Patriots'UPDATE - American Heritage School

Newsletter for Heritage/Academy Parents May/June 2013

AMERICAN HERITAGE • AMERICAN ACADEMY

Patriots’UPDATE

Congratulations to Patricia A. Butts, Senior High Principal, who was recently honored by the Association of Independent Schools of Florida (AISF). Ms. Butts was selected to receive the “Distinguished Educator Award” in honor of her 38 years of service to American Heritage School.

In the words of Charlene Luna, President of AISF:“Ms. Butts has laid a foundation for thousands of students over the years. The effect she has had and will have on the students and adults she has worked with cannot be measured. Her wisdom and steady hand has left an impact on generations of students she has served and guided. Her legacy will live on to affect future generations of students.”

This award was a great honor and a symbol of her dedication and commitment to our school. She has made AHS what it is today. Ms. Butts plans to retire at the end of this school year. Her spirit and energy will continue to guide us as we move forward.

Ms. Butts Named Distinguished Educator

Heritage Students Dominate at State Science Fair

American Heritage High School was again the top individual high school in the State Science Fair Competition held in Lakeland, Florida, the week of March 25. There were nearly 900 competitors at both the high school and middle school levels.

Nine Heritage high school students qualified to participate and all nine won category prizes (compared to less than half of all participants). One of the four top grand prizes went to Miguel Paredes, AHS Senior, for the second year in a row. A second place was achieved by Kristina Thoren. Third places were awarded to Rachel Gilfarb, Sameer Kailasa, Harshath Gupta, and Mayori Viswanathan, while Rachel Shapiro, Angelica Gousse, and Zoe Zhou earned fourth places.

In the middle school division, all three of Heritage’s entrants won place awards as well. Nicholas Mirchandani was awarded a fourth place, while Zara Joykutty and Diego Ramos won fifth places.

Miguel Paredes will be representing Heritage and the State of Florida at the International Science and Engineering Fair which will be held in Phoenix, Arizona.

Two students from American Heritage have qualified for the Math Olympiad. The first is sophomore Francisco Rivera, for his first time, and the second is senior Bradley Snider, for an amazing third time.

The Math Olympiad is the pinnacle of math competitions. Students must take two exhaustive qualifying tests. The first one is 75 minutes long; success on that one wins students the opportunity to take a second test, which is three hours long. Less than half of one percent (0.5%) of students taking the tests qualify for the Olympiad. American Heritage is the only private school in the state to have anyone qualify.

Congratulations to Bradley Snider and Francisco Rivera for their outstanding performance, thus far. Let’s wish them good luck as they prepare for the grueling two day challenge of the Math Olympiad, which tests them each day for 4.5 hours.

The test for the two students is administered at Heritage under the strictest controls on April 30 and May 1.

Two Students Qualify for National Math Olympiad

NationalAchievement Scholarship Program, which operates with-out government assistance, honors the academically talented Black American high school students and provides scholarships for a substan-tial number of outstanding program participants. Listed below are the students from Heritage who will be publicly recognized in this compe-tition.

Rachel A . AndradeDeanna BradleyLian E. ChanBenjamin I. GloverJawanza K. IngramKyle C. LampartJoshua A. MauriceMatthew N. SmithDanielle A. Taylor Samuel W. Vinson

Chinese Language Competition

In April, Chinese language students went to FIU to join the 6th Annual Florida International Chinese Speech Contest. These are the results: Chinese Level I:Grade 9 - Tibet Inan - 3rd place Chinese Level II:Grade10 - Philip Gaddy - 2nd place.Grade10 - Dajon Thomas - 3rd place Chinese Level III:Grade11 - Damian Suski - 2nd placeGrade11 - Kelsey Manes - 3rd place Chinese Level II Skit:Grade10 - Xana Pena, Alyssa Scrivner and Elysa Zebersky won the “Great Performance” award (2nd place).

Chinese Level III:Grade11 - Damian Suski - 2nd placeGrade11 - Kelsey Manes - 3rd place

National Achievement Scholarship Program

Senior Cameron Silverglate, who qualified for Nationals in both Public Forum Debate and Congressional Debate, stands among some of the Heritage Debaters who made it to Debate Nationals this year.

