Rampage Named Nation's Best

The Rockville High School Rampage was the national winner in the 1001-1700 population category of the annual American Scholastic Press Association publications contest.  It is the third time in five years the Rampage was named a national Champion.  The newspaper submitted their November and December, 2008 issues for the contest and also received an award for most outstanding sports section.  The ASPA critiques 2,000 publications annually for their contest.

Rampage Online

June 1, 2009

11 teachers Win National Board Scholarships for the 09-10 School Year

The State of Maryland awarded eleven RHS teachers with scholarships to begin the process to become National Board Certified Teachers.  Rockville currently has 10 NBCTs.

They are:

• Mr. Mark Bradley, Mathematics
• Ms. Carrie Dischiave, Science
• Ms. Lindsay Junkins, Mathematics
• Ms. Wendy Roit, Special Education
• Mr. Timothy Hibberd, English
• Ms. Carrie Pagonas, English
• Mr. Donald Reed, Social Studies
• Ms. Staci Lang, Mathematics
• Ms. Joanna Knox, Arts
• Mr. Ron Loyd, Arts
• Mr. Sean Blake, Special Education

May 29, 2009

Model Ram Winners:

• Amanda Dols
• Paul Rosiak

This year’s Model Ram Nominees!!

These select seniors were chosen from all of our senior athletes this year.  The criteria for nomination included leadership, sportsmanship, athletic ability, academics, and participation in other extracurricular activities.

• Edmond Ng - Coed Volleyball   
• Vincent Curl - Boys Lacrosse   
• Daniel Moya - Baseball            
• Robert Kambies- Baseball
• Rachel Wagner – Outdoor Track, Girls Soccer
• Eddie Jeffries – Outdoor Track
• Jennifer Cordero – Softball, Girls Volleyball
• Sara Sousa – Softball, Girls Basketball         
• Paul Rosiak - Boys Basketball
• Chris Creamer – Boys Basketball
• Andrea Morris - Swim/Dive    
• Benjamin Waite- Wrestling, Cross Country
• William Waite – Wrestling, Cross Country                  
• Ronnie Heckman - Football       
• Bethany Petrie - Poms                   
• Stephanie Golub - Poms                  
• Brian Sperling - Golf
• Katie Li - Girls Tennis
• Amanda Dols – Field Hockey
• Caitlin Rochon – Girls Lacrosse

May 28, 2009

Writing Center Breaks Record

As of May 7, the Writing Center has had 1,573 user visits this school year. During the 2007-2008, we only reached the 1500 mark, so we have already surpassed that this year.

The Writing Center Web Page

May 8, 2009

Rockville High School Pipe Band to Host National Capital Area Scottish Festival

The Scottish Festival was canceled due to the Swine Flu Closure of Rockville High School. An attempt is being made to reschedule the Festival for later this year. Stay Tuned

The Rockville High School Pipe Band will present its 41st annual National Capital Area Scottish Festival on Saturday, showcasing a program of Scottish pipe bands, Scottish country and highland dancing, traditional Scottish and Irish folk songs, Celtic crafts and traditional Scottish food. The event will be held 5-9 p.m. at Rockville High, 2100 Baltimore Road.

Articles have appeared in the Washington Post
and
The Gazette (scroll down)

April 30, 2009

Mr. Daddone Earns Teacher Award

The Office of Instructional Technology and Partnerships/ Career and Technology Education (CTE) have selected Mr. Peter Daddone as the recipient of the Montgomery County Public Schools 2009 CTE Teacher Award of Excellence in the Career Pathway Program for Arts, Humanities, Media and Communications Technologies.  The award will be presented at the 2009 Partners for Rigor through Relevancy conference, Challenging 21st Century Learners – Connecting Classrooms. The conference and awards presentation will be held at Northwest High School, Germantown, Maryland, on Tuesday, June 23, 2009. 

Rampage Online

April 30, 2009

SADD Hosts Every Fifteen Minutes

Read the Washington Post Article from April 30th.

