Tradition Header  

Swim and Dive

March 2014
We Applaud

Congrats to our Students of the Month

The following students were selected last month by BHS staff for achievement, motivation and acts of service: Ruben Meza, Noah Gorun, Danny Emmett, Reid Roberts, Syeda Tabeer Zehra, Chloe Davis, Thomas Jackson, Neal Klemenc, Matthew Antill, Danilo Chagas, Dallas Griffin, Matt Bennett and Clara Sims.

 

Student Donates Winnings to Local Charity

 

When senior Tommy Templeton got his $200 prize for taking 2nd in the "Run the Reagan" half marathon on Saturday, he generously donated his winnings to this year's race beneficiary, the Gwinnett Community Clinic. 

  

Math Team Places 5th

 

The Brookwood Math Team took 5th place at the Ga. Tech Math Competition.  Congrats to team members Hassaan Asif, Chase Butler, Ryan Chen, Bowen Ewe, Laboni Hoque, Thomas Nguyen and Tony Zeng.  Ryan, Bowen and Tony made it to the semi-finals in the individual competition. In addition, Ryan placed 8th in the overall individual competition.

  

Queen Clardy Wins Contest for Alternate Ending to Percy Jackson Novel

 

Language Arts classes submitted original writings to Scholastic Magazine in a contest to write an alternate ending to Percy Jackson: The Sea of Monsters. Scholastic picked Senior Queen Cardy as one of the winning submissions. Queen received a DVD of the movie as a reward. 


Girls Recognized with Information Technology Award

 

Congratulations to the following young ladies who are runners-up for the 2013-14 Aspirations in Computing Georgia Affiliate Award. The award recognizes women in the field of IT. The lady Broncos honored were Mahum Ali, Alex Durso, Kristin Marsh and Dakota Sealock. They will be recognized at a reception at Georgia Tech in March.

We Commit

More Broncos Commit to Sports at the College Level

Lacrosse

The lacrosse program is proud to announce that three players have committed to play lacrosse at the college level. Brooke Wagner will sign with Tusculum College in Tennessee, Loma Negal will sign with Point University here in Georgia and Will Woodward will sign with Birmingham Southern in Alabama.

 

Track/Cross Country

Girls Track and Cross Country athlete Diana Lane has committed to run cross country at Young Harris.

 

Football

Three additional football players have committed to play college ball.  (This is in addition to the six mentioned in the last issue of this newsletter.)  Hobson McCain signed with Lehigh University, Mike Allen signed with Saint Augustine University and Grant Hill signed with Lagrange.

We Perform

Thespians Attend State Conference

Twenty thespians from Brookwood joined about 3,000 others from around the state of Georgia at the annual Thespian Conference. Brookwood Senior Rachel Wagner was selected to perform a leading role in the All State show In the Heights. Caleigh Derreberry won the playwriting competition with her play This Play is About Pirates. Next year, Brookwood will have the opportunity to perform Caleigh's play at the conference. This honor will bring well deserved attention to Brookwood's theater program. 

 

Mock Trial Team Members Awarded for Performance

 

Brookwood's Mock Trial team competed in the regional mock trial competition. The members of the team did an excellent job of representing Brookwood. Several members were given awards for their performances.

 

Outstanding Attorney Awards: Caleigh Derreberry, Robert Cunningham and Julia Howard.

 

Outstanding Witness Awards: Jasmin Sosa and Kobe Henson. 

 

Orchestra Receives Superior Ratings

 

Congratulations to the members of the orchestra on their straight superior ratings at Large Group Performance Evaluation in February.

We Commend

Broncos Earn Gold on Latin/Greek Derivatives Test

Over 250 Brookwood Latin students participated in the National Etymology Exam, an academic contest over Latin and Greek derivatives. Nine Broncos won gold medals for their performance on the test. Congratulations to: 

Ryan Chen, Alex Durso, Jack Obeng-Marnu, Ashley Grossman, Merlena Kenson, Sophie Kim, Iris Liu, Emma Pontalti and Matthew Rowe.

  

SGA Raises $4K for Children's Healthcare

 

One hundred eighty students attend the Dance Marathon held in in the Commons Area during February. The event, sponsored by the Student Government Association, was part of a week of fundraising activities. During the week. over $4,000 was raised for Children's Healthcare of Atlanta.  


Business Students Advance to State FBLA Competition 

 

Congratulations to the members of FBLA who participated in the Region 11 Leadership Conference.  Eight Broncos will be advancing to state competition in March. Those to compete at state are Ian Chen and Kaamil Ajani (Economics), Daniel Batterman (Introduction to Business Communication), Nisha Kashyap (REGION CHAMPION in Introduction to Business Communication and also qualified in Hospitality Management), and Kevin Tian (2nd highest Marketing test score in the State). Three Broncos received wildcard spots. Congratulations to Amanda Yang (Public Speaking I) and Kaamil Ajani and Aariz Hussein (Business Ethics) for their wildcard spots.  

We Explore

Japanese Club Explores Culture

Two years ago, students interested in learning about the Japanese language and culture formed the Japanese Club. Since then, the group has enjoyed food, listened to stories told in Japanese, played games, seen Anime, made lanterns and learned about costumes. Soon the group hopes to visit the Japanese Cultural Society in Atlanta.
A MESSAGE FROM PRINCIPAL FORD

Greetings!

 

At the high school level, we get a lot of the credit for student success. We are the ones who get recognized for impressive student SAT scores, for results on AP exams, and with awards from publications that make "best schools" lists. However, we know there are many factors at play in making a student successful, including the strength of the elementary and middle schools in our cluster.

 

Clusterwide communication is key, so Brookwood cluster principals meet monthly to discuss an array of items that affect student success. We work together on instructional strategies and plan cluster collaboration with our teachers. In addition, representatives from each cluster school meet several times throughout the year to ensure we are all on the same page. These content teachers meet in teams. They visit each other's schools, develop a common language to use throughout the cluster, and talk about strategies that can transfer from level to level.

 

The Brookwood cluster is seven schools striving toward one goal, learning from each other and passing it along to students K-12. We know we have 9,942 K-12 students (and their families) depending on us to give them our very best. 

 

Go Broncos!

William Bo Ford, Jr.

 

P.S. Our cluster has a lot to celebrate. Just last week, Brookwood was named an AP Merit School, AP STEM School and AP STEM Achievement School based on the number of students taking AP classes and succeeding on AP Exams.

 

P.P.S. Stay tuned. A Brookwood cluster team is currently laying the groundwork on an exciting K-12 cross-curriculum initiative called STEAM that you will be hearing a lot about in the coming months.

 

We Create
Art Students Advance to National Level of Competition
A selection of student art will advance to the national level of competition. These pieces were created by (clockwise from top left) Alexis Jacob, Mikalah Maury, Rolando Perez-Talavera & Mikalah Maury.
Congratulations to Brookwood Visual Art Students who earned 75 awards at the Regional level of the annual Scholastic Art & Writing Awards. Brookwood had close to 200 entries into the contest, and, of those, 75 awards. Thirteen were Gold Key (first place) awards. The Gold Key winners will advance to the National level of competition. The students that are advancing to the national level are:

Brittney Gallagher (1 Gold Key), Alexis Jacob (1 Gold Key), Savanna Jones (1 Gold Key), Mikalah Maury (2 Gold Keys), John Mitchell (2 Gold Keys),  Rolando Perez-Talavera (1 Gold Key), Mathilde Rasmussen (1 Gold Key), Jenna Still (3 Gold Keys) and Raleigh Wunderlich (1 Gold Key). 

 

We Speed
Individual Swimmers are New State Champions. Relay Team Sets New County Record
Erin Scott is the new State Champ in the 100 breaststroke & the new Brookwood school record holder!

Brookwood's very young (only two seniors) Swim and Dive Team had an impressive showing at the State Championship. As a team, the girls placed 3rd and the boys placed 6th.  Brookwood had four Individual State Champions:

  • Alex Taylor in 200 IM with a time that is a new Brookwood record and Automatic All-American time.
  • Devan Sweeney in 200 IM with a time that is an All-American consideration time.
  • Anna Jahns in 500 free with an Automatic All-American time.
  • Erin Scott in 100 breaststroke with a time that is a new Brookwood record and All-American consideration time.

