November 6, 2011 - College, National Honor Society, High School Musical, and more...

Message from College Counselor

College application season is underway, and we have recently sent out transcripts, school reports and teacher recommendations for the November 1st deadlines.  Mr. Preacher and Mr. Brown have given up class time for the college application to be discussed with seniors.  Parents, please check Naviance to be certain that all of the colleges listed are the ones that you want your child applying to!   If you have questions or concerns, please contact Michael Murray at mmurray@riverdale.k12.or.us

College Financial Aid Information Night - November 9 at 7:00 pm

Last year our graduating seniors were awarded a total of 2.5 million dollars in financial aide. Learn about the financial aid process from an expert on November 9, at 7pm in the Maverick Room.  Senior parents are especially encouraged to attend. Presentor Mike Johnson is the Director of Financial Aide at Pacific University.  He has worked at a number of colleges, presents financial aid information at the Portland College Fair, and has helped Riverdale parents with financial aid for a number of years.  Please attend even if you have been through the process before, since there is new and important information every year. 

National Honor Society

Students were notified of their acceptance into National Honor Society this week.  Advisor Mark Wechter planned a kidnap breakfast for Monday and an induction ceremony Thursday.  The students began their service and conducted a successful food drive this week. Congratulations to our NHS students.

Legally Blonde, the High School Musical

Riverdale High School Musical is off and running. We had a tremendous turnout on Wednesday, November 2; over 50 high school and 7th and 8th grade students auditioned for Legally Blonde the Musical. We are so excited to be showcasing the Northwest premiere of this story about Elle Woods, a young woman who leaves her California sorority to enroll at Harvard Law School.

We are thrilled to have an absolutely fabulous production team. John Monteverde is an award-winning director with over 15 years of experience. John is the founding artistic director of the Blue Monkey Theater Company and the co-founder and producing artistic director of Northwest Children’s Theater.  Many people will remember Tyler Evans, our musical director for last year’s production of “Return to the Forbidden Planet.” Tyler is an accomplished musician, currently performing in Portland Center Stage’s production of Oklahoma! And we are fortunate to have Stephanie Anderson, a very passionate and talented dancer and choreographer. She is the founder and director of Northwest Dance Academy and a Blazer dancer.  We know we can count on Stephanie to bring both precision and excitement to the dance numbers.

The venue for this production is The World Trade Center, used by many professional theater companies.  The World Trade Center has a limited space.  There is a smaller stage, back stage, dressing rooms etc…   This has limited our ability to “enlarge” our cast and create additional ensemble roles for all interested high school students as we have had luxury to do so for some previous shows.

There are 12 leading roles in this production and callbacks (for the lead parts only) were held on Friday. Ensemble parts are still being considered and final casting for the show will occur this weekend. Everyone who auditioned for the play will be notified by Sunday evening. We have a very strong cadre of students who will be providing technical support. However, we are in need of more accomplished musicians. If interested please contact Ms. Horgan for more information.

If you are familiar with the story, dogs play an important role-- We currently are casting two dogs -- Elle’s small Chihuahua and Paulette’s canine companion a bulldog.  If you have a dog that fits the part we want to talk to you! 

Are you a Harvard Graduate? We are also looking for Harvard memorabilia to use as props. For more information-Please contact John Monteverde at  johnmonteverde@hotmail.com.

Now is the time to mark your calendars. Performances will be held the last two weekends in January (see district calendar) at the World Trade Center’s lovely and intimate 220-seat theater in downtown Portland.

Stay tuned for more information.

Lost and Found Overflow

If your child is missing any new tennis shoes, coats, lunch bags, old tennis etc.… lost and found is on “overflow”.  The locker rooms are randomly being cleaned and many students are not using their locker room lockers and are using the floor, benches and tops of lockers.  If you know of clothing articles missing it is likely they are in lost and found.

Field Studies

Students will be receiving their Field Studies sign up form in the very near future.  Field Studies week seems a long way away, but we will begin our preparation very soon. 

Appreciation

Parents, thank you for agreeing to turn right during congested times and for refraining from neighborhood drop offs.  Your support of the high school is appreciated.  Thank you again.

Senior Exhibition News

Senior Exhibition planning has begun and proposals must be emailed to senior_exhibitions@riverdale.12.or.us by November 14th.  Students must propose three topics that they might explore, brainstorm five essential questions, imagine three projects related to their exhibition topics, and list 3-4 people who might be in a position to help their research efforts.  

Riverdale alumni consistently say that Senior Exhibition is a formative and essential college preparatory experience.  During second trimester students will research and begin their projects in the community.