Puma Spotlight 2018-19
| June 2019 |
2019 graduates Georgia Dauzvardis and Kira Hensley were featured in the following linked article in the Daily Camera regarding students taking a gap year before attending college.
| May 2019 |
Our rising 11th-grade team (Allison F., Nolan H., Mattie P., and Sam C.) had a video conference last night in preparation for the AdCap Challenge, a 3-day intensive where they will innovate solutions to a variety of instant challenges and then compete in a Shark Tank pitch for important business leaders including executives from Dominos, Land O'Lakes and SAP. They've already won an expense-paid trip to the finals, professional mentoring and some seed money for their concept - a scavenger hunt app they will develop next year to get teenagers involved in their community. They are competing for additional seed money and scholarships, and the competition will be posted to AdCap and GenYouth's social media with the hashtag #AdcapChallenge.
Our student team Female Business Initiative (Sam C. and Isha B.) won this round of the World Series of Innovation for their concept of a ride-sharing service for women in South Africa. Scott M. and Peter N won a runner-up prize for their sustainable development concept called EHVAC. Our winners and the other great concepts can be found HERE.
Kurt Schaefer, Chemistry teacher, received a coveted “one diamond” degree of membership in the National Speech and Debate Association Honor Society. Mr. Schaefer was honored at the 2019 Speech and Debate Tourney in Dallas, TX.
The following students received recognition for Spring Sports at Peak to Peak:
Track
2nd Team All Conference
Allison Beasley Girls 1600
Corte Peterson Boys Pole Vault
Annabel Stewart/Calla Winner/Olivia Simpson-Klein & Sydney Adams Girls 4x400 Relay
Honorable Mention
Makenna Turner Girls Long Jump
Annabel Stewart/Makenna Turner/Olivia Simpson-Klein & Sydney Adams Girls 4x200 Relay
Zachary Smith/Thomas Liu/divedro Valdez & Corte Peterson Boys 4x400 Relay
4x800 Relay Champions:
Quinn McConnell
Anna Shults
Tiana Bradfield
Jenna Howard
Baseball
1st Team All Conference
Garrett Shriver Pitcher
Nathan Poretz Catcher
Haydon Wilcox IF
Isaac Van Tol IF/Utility
Max Higdon OF
Honorable Mention
Riley Feddema OF
Coach of the Year: Matthew Castilleja
Tennis
1st Team All Conference
Trini Somasundaram #1 Singles
Paige Burns & Millie Keogh #4 Doubles
2nd Team All Conference
Trisha Somasundaram #1 Singles
Tiffany Tran #3 Singles
Renesa Khanna & Kendyl Fanger #2 Doubles
Seniors of the year: Trisha & Trini Somasundaram
#1 Singles 3A Champion: Trisha Somasundaram
#2 Singles 3A Champion: Trini Somasundaram
3A Team Champions
Girls Soccer
1st Team All Conference
Iris Zhang
2nd Team All Conference
Daneca Nelsen
Honorable Mention
Rachel Willette
Jules Walther
Taryn McGinnis
The Mueller-Scott siblings, Brook (6th grade) and Jack (5th grade), had a successful fencing season and ended strong! Brook finished up with her best performance of the season, winning the silver medal at the fourth in-house tournament. Jack received a trophy for fourth place overall fencer which is calculated by cumulative competition points won for the season.
Emilee Holland (7th grade) with her horse, Rainey, won two first place, one second, one third, one fourth, and one sixth place ribbon at her first 4-H horse show.
Andrew Martin (2nd grade) and his team, the FC Boulder 2010/2011 Erie Cardinals, placed 2nd in their U9 division at the Boulder Cup. It was an end to a fantastic season with a record of 10:1. The 2019 Boulder Cup provides an end-of-season tournament experience for U9-U10 players and teams focused on providing a fun and competitive environment for all involved. It is open to Boys and Girls teams in Intermediate and Recreational Leagues and AYSO and US Club Soccer teams. This sold-out event featured 90 teams this year, marking the fourth consecutive year with the tournament reaching capacity.
Nick Entin (Class of 2019) was in the Daily Camera's student spotlight. Click here to read the article.
Peak to Peak's Class of 2019 had their names listed in the paper. You can see them by clicking here.
"At least in recent memory, there hasn’t been a dominant trio of Class 3A distance runners quite like the group that has come through Peak to Peak Charter School over the past four years.
Between them, the group of current seniors Quinn McConnell, Anna Shults and Tiana Bradfield has combined for eight individual or relay titles in track and field. In cross country, they have teamed up to win two team titles and two individual titles."
One of our seniors (and soon to be alum) told his story in this CO School Talk op-ed. Reflecting on his time at Peak to Peak, Oscar says, "I could have easily kept a narrow focus on math and science, but my Peak to Peak teachers emphasized that reading and writing are essential in every aspect of life, no matter what career I have as an adult."
In her article "Three Lessons Higher Ed Can Learn From Charter Schools," Nia Ariel Davis mentions Peak to Peak's Innovation Summit and strategic plan as models that might inspire change in higher education. "As the needs of today’s students continue to change, the systems of support in higher education should adapt. Adopting a mindset of ongoing innovation could help all stakeholders in the system remain open to the shifts required for improved college student access and success."
Victoria Spitzley (6th grade) was recently invited to compete in the St. Vrain Invitational track and field meet in the pole vault as part of the Middle School Elite group. Victoria set a new personal record with a jump of 8'1". She is now the top-ranked sixth grade female pole vaulter in the country.
Taryn Petruncola (6th grade) and Lexi Kerrane (11th grade) earned 10th place at Summit, the nation’s top competitive cheerleading competition with 1500 teams competing this year. Their team, Platinum from Steele Athletics, is shown here at ESPN Wide World of Sports in Orlando.
Reece DiGiacomo (8th grade) was featured in the Daily Camera's Student Spotlight.
Four Peak to Peak High School students were recognized for their academic and sports achievements as players for the Dawson High School lacrosse team. All Peak players received a varsity letter.
Jonathon Gruener (12th grade) was named to the Academic All-State Team and 1st Team All-Conference, Northern Conference. Jonathon also received the Dawson School Mustang Award for leadership. Jonathon Gruener has also been named to the the U.S. Lacrosse All-Academic team. He was one of 13 Colorado high school players to be named to the team! In addition, he was named to the 4A All-State Second Team for Lacrosse.
Owen Hinrichs (10th grade) received an Honorable Mention, All-Conference Team, Northern Conference.
Zach Pierce (12th grade) was named to the Academic All-State Team.
Cole Schneider (12th grade) was named to the Academic All-State Team.
The High School Girls Tennis team for grabbing the 3A State Championship title for the second year in a row.
Trisha and Trini Somasundaram (both 12th grade) took home the #1 and #2 Singles state titles for the second year in a row, Tiffany Tran (10th grade) took home 3rd place, Paige McSavaney (11th grade) and Isabella Brakhage (10th grade) made it to the semi-finals for #1 doubles, Renesa Khanna (11th grade) and Kendyl Fanger (9th grade) took 3rd place at #2 doubles, and Paige Burns (11th grade) and Millie Keogh (10th grade) finished 2nd at #4 doubles.
Catalina Hiller (8th grade) has been selected to an elite, invitation-only ice hockey summer experience. This means that she is regarded among the best female players in the age group.
Sophia DeSantis (9th grade) submitted a video she created for Human Geography to the World of 7 Billion population video contest. Her video received one of two Honorable Mention awards given in the "Sustainable Resource Use" category. She won $250 for her "The Pee-Cycling Alternative" video.
Our 2019 Colorado Science and Engineering Fair (CSEF) award winners:
Alexandra "Alex" Flint (8th grade) received Honorable Mention in the Junior Division for Environmental Sciences. Her project was titled "Examining Electric Charges as a Method for Cleaning Microplastics from the Oceans." Alex also received several special awards:
1. David Young Memorial Award, American Statistical Association Colorado/Wyoming Chapter
2. Water Research Award, Rocky Mountain Water Environment Association
3. United States Geological Survey Excellence in Geological Research Award, United States Geological Survey
4. American Institute of Professional Geologists Certificate of Excellence in the Geosciences, American Institute of Professional Geologists Colorado Section
5. Office of Naval Research Award, United States Navy and Marine Corps
Nick Entin (12th grade) received Honorable Mention in the Senior Division for Earth and Space Sciences. His project was titled "Variability in the Thermosphere of Mars." Nick also received the following special awards:
1. American Vacuum Society Rocky Mountain Chapter, Excellence in Physical Sciences and Engineering Award
2. United States Metric Association, Outstanding Achievement in the Use of the International System Award
Peak to Peak received the 2019 Eliza Pickrell Routt Award from the Colorado Secretary of State's office. It is an award for having 85% or more of our senior class registered or pre-registered to vote.
Ms. Guajardo and the yearbook team won a National Yearbook Program of Excellence award.
Peak to Peak's Ultimate Frisbee team competed at the sport's state tournament in Colorado Springs on May 4-5. Often playing without substitute players, the team posted a 5-1 record to finish in third place out of 16. Way to go, Pumas!
Sam Goertzen (12th grade) - Captain
Connor Cahoon (12th grade) - Captain
Ian Carter (10th grade)
Charlie Dupras (11th grade)
Gabe Fromme (11th grade)
Rishi Hancock (9th grade)
Peak to Peak's 6th grade and 7th grade teams won 1st place at the BVSD Battle of the Books competition and the 5th grade team won 2nd place.
The National Center for Women & Information Technology (NCWIT) honored 8 Peak to Peak students for their achievements and plans to pursue IT in college and career. Makenna Turner (11th grade) - National award winner, Paige Burns (12th grade) - Colorado winner, Erin Byrne (11th grade) - Colorado honorable mention, and Wendy Elliott (12th grade) - Colorado rising star, were present at the banquet, and Nicole Kerschner (9th grade)v- Colorado rising start, Julietta Rozin (10th grade) - Colorado rising star, Cailyn Smith (10th grade) - Colorado honorable mention, and Isabelle Ruble (11th grade) Colorado honorable mention, also received awards.
Ali Kerschner (9th grade), was selected to attend a week-long songwriting program at Boston's Berklee College of Music this summer. The program focuses on building songwriting skills in people ages 15 to 18 years and is held on the Berklee campus. This program explores how to build an effective melody, interesting lyrics, and how to produce the music you write.
Tanishka Tagare (6th grade) won the Colorado Girls State Chess Championship! There were 5 rounds in the Tournament and Tanishka won all the 5 rounds. Women's Grandmaster, Tatev Abrahamyan, awarded her Championship Trophy.
Andrew Woen (10th grade) won the award for Senior Contemporary, Best Performance at the Boulder/Broomfield 67th Stars of Tomorrow Youth Talent Show 2019.
| April 2019 |
P2P debate team members Ayush Garg (11th grade), Brandon Guo (11th grade), and Leonard Shearer (11th grade) finished as one of the top 4 teams in the WORLD this past weekend at the International Public Policy Forum debate competition in New York City.
Makenna Turner (11th grade) was named as one of twenty semi-finalists for the third annual Yale Bassett Award for Community Engagement. Way to go, Puma!
"Yale Bassett Award winners will demonstrate a record of creative leadership and public service, academic distinction, interdisciplinary problem solving, and experience addressing societal issues that might include, but need not be limited to, race and racism."
Peak to Peak's Conrad Scholars, 5 teams of high school students who spent this year innovating solutions to global challenges, won top honors at the Conrad Summit at the Kennedy Space Center.
Sophomores Mana Setayesh, Paris Kiehl and Tenzin Nangsal are Pete Conrad Award winners, the top international prize selected from among 191 semifinalist teams from around the world. The award includes scholarships, prizes, business development, and an all-expense-paid trip to India for their enterprise to reduce tobacco use in India;
John Douthit (12th grade) and Clara Tracy (11th grade) won the Power Pitch award for their Innovation to reduce teens' nicotine vaping;
Sophomores Isabella Brakhage, Ander De Onaindia, Vikas Muralidharan and Jeffrey Chen were chosen as the Good Citizens of the Summit;
and Kristie Betts Letter won the Nancy Conrad Innovative Teacher Award.
Six high school artists' works were selected to hang at the Dairy Art Center in the BVSD Art Show. Matthew Willetto (12th grade), Aspen Bradley (12th grade), Izzy Hettmansperger (12th grade), Sophie Graham (10th grade), Ainsley Smith (11th grade), and Julia Crook (11th grade) created works in multiple mediums that will hang until May 5th.
