Books and Finals

Scholars Academy students,

To anyone who might have turned in a book they wanted to use to study for a final exam, I want to point out that you are entitled to bring the book to your teacher to prove you still have it, and then retain it through the final exam.

Best Regards,

Andy Weiss

Advisory Board

Dear Scholars Academy Community,

I would like to invite anyone interested in making a deep committment to the Scholars Academy Advisory Board to come to our first planning meeting on Monday, June 9 at 2:30 PM in the Media Center.  The idea is that we will find people from all sectors of the community to fill each of the following committees:

1. Curriculum
2. Internships
3. Public Relations
4. Fundraising
5. Student Recruitment

If you know anyone who might be interested in serving on a committee, invite them to the meeting or have them email me at aweiss@dadeschools.net.  Here is a more detailed description of the committee responsibilities as I currently enviosion them: SA Committee Responsibilities. 

By the same token, I adapted the National Academy Foundation by-laws into a draft set of by-laws for our Advisory Board.  I am posting the draft by-laws here so that people can review them and suggest changes.  I want to stress: I have no emotional connection to the draft as it is currently written, and so I really hope that people with more board experience than me will comment back to this post and offer their insights as to how we can improve the institutional structure. 

I look forward to reading your comments and seeing you at the planning meeting.

Best Regards,

Andy Weiss

Senior Brunch Photos

Dear Everyone,

Many thanks to Theresa Sutter for forwarding me these photos.  I hope everyone who attended enjoyed the Senior Brunch as much as I sweated!

If anyone else has photos to share (from any SA events this year), please email them to me at aweiss@dadeschools.net.  Thanks!

Best Regards,

Andy Weiss

 

Academic Honors

Dear Scholars Academy Community,

It is a momentous accomplishment to graduate in the top 5%, 10% or 15% of the class, and colleges actively recruit students who achieve these important benchmarks.  I am proud to announce the following statistics for the Scholars Academy Class of 2008:

• 43% of Scholars Academy students are in the top 5%, and 91% of the top 5% are Scholars Academy students.
• 83% of Scholars Academy students are in the top 10%, and 86% of the top 10% are Scholars Academy students.
• 100% of Scholars Academy students are in the top 15%, and 68% of the top 15% are Scholars Academy students.

It just goes to show that our kids are the best on the Beach!  Here is the full list of Academic Honors.  Congratulations to everyone on it!

Best Regards,

Andy Weiss

 

 

Breakfast of Champions

Dear Parents,

Just a reminder that our monthly Breakfast of Champions will meet again tomorrow, Thursday, May 29, from 8:00 – 9:00 AM in the Media Center.  I look forward to seeing many of you there!

Best Regards,

Andy Weiss

College Celebration

Dear Scholars Academy Community,

We are so pleased to announce the college acceptances of Miami Beach Senior High’s graduating seniors (and thanks to Dr. Page for compiling this list). 

Stay tuned for a final tally of where our Scholars Academy seniors will be attending next year.

MBSH College Acceptances for 2008-2009

Florida Private Colleges:

Barry
Bethune Cookman
Eckerd College
Florida Institute of Technology
Johnson & Wales
Nova Southeastern
St. Thomas
University of Miami
University of Tampa

Florida Public Universities:
  
Florida Atlantic University
Florida Gulf Coast University
Florida International University
Florida State University
New College of Florida (state Honors College)
University of Central Florida
University of Florida
University of North Florida
University of South Florida
University of West Florida
 
Out-of-State Colleges

Bard
Barry
Brandeis
Boston College
Boston University
Boston College
Buffalo
Carnegie-Melon
Cornell
Cornodia
Dartmouth College
Drexel
Emerson
Emory
Franklin & Marshall
George Washington
Georgetown
Georgia Tech
Hampshire
Haverford
Hofstra
Indiana University
IONA
Johns Hopkins
Johnson & Wales 
Loyola-Chicago 
Marlboro
New York University
Northeastern
Norwood
Oxford at Emory
Pace
Penn State
Rensellaer Polytech Inst.
Syracuse
Tufts
Tulane
U Maryland, Baltimore
U Mass, Amherst 
U Mass, Lowell
Ursinus
U Penn
University of Southern California
Webber International
Wesleyan  
William & Mary

High school has been your stage, and now college will be your arena!

