Speech & Debate Teams Triumph

Left to right:  Christine Vo, Jeremiah Menslage and Russell Williams.

Student debate and speech teams from Spring Woods and Memorial high schools earned significant awards and honors in University Interscholastic League (UIL) regional and national-level competitions this year.

Two Spring Woods High students and a Memorial High debater returned from the UIL State Championships in Austin on May 25-26 with top awards in 5A and 6A competition, respectively.

Spring Woods High’s Christine Vo placed second statewide in the 5A Persuasive Extemporaneous Speaking competition and Jeremiah Menslage placed fourth in the same event. Memorial’s Russell Williams finished second in the state in 6A competition’s Lincoln-Douglas Debate.

Debate team coaches at the two high schools are Victoria Beard and Cecil Trent.

At a recent UIL competition, Memorial High’s Debate Team sent junior Russell Williams to the State Lincoln Douglas Debate. Williams placed second there.

Spring Woods HS Debate Team members

Spring Woods High’s Debate Team returned from UIL competition with three top student awards. Christine Vo, a junior, placed first in Extemporaneous Speaking. Sophomore Jeremiah Menslage placed third in Persuasive Speaking and senior Alberto Ortiz placed second in Informative Speaking.

Earlier this year, Spring Woods High’s Travis Boyd was second in Congressional Debate at the UIL State Meet held Jan. 14 in the Capitol Building in Austin. Spring Woods High was the only district school represented at this particular meet.

At the UIL Regional Meet held at Magnolia High School, Spring Woods High had one district champion and placed in the top three for UIL State in Extemporaneous Speaking. Other Spring Woods High Debate results from this year include:

• Churchill Speech and Debate Tournament. At this San Antonio meet in January, Spring Woods High placed seventh out of 60 high schools. Student award winners included Angel Ramirez, first place, in Original Oratory, and Christine Vo, 10th place, in Congressional Debate.

• Katy High School Speech and Debate Tournament. Three students qualified for state at this meet. They included Jacob Frech, second place, in Congressional Debate; Bharti Sharma, second place, Original Oratory; and Isaac Gallegos, second place, in Dramatic Interpretation.

• Annual Space City National Speech and Debate Association’s District Tournament. Spring Woods High qualified the most students for Nationals, which will be held in Dallas this June. The Tigers Team also won first place Sweepstakes in Congress and Speech for a fourth consecutive year. Student honors included: Valentina Rombado, 4th, and Bram Sebio-Brundage, 5th, in Humorous Interpretation; Valentina Rombado, 3rd place, and nationals qualified in Dramatic Interpretation; Christine Vo, 1st place, and Angel Ramirez, 3rd place, and both qualified for nationals in Original Oratory; Alberto Ortiz, 2nd place, and qualified for nationals, and Jeremiah Menslage, 4th place, in U.S. Extemporaneous Speaking; Christine Vo, 1st place, and qualified for nationals in International Extemporaneous Speaking; and Rene Castillo and Angel Ramirez, 2nd place, and qualified for nationals in Duo Interpretation.

Read More

Rodeo Scholarships Awarded to Nine SBISD Students

The Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo awarded scholarships recently to nine Spring Branch ISD seniors. All scholarships were awarded on May 20 during a NRG Center special event and those issued to SBISD seniors are each valued at $18,000.

SBISD’s scholarship recipients this year:

Memorial High School – Blake Berry and Nancy Nguyen, both Metropolitan Scholarship recipients
Northbrook High School – Jocelyn Garcia, Metropolitan Scholarship
Spring Woods High School – Jack Liu and Megan Greer, Metropolitan Scholarships, and Maria Ponce
Stratford High School – Michaela Cherry, Metropolitan Scholarship
Westchester Academy for International Studies – Anh Duong, Metropolitan Scholarship, and Francisco Salgado, Opportunity Scholarship

“Education opens the doors to opportunity, and we are humbled that our scholarships provide the key to that door,” said Joel Cowley, president and CEO of the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo in a news release. “It is extremely rewarding for our organization, including 32,000 volunteers, to support young Texans who value learning enough to want to continue their education.”

The Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo noted the following facts:

• Almost 200 of 423 scholarship recipients will be the first in their families to attend college or university.
• More than 120 scholarship winners are the first in their families to graduate from high school.
• Students selected will attend 30 separate colleges and universities across Texas.
• More than $7.5 million in scholarships were awarded this year by the group.

