Category Archives: Academics

Chaminade Filmmakers Celebrated at Calabasas Film Festival

Posted on by

Chaminade filmmakers were celebrated on September 25 at the Calabasas Film Festival, taking home two awards at the Student Film screening. CURVEBALL won for Best Ensemble, and Passion Washington won Best Writing for ON IN FIVE. “It feels good knowing that a film I made is able to be selected for a festival,” says Passion. “I think it’s an uplifting story. The theme is to never give up and never stop trying and that resonates with people.” This is Passion’s second year in a row winning at the Calabasas Film Festival — last year, she took home the award for Best Editing.

The Calabasas Film Festival showcases major film premieres, student films, documentaries, and top-quality film selections from all genres.

Luke Rawnskey ’24, Nathan Michael ’24, and Passion Washington ’23 attended the festival with their families and film teacher, Ms. Karen Ann Thumm. “We are so proud of our Chaminade filmmakers!” says Ms. Thumm. “Their films looked great on the big screen!”

The following Chaminade films were selected for the Calabasas Film Festival, which was held September 21-25. You can watch all these plus more on the Chaminade Studios YouTube channel.

  • ON IN FIVE, Created by Abby Lopez, Passion Washington, Miles Morewitz, Nathan Michael, and Lorenzo Ghaffari with Sophia Nations
  • CURVEBALL, Created by Charlee Friedman, Abby Lopez, Chapin Reece, Branden Hollenstein-Davis, and Christopher Fase
  • HOW I SEE YOU AGAIN, Created by Cici Fang
  • HUNDRED BUCKS, Created by Roman Daponde, Hogan Henze, Bradley Rosenthal, Xian Dean, and Jack Quirk
  • MONITORED, Created by Drew Duncan, Lola Marks, Kiera Durand, Grace Rissolo, Natalie Djie, and Luke Rawnsley
  • WANTED, Created by Passion Washington, Mia Elizondo, Nick Cuevas, Chapin Reece, Gio Gonzalez, and Michael Carpenter
  • YOUR LITTLE GIRL, Created by Hannah Sperling

Chaminade’s First Spanish Honor Society Inducts 18 Students

Posted on by

In March, Chaminade inducted 18 students into the school’s first Sociedad Honoraria Hispánica (SHH) also known as the Hispanic Honor Society. SHH is a nationally recognized honor society for high school students enrolled in Spanish and Portuguese. Sponsored by the American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese, SHH currently has more than 2,900 active chapters worldwide. To be eligible, students must be actively enrolled in a second-year honor level Spanish class or higher. Students also have the opportunity to apply for college scholarships and travel awards.

“I am thrilled to have established Chapter Misión Marianista Española for the Hispanic Honor Society at Chaminade College Preparatory,” says Yesenia Macias, program moderator. “We are in our initial stages, but pleased to have initiated 18 students. As part of the expectations, students will participate in community service projects working with the Spanish speaking community. The overall mission is to raise awareness of the Spanish language and culture throughout both Chaminade and the greater community.”

To learn more about Chaminade’s Hispanic Honor Society contact Yesenia Macias at ymacias@chaminade.org

 

Robotics Squads Deliver Strong Performances, State Qualifier in Home Tournament.

Posted on by

img_0002-2.jpgBy Tommy Smeltzer

Chaminade’s Eagle Engineering robotics team has qualified a squad to compete in the California State Championship for the sixth consecutive year as team 1138A took home the top award at their home tournament, The Chaminade Showdown. At the same tournament, Team 83A, the Vex Robotics team from Chaminade middle school won the Judges Award.

As in previous years, Eagle Engineering splits off into three distinct teams for the Vex Robotics competition. While all of the students collaborate and support each other leading up to game time, they compete as separate teams in tournaments. During qualifying rounds, matches are played between alliances of randomly paired teams vying for the highest ranking, while judges interview students and study their machines for a variety of awards. Based on the results of nine matches for each team, top-ranked teams then pick their alliance partners for the elimination rounds.

