Students of the MONTH

Monday, January 27, 2014

Final-ly... End of Semester One

The semester ended this week with final exams from Wednesday through Friday. Students were treated to free hot cocoa and tutoring through the CARES After School Program, and teachers tried to review material before test day. Students survived the exams and are certainly looking forward to clean slates for the coming semester. 

ASB donates their time and cold hands
The ASB leadership class, under the direction of Corissa Stobing, volunteered again for the second year at the Fly Fisherman Crab Feed. They gave hours cleaning and preparing the meal for the fundraiser and reminded the community of the great people our Warriors are. 


Warrior Debaters make it to Nationals
Seniors Matt Boer and Paige Oka qualified for the National Catholic Forensic League Championships in Chicago for speech and debate. Under the direction of YV alum Dan Leahy, the seniors are the first to qualify for the school's young debate team (in existence about 3 years) Congrats to all! 


Class of 2016 raises funds 
The class of 2016 held a successful garage sale, opening at the crack of dawn to appeal to the hardcore treasure hunters usually out at that hour. Raising funds for their prom in a couple of years, the kids did a great job and look forward to the next one. 


Saturday, January 18, 2014

Dead Week

Warrior Weekly

January 17, 2014

Musical Auditions

As some of you may know, Ygnacio Valley does a musical every year. This year’s musical can be considered by some to be a step up from the rest. This year, Ygnacio Valley High School presents “Legally Blonde.” The director of the musical, Kelly Cooper, has promised that this show will knock everybody’s socks off. With plenty of musical accompaniment, dancing law students, and singing blondes, you don’t want to miss out on this fantastic performance! Mark your calendars for April 4, 5 and April 11 and 12 because you don’t want to miss this!


CLICK HERE FOR THE CAST LIST

www.yvdance.blogspot.com


Cash for College

Tuesday, seniors and their parents were invited out to the Cash for College meeting in the Ygnacio Valley library. This course was to help those seniors who want to get into college that extra bit of help with their FAFSA forms, but also held many opportunities for seniors who needed some help managing their money for college. This course helped many seniors get a very good idea of what they wanted and what they needed for college.



 

Sports Update

Wintertime means two things for high school, basketball and soccer teams going head to head with other schools. With everything going on it’s time for YV Sports Updates. First off with our boys soccer program which is 9-2-1 and looking for another shot at NCS. Girls soccer is sitting at 6-10 and looking to improve from there. Boys basketball is looking at a 4-14 record, but recently scored an impressive victory over Berean Christian. Girls Basketball is looking for their first win, with a 0-10 record. Keep up the awesome work Warriors!

 

Education Academy visits the Capitol

The Ed Academy made a trip out to the state Capitol to watch legislation in action. A great trip for a better understanding about legislation and how it affects education. 



Construction Updates

Some of you may know we have some construction being done on campus. First our Chemistry wing is being built for our Chemistry teachers to make some fun experiments in. Second YV got lights for the football field and those are also in construction so that the students can play in the Friday Night Lights, like we have wanted for some time now. Both projects are running smoothly and are looking ahead. According to Mr. Huckaby, the lights and Chemistry lab should be finished sometime in March! This is some great news for the spring sports!

 

 

 

Monday, January 13, 2014

First Week Back! Still Winter...

Warrior Blog
January 6th-10 2014

It tool some time for everyone to get back into the swing of things, and this was a relatively quiet week. Some exciting things though- 

ASB Gives Back
ASB Leadership students were given an assignment to go out and provide service to their community, spending at least 4-6 hours doing something nice for somebody else. The students picked a wide range of activities- several students volunteered at a hospice for patients with dementia and Alzheimer's, reading magazines and hosting a sing a long for the patients. Others worked with Rotary and the Lemon Lady, picking neighborhood fruit to donate to the Contra Costa Food Bank. Other students volunteered at the local elementary school's community garden, wrapped Christmas gifts for adopted families and entered genealogy information for their church. The class really felt this was a valuable project, as one student said, "I'm grateful we had this assignment and I look forward to volunteering more and finding more opportunities to help."

Musical Theater Master Class
Our performing arts students were given an amazing opportunity to do an audition workshop with master teachers Gia Solari-Welch and Lindsay Roebuck. Gia is an accomplished actress, director and choreographer, having performed on Broadway, on tour with the Broadway production Evita, and then moving into production. She most recently directed and choreographed the Shellie Award winning Legally Blonde with Broadway Star Bailey Hanks here in the East Bay for Diablo Theatre Company, a production that our own Ms. Cooper was a part of. Lindsay Roebuck was the dance captain for that production. They took students through each basic component of a professional audition, beginning with dance, then singing, and finally reading through sides from the script. they offered feedback and tips to students to help them on their quest for pursuing theater after high school. We are so lucky to live in an area of California rich in the arts! This coming week, students will take their new knowledge and put it to work as they audition for our Spring Musical, Legally Blonde. 




