August 25, 2006

Evergreen SchoolScene

‘The Scene’

A hot spot for students getting ready for class

Eastridge Mall puts on a special back-to-school event

By Laura Firchow
Times Intern

Before students head back to school, Eastridge Mall gave them the opportunity to relax at “The Scene” on Saturday, Aug. 19 from noon to 6 p.m. in the newly refurbished Center Court at Eastridge on Tully Road.

From the left, Jennifer-Ann Badilla, Jamie Nguyen, and Coneisa Huey, captains of the Mount Pleasant High School cheer squad, pose after their amazing performance at The Scene.

Students young and old were able to interact at this free event put on by General Growth Properties along with Pepsi, CosmoGIRL, Sprint and other name-brand sponsors.

Students and their families were entertained with concerts, performances and demonstrations by the Mount Pleasant High School cheer team, prize giveaways by Pepsi and several mall retailers, makeovers by Benefit Cosmetics and the opportunity to style and decorate their favorite pair of jeans at the “Jean Bar.”

“The Scene” is now in its seventh year and is a great way for teens to learn about the latest trends and gadgets for back-to-school.

Cheerleaders from Mount Pleasant High School volunteered for the event at the Pepsi Prize Wheel, and encouraged young teens to get involved with school activities and cheering for their school. They did an excellent job performing their routines for back-to-school and taught some of their cheers to others interested in learning.

Team Captains Jennifer-Ann Badilla, Jamie Nguyen and Coneisa Huey lead their team with outstanding spirit and energy. This year, the girls said they are taking the training and advice of their coach, Armane Flamate, along with some of their own talent and ideas to create original cheers and routines for each rally this school year.

The Scene took place in the beautiful, refurbished Center Court of Eastridge Mall on Tully Road.

Another entertainment highlight for the afternoon was the concert performances by Kendall Payne, a 26-year-old singer and guitar player from Los Angeles, and the Ken Oak Band. The singing and instrumentals from both performers were exceptional and awed the crowd as they mingled among the various booths in the Center Court.

Kali and Mylah Smiley, both students at Spring Grove Elementary School, were enjoying their time at The Scene. The two sisters seemed enthusiastic about the school year ahead and were happy to come to the event.

“The thing I look forward to most about going back to school is doing my homework,” said Mylah, while her older sister Kali said, “I can’t wait to see all of my friends.”

Overall, The Scene was a successful event. Sponsors were able to reach out and share their latest products with an eager crowd, and all of the guests said they had a wonderful time.

Looking for a second language?

Vivat Latin

By Ramya Rangan
Special to the Times

As you begin your new school year, you are probably confronted with a bevy of second language choices at your school. Latin is likely the first off your list. It is after all a ‘dead language.’

Here is news for you - Latin is far from dead. In fact, 60 percent of the words you speak today are derived from Latin. It is the basis of many of today’s Western languages including Spanish, Portuguese, German, French and Italian. While Latin is just as dead as your great-great-grandmother or the Founding Fathers of the United States, we still and will always live by the legacy of this great language; Latin is everlasting.

Last school year, when I proposed Latin as my language of choice, my friends and even my parents questioned the utility of spending the rest of my school second language education on an unspoken and unused language. Despite their objections, I ended up choosing Latin anyway. I had no idea what was in store for me.

Latin, as it turns out, is a very stimulating language. Beyond just the grammar, the vocabulary and reading and pronunciation, Latin offers a great many other experiences. One such unforgettable experience has been the thrill of participating in Certamen, a fun trivia game based on Latin. My interest in this took me many places and connected me with many new friends. My liking for this game started out slowly. I played it with friends during club time. Soon, I found myself going to the state Latin Convention!

Of all my experiences with Latin, the state convention is the most memorable. As we prepared to leave on a two-hour drive to Miramonte High School in Orinda for the convention, I was quite apprehensive. But as each day unfolded, I began to absorb the atmosphere. Every moment was filled with social activities, competing, test taking and Certamen.

True to the motto Carpe Diem, I grabbed every opportunity to participate in the day’s events, ranging from delivering a Latin speech to playing Vivaldi’s composition on the violin. The best part of it was the spirit assembly—almost a thousand people gathered in a gym in groups with their school. In this assembly, each team member would cheer as loud as you could to show your spirit for the Junior Classical League. It felt exhilarating to enjoy the moment with many others who, just like me, are interested in Latin.

So why has Latin survived so long and is so widespread? Latin was used widely at the time of the Roman Empire and soon spread throughout Europe because of the Roman Empire’s vastness. When the Roman Empire fell, the influences of Latin remained strongly with every language it crossed. Without knowing it, people all over the world are speaking derivatives of Latin.