This is the fourth year for Chaminade hosting a tournament on their West Hills campus. Overnight, volunteers turned the Bob Hope Center into a sports arena featuring competition fields and bleachers, pits for teams to work on their machines and a full livestream broadcast setup. All four of Chaminade’s Vex squads competed, along with 28 other area teams.

The teams rebounded from a rough start to the season as tournaments in Bakersfield and Calabasas presented a slew of technical and strategic challenges. Needing a fresh perspective in the two weeks off, team 1138B founding member Anthony Gruppuso ’13 was brought in to inspire the teams to re-think their approach. Gruppuso’s unique leadership style and a keen eye for strategy sent a bolt of energy through the high school squads, and the results were impressive. All three played to their strengths with greater urgency, with the senior-most squad, 1138A leading the rankings most of the day only to be toppled (literally) by the all-girl 1138G in a late round. Both 1138G and 1138A finished in the top eight (4th and 8th respectively), guaranteeing them a spot in the elimination rounds.

Both Eagle teams were knocked out in the quarterfinals. However, the judges chose 1138-A as the winner of the Excellence Award, given to the team with the best performance consistently across all categories. That guaranteed them a berth at the State Championship where they will compete next March for a chance to move on to the World Championship in Louisville, Kentucky in April.

With the season now in full swing, Eagle Engineers have no time to let up. Both the 1138B and 138G teams, as well as the 83A team from the middle school, are more driven than ever to qualify to compete alongside 1138A at the State Championship. All of the teams are determined to improve and refine their machines as they go into their remaining three events of 2018 in Reseda, Granada Hills, and El Camino College.

Eagle Engineering is a student-centered competitive robotics program with a focus on a professional team approach to design, engineering, programming and business challenges. For more information on Chaminade Robotics and how you can support the team, please contact Head Coach Tommy Smeltzer: tsmeltzer@chaminade.org.

Author Alan Gratz Visits Middle School

Posted on by

 

Photo by Wes Stitt

Award-winning author, Alan Gratz, visited Chaminade on October 29 and 30 to speak with middle school students. Gratz is the author of 15 books for young readers including The Brooklyn Nine, Code of Honor, Refuge, and most recently Grenade which debut third on the New York Times bestseller list. During his two-day visit, Gratz shared with students his experiences of being a professional writer, where he gets his ideas, his writing process, character development and how he conducts his research. Gratz also led grade-level workshops and was available for book signings.

Center for Excellence Registration is Open

Posted on by

Registration for Chaminade College Preparatory’s Center for Excellence (CCE) is now open. It is the perfect place for students to spend their summer learning and growing. With classes in the morning and afternoon, CCE offers programs, for students entering grades 1-12, designed to inspire, engage, and empower young minds.

Students entering grades 1 through 12 will enjoy expanding their horizons through the Center for Excellence summer programming. For students entering Chaminade’s 6th grade, Eagles Take Flight will prepare them academically and introduce them to Chaminade’s middle school community; while students entering high school grades can acquire valuable skills in High School Study and Success Skills, and students entering 12th grade can prepare for college applications in the College Application Bootcamp. CCE also offers robotics programs on both campuses with a brand-new class on the West Hills campus focusing on electronics and programming.

This year, CCEs summer Ste[+a]m Academy, for grades K-5, will once again be powered by STEMscopes. With a different curriculum each week, there is no repetition. Each STEMscope module engages students in cross-disciplinary activities that build knowledge and skills in areas including computer science, engineering, and biomedical science. Students can come for one week, or all five weeks.

The Great Books Academy, for grades K-5, is one of CCEs most popular programs aimed at educating the whole child. The Great Books curriculum is the cornerstone of the academy and is specially designed to help students become independent readers and thinkers by focusing on reading comprehension, critical thinking, vocabulary, and writing.

Summer is also an excellent time for students of all ages to pursue their creative passions in visual and performing arts. And children ages 5 to 15 can join CCEs Sports Camps and explore athletics from football to basketball as well as soccer, baseball, volleyball, fencing, and more. The West Hills campus also hosts Varsity Camps, which gives students the chance to work with Chaminade’s varsity head coaches, players, and former athletes with college and professional experience.

For more information visit chaminade.org/centerforexcellence or click here to register today.