Please find the summer reading list for STAR Prep Academy’s middle and high school attached to this email. By reading at least 4 of the titles listed for each grade, students will be better prepared for the subject material they will encounter moving forward.  Each student should select the titles from the list of the grade they will be entering in the Fall of 2009. summer_reading_list_2009

Please see the link for this week’s newsletter —-> 6-9-09

Entries are now being accepted for the annual Amateur Coastal Photography Competition sponsored by the California Coastal Commission and Fairmont Hotels & Resorts. Up to five color photos may be submitted depicting scenery of the California coast, native coastal wildlife, or people using the coast. There is also a new humor category this year. Entry is free and excellent donated prizes include two-night stays at Fairmont hotels and tickets aboard a Hornblower yacht cruise. Postmark deadline is July 15, 2009. For an entry form and full contest guidelines, see the photo contest link at www.coastforyou.org or call (800) COAST-4U.

LA Youth, a newspaper about and by teens in the Los Angeles area has a few opportunities that are available to STAR Prep Academy students.

Newcomer’s Day will be held on June 13th from 11-12.

Summer Workshop-Intensive 6-week writing workshop July 8th-August 12th.

Essay Contest- 50 Dollar Prize.

For more information, see this month’s copy of LA Youth on the Main Office counter.

6-1-09

Dear Parents,

Please see the attached newsletter prepared by our Student Heads of School, Jenna Port and Sean O’Connor.

Summer is a great time to catch up on reading, travel the world or simply enjoy the outdoors.  However, it is also important to stay on top of your schooling.  Practicing math and foreign languages will keep your skills sharp, while visiting museums and reading great books will support your growth in the humanities.  For high school students it is important to use the summer to boost your resume for college.  See the linked article from Charlotte Observer for helpful hints.  Jobs, summer classes, community service or developing an art portfolio are a great place to start.  STAR Prep Academy will be sending all families a summer reading list to give you some help in finding helpful and relevant text.

The Following List was Prepared by Collegewise.com:

50 Summer Activities Colleges Will Appreciate
(and Students Will Enjoy!)
Take classes at your local community college.
Get a part-time job at the mall.
See how many books you can read.
Work in your family business.  Consider doing so for free.
Think of ten people–teachers, coaches, family members, relatives–who deserve your thanks.  Write them a hand-written letter of at least one page expressing your appreciation and detailing how they’ve impacted you.  Tell them what you’re going to do to make them proud and then spend the summer doing it.
Take saxophone lessons.
Coach little league (or basketball, or soccer).
Work at a summer camp.
Volunteer at the local mobile health clinic, or the animal shelter, or the public library.
Tutor kids.
Start a business with your friends.
Set a goal that you are 99% certain you won’t be able to achieve this summer.  Then go all out and try to achieve it as though your life depended on it.  You’ll either get there and do it,  or you’ll get much, much closer than you were at the beginning of the summer.
Learn how to program Java.
Read to the blind.
Teach something.
Learn to paint.
Pick something that really interests you and see how much you can learn about it, how much you can do with it, and how far you can take it.
Take classes to become an emergency medical technician.
Learn sign language.
Pick a cause in your community that you care about.  Find other people who care about it, too.  Organize people and contribute together.
Offer to intern for free someplace where the work seems interesting, like the city councilman’s office, or an advertising agency, or the local newspaper.
Play guitar at a coffee shop and see how much money you can make in tips this summer.
Learn CPR.
Cook dinner for your family once a week.  Each time, learn a new dish to prepare.  Write your recipes down and make your own family cookbook.
Volunteer to lead tours of local state parks.
Buy a college guidebook and learn as much as you can about 20 colleges you know nothing about today.
Raise money for someone or something who needs it.
Learn something that is pure fun, like bongos or hip hop dance or how to make your own purses (check out your local community colleges’ “community education” programs).
Pick something you love and figure out how to use to make contributions to others, like playing piano in a jazz band, teaching residents at a retirement home how to use a computer, or helping run the lights for a play at the community theater.
Work full time and give all the money to a charity of your choice at the end of the summer.
Pick a subject that fascinates you and challenge yourself to learn as much as possible about it.
Learn karate.
Teach karate.
Join a book club.
Organize a book club.
Go to your school principal and ask what you could do, for free, to improve the school.  You could paint classrooms, clean lockers, or refurbish the lunch benches.  Better yet, enlist five friends to do it with you.  Don’t just tell colleges you want to make an impact.  Make one.
Set a goal to learn as many new things as possible this summer–facts, skills, concepts, etc.  Write a blog detailing what you’ve learned so you can share it with cyberspace.
Build an Iphone app.
Master one subject or skill you currently don’t know anything about.
Hold informal soccer conditioning workouts, or barbeques for the new student council members so you can get to know each other better, or meetings at Starbucks with your co-editors to brainstorm story ideas for the paper this fall.  Show colleges you can organize people and lead them.
Have a neighborhood bake sale for the French Club in which all sales are conducted in French.
Get a group of kids from the school play together and enroll in an improv class.
Pick a classic author and read all of his or her works. Find out what all the fuss is about Twain or Hemmingway or Plath or Dickinson.
Take the hardest college class you can find and enroll in it “not-for-credit” so you can challenge yourself with impunity.
Visit as many colleges as you can within a 50 mile radius of your house.  Take your friends with you.  Write your own reviews of each school and share them with people.
Learn to cut and style hair.  You’ll be a savior during prom season.
Vow not to watch any TV this summer.  Not one single second.  Pick something cool and fun and productive to do instead.
Find a summer class offered at a local four-year college that looks fascinating.  Email the professor and ask if you can sit in on a session or two just to experience what the class (and the campus) is like.
Train to run a 10k, or a half-marathon, or a marathon, or to do a triathlon.  And get your friends to join and train with you.  Consider raising money with your efforts and donating to a worthy cause.

STAR Prep Academy students will be performing at the House of Blues this Saturday, May 30th at 11am to open the RockSTAR’s Battle of the Bands.  Please come and show you support for Annee, Stefan, Luc, Nick, and Valentina led by Jose Arias.  On this same day, Vaughn, Alex K. and Ryan will be recognized for winning top honors in the School Information category at the California Student Media Festival in Huntington Beach.  Congratulations to all of our outstanding students!

Chalet Edelweiss, owned and operated by the Bachofner family, will be hosting a night of great food as a fundraising opportunity for STAR Prep Academy.  On June 1st, 15% of proceeds from STAR Prep Academy families and friends will be returned to the STAR Prep Academy.  Please make reservations, for more information see the attached flyer:

welcome_to_chalet_edelweiss_star_prep_academy

Graduate Open Studios, Spring 2009

Friday, May 29, 2009 at 7:00-9:00 pm

8535 Warner Drive
Culver City, CA 90232

Todd Washington : Music Counselor
Offering summer & fall music / guitar private classes - family friendly- great references-Pacific Palisades, Santa Monica, Westside. Former Palisades elementary school music director -teaching experience: 15 Years : Acoustic & Electric guitar, Electric bass & drums : STYLES are Rock, Blues, Classic Rock, Hard Rock, Folk, Alternative, reggae.

Can help you with : guidance in instrument selection, recording and production, song writing, scales and exercises, music theory, jamming skills, improvisation, performance, vocal accompaniment, lead & rhythm guitar, confidence training, song form.

Most seen weekly - some bi-weekly ….  Call now to discuss private classes for you &
or your family. 310-967-5958 vm / 310-804-3264 cell Fun Productions (push # to bypass)
Call Todd or “Mr Tee”. Please leave a message if greeted by the announcement.