The Weekly Penguin

Hi all,

I don't have anything particularly pithy today. We are almost done with Q1, every keep it strong through Fall Break. Cheers!

Upcoming events:

10.01.24 fall orchestra concert - 7:00-8:00pm, RUHS auditorium

10.04.24 Grading Day (end of 1st quarter) - no school for students

10.04.24-10.13.24 Fall break - no school for students, school closed

10.17.24 UHS PSAT/NMSQT - more info to come!

10.18.24 Homecoming

10.19.24 UHS homecoming dance - time/info TBD

Admin office phone numbers

Athletics

CCCC (College, Career, and Counseling Center) update

Major Road Construction

National Merit Semifinalists

Parent-teacher conferences - parent feedback

Teen Mobile Clinic

Tutoring is here!

UHSFAA - student microgrants

UHSPA - info

Yearbook important update

As we reset our phone tree, please pause on calling the main phone line: 520.232.5900. Here are some direct numbers for our folks to help you in your needs as parents. You are also welcome to email any of our staff directly to have your questions answered or to be directed to the appropriate person to assist.

Alicia Villegas, UHS office assistant (front desk, general information)

520.232.5901

Alicia.VillegasMartinez@tusd1.org

Laura Feigenbaum, UHS attendance clerk

520.232.5902

Laura.Feigenbaum@tusd1.org

April Bull Calf, RHS admin secretary (RUHS athletics info)

520.232.5608

April.BullCalf@tusd1.org

Jacqueline Grassmyer, RUHS food services

520.225.4700

Jacqueline.Grassmyer@tusd1.org

Claudia Montano, UHS admin secretary (field trips, contact the assistant principals)

520.232.5909

ClaudiaMonica.Montano@tusd1.org

Martina Kimball, UHS office manager (school business, hotspot requests, contact the principal) 520.232.5903

Martina.Kimball@tusd1.org

Get your season pass for $30 in the finance office. This ticket allows you to get into all home game event excepting post-season competition/play. All proceeds generated from purchasing this pass stay at the school.

If you wish to participate in a winter or spring sport you can get your athletic packets done NOW. This will save time during the rush to get these done right before a season starts. Stop by Ms. Bull Calf's desk in the UHS admin office to pick up and drop off packets, or if you have questions.

See below for direct links to each sport offered for the Fall season at Rincon/University High School.

Cross country - boys VAR

Cross country - boys JV

Cross country - girls VAR

Cross country - girl JV

Football - VAR

Football - FR/SO

Golf - boys

Golf - girls

Swim and dive - boys VAR

Swim and dive - girls VAR

Volleyball - girls VAR

Volleyball - girls JV

Volleyball - girls FR/SO

Girls’ Soccer, pre-season practices

Pre-season for girl's soccer begins this week on Tuesdays and Thursdays after school on the soccer fields. You must be cleared with the Athletics office before you can participate. Please bring appropriate equipment and protective gear. See Coach Ecelbarger in room 214 or the flyers around campus for more info!

JUNIORS:

-Mr. Encinas and Ms. Villagio visited junior AP English Language classrooms this past week to present a workshop on building a resume. Students worked on creating and/or revising their resumes, and they asked great questions about how to portray their accomplishments in this important component of college and career planning. Ask your junior to show you what they have completed so far!

-Join the UHS Counseling team for our quarterly College-Ready Seminars focusing on how juniors can prepare for applying to college. Each quarter we will focus on a different topic to assist juniors & families in their college planning by breaking down the process and helping you work smarter, not harder! We highly encourage all junior students and families to attend each quarter so they are best prepared for next year.

[Q2] Building Your College List – November 19

[Q3] Financing College – February 4

[Q4] Planning & Preparing for the College Application Process – April 15

---All seminars take place on Zoom starting at 6:00 pm. See attachment for more info; we also made zoom adjustments so those links will be updated when we have them set. We look forward to seeing you there!

