By Elizabeth Gillingham

Student of the Month

Kiwanis student of the month for April was Noah Leach.

Noah is a senior at Henry and is most remembered for his many roles played on the stage at PHHS, both in choir and drama productions.

However, in the classroom he has also made his mark as noted by the many different teachers who nominated him.

PHHS Student of the Month, Noah Leach

Teacher, Ms. Terri Clark, stated in her recommendation letter:

“I would like to send out a plug for Noah Leach. A lot of what he does is for choir and drama; however, I believe he has been an excellent student in all of his other classes as well. Noah always volunteers to go above and beyond. He sees a need and works to fulfill it while encouraging other students to join him in a cause. 

He is a natural leader whom his younger peers are prone to follow. He does whatever he is asked to do and most of the time he does so cheerfully. He is always respectful with adults. He is creative and thinks outside of the box to solve problems or to present other or improved options. He initiates ideas and projects and works to follow through with those plans. He spends much time outside of class thinking through how to improve his class and what he can contribute. 

It is almost as though whatever Noah touches turns to gold. He is enthusiastic and truly cares about succeeding in whatever he chooses to do. He is a committed young man.”

Choir director, Ms. Kristin Love stated:

“He is solid academically, focused and on task, willing to help anyone who needs it. Beyond that, he is so creative and pulls together seriously professional looking outfits. I feel like the world will know his name. His school spirit is strong, he’s involved, he was an awesome Ursula in ‘Little Mermaid.’ I am so curious to see where he will go and what he will do — I think he will do great things!

He is a quiet sort of leader, where his accomplishments (and great spirit day outfits!) seem to stem from a genuine desire to push himself, rather than for the sake of seeking others approval. But it is that sort of trait that can make the best leader — he doesn’t have to look behind him to see whose following — his eyes are facing forward on his next goal!”

Noah is off to San Diego State next year and has been accepted into their theater program. We are very excited to see where his career will take him next!

PHHS Model United Nations Club

The PHHS Model UN Club sent a team to compete in the annual TritonMUN Conference held at UCSD, representing Russia in committees such as the UN Forum for Indigenous Peoples, and the UN Security Council.

(l to r) Kalos Chu, Daniel Khuu, John Fernandez, Phoebe Nguyen, Malcolm Wilson, and Jonny Phan (Courtesy PHHS)

After two days of fervent debate on international issues, competing against over 300 students from schools all over Southern California, the team won Best Delegation out of all of the competing schools. In addition, Jonny Phan and Daniel Khuu won honorable mentions in their respective committees, and Kalos Chu won Best Delegate in his committee, the UN Human Rights Council.

They hope to return next year to repeat their resounding success!

Henry wins $1,000 for recycling efforts

Congratulations! Henry High was the runner-up winner in the High School category of the 2016-17 EDCO Recycling Challenge!

To help reduce waste and increase recycling awareness at our schools, the San Diego Unified School District once again teamed up with EDCO, our waste and recycling service provider, to bring you the 2015-16 EDCO Recycling Challenge. There were cash prizes for the schools that divert the most waste while increasing recycling efforts.

All schools that receive waste and recycling services through the district contract with EDCO were automatically registered to compete in the challenge. A baseline of existing services was set for each school based on a pounds-per-student calculation for waste disposal and recycling. The criteria for awards were based on a combination of school recycling and waste reduction efforts (overall waste diversion rate).

Special thanks to our POS (Plant Operation Specialist), Cathy Murphy who helped us win by ordering several new blue bins around campus to make it easier for students to separate their trash.

Coach Jack Lococo earns 300th win

Congratulations to Coach Jack Lococo who celebrated his 300th game win while coaching Varsity High School Baseball at Patrick Henry High School in less than a dozen years.

Jack Lococo started as a head junior varsity walk-on coach in 1996 for Henry, assisting former head coaches Blivens and Michael Williams with the varsity program as well.

In 2003, principal Pat Crowder hired Lococo to teach in the engineering program, making him a full-time teacher at PHHS. In 2005, Lococo was asked by Williams to take the head coach reins where he began collecting his wins over what would be the next 12 years.

Coack Lococo and the Patrick Henry Varsity Baseball team pose with a banner celebrating the coach’s 300th win. (Courtesy PHHS)

Lococo was also named as the PHHS Athletic Director in 2010, providing direct guidance and support for over 20 different sports, hiring new coaches, supervising games, and putting on countless professional development opportunities and meetings to ensure a safe and competitive program for everyone involved.

Lococo’s favorite coaching memories include: taking his students in 2005 to the CIF Championship game; playing at Petco Park in 2014; and coaching with his two sons, Johnny and Anthony. On April 27, 2017, against Serra High School, the Patriots came out on top marking the coach’s 300th victory as a Patriot.

Principal Gillingham was on hand to present a banner to Coach Lococo that will be hung on our fences to signify this amazing achievement. The students helped him celebrate by dumping an ice cooler of water on his head as tradition dictates in many sporting events and continued with a silly string attack as well.

On May 18, 2017, Lococo celebrated his last senior game with the Patriots and the city recognized him through a proclamation from Mayor Kevin Faulconer declaring May 18 as “Jack Lococo Day” in honor of his tremendous contributions to our program at Henry.

—Elizabeth Gillingham is principal of Patrick Henry High School.

By Elizabeth Gillingham

Spring sports finish strong

Donald Kay, Patrick Henry’s extraordinary golfer, shot a 68 at Poppy Hills in Monterey to finish tied for second in the CIF State golfing championship. The round was virtually flawless and included six birdies.

Congratulations also go to the track team, who participated in the city league conference finals. The team was well represented at the CIF prelims at Mt. Carmel High School. The team was led by individual league champs: Clara Lane (pole vault); Madison Simmons (shot put and discus); Roxanne Foltz (long jump); and Troy Cristobal (long jump, triple jump, and high jump).

Patrick Henry golfer Donald Kay (Photos courtesy PHHS)

The PHHS Swim CIF finals ended with the following results:

• Jack Macceca, our diver, got second place out of 27 divers and competed at the state finals in Clovis, California.
• Carlson Temple got first in both the 200 individual medley and the breast stroke, and also competed at the state finals in Clovis.
• 200 medley relay — girls: Naomi Blik, Ashley Wenzel, Sarah Harry and Sydney Fortune — fourth.
• 200 individual medley: Carlson Temple — first
• 100 fly: Ashley Wenzel — 15th
• 100 freestyle: Sarah Harry — 12th
• 100 breast stroke: Sydney Fortune — fourth
• 100 breast stroke: Sarah Harry — 12th
• 100 breast stroke: Carlson Temple — first
• 4×100 relay — girls: Naomi Blik, Ashley Wenzel, Sarah Harry and Sydney Fortune — 11th
• diving: Jack Macecca — first

In badminton, Brian Tran, a junior, won the boys’ singles crown for his second title of the day. He also teamed with Mikayla Aguilar to win the mixed doubles championship.

In softball, the Lady Patriots played in the CIF Championship Division 1 as the No. 1 seed and ended up as the runner-up team in the final round played at UC San Diego.

Our boys’ Lacrosse team came out on top 9-7 against El Camino High School in the quarterfinals of CIF. It was a very entertaining and physical match against two competitive programs. PHHS held on to their advantage in the final quarter with very intelligent and unselfish play from the boys. Unfortunately, they lost to the No. 1 seed, Del Norte, during the semifinal match last month.

Our baseball team earned the No. 11 seed in the CIF Division II playoffs.

In boys’ tennis, Joel Foster and Teiva Berger each qualified for the individual CIF tennis tournament. Joel posted a record of 38 wins and 18 losses and Teiva had a record of 38 wins and 20 losses.

(l to r) PHHS Senior Walker Madsen with City College professor Sean Bacon

Students visit City College

PHHS students from Mr. Karl Bolton’s graphic design class participated in a portfolio review process at City College.

The students had a great time as they sat down individually with different design professors from around San Diego and discussed their portfolios, which were created throughout the school year.

The response was positive from both sides of the table.

After the presentations, a professor pulled Mr. Bolton aside and stated, “Your kids were so articulate, well behaved, and courteous; every single one provided a hand shake and mentioned how appreciative they were of our time … they acted completely contrary to what I hear about high school kids these days.”

Student of the month

Tyra Roberts was selected for PHHS Student of Month.

One teacher stated in her recommendation: “She has an astonishingly strong and sincere desire to build community — whether it’s school, sports or home. She supports all the groups and organizations above passionately through cheer, link crew, peer mediation, volunteering for our Special Olympics activities, attending games and events both at Henry and SDSU. Tyra really values finding ways to connect with people, both like-minded and different from her, and has an as much of an open-minded as they come. She believes in the value of working to make these connections. I am continually impressed with her appreciative and optimistic outlook on life, death, education, commitment … the list goes on. She sees it all as opportunity. And she greets it all with a smile and a ton of humility. I’d like to clone her.”

Another teacher stated: “I’d like to recommend Tyra Roberts. She is a strong leader in link crew and on campus. She volunteers to tutor other students in the library almost every day, when her requirement is only three hours per semester. She is kind and welcoming to all students, and consistently has a smile on her face. I can’t think of anyone who deserves it more!”

Conservation poster contest

The Kiwanis Club presented certificates from Councilmember Scott Sherman’s office to over 40 students involved in their conservation poster contest.

Senior Sophia Luna and contest chairperson, Dr. Newman

All students also received a goodie bag from the city of San Diego Water Department with pencils, cups, a stress ball and more. SDG&E donated ear buds for everyone, as well. The winners got cash prizes to recognize their special entries, ranging from $20 for honorable mention to an $80 award for first place winner senior Sophia Luna.

Student wins second place on civics essay contest

(l to r) PHHS teacher Taunya Robinson and essay winner, Jordan Furtak

Jordan Furtak placed second writing about Japanese internment in the Southern District of California’s 2017 Civics Essay Contest.

Her essay represented the Southern District of California at the Ninth Circuit Court Civics Contest, where winners will be announced in June for the next level of the competition.

John and Susan Furtak accompanied Jordan, with PHHS teacher, Mrs. Taunya Robinson, joining federal judges and the contest judging committee and staff for a celebratory award luncheon held in Jordan’s honor at the James M. Carter and Judith N. Keep United States Courthouse on May 31.

Jordan was honored with a certificate and was asked to read her essay to the audience in attendance.

The court created an exhibit of the winning essays and videos inside the courthouse to showcase all the student’s hard work and effort, and to inspire other students as they visited the courthouse.

Summer trip to Japan

Five PHHS students were chosen to participate in the Tomodachi-MUFG International Exchange Program this summer.

They’ll be learning about the Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami of 2011, living with a Japanese host family, and visiting Tokyo, Kyoto, and Hiroshima, to strengthen ties between students in Southern California and Japan.

(l to r) Bonnie Nguyen, Alex Cagle, Brandon Matsumoto, Felix Rosell and Polina Norman

Their trip is fully funded by the Japanese government through a special partnership with the Tomodachi-MUFG international exchange program and this is the third trip PHHS students have been included in. They leave June 24 for two weeks and we are very excited to hear about this amazing opportunity!

—Elizabeth Gillingham is principal of Patrick Henry High School.

By Elizabeth Gillingham

Triple E winners

Bea Evenson, a local philanthropist, generously donated funds to Patrick Henry High School to award students who have exhibited the three E’s in community service: Excellence, Ethics and Enterprise.

Awards have been given in the past for many activities including participation and achievements in various community organizations, all manners of volunteer work at hospitals, parks, libraries, charitable events, churches, synagogues, homeless shelters, humane societies, and other contributions to the community.

This year’s Triple E Award winners (Courtesy PHHS)

This has been a very special tradition at Patrick Henry High School for over 35 years and we are proud to give the Triple E award to 23 special students this year. Here is a quick description of each award winner this year:

Elizabeth Arevalo’s quest to find a paying summer job turned into a rewarding adventure volunteering at the library, an animal shelter, and Alvarado Hospital, and she now understands how important it is to always do her best and to give back to the community.

Sophia Bozone volunteered for PHHS’s Aquaponics club, church youth group, making holiday stockings and clothing for the homeless, working for the breast cancer three-day walk, Allied Gardens Springfest and MissionTrails days.

Eric Chaing’s passion since ninth grade has been the environment. He has been a dedicated volunteer with the Environmental Club since he started at Patrick Henry and this year he has taken a leadership role as the club secretary.

Tom Do has also done a lot of volunteer work in the Environmental Club working on the ongoing campus cleanup and recycling activities. Tom is also proficient in making a wilmat — a rug made out of plastic and plastic bags donated to the homeless. He also volunteers for PHHS Engineering Academy’s STEM day, Pumpkin Smash and the Rolando Street Fair.

Joel Foster’s volunteer career started when he was 4 years old, handing out water and cheering on the runners at the America’s Finest City Half Marathon. Thirteen years later he continues to help out with the marathon, and has branched out into other volunteer activities like various tennis clinics, festival play days, PHHS Feeding America Club, camps and Temple Emanu-El’s SanETY Midnight Run. But one of his favorite roles is as a teen coach for the U.S. Tennis Association Learning Program at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot. The program teaches tennis to the children of our servicemen and women.

Andrew Hua has been a superhero volunteer for Kaiser Hospital in Grantville, putting in 130 hours of time since last summer. This work has given him the skill set he will need as he works towards becoming a psychologist.

Sophia Lewko started volunteering with the YMCA this year and has demonstrated her deep knowledge of gymnastics and coupled this with her ability to connect with her young students. She positively communicates with co-workers, students, and parents on a daily basis.

Shor Masori has been a volunteer photo journalist for the San Diego Jewish World newspaper, covering all kinds of current and local events of interest to the Jewish community. His most rewarding volunteer experience was the time he spent with six teenagers from the Jerusalem Biblical Zoo who were selected to stay with a few families halfway around the world.

Caroline Meyers has volunteered for several varied organizations for many years. She is an altar server at the San Diego Mission de Alcala, getting up early on Sunday morning to help set up and prepare for the Mass. In middle school, she joined the National Charity League keeping company with the elderly at a Senior Center downtown and helping with Bingo. She has also had the opportunity to make and serve dinner to the 80 homeless residents at the PATH center Downtown.

Max Mittleman is a long-time volunteer at Temple Emanu-El in Del Cerro. Max consistently demonstrates an abiding dedication to his community and in his role as the programming vice president has been tireless in his work.

Andy Nguyen started volunteering by signing up for the Environmental Club as a freshman and later was inspired to form the Park Beautification branch (cleaning up the small community parks in the area) of the Environmental Club. He also volunteers for the San Diego Tet Festival in Mira Mesa where he learned the joys of working the city’s cultural events and is the chairman of the Vietnamese American Youth Alliance.

Jason Pham is involved in many activities in his parish. He sings in the choir, is a leader in the Vietnamese Eucharistic Youth Society, and is a parish school teacher assistant. At another church, he was noted for setting high standards and excelling with his duties as a volunteer. His main assignment was to oversee and plan small group curriculum, activities, and tutoring students in the youth program.

Margaret Poltorak has been a volunteer for Foothills United Methodist Church for many years where she’s worked on the Annual Thanksgiving Canned Food Drive, the Christmas Tree Project, the annual rummage sale, and the weekly beach cleanups and coffee cart. She has also contributed as a girl scout and volunteers in many other activities like feeding the homeless and collecting old clothing at the Connection House, food drives, and working many runs and walks to benefit cancer research, and helping build homes for the homeless with the Sierra Service Project.

Sophia Pruden has been a tireless volunteer raising money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society in memory of her aunt — since she was 7 years old. Her fundraising efforts for LLS started as a lemonade and cookie stand in her driveway. In the last 10 years, it has grown to a full-on block party with a raffle, silent auction, food, live music, face painting, a bouncy house, and serves 80 gallons of lemonade and 350 dozen cookies. She has been responsible for raising over $82,000 for LLS with the help of her family and community. Sophia is also president of the Patrick Henry Environmental Club and she created the Student Thrift Store to recycle clothing and build community.

Elise Rappel volunteers at Kaiser Hospital. Every Saturday for the past 10 months she has spent four hours helping patients and guests of Kaiser Hospital, directing and greeting visitors, escorting visitors to patient rooms, and helping the nursing staff. Thanks to her hospital duties, Elise has become a more understanding and patient teenager.

Hannah Ravitch’s volunteer achievements include: Kiwanis sponsored events, Special Olympics, volunteer and fundraising efforts through Patrick Henry Cheer, beach and environmental cleanups including helping the I Love a Clean San Diego organization, feeding and clothing the homeless, and Key Club.

Oliver Shirley’s volunteer service started when he was 6 years old as a Cub Scout and as a Church youth group member. His very first job was putting American flags on the graves at Rosecrans National Cemetery on Memorial Day. Through the years his service has included food drives, renovating an old church, collecting and distributing essentials for the homeless, and participating in the La Mesa Flag Day Parade with his Boy Scout Troop. Oliver’s Eagle Scout service project included researching, organizing and leading 28 scouts and adult volunteers in the construction and installation of 12 bird nest boxes for Mission Trails Park.

Stephanie Smith has been an active volunteer at St. Andrew’s Lutheran Church. She volunteers for the San Diego Military Outreach Ministries (MOMS) by providing resources for low income military members and their families and each year she helps by supporting a food and Christmas toy drive. She also volunteers in daycare nurseries, as a junior counselor at The Kroc Center, and at the church’s summer bible school.

Veronica Smith volunteers with the Military Outreach Ministries during their food and toy drives. She has also been noted for baking treats for the firefighters at her local fire station.

Abril and Chanel Sosa-Pineda, PHHS twins, have done their volunteer work together. They love volunteering at their church, San Diego Mission de Alcala. They have sold tickets, been part of the church choir, and finally taking on some leadership roles to provide breaks to the adults during the masses. Their volunteer work for Patrick Henry includes: helping during the August student registration, lending a hand in the finance office, library, and generally helping out wherever else there is a need. They also both helped with the 2017 Special Olympics held at PHHS last spring.

Erica Tolley has volunteered for AJ’s Kids Crane event at Rady Children’s Hospital, collecting toys for the drive. She is also an active volunteer for the PHHS tennis team and babysits in her community.

Mark Vo created a new club at Patrick Henry called Helping Out People Every day (HOPE). Each Saturday, Mark, with the other club members, prepared food to distribute at the Urban Angel’s homeless shelter. Project HOPE collected clothing, dental products and other necessities to help those in need. Mark created camaraderie among the club members and used their collective energy to provide resources for the homeless community.

CCTE Showcase winners

Congratulants to PHHS students who won the Open Team Submission at the San Diego Unified School District’s Annual CCTE (College Career and Technical Education) Showcase event held last May.

