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SLA Juniors Visit the Polls

November 18, 2011 by lpahomov Leave a Comment

By Jennifer Wright

Staff Writer

Most of SLA’s students can’t vote, so is election day just a day off from school?

This year, many students treated November 8th as a day to sleep in. For the students in US History Teacher’s Diana Laufenberg’s classes, however, it was much more. Each junior in her classes visited their local polling place and interviewed voters to gain insight about the knowledge and experience of the voter.

The results of the election are up and that of course is the main event but some other interesting things also took place on November 8th. Junior Sam Lovett-Perkins said, “I actually ran into a council woman [Cindy Bass] who was just saying hi to voters at the polls.”

In previous years, the assignment has gotten several students into controversial situations. In the Presidential election of 2008 students in Laufenberg’s class were hassled for attempting to take photos and interviews at the polls in their area.

“Some polling places were really not keen with kids having recording devices or people not valid voters being anywhere near the polling places because it was so chaotic,” Laufenberg said.

Laufenberg gives her contact information to everyone in the class so they can contact her with any questions or issues. She related the story about a student in her class who participated in the 2008 election.“He calls me in the morning and is like ‘Uh, so I was at a polling place and they asked me to leave’. …They basically told him he didn’t have the right to video or record.”

This got the class and Laufenberg wondering what to do. She called in to a representative at City Hall as well as searched through the city statues for some specific language stating this. Turns out, there was nothing making this type of video recording illegal. “We were right. Sometimes it doesn’t matter. I told all the kids if you get hassled at all, just walk way.”

Many of the interviews from this year, videos and recordings, live on SLA’s public webpage for public consumption. Laufenberg is working on putting links to each on a map so one could click on the polling places around Philly and see the interviews. She also got in contact with teachers on Twitter around the country and encouraged them to do the same project. A classroom in New York did the same project as the SLA juniors. She hopes to expand this in the future.

As Junior Sophia Henniger put it, “Hearing it from an actual person was a good experience because it helped me remember that people should form their own opinions about elections and voting.”

This year the feeling toward the project was positive from people at the polls. As opposed to other years, the volunteers and the voters reacted well to the questions. “We got many compliments on how interesting the project was,” said Perkins

This time next year will be the next Presidential election and some of the students doing this project this year will be able to vote. The hope is that they learned something this year to put into action for November 2012.

Seniors Chase Scholarship Money

November 18, 2011 by lpahomov Leave a Comment

By Kristi Bezhani

Staff Writer

Students with promising and exceptional talent deserve the spotlight and a college scholarship. Many of this year’s graduation students need a future financial plan to cover the college bills.

There are many merit scholarships out there that students can apply for. However, students often don’t realize how much effort goes into the application process. Winning the money takes work.

One of the great and well known programs is the Gates Millennium scholars program. The application process involves using writing and public speaking skills to be selected. Each year, 1,000 students are selected. They must have a GPA of 3.3 or higher, be eligible for free and reduced lunch, and be a person of color.

A member of SLA’s first class, Shareesa Bollers, was the first student from the school to be awarded the scholarship. When applying for this scholarship, Bollers was also doing college applications at the same time, which made it hard to cope with when also applying for a scholarship.

“It was a very long application, 26 pages. I started early and tried to work on it a bit, for at least an hour after school every day,” said Bollers. The work paid off — Bollers now has a full scholarship to Bard College, where she is currently a sophomore.

Another SLA student that is currently pursuing scholarship money is senior Gina Dukes. She is currently a finalist for money from QuestBridge.

When asked about the process of applying, she said that, “because I had known for months that I would be applying for this scholarship, I was well prepared and informed of everything that I had to do.”

Dukes wasted no time in starting her application. It opened online in August, and Duke was already requesting letters of recommendation and taking care of her test scores.

Dukes found out about the QuestBridge program through an announcement on BuildOn’s blog . She decided to pursue the College Prep Scholarship, and was invited to an admissions conference at Yale. Now a senior, she is eligible for QuestBridge’s National College Match Scholarship, which is similar to the Gates Milinnieum in the way that it provides students with a full ride scholarship, only QuestBridge matchers students with a particular school.

Dukes does not think that SLA students are taking enough advantage of these kinds of programs.