The following NJHS students won the Outstanding Student Achievement Award and won a $500 college scholarship!!
Sophie Steven (9th grade)
Alisha Kumari (9th grade)
Riley Justice (9th grade)
Alec Babineau (8th grade)
Bryce Li (9th grade)
Click here to learn more about this award.
At the BVSD Student Advisory Committee last week, Sam Custard (10th grade) teamed up to present on Alternatives to Suspension, while Izzy Hettmansperger (12th grade) included great data and links in her presentation on Mental Health Needs. Chloe Doubrava (11th grade) focused her presentation on Alternative Ed Options in BVSD.
LEAD Boulder is a two-year leadership program offered to juniors and seniors through BVSD. Students participating in the program presented their LEAD Capstone projects. Sam Goertzen (12th grade) and his team produced an engaging project on mental health and mental illness concerning teens in our state. Their presentation included hands-on recommendations to put supports in place.
Luc Almony (12th grade) and Jules Walther (12th grade) presented on collaborative recycling efforts on our campus including ideas for reusable metal straws, a LaCroix/Switch can capture challenge, and connections to our Rise to the Peak day on May 3rd.
Brooke Van Der Jagt (3rd grade), Gianna Clark (3rd grade), Kate Guengerich (3rd grade), and Jillian Ingle (3rd grade) presented at the Impact on Education Classroom Innovation Grant Showcase on Monday evening, with Ms. Oliva and Ms. Eckstein, showcasing their Colorado Life Zone Virtual Reality projects.
Nathan Poretz (12th grade) was the BoCo Preps Athlete of the Week, and he was also featured on the 9News Prep Rally Saturday morning (minute 2:50). Nathan hit four home runs and drove in seven runs during a recent game against Kent Denver.
The following students will be advancing to the district level Battle of the Books competition:
3rd
Aleema Razzak
Tessa Hirt
Levi Hartter
Clara Wright
Jocelyn Fiegland
4th
Kyra Rein
Shibani Senthilkumar
Vyom Jain
Lila Eikel
Eddie Humphreys
5th
Ram Mangu
Nicholas Griffin
Will Rigney
Saatwik Das
Amanda Zou
6th
Tanishka Tagare
Jude Hartter
Lola Graves
Evan Douglass
Fritz Weber
7th
Anjana Radha
Shreya Senthilkumar
Siddharth Nareddy
Amrita Saini
Ava Sommer
8th
Lucas Briggs
Ryan Taylor
Pranaya Kansara
Sophie Steven (9th grade) was recognized by the City and County of Broomfield with a 2019 Broomfield Youth Recognition Award (BYRA)! The BYRA program allows the greater Broomfield community to honor and acknowledge those youth who, despite adversity, achieved positive change in their lives. Sophie, who has Type 1 Diabetes, was recognized for the many years of legislative advocacy and fundraising efforts she has been passionately pursuing on behalf of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.
Ms. Monika Bunting, 7th grade English teacher at Peak to Peak, published an article titled "Why I Teach: Building a safe space for students—and you, as teacher—to grow and learn" through the Association for Middle Level Education.
In her own words: "At the core of who I am as a teacher is love and creating a safe space where the affirmation of self and others can flourish and grow. I believe with the foundation of this safe space, students can be challenged to learn with a deeper sense of who they are. Yet this transformation must come first from the teacher, and this means entering the classroom with an open and accepting heart."
Baseballer Garrett Shriver (11th grade) was named as BoCo Preps athlete of the week.
Five Peak to Peak students were recognized in the national Cooper Hewitt design competition for innovative nature-based solutions to global problems. These students had their designs displayed in the Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum! Honored students are Jack Begley (10th grade), Paris Kiehl (10th grade), Sophie Kiehl (10th grade), Heather Holtgreive (12th grade), and Payton Shattuck (12th grade).
Out of nearly1,000 students statewide who auditioned, six Peak to Peak band students were accepted into this year's two 110 piece 2019 All-State Bands. Cathy Li (12th grade), Madison Lin (10th grade), Scott McCall (12th grade), Ben McCloskey (11th grade), Prash Satish (11th grade), and Arden Xu (12th grade).
During Spring Break, students spent two long days in rehearsals with two outstanding collegiate directors from Perdue and Indiana Universities. Students rehearsed a variety of difficult music that would challenge even the best college bands. Students watched live performances from a variety of music groups put on by UNC's music department as well as listened to an Over the Hill Band made up of current band directors. Lastly, the students put on a two-hour public concert that was outstanding, impressive, and inspiring.
Jack Brandstatter (8th grade) and Chase Brandstatter (5th grade) qualified for the Buddy Werner League State Ski Team. These students raced in the Western Slope Championships and each placed top five in their age groups.
The Buddy Werner League is "a recreational race program that strengthens young skiers grades 2nd - 8th."
Madison Lin (10th grade), Suchit Sharma (11th grade), and Chase Parker (12th grade brought home "a lot of hardware" -- a quote from Mr. Howard -- from Gateway High School's Calculus Bowl. Mr. Lehr and Mr. Howard also received a trophy for being such rockstar Calculus teachers.
High school math teacher Ms. Liz Tarbutton has been recognized with the University of Colorado Boulder’s Outstanding Colorado High School Educator Award, "which recognizes the top high school teachers, faculty and staff in the state of Colorado who go above and beyond to support students as they pursue their higher education dreams."
Jocelyn Fiegland (3rd grade) participated in her first Boulder County 4-H Horse Show, the Leaders Council Season Opener. Jocelyn rode a horse named "Loves to Zip." She placed 5th in Western Pleasure - Walk/Jog and 4th in Western Horsemanship - Walk/Jog.
Seniors Sam Goertzen and Akriti Poudel have been named as 2019 Daniel's Scholarship recipients. "The Daniels Scholarship Program provides a four-year annually-renewable college scholarship for graduating high school seniors in Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming who demonstrate exceptional character, leadership, and a commitment to serving their communities." Sam and Akriti are among the 218 students were awarded the scholarship this year.
We recognize that many of our senior students are receiving recognition for their outstanding achievements in a variety of realms including academic, athletic, artistic, service, leadership, etc.. Some are attaining goals they once thought impossible. During the spring semester, our inboxes are bulging with good news about the accomplishments that carry significance to each one of our graduating seniors. Scholarships, such as the Daniels Scholarship, carry a particular national significance and are celebrated broadly not only because the students have earned it, but also as a reflection of our K-12 program's success.
Peak to Peak's Key Club members recently attended the Denver Key Club Convention where they were honored with the "Early Bird Registration" award and took first place for their Annual Traditional Scrapbook which means they will now go on to compete at the national level.
In addition, Jessica Kalloor (10th grade) was elected to be the new Lieutenant Governor of Key Club for Division 11! As Lieutenant Governor she will be representing all of Division 11 at the district level as well as communicating with all the local Key Clubs and Kiwanis Clubs about district and international Key Club business.
Brian Wee (12th grade) not only won a national Gold Medal from Scholastic for his memoir "Hug Coupons and Shoe Boxes," but he also won the 2019 New York Life Award for writing about personal loss and grief. Brian will receive a thousand-dollar scholarship award and will be honored at Carnegie Hall this June.
Peak to Peak debaters Brandon Guo (11th grade), Ayush Garg (11th grade), and Leonard Shearer (11th grade) are now one of the final eight teams left in the International Public Policy Debate competition! As one of the top eight teams in the world, they have won an all-expense-paid trip to New York City where they will debate in-person at the Council on Foreign Relations on April 27th for a chance to win $10,000!
Eddie Humphreys (4th grade) won the silver medal on High Bar in the State of Colorado Level 5 Men's Gymnastics Championships! He is now ranked second in the state for Level 5 in High Bar. He beat out 99 other boys in Colorado with a score of 11.2. (A perfect score is 11.5.)
| March 2019 |
Izzy Hettsmansperger (12th grade) has received a National Scholastic Art Silver Medal for her exceptional, digitally hand-drawn piece called "Fear." This piece also won a Regional Gold Key Award, but the latest recognition is at the national level.
Peak to Peak has two 2019 Boettcher Scholars, Nick Entin and Kailey Zaronias. Only 42 students across the state are selected for this highly competitive scholarship which provides a full ride to any Colorado college or university.
Iron Chef competitors Ellen Lu (7th grade), Sanjita Balaji (7th grade), Shreya Senthilkumar (7th grade), and Brianna Tang (6th grade) and heir team, "Magic Flavors," advanced to the live competition at Casey Middle School to compete against five other teams out of 28 who also advanced. Although they had tough competition, the team placed third! Their prize was a giant check that they have decided to donate to the Peak To Peak.
Vyom Jain (4th grade) and his YMCA Ice Hockey Squirts team, recently placed at second in their division at the Avalanche Cup tournament.
Logan Hsia (12th grade) & Sam Brende (11th grade) competed in the state championships for men’s gymnastics. Their local Lafayette team, Xtreme, competes at the highest level (Level 10) and placed 2nd in the state.
The following athletes received recognition for winter season sports:
Vince Cornella: Wrestling (Monarch), Front Range League Academic & All-Conference 1st Team, 5A 113lb State Champion
Jonah Eaves: Basketball, Metro Honorable Mention
Max Higdon: Basketball, Metro 2nd Team All-Conference
Corinna Kelly: Swimming (Monarch) Front Range League Academic & All-Conference 1st Team
Ryan Kuykendall: Wrestling (Monarch), Front Range League Academic & All-Conference 1st Team
Ian McDonald: Football (Erie), 1st Team All-Conference
Aiyana Rockwell: Basketball, Metro Honorable Mention
Rachel Willette: Basketball, Metro 2nd Team All-Conference
Photographers from the AP Studio Art: 2D Design course dominated the Denver MOP Teen Show! Students took home seven wins - more than any other school in Colorado. Photographs will on display at Pirate Contemporary Art Gallery starting April 7th with an opening on April 12th.
Courtney Daniel (2nd grade) took 1st place in the "U8 Traditional Set" competition at the Western Regional Irish Dance Championships in Portland, Oregon! Here she is pictured with her champion sash and Irish Crystal. Courtney performs with the Celtic Steps Irish Dance School.
Senior Naomi Burns was awarded a Morehead-Cain Scholarship at UNC Chapel Hill. Naomi is Peak to Peak's first ever to be honored with this scholarship. In the words of her counselor Ms. Gannett, "She achieved the impossible, by following her passions and finding a fit!"
The Morehead-Cain is a four-year, fully-funded scholarship awarded to "driven, courageous, and inquisitive leaders eager to embrace new and unknown experiences."
Emily Leonard (9th grade) had a successful performance at the KAR National Dance Competition. She won the 1st place in her dance category and overall 3rd place in the entire competition. She brought home “Elite Top First Award” which is the highest possible achievement.
Ninth graders Tannvi Banerjee and Bronwyn Busby qualified for this year's National Speech & Debate Tournament in Public Forum debate. This team took on seasoned veteran teams from all over the front range to place 3rd overall at the qualifying tournament.
| February 2019 |
Andrew Kim and Peter Trainor (11th graders) played for the Monarch High School Varsity Ice Hockey Team. The team made it to the quarterfinals at the 2019 CHSSA Ice Hockey State Championships. During their game against Valor Christian High, Andrew and Peter both hustled to score goals and help their team. Unfortunately, the game ended with a double-overtime loss 0:1. But Andrew and Peter put great effort into the game and deserve a big round of applause for a successful season.
Katelyn Remund (8th grade) participated in the CU Middle School Honor Band on February 22 and 23 on the CU Boulder campus. Participants had to audition and she was one of 12 flutists in the band of 81 students from all over Colorado.
Vince Cornella (10th grade) won the 5A State Championship wrestling title. This is Vince's second state championship win. Vince attends Peak to Peak, but wrestles on the Monarch team.
On Saturday, February 9th, Peak to Peak Tennis players Trini, Trisha, Madison, Tiffany and Paige volunteered to help USTA (United States Tennis Association) National Coaches demonstrate techniques and drills for high school players at the Annual Professional Tennis Association conference in Centennial, Colorado.
Peak to Peak freshman, Sophie Steven, is heading to Capitol Hill this summer as a Delegate for Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF) 2019 Children’s Congress.
There were thousands of applicants to attend, and 160 were selected nationally to participate in this amazing program. She will be proudly representing the state of Colorado as she gets the opportunity to speak with national leaders in Washington, D.C. regarding education and advocacy about Type 1 diabetes research and needs for health care reform.
