“Excellence Through Performance” Dear Desert Vista Family, As We
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
“Excellence Through Performance” Dear Desert Vista Family, As we wind down to the last few weeks of the first quarter, I would like to remind parents to check ParentVue to gauge where your child is in regards to his/her learning and encourage them to complete their work, prepare for assessments, communicate with teachers, attend before or after school tutoring supports by the teacher, and/or attend our Peer to Peer Tutoring Program (see times below). We continue to partner with our Site Council, Student Council and Guidance Department and one of our main goals is providing information to students and parents regarding the social and emotional well-being our students. During lunch on Friday, September 29th, there will be several organizations on campus providing education and information to students on a variety of social and emotional wellness topics. Our community partner, Teen Lifeline, is visiting schools across Arizona during the month of September to raise awareness about suicide prevention. Organizations on site may include, Teen Lifeline, GLSEN, 1 n 10 and Terros. Visiting with these organizations is completely voluntary. However, we would be pleased if you encouraged your child to stop by the lunchtime event and visit with the groups. The health and well-being of our students is our number one priority and we look forward to partnering with our families in the upcoming year as we strive to develop resilient, healthy, and happy young adults. We are well into the fall season of our extra-curricular activities and I look forward to sending out more information to highlight all of our programs. I would like to extend an invitation to all of you to attend one of our amazing extra-curricular events. When you do, please make sure to stop and say hello, and let me know how things are going for you and your family. Please click on the DV Activities Calendar or see the attached DV Sports Calendar, for upcoming events. I look forward to seeing you there! GO THUNDER!! National Merit Scholarship Semifinalists The National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC) announced the names of approximately 16,000 Semifinalists in the 63rd annual National Merit Scholarship Program. These academically talented high school seniors have an opportunity to continue in the competition for some 7,500 National Merit Scholarships worth more than $32 million that will be offered next spring. To be considered for a Merit Scholarship award, Semifinalist must fulfill several requirements to advance to the Finalist level of the competition. About 90 percent of the Semifinalists are expected to attain Finalist standing, and about half of the Finalists will win a National Merit Scholarship, earning the Merit Scholar title. Desert Vista High School is proud to recognize the following students as 2018 National Merit Scholarship Semifinalists. Please join me in congratulating the following DV seniors: Monica Essig Aberg Caleb Redshaw Aksel Laudon Nicholas Thatcher Shae Nicolaisen Jessica Wang Vinayak Parthasarathy Qihan “Jody” Zhu Fantastic job, everyone!! National Hispanic Scholars Please join me in congratulating Desert Vista’s National Hispanic Scholars! The following students scored in the top 2.5% among Hispanic and Latino PSAT/NMSQT test takers. This is an outstanding accomplishment! Olivia DiGioia Ivory Stephenson Cassandra Ingersoll Elias Youssfi Tyler Mercado National Suicide Prevention Awareness Month Please go to the following link for more information and resources. Teacher/Coach Highlights: Congratulations to Vic Silva for being awarded the Arizona Speech and Debate Coach of the Year for the 2017-2018 school year by the Arizona Speech and Debate Coaches Association! Coach Brittany Stanchik had this to say about Mr. Silva: Coach of the Year is chosen by a committee of Arizona Speech and Debate coaches who are elected to their positions- that means the best of the best are choosing who receives this award! Mr. Silva exemplifies a true educator, especially in the coaching arena. While it's only natural to become entangled in numbers of a competition, Mr. Silva never fails to remind our students that the goal is not to win rather to "give your best and be your best in all that you do". This motto has served our team well. Under Ms. Silva we've brought home both countless State Championships and National placings. While these results are fantastic, they are minor in comparison to the growth that students experience during their time on the team. Congratulations, Mr. Silva, and thank you for all you do! Extra-Curricular Highlights: Thunder Force Links Crew Our Thunder Force Links Crew Academics committee did a fabulous job putting together 2 lunchtime lessons for our Freshmen. Organization Getting to Know Canvas Please see the attached PowerPoints for more information. Key Club: Blood Drive The Key Club just had their Fall Blood Drive, and it was very successful. They had 121 people sign up, and from that group, they were able to provide 82 pints of blood that United Blood Services can use. Their goal was 82, so they were pleased to reach it. There will be another Blood Drive in April 2018, and they would love to have more parents volunteer to give blood. They had between 5 and 10 parents sign up or walk in during the drive, and they want to thank all of you who came to donate. Sports Highlights: Boys Cross Country Article courtesy of Senior, Nick Thatcher The Woodbridge Classic is one of the most anticipated and exhilarating meets of the year, not to mention one of the most competitive. This year’s Woodbridge Classic was held in Norco, California in prime conditions; it's widely held around the country that Woodbridge is THE fastest meet in the nation. The 3 mile course has absolutely no hills, and consists entirely of fast close-cropped grass and pavement. Additionally, the meet has the advantage of being held in Southern California, meaning the runners enjoy the benefits of a cool 75-65°F. All of these factors combined to create an exhilarating race experience and a slew of personal records. We took 38 boys to Woodbridge this year, with each competing in either the Freshman, Sophomore, Junior, Varsity B, or Sweepstakes race. Kicking off the evening was the Freshman Boys race, where the team placed 11th against 31 other teams. The first five of the nine DVCC freshman were Martin Fuller (16:54.9) in 15th place, Christopher Broze (17:42.1) in 49th place, Vade Pierce (18:26.7) in 110th place, Justin Perillio (18:27.4) in 112th place, and Luke Nagli (18:36.2) in 125th place. These boys performed commendably against an enormous pack of almost 400 of the country’s up-and-coming runners. In the Sophomore Boys race, our talented boys placed a solid 3rd place against the deep squads of Great Oak and Saugus High Schools. Heading this Sophomore race for DV was Noah Werebelow (16:46.5) in 18th place, followed by Mays Jones just a split second behind (16:46.7) in 19th place, Nicolo Perciballi (16:56.7) in 35th place, Vincent Larente (17:08.1) in 53rd place, Lucas Young (17:21.2) in 70th place, and Adam Hansen (17:38.1) in 88th place. Our Junior Boys placed 3rd in an incredibly tight competition to Great Oak’s 2nd place team; we finished with 99 points, just a mere 1 point behind Great Oak’s 98! This adept crew of juniors was lead by Neal Saxena (16:29.7) in 17th place, followed by Carter Sokolovich (16:31.5) in 18th place, Marshall Smith (16:44.8) in 24th place, Ceth Reeves (16:45.3) in 25th place, and David Syms (17:08.0) in 53rd place. The Varsity B race saw our team of 7 runners come in a strong 4th place, with 141 points. This team was lead by an astounding breakthrough performance by sophomore Sammy Van Alstine, who won the hotly contested race with a blistering 14:45.7 time. This is easily the the record for the Sophomore 3 mile, and is one of the top five 3 mile times ever run by a Desert Vista athlete. Following behind Sammy was junior Lee Nasewytewa (15:18.6) in 7th place, junior Travis Kearney (15:37.8) in 20th place, Senior Michael Tuli (15:55.6) in 38th place, and senior Jack Willems (16:21.1) in 75th place. The top seven was rounded off with senior Grant Cuyler (16:38.7) in 94th place, and senior David Neighbors (17:01.7) in 112th place. The evening was finished off with the Varsity making their season debut in the premier Sweepstakes race. The results of this race forebode a prodigious season for the Thunder, as we finished 2nd place against Great Oak, arguably THE BEST TEAM IN THE NATION. Finishing with 118 points to Great Oak’s 83, and only a 2 second difference between our average mile pace and theirs, we showed we have the guts and the fitness to compete with ANY other team in the nation. This was not only the best Woodbridge performance of any Desert Vista team, this was the best 3 mile performance of any team in the HISTORY of Arizona. This squad of all seniors was led off by Reece Donihi in a new school record of 14:28.7, which earned him a 12th place finish. He was followed by Aksel Laudon (14:35.9) in 22nd place, Habs Cheney (14:45.4) in 34th place, D’Angelo Piasecki (14:50.5) in 44th place, and Bryce Schmisseur (14:54.5) in 57th place. Behind these top five runners was Nick Thatcher (14:56.5) in 62nd place and J Iannone (15:40.5) in 133rd place.