Oct 21, 2019
Two Woodlawn High School Seniors were recently recognized by the East Baton Rouge Parish School Board for receiving national honors.
Joshua Serio and Ray Sierra attended a reception on Thursday, October 17, 2019 before the monthly school board meeting. The seniors were then recognized at the meeting, along with other twenty-seven other EBR students.
Joshua is in the Gifted Program at Woodlawn High and currently carries a 4.3 GPA. He was recognized as a National Merit Semifinalist. There are approximately 16,000 Semifinalists in the nation, and these academically talented high school seniors have an opportunity to continue in the competition for some 7,500 National Merit Scholarships worth more than $32 million that will be offered in the spring. To be considered for a Merit Scholarship award, Semifinalists must fulfill several requirements to advance to the Finalist level of the competition. About 90 percent of the Semifinalists are expected to attain Finalist standing, and about half of the Finalists will win a National Merit Scholarship, earning the Merit Scholar® title.
Over 1.6 million juniors in about 22,000 high schools entered the 2019 National Merit Scholarship Program by taking the 2017 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT®), which served as an initial screen of program entrants. The nationwide pool of Semifinalists, representing less than one percent of U.S. high school seniors, includes the highest scoring entrants in each state. The number of Semifinalists in a state is proportional to the state’s percentage of the national total of graduating seniors.
Ray, who is also in the Gifted Program at Woodlawn High, carries a 4.5 GPA. He was recently selected as the 2019-2020 Student of the Year at Woodlawn High. Ray was recognized as a National Hispanic Scholar and was also recognized as a National Merit Commended student. The National Hispanic Recognition Program recognizes approximately 5,000 Hispanic/Latino juniors each year as National Hispanic Scholars from among the more than 400,000 juniors who take the PSAT. As with the National Merit Scholarship Program, NHRP uses the junior year PSAT/NMSQT as the qualifying test. Students must carry a minimum 3.5 GPA to be considered for the recognition.
More than two-thirds (about 34,000) of the approximately 50,000 high scorers on the PSAT/NMSQT® receive Letters of Commendation in recognition of their outstanding academic promise. Commended Students are named on the basis of a nationally applied Selection Index score that may vary from year to year and is typically below the level required for participants to be named Semifinalists in their respective states. Although Commended Students do not continue in the competition for National Merit® Scholarships, some of these students do become candidates for Special Scholarships sponsored by corporations and businesses.
In addition to their academic success, both Josh and Ray have excelled outside of the classroom while at Woodlawn High. Josh is a four-year letterman in the sports of football and baseball. Ray has lettered in the sports of football, baseball, powerlifting, soccer, and track during his time at Woodlawn High. He also is a member of Beta Club, National Honor Society, and Youth Legislature.
After graduation in May, Josh plans to attend Louisiana State University and major in Engineering. Ray expects to attend Massachusetts Institute of Technology and major in Aerospace Engineering.
Jan 3, 2018
Part of being a member in the National Honor Society is doing your part and helping out with service projects throughout the year. Last school year several students expressed an interest in wanting to help the school campus go green by getting a recycling program started. The President, Elizabeth Zhang, tried to contact different companies to see who would be willing to help us and figure out how to get started. Unfortunately, she did not have any luck. As a last ditch effort the sponsor, Ms. Brittney Fetter, contacted the Recycling Office of East Baton Rouge Parish to see if they had any ideas about how the club could get the recycling idea off the ground. Thankfully a glimmer of hope was sparked.
Richanne Caraway at the Recycling Office guided the sponsor to a representative at the Department of Environmental Services (DES) in hopes that we would be able to enter the recycling competition with the other schools in the East Baton Rouge Parish School System. After discussing the idea with the DES representative Michael Lowe, the NHS club decided this was the service project for us this year. The club had an orientation meeting with Mr. Lowe so that he could explain the rules of the competition and get everyone on board. The students were excited about getting to make a difference in their school community.
