April Newsletter
D.W. Daniel High School
Our Vision
Students at DWD will graduate with a wide array of skills and strong knowledge base in a culture of high expectations, generosity, encouragement, and civility.
A Message from Our Principal: Josh Young
It is hard to believe that we are already in our last nine weeks of school. This past month our 11th graders were given either the ACT or SAT here at Daniel as an opportunity for them to display their skills and knowledge on these very important college readiness assessments. The testing process has gone extremely well, and I appreciate all of the support and encouragement that you have given to our students. These test scores will provide students and parents with information about students’ progress toward college readiness and the scores are official scores used by colleges in making decisions about admission. Our 11th graders will take the WIN career assessment on April 18th. This career readiness score is one that businesses/industries use to determine employment eligibility and work skills.
In addition to these tests for juniors, other tests, including End-Of-Course (EOC) tests (May 10-31), AP tests (May 7-18), and final exams (seniors May 15-18; underclassmen May 29-June 1) will be administered to various students between now and the end of the year.
We appreciate the efforts of our students and parents on these testing dates to make sure everyone is at school, on time, well-rested, well-fed, and ready to go! One Daniel!
Guidance News
April 7 – iMagine Upstate STEAM Festival , Downtown Greenville 11:00 – 5:00
April 11 – Junior Leadership Pickens County Field Trip
April 13 - Course Request Verifications: On April 13, students will be given a printout of their 2018-2019 course selections for verification. Please make any changes on the form and return it to your HUB teacher on April 20.
April 14 – ACT
April 17 – SWU Dual Enrollment meeting, 6:00 – 7:00 DHS Auditorium
April 19 – Tri County Tech Dual Enrollment meeting, 6:00-7:00 DHS Auditorium
April 19 – STEM Premier roll-out for DHS students
April 24 – Community Awards Night
May 2 –SC Virtual School exams Spring Semester 2018 will be given in room 335.
Tiger Alliance is a Clemson University support program for minority men to increase high school and college graduation rates :
April 12-13 – Men of Color Conference at the TD Convention Center
April 20 – Historic Black CU Classic at the Greenville Drive Game
DECA State Winners
During the first weekend in March, Pickens County DECA students attended the 75th annual state competition. Approximately 600 students from across the state competed. Congratulations to the following Daniel students:
Dylan Hall (pictured below) was elected to serve as a South Carolina DECA State Officer - VP of Finance for the 2018-2019 school year.
The following students place in the top 10 in their individual categories:
Hannah Miller (DHS) - Restaurant Food Management Series
Ty Williams (DHS) - Principles of Marketing
Dylan Hall (DHS) - Hotel & Lodging Management
Earned National Certification for Hospitality:
Dylan Hall (DHS)
1st Place on Virtual Business - National Recognition
Ty Williams (DHS)- Accounting
Grant Wilson (DHS), Camden Hendricks- Fashion Marketing
Computer Science Field Trip
The Daniel Game Design and Development Class took a field trip on Friday, March 9. They traveled to Hi-Rez Game Design Studio in Alpharetta, GA. This studio designs popular video games such as Smite and Paladins. Our students took tours with Andee Cantatore, one of Hi- Rez's Public Relations Specialists, and Abraham Abdala, a Lead Technical Animator.
See pictures below.
DWD Math Team
Congratulations to the Math team who competed in the Georgia Tech Math Contest on March 10. The team members were Ian Ruohoniemi, Connor Lehmacher, Jennifer Gao, Jonathan Baum, and Hannah Baum. There were a total of sixty three teams and 253 students in the competition, and the Daniel team took 4th place in the team competition. In the individual competition Ian Ruohoniemi placed 7th and Connor Lehmacher placed 10th.
The team also competed in the Furman University Wylie Mathematics Tournament on Saturday, March 17. The team consisted of Ian Ruohoniemi, Connor Lehmacher, Jonathan Baum, Kevin Feng, Jennifer Gao and Hannah Baum.
Out of twenty eight teams competing in Division 1, Daniel placed 2nd overall. Out of 227 students in Division 1, Ian placed 9th, Jennifer 10th, Jonathan 15th, Kevin 17th and Connor 27th.
Congratulations to these students and to their sponsor, Mr. Nolen!
