Winter Happenings

Hello all I hope your school year is going great and is getting exciting because I know it is here at UC as Christmas time approaches. Our winter sports season has just begun and everyone is excited to see how the basketball, swimming and winter track teams are going to do. I am a member of the winter track team and I am very happy that the season has started and can't wait for our first race next weekend. This past week we had our honor roll breakfast, which we have after every marking period to reward the students that have received first or second honors. The breakfast was split up into 2 days with the first day being last names from A-K and the second day was L-Z. I went on the first day and the whole cafeteria was filled with students and their parents which is a great sign to see. It is great to see that so many students are being rewarded for all the hard work they do in school. I hope everyone can continue their hard work and everyone reading this blog can continue to work hard whether it is at at school, job, sports, or throughout the community. I hope your holiday season is going great and you are feeling the love and warmth that comes with the holiday season.

New Junior Blogger

Hey everybody my name is Sean and I am going to be a new blogger on Upperclass Men. I am currently a junior here at Union Catholic and am in all AP and Accelerated classes. I am also involved in a lot of school activities. Last year I and another student named Michelle started a club called R.E.A.C.H. (Raising Educated Awareness for the Causes of HIV/AIDS). The club has had tremendous success, including assembling backpacks for AIDS-afflicted children in need, hosting an I-pod raffle to raise money for an AIDS shelter in Newark, and having several bake sales to benefit multiple HIV/AIDS local charities. Throughout the year, I participate in three seasons of sports: Cross Country, Basketball, and Baseball. These teams allow me to develop physical, mental, and social strengths. By the end of each season, each team becomes a family tightly knit and united through a common desire to succeed. Finally, I am also President of the Junior Class. It is my job to lead and guide students successfully through their junior year. I also decorate the junior hallway and get everyone into a festive holiday-spirit mood. It is my job to depict to you the balance between high school academics and being a teenager. It’s going to be an exciting year and I am looking forward to bringing you along for the ride.

College Apps, College Apps, College Apps & oh year Senior year

It’s already November?! Oh man this year is going by fast. I’d love to tell you that I am having the picture perfect senior year, but if I did, I would be lying to you. In the beginning of the year I hurt myself out on a recruiting trip to Notre Dame, and the injury has forced me to end my cross country season for this fall. The injury has been tough to deal with, but my coach, teammates and everyone else around the building here at UC have helped me get through this tough time. As unfortunate as this event was, it allowed me to really put a dent into my college applications. I narrowed down my college choices to seven schools and from there I started applying to those schools. So far I have completed four out of the seven that I have to get done. I have applied to Notre Dame, Saint Joseph’s University, Wake Forest, and American. By next week I will also have applied to Brown, Virginia Tech, and UPenn. I am very much looking forward to the end of this process so that I can just worry about having fun and enjoying my senior year.

However, this year has not just been about college. As you may already know, I am very involved in a group called SMAC (Student Movement Against Cancer) and we have been putting together an Ultimate Frisbee tournament to raise money towards our efforts for the Relay For Life in the spring. We have been spreading the word all around school to everyone we see, because our goal is to make this fundraiser HUGE! The whole school is starting to get really excited about it and I AM ALSO INVITING YOU! We want anyone and everyone to come out and have a great time as well as support a great cause. It should be a great time! I will keep you updated on the college process as well as our fundraising efforts. Keep running!

D.J

Grammar School Basketball Tournament/Athletics Success

Hello guys, hope your school year is going great and you are having lots of fun. UC is buzzing with lots of activities and is a lot of fun to be a student. We recently put in a new state of the art athletic turf field that is used for soccer, baseball, softball, gym and track. We have had great success in out sports teams this fall. Our girls volleyball team won the conference and county championship and is now competing in the state tournament. They are currently in the semi-finals of states and with a win tonight they will be in the state finals. Our cross country team also won their conference and finished second in the county a very good Westfield team. They are competing in states on Saturday and they are looking to run very fast and receive a high place. Over the last week UC held its 6th Annual Viking Classic. This is a basketball tournament that we hold in the UC gym in which we invite local grammar school basketball teams to compete. The champions were St. Barts on the boys side and St. Vincent De Paul on the girls side. All of the kids played with a great intensity and there was great competition in each of the games. It was really fun sitting and watching the games because the kids were so happy to play the game and enjoyed the experience of a high school gym with lots of fans at the game. Hopefully all of you are having success in choosing where you want to attend high school and I hope you are had a great Halloween too.

Senior Year - College Visit - Notre Dame

Hey Guys,

I can’t believe senior year is here already. We are all really pumped – but we also all have a lot of big decisions to make within the next few months – like COLLEGE.
It’s a lot to think about – very exciting about where we will all end up.
This past weekend I had the most amazing college visit – South Bend, IN – University of Notre Dame. GO IRISH !

If you’ve been reading my blogs – you know I am a runner, cross county and track and I’ve always wanted to go to a big time school. Being an ND fan most of my life I couldn’t believe it when the ND track coach called me over the summer to say he wanted me to come out and check out the school.