In addition, the Boys 200 Free Relay of Alex Taylor, Jacob Rees, Austin Harmel and Andrew Hunniger were State Champions with a time that is a new Brookwood and Gwinnett County record, as well as being an Automatic All-American time. We are proud of all the Brookwood swimmers and divers.

 

We Shine
Miss Brookwood Pageant Winners Shine
(left to right) Miss Freshman Anna Hopf, Miss Sophomore Julia Howard, Miss Brookwood Gianna Zitello and Miss Junior Emma Blaze. Thank you to Keepsake Portraits by Lisa for the Miss Brookwood photographs.

Congrats to the all winners in the Miss Brookwood Pageant:

Sponsorship Award:  Jessica Waite

Miss Photogenic:  Alexis Vitovic

Miss Congeniality:  Nicole Andrews

Spirit of the Pageant:  Ariel Charles

People's Choice Award:  Carlee Clanton

Highest GPA--9th Grade:  Julianna Brown

Highest GPA--10th Grade:  Julia Howard

Highest GPA--11th Grade:  Kathryn Fonseca

Highest GPA--12th Grade:  Allie Campbell

Miss Freshman:  Anna Hopf

Miss Freshman 1st Runner Up:  Julianna Brown

Miss Freshman 2nd Runner Up:  Ally Sumner

Miss Freshman 3rd Runner Up:  Sofia Toney

Miss Sophomore:  Julia Howard

Miss Sophomore 1st Runner Up:  Alycia Rehmatullah

Miss Sophomore 2nd Runner Up:  Carly Adams

Miss Sophomore 3rd Runner Up:  Lexi Stevens

Miss Junior:  Emma Blaze

Miss Junior 1st Runner Up:  Gracie Abercrombie

Miss Junior 2nd Runner Up:  Emily Harlow

Miss Junior 3rd Runner Up:  Kathryn Fonseca

Miss Brookwood:  Gianna Zitello

Miss Brookwood 1st Runner Up:  Allie Mesler

Miss Brookwood 2nd Runner Up:  Laurel Sumner

Miss Brookwood 3rd Runner Up:  Savannah Bishop

 

A special thank you to these sponsors of Miss Brookwood. We appreciate your support: Men's Wearhouse, Brisendine Law Firm, Thomas Eye Group, Total Learning Concepts, Ground Pounder Graphics, A Daisy A Day, I Fly A Jet, Inc., About Face, Realm Studios, Safe & Sound Interactive, Barron's Fine Jewelry, Certified Logistics, Green Financial, Richard Schmidt, Eagle's Landing, Builders First Source, Dr. Gray Orthodontist, Keepsake Portraits, RPS Printing, Auto Westorations, Integrity Automotive, Sugarloaf Animal Hospital, Koch Orthodontics, Apex Marketing & Sales, Hope-Beckham, Inc., Paran Homes, Clay Thompson, Wood Eye Care,  Atlanta Aviation, Rausch Dentistry, Ryan Tree Service, All Star Salon, Kennington Home Improvement, Tiger Tax, Georgia Spa Co., Ann Parker, Haven Learning Center, Erin Kummet and SR Homes.

 

We Succeed
Wrestlers Place at State Championship
Thanh Nguyen, Jeremy Quarshie and Stephen Solamon placed at the State Championship. They are shown in the photo with Coaches Clayton & Cicora.

Congratulations to Brookwood Wrestling for an outstanding job at the State Championships. BHS placed 10th as a team and had three individuals place: Thanh Nguyen at 120 lbs. was 6th, Jeremy Quarshie at 285 lbs. was 5th & Stephen Solamon at 182 was 3rd. 

 

JV Boys Basketball Wins Region 

The JV boys basketball team won the Region 8-AAAAAA tournament title with a championship game win over Grayson by a score of 71-63. The boys finished with a 15-3 record. Brandon Demeritte and Sean Agnant were named to the all-tournament team and Trae Higginbotham was named the tournament MVP.