The Union - Milpitas High School - May 2016

Page 1

INSIDE

UN I N PAGES 6-7 Senior Colleges

MAY 2016

Volume XXVII Issue VI

T HE

PAGES 8-9 Senior Mosts

SPREAD: PAGES 10-11 Senior Advice/Tips

PAGES 12-13 Senior Wills

MHSTHEUNION.COM For the latest updates

STUDENT VOICE OF MILPITAS HIGH SCHOOL

Morales named new principal BY GURSHAAN BARIANA MIHIR THUMMAR

Noemi Crisanto | THE UNION

Ricky Hua receives four scholarships and takes a picture with (left to right) Principal Cheryl Lawton, Superintendent Cary Matsuoka, and scholarship providers Gurdev and Muhini Sardu, Raghu Banda, Kumi Lingle, and Jenifer Lind.

Awards Night recognizes senior accomplishments BY NOEMI CRISANTO

Approximately 300 seniors were recognized for their achievements in academics, fine arts, and community service during Senior Awards Night on May 18 in the large gym. During the ceremony, it was also revealed by Principal Cheryl Lawton that the graduating class had received $1.1 million in financial aid and scholarships combined. After announcing that 74 people in the graduating class were attending a Univerity of California (UC) and that nearly 20% of the class would be attending a California State University (CSU), the MUSD Board of Education also announced that this would be the first time they gave out a Board Member Scholarship to one lucky senior who later turned out to be Senior

Alex Faria. “This [scholarship] is out of our own pocketbooks, but most importantly our hearts,” President of the Governing Board Gunawan Alisantosa said. One new award was also introduced this year , the Seal of Biliteracy for students who are fluent in more than one language, Assistant Principal Ethan Stocks explained. The night is also meant to acknowledge the students who received scholarships and full rides to their schools. “The night is basically kind of like a mini graduation,” Stocks said. “It’s an opportunity for the parents to see their kids get acknowledged.” The night was also full of surprises because the students didn’t know what awards they would be receiving and a couple of scholarship recipi-

ents were actually named that night to the delight of many seniors. One of the seniors who wasn’t aware of all of the scholarships he would be receiving that night was Senior Ricky Hua, who also recieved the $20,000 Minnis Scholarship. “I was excited to receive the [scholarships] I knew about, and when they called the Minnis one, I didn’t even hear it. So when everyone came to congratulate me at the end, I was a bit confused,” Hua said through Facebook Messenger. “When I found out I got the Minnis Scholarship, I was happy all my hard work paid off.” Other recipients of the Minnis Scholarship are Senior Nina Quach who recieved $20,000, Senior Qian Ying He who recieved $10,000, and Seniors Stephen Tang and Sajel Shah, who both recieved $5,000.

On Tuesday May 24, the Milpitas School Board officially introduced Philip Morales as the new principal of MHS for the upcoming school year, according to Morales. Morales has been the principal at Newark Memorial High School for the past four years. The decision for the future principal was made last week when Morales was offered the open position. A panel consisting of various teachers and administrators was constructed to evaluate the performance of the potential candidates, according to English Teacher Kaila Schwartz, who was also a member of the panel and an active participant in the selection process. “The interview process was not a typical interview,” said Schwartz. “People can be very good at answering typical interview questions, but put them in a role play and you know right away whether or not they can handle actual angry parents and difficult students.” The interviewees came together, were given a group orientation session, and then were divided up and sent to different rooms for different things, according to Draeger. “One room was like standard traditional interview questions,” Draeger said. “Another room was a case study on a school and how they would handle being the new principal at the

school listed in the case study.” “A third room was a teacher evaluation room where they were given a video to watch of a teacher giving a science lesson, and then they had to say how they would do an evaluation,” Draeger said. “Then they did a role play of the evaluation and then after the role play, they debriefed with the other people in the room how they felt they did with the evaluation, and what they would have done differently if they had to do it again.” The evaluation was thorough and ensured the new principal was one that would help MHS improve. The selection process was a unique way to evaluate potential candidates, according to Morales. “I thought it was amazing. It’s a performance based interview, the first kind of interview I’ve been on,” Morales said. “It was fun and not your boring question-answer type of interview. I really enjoyed it. It’s a good way to look for candidates.” Regarding plans for the next school year, Morales does not have any concrete projects he would like to implement. Instead, he looks forward to becoming familiar with the school, students, and faculty, he said. “There are things happening at MHS that I want to be a part of. I just want to get connected with everybody and build relationships with students and faculty and parents,”explained Morales. “From there I can start putting together a plan based on student needs, and then go from there.”

