February 18, 2024

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NO SCHOOL MONDAY - HAPPY PRESIDENT'S DAY

Tuesday - Regular Schedule

Wednesday - Late Start

Thursday & Friday- Regular Schedule

A MESSAGE FROM THE PRINCIPAL

Follow Dr. Kuykendall on Instagram @pvphsprincipal for his weekly messages about what's happening on campus

COMMUNITY COLLEGE & THE TRANSFER PROCESS: A PANEL DISCUSSION – THU, FEB 22 at 6:30P

Join us in the College Career Center for a panel discussion about how the transfer process works from Community College to 4-year university. Our panel includes Melisa Siva, Counselor of El Camino College; Aura Rivera, Outreach & LACP Counselor of LA Harbor College; Fiona Rees, Interim Executive Director, University of California - Los Angeles; and PVPHS Alumni Noah Shafer who graduated from CSULB after transferring from El Camino.

SCHOLARSHIP OPPORTUNITIES 

Please check Schoolinks for scholarship opportunities!  Current postings include:  LA Military Charitable Fund (due 2/28), Sons Of Italy Scholarship (due 3/1), NCL Strive Scholarship (3/8), PVCC Teen Service Award (3/8), California Credit Union Scholarship (3/8), and more.  To find scholarship listings on Schoolinks, click on Finances (left info bar), then Scholarship Matching.  Look for scholarships that say, “posted by your district” above the name then click on the name of the scholarship to find out more information including how to apply. 

Attention 9th and 11th Grade Students/Families, 

The PVPHS counseling staff looks forward to meeting with each student in grades 9 and 11 to go over 2024-2025 scheduling. Do not be concerned if you have any issues with course selection in Aeries, as the counselors will hold individual scheduling meetings with the students to address all questions/concerns. Please note that counselors will not be able to collaborate with you before that meeting takes place, as they are following a schedule which allows all students to get the proper support.   

Please see the link below for instructions/information, and write down any questions that should be discussed at the upcoming student/counselor meeting. 

https://pvphs.pvpusd.net/apps/pages/Counseling/Course-Selection 

Thank you. 

PVPHS Counseling Staff 

State Seal of Civic Engagement

11th and 12th graders, an e-mail was sent to you regarding the State Seal of Civic Engagement. This award will demonstrate your active participation in local or larger civics through course work, activities, and a presentation. If you qualify a Seal will be placed on your diploma and can be added to your resume as an honor or award. Please find the application in your PVPUSD e-mail or under Panther Pics on our website. 

Attention Students: 

Are you going to be a dentist, dental hygienist, or oral surgeon one day? Jumpstart your career in the dental industry by becoming a Dental Assistant at SoCal ROC! Do you want to learn welding skills to eventually become a certified welder in construction, automotive, aerospace, and a vast variety of other industries? Learn the necessary skills at SoCal ROC! There is still time to enroll in 2 more courses this Spring semester: 

• Dental Assisting 
• Monday through Thursday, 4:15pm-7:00pm. Starts February 20th 
• Prerequisite for 2nd course - Dental Career Prep, which leads to certification 
• Welding I 
• Monday through Thursday, 1:15pm-4:15pm ONLY. Starts April 15th 
• First of 4 total Welding modules 

Earn high school A-G approved credits, while learning valuable skills that prepare you for college and/or an entry-level career! Courses are after school and FREE for high school students! We also offer free transportation to and from SoCal ROC. Add your name to the sign up sheet in the Counseling Office to meet with your SoCal ROC career guidance specialist or contact her at rpcontreras@scroc.k12.ca.us or 310-224-4240 for more information ASAP! 

What's Happening in Ms. Anderson's class?

Ms. Anderson's Chinese classes finished their celebration of the Chinese New Year by making traditional dumplings from scratch and had a feast to celebrate the year of the Dragon.

https://youtu.be/CnBqdnueGfM 

Link Crew Info Lunch

Are you a kind and enthusiastic sophomore or junior? Want to help make the Class of 2028's first year at Pen welcoming and fun? Then consider applying to be a Link Crew Leader for the 24-25 school year! Come to P103 at lunch on Thursday 2/22 OR Monday 2/26 to hear details about the program and application process from Ms. Dibble and current Link Crew Leaders. You must attend one of the information sessions to apply. Questions? Use Teams Chat to message Ms. Dibble or visit her in P103 during Panther Time or lunch.

