December, 2013
Sylvia Akar taking her oral with Mr. Hernandez
IB Informed
A Race to the Finish!
December is here, test registration is complete,
final exams are in the works, and second
semester is peeking around the corner.
This can be such a stressful time of year as
students scramble to complete the semester
with good grades, finish projects and
assignments and just manage the emotional
impact of the holidays.
Starting in January we will be submitting
papers, uploading essays, completing internal
assessments and starting the last push to get
ready for exams. Next up: IB/AP EXAMS and
GRADUATION!
Booster Presidents Message
By Jennifer Kossler and Melissa Tramontano
Parents, please make sure your children are
getting to bed at a decent time, taking a little
time for recreation, and still staying on task.
Stress is most prevalent when students fall
behind. Although you cannot do their
homework for them, you can ask them about it
and encourage them to work without the
interruptions of television or social media.
Those activities should be a reward for work
completed.
All our seniors are awaiting notification from
their college apps, trying to keep their grades
high, while in the process of completing internal
assessments for IB. The week of December 913 saw all the Language A seniors working at
their oral exams (IOC) with Mr. Hernandez.
There were a number of parents who were able
to come in and help supervise them as they
annotated their literary selection and did their
analysis preparatory to the actual exam.
There were lots of nervous seniors. IOC’s are
now uploaded in digital format which enables
us to easily submit those selected.
As we prepare for the holidays, we are
reflecting on all that we are grateful for at
Centennial. We want to thank the parents who
support our IB program with all of your time
and/or finances. Many of you have participated
in one or more areas when we have needed
volunteers.
Our biggest fundraiser of the year will be
coming up on February 22nd--our BINGO. In our
attempt to get ready for Bingo in February, we
need your help now. Please keep any empty
baskets of any kind to donate for our raffle
baskets. We are also in need of unwanted,
unwrapped gifts you or your family members
may receive now and during the holidays. Any
donations would be appreciated to help make
Bingo a success. We are currently putting
together a Bingo committee. Please email us at
centennialib@gmail.com if you can help out for
this very big fundraiser. We would appreciate
any help we can get. Thanks in advance.
December, 2013
If you want to join the many parents and
grandparents who help in the IB program,
please call us to find out what opportunities we
still have for you to become part of our IB
Booster volunteer team. We also have many
senior parents currently on the board who will
be leaving at the end of the year. Please let us
know if you are interested in any board
positions for the 2014/15 school year, including
the President position, as this will be our final
year.
We would love for you to attend our monthly
Booster meetings. It is a great way to meet
with other parents and learn more about the IB
program and enjoy the many topics we offer on
college selection, IB testing, community service,
CAS, etc. IB boosters won't be holding a
December meeting, so please mark your
calendar for our next one on January 21st at
6:30 pm in the media center.
Enjoy your winter break,
Melissa and Jennifer
Jovanie Gonzalez: Loyola University of Chicago
Engineering
Austin Ha: University of Pennsylvania
Maya Harmon: Tulane University
Biology and Political Science
Cameron Khansarinia: Harvard University
Jasmine Lara: Loyola University of Chicago
School of Communications
Dalia Rahmon: UCR
Brianna Tramontano: Cal Poly San Luis Obispo
Architecture
Vishal Tandon
UCR
Congratulations to all seniors receiving early
acceptances!
Early Acceptance for Some Seniors!
The Alumni Corner
After hours and hours of working on college
applications the seniors are starting to see
some early acceptances roll in. This does not
necessarily mean that they will be attending
this particular school. Most of them are waiting
to hear back from multiple colleges. The
following students have received notification of
early acceptance:
It is always rewarding when graduates look back
and let us know how things are going for them.
We (teachers, parents, administrators) see
adolesents who have grown into adults taking
charge of their eduation and embracing what
life has to offer. Below is a message from
Dennis Smiley, an IB graduate in his senior year
at MIT. His enthusiasm for life and learning
have successfully seen him through four years
of a demanding program and, without a doubt,
will continue to inspire him.
Victoria Brintle: Northern Arizona University,
Western Washington University, Portland
State University, and University of Oregon
Psychology
Michelle Dalson: Duke University
Biology
Jessica Cao: Brown University
PLME (8 year med) Liberal Medical Education
Dear Mrs. Rasmussen,
I hope you are doing well. I'm writing in regards
to the IB Holiday Reunion Party. Unfortunately I
won't be able to make the event because I'll be
in Boston, but I've attached a photo of myself
and some coworkers at the tech start-up
company called ViralGains where I intern parttime out here in Boston.
December, 2013
My senior year at MIT is coming to a close, and
it’s been an insanely challenging but extremely
rewarding odyssey. I had no idea of what
lessons awaited me, but I've learned and grown
so much from my peers, classes, fraternity, and
career-seeking ventures into "the real world". I
am excited and humbled by the adventures that
the future holds and I am eager to continue my
journey as a student of the truth.
