Staff Kudos May 2018
Recognitions & Accomplishments of Staff doing great things
Aloha HS Social Studies teacher exemplifies WE Collaborate pillar
Aloha High School Social Studies teacher Vince Kirnak and Lewis and Clark law professor Steve Johansen worked to create a fun, stimulating and civic minded experience for students at Aloha.
In an effort to nurture respectful, honorable and intellectually honest discourse, Vince partnered with Steve Johansen, Lewis and Clark law professor, to form Aloha’s first Constitution Team as part of the Classroom Law Project. A Constitution Team involves students studying very specific aspects of the United States Constitution, under the supervision of teachers and volunteers from the legal community. In most situations, schools sponsor a class to provide the structure and time necessary to learn complex material. This was not possible at Aloha, so Vince and Steve created an after-school club that attracted 20-25 students that met weekly.
During these sessions, Vince and Steve led dynamic and thought-provoking lessons regarding the American Constitution and how our legal system impacts current events. They were able to devise a system that met the requirements of a Constitution Team outside the school day.
The results of this project were three-fold:
- Students experienced a rich academic experience that provided a forum to discuss controversial issues in a respectful and honorable setting.
- Aloha students did remarkably well in the regional competition. As a first year team, students performed exceptionally. In particular, Kaitlin Schmidt and Josh Dumels were awarded 1st place in their sectional competition.
- The AHS Constitution Team is set and established for next year. Due to the efforts of Vince Kirnak and professor Steve Johansen, the Constitution Team is an established platform for students to grow in their knowledge and appreciation of the U.S. Constitution and discuss difficult issues in the context of discourse that is honest, civil and respectful.
Innovation Expo 2018 - iX18
2018 WE Awards & Celebration
The 5th Annual WE Celebration & Recognition Awards took place on Thursday, May 10, 2018 at Beaverton Foursquare Church. Nearly 300 school and District employees along with community members, business leaders, faith partners and parents gathered to celebrate the wonderful partnerships throughout the Beaverton School District.
Congratulations to all of the winners!
HS2's Carlie Harris a national finalist for HOSA Goodheart-Wilcox Outstanding Service Award
Carlie Harris, Chemistry and Medical Intervention teacher at HS2, has been named a national finalist for the HOSA Goodheart-Wilcox Outstanding Service Award. She is one of three finalists for the Western Region and the winner will be announced at the International Leadership Conference in June.
The Goodheart-Wilcox Outstanding Service Award recognizes local HOSA chapter advisors, one from each of the three HOSA regions who have made outstanding contributions of local, regional, state and national significance to the promotion, development, and progress of HOSA–Future Health Professionals.
HOSA (Health Occupations Student Association) is an international student organization recognized by the U.S. Department of Education and the Health Science Education (HSE) Division of ACTE. HOSA's two-fold mission is to promote career opportunities in the health care industry and to enhance the delivery of quality health care to all people.
Congratulations, Carlie!
Retired physicist supports local student
The K-8 Science Expo provided the opportunity to celebrate the community partnership between Matias Moncayo, Meadow Park Middle School and Don Anderson, a retired physicist from Tektronix and OMSI Physics Lab volunteer.
With Don's support Matias was able to pursue his goal to use a Tesla coil for charging a cell phone. Dr. Susan Holveck, Science Specialist and Chair of of the Scientific Review Committee provided guidance to the student-mentor-teacher team for his project that involved designing and testing a model at OMSI's physics lab.
"Helping young researchers like Matias investigate in-depth science and engineering projects can be overwhelming to a teacher, but with the support of caring and qualified people in our community, and a review committee that knows how to ask just the right questions to ensure every student is safe before experimenting, the amazing is possible," exclaims Meadow Park Middle School Science teacher Susan Duncan.
Whitford MS 8th grader finalist in Lions Club Peace Poster Contest
Whitford Middle School 8th grader, Taylor Igarta was selected as one of 24 merit finalists in the Lions Clubs International Peace Poster Contest. The contest encourages young people (ages 11-13) worldwide to artistically express their visions of peace. Since 2005, the Beaverton Lions Club has sponsored Whitford Middle School’s participation in the annual contest.
The theme of 2017-18 Peace Poster Contest was "The Future of Peace". Twenty-four international finalists were selected from more than 600,000 participants worldwide. Her accomplishment was honored last month at a school-wide assembly that was attended by Beaverton Mayor, Denny Doyle, Beaverton Lions club member, Jennifer Daubert, and the Igarta family. Taylor won more than $600 for her winning poster design.