April 30, 2009

Ms. Jetabut Earns Counselor Award

Recently, Ms. June Jetabut was awarded the Marion Flagg Scholarship for her role in helping students achieve a college education. Her certificate read:

“In recognition of dedication to helping students achieve the goal of a college education, The Potomac and Chesapeake Association for College Admission Counseling is honored to name Monchaya Jetabut as a 2009 recipient of a Marion Flagg Scholarship.”

This scholarship covered a 3-day, all-expense paid conference in Portsmouth, VA where Ms. Jetabut had the opportunity to attend workshops and network with numerous college admissions reps.

April 30, 2009

Outdoor Track Athletes Compete in Pikes Peek 10k Run

Two Rockville High School students competed in the the Pikes Peek 10K on Apr 26th: (almost 3,000 runners).  Junior Amy Ferro placed 3rd in her age class ages 15-19 out of 22 runners with at time of 48:40.  Freshman Ross Apter placed 2nd in his age class under 14 out of 24 runners with a time of  42:20.

April 30, 2009

Pipe Band earns Fourth Place

This past weekend the Pipe Band competed at the Southern Maryland Scottish Games earning a fourth place finish (one point out of third) with many positive comments from the judges. The accomplishment was even more notable, considering 4 members had never competed before and the band was competing against mostly adult bands.

April 27, 2009

Third Quarter Honor Roll

From Connected Communities:

484 Students Made the Honor Roll This Grading Period
out of 1252 Total Students for 38.66%

129 Freshmen, 116 Sophomores, 138 Juniors, 101 Seniors

*89 Students Received All Grades of A
18.39% of the Honor Roll and 7.11% of All Students

The complete list of students

April 27, 2009

Student Wins the Gates Millennium Scholarship

Nyamagaga (Gaga) Gondwe has received the Gates Millennium Scholarship funded through the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The scholarship will pay all her educational expenses through the phd level. This highly competitive scholarship will allow Gaga to attend Harvard University in the fall.

The Gates Millennium Scholarship Web Site

April 22, 2009

Teacher travels to Kyrgyzstan for Exchange Program

            Deborah Wilchek, International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme Coordinator at Rockville HS, was one of 15 educators from around the United States (the only educator from Maryland) selected by the US Department of State and IREX (International Research and Exchanges Board) to participate in a bilateral exchange program that  provides professional development opportunities to secondary school teachers from the United States, Eurasia, and South Asia.  Wilchek traveled to Kyrgyzstan from April 4-16 to participate in discussions on best teaching practices and related educational issues  with two host teachers, Svetlana Talipina , English teacher at School #4 in Kant, and Astra Shakenbaeva , English teacher at School #7 in Naryn City.  During her time in Kyrgyzstan, Wilchek visited and taught in two schools in Kant and Naryn and presented workshops and lectures to groups of teachers, administrators, parents, and university instructors on teaching methods and curriculum design.

April 22, 2009

More Happy News in Athletics!

Football

• Congratulations to Crusoe Gongbay, Robert Parker, and Brandon Bryant have been identified as top Maryland football players and are invited to the NATS Elite Combine on May 17th sponsored by the Maryland Football Coaches Association.

Cross country

• Amy Ferro placed 5th with a time of 19:24 at the 2A West Regional Cross Country Meet
                 And placed 14th at the 2A State Championship Cross Country Meet
• Nathan Austin placed 11th  with a time of 16:36 at the 2A West Regional Cross Country Meet
               And placed 70th at the 2A State Championship Cross Country Meet
• Eddie Kirk placed 4th in the Freshman Race at the Magruder Cross Country Invitational

Girls Varsity Soccer

• First playoff win since 2000
• Michelle Carter selected to Montgomery County Senior All Star Game

POMS

• Senior Bethi Petrie won the 3rd place captain's award at our County Competition this year!

Girls Volleyball

• Emma Rutter was honorable mention for all-county girls volleyball in the Gazette.