Sophie is currently serving as the JDRF Rocky Mountain Youth Ambassador Vice President.
The Middle School Girls Basketball A team swept the final tournament, beating out Cornerstone Christian and Jefferson Academy to take first place in the league.
Simon Holstein (8th grade) and the RoughRider AAA Tier 1 elite hockey team he plays with won the Cedar Rapids RoughRider Presidents' Day Challenge Tournament.
The following students received awards at Peak to Peak's History Day and will not move on to the district level competition:
| Documentaries | ||
| Individual Documentary | Neeharika Hancock | Terror to Triumph: Surviving the Rwandan Genocide |
| Individual Documentary | Faith Peddycord | George Balanchine: Moving West for the Better |
| Group Documentary | ViVi Ember, Alena Carpenter | Titanic |
| Performances | ||
| Group Performance | Hannah-Nicole D'Epagnier, Mia Reta, Maya Schweiger | The Life of Audrey Hepburn |
| Individual Performance | Lea Cook | NAWSA: Triumph or Tragedy |
| Individual Performance | Sydney Perincheril | Beethoven |
| Websites | ||
| Group Website | Owyn Wyatt, Athena Hiesterman | Animation Brought to Life |
| Group Website | Jack Brandstetter, Michael Hambach | The Huey Helicopter in the Vietnam War |
| Group Website | Chloe Eisen, Emily Cain | The Triumph and Tragedy of Elvis Presley |
| Individual Website | Dominik Gendreau | Lou Gherig |
| Individual Website | Natalie Sievers | Child Labor: Triumph over Tragedy |
| Exhibits | ||
| Group Exhibit | Morgan Brasier, Madison Shults, Riley Lackey | The Stonewall Riot - LGBTQ+ Rights |
| Group Exhibit | Joey Hoffman, Marcus Matsuda | The Barbary Wars |
| Group Exhibit | Ella Hey, Makenna Bolton | The Hamilton-Burr Duel |
| Group Exhibit | Haley Buck, Emily Kirkfield | Women Airforce Service Pilots: Triumph and Tragedy |
| Individual Exhibit | Julian Zerwekh Reardon | Triumph and Tragedy: The Miracle on Ice |
| Individual Exhibit | Molly Anderson | The Montgomery Church Bombing and the Civil Rights Act of 1964. |
| Individual Exhibit | Ryan Taylor | Operation Paperclip: Did the Triumph Outweigh the Tragedy? |
| Individual Exhibit | Maya Schweiger | Facial Reconstruction |
| Papers | ||
| Individual Paper | Caleb Frank | The Triumph and Tragedy of The Battle of the Bulge |
| Individual Paper | Jadyn Ries | The Triumphs and Tragedies of the Modern Olympics |
| Individual Paper | Vasilisa Malenkiy | The Great Affair of the Enlightenment- Triumph or Tragedy? |
| Individual Paper | Nathan Salem | The Triumph and Tragedy of the Hollywood Traitors |
Peak to Peak sent an impressive line up to the Corden Pharma Regional Science Fair. The following students received awards:
Middle School:
Andrew Mehalko (8th grade): 2nd place, Transportation and Energy
Alexandra Flint (8th grade): 1st place, Environmental Science
Aurora West (8th grade): 2nd place, Microbiology (tied)
Isabelle Entin (8th grade): 2nd place, Microbiology (tied)
Anne Nevadomski (8th grade): 2nd place, Plant Science
Darryk Hall (8th grade): 2nd place, Physics
Katelyn Remund (8th grade): 1st place, Physics
High School:
Nicholas Entin (12th grade): 2nd place, Earth and Space Science
Ayush Garg (11th grade), Brandon Guo (11th grade), and Leonard Shearer (11th grade): Team 2nd place, Math and Computer Science
Chloe Hodgson (12th grade) and Sudeepti Nareddy (12th grade): Team 1st place, Microbiology
Special Awards:
Alexandra Flint (8th grade): Broadcom Masters award
Katelyn Remund (8th grade): Broadcom Masters award
Connor Cahoon (12th grade) and Logan Hsia (12th grade): Team Mu Alpha Theta award
Read the article in the Daily Camera:
http://www.dailycamera.com/…/boulder-county-students-presen…
Peak to Peak has FOUR teams (more than from any school in the nation) invited to compete at Cape Canaveral April 23-26, 2019 in the NASA-sponsored world finals for the Conrad Challenge, and two other teams selected as alternates. These students innovated a global solution in a collaboration between our Innovation and Global Issues classes. Their initial entries were funded by Peak to Peak's Innovation Grant. Between now and April, students will be refining prototypes and pitches as well as raising funds for their travel to the Kennedy Space Center.
Winning teams:
ConvergenSeat: Paige McSavaney (11th grade), Coby Mandell (12th grade), and Walker Richard (12th grade)
Alternate Industry India: Jessica Kalloor (10th grade), Zachary Carncross (10th grade), and Bailey Patterson (10th grade)
Spicearettes: Tenzin Nangsal (10th grade), Paris Kiehl (10th grade), and Mana Setayesh (10th grade)
Malawi Hurt 2 Health: Isabella Brakhage (10th grade), Vikas Muralidharan (10th grade), Jeffrey Chen (10th grade), and Ander De Onaindia (10th grade)
Alternates:
Caltab Solutions: Luc Almony (12th grade), Anya Berchtold (12th grade), and Clara Tracy (11th grade)
Bidi 2 Bracelet: Paige Mowery (12th grade) and John Douthit (12th grade)
Congratulations to the winners of Peak to Peak's 7th Annual Poetry Out Loud event:
First Place: Nick Entin (12th grade)
Second Place: Kailey Zaronias (12th grade)
Third Place: Izzy Hettmansperger (12th grade)
Six Peak to Peak seniors were selected as National Merit Scholarship Finalists. They are among only 15,000 students across the nation to receive this recognition:
Naomi Burns
Capri Huffman
Isabella Sicker
William Stahoviak
Isaac Van Tol
Brian Wee
Twelve Speech and Debate students --and a record number of freshmen-- qualified to compete at the State Championships in March:
Brandon Guo (11th grade) & Ayush Garg (11th grade) - Public Forum Debate
Linh Tran (9th grade): Original Oratory
Paige Burns (11th grade): Humor Interp
Akriti Poudel (12th grade): Original Oratory
Will Alexander (12th grade): Lincoln-Douglas Debate
Chloe Hodgson (12th grade): Original Oratory
Gianna Guido (9th grade): International Extemporaneous Speaking
Palpasha Karki (9th grade): International Extemporaneous Speaking
Nivedita Prabhu (9th grade): National Extemporaneous Speaking
Kritin Basrur (10th grade): National Extemporaneous Speaking
Alvina Zhang (9th grade): Original Oratory
Senior Ashley Tang (viola) and Junior Ben McCloskey (trumpet) played in the All-State Orchestras festival in Fort Collins.
The Peak To Peak Girls Tennis team was recognized at the USTA Colorado Annual Hall of Fame Gala on February 9 for their 2018 3A State Championship.
Sam Brende (11th grade), Logan Hsia (12th grade), and Trevor O’Dowd (10th grade) and the Junior Development gymnastics team won the Azarian Team Cup at Soka University in California.
Click on the links below to see a list of students who made Peak to Peak's honor roll for the Fall Semester, 2018.
|
Student Honor |
Requirements |
|
MS Honor Roll MS High Honor Roll MS Dean’s List HS Honor Roll HS High Honor Roll HS Dean’s List |
3.0 – 3.499 GPA 3.5 – 3.899 GPA 3.9 – 4.0 GPA 3.3 – 3.699 GPA 3.7 – 3.899 GPA 3.9 – 5.0 GPA |
HS Honor Roll 2018-19 1st semester list
Peak to Peak students earned 21 Scholastic Writing Awards, in the West Region, which is an 8-state region. Brian Wee (12th grade), Sam Goertzen (12th grade), and Chloe Hodgson (12th grade) earned Gold Keys for their entries and will continue to the national competition.
Click here to read more about the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards.
The 7th grade Brain Bowl team won 5th place at the North regional competition last week. Tej Mathur, Adithi Ramaswamy, Luke Taylor, and Kyle Thengvall have advanced to the state championship.
In keeping with our mission of providing global learning opportunities for our students, we are participating in the International School to School Experience (ISSE). ISSE is an international exchange program that provides for the exchange of thoughts and ideas through face-to-face contact with students from other countries around the world. Six students and one staff member from The Prescott School in Arequipa, spent two weeks at Peak to Peak. In March, seven Peak to Peak middle school students and one staff member will visit The Prescott School for several weeks.
On Saturday, Feb. 2, the P2P Ethics Bowl team reached the finals in the regional High School Ethics Bowl for the 4th consecutive year, placing 2nd and 3rd in the overall competition. Congratulations to all the members of the team, who worked for months preparing thoughtful, sophisticated considerations of tough ethical dilemmas.
Rory Baxter (10th grade) showed her Scottish Highland Heifer at the prestigious National Western Stock Show last week. This is the largest Highland show and competition in the nation and Rory took first place in her class showing Belle, her 1-year-old heifer.
Lola Graves (6th grade) won this year's Middle School Spelling Bee.
Saturday, February 9th, the Girls Tennis team will be recognized for winning the Colorado State Championship Title by the USTA (United States Tennis Association) at the Colorado Tennis Hall of Fame Gala.
Peak to Peak students participated in the Math Counts competition and performed well. Warren Chen (7th grade) is moving on to the state competition!
Congratulations to our 2019 Scholastic Art Award winners!
Portfolio Art Awards:
1. Isabelle Hettmansperger: Mirror Dream, Gold Key, grade 12, drawing & illustration
2. Emily Hogan: Bug's Eye View: Life and Death, Gold Key, grade 12, photography
Individual Art Awards:
1. Paige Burns: Gold Key, grade 11, photography
2. Isabelle Hettmansperger: Gold Key, grade 12, digital art
3. Isabelle Hettmansperger: Gold Key, grade 12, digital art
4. Isabelle Hettmansperger: Gold Key, grade 12, digital art
5. Emily Hogan: Gold Key, grade 12, photography
6. Micaela Kerrane: Honorable Mention, grade 7, ceramics & glass
7. Max Morton: Gold Key, grade 12, photography
8. Julia O’Brien: Gold Key, grade 12, digital art
9. Arinna Tang: Silver Key, grade 12, drawing and illustration
| January 2019 |
Two Peak to Peak Seniors advanced as Regional Finalists for the Coca-Cola Scholarship! Akriti Poudel and Brian Wee will compete with 249 other finalists from across the country for one of 150 $20,000 scholarships.
Quinn McConnell (12th grade) was named the Gatorade Colorado Girls Cross Country Runner of the Year!
The Gatorade Player of the Year program is proud to recognize the nation’s most elite high school athletes for not only athletic excellence, but also for high standards of academic achievement and exemplary character. Roughly 5.7 million kids play the Gatorade Player of the Year sports – only 607 are named Gatorade State Player of the Year!
Jacob Dong (12th grade) has won the World Series of Innovation's Reliable Internet Challenge! His proposal, "Internet Consistency in Eritrea and Ethiopia (ICEE)," would connect these countries with high-speed internet by "adding a submarine cable to speed things up and encourage people to use their internet more, connecting them with the world."
Haley Graham (12th grade, AP Art student) took the highest honors at the National Western Stock Show for her two photographs featuring horses. Haley's photos were chosen out of hundreds of applicants as Youth Art Reserve Champions.
The National Center for Women & Information Technology (NCWIT) has selected Makenna Turner (11th grade) as one of 40 national winners of the 2019 NCWIT Award for Aspirations in Computing! Out of over 4,300 applications, Makenna's project caught their attention.
Anna Miecznik (12th grade) is one of the Denver Center for the Performing Arts "2019 Scenesters." Anna is one of the top ten high school playwrights from Colorado recognized for her one-act play *Hurricane!*
"This one-act playwrighting and workshop competition is designed to nurture young writers, develop new plays and inspire Colorado high school students to challenge themselves."
Vince Cornella, Peak to Peak sophomore who wrestles for Monarch's team, took the title at the Top of the Rockies tournament and is poised for a successful run at the state title.
Another team of Peak to Peak sophomores has won $10,000 in the Lexus Eco Challenge! Congratulations to the following team members who will go on to compete for the grand prize:
Allison Flaherty
Jack Begley
Ander De Onaindia
Tenzin Nangsal
Mattie Pape
Dannica Sims
Click here to read more about the Lexus Eco Challenge.