Congratulations to Taylor, on her amazing accomplishment! To view Taylor’s stunning poster design, go to the Lions Clubs website: www.lionsclubs.org
Six BSD seniors named 2018 National Merit Scholarship Winners
Jonathan Alcantara Montemayor
Nina Spellman
Will Fritzler
Kelly Han
Alexander La Cour
Jerrick Li
National Merit $2500 Scholarship winners are the finalists in each state judged to have
the strongest combination of accomplishments, skills, and potential for success in rigorous college studies. The number of winners named in each state is proportional to the state’s percentage of the nation’s graduating high school seniors.
These Scholars were selected by a committee of college admissions officers and high
school counselors, who appraised a substantial amount of information submitted by both the finalists and their high schools: the academic record, including difficulty level of subjects studied and grades earned; scores from two standardized tests; contributions and leadership in school and community activities; an essay written by the finalist; and a recommendation written by a high school official.
Congratulations Jonathan, Nina, Will, Kelly, Alexander, and Jerrick and good luck in all of your future endeavors!
BSD Art teachers recognized
Art students in college have homework too, and at Portland Community College (PCC) Rock Creek a recent assignment asked art students to think about their high school art teachers who had encouraged them to study art at the college level.
The Beaverton School District teachers recognized were:
- Megan Metz - ACMA
- Eloika Rozendaal - Beaverton High School
- Kim Short - Westview High School
The teachers had their artwork on display April 3-27, 2018 at the PCC Rock Creek Helzer Gallery during the Creating Links - Local High School Art Faculty exhibit.
BSD students take on the Intel NW Science Expo
The Intel Northwest Science Expo, held Friday, April 13, 2018 at Portland State University, is Oregon's state-level science research competition affiliated with the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair.
Intel NWSE includes both a middle school and high school division. The two divisions included 513 projects from 80 schools and organizations across the state. This is the first time since 2006 that both middle and high school students competed under the same roof in the new Viking Pavilion. Two best of fair winners were chosen from each division.
Beaverton School District students dominated.
Best of Fair Middle School Division
- Audrey Johnson, grade 8, Summa Whitford won Best of Fair in the middle school division with her project titled, "The Effect of Urban Development on Turbidity In Fanno Creek".
- Rubaba Amyeen, grade 6, Summa Stoller won Best of Fair in the middle school division for her project titled, "Patterns for Protection".
Best of Fair High School Division
- Adit Gupta, grade 11, Westview High School won Best of Fair in the high school in Life Science in the high school division and an Intel ISEF finalist with his project titled, "A Therapeutic Approach to Cytomegalovirus: Novel Method of Constructing Short Synthetic Promoters Using Randomized TFBS Combinations".
Many other Beaverton middle school students received Special Awards, view them here.
In the high school division, additional Beaverton School District projects were chosen as Intel ISEF finalists. These finalists win an all-expenses-paid trip to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in May 2018, to compete at the international level, during the Society for Science and the Public organized event, the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair.
- Divya Amirtharaj, grade 11, Westview High School was selected as an Intel ISEF finalist with her project titled, "Utilizing Blockchain to Revolutionize Privacy and Security of Medical Records".
- Himani Sood, grade 11, Westview High School was selected as an Intel ISEF finalist with her project titled, "Drug Testing Chemotherapies to Identify Kinase Pathways Affected by Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy".This means we are sending a total of 6 projects from Westview to ISEFF (# projects qualified through the Beaverton Hillsboro Science Expo, results I have shared with you in February.
- Anwesha Mukherjee, grade 10, Westview High School qualified for Intel ISEF at Beaverton-Hillsboro Science Expo with her project titled, "A Novel Approach Machine Learning Algorithms to Recognize Emotion From Speech to Aid Social Interaction".
- Rohan Ahluwalia, grade 10,Westview High School qualified for Intel ISEF at Beaverton-Hillsboro Science Expo with his project titled, "Automatic Detection of Lipohypertrophy in Insulin Dependent Diabetics".
- Lauren Li, grade 11, Westview High School qualified for Intel ISEF at Beaverton-Hillsboro Science Expo with her project titled, "Characterization of AAP Dependency in AAV Capsid Assembly".
Several other Beaverton high school students received Special Awards, view them here.
Congratulations to all of the winners!