Later that week, Friday October 20, 2017, the recycling bins were delivered by Republic to aid the NHS in their mission. They received four bins to help collect the recycling, and the bins were placed in different areas around campus to make it easier for the students during collection. The competition started that very next Monday morning on October 23, 2017 and they had four weeks to collect as much as possible. They asked the faculty to place a recycling bin in their classroom, to aid in the collection process. The students and the teachers were very good at making sure that the appropriate material was getting recycled; paper, plastic, cardboard, no food waste. It was decided to pick-up twice a week during both lunch shifts on Wednesday and during the beginning of 4th block on Fridays. Students volunteered to go around and collect the recycling.
Throughout the competition the club members had to keep track of how many bins were put into the recycling dumpster. With the help of the teachers, students, office staff, and the cafeteria staff the club was able to dump 111 bins of recycling. In the end it weighed over 5,000 pounds. It was amazing! Since the students met their goal of 100 carts, the whole school was able to participate in free dress for a whole week. The week after Thanksgiving break the sponsor was anxiously awaiting the news to find out who had won the whole competition. At the end of the day on November 27, 2017 the email finally came through; Congratulations to Woodlawn High School, the winner of the recycling competition! Being the winners of the competition, meant a visit from Mayor-President Sharon Weston Broome. The Mayor came to the school on Monday December 11, 2017 to announce Woodlawn as the winners and to declare that December 11, 2017 is Woodlawn High School Day.
Even though the competition has ended, our goal to keep the campus green remains. The National Honor Society appreciates all the help from everyone involved and hopes for the continued support from the Woodlawn High family.
May 1, 2017
This April, Woodlawn High’s Team Spirit Club, along with ICare, sponsored a Mock Crash on campus. This crash is the second part of a three part series, The Sudden Impact Program, that students at Woodlawn participate in. As tenth graders, students take a Sudden Impact class, followed by the Mock Crash for juniors, and a Mock Trial for seniors.
Four students, Ma’Kayla Odom, Alexis Martin, Hannah Luker, and Selena Seitz, played the parts of students involved in a head on collision. Their parents, along with personnel from Our Lady of the Lake Medical Emergency Center, Louisiana State Police, St. George Fire Department, and the East Baton Rouge Parish Coroner’s Office, took their respective roles as the scene unfolded for the Mock Crash.
The scene was a reenactment of the immediate aftermath of a crash in which drivers and passengers are injured. The audience of juniors watched quietly, allowing them to see first-hand how drinking and driving impacts everyone involved.
Each year teens from across our state lose their lives to impaired driving. Motor Vehicle Crashes remain the leading cause of death for teenagers aged 16 to 19 years of age, according to the Centers for Disease Control. This age group is three times more likely than drivers ages 20 and older to be involved in a fatal crash.
The Mock Crash underscored the consequences of drinking and driving, the impact of seat belt usage, and the emotional suffering families endure when a fatal crash occurs in reality. The ultimate goal is that seeing friends participate in the crash helps students realize that it can happen to anyone at any point in time, and the importance of really needing to be responsible for their actions. The Sudden Impact Program is an effective way to educate students on the dangers of distracted driving.
Mar 30, 2017
The Woodlawn High Robotics Team, Panthrobotics, competed at the Bayou Regional in New Orleans this past weekend. After spending the first day of the competition ranked fifth or higher, their robot, Chaos, ended the second day of Qualification Matches with a 5-3 record and ranked 21 out of sixty teams overall. They were selected by the eighth ranked alliance to play in the Quarterfinals but lost in a two and out battle against the first ranked alliance.
The 2016-2017 Robot at the Bayou Regional.
The drive-team, made up of Brennan Burleigh, Alisa Webb, Grayson Kring, Nick Nienaber, and drive-coach Jason Lejeune were complimented by many teams because of their strategic analysis and ability to score high-point games even against strong opponents. Also on the field was teacher and coach, Mr. Eiland who was asked to act as the Emcee for the entire event.
While the team is done for the season, they’ve already been invited to participate in an upcoming Robotics Day at the State Capital and will continue to work on improving their skills for next year.
