

The 2012-13 school year marks the fifth time that the G. Ray Bodley High School team clinched the Oswego County Academic Youth League Championship. OCAY League participants from the GRB Class of 2013, pictured, accepted championship trophies and a commemorate plaque from OCAY League Coordinate Dante Ascenzi at a recent celebration at the school. Also pictured with the students is GRB OCAY League Coach Sue Ryan.
The 2012-13 school year marks the fifth time that the G. Ray Bodley High School team clinched the Oswego County Academic Youth League Championship. OCAY League participants from the GRB Class of 2013, pictured, accepted championship trophies and a commemorate plaque from OCAY League Coordinate Dante Ascenzi at a recent celebration at the school. Also pictured with the students is GRB OCAY League Coach Sue Ryan.

OCAY League was organized in 1997 with the idea that academics merit a standing comparable to athletics.

Teams of students from high schools across Oswego County participate in four uniquely different academic events throughout a school year. The events challenge the students’ academic skills as well as team building, leadership, creativity and cooperative problem solving abilities.

Students arrive for each event without any prior knowledge of what to expect and then must complete several tasks within an allotted time period.

Fulton’s successful season started with a first place finish in the first event of the 2012-13 school year, an event requiring teams to create a unique political party, a fictional candidate to run for President of the United States along with a 30-second political advertising campaign in Spanish.

G. Ray Bodley High School students Mary West, left, and Katelyn Caza show off some of their Oswego County Youth Academic League medals that they have earned over the past few school years participating in OCAY League events. The pair have been participating in OCAY League since tenth grade, both will graduate in June of this year.
G. Ray Bodley High School students Mary West, left, and Katelyn Caza show off some of their Oswego County Youth Academic League medals that they have earned over the past few school years participating in OCAY League events. The pair have been participating in OCAY League since tenth grade, both will graduate in June of this year.

This win was followed by a second place finish in an engineer event where teams created complex, multi-step Rube Goldberg-inspired machines.

The third event was a sports opera challenge where teams chose a historically significant sports-related event and then wrote and performed a one-act opera about that event, all in less than two hours time. Fulton finished second in this event.

Rounding out the year was a first place finish in the final event of the school year, a “Fight and Flight” challenge where teams created kites from scratch and participated in an educational scavenger hunt at Oswego’s historical Fort Ontario.

G. Ray Bodley High School honored all of the students that participated in this school year’s OCAY League challenges with an academic celebration.

OCAY Coordinator Dante Ascenzi was on hand for the celebration and presented the school with commemorate trophies and a plaque as recognition of their distinguished achievement.

Fulton incidentally holds the title of OCAY Overall Champion for the following school years: 1998-1999, 2002-2003, 2008-2009, 2009-2010, and 2012-2013.

OCAY League is coordinated through Oswego County BOCES’ Instructional Support Services as part of the Gifted and Talented Programs cooperative services. missing or outdated ad config

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