Ashley Tang (12th grade - viola), Ben McCloskey (11th grade - trumpet), and Brandon Guo (11th grade - violin) have all been accepted into the 2019 Colorado All State Orchestra!
The following Peak to Peak Band Students were accepted into this year's Colorado All-State Band: Cathy Li (12th), Ben McCloskey (11th), Scott McCall (12th), Arden Xu (12th), Madison Lin (10th), and Prash Satish (11th). These students were selected by a live audition process and competed against 900 other students in the State of Colorado for this prestigious opportunity. Only the best of best were chosen and we are very fortunate and proud to have representation on such a high level.
Jacob Dong (12th grade) is a national winner in the World Series of Innovation with his idea to bring safe reliable internet to Eritrea and Ethiopia! He has made the top three and his project is open for voting. Please use the following link to vote for his project: Internet Consistency in Eritrea and Ethiopia
At a minimum, Jacob has won several hundred dollars and national runner up, but he vies with two other teams for the national grand prize, which will be determined using judges scores and votes.
In addition, Matthew Willetto (12th grade) made the top ten for his project on Reliable Internet Media Enrichment Centers as well. His project is not up for voting, but it has received a national commendation.
Brandon Guo (11th grade), Ayush Garg (11th grade), and Leonard Shearer (11th grade) advanced to one of the "Top 32" teams in the International Public Policy Forum debate competition.
| December 2018 |
Jack Mueller-Scott (5th grade) scored a bronze medal at the second in-house tournament of the Fencing Academy of Denver/Parker. The tournament was held in Littleton on December 8 and he competed in the co-ed Y10 Mixed Saber group.
The Middle School Boys B Team had a 12-0 season and won the championship against Jefferson Academy 37-28.
Twenty-three freshmen were honored for demonstrating outstanding character during the first semester. The following criteria were considered for this recognition:
1) Students who sense when to be group-minded versus individually-minded.
2) Students who exhibit exemplary cooperation, care and leadership with all types of peers.
3) Students who need little to no redirection within each classroom, bell-to-bell; students who prove self-control and respect for others, bell-to-bell.
4) Students who model, on a daily basis, actions that strengthen the P2P learning environment (e.g., volunteering, picking up trash, opening doors for others, maintaining learning labs for future classes, helping those in need, etc).
5) Students who positively participate in school-wide activities (e.g., school assemblies, study halls).
The Mueller-Scott siblings scored big again; this time at the second in-house tournament of the Fencing Academy of Denver/Longmont with both Brook & Jack tying and scoring bronze medals. The tournament was held in Longmont on December 1. Both Brook (6th grade) & Jack (5th grade) competed in the co-ed Y12 Mixed Ages 8-12 Saber group.
Middle School Math Teacher, Kim Struck, has been given recognition as a finalist in the LearnStorm Keep Going, Keep Growing award!
"LearnStorm is Khan Academy's free, back-to-school program that gives teachers a powerful way to jump start the school year. By combining growth–mindset activities and lesson-aligned practice, LearnStorm drives mastery of core academic skills, motivates classrooms, and builds students' confidence."
| November 2018 |
Two Peak to Peak teachers received a BVSD Innovation grant to do some exciting cross-curricular work together with the students in their respective classes. The grant will combine Lauren Sessions' Anatomy class and Kristie Letter's Innovation and Design Thinking class to help create medical devices via 3D printing. The grant purchases a 3D printer so that our students can innovate medical prosthetics for our community. Using available open source material, students can design and produce medical designs and devices which would cost a fraction of what they normally would. Matthew Willeto (12th grade) is taking the student lead on the project. The students are especially interested in designing for children because they outgrow things so quickly cost can become prohibitive. The teachers were inspired to pursue this grant by a story of a man who made a hand for his son for only $10 using open source material and the school’s 3D printer.
Fall, 2018 Sports Awards:
| Hogan | Brett | Boys Golf | ||||
| Long | Davis | Boys Golf | 1st Team | 1st Team All State | Boco Player of the year | |
| Malhotra | Aditya | Boys Golf | Honorable Mention | |||
| Sharma | Suchit | Boys Golf | Honorable Mention | |||
| Dimond | Reid | Boys Soccer | 1st Team | |||
| Jackson | Garrett | Boys Soccer | Honorable Mention | |||
| Gruener | Jonathon | Boys Soccer | 2nd Team | |||
| Chewning | Michael | Boys Soccer | Honorable Mention | |||
| Lemus | Omar | Boys Soccer | Honorable Mention | |||
| Coach McConnell | Coach of the Year Boys and Girls | |||||
| Cunningham | Benjamin | XC | 2nd Team | 3A State Champion | ||
| Monarski | Ethan | XC | 1st Team | 3A State Champion | ||
| Beasley | Allison | XC | 1st Team | 3A State Runner Up | ||
| Beasley | Cole | XC | 1st Team | 3A State Champion | ||
| McConnell | Quinn | XC | 1st Team/Senior of Year | 3A State Runner Up | Metro Senior Of the Year | |
| Adams | Sydney | XC | Honorable Mention | 3A State Runner Up | ||
| Hager | Justin | XC | 1st Team/ Senior of Year | 3A State Champion | Metro Senior Of the Year | |
| Howard | Jenna | XC | 2nd Team | 3A State Runner Up | ||
| Bradfield | Tiana | XC | 1st Team | 3A State Runner Up | ||
| Kuykendall | Ryan | XC | 1st Team | 3A State Champion | ||
| Ledden | William Joseph | XC | 1st Team | 3A State Champion | ||
| Alexander | William | XC | 2nd Team | 3A State Champion | ||
| Doescher | Luke | XC | 3A State Champion | |||
| Shults | Anna | XC | 1st Team | 3A State Runner Up | ||
| Triem | Elle | XC | 3A State Runner Up | |||
| Portillo | Jennifer | XC | 2nd Team | 3A State Runner Up | ||
| Coates | Julia | Softball | 1st Team- Utility | |||
| Rader | Jamie | Softball | 1st Team Pitcher | |||
| Holtgreive | Heather | Softball | 2nd Team- Infielder | |||
| Alvarez | Alyssa | Softball | 1st Team- Infielder | |||
| Greenspan | Arianna | Volleyball | Honorable Mention | |||
| Winner | Calla | Volleyball | 1st Team |
The Peak to Peak cross country runners had a successful showing at the recent NXR Southwest Regional Championships. The boys team placed 3rd in the small school division. Ethan Monarski (12th grade) was among the top finishers with an impressive time of 16:02.9!
The girls team finished 6th in the championship race, with Quinn McConnell (12th grade) leading the team with a time of 17:15.8! Her 5th place finish has qualified Quinn to compete in the national race on Saturday, December 1st in Portland.
Congratulations to this team of sophomores who rocked a $10,000 win in the Lexus Eco Challenge! The students created an educational campaign to increase awareness around the protection of endangered animals. The project included social media, electronic games, and presentations to younger students. They will go on to now compete for the grand prize of $30,000. What an outstanding representation of creative and innovative thinking!
Congratulations to:
Ella Brakhage
Ben Rosen
Madison Rippetoe
Luke Wolsko
Mana Setayesh
Jessica Kalloor
Read the full article in the Daily Camera.
The Brewer Foundation and New York University have announced the “Top 64” teams for the 18th annual International Public Policy Forum (IPPF) - the first and only contest that gives high school students around the world the opportunity to engage in written and oral debates on issues of public policy. For the third consecutive year, Peak to Peak has a team named in the Top 64. Congratulations to Brandon Guo (11th grade), Ayush Garg (11th grade), and Leonard Shearer (11th grade).
Erin Byrne (11th grade) and her ice skating team placed second at the USFS Synchronized Fall Classic in Anaheim, CA.
The Mueller-Scott siblings scored big at the second in-house tournament of the Fencing Academy of Denver/Parker with both Brook & Jack scoring bronze medals. The tournament was held in Littleton on October 27 . Brook (6th grade) competed in the co-ed Y12 Mixed Saber group and Jack (5th grade) competed in the co-ed Y10 Mixed Saber group.
Peak to Peak men’s gymnastics students won 5th place at the opening meet of the season and a trophy for Peak to Peak. Congratulations to Logan Hsia (12th grade), Trevor O’Dowd (10th grade), and Sam Brende (11th grade).
The Brewer Foundation and New York University announced the “Top 64” teams for the 18th annual International Public Policy Forum (IPPF) - the first and only contest that gives high school students around the world the opportunity to engage in written and oral debates on issues of public policy. For the third consecutive year, Peak to Peak had a team named in the Top 64. Congratulations to Brandon Guo (11th grade), Ayush Garg (11th grade), and Leonard Shearer (11th grade).
Senior students Akriti Poudel and Brian Wee were selected as 2019 Coca-Cola Scholars Foundation Semifinalists. These 1,896 students were selected from over 95,000 submitted applications from across the country to continue through our selection process. In January 2019, Akriti and Brian advanced to be among the 250 Regional Finalists.
Makenna Turner (11th grade) received the "Future STEM Leader Award" from CBS, Colorado School of Mines, and PCD Energy.
Peak to Peak is proud to have five athletes in the 2019 graduating class who are signing with Division 1 colleges and one headed to a Division 3 school. S
Tiana Bradfield
Northern Arizona University
Cross Country/Track
Ashley Buck
Boston University
Soccer
Quinn McConnell
Furman University
Cross Country/Track
Nathan Poretz
Christopher Newport
Baseball (Catcher)
Makinzie Short
Nebraska
Soccer
Anna Shults
CU Boulder
Cross Country/Track
Cooper Campbell (4th grade) and his 4th grade football team, the Broomfield Blitz for taking second place in the Division I State Championship this weekend!
Congratulations to Elias "Eli" Oakley (3rd grade) who won 2nd Place at the Kooky Spooky 1 Mile Race October 28, 2018.
National Junior Honor Society student leaders Lauren Wagner (9th grade), Gianna Guido (9th grade), and Palpasha Karki (9th grade) attended the LEADership conference in Florida.
| October 2018 |
Ali Kerschner (9th grade) performed to a packed house on October 26th in Lafayette’s East Simpson Coffee House.
The High School Boys Cross Country team landed the state title at the 3A meet over the weekend! William Ledden (11th grade) finished 3rd in the individual race, but it was the team score that drove them to the top.
The Girls Cross Country Team finished with an impressive 2nd place in the 3A championship with Anna Shults claiming 2nd and Quinn McConnell 3rd individually.
Ingrid Veres (5th grade) earned her Padi open water dive certification in Lake Pleasant, Arizona at the desert tortoise diving site. In order to achieve the certification, she had to dive over the course of four days, accomplishing different milestones on each dive. Ingrid persevered through extremely challenging visibility and temperatures.
She hopes to continue progressing towards the advanced diver certification sometime in the near future.
Xavier Que (Kindergarten) has been working hard at his Kung Fu practice. He has attended classes for almost two years, and has put in many hours a week and practices at home. He recently tested and received his orange belt. He had to remember over 35 moves and scrimmage a black belt for this accomplishment.
Philip Fischer (6th grade) belongs to Code Ninjas, an educational company that teaches kids 7 to 14 years old how to code by building video games. Code Ninjas 1st Annual Coda-A-Thon and Philip was one of at least 15 to 20 kids participating. He took the top prize and won the Code-A-Thon.
Bethany Bell (8th grade) participated in her first presentation as a YES! Ambassador. YES! stands for Youth Example of Self-Advocacy. The Ambassadors act as mentors the other members and help teach them how to advocate for themselves and how to talk to other about dyslexia. They also work to raise awareness of dyslexia by giving presentations at hospitals, school board meetings, and other events. The topic for this presentation was assistive technology (AT). Bethany had the opportunity to share her dyslexia story and talk about the AT that she uses. After the presentation, the ambassadors took time to give demonstrations of the AT to the attendees.
Madison Shults, 8th grade, ran her personal best in the middle school cross country championship race which landed her a 5th place finish.
Our National Honor Society chapter inducted 50 new members this fall and the National Junior Honor Society inducted 40 new members.
The Lafayette Jazz Ultimate Frisbee Club celebrated a finals victory in the Fun Division of the Monarch High School Invitational Tournament. The team, featuring players from Peak to Peak and Centaurus, defeated opponents from Lakewood, Boulder, Monarch, and Horizon.
