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TODAY IS WORLD KINDNESS DAY
The first World Kindness Day was organized by a collection of humanitarian groups in 1997 by a "Declaration of Kindness." It's a global 24-hour celebration dedicated to paying-it-forward and focusing on the good in the world. On Kindness Day everyone is encouraged to make a declaration of kindness and devote themselves to completing acts of kindness. From donating food to the local food bank to opening the door for someone struggling with packages, there are many ways to celebrate the day. The goal of World Kindness Day is to highlight good deeds and focus on the power of positivity in our lives and the world. Kindness can be shared
among
friends, neighbors, and even complete strangers. Kindness transcends religion, race, age, gender, nationality, and politics.
EDUCATOR OF THE YEAR - John Wheeler
Thank you to the Rotary Club for their annual event that honors the best educators in our community. On Wednesday, November 9, Peninsula High was honored to have one of our own, John Wheeler, recognized for being an incredible teacher, coach, referee, pep rally participant, banquet speaker, surfer, and North Carolina Tar Heels fan. These are just some of the ways that Peninsula High students know John Wheeler, whose career in education has spanned 4 decades.
And when those students say "I love Mr. Wheeler" or "Mr. Wheeler is the best" it is in part because
- He teaches an enormously popular course in AP psychology, welcoming students of all abilities with a passion for his subject that gets stronger every year
- He regularly shows up to support all of the athletes, actors, and musicians at Peninsula's evening sporting events, drama productions, and concerts
- He loves to smile and laugh, maybe never more so than when he is on the stage doing improv
Peninsula High is so very proud of John Wheeler; a natural born teacher.
MOCK TRIAL TEAMS WIN ACQUITTAL IN LOS ANGELES COURTHOUSE
This week the two Pen Mock Trial teams again impressed with their stellar performances at Monday night's competition held at the Los Angeles Superior Courthouse.
The Black Team and the Gold Team both emerged victorious from the second round of the Constitutional Rights Foundation annual competition, sending them to the play-off round. The Gold team bested its co-counsel at Wednesday night's play-off round and will compete in Round Three on Monday night. The Gold prosecution team will again argue to convict the defendant of human-trafficking and false imprisonment.
Here are the team line-ups.
Black Team Defense has four lawyers (Parker Aungst, Yazuka Karube, Lauren Kong, Natasha Tieu), four witnesses (Raymond Beverly, Rachel Edelstein, Mitchell Lin, Albert Tan) plus our bailiff (Nick Serhan) and unofficial time-keeper (Lauren Kim).
Gold Team Defense also has four lawyers (Dhruv Ahluwalia, Laura Jankowski, Mei Johnson, Chelsea Liu) and four witnesses (Kayla Chegini, Chris Dzikowski, Tommy Jankowski, Rebecca Schubert) and our bailiff (Zachary Tieu).
The Gold team is excited to move on and continues to be zealous advocates for their client, The People of the State of California.
 BE A PART OF THE WALK FOR LIFE COMMITTEE
Interested in helping plan our school's biggest community service event, the Walk for Life? Through this event our Panther family raises tens of thousands of dollars for cancer research and support. Come to an informational meeting on how to be a Walk for Life Ambassador this Thursday during lunch in the Activities Office, P115. Bring your lunch and bring your friends! Help your school make this year's Walk for Life the best ever!
THANKSGIVING APPRECIATION
In the spirit of Thanksgiving, the PLUS Staff Committee wants to show the Peninsula High staff how much everyone appreciates them with Thank You letters! Students should come by the Hawthorne office from November 14th-18th to fill out an appreciation card for their favorite staff member!
PLUS FORUMS 
Have you ever wanted to go to a PLUS forum, but have never been invited? Have you ever been invited, but didn't know what it was? Come to the amphitheater this week on Tuesday or Thursday at lunch to learn about PLUS forums and sign up to attend one. At our forum you will get to play fun games, meet new people, and help improve our campus. We hope to see you there!