AP Environmental Science
Daniel APES students presented their research on Saturday, March 10 at Clemson’s Biological Science Symposium 2018. Nine DWD groups participated and Daniel picked up First and Second place! This year we competed with TL Hanna and Pendleton High students.
First Place: Leighton Larsen, Julia Blouin, Eric Mueller, and Xinyi (Emily) Zhang for their work on temperature effects on macroinvertebrates
Second Place: Katie Stepan, Jackson Zhu, Annie Patel, and Chandler Shelnut (not pictured) for their work on the effects of dissolved oxygen on macroinvertebrate diversity
These students presented their research alongside graduate and undergraduate students. Special thanks to CAFLS, Clemson’s What’s in our Waters (WOW) group, Anderson Regional Joint Water Systems, Lauren Garcia Chance (WOW coordinator) and Clemson Extension’s Stormwater Partners.
DWD Art Awards
Congratulations to Sophie Sawyer who placed 1st in the Greater Clemson Music Fest poster design contest and to Ella Corontzes who placed 2nd. Patrick Cudd will be receiving an award for his photograph that was entered into the 2018 Annual Upstate High School Art Exhibit, which is an art competition among all the high schools in the Upstate.
The students listed below respectively won an award at our art exhibition held on March 13. These students will have their artwork placed into the SDPC All-County Juried Art Exhibition held at the Pickens County Museum of Art and History during the month of April. Awards for All-County will be held at the Pickens County Performing Arts Center for the high school level on April 24th at 6:30pm.
2D Design
1st Place: Sophie Sawyer
2nd Place: Jacob Bowman
3rd Place: Jacob Plontke
Honorable Mention: Jasmine Young
Teacher’s Choice: Ella Corontzes
Painting
1st Place: Celine Yulan
2nd Place: Lily Hanssen
3rd Place: Julie Jervis
Honorable Mention: Sophie Cox
Teacher’s Choice: Disney Medeiros
3D Design
1st Place: Alexis Williams
2nd Place: Ella Corontzes
3rd Place: Claire Ford
Honorable Mention: Annabela Panede
Teacher’s Choice: Allycia Griebno
Drawing
1st Place: Hannah Hyatt
2nd Place: Summer A. Timmerman
3rd Place: Vivi Childress
Honorable Mention: Keily Owens
Teacher’s Choice: Dakota Owens
Job Shadowing Day
On Monday, March 19, Daniel High School had thirty-one ninth grade students participate in our annual Rotary Job Shadow Day coordinated by Clemson Rotary Club member, Michael Nebesky, and Daniel High Career Specialist, Suzan Potter.
We would like to thank the following businesses for hosting our students: Clemson University Campus Recreation; Clemson University Facilities; Clemson University Fire Department; Clemson University Police Department; Clemson Blue Cheese and Receiving/Surplus Warehouse; Little Lights learning Center; ATI Physical Therapy; Tiger Town Animal Hospital; Clemson Family Dentistry; Duckett-Robinson Funeral Home; Ricoh Mail & Print Shop At Clemson University; and Hubbard Young Pharmacy.
Students shadowed employees at one of the sites listed above during the morning and then joined the Rotary Club for lunch. During the luncheon, the students enjoyed hearing a motivational speech by Mr. Rusty Guill. Our students reported having very positive experiences at the work sites and that they learned a great deal through these experiences.
Band Concert Ensembles
Congratulations to the Daniel Band for the high marks received last week at the South Carolina State Concert Assessment. The Wind Ensemble performed in grade 6 earning the highest ratings of SUPERIOR and the Symphonic Band performed in grade 4 earning the rating of EXCELLENT. Congratulations on this significant achievement for both our concert ensembles!
Science National Honor Society
Wednesday, February 7, 2018
By Manav Jain, SNHS Officer
On February 7th, Dr. Brandon Peoples spoke to the Daniel Science National Honors Society about his ongoing research with the Clemson University Department of Forestry and Environmental Conservation. Dr. Peoples’ work primarily focuses on freshwater fish and their interactions with their environments. Touching upon a few of his research projects, Dr. Peoples spoke about his field work involving several freshwater fish, namely the Atlantic Sturgeon and the Bluehead Chub. The Atlantic Sturgeon, the largest freshwater fish in South Carolina, is currently endangered, and researchers like Dr. Peoples are taking efforts to rehabilitate and track the sturgeon population. Students also learned about an important freshwater fish that can be found near Daniel High School. The Bluehead Chub, a keystone minnow species, can be found in creeks in the Clemson Experimental Forest or Ashley-Dearing Park. Students got to see actual footage of a Bluehead Chub minnow building a nest out of rocks, which would then be used as a spawning ground for other minnow species, ultimately helping to support a large freshwater ecosystem. Dr. Peoples’ focus on fish conservation efforts reminded students about the importance of being mindful of and protecting the environment.