Congratulations to our Heritage Debaters who won first place trophies and awards this year!

Rebekah MolaskyCameron SilverglateEthan GoldsteinJared SuttonVictoria HsiehHamza RashidNoah GoldsteinKwesi LevyJosh ElkinKunal NaikCarlos Vazquez Gomez Connor KickhoeferConnor MartinJonathan FernandezMaximilian GazerogluMichael Hunschofsky Jenny FriedmanZachariah ChouAshwin Mahendra Asha RampertaapAlexander Baikovitz Farrah SklarPedro RojasJake BeckerBrandon Becker Sydney BrittonMax Kingsley Bo You

And Congratulations to our Debaters who are heading to Nationals! Max BrennerNoah GoldsteinLawrence XuMatthew SoreeCameron SilverglateEthan GoldsteinAshwin MahendraMaximilian GazerogluJared SuttonZachary SlotkinVictoria HsiehIsabel GabaldonHamza RashidBrandon MarksMichael HunschofskySydney BrittonAsha RampertaapRebekah Molasky

Heritage Debate Finishes a Record Setting Year

And Congratulations to our Debaters invited to participate in National Round Robins this year! Cameron SilverglateEthan GoldsteinVictoria HsiehJared SuttonMax BrennerNoah Goldstein

Congratulations to...

• Josie Francois, Drew Kurzman, Rohan Batra and Chandler Morehead, who were selected as four of approximately 550 semifinalists to advance to the final round of the 2013 U.S. Presidential Scholars competition!

• Three AHS orchestra students who recently competed in the New World Symphony Concerto Competition and were awarded a seat in the Side-by-Side Young Artist Concert that was held on Saturday, April 13. Nicholas Abrahams, Timothy Bang and Jenny Wheeler performed!

• Scholastic Art & Writing Award winners Taylor Ham (9th), who won two Honorable Mentions, one for Poetry and one for Flash Fiction; and Audrey Mason (9th), who won an Honorable Mention for Poetry. More than 230,000 works were submitted to this contest!

• AP Chinese Language student Jenny Wheeler, who won 1st place in the Chinese Bridge Speech Competition, a Chinese governmental program. Jenny will travel to Houston to join a national speech competition.

• Heritage senior Melissa Danz for being named as a finalist for the Todd C. Smith Florida Student Journalist of the Year award. She was selected because she exhibited excellence in writing, design, photography, broadcast journalism and online media. The portfolio judging was supervised by a highly qualified, out-of- state professional involved in scholastic journalism.

• Alumnus, golfer T.J. Vogel, who is one of six amateurs who recently competed against the world’s best at this year’s Masters at Augusta National Golf Club. The 22-year- old University of Florida senior qualified with a victory at the U.S. Amateur Public Links Championship last July.

• Jenna Goodrich (10th), who is a candidate for Gatorade Softball Player of the Year in Florida!

• the Heritage Model UN group for dominating the awards at the University of Miami Model UN Conference. They won the school award for “Outstanding Delegation,” and “Best Delegate” in four of the five committees (Jared Sutton, Brandon Marks, Emily Rowe, and the team of Faith Forlenza & Alisha Kabir). Great job!

• Suganth Kannan (photo at right) who was tied for 6th place and on a tie breaker won 10th place at the Supernationals Chess Tournament. There were more than 5,400 participants, so this was quite an accomplishment. Suganth and his dad captured FIRST place in Father and Son Tournament.

EMMY AwardsFor the first time, WAHS News entered and won two Emmy Awards and two Honorable Mentions from The Suncoast Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. This is the highest award any television student can achieve.

The Suncoast Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences is a nonprofit Florida corporation dedicated to excellence in television. They offer annual Emmy® Awards called “ The Suncoast Emmy® Awards” to television markets in the entire state of Florida, as well as markets in Louisiana, Virginia, Alabama, Georgia and Puerto Rico.

