Congratulations to Kathryn O’Nell, National Merit Scholarship finalist for 2015!

By Patrick Henry Staff

Patrick Henry High School is proud to announce that senior Katie O’Nell has been selected as a National Merit Scholarship finalist from the 16,000 semifinalists named last September. To advance as a finalist, students had to demonstrate an outstanding record of academic performance that is consistently very high in all grades nine – 12 and in any college course work taken, mixed with competitive SAT scores posted nationally. Semifinalists were selected from their PSAT scores, as they are used to select those that will potentially show promising results on the SAT. Both Katie and PHHS senior Carson Mogk were named semifinalists and were recognized with a certificate as two of 16,000 students selected out of 1.5 million entrants based on their strong academic standing and high test scores. Katie has advanced to the finalist stage and is being considered for a National Merit Scholarship based on her ability, skills and accomplishments (approximately 7,500/15,000 finalists will be selected as scholarship winners).

Academically, Katie is PHHS’ No. 1-ranked student with an overall GPA of 4.83. To support the validity of her high GPA, she also has near perfect SAT scores totaling 2340 (800/740/800). Katie’s interest in school activities begins with academic clubs, which required an extra load of schoolwork to be done on top of her other classes. She joined the Junior Model United Nations Team when she was a freshman (after spending three years prior to that during middle school years). In 2012, she was awarded a Gavel award and the Outstanding Delegate Award. Her peers also recognized her with the “Rapporteur,” their vote of confidence for being an outstanding delegate. To have both the advisor and her peers select her for these awards is a credit to her leadership and academic accomplishments. She has also been honored by her math and history teachers with yearly awards and is our captain for the Patrick Henry Academic League Varsity Team. Katie is also a strong runner earning a four-year varsity letter for our cross-country and track teams. She was selected by her peers to be the team captain for the cross-country team this year and continues to be an inspiration to the team.

According to the National Merit Scholarship Program (NMSP) website, the NMSP is an academic competition that began in 1955 for recognition and scholarships. High school students enter the National Merit Program by taking the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT) — a test that serves as an initial screen of approximately 1.5 million entrants each year — and by meeting published program entry and participation requirements. We are honored and proud to have Katie represent PHHS in this competition and we are hopeful that she will be awarded some prize money for her outstanding performances!

Patrick Henry High School Alumni Association Golf Tournament is coming and we need YOU

The Patrick Henry High School Alumni Association is excited to announce its fourth annual Patrick Henry High School Alumni Association Golf Tournament and Reunion BBQ for its 41,000 alumni, which will take place on Thursday, May 14 on the two 18-hole courses of Admiral Baker Golf Course & Clubhouse.

The event, anticipated to be a sell-out with over 400 expected attendees, will include an exceptional golf experience and complimentary gifts for the first 250 registered participants, a wonderful BBQ dinner, performances by the PHHS band and cheerleaders, a scholarship and awards banquet, silent and live actions, and a raffle.

We at PHHS hope that you or your organization will consider supporting this year’s tournament through your participation, underwriting sponsorship or by providing a tee prize, a raffle or auction items.

Our goal is to raise $60,000 to benefit the following programs and facilities:

Senior Night Scholarship Awards

Patriot Athletics

Patrick Henry Arts, Media and Entertainment complex (www.phame.us, currently under construction)

Engineering & Design Academy

Other projects at the school

All donations are tax deductible to the extent provided by law. This is a 100 percent volunteer effort. All net proceeds, overseen by the PHHS Alumni Association, Inc. board of directors, will directly benefit programs and facilities at the school. To date, the alumni association has raised over $130,000 through this event and has provided the school with new instruments for the band, uniforms for various athletic organizations, risers for the choral program, 12 student scholarships, and funds for the PHAME (Patrick Henry Arts, Media, and Entertainment) building.

Please visit our website, PatriotAlumni.org, or contact Kevin Carlson at [email protected] for additional information.

Last year’s tournament winners included:

PHHS participates in Career Day at Cubic

The engineering director of Cubic Corporation contacted PHHS and asked the school to send a few students for a workplace tour as part of Engineering Week’s “Introduce a Girl to Engineering.” The goal of the event was to try to influence girls to pursue an education in computer science or other engineering disciplines, particularly girls who may not see themselves in such a role or perhaps don’t have anyone to encourage them to pursue this path.

The Cubic women engineers who organized the day all studied some area of engineering and used that degree to land high-paying jobs in a technology company, ranging from traditional engineering to quality assurance, project management, documentation, business analysis, product marketing, sales and customer support.

The message for the day was that you don’t have to be a rocket scientist to get a technical or engineering college degree and use it to participate in the high-paying tech sector. They also included that a technical degree is a great foundation for a variety of different career paths that do not necessarily consist of sitting in a cubicle all day long.

On Feb. 16, Amber Hooley, Ivanna Rivera, Rachel Schmeltzer, Haley Taggart and Christina Gillen all attended this event and spent the day learning about everything you ever wanted to know about engineering and more. They were treated to lunch and met other students from various high schools who were also invited to attend. This event was a perfect match for PHHS Engineering Academy, which is always promoting ways to get more girls into the program! For more information, visit http://bit.ly/1BNAHF3.