FRESHMEN AND SOPHOMORES:

Ms. Brownstone and Mr. Matz have started doing classroom lessons about advocacy. Sophomores also learned about time management and had the opportunity to map out their full 24-hour day. Many were surprised by how much time they spend on their phones on a weekly basis. Freshman also went through the process of making a counseling appointment. We encourage you to check in with your student(s) (9th and 10th) to see if they know how to make an appointment with their counselor!

ALL STUDENTS:

Many colleges and university representatives visit UHS each year, primarily in the fall semester, to share admissions and application information. Unless noted otherwise, all grades are welcome to attend these visits. While we try to schedule visits when class is not in session, sometimes they do fall during class time. When you sign up for a visit, you will receive an email confirmation that can be used as your pass to leave class to attend the visit; however, you have to clear it with your teacher prior to missing any class for a visit! Students can review the current schedule and sign up for visits here: CCCC (tusd1.org) (go to the College & Career section, then look at the info under College Visits) Next week: Pitzer College, Kenyon College, Union College, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, University of Arizona College of Fine Arts

Online Health and PE classes have now started. If you would like to be enrolled, please contact Mr. Encinas at Maximiliano.Encinas2@tusd1.org. To be eligible for online Health, you must have taken or be currently enrolled in AP Macro/Microeconomics, or you must have already taken Honors Economics. Please contact Mr. Encinas with any questions.

Study Smart Tutoring strives to prepare students for college, careers, and lifelong success. Through the Achievement Tutoring program, they can support students with math and reading schoolwork. They aim to provide tools so each student will improve and maintain their learning skills. This FREE tutoring service is available to TUSD students. Please complete this form Results Learning Tutoring Registration Form-Tucson (google.com) to reserve a seat for your student in this enrichment program. The form will ask for the student’s “state student ID number,” but you can leave this section blank as long as the tutoring is for a student in TUSD. Contact the TUSD Family Resource Centers if you have any questions - Family Resource Centers (tusd1.org)

Amy Villagio

Department chair

Counselor grades 11/12

Last names A-L

email Ms. Villagio

Max Encinas

Counselor grades 11/12

Last names M-Z

email Mr. Encinas

Sam Matz

Counselor grades 9/10

Last names A-L

email Mr. Matz

Kate Brownstone

Counselor grades 9/10

Last names M-Z

email Ms. Brownstone

Marcos Flores

504 coordinator, testing coordinator

email Mr. Flores

Katrina Messing

Recruitment and Retention Coordinator

email Ms. Messing

Megan Palos

College and Career Coordinator

email Ms. Palos

Kirsten Pelot

MTSS Coordinator

email Ms. Pelot

The City of Tucson Transportation and Mobility Department has created a road construction plan that aims to permanently change the 5th/6th Street Corridor by reducing the four lanes currently existing down to two lanes, with construction beginning soon. The project is called a “road diet” project as it will reduce the lanes of east/west vehicle travel, by adding/maintaining a center lane for turning and pedestrian bike lanes. This construction will impact travel to and from University High School and is anticipated to affect student drop-off/pick-up in the area.

At this time, the Department of Transportation and Mobility has projected that the work will begin in mid-September 2024, beginning with a water line installation along 5th Street from Wilmot Road to Country Club Road. The waterline work is anticipated to take about 18 months to complete and will reduce travel down to two lanes. The roadway reconstruction along this segment of 5th Street is not expected to begin until the waterline work is complete.

Please see link below if you are interested in more details.

https://dtmprojects.tucsonaz.gov/pages/fifth-sixth-street

Congratulations to the 17 seniors who have been named National Merit Semifinalists! These academically accomplished students now have the opportunity to continue in the National Merit Scholarship program competition. According to the National Merit Scholarship Corporation, the national pool of semifinalists includes those students who scored highest on the PSAT/NMSQT® in each state and honors individual students who show exceptional academic ability and potential for success in rigorous college studies.

University High School's 2025 National Merit Semifinalists are Roy Cormode, Juliette Douglas Valdiserri, Ruth Gulilat, Katherine Lam, William Levine, Aayan Mapara, Gabriel Morales, Pasque Nelson, Debangshu Pramanik, Perrin Reynwar, Giselle Roemer, Nathan Sheinbein, Abigail Stadheim, Leif Terre, Crisanna Terrell, Ella Walsh, and Stella Wu. Congratulations Penguins!

