CSD High School Fall/November 2024

CSD Fremont High School Welcomes the Fall

Principal's Corner

Hello CSD Families!

As we wrap up the first quarter, Mr. Clark Brooke and I (Ms. Jessica Olsen) want to thank everyone for helping make the start of our school year a success. Our students have already achieved so much, from engaging in exciting classroom projects to participating in extracurricular activities. We are proud of the enthusiasm and dedication they bring each day!

Celebrations:

Fall assessments completed: MAP (computer-based testing) in Reading, Language Usage, Mathematics, and Science; Qualitative Reading Inventory; and 6 + 1 Writing.
SignVote Event: Alum Brendan Stern came and led a workshop on how the electoral votes are allocated to each state and the impact it has on the democratic process and voting power across regions.
Spirit Week activities led by the Foothill Athletic Association student leaders for Homecoming festivities.
CSD participated in the Great Shakeout Drill on Thursday, October 17th.
A successful debate event led by our seniors in US Government classes.
Educational field trips
Impressive student-made Halloween films that were shown to the high school student body on Thursday, October 31st.
Cross Country, Volleyball, and Football games
Looking ahead, we have several upcoming events and happenings aimed at enriching our students’ experience, including the Open House event on November 11th. Please continue to check our website and emails for details.

Upcoming Events & Happenings:

Gallaudet University Admission Presentation for interested students on November 7th
Open House – Community Engagement: Monday, November 11th
Deaf Author, Karlie Wardrip Presentation for students: Tuesday, November 12th
NTID/RIT Admissions Presentation for interested students on November 14th
Early Release at 12:30 PM – Friday, November 15th
Fall Break from November 24th – November 30th – No School
Battle of California @ California School for the Deaf, Riverside on December 14th
Final Exams Week – December 16th-December 20th
Winter Break – December 23rd – January 3rd
Thank you for your continued support and partnership in making this a fantastic school year. Together, we are building a strong, vibrant community of learners.

Warm regards,

Jessica Olsen

High School Instructional Principal

Election Mania at CSD, Fremont

Juan Berry Berlinski and Josie Melena's Debate results

Election 2024 Comes to CSD!

by Stacy Eilbert and Molly Christensen

Elections are around the corner for Americans. The High School Social Studies Department hosted a mock debate on Friday, October 18, 2024. The senior Government classes each took an issue from the list of issues that have been covered on the road to the election: reproductive rights, immigration, economy, and gun laws. Junior Leonardo Hatch and Alice Seyffart served as the debate masters of ceremonies. Senior Andy Hernandez Sosa, Eugene Aquino, Dorina Her, and Juan Medina Garcia were the moderators who asked each candidate to present their sides regarding the issues that were to be debated.

This was conducted without association with either 2024 presidential candidate Kamala Harris or Donald Trump. The Social Studies department wanted to encourage critical thinking and have students analyze their civic values. Instead of the typical red and blue colors which are representative of the top two political parties, the Democratic (blue) and Republican (red) parties, the debate had two colors, yellow and purple, represented. Nobody knew which party the two colors represented until all the votes were in.

Students debated well, and, in between each issue debated, there was interaction with the audience as each homeroom represented various states. Students held paddles in purple and yellow to show their support for either side after each debate. Each group kept a tally of how many votes for each party after each issue, and after all four debates were done, the groups would add up their votes and see which had more votes, the yellow or the purple parties. Representatives from each “state” lined up and got on stage and gave their vote to either the yellow or the purple party. All of the votes were counted in “Electoral College” style according to which state they represented.

The results of the debate showed that the audience voted Yellow. Yellow was then disclosed to represent the Democratic Party, meaning that if this were to be the US elections, then Kamala Harris would have won!

There will be a school wide election coming up on Wednesday, October 23rd, in which students from all grades will experience “registering and going to the ballots”. CSD also has partnered with SignVote, a non-profit organization under Gallaudet University’s Center for Democracy in Deaf America. The results of the elections will be compared nationwide with other deaf students all over the country and shared on November 4th.