The 2017 CCTE Showcase is the culminating event to exhibit an outside of the classroom product attempting to address an outside the classroom problem in collaboration with at least one adult from the business or local community. In addition to being a showcase for student projects, the CCTE Showcase is a contest.

PHHS seniors Ryan Beck and Latrell Crenshaw were big winners with their design of a football helmet. Ryan and Latrell worked all year to a design for a helmet that would reduce the amount of concussions an athlete might face with the current helmets.

(l to r): Ryan Beck, Latrell Crenshaw, teacher Adria Van Loan, and philanthropist Nick Cannon. (Courtesy PHHS)

They started looking at the solutions that were already available on the market. They then interviewed parents, coaches, and medical professionals about concussions, their causes and long term affects. From there they researched various materials and came up with a 3-D model which they then presented to those same mentors, and then they developed a prototype.

Throughout the competition, they also had to develop a business plan and an online portfolio of their work to share with potential mentors, investors and companies. Currently, they are working on getting a patent and want to sell their product for children and Pop Warner football.

They won $500 and bragging rights with a big banner for their classroom. Champions were determined by the points earned for their written Project Design Elements and the Presentation of Knowledge and Ideas: Performance Metrics. Student prizes were determined by donations from the Nick Cannon Foundation.

IScholar honors third student with scholarship

IScholar recipient Ibtihal Hussein (Courtesy PHHS)

IScholar was founded and launched in 2014 by Henry graduate Irina Chukhray, who is currently a Ph.D. student in Sociology at Rice University.

After graduating from high school, Chukhray set her mind to one day give back to the school and especially the teachers who motivated and encouraged her to pursue her academic goals. She decided to help PHHS seniors currently mentored by the same teachers that mentored her.

Chukhray designed IScholar with the intention of creating a scholarship that would be useful to its applicants. In her own experience of applying for scholarships, she noticed that the required essay component seemed like an extra writing assignment that did not directly relate to the college application process.

The application requirements for IScholar, however, mirror current college application requirements, resulting in a practice run (i.e. essay draft and required supplemental material) for college applications. Using that format, she structured her prompt and selected a student.

IScholar began as a small scholarship but Chukhray hopes to grow it with community support so that future winners will receive a larger award and possibly more than one grant given each year.

This year’s 2017 award went to Ibtihal Hussein (class of 2017) and was presented by Principal Listy Gillingham during the senior’s graduation rehearsal. The process of a former student using her own money to help a current student was inspirational to all that witnessed this special award ceremony.

—Elizabeth Gillingham is principal of Patrick Henry High School.

By Elizabeth Gillingham | News from Patrick Henry High School

Varsity baseball coach

Sheldon Watkins has been named the new head baseball coach at Patrick Henry High School. He is excited to be returning to his alma mater where he graduated in 2000.

Coach Sheldon Watkins (Courtesy PHHS)

Coach Watkins graduated from Point Loma Nazarene University in 2005 and began his coaching career at Mira Mesa High School where he served as the associate head coach for five seasons and won three Eastern League Championships. In between his time at Mira Mesa, Coach Watkins was the hitting coach at Indiana University from 2007-2008 in the Big Ten Conference. Coach Watkins heavily recruited the state of California and oversaw an offense that led the Big Ten in hitting.

After moving back to San Diego, Coach Watkins finished his teaching credential and was named the head coach at Castle Park High School in 2011. Following the 2011 season, Coach Watkins was named the head coach at Rancho Buena Vista High School (2012–2015) where he was also a physical education teacher. In Watkins’ first year there, he led the Longhorns to a 27-9 record and the Division I Championship where they lost 1-0 to the eventual state champion, Vista High School.

In his second year, he led the Longhorns to the semi-finals of the Open Division. During his time at Rancho Buena Vista alone, seven players went on to play baseball at Division I colleges, and five at the Division II level. Throughout his 11 years of coaching at the high school level, Coach Watkins has had three players drafted in the Major League Baseball Draft and has sent over 20 players to the collegiate level.

Coach Watkins lives in the community of San Carlos with his wife Chelsey, also a PHHS class of 2000 graduate, and daughter Kennedy. PHHS is thrilled to have him return and selected him over several other highly qualified applicants.

One recommendation from his coaching days in San Diego included this statement: “He is very passionate, organized, a good leader, and an incredible coach.” And another recommendation from the college level included this comment: “I wanted to recommend Sheldon Watkins for your open Head Baseball Coach position. I spent a lot of my life and young career [in], and have a great feel for, the High School baseball landscape in San Diego. Sheldon would do a great job on the field, but more importantly will do a great job holding your young student-athletes to a high standard and expectation of being great people and help your program represent you the way you would want it to.”

… and new varsity volleyball coach

Alyssa Hernandez is PHHS’s women’s volley coach for the 2017-18 school year. Hernandez was born and raised in Gilbert, Arizona, and first became a California resident while attending Point Loma Nazarene University. She started all four seasons with Point Loma as a middle blocker. She graduated with multiple awards including National Champion, All-Tournament player at nationals and All-American, among other honors.

Hernandez has been coaching for a total of 10 years at multiple levels. Before her transition to California, she worked with coaches at Arizona Storm Volleyball Club for four years. Most recently, she was the head coach of the JV team at Point Loma High School. She is an elite coach for Coast Volleyball Club, as well as Point Loma’s local club Sunset Volleyball Club.
Coach Hernandez has an immense passion for the sport of volleyball and a strong competitive drive. She has spent many years working with young women to help teach them to find their own passion for volleyball. Her main goal is to develop the next generation of volleyball players, as both athletes and people.

“Volleyball won’t last forever but the skills of communication, discipline, teamwork, leadership, focus, mental toughness and so many more, will continue with each athlete as they go through life’s journey,” she said.

PHHS is fortunate to have added such great athletes and coaches to add to their already outstanding coaching staff.

PHHS construction

It’s hard not to notice the two-story building beginning to take shape at Patrick Henry High School. This building will be a state-of-the-art green building designed to be energy efficient and create a learning space that will be conducive to outstanding teaching and learning environments.

An artist rendering of the new facelift of the front office. (Courtesy PHHS)

It will house the ROP Child Development lab, the math department, and the world language department, replacing all the old bungalows near the gym for much-needed parking.

Having an International Hallway on the bottom floor will be a wonderful way to convey the importance of culture and architecture that comes with teaching another language. On the second floor, the world of math (also thought of as another language all on its own with symbols and notations unique to communication between mathematicians) will be situated so that teachers can plan together and students can have access to several math teachers if they need help. The classrooms will include i21 technology and in some cases be able to divide rooms into larger lecture halls for special events by removing a retractable wall. This building is due to be completed in March of 2018.

In addition to this project, the engineering classrooms in the 500 building are being remodeled and re-configured for greater planning purposes and proximity for teachers to collaborate. The classrooms will receive new equipment to facilitate engineering projects and another 3-D printer.

The new building on campus will house the math and world language departments and a child development lab. (Courtesy PHHS)

The front office is getting a much-needed face-lift to help the entrance match the construction of the new theater and two-story building. The old statue was removed and will be preserved for pep rallies while a new Patrick Henry image will be displayed both on the entrance and in the planter next to the main office. We are also carving out the main office to provide for a faculty lounge — a place for staff to meet and plan lessons together. This work will be completed by the opening of school.

Phase 3 began last month and will be completed by July of 2018. This phase includes updating our fields of play. The stadium is being completely remodeled to bring us up to ADA codes and update the scoreboard and press box. New restrooms, an elevator, new ADA seating on the top and bottom portions of the field, new snack bar, video scoreboard, and restrooms are all part of this renovation project. The track is also getting new pits for the track team to compete with in the spring.

Enhancing the baseball and softball fields with new dugouts, snack bar, bathrooms, drinking fountains, and video score boards is underway as well. ADA parking will also be included to help families who have limited mobility participate as fans and players.

We’ll also be getting two new sand volleyball courts with the hope of eventually adding that as another sport offering at PHHS in the spring.

And finally, PHHS is in the process of looking for major donors to help name the newly-upgraded fields. If you know someone who is interested in this unique one-time opportunity, please contact Principal Listy Gillingham at lgillingham@sandi.net.

American Legion’s Boys Nation

Patrick Henry High School senior Benjamin Kelly has been selected to participate as a senator in The American Legion’s Boys Nation program, taking place July 21–28 in the Washington, D.C. area.

Boys Nation is an annual program that includes civic training, leadership development and a focus on Americanism. Two representatives from each of the 49 Boys States represent their state at Boys Nation in Washington, where the young leaders receive an education on the structure and function of federal government.

At the event, each deleg ate acts as a senator from his Boys State. The young lawmakers caucus at the beginning of the session, then organize into committees and conduct hearings on bills submitted by program delegates.

Senators learn the proper method of handling bills, according to U.S. Senate rules. Participation in the political process is emphasized throughout the week, including organization of party conventions and nominating and electing a president and vice president.
Kelly, 17, is a Boys State alumnus who was elected Supreme Court justice.

Although he has not yet decided on where to attend college, he is considering a career in law. He has participated in Mock Trial and Academic League at Henry as well being a Link Crew leader for 2017-18 school year.

—Elizabeth Gillingham is principal of Patrick Henry High School.

By Elizabeth Gillingham

Meet new staff at Henry

Patrick Henry High School is pleased to welcome several new faces around campus as we had several staff members retire last year.

In the math department, we have Tomas Cometto coming from Clairemont High School, Chris Coman from Hoover High School, Tim Reinheimer coming from Alba, and Sheldon Watkins coming from out of state — South Carolina.

(l to r) Jim Spradlin, Amy Vanella, Erin Fink, Rachel Samuelsz, Tim Reinheimer, Sheldon Watkins, Christopher Coman, Michael McVeigh and Tomas Cometto (Courtesy PHHS)

All four teachers have a wealth of teaching experience and are already showing great promise in helping our students learn how to solve equations. Watkins will be teaching both math and science as well as coaching our baseball team.

Rachel Samuelsz is our new choir teacher and comes to us from Hoover High School. She is filled with great ideas on how to grow our program and we’re excited to hear our students sing under her leadership.

Tony Velarde and Michael Maley have joined us as our new NJROTC instructors. Maley started at the end of last year and this is Velarde’s first year in a teaching assignment, although he had experience working with young recruits as part of his work in the military. Malay retired last year from the Navy and joins us with great enthusiasm for working with high school students.

Richard Abney is our new engineering teacher and had experience supporting students at Hoover as a volunteer. His extensive career working at Qualcomm as an engineer will serve our students well as they learn from someone who was in the field for over 20 years.

Donald Samuels is a counselor from Mission Bay and he’ll be working with our students on a part-time basis.

We were also fortunate to add Michael McVeigh who will be teaching Spanish and has experience teaching high school from Scripps Ranch High School. He most recently was a resource teacher supporting other world language teachers in the district. Allison Medina is our new ASL (American Sign Language) teacher and is excited to work with high school students teaching first and third year ASL. We are thrilled to have them both join our world language teaching team.

In science, we are adding two new teachers. Erin Fink, a long-time Henry substitute and student teacher extraordinaire from last year and she will be teaching physics. Students loved Ms. Fink and we’re lucky to have been able to keep her at Henry. We also added Steven Maloney who is a chemistry and physics teacher this year. Mr. Maloney has over 20 years of teaching experience and is already making an impression with his students.

We added two new English teachers to Henry. Amy Vanella comes to us from De Portola Middle School in Tierrasanta and has been teaching there for over a decade. Jim Hernandez joined us after working at Mira Mesa last year and also had high reviews from his last assignment. This fine duo will certainly add to our already outstanding cadre of English teachers at Henry.

Patrick Schoettler joined us after working at Millennial Tech Middle School. Mr. Schoettler will be teaching history and heading up our AVID (Advancement Via Individual Determination) program. His enthusiasm and expertise is hard not to notice when working with his students and we’re thrilled to have him as a Patriot.

Sara Guinn is also a new face in the counseling office and she is ready to help anyone make an appointment with a counselor or provide any other support to the students at Henry.

And finally, our IT department is headed up by Mr. Jim Spradlin, joining us from the district’s IT department and we’re excited to have his new energy around campus to help with our growing technology needs.

It certainly was a busy summer for us and we are very anxious to see how our new additions contribute to our outstanding program at PHHS!

PHHS welcomes over 2,400 students

PHHS opened its doors on Aug. 28 to over 2,400 students. Students settled into their new schedules quickly and the first week started off in a positive format even with excessive heat indexes that were reported around the city.

The students ended the week with a Welcome Back Rally where the students cheered their teachers who competed in events and were introduced by department with a theme song to get the year started in a fun way. Link Crew team members led the rally and introduced a theme of “Odd Rooms against the Even Rooms” to create unity and friendly competitions among the students.

Fall sports begins

Darla Chistensen aced a par 3 in her match against Helix. (Courtesy PHHS)

Girl’s golf has started off with a special event. Senior Darla Christensen aced the menacing, uphill par 3 nine-hole at Mission Trails on Wednesday in her match against Helix High.

Getting a hole in one is never easy but to have it occur during a match makes it extra special for Darla and our team. Go Patriots!

Our cross-country team is also proud to welcome a new freshman joining our school from De Portola Middle School.

Cormac Evans has been seen running around the neighborhood pushed by his mom Cindy in various half marathons around town.

Through this interest, she asked cross-country coach, Andrew Myette, if there could be space on the cross-country team at PHHS for him to participate in.

Cormac Evans is the latest addition to the Henry cross country team. (Courtesy PHHS)

Coach Myette responded positively from the beginning and as a direct result, Evans is officially on the team and competing when possible in a few meets that are wheelchair accessible.

He has been attending practices regularly and is happy to receive the cheers and high fives as he participates with his mom and gets the opportunity to compete in races at the high school level!

—Elizabeth Gillingham is principal of Patrick Henry High School.

By Elizabeth Gillingham

Patrick Henry’s newest Eagle Scouts

Fourteen-year-old Patrick Henry High School (PHHS) freshman, Noah Boes, earned his Eagle Scout rank on Aug. 24, the highest honor given by the Boy Scouts of America, by replacing a trailhead kiosk at the Mission Valley Preserve. Located off Friars Road near the YMCA Mission Valley, this wildlife preserve on both sides of the San Diego River in the Valley’s west end is home to many native plants and animals. It features some wonderful loop trails with interpretive signage, and even a picnic area.

Eagle Scout Noah Boes (Photo courtesy PHHS)

“So few people are aware of this amazing place,” Boes said. “I thought it would be nice to do a project at the preserve to encourage people to spend time there and appreciate our city’s natural beauty.”

The original trailhead kiosk was destroyed in a rainstorm. Boes worked with the San Diego River Park Foundation and the city of San Diego’s Park and Recreation Department to replace it. He led the planning, design, fundraising and construction of the new kiosk, which now holds information about the preserve’s trails and local ecosystem. Built with high-quality, pest-resistant redwood and over 1,000 pounds of concrete footings, the kiosk took six days to complete.

The teen secured donations from his troop, family and friends and recruited fellow Boy Scouts to build the kiosk. Materials and supplies were donated by Ted Teran, the manager of Dixieline at the South Bay location, as well as Steve Smith, the city of San Diego Park Ranger in charge of managing the preserve. Smith said it was “the best kiosk in the San Diego park system” and the city recognized Boes with a Certificate of Merit in April.

Boes has been scouting since the third grade when he joined the Cub Scouts. It was as a Cub Scout that he first began volunteering for the San Diego River Park Foundation. He continued his volunteer service with the foundation through middle school, which eventually led to his approaching them about Eagle Service Project ideas. As an active member of Troop 975, Boes continues to serve his community and has now achieved 300 hours of community service, 40 merit badges, 56 nights of camping, and 13 special awards since he first became a Boy Scout in 2014. And on top of that, he’s a good student who enjoys robotics and football.

Student of the Month for September

Senior Kalos Chu was selected as this school year’s first PHHS Student of the Month. He was honored during the Grantville/Allied Garden Kiwanis Club meeting last month by Principal Elizabeth Gillingham. Chu was selected for his leadership around the campus in various roles he has played both in his classes, working in clubs, and for his musical talents.

Student of the Month Kalos Chu (Photo courtesy PHHS)

“Kalos is a leader,” AP World History teacher, Kelly Crampton said. “He can lead a class discussion, a committee, an organization, a club and activities that involve the entire school. The reason Kalos is such an extraordinary leader is because he listens. He knows how to take the pulse of a group and decide on a course of action quickly. He is humble and soft-spoken, but he has the ear of everyone in the room.”

Chu’s AP English teacher, Linda Good, shared her experiences with him as the advisor to the Model UN.

“I worked with Kalos in class twice, but I also had the privilege of working with Kalos for Model United Nations,” she said. “Kalos is working as Secretary General for the San Diego County Junior Model United Nations Conference this year. He is responsible for establishing the agenda topics for each of the committees, communicating with all of the school advisors, selecting and training the chairpersons for each of the committees, and, most importantly, mentoring countless students at Henry and other schools so their student delegates will feel confident and prepared for the conference. He is widely respected throughout the MUN community.”

Taunya Robison, advisor for the Patriot Period, also praised Chu.

“Kalos has led the way with a lot of the new Henry Hoopla program,” she said. “Incredibly brilliant but very humble about his successes and more than willing to help others. A very talented young man who can play many instruments and earned all fives on all his AP tests!”

Chu is a model student and will be tough to beat as he sets the bar high for all other students of the month to follow. We are very proud to have him selected as the first student to represent PHHS finest!

Women’s varsity cross-country team takes first

On Sept. 30, Patrick Henry High School’s cross-country team sent several top athletes in the program to travel to Portland, Oregon to compete in the prestigious Nike Invitational.

(l to r) Top row: Emma Reinhardt, Samantha Manis, Caitlin Quirk, Kiana (Kiki) Josephson; Bottom row: Timber Carey, Kaiya Smith, Tiffany Pham (Photo courtesy PHHS)

There were top performances by both the boys’ and girls’ teams, including seven medalists. The girls’ varsity team proved to be tough to beat as they proudly finished in first place for the girls’ varsity team in the Division 3 race.

Congrats Patriot runners! Coaches Andrew Myette and Kelly Crampton did a great job in planning and organizing this event as well!

National Merit Scholarship commended students

PHHS is proud to announce the school had 11 students earn recognition for having exceptional academic promise demonstrated by their outstanding performance on the qualifying test used for entry into the National Merit Scholarship program.

Their high scores on the Preliminary SAT placed them among 34,000 top students in the country out of the 1.6 million students who took the assessment. Their commended status earned them a Letter of Commendation from the National Merit Scholarship and a trip to the office to celebrate their accomplishments in our new board room.

