Solorio Seniors Earning Over $7,000,000 in Scholarship Money

Solorio’s Class of 2015 is making final college decisions and continuing to claim millions of dollars in scholarship money.  Senior Class President Xavier Guzman was awarded the Illinois Promise Full Ride Scholarship to the University of Illinois College of Engineering.  This marks the second year in a row a Sun Warrior has been awarded this scholarship.  Also, for the second year in a row, a Solorian has been named a University of Wisconsin BANNER program recipient.  Samantha Desantiago will be joining 2014 alums Diana Pavon and Martha Pena in Madison this fall.  Finally, Vicente Garcia was one of five students nationwide to be awarded the Loyola University DACA scholarship.  The scholarship is valued at over $250,000 including room and board, tuition, and fees.  In total Solorio seniors have been awarded over $7 million in scholarship money and counting!

Solorio Students Finish Strong at AUSL STEAM Fair

This spring, Solorio students competed in the AUSL Network-wide STEAM fair at Collins Academy High School. Our students did an awesome job presenting their projects and fielding tough questions from the AUSL judges. Overall, the Solorio STEAM fair teams impressed! All Solorio students who competed at this year’s fair won a 1st, 2nd or 3rd place award for their science experiments and engineering designs. Our three 1st place winners were awarded Google Chrome Books at the AUSL Festival of the Arts and Sciences. Congratulations to the following students for their hard work and achievement in science this year!

1st Place Awards

11th grade – Rossy Tejeda and Giselle Fierro

10th Grade – Michael Guzman and Jesus Rvera

9th Grade – Giselle Haro and Carol Teran

2nd Place Awards

11th Grade – Bryan Ruiz and Ramiro Medina

10th Grade – Ruben Saldivar

3rd Place Awards

9th Grade – Esmeralda Vermonters & Adelyne Avila

Solorio Students Participate in Special Olympics Chicago Spring Games

For the week of May 4th, six Solorio students from the SPH cluster participated in Special Olympics Chicago Spring Games. This competition, created by Special Children’s Charities along with the Chicago Park District, is open to all adults and children with disabilities held throughout Chicago.

The week started out with our very own Solorians traveling to Soldier Field for the Opening Ceremony. Fellow cluster classmates, Ms. Peden, Ms. Bakken and her cheerleaders, as well as a few of other Solorio students camp to cheer on the Olympians. The athletes had the opportunity to travel through the tunnel and across Soldier field while representatives throughout the city of Chicago rooted them on. After crossing the field, all the athletes joined the stands for the torch lighting ceremony, Ray Grahm’s drumline, and the Jessie White tumblers.

For the remaining week, the athletes and cluster classmates traveled to Eckersall Stadium to begin the competitions. The field offered dancing and games in Olympic Town for those not participating in the games. The most successful day was the 2nd day of competition, bringing home 1 silver medal in the Softball Throw, 2 gold medals for the tennis ball throw in different heats, and 5th place in the 50 meter run. As the Olympics came to a close on Friday, the  students and staff were exhausted from the week of competitions and entertainment. Although tired from the festivities, Solorio’s first year in the Special Olympics proved to be a real success.

Solorio Celebrates Black History Month

 

The month of February at Solorio kicked off its first annual Black History Event. The very composition of the title Black History Month, the teaching of African American achievements, provides us with meaning of intriguing talents, truths and origins of African American people.  There was a culmination of events that took place. Each week, there was a different theme and piece of history presented, from the debate of the “N” word, to African American history lessons spoken by guest speaker Dr. Bethea. The event concluded with Open Mic (short for Open Microphone). Our students and staff honored African Americans by reading poems, singing and dancing.

Solorio Math Team Excels at CCML Math Contest

Today was a first for the Solorio Math Team on many fronts at the CCML Contest #3.  We actually had 20+ students competing across Algebra I, Algebra II and Pre-calculus.  This is the first time any 9^th graders have competed since the team was formed.  After the contest was over, the 9^th graders had beaming smiles and they said how much FUN they had.

Individual Awards

Algebra I, Accelerated Division

2^nd place: Moises Reyes

3^rd place: Mariela Gonzalez

 

Algebra II, Accelerated Division

1^st place tie: Vanessa Ocampo and Omar Sanchez (his first contest)

2^nd place: Cindy Castellanos (her first contest)

3^rd place: Albino Salinas

 

Pre-calculus, Accelerated Division

2^nd place: Angel Huerta

3^rd place (tie): Bella Flores (her first contest)

Team Awards

Algebra I – 3^rd place

Algebra II – 2^nd place

Pre-calculus – 1^st place

Candy Bar Competition- Solorio tied with Lindblom to win the team award

Solorio site Ranking for today’s competition: 3^rd place

 

Jesus Rivera and Michael Guzman Named University of Chicago Collegiate Scholars

Solorio Sophomores Michael Guzman and Jesus Rivera joined the University of Chicago Collegiate Scholars Program (UCCSP) this school year. The UCCSP was founded in 2003 as a three-year program that aims to prepare talented Chicago Public Schools students in grades 10-12 for admission and success at the nation’s top colleges and universities. UCCSP is shaped around a core curriculum of humanities, social science, math, and science courses during the summer months taught by University of Chicago faculty and PhD candidates, and enrichment activities geared toward college readiness, cultural awareness, and civic engagement during the academic year. Congratulations to our newest Collegiate Scholars!