Of course, Latin’s influence on the languages of today has occurred over a couple of thousand years. This means that as a Latin student, you get to learn not just the vocabulary and grammar, but also the culture, art, religion, law, government, mythology, derivatives, history and science of the times that Latin was dominant. In what other language study class would you be able to learn about great heroes such as Hercules, Julius Caesar and the architecture of the Coliseum, all in one class?

“How will this help my future?” I can just hear this question coming. Well, I have some good news for you. Latin will help you more than any other language can. The vast variety of topics you will learn as part of language study will provide you with a better understanding of the world around you.

As Dorothy Sayers observes in her essay, The Lost Tool of Learning, “…even a rudimentary knowledge of Latin cuts down the labor and pains of learning almost any other subject by at least 50 percent.”

As if to prove this, students that take Latin perform summa cum laude on standardized tests and write better essays. One of the reasons for this is the habit of a Latin student to read closely and watch carefully for grammar. Latin requires keen attention to detail, because its sentence structure places no strict word ordering, and a single letter can dramatically alter the meaning of a sentence. Its rich word morphology makes learning other languages a snap.

As I reflect on the full school year of Latin study that went by, I can only reaffirm the potential this great language offers for anyone interested in expanding their mastery of reading and writing skills. And of course, this only confirms that Latin lives forever or as they say in Latin, “Vivat Latin.”

Ramya Rangan, who lives in Evergreen Valley, is a sixth grade student at the Harker Middle School. She won several awards at the April California JCL Convention, including the Combined Beginner Latin Student award at the California JCL convention. Besides Latin, she enjoys playing the violin and the piano.

Evergreen students win awards at Hong Kong math contest

This summer, Ewa Garg, director of MathEdge, led two teams consisting of eight students ranging from the fifth to seventh grades to the Tenth Po Leung Kuk Primary Mathematics World Contest. The two teams, Silicon Valley USA and California MathEdge, were invited to compete in the contest held in Hong Kong from July 17-21. Among the team members were four students from Evergreen, Ramya Rangan, Lexing Tong, Amanda Chen and Matthew Lin.

The eight students attending the 10th Po Leung Kuk Primary Mathematics World Contest gather for a picture after the awards ceremony. In the back row, from the left are Cheng Yung Ma (assistant coach), Revanth Kosaraju, Abhijit Pujare, Alexander Ma, Archit Kulkarni. In front, from the left are Lucy Lu(assistant coach), Elaine Tang, Ramya Rangan, Patrick Yang, Lexing Tong and Ewa Garg (coach).

Last year the MathEdge teams participated for the first time and won three awards. This year, the teams won two team and five individual awards.

The California MathEdge team consisted of Abhijit Pujare, a seventh grader at Kennedy Middle School in Cupertino; and Harker School sixth graders Patrick Yang, Revanth Kosaraju, and Ramya Rangan, from Evergreen. The Silicon Valley USA team consisted of J.F. Smith fifth grader Lexing Tong, Rogers Middle School seventh grader Archit Kulkarni, Miller Middle School sixth grader Alexander Ma and Kennedy Middle School seventh grader Elaine Tang.

Forty eight teams from various countries throughout the world competed in the contest. Students represented Mexico, Australia, Bulgaria, China, India, Japan, South Africa as well as the United States. Participation in this contest was by invitation only.

Both teams were phenomenal. Although tied for first place in score, team California MathEdge won the first runner up award after losing a tiebreaker. Silicon Valley USA won the Merit award in the team competition contest.

In the individual competition, students Revanth Kosaraju and Patrick Yang won second place honors while Alexander Ma, Archit Kulkarni and Ramya Rangan received third place awards. The remaining three students, Abhijit Pujare, Elaine Tang and Lexing Tong also performed exceptionally, each only one point short of an individual award.

The students were selected from two rounds of tryout competitions. The first tryout was held in February with 102 students, ranging from third to seventh grade, from 52 different Bay Area schools taking the qualifying test. From that, 10 students representing the top 10 percent were selected and given 12 weeks of training. Besides the eight students mentioned above, Amanda Chen, a seventh grader at Chaboya Middle School and Matthew Lin, a fifth grader at J.F. Smith Elementary School were also selected for training.

A second test was administered in April to select the final eight contestants. The winning students received awards, with the exception of air fare, to Hong Kong. Their awards paid for five room and board and local tours. This was a unique opportunity for the elementary school and junior high students to have an academic and cultural exchange with children around the world.