Read More

Locks of Love

Locks of Love donors after haircuts

Cornerstone Academy held its ninth annual Locks of Love Hair drive recently and another 22 feet of hair was donated by the public district charter middle school’s students, parents, teachers and alumni.

Since the hair-losing effort began nine years ago, almost 200 feet of hair has been donated. All hair donations go to Locks of Love, which provides actual hairpieces to children and young people under the age of 21 in both the United States and Canada who are suffering from long-term medical hair loss due to a variety of medical diagnoses and are in economic need.

Students await haircuts provided by Visible Changes.

Visible Changes, which has a training center located at 1301 Campbell, donated the haircuts. As in the past, Cornerstone Academy’s National Junior Honor Society sponsored the event’s lunch. School coordinator for this program is Katie Wood-Sponsel, who is this year’s Cornerstone’s Teacher of the Year.

Selfless donors related to Cornerstone Academy (CSA) or other schools included: Steve Bundrick (teacher); Xy Rivera (teacher); Biranna Gress (student); Alicia Balbuena (student); Kinsey Jeansonne (student); Angelica Gamarras (Housman Elementary student) Victoria Zambrano (parent); Juana Gamarras (alumnus); Mckenna Tanner (student); Halliday Mafrige (student); Anadeli Salinas (student); Savanna Menzel (student); Emily Hruzek (student); Karolina Marin (student sibling and child of teacher); and Lily Galvan (student and staff member’s child)

Read More

The Addams Family Musical Needs Your Help in June

Buy a ticket to an encore performance in the days ahead and help a Spring Branch ISD student musical troupe take its show on the road to a national audience!

Summer may right around the corner, but your financial help is still needed in the days ahead to transport the student cast and crew of The Addams Family Musical, as well as student musicians, school staff and scenery from Spring Woods High’s main stage to the 2015 International Thespian Festival in Lincoln, Neb. The festival will run June 22-27.

Here's how you can help these student actors and singers meet an $80,000 goal:

• Attend Benefit Performances of The Addams Family Musical at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, June 12, or at 2:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, June 13, in the Spring Woods High School Main Auditorium, 2045 Gessner. Regular $10 tickets and $20 VIP tickets may be bought one hour before show time in the lobby, or in advance at www.safariplayers.com/tickets. Read more about this fund-raising effort >>

Can’t make it to a benefit performance, but still want to help make dreams come true? Your support is appreciated. Please consider sponsoring all or part of a student’s individual expenses, or donate toward the group’s total fundraising goal of $80,000. Learn more >>

Read More

Results: OM World Finals

First Row: Rebecca Grekin, Emily Mitchell, Riley Fairchild, Jackie Nix, Isabella

Boone and Paloma June

Second Row: Edwin Parks, Jeremy Jackson, Nathan Lerner, Katie Coolidge and

Meg Schomburg
Not Pictured: Robert Kidd, Chris Guandique

Six qualifying Odyssey of the Mind World Finals teams from Spring Branch ISD competed May 20-23 on the campus of Michigan State University with more than 800 U.S. and international teams.

Representing Texas in the Odyssey of the Mind World Finals Competition held in East Lansing, Mich., were multiple teams from Spring Woods High, Westchester Academy for International Studies, Ridgecrest Elementary and Memorial Middle School.

Photographed are the Spring Woods High School team, coached by Iris Story, and the Westchester Academy’s Division 3 team, coached by Kim Coolidge. The Spring Woods team placed 20th and Westchester 26th out of 56 high school teams in a problem titled "Silent Movie, Problem 5."

Other SBISD teams competing in World Finals included the following:

• Ridgecrest Elementary’s team, coached by Ryan Ferrugia and Anna Andrade, place 30th in the problem titled “Runaway Train.”
• Westchester Academy’s Division 2 team, coached by Amy Schomburg, placed 16th, and
• Memorial Middle’s Division 2 “Silent Movie” team placed 10th overall.

For more information on how to be part of an Odyssey of the Mind team, contact SBISD Council of PTAs Creativity Coordinator Iris Story at 713-690-1108, or email her at Omers5@aol.com.

Read More