Speaking of science...Dr. Holveck is an inspiration
"I was in Summa several years ago, graduating from eighth grade in 2009. I am in Provo, Utah at Brigham Young University but hopefully will be back up in Oregon for summer. (I have applied for a summer fellowship at the OHSU Primate Research Center). I am actually still only finishing my sophomore year because I went on a two year LDS mission to El Salvador. I am majoring in molecular biology with a minor in economics and am planning on going to medical school.
I wanted to say thank you for the great impact that you have had on my life academically. At one point last year, just after returning from my mission and a complete break from academic studies for two years, I was feeling overwhelmed with a large 10-12 page research paper. I felt like I had no idea how to write such a large paper or where to begin. But then I thought "Wait a minute, Dr. Holveck taught me exactly how to write a research paper!" I smiled, went to the bookstore, bought a pack of note cards, and started finding sources. I even labelled my source cards with Roman numerals, and then wrote the roman numerals and the number fact from that source at the top of each fact card. It felt just like I was writing another background paper for one of those science projects, and I received a very good grade.
So, I wanted to write to let you know the habits you taught are still being used. I am so grateful that you set me up for a lifelong pursuit of knowledge with a solid foundation of science.
I hope that you are doing well, and wish you all the best."
Westview HS sisters place 4th in SourceAmerica National Design Challenge
The sisters teamed up with the Edwards Center and designed a simple to use packaging machine to bundle boxes, allowing employees to complete the process on their own without help.
SourceAmerica, a national nonprofit agency with a mission to create employment opportunities for people with disabilities, hosts the Design Challenge annually. The contest is designed to bring greater awareness of the need and the impact of assistive technology in the workplace and encourage upcoming generations to develop an inclusive mindset.
Throughout the competition, students worked closely with employees with disabilities at nonprofit agencies in their communities. Their goal was to understand the challenges employees face and to design innovative assistive technology to make jobs more accessible, more efficient and more fun.
Watch their video below:
BSD students place first in Creative Expression Contest
Congratulations, Sara and Julia!
Sara Calderon
Julia Hildebrandt
ISB student elected Governor for Junior State of America Pacific Northwest State
JSA is a non-partisan political club where students learn public speaking skills through debate and put civic education into action by participating in simulated legislative hearings, mock Supreme Court cases and civil dialogue on issues of interest to their community and in the news.
Barkenaes has been involved with JSA since her freshman year. She has worked as director of chapter communication, connecting JSA chapters across her state. She also served as Democratic Whip at Winter Congress, where students participate in a simulated Congress. She also served as her chapter’s president.
Founded in 1934, JSA’s model supports teaching young people democracy by practicing it. As Governor, Barkenaes will oversee all aspects of the Pacific Northwest region, including its budget, supporting existing JSA chapters and starting new ones. She will also serve on the National Council of Governors and lead a cabinet of student leaders who plan JSA’s major conventions, Fall State, Winter Congress, and Spring State.
The National Council of Governors is comprised of a governor elected from the Northeast, Southeast, Arizona, Southern California, Northern California, Midwest, and Ohio River Valley as well as the Mid-Atlantic. Collectively, the governors represent the voice of more than 10,000 JSA members.
Colette Cassinelli Inspires students to inquire!
Stoller 8th grader headed to Pittsburgh for Broadcom MASTERS International Program
Mithra Karamchedu, 8th grader at Stoller Middle School, has been selected to represent the United States of America in the in the 2018 Broadcom MASTERS International Program for his project: Remote Sensing the Ablation or Accumulation of a Glacier By Using Fractal Analysis on Glacier Images. Mithra was awarded the Rising Star Award at the Competition.
Broadcom MASTERS (Math, Applied Science, Technology and Engineering Rising Stars), is the premier science and engineering competition for middle school students. This year, 25 of the top students from 20 countries will gather for a week in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in May. As a delegate, Mithra will be celebrated for his achievements. Delegates will visit local universities, famous science-related sites, and will observe the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair for high school students. The program aims to introduce delegates to new career paths and emerging research fields, create an international network of like-minded students, and teach important skills that will benefit
the students later in life.
Mithra's Project Background: Mithra is fascinated by fractals. Fractals are “self-repeating patterns and structures that exist basically everywhere,” he explains. A measure called the fractal dimension indicates how complicated a fractal is. That measure is based on the roughness of a fractal’s shape. Mithra is also concerned about climate change and its impacts. He had learned that the melting of a glacier signals its declining “health.” And that can be a sign of climate change. Basically, the worse climate change gets, the more some glaciers will melt. “It occurred to me that I could use fractal dimensions to determine the health of a glacier,” Mithra says.