The Peak to Peak Model UN club attended its first conference of the season on Saturday. Seventeen P2P students participated in the all-day event. Our beginners debated the difficult topics of Climate Change and the alleged genocide against the Rohingya people of Myanmar. Three of our beginner teams (Noah Douglass (9th) & Sartaj Singh (9th), Ali Kerschner (9th) & Rishi Hancock (9th), and Tanusree Banerjee (9th) & Bronwyn Busby (9th)) took home ‘Best Delegation’ awards in their individual councils. Our three Intermediate teams worked on the complex issues of Drug Trafficking and Human Trafficking from the perspective of countries in the Organization of American States. Leonard Shearer (11th) took home the award of ‘Outstanding Delegate’ for his work.
The High School Girls and Boys Cross Country teams both won the 3A Regional Championship titles this weekend! For the girl's team, the top three individuals slots were a lock for seniors Quinn McConnell, Anna Shults, and Tiana Bradfield. For the boy's, William Ledden (11th grade) took 2nd place and Ethan Monarski (12th grade) finished 3rd in the individuals. Four other Pumas also earned top ten finishes: Jenna Howard (12th), Ryan Kuykendall (10th), Justin Hager (12th), and Cole Beasley (12th).
Nate Starbuck, 8th grade, made the Mountain Zone national team for water polo through the Olympic Development Program.
Four 12th grade students in the Communication Innovation Honors class won cash prizes through Lafayette's See and Respond contest. Congratulations to the following students:
Ben Blankenship - First Prize in Art
Matthew Willetto - Second Prize in Art
Jenna Howard - Second Prize in Poetry
Noah Irwin - Third Prize Poetry.
Davis Long, 11th grade, was named BoCoPreps golfer of the year.
Click on the links below to see a list of students who made Peak to Peak's honor roll for the Spring Semester, 2018.
|
Student Honor |
Requirements |
|
MS Honor Roll MS High Honor Roll MS Dean’s List HS Honor Roll HS High Honor Roll HS Dean’s List |
3.0 – 3.499 GPA 3.5 – 3.899 GPA 3.9 – 4.0 GPA 3.3 – 3.699 GPA 3.7 – 3.899 GPA 3.9 – 5.0 GPA |
HS Honor Roll 2017/18 2nd semester list
The Peak to Peak Cross Country boys and girls varsity teams placed first at the 3A Metro League race held at Anthem Park on October 4th. Individually, the girls' race was won by Quinn McConnell (12th grade), while the boys' race was won by William Ledden (11th grade).
The Middle School Boys Soccer team and new coach Erik Torguson won the end-of-season tournament!
Senior Jonathon Gruener for earned designation as an Eagle Scout. Eagle Scout is the highest achievement or rank attainable in the Boy Scouting program of the Boy Scouts of America.
The Boys Tennis team advanced to the regional finals.
The Softball team advanced to the regional finals.
Brook Mueller-Scott (6th grade) started off the fencing season strong, winning the bronze medal at the first in-house tournament of the Fencing Academy of Denver-Longmont held on September 22. She competed in the co-ed Y12 Mixed Ages 8-12 Saber group.
Davis Long (11th grade) finished third in the Class 3A boys golf state championships! "While many of the golfers who opened the day ahead of him struggled, Long's steady second round was enough for him to creep up the leaderboard and into the top three."
Quinn McConnell (12th grade) strikes again! "McConnell won the girls' sweepstakes race at the Nike Desert Twilight Festival on Friday night in 17 minutes and .10 seconds, the nation's eighth-best time for a high school girl this season."
| September 2018 |
Peak to Peak 9th grader Sophie Steven is the 2018 - 2019 JDRF Rocky Mountain Youth Ambassador Historian and was captain of her JDRF Denver One Walk team, Finger Prickin’ Good. The walk occurred on Sunday, September 16, 2018. Sophie raised more than $5,600 to help fund research to find a cure for Type 1 diabetes. Finger Prickin’ Good and Sophie we’re recognized as one of the top fundraisers this year.
Anna Shults (12th grade) and Quinn McConnell (12th grade) represented Team USA at the World Mountain Running Championships in Andorra last weekend. Their team finished in 6th place overall!
"At the finish, Shults crossed the line with a solid 14th place. Blair followed just over a minute back in 18th place. McConnell was the third scoring U.S. junior team member in 25th place while Gaylord nursed a hurt foot to the finish in 45th."
Pictured from left to right:
Anna Shults
Joslyn Blair - Vail
Quinn Mcconnell
Soleil Gaylord - Telluride
The following seniors have been named as 2019 National Merit Scholarship Semifinalists!
Naomi Burns
Capri Huffman
Isabella Sicker
William Stahoviak
Isaac Van Tol
Brian Wee
"NMSC announced the names of approximately 16,000 Semifinalists in the 64th annual National Merit Scholarship Program. These academically talented high school seniors have an opportunity to continue in the competition for some 7,500 National Merit Scholarships worth more than $32 million that will be offered next spring. To be considered for a Merit Scholarship® award, Semifinalists must fulfill several requirements to advance to the Finalist level of the competition. About 90 percent of the Semifinalists are expected to attain Finalist standing, and about half of the Finalists will win a National Merit Scholarship, earning the Merit Scholar® title."
In support of World Suicide Prevention Day, Peak to Peak Counselor Mary Campbell was interviewed on KGNU about this important topic. If you or someone you know is struggling with thoughts of suicide, please reach out for help. The interview describes several valuable resources that anyone can use.
High School Counselor, Mary Campbell, was featured in the Daily Camera's regular education related spotlight:
| August 2018 |
Rising junior, Makenna Turner, used her summer break to make a big difference in the lives of students in Puerto Rico who were impacted by the hurricane. Makenna ran a school supply drive and then personally delivered those supplies to a school in Puerto Rico. She was interviewed and featured by 9News for her efforts.
Peak to Peak's Conrad Scholars, 5 teams of high school students who spent this year innovating solutions to global challenges, won top honors at the Conrad Summit at the Kennedy Space Center.
Sophomores Mana Setayesh, Paris Kiehl and Tenzin Nangsal are Pete Conrad Award winners, the top international prize selected from among 191 semifinalist teams from around the world. The award includes scholarships, prizes, business development, and an all-expense-paid trip to India for their enterprise to reduce tobacco use in India;
John Douthit (12th grade) and Clara Tracy (11th grade) won the Power Pitch award for their Innovation to reduce teens' nicotine vaping;
Sophomores Isabella Brakhage, Ander De Onaindia, Vikas Muralidharan and Jeffrey Chen were chosen as the Good Citizens of the Summit;
and Kristie Betts Letter won the Nancy Conrad Innovative Teacher Award.
Six high school artists' works were selected to hang at the Dairy Art Center in the BVSD Art Show. Matthew Willetto (12th grade), Aspen Bradley (12th grade), Izzy Hettmansperger (12th grade), Sophie Graham (10th grade), Ainsley Smith (11th grade), and Julia Crook (11th grade) created works in multiple mediums that will hang until May 5th.
The following NJHS students won the Outstanding Student Achievement Award and won a $500 college scholarship!!
Sophie Steven (9th grade)
Alisha Kumari (9th grade)
Riley Justice (9th grade)
Alec Babineau (8th grade)
Bryce Li (9th grade)
At the BVSD Student Advisory Committee last week, Sam Custard (10th grade) teamed up to present on Alternatives to Suspension, while Izzy Hettmansperger (12th grade) included great data and links in her presentation on Mental Health Needs. Chloe Doubrava (11th grade) focused her presentation on Alternative Ed Options in BVSD.
LEAD Boulder is a two-year leadership program offered to juniors and seniors through BVSD. Students participating in the program presented their LEAD Capstone projects. Sam Goertzen (12th grade) and his team produced an engaging project on mental health and mental illness concerning teens in our state. Their presentation included hands-on recommendations to put supports in place.
Luc Almony (12th grade) and Jules Walther (12th grade) presented on collaborative recycling efforts on our campus including ideas for reusable metal straws, a LaCroix/Switch can capture challenge, and connections to our Rise to the Peak day on May 3rd.
Brooke Van Der Jagt (3rd grade), Gianna Clark (3rd grade), Kate Guengerich (3rd grade), and Jillian Ingle (3rd grade) presented at the Impact on Education Classroom Innovation Grant Showcase on Monday evening, with Ms. Oliva and Ms. Eckstein, showcasing their Colorado Life Zone Virtual Reality projects.
Nathan Poretz (12th grade) was the BoCo Preps Athlete of the Week, and he was also featured on the 9News Prep Rally Saturday morning (minute 2:50). Nathan hit four home runs and drove in seven runs during a recent game against Kent Denver.
The following students will be advancing to the district level Battle of the Books competition:
3rd
Aleema Razzak
Tessa Hirt
Levi Hartter
Clara Wright
Jocelyn Fiegland
4th
Kyra Rein
Shibani Senthilkumar
Vyom Jain
Lila Eikel
Eddie Humphreys
5th
Ram Mangu
Nicholas Griffin
Will Rigney
Saatwik Das
Amanda Zou
6th
Tanishka Tagare
Jude Hartter
Lola Graves
Evan Douglass
Fritz Weber
7th
Anjana Radha
Shreya Senthilkumar
Siddharth Nareddy
Amrita Saini
Ava Sommer
8th
Lucas Briggs
Ryan Taylor
Pranaya Kansara
Sophie Steven (9th grade) was recognized by the City and County of Broomfield with a 2019 Broomfield Youth Recognition Award (BYRA)! The BYRA program allows the greater Broomfield community to honor and acknowledge those youth who, despite adversity, achieved positive change in their lives. Sophie, who has Type 1 Diabetes, was recognized for the many years of legislative advocacy and fundraising efforts she has been passionately pursuing on behalf of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.
Ms. Monika Bunting, 7th grade English teacher at Peak to Peak, published an article titled "Why I Teach: Building a safe space for students—and you, as teacher—to grow and learn" through the Association for Middle Level Education.
In her own words: "At the core of who I am as a teacher is love and creating a safe space where the affirmation of self and others can flourish and grow. I believe with the foundation of this safe space, students can be challenged to learn with a deeper sense of who they are. Yet this transformation must come first from the teacher, and this means entering the classroom with an open and accepting heart."
Baseballer Garrett Shriver (11th grade) was named as BoCo Preps athlete of the week.
Five Peak to Peak students were recognized in the national Cooper Hewitt design competition for innovative nature-based solutions to global problems. These students had their designs displayed in the Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum! Honored students are Jack Begley (10th grade), Paris Kiehl (10th grade), Sophie Kiehl (10th grade), Heather Holtgreive (12th grade), and Payton Shattuck (12th grade).
Out of nearly1,000 students statewide who auditioned, six Peak to Peak band students were accepted into this year's two 110 piece 2019 All-State Bands. Cathy Li (12th grade), Madison Lin (10th grade), Scott McCall (12th grade), Ben McCloskey (11th grade), Prash Satish (11th grade), and Arden Xu (12th grade).
During Spring Break, students spent two long days in rehearsals with two outstanding collegiate directors from Perdue and Indiana Universities. Students rehearsed a variety of difficult music that would challenge even the best college bands. Students watched live performances from a variety of music groups put on by UNC's music department as well as listened to an Over the Hill Band made up of current band directors. Lastly, the students put on a two-hour public concert that was outstanding, impressive, and inspiring.
Jack Brandstatter (8th grade) and Chase Brandstatter (5th grade) qualified for the Buddy Werner League State Ski Team. These students raced in the Western Slope Championships and each placed top five in their age groups.
The Buddy Werner League is "a recreational race program that strengthens young skiers grades 2nd - 8th."
Madison Lin (10th grade), Suchit Sharma (11th grade), and Chase Parker (12th grade brought home "a lot of hardware" -- a quote from Mr. Howard -- from Gateway High School's Calculus Bowl. Mr. Lehr and Mr. Howard also received a trophy for being such rockstar Calculus teachers.
High school math teacher Ms. Liz Tarbutton has been recognized with the University of Colorado Boulder’s Outstanding Colorado High School Educator Award, "which recognizes the top high school teachers, faculty and staff in the state of Colorado who go above and beyond to support students as they pursue their higher education dreams."
Jocelyn Fiegland (3rd grade) participated in her first Boulder County 4-H Horse Show, the Leaders Council Season Opener. Jocelyn rode a horse named "Loves to Zip." She placed 5th in Western Pleasure - Walk/Jog and 4th in Western Horsemanship - Walk/Jog.