Doing well in Math competitions requires sound reasoning, logical thinking, and most important, problem solving skills, which are different from the straightforward computational math done in school. MathEdge, which specializes in problem solving and competitive math training, believes in focusing on the entire problem-solving process instead of only getting the right answers.

State schools chief offers tips to keep supply costs down

State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell offered his top 10 tips to help parents save some of their hard-earned money while still adequately providing their children with school supplies for the start of the traditional school year. According to a National Retail Federation survey, the average family intends to spend about $527 this year for back-to-school supplies.

“Back-to-school season is an exciting time for students and parents, but it can also be a time when costs for new clothes and school supplies add up,” said O'Connell. “There are ways to give your children the supplies they need without emptying your bank account. Getting ready for back-to-school season can also provide an opportunity to teach your children about smart budgeting strategies.”

Here are O'Connell’s top 10 tips for back-to-school shopping:

1. Involve your children in taking inventory and making a list of what they already have and what school supplies they need. Prioritize the list in order of the items most needed, and draw up a budget.

2. Read through newspaper advertisements with your children and seek out sales for back-to-school clothes and supplies. Also, check online at office supply and clothes retailers for deals, then do comparison-shopping for the best prices.

3. When buying clothes for younger, growing children, resist buying fad clothing that can be more expensive. Make sure the clothes you want to buy are allowed by the school's dress code. Consider buying basic, durable and adjustable clothing that can stretch your dollars significantly. Allow the children to try on the clothes, so they get used to dressing themselves. This will give you more time to yourself in the morning rush when school starts.

4. When buying school supplies, consider shopping online or going to lower-priced outlets and office supply stores. Your children might want those colorful notebooks with logos and their favorite heroes. But the plain notebooks may actually have more paper and can be less expensive. While shopping with your children, compare prices, count the number of items and add up the bill. This will acquaint them with using math in their daily lives.

5. Students often prefer to use messenger bags to carry their books, but this causes the weight of the bag to fall on one shoulder leading to neck and back pain. Consider a two-strapped backpack that distributes the weight more evenly over the body. Resist buying bags with fad logos that can add to the price of the bag.

6. Using gently worn hand-me-downs can save a lot of money. Or consider shopping at garage or yard sales for things like a vintage lunchbox or a nearly new calculator that could cost 50 to 90 percent less than retail.

7. Children love to wear inexpensive flip-flops, but this is a time when you may need to spend more for your children's shoes for the sake of safety and proper foot development. Growing children's feet change rapidly, so buy shoes that are immediately comfortable on your children's feet. Select shoes with a stiff heel, flexible toe that are rigid in the middle and do not twist.

8. If your children need a computer, consider shopping at an outlet store where you can purchase a refurbished model. That can save you 50 to 60 percent from the retail price. If you are considering other high tech tools, know your school's rules first. Some cell phones, iPods, and MP3 players are banned from schools.

9. If your children insist on buying more expensive items, suggest they put part of their allowance or paycheck toward the purchase, or let your children know you could eliminate a lower priority item from their list. This will teach them the value of a dollar and budgeting. This may also cause children to lose interest in the item and forget how important it once seemed.

10. If you don't need to buy supplies now, wait. School supplies are usually cheaper or on clearance by mid-September. Above all, stay within your budget. Using a credit card is good only if you know when and how you will pay them off. Otherwise, the interest rates and fees may cancel out any savings you made from finding sales and bargains.

Sacred Heart Community Service volunteers reach out to
community, providing backpacks for 1,000 students

By Lorraine Gabbert
Staff Writer

Volunteers from Sacred Heart Community Service, National Charity League, Starbucks and Banana Republic supplied 1,000 backpacks and school supplies to families in need.

Thoughts of the new school year bring to mind a long list of school supplies and handpicked backpacks. But for many low-income families, providing these essentials can prove a challenge. Making the difference, members of Sacred Heart Community Service (SHCS) opened their hearts to families in need, packing 1,000 backpacks for students in grades K through 12.

“The unfortunate reality is that there are a growing number of families who struggle to provide their children with the necessary school supplies to have a successful start in the new school year,” said Poncho Guevara, executive director at SHCS. “Giving students the appropriate tools helps ensure they have an opportunity to learn.”

Joined by volunteers from the National Charity League (many from Almaden Valley), Starbucks and Banana Republic, SHCS volunteers and staff displayed a colorful array of backpacks and lunch boxes on tables for children and their families to choose from, along with a variety of school supplies ranging from pencils and crayons to binders, calculators and rulers. After standing in line, waiting for their numbers to be called, mothers and children eagerly browsed through the diverse assortment, leaving with large grins and full backpacks.