LION'S SPEECH CONTEST
Once again our local Lion's Club is sponsoring their annual Speech Contest. Peninsula High students always do well in this contest, and last year a Panther went to the finals and earned a lot of $$$$. The theme for this year is, "Is the Right To Privacy a Threat To National Security?" Learn more about this contest by attending a lunchtime meeting on Wednesday, November 16 in Room S52.
SHADOW DAYS FOR PRIVATE SCHOOL STUDENTS
Students who currently attend a private school and are interested in seeing all that Peninsula High has to offer may attend a Shadow Day on Friday, December 9, 2016 Thursday, January 12, 2017. This is a great opportunity for current 8th graders to experience a typical day at a public school. Visiting students get to 'shadow' a current student who has similar interests and passions. A link to the Shadow Day Form can be found at
www.pvphs.com
by clicking on "Incoming Panthers", or you can download the form here.
PENINSULA HIGH LATIN PROGRAM PARTICIPATES IN SCRAM
Sixty-four of our Junior Classical League delegates competed in the 2016 SCRAM (Southern California Regional Amici Madness), an annual competition in existence for more than fifty years, held this year in Crossroads School for Arts and Sciences. SCRAM drew thirty-four competing schools from the Southern California area, and this year included academic testing, sporting events such as basketball, dodgeball, ping-pong (our dodgeball team made it to quarter finals), and other cultural activities and competitions (STEAM, musical competitions, etc,) to give our Peninsula students the chance to display their Roman cultural passion and expertise. The event also allowed our students to mix with other classicists from all over, with fun recreational activities ranging from cookie decorating to Roman speed dating.
This year, SCRAM occurred on the same day as Academic Decathlon and a MUN conference at UCLA, and although some of our brilliant students arrived after SCRAM academic tests had already been given, our other Latin stars did us proud! Academic tests were not divided by level, so all high school students had to answer the same questions! Cultural competitions were divided only by middle school and high school category, so our high schoolers had quite a number of competitors including powerhouse schools such as University High and Loyola High, but Peninsula excelled and performed incredibly:
SCRAM Awards 2016:
Latin 1: Mariangela Vogliotti, Sketch Art, 2nd Place;
Latin 2: Kevin Sun, Mythology, 3rd Place; Erica Song, Mythology, 3rd Place;
Latin 3H: Eric DeWitt, Derivatives, 3rd Place; Will Mueller, Vocal Music, 3rd Place; Stephen Schatz, Mottoes, Abbreviations and Quotes, 2nd Place; Mei Johnson; Derivatives, 2nd Place; Mei Johnson; Sight Reading, 2nd Place; Advanced: Lori Won (leader), Open Certamen Team, 3rd Place.
Congratulations to our winners, and to all our students for representing our school with excellent team spirit and positive attitude!
DTASC FALL 2016
On Saturday, October 22
, students from Drama 2, 3 and 4 were at James Monroe High School in North Hills for the Varsity Division of the Drama Teacher's Association of Southern California's annual Fall Festival. Reaching the final round, and earning Honorable Mention were the entries in:
Sets/Lights Design (Tyler Krambeer, Saffy Laurio, Ava Musick)
Graphics/Publicity Design (Rachel Edelstein & Kyle Tanimura)
Women's Playwrights (Gabriella Campbell, Sophie Jacobs, Autumn Rinck & Trevor Rinzler)
Golden Oldies Musical (Naomi Drayton, Sophia Goodin, Austin Kelly, Isabella Navarro, Ethan Pearson, Shayli Reagan, Yasmin Walker & Julianna Yonis)
Also reaching finals and winning 4th place was Large Group Drama (Alyssa Condon, Jo Cook, Lucas Grenda, Lexie Jones & Erika Placer)
On Saturday, November 5
the Drama I Advanced students had their shot at DTASC's Fall Junior Varsity Festival competing against 30 other schools at Royal Oak Middle School in Covina.