They flew me out (with my dad) and had an amazing 2 days there. ND has a great engineering program which I want to study- along with a tremendous athletic program.
We met with the coaching staff, Athletic Director, engineering professors and academic advisors. I got to stay on campus with guys from the ND cross country team- attend classes, eat in the dining hall – be on the sidelines for the start of ND-Michigan State- sit in the student section and cheer on the football team. ND has so much history and the traditions there are great. The campus is amazing and everyone was so friendly. To me it’s the perfect school.

But I have others to visit to see which one is the best school for me. I can’t imagine anything being better than this past weekend in South Bend.
You never know though – I know I’m pretty lucky to have some good options.
I let you know how my college search goes. I have a feeling it’s going to be crazy senior year.

Welcome Back

Hello readers,

Hope you had a great summer and are getting back in the swing of things. My summer flew by in an instant and I can not believe I am starting my senior year. It feels like just yesterday I was entering UC for the first time. I hope you are doing well in whatever school you are attending and remember that school can produce the most important and even fun times in your lives. This week we had our first Cross Country race at Waranaco Park and it went very well. Our team is excited about the season and we should be a good team that will see a lot of success. I will try and update the blog weekly about what goes on during my fun, but important senior year. Hope all is well and for everyone entering a new school, just remember to be yourself and try and have a good time.

Boys State, Open House

Hey guys hope your school year is going great even though I'm sure you are all excited as it is winding down to summer; I know that I am. Recently i was selected to attend American Legion's annual Boys State held at Rider University in June. American Legion Boys State is among the most respected and selective educational programs of government instruction for high school students. It is a participatory program where each participant becomes a part of the operation of their local, county and state government. I am so grateful for the opportunity that Union Catholic and the American Legion has given me because not many boys are able to experience this great chance to show your leadership skills in a governmental environment.
At American Legion Boys State, I will be exposed to the rights and privileges, the
duties and the responsibilities of a franchised citizen. My training is objective and practical
with city, county and state governments operated by my peers elected to the various
offices. The activities I will participate in include legislative sessions, court proceedings, law enforcement presentations, assemblies, bands, chorus and recreational programs.

This week on Wednesday night is our annual Spring Open House for prospective students and their parents. It is a great opportunity to see the school from not only the faculty's perspective, but also the student's perspective. I hope all of you that can come do attend because I love to see people looking at Union Catholic and seeing what a great experience all of the students have here with the academic but also social part of high school. I hope school and all your other activities are going great and hopefully I will be able to see all your faces and share with you all my experiences here at UC.

Back to School & Penn Relays!

Hey everyone! I hope your spring break was as great as mine was, unfortunately it's time to get back into the swing of things at school. Having a week and a half off from school was great and everyone is moving just a little bit slower this week, but overall it feels good to be back in school again.

Union Catholic is full of excitement right now as we have many events coming up in the next few weeks. The Mr. UC Pageant is next week along with the SMAC Quarters for Cancer Dinner, and our spring sports are in full swing. In fact our track team will be competing at the Penn Relay Carnival this weekend at Franklin field at the University of Pennsylvania. This is an international meet that features the top athletes from around the world and it provides kids with an opportunity to run with the very best. Our girls will be running in two relay events and our boys will be running in two relays as well as one individual race. I will be running in the individual race as I will be racing in the 3000 Meter Championship Race.

In order to run in this race your entry must be accepted and you must be invited to run. Our relays qualified for Penn during the winter and we found out that we were accepted just last week! We are all very excited to race and I can't wait to get out on that track. Many of the other members of the track team will be attending the meet to come and support us which is awesome.

This meet is considered the biggest meet of the year (at least on the high school level) and you take what you learn from this weekend and use it to help yourself grow as a runner and competitor. The meet takes place over three days and last year over 140,000 people attended the meet over those days. I can't wait to run in front of a crown as big as that and I hope I can run the very best of my ability! It's going to be a once in a lifetime experience and everyone competing is going to give it everything they have. We're all pumped and ready to go, and I'll let you know how we do!

St. Patrick's Day, Lock In

Hey guys hope everything is going well with school and your other activities. A couple of weeks ago was St. Patrick's Day, which is one of my favorite holidays because I am almost all Irish. During the day I went into New York City to see the annual St. Patrick's Day parade and two of my uncles were marching playing the bagpipes and drums, which is always an amazing experience to be in and I love seeing them play every year. After we came home from the city, I went over to Rahway with my friend DJ to a restaurant and we watched his dad play the bigpipes with his band. It was an amazing experience because I love hearing the Irish music they play and we got to eat a great meal at the same time. I hope next year I can have just as much fun on St. Patrick's Day as I did this year and I hope everyone has a blessed and healthy year until that time.

