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Summer Rocks at Camp Royal for Grades K-6
Update Hopkins Public Schools
The community’s guide to the District. Alice Smith Media Center gets upgrades, colorful mural
June 2016
com m u ni t y 2016 Kindergarten Playground Nights
Register now for Camp Royal half- and full-day camps for kids in grades K-6. Sports, drama, dance, art, pottery, cooking, crafts, technology, engineering, Summer Field Biology, and more! Register: HopkinsSummer.org
Help your child get excited for kindergarten! Explore the playground and meet school staff before the start of school. Contact your child’s school for details, or call 952-988-4110. HopkinsSchools.org/kinder
First Day of School 2016-17
The new school year will be here before you know it! Grades 1-12: First Day: August 29 Kindergarten: First Day: August 30
Saying Goodbye to the Class of 2016 Three Hopkins High School students share their individual stories
Well-known faces from the Hopkins community took in the new sights — and seats — inside the Alice Smith Elementary Media Center May 19 during an open house. The Media Center received a colorful, literature-themed mural, as well as new soft benches to facilitate a more welcoming reading environment. Students were treated to several guest readers who aahed at the new digs. Hopkins Mayor Molly Cummings, Hopkins police officer Jessica Thomas, and Superintendent John Schultz were among the readers.
Hopkins once again named a Silver Medalist school by U.S. News and World Report
Hopkins High School has once again been named one of the best high schools in Minnesota by “U.S. News and World Report.” Hopkins earned a Silver Medalist award and was rated the 25th best high school in the state due to its performance on state assessment tests, including the performance of the leastadvantaged students and its college readiness scores. The AP (Advanced Placement) participation rate at Hopkins High School is 51 percent, which is a 4 percent increase from the previous year ranked.
On June 2, 506 students graduated from Hopkins High School. Each of these students has a story worth telling. We profiled three students — Jose Avalos, Emma Roth, and Asia Snetter — who have each walked a unique path to success. We wish them, and the entire class of 2016, all the best as they prepare for their exciting next steps. Jose Avalos: Trail-blazing a path to success If you had asked Jose Avalos five years ago what he would be doing during his senior year, he would have guessed that he would be taking slacker classes and doing the senior slide. That was the path he was on in seventhgrade when he took Spanish 1 for an easy A — an easy A because his parents spoke Spanish at home and he was fluent. But then something happened. Avalos met Spanish teacher Erik Thompson, who convinced him to enroll in Juntos, a rigorous Spanish immersion secondary program. “I have never seen a teacher care so much for his students,” said Avalos of Thompson. “He got me out of this lost state I was in, and I started moving towards a better me.” In Juntos, Avalos not only learned advanced Spanish, but also about the cultures of several Spanish-speaking countries like Mexico and Spain. Being part of Juntos also convinced him he was capable of taking other advanced classes. In ninth-grade he doubled up in math, allowing him to take AP calculus and AP physics in high school. He also joined the robotics team. One of his proudest moments was watching his robot move across the course at a local competition. “It’s every kid’s dream to build a robot and make it move,” he explained.
After enrolling in the rigorous Spanish immersion program Juntos, Jose Avalos saw himself as capable and started taking other advanced classes.
In the fall, Avalos will attend Hennepin Technical College to complete his generals. He then plans to transfer to a four-year college, possibly the University of WisconsinStout. He does not know what he will miss about high school yet; he has to leave first to figure that out. He has enjoyed being part of a student body that is diverse and learning about life from people who are very different from him.
You’ll never get this experience anywhere else. Being diverse means that there are people who think differently from you. We all have a different story and we should appreciate that.
Throughout junior high and high school, Avalos was involved in many activities. He ran track, and played soccer and baseball, and of course, he was involved in robotics. His senior year, he started a new adventure through Genesys Works, a program that pairs students with work experiences in their senior year of high school. For half the school day, Avalos was a paid web designer at Cargill in Hopkins, something he had no idea how to do before this work opportunity. “My experience has been amazing,” he said. “I have learned and grown. You have to reach out in corporate settings. People don’t come to you and they don’t carry you around.”
“You’ll never get this experience anywhere else,” he said. “Being diverse means that there are people who think differently from you. We all have a different story and we should appreciate that.” Emma Roth: Well-rounded education Emma Roth is a lot of things. She is a lifeguard, captain of the golf team, a tennis player, a violist, an AP Scholar, and a dancer, just to name a few. She has enjoyed being part of a high school that allowed her to explore her many interests without putting her in a box. She is also a realist who values experience over perfectionism.
“High school has shown me that there are many definitions of success,” she said. “Perseverance is most important. I see the value in working together with other people. I am interested in collaboration and working in groups.” Although Roth was involved in many activities, two themes emerged throughout her high school years: science and culture. She was involved in ZUMA, a high school club her friend started that brings people from different cultures together to discuss race relations. She speaks fluent Spanish, and although she looks more Irish than Mexican, she is actually a quarter both. “It’s really cool to learn about other cultures,” she explained. “My grandma speaks Spanish fluently. Knowing the language connects me to her.” see Hopkins graduates inside