Community members line up in front of Sacred Heart Community Service for backpacks and school supplies for their families.

Sacred Heart Community Service, a not-for-profit organization based in San Jose, was founded in 1964 with a vision of uniting the community to ensure that every child and adult is free from poverty. With a mission of changing lives by providing essential services, it offers tools for self-sufficiency and ministers with dignity, compassion and respect. The organization received hundreds of supplies and $10,000 in monetary gifts to support this program.

“A lot of community members are struggling to pay their bills and rent,” said SHCS staff member Esferalda Aldaiz. “We can only help them with so much, but when we provide backpacks, it helps. I think it’s important to be able to help in some way.”

To donate food, gently used clothing or volunteer, contact Sacred Heart Community Service at: 408-278-2174 or visit them online for additional information at: www.sacredheartcommunityservice.org.

New principal to sport EVHS teal and black colors

Cari Vaethe brings experience and work ethic to Evergreen Valley’s principal office

By Justin Petersen
Staff Writer

Incoming Principal Cari Vaethe will add a new flavor to Evergreen Valley’s curriculum this fall.

Incoming Evergreen Valley Principal Cari Vaethe promises school spirit and effort in replacing beloved Principal McDonough. Photo by Justin Petersen

A 30-year veteran of the East Side Union High School District, Vaethe most recently headed the district’s adult education program. Her resume also includes six years at the helm of the county’s largest high school, Independence. Now an EVHS Cougar, Vaethe quickly made her presence felt in filling the seat of beloved and retired Principal Tim McDonough.

In her first week, Vaethe bought an undisclosed number of M&M candy bags, dutifully extracting teal and black, until the jar on her desk brimmed with school spirit. Vaethe said that while McDonough was a showstopper with students and faculty alike, her trademarks will become a work ethic to match her predecessor’s and unparalleled school spirit.

“I’ll always be a big supporter,” said Vaethe. “When I learned that I got the job, my first stop was to buy t-shirts and suits to match the school colors.”

According to McDonough and Cougar sporting records, Vaethe is headed in the appropriate direction.

The school, which Vaethe inherits, is booming in popularity, according to modern measuring tools such as API scores and neighborhood support for sporting events. Evergreen reportedly scored a cumulative 813, earning the top mark in the district last year, while Cougar athletics continue flying up the rungs of Blossom Valley Athletic League.

Vaethe said those marks speak well of Evergreen staff efforts, as well as parent and student participation.

In that case, she views her new job more as a position of soothing ambassador than that of a wreck-it, rebuild-it authoritarian.

“The principal here has a variety of different roles,” she said. “One is being the ambassador between the school and community. Another is being the instructional leader, helping teachers to be as successful as possible and at the same time helping students to be as successful as possible.”

Vaethe spent her first summer conducting interviews and assembling a powerhouse lineup. She said that Evergreen suffered a temporary swell in class numbers last year. This year, enrollment increased, while the district mandated smaller class sizes. Coincidentally, the summer brought relief in the form of loosened budget constraints as well, which awarded the school freedom to hire.

A number of older teachers also retired, resulting in several vacant chairs in the faculty room.

“We have a very special staff,” said Vaethe. “There is a fine combination of experience and highly qualified first time teachers.”

In a manager’s role, Vaethe said that the number one thing she looks for in hiring is caring for kids, and she felt like she got it this year.

“First I look for subject matter competence, but the number one thing is that love for kids,” she said. “I can teach them how to do a lesson plan, but not how to enjoy students.”

McDonough, in fact, recognized those same qualities in Vaethe. He supported the new hire himself when his position became open last spring.

“Principal McDonough said that he felt like I was a perfect choice for the position,” said Vaethe.

The two were colleagues before, when they shared Assistant Principal roles at Independence during the 1990s.

Vaethe cited the highlight of her career during her tenure at Independence. When she assumed the principal position in 1998 after several years served as an assistant, API scores hovered around 600 points. She said that by the time she left, they had climbed well over 700.

“I’d like to think I was similar to Mr. McDonough in work ethic,” said Vaethe. “He was kind of like the first one here and last one to leave. I am also an early bird. The thing about him was that he had this dynamic personality. I am probably more task oriented.”

Yet Vaethe’s attention to detail should not be mistaken for a bland persona. The former U.C. Davis varsity bowling club standout donned a teal and black business suit for the interview.

“We’re doing well,” she said. “The school is beautiful and fabulous, well organized and high performing. The students seem polite and excited about the school. My door is open. Call, e-mail, or drop by. We are here to do the best we can for the children.”