Woodside Priory School

On Saturday, we had our fourth Community Day of the year. All the kids piled into a bus, and we headed down to Santa Cruz to spend time on the beach on a beautiful, sunny day. The Prefects came up with some different team-building activities in the early afternoon before a late lunch. Then for the rest of the day, some kids relaxed and took in the sights while others jumped into the water or played volleyball, frisbee, soccer, and more. After we returned, the Prefects set up a campfire here on campus and lots of kids sat around making smores at night. All in all, a wonderful Community Day. Some pictures are below!

My apologies for the very long break between posts! Below are some slideshows from activities this winter. We will try and update more frequently for the remainder of the school year.

Greg Somogyi, a former boarding student from Hungary who graduated in 2008, was signed by the Lakers! There was an article in the San Jose Mercury News about him earlier this month. Here’s the link:

http://www.mercurynews.com/peninsula/ci_21730493/priorys-somogyi-lands-nba

Here’s an interview with Greg about what it’s like to go against NBA superstar Dwight Howard:

http://www.mercurynews.com/peninsula/ci_21730493/priorys-somogyi-lands-nba

Greg’s younger brother, Gabor, was also a boarding student who just graduated in 2012.

Our First Community Day was on September 9th – sorry for the late post!  We started off with a scavenger hunt that took them to all corners of the campus.  After we that, the kids competed against each other by grade in a series of field day games including the three-legged race, egg toss, and limbo.  We finished the day off with some big inflatable water slides and a tasty barbecue dinner.  Overall, the kids had a great time getting to know each other better.  Below are some pictures from the day.  Enjoy!

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Hi I’m Shi-Hao Hong, a senior prefect in the dorms. I come from Malaysia, a country in South East Asia, and have two younger siblings who live there – a brother and a sister. I have been studying and boarding at the Priory ever since my freshman year and my passions include running cross-country, breakdancing, theatrical performance, and choral singing. Although I really miss my family, I enjoy my time here at the Priory because I enjoy learning in such a wonderful environment and spending time with my diverse and amazing group of friends!

Greetings!  We are excited for the start of the 2012-13 school year.  The beginning of the school year went very smoothly.  The Prefects – Daisy Alvarado-Munoz, Kaylen Chung, Shi Hao Hong, and Malik Reid – did a great job of leading the kids through some games and icebreakers that helped the kids get to know each other.  After the first couple of days, it seemed like some of the new kids had known each other for months already!

Now, we are a couple weeks in, and things are going great.  The kids are getting into the swing of things, figuring out their classes, and getting to know each other even better.  The faculty has been really impressed by our new group of boarding students – they are kind, social, and involved.  Many of them are doing sports already and many others are trying out for the play this week and next.  They have a lot of energy, are excited, and are working hard.  Add them to the group of returning students that we had, and they are a fantastic community of 52 boys and girls.

We will post pictures from the start of the school year soon!

Hello to all- this is Myles here updating you on our annual ski trip we went on a couple of weeks ago. As you may have seen on weather reports, Northern California has been getting some great weather for January. This is nice for wearing shorts in the winter, but not so nice for snow conditions. So we headed up to Tahoe with about 21 kids, a little nervous about what kind of skiing experience would unravel. Thanks to the kids’ creative and never-ending positive attitudes, as well as some great man-made snow at Heavenly Resort, the entire weekend was simply a blast.

We huddled up in two cabins, playing board games, trivia games, and simply having old-fashion fun. About half of the kids went skiing on Sunday and got some nice runs in on fantastic groomed trails, while the other half went for a hike around the lake and went ice skating. As always, the dormers were the ones who made the trip a success with their energy, helpfulness, and gratitude/eagerness to do something different.

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Most of you have met our Residential Faculty member, Cynthia Sleight. But we thought a re-introduction might be in order now that it’s 2012. Here she is in her own words:

Hello and Happy 2012! I wanted to take a moment to reintroduce myself to all of you. My name is Cynthia and I am one of the Residential Faculty at Priory. I grew up just down Highway 280 in Cupertino, California (the home of Apple, Inc.) and I am a proud Priory graduate. After Priory, I went on to earn a degree in theatre at Barnard College, Columbia University. During my time at college, I also taught preschool on campus and worked at Columbia’s public health promotion program.