Tactics and Results: “The more a glacier melts, the more its edges become fractured, which in turn must affect its fractal dimension,” Mithra reasoned. He accessed online satellite images and information for various glaciers. He also recorded the surface mass balance for the glaciers, where those figures were available. He used all that data to see whether particular glaciers were melting or growing. Then Mithra used fractal math with the data. Using an online tool called Fractop, Mithra calculated the fractal dimensions for more than 40 glaciers. He also calculated ratios to compare the fractal dimensions of various whole glaciers with their edges. Then Mithra analyzed all the data and noticed some correlations. “There is a consistent pattern to how glaciers grow and melt,” Mithra says. Scientists could use that pattern to monitor glaciers’ growth or shrinkage, he concludes. Overall, Mithra thinks his method would be easier than some complex mathematical models that scientists currently use.
Other Interests: Mithra enjoys drawing, and he especially likes to create cartoons. He also plays the mridangam. That’s a double-barreled Indian drum. In addition to various school activities, he plays tennis and has a black belt in Taekwondo. Mithra hopes to become a computer engineer. “I am somewhat obsessed with computers and computer programming,” he says.
Congratulations, Mithra!
Aloha HS students win German American Society Scholarships
Two Aloha High School seniors were recently named winners of the German American Society's annual scholarship contest, which rewards achievement in German by high school seniors in the Portland-Metro Area. The scholarships are awarded on the basis of the students' performance on the 2018 National German Exam of the American Association of Teachers of German (AATG).
Nearly 22,000 high school students across the United States annually take the National German Exam, now in its 58th year. The Board of Directors of theSociety decided to award its 2018 scholarships to those high school seniors receiving the four highest scores in the Portland-Metro Area on the 2018 National German Exam. This respected exam provides an objective means of comparing the German language skills of students from across the state. It does not give preference to any one method, textbook, or approach, and students in all corners of the state may participate at minimal expense.
The 2018 Aloha HS winners and scholarship amounts:
- 2nd Place - AATG: $3,000 – Aloha High school – Wyatt Smyth
- 4th Place - AATG: $1,500- Aloha High school – Sydney Jackson
In keeping with its mission to further the perpetuation of German ethnic culture, heritage, arts, and language, the German American Society awards these scholarships in recognition that educational and career opportunities are enhanced by German skills, validating the winners' achievements and providing encouragement to high school students in the Portland-Metro Area to study German language and culture.
ISB ranked #2 High School in Oregon by U.S. News & World Report
Gold medals are awarded to the top 500 schools based on highest college readiness.
To produce the 2017 Best High Schools rankings, U.S. News & World Report teamed with North Carolina-based RTI International, a global nonprofit social science research firm. RTI implemented the U.S. News comprehensive rankings methodology, which is based on these key principles: that a great high school must serve all of its students well, not just those who are college bound, and that it must be able to produce measurable academic outcomes to show it is successfully educating its student body across a range of performance indicators.
U.S. News & World Report analyzed federal and state government and private data for more than 20,487 public high schools across the country, and ranked more than 6,000 schools – only those that the data indicated were exemplary.
Oregon high school students are required to earn at least 24 credits to graduate. Many Beaverton students earn more credits. Students also must demonstrate mastery of essential skills, such as writing clearly and accurately, according to the Oregon Department of Education.
BSD Teens Write About Financial Preparedness in Money Smart Teen Essay Contest
Two Beaverton high school students won $2,000 in scholarships in the Money Smart Teen essay contest presented by COUNTRY Financial® and Financial Beginnings Oregon in support of Money Smart Week 2018. Money Smart Week is a public awareness campaign to help consumers better manage their personal finances.
Hannah Koehler a senior at International School of Beaverton (ISB) and Evan Huntington, a sophomore at Sunset High School were both runners up in the contest and each received $1,000 scholarships from COUNTRY Financial.
Koehler’s essay Collect. Check. Protect. simplified financial readiness into three simple steps while Huntington pinpointed steps to constructing an emergency fund.
Hundreds of high school students in the Greater Portland (Clackamas, Multnomah and Washington counties) area were asked to write a 300-word essay describing the potential devastating effects of a natural disaster on a family’s financial situation including tips and resources to help readers prepare for future unexpected crises.
