Ca n y o n N e w sVol. 12, No. 2March, 2015

Rock Canyon High School • The School That Leads • A Douglas County School • Parent Newsletter

What to Look for

ExcELLing in activitiEs, acadEmics and athLEtics

Tenors Sam Hulsizer ‘16, and Kalle Sorbo ‘15, work on music for the upcoming March concert in Mixed Choir Select.

Abby Kochevar ‘15, won her second Colorado 5A State Backstroke Cham-pionship. Her time of 54.17 is a new school record and All American time. At the block, photo by Deb Korbawi; the race; getting the medal. Photos courtesy of Nicole Vanderpoel

Junior bassists Danny Irwin, Ian Kretzmann, and Stephen Morrison were selected to the 2015 All State Orchestra last month. These three were also selected to participate in the Western States Honor Orchestra Festival this past November and the Continental League Honor Orchestra in January. Photo by Kathleen Kennedy

This issue of the Canyon News will cover activi-ties, athletics, academics, and need to know information for parents. On page 11 of this issue we are starting a new feature: “where are they now?” We contacted some alumni to see what they are up to. This feature is the idea and research of Maxx Coppage, RC receptionist and mother of three Rock Canyon alumni.

Step into the classroomWe give you an insider’s guide to the heart of what we do: teach and learn The big picture. Yes, we all went to high school, which makes everyone an “expert” on the experience. But for most of us those high school days are a somewhat dim memory, and the truth of the matter is that some things have changed dramatically. Other things might seem reassuringly familiar. I wish we could invite every parent and guardian to spend a few days within the friendly confines of Rock Canyon, but that’s not practical. My idea? Go into some assorted classrooms with my camera and notebook and be your reporter.

Choosing from among so many great classes and instructors. The first step in producing this spe-cial report might have been the toughest. After all, we offer hundreds of classes, taught by a large and talented staff. Last year the focus was on four core departments. This issue I am focusing on electives, and I tried to provide a mix of advanced, upper level courses and standard level classes, all rigorous and important. The faculty, who cooperated in every way with this project, chose the class period I would visit and provided some preliminary information about the lesson I would be observing.

Not just a quick visit. I spent the entire class period with the teachers and students, observing and photographing. I interviewed some students during class, and followed up with instructors after the class. Faculty had an opportunity to look over the pages you see and add important details as well as more complete caption information.

I hope you will spend some time going back to school... virtually. I was not sur-prised, but was gratified, to find that something cool was happening in every classroom I visited. Students were engaged. Teachers were passionate. Yes, I visited just one day in a class that will meet for perhaps hundreds of hours, but I came away confident that Rock Canyon remains “The School That Leads.”

Kathleen Kennedy, Canyon News Editor

Seniors Vismaya Bachu and Lauren Yehle are Boettcher Scholarship finalists. The purpose of the Boettcher Scholarship is to attract Colorado’s best and brightest students to attend college within the state. The Boettcher Scholarship covers the cost of a Scholar’s tuition, fees and books for eight semesters/twelve quarters at approved Colorado four-year universities or colleges. A $2,800 living stipend is also supplied to help defray the cost of room and board. The Boettcher Founda-tion awards 40 Boettcher Scholarships annually. Approximately 100 Finalists are selected to interview for the Scholarship from an initial pool of applicants, which is typically around 1,600. Finalists are interviewed in March. Soon after the Final-ist interviews, the 40 winners are notified. Photo by Kathleen Kennedy

It was another successful Wish Week but this would not happen without the hard work of Kate Hartline and student council, planning months in advance. Here Hartline goes over plans with seniors Rebecca Pousma and Meredith Ham. See page 16 for more Wish Week coverage. Photo by Brianna Bradley ‘15

2Jaguar News

The Canyon News is printed three times during the school year. Publisher is Principal Andy Abner. Editor is adminis-trative assistant Kathleen Ken-nedy. RCHS is located at 5810 McArthur Ranch Road in High-lands Ranch, CO 80124.

CONTACTING US

From Principal Andy Abner

When I read through student resumes and bio’s, I am amazed at what our students accomplish in their four short years at Rock Canyon High School.

There are students that have committed themselves to countless academics, activities and athletics. Sometimes they are wildly successful in these endeavors and other times they come up short of their expectations. One thing I am certain of, regardless of the outcome, is that they have learned a tremen-dous amount about themselves along the way. It is this journey through high school and into adulthood that has helped prepare our students for a life of happiness and joy. I was so encouraged reading the Jaguar Alumni section on page 11 of this edition of Canyon News. While I was not princi-pal during those years, I cannot help but feel pride every time I hear or read how well our alumni are doing. Our staff feels the validation for the work we do every time we get to witness the success of our students. It is this validation that motivates us in our ever-changing world. The success of our students past and present is a direct reflection of our entire community. As a community we must continue to support our students and strive for excellence in education. I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for all of your support of your students and RCHS. Our school would never have achieved, or continue to achieve, high levels of success without your support and commitment. On behalf of the entire Rock Canyon staff I want to express what a pleasure it is to serve this community. We thank you for your continued support and encouragement.

Rock Canyon High School 1:1 and Chromebooks The 2014-15 school year will be the first year of moving to a 1:1 computing environment for students at Rock Canyon High School. We envision each student having a Google Chromebook as his or her primary computing device for use throughout the school day and throughout their high school career. Equitable access allows our teachers to create activities that will leverage the power of Internet tools and resources in daily instruction. Our teachers will provide students with opportuni-ties to learn how to appropriately use the web while also building positive work habits when working with technology such as managing distractions, communication skills, and digital citizenship. There has been a great focus on responsible use, respecting others in online settings just as in face-to-face relationships, and becoming more educated and aware while online. When every student has a device, it changes the way teachers and students think about resources. Our teachers have been quickly adopting formal and informal digital resources. Nearly every teacher has adopted the use of an online learning management system called Schoology to help facilitate communications and provide an organized online environment for students to submit assignments and take tests. Students are using Turnitin.com to submit documents for teachers to review and grade. Students consistently use Internet websites for simulations, fact-gathering, etc. and library databases for research. In addition, the increased focus on going paperless helps decrease the depen-dence on traditional paper and pen. While the Chromebook greatly improves a teacher’s ability to address a student’s individual needs and better personalize student learning, it will never replace the true relationship and connection that occurs between the student and the teacher. We have seen positive results from our professional development trainings. Nearly all of our teach-ers report that they have adapted their practices to take advantage of the new computing resources, that students are more engaged, and that classroom practices are more effective. Our students also agree that having dedicated access to a computer has helped them be more successful as a student, and the Chromebook is a valuable tool for getting school work done. Students use the devices when appropriate to do so, and students do not spend an entire day in front of a screen. With a 10-second start up time, teachers are able to design activities that are a blend of traditional and digital learning with transitions that seamlessly move between different styles of learning. Students have always been encouraged to bring a computing device (laptop, mobile device, etc.) and we are extending our desire to see each student with a laptop by offering district pricing on Chromebooks. Many incoming freshman from Rocky Heights Middle School have already pur-chased a Chromebook and will be ready to hit the ground running in the fall! The district pricing on Chromebooks is open to any Rock Canyon High School student, and the staff have been undergo-ing many hours of professional development on how to integrate this resource as part of their daily instruction. For more information on this 1:1 program and district pricing on Chromebooks, please visit: tinyurl.com/rchschromebooks

Prearranged Absences ReminderIf you know your student is going to be out, he or she needs to bring a parent note to the attendance office prior to the absence. In addition, it is the student’s responsibility to con-tact teachers before the absence and arrange make up work. If the absence is longer than 2 days, the student must fill out an Advanced Absence form. Forms can be obtained from the main office. Thank you for your support in this!

JAC partners with RCHSRock Canyon High School is partners with the Juvenile As-sessment Center which has been serving the community since 2000. The JAC has experienced professionals in the area of early intervention and detection of risk factors who can recommend services in your community. With an evidence-supported approach, Assessment Specialists will guide you to determining the next steps to take to help your child. They are here to act as a neutral party; listening and treating you with dignity and respect. The behavioral, social and emotional well-being of their clients is their focus. They understand being a parent isn’t easy. Call the Juvenile Assessment Center at the first sign of concern. They believe in you and your potential for change. 720-874-3381, JAC18.org

The 9th annual RCHS Fashion Show and on-line auction benefiting After Prom was a huge success. The student models looked amazing and did a fantastic job. We would like to thank all involved for their participation and support including the school, parents and community. We could not be more grateful for your gener-osity, enthusiasm and devotion in supporting this cause! We invite you to help with After Prom, be-ing held on April 18. This a great opportunity for parents of all students to have some fun, meet new people and help with this wonderful event. If you are interested please contact Tanya Schutte at dtschutte@comcast.com or Heidi Wing at hpwing@me.com We would also like to invite all community members to attend the Community Open House being held from 7:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m. on April 18 to see how the school is transformed based on our theme for After Prom.

Thank you,

RCHS Fashion Show CommitteeA Chapter of DCEF

Juniors Megan Strimbu, Connor Beal and Kayla Wing ‘15 model formal wear.

AP and ACT Practice Tests Available Online Students taking AP (Advanced Placement) tests this spring have been notified by their AP teacher of the availability of online prac-tice tests. Juniors should also be aware of online practice tests for the ACT. The ACT Test date is April 28 at RCHS. Douglas County Public Library subscribes to TESTING & EDU-CATION REFERENCE CENTER which allows students to create an account and take PRACTICE AP AND ACT TESTS FREE! Students need a Douglas County Public Library Card in order to access to this database. If a student does not have a Douglas County Public Library card, they can go to the public library site from the RCHS library page or http://www.douglascountylibraries.org/ and choose the Get a Library Card link.

Mission Statement: To Empower, To Explore, To Encourage and To Excel in Education.

School mascot: Jaguar.

School colors: Black and Vegas Gold.

Telephone numbers: main office 303-387-3000, 24 hour atten-dance line 303-387-3002, fax 303-387-3021, counseling office 303-387-3022.

RCHS photography students Dani Murdock, Keelyn Osoba, Al-exa Parker, and Serena Zarate, under the guidance of Kim Graham, Photography Club Advisor, took advantage of their day off from school Friday, Feb. 13 to host a READ Poster photo shoot. The photographers took shots of 20 RCHS teachers and staff, including Principal Andy Abner, with one of their favorite books. Alex Sabot’s graphic design students will use their photos to de-sign RCHS READ posters similar to READ posters published by the American Library Association. Sharon Stevens, teacher/librarian, is coordinating the project. – Sharon Stevens, Library / Media Teacher

RCHS Teachers and Photography Club Team Up to Promote Reading

Page named Highlands Ranch principal Rock Canyon Assistant Principal / Activities Director Chris Page has been selected as the new principal at Highlands Ranch High School starting with the 2015-16 school year. Page began his teaching career teaching eight grade history at Rocky Heights Mid-dle School from 2003-2006. In 2006 he moved to Rock Canyon to teach high school history. Page served as the Social Studies chair 2011-12, became Dean for 2012-13, and has served as an assistant principal since the 2013 school year. Page has been the RC head boys and girls track coach since Rock Canyon opened in August, 2003. In addition he has been an as-sistant football coach, assistant wrestling coach and the Mock Trial coach. We wish Mr. Page and his family well and thank him for all that he has done for Rock Canyon High School.

2015 RC Fashion Show

3Jaguar HigHligHts

Rebecca KuiperSPED, Educational Assistant

Matthew TorreyCampus Security

Originally from Western North Carolina, Torrey moved to Colorado last September and started at RCHS in November. He has worked in a variety of industires including convenience store, hotel management, as well as administrative work and internet technical support. He enjoys running, reading science fiction, listening to Rock and Roll, and beta testing the latest MMORPG or indie video game. Torrey filled a new position to help security with our increasing student population.

Kuiper is a Certified Nursing Assistant and previously worked with St. Joseph Hospital in Lexington, KY. She was a certified preschool teacher for KinderCare for 10 years. After being licensed, Kuiper taught Drivers Education for three years in Parker. She loves working with youth of all ages and taking care of others. She finds assisting in the education field hugely rewarding. Rock Canyon High School impresses her with such wonderful staff and students. “You can feel a good aura here. A lot of ambition,” she states.

Chris LozanoCustodial

Lazano started in the Douglas County School District in Oct. of 2004 at Pine Grove Elementary in Parker. He was there for three years, then at Copper Mesa Elementary for the last 7 years before coming to Rock Canyon. He has a wife and two daughters. They live in Highlands Ranch . Before he came to the district Lozano worked in construction for over twenty years. He is a Colorado native.

Lozano replaces Kevin Banuelos who left for another district position in October.

Stock comes to Colorado from New Mexico. She has been here for two years. She previously worked as a life guard. She enjoys reading, meeting new people, exercising/nutrition, summer nights, and quality time with friends and family. Stock loves being outside when the sun is out.

Kuiper replaces Windy Cline who left the district in October. Stock replaces Anyssa Barbour who left the district in November.

Morgan StockSPED, Educational Assistant

2015 Apple Awards held Feb. 21 The Apple Awards were created in 2006 to provide the opportunity to recognize and celebrate the excellent and innovative teachers and staff in Douglas County School District and serve as a fundraiser for district schools, district programs and DCEF’s Fill the Gap grants. Nominations were taken from students, staff and parents in November for both certified and classified staff. In De-cember the Rock Canyon Staff voted for the staff who where nominated. On Dec. 17 it was announced that Jim McClurg, technology teacher and Kathleen Kennedy, administrative assistant to Principal Abner were the 2015 RC representa-tives.

