WVCSD Superintendent’s Spotlight: Sofia D’Agnese

Sofia D’Agnese, a further grader at Park Ave. Elementary, serves on Student Council, she’s in drama club, she’s in band, she’s an avid reader and writer, and is always on the look-out for something new to learn or try. You may wonder what has inspired Sofia to be such an inquisitive explorer of boundless interests?

“I always wanted to know all about the world because of... well... Indiana Jones,” shrugged D’Agnese. She enjoys the high adventure of those classic films, which she has watched with her parents on family movie nights. “We love to watch those movies, and even in those movies you can see, like, just how much stuff there is to find, or how many things there are to learn about in the world. I want to know about all this stuff... and not just from watching movies!”

One of the many things D’Agnese is involved with is the Park Avenue Student Council, in which she served as the first-grade representative. Her role meant helping equip and organize first grade students as needed for presentations, assemblies, and other events. D’Agnese jokingly said that her motivation for joining Student Council was actually to wield a very specific power.

“My brother, Adam, is in first grade, so I just wanted to be in charge of him,” she laughed. “But really, I got involved because I wanted to do things for our community instead of just sitting around and watching people do stuff for our community. I really wanted to help.”

This year, the Student Council had its annual Wreaths Across America and Trees for Heroes campaigns, promoted the WTBQ Toys for Military Tots Toy Drive at Park Avenue, and raised money to buy first aid kits for Warwick K-9 officers hurt on duty.

“[The dogs] risk their lives, so instead of them maybe even dying, we want the police officers to have something they can use to help them,” D’Agnese said. “We really wanted to help those dogs like that. So, now if they get hurt, the first aid kits are there to help them.”

D’Agnese is a veteran member of the Park Avenue Drama Club. She has performed in the club’s productions of “Willy Wonka Kids” (`23) and “Seussical Kids” (`22). D’Agnese said her love of performing led her to audition for – and land a role in – the Sugarloaf Performing Arts Center production of “Mary Poppins.” She also plays percussion in the Park Avenue fourth-grade band.

“I can play the different kinds of percussion, but my favorite is the bass drum,” D’Agnese said. She also exercises her creativity by writing stories, a hobby that has grown out of her love of reading.

“Whenever you read, you find out more. I see a word that I don’t know, and I wonder what it’s all about. It’s like finding the ‘lost ark’ or something!”

D’Agnese said the plots and writing styles in her own stories are influenced her favorite authors, including Kate DiCamillo and Katherine Applegate.

“I like to be realistic when I write,” she said, adding that she likes to employ onomatopoeia and direct, vivid descriptions of the action and consequences in her storytelling. “My favorite stories that I love to read are like, ‘boom... crash, I fell to the ground and I couldn’t see.’”

With only a few weeks left to go in her Park Avenue career, Sofia said she is looking forward to all the new adventures the middle school has to offer next year. She has also been thinking back on all of the fun things she’s gotten to do in elementary school.