“All of the teens who submitted essays should be extremely proud,” said Christi Houser a volunteer for Financial Beginnings Oregon and agency manager at COUNTRY Financial. “I think everyone who participated learned something valuable about personal finance and can build upon what they learned to ready themselves for making wise financial decisions in the future.”
La batalla de los libros (Spanish Battle of the Books)
The second annual Spanish Battle of the Books was held last month at Vose Elementary School.
Battle of the Books is a voluntary reading incentive program for students in grades 3-12. The purpose is simply to encourage students to read good books and have fun while competing with peers. Unfortunately, this competition is only in English.
Currently, only students at Vose participate - next year the plan is to grow the competition to include Aloha-Huber Park K-8, Barnes and Arco Iris schools.
Erik Reinholt named OASC Oregon Activities Adviser of the Year
Erik Reinholt, Student Council Adviser, Leadership Teacher, and Activities Adviser at Mountainside High School has been named the Oregon Activities Adviser of the Year for 2018 by the Oregon Association of Student Councils (OASC).
What makes this award even more special is that it started with students nominating Erik and working with their administration to help complete the application. Todd Corsetti, Principal at Mountainside, stated, “It is easy to say that we would not have had the successful opening that we did without Erik’s guidance, leadership and grit. Erik is passionate about having a leadership program that represents the student body at Mountainside High School.”
One of the nominating students, Salman Najjar, wrote, “Reinholt tells his students to ‘buy what you sell’. These are words to live by. He is committed to serving the students. Mr. Reinholt can be found most mornings holding the doors open greeting the students, smiling, learning new names, congratulating sport victories and dancing to his old school playlists. Quite simply, he is a man married to the very servitude he has spent his career teaching.”
Erik supports his students beyond the classroom and school – he helps them attend conferences, summer camps and demonstrates the importance of networking with other students and schools. Erik is a life-long learner and leads by example. Every summer he attends the Adviser Leadership Institute, a program by OASC to help advisers learn and network too.
Before serving on the planning team to open the new Mountainside High School this past year, Erik served as the Activities Director of Southridge High School – an award-winning program under his leadership.
Congratulations, Erik!
Fir Grove ES Science Expo a huge hit
The cafeteria, multipurpose room, gym and undercover areas were packed with hands on activities for all ages. The much loved photo booth was filled with props for kids to let their imagination go wild. Food trucks were on site to feed bellies while science fed minds. Fir Grove hopes to continue this event for many years to come!
Beaverton students compete in rocketry competition
The Team America Rocketry Challenge (TARC) is the world’s largest student rocket contest and a key piece of the aerospace and defense industry’s strategy to build a stronger U.S. workforce in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). Sponsored by the Aerospace Industries Association (AIA) and the National Association of Rocketry (NAR), TARC was created in the fall of 2002 as a one-time celebration of the Centennial of Flight, but by popular demand became an annual program.
This is the first time Portland Rocketry was invited to participate. The team will face 99 of the top rocketry teams from across the country to claim the title of national champion. The team is comprised of (pictured from left to right):
- Benjamin Wang, 11th grade, Westview High School
- Matthew Lei, 7th grade, West Sylvan Middle School
- Grace Tran (Captain and Co-founder), 11th grade, Westview High School
- Aseem Agarwal, 10th grade, Sunset High School
- Robert Young, 9th grade, Aloha High School
- Nividh Singh, 7th grade, Stoller Middle School
Congratulations, Portland Rocketry!
AHS senior takes on the National Championships for Quiz Bowl
Aloha High School Senior Evan Carey competed at the Individual National Championships for Quiz Bowl last month in Chicago, IL.
Evan was one of 96 students nationwide to compete in this event. He qualified for the National Tournament by finishing as the 2nd overall scorer at a team Quiz Bowl tournament in Seattle, WA.
Quiz Bowl tournaments are academic competitions of up to 4 students on a team. The categories vary among all subjects with a focus on Literature, History, Math and Science, although there are pop culture and sports questions every once in a while.
Communications & Community Involvement Department
Email: melissa_larson@beaverton.k12.or.us
Website: www.beaverton.k12.or.us
Location: 16550 SW Merlo Rd., Beaverton 97003
Phone: 503-356-4360
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BeavertonSchoolDistrict
Twitter: @beavertonsd