Above: Kennedy talks with office aid Alexandria Kraemer ‘15 Photo by Maxx Coppage

Above: McClurg at teacher conferences. Photo by Kathleen Kennedy

Sociedad Honoraria Hispànica The Sociedad Honoraria Hispànica (Spanish Honor Society) has been busy! As part of being a member of this prestigious society, students are required to serve in the Spanish-speaking commu-nity. Two favorite activities are volunteering at the Museo de Las Americas and at the Inner City Parish. At the museo students volunteer at Friday evening activities, which include tracking attendees and participating in Spanish conversation groups. The museo relies on our students to help in these events, as they are a non-profit organization. Another favorite activity is the holiday gift exchange at the In-ner City Parish. The parish provides one small gift for each child in needy families for the holidays. The SHH students act as elves and baby sitters. So many of the families that attend are Spanish-speaking only. The parish relies on our students to help those families select the perfect gift for their child. It may be small to us but to them it is their only gift. This activity provides our stu-dents with “a dose of reality.” It is always the event that hits our students with the hardest message of reality. The parish loves and appreciates RCHS. Remember that if your student needs any help or tutoring in Spanish, we are available to help in room 8600 during any AC-CESS period. – Margaret Motz, Sponsor

Congratulations to:Students making Academic Honor Roll. Honor roll designa-tions are given for each com-pleted semester at Rock Canyon. The following levels: Highest Academic Honors (4.0 and above) High Honors (3.99-3.75) Honors (3.74-3.50)

A Student is eligible to receive an academic letter after completing three semesters at RCHS. Transfer students must complete with a minimum of two semesters at RCHS before being eligible for an academic letter. An academic letter and pin/bar is awarded to a student that earns a cumulative 3.75 GPA based on the official RCHS grading system and is en-rolled in a minimum of 5 classes.

Student’s who qualify for Honor Roll or Academic Lettering will receive certificates the following semester. Spring 2014, the fol-lowing number of awards were given:Highest Academic Honors 284High Honors 222Honors 341

Navya Roy ‘15 has advanced as a Semifinalist in the Coca-Cola Scholars Program. She was chosen as one of nearly 2,200 Semifinalist from a pool of over 102,000 applicants. Applicants were judged on leadership, aca-demic achievements and dedica-tion to community service.

Three RC Seniors advance to National Merit FinalistsJessica Dobler, Chase Henry and Lucas Laughlin have been named finalist in the 2015 Competition for National Merit Scholarships. Over 1.5 million students took the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test. The selection of some 8,000 Merit Scholarship winners from the 15,000 Finalist is now in progress.

National Merit Commended Students Ten Rock Canyon seniors have been named Commended Students in the National Merit Scholarship Program. These stu-dents placed in the top 50,000 of over 1.5 million students who entered the 2015 National merit Program by taking the 2013 Preliminary SAT / National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test. Congratulations to Vismaya Bachu, Rohan Balan, Shane Cun-ningham, Emily Kaukol, Mimi Kim, Conner Lewis, Ian McK-enzie, Sam Molitoriss, Hayley Pearson, Eric Schaedig.

Science teacher Shawndra Fordham was named a finalist in Shell Science Teaching Award which recognizes outstanding classroom science teachers who have had a positive impact on students, school and community. Fordham has been awarded an all expense paid trip to attend the March National Science and Technology Association’s national conference being held in Chicago.

Teacher/librarian Sharon Stevens attended the 11th Annual Teach-er Librarian Days TLD 2015: Vital Viewpoints on February 27. Teaching with Primary Sources at Metropolitan State University of Denver in conjunction with History Colorado hosted the one-day event. The theme for the day was Vital Viewpoints with the in-tention of allowing exploration of alternative perspectives leading to the creation of new unimag-ined understandings. Presenta-tions focused on using primary sources in the classroom.

Student Helps Refugee

It was a crazy night at Rock Canyon when the Harlem Wizards came to play. Imagine being there with kids who have never seen a basketball game. RCHS student Sean Thompson had that opportunity and made it awesome! Sean took two Colorado refugees from the Congo for a night of their lives. First, they went to Steak and Shake, which was only their second experience in a sit down restaurant. Then, Sean treated them to a crazy game of basketball! They were overwhelmed by the game but also the enthusiasm of the community. Their only question afterwards was “was that a real basketball game?”

Teacher Librarians Meet English teacher, Wendy Lerolland, and RCHS library staff, Sharon Stevens, Stefani Wiest, and Janet Williams joined other DCSD high school teacher librarians on Friday, Jan. 16 at Anderson Academic Center at Denver University and the Jackson Enhanced Learning Center at Colorado University Denver Auraria Campus. The purpose of their visit was to discover types and elements of research RCHS students can expect their first year of college. In the morning the group met at the UCD/Metro campus (newly renovated with public funds), with Erin Meyer, ACC librarian and Dr. Clara Sitter who had gathered the following comments from her colleagues. In the afternoon the teachers and librarians toured the (newly renovated with private funds) DU Library. •Theneedforstrongcriticalreadingskills,includingtheabilityto identify author purpose and argument, as well as, break down evidence and counterargument. •Studentsshouldbeabletoreadandcomprehendarticlesinscholarly journals, know what an abstract is, and be able to find and cite sources from articles in scholarly journals. •Studentsareexpectedtotakewritingcoursesspecifictotheiracademic disciplines. •Therewasnotalkofworldclassoutcomes. •CollegeprofessorsusethelanguageofCommonCoreforitssimplicity and commonality. The professors like the way concepts and language expand over the grade levels. •Mostfreshmencoursesaregroundedinwritingandnonfictionanalysis. – Sharon Stevens, Library / Media Teacher

Distinguished AdviserJournalism teacher Kristi Rathbun has been named a Journalism in Education Distinguished Adviser of the Year. Rathbun will be honored April 18 by JEA during the Na-tional JEA / NSPA Conference that will be held in Denver. JEA is the largest national association of scholastic jour-nalism teachers and student media advisers.

4Jaguar academics

Karly Bloom’s Creative Writing class just finished their poetry unit. To wrap it up, students completed Broadside projects where they turned their own poetry into three-dimensional, tangible pieces of art. The guidelines required the poetry to be the students’ own work, and the display was not allowed to be on a poster board. Lauren Drake’s 10th grade English classes are learning about the civil rights movement as they read Sue Monk Kidd’s The Secret Life of Bees. Students are reading historical documents and poems that are written about the Freedom Riders and the bombing of the Birmingham church in the 1960s to add to their understanding of the novel and the social climate of the time. Louis Goldin is extremely excited be teaching a new class on sport and performance psychology. (Louis received his masters from the University of Denver in sport and performance psychology.)

This course is designed to familiarize students with both the theory and application of sport and performance psychology. The class is created for students to experience the building of a personal sport and performance psychology program. All performers (i.e., athletes, musicians, test takers, etc.) are welcome to take the class. In this class, students will be introduced to the cardinal skills of relaxation, concentration, imagery, self-talk, and mental routine; followed by broader topics such as goal setting, motivation, confidence, cohesion, engagement, and mastery. In addition, relevant theories and research will be presented and followed by demonstrations of techniques and strategies, after which the students will learn by doing. Specific attention will be given to blending the science of peak performance with the art of applying science.

Dream CatcherA human being is capable of remarkable accomplishments. Each individual is so immensely expansive and creative.. Able to innovate, imagine and invent marvelous things. So when someone says,

“I wish…” or “My dream is…”

it just sounds so limiting. As though your extraordinary goals are alike the fogginess of a dream – disappearing and fleeting before it can be grasped. As if wishes are dependant upon a star that burns brightly, light-years away.

We are all made of the same stardust that makes up the stars we wish upon. We are all capable of incredible feats.

So dream big– But don’t just dream….

Achieve.

Venture.

Triumph..

–Amber Kesler ‘15, Creative Writing II

Castle in the Parking Lot Hello rich kid, Strolling down the halls, Clutching plastic coated paper, And drinking through a straw. Hello rude kid, Leaving drink cans on cars, Aluminum on aluminum, The trash can is just too far. Hello ditch kid, Late in class, circle k in lap, Swinging keys too fast, Strutting around like you want me to clap. Hello dip kid, Plastic cup filled up, remainder on your hip, Left out on the pavement, With breath as repulsive as your chopped up lip. You live life as if from a castle, due to the birth lottery you won. I saw your building blocks myself, and so I built you one.

– Cami Brunetti ‘16, Creative Writing II

Mathematics Many exciting things are happening throughout the Math Department so far this semester. Math is one of those subjects that people think can be hard to make applicable in the real world. There are many times we math teachers hear the age old question, “When are we ever going to use this?” Well, teachers are stepping up to the challenge and working on incorporating authentic assessments as an alternative to traditional tests. Some examples of these real world assessments can be seen throughout the Geometry classes. The Geometry teachers put together two projects that assess knowledge, application and critical thinking in creative ways. The first took place last semester for a chapter in which students learned topics including special angles and their relation-ships. Students were tasked to create a map of a city specific to the city planner’s guide-lines using their knowledge of angle rela-tionships within parallel and perpendicular lines. Many students went above and be-yond with this project and commented that this really helped solidify the conceptsand made them tangible. The other project-based assessment was for a chapter on area. Throughout the chapter, students learned many formulas for finding areas of any polygon. Instead of examining the students on this material with a test, teachers gave a project where students worked in groups to create a pizza restaurant that carried different polygon shaped items. They had to come up with reasonable sized pizzas and sides, and then find the areas of each using what they had learned from this chapter. They applied that knowledge to also come up with reasonable pricing that was consistent throughout menu items. The projects that students came up with were quite impressive! Students had fun working on this project and were able to see where these topics applied to the real world. It was cool to see how many groups made their menus so life-like with “specials” and all! We definitely have some future business leaders on our hands! Still it is true that not everything students learn in math can be assessed as a project, but all teachers in our department are making strides in fostering 21st century skills in their classrooms. With these skills, some including critical thinking, financial literacy, and resiliency, all of Rock Canyon’s math classes are helping to prepare students out in the real world now and as future responsible citizens!

Language Arts

How We Read in High School In elementary school we learn to read. By high school, we read to learn. Most classes in high school require reading in some form. Reading is assigned for a variety of specific reasons: to learn new information, for analysis and critical thinking, and often it is a task given to them to assess learning. Students need to be reminded that the variety of reading materials they encounter (textbooks, novels, articles, poems, fiction, nonfiction) will require different approaches. How we read material depends on the type of text and our purpose for reading. The teacher sets the purpose for how we read in school. So, if we read a chapter in the textbook or other nonfiction source, our purpose is often to find facts and information. When a teacher assigns fiction for us to read, the purpose is quite possibly to look for deeper meaning than the literal meaning of the words on the surface. When we choose a book to read for pleasure, we have the purpose of being entertained or reading about something we already know we will find interesting or fun. Ask your student how he sits down to read a book for pleasure. He will probably say he looks forward to relaxing and taking in the author’s words without any expectations or requirements put on him. Next, ask your student how he sits down with a textbook or a novel (which are approached differently). Ask him what the teacher wants him “to know or be able to do” after reading the assigned section. See if your student realizes the difference in how he approaches reading based on the type of text and his purpose for reading. As a parent you can help your student be more successful with reading assignments by reinforcing that there is a variety of types of text, and that we approach each type differently. – Carol McFarland, RCHS Literacy Specialist

Digital Media Technology The RCTV videographers have been hard at work entering competitions for film projects as well as producing documentary shorts for Wish Week in February. The film class consisting of 10th, 11th, and 12th graders split into groups to submit public service announcements that may be selected to be showcased at the local libraries around Douglas County. The Colorado State Library and the Collaborative Summer Library Program encourage teens, 13-18, individually or in teams, to create and submit a 30 - 90 second Public Service Announcement promoting the 2015 summer reading theme, “Unmask!” The students could win $150 and $50 worth of prizes for the library they selected. Videos can be viewed now on the RCTV Vimeo channel. To check out the submissions, go to: vimeo.com/118636632 vimeo.com/118639794 vimeo.com/118642730 and vimeo.com/119473056 to see their creative work.

DCTV classmates Jaime Zurzolo ‘16, Paige Von Bank ‘15 and Riley Zehnle ‘15, took on the huge job of creating the opening Wish Week RCTV broadcast as well as three amazing videos to show the school at the opening Wish Week assembly. Watch these inspirational videos to help welcome Jeremy to Wish Week 2015 video.com/120193211. Look for the Wish Week 2015 recap video on the RCTV Broadcast Network later in March.Science

The RCHS Science Department has been busy these past few months counseling students about their past, present and future science courses. It is always an exciting time as students try to envision what types of science classes have interested them the most and the types of careers in which they see themselves involved. With our vast science offerings and our philosophy of working to create a well-rounded science knowledge in students, we hope they all leave with an understanding of the four areas of science (which our state and most colleges wish for too): Earth/Space, Biology, Chemistry and Physics. So many of our graduates (about 30% each year) go on to major in a science field in college that we feel our job is to prepare them and our passion is to ignite their spark for the STEM field that intrigues them the most. It reinforces our passion to guide them when we have alumni come back to talk about their engineering, physician, nursing, biomedical, chemistry, geological engineering and petroleum engineering work, just to name a few! We hope that your son or daughter returns one day to tell us about all of the amazing things they have gone on to study and maybe even invent.

