FINAL PTSA MEETING
Please
join us for the last General PTSA meeting for the 2016-2017 school year.
The meeting will be held on May 2 at 5:30 p.m. in the MLWGS
Auditorium.
A
full meeting is planned, starting with elections for the PTSA Board positions
for the 2017-18 school year; a slate was announced a few weeks ago and can be
found at the end of this message.
Then
Dr. Lee Ridens, the MLWGS school psychologist, will host an informational
meeting on The Mental Health of Your Teen. The program will include a
discussion on information and risk factors related to anxiety, depression, and
drug and alcohol use / abuse and steps to take if you have concerns about your
student. Dr. Ridens will focus on the impact of drugs on brain
development as well as possible overlap of anxiety and depression as it relates
to the gifted student. The presentation will also include resources for
families and students.
Lastly,
Wendy De Groat and Karl Zweerink will finish up the meeting with a short presentation
on mindfulness, and the various ways that MLWGS is providing support for
students as they work to manage stress including information on the mindfulness
and calm sessions offered by Wendy.
The
current MLWGS PTSA Board is pleased to present the following candidates for the
2017-18 PTSA Executive Board
PARENT VOLUNTEERS NEEDED!
Calling all parents! The Governor's School Foundation is looking for parent volunteers to help with a postcard mailing on Wednesday, May 10. We will get started around 9:00 a.m. or so in RM 228 across from the boardroom and Foundation office. Please contact Suzannah Stora at sstora@mlwgsfoundation.org if you are available to participate. Thanks so much!
CONGRATULATIONS 2017 ‘WE THE PEOPLE’
NATIONAL CHAMPIONS!
Maggie
L. Walker Governor’s School’s team placed first in the 2017 ‘We the
People’ National Finals. The ‘We the People’ program focuses on the history and
principles of U.S. constitutional democracy, culminating in simulated
congressional hearings in which students “testify” before a panel of judges
acting as members of Congress. Students demonstrate their knowledge and
understanding of constitutional principles and have opportunities to evaluate,
take, and defend positions on relevant historical and contemporary issues.
More
than 1,300 students competed in the ‘We the People’ National Finals, held April
21-24, 2017 at the National Conference Center in the Washington D.C.
area. The final ten qualifying team held their hearings in Congressional
hearing rooms on Capitol Hill. The MLWGS ‘We the People’ team is led by Mr.
Samuel Ulmschneider. The Awards Ceremony and additional photos are available on
the Facebook page of the sponsoring organization, the Center for Civic
Education.
2017
PARENT CLASS ANNUAL FUND CHALLENGE
This
week, the Governor's School Foundation is excited to kick off the
2017 Parent Class Annual Fund Challenge! The Governor's School
Foundation Annual Fund makes a huge impact on the students at MLWGS
by directly supporting activities like academic competitions and student
travel, as well as new technology, and student financial assistance. The
support of our parents is critical in these efforts and we are most grateful
for your continued commitment. Be on the lookout for emails
from parent representatives from your child's class.
At
this time, we have raised $220,000 towards our goal of $300,000 so we still
have some work ahead to meet our goal by the end of our fiscal year, June
30. To make a contribution online visit http://www.governorsschoolfoundation.org/donate/.
We look forward to all that we can accomplish together during this
exciting campaign!
COLLEGE BOOT CAMP IN AUGUST FOR RISING SENIORS
(more
spots now available)
Dear
Rising 12th-Grade Students and Parents,
Registration
for College Boot Camp is now open! College Boot Camp is an optional, fee-based
summer program which is designed to provide students a space and time to
complete their Common Application (or other application of their choice) before
the school year starts. The dates are August 15-17 and there is an option of a
morning or afternoon session. Please click the link below to register on “Sign
Up Genius” and receive payment instructions and additional logistical
information. The fee is $55. Fee waiver information, if needed, is provided
within the link below. Registration is open until May 31 and all payments must
be received by that date in order for the slot to be secure. We have recently
expanded capacity of the program to meet the needs of all interested students
who register and pay or inquire about a fee waiver by May 31.
More
information about College Boot Camp: The MLWGS Senior Counselors will provide a
structured curriculum over three, three-hour sessions with specific tips and
personal assistance at every step. College Boot Camp is designed to walk
students through each section of the Common Application and provide them with
the resources to complete each section during the program. A guest speaker will
address the essay specifically, and the students should leave the Boot Camp
with their Common App primary essay (or other essay of their choice) in a
completed draft form. There will be some group discussion, peer editing, quiet
individual work time, and one-on-one consultations. The Boot Camp will also
touch on college-specific supplements and popular non-Common App applications.
