ANOTHER SIDE OF UC

Hey everyone! I just wanted to get you caught up in what’s going on in the UC community. I am a very active member in the club SMAC (Student Movement Against Cancer) and every spring we participate in the Relay for Life at Scotch Plains High School. We do a number of different fundraisers to raise money towards our funds for the relay. We recently had one of our fundraisers.

Every spring we have a fundraiser called “Quarters for Cancer”. How it works is you walk into the cafeteria, which is decorated, and you give a donation (Example: $20), and they ask you how many tickets you want. The tickets are used to get your food, and each ticket represents a quarter. Every scoop of a dish or a dessert is a quarter. So if you want ten tickets, you can get ten things of food. It’s a great event and everyone has a great time. When I got there and saw all the food I was amazed. It was great to see everyone come together and donate all that food. It was also great because all of the sports teams had just come from either practice or a game, and they were all starving. I sure was, and I ate a ton of food.

At the end of the event everyone went over to the Auditorium for the Mr. UC pageant. I went and saw my brother perform. It was really funny see all of those guys get up on stage and dance. My friends and I were all hysterically laughing the whole night. My brother performed well and placed second. He was a little disappointed, but he had a great time doing it and that’s all that mattered.

The next day we all found out that the “Quarters” dinner raised $618!! The dinner was a huge success, and it was our best year ever. We are all excited for the Relay for Life coming up in two weeks! I’ll let you know how it goes.

AMBASSADOR ACCEPTANCE...LOCK-IN

A couple of days ago the new ambassadors were chosen and I was lucky enough to be one of those people. My fellow blogger DJ was also chosen as one. An ambassador is a leader of the school who is always at the out of school events that UC runs and is seen as the face of the UC. I’m very grateful that I was chosen for this spot because it’s a very high leadership position here at UC. I’m glad that I get to work with my classmates and people of older classes in helping younger students and parents to see how great a school Union Catholic is.

One of the perks of being an ambassador is getting to work events like the Lock-In that we held last Friday for the class of 2012. Incoming freshman come to UC from 7 until 11 at night. We split them into about 10 groups and have them do different activities with each other, so that people can meet each other. My brother was one of those incoming freshman and he said it was good to meet some of his classmates so he didn’t feel like he was going into the year not knowing anyone at all. Some of the activities that the kids did was play guitar hero, kickball, basketball, musical chairs and they had to go on a scavenger hunt to find people that liked the same things that they did. This was a good icebreaker and it helped kids who didn’t speak that much start to talk to some of their soon to be classmates. It was a fun night working with my friends and seeing all of the kids that are going to soon be my new schoolmates in a couple of months. It’s been great to update you guys again and don’t forget on April 22 which is a Tuesday night UC is having their spring open house and I would strongly advise that if you have the time that you come and see what a great community UC is.

Ambassador or Peer Ministry?

Hey everyone! Sorry I haven’t been blogging for a while, but let me catch you up on all the news in UC. As you know it’s the start of the spring season, and everyone has some spring fever. The weather is getting nicer, and all of the sports teams are in full swing. Our Track team is running well, and our Baseball team is off to a 2-0 start.

Spring is also the time when applications for leadership positions for clubs and activities are due for the upcoming year. I decided that I wanted to apply to the Ambassador, Big Brother/Big Sister and Peer Ministry programs. I was selected to be interviewed to be an Ambassador, and I had to make a decision between Ambassador and Peer Ministry. Ambassadors work open houses and visit grammar schools to talk about UC to prospective students and their families. Peer Ministry works more with the kids in our school. They help spread their faith in God to others in the school, run our Days of Recollection and school masses. I evaluated all aspects of both clubs and decided to try and go for Ambassador. I chose that because Peer Ministry holds most of their meetings right after school, and with my track schedule I wouldn’t be able to make most of the meetings. Ambassador events normally take place at night so it worked better with my crazy schedule. However, I also felt I my talents and abilities fit the Ambassador Program more than they would in Peer Ministry.

Well I had my interview on Monday, and I thought it went very well. Two days later there was an announcement calling a few students who were interviewed down to the Admissions Office. Mr. Luciano (Head of the Ambassador program), and Mrs. Thornton (Director of Admissions, and fellow blogger) told us that we were selected to become Ambassadors. I was really excited, and I can’t wait to start training.

I have a track meet today at Governor Livingston. I’ll let you know how it goes in my next blog as well as how the rest of the spring sports are going.