Taiven Foust and Emery Letendre-Jackson's Debate results

Logan Pendergraft and Jaden Dingel's Debate results

Alejandro Luna and Wei Nan Carpenter's Debate results

Brendan Stern shares the debate structure for his Electoral Vote Debate activity.

Voting is the First Duty of Democracy- Civics Education at CSD

By Stacy Eilbert,

HS Social Studies Department Lead Teacher

If you had to choose between a burrito or a burger from In-n-Out, which would you choose? That was the question presented to our students on September 13, 2024, by CSD alumnus Dr. Brendan Stern, the current executive director of the Center for Democracy in Deaf America (CDDA), who came on behalf of SignVote, a platform by the CDDA, fostering political conversations and civic education through ASL.

This seemingly trivial question was a model of how the Electoral College operates in our country’s elections, comparing it to how our country elects our president. Stern held an interactive session with our high school students, discussing the importance of registering to vote, being a citizen, and voting when of legal age. He did a comprehensive job of explaining how the voting process works along with the Electoral College. As a result of the “Electoral College” question presented, the students voted that burgers were the better choice!

CSD is one of the first, if not the first deaf schools in the country to be actively working with SignVote. Students are getting training on how to help others register to vote as well as getting guidance on getting pre-registered in the state of California. Students are also creating ASL videos to educate Californians on the voting process, such as explaining what propositions are and how to pre-register. As one of our US presidents, Lyndon B. Johnson, once said, “Voting is the first duty of democracy.” Get your vote out there!

Real World Program Works!

by Amy Eshelman

CSD’s Transition Program, the Real World Program (RWP), didn’t waste any time getting students out in the community. By the 2nd week of school, all 25 students ages 18-22 were trained on how to safely use the AC Transit bus system to travel to and from work (as well as some fun detours). All students have been trying new work experiences in the community, including at Ardenwood Farms, Walgreens, Old Navy, Brother’s Car Wash and Eden Housing Apartments, just to name a few. Commenting about work, one of our 1st year students said, “Wow! I’ve learned so much already in such a short amount of time!” Getting out in the community daily is a win-win for CSD’s students and the community.

Throughout the year, RWP staff look forward to students trying out new work experience placements in and around Fremont. We will have monthly field trips to various Bay Area locations to learn about jobs outside of our community. Guest speakers from Fremont Police Department, DeafHope, ToolWorks, Deaf Plus Adult Community (DPAC) among others will bring more information and networking into our classrooms. We look forward to a great year of learning and thriving and connecting!

If you have or know of a business who would be open to having adult student interns, please reach out to Amy Eshelman, aeshelman@csdf-cde.ca.gov or call 510-344-6108.

First day on the job, and our students are getting their hands wet at Brother's Car Wash!

RWP students love to serve our community at the Tri-City Food Bank

Taking care of animals at Ardenwood Farm is part of the job!

SSL's Corner

by Jimel Brightly-Wright

It’s already October? I could have sworn school just started. The start to the school year has been a smooth one so far.

With homecoming in our rearview, we are past the honeymoon phase as the fall season approaches. Now is the time when students will need to start really hitting the books and enlarging their brains with plentiful studying. Jimel and Jayne, our SSL and school counselor, have been working with our 6 Peer Advocates to support our students.

Our Peer Advocates hosted their first event with their Peer Buddies on October 24th. What is a peer buddy, you ask? Peer buddies are our Peer Advocates guiding and mentoring new students. Each Peer Advocate is assigned 2 or 3 Peer Buddies, whom they support throughout the school year, to help them fully adjust to CSD. The Peer Advocates hosted a fun pizza party with their Peer Buddies. We played Kahoot and charades with tic tac toe, and then after that, we had pizza. It was a lot of fun, and the Peer Advocates are looking forward to hosting more activities and events to keep supporting all of our students. Keep your eyes peeled for what we have planned next.

