AP Pre-Administration Sessions

Are you planning on taking one or more AP exams this year? If you are, you will need to attend one of the two Pre-Administration sessions -- either the afternoon of Thursday the 10th of April at 3:15PM or the morning of Friday the 11th of April at 7:30AM. For more details concerning specific locations, refer to your pink AP receipt or go to http://www.tuhsd.k12.az.us/Desert_Vista_HS/GiftedProgram/GiftedCoordinator/page4.html.

- Mr. White

Picking a College, or, Lifeplanning.

I know if you're anything like me you probably have had that moment where you feel a mad wave of anxiety come over you and you realize: "I AM GOING TO COLLEGE IN (X) YEARS AND I DON'T KNOW EXACTLY WHAT'S GOING TO HAPPEN!" What you probably haven't heard among the strife and turmoil of your peers is, you don't need to know. It's ok! Finding a college and a respective scholarship is a long, arduous process, but it is an organic process. Oftentimes, it happens without you even really paying attention. Oftentimes, people are waiting to give money to you if you just contact them. So, here's my guide to finding the college (or scholarship) of your dreams.

First. DO NOT FORGET THE VALUE OF INSTATE SCHOLARSHIPS. Scholarships like National Merit, Flinn, and even university scholarships like the President's or Wildcat Excellence are extremely valuable and can often pay most, if not all, of your undergraduate expenses. And just think, you can use all that money you were going to get your undergrad at Princeton with to get your Graduate degree, and make millions more over your lifetime just because you have another degree!
To get these scholarships, you have to remember:
1. Do well on the PSAT (for National Merit) and SAT (for others). If you are shooting for National Merit, DO NOT FORGET TO DO WELL YOUR JUNIOR YEAR. That is the only year the PSAT matters.
2. Maintain a high class rank. You can do this by taking AP classes, taking 0 hour, and keeping a good GPA.
3. Get a leadership position your Junior or Senior year of high school that is substantial. (ex. club officer). This is really important for applications.
4. Do community service in something you are interested and passionate about.
5. DEVELOP YOUR OWN INTERESTS. I can't stress enough how important this is to being successful not only in scholarships, but in high school. Make sure you do what you love, or you can forget what you love--which makes choosing a college difficult.

If in-state scholarships aren't for you, and you want to go out of state for college, the path is a little more arduous, but not impossible. You need to prepare the following:
1. Visit college campuses. The best time to visit is during the school year, because you can see how people actually interact on campus and how the school functions. I visited UC Berkeley in October, and it was the perfect time to visit because I could see how the school felt when you were walking around like a student.
2. Start searching for scholarships via fastweb.com, fill out the FAFSA on time, and make sure you have a candid discussion with your parents about how you're going to pay for college. Also, don't disregard those letters from schools you apply to out of state about Alumni and other private scholarships. You are going to need all the help you can get to pay for out of state, even if you get a school merit scholarship, you are still going to pay a sizable sum.
3. Find colleges specific to your major. For example, an english major at MIT might be rare, but you would probably enjoy studying a liberal arts major at a school like NYU or a small private university like Reed College.
4. Consider small, liberal arts colleges. Especially if you are interested in getting a well-rounded, liberal arts education.

But most of all, consider what you really want your college experience to be like. Do you want a tight knit community? Do you want a large school that is highly competitive? Do you want to go to grad school? These are all important to consider when making a decision.

Essentially, make college searches a fun, natural process. Don't force yourself to research colleges, or you will start to hate it. College is going to be the greatest experience of your life, take time to discover where you will go! But most of all, don't worry.

-Kellie

A Note Regarding Email Subscriptions

Not too long ago, SAGE added an email subscription service to the blog that sends our posts directly to your inbox. You can sign up for this service using the textbox on the left-hand side of the screen.

If you do signup, you will recieve an email from confirmations@emailenfuego.net. Many email services consider this address as spam, and thus send it directly to the spam box. Be wary of this; if you do not click the link contained in this confirmation email, you will not recieve our posts via email.

Also, do not forget that email is a two-way street. If you have any questions, comments, or concerns, feel free to shoot us an email at dvsageclub.com@gmail.com.

