Dear Rainier Families,

 

One of the most exciting parts of working at Rainier is recruiting new families to join our community. As we recruit new Bulldogs every year, we are always happy to hear from new families that heard about us from our current students and parents. Our lottery is over a month away and we already have over 20 students who say they want to come to Rainier because they know a current family. This thrills us for so many different reasons. One reason is that we know that we can build a stronger community when we have new families join that are already connected with current families. Another is that we know that our parents and students do the best job of telling the full story of what it is like to be a member of the Rainier community. This helps new families get oriented to our school faster. The last reason that this thrills us is that it is a good reminder of why we do what we do. What better way to show your appreciation to your student's teachers than to recommend the same education to your friends and family!

We've had a few requests from parents to learn more about how to talk about Rainier with their friends, acquaintances, and people they meet in line at the grocery store. While there are a variety of great reasons to attend Rainier, sometimes it is difficult to turn those reasons into a sixty second pitch for someone who doesn't know anything about Rainier yet. To help with this, our Director of Parent Engagement, Betty Chen, will be running a Parent Ambassador Training next Tuesday, January 27th at 6:30pm on the Rainier campus. We already have six parents signed up and all are welcome. We hope to see you there!

 

We will be constructing picnic tables and benches for the campus on our next Facilities Work Day on Saturday, January 31 from 8:30am-noon on the Rainier campus. If you have painting tools or drills that we can use for the day, please bring them with you (you can take them home at the end of the day). Parents and students, please come and help!

9th - The 9th Grade teachers are excited to announce that we will be going on our Study Trip Thursday, March 12- Friday, March 13. We will head to the Monterey Bay Aquarium, spend the night at the Boys and Girls Club in Santa Cruz, and visit UCSC and CSUMB on Friday. We can't wait to learn about college (and eat in the dining halls!), learn about the CSU and UC systems, and bond with the Class of 2018.

The Stanford Horizon Scholars Program offers up to fifteen low-income, high-achieving, local-area high school students the opportunity to attend High School Summer College at little to no cost. In addition to a generous financial aid package, Horizon Scholars have access to special programming during the summer and quarterly events during the rest of the academic year.

 

To be eligible for the Stanford Horizon Scholars Program, students must be:

• Secondary school students, ages 16-19.
• A permanent resident of Santa Clara, San Mateo, San Francisco, or Alameda counties.
• Receiving free or reduced lunch in their county's public high schools system, or within the criteria for the California Department of Education's Income Eligibility Guidelines for Reduced-Price Meals or Free Milk in Child Nutrition Programs for 2014-2015.

2015 Horizon Scholar Application Deadline: March 1 

Dates: June 20 - August 16, 2015

To learn more about High School Summer College, visit: https://summercollege.stanford.edu  

To learn more about the Horizon Scholar Program, visit: https://summercollege.stanford.edu/admission/horizon-scholars 

 

The Asian Pacific Fund presents Growing up Asian in America, a student art, essay and video contest which awards $20,000 in cash and prizes. This year's theme is Celebrating our Roots. Entry deadline is March 4. For more information and entry form, please click here.  

The School of Engineering at Santa Clara University is pleased to present two programs available to current high school sophomores and juniors interested in learning more about the field of engineering.

 

Spring Engineering Education Days (SEEDs): The 2015 SEEDs program provides Bay Area high school students with a unique opportunity to explore engineering topics during April. Selected participants come to Santa Clara University over the course of three Saturdays (April 4, 18, 25) from 10 am to 3 pm and participate in workshops spanning the following engineering disciplines: Bio, Civil, Computer, Electrical, Mechanical and Web Design. To apply for the program, students must complete an online application and have an instructor complete an online recommendation form by February 5, 2015: http://scu.edu/engineering/undergraduate/seeds.cfm .

 

Summer Engineering Seminar (SES): In its 26th year, the SES program is an outstanding, five-day experience in late July/early August offering specially designed workshops taught by our engineering faculty. To apply for the program, students must complete an online application and have an instructor complete an online recommendation form by March 12, 2015. The application and program details can be found at: http://scu.edu/engineering/undergraduate/ses.cfm.