Henry J. Kaiser High School fostered its well-known “Kaiser Cat” spirit and honored high-achieving students during a drive-thru fall academic awards ceremony on Oct. 13. More than 500 students were recognized during the socially distanced ceremony, which featured teachers and staff waving colorful posters with words of encouragement as students collected their medals.
ío Hondo College has been ranked the 15th best college in the nation overall for serving Hispanic students and third for awarding Family and Consumer Sciences/Human Sciences Degrees by Hispanic Outlook on Education magazine. The rankings, announced on Oct. 12, mark Río Hondo College’s latest appearance in the list of Top 100 Colleges and Universities for Hispanics, which is published annually by Hispanic Outlook on Education. The list charts the national progress of Hispanics in higher education and recognizes institutions committed to serving Hispanics’ educational needs.
Twelve Whittier Union parents celebrated their graduation from a District mentoring program on Oct. 14 by presenting videos demonstrating how they will teach parents to find online school resources, monitor grades and strengthen children’s social-emotional well-being. The virtual graduation ceremony, held largely in Spanish to reflect the first language of many Whittier Union families, marked the District’s culmination of this fall’s Parent Mentor training. The program is committed to closing the gap for students in the English learner program and supporting Spanish-speaking parents.
El Monte Union High School District and the El Monte Promise Foundation are honoring 1,800 Class of 2020 graduates with 400 individualized banners displayed along major corridors and streets across the three cities that the District’s six high schools call home. The banners – which recognize graduates from Arroyo, El Monte, Fernando R. Ledesma, Mountain View, Rosemead and South El Monte high schools – each include up to four student photos, names and plans for college, trade school or military. The Class of 2020 donation campaign was created in response to the COVID-19 pandemic that halted many graduation ceremonies across the nation. Banners are placed on streetlights within District boundaries and near each high school.
Río Hondo College’s Student Success and Dream Center will host a Virtual Undocumented Student Week of Action from Monday, Oct. 19 to Friday, Oct. 23 that carries the theme of “Dream to Believe.” This is the fourth annual celebration of the week, which is designed to build connections within the community of undocumented students, strengthen connections with the greater college community and advocate for community and government support.
Gordon H. Beatty Middle School students will learn to fly the virtual skies and pilot drones through a science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) Pilot program. The school has received 10 flight simulators and 20 drones for the program, which will teach concepts such as geometry, the degrees of freedom in flight, and physics. Science and STEM Pilot program teacher John Kopaczewski is preparing the simulators and drones for use when in-person instruction resumes.
Students and community members from El Monte Union High School District’s Arroyo High School are partnering with Eco Urban Gardens, an organization dedicated to teaching people how to cultivate healthy and sustainable environments and grow food in an urban setting using permaculture and agro-ecology. Arroyo High School participated in a short video with EUG to promote a garden in the City of El Monte.
Baldwin Park Unified's music teachers from middle school to high school are putting in countless hours to support students, with virtual one-on-one lessons, class check-ins and increased support services. Sierra Vista High School's choral music director and piano studies instructor Suzanne Brookey and piano tutor Kevin Phan helped students hone their skills during distance learning, preparing them for a virtual piano recital.
Río Hondo College’s Board of Trustees on Oct. 14 passed a resolution authorizing an election on Tuesday, March 2, 2021 to fill its open Trustee Area Seat 1. The seat became vacant in July when Norma Edith García stepped down.
Edgewood High School students Ethan Lee and Harris Thai have been named Commended Students in the 2021 National Merit Scholarship Program. The recognition recognizes students’ exceptional academic promise, demonstrated by their outstanding performance in the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test. Two-thirds of the approximately 50,000 high scorers on the test from across the nation are designated as Commended Students
West Covina High School produced 51 AP Scholars in 2019-20, underscoring the school’s college-readiness efforts and commitment to academic excellence. The AP Scholar designation is awarded to high school students who have demonstrated outstanding college-level achievement through their performance on multiple AP exams. Of the 51 juniors and seniors, 14 were named AP Scholars with Distinction; to be eligible, students must receive an average score of at least 3.5 on all AP exams taken, as well as scores of 3 or higher on five or more AP exams. West Covina High School is the District’s AP flagship school, offering an array of college-prep courses that include music theory, Mandarin and computer science.
Fontana Unified School District is recognizing National Bullying Prevention Month in October, providing resources to help families and students identify, report and prevent bullying and cyberbullying. Students at Jurupa Hills High School also showed their support for the cause by wearing blue in support of World Day of Bullying Prevention, recognized on Oct. 5.
West Covina High School is celebrating its student-athletes amid distance learning and postponed athletic seasons with a series of social media posts, dubbed #WCHSTeammateTuesday. Each week, West Covina High School features a different student-athlete, sharing in their own words what they love about their sport.