After graduation, I moved back to California to be closer to my family and for the past few years, I worked at the Children’s Center of the Stanford Community, a co-op nursery school on Stanford campus, and was assisting with a few Priory play productions as well.

Last April, I jumped at the chance to return to campus full-time as an RF. It’s wonderful to be back, working and living alongside the students and staff, many of whom are my former teachers. The boarding program and staff families who live on campus have created a lovely community for us all to live in—everyone is welcoming, supportive and full of energy. Seeing the close-knit community that has developed in the dorms makes me wish that the boarding program had been open to girls when I was a student!

In addition to working as an RF, I also teach 6th grade French and assistant direct/stage manage the Priory theatre productions. This last November, we produced a truly phenomenal version of Arthur Miller’s “The Crucible” and just last week, we began rehearsals for our high school musical, “Beauty and the Beast.” The cast is comprised of close to 40 enthusiastic high schoolers, including many of our boarding students. When I was a senior, Priory produced its first musical, “Into the Woods,” and we barely had enough students audition to fill the 19 roles required. It amazes me that so many talented students are eager to be in this upcoming production. We’re only a week into rehearsals, but I already know that it will be a stellar production!

All of the students and staff seemed to have a wonderful holiday vacation. They all came back looking relaxed and happy, even if many of them were a bit jetlagged. I celebrated Christmas here in California with my family and then went back to New York City for the remainder of the break to visit with my friends and relatives. Ever since I moved back to California in 2009, I’ve missed living in New York City and every time I visit, I have wished that I could move back. This last trip was different though…despite all the fun I was having, I couldn’t wait to get back home to Priory. Derry (another RF and my roommate to boot!) and I often discuss how lucky we are to have this wonderful job. Not only do we have kind and supportive bosses and co-workers, we also get to work with the nicest, most entertaining, most intelligent group of young adults I have ever met. I look forward to a new semester filled with getting to know our students even better and more trips to get bubble tea, laughing and singing in the car all the way there!

We hope you all had a wonderful holiday break with the kids back home. We enjoyed our time away as well, but we’re excited to see the kids return. First semester finished with some fun holiday festivities here in the dorms.

First the kids put up Christmas trees in the dorms and our dorm moms, Brenda Munks and Cecilia Montalvo, put up some amazing decorations on the fronts of both dorms. Next, we had our Christmas Head’s Dinner hosted by Mr. Molak on December 8th. Again, our dorm moms, along with other day student parent volunteers, decorated the dining hall to make it a beautiful, festive occasion. Finally on December 19th, we had our annual Secret Santa gift exchange. The kids drew names out of a hat a few weeks before to decide who they were getting a gift for. On the 19th, we had the big gift exchange. Freshman boarding student Milla Bevens’ grandmother brought hot apple cider and cookies, and Daisy Alvarado-Munoz, a junior Prefect, got dressed up like Santa and handed out gifts from under the tree. Overall, the holidays were a fun time, and a great way to ease the stress of finals before break. Enjoy the pictures!

Created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR.

In November, we had our 3rd (of 6) Community Weekend of the year. This time, it was a new event created by our Activities Coordinator, Myles Somerville. The event was called the “Class Showdown,” and consisted of the kids teaming up with the other kids in their grade and competing in little games over two days. It was sort of like a miniature version of the Dorm Olympics, a much bigger event that happens in March. The kids loved it! They had a lot of fun, but most importantly, they got to know their classmates much better and got to work together and support one another.

Below are some pictures from the weekend. We hope you all have a wonderful Christmas Break and enjoy some time with your kids if they’re coming home. We’ve had a great 2011 here at Priory, and we’re looking forward to an even better 2012. Happy Holidays!!

Created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR.