SVHS Green and Gold
Community Edition - January 8, 2023
How to Translate this Newsletter - Cómo traducir este boletín
SVHS CUSTOMER SERVICE FEEDBACK
WE'D LOVE TO HEAR FROM YOU! We'd love to get feedback from you regarding your experience in our school. We aim to please you 100% of the time. However, if we fall short, we'd like to know so that we can improve. We will use the feedback you provide to celebrate the successes of our staff and/or identify areas of growth. Please consider completing a brief survey to provide us with your valuable feedback.
Click here to complete our brief survey.
Questions about graduation
I recently shared news that the Class of 2023 is tentatively scheduled to graduate on June 9, at 10:00 a.m., at DAR Constitution Hall. While this news has been met with great excitement, I have also become aware that there are questions about how this venue was selected. The purpose of this post is to answer these questions.
First, some history. High schools in Montgomery County have used DAR Constitution Hall as a graduation venue for decades. Aside from being a beautiful facility, DAR also serves the purpose of being large enough to host an event of this size, something that no indoor facility within Montgomery County is currently able to do. Over the years, other venues have been added as options. These have included University of Maryland, College Park (which is no longer an option), Mount St. Mary's College in Frederick, UMBC in Baltimore, and for some schools - the home stadium.
SVHS held its first ever on campus graduation ceremony in 2021, and last school year, students and parents from the SVHS Class of 2022 were given the opportunity to provide input on where to hold graduation. Options were: on campus, DAR, UMBC, or Mount St. Mary's. The SVHS campus was selected by 70% of respondents, and as a result, we held a successful graduation ceremony again in Germantown.
Earlier this school year, parents and students from the Class of 2023 were also given an MCPS survey asking for input on where they would like graduation to be held this year. There are 464 possible graduates in this year's senior class. Future classes will have between 550 (class of 2024) and 700 (class of 2026) graduates. We had 512 responses to the survey. 67% of the responses were from students and 33% of the responses were from parents/guardians. Respondents were given two options to choose from: 1) Outdoors in my home school stadium, or 2) Indoors at my home school's traditional venue. The results were a virtual tie. 267 respondents preferred an on-campus graduation, 244 respondents preferred our previous traditional venue, and 1 respondent shared no preference
Since there was no consensus reached from the survey, we met with the elected student leaders from the Class of 2023 to evaluate options and to seek a solution. During that meeting, we discussed the benefits and drawbacks of all four site options. We also discussed the cost of each site.
- Average cost to graduate from Mount St. Mary's - $5500 (MCPS will subsidize the first $5000)
- Average cost to graduate from DAR - $9086 (MCPS will subsidize the first $7000)
- Average cost to graduate from UMBC - $13,425 (MCPS will subsidize the first $9000)
- Average cost to graduate from home stadiums - $31,129 (MCPS will subsidize the first $12000)
Holding a graduation ceremony on campus is far more expensive than holding the event at a more traditional venue because at home you must pay for a stage, sound system (a stadium sound system is not sufficient, especially for streaming), chairs for graduates and overflow seating, staff to stay overnight to keep the set up and equipment secure, shuttle buses to off-site parking locations, and much more.
Ultimately, the elected officers were unanimous in their belief that DAR was the best option.
A few other questions that have come up:
- Tickets: For the class of 2023, the choice of venue has no impact on the number of tickets each graduate will be allocated. We anticipate each graduate will be provided four to six tickets. A final number will be shared in the coming weeks
- Cost: Holding the ceremony at SVHS would have required that we charge each senior an additional fee to support the costs for the event.
- Parking/Transportation: Mount St. Mary's and UMBC were considered but because neither are on a public transportation route, the team chose against them as viable options. Parking was not a limiting factor in our discussion of SVHS as an option because we have a reliable off-site location for parking and we are to provide shuttle service to and from the lot. Transportation and parking at DAR is a predictable challenge. As we have done in past years, we will survey families in the coming months to determine interest in our providing buses to DAR, with costs shared by the families who use the service.
If, after reading this post, you still have questions about this year's graduation ceremony, please feel free to reach out to me at marc_J_cohen@mcpsmd.org.
Upcoming Events
January 5 to January 20 - Testing
- MCAP Government Assessment – Jan. 5 with Make Ups on January 6
- MCAP LS-MISA Assessment – Jan. 9 with Make Ups on Jan. 10
- MCAP ELA Assessment – Jan. 17 and 18 with Make Ups on Jan. 19 and 20
January 11 - Navy Inspection
January 16 - Closed for MLK Day
January 18 - 10 Seconds Assemblies
January 27 - Professional Day for Teachers - Grading
A message from the boosters
- Boosters is now collecting donations for our spring silent auction. Please email BoostersSenecaValley@gmail.com with your generous donation information.
- Join us for our monthly dinner give back at Brews and Barrels, 625 Center Point Way, Gaithersburg, MD on Wednesday, January 11th.
- Accepting nominations for Booster President, Vice President and Treasurer for 2023-2025. Email nominations to BoostersSenecaValley@gmail.com.
- Looking for volunteers for winter concessions, sign up is here: https://m.signupgenius.com/#!/showSignUp/10c0e4fadaf2ca1fc1-svhs
LIBRARY MEDIA NEWS: MoComCon 2023 is in Germantown on Saturday!
MoComCon 2023
MoComCon is an all day, all ages event celebrating all things comics, graphic novels, and fandoms. It will be held at the Germantown Library on Saturday, January 14th, beginning at 10:30 am. Entries to the Cosplay Contest will begin at 1:00 pm with judging at 3:30 pm. For more information, including a schedule of events, click HERE.
Book Club Updates
Our next Book Club discussion is scheduled for Tuesday, January 17th, during lunch. We are reading a compelling urban fantasy, Legendborn by Tracy Deonn, and we’d love more students to join us! Students may access books in ebook and audiobook format in Sora, our online reading app/platform. Directions for accessing Sora are available in the myMCPS Classroom Virtual LMC. A few print copies are also available to borrow. Please stop by the LMC or email Ms. Little for more information.
This Week's Notes from the SVHS College & Career Center
Seniors - Colleges Admissions Results
Remember to keep track of college admissions results and scholarship offers in Naviance! Once you hear back from colleges via email or letter, please record your results. You can also share this info with me and I can help with input. MCPS asks us to track this information every year.
How to update admission decisions/results in Naviance (video instructions)
If you were accepted and offered a merit scholarship, congratulations! Here is how to add your offered scholarship in Naviance (video instructions)
Note: Under $ Awarded, enter the amount. If you see that your award is renewable, please multiply the amount by four (for four years of college).
Attention Seniors - Applying to Colleges!
Please review the SVHS College Application Process document and use this as a guide for applying to colleges. If you add any colleges to your list of applications, please reach out to your counselor to let them know. This includes students applying to Montgomery College. We want to make sure all information is submitted correctly and on time.
Financial Aid - FAFSA, MDCAPS or MSFAA
Any student planning on attending a college, university, or trade school should fill out the FAFSA or MSFAA to see if they qualify for any financial aid. This includes students applying to attend Montgomery College. If you plan to attend a school in the state of Maryland, you should also create an account in MDCAPS. The deadline to submit these forms is March 1, 2023!
Click here for more information and instructions
Feel free to reach out to Mr. Nalda for more information and assistance.
Montgomery Scholars Program - Application Deadline Extended to January 31
Click here to learn more about this selective-admission, two-year interdisciplinary honors program. Montgomery College will award merit scholarships to each student admitted into the Scholars program, which will cover the cost of full-tuition and fees, for two years of study (30 credits per year at the in-county resident tuition rate).
Upcoming Scholarships
January 09 - Ron Brown Scholars - 45-50 awards of $40,000 ($10,000 per yr for 4 yrs); senior; U.S. citizen or permanent resident; Black/African American; attend a 4 year college or university in the Fall; academic achievement; character; financial need; leadership; seriousness of purpose; service to others.
January 10 - Bethesda Magazine Essay & Short Story Writing Contest - 1 for each category: 1st-$250 and work published in Bethesda Magazine, 2nd-$150, 3rd-$75, and $50 honorable mention awards; 9-12 grade; resident of Montgomery County; choose to submit an essay or short story; essays must be limited to 500 words or less about a topic of the writer's choosing; short stories must be limited to 4,000 words or less.
