Senator Square: Carson High students return to school after active summer break

Hello everyone and welcome back to a new year of Carson High School Senator news. While we took a break from this column this summer, we still had plenty of CHS students busy with school activities over the break. Thank you to the community for supporting students who participated in national competitions across the United States. The Senators were very well represented this summer.

National History Day Nationals
Twelve students from Carson High School qualified for and competed in the National History Day competition this summer at the University of Maryland at College Park. Students choose historical topics related to the theme “Rights and Responsibilities in History” and conducted extensive primary and secondary research through libraries, archives, museums, oral history interviews and historic sites.

After analyzing and interpreting their sources and drawing conclusions about their topics’ significance in history, students presented their work in original websites, exhibits, performances and documentaries. The 12 students who competed all placed first in the Nevada competition at UNR in March to qualify for nationals. 

Congratulations to Nick Rosen, Megan Tingle, Kailey Lambert, Chloe Dodge, Devin McMenamy, John Rowe, Nick Tibma, Curtis Basa, Allan Huntington, Katie Jones, Sarah Thiele and Kaylee Gordon.

In addition to competing at the national level, students toured the historic sites of Washington, D.C., navigated the city, and got to experience a week in college dorms. They all represented Carson City and Nevada with outstanding projects and school and community pride. 

Even the extra, unexpected night sleeping on the floor at Denver International Airport couldn’t hamper their amazing attitudes and positive contributions. A special thank you to Barbara Gordon and all of the generous support from our community. Stay tuned for information on the remarkable trip one student earned through National History Day. 

SkillsUSA National Championship
Jessica Basa, Amanda Breen and Sarah Christl were award the third place medal and the Skill Point Certificate in Chapter Display at the 2015 National SkillsUSA Championships, June 21-26, 2015. Industry leaders representing more than 600 businesses, corporations, trade associations and unions recognized the students for demonstrating excellence in 100 hands-on occupational and leadership competitions, such as robotics, criminal justice, aviation maintenance and public speaking. All competitions are designed, run and judged by industry using industry standards. Top student winners received gold, silver and bronze medallions. The Chapter Display team would like to thank IGT (Reno), Home Depot and Michael Hohl Subaru and Honda of Carson City for their donations that helped the team to attend the SkillsUSA national conference.  

HOSA Nationals
HOSA – Future Health Professionals –had an amazing year at nationals. All in all, there were a total of twelve students that attended nationals. Kyndra Holloway, Nimra Torres-Perez, Rosidelia Bautista, Alison Greene, & Jiavanna Wong-Fortunato joined chapter officers from around the nation for the “Leadership University 101” chapter officer trainings.

Jonathan “Ojo” Ventura and Jenna Wong-Fortunato both represented the state of Nevada in the “Leadership University 301” state officer trainings. We also had 9 students compete in national events: Tallon Rauch competed in Pharmacology, Alecia Ouellette and Corrinne Defilippi in Vet Science, Alison Greene in the Outstanding HOSA Chapter, Siara Freyer and Robyn Adkins in the Healthcare Issues Exam, and Rosidelia Bautista in the Transcultural Healthcare Exam.

Sisters, Jiavanna and Jenna Wong-Fortunato both competed in Dental Science. For the first time in CHS history, there was a national winner; Jenna placed 3rd in the nation for her written exam and technical dental skills performance! Alison Greene, the CHS HOSA Historian, represented the CHS HOSA Chapter scrapbook and was awarded the outstanding HOSA Chapter award. Advisors Kelly Gustafson and Frank Sakelarios are very proud to have these students represent Carson High School and the community.

FBLA Nationals
Nine CHS students placed at the state Future Business Leaders of America competition in April in Las Vegas, qualifying them for the National competition in Chicago, Illinois this past June. The nine students were Hannah Golik, Sadie Share, Mia Brozovich, Logan Mead, Margaret Duvall, Daniel Jauregui, Eveline Delgado, Maritsa Mora, and Jesus Rangel.

The students competed in a variety of presentation and testing events. We would like to extend a special thanks to the New Entrepreneur Network of the Hop and Mae Adams Foundation for their financial support of our students to Nationals as well as many other community members who donated to their trip. Without their support, the students would not have been able to attend the week-long event in Chicago. FBLA is oldest and largest business student organization in the world. Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA) currently has more than 200,000 active members around the world.

Upcoming Events and News
The Blue Thunder Marching Band is off to a great start this year. We have 74 band and guard members who will entertain at the half-times of all home football games. They will also be competing against Reed, North Valleys, and arch rival Douglas at various competitions this fall.

This year, the band is being sponsored by the Greater Nevada Credit Union; who so far has purchased our T-shirts, helped us purchase a new snare drum, and will conduct various fund raisers for the band! The 2015 show is entitled, “Dancing Through Life”, and is under the field direction of Drum Major, Avery Endsley! The selections will include, “Dancing Through Life”, “Defying Gravity”, “I Dreamed a Dream”, and “Come Sail Away.” The Blue Thunder Marching Band is excited for its home town support!

Dance
The “Welcome” Dance will be held on Friday, August 28 from 7 to 10 p.m. in Senator Square. This dance is open to any Carson High School student. The dance will be DJ’d by Drew Briggeman and Vice Versa. Tickets can be pre-bought for $5 from Mrs. Golik in room 243 or any FBLA member. Ticket prices go up the night of the dance for $7 a ticket. Don’t wait, get your tickets early.

Football at Mackay Stadium
The first football game of the season will be played at Mackay Stadium in Reno with the Senators taking on the Reed Raiders on Saturday, Sept. 29 at 7p.m. Tickets for the game are $6 for adults and $4 for students. Get out and support your Senators! Go big blue!

— Angila Golik is a government teacher at CHS and a member of Senator Pride.