News

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/

A Change of Pace

November 17, 2011 by lpahomov Leave a Comment

Ryan Harris

Staff Writer

Simon Gratz High School: Mastery Charter — Formally known as simply Simon Gratz High School, now under The Renaissance School Initiative.

Schools are certainly a mixed bag of ideas, all with the sole purpose of educating our youth. They can be good or bad and some may have a critical focus on subjects like agriculture, the military, science, and so on. Concerning the idea of being good and bad, what can constitute a “good” school? Or even a “bad” school? One can guess that a good school is when a majority of the student body, parents, teachers, and faculty feel safe and motivated to learn/teach. A “bad” school being the opposite of that.

What happens when the school can motivate its students to learn? When the teachers are giving up on the students? The school has a high rate of violence and truancy? The school’s integrity begins to falter, and begins to underperform amongst the other schools in the district.

In recent years, The School District of Philadelphia has discovered the schools where the student body are consistently coming up short. To counteract this, The District has created the Renaissance Schools Initiative, in which it is in it’s second year of implementing.

The Renaissance Initiative has even created a video explaining their plan, which can be viewed here.

It is backed by many different Turnaround Teams such as Mosaica Turnaround Partners, Mastery Charter Schools, and ASPIRA, Inc. of Pennsylvania.

Many of schools that are falling under the initiative are: Simon Gratz High School, Clymer Elementary School, and both Olney High Schools. Now what is this whole model trying to accomplish? In the simplest terms, The District wants turn the “bad” schools into something on the line of a Masterman or Central, schools who have a history of performing well.

With this even comes a name change: some may become a Promise Academy for example, or some may become a Mastery Charter School. But how do they compare to SLA for example?

Much like SLA each and every Renaissance School has an advisory, but the Renaissance schools have something called a SAC or school advisory council. Both also, try and give ways for their students to further their education: Renaissance School offering Saturday classes and SLA offering AP classes through The District.

All this is great, but how does student body fair? Given the schools previous history of underperforming, the student bodies aren’t going to do so well either.

“It’s a neighborhood school, so most everyone comes from this area. There were big problems with truancy, fights, and gang activity.” stated Joshua Newman about Olney Charter High School, in a previously SLAM article.

Of course just because the schools themselves have been re-vamped, doesn’t mean that the students will quickly change as well. The problem students will stay the problem students. This could possibly be due to the fact that they used to attend a school where teachers simply gave up on them. One can only hope this change of pace with the Renaissance Schools can ease that problem.

Zombie Herman Attacks Advisories

November 15, 2011 by lpahomov Leave a Comment

Mr. Herman's advisory poses. Photo by Ayanna Robinson.

By Alex Ringgold

Staff Writer

On October 31, SLA had a couple of students dressed up for Halloween in frightening, humorous, or just plain weird costumes. However, at the end of the day, the whole community was taken by surprise when a mob of zombies tore through the hallways and attacked several advisory meetings.

The mastermind behind the undead invasion? History and Digital Video Teacher Mr. Herman and his advisees.

Mr. Herman has a history of directing scary scenarios, as he has been involved with haunted houses and other horror-themed events since 2003. He is usually tasked with scaring older kids during these haunted houses, so his advisory dressing up as zombies on Halloween should not have come as a surprise.

Mr. Herman’s love of scary is not a recent thing. “I’ve always loved horror movies, but psychological horror movies,” he said. During his first year at SLA, he and a group of students worked on creating their own scary movie.

“We wanted to do something that was never done before,” Mr. Herman explained. “So a zombie outbreak starts in a high school because of the school lunch, and we wanted a heroine for our story, but the spin is that she’s half zombie and half human.”

He continued to add an even bigger spin. “When she is around zombies she feels like a human, like Blade, so she’s killing them and slaying them, but when she’s around humans she feels the urge, you know, to eat.”

Mr. Herman’s projects at school are only a small part of his experience with video and media. He’s been on production teams before and even doubles of certain films and shows, like Power Rangers. He was even a part of the stunt crew for the movie Star Trek: Insurrection.

In the movie, Mr. Herman played one of the inhabitants on a planet that was being invaded for its source of power. He was dressed in a brown sack-like costume and told to run across a bridge before it blew up as an effect for the movie.

As for his most recent role, many students were surprised and amused by the event. Junior Jenn Wright, one of the students who was “attacked” by the mob, and she had this to say when they shambled into her unexpecting advisory:

“At first I was like ‘What is going on, what are they trying to accomplish?’ I was just confused but then I was like, ‘Oh, okay this is what SLA does.'”

SLA Community Observes, Reflects on Occupy Philly

November 3, 2011 by lpahomov Leave a Comment

By Bach Tong
Staff Writer

The phrase “We are the 99%” has become familiar to folks who travel by City Hall or pay attention to the local news. Occupy Philadelphia began on October 6th as part of a larger widespread movement started in New York City known as Occupy Wall Street.

Adbusters, a Canadian Magazine, used the term “Occupy Wall Street” in its July issue and called people to come and protest on September 17th. Over the last month, the movement has inspired a widespread response with more than 1500 locations globally. A general strike is called in cities across the country on Wednesday November 2d in response to the level of police brutality.

In Philadelphia, the Occupy group has consisted of a few hundred tents and individuals camped at Dilworth Plaza outside City Hall. For the SLA community, such a globally symbolic movement located only seven blocks away has been something interesting to explore.

Students have different opinions about the protests. Senior Michael Dea went down to City Hall with the SLA poetry club last Tuesday as a part of their club activity. “They were marching, protesting, not knowing what they want,” he commented about what he saw. “I don’t think that they are going to get much done.”

Senior Gina Dukes said that she wants to “make people realize that it is more to the movement than what the media is portraying”. She thinks that the movement is organized and people “should actually visit so they can see for themselves what is going on”.

Dukes views the movement as positive because people are uniting to create changes in society. Yet she thinks that “Occupy Philly has barely made any progress” she commented “and the few times that I’ve visited, there has not been much action going on”.

History and Digital Video Teacher Doug Herman has a different viewpoint. “Their presence is necessary because it is a reminder that this world still has two super powers- America and public opinion.”

Mr. Herman has been taking pictures and involved in it since the first day of Occupy. “I think the most common thing that has been said against the Occupy events is that they don’t have any unification,” Mr. Herman commented, “and that there is extreme confusion as to what they are actually trying to achieve.”

Mr. Herman is not the only teacher who has engaged with the protests and their implications. Ms. Rami has her class journal prompts regarding this topic in her Reading, Writing, and Rising Up, which critiques media and their portrayals of different issues.

For a long run, Dea thinks that people should be more specific in what they are demanding. “If I could get people to listen, I’d create a unifying message targeting a specific issue at a time”, he said.

Despite the mixed opinions that students have, Occupy Philadelphia and the Occupy movement in general have definitely gotten SLA’s attention. Thanks to SLA’s location and the school’s commitment to inquiry, students have a chance to have conversations int heir classrooms about what is happening and whether they want to be involved.