“Not many people know about this great scholarship, and there should be way more people taking advantage of it. I tried to spread the word, (through Facebook and also verbally) but in many cases, people either had heard about it too late and couldn’t apply, or they didn’t want to put forth the effor

t required in the application. Questbridge for example asks for a lot, but it is worth it in the end.”

The best way for students to find out about such scholars programs, are through councilors, and teachers with recommendations. Once students find out about programs such as Gates and QuestBridge, they don’t take as much advantage of them as they should. This is mainly because often when students seek or are nominated for a scholarship, they tend to be a senior, which makes life harder considering that students have plenty to scramble through on top of applying for scholarships.

Student of the Week: Cheyenne Pagan

November 18, 2011 by lpahomov Leave a Comment

Ayanna Robinson

Staff Writer

“I didn’t get an art class this year and I wanted to spread my art talents with the community and that was when I was like ‘Alright. I’m going to start an art club.’”

Staring into the face of defeat, Junior Cheyenne Pagan turned what most would consider a loss into a great win for SLA. Following the school’s maxim of going after what inspires you, Pagan started the club to give back to this and future generations of SLA students. Many “art involved” students love the idea of bringing even more outlets for artistic expression.

“Art gives everyone in SLA the opportunity to express their individual creativity.” Says Senior Donna Survillo. “The fact that the school is pretty much a gallery of everyone’s art makes students feel more comfortable when it comes to expressing themselves elsewhere.”

The Art Club runs off anything its contributors bring to the table. An impromptu origami class was a favorite for Cheyenne. Creating her own take on origami samples reminded her of why she fell in love with art in the first place.

“I always see art and I’m like, OMG that’s so cool, but I don’t have that kind of money. Alright, let me copy it so I can have one of my own.”

Luckily, she has an amazing talent and ends up creating pieces that surprise even herself.

“[My art] is a visual representation of not only my talent but how I feel at the moment and what’s going on,” says Pagan. “But it doesn’t mean that I wouldn’t want to share it with anyone else.”

But the art isn’t just a way to express talent or emotions; it stems from something more.

“Ever since I was younger it was a way to connect with my dad who now im not in touch with.” For Pagan, this club isn’t just about the material product. She values the process of learning and growing that comes with every piece.

As of right now the club is small and organized mostly on Facebook (http://on.fb.me/sXlcDt). Everyone tries to stay away from strict schedules to protect the freedom the club was designed around. Although she remains the founder, Cheyenne avoids dictating at all costs. She sticks to the belief that the club was meant as an equal space for any age group to teach or be taught.

The sharing of space works especially well because of one teacher, Ms. Marcie Hull. “Room 301 is the Art Studio, not Ms. Hull’s room.” She says. “Ms. Hull’s desk is located in this room, that is my space, so kids have the opportunity to use the space in an art related way any way they choose.” Ms. Hull has been very supportive throughout Cheyenne’s high school art career, watching her grow independently as well as exercising her “drawing muscle”. The biggest reason for all her support may come from her love of student driven learning. “It benefits the school to have students inspired by what they do and the world and to pass that passion on to other students. It has a wonderful ripple effect and makes us all better. ”

Though not clear, the future of the club is sure to be a bright one. Perhaps a capstone for the enthusiastic junior, she just wants to create something lasting. Cheyenne has big ideas to merge the efforts of the club and BuildOn by having contributors put together an art show if they’re willing.

As of right now, the growth of the club has been stunted by schoolwide benchmarks, preventing many from attending. Even with the smallest number of participants Cheynne is grateful. “It brings me absolute happiness to know people are interested. Coming into this I didn’t think people were going to come and I thought that I would get shut down like a person performing but people are coming in and they’re actually interested.”

Seniors step up to college

November 18, 2011 by lpahomov Leave a Comment

Ms. Hirschfield in the college office. Photo by Ayanna Robinson.

Bach Tong
Staff Writer

The fall and winter are known as the college admission season for the college office, which has been running at high capacity with college counselor Karina Hirschfield and her team of five interns. Both X and Y lunches are the students walk-in hours, when students can come in and get help directly in-person.

“We will provide you with all of the necessity to embark this [college admission] journey” said college intern Francesca Carregal to a senior as he inquired about the college admission process.

Senior William Felinski said that he is “impressed with the people’s willingness to volunteer their time” and he doesn’t have a complaint about the process.

