Basketball Playoff Update
March 12, 2010

Welcome to the Season of Lent

This year’s Season of Lent draws from our school year theme of “Called to Love and Serve” and the Catholic Social Teachings that it promotes: Rights and Responsibilities and Option for the Poor and Vulnerable. Our prayers will be focused on various virtues of the heart that lead us to better relationships. All charity (almsgiving) throughout this season will be for Catholic Relief Services’ Operation Rice Bowl.    

We journey through the forty days of Lent by focusing our lives in on the three pillars of the season; Prayer, Fasting and Almsgiving.

Prayer:

i. Lent-themed prayers will be read over the PA daily by Ministry Leadership students.

ii. Chapel windows have been decorated with various Lenten themes; these themes mirror the themes of daily PA prayers.

iii.  There will be Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament (Adoration) on Friday, February 26 and Friday, March 19. Please encourage students to attend, even if only for 5-10 minutes.

iv. The large wooden cross will be present in Serra Court beginning Ash Wednesday as a reminder of the sacrifice that has been made on our behalf.

Fasting:

i. Students and Staff are challenged to “fast” from cell phones, texting, Starbucks, television, iPods, and other addictive habits on various days during Lent in an effort to pray and focus on strengthening their personal and family relationships.

a. Tuesdays = Text free Tuesdays (give up all non-essential texting)

b. Wednesdays = Willing Wednesdays (willing to give up your Starbucks and Jamba Juice for the day and donate the funds to your CRS box).

c. Thursdays = Thankful Thursday (a day of action – thank those people in your lives who bring you closer to God).

d. Fridays = Fasting Fridays (remember the many in the world who live on a simple bowl of rice). Rice Bowl Fridays are: 2/19, 3/12 & 3/26 $2 for a bowl of rice – profits go to CRS.

ii. During Lent we give up meat on Ash Wednesday and all Fridays so no meat products will be sold in the Cafeteria on these days.

Almsgiving:

i. Rice Bowl collection boxes have been distributed to students in their Theology classes.

ii. When a student fills her Rice Bowl, she can come empty it into the large, red Rice Bowl Box in the CLC.

iii. Both Lenten Free Dress Fundraisers will benefit CRS' Operation Rice Bowl.

iv. Rice lunch proceeds will benefit CRS’ Operation Rice Bowl.

National Merit Scholarship Program

Congratulations to...Eighteen SF seniors on their recognition by the National Merit Scholarship Program.

National Merit Semi-Finalists:
Kelly Anderson, Morgan Henry, Elena Losada, Sophia Muller, Allison Murrin

National Merit Commended Students:
Mallory Arend, Caitlin Clark, Angielee DiNinni, Lauren Gonzalez, Olivia Nice, Lilsa Roselli, Alicia Salcedo, Marian Styer

National Hispanic Recognition Program Finalists
Angielee DiNinni, Lauren Gonzalez, Elena Losada, Angelic Nambo, Alicia O’Connor, Amalea Romero, Alicia Salcedo, Adrianna Sosa, Marian Styer

Amalea Romero ’10, a finalist in the Triple-Impact Competitor Scholarship Program, a project of the Positive Coaching Alliance that strives to elevate the importance of ethics among student-athletes and recognizes those student-athletes whose ethical actions better themselves, their teammates and their sports.

Chantelle Dills ’11, Miss California Teen, having earned her title by demonstrating public speaking skills, academic talent and poise. In her position, she participates in community service, parades, ribbon cutting ceremonies, and nonprofit events.

Golf:

The St. Francis Golf Team won the Nor Cal Championships with a low score of 395 by 4 strokes of the other closet team, Alameda, posting a score of 399. This was an amazing and exciting accomplishment for the team as they battled through a very difficult and long course, down to the very last stroke, to win. St. Francis won it's 10th Nor Cal Championship in the 13 seasons that golf has participated in Nor Cals. All of the girls showed great poise, sportsmanship, honor, teamwork, dedication and focus as they overcame so many obstacles along the way. This was an awesome accomplishment for the seniors of the team who have won 4 straight Nor Cal championships. They finished 4th in the State Championship. All of these girls deserve a huge congratulations!

Go Troubies!!!

Academic Teams in High Gear!

The Academic Teams continue to expand in membership and events.

The Speech and Debate Teams participate monthly in Sacramento Valley Forensics League tournaments and bring home so many trophies that they are now housed in both the office and the gym foyer. The Debate students are competing in both junior varsity and varsity Public Forum Debate and in Congress. Speech students compete in a wide variety of events from Dramatic, Humorous, Thematic and Oratorical Interpretation to Original Advocacy and Oratory and Expository. All students compete in two or more events at each tournament. Students gain research, public speaking, writing and dramatic skills in these two teams. The speech team will also host the state qualifiers in the spring.

Model United Nations recently received its assigned nations for the UC Berkeley tournament. Team members attended the UCB training sessions and work each week on research, public speaking and resolution writing. This year, for the first time, the team required interviews and try-outs because of the very large number of interested students.

Mock Trial and Moot Court Teams are deep into researching their cases for the January competition which will be held at St. Francis High School this year as the site for all high schools in a four-county area. Student attorneys argue in Mock Trial for or against the defendant in a murder trial; in Moot Court, students will delve into first and fourth amendment issues in a student free speech case before a panel of three judges.

Academic Decathlon team members have attended a literature, art and music workshop at Delta College in Stockton and an economics, history and politics workshop at CSUS. This year’s topic is the French Revolution—they are immersed in the science. Their novel this year is Tale of Two Cities.

Certamen Latin Team participated in the Ludi Novembres competition
in Lafayette in October and prepares weekly for Latin vocabulary, history and culture exams. Team members also build a catapult and chariot for the competitions (there is fun involved in this!) Each student is a member of both the California Junior Classical League and the National Junior Classical League.

Robotics (The Fembots) kicked off the year with a large and enthusiastic group of new freshmen and sophomores who, along with returning members and Fembot alumnae, were a hit at the California State Fair. They spoke to over 8000 fair goers, coached them on running the team’s robot and were the go-to event at the Industrial and Technology Building for seven weekend days. The following month the Fembots were featured as one of the rotation stations at the PLATT Industries western states’ planning meeting
at the Marriott Hotel. The members, including new Fembots, also took the stage and microphone to explain FIRST Robotics to the employees and attendees. Quite an honor!
The Fembots assisted at the Sacramento FIRST Lego League robotics competition for middle schools in November and will organize and host the FLL regional tournament in December. This leads up to hosting the kick-off for the high school robotics competition in January-February, six weeks of designing and creating a new robot, and inviting 16 teams for all-day practice rounds. It is the time for learning new skills: computer-aided design and programming, website and program management, public speaking, and even welding, construction and electronics.
Kudos to our parent and community coaches who give so generously
of their time and effort to assure a quality experience for each team. Without parent help, none of these experiences could happen for our students.