Draeger named as new assistant principal BY BROOKE TRAN JUSTIN TSO

English Department Co-Chair Skyler Draeger is becoming Assistant Principal starting next school year after 21 years of classroom teaching, according to Draeger. Current Assistant Principal Hilary Brittan’s resignation has left a vacancy for her position, and after an interview process with four different applicants, Draeger was chosen as the new Assistant Principal, she said. According to Draeger, becoming an assistant principal was just the next step, as she has been taking more and more leadership roles over the past

couple of years. It is not clear what her exact duties will be yet, as there may be some redistribution of duties with two of the administrators leaving, Draeger continued. “A few years ago, I became department lead, and some of those jobs are similar in terms of taking on more of a management role and more of a leadership role in the campus,” Draeger said. “And I’ve been doing a number of things for several years that involve curriculum development on campus and being a leader in many ways.” As an assistant principal, Draeger hopes to be a good bridge between the administration and staff, and she hopes that her long history with the

school will help her, she said. As for what duties she’d like to take over, she is not completely sure, but she would like to keep the technology aspect of the job that Brittan previously held, Draeger continued. “I have an immediate goal of increasing the quality of our communication,” Draeger said. “I hope to add to the sense of team-building on this campus.” “I think [Draeger] will be wonderful like dealing with things like the master schedule [and] with the SBAC testing schedule,” Enlgish Teacher Conradson said. “She’s taught here for so many years, and we all know her well.”

Seniors earn significant financial aid through various means BY ABIGAIL ECAL SHERRY LAM STELLA XU

Many of the current seniors at MHS will soon be leaving the grounds of free education and into the world of having to pay tuition for their education. However, for a few seniors, they have earned scholarships that paved the wave into receiving freer education. Senior Ashley Ricks will be attending Santa Clara University (SCU) as a Johnson Scholar in the fall of 2016. As a Johnson Scholar, all of Ricks’ college expenses, except textbook fees,

will be paid for by the school. In addition to her full-ride scholarship, Ricks has also earned a $7,000 stipend that all students receive the summer after their sophomore year. “Actually when I was applying to Santa Clara I didn’t even know the scholarship was a thing that they did,” Ricks said. “But essentially their entire applicant pool is considered for the scholarship, so you don’t even need to fill out a separate app.” Ricks received an email in February saying that she was a semifinalist for the Johnson Scholars program. In order to confirm her semifinalist spot and potentially be a finalist, Ricks

had to write an essay. From however many essays they got back, fifty were picked to be finalists. All finalists then traveled to SCU to compete in person with professors and people evaluating them. The competition took place on a Friday and Ricks was notified of her acceptance on the following Thursday. Ricks was at Peet’s Coffee at 8 p.m. with a friend talking about the scholarship when the call came in. “It still feels very surreal,” Ricks said. “The next morning, I had to look in my call history to make sure SEE SCHOLARSHIPS ON BACK

Amal Mulaomerovic | THE UNION

Seniors Grace Shau (left) and Amal Mulaomerovic (right) is the first MHS debate team to fully qualify for the Tournament of Champions with two bids.

Mulaomerovic, Shau compete at TOC BY ABIGAIL ECAL

The Senior Public Forum Team of Amal Mulaomerovic and Grace Shau went 3-4 at the Tournament of Champions (TOC) on Apr. 30 to May 1 at the University of Kentucky, according to Speech and Debate Coach Charles Schletzbaum. According to Schletzbaum, this is the first time a MHS debate team has fully qualified for TOC with two bids. Another team qualified in 2014 but with only one bid, Schletzbaum said. “We went 3-4 which is good for the tournament especially [for the amount of ] times we have been there,” Schletzbaum said. “Two years ago, we sent a team and they went 2-5, so we’re getting better.” The different tournaments Mulaomerovic and Shau compete in offer bids which offers an invitation to TOC at certain levels, according to Mulaomerovic. They got their first bid at the James Logan Martin Luther King Invitational in Jan. 14 to

Jan. 17 and received their second bid at the Millard North Tournament in Nebraska on Feb. 26 to Feb. 27, Mulaomerovic said. “The first bid we got was at the James Logan Tournament where we made it to quarterfinals, [so] once you automatically make it to quarterfinals, you know you got a bid,” Mulaomerovic said. “Then we got our second bid at Millard North where we also made it to quarterfinals.” According to Shau, they started to prepare three weeks before the tournament. The topic they researched on was whether the U.S. should seek economic equality through meanfurther investment in means-tested welfare or infrastuture, Shau said. “We started prepping for the topic during spring break,” Mulaomerovic said. “Grace, Schletzbaum, and I would meet at the library to prep. Senior Vincent Le would help out a lot; he and Schletzbaum would sit and coach us while [Grace and I] would do SEE TOC ON BACK


Turn static files into dynamic content formats.

Create a flipbook
Issuu converts static files into: digital portfolios, online yearbooks, online catalogs, digital photo albums and more. Sign up and create your flipbook.