January 11 - Jackie Robinson Foundation Scholarship - 60 awards of up to $7,500; minority high school senior; U.S. citizen; financial need; demonstrated record of academic excellence; leadership potential and a dedication to community service; plan to attend an accredited and approved 4-year college within or affiliated with a school in the United States; letter of recommendation; transcript; four essays.
January 11* - Taco Bell Live Más Scholarship - (*deadline 8pm EST) 16-$25,000, 86-$10,000, and 48-$5,000 awards; juniors & seniors (at least 16 years of age); legal U.S. Resident; apply to a two- or four-year school in Fall 2023; submit an original video (between 30 seconds - 2 minutes) that tells us the story of your real, driving passion; see link for full rules and guidelines.
January 12 - Bezos Scholars Program - 17 awards for juniors: all-expenses-paid trip to Aspen, 40+ hours of leadership skill-building, unlimited coaching hours from the Bezos Scholars staff team, FREE college advising, $1,000 in funding to launch a community change project; enrolled in or have taken at least one advanced course (Honors, AP, IB, etc.); must nominate a staff person from their school to serve as their educator Scholar, who participates fully in the program alongside them; successful student Scholars are passionate, intellectually curious young people who are rising leaders in their schools and communities; see link for full rules and details.
January 15 - JFK Profile in Courage Essay Contest - 1-$10,000, 1-$3,000, and 5-$1,000, and 8-$100 awards; grades 9-12; write a 700-1,000 word essay describing an act of political courage by a U.S. elected official that occurred during or after 1917; must use five sources and include a bibliography.
January 15 - East Rock Films Essay Contest - 1-$500 award; grades 11 & 12; plan to study or co-study Arts or Humanities (see link for list of majors); submit an essay (500 – 1000 words), video essay (about 3-10 mins), or performance essay (about 3-10 mins) describing a work of art that especially speaks to you (could be a novel, poem, painting, sculpture, musical composition, song, dance, film, play, short story, nonfiction book, or documentary); see link for full rules and guidelines.
January 15 - YouthCon 2023 Scholarship - 1st Place-$3,000 & Leadership Development Summer Internship to execute essay idea, 2nd Place-$2,000, & 3rd Place Award-$1,000; 9-12 grade; min 2.75 GPA; submit a 500-650 word essay based on the prompt; semi-finalists present on 2/19 for 5-7 mins in front of a panel of professional judges to explain how they’ll execute their ideas, followed by a five minute Q&A from the judges; attend Award Ceremony in August of 2023 in Northern Virginia.
January 19* - Asian & Pacific Islander American Scholarship Fund - (* deadline is 5pm on 1/19) $2,500 - $20,000 awards; senior; min 2.7 GPA; be of Asian and/or Pacific Islander ethnicity as defined by U.S. Census; be a citizen, national, or legal permanent resident of the United States; attend a U.S. accredited college or university in the Fall of 2023; must apply for FASFA by early April 2023; submit one letter of recommendation online; recommender deadline is one week earlier, 1/12/23, at 5pm.
January 20 - C-SPAN Student Cam 2023 - prizes totaling $100,000 each year, prizes to the top 150 documentaries; open to students in 6-12 grade; create a short (5-6 minute) video documentary on a topic related to the competition theme, "If you were a newly elected member of Congress, which issue would be your first priority and why?"
January 20* - Amazon Future Engineer Scholarship Program - (*deadline 4pm on 1/20) up to 400 awards of $40,000 for college and a paid internship at Amazon; senior; min 2.3 (unweighted); U.S. citizen, permanent residents (holders of a Permanent Resident Card), or Employment Authorized to work in the U.S.; financial need; have taken computer science classes in high school or at a college dual program, or currently be enrolled in one (if not, may take a take a qualifying exam); plan to earn a bachelor’s degree in a computer science or engineering related field of study from an accredited 4-year college or from a 2-year college intending to transfer to a 4-year college; transcript; financial need.
Click here to see the SVHS Scholarships Page for more opportunities.
ASVAB Testing at SVHS - Friday, January 13, 2023
Every year, Seneca Valley High School offers students the opportunity to take the ASVAB or Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery. What is the ASVAB? It is a multi-aptitude test battery that helps in identifying different skills and competencies. The ASVAB test results provide a snapshot of current knowledge and skills. These scores can be compared with the educational or job requirements for occupations of interest to students.