Seniors Sam Goertzen and Akriti Poudel have been named as 2019 Daniel's Scholarship recipients. "The Daniels Scholarship Program provides a four-year annually-renewable college scholarship for graduating high school seniors in Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming who demonstrate exceptional character, leadership, and a commitment to serving their communities." Sam and Akriti are among the 218 students were awarded the scholarship this year.
We recognize that many of our senior students are receiving recognition for their outstanding achievements in a variety of realms including academic, athletic, artistic, service, leadership, etc.. Some are attaining goals they once thought impossible. During the spring semester, our inboxes are bulging with good news about the accomplishments that carry significance to each one of our graduating seniors. Scholarships, such as the Daniels Scholarship, carry a particular national significance and are celebrated broadly not only because the students have earned it, but also as a reflection of our K-12 program's success.
Peak to Peak's Key Club members recently attended the Denver Key Club Convention where they were honored with the "Early Bird Registration" award and took first place for their Annual Traditional Scrapbook which means they will now go on to compete at the national level.
In addition, Jessica Kalloor (10th grade) was elected to be the new Lieutenant Governor of Key Club for Division 11! As Lieutenant Governor she will be representing all of Division 11 at the district level as well as communicating with all the local Key Clubs and Kiwanis Clubs about district and international Key Club business.
Brian Wee (12th grade) not only won a national Gold Medal from Scholastic for his memoir "Hug Coupons and Shoe Boxes," but he also won the 2019 New York Life Award for writing about personal loss and grief. Brian will receive a thousand-dollar scholarship award and will be honored at Carnegie Hall this June.
Peak to Peak debaters Brandon Guo (11th grade), Ayush Garg (11th grade), and Leonard Shearer (11th grade) are now one of the final eight teams left in the International Public Policy Debate competition! As one of the top eight teams in the world, they have won an all-expense-paid trip to New York City where they will debate in-person at the Council on Foreign Relations on April 27th for a chance to win $10,000!
Eddie Humphreys (4th grade) won the silver medal on High Bar in the State of Colorado Level 5 Men's Gymnastics Championships! He is now ranked second in the state for Level 5 in High Bar. He beat out 99 other boys in Colorado with a score of 11.2. (A perfect score is 11.5.)
| March 2019 |
Izzy Hettsmansperger (12th grade) has received a National Scholastic Art Silver Medal for her exceptional, digitally hand-drawn piece called "Fear." This piece also won a Regional Gold Key Award, but the latest recognition is at the national level.
Peak to Peak has two 2019 Boettcher Scholars, Nick Entin and Kailey Zaronias. Only 42 students across the state are selected for this highly competitive scholarship which provides a full ride to any Colorado college or university.
Iron Chef competitors Ellen Lu (7th grade), Sanjita Balaji (7th grade), Shreya Senthilkumar (7th grade), and Brianna Tang (6th grade) and heir team, "Magic Flavors," advanced to the live competition at Casey Middle School to compete against five other teams out of 28 who also advanced. Although they had tough competition, the team placed third! Their prize was a giant check that they have decided to donate to the Peak To Peak.
Vyom Jain (4th grade) and his YMCA Ice Hockey Squirts team, recently placed at second in their division at the Avalanche Cup tournament.
Logan Hsia (12th grade) & Sam Brende (11th grade) competed in the state championships for men’s gymnastics. Their local Lafayette team, Xtreme, competes at the highest level (Level 10) and placed 2nd in the state.
The following athletes received recognition for winter season sports:
Vince Cornella: Wrestling (Monarch), Front Range League Academic & All-Conference 1st Team, 5A 113lb State Champion
Jonah Eaves: Basketball, Metro Honorable Mention
Max Higdon: Basketball, Metro 2nd Team All-Conference
Corinna Kelly: Swimming (Monarch) Front Range League Academic & All-Conference 1st Team
Ryan Kuykendall: Wrestling (Monarch), Front Range League Academic & All-Conference 1st Team
Ian McDonald: Football (Erie), 1st Team All-Conference
Aiyana Rockwell: Basketball, Metro Honorable Mention
Rachel Willette: Basketball, Metro 2nd Team All-Conference
Photographers from the AP Studio Art: 2D Design course dominated the Denver MOP Teen Show! Students took home seven wins - more than any other school in Colorado. Photographs will on display at Pirate Contemporary Art Gallery starting April 7th with an opening on April 12th.
Courtney Daniel (2nd grade) took 1st place in the "U8 Traditional Set" competition at the Western Regional Irish Dance Championships in Portland, Oregon! Here she is pictured with her champion sash and Irish Crystal. Courtney performs with the Celtic Steps Irish Dance School.
Senior Naomi Burns was awarded a Morehead-Cain Scholarship at UNC Chapel Hill. Naomi is Peak to Peak's first ever to be honored with this scholarship. In the words of her counselor Ms. Gannett, "She achieved the impossible, by following her passions and finding a fit!"
The Morehead-Cain is a four-year, fully-funded scholarship awarded to "driven, courageous, and inquisitive leaders eager to embrace new and unknown experiences."
Emily Leonard (9th grade) had a successful performance at the KAR National Dance Competition. She won the 1st place in her dance category and overall 3rd place in the entire competition. She brought home “Elite Top First Award” which is the highest possible achievement.
Ninth graders Tannvi Banerjee and Bronwyn Busby qualified for this year's National Speech & Debate Tournament in Public Forum debate. This team took on seasoned veteran teams from all over the front range to place 3rd overall at the qualifying tournament.
| February 2019 |
Andrew Kim and Peter Trainor (11th graders) played for the Monarch High School Varsity Ice Hockey Team. The team made it to the quarterfinals at the 2019 CHSSA Ice Hockey State Championships. During their game against Valor Christian High, Andrew and Peter both hustled to score goals and help their team. Unfortunately, the game ended with a double-overtime loss 0:1. But Andrew and Peter put great effort into the game and deserve a big round of applause for a successful season.
Katelyn Remund (8th grade) participated in the CU Middle School Honor Band on February 22 and 23 on the CU Boulder campus. Participants had to audition and she was one of 12 flutists in the band of 81 students from all over Colorado.
Vince Cornella (10th grade) won the 5A State Championship wrestling title. This is Vince's second state championship win. Vince attends Peak to Peak, but wrestles on the Monarch team.
On Saturday, February 9th, Peak to Peak Tennis players Trini, Trisha, Madison, Tiffany and Paige volunteered to help USTA (United States Tennis Association) National Coaches demonstrate techniques and drills for high school players at the Annual Professional Tennis Association conference in Centennial, Colorado.
Peak to Peak freshman, Sophie Steven, is heading to Capitol Hill this summer as a Delegate for Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF) 2019 Children’s Congress.
There were thousands of applicants to attend, and 160 were selected nationally to participate in this amazing program. She will be proudly representing the state of Colorado as she gets the opportunity to speak with national leaders in Washington, D.C. regarding education and advocacy about Type 1 diabetes research and needs for health care reform.
Sophie is currently serving as the JDRF Rocky Mountain Youth Ambassador Vice President.
The Middle School Girls Basketball A team swept the final tournament, beating out Cornerstone Christian and Jefferson Academy to take first place in the league.
Simon Holstein (8th grade) and the RoughRider AAA Tier 1 elite hockey team he plays with won the Cedar Rapids RoughRider Presidents' Day Challenge Tournament.
The following students received awards at Peak to Peak's History Day and will not move on to the district level competition:
| Documentaries | ||
| Individual Documentary | Neeharika Hancock | Terror to Triumph: Surviving the Rwandan Genocide |
| Individual Documentary | Faith Peddycord | George Balanchine: Moving West for the Better |
| Group Documentary | ViVi Ember, Alena Carpenter | Titanic |
| Performances | ||
| Group Performance | Hannah-Nicole D'Epagnier, Mia Reta, Maya Schweiger | The Life of Audrey Hepburn |
| Individual Performance | Lea Cook | NAWSA: Triumph or Tragedy |
| Individual Performance | Sydney Perincheril | Beethoven |
| Websites | ||
| Group Website | Owyn Wyatt, Athena Hiesterman | Animation Brought to Life |
| Group Website | Jack Brandstetter, Michael Hambach | The Huey Helicopter in the Vietnam War |
| Group Website | Chloe Eisen, Emily Cain | The Triumph and Tragedy of Elvis Presley |
| Individual Website | Dominik Gendreau | Lou Gherig |
| Individual Website | Natalie Sievers | Child Labor: Triumph over Tragedy |
| Exhibits | ||
| Group Exhibit | Morgan Brasier, Madison Shults, Riley Lackey | The Stonewall Riot - LGBTQ+ Rights |
| Group Exhibit | Joey Hoffman, Marcus Matsuda | The Barbary Wars |
| Group Exhibit | Ella Hey, Makenna Bolton | The Hamilton-Burr Duel |
| Group Exhibit | Haley Buck, Emily Kirkfield | Women Airforce Service Pilots: Triumph and Tragedy |
| Individual Exhibit | Julian Zerwekh Reardon | Triumph and Tragedy: The Miracle on Ice |
| Individual Exhibit | Molly Anderson | The Montgomery Church Bombing and the Civil Rights Act of 1964. |
| Individual Exhibit | Ryan Taylor | Operation Paperclip: Did the Triumph Outweigh the Tragedy? |
| Individual Exhibit | Maya Schweiger | Facial Reconstruction |
| Papers | ||
| Individual Paper | Caleb Frank | The Triumph and Tragedy of The Battle of the Bulge |
| Individual Paper | Jadyn Ries | The Triumphs and Tragedies of the Modern Olympics |
| Individual Paper | Vasilisa Malenkiy | The Great Affair of the Enlightenment- Triumph or Tragedy? |
| Individual Paper | Nathan Salem | The Triumph and Tragedy of the Hollywood Traitors |
Peak to Peak sent an impressive line up to the Corden Pharma Regional Science Fair. The following students received awards:
Middle School:
Andrew Mehalko (8th grade): 2nd place, Transportation and Energy
Alexandra Flint (8th grade): 1st place, Environmental Science
Aurora West (8th grade): 2nd place, Microbiology (tied)
Isabelle Entin (8th grade): 2nd place, Microbiology (tied)
Anne Nevadomski (8th grade): 2nd place, Plant Science
Darryk Hall (8th grade): 2nd place, Physics
Katelyn Remund (8th grade): 1st place, Physics
High School:
Nicholas Entin (12th grade): 2nd place, Earth and Space Science
Ayush Garg (11th grade), Brandon Guo (11th grade), and Leonard Shearer (11th grade): Team 2nd place, Math and Computer Science
Chloe Hodgson (12th grade) and Sudeepti Nareddy (12th grade): Team 1st place, Microbiology
Special Awards:
Alexandra Flint (8th grade): Broadcom Masters award
Katelyn Remund (8th grade): Broadcom Masters award
Connor Cahoon (12th grade) and Logan Hsia (12th grade): Team Mu Alpha Theta award
Read the article in the Daily Camera:
http://www.dailycamera.com/…/boulder-county-students-presen…
Peak to Peak has FOUR teams (more than from any school in the nation) invited to compete at Cape Canaveral April 23-26, 2019 in the NASA-sponsored world finals for the Conrad Challenge, and two other teams selected as alternates. These students innovated a global solution in a collaboration between our Innovation and Global Issues classes. Their initial entries were funded by Peak to Peak's Innovation Grant. Between now and April, students will be refining prototypes and pitches as well as raising funds for their travel to the Kennedy Space Center.
