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Wheeling Country Day Students Reach the Sky

Students at Wheeling Country Day School eagerly counted down from 10 as the fifth-grade class made the final preparations to launch a weather balloon from their playground Thursday morning.

The annual project originated in 2014, making this the ninth year students have researched, prepped, launched and retrieved the weather balloon, coined this year as JoJoIX.

The name is a tribute to Josiah Titus-Glover, a student involved in the first year of the balloon launch project who passed away before its completion.

Luke Hladek, assistant head of school for culture and advancement at Wheeling Country Day, says the school hopes to honor Josiah and his family each year.

"This has been a good way to remember him, try to honor him and try to honor his family," he said. "His brother has done the project, and his sister has done the project. They both let (the balloon) go, and his family has let it go."

The project was originated by Hladek with the goal of taking aerial photographs of the school's grounds. The balloon now reaches heights of 90,000 feet, entering the stratosphere and recording the sky turning black and the curvature of Earth.

Hladek says the project gets students engaged in a way the classroom can't.

"I always say, you know, I could tell them to turn to page 75 and copy down some vocab, but this is an inspirational thing," he said. "They get to feel and smell it; it's really amazing."

Fifth-grade students are split up into six specialized teams, each facing different aspects of the launch. Some students work on the safety team, while others tackle research and development or public relations.

Fifth-grade student and member of the public relations team, Jillian Huff, says her team's role was focused on garnering attention for the project.

"For my team, we would promote it, get sponsors, make logos and flyers for everything, and basically get people to come and get sponsors so we can build our balloon next year," she said.

The project's growth has allowed the school to upgrade to state-of-the-art launch equipment and engage students with different community industries.

Huff looked to the sky and watched the students' hard work pay off.

"People were really excited to watch it launch, and it feels really good," she said. "It makes me feel proud."

Hladek hopes it teaches his students to take risks and shoot for the stars.

"I want them to be inspired by this that they can do big, weird, challenging things," he said, "I love their eagerness in the build-up to launch day and how much they want to share it with people."

Elizabeth Hofreuter, head of school at Wheeling Country Day, shared the students' pride in how far the project has come.

"There aren't many 10-year-olds that launch a weather balloon," she said. "There aren't many 10-year-olds who can say, 'I created something that went 90,000 feet in the air and captured the curvature of the earth.' That is who we are."

Hofreuter says one of the school's goals is to encourage students to challenge the impossible.

"Your voice matters, your ideas matter and your actions matter, and it's possible for you to be in charge of something like this, even if you're 10, if you're at Wheeling Country Day School," she said.