Eagle Spirit

August 18, 2025

Welcome to the 25-26 school year! My name is Mrs. Giuseffi and I am the Student Activities Director at the East campus. Leyden offers so many opportunities to get involved including joining clubs, attending special events, participating in spirit days, volunteering in the community, and much more.

To learn about all the clubs Leyden has, visit the East Leyden Clubs page or see a list here. To see a calendar of when clubs are meeting, click here.

During your lunch period, stop by the Student Activities Office located in the mezzanine to say "Hi" or email me at LGiuseffi@Leyden212.org with any questions!

Starting this year, all Leyden students in a club will need to use 5 Star Students. In 5 Star Students, you will be able to:

• See a list of clubs & activities to get involved in
• See when activities & events are taking place
• Check in & out of activities & events (aka attendance)

You can access 5 Star Students via your cell phone or the Chromebook.

• Mobile App: To download the 5Star App on your phone, click HERE.
• Chromebook: Go to www.5starstudents.com & click on "sign in". BOOKMARK this link.

• To see an overview on how to use the mobile app, click HERE.
• To learn who to check yourself into your club meetings & activities using the 5 Star mobile app, click HERE.

Leyden clubs & students were busy over the summer. Check out just three of the many service & leadership activities that took place.

Over the summer, the Leyden Leaders attended a two day leadership training to prepare for the 25-26 school year. At the training, leaders participated in activities related to important leadership skills. The Leyden Leaders also attended New Eagle Family Night and New Eagle Experience. You will see the Leyden Leaders at various Leyden events throughout the school year wearing their Leader Wings tshirt.

Twenty-six Service Club students traveled to Bangkok and Chiang Mai over 12 days and participated in two service projects. One was working at a local school to create vegetable beds & mushroom houses, and clean out a greenhouse. This project helped create a sustainable food source for student lunches. This was important because the school lunch budget is limited to 35 cents per student, which is not enough to feed all of the students. The second service project was working at an elephant sanctuary where students created meals and medicine balls for elephants that were rescued from labor camps and the entertainment industry.

Check out the video below to see highlights from the trip. If you want more information on the Service Club and the summer travel opportunity, contact Mr. Leu or Ms. Michorczyk.

East Leyden Operation Snowball took another amazing group of students to CGTI - summer leadership conference. 11 students attended the conference in different roles - 3 as youth staff, 3 as participants, and 5 as PALS. At the conference, students learned skills to help them become leaders in their communities and worked with Ms. Muldoon to organize different events that will be run at East Leyden throughout the year. If you are interested in learning more about this club, see Ms. Muldoon in the counselor's office.

Are you interested in video production? If so, Leyden has a great opportunity for you!

Leyden's Communication Team is hiring 1-2 SENIOR student interns to assist with video production. Student interns will need to commit for the entire year and be available to work outside school hours. This is a paid position! If you are interested, you must apply by September 2nd. See below for more detailed information.

We want you HERE! Leyden's new "Strive for 95" campaign offers a lot of cool prizes for students who have high attendance.

• Monthly raffles to win Leyden clothing, free Homecoming or Prom tickets, Stanley drinking cups, Javaccino dollars, pizza parties for you & your friends, and much more. (90% or higher attendance rate)
• 1/2 off Homecoming tickets (95% or higher attendance)
• $20 off Prom tickets (95% or high attendance; juniors & seniors)