-Kunal

Community Involvement: Getting Involved Outside the Box

When students and parents think of the words "extracurricular activities," it is probably synonymous with club, sport, or some fine-art class. However, there is another genre of activity that often gets overlooked: community involvement. This could consist of church (or other religious group)-sponsored community service projects, a neighborhood event-organizing committee, or a local leadership seminar. Such activities not only allow one to interact with members of his/her community, but also meaningfully contribute to the community.

For instance, one that I was involved in was Tempe Youth Leadership (which I found out about through the TUHSD scholarship web site :)). In this program, we gave up roughly every other weekend for a semester to meet important officials of the city (such as the mayor and the architects who are re-designing the downtown) to gain a better understanding of how a community operates. Similar to TYL is the Governor’s Youth Commission, whose mission is to increase awareness of community issues through youth volunteerism, more information is available at: http://gocyf.az.gov/CYD/BRD_AGYC.asp.

If you have a career interest, getting involved through the city of Phoenix in that division could even facilitate in determining whether you really are interested in that field; departments that you can contribute in range from aviation to the fire department to the city’s prosecutor’s office. A more extensive list is available on their web site: http://phoenix.gov/menu/rescomvolhelp.html.

There are opportunities on an even more local level, such as being on the organizing committee for Relay for Life or the Festival of Lights. Another option could be involved in an ethnicity or diversity group, for example, on the Youth Committee for the Indo-American Association.

Basically, the purpose of this post is to encourage you to view community involvement as equal in importance to a long list of clubs, and to demonstrate that you might already be involved in some of these activities.

-Shivani

Student Tips for Writing an RN

RN's are excellent examples of the "practice makes perfect" philosophy. These papers are essentially five paragraph essays condensed - each one has an intro, body, and conclusion. In the beginning a three prong thesis is advocated and teachers will generally accept it. However, gradually move away from this writing aid because it will restrict your ideas. Also, remember, three prong theses must be parallel and can usually be the first sentence. However, some teachers prefer a creative one line intro. Transitions must be obvious since there are no paragraph separations. In general stay away from too much flowery language, just be straightforward.

The following are rules agreed upon by teachers:

-Never use contractions or personal pronouns
-Active voice preferred over passive.
ex. Active: The student (doer of the action) wrote the essay (receiver of the action). Passive: The essay (receiver of the action) was written by the student (doer of the action).

RN's often require the inclusion of quotes from a literary source. Before writing, find the quotes that would complement your topic. Do NOT use random quotes: they will be awkward. Always introduce your quotes and provide an explanation afterwards. As well, remember to cite the quote in the following fashion: (Author page #). However, quotes do not have to be cited if the author or source is part of the sentence. For the conclusion it is allowed to restate the thesis. However, extend or reword the thesis so that it is not an exact replica. Conclusions should only be about one to two sentences. Keep this in mind and you should be fine. Good luck!

-Janson

A Sneak Preview of the Field of Engineering

I'm not sure how much you have heard, but the ASU pilot engineering course (Engineering Design 101 I believe) will be continued to be offered next year. After taking the course this year, I have some insider information for interested math/science students who want to determine if engineering is the right major for them BEFORE they get to college (engineers are often disadvantaged because they have no experience from high school and have no idea what's really included in their major. Well, no more!)

The Rundown: This year, the course was on tuesdays and thursdays after school from 3:00 - 5:00pm in Mr. Zavaleta's room. Professors Hinks and Henderson met us at DV and taught a parallel course to the one offered at ASU Polytech on Mondays and Wednesdays. We did two major projects (one per quarter), first rockets and then robots. For the two competitions and presentations, the "DV Kids" drove out to the ASU Polytechnic Campus and participated as a part of the actual college class.

All in all, I believe this course allows a "sneak preview" not only of Engineering majors, but of Arizona State University as well. The only drawbacks were the time commitment needed (it was much easier to handle with release, but those with a full schedule found the day a bit tiring) and the college-size cost of the course (a mildly pretty penny, but I think it was undeniably worth it; plus, as a "student" of ASU, you get all the discounts in their store, which is a good, good deal).

For more information, you can contact myself or any of the other students who participated in the program (Dexter Scobee, Aaron Goldstein, Arjun Vinze, Megan Grady, or Martin Baricevic) as well as Mr. Z or ASU itself.

Have a nice day,
-Kadra