World LanguageThe World Language Department has been busy providing students with authentic experiences while having them practice using their new language. Ms. Savas’ French classes have enjoyed learning about different francophone cultures in the Americas. They celebrated Mardi Gras this year with mask-making, trivia games, and cupcake decorating. The students tried traditional foods during the class pot-luck, and sampled everything from Etoufee to Jambalaya, Kings Cake to beignets, and much more. They were lucky to make Tire d’erable, a traditional Quebecois dessert using maple syrup and snow, while learning about the Sugar Shacks in Canada. Ms. Cunningham’s Spanish I and II classes are in the middle of creating projects that focus on either creativity or global awareness, depending on what the students chose. Spanish I is focused on food, so much research has been done on foods throughout the Spanish-speaking world. Spanish II is focused on clothing and style. The projects coming out are anything from fashion shows and What Not to Wear skits, to catalogues and kids books on getting dressed. It is fun to sit back and watch this creativity! On February 5, the World Language Department brought in María Vasquez and her live band to perform her authentic Flamenco dance routine. It was an amazing experience for students and staff. If your student is interested in hosting a French student for 10 or 19 days this summer, please contact Dayna Moore at dayna.moore@dcsdk12.org. Thanks for all of your support. – Dayna Moore, Department Chair

5Parents of Seniors: Has your senior completed the required 20 community service hours required for graduation? Graduation is a little over two months away! If the hours are done, please make sure your senior turns the hours in to Mrs. Barbara Hendrick in the Counseling Office.

Resources at the Rock Canyon Counseling webpage We have many resources available at the Counseling webpage for parents and students. Looking for community service opportunities, test taking tips or help with test anxiety? Looking for class presentations or our school course guide? Need to order transcripts? Need a tutor or Peer Counseling help? Want to look at standardized testing prep programs? All of this information and more is available to you at RCHS Counseling webpage.

Lettering in Community Service Rock Canyon offers a lettering program in community service learning at three different levels. The first level requires 100 service hours, second level requires 250 service hours, and the third level requires 500 service hours. Each level has an application and specific standards that must be completed with documentation of a variety of service learning, recommendations, and personal reflection. Applications will be reviewed and approved by a committee. Forms and details on community service lettering are available at RCHS website under the Counseling tab.

RCHS Counseling Department is Hosting a Parent Workshop We would like to invite you to spend an evening hearing from guest speakers and counselors on an array of topics for helping your high school student in various areas, such as study skills, social media awareness, grit and perseverance, communicating with your teen, and healthy coping skills. Please join us on Thursday, April 3, 2014 at 6:00 - 8:30 p.m. at Rock Canyon High School.

Open Enrollment Process 2014-15 The second round of Open Enrollment for the 2015-16 school year opens April 15, 2015. This process is manual, and the form will be available on the DCSD website. Once the form is completed, it must then be submitted to the school you wish to attend.Rock Canyon High school is currently at capacity for the 2015-16 school year. With a wait list from round one of Open Enrollment established, acceptance of additional students is not likely. *For students not returning to RCHS: If your 9th, 10th, or 11th grade student will not be attending RCHS for the 2015-16 school year, please inform Polly Poindexter, RCHS Registrar via email at Polly.Poindexter@dcsdk12.org. Records will not be forwarded to the new school your child will be attending until the withdrawal process at RCHS has been completed. For any questions regarding the open enrollment process, please contact Polly Poindexter.

Junior Meetings Counselors just wrapped up meetings with all juniors. We shared information on what to prepare for with post-secondary options whether the next step is college, military or other. With the start of the college application process just six months away, we focused on sharing the steps they should be taking right now to be ready to start applying in early fall. Juniors were shown how to use Naviance, which is a software we offer to help students complete their college planning and application process. We talked to each junior one-on-one about their completed credits and credits still needed for graduation, as well as status of their

Counseling community service hours. We also checked in on what their goals were for after high school. With college planning, we discussed what colleges they are thinking about applying to, and possible desired majors and career choices. Juniors’ next steps are to use Naviance in the way that fits their needs, set up campus visits to prospective colleges, and complete the tasks which are listed in Naviance under the tab, My Planner. In the fall, Counselors will conduct senior meetings where they will meet with these students as seniors to check in on their college application process and other needs. In order to assist parents in preparing their junior for the college planning process, the Counseling Department hosted a Junior Information Night on February 17, 2015 where all parents of juniors and juniors were invited to attend our resource fair and presentation. If you were not able to attend, please feel free to check out the presentation shared that night, at the top of the Counseling webpage.

Sophomore Meetings during Advise Counselors just finished talking with all sophomores in their Advise classes where we discussed how to prepare for junior year with ACT testing. We shared how their PLAN score is a predictor of how they will do on the ACT and what things they can do to plan for a successful junior year.

Peer Counselors Help Students Academically and Personally Peer Counselor II students are trained to assist students confidentially with: conflict resolution, academic issues, time management, problem solving, relationship issues, crisis situations, college and career planning. Students may come to the Counseling Office and request to see a Peer Counselor. Peer Counselors are available to assist every period during the school day with peer tutoring and other concerns (during 1st and 2nd lunches and periods 1 - 7) in the Counseling Office. Peer Counselors also give tours of the school. Please call the Counseling Office if you want to set up an appointment for a tour. call 303-387-3022 or 3025.

Naviance News The summer break provides many opportunities for our students to get a jump start on activities that will make their school year go smoothly. As always, we want to encourage you to have your child check their Naviance account weekly for emails from our counseling department. As a parent, we encourage you to set up your account in Naviance, as well, so you can access this phenomenal tool. Our future seniors should be following the timeline we have posted in Naviance under “Pages.” The timeline breaks down what they should be doing midway through their junior year all the way through graduation. Below is a synopsis of those activities: • Savecopyofparents’incometaxreturntousein applying for financial aid. • ConsidertakingtheSATandSATsubjecttests,if required by colleges. • Lookintopre-collegesummerprograms.See the “Enrichment” section in Naviance under “Colleges.” •Considerarranginganinternshiporjobshadowin a career field that interests you. •Follow-upwithteachersonlettersof recommendation. •Discussyourcollegechoiceswithyourparents. •Visitprospectivecolleges.Lookfor“Questionsto Ask” under Pages in Naviance. •AthletesshouldregisterfortheNCAA Clearinghouse if they want the opportunity to compete in college sports. •Completeyourcommunityservicehoursandturn the paperwork into the Counseling Office. •Filloutthe“LetterofRecommendationProfile”in Naviance under the “About Me” tab so teachers can write you a great letter of recommendation. •Workonrequiredcollegeessays. •Conductscholarshipsearchesfromthe“Links” section in Naviance.

College Campus Visits Summer is a great chance to take a vacation and tie a college campus visit into the trip. Although the true flavor of the college might not be as evident during the summer months, it still provides a great opportunity. It is recommended that you set up an appointment with the admissions office as opposed to just dropping in. Ask to visit with the financial aide department, take a tour of the dorms, sit in on a class, and possibly talk with a student who in currently enrolled in the same major of interest. We encourage students to ask lots of questions and take excellent notes so they can refer back to them when making their final decision the following spring. Here are some questions we recommend: • Whatdostudentslikemost/leastaboutthis school? • Whatarethestudentslikehere? • Percentageofclasseswithover50students? What is the average class size for a freshman? • Whoteachesfreshmenclasses? • Howaccessibleareprofessorsoutsideofclass? • Whatpercentageofstudentsgraduateinfour years? • Whatisthepercentageofreturningsophomores? • Whendostudentshavetodeclareamajor? • Whatkindoffreshmentransitionsupportisthere? • Aresupportservicesavailabletoeveryone?Do they cost? • Whatpercentageofstudentsliveoncampus? • Howareroommatesselected?Whatisthepolicy for changing roommates? • IsGreeklifecentraltocampussociallife? • Whatrecreationalfacilitiesandstudent organizations are there for the activities I enjoy? • Whatpercentageofstudentsgohomeonthe weekend? • Howarefacultyadvisersassigned,especially before a major has been chosen? • Howsafeisthecampus?Whatison-campus security like? • Isthereasafetyescortorshuttleservicefor students returning to their dorms at night? • Whatcanyoutellmeaboutinternshipsandstudy abroad programs? • Dostudentsgetemailandaccesstotheinternet? • Howavailable/accessiblearecomputerlabs? • WhatservicesdoestheCareerPlacementCenter offer? • Howdofirstyearstudentschoosetheirclasses?

These questions are also located in Naviance on the home page under “Pages.”

Does Your Child Need Community Service Hours? Summer is a great opportunity to complete the required twenty hours of community service hours needed to graduate from any Douglas County School. Colleges and universities often place high value on community involvement and giving back to the community. It is a great idea to try and pursue a community service project that may provide an opportunity to also explore a career interest. Take a look at the Rock Canyon counseling website under Community Service to find a list of opportunities and therequiredform.Volunteerworkmustbefornon-profit organizations. Students only need 20 hours to graduate, that’s only 5 hours each school year! We highly recommend they try to attain more than just the minimum as many scholarships place high value on community service.

Enrichment Activities During the summer months, many colleges and universities offer fabulous enrichment programs. It is a great way to check out the campus and get a sense of what attending that college would feel like. You can find these by looking into Naviance under College and “Enrichment.” There is a search bar you can type in specific career opportunities. You can also look at each individual college that you list in “Colleges I’m Interested In” and scroll down to see programs available. **No credit will be given for summer programs without prior approval from the high school principal.

Job Shadows Taking the time to set up a job shadow during the summer months is one of the most valuable experiences your son or daughter could have. Put the word out to your family, neighbors, and friends and help connect your child with someone working in the field your child is interested in. Coordinate transportation so your child can work along side a professional throughout an entire day to get to see what that career is really like. Encourage them to ask questions and send a thank you note to the person with whom they do the job shadow. In Naviance, students can also search careers and career clusters. Students can see what a career entails including a brief overview, knowledge and skills, tasks and activities as well as a wage chart for different states in the United States.

Peer Counselor Mancy Shah ‘15 works with Christian But-ler ‘17 on his Algebra II / Trigonometry homework. Photo by Kathleen Kennedy.

During a junior meeting Counselor Gina Zelkin right, talks with juniors Meghan Cook and Allie Conner on what kind of letters of recommendation to send with college ap-plications. Photo by Kathleen Kennedy.

Strength & Conditioningmeets graduation requirements in Physical Education. It may be taken more than once for credit.

Prerequisites: None required.Course may be taken by students in all grade levels. This is a one semester class; .5 credits will be earned.

This class is an intensive course for students who desire to develop explosive muscular strength as well as cardiovascular and muscular endurance. The focus of the course is to strengthen the major muscle groups as well as develop a high level of fitness through intense plyometric exercises. The core lifts for weight training include bench press, squats, push press, incline press, and hang cleans. The program also will incorporate a speed/agility training program to develop an overall high level of conditioning. While this is not a bodybuilding or “sculpting” class, it is designed to increase muscular mass and overall body strength. Students taking this course should be prepared to be self-starters. Fee: $20.

Monday, Feb. 23, 2015, 5th period

Kent Grams, PE instructorStrength and Conditioning

“In this class we focus on four core lifts: Bench Press, Squat, Hang Clean, and Incline Bench Press. Each day we emphasize lifting technique, muscle development, speed and explosiveness.”

– Kent Grams

Three things you may not know about this class1 We expect our students to

put in a lot of effort into this class.

2 Our strength and conditioning classes are conducted like practices.

3 This class is not just for athletes.

What challenges do you see in this class?This class can become a grind. People don’t always feel like working out but if you find a way to grind through each and every day you will see great improvement.

Do you have a story about a favorite day with this class? My favorite days are when the students have great focus and give their best effort.

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Photos by Kathleen Kennedy

Customized work for everyone. Students (from all four grades) be-gin the class by getting their customized packets. Mr. Grams customizes the days workout for each student. The semester is divided into four week blocks. The amount of weights used goes up each block period. Grams takes into consideration if the student has a game (all students in this class cur-rently participate in a sport) or if they are injured.

Building their core. The workout covers five different stations - bench press, back squats, incline bench press, hang cleans, and auxiliary (includes such things as ab work out, dumb bells, back extensions and power rows.) The amount of time spent at a station and the repetitions are the same for each student, while the amount of weight to be used is customized. Today the students are working on core strength.

Mondays are “pyramid days.” Each student does 5 sets, with the number of repetitions changing 10-8-6-4-2. The amount of weight changes at each repetition (customized for the student). Wednesdays are endurance days and Fridays are maintenance days.

Senior Jamie Williams has taken strength and conditioning every semester she has been at RCHS. A basketball player, she said the class has made her so much stronger and helped her with basketball.

A little grit goes a long way in S&C class

Instructor Kent Grams spots Vincent Gullia ‘15 during back squats. The number of repetitions goes down each set, with the weight going up.

Senior Jamie Williams has taken strength and conditioning every semester she has been at RCHS. A basketball player, she said the class has made her so much stronger and helped her with basket-ball.

Payten Gilmore ‘16 works on the arm curls in the auxiliary station of his workout.

