Dear Langley Families:

Thank you for a wonderful Homecoming Week. It was so nice to see our entire student body rally around a positive, inclusive, and spirited week to celebrate our Homecoming. Langley's student leaders deserve most of the credit for instilling a sense of pride and modeling the ideal spirit of Saxon Country. We are so proud of them. Every family that encouraged their students to fully participate in Blackout Day deserves our thanks as well. It was a genuine pleasure to see everyone unified, and they looked like they had a great time.

Congratulations to our fall sports teams for demonstrating great sportsmanship and playing hard. And best of luck to our performing arts groups, as they embark on a very busy couple of months. Hope to see everyone at the upcoming concerts and events. 

  ~Matt Ragone

Join us Wed, Oct 31, at 9:15 am in the LHS auditorium for the first Principal/PTSA Coffee of the year.  Matt Ragone will update parents on the happenings at Langley, and the PTSA will provide news on the ongoing technology fundraisers. We will also offer a brief program highlighting how parents can get the most out of the upcoming teacher-parent conferences, Touching Bases, in November; you have three minutes with a teacher--use these hints to make your conference as effective as possible!

  ~Betsy Shomaker, PTSA President

  ~Lea Ann Edwards, PTSA President-Elect 

language credit: FCPS offers a credit exam for World Languages. The exam is designed to assess students' native language proficiency and allow students to earn credit for this proficiency. For more info, please visit: http://www.fcps.edu/is/worldlanguages/creditexam/faq.shtml. The deadline for registering for this exam is Mon, Oct 22, through the School Counseling Office.

new for ACT:  ID requirements have changed for the ACT. Test takers must have their printed admissions ticket and an acceptable photo ID. Please visit www.actstudent.org for more information. The next ACT here at Langley is Oct 27.

internship hosts needed: The Langley Leap program needs your help. Hannah Hurlburt, Career Center Specialist, is developing a list of of businesses and organizations willing to host an interested Langley senior for an internship tentatively from May 23 to June 6. (These dates were selected to come directly after Senior Ethics Day on May 22 and before graduation events.) This experience can benefit seniors in numerous ways: help them explore a possible area of interest in college, provide tangible experience putting academic interests in action in a non-academic setting, and, for some, allow them to give time and effort to organizations that need both.  Please contact Hannah Hurlburt at <hwhurlburt@fcps.edu> if you can host a Langley senior. 

hoby opportunity:  Hugh O'Brian Youth Leadership, or HOBY, is one of the oldest and most prominent youth leadership organizations in the world. HOBY was founded by actor Hugh O'Brian after returning from spending nine inspirational days working and volunteering with Dr. Albert Schweitzer, a Nobel Peace Prize Winner. The HOBY conference is for interested sophomores who are looking for opportunities to further develop their leadership skills. The seminar will be held at James Madison University from March 31 to June 2. Each high school may nominate one student to participate in this conference. To learn more about HOBY, please visit www.hoby.org.  Interested students need to get from the Career Center a self-nomination form, which must be returned there to Ms. Hurlburt by Fri, Nov 16.

another leadership opportunity: There will be a Governor's School interest meeting during Saxon Time on Fri, Oct 26, in the Career Center. Interested students need to be current 10th or 11th graders who are exceptional and have a proven interest in a particular area of study: dance, instrumental music, vocal music, theatre, visual art, humanities, agriculture, and math, science, and technology. More information can be found at http://www.doe.virginia.gov/ under Governor's School Programs (right tab). Students are selected based on their academic achievement, test scores, extra-curricular activities, honors and awards, and teacher's recommendations.

financial aid night: Langley and McLean High Schools will host the annual Financial Aid Night on Thu, Nov 8, at 7 pm in the Langley auditorium. The presenter will be David R. Gelinas, Senior Associate Dean of the Office of Financial Aid at Davidson College, and he will talk about applying for need-based and merit aid, the cost of education, and packaging and awarding aid.

 ~Sonya Williams, Director of Student Services  

band: We are pleased to announce that Tag Day fundraising has surpassed our goal at $20,332! We are so very appreciative of the Langley community's generous support of the band program. Many thanks go out to the Tag Day Chairs, students and parents who all worked so hard to make this fundraising event successful. We all look forward to a fantastic year of music together. ◆ The Marching Band, decked out in Halloween finery, will be providing musical entertainment at the Great Falls Halloween Spooktacular on Oct 31, 5 pm in the Great Falls Village. ◆ Band seniors will be recognized during Senior Night at the Nov 2 home football game vs. McLean.

fine arts: The art teachers will be taking 50 art students to Richmond, Virginia, for an exciting day trip to the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts on Friday, Nov 2.  Students will tour the museum's permanent collections as well as visit a special exhibit of work from the internationally renowned glass artist Dale Chihuly. 

photography club: The Photography Club is seeking donations of any old manual film and point-and-shoot digital cameras.  The Photography Club is a student-run organization that will host after-school photography workshops for current photo students as well as students who are not able to fit the elective in their schedule but would like to learn more about this versatile and creative craft.

homecoming WOW: Kudos to Langley's Student Government Association (SGA) and the student leaders for organizing the most successful Homecoming EVER.  Over 900 tickets were sold this year! Thanks to Sandy Hamilton and Mary Landis for their invaluable guidance!

fcps-compatible software: Students within FCPS can download MS Office 2010 Profession Plus for either Windows or Mac for FREE!!! If you are running MS Office 2007 at home, we encourage you to use this link and update to the latest version of MS Office, as MS Office 2010 is the software used in the FCPS schools. So when your child works on a document at school, he/she can pull up the document at home in the same software that is used at school. Here is the link: http://www.fcps.edu/it/technology/TechnologyHome.shtml.

blood drive: The Langley fall blood drive will take place this Fri Oct 26 in the Langley aux gym from 7am - 2pm. Donors must be at least 16 years old and 110 pounds to donate blood. If your student has volunteered to donate, please make sure they eat a good breakfast before coming to school and that they remain hydrated all day and have a good meal once they return home after school. If anyone from the community would like to donate, please just stop by the aux gym any time on Friday. Make sure you have a photo ID. If you have questions, contact Mary Landis at <Mary.Landis@fcps.edu>. Thank you.