Although I recommend students interested in the military to take this test as a practice, taking the ASVAB is in no way a commitment to join the military. Your test scores will not be shared with any recruiters without your express permission, meaning that the test results are released only to the student and not to the armed services. We use the ASVAB as a career exploration tool.
The ASVAB will be administered at SVHS on Friday, January 13, 2023, starting at 8:00am. The test takes about 2 hours and 30 minutes to complete. The ASVAB is only administered to interested students in grades 10, 11 and 12. If you are interested, please register using the link below by January 10. Thank you!
Click here to register to take the ASVAB Test
Click to learn more about the ASVAB
Moving Forward College & Career Readiness Series for Juniors
Juniors, let's start planning! We enthusiastically invite you all to participate in the following workshops to get a head start in planning for life after high school!
All virtual workshops are during lunch, from 11:25 am - 11:50 am. Feel free to bring your lunch to the College & Career Center (Room 2408) to watch these presentations!
Tuesday, January 24 - HBCU (Historically Black Colleges) Information Session
Tuesday, January 31 - Declaring Your Major vs Undecided
Tuesday, February 7 - Narrow Down Your College List
Tuesday, February 14 - Military Recruitment Information Session
Tuesday, February 28 - Explore Application Types and Deadlines
Tuesday, March 14 - Resume/Interview Skills
Tuesday, March 21 - Tips on Common Application
Thursday, March 28 - College Essay Writing
Tuesday, April 25 - Introduction to Financial Aid
Once registered, a zoom to link will be sent to you before the workshop.
Click to register: bit.ly/4forward2023 | Click here for the flyer
SVHS College & Career Monthly Newsletter - December-January, 2022-23
IB’ in the Classroom:
Course Information Days: As part of our Equal Opportunity School (EOS) partnership that works to ensure access and support to underrepresented students in higher level courses, SVHS held Course Information Days last week. We hope these events provided support and guidance for your student(s) as they consider their course options for next year! This week, students will be meeting with counselors in their Language and Literature classes to start course registration.
IB Fees: Please remind students to log on to School Cash at https://www.schoolcashonline.com/ to pay their IB fees. If you have any questions, please email Ms. Ezerski, the IB/DP Coordinator at Natasha_L_Ezerski@mcpsd.org or stop by her office, Room 3510.
The IB Programs hope everyone had a wonderful winter break!
Click the image below for this week's athletics updates.
Free Tutoring is Available
FREE Tutoring Opportunity through our CARES Program
Our CARES Tutoring program provides high-dosage tutoring designed to:
- accelerate learning at a student's grade level or above
- support students who are performing below grade level
- provide additional support beyond classroom instruction to support student success
Program Highlights
- FREE Tutoring by SV Teachers and Support Staff
- Flexible Scheduling - After School, Evening, and Weekend hours
- In Person and Virtual Times available
- English, Math, Science, Social Studies, World Languages and More!
- Organization and General Support
Click HERE to sign up!
Contact Elizabeth_Maxey@mcpsmd.org for additional information.
Additional Free Tutoring is Available
All MCPS students have access to free, virtual tutoring services through FEV Tutor and Tutor Me Education.
Both companies offer two services:
Free on-demand tutoring for homework help, no scheduling needed
Free, scheduled tutoring for on-going support, scheduling required
Both companies record sessions, take session notes, and communicate directly with families
The difference between the two companies:
FEV Tutor - no camera for tutor or student - ideal for grades 3-12 students for whom the camera is a barrier to learning
Tutor Me Education - camera for tutor and student
Students access tutoring by using their MCPS Clever account.
For families who would like to set up scheduled, ongoing sessions, please share:
To set up tutoring sessions with FEV Tutor:
To set up tutoring sessions with Tutor Me Education:
MCPS@tutormeeducation.com or 240-618-2549 OR
Fill out their request form ** best way
Here are flyers that can be shared:
SVHS Student and Family Resources Page
Click here for a list and links to resources and supports available for students and families in the Seneca Valley Community. SVHS Student and Family Resources Page
Seneca Valley High School
Twitter: @SenecaValleyHS
Instagram: @SenecaValleyHSWebsite: www.senecavalleyhighschool.com
Location: 19401 Crystal Rock Drive, Germantown, MD, USA
Phone: 240-740-6400