Left: Mckenzie Wierda ‘16 and Isaac Arias ‘17 work at the bench press station. Weights are added after each set. Above: Carter Coonts ‘17 works on back squats.

Grace Hensley ‘18, Margaret Staples ‘17 get out their electron-ic device to use wordreference.com. It translates words from English to Spanish or vice versa. It is also helpful with Spanish phrases and idioms to help them with the crossword puzzle.

Spanish II meets graduation requirements for an elective course. It may be taken more than once for credit. Grade levels 9 through 12.

Prerequisite Spanish I and Teacher’s Signature

This course is a continuation of Spanish I with emphasis on learning new and more complex vocabulary and grammar. In addition, students will begin to integrate skills studied in Spanish I/IB for more sophisticated oral and written communication. Students who complete this course with an A or a B will be recommended for Spanish III.

A story about a favorite day with this class? My favorite day with this class was when we had our dance competition to a Spanish speak-ing song. The moves were on the screen in front and we practiced for a week. I recorded each of my level 2 classes and then my level four students voted which class did the best! Students enjoyed getting out of their seats and moving.

During break, Margaret Staples ‘17, asks Señora Woods a question she has on the returned test.

Today’s lesson: Every two to three weeks the class starts a new vocabulary unit. On this day the students were in the third day of a new unit, study-ing the past tense as well as words that deal with running errands. This unit has 45 vocab-ulary words. At the end of the unit, students will be tested.

The vocabulary words are introduced in a variety of ways. Woods said, “The objective of today’s lesson is for the stu-dents to negotiate meaning from a listening activity. The main objective is for students to learn their vocabulary and to see it in context.” Three things you may not know

about this class1 Your student can communicate

in the present and the past as well as the future.

2 We dance!3 Your student can write a

paragraph of 8-10 sentences in Spanish.

What challenges do you see in this class?This class is challenging for students because they have to remember the vocabulary they learned last year and then have to learn the new vocabulary from this year. When they forget past vocabulary it makes reading and listening difficult.

“We discuss our culture and then compare our own culture to the Hispanic speaking cultures as well as others.” – Chantal Woods

Thursday, Feb. 12, 2015, 6th period,

Chantal Woods, World Language instructorSpanish II 7

Why is this class important? Students are exposed to different perspectives and other cultures. It is a stepping stone for them. They can continue on with Spanish and then could use it in their job, for traveling or for communicating with Spanish speakers in our community. Spanish allows them to connect with people that they would have never been able to befriend without knowing the language.

Getting started. There’s no easy way around it: students need to expand their vocabulary steadily as part of their Spanish language devel-opment. But students learn new information in various ways, so Chantal Woods provides a variety of approaches.

Students opened their texts to page 134, where they found pictures of places. On their paper they wrote for each picture the name of the places (lugares). Under tengo que (I have to) the students wrote what they did in that place. Students volunteered answers and Woods wrote their answers on the white board.

For auditory learners: Woods handed out a worksheet to use with the audio lesson. Students listened to a short story, then under the corre-

sponding picture on their work sheet they wrote the place and time the story happened. Stu-dents compared answers with a partner, before the class went over the worksheet.

Let’s play! Students then played Lotería (bingo). They made their own bingo boards by folding the sheet into 16 squares. They chose 16 words from their 45-word vocabulary list, drawing the picture of the word on one side and writ-ing the word on the back side. Woods randomly called words from the vocabulary list. As students crossed a row or col-umn they called out Lotería! They played seven rounds.

Time to review. Tests were handed back from the last vocabulary unit with scores for listening, reading and culture. Students wrote a reflection on their test, analyzing their strengths and weaknesses, and areas for improve-ment.

As Señora Wood said often: “Excelente!”

Akshat Tyagi ‘17, and Hill Probasco ‘17, compare an-swers on their worksheets for the listening activity.

Pictures from the text book and answers on the white board from the warm-up exercise.

Increasing vocabulary involves multiple student learning styles

Lotería, calls out Nick Dean ‘18, the first student to complete four in a row.

Photos by Kathleen Kennedy

Multimedica III - DCTVelective, meets graduation requirements for practical arts. May be taken only once for credit. Grade level 11th and 12th. This is advanced class for students who have taken RCTV.

Prerequisites: Successful completion of Multimedia I and Multimedia II – Video Production is required and student must have a signature from Mr. McClurg to get into this course.

The DC8 Television Academy offers students who have a high interest in TV broadcast communication to put together content rich television programs that appear on the Douglas County Educational television channel 8. Writing, organizing, making contacts outside of school, and building sets are all areas worked on in the class. Students will work in groups to create segments using high-end technical equipment such as camcorders, microphones, and editing equipment that will be used to film, edit, and export their show to viewing capabilities. Fee: $35

“Each quarter every student is required to do a student or staff profile and cover two events that include clubs, activities or sports. Students learn to push the negatives aside, learn to take rejection when trying to get an interview. I want them to have fun, give good news and do serious as well as fun pieces.” – Jim McClurg

Things you may not know about this class.Every day is usually different, producing TV and film components throughout the week. From filming the announcements on set, to filming interviews for student/staff spotlights, to creating commercials or public service announcements, to short films, documentaries, music videos, or experimental ones, there is always something creative being produced in or out of Studio 4104.

A favorite day When all five groups are in production mode it’s something everyone should see. All 32 kids working together, setting up microphones, lights, cameras as a team is crazy but so much fun to be a part of. I have to sit down and get my mind back in focus after 90 minutes of running around helping, but it’s all worth it to see their final productions come to life.

Challenges in this class?Students have to be able to troubleshoot around their problems and find alternatives that work best for what they see in the end. Communication is not really a problem with this group, but when someone drops the ball, or doesn’t communicate with one another, it really shows in pre-production, production, and post-production.

Wednesday, Feb. 11, 2015, 5th period,

Jim McClurg, instructorMultimedia III - DCTV8

Why is this elective important for students?The class really prepares the students for the workplace coming up with creative ideas, working together and with others outside the class for their productions, producing semi-professional productions, and learning through their successes and their failures every day. It’s not the average ordinary class as it’s a hands on one, working with high end hardware and software that most won’t see until later in college or in a job setting.

Getting organized. Jim McClurg tells students that the work calendar / schedule had been updated and that they needed to check it. He talked about doing “Wish Week” videos and challenged them to be creative in their coverage: if they choose to do one it must be unique and not a repeat of past videos.

Getting to work. Multimedia 3 DCTV is the advanced TV production class that is responsible for the RCTV broadcast during the Advisement class time. The broadcast runs between 8-15 minutes in length. The students work in teams of five. There are five groups of five. As the groups rotate presenting a broadcast, they are at different stages of production.

Group 1: This group was brainstorming for the edition to be shown on Feb. 24. It takes a few minutes to up to two days to come up with topics to cover. They must decide how to execute each piece — funny, serious, what interviews to get. Research needs to be done and a script written and who will work on which piece. Three to four videos will be used in a show. Sometimes as they start working on a show they find some of their ideas are not going to work, so they need to be adjusted or dropped altogether and new ideas have to be thought up.

Their idea for Feb. 24: “What if Google was a person?”

Wesley Cassford ‘16, Thomas Spedding ‘16, and Jensen Healy ‘15, go to the Broadcast Studio to get inspiration for ideas for their Feb. 24 broadcast. Students understand and appreciate how fortunate they are to have such an amazing facility. The new video studio opened in 2010 in the school’s new wing. The area consists of a classroom, edit-ing room, broadcast studio, control room, video studio (referred to as the green room), audio room and office. This class goes far beyond the classroom time. Students come in during their off periods, lunch and after school, especially during the editing period. The day before their video shows they will be at school, fine tuning, until 5 or 6 p.m.

Juniors David Laff and Daniel Lindeen demonstrate the control boards in the control room. The script is put on these computers and it shows on the three teleprompters in the broadcast studio for the anchors to read.

Below: Michael Baer ‘15, stands in front of the green screen in the Video studio. Different backgrounds can be pulled over. This room has many uses in the production process.

David Laff points to one of the three teleprompters that show the rolling script to the anchors.

Taking a break from work on a Public Service An-nouncement are Sieanna Stone ‘16, Jordan Weber ‘16, Emily Sattem ‘16, and Madison Golden ‘15. SRO Erik Brown has asked for a PSA on the dangers of sexting and the dangers of drug use. Brown left it to the team as to how they would present the information.

Always on the move, helping students, McClurg helps Kirbi Spanbauer ‘15 with her video camera.McClurg takes great pride in what his students produce. It is important that they be well rounded, gaining experience in all areas of the video produc-tion process. These students must be good at work-ing with people. All the video teachers in the district meet 5 times a year, working to get all schools on a similar track.

There’s always another deadline, so class organization key for DCTV

Group 2: This group’s show will broadcast Feb. 21, so they were in the middle of their planning cycle. During a broadcast two of the students serve as anchors, while the other three do production working in the broadcast studio and control room. The students work two- to two-and-a-half weeks on their edition before they do the final editing.

Photos by Kathleen Kennedy

Select Mixed Choir meets graduation requirements for fine arts. It may be taken more than once for credit. Grade levels 10th, 11th and 12th.

This course is for 20-30 highly select singers. Singers will be selected for this ensemble by audition only. This choir is available to students who demonstrate high levels of vocal skills and personal responsibility as well as a scholarly attitude towards musicianship.

To be selected for Select Mixed Choir, students must demonstrate expressive singing, excellent pitch and superior knowledge of musical notation. Emphasis will be on developing maturity and precision in the performance of the full range of advanced choral literature. All performances and extra rehearsals are mandatory. This is a year-long course. Fee: Purchase of uniform will be required (approx. $90-$100).

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“Select Mixed Choirs is an auditioned choir that performs fre-quently for school and community functions, both in school and outside of school.” – Julia Dale

Singers learn to be part of larger world

What challenges do you see in this class?This is a class full of high achievers. Almost all of the students are in many AP classes or on Advanced Learning Plans. They crave challenges on many levels - both musically and theoretically. I have to be a great teacher all of the time in this class in order to meet the demands of all of these advanced students Furthermore, our performance schedule can be very demanding, so teaching all of the music while keeping everyone stress-free can be a challenge!

Do you have a story about a favorite day with this class? On any given day, we can both play hard and work hard – all within a 90-minute period.

My favorite example of this was February 11. We started the day with a Valentine’s day sock exchange, which consisted of a “secret santa” type gift ex-change of socks. Socks are very popular with the Select Mixed Choir right now. After laughing and enjoying our new socks, we had an intense rehearsal on a difficult piece by Vaughan-Williams where we converted a bunch of notes and words on a page into beautiful, thought-provoking music.

Immediately following the rehearsal, 90 choir students from Rocky Heights joined us and we ran a rehearsal for the middle school students. As soon as they were finished, the Colorado State University Chamber Choir showed up and listened to the combined middle school and high school students perform and then dazzled the group with a seven song concert. It was incredible to see our students flawlessly shift from role to role over the day - from choir member, to choir director, to performer, to audience member.

Select Mixed Choir Wednesday, Feb. 25, 2015, 5th period

Julia Dale, Director

Photos by Kathleen Kennedy

Tenors get ‘down’ to serious busi-ness working on their notes in the sight reading exercise.

What makes music important to Julia Dale? “What makes music important to me is the fact that in music students can communicate and collaborate 100% of the time. The bonds that are created in choir are similar to those of a family and last a lifetime. Students learn how to work together and how to forgive and move on. These lessons relate directly to the work-place.”

Less then three weeks ‘til the concert. After physical and vocal warm-ups, the class does a quick sight reading exercise. Ms. Dale projects a new piece of music on the white board line with separate lines for sopranos, altos, tenors and basses. Each section sings its line, seeking to blend with the other sections.

Plenty of work before they are ready. The first song they work on for the upcoming “Journeys” concert is “I’m A Train.” They sing the whole song together; then just women sing it and then just men. They focus on measure 22 and work on that. Each time through, the students worked on volume, going faster and singing smoother.

They eventually moved to the other three songs. After singing through one, Ms. Dale paused and asked, “If you just sang this song like that at the concert, what do you think the audience would say about it?” The students agreed they needed to do more work, to meet the standards set for them. And practice they did. Dale hopes the students will learn their parts so well they can stand alternating boy, girl in the concert to give it an even sweeter sound.

This is an intense class, but... Once a week the class breaks for about 10 minutes to work on four different committees.

Financial Literacy team. Each quarter one of the music classes picks a charity to donate proceeds from concerts and benefits. This committee handles the money and helps choose charities.

Global Awareness team. Keeps track of where the songs they sing come from, and do research on the pieces. They will an-nounce the songs at the concert and give some background infor-mation on them.

Health and Wellness team helps everyone stay aware of stay-ing healthy, giving out hand sanitizer and clean-ing the music room.

Resiliency team writes happy encouraging notes to choir members. They started a crazy sock exchange, the first on Valentine’s day, with a second one to be held March 18.

Soprano and All-State choir mem-ber Logan Schurr ‘15 singing “I’m A Train.”

Dale keeps students on track, practice is intense. Notice what is on the panio - jars are for Wish Week donations and tissue and hand sanitizer are in keeping with their wellness awareness.