Wednesday, February 21, 2018
By Connor Lehmacher, SNHS Officer
On February 21, the Science National Honor Society hosted a presentation on gravitational waves. Dr. Hartmann, an Astrophysicist from Clemson University, outlined the journey of physics to its recent discoveries. Students learned how Newton's Mechanics and Maxwell's Electrodynamics led to Einstein's Special and General Relativity. It was particularly interesting to see how General Relativity avoids the use of a numerical gravitational force instead of using tensors to make particles follow geodesics (the analogue of straight lines in non-Euclidean geometries). Then Dr. Hartmann outlined the 2015 discovery of gravitational waves due to the merger of two black holes and the observation of two neutron stars colliding though both gravitational and light waves (photons). The latter discovery led to the development of Multi-Messenger Astronomy of which Dr. Hartmann is a researcher in this frontier field.
Wednesday, March 14, 2018
By Chloe Hylkema, SNHS Officer
Dr. Mary Beth Kurz, an associate professor at the department of industrial engineering at Clemson University, was the guest speaker at the March meeting of the Science National Honor Society. Dr. Kurz’s expertise includes metaheuristics and improving the functionality of assembly lines, especially in the automotive industry. She showed the group the complex mathematics she uses to decide how industries can ensure that they are as functional as possible, and even further demonstrated how useful science and math are in our everyday lives-- the nitty-gritty of how our cars are produced and the reasons their production takes as much time as it does. Dr. Kurz is an upstanding example of women in STEM fields, excelling in her expertise and compiling compelling research, and the group was happy to have her speak on her findings and experience.
Group projects will be presented at the April 11th meeting in room 339 at 5:30pm. Please see Mrs. Tidwell for more information.
HOSA State Winners
1st Place
Kayleigh Beecher- 1st Human Growth and Development
3rd Place
- Colson Leech- HOSA Bowl
- Emma Evans, Leah Garrick, Chelsea Heaton, Kenzie Smith- Health Education
Barbara James (Recognition Event)
- Skylar Grant
- Colson Leech
Outstanding HOSA Chapter
- EmilyAnn Bates
4th/5th Place: Possible ILC Qualifiers- may be eligible if top 3 from other schools are unable to attend:
- Kaylin LeCroy - Biomedical Lab Science – 4th place
- Sydney Thomas- Physical Therapy – 4th place
- Kaitlyn Dunkley, Christina Rollins
The official SCHOSA link to all winners: http://www.schosa.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Top-Ten-3-13-18.pdf
Congratulations to our 2016-2017 Yearbook Staff!
DWD Chess Team
Congratulations to our Chess Team for their outstanding performance at the State Scholastic Chess tournament! Fanny Xuan took first place for the females and Alexis Williams took third place for the females. The rest of the team performed admirably and brought home an overall third place finish.
Team Members:
Fanny Xuan
Alexis Williams
Thames Stokes
Cooper Hays
Ian Rouhomiemi
William Ginn
Roger Luo
Manuel Unda
Vote for Prom King and Queen in HUB on April 20th. Bring your chromebook!
Mark Your Calendars
April 13- Senior Class Meeting during HUB
April 18- WIN testing for all 3rd year students
April 20- Relay for Life At Clemson University Intramural Fields from 6PM to 12AM
April 21- Prom
April 24- Community Awards Night
April 26- JROTC Awards Night
April 27- Physics Day Field Trip
April 28- Food Services 5K Fun Run
April 30- Regular School Day
Contact Us
Website: http://dhs.pickens.k12.sc.us/
Location: 140 Blue and Gold Boulevard, Central, SC, USA
Phone: (864)397-2900
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DWDanielHighSchool/
Twitter: @DWDanielHigh