I want to thank you and the rest of the IB team
for doing a great job. The IB program at
Centennial is top-notch preparation for the
analytical, intellectual, social, political, moral,
and big picture challenges that lie ahead for all
of us. You and the rest of the teachers do an
amazing job. Also, I must say out of fond
nostalgia, my all-time favorite activity in your
class was writing stream of consciousness prose
at the beginning of class every Friday. It’s such
a simple exercise, but I found it so enjoyable.
IB Students do Community Service
This fall students were asked to write letters to
our troops and submit them to the CNUSD to be
sent. IB students met down in the IB room in
115 and during the course of one lunch wrote
and decorated 100 letters to send overseas.
Although this did not take very much time, it
did give students the opportunity to reflect on
the sacrifice of those fighting in other countries.
Merry Christmas,
Dennis
PS:
Dennis Smiley
MIT Class of 2014
B.S. Computer Science and Electrical
Engineering
Centennial High School Class of 2010
Thanksgiving wishes for the U.S troops
Remember that winter break is a great time to
log some community service hours. Check on
the Booster website and see what activities,
events, and organizations are already preapproved. Be proactive and contact some of
these places and line up some hours to
complete your community service requirement.
Dennnis Smiley
IBSA Mentors Stallings Students
Part of the IB Centennial experience is
community service. Whether one has to serve
20, 25, 30 or 150 hours, it is imperative to
choose something you enjoy (trust me, I’m a
junior). One of these activities includes IBSA
mentoring. This small operation is based at
Stalling’s Elementary and goes from 3:15-5:45
every Friday and serves the After School
Education and Safety program, a federally
funded after school program which
December, 2013
supplements education for disadvantaged
students (socio-economically or educationally).
Over the years, our role has been changing from
simple caretakers to classroom instructors.
Given the not-so-recent budget cuts the state
has implemented, many art programs have
been forced to shut down. We know the effect
these programs had on our childhood, and want
to do anything in our power to make sure every
child has the opportunity to participate in the
fun, yet enriching experiences the arts have
brought us. Personally, this community service
opportunity has opened my eyes to how simple
the solution is when it comes to combating any
issue the world faces, education. Think about
it, education leads people to think, which leads
them to have knowledge, which gives them the
rationale to make good decisions in life to not
do drugs, steal, kill, pollute, be rude, mean or
nasty in any way! Be a part of the solution and
become a mentor through IBSA mentoring!
-Omer Sohail, President of IBSA mentoring
Upcoming Events
Please make sure to check out the Booster Club
website for a complete calendar of events.
Upcoming Dates:
IB Winter Reunion: December 19, 2013 12:00
noon
IB Bingo Night: February 22, 2014 SAVE THE
DATE!!
Ice Cream Social: April 24, 2014
MYP Awards Night: May 14, 2014
Junior/Senior Awards Dance: May 23, 2014
SAVE THE DATE!!
Booster Meetings
6:30 pm in the Media Center on the 3rd Tuesday
of the month.
Remaining meetings:
January 21, 2014
February 18, 2014
March 18, 2014
April 16, 2014
May -- No Meeting
New Scholarship Opportunity
Georgetown College, in Georgetown, KY has
created a new scholarship specifically for full IB
Diploma candidates. It is worth $17,500 which
is more than it costs for one semester at the
college. Prospective students simply apply
online at www.georgetowncollege.edu/apply.
Electronic SAT/ACT scores and electronic
transcripts are acceptable for an admission
decision.
If you would like more information, please
contact Josh Franklin, Senior Admission
Counselor.
Mentors lead the way in arts and sports.
502-863-7990
admissions@georgetowncollege.edu
December, 2013
El Rescate Strives to Fundraise
Students from last year’s El Rescate group have
been trying to fund raise to pay off a debt from
last year. To that end, they have participated in
both the fall and winter festivals. Our
wonderful Booster Club has also helped them
with a contribution to the El Rescate fund.
In October, students gathered to run the
Pumpkin Decorating booth where patrons were
able to sit and decorate mini pumpkins to their
hearts content. Students worked from 3:00 set
up until the 8:00 clean up. Everyone had a good
time and we made a little over $200 including a
prize for our booth decorations.
Although the students worked hard at these
events there is still a lot of money to be raised
in order to fund the field trips and activities of
El Rescate. There are several options for
parents to help meet the cost of the program.
It costs roughly $70.00 for each student to pay
for the two field trips and necessary supplies,
the t-shirt, and the memory book. Parents can
donate money or they can have their child
participate in a fundraiser candy sale. Students
will need to sell about four bags of candy in
order to raise their portion of the cost. More
information will be sent home through the
geography classes. Unfortunately, if not
enough money is raised, something will have to
be eliminated.
Parents wishing to volunteer for supervision on
field trips will need to go through the district
process of getting fingerprinted. Please refer to
the letter that was sent home for the details on
how to do this. We really would love to have
some parents accompany us on these field trips.
Watch for additional information to come
home.
The pumpkin crew!
December 11th, students once again set up a
booth for the winter festival where we had
huge pinecones to decorate and delicious rice
krispies squares to sell. Students worked hard
and visitors to our booth enjoyed gluing and
decorating their pinecones. Lots of rice krispies
squares were consumed.
Some of the beautiful creations.
Happy Holidays! May the New
Year bring us peace.