One-Act Cheered at State Competition

At the Florida State Thespian Festival held in Tampa, there was an immediate standing ovation with screams for the presentation of Bat Boy. Chris Ralph won the Young Dramatists Award, which means the play he wrote will be produced, directed and acted with professional actors in June.

Chandler Morehead won the Florida Jimmy Award and will travel to NYC to compete in national competition. Heritage drama students took home first place finishes in 15 categories, and 2 Best in Show: Pablo Torres and Chandler Morehead.

Heritage Student to Attend Grand Ceremony

Because of his exceptional scores in the Duke Talent Identification Program, Andrew Kolandra, grade 7, has been invited to particpate in The Duke Grand Ceremony. Almost 65,000 students took the Duke test as seventh graders, and only 1,670 qualified for recognition at the Grand Recognition Cermony to be held May 20 at Duke University.

Wishes Come True

AHS Make-A-Wish will be

granting TWO wishes this

year! 15 year-old Jennifer will

be meeting singer Alicia Keys

and 15 year-old Kyla will be

meeting Justin Bieber due to the

efforts of Heritage Make-a-Wish

club members! The rep from

South Florida Make-A-Wish

will attend the group’s May 1

meeting and be presented with

“the big check.”

Patriot Post Earns All-Florida at FSPAThe Patriot Post earned All-Florida from the Florida Scholastic Press Association! Congratulations to the following winners of All-Florida awards from FSPA.

The Patriot Post: Individual Awards:• Every Student Has A Story (print): Melissa Bosem & Elizabeth Flynn• Infographic: Elizabeth Flynn•News Page: Lautaro Grinspan•Print Commentary: Morgan Baskin•Print Commentary: Morgan Baskin (yes, two)Spotlight Yearbook: Individual Awards:• Yearbook opening/divider: Melissa DanzWAHS News: Individual Awards:• Special Effects Photo: Drew Kurzman• Special Effects Photo: Drew Kurzman (yes, two)• Sports Package: Eduardo Serpa, Melissa Danz• Sports Package: Sara Lichterman, Megan Menocal• Weather Segment: Aaron Sortal• Feature Package: Megan Menocal, Drew Kurzman, Daniel CorreaAmerican Image:• Website homepage: Alex Garza, Steven Malca

From the desk of Sherra Payne, President

This is the time of year when we get the opportunity to say a big THANK YOU to all the volunteers who have made this year such a success. I wish I could put each of your names up in lights (or maybe on the light board). Since there isn’t enough space to list all of you individually, please know you are all in my thoughts and heart as I write this newsletter.

The biggest thank you goes to the board who have showed such tremendous dedication to our school and students: Stephanie Gilfarb, Pam Saccocio, Cyndi Richards, Li-Ling Chin, Jacquie Sottile and Carole Morris. This was a year of transition and change in the PTO, and I thank each of you for stepping up and facing all challenges head on, as a team. To our committee chairs, all 28 of you….this organization could not accomplish all that we do without you. You have raised the bar on every single program this year, being responsible to your budgets while at the same time putting together programs that made everyone involved feel special. To the volunteers…130 strong…you are the icing on the cake. While the leaders planned the programs, you executed them with grace and enthusiasm. With 23 programs throughout the year, equaling several hundred volunteer hours, you gave us your all. Thank you for always being willing to support our programs, and jump in to help – even last minute. Finally, administration…we have got to be the luckiest PTO around to have the support of such an amazing administrative team. Your participation in our meetings, your support and guidance, and your dedication are unequalled. Thank you for helping us to accomplish amazing things and for allowing us to dream big. To the new board, with your commitment, next year promises to be another fantastic year at American Heritage/American Academy. It has been my honor to serve as your president this semester, and I thank Carole Morris for her term of leadership. Our final meeting of the year is Thursday, May 9th, at 8 AM, in the gym – our coffee talk topic is “Preparing for Change.” We do hope that you will join us in welcoming the 6th grade parents to upper school.

PTOUpper School

Easter Surprise

Heritage lacrosse players Erika Mazer and Daniella Pacitti and several players from St. Thomas Aquinas’s boys team, made 165 Easter baskets stuffed with goodies and delivered them Easter Sunday to the Jack & Jill Children’s Center. The center aids families living below the poverty level with children raised primarily by single mothers.