1 The Choir department has done a lot of giving back to our community. Each choir’s “Financial Literacy” committee is responsibly for selecting a charity that will benefit from our concerts. Women’s Choir raised $168 during our October concert, the money going to Special People, Special Needs. At our December concert, Chorus raised $497 and a van full of toys for Toys-for-Tots and Women’s Select Choir made around $450 doing Singing Valentines and will be donating most of that to three charities: Make-a-Wish Foundation, Education through Music and our own RCHS Special Education Department! It is great to use our talents to give back to the community! Our next concert, “Journey’s” is March 17 and we will be raising money for Rock Canyon’s own Special Education department. They would like to purchase some special chairs that have been

shown to increase abdominal strength and increase focus.

2 We have an incredible number of students accepted into honor’s choirs. This year we had 16 students accepted to the Continental League Honor Choir, 8 students accepted into the Colorado All-State Choir and 1 student into the Colorado All-State Jazz Choir. We usually have the highest number of students in the district, although this year we are #2.

3 There are tons of leadership opportunities in Choir. Each class has 3-4 section leaders, 4 committee chair people, a music librarian and a historian. These students really have a lot of influence over the direction of the choirs.

4 Last year, all of the choir students who chose to pursue music in college were accepted to their first choice music schools! Also, many of the students who haven’t majored in music are still in a choir in college.

Things you may not know about this class

The class warms up, this exercise is called “be a tree.”

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Ceramics II meets graduation requirements for Fine Arts. It may be taken once for credit.Grade Level: 9th -12th.

Prerequisites: Ceramics I with a C or better.

Student must have a positive attitude, serious intentions, good work ethics, and an interest in creatively, solvingproblems, as well as comple-tion of Ceramics I. This course is an extension of Ceramics I with an emphasis on skill and technique, form and design. Carry on developing your hand building skills and techniques as you create bigger and better functional and nonfunctional clay forms. Persist in building your skills as a potter with thechance to create projects on the potter’s wheel. Fee: $40.

“It is understood that this class is a “learning by doing” class and students are encouraged to explore and to en-hance the skills they are learning and not to “settle.” This class requires creativity, critical thinking, collaboration, and communication. This class is a multi grade level course where students feel comfortable to give and receive con-structive criticism. Much of the learn-ing happens between peers while I am the guide.”

Art class is anything but‘glazed’ and confused

Three things you may not know about this class.1 Students must complete

Ceramics 1 in order to register for Ceramics 2.

2 Ceramics 2 is centered around wheel throwing; however, hand-building techniques are used in order to enhance a wheel-thrown piece.

3 After completing Ceramics 1 and 2, students may choose to continue their ceramic journey and take Ceramics 3, 4, and AP!

Ceramics II Monday, Feb. 23, 2015, 7th period

Hannah Bassett, instructor

Let’s go bowling. Students are currently building bowls for the Empty Bowls Project in March. The class started with Bassett going over how to correctly add color to the pots. After a pot is made, it is “greenware,” which must be fired in the kiln. After this step is completed the students will glaze the pots. They are going to use a high fire glaze which will be fired at 2,200 degrees. Before the glaze is added the pot needs to be rinsed. This is to remove any debris that may have gotten on it during the first firing process.

Glazing is a complex process. Bassett walks the class through what they will be doing in the next days. ① Wax is brushed onto the bottom of the pot. This is done so there is no glaze on the bottom of the pot, which would cause the pot to stick to the kiln.

② Slotted spoons are used to stir the glaze, which should not be too thick. After stirring, fill the spoon and if a smooth steady stream flows through the holes the glaze is good. If it is too thick, water must be added to the glaze.

③ Pots are to be dipped, one half at a time into the glaze. A hake brush is to be used to smooth the glaze and to brush off excess glaze. After the glaze dries the second half of the pot is dipped.

Expert tip. Students are never to dip the pots all the way into the glaze, getting the glaze on their hands. All the glaze that is covering the hands is wasted glaze; wiping the bowl with hands rather than a hake brush leaves finger prints on the bowls and most importantly the glaze has harsh chemicals that will irritate the skin.

How to choose color? There are glaze charts and photo charts on the walls, where students can see how colors will look after firing. If a second color is used on a pot the second color should not

Why is this class important? I took ceramics 1 as a freshman in high school because I needed to fulfill my fine arts credit and I wanted to get it over with fast! Little did I know, I would find what I’m most passionate about in that class. Not only did I find a hobby that I loved, I gained friends that had the same interests as I did, and I made a connection with a teacher that made a huge impact on my life. Elective classes aren’t always about the subject or the grade itself. They can be used as a medium to find who you are as an individual and a comforting place for your mind to settle when the stresses of high school affect you.

What challenges do you see in this class?With only 11 pottery wheels and an enrollment of 24 to 30 students, I have to strategically plan lessons which incorporate wheel throwing and hand-building techniques. Not only will this help students enhance their skills and think critically about a piece of art, it also allows every student the opportunity to get on the wheel by using a rotating schedule.

Every student works at a different pace. It is important to have opportunities for students to work on independent projects while others catch up before starting a new assignment. Some examples of “filler projects” include creating bowls for the Empty Bowl Project event in March or a Random Act of Kindness project where they are required to make a piece to give to someone of importance.

One challenge I have seen is students wanting immediate results and if the art is not perfect their first attempt, they want to give up. They get used to me emphasizing that we are not a factory; we are artists who create handmade pottery and the quirks and imperfections are what make our creations so unique.

Instructor Hannah Bassett started the class by having students take notes on the proper way to glaze pots. A favorite day for her is to see the students’ excited reactions when the first glaze kiln of the semester is unloaded and they finally get to see a finished product. “Our first hand-built project of the semester was a Sgraffito coil vessel. After showing students inspiring examples and demonstrating the process, there was a lot of hesitation. ‘We can’t do that!’ I decided I would unload our first completed glaze kiln during this class period and placed their work directly on the tables in the classroom for students to see. The reaction was priceless! They all had to get up and ‘oooh and ahh’ over each other’s work and they were genuinely proud of what they had created. My favorite part of being an art teacher is watching students who initially thought, ‘I can’t’ realize they can and they did.”

be dipped more than half way, as the glaze will run during firing; this is called tiering. Not more than three colors should be used on a pot. A color can also be painted on a pot.

If a student comes up with “a magical combination” of glazes. The color that results will be named after the student.

Top: Madison Kracke ‘16 dips and brushes her bowl. Left: Gavin Burkholder ‘17 throws clay on the wheel. Above is his finished piece.

Pictured are completed glazed bowls to be donated to the Empty Bowl Project.

Right: This bowl is the completed piece done by Madison Kracke.

Bowls that are ready to be fired to their glazed state.

11

Lindsey WarnerClass of 2007 Graduated from Colo-rado State University in May, 2011, with a Bachelor of Science degree in Hospital-ity Management. She was recently hired as a property manager with Vail Resorts for the Ritz-Carlton Residences, Vail.

Top memories – I still remember our first year as freshmen in Rocky Heights, and then the first time we all got to walk the halls of our brand new high school – what a cool experience to have been the first class! My favorite memory, probably, is of Nate Cook convincing me (as Senior Class President, I controlled where our senior class budget went) that we should buy a ROCK. A multi-thousand dollar rock to sit in the lawn out back that we could paint… we had to hire a tractor to haul it in. I was pretty skeptical, but look at that darn thing now.

Influential people at RCHS – Principal Dan McMinimee gave our class the freedom to create traditions how we saw fit, and that was really a remarkable experience. I remember walk-ing into his office one afternoon to fight to be able to host a bonfire, and before I could say anything he looked at me and said, “Let’s do it!” Without his belief in us and his willing-ness to help us develop Rock Canyon into what we thought it could become, I’m not sure what kind of mark we’d have left. To this day in the working world I see managers who have no belief in their team, and it shows.

Of course, I have to thank Kristi Piccone for always being my support system, friend, mentor and teacher in more ways than one. She fueled an interest in science that continues to this day – I’m still an ocean dork.

Why Vail? – I moved here after working for The Broadmoor resort in Colorado Springs – I needed a change, so I adopted a puppy, packed up my car and drove to Vail, where I was inter-viewed and hired the same day at The Ritz-Carlton Club and Residences, Vail. The community is incredible. I’m outside playing just as much as I’m inside working, the mountains are beautiful, the Village has top-notch shopping and dining…and I met my fiancé here.

Michael DoddsClass of 2007 Graduated in 2011 from Colby College, a small liberal arts college in Maine, majoring in American Studies. Cur-rently he is working in marketing for a con-sumer goods company in Bogota, Colombia.

Top memories – All of the firsts we expe-rienced as the class of 2007 at Rock Can-yon. We had the first homecoming, first varsity football game, first prom and first graduation. We had to invent our own traditions, set up new clubs and decide what kind of student culture we wanted. The experience gave all of my classmates a different perspec-tive. We all had leadership positions in different activities and everyone was involved with a million interests. Personally, I served as Student Council President my junior year, acted in several productions, wrote for The Rock and played three varsity sports.

Influential people at RCHS – Of all the great teachers I had at Rock Canyon, two stand out. Kristi Piccone shaped my high school experience, pushed me to try new things and to take on leadership roles. She was my adviser on the student council, taught my anatomy class and got me into scuba div-ing. Megan Brown taught some of my favorite classes at Rock Canyon, including AP Microeconomics and AP Government. I had Ms. Brown for at least one class every year. She pushed me to think critically, to grow as a person, and to work hard academically. She was a great sounding board and her advice was always great. I am happy that both Megan and Kristi are still at RCHS.

Why Columbia? — After graduation from college I wanted to improve my Spanish and gain work experience in a foreign country, so I moved to Bogota to work for a division of a mul-tinational pulp and paper company. I know that my Spanish teacher, Courtney Luedtke-Bacon, was surprised to hear that I ended up living in Colombia. But interestingly enough there were two other Rock Canyon graduates living here when I arrived, Niki Bosemberg ‘07, and Erik Bosemberg ‘10. I love traveling Colombia, and soaking up as much of the local cul-ture as possible. On a personal note, I just became engaged to my Colombian girlfriend, Marta Hurtado.

Marie Godla, Class of 2007Graduated from Harvey Mudd College in 2011 with a B.S. in Engineering. The following year she moved to Switzerland where she worked at ETH Zurich on 3D bone bioprinting as a Whitaker Interna-tional Fellow. She is currently a graduate student in biomedical engineering at Cornell University.

Top memories – The excellent, inspiring, dedicated teachers are who I remember most from Rock Canyon... to name just a few: Kristi Piccone, Megan Brown, Da-vid Sapienza, Matt Sassali, Lissa Sayers, Dave Ferguson, Charity Smith, Courtney Luedtke-Bacon, and Gina Stevens. I also remember the fun and camaraderie of the track and swim teams and the great coaches who motivated and inspired us.

Jenna ScheirmanClass of 2008 Graduated from the University of Iowa in 2012 with a history degree and secondary education teaching certificate.

Top memories – My most memora-ble experiences in high school were working on the student newspaper. I enjoyed taking sports photos, writing, coming up with creative sidebars, and working as an editor. I also enjoyed working in a team with other members on staff to produce each issue. Journalism taught me important skills that I will use for the rest of my life.

Influential people at RCHS – My newspaper adviser and English teacher, Jack Kennedy, impacted where my life is today. It was through his dedication to educa-tion and journalism that I learned how much of an impact a teacher can have on students’ lives. He and other teachers I had at Rock Canyon inspired me to become an educator. The most important lesson Mr. Ken-nedy taught me was to be skeptical. It is essential to view history, poli-tics, and the media through the lens of the skeptic. That is the only way we ever get close to understanding the truth.

Jaguar alumni

From left, students Connor Beal ‘16, Tyler Linch ‘16 Marjan Jalifar ‘15, Parker Groves ‘15, and Jessie Brikerhoff ‘16 work on researching information about their Congressmen. When finished with their research students wrote either Ken Buck or Mike Coffman a persuasive letter.

First alum to join faculty wants students to share her passion for history

Lindsey Warner and fiance Scott Everhart

Aaron Brunhofer, Class of 2008Graduated from the University of Denver in 2013 with a B.A. in Film Studies and Production. Brunhofer now lives in Denver. Currently he is writing a feature length screenplay and developing two other short projects on the side. He writes for a film blog, Ultra5280, covering festivals and film news. He has gone to the Austin Film Fest-ival and Sundance Film Festival most recently to cover the festival for the blog. His day job is a Specialist at the Apple Store.

Top memories – One of the experiences that sticks out in my memory is about basketball and our victory over Chaparral in 2007 when I was a junior. In the final seconds, senior Mark Moerschbacer hit a three pointer from the corner that sealed our comeback.

Influential people at RCHS – I am thankful to Jack Kennedy for teaching me how to be critical. And to Andrea Meyers for always challenging me to dig a little deeper.