 Palos Verdes Peninsula Science and Engineering Fair 

Congratulations to all Science Researchers who participated in the 2024 Palos Verdes Peninsula Science and Engineering Fair on February 8th at Los Verdes Golf Course! A huge thank you to PEF and PVPUSD for their continued support of the district’s award-winning Science Research Program. 

With nearly 200 students presenting 135 projects to 120 judges from our community, it was our largest district science fair ever! 

All researchers should be commended for their tireless efforts after school and over weekends. Below are the researchers who earned awards in their category, a special award and advancements to the LA County Science and Engineering Fair, as well as the International Science and Engineering Fair. 

Category Awards 

Animal Sciences 

1st - Leila Gheysar & Kaili Tseng 

Behavioral & Social Sciences 

1st - Lena Wen 

2nd - Khushee Totla 

Cellular & Molecular Biology 

3rd - Claire Dokko 

Biomedical & Health 

1st - Eric Chen 

2nd - Jacob Ma 

Translational Medicine 

2nd - Lia Osipyan 

Computational/Systems Software 

2nd - Sarah Choi & Lauren Jung 

3rd - Brindha Srivatsav 

Robotics 

1st - Henry Huang 

2nd - Vincent Cheng 

3rd - Allen Xie 

Earth & Environmental Science 

1st - Lea Segal 

2nd - Amy Kim & Veda Vikram 

3rd - Julianne Mayetani & Addison Jung 

Energy: Sustainable Materials 

1st - Aiden Kwon 

2nd - Daniel Sirakov 

Engineering Mechanics / Engineering Technology 

1st - Anish Anand 

2nd - Aryan Morshedi-Meibodi 

Environmental Engineering 

1st - Inu Cho 

Mathematics / Physics 

2nd - Sneha Ramanuja 

3rd - Sara Moshfeghi 

Microbiology 

2nd - Bryce Tom 

Plant Sciences 

3rd - Sydney Torcasso 

Technology Enhances the Arts / Materials Science 

1st - Madison Gambin 

Special Awards 

Association of Women Geoscientists Award - Lea Segal 

NASA Earth System Science Award - Inu Cho 

NOAA Taking the Pulse of the Planet Award - Arthur Qin 

Regeneron Biomedical Science Award - Zahra Habib 

U.S. Agency for International Development - Shahdad Sheybani & Shirzad Sheybani 

U.S. Metric System Award - Avery Yu 

U.S. Air Force Award - Brindha Srivatsav, Sarah Choi & Lauren Jung 

Yale Science & Engineering Award - Anish Anand 

LACSEF - LA County Science and Engineering Fair 

The 13 projects, as voted by judges, have advanced to the Los Angeles County Science Fair which will take place on March 11th at The Shrine Auditorium & Expo Hall. Congratulations to these Science Researchers! 

Lea Segal 

Bryce Tom 

Aiden Kwon 

Madison Gambin 

Claire Dokko 

Anish Anand 

Lia Osipyan 

Eric Chen 

Henry Huang 

Lena Wen 

Vincent Cheng 

Leila Gheysar & Kaili Tseng 

Inu Cho 

ISEF - International Science and Engineering Fair 

These four projects are headed to the prestigious International Science and Engineering Fair in May. The judges determined that they are the top projects and are ready to compete with the best science fair projects from around the world. 

Henry Huang - “Creating a piano critiquing algorithm using artificial intelligence” 

Anish Anand - “A Novel Long Range Wireless Power Transmission System” 

Aiden Kwon - “Bio-Inspired Wing Design, Aerodynamic Simulation, and Autonomous Flight Test for Airborne Wind Energy” 

Madison Gambin - “Bioinspired Hydrophobic Materials for Blood Repellency for Applications in Medical Implants” 

Congratulations to all of the new and continuing CSF members! Over the past two weeks, the CSF Board members and adviser took in 967 applications for Winter Membership 2024.   The class of 2024 has 205 Sealbearers (students with a minimum of four semesters membership starting sophomore year) with an amazing 165 of those seniors achieving Highest Honors (five qualifying semesters of CSF) and 109 of them having membership EVERY single semester of high school (seven). AMAZING!!!  Congrats Panthers! 