PHHS students commended for the 2018 school year (clockwise from front): Madonna Linares, Eric Walton, Johnathan Schindler, Noah Krasner, Liam Oliver, Kalos Chu and Alan Nguyen; Not pictured: Christopher Demos, John Fernandez and Ben Kelly (Photo courtesy PHHS)

Senior Kalos Chu, PHHS Student of the Month, was the only student who is still in the running for the National Merit Scholarship as he was named as a finalist, placing him in the top 16,000 of those that took the test. We are hopeful that he will do well and hopefully he will be considered for some cash prizes in the spring.

[image: field hockey.jpg; caption:]

The Girl’s Varsity Field Hockey team: Lying in front: Heather Amancio; (l to r) Front row: Jasmine Lawson, Abigail Filson, Holly Walsingham, Valerie Crisologo, Lily Mai, Alisa Zarattini, Anahi Herrera, Emily Otsuka, Dani Nowicki; Back row: Lauren Gygax, Clara Lane, Analise Elam, Elise Rappel, Jane Martinez, Makaila Williams, Captain Stephanie Smith, Captain Sammy Quasarano, Gabi Mendez, Kendall Newton, Allie Arend, Coach Dakota DeLuca

Varsity field hockey

On Oct. 7, PHHS girl’s varsity field hockey team took second place in the Highlander Cup Tournament held at Helix High School.

The girl’s varsity field hockey team: Lying in front: Heather Amancio; (l to r) Front row: Jasmine Lawson, Abigail Filson, Holly Walsingham, Valerie Crisologo, Lily Mai, Alisa Zarattini, Anahi Herrera, Emily Otsuka, Dani Nowicki; Back row: Lauren Gygax, Clara Lane, Analise Elam, Elise Rappel, Jane Martinez, Makaila Williams, Captain Stephanie Smith, Captain Sammy Quasarano, Gabi Mendez, Kendall Newton, Allie Arend, Coach Dakota DeLuca (Photo courtesy PHHS)

They beat Helix, tied Bishop’s, then beat Fountain Valley to advance to the semi-finals where they beat Newport to advance to the finals.

In the finals, they played Bishop’s and lost 2-1 in a hard-fought game. They never gave up and showed true team spirit throughout the entire tournament!

PHHS vice principal flies with Blue Angels

PHHS vice principal, Bill Miller, recently had the “beyond bucket list” experience of flying with the United States Blue Angels on Sept. 20.

Miller was one of three San Diego civilians selected to take a ride in the iconic blue and gold F/A 18 Hornet, in advance of the six-jet team’s performance at the Miramar Airshow. PHHS has a NJROTC program and last spring, the Blue Angels team visited the school to discuss a partnership that included applying for this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

Vice principal Bill Miller (right) about to take off with the Blue Angels (Photo courtesy PHHS)

Miller was under consideration for this opportunity prior to 9/11 but the program was pulled due to the unfortunate attack and was thrilled to have a chance to apply again. There were hundreds of applicants to fly with the Blue Angels, but they selected him as one of three special individuals due to his experiences at Henry and his influence with students.

Miller is a UCSD graduate, and served for the SDUSD for his entire career for over 24 years. He started at Lewis Middle School teaching biology and later transferred to PHHS as a teacher and ASB advisor. He was named a vice principal in 2012 and is recognized by every student as a great student supporter and friend to all.

Navy Lt. Brandon Hempler started Miller off with the easy stuff. They took off with an accelerated ascent of approximately 50 feet above the runway where they did a straight climb, about 5.6 Gs — traveling up to 10,000 feet in 20 to 30 seconds. Several other maneuvers were done, which included flying upside down, barrel rolls, and doing big looping turns with four jets in formation while maintaining a flight plan with each of the jets 18 inches away from each one.

Hempler suggested that they try one more maneuver — a “max G turn,” at about 7.5 Gs.

“Let’s give it a shot,” Miller said.

He remembers seeing 7.1 Gs and the next thing he recalled was Hempler asking: “Bill? You good back there?” Unfortunately, Miller fainted for two to three seconds and could not respond.

For the 45 minutes of flight time, Miller said Hempler was a perfect host pilot.

“He was concerned with making sure I was having a good time, he wasn’t over-exerting me, he was very polite and professional and wanted me to enjoy myself and come away with a positive experience,” he said. “I would do it again in a heartbeat. The purpose was to spark good in the community and talk about the honor, courage and commitment of all those who serve in the Armed Forces and to be grateful for all they have done for us. After doing this, I can take that message and work at being better at whatever I do, be it as vice principal, dad, husband or coach. It’s about wanting to do the best you can at whatever it is you do.”

On Sept. 22, the Blue Angels visited Henry and presented to a crowd of over 300 students.  Miller’s picture was highlighted and students had a chance to hear first-hand what it’s like to be a pilot for the Blue Angels and how drive and commitment through their education helped them find success to fulfill their flying dreams.

Open enrollment for SDUSD

Schools in San Diego Unified School District may enroll pupils who do not live in the neighborhood through the School Choice process. The choice application period for school year 2018-19 will be from Monday, Oct. 2 through Monday, Nov. 13, 2017.

Choice applications to any Henry Cluster school should be submitted at this time.

• Incoming TK/K sibling of current choice pupil.
• Child of any employee at our school who is interested in having their child attend any school in the Henry high school cluster.
• Currently enrolled students who have recently moved, or will be moving out of our neighborhood but would like to continue enrollment at our school.
• Currently enrolled magnet pupils who wish to articulate to the next level magnet program.
• Students originally enrolled via choice as SDUSD residents, who have moved, or are planning to move outside of the SDUSD boundaries into a different school district (Poway, La Mesa/Spring Valley, Chula Vista, etc.).
• Students whose parents are interested in transitioning from a different school into ours.

Choice applications are not necessary for resident students, or students already accepted to our school via choice who currently reside in the SDUSD boundaries.

If you know of any family that may be interested in our school, please invite them to attend a school’s tour. PHHS host tours on the first Wednesdays of every month. For more information about our schools, please view any school’s website.

The 2018-19 Enrollment Options applications may be submitted online at sandiegounified.org/apply. For personal assistance, contact or visit the Family Welcome and Enrollment Center located at our district headquarters at the Eugene Brucker Education Center, 4100 Normal St., Annex 12, San Diego, 92103.  Questions regarding the choice process may be directed to 619-260-2410. The center is open to the public Monday through Friday, 9 a.m.–4 p.m.

—Elizabeth Gillingham is principal of Patrick Henry High School.

By Elizabeth Gillingham

Volley for the Cure

In support of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, the Patrick Henry High School (PHHS) girls volleyball team participated in several activities. They began by hosting Liz Maracheau, a PHHS mom and breast cancer survivor, who spoke to the team about her journey. The girls were able to ask her questions and have an engaging discussion with her.

On Oct. 10, the team held their “Volley for the Cure” games against Coronado High, wearing pink warm-up jerseys, pink socks and pink ribbons. The back of the jerseys had “We Play For” written above the list of names of people that each girl knew who had been affected by cancer. The team dedicated the games to those individuals. All three teams, varsity, JV and freshman, won their Volley for the Cure matches. To raise funds that will be donated to the American Cancer Society, the girls sold pink bracelets and baked goods, raising almost $300 to help in the fight against cancer.

The JV girls volleyball team took second place in the JV Fall Classic Tournament held last month in Poway. After playing Torrey Pines, Rancho Bernardo and La Jolla Country Day, the girls advanced to the Silver Bracket, where they beat Ramona 32-30 in round one, and beat San Miguel in the semi-finals 25-13, before losing to Mission Vista in the finals, 28-26.

PHAME wins Orchid for architecture

PHHS is proud to report that they were selected by the San Diego Architectural Foundation (SDAF) to receive the coveted Orchid Award for outstanding building design that was reviewed by the SDAF.

Orchids & Onions is the only interactive, community-based program geared toward raising awareness and encouraging practical discourse in response to San Diego’s built environment. Nominations and feedback are given from a website. Based on the interest, a jury of design professionals was selected to determine the official Orchids and Onions based upon public submissions in categories including: architecture, interior design, landscape architecture, historic preservation and miscellaneous. The ‘Miscellaneous’ category encompasses anything and everything that the existing categories do not, including public art, environmental graphics, and sustainable design. Nominations are accepted year-round, with the nomination period closing in August.

The new performing arts building at Patrick Henry is this year’s winner of an orchid Award for outstanding design.

While giving the award, the following citation was read regarding the selection of Patrick Henry High School’s Orchid Award:

“The Patrick Henry High School Arts, Media & Entertainment Center and Production Studio (PHAME) building is a comprehensive revitalization project seeking to transform the community through collaborative use. The jury said the enthusiasm was infectious from school leadership as they explained the value of the facility for their students. What could have been a typical bare bones building has become a sense of pride that makes the students feel special and inspires creativity. The jury noted that this Orchid stands an example of the positivity that good architecture can have on education. This building was smart, the materials were simple and the colors were fresh!”

Student of the Month

Student of the Month Cody Lefler

Cody Lefler is a senior at Henry and was selected as the second PHHS Student of the Month for this school year. Lefler was honored during the Grantville/Allied Garden Kiwanis Club meeting last month by vice principal Jennifer Pacofsky.

Lefler was nominated because of his commitment to many facets of the school. He is noted for always having a smile on his face and always being willing to help any staff or student. He spends a lot of time off campus involved with our special needs population. He participates in the Down Syndrome Buddy Walk and supports Exceptional Athletes by cheering on present and past students. He excels in academics including AP classes, sports, and leadership roles on campus. Lefler also participates on the football team, soccer, tennis, Circle of Friends, Link Crew and ASB.

“Cody is one of the nicest kids that I know and he is super respectful and kind,” said one of his teachers.

“Cody is positive, works hard, doesn’t give up in the face of obstacles and brings together the students around him,” said another one of his teachers. “Cody has the perfect mix of attitude and respect. He can make you laugh and also be the one that realizes someone is having a bad day and say a kind word or just be there for his friends. His respect for himself and others makes him a wonderful human being to be around.”

‘The Ultimate’ returns to PHHS

Paul Vaden, 1986 alumni extraordinaire, visited PHHS last month to share his career path and how his dedication toward being the best in what he wanted to do played out in his life. He spoke to over 1,200 students sharing his memories from Henry and how he had envisioned himself coming back and presenting his success through boxing competitions some day.

Paul “The Ultimate” Vaden was born on Dec. 29, 1967 in San Diego, California and dreamed of becoming a world boxing champion since 4 years old. On Aug. 12, 1995, Vaden achieved his lifelong goal and to this day, Vaden remains the only native San Diegan to become a professional world boxing champion.

Boxer and Henry alumnus Paul Vaden and principal Elizabeth Gillingham

Vaden started his 23-year boxing career at the age of 8. Known then as “Kid Ultimate,” Vaden had a highly accomplished amateur career traveling the world and compiling an outstanding amateur record of 327–10. It wasn’t until he was 11 that his coach discovered he was left-handed and started teaching him how to box southpaw. In 1990, Vaden became the United States National Amateur Light-Middleweight champion. Vaden was also a bronze medal winner in the 71 kg (156 pounds) division at the 1990 Goodwill Games.

Vaden turned pro April 5, 1991, now campaigning as “The Ultimate,” and began his career with 18 consecutive wins. On March 25, 1994, he won the IBF Inter-Continental Junior Middleweight title with a 12-round unanimous decision over veteran John Montes. On Aug. 12, 1995, at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas as a decided underdog, Vaden defeated Vincent Pettway by 12th round TKO to win Pettway’s IBF 154-pound title.

In all, Vaden’s professional boxing career held a record of 29 wins, three losses, and 16 KOs. He won the 1994 IBF Inter-Continental 154-pound title, 1995 IBF Junior Middleweight World title, 1999 USBA 154-pound title, and was inducted into the California Boxing Hall of Fame in 2009. On Feb. 16, 2016, Vaden became the third boxer to ever be inducted into the Breitbard Hall of Fame. This prestigious honor can be found inside San Diego’s Petco Park Stadium.

After retiring from boxing, he began commentating for boxing telecasts on TV and served as the Global Health Advisor for Qualcomm, Inc. It was during this time he realized that he could help motivate and encourage others through his own experiences, which led to the start of his training programs, motivational seminars, and corporate wellness programs.

Vaden’s message is universal: “Answer the bell.” This message uplifts, inspires and most of all, conditions professionals in every scenario to strive for excellence in business, life and physical health.

In 2013, Vaden published his first book “Answer the Bell: Inventing Your Life as a Champion.” The book gives his readers a first-hand account of his own personal challenges as a boxer; beginning with the Jackie Robinson YMCA, and including the peak of his career at Las Vegas’ MGM Grand Hotel & Casino.

Today, Vaden is a consultant and keynote speaker for several companies throughout the nation. He is also a published author, advisor, TV commentator, mentor, coach, and motivational speaker. Currently, a documentary short film about his life, “Vaden Versus,” is touring film festivals throughout the globe.

Also dedicated to the San Diego community, Vaden serves on boards for both the San Diego Chapter for Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF) as well as the National Conflict Resolution Center (NCRC). In addition to his role on the board, he is also the celebrity spokesperson for the JDRF.

With a disarming blend of candor, honesty and hopefulness, his counsel allows people to reach new personal peaks and face life’s daily challenges head-on.

Broadcast Class is looking for alumni

As part of our celebration of the new Performing Arts & Media Center (PHAME), PHHS is conducting a series of interviews with influential people who have had an impact on our school and community. Our first guest was Paul Vaden who recently spoke to classes in the theater and was later interviewed by broadcast journalism students about his life, boxing career and his work today as a motivational speaker. His interview can be viewed at the Patrick Henry High School’s webpage under the “Broadcast Journalism” link.

Mark Abbott is PHHS’s broadcast journalism teacher and he is looking for alumni who would be willing to sit down and participate in a quick interview in our new facility.

“Your words and thoughts can have an enormous impact on high school students and the broadcast allows you to reach a large audience by sharing only a small amount of your time,” Abbott said. “Please consider this opportunity to give back to the school and community in this very rewarding and impactful way.”

Interested persons should contact Abbott at mabbott@sandi.net or 619-889-3395.

Student receives Society of Women Engineers award

Patrick Henry High School student, Maya Rozenshteyn, has been honored with the SWENext Global Innovator Award for her engagement in the Society of Women Engineers (SWE) community, her solid understanding of engineering principles, her role in serving her own community and her strong leadership skills. Maya will be honored alongside her peers at a formal ceremony at the SWE annual conference and career fair on Oct. 27 in Austin, Texas.

SWE is an international nonprofit organization that supports women in engineering. SWENext is SWE’s program for girls 18 and under to get involved in the organization, learn more about engineering and receive access to resources that support their interest in engineering. SWENext has allowed Rozenshteyn to connect with women engineers and strategize solutions to address her concerns on the lack of female participation in engineering. Rozenshteyn started the SWENext Club at Henry, the first in the region.

Maya Rozenshteyn (YouTube)

“SWENext is an opportunity for SWE to nurture our future generation of engineers, providing them with resources to help them learn more about engineering and exposing them to other women engineers who can help them along the way,” said Randy Freedman, director of student programs at SWE. “This is the second year of our SWENext Awards program, and we couldn’t be more pleased with the level of enthusiasm and commitment these girls already have to a future in engineering. Maya has been an exemplary role model in her community, and we are confident that with her passion for engineering, and her commitment to the community, Maya will do great things.”

Rozenshteyn is a junior and is interested in both mechanical engineering and computer science. She runs cross country, is a member of the California Scholarship Federation, secretary of Catalyst for Success, and president of the Architecture and Construction Engineering Club and the Engineering Student Council.

As SWENext Club President, Rozenshteyn supervises the planning of club outreach events aimed to foster middle school girls’ interest in STEM through speaker panels and interactive projects. She also connects girls in the club to local STEM professionals and teaches them the ins and outs of networking. As president of her school’s Engineering Student Council, she serves as the bridge between the school and community, working with other students, teachers, parents and engineers to improve upon local engineering events and classes, including STEM day, where fifth graders across the county congregate at her school to learn about STEM fields. Rozenshteyn is also youth outreach chair at her synagogue.

In 2016, Rozenshteyn interned at the USS Midway, redesigning the audio tour to make it more accessible for the impaired. She won third place at the highly competitive Chevron Design Challenge State Finals. In summer 2017, she was selected for the prestigious Young Scholars Internship at San Diego State University, conducting research to characterize polyurea microspheres and their impact mitigating properties.

“Hopi elders once declared that, ‘We are the ones we have been waiting for.’ We have the power to incite change in the world. I, for one, hope to be a mover and shaker in the STEM community and inspire others to be active STEM participants as well,” Rozenshteyn said.

For more information about SWENext, visit bit.ly/1Czrf5e. For more information about the Society of Women Engineers, visit swe.org.

—Elizabeth Gillingham is principal of Patrick Henry High School.

By Elizabeth

Tennis team standout

PHHS girl’s tennis team participated in Western League competition which proved to be very fierce. As a team, the PHHS varsity team was a finalist in the First Serve Tournament held in October at Valhalla High School.

Varsity tennis player Olivia Tracey (Photos courtesy PHHS)

Individually, one student who finished was a standout player — Olivia Tracey. Here are some highlights for Tracey’s year:

• Singles record 30-4 in Western League 2017.
• Finished season overall in fifth place for Western League.
• Ranked top 25 in California in USTA in girl’s 16-and-under division.
• Named PHHS girls tennis MVP 2017.
• First-team All-Western League 2016 and 2017.
• All CIF Second-team 2016.

PHHS goes international

Last month, eight Advanced Placement Spanish students traveled to Tijuana, Mexico to experience the culture and practice their Spanish while participating in a variety of activities.

Their day started with crossing the border on the Veteran’s Day holiday. Mr. Rosales, PHHS AP teacher, accompanied the students and led a tour that made the most out of a two-day trip. The students started the day in a market purchasing ingredients for a guacamole contest held in the Mercado Hidalgo. They then stopped at the Centro Cultural de Tijuana, had lunch, and then checked into their hotel where they prepared their guacamole and participated in the contest. They went to see the Disney film “Coco” at the VIP Plaza Rio, and had dinner at La Diferencia.

(l to r) Shaila Campos, Eliza Rosales, Michelle Rivera, Emma McGraw, Mathew Kulis, Lexy Snyder, Bryan Ortiz and Lilly Mai

The students started the next day by providing international community service by a visit to the international friendship garden, Jardin Binacional, in Playas, and after breakfast visited the Malecón de Playas. They ended their day with a scavenger hunt in Plaza Rio, salsa class at Alma Latina studio and dinner at Casa del Mole.

Two students who attended the field trip shared their impressions of the two-day trip.

“I had a great experience, we were able to practice our Spanish in an actual setting where it was needed to communicate with others,” Eliza Rosales said. “The activities pushed me to be more comfortable with myself and those around me. The entire group was very kind and accepting, and I am very happy that I attended.”

Lilly Mai appreciated the cultural experience.

