Special Edition: the Award Issue

Miami Beach Senior High PTSA ENewsletter

June 25, 201 8 - Volume 39

Special Edition:

the A ward Issue

A celebration

of Beach High many accomplishments and awards

Congratulations to the new PTSA's

Congratulations to the newly elected Beach High PTSA Board for 2018-2019. Here's the roster:

MBSH PTSA Board 2018-2019

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
President	Elisheva Rogoff
VP Advocacy	Tiva Leser
VP Membership	Josie Wood
VP Fundraising	Melissa Delisle
VP - School Store	Karin Matos
Treasurer	Carmen Barcenas
Recording Secretary	Dana Grodin
Corresponding Secretary/Social Media	Saskia Raymond

Congratulations to the newly elected Miami-Dade County Council "305" PTA/PTSA and especially to the following members who come from Miami Beach schools:

Beth Edwards was elected VP of Advocacy and Legislation

Dr. Foote (Nautilus Middle School) was elected VP of Education

Becky Cohen was elected VP of Organization.

School News

We Are Number One!

Miami Beach Senior High School earned a silver medal (high-performing school) in the U.S. News and World Report 2018 Best High School rankings.

Miami Beach Senior High School is ranked #1 of 105 non- magnet or charter high schools in the Miami-Dade County Public Schools. Miami Beach Senior High School is ranked 49th within Florida and #645 in the National Rankings based on data on more than 20,500 public schools in 50 states and the District of Columbia. Schools are ranked based on their performance on state-required tests and how well they prepare students for college.

The 2018 Best High Schools ranking awards the top 5,948 high schools with gold, silver and bronze medals, indicating their level of college readiness. MBSH received a silver medal, with only 11% of schools honored. Awards are determined based on the following:

Students exceeding expectations in their states looking at each school's relative performance in its state reading and mathematics assessments, factoring in the proportion of its student body that is economically disadvantaged and projected to score lower.
Underserved students performing better than the state average by comparing each school's reading and mathematics assessment scores among only their historically underserved students - black, Hispanic and low-income - with the average statewide results for these subgroups.
Student graduation rates exceeding 80 percent
Students were prepared for college-level coursework by calculating a College Readiness Index based on the percentages of each school's students who took and passed AP and IB exams.

We are proud of our youth and staff at Beach High for this noteworthy achievement, thanks to our AP and IB results being combined! Congratulations to administration, teachers, staff, parents and especially to our students!

Silver Knight 2018 - Beach High Wins Two Awards

Each year, the Miami Herald's Silver Knight Award honors outstanding high school students in Miami-Dade and Broward for their academic excellence and dedication to community service.

Five amazing students represented Beach High in various areas of study and community work. These are the nominees and their categories:

Jiajun Bao - Mathematics

Benjamin Dietch - Music

Melanie Haber - Drama

Shirel Levy - General Scholarship

Marley Penson - English and Literature

On Thursday, May 17, at the 2018 Silver Knight Award Ceremony, two of our students won a prestigious award:

Benjamin Dietch won an Honorable Mention in Music

Shirel Levy won an Honorable Mention in General Scholarship

We are proud of the hard work, commitment and success of each of our Silver Knight nominees.

Thank you Ms. Haselmann, Silver Knight sponsor, for your dedication and inspiration! Thank you to the parents who volunteered as mentors for the candidates and help them prepare.

Photos above, from left: breakfast honoring our Silver Knight nominees; our faculty and admin at the Gala.

Click here to read the winners' bios: Ben and Shirel

Link: miamiherald

The Best Colleges for an Outstanding Class

The Class of 2018 students were admitted to stellar universities such as Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Brown, Duke, Dartmouth, Cornell, Emory, Vanderbilt, Boston University, Boston College, Pomona, Berkeley, NYU, Northeastern, UMichigan, WashU, American, University of Southern California, Syracuse, GeorgiaTech and all the best Florida universities (UF, UM, FSU, FIU, Barry, Miami-Dade College Honors, and so on) just to name a few.

This class got a record 12 million dollars in scholarships - and counting.

CAP Advisor Maria Sahwell held an event to celebrate these outstanding accomplishments with an Academic Signing Day.

Photos below: more celebrations for our seniors. Grad Bash at Universal Studios; Senior Picnic at Scott Rakow Youth Center.

The Class of 2018 Graduation Ceremony

The Class of 2018 Commencement Ceremony was held at the Wastco Center at the University of Miami in Coral Gables on Wednesday, June 6.

