February 22, 2007

SCHOOL SCENEin Almaden Valley

Leland, Pioneer robotics clubs enter regional tournament

Students create robot in six weeks to compete against 48 teams nationwide

By Eric Zimmerling
Times Intern

Leland High School’s robotics club will be one of 48 teams nationwide competing in the regional Silicon Valley Robotics Tournament held annually at the Event Center at San Jose State University March 16 and 17.

The Leland High School Robotics team with their advisor Helen Arrington (second from right, back row) behind their robot “Rack N Roll,” a robot the team constructed to compete at the regional Silicon Valley Robotics Tournament in the Event Center March 16 and 17. Photo by Eric Zimmerling

The 28 students that make up the club will compete with “Rack N Roll,” a robot the team has been frantically working on since Jan. 6 when the game rules and regulations were announced to all teams via pod cast.

In six intense weeks, the students work together to brainstorm, design, and construct and test their robot with the help of their advisor, Helen Arrington. With only six weeks before competition, jobs are assigned within the club and the work begins immediately. The teams then compete in a spirited, no-holds-barred tournament complete with referees, cheerleaders and time clocks.

Amy Qian, a senior at Leland High School, said the robot could not have been built without hard work from everybody.

“Everybody is doing different things all the time,” said Qian. “We have two drivers, a coach, and a human player controlling the robot at the competition, but there is so much more to the project than that. The wooden platform the robot sits on was built by somebody else, the ramp that will lift up other robots from out alliance that gives us extra points was built by another person, it is just a real team effort.”

Every regional competition the rules change, so the design of the robot has to change with it. This year, teams needed to create a robot that could move, pick up and place rings on a centralized unit with extended arms, and build ramps that could lift their two allied robots off the ground.

Helen Arrington, teacher and robotics club advisor at Leland High School, said the time and effort the students put into learning about engineering and working on the robot is a yearlong project.

“This takes a lot of commitment,” said Arrington. “The students are dedicated to the program all year long. It is not like they are receiving a grade for all the work they’re doing, they just work together, gain great experience for the future, and have fun.”

The robotics club is able to build their machines with money provided by the school, donations from local businesses, and through fund-raising events by the students of the club.

Pioneer High School robotics team will also be entering a robot among the 48 teams at the Silicon Valley Robotics Tournament.

Lonny Weissman, advisor of the robotics team at Pioneer High School, said his 15 students are excited about the upcoming regional tournament.

“We are confident about our robot,” said Weissman. “The 48 teams is the largest field ever at San Jose State, but we feel good about what we’ve done. The kids have worked really hard and built a great machine, we’re just putting the finishing touches on it right now, but we’ll be ready to go when its competition time.”

Both teams hope to finish well at the regional tournament so that they can have momentum going into the international tournament that will be held in Atlanta later this year.

“We just hope not to break our robot during competition,” said Weissman. “We don’t have any time to fix it when the competition is over at San Jose State. It is going to get shipped off to Atlanta where we won’t see it again until its time for the competition. My kids have put in so much work, we just hope to do good but that is never guaranteed—having fun will be guaranteed though.”

Valley Christian High School Marching Band and Color Guard to be first band
in the world to march down Main Street in Hong Kong Disneyland

The Valley Christian High School Marching Band and Color Guard has been invited to be the first marching band in the world to march down Main Street in Hong Kong Disneyland, which opened in September, 2005.

On Valentine’s Day, 115 students, staff and parents departed from San Francisco airport for a 10-day performance tour of Thailand, Singapore and Hong Kong.

A highlight of the trip will be marching in the Hong Kong Disney parade on Friday, Feb. 23, during the park’s Chinese New Year celebration. The students will also perform for three schools and two AIDS orphanages in Thailand.

On Feb. 19, the group performed at the Duan Pratheep AIDS Orphanage, which is strategically placed in the middle of the largest slum in Bangkok. On Feb. 20, the group left Bangkok for the seaside district of Chonburi. There, they put on a musical show for several impoverished elementary and high schools, as well as villagers.
“People will come from all over! This is something we have only seen on TV. But never in real life! Do they really wear those fancy uniforms and hats with feathers?” commented a Thai villager to one of the coordinators, who e-mailed the comments to the Troy Gunter, Valley Christian’s band director.

The VCHS marching band students have raised over $3,000 in donations to provide supplies and gifts to the schools and orphanages they will visit on their performance-missions trip.

Valley Christian’s Marching Band and Color Guard is an award-winning band with over 15 years of field show competition experience. In 2006, the band won the Western Band Association’s first-place award in class AAA state championship competition. In 2004, Valley Christian won the top sweepstakes award in class AAA out of 60 state marching bands participating. Valley Christian also initiated the Silicon Valley All-Star Band in 2005, which includes students from Gilroy and Live Oak high schools. The Silicon Valley All-Star Band marched in the San Jose Holiday Parade and Chinese New Year Parade in San Francisco.

In 2006, the Valley Christian music department initiated a Conservatory of Music Program for gifted music students. Several marching band students are members of the world-class preparatory conservatory that is designed to prepare students academically and musically for college-level conservatories or top universities.

For more information on the Asia trip, the Valley Christian High School Marching Band and Color Guard, the Silicon Valley All-Star Band, or the Conservatory of Music, please contact Vicki Wagner at (408) 513-2469 or vwagner@valleychristian.net.