Michael Dodds and fiance Marta Hurtado

WHEN Jenna Scheirman ‘08, headed off to college, she never imagined teaching as a career, much less returning to teach at Rock Canyon. But here she is in her third year, guiding students through U.S. History and U.S. Government. “I definitely feel more comfortable than I did in that first year,” she said. That comfort has made her more at ease putting her stu-dents in pairs and small groups to work on assignments and projects. “I definitely learned to give up some of the overt control I thought was needed,” she said, “and allow a bit more ‘controlled chaos.’ ” Her Goverment class that met 6th hour on Feb. 24 was anything but chaotic, with students using laptop computers to research current legislation and their own House member’s likely positions on those issues. Their final goal was to write a letter to their Congressman, taking a position bolstered by at least three pieces of evidence, either for or against legislation. They could earn extra credit if they received a reply. She had begun the period telling the class that as of today she could run for the House. Most didn’t draw the conclusion she was hinting at: she had turned 25 that day. That didn’t bother Scheirman. She said she was unaware of all sorts of things about her teachers when she was in school. She found that suddenly going from former student to col-league brought an interesting challenge: “I didn’t even know some of my former teachers’ first names,” Scheirman said, “and it was tough getting used to calling them by their first names.” One of those teachers is Matt Sassalli, whom she credits with helping her understand the importance of including more analysis of primary documents in her teaching. “We don’t use primary documents as much as in AP U.S. History,” she said, “but I do find myself including more and more of that in my regular classes.” Scheirman has her Government classes form a mock Con-gress each year, and she recalls a particularly passionate class from her first year that “really got into it.” Both the Republi-can and Democratic parties were represented, complete with majority leaders, whips, etc. “Even then I saw the partisan gridlock that we see today,” she said. The party that passed the most bills received a slightly higher grade, so compromise was rare and party unity became quite important. “I had a student come up to me after the unit ended,” Scheirman said, “saying it was not fair that people voted down my bill just becausee we were in different parties.” But that was reality, she said, and sharing her passion for history and how government works is something that inspires her. We’re glad teaching at RCHS is her new reality.

Special feature and photo of Jenna Scheirman by her former journalism teacher Jack Kennedy.

12Jaguar academics /activities

On Feb. 18 Alexis Savas first year French class and Dayna Moore’s fifth year French class combine to celebrate. During the party, the students ate cajun food, decorated cupcakes, made masks, and played trivia games. Bon Mardi Gras!

French Classes Celebrate Mardi Gras

Visual Arts The 2015 Spring semester has been full of excitement and creativity in the Visual Arts department. We have so many motivated and passionate students coming into our classrooms every day, bringing so much life to this department. Ms. Bassett and Mrs. Sabot’s beginning Ceramics classes have been busy working on their hand-building techniques to create a number of different three-dimensional ceramic pieces. Ms. Bassett’s upper level Ceramics classes have been mastering their wheel throwing and have been producing beautiful bowls to donate to the incredible Empty Bowl Project fundraiser. Mr. Walter’s Drawing and Painting students have been producing beautiful portraits and pointillism pieces. They have also been working with pastels to create stunning landscape drawings. Some of our AP students participated in the Scholastic Art Show and represented RCHS extremely well, bringing home a number of awards. The students that participated were Erin Riner, Laura Kassner, and Ashley Bradley. Mr. Walter’s sculpture classes have also been busy working with bronze and stone to create three-dimensional pieces. Mrs. Graham’s and Mrs. Sabot’s Photography classes have been out and about taking beautiful pictures! Mrs. Graham’s upper level classes have been pushing the envelope with their artistic expression and abstract depiction of the world around them. Mrs. Sabot’s Graphic Design classes have been working with the Adobe Suite programs to create beautiful digital art. The advanced level students have been working with Mrs. Stevens to create the RCHS READ posters that will be hanging throughout the school. It has been a very busy and productive semester in the art Visual Arts department. The art teachers will be selecting a variety of art pieces to submit to the upcoming DCSD Art Show which will be held at the Lone Tree Arts Center from April 24 - 27. Be sure to come out and see the amazing work!

Posters were created by students in Graphic Design II, from top to bottom: Kayla Inman ‘17 - Colorado Poster, Elisabeth Hunt ‘17 - Las Vegas Poster, Kirsten Greenlaw ‘15 - Elephant/Eyes Music poster.

Performing Arts Students Achieve Superiority The RCHS performance of Guys and Dolls was entered in the Denver Center for the Performing Arts BOBBY G Awards competition, which recognizes excellence in the production of high school musicals. Stay tuned for the results! The performance featured many students who have been recognized at the state level for their achievements in music and drama. Meredith Ham, who plays “Adelaide,” Hot Box girl Francesca Wearsch, Production Manager Sam Molitoriss, and cast members Samantha Henry, Megan Pryor, Chris Woodley, Graham Austin, Noah Charvat and Sam Hulsizer, (who plays “Nathan Detroit,”) all qualified for Nationals after competing at the State Thespian Festival in December. Students in the show named to All-State Jazz and Classical Choirs include Logan Schurr, who plays “Sarah,” Kimball Eggett, who plays “Sky Masterson,” Missy Davies, and Nic Bardossas as well as Wearsch, Schurr, Eggett and Woodley. And in the orchestra pit, Sophia Brunetti, Tyler Loretz, Shu Ee Ong, Victor Renteria, Gena Rumsey and Garin Wilson made Continental League Honor Band, along with stage-manager Rachel Rose. And Derek Bauer and Dana Pataroque were named to Continental League Honor Orchestra.

Theatre Theatre III members performed a hilarious children’s play early in February at both Wildcat Mountain and Timber Trail Elementary Schools, and Drama Club performed their One Act Play Festival in January; most of those cast members went on to crew Guys and Dolls. The pre-show performance by the Advanced Drama Class of “Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind” was chosen by student council to add to the fundraising activities of Wish Week with an added performance February 25. Aside from the $215 raised through ticket sales, the Advanced Drama Class also personally donated $135 toward the Wish Week fundraiser. Drama is at the same time preparing the spring production of “Dearly Departed,” and fundraising for our trip to Nationals in June. You can help by participating in an online auction of a five night stay at a cabin in Crested Butte. Visit http://www.BidForEducation.com/RCHSDrama to place your bid! Choir To elaborate on the achievements of our kids a bit more, the RCHS Choir Program had the only Douglas County student at the All-State Jazz Choir. They also had a great showing of 8 choir students accepted to All-State Choir. The Choir department’s next concert, “Journey’s” is March 17, Women’s Choirs will perform at 6:30 p.m. and Mixed Choirs will perform at 7:30 in the RCHS Auditorium. These concerts are free! Come celebrate St. Patrick’s day with the RCHS Choirs, and then add to that by attending the Orchestra Concert the next night, Wednesday, March 18 at 7 p.m., to kick off spring break!

IF you have purchased books appropriate for a high school library and are no longer using them, consider donating them to RCHS Library collection. Books in gently used condition will be accepted.

Please see or call Sharon Stevens 303-387-3056sharon.stevens@dcsdk12.org

The Performing Arts Department spent two months collaborating on Rock Canyon’s 11th musical: Guys and Dolls. The play was performed March 4-7. 106 students participated as actors, singers, dancers, crew members and pitharacters, show-stopping dances and a story that everyone loves! A comedy set in 1940’s New York, Guys and Dolls is the story of gamblers trying to balance that life with the women they love. Productions have starred the likes of Marlon Brando, Frank Sinatra, Nathan Lane, Walter Matthau, Jerry Orbach, Patrick Swayze and J.K. Simmons.Photo by Kathleen Kennedy

Orchestra Ben Dale’s classes were the clear winner in Wish Week donations: $1278! Both the String Orchestra and Chamber Orchestra are preparing selections for the March 18 concert, as well as for their participation in the CHSAA Festival in April. Lately rehearsals have been exceptional. Dale is proud of the collaboration and communication among the groups that has fostered creative ideas, plans, and goals for their upcoming rehearsals and performances. Students have thought critically about the strengths, weaknesses, and needs of themselves as individuals and as a group. Working together has created a rehearsal environment that is engaged, stimulating, safe, and productive. Every student contributes and is vital to their ensemble. Special recognition goes to Danny Irwin, Ian Kretzmann, and Stephen Morrison, the junior bassists were selected for the 2015 All State Orchestra. This was the third honor group they participated in this school year, and are very proud of how they have represented RCHS.Band Spring semester began with several performances at varsity basketball games and 23 band students participating in the Continental League Honor Band and CSU-Pueblo Festival of Winds. The band program presented the 2015 Futures Concert on March 12. The Futures Concert featured performances by all four elementary school bands, the Rocky Heights bands, and the Jaguar Symphonic Band and Jazz Ensemble. Band students particiaped in the DSCD Solo & Ensemble Festival held March 14 at Legend High School. The concert bands and jazz ensemble are preparing for their contests in April. Please consider joining us for one or more of our Spring performances. We are hosting an evening of Dinner & Jazz on April 10 at 6:00 p.m. in the commons at RCHS, and our final concert will be on May 13 in the auditorium. Auditions for the 2015-2016 Symphonic Band and Jazz Ensemble will be in April. Check the Rock Canyon Bands website for audition materials. And it’s time to start thinking about Marching Band. Leadership applications will be available in March and auditions will be in April. Below is the camp schedule for this Summer:June 1-2 – Rookie Camp (all new marchers) – 8 a.m. - 12 p.m.June 15-16 – Mini Camp (Full Band) – 8 a.m. - 12 p.m.July 20-31 – Band Camp (Full Band -Mandatory!) Mon-Fri 8 a.m. - 12 p.m.

All-State Choir members Francesca Wearsch ‘15, Melissa Davies ‘15, Logan Schurr ‘15, Christopher Woodley ‘16, Kimball Eggett ‘15, Nikolas Bardossas ‘16‘, Tolex Gregory ‘16, Kalle Sorbo, ‘15.

Students who have qualified for Nationals: Riley Zehnle ‘15, Rachel Rose ‘15, Sam Hulsizer ‘16, Noah Charvat ‘17, Celia Adams ‘16, Francesca Wearsch ‘15, Michael Miller ‘15, Kalle Sorbo ‘15, Sam Molitoriss ‘15, Sogan Schurr ‘15, Jenna Snyder ‘17, Graham Austin ‘15, Lauren Yehle ‘15, Meredith Ham ‘15, Christopher Woodley ‘16, Megan Pryor ‘17, Samantha Henry ‘15 and Jessica Benson ‘15.

13Jaguar activities

As a result of their preparedness, professional-ism, and poise, Rock Canyon’s Mock Trial teams did an exceptional job at the Regional Tourna-ment on Feb. 20 and 21. Thirty-one students making up five teams competed in four trial rounds over the two days at the Douglas County Justice Center. The following students received special recog-nition awards:Outstanding Attorney: Gabe Tauber ‘15, Waver-ly Shannon ‘17, and Kate Schaffer ‘17. Outstand-ing Witness: Kristen Behnke ‘16, Greg Clem-mons ‘15, and Haley Caldwell ‘18. – Melissa Anderson, Adviser

Students in Kim Graham’s Photo Club have been working as portrait photographers lately... Dani Murdock ‘15, Serena Zarate ‘16, Alexa Parker ‘16, and Keelyn Osoba ‘18, volunteered during the latest teacher inservice day to photograph about 20 teachers for a project (in collaboration with Sharon Stevens, RCHS librarian) to create “READ” posters featuring RCHS teachers posing in the studio with favorite books of their choosing. The students shot images using professional portrait studio equipment, and posed each teacher in thoughtful and creative ways. Keep an eye out for these awesome posters hanging around our library! Mrs. Graham’s Photo students recently volunteered alongside professional portrait photographers at the Wildcat Elementary Father/Daughter Dance. Keelyn Osoba, Kylie Creighton ‘15, Serena Zarate and Savannah Wachtel ‘18, all volunteered as assistants. They contributed their studio skills, camera skills, and photo know-how to help (and learn from) the photographers. Additionally, they added their own perspective to the documentation of the event through shooting candids of the adorable elementary girls dancing with their dads. So much fun! – Kim Graham, Sponsor

Rock Canyon’s Technology Student Association chapter at-tended the State TSA Conference from February 19 to 21. We had a great time at the competitions, ceremonies, and the food truck festival. Neha Chauhan ‘17, came in first place for Essays on Technology and Abby Cousins ‘17, came in second place. Ryan Vandersmith ‘17, Pourna Sengupta ‘18, Amay Srivastava ‘17, and Eric Zhang ‘17, came in second place in Music Production. Jon Meade ‘17, Ryan Vandersmith ‘17, and Eric Zhang ‘17, came in second place in Systems Control Technology. Our TSA chapter also had an extremely strong CyberPatriot Team this year. Sam Ware ‘18, our linux guru, Ryan Vandermith and Pourna Sengupta were Windows experts, and Jon Meade was our Cisco professional. This team trained many hours after school to make it to the Platinum Round, which is the highest state round. We were one of the top five teams in our state. In December, TSA members also had the opportunity to attend gSchool’s Hackathon at Galvanize in Boulder. It was a competi-tion, celebration, collaboration and an opportunity to share code. Lead developers on Scratch were there, as well as gSchool program-mers. It was a great opportunity for members to talk with profes-sional and aspiring programmers. Nicholas Tsao ‘18, Johnny Stack ‘18, Sam Ware, and Ethan Myers attended. – Christy Street, Sponsor

Yearbook It’s celebration season for the Black & Gold yearbook. The 2014 volume, “Go Figure”, was named to the Na-tional Scholastic Press Association’s Pacemaker Finalist list in January. Students will receive their award at the JEA/NSPA national convention in Denver this April. “I think that with being a Pacemaker Finalist we have very high expectations for our book and staff,” Photo Editor in Chief Brianna Bradley ‘15 said. “It’s made us work a lot harder and put in a lot more time, but it’s definitely been worth it.” Student media representatives from the Black & Gold, The Rock newsmagazine and RCTV will attend the convention April 16-19 at the Downtown Denver Sheraton. “The upcoming convention is going to be extra special since it’s in our hometown,” Editor in Chief An-nika Haberland ‘15 said. The 2014 yearbook will be featured in Balfour Pub-lishing’s marketing magazine Elements this spring, and the 2015 volume, “Always Have & Always Will” has been selected as a national sample for Balfour as well. “It is humbling to be a national sales sample book for Balfour because we always see those books at con-ventions, and now we will be one of those prestigious books,” Haberland said. Pre-ordered yearbooks will be distributed in May prior to seniors’ last day of classes; a limited number of books will also be available on a first-come, first-serve basis for $80 each. – Kristi Rathbun, Adviser

Broadmoor. Hypnotism. Blizzards. DECA!On Feb. 21, the Rock Canyon DECA chapter braved the blizzard and arrived at the Broadmoor Resort in Colorado Springs to compete at DECA State Leadership Conference. The opening ceremony was full of excitement as multiple audi-ence members became hypno-tized, including Garret Durie. Members attended multiple workshops scheduled through-out the conference where stu-dents had the opportunity to learn about marketing strate-

High School of Business Job Shadow On Feb. 12, Rock Canyon’s Senior Business Strategies class had the privilege to experience the business environment through a job shadow at Encana, a natural gas company in downtown Denver. Allie Johnson 15, said: “This Job Shadow was a great opportunity to experience the business environment in Denver. I would love to work here in the future.” The students had the opportunity to shadow three employees from Encana for the day. Students were divided into groups of 3 or 4 and were assigned to one employee at a time. After a tour of their office, students had the chance to ask question and learn about the specifics of each position. “It was really amazing to hear different jobs a degree in accounting could get me,” said, Mathivadhani Harikrishnan ‘15. At the end of the day, all students came together and shared what they had learned throughout the experience. This was one of many job shadows that students in the High School of Business have engaged in prior to completion of the program.