Congratulations again to the Class of 2008! 

Best Regards,

Andy Weiss

Congratulations!

Dear Scholars Academy Community,

I just wanted to take this opportunity to recognize our students who won awards in our two ceremonies this past week.  Our seniors were awarded over $140,000 in scholarships this year, and we know our juniors are soon to follow.  Below you can see who won which awards:

Senior Awards

Underclass Awards

Also, I want to send a very special congratulations to Claire Austin, who won the Silver Knight Award for Journalism last week.  Read the Miami Herald’s press coverage here:

2008 SILVER KNIGHT AWARDS — MIAMI

“A golden moment for 15 student winners It’s the golden anniversary for the Silver Knight awards, given to South Florida’s top achieving students.”

Congratulations to everyone!

Best Regards,

Andy Weiss

 

Summer Reading Lists

Scholars Academy Students:

Below you can find a partial summer reading list – I will add to it as more submissions come in from the teachers over the next two weeks.

Scholars Academy English I (Klein)

AP Government (Spiegelman)

AP European History (Spiegelman)

AP English Language and Composition (Brown, Reese and Klein)

I imagine there will be additional posts in the coming days and weeks.  Stay tuned!

Best Regards,

Andy Weiss

 

 

Mentoring Opportunity

Dear Scholars,

The Youth Aide Mentoring Initiative is once again looking for female mentors between the ages of 15 and 18.  This is a great summer job opportunity and the SA has traditionally been a reliable source of mentors for the program.  Please contact Andrea Coyne at 205.672.8080. 

For more information, click the links below:

yami flyer 1

yami flyer 2

Best Regards,

Andy Weiss

 

 

 

 

 

Chamber of Commerce Wish List

Dear Scholars Academy Community,

I had the opportunity to speak to the Chamber of Commerce yesterday in the hopes of forging closer ties between our school community and the local business community.  In passing, I mentioned that we could use help in fundraising because, as I put it, “I have a wish list a mile long.”  Well, imagine the stupid look on my face when one of the directors asked me to forward them the list.

To be perfectly honest, my wishes for our program up until this point have been an ever expanding universe out until infinity – the sort of out-there-in-the-ether, pie-in-the-sky fantasies that come from not particularly expecting any of them will be financially feasible in the face of shrinking budgets.  The exercise of making a list is therefore a good one, because it quantifies and prioritizes our needs, making them concrete and visible.  We have no reason to believe that if our wishes are reasonable, that kindhearted people won’t be willing to fund them.

However, I want to seek out your wishes as well, especially those students who have been here for years and seen their wishes pile up in a corner over time.  I’d like to invite EVERY member of this community to add ONE wish to the list by COMMENTING back to this post (please do not REPLY to the post if you receive them by email, but rather go to the actual website at http://scholarsacademy.wordpress.com and submit a comment to the blog so that everyone can see it).

I asked the Chamber of Commerce to check back to this website in a few days to see what kinds of wishes accumulated, so please go ahead and leave a comment on the blog:  What do you wish we could do, have, or be in the Scholars Academy, that has been impossible up until now because of funding concerns?  I will post my own wishes below:

1. One copy of The Best 366 Colleges for every incoming freshman.  Wouldn’t it be great if our kids could start planning their college aspirations as freshmen, with the ability to check their grades against their goals every quarter?
2. Scholarship money for SAT classes for students unable to pay the high cost of a Kaplan or Princeton Review Course.
3. Yearly trips to historical places (great prep for the AP US History exam, and if AOHT can fund trips, why can’t we?)
4. Money to advertise our college acceptances in local papers (private schools do this, and ours are often just as impressive).  So much of our success never makes it into the wider community!
5. AP / IB review books.  Our students currently fund these out of pocket, and the expense really adds up for students taking so many college classes in high school.
6. SA yearbook and senior brunch money (these functions cost way more than I would have thought!)

Well, that’s all I have for now, as I sit proctoring an AP Calculus exam to 25 budding geniuses.  Please add your wishes to this list over the next few days by commenting back to this post.  I may return with some of my own comments and additional wishes as they pop into my head.

If anyone from outside our community reads this post and needs to know how to get in touch with me, my school email is aweiss@dadeschools.net

Best Wishes,

Andy Weiss