Swim and Dive Team

• The Team won the division

Wrestling

• Top 32 in the state of Maryland (Qualifiers): Luke Bernetich 112, Nick Volkman 130, Ben Waite 135, Billy Waite 140, Ron Adato 145
• Ron Adato 4th place 1A/2A South Regional Top 16 in the State of Maryland

April 22 & 27, 2009

Student wins Marian Greenblatt Award for Excellence in Social Studies

Joel Slaff is the winner of this year;’s Marian Greenblatt Education Fund’s Award for Excellence in Social Studies.  This award is given to a junior to recognize significant achievement in Soc0ial Studies.
April 22, 2009

April 22, 2009

Students qualify for the 2010 National Merit Program

12 Rockville High School students (listed below) have met the requirements to enter the 2010 National Merit Scholarship Program, by scoring 201 or more on the 2008 PSAT/NMSQT in 2008.  By doing so, they are among the highest scoring students in the country.  These students now go on the program to be named National Merit commended students or National Merit Semi-Finalists in September.

April 21, 2009

Rockville Teacher is 2009 Rotary Club Teacher of the Year

English teacher Marty McCarrick has received the Rotary Club’s Teacher of the Year Award.  Marty is truly an exemplary leader and teacher.  In addition to his duties as English Resource Teacher and teacher, he has been in charge of the HSAs this year.  Marty represents well our fine cadre of teachers at Rockville High School. Way to go, Marty!

April 21, 2009

Music Department Competes in Orlando
Groups receive Silver Awards -- 2 Students receive "Maestro Awards"

The Band, Orchestra and Jazz ensembles competed recently at the Orlando Heritage Music Festival. All three groups received Silver Awards received Silver awards. Two of our students, Amy Broadbent and Cal Rubbo, also received “Maestro Awards” for outstanding individual performances. The judges gave out only eight Maestro Awards for over 1000 students who performed at this festival, and we brought home two of them!

April 21, 2009

Teacher presents at World Congress on Reading

Donna McDowell presented at the World Congress of the International Reading Association in Costa Rica during July, 2008. The title of the presentation: 

Joint Roundtable: World Fairy Tales and Folktales: A Gateway to Literacy for Adolescent and Young Adult English Language Learners and Special Education Students -- World fairy tales and folk tales are not solely for beginning readers and elementary learners. Learn how to successfully use these tales to foster literacy in
adolescents and young adults.

April 21, 2009

Debate Team Qualifies for Finals

Three debaters qualified for the MCPS Debate Final Competition (Matt Sanford, Tomas Breach, and Kai Tshikosi) with one alternate (Nick Chisholm).

April 21, 2009

AVID Program Featured on Front Page of the Gazette

From http://www.gazette.net, March 25:

Program focuses on ‘middle' students by Marcus Moore | Staff Writer Through Advancement Via Individual Determination program, high school students learn skills they need to succeed in higher education ... Read the entire article

April 20, 2009

RHS Class of '09 College Acceptances

April 20, 2009

Athletic Happy News!

POMs
Rockville High School won the Spirit Award at the Poms’ Country Competition on February 14, 2009.

Indoor Track Team
Amy Ferro competed at the   2A West Regional Indoor Track Meet and came in 5th in 3200 meter run and 6th 1600 meter run.

Boys’ Basketball

• Best Start at RHS since 1985 (4-0)
  
• Earned 4th seed in the 2A West Region of the Maryland State Basketball Tournament for 1st time since 1993
  
• Earned a 1st round bye in the Maryland State Basketball Tournament for 1st time since 1993
  
• Only 2nd team since 2000 to win more than 6 games
  
• Paul Rosiak selected to Montgomery County Senior All-Star Game
  

Football

Football players named all state honorable mention:

• Crusoe Gongbay, RB
  
• Ronnie Heckman, OL
  
• Robbie Parker, OLB
  
• Brandon Bryant, DL
  
• Wayne Jackson, DB
  
• Zack Thomas, DB

April 20, 2009

Band and Orchestra Impress Judges at Festival

Last week the RHS Symphonic Band and Symphonic Orchestra attended the MCPS Band & Orchestra Performance Assessment Festivals.

Both groups received an overall rating of "Excellent" from the judges! Some of the comments on the judges' sheets included:

" Beautiful work with phrase length and shape in [the music]. Bravo!"
"Much evidence of very...dedicated students."
"Wow! Very well done!"
"Excellent [balance] throughout."
"Some very fine players."
"Solid rhythmic execution."
"Some wonderful sensitive playing."
"Exceptional"

April 1, 2009

Rockville Students Accepted by Top Colleges

Rockville seniors are being accepted at some of the top colleges in the country. Here is a beginning:

Harvard University

• Nyamagaga (Gaga) Gondwe

Princeton University

• Nyamagaga (Gaga) Gondwe
• Alex Smith

Brown University

• Nyamagaga (Gaga) Gondwe

Duke University

• Amanda Dols
• Nyamagaga (Gaga) Gondwe
• Parisa Moghaddam-Taah
• Paul Rosiak

April 1, 2009

Students win Awards at County Science Fair

The following Rockville High School students received awards at the very competitive Montgomery County Science Fair:

Andy Schmitt
3rd place in Chemistry for Montgomery County and
The Chemical Society of Washington prize for excellence in chemistry and
The Institute of Food Technologists senior division certificate of excellence

Shiyang Li
Honorable mention in Physics for Montgomery County and
George Washington University honorable mention for engineering and applied science and
The Mu Alpha Theta award for Investigations involving Modern Mathematics

Natalie Snyder
Honorable mention in Physics for Montgomery County and
The Towson University award for Excellence in Science

Nick Chisolm
George Washington University 2nd place for engineering and applied science and
the US Army award for scientific excellence

April 1, 2009

Student Wins Fifth Place at Forensics Finals

The Forensics Team congratulates its own Alex Smith for finishing 5th in Persuasive Speaking at the Montgomery County Forensics Finals.

April 1, 2009

Rampage Online wins Award

Rampage won a Silver Crown award from the Columbia Scholastic Press Association in the online newspaper category.

April 1, 2009

Sound of Music hits the Front Page of Gazette

From Gazette.net Students of all ages to present spring musical Rockville High School's auditorium was alive with the sound of music as students of various ages rehearsed Monday afternoon for the school's annual spring production, just days before it opens. For the first time in more than a decade, students from the feeder schools in Rockville and Aspen Hill will appear as the von Trapp children in "The Sound of Music," which will premiere Friday at 7 p.m. (March 27)

Laurie DeWitt/The Gazette

Read the entire article

March 26, 2009

From the Washington Post:

Student journalists from high schools across Montgomery County are adding their observations and accounts of the inauguration of Barack Obama as the 44th U.S. president to the volumes of reporting published on the historic event.

read the entire article

From News Channel 8:

Students Publish 16-page Inauguration Magazine

ROCKVILLE, Md. - Some Montgomery County students are celebrating the official release of a 16-page publication they produced, dedicated to Barack Obama 's inauguration.

Several Rockville High School students received press passes to cover the inaugural celebration. At that time, there were informal talks about publishing a book or magazine that would feature more photos and articles written by other Montgomery County students. Several schools were sold on the idea and together they made the publication come to life.

See the entire feature

March 26, 2009

Chorus Well Received at Festival

Congratulations are due to the chorus for a job well done during the MCPS choral festival at Whitman High School on March 18th.  The chorus received a one and two two’s from the judges. 

March 26, 2009

Woodberry Forest School Indoor Contest: Results List

March 24, 2009

Pipe Band Member wins Drumming Competition

Recently, members of the Rockville High School Pipe Band attended the DELCO Workshop for piping and drumming. Caitlin Wiggington won the prestigious John Murray Challenge drumming competition at the workshop. She received a  $500.00 scholarship to Piping and Drumming school this summer.  She is planning on attending the Balmoral Camp in addition to the Invermark Camp where the rest of the band usually attends.