Over 575 graduating seniors and their families were greeted and honored by the Superintendent of MDCPS Alberto Carvalho; members of the School Board and of the Region/District, including our rep Dr. Martin Karp; Principals from all Miami Beach feeder pattern schools; City of Miami Beach Mayor Dan Gelber; Alumni Association President Russell Rywell; and of course our Principal Dr. Rodriguez and her AP's.

Thank you Activity Director Ms. Gussie Sakowicz for setting up a memorable ceremony and thanks to PTSA members for helping out behind the scenes!

The Rehearsals

VIP's & Faculty

The Graduates

The AOHT Graduation

The Academy of Hospitality & Tourism Graduation was held at St. Thomas University. Hundreds of students and families attended the ceremony where NAF Academies from many schools in Miami-Dade County gathered to celebrate their graduating seniors. Shout out to MBSH Ralph Motola for bringing welcome and honoring our beloved retired AOHT Leading Teacher Ms. Patricia Gregory.

Congratulations to our students on their many scholarships!

Senior Cords and Awards

The Honor Society Officer Installation and Awarding of Senior Honor Cords

with the Passing of the Torch Ceremony was held on May 21 in the Auditorium, under the supervision and organization of Ms. Carro. See images below of this year's Honor Society officers passing the torch to next year's officers.

Photo below: the Education/ECE Academy and FCCLA Graduation Cord Ceremony.

Congratulations to...

Congratulations to senior Alejandro Ortega not only on being accepted to Harvard, Yale and Stanford, but also on being interviewed and featured in "SWAG on 6: Miami Beach High School's Alejandro Ortega", for NBC 6 South Florida.

"He's president of the Miami Beach High School psychology club, but what about his own psyche? What drives Alejandro Ortega to succeed? It could be the responsibility he feels as an immigrant to this country.

"It's an obligation for me as someone who was presented this opportunity, out of all the people that could've been presented these opportunities, to take advantage of them," Alejandro said.

You can sense Alejandro has a chip on his shoulder. He has seized every opportunity with perseverance and an insane work ethic, earning straight A's all through high school, while overcoming severe economic disadvantages.

"It makes me more passionate about my goals," Alejandro acknowledges.

Watch the broadcast - click here.

During the annual Academic Signing Day, School Board Member Dr. Feldman honored outstanding MDCPS seniors. Special congratulations to Beach High senior Jared Stein, Questbridge match to Vanderbilt University, and top 1% of his class. He was given the District Award in Academic Excellence and Achievement, an award given to only one student per district - it's been four years since a student from Beach High won it. Jared was also awarded the Jerome A. Yavitz Charitable Foundation Scholarship through the Alumni Association and presented with the North Beach Elementary Excellence Award and Outstanding Achievement by his 5th grade teacher, Ms. Lozano. Photo above: Jared Stein with Principal Dr. Rodriguez and Superintendent Carvalho.

At the Congressional Recognition Ceremony with Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Class of 2018 students Alejandro Ortega & Demerius Webb were honored.

Photo above: senior Alejandro Ortega with Activity Director Ms. Gussie Sakowicz.

Congratulations Ms. Lemes on the Teacher of the Year recognition at the City of Miami Beach Commission meeting.

Congratulations to Christian Sala for completing four years of high school in two years and graduating with his cohort. He will be attending Miami-Dade Honors College in the fall. He is pictured with CAP Advisor Ms. Sahwell and his mom.

The Miami-Dade County Council PTA/PTSA announced that two students from Beach High are among the recipients of the 2018 Scholarship, a tribute to outstanding academics, community relations and accomplishments.

Congratulations to MBSH graduates Catherine Geigel, going to Yale (right) and Michelle Komisarchik, going to UF (left).

The 5th Annual Carole Award was presented to senior Kelmerl Jimenez, who was the unanimous selection of the faculty of the school's Fine Arts Department.

Congratulations to Glenda Jurado, Michelle Komisarchik and Caroline Santos for earning a High School Scholarship Award at the Miami-Dade County Fair & Exposition! The winners were honored at a dinner ceremony at The Fair on Thursday, May 24, and each recipient received a $1,000 scholarship. Caroline and Glenda are featured in the photo below.

Two more sociology students take a win: congratulations to Ms. Baez and her students Myles Torayno (1st place essay ) and Nicholas Cata (1st place ) . They won The Homeless Trust 2018 Homeless Awareness and Sensitivity Poster & High School Essay Contest.

At the One Blood Award Banquet, MBSH was recognized as a super hero for the donation of 220 pints of blood.

Photo above, from left: students Alaa Massri, student organizer of blood drives at MBSH; Bella Cannava and Isabel Teran, first place for the student performance section of the event. Photo below: the students with Dr. Martin Karp (left), Principal Dr. Rodriguez, and Blood Drive sponsor Mr. Pedro Rivera (center).