“The two-day trip submerged me in Hispanic culture,” she said. “I ate authentic Mexican food and realized I am not a huge fan of mole. However, the tacos were really good. We went to the Cultural Center of Tijuana and we learned about the plants, artworks and environmental concerns. The house where we stayed was cute and had beautiful designs throughout. To end the first day, we went to watch ‘Coco,’ a beautiful story about how to honor family on the Day of the Dead.”

“The second day, we helped out at the Binacional garden, where families in need around the border go in order to obtain vegetables. Later, we went to a scavenger hunt and it helped us make conversations in Spanish with the workers at the mall. Before we went home, we finished with a salsa class which was my favorite thing on the trip. I thought it was embarrassing to dance in front of everybody but we were all able to have fun and laugh. I was able to leave this trip with new memories, new friends, and a better understanding of Spanish.”

Student of the Month

Student of the Month Maya Klareich (Courtesy PHHS)

Maya Klareich was nominated as the Patrick Henry High School (PHHS) Student of the Month for November because of her exceptional leadership role in Link Crew and her ability to inspire others to lead. She helps organize events, gives constructive feedback, and does anything that is asked of her with grace and integrity. Her ASB teacher described has as an “absolutely amazing student leader.”

Klareich is the Commissioner of Community Service and goes above and beyond to get our blood drives to run smoothly. She is also coordinating the Henry Food Drive to help those who need assistance during the holidays. She is also a regularly participating member of the Henry Hoopla planning team (PHHS advisory program) which strives to build school spirit on campus and at sporting events.

One of Klareich’s teachers reported that she is “motivated, helpful, mature, and just a genuinely decent and kind person.”

“Maya is sincere, trustworthy and well-liked by her peers,” her teacher continued. “She is active both on and off campus. Maya always challenges herself academically and does so without complaint and never has a bad attitude.”

‘Hamilton’ hits Henry

Thanks to generous funding from local and national donors, the producers of “Hamilton,” and the efforts of PHHS Social Studies teacher Taunya Robinson, 80 junior classmen will be seeing the hit Broadway musical, staged at the San Diego Civic Center next month, free of charge!

Robinson wrote a grant and agreed to participate in the Hamilton Education Program by implementing a three- to five-day curriculum, which culminated in the creation of a unique performance piece by each of her students. The curriculum was based on the student performance and study guides that were sent to her.

Each student was expected to create and submit an original performance piece, a maximum of two minutes in length, based on what they have learned about the Founding Era through the printed materials, the Hamilton Education Program website, and classroom instruction. The best presentation will be aired during the student “meet the cast” question-and-answer portion prior to watching a recording of the live Broadway performance.

Robinson combined three classes into two performances at Henry. Every student helped create and write a unique performance which included raps, poems, biographies, memoirs, original songs, and speeches which were all shared as students presented their projects on stage in the PHAME building.

By Elizabeth Gillingham

Admission process begins for incoming freshmen

Incoming freshmen forming the class of 2022 are beginning the articulation process to Patrick Henry High School (PHHS). Students attending Lewis or Pershing — no matter what neighborhood they live in — will automatically matriculate to Henry High School. 

Parents and students are invited to attend an information presentation called the Henry Showcase on Feb. 8 at Henry High School in the PHAME building at 6 p.m. This Middle School Articulation Night is designed to help parents understand the high school graduation process and the classes they will need to graduate from Henry. Various pathways and programs will also be shared. This is also a good time to meet Principal Listy Gillingham and Henry counselors. Students from any school (private or public) are welcome as we love sharing why Henry is an outstanding school to send your students!

On March 22, incoming eighth graders will be invited to Patriot Day, which includes tours by Henry Link Crew members and an ASB-led Welcome Rally featuring many performing groups and students sharing vital information about becoming a student at PHHS. Students who attend local public and private middle schools are welcome to join us and more information will be posted on our website.

New Student Enrollment will begin after spring break — the first week in April. Students from outside the districts or schools — attending charter, private, or from out of state — please call our main office to set up a registration appointment. The sooner students register the better for elective options and availability of special pathway classes. For parents and students who are unsure, please feel free to join us on the first Wednesday of every month at 10:45 a.m. in the main office for a student-led tour of PHHS.

AP Computer Science class rocks!

Mr. Roger Jaffe held an Othello tournament in his AP Computer Science class just before winter break. Othello (also know as Reversi) is a board game where players try to accumulate as many squares on the game board as possible. Students were provided a programming framework and were tasked with writing Java code that would determine the best next move given the current board configuration. They were encouraged to research and implement existing next-move algorithms or develop an algorithm of their own.

Students chose teams of two or three and worked on development, testing and debugging for three weeks until the big day. The double-elimination format insured that each team played at least two matches.

Hoots and hollers filled the room as game play proceeded over two days. Since Othello is a game where dramatic lead changes take place from turn to turn, there was no way to know who the winner was going to be until the game was over.

Congratulations to winners Garett Davis and Maya Rozensteyn and to runners-up Tyler Markowitz, Hailey Renard, and Sam Ziegler.

For more information about the PHHS Engineering Academy and the Computer Science Pathway, go to patrickhenryeda.org.

(l to r) Tyler Markowitz, Hailey Renard and Sam Ziegler (Photo courtesy PHHS)

Children’s Christmas Party

On Dec. 9, 2017 the Lake Murray Kiwanis held their annual Children’s Christmas party at PHHS. Students in Cheer, ASB, and Key Club were on hand volunteering with the Kiwanis members to help serve breakfast to 170 underserved elementary children.

Children from around the community participated in face-painting activities and were entertained by Henry students while the children waited to visit Santa Claus and pick out a present. PHHS students also supervised the children as they met the captain of the school district police force, several of his officers along with their police cars and equipment, and the same thing with the firefighters from the local fire station and their fire engine.

Community volunteer Jay Wilson, who helped serve the breakfast, commented on the great job the students did and complimented them for representing PHHS very well. Cheer advisor Terri Clark was on hand and assisted with the program.

(clockwise from bottom left) Sydel Fernandes, Aliya Lathan, Aubrey McClinton, Avalon Kuczkowski, Haily Renard, Megan Geilenfeldt, Bailey Hinesley, Nicole Donahue-Marucheau, Hailey Rivas, Courtney Watson, Devanee Jenkins, Alyssa Lozano, Brooke Elsworth, Ruben White, and Hannah Ravitch (Photo courtesy PHHS)

Amazon partners with high school basketball programs 

Special thanks to Amazon who is partnering with the PHHS basketball and athletics program by donating $1,000 and sponsoring the team with magnets to promote the men’s and women’s schedule for 2018. We are also partnering with the getwhatgetsyou.com program, which puts our school in the running to win an additional $10,000 for our program. Principal Listy Gillingham and Athletic Director Cody Clark were on hand to receive the check prior to varsity game. Thank you, Amazon!

Principal Gillingham (center) and Athletic Director Cody Clark (right) accept a check from Amazon. (Photo courtesy PHHS)

Golf tournament a huge success

Thank you to all our great sponsors, donors, volunteers and attendees for making Monday, Nov. 6, 2017 a special Patriot Day! Through your support, we’re pleased to announce that our Alumni Golf Tournament netted $53,000 for special capital projects and other items unfunded by the school district. This means that in just six years, your Patrick Henry High School Alumni Association, Inc. (PHHSAA) has raised in excess of $286,000 while holding six fun events for alumni, current and former faculty members, parents of students, and other friends of the school.

Your alumni association has also been the recipient of a $200,000 donation of furniture for the school’s main office, $90,000 of donations earmarked for the new PHAME building, an anonymous $25,000 grant used to help purchase 38 new computers for the school’s Computer Lab, along with two separate $10,000 pledges received this week from alumni.

All in all, with your assistance, we have raised and are in the process of donating in excess of $600,000 in goods and support for the school and its student body during the brief six-year history since the Alumni Association’s founding. Not bad for a dream born out of a luncheon reuniting Class of 1978 and 1979 football and baseball players to thank several of their coaches back in the summer of 2011!

Save the date

The seventh PHHS Alumni Golf Tournament & Reunion BBQ is tentatively set for Thursday, May 16, 2018 at Admiral Baker Golf Course with a 12:30 p.m. shotgun start and 5:30 p.m. start for the reunion BBQ.

In the meantime, please help us extend our reach by telling the alumni you know and meet about our event by asking them to send their names (maiden and current) and the year they graduated along with their email address to kcarlson@missionjanitorial.com or on the link at PatriotAlumni.org.

For more information on our next event and pictures from this and the prior year’s event go to PatriotAlumni.org.

—Elizabeth Gillingham is principal of Patrick Henry High School.

Presidential Scholar candidate finalist

Two dozen students have been named as semifinalist in the United States Presidential Scholars program and senior Kalos Chu is proudly representing PHHS.

Kalos Chu (Photos courtesy PHHS)

This program was established in 1964 by executive order of the president and recognizes some of the nation’s top graduating high school seniors. In 1979, the program was extended to recognize distinguished students in the arts, and in 2015, to recognize outstanding students in career and technical education.

Each year, 161 students will make the final cut and receive and all-expenses-paid trip to Washington D.C. in June where they will meet educators and government officials.

College and Career Fair

Last month, PHHS counseling staff sponsored a College and Career Fair for students to walk through and talk to various representatives about secondary options available in the Henry Cafetorium. Students received information regarding different universities, community colleges and vocational programs available for them to consider and apply. Counselors were available to help them match their college and career goals to their current schedules as well.

(Courtesy PHHS)

Student of the Month

Stephanie Smith is a senior at Henry and was selected as the PHHS Student of the Month for March. She was honored during the Grantville/Allied Garden Kiwanis Club meeting last month by Vice Principal Bill Miller.

Stephanie Smith

Smith was nominated because of her commitment to school, athletics, and clubs on campus. She is noted for always having a smile on her face and always being willing to help any staff or student.

One teacher stated in her recommendation, “Stephanie is one of those students who walks in to class excited to learn, even with what others would think could be a ‘boring’ subject. She always has a smile on her face and is very genuine. She will stick around after class to learn more and ask for help. She advocates for herself which is really important and she works hard. In class discussions, she isn’t afraid to ask questions, even if she already gets it, because she is aware that her classmates around her are still confused and wants them to feel successful. And it’s really cool when I get to hear from her English teacher that Stephanie was tying in her psychology class information into their class discussions. Exactly what every teacher wants to hear.”

Another teacher reported, “Stephanie is such an awesome student because she always has a smile and encouraging words for everyone, teachers, students, anyone. Stephanie always puts a positive spin on everything. She is also a student athlete who completes her work on time, [is] field hockey captain and president of the art history club. She is currently working with her community center to create a tutoring program for elementary students to college level students.”

Smith is an amazing student, and can teach us all about how to go above and beyond in preparation because of her commitment to school!

Patriot Day at Henry

On March 22, PHHS celebrated Patriot Day by inviting local eighth graders to a pep rally and school orientation. Eighth graders and their teachers arrived from Lewis and Pershing middle schools to briefly tour the Patrick Henry campus and experience the school’s extracurricular programs in action through a student-sponsored really. Students from other schools were also invited to attend.

The students began the day with a welcome from our Link Crew and the PHHS Cheer Squad. ASB President Vina Duprat and ASB President-elect Chris Stagner welcomed the students and helped introduce the Bel Canto choir who sang the national anthem. Principal Listy Gillingham was onboard to welcome the new students and introduce them to the Patriot team of vice principals Bill Miller and Jennifer Pacofsky.

(l to r) Lewis Principal Brad Callahan, Henry Principal Listy Gillingham, and Pershing Principal Susan Levy

The Dance team, Cheerleaders, Drum Line, and NJROTC drill team all gave a brief performance to invite the new students to consider trying out for their teams next year. ASB members and student athletes Summer Merrill and Ally Arkin talked about sports at Henry and shared their experiences about joining clubs for their freshmen year. The Improv team did a fun skit and the Link Crew members did a few activities to demonstrate school spirit.

The class of 2022 had a chance to demonstrate their spirit and come together for the first time at Patrick Henry High School to feel the welcoming spirit of the campus!

President’s Volunteer Service Award

Congratulations to Patrick Henry High School (PHHS) senior, Sophia Pruden, for qualifying to receive President Trump’s Volunteer Service Award for her outstanding work with the Leukemia Association. This award recognizes Americans of all ages who have volunteered a significant amount of their time to serve their communities and country and is granted through the Prudential Spirit of Community Awards program. PHHS nominated Pruden for national honors this fall in recognition of her volunteer service.

Sophia Pruden (Photos courtesy PHHS)

“The recipients of these awards demonstrate that young people across America are making remarkable contribution of the health and vitality of their communities,” said John Strangfeld, chairman and CEO of Prudential Financial. “By recognizing these students and placing a spotlight on their volunteer activities, we hope to motivate others to consider how they can also contribute to their community.”

March for Our Lives rally

PHHS students have been seen speaking out in regards to recent events that have been happening across the country regarding school shootings and safety. Hear Our Voice is a PHHS club that encourages students to share their opinions by standing up to others to help make changes on campus, in the community, and across the country.

On March 24, club president Maya Dixon, and club members Brian Huynh and Darartu Mulugeta performed a spoken-word poem at the March for Our Lives rally to a crowd of close to 10,000 protestors in Downtown San Diego.

(l to r) Brian Huynh, Darartu Mulugeta and Maya Dixon

“I am proud to have stood with such passionate and determined young people,” Dixon said. “The march gave me hope in the future of this country because we young people refuse to allow it to be destroyed by violence and hate.”

The club advisor, Mr. Patrick Schoettler, was proud to see them take their message on the road and make an impact in a city-wide rally.

“Regardless of how you feel about the debate over gun control, it has been inspiring to see these brave young people from around the country get engaged in politics and stand up for something they believe in,” Schoettler stated. “The spoken-word poem performed by PHHS students Maya, Brian, and Darartu at the march was so eloquent, and passionate that as their teacher, I was humbled and proud to simply be in the audience watching these future leaders find their voice.”

— Elizabeth Gillingham is principal of Patrick Henry High School.

Henry Cluster STEMM Foundation news

By Jay Wilson

Opportunities to establish partnerships between SDSU and the schools in the Henry Cluster continue to evolve.

On March 17, I attended the (STEM) 2 Exploration Day. Virtually SDSU each department held an open house and every campus organization staffed a booth to promote their organization and I made several good contacts, including:

Women In Science Club and their faculty advisor, Dr. Veronica Casas, who is a member of the biology department faculty.

The teaching STEMM student organization.

SDSU Math Club which is interested to include the HC STEMM schools as part of their community outreach effort.

The Engineering Department’s Racing program conducted by Dan Jennings. The students build a student-driven racing car and annually participate in a race against other cars built by college students from throughout the United States. We look forward to arranging for engineering students from Lewis and Pershing middle schools to take a tour of the racing development workshop.

On April 6, board members Karen Miller and Dr. Andrea Miyamoto were invited to observe the (STEM)2 Exploration Day at SDSU. The day was hosted by Dr. Cynthia Park of the San Diego State University Pre-College Institute. Three-hundred ninth- and 10th-grade students from 12 high schools were given the opportunity to hear guest speakers, visit campus research labs, and interact with SDSU students in hands-on learning activities and panel discussions.

“It was interesting and inspiring to see so many students and professors committed to STEM education and STEM careers,” Miller said.

Part of the follow-up will include meeting with Dr. Park to discuss the opportunities of developing and implementing more partnerships with SDSU.

“I look forward to meeting with you after [(STEM)2 Exploration Day] to explore ways that the SDSU Pre-College Institute, which I direct, can engage more fully with the Patrick Henry cluster,” Park said. “I am also a faculty member of SDSU’s Center for Research in Math & Science Education.”

We will also be meeting with Mrs. Nadia Rohlinger, the coordinator of the Pathways Office for Careers in Math & Science Education.

Visit the HC STEMM Foundation website at hcstemm.org for more information about our nonprofit foundation, our activities and to donate.

— Jay Wilson is a board member of Henry Cluster STEMM Foundation.

By Adria Van Loan-Polselli and Harold Mumford

The Patribots — Patrick Henry High School’s competitive robotics team — returned home from Las Vegas on Sunday, March 26, tired and inspired from three rigorous days of robotics competition. Their return marked the end of a season of firsts for the team — a season that was almost derailed far too early.

The team competed in the 2018 For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST) Robotics POWER UP Championships as defending regional champions. The team worked hard in 2018 with hopes of capturing a return bid to the Houston World Championships, one of high school robotics’ most competitive technological challenges.

The Patribots team with their robot “The Milkman” (Courtesy Patrick Henry High School)

On Feb. 20, the Patribots completed their robot they named “The Milkman.” Teams were given only six intense weeks to design, build, program, and test a robot to compete in the game.

“We named it The Milkman,” said team vice president Harrison Lange, “because it delivers milk crates. It takes dedication, organization, and commitment to complete a robot.”

The Patribots battled March 8–10 at the Del Mar Fairgrounds Stadium to defend their title. Their best efforts and preparation, however, were thwarted on the second day, when a collision with an opposing robot shattered the radio on the robot, plaguing the team’s communication system for the remainder of the competition. The accident broke more than a radio, it shattered the team’s hopes of making it into the finals as they fell in the rankings from 18th to 55th out of the 66-team field. A broken robot could be fixed, and so, too, could the team’s broken hopes. The team knew that “The Milkman” was better than its 55th place finish.

The loss challenged the team to work together to find a way to compete in a second regional. Student members, on their own, contacted FIRST Regional Directors throughout the United States to secure an invitation. They were invited to compete in Las Vegas.

On March 21, the Patribots traveled to Las Vegas. Due to the short, two-week turn around and conflicting commitments, only a mentor, a parent, and five students traveled to Las Vegas with the robot. A second mentor and student arrived the first day of practice.

Many San Diego teams were in Las Vegas, including the 2018 San Diego Regional Chairman’s Award-winning team, The W.A.R. Lords, from Francis Parker High School and the Super NURDs from San Pasqual High School in Escondido.

After starting the day 0-5, the Patribots won their first match to begin a nine-win streak. In its seventh match of the day, the Patribots stacked up a score of 516, just five points less than the tournament high score of 521.

Their final qualification match of the day would test the team’s skills. They had a face off with the undefeated, and No. 1-ranked, W.A.R. Lords. Allied with the 26th- and 29th-ranked teams, the 35th-ranked Patribots turned to playing defense against the efficient scoring of the W.A.R. Lords. When the buzzer sounded, the Patribots extended their winning streak to three, handing the No. 1 seed its first loss of the tournament 252 to 91. The Patribots piled up points to win their final four qualification matches. At the end of the qualification rounds, the Patribots ranked 11th out of the 44-team field.