The group Anything Goes for Children (Blue Martinez, Arista Mozena, Aina Williams; Directed by Chloe Albino & Samantha Herrmann) made the Semifinals.
Finalists included:
Large Comedy - Honorable Mention (Atina Hamidi, Maddie Ness, Kaito Suzuki & Bella Zuniga; Directed by Alexa Jones, Two Laurio & Josh Medina)
Diversity - 4th Place (Anjali Gupta, Ley'ah McClain, Kat Neumann & Hasti Zahedian; Directed by Gabriella Campbell & Lauryn Williams)
Audition Monologue - 3rd Place (Sarah Adams; Directed by Kara Zupanovich)
Golden Oldies Musical - 3rd Place (Leila Bahrami, Emma Cool, Elissa Luce & Maili Tom; Directed by Autumn Rinck, Julianna Yonis & Ashley Zoeckler)
Large Drama - 1st Place (True Dupler, Angelica Moreno, Miles Muir & Sarah Snow; Directed by Courtlyn Foster, Sophie Jacobs & Rocelyn Williams)
Despite not entering all categories, PVPHS earned enough points through their strong showing to garner a 4th Place Sweepstakes award at the Junior Varsity Festival. Congratulations to all of our performers and student directors on a very successful Fall competition season!
SPANISH NATIONAL HONOR SOCIETY INDUCTION CEREMONY
On Tuesday, November 8th, thirty-nine students were inducted into the Palos Verdes Peninsula High School chapter of the Sociedad Honoraria Hispánica (Spanish Honor Society). They were selected based on their scholarship in Spanish and zeal for the Hispanic culture. Felicitaciones to the following students:
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Firoozeh Adli
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Moises Aguilar
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Urooj Allana
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Kendall Arata
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Kaelyn Arcilla
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Ghalib Ashai
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Phoenix Baez
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Justin Baskovich
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Joseph Caraan
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Amber Carandang
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Sophia Ceman
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Katelynn Cha
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Christopher Dzikowski
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Antonia Foard
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Ishan Gaur
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Kayla Genato
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Pamela Gutierrez
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Sara Hata |
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Samantha Herrmann
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Amber Hool |
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Kelly Jackson
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Ivania Jimenez-Lara
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Jacob Kang
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Sepideh Kazemi
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Madeline Kim
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Courteney King
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Ashley Knebel
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Valeria Lazaro
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Isabelle Lee
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Ashley Magana
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Riley Ng
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Sarah Noe |
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Serena Nuber
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Isabella Sarullo
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Marisol Sciaroni
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Abigail Sedillos
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Brady Sedillos
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Shannon Sklow
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Kristin Warner
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298 PANTHERS INDUCTED INTO NATIONAL HONOR SOCIETY
On November 7, Peninsula High held its National Honor Society (NHS) Induction Ceremony at the Marriott Hotel in Torrance. NHS is the most prestigious and noteworthy organization that honors excellence in high school students. This was the largest group ever inducted, in Peninsula High's 26 year history.
Thank you to Advisor Betsy Okamoto and her Faculty Council Committee for their many hours of reviewing applications. Thank you also to NHS Board members; Emily Schulper, Eric Nguyen, Esther Chu, Elizabeth Sun, Lauren Yen, Brittany Bemis, Luke Classen, Keon Ghodrati, and Jinseor Kim, for their hard work and fabulous speeches on Scholarship, Leadership, Service and Character. Congratulations to all!
SPEECH AND DEBATE NEWS
Two-hundred and ten students from fifty schools and ten states attended the Meadows Invitational the weekend of 10/28-10/30 in Las Vegas, Nevada. Peninsula senior Jonas Le Barillec finished second in Lincoln-Douglas debate (LD) and was also top speaker. As a result of his finish, Jonas received his fourth bid to the Tournament of Champions (TOC) in Lexington, Kentucky in April.
