Kamiakin Students Earn 1st Place in International Competition

Three Kamiakin DECA students have successfully taken on international competition in a business simulation called Virtual Business. These students placed 1st in the Virtual Business H&R Block Personal Finance challenge by testing their skills at managing their personal financial wealth. They also placed 2nd in the Virtual Business Retailing Challenge by testing their skills at managing a retail convenience store. The students had to make marketing decisions as well as many personal finance decisions and upload their scores to compete against others in the region as well as the nation. Team “Minority Report”, which consists of Taran Patel, Brandon En’Wezoh and Ronish (Billy) Sharma, competed against thousands of teams spending many hours running their simulation as precisely as possible.

The next step for these enterprising students is to compete against other top teams from around the world in a round robin format tournament at the International Career and Development Conference in Louisville, Kentucky. Team Minority Report will be competing for cash and scholarship opportunities for up to $50,000 as well as shadowing an H&R Block executive. In addition, the top three teams will receive a $2,500 classroom grant for their school.
Congratulations to these students and we wish them the best of luck!

CORE 24 - Proposed State Graduation Requirements

The State Board of Education has been working on new state graduation requirments known as CORE 24. The “core” of CORE 24 is a set of graduation requirements that the Board believes will prepare students intentionally for whatever option they choose after high school.
CORE 24 represents the essential high school graduation requirements all students should have to prepare for life after high school.

CORE 24 is based on the following principles:
1) Equip everyone: Prepare ALL students for life after high school—in gainful employment, an apprenticeship or postsecondary education.
2) Expect more: Align requirements to meet the increased expectations of the 21st century workforce.
3) Provide flexibility: Allow students to customize their education, creating relevance to their interests.
4) Give focus: Encourage students to align course work to achieve their future career goals.
5) Plan ahead: Emphasize the High School and Beyond Plan to offer students personalized guidance to prepare them for work, postsecondary education, or both.
6) Start early: Prepare students to enter highschool and create opportunities to meet high school graduation requirements in middle school.

Under CORE 24, all students would be enrolled automatically in college and career ready courses that would keep all postsecondary college and career options open unless they chose to pursue a college emphasis or a career emphasis only.


Additional information may be found at the State Board of Education's web site: http://www.sbe.wa.gov/mhsd.htm

CORE 24 flyer: http://www.sbe.wa.gov/documents/Core24Final12-19-08_001.pdf

Kennewick High DECA Event Benefits Safe Harbor Crisis Nursery

Kennewick High School DECA held its third annual three on three Basketball Tournament on
Tuesday, November 10 in the Lions Den. Eight teams hit the court, some just for fun in the novice division and some for a real test of skills in the expert division. The winning teams from each division had their team names placed on the basketball trophy which is on display in Mr. Buckingham’s room throughout the year. All proceeds from the event were donated to Safe Harbor Crisis Nursery. Event organizers selected Safe Harbor because they wanted to see the money raised help people in our local community.

Southridge High School Web Desgin Students "Feed the Teens"

It’s not something many people realize, but a surprising number of teenagers in the Tri-Cities don’t get enough to eat each day. Southridge students Cameron Fountain, Andrew Coxen, and Casey Chen, who are in a Web Design Class together, all know of students who are going hungry at Southridge and are doing something to help. As part of a project for their class, they have developed a program called “Feed the Teens”. And now, the students are asking for help from the community and local businesses to donate food for the program throughout the year.

“One of the big emphases of this program is that it is totally confidential,” says Chen. “No one will know the name of the person making the request and they can pick up the food without anyone knowing any personal information about them.” To determine eligibility, teens fill out a short confidential survey that can be found on the Southridge website that submits their answers to a confidential email address. Teens then receive a confidential number that corresponds to a number found on food care packages they can pick up in the Southridge kitchen. Those wishing to make a donation can bring nonperishable food items to the main office at Southridge High School during normal school hours. For more information on the "Feed the Teens" program and a complete list of accepted foods, please visit http://www.ksd.org/srhs/Activities/feed%20the%20teens/.

Kamiakin DECA and Link Crew Sponsor Second Harvest Food Drive

Kamiakin DECA and Link Crew, led by students Sedale Garcia and Juan Pedraza, worked extremely hard this year to run a successful food drive. Not only were 2,891 pounds of food collected, last year’s total of 2,861 pounds was beat! With all the food collected a total of 481 families can be fed for a week. The food drive at Kamiakin was from November 10-23 providing two weeks to collect as much food as possible.

This food drive was successful due to great advertising. Link Crew and DECA participated in making posters and hanging them around the school. The food drive information was on the background of all computer desktops, and on the reader board outside the cafeteria. The variety of advertising techniques helped to collect a lot of food.

Every classroom was given a list of needed items and boxes to fill with food. To provide additional incentives, the winning first hour class would receive a pizza party. Mr. Young’s first period class won with a total of 48 boxes! On November 24th at 8:00 am KNDU videotaped DECA and LINK Crew students putting the boxes collected into the Second Harvest truck. This was a great hands-on experience for all the students and a project that supported our local community!

Kamiakin DECA Students team with SADD to "Be A Lifesaver!"

From November 16th – 20th Kamiakin DECA, led by Brielle Olson and Emily Thoelke and the SADD Club (Students Against Destructive Decisions), sponsored a Suicide Awareness/Prevention week. Results from a survey taken last year at Kamiakin indicated that 17.3% have had thoughts of suicide within the past year. This statistic startled our staff and students, thus, the campaign was created.

During this week DECA and SADD members handed out Life Savers with the Suicide Prevention Hotline telephone number and three easy steps to help somebody with suicidal issues to get help. The point of this activity was to “BE A LIFESAVER.” DECA members, Emily and Brielle went to all the health classes on Tuesday November 17th and presented ideas on how to help someone with thoughts about suicide and what is best to do in a suicidal situation. They focused on making students aware that there is always somebody that would be willing to listen if they are ever in need.

A video announcement was made that really hit home with the students. The video featured Kamiakin students answering questions regarding how they would help make other student’s days better. The suicide statistics from the survey were included. Daily announcements in the school bulletin voiced how serious and realistic suicide is.

Surveys taken at the end of the week indicated that the staff and students at Kamiakin High School are more aware of how to prevent and report suicidal thoughts. We feel that this will help in the fight against harmful acts to self and others. Great job Emily and Brielle for a successful campaign!

CTE Programs at Kamiakin Focus on Job Readiness!

The Career and Technical Education programs at Kamiakin High School worked together to send the same message on job readiness to all CTE students. In order to do this, two days in November were set aside to have students learn from industry professionals.

The first day, November 23rd, the focus was on the paper tools necessary for applying for a job and getting an interview. Four WorkSource professionals talked with the students about the do’s and don’ts for resumes, job applications, employment correspondence, and many other tips. Students were given pocket applications and encouraged to ask questions.

On Tuesday, November 24th, the focus was on interviewing and avenues to get great jobs and careers. There were good and bad interviews presented and then a panel of professionals provided crucial advice to students. The panel consisted of representatives from Battelle, the Forest Service, the health industry, and photography.

We appreciate the community support and feel that the days were successful. An estimated 900 students were involved each day.