June 2020
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Graduation Information
Click here for more information!
Lancer Honors
Please visit the LHS counselors' site recognizing excellence in our Lancer community. This page highlights the many positive honors our Lancers are receiving. If you have something for us to share on this page, please email counselor Judy Christensen at jdchristense@madison.k12.wi.us and include a photo so we can share more great news about our Lancers! Click   here   to view the website!
Counselor Connection
Stay connected to the latest La Follette news, events, and communication related to college and career. Learn about student job and volunteer postings, college application, FAFSA, and post high school support, important test dates, and various opportunities to explore career interests through the monthly  Counselor Connection.
MSCR Updates - Summer 2020
Due to Covid-19 and MMSD summer school moving to all virtual, MSCR is not planning any in person summer programs at La Follette at this time. If public health guidelines allow, there is a possibility of limited programs being offered to La Follette students for late summer. If that happens MSCR staff will contact students by email and share information on La Follette social media. MSCR will also offer virtual tutoring for La Follette students in summer school. 

In addition, MSCR is offering a variety of free virtual programs to the entire Madison community. Visit the MSCR Safer at Home website or follow MSCR on social media for more information. 

For more information regarding MSCR programs at La Follette, please contact: 

Dane Gottschall, MSCR Specialist at La Follette High School
work cell: (608) 622-7014
email: drgottschall@madison.k12.wi.us 
Student Fee Communication
Sign Language Interpreting Services

Please submit this google form or contact Gretchen Kelley at gkelley@madison.k12.wi.us to make a request.
La Follette College and Career Center Updates
Greetings from our virtual college and career center. We hope you are all doing well and staying healthy during this unique time. May is usually a very busy time for our college, career, and community efforts, going virtual did not change that. We started out our month celebrating our senior class highlighting their post high school decisions. Check out our Class of 2020 Decision Day Celebration Video ( linked here ). 


Many other Lancers also had college, career, and community opportunities this month. Our junior class worked on personal/college essays within their English 3 course. Before diving into essay writing they were given the opportunity to look into different post high school options to narrow down a few they might be most interested in pursuing next fall. Check out resources ( link here ). We strongly encourage conversations at home about these options, as we know post high school planning is a family discussion. 

Along with our juniors, our sophomore class completed their half cap reflection survey in English 2. This survey was an opportunity for students to reflect on their current progress towards MMSD Graduate Vision skills, as well as capture their current post high school plans. We know at this point in high school we may see lots of change in what students feel would be the best fit for them upon graduation, yet we find it helpful to have a starting point in the college and career conversation. Families received a summary page of student responses, again encouraging conversations at home. 

Keep your eye out for…
  1. Flipgrid video link from LHS staff wishing the Class of 2020 Farewell and Congrats!
  2. Class of 2020 Video Yearbook (slides submitted by seniors in English 4) 
  3. Email with Half Cap Reflection responses (Families of Class of 2022) 

We miss our students! We look forward to supporting all Lancers in being college, career, and community ready next year. 

MacKenzie Swanson (LHS College and Career Coordinator) 
The Lance - Student Voice of LHS
We would like to introduce our new Online piece to the Lance Newspaper. Each quarter we will continue to print a regular news magazine but will have current weekly content posted to our website.
Young Playwrights Festival through Children's Theater of Madison
For the past eight years, La Follette has had a fine arts collaboration with Children's Theater of Madison through Andrew McCuaig's Creative Writing classes, where guest teacher-playwrights from CTM teach students how to write one-act plays during a three-week unit in class. For every school that participates in the program, one play is chosen to be performed on stage at the end of the year in what is called the Young Playwrights Festival. Usually this is performed at the Overture Center downtown. This year, the festival was virtual, of course, and it was really amazing to see how they pulled it off!  

La Follette's play this year was  "The Sidekick Strikes Back" by senior Richard Mogensen.   It's a very funny one-act play about a superhero's sidekick who's finally had enough of his "boss" and decides to strike out on his own.  

There are eight plays in all, all written by middle and high school students from the Madison area. As you'd expect, many of the plays are quite serious and intense. Richard's play provides some comic relief! Richard's play is the first one after the intermission, starting at about the one hour mark.  

Mr. McCuaig would like to thank Erica Berman, the Director of Education at CTM, Lindsey Hoel-Neds, this year's artist-in-residence guest teacher (and Lancer Class of '99), and all of the students that participated this year. We look forward to continuing this important fine arts program in the future.  
2020 Statesman Yearbooks Will Be Here Soon!!!
Yearbook distribution will be held during your materials drop off/pickup scheduled time in the next couple weeks. Please attend your scheduled time to either pick up your pre ordered yearbook or purchase a book. The 2020 Statesman yearbook is $47 cash only, exact amount so that we are able to appropriately social distance for the transaction. If a book was pre ordered we will need to see the students ID or give the student ID number to confirm student information. To check if you have pre ordered a yearbook you can look in IC at the fees section to confirm that a payment had been made at registration last year. Again, please attend your students scheduled day to either pick up or purchase a yearbook.

All sales are final. No refunds will be given for any reason.
2020 Schuster Prose Prize Winners
We are thrilled to share the accomplishments of our amazing Lancers! Please join us in congratulating the Schuster Prose Prize winners!

This is the third year that David Benjamin and Kathy Schuster have together given $9,500 to student writers through the Robert M. Schuster Prose Prize. "Benjy" and Bob were students and prolific writers together at La Follette in the 1960's, creating underground newsletters and literary zines. Mr. Schuster died in 2016, and this award is given in his honor.

The prize committee selects a different theme every year. This year's theme was "Persistence" and was open to all La Follette juniors and seniors. Entries needed to be 2,500 words or less and needed to address the theme through a speech, a personal memoir, an essay or a work of fiction.

This year's winners are:

1st Prize: "Persist, They Said" by Kiera O'Higgins

2nd Prize: "Overceame" by Rauan Prichard

3rd Prize: "My Grandfather's Journey" by Natalie McDonald

Best Line: Rory Helms
"I believe the worst of humanity can be observed in two places: governments and middle schools."

Honorable Mention (listed alphabetically):
"The Voice" by Ben Blazel
"The Person I Set Out to Be" by Lexus Browning
"Communal Persistence" by Donald Conway
"Among Us" by Tia Engelberger
"The Landscape That My Eyes Paint" by Julian Morales Grande
Kiera O'Higgins
Rauan Prichard
Natalie McDonald
Rory Helms
Ben Blazel
Lexus Browning
Donald Conway
Tia Engelberger
 Julian Morales Grande
Wishing Lancer Retirees a Warm and Found Farewell
La Follette will be saying farewell to seven outstanding educators this summer. Donna Kennedy, Mark Cyra, Michael Ginter, Melissa Denman, Mary Neuman, Heidi Walters and Diane Sturdevant will be moving on, however, will always be Lancers.
La Follette High School - 702 Pflaum Road - Madison, WI 53716