High School of Business This year, the Rock Canyon’s High School of Business program is having its first graduating class consisting of 11 seniors. In order to complete HSB, these students had to take all the 6 required classes, complete 20 hours of job shadows/internships, and participate in numerous community service activities. Students who complete this program get 9 college credit hours from Arapahoe Community College, giving the graduating students a head start for their college education and experience. Through the

Mock Trial

Mock Trial’s Regional champs team Lauren Yehle ‘15, Belle Deibel ‘15, Milllie Micho ‘15, Mitch Telatnik ‘16, Greg Clemmons ‘15, and Sam Molitoris ‘15 took 1st place and will be heading to the State Tournament in March 20 - 21.

Photo Club

Rock Canyon Rocks at FBLA Districts“As a freshman, I know I will definitely go back next year and encourage others to join” said Dhivya Senthil Murugan ‘18. On Feb. 9, 96 Rock Canyon students went to compete in over 40 different events at the Pepsi Center. Members had the op-portunity to immerse themselves in multiple business related situations and attend workshops presented by business professionals. Over half the students from Rock Canyon placed top 5 in their events, and 43 students qualified to go to the FBLA State Leadership Conference in Vail. During the State Leadership Conference, stu-dents will be competing with other FBLA members from across the state to qualify for Nationals and will be exposed to many sectors of business.

Left to right: Photgraphers Keelyn Osoba and Kylie Creighton and Serena Zarate. Below: Wildcat Elementary Father / Daughter Dance.

TSA

Business

job shadows and internships students have had the opportunity to network with potential employers and learn about how different college degrees will benefit them in various business sectors. In the final stage of completing this program, students start their own business. This final class gives them the opportunity to put all the skills and knowledge that they have learned throughout the program to test. This year, the students started a company called JagScents: the seniors came up with their own idea, produced and designed the product and sold them to their designated target market. The High School of Business program at Rock Canyon prepares high school students for their life after school.

Garret Durie ‘15, Diego Daboub ‘16, Marissa Metcalf ‘17, Erin Daniel ‘17, Mathivadhani Harikrishnan ‘15, Hannah Philip ‘17, Denise Jin ‘16, Alexandra Johnson ‘15, Hannah Lehman ‘15, Adviser Janna Robinett. Johnson in Professional Selling and Metcalf in Principles of Business Administration will be representing RCHS DECA at Nationals in April.

gies, effective ways to give a presentation, and what a typical work day looks like for marketing experts from business professionals across the nation. Each workshop provided team building activities and allowed opportunity for networking between chapters across the state. Competition encompassed most of the three days, with each RCHS chapter member taking on different roles of business professionals to market tourist packages, interview for jobs, and present marketing campaigns. Four RCHS members qualified for finals. The trip was an amazing experience and al-lowed for one of a kind experience in business education. “That was the single best weekend of my entire life” said Erin Daniel ’17.

Front row: Caleigh Newberry, Allie Johnson, Mathi Hari-krishnan, Navya Roy, Madison Mitzner, Hannah Lehman, Mrs. Robinett. Back row: Chris Givin, Caleb Hester, Garret Durie, Brad Schmuhl, Brian Harrity

March is when many of our clubs and activities compete with other schools, demonstrating the work they have put in this school year. Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA) had 17 first-place winners at regionals, and 23 others placing in the top four. All move on to state competition. DECA boasted four top ten finish-ers at the recent state contests. A big congratulation goes out to Janna Robinett and all of our business students. The Mock Trial team won the regional title last month, and moves on to state. Six students from the team were named out-standing witnesses and attorneys (of ten total winners). Performing arts continues to shine, with three students earn-ing All-State Orchestra recognition, and eight singers qualify-ing for All-State Choir. Drama boasted ten national qualifiers, the school’s largest contingent ever to be eligible for the June national convention. Our annual Wish Week collected over $65,000, despite a lack of cooperation from the weather, and that money will fund nine wishes for deserving children. The entire community deserves applause for this, and Student Council did a great job leading our efforts. We won’t see this year’s Black & Gold yearbook until May, but the 2014 volume is a National Pacemaker Finalist, and will learn if it is a national winner during the April national high school journalism convention. The Pacemaker is often called the Pulit-zer Prize of scholastic journalism. We are proud to have so many of our activities making their mark at the state and national level. – Chris Page, Activities Director

14Jaguar athletics

26 seniors will continue their athletic careers at the college and university levelFront Row: Rebecca Pousma, Soccer, University of Louisville, KY; Rachel Reinhardt, Soccer, University of Puget Sound, WA; Allison Riggs, Soccer, University of Oklahoma, OK; Alexandra Vidger, Soccer, University of Colorado Boulder, CO; Paige Von Bank, Soccer, University of Colorado, Colorado Springs, CO; Katherine Wood, Soccer, Southern Methodist University, TX; Hannah Clark, Softball, Wheaton College, IL; Christopher Givin, Baseball, Xavier, IL; Joshua White, Baseball, West Point, NY; Quinn O’Neill, Baseball, Trinidad State Junior College, CO; Emily Taylor, Rowing, University of Oklahoma, OK; Nicholas Tinucci, Boys Swimming, University of Tampa, FL

Back Row: Lauren Chevalier, Volleyball, Emporia State, KS; Jamie Williams, Basketball, University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth; Mitchell Lombard, Basketball, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO; Millie Micho, Lacrosse, DuQuesne, PA; Kristen Greenlaw, Lacrosse, San Diego State, CA; Colton Jackson, University of Denver, CO; Madeline Brown, Soccer, University of Arizona, AZ; Tanner Cuda, Football, Colorado State University, Pueblo, CO; Ryan Hommel, Football, Black Hills State University, SD; Vincent Gullia, Football, Black Hills State University, SD ; DJ Webb, Football, Fort Lewis College, CO; Andrew Thumann, Soccer, Augustana College, IL; Alex Bochner, Soccer, Westminster College, UT; Cody Ross, Soccer, Fort Lewis College, CO. Photo by Kathleen Kennedy

Feb. 4, 2015 National Signing Day

Unified Basketball Team

RCHS POMS The Poms program wrapped up their competition season and had a lot to celebrate. The Varsity team earned three regional titles (USA, NDA & UDA), a league runner-up title and the 2014 State Jazz Runner-Up title! The JV team earned the ultimate title of State Champs, placing first out of 26 JV teams and the Freshman team brought home the third consecutive State title for the Jaguars in the Freshman Pom division. Varsity Poms traveled to Orlando at the end of January for the National Dance Team Championship and achieved their goal of making it to the finals. RC and TR were the only teams from the Continental League to make it to the Finals at UDA Nationals. Additionally, the Varsity team was named to the CHSAA Les Schwab Academic Championships for 5A Poms with a team GPA of 3.76. Most recently the poms teams have been busy with basketball season, Jr Jags and training for tryouts coming up in May. They will celebrate their year at the poms banquet on March 11. An informational meeting for the 2015-16 teams is March 16 for any interested dancers.

– Christina Leone, Head Coach

Girls Tennis The girls tennis spring season has kicked off with a record breaking number of enrolled players: 67 players have registered so far and that number could rise. With so many players and only six tennis courts, the coaches have to find creative ways to reduce the number of players on court to have effective practices without becoming a cut sport. This year we will be experimenting with split practices and have multiple JV teams that will compete in match play. In addition, we expect players to use practice time to complete challenge matches at other public locations in an effort to free up court space for practice. While having a large turn out may make things challenging for the coaches, we also see it as a sign that we are doing something right for the program if so many girls are interested in participating.

– Manual Gonzalez, Head Coach

Boys Lacrosse The Boys Lacrosse Program is extremely excited for the 2015 season. We have many new families in the program and new faces on the varsity squad. In order to prepare for this season, we have done a great amount of off-season training. For individuals that do not play a fall and/or a winter sport, we partook in field practices, cardio/footwork/strength training, and participated in local leagues. We are excited to again have three squads that are fully staffed with exceptional field coaches that not only know the game at a high level, but also help to instill and teach our mission statement: “Foster the growth of boys into young men that positively contribute to society.” Furthermore, we continue to have an exceptional strength coach and sport performance consultants. We continue to maintain higher grade standards than CHSAA or DCSD requires and annual community service requirements of 20 hours per year. We are honored to represent this community and extremely thankful for the support you give us. – Louis Golden, Head Coach

Boys Basketball We had great 2014-2015 season, going 17-6 overall and 7-3 in the most competitive league in the state. The success of this season is directly correlated to the hard work and commitment of each player in our program. I am so proud of every one of them. The improvements each of our players have made this season is something they can all be proud of. We as a coaching staff truly believe that our kids have changed the culture at Rock Canyon. The unbelievable amount of support from families, the community and the Canyon Crazies has been amazing. We certainly would not be where we are today without you. This is a bittersweet season for me because we are losing so many seniors who have been with me all four years. I couldn’t be more blessed to have coached such a great group of guys. I am impressed every day by the players and young men they have become. Tyler, Mitch, Josh, Bryan, Luke, and Spencer: I wish you all the very best with whatever the future holds! Love you guys. – Kent Grams, Head Coach

We are proud to recognize five female student-athletes honored Jan. 16 at the National Girls and Women in Sports Day. Julia Lopez, sports reporter for Denver 9News, was emcee.

Madeline Brown will be a 3-year letter winner in soccer. Coach Mat Henbest said, “She embodies

what it means to be a student athlete.” Maddie has accepted a soccer scholarship to the University of Arizona.

Millicent Micho participates in lacrosse for the ThunderRidge co-op team. Coach

Alanna Gilbertson said, “Millie is an exceptional athlete and leader. She has been a varsity starter since freshman year, and all of her teammates look up to her and respect her both on and off the field. Millie has accepted a scholarship to Duquesne University in Pittsburg studying nursing.

Caleigh Newberry has been a member of the two time defending state champion

cheerleading team for four years, and has been on the varsity golf team for four years. Cheer coach Amanda Mundaca said, “Not only is she an extremely talented athlete, she has a great work ethic, demonstrates consistent leadership skills, and maintains a positive attitude at practice.” Caleigh will attend the University of Alabama, where she hopes to cheer.

Kendall Smith is a four-year starter on the basketball team. Basketball coach Becky Mudd said,

“She absolutely thrives on being under pressure, and loves to compete. She is one of the best defenders in the state, and works everyday to get better on all aspects of her game. Her leadership, attitude and work ethic are respected by her teammates and coaches alike.” Kendall plans to study Biomedical Engineering.

Jessica Stapleton has been a member of the Poms program for four years. Coach

Christina Leone said, “She is a leader by nature, consistently positive, approachable, a self-starter and coachable. She was named to the 2014-2015 All-Colorado team as one of the top 13 dancers in the State, and also named All-American and to the CHSAA Academic All State team.” Jessica has not yet decided on where she will attend college in the fall.

– Tom Brieske

Girls & Women In Sports

The Unified Basketball team has enjoyed another great season that demonstrates how well team sports bring people together. The players with disabilities and their student partners train together and play together, leading to friendship and understanding. The Unified team includes players from the Rock Canyon Feeder schools, as well as graduates who are in the Bridge program. The players pictured are: Andrew Moore, Ryan Boryla, Rachel Greenlaw, Alex Shields, George Waggett, Kian Lame, Ben Irwin, and Tristan Airhartt. Peer partners include: Sriya Sharma, Camryn Yacks, Nick Bommarito, Luke Dickinson, Angie Wright, Sierra Zizzo, and Hailey Mosteller. Photo by Leslie Maldonado.