A season goal was within the team’s reach: becoming an alliance captain. The previous year, the team was the second team picked in alliance selections. This year, the team ended up as the 8th-seeded alliance captain. This would mean a showdown with the No. 1-seeded alliance.

In the quarterfinals, the underdog Patribots allied with 19th-ranked Team Element from Van Nuys and 34th-ranked MindCraft from Fresno, California. It would be a long shot for the alliance to unseat Francis Parker and its alliance of the 2nd-ranked Super NURDs from Escondido and the 15th-ranked Gravediggers from Sandy Utah. The Patribot alliance should have been buried.

Instead, they outstacked their opponents in the first quarterfinal match to pull off an exciting victory 337-310, capped by a Patribot climb worth 30 points, sending a message that the team was not going away without a fight. In this best two-out-of-three match, the Patribots proved they were not afraid of “war” or “the grave.”

In the second quarterfinal match, the alliances traded control of the scale until the Patribots piled three consecutive milk crates to control the game, after the Super NURDs robot fell to the carpet. Defeating the No. 1 alliance by a score of 397-351, the Patribots advanced to the semifinals as the comeback and Cinderella story of the tournament.

The Patribots lost in the semifinals to the No. 4 alliance. But, they proved to themselves that they are ready to compete as a top team in FRC and work to inspire youth in the community.

In addition to qualifying for the Las Vegas finals, the Patribots were acknowledged for their computer programming. Sami Rida and the marketing team created an 8-bit computer game based on the FIRST POWER UP theme that was awarded the Best Computer Programming by CRiSP Softwares.

Student builders, electricians, and programmers completed the Patribots’ 150-pound “Milkman” with time to test and drive this season. The team built a practice clone to prepare for the competition and to train drivers.

“If we work together, communicate, and practice,” said team president Anna Linberg, “we should do well in competition.”

Communication was this year’s team goal for the Patribots. FIRST encourages teams to grow as young professionals with each design challenge.

This year, the team was dedicated to learning by design, led by design lead Jacob Lerner. The team did math as they designed, prototyped, and modified the robot. The team’s 37 student members and nine adult mentors worked to make this a successful season by turning schematic drawings into working parts. In addition to a robot, the team built a new pit and storage system that was revealed at the 2018 competition.

A constant hum of drills, saws, grinders, and mills fill the new Engineering Workshop. The team is really excited about the growth of the Engineering Program at PHHS. New engineering labs and a workshop have made the team more productive as evidenced by students working the machines with skill and precision. The bright lights in the workshop that burn past 9 p.m. each evening during build season symbolize the bright future at Patrick Henry Engineering. There is a growing emphasis on Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education throughout the Patrick Henry Cluster, and future students will enjoy the bright new facilities.

It takes a community to build a robot. The team is proud to represent Qualcomm, TSI, Northrop Grumman, The National Defense Education Program, All Star Glass, Strategy Builders, General Atomics, the PHHS Engineering Program, PHHS Foundation, and Natural Networks. The marketing team helps the Patribots get the word out about STEM. Sponsor decals enhance the physical appearance of the robot, the robot pits, and the team swag, which include buttons, wristbands, T-shirts and more. The work of the marketing teams creates an exciting, sporting atmosphere in the team pits that rivals NASCAR.

The Patribots are always looking for additional community support; if you are interested in being a mentor or a sponsor, please contact Adria Van Loan-Polselli at avanloan@sandi.net.

— Harlod Mumford is Patribots coach and Adria Van Loan-Polselli is an engineering teacher at Patrick Henry High School.

PHHS wins first place

Congratulations to Patrick Henry High School (PHHS), who was named the first-place winner in the high school category of the 2017-18 EDCO Recycling Challenge. PHHS waste reduction and increased recycling resulted in a 28.56 percent waste diversion rate, garnering Henry the top district honor and a $1,250 prize award.

The goal of the Recycling Challenge is to reduce waste and increase recycling in our schools to facilitate compliance with state law requiring school districts to divert 75 percent of our waste from landfill disposal by 2020. Winners were determined based on overall waste diversion, bin fullness and weight surveys, and level of recycling education and outreach programs implemented on campus through March 31, 2018. Result were also based per capita student enrollment.

On April 24, Principal Listy Gillingham, plant operations supervisor Cathy Murphy, and teacher Lara Dickens attended the board meeting to accept the award. JROTC Community Service Club student leader Kalani Piotrowski formally was invited to accept the award on behalf of the students of PHHS. She encourages cadets to help on and off campus with litter removal and recycling events. They collect commingled recycling bins from classrooms and take them to the recycling dumpsters. They also do campus litter patrols every Thursday after school.

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Students earn first place in an Engineering Design Challenge!

Patrick Henry students Kasey Bitter, Olivia Van Houten and Alonzo Robles took home first place at the 2018 Regional Chevron Engineering Design Challenge. The students competed against 15 teams from all across San Diego County in an all-day event earlier this month.

(l to r) Kasey Bitter, Olivia Van Houten and Alonzo Robles took home first prize at the 2018 Regional Chevron Engineering Design Challenge and will be advancing to the finals in May. (Photos courtesy PHHS)

The competition assesses student skills across multiple skill areas. Students are given a design brief and, over the course of the day, build and submit sketches and software models of their solution. At the end of the day, teams present a product proposal to a team of industry judges and are scored on their originality, professionalism and persuasiveness.

Patrick Henry’s team of ninth-grade students beat out the competition (most of whose teams were comprised of much older students) and will be advancing to the state finals in May.

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PHHS Student of the Month

Student of the Month Jesse Stewart

Jesse Stewart was named PHHS Student of the Month for April. Stewart was honored at the Allied Gardens Kiwanis breakfast and received much praise from her principal, Listy Gillingham, who was on hand to give this special award.

“Jesse is a mature, dependable, and dedicated Link Crew Leader (for the last two years),” stated Michael Pinto in his nomination of Stewart. “Traditionally, we see the excitement for Link Crew dwindle once students move on to their senior year. Not Jesse. She always volunteers to go above and beyond her required hours for tutoring, special events, Patriot Day, and Henry Hoopla planning. She always greets teachers and students with her warm smile and personality to match. Her dedication and creative ideas helped make Henry Hoopla Period a huge success and her continued innovations made it evolve throughout the year to make it more organized and effective. She is a model student and a model Link Crew Leader and a pleasure to work with in all aspects.”

Lara Dickens in her recommendation for scholarship noted Stewart for her volunteerism with the Environmental Club.

“Jesse has volunteered as a member of the Environmental Club since her sophomore year and is currently a dedicated volunteer in the Aquaponics Club,” she stated. “She is passionate about service-learning and looks at volunteering as an opportunity to gain experience and network with other students.

“She is willing to work hard and sweat. She has done everything from campus litter patrols, to moving our school thrift store across campus, to assisting the Rolando Street Fair with their zero-waste goals. The Rolando Street Fair asked our club to assist fair patrons with disposing of their waste. We helped make sure recycling stayed free of trash and vice versa. Most students opted to correct mistakes without the fair-goers knowledge.

“Ms. Stewart found this a teachable moment. She was polite and helpful and concerned by the number of people unaware of the proper way of disposing of their trash. She took photos and gave a presentation in class about waste disposal habits and practices.

“I know that I can count on Ms. Stewart to get things done. When we retrofitted the aquaponics system with a larger tank, she jumped at the opportunity to redraw and measure the system. Her notes are extremely detailed and will help next year’s club members tremendously.”

Congratulations, Jesse!

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Track team excels

Congratulations to Patrick Henry Track and Field. The boys team won the Eastern League title for the third year in a row and kept their undefeated streak going at three years!

The girls team captured their first Eastern League title since 1983 with a three-way tie reporting one loss for the season.

Congratulations to senior Jacob Austin for breaking the school record in the shot put event (throwing 48 ft. 1 in.) and who was undefeated in both the shot put and discus for the season.

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PHHS Aquaponics Club news

The PHHS Aquaponics Club was invited to return to the TEDx Kids @ El Cajon event on Saturday, April 21 for the third year in a row. Their goal is to raise awareness of the benefits of aquaponics and other sustainable agricultural practices.

(l to r) Sydney Cummings, Clara Lane, Beni Burkett, Felix Rosell, Shawn Lee, Grace Tarantino, Kaiwen Tsou. (Not pictured: Ryan Quasarano, Hunter Gavin, Jesse Stewart, and Luc Galif) (Courtesy PHHS)

The event itself showcased students and programs that support STEM activities. Students in the club worked on a 10-gallon model of the 300-gallon system they manage at school and gave presentations to event-goers non-stop from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Schools and programs looking for support with starting an aquaponics system at their school should contact Ecolife Conservation.

— Elizabeth Gillingham is principal of Patrick Henry High School.

By Elizabeth Gillingham | Patrick Henry High School News

Swim and Dive Team making waves

PHHS Swim Team had a great season under the leadership of Coach Charlie Equals and Coach Hector Sanchez. This dynamic duo helped produce great team and individual results taking a few all the way to the State CIF competition!

Boys swim results: Carlson Temple placed third in the 200 IM, and fourth in the 100 Breast. Kevin Harry placed 15th in the 100 Fly. Khang Nguyen placed 15th in the 50 Free. Sean Quirk placed 16th in the 100 Back.

Patrick Henry’s dive team made a splash this season. (Photo courtesy PHHS)

Boys’ relays: 200 medley placed fifth, 200 Free placed seventh and 400 Free placed 12th. (Austin Wenzel, Adam Monroe, Trevor Arellanez, Ian Balcazar, Khang Nguyen, Carlson Temple, Kevin Harry, and Sean Quirk made up the different relays.) Overall, the boys team took sixth place out of 18 teams.

Girls swim results: Ashley Wenzel placed 12th in the 100 Fly. Sarah Harry placed sixth in the 100 Free and 16th in the 50 Free. Girls’ relays: 200 Free placed ninth, 200 medley placed 11th, and 400 Free placed 11th. (Nicole Donahue-Marucheau, Sarah Harry, Shelby Fortune, Ashley Wenzel, Caitlin Quirk, and Ella D’Orio made up the different relays.) Overall, the girls team took 11th place out of 18 teams.

Dive results: Jack Macceca took first place and broke the league record for the second year in a row! Sophia Lewko placed fifth. Madeleine Macceca placed 11th. Emma Yanagihara placed 13th.

Diving: Jack Macceca came in first for diving and will compete at the state championships in Clovis. Madeleine Macceca placed 16th (out of 30). Sophia Lewko placed 19th. Emma Yanagihara placed 28th.
Swimming: Carson Temple placed first in the 200 IM medley and second in the 100 Breast — he lost by only 0.03 seconds. He qualified for state competition, but decided not to compete. Grace Lockwood qualified for state in her 100 and 50 Free and will be attending as a para-swimmer! Sarah Harry placed 13th in her 100 Breast, and 15th in her 100 Free. Girls 200 IM medley placed 16th (Caitlin Quirk, Sarah Harry, Ashley Wenzel and Ella D’Orio). Boys 200 IM medley placed 16th (Sean Quirk, Khang Nguyen, Kevin Harry, and Carlson Temple).

Boys 200 Free Relay placed 11th (Kevin Harry, Khang Nguyen, Ian Balcazar, and Carlson Temple).

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NJROTC student pushes Henry to win EDCO Challenge

Every award has a few behind-the-scenes key players that make things happen. Kalani Piotrowski is that person at Henry as she has been working all year to motivate our NJROTC members to volunteer every Thursday after school to help dispose of the classroom commingled recycling. They were focusing on litter for a while, but classroom recycling is back because of her efforts!

Kalani Piotrowski (Courtesy PHHS)

Piotrowski also arranged for JROTC members to work the Rolando Street Fair and the Creek to Bay Clean Up. She has strong leadership skills and a positive attitude. Her team of volunteers varies from week to week. She has to explain the routine every time. Adults can talk the talk, but it is students like her that are making other students on campus change their behaviors for the better.

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PHHS recognition is growing

Patrick Henry High School (PHHS) has two prestigious accolades to share with you which should boost your love and appreciation for what we’re doing for your students. U.S. News continues to show us as a top school in California (No. 175) and nationally (No. 997), earning us the Silver Medal once again! They are impressed with the number of students taking APs (55 percent), our passage rate at 77 percent for APs, and our math and reading proficiency scores. Add the list of fancy college acceptance for our seniors (i.e. Harvard, Stanford, Yale, UCLA, Berkley, UCSD, SDSU, etc.), you can see how these results play out in a competitive world.

We also received recognition for being named an Honor Roll School for 2017–2018 by the Educational Results Partnership (ERP) for our high achievement and student success. The Honor Roll program, sponsored by the Campaign for Business and Education Excellence (CBEE), is part of a national effort to identify higher-performing schools and districts that are improving student outcomes. PHHS is one of 1,798 public schools in California to be recognized. The 2017–2018 ERP Honor Roll utilizes public school student achievement data to identify successful schools and districts. Our school stands above others in the state because of our demonstrated ability to get students to grade level achievement and beyond. Schools that receive the ERP Honor Roll distinction have demonstrated consistent high levels of student academic achievement, improvement in achievement levels over time, and a reduction in achievement gaps among student populations.

Here a few important facts about the ERP Honor Roll:

• It’s the only award given in collaboration with business leaders.
• It includes graduation and dropout rate data.
• It establishes a higher bar of performance than any other award.
• It is conducted by Educational Results Partnership, a nonprofit organization that maintains the nation’s largest database on student achievement.

We did not apply for this award — our results led them to us. Because of our accomplishment, we will be featured on the ERP Honor Roll website and a banner has been designed for us to hang proudly at our school.

We are thankful for the hard work of our students and teachers here at Henry High School. This recognition is a testament to the sustained focus on academic results and commitment to student success that our school and parent community have shown over the years. Go Patriots!

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Chevron Design Challenge Team wins

Last month, PHHS freshmen Engineer Academy students were invited to the state competition after winning at the local level. PHHS’s team competed against the top 17 teams in the state and won third place. They each received a $200 Amazon gift card and the school got a large crystal trophy (in the shape of a red TSA flag). Congratulations to Kasey Bitter, Olivia Van Houten and Alonzo Robles for representing Henry proudly!

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Student of the Month

Student of the Month Clinton Allen (Courtesy PHHS)

Clinton Allen was chosen as our Kiwanis student of the month, not just because of his amazing grades, humor, and athletic abilities but because he always has a positive attitude and outlook on things. He looks at the positive in everyone first; the type of student who sees the glass half full. His smile lights up the room. His willingness to help others and welcoming attitude shines. He does not always pull attention to himself, but has a good presence in the classroom. He is a well-rounded and grounded student.

Allen has been the assistant captain of the Roller Hockey Team for the past two years, he was second in CIF at the state level for surfing, played on the boy’s lacrosse team, and is an amazing Improv Team member (he recently competed at the National Comedy Theatre Improv Festival). He is also our 2017-2018 male scholar-athlete of the year.

Allen is a great leader in Link Crew because of his great energy and wonderful attitude. He helps other students become great leaders and supports students who are struggling. His teachers all believe that he is deserving of this recognition and that he is an all-around amazing student and person to be around.

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Save a Life Foundation screens students

The board of directors of the Eric Paredes Save a Life Foundation thanked Patrick Henry High School for hosting the cardiac screening event last month. Together, more than 100 volunteers screened 566 teens, finding two at risk for sudden cardiac arrest/death and five with previously undiagnosed heart abnormalities. It truly was a lifesaving day.

Next up, they will be in the South Bay on Sunday, Aug. 26, at Mar Vista High School, but that location may be changing. Details can be found on our website, epsavealife.org/register. Anyone between the ages of 13-25 can be screened for free. This is a great opportunity to ensure your student can safely participate in sports throughout their high school career and beyond.

Screen Your Teen future dates:

• Aug. 26 — South Bay
• Sept. 30 — Mission Hills High School (North County)
• Nov. 4 — Valhalla High School (East County)
• Feb. 24 — Coronado High School

— Elizabeth Gillingham is principal of Patrick Henry High School.

By Elizabeth Gillingham | Patrick Henry High School News

District honors PHHS top 1 percent for Class of 2018

Patrick Henry High School (PHHS) honored the top 1 percent of the senior class at Sea World last month in the San Diego Unified School District’s annual Salute to Excellence event. Every high school in the district was represented and students were honored by their principals through a special recognition program. PHHS was proud to name the following students as the Senior Class Top 5 for their outstanding GPAs:

(l to r) Ryan Nguyen, Phoebe Nguyen, Jonathon Schindler (salutatorian), Ben Kelly (valedictorian), and Luc Galaif

• No. 1: Ben Kelly, 4.86 GPA, going to Yale University
• No. 2: Jonathon Schindler, 4.83 GPA, going to UCLA
• No. 3: Luc Galaif, 4.77 GPA, going to UCLA
• No. 4: Phoebe Nguyen, 4.73 GPA, going to UCLA
• No. 5: Ryan Nguyen, 4.71 GPA, going to UCSD

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Henry NJROTC takes the Stillwell Award

Congratulation to Patrick Henry High School’s (PHHS) Naval Junior Reserves Officer Training Corps (NJROTC) program for winning the highest award offered during the 72nd Joint Brigade Pass in Review program last month held at Lincoln High School.

Each year, the district provides opportunities for units to compete for individual and team activities and awards. Points are calibrated and the unit with the highest overall team score takes the Stillwell Award home with them as the first-place team. This competition is always fierce and includes reviewing scores from academic contests, drill team competitions, and other athletic challenges.

PHHS came in first, second, and third in almost every event, which gave them the edge over schools like Scripps Ranch, Serra, and Point Loma. We are proud of the work done and would like to recognize our teachers Ron Flaherty (commanding officer), Michael Maley, and Tony Velarde for their outstanding leadership throughout the year.

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Triple E Awards

Bea Evenson, a local philanthropist, generously donated funds to Patrick Henry High School (PHHS) to award students who have exhibited the “three E’s” — Excellence, Ethics and Enterprise — in community service. Awards have been given in the past for many activities, including participation and achievements in various community organizations and all manners of volunteer work at hospitals, parks, libraries, charitable events, churches, synagogues, homeless shelters, humane societies, and other contributions to the community. This has been a very special tradition at PHHS for over 35 years and we are proud to give the Triple E award to four special students this year.

(l to r) Victoria Tolley, Martha Montoya, Jonathan Marshall, and Brian Kessler (Photos courtesy PHHS)

Here is a quick description of each award winner this year:

Victoria Tolley: Toria earned her Gold Service Award from her Girl Scouts troop by finding a sustainable way to provide support for Haven House, the preschool for homeless children at the San Diego Rescue Mission. Toria was inspired to volunteer at Rady Children’s Hospital because she experienced first-hand the comfort and support provided to her and her family when her sister had to have surgery. As a result, she volunteered to help with the Radiothon where she answered the phones and took donations. She also volunteered at the hospital’s Miracle Makers event, where donors brought a new toy and in return they gained admission to play games and participate in fun activities.