SPRING BREAK AND BASEBALL

For those of you who don’t know last week was spring break here at Union Catholic. We were lucky enough to get 8 days off from school which is always good because everyone needs a break. Over those days I had the lucky opportunity of going to Arizona to visit my aunt and uncle who I haven’t seen in a year. It was a great experience to be out there and see how much life is different. First of all, I was three hours behind of everyone back here so for the first couple of days it was hard for my body to get used to it. It was beautiful weather out there. Almost everyday it was around 90 degrees, but it wasn’t humid so it felt amazing and getting to swim in my uncle’s pool made it even more amazing. Later in the week we visited the Grand Canyon. It was amazing to see how water, weather, and time can shape such a huge thing into one of the world’s most famous wonders. It was cool to look all the way down and see a river flowing through all the twists and turns and know that it formed because of the canyon. The beautiful part had to be the sunset though. We watched the sun set over the Grand Canyon and when it was nearly about to disappear was probably one of the most beautiful places ever.

This week is opening week for our spring sports season. On Wednesday our varsity baseball team opened up against New Providence and won in decisive fashion 5-0. It was a great way to open up the season and gave all the players a lot of confidence for the games that are coming up. I am on JV and we hope to open up today if the weather permits against JP Stevens and it looks to be a good game. I can’t wait to get out there because playing baseball is one of my favorite things to do. I will keep you updated during the season on how the JV and varsity teams are doing. That’s all for now hope everyone has a great week and I’ll be back soon =].

BASEBALL TRYOUTS, COURSE SELECTIONS

This weekend was amazing because baseball tryouts were held for the JV and varsity teams this weekend. Baseball is my favorite sport out of all of the sports and I couldn’t wait all year for it to come. I made the JV team and although we have a lot of young kids we have good potential and I’m hoping for a great season for both JV and the varsity teams. The spring season is very exciting because the weather gets warmer and this year for the first time in Union Catholic history there will be a varsity girl’s lacrosse team. It started as a JV team last year, but this year it has moved up to varsity and everyone is very excited to see how they do. Even though we couldn’t go on the field because it was wet, it was still great to be with all the guys and know that the season is just around the corner.

Recently the freshman, sophomores, and juniors got to select what classes they want to take for the next year. I love this idea because instead of having someone choose the classes for you, you get to control what specific classes you want to take and what level you want to take them on. You can pick your classes by how much time you think you have to put in the time needed for the amount of work for each different class. I think this is great because it allows you to choose your future and what you want to be able to study for the rest of your high school career and on into college. High school is a very important part of your life and to be able to control it yourself is a great feeling

The College Search

Here at Union Catholic students are allowed to register for their own classes online from the UC website. Teachers have been explaining to all of their students how the registration works. There are requirements however, for the classes that you register for. If you are for example in the honors program you must have at least a “B” average in your class to stay in the honors program for the next school year. The same goes for the Accelerated program. However, if you want to move up in a class (Honors to Accelerated) you must have at least an “A” average to move up. It’s pretty cool to be able to register for your own classes.

All of this has sparked our teachers into talking to us about looking at colleges. They all said that you have to start looking your sophomore year so that you have an idea of where you want to apply in your junior year. I listened to their advice and started to look online for different schools. The UC Guidance Office has connected us to a website called COIN which allows you to search for specific schools. For example you can say you want a Division I school on the East Coast and it will give you a list of different schools. Every college in the country is on this website, so it helps you find the perfect school for you.

Since I am a runner I started looking for Division I schools not too far from home. I have come across a few good schools that I will continue to look at. I was looking at COIN at home and my older brother (who is home on spring break) said it was really scary to think that I was already looking at colleges. He goes to the University of Mary Washington in Virginia, and it’s a great school. All of this is pretty exciting and I’m looking forward to find the best school for me. I’ll keep you updated on the college search as it progresses further.

Next week I’ll let you know how the first day of spring track and the spring season goes.

RELATIONSHIPS

A lot of things happen in our everyday lives, and relationships are one of them. Boy meets girl, girl meets boy they go out and live happily ever after. If only it was that easy, everyone would find their soul mates in high school. Recently my girlfriend and I broke up and I’m not going to lie it’s hard but everything happens for a reason. It’s hard to move on but the important thing is that you work things out and become friends. Friends’ last forever girlfriends just come and go as time goes on. If you have ever listened to the song stronger by kanye west it makes a lot of sense. He says everything that doesn’t kill me can only make me stronger which is so true. You learn from each relationship that you are in and gain useful information that you can use for the next relationship or situation that you come into. Relationships are a big part of high school and they can bring along great experiences, but at the same time they can bring some bad ones too. Just remember that for every bad thing that happens, something good will come out of it. Whether you learn how to treat a girl/guy better or how to act around certain girls/guys, every relationship teaches you a lesson that you will use when you grow up and become an adult.