Every year, before the annual Science Fair that is open to other area Catholic Schools, Valley Catholic Middle School hosts its own in-house Science Fair. 

Students clamor for the chance to prepare projects and get the process under their belts. The students are able to refine their projects after this competition in preparation for April’s larger regional Science Fair.

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CYO team and individual swim events were held over the recent weeks. On Jan. 18, Valley Catholic Elementary K-3rd grade swimmers swam in the Polly Championships. Valley Catholic boys Teddy Senecal and Nathan Silenzi won all individual events between themselves, and Valley Catholic girls Theresa Shew, Divya Jeyasingh, and Divya Amirtharaj were 1st in the Medley Relay.

On Jan. 24 the 4th-8th graders swam in the CYO Large Team Championship Meet. Valley placed first for the Cub Boys (4th-6th grade), first for Cub Girls, and second for Cadet Girls (7th & 8th grade). Even with no boys on the Cadet level, Valley Catholic finished 2nd overall behind Our Lady of the Lake.

Top Individual Performances:

• Kasper Adamiec first in 100 yard IM, 25 yard back stroke, 25 yard breast stroke, and freestyle relay
• Paolo Casas first in the 25 yard butterfly, 50 yard freestyle and freestyle relay and second in 100 IM
• John Dolan first 100 yard freestyle, and freestyle relay, second in 25 yard freestyle, and 25 yard back stroke
• Austin Ketterer, third in 25 yard breast stroke, and fourth in 100 freestyle and IM relay
• Shankar Krishnakumar first freestyle relay

For the Girls:

• Martyna Adamiec second in freestyle relay, third 25 yard freestyle
• Kenna Holt second 25 yard back stroke, third 25 yard breast stroke, fourth 100 yard freestyle
• Kathleen Shew second 100 yard IM and 25 yard butterfly, fourth in 25 yard breast stroke

For the Cadet Girls:

• Jessica Finn first in 50 yard butterfly, second in 50 yard back stroke and fourth in 50 yard freestyle
• Grace Mannen second 200 yard freestyle, third butterfly and IM
• Zofia Zdanowicz second in 100 yard freestyle, 50 yard freestyle and breast stroke

Jan. 31 was the CYO All-Star meet, where the entire league’s top swimmers have the opportunity to swim head to head in single grade level competition. First place winners from Valley Catholic included Kasper Adamiec, Martyna Adamiec, Paolo Casas, Austin Ketterer, and Jessica Finn. In addition, Kasper, Martyna and Paolo set meet records.

Student musicians from Valley Catholic Music School are busy preparing for recitals held the week February 23- 27.
The recitals are held in the High School Choir room with the first recital beginning at 7:00 pm and the second recital starting at 8:00pm.
Besides performing, students have an opportunity to polish up their stage presentation by announcing their name, piece and composer.

National Catholic Schools Week in the Elementary School is one more time for finding a reason to give service to others. Valley Catholic’s children decided on the Buddy Bear program sponsored by the Beaverton Police Department. Police Officers carry these teddy bears in their patrol cards to give to children who are caught up in police actions, accidents or investigations. They help the child become calm by giving them somthing soft and cuddly to comfort them during traumatic situations or to help them relax when information is needed.

Valley Catholic Elementary Student Council selected this project after discussing a number of possible choices with their fellow classmates. Valley Catholic students brought in 111 teddy bears during Catholic Schools Week. Beaverton Police Department Officer Pam Yazzolino came to the Elementary School on February 12 to pick up the six bags full of teddy bears and to pose for photos with the Student Council representatives.

Over the last week Valley has had swimmers compete in the district and state meets. Several of our swimmers performed well enough at districts to qualify for state.

• 200 yd Medley Relay- Holden Richards, Alex Byers, Daniel Or, Max Brady
• 50 yd Freestyle – Holden Richards
• 100 yd Butterfly – Maddi Scumaker
• 100 yd Butterfly and 100 yd Backstroke – Daniel Or
• 400 yd Freestyle Relay – Max Brady, Daniel Or, Nick Mannen, Holden Richards

All of the state results can be found here.

Valley Catholic High School girls basketball team won their third consecutive league championship this past year. Tonight (February 20, 2009) they will host Westside Christian in the semi-finals of the league playoffs at 7:00 pm. If they win they will play at 5:00 pm on Saturday February 21, 2009 for the league tournament championship. Saturday’s game will be at Central high school in Independence (not Central Catholic).

The boys basketball team will play Dayton high school in a loser out, winner to state game (as the #3 seed from our league) on Saturday February 21, 2009 at Central high School in Independence (not Central Catholic). The game will begin at 1:30 pm.

Playoff admission prices will be charged at all of the games ($5.00 for adults, $3.00 for students with student ID cards).

*Please note; if you are attending both games the gym will be cleared following the boys game. You will have to pay again for the evening session.

Valley Catholic’s own Colette Cassinelli wrote the featured article in the Saint Mary’s Press online newsletter CONNECT. Colette discusses using technology in the classroom to significantly enhance the learning of students.

In the feature article, Colette introduces the National Educational Technology Standards for Students (NETS) and gives examples of ways to make these standards come alive. In “Making It Happen,” she gives more in-depth descriptions of using technology in the high school classroom.

You can read the whole article here. Colette’s bio may be read here.

Valley Catholic High School Drama brings the classic tale to the stage in March.

This well known fairy tale was set to the wonderful melodies of Rodgers and Hammerstein, with popular songs such as “Impossible,” “Ten Minutes Ago,” and “Do I Love You Because You’re Beautiful,” this is a heartwarming and fun musical for the whole family.

There will be six performances from March 6-15. The play will be performed at Kelly Auditorium at Valley Catholic High School.

Play times are as follows:

March 6, 7, 13, 14 at 7 p.m.
March 8 and 15 at 2 p.m.

Valley Catholic Senior Meghan Blood (pictured right with long-time Track & Field Coach Herb Lommen) was selected as a Bronze Medalist award winner as part of Wendy’s High School Heisman Program. With over 34,000 nominees nationally, Meghan continues to demonstrate the excellence that is Valley Catholic. Meghan finished as one of Oregon’s finalists and was in the top three percent nationally.

This distinction comes at a time when Meghan is busy planning her future as well. Meghan signed a National Letter of Intent to Santa Clara University’s Cross Country and Track Teams. Santa Clara is in the West Coast Conference along with schools like Pepperdine and Gonzaga Universities. Meghan is the current school record holder in the 5,000m, and is also the only athlete in our school’s history to be a two-time, individual-event, state champion in both the 1500m and 3000m in track and field.

The OMEA, Oregon Music Educator Association, held its annual music convention and All-State Honors Festival in Eugene, Oregon on January 15-18 at the Hilton hotel.

While the students were occupied with over five-hour a day rehearsals, teachers were busy taking in classes, watching demonstrations and viewing what vendors in the music industry brought to the convention. Read the rest of this entry »