SECA's Sarah Palmer won the gold medal at the 2011-2012 San Joaquin County Academic Decathlon competition for her speech on the American education system.  As part of this honor Sarah will give her speech at the awards ceremony on Saturday.  Read her story of sacrifice, dedication, and inspiration, right here first.

To show that force is distributed evenly across an increased surface area, Mr. Eayrs' physics class constructed a bed of nails and put it on display in the cafeteria at lunch on Monday October, 3rd.  The bed measures 2’x6’ and contains 1633 nails.  It took roughly 4 weeks to build.  Those who were brave got to try it out....

Welcome back Timberwolves from what was hopefully a relaxing summer.  To get you acquainted with going back to school, SECA is doing student orientation August 10-12.  Students will receive their schedules, learn about the bus system, and get the inside scoop on our school from upper classmen mentors.

SECA brought home a lot of medals at both the county and regional level.  Check out the result here .

If you did not see SECA's CST video featuring our very own teachers and staff, or if you want to watch it again, click here .

The weekends of January 29, 2011, and February 5, 2011, marked the 30th Annual San Joaquin County Academic Decathlon competition, held on the University of Pacific’s campus in Stockton.  Competing against 16 schools from across the county, SECA was the only SUSD school entered in the competition.  Although it was among the smallest of the competing schools, SECA had the largest ACADEC team (54 members), and actually entered two, nine-member competing Starter teams:  Red (Division I) and Gold (Division 2).  The Starter teams are divided into three academic categories, based on the last two years’ GPA:  Honors (3.75 or >); Scholastic (3.00 – 3.749); and Varsity (< 3.00).  The rest of the students compete as Alternates.

In its initial year of operation (2009-2010), SECA ventured into ACADEC, competing with only freshmen on its team.  (Typically, ACADEC teams are comprised mainly of Seniors, with some Juniors).  Remarkably, that SECA team won 16 medals, including the Gold Medal in Language and Literature and the Silver Medal for Speech.  Overall the team finished 4^th in the Small Schools Division.  Clearly, the team had done extremely well for such a young group, but they were determined to do even better.

Meeting four days a week in class, and in two ACADEC “Boot Camps” held during both the summer and winter breaks, the team focused on its goal, and, when the smoke had finally cleared on the afternoon of February 5^th, the hard work and determination had paid huge dividends.

The SECA Red team (Division I), consisting of only Sophomores, won the Gold Medal in the ACADEC Small Schools Division, beating out long-time champion Middle College High School (Lodi Unified), which won the Silver Medal, and historically strong Escalon High School, the Bronze Medal winner.  Further, SECA was named as the Most Improved Team in the entire  2010-2011 competition…both large and small schools.  The team members (Red, Gold, and Alternates) won47 individual medals, including25 Gold Medals, as well as placing in all ten of the academic categories.

Individual Medal winning highlights included the following:

Starters – Highest Overall Total Score (10 events)

            Division I:  Emily Wilburn, Bronze Medal in Scholastic Category

            Division II:  Vanisha Patel, Gold Medal in Scholastic Category

Starters with Multiple Individual Medals

Division I:  Sarah Palmer:  4 medals, including Gold in Language and Literature (also won this in 2009-2010), Silver in Music, and Bronze in Essay and Interview; Emily Wilburn:  2 medals, including Silver in Speech and Bronze in Interview; Rita Yellapragada: 2 medals, including Bronze in Economics and Speech.

Division II:  Vanisha Patel:  4 medals, including Gold in Interview, Music, Speech, and Essay; Andrea Fua:  3 medals, including Gold in Interview, Music, and Speech; Vanessa Palomares: 3 medals, including Gold in Social Science, Music, and Art.

Alternates:  Rebecca Palmer:  3 medals, including Gold in Social Science and 4^th Place in Language and Literature and Written Super Quiz

A complete list of all medal winners is available by e-mailing aeayrs@stockton.k12.ca.us.  Thirty-eight medal winners are listed.  In addition, the nine members of the SECA Red team also received Gold Medals for their championship performance, bringing the total number of medals earned to 47.

The SECA family is extremely proud of the tremendous accomplishments of our ACADEC team.  Moreover, Head Coach Shannon Kelly and Assistant Coach Ansel Eayrs have done a magnificent job in directing, developing, and motivating these students.  After a well-deserved respite for one week, our Decathletes are once again hard at work, committed to even greater achievements at the 2011-2012 competition.

