By Jennifer Osborn
We are in the process of securing our judging pool for the Class of 2015 Senior Projects. Every Helix senior is required to complete a senior project in order to graduate. The senior project requires students to learn something new and produce a product, event or service and write an eight- to 10-page research paper. Students document the progress of their project and show judges their documentation and their finalized project at an event called senior defenses. The next step is senior boards, at which students present an eight- to 10-minute speech that discusses their project, their research paper and a reflection on their high school career.
We need many, many community members to participate in order to provide our students with good evaluations of their projects. This year’s senior defenses will be presented April 15, 16 and 17 from 12:30 to 3:30 p.m. Senior boards will be presented May 26 and 27 from noon to 4 p.m.
We greatly appreciate any time our community can give to this valuable activity. Judges can participate in any or all dates. Please contact Jennifer Osborn at [email protected] if you are interested in volunteering.
Two-hundred Helix juniors just returned from their College 4 Me trip.
Each year, eligible Helix students participate in a college visitation trip that includes 10-15 college campuses around California. This year, thanks to the generosity of our community, and the hard work of our students raising funds, we were able to fill four buses with students to tour schools such as UC Berkeley, UCLA, Cal State Northridge, Stanford University and more. At each campus they visited, the students were greeted and provided a tour by Helix alumni attending the school.
College 4 Me is an integral part of Helix’s educational program. It supports the college-going environment on campus and allows students the opportunity to picture themselves on a college campus.
The Helix Speech & Debate team has qualified 16 students to compete at the California High School Speech Association State Championships later this month. Alysia Baumann, Sable Beltran, Regina Forester, Armando Garcia, Rilyn Gardner, Mikayla Gomez, Georgia Hale, Aaron Knuteson, Fred Martin, Spencer McCall, Rebeca McClellan, Sylvia Montijo, Sydney Nation, Katrina Newman, Rachel Orey and Naomi Orosz will all represent Helix at the tournament at Vista Murrieta High School April 17 to 20.
The Helix journalism class is regularly publishing an online student publication. The Highland Fling was once the student newspaper but has now gone electronic. Check them out at highlandfling.helixcharter.net.
The Helix Academic League team finished the season as Grossmont League champions.
Helix participated in the Math Engineering Science Achievement (MESA) Day at SDSU for the first time. Eleven high schools and 200 students participated in the competition, and Helix students did very well.
The following students have qualified to move on to the Regional Competition at UC Irvine in April: Benjamin Lam, Mohamed Mohamed, Anderson Lam, Matthew Goldman, Emily Lam, Adrian Lam, Brecca Ridenour, Katie Lim, Xochitl Ramos and Jorel Lustina.
The Helix Polynesian Club competed at the Pacific Islander Association Annual High School Outreach and Dance Competition at CSU Long Beach after qualifying locally. The club took first place at the event, which is designed to promote higher education for Pacific Islander youth.
—Jennifer Osborn writes on behalf of Helix Charter High School. Reach her at [email protected].