T
hree-hundred eighteen students from fifty-nine schools and thirteen states attended the fourth annual David Damus Hollywood Invitational this past weekend at Notre Dame and Harvard-Westlake high schools in Sherman Oaks. In Lincoln-Douglas debate, Peninsula senior Jonas Le Barillec and Ishan Gaur were tournament co-champions. The two "closed out" the tournament (a close-out occurs when every remaining entry is from the same school-at that point the tournament ends). Jonas was the second speaker in LD and Ishan was third speaker. Both debaters won every round and every ballot in elimination rounds, going a combined 30-0. In policy debate, the Peninsula team of seniors Raam Tambe and Jerry Wang were tournament champions. Jerry was top speaker and Raam was second speaker. Raam and Jerry have now won the last six tournaments they have competed in and a near-unheard-of twenty-seven (!) consecutive elimination rounds. As a result of their finish, Raam and Jerry received their fourth bid to the TOC. Jonas received his fifth bid and Ishan his second. Ishan is now fully-qualified for the Tournament of Champions.
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| Jerry, Raam, Ishan, and Jonas |
MUN NEWS
On Saturday, October 29th, PVPHS MUN novices competed at the UCSD MUN conference, the first college conference of the year for the entire club, and many novices getting another opportunity to experience a diverse range of committees.
Delegates in UNAMID Committee discussed the UN's action in Darfur, a violent region in Sudan, while the effect Brexit may have in the EU in the "Bilderburg Assembly," a meeting where European unity is discussed. Our student took roles at a wide range of delegates including Angela Merkel, Russia, and Mozambique.
Delegates were also given a chance to travel back in time in Historical Committees to debate the "creation of Israel" in UNSCOP Committee and the "fate of Indochina after World War II" in the "Joint Crisis Committee" where our delegates assumed the roles of Ho Chi Minh & the leader of the French colonials! As a college conference, there were a variety of interesting committees and people to choose from.
Even though college conferences are traditionally more difficult, PEN MUN's novices rose to the occasion and took home a total of nine awards! Joe Meyers, Hope Reveche, Natalie Wong, and Elaine Yu won Accommodation Awards! Allen Chun, Olin Osbourne, and Natalie Lim won Outstanding Delegate Awards and Isabelle Lee received the Best Delegate Award!
Student Advisors Marine Fujisawa, Sarah Aoyagi, Erika Hathaway, and Sommer DeRudder were very pleased with how their delegates performed, and expect even more success in upcoming conferences at the Bruin MUN (UCLA), THSMUN (Tustin) and LAIMUN (Mira Costa) over a busy next 3 weeks!
PENINSULA HIGH HONORED FOR ENERGY EFFICIENCY
Congratulations Panthers on attaining another Energy Star rating. In order for a facility to get an ENERGY STAR, they are verified to perform in the top 25 percent of similar facilities nationwide for energy efficiency. Pen used an average of 35 percent less energy than typical buildings and are responsible for 35 percent fewer greenhouse gas emissions. Below you will find the Pen High energy report card to date. At the bottom of the page it shows Peninsula HS's energy reduction impact. Keep up the great work!
SIGNING DAY
Join us in the amphitheater at lunch tomorrow, November 14, as we celebrate four of our athletes who will be signing their papers to play at their respective colleges next year!
Connor Hance- Mens' Tennis @ UCLA, Nicole Suppelsa- Womens' Golf @ Boise State, Scott Phillips- Men's Lacrosse @ Bryant University, and Hannah Lyons- Softball @ Binghamton University. Your Panther Family is proud of you!
SUPPORT SPIRIT SQUAD
Peninsula Spirit Squad is hosting a social event at Absolution (2878 Columbia St. in Torrance) on Sunday November 20th from 6:30-9:30pm.
We are selling tickets for the event for $35 which includes your event entry and BBQ dinner with beverage.
Due to the limited spacing this is an adult only event.
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