Ms. Hirschfield said that students, especially seniors, should “make times to come” to get assistance, and “if [they] think [they] need a lot of time, then make an appointment.”

However, senior Gina Dukes said that “coming to the college office is a bit stressful, [because] there are a lot of people, and Ms. Hirschfield is always pressed of time.”

Dukes is now done with the college application process and waiting for results. She said that she does not need to visit the college office as often, because of the resources that are available on Naviance. “But when I do really need to talk to Ms. Hirschfield, I got a lot of time with her” Dukes added.

Naviance is the official web-based program that Science Leadership Academy (SLA) uses for college research and planning. It is the communication hub between college office, students, and teachers regarding resources for the application process such as letter of recommendations, students’ transcripts, and application tracker. This year, SLA is going paperless for common app colleges.

“At times I get aggravated by the amount of things I need to keep track of between the online Naviance and paper systems” said Felinski.

The class of 2012 has received the most preparation for this process than the previous graduating classes, according to the college office. “I have found a lot of support and accessibility in my college process” said Felinski, “so far all my needs have been met and kindly handled.”

“The most frustrating part is when students don’t access the information and resources that we spent time making” said Ms. Hirschfield, “many students ask questions that are answered on Senior News.”

According to the college office, this graduating class has been slower in getting themselves ready for the process. But there has been a significant rise in the number of Early Decision applicants. This year, seniors don’t just consider the academic approach but also financial ability, and there is a range of schools in students’ college lists.

Seniors should “access the resources that [the college office] put at their disposal” said Ms. Hirschfield, “don’t hesitate to ask for help.” Although it goes by the name as “The College Office”, students who don’t want that path should also stop by for help with plan after high school.

“We want to help students who don’t consider college as well, as long as it pertains to their post secondary plan” added Ms. Hirschfield.

If you are a senior, please make sure that you complete these steps:

1) Finalized your “College I’m applying to” list on Naviance.

2) Check and sign your transcript. This is to confirm that what appear on your transcript is correct and that it is ready to send out.

3) Read and sign the blue form of transcript. This gives the college office permission to send your transcript to colleges.

4) Give the college office a two weeks window for transcript request.

5) Make sure you send your SAT and ACT scores to colleges well before the deadline. Although the websites say it takes two weeks, most of the times it takes longer.

6) Schedule an appointment with a college intern at khirschfield@scienceleadership.org if none of those things make sense to you!

Senior Class Announces Trip Details

November 18, 2011 by lpahomov Leave a Comment

Samantha Beattie

Staff Writer

On Wednesday, November 2, a quick second meeting about the senior trip was held in room 503 by Pia Martin.As the seniors came into the room and took their seats, Ms. Martin quickly discussed the details for the senior trip.

The trip will be held on Friday, February 3, during the second quarter.

There were three options given to the seniors. The first option, was the day trip which would range at $92. This would include lunch, an activity pass for the day, and a four hour water park.

The second option was the night trip for $158. This would include three meals, an activity pass, pool party from 10pm-midnight, an ice cream social, and a dance with a DJ. There would need to be six people to a room.

The third option is $185. This option includes everything from the second option. The difference being that this option includes the water park.

The seniors in the room were excited, but still pushed the question, “Will the rooms be co-ed?” Laughs broke out as the answer still remained a no.

Ms. Martin went on with the meeting about how the trip could be taken away from seniors, and if a student continued misconduct other senior privileges could be revoked. If a senior does not show up to detention, they lose their trip privilege. If that senior keeps missing detentions, they then lose prom, followed by the loss of graduation tickets.

“You will still walk in graduation, but no one will be there to see you,” said Ms. Martin, expressing the importance of showing up to detentions.

At the end of this meeting, a Google Docs survey was created by Brooke Thompson and put on SLA Talk titled “Senior Trip” . The purpose of this survey is for seniors to let Ms. Martin know which option they are interested in, so that they know how much money to put for the trip.

“BE SURE,” emphasized Ms. Martin. “Canceling is very expensive and the trip is nonrefundable.”

As said in senior notification (handed out in advisory on Monday, November 14th, 2011), the first payment for Senior Trip and trip selection is due November 23, price depending on the payment plan chosen.

The next meeting date has not been decided yet.

More information about the resort can be found here.: http://www.splitrockresort.com/