The Houston Independent School District joined Mi Familia Vota and Univision 45 this week at Wheatley High School to kick off district wide student voter registration efforts.
Wheatley is just one of several locations hosting student voter registration drives in conjunction with National Voter Registration Day, which was Tuesday. Seven additional HISD high schools will host similar drives over the next two weeks as they work to register eligible students. Continue reading
Grandmaster Timur Gareev will be trying to break a world record soon by playing the largest number of simultaneous chess games ever while blindfolded — and 10 students from HISD schools recently helped him prepare for that challenge.
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The Uzbekistan native, who became the youngest grandmaster ever from Asia in 2004 at the age of 16, played 10 of HISD’s top chess players on Sept. 19, and defeated them all (along with three students from a local private school) within the span of a few hours, despite not being able to see any of the chessboards. Continue reading
Two days this week will be different from a normal school day.
Tuesday, Sept. 22, 2015, is an early dismissal day for most schools. Campuses may choose to opt-out and hold classes all day, so please check with your school directly to see if it is participating. View the full 2015–2016 academic calendar here.
Wednesday, Sept. 23, 2015, is the district’s fall holiday for students and most employees. Check your duty schedule available here to see if you must report to work. Those employees who must report to work will work their normal hours, unless a supervisor has approved their request to use personal time.
HISD’s ground-breaking EMERGE program is expanding to all high school campuses this year, and motivated members of the Class of 2018 (currently sophomores) are encouraged to apply.
EMERGE connects high-performing students from underserved backgrounds with the resources needed to apply, attend, and graduate from the nation’s top-tier colleges and universities, which provide high levels of support as well as competitive financial aid and scholarships. Students who are selected to be in EMERGE receive after-school advising at their schools on the college preparation and financial aid application processes, a full-length SAT preparation course, and an out-of-state summer experience at a top-tier university. Continue reading
High school is one of only four to be highlighted nationwide
HISD’s Sam Houston Math, Science, and Technology Center was honored this week with a visit from Univision and a rally to encourage Latino students to strive for greatness in education. Two students were also recognized during the event, which was made possible by a partnership among Univision, getschooled.com, and #QuieroAprender (#IWantToLearn).
“Those organizations have been focusing on four schools across the nation,” said Sam Houston Principal Rupak Gandhi about #QuieroAprender, “… and how they have turned their campuses around in the past couple of years in terms of improving academic performance and really changing the lives of their students. Sam Houston was chosen as one of the schools, based on our growth in those areas.”
In 2015, Sam Houston met state accountability standards for the first time in two years, and was removed from the “Improvement Required” list. It was also recognized for academic distinction in social studies. The school offers its students eight different certification or licensure programs. Last year’s valedictorian is currently attending Columbia, while the salutatorian is attending Rice University.
The education rally included a student discussion about the importance of education, interviews, and a spoken-word poetry contest entitled “What is the value of education to you?” Two students hand-picked by the principal for their achievements led the onstage discussion along with Satcha Pretto, co-anchor of the morning show Despierta America. One of those students – senior José Piñeda – was chosen by #QuieroAprender for an in-depth interview that will be featured in an upcoming documentary.
“It was a great opportunity to highlight the good of the school.” said Piñeda, who is on the student council and part of a mariachi band. “There are many Hispanic students here who want to make progress and move forward.” Piñeda is in the top five percent of his graduating class and plans to study mechanical engineering at the University of Texas.
“To me, #QuieroAprender is a phenomenal organization, because it really puts the power of education in the student’s hands,” said Gandhi, “and that’s what matters most.”
It took 60 games, but the Scarborough High School Spartans finally broke their five-and-a-half-year losing streak on Sept. 4, 2015, when the football team defeated the KIPP Sunnyside Senators with a score of 18-14.
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The victory was particularly gratifying to Scarborough Coach Keith Alex, who is only in his first year as coach of the Spartans. “We are just delighted to get that monkey off our back,” he said. “It’s giving the kids such a huge momentum boost. We’re really excited.” Continue reading
When asked how they spent their summer months, many students answer that they went to the beach or a swimming pool, visited with relatives, or took a vacation.
But one student from Carnegie Vanguard High School was able to write a most unusual “what I did over my summer vacation” essay this fall after she spent a week and a half in June playing the piano to benefit needy Asian children.
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Senior Kerrigan Quenemoen, along with her partner, Kenneth Yu (who graduated this spring from Bellaire High School), were invited to do a series of charity concerts in China to raise money for blind Chinese orphans. Continue reading
Students at Sterling High School are greeting the new school year with excitement, energy, and optimism. The school’s new principal, Justin Fuentes, is enthusiastic about his school’s programs and the opportunities it offers students.
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Besides Sterling’s resident aviation program and an aviation engineering and designing program through the Michigan Institute of Aviation Technology, it also offers a Futures Academy in logistics and global supply chain management, as well as law enforcement forensics, automotive, and dual-credit courses towards a certificate in welding. Continue reading
For the fourth year in a row, the robotics club at Mickey Leland College Preparatory Academy for Young Men has turned out dominant teams at district, state, and national competitions. Coming off of last year’s third-place finish in the SECME VEX Robotics nationals, this year, the Knights of Engineering’s high school team won the first annual NSBE VEX National Championship in Anaheim, Calif.
On a joint team with impressive young ladies from the Young Women’s College Preparatory Academy, the ninth-graders not only won the tournament championship, but also the Excellence Award. Doing so qualified the joint team to participate in the VEX Robotics World Championship in Louisville, Ky., where they competed against the best robotics teams in the world. This was the second year in a row that the boys have been invited to the World Championship. Continue reading
Entering the ninth grade can be an intimidating experience for some students, as they move from a familiar middle school environment onto a new campus.
To support Houston’s young people as they made the transition, retired NFL player Moran Norris gave away backpacks and other school supplies to students at his alma mater, Madison High School, during freshman orientation on Aug. 18.
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Each year, Norris’s foundation sponsors a number of activities designed to help youth meet higher standards in education and character. Norris is a former Houston Texans player who attended Montgomery Elementary, Dowling Middle, and Madison High schools. His wife, Tamara, attended Mading Elementary, Hartman Middle, and Jones High schools.