Martha Montoya: Over the last three years, Martha dedicated over 100 hours of community service to support Reality Changers’ mission to become agents of change in her community. The staff at Reality Changers reported that they were always able to rely on Martha for projects in the office as they knew she could get the job done quickly and efficiently. She was quick to volunteer for every service project opportunity and represented the team in a positive manner making a meaningful contribution to the work she was doing.

Jonathan Marshall: Jonathon spends his volunteer hours at Kaiser Hospital and St. Therese Parish, making a significant contribution in two wonderful organizations. At Kaiser, Jonathan can be found greeting patients, their families and other hospital visitors by directing them to their destination, offering wheelchair assistance when needed and helping people feel more comfortable in the hospital environment. At his church, Jonathan is one of the core team members for the Middle School Youth Group as he helps lead and facilitate their weekly meetings as well. He also sings during Sunday masses.

Brian Kessler: Brian likes to volunteer at the Nazareth Retirement Home where he plays the piano for the residents once a week. Brian also works with his mom in support of the Thousand Smiles Foundation where they travel to Ensenada, Mexico to help with free dental checkups and oral surgeries. Brian helps by setting up the surgical instruments and works as a hospital runner as well. Brian also volunteers at Rady’s Hospital, where he works at the information desk and by locating resources, answering questions, and escorting patients and visitors to their destinations.

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Meet Henry’s new Men’s Basketball Varsity coach

Coach Kenny Caesar

Patrick Henry High School Athletics’ department is happy to introduce Coach Kenny Caesar as our new Men’s Basketball Varsity Coach. As affirmation of the growth of the men’s basketball program, the search included 18 highly qualified applicants. Coach Caesar returns to his alma mater following a highly successful nine years as head coach at Mater Dei Catholic High School, where he posted a record of 175-91, winning 20 or more games five times.

Coach Caesar is eager to get started and stated, “I am extremely excited to come home to my alma mater. I have been a head basketball coach here in San Diego for the past 11 years. I have had the privilege of playing and working for great coaches such as Mike Dunlap, Mike Brown, Tom Bennett and Dr. Rich Rider. My goal is to create an environment that is centered around character, teamwork and accountability. I look forward to meeting our student-athletes and parents very soon.”

Coach Kenny was a graduate of California Lutheran University in 1995. He then went to play basketball in Albury, Australia. On returning from overseas, he went back to graduate school as a graduate assistant and received a master’s degree in curriculum and instruction and worked under Dr. Rich Rider at Cal Lutheran.

Following grad school, he took a job as a tutor for a pop group called Dream under Sean “Diddy” Combs and Bad Boy Records. After touring around the country and in Europe, he felt the desire to return to the basketball court.

In 2001, he was hired at St. Augustine as an assistant coach, history and speech teacher. While he coached at Saints, the team went to three CIF Championship games and won two. In 2005, they finished the season 31-1, losing the state title game.

In 2006, he was hired by Cleveland Cavaliers’ then-head coach Mike Brown (a former roommate) for player development and video breakdown.

In his nine years as the head coach at Mater Dei Catholic High School, he built one of the most successful programs in the CIF-San Diego section. By his fourth year at Mater Dei, they went to their first CIF Championship game losing to Army/Navy in 2013. In 2014, his team went 30-3 and won the CIF championship against Francis Parker, going undefeated in San Diego. Under his leadership, they won six straight league titles going undefeated in league five of those six seasons, compiling a record of 58-2. Mater Dei have been in the Open division the two last years and finished the season ranked No. 4 in the county this past season.

“I would like to thank the Athletic Director Cody Clark and Principal Elizabeth Gillingham for this amazing opportunity to be the Boys Head Basketball Coach at Patrick Henry,” Caesar said.

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PHHS Model UN team continues to excel

Patrick Henry High School was a leading school in the Junior Model United Nation Conference, held last month at the Joan Kroc Institute for Peace and Justice building at University of San Diego.

We had 29 freshmen compete, and 14 of them won awards — four of them (Olivia Newell, Ella Brooks-Kamper, Andrew Gordon, and Ben Gonzalez) won the gavel in their committees, the highest award possible. Olivia Newell also won the Patrick Pierson Spirit of Economics award, the only award that is given to a single delegate across the entire, 442-student conference.

We also had 27 Henry students staff the conference, putting in hours of work grading, evaluating, and running committee sessions. Our upperclassmen were part of the 60-plus person Secretariat, who were responsible for running every aspect of the conference made up of high school students from Scripps Ranch, Mira Mesa, Torah, Point Loma, and Patrick Henry High Schools. They graded papers, assembled resources, and, at the actual conference, acted as chairs for committees — leading debate and making sure each delegate was able to participate.

The entire conference was led by the secretary-general, Kalos Chu, a Henry senior. Working with him, he had five Henry students (Arbi Leka, Kelly McCormack, Phoebe Nguyen, Jordan Furtak, and Max Mittleman) who served as head chairs, which meant that they were in charge of the other staff members in their committee rooms. Megan Peck served as an assistant secretary-general, part of the five-person team responsible for organizing the entire conference, where she assisted Kalos in any capacity needed to create a successful experience for all the attendees.

Special thanks goes to Henry teacher/advisor, Mr. Jim Davis, who has grown the program back to full-strength as a thriving academic club on campus.

— Elizabeth Gillingham is principal of Patrick Henry High School.

By Elizabeth Gillingham | Patrick Henry High School News

Campus construction update

Everyone wants to know what is happening at Patrick Henry High School (PHHS) in regards to the upgrades and construction projects. We are in year two of two major projects and coming close to the completion of both.

Phase 1 was PHAME and the modernization of all classrooms, which was completed by January 2017. Phase 2 is the two-story building and the renovation of the main office. The main office was pushed out and the boardroom was extended to include a table that seats 16 for large meetings. The front sign is supposed to be added soon and will complete the main office portion of the project.

An artist rendering of the new two-story building that will house Patrick Henry’s main office and mathematics and world languages classes. (Courtesy PHHS)

The two-story, 26-classroom building is still in progress and is nestled in the southeast corner of the school. It will house our child development program, which will include a new playground for the four-year-old Patriot Pup Preschool and a new classroom on the first level of the new building. The rest of the classrooms will be used for world languages classes on the first floor, and mathematics on the second floor. Hopefully, the project will be completed by the end of August, ready to greet our new students for the fall semester of 2018!

The third phase is the stadium, softball, and baseball fields. This project has had a few bumps along the way with the discovery of an underground stream and some old pipes that were broken as well, which caused a delay in the work. We are moving full steam ahead with hopes of completing the project by our homecoming game scheduled for Oct. 12. The new stadium will include a staircase down to the field, snack bar, ticket booths, elevator, new scoreboard, new lights, and a new sound booth as well. Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) seating will be included in this project so that guests can be seated in more than one area and have access to the concessions as well.

Construction on the baseball and softball fields is also underway by enhancing their fields with new dugouts, snack bar, bathrooms, drinking fountains, and video score boards as well. ADA parking will also be included to help families who have limited mobility participate as fans and players. We are also getting two new sand volleyball courts with the hope of eventually adding that as another sport offering at PHHS in the spring.

The fourth phase will be the removal of the bungalows and the renovation of our parking lot that will include more spaces and solar covers to capture energy while offering shade cover to some of our visitors. That process will begin as soon as we can guarantee that the new building will be ready for occupancy.

And finally, PHHS is in the process of looking for major donors to help name the newly-upgraded fields. If you know someone who is interested in this unique, one-time opportunity, please contact PHHS principal Listy Gillingham at lgillingham@sandi.net.

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Junior University Book Awards

Every year, different universities recognize outstanding juniors in local secondary schools by presenting books to the top 2 percent of the class. They do this to help attract the best students to their schools and to provide name recognition for counselors and schools when talking about options for their seniors. They also encourage students to look at schools outside the area by providing incentives — like promises of scholarships — for students who might select them the following year. The counseling team starts with a ranked list and tries to award each book based on the student’s interest and talents. This year, the book awards were given to the following students:

Junior class top 2 percent University Book Award honorees (Courtesy PHHS)

Wellesley Collge Book Award: Ivy Vuong

Wellesley College is a four-year liberal arts college for women in Boston, Massachusetts. They value outstanding academic and personal achievement and Ivy was selected based on her impressive academic record, her exceptional character and impressive amount of time given to community service. She was ranked No. 1 and has a GPA of 4.67.

Yale Book Award: Lilly Mai

The Yale Book award goes to a student who exhibits leadership skills, demonstrates outstanding personal character and has intellectual promise. Lilly was ranked No. 2 in the Class of 2019 and had a GPA is 4.61.

George Eastman Young Leaders Award: Anne Nguyen

This award was formerly called the Kodak Young Leaders Award. It is given to deserving students for their high grades in challenging courses; involvement in extracurricular activities; and/or strong leadership experience at school and in our community. The award is from the University of Rochester and may lead to a $40,000 scholarship toward tuition if the student applies and is admitted. Anne was selected and ranked No. 2 and also has a GPA of 4.61.

The Rensselaer Medalist: Maya Rozenshteyn

The Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute gives a medal and a scholarship of $25,000 per year guaranteed for four years to those that apply and are accepted. They are looking for students who distinguishes themselves in advanced mathematics and science. Maya ranked No. 4 and has a 4.6 GPA.

Brandeis University Book Award: Jonathan Marshall

The Brandeis Book Award recognizes outstanding high school juniors committed to academic engagement. Jonathan ranked No. 5 in the junior Class of 2019 and had a GPA of 4.56.

Xerox Award for Innovation and Information: Andrew Hua

The Xerox Award for innovation and technology is given to students who demonstrate achievement in the pursuit of innovative approaches and an appreciation for the possibilities of technology. Andrew was selected and was also ranked No. 5 and has a GPA of 4.56.

Frederick Douglass and Susan B. Anthony Award: Danae Cave

The University of Rochester selects students who have demonstrated strong personal character and a commitment to understanding and addressing difficult social issues. Danae was selected and was ranked No. 5 and has a 4.56 GPA.

Bausch & Lomb Honorary Science Award: Garrett Davis

The Bausch & Lomb Honorary Science award was given by the University of Rochester for rigor and high achievement in science classes and high PSAT scores in math. Garrett was ranked No. 5 and has a GPA of 4.56.

St. Michael’s College Book Award: Trevor Chubb

St. Michael’s College honors their recipient with a book award for academic achievement with a social conscience embodying the values and interests of other St. Michael’s College students. He was also ranked No. 5 of the class of 2019 and has a GPA of 4.56.

St. Lawrence University Book Award: Alan Inthavong

St. Lawrence University honors their recipient for their commitment to active service in the community as well as academic success by giving them a book award and a $1,000 merit scholarship per year if they apply and are accepted. Alan was selected because he has been identified as someone who displays a significant commitment to his school and community and is ranked No. 10 and has a GPA of 4.55.

St. Michael’s College Book Award: Michelle Rivera-Lomeli

St. Michael’s College honors their recipient with a book award for academic achievement with a social conscience embodying the values and interests of other St. Michael’s College students. Michelle was ranked No. 11 of the class of 2019 and has a GPA of 4.5.

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Senior Awards Night

In June, the class of 2018 was formally recognized by many community organizations through scholarships and other school awards to approximately 70 students.

The following students were recognized by the community with scholarships:

• PHHS Alumni Association Scholarship, $1,500: Jason Pham, Elise Rappel, and Erica Tolley
• Semper Fidelis Distinguished Athlete Award: Braina Pham
• Semper Fidelis Musical Excellence Award: Noah Krasner
• Semper Fidelis Academic Excellence Award: Josh Koo
• Semper Fidelis JROTC Leadership Award: Calvin Meyers
• Semper Fidelis JROTC Espiritu De Corps Award: Isaiah Massey
• Bill Kalt Memorial Award: Nicole Donahue-Marucheau
• Grossmont Healthcare: Salma Chanel and Abril Sosa-Pineda
• St. Dunstan’s Community Outreach: Grace McSweeney, Ariana Cibrian, Makenna Billingsley, and Sandy Villa
• Lake Murray Kiwanis Scholarship: Max Mittleman, Bailey Hinesley, Sandy Villa, And Martha Marilyn Montoya Celedonio
• San Diego State University Merit Scholarships: Alan Nguyen and Kaelia Okamura
• San Diego State University Research Endowed Scholarship: Alexander Cagle
• RCD Conservation Scholarship: Joaquin Rosell
• Crescent Moon Scholarship: Malcolm Wilson
• The Retired Employees of SD County Merit Scholarship: Austin Tarke
• Michigan State University Alumni Scholarship: Cody Lefler
• SD Edinburgh Sister City Society Scottish Ancestry: Erica Tolley
• Deputy Sheriff Association Scholarship: Alyssa Arnold
• Grantville-Allied Gardens Kiwanis Scholarship: William Huynh, Khang Le, and Brandon Huynh
• Jones Family Foundation: Kalos Chu, Abirl Sosa-Pineda, and Sophia Pruden
• Helen Beardsley Scholarship: Makenna Billingsley
• The following students were recipients of the PHHS Department Awards:
• AVID Award: Lan Nguyen
• Drama: Madeline Nowatnick
• Music – Vocalist: Stephanie Zapelli
• Engineering Academy: Avi Martin
• English: Stephanie Smith
• Mathematics: Kalos Chu
• California Math Council: Kalos Chu
• Music – Instrumental: Kalos Chu
• NJROTC: Andy Pham
• Photography: Emma Ferris
• Social Studies: Megan Hayes
• Science: Arbi Leka
• Student Government: Vina Deprat
• Visual Arts – Flat Art: Christine Vyzinkar
• Ceramics: Luna Miller
• Video Productions/Broadcast: Jordan Doole
• French: Megan Hayes
• The last set of students were recipients of the PHHS Special School Awards:
• Environmental Club: Joaquin Rosell and Grace Tarantino
• Yearbook: Henry Ly
• Key Club: Brandon Huynh, William Huynh, and Khang Le
• National Merit Finalist, $2,500: Kalos Chu
• Peer Mediation: Zachary Friedli
• Perseverance & Achievement Award: Matthew Aquinde
• President’s Academic Excellence (top 2 percent students): Ben Kelly, Jonathan Schindler, Luc Galaif, Phoebe Nguyen, Ryan Nguyen, Meggie Do, Kalos Chu, Liam Olive, Madonna Linares, Maivi Luu, and Grace Tarantino
• The Patriots of the Year for the Class of 2018: Clinton Allen, Kalos Chu, Vina Duprat, Lillian Do, Taylor Fakadej, Alexis Handler, Ben Kelly, Maya Klareich, Sam Lenett, Max Mittleman, and Phoebe Nguyen
• Senior of the Year 2018: Kalos Chu
• Scholar Athletes of the Year: Clinton Allen and Nicole Bych
• PHHS Counselor/Foundation Scholarships: Berenise Chavez, Shanell Logan, Audrey Filbrandt, Natale Rahmon, Alex Cagle, and Cassandra Southward
• Maria Theodore Memorial Scholarship: Max Mittleman
• Donald Giddings Leadership Award: Maya Klareich
• Presentation to the Salutatorian: Jonathan Schindler
• Presentation to the Valedictorians: Ben Kelly
• Weissenberg Family Watch Presentation: Ben Kelly

— Elizabeth Gillingham is principal of Patrick Henry High School.

By Elizabeth Gillingham | Patrick Henry High School News

Back to School Night

Attention all Patrick Henry High School (PHHS) families: Come join us on Thursday, Sept. 27 at 6 p.m. to learn everything you ever wanted to know about PHHS and your student’s schedule and teachers.

PHAME will be open at 6 p.m. with a special presentation given by PHHS’s principal, Elizabeth “Listy” Gillingham, giving a rundown on what’s happening at Henry; parent, student, and teacher expectations; and anything else you ever wanted to know about the life of a Patriot. Come see our new sign in the front of the school as well!

A new Patrick Henry High School sign welcomes students and visitors.

Teacher presentations will begin at 6:30 p.m. and run to 8 p.m. Hope to see you there!

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The Patriot baseball program has been putting in some hard work in the weight room and on the ballfield since school got out in June. That hard work and dedication has paid off as Coach Watkins and a select 18-man roster dominated the recently revived American Legion Summer Baseball League in San Diego.

The Patrick Henry American Legion baseball team ended league play with a 10-1 record. (Photos courtesy PHHS)

With a record of 10-1 during league play, Henry earned the No. 1 seed going into the four-team playoff featuring Coronado, Helix, and Santana. Henry went undefeated in the playoffs and, in addition to taking home the first San Diego American Legion Championship trophy in over 33 years, they won a bid to the state championships July 25-29 in Yountville, California.

This young group of student athletes faced some tough competition from all over the state of California, including many athletes who are currently playing at the Division I and Junior College level. The Patriots had an incredible showing, making it to the semi-final game against Merced. It was a back-and-forth showdown that went into extra innings, and although the Patriots took the loss, they were third place out of 63 American Legion teams across the state of California.

American Legion is dedicated to supporting the development of young athletes and raises the funds necessary to cover all player costs throughout the summer. We are thankful for American Legion Post 416 for sponsoring our team and giving these young men an experience they will never forget.

It has been incredible to see how quickly the players, families, and community have rallied around the significant changes that have been made to the baseball program under Coach Sheldon Watkins this past year. Coming off a spring season without a field to practice on and all 27 games on the road, the players in this program have really bought into Coach Watkins’ vision of what Patrick Henry Baseball should and will look like in the years to come — and they are excited for it!

During summer workouts, players have been able to watch the progress being made on their future field and are anxiously awaiting its anticipated completion date in October. Coach Watkins has been working directly with the district project manager to ensure that our facility is the best of the best. His hope is that every young baseball player in the area will be excited about the prospect of one day putting on a Henry uniform and stepping out onto a beautiful field to compete for a CIF championship.

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Henry students attend academic trainings

Two Henry students had a unique experience by participating in the Jackuelyn Harris High School Summer Training in Aging Research (HS STAR) program over the summer.

Jonny Pham and Michelle Rivera-Lomeli

The HS STAR program chose a total of six applicants to affiliate them with aging research alongside a UCSD faculty mentor. This was a five-week paid internship ($1,600) where students got to work with a research scientist under one of the three assigned departments: neurology, psychiatry, and ophthalmology.

Michelle Rivera-Lomeli and Jonny Pham were two fortunate candidates from Patrick Henry who were able to experience this research program. Rivera-Lomeli worked under the department of psychiatry with Dr. Suzi Hong studying healthy aging practices for cardiovascular health, and Pham had the privilege to work in the ophthalmology department with Dr. Dorota Skowronska Krawczyk studying glaucoma.

