Somerville’s 2026 high school graduates are invited to apply for City of Somerville Municipal Scholarships designed to help students launch their next steps, be that professional training, college, or a job in the trades. Selected applicants will receive $2,000 to help with post-secondary education expenses, including tuition, professional programs and certifications, and union fees. The deadline to apply is March 27. To qualify for consideration, students must be in high school, a resident of the City of Somerville at the time the financial aid is awarded, and be accepted to an accredited post-secondary institution. Awards are granted both on the basis of merit and need. To apply, students must complete the online application at bit.ly/municipalschol26 by Friday, March 27, at midnight. For more information, visit somervillema.gov/scholarship or contact 311 (617-666-3311).

By Coach Dennis Orellana

The Prospect Hill Academy Wizards upset #2 in the State, Hopedale, to get to the first Final Four in School History.

On Wednesday, March 11, at 5 p.m. at UMass Boston, it’s #7 Prospect Hill Academy vs. #6 Holbrook to go to the State championship this weekend at UMass Lowell.

Teacher of the Year Finalist Beatriz Thomas was recently honored by health benefits company Wellpoint during their visit to Somerville High School.

Wellpoint, a health benefits company in Massachusetts, visited Somerville High School to honor social studies teacher Beatriz Thomas, a finalist for the 2026 Massachusetts Teacher of the Year. Wellpoint awarded Thomas $5,000 to further enhance the educational experience for her students. She intends to use the grant to strengthen students’ transition from 8th to 9th grade.

It’s a tradition that most of us have a lot of fun with. Whether one is of Irish lineage or not, St. Patrick’s Day stands for recognition of Irish and Irish American culture, and in many ways, its resulting fusion.

The religious origins of the day have, for some, been obscured and often all but forgotten in favor of the prominent displays of the color green, eating and drinking, and numerous parades. The day has been celebrated on the North American continent since before the American Revolution, and is actually an official holiday in neighboring Suffolk County. Ask any of our Boston brethren, and they would – to a single soul – be aware of this fact.

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Here are a few recipes I shared over the years, all in one place! Whether you’re looking to make shepherd’s pie, soda bread, or colcannon, I’ve got you covered. Check out the links below. I know the traditional way of preparing the corned beef is to boil it, but I am sharing the way I prepare mine, in a not-so-traditional way, sous vide. It’s the only way I prepare it now, and I get rave reviews from friends and family. I have also included information on how sous vide works in a link below.

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Poet X. J. Kennedy has passed recently, so I decided to reprint this interview I had with him and his wife in 2015. Introduction from X.J. Kennedy’s website:

J. Kennedy was born in Dover, N. J., on August 21, 1929, shortly before the crash of the stock market. Irked by the hardship of having the name of Joseph Kennedy, he stuck the X on and has been stuck with it ever since.

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Tom Lyons wrote a lot of poetry in the 70’s and 80’s and had some success being published in a couple of poetry magazines. His jobs as an Auditor, a COO, and a Management Consultant kept him on the road for nearly 30 years. Fifteen years ago, he bought the New England Mobile Book Fair, at the time the largest independent brick-and-mortar book store in New England, where, among author events, he started hosting well-attended poetry readings. Inspired again to create, this led to forming a poetry group that meets twice a month. Some of his poems have appeared in the Muddy River Review and Boston Literary Magazine. He has appeared on Somerville and Milton local TV. Tom is also a member of the Bagel Bards. His first book of poetry, Luna Moth, has been well received, having sold more than 600 copies to date, and is going into its fifth printing. His new book, The Beautiful Army, is being compiled by Big Table Publishing and should be available shortly. One of the new poems is presented here.

The City of Somerville treasury department has a feature on its website page called Citizen Self-Service (CSS) providing web-based look-up access to bill information directly from official City records.  View real estate tax bills, water (utility) bills, and personal property tax bills online, in real time, 24/7.  CSS enables access to official City records without the need to contact the treasury department.  There is even a payoff date calculation option if you change the date to a future one.  Because it is in real time and live, when a payment posts in the office it shows on CSS immediately.  Citizen Self Service is the same database the treasury staff members use to answer your questions.  Note that payments made on City Hall Systems (city’s online payment vendor) will appear on CSS the next business day after the payment file is loaded.    CSS also links to City Hall Systems, enabling easy payment access that is safe, secure and free of charge if a checking account is used as the payment method.