Counseling Corner

by Nancy Mosher

Suicide Prevention: This month, the Counseling Team and HS Student Support Liaisons (SSL) provided six workshops focused on the topic of Suicide Prevention with high school students during SOAR block. The goal of the workshops was to increase awareness of suicide, understand how to support peers who may express thoughts of suicide, and how to report concerns/get help. Through videos and discussions, our goal was to share the message that it is okay to ask for support, spread hope, and share important information. Our school counselors are trained to provide support and assess students who may be at risk. Students were reminded that resources are listed on the back of their student ID and are encouraged to seek help from an adult.

Crisis Hotline Information:

National Suicide Crisis Hotline: 988 text or VRS; Chat: www.988lifeline.org

Trevor Lifeline for LGBTQ: Text 678-678; VRS 866-488-7386; Chat: www.thetrevorproject.org

Resources for parents (English and Spanish): https://afsp.org/teens-and-suicide-what-parents-should-know/

Explorations Away!

Physics students ensure that their eggs survive the landing.

Integrated Science Students' Catapults

Integrated Science students' paper roller coaster

by Emily Sidansky and Anna Woodbury

Integrated Science students explored the concepts of energy and motion. During the 5th block, students built paper roller coasters to demonstrate the relationship between potential and kinetic energy. In the 8th block, students designed catapults to observe how potential energy impacts kinetic energy, motion, and distance. In the coming weeks, they will apply their knowledge of Newton's Laws of Motion to create shock-absorbing devices for eggs. Stay tuned!

Physics students explored the concepts of linear motion and free fall. Students designed their own experiments to observe the motion of heavier and lighter objects dropped from a variety of heights and rolled down ramps, then compared their results to more tightly controlled experimental designs. Students had an interesting time working around the constraints of school construction and the weight of a heavy bowling ball that had to be dropped multiple times!

Fall Sports

CSD Eagles' Volleyball Squad blocking CSD Cubs' shots

CSD Eagles Football team squaring up against our rivals, CSD Cubs.

by Jeff Bibb

Athletic Director

As the CSD Girls Volleyball squad has arrived safely in Albuquerque, New Mexico, I would like to take this opportunity to express my profound appreciation for our CSD community. I must admit, when I first reviewed the schedule, I was very concerned about how we could pull off the sports extravaganza weekend. However, through my short journey as an Athletic Director, I have learned that CSD has an outstanding support system in place to make it happen. We had 192 participants, including CSDF and CSDR students and coaches, who were able to see our support system in action.

As Athletic Director, I am thrilled to witness the CSD boys' cross country team win the team events in both competitions. Our team captain, Sevan Ikeda, set his personal record in the CSD 5K meet with a time of 15:37. Several runners from various schools achieved their personal best times on either course. I'm sure the outstanding California climate contributed to their success!

Our girls' volleyball and boys' football teams had a tough time against our sister school, the California School for the Deaf, Riverside. We lost both games. Our squads have work to do to improve their individual skills, and our program's recommitment to the weight room will help prepare us for future games against opponents. Most importantly, our student-athletes and leaders represented CSD very well.

CSD received plenty of positive praise from a variety of school leaders.

Praises and Raves:

Good morning! Thank you for your great hospitality to our team this past weekend. We had a wonderful time during our stay and really appreciate your flexibility in allowing us to use your school transportation on Thursday morning. This let us spend the whole day in San Francisco. I’m also impressed with your team for organizing two races on both days, which exceeded my expectations! - Randy Shank MSD head cross country coach

YES! You all did a great job hosting us very well! We all really appreciate it so much! Many Thanks!!! -Billy Lange- FSDB Athletic Director

Yes, thank you for the wonderful hosting. Our players did not complain anything so that’s mean you guys did a good job. Keith Adams- CSDR Head Football Coach.

Cheerleader Leonardo Hatch boosting up the audience's energy