“HS STAR has definitely been one of my luckiest and most fascinating educational experiences yet because of the unique exposure to medical research,” Pham stated. “I always had an interest in health sciences, but I would have never imagined that a student like me would have an opportunity to work in a postgraduate research setting, handling sophisticated lab equipment anytime soon. My project revolved around immunostaining of trabecular meshwork (TM) where a lab partner and I got to stain different TM tissue samples with artificial antibodies in order to detect specific proteins and cells within the sample. The investigation of the presence of these specified proteins were vital to our research because it would ultimately help us understand ways on how to treat glaucoma. All our tissue samples were collected from real glaucoma patients, so it was extremely important to not mess up the protocols within our experiment in which we were trained to eventually do on our own. Through this project, I was able to handle and familiarize myself with various lab equipment such as centrifuges, vortex machines, pipettes and different complex fluids that I had heard from AP biology and AP chemistry. It was extremely fascinating due to how the concepts that I had previously learned from the science courses’ lectures and textbooks suddenly came to life (e.g. gene expression, DNA replication, buffers, paraformaldehyde, etc.), and that I was able to utilize these concepts to contribute to something important and revolutionizing.”

In Rivera-Lomeli’s research, her lab investigated how tai chi reduces blood pressure in the elderly through changes in autonomic nervous system regulation, immunological sensitivity, and psychological distress. What she found most interesting was observing how lab scientists measured immune sensitivity by injecting bacteria cell membrane or lipopolysaccharides into a sample of monocytes which produced a cytokine called TNFL-alpha in response. Flow cytometry was then used to track the amount of TNFL-alpha produced. This was calculated since cytokines such as TNFL-alpha also influence sympathetic nervous system discharges which are responsible for blood pressure fluctuations. Her duty was preparing certain lab equipment for use and entering psychological questionnaire data for processing. Overall, this was also a great experience for her that allowed her to apply her background knowledge from AP psychology and honors chemistry.

During the final day of the program, all six interns presented their final presentations to all faculty members, special guests, and parents about what they had learned and taken away from their research projects.

More information about the program itself can be found at bit.ly/2oKUHYb.

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JROTC summer news

PHHS JROTC program had an active summer by sending various cadets to leadership and academic events that occurred during their summer break. The San Diego Youth Leadership Conference (SDYLC) was attended by two Henry students, Tram Bui and Truc Nguyen. At the conference, they had the opportunity to learn some fundamentals about city counseling, entrepreneurship, and the American heritage at UCSD.

(l to r) Truc Nguyen and Tram Bui (Courtesy PHHS)

The JROTC STEM Pathways camp was a unique opportunity for cadets to explore their interests in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) through applied workshops with collaborative projects and hands-on activities. This year, hosting a total of 57 incoming junior and senior cadets from the SDUSD Joint Brigade (four were Henry students), STEM camp was held at UCSD, where cadets not only fulfilled STEM education, but explored the campus and college life through overnight stays in the dorms of Revelle College.

This year’s workshops were comprised of bioengineering, oceanography, biology, and robotics. From July 31 to Aug. 4, cadets were split into four different groups that rotated between four workshops over the course of the week. On the final day, during the closing awards ceremony, each group presented their final presentations based on their last workshop to show parents, guests, and cadre what they learned and explored.

On Aug. 21, the brigade staff had the opportunity to introduce themselves amongst all cadre (JROTC instructors) and members from the Military Order of the World Wars (MOWW) in San Diego County. Students followed an introduction with a briefing highlighting the goals and curriculums of the program. After the briefing, a BBQ was then held to celebrate the MOWW Chapter’s 92nd birthday.

—Jonny Phan

— Elizabeth Gillingham is principal of Patrick Henry High School.

By Elizabeth Gillingham | Patrick Henry High School News

‘One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest’

PHHS Player’s Club is proud to announce their upcoming production of Dale Wasserman’s, “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,” which will be presented Oct. 24–26 at 6 p.m. in PHAME! Tickets are $5 at the door.

The play is based on the book by Ken Kesey. This comedic-dramatic play is about a charming rogue who contrives to serve a short sentence in an airy mental institution rather than in a prison. This, he learns, was a mistake. He clashes with the head nurse while taking over the yard and accomplishes what the medical profession has been unable to do for 12 years; he makes a presumed deaf and dumb inmate talk. He leads others out of introversion, stages a revolt so that they can see the World Series on television, and arranges for a rollicking midnight party.

Come see our cast in this mature production: Noah Howard, Ryan Zook, Gavin Ayers, Logan Aviles-Davis, Keira Olive, Colby Koo, Justin Starr, Alex Aguilar, Olivia Newell, Andrew Minjares, Maya Dixon, KC Anderson, Sierra Taylor, Izaiah Newsom, Kella Smith, Nina Breister, Emily Nguyen, Zander Johnson, Kassandra Alduenda, Bella Havens, Ally Manderville, Maggie Robinson, Via Ruiz, and Caroline Beail.

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PHHS Student of the Month

Madison Simmons (Photos courtesy PHHS)

Senior Madison Simmons was nominated for the Kiwanis student of the month and was honored last month at the Kiwanis Breakfast. Vice Principal Jennifer Pacofsky accompanied Simmons and her family and she presented to the club why she was selected.

“We chose Maddie for being an amazing student and athlete (she plays softball and is the leader of the girl’s golf team), but she is an even better person,” Mrs. Pacofsky stated. “I have had the pleasure of working with Maddie for the last four years and I have seen her evolve into a mature, well-spoken and courteous young adult. She is a student that helps others and shows compassion to those in times of need.

“She is eager to be a part of her education and help in the learning process of others. She is an excellent academic model for classmates, using class time well, helping classmates when they need assistance, and asking for clarifications or explanations when something isn’t clear (which her teachers appreciate because she always does it in a tactful way and it helps keep not only them, but the class in general, on track.)

“She has helped in the office where she assisted with answering phones and helping visitors before running off to play softball for Henry. Maddie is also a member of the Henry Link crew. She is a model student and always goes above and beyond her job duties. She enjoys volunteering and will often come in early and help out whenever a helping hand is needed. She is very responsible and can be trusted with any task given to her. The best thing about her is she does it all with a smile and a very welcoming, warm demeanor.”

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New staff members

Every year, we add a few new members to our teaching staff as others take on new jobs across the district or retire. This year, we welcomed a small number in several key areas around the campus.

(l to r) Counselor Erik Gonzales and teachers Shanika McCarty and Kevin Trombley

Samson Pak is our new school police officer and comes with lots of experience after serving with the El Cajon Sheriff’s Division and later as a campus police officer at Madison High School. He came with high recommendations from everyone who worked him and has already impressed the students with his presence on our campus.

Our nursing office has had a clean sweep in changes, as both Nurse Kathy Ryan and our health tech, Jessica Pearson, took new assignments in the district. Replacing them, we added two nurses: Lynn Vogelgesang (full-time) and Amy Berwind (part-time) and one health technician, Sharon Hackett, who will be at Henry two days a week. Vogelgesang retired from the Navy and joined our district to continue working as a nurse and to support others. The nurse’s office has additional support with Nurse Berwind who comes in twice a week to help us with reports, provide preventive measures, and help our students who show up sick.

We also added a new part-time counselor. Erik Gonzales joined our team this year and will serve students whose last name begins with the letters Nears-Rion. Gonzales has been in the district as a campus security support at Serra High School until he finished his counseling license and became a counselor at Serra High School as well. We are thrilled to add him to our team as he also has a welcoming and calm demeanor that fits well with our teaching staff.

We have also added a few teachers in several different areas. In science, we were able to add a part-time biology teacher, with Akeya Del Aguia, and a full-time chemistry and physics teacher with Mr. Kevin Trombley. Del Aguia just completed her credential and is starting her career with us at Henry. Trombley transferred from Serra High School and enjoying the students and staff who have welcomed him to his new assignment.

Tricia Tigli replaced Mrs. Malphurs, who moved to Japan. Tigli is our new French teacher, who comes with much experience as she is a native French speaker and can bring the Parisian culture into her teaching.

Shanika McCarty joined Henry halfway through the year when a teacher left for personal reasons. When an opening in the English department came up, she was a quick call to join on team on a full-time basis.

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PHHS seniors excel

Patrick Henry High School seniors Sarah Kosic, Nhi Nguyen, and Maya Rozenshteyn have won the prestigious 2018 SWENext Club Challenge, a national competition put on by the Society of Women Engineers (SWE). They will be honored at the annual SWE national conference held in Minneapolis, Minnesota Oct. 17–21.

(l to r) Nhi Ngyen, Maya Rozenshteyn and Sarah Kosic (Courtesy PHHS)

To win the Club Challenge, Kosic, Nguyen, and Rozenshteyn put together a poster and a video describing Stephanie Kwolek, a chemical engineer who revolutionized the fiber industry though her invention of Kevlar (a synthetic fiber stronger than steel which can be used for military equipment, bulletproof vests, long distance ocean cables, suspension bridges, athletic equipment, and more — helping save countless lives). Their video also included a demonstration of the properties of chemical polarity. The video can be found at tinyurl.com/phhsswevideo. They would like to thank their AP Chemistry teacher, Mr. Kiffe, for introducing them to the experiment that was used in the video.

SWE is an international nonprofit organization that supports women in engineering. SWENext is SWE’s program for girls 18 and under to get involved in the organization, learn more about engineering, and receive access to resources that support their interest in engineering. For more information about SWENext, visit bit.ly/1Czrf5e. For more information about the Society of Women Engineers, visit swe.org. For more information about the PHHS SWE Club, visit tinyurl.com/phhssweclub.

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Open enrollment for SDUSD

Schools in San Diego Unified School District may enroll pupils who do not live in the neighborhood through the School Choice process. The Choice application period for school year 2019-20 will be from Monday, Oct. 1 through Tuesday, Nov. 13.

Choice applications to any Henry cluster school should be submitted at this time for:

• Incoming TK/K sibling of current Choice pupil.
• Child of any employee at our school who is interested in having their child(ren) attend any school in the Henry high school cluster.
• Currently enrolled students who have recently moved, or will be moving out of our neighborhood but would like to continue enrollment at our school.
• Currently enrolled magnet pupils who wish to articulate to the next level magnet program.
• Students originally enrolled via Choice as SDUSD residents, who have moved, or are planning to move outside of the SDUSD boundaries into a different school district (Poway, La Mesa/Spring Valley, Chula Vista, etc.).
• Students whose parents are interested in transitioning from a different school into ours.

Choice applications are not necessary for resident students, or students already accepted to our school via Choice who currently reside in the SDUSD boundaries.

If you know of any family that may be interested in our school, please invite them to attend a school’s tour. PHHS host tours are on the first Wednesdays of every month. For more information about our schools, please view any school’s website.

The 2018-19 Enrollment Options applications may be submitted online at sandiegounified.org/apply. For personal assistance, contact or visit the Family Welcome and Enrollment Center located at our district headquarters at the Eugene Brucker Education Center, 4100 Normal St., Annex 12, San Diego, 92103. Questions regarding the choice process may be directed to 619-260-2410. The center is open to the public Monday through Friday, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

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College information from our counseling team

College applications have opened up. Seniors interested in applying to four-year universities should be actively applying to campuses now!

Below are three links for three different university systems. On Thursday, Oct. 18, Patrick Henry counselors will be hosting a senior college application student and parent meeting at 5:30 p.m. in our PHAME building. The meeting will go over specific university systems as well as applications. Everyone is welcome to attend and it’s free!

CSU application: Open Oct. 1; deadline Nov. 30. Application can be found at www2.calstate.edu/apply.

UC application: Has opened; deadline Nov. 30. Application can be found at bit.ly/1g1spMA

Common Application: Has opened; deadlines on various dates. Application can be found at commonapp.org.

—Elizabeth Gillingham is principal of Patrick Henry High School.

By Elizabeth Gillingham | Patrick Henry High School News

Circle of Friends Annual Picnic

On Sunday, Oct. 7, the PHHS Circle of Friends sponsored a picnic at Allied Gardens Park. Circle of Friends is an ASB club at Patrick Henry that creates and fosters friendships between students with special needs and their non-disabled peers. Henry has over 50 general education students who are actively involved in the club.

(l to r) Ali Noureddine, Jayden Orta, Joy Churchill, Janesa Orta, Lauren Weber, Veronica Smith, Gwen Crow, James Breault (Photos courtesy PHHS)

The club sponsors several off-campus events each year including a picnic, Winter Holiday Dance, and End of the Year Banquet. Students also eat lunch in a specified area each Monday and Tuesday in order to spend time together and build relationships.

Jim Achenbach and Tianna Reitman are the facilitators of the club and help the students coordinate all of the fun with co-presidents, Joy Churchill, Alyssa Lozano and their student board. The student board also meets weekly to discuss and upcoming events.

The students with special needs enjoy spending time with their general education counterparts and it creates a more welcoming environment at Henry as students wave and greet each other in the hallways. Students with special needs also feel more comfortable in the general education classes as they already know some of the students that are enrolled there.

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National Merit Scholarship semifinalist

Patrick Henry High School (PHHS) is proud to announce that we had two students earn recognition for having exceptional academic promise demonstrated by their outstanding performance on the qualifying test used for the program entry. Maya Rozenshteyn and Sarah Kosci are proudly representing Henry High School with this great honor. Their high scores on the PSAT (Preliminary SAT) placed them in the top 2 percent among 16,000 other semifinalist students in the country out of the 1.6 million students who took the assessment. Their semifinalist status earns them a chance to qualify in the spring as a finalist where they may earn merit scholarship award money.

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New physical education

New standards for physical education standards promote “physical literacy.”

As much of the state of California has rolled out common core standards and curriculum, physical education is also moving in that direction as well. With a new school year comes a new class of freshman ready to take on the challenges of a high school, standards-based, common-core aligned physical education course. What that might look like to freshman at Patrick Henry can be very different from anything they might have experienced during their middle school or elementary years. What makes it different? Well, we’re less concerned with “play” and most concerned with a concept called “physical literacy.”

Physical literacy is a term that encapsulates all of what a public education high school physical education class should look like: learning, growing, challenging and changing. Students are focused on not just activity for activity’s sake, but for the purposes of growth, both mentally and physically, understanding the “why” of movement and skill, not just the “how.” It is the hope of this freshman physical education teacher to take them on a journey through their freshman year that moves them toward a life of health and wellness beyond their physical education class experience. Play and activity are great, but when students understand the how and why of those concepts, they own what they have learned and are capable of using it for purposes that will carry them far beyond the class.

For more information, you might want to check out the YouTube video, “What is Physical Literacy.”

—Terri Clark

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October Student of the Month

Daratu Mulugueta

Senior Darartu Mulugueta was nominated for the Kiwanis student of the month and was honored last month at the Kiwanis Breakfast. Vice Principal Bill Miller accompanied Mulugueta and her family and he presented to the club why she was selected. Mr. Miller noted that in almost every teacher’s description of Mulugueta, she was described for being respectful, polite, and kind. He stated in his speech about Mulugueta: “In class, she’s very dedicated and takes ownership of her learning. One teacher had the privilege to work with her in Spanish 3/4 and currently she’s doing great in that same teacher’s AP Spanish class! She is a friendly, respectful and engaged student that participates in class. She is always prepared and asks thoughtful questions. From the conversations I’ve had with her, she also seems to have her integrity meter fully intact. Daratu is a member of our Link Crew. She is a committee chair on the executive board of Link Crew, as well (like being leaders of leaders of leaders). She is the best of the best!”

One Henry teacher stated, “Darartu is a kind, hard-working student. She always has a positive demeanor.” Her AP U.S. History teacher from last year stated, “Darartu Mulugueta is a strong student from APUSH last year. Very active in two student clubs, including speaking at March for Our Lives. She is transferring to Pennsylvania at the end of the month and I know a lot of teachers are sad to see her go.”

We have loved working with Mulugueta and will wish her well at her new school!

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Life lessons from Gandhi’s grandson

Born in 1934 in Durban, South Africa, Arun Gandhi is the fifth grandson of India’s legendary leader, Mohandas K. “Mahatma” Gandhi. Growing up under the discriminatory apartheid laws of South Africa, he was beaten by white South Africans for being too black and black South Africans for being too white; so, Arun sought eye-for-an-eye justice. However, he learned from his parents and grandparents that justice does not mean revenge, it means transforming the opponent through love and suffering.

Arun Gandhi, fifth grandson of Mohandas Gandhi, Skypes with students at PHHS. (Courtesy PHHS)

Grandfather taught Arun to understand nonviolence through understanding violence.

“If we know how much passive violence we perpetrate against one another we will understand why there is so much physical violence plaguing societies and the world,” Gandhi said. Through daily lessons, Arun says, he learned about violence and about anger.

Arun shares these lessons all around the world and on Oct. 26, he Skyped with Erin Mangahis’ English classes during fifth period in the PHAME building. The students had the opportunity to hear his message on non-violence and learning about controlling your anger and using it for good to make the world a better place for all. Students were able to ask him questions directly immediately following his presentation.

“The most striking part to me was Gandhi’s explanation of passive violence, the unconscious and sometimes conscious acts, thoughts, and beliefs we hold that lead to physical violence,” English teacher Andrew Myette stated. “He posed: ‘If someone did this to me, would I be hurt or helped by it?’ Perhaps, I thought, if I were more mindful, more discerning, I could help those I encounter daily, but don’t give much of a thought; if I were more mindful, I could help those I don’t encounter daily, but don’t give much of a thought; if I were more mindful, and gave more of a thought, I could help change the world.”

Arun is very involved in social programs and writing, as well. Shortly after Arun married his wife Sunanda, they were informed the South African government would not allow her to accompany him there. Sunanda and Arun decided to live in India, and Arun worked for 30 years as a journalist for The Times of India. Together, Arun and Sunanda started projects for the social and economic uplifting of the oppressed using constructive programs, the backbone of Gandhi’s philosophy of nonviolence. The programs changed the lives of more than half a million people in over 300 villages and they still continue to grow. Sunanda died in February of 2007 and the family is working to establish a school in the poorest rural part of India in her name.

Arun is the author of several books. The first, “A Patch of White” (1949), is about life in prejudiced South Africa; then, he wrote two books on poverty and politics in India; followed by a compilation of M.K. Gandhi’s “Wit & Wisdom.” He also edited a book of essays on “World Without Violence: Can Gandhi’s Vision Become Reality?” And, more recently, wrote “The Forgotten Woman: The Untold Story of Kastur, the Wife of Mahatma Gandhi,” jointly with his late wife Sunanda.