The weekends of January 29th and February 5th kicked off the 30th Annual San Joaquin County Academic Decathlon competion.  After a year of studying after school and a Winter Break bootcamp, the day came for our Timberwolves to show their stuff.  Out of 16 competing schools, SECA grabbed awards for 'Most Improved School' and 'Small School Champion'.

On Friday, December 17, 2010, representatives from the Level Playing Field Institute visited SECA to hold an assembly on their Summer Math And Science Honors Academy (SMASH).   SMASH is a free, 5-week Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) summer enrichment program held at UC Berkeley and Stanford, and prepares high-potential, low-income African-American, Latino, Native American, Asian, and Pacific Islander high school students for admission to, and success in, top-tier universities and STEM career fields.  The Level Playing Field Institute chose to visit SECA because our mission mirrors their own, and because of the school’s outstanding performance in both the Delta College STEM competition (8 of 9 medals, including all gold medals) and MESA competition (46 medals, including 22 gold medals).  Although the selection process will not be finalized until early March, we are very proud that, to date, over 40 SECA students have been approved for consideration to be accepted to the program.  Most importantly, although the SMASH presenters initially expressed their concern regarding the size of their audience (250 students + parents and staff), after their presentation they lauded our students as their best behaved and most attentive and respectful audience ever.

The SECA team of sophomores Josephine Espinoza, Sandra Mendez, Nico Brondial, and Vanisha Patel has won the annual UOP Quiz Bowl, which was held November 20 at UOP. The students triumphed over other area high school teams composed of juniors and seniors.

Sophomore Jonathan Moreno was honored at UOP for his volunteer hours at an event held on Friday, Nov. 12. The event, designed to show the University's commitment to going "outside the gates" to interact with the community, promoted community engagement. With over 500 hours of volunteering completed, UOP president, SUSD superintendent, and his volunteer coordinator were all on hand at a presentation to recognize Jonathan's commitment to service.

On October 31, The Record published the winners of their annual Halloween story contest. In the high school division, SECA's Bailey Salemme won first place, Carlos Shelton won second, and Lauren Von Behren, Matthew Samson, Maria Jose Solis and Theon Peters received Honorable Mention. Read their stories and more about the contest at the Record's website.

On Saturday, September 25, the annual STEM (Science Technology Engineering and Math) competition was held at Delta College.  High schools from throughout the Delta College instructional area competed in three categories (Biology Challenge; Engineering Challenge; and Math Challenge) and in two divisions (9-10 and 11-12).  Last year students won the Gold, Silver, and Bronze medals in the Mathematics challenge.  This year, students, competing in the 9-10 division, again won the Gold, Silver, and Bronze medals in Mathematics.  In addition, they added the Gold, Silver, and Bronze medals in Biology, as well as the Gold and Bronze medals in Engineering.  In summary, SECA students won 8 of the 9 possible medals in the competition… an unprecedented level of accomplishment. Check out our student newspaper online, www.wolveschronicle.com, for more details.

Congratulations to Alexis Penuelas, 4th place, and Kimberly Alvarado, 5th place, in the Speech and Debate competition on Saturday, Sept. 11. Their speeches in the Oratorical Interpretation category did very well. This was SECA's first time at a competition, so we're proud of our student showing. Other students who did well were sophomores Maicy Her and Ben Robles.

The opening of school seemed slightly different than last year, with twice the number of students AND staff members! But SECA kids know how to make everything work. From the opening day assembly, to finding their classes and eating hot dogs at the PTO sponsored student mixer, the first few days of the year have flown by. Sophomores have been meeting and greeting new freshmen, and freshmen have been finding their way around on our alternating block schedule like pros. College classes started August 16, and already our kids are performing at a high academic level. It looks like it's going to be a great year!

This spring, all students participated in the 2010 "Save me a spot in college" scholarship contest. For more information on the contest click here.

The contest announcements were released, and a big congratulations goes to Dawson Phan and Mikey Aguilera. Each won $500 scholarships for their poster entries!

These students received an honorable mention: Josephine Espinoza for written word, Andrea Fue for poster, Jhovany Gomez for poster, Sandra Mendez for written word, Priya Patel for written word, Vanisha Patel for TV ad, Jasmine Singh for written word, and Jenny Yang for poster.

So how does SECA measure up to other schools?  Stockton's Stockton Unified Early College Academy is a charter high school. It is among the few high schools in California to receive a distinguished GreatSchools Rating of 10 out of 10.  The school community has reviewed this school and given it an average rating of 5 out of 5 stars.  Click on the link to view SECA's rating at GreatSchools.org .

No other school in San Joaquin County – including St. Mary’s and Middle College – received both a 10 out of 10 rating  and 5 stars.

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