We also held our annual Lock-In for the class of 2013. The Lock-In is a night where we bring all the students who have registered for UC for the upcoming year and keep them at school till 11 where they compete in several different activities. Those activites included basketball, kickball, bingo, musical chairs, ice cream sundae making, and finally the video game bus. The video game bus is a huge trailer bus that comes to UC and has 4 huge plasma screen TV's with 16 gamer chairs facing the TV's. You are able to play XBOX 360, PS3, or the Wii and they have almost every game imaginable for each system. That was my favorite part of the night because i was able to play Rock Band and Halo and other games for a long period of time. I believe the night was a great success and all of the kids had a great time with the activities that were planned, while still getting to meet the people that will be their classmates for the next 4 years of their life. Hope everyone is enjoying the nice weather we are starting to get and I will keep you updated on the events of UC as we approach the end of the year.

Decisions

Hey guys hope your year is going great because our year here at UC is amazing even though i'm sure many of you like myself can't wait until summer gets here. Recently our spring sports season started and I had to make a decision on what sport i was going to go out for. I had played baseball all my life and my first two years at UC, but I joined cross country and winter track this year and absolutely fell in love with the team and everything that surrounded track. Even though I didn't think I could see myself giving up baseball, i followed what i believed my heart was telling me and chose track. The great thing about my decision was that either way I chose, I knew that I was going to be happy and successful. Those decisions are the hardest to make but also the best because you know that their is no wrong decision because both sides have many pros that will you can enjoy. In your time at UC you may run into a lot of decisions like the one I had where you have to pick between two different things, but the great part is there are people here to help guide you in the right direction and either decision you make will lead you to happiness and success in your UC experience. If our in the real world you are faced with a decision like this one, my best advice is to weigh the pros and cons of each side of the decision and then follow what your heart is telling you to do.

NEW YEAR, SAME UC

My New Years resolution is to blog on a regular basis and as you can see it has taken me a little while to get it going, but I think I’m ready now. So far the New Year has been great and I hope yours has been good. UC is a very exciting place to be right now because we have so many different things going on. I’m a student Ambassador here at UC so I’ve been working all the recruiting events and that’s been a lot of fun.

On Saturday night I worked the Accepted Students Dance and that was a really good time. It was great to see all the 8th graders come out and try and meet some of their future classmates. I still remember when I went to that dance as an 8th grader and meeting my classmates. I was actually reminiscing with some of my friends about our dance. it wasn’t that long ago that I was in the same position as those 8th graders. It’s funny because it seems like yesterday that I was choosing a high school to attend and now I’m starting to look at colleges. It’s really crazy to see how fast time flies in high school.

Our Athletic teams are also making some noise in the building. Our basketball teams are doing well, our swimming team is under a new coach and they are seeing quite a lot of success, and our track team is representing our school like none other. I’m probably being a little biased because I’m on the track team but we really are doing well. We just ran at the Union County individual championships and our team took home 3 county titles. It was a good day to be a Viking! I hope all of you are staying warm in this cold weather and I’ll keep you updated on the UC news.

Meeting the Class of 2013

This week represents the start of the most important week in Union Catholic because we get to meet the incoming freshman class which this year will be the class of 2013. First we have the Scholarship reception for those outstanding students who recieved academic scholarships.

Next we have the accepted students dance for all of the students that were sent out letters saying they were accepted to UC. This event is great and everyone that is thinking about coming to UC or even has some doubts, should attend, because you get to meet a lot of new people and make great new friends. When I was an incoming freshman and didn't know where I wanted to go, the accepted students dance helped make my decision a lot easier. I met so many new people and everyone was so friendly to me, even the kids that were helping out and already were attending UC and i realized that these were the people I wanted to be around for the next four years of my life because they would always be there for me and care about me which they have no matter what the situation is.

Next we have the Accepted Students Q&A in which students and parents have a final chance to ask questions and get answers from students and finally is Registration which is the best day of the year because we get to meet the new freshman class of UC. I will be at all of these events and I hope to see all of your bright smiling faces there.

Semi Formal, Midterms

Hey guys hope your school year is going great even though it's already the middle of year. My school year has been flying by so fast and recently we just had our semi formal. Every winter we have a formal in which our gym turns into a winter wonderland and everyone gets dressed up. it was a great time this year and I had so much fun dancing and hanging out with all my friends and the DJ had the music going all night. Semi symbolizes the first part of the Christmas and holiday season and that is my favorite time of the year and also because my birthday is the week after Christams so i love spending time with my family and getting double presents is always fun. We recently took our midterms though which isn't the best part of the year, but a part that we all must go through. Midterms are a big test on all that you have learned from the beginning of the year to the middle. The tests are only really hard if you don't study but as long as you study, they aren't as hard as anyone makes them out to be, and once they are over you get a short little break and it ends the first half of the year. After midterms you realize that you only have about 5 months left until summer which is the best feeling in the world. School is great here and i'm excited to see all of the new freshman that come to register to attend UC and I hope I see many of your faces there because UC is a great experience for any student, no matter what you are into and everyone deserves the chance to experience UC.