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‘Screenagers’ movie screening

Encouraging students to study tuba can be a difficult sell at any school, but it is a critically important instrument in almost any orchestra. This year, tuba, baritone, and euphonium players will be invited to perform in Tuba Christmas San Diego at Patrick Henry High School, co-sponsored by the Patrick Henry Instrumental Music Program and the Cowles Mountain Community Foundation on Dec. 8 in PHAME. Tuba Christmas has occurred in almost every city in the United States for 45 years, inviting all tubists, young and old, novice and virtuoso, to perform in a nonthreatening environment. It is particularly important for tuba students to develop a positive association with the instrument and to encourage their music by playing with other musicians, both professional and amateur.

Morning rehearsal starts at 8 a.m. Musicians will register for $10 and receive a book of nondenominational, seasonal holiday music for $20 or $25, depending on size. Musicians will set up their chairs and stands themselves. They will be encouraged in advance to bring a towel for their instrument. They will then rehearse until noon, breaking for lunch.

The afternoon concert starts at 1 p.m. There will be a free sing-along concert, open to the community. Musicians will be encouraged to put away their chairs and music stands, as well as have the audience pick up after themselves. No food or drink allowed in the facility.

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Tuba Christmas San Diego

Attention all parents and community members. Are you watching kids scroll through life, with their rapid-fire thumbs and 6-second attention spans? Physician and filmmaker Delaney Ruston saw that with her own kids and learned that the average kid spends 6.5 hours a day looking at screens. She wondered about the impact of all this time and about the friction occurring in homes and schools around negotiating screen time — friction she knew all too well.

In “Screenagers,” as with her award-winning documentaries on mental health, Delaney takes a deeply personal approach as she probes into the vulnerable corners of family life, including her own, to explore struggles over social media, video games, academics and internet addiction. Through poignant, and unexpectedly funny stories, along with surprising insights from authors, psychologists, and brain scientists, “Screenagers” reveals how tech time impacts kids’ development and offers solutions on how adults can empower kids to best navigate the digital world and find balance.

PHHS is offering this special screening in PHAME at 6 p.m. on Nov. 29 for $5 (adults) and $2 (children) to help all parents (any age level) be prepared for how to set the parameters and boundaries for their own children. Please review the movie trailer at screenagersmovie.com for more information.

—Elizabeth Gillingham is principal of Patrick Henry High School.

Patrick Henry Arts, Media,
and Entertainment calendar*

• Dec. 8: Tuba Christmas in San Diego, Free entrance at 1 p.m.
• Dec. 13: PHHS Choir Concert, at 6 p.m.
• Dec. 19: PHHS Instrumental Music Concert, at 6 p.m.
• Jan. 10: PHHS Airband Concert, 4–6 p.m.
• Feb. 20-24: PHHS Drama Dept. presents “The Addams Family,” nightly at 6 p.m.
• March 14: PHHS ASB presents their Variety/Improv Night at 6 p.m.
• March 21: PHHS Choir Concert, at 6 p.m.
• April 24: PHHS Pops Concert in PHAME at 6 p.m.
• May 23: PHHS Choir Concert, at 6 p.m.
• May 30: PHHS Instrumental Music Concert, at 6 p.m.

*Most events at PHHS will sell tickets for $10 each, unless noted otherwise. Please check our website for updates as some events are subject to change.

By Elizabeth Gillingham

Letter of Intent Signing Day

Three Patrick Henry seniors who are going to participate in athletics at the college level got to celebrate National Letter of Intent Signing Day at Petco Park on Wednesday, Nov. 14. This opportunity celebrates years of dedication, hard work, and sacrifice. Patriot Athletics wants to celebrate:

Johanna Wood – San Francisco State (Volleyball)

Allison Arend – New Mexico State (Soccer)

Heather Amancio – Allegheny College (Field Hockey)

In addition, baseball coach Sheldon Watkins forwarded early commitments for our spring sports:

Jonathan Marshall has committed to Occidental University where he will be pre-med and play baseball. He was their top recruit and he had many other offers but wanted to stay in California.

Andrew McAlpin received almost 70 percent on an athletic scholarship to play at Northwest Nazarene University just outside of Boise, Idaho. NWU is a Division 2 school where he should really thrive.

Dante Juliano has also committed to Northwest Nazarene.

The head coach at NWU is someone coach Watkins played with at Point Loma Nazarene and he was the head coach there until he made the move to Boise. NWU is really excited to get a couple California kids, Watkins said.

Coach Watkins is very proud of their accomplishments and is thrilled to see Patrick Henry Baseball getting the attention of college recruiters before the season even begins. Go PHHS Patriots!

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Student of the Month

Senior Kalani Piotrowski was nominated for the Kiwanis student of the month for November and was honored last month at the Kiwanis Breakfast. Principal Elizabeth Gillingham accompanied Piotrowski and her mother.

Gillingham stated she was honored to recognize Piotrowski and noted her for her leadership both inside and outside the classroom. She was cited last year as being instrumental in Patrick Henry receiving the EcoChallenge award for our energy efficiency use and recycling efforts. As part of the NJROTC community service club, Piotrowski led different students to participate in various activities in the community to make our world better and help raise awareness among the students at Henry.

In her nomination, PHHS science teacher Leah Silverman noted that “Kalani is enthusiastic and inquisitive; she participates regularly and puts effort in everything she does in physiology. I absolutely love having Kalani in class. She’s the ideal student — helpful, hard-working, and has a great energy about her. Way to go, Kalani!”

Senior Naval Science Instructor Ron Flaherty stated in his recommendation, “Kalani has taken on the roles and responsibilities as the commanding officer of NJROTC. She volunteers so much of her time with all the community service events and campus clean ups. She is the color guard team commander for the Navy League field meet team. She leads and mentors the students in NJROTC. She is an amazing young lady who thinks of others before herself.”

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National Youth Soccer player Mia Fishel

PHHS is proud of the accomplishment of senior soccer player Mia Fishel who played last month in the 2018 FIFA Under-17 Women’s World Cup Championship held in Uruguay Nov. 13–Dec. 1. The competition was fierce and though they were only able to play in three games, the experience was something Fishel will never forget.

In the first game, the U.S. team won 3-0 against Cameroon where Fishel played the entire game and scored the team’s first goal for the tournament in the first 22 minutes of the game. They played North Korea next and lost 0-3 and later played against Germany where they also lost 0-3. In both games, Fishel credited the opposing team for being very skilled and fast. Although, she also noted in the last game that her team kept missing shots within inches of the goal as they bounced off the goal posts.

Fishel learned the importance of adapting to a team and the players you’re working with. She also shared the importance of building the team spirit by sleeping, eating and training together constantly, avoiding the other teams’ players so they couldn’t get in your head. She shared how they traveled in a motorcade with police escorts and flags on their shuttles.

Fishel has traveled and played soccer internationally for many years and has played in places such as Italy, China, Mexico, and Amsterdam. She hopes to continue to play soccer in Europe on a professional level and she has also committed to UCLA with a full-ride soccer scholarship.

In her letter written to the staff at PHHS, Fishel stated: “I would like to thank you all for the support and cooperation with the U.S. Soccer National Team over the past four years. My success would not have been possible without everyone’s help. Also, I want to say thank you for the overall support from the school when I was competing in Uruguay. I got supportive emails, school broadcasts, and social media posts from teachers and students. That helped me realize my dream and be inspired. I will continue this journey at UCLA next year, and I hope you will continue this journey with me.”

Fishel is humble and kind and has maintained a 3.88 GPA cumulatively even while pursuing her active adventures in soccer. She credits her teachers at Henry who she feels have gone the extra mile to help her and she can’t thank them enough for their support!

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ASB Improvement Project

Toria Tolley, from our ASB (student government), asked every student to bring in a new or in-good-condition toy to school last month as part of her ASB School Improvement Project. For every toy any student donated, their name was put into a raffle to win two Universal Studios tickets.

Tolley wanted her peers to understand what children in the hospital go through and how these toys can make a difference. At the end of her drive, she had collected more than 100 toys and dropped them off at the Sunny 98.1 radio station, where she was recognized on air for her amazing efforts in helping others.

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Model United Nations begins

The Henry Model United Nations (MUN) team sent a tiny, but powerful delegation to participate in the Bruin MUN Conference at UCLA last month. After completing many hours of research and position paper writing in advance of the weekend’s conference, two Henry sophomores — Olivia VanHouten and Ainslie Mellinger — won the Best Research award as co-delegates to N.UNHCR, the committee dealing with international refugee issues. Freshman co-delegates Ava Lewison-German and Garrett Mellinger represented Henry in the N.UNESCO committee dealing with women’s education, violent extremism and free speech around the globe.

While Ainslie’s health prevented her for making the second trip to UCLA, she and Olivia both did significant advance research and position paper writing (turned into the UCLA MUN chair in advance of conference weekend for review). Their joint work led the duo to the Best Research award. Special mention that VanHouten deftly handled the issues for both she and Ainslie in person at the weekend’s conference — a lot of work!

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‘Old teacher, New Physical Education’

[Editor’s note: Written by P.E. teacher Terri Clark]

 Fall brings us cooler weather, the holidays and lots of great food. It seems an appropriate time, as my physical education students traverse through their freshman year, that we take a look at food and what nutrition and diet mean to a 14 to 15 year old.

In order to properly look at the issues, we start with looking at the big/macro picture of food. We look at it from a broad perspective, across the country, by asking questions like: What is food scarcity? What is a supply chain? What is factory farming? And what does an obesity map look like and what does it mean to me?

We eventually take it down to the micro, or personal level, where we analyze the content of what goes into our body daily, and unpack what the consequences those daily choices have on us.

The goal here is to help students make meaningful connections to the bigger picture of nutrition. We look at things like: Where does my food come from; what happens when kids eat a nutritionally deficient diet; and what are the long-term outcomes of poor or improper nutrition? We start with the obvious questions such as: Where does that carne asada burrito come from and what nutritional impact does it have to their short-term and long-term health?

The real challenge here is to get the Insta-Snap-Twitter generation to make that long-term connection. It isn’t easy, but here I go. We’re on a journey to discover how food works for or against us.

My professional journey on this adventure of “Old Teacher, New Physical Education” is one of learning to navigate the world of educational technology. When I began teaching physical education over 25 (short) years ago, I didn’t even own a personal computer, and did not have one in my work setting either. Flash forward, and students are walking around with a “computer” in the palm of their hand. Learning to engage students in meaningful work through technology has definitely been a mental workout, building a whole new set of muscles for this teacher. TED Talks, Promethium Boards, and Google Classroom are a few of the workouts I’ve engaged in these past few years. The workouts are hard, but as with any exercise, if you stick with it long enough, you will reap the benefits. You can follow our journey on twitter @teachingthemasses.

—Elizabeth Gillingham is principal of Patrick Henry High School.

By Elizabeth Gillingham

PHHS Student of the Month

Jacob Lerner was nominated as our Kiwanis student of the month for December because he is hard working, funny, smart, trustworthy, goes out of his way to help all students and staff — and most importantly, he is known as a kind and caring person. Vice Principal Jennifer Pacofsky attended the breakfast with Lerner and shared the following information she had discovered about him with the Kiwanis members explaining why he was selected.

Pacofsky stated:

“He goes out of his way to help other people as evidenced by something he did for one of our special education teachers. He designed an adaptation for her sink so that the water would not come on too high in the class (spraying the students) and installed it in the classroom. He is known as the first person to show up if something needs to be done and the last to leave.

“Lerner is also known as a leader in his engineering class as he takes initiative when things need to get done, fixes things without prompting, and helps others along the way. Lerner designed Patrick Henry High School’s 3D-printed bathroom passes to coincide with the colors of the buildings to help staff identify students who were out of class and to keep teachers accountable to only allowing one student out of class at a time. He continues to support the program as he prints new ones when they get lost or broken and he can fix the printer if it breaks.

“Jacob not only is a leader in his engineering classes, but on campus and in the community. He has proactively cared for our aquaponics system this year. He thoughtfully researches and adapts the system to the weather conditions and plans ahead for feeding the fish over vacation. He spends extra time building capacity in the Aquaponics Club, by training underclassmen so they can confidently take over his role next year. We are proud to honor Jacob for his leadership with this award.”

Alumni Golf Tournament and Alumni News

The Seventh Semi-Sequential Patrick Henry High School Alumni Association Golf Tournament & Reunion BBQ is only five months away. This year, it will be held on the afternoon and evening of Thursday, May 16, at the Admiral Baker Golf Course & Clubhouse. Here are the details so that you can save the date and join us for this special event.

1. The golf tournament is a shotgun start and is set for 12:30 p.m. (registration, lunch and silent auction viewing/bidding begins at 11 a.m.) The reunion BBQ and awards banquet commences at 5:30 p.m. The golf tournament, lunch and dinner ticket remains at only $150 per person. Not a golfer? Then you can come and enjoy the buffet dinner and all the evening festivities for only $30 per person. We’re anticipating a crowd of well over 300 and golf is limited to the first 248 golfers in order to have a timely and fun tournament. Major sponsors and/or the first 120-plus paid registrations have their choice between the north and south courses. Register now at patriotalumni.org/registration or send a check payable to PHHS Alumni Association, Inc. to 9292 Activity Road, San Diego, CA 92126.
2. The Patrick Henry Marching Patriots and Cheerleaders will perform for our golfers coming off the course and those guests arriving for the evening reunion BBQ, awards program, and silent and live auctions between 5 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.
3. The amazing all-you-can-eat dinner buffet will consist of braised tri-tip with au jus, marinated garlic teriyaki chicken, vegetable chow mein, steamed jasmine rice, salad, Hawaiian sweet rolls and beverages. A vegetarian meal is optional if ordered in advance of the event.
4. Can’t make the event? You can still participate by bidding on our huge array of valuable auction items up to a week prior to the event. You will need your credit card and email address. Coming to the event? Bring your charged-up smartphone to track the bidding on the items you’re interested in. Don’t have a smartphone? Look for one of volunteers with an iPad to help you place your bid(s).
5. In addition to the silent auction, we will have several fabulous live auction items, many of which you can’t get anywhere else and are not to be missed.

The event is priced to cover the cost to produce this special tournament per each attendee, our sponsors and raffle/auction proceeds are critical to our success. Please do business with those sponsors who are supporting us, most of whom are PHHS alumni or have/had students at the school!

We’re proud to report that the PHHS Alumni Association, in just the first six years of its existence, has now raised and in the process of donating in excess of $600,000 worth of goods to their alma mater. Your support is making a huge difference for the current student body.

How can you help?

1. Encourage your friends/fellow alumni to register with the Alumni Association by providing their full name (maiden name included), class year of graduation and email address at patriotalumni.org/join
2. Send a check or go online at patriotalumni.org/registration to sign up now for our May 16 event. A fun time is guaranteed only if you attend.
3. Become a sponsor, and share your business/organization with other Patriots at patriotalumni.org/sponsors. You will be listed in the tournament program and on our website for at least a year.
4. Donate a silent or live auction item for our May 16 event. This year, we will again be using Gesture bidding software, which will enable online bidding to all interested parties whether you’re able to personally attend on the date of the event or not.
5. Send a donation to our 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. It’s tax-deductible (consult your tax advisor for details) and we will make great use of it as we have very low administrative expenses and no paid staff.

Thanks in advance for your consideration and support. For more information please contact Kevin Carlson, president, Patrick Henry High School Alumni Association, Inc. kcarlson@missionjanitorial.com or 858-566-6700 ext. 214 or visit PatriotAlumni.org.

Other news from on campus

The new two-story building located directly behind the main office along with the stadium and other athletic fields remodel are nearing completion and should be ready for the school to use by the spring.

Want to watch some basketball? Go back to campus this year and see new Patrick Henry boys basketball coach Kenny Caesar, a 1989 alumnus of the school, lead a turnaround in the program.

New physical education, old teacher

December is one of those months as a teacher where you try and keep students focused on learning while surviving the frenzy of that last week before the break. Teachers like me also enjoy infusing some fun into the learning during this high-energy, festive time of year. While fun in and of itself does have value, it’s particularly meaningful to this physical education teacher in the learning of new content. I believe that if students have positive connections when learning, then the content “sticks.” Meaning, when something is learned in a manner that is enjoyable, it’s more likely to be remembered and repeated.

California state standards for a ninth grader in physical education call out many areas that should be taught, analyzed and, acquired by all students. A few that are of value beyond the concepts of fitness and sport are: “Describe the enjoyment, self-expression, challenge, and social benefits experienced by achieving one’s best in physical activities; recognize and evaluate the role of cooperation and positive interactions with others when participating in physical activity; and accept personal responsibility to create and maintain a physically and emotionally safe and non-threatening environment for physical activity.”

Those objectives for PE might sound unusual or different to most, especially if you were in high school any time before 1995-ish. While we spent time in December working on some of the social and emotional aspects of physical activity through game play and personal fitness, we actually began much of that work back in August, when the school year started. I addressed a few pieces of this in my October “New physical education, old teacher” article for The Mission Times Courier.

In my 20-plus years of teaching, I have found that students will try something new, take risks and truly learn when they perceive the environment they are in to be welcoming and safe. Creating this environment within a physical education class takes time and effort, but it’s always worth it.

One of the first things we do before we engage in sport-related activity is to create a community that allows students to learn, safely and successfully. An interesting piece of that setup is taking the time to ensure every student in class has their name clearly marked on the front of their PE clothes. I mention it because many may see this as a waste of class time performing a mundane, time-consuming and simple task. I insist on it because it helps me learn their names quickly, and helps their classmates do the same. No one wants to be called “him,” “her,” or “hey you” in any class, and some are just too shy to ask.

It’s important to build a community within any classroom, but especially in PE. It’s one thing to try out a new writing style in English class or miss three questions on a test in history. It’s a private affair, a student and their scores or attempts. They get to choose, or not, to let peers in on their learning attempts and outcomes. It’s another thing entirely to attempt a serve in badminton, maybe for the first time ever, while your peers look on. Students in PE should know that their efforts will not be made light of, demeaned or humiliated. When we get students to understand we are all learning — some beginners, some more skilled — but learners all of us. And when we, the collective class, recognize the efforts of that individual, separate from another’s efforts or performance and give it value, learning occurs. It’s a large job, but about this time of year, if I’ve done my job well I begin to see these learning communities take flight and begin to reap the benefits of the communities my students have built.

Every Friday in my class is “Cardio Friday.” Some days are very challenging, some more relaxed, but all with the stated goal of building the individual student’s aerobic capacity. Tying this all together here, as we finished out our last day together of 2018, I opted for a different type of “Cardio Friday.” Our last Friday of the year together we played “reindeer games.” No one was left out and no one was called names. We had crazy relay races, backwards, forwards, hopping, jumping, running, and laughing. My favorite thing I heard all day was, “can we do this every Friday?” I witnessed students running faster than I’ve ever seen them run in four months of “Cardio Fridays.” So, maybe there will be more reindeer games in our future, but most definitely more fun-infused learning.

—Terri Clark, PHHS PE teacher

—Elizabeth Gillingham is principal of Patrick Henry High School.