Topics can be adjusted based on the needs of the group.
Please
contact Rachel Loving at rloving@gsgis.k12.va.us with
questions. Registration is available at the link below.
SENIOR PICTURE
It’s
still possible to order the Class of 2017 panoramic picture. Go to www.strawbridge.net.
Students can search by school OR use the code 111957 to find the
photo. The cost is $15.00. Contact Ms. Sheppard (ksheppard@gsgis.k12.va.us or 804-354-6800 ext.
3304) with any questions.
SAVE THE DATE
DRAMA
BOOSTERS SPRING MEETING
May
9 6:00 p.m. in the Black Box Theater
Drama
Boosters needs your help and participation. Drama Boosters has volunteer
openings for next year as its senior parents are “graduating.”
Please
contact Ryan Giorgis at giorgisfamily4@gmail.com for
more information.
A
MESSAGE FROM THE COUNSELING OFFICE
If
it has not already been brought to your attention through social media, emails
from friends/family, and/or your student, then we feel it is our responsibility
to alert you to a new Netflix Series “13 Reasons Why” that was released on
March 31, 2017. We have had several parents call and write in with concerns
about the content of this series, particularly as it would relate to students
who may be more fragile than others.
The
timing of the release of this series coincides with our annual suicide
prevention training that is provided to freshman. On Friday May 5 we
will be visiting 9th-grade Health classes. If you have concerns about your
child receiving suicide prevention training, please notify Karl Zweerink in the
Counseling office. All 9th graders who are not enrolled in health at
MLWGS will be reporting to the Forum during lunch on May 5 for the
training. We will be showing a “Signs of Suicide: Suicide Prevention”
video, as well as discussing warning signs and steps to take when the student
or a peer is showing signs of suicide.
In
regards to the Netflix series, should you have concerns that your student is
watching this show (or has already watched all of the episodes), the following
guidance and resources are offered from the National Association of School
Psychologists website (13 Reasons Why Netflix Series: Considerations for
Educators). Please pay particular attention to the Guidance for Families and
Safe Messaging portions of the article. The link to the article is below.
As
always, please feel free to contact the Counseling Department for additional
information and/or to report any student concerns.
MLWGS
MATH MODELING TEAM RECOGNIZED
Recently,
a Maggie Walker math modeling team was honored as ‘Meritorious’ in the
Interdisciplinary Contest in Modeling (ICM) which is a 96-hour college-level
competition. The team consisted of Henrico seniors Isha Gangal, Jeffery Song and
Annie Zhang. The team scored in the top 10% out of the 8,085 teams
competing from 7 different countries. This is quite an accomplishment for
a high school team competing in an undergraduate competition. This result
is the highest ever achieved by a team from Maggie Walker in the ICM.
Here
are some specifics about the competition from the team:
Everyone
hates waiting to get through TSA at airports, so the problem concerned TSA
airport security checkpoints and asked participants to come up with a way to
reduce wait time at checkpoints. We had to A) model the flow of traffic through
the checkpoint and B) model how proposed changes to the checkpoint’s procedures
would affect the wait times. We used a Monte Carlo simulation to model the flow
of traffic, which is a type of simulation that accounts for random variables
(for example, the time in between arrival of new passengers and whether or not
someone would be pulled aside for random screening).
OTHER MLWGS NEWS
YA
AUTHOR JENNY HAN, FORMER DRAGON,
APPEARING TONIGHT!
Jenny
Han (Class of 1998) will be in Richmond soon for a stop on the book tour for
her Young Adult novel Always and Forever, Lara Jean (http://www.simonandschusterpublishing.com/alwaysandforever/),
the final volume of the bestselling To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before
trilogy.
Jenny
will be at the Chesterfield Towne Center Barnes & Noble on Tuesday,
May 2 at 7 p.m.
(http://stores.barnesandnoble.com/event/9780061850596-0). She would be delighted to see any Governor's School students, parents, and alumni who can attend.
(http://stores.barnesandnoble.com/event/9780061850596-0). She would be delighted to see any Governor's School students, parents, and alumni who can attend.