Thirteen seniors to be honored at NCL’s annual Senior Presentation

The National Charity League’s Almaden Blossom Valley Chapter is proud to announce its annual Senior Presentation, which will be held at the Corinthian Event Centers Grand Ballroom in San Jose on March 31.

Thirteen seniors will be honored for their many hours of service to philanthropies throughout the community. They include Sara Adams (Leland), Danielle Clough (Pioneer), Kellen Donovan (Notre Dame), Kaitlin Jones (Leland), Elizabeth Kay (Notre Dame), Jessica Kolte (Leland), Jordan O’Halloran (Leland), Ashley Smith (St. Francis), Christine Stibbe (Leland), Morgan Wampler (Leland), Leann Witherspoon (Presentation), Meggie Yoshioka (Leland) and Kristen Yoshioka (Leland).

Among the philanthropies served by the mothers and daughters representing NCL are InnVision, San Jose Family Shelter, Second Harvest Food Bank, American Cancer Society, Career Closet, Habitat for Humanity, Special Olympics, Sunday Friends and House of Grace.

Family and friends will gather for this final NCL tribute to the young women who served their communities despite extremely busy senior year schedules. The evening promises to be the highlight of their years of service.

MetroED’s upcoming World Garden Workshop features grafting fruit trees

The Metropolitan Adult Education Program (MAEP) is offering a new, free World Garden Workshop, “Grafting and Propagation by Layering,” on March 17 at the Erikson Adult Center, 4849 Pearl Ave, San Jose.

Master Gardener Bader Kudsi will speak to gardeners of all skill levels about the methods of propagation through layering and the techniques and principles of grafting fruit trees during the workshop from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m., rain or shine, in room 18, across from MetroED’s World Garden. 

The World Garden is located on the southwestern edge of the Erikson Adult Center campus.  Look for the redwood trees and the greenhouse roof after entering the fenced parking lot on Minas Drive, off of Pearl Avenue.

To register for the free workshop, call 723-6450 and ask to have your name added to the March World Garden Workshop list or e-mail ritab@metroed.net.

Twenty-Six CCOC students earn Grove Foundation scholarships

Twenty-six Central County Occupational Center students will receive a $4,000 Grove Foundation School-to-Career scholarship to spend on tuition, books and related educational expenses. This is the second year that CCOC students have been eligible for the scholarship.

For some students, the Grove Scholarship means they will be able to focus on school instead of needing to work full time.

“College is very important to me as it is important to have a good education so that I can live a comfortable life,” CCOC AutoCAD student and Silver Creek High School student, Jacqueline Aviles, said. “It would have been very hard for me to attend college without this scholarship.”

CCOC is one of 10 high schools in Santa Clara and Santa Cruz counties that are eligible to participate in the Grove Scholarship program. CCOC, a unit of MetroED, provides career-technical education for 32 high schools in six Silicon Valley school districts: Campbell Union High School District, East Side Union High School District, Los Gatos-Saratoga Joint Union High School District, Milpitas Unified School District, San Jose, Unified School District, and Santa Clara Unified School District. Students attend CCOC half their school day and their home high school the other half.

Fourteen of the students who received scholarships are from schools that are not on the Grove Scholarship eligibility list; however, those students were able to apply through CCOC.

The Grove Foundation received 208 applications from eligible schools in the San Jose area. Out of that, 113 students were awarded scholarships with CCOC having more winners than any other San Jose area school, Jaime Kemmer, program associate for the Grove Foundation, said. Nearly half of all the applications were for the field of nursing, followed by administration of justice and automotive technology.

While in college, Grove scholars must maintain a minimum 2.5-grade-point average, take a full course load, attend Grove scholars events and program offerings, and stay in their career program. Students may also receive an additional $500 if they work in a career-related program while they are in college.

The Grove Foundation was founded in 1998 by former Intel Chairman and CEO Andy Grove and his wife Eva. The Groves founded the school-to-career program to give students an opportunity to achieve their focused career goal in careers such as automotive technicians, paralegals, nurses, accounting, and medical assisting. The scholarships are limited to students who will attend Cabrillo College, Evergreen Valley College, San Jose City College, or Heald College to earn their career-focused two-year associate’s degree or technical certificate.

CCOC Grove scholars include juniors Michelle Bauzon from Independence High School, Christopher Cooley from Santa Clara High School, Marla Leon from Yerba Buena High School, Jessica Lynn Perez and Omar Garcia from Lincoln High School, Sanela Nasufovic from Prospect High School, My Nguyen from Oak Grove High School, and Anneliese Raap, from Los Gatos High School. Seniors include Vanessa Cortez from Leland High School, Jacqueline Aviles from Silver Creek High School, Ivania Caraves from Santa Teresa High School, Benalyn Copon from Independence High School, Simrat Kaur from Milpitas High School, Duramany Morsay from Independence High School, Stasia Wong from Milpitas High School, Cleopatra Dorsey from Calaveras High School, Tatjana Pantic from Prospect High School, Azucena Velez from Foothill High School, and Shalanda Walker from Mt. Pleasant High School. Six additional students also applied through their home school but attend CCOC.

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