Solorians Receive Instruments from the House of Blues

The International House of Blues received more than 1,200 “Give Music” letters from young musicians across the country. House of Blues team members read each letter and helped se-lect this year’s Give Music Recip-ients. Four out of six recipients were Solorians. Our students were presented with brand new instruments at the International House of Blues “Give Music” on May 3rd at the House of Blues restaurant. Their parents, siblings and along with Ms. Mollinedo were present. Cassandra Cruz received a clarinet, Rebecca Rodriguez received a trumpet, and both Randy Saldi-var and Albino Salin-as received Alto Saxophones. The students, parents, siblings, and Ms. Mollinedo are very proud.

Solorio Sophomores Earn Superior History Fair Ratings

After excelling at the Chicago Metro History Fair, four Solorio sophomores competed in the history fair state competition in Springfield.

Documentary- Richard Wright and Native Son by Josely Martinez and Gabriela Cruz

Documentary- Camp Douglas by Karen Damien

Research Paper- The Young Lords by Michelle Navarro

All of their projects scored “superior” at the state competition, which means they scored an average of 90+ points out of a possible 100 and earned blue ribbons.  Also, all of them will be recognized at the Chicago Metro History Fair Awards Ceremony at the Chicago History Museum in June and are in the running for scholarships.

Solorio Students Involved in Service Learning Projects

Cesar Chavez Service Learning Project in Spanish II Classes

Students from Spanish II participated in a Cesar Chavez service learning project recently. They assisted with the planting, maintenance, and beautification of a Chicago neighborhood community garden and greenhouse. They were able to reflect and experience the hardships manual labor workers have experienced for years.

Student Council Updates

Student council created a great competition among 1st period classrooms to collect the most canned goods throughout the month of March! We collected over 500 cans that will be donated to a community pantry. The winner this year was Mr. Meister’s 1st Period World Studies Class!

 

Senior Updates- College Acceptance, Scholarships, and Senior Activities!

Solorians Spring Into College

As the season changes from winter to spring, Solorio’s seniors are “springing” into college. Some of the most noteworthy acceptances range from top Big Ten institutions to the Ivy League and everything in between. Specific schools include Miami University (OH), The University of Michigan, The University of Pennsylvania, and Northwestern University. At the same time, the amount of money schools are giving to Solorio seniors continues to increase. As the calendar changes from March to April the total amount of scholarship money is now over $8 million with more on the way!

Senior Diana Pavon Awarded World Sports Chicago $20,000 Scholarship!

Senior Diana Pavon on being awarded a scholarship through her participation in the World Sports Chicago Scholars Program:

“This program I began since my junior year with other 50 high school students from Chicago. I volunteered in a number of different events hosted by their organization. Through this program I got the privilege to go to Qatar as an ambassador for athletics and health and spent a week speaking with students from across the globe. The WSC coordinator Stephanie Miller has been a great resource through this program and has been a great mentor. I plan to go to University of Wisconsin- Madison or University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign. The scholarship was worth $ 20,000 however it gets divided by four years. This scholarship was awarded to only 10 out of the 50 scholars.  I am extremely grateful for this award and the opportunities given to me through this program.”

Senior Updates

Attention Parents & Guardians:

Congratulations to our parents/guardians of students who have worked hard to get your student to be successful from the beginning and into Senior Year!

We are proud of all of the hard work your student has done to get to this point in their academic career. Your Senior is moving on to another phase of life and their education and experiences at Solorio will serve them well. We have celebratory activities planned for Seniors and they include:

• Prom (May 16)
• Senior Luncheon (May 23)
• Senior Trip (1^st week of June)
• Senior Field Day (June 10)

Senior Graduation Ceremony (June 11)

This is an exciting time for Seniors and we want them to enjoy every moment of it while still taking advantage of all the learning in each and every one of their classes so they continue to be challenged academically. 

Therefore, Seniors must meet criteria benchmarks in order to participate in Senior activities. These criteria are meant to push our students to keep working and keep themselves College-Ready all year long.

Congratulations to all Seniors and their families!