March 23, 2009

Student Named Maryland State Journalist of the Year

The Journalism Academy at RHS would like to announce that senior Jaishri Shankar has been named the Maryland State Journalist of the Year by the Journalism Education Association.  Jaishri will represent the state in the National competition for National Journalist of the Year.  Finalists for National Journalist of the year will be announced the first week in April.  Jaishri is the third RHS student to receive this award in the past five years, following alums Daniel Chou and Melissa Cohen.

March 17, 2009

17 Journalism Students win Gold Circle Awards

The Columbia Scholastic Press Association, located on the campus of Columbia University in New York City, announced its 26th annual Gold Circle awards. 

The awards program honor individual student journalists for their work.  More than 12,000 entries were received throughout the nation for this contest.  Students who place in the contest are the very best throughout the nation.  A Gold Circle award is one of the very highest individual journalistic performance honors a student can receive.  There were less than 2,000 place finishers out of the 12,000 entries.

The Journalism Academy at Rockville High School is pleased to announce that The Rampage has had 9 place finishers, 17 students total, in this year’s competition in categories that included writing, photography, and layout/design.

Copies of their award winning entries are posted in the Journalism Academy showcase near the main office.

The individual contest winners were:

Sports news writing
3rd place. Joe Coffman & Justin Hall “The inferno come under fire after accused of student drinking at games”, The Rampage, Rockville High School, Rockville, MD; 
See the winning entry      

Single sports photograph color
3rd place . Marcus Lima, “Rivalry Renewed,” The Rampage, Rockville High School, Rockville, MD
See the winning entry

Best Overall design: Broadsheet format
First Place. Nelly Desmarattes, Kurie Fitzgerald, Jai Shankar, The Rampage, Rockville High School, Rockville, MD
See the winning etnry
    
Best Page one design: Broadsheet format color
3rd place. Nelly Desmarattes, Kurie Fitzgerald & Jai Shankar “Oct 5, 2007,” The Rampage, Rockville High School, Rockville, MD
See the winning entry

Best Sports page design: Broadsheet format color
Fourth place. Jen Cordero & Amanda Gonzalez, “Ramsports,” The Rampage, Rockville High School, Rockville, MD
See the winning entry

Best Single subject news or feature package report and presentation, single page: Broadsheet format black and white
2nd place. Jai Shankar, Kara Estelle & Mandy Dols, “Promiscuous,” The Rampage, Rockville High School, Rockville, MD
 See the winning entry

Best Single subject news or feature package report and presentation, single page: Broadsheet format color
Fourth Place. Kelly Anderson & Amanda Gonzalez “Wax Attacks Washington,” The Rampage, Rockville High School, Rockville, MD
See the winning entry

Best Single subject news or feature package report and presentation, two pages, double-truck or special section: Broadsheet format black and white
Fourth Place: Staff, “Montgomery Co. Police Report Rise in Rockville Gang Activity,” The
Rampage, Rockville High School, Rockville, MD
See the winning entry
Fourth Place Nelly Desmarattes, Tom Chalmers & Megan Roosevelt, “The Beltway Sniper Stories – 5 Years Later,” The Rampage, Rockville High School, Rockville, MD
See the winnning entry

March 16, 2009

Student selected as HHMI/NIH/MCPS Student Intern

Tyler Babich was selected as the HHMI/NIH/MCPS Student Intern for 2009-2010. Highly prestigious honor – he was selected out of a nomination pool of over 100 MCPS students. He does not know at this point NIH lab assignment for next year yet that won’t happen for another month. So next year, he will attend RHS ½ day and then go to the lab for the rest of the day. More to come on his future as he approaches the summer training June 22 and begins his research in a lab two weeks.

March 11, 2009

Rockville Parent wins Award

Ann English has won the 2009 Montgomery County COMCAST Parent Matters Award!  She is also in contention for state semi-finalist and state winner status. She will be honored at May 8 at the state COMCAST award program.

Description of the Award

March 11, 2009