Earlier this fall, students from our sister school in Tokyo and from Valley’s Japanese program served as volunteers at the 9th annual Festival Japan 2009 at the Asian grocery store Uwajimaya in Beaverton.

Our own Yoko Miwa Cook served as the volunteer to coordinate the children’s game section where students from several high schools who are learning Japanese also helped out.

Thank you to Barbara Phillips, Kimberly White and all the amazing volunteers who helped put on a lovely Wine Tasting event Nov. 21!

Thank you to the following supporters for their generous donations and contributions:
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At a recent middle and high school faculty meeting, a challenge was made to the teachers present. It was simple enough: tell each other about an interesting project that students were doing at the time. Computer teacher Colette Cassinelli had something great to share.

Some of the things that Colette talks about in her classes are good and proper ways of communicating in the digital age. Digital etiquette can seem lost in the haze of the internet, from Facebook and Twitter, to people commenting on stories on your local news stations’ Web pages. One of the goals in Colette’s class is to show students how technology can be used for good and to counter a lot of the negative news in the media about teens and the internet.
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Thanks to Ginnie Sutfin and the Valley Catholic High School Drama department for giving us great entertainment for the whole family this November. See play pictures below taken by our favorite photographer and volunteer Scott Cary.

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The Student Council’s first activity of the year at VCES was a popular pumpkin decorating contest. Students were charged with sprucing up un-carved pumpkins, no bigger than a basketball, to earn free dress coupons. They could use permanent markers, paint and glue. Watch for the Council’s next activity – a Christmas Movie Night in December for parents to go Christmas shopping without the kids for a couple of hours. See the priceless pumpkins below.
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Earlier this November, Valley Catholic High School’s Director of Campus Life Mary Donovan was honored as Oregon’s High School Advisor of the Year by the Oregon Association of Student Councils (OASC). Present at the annual convention in Seaside were more than 1,500 student leaders and faculty from schools all over Oregon.

Mary has worked at Valley Catholic for 11 years, the last five as Director of Campus Life. Mary is responsible for all Campus Ministry and Student Activities for grades 7-12. She also teaches Valley’s Faith in Action and Leadership classes. Outside of school, Mary has been involved for many years in the direction of Single Adult Search Programs, High School Search for Christian Maturity Programs, and Young Church Today High School Religious Education. She has also served as a teacher in religious education in her local parishes since 1980 and is the mother of a 2005 Valley Catholic graduate.
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Thanks to our partnership with Get Spotted Media, we can now make available videos of many of the great moments and events happening on the campus of Valley Catholic School and Sisters of St. Mary of Oregon. We currently have four videos available for viewing with many more to come in the future.

Go to www.valleycatholictv.com, once on the page, subscribe to the RSS Feed at the top right to know when new video content has been posted. If you have ideas for what we should capture on video, contact Director of Marketing and Communications Karen Crandal at kcrandal@ssmoministries.org.

Join Mr. Segerdahl and your VCES friends on Tuesday afternoons form 3-4:30 p.m. for bowling at Sunset Lanes starting Nov. 24. You must provide your own transportation. For more information contact Laura Schultz.

View the flyer here.

Valley Catholic’s own Benjamin Buchalski’s passion for swimming started in 4th grade with CYO swim at Valley Catholic Elementary School. There he was coached by P.E teacher Mr. Eric Holstrom. Benjamin would later enroll at Tualatin Hills Swim Club 5th grade. Tualatin Hills Swim Club belongs to USA swimming association which trains athletes competitively. This has allowed Benjamin the opportunity to compete with local as well as out of state swimmers. Benjamin trains 11 months during the year, 9 times per week, including morning practices! This year in August Benjamin won a vast amount of 1st places at Oregon State Championships, which was held in Gresham Ore.

Races:
50 m freestyle
100m freestyle
200m freestyle
400m freestyle
1 mile freestyle
200m Relay
400m Relay

Earlier in November, the two sections of Advanced Placement Biology visited the Oregon National Primate Research Center in Beaverton. First, the students heard about the groundbreaking work that this research facility is undertaking. Vaccines, disease treatment and brain injuries are just a few of their areas of study. The students then heard a lecture by a research scientist about how important stem cells have become in the race to treat degenerative diseases. She explained to the students how much work is being done now to utilize regular body cells and turn them into the type of cells useful for this type of research, thus avoiding the moral conflicts of using embryonic stem cells. Read the rest of this entry »