May 4, 2005

School Scenes

Willow Glen Elementary plans fund-raiser

Willow Glen Elementary School will hold a Silent Auction Saturday, May 14 from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at a farmer’s market located on the school campus. There will be items of interest to all ages, including movie passes, restaurant certificates, jewelry, handmade items, gift baskets and much, much more. Proceeds will benefit educational and enrichment programs at the school.

Also that morning, the school will host a Scholastic Book Fair. A wide range of Scholastic children’s books will be available for purchase with proceeds benefiting the school library.

Both events will take place outside among the farmer’s market.

Elementary students raise money for fire victims

Last month, Alexes Niekamp and Camille Friscia, who are both 8-year-old students at Willow Glen Elementary School, came up with the idea to make cookies and lemonade for victims of the Glen Willow fire. The two girls decided to hold their sale at school, with the proceeds going to the families of the school’s students who were affected by the Glen Willow apartment fire. They sold cookies and lemonade at school and raised $135 for the victims. Congratulations, girls, on a job well done.

Booksin Elementary holds blood drive

Booksin Elementary School held its annual blood drive on Friday, April 22 from 2 to 6 p.m. in the school’s cafeteria.

Thirty people came to donate and 26 were able to give blood. Five of those donors were not parents of Booksin students, but came anyway. Three students from the Willow Glen Middle School leadership group came to babysit.

Two CCOC students named best in the state by SkillsUSA

Two Central County Occupational Center students earned gold medals in the fields of air conditioning and machining at the 38th annual SkillsUSA state competition held April 14 to 17 in Riverside.

Michael Hagopjan, a senior at Pioneer High School, was named the best in the state for the field of air conditioning, and Jose Navarro from Job Corps won the gold for machining. Hagopjan also won a full scholarship to WYOTECH in Fremont worth $21,850.

Hagopjan of Willow Glen will represent CCOC at the National SkillsUSA-VICA competition in Kansas City this June. Navarro, who lives in East San Jose, will not compete because SkillsUSA does not have a national competition for machining.

Both students were very excited about their wins and plan to continue their education in their chosen fields.

“I had planned to go to Santa Barbara Community College before I won this competition and scholarship,” Hagopjan said. “But now I will be going to WYOTECH because it is an opportunity that is too good to pass up.”

Navarro plans to continue attending CCOC’s machining class next year and then will go on to community college. He said he hasn’t been able to get the smile off of his face since he won the gold medal.

SkillsUSA advisor and CCOC air conditioning instructor John Tawney said that the CCOC students competing this year were an “exceptional” group and really responded well to all that they were challenged with at the competition.

Hagopjan said that without Tawney, he would not be at the air conditioning skill level that he is at today. “Without Mr. Tawney, I would not be where I am today. He is a really big motivator and is always very positive in his teaching.”

A total of 11 students from CCOC attended the SkillsUSA-VICA with hands-on and demonstration competitions in the fields of air conditioning, carpentry, collision repair, CAD drafting, diesel, machining and air conditioning job skill demonstration.

SkillsUSA is a national organization for students in trade, technical, industrial and health occupations career education fields. Annual competitions are held to encourage s edgnts to challenge themselves within their chosen technical careers.

Others who took home medals from the state competition include several second-place winners: Jose Gonzalez from Job Corps for CAD drafting; Nicholas Turner from Silver Creek High School for diesel; Andy Lozano from Pioneer Plus; Miguel Heredia from Apollo; and William Jensen from Job Corps for air conditioning job skills demonstration. Third-place winners include Sergio Batres from Liberty High School for collision repair and Benjamin Book from Branham High School for air conditioning. Batres also won a $2,500 scholarship to WYOTECH. Participant awardees include David Lara from James Lick High School for carpentry and Adam Citti from Del Mar High School for collision repair.
For more information on CCOC’s SkillsUSA program, contact Michelle Alaimo at (408) 723-6464 or malaimo@metroed.net.

MetroED is the largest career-oriented educational organization in Santa Clara County, comprised of high school and adult occupational, academic and community programs. The school annually provides 70,000 diverse students with the skills to help them be productive, income-earning and tax-paying contributors to Silicon Valley.

Willow Glen second graders present PeaceBuilder Music program
The second grade classes at Willow Glen Elementary School are inviting the community to a PeaceBuilder Music Program, Tuesday, May 24 at 7 p.m. in the school cafeteria, 1425 Lincoln Ave. Come and join the students, and learn about what it means to be a PeaceBuilder. For more information, contact Janice Allen at the school at (408) 535-6265 or Janice_Allen@sjusd.org.

Elizabeth Mrizek	Teresa Sartor

Presentation produces top high school female scientists

Presentation High School Science students brought home 79 awards from the 2005 Synopsys Silicon Valley Science and Technology Championship. Among the major awards were the grand prize, a trip to Intel ISEF Physical Sciences Affiliation sponsored by Intel Foundation, given to juniors Elizabeth Mrizek, who lives in Cambrian Park and Teresa Sartor, who lives in Willow Glen.  

Twenty-eight students brought home at least one award. A number of young women accepted numerous awards for their efforts. Honored for their work were Ellen Bailey, Kristin Barker, Kate Marie Brown, Kristina Agbayani, Jeri Canlas, Lauren Careccia, Shanna Cook, Katherine Foley, Allison Haupt, Elaine Higashi, Stephanie Ho, Kaitlyn Howell, Sonia Kumar, Kayla Ladd, Catherine Le, Elizabeth Mrizek, Nicole Nguyen, Tiffany Pham, Daya Raman, Teresa Sartor, Rachel Simpson, Lauren Traina, Samantha Tran and Arille Jeriza Virrey. Seven of these young women, representing five projects, will be going on the California State Fair in Los Angeles.

French e-mail correspondents visit Presentation
A few years ago, Presentation High School’s French teacher, Mary Lezotte, started an e-mail correspondence program between Presentation students and students at Lycée La Merci in Montpellier, France. As the program grew, it was decided that it would be much more interesting for students to be corresponding as part of an exchange between California and France. In a sense, the schools became sister schools. In the 2003-2004 school year, the first “exchange” took place.

This year the French students arrived April 9 and stayed with 25 Presentation families. They spent the weekend with their pre-arranged host family and visited places like Santa Cruz, Napa, Sonoma, San Francisco and the Santa Clara Valley. From April 11 through April 14 they attended classes at Presentation.

Most of the students said that Presentation is much more relaxed than La Merci. In France students must sit in their desks all day and stay quiet while listening to lectures. They are not allowed to choose their classes and most of the time they don’t change classrooms. These young men and women were amazed at how much technology is available to the girls and the variety of activities the students have.  

Essentially, these students felt like ambassadors for their countries. They were culturally tolerant and willing to experience what was foreign to them. Because the exchange is between two Catholic high schools, they also were able to foster a fellowship with other Catholics. On June 1, eleven Presentation girls will travel to Montpellier to stay with host families, to speak French, to learn cultural tolerance, history and to see a different part of the world that many of them have not been.