Tuesday, January 7, 2014

Winter Break is HERE!!



Warrior Weekly- Crazy Pre-Winter Week Reviewed
December 20, 2013
Written by: Devin Rader
One Act Reviews
The drama club presented their one act plays to the English classes before the end of Winter Week. Students were happy with the plays and were great audiences. Promaggedon was solved, and the Final Four were rescued. Superheroes were proven to be the ultimate codependents, and the Doctor helped them have a time of peace. Twitches proved to Don and Nancy that their neighbors were actually aliens trapped here for 35 million seconds (or 405.095 days) and all attracted people for the night shows showcased on that night. Thanks for all the laughs Drama Club!

Carols by Candlelight
Filled with piano pieces, dancing, singing, and plenty of holiday spirit, Carols by Candlelight was a great performance to all. With plenty of performing arts groups coming together to put on a show, what more could someone expect? Mr. Carter directed Madrigals, Concert Choir and the two guitar classes to ring in the holidays with some great songs celebrating all of the winter holidays, and the Dance 3 program retold the tale of the Polar Express through dance and music. This show has been a 35 year tradition, and there were plenty of alumni on board to celebrate and sing the final carol, Silent Night, as has been the tradition for so long. Thanks to all the groups, alumni, teachers, and parents that helped put on a great show!






100 feet of Nachos
Another Link Crew event in cohorts with the After School program - to ring in the soccer season. Students had the opportunity to go out to the Quad on Thursday and eat Nachos until their bellies were bulging. This was the opportunity to help the students reconnect with one another, seeing as it has been over a month before the last Link Crew event, which was Trunk or Treat. . Although the nachos were short-lived, the satisfaction wasn’t. We look forward to the next Link Crew event!

Senior Breakfast
Friday, all Seniors were invited to Senior Breakfast. With performances, games, and memories as we looked back, this was an event to remember for our Senior year. YV students took a trip off campus and spent time together playing board games and wii games, bonding over laughs and juice while some of the YV staff worked hard in the kitchen to get breakfast out. There were performances by several students that are guaranteed to last a long time in our minds. Senior Breakfast was a very big event and a great tradition that our Warriors look forward to. There was some extra food at the end of the event, and the seniors donated the food to the Monument Crisis Center.




Deck the Halls
With plenty of pent up holiday cheer, the clubs, with help from CARES and ASB Leadership, spent time to deck the halls with all the holiday cheer they could muster. The students and staff made posters, put up cellophane to tint the halls, hung lights and streamers and  joy all over the school. With reminders of what the holiday is really about, it was hard not to feel joyous in this special season.


Toys for Tots and the Coat Drive
Warriors work hard for those in need, and the holiday season was no exception. In cooperation with the US Marine Corp office, Winter Sports, ASB and Renaissance Leadership, and Sports Medicine all collected Toys for the Toys for Tots programs. Interact and the Concord Rotary Chapter also created a friendly competition between 3rd period classes for the greater good of warmth, in a coat drive. Both drives were very successful and Warriors can be proud of their good works for the holiday season. 

A Look in a Classroom
This week I took a look inside Mrs. Hillhouse’s AP Spanish IV and V class. The week before, the class had a test, and I was fortunate to get Mrs. Hillhouse’s opinion on the results. Although she wasn’t expecting straight A’s all around the class, she was a little displeased with the test results of some students. She also said that this is a very hard class, being a college level class and all, so she expects her students to be able to move on and look back on their mistakes, and solve them. The students in this class have been studying Spanish history and the Spanish Civil War. Talking about the past you must use the past tense of the verbs that you use, or the preterite tense. This is what the students have been studying in her classes.


Letter from Me to You
Dear Readers,
            Hello. In the spirit of the Holidays, I thought I would take the time to compose a letter to spread a little joy and show my thanks. When Cooper came up to me and wanted me to start these “Warrior Weekly” writings, I was a little skeptical at first, but through all the year we have been working together to show the community what YV really is about, and who we are as Warriors. I am very grateful to sit down each week and write about the good things that happen each week. I never realized it at first glance, but we are a very active school and we do so many things to help brighten create a better community. Thank you all for all the support you give and all the things you do for this school. Happy Holidays everybody! 

                                                                                                Sincerely,
                                                                                                Devin Rader
                                                                                                Class of 2014