The Weekly Penguin

...but seriously, there's still a lot of work to do. It can be easy to get complacent. No big messages this week, keep working hard and play nice with others, we'll make it to the end of the semester.

Read below, and Happy MONDAY!

Upcoming events:

Wednesday, December 4: Boba with the Principal - Ni Hao Tea: 4726 E. Broadway Blvd, 4:15pm

Thursday, December 5: Dance winter showcase - RUHS auditorium, 7:00pm

Tuesday, December 10: UHS Site Council meeting - RUHS library, 3:30pm

Wednesday, December 11: RUHS choir & orchestra concert - RUHS auditorium, 6:30pm

Thursday, December 12: Giant Steps jazz concert - RHUS auditorium, 6:00pm

Tuesday, December 17: UHS Student of the Month breakfast - RUHS auditorium lobby, 8:00am

Tuesday, December 17: UHSPA December meeting - RUHS library, 6:00pm

Tuesday, December 17: Winter band concert - RUHS auditorium, 7:00pm

AP exams and registration - FEES POSTING SOON

Athletics - winter sports begin!

CCCC (College, Career, and Counseling Center) update

Family engagement survey

Governor's Youth Commission: Domestic Violence Awareness campaign

UHS social media content creators

RUHS club list

Tutoring is here!

UHSFAA - student microgrants

UHSPA info

Yearbook info

Winter guard/drumline - fees and participation

• AP exam registration has passed. AP exam fees will be posted by December and are due by May 1. We will notify everyone once exam fees are posted.

• Review the following document (UHS AP Exams 2025_Payment & Cancellation Details (valid 11.02.24 - 03.01.25)) for information on how to register late for exams and/or cancel exams. Late Registration and Exam Cancellations must be done my March 1 at 9:59pm.

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.

See below for direct links to each sport offered for the winter season at Rincon/University High School. Congratulations to all our fall sports, you did a great job! Next week I'll try again to have spotlights for individuals and teams who competed in the fall post-season.

Winter sports lineup:

Basketball - boys VAR

Basketball - boys JV

Basketball - boys FR/SO

Basketball - girls VAR

Basketball - girls JV

Soccer - boys VAR

Soccer - boys JV

Soccer - boys FR/SO

Soccer - girls VAR

Soccer - girls JV

Soccer - girls FR/SO

Wrestling - boys VAR

Wrestling - boys JV

Wrestling - boys FR/SO

Wrestling - girls VAR

SENIORS:

Mr. Encinas and Ms. Villagio were in your AP Gov classes on Wednesday 11/27 to administer the Civics test for those of you who had not already completed it. If you were not here and you still need to meet this graduation requirement, please email either of us so that we can schedule a make-up time. If you want to confirm whether this is already completed, please check your Course History in StudentVue and look at Test Requirements; make sure you switch Detail to on. The other requirement is CPR, which most students completed already. If you still need this, there will be an opportunity to get it done during Penguin Pathways on 2/14. You do NOT have to find and pay for CPR certification on your own. If you have obtained it through a job or JTED, please send your counselor proof of completion and we will update your transcript. Email your counselor (Villagio A-L, Encinas M-Z) if you have any questions.

JUNIORS:

-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.

[Q1] College Admissions Testing – September 24 (rescheduled from 9/10) – Every junior parent/guardian and student was emailed links & more info on 9/30, so check your email if you missed this!

[Q2] Building Your College List – November 19 – keep an eye on your email for info & links from the presentation!

[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; zoom links have been updated! We look forward to seeing you there!

FRESHMEN & SOPHOMORES:

Make an appointment to meet your counselor – they are excited to work with you during the first half of your high school career! Go to UHS Counseling, College, Career Center webpage and click on “Book Appointment.” Email your counselor if you don’t see any times available that work for you, or come by during drop-in hours during lunch or conference period.

10th grade counselors (Mr. Matz & Ms. Brownstone) and our college & career readiness coordinator (Ms. Palos) visited 10th grade science classes the week of 11/18 to do career exploration. Students had an opportunity to reflect on their personal values and how they could relate to their future career. Ask your student about what careers they discovered!

ALL STUDENTS:

Students! NOW is the time that many summer programs/research opportunities have applications open and deadlines as early as November-January! Check out our Free & Low Cost Summer Programs Database! You can also review the UHS Counseling, College, Career Center webpage under "College & Career" -> "Student Opportunities & Summer Programs" for more ideas!

Peer tutors: If you want to be a volunteer peer tutor, look for the QR code around the U-building to sign up, or . Students – we really need more peer tutoring volunteers in Physics, Chemistry, and/or Geometry! Your fellow Penguins will be very grateful for your help, and this is an excellent way to give back to your community. We appreciate all of our current volunteers!

If you are interested in receiving free peer tutoring, look for the list of tutors in the CCCC or ask your counselor!

Online Health and PE classes have now started. If you would like to be enrolled, please contact Mr. Encinas by email. 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.

We invite all parents and guardians to participate in our Family Engagement Survey! This is a fantastic opportunity for you to share your thoughts and experiences, helping us strengthen the partnership between parents and schools. Your voice is invaluable as we process the results and take meaningful action to support our students' success.

This post is on behalf of amazing UHS student Eve Kpetehoto. Thank you for all you do for the school and community!

Hello UHS families!

I have recently been accepted into and become a member of the Domestic Violence Workgroup of the Arizona Governor’s Youth Commission (GYC), which is housed within the Governor’s Office of Youth, Faith, and Family.

On behalf of the Arizona Governor’s Youth Commission’s Domestic Violence Workgroup, I invite you to partner with us to bring attention to the issue of teen dating and domestic violence. During the months of October and November 2024, the Domestic Violence Workgroup will be conducting an awareness campaign throughout the state to bring attention to this issue. The campaign will have several components including public education, resource referral and a product drive.

As a member of the community, I am asking if you would be willing to join us and participate in this campaign by being a product drive donation site. Donation products include shampoo, conditioner, body wash, children’s and adult clothing, bedding, children's toys, soap, to directly help those in Arizona’s community domestic violence shelters. The Domestic Violence Workgroup will provide a donation box and all the necessary materials to secure donations to be placed in the UHS administration office and we will arrange to collect any product donations received. (from Mr. Ranjel: although this campaign will officially end in November I am more than happy to leave the donation box in the administration office through the end of the semester.)

Please let me know if you would be willing to participate in this campaign or have any questions. By working together, we can help those in need and bring an end to domestic violence and teen dating violence in our state.

We look forward to working with you!

Respectfully,

Eve Kpetehoto

Governor’s Youth Commission

Love social media? Want to help us tell everyone about the great things in our community? We are looking for 8 student social media content creators (2 for each grade) for our accounts. Email Mrs. Apaez-Gutierrez by Monday, December 16th if you are interested!

Here is the latest 24-25 RUHS club list. Find a club that fits you and join the community!

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.

Newsletter with information on events and efforts between now and the end of the year! Direct delivery to your email inbox! If you are not signed up to receive our newsletters, click the "Subscribe" link at the bottom of this update :)

Make sure to join us for our monthly meetings on the 3rd Tuesday of each month. Please park in the north parking lot off 5th street. Come up the stairs and the door will be unlocked. Turn left inside the doors. The library will be on the left.

• We still have a need for Junior and Senior parents to serve as general members on our board. This is a low time commitment. You will get a couple of emails a month on things like grant requests and will need to review and vote.
• We will be hosting our monthly Grad Night planning meeting after the UHSPA general meeting on 11/19. We will start our active planning. I will be communicating with the planning committee soon. If you would like to join the group, please email UHSPAor show up on 11/19!

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 by email. 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 by email**

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. To purchase, visit the Lifetouch website and our school code is 15096125.

Seniors

What is a senior ad? A senior ad is your very own page in the yearbook to create a tribute for your senior student! See the photo for an example of a senior ad.

Senior ads are a terrific way to show how proud you are of your graduating student and support the Yearbook class. Because we sell the yearbook for cost, this is our fundraiser for supporting yearbook equipment and software. Below is a step-by-step guide on how to purchase a senior ad (tribute). You do not need to complete the tribute page the same day as purchase. When you purchase, you set up an account and you can go back to it later. The page will be due late January.

Rosters are being made for winter colorguard and winter drumline! There will be a change for all band/colorguard students moving forward, starting with this winter's participants in the extracurricular competition component of each organization: all students will have the participation fee option added to their as soon as rosters are received in the finance office. All students wishing to participate in the extracurricular competition component of their team must have their fee paid BEFORE rehearsing or performing. This will go into effect also for the coming school year with marching band participation/competition. We are re-vamping the method of loading fees into InTouch for an easier experience, and we will be in constant communication when they are ready to be accessed. Thank you for your support as we work to ensure all fees are collected and thus as much financial support as possible is granted to our amazing programming.