Chef Shaffer of our Culinary Club pictured as award winner at Fairchild Challenge Banquet.

3rd in the Nation

The Public Forum Team of senior Guido Dominguez and junior Alex Sherer placed third at the 2018 NSDA National Speech and Debate Championship. The students placed 3rd in the nation out of 287 qualifying entries. Each of them received a $2,500 scholarship. Congratulations to our students and to Coach Russ Rywell. They are featured in the photo below with their trophies.

MBSH TV/Film Awards

Ms. Pierce and her students walked the MBSH Red Carpet on May 17 for the yearly Film Festival. Congratulations to all the winners! Here are the winners in each category:

Best Film - Alt 2 went to Oz Zel

Best Director - Alt 2 went to Oz Zel

Best Director of Photography - These Strange Moments went to Justin Chandler

Best Editor - Pride went to Henry Ramirez

Best Writer - Cough Drops went to Kiara Finlinson and her Group

Best Sound/Music - Being went to Oz Zel

Best Actor In A Male Role - Pizza Boy went to Louis Garcia

Best Actor In Female Role - Scream went to Allison Lucas

Best Drama - Pizza Boy went to Louis Garcia

Best Music Video - Never Enough went to Michele Gaete

Best Short-Short - Why Dance? Went to Angelina Diaz

Best Commercial - Halfmoon Empanadas went to Henry Ramirez

Best P.S.A. - Pride went to Henry Ramirez

Best Experimental - Alt 2 went to Oz Zel

Congrats to all and see you at the Red Carpet next year!

Photo above: Ms. Pierce with the winner for best film and best director at the 2018 MBSH Film Festival. From left: Oz Zel, Ms. Pierce, Antonio Alvez-De-Souza, and Joel Gomez.

Scholars-IB Banquet

The traditional Scholars-IB Banquet for Senior students, their parents and teachers was held on May 27 at the Miami Shores Country Club.

During the Banquet, our graduating Senior Scholars and IB students were honored, and Scholars and IB cords were distributed.

Thanks to MC's Ms. Carro and Mr. Rodriguez, to the admin and teachers who attended and presented the students, to the volunteer parents and to Paula Sohn for the beautiful flowers. Congratulations to our graduating Scholars and IB students!

Below are photos of the event.

Sport Scene

Congratulations to our Director of Athletics, Edgardo Botto, Soccer Coach of the Year!

Congratulations to the following athletes that represented Beach High in the All-Dade Breakfast on May 23:

Josue Aguilar - Soccer
Leonardo Acosta - Soccer
Toby Squire - Soccer
Daishaun Felton - Wrestling
Nolan Santos - Baseball
Bramdon Perez - Baseball
Nicholas Fedotov - Water Polo

In addition, the following individuals were recognized on a great season:

Josue "Chino" Aguilar - Player of the Year in Soccer
Edgar Botto - Coach of the Year in Soccer
Juan Cordero - Coach of the Year in Baseball

Below is a picture taken after the event. Congratulations!

Congratulations to the Hi-Tides Baseball Team on their title of District Champions! This is the Team's first District Championship since 2002. They won over Coral Park by the score of 7-2 and advanced to the Regional final by defeating Hialeah 5-3. Our team faced Columbus on May 22 at Flamingo Park but lost a close 0-1. Congratulations on a winning season!

Congratulations to Coach Charles Pilamunga , Dan Binkiewicz and the Hi Tides Boys' Water Polo Team on an outstanding season in the pool. The Team won the District Championship and advanced to the Regional final game where they came up short to Ransom Everglades. Go Hi Tides!

Hi Tides Soccer Team was recognized by the City of Miami Beach Commission for making State Championship - it was runner up at State. See them in the photo below.

Congratulations to Bramdon Perez on being selected by the Boston Red Sox in MLB draft.

Congratulations to Timothy Rodriguez! He will be playing basketball at Albion College next year.

More School Events

The Teacher Appreciation Luncheon was on May 1. Thank you PTSA Hospitality Chair Karen Edelstein for coordinating the dessert table and thank you to all parents who donated a dessert or treat for our teachers and helped serve. See photos of the event below.

Rookie Teacher of the Year Mr. Salisbury took the Scuba Club and Ecology Club on a field trip to the Frost Museum of Science. Below is a photo outside the Museum.

The Retirement & Volunteer Celebration was held on May 16 in the Culinary Lab. The retiring staff members were honored, as well as the Beach High PTSA Board. See photos below.

Ah, yes, relax... After many days of EOC, AP and IB testing, Beach High students were treated to a day of relaxation by Ms. Balgobin's Psychology Club. See images below of the Stress-Free Day on May 21 on our campus.