The list of members can be found HERE

PENINSULA MATH TEAM REMAINS STRONG

On Wednesday, February 7th, 24 Math Team members competed in the second meet of Bay Math League (BML) against students from other Los Angeles County high schools at San Marino High School. Each participant competed in three of five rounds (Triangles, Quadratics, Logarithmic and Exponential Equations, Related Rates, Number Theory) and one team round. Peninsula Math Team had a remarkable performance, maintaining their position in first place in Bay Math League. Congratulations to the following top-scoring students from Peninsula:

12th grade:

●     1st - Harley Qiu

●     2nd - Hillary Kchao

●     3rd - Brian Kunzang

11th grade:

●     1st - Rishikesh Muppana

●     2nd - Jayeon Yu

●     3rd - Navraj Singh

10th grade:​​

●     1st - Yejun Kang, Aston Lee

●     2nd - Inu Cho

●     3rd - Aryan Morshedi-Meibodi

9th grade:

●     1st - Justin Kchao, Kevin Han (perfect scores)

●     2nd - Kyra Tang

●     3rd - Mia Huang

Thank you to all students who participated!

Peninsula hosted the seventh annual Peninsula Invitational (“Penvitational”) speech and debate tournament on January 20-22. 

There were thirteen-hundred, eighty-nine participants from one-hundred, four schools and eight states. The tournament is one of the largest interscholastic competitions in the country hosted by a high school. By comparison, last year’s NDCA national championships hosted by Peninsula had one-hundred, ninety participants from forty-seven schools. 

The overall sweepstakes award was won by The Collegiate School in New York City. Head Royce School in Oakland, California won the debate sweepstakes award. Helix Charter High School in La Mesa, California won the speech sweepstakes award. 

The speech and debate team thanks the administration and faculty, as well as the various student clubs and organizations in pulling off what was the largest and most successful event yet. 

The team will be conducting tryouts for the 2024-25 school year on 2/20 and 2/22. Students who are interested should contact faculty advisor Kimi Hendrick at hendrickk@pvpusd.net.

Youth Advisory Committee, for City of Rancho Palos Verdes appointed by City Council  

The City of Rancho Palos Verdes is excited to announce the formation of its inaugural Youth Advisory Committee, a platform designed to empower and engage the youth of our community. This committee will provide a unique opportunity for young residents to have their voices heard and actively contribute to shaping the future of our city.  

Our very own Panthers make up 7 of the 13 committee members: 

Braydan Maloney, Chairman  

Jacob Ma, Vice-Chairman 

Tristan Tang 

Grace Lozano 

Kieran Peterson 

Sarah Porter 

Sydney Iravanchy 

Catch their swearing-in on RpvTV.  

Congratulations to these future leaders. 

Congratulations to Sayu Endo for creating the winning shirt design for the 2024 Walk for Life. Registration to participate will open March 1. Donations for walkers will be $30/each and will include a t-shirt with the above design as well as all of our generous sponsors on the back. We look forward to having our biggest walk ever! 

Our community partner, South Bay Families Connected, offers our families a variety of youth wellness resources. For Mental Health Awareness Month, we feature their resource pages covering trending youth wellness topics on the minds of parents and caregivers: 

• Supporting healthy social media and screen time management 
• Recognizing and supporting mental health challenges 
• Understanding and managing stress and anxiety 
• Helping youth build healthy relationships and fostering empathy and compassion 
• Practicing mindful parenting 

Visit our own PVPUSD Families Connected webpage for more youth wellness resources from PVPUSD and SBFC. 

The new allcove Beach Cities mental health and wellness center is now open and welcomes everyone 12-25 years old in your district! The center is designed FOR and BY youth to reduce stigma, embrace mental wellness, and provide access to a variety of services. You can go check out allcove on the 4th floor at 514 N. Prospect Ave. in Redondo Beach. allcove is open Tues.-Fri. 1 - 7 pm and Sat. 10 am - 2 pm. Check us out on Instagram @allcovebeachcities or the website for more info. on services offered. 

Sincerely, 

Brent Kuykendall 

GO PANTHERS!

**If you would like to submit an item for the Principal's Update, it must be emailed to kuykendallb@pvpusd.net by Thursday at 3:15 pm to be in that Sunday's update**

All District programs, activities, and practices shall be free from unlawful discrimination, including discrimination against an individual or group based on race, color, ancestry, nationality, national origin, immigration status, ethnic group identification, ethnicity, age, religion, marital status, pregnancy, parental status, physical or mental disability, sex, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, gender expression, or genetic information; a perception of one or more of such characteristics; or association with a person or group with one or more of these actual or perceived characteristics.  

Title IX Contact: Richard Licciardello, 310-378-9966 x 417  

Section 504 Contact: Michael Bosler, 310-378-9966 x 444  

375 Via Almar, Palos Verdes Estates, CA 90274  

https://bit.ly/2PXa68Q 

Visit our website for additional information

www.pvphs.pvpusd.net