Girls Lacrosse This spring we are excited to introduce a new co-op split for the girls lacrosse team. We are laying the ground work this year with just a JV team for Rock Canyon & Highlands Ranch and are confident that this is the start of a very successful program for years to come. The girls Varsity team will still be housed at ThunderRidge with all four schools playing as one co-op team. Check the website for game times and come cheer for RC’s newest team! – Kylie Smith, Head Coach

Tyler Garcia ‘15 defends against ThunderRidge play. Photo by Kelcey Beckman.

Jaguar athletics15

Tom Brieske, Athletic Director

The Rock Canyon High School athletic teams enjoyed successful fall and winter sports sea-sons, and I would like to celebrate some of those successes.

Along with Continental League championships in boys soccer and cheerleading, as well as a second straight state champion-ship in cheerleading, we had three varsity teams earn the Les Schwab Academic Team Championships for the highest overall GPA in 5A for the state of Colorado: Football- 3.55 GPA; Boys Soccer- 3.52 GPA; Poms-3.76 GPA Several other teams who made the list: Boys Cross Country- 3.66 GPA; Girls Cross Country-3.85 GPA; Softball-3.67 GPA; Cheerleading-3.52 GPA We have entered our winter team GPA’s and await the results. We also had Junior Abby Kochevar repeat as the State Cham-pion in the 100 Backstroke! Way to go Jaguars!

Girls Basketball For the past four months, three teams of Jaguar girls players practiced and played in a great year of basketball. The C team competed hard, learned a lot, and finished with an 11-8 overall record. The JV emphasized goals of “attitude and effort” and grew much during the year – end-ing with a 8-11 record. The varsity team worked through an up and down sea-son, and ended the last week of February in the first round of the State Tournament. On the court highlights for the Varsity Jags included some outstanding team performances battling against top ranked ThunderRidge, Highlands Ranch and East. Several times throughout the year, the Jags showed that they could compete with the best in the state. Individuals shined as well through scoring, assists, and rebounding performances. This group of seniors (Kendall Smith, Emelia Steinmetz, Del-aney Sullivan and Jamie Wil-

Jaguar girls swim team had a “Rockin” season and finished strong. We had a fun filled season together as a team, and achieved best times at our Championship A, B and C League meets. With a record number of 26 swimmers compet-ing, we placed 2nd only to Regis at the Con-tinental A-League Swimming Championships and Coach Nicole Vanderpoel was voted 2015 Continental League Coach of the Year. Our A-League success was truly a team effort and every swimmer contributed. Not only did Jaguars win the Medley Relay (Abby Kockevar, Nicole Jordan, Madi Lacy and Makenna Mathieson), swim-mers Abby Kochevar and Nicole Jordan received Continental All-League distinction for winning an individual event. Abby in the 100 Back and Nicole in the 500 Free. Jaguars forged ahead to an amazingly fast and successful 5A State meet in Ft. Collins. Special thank you to our team captains, Erin Riner, Nicole Jordan and Kristen Hoskins for stay-ing strong for the team at State. We are so very proud of our State swimmers: Madi Coonts, Sydney DiCarlo, Nicole Jordan, Abby Kockevar,

Madi Lacy, Makenna Mathieson, Lauren McKeel, Veronica Postolski, Megan Thomas, Val Villa-gran and Divers Denise Jin and Tori Ritter. State highlights include all three relays (Medley, 200 Free, 400 Free) made it back to finals, where we achieved new RCHS team records in all three relays. (Relay finalists include Abby Kochevar, Nicole Jordan, Madi Lacy, Makenna Mathieson, Veronica Polstolski, Lauren McKeel, Madi Coonts and Val Villagran). To top off our success, Abby Kockevar won the 100 Backstroke and placed 2nd in the 50 Free while achieving automatic All American and new team records in both. Nicole Jordan placed 10th in the 100 Breast in her first individual finals at State. Tori Ritter dove beauti-fully and placed 8th overall with a team record score of 450.25! Thank you to all of our swimmers and parents for your support and help throughout the sea-son. Special thank you to our team mom, Betsy Riner, Dive Coach Kortbawi and Assistant Swim Coaches Jeff Seaquist and Jenny Leddick. We are already looking forward to next year. – Coach Nicole Vanderpoel, Head Coach

Emelia Steinmetz ‘15, takes her Doherty defender off the dribble. Photo by Kelcey Beckman.

The 2014-15 Cheer Squad: Back to Back League Champions, Back to Back State Champions, Four consecutive Years UCA Regional Champions, Varsity ranking in the top 5 in the nation for the past three years, JV finishing in the top 10 in the nation the past two years, CHSAA All Academic team for past two years, DCSD Board of Excellence award of excellence for past two years

I came across a great message from our partners at the Posi-tive Coaching Alliance that I wanted to share with you:

I miss watching my son play sports. When he started playing soccer, basketball, and baseball 25 years ago, it seemed like it would go on forever. But it didn’t. It ended abruptly. One day he stopped playing and it was over – just like that and without much warning. Here’s the bottom line for sports parents. Your child’s experi-ence with youth sports will come to an end, and it may happen suddenly. If you are at all like me, you will look back and think, “I wish I had enjoyed it more. I wish I hadn’t obsessed so much about how well my child was performing, or the team’s record, or whether he was playing as much as I wanted, or why the coach didn’t play him in the right position. I wish I had just enjoyed the experience more.” If you have a child involved in youth sports, it’s not too late for you. Enjoy it while you can. It will end all too soon. There was a phrase I heard in my youth that has stuck with me: “These are the Good Old Days.” Truly, the days when you get to watch your child play sports are golden. If you are still in them, treasure each one of them. Don’t let them slip by while you focus on things that will seem totally inconsequential in later years. Because the youth sports experience is so intense, we tend to forget how short it is, and what a small amount of time that parents and children get to spend together over the course of our lives. These are the good old days. Enjoy them.

This is an excerpt from PCA Founder Jim Thompson’s book, Positive Sports Parenting

liams) has played a lot of basketball at Rock Canyon and we will miss their experience and commitment in the upcoming years. All four of them are on the school leaderboards in many various categories. This year Delaney Sullivan had multiple games with 5 or more 3-pointers as well as some top scoring games, while always adding assists. She has played the second most varsity games in Rock Canyon history. Emelia Steinmetz had a solid shooting percentage and her best scoring year. Kendall Smith, a true point guard, led the league in as-sist average, as well as leading the team several times in steals and scoring. Jamie Williams was a great hustle player and led the team in rebounding, and has signed to play next year at UMass Dartmouth. Away from the court the Jags worked on both team/program building and community involvement. They shared many, many team meals and fun activities including attending a Nuggets game and sitting courtside for pre-game. In a winter service project the program

collected items and packed 20 stockings and a large box of needed items for the Fresh Har-vest Food House. A basket created by the girls basketball program for the fashion show was the top item in the recent auction. In the classroom, these girls proved that they could be model “student-athletes,” notching outstanding grades and representing our program very well. Seven players received academic recognition from CHSAA (must be a junior or senior with a 3.6 GPA or higher) in-cluding: Katie DiDonna, Bailey Heinen-Colby, Madi Malpass, Kendall Smith, Sydney Smith, Emelia Steinmetz and Delaney Sullivan. Many thanks are due to each player and family for their time, service and commitment to Rock Canyon Basketball. Thanks also to everyone who worked at our games, and to everyone who came out to games to support our team. Best wishes to our seniors in their college careers, and we look forward to the work and building ahead with all of our returners.

– Becky Mudd, Head Coach

Wrestling The Rock Canyon wrestling team concluded a successful season at the state tourna-ment on Feb. 19-21. Josh Heifetz completed his senior season by competing in the state tournament and finish-ing with a 38-12 career re-cord. The future looks bright for the Jaguar wrestlers as the team will graduate only three seniors and will return 19 wrestlers next year.

A special thank you and con-gratulations to our graduating seniors: Connor Boggan, Nate Ewan, Josh Heifetz and Austin Powell.

Girls Swim & Dive

Peyton Gilmore ‘16, takes on wrestler from ThunderRidge High School. Photo by Kelcey Beckman.

“Wish Week is so much more than a simple fund-raiser”Our Wish Kids will forever be a part of the Rock Canyon family. These kids are strong, courageous and inspiring people who have made a sig-nificant impact on the hearts of RCHS students. It is our honor and privilege to know and be part of their Make-A-Wish experience.– Kate Hartline, StuCo Sponsor

wish week day-by-dayFriday, Feb. 20• 2,050 Wish Kits were sold during the week. Wish Kits include a Make-A-Wish T-shirt, Wish Star for the Wish Wall, Make-A-Wish bracelet, and restaurant coupons.• Opening assembly. During the Miracle Minute, $19,301.50 was collected (enough for nearly three wishes).• Dish-for-a-Wish at Costa Vida.

Saturday, Feb. 21• Dish-for-a-Wish at Genghis Grill.

Sunday, Feb. 22• Dish-for-a-Wish at Mod Pizza • After Prom Fashion Show.

Monday, Feb. 23• Dish for a Wish at Five Guys.• Dodge-A-Ball Make-A-Wish.

Tuesday, Feb. 24 • Dish-for-a-Wish at Chipotle.• Dare To Share Your Hair.

Wednesday, Feb. 25• Dish-for-a-Wish at California Pizza Kitchen.• Too Much Light, 20 plays in 40 minutes.

Thursday, Feb. 26• Dish-for-a-Wish at Chick-Fil-A• Unified Basketball Game.• Shoot The Rock Basketball Tournament.

Friday, Feb. 27• Closing Wish Week Assembly.• Check Presented to Make-A-Wish Foundation:

$65,700In the last 6 years, RCHS has granted 40 wishes and donated over $300,000 to the Make-A-Wish Foundation of Colorado.

Wish Week is more than just a week for STUCO... it is months of planning, weeks of working and long hours of preparation to make the week a success. It is the thing StuCo looks forward to the most.

NINe WISheS GraNTed!Jeremy 7, Disney CruiseDamien 8, Shopping SpreeMia 5, DisneylandFernado 8, trip to DenverAustin 6, trip to New YorkJaedyn 8, Disney WorldChathan 3, Seame Street SetAlex 14, trip to HawaiiJonathan 7, Disney Cruise

Our Wish Kid, Jeremy. He will be off to a Disney Cruise next month. Photo by Brianna Bradley ‘15

Photo by Vision Photography

Your Wish Is Our Wish

The Advanced Drama class with Jeremy. The pre-show performance by the Advanced Drama Class of “Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind” was chosen by student council to add to the fundraising activi-ties of Wish Week with an added performance Feb. 25. Aside from the $215 raised through ticket sales, Advanced Drama Class members also personally donated $135 toward the Wish Week fundraiser.

One of the great traditions of the week is dare to Share Your hair. 338 students and staff participated raising nearly $3,000 for wish week.•187 girls gave ponytails (hair had to be at least 7 inches),•10 girls shaved their heads,•140 boys shaved their heads, • One boy had enough hair for a ponytail and then shaved his head. This event is spon-sored by social studies teacher David Sapienza. Photo by David Sapienza.

Wish Week is one of the most amazing weeks of the year. Wish Week is a time for the school to come together, a chance to give without getting anything in return, and to bring happiness to a family currently facing a difficult illness. Our goal was to grant one wish and make a very special child feel like a rock star for a week. In 2010, Rock Canyon High School joined the Kids for Wish Kids team – a branch of the Make A Wish Foundation spe-cifically designed to get today’s youth involved in creating life-changing opportunities for children with life-threatening illnesses. For one week, our school unites as we work to grant one wish. This year, we were dedicated to Jeremy’s wish to go on a Disney Cruise. Jeremy is seven years old and loves legos, build-ing things, macaroni and cheese and science. His sister Natalie is in 5th grade and loves animals. Jeremy and Natalie and their parents Jennifer and Mike were welcomed by all of RC into our family and gave in so many

ways to help make their wish come true! Wish Week repre-sents pride as the school unites to achieve one common goal, hope for a family and a dream come true for so many children. These children are strong, cou-rageous and inspiring people who have made a significant impact on the hearts of RCHS students. In the past 6 years, Rock Can-yon has raised over $300,000 and granted 40 wishes. We are proud of our continued success and support of such a magical and special organization!

Behind the Scenes Wish Week planning starts in September. An outline is made for the week and contact made with Make-A-Wish who starts looking for a Wish Kid for RCHS. Student Council starts building a plan and looks for business and community part-ners. In January, STUCO starts to focus and make final decisions concerning the week. They know who our Wish Kid will be and they start to find ways to

make the week personal for that child. They work every day on the details of the events and look at how to make the week a fun experience for all the students, staff, community members as well as the Wish Kid’s family. By February, the t-shirts have been designed, the business partners are finalized and an ad-vertising plan has been created. The big picture has been de-cided and they work on the de-tails...the little things that will make the week special. They worked a number of Saturdays and late nights to complete the advertising and decorating. STUCO meets the family a few days before the week starts and coordinates their participation. After Wish Week is over, there is still work to be done by STUCO, the weekend and week after, all decorations, signs, etc. must be taken down, thank you cards need to be written, and oh yes, they spend time thinking about ways to improve next year when it is still fresh in their minds.

–Kate Hartline

Making us better people

Student council member Caroline Skibness ‘15, introduces Jeremy, sister Natalie and mother Jennifer at the opening assembly on Feb. 20. Photo by Brianna Bradley