PTO’s final meeting of the year

Thursday, May 9th.at 8 AM

in the gym

Coffee talk topic is “Preparing for Change.”

Welcome 6th grade parents to the Upper School.

American Heritage Summer Day CampFor all kinds of fun!American Heritage Summer Day Camp offers a variety of traditional camp activities including indoor and outdoor sports, art activities, computers, games, field trips, and special events, for campers ages 3-14. The best known camp in Broward County for over 30 years!

Specialty camps:Theatre Camp is an intensive program for the child who is interested in the dramatic arts. The program fea-tures classes in voice, dance, acting, set design and make-up, taught by experienced professionals. At the end of the 6-week program, campers present a full scale production.

Robotics Camp will appeal to all interested campers of every skill level from beginner to advanced robotics enthusiasts. Robotics Camp offers group and individual opportunities for campers to create and program ro-bots with a purpose! Each three-week session will provide a different theme and new challenges. Campers will design, construct, program, power, operate, and compete for trophies in our engineering/computer center. For campers 8-14 years of age.

Sports CampsThis summer, Heritage will offer camps for tennis and soccer. Soccer and tennis campers spend their mornings on the courts or the fields learning from professionals in small group instruction. They also visit the pool each day and participate in some of our facilitated activities on the camp grounds. Both camps are designed to ac-commodate campers of all skill levels. They will enjoy competitions with trophies awarded. For ages 8-13.

Call the Camp Office at 954-472-0022 or visit www.ah school.com

Sports BitsWe are getting to the end of the school year, as well as the sports calendar, but several sports are still in competition.

At this point in the year, boys tennis finished fourth in state competi-tion. Girls track and field were first in regional competition, while boys ended up third. They will enter state competition. Softball team will enter the 1/4 final at regionals. Three weight lifters set personal records in their weight group at states: Victor Ferrara, Julian Perez and Palmer Harper.

Sony Michel is nominated for the Army All-American Game. He is one of 400 nominated nationally. The running back tore his ACL his sophomore year, but came back strong as a junior. He announced his college choice during the NFL draft.

Two athletes signed letters of intent recently:Khadeeja Dooling, track and field, USF; and Dylan Carter, swim-ming, Univ. of Southern California.

Both the girls and boys tennis teams had successful seasons.

Monday

6Spaghetti w/Red Sauce

Garlic BreadTossed Salad

Tuna Salad Sandwich

13Lasagna

Garlic BreadCaesar Salad

Tuna Salad Sandwich

20Baked Ziti

Garlic BreadTossed Salad

Tuna Salad Sandwich

27

Memorial DayNO CLASSES

Friday

3White Meat Chicken

Patty on a RollBaked Chips

Turkey Sandwich

10General ChickenMashed Potatoes

Corn

Turkey Sandwich

17White Meat Chicken

StripsTater Tots

Baby Carrots

Turkey Sandwich

24Chicken Wings

Yellow RiceFresh Vegetables

Turkey Sandwich

Thursday

2Personal Pizza

SoupFresh Vegetables

Ham & Cheese Sandwich

9Personal Pizza



16Personal Pizza



23Personal Pizza



30Personal Pizza



Tuesday

7CheeseburgerBaked Chips

Fresh Vegetables

Egg Salad Sandwich


Patty on a BunButtered Noodles -

Peas

Egg Salad Sandwich

21Oven Roasted Turkey

Mashed PotatoesCorn

Egg Salad Sandwich

28Corn Dog

Baked ChipsFresh Vegetables

Egg Salad Sandwich

Wednesday

1Macaroni & Cheese

Corn BreadPeas

Chicken Salad Sandwich

8Taco Bake

Yellow RicePeas


15Baked Cheese Sandwich

Baked ChipsFresh Vegetables


22Pulled BBQ Chicken Sandwich on a BunTater Tots - Corn



NuggetsButtered Noodles

Peas


Have a Happy, Healthy Summer!Visit us at www.ahschool.com

for information about the next school year!

May Menu

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Patriots'UPDATE - American Heritage School