Thank you again for those who either scheduled conferences or walked in to speak with our teachers on Thursday, we are happy to keep these lines of communication open! We however are always happy to receive feedback to better our practices, please take a short moment (no, really it's very short!) to fill out our Fall 2024 UHS parent/teacher conference survey. You can also follow the QR code below, and thank you in advance!

The Teen Mobile Clinic will be on campus the 3rd Tuesday of every month from 8:30am-12:30pm. If you would like to be seen, you must sign up in the Rincon/University health office to be put on the schedule. This is a new addition sponsored by the Pima County Health Department. For more information, please read the letter below which was sent out at the end of last semester.

UHS offers tutoring in a variety of subjects, and the schedule has now been finalized. Please see the UHS tutoring schedule on Canva for the full listing of available and regular tutoring sessions. You may also speak with any of your teachers at any time to arrange a time to work with them directly if they are not included on this list. You may go to any teacher of any subject for tutoring or help, it doesn't have to be your teacher! You can also follow the QR code below to see the flyer.

The UHS Foundation and Alumni Association (UHSFAA) seeks to support UHS students, particularly those who are first generation college bound and who are focused on building opportunities for themselves. Through this, the UHSFAA student microgrant is offered for application. Microgrants are awarded to students in need of anything that furthers their educational development. Grants of up to $500 per student per year are available at the discretion of the UHSFAA board of directors and UHS principal, and are based on available funds. Microgrant awards are through application, and can be given for many different kinds of needs: classroom needs including costs associated with internet access, textbooks or personal academic supplies, summer programs, professional education and internship needs, such as travel and public transportation costs, lunch costs, supplies or clothing needs, immunizations, and more. Requests for funding should be for proposals that can be 100% covered by the grant; requests to partially fund larger projects will not be considered. Please provide at least ten days lead time before the funds are needed so the UHSFAA can have adequate time to consider your application.

UHSPA future meetings will be on the 3rd Tuesday of each month.

Our UHS families have been amazingly supportive of our classroom supply drive. The Wishlist will stay open to reflect current classroom requests. Teachers/ staff please send needed supply requests to uhspa@uhs-pa.org. Anyone shopping on Amazon and wanting to send an item of appreciation to the school can check out our Amazon Wishlist to support our most recent classroom needs.

** Sign Up for Remind- text [student grad year code] to 81010 -- ([student grad year code]: @uhspa2025, @uhspa2026, @uhspa2027, or @uhspa2028) ** Subscribe for communications from UHSPA ** Contact us at uhspa@uhs-pa.org **

Week 8

YEARBOOK HAS 44 SENIORS WHO STILL NEED TO GET THEIR PHOTO DONE FOR THE YEARBOOK! WE WILL NOT PUT YOUR PHOTO IN THE YEARBOOK IF YOU DO NOT GET THIS COMPLETED!

Tuesday/Wednesday, Oct. 1st or 2nd is the LAST opportunity to get a senior yearbook photo done on campus. This is also the opportunity if Prestige took your photo, but you would like a retake. Please sign up if at https://prestigeportraits.com/ See Ms. Wheeler in room 102 during 6th period if you have any questions.

If you plan to take your yearbook photo through Silhouette, please SIGN UP soon! Those images need to be taken by late October. https://www.silhouettephoto.com/

Yearbook Purchasing

The yearbook is discounted to our cost ($65) for a limited time. To make sure to get the lowest price, please purchase your yearbook soon. The link for purchase is https://ybpay.lifetouch.com/ and our school code is 15096125.

The senior ads (yearbook tributes) ARE NOW available for purchase! Senior ads can be purchased on the same link as the yearbook. If you already purchased a yearbook, make sure to select the separate option for only the student ad; otherwise, they can be purchased together. You will see this pop-up after you put in the school code and your student’s name (see the picture below).

Seniors - Please make sure to find the QR codes located around the school to find the form for senior quotes. All senior quotes are due on October 17th, so please get this completed as soon as possible.