Winning teams:
ConvergenSeat: Paige McSavaney (11th grade), Coby Mandell (12th grade), and Walker Richard (12th grade)
Alternate Industry India: Jessica Kalloor (10th grade), Zachary Carncross (10th grade), and Bailey Patterson (10th grade)
Spicearettes: Tenzin Nangsal (10th grade), Paris Kiehl (10th grade), and Mana Setayesh (10th grade)
Malawi Hurt 2 Health: Isabella Brakhage (10th grade), Vikas Muralidharan (10th grade), Jeffrey Chen (10th grade), and Ander De Onaindia (10th grade)
Alternates:
Caltab Solutions: Luc Almony (12th grade), Anya Berchtold (12th grade), and Clara Tracy (11th grade)
Bidi 2 Bracelet: Paige Mowery (12th grade) and John Douthit (12th grade)
Congratulations to the winners of Peak to Peak's 7th Annual Poetry Out Loud event:
First Place: Nick Entin (12th grade)
Second Place: Kailey Zaronias (12th grade)
Third Place: Izzy Hettmansperger (12th grade)
Six Peak to Peak seniors were selected as National Merit Scholarship Finalists. They are among only 15,000 students across the nation to receive this recognition:
Naomi Burns
Capri Huffman
Isabella Sicker
William Stahoviak
Isaac Van Tol
Brian Wee
Twelve Speech and Debate students --and a record number of freshmen-- qualified to compete at the State Championships in March:
Brandon Guo (11th grade) & Ayush Garg (11th grade) - Public Forum Debate
Linh Tran (9th grade): Original Oratory
Paige Burns (11th grade): Humor Interp
Akriti Poudel (12th grade): Original Oratory
Will Alexander (12th grade): Lincoln-Douglas Debate
Chloe Hodgson (12th grade): Original Oratory
Gianna Guido (9th grade): International Extemporaneous Speaking
Palpasha Karki (9th grade): International Extemporaneous Speaking
Nivedita Prabhu (9th grade): National Extemporaneous Speaking
Kritin Basrur (10th grade): National Extemporaneous Speaking
Alvina Zhang (9th grade): Original Oratory
Senior Ashley Tang (viola) and Junior Ben McCloskey (trumpet) played in the All-State Orchestras festival in Fort Collins.
The Peak To Peak Girls Tennis team was recognized at the USTA Colorado Annual Hall of Fame Gala on February 9 for their 2018 3A State Championship.
Sam Brende (11th grade), Logan Hsia (12th grade), and Trevor O’Dowd (10th grade) and the Junior Development gymnastics team won the Azarian Team Cup at Soka University in California.
Click on the links below to see a list of students who made Peak to Peak's honor roll for the Fall Semester, 2018.
|
Student Honor |
Requirements |
|
MS Honor Roll MS High Honor Roll MS Dean’s List HS Honor Roll HS High Honor Roll HS Dean’s List |
3.0 – 3.499 GPA 3.5 – 3.899 GPA 3.9 – 4.0 GPA 3.3 – 3.699 GPA 3.7 – 3.899 GPA 3.9 – 5.0 GPA |
HS Honor Roll 2018-19 1st semester list
Peak to Peak students earned 21 Scholastic Writing Awards, in the West Region, which is an 8-state region. Brian Wee (12th grade), Sam Goertzen (12th grade), and Chloe Hodgson (12th grade) earned Gold Keys for their entries and will continue to the national competition.
Click here to read more about the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards.
The 7th grade Brain Bowl team won 5th place at the North regional competition last week. Tej Mathur, Adithi Ramaswamy, Luke Taylor, and Kyle Thengvall have advanced to the state championship.
In keeping with our mission of providing global learning opportunities for our students, we are participating in the International School to School Experience (ISSE). ISSE is an international exchange program that provides for the exchange of thoughts and ideas through face-to-face contact with students from other countries around the world. Six students and one staff member from The Prescott School in Arequipa, spent two weeks at Peak to Peak. In March, seven Peak to Peak middle school students and one staff member will visit The Prescott School for several weeks.
On Saturday, Feb. 2, the P2P Ethics Bowl team reached the finals in the regional High School Ethics Bowl for the 4th consecutive year, placing 2nd and 3rd in the overall competition. Congratulations to all the members of the team, who worked for months preparing thoughtful, sophisticated considerations of tough ethical dilemmas.
Rory Baxter (10th grade) showed her Scottish Highland Heifer at the prestigious National Western Stock Show last week. This is the largest Highland show and competition in the nation and Rory took first place in her class showing Belle, her 1-year-old heifer.
Lola Graves (6th grade) won this year's Middle School Spelling Bee.
Saturday, February 9th, the Girls Tennis team will be recognized for winning the Colorado State Championship Title by the USTA (United States Tennis Association) at the Colorado Tennis Hall of Fame Gala.
Peak to Peak students participated in the Math Counts competition and performed well. Warren Chen (7th grade) is moving on to the state competition!
Congratulations to our 2019 Scholastic Art Award winners!
Portfolio Art Awards:
1. Isabelle Hettmansperger: Mirror Dream, Gold Key, grade 12, drawing & illustration
2. Emily Hogan: Bug's Eye View: Life and Death, Gold Key, grade 12, photography
Individual Art Awards:
1. Paige Burns: Gold Key, grade 11, photography
2. Isabelle Hettmansperger: Gold Key, grade 12, digital art
3. Isabelle Hettmansperger: Gold Key, grade 12, digital art
4. Isabelle Hettmansperger: Gold Key, grade 12, digital art
5. Emily Hogan: Gold Key, grade 12, photography
6. Micaela Kerrane: Honorable Mention, grade 7, ceramics & glass
7. Max Morton: Gold Key, grade 12, photography
8. Julia O’Brien: Gold Key, grade 12, digital art
9. Arinna Tang: Silver Key, grade 12, drawing and illustration
| January 2019 |
Two Peak to Peak Seniors advanced as Regional Finalists for the Coca-Cola Scholarship! Akriti Poudel and Brian Wee will compete with 249 other finalists from across the country for one of 150 $20,000 scholarships.
Quinn McConnell (12th grade) was named the Gatorade Colorado Girls Cross Country Runner of the Year!
The Gatorade Player of the Year program is proud to recognize the nation’s most elite high school athletes for not only athletic excellence, but also for high standards of academic achievement and exemplary character. Roughly 5.7 million kids play the Gatorade Player of the Year sports – only 607 are named Gatorade State Player of the Year!
Jacob Dong (12th grade) has won the World Series of Innovation's Reliable Internet Challenge! His proposal, "Internet Consistency in Eritrea and Ethiopia (ICEE)," would connect these countries with high-speed internet by "adding a submarine cable to speed things up and encourage people to use their internet more, connecting them with the world."
Haley Graham (12th grade, AP Art student) took the highest honors at the National Western Stock Show for her two photographs featuring horses. Haley's photos were chosen out of hundreds of applicants as Youth Art Reserve Champions.
The National Center for Women & Information Technology (NCWIT) has selected Makenna Turner (11th grade) as one of 40 national winners of the 2019 NCWIT Award for Aspirations in Computing! Out of over 4,300 applications, Makenna's project caught their attention.
Anna Miecznik (12th grade) is one of the Denver Center for the Performing Arts "2019 Scenesters." Anna is one of the top ten high school playwrights from Colorado recognized for her one-act play *Hurricane!*
"This one-act playwrighting and workshop competition is designed to nurture young writers, develop new plays and inspire Colorado high school students to challenge themselves."
Vince Cornella, Peak to Peak sophomore who wrestles for Monarch's team, took the title at the Top of the Rockies tournament and is poised for a successful run at the state title.
Another team of Peak to Peak sophomores has won $10,000 in the Lexus Eco Challenge! Congratulations to the following team members who will go on to compete for the grand prize:
Allison Flaherty
Jack Begley
Ander De Onaindia
Tenzin Nangsal
Mattie Pape
Dannica Sims
Click here to read more about the Lexus Eco Challenge.
Ashley Tang (12th grade - viola), Ben McCloskey (11th grade - trumpet), and Brandon Guo (11th grade - violin) have all been accepted into the 2019 Colorado All State Orchestra!
The following Peak to Peak Band Students were accepted into this year's Colorado All-State Band: Cathy Li (12th), Ben McCloskey (11th), Scott McCall (12th), Arden Xu (12th), Madison Lin (10th), and Prash Satish (11th). These students were selected by a live audition process and competed against 900 other students in the State of Colorado for this prestigious opportunity. Only the best of best were chosen and we are very fortunate and proud to have representation on such a high level.
Jacob Dong (12th grade) is a national winner in the World Series of Innovation with his idea to bring safe reliable internet to Eritrea and Ethiopia! He has made the top three and his project is open for voting. Please use the following link to vote for his project: Internet Consistency in Eritrea and Ethiopia
At a minimum, Jacob has won several hundred dollars and national runner up, but he vies with two other teams for the national grand prize, which will be determined using judges scores and votes.
In addition, Matthew Willetto (12th grade) made the top ten for his project on Reliable Internet Media Enrichment Centers as well. His project is not up for voting, but it has received a national commendation.
Brandon Guo (11th grade), Ayush Garg (11th grade), and Leonard Shearer (11th grade) advanced to one of the "Top 32" teams in the International Public Policy Forum debate competition.
| December 2018 |
Jack Mueller-Scott (5th grade) scored a bronze medal at the second in-house tournament of the Fencing Academy of Denver/Parker. The tournament was held in Littleton on December 8 and he competed in the co-ed Y10 Mixed Saber group.
The Middle School Boys B Team had a 12-0 season and won the championship against Jefferson Academy 37-28.
Twenty-three freshmen were honored for demonstrating outstanding character during the first semester. The following criteria were considered for this recognition:
1) Students who sense when to be group-minded versus individually-minded.
2) Students who exhibit exemplary cooperation, care and leadership with all types of peers.
3) Students who need little to no redirection within each classroom, bell-to-bell; students who prove self-control and respect for others, bell-to-bell.
4) Students who model, on a daily basis, actions that strengthen the P2P learning environment (e.g., volunteering, picking up trash, opening doors for others, maintaining learning labs for future classes, helping those in need, etc).
5) Students who positively participate in school-wide activities (e.g., school assemblies, study halls).
The Mueller-Scott siblings scored big again; this time at the second in-house tournament of the Fencing Academy of Denver/Longmont with both Brook & Jack tying and scoring bronze medals. The tournament was held in Longmont on December 1. Both Brook (6th grade) & Jack (5th grade) competed in the co-ed Y12 Mixed Ages 8-12 Saber group.
Middle School Math Teacher, Kim Struck, has been given recognition as a finalist in the LearnStorm Keep Going, Keep Growing award!
"LearnStorm is Khan Academy's free, back-to-school program that gives teachers a powerful way to jump start the school year. By combining growth–mindset activities and lesson-aligned practice, LearnStorm drives mastery of core academic skills, motivates classrooms, and builds students' confidence."
| November 2018 |
Two Peak to Peak teachers received a BVSD Innovation grant to do some exciting cross-curricular work together with the students in their respective classes. The grant will combine Lauren Sessions' Anatomy class and Kristie Letter's Innovation and Design Thinking class to help create medical devices via 3D printing. The grant purchases a 3D printer so that our students can innovate medical prosthetics for our community. Using available open source material, students can design and produce medical designs and devices which would cost a fraction of what they normally would. Matthew Willeto (12th grade) is taking the student lead on the project. The students are especially interested in designing for children because they outgrow things so quickly cost can become prohibitive. The teachers were inspired to pursue this grant by a story of a man who made a hand for his son for only $10 using open source material and the school’s 3D printer.
Fall, 2018 Sports Awards:
| Hogan | Brett | Boys Golf | ||||
| Long | Davis | Boys Golf | 1st Team | 1st Team All State | Boco Player of the year | |
| Malhotra | Aditya | Boys Golf | Honorable Mention | |||
| Sharma | Suchit | Boys Golf | Honorable Mention | |||
| Dimond | Reid | Boys Soccer | 1st Team | |||
| Jackson | Garrett | Boys Soccer | Honorable Mention | |||
| Gruener | Jonathon | Boys Soccer | 2nd Team | |||
| Chewning | Michael | Boys Soccer | Honorable Mention | |||
| Lemus | Omar | Boys Soccer | Honorable Mention | |||
| Coach McConnell | Coach of the Year Boys and Girls | |||||
| Cunningham | Benjamin | XC | 2nd Team | 3A State Champion | ||
| Monarski | Ethan | XC | 1st Team | 3A State Champion | ||
| Beasley | Allison | XC | 1st Team | 3A State Runner Up | ||
| Beasley | Cole | XC | 1st Team | 3A State Champion | ||
| McConnell | Quinn | XC | 1st Team/Senior of Year | 3A State Runner Up | Metro Senior Of the Year | |
| Adams | Sydney | XC | Honorable Mention | 3A State Runner Up | ||
| Hager | Justin | XC | 1st Team/ Senior of Year | 3A State Champion | Metro Senior Of the Year | |
| Howard | Jenna | XC | 2nd Team | 3A State Runner Up | ||
| Bradfield | Tiana | XC | 1st Team | 3A State Runner Up | ||
| Kuykendall | Ryan | XC | 1st Team | 3A State Champion | ||
| Ledden | William Joseph | XC | 1st Team | 3A State Champion | ||
| Alexander | William | XC | 2nd Team | 3A State Champion | ||
| Doescher | Luke | XC | 3A State Champion | |||
| Shults | Anna | XC | 1st Team | 3A State Runner Up | ||
| Triem | Elle | XC | 3A State Runner Up | |||
| Portillo | Jennifer | XC | 2nd Team | 3A State Runner Up | ||
| Coates | Julia | Softball | 1st Team- Utility | |||
| Rader | Jamie | Softball | 1st Team Pitcher | |||
| Holtgreive | Heather | Softball | 2nd Team- Infielder | |||
| Alvarez | Alyssa | Softball | 1st Team- Infielder | |||
| Greenspan | Arianna | Volleyball | Honorable Mention | |||
| Winner | Calla | Volleyball | 1st Team |
The Peak to Peak cross country runners had a successful showing at the recent NXR Southwest Regional Championships. The boys team placed 3rd in the small school division. Ethan Monarski (12th grade) was among the top finishers with an impressive time of 16:02.9!
The girls team finished 6th in the championship race, with Quinn McConnell (12th grade) leading the team with a time of 17:15.8! Her 5th place finish has qualified Quinn to compete in the national race on Saturday, December 1st in Portland.
Congratulations to this team of sophomores who rocked a $10,000 win in the Lexus Eco Challenge! The students created an educational campaign to increase awareness around the protection of endangered animals. The project included social media, electronic games, and presentations to younger students. They will go on to now compete for the grand prize of $30,000. What an outstanding representation of creative and innovative thinking!
Congratulations to:
Ella Brakhage
Ben Rosen
Madison Rippetoe
Luke Wolsko
Mana Setayesh
Jessica Kalloor
Read the full article in the Daily Camera.
The Brewer Foundation and New York University have announced the “Top 64” teams for the 18th annual International Public Policy Forum (IPPF) - the first and only contest that gives high school students around the world the opportunity to engage in written and oral debates on issues of public policy. For the third consecutive year, Peak to Peak has a team named in the Top 64. Congratulations to Brandon Guo (11th grade), Ayush Garg (11th grade), and Leonard Shearer (11th grade).
Erin Byrne (11th grade) and her ice skating team placed second at the USFS Synchronized Fall Classic in Anaheim, CA.
The Mueller-Scott siblings scored big at the second in-house tournament of the Fencing Academy of Denver/Parker with both Brook & Jack scoring bronze medals. The tournament was held in Littleton on October 27 . Brook (6th grade) competed in the co-ed Y12 Mixed Saber group and Jack (5th grade) competed in the co-ed Y10 Mixed Saber group.
Peak to Peak men’s gymnastics students won 5th place at the opening meet of the season and a trophy for Peak to Peak. Congratulations to Logan Hsia (12th grade), Trevor O’Dowd (10th grade), and Sam Brende (11th grade).
The Brewer Foundation and New York University announced the “Top 64” teams for the 18th annual International Public Policy Forum (IPPF) - the first and only contest that gives high school students around the world the opportunity to engage in written and oral debates on issues of public policy. For the third consecutive year, Peak to Peak had a team named in the Top 64. Congratulations to Brandon Guo (11th grade), Ayush Garg (11th grade), and Leonard Shearer (11th grade).
Senior students Akriti Poudel and Brian Wee were selected as 2019 Coca-Cola Scholars Foundation Semifinalists. These 1,896 students were selected from over 95,000 submitted applications from across the country to continue through our selection process. In January 2019, Akriti and Brian advanced to be among the 250 Regional Finalists.
Makenna Turner (11th grade) received the "Future STEM Leader Award" from CBS, Colorado School of Mines, and PCD Energy.
Peak to Peak is proud to have five athletes in the 2019 graduating class who are signing with Division 1 colleges and one headed to a Division 3 school. S
Tiana Bradfield
Northern Arizona University
Cross Country/Track
Ashley Buck
Boston University
Soccer
Quinn McConnell
Furman University
Cross Country/Track
Nathan Poretz
Christopher Newport
Baseball (Catcher)
Makinzie Short
Nebraska
Soccer
Anna Shults
CU Boulder
Cross Country/Track
Cooper Campbell (4th grade) and his 4th grade football team, the Broomfield Blitz for taking second place in the Division I State Championship this weekend!
Congratulations to Elias "Eli" Oakley (3rd grade) who won 2nd Place at the Kooky Spooky 1 Mile Race October 28, 2018.
National Junior Honor Society student leaders Lauren Wagner (9th grade), Gianna Guido (9th grade), and Palpasha Karki (9th grade) attended the LEADership conference in Florida.
| October 2018 |
Ali Kerschner (9th grade) performed to a packed house on October 26th in Lafayette’s East Simpson Coffee House.
The High School Boys Cross Country team landed the state title at the 3A meet over the weekend! William Ledden (11th grade) finished 3rd in the individual race, but it was the team score that drove them to the top.
The Girls Cross Country Team finished with an impressive 2nd place in the 3A championship with Anna Shults claiming 2nd and Quinn McConnell 3rd individually.
Ingrid Veres (5th grade) earned her Padi open water dive certification in Lake Pleasant, Arizona at the desert tortoise diving site. In order to achieve the certification, she had to dive over the course of four days, accomplishing different milestones on each dive. Ingrid persevered through extremely challenging visibility and temperatures.
She hopes to continue progressing towards the advanced diver certification sometime in the near future.
Xavier Que (Kindergarten) has been working hard at his Kung Fu practice. He has attended classes for almost two years, and has put in many hours a week and practices at home. He recently tested and received his orange belt. He had to remember over 35 moves and scrimmage a black belt for this accomplishment.
Philip Fischer (6th grade) belongs to Code Ninjas, an educational company that teaches kids 7 to 14 years old how to code by building video games. Code Ninjas 1st Annual Coda-A-Thon and Philip was one of at least 15 to 20 kids participating. He took the top prize and won the Code-A-Thon.
Bethany Bell (8th grade) participated in her first presentation as a YES! Ambassador. YES! stands for Youth Example of Self-Advocacy. The Ambassadors act as mentors the other members and help teach them how to advocate for themselves and how to talk to other about dyslexia. They also work to raise awareness of dyslexia by giving presentations at hospitals, school board meetings, and other events. The topic for this presentation was assistive technology (AT). Bethany had the opportunity to share her dyslexia story and talk about the AT that she uses. After the presentation, the ambassadors took time to give demonstrations of the AT to the attendees.
Madison Shults, 8th grade, ran her personal best in the middle school cross country championship race which landed her a 5th place finish.
Our National Honor Society chapter inducted 50 new members this fall and the National Junior Honor Society inducted 40 new members.
The Lafayette Jazz Ultimate Frisbee Club celebrated a finals victory in the Fun Division of the Monarch High School Invitational Tournament. The team, featuring players from Peak to Peak and Centaurus, defeated opponents from Lakewood, Boulder, Monarch, and Horizon.
The Peak to Peak Model UN club attended its first conference of the season on Saturday. Seventeen P2P students participated in the all-day event. Our beginners debated the difficult topics of Climate Change and the alleged genocide against the Rohingya people of Myanmar. Three of our beginner teams (Noah Douglass (9th) & Sartaj Singh (9th), Ali Kerschner (9th) & Rishi Hancock (9th), and Tanusree Banerjee (9th) & Bronwyn Busby (9th)) took home ‘Best Delegation’ awards in their individual councils. Our three Intermediate teams worked on the complex issues of Drug Trafficking and Human Trafficking from the perspective of countries in the Organization of American States. Leonard Shearer (11th) took home the award of ‘Outstanding Delegate’ for his work.
The High School Girls and Boys Cross Country teams both won the 3A Regional Championship titles this weekend! For the girl's team, the top three individuals slots were a lock for seniors Quinn McConnell, Anna Shults, and Tiana Bradfield. For the boy's, William Ledden (11th grade) took 2nd place and Ethan Monarski (12th grade) finished 3rd in the individuals. Four other Pumas also earned top ten finishes: Jenna Howard (12th), Ryan Kuykendall (10th), Justin Hager (12th), and Cole Beasley (12th).
Nate Starbuck, 8th grade, made the Mountain Zone national team for water polo through the Olympic Development Program.
Four 12th grade students in the Communication Innovation Honors class won cash prizes through Lafayette's See and Respond contest. Congratulations to the following students:
Ben Blankenship - First Prize in Art
Matthew Willetto - Second Prize in Art
Jenna Howard - Second Prize in Poetry
Noah Irwin - Third Prize Poetry.
Davis Long, 11th grade, was named BoCoPreps golfer of the year.
Click on the links below to see a list of students who made Peak to Peak's honor roll for the Spring Semester, 2018.
|
Student Honor |
Requirements |
|
MS Honor Roll MS High Honor Roll MS Dean’s List HS Honor Roll HS High Honor Roll HS Dean’s List |
3.0 – 3.499 GPA 3.5 – 3.899 GPA 3.9 – 4.0 GPA 3.3 – 3.699 GPA 3.7 – 3.899 GPA 3.9 – 5.0 GPA |
HS Honor Roll 2017/18 2nd semester list
The Peak to Peak Cross Country boys and girls varsity teams placed first at the 3A Metro League race held at Anthem Park on October 4th. Individually, the girls' race was won by Quinn McConnell (12th grade), while the boys' race was won by William Ledden (11th grade).
The Middle School Boys Soccer team and new coach Erik Torguson won the end-of-season tournament!
Senior Jonathon Gruener for earned designation as an Eagle Scout. Eagle Scout is the highest achievement or rank attainable in the Boy Scouting program of the Boy Scouts of America.
The Boys Tennis team advanced to the regional finals.
The Softball team advanced to the regional finals.
Brook Mueller-Scott (6th grade) started off the fencing season strong, winning the bronze medal at the first in-house tournament of the Fencing Academy of Denver-Longmont held on September 22. She competed in the co-ed Y12 Mixed Ages 8-12 Saber group.
Davis Long (11th grade) finished third in the Class 3A boys golf state championships! "While many of the golfers who opened the day ahead of him struggled, Long's steady second round was enough for him to creep up the leaderboard and into the top three."
Quinn McConnell (12th grade) strikes again! "McConnell won the girls' sweepstakes race at the Nike Desert Twilight Festival on Friday night in 17 minutes and .10 seconds, the nation's eighth-best time for a high school girl this season."
| September 2018 |
Peak to Peak 9th grader Sophie Steven is the 2018 - 2019 JDRF Rocky Mountain Youth Ambassador Historian and was captain of her JDRF Denver One Walk team, Finger Prickin’ Good. The walk occurred on Sunday, September 16, 2018. Sophie raised more than $5,600 to help fund research to find a cure for Type 1 diabetes. Finger Prickin’ Good and Sophie we’re recognized as one of the top fundraisers this year.
Anna Shults (12th grade) and Quinn McConnell (12th grade) represented Team USA at the World Mountain Running Championships in Andorra last weekend. Their team finished in 6th place overall!
"At the finish, Shults crossed the line with a solid 14th place. Blair followed just over a minute back in 18th place. McConnell was the third scoring U.S. junior team member in 25th place while Gaylord nursed a hurt foot to the finish in 45th."
Pictured from left to right:
Anna Shults
Joslyn Blair - Vail
Quinn Mcconnell
Soleil Gaylord - Telluride
The following seniors have been named as 2019 National Merit Scholarship Semifinalists!
Naomi Burns
Capri Huffman
Isabella Sicker
William Stahoviak
Isaac Van Tol
Brian Wee
"NMSC announced the names of approximately 16,000 Semifinalists in the 64th annual National Merit Scholarship Program. These academically talented high school seniors have an opportunity to continue in the competition for some 7,500 National Merit Scholarships worth more than $32 million that will be offered next spring. To be considered for a Merit Scholarship® award, Semifinalists must fulfill several requirements to advance to the Finalist level of the competition. About 90 percent of the Semifinalists are expected to attain Finalist standing, and about half of the Finalists will win a National Merit Scholarship, earning the Merit Scholar® title."
In support of World Suicide Prevention Day, Peak to Peak Counselor Mary Campbell was interviewed on KGNU about this important topic. If you or someone you know is struggling with thoughts of suicide, please reach out for help. The interview describes several valuable resources that anyone can use.
High School Counselor, Mary Campbell, was featured in the Daily Camera's regular education related spotlight:
| August 2018 |
Rising junior, Makenna Turner, used her summer break to make a big difference in the lives of students in Puerto Rico who were impacted by the hurricane. Makenna ran a school supply drive and then personally delivered those